Welcome back, everyone! It sure has been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, but I didn't get a lot of time to write in Africa (which was AWESOME, by the way), and I let myself get distracted by playing too many video games I got over the holidays (Those were awesome too.) and then school started, and you can guess the rest. Regardless, I'm here now, and so is this chapter. I hope you'll find it worth the rather long wait.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me. I could list all the things I've appropriated/ripped-off, but that would take forever and you don't really care, right?
…
Please…don't die…
"Daddy! Daddy Daddy Daddy!"
I'm so sorry…
"Daddy! Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!"
"Gah!" Ash jerked awake, nearly knocking off Tiny, who'd been sitting on his chest and making it difficult for him to breathe. Gasping and wiping away sweat as the room swam into focus and the horrible nightmare he had been having retreated into the furthest reaches of his subconscious, the Lucario blinked and stared at his foster son, who had an elated expression on his face and was practically bouncing up and down on his stomach with joy. "Ugh…what…what is it, Tiny?"
"It's snowing!" Tiny said gleefully, turning to the windows. "Isn't it pretty?"
Ash looked out the window and did a double take when he saw that the landscape the Enchanted Express was steaming through was not grassland or a barren desert, but a vast glittering expanse of snow with more of the white stuff falling from the dark skies overhead every second. Towering mountains could be seen in the distance, getting larger as the train approached them, and a shimmering aurora twisted through the skies, but something about it seemed…off somehow. "Whoa…"
"Are we at the South Pole, Daddy?" Tiny asked hopefully.
Ash blinked and stared at the Pupitar in confusion. "Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Leo told me that there's a magical train called the Christmas Express that takes good little boys and girls to the South Pole to meet 'Santa Christ,' some kind of demigod or good spirit who delivers presents to the children of the world on Christmas, a holiday that rolls around once a year in the middle of winter that apparently used to commemorate the winter solstice and the rebirth of the sun, but has now been heavily commercialized to the point that almost nobody remembers that anymore and just focuses on the presents!" Tiny said excitedly. He frowned. "And he gives coal to the bad kids…I know it's only recently I started loosening up, but you don't think he'd give me coal, do you?"
Ash stared at Tiny incredulously. "Tiny, it's not even close to Christmas. And we're on the Enchanted Express, not the Christmas Express!"
"But we're on a magic train, just like the Christmas Express! See, their names are almost the same! And besides, if we aren't at the South Pole, then why is it snowing? We were supposed to be passing through a big desert, and it doesn't snow in deserts!" Tiny said stubbornly. "Er…does it?"
"Sometimes, but not this much," Ash said. "It's snowing because we must have entered the region Bellum's put under that Fimbulvinter spell Lily told us about."
Tiny stiffened. "Oh…you mean…the one that she killed an entire town to cast?"
Ash nodded. "I'm afraid so." He closed his eyes and scanned the winter wonderland with Aura-sight. A chill went down his spine as he looked at the snow with his sixth sense. There was something…evil about it. "Yeah…if we were at the South Pole, I guarantee it wouldn't feel this sinister."
Tiny nodded sadly. "I guess that means we aren't going to meet Santa Christ, then."
"If anything, we're going to see someone even nastier than the Gronch," Ash said.
"The who?" Tiny asked.
"A lonely and jealous monster that stole all the Christmas decorations and presents of the town of Whatville in an attempt to make everyone as miserable as he was, but then he learned that Christmas is about more than that stuff and had a change of heart, or to be more precise, his heart grew three times its original size, which somehow didn't cause his chest to explode," Ash explained. "Something I rather doubt will happen to Bellum."
Tiny nodded in agreement. "Yeah, especially given all the horrible things Lily's said about her. I bet Santa Christ gives her a ton of coal every year…if he exists."
Ash frowned. "Why wouldn't he?"
"I dunno…it just sounds a little unlikely. A guy living at the South Pole who can somehow travel all around the world in a single night and give presents to every household without being seen?" Tiny asked skeptically.
"Given some of the other things that exist in our world, is it really that hard to believe?" Ash pointed out. He smirked. "And I can tell you for a fact he exists. I met him myself back when I was a human!"
"Whoa! Really?" asked the amazed Tiny.
"Yeah! Well, except he was Santa Clause then, not Santa Christ," Ash recalled. When he had experienced his first Christmas in Pokémon Square, he'd been confused about why everyone was talking about some guy named Santa Christ who lived at the South Pole rather than Santa Clause, who lived at the North Pole. At first he'd chalked it up to either garbled legends or this world being different from the one he'd come from, but then Father Yamiri told him that Santa Clause had died heroically trying to protect the children of the world from the great cataclysm a thousand years ago, and was reincarnated as Santa Christ once the planet was put back together, an even cooler version of the Christmas spirit that could shoot lightning from his fingertips, fire lasers from his eyes, liked pancakes, cured the sick, erased traumatic memories, had a rocketship and a motorcycle rather than a sleigh, played bass in a band with other holiday spirits, surfed in space, liked pancakes, made really good fondue, mended curtains for free, fought giant monsters, and liked pancakes. "You see, Team Rocket had taken over his workshop at the North Pole-"
"I thought he lived at the South Pole," Tiny interrupted.
"He does now, back in my day he lived at the North Pole, but after the Savior fixed the Earth there wasn't enough left of the North Pole for Santa to build a workshop on, so he moved south of the Equator," Ash said. He frowned when he heard himself say 'my day.' It made him sound old, which, come to think of it…he sort of was. How disturbing.
"Oh," said Tiny.
"Like I was saying, Team Rocket had taken over his workshop. It was sort of our fault, since we led them there while trying to get one of his Jynx workers who'd gotten lost getting one of his boots fixed or something back home. They were about as dangerous as ever—namely, not—so we were able to help Santa and his Jynx and his telepathic Lapras drive them out so he could make his deliveries on time," Ash said.
Tiny frowned. "Lapras aren't telepathic."
"Yeah, but this was Santa's Lapras, so it was magic or something," Ash said. "And he gave all of us exactly what we wanted, even Pikachu! Although…I can't seem to remember what that was anymore…it was a long time ago, after all." He frowned. "And his sleigh was pulled by a Ponyta for some reason…which doesn't really make sense, why didn't he use Stantler like he's supposed to?"
"Maybe Stantler didn't exist then?" Tiny suggested.
"…Tiny, Stantler have always existed. It's not like they were spontaneously discovered some time afterwards along with a hundred other new species of Pokémon and then everyone pretended that they'd always known about them and they'd been around forever or something, that would be silly," Ash said.
"True. Anyway, you got to meet Santa! That's so cool! What was he like?" Tiny asked.
"Not as awesome as he is now, as Santa Christ, or so I've heard," Ash said. "But since its Santa Christ, that's forgivable. I think Briney's one of the few people as cool as he is."
"Well, Santa was only human at the time, so that's understandable" Tiny said.
"…Tiny, I'm human," Ash said pointedly.
"No, you used to be a human. You're a Lucario now, which is much better," Tiny said happily. Ash grunted, uncomfortable with how much he found himself agreeing.
There was a knock on the door. Ash went to open it and found Ritchie waiting outside. "Hey Hiori, we just got a message saying everyone needs to meet up in Fantina's car," the other Lucario said. "Are you and Rico ready?"
"Yeah, just hold on a sec," Ash said. He turned to Tiny. "Rico, we need to head out. I'll tell you more about Christmas another time."
"Oh, he thought we were heading to the South Pole too?" Ritchie asked. "Funny, my kid said the exact same thing! He was so disappointed when he heard we weren't going to see Santa Christ…"
Ash's eye twitched. "…Right. Anyway…we'll meet you there in a minute." He closed the door.
"I like him, but that guy and his friends kind of give me the creeps," Tiny commented.
"…Yeah, me too," Ash admitted reluctantly.
After getting their robes on, they left their quarters and went with Team Getem to join everyone else in Fantina's suite. Much like the previous night for Brodie's interrogation, just about everybody onboard the train had come to join them, except for the engineer and a few other staff in the engine car, who were attending via telepresence through a crystal ball. Even the vampires were there, since the clouds outside blotted out the sun so they had no reason to fear the light of day. "It's incredible that there's already so much snow out there…" Rose murmured as she stared out the windows. "If I didn't know better, I'd have never believed this was a desert just last night!" Palmer, Dawn, and Sasha all looked at the vista with slightly wistful expressions on their faces, since it reminded them of their homelands, far from here. Would they ever return there? Sasha had a home to go back to, but did the last two ninjas of the Dragon's Claw?
"Well, I suppose just about anything is possible with magic," Captain Salty said.
"That it is!" Goldor boasted.
"I've been through this area more than once…and I certainly don't remember those mountains being there," Todd commented. "They make for some good photos, though." He snapped a few pictures.
"They may make good pictures, but they feel…wrong to my senses," Sasha said with a shudder. "There is much danger here."
Ritchie nodded. "Yeah, Hiori and I felt it too. This snow is evil!"
"Funny, I've always thought of snow as neutral until now…" Sam said.
"Not when it's made by Bellum it isn't," Butler commented.
"The spirits are restless. The spirits of ice are too powerful here, their strength and overwhelming presence quashing out all others except the wind, which helps to spread their influence…this is a dangerous imbalance of the forces of nature. This cannot be allowed to continue," Rebecca said ominously.
"I'm guessing this is due to Niflheim bleeding through to our reality?" Looker asked Lily, who had quickly been designated the go-to girl for information on this phenomenon seeing as she was the only one who seemed to know how it worked, something that flustered her and made her uneasy, since she didn't like being the center of attention.
"Um, yes," Lily said, blinking and reluctantly looking away from the eerie arctic vista. "And this is just the beginning. The longer Fimbulvinter is in effect, the more this part of Sinnorre will be transformed into Niflheim. If it continues unhindered, there's not only a chance that this area will permanently become part of Niflheim…but it's possible that it will spread. I doubt it'll engulf the entire world, or even the rest of the continent, but it will certainly cover a great deal of territory and destroy the homes and livelihoods of thousands of Pokémon."
Lady Bow shook her head in disgust. "And Bellum won't care in ze slightest. If anyzing, she'll probably set up camp here, make it 'er new base of operations."
"What an awful womon," Silvia said in disgust.
Fantina nodded. "She 'as always wished to rule over a place like zis, a land of eternal winter. It was 'er dream even back in our youzh. She got ze idea from 'Ze Luxray, Ze Sorceress, and Ze Wardrobe.' I suppose ze fact zat she idolized ze Silver Sorceress should 'ave been an obvious sign from ze start zat zere was somezing wrong wiz 'er, but too many people ignored ze warnings until it was too late."
"Well, unless some pseudo-religious feline god analogue or four human children from another world show up in the near future, I don't think we can defeat Bellum the same way they offed the Silver Sorceress," Diane said.
"Well, every spell has a counterspell. At least, that's what my tutor says," Buck recalled.
"Yes, that's true," Palmer agreed.
"That it is, lad," Briney agreed.
"Then that means there must be a way to reverse the effects of Fimbulvinter, right?" Pikachu asked.
Lily nodded. "Fortunately, there is. Niflheim is not the only elemental plane out there. A number of others exist elsewhere in the Omniverse, each representing a fundamental power or force of nature. One of them, Muspelheim, realm of eternal flames, may be of use to us in dispelling Fimbulvinter."
"Oh, I see…fire to cancel out her ice?" Dean realized.
"Simple elemental physics," Butler said.
"Well, yeah! Everyone knows fire rules!" Zippo said with a smirk.
"Except when water puts it out, boy," Leo said.
"Not if the fire's too big and hot," Zippo countered.
"Which is why you just keep pouring on the water until it gets extinguished," Leo said.
"Which won't be a problem if the fire's so strong all the water does is make it hotter and impossible to go out!" Zippo said.
"Then it's a good thing there's usually more water than fire around, so you can just keep on dumping and dumping until the fire's drowned!" Leo retorted. They glared at each other, their earlier camaraderie forgotten, and Pikachu and Sparky unconsciously sighed in relief. Then they each realized the other had sighed, and stared at each other for a moment, feeling weird for some reason neither of them quite understood.
"Uh, but won't summoning Muspelheim here just replace one problem with another one?" Ash asked doubtfully. "How is turning an expanding arctic wasteland into an expanding flaming wasteland going to help matters?"
"We won't be summoning Muspelheim, just something from it," Lily explained. "A powerful enough entity from the world of fire should be strong enough to shatter Bellum's enchantment and send this portion of Niflheim back where it belongs."
"And we do that…how, exactly?" Lu asked.
"Especially considering the last elemental summoning in these parts required the sacrifice of hundreds of innocent people…" Bruno growled.
"Ooh, ooh, if we're going to kill people, can I be the executioner?" Max asked hopefully. "I always get to throw the switch back home!"
"That will not be necessary," Lily said quickly, as horrified as everyone else by the idea of giving Max power over life and death.
"Since it's a basic summon, not nearly as much power as Bellum required to create zis monstrosity will be needed," Fantina assured them. "Sister Lilandra and I will take care of everyzing. Since our souls are bozh attuned to fire, we should be able to call forzh a strong enough entity from Muspel'eim wizout 'aving to pay any…unpleasant prices."
"Well, that's a relief," George said as the tension eased out of the room.
"Guess we don't have to worry about any ritualistic sacrifice…" Cruise said.
"This time," Butler said.
"Awww, but I wanted to cut out someone's heart and incinerate it as an offering to some dark god!" Max complained.
"Maybe next time, little buddy. There's always Arbor Day," Sam said.
"My favorite holiday, next to Christmas, and my birthday, and Easter!" Max said.
"Why is-" Buck started to ask.
"I don't think we really need to know," Pikachu said loudly. "So, you need to summon something from Muspelheim. Can we do it right now?"
"Unfortunately, no," Fantina said. "For one zing, we need to make a number of preparations. For anozzer, we can't do it until we are closer to ze epicenter of ze afflicted region. If we were to summon ze fire spirit 'ere, when we are still just on ze fringes of Nifl'eim, ze summoned beast would release a great blast of fire magic zat would melt a sizable chunk of ze landscape…and leave ze rest untouched, allowing it to flow back in and fill in ze void once ze creature departed. If we summoned it from ze middle of ze realm, 'owever, ze fire magic would flow outwards zhrough ze channels already created by ze Fimbulvinter spell and banish every last trace of ozzerworldly ice from ze realm. Everyzing Bellum called 'ere would be sent back to where it came from."
"Which is what we're aiming for," Palmer stated.
"Even though it means we must go where it is most dangerous and Bellum's power is strongest to do so," Sasha said, her fur standing up as she sensed danger growing nearer as the Enchanted Express kept speeding straight towards it.
"Well, at least it should be a good fight," George commented, stringing her crossbow.
"There's more to life than fighting," Bruno said, which was odd considering he was some kind of legendary fighting master. And a Fighting Pokémon, who lived for brawls. "But if it's going to be a big one, which I'm certain it is, it would probably help if we knew what we were getting ourselves into. Cherry, I don't suppose your oracular powers can give us an idea as to what lies ahead?"
Rebecca snorted. "Fat chance getting her to tell you something like-"
"All right, I think I can do that," the Girafarig said.
The Hypno did a double take. "Wh-what? You're actually going to tell us something useful about the future for a change?"
"For something this important? Of course I will," Cherry said. Rebecca gawked.
"Zen what sort of forces does Bellum have arrayed against us?" Fantina asked.
"Since she is the one who brought them here, all the beasts of Niflheim will heed her call," Cherry reported. "Dire wolves. Trolls. Ice dragons. Frost giants. And maybe even the queen of Niflheim herself."
Fantina gasped. "Not Shiv'el?"
"I'm afraid so," Cherry said solemnly.
"Oh dear…zis does not bode well…" Bow murmured, fanning herself.
"No, it certainly doesn't," said an alarmed Butler.
"Dear Shaymin in the Eternal Fields, we may be in some serious trouble here…" Leo said, looking worried.
"On the plus side, it'll be some seriously sexy trouble!" Zippo joked.
"Heh, true dat!" Leo agreed. They grinned at each other, their previous feud forgotten. Their girlfriends frowned, and Pikachu and Sparky groaned.
"Uh, pardon me, but…who's Shiv'el?" asked a confused Ash.
"It's pronounced 'Shivhel,'" Todd corrected. A dopey look came over his face. "Mon, I wouldn't mind getting a picture of her…"
"Could I have a copy?" Zippo asked hopefully.
"And me?" Leo asked.
"And me?" asked…Cruise? "What? I'm curious," he said when everyone stared at him. "I wanna know what the big deal is about her."
"I could tell you, but I'm not supposed to know about that sort of thing," Buck said.
"That's right, you're not!" Silvia said.
"Shiv'el is ze ruler of Nifl'eim, a beautiful but cruel queen whose 'eart is as cold as 'er domain, if my recollection of interplanar politics is correct," Fantina said.
"It's a toss-up which is worse, actually, her or Bellum," Briney said, recalling what he'd downloaded from Leo's mind.
"…So now we've got two insane ice sorceresses to worry about?" Pikachu yelled.
"And one wasn't bad enough?" Sparky commiserated.
"Two for the price of one? That actually sounds like a pretty good bargain," said Max, probably the only one to feel this way.
"We should have gotten off this train when we had the chance!" Buck moaned.
"Well, there's no helping it now, we'll just have to take both of them down," Looker said.
"Shivhel is an incredibly powerful and ancient ice goddess, now joined forces with an already incredibly powerful and extremely evil ice mage. How are we supposed to take them both down?" Rebecca asked incredulously.
"With guns?" Sam suggested.
"Ooh, or flamethrowers! I have a couple on me," Max said.
Everyone stared at him. He wasn't wearing any clothes or carrying a knapsack or anything else that could possibly be used as a container. "Where?" Dean asked.
"None of your damn business!" Leo and Zippo said at once. They burst into laughter, causing Pikachu and Sparky's eyes to twitch.
"Hey, I was going to say that first!" Max complained.
"'E 'as a point, literal firepower will make short work of bozh of zem, we just need a strong enough flame," Fantina mused. "Hmm, if Shiv'el's 'ere, zen we'll need to summon an even more powerful entity from Muspel'eim zen I anticipated…good zing I know just ze one to call upon!"
"Um, Fantina, is that such a good idea?" Lily asked uneasily. "If you're thinking of the being I think you are…I'm not sure it's safe to call upon someone as temperamental and dangerous as he is."
"Don't worry, 'e owes me a few favors," Fantina assured her. "And besides, 'e and Shivhel 'ave a…'zing' of sorts, so 'e'll be more zan willing to 'elp against 'er!"
"Well, yes, but can just the two of us summon him?" Lily asked doubtfully. "I'm nowhere near as experienced as you are…"
"Then perhaps I can be of some assistance?" Rebecca offered. "Summoning's not my thing, but as a spiritualist I know a thing or two about elemental beings from worlds beyond our own. Maybe I could help you call and tame this beast from Muspelheim."
"Yes, zat could work," Fantina said gratefully. "Your aid is most appreciated."
"What about me, my bodacious babes?" Zippo offered. "You may have an affinity for fire, but I'm a genuine bona fide Fire Pokémon. Is there anything I can do?"
"Can you do magic?" Lily asked.
"Well…no," Zippo admitted. "But I have something that is!"
Sparky frowned, realizing where the Charmeleon was going. "Now wait a moment, should we let them know about-"
"Oh come on, we're all among bros here, aren't we? Besides, they know we have the Plates after that whole terrorist attack last night, don't they?" Zippo pointed out.
"…I suppose," Sparky admitted reluctantly.
"What Plates?" Silvia asked.
"The things that the Rattata wanted, I think," Briney said.
"Oh! The sixteen Plates of Arceus!" Silvia gasped.
"That's right, the guy last night implied that you have those, don't you?" Bruno asked.
"Well, some of them, anyway," Happy said.
"And they aren't the real Plates, just representations of them," Rose said. "But they still have a genuine connection to Arceus, so their power is real."
"As is their danger," Cruise said.
Salty nodded. "Which is why we're trying to gather as many as we can before Judgment. They have a bit of a leg up on us in that department, but so long as we manage to keep a few out of their clutches, they have no way of unlocking their full power for their plans."
"But I think we can use the power of the Flame Plate in this summoning spell you're trying to pull off," Zippo said, taking out a rectangular red plate of an unknown material. "With this, you should be able to cast it with no problem!"
"Holy Arceus in Heaven," Pikachu murmured, making the sign of Arceus's Wheel at the sight of the Plate, as did the more devout Pokémon in the room. Todd snapped a picture.
"Oh my…" Bow whispered reverently.
"Incredible…" Goldor murmured.
"It's magnificent…" Diane said.
"It's good thing we're fine with holy icons, or we'd probably be dead by now," Vladimir commented to Dean, who nodded in agreement. Bob drooled on the floor.
"Eh, I've seen cooler toys," Max said, unimpressed.
"And when he says toys, he means it," Sam said.
Max sighed. "I wish I hadn't had to blow up that toybox…"
"Oh, wow!" Leo said, staring greedily at the plate. "Is it true that they give the holder godlike power and immortality?"
"No," Zippo said sadly. "I should know, I've tried."
"Awwww, mon," Leo said in disappointment. Both Pikachu and Sparky sighed in relief, and then looked at each other again in surprise and wariness.
"They can if all sixteen are gathered together, which is why we have to keep them away from Judgment so Light of Justice can't use them to conquer the world," Ritchie said. "On their own they're still pretty powerful though, and have been a boon in our fight against Judgment and our other enemies more than once."
"And now zey may be a boon in our fight against Bellum as well…" Fantina murmured, staring at the Flame Plate in awe. "I never zought I'd see anozzer one of zese! Yes…yes, I zink zis will do nicely, don't you, Lilandra?"
"Oh yes, most certainly! With this to serve as a focus and power source, we should be able to call the being in question with no problem at all!" Lily said excitedly.
"Heh, told you!" Zippo said smugly.
"Wait, what was that about thinking you'd never see another one?" Looker asked.
"I happen to have zhree Plates in my collection," Fantina admitted. "Ze Sky Plate, Earzh Plate, and Icicle Plate, to be precise. I was never really able to do anyzing wiz zem since zeir elements weren't my specialty, so I've just kept zem at my estate wiz all my ozzer magical artifacts for ze time being."
"Dammit!" Goldor swore under his breath. "She just has to rub it in how she has so much more than everyone else, doesn't she?"
"Dear!" Silvia hissed.
"We knew that, actually. We were meaning to ask you if we could have them if we got the chance," Lu said.
Cruise nodded. "Yeah, it's why we hitched a ride on the same train as you in the first place!" Team Aurabolt's eyes bugged out of their skulls and they exchanged incredulous looks, stunned by yet another eerie parallel between their quest and Team Getem's.
"We'll talk about it later," Fantina said as she lifted the Flame Plate from Zippo's claws. "For now, I zink we can use zis one to do some real good!"
"I say, just how many other Plates do you have?" Goldor asked Ritchie innocently.
"They're not for sale," the Lucario said flatly.
"Drat," Goldor grumbled as Ash nodded in approval.
Leo frowned, not wanting to be outdone by the Charmeleon. "Well, uh…that's pretty nice, but in case that doesn't work, I have a pretty cool heat source that might help, too!" he said, causing Pikachu to groan as he realized what was coming. "Hold on just one second, y'all!" He retracted briefly into his shell and popped back out holding a very familiar portable heater. "Behold, the Thermonuke 8500, one of the most powerful portable heating devices on the planet!"
"Why were you carrying that around under your habit in the first place?" asked the confused Rebecca.
"To keep me warm on the long, cold winter nights like this, duh!" Leo said.
Sparky groaned. "Oh no, another one?"
"Oh wow, I didn't even know the 8500 was on the market yet! I'm still stuck with the 6000 model!" Zippo said excitedly.
"It's not. I was able to get a unit early by ordering it in advance. However, only 100 units were available for pre-orders, so I had to stay up until four in the morning to make sure I placed my order the instant the order form appeared on the website so that I could get my bid in before everyone else," Leo said. "And even then, I was only able to qualify for a pre-release model because I've spent over fifty thousand Poke' on products made by the same company in the last year, so am one of their 1000 Most Valued Customers."
As everyone stared at Leo incredulously, Zippo smacked his forehead. "Ohhhh, that explains it! I've only spent a total of thirty-five thousand, so they wouldn't have told me about something like that. I guess I have a long way to go, huh?"
"Don't worry, boy, you'll make it some day!" Leo said, though secretly he hoped it wouldn't be anytime soon. He liked the Charmeleon well enough, but something about him felt…unsettling for some reason…
"You spent how much?" Pikachu asked incredulously.
"Where…where did you get that much money?" a stunned Ash asked, positive that Leo couldn't possibly have spent that much of his share of Barbedo's hoard already.
"Online gambling, mainly," Leo said.
"…I thought womon of the cloth weren't supposed to be into vices like gambling…or spending vast sums of money on material possessions…" said a confused Todd.
"Boy, are you a member of the Sisterhood of the Bountiful Gracidea?" Leo demanded.
"Er…no…" Todd said.
"Then don't go jawing off about things you don't understand! Don't you go hatin' on my religion, or I'll whup you upside the head!" Leo shouted, smacking Todd, only to gasp and hop back, clutching his hand in pain. "Ow, ow, ow…your skin is harder than I thought it would be…" Everyone sweatdropped.
"Er…anyway…we'll consider zat as a backup, Leonora dear," Fantina said gently as Lily healed Leo's sore palm.
"Zhough not a very likely one," Bow murmured into her fan.
"Do you think you can use any of the other Plates in your possession to help us fight?" Bruno asked Team Getem, deciding to pretend the last few minutes had not happened.
Ritchie nodded. "I think so. We don't have many, and the individual Plates can only be used by Pokémon of the same Type as them, but I think we can use the few in our possession to help turn the tide against Bellum's goons."
"Speaking of which, I wasn't done debriefing you on what we have to worry about," Cherry spoke up; somewhat annoyed they'd forgotten about her.
"Oh yeah…sorry about that," Palmer apologized.
"So what else does Bellum have in store for us?" Vladimir asked.
"Aside from the denizens of Niflheim, Bellum herself will be there to challenge Fantina personally. Not only will she have an army of ice elementals, but her daughter Marianne will also be present," Cherry continued, causing Lily to fidget.
"I'll take care of zat sparkplug," Bow said dismissively. "I'll make her pay for ruining my birzday!"
"I spent two weeks working on that cake…and she ruined everything!" Diane said angrily. "And it was such a nice cake, too!"
Fantina nodded sadly. "Yes, it was..."
"In addition, Bellum will be aided by a Weavile by the name of Paul Yami," the Girafarig went on, looking meaningfully at Dawn and Palmer.
The two ninjas and the rest of Team Aurabolt stiffened in horror. "Paul Yami?" Ash shouted. Tiny shuddered, remembering what Dawn had shown them of the twisted ninja in her mind and what he had done to his father at Battlus.
Paul is here? So…it looks as if our paths have crossed again sooner than I expected, Dawn thought coolly to herself, narrowing her eyes as Pikachu looked at her in concern. How…fortuitous. It looks as if our fates shall finally be fulfilled.
Palmer growled angrily. "He's here, is he? That bastard…I think I'm actually looking forward to this. He's going to pay for what he's done…"
"What has he done?" asked the confused Todd.
"Yes, I thought he was just some fighter, a regular attendee at tournaments like the recent one at Mt. Battle…the one where he disappeared mysteriously, come to think of it…" Goldor murmured.
"Eyewitness accounts said he vanished into the mysterious ship that tried to blow up the volcano at the end of the tournament," Looker said. "After the Draconian Empire started spreading news about the Nihilators and our vampiric friends here were freed from Bellum, people started wondering if perhaps Paul might have some connection to them."
"It's true, he does!" Dean said before any of Team Aurabolt could say anything. "He's one of their top enforcers! His ill-gotten immortality played a big part in getting as high up in the ranks as he did, but from what we heard he lost his powers in a big fight at the recent Mt. Battle tournament and has been desperately trying to regain them ever since." Dawn smirked to herself as she heard this, Palmer smiled surreptitiously (though he was somewhat disappointed Dawn hadn't completed the job) and Ash tried very hard not to resemble his mustached fighter alter-ego, Gonzales.
"He was evil all along? And to think I wasted good money betting on him!" Goldor cried in disbelief. "I don't believe this!"
"I don't believe you've been gambling again! You promised you wouldn't!" Silvia said angrily. Goldor flushed, realizing he'd made a big mistake.
"It's not zat 'ard to believe, really, when you zink about it…'e was kind of an asshole," Bow said.
George nodded. "And excessively brutal, even for professional fighting!"
"With no honor or dignity…" Bruno agreed in disgust. "And he was immortal, too? That explains a lot…how disgraceful."
"Yeah, I didn't envy that other Lucario who went up against him, the poor guy," Ritchie said sympathetically, causing Ash to cough loudly and try even harder not to resemble Gonzales while Pikachu tried not to look like Minus, Leo tried not to look like King K, Sasha tried not to look like Night Slash, and Tiny tried not to look like his younger self.
"I suppose we were lucky that we lost the tournament before we had a chance to face him in the ring," Sparky said.
"Daddy could have taken him!" Cruise said loyally.
"No he couldn't have," almost everyone in Team Aurabolt said. When the rest of the passengers looked at them in puzzlement, Ash coughed and said, "Er, that's what I've heard, anyway."
"Um, yes, so have I," Pikachu agreed.
"Yes, quite a nasty bloke, wot," Briney said.
"That guy was one evil mofo, from what I saw of all his matches!" Leo added.
"Isn't professional fighting a little…too gratuitous for a womon of the cloth to watch?" Lu asked skeptically.
"I can watch whatever the Abyss I want! Shaymin never said nothing about what we could or couldn't watch on TV in our downtime!" Leo said stubbornly.
"…So…she did say what you could or couldn't watch on TV in your downtime?" asked a confused Happy.
"Stop hatin' on my religion!" Leo shouted, bringing an end to that line of conversation. Everyone sweatdropped.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Ritchie agreed. "He did seem pretty strong…"
"So he was immortal? I always figured he was cheating somehow…" Looker murmured. "Except I thought he was on steroids or Rare Candy. How'd he obtain immortality?"
"I think he got it from some magic scroll he stole from some ninjas or something," Vladimir said, and Dawn and Palmer tried not to look conspicuous.
"And he couldn't just use it again?" Todd asked.
"I think he lost it or something," Vladimir said.
"Psh, lame! Some immortal," Max sneered. "If I got that kind of power, I'd never let go of it that easily!"
"Nothing like how you blew up the Toybox that was the source of your powers, you mean?" Sam asked.
"Hey, it was that dummy's fault, not mine!" Max denied.
"However he lost it, I'm glad he did. Immortality should not belong to one as cruel and irresponsible as he," Bruno said sternly, something everyone else could agree with.
"Still, if he's no longer immortal, he shouldn't be that difficult to defeat, should he?" Silvia asked.
They stared at her for a long moment. "…You've never watched him fight, have you?" Sasha asked finally.
Silvia frowned. "No, I always found those tournament things Gastly and uncivilized. Why, is he any good?"
"He's really…something, that's for certain," Ash said wryly.
"Something else that's certain is Bellum's final ally," Cherry warned them.
"And that would be…?" Pikachu asked.
"Articuno," the Girafarig said.
Everyone gasped, and Ash stiffened. "Articuno?" Bow cried. "Ze legendary icebird?"
"But that's impossible! Articuno is a legendary Pokémon! Why would she be working with the Nihilators?" Diane asked.
"Oh, you'd be surprised how many legendary Pokémon are in the Nihilators…er…at least, that's what I've heard," Lily said awkwardly.
"He's right actually. Both legendary elemental trios are among the Nihilators," Dean reported. "All of them as very powerful Shadow Pokémon."
"Then that means they must have been brainwashed or tortured into it or something," Sparky insisted. "Because there's no way a legendary Pokémon could ever willingly be a part of a group that's trying to destroy the world! They are our guardians and protectors, not our enemies!" Leo nearly choked trying not to laugh hysterically at how ridiculously incorrect that statement was.
"If she's become a Shadow Pokémon, then that means I have to purify her and restore her sanity," Ritchie said. "Hiori, you'll help me, right?"
Ash clenched his fists, memories of Articuno ripping out Brock's eyes before freezing him into a sculpture and shattering him flashing before his eyes, followed by the visceral recollection of how he had imploded her so hard she became a black hole. "Sure…I'll 'help…'" Tiny and Pikachu looked at him worriedly, having a good idea of what was running through his head.
"I don't think they were coerced into it," Vladimir said uncertainly. "But if you think there's any way to change her mind, you're welcome to try it."
"And that's exactly what we'll do!" Cruise said, unaware of how wrong he was. Tiny shook his head quietly.
"Articuno is wiz zem…zat is…very troubling…" Fantina murmured.
"It doesn't matter if they have a god on their side…or two, if that Shivhel lass counts," Briney said. "We're jolly well going to take the blighters down one way or another, eh?"
"Yeah, gods are a lot easier to kill than you'd think," Sam agreed.
Max snorted. "It doesn't take much to get them crying for their mommies, the wusses."
"I don't care what forces they have arrayed against us, we'll cut them down where they stand nonetheless," Sparky said valiantly. "We can do no less in the memory of the people of Dusty Ditch."
Palmer nodded. "Yes, very well said."
"And for all the business investments I lost there," Goldor lamented.
"I still wish we'd gotten off a while back when we had the chance…" Buck complained.
"Nobody asked you, dear," Silvia said.
"Well, I suppose it'll make for some good pictures," Todd said optimistically.
"Heh, and some good stories," George said.
"I guess this doesn't really change anything, then," Salty said.
"Other than the knowledge of how horribly outnumbered we are?" Rebecca said pessimistically. "I'm assuming we're outnumbered. There's gotta be hundreds of them waiting for us, right?" Cherry nodded. Rebecca sighed. "I thought as much…"
"That just means our victory is guaranteed, thanks to the law of conservation of ninjutsu!" Zippo said right before Leo could.
"You're aware that's almost never worked for us in the past, right?" Sparky asked.
"It's gotta kick in sooner or later!" Zippo insisted. Pikachu and Leo glanced at each other, a little spooked.
"While we may be outnumbered, nearly all of Bellum's minions share the same weakness," Vladimir pointed out. "Namely, fire."
"So we just need to burn them to death. That shouldn't be too hard!" Leo quipped.
"Yeah, killing things with fire is easy and fun, even when they aren't ice monsters from another dimension!" Max agreed.
"Then it's a good thing we have fire, and lots of it," Lily said, conjuring a fireball.
"Because we will need as much as we can to survive zis battle," Fantina agreed. "Sister Lilandra, let us begin our preparations. It will not be much longer before we reach our destination, so let us be as ready as we possibly can be for whatever Bellum zrows at us."
"That goes for the rest of us as well, I suppose," Looker said.
"Naturally," Butler said.
"But what do these preparations entail?" Ash asked.
"I think I may have a few ideas…" Leo said with an eerie grin.
"Heh, so do I," Zippo said with an identical grin. They started laughing maniacally, causing their friends to exchange worried glances. Max joined in, since it seemed fun.
"Thank you for telling us about all this, Cherry," Bruno said. "It was very informative."
The Girafarig smiled. "I'm glad I could be of service."
"I have just one question…why are you telling us all this? Not that I'm complaining, but you've almost never been this specific, informative, and helpful in your predictions before!" Rebecca said.
"My predictions have rarely been this important before. Without proper foreknowledge of the forces arrayed against us, our defeat is almost certain. With proper foreknowledge, however, we have a very good chance of surviving," Cherry said.
"Then does that mean we're going to win?" Todd asked hopefully.
Cherry hesitated. "…That, I'm not sure of. It could go either way. The only thing I'm absolutely certain of is that I won't die, since I already know when and how that's going to happen and that's not here."
Everyone sighed in disappointment. "Figures…" Sam grumbled.
"When and how are you going to die?" a curious Cruise asked.
"I'd rather not say," Cherry said firmly.
"Lousy oracles…they never tell you anything important about the future when you need it most!" Goldor groused.
"Didn't she tell us a lot of useful things just now?" Buck asked.
"Nobody asked you, dear," Silvia said. Buck grunted.
"I don't know for positive if we'll win or lose, but I believe that if we have everything ready by the time we get to Dusty Ditch, then we have a pretty good shot of beating Bellum," Cherry said.
"That's good to know," Cruise said optimistically.
"What I'm not sure of is if all of us will make it out or not," Cherry said.
"That's bad to know," Cruise said, upset. Everyone else exchanged worried looks. Vladimir and Dean, who were near the top of Bellum's hit list, swallowed nervously.
"Ronin, I don't suppose your soothsayer can give us any insight on this rather unpleasant subject?" Briney asked. "After all, Absols are supposed to know when people are going to die or something like that, eh wot?"
"Why yes, that's right, they can! Or so all the rumors say!" Vladimir said, perking up.
"Can you tell us if we're going to die?" Happy asked anxiously.
"Because if we are, I'd really like to know in advance, so I can do something to avoid it," George said.
"Actually, if she knows in advance you're going to die, it'll be an absolute and inescapable fate and there's nothing you can do to avoid it," Lily said. "Which would be rather depressing, I should think."
They considered this for a moment. "That it would be," Diane admitted.
"Yeah, totally," Leo agreed.
"Still, I would like to know, even though I'm not sure I'd like the answer," Sparky said.
Palmer shrugged. "I suppose I'd like to know as well, since that means we can plan some sort of suicide attack to ensure we take out as many of our opponents as possible. Go out in a blaze of glory and all that, so our deaths won't be wasted. Assuming we die, that is."
"Well, Kutabe?" Pikachu asked, uncertain he wanted to get a reply.
Sasha closed her eyes briefly. "The chances of us dying are high, but it is not absolute for any of us." They sighed in relief until she continued, "That doesn't mean none of us will die, just that none of us are predestined to die here. It could still happen. Do not get careless and think yourself invincible, because that kind of careless thinking will get you killed just as easily as any of Bellum's lethal spells or minions."
"That's true," Bruno said, nodding in agreement. "We shouldn't let ourselves get overconfident, or we could make a fatal mistake."
"Still, the fact that we aren't doomed to die here in this wasteland is pretty good news," Ash said. "Since it means we have a good chance of winning and getting out with everyone in one piece, right?"
Sasha and Cherry nodded. "Correct," Cherry said.
"It will be difficult, but I believe if we are very careful and do our best, we may all live to see our final destination of Fichina," Sasha agreed.
Fantina nodded sagely. "Wise advice, Kutabe. We shall all remember zat."
"Remember what? I wasn't paying attention," Max said. Everyone sweatdropped.
"Well, you'd better act on that advice quickly and get ready, we'll be in Dusty Ditch, or whatever's left of it, in a little less than an hour," the engineer Ampharos said through the crystal ball, startling everyone because they had almost forgotten she was listening in.
"That long? That's odd, I thought it was closer than that," Goldor commented.
"It's going to take us a little longer than usual to reach town because the rails are all iced up and we're having to exert extra power to thaw them out while fighting against the super-strong wind blowing all over the place. We have to divert magic from the engine to do that, slowing us down as a result," the engineer explained.
"That's actually not a bad thing," Butler commented.
Diane nodded. "Yes, it gives us just a little more time to prepare ourselves."
"Zen let us use it wisely, because we will need every second of it if we are to conquer ze forces of Nifl'eim!" Fantina declared.
…
As it turned out, they didn't actually need every second, though almost all of it was accounted for by the time they were finished. The mages had pooled their abilities to apply temporary runes onto everyone's chests that would not only keep them from freezing to death in the subzero temperatures outside but also provide them with a degree of resistance to Ice-based attacks and spells so that Bellum couldn't do anything like freezing all the liquid in their bodies at a snap of her fingers. Both the passengers and the train staff were given these runes, so that everyone had a better chance of surviving. Additionally, extra runes were added to apply a Fire-type attribute to their attacks, even the ones that were already of other elements, so that every punch or spell or energy beam they fired would damage their enemies. (Naturally, Leo was elated when he got the ability to spew flaming water. Everyone else, not so much.) Extra spells of protection and strength were also cast over everyone to boost their general offense and defense and make it more likely for them to survive against the frozen hordes of Niflheim. Bruno was the only one who missed out on all these spells because he was covered in runes that made him immune to magic, but he was tough enough alreaday that everyone figured he'd be fine without them.
On a more specific level, after trying for several minutes to grill Cherry for any other information to no avail, Rebecca invoked the spirits of earth, air, and fire to give them yet another layer of protection and retreated into the engine car with Lily, Fantina, and the Flame Plate. There they intended to use the alchemical furnace powering the train to fuel their summoning spell. Butler and Diane went off to have a…private moment, while Bow commanded the Abra waiter and a few of the conductors to attend her in her room for a similar private moment, pronto. None of them dared refuse. Briney enviously watched the Goldor family bicker about strategy and useful spells, knowing they didn't know how lucky they were to have each other. Knowing he'd probably be forced onto the front lines rather than just taking pictures from a safe distance, Todd practiced the (sadly limited) spells in his repertoire and stocked up on Pester Balls, a special gadget he often used to stun angry celebrities whose personal space he had violated and create smoke screens to make a fast getaway. Sam and Max took out their flamethrowers and the overenthusiastic Max very nearly had to be physically restrained to keep from using his to burn the train to ashes. Looker reviewed the fighting techniques he knew and kept an eye on his target, not intending to let the criminal get away in all the chaos of the upcoming fight. With Pikachu's permission, Palmer took Dawn aside to get more detailed information about Paul's abilities and moves, and began imparting the basics for the very powerful ninja skill he intended to teach her if they made it out of this alive. Team Getem got their gear ready and prepared the Plates in their possession for battle, intending to use them in the fight. After tinkering with their Thermonukes to make them ludicrously more powerful, Leo and Zippo decided to use their mechanical prowess to boost the Enchanted Express's weapons systems, much to the astonishment and consternation of the staff and the gratitude of the security team. George restocked her arrows and prepared some of her more specialized anti-Ice ammunition while Bruno meditated to concentrate his power to its peak. Vladimir and Dean wandered around feeling a bit useless and uneasy, briefly considered turning some of their companions into vampires to boost their numbers, decided that probably wasn't the best thing to do, and resigned themselves to wait for the fight to start and do all they could to help out. Bob, lacking the brainpower necessary to worry about the future, contented himself by licking his testicles. Ash tried to quell the anger hearing Articuno was one of the Nihilators had instilled in him while Tiny did his best to help. Pikachu reluctantly put away his decoy sword and removed Thunder Fang from its hiding place, knowing he would need its power and hoping nobody would recognize it. (Then again, since Bellum was probably going to recognize Lily eventually anyway, some might say their cover being blown was inevitable.) He found himself wishing he hadn't left behind the samurai armor he'd obtained from Barbedo's hoard, something like that would have come in handy in the coming battle. Brodie sat in the same binding spell he'd been stuck in since last night, wondering when anyone was going to feed him or remember he was there. He was getting hungry.
While all this took up most of the interlude between them and Dusty Ditch, there was still a little time left over for a few meaningful and character-developing conversations before they reached their stop and had to begin battling for their lives, as there always is at times like this. Pikachu, who had been doing katas in his room with Thunder Fang, looked up when Palmer and Dawn entered the suite, trying to hide the expression of relief on his face. Sasha, who had been doing her best to keep from getting zapped by the bolts of electricity arcing off the blade, did not bother hiding hers. "You're back! Does that mean you're ready to use that new move I've been hearing about?"
Dawn shook her head regretfully. I have begun training for it since last night, but I have not mastered it yet. Attempting to perform it in my current state will have a better chance of killing me than it will Paul.
Pikachu blanched. "Oh. That doesn't sound good. Is it that dangerous, then?"
Palmer nodded. "It's the Dragon's Claw clan's most powerful technique, one that few enemies can stand against and only our greatest ninjas could pull off. I believe Dawn is capable of performing it, but…not now. She isn't ready. If I had another day or two to instruct her, she might be, but there's no way I could do it in the time we have left."
"A pity Fantina hasn't perfected that 'time expansion' magic I've been hearing about, it sounds like something we could use to get in more training time," Sasha commented.
Pikachu nodded in agreement. "Not just Dawn, but all of us…oh well. Things are never that easy for us. Dawn, do you think you're ready to face Paul? The last time, it didn't…quite end well."
What do you mean, Master? I almost killed him, Dawn said.
"Yes, keyword being 'almost.' You missed by the slimmest of margins," Palmer lectured sternly. "A novice's mistake. I expected better from you than that, Dawn."
Dawn bowed her head in shame. I know, Master. I promise that next time, my blade will not miss its mark.
"I hope it doesn't," Palmer said. "But if it does, I'll be there to make sure Paul doesn't get away with his life this time. He's no longer immortal, so if he manages to escape the both of us, we will have truly dishonored the memories of our fallen brethren and are not fit to call ourselves ninja." Dawn nodded in agreement.
"Um, you're not going to…kill yourselves if you fail, are you?" Pikachu asked in alarm.
Dawn shook her head. No, we have too many other obligations to do that. But it will be very difficult to remove the stain of dishonor from such a humiliating failure.
"Oh." Pikachu fidgeted. "That's…yeah, I guess it would be."
Sasha rolled her eyes. "You samurai and ninja are too hung up on honor."
"Without honor, we are little more than common killers," Palmer said sternly.
"And with it you're uncommon killers?" Sasha asked skeptically.
Palmer glared. "I would not expect you to understand."
"But I do, which is why I want to help," Pikachu volunteered. "May I fight alongside you? I would like to see Paul dead as much as you, after all the things he's done."
"…I am gratified that you would make such an offer," Palmer said, touched and pleased to see that Dawn had truly picked a good mon to devote her life to. Certainly not like some of the other samurai he'd run into over the years! "However, this is a matter only we can deal with. Paul was one of us, and his betrayal has all but destroyed us. It is only meet that we repay the favor. It is the only way to avenge our friends and allies that Paul so callously discarded and slew."
Master, I know you wish to help us and I am grateful, truly I am, but…this is something only Master Palmer and I can do, Dawn said apologetically. Please allow us to handle Paul on our own. It is what our honor demands, and our vengeance.
Pikachu nodded reluctantly. He didn't like it, he supposed he could order her otherwise, but both of them knew he would never do something like that. "I understand, though I wish you would reconsider. If that's what you wish, I'll leave Paul to you. However, if you have any need of me, any need at all, contact me through your badge and I'll be there as fast as I can to help."
"All of us will," Sasha said, butting in. "We are a team, which means Paul is our enemy as much as he is yours. While you may have more of a past with him and a greater reason to hate him than any of us (well, except for Ash, I suppose), that does not mean we do not despise him and wish to see him defeated as well. He has hurt you in the past. You have shown us how he has hurt you. And we would like to repay the favor, if you will let us."
Dawn's ears nearly ripped themselves out of her braid in surprise. I…thank you. Both of you. I…I do not think I will take you up on that offer, but…just knowing that you would give it so willingly means the world to me. I cannot think of anyone in this world who would make better friends or a Master than you. Palmer coughed, and Dawn stiffened. Er, other than you of course, Master!
Palmer chuckled. "It's nothing to worry about, Dawn. I don't mind. You're right, I think you hit paydirt when you ran into Team Aurabolt. I don't believe anyone else could have given you the compassion and love they offered, the friendship that helped you become more like the eager young ninja trainee I remember, the one who always ran around the fortress spying on her teachers and tried to assassinate the chef and came over to hang out with…" He hesitated. "With…my son…" His wings drooped.
…Don't worry, Master, Dawn said, putting a paw on his knee. We will avenge them. Barry, Zoey, Kenny…my parents…the entire Clan…today, Paul will finally face justice.
Palmer smiled. "Of course he will. How could he not, with you by my side?" Dawn blushed, Pikachu grinned, and even Sasha managed a small smile.
Out in the hallway, Sam, Max, and Looker loitered around in boredom, having been tossed out of their room by Butler and Diane, who were now using it for 'private business' that Max did not seem to understand, even though he'd engaged in similar business with his wife the First Lady numerous times. "Why'd they have to pick our room to do stuff in, anyway?" Max complained. "Don't they have a nice enough room in their own car?"
Looker shrugged. "Maybe they felt like slumming it."
"Then they should go to a real slum, not our room!" Max said. Looker rolled his eyes.
"What do you suppose they're doing in there?" Sam wondered.
Looker coughed. "Well, I could venture a pretty good guess, but-"
"No, not them, I mean our friends the samurai and his phony retinue with that wizard Dragonite. What's their connection to that guy?" Sam voiced.
"Oh, Kairyu's not an actual wizard but a ninja of the same clan that Dawn is, and they're probably discussing their plans to kill Paul, whom I have long suspected to be a former ninja himself and the destroyer of the fabled Dragon's Claw ninas," Looker said.
Sam and Max stared at him in amazement. "How could you possibly know that?" Sam asked incredulously.
"And if he's a ninja, how'd he convince everyone he was a wizard?" Max asked.
"Ninja tricks. And I know because I'm a detective," Looker said. "These things become obvious to spot after a while."
Sam frowned. "Well gee, I've been a freelance police officer for years but I never suspected a thing…"
"…Yes. Well. Ninjas are sneaky," Looker said, deciding not to voice the first, rather disparaging, thought that had come to mind.
"So that dragon's a fraud? That big orange faker! I'm gonna tell everyone he's a phony!" Max said, opening his mouth wide. Sam promptly tackled Max and wrestled with him on the floor, clamping a hand over his mouth. Max bit it, and Sam winced as it broke the skin, knowing he'd need to disinfect that later. Looker shook his head in exasperation, wondering yet again what he'd been thinking when he let these idiots hitch a ride with him. He was broken from this train of thought when the door to their room flew open and an incredibly black-and-blue Todd was flung out, crying out as he hit the floor and jarred his dislocated limbs and broken ribs. "And if I ever catch you doing something like that again, I'll kill you, drag your soul back to this world, and install it into one of the servitor homunculi at the Fantasma estate, namely the one responsible for tending the garden!" the enraged Butler shouted before slamming the door shut.
"Wow," Max said. "That guy was really pissed!"
"Well, that's certainly a dire punishment," Looker said.
"Really? That doesn't sound so bad," Sam said.
"The Fantasma estate's gardens occupy several hundred acres of land and are made completely of rare magical plants, many of which are sentient and even more of which enjoy eating gardeners," Looker said.
"Oh," Sam said.
"Eh, still better than Darla's garden. Remember when that Super-Gro fertilizer got mixed into it and created a giant plant monster that almost covered the whole world in its roots?" Max asked.
"You mean the Super-Gro fertilizer you mixed into it, despite Darla explicitly telling you not to?" Sam said.
"I thought it'd make the lawn of the White House look more interesting! And it worked!" Max said triumphantly.
"Until we burned it down, covering the planet in a giant cloud of smoke that blotted out the sun and nearly caused a new Ice Age," Sam said.
"Which meant it was Christmas for a whole year, especially after I 'acquired' the North Pole through perfectly legal means," Max said innocently. "Totally worth it!"
"So was sneaking in there to spy on them," Todd gasped, wincing in pain as every breath hurt. He groaned and cast a healing spell to try and mend his (many, MANY) wounds.
"What exactly were you doing in there?" Looker asked.
"And what were they doing in there? And why did that big one-eyed guy have white stuff all around his mouth?" Max asked.
"I didn't even know that was a mouth," Sam said. "And now I wish I still didn't know."
"I was…taking pictures," Todd grunted as his bones knitted themselves back together and his limbs realigned. "It's what I do."
"Did you get a picture of what they were doing?" Sam asked.
"Yep!" Todd said, sticking out his tongue and extruding a photograph from it. Sam, Max, and Looker stared at it wordlessly for several seconds. "Well? What do you think? Pretty good, huh?"
"Eh, I've seen worse," Max said nonchalantly. "Hmm, though that does give me a few ideas for what to do with the First Lady once I get home…how do you think Darla would look in a maid outfit, Sam?"
"That is an image I would rather not contemplate, little buddy, much like the one on this picture here. Well, there's another horrible memory I must wad up into a tiny ball and throw into the furthest corners of my subconscious and repress for all time," Sam said.
"At this rate, the wastebasket of your brain is going to overflow from all the other repressed memories you tossed in there and cause you to devolve into a gibbering wreck with no control over your bowels and salivary glands as the sheer horror of everything we've ever done drives you completely insane…and I'm gonna burn it onto a CD and put it on the Internet for everyone to see!" Max said cheerfully.
"Will you show it to me when I get better?" Sam asked.
"Sure thing!" Max promised.
"I'll take that, if you don't mind," Looker said, snatching the photo off of Todd's tongue.
"Oh, I didn't know you were into that sort of thing, Detective," Todd said in surprise. "You know, I have plenty of other pictures of that…nature lying around, if that appeals to you at all. Would you care to see?"
Looker narrowed his eyes. "Yes. Yes, actually, I think I would."
"Great! Come with me to my studio, and by studio I mean my room," Todd said, casually wrapping a wing around the Croagunk's shoulder and leading him down the hall.
"Huh. That's funny, I didn't think Looker was into that sort of thing…" Sam murmured.
"You mean ogling illicitly taken pictures of people caught in the act?" Max said "Guess he has hidden depths. Good to know he's not such a straight-laced boring law enforcer!"
"Either that…or there's something else going on here…" Sam murmured suspiciously.
"Going on where?" George asked as she approached the duo.
"Oh, Sam thinks Looker may be up to something with Todd," Max said.
George frowned. "Really? I can't see them working together, or being…partners. "
"Well, sometimes odd couples can make the best partners, just like me and Sam, right Sam?" Max said, completely missing the other meaning of George's comment.
Sam nodded. "Yep, I can't think of anyone I'd rather want to be with, even if there are times I want to grab a sledgehammer and smash his skull in until there's nothing left but a bloody pile of brains and formerly white fur."
"Just like there are times I want to eat you!" Max added.
"That's all the time, Max," Sam said. "It's kind of creepy."
"If you stopped looking so delicious, I wouldn't fantasize about eating you all the time!" Max said. "I can't help my appetites!"
"That's what diets are for, Max," Sam said.
"Oh come on, you know no diet is really effective, they're just a celebrity or would-be health guru's attempt to take advantage of people's constant fear of being morbidly obese to make lots of cash," Max said.
"That's not true!" Sam protested.
"Sure it is. How's your current diet going for you?" Max asked.
"…Well…I lost half a pound this month…" Sam said awkwardly.
"Uh-huh. And how much weight have you lost since you started this diet six months ago?" Max asked.
Sam's shoulders slumped. "…Half a pound."
"I rest my case," Max said triumphantly.
"…Right. Anyway," George said slowly, deciding to pretend they hadn't said anything. "Are you guys ready for the battle?"
"I think so. Are you?" Sam asked.
George patted her quiver and the bandoliers she'd flung across her chest. "Yep. I've got all the ammo I need to take down these ice monsters…I hope."
"Meh, not nearly as nice as our guns," Max commented, unimpressed.
"Which is why I was wondering if you could set me up with one?" George asked hopefully.
Sam shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, but any spares we had were in the DeSoto, which is still MIA. I've always suspected Max secretes them, though…Max, think you could give her one?"
"No," Max said bluntly.
Sam shrugged. "Well, guess that's that, then."
"Oh well," George said, shrugging it off. "I'm fairly confident I can handle myself without one, anyway. Hmm…what say we make a little competition out of this?"
Sam raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
"A body count contest. We'll see which of our weapons kills the most monsters, my crossbow and modified arrows or your 'gun,'" George suggested.
"Ah, sort of like our little shooting contest on the roof last night?" Sam asked.
"The one you wouldn't let me participate in for some reason?" Max complained.
George nodded. "That's the idea."
"Sounds like fun. What's the prize?" Sam asked.
The Mightyena considered this for a moment. "The winner gets to make one request of the loser, and the loser can't refuse."
Sam frowned. "I dunno…I can think of a lot of things I could be requested to do, and very few of them are particularly savory."
"Which makes it that much more fun! Do it, Sam! Be a man!" Max goaded.
"I'm not a man, I'm a dog," Sam said.
"Oh. Do it, Sam! Be a dog!" Max goaded.
"I promise I won't ask you to do anything too unpleasant when I win," George said.
"You mean if you win. Oh, all right," Sam said, giving in. "I suppose it wouldn't be that bad. I can't think of a reason not to, anyway…though it'll take me a while to think of anything I'd want you to do."
George frowned briefly, somewhat disappointed by this, but then nodded. "Fair enough. Just so you know, I already know exactly what I want you to do…"
"Good?" Sam asked uncertainly.
"So do I!" Max said giddily.
"You're not playing," Sam said.
"What? Why not?" Max demanded.
"Because you'd make it stop being fun and turn it into something creepy," Sam said.
"You like creepy!" Max protested.
"Not that creepy," Sam said.
"Fine!" Max snapped, folding his arms across his chest and pointedly turning his back to Sam. "Go play with your new friend! See if I care!"
"Okay, I will," Sam said obliviously, much to Max's consternation. George chuckled in bemusement. Those two were something else…
Meanwhile, in Ash's room…
"Daddy, are you okay?" Tiny asked in concern.
Ash, who had been staring out the window with a melancholy look on his face, started. "Hmm? Oh, sorry, Tiny. Yes, I'm fine."
"You don't seem fine. And your Aura's been fluctuating weirdly," Tiny said in concern. "It's Articuno, isn't it?"
"…Yeah. It is," Ash admitted. "You…know that her and I have a history."
"Just like you and Manaphy, and Darkrai, and Cresselia, and the other birds, and a bunch of other legendary Pokémon?" Tiny asked.
Ash grimaced. "…Yeah. But unlike Darkrai and Cresselia, who've sort of forgiven me (I think), and Manaphy, who was more pitiable than really evil, Articuno is…a complete and total murdering bitch. I'm…not sure I want to purify her."
"But Daddy, she's a Shadow Pokémon!" Tiny protested. "You have to purify her! It's your duty as an Aura Guardian, isn't it?"
"…Well, yeah, I guess," Ash admitted. "But…"
"But what?" Tiny asked.
"What good will it do?" Ash asked. "Articuno was practically evil even before she was turned into a Shadow Pokémon, or at the least incredibly selfish and self-absorbed. The first time I ran into her, she and her siblings had a stupid fight that almost destroyed the entire world. And then she…she and the others killed my friends on the flimsiest of justifications, and tried to kill Darkrai and Cresselia rather than apologize!"
"Even if she's a horrible person, that doesn't mean she deserves to be a slave to the Nihilators," Tiny said.
"Who says she's a slave? How do you know she's not a willing member?" Ash asked. "The three legendary beasts apparently joined the Nihilators willingly and accepted the power of Shadow, and I always thought those three were among the most noble and reliable of Pokémon! If they could be turned so easily, is it that hard to believe that she might have signed up at the first chance she got, too?"
"Daddy…I know you're angry at what she did to you a thousand years ago, but how do you know she hasn't changed since then? It's been a very long time, after all," Tiny said.
"Because I fought her several months ago while Pikachu and I were on the run from Pokémon Square, in the forest where we first met Sasha. For the same stupid reasons as just about everyone else she thought that I had somehow caused all the natural disasters occurring then and tried to kill me rather than at least waiting long enough to hear an explanation," Ash said bitterly.
"…Oh," Tiny said awkwardly. "Well…okay, I admit that's pretty bad, but…look, if you don't purify her, what are you going to do? Kill her?"
"I don't know," Ash admitted. "Maybe."
"If you do, then how will you be better than Manaphy?" Tiny demanded.
"Because I have a legitimate reason to want to kill her, and I haven't allowed my desire for vengeance to turn me into a monster," Ash insisted.
"Didn't you come pretty close to becoming one when Oblivion's Shadow attacked you in Treasure Town?" Tiny asked pointedly. "And you still don't even know why you hate him so much!"
Ash flinched. "That's…a very good point, Tiny. I hadn't thought of that."
"You and Aaron and that magical book you keep reading are always talking about how Aura Guardians fight for justice, not revenge, right?" Tiny asked. "And while the line between them can sometimes be pretty thin, knowing which side of it to stay on can sometimes be the deciding factor between staying a true Aura Guardian…or turning into a Dark One. Or even worse, a Void Pokémon, which is what we're trying to prevent you keep from becoming, right?"
Ash considered this for a moment. "…Yeah, it is. I guess…I was letting my anger cloud my judgment a little, wasn't I? I hate Articuno, but I can't let that lead to me acting the way I did that night in Treasure Town. Once I start down that path, there's no guaranteeing I'll be able to make it back."
"Of course you will," Tiny said gently. "As long as me and the rest of us are here, we'll always be there to pull you back from the brink. It's what friends are for, right? You taught me that, though it took me a while to get it."
"It certainly did," Ash agreed. He smiled fondly. "And you seem to have learned a thing or two about Aura that I almost forgot. You're growing up so fast, Tiny. It seems like just yesterday that you hatched from your egg after falling from an exploding hot dog-shaped rocket ship and landing on my head."
"It wasn't yesterday, it was a couple of weeks ago," Tiny said.
"Ah. That would explain it," Ash said.
Tiny smiled. At least Ash thought he did, his eyes looked happy. "So, what are you going to do when you face Articuno?"
"I'm going to subdue her and help Ritchie purify her. We'll find out whether or not she's changed any or learned her lessons, or if we can really open her heart. And if she still tries to kill us, well…then I'll have no choice but to do whatever is necessary to stop her. But I won't do it out of anger or a desire for retribution. That happened once already, and I don't intend to let it happen again," Ash said firmly.
"Yay!" Tiny said, tackling Ash and almost knocking him to the floor. Ash laughed…
And a thought occurred to him. "Hey, does this mean that if we run into Hunter J again, you'll be practicing all that stuff you were telling me to do?"
Tiny stiffened. "…We'll see," He said noncommittally.
Ash sweatdropped. "I guess I'll have to accept that for now."
"Yes," Tiny said. "You will."
Meanwhile, in the engine car…
The engineers watched in awe as Fantina, Lily, and Rebecca enacted the summoning spell to call forth a being from the fires of Muspelheim to aid them. The trio stood or floated in an ornate magical triangle they'd drawn on the ground, each of them ensconced in a circle placed at one of the points, their eyes closed and mouths murmuring incantations under their breath as incredible magical power crackled in the air around them, causing many of the more delicate instruments in the room to go haywire, much to the exasperation of the chief engineer. She was especially upset at the reaction the spell was causing in the alchemical furnace, the immense magitek contraption taking up most of the room radiating heat and light beyond all safety parameters, generating power greater than any it had managed to put out before. It didn't look like the engine would explode or anything like that, but the way it was humming and glowing made her uneasy.
So did the way everyone in the triangle was glowing. Fantina almost seemed to have transformed into fire, Lily was surrounded by dancing flames, and fiery serpents swam in circles around Rebecca. The greatest flames of all rose from the crimson Flame Plate placed in a special circle in the center of the triangle, surrounded by several rings of runes intended to contain and focus its power to keep it from exploding outward in a conflagration which would consume the entire train. The flames began crackling harder and abruptly leapt into the air, streams of fire rising from the furnace, the three mages and Plate, and converging above the triangle, creating a ball of fire like an incandescent miniature sun, slowly growing in size as more and more power was fed into it.
"Wow," one of the engineers, a Magneton, said. "That's really hot."
"Yeah, Duchess Fantina and Sister Lilandra look really sexy all concentrated and fiery like that," another engineer, an Aron, said.
"No, I mean that's really hot, as in my metal is practically melting here," the Magneton gasped, wiping away oily sweat.
"Oh. Yeah, it's that, too," the Aron said.
"Will you stop gawking and help me out over here?" their Ampharos boss snapped as she frantically worked the levers and dials controlling the engine. "This thing doesn't run itself, you know! Which is stupid, since it's magic, so it should be able to run itself…"
"You know, that's actually a good point," the Magneton said.
"But if it could, we'd be out of jobs," the Aron pointed out.
"Which is also what you'll be if you DON'T GET OVER HERE!" the Ampharos shouted, causing her minions to yelp and rush back to their stations.
With an audible grunt of effort, Fantina, Lily, and Rebecca trembled and stepped out of the triangle…leaving three flame-shaped effigies of themselves behind. They panted and shook briefly from the exertion of their casting, sweat or the ectoplasmic equivalent of it rolling down their brows. "Phew…that was…something else," Rebecca gasped, wiping her forehead and shaking her pendulum to get some embers off of it.
"Amazing…I've never felt such power coursing through me…I didn't even know I was capable of something like that!" Lily said, adjusting her wimple.
"You 'ave always had power like zis inside of you…you just never 'ad ze right opportunity, or teacher, to unlock it until now," Fantina said with a proud smile as she regained her composure.
"So, are you three done?" the Ampharos asked, not looking up from her console, hoping they would leave and let her engine run smoothly again. And maybe they could take that big ball of fire with them…
"Not quite," Fantina said. "Even wiz all of us working togezzer, it will still take some time before ze ally we 'ave summoned arrives. Ze magic involved to bring 'im 'ere is very complicated. Unfortunately, we don't 'ave time to do all of it ourselves, what wiz Dusty Ditch and ze battle waiting zere fast approaching, so we 'ad to compromise by leaving a small portion of ourselves be'ind to continue casting ze spell while we join ze ozzers in ze big fight."
"Hence the fiery images of ourselves," Lily said, gesturing at the flaming simulacra standing in the triangle.
"Ah," the Ampharos said. "And when your friend gets here, will he damage my engine?"
"…Maybe?" Rebecca said uncertainly.
"If he does, you're all paying for it," the Ampharos said darkly.
"Zen it's a good zing I 'ave lots of money, yes?" Fantina said brightly. The engineer grunted but admitted this was true.
"So, what now?" Lily asked as they left the engine car.
"Now we catch our breazs and prepare for ze climactic battle," Fantina said. "And maybe freshen up a little. Rebecca, would you like to come back to my room? I 'ave a few zings zat could do wonders for your complexion."
"…We're practically minutes away from one of the biggest battles of our lives and you're concerned about how I look?" Rebecca asked incredulously.
Fantina smiled. "One must always endeavor to look zeir best. It tells ze world zey 'ave confidence in zemselves, even in ze face of certain deazh."
"Hmm. Thanks but no thanks. My appearance has never been particularly important to me…mainly because I can't actually see it," Rebecca grunted. "You go on ahead, I'm going to see if I can't pry a few more things out of Cherry before we hit town."
"Very well. Good luck wiz zat," Fantina said.
"Thanks, I'll need it," the Hypnos said as she left.
"Fantina, I don't mean to criticize, but…is this the best time for this?" Lily asked.
"Certainly. You'll want to be feeling your best when you confront your mother, non?" Fantina asked.
Lily fidgeted. "…Yeah, I guess…"
Fantina raised an eyebrow at her tone, but didn't say anything…yet. Instead, they headed back to the Duchess's room, where they found Bow being very…active. "Oh, 'ello Mama, 'ello Lily!" the Drifloon called from the mess of bodies on the bed. "Would you like to join in?"
"Maybe next time, dear, Lily and I are going to freshen up," Fantina said, sounding completely undisturbed by what she had caught her daughter doing.
"Okay, 'ave fun wiz zat," Bow said as she went back to what she was doing.
"Come, Lily," Fantina said as she gently guided the shocked Misdreavus towards the bathroom. "Let's leave 'er alone."
"But-but she…why is she…what was…" Lily stammered.
"We're Mewrians dear, remember? We have certain…appetites. It is also customary to 'ave a good one before a big battle, somezing to remind you of ze joys of life and what you are fighting for or somezing like zat," Fantina said.
"Oh," Lily said, still a little pale. "Um…then why aren't you…"
"Because I zink you and I need to 'ave a few words before zis starts, which is a bit more important at ze moment zan making love," Fantina said.
"Ah," Lily said. She paused, a horrifying thought occurring to her. "And only words?"
Fantina blinked. "Que? What do you…oh. OH." She flushed. "N-non, nozing like zat! I'm not zat kind of person!"
"R-right. Just checking," Lily said in relief.
They entered the bathroom, leaving Bow to her fun. It was, like the rest of the suite, palatial and luxurious, Lily noting with a slight hint of envy that it was the size of the room she and Leo were sharing. Its architectural style strongly resembled an ancient Aroman bathhouse, with mosaic tiles on the floor, friezes on the walls, magnificent fluted columns, steaming hot tubs, and a dazzling array of modern beauty products and items for hygienic treatment. "Float in front of ze mirror, dear," Fantina said, gesturing to the large mirror taking up the upper half of one wall over the sink, which was big enough to bathe several baby Pokémon in.
"Okay, but what's…oh!" Lily said in surprise as an invisible force removed her habit and wimple, letting her long hair out, which a levitating brush and comb began to vigorously tend to. A bottle of eyeliner rose up and a small brush started applying itself to her eyes while some lipstick uncapped itself and began rubbing around her mouth. "F-Fantina, is this supposed to happen?"
"Yes, it's just ze room's enchantments at work," Fantina said as she closed her eyes, her hat floating off and allowing her own lengthy hair to flow out and be brushed while similar appliances went to work on her face. "Relax, it's nozing to be afraid of."
Despite this assurance, Lily couldn't help jumping when she felt an invisible pressure on her shoulders…only to sigh in relief when it began massaging her. "Ohhh…what is this? It feels so good…"
Fantina smiled. "Zat's ze wonderful zing about magic, Lily. When used properly…it can make ze world a better place for everyone."
Lily's face fell, tensing up and forcing the invisible masseuse to work harder. "And when used by someone like Mother, it makes the world just a little worse."
"Are you afraid to face Bellum, Lily?" Fantina asked.
"Yes, very much so," Lily confessed. "I haven't really brought it up before, but…I'm absolutely terrified. I haven't seen Mother since I left to join Team Aurabolt in Twilight's Edge. She must have been furious that I ran away. And now I've joined up with you, her worst enemy. I've seen her at her worst, but I can't imagine how angry she's going to be when she sees me again, angry at how I've betrayed and abandoned her. She scared me all the time when I was her prisoner. But now that I'm her enemy…I know all too well the things she can do to people she hates, and I'm frightened at the thought of her doing those things to me, or the people I care about."
Fantina cocked her head. "You do not zink you can defeat her?"
"No," Lily said miserably. "I'm not even sure I can fight her. She outclasses me in knowledge, power, experience, and willingness to commit evil. Plus, I'm so conditioned to submit to her from all my centuries under her thumb I'm not even sure I can fling a spell at her for fear of how she'll retaliate. How can I possibly face her?" She made a face. "Especially because my presence will not only alert her to the fact that the rest of the team is here, but that you possess one of the Star Badges…meaning she'll try even harder to kill all of us, and bring down the full wrath of the Nihilators on our heads."
Fantina sighed. "Zat is true. I suppose it was inevitable zat sooner or later, your true identities would be revealed. It was a valiant effort, trying to disguise yourselves to protect bozh your mission and mine, but I do not zink zat will work for much longer. 'Owever…zere may be a way to prolong ze masquerade for just a little longer. I can put a glamour over you to try and 'ide your scars and magical signature, but I am uncertain 'ow long zat will 'old up to Bellum's scrutiny. You are 'er daughter, after all, and your ectoplasm cannot be concealed from 'er forever. It is ze same as her own, after all."
Lily grimaced. "Is it worth the effort, then?"
Fantina shrugged. "Zat is up to you. If you are worried zat fighting Bellum will expose your friends…or if you are simply too scared to fight her…you could stay on ze train and 'elp ze staff keep everyzing in one piece. If you are in 'ere, it is unlikely she will know you are present, and ze secrecy of your quest will remain intact."
Realizing Fantina was offering her a way out, Lily seriously considered it for a moment. Since it would be helping her friends in a roundabout way, she could justify it as being more than just a desperate attempt to keep out of Bellum's reach and avoid having to see the unquenchable rage in those crystal-blue eyes. There was nothing shameful about helping from the sidelines. Surely her friends would understand…right?
B disagreed. You can't do it, Lily.
Why not? Lily asked.
You have to face Bellum eventually. It's inevitable. Your destinies are intertwined, and you know it. You can't just stand back and let someone else deal with her. Sooner or later, you're going to have to fight her, both to save the world and to prove to her, and to yourself, that you have grown up and surpassed her in every way.
But I haven't done any of those things, Lily protested.
Haven't you? You chose to break free from her. You have real friends and a Pokémon who loves you, which is more than she'll ever have. You may not have her power and experience, but you'll get those eventually. What you really lack is the confidence to confront her and show her that you're not her plaything anymore. And if you avoid her this time, you'll try and use the same excuse to avoid her the next time, and the time after that, and the time after that, until every time there's even a chance she might be around you'll be hiding under a table while your friends risk their lives to drive her away. And we both know that's not something you're going to let happen, is it? B challenged.
…No. You're right. It's not, Lily admitted reluctantly. "Thanks but no thanks, Fantina. Mother may be your nemesis, but…as her daughter, it's my responsibility to fight her too. I can't stand aside and allow other people to fight her in my place. No matter how scared of her I am, I…I can't let her hurt my friends or anyone else because of me."
Fantina looked at her for a long moment. "Zen you will fight her, even zough it may expose your friends and make zings even 'arder for all of us?"
"I have to," Lily said. "Sooner or later, it's something I'm going to have to do, so it might as well be now, right?"
"But aren't you afraid of her?" Fantina asked.
"Terrified," Lily said. "But…I can't let that get in the way of doing what's right. I won't stand back and stay in the relative safety of the train while my friends are out there risking their lives for me and for everyone else. I will fight with them, and with you, even if it means I must face Mother and expose our secret. It's what I have to do."
Fantina nodded, a smile slowly coming to her face. "Excellent. Zat is just what I 'oped you would say, Lily. And in doing so, you 'ave already proven yourself to be a far better person zan your mozzer ever could 'ave been. It is because of zis zat you will one day defeat 'er once and for and all."
Lily blinked in surprise. "What? No, don't be silly! That's…that's something you'll do. You've been fighting her for longer than I've even existed, and have greater power and magic than I. How could I possibly best Mother for good when it's something you've been struggling to do for centuries?"
"Because you are stronger zan you zink you are, Lily. I can see it in you…ze potential to be a greater mage zan your mozzer, or even me!" Fantina said seriously.
Lily flushed, and not just because the enchanted instruments were trying to apply blush to her cheeks. "E-even if that's the case—and I'm not saying it is—I probably won't achieve that potential for a very, very long time."
Oh, I wouldn't be so sure… B said.
"We shall see," Fantina said, apparently following the same train of thought as B. "Hmm…I believe we are done," she said as the instruments returned to whence they had come and the pressure on her and Lily relieved itself. "Ah, I look ravishing as always. And you…look in ze mirror and tell me what you zink!"
Lily looked at her reflection and did a double-take. If it weren't for the chain-shaped curse marks on her face, which the makeup had been unable to cover up no matter how hard it tried, Lily would have thought the Pokémon looking back at her in the mirror was a completely different Misdreavus…one far prettier than she could ever be. "Is that…me?" she asked incredulously.
"Oui," Fantina said.
"And…and this is a true reflection?" Lily asked. "This isn't one of those magic mirrors that shows you the way you want to look, or something like that?"
Fantina laughed. "Non, ze mirror is one of ze few zings in zis room wiz no magic in it whatsoever…well, ozzer zan ze anti-breaking charm, naturally."
"Amazing…I never thought in my wildest dreams I could look like…that," Lily said, gesturing helplessly at her reflection, who looked just as stunned as she was.
Fantina chuckled. "If you zink zat's somezing, just wait until you evolve! Take it from me, you will be magnificent…and I am sure your beau will be quite pleased as well!"
Lily blushed. "Y-you think so?"
The Mismagius smirked. "What red-blooded mon wouldn't be? Ah, you are lucky to 'ave 'im, Lily. 'e's a bit…strange, but loyal and intelligent, and it's clear to me 'e zinks ze world of you." She sighed wistfully. "I 'aven't 'ad a mon look at me ze way 'e looks at you in a very long time…"
Lily blinked in surprise. "What? But I thought you've had-"
"Oh, I've 'ad a number of partners, don't get me wrong—it's where I got most of my daughters from—but most of zose were just for fun. Zere is only one mon who truly loved me for more zan my wealzh or power or, ahem, 'reputation.' But…zat was a long time ago," Fantina said sadly.
"Um…what happened? If I'm not being too forward, that is," Lily asked timidly.
"You're not. It's nozing I'm ashamed of. Well…maybe a little," Fantina said. "About four 'undred years ago, an up-and-coming priest in ze Arcean Order came to ze Fichinan branch to study ze 'oly and mystical texts enshrined zere. A fairly recent convert to ze priest'ood and still smarting from a razzer bad encounter at ze last town 'e'd tried to bring Arceus to, 'e was eager to learn more about ze great powers and divinities which bind us all and find a way to make ze teachings of ze Law Rock and ze Order real for ze Pokémon of ze world, to give everyone ze same kind of salvation 'e 'ad received. 'is mind open to knowledge of all sorts, 'e sought information from ze ozzer religious and spiritual sects in Fichina razzer zan just focusing on Arcean doctrine, trying to develop a technique made from an amalgamation of ze various schools to touch ze Pokémon of 'is flock (well, when 'e got a flock, anyway) on a more personal level. Since I was even zen a major supporter of Mewrianism, considered by many to be a 'sister' ideology to Arceanism, it was inevitable zat 'e would one day come to me for permission to see some of ze more classified and ancient texts in my possession." She blushed, surprising Lily. "And we…well, we sort of 'it it off. I 'elped 'im to do research and develop zeses, and we often spent 'ours debating zeology and ze order of ze 'eavens, and our place in ze Omniverse. 'E was unlike any mon I'd ever met…intelligent and caring, able to keep up wiz and even best me in a spirited discussion, and completely uninterested in my position, aside from ze fact zat I 'ad several books 'e wanted to look at. We developed a close friendship, and eventually somezing…more. But…sadly, it was not to last."
Lily frowned. "Why? Arcean priests are not forbidden to marry."
"Because 'is place was not wiz me," Fantina said sadly. "Alzhough 'e loved me as much as I loved 'im, in ze end 'is first duty was to ze church…and so it was ze church zat took 'im from me. Ze Order assigned 'im to a posting on anozzer continent, in a town zat 'ad lacked a priest of any sort for generations. We talked a bit about 'im maybe turning down ze position and finding a place in Fichina, but we bozh knew zat he was going to go. 'E loved ze Order too much to refuse 'is calling, so we 'ad no choice but to say au revoir. We tried to keep in touch for a while after 'e left, but…well, you know what zey say about long-distance relationships. Slowly but surely, we went our separate ways."
"…That's very sad," Lily said quietly.
"Oh, it gets better," Fantina said. "Not too long after zat, I 'ad my first daughter. I'm almost positive 'e was ze fazher."
Lily started. "Wh-what? Did you tell him?"
Fantina shook her head sadly. "Non."
"But why not?" Lily asked, puzzled.
"Our separation was sad enough as it was. I did not want to give 'im anozzer reason to regret leaving and make 'im second-guess 'is choice to go away," Fantina said solemnly. "My intuition told me 'e was needed in zat distant place, and zat ze future might suffer if 'e did not go zere to rekindle ze light of Arceus in ze 'earts of ze people zere. And when you're a witch, it's usually a good idea to always listen to your intuition."
Is that what you are? Lily asked B. My intuition?
No, I'm a being from another dimension that can talk to you inside your head, B said.
Right, just checking, Lily said.
Why do you keep doubting that? I've told you often enough that's what I am, B said.
Sorry, it's just still so weird that I'm never one hundred percent sure, Lily said.
"I kept an eye on 'im for a while, but eventually decided 'e deserved to live 'is own life wizout my interference, so I turned my gaze from 'im and delude myself into zinking 'e's probably doing all right on 'is own," Fantina continued. "Not zat I don't still pine for 'im from time to time…and wonder what might 'ave been."
"You could have gone after him," Lily said. "You still could."
"Non, zat part of our afterlives is over. Zere is no point in reopening old wounds," Fantina said, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself of this as much as she was Lily. Neither of them was buying it.
"I think Leo would say that you were being stupid and you should get back together with him, or at least see how he's doing," Lily said, wincing when she realized she was criticizing her mentor and one of the world's most powerful enchantresses. "He would say your position is clichéd and you're only hurting yourself."
Fantina blinked in surprise. "…Hmm. Maybe 'e is right. I will 'ave to consider zis…"
"What was his name, anyway?" Lily asked.
"Oh? 'Is name is-" Fantina started.
They were interrupted by a loud chime. "Attention passengers and all personnel! We are approaching Dusty Ditch and should arrive at our destination in five minutes. Finish whatever preparations you've been making and get ready, because we're going to have a big fight on our hands when we get there!" the engineer's voice rang throughout the train.
Fantina smiled ruefully and put her hat back on, coiling up her hair so it fit inside. "Looks like we will 'ave to finish zis conversation later, Lily. Are you ready?"
Lily nodded as she replaced her wimple and habit. "As ready as I'm ever going to be."
"Zen come. It is time to meet your destiny," Fantina said.
"Is it my destiny?" Lily asked.
"Of course. What else could you call your finding me, ze one person who might be able to 'elp you defeat Bellum once and for all?" Fantina asked.
Pikachu would call it contrivance, Lily thought to herself.
And Leo would say they're pretty much the same thing, B pointed out. He'd be right, too.
He usually is, Lily agreed.
And speaking of the Squirtle, they found him waiting for them out in the suite. "Duchess, Sister Lilandra, there you are! I was wondering where you…wow!" he said, doing a double-take when he saw Lily. "Sister Lilandra, you're looking damn fine today! If we belonged to a more restrictive religion, a nun looking like that would be considered a sin! But thankfully, we're pretty loose about that sort of thing, so you're in the clear. Which is good too, because I don't know if I could stand not getting a piece of that!"
Lily blushed. "Th-thank you, Leo…I think."
The Abra waiter, who had been getting his clothes back on, blinked and looked at his colleagues. "Wait…did she just…"
"Does this mean all those rumors we've heard about the Sisterhood being…that way are true, then?" the Gastly conductor asked eagerly as he adjusted his hat.
"Don't go hatin' on my religion!" Leo shouted.
"I wasn't 'hatin',' I was just-" the Gastly started.
"Don't go hatin' on my religion!" Leo shouted.
"But I-" the Gastly stammered.
"Don't go hatin' on my religion!" Leo shouted, throwing Gracidea flowers at the Gastly. Since he was a Ghost, the flowers phased right through him, but that didn't seem to stop Leo from continuing to throw them at him. Bow giggled in delight as she put her ribbons back on, generating a gust of wind to carry the flowers over to her so she could wrap them around her head.
Lily sweatdropped. "That's starting to become his—I mean, her-new catchphrase…"
"I can zink of worse ones," Fantina said in bemusement.
"Like what?" Lily asked. Fantina told her one. "Oh. Yes, that is pretty bad."
I can think of even worse ones, B said.
Like what? Lily asked.
Unfortunately, the answer to that question would have to wait for another time, because it was right then that they finally reached Dusty Ditch…or what was left of it.
…
Dusty Ditch had come into being a few centuries ago as a boom town developed around a thick vein of gold, iron, and other minerals found out in the middle of the desert. It was an especially rich vein, allowing the town to prosper and grow out to fill pretty much all of the titular ditch (which was really more of a valley, but the town namers thought calling it Dusty Ditch would give it alliterative appeal). A few thousand people moved in to settle the town, most of whom were miners, and the rest being the families of the miners and the people running the services necessary to support the mining industry and the town's other necessities. Unfortunately, as with all boom towns, eventually the source of its wealth ran out when the vein inevitably emptied, leaving Dusty Ditch destitute and without a source of income. Like most settlements of a similar nature, if left to its own devices, the town would have died, people packing up and leaving one by one to seek employment elsewhere until there was nothing left but empty buildings and broken dreams, not even a ghost town because no self-respecting Ghost Pokémon would want to live in a place so hot and dry and dusty and dull.
And then fortune smiled upon the town when a number of business and transportation magnates endeavored to connect Sinnorre's major sources of industry, commerce, and recreation via a grand trans-continental railway system. Managing to convince the somewhat reclusive nation of Fichina that being part of a transit system could be a significant benefit to their economy and do wonders for their relations with the rest of the continent, the Enchanted Express was established to ferry mages and visitors to and from Fichina to other regions of Sinnorre. This was just the miracle the dying town of Dusty Ditch needed to keep from collapsing completely, because the most efficient route to Fichina through the Northern Desert just happened to pass through the valley, and rather than simply demolish the town, the railroad company was willing to turn it into a stop on the route. Overnight Dusty Ditch was reinvigorated as the town was rebuilt almost from the ground up to serve as a major stop on the railroad, their entire economy and livelihood now centered around railroad care, train maintenance, and providing a comfortable place for travelers to stop and shop in the middle of their journey to or from the magical land at the end of the line. Dusty Ditch prospered again, perhaps not quite to the same extent it had at the height of its mining days, but it still managed to do pretty well for itself and its citizens nonetheless.
And then Bellum came and cast her dread Fimbulvinter spell, and Dusty Ditch died again, this time for good.
The passengers looked out through their windows in dismay at what remained of Dusty Ditch as the Enchanted Express eased into the station and came to a halt, steam rippling off its form as the heat from its engine reacted with the subzero temperatures outside its frame, snow melting and dripping off its sides and from the iced-over tracks only to freeze solid again once it got too far away from the train's magical anti-freezing field. It was almost impossible to see through the swirling white snow and fog surrounding the train, but powerful lights emitted by the mystical runes and designs on the sides of the cars pierced the gloom to shine upon the buildings lining the sides of the track, most of which were surprisingly intact…
And also so covered with ice and frost that they shone a bright white and reflected the light from the train back at it, causing those peering out the windows to flinch and squint and shield their eyes as they tried to see past the glare. From what they could see, while many buildings were still standing, several roofs had caved in from the weight of the snow piled on top of them, and it looked like a number of others were on the verge of collapse due to the cold eating away at the foundations and materials holding them together. Some were so covered in ice and snow that they could easily be mistaken for hills or blocks of ice rather than structures. The wind howled and raged and battered at the Enchanted Express as if trying to knock it over and rip it apart and get at the hateful warm bodies hiding within it, but though the train rocked a little on its wheels, the cold and the wind and the hail were unable to penetrate its exterior, both the physical shell or the magic protecting it. "Unbelievable…" Goldor murmured.
Silvia shook her head in dismay. "It's almost completely unrecognizable. I'm finding it hard to believe that this is even Dusty Ditch at all! It looks so different!"
"Maybe we shouldn't have come here. Maybe we shouldn't have stopped here," Buck said anxiously. "Maybe we can still leave, before Bellum and all the monsters out there get us…I mean, there's nothing stopping us, right?"
"Actually, there's a mountain blocking the tracks just past the outskirts of town," the Gastly conductor reported.
Everyone stared at him incredulously. "A mountain?" Pikachu demanded.
"That's funny, I don't remember there being a mountain on these tracks," said a perplexed Todd.
"Couldn't we just go through the tunnel?" Vladimir asked sensibly.
"There is no tunnel," the conductor said.
"…Then why do the tracks go towards a mountain if there's no tunnel through it?" asked the confused Ash.
"Because there's not supposed to be a mountain there to begin with," the conductor said.
"Then where did it come from?" asked Pikachu.
"From Niflheim," Looker guessed. "Like everything else out there."
"Oh," Pikachu said.
Bruno nodded. "Yes, that would explain it."
"Looks like we aren't going anywhere until we get rid of this evil spell, then," Sam said.
"Or we could just blow the mountain up," Max said.
"I don't think we have enough firepower to do that, little buddy," Sam said.
"Says you," Max retorted.
"Actually, it would theoretically possible for us to blow up that mountain if we all worked together, but it would probably take up a lot of power that could be better put to use defeating Bellum and her minions, eh, wot?" Briney pointed out.
"Indeed," Fantina said. "Stopping Bellum is our primary objective, not escape."
"Although escaping would be nice…" Dean said wistfully. Vladimir frowned at him.
"So, do we go out there?" George asked.
Happy shuddered. "I don't relish it, even if we do have some enchantments to keep us from getting frozen to death."
Sasha nodded. "These conditions are even harsher than where I come from. Er, came from, before I became Ronin's servant," she amended when Pikachu glanced at her.
"Regardless, we're going to have to go out there," Lily said. "Though…it might be hard fighting or seeing what we're doing in a storm like that."
"Then it's a good thing we can see without using our eyes, right Cruise, Hiori, Rico?" Ritchie asked his foster son, Ash, and Tiny.
"That's right, Daddy!" Cruise said.
"Yeah, and I have infrared goggles," Leo said. He waited for a moment, but nobody said anything. "Isn't anyone going to ask why I have infrared goggles?"
"We're afraid that if we do, you'll yell at us for hating on your religion," Looker said.
"Oh," Leo said, looking mildly disappointed.
"The spirits of wind and ice are extremely agitated…they have been instilled with a desire for blood by Niflheim's evil influence," Rebecca murmured, a displeased expression on her face. "Even they seek our demise."
"Well, maybe zere's somezing we can do about zat," Bow suggested. "I am a wind mage, after all. Maybe I can calm zings down a little?"
"Ah, an excellent idea," Fantina said approvingly. "Give it a try. I doubt you'll be able to stop it completely, but you should be able to lessen it somewhat."
Bow nodded and closed her eyes, concentrating as she wiggled her arms in complex patterns, magic glowing around her. The incessant howling of the wind outside ebbed bit by bit and finally slowed down to a gentle gust, the snowflakes and hailstones falling freely rather than being pounded into the side of the train by the gale-force winds, allowing them a clearer view of Dusty Ditch…
And of the little present Bellum had left waiting for them. "Oh, dear Arceus in the Celestial Heavens," Pikachu whispered in horror, making the sign of the Wheel.
"Are…are those…" Rose stammered. Cruise promptly threw up, and Tiny trembled, only iron self-restraint keeping him from doing the same. Ash held him, and Tiny sent his father a sense of gratitude through their bond, happy by this contact and support.
"Don't look, dear," Silvia cried, covering a shocked Buck's eyes.
"I…don't think I want to," the frightened Baltoy whispered.
"Holy crap," Todd said, slack-jawed in disbelief for a moment…before taking a picture.
Oh, Mother, Lily thought to herself in despair and resignation. Shaking his head, Leo put a hand on her shoulder (?) to give her his support.
"Eh, I'm not impressed," Max said.
"Yeah, we have way more of those on the White House lawn back home," Sam agreed. George and several other people stared at them in disgust.
What had elicited this reaction, you might ask? Hundreds of tall, thin ice spikes had been placed in neat rows on either side of the track. The swirling snow and the reflected glare from the frozen buildings had hidden them from view, but now that Bow had calmed the blizzard everyone could see them…as well as what was on them. Impaled atop each spike was a corpse, its skin covered in frost and snow and hardened from the cold, blood frozen into a black solid all over its stiffened flesh and down the side of the spike. Many were missing limbs, the extremities having broken off from the weight of the snow and the strength of the wind and were lying in piles at the bases of the spikes, almost invisible underneath the dirtied snow piled all over the place. There had to be several hundred bodies, the spikes stacked three deep along the tracks, all of them staring forwards with dead eyes and looks of unspeakable agony on their faces. Past the spikes and through gaps in the surrounding buildings, more impaled corpses could be seen lining the streets, as if everyone in town had come out to welcome them in some sort of macabre reception.
"Damn you, Bellum!" Fantina snarled, fire igniting around her in a rage. "Zey had nozing to do wiz us! 'ow many more innocent people must you kill to get at me?"
"…She really is the evilest witch in the world, isn't she?" Goldor said finally.
"That she is, gov," Briney said, eyes narrowed and fists clenched. "That she is."
"What…what sort of person would do something like this?" Ritchie asked quietly, hugging the shivering Cruise to his chest. "Judgment's done bad stuff in the past, but…but nothing like this."
"Pure evil," Ash said, eyes hard.
Ritchie glanced at him. "Huh?"
"You asked what sort of person would do something like this. The answer is pure evil," Ash repeated. "That is what Bellum is. That is what the Nihilators are. Judgment believes they are trying to save the world, but the Nihilators…they only want to destroy it." Ritchie shook his head wordlessly, stunned as he slowly began to realize just what sort of enemy they were dealing with. What had he gotten his team into?
"That is why we must destroy them," Sparky said slowly, drawing his sword. "Evil of that nature, evil which unashamedly revels in death and suffering and destruction, must be opposed and slain whenever it manifests."
Pikachu nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Let us endeavor to do just that, this day."
"Did you notice? A number of the wounds on those bodies out there…" Palmer murmured to Dawn.
Match a Weavile's claws. I know, the ninja clicked back. Paul has been here.
"Then let us make sure he never leaves," the Dragonite said coldly.
"I'm glad I can't see what's out there, if everyone's reaction is anything to go by," Rebecca commented.
"She'll do worse than that to us if she gets us, won't she?" Dean asked miserably.
"Then we'll have to make sure she doesn't," Vladimir said glumly.
"A thoughtful welcome. Shall we return the favor?" Butler asked, cracking his knuckles.
Diane nodded in agreement, eyes glowing softly. "Sounds like a good idea to me."
"Right," Bruno said, turning to the others. "Let's get started. Everyone who's been made combat-capable, head out. Everyone else, stay inside the train, activate the wards, and power up the defenses so we'll still have a way out of here once this is all over. I get the feeling this is going to get very messy…"
Nodding solemnly, the battle party filed out of the train and onto the waiting platform, the doors slamming shut behind them with a somewhat disturbing finality. The designs on the cars lit up, and energy crackled around the vehicle as its myriad defenses activated, stars and comets peeling off the sides to spin around the train, ethereal serpents and dragons and monsters manifesting to stand guard on the roof, spikes looking suspiciously like cannon emplacements jutting from innocuous panels on the sides and roof, metal shutters sliding down over windows, the wizard's hat on the engine car rising up and splitting apart to turn into some kind of dish-shaped magitek ray gun while the car's eyes and nostrils started glowing ominously, flames flickering from between its 'teeth'. The main body of the train lowered to the ground, covering the wheels and pressing its belly against the track while all the cars slammed into and melded with each other to create a single unbroken length of metal with no visible weak spots, the end of the rearmost car stretching outwards and thinning and growing spines until it resembled a barbed tail, while the hull split and took on a scaled texture, completing its resemblance to a metallic dragon. Those who had never seen the Enchanted Express go into battle mode before (which was almost all of them) looked back at the transformed locomotive in amazement. "Coooool," said an awestruck Leo and Zippo. Todd snapped a picture.
"Now that's one fine piece of machinery," Briney murmured, impressed.
"I take back almost everything I said about the Enchanted Express not taking adequate precautions with the safety of its passengers," Goldor said.
"Then remind me why we're out here in the cold instead of in there, where it's safe?" Buck asked incredulously, something that was on a lot of other people's minds.
"Nobody asked you, dear," Silvia said.
"Well, at least the train will still be here when we get back," Sam said.
"Yeah, unlike the DeSoto," Max said.
"She's going to come back eventually! We just keep moving around too much, I'm sure she'd have caught up with us by now otherwise!" Sam insisted.
"Of course she will, Sam. Of course she will," Max said condescendingly. Sam growled.
"So…where's Bellum and her forces?" Captain Salty asked, glancing around. "I don't see hide or hair of them."
"They're waiting for us," Cherry said with a tone of unquestionable certainty. Nobody would have doubted her, even if she hadn't been looking into the future.
Sasha nodded in agreement. "I can sense them…the danger is growing by the second."
"Then we shouldn't keep them waiting for much longer," Pikachu said, drawing his sword. "It would be rather impolite, don't you think?"
Sparky started. "That sword…no! It can't be…"
Lu glanced at him in puzzlement. "What? What is it?"
"It…it's…" the knight stammered.
"I'll explain later," Pikachu said quickly. Oh well, I guess it was inevitable someone would recognize it…
"Let's get this over with," Briney said. "Come on."
They left the train platform and entered the town proper. They didn't go through the station to do it, however, because the way the ceiling creaked ominously and tiny cracks ran through the walls and floor from their footsteps did not instill a lot of confidence in them as to the structure's architectural integrity. Instead, they walked around the side and squeezed between the nearby buildings to reach the streets beyond. They did their best not to get too close to the spikes the corpses were impaled on in the process. (Well, Sasha gnawed on one of the severed limbs when nobody was looking to see if it was any good, and Bob tried licking at the frozen blood, only to get his tongue stuck and need to get forcibly pulled off the spike, tearing his tongue in half in the process. Fortunately, he was a vampire so it grew back pretty quickly.)
The streets of Dusty Ditch were just as eerie as the station. There was no life, no movement, anywhere, save for the falling snow piling up on buildings and on the frozen corpses lining the sidewalks. A chill ran down their spines that had nothing to do with the subzero temperatures, which they didn't feel anyway thanks to the heating spells that had been cast on all of them to protect them from the extreme weather conditions. Rose shook her head in dismay as she took in the endless lines of bodies. "I don't understand…to kill them all for a spell is one thing, but this…to just display them like this, as if they were some decoration or holiday ornament? Why? What is the point? What did these people do to anger her so?"
"They were there," Lily said hollowly.
Fantina nodded angrily. "Zat is all ze reason Bellum ever needs."
"And where is the queen bitch, huh?" George asked furiously, incensed by this callous disregard for life and propriety. "Where's Bellum?"
"And her army, for that matter?" Pikachu inquired, glancing at Cherry. "I thought there were supposed to be hundreds of them. Where are they?"
"They are already here," Sasha whispered, hackles raised and fur standing on end.
"Aye," Briney said, tensing up. "That they are."
Everyone glanced around in alarm. "Where?" Todd asked.
"Yeah, I don't see anything," Diane said.
"That's because you aren't looking hard enough," Palmer said, going very tense.
Ash, Ritchie, Cruise, and Tiny automatically closed their eyes to use Aura-sight…and stiffened in horror at what they saw. "D-daddy?" Cruise stammered.
"No…they…they're all around us!" Ritchie gasped.
"Where?" Goldor demanded, whirling about. "I don't see-"
And then he did. All of them did. Whether by magic or the swirling snow or some trick of the light, none of them had noticed that Bellum's soldiers had been standing all around them in plain sight as they entered the street, their pale forms blending in almost perfectly with the frozen landscape. Ice elementals like tall skeletons of ice stood at attention in ranks before the spikes on either side of the street, so still and pointy that just about everyone had initially mistaken them to be more cruel statuary. Mounds of snow stirred and rose up, revealing themselves to be immense lupine figures one and a half meters tall with pure white fur with frost and ice crystals clinging to every hair that glittered beautifully in the dim light, cruel cutting claws, serrated fangs, eyes like blue chips of ice, and breath that rose from their slavering jaws in clouds of cold fog. Hulking trolls, massive blue figures with bulging muscles, thick and ugly neckless heads between burly shoulders hunched over with horned helmets covering their skulls, and wielding immense clubs and maces and battleaxes stepped out of the shadows from between buildings, moving with alarming grace and silence for creatures so big. Ice formations on rooftops cracked and rose up and spread wings like great hinged slabs of ice to reveal draconic creatures consisting of lengthy serpentine forms standing on two taloned feet, scales and spikes made of ice clinging to their bodies while crystal-tipped tails swept out behind them, elongated necks curving upwards into monstrous heads that seemed to be more mouth than face, with jaws full of overlarge teeth made of icicles, framed by icicle horns and a furry mane. There were hundreds of the monsters, filling the streets and rooftops, all of them staring at the warm-blooded invaders with looks of pure hatred.
"Oh," Goldor said weakly. "There they are."
"Where did they all come from?" Todd asked incredulously as he snapped pictures.
"They were here all along; right in front of us…we just didn't see them until now. They camouflage perfectly into the terrain," Pikachu realized, baring his sword.
"There's so many of them…" Silvia murmured timidly.
Buck groaned. "I knew I shoulda stayed on the train."
"Can we really fight so many?" Rose asked nervously.
"We'll fight them and beat them," Bruno growled.
"We can do nothing less," Vladimir said stolidly.
"Since the only other option is dying horribly," Dean agreed sullenly.
"Bellum!" Fantina shouted, fire blazing around her to emphasize her anger. "Show yourself! We are not intimidated by your macabre welcome or your toy soldiers!"
"We aren't?" Sam asked.
"I'm not," Max said.
"That's because you're strange, Max," Sam said.
"And proud of it!" Max said…proudly.
"I'm a little intimidated, actually," Lily admitted anxiously.
"Don't be, we'll be saved by-" Zippo started.
"Conservation of ninjutsu?" Leo finished.
"You know it!" the Charmeleon said. They high…pawed. Or whatever it's called when you have fewer than five digits.
"Yeah, that…that doesn't fill me with great confidence," Sparky said flatly.
"Same here," Pikachu said. They exchanged rueful smiles.
"Bellum!" Fantina shouted again. "We're waiting!"
"…Is that really the best way to go about getting attention from a homicidal ice witch?" Lu asked dubiously.
"She seems to know what she's doing," Looker said.
This indeed seemed to be the case. The wind started howling again, the ground started trembling, the temperature dropped even more, and abruptly a colossal mass of ice crystals exploded out of the ground in front of them, shattering in a blast that sent millions of razor-sharp blades of ice flying towards them. Everyone started as they flew towards them, but the ice shards diffused into snowflakes before they could hit them, swirling back inwards and compressing on themselves and condensing until, with a flash of light, they transformed into Bellum, the Froslass laughing malevolently as she hovered before them. "Ooh, nice entrance," Todd said, snapping a picture.
"Well, I'll say this for her, she has style," Silvia said reluctantly.
Goldor nodded in agreement. "Yes, all the best mages do, whether good or evil."
"Mother…" Lily whispered, shivering and huddling closer to Fantina.
"Fantina…it has been too long," Bellum sneered, locking eyes with her nemesis.
"Actually, wasn't it just a few days ago?" Bow interjected before her mother could reply.
"Yes, I was there, I remember it being a few days ago as well," Rebecca said.
"I took pictures," Todd said.
Bellum paused. "Er…yes. I suppose that's true…" Everyone sweatdropped.
"Well, there goes the dramatic moment…" Sam said.
"Eh, it was nice while it lasted," Max said.
"Anyway…it's so good to see you again!" Bellum sneered. "And I promise you, this encounter will not go the same way our last one did!"
"By zat do you mean ze last time we battled a few monzhs ago, where I defeated you soundly and 'umiliated you in front of ze entire magical world, or when I got ze Rod of Merlin a few days ago and 'umiliated you in front of ze entire magical world? Again, zat is?" Fantina asked coyly.
"It was very humiliating, wasn't it?" Goldor commented.
"Indeed. I foresaw she would lose the competition before I attended, which meant I got to see Bellum lose twice. It was very enjoyable," Cherry said cheerfully.
Bellum's eye twitched as she made a mental note to kill them all horribly. Even more than she had already planned to, anyway. "You have humiliated me for the last time, Fantina. This time, you cannot stop me, or the power that I have unleashed!"
"Didn't she say zat ze last time, too?" Bow asked.
"She says zat every time, dear. You'd zink she'd 'ave learned by now," Fantina said.
"Will you stop that?" Bellum snapped, starting to lose her temper. "This is a serious moment! Stop mocking me! Or do you all wish to end up like the people of Dusty Ditch? For that is what awaits those who defy me!" she said, gesturing to the corpses displayed on either side of her.
Fantina snarled, her joking mood gone. "And just what did zese people do zat counted as 'defying' you, Bellum? What did zey do to merit zis treatment?"
"Nothing, truthfully," Bellum admitted with an evil grin. "They were merely the means to an end, that end being the wondrous transformation I have wrought upon this wretched dustbowl! I am surprised you disapprove, Fantina, you're always trying to make the world a more beautiful place, and that's what I've done here! It's much more appealing to the eye than the sweltering desert shithole it once was, don't you think?"
"Beauty is in ze eye of ze be'older, Bellum…and I can see none of it in any work zat is wrought from ze torture and murder of innocent lives!" Fantina retorted.
"Yet another issue we fail to meet eye to eye, my old rival…to you this may be appalling, but to me it is the most magnificent thing in the world! A whole section of disgusting boiling desert wasteland turned into a winter wonderland! And this is only the beginning…now that I command the power of Fimbulvinter, I will soon be able to make all of Sinnorre like this!" Bellum said triumphantly.
"I thought you said what she's done here wouldn't cover all of Sinnorre," an alarmed Ash whispered to Lily.
"It won't, but if she cast the same spell in other cities around the continent, doing to them what she did here…" Lily said.
"Total ice age, mon!" Leo said.
"Oh. Right," Ash said. "That would be bad."
"Yeah, then we'd never have another day of summer vacation!" said an appalled Zippo. "Total bummer, dude!" Everyone stared at him. "What? It is!"
"We will not allow zat to 'appen, Bellum. We will banish zis unnatural winter, and all your new friends, back to Nifl'eim where zey belong!" Fantina said.
The monsters stirred at this. Bellum smirked. "Is that so? I think my comrades here might have something to say about that…isn't that right, my friends?" The monsters howled in unison to show their defiance, causing a few of the weaker buildings to collapse as their frameworks, made brittle by the cold, crumbled beneath the power of their raised voices. "Although I'm somewhat surprised you figured out I've drawn upon the might of Niflheim so quickly…then again, you always have been fast on the uptake, haven't you?"
"Unlike you, who 'as yet to learn from 'er mistakes and realize ze futility of ze pazh you 'ave chosen," Fantina said.
"The path I have chosen is the one that shall inevitably lead to your downfall and the ultimate triumph of evil over all of creation," Bellum retorted. "It's a path that's had its fair share of bumps and potholes, admittedly, but that is no reason to turn away from its ultimate destination, one that is so close now that I can almost taste it!"
"Mama is more zan just a bump or a pot'ole…she is a roadblock in your pazh, zwarting you time and time again!" Bow said, much to her mother's gratification.
"There are detours around every roadblock, and through those I persevere, and will finally, inevitably, reach my goal!" Bellum said.
"Yeah, but you'll have to pay the toll booth first, and you'd better make sure you have exact change, or you can't go through," Leo said.
Everyone stared at him. "…What?" asked a confused Bellum.
"You know, the toll booth! Because lots of big important roads have them because the local governments want to extort more money from travelers to fill their coffers? And the road to the ultimate triumph of evil must have some seriously demanding toll booths, and you'd be in big trouble if you can't pay them, and would lose your soul or something rather than just going to prison or getting a fine, and-" Leo tried to explain.
"Stop," Pikachu said flatly. "Just…stop."
"Sorry," Leo said Mareepishly. "I guess I sorta overdid the metaphor there, huh?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Diane said.
"But if there's toll booths on the road to villainy, who are the toll collectors? Trolls? Demons? Lawyers?" Zippo wondered, causing everyone to sweatdrop.
Bellum stared at them in confusion and incredulity before bursting into laughter. "Well, you certainly did a marvelous job picking this batch of recruits, didn't you, Fantina? I rather doubt they hold a candle to mine, though," she said, the Niflheim monsters grinning and growling ferociously.
"Looks can be deceiving. Zey may be fewer zan your army, but ze power zey possess is not to be trifled wiz or underestimated!" Fantina said.
Bellum looked over the heroes skeptically. "Ha! The only thing I see is one of the oddest groups of misfits and fools you've gathered yet to oppose me! Were these really the best you could gather against me?"
"What did she just call us?" Goldor asked furiously.
"How dare she!" Silvia huffed.
"Hey, I resent that remark!" Max said.
"Yes, we may be fools, but we're certainly not misfits!" Sam agreed.
"Then again, you probably didn't get much advance warning to pick anyone better," Bellum continued, ignoring them. "A pity Brodie failed in assassinating you, otherwise they would not have been put in the incredibly hazardous situation you've dragged them into. How foolish of them, and how hypocritical of you, Fantina. And you're the one who's always talking about how much you care for worthless people like these and respects their right to life and freedom?"
"Th-there is nothing hypocritical about her!" Lily stammered, much to her friends' surprise. "All of us…all of us are here because we chose to be. We knew the risks involved and how dangerous this would be, and decided to help her anyway, because we know how evil you are…and how you have to be stopped, no matter what!"
"…Very well said," Fantina said with a warm smile as the rest of Team Aurabolt smiled and nodded in encouragement.
Nice! B complimented.
D-did I really just do that? Lily asked incredulously, shocked by the audacity of what she'd just done. Ohhh, Mother's going to kill me for this!
Bellum frowned in puzzlement at the Misdreavus nun. Something about her seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Is that so? Then let's put that to the test, shall we?" She smiled down at them with false benevolence. "While I admire your determination to face me, no matter how misplaced it is, there is no reason for you to throw away your lives so recklessly. The only things I want are Fantina…and the vampires whom she took from me!"
Vladimir and Dean winced. "I was wondering when she'd get to us…" Dean murmured.
"I guess it was too much to hope for that she'd forgotten about us …" Vladimir said.
"Oblivion's Shadow was most displeased with me for losing them in the first place, and the only way I can redeem myself is to exterminate them…but there is no need for you die as well. If you depart now, I shall let you go in peace, and we can all forget this ever happened. What do you say?" Bellum offered, an (un)sincere smile on her face.
Not a single one of them moved. (Well, Buck tried to, but his mother had a tight grip on his shoulder.) "No," Ash said firmly, stamping the end of his staff into the ground.
Bellum frowned. Something about the Lucario seemed familiar as well. "No?"
"No," Ritchie seconded, all of Team Getem nodding and standing firm behind him.
"We know the kind of person you are. We know what you're capable of. We know what you've done, and what you're trying to do," Bruno said.
"And it makes us sick. We aren't going to walk away from it. We're going to stop you," Rebecca said.
"One way or another, you will be brought to justice, either here or before the tribunal in Fichina," Looker said.
"No matter what it takes, no matter how many of us die, we aren't going to let what you've done to this town and its people go unpunished," Palmer said.
"Aside from the dying part, I agree one hundred percent," Goldor said. "We will fight you with every breath and spell in our bodies. We have sworn to do so. How could we possibly do anything less?"
"Oh, Goldor…" Silvia said admiringly.
"We're going to beat you and all your little Niflheim friends, and we're going to take these gentlemons to Fichina to deliver their testimony, so they can blow the lid on you and your Nihilator conspirators," Diane said.
"Our mistress vowed to make sure that happens, just as we have vowed to do everything in our power to help her do so," Butler agreed.
"Th-thanks," Dean said in relief. "I mean, we never doubted you'd help us, but-"
"Think nothing of it," Sparky said gallantly.
"And besides, we aren't doing it just for you," Leo said. "Bellum's needed a good thumping for a long time now, so we might as well take this opportunity to give her the beatdown she deserves!"
Zippo grinned. "I hear ya, mon!"
"So…yeah, I guess that's what we're doing," Todd said.
"And besides, you'll probably kill us the moment we turn our backs, anyway," Sam said.
"Yeah, it's what I would do," Max said. Everyone looked at him. "What? It is!"
"Ha…you're correct, there. I wouldn't really have let you leave with your lives. You have been exposed to the vampires, and even if they haven't told you any of my organization's secrets, it would be a good idea to eliminate all of you regardless…not to mention fun," Bellum cackled. "However…for all of you to team up on me would hardly be a fair fight, now would it? Especially since a sorceress of my caliber would trounce you all easily. I should at least give you a fighting chance before shattering your hopes utterly. I shall leave you to play with my minions instead, while Fantina and I have our showdown…that should be something more suitable for your level, don't you think?"
They all frowned at this put-down. "She thinks pretty highly of herself and lowly of us, huh?" Ritchie murmured.
"Her type always does," Ash said.
Lu smirked. "Or maybe she is worried about our combined power…enough so to do whatever it takes to make sure we don't bring it to bear against her?"
Bellum laughed. "Now who's thinking highly of themselves? You fools don't know what you're getting yourselves into. You should have distanced yourselves from this when you had the chance…because now you shall know what it means to cross the Nihilators! Marianne! Paul! Articuno! To me!"
A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and smashed into a building, shattering it in a blast of thunder and electricity. Bolts of static arced all over the place as a very large Rotom rose from the ruins, her electric field pulsating wildly as her eyes glowed an eerie blue and her mouth was fixed in a terrifying jagged grin. "Bzzzzzzz…"
Lily tensed and moved a little closer to Fantina's side, hoping her older sister wouldn't recognize her. Bow narrowed her eyes and unfolded her fan. "Ahhh, Marianne…so good to see you again. It 'as been a while. Do you remember ze last time we met? I certainly do…and I will make you pay for what you did!"
Marianne narrowed her eyes and snickered. "Bzbzbzbzbz!"
"She's taking the whole 'ruined birthday' thing pretty seriously," Leo murmured.
"Well, she should," Butler said. "One of her oldest and dearest friends was hiding in the cake as a surprise. When Marianne wrecked the cake, she killed milady's friend, too."
"And after all the work I put into making a space in it, too!" Diane said.
"…Oh," Leo said.
"That's terrible!" Lily said. "But…wait, why was her friend inside-"
"I'll, uh, explain later," Leo said, turning red.
A shadow rippled, and Paul Yami stepped out of it. Ash and Palmer tensed, and Pikachu very discretely put a hand on Dawn's shoulder to keep her from charging her nemesis. "Hmmph," the Weavile said as he appraised the group. "This should be interesting."
"It certainly should be! Think we can get a piece of him? We never got a chance back at Mt. Battle-" Ritchie started.
"No, he'll tear you apart," Ash said.
Ritchie frowned. "Why do you keep saying that?"
"Because it's true," Pikachu said. "However, my servant Mineko should be capable of besting him on her own. If you would, Mineko?" She bowed and stepped forward, squeezing his hand to show her gratitude.
"Wait, you're saying your, ah, female companion can take down one of the most infamous fighters in the professional circuit but we can't?" Sparky asked incredulously.
"That's kinda insulting, dude," Zippo said. "Not cool!"
"Mineko has certain…skills which you do not, skills which make her more than capable of engaging a fighter of Paul's abilities," Pikachu said vaguely.
Paul smirked. "Is that so? Well, you'd better hope you're right, or else I'll carve up her pretty face so much you won't want anything to do with her by the time I'm through." That statement seemed to ring a chord in him for some reason. He didn't know why, but there was something nagging him about the Buneary geisha. Her poise, the look in her eyes, all of it seemed very…familiar…
Ah. Of course. Well, wasn't that interesting? He hid a smirk, briefly wondering if he should tell Bellum who else was no doubt hiding among their opponents, before deciding against it. She'd probably figure it out on her own sooner or later. And besides…this way he would have her all to himself, something which Bellum might not allow if she knew who they were really up against.
"If I may, Ronin, might I accompany your servant? I have a matter to settle with Mr. Yami as well," Palmer spoke up.
Paul frowned. "What matter? I don't think I've ever done anything to you…whoever the Abyss you are."
Palmer smiled thinly. "Oh, you've done more to me than you might think, Mr. Yami…as I shall make abundantly clear on the field of battle."
"Very well," Pikachu said as Paul puzzled this. "If you believe she requires your assistance, you may fight alongside her, Kairyu."
Palmer bowed his head in gratitude. "Thank you, Ronin. This means quite a lot to me."
Pikachu gave him a knowing look and a nod in return. "I know it does."
"Wait, so you're letting some wizard and your girlfriend fight him, but not us?" Zippo protested. "Dude, that's mondo unfair!"
"Yeah, well, so's life sometimes, hun," Leo said.
"What exactly qualifies him to fight with Paul but not us?" Lu insisted.
"Oh, it's because-" Max started.
Sam shoved him to the ground and planted a foot on his head, burying his face in the snow. "Because Kairyu's a great and powerful wizard with centuries of experience in combat, while you aren't," he said casually as Max's limbs flailed about, clawing at the snow and his ankles.
"Oh. Well…I guess that makes sense," Ritchie said reluctantly.
"I guess it's not that big a deal," Salty admitted. "'Snot like there aren't plenty of other people for us to fight."
"Whatever. So long as I kill someone, I don't really give a crap," Paul grunted, wondering why the Dragonite had involved himself. Something about him seemed familiar, too, but…no, it couldn't be. He'd killed him personally…hadn't he?
There was a gust of wind as something passed over them, briefly casting them in shadow as it flew by then swooped lower to alight atop one of the buildings, crowding some of the ice dragons out of the way to make its roost. Spreading her beautiful blue wings, Articuno opened her beak and emitted an ear-piercing shriek that shattered the ice on several of the nearby buildings as well as a number of ice elementals, who quickly reassembled themselves once her call had ceased. Most of the group gasped in wonder as they gazed upon the legendary ice bird, and Todd took a picture. "It's…it's really Articuno…" whispered an awestruck George.
"She's even more beautiful than I'd ever imagined!" Silvia squealed.
"She may be pretty, but remember she's also sided with the forces of evil, which means she's extremely dangerous," Cherry warned them.
"I guess you were telling the truth when you said she'd be here, and an enemy," Rebecca admitted reluctantly. "I didn't want to believe it…but she's really gone to the dark side."
"It's understandable," Looker said. "Who wants to believe that the gods have turned against them, and especially thrown in their lot with someone like Bellum?"
"Her Aura…its pitch black!" said an astonished Cruise.
"And so is Paul's," said an alarmed Ritchie. "Is…is this what a Shadow Pokémon is? Hiori, we have to purify her, and restore her to her true self!"
Ash ground his teeth, trying his hardest to control his emotions as he stared at Articuno, memories of her killing Brock and him violently returning the favor racing through his head. "Purify her. Right." Tiny sent him waves of calming reassurance through their bond, and Ash managed to relax a fraction.
"Purify? Ha! Good luck with that!" Articuno sneered. "I'm evil to the core, idiot, and no amount of fancy Aura tricks can do anything to change that!"
"That's the torture and mind control talking. Once we've opened your heart, you'll realize we did the right thing!" Ritchie insisted.
Articuno laughed. "Naïve fool. Fine! Fight me if you wish! Try to open my heart! I think you'll be unpleasantly surprised by what you find within it…"
"We'll see about that! Hiori, Cruise, Rico, are you with me?" Ritchie said.
"I'm with you, Daddy!" Cruise said.
"I…yeah. Yeah, so am I," Ash decided, taking his staff off his back. It looked like this would be his first chance to use it in battle. He hoped he handled it well. Tiny hovered reassuringly by his side, letting him know he had his back.
"Then…I guess the rest of us will take on the remaining several hundred monsters or something…" Zippo murmured.
"Yeah, that's totally fair," Leo said sarcastically.
"It certainly isn't," Bellum said, not caring. "If you're all done sorting yourselves into inconsequential little groups, then we can get this started…oh, and just one more thing. Those little enchantments you're all using to protect you from the cold and strengthen you against my minions? Yes, those are going to have to go." She lazily waved a hand, and a gust of wind carrying particles of magical ice swept towards them. The group tensed in alarm…
And a wall of fire flashed up in front of them, incinerating the ice particles. "Good zing I knew you would do zat, and was prepared for it!" Fantina commented, the flames coalescing into a fireball that roared through the air towards Bellum.
"And I was prepared for your preparation!" Bellum said, generating ice spikes which punched through the fireball and streaked towards Fantina.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said, the ice spikes melting, the resulting steam turning into a writhing serpent of hot air that roared towards Bellum with gaping jaws.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation!" Bellum said, freezing the serpent solid and turning it back against its creator.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said as the serpent was engulfed in flame, switching sides (again) and surging towards Bellum once more.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation!" Bellum said, generating an icy-cold gust of wind which billowed through the serpent, extinguishing it, and raced towards Fantina.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said as she exhaled a stream of fire that blasted through the cold wind and surged towards Bellum.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation!" Bellum said as the ground in front of her exploded as a wall of ice crystals rose up which absorbed the flame, turning a fiery red before becoming azure and hurling cobalt flames at Fantina.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said as her eyes glowed, causing the blue flames to swirl around her head before converging to create a great wheel of fire which rolled into the wall of crystals, shattering them and sending flaming shards flying towards Bellum.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation!" Bellum said as a spherical force field formed around her and blasted outwards, smashing through the shards and flames and expanding towards Fantina and the group.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said as energy bolts leapt out and smashed into the force field, destroying it and crackling towards Bellum.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation!" Bellum said, her eyes glowing as she forced the energy bolts into a sphere in her hands, throwing it into the ground and causing a tremendous explosion that sent tremendous chunks of rock and earth flying all over the place.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said, forming a shield that protected everyone from the debris. The shield transformed into an arrow-shaped energy wall and surged forwards, cutting through the ground towards Bellum.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation!" Bellum said, forming an ice sword that sliced the energy wall in two and then changed the sword into a spear and flung it at Fantina.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said, catching the spear in ectoplasmic tendrils and snapping it in two.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation!" Bellum said, raising her hands and causing a freaking ICEBERG to appear over everyone's heads.
"And I was prepared for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation for your preparation for my preparation!" Fantina said as pieces of the ground exploded into flaming boulders which flew upwards and shattered the iceberg.
The group stared incredulously as Bellum and Fantina went back and forth with more and more impressive spells and curses and counter-hexes, each flashier and more spectacular than the last, many of which were so brilliant Todd was unable to get good pictures of them. "Woooow," Buck said.
"That's…got to be some of the most impressive magic I've ever seen," said Rose.
"Eh, the Fourth of July fireworks back home are way cooler," Max said dismissively.
"Considering how prepared both of them claim to be, I'm starting to think you should take a lesson or two from them, Leo," Sasha murmured to the Squirtle.
"What do you think I'm doing?" Leo murmured back, frantically scribbling down notes.
The two witches were now channeling enormous amounts of elemental power, tremendous blasts of fire and ice clashing in the air between them and sending flares of magic blazing away in every direction. "Not bad, Fantina, not bad…but it would seem we know each other too well by now. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to surprise you, and nothing you can do to surprise me!" Bellum taunted.
"Actually, I believe zere is one zing you weren't prepared for," Fantina said with a hint of a smile.
Bellum frowned in confusion. "And what's that?"
A Shadow Ball blasted into her from behind, causing her to cry in pain and surprise, losing her concentration and causing the massive blast of fire to engulf her. "My new apprentice," Fantina said with a warm smile at Lily, who looked astonished at what she had just done.
Did…did I…did I really just do that? Did I just strike out at Mother? Lily gasped.
Way to go! B said.
She's going to kill me! Lily cried.
Then you'd better hit her again and again until that's no longer a problem, don't you think? B said.
I-I guess so…and wait, did Fantina just say I'm her apprentice now?
Yeah! Isn't that awesome?
Bellum coughed, her form smoking as she struggled to recover from Fantina's fiery assault. "You…you dare to strike at me?" she shouted furiously at Lily, who cowered before her Mother's all-too familiar wrath, conditioned responses kicking in. A small part of Bellum's mind wondered why the nun looked strangely familiar, the rest of it was too enraged to really care. "I'm surprised at you, Fantina. Taking on an apprentice? Bringing someone new into our private conflict? You're right, I wasn't prepared for that. But are you prepared to lose her?"
"No such zing shall 'appen," Fantina said, much to Lily's relief. "We shall bozh take you on, and togezer we shall prevail!"
"I…y-yes. Yes. Yes, we will!" Lily said, managing to muster some confidence from the support her friends were giving her in their surreptitious smiles and nods.
"Is that so?" Bellum asked, unimpressed. "If you insist on bringing a witch this green into this, you must be finally losing your edge…or are you that worried I might defeat you, Fantina? Does the power I now possess and the allies I command scare you so much you are grasping for straws?"
"Far from it. If anyzing, I would actually prefer it were just you and me, since zat would mean nobody I cared about was in danger of getting 'urt," Fantina said. "But my friends insisted zey join me in fighting you. Zeir blood and ectoplasm boils at what you 'ave done just as much as mine does, and who am I to deny zem ze chance to participate in somezing as important as zis, a battle zat may define ze future as we know it? You may believe in controlling ozzers, but I 'ave always strived to grant people ze freedom to live as zey choose…and today zey have chosen to stand wiz me against you!"
"Then they are as foolish as you are, for they have chosen to die," Bellum said scornfully. "But if these incompetents insist on playing hero, then they can go right ahead. The beasts of Niflheim have been longing for something warm to kill since they got here, and I see no reason to deny them the slaughter they so dearly desire!" The monsters around her howled joyously at this.
"Zen let us leave zem. Zey would only 'inder us if we wish to fight with everyzing we possess, which I know you do!" Fantina said.
"Indeed I do," Bellum agreed, rising into the air. "Come then, if you dare! Face me with your measly tagalong if that is what you wish. She will die along with all the others whom have chosen to join you in this fool's errand, and I shall relish the anguish on your face as I personally see to their demise!" She vanished into the swirling snow.
"Are you ready, Lilandra?" Fantina asked Lily quietly.
Lily shivered. "No…" She set her face in a resolute expression. "But this is something I must do. I…I cannot let my fear of her govern my existence or hurt the people I care for. I have to show her that…that she cannot hurt me anymore. That I will not let her hurt anyone else. That I have grown beyond her, and found strength in places she would never have thought to look." I can't believe I'm saying all this. I'm so terrified it's all I can do to keep from fainting on the spot!
The fact that you haven't, and that you meant everything you just said, already proves how much you've grown and changed since leaving Bellum, B said. Remember, Lily, you are stronger than you think you are.
I'd rather I was less scared than I know I am, at the moment, Lily said.
That's courage for you, Lily, facing something even though you're horribly afraid of it. And you've got lots of that, right now! B said admiringly.
I hope that will be enough… Lily thought uneasily.
"Um, pardon my asking, but what exactly is your connection to Bellum?" asked a puzzled Sparky. "I don't believe you've mentioned a history with her before now, and what you just said implies you're rather…familiar with her."
Team Aurabolt hesitated. "Um…well, ah, you see…" Lily stammered.
"She used to be a prisoner and love slave of Bellum until she managed to escape and found refuge in the Sisterhood of the Bountiful Gracidea," Leo said quickly. "Naturally, the whole thing was horribly scarring and traumatic, but with the love of the Sisterhood and the smell of fresh flowers, she was able to put it all behind her! Well…mostly. Until now. When all the horrible memories and awful experiences started rising up from the dark corner of her mind she walled them off in."
"Right, what he said," Lily said. She frowned. "Wait, what was that about love slaves?"
"Just play along," he whispered from the corner of his mouth.
"Very succinctly put, Mother Leonora," Pikachu said deadpan.
"Why thank you, Ronin," Leo said with a smile.
"The poor thing…" Silvia said sympathetically.
"Oh! I apologize, I did not know," Sparky said. "I am sorry you had to suffer such travesty, and have been forced to come face to face with your tormentor once again."
"So am I," Lily said regretfully.
"But then how come Bellum didn't recognize you?" Cruise asked.
Lily hesitated. "Um…"
"Facial reconstructive surgery," Leo said quickly.
"Ze magical kind," Fantina said, playing along. "I paid for it. And 'elped 'er escape. Which is why we're so amical and she's my apprentice now."
"Precisely," Lily said in relief.
"Oh, okay," Cruise said.
"Yes, that sounds completely plausible and not in the least bit made up," said Cherry, who naturally knew the truth since she was an oracle. Lily and Leo laughed nervously.
"So, uh, anyway…remember, we've got your back! Just give us a call if you need anything, and we'll come running! We sisters gotta stick together" Leo told Lily.
"And, er, members of religious orders," Ash said. "Since you're a nun, and I'm a monk, which is practically the same career. Sort of."
"…Actually, I'm not sure it is-" Salty started.
"Don't go hating on my religion!" Ash shouted desperately. Pikachu facepalmed and Leo burst into laughter.
"And seekers of truth. Since I'm a professor, and you're a nun, and we both try to learn the secrets of the universe, except I do it in books and you get it from prayer or…flowers…or something," Briney said vaguely. "Yeah."
"And…um…people who have suffered…disgrace, because I was exiled and you were…ah…" Pikachu stammered, trying and failing to think of a plausible connection between Lily's cover and his own.
"Even though our paths in life are dissimilar, we are honorable and devout warriors and will always come to the aid of a holy womon such as yourself," Sasha said.
"Right, that," Pikachu said in relief. "What she said."
Lily smiled gratefully. "I know. Thank you."
You're not going to call them, are you? B said.
No. They'll have their hands full here. I don't want them to take on more than they can handle, Lily replied. "Let's go, Fantina."
Fantina nodded. To the others, she said, "Good luck, all of you."
"Thanks," Buck grumbled. "We're going to need it."
"And if things seem bad, remember that when that spell Fantina, Rebecca and I are working on completes, it'll take care of everything," Lily said as she and Fantina started rising above the group. "I think."
"Oh good, will that happen soon?" Todd asked, grateful to know they didn't really have to defeat the hundreds of monsters arrayed against them by themselves.
"No," Rebecca said flatly.
Todd's face fell. "Oh."
"Eh, figures," Max grunted.
"No matter, that just gives us that much more time to kill as many monsters as possible," Briney said cheerfully, smacking a fist into his palm.
"Professor!" said a shocked Silvia. "This is a side of you I've never seen before!"
"There's a lot about me you've never seen, mum," Briney said. His friends had to stifle laughter at that.
"Au revoir!" Fantina said as she vanished into the fog.
"Fight well, everyone! And please…be safe…" Lily said, looking specifically at her friends before following suit.
"Au revoir, Mama!" Bow said, waving her fan after the two witches. "Good, now zat zey're gone we can really cut loose. Marianne, now zat neizer of our mozzers are 'ere, shall we settle zis dispute between us?"
"Bzzbzbzzzz!" Marianne buzzed, eager to finally have the chance to fight something.
"Zen let us dance," Bow said, twirling about and transforming into a whirlwind that spun towards Marianne. The Rotom turned into a lightning bolt and leapt away, zapping from rooftop to rooftop as the wind mage pursued her.
"Ugh, finally," Paul grunted. "Too much talking, not enough fighting…I guess you two want to take this elsewhere, too?"
"Most certainly," Palmer said pleasantly as Dawn narrowed her eyes. "We wouldn't want anyone getting in the way, after all."
"Heh, fine, if that's what you want. That'll mean you won't be able to call for help when I disembowel you and strangle you with your own intestines, though," Paul said.
"That's fine," Palmer said. "We wouldn't want it any other way, would we Mineko?" Dawn shook her head, body quivering from the effort it took to keep from leaping at Paul and slicing him from groin to gizzard then and there..
Paul frowned, disturbed by the eerie look in the wizard's eyes…and wondering again why the Dragonite looked familiar. It couldn't be him, could it? "Whatever," he said. "I know a place. Come on, then." He backflipped onto the top of a nearby building, the dragons and elementals perched on it shuffling out of the way to give him room, and ran off, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as he went. Dawn chased after him, her powerful legs allowing her to eat up the distance quickly in leaps and bounds, while Palmer spread his wings and soared after her, keeping pace easily while staying low to the ground.
"And I suppose you Aura losers wanna do this somewhere more secluded, too?" Articuno said with a sneer. "Wimps."
"We're not wimps, we just don't want to cause any collateral damage," Ritchie said.
"Though…admittedly, there's not much collateral to be damaged left," Ash pointed out.
"Psh, like I said, wimps," Articuno sneered.
"You'll be thanking us once we purify you and restore you to your true self!" Cruise said.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ahahaha…hahahahaha…haaaa…oh mon, that is too rich," Articuno gasped, wiping away a tear with a wingtip. "You are so stupid, but then again, you're mortals, and muscleheads at that, so you don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. Oh, I'm gonna have way too much fun freezing you to death and feasting on your entrails."
"And we're going to have way too much fun opening your heart!...yeah, that sounded better in my head," Ritchie said when everyone looked at him.
"Dumbass," Articuno spat. She spread her wings. "All right, let's do this."
"Sure thing! But one last thing first. Well, two, really. Sparky, while we're gone, you're in charge as usual," Ritchie said.
Sparky nodded. "You can count on me."
"I know I can," Ritchie said while Ash gave Pikachu a glance that amounted to about the same thing. "Second: Team Getem, Armor Up!"
"Armor what now?" Articuno asked in confusion as Ritchie, Sparky, Happy and Salty took out rectangular plates identical to the one Zippo had given the sorceresses earlier.
Zippo snapped his claws in frustration. "Aw mon, I almost wish I hadn't given up my plate for the big ritual, I love Armoring Up!"
"Don't worry, you can do it next time," Rose assured him. "And you can still fight pretty well without it, can't you?"
"Yeah, I'm still totally kickass, but not being able to use it when almost everyone else can is still a major bummer," Zippo complained.
Goldor gasped and stared at the plates greedily while Pikachu and many of the others reverently made the sign of the Wheel. "Oh! The Plates of Arceus! They're so beautiful…ohhhh, I could almost touch them!"
"Don't," Sparky said, pointing his sword at Goldor.
"Backing off," the Claydol said quickly.
"Th-the Plates of Arceus?" Articuno squawked in alarm as the Niflheim monsters took a few steps back, repelled by the strange power radiating off the Plates. "What do you fools think you're doing with those? How did you get those? Those sacred instruments are too powerful for mortals like you to handle! They are beyond your comprehension!"
Ritchie grinned. "Yeah? I think we can comprehend them pretty well, personally." He slapped his Plate, a tan-colored rectangle, to his chest. "'When the universe was created, its shards became this Plate!' Fist Plate, Armor Up!" he shouted. The Plate glowed, and suddenly bands of the same material as it shot out from its edges, wrapping around his torso and shoulder to create a cuirass that covered his chest and back. More bands shot out from the top and bottom of the cuirass to envelop his arms and legs, spikes sprouting from the shoulders, hips, elbows, and knees, with two extra spikes growing from each of his knuckles to accompany the ones already there. His tail became covered in bands too, hardening it into a weapon-like point. More bands wrapped around his neck and then his head, covering the sides of his face, his ears, the top of his nose and the underside of his jaw, but leaving the rest clear. The bands thinned and became form-fitting armor matching his contours. "Power of the Fighter!" he cried as the emblem of a fist appeared on his chest, over the original Plate the rest of the armor was growing from.
Sparky slapped his Plate, a yellow-colored rectangle, to his chest. "'The power of defeated giants infuses this Plate!' Zap Plate, Armor Up!" he shouted. The Plate glowed, and suddenly so did the rest of his armor as the Plate melded with it and caused his whole suit to turn yellow. His pauldrons grew larger and rounder and blades shaped like lightning bolts grew from them. His gauntlets grew longer and started crackling with static electricity. Thin segmented armor covered his tail, causing it to look like a yellow blade, while his sword shimmered with energy and changed shape to zigzag like a lightning bolt. Yellow bands rose up from his breastplate to form a gorget, and more sprang up from that to encompass all of his head, including his ears, in a yellow helmet. The helmet morphed to resemble the helm of a knight, with a lighting bolt-shaped crest growing from the top and a grille with lightning bolt-shaped slits covering his face. "Power of Lightning!" he cried as the emblem of a lightning bolt appeared on his chest, over the original Plate the rest of his armor was growing from.
Happy slapped her Plate, a light green-colored rectangle, to her chest. "'Two beings of time and space set free from the Original One!' Insect Plate, Armor Up!" she shouted. The Plate glowed, and suddenly bands of the same material as it shot out from its edges, enveloping her entire body save for her wings and eyes in a cocoon, as if she were a Metapod again. The bands melded together and took on a spiky, more chitinous look somewhat like a Pupitar's. Segmented armor ran up her antenna. Similar armor ran up the tops of her wings, which shimmered and became multicolored, gaining a rainbow hue. Long segmented multi-jointed limbs ending in barbs and claws and scythes grew from the front and sides of the cocoon, twitching and scything through the air. "Power of the Swarm!" she cried as an emblem resembling a Beautifly appeared on her chest, over the original Plate the rest of her armor was growing from.
Captain Salty slapped his Plate, a dark blue-colored rectangle, to his forehead, since he didn't have a chest due to being a Tentacool. "'Three beings were born to bind time and space!' Splash Plate, Armor Up!" he shouted. The Plate glowed and liquefied, expanding to cover all of his body except for his eyes and red spots. The material flowed down over his tentacles, covering them in segmented armor ending in massive pincers, while a half-dozen smaller tentacles ending in barbs grew from his underside. Large razor-edged fins grew from the back of his head, and needle-like spines sprouted all around the circumference of his head, while a spiky crown-like crest ringed the top of his cranium. "Power of the Sea!" he cried as the emblem of a droplet appeared on his head, over the original Plate the rest of his armor was growing from.
Everyone stared incredulously at the four armored figures. Todd took a picture. "…What the fuck?" a troll finally said in disbelief.
Articuno blinked. "Um…okay, when I said they had powers beyond comprehension, I certainly was not expecting that to happen."
"I guess they're greater than even you can comprehend, too?" a troll joked. Articuno gouged its eyes out with her talons.
"Oh…my…" said a stunned Goldor.
"Wow! They're just like the Poké Rangers!" Buck said excitedly.
"I know, right? Isn't it awesome?" Zippo sighed wistfully. "If only I hadn't needed to give my Plate up…"
"You chose to," Rose pointed out.
"I know, but still!" the Charmeleon said.
"At least you can use one. Since I'm a Normal type, I'll never get the chance to use a Plate, since Arceus is baseline Normal and doesn't have a Plate for it," Lu complained.
"The Creator is far from normal by definition," Bruno said.
"No, I meant…oh, never mind," the Eevee assassin said wearily.
"Again, I'm glad we're fine around holy objects, or that might have hurt," Dean said.
"Which is a good thing, because I don't think I'd mind getting my hands on one of those…" Vladimir murmured.
"Oh. Em. AY! Some of the most sacred artifacts in the world, containing the power of Arceus Himself, can turn their possessors into Sentai? That is so COOL!" Leo squealed giddily. "Oh mon, I wish I had a Plate! Hey, Captain Salty, I don't suppose-"
"No," the Tentacool said bluntly.
Leo sighed. "Oh well, worth a try."
"Eh, it's not that impressive," Briney said. "My armor's much better, and it's au naturel."
"My lord, are you all right?" Sasha asked the twitching Pikachu in concern.
"Not now, Kutabe, I'm having an aneurysm," he said in a strangled voice.
"I want one! I want one!" Max cried.
"I don't think so, little buddy, you need to have one of those 'Type' thingies to use those things," Sam said.
"I already have a Type!" Max protested.
"Chaotic sociopathy is a personality trait, not an elemental power," Sam said.
Max's shoulders sagged in disappointment. "Awwww…"
Ritchie grinned. "So, what do you think, Hiori?"
"That's…pretty cool…" said an amazed Ash. Tiny nodded in wordless agreement.
"Well, I'll bet the Mistress is disappointed she can't use the Plates she has like that," Diane said.
"I don't suppose your team happens to have the Spooky Plate? It enhances the powers of Ghost-types," Butler said.
"Unfortunately, no, we don't," Sparky said.
Ash frowned. "Wait a minute…yes you do! You said when we first met that you got it with Rose's help! Which means…you had it all along but didn't give it to Fantina or Lilandra? Why not? They could have really used it!"
"We don't have the Spooky Plate," Rose said.
Ash blinked in confusion. "Huh? But you said-"
"We used to have it," Ritchie confessed. "But after we'd acquired it and returned to the town we've been using as our home base, Lu, who'd been brainwashed by Dr. Blackarachnia, attacked us and stole it."
"We pursued her, and I was able to break her out of it by…ah…" Sparky coughed and Lu blushed. "Anyway, she regained her senses, but not before she'd delivered the Plate to Judgment. Fortunately, she managed to swipe the Insect Plate in its place, leaving our total number of Plates about the same as before."
"And it all worked out for the best, since we got a new team member, and a new Plate that we could actually use!" Happy said.
"Oh," Ash said. "Well…never mind, then."
"Am I the only one who finds the way their adventures sort of mirror ours disturbing?" Sasha murmured.
"Not by a long shot," Pikachu replied.
"Anyway, with this armor, we shouldn't have a problem beating Articuno!" Ritchie said. "Sorry I don't have anything like that for you or Rico, Hiori, but you can hold your own without it, right?"
Ash and Tiny nodded. "Yeah, we've got it covered."
"Good! Then let's get this started!" Ritchie leaped onto a nearby rooftop and started running towards Articuno, the Fist Plate boosting his already exceptional speed and agility to astonishing levels. Cruise hovered beside him, and after giving their friends a quick glance, Ash and Tiny chased after them.
Articuno grimaced and spread her wings. "Suddenly I'm wondering if I may have pecked off a bit more than I can handle…" With a great flap that destroyed the building she had been perched on and knocked over several monsters, she rose into the air, turned, and headed off into the distance. The two Lucarios and Pupitars were on cold pursuit. (Get it? Because of the weather, and Articuno's an Ice type, and…oh, never mind.)
"And I guess that just leaves us," Looker said once they were gone.
"We have to fight all these monsters by ourselves?" Vladimir asked uncertainly.
"Indeed," Butler said, cracking his knuckles. "I have not had a chance to, as they say, 'bust some heads' in quite some time. This will be most enjoyable."
"Oh, definitely," Diane agreed. "It'll be good to fight beside you again, I was getting out of practice." The monsters glanced at each other uncertainly, wondering why only a few of these warm-bloods seemed really worried and the rest looked as if they were actually looking forward to this battle. What had they gotten themselves into?
"Then I guess this means we're going to start fighting now?" a troll asked.
"It looks that way," Bruno said.
"Finally!" the troll said in relief. "I thought we'd never get to it with all this talking!"
"Let's kill them!" another troll shouted.
"RAAAAAHHH!" several other trolls bellowed. They surged towards the group, joined by the ice elementals, the wolves, and the ice dragons.
"Here they come!" Pikachu said, drawing his sword.
"Time for the war sequence!" Leo whooped.
And then the battle began.
A horde of ice elementals formed spears, drew back their arms, and hurled them into the air, the javelins arcing upwards then falling back towards the ground in a lethal rain of blades. Cherry, who appeared to be the target of the several dozen projectiles, looked into the future, then calmly took a few steps to the left. The ice spears buried themselves into the ground, many shattering on impact…and absolutely none of them struck Cherry, who had foreseen exactly where she needed to stand to keep from being impaled by them.
Her eyes glowed, and a few of the spears abruptly rose out of the ground, skewering the dire wolves that had been lunging towards her from behind and the sides. As they writhed in pain, howling and whimpering as blood flowed from the spear wound, Cherry calmly took a few steps forward just before a bellowing troll that had jumped off of a nearby building could have flattened her, his weight causing him to sink a few feet into the snow and get stuck. As he grunted in surprise and struggled to pull himself out, Cherry telekinetically grabbed his club from his hand, raised it over his head, and dropped it on his skull, caving it in.
She took a half-step to the right as another several dozen spears rained down on her, then caught them telekinetically and hurled them back at the ice elementals, impaling them through the chest and knocking them over, as well as skewering a number of wolves and trolls and even an ice dragon that had been flying too close to the ground. The head on her tail lashed out and bit down on the nose of a wolf that had been dashing towards her rear with Crunch, causing it to yelp in pain and recoil as blood dripped from its snout, until Cherry lashed out with a flaming Double Kick from her hind legs that knocked his lights (and a few of his teeth) out.
The ice elementals she'd bowled over got back to their feet, wrenched out the spears she'd driven into them (completely unharmed, since they were creatures of pure ice and so could not be harmed by their own element), transformed them into swords, and silently charged towards Cherry. They didn't get very far before a gargantuan flaming ball of Future Sight shot down from the heavens and slammed into their midst, creating an explosion that vaporized most of them and sent the rest flying all over the place, shattering as they hit the ground or the surrounding buildings. Their pieces trembled and started crawling across the ground, trying to reassemble each other, but then another flaming Future Sight slammed into them, and another, and another, until finally there was nothing left of the street where they had been standing but a smoldering crater. Cherry smiled, then took two steps backwards, causing the ice dragon that had been swooping down on her to miss and crash into the ground, skidding and rolling across the snow before smashing into a building and causing it to collapse on top of it. Cherry casually walked over to it, planted a blazing hoof on its dazed head, and Stomped until its skull broke and blood splattered all over the place. She wiped her hoof off on the snow and turned to the large group of trolls eyeing her warily. "I foresaw my victory over them," she told them, her eyes glowing. "Want to guess what sort of future I predict for you?"
Elsewhere…
"Hmmph. I'll bet you think that just because I'm an old, blind womon I'm easy prey, is that it?" Rebecca asked the pack of wolves circling her.
"Actually, it's why we haven't closed in yet," one of the wolves confessed.
Rebecca frowned. "Oh? And why is that?"
"Because old, blind womon who look like easy prey are generally anything but," the wolf said. "And any pack that doesn't figure that out doesn't last very long."
"Ah, very good," the Hypno said, a pleased look on her face. "Now, can you tell me what sort of danger I represent to you?"
"Um…you're some sort of martial arts master?" a wolf suggested.
"Yeah, that's the most common one next to legendary swordsmon. Er, swordswomon," another wolf said.
"A nice try, but no," Rebecca said.
"You're going to hypnotize us?" another wolf suggested. "You're a Hypno, after all."
"Another good guess," Rebecca said. "Hypnos of my age tend to have incredible powers of mind control, and are so good at hypnosis they can mesmerize someone without even looking at them or bothering with the whole pendulum thing. The truly great ones can bend someone to their will with the sound of their voice alone."
"A-and is that what you're doing to us now?" a wolf asked nervously.
"No," Rebecca said. "Your guesses were all excellent ones, but unfortunately incorrect. You see, I'm a spiritualist, and do you know what that means?"
"…That you can talk to dead people?" a wolf asked.
"No, that I can communicate with spirits of nature and magic as well as the souls of those who have passed beyond the pale," Rebecca said.
"So you do talk to dead people," the same wolf said.
"And other things, yes," Rebecca said.
The wolves did not let their guard down. There had to be more to this than just that. There always was with seemingly harmless blind old womons. "So…you talk to things? What's dangerous about that?" a wolf asked warily.
Rebecca smiled. "Well, I don't just talk to them, see. Sometimes I can ask them for favors, such as, dealing with a mangy pack of wolves?"
The pack tensed. "Wait, what?" one of them cried.
"Hey, we aren't mangy!" another said, completely missing the point. "It's too cold for skin parasites in Niflheim!"
"I'm happy to hear that, and apologize for making such disparaging comments about your hygiene," Rebecca said.
"Thank you," the wolf said, causing the others to sweatdrop, the liquid freezing and creating another glittering object plastered to their fur.
"Now, where was I? Oh yes, asking the local spirits for help. Hmm, let's see…ice is too riled up by this Niflheim mess, but thanks to Bow toning down the blizzard the wind spirits are calm enough to lend a hand…" Rebecca said, twirling a finger in the air and causing a powerful gust of wind to blow back the fur on the wolves before swirling around and transforming into a half-dozen or so transparent beautiful feminine figures with bodies like cyclones shaped into humanoid form. "And this is mountainous terrain, so the earth spirits are especially strong here, and very displeased by the way you've reshaped the region by dropping an alien landscape on top of it and making the ground so cold," Rebecca continued as the ground shook and several enormous vaguely humanoid figures made of interconnected boulders clawed their way out from beneath the snow. "And this is old mining country, so even though all the ore's been dug up the land still remembers the metal it once contained…and where a land has memories, you're guaranteed to find spirits!" More of the earth was torn up as jagged shiny figures made of numerous different metals and alloys burrowed up behind the earth elementals, their misshapen and asymmetrical forms glittering with gemstones and mineral deposits encrusted in their surfaces. "Oh yes, and before I forget…you've done a good job putting out all the fires around here, but thanks to the Enchanted Express, a new source of heat has been introduced to the area…and where there's heat, there's fire spirits, especially thanks to the fire-element spells that have been cast on all of us!" A number of serpents of flame with Gastly expressions on their faces ignited to life, writhing and shrieking as their superhot forms reacted to the extreme cold. "Aaaand…yes, that should about do it. Spirits, do your stuff, and make sure to have a nice time."
"Oh crap!" the wolves howled as the monstrous elemental creatures bore down on them.
Rebecca smiled thinly at the ensuing sounds of carnage, her ethereal companions whispering descriptions of the battle to her, then frowned and turned around when they warned her of an especially massive troll charging towards her, the monster knocking down the rock and metal spirits and ignoring the flames and razor-sharp gusts of wind the fire and air elementals bombarded him with. "Your puny magic doesn't scare me! In Niflheim, ice reigns supreme!"
"Then it's a good thing we're not in Niflheim, but in a part of my world you thought it was all right to invade and change to your liking without asking the locals, both mortal and otherworldly, how they felt about it. Stop where you are, please," Rebecca said. The troll froze in place. "Very good. Now, please go help my friends, would you?"
"Yes, mistress. Raaaagghhh!" the troll raaaagghhhed as it turned and charged towards the wolves and other trolls battling the elementals.
"Wait, what're you-" one wolf started before a swing of a club silenced him permanently.
"Hey, stop! You're on our side!" another wolf cried in alarm as he tried to evade the troll's wildly flailing weapon.
"How are you doing this? I thought you weren't a hypnotist!" a wolf yelled at Rebecca.
Rebecca scoffed. "Not a hypnotist? Don't be ridiculous, of course I am. I'm a Hypnos, aren't I? What kind of Hypnos can't hypnotize someone?"
"But…but you said-" the wolf protested.
"I said I wasn't going to hypnotize you, I never said I couldn't. I'm an excellent hypnotist, but I prefer conversing with spirits more," Rebecca said.
"…Oh. Damn," the wolf said.
"See, this is why we should never attack blind old womon! They're always pulling shit like this!" another wolf cried as he nipped futilely at the laughing air elementals swirling around him.
"That's right, we always are," Rebecca said.
Meanwhile…
"Okay, stay calm, stay calm, stay calm…ack!" Buck yelped in alarm as he levitated himself out of the way of the snapping jaws of the dire wolves that had been chasing him. "Okay, way too close. Umm, how do I cast a fireball again?" His mind raced as he desperately tried to recall his elementary spell lessons, but he was too frightened and on edge from the monsters all over the place to think straight. If he just had a second to calm down and get his act together, he was sure he could handle this. But how was he supposed to calm his mind with all the chaos-
Ah. Of course. His eyes glowed and his body was surrounded by blue light as he used Calm Mind, getting his emotions under control as well as raising his special attack and special defense as an added bonus. Murmuring the proper incantation under his breath, he conjured a great fireball over his head and hurled it down at the wolves, who yelped and scattered as it exploded and sent embers flying all over the place. "Haha, yeah, you better run!" He taunted as he conjured more fireballs and floated after the wolves, flinging fiery spheres at them. "What's wrong little doggies, can't take the heaaaaAAAAAGGGGH!" he screamed when an ice dragon swooped down and grabbed him in its claws. "Hey, let go of me!" The dragon bent its neck down and roared in his face, covering him in frost. Buck responded by throwing a fireball down its gullet, causing its head to explode and the beast to drop from the air. He broke free with a flaming Rapid Spin, grabbed the dragon telekinetically, and hurled it downwards, crushing the wolves he'd been chasing. He launched several more fireballs at them to make sure they were all dead, his confidence growing as the corpses were set ablaze. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.
This attitude was reinforced when several ice elementals lining the rooftops hurled their spears at him. He casually snared them with his telekinesis and suspended them around him in a whirling sphere of blades, setting their tips on fire before flinging the weapons back at their owners. Spears rained down all over the place, piercing ice elementals and destroying them as the enchanted flames engulfed their forms, and killed a number of wolves as well. He laughed as the monsters scurried from him, reveling in his power…
Until a troll to whom the spears were nothing more than annoying pinpricks, charged forwards, jumped onto the pile of burning wolf and dragon corpses, and launched himself at Buck in a single bound, tusked mouth open in a bellow of rage as flames trailed off his form. Buck screamed and panicked, trying to shove the troll away with Psychic before it could eat him or something. His telekinetic powers flung the troll back down to earth, and the frantic Baltoy hurled several fireballs after it to make sure it stayed down…
But he forgot about the troll's club, which the beast had flung into the air just before Buck grabbed hold of it with his mind, and so was unaware that it was falling back towards him until it was too late and it smashed into the back of his skull hard enough to dent his bronze finish, causing him to see stars as he tumbled from the air and crashed to the ground. He blacked out for a moment, and came to just in time to feel the troll's disgusting horny foot press down on his head. Buck gasped as the monster applied pressure to his skull, the odor of its foot almost as overwhelming as the pain it was inflicting on his cranium. The heavily wounded troll cackled malevolently as it stamped down harder, anticipating the crack as Buck's ceramic body broke…
Only for him to break when a pair of metal Claydol slammed into his chest with a flaming gold and silver Rapid Spin like a shimmering tornado, screaming, "GET AWAY FROM OUR SON!" The troll howled in pain as he was flung backwards, his ribs utterly shattered, as was his spine when he slammed into a building, which promptly collapsed on him, burying him beneath a few tons of snow and brick and metal. He didn't have to worry about how much his body hurt for very long, though, because the tremendously oversized rage-fueled fiery Hyper Beam Goldor blasted him with vaporized him, the rubble of the house he'd crashed into, and pretty much every other house on the block. "And that's what happens to ANYONE who tries to hurt my family!" he shouted.
"M-Mom? Dad?" Buck whispered, struggling to lift his head to see his parents.
"Hush dear, you've been badly hurt. Hold on." Silvia gently touched her cannon-shaped arms to the Baltoy, casting a healing spell that mended his wounds and revitalized him in seconds. She tutted when she saw the dent in the back of his head remained. "Oh dear, I don't think I can get that out…perhaps our family healer could fix it?"
"Leave it; it's a battle scar, a badge of honor! He's earned it!" Goldor said, moustache bristling with pride as he floated back to his wife and son. "My son, the fighter! I never thought you had it in you, boy. We saw what you did back there! It was incredible! Well done, Buck! Good show!"
"Th-thanks, Dad," Buck said, awed by the rare and heartfelt praise from his father. He struggled to levitate off the ground.
"Don't move, Buck, you're still weak-" Silvia said.
"N-no Mom, I'm okay now, thanks to you," Buck said. "Thank you both for saving me. But…what were you doing here?"
"Looking for you, of course! We lost sight of you when all the fighting started. Where did you run off to?" Silvia chided.
"Probably to take down some monsters on his own so he didn't have to worry about us coddling him or stealing his kills! Well done, my boy!...though you shouldn't have run off so far. Your mother and I were really worried about you," Goldor scolded.
Buck trembled, looking down at the ground ashamedly. "A-actually…I was trying to get back to the train. I was…really scared when the fighting started. I was afraid that I'd get killed, so I ran away. But there's monsters all over the place, and so many things that want to kill us, a-and I just wanted to find a safe place, but I got lost, and…"
Goldor and Silvia exchanged worried looks. "…Maybe we should have listened when you said you wanted to stay on the Enchanted Express," Silvia realized slowly. "I'm sorry, Buck. I shouldn't have ignored your worries. You almost got hurt as a result of our negligence! You were right, this battlefield is no place for a child…"
"Would you like us to escort you back to the train, son?" Goldor asked with a tenderness that Buck couldn't remember ever hearing from his father before. "The last time I looked, there were quite a few pyrotechnics going off there as these Niflheim beasts kept trying to break through the defenses, but I'm sure we can find a way to get you on board where it's relatively safer."
"I…thanks," Buck said in relief.
"All right," Silvia said. "Then let's head for the train."
"And then, once you're safe, we'll come back to help the others-" Goldor started.
"Wait!" Buck said in alarm. "You're going back out there? Aren't…aren't you going to stay with me?"
Goldor and Silvia gave him apologetic looks. "I'm afraid not, dear," Silvia said sadly.
"We gave Duchess Fantina our word that we would help her repel these otherworldly invaders like everyone else," Goldor said. "I know there are many who would say I'm a lazy and indolent businessmon who doesn't get his hands dirty…but when the chips are down, I'm not the kind of mon who hides while others are risking their lives. Well, unless it's an assassination attempt against me, but that goes without saying."
"Every able-bodied mon agreed to join the fray," Silvia said. "That includes us."
"But…but…you could get killed!" Buck protested.
"That is a risk I'm afraid we're going to have to take," Silvia said.
"If this Niflheim thing isn't stopped, it could ruin the lives of thousands of Pokémon, some of whom may be my employees," Goldor said. "That is why we must fight."
"But there are lots of other people fighting! You don't have to be a part of it!" Buck protested. "You can stay in the train with me!"
"We cannot," Goldor said. "Sometimes one person can make all the difference in a fight of this magnitude…and there are two of us, which will make an even bigger difference!"
"Much like the Duchess, we are possessed of great wealth and power," Silvia said. "She uses it to help other people, like right now. It is…perhaps time that we did the same. After all, don't those comics you read always say something about great responsibility coming with great power…or something like that?"
"I-I guess…" Buck stammered.
"Which is why we're going to get you back to the train, then rejoin the fray," Goldor said. "So come on son, let's go."
"No," Buck said so suddenly that he even surprised himself.
Goldor frowned. "No? What do you mean?"
"I-I'm not going," Buck said before he could change his mind. "I'm staying here. I'm going to fight with you guys."
"Buck, what are you talking about? You can't stay, it's too dangerous!" Silvia protested.
"That didn't seem to matter to you earlier," he said flatly.
Goldor snickered. "He has a point, dear."
Silvia flushed. "Yes…well…"
"I can't stay behind while you guys are fighting," Buck insisted. "It's…it's just like you both said, I shouldn't hide while someone else is fighting in something big and important, and…and if I have this power, then I should do something with it, right? Something good? I mean, otherwise what's the point of learning how to do magic in the first place, if you can't use it to do something really worthwhile?"
"Well, I can actually think of a lot of things, but I can see that you're on the verge of something, so go on," Goldor said.
"You said that two people can make a difference…so what about three?" Buck continued. "Before, you were fine about us fighting together as a family. Well…now so am I. I'll admit, I'm still kind of scared, especially since I now know just how intense and close things can get, but…but I'm just as scared of the same thing happening to you. If I stay with you guys, maybe I can make sure that won't happen, just like I know you won't let it happen to me. Again, that is."
"Oh…oh, Buck!" Silvia sobbed, hugging her son. "That's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard."
"Mooooom!" Buck protested, embarrassed.
"Oh relax, dear, there's nobody around to see us but the monsters," Silvia said.
"Well done, boy! I'm starting to think dragging you out here was a good idea after all, you seem to have learned something important about yourself," Goldor said. "Very well! We will stay together, and fight as a family! And now's our chance to prove it, too, since we seem to be surrounded."
Silvia and Buck looked up and started when they realized that they were surrounded by close to a hundred ice monsters. "Gah! Where did they all come from?" Silvia cried.
"They probably snuck up on us while we were having our touching family moment," Goldor said.
"Wh-why haven't they attacked yet?" Buck stammered.
"No doubt they were too enamored by our dramatic bonding to even think about interrupting! After all, it's not like they have anything like proper entertainment to keep their simple minds occupied back where they come from," Goldor said.
"Actually, we have some pretty good theater," a troll corrected him.
"Oh," Goldor said. "Er…sorry."
"Is it opera?" Silvia asked.
"Yeah, how did you know?" the surprised troll asked.
"Eh, lucky guess," she said.
"Anyway! If you're finished with your sappy reunion…DIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!" a wolf howled, charging towards the trio. The other monsters roared and quickly followed suit.
"Hmmph! Heartless brutes. They have no appreciation for family drama. Let's show them what we're capable of!" Silvia declared.
"I'm with you, Mom!" Buck said.
"As am I, dearest!" Goldor said.
"Right! Let's give them a triple Rapid Spin! That should show them not to mock our family bonding sessions!" Silvia said. Her husband and son nodded, and they started spinning in place, each of them quickly turning into a fiery gold, silver, and bronze blur. The twirling dolls spun around each other, moving faster and faster, until they blended together to create a powerful flaming metallic tornado that towered into the sky and began stripping nearby buildings, the gale-force winds they generated sucking debris and rubble into the midst of the storm. Suddenly realizing they might have made a mistake, the monsters frantically tried to reverse and run away, but outrunning a tornado is much more difficult in real life than movies and video games would have you believe. Screaming, they were swept off their feet and pulled into the shimmering vortex, rising higher and higher as the weaker ones were torn apart and incinerated and the more durable ones were battered to the point that every bone in their body was broken and burned until their skin was charred black. Those that managed to survive for more than a few seconds were flung out the top of the cyclone and sent flying miles away, never to be seen again (well, by the combatants, anyway).
Gradually, the tornado's spin decreased and the wind died down as it separated back into its three individual components, which themselves slowed down and resolved themselves from metallic blurs into the figures of Goldor, Silvia, and Buck. "Whoaoaoaoaoaoaooo…" Buck slurred as he wobbled about in a daze before falling flat on his face and throwing up. Somehow. Despite not having a mouth.
"Can somebody stop the world, please? I want to get off…" Silvia said dizzily.
"My word! That was spectacular! I had no idea we were capable of something like that when we combined our powers!" Goldor said giddily. "Let's do it again!" Silvia threw up on him. Again, despite not having a mouth. "As soon as you regain your balance, that is."
Nearby…
Briney was surrounded on all sides by several dozen very big, very intimidating, very smelly trolls. He stared at them as they snorted and stomped and snarled at him, not looking in the least bit impressed. "Hmmph. And who are you lads supposed to be?"
"We are proud warriors of Shivhel, ruler of Niflheim!" one of the trolls bellowed.
"We have fought hundreds of battles in her name, and sacrificed countless warm-bloods to appease her thirst for blood and souls!" another growled.
"You shall be the next to die for her eternal glory!" said yet another.
"Then I'm afraid we may have a bit of a problem," Briney said.
The trolls hesitated. "What do you mean?" one of them asked.
"I'm a Steel-type Pokémon. Made of metal, you see," Briney said, knocking on one arm and causing a clear metallic clank to ring across the street. "I don't have any blood, warm or cold. Just oil. I'm afraid your queen wouldn't find me particularly appetizing."
"It matters little if you have blood or not, you are a mortal from the disgusting lands of warmth and summer!" a troll snarled.
"Your death shall please her no matter what form of creature you are, as will the deaths of your pathetic comrades!" said another.
"Then I'm afraid we have another problem," Briney said.
The trolls hesitated again. "What do you mean?" one of them asked.
"You see, I personally don't mind if I die. I have someone waiting for me on the other side, and a guaranteed one-way ticket to her once my time is up." Briney narrowed his eyes. "My friends, on the other hand…they're off-limits. For every one of them you harm, I shall kill a hundred of you, and keep killing, until none of your kind is left to roam these frigid mountains. And once I'm finished with you, I'll tear down your queen's palace around her ears and send her scurrying to the farthest, darkest, coldest reaches of her domain, where she shall remain for all time, shivering in fright and pissing herself every time I pass within a hundred universes of her."
A smarter person would have noticed the look in Briney's eye (the real one, since the other one was glass) and heard the tone in his voice and quietly backed off and maybe jumped in the nearest portal to another dimension and never stopped running. The trolls, unfortunately for them, were not particularly smart. "Pah! Is that supposed to impress us?" one said, spitting in Briney's face and covering his glasses in thick, slimy saliva. That was his first mistake.
Abruptly the wind stopped blowing as hard or as loud, and the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees, but since this was Niflheim none of the trolls thought anything of it. That was their second mistake. "You shouldn't have done that," Briney said slowly as he reached up to take his glasses off.
"Oh yeah? What are you going to-" said the abysmally stupid troll, which was his third and final mistake before Briney flicked his wrist and suddenly his throat burst open in a shower of blood. As the troll gurgled and collapsed to the ground, another troll suddenly found himself missing an ear, another his crotch, and another still his left arm. Something whirled through the mass of trolls at high speed, slicing and cutting and dismembering, leaving them shouting and gasping in pain, something that Briney casually raised his hand to catch, revealing it to be some kind of incredibly sharp white boomerang or something that was also on fire. As they gawked at it in disbelief, Briney's glass eye popped out of its socket, burst into flames, and rocketed through the air at subsonic speeds, smashing into a troll's head so hard it went right through and out the other side, and kept going, ricocheting all over the place as it bashed and bounced and battered the trolls so hard that many of their bones were broken. As they flailed about in dismay, desperately trying to stop the rampage of the little glass sphere, Briney shrugged off his jacket and carelessly threw it away, where it found itself wrapped around a troll's neck and tightened hard enough to strangle it to death. As the asphyxiated troll fell to the ground, Briney stretched out his free hand to the heavens, and as if the divine were answering his prayer, his eyepatch and captain's hat descended from on high and gently placed themselves over his empty socket and on top of his head. The trolls, who had managed to finally catch the glass eye and were desperately stomping it to pieces, hesitated, sensing something truly momentous and badass was about to happen, and turned just in time to watch Briney slowly and reverently put his boomerang under his nose, where it locked into place and revealed itself to not be a boomerang at all, but his mustache. "Ah," he said, closing his eye in bliss. "Much better."
Several of the trolls lost control of their bowels without knowing why. A strange and horrible sensation had taken hold of their hearts, something strange and unfamiliar that they had never experienced before. That sensation was, of course, fear. "Who…" a troll whispered, something he'd never done before, since loud yelling was the default volume for most trolls. "Who are you?"
Briney gave them a terrifying grin that showed all of his many very large sharp metal fangs. "Who am I, you ask? Why, that's simple." He clenched his fists, his body beginning to glow with incredible power. "I! AM! BRINEY!"
With that, he Exploded. The blast vaporized two-thirds of the trolls and obliterated a sizable chunk of the town. As the light and the flames and the noise died down and the remaining trolls teetered about in agony, trying to figure out what the Abyss had just happened to them, Briney fell upon them like a block of houses. Or more specifically, he dropped a block of houses on them, falling back on one of his favorite techniques. He dropped several more houses after that, in fact, just to make sure they were dead. After all, there was no kill like overkill, right?
There was a sharp whistle of something moving through the air, and Briney turned to see about a hundred or so ice spears being flung at him from ice elementals wisely standing very far away from him. Unfortunately, they weren't standing far enough away to avoid the wrath of Briney. With a wave of his hand, Briney casually disintegrated the ice spears, then used his psychic powers to shatter the elementals and send the shrapnel flying all over the place, imbedding it in the eyes and joints and groins and mouths of the wave of monsters behind them. As they fell to the ground moaning in pain, trickles of blood rolling down their bodies, one troll who had managed by sheer dumb luck to avoid the worst of the shrapnel decided to squander it by charging at Briney, roaring and swinging his axe over his head. As the trolls watched in horror and disbelief, Briney just looked at him and he dropped dead on the spot. (Actually, Briney used his psychic powers to stop the troll's heart, but the other trolls didn't know that.) As the monsters stared in shock and incredulity at the troll Briney had slain with just a glare, somebody screamed, "N-no! It can't be! He's Wodin One-Eye!"
"No! Not Wodin! We're fucked!" a troll cried, a desperate cry which soon found itself rising from the throats of several dozen other monsters.
"Please spare us, Wodin! W-we didn't know it was you, honest!" a wolf begged.
Briney frowned in puzzlement. "Wodin? Who the Abyss is that?" Briney quickly scanned their minds and found the information he was looking for. Wodin One-Eye was a one-eyed deity or demigod of death or something like that who rode on an eight-legged Rapidash, wielded a lethal sword and spear, and had a mustache almost as nice as his. "Oh, that guy? No, I'm not him. I'm much worse."
He proved this by dashing forwards and hitting a troll in the gut with a flaming Meteor Mash so powerful his fist not only smashed through the troll's back but buried itself in the stomach of the three trolls standing behind him. While they were still on his arm, he spun all over the place like a flaming whirling dervish with Gyro Ball, the trolls he was carrying serving as an effective bludgeon to knock away all the monsters standing near Briney. When the centrifugal force was too much and the trolls finally flew off his arm, Briney stopped spinning and began laying into the beasts with fiery Bullet Punches, Metal Claws, and more Meteor Mashes, crushing their bodies and breaking their bones and lighting them on fire with devastating blows. A desperate troll swung his mace down on Briney's head as hard as he could, only for his weapon to shatter on impact with the Metang's iron-hard cranium and jar the troll's bones so hard he shook all over. Without even turning around, Briney casually grabbed the splintered and broken handle of the troll's weapon and flung it over his head, sending the troll with it. He shot upwards and slammed his forehead into the troll's skull with a flaming Zen Headbutt so strong that the troll's head was shoved all the way into its torso and burst out of its anus. He psychically grabbed the body and slammed it into the ground hard enough to crater it as well as flatten anyone unfortunate enough to be beneath him at the time.
An ice dragon swooped down and tried to freeze him solid with its ice breath, but Briney deflected the breath attack with Protect, then telekinetically grabbed its wings, tore them off, grabbed it by the tail as it fell, and whirled around with Gyro Ball, once more using a monster as an improvised weapon, the ice breath the terrified and pain-stricken dragon spewed all over the place freezing most of the surrounding monsters in their tracks. He hurled the wingless dragon away, opened his mouth to gather power, and shot a fiery Hyper Beam in a circle, obliterating the frozen monsters in a series of explosions that shook the town and sent twisting pillars of fire roaring up into the dark skies, the heat washing over Briney's form and causing it to turn an eerie red as his body became as hot as a furnace. Naturally, he didn't flinch or show the slightest bit of discomfort at the increase in his body temperature. It would have been unmonly of him.
As the smoke and the flames died down, revealing the destruction he had wrought upon this portion of Dusty Ditch, he stared balefully at the handful of monsters that had somehow managed to survive his assault. "So," he said ominously, giving them an especially horrifying Scary Face. "Who else wants some?"
None of them did, as it turned out. Two died of heart attacks on the spot, a few fainted, and the rest ran away, screaming and gibbering at the tops of their lungs, their minds utterly shattered by terror (and maybe a few Psychic prods Briney had given them to accelerate the process). Chuckling as his metal skin cooled back down to its regular temperature, he telekinetically grabbed some clumps of snow to wipe off the bloodstains on his hide. "Well, that was a nice warm-up," he said as snow timidly began to fall again in the space his attacks had leveled. "Now, let's see about finding a real challenge, eh?"
Unfortunately, before Briney could find one, something else found him. "I think all those explosions came from over—sweet baby Merlin!" Goldor shouted as he and his family floated around a corner and saw Briney and the utter carnage he had caused.
Briney swore. Aww, crap.
"What…what happened here? And…Professor? Is that you?" Silvia cried.
"Uh…well…you see…" Briney said awkwardly.
"OhmiArceus, it's Captain Whitestache!" Buck squealed, causing Briney to facepalm since, due to his frequent (and often regretted) readings of Leo's mind, he knew exactly who the Baltoy was talking about.
"Who?" asked a confused Goldor, somewhat dazed by the sight of all the fire and charred earth and shattered buildings…and bodies.
"Captain Whitestache! One of the most badass characters ever from the world of badass that's Two Piece!" Buck said excitedly. "He was the strongest mon in the world, with the awesomest mustache in the world too, who…died in a tragic but incredibly badass manner." He frowned in confusion. "Wait…but you can't be Whitestache. Whitestache died…and was another species…and is a character from a manga, though considering the nigh-infinite nature of the Omniverse that doesn't mean he can't exist somewhere."
"Ah, no, I'm not Captain Whitestache, though I'm flattered you thought I was" Briney said embarrassedly. "You were right the first time Silvia, it's me, Professor Brindleworth. Except, um, that's not my real name, and I'm not actually a professor."
"You're…you're not?" Silvia asked incredulously.
"And to think we dined with you! And took travel advice from you!" Goldor asked angrily. "Who the Ruler of Evil are you then, mon?"
"I! Am! BRINEY!" Briney roared, Exploding. They stared at him blankly. "Er, sorry," he said Mareepishly as the smoke died down. "Force of habit."
"Ah," Goldor said faintly.
"You are so cool!" Buck yelled.
"Yeah, I get that a lot," Briney said, hiding a smile.
"And who exactly is 'Briney?' And why did you lie to us?" Silvia demanded.
"Well, if you lower your mental shields I could show you all in a heartbeat," Briney said.
"Absolutely not!" Goldor said indignantly.
Briney sighed. "Yeah, that's what I figured. Okay, we'll do this the hard way then…" And so, somewhat reluctantly, Briney told them his story.
At that moment…
"Burn with me! Buuuuurn wiiiiith meeeeee!" Max shouted maniacally as he waved his flamethrower all over the place, great gouts of flame spurting from its end and igniting the surrounding buildings as well as the flesh of any monster too close to him.
"What is that thing?" a troll asked incredulously.
"And why is he telling us to 'burn with him' if he's not on fire himself?" another wondered. "It doesn't make any sense!"
"You know what else doesn't make sense?" Max shouted as he set the troll's butt on fire, causing him to yelp in pain and jump a few feet into the air. "Your mother!"
"We don't have mothers," the first troll said while the second ran about frantically with his rear end aflame.
Max frowned as the flaming troll sat down in a pile of snow to put out his tuckus with a sigh of relief. "You don't? Then where do new trolls come from?"
"Oh, we sprout fully formed from the armpits and between the toes of frost giants when they sleep," the troll said.
Max lowered his flamethrower and stared at the troll incredulously. "Okay, that's…that's kinda gross and weird even for me."
"Well, we're magical creatures from an elemental plane. You can't expect our biology and reproductive cycles to work the same way it does in other places," the troll said.
"True," Max admitted. "But wait, if trolls come from frost giants, where do frost giants come from?"
"Mountains that get tired of being inanimate and decide they want to walk about," another troll said.
Max raised an eyebrow. "…Right. And those dragons?" he asked, pointing at the winged reptiles circling overhead.
"They hatch from ice crystals infused with Queen Shivhel's magic," a troll said.
Max nodded slowly. "Uh-huh. And those wolves?"
"Our females give live birth to a litter of cubs after we mate with them, much like you filthy warm-bloods!" a wolf howled as he lunged at Max from behind, aiming for the fuel tank Max was wearing to power up his flamethrower.
He never got there, because a loud bang rang out and the wolf slumped to the ground a few inches short of Max, blood oozing from a gaping hole in its head. "Actually, Max hatched from an egg that was one of a dozen laid by his father in one sitting and rose to dominance after killing and devouring the rest of his siblings from that clutch in a vicious and incredibly grisly series of violent and bloody fights," Sam said as he cocked the smoking gun that had fired the flaming bullet that saved Max's life.
"That's right, and I intended to do the same to my older and younger siblings until I discovered television and lost interest," Max said.
The trolls exchanged disturbed looks. "Okay, now that's weird."
"Says you!" Max said, lighting them on fire and laughing as they screamed and writhed in agony. "Burn! Burn! Buuuuuurn!"
"Max, do I have to take away your flamethrower again?" Sam asked as he casually shot a wolf that had been sneaking up behind him between the eyes.
"No! Don't take it away! I'll be good, I promise!" Max said, hugging the weapon.
"Your ears are crossed," Sam observed as without even looking he extended his arm to the side and blasted a troll charging towards him in the eye.
"Saaaam! You know I can't be good!" Max whined as he reluctantly uncrossed his ears.
"Well, that's true. Can you at least promise to keep the wanton destruction to a minimum?" Sam asked as he backhanded a wolf pouncing down at him from a rooftop without turning around.
"Define 'minimum,'" Max said.
"Don't burn the town and everything in it, including me, to the ground," Sam said as he pointed his gun straight upwards and fired, dropping an ice dragon with a single shot.
"Eh, I'll see what I can do," Max said grudgingly. He whipped around and pumped the trigger on the flamethrower, flinging massive fireballs at the ice elementals charging him. "Burn! Burn! Mwahahahaha!"
"Have fun, little buddy," Sam said as he turned and pumped another troll full of flaming lead. "That's seventy-eight."
"Eighty-one," George, standing atop a rooftop said as she shot a flaming arrow from her crossbow that melted an ice elemental in a burst of fire.
"Eighty-five," Sam said, standing his ground and picking off a pack of slavering wolves that charged towards him one at a time.
"Ninety-one," George said as she fired a series of arrows which buried their heads in the thick flesh of a group of trolls. They looked down at the measly arrows and laughed…until the arrows started beeping. They had about three seconds to wonder what was going on before the arrows exploded, taking the trolls with them.
A couple of dozen ice elementals charged towards Sam, their spears and icy bodies clacking against each other. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a soda can and a bag of Pop Rocks. He shook the can and ripped off the top of the bag with his teeth, then broke open the top of the can, stuffed it into the bag, and flung it at the ice elementals. When it was over the frigid fiends, he raised his gun, aimed, and fired, piercing the can with a single bullet. The resulting explosion was tremendous, destroying all the elementals in a fiery blast. "One hundred and thirteen!" he shouted at George.
The Mightyena glared at him, sighted along her crossbow, and then fired an arrow into the neck of an ice dragon. The monster shrieked in pain and fell from the air, crashing into a building and causing it to collapse, knocking over the building next to it, and the building next to that one, and the building next to that one, in a chain reaction that destroyed an entire block and buried all the monsters on or near those buildings in a pile of snow and ice and rubble. She smirked cockily at Sam, who barked, "That only counts as one!"
While that was going on…
Sasha dashed through the snow as a pack of wolves chased after her, feeling an exhilaration she had not experienced in quite some time. This was her element, fighting in the snow against predators seeking to harm those she held dear, not battling in cities and underwater temples or traveling in cramped metal contraptions that rattled and shook and boxed her in with far too many other Pokémon. True, this place was far colder than her own territory, and her danger sense was blaring at her louder than it ever had back home except when something really bad was happening, but if she half-closed her eyes and ignored the street signs and corpses on spikes all around her she could almost imagine she was back in the Frosty Forest again.
"You can't escape us, bitch!" the leader of the pack howled, foam and cold mist steaming from his jaws. "This is our land! We are bigger than you, stronger, faster! We can outrun you and outlast you! You cannot hide from us!"
"Who said anything about hiding?" Sasha shot back, her senses alerting her that she was near her destination. "I have you right where I want you!"
The wolf blinked. "What?"
Sasha skidded and abruptly changed directions as she turned a corner into an intersection, her claws clattering as they left scratches in the ice. She bounded down the lane, which opened into a small park that had been turned into a frosted white abbatoir, with snow-covered corpses dangling from tree branches and scattered carelessly across the ground. Sasha snarled in disgust as she ran past the bodies, revolted both by the waste of life…and the waste of meat. They haven't even bothered to eat much of it! The savages!
Her head blade flashing as she flicked it, sending blazing Psycho Cuts ahead of her to slice through trees and iced-over bushes, clearing her path as she dashed out into a wide, open field. She ran to the other side, then stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the wolves, which were now halfway across the field from her. "Ah, so you've finally given up?" one of the wolves snarled.
"Don't worry, we'll kill you quickly…after having a little fun with you!" another barked.
"I haven't fucked a bitch as fine as you in quite a while! This is going to be magnificent!" the pack leader howled.
"It is," Sasha said. "But not for you." She drew back a paw, claw burning with flames and Dark power, and slammed it into the ground with Night Slash. There was a loud cracking sound, and the wolves hesitated, suddenly realizing that beneath the layer of snow covering it the ground they were standing on seemed rather smooth and slippery…a bit too smooth and slippery for a field.
And that's when the frozen surface of the pond shattered, submerging the wolves in extremely cold water. The beasts cried in pain and surprise, flailing and splashing about frantically…except for the leader, who managed to regain enough sense to paddle towards the edge of the pond, glaring hatefully at Sasha as he approached. "What was that supposed to do? We're ice wolves, bitch! Cold water doesn't bother us!"
"Oh, I know that," Sasha said. "Tell me, have you ever heard of a Technical Machine?"
The wolf blinked in confusion. "A what now?"
"It's a device that can be used to teach a Pokémon like myself moves they would otherwise be incapable of learning," Sasha said. "As a creature of the wilds like yourself, I'm normally averse to relying on such odd technology…but my friends convinced me it would be worth using one, and I have to admit they may have had a point."
The wolf froze, getting a bad feeling. "And…what move did you learn from it?"
"Oh, just a little number called…Thunderbolt," Sasha said as static (and embers) started crackling around her.
The wolf's eyes widened in horror. "Oh, shit! EVERYONE, GET OUT OF-"
He was cut off when Sasha unleashed her attack, electrifying the drenched wolves and killing them instantly. Sasha smirked. "There's a reason we Absol are called 'bringers of disaster,'" she commented to the sizzling corpses as they sank to the bottom of the pond. Then she calmly took a few steps to the side and extended one of her legs, tripping the troll that had been rushing at her from behind and causing him to fall into the still-electrified pond, the beast thrashing in agony as he died a very painful death.
Not bad, Darkrai commented, impressed.
Thank you, my lord, Sasha replied.
And you haven't even needed to use the special feature of that getup you're wearing, the dark god said.
Sasha frowned in puzzlement. Special feature?
Let one of those bozoes touch you. Trust me, it'll be worth it, Darkrai said.
Somewhat puzzled but trusting in her master, even if she didn't really get his sense of humor, Sasha shrugged and followed her danger sense towards the nearest enemy, which happened to be a troll picking its nose with its axe. "Excuse me," she said. "Could you please touch me?"
"Huh? Warm-blood! DIE!" the troll roared, raising its axe…and ripping out half of its nose in the process. It screamed in agony and clutched its face as blood gushed the enormous gaping hole it had torn out.
Sasha sweatdropped. Not particularly bright, are they?
Pah, Shivhel's never been one to surround herself with bright minions, she likes feeling superior to everyone around her, Darkrai snorted. Just go up and brush against him with your robe. It'll be entertaining, I promise.
Very well. Sasha walked up to the troll as it tried to staunch the bleeding and rubbed her side against the beast's ankle. The blackness of her robe seethed and suddenly rushed out to engulf the troll's skin. The troll had only an instant to cry in alarm before the darkness consumed him completely. He stood there for a moment, a solid black statue, before the blackness flowed back off and into Sasha's robe…leaving absolutely nothing behind.
What was that? Sasha asked in disbelief.
You're my high priestess, wearing your robes of office. That entitles you to a manner of protection, Darkrai chuckled. You see, those garments you're wearing are enchanted to kill any person of hostile intent that touches you. Kind of fitting, since you're an envoy of the god of death, right?
It does at that, Sasha admitted, amazed.
Also, so long as you're wearing those, you literally can't die. The robes will absorb any projectiles or beam attacks that get flung at you, protect you from asphyxiation, allow you to eat anything without worrying about getting poisoned, and survive in pretty much any environment, even on the surface of a planet that has acid for atmosphere instead of air, Darkrai informed her. Heck, you might even be able to keep from aging so long as you wear those! I'm not positive, because few of the previous wearers have managed to live to an old age. A regrettable but common hazard of serving the god of death.
Incredible! Said an awed Sasha. But…then wait, how did Barbedo kill my predecessor and get these robes?
Well, uh…she had to take them off to go to bed sooner or later, Darkrai said Mareepishly.
Ah, Sasha said flatly. But that aside…you're saying I'm essentially immortal so long as I wear this outfit?
Yep, Darkrai said. Unless there's anything I forgot when I originally created those, which I doubt, I was pretty thorough.
Sasha frowned. I'm not sure I like that.
Why? Don't you want to live forever? Darkrai asked.
Not particularly, no. Death is an inevitable part of life. You should know that better than anyone, Sasha said. Isn't that why you couldn't grant Leo eternal life?
That's part of it, yes, Darkrai admitted. But while death is inevitable, it's not always going to be. I'm probably not supposed to tell you this, but since you're my high priestess and all I guess I can let you in on a little secret: someday, everyone is going to be immortal, and there will no longer be any need for death.
Sasha frowned in alarm. No need for death?
Yeah, it's all part of Arceus' ginormous master plan that most of us aren't really privy to for some annoying reason, Darkrai said.
But if there is no longer any death, then what will happen to you? Sasha protested.
Oh, I'll be fine. I said there was no more need for death, not nightmares or darkness or all the other things I'm a deity of, Darkrai said. That's why I have so many extra titles. I'm building a safety net, so that when the big change happens I won't be out of a job. In this economy, being a god without another position to fall back on is not easy to recover from. I know some guys who lost their followers millennia ago and are still struggling to find a new pantheon willing to accept them.
Ah. Right. Er…back to this 'no more death' thing. Is that going to happen anytime soon? Sasha asked in concern.
No clue. Probably not in your lifetime, Darkrai said.
Then it's nothing I need to concern myself with, Sasha decided. And as for the gift of this costume…while I appreciate its usefulness, I do not believe I will wear it that often. I am all too aware of the constant closeness of death, and as such am uncomfortable with possessing the ability to completely avoid it.
I'd think that would make you want the opposite, but whatever. Suit yourself. I just hope you don't find yourself without it in the moment you need it most, Darkrai said. You, ah, might want to neglect telling Leo about this. He might do something stupid if he knew the full power of what you're wearing.
He can't use it, can he? He's not in your service, Sasha said.
No, but that wouldn't stop him from converting just to give it a shot, Darkrai said.
Duly noted, Sasha said.
Good girl. Now go out there and kill some more ice monsters! That'll show Shivhel not to stick her nose out of her dimension… Darkrai said.
Do you have a quarrel with her? Sasha asked as she trotted off in search of a fight, aware that her master did not always get along well with other deities or supernatural entities.
Yeah, aside from being an all-around asshole, the bitch called Cresselia a slut and a worthless waste of moonlight on multiple occasions. And she cheats at cards… Darkrai growled. Sasha sweatdropped and wisely said nothing.
A small group of trolls and wolves tromped cautiously into the alley, eyes glancing back and forth for any sign of their prey. The wolves had their noses pressed to the ground, sniffing and examining the tracks pressed into the snow carefully. "Well?" one of the trolls barked. "Where is he?"
"I don't know…he's here somewhere," a wolf growled. "I can smell him…"
"Which is the problem," another wolf said. "His scent is all over the place. And his tracks are scattered everywhere without rhyme or reason…they don't lead anywhere!"
"Well, he must have gone somewhere!" one of the trolls snapped. "He can't have vanished into thin air!"
"Can't he, though?" a troll asked thoughtfully. "We were told that a lot of the warm-bloods we'd be fighting were wizards. And he sort of looked like a wizard, what with that long robe of his."
"If he were a wizard, why would he have run away?" the first troll asked.
They got their answer when abruptly Looker leaped down from atop the nearby building and thrust an extendable pole into the back of one of the troll's necks with a thunderous crack, causing the troll to gasp and fall forward as his vertebrae broke. As the ice monsters stared in disbelief, the Croagunk took advantage of their surprise to rush forward and deliver a series of powerful flaming Poison Jabs and pole strikes to the chest and knees of one of the trolls, backflipping out of the way when the monster snarled and swiped its club at him. "Ha! What was that supposed to-" the troll started, before its eyes rolled back in its head and it fell face-forward to the ground.
"Ah, good to see my guess as to where your pressure points were was accurate," Looker said as he twirled his pole. "It took a little time to figure out, since your anatomy is almost completely different from ours due to being creatures born from another plane of existence, but if there's one thing I'm good at it's figuring things out by looking at them."
"GET HIM!" a troll shouted, and they converged on Looker.
The Croagunk drove his pole into the ground, kicked off, and spun around its axis, knocking away the first wolves to leap at him with a whirling kick. He used the momentum from his spin to wrench the pole out of the ground, land back on the snow, and bring his weapon down on the head of a wolf hard enough to crack its skull. A furious troll lunged at him, and Looker drove his pole into the ground again and used it to vault over the monster's massive frame, driving a glowing fist into the back of its neck with a fiery Poison Jab and knocking him down for the count. Another troll stepped into his flight path, arms wide to intercept him, but Looker thrust his pole ahead of him. The troll reflexively grabbed it, and Looker flipped up and onto the staff, running down its length, leaping off, and thrusting a flaming Poison Jab right between the troll's eyes. As it toppled, he retrieved his pole and swung it backwards, deflecting the wolf that had been charging at him from behind and causing the wolves just behind it to trip over it. Before they could recover, he used his pole to vault over them, spewing burning Poison Stings down at them, the flaming needles penetrating their thick fur and injecting toxins into their bloodstreams that (literally) burned them up from within. They struggled to their feet, their movements sluggish due to the fiery poison. "Ugh…what…kind of wizard are you?" one of them grunted.
"I'm not a wizard," Looker said, his coat flaring out behind him. "I'm a detective." He twirled his staff between his hands before holding it imposingly. "You are all under arrest for illegally invading this reality and conspiring to kill many of its inhabitants. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?"
The monsters exchanged confused looks. "No," a troll said.
Looker shrugged. "Oh well, guess I'll have to settle for beating you up, then. I'm pretty sure it goes against International Police procedure, but to be honest I don't think you're in my jurisdiction anyway."
"Die!" a troll shouted finally, deciding to fall back on the old standby rather than try and make sense of this strange 'detective.'
Looker grinned. "You first."
Not too far away…
A pair of burning lightning bolts plowed their way through the ranks of ice elementals arrayed against them, leaving shattered ice and embers and crackling static in their wake as they zigzagged through the horde, swords flashing through the air with thunderclaps and explosions following each successful blow inflicted against the enemy. They were, of course, Pikachu and Sparky, fighting side by side, their mystic blades crackling like shards of lightning with embers trailing them as they cut down fiend after fiend. "Is this all they can field against us?" Sparky asked as he swung his sword through the air, generating a tremendous electric and fire-charged Vacuum Cut that sliced at least fifty ice elementals in half as it flew through them, as well as devastating half a dozen blocks' worth of buildings that happened to be standing behind the monsters.
"After everything Cherry said, I was expecting a harder battle than this!"
"Yes, well, even if we have magical weapons they still outnumber us, so we shouldn't let ourselves be overconfident," Pikachu said, trying not to feel a twinge of envy for how much Sparky's powers seemed to be boosted by the armor he was wearing. Powering up his blade, he drove it into the ground, sending a charge through the earth that exploded beneath the bisected ice elementals Sparky had cut up, destroying them before they could pull themselves back together.
Sparky raised his sword in the air and fired a lightning bolt upwards. The clouds flashed, and a dozen dragon-shaped bolts of flaming lightning shot back down and slammed into the elementals, vaporizing dozens more of them. "Speaking of magical weapons…where did you get yours?"
"Oh, the usual way," Pikachu said vaguely, swiping his sword through the air several times and flinging fiery Vacuum Cuts in every direction, following those up with flaming Thunderbolts to pulverize the fragmented elementals before they could recover.
"Don't give me that," Sparky said as he thrust his sword into the ribs of an elemental, releasing a blast of electricity and flame that not only vaporized it, but leaped out to strike the closest half-dozen elementals, vaporizing them, and causing bolts to leap out from them to vaporize the next closest group of elementals, and bolts leapt out from them, and so on. "I know that sword. I've seen it in books and stories. That's Thunder Fang, the legendary sword of the Thunderblade family. And last time I checked, none of them had anything like the estate you claim to have lost, relatives in Fichina, or even servants of any kind. That's not how their code of honor works. So either you stole that sword, which is impossible, or…you aren't who you say you are."
"…" Pikachu ground his teeth, then Quick Attacked an ice elemental in the chest, flipped off, sliced it in half, spun in a circle with his sword and Iron Tail extended to knock back the elementals closing in on him, and released a blast of Thunder for good measure to give himself some breathing room. "You're right. I am a Thunderblade, Pikachu Thunderblade, to be precise."
"Which means you have yet to earn your name, according to your family's custom, if my study of swordscraft is anything to go by," Sparky noted as he drove his sword into the ground, causing several fissures to split open all around him, lighting bolts and fireballs leaping out and frying the nearest elementals. "But then why are you traveling in disguise? Why the secrecy? Is this part of the rite of passage to earn your name?"
"Not quite," Pikachu said as he fired a Thunderbolt into the air, raised his sword, caught the bolt on his blade as it came back down, and slammed it into the ground, triggering a powerful explosion that vaporized two dozen elementals. "I'm not the only one in disguise, you see. My friends and I are enemies of the Nihilators and were traveling to Fichina in hopes of retrieving an artifact Duchess Fichina possesses that is key to their plans of destroying the world."
"Much like my team seeks to do the same thing, except to thwart Judgment? What an amazing coincidence," Sparky marveled as he raised his sword and a freaking Rapidash made of lightning (that was on fire!) galloped down from the heavens. The knight hopped onto it and rode the beast through the elementals, scything through them with ease.
Pikachu's jaw dropped for a moment in disbelief, and he nearly got run through by an ice spear as a result. He deflected the weapon, shattered the elemental with his sword, and ran after Sparky with Quick Attack, knocking over or breaking every monster in his path. "Um, yeah, pretty much. We traveled in disguise because we knew the Nihilators were going to target the train to keep the vampires from spilling their secrets and we didn't want them to know Fantina had one of the artifacts they're looking for and try even harder to kill us all. However, I don't think that's going to work for much longer."
"I see," Sparky said as his steed sprouted wings and took to the air, raining lightning bolts and fireballs on the monsters. "It would seem that our causes are not too dissimilar. The DeLux honor compels me to assist you. Should the Nihilators bring even stronger forces than this to bear against us before we reach Fichina, my sword will be at your service!"
Oh, come on! Pikachu thought in exasperation. He jumped onto an elemental's head and bounced off it using his tail as a springboard, launching himself into the air and grabbing onto the tail of an ice dragon flying past towards Sparky. Pikachu pulled himself up and ran up the beast's back, digging his sword into its flesh and dragging it with him, spilling its vital fluids all over the place. He reached the beast's head and jumped off, firing a Thunderbolt back to down the dragon for good measure. "My friends and I will be glad to have you by our side, Sparky. And speaking of swords…you aren't the only one learned enough to recognize a famous blade. That weapon of yours is the Durendal, isn't it?"
"Indeed it is," Sparky said as his Rapidash turned into a flaming lightning dragon and started spitting fiery thunderbolts that exploded and spawned winding electric and fire snakes that slithered through the elementals, destroying any they touched. "If you can identify it by sight, you must know its heritage as well. It first belonged to the paladin Count Roland, servant and nephew of Shirlemagne Queen of the Franks, who was mortally wounded by the Sarasens in an ambush but managed to slay them in a great battle that created the La Bréche da Roland in the Pireknees. He tried to destroy it to make sure the Sarasens couldn't get it after he died, but the sword was indestructible, so instead he gave it to his loyal Pikachu to safeguard. That Pikachu was the first knight and founder of the DeLux line, and we have wielded this blade against injustice ever since."
Pikachu's arc took him right towards an ice dragon, which turned as he approached, shrieked, and spat an ice blast at him. He retaliated with a Thunderbolt, the elemental blasts colliding and exploding, throwing up a cloud of smoke that momentarily blinded it. Coughing, the dragon flapped its wings to blow away the smog…and an electrically charged Pikachu soared out of the cloud sword-first, piercing the dragon through the chest and ripping out the other side. As the dragon plummeted, he landed on the back of another dragon, hacking off one of its wings with a chop from his blade and running up the length of its remaining wing as it fell, jumping off to continue his ascent. "Is it true that the hilt contains the tooth, blood, hair, and raiment of saints?" he asked.
"I wouldn't know, we've never looked," Sparky said as an ice dragon swooped down from above, got its claws on his shoulders, and got hit by a high-voltage current so strong it disintegrated. "It's certainly holy, though, much like your own…though I wonder which of ours is the most holy?"
"Right now, I'd say yours is," Pikachu said a little reluctantly as he sprang from dragon to dragon, lopping off heads and wings in his wake. "Thanks to the power of the Zap Plate. How'd you get that one, anyway?"
"It was being kept in a giant dead tree that served as a lightningrod and home for all the Pokémon in a great plain where the weather is eternally thundering and raining lightning bolts on travelers and the unwary, tended to by-" Sparky started as his dragon's wings extended until they seemed to cover the entire field of battle, lightning bolts and fireballs shooting down to strike all the monsters underneath their reach.
"A tribe of caretakers led by a hereditary 'protector' with a mystical connection to the tree, whom you befriended and recruited to help liberate the tree from Judgment, only for it to be destroyed, forcing you to part ways so your new ally could find a new future for his people?" Pikachu guessed as he landed on the back of Sparky's steed.
Sparky gave him an astonished look. "However did you know that?"
"That's pretty much exactly the same thing that happened to us," Pikachu said flatly.
Sparky goggled. "That's…unbelievable."
"Tell me about it," Pikachu said with a sigh. "You ever feel like you're possibly the only sane individual in a team of, well, nutjobs, on an adventure that rarely if ever makes any sense and often defies all rationality, instead conforming to the sort of logic you'd find in a video game or television show?"
"All the time," Sparky said mournfully.
"Then I think you and I are going to be very good friends," Pikachu said.
Sparky smiled. "I think I'd like that. And speaking of friends…who else among our fellow travelers counts themselves as your companions? I assume Kutabe and Mineko are in on it—if those are their real names, that is—but is there anyone else?"
"Think of anyone and everyone on the train who has personalities and mannerisms matching your friends, and that's us," Pikachu said.
Sparky's eyes bulged in disbelief. "…That many?"
"Yep," Pikachu said.
"And all of them are-" Sparky said.
"Yep," Pikachu said.
"…This is so bizarre. I'm sure Zippo would say we'd wandered into a…what do you call it…'mirror universe' or something," Sparky said.
"And that's exactly what Leo would say about you guys," Pikachu said. "By which I mean Mother Leonora, who, by the way, isn't really a womon."
"I thought there was something odd about her, I mean him," Sparky murmured. "But isn't impersonating a priestess a serious offense?"
"He isn't impersonating a priestess, he actually is one," Pikachu said.
Sparky's mind struggled not to break as it attempted to process this incongruous statement. "But…but he's a…he…how…how did he…"
"It's something I'd rather not think about," Pikachu said wearily.
"And here I thought Zippo being a tenth level cleric of Manaphy was odd…" Sparky murmured incredulously.
Pikachu wisely decided not to mention that Manaphy had been a member of the Nihilators and recently been killed indirectly by them, so instead said, "But…Zippo's a Fire-type…"
"One who lives on the coast and surfs regularly," Sparky said. "Plus, one of his parents is a Water Pokémon."
"Ah. Still, compared to Leo, that's downright normal, trust me," Pikachu said.
Sparky grimaced. "Are you as terrified as I am by the thought that those two may actually make very good friends?"
"Yes," Pikachu said grimly.
And speaking of the two nerds…
"Graaaaahhh! The light! Make it stop! Make it stop!" a troll screamed as he staggered backwards, shielding his eyes.
"Just as soon as you turn to stone, Barnies!" Zippo said as he continued focusing his UV lamp on the trolls in front of them. "Which…should have happened quite some time ago, by my reckoning, since I'm pretty sure it's the high UV radiation in sunlight that causes trolls to undergo petrification during the daylight hours, since a similar wavelength can be used to make vampires burst into flame…"
"No, no, those are Tokien trolls, these are clearly Proto-Nordic trolls, who share no such weakness to sunlight," Leo said.
Zippo smacked his forehead. "Ohhh, of course, I can't believe I made such a gnarly mistake, dudette! I'm usually more on top than that. But there's just so many different kinds of trolls out there, I sometimes get them mixed up, you know?"
"Yeah, I hear ya, boyo. Now turn out that penlight and lemme show these heathens some real light!" Leo said as he started powering up his Thermonuke 8500, which he'd heavily modified with Zippo's help by combining it with the Charmeleon's own Thermonuke then rigging the resulting contraption up to a harness which he was currently wearing over his habit with a power pack fueled by a spare alchemical energy core they'd 'borrowed' from the train to make it even more ridiculously powerful. Turning the dial on the side of the Thermonuke, now mounted on his chest, to 11, he did a pelvic thrust at the trolls, who were still blinking and trying to get the spots out of their eyes. "Beware, sinners, for the fiery judgment of Shaymin is about to fall upon you!"
"Wait, isn't Shaymin a goddess of flowers and Spring? Why would her judgment be fiery?" asked a confused troll.
"DON'T GO HATIN' ON MY RELIGION!" Leo shouted as the coils on the front of the Thermonuke turned a brilliant red and a tremendous heat wave blasted out from it to envelop the trolls. When the temperature dropped again, all the snow within several hundred meters had been evaporated and the trolls were now completely black. A gust of wind blew by, and the still figures disintegrated into ashes and were carried away.
"Radical, flaca! That was so gangbusters!" said an impressed and awestruck Zippo. "Hey, lemme have a try!"
"Not yet, I'm not done with it yet!" Leo said defensively, turning and firing again, vaporizing a pack of wolves desperately trying to run away. He fired again, reducing a troop of ice elementals marching towards them to water vapor, and again, annihilating a flight of ice dragons swooping through the air. "Ohhhh…the power…THE POWER…it's even more wonderful than I imagined! Ahaha! Ahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Laughing madly, he fired again and again, turning every monster in sight into a pile of cinders and obliterating countless buildings and frozen trees and bodies on spikes in his frenzied rampage. This was like playing some of his favorite video games, only in real life! It was intoxicating! "Now nothing can stop meeeeeee!"
Zippo gasped in horror. "Oh no, the power has gone to her head and she's deluded herself into thinking she's some kind of god of destruction! No fair, I wanted to do it first!"
Leo's laughter was cut off when smoke started rising from his harness and the Thermonuke began shaking and glowing ominously, the coils going from red to white. "Huh? What's going on? Why won't it fire?" Leo asked in confusion as he repeatedly pressed the activation button.
"You fool! By using it so many times in rapid succession, it's overheated, and now it's going to go nuclear!" Zippo cried.
"Really? That's so cool!" Leo shouted.
"I know, right?" Zippo said giddily. "Too bad we're at ground zero!"
"Not for long we're not!" Leo declared, tearing off the harness and throwing it as far as he possibly could…which was about two feet away. "For some reason I thought I could throw further than that."
"Maybe we could stop it from blowing up if we cooled it fast enough?" Zippo suggested.
"Possibly, but where would we get something to cool it that quickly?" Leo wondered.
"…Dudette, aren't you a Water type? Couldn't you just soak it?" Zippo asked.
"No, water's not cool enough, but that does give me an idea. Good thing I know Ice Beam! Huh, and I thought I wouldn't be using it in this weather!" Leo said.
"But wait, due to the enchantments cast on us to make us strong against all this ice, won't that mean your Ice Beam is part fire, creating a fusion beam that will only amplify the explosion?" Zippo asked.
Leo paused to consider thus. "…Not if I don't want it to it won't."
"Oh, okay then," Zippo said, accepting this completely nonsensical answer.
Leo took a deep breath and spat an (non-flaming) Ice Beam at the overheating Thermonuke. Due to the building temperatures of the machine, it didn't freeze over when the Beam struck it, but the extreme chill of the attack managed to cool the device's overloading systems, causing it to vent the excess heat in great clouds of steam as its temperature returned to more manageable levels.
"Phew! That was close," Zippo said. "Okay, now it's my turn!"
"Nah, the circuitry's melted, it's completely busted," Leo reported after looking the cooled-off device critically.
"What? Aw mon, that's so gnarmin! You totally ruined it!" Zippo accused.
"Oh, like you wouldn't have done the exact same thing, sonny?" Leo retorted as he stowed the machine in his shell. "Don't worry, I think we can fix it, but it's not going to be working anytime soon."
"Good, which means that now there's nothing to stop us from killing the two of you for incinerating our friends!" bellowed one of the many, many trolls that had surrounded the duo along with a contingent of wolves, ice elementals, and even a few dragons that were pissed by how many of their number Leo's heat blasts had picked off.
"Whuh-oh, this could be a problem," Zippo said in alarm.
"Don't be ridiculous, sonny, they have us outnumbered at least fifty to one…which means we got this in the bag!" Leo said confidently.
"Well, duh, conservation of ninjutsu, I know," Zippo said. "But…do you have the moves to back up that sweet brain of yours?"
"Do I!" Leo said, whipping out his tonfas, which he'd stolen back from Pikachu when he wasn't looking.
"Whoa! Where'd you get those?" Zippo asked excitedly.
"I took them from the hoard of an evil undead pirate," Leo bragged.
"Nice! That's exactly where I got these from!" Zippo said, pulling out a pair of nunchuks.
Leo frowned. "Really?"
"Yeah! There was this long-dead pirate named Hernando who stole the Splash Plate ages ago, and we had to fight him to get it back," Zippo explained. "After we beat him, he made Salty his new captain and gave him his ship, to make up for the one we lost trying to get to his island. We were also allowed to take whatever we wanted from his loot, and I snagged these along with a ton of cash! Of course, Sparky confiscated them from me, but I managed to take them back when he wasn't looking."
"…Oh," Leo said, somewhat nonplussed. "Well, uh, do you know how to use them?"
"Of course!" Zippo lied. "Do you know how to use yours?"
"Definitely!" Leo lied right back.
"Awesome! Then let's get them!" Zippo hollered, swinging a nunchuk over his head.
"Oh yeah!" Leo whooped, flailing his tonfas wildly. "Let's kick some ass!"
"Yeah! You know, Mother Leonora, if it weren't for the fact that I'm together with Rose, you're gay, and way too old for me, I'd think you were my soulmate," Zippo confessed.
"…Um, thanks," Leo said, uncertain whether to be flattered or deeply disturbed. "I, uh, like you a lot too." He frowned. "And hey, who are you calling old?"
"Well, they don't usually make young dudettes Mothers, if you know what I mean," Zippo said. Leo's eye twitched. "Anyway, enough jibber-jabber! Let's bust some heads!"
"Raaaaahhhh!" Leo shouted.
"Yaaaaaahhh!" Zippo echoed.
"Graaaaaghhh!" they both yelled as they charged towards the very confused enemies.
Naturally, they got the crap kicked out of them. Fortunately, Captain Salty happened to be nearby and was nice enough to save them by washing the monsters away in a tremendous flood. After depositing the shivering nerds on a rooftop and helping them warn up, he told them not to get themselves into a mess that bad again and flew off to go drown some more monsters.
As he departed, Leo and Zippo stared off into the distance, too embarrassed to look at each other. Finally, Leo said, "If anyone asks what happened, I'm going to lie."
"Yeah, me too," Zippo said. "So. You and Sister Lilandra. She, uh, any good?"
"Oh, er, yes. Not that it's any of your business, of course!" Leo lied.
"Of course," Zippo said quickly.
"And, uh, how about you and Rose?" Leo asked cautiously.
"Huh? Um, ah, yeah, yeah, it's really great. Not that it's any of your business, of course!" Zippo said. Naturally, he was also lying.
"Of course," Leo said.
There was an awkward silence. "So…" Zippo said.
"Um…" Leo said.
"What's it like?" they both asked at once. They looked at each other, burst into laughter, and launched into detailed and vivid descriptions of their completely imaginary sex lives.
Elsewhere, another bunch of trolls and wolves completely unrelated to the ones that had been hunting for Looker were searching for another prey that had slipped their grasp. Unlike the aforementioned group, they'd decided to bring some ice elementals for backup. "So? Any luck?" a troll grunted to the wolf in the lead, its nose to the ground.
The wolf shook its head in confusion. "Nothing. I can't pick up a scent or find any hint of tracks. This makes no sense…"
"What about you? Got anything?" the troll asked an ice elemental, who was prowling on the rooftops. It shook its head. "Well, dammit, either she can vanish into thin air or we're going the wrong way. Which is it?"
Abruptly, a small round object rolled out of a doorway, across the snow, and stopped at the troll's feet. He looked at it in puzzlement. That puzzlement turned into alarm when it exploded, enveloping the group in a cloud of smoke. The troll gasped and coughed, as did everyone else, staggering about and trying to wave his arms to get rid of the smog, only to bash some of his colleagues in the head and accidentally step on a wolf or two. Naturally, his colleagues hit back, and he retaliated with an even harder blow, and in moments they were all trying to beat the crap out of each other, their quarry forgotten. Up on the roofs, out of range of the smoke, the ice elementals exchanged exasperated looks and shook their featureless heads before concentrating their power and generating a frigid breeze which blew away the smoke and revealed the battered and bloody monsters, which froze in mid-battle when they saw each other. They exchanged embarrassed and Mareepish looks and decided to pretend this had never happened…
And then they noticed that half a dozen of them were lying dead on the ground. "Uh-oh," a wolf said. "I, uh, think we got carried away."
"None of us did this," a troll said in alarm as he bent down to check one of the corpses. "Look at this!" He plucked a small dart out of the neck of one of the bodies.
"…That smoke bomb! It was a distraction to pick some of us off!" a wolf snarled.
"And it came from in here!" another wolf barked at the doorway the bomb had rolled out of. "Let's get that bitch!"
"Yeah!" some other wolves and a few trolls shouted, charging through the doorway, smashing the surrounding walls in the process.
"Wait, it's probably a-" one of the smarter (not that that was saying much) trolls said just before the building exploded, knocking the monsters in the street back and causing some of the nearby buildings to collapse. "Trap," he said in a daze as little frost dragons flew around his head.
The startled ice elementals exchanged more exasperated looks. Corporeal beings were so stupid. As they thought this, abruptly an arrow flew through the air and buried itself in one of the elemental's chests. The evil spirit looked down in surprise just before the arrow exploded, destroying it.
"Sniper!" a wolf screamed, ducking for cover as more arrows, some exploding, some flaming, some seemingly normal but actually poisoned, started raining down on them from all over the place. The monsters panicked and milled about frantically, bumping into each other and only making themselves easier targets for the deadly quarrels. The ice elementals managed to retain their cool (heh), however, quickly targeted the roofs the arrows were being fired from, and flung ice spears. One by one, the volleys were silenced. As the elementals raced over to see if they could find any bodies, the frightened monsters took stock of the situation.
"We've lost almost half our original numbers," an anxious wolf said as he stared at all the corpses littering the ground.
"Surtrit's balls, who's doing this?" a troll growled angrily. "It can't just be that one bitch, there's no way she could pull it off by herself!" He was wrong, of course.
Hopping from rooftop to rooftop, an ice elemental quickly reached the spot where the arrows had been coming from. Much to its puzzlement, all it found was a rapid-fire crossbow with an ice spear through it propped up against the edge of the roof, a wire running from the trigger down the side of the building and vanishing into the snow. The elemental was about to try and follow the wire to its source…until he noticed a small gray sphere sitting near the stock of the crossbow, and realized it was screwed.
The explosions that engulfed the four or five buildings that the elementals had gone to check out caused the monsters in the street to jump in alarm and get even more frightened. "Screw this, I'm out of here!" a wolf finally shouted, losing its nerve and running back the way it had come. Several of its pack of like mind eagerly ran after it.
"What? No! Come back here, you cowards! We can't let her get the best of us!" a troll shouted furiously.
As it turned out, he was right to tell them to come back, but not for the reasons he thought. As he ran, the lead wolf stumbled on a wire concealed in the snow that he was pretty sure had not been there before. There was a clicking sound, followed by a whir as a couple dozen blades shot out from the nearby alley and buried themselves in the flesh of the wolves. They gasped in pain, staggered, and dropped dead as the lethal toxins surged through their bloodstreams.
"No!" one of the few remaining wolves gasped.
"Dammit!" a troll snarled. "I've had enough of this!" Roaring, he started swinging his axe all over the place, smashing and demolishing every building within reach. "Enough of this game of Meowth-and-Rattata! Show yourself!"
"All right, if you insist," Lu, who had changed into a hooded white suit to blend in with the environment, said as she jumped off the pile of snow she'd been sitting on in plain sight of all of the monsters, landed on the troll's shoulder, and thrust a paw at its ear, driving the poisoned blade mounted on her wrist into his brain. As the lights went out in the troll's eyes and it toppled over, she leaped off the beast's shoulder and high into the air, spinning about and flinging poisoned throwing knives in every direction. The monsters scrambled to avoid the blades, but quite a few found their mark, downing a couple of trolls and most of the remaining wolves. As the startled beasts struggled to get their act back together, she landed on the ground and escaped from view as she used Dig to bury underground. The enraged wolves, seeking to avenge their fallen pack brothers, barked and tried to enlarge the hole she'd vanished down, but the soft snow had already caused the tunnel to collapse, denying them the chance to pursue her. She burst out of the snow a few feet away and spun about as she emerged back into the air, flinging smoke bombs all over the place that detonated and covered the street in a thick cloud of smog. As the monsters coughed and screamed and frantically flailed about trying to find the Eevee, the remaining ice elementals on the rooftops indiscriminately threw spears into the cloud, not particularly caring if they killed a few corporeals so long as they hit Lu. Unfortunately, when the smoke cleared and revealed nothing but a pile of dead trolls and wolves, some expired from poisoned darts and blades, others from getting run through by ice spears, the elementals knew they'd missed their target, as was made abundantly clear when Lu reappeared behind one and smashed into it with a flaming Tackle, knocking it off the roof and causing it to shatter into a million pieces on the ground below. Its partner angrily turned and thrust its spear at her, but she backflipped and spat a flaming Shadow Ball, destroying it in a small explosion. The remaining elementals hurled their spears at her to avenge their comrades, but Lu threw down a smoke bomb and vanished, the spears imbedding themselves in the roof with none managing to strike her. As the smoke cleared, the elementals formed new spears and looked around, trying to spot the assassin.
They were looking in the wrong place. Without warning, the buildings they were standing on collapsed due to Lu burrowing through their foundations with Dig, carrying the alarmed ice elementals with them and crushing them beneath tons of brick and stone and snow. Flurries of snow and dust were flung up by the great crash, before finally settling back down and leaving the area still and silent, evidence of the bloodshed already beginning to fade away as fresh snow fell to cover the bodies.
Lu burst out of the ground and shook her hood to throw off the snow all over her body. "Well, that went rather well," she commented as she surveyed her handiwork. "Now to rejoin the others and-"
Without warning, four massive ice dragons dropped from the sky and landed heavily on all sides of her, spreading their wings to block all escape and roaring furiously, showering her with saliva and very cold breath. Lu shivered and sweatdropped, realizing she was in serious trouble. "Aw, crap." She frantically reached for a smoke bomb, but didn't get a chance to use it as the dragons opened their mouths and bombarded her with a quadruple blast of ice breath, pouring as much subzero power into the attack as they could to freeze the Eevee assassin solid.
And normally, that would have been the end of it. Just about any other Pokémon, even some weaker Fire types, would have been killed by such an attack, even with the protective spells that had been cast on Lu before the battle. However, Lu was an Eevee, and as everyone knows, Eevees are…different from other Pokémon. Their genetic makeup is irregular, allowing them to evolve into a variety of different forms based on the environment. Usually they required the use of Stones, rocks imbued with a concentrated form of elemental energy, but there were some rare occasions where, when in extreme danger an Eevee could evolve without one so long as they were exposed to a very high dosage of elemental power…power such as that found in the ice breath the dragons were using on her. And normally not even that would be enough, but thanks to Bellum's Fimbulvinter spell, the entire landscape was bathed in ice magic, turning it into the sort of environment where evolution-inducing Ice Rocks and Frozen Rocks formed in other regions and making a plethora of elemental energy available to anyone capable of tapping into it. And at that moment, with her body racing to find some way, any way at all to save itself from death, Lu counted as such a person.
The ice energy permeated her unstable DNA, causing a marvelous transformation to take place. In a brilliant flash of light and a flurry of snow, Lu evolved into a Glaceon. The dragons paused to catch their breath and were astonished to see that their prey had not only survived, but changed, gaining light blue fur made of frozen quills, rhombus-shaped spots, and hair resembling a Sherpa cap. Lu stared down at herself, equally amazed. "Well," she said after a moment. "This was unexpected." She scowled. "And I'd always planned on evolving into an Umbreon, too…" The ice dragons recovered their equilibrium, snapping her out of her reverie. "Hmm? Oh, right, you guys. All right, if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get." She crouched, gathering her newfound power. A sinister grin formed on her face. "Let's see just what I'm capable of…" A dragon lunged at her, and she bounded forwards to meet it, eager to see how her assassination skills had been augmented by her evolution.
Somewhere else…
Vladimir, Dean, and Bob stood in the middle of a street surrounded on all sides by dozens of wolves, trolls, and ice elementals, with more elementals and a few dragons standing on the nearby rooftops. "Huh," Dean murmured. "Sure are a lot of them…"
"I find it flattering, actually, it means Bellum must consider us a threat," Vladimir said. "Let's show her she's right to think that way, shall we?"
A troll laughed. "There aren't so many of us here because Bellum thinks you're a threat, we're here because she wants to make absolutely sure you die!"
Vladimir raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? And how do you intend to do that? We vampires are notoriously difficult to kill, after all."
"We've been well-prepared to fight the likes of you," a wolf bragged, opening its jaws wide to show off its glittering teeth. Vladimir and Dean frowned when they noticed the teeth were made of silver, while Bob growled and opened his mouth wider to show he had a more impressive set of fangs.
"Silver has been infused into our claws, teeth, weaponry, and even our blood!" a troll bragged, raising a mace over his head and turning it to show off the silver spikes adorning its head. "So if even one of us manages to land a solid hit on you, or you try to drink our blood, you're done for!"
"Plus, we've been enchanted so your mind control tricks won't work on us!" another troll boasted. "Our strength and reflexes have also been boosted to be more of a match for your enhanced agility. In short, we're prepared for anything you can throw at us!"
"Hmm, you really have thought ahead, haven't you?" Vladimir said, impressed.
"I notice you didn't mention anything about solar power," Dean said.
"Ah, that's because they're creatures of the cold and dark," Vladimir said smugly. "They are not fond of sunlight. It doesn't harm them the way it does us, but it is still anathema to them all the same. After all, doesn't the Sun bring heat, and the end of winter?"
"Ohhh, I see," Dean said.
"We don't need sunlight to kill you!" a wolf said. "Everything we have is sufficient to eradicate you undead freaks from this world!"
"Ah, I'm afraid that's where you're wrong," Vladimir tutted, waving a fat finger. "You see, you aren't the only ones with a sorceress patron. Have you ever heard of an Amulet of Silver Repulsion?"
The Niflheim monsters exchanged puzzled looks. "Uh, no," a wolf admitted.
"That's because they were just invented this morning," Dean said as he pulled a glittering medallion hanging from his neck by a fine metal chain out from the collar of his shirt. "Riding on a train with some of the world's strongest magicians has its advantages."
"The Amulet of Silver Repulsion, as the name implies, repels silver," Vladimir explained as he pulled out his own medallion. "It's a refinement of your basic protection spell geared towards metal, specifically silver. If any weapon made of or harboring silver tries to strike us, it will rebound harmlessly from our bodies."
"Wh-what?" a troll cried in horror as the monsters gasped in alarm. "But…but all our weapons have silver in them!"
"No, the ice elementals are still fine, they make their own weapons," a wolf said quickly. "And the dragons have their ice breath! Plus, if they try to drink our blood, I doubt their Amulet will protect them from that silver!"
Dean shrugged. "We won't turn you, then. We'll just kill you."
"Indeed. Your threat of ice attacks doesn't really bother us…after all, what vampire is weak against ice?" Vladimir sneered.
The monsters slowly shuffled a few steps back, suddenly realizing they might have made a grave error in challenging these three. "W-we still outnumber you! You can't kill us all!" a troll said desperately.
Dean grinned. "Is that a challenge?"
Vladimir gave a low, long chuckle as darkness began to envelop his form, his cape flying out behind him. "The last few months of my life have been a living hell. I was abducted, imprisoned, tortured, experimented on, transformed against my will, experimented and tortured some more, and dragged to a convention to be displayed like some kind of zoological marvel before finally being granted my freedom…and now you wish to snatch that from me? I think not, my friends. After my first taste of liberty and power in ever so long, I do not intend to give it up easily. And after having my hands literally tied for these many months, now that I have the chance to finally strike back at my oppressors…I think I'm going to enjoy it." A huge formless blob of darkness with glowing red eyes, he expanded, getting larger and larger as he slowly began to take on a new shape. The panicking trolls shouted for the ice elementals to fire, and the evil spirits and the dragons blasted the blob with spears and ice breath, turning it into a frozen pincushion…
Which shattered as the blob continued growing, shrugging off the attacks like the harmless pinpricks they were. The blob elongated, growing four legs, a tail, and a wedge-shaped head, becoming distinctly lupine in figure, a two-meter tall Houndoom that looked as if it had emerged from the deepest pits of the Abyss (more so than regular Houndooms, anyway) with a skull-shaped helmet covering its head, four flaming (literally!) red eyes, curved horns that pointed forwards rather than back, three barbed tails, spikes growing from the bands around its ankles as well as from its knees, shoulders, hips, and sides, and a black mass draped over its back that at first looked like a cape but then split to reveal a pair of demonic wings. Metal 'boots' with very long nails and scythe-shaped blades extending over the claws from the knuckles were placed on each of its paws. The Amulet of Metal Repulsion remained hanging from its neck, but the chain had been transfigured into a bony collar-shaped spiked mass while the medallion itself was now a metallic skull. As the monsters stared in disbelief, the Houndoom opened its gaping jaws and emitted a hair-raising howl that left all of them shivering in fear and losing control of their bowels. Not one to be left out, Bob howled too, but it wasn't quite as impressive or spine-chilling. "Showoff," Dean said, unimpressed.
Moving with astonishing speed for something that massive, the transformed Vladimir bounded forwards, leaving flaming footprints in his wake as he smashed into the monsters, sending them flying as he tore into them, releasing the pent-up frustration from his captivity and torture as well as his natural vampiric aggression in a gut-wrenching display of senseless brutality and violence. Bob ran after him to help pick off the stragglers and kill anyone who tried to escape. Dean sighed longingly as he looked at all the blood being splattered all over the place, knowing it probably wasn't safe to drink, and instead turned to the ice dragons and elementals, who were staring at the carnage in horrified fascination. "Well, guess that leaves me with you lot," he said, grinning and showing his fangs. "And if you thought what he did was impressive…" He laughed as tendrils of darkness extended from his sides and solidified into glittering pitch-black chitinous claws, while Crobat wings grew from his back. "Then wait until you see what I can do!" he cackled as he spread his wings and flew towards them.
Further away…
Bruno sat in the middle of the street, his legs crossed, his arms folded before him, his eyes closed in concentration, humming softly under his breath. A large assortment of trolls, wolves, and ice elementals stood some distance away, staring at him warily. "Why's he just sitting there?" a wolf whispered.
"Dunno. Maybe he's sleeping?" another wolf whispered back.
"I don't think so…something tells me this guy's well aware of everything around him," a troll murmured.
"What makes you say that?" another troll asked.
"I dunno, He seems so…focused, I guess," the first troll replied.
"Why are we whispering?" a wolf whispered.
"…Because. Shut up!" another wolf said, unwilling to admit that something about the Machamp intimidated him.
"You shut up!" the wolf snarled back.
"Will somebody go over and attack the guy already?" a troll asked, losing his patience.
"But he's just sitting there, so…still, and calm, and collected," a wolf said.
"Exactly! A sitting Psyduck!" the troll said.
"How do you know we aren't the Psyducks?" the wolf muttered darkly.
"Just for that, you get to attack first," the troll said.
"What! Why don't you attack first?" the wolf protested.
"Because I said so. Now get!" the troll said, shoving the wolf forward.
Glaring back over his shoulder and grumbling under his breath about stupid thickheaded trolls, the wolf cautiously approached Bruno, wondering as he did so why he felt so apprehensive. It was just one guy, and he was sitting there. Sure, he was pretty buff and had four arms, and some pretty sweet tats, but other than that he didn't seem all that special. So why did the thought of attacking him fill him with dread?
"It doesn't have to be this way," Bruno said, startling the wolf so badly he yelped and jumped a few feet in the air, surprising himself at how high-strung he was.
"Doesn't have to be what way?" the wolf stammered as he tried to make his fur lie flat and his heart stop racing a mile a minute.
"There doesn't need to be conflict between us. This world is too warm for you. You do not belong here. If you choose to depart now, I will not stop you, and there does not need to be any bloodshed. When Niflheim's grip on Dusty Ditch is loosened, you can go back to your home plane safely. If not…" Bruno drew out the hesitation for a long moment. "Then I am going to have to do something that both of us will regret, you more than I."
The wolf bristled, this slight riling him up and making him forget his earlier trepidation. "What? You want us to leave?"
"That's right," Bruno said.
The wolf and the other monsters burst into laughter. "You craven coward! We are proud warriors of Niflheim, battling to the death for the glory of Queen Shivhel!" the wolf sneered. "We do not run from a fight, especially from a weakling who's so afraid of us that he resorts to negotiation to try and spare his pathetic life!"
"I'm not afraid of you," Bruno said.
The wolf paused. "Huh? You're not?"
"Not in the slightest. I have seen many things in this world, and a few other places too, and you are not one of the ones that frightens me," Bruno said.
The wolf snarled angrily. "Oh, a tough guy, huh? Think you can take us all on?"
"That's right. I can," Bruno said.
The wolf hesitated at this. The confidence in Bruno's voice was…rather disturbing. It was a self-awareness so absolute that it couldn't be called hubris, an honest belief in his own strength without pride or vanity. It was…somewhat disconcerting. But he couldn't show weakness, not in front of the pack and the other monsters. He'd never live it down. (Literally, they'd kill him.) "All right tough guy, if you think you're so strong, then show us what you're made of?"
Bruno frowned. "Are you certain that's what you want?"
"Yes!" the wolf snarled.
"Absolutely certain?" Bruno asked.
"Yes!" the wolf shouted.
"Because there's still time for you to-" Bruno started.
"Just open your eyes and fucking fight me already!" the wolf roared, his impatience and anger overwhelming his worry and common sense. The other monsters cheered and rooted him on, shouting at the Machamp to get up and fight.
Bruno sighed wearily. "Very well. If you insist. But know this: you brought this on yourself." He stood up abruptly, and the wolf was somewhat startled to find that, despite them being almost the same height, somehow the Machamp seemed to tower over him. Clasping his upper two hands before him, he reached down with his lower arms and undid the clasp on the fancy belt he wore around his waist. With a carefree flick of a hand, the belt was discarded, landing in the snow with a surprisingly strong impact that caused it to sink at least a foot or more beneath the surface. Bruno took a deep breath…
And his muscles bulged, swelling up to become even stronger, his total muscle mass doubling in half a second! As his hands and feet burst into flames, his eyelids flew open, revealing a pair of red irises set in the fiercest eyes the wolf had ever seen, and suddenly the tundra dweller realized he had made a terrible, terrible mistake. "Let it begin."
In a flash, Bruno grabbed the wolf by the scruff of his neck and hurled him away, the lupine howling piteously as he flew over the heads of his startled comrades, arced over the town, over the mountains, and vanished completely over the horizon. The astonished monsters turned their heads back from the spectacle in time to see Bruno dashing forwards much faster than a Machamp should be capable of moving. He was in their midst within milliseconds, wolves and even a few trolls flying everywhere as he smashed through them like they weren't even there. He punched a troll in the gut so hard that the beast literally doubled over, its body actually splitting in two from the force of the impact. A Low Kick sent a wolf that pounced at his leg through the side of not just one building, but fifty, hurling it the full length of the town and out into the foothills, where it smashed into a mountain so hard it was imbedded five feet into the living rock. He grabbed the heads of four trolls, one in each hand, and bashed them all together so hard every bone in their body liquefied. He then started spinning like a whirling dervish, using the dead trolls as flails to batter and knock away everything in sight, flinging them away when he'd built up enough centrifugal force and causing them to plow through the enemy forces at an alarming rate, bowling over anyone who'd just managed to pick themselves back up again. As the trolls and wolfs lay on the ground, moaning in pain, the enraged ice elementals charged forwards, hurling their spears at Bruno en masse. His hands moving so fast they were gray blurs, Bruno caught each spear one by one in his four arms, leaving him holding a quadruple fistful of icicles which he shattered with a simple squeeze of his fingers. Rather than grow new spears, the elementals extended their claws, getting within grappling distance. Unfortunately, that only made things worse for them when Bruno started punching things at a rate of a thousand punches a second, and since he had four arms going at once, he was actually delivering four thousand flaming blows a second. Within moments, the ice elementals were no more, and there was nothing but a very large steaming puddle in their place.
As Bruno paused to catch his breath, an ice dragon swooped down towards him, leading a group of ground troop reinforcements with more dragons speedily approaching in the distance. Bruno narrowed his eyes and stood his ground as the dragon dove at him, jaws opening wide. He caught the upper and bottom halves of the monster's mouth as it lunged at him, keeping it from biting down on him. The dragon, shocked that Bruno hadn't been budged in the slightest by its momentum, struggled to close its mouth, only to find the Machamp's grip as steady and implacable as stone. Enraged, its claws shot forwards at his chest, but Bruno caught them in his lower arms…and started to squeeze. Panicking now, the dragon exhaled, hitting Bruno with its strongest ice breath…
And doing absolutely no damage. Bruno smirked as the dragon's eyes widened in horror. "Sorry, but I've trained in colder temperatures. You'll have to try harder than that. Well, rhetorically speaking, since you're not going to get another chance." Before the dragon could even squeal in alarm, Bruno yanked its mouth wider open, splitting its jaws and killing it. Then he ripped off its lower jaw along with the beast's clawed limbs, flipping them around to use them as weapons. Realizing he still had one hand free, he shrugged and grabbed a fallen troll's axe, then brandished all four instruments, bellowing furiously as he ran towards the approaching monsters, who suddenly realized they might be picking on the wrong guy. They turned to run, but only made it that much easier for Bruno to strike at them, bashing bones and sending them flying with his stolen jaw, decapitating and dismembering with his axe, and rending and tearing with his stolen claws. Blood splattered all over the place, turning the white snow sticky and red as well as accentuating Bruno's anti-magic tattoos as it covered him from head to toe. Seeing the dragons were still coming, he paused in his slaughter to fling his axe at the lead dragon, his throw so powerful that the axe passed right through the wyrm, splitting it in two! Startled and frightened, the other dragons had second thoughts and turned to flee, but Bruno had no intention of letting them get away. Casually discarding his macabre weapons (each flying through the air with such speed and accuracy that they killed three monsters before hitting the ground), Bruno crouched down and pushed off the ground with all the strength in his considerable muscles, leaving craters behind as he launched himself into the air. The traumatized and shellshocked monsters he left behind stared after him incredulously. "He can fly?" a wolf cried finally.
"Do you see any Grumpigs?" a troll asked, scanning the skies.
"No, why?" another troll asked.
"Funny, I always thought they would fly before a Machamp did," the first troll said.
Of course, Bruno wasn't flying, just jumping really good, not that the distinction mattered very much to the monsters he was beating the crap out of. It did matter to the dragons, who were understandably alarmed to find Bruno reaching their altitude. A couple peering backwards on their long necks tried to knock him out of the sky with ice blasts, but their breath harmlessly rolled off of his skin as he continued his approach. A dragon screeched in alarm as Bruno landed on its back, and screeched harder when he kicked off, the recoil from his legs so strong it sent the dragon slamming into the ground far below. Bruno crossed his four arms in front of him in a Cross Chop as he approached the next dragon, his trajectory taking him towards and right past it. For a moment it looked like nothing had happened, but then the dragon split in four pieces, its body parts falling away. He spread his arms wide again as he approached the next dragon, grabbing onto its back and using his momentum to flip it over and over, spinning through the air with Submission before flinging it into another dragon, sending both of them tumbling to their demise. The last dragon shrieked in terror and tried to fly away as Bruno approached it, but even though it managed to rise above the Machamp as he fell past it, he grabbed its tail as he went by, dragging it down with him. The dragon bellowed in fear and frantically tried to shake him off, shaking its tail chaotically while flapping its wings as hard as it could, but Bruno was completely undaunted. With a mighty cry, he pulled with all his might, using Seismic Toss to fling the dragon beneath him in a ball of fire and send it crashing to the ground so hard an entire block of buildings collapsed, sinking into the ground and creating a huge crater that swallowed up a large chunk of Dusty Ditch. Even more got consumed by it when Bruno landed in the epicenter, causing the crater to expand and devour more buildings and even a few monsters.
Brushing himself off, Bruno got to his feet and looked at his surroundings and the results of his handiwork in sadness. "Why do they never take the easy way out?" he lamented. He sighed when he noticed a number of monsters jumping into the crater and cautiously coming towards him to see what was going on, getting a strong feeling that more violence was going to be in the near future. "All right…" he murmured, flexing his muscles as his strength returned to its full potency. "Let's get this over with…" He walked towards the approaching monsters, knowing that only one person was going to leave this crater alive.
Above him…
"This is so cool!" Todd gushed in awe as he flew through the skies, taking pictures of the incredible fighting and tremendous property damage taking place in the town below. It was a good thing there was nobody left to complain about the rampant destruction, or someone would be paying off some serious fines by the time this mess was over. Was this what it was like to be a war photographer, getting amazing shots of battles to bring the realities of death and bloodshed as well as valor and heroism home to the public? It made him wish there were a reporter there with him to narrate and take notes of everything that occurred, because he doubted images alone would be able to convey the full impact of what he was seeing here! Which was, he supposed, why he was taking so many pictures to compensate, although he doubted the majority of them would make it into whatever article was written about the battle. (He hoped the paper paid him a decent bonus for this. He was risking life and wing to get these pictures, after all!)
Circling over the war-torn town, he observed Captain Salty in action, watching in awe as the Tentacool called upon the holy power of his Splash Plate armor. He could use the Plate's control over water to restore the ice all around him to its liquid state and use it against his enemies, lashing out with great whip-like (flaming) tendrils of water, firing surprisingly hard (flaming) water bullets, and unleashing high-pressure streams of (flaming) water so powerful they could cut through flesh and bone as easily as a laser. He also seemed to be capable of ripping the moisture from his enemies, leaving them weakened and dehydrated and easily vulnerable to a finishing blow from his tentacles, which were now capable of elongating themselves seemingly indefinitely thanks to the Splash Plate, or by launching the fiery spines covering his armor. Additionally, he could fire fiery energy beams from his eyes, but whether this was due to the Splash Plate or something all Tentacool could do (urban legend stated that Tentacools could absorb sunlight and refract it inside its body to use as a weapon, but he'd never heard of any non-magical Tentacool actually performing such a technique) Todd didn't know. What he did know was that it was a difficult phenomena to capture on film, the beams were either moving too quickly to be caught on film or were so bright the glare made it almost impossible to see anything else in the photo. Salty's gigantic (flaming) tidal waves, which he seemed to be able to summon from thin air to sweep away his foes in a great flood, was much more photogenic. (Not quite as cool as some of the things Todd had seen Professor Brindleworth pull off, though, especially after he'd put that cool mustache, eyepatch, and hat on. Where had they come from, anyway?)
Leaving Salty to finish washing away the trash, Todd moved on to get some pictures of Butler and Diane, who made quite a battle couple. Their formal behavior and dress concealed a surprisingly powerful pair of fighters, though he supposed it made sense, after all, they were serving one of the world's greatest sorceresses, who reputedly demanded such excellence and competence in combat from all her employees. (As more than a few would-be thieves who tried to rob her stores or corporate buildings discovered, much to their detriment.) As he watched in amazement, Butler locked hands with one of the biggest and burliest trolls in the war band he and Diane were fighting and actually began to grapple it…and, both to Todd and the troll's amazement, seemed to be winning! "Gah! H-how can you be so strong?" the troll cried incredulously as Butler implacably pushed him back, wincing as the Dusclops's spectral hands started crushing his fists. "Y-you're just a spook in a fancy suit!"
"One of my venerable ancestors was the first in our family to wrestle a troll into submission with his bare hands," Butler said ominously, red eye glowing. "Since then, we have all been trained to do the same thing, should we ever meet a troll in battle…and I am pleased to say, sir, that I am more than adequate to match his feat!" He fired a Hyper Beam at point-blank range, vaporizing the troll's torso and head in a fearsome orange-yellow blast of flaming energy.
"Dear, I'm fairly sure your ancestor didn't use Hyper Beam when he fought that troll," Diane said as she wrapped her legs around the neck of an ice wolf whose jaws she was holding shut with Psychic, snapping it and ending its life with a twist.
"That's because he was a human, which made his accomplishment all the more impressive. But I'm sure that if he could have used Hyper Beam, he would have," Butler said as he yanked the weapons out of the hands of the trolls rushing towards him to avenge their comrade with Psychic, flinging them at some wolves which were approaching from behind and firing flaming Shadow Punches at the trolls. Diane Teleported before another wolf could close its jaws on her, landing on a Shadow Punch and jumping from ghostly fist to ghostly fist until she reached the trolls, leaping into the air as the punch she was riding on smashed into the chest of one of the brutes, twirling elegantly and using her magical power to augment her spin and shoot down at the troll's skull hard enough to split it open. She leaped from between the beast's shoulders as the troll collapsed, sailing towards another one, who reached up its thick hands to grab her…
Until Butler's hands, floating separately from his body, grabbed the troll's wrists and pulled them back so hard the arms dislocated, causing the troll to howl in pain…and then it couldn't howl anymore, as Diane kicked it in the chin so hard its head flew back, snapping its neck. As Diane leaped back into the air and started jumping amongst the trolls like a deadly ballerina, Butler kept them off guard and distracted by pummeling them with his disembodied fists and blasts of fiery Night Shade from his single eye. Some angry wolves pounced at him from behind…
And vanished into his back, never to return. The stories about Dusclops having hollow bodies with black holes at their cores was true, as the Niflheim monsters found much to their detriment. Ice elementals appeared on the rooftops and started flinging spears at him and Diane. Butler casually disintegrated them with Psychic, and then used his floating hands to lift Diane high into the air, the Kirlia posing as if she were a dancer being raised by her partner as part of a two-person performance. Once she was high enough, Butler let go of her then flung a massive Will-o-Wisp fireball at her. Diane's eyes glowed and she spun around, using Psychic as the fireball struck her to split it into dozens of smaller but no less potent fireballs which rained down on the monsters, causing them to cry out in pain as they were set on fire or began to melt. Diane landed gracefully on the ground, crossed her arms before her, and formed a burning blade of psionic energy in each hand. With a battle cry, she charged into the mob of panicked and burning monsters, slicing and gouging and stabbing, Butler giving her support with his phantom limbs and eye beams.
"Wow," Todd murmured, impressed as he took picture after picture. "I wonder if they put this much effort into the housework?" An ice spear shot past his head, startling him out of his awed reverie. "Huh? What the-" He yelped in alarm as a number of ice elementals on nearby roofs spotted him and started throwing spears at him. Realizing he had drifted too close to the ground in his effort to get really good shots, Todd quickly ascended out of their reach, more than a little on edge. It was one thing to observe and document fighting, but he didn't really want to be part of it. He was a photographer, not a warrior!
Unfortunately, he didn't seem to have much choice in the matter, as he discovered when a flight of ice dragons started winging their way towards him. Realizing they must consider him to be viable prey (or, a small part of him feared/hoped, mating material), Todd turned and flew in the opposite direction, not wanting anything to do with them. However, the dragons were not to be dissuaded and came in closer, spitting ice breath at him as they drew near. He yelped in alarm, having to duck and bob to avoid the frozen blasts, moving a bit more slowly and sloppily than he would have liked. It had been a rather long time since he'd practiced aerial combat maneuvers, something he was dearly kicking himself for now. After all, his ancestors had been terrors of the skies, and many of his cousins still were, what would they think if they could see him now?
Desperate to shake the dragons off and too startled to remember any spells, he tossed several of his custom Pester Balls in his wake. The dragons reflexively fired ice blasts at the projectiles…which they soon discovered was a big mistake when the balls exploded and released a noxious gas that sent them coughing and gasping for breath, dropping behind as they struggled to get their convulsions under control and keep from falling out of the sky. Todd laughed and turned to take a picture of them…
And a blast of ice struck one of his wings, freezing it solid. He cried in alarm as the sudden weight dragged him down, frantically flapping his other wing harder to try and compensate. He looked up and saw to his horror that another group of ice dragons had circled ahead and was now swooping towards him, ice breath powering up in their jaws. Desperately he threw more Pester Balls, but the dragons had seen what the spheres had done to their brethren and gave them a wide berth, splitting up so the balls flew harmlessly past them before converging on Todd. The Aerodactyl screamed in terror as they lunged at him, fangs and claws gleaming to tear him to pieces…
When suddenly a powerful energy blast struck one of the dragons, knocking it out of the sky. The dragons turned in surprise as another blast knocked a second of their number away, before a third found itself wrapped up in a flaming Spider Web and unable to free its wings as it plummeted to the ground. Todd sighed in relief when he saw Rose and Happy, the latter looking resplendent and terrifying in her Insect Plate armor, swooping in to rescue him. And what luck, too! They were two of the few combatants remaining that he hadn't gotten pictures of yet!
One of the remaining dragons hissed in rage and spat ice breath at the two winged rescuers. Happy waved the staff clutched in her talons and a great fireball materialized, blasting through the ice breath and striking the dragon in the chest, sending it tumbling to the ground in flames. The last dragon shrieked furiously as it lunged at Happy, who casually made a few gestures with her Plate-generated extra limbs…and watched as the dragon fell to pieces inches away from her, the bits tumbling to the ground. "Are you okay?" the Butterfree asked.
"I've been better," Todd panted, sweat rolling down his gray skin as he tried to support himself with only one wing. "I don't suppose you could help me with that, too?"
"Sure thing…uh oh," Rose said in alarm when she noticed that the effects of the Pester Balls had worn off on the first group of dragons and they were now flying towards them, enraged and out for blood. "I think we need to take care of this first." She flapped her wings and waved her staff, using her magic to create a mighty flaming Whirlwind that swept up the startled ice dragons, the beasts shrieking and loosing their ice breath on each other as they were battered and burnt and wildly spun about. Extending her claws, Happy flew into the tornado, her strengthened wings allowing her to pierce and repel the fierce wind and fire with ease, allowing her to fly in and out of the tornado several times in rapid succession before coming to a halt with her back turned to it. She turned…
And the dragons in the Whirlwind exploded in bloody pieces, having been sliced apart by Happy's Plate-powered blades. "Wow! Cool!" Todd said, wishing his other wing weren't frozen solid, because he couldn't take pictures without it and that had been something definitely worth getting a shot of.
"Yes, if you consider killing people to be cool," Rose said bitterly.
"It is when it's the bad guys, and you do it in a really flashy and stylish way," Todd said.
The Taillow glanced at him distastefully. "This isn't a game. This is a serious battle. People could get killed, just like you almost did. It's not something to be taken lightly."
"…Sorry," Todd apologized, Miltanked by her statement. "This is my first battle. I've never really been involved in anything like this up close and personal before."
"And now you have," Happy said as she licked the blood off her claws. "Why didn't you fight back against those dragons?"
"I did!" Todd said indignantly as Rose touched her staff to his frozen wing, melting it. "What do you think those Pester Balls were?"
"I mean really fight back. You're an Aerodactyl, one of the most powerful and dangerous Flying Pokémon of all time. Why were you running away rather than fighting those dragons?" Happy asked.
"…I'm just a photographer," Todd said, embarrassed. "Up till now, I've always been sent on safe, easy assignments, like getting pictures of the dedication ceremony for some important building, or a reception for a visiting dignitary or important official, or fluff pieces. You know, stuff like that. I've never been sent anywhere where there was ever any chance of me being hurt."
"But what about before you became a photographer? You never learned how to fight then?" Rose asked in surprise.
"Well, my parents tried to teach me some, and I learned some basic defense spells in school, but…I dunno, I lacked the predatory instinct the rest of my family did. Well, I still have it, but for photography instead of battle," Todd said Mareepishly. "Which is why I studied to become a photomancer rather than applying myself to the sorts of aggressive high-risk jobs my siblings were striving for. Or, as my parents would say, the ones that actually pay the bills…"
"I see…" Rose murmured.
"Well, I guess that makes sense, you can't expect every member of a species to share the same characteristics or attitude," Happy admitted.
Todd nodded. "Yeah, deep down I'm a pacifist at heart. In fact, that's why I developed those Pester Balls, so I could specifically avoid battle, since anyone who gets hit by one is generally too busy trying to clear their lungs to bother with me."
"…If you're a pacifist, then why did you think our killing those dragons was 'cool?'" Rose asked skeptically.
"Well, I'm okay with other people's violence, just so long as it's not directed at me," Todd explained. They sweatdropped.
"Well, I don't think you're going to be able to avoid danger if you keep acting like you have up until now," Rose said. "If you really aren't going to be able to defend yourself, maybe you should head back to the train. You'll be safer there."
"What? I can't do that!" Todd protested. "My place is here, on the scene of battle, documenting the titanic battles you're all engaged in! The world needs to know of the heroism and bravery you've displayed in repelling the invaders from Niflheim, and my pictures will provide proof of the sacrifices you've made for the people of Sinnorre! Otherwise, how else will they really appreciate everything you've done for them?"
Happy blinked. "That's…incredibly noble, Todd."
"Yeah, I had no idea you felt that way," Rose said.
"I'm a mon of hidden depths! That, and I don't think I can go back to the train since it's currently under heavy siege by what looks like hundreds of monsters and there's no way I can get through them," Todd said. The girls sweatdropped.
Rose sighed. "Then I guess we have no choice but to stick with you to make sure you don't do anything stupid that'll get you killed…"
"I suppose we're obligated to," Happy agreed reluctantly.
Todd gasped in delight. "Oh wow, then I have my own pair of escorts and bodyguards? That is so cool! With you to protect me, that means I can get the really good shots without having to worry about some crazy ice monster trying to kill me! Come on, let's go see what that Professor Brindleworth is up to, there's always tons of explosions in his corner of the town!" Before they could get a word in, he turned and flew off.
"W-wait! Come back!" Rose protested, frantically flying after him.
Happy sighed as she followed suit. "This is not going to be fun…"
In the other direction…
Some ice elementals patrolling the rooftops looked up in puzzlement as a horizontal lightning bolt zigzagged towards them, quickly jumping out of the way and letting it fly past them and into the distance. They exchanged confused looks, wondering what that had been about…and then they noticed the small whirlwind blowing towards them, tearing up every building in its path. They panicked and quickly leaped off the building they were standing on, the tornado smashing it to pieces just as they vacated it. As it spun off, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, the elementals again stared at each other in bewilderment, wondering what had just happened.
Had they been fast (and stupid) enough to chase after the two forces of nature, they would have found out the answer when the lightning bolt stopped in midair and rematerialized into Marianne, while the tornado slowed and came to a stop several meters away, dissipating to reveal Bow. "Aha! You 'ave led me on a merry chase, Marianne, but it seems as if I 'ave you right where I want you!" the Drifloon proclaimed.
Marianne flashed her terrifying grin, her laughter echoing through the air like crackling static. "Bzbzbzzzbzbzzzbz!"
Lightning bolts shot down from the sky and struck the ground in a ring all around them, threads of electricity splitting out from the primary bolts and weaving together to form a massive crackling web encircling the two ghosts. "Ah," Bow said with a frown. "Or per'aps you 'ave me right where you want me. Hrmm."
Another lightning bolt stabbed down from the sky, striking Marianne on the horn. The Rotom's static laughter grew louder and more chaotic in intensity as the already oversized Plasma wisp grew even bigger, absorbing the electricity until she was twice her original size (Making her approximately eight feet tall. She had always been large for her species.). Her glyph-covered electrical aura pulsated, and suddenly parts of it exploded outwards, lighting bolts striking down on the nearby rooftops and taking shape, coalescing to form bipedal creatures made of pure electricity, their jagged-edged forms shifting through all the colors of the rainbow as they danced and wiggled in place due to the unstable energy making up their bodies. Bow frowned as the creatures split apart, replicating themselves at an exponential rate until there were almost a hundred of them staring up at her. "Lightning elementals, eh? Looks like you are taking a page out of your mozzer's book. Good zing you aren't ze only one who can do zat! Spirits of ze wind, come to my aid!" She unfolded her fan and swished it in front of her, generating a strong breeze that flew through the holes in the electric web encircling them and swirling around her, splitting apart into dozens of miniature cyclones which shaped themselves into wind elementals similar to the ones Rebecca had summoned. "Zere, now it is no longer so one-sided," Bow taunted as Marianne gnashed her teeth angrily. "Get zem!" Howling like…well, the wind, the breezy spirits flew down at the lightning elementals, which leaped upwards to meet them on pillars of electricity.
The two armies collided, wind and electricity blowing all over the place as the elementals clashed. Although the wind elementals were capable of generating gusts and cyclones and wind blades strong enough to blast the lightning elementals to pieces, the creatures would simply regenerate from the scattered bits and come back for more. Conversely, while the lightning elementals could fire powerful energy bolts and rend the wind elementals to shreds with their jagged claws and fangs, ultimately that had no effect, since the bolts either passed right through the living cyclones or caused them to spawn new warriors as well. After all, they were creatures made of air, and how was a person supposed to combat something like that?
As a result, since both groups of elementals were beings of pure energy unlike elementals of ice or rock, which were bound into physical forms, neither army was able to effect any lasting damage upon the other, especially since neither of them was made of the other's opposing element. That was all right, though, Bow hadn't called in her friends the wind spirits in hopes of defeating Marianne's minions, but of keeping them occupied long enough for her to take out Bellum's eldest (and at the moment, only) daughter. "Now, Marianne, it is just you and I! It is time for you to pay for what you did to my cher ami!" She waved her fan angrily at Marianne, generating a solid wall of air that slammed into the Rotom with the force of a hurricane, knocking her back. Marianne grunted as she was buffeted by the wind, the hardened air blades which followed it up slicing into her plasma and causing her energy field to convulse wildly. Enraged, she turned into a lightning bolt and shot towards Bow, zigzagging between the oncoming wind blades and dancing around the cyclones and walls of air that came after them. She gathered her power, ready to slam into Bow hard enough to electrify the Drifloon into the next world…
Only to rebound off the barrier of hardened air Bow managed to call up at the last moment, knocking her for a loop. "You did not zink I would be beaten zat easily, did you?" Bow mocked as she pointed her head at the dazed Marianne and began spinning in place, generating a purple cyclone of Ominous Wind that roared towards the Rotom. Marianne recovered and shifted into her Fan Forme, blades spinning so fast they became a solid blur as she launched rapid-fire Air Slashes down the center of an electrically-charged cyclone of her own, trying to repel Bow's Ominous Wind. At first, it seemed to have an effect, or at least managed to stalemate Bow's attack…until Bow laughed and whipped out a second fan, causing her spin to speed up and the amount of wind she churned out to increase significantly. "Come now, I am a wind mage! Do you really zink using my own element against me will do anyzing?" she taunted as she not only pushed Marianne's attack back, but used her mastery over wind to turn it against her, the cyclone reversing itself and wrapping around Marianne as the Air Slashes bombarded her, leaving her helpless to save herself from getting blasted head-on by the Ominous Wind.
The Rotom bellowed in pain, her wails like white noise on a television that had lost its cable connection, electricity blasting all over the place and causing Bow to flinch in place and float back from the glare. The winds eased up as a result, allowing the furious Marianne to regain control of her plasma and shift into her Frost Forme, bombarding Bow with a Blizzard. Bow grimaced in distaste as she was pelted with snow and chunks of hail. "Ugh, as if zis weazzer wasn't bad enough already!" She waved her fan, creating a cyclone that sucked up all the snow Marianne was churning out and entrapping it in the vortex, which she sent flying back at the Rotom. Marianne quickly shifted into her Heat Forme and spat out an Overheat that not only melted the snow, but filled in the vacuum it left behind, creating a towering inferno. "Ooh! Zat's much better," Bow said as the ambient temperature increased. "Merci, Marianne!" Frustrated, Marianne opened the door in her midsection again and launched fireballs at Bow as the fire twister dissipated. Bow generate a smaller cyclone, sucking the fireballs up and spitting them back out in lazy arcs that caused them to crash down on the heads of the battling elementals, not that they noticed. Bow tutted. "You'll 'ave to try 'arder zan zat, I'm afraid."
Marianne did. She shifted to Wash Forme and fired a Hydro Pump, then immediately changed back to Frost Forme and struck the stream of water with a Blizzard just as Bow generated her cyclone, freezing it into a thick pillar of ice which flew right through the twister and smashed through the barrier of hard air the startled Drifloon called up, shattering on impact and sending her flying back into the lightning barrier around the arena, causing her to scream in pain as millions of volts of electricity coursed through her body. Cackling gleefully, Marianne raised her lightning bolt limbs over her head and used Evil Eye, her eyes glowing purple and causing purple mist to come out of her arms and coalesce in a ball over her head. A purple eye opened in the knot of darkness at the heart of the mist and fired waves of purple and blue energy at Bow, an attack powerful to enough to kill the wind witch (more than usual) due to her current electrified state.
Or at least, it would have if a group of wind elementals hadn't materialized in front of Bow, combining their powers to create a cyclone to retaliate against the Evil Eye, the energy blasts clashing into each other with tremendous force. However, the Evil Eye attack was much stronger than the cyclone, so all the spirits did was slow the blast down as it tore through the whirlwind and the elementals and…
Completely failed to hit Bow, who'd been dragged free from the electric barrier by another elemental while the others had held the Evil Eye back. "Je vous remercie, mes amis," Bow said weakly, her purple body still crackling with electricity, her ribbons burnt to a crisp. She cast a healing spell on herself to mend her wounds as Marianne howled in fury and blasted the elemental that had saved Bow with an Elecball, which did about as much damage as you would expect. "Well, zat was a close one, I will admit…but in ze end, it just proves what I already knew, zat I will win in ze end. Do you know why zat is, Marianne? Because I 'ave friends who can back me up in a tight spot, friends who I can count on when I need zem most! And who do you 'ave, Marianne? Your Mozzer? Your lightning elementals? 'Ow many of zem would do what my friends just did to 'elp you?" Marianne shot a look at her minions, who buzzed nonchalantly and tried not to meet her eye. Bow smirked as the Rotom crackled with anger. "Zat's what I zought. Not a single one. You 'ave no one, Marianne…which is why you will lose."
Marianne shook with rage, static bolts shooting off from her as she lost control of her temper. The smug bitch thought she was so superior just because she had lots of friends and money and a nice house and…and a mother who loved her? Well, Marianne didn't need those! She didn't need any of that! She already had everything she needed to win…and it was time to prove it and show she was a worthy heir to her mother's legacy of evil. Howling like a radio unable to quite get in tune with a station, Marianne gathered the lightning elementals to her, magnetically drawing them into her body despite their startled cries and unwilling protests, adding their power to her own and causing her form to grow yet again…and change, into something new, something unprecedented, something that no Rotom had ever managed before.
Bow's jaw dropped in horror as Marianne towered over her, going from an eight foot-tall bulbous lightning rod to a massive humanoid figure at least fifty feet in height, its form blocky and covered with all sorts of flashing lights and buttons. Its zigzagging energy arms ended in circular pincer claws. Its inflexible legs ended in thick bases with rollers growing from the bottom. A protrusion that looked rather a lot like a key sprouted from her back. Her head, now cubic in form, had flashing strobe lights emerging from the top and a pair of huge gray eyes set behind a black screen with a big blocky grin made of metal panels under it. A strong gray aura surrounded the monstrosity, pulsing and emitting bursts of static which ravaged the nearby buildings. "BZZBZZBZZ," she hummed robotically, her many lights flashing in tune with her vocalizations.
"…Well," Bow said after a moment, dumbstruck by the size and impossibility of Marianne's new Steel-type Meta Forme. "Zat's new."
Miles away…
Paul dashed across the snowy foothills outside of Dusty Ditch, the wind howling and blowing snow and hail right in his face as he went, his footprints vanishing behind him. Paul didn't notice. He was an Ice-type, after all, and had grown up in conditions similar to this; this sort of weather didn't bother him.
It didn't bother Dawn either, who was not only keeping up with him, but actually gaining on him, her dress and braided ears flowing out behind her as she chased him, upper body leaned forward and arms pressed to her sides to maximize her aerodynamicity and running speed. Not that she really needed any of that with feet and leg muscles as strong as hers, but it was the way she had been trained to run, and as a result she moved at speeds greater than most Buneary could ever hope to accomplish. The weather didn't faze her in the slightest, which didn't surprise Paul at all, since she had grown up in the same place as he. In fact, when they were younger, they'd gone on races like this outside the Claw clan's fortress all the time. He'd always won those races, and their matches…and he had no intention of breaking that streak now.
Oddly, the Dragonite Kairyu also barely seemed to notice the adverse conditions, which was somewhat troubling since last time Paul checked, Dragonite were weak against Ice and wintry weather. He supposed that the dragon wizard could be using spells to protect himself, but…something about the way he flew, the way he moved so gracefully and swiftly that it almost seemed like he was actually dodging the snowflakes, seemed uncomfortably familiar.
Setting that matter aside for the moment, he crested a rise and found a shallow dip in the land, a snow-covered bowl of sorts formed by a ring of hills. There weren't many trees or rocks, or anything that could be used as a hiding place, but Paul had never needed to rely on things like that to win a battle. His ninja skills were strong enough to not require them. "This looks like a good place, don't you think, Dawn?" he asked as she approached.
It will suffice, she clicked, not looking the least bit surprised that he'd deduced her identity. Now if only he could figure out whom Kairyu really was. He doubted that was his real name, but…no, it couldn't possibly be him, could it?
"Indeed, it will," the Dragonite agreed as he landed beside them.
"Good. Then let's get down there so we can start killing each other," Paul said.
Only one person will die here this day…and it will not be either of us, Dawn said, gesturing to herself and to the Dragonite.
"We'll see about that," Paul said as he slid down the slope into the shallow bowl, knowing they wouldn't hit him while his back was turned. Not yet, anyway. He walked to the center of the makeshift and waited for them to join him before asking the question that was burning at him. "So, before we start, there's something I have to know…who are you, really? And why do you want to kill me so much?" Paul asked Kairyu.
The Dragonite smiled coldly. "Don't you remember, Paul? You killed my son."
"I've killed lots of people's sons. You're going to have to be more specific," Paul said.
"How many of them were your childhood friends?" Kairyu asked.
Paul stiffened, the connections snapping into place in his mind, confirming his worst suspicions. "No…it can't be! I killed you!"
"No, you killed a simulacra," Palmer said. "I was away on a long-term mission and so had to leave behind a doppelganger to keep up appearances. I didn't even know about your misdeeds until Dawn here told me about them."
"A simulacra…but then that means…!" Paul looked around in alarm.
Unfortunately, it seems that Master Palmer was the only one other then myself to survive your betrayal, Dawn clicked angrily. More's the pity, I would not have minded taking you down with the aid of the rest of the Claw clan's elders.
Paul's shoulders slumped in relief. "Then it's just you, huh? You're all that's left of the Claw? Good. Then I won't have to worry about anyone else trying to assassinate me once I've gotten rid of you two and destroyed the last semblance of my past for good."
You are mistaken, Paul. It is you who will be destroyed for good, Dawn said.
"It may just be the two of us…but we're all it'll take to end you, and avenge the brethren you've betrayed," Palmer said, narrowing his eyes. "Including my son."
"Barry had it coming," Paul said dismissively. "If I didn't do it, someone else would have eventually. He was a terrible ninja, you know it as well as I do! Always impetuous and obnoxious and in a hurry, always yelling at people to pay him fines after he bumped into them…it's like he thought he was one of the ninjas from that stupid anime, you know the one. That kind of behavior would have gotten him killed out in the field. I did him the favor of killing him before he could do something that would humiliate the both of you and ruin your honor. You should be thanking me for getting rid of that weakling!"
"You!" Palmer snarled angrily, struggling to control himself. "I'll be the first to admit Barry was not the perfect ninja, but he was still my son, dammit, and you took him from me! How dare you say that by killing him you were 'helping' him!"
That 'weakling' was our friend, Paul, no matter how much of a pain he could be! He idolized you! He trusted you! He was one of the few people who still believed in you after you broke our most sacred laws…and you killed him like everyone else! Dawn accused.
"Friend? Please," Paul snorted. "I always hated him, even before my eyes were opened to the weakness festering at the heart of the Claw clan and I gained immortality. The only reason I let him hang out with us is because it would have been unwise to insult the son of one of the clan's most powerful and influential ninjas. Isn't that why you never told him what you really felt when he started getting on your last nerve?"
I never told him that because I valued his feelings more than I valued his parentage. Barry could be annoying, but he was still my friend, and I would have treated him the same no matter who his father was. I once thought you would have behaved the same way, Dawn said angrily.
"I might have…once," Paul admitted. "But that was a long time ago, back when I thought I still needed friends…before I realized just how much you and everyone else was holding me back and keeping me from reaching my full potential."
"The only one keeping you from doing that was yourself, Paul!" Palmer said. "Rather than take the test that would have proven you had what it took to be a true ninja—a test which, I might add, Barry took even though you did not—you turned to darker forbidden arts, going against everything our clan stood for!"
"Good! If the clan was afraid to claim true power, the power they had been guarding all these years, then they deserved to be disobeyed! They deserved to be betrayed!" Paul shouted. "We could have used the scroll to rule, to dominate…instead, we spent centuries kowtowing to Rayquaza and the rest of the Draconian Empire, preventing ourselves from becoming stronger and escaping the cage our traditions and code of honor had formed around us! But instead of celebrating when I chose to defy custom and gain immortality, you punished and imprisoned me, and sentenced me to death! And since you so casually discarded me…I felt no compunction in doing the same to all of you!"
"…You really have lost it, haven't you?" Palmer murmured, appalled. "Dawn told me that the scroll had driven you mad…but I hadn't realized it had twisted you this much."
"It showed me the truth…that I didn't need anyone but myself to become the best! Just like I don't need anyone else now to destroy you and end the Claw forever!" Paul said.
That is a task easier said than done, Paul. There are two of us and one of you, and you no longer possess immortality, Dawn pointed out. The last time we battled, it was the only thing that kept me from killing you in a straight-on fight. Without it, especially with a ninja as skilled as Master Palmer fighting beside me, you have no hope of besting us.
Paul snickered. "Ah, but that's where you're wrong, old friend. The only reason you won last time was because I was holding back!"
Dawn started. What?
"Don't be ridiculous," Palmer sneered.
"I speak nothing but the truth. Do you really think they'd have let me keep fighting in the tournament circuit if they knew just how powerful I really am, the kinds of things I'm capable of?" Paul taunted. "I had to hold back to keep from being disqualified and barred for life. If I had used my full strength before, you would never have managed to wound me as seriously as you did, or strip me of my immortality!"
Well, there's nobody here but us, so why don't you show us this 'true strength?' Dawn asked skeptically.
"Careful, he's up to something…" Palmer murmured.
Paul grinned sinisterly. "Is that doubt I detect, Dawn? How foolish of you. You seem to have forgotten one important thing about me…I am a Shadow Pokémon, and what is it that the strongest of us can do?"
Dawn's eyes widened in horror, realizing from experience what Paul was about to do. No! Not that!
"That's right!" Paul cackled, biting down on a false tooth, shattering it and releasing the Shadow he'd hidden in it. "We can go into HYPER MODE!" With a cry that rang across every corner of the frozen desert, a tremendous pitch-black Shadow Aura exploded around Paul, the force of it evaporating all the snow on the ground and the surroundimng hills and sending Dawn and Palmer flying. Palmer managed to recover faster and righted himself in the air. He didn't bother trying to catch Dawn, confident she could handle herself. He was right; the Buneary managed some elaborate twirls in the air and landed neatly on her feet, looking down in alarm at the transformation Paul was undergoing. He was screaming in pain and ecstasy as his fangs grew longer, his claws sharpened, his muscles bulked up, his crown and collar transformed into crimson spikes, his ear and tail feathers became horns and blades, bone spikes burst from his joints and back, and veins bulged out of his skin as the red in his irises bled out to fill the rest of his sclera, making his eyes completely bloodshot. "This does not look good…" Palmer murmured.
Hyper Mode…I should have realized he could do this! If any Shadow Pokémon's heart is black enough to attain it, it's his! Dawn cursed. But because he didn't use it before, it never occurred to me that he was capable of it…I am sorry, Master. I have failed you.
"Don't be so quick to blame yourself, Dawn, you told me what these Shadow Pokémon are capable of, but the idea of Paul having a Hyper Mode never occurred to me either," Palmer said. "As senior ninja and last of our clan's ruling council, if anyone should have anticipated this, it was me. The fault lies with me, not with you."
Master- Dawn started.
"Will both of you quit blaming each other? It's making me sick!" Paul snarled, his voice turning thick and guttural. He crossed his longer, stronger arms on his chest and concentrated. Much to Palmer and Dawn's amazement, ice materialized on his body, ice that congealed and shaped itself to form armor. A very familiar set of armor…
"That…that is the armor of the Slicer!" Palmer gasped.
The same armor I wore when I was turned into a Shadow Pokémon! Dawn said.
Plaques with two spikes each were mounted on his shoulders. Gauntlets with three blades each were on his arms, with a pair of long curved spikes growing over the claws on his left hand. Ice plates covered his hips and chest, while ice boots with three greaves each formed on his legs, the toes open to let his feet claws out. Paul grinned as an ice grille clicked into place over his mouth, his new spiky helmet covering all of his head except for his eyes and a hole that had been carved out of the trident-shaped ornament on the forehead to make room for his yellow gem. "You like it? After I saw the kind you managed to generate, I thought I'd get a set of my own. Considering that I'm no longer immortal, I figured I'd need some manner of protection to make sure I don't die before I find a way to live forever again, and what better protection to wear than the same kind of armor that was worn by some of our kind's greatest legends?"
"Before the Toe clan's betrayal, the Slicer armor was only worn by our greatest heroes!" Palmer snarled angrily. "You are not fit to wear it, not even a facsimile!"
On the contrary, Master, I can't think of anyone more fitting…after all, aside from the Slicer, has there even been a greater traitor in the history of our clans? Dawn corrected.
"Ah, I see what you mean," Palmer realized. "Perhaps Dawn has a point, the armor does suit a traitor to his kin like you, Paul."
"Why thank you," Paul said coyly. "Why else do you think I made it in the first place? It's a symbol of my power, and how much I have grown since the destruction of our clan. While the two of you adhered to the rules that have stifled us for centuries, I have evolved, becoming the greatest ninja who ever lived!"
Those rules existed for a reason, Paul, Dawn said. By breaking them, you are not worthy to be called a ninja!
"Maybe you're right," Paul admitted. "After all, why would I want to lump myself in with idiots like you? I can call myself whatever the Abyss I want…that's the benefit of having freedom and power, nobody can stop me from doing as I please!"
"Freedom? Power? Please," Palmer scoffed.
Dawn nodded in agreement. You are nothing but a slave of Oblivion's Shadow. You come and go at his bidding, and are reliant on him for power and an alternative to immortality, now that the cursed scroll is gone forever. Without him, you are no more than just another bloodthirsty thug with delusions of grandeur!
"I'm far more than just some thug!" Paul snapped angrily, his Aura blazing. "Let me show you just what I'm capable of!"
"Fine," Palmer said, throwing off his robe at the same time as Dawn discarded her gown. Beneath their disguises, both of them were wearing white ninja gis to blend in with the snow. Dawn had somehow managed to remove her makeup, equip her new claws and sword, put on her ornaments and wrappings, and dyed her fur in the split second her body had been hidden from view by the discarded dress, while Palmer had managed to put on a ninja mask and draw a sword as well in the same second. How had they done this so quickly? Ninja quick-change tricks, naturally!
And we will show you what we are capable of, Dawn said.
Paul grinned behind his grille. "I'm looking forward to it."
There was silence for a moment as the snow fell. They stared at each other, waiting for some sort of signal to indicate they should begin. After a few minutes, they received that signal: a snow-laden tree branch that had been weakened by Paul's transformation and was no longer able to bear its burden creaked and snapped off, dumping its load to the ground. The rupture rang throughout the area like a thunderclap, and before the snow had even hit the ground the three ninjas were in the air, leaping towards each other for a clash that would be so incredible that later on Leo would complain that they didn't make a video of it for him to watch.
Higher up and further away…
"Get back here, Articuno!" Ritchie yelled as he pursued the ice bird up the mountainside, using the power of the Fist Plate to leap from crag to crag and run up sheer vertical cliff walls with incredible speed and agility, his natural athleticism boosted to incredible levels by his armor. "You can't evade us forever!"
"Who said anything about evading? If you lose your footing up here, I won't even need to lift a talon to finish you!" Articuno squawked back, smashing a Steel Wing into a cliff and sending several hundred tons of rock and snow tumbling down towards Ritchie in a tumultuous avalanche. "Let's see you survive this!"
"With pleasure!" Ritchie said, leaping from boulder to boulder, remaining on each plummeting rock for only a fraction of a second before moving to the next one, swiftly climbing up the falling chunks of debris as if they were motionless floating platforms and clearing the danger zone in mere moments.
Ash, who wasn't quite as fast or agile as Ritchie, didn't do quite as well. "!" he shouted as he lost his footing while attempting to mimic Ritchie's feat and started getting carried down by the avalanche towards the very, VERY distant ground, though being knocked about by the rocks and buried in the snow would probably kill him before he hit the bottom.
Fortunately, he had a guardian angel looking out for him, or rather, a guardian Pupitar. "DADDY!" Tiny cried in horror as he saw Ash fall down the mountainside towards his demise. "Cruise, come on, we have to help him!"
The other Pupitar, who had been so intent on trying to catch up to his own parental figure, started both from the realization that Ash was in jeopardy and that Tiny had spoken. "R-Rico, you spoke! But I thought you had a vow of silence?"
"Saving my Daddy's life is more important than that right now, come on!" Tiny shouted, flying down after Ash. Cruise glanced briefly at Ritchie, who hadn't noticed what was going on and was still chasing Articuno, then turned away and followed Tiny.
Ash cried out in pain as he was knocked about and battered, bashed repeatedly between boulder and mountainside as he fell, huge chunks of snow and ice bombarding him and keeping him from getting his bearings. An especially nasty blow to the head caused his vision to go dark for a moment, and he came dangerously close to passing out…
When suddenly his descent came to a rather jerking and painful halt, causing him to yelp in pain as both his arms got caught over something very large and very pointy, nearly dislocating them. "Hang on, I've got you!" someone shouted.
His vision swimming in and out of focus, Ash stared dazedly at the thing under his arm and realized it was a Pupitar. "Uhhh…Tiny?"
"Huh? No, I'm Cruise," said the confused Pupitar. "Who's Tiny?"
"I am," said the Pupitar under Ash's other arm.
"I thought your name was Rico?" asked the puzzled Cruise.
"Um…well…the thing is, uh…Daddy and I may not have been one hundred percent honest with you about a few things…" Tiny said slowly.
"Um, can we talk about this a little later, guys?" Ash asked as he managed to regain some of his senses, though his head—and most of his body—still hurt like the Abyss. He looked down and gulped when he saw that he was floating several thousand feet off the ground, the ongoing tumult of snow and rock continuing its descent down the mountain just behind them. "Preferably somewhere with solid ground?"
"Oh, right," Tiny said shamefacedly.
"Hang on, we'll get you to safety," Cruise said.
Tiny grunted as he and Cruise both expelled gas from inside their shells to carry Ash towards the top of the mountain. "Phew…you're kinda heavy, Daddy…"
"Well, now you know how I felt carrying you all the time," Ash said.
With some effort, they managed to carry Ash beyond the avalanche zone and onto a relatively stable landing fairly close to the top of the mountain, several times nearly fainting from exhaustion, which would have sent all of them tumbling to their doom. Fortunately, despite a few terrifying close calls, they made it to safety, where Ash pulled out several Berries and curative items and administered them to everyone to bring them back to full health and strength. "Where's your Daddy?" Tiny asked Cruise angrily once they'd had a moment to recover. "He should have been helping us!"
"He couldn't let Articuno get away!" Cruise protested. "He's probably fighting her right now! He probably didn't notice what happened, if he had, he would have come back to help us right away?"
"Oh yeah?" Tiny asked dubiously.
"Tiny, leave it, Cruise is right. Ritchie's a Lucario like me; it's instinctual for us to help people. It comes as second nature. If he had known what was going on, he would have doubled back straight away to help. I would have done the same for him."
"Yeah, but he didn't notice, now did he?" Tiny asked darkly.
There were several explosions and loud screeches from above them. They glanced up in unison at the peak only a few hundred meters above them, hearing the noises of a powerful battle taking place. "That's probably because Articuno has him a little tied up at the moment," Ash said, taking out his staff and running up the steep slope. "Let's see if we can't give him a hand, can we?"
The trio quickly scurried up the mountainside and soon reached the summit, where Ritchie was locked in frenzied combat with Articuno. The armored Lucario rolled to the side as the ice bird swooped past, her talons passing so close to the ground that they left deep scratches in the rock, and fired an Aura Sphere at her side. Articuno screeched in pain as the energy ball exploded, knocking her away, but managing to spread her wings and use the momentum to rise a little unsteadily back into the sky. "Hiori, Cruise, Rico! What took you guys so long?" Ritchie asked in surprise as he sensed them approaching.
"Daddy couldn't keep up with you and got caught in the avalanche!" Tiny accused angrily. "If we hadn't gone back for him, he'd have died!"
"What?" Ritchie gasped.
"Rico! Er, Tiny, er…whoever you are!" Cruise hissed.
"Oh mon, I'm sorry, Hiori," the alarmed Ritchie said. "I was so focused on catching up to Articuno, I just…I mean, I thought you were right behind me! I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay," Ash said. "Don't beat yourself up about it. It was an accident, you didn't mean for it to happen, right? And besides, I'm here in one piece, so no harm, no foul."
"…Well, if you say so…hey wait, since when does Rico talk?" Ritchie asked. "And what was that about a 'Tiny?'"
"Um, I'll explain later," Ash said as Tiny flushed in embarrassment.
"There won't be a later for you losers!" Articuno squawked as she circled the peak from a distance, snowflakes and ice chips trailing behind her. "I'm going to freeze you solid, and feast on your entrails! Nice and hard and cold, just the way I like them!"
"Wow, the Nihilators really did a number on her, huh?" Ritchie said.
Ash clenched his teeth. "The Nihilators. Yes."
"Which makes it all the more important for us to purify her!" Ritchie said, not noticing Ash's hesitance. "With both of us doing it, it should be a snap, right?"
"…Yeah. Yeah, it should be," Ash said, managing to find some hope and resolve from Ritchie's stubborn determination. Had he been that naïve once, unwilling to believe that a good person or god could ever become truly evil? It was almost impossible to believe…
"I'll help you any way I can, Daddy!" Cruise said.
"Me too!" Tiny said, not wanting to be outdone by the other Pupitar.
Ritchie and Ash both grinned. "We'd be happy to have you!" Ash said.
"With all of us working together, Articuno doesn't stand a chance!" Ritchie agreed.
"Blech, will you cut it out already? You're making me sick!" Articuno said in disgust. "Let's see if you'll be so cheerful and optimistic when it starts hailing on your parade!" Her body glowed blue, and fog spread out from her body, seeping into the clouds above and causing balls of hail to start falling. More balls of hail then there were already, that is.
Ash grimaced and raised his arms to brace himself as the hail pelted him. "Unfh…good thing we aren't affected too much by the weather thanks to our protective spells!"
"And my armor," Ritchie said, not flinching in the slightest as hailstones the size of his fists smashed into his suit. Ash had to restrain a hint of jealousy.
"I'm not liking it quite as much," Tiny grunted as the wind and hailstones buffeted his shell. "Even with our spells!"
"Maybe I can do something about it," Cruise suggested. His eyes flashed blue and he started whipping up a sandstorm from its body, sand-laden winds blasting out away from him and blowing the snow away. "There we go! There can't be two weather conditions at the same time, so…huh?" he said in confusion as his Sandstorm dissipated and the hail started up again. "I don't understand…what happened to it?"
"Ha! Imbecile! It's always snowing in Niflheim, which is why it's my new favorite place in the world!" Articuno sneered. "Sand and hot weather have no place in this realm…it's nothing but snow, snow, snow, and if you don't like it, you can fuck yourself!"
"Stop using that kind of language! There are kids here!" Ritchie yelled.
"Screw you, dickhead!" Articuno shot back. Ritchie retaliated by firing a Flash Cannon, causing Articuno to squawk in alarm and quickly dive out of the way to keep from being hit by the powerful blast. "Oh, wanna play rough, huh? Fine! Get some of this!" Her body glowed blue and she released a wave of light blue subzero energy that Ash recognized as Sheer Cold.
"Ritchie, that looks like big trouble!" Ash said in alarm as the wave froze bits of the air solid on its path towards them.
"Don't worry, our spells will protect us!...I think," Ritchie said uncertainly.
"Daddy, I think we can break the wave using Aura," Cruise suggested.
"Huh? Hey, that's a great idea!" Ritchie said.
Ash nodded in agreement. "Everyone, power up your Auras, full blast! But, uh, let's all stand behind Ritchie just in case."
They quickly rushed to do just that, putting the armored Lucario in front so his Plate could grant them a measure of extra protection. Closing their eyes, they focused their power, causing blazing blue Auras to erupt from them and creating an azure inferno that blasted away all the snow nearby. The wave of Sheer Cold struck the Aura, the blue energies crackling and roiling fiercely as they collided…but inevitably, the Ice wave broke against the immovable obstacle that was the flames formed from their hearts, splitting in two and continuing past them, freezing the rest of the mountaintop in the process. Their Aura dissipated and they panted for a moment, needing to catch their breath from the immense exertion of will they had needed to pull that off. Articuno was not impressed. "Oh, you think you're so smart…let's see you try that with this!" she shrieked, spitting an Ice Beam and turning her head to sweep it across the peak.
Everyone scattered to dodge the Beam, Ash and Ritchie hurling Aura Spheres as they rolled to safety while Tiny launched Hidden Power spheres and Cruise fired a Dark Pulse, causing Ash to flinch slightly. He now knew the reason for his dislike for Dark Pulse—it had been the attack that killed his mother, even if it was an accident—but that didn't lessen his feelings for the move any. Articuno cackled and used her Steel Wing to deflect the projectiles while dodging around the beams, flying straight towards and over them, raining Ice Shards down on them and forcing them to scramble again to keep from getting hit. "Okay, this isn't working," Ash said as Articuno doubled back and prepared to make another attack run on them. "So long as she keeps so distant, we can't really hit her and she can pick us off at her leisure."
"I could jump at her," Ritchie suggested. "But if she moves out of the way, I'd miss and fall to the bottom of the mountain. We need to get her close enough to ground her, then you and I can purify her."
"Okay," Ash said. "So how do we do that?"
"I think I have an idea, Daddy," Tiny said.
"Okay," Ash said. "Let's hear it."
Articuno smirked as they got in a huddle, trying to come up with a strategy to defeat her. Yeah, like she was going to let something like that happen. "Word of advice, losers: don't stand still, you make an easier target that way!" she screeched, firing an Ice Beam and forcing them to frantically jump out of the way to keep from getting frozen. Laughing as they fell on their faces, she started flapping her wings, blowing a Blizzard at them.
"Hiori, now's our chance, while she's holding steady!" Ritchie shouted loud enough for Articuno to hear them over the howling winds.
Ash nodded, squinting his eyes as the frigid winds and clumps of snow bombarded him. "Right! Ready, Cruise?"
"Ready!" the Pupitar said, hovering between the two Lucario. "Let's do this!"
Ash and Ritchie nodded and touched Cruise's sides, all three of them closing their eyes and concentrating, focusing their power. A blaze of Aura exploded around Cruise, growing stronger as Ash and Ritchie channeled more and more of their own Aura into it, until he almost became invisible beneath the blue flames. Screaming in joy and pain as incredible power filled every cell in his body; Cruise launched himself away from the two Lucarios, who fell to their knees gasping for breath as they struggled to recover from the severe power loss. Articuno's eyes bulged as Cruise shot towards her like a cerulean torpedo. "Ack!" She quickly dove to the side, causing Cruise to rocket right past her and vanish into the distant snowstorm. "Ha! Nice try, losers, but you're going to need to do better than-" She paused, suddenly realizing something was wrong. She could only see Ash and Ritchie on the mountaintop. "Wait…where'd the other guy go-"
She was cut off as a screaming Tiny, Aura burning around him (though not quite as impressively as it had around Cruise), slammed into Articuno from behind, digging his spikes into her back and pouring as much power into his gaseous propulsion jets as possible to push Articuno towards the mountaintop. Articuno squawked in alarm and struggled to stop, wings flailing frantically as they tried to create enough drag to slow down her descent only to be pushed backwards by the wind shear hard enough to nearly dislocate them, causing her to scream in pain. Tiny's energy reserves ran out long before they reached their destination, but their momentum and Articuno's inability to air brake carried them the rest of the way, the icebird crashing beak-first into the ground and rolling end over end across the peak, almost falling off the other side. She moaned in pain and struggled to get up, blue feathers flying all over the place as she tried to untangle her wings and tail and claws from each other…
And Ash and Ritchie drove their fists into her face with an Aura-powered double punch, snapping Articuno's head back and flipping her over to land on her back in the snow. As she moaned, the two Lucario stood on top of her wings to pin them down and pressed their paws to her chest and forehead, concentrating on all their happiest thoughts and memories to pour Aura into her body as they attempted an Aura Purge. Articuno gasped as waves of positive energy flowed into her avian frame, ripples blasting away from her and melting the surrounding snow. "Oooooh," Tiny said as he floated over to watch.
"Is it working?" Cruise asked hopefully as he finally made his way back to the mountain.
"I dunno, I think we'll find out in a moment," Tiny replied.
Ash and Ritchie spent as long as they could channeling Aura before finally their strength ran out and they fell back, gasping and sweating all over. "That…uhhh…that was intense," Ritchie gasped.
Ash nodded. "I put just about everything I had into that…if that didn't purify her, nothing short of a 'dive to the heart' will do it!"
"Oh wow, you know how to do one?" Ritchie asked, impressed. "Did you learn it at that monastery you come from?"
"Er…no, I actually got it from a book," Ash said truthfully.
"Really? Can I see?" Ritchie asked.
"Maybe later," Ash said. He turned as a groaning Articuno managed to pull herself off that ground. "Articuno, are you okay? How do you feel?"
"Are you still evil?" Cruise asked, getting right to the point.
"Oh…ohhhh…" Articuno wailed. "What…what have I done…all these memories…the people I've killed…the crimes I've committed…the Pokémon I've eaten…did…did I really do that? Was that…me?"
"Yes," Tiny said bluntly. They glared at him. "What? It was!"
Articuno burst into tears. "No…nononononono! How could I do this? How could this have happened? I'm a terrible excuse for a Legendary Pokémon…I turned my back on everything I stood for, and allowed myself to become a puppet of evil for some flimsy promises of power. I betrayed my friends, my planet, and everyone who believed in me. I'm a monster…"
"It's okay," Ritchie said. "The Nihilators tricked you. They corrupted you and turned you into someone you're not. But you're free now."
"You have a second chance," Ash said, amazed by the change in Articuno's behavior. Maybe she had learned a lesson in the last thousand years after all? Granted, she'd been kind of a bitch the last time he'd seen her, but maybe whatever the Nihilators had done to her or the positive emotions they'd filled her with had allowed her to see just what kind of person she'd become, and let her realize the error of their ways. "You can prove that you still have what it takes to be a guardian of the Earth, and help us take down the Nihilators who did this to you!"
"And free your siblings, too! I'm sure they'll feel the same as you do, once we open their hearts!" Ritchie said excitedly.
"I-I know they will," Articuno stammered. "Oh, thank you. Thank you for freeing me. I've been a terrible person, and only now do I realize the harm I've caused and how selfish I've been. Thank you for showing me the light."
"No problem," Ritchie said.
Ash nodded in agreement. "We're Aura Guardians, it's what we do!"
"You are truly a tribute to your kind. I have encountered many of your forebears—and been reprimanded by them—and I know they would be proud of what you've done here this day," Articuno said.
They all smiled at that. "Us too?" Tiny asked hopefully.
"Why of course! None of this could have happened without you!" Articuno said.
"All right!" Cruise cheered, smashing into Tiny's side.
"Ow! What was that for?" Tiny asked angrily.
"We don't have paws, so we couldn't high-whatever," Cruise said. "So I improvised."
"Oh, okay," Tiny said.
"Now that Articuno's been purified, maybe she can help us fight off Bellum and the rest of her henchmons?" Ritchie suggested.
"And maybe get down from here safely?" Ash asked, glancing over the side of the peak.
"Of course! I'd be happy to help you get down!" Articuno said with a smile, spreading her wings...and bringing them down with a tremendous flap, creating a Gust that sent all of them flying backwards and off the edge of the mountaintop.
Tiny and Cruise wailed as they plummeted down the mountainside, and Ash dug his staff into the cliff face to keep from falling. Ritchie grabbed onto Ash to stop his descent and braced himself against the side of the mountain, a shocked look on his face. "I-I don't understand…why did she-"
"AHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, that was great! That was so great!" Articuno cried, laughing obnoxiously as she used Roost to heal herself. "You idiots! I can't believe you actually fell for that 'fake remorse' bit! I didn't think anyone would really be stupid enough to fall for it, but I guess you dumbasses really take the boob prize, don't you?"
"What?" Ritchie cried incredulously as he and Ash managed to pull themselves back over the edge and onto solid ground.
"She tricked us…" Ash snarled. "She was never purified at all!"
"That's right!" Articuno sneered.
"But…but we poured Aura into her! All our positive thoughts and feelings! H-how could that not work? How could she still be a Shadow?" Ritchie protested.
"I'm one of Doctor Tarantulas's special 'XD' Shadow Pokémon!" Articuno bragged. "Which means the Shadow that I've been infused with is far too powerful to be purged from my system by a weak little magic trick like that!"
"Then how about something stronger?" Ash snarled, closing his eyes and clasping his paws together, dredging up the remaining strength in his weary body and powering up his Aura, body glowing and sensory organs stiffening behind his head.
As Ritchie gawked incredulously, still stunned, and a dazed Cruise and Tiny floated back up into view, Articuno laughed and spread her wings wide, baring her chest. "Go ahead, try all you like! No matter what you do, you will never open my heart!"
"We'll see about that!" Ash growled…although deep down, he found himself wondering if she was telling the truth. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't seem to find the light in the darkness that made up her Shadow Aura, the light that represented the last piece of Articuno's true self. But that couldn't be right…no matter how tightly her heart was sealed up, there should still have been some of it shining through! His book had explicitly said so! That is, unless… Driving that worrying thought away, Ash knew he had to try anyway. "Transcend…the confines of time and space!" His Aura flared, sending out a gust of wind, and a glowing blue image of himself projected out of his body and shot towards Articuno's.
Ritchie gasped. "Whoa! So…that's what it looks like? Incredible! I have to learn how to do that!"
"Wow, cool!" Cruise said.
"That's my Daddy!" Tiny said proudly. Articuno, oddly enough, didn't look the least bit worried by Ash's move. She simply grinned as the projection struck her…
And rebounded, Shadow Aura blasting up around her and causing the projection to fly back into Ash and knock him over. "Auuuugh!" he cried in pain as he fell on his back.
Ritchie gaped in disbelief. "What? No!"
"Daddy!" Tiny cried in alarm, rushing over to his father.
"Hahahahaha! Nice try…but again, not enough!" Articuno laughed.
"But-but I don't understand…how? How could that not have worked? That move is supposed to always work!" Ritchie protested.
"On mortals, maybe," Articuno sneered. "But I'm not one of you short-lived pussies. I'm an immortal god, and the rules are different for us!"
"What?" Ritchie cried.
"She's right," Ash grunted as he levered himself up into a seating position, his body aching all over. "I was afraid of this…"
"W-what do you mean?" Ritchie demanded.
"Gods are, by and large, good. Or they're supposed to be, anyway," Ash said, recalling what he had read about in his book and heard from Master Yamiri. "They can be jerks and assholes sometimes, but for the most part they serve the laws of the Heavens. But if, for whatever reason, they fall…if they willingly turn to evil…then they become almost completely evil, corrupted to the core, to the point where it's almost impossible for mortals like us to force them back into the light, even if we're Aura Guardians! Because we can't purify a heart that doesn't want to be saved…and when a deity goes over to the other side, they rarely, if ever, will have any reason to want to come back, because they were already really bad to some extent, and that side is where they feel most at home!"
"That's right! Why do you think Giratina and most of the other gods who joined the Ruler of Evil are still locked in the Abyss? They joined the Ruler because they knew it would give them everything they wanted, everything Arceus and his goody-two-talons brownbeakers would never have given them!" Articuno said. "And that's why I joined the Nihilators and became a Shadow Pokémon, because it would finally give me the chance to be the kind of person I wanted to be…as well as to escape my fate!"
"N-no…this…this can't be happening…" Ritchie whispered as he fell to his knees, a shocked look on his face.
Ash's heart went out to Ritchie, knowing what it felt like to have your worldview shattered…however, while Articuno's true nature was horrifying, it wasn't really that much of a surprise. A part of him had always believed Articuno was just a few steps away from that precipice, from the plunge into darkness…and not just because of what she and the others had done to his friends, either! (Well, okay, maybe that affected his feelings a little bit.) But wait…what had she just said? "What do you mean, 'your fate?'"
Articuno made a face. "Weeeeeeell, let's just say me and my siblings have never exactly been ideal deities. The higher-ups were always harping on us to stop fighting with each other and almost causing the destruction of the world, and be more respectful to our worshippers, and stop killing and eating people for the fun of it, you know, boring crap like that. We got punished a few times—totally unfairly, I might add!—but we'd always be given a second chance, because the Powers That Be are such sissies. But then, a thousand or so years ago, during the big disaster, we made a…er…slight error of judgment and killed some mortals we shouldn't have. Completely by accident, too! "
An accident? Ash thought, blood boiling as he tried to keep his Aura and his temper under control. You call what you did to my friends an accident?
"But then Darkrai blew the whole thing out of proportion, and things got a little out of hand, and we, ah, died. It was very unpleasant. I'd rather not talk about it," Articuno said vaguely. "Anyway, the world was destroyed soon after, but then it got fixed and everyone was resurrected, so we figured everything was fine, but rather then let bygones be bygones Darkrai made sure the higher-ups became aware of our little gaffe—even though it had been an honest little mistake, and they were just some stupid mortals, and mortals all over the world were dying at the same time, so focusing on a couple we killed isn't really looking on the big picture, and besides, they probably came back anyway, so no lasting harm done, right?—and they completely overreacted and yelled at us for being disgraces and that this was the last straw and a lot of other stuff I can't be bothered to remember, and then they sentenced us to death. Can you believe that? They were going to execute us! And not just that, make sure it's a final death, so that we'd never be resurrected again, ever, and our souls would probably be absorbed back into Arceus so that we'd either become one with the all or cease to exist entirely, depending on your point of view. All that for a handful of humans that a couple of gods happened to be fond of who were going to get killed off by Annihilation anyway! If that's not the most blatant show of favoritism and injustice I've ever seen, then I don't know what is!"
As Articuno ranted, she didn't seem to notice how Ritchie was staring blankly into space as her words washed over him or how Ash was trembling, looking like he was going to explode at any second. Tiny did, however, and frantically dumped as much calm and love and compassion as he could into their bond, but Ash's growing rage was so great he barely acknowledged it. Tiny was starting to get really scared, because if Ash got any angrier, than there was a chance…
A chance that he might fulfill Oblivion's Shadow's worst fears, and become a Void Pokémon. Unaware of how much closer every second was bringing them to potential annihilation, a confused Cruise asked, "Death? But…you're still alive."
Articuno rolled her eyes. "That's because the higher-ups are such cowards that, even though they were perfectly happy sentencing us to death, they weren't willing to follow through on it. As divine and truly immortal beings, the concept of any of us dying, really dying, and not being around later is…uncomfortable. It's not something most gods want on their consciences, because it reminds them that they might not be as permanent a fixture in reality as they'd like to think. So, instead of going through with it themselves, they decided to make it someone else's problem and proclaimed that our sentence would be carried out by the reincarnation of one of the mortals we'd accidentally attacked during the cataclysm, specifically the one who…well…kindasorta killed us."
Tiny gasped, Ritchie blinked, and Ash was so startled that he forgot his anger for an instant. "Wait, what? They said who would kill you?"
"The guy we—completely by accident, remember!—attacked, and whose friends we killed," Articuno said. "And who killed us soon after."
"Wait, how…how can a mortal kill a god?" Ritchie asked, knocked out of his shock while Ash entered one of his own, astonished by this revelation. Tiny stared at Ash in amazement, sharing his disbelief.
"With a lot of effort and power…both of which that guy had, more than we ever expected. It…hurt. A lot." Articuno shivered. "And we knew it was going to hurt again, so we were understandably a little terrified. But as the centuries passed and our prophesized murderer never appeared, we started to relax and figured the guy had either forgotten about his vendetta with us or the higher ups had just been lying to try and scare us straight. And everything was hunky-dory again…aside from the fact that a significant portion of our powers had been stripped from us after we had been sentenced, and it didn't look like we'd get them back anytime soon. Regardless, we managed to compensate, and life seemed to be okay again…
"Until one day Oblivion's Shadow appeared and told us that the guy who was going to kill us had finally been reborn and, while he didn't remember his grudge against us at the moment, he was going to soon, and when he did he'd come for us. Naturally, we panicked a little—well, Moltres and Zapdos panicked, I kept a cool head (She was lying, of course)—but the Shadow told us there was a way out of it, that if we joined his organization, turned against the planet and everyone we were supposed to protect, and allowed our bodies to be violated and pumped full of drugs that would give us incredible powers at the cost of our sanity and our very hearts, he would prevent our execution from happening. We thought it sounded fun and signed up without a second thought. We haven't regretted a minute of it since!"
"But-but you joined them mainly out of fear, didn't you?" Ritchie asked, desperately grabbing at straws.
"Mmm, yeah I suppose…but mainly for power. And a chance at revenge against the planet. We were never really fond of it to begin with. Not like any of you dustlings ever did anything good for us, right?" Articuno said, again shattering Ritchie's hopes. "Anyway, it's been nice rehashing my past, but I think I'm gonna kill you now."
"No," Ash said, something in his tone causing everyone to look at him in surprise.
"Eh? What do you mean?" Articuno asked.
"H-Hiori?" Ritchie asked.
"My name isn't Hiori," Ash said quietly.
"…It's not?" Ritchie asked in confusion. "But I thought-"
"I lied," Ash said. "I'm sorry Ritchie, but almost everything you know about me is a lie. I'm not a monk, I'm not from a mountain monastery, and my name isn't Hiori."
"Oh, and I'm not a monk or Chosen One either. And my name's not Rico," Tiny said, deciding now was as good a time as any to tell the truth.
"But…but then…who are you?" asked a shocked and hurt Ritchie.
"And why the Abyss should we care?" Articuno asked, bored.
"Because my name is Ash," Ash said.
Articuno frowned at this. "Ash? Why…why does that name sound-" She stiffened, face going pale in horror. "No."
"Yes," Ash said.
"YOU?" Articuno screamed.
"Me," Ash said.
"Huh?" Ritchie said.
"What?" Cruise asked.
"Daddy!" Tiny said, not wanting to be left out in shouting one-word exclamations.
"Almost a thousand years ago, in one day Articuno and her siblings took almost everyone I cared about away from me," Ash said. "Those mortals she 'accidentally' attacked were my friends and I. And mark my words, it was no accident, or at least not an accident in the way she tells it. After it was made clear they'd screwed up, they decided to kill the rest of us anyway, along with Darkrai and Cresselia, to try and cover their tracks. But in doing so, they awakened something inside of me…something dark and dangerous and powerful beyond belief. I killed them that day…and now I find out that I've apparently been appointed to kill them again, this time for good." He grinned coldly, a grin that looked terrifyingly out of place on his face. "Can you guess how that makes me feel?"
"…H-Hiori…I mean, Ash…" Ritchie whispered in disbelief.
"Daddy…" Tiny said, wary of the negative vibes his father was emanating.
"N-no! NO! Oblivion's Shadow promised us we'd be safe! He said we'd never have to deal with you! He said he'd take care of everything!" Articuno shrieked, backpedaling as far from Ash as she could, nearly stepping off the peak in the process.
"Oblivion's Shadow was wrong," Ash said, stepping forward, Aura beginning to form around him. "And now he can't save you. Nobody can."
"A-Ash, wait, hold on one second!" Ritchie cried.
"Daddy, stop! You're scaring me!" Tiny yelled. Ash hesitated, his son's words breaking through to him. He grimaced, realizing that he was actually scaring himself…
But Articuno was scared the most of all. "No! Nononononono…I have to, I have to get out of here, I have to escape, I have to-" She clumsily started to take off, then paused, looking back at Ash with a determined look on her face. "No. No more running. No more hiding. No more jumping at shadows. You've haunted my nightmares for the last millennium, mortal. Ever since that day, I've lived in dread of what you might do to me, something even worse than what you did the last time. But you know what? I have power now, too. Power just as evil and terrible as yours was. I took that power when it was given to me because I believed it would make me strong enough to survive if and when you came for me. And now that you're finally here…let's see if it's what Oblivion's Shadow promised me it would be!" With a flap of her wings, she rose into the skies, throwing down a Blizzard to blow the heroes back and keep them from attacking or interrupting her. She bent her head down and plucked a small vial full of glowing purple liquid and shattered it in her beak, drinking down its contents.
The effects were instantaneous. She shrieked so loudly that the heavens themselves seemed to tremble, the snowclouds overhead swirling ominously above her and the mountain peak. The wind started blowing and the snow began falling harder, nearly knocking the four on the mountaintop back over the edge again as they struggled to keep standing. "Wh-what's going on?" Ritchie bellowed.
"She's ingested Shadow! That means…she's going into Hyper Mode!" Ash shouted.
"…And that's bad, right?" Ritchie asked worriedly.
"Very!" Ash retorted as the mountain beneath their feet began shaking in reaction to Articuno's growing power.
"D-Daddy, I'm scared!" Cruise yelled, forcing himself into Ritchie's arms.
"Me too!" Tiny said, pinning himself to Ash's chest.
Articuno laughed long and loud, her voice growing deeper and darker. "You should be, little ones! You should be!" She screamed, and Shadow Aura exploded out from her, spreading out in every direction, shaping itself into the vague form of an enormous bird of prey mimicking Articuno's own avian form, with great wings and a lengthy tail and cruel talons and a beak. Inside the Aura bird, Articuno's beautiful blue feathers became a grim purple and black. Her legs grew longer and scalier, ice spikes erupting from the joints as her talons became longer and serrated. Her streamer-like tail split into three, fanning out behind her. A second, smaller set of wings made of pure ice grew beneath her regular wings, which had sprouted ice spikes from its joints and the ends of its feathers. A thick cluster of ice spikes burst out of her back, resembling a shell. Her eyes turned completely red as her head crest pointed forward and elongated to resemble a black spiked crown, and her beak stretched out, many fangs of ice growing from its sides. She shrieked with insane laughter and flapped her wings, generating a tremendous blast of ice and snow that billowed outwards in every direction.
"Eeeep," Cruise squeaked.
"This…this is…this is Hyper Mode?" Ritchie asked incredulously.
"Yes," Ash said, standing resolutely, Tiny hovering at his side. He stepped forward.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Ritchie asked in disbelief.
"Killing her," Ash said. "After all, that's what she said I'm supposed to do, isn't it?"
"But…but Ash, she's a deity. If you kill her, the consequences it could have to the balance of nature-" Ritchie protested.
"Would they be greater than the unbalance she's already caused by becoming evil? Or all the other countless imbalances she's created through pointless squabbles with her siblings?" Ash asked pointedly.
"…Good point," Ritchie admitted reluctantly.
"I thought as much," Ash said, turning away.
"Wait!" Ritchie said, finally seeming to regain control of his limbs and running after Ash.
Ash frowned. "What is it?"
"I'm coming with you!" Ritchie said.
"M-me too!" Cruise said, hiding his terror.
Ash frowned. "This isn't your fight. Articuno's beef is with me…just as mine is with her. You have no reason to take part in it."
"Wrong! I have every reason!" Ritchie argued. "An Aura Guardian never lets a fellow Guardian go into battle alone! We're brothers in arms, Ash, united by destiny and the power of Aura! That means your enemies and problems are as good as mine, and what kind of a brother would I be if I let you fight something as crazy as that on your own?"
Ash blinked in surprise, again dragged back from the rather bleak and self-centered mindset his rage tended to put him in. "Ritchie, I…you do realize that I'm going to kill her, right? Not purify her or just defeat her?"
Ritchie hesitated for a moment. "I…don't really agree with that. It doesn't seem right. After all, we fight for justice, not revenge, don't we?"
"Yes, and apparently it's been divinely mandated that I'm supposed to kill Articuno. Isn't that justice, then?" Ash pointed out.
"…I guess," Ritchie said reluctantly. "I'm still not sure it's right, but…I suppose Articuno does need to be put down, doesn't she? She's gone completely off the deep end, and she can't be allowed to run around with that kind of power. I'll help you stop her, but if you're really going to kill her…I'll leave that up to you. I want no part of it."
"Thank you," Ash said gratefully. "To be honest, I wouldn't want anyone else to have that sort of burden on their conscience." He sighed. "I guess this means I'm going to be a godkiller twice over…won't Leo be pleased?"
"Did you really kill her before? And her siblings? And some other gods?" Ritchie asked in amazement.
"Yeah," Ash said.
"And you were really alive a thousand years ago?" Ritchie pressed.
"Yeah. And so were you," Ash said.
"Huh?" Ritchie said incredulously.
"Um, Daddy…" Tiny said anxiously.
"Hmm? Oh, right," Ash said as the powered-up Articuno started flying towards them, the Shadow bird surrounding her mimicking her movements precisely. "I'll explain later. Let's take care of this birdbrain first, okay?"
"Okay," Ritchie said, getting into a fighting stance as Cruise hovered protectively next to him. "Um, Ash? One other thing."
"Yeah?" Ash asked, not taking his eyes off Articuno as she approached.
"Both of you mentioned something about you using some kind of…evil power to kill her back then. You aren't…going to do something like that now, are you?" Ritchie asked.
Ash hesitated. "…I really hope not," he admitted. "But…if I start to lose it, if I become too lost in rage, if my Aura starts turning black, there's something you can do. Something to stop me."
"What?" Ritchie asked.
"You can kill me," Ash said.
"What?" Ritchie asked, horrified.
"Daddy!" Tiny cried in alarm.
"Ash, what are you talking about? I can't kill you!" Ritchie protested.
"If I lose control of my power, you're going to have to kill me, because if you don't, I'll kill you, Cruise, Tiny, everyone on your team, everyone on my team, and everyone in the town below," Ash said seriously. "I can't let that happen. Do you understand, Ritchie?"
"I…y-yeah, I think so," Ritchie said nervously.
"Good," Ash said, hoping Ritchie would keep to that.
"…Ash? Just what are you?" Ritchie asked finally, looking at the other Lucario with more than a little fear in his eyes.
Ash smiled resignedly. "I'm…complicated."
"Is there a complicated reason for why Articuno hasn't gotten to us yet?" Cruise asked.
"Talking is a free action," Tiny said.
"Oh, of course," Cruise said. Ritchie grimaced.
"I will freeze the blood in your veins, strip your flesh, feast on your entrails, and use your bones to make my nest!" Articuno howled, finally reaching them.
"Yeah? We'll see about that!" Ritchie said.
"You said I'm fated to kill you. Let's see whether this prophecy about me is as true as any of the others!" Ash shouted.
With that, the Lucarios charged at Articuno, their Pupitars flying beside them, ready to fight the mad goddess to the finish.
At a point around roughly the same altitude, if not higher, another high-stakes high-powered battle was taking place as Lily and Fantina waged war against Bellum. The ice witch was literally in her element, summoning winged ice elementals to harry them, generating gusts of Icy Wind, hurling lethal spells and curses interspersed between Blizzards and Ice Shards and Ominous Wind. The two good witches were far from defenseless, however, as they conjured up fire elementals, fireballs and wheels of flame, counterspells and countercurses, along with their own powerful attacks. "Isn't this lovely, Fantina?" Bellum cackled as she created scythe-wielding ice duplicates of herself and sent them flying at Lily and Fantina. "You and I, two of the greatest sorceresses in the world, throwing everything we have at each other in an attempt to prevail, watching from on high as a pair of armies fighting in our names slaughters each other? It's almost like being gods! What could be more fun than this?"
"I can zink of a few zings," Fantina said as she spat fireballs at the ice clones, destroying them. Next to her, Lily formed a ring of Shadow Balls which she flung at Bellum, the dark orbs splitting apart to fly all over the place before converging on the Froslass.
Bellum, without even looking at Lily or the Shadow Balls, emitted a burst of Ominous Wind that blasted the Shadow Balls away from her, a couple of them flying back towards Fantina and Lily. The elder witch nullified one of the Balls with a thought, while the less-experienced Lily yelped and narrowly managed to fly out of the way. Bellum gestured, and several hundred Ice Shards materialized and flew towards Fantina and Lily like ice daggers. Fantina summoned an equal number of fireballs to counter the Ice Shards, the twin volleys colliding and exploding. Fantina's form blurred slightly and suddenly there were two of her, though one was slightly transparent and the other had a blank look on its face. The transparent one winked at Lily and faded away, while the other one's eyes glowed, firing Psywaves into the smoke caused by the explosion. Realizing what Fantinas was up to, Lily created a Substitute of her own, though it wasn't nearly as sophisticated as Fantina's and so was incapable of attacking, and phased out of view, following her mentor to the other side of the smoke cloud, where Bellum was deflecting the Psywave and generating an Icy Wind to blow away the cloud so she could strike. She grinned, spotting her two opponents, and prepared to cast a curse. That was when the invisible Lily and Fantina cast spells of their own, the magical bolts streaking at Bellum…
Who glowed and exploded in a flash of runes, a surge of dark magic washing out to consume their spells and hurl them back at them, knocking them back into semi-corporeality. As they grunted in pain, the real Bellum appeared, cackling as she formed a Shadow Ball in either hand. "Come now, did you really think I'd fall for an old trick like that?" Laughing, she hurled the Shadow Balls into the air, the spheres splitting and raining down on the two witches. Fantina cast a shield spell to protect them both, which was probably a good thing because Bellum followed up the Shadow Balls with an Ice Breath that turned parts of the air solid from its coldness, covering the barrier they had surrounded themselves with in ice. "You're getting slow, Fantina! Time was you would have anticipated such a trick by now! You really have lost your edge!"
"Not quite," Fantina murmured under her breath. "Lily, open a portal, please?"
"Certainly," Lily said. "Where to?"
"Behind Bellum," Fantina said, gathering power.
"Not coming out, are you? Are you truly so terrified of me? Very well, then I'll make you face me!" Bellum said, preparing a spell strong enough to crack open the sphere…and froze, sensing a portal opening behind her. A portal with a very familiar energy signature…before she could register this, an extremely powerful energy blast shot through the portal, and Bellum had to quickly form a shield of ice by congealing several of the hailstones falling around her, just barely managing to deflect the blast. However, at the same time the ice sphere shattered and a tremendous stream of fire shot at her. Bellum's other hand shot out, familiar incantations slipping easily from her mouth as she formed another shield, this one made of energy rather than ice. She marshaled her strength as the twin blasts pushed against her, preparing to retaliate…
And was surprised when Fantina's apprentice appeared right in front of her, hesitated for a split second, an extremely anxious expression on her face, and finally hurled a flame wheel into Bellum's face, right between her two shields, which were hemispherical and so did not completely cover her body. Startled, Bellum, tried to bring the shields together, and succeeded…one millisecond after the flame wheel passed between them, causing it to explode in a confined environment and not only do extra damage to Bellum but shatter her shields, allowing the other two blasts to strike her as well.
Bellum screamed in agony as she was flung back from the blast, flying right into a raging dragon of flames Fantina had conjured up behind her, the elemental beast slamming its jaws shut around her. Moments later it froze solid and shattered, an infuriated (and badly burnt) Bellum rising from its remains, the ice fragments swirling around her in fury, only to find herself assailed by fireballs and energy beams fired at her from six Fantinas that materialized on all sides of her. Bellum again formed a shield, combining and enlarging the ice fragments, then pushed them outwards, repelling the attacks and slamming into and dispelling the Substitutes. She fired an Ice Beam at the Misdreavus nun who had dared to attack her, only for that Substitute to vaporize as the real one and Fantina appeared on either side of her and let her have it with a double blast of fire. Bellum relied on her Snow Cloak ability, turning transparent and floating back so that the fireballs passed her and exploded between the two ghosts, rematerializing and flinging Ice Shards at both of them as they flinched from the blast. Fantina managed to shatter the Shard sent at her with a thought, but the Misdreavus was not so lucky, and lost her wimple as she tried to dodge the Shard, the icicle dagger ripping it off and causing it to vanish into the swirling fog, allowing her long hair to flow out. She cried in alarm…
And that alarm turned into fear when Bellum lunged at her, arm drawn back to strike her. Fantina yelled in surprise and fired a Dark Pulse at Bellum, blasting her away from Lily. "Are you all right?" the Mismagius asked as she flew over to Lily.
"I-I'm okay," the shaken Lily said, clearly anything but. The look of pure rage and hatred on Bellum's face…the way her arm had been raised to hit her…it brought back far too many bad memories and old fears.
"You won't be for long!" Bellum cried, using her cloning trick to generate dozens of duplicates which floated in a loose sphere around the duo, each of them charging a different and equally lethal dangerous spell or attack.
"Stay back!" Fantina warned Lily as she used the same trick to create a smaller, tighter sphere of replicas surrounding the Mismagius. Each of them touched one of the extensions hanging down from their bodies to their foreheads and started chanting the spell for Lucky Chant. The gems on their bodies started glowing pink and mystical crimson tentacles shot out of them, deflecting the attacks and spells the Bellum duplicates flung at them. The Fantina clones followed up the Chant with their own wave of attacks, firing Dark Pulses, Psybeams, fireballs, and numerous other potent spells. The Bellum clones shattered in a series of tremendous and fantastic explosions…
Revealing the true Bellum, hands raised over her head as she finished saying the incantation for the curse she had been preparing, the orb of evil glyphs and runes throbbing ominously over her head. Fantina frowned in puzzlement as her duplicates vanished. The curse didn't look familiar to her…which was odd, because she thought she knew all of Bellum's spells. Somewhat uncertain, she started casting a counter-curse…
Only for a horrified Lily to interrupt her. "No, don't! It's a trap!"
Fantina stopped her incanting in surprise. "A trap? What do you-"
"DIE!" Bellum screamed, flinging her curse at them, the wicked sphere leaving a trail of darkness behind it as it seemed to rend the very fabric of space and time in its path.
"No! Not this time!" Lily cried, shouting a series of phrases Fantina had never heard before at the top of her voice. A series of glyphs manifested and interlocked to create a sphere surrounding them, which the curse struck and was absorbed into, causing the sphere to take on the same consistency as the curse's runes were added to it. With a crackle of dark magic, the sphere exploded, its constituent runes flying towards Bellum. Startled, the Froslass quickly created a Substitute and used Snow Cloak to fly back out of range…but even that didn't stop her from shrieking in agony as the glyphs struck her doppleganger and exploded, a surge of powerful magic shooting back up the Substitute's faint mystical link to her and ravaging her from within, forcing her to use all her power and will to keep her ectoplasm from dissolving completely.
"What…what was zat?" an astonished Fantina asked Lily, who was panting for breath, her hair mussed and wild from the exertion she had just made.
"That curse was a trap…it was specifically keyed to your magic, so no matter what counter or defense you used, it would still strike and destroy you in an unbelievably agonizing way as it tore your very soul apart," Lily explained breathlessly. (Well, she was usually breathless since she didn't actually breathe, but you know what I mean.) "She's been working on it for years, and only recently managed to perfect it. Its only weakness is the counterspell I used…anything else would just shatter before its might."
"I see…zank you, Sister. You 'ave saved us bozh zis day," Fantina said, shocked by how close she had been to destruction. To think that Bellum had been plotting a curse as terrible as that in secret, and she had never known! Yet another thing that told her she had not been as on top of her nemesis as she would have liked…
"Ha…hahahaha…ahahahahahaha!" Bellum cackled, gasping as she tried to fight the pain wracking her body. "Excellent…excellent! Just as I thought! You have confirmed all my suspicions…" She cast a weak spell, and Lily gasped as the glamour Fantina had put over her vanished. "It's good to see you again…daughter!"
"N-no!" Lily cried in horror.
"But 'ow did you know?" Fantina shouted in astonishment.
"You've never made it a secret that you wanted to find and liberate my daughter, especially since part of the reason I created her in the first place was to torment you!" Bellum sneered. "Which is why I found it suspicious that you would just happen to have picked up an apprentice who was a Misdreavus not too long after Lily escaped from me, especially since you've never taken an apprentice other than one of your daughters before, for fear that I or one of your other enemies would target them? That was my first clue. The next was the spells and attacks Lily used against me. I know my daughter's moves intimately, since I taught most of them to her, and I was pretty sure I recognized them when I saw them, especially when she made that portal." She grinned cruelly. "But the real clincher was when she countered my curse. Nobody outside my family knows about that curse, since I have been working on it in secret for ages, which means that for someone to know not only how it worked, but how to defeat it, that someone would have to be very close to me. Close enough to have seen me work on the curse, and know how to stop it. And since Marianne's still loyal to me and in the town below, that leaves only one possible suspect…my other daughter. The one who'd run away. The one who'd betrayed me. And we all know who that daughter is, don't we, Lily?"
"…Me…" Lily whispered tremulously, more terrified than she had ever thought possible.
"That's right. Oh, you have no idea how much I've been looking forward to this…" Bellum crooned. "You have no idea how angry I was when you ran away. I even took it out on your sister for a little while…which in retrospect wasn't very fair of me, now was it? But now I finally have you again, and if you think you had it bad before, just wait until you see the punishments I've been planning while you were away!"
Lily was shivering so much from raw, unadulterated terror that it looked as if she'd lose all coherency and melt into a puddle of ectoplasm at any moment. Before that happened, Fantina stepped in, floating in front of Lily to shield her from Bellum's malevolent gaze. "Zat shall not 'appen as long as I am 'ere, Bellum! I promised Lily zat so long as I existed, she would never need to fear you again…and I shall do whatever it takes to make certain you never lay anozzer finger on her!"
Bellum grinned. "So long as you exist? Well, that's an easy enough matter to resolve, isn't it?" She gasped. "And oh! Lily, if you're here, then that must mean…" She started laughing again. "That those so-called 'friends' of yours, Team Aurabolt, must be here too! I thought some of those fools who agreed to throw their lives away against the forces of Niflheim looked familiar! I knew I'd seen them before!" She frowned. "But why would you all be here, unless…ahhhh, of course! Someone on the train must possess one of the Star Badges! And I'm betting that someone is you, isn't it, Fantina?" Fantina ground her teeth and said nothing, which was all the answer Bellum needed. She started laughing raucously. "Oh, oh, this is too rich! I can't believe this! After all the bad luck I've been having lately, Giratina herself must have smiled on me for me to receive a gift this great! A chance to eliminate all of my enemies in one full swoop and redeem myself in Oblivion's Shadow's eyes…you, my daughter, Team Aurabolt, and the vampires you stole from me! If I destroy you all and retrieve your Star Badge, the Shadow will reward me greatly and overlook my past failures!"
"Zere's one problem wiz zat, Bellum…two, actually!" Fantina snarled. "Ze first is zat ze Badge is not 'ere, it is at my estate in Fichina, where you will never get it. Ze ozzer…is zat we 'ave no intention of letting you kill us! Isn't zat right, Lily?"
Lily started. "Wh-what? Oh…um…y-yes, I suppose…"
Fantina looked at her sharply. "Lily! She intends to kill us all! She wants to take your precious friends, ze only people who 'ave ever showed you kindness…ze people who freed you and taught you what it means to love! Are you going to let her do zat?"
Lily's eyes widened in surprise. "I…no. No. NO! I-I won't! I won't let you hurt them!" Lily shouted, shocking herself with the amount of force and determination she was able to muster. D-did I just say that?
Your friends are your strength, Lily. They always have been, B said.
Lily was not the only one who looked surprised by this outburst. "What's this? Have you actually managed to develop a spine? How strange, considering you don't have any bones. Hmmph. I don't think I like how hanging out with those ruffians has changed you, Lily. I'm going to have to torture it out of you…after I kill them, of course."
"No, Mother! They're my friends! I won't let you kill them!" Lily shouted.
"Well done, Lily!" Fantina said admiringly.
"You're seriously standing up to me?" Bellum asked incredulously. "This…this won't do. No, this won't do at all. Your so-called friends have been a bad influence on you, Lily. It looks like I'm going to have to take…extreme measures to make sure they no longer poison your thoughts or give you false hope of an unlife beyond me."
Fantina frowned, on guard. "'Extreme' measures? What are you talking about?"
Bellum cackled. "Come now, Fantina…you didn't think some measly trolls, wolves, and dragons were all the creatures Niflheim has to muster, did you?"
Below, the ground shook, then stilled. Shook, then stilled. Shook, then stilled. The trolls, wolves, dragons, and ice elementals paused in their fighting, exchanged looks of pure horror, and abruptly ran away, leaving the confused warriors behind. "What was that about?" wondered a perplexed Silvia.
"Ha! We must have routed the beasts! We showed them they can't mess with the likes of us!" Goldor boasted.
"No," Briney said, a look of what could almost be mistaken for worry flickering over his face. "No, that's not it at all."
The doll family looked at him in puzzlement. "What are you talking about, Captain?" Silvia asked in concern.
"I mean that I saw in their heads why they were running. And it's bad news. Very bad news," Briney said.
Elsewhere, Sasha stiffened in horror, staring off into the distance. "No…it can't be! This presence, this danger, it's…!"
Really bad news, Darkrai agreed.
Atop their steed, Pikachu and Sparky exchanged worried looks. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Pikachu asked.
"Because something bad is coming?" Sparky groaned.
"No doubt," Pikachu agreed unhappily.
"Uh, Zippo, are these vibrations what I think they are?" Leo asked as the ground kept shaking periodically, the gaps in between tremors growing shorter and shorter.
Zippo grimaced. "Without a doubt, dudette. Without a doubt."
Cherry closed her eyes in dread. "I knew this was coming…I only hope we'll all be ready for it…we must be, or else…"
The shaking grew stronger and stronger. Rumbling could be heard off in the distance. And then…they came. Out of the fog and snow, a group of forms so massive they defied comprehension appeared, so tall they almost rivaled the surrounding mountains and required everyone to tilt their necks way back to get a proper look at them. Rose and Happy gawked in astonishment as they stared at the oncoming creatures. "No…what…what are those?" Happy cried.
"They're…they're even bigger than I'd ever imagined!" Rose whispered.
"…Yeah, I think I'm gonna need a bigger camera to get a good picture of those," Todd said faintly.
"I…think that's a bit out of my pay grade," Looker said in astonishment.
"Oooohh…neat!" Max said.
"If I manage to kill one of those, how many does it count as?" George asked.
"Still just one!" Sam said firmly.
"Oh…oh my!" Silvia cried.
"C-Captain Briney, you can defeat one of those, can't you?" Goldor asked anxiously.
"Of course he can! He's Captain Briney! He can do anything!...Right?" Buck asked.
Briney grimaced. "I…really, really hope so, lad."
"Hey! Where are you all going!" Rebecca shouted as her elementals all ran away or vanished. "Come back here! What's going-" Her spirits told her why. "Oh. Oh dear."
"Um…Master, can my cloak protect me from that?" Sasha asked.
…I have no idea,Darkrai admitted.
"It's just one thing after another, isn't it?" Pikachu asked miserably.
Sparky sighed. "It looks that way…"
"So…coooooool…" Leo gasped.
"Yeah…in a, 'holy crap, we're all gonna die!' kind of way," Zippo said.
"I guess, but still cool," Leo said.
"Oh yeah, totally," Zippo agreed.
"…The Abyss do I kill something like that?" Lu asked incredulously.
"That…might be a bit of a challenge…" Captain Salty murmured.
"Well…this should prove to be an interesting fight," Bruno said, crossing his arms, a slow grin forming on his face.
"…Do, uh, do you think we could drink that thing's blood enough to make it submit to us?" Vladimir asked.
"I think one drop of that thing's blood is gonna be enough to bloat us up like a Drifblim," Dean said. "So…no." Bob whimpered and hid behind Vladimir.
"Sacre bleu!" Bow cried incredulously. "And I zought you were bad enough!" she said to Marianne, who buzzed angrily and tried to crush her with her massive fists, trying to prove she was still plenty bad.
Dawn and Palmer hesitated in their fight with Paul. "Do you get the feeling we might be needed somewhere else?" the Dragonite asked.
Yes, Dawn said.
"Oh well, too bad we're busy here. They'll have to do without us," Palmer said.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Paul bellowed, drawing their attention back to him and resuming the battle.
"Holy shit," Articuno swore, pausing in her relentless pursuit to kill Ash.
"That's…that's…really big," Ash said faintly.
"You know, I think I've lost my misgivings towards fighting Articuno," Ritchie said faintly. "She may be a goddess, but at least she's not as big as one of those!"
"…Does this sort of thing happen regularly around you guys?" Cruise asked Tiny.
Tiny sighed. "You have no idea."
"Hmm…my ancestor was the first of our family to defeat a troll with his bare hands. And now I'm going to be the first of my family to fight a frost giant. This will certainly turn me into a legend for future generations, won't it?" Butler said.
"Assuming we live long enough to make future generations…" Diane said as she stared up at the very aptly named frost giants.
As the name implied, they were absolutely enormous, so big they barely managed to fit into the valley at all, having to press against each other to squeeze through the surrounding mountains—some of which were actually smaller than them!—so that they could all make it to the town. There were only three of them, but with something that big, three was all that was needed. They were humanoid in shape with thick blue skin much like the trolls and shaggy white hair growing from their wrinkled flesh. Their legs were thicker and wider than their upper bodies, probably to support the body weight of such a massive creature, with feet so big that a single step would probably crush a sizeable chunk of the town. Their faces were vaguely humanoid, but it was hard to tell beneath all the white hair and straggly growth covering their heads, along with the tusks sprouting from their mouths and noses. They were carrying very primitive clubs that looked to be made of rock or giant ice crystals that were probably very good at killing things due to the fact that they were so darn big. They gazed down at Dusty Ditch, beady eyes screwed up as they tried to make out the (very) tiny figures running around in the streets below.
"No…zis…zis cannot be!" gasped a horrified Fantina as Bellum laughed and laughed.
"How…how are they supposed to beat something like that?" Lily shouted.
"That's the beauty of it…they can't!" Bellum Murkrowed. "Go forth, my mighty giants! Destroy this town and all who still live in it! Crush and stomp and smash until nothing remains! I don't want a single house left unbroken; a single street left intact, a single soul left alive! Leave nothing behind to show that they were ever here!" The giants bellowed in affirmation, their cries shaking the ground, causing several buildings to collapse, and triggering quite a few avalanches. Slowly and ponderously, they stepped forwards, as if inclined to simply walk all over the town, since it was doubtful they would need to exert much more effort than that to fulfill their orders.
"NO!" Lily cried. She flew towards the giants, not sure what she would do but knowing she had to stop them, had to save her friends…
And Bellum got in her way. "Not so fast, my pretty. We have unfinished business, you and I. You and Fantina aren't going anywhere…not until I'm through with you!"
"By the time we're through with you, there won't be enough of you left for Oblivion's Shadow to punish for failing to destroy us!" Lily shouted back, again surprised by her own vehemence. H-how am I doing this? Where am I getting the strength to talk back to her like this?
As I said…your friends are your power, B said. They mean the whole world to you. They are so important to you that you won't let anything, not even your mother, get in the way of your helping them!
…You're…you're right, B…you're absolutely right! An astonished Lily realized. My friends need me…and so long as I know that, then…then there's nothing I can't do!
Bellum seemed to be less pleased by Lily's newfound courage. "You've never behaved like this before. It's clear that being away from me has given you ideas. And that won't do, no, that won't do at all!"
"What won't do is you making Lily your slave again!" Fantina shouted, floating up beside Lily. "She is willing to stand against you…and so am I! Togezzer, we will defeat you and save her friends, and end your Fimbulvinter once and for all!"
"You think so, do you?" Bellum sneered. "Very well, then. If you are so foolish as to challenge me here, where my power is strongest, go ahead! I will relish wringing every last scream from your tortured bodies as my giants crush everyone you hold dear!"
"Ze only one who will be screaming is you, Bellum, as your plans go down in flames yet again!" Fantina said, mustering her power. "Are you ready, Lily?"
Lily nodded fervently, a determined look on her face. "I will fight her with every last ounce of magic in my body to protect the people who are precious to me!"
Fantina smiled warmly. "It very well might take zat…but let's go! Togezzer, zere is nozing Bellum can do zat can stop us!"
And as they prepared to prove that in what promised to be an incredible magical battle unlike any the world had ever seen, down below the few remaining people in the train, which had been left alone when all the besieging monsters desperately ran off to get out of town and save their skins, watched anxiously as the frost giants stomped closer and closer. "Look at the size of those things…" the Abra waiter murmured.
"Can they defeat those things? Can anyone?" the Gastly conductor asked.
"And is there some way we can help?" the Haunter guard asked.
The Ampharos engineer shook her head helplessly. "I don't know. Our weapons might be able to do some damage if one of those things gets closer, but I doubt our defensive spells will protect us from being stepped on. They're just so big. This train was never built with something of that size in mind."
"Then I guess we have to hope that the passengers out there can handle it…" the Grumpig guard said with a sigh. "And to think, we're the ones who are supposed to be protecting them, not the other way around!"
"If anyone can do it, it's them," the Magneton engineer said.
The Aron engineer nodded in agreement. "After all, they're some of the world's greatest magicians…and from what we've seen, the others can hold their own pretty well too."
"But in the end, even that might not be enough to save them…" the Ampharos said, turning to the spell-circle where images of Fantina, Lily, and Rebecca could still be seen chanting and pouring energy into the ball of fire suspended above them, which had grown significantly bigger and had what looked almost like some kind of fetus barely visible inside of it. "I hope whatever they're summoning, it's strong enough to help us…and that it'll get here soon. There isn't much time left…for any of us."
And while the people on the train prayed and the people in the town prepared for a fight unlike any other, Brodie, who was still trapped in his binding spell, sat staring out the windows and wondering if maybe being stuck in here wasn't a blessing in disguise. After all, so long as he was in here he didn't have to worry about Bellum or all the monsters…but now that the frost giants had shown up, sooner or later one was probably going to step on him. On the plus side, the train would be destroyed and he'd be free, but on the down side he'd be squashed flat and possibly stuck to the bottom of a giant's foot, a prospect which did not particularly please him. He sighed. "Mon, not having any control over what's happening blows…" His stomach grumbled, and he grimaced. "As does nobody feeding me in the last several hours. What, did they just forget I'm here or something? After all the good info I gave them last night? Sheesh, some gratitude. And I thought the good guys didn't torture people. Oh well…it's still better than what Bellum would do to me." His stomach growled louder, and he winced. "Though not by much…"
…
Meanwhile, in the Secretive Forest…
"So, uh, Aaron," Latios said awkwardly. "You have a good time with Krysta last night?"
"Yes," Aaron said, glancing at the Eon dragon. "Not that it's any of your business."
Latios blushed. "Sorry, it's just…you know I'm a big fan of yours, and I'm really glad that you found a womon you can be happy with who isn't a crazy fangirl or something like that. The two of you are now totally my OTP, just so you know."
Aaron frowned. "OTP?"
"One True Pairing," Latias, who was floating next to Latios, explained. "He means it as a compliment. It's a good thing."
"Oh. Um…thank you, Latios," Aaron said. Latios had to refrain from squealing, overjoyed that he'd said something his favorite Aura Guardian had appreciated. Latias shook her head in amusement.
The Eon siblings, Aaron, Rayquaza, and Raiki and Sabrina (who'd insisted on joining them) were walking through the Secretive Forest in search of Zorra. Latias had brought Aaron back from Mt. Freeze and Krysta's lair earlier that morning, and after regrouping and debriefing they'd all headed out to the woods near Pokémon Square to find the elusive Zoroark. So far, they weren't having much luck, but then again, Zorra was an illusionist, so she might have been staring them right in the face and they'd never have noticed, something that neither Aaron or the group's Psychics felt comfortable with.
"So, uh, Aaron…you and Zorra go back a ways, huh?" Raiki asked.
"We were…close, yes," Aaron said.
"How close?" Raiki pressed, still somewhat miffed that there was so much about the ten years his best friend had been gone for that he didn't know about.
"We were very good friends. Almost more. But I chose Krysta over her, and…well, that was the end of it," Aaron said awkwardly.
"I imagine that will make today's reunion…interesting," Sabrina, who also knew what it felt like to be rejected by Aaron, said blithely. Aaron grimaced.
"Why did you choose Krysta over her, anyway?" Latios asked.
Aaron grimaced. "Do we really need to talk about this? Zorra might be listening."
"You think so?" Latios looked around warily. "I don't see or sense anything…"
"Which doesn't really mean anything, if she's really as powerful as Aaron or Krysta said she was," Rayquaza pointed out.
Latios shuddered. "Yeah, that really creeps me out."
"I don't suppose you have any idea where in this forest she is?" Raiki asked.
Aaron shook his head. "Even if I did, it wouldn't matter, she could simply shift the trees and the path so that we would be walking in circles, or completely miss whatever spot we're aiming for."
"Then how are we supposed to find her?" Rayquaza asked.
"We're not," Aaron said. "She's going to find us. She knows we're here, and possibly why we're here, so sooner or later she'll show herself."
"…That's it? Really? That's the best plan you've got?" Latios asked in surprise.
"I have a better one on how to convince her to help us," Aaron said.
"It had better be, to make her forgive you for breaking her heart," Sabrina said coldly. Aaron grimaced again.
Laying it on a bit much, aren't you? Latias asked telepathically.
I wasn't happy when he broke my heart, but I've done my best to live with it. But now that I know this isn't the first time he's made a womon feel like this…dammit, doesn't he realize the effect he has on people? Sabrina asked angrily. Would it have really been that hard for him to take a second wife? Or…maybe a third?
Lucarios are typically monogamous, Latias replied.
That's a lifestyle choice, not a concrete rule! Sabrina said. Couldn't he have broken tradition for someone he really cared about, like he said he did for Zorra? And yet he chose only one despite his feelings for both…oh, that's so noble! Wouldn't his ancestors be proud of how many people he's hurt by sticking fixedly to convention?
There's more to it than that, Latias said.
Sabrina frowned. What do you mean?
Aaron will explain when we find Zorra, Latias said.
IF we find Zorra, you mean. Considering she's probably majorly peeved towards him, and can apparently hide herself so well none of us can find her even with our super-senses, why should she reveal herself? Latios asked.
Because no matter how angry she still is at Aaron, a part of her still loves him, Latias said. And that part will want to confront him. Isn't that right, Sabrina?
The Xatu hesitated. …Yes. Yes, I suppose it is. It's what I would do…
Well, I hope you're right, Latios said dubiously.
Naturally, she was. Without warning, an unfamiliar Pokémon appeared right in front of them, and I mean it literally appeared, out of thin air. Latias, Latios, Sabrina, and Aaron all stirred at this, because they had not sensed the Pokémon's approach…and even though it was here now, right before their eyes, they were still having difficulty sensing it. "Whoa," Raiki said in surprise, reaching for his sword. "Where'd that come from?"
"And what is it?" Rayquaza asked in alarm.
"I am a Zorua," said the newcomer, a slate-gray vulpine Pokémon with red and black accents on its head and feet. It had triangular ears with gray insides and a large whorled scruff of fur on top of its head tipped with red. Its blue eyes had no pupils, and had red eyelids and circular 'eyebrow' markings. It had a ruff of black fur around its neck and its limbs were tipped with red. Its tail was long and bushy, and small fangs could be seen developing in its mouth. "One of the rulers of this forest. The other ruler says you are not welcome, and warns you to leave at once lest you be trapped in a nightmare for all time."
"Yep, sounds like a jilted ex-girlfriend all right," Raiki said, nodding knowingly. Aaron and Rayquaza sweatdropped.
"Why should we listen to you? You're probably just an illusion!" Latios said.
"Latios!" Latias hissed.
"You think I'm an illusion, huh?" the Zorua asked with a smirk.
"Well, since I can only see you with my eyes, and can't smell you or feel you psychically, I think it's a fair assumption," Latios said as Latias facepalmed and everyone else subtly moved a few steps away from him.
The Zorua opened its mouth and started forming a sphere of red and black energy. Latios frowned, but didn't budge despite Latias telepathically screaming at him to; sure it was just a bluff. Then the little fox spat the ball at him, colliding and exploding with a tremendous shockwave that smashed Latios into a tree so hard it fell over. "Waaaaugh!"
"Oh, Brother…" Latias groaned.
"Well, I guess that answers that question," Sabrina said.
The Zorua snickered at Latios's misfortune. "Still think I'm an illusion?"
"I humbly withdraw my previous statement," Latios rasped as Latias healed him, shaking her head pityingly. "But then why couldn't I sense you?"
"Silly dragon. Illusions don't always have to be visual," the Zorua sneered.
"Then I assume the only reason that I can see you is because you're allowing me too?" Aaron asked.
"That's right!" the Zorua said.
Aaron nodded. "It seems that Zorra has taught you well."
"Well, I am her son, so of course she'd teach me everything she knows," the Zorua said.
Raiki blinked. "Wait a minute…her son? But…Aaron, you don't think-"
"He's too young," Aaron said curtly. "And besides, we never…I mean, she wanted to, but I wasn't quite…well…" He rubbed the back of his head Mareepishly as Raiki and Latios tried not to snicker. "Um…anyway, I don't suppose your mother would be interested in seeing me? We go way back."
"What part of 'trapped in a nightmare for all time' did you not understand?" the Zorua asked flatly.
"You really did a number on her, huh, Aaron?" Raiki whistled.
Rayquaza nodded. "I think you could have let her down a bit more gently."
"Can we not talk about this right now?" Aaron hissed. He coughed and turned back to the Zorua. "Look, I know I hurt your mother very badly. And I'm sorry, more than you can possibly imagine. But I really need to talk to her. I need her help. All of us do. I want to make amends for what I did to her—you have no idea how much I want to—but that is only secondary to the matter I bring to her, a matter that goes beyond our mutual past and could possibly determine the future of all of Kanjohenn. Something that could determine your future, too. Would she be willing to speak to me for that reason, no matter how much she hates me for what I did to her?"
The Zorua frowned, considering. "…All right. I'll get her. I know the matter you're referring to, we've been watching Pokémon Square for a while and know all about it."
"Wait, you know?" Rayquaza asked in surprise.
"Yeah, we've been watching Pokémon Square for ages. Why else do you think we live so close to town…and why there's been so little trouble in this neck of the woods for years?" the Zorua asked.
"…Well, I suppose that explains why we never have to send Rescue Teams out to find people lost here anymore," Raiki murmured.
"And why every group of barbarians that stumbles out of it was insane with fear and all their hair had gone white prematurely," Sabrina commented.
"…She has been keeping watch on the town all this time?" Aaron asked in amazement. "But why…why would she…"
"What I want to know is how," said a confused Latios. "I mean, Secretive Forest is pretty close to Pokémon Square, but the town's still miles away! What, do you guys sneak in while invisible or something?"
"Sometimes, but mainly we watch via illusionary cameras," the Zorua said.
"…Illusionary cameras?" asked a confused Aaron.
"Yeah, we make an illusionary television that receives an illusionary signal from illusionary cameras we've placed all over town that none of you have noticed because we don't want you to. We also use them to steal your cable," the Zorua said.
They stared at him incredulously. "Oh my," Sabrina said finally.
Raiki snapped his fingers. "Aha! So that's why our cable bill always seems too high! I knew something weird was going on there!" Everyone facefaulted.
"That's, um, an interesting use for illusions," Rayquaza said.
"Yeah, I didn't know they could be used that way," Latios said.
The Zorua smirked. "A good enough illusionist can do more than party tricks…they can make you question the nature of reality itself."
"…Why…would you do all that? Why go to so much effort?" asked an amazed Aaron.
"Isn't it obvious? She's doing it all for you," the Zorua said.
Aaron started. "What?"
"She's really angry at you—and really, who can blame her?—but no matter how much she says otherwise, she doesn't hate you. I don't think she ever could," the Zorua said. And with that bombshell, he vanished.
"Wait!" Aaron yelled belatedly. "What…what did he mean by that?"
"That there's still hope, possibly," Latias said, drifting up next to him.
Aaron sighed. "If that is the case, then…I hope she will be willing to listen to what I have to say. It's something I should have said a long time ago…"
"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it," someone said curtly.
Aaron's head shot up in astonishment and everyone jumped in surprise, startled that yet again an unfamiliar Pokémon had appeared in their midst. "Zorra!" the Lucario gasped.
"Dammit, could they stop doing that? At my age, I could get a heart attack or something!" Raiki complained.
"That would certainly be an ironic way to go, wouldn't it?" Sabrina snarked. She frowned as she stared at the newcomer. "So…this is her…"
Zorra was, as stated several times before, a Zoroark. She was a duskily attractive bipedal grayish-brown vulpine Pokémon with red and black accents that was at least two feet taller than Aaron. She had a pointed snout and ears, the insides of which were red. She also had some red rimming her eyes and mouth. She had a thick, voluminous mane, primarily red in coloration but with black tips resembling a ponytail that went down to her ankles, a teal bangle down its length separating a mass of the mane from the lower portion. She had a black ruff on her upper body, pointed at the shoulders from which her arms extended. Her upper arms were thin, whereas her lower arms, while still slim, were bulkier. The arms had spiky extensions of fur at the elbows, and her three claws, as well as the claws on her feet, were red. She stared at Aaron with mixed emotions in her teal eyes, body tense with anxiety and trepidation. "Aaron. It's been a long time," she said.
"…Yes. It has," Aaron said.
"Not long enough," she said coldly. The Lucario flinched.
Latios whistled. "Wow, she's pretty good-looking too! But of course, an awesome guy like Aaron'd only attract the best womon…" He frowned. "Wait…unless she's using illusion to make herself look prettier than she really is…"
"Sort of like you use illusion to keep everyone from noticing that rather unsightly scar on your-" Latias started.
"You promised you'd never tell anyone about that!" he hissed as she giggled.
Aaron shook his head. "No, this is the real her. She's never used illusion to change her appearance, other than to disguise herself, of course. She thought it would be vain to do something like that. Besides, she's never had any need to make herself look more beautiful than she already is."
Zorra smiled thinly, a smile that did not reach her eyes. "Why Aaron, that's so sweet of you! It almost reminds me of old times…that is, before you broke my heart by marrying Krysta despite telling me that you loved me."
Aaron flinched. "Zorra, I-"
"Whatever," Zorra said sharply, cutting him off. "I'm glad you're happy. And I can tell you're happy, considering how much of her I can smell all over you." As Aaron fidgeted guiltily and the others exchanged awkward looks, she crossed her arms and pointedly did not look at him. "Anyway, that's in the past, and I'd rather not revisit one of the most painful and humiliating moments of my life, if that's all right with you."
"…Well. She's certainly vindictive," Latios murmured.
"As well she should be!" Sabrina huffed.
"If this is her not hating him, I'd hate to see how she'd behave towards someone she really didn't like," Rayquaza commented.
"I know why you came here," Zorra continued. "I've been watching the situation in Pokémon Square for some time, and have known the identity of the evil sorcerer hiding in your midst for years."
"What?" Raiki said sharply. "Then why didn't you tell us before now?"
"Just because I can identify him doesn't mean I can fight or bind him," Zorra said. "That's not my specialty. I've been looking for a way to get rid of him for a while now, but haven't come up with anything…yet."
"Then why didn't you tell us? We could have done something!" Raiki protested.
"Aside from the fact that it would have resulted in a battle that could have done some serious damage to your precious town and killed lots of innocent lives…would you have believed me? My kind have a bit of a reputation among more civilized circles…a reputation which we rather enjoy cultivating," Zorra said.
"…Well, I guess…" Raiki said uncertainly.
"It's also a reputation you've clearly given up, since, aside from whatever you do to the occasional barbarians that pass through here, there have been no reports of disappearances or weird monsters or any of the other mischief that's the usual calling card of your species," Aaron argued. "You've been helping people, not deceiving them."
Now it was Zorra's turn to fidget. "…It's another thing about me you've ruined, Aaron."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I initially came to Krysta to learn how to strengthen my abilities as an illusionist for selfish purposes, to benefit myself and play greater pranks and tricks," Zorra admitted. "But then you had to come along and ruin everything, you with all your talk of honor and duty and legacy and, and all the other words you put in my head that made me start to wonder if I was really making the most of myself. After the…after you broke my heart, I tried going home and getting over what happened, but…it didn't feel like home anymore. I no longer felt comfortable among the rest of my kin, who squandered their talent on pointless mischief and trickery rather than doing anything really constructive with their lives. All your talk of heroics had done something to me, made me start to feel like I could do so much more with my powers than this, like…like I should help people with them or something like that. I didn't understand it then, and I still don't now, but it's given me some kind of satisfaction I never got from being a trickster. It also meant I was completely unsuitable to live with my own kind, so they kicked me out."
"…I'm…I'm sorry. I had no idea-" Aaron stammered.
"No, of course you didn't," Zorra said bitterly. "After all, it's not like you cared to check in on me to see what had happened or how I reacted to you totally destroying my dreams or hopes for the future!"
"How could I? I had no idea where you'd gone!" Aaron snapped. "You don't think I looked for you? But I couldn't find you anywhere! I've never been able to find you when you didn't want me to!"
Zorra was surprised. "You…you looked for me? But why-"
"Why do you think? Because I loved you Zorra! Did you really think I would lie about something like that?" he asked angrily. "I'm an Aura Guardian! We never lie about matters of the heart!"
"Yet you seem to have no problem breaking them," Sabrina said darkly. Aaron grimaced.
"Was that really necessary?" Latias asked.
The Xatu sighed. "Sorry, this is just putting me in a bad mood. I can sympathize with her all too well…except that at least she knew, or thought she knew, that the mon she wanted loved her once upon a time."
"Not helping," Aaron said through gritted teeth.
"Sorry," she grunted.
"You…you loved…but then why…" Zorra scowled and shook her head. "No. I'm not falling into that trap. I don't care whatever pathetic excuses you have for why you did what you did, I don't want to hear them."
"Looks to me like she does," Latios murmured to the others, who nodded in agreement.
"Things went downhill from there," Zorra continued, ignoring everyone's comments. "Zoroark live in big groups, so being all by oneself is…never a pleasant experience. For the first time in my life, I was really alone. It's a wonder I didn't go insane. I wandered the continent for a while, not sure what I was looking for, especially since there was only the one Zoroark enclave on Kanjohenn and I'd just been permanently evicted from it. Eventually, whether by chance or intention, I found myself at Pokémon Square, the place you'd come from, the town you'd told me so much about in our time together. Using illusion to disguise myself, I entered the town and observed everyone going about their daily lives, fighting and playing and working together. I felt the strength of their community and the ties of friendship and love that bound them all together. It resonated strongly with my own longing to find a place where I would be welcome and loved once more. For a minute, I actually deluded myself into thinking that it could work, that I could join the people of Pokémon Square, that I could have a home again."
"…And instead you're living in the middle of a forest with nobody but your kid to keep you company," said a confused Latios. "So…what happened?"
"Yeah, we'd have been perfectly happy to have you," Raiki said. "Our gates are always open to peace-loving Pokémon who want a place to stay."
"I left for the same reason everything else in my life went wrong…Aaron," Zorra said.
"What did I do now?" he asked incredulously.
"The town reminded me too much of you," she said. "Everything I saw reflected something you'd told me about it…which made me think of all the other things you'd told me, and the fun times we'd had together, and the memories we shared, and the…way you hurt me…and before I knew it I found myself running away, because if the town made me remember all the good things about you it would make me remember how you broke my heart, too."
"Oh," Aaron said weakly.
"But if it hurt so much, then why are you still here?" Sabrina asked. "Why didn't you just leave forever?"
"…I don't know," Zorra admitted. "I've thought of it a few times…of taking my son and going…but something stops me. I don't know what."
"It's because of Aaron again," Latias said.
Aaron groaned. "Oh, what now?"
"No, it's a good thing, sort of," Latias said. "Zorra, you said this town reminded you of him. Both the good and the bad. Which meant that since Aaron was no longer in your reach—or so you thought—that this was pretty much the last thing you had to remember him by. And even if it hurt…it also called to you so strongly that you couldn't leave, not without relinquishing all your feelings for Aaron forever."
Zorra sagged. "Yes. Yes, you're right. Of course that's it. Why not?" She laughed bitterly. "You see what you've done to me, Aaron? You left a scar in my heart so deep that I can't heal it, no matter how hard I try. I can't let go of you, no matter how much it hurts to hold on. I don't suppose you have some fancy Aura Guardian trick that can mend a broken heart?"
"…No. I am sorry, but that is one power that is beyond me," he said sadly.
"Yeah, I didn't think so," she said.
"So, since you couldn't bear to stay close to town, but you couldn't bear to just go away either, you…set up shop here and started spying on us as some sort of compromise?" Raiki asked. "That's…a little creepy."
Zorra shrugged. "Well, I'm a Zoroark, it's not like I can do anything without a little eeriness in it. The desire to help people Aaron contaminated me with hasn't gotten rid of all my trickster tendencies. And I figured the best way to help the people of Pokémon Square, the people that Aaron clearly cared about so much, was to watch them from afar…and do whatever I could to keep them safe, without their knowing I existed. I admit it doesn't make much sense, but…I was worried that if I got too involved I might get my heart broken again, and I just wasn't sure if I could survive that."
"Zorra…" Aaron said softly.
"Anyway," she said brusquely. "I'll tell you the identity of the sorcerer. But after that, I want you to get out. Don't come back, and never tell anyone I'm here. I don't want people looking for me and asking me to do stupid things for them with my illusions."
"No," Aaron said.
She bristled. "What?"
"I'll be happy to hear who the evil mage lurking under our noses is…but I won't leave you. Not again. Not until you hear what I have to say," Aaron said.
"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it," Zorra said angrily.
"I think you do, more than you would like to admit," Aaron said. "Or don't you want to know the truth about why I chose Krysta over you? Why I broke your heart, even though I said I loved you?"
She snarled ferociously. "Damn you, you know I do! But what difference does it make? That was then and this was now! It won't change anything! All it will do is make both of us feel that much more miserable! You think telling me whatever burden's been weighing on your conscience will make you feel better, make you feel like less of a heel rather than the sanctimonious do-gooder you think you are? I'm not going to let you make me feel even worse just so you can pat yourself on the back for being a responsible person!"
"Did you know that Krysta's a prisoner on Mt. Freeze?" Aaron asked.
That stopped Zorra dead in her tracks. "What? What are you talking about?"
"Krysta's a prisoner. That beautiful, impossible paradise isn't her refuge, a place where she can train and meditate and learn the secrets of the Omniverse without being bothered by the outside world. She's there because she's trapped there," Aaron said. "The sorcerer whose identity you know, the sorcerer who's lurking in Pokémon Square, bound her there centuries ago after a great battle, ensuring that no matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried, she could never leave."
Zorra's eyes widened in astonishment and realization. "And…since she had no friends, no family, nobody who cared about her, that means she'd be all alone, and…" She gasped. "Then! Is…is that why you…"
Aaron shook his head sadly. "No, unfortunately. It would be a convenient excuse, but no. I only found out just yesterday. She was so ashamed about it that she never told me, her own husband…probably for fear that I'd throw away the rest of my life just to make sure she'd never be lonely again."
"…But, uh, haven't you done that already by marrying her?" asked a confused Raiki.
"If I had known the truth from the beginning, I would never have left Mt. Freeze. Ever," Aaron said. "Which meant I'd never have finished my training, and might even have been reluctant to return to Pokémon Square to help everyone, for fear of leaving her all alone again. In fact, now that I'm aware of the truth, I'm still somewhat reluctant to leave her by herself. But now that I know, I'm going to do everything in my power to free her so we can spend the rest of our lives together in freedom."
"Oh, okay," Raiki said.
"Awww, that's really sweet!" Latios said.
Sabrina sighed reluctantly. "Yeah…it is, isn't it?"
Zorra frowned, hiding the ache his statement made in her heart. "But…if that's not the reason, then why…"
"Actually, part of what you said is the reason," Aaron said. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Do you remember how I told you Lucario are supposed to be monogamous?"
"Yes. But why-" She stiffened, and started shaking with rage. "Oh, come on!"
"Aaron, what the Abyss?" Latios asked, shocked.
"Seriously, that's the reason why?" Rayquaza asked incredulously.
"No," Aaron said. "That's not the reason."
Zorra blinked. "Huh?"
"Zorra, I loved both of you…and both you and Krysta mentioned the possibility of me marrying both of you. You were willing to share me, especially since you were both pretty fond of each other, weren't you?" Aaron said.
"Well…yeah," Zorra admitted. "I mean, I really resent Krysta for taking you, but…I was such good friends with her that I found it hard to hate her, especially now that I know…wait a minute, what's this got to do with anything?"
"When I rejected the proposal of wedding both of you and insisted I could only marry one of you because of the custom of monogamy, I was being weak and selfish. I was hiding behind tradition rather than confronting my own worry and insecurity," Aaron said, astonishing everyone. Aaron, afraid of something? No way!
"What-what do you mean?" Zorra stammered.
"I loved both of you. I loved you so much it hurt," Aaron said. "And I was afraid that it would destroy you."
Zorra blinked. "Huh?"
"I was afraid that in marrying both of you, I would make us all miserable," Aaron said. "I didn't know if I would be able to treat both of you fairly. I didn't know how I could avoid favoring one over the other, or splitting my attention equally between you both, or how I could possibly keep from doting over one group of our future progeny more than the other, or any number of other potential crises. I was terrified that if I tried to have the both of you…in the end, I would only make all of us miserable."
"But Aaron, lots of Pokémon have stable threesomes or similar relationships that can last their whole lifetimes," Raiki protested. "I mean, just look at how many people Gallant's got hanging on him!"
Latios nodded in agreement. "Yeah, threesomes make everything better. EVERYTHING." Everyone gave him a weirded-out look.
"You may think so…but at the time, I wasn't so sure," Aaron said. "I didn't know if I would be able to support two families. I didn't know if I could do what Gallant and so many others could. So, I…I did what I thought was best and picked only one of the womon I loved, reasoning that while it would hurt whoever I didn't pick—something I wished dearly were not the case, but suspected to be true—it would only be in the short term, and not be as bad as whatever disaster I feared might befall us if I tried balancing both of you and was not adequate to the task. But looking at you now…I can see that I was wrong, and only lying to myself to conceal my own cowardice." He bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Zorra. I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you."
"…I…then that's…" She blinked back tears. "But then…why did you pick her, in the end? We'd…we'd fallen in love much earlier. We spent more time together. We…"
"I picked Krysta because I believed that you would be strong enough to survive without me…but I wasn't so sure she could," Aaron said.
Zorra blinked. "Huh?"
"You said it yourself…Krysta has no friends, no family, absolutely nobody. She's all alone on top of Mt. Freeze. Before we came to train with her, she rarely if ever got any visitors, and certainly no guests. But while we stayed with her, she had company. She had friends and trusted companions. She had something like a family again. And if we left to pursue our futures elsewhere…she'd be all alone again. Maybe forever. Do you think she could have born that? Because I'm almost certain I could not have," Aaron said.
"…Oh. I…I never looked at it like that," Zorra murmured.
"I assumed you would be okay, because you had so many people waiting for you back home, people I thought would help you get over your sorrow. Family and friends and any number of willing males who could have taken my place by your side," Aaron said apologetically. "I had not realized that I had affected you so much, though, that you were not able even to find mates among your own kind."
Zorra did cry, now. "I tried, Aaron. Honest, I tried. But no matter what male (or female) I courted, no matter whom I took to bed, I couldn't stop thinking of you. You left an indelible stain on my heart, one I couldn't remove no matter how hard I tried."
"Got her a kid, though," Raiki murmured.
"Actually, I'm her sister's," the Zorua said. "But she's not around anymore, so Zorra's pretty much my mother in every way that counts."
"Oh, okay," Raiki said. He paused, then did a double take and yelped, jumping into the air. "Would you stop doing that?"
"No," the Zorua said, laughing mockingly.
"I'm sorry, Zorra. For everything," Aaron said.
"S-so am I," she stammered, rubbing her eyes. "But…but now what? Where does this leave us? Because even knowing the truth, I can't forgive you. You took the easy way out of cowardice, you as much as said so yourself, and made too many assumptions without asking us how we felt about the whole thing."
"I know," Aaron said. "I didn't expect you to forgive me. I wouldn't ask you to. But…there is one way I can think of to amend my mistake. To start over and try to mend the holes in both of our hearts…and that's by doing what I should have done years ago."
Zorra's eyes widened. "Wait…you can't mean…"
"I do," Aaron said, getting down on one knee and extending a paw, a crystallized flower sitting in it. "Zorra, will you marry me?"
…
Meanwhile, in the Sinister Woods…
"I don't like this place," Sapphire complained. "It's creepy."
"Well, it's the Sinister Woods. What do you expect?" Pichu said.
"Don't worry, Sapphire. With so many of us grouped together, there's no way anything will dare to mess with us!" Gilbert reassured the Azurill.
Sapphire smiled in relief. "Thanks, Gilbert." Hubie frowned and stroked his chin in thought as he observed this interaction, recalling the vision he had seen yesterday.
"Well, unless there's more of them than us, anyway," Matthias said morbidly. "And they're really hungry. And-"
"That's not helping," Collette said as Sapphire squealed in alarm.
"S-sorry. This is my first time out in the wild since I came to Pokémon Square. It…brings back memories of how I used to live." The Ratatta grimaced. "They aren't particularly good memories…"
"So long as you stick with us, we'll make sure you never have to live like that again," Pichu assured him.
Matthias smiled gratefully. "Thanks."
"What's going on up there? Do you see anything?" Junior called up to Max, who was perched on top of a tree and gazing at the entrance to a nearby cave through a telescope.
The Treecko glanced down and shook his head. "Nothing. No movement since Team Skull entered the cave a few minutes ago."
"And they were carrying the egg, right?" Kira asked.
Max nodded. "Definitely!"
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go in and get them!" Pichu said, drawing his sword.
"Hang on, we can't afford to be reckless," George pointed out. "After all, they managed to trounce us before, remember?"
"That was only because we weren't prepared for that gas attack of theirs," Torch pointed out. "We are this time…and we have a bunch of other gear that should help us against them, too."
"We should move in," Junior agreed. "The longer we sit down here, the more time those guys have to set up traps or go out through a back exit or something."
"I didn't see any when I scouted around the area, but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist," Collette agreed. "Well, I suppose just sitting here won't do anything…all right, let's go in."
"Right! Everyone, move in and take them out! Let's beat up those bullies and get back that Phione egg!" Gilbert declared.
The others nodded and made for the cave entrance, moving quickly and quietly, darting from cover to cover to make sure anyone on guard—not that they saw anyone on guard, but that didn't mean there wasn't anyone—wouldn't see them coming. They had split up into their composite teams to create more targets and less noise, but regrouped when they reached the cave and all headed in together.
As is probably obvious by now, Teams Awesome, GX, Go-Getters, and Pokepals were on a mission to hunt down Team Skull and retrieve the stolen Phione egg. After the stench from Team Skull's noxious attack had been scrubbed from them, they'd reported the incident in full, save for the part where they'd beaten up an innocent Phione for no reason. After being lectured and berated by the Mayor, Scotty, Chuck, and their parents for being unprepared and defeated by such a cheap trick, they were promptly tasked with going after the bullies and getting back the egg. Since they had allowed it to be stolen, it seemed only fitting that they should be the ones to get it back. (Plus, all the other teams were busy on missions to protect the town or had been roped into helping Delia set up for the big mass wedding the next day.) Team Awesome were surprised to be included, since this would be their very first mission and they hadn't even completed training yet, but they were informed that this would be a trial mission under the supervision of the (slightly more) senior teams in lieu of their battle exam with Ignik to see if they really had what it took to be a Rescue Team. This was their last chance, however. If they proved unable to pull together adequately as a team, they would be disbanded and reassigned to other junior Rescue Teams. Not wanting to be separated from his friends, and well aware that this might be his last chance to make a name for himself before his new sibling hatched, Pichu vowed that Team Awesome would live up to its moniker.
Team Skull had removed their badges so they couldn't be tracked or teleported back to town using them, but the three (slightly) older teams had enough experience in the field to spot all the signs the bullies had made as they left town and followed them. (The fact that they left a rather noticeable stench was also quite helpful in following their trail.) They had caught up with the trio just in time to see them enter this cave out in the Sinister Woods, and while they had no idea what they were up to or what they planned to do with the Phione egg, the kids doubted it was anything good.
"I'm getting no trap readings in this area," Collette reported after walking a few feet down the cave passage and activating a See-Trap Orb.
"I'm picking up a large number of enemy Pokémon, though," said an alarmed Torch as he used a Radar Orb. "I count…eleven, including what I presume to be Team Skull."
"Can't it tell you what Pokémon they are?" Matthias asked nervously.
"No, it's a Radar Orb. It reveals all foes in the area, but doesn't tell me who they are," Torch said.
"Then it's a good thing I brought X-Ray Specs," Max said, replacing his thick glasses with a pair of goofy-looking ones with swirls on the lenses. He peered into the darkness ahead of them. "Okay…I see Team Skull along with eight unfamiliar Pokémon: a Golbat, a Weezing, two Houndour, a Grimer, an Ekans, and a pair of Glooms. They've all got black hats and cloth on them with big red R's."
The others gasped. "It's Team Rocket!" Sapphire cried.
"That weird group who Mr. Giovanni's in charge of that abducted Mr. T-Bone during the fight at Mt. Battle!" Junior added. Hubie frowned, wondering if that 'Team Quantum' group might be nearby. Something about them sounded…familiar…
"The heck are they doing here?" Pichu wondered. "And with Team Skull, no less?"
"Whatever it is, it can't be good," Matthias said. "We have to stop them!"
"That might be tricky…we still outnumber them, but only by a little…and they're probably all adults…" George said doubtfully.
"Maybe so, but we're young and strong! Youth power forever!" Kira shouted. Everyone stared at her. "Er…never mind…"
"That aside, we do have one advantage," Max said, pulling out a transparent Orb. He grinned. "The element of surprise…"
In a large chamber further down the cave, Team Skull was conversing with the Team Rocket representatives. "Were you followed?" the Golbat asked coolly.
"Heh-heh-heh! No way, Uncle Proton! We made sure to get rid of our badges so nobody in Pokémon Square could track us down. They're probably really angry about us stealing that egg and beating up those kids, so we were as careful as we could be to leave no trace behind!" Chao said.
"You'd better have. If you're wrong, I will be very unhappy…" Proton growled.
"Relax, Proton. I'm sure they took every precaution on the way here," the Weezing, who seemed more jovial than his colleague, said. "So, kiddo, you got the goods?"
"Whoa-ho-ho! Sure thing, Uncle Petrel!" Smogon said. "Boss?"
"Chaw-haw-haw! Feast your eyes on this!" Jeremiah said, parting his paws to reveal the stolen egg. "A rare Phione egg, and apparently the last of its kind, the final egg Manaphy lay before his untimely demise!"
Proton and Petrel looked at it in awe. "Magnificent…" the Golbat murmured.
"Yeah, it's not bad-looking, is it?" Petrel agreed.
"Heh-heh-heh! Does this mean we're in Team Rocket now?" Chao asked hopefully.
"Whoa-ho-ho! Yeah, we wanna help you guys take over the world! It'll be way cooler than staying with all those disgustingly heroic putzes in Pokémon Square!" Smogon said.
"Chaw-haw-haw! Yeah! Are we in?" Jeremiah asked.
"Not if you keep making those annoying laughs you're not," Proton snarled, causing the trio of Poison-types to yelp in fright.
"Heh-he-*cough*-I mean, uh, s-sorry, Uncle Proton. We won't do it again," Chao said.
"Whoa-ho—I mean, yeah, what he said," Smogon said.
"Yeah," Jeremiah agreed, nodding his head rapidly.
"Good," Proton grunted.
Petrel rolled his eyes. "Geez, you're such a hardass. Lighten up a little, would you? Anyway, yeah, you're in. Welcome to Team Rocket!"
Team Skull cheered excitedly. "Oh yeah!" Chao whooped.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Smogon guffawed.
"At least! We've hit the big time, boys, just like I said we would!" Jeremiah cackled. "Oh hey, does this mean we get those neat Rocket uniforms too?"
"Sure thing," Petrel said. "But first things first…the egg?"
"Right," Jeremiah said. "Here you…huh?" He looked down at his paws, startled to see that the egg had disappeared. "What the…where'd it go?"
"The Abyss are you trying to pull, punk?" Proton asked furiously, suddenly on edge. "Are you trying to double-cross us?"
"Wh-what? No way!" Jeremiah protested.
"Y-yeah, Uncle Proton, we're totally on the level!" Chao insisted.
"Then where is-" Proton started.
"Sirs, look!" a Houndour barked. "In the air!"
They looked, and to their astonishment saw the Phione egg floating towards the exit. "Wow," Smogon said. "I didn't know Phione eggs could fly!"
"That's because they can't, an invisible Pokémon must be carrying it!" Petrel realized.
"And she isn't alone!" Junior's voice rang out as something slammed into the Houndour, flinging him into the wall.
"Wh-what the-" the Grimer protested before he suddenly got hit by three Water Guns. "Gaaah! No, not water, it's my only weakness!"
"I thought your weaknesses were Ground and Psychic," said a Gloom.
"Yes, but I hate taking baths!" the Grimer wailed.
The other Gloom cried out as a Flamethrower struck her from thin air, causing her to scream and run about, embers flying from her rear. "Ahhhh! Hothothot!"
"Where are they?" the Ekans hissed frantically, before being struck by a Thundershock.
"Oh crap, they're everywhere! There's too many of them!" Smogon screamed.
"Aaaaahhh, we're all gonna die!" Chao shrieked, panicking and flinging Air Cutters all over the place. His example set the rest of the Rockets and Team Skull down a similar path, and they started firing attacks wildly all over the place, doing half of the invisible heroes' work for them by striking each other.
The only ones who kept their calm were Proton and Petrel. "Those idiots," the Golbat snarled as he saw the second Gloom, who was now on fire as well, collide with the first one, making both of their fires stronger and making them scream even louder. "I thought we trained them better than this!"
"And it's all a diversion, too," Petrel noted, seeing the flying Phione egg getting closer to the exit. "They're taking the egg!"
"Oh no they aren't!" Proton roared, flinging several Air Cutters.
"The Abyss are you doing?" Petrel cried in alarm. "You'll break the egg!"
"I wasn't aiming for it," Proton said smugly as the Air Cutters flew past the startled invisible Collette and struck the ceiling above the tunnel entrance, causing it to collapse and drop several tons of soil and debris into the cave, sealing the exit.
"Oh, crap," Collette murmured, pausing in her tracks.
"Uncle Proton, the heck are you doing? You've trapped us all in here with them!" Chao cried in disbelief.
"No, we've trapped them in here with us," Proton said evilly.
"Yeah, and then we're all gonna die of ssstarvation! Unlesss we eat each other firssst…" the Ekans said, looking at his colleagues appraisingly, who worriedly backed away.
"I think we'll all die of air loss first, actually," Petrel said cheerfully. "Fortunately, that won't be a problem because we have an exit strategy already planned. And even if we didn't, we could just blast or Dig our way out, so no big deal, right?"
"Er…no, I guess not," Jeremiah admitted Mareepishly.
"Good, now if that's settled…GET THOSE INVISIBLE MONS!" Proton shouted.
"Good luck doing that!" Kira taunted as she dashed back and forth, flinging Razor Leaves at Jeremiah and causing him to yelp and spray very smelly gas all over the place.
"Yeah, you can't hit what you can't see!" Matthias agreed as he stabbed one of the Houndours in the rear with his sword, his confidence higher than usual because he didn't have to worry about the bad guys seeing and hurting him.
"Oh, that's where you're very wrong," Proton sneered. "Nephew, use Supersonic!"
"Huh? But what good will that…oh, of course!" Chao realized. He opened his mouth and started firing several light blue circles. Proton did the same. The rings reverberated around the room, making a loud pinging noise that caused all the Pokémon with very sensitive ears to flinch, both due to the high frequency and the fact that they were bouncing back and forth in such a confined place.
"And what good was that supposed to do?" Hubie taunted when nothing happened. "We're all wearing earplugs, that didn't Confuse us!"
"Wait…I don't think that was meant to Confuse us! Everybody, move!" Max shouted.
But it was too late. "Everyone, follow our line of fire! Aim where we're shooting at!" Proton ordered as he flapped his wings, flinging Air Cutters at the places his Supersonic pulses had pinpointed as being where the intruders were standing. They might have been invisible to sight, but not to his sonar! Chao did the same thing, using his Air Cutters to tag the Pokémon his uncle had neglected, and the rest of Team Skull and the Rockets hurriedly fired their projectile attacks along the same vectors as the two bats. The kids tried to scramble, but even when they moved as fast as they could there were just to many attacks fired too close to where they were standing, and one by one they were struck and knocked to the floor. Collette had a rather nasty scare as she fell from the air, nearly dropping the egg, but she managed to roll over so she landed on her back, her body cushioning the egg from the impact…but doing nothing to help her wings.
Groaning, their bodies flickered, and one by one they rematerialized as the effects of the Invisify Orb wore off. "What the…it's just a bunch of kids?" the Grimer said incredulously. "Some stupid brats gave us that much trouble?"
"Well, you know what they sssay about kid heroesss," the Ekans said.
"No, what?" the Grimer asked.
The Ekans blinked. "I don't know. That'sss why I sssaid, 'you know what they sssay.' I wasss hoping you knew." The Grimer facepalmed.
"Wait a minute, I know those kids…it's those runts we swiped the egg from yesterday!" Jeremiah realized.
"That's right…it's 'us runts!'" Pichu said as he levered himself back up on his sword.
"And we're here to kick your butts and get back the egg you took!" Gilbert said.
"What? I thought you said you weren't followed!" Proton shouted.
"I-I thought we weren't! Honest, Uncle!" Chao said timidly.
"Uh, does this mean we don't get into Team Rocket after all?" Smogon asked worriedly.
"Is that all you're worrying about?" Hubie mocked.
"I think you should be more concerned with how you're gonna convince Nurse Joy to fix you up after we beat you up and drag you back to town!" Junior said.
"Ha, you beat us?" Jeremiah sneered. "Don't you remember what happened the last time you faced us?"
"Do we ever!" Kira said. "And this time, we're ready!"
"Oh, we'll see about that!" Jeremiah said as he struck a pose. "Team Skull's Super-Stinky Special Strike, go-"
"No, don't do that in here, you idiots!" Proton interrupted. "In a space this small, the smell will have nowhere to go, and you'll suffocate all of us!"
Jeremiah paused. "What, really? Oh…uh, never mind…"
"Aw mon, and I was looking forward to wearing the gas masks we brought all this way just in case they did that to us, too," Torch complained. "We look pretty cool in them!"
"And scary in the dark," Sapphire said with a shudder.
"I'm sure we'll find another use for them someday," Collette said.
"Like recreating that popular two-part episode of Doctor What in which the Ninth Doctor and Rose went back in time to World War I-era Lundun and had to stop/save a bombing victim who'd been resurrected by defective nanites into a gas mask-wearing monster who turned everyone he touched into gas mask zombies that went around asking 'Are you my mummy?', resulting in one of the most heartwarming moments in the series since nobody died at all despite coming awfully close a few times, and the bombing victim actually got better?" Max suggested. Everyone stared at him. He flushed. "It was a good episode…"
"Nerd!" Chao sneered.
"Hey, I liked that episode, it tugged at my heartstrings to see the Doctor so overjoyed that nobody had needed to die, since he was sick of people always dying after that awful Time War he was involved in that killed the rest of his kind! Don't you dare disparage it, Doctor What is awesome!" Proton snapped, causing the Zubat to yelp and shut up.
"Uh, anyway…that day won't be today, because we'll cream you even without using our special attack!" Jeremiah sneered.
"Did you forget that you're outnumbered, and were doing a pretty good job of thrashing you just a minute ago?" Max pointed out.
"You just surprised us, that's all!" Chao said.
"Yeah, we're not gonna let you pull off something like that again!" Smogon agreed.
"You're right, you're not…because by the time you even think to do that, we'll already have beaten you so hard not even your mothers would recognize you!" Pichu said.
"Oh yeah? Well when we're done with you, we'll go to your moms, and they'll be so happy that you're dead, they'll offer to-" Jeremiah started.
"Hey, don't you dare say anything about our mothers!" George said angrily as everyone tensed up.
"For the love of Arceus, can we quit it with the insults and taunts and jabs and just kill them already?" Proton yelled.
"And can someone put us out?" the Glooms, who were still on fire, screamed.
"Hmm…actually, I have a better idea," Petrel said abruptly. "A way to resolve this matter without us needing to get our hands dirty—well, not that most of us actually have hands—that'll also allow our new recruits to make up for their mistake and prove they're worthy to be part of Team Rocket."
"Huh? What are you…oh. OH! Yes, I see! An excellent idea, Petrel! Yeah, those brats won't know what hit 'em!" Proton cackled. "It'll be almost as much fun as me beating the snot out of them myself!"
The kids and Team Skull eyed the Rocket leaders uncertainly. "Uh, what're they talking about?" Matthias asked anxiously.
"U-Uncle Petrel…y-you're not saying we're going to have to fight them by ourselves, are you?" asked an alarmed Smogon.
"Oh no, of course not. You'd probably lose, anyway," Petrel said, causing the bullies to sweatdrop. "No offense, but there are more of them, and they seem to be prepared to handle you three."
"Then what exactly are you going to make us do?" Jeremiah asked cautiously.
"Oh, it's not what we're going to make you do…but rather, what you're going to make somebody else do!" Petrel whistled, and suddenly a green portal opened nearby.
The kids started. "Wh-what the heck is that?" Pichu yelled.
"It appears to be some sort of transdimensional wormhole or energy vortex linking this point in time and space with somewhere or somewhen else," Max observed. Everyone stared at him blankly. He sighed. "It's a time portal."
"Ohhhh," they all said. Hubie frowned, feeling the portal…calling to him somehow…
"Wait…then…could this be the work of Team Quantum?" Collette cried in alarm.
"Team Quantum? Oh crud, I don't think we can face those guys! I saw what they did to Team Ebony, those poor guys are still screaming every time they see a shadow, even their own!" Torch said in horror.
"Oh don't worry, you're not gonna have to fight our time traveling comrades in arms," Petrel said. "No, you're going to have to fight something almost as bad. Have you ever heard…of a Shadow Pokémon?"
The kids stiffened in horror. "WHAT?" they yelled.
The portal shimmered, and suddenly an enormous Tyranitar slid out and stood on the floor before it. There was something odd about the great beast, though…it was standing as still as a statue. It didn't seem to be breathing. Was it even alive? "Is that…T-Bone?" an alarmed Junior cried.
"No, it's a female," Kira said.
"How can you tell?" Pichu asked.
"Because she's wearing a pink bow," Kira said, pointing with her leaf to a bow tied around one spike on the side of the Tyranitar's head.
Everyone stared at it. "You're right, she is," George said slowly.
"Yep, that means she's a girl, all right," Sapphire said.
"But…why is she wearing a bow?" asked a confused Junior.
"Maybe somebody thought it would make her look cute?" Torch suggested.
"It's not really working…" Matthias said.
"What I'm more curious about is why she isn't moving or breathing…" Max said.
"An apt question! You see, she's been frozen in a single instant by Team Paradox's mastery over time and space. She's a bit, ah, volatile at the moment what with being a Shadow Pokémon and all…" Petrel said.
"And just where did you get her from?" Gilbert demanded.
"You probably made her into one yourselves!" Collette accused.
The Rockets looked indignant at this. "What? Us? Create a Shadow Pokémon? Who the hell do you think we are? We're trying to stop the Nihilators, we don't want to be like them!" Proton said angrily.
This came as a surprise to the kids. "You're trying to stop the Nihilators?" asked the confused Pichu.
"But…but so are we. So why…" Kira said.
"That's nothing you need to concern yourselves with right now," Petrel said. "My colleague here has spoken out of turn. Anyway, we did not create this Shadow Pokémon. We rescued her from a facility where the Nihilators were holding her and have been doing our best to purify her. So far, our attempts have been, ah, less than successful, hence why she's currently time-locked so she doesn't kill us all."
"…And you brought her here why?" Jeremiah asked incredulously.
"So you can use her as a weapon to defeat these kids," Petrel said.
"Huh? What do you mean, Uncle Petrel?" Smogon asked.
"Use her…as a weapon?" Chao murmured.
"Why am I not liking the sound of this?" Matthias groaned.
"Wait…female Tyranitar…held at a Nihilator base…" Collette gasped as the pieces clicked into place. "Then that's…that must be T-Bone's wife!"
"That's right!" Proton said. "And now, she's going to be your worst nightmare!"
"Thanks to this," Smogon said as the Ekans came over and placed a small case at Jeremiah's feet. The serpent nudged it open, revealing a strange red and gold device mounted on top of a metal ring that could probably be put around a wrist or ankle. On top of the device was some kind of round top held in place by a blue crystal lens. "You've heard of Professor Hastings, right?"
"Yeah, he's the missing scientist from Seasonsburg and Vientown, right?" George recalled. "But why-" He gasped. "Holy crap, you have him too?"
"Yep! And with his help, our scientists were able to create this…the Capture Styler, a device that allows Pokémon to control other Pokémon!" Petrel said.
As the kids gaped in horror, Team Skull's eyes (except for Chao, who had no eyes) widened in awe. "Control…other Pokémon?" Smogon whispered reverently.
"You mean…like that one right there?" Jeremiah asked hopefully, looking at the time-locked Tyranitar.
"That's right! The power of a Shadow Pokémon at your paws…won't that be fun?" Proton asked with a smug grin.
"Oh no you don't!" Pichu said in alarm, raising his sword.
"There's no way we're going to let you do that, not to T-Bone's wife and the mother of my newest adopted brother!" Collette agreed.
"Let alone the fact that controlling another Pokémon through a machine is reprehensible, there's also the small problem of her being a Shadow Pokémon that we have no way to purify without Aaron here to help us…" Gilbert said anxiously.
"I don't need one of my Dimensional Screams to let us know something bad will happen if you do that, which is why we have to stop them!" Hubie agreed.
"Everyone, ATTACK!" Pichu yelled. They charged towards the Rockets.
"Proton, you and the others distract the kids while I help Jeremiah get this thing working," Petrel said to his colleague.
"Right," Proton said with a wicked grin. "They will feel the wrath of Team Rocket!"
"Wait, why's he get to use it?" Chao complained.
"Because I'm the leader, obviously!" Jeremiah sneered.
"Actually, it's because you're the only one with a limb it would fit on," Petrel said.
"…Oh. Well. Still!" Jeremiah said. "At least it means I'm special."
"Yeah, you're real special, all right…" Smogon muttered.
"Come on, let's go! Show me you're worthy to call yourself Rockets!" Proton howled as he flew past, leading the other Rockets (and the flaming Glooms) towards the kids. Smogon and Chao grinned and followed suit.
"So, what do I need to do?" Jeremiah asked as fighting erupted all around them.
"First, you gotta put the thing on," Petrel instructed him.
"Okay," Jeremiah said, slipping his right forelimb through the ring of the Capture Styler. "Now what?"
"Now, point it at the Tyranitar," Petrel said. "Focus your will on her. The Styler's got some kinda fancy telepathic circuitry I can't even begin to understand, but basically it responds to your thoughts."
"Oooh, neat!" Jeremiah said, closing one eye and sticking out his tongue as he concentrated on the Tyranitar. To his surprise, the blue lens flipped up, a cross-hairs appearing on it with the frozen monster in the center, data and vital statistics forming on the sides. "Huh? Is it supposed to do that?"
"Yeah, it shows you information on the Pokémon you want to capture and what sorts of abilities it has…and let me tell you, this one's got a ton of 'em!" Petrel said. "Now, fire your Capture Disc—that's the little top-thingy—at her."
"How do I do that?" Jeremiah asked.
"Will it to happen. Remember, the Styler does what you want it to," Petrel said.
"Oh, right. Mmmm…" He jumped when the top lit up and suddenly launched itself off the Styler, whizzing and wobbling across the ground, leaving a colored trail of light in its wake as it spun all over the place, the words 'Capture On!' flashing on the display. "Whoa! Cool!"
"Now, focus your thoughts on the Disc. To control the Tyranitar, you have to capture her first," Petrel said. "And to do that, you need to make the Disc go in circles around her, which will transmit your feelings and will into her mind until that little bar you see underneath her image on the lens fills up. Normally, that would be a bit tricky since most Pokémon are naturally agitated by a weird spinning thing flying around them, so they try to move or attack it, but since this Tyranitar's been temporally paralyzed, that won't be a problem. She'll be released from her time freeze once you've made enough circles around her, and by then she'll be completely under your control. You can make her do anything you want just by thinking it."
"Really? Anything?" Jeremiah asked lewdly.
Petrel gave him an annoyed look. "Now isn't the time for that sort of thinking, kid. Just Capture her already, and use her to cream those kids! Show them what happens to those who mess with Team Rocket!"
"Chaw-haw-haw, sure, no problem!" Jeremiah said, focusing on the Capture Disc and willing it to start circling around the Tyranitar. It was a little tricky, and he started sweating from the effort of concentration needed to make the device do what he wanted it to. The line it created was more than a little wobbly and shapeless but still, ultimately, a circle. With every loop it completed around the Tyranitar, the Armor Pokémon flashed and Jeremiah felt some kind of connection to her, and the bar on the Styler's display filled up a little bit more. When it finally reached full capacity, the words, 'Pokémon Captured' flashed on the screen, and the Tyranitar blinked, glowing with an eerie light as she reanimated. She threw back her head and roared, shaking the whole cavern and causing the fighting Pokémon to freeze in their tracks, Shadow Aura blazing up around her. "Oh, wow!" the Skuntank gasped, staggering back as the Disc returned to the Styler.
"You okay, kid?" Petrel asked in concern.
"Y-yeah, I'm more than okay! I'm…I…I feel so much power! I can see what she sees, hear what she hears, experience what she experiences! The strength…the sheer, indomitable power coursing through her veins…it's coursing through mine too! It's incredible!" Jeremiah gasped.
"And can you control her?" Petrel asked.
"Control her? Oh, I can do a lot more than that," Jeremiah said with an evil grin, the Tyranitar's eyes changing to be the same color as his. "I'm gonna use her to destroy those twerps…and show them never to mess with Team Skull again!" Guided by his will, the Tyranitar stomped forwards towards the kids.
Noticing this, Petrel called back his Rockets. "Fall back! Leave them to our newest weapon!" the Golbat called as he retreated.
"Phew! A good thing, too, I don't know how much more of that I could have handled," one Houndour said as he scurried out of the way.
"Yeah, those kids are tougher than I expected!" the other Houndour agreed.
"Yeah, you'd better run!" Pichu yelled, waving his sword after them. "Ha, we sure scared them off, didn't we? Not bad, huh?"
"Actually, I think they're more afraid of the giant mind-controlled Shadow Tyranitar stampeding towards us," Max said.
Pichu turned and stared as the colossal beast bore down on them. "Ah. Yeah, that could be it too."
"Run!" Matthias screamed.
"Where to? There's nowhere to go!" said the panicking Sapphire.
"Which means we have to stand and fight!" Junior said, putting himself forward.
"Against that? Well, I guess there's no other choice…" Collette said reluctantly.
"Gilbert-kin, I know you'll save us!" Kira shrieked.
"I'll, uh, see what I can do…" Gilbert said doubtfully. "And don't call me kun!"
"Yeah," Torch said. Why doesn't she ever call me 'kun?'
"Any brilliant insights from the future?" George asked hopefully.
"Just one," Hubie said.
"What?" George asked.
"Don't die," Hubie said flatly.
"…Yeah, that'll work," George said.
The Tyranitar stopped a few feet away from them and roared, shaking the cavern again. "Chaw-haw-haw! Oh mon, this is going to be so great!" Jeremiah laughed.
"Heh-heh-heh! Sure thing, boss! This'll teach those punks to stick their noses in our business!" Chao agreed.
"Whoa-ho-ho! We're the invincible Team Skull! Nobody can defeat us! Especially not with this new power!" Smogon gloated.
"What did I tell you about the stupid laughs?" Proton bellowed.
The trio flinched, as did the Tyranitar, due to her connection to Jeremiah. "S-sorry, Uncle Proton," Chao said. "Won't happen again."
"That's what you said the last time!" Proton said.
"Well, we mean it this time!" Smogon said.
Proton rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Just beat them already!"
"No problem!" Jeremiah said, having the Tyranitar roar again, Shadow Aura blazing up around her. "With my new puppet, it'll be a snap! And by snap, I'm talking about their bones, of course! Chaw-haw…um…ahahaha?" he laughed weakly when he noticed Proton glaring at him. The Golbat nodded grudgingly, and he sighed in relief.
"Ugh, these kids are morons," Proton murmured to Petrel.
"Yeah, but they make the perfect test subjects," Petrel whispered back. "Who knows? They may even be able to unlock the Styler's true power…though I doubt it very much."
"What, no faith in your own kin?" Proton asked.
"No more than you have in yours," Petrel pointed out.
"Eh, that's what you get when cousins marry and have kids…" Proton grunted.
"You know, I think I would have preferred fighting Ignik again to this," Matthias said.
"Yeah, me too," Max said.
Pichu sighed. "Well, we wanted a real mission…and we got exactly what we asked for. There's probably a lesson to be learned from all this…"
"Be careful what you wish for?" Max asked.
"No, I was thinking more along the lines of 'Never fight a Shadow Pokémon without an Aura Guardian for backup," Pichu said.
"That's…actually not a bad one," Matthias admitted. "We could certainly use Aaron right about now."
"But we don't have him, so I guess it's up to us to beat her…somehow," Max said.
"Well, at least we've got all our friends here to help us, so that's something, isn't it?" Pichu said optimistically.
"Unless they just get killed like the rest of us," Matthias said morosely.
"Don't talk like that! We can still win this!" Pichu said.
"You really think so?" Max asked.
"Sure!" Pichu said, not sure at all. "If we all pull together and work as a team, we can show not only those jerks, but everyone back in Pokémon Square that we have what it takes to be a Rescue Team after all…to make Team Awesome a viable reality! And, most importantly, to get me a name!" His friends sweatdropped.
"Well, I guess we don't have a choice…" Matthias sighed. "All right, I'm with you."
"Me too. If we work together, we have a higher chance of success," Max admitted.
Pichu grinned. "Then let's do this! Team Awesome, go!" He turned to the Tyranitar…
And was surprised to see everyone else was already attacking her. "Hey, why'd you start without us?" he demanded.
"She started attacking us five minutes ago! You were too busy talking with each other to notice!" Collette yelled as she dodged a Hyper Beam.
"Get over here and help us out already!" Junior yelled as he rammed into the Tyranitar's leg with Take Down, doing absolutely no damage.
Team Awesome sweatdropped. "Um, uh, sure thing. We're on our way!" Pichu said.
"In the future, we should probably cut down on how long our motivational team-building conversations are," Max said as they headed over to help their friends.
"On the other hand, if we make them long enough, maybe everyone else will defeat the bad guys before we need to lift a finger," Matthias said hopefully.
"Yeah, but then we'll never earn any accolades that way," Pichu said.
"Are they worth it?" Matthias asked.
Pichu rolled his eyes. "Uh, yeah? Geez, what kind of warrior are you? Sometimes I feel like we're not even related or something…"
"…We aren't related! Your parents adopted me!" Matthias shouted.
"Eh, details," Pichu said indifferently, causing Matthias to facefault and Max to sigh.
And so, untested but eager to prove themselves (for the most part), Team Awesome rushed in to join the battle, while Team Skull cackled and the Rocket executives watched, their own mysterious scheme slowly coming closer to fruition. Would Team Awesome and the others manage to triumph and prove themselves to be the heroes they strived to be…or would they fail, learning the hard lesson that it takes more than courage and a willingness to do the right thing to triumph over evil?
…
Meanwhile, in Chroma Ruins…
"So, how have you enjoyed your stay in our humble abode so far?" the elder Gengar asked after Team Nightshade, the creepy Riolu, and Nefertiti (who, as it turned out, was a Ghost-type Pokémon called a Cofagrigus) entered his chamber, a torch-lit room with various well-worn ancient reliefs carved into the wall. The stones making up the underground chamber seemed to breath age, the tiles and blocks on the floor so ancient that they had rather deep ruts and impressions in them from where previous generations of tomb keepers had paced and walked while examining the art on the walls. "I apologize if our accommodations were not quite what you might expect from a regular settlement, but we denizens of the ruins have a, uh, rather different lifestyle from what you living folk of the outside world are used to."
"I quite liked it, actually," Evan said brightly. "The bedsss were niccce and comfy, and the little sssnacksss you left for usss to eat in the middle of the night were deliccciousss!"
"…You mean the disgusting beetles and worms that crawled into the coffins they put us in?" asked a grossed-out Mary.
"Yep!" Evan said, licking his lips.
"I couldn't sleep because the guy in the next sarcophagus kept trying to eat my brains," Jerry complained.
"Why didn't you simply shut the lid?" asked the puzzled Nefertiti.
"Because I was afraid I would suffocate," Jerry said.
"…Oh, right, you people need air," she said.
"I couldn't get any sleep either, because I kept hearing this voice in the back of my mind whispering about how it would kill me and drink my blood and suck the marrow from my bones," Mary said with a shudder.
"Oh, that's just Crazy Willy. Pay him no heed, he says that sort of stuff all the time," the Riolu said dismissively. Mary was not entirely reassured.
"Well, Janine and I had a good night together," Maren said. "Our coffin was nice and warm and cozy with both of us sharing it."
"Oh yes, it was very nice, quite a few of our younger residents enjoyed watching," the Gengar said.
There was a long pause. "Wait. You watched us?" Janine asked incredulously.
"Oh, not me, no, I'm old enough to know when to respect a couple's privacy. Some of our less mature spirits haven't figured that out yet, though, and decided to watch you going at it. It was very educational for them, most of them have never seen living people mate before," the Gengar said.
"Oh, Arceus," Maren whispered in horror.
"I'll kill them!" Janine howled.
"They're already dead," the Riolu reminded her.
"Then I'll kill them again!" the Ninjask snarled.
The Gengar chuckled and glanced at Gary. "And what about you, my boy?"
"Oh, it was wonderful! You guys really know how to show a dead guy a good time…which I guess makes sense, since you've got nobody but dead people down here. Well, except for your granddaughter over there," Gary said.
"And I intend to rectify that matter as soon as possible," the Riolu said. The Gengar gave her a disapproving look but said nothing.
"Anyway," Gary said. "Thanks for giving us a place to spend the night and some good grub to eat-"
"I'd have preferred our meal better if it hadn't been actual, you know, grubs," Mary said.
"And we're especially grateful you didn't turn us into mummies," Gary finished.
The others nodded. "Yeah, definitely," Jerry said.
"That wouldn't have been pleasant," Janine agreed.
"On the other hand, we could have spent eternity together," Maren said wistfully.
"Don't worry dearest, I'll make sure you come back as a Ghost even if I have to kill you myself to keep you with me," Janine said, causing Maren to smile fondly while the others gave them weirded-out looks.
"ANYWAY," Gary said loudly. "Like I said, we appreciate your hospitality, but…I think it's time we got down to business. You have a Compass shard we need, and apparently some ancient prophecy we're supposed to fulfill."
"And a prophecy of salvation, not destruction. What's that about?" Mary wondered.
"Yeah, I'd figure any prophecccy featuring usss would be about usss dessstroying the world," Evan said sardonically.
"I'll be happy to explain," the Gengar said pleasantly. "But first, I believe some introductions are in order. My name is Cranger, and I am the leader of our little community of the undead. You have already met my granddaughters, Nefertiti and Callista." The two females bowed their heads at the group. "And I know who you all are, of course. The prophecy made sure of that, so there would be no mistaking your identities when the time finally came for you to arrive here."
"What, really?" asked the amazed Gary as everyone exchanged surprised looks.
"Certainly. Just look over there," Cranger said, pointing to one of the reliefs, which clearly depicted all six members of Team Nightshade, with their names written underneath. "The prophecy was very specific."
Team Nightshade stared at the relief in astonishment. "Okay, that's kind of creepy," Mary said.
"That thing's probably been here longer than we've been alive…and they knew we'd come here that long ago?" asked a stunned Maren.
"I don't think they got my eyesss right," Evan complained. "And they made your hipsss too ssskinny, Mary." Mary punched him, hard.
"Aren't prophecies supposed to be very vague and generally unhelpful? I don't think I've ever heard of one this clear about who's involved in it," Jerry said.
"I know, we were surprised too!" Cranger said. "Which just goes to show it must be a really important prophecy, for the details to be given to us so precisely."
"And what was that prophecy again? Something about us resurrecting Lemewria or something?" Gary asked.
"Essentially, yes. I suppose I should give you a bit of a history lesson first, otherwise you will never understand the prophecy and what your place in it is," Cranger said.
"Isss thisss going to be a long ssstory? I have a very ssshort attention ssspan," Evan said.
"I'm afraid so," Cranger said apologetically.
"Laaaame!" Evan complained.
Callista drew her scythe and held it to Evan's neck. "You will sit down and listen to Grandfather's story, and you will like it. Is that clear?"
"Y-yesss, ma'am!" Evan stammered.
"Make yourselves comfortable, this will take a while," Nefertiti said to the others, who tried to find a good place to sit on the floor, not wanting to get their heads cut off or turned into mummies for refusing to comply.
"It all begins with Lemewria," Cranger said, floating into the air and drifting towards the reliefs on the wall, the images detailed there depicting the events he described. "Many, many, many ages ago, the world was in turmoil, torn apart by constant warfare and disasters. The Holy Mother Mew descended from the Celestial Heavens and chose a person of noble heart in whom she invested a great deal of power and wisdom, helping him to found the great nation of Lemewria, a utopian civilization based on a continent floating high above the skies. With the power and technology the Lemewrians possessed, they were able to bring peace to the world and usher in a new golden age of prosperity."
"Wait…Mew founding a nation to bring peace to the world? This sounds a lot like the story of the Berry Kingdom," Maren commented.
"As well it should. You don't think that was the first time Mew tried to create a perfect society, do you?" Cranger said with a chuckle.
"How did they manage to get Lemewria into the air? I mean, a flying continent? That's gotta require a lot of power to keep in the skies," Mary asked.
"And a lot of power they had. Mew gifted the Lemewrians with a magnificent gemstone made of solid light taken from the heavens themselves, a Luminous Crystal which instilled peace and love in the hearts of all who beheld it. Its holy light energized Lemewria and gave power to all its magnificent devices and machines, and brought peace to the world as it shone down from on high. Everyone loved and rejoiced in the light…" His face fell. "But in the hearts of some, that love turned into desire, and desire turned into greed, and many began plotting to take the Crystal for themselves. One such wicked heart was the king of Pokelantis, an oceanic nation almost as mighty as Lemewria itself. Desiring the power of the Crystal so that he could dominate the world, he declared war on Lemewria, dispatching all his armadas and sea monsters to try and knock the floating continent out of the sky. A tremendous war broke out, one that threatened to engulf the entire world. Although the two great civilizations were virtually equal in technological advancement and magical might, ultimately Lemewria started to get the upper hand thanks to its air superiority and mobility. Growing desperate, the king of Pokelantis tried to capture Ho-Oh, hoping to use her to destroy Lemewria and claim the Crystal. However, this hubris proved to be his undoing, for in a rage Ho-Oh destroyed Pokelantis, bringing the conflict to an end with Lemewria as the ultimate victors."
"Well good, I'm glad that ended well!" Evan said cheerfully.
"That can't be the end of the story…Lemewria's not around now, so what happened next?" Jerry asked.
Cranger shook his head sadly. "Disaster struck. The Luminous Crystal, which had given power and life to Lemewria for centuries…was corrupted, becoming the Shadow Crystal, a stone of pure darkness that filled the hearts of people with evil rather than light."
"Oh dear," Janine said.
"What made that happen? It sounded like everything was going so well, too!" Gary said.
"Nobody's really sure," Callista said.
"Some say that Mew withdrew her favor from Lemewria due to the atrocities committed in the war, causing the Crystal to darken. Some say that the king of Lemewria himself grew as greedy as his vanquished foe, causing the Crystal to change. Others still say that it was the King of Pokelantis's dying curse, his final strike against Lemewria," Nefertiti said. "The answer has been lost to history. All that is certain is that the Crystal went dark, and as a result Lemewria turned from a paradise into a hell."
"Fearing that the darkness of the Crystal would spread out to engulf the entire world, the three princes of Lemewria sacrificed their lives to create three jewels, later known as the 'Tears of Princes,' which were able to mitigate and contain the Shadow Crystal's power. In the process, however, the Royal Seal of Lemewria, the control device that operated the flying continent's myriad systems and enchantments, was shattered, and without it, Lemewria fell from the heavens, no longer able to function properly. Almost everyone died in that great crash, as Lemewria sank beneath the waves, seemingly vanishing for all time," Cranger said.
"How sad…" Maren murmured.
"Eh, it'sss to be exxxpected really," Evan said flippantly. "All utopian ancient cccivilizzzatttionsss get the axxxe sssooner or later. Otherwissse there wouldn't be ssso many ancient ruinsss and artifactsss and sssealed evilsss for modern adventurersss like usss to deal with, and we'd be out of a job!"
"You said that 'almost' everyone died," Mary said, ignoring Evan. "What happened to the survivors?"
"The remaining Lemewrians, bearing the weakened Shadow Crystal and the three Tears, came to the region that would later be known as Almia, seeking refuge," Cranger said. "Traumatized and shattered by the loss of their home, the survivors wound up going their separate ways to start anew, each new tribe taking one of the mystical gems with them. A few wise and brave souls, realizing that this could mean the end of their civilization, tried for years to find the pieces of the Royal Seal, which had been scattered around the world. They believed that if they could find the Seal, they could use it and the Crystal to raise Lemewria from the ocean depths, and reunite their people. Sadly, although they found a few pieces, the rest were never found, and the seekers eventually died, and with them all hope of rebuilding Lemewria…"
"…Geez, that's depressing," Gary said.
"But you have a prophecy that says we can rebuild it," Jerry said.
"Yes, now we do. Our ancestors did not have the luxury of a prophecy at the time, though," Cranger said. "Giving up all hope on regaining their former glory, they tried instead to create a new future for themselves. The tribe that we are descended from settled here on the Chroma Highlands, building the ruins you see around you to contain and protect the Shadow Crystal so that nobody could use its power and so it's evil could not spread to infect the rest of Almia. To make sure it stayed safe, Darkrai, lord of death and darkness, appointed himself the protector of the Crystal."
"Oh, cool!" Gary said.
"Well, that's certainly a formidable defense," Maren commented.
"Yes, one even I would have difficulty circumventing," Janine agreed.
"Can we meet him? Isss he here now?" Evan asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately, no," Callista said. "He no longer resides in our home…which is a pity, because if anyone knows how to make me undead, it's him."
"Our tribe dwindled in the aftermath of Lemewria's fall. Eventually all the humans died off, and we Pokémon were all that remained," Nefertiti said. "Millennia passed…and then, in the days before the great cataclysm, a group of evil humans managed to overpower Darkrai and steal the Shadow Crystal."
"What? But Darkrai's the god of death! How could a bunch of humans beat him?" Janine asked incredulously.
"Eh, humans can be pretty clever when they try," Gary said knowingly.
Cranger nodded. "They tried to use the Shadow Crystal's power to conquer Almia, using its power to fill the hearts of all the region's Pokémon with evil…but fortunately, a brave hero managed to stop them by retrieving the three Tears of Princes and using their combined power to not just neutralize the Shadow Crystal, but purify it too, so that it was the Luminous Crystal again, and radiated peace and light rather than evil."
"Oh, well, thank goodness for that, then," Jerry said.
"Wait…they purified the Crystal? Why couldn't they do that before?" Maren asked.
Cranger shrugged. "We aren't sure. Some think that it had something to do with the hero's heart…that it was pure enough to counter the Crystal's darkness and remind it of what it once was, while the hearts of our ancestors had been too tainted by the sin of the ancient war or proximity to the Crystal itself to have the same effect. Or it might have been something else entirely. Whatever the reason, the Crystal was restored, and it looked as if there might yet be hope for the rebirth of Lemewria, or an even greater civilization."
"And then the great disaster happened?" Mary asked.
"And then the great disaster happened," Callista said.
"In the wake of the planet's rearrangement, the regions of Fiore and Almia were combined into the continent we now know as Almiore," Cranger said. "But in the process, the Luminous Crystal and the Tears of Princes were lost, and our ancestors' hopes of creating a new Lemewria were once again lost. But Darkrai, visiting us for one last time, gave us a prophecy that promised our dreams might yet be realized one day. He said that many years from then, a group of heroes unsure of themselves but with potential yet untapped would come to these ruins, and that they would be the ones who would reassemble the Royal Seal, find the Luminous Crystal, and lead to the resurrection of Lemewria, which would usher in a new era of limitless bounty and prosperity. He told us that we were to help you in any way we could, for you would need it to fulfill your destiny and make the future he spoke of a reality."
"…Wait, so the god of death and darkness said we're supposed to bring in a new golden age?" Mary asked skeptically. "Isn't that kind of oxymoronic?"
"Hey, Darkrai'sss no moron!" Evan said, causing her to facepalm.
"Um, I don't mean to question Darkrai, but are you sure you have the right people?" Jerry asked. "I mean, yeah, we're trying to be heroes, but…I think we're on a completely different quest from this thing you're talking about."
"Yes, we're trying to rescue Princess Sara from the Berry King by gathering the pieces of the Magnificent Compass, not finding the Royal Seal and Luminous Crystal," Maren said. "I mean, I guess we could start on this other adventure after we're done with the current one, but-"
Cranger burst into laughter, startling them. "You still have not figured it out?"
"Uh, figured what out?" Gary asked.
"The two quests are one and the same!" Callista said. "The Royal Seal of Lemewria and the Magnificent Compass is the same artifact. By finding the pieces of the Compass, you bring the Royal Seal closer to completion!"
They stared at her incredulously. "Wait, what?" Gary asked.
"No way," Mary said in disbelief. "No way! That's…that's too convenient to possibly be true! Especially for us!"
"And besssidesss, it'sss a compasss, not a Royal Ssseal," Evan pointed out.
Maren nodded. "Yes, all it does is find things, and supposedly point the way to your heart's desire. If it had the power to control an ancient flying continent, I'd think we'd know about it…wouldn't we?"
"And you said the Seal's pieces were scattered around the world and lost…but we've found all the pieces of the Compass right here in Almiore," Janine added.
"Yes, the Seal was shattered…many thousands of years ago," Cranger pointed out. "It was a long time ago. The world has changed a lot since then. Plenty of time for the pieces of the Crest to be moved, exchanged from hand to hand over countless generations, and eventually wind up in Almiore. It's less of a coincidence than you might think…the pieces of the Crest are drawn together. After all, why else would you be able to use the base they were once all set in to locate the rest?"
"…Huh. I guess that makes sense," Gary admitted.
"Wait, no it doesn't! It's a Compass, not a Royal Seal!" Maren protested. "And I know what royal seals look like, we've got a very nice one back in Mirage Kingdom!"
"And I thought the story behind the Compass was that it was broken apart to keep it from being used by evil, not in some great battle in a flying continent," Janine added.
"Stories have a habit of being changed and twisted as the years go by and people embellish or remove details, to the point where sometimes the original tale is almost completely forgotten," Nefertiti said. "That would appear to be the case with the Magnificent Compass, and why you believe it to be a Compass, not the Royal Seal."
"But it is a Compass! It has a base and a needle, and the pieces we've been collecting are just bits of glass!" Mary protested. "Gary, show them!"
"Uh, sure. Here," Gary said, taking out the Compass. "No offense, but it doesn't look very Royal to me."
The three ruins guardians stared at the Compass in awe. "On the contrary," Cranger said reverently. "I can think of nothing more fitting for a civilization like Lemewria."
"What do you mean?" Jerry asked.
"Think about it. Lemewria was a flying continent, and the Royal Seal was what controlled it. What better form could something like that take than a navigational instrument?" Cranger said. "To pilot something as big as a flying continent, you need to always know where you're going and where you came from. A compass guides travelers, always telling them where they are, and what direction they need to go to reach their destination. Can you think of a better object than a compass to guide the fates of an entire airborne nation, drifting on the wind?"
"Yesss," Evan said. "How about a map?"
"Or one of those things they have in planes that can tell you air pressure or how high up you are?" Janine said.
"Or a steering wheel," Jerry said.
"Or maybe-" Mary started.
"Look, that's not what the Lemewrians thought of, so for whatever reason, they decided to make it a compass," Cranger said testily.
"And if you still don't believe it, look over there," Callista said, pointing to a relief next to the one of Team Nightshade that clearly depicted the Magnificent Compass, with the words 'Royal Seal of Lemewria' written under it.
"Oh," Mary said.
"Well, I guess that settles that question," Gary said.
"But what about the story of the Compass—er, Seal, or whatever—being able to lead to the heart's desire? Was that part wrong too?" Maren asked, somewhat disappointed.
"Not wrong, just…misinterpreted," Cranger said. "After all, the heart's desire of the original seekers of the Seal was to use it to resurrect Lemewria. After they died, word of their quest became garbled to the point where it was believed the Seal had the power to find anyone's heart's desire."
"Oh," Maren said. "I…guess that makes sense."
"But that must mean…you said you had a piece of the Compass. That means it's a piece of the Royal Seal!" Gary realized. "How did you get it, if it was lost?"
"Simple, one of our ancestors found it," Nefertiti said.
"But it was the only one they were able to find," Cranger said sadly. "It's only more recently that the remaining pieces all wound up on the same continent."
"But the piece my village had has been in our possession for centuries," Jerry said.
"Same with the one in Pueltown, and the Mirage Kingdom, and…heck, pretty much every other place we've been in," Mary pointed out.
"When I say 'recently', I mean in the last several hundred years or so. Remember, Lemewria fell a very long time ago, and it's been almost as long since then that one of the Crest pieces was brought here," Cranger said.
"Then how come you guys didn't just go and collect the other pieces once they came to Almiore?" Gary asked.
"Because it would be almost impossible to locate them all without the base," Callista said. "Even though the pieces are drawn together by a desire to be whole again, only the base would allow a seeker to properly interpret the locations of the other fragments. However, the prophecy said that the heroes who would reunite the Crest would control the base, so we decided it would be best to wait for you to show up and protect the piece in our keeping until then. Some of us were not happy to wait for so long, however, and ventured out to try and find the missing pieces on their own…including my sister. Those who came back were empty-handed and disappointed, while all the rest never returned."
"But now all these centuries of waiting and hoping have at last come to fruition…you have collected almost every piece of the Crest, and once you have obtained it and the Luminous Crystal, you can raise Lemewria from the depths and into the skies once again!" Cranger said joyously.
"Neat," Evan said.
"Which means we just need to get your piece and the piece that was in Princess Sara's crown to finish this thing…" Gary muttered. "Hey, you don't think that's why she was kidnapped, do you? To trick us into bringing a nearly completed Compass—er, Royal Seal—into the Berry King's hands so he could use it to resurrect Lemewria?"
"…Could be," Maren admitted.
"But the Berry King is a good person, isn't he?" Jerry said. "All the stories say so. So if he wanted to remake Lemewria, what could be wrong with that?"
"If he's a good person, why would he have kidnapped the Princess in the first place?" Mary pointed out.
"Yeah, he could have jussst asssked for the pieccce if her crown," Evan said.
"Actually, he couldn't," Janine said. "The crown Princess Sara wears is an ancient heirloom of the Mirage Kingdom royal family used to ensure chastity. It is put on a Princess's brow when she reaches sexual maturity, and there it will remain, magically locked in place and generating a…force of sorts that will prevent her from losing her virginity until her marriage. Once she is legitimately wed, the crown will release itself from her head so that she may consummate her marriage properly, and it can then be placed on the head of the next princess in line."
"…Which could explain why he wants to marry the Princess, since then he could take the Crest piece from her crown!" Maren gasped.
"Wait, would that count as a 'legitimate' marriage?" Mary asked skeptically. "He abducted her, after all."
"I think it depends on how you define 'legitimate,'" Janine said.
Callista nodded. "Yes, there's always tons of loopholes in spells like that which the clever can exploit. If the Berry King truly desires the Crest piece, I have no doubt he will find a way to obtain it."
"Oh," Gary said. He frowned. "I'm starting to get a bit of a bad vibe from this…maybe we should reconsider. If we go for Princess Sara, won't we be bringing the nearly-finished Crest to the Berry King?"
"Perhaps we could leave the Crest here?" Janine suggested. "We already know where Princess Sara is being held, thanks to the process of elimination. If the denizens of these ruins have been protecting one piece of the Crest for this long, surely they can protect a few more for a while longer until we deal with the Berry King, save the Princess, and retrieve the last piece?"
"Hey yeah, that's a great idea!" Gary said.
"Yes, except that it won't work," Nefertiti said.
Everyone looked at her in surprise. "Huh? What do you mean?" Evan asked.
Cranger sighed. "You and the Mirage Kingdom soldiers are not the only visitors we have received recently seeking our piece of the Crest. For you see, while the prophecy foretold that you six would be the ones to reunite Crest and Crystal and raise Lemewria…it also spoke of another seeker of the lost continent, an evil force which seeks to create an age of darkness rather than one of light. We call him 'The Faceless One.'"
"Why?" Jerry asked.
"Because he doesn't have a face," Callista said, pointing to an image of a cloaked figure that indeed did not appear to have a face. He was surrounded by strange Pokémon that almost looked like they were on fire…but there was something odd about the flames, like they weren't actually flames at all but some other form of energy. A dark energy…
"Oh," Jerry said.
"He has dispatched his forces in repeated assaults against our home over the last month, trying to penetrate our defenses and claim our piece of the Crest," Nefertiti said. "We have managed to repel him so far, but we cannot hold out forever. If you leave the Crest pieces you have collected so far, there is a very good chance he will manage to take them from us while you are away."
"Whereas on the other hand, if you take the pieces with you to fight the Berry King, we can at least assume his intentions, whatever they may be, are purer than the Faceless One, if all the stories about him are true, and we see no reason to believe they aren't," Cranger said. "So if he manages to take the pieces from you, the end result will probably be nowhere near as bad as if the Faceless One did."
"The lesser of two evils, huh?" Maren murmured.
"I suppose we have no choice, then," Janine said reluctantly.
Gary sighed. "Well, all right, you guys are the experts on this subject. If you say this is our best option, then…okay, we'll take your Crest piece. But once we have them, how are we supposed to find the Luminous Crystal, and Lemewria itself?"
"That, thankfully, will be a much easier task than reassembling the Crest," Cranger said.
Nefertiti nodded. "Our ancestors memorized the precise coordinates where Lemewria fell in hopes that we, their descendants, would one day be able to locate and revive it. Since you, the ones spoken of in prophecy, have finally arrived, we can at long last put those coordinates to use to find and raise Lemewria from the ocean floor."
"As for the Crystal, once you assemble the Crest, it will guide you to it," Callista said.
"It will?" Mary asked. "But I thought it didn't actually have the power to find your heart's desire."
"Which sssucksss, becaussse I wasss gonna ussse it to find Hissssssa!" Evan complained.
"You will see her again," Cranger assured him.
"How do you know?" Evan asked miserably.
"Because the prophecy said so," the Gengar said, pointing to a picture of Evan being reunited with a several-headed Seviper.
"Oh, wow! And ssshe even grew sssome exxxtra headsss! That'sss ssso sssexxxy!" Evan hissed eagerly.
"…Wow, this sure is a convenient prophecy," Maren said.
"Would you prefer the vaguely-worded ones which never make any sense until it's too late to heed their warning?" Nefertiti asked.
"No, I guess not," Maren admitted.
"But back to Mary's question…no, the Crest can't find objects…at least, it can't in the hands of an ordinary person," Callista said. "When used by a member of the royal family of Lemewria, however, it can be used to pinpoint and locate just about anything. It is the royal crest, after all."
"Oh. That makes sense," Mary said.
"But where are we going to get a member of the royal family of Lemewria?" Gary asked.
"You're looking at her," Callista said.
Gary did a double-take. "Buh?"
"Wait, what?" Jerry said.
"Our tribe is descended from survivors from Lemewria, remember?" Cranger said. "Among those survivors was some of the royal family. Callista is the last living remnant of that ancient bloodline, now that her sister's gone. She is, in fact, heir to the throne of Lemewria…or will be, once there's actually a throne for her to sit in."
"Oh, cool!" Evan said.
"Wait…but…were the rulers of Lemewria Pokémon or-" a confused Mary said.
"I don't think we really need to know all the specifics," Gary said loudly. "So…Callista, that makes you what, a princess or something?"
"Ssshould we be bowing?" Evan asked.
"Well, Maren and Janine seem to be," Jerry commented.
"Considering I don't even have a kingdom yet, that is rather premature and unnecessary," Callista said, somewhat embarrassed. Maren and Janine blushed and straightened. They were so conditioned from their training to act that way around royalty they'd bowed without even thinking about it.
"Callista shall go with you once you have retrieved the Crest piece we keep and depart to find the last piece," Cranger said. "Her Aura skills and master of necromancy should come in handy."
"And you will require me to activate the Crest so that we can find the Luminous Crystal and, ultimately, resurrect Lemewria," Callista said.
"Well, I can't see any downside to having someone who was strong enough to defeat us on our team-" Gary said.
"Like that's hard?" Mary muttered under her breath.
"So welcome to Team Nightshade, Callista!" Gary said, pretending he hadn't heard the Medicham's comment.
The Riolu bowed her head. "I am honored to be included among the ranks of such brave heroes as yourselves." Evan had to bite his own tail to keep from bursting into raucous laughter at that very ill-informed statement.
"It is my hope that going out into the wide world and getting a taste of leadership will help her put aside this idea of becoming undead," Cranger said.
"Grandfather, we've been over this…" Callista said, rolling her eyes.
"Callista, I have no problem with you wanting to stay here forever, it's a nice enough place to dwell and nobody really wants to say goodbye to family, but if you die, or become undead, all hope of truly resurrecting Lemewria is lost," Cranger said sternly. "If you must become undead, couldn't you at least lay some eggs first?"
"I'd be happy to, but you've nixed all my choices for prospective mates so far!" Callista said in annoyance.
"That would probably be because all of them are undead, which means any children you have would be Ghosts, which would leave us with the exact same problem as before," the elder Gengar said. He glanced at Gary. "I don't suppose you could find my granddaughter a trustworthy, preferably living mate while you're out there, could you? Every queen needs a consort, after all."
"Grandfather!" Callista said sharply. Nefertiti snickered.
"Uh, we'll…uh…see what we can do, sir," Gary said awkwardly.
"Right…all this family drama aside…can you give us your Crest piece already so we can get started on this enormous extra task you've dropped on us?" Mary asked.
Cranger grimaced. "Ah, well…therein lies the problem."
Everyone groaned. "Of course," Maren said miserably. "I knew it couldn't be that easy."
"Let me guesss, the Cressst piece wasss ssstolen?" Evan asked.
"Or is being guarded by an incredibly powerful and dangerous monster?" Janine asked.
"Or is lost in the ruins somewhere, and we have to navigate a torturous and trap-laden labyrinth to get it?" Jerry asked.
"Oh no, nothing like that," Cranger said. "We know exactly where the Crest piece is, its just, well, getting it that's a bit of a problem. Since it was the only Crest piece they were able to find, our ancestors wanted to make absolutely sure they didn't lose it, so they did the only thing they could think of to ensure its safety: they hid it in a Mirror of Truth."
"A what now?" Gary asked.
"Oh, aren't thossse the magic mirrorsss that ssshow you your 'true reflectttion' or sssomething when you look in them?" Evan asked.
"Wonder what they'd show us if we looked in them?" Mary muttered.
"Well, I assume we're going to have to to get the Crest piece, am I right?" Maren asked.
Cranger nodded. "Mirrors of Truth not only show you your inner self, they can also be used to learn a great truth about yourself…sometimes a truth you might not like to hear. To retrieve the Crest piece, one of you must go inside the world contained within the Mirror and confront such a truth. If you can accept it, you will achieve a measure of inner peace and understanding as well as gaining the penultimate piece of the Crest. If you fail…well, there's a good chance the truth will drive you completely insane. However, since you're all chosen ones, I'm sure you'll have no problem passing the trial of the Mirror, since as destined heroes surely you have no great skeletons hiding in your metaphorical closets that you've been avoiding for a long time, right?"
All of Team Nightshade exchanged uncomfortable looks. "Um. No. Nothing like that at all," Mary lied anxiously.
"I will take the trial," Janine said. "I already know everything there is to know about myself. There are no truths it can show me that I am not already fully aware of and completely comfortable with."
"Actually, that means you're completely ineligible to take the trial," Nefertiti said. "Mirrors are designed to grant people insight. If you already possess that insight, then there's nothing it can do for you, and so you can't attempt its challenge."
"Oh," Janine said, somewhat disgruntled.
"I'll do it," Jerry said, seeing the others' hesitations. "Whatever truths there are for me to learn about myself, I'm sure I can handle it."
"No," Gary said. "I'll go."
"What?" Mary said in surprise. "But Gary, you can't-"
"I'm the leader of this team, and there's nothing I would let a teammate do that I wasn't fully willing to do myself," the Gengar said firmly. "We're trying to make up for our past and take responsibility for our mistakes. If that requires letting a magic mirror tell me there's something wrong with me, then fine, what's one more flaw for me to worry about? It's just another thing for me to work on improving."
"But, but Gary-" Evan protested.
"My decision is final," Gary said decisively. "I'm going in. Nobody else is going to risk their lives, or their sanity, because of me. Is that clear?" The others looked at him uncomfortably. They wanted to argue, but…on some level, they were relieved that he was going to do this instead of them. They weren't sure they really wanted to find out just how ugly they all were on the inside. This made them feel all the guiltier, of course.
Cranger nodded approvingly. "An admirable decision. Just what I would expect from a hero of legend…though it wasn't really necessary, the prophecy said you were going to be the one who'd go into the Mirror and get the Crest piece."
"It does?" Gary asked in surprise.
"Sure, see?" Cranger said, pointing to a picture of Gary walking out of a giant mirror carrying a small piece of glass, a triumphant grin on his face.
"Oh! Well, that's reassuring," Gary said in relief.
"This has to be one of the clearest and most useful prophecies I've ever heard of," said an amazed Maren.
"Isss there anything elssse it sssaysss that you haven't mentioned?" Evan asked.
"Hmm, let me see…" the elder Gengar examined the walls. "No, no, I'm pretty sure we've covered everything important."
"Good," Gary said. "So, is there anything we need to do to get this show on the road?"
"No, we just need to go to the Mirror Chamber. The rest is pretty much self-evident," Cranger said.
"Great. Then let's go!" Gary said.
"What, you want to do it now?" Mary asked incredulously.
"Yes, before I lose my nerve and change my mind," he murmured in reply.
Cranger nodded. "Very good. Callista, escort them to the Chamber please. I will meet you there." He phased through the floor and disappeared.
The Riolu sighed. "I wish I could do that. Oh well, maybe some day. Come along." She led them out of the room, taking them down twisting corridor after twisting corridor as they headed deeper into the crypt. The Ghosts, zombies, mummies, and other undead that dwelled in the ruins paused as they passed by and looked curiously after them, no doubt wondering what they were up to.
"I must say, I'm impressed by your courage," Nefertiti said as she floated up next to Gary. "The last person who volunteered to go into the Mirror of Truth…well, he made it back out, but not in one piece."
"What happened to him?" Gary asked anxiously.
"Oh, he became Crazy Willy," Nefertiti said. Gary's eyes bulged.
"Starting to lose your nerve?" Mary whispered as Nefertiti floated away.
"A little," Gary muttered.
"If you're having second thoughts, I'm willing-" Jerry started.
"No," Gary interrupted. "I said I was gonna do this, so I'm gonna do this. That's that." Mary frowned, but did not challenge him.
"You know, I think he might be the right one to do this after all," Maren said to Janine.
"How do you mean?" Janine asked.
"While everyone in this group is aware of their problems, nobody is as conscious of and willing to fix them as Gary," Maren explained. "He's changed a lot since we've started this thing. If anyone can face the truth about himself, its Gary…because he already suspects what it might be, and is willing to change it, no matter how horrible it might be."
"…You know," Janine said. "I think you might be right. Perhaps…he does have what it takes to be a hero of legend after all. Maybe the prophecy was right to choose him…"
"Well, it has been so far," Maren said.
"I wonder what the future it speaks of holds for us?" Janine wondered.
"Whatever it is, we'll find a place in it…" Maren said, grabbing Janine's hand and offering her a smile. "Together." Janine smiled back. (At least, Maren was pretty sure she did. The lack of mouthparts similar to hers made it hard to tell sometimes).
…
Meanwhile, in the northeastern corner of Sinnorre…
The trees rustled and the grass trembled as a Dragonite bearing passengers swooped down through a hole in the forest canopy and landed on the ground, the wind from his passage sending all the foliage aflutter. As Wabbaku and Gardenia slid off his back, the Dragonite shimmered and shrunk down into the pink form of Mondo the Ditto. "Well, here we are: Treeshroud Forest, just like you said! Aptly named, huh?" he said.
"Yeah, really…" Gardenia said in awe as she stared up at the thick trees surrounding them which towered up for hundreds and hundreds of feet before terminating in a huge mass of interwoven branches and leaves so thick it all but blotted out the sky, rays of light shining through ever-shifting chinks in the canopy. "It's beautiful!"
"And full of life, as I had hoped it would be," Wabbaku said, inhaling the fresh air. "I chose wisely in directing the Caretakers of the Tree of Beginning to this place."
"Speaking of which, where are they?" Gardenia asked, glancing around.
"You're looking in the wrong place. Look up," Wabbaku said, pointing at the trees.
Gardenia looked higher up the trunks and was surprised to see that what she had initially taken to be a series of low branches and knots around the trees' midsection were actually a complex network of bridges and walkways linking dozens of wooden huts and shacks and treehouses placed against the trunks. Dozens of Pokémon were standing on those walkways, staring down at them in surprise and more than a little fear. "Oh, wow! They sure have done a lot of work in a short time, huh?"
"Yeah, real industrious little tree-huggers, considering they must have only started out for here a couple of weeks ago," Mondo commented. He frowned when he saw most of the villagers scrambling closer to the buildings hanging from the tree trunks as several burlier warrior-types moved into places on the walkways, aiming bows and spears and slings and powering up a number of projectile attacks at them. "Uh-oh. This doesn't look good."
"You there! What are you doing here?" the leader of the warriors, an angry-looking Sentret, shouted down at the ex-Rockets. "This is the village of the Caretaker tribe! If you mean us harm, you will swiftly forget it, for we have already lost one home to invaders, and have no intention of letting that tragedy occur again!"
"Nor would I, especially since I am the one who told you to come to this place from the ruins of your old home," Wabbaku shouted up in reply. "I am the shaman Wabbaku. Perhaps you remember me, perhaps you do not, but I am certain your leader Michael Treesentinel does. I need to speak with him at once, for a great evil stalks Sinnorre and only he can help me put it to rest."
The Sentret blinked in surprise. "You are Wabbaku? The sage who told us of this place that has become our new home?"
"Well, I wouldn't call myself a sage exactly, but-" Wabbaku started.
"Stand down!" the Sentret barked to the other warriors, who relaxed as the rest of the villagers pushed back onto the walkways, looking down at the Wobbuffet in awe. "Wabbaku is our friend, as are any who would accompany him. I am sure Michael would be happy to see you again. I shall take you to him personally, after which I insist you stay for a feast to celebrate your arrival and to thank you for guiding us to Treeshroud Forest."
Wabbaku rubbed the back of his head Mareepishly. "That…that's not necessary. I mean, I didn't do that much, Michael led you all the way here."
"Yes, but we would not have even known to come here were it not for your wise advise which helped him to regain faith in himself and find the strength to lead us here. For that, you shall always hold a place of honor in our tribe's history, second only to Team Aurabolt, the great heroes who liberated us from the evil responsible for destroying our original home and killing the previous Protector!" the Sentret said. The other villagers cheered, clearly agreeing with this sentiment.
"They're right to want to honor you," Gardenia said to the embarrassed Wabbaku. "You've done a lot for these people."
"It didn't seem like that much at the time…" Wabbaku murmured.
"Maybe not to you, but it sure did to them! Enough that they're gonna throw us a feast!" Mondo said eagerly, licking his lips. "Which I sure could use, I'm starving after the long flight it took for us to get here!"
They were raised up into the treehouses by a surprisingly sophisticated wooden elevator that operated on a system of weights and pulleys. Once they were high off the ground, the Sentret and the other warriors closed ranks around Wabbaku and the others to keep them from being mobbed by the rest of the villagers, who were eager to get a look at the shaman whom they seemed to regard as their savior. "You have no idea how happy we are to see you here, Wise One. As you can see, we have managed to make a good place for ourselves in the short time we've been here, a place we can be proud to call home," the Sentret said as he guided them towards the chieftain's hut where Michael resided.
"How did you get all this done so fast?" asked an amazed Gardenia.
"With a lot of work and the will to prevail. The loss of the Tree of Beginning was very hard on us, and more than a few of our number perished or took their own lives on the long and sometimes strenuous journey here," the Sentret admitted. "Which made us all the more determined to survive, to make a new life for ourselves, and to ensure that the injustice which befell us once will never happen again."
"You have done well," Wabbaku said. "I am sorry to hear that you did not all make it, though. I knew there was a chance some of you would not survive, but…I had hoped…"
"As did we," the Sentret admitted sadly. "There has been far too much death in recent months. But we are doing our best to turn away from our sorrow and embrace life. You may have noticed how fit and healthy we are compared to when you last encountered us, and how many new children we have? We are doing our best to replenish our numbers. This forest has reenergized us, and we intend to return the favor by doing what we do best: caring for these trees, which have sheltered us just as the Tree of Beginning once did. Just because we are far from our place of origin does not mean we cannot still be Caretakers, no?"
"No indeed," Wabbaku said, pleased by how well the Caretakers had adjusted to their new habitat.
Soon enough they reached Michael's hut, which naturally was a bit larger and more ornate than the others, with several carvings and fetishes and little bits of life crystal placed on its walls. "The Protector and his oracles are inside," the Sentret told them. "I hope that your reunion is as joyous as ours was at seeing you, and that whatever business you have come here to discuss with him will be resolved satisfactorily."
"As do I, my friend. As do I," Wabbaku said as they entered the hut, leaving their escort.
The interior of the hut was warm and bright, lit by shafts of light coming through various hatches that had been made in the ceiling. The walls were lined with a number of carvings and paintings of Michael and some of the previous Protectors of the Tree of Beginning, along with many images of the Tree itself. Paint had also been applied to the walls and floor in patterns Wabbaku immediately recognized as signs in the language of the spirits. The back wall had a couple of doors in it leading into other chambers, with a low dais placed between them that had a crude but beautiful tapestry depicting the Tree of Beginning hanging behind it.. Lounging on that dais was a Leafeon with a red crystal embedded in his forehead and a collar made of chips of wood and life crystal, a Plusle and Minun with their eyes stitched shut standing on either side of him. All of them had tattoos similar to the markings on the walls painted on their fur, and all of them looked much healthier and in better shape than the last time they'd seen them. (Well, except for Pipi and Mimi not having eyes, but that couldn't be helped.) "Wabbaku!" the young Leafeon said excitedly as he got up off the dais and walked over to the Wobbuffet. "It is good to see you, my friend! It has been too long."
"Michael, it's only been a couple of weeks," Wabbaku said with a laugh.
"Has it really? It feels like so much longer…years, really, since we left the ruins of the Mystifying Forest," Michael said, his eyes turning sad for a moment as he remembered how they had been forced into exile from the place of their birth.
"What with all the work you've been doing constructing this village and forming a new society, I can easily imagine how one could lose track of time," Wabbaku said. "You have done well here, my friend, and I am gratified that the spirits were right in choosing this place to be your new home."
"As am I!" Michael said. "And speaking of spirits…I'm sure you've noticed something different about me?"
"Um…you got a haircut?" Mondo guessed.
"No doofus, the crystal in his forehead isn't cracked anymore!" Gardenia hissed.
Michael nodded. "That is correct. When I absorbed the energy of the forest through photosynthesis to replenish my strength after the long journey here, it mended my crystal and restored my connection to the spirit world, allowing me to converse with my ancestors once more…including my grandmother, the latest addition to their number, whose soul I had feared lost due to the tortures and degradations visited upon her by Doctor Tarantulas. And…what you said about them not hating me for what happened or thinking I was a failure…you were right. They forgave me for the death of the Tree, and said I did the best job a Protector possibly could have done in that terrible situation."
"I am glad to hear it, as well as to see how well you have all acclimatized to this place," Wabbaku said. He hesitated, then reluctantly said, "Which is why I am sorry to bring bad news to your doorstep…and possibly drag you away from your people and the haven you have built here, and back into the dangers of the wider world."
Michael frowned in alarm. "Why? What is the matter?"
"If your connection to the spirit world has been restored, then you no doubt felt the disturbance a few days ago…the wailing and agony of the spirits as an evil long-buried was released upon the land," Wabbaku said gravely.
Michael grimaced and nodded. "Yes…I felt it. The screams of the ancestors was so great I felt like my head would split open. What…what is the nature of this evil?"
"It's a really big ugly serpent that looks like it's made out of corpses," Mondo said. "Lots and lots of corpses. Oh, and it's being commanded by some weirdo demon who loves games, can warp reality, and looks sorta like the Holy Mother for some reason."
Gardenia nodded. "Yeah, that about sums it up."
"The beast is named Leviathan, and it is commanded by a demon called 'Mewgle,'" Wabbaku said. "At present they stalk the land, devouring souls and seeking out one I believe you are familiar with…a Squirtle named Leo DeKappa."
Michael gasped. "Leo? Of Team Aurabolt?"
Wabbaku nodded. "I'm afraid so."
"Why…why is he after Leo? Why do they want my friends?" Michael asked in alarm.
"According to the spirits, there is a long history between Leo and Mewgle," Wabbaku said. "Throughout the eons, their past incarnations have battled in countless games with nothing less than the fate of the cosmos at stake. Leo has always thwarted Mewgle before, but with the power of Leviathan at his command, Mewgle might be able to tip the scales in his favor. And if Mewgle prevails, there will be none left who can stop him, for Leo is the only being in all of reality who can truly defeat Mewgle once and for all."
"No…not Leo…" Michael whispered. A determined look on his face, he glanced up at Wabbaku. "I can't allow that to happen, not to my friends! How can we stop Mewgle?"
"When I leave Treeshroud Forest, I will go to a place called Aegis Cave far to the south of here, where the Unown dwell," Wabbaku explained. "As the spirits can tell you, a great power is buried there…an ancient and mighty spirit who knows Mewgle of old, and who may be able to balance the scales once more if it were to be released and allowed to help Leo against its ancient enemy. I intend to awaken this great being, but I cannot do it alone. I will need another who possesses the power to commune with spirits like I can…in short, I need you, Michael."
"M-me?" Michael stammered.
"Yes," Wabbaku said apologetically. "I am sorry to ask this of you, to drag you away from your new home and your friends and all the people who need you…but without your help, I cannot awaken the power in Aegis Cave, and without it, Leo, and possibly the entire world, will fall to Mewgle. Will you come with me, Michael, to face adventure and great danger once more…in the hopes that it will save your friends?"
Michael knew what his reply was before Wabbaku even finished asking. "Of course I'll come help you. What do I need to do to stop Mewgle?"
…
To be continued…
…
And on that note, it's time to end this ridiculously long chapter, which, as always, tops the last one as being the longest to date. I'm sorry it took so long to get it done, but what with Africa, video games, laziness, and the beginning of school again I've been busy. However, I managed to get it done all the same, and hopefully the next chapter will be up in less time than it took to do this one, and with hopefully fewer pages. (Although I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.)
A lot of interesting things happened this chapter that are going to need to be resolved next time. What did you think of all the battles and other big events that took place this chapter? Was it worth the wait?
