Part 8: The Bell - Gauntlets

Chapter 62: Gauntlets

INTRO

Gauntlets and Deep Gauntlets are chapters long enough to be their own arc.

Like with before, I'm gonna do some consolidation to keep the chapter lengths at least some level of consistent. Just looks like a facsimile of my Deviant Art uploads though XD

I don't own Pokémon.


Cruce

Fausti garnered everyone's attention. She flew about, calling names, putting a chipper smile on her face and a peppy whip to her tail. Lively, I thought. Something my granddad never was, which didn't give much for conversation at family events, save this one. I wondered how my mom and pops would've gotten along with this Sam. This 'Symbi'. Well, for the time being, I was a child three times over to her, so I guess it made sense why she wanted me to herself. I had to see it through her perspective, and with what powers this squirrely, Fluxy body entailed, I could probably get to doing that better than ever before. I knew I could. I just had to look deep enough, but any time I wasn't looking down at my own arms or feet, I was just looking for Vay.

Though, on second thought, Fausti was throwing a lot of effort at getting everybody to look at her, and not just me. For what it was worth, now was about the one time I actually wanted to go over there and clear up the dust between us, maybe get a hug in there or two – my granddad never did hug me, so that would have been cool to have now. I could chalk it up with all the other hugs I planned to give people who weren't... themselves, anymore. Given the scene, happy hug time looked to be over, and when Fausti sent her big eyes over this way, she beckoned me with a gentle motion of her small hand. My tails stirred, fur tingled, and I put a leg forward before I even knew what I was getting myself into – no really, what was happening? Lotta folks were gathering in a cluster around Fausti – no real order to it, but there was space aplenty for me to stick my big head into. Kind of inviting, actually. I sucked that thought in with a deep breath, heart still heavy, and trudged through it. I kicked a couple leaves along the way. Really dragged my feet here.

Vay was ahead of me, making some chatter with Jirachi. 'Guess all of them had things on their minds, stuff to clear up. All of us, honestly. I'd done that with Alli some, but for what being thrown to the ground meant, I wasn't sure if there was any more to do. Alli made me busy with emotional terrorism, she did, but it didn't put a dent into the crater that Shaymin left me with. Despite the chilly, fictional wonderland of an atmosphere, the closer I got to company, the warmer I felt, likely on account of Pat and Emi being right there. Emi was on fire – 'was' fire. With a face. Made some sense.

"Well, look who it is!" the fire in question announced, hung up around Patty's neck like a very deadly scarf. Because fire. Cute as hell, though – the face helped. Straight outta Tophs' head, this one.

"Hah," I puffed, taking my last step until I felt comfy enough where I was. "Yeah."

"Did I ever comment on your bell, Cruce? It looks so dapper on you." Patty said with a flick of her wrist.

Reflexively, my paws caressed the golden object at my neck. It didn't ring to my nudge. Seemed awfully quiet in here – the Bell, that was.

"Um, thanks." I said back, barren.

"...Well, GEE, someone put on too much mope lotion! Whaddup with you, Maxi?" Emi asked. I sighed midway through her question.

"Some... some things – some, ugh..." I stuttered. I could just tell her what was wrong, but angsty garbage just begged to be let free from my mouth. "Had a talk. Lotta baggage. Got serious really fast, so... yeah. Anyway, uh, Fausti?"

"Yes, m'dear?" she answered. "Sit tight, okay? I've got a battle plan for us."

Oh, I liked the sound of that, actually. Fausti did seem like the sort of woman – wisp – who had the 'what now' and the 'know how'. All things considered, Granddad was her foundation, and her foundation had a doctorate, so I wasn't much bothered.

Well, with everyone having grouped up like some sort of scene at the schoolyard, we were all ears (some of us more than others, I think?). Patty and Emi to the left of me, with Alli and Nikki somewhere across from me, and Bryan comin' up to my right – one down, I thought. Were Tophs here, we would'a had some kinda super obsidian circle get-together with our brand new Pokémon buds.

"Everyone? Everyone! If I may have your attention, please," a man's voice rumbled. He stood on his hindlegs for a moment, his presence wholesome. Some kind of monkey Pokémon, I wondered. Neat hat, too. Wasn't this one of Delta Meadow's, though? He carried on. "Our wisp here has a few things she'd like to say!"

The adult Pokémon settled on his knuckles, turned to the skywisp beside him, whose arms were already crossed like she'd just doubted herself. Or was she frustrated? Thinking to herself?

"Well now," she started with a high breath. Her voice wasn't the kind that could reliably keep a crowd sewn together – or maybe it could, because everyone interested was trying to hear her. "I'm sure all of you have wondered by now how in many a god's name we're going to make any sort of progress in this place. Also, the lot of you who are familiar with our woods – seems quite the spectacle that this place would mirror it.

So," she took another breath, lowering her arms. Her voice became powerful. "That means this place has reason to it. Rayse, was your name, dear? You called it the Paradox?"

"Yup yup, that was me – I said that!" came Rayse's glee, somewhere in the crowd. "Well, LUNA said that. Bu'STILL!"

"Is Luna still here?" Fausti asked, arm open to the crowd.

"I dunno. I want her to be! Are we going to look for her?" Rayse returned.

"We may start," Fausti answered, the directed herself to someone much closer to myself: Diancie. "Princess Diancie, the key may be you and I."

I looked at the pink beacon of diamonds, who seemed to be met with an unwelcome amount of sudden attention. The fluster in her head movements, back and forth – the surprise in her face, a gray hand to her cheek as I'd often seen her do before – it all showed that much.

"Me? My, oh, me?! What now, truly?! Pray, Fausti, this is unexpected, but do go on!" the 'Princess' said.

"Not in totality, mind you," Fausti resumed. "There are other, bigger factors, but I've arrived at a conclusion well beyond the point I'm to make. The short of it is that I'd like us capable few to journey over yonder to this realm's equivalent of Ridge Hospital."

She made those last two words out to be nice and slow so I could enjoy every vowel and consonant there was to hear.

"It's here, too," she warned. "Just over the trees, I've flown and seen indications of it, but the state of it..." she froze, letting her mouth close.

"Oh, that place again." I heard Alli say in the pause.

"After last time? That place is miserable!" Nikki added.

I came from there. Maybe not the one in 'this' world, but there, nonetheless.

By this point, anyone could have come up with that plan, Fausti.

What are you really thinking?

"Such a surreal place, I seem to remember," Diancie cooed under the murmurs. I must'a been one of the only ones to hear her. "Yes, it was..."

I faced her. I studied her... studious expression. She was digging for memories, pulling them out of places they didn't belong. She seemed to cringe, like pain had its way with her head.

"But I remember it in halves," Diancie spoke up. "One of those halves, Atti, the other half, me. And, while I have painful memories of both myself and Atti, this one speaks the most pain and makes the very least sense of that pain."

"It doesn't need to make sense; it needs to make pain," Fausti added. "That could be the Crossblade's presence, and I believe you would bear it."

"What? But I have no such thing!" Diancie contested.

"It lines up with what I've thought," Shaymin flew in, taking his spot by Fausti's side. "The Champions, no matter who, each have a Crossblade that... th-that does SOMETHING to bind them to the memory of who they once were. I'm no exception. Diancie, neither are you."

"What rubbish is this?! The hilt of such an avaricious weapon would not so much as SKIM my hands!" she argued. "Do point me to the proof, would you?"

"One memory," Fausti answered, quick and ready. "Would at least 'point' us in a direction. You, myself, and Topher. Isn't that right, Diancie? We went to Ridge Hospital when you were Atti."

"Yes now?"

"I was there, too!" Rayse exclaimed.

"Chespin..." Bryan mumbled beside me, slow and without purpose. He might as well've moaned it.

"Chespin? I beg your-" Diancie stopped. "Bryan?"

"You were a chespin before you turned into 'you'." he said to her, still drony and struggling with conveyance.

"Is this when we went in the hospital? We saw you both in there! Was that Nephi's fault?" Alli asked.

"Nephi's, Topher's, yes. They're one in the same, and they gave us these roles," Fausti said. "Sam was donned with Symbi Faustus, Atti with Champion Diancie. Though the transformations went their own ways, I am so nearly certain it was Nephi who did this; and, if not Nephi, then me and my assumptions be damned."

"Damnable, yea," Diancie began again. "Because our colors of Gammas differ, do they not? Further, I've yet to hear proof that I have the Crossblade!"

"As Gamma goes, we got Blue, Red, Black, and White," Vay started. "And ain't no way Nephi could control all four. Brother has a hard enough time controlling one."

"But Laza was Luna," Jirachi said. "And that's... what color? Er, sorry..."

"Uuuh, can I go back to high school yet?" Emi whispered to Pat—I guess to me, too.

"And what about Azabell, right?! Isn't that like, uh, only a HUGE problem?!" Rayse asked.

"Alright, now, one at a time!" the monkey-lookin' Pokémon guy spoke over everybody. "Sheesh, am I in over my head?"

"You're no stranger, Monterrey," Fausti said, facing what sources of contest the crowd gave her. "I think I've given everybody enough to think about!"

"That's it?" I heard Alli say.

"I think, uh," I said suddenly. I blinked at how quickly it came out of my mouth. Now I had to connect the thought to something vocal, but before I could, I was outspoken by another member of the crowd. Thing was, this was Tophs we were talking about, or maybe Nephs, so I wanted to speak on it. I heard Nephi did some horrible things, but to be responsible for... I guess everything? The whole, like, 'turning everyone into somebody else' thing, was a big undertaking to be fully accountable for. Wasn't I made to spread Gamma? Was she using me? Was I spreading Gamma now? I had no idea what that felt like. I just felt furry and big-headed, and I was only JUST coming to grips with that.

Had Tophs gone and set up some kind of base of operations in Ridge Hospital? Yeah, I s'pose he would'a been the kinda guy to do that. And maybe he would'a been the kinda guy to make everyone look, think, and feel so different that even the laws of physics look at our world and go cross-eyed. 'Least, that was his world, but his world was here.

Or is it 'there'? Is 'that' his world, and this Paradox ours?

God, what the shit – really...

I pressed into the side of my head with my claws until it hurt. My head wasn't really aching before that, but making it do so only felt appropriate. I'unno, maybe the pain kept me focused – at least it and this whole Gamma colors business kept the thoughts off of Delta Meadow.

All of that... stuff, Chevron did to everybody. My parents, Topher, Granddad, and fucking Molly, of all people. What was I supposed to do with all of this information he gave me anyway? Let it make a nice, stinky mountain of survivor's guilt? Maybe lay it on nice and thick with the hellscape Autumnridge became, and how I was skipping along with my new boyfriend over the ghosts of my neighbors?

I sighed, and only then did I realize how hard I was squeezing into my head. I let my arms fall. My tails were so flat that I could feel them spread out over the dirt and leaves.

I can change it, he said.

I'm a Gamma being, he said.

It's okay. Everything's okay.

Friends, yeah. The power of friendship.

Ugh... God, this is what Kat feels like everyday, isn't it? Friendship, pfft.

What a real 'friendly' lie lung cancer was.

No. It wasn't even a lie. It was just the excuse.

I'd hold my breath just to feel what it was like. I couldn't know. How could I?

I was holding my breath. For a moment, things got quiet. My insides felt withered and dead. I began to panic – or, my body did, but my mind was resolute. I held my breath until I felt my belly collapse reflexively, digging for air, clawing for it. I refused. I tried to distract myself with thoughts: the feeling of airless lungs even in this body was so much like the feeling in my human body. I marveled over it. I made it my aim. But, like that human body, of course I was going to breathe whether I liked it or not. Neither body would have let me suffocate myself. I was stupid for thinking that. I just wanted to know.

I inhaled loudly. Something caught my eye, hovering over the trees. It was limp, simply coming up over the woodland like some sort of air vehicle. Even so, based on the several dangling limbs and indication of a long, pointed head, it bore the resemblance, at best, of something organic. Like the bizarre creature that Bryan had taken care of, this one was all white, with not a dot of other color anywhere else; it had no face, six long, thin arms, each owning a three-fingered hand. Hanging down from its backside was what appeared to be the tail of an aquatic creature. The best I could give for this thing was to call it some kind of giant, mutated krill.

I rubbed my eyes, squishing my paws into the sockets, shook my head, then leaned in and let my paws down. Needless to say, the creature was still approaching, ghoulishly lowering itself to the level of the crowd. Then, appropriately, another arose from beyond the treeline behind it, and another, all poised similarly, drone-like, mute things. The world rumbled. A black hole in the static ceiling ripped open. Like all times before, the haze rolled in, millions of pixel-like molecules fuzzing my vision. I took a step back. I couldn't understand, so I looked away, and when I did, there were more – the humanoid ones. Striders, stumbling in from the trees. They walked out of sync, but with perfectly matching motions, their upper bodies wholly still while their long legs made even longer, well, strides forward. The way their knees bent appeared alien, the entire leg arching as if made of rubber or elastic, some myth of muscles beneath them driving them forward. I counted eight or nine of the things.

My ears flattened, as the scene of the slowly encroaching army of striders burning into my mind. Nothing moved like that, I thought. Nothing should have been so stiff while walking – it didn't make sense. I turned back, looked into the air, and saw more of the oncoming... monster krill.

"YO!" Alli shouted over the panic – to my surprise, I'd only just started hearing things. Having held my breath, locked in that cycle of grief, I might've gone deaf for a second, but Alli got me out. I couldn't see her. "We gotta GO!"

I yelped and kicked – the ground wasn't where I'd left it. I wasn't standing?! I felt air pass me by quickly, blowing all my fur one way! My chest and belly struck a soft yet sturdy surface. I blinked several times, sniffed, found Vay's scent in my face, and made the connection, especially when I saw Vay's spiky vine sink itself further into the slit somewhere beneath the red leaves on the back of his neck. His head went tall. I grabbed both of his sides, legs and arms hugging around him. The Bell was pressing into his back and my chin and it kind of hurt, but I didn't say anything.

"Jira!" Vay called, voice rumbling into me. "Stay close!"

"What?! Vay, what are those?!" I heard Jirachi shout, her scared voice pointed this way. I looked over Vay's head. She was looking straight through the two of us, having just discovered the threat from behind.

"I deduce they're striders," Pat suggested, Emelina rolling from her neck. "Surely! Rayse spoke about them!"

"LEMME AT 'EM!" Emelina flared up – literally – moving in front of Pat. She grew almost too bright to look at for a moment.

"No!" Pat squealed and yanked our friend out of the air. Emi's head didn't seem to catch up to the rest of her body as quickly and cartoonisly remained for a brief second. Pat took Emi in one arm and clutched her against her chest, holding her book and pencil with the other. Emelina squirmed. "E-Emi! Highly unadvised – please!"

I looked out for Alli and the others. Where were Nikki and Bryan now?! I couldn't see them anywhere! Alli was all full of enterprise as usual. She had a Crossblade glistening violently in one hand, its blades shaped like lightning. Had I seen it before? I couldn't focus on that now. I could only find a slight burning sensation beneath my tongue upon watching her swing it at the lanky-ass alien sky-fish. Hearing Pat object to Emi's decision, I imagined her to scream the same thing at Alli, though it seemed our skywisp was intentionally missing each swing in an attempt to force the flying creatures back. No avail, though. It was as if they wanted to be struck, just inching forward while Alli bolted back, swinging her weapon like it weighed nothing.

Of course they want this. It's why they're here.

"Ggh!" Vay grunted, half-afraid, half-volatile, but all for reason, since something lifted both of us – not so much off the ground, but just a tiny bit higher. I caught a particular scent to my right, checked that way, and saw a puff of red and black stick up against Vay's side. "RAYSE!"

"BWAH!" Rayse yelled over Vay, trying to hide his voice under hers. She was also doing a good job of hiding herself under him. "I was TRYING to do a sweet dash underneath you! VAY! I'M STUCK! You're too FAT!"

"Oh hell no," Vay growled. His rear shoved me up, and he bounded forward. I wasn't sure what he did, but he moved away a little bit, then turned. "Rayse, get yourself together, girl! C'mon!"

"I got her!" Alli came in close, stealing the dark-colored eevee from our eyes in pretty much the same fashion Pat pulled Emelina away. Nestled up in our wisp's tail with her two front paws sticking out, tail going crazy, she had a big, victorious smile on her face. Alli faced us for a second, taking a short time to lock eyes with mine and make sure I was as alive as she'd last left me. She turned quickly, observing the commotion, blade still sparking with vim and vigor. "Right! Go, go!"

Alli was making some expressive gestures with her free arm, as if to instruct someone to move. I couldn't see through the frenzied crowd, or from this angle behind Vay. That was, until I caught a glimmer of pink and blue. Diancie and Bryan, I thought. It seemed that, where Bryan went, Nikki was likely to be in tow. I breathed in. I wanted to trust that thought.

"Al?!" Pat clamored, Alli quickly attending her worry with eyes wide and alert. "That-!"

"What, this?!" she raised her Cross. "Don't worry about it! Patty, Emi? You know your way around here – go! Straight on from here – get yourselves going! You'll meet up with Nick and Bryan!"

"Hah!" Emi breathed out, freeing herself from her owner's grasp, but only to flying beside Alli, lining up herself with Alli's arm. She was pointed straight for a particularly less crowded gap in the trees than all others at the moment, swarming with Delta Meadow personnel and the occasional strider having caught up. "Got it! Patsy, get that tail-fin MOVIN', girl~!"

"Uh, yes! Yes, right – Jirachi! We're treeward-bound!" Pat called, the little white and yellow Pokémon circling her. Gathered together, the three went their designated way. Inclined to check, I watched to see if Patty's tail-fin was actually shaking. It was! And she was going fast enough to keep up with two fliers! Good for her – now if only I was any use at all.

"You! Uhm... Rinavay." Alli called, at first exuberant, but conflicted shortly after.

"What are you doing?! Go with them! Come on!" Vay told her. He began to move ahead. I clung tighter.

"No! Wait! Game strats, man – let 'em come to us!" she argued.

"What, those things?! You lost your mind?!" he told her.

"They're SLOW, you 'tard! We draw 'em to us so the others get away, and then we GO!"

"What'd you call me?!" Vay growled yet again, hung up on insults instead of strategy. I gave him a rapid three pats to the side of the neck. His growl became a huff as he turned in the direction of my patting. It wasn't gentle, hence the defensive response, I imagined. It was what I hoped for.

"Easy, big boy," I said to him. "I think she's got this. She's used to a big group of people charging at her much faster than this!"

"Wh-?!" Vay breathed out. "Well fine! I hope you know what you're doing, because...!"

They were closing in – at least, a number of the striders and 'fliers' that weren't already occupied with the smaller, diffusing groups. The people who mattered most already got out of here, so we were some of the last ones left. I hoped in the back of my head that Alli accounted for Fausti and Shaymin, but those two could fly anyway, and if the striders' speed was anything to go off of, they were good as gone in a flash. Regardless, watching the small horde of these huge things just beeline for us like they were artificial intelligence – one purpose: kill the good guys – that wasn't much for comfort. Their long steps, faceless motives, and the sight of more of them squeezing through the trees in the distance, appearing amorphous at times. They just forced and pressed on. Sure, they looked goofy marching with their arms at their sides. That made it worse, I felt.

"Get ready to dip!" Alli prompted us. Shit, if it was just me, I would've already gone. Seriously though, kite strats?! I guess so, Alli! I had confidence from the get go, but thinking out it, just waiting to be pressed in from most angles... Yeah, Alli was crazy for thinking of this! But we were going to leave them in our dust, buy us enough time to get through the woods, and hopefully meet up with everybody.

All of a sudden, the air raced. I was thrown into motion and, with survival instinct coursing through me, I latched onto Vay with such intent that I worried I was giving him a bit of a scratch near his belly. He didn't protest. He was too busy running. He didn't wait for Alli! I heard her blaring behind us, but after a sprint to the trees, Vay could hardly care less. I knew him. He didn't want commands.

Still, he did run. It was good enough dust, I thought. What made things even more competitive between our two spit-fires was that Alli flashed right past Vay and I, Champion in her coil as similar as I was on Vay's back. I took a mental note of her passing by, put it in slow motion, and played it back a few times after it'd long gone by and Vay had already picked up the pace, barking insults back at Alli, who probably couldn't even hear him. I swore, she grinned at him. I swore, I even saw Rayse's red-eyed face poke out. At least there was that.

We can run. We can't hide.

Not from striders. They don't stop.

They don't give up.

A brief sprint through the forest. Vay seemed to know where he was going. The two of us were silent as he ran. I focused on the crunching of leaves, snapping of twigs, and the rush of air, instead of the occasional yelling off elsewhere. Maybe I could focus on how strong Vay's legs were to launch over twigs and kick against splintering wood – how quick Vay could heal, too. This guy's crazy, spiky vine had been sliced clean off by Jirachi, but it was already back in full swing. With not a strider to be seen, no matter what shoulder I looked back over, I let myself forward, nose against Vay's back, and breathed into his coarse fur. Every time I inhaled, I took him in so thoroughly. It wasn't like having a blanket or a pillow up against your face – you just couldn't breathe that way. With Vay, I could breathe, even if my mouth and nose were glued up against him.

He began to canter. The sporadic lighting of canopy filtering in beams of sunless sky became no more, and instead opened up to a dazzling, bloomy world. I had to squint. Even in doing so, I could hardly see the crawling sky; I could only just about make out the fact that it was animated. What was more, the surroundings were 'corrupted'. It was beginning to look like a neighborhood in Autumnridge, if that neighborhood's streets had gaps of pitch black around, trees and buildings missing chunks altogether, the missing chunks overwritten with squared off mosaic patterns. This was a constant across the whole street, and it came in plenitude: whole buildings half-there, chunks of them floating on the wrong plane, albeit still lined up on some other axis, or just giant void-holes with green lights dashing through them.

Now, The Matrix was the most obvious contender for jokes, but with the culture barrier between Vay and I, I could only wait until I was with the Circle to make any kind of commentary. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long; Vay caught sight of company before I had, what with myself finding it difficult to let the idea of a 'hacked Autumnridge' go. While it didn't look like the place was being ripped apart at its code, it didn't strike me as something 'cyber', or maybe bit-like.

"Hup!" I announced, tossing my right leg over my left, twisting my body off of Vay's back and touching down all fours on the clean asphalt. It was cold and had no apparent scent – no hints of rubber or oil. I pushed myself to my feet, furry skirt no longer draping over the ground. "Good hustle, Vay!"

"Natural." he commented, overly proud as always. It put a toothy smile on my face.

Taking a few small steps forward to try and get whatever bearings I could out of a half-installed Autumnridge, paw on my bell, I squinted, filling in the blanks where blanks, pixel-space, or simply black emptiness, existed. Streets intersect all wrong, some of them ending at sidewalks, driveways – hell, there were chunks of cars and houses just floating, a streamline of square mosaic stemming down into the blackness, or sometimes just up into the static sky. I imagined looking right down on the town from here would've made it seem like somebody turned Autumnridge into a life-sized jigsaw puzzle. On a computer program. And forgot to finish developing it.

Coming up to the glowing green wireframe of a tree on a front lawn, I studied the transparent object. I reached out to it with delicate curiosity. As I made contact, the wires broke apart as gingerly as my touch, a soft droplet-like noise reacting to my paw. It was strangely beautiful, watching the second of the lifeless tree break into hundreds of tiny shining lines, all floating away in slow motion. Bit by bit, the tree disintegrated into these fragments, growing more distant, as if set free in a vacuum, drifting. I swallowed spit, backed away, and checked the ground – there were no roots. The tree's foundation was none more than these lines all the same, albeit sturdy, given they were still there and forming a proper gradient from wireframe to green grass, then to a gray curb, and finally spotless asphalt.

"According to my notes," someone started – Patty, her footsteps quiet. I watched the bipedal mudkip approach, flipping through pages in her notebook. "We're standing on territory that bridges 'normal' Autumnridge from the Tangle. That said, my records didn't account for the formation in which the Paradox has assimilated our hometown."

"Like, this girl right here," Emi came up to me, hovering right by my cheek. She whispered. "A plus, am I riiiight?"

"Right – Patsy, you okay? You always take notes like this?" I asked, perplexed.

"Mm?" the mudkip removed herself from her paper, pencil point still holding down a page. "No; only recently has this become a habit. It's an incessant urge. I need to accumulate data that merits good decision making."

"Hey! I get my hair done over there!" Emi hollered, flying off and facing the direction of a small mall strip that hardly fit with its surroundings. The parking lot and its complex had been plopped down right in the middle of a cul-de-sac, or what semi-circle of that remained. The infrastructure was impossible – I couldn't even imagine how it looked beneath the roads, but given that things were showing up only at surface level, there probably wasn't much underneath us. An unnerving thought, anyway.

"Um! Wait!" said Jirachi, bolting after Emi. "I-I know this place! Er, right? Patty?" the floating Pokémon turned around.

"You do?" our friend asked, at first puzzled. She squinted. "You do... Yes, of course you do. You and I fought Rayse here."

"That's right... I can't believe we did that – I didn't recognize her." Jirachi lamented.

"You didn't recognize your own sister Champion?" Vay broke in, his breath at my side. I faced him. He was smiling wryly, before he shook his head. He clicked his tongue. "Jira, you're better than that."

"Urm, I'm sorry. Y-you're right, I... I'm so sorry. My head wasn't..." Jirachi froze, the tips of her hands touching. She looked so ashamed. I felt the compulsion to tug on Vay's tail for that, but then those were family matters.

"Hey," I interrupted. "We're not, like, gonna ignore that big-ass invasion that just happened, right? W-we all still on the same page, yeah? Good?"

"I've many a page," Pat replied, flipping through her notes, the slapping of paper against paper combating the ever-present static from above, air blowing at her black ponytail. "And I made a note of the creatures – the striders."

I walked up to Pat's side, stood as high as I could to try and see her notebook. I couldn't see much, since my head was just about level with her shoulders, which I would have been embarrassed about had I not already fawned for Vay in front of the Circle; plus, in any case, she lowered the notebook for me, and there was lots of fancy handwriting down – key word noted: 'striders' and 'horde', with a few erase marks around the latter. She even had a messy sketch of a strider's bust, neatly squared off at the corner of the page.

"Patsy, how do you have time to do this?" I asked, still perusing the page, trying to make sense of the handwriting, which was way too fancy for me. I never could do cursive.

"It's honestly all I'm good for. It, of course, and Emelina." she said. She didn't appear bothered.

"That ain't true; you're a mutant," Vay argued. "Where I come from, mutants got more power coursing through 'em then most Pokémon. Can't evolve or nothin' like that, but they get potential aplenty in 'em."

"Potential aplenty," Pat froze, taking a moment to lift the book away from me and scribble something down. "You don't say?"

For better or for worse, my attention meandered over to Emelina, who was still busy looking over the mall strip. It was as if she had fond memories of it. Maybe it was her girl-time or something. I wondered to myself how much of my time I was going to dedicate to that, provided the right body parts were really in order down here. And yet, with the more distant I grew from my own identity, all of that – gender roles, social etiquette – began to matter less to me, not to mention everything happening around me.

I stopped myself mid-thought. I didn't want to go any further, so I backtracked on myself. 'Girl-time', I thought. I forced my attention away from Emi and searched elsewhere, namely for Alli or Nikki. I found both of them. Leaving Vay to teach Patsy more about herself, I went on ahead to meet up with the others. Sooner or later, I was thinking everyone would gather around Alli, since she liked to be in command nowadays. I figured it was as good a bet as any at this point, lest Fausti showed up. My lungs felt heavy for a moment, but I breathed all the weight away, and picked up the pace so I could breathe a bit faster, wash the worry off...

Molly...

Molly...

Molly...

Before I knew it, and having hardly noticed the footsteps trodden over the void-ground, I was at a streetlight. I looked up at it, or what parts weren't wireframe or pixelated beyond recognition. The signs were fine, and the one parallel to me read 'Orion', while the sign perpendicular read 'Brink'. I put my head down, raised a paw to it, closed my eyes. I listened to Alli speak with somebody else – it was Diancie. The memory of Alli's Crossblade – she wasn't holding it anymore, but left a scorch mark in my mind. Vay's, too. Orion and Brink, I thought. Another cross, if not a weapon, but a daily encounter, burnt as blatantly in my head as any other.

This time, I heard the feet pattering against the asphalt. I flung my eyelids open, but left my head cradled against one paw. I smelled apprehension. I felt it, too.

"Oh, Crucieeee..." she said to me. The black-furred eevee, just a couple inches lower than me, looked up sadly, one paw lifted off the ground. "Your Flux tears are getting real bad."

Are they, I thought. Rolling my arm over both eyes, I could only feel what I'd felt before: eyes. My vision wasn't quite blocked with my arm over them either, since I still had the eye-like 'things' at my cheeks. They depicted the world around me nearly as well as my real eyes by this point, so I may as well have just kept these ones covered if they started looking nasty.

But I need them... I need to speak with them.

"Don't be sad! Awh, no, Cruce! It's 'kay, 'kay? Uhm! If I had my ribbons, I'd pull you in and snuggle you so much!" Rayse added. The gesture got me to smile as wide as Vay had done.

"I believe you. It's fine – don't worry about me," I told her. "I won't let Flux mess me up. Vay said it can't."

Nikki broke from the others, coming this way with purpose to her steps. She must have thought I didn't see her approaching, but she failed to take into account my, uh, perks. Which was fine! I wanted to counter-surprise her if she happened to want to surprise me. I could see it coming, the delight she showed with every swish of her white tail. She was close now, so close that she could reach out and touch me. Our fluffy new lady-friend, sculpted so gorgeously by Gamma, did just that, hands open to pull my arm from my face – but no! I raised both arms out to her instead, unsure what to do from there.

"Hah!" I yelped, as she caught both of my arms in her furry hands. She wasn't shocked in the slightest. Instead, she just pulled me right up to her fluffy bosom, right till my nose was in the giant poof of cotton fur around her neck. I took a big sniff – she was divine, like an even more flowery version of Patsy.

"Lemme see now," she spoke down to me, her smile radiant. I felt her tail skim against both of mine. "Oooh, you are getting bad. It's worse than back at the meteorite."

"Mmff." I mumbled into her fluff. It didn't carry any meaning. I just wanted to mumble. I heard Alli's voice getting closer. She was finishing her thoughts.

"I'm only saying this 'cause this here's where Cadi disappeared – this is the same Trip spot from before. We saw you and Travis there, too, dude." Alli said. 'Guess she was coming on over.

"Uh-huh," I heard Bryan. "Trip spots in the Paradox..."

"Well, we ain't trippin'," Alli mused. "Nikki, 'the hell are you doing with Cruce?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Nikki cooed. My eyes were fixed on her. She lightly guided me back to my feet – I'd leaned so deeply into her that even my tails didn't pull me back. Standing firm, she let my paws go and turned to the side. "Did you want a turn? He's so precious~! If only I could something about his fur. So messy..."

"PFFFFFFT!" Alli let out the most intense, unnecessary spit, even arching her whole body forward and making the goofiest face her snout could achieve, scrunching it and biting her lower lip back with her fangs, eyes wide. "Know what, thanks, but I think I got my two cents in already. You know, these puppies?" she paused, taking a second to point both her fangs out.

"Yeah, 'n good for you, jerk-ass – your 'puppies' really hurt." I congratulated her, giving a few near-silent claps.

"Yep, you keep clapping with those wimpy fuckin' twig-arms, mister weight lifter." she came back. I froze in place, my paws plastered together in a clap. I glared. She hit me. She hit me good.

"I don't like Shaymin." Bryan suddenly spoke over us. It was just profound and abrupt enough of a comment that it took me from my clash with Alli in a heartbeat. I wasn't sure if that was sheer talent or accident on Bryan's part, but good for him either way. I faced the Fluxed Frenchie. He didn't seem to have Solacea with him anymore, which was odd, 'cause I was sure I saw it on the way out of the woods. 'Guess it was his call whether or not he wanted it out. Either way, he couldn't peel his eyes off of me. They were vocal.

I don't like Shaymin.

He made you more Red.

I don't like him, Cruce.

I think there's something wrong with him.

More Red?
My eyes? Is it bad, Bryan?

Not bad. Not like me.

You have more noise now.

That Red noise, smell...

I don't want you to have it. It's scary.

"Shaymin?" Diancie finally broke in. Was wondering when she would. "What's the matter, Bryan?"

"Shaymin talked to Cruce. Told him bad things. He made Cruce go deeper." Bryan replied promptly, gaze unmoving. His eyes, while they had a lot to say, were as unsettling as irises swamped with black retinas could be.

"Deeper, you say..." Diancie pondered.

"But... Vay would have stopped him... wouldn't he? I... I-I don't think Shaymin wanted to make me more Fluxed." I said.

"He was with Delta Meadow, so," Alli shrugged. "I don't trust any of them, yo. Fausti's... okay, but everyone else is 'meh'."

"He was Chevron." Rayse spoke, her voice crumbling. "Chevron was so awful..."

"Now, everyone!" Diancie cued us. "Trustworthy or not, I doubt it was any of Delta Meadow's intention to come here. We'll have time to present our doubts at a later hour. Let us live for the present and work with Fausti's words of wisdom, yes?"

"Ridge Hospital it is, then?" Alli groaned. "Any of you get yourselves killed, I swear..."

"I can heal us." Bryan offered, raising an arm.

"Hey, don't count me out, too! I'm sure I can do, mmbuuuh, SOMETHING." Rayse added.

"I'd rather not fight. I'm unarmed now, without Arcadia." Nikki said.

"Hark," Diancie called. "I will be your shield, my friends~! A most gracious offer – do not undervalue it."

"You can fight, Diancie?" Bryan asked.

"Ahaha-hoh, you simply hurt me, dearest Brother," the princess mused, setting her hands at her wide waste. "My enemies speaketh the name Diancie over their comrades on the battlefield. I am an insurmountable aegis!"

"Well holy happy shit," Alli grinned wide, swerving around Diancie and reeling her arm back quickly, then striking forth, giving Diancie a friendly smack at her back, right between her shoulders. The diamond Pokémon let out a brief screech, shook her arms vulnerably, then simply froze with Alli speaking so close to her. "Can't wait see you get in there 'n get dirty! Yo, why weren't you this badass before?"

"EXCUSE ME, DID YOU JUST HIT ME?!" Diancie bellowed, fists at her sides, facing the skywisp quickly enough for her long, elegant bands to be thrown high. "You pleb—y-you absolute MUTT!"

"Fwooh, this is a sharp one, boys 'n girls," Alli continued, now draping one arm around Diancie and pulling her closer, much to the latter's dismay. Arms folded inward like she'd just been engulfed in ice water, Diancie seemed to accept this outcome. "You better save some of that edge for the baddies, huh?"

"Edge..." Diancie huffed in defeat. "Yes."

"Eh?" Alli squeaked.

"Let's go," Bryan suddenly commanded. He was all perked up and such, no longer hunched over as always. "We have to go find the hospital."

"Alright, alright – we'll go. Cruce, go get your man, 'n try not to forget to pick up the others while you're gropin' him." Alli told me, Diancie having miraculously freed herself from the skywisp's cumbersome clutch. I didn't even blush. This was run of the mill for Alli and I, except Tophs was the one taking Vay's place, AND the one groping me. Role reversal aside, I felt more proud to make that kind of attention a part of Alli's mud-slinging. I would've thrown in a middle finger or two, but I couldn't quite get that out of this body. Instead, I lifted my head, let my red fluffy hair roll back, and flicked my tails high, strutting away from the rowdy wisp. I heard Nikki giggle behind me, not to ridicule, but to admire. Or so I'd hoped.


To Be Continued...