Now, let's see where exactly this portal dropped them! (-o-)
Kyle's POV
I was trapped in the depths of Genesis HQ for many years, locked in a secure vault where my unstable, freezing energy could not destroy anything. I had never expected to be free. It made things easier, in a way.
With my many mechanical augments, I had no need for food, water, or even breathing. Therefore, my vault was sealed tight and never opened. I had nothing to distract myself, nothing to do but stand or sleep. Or think.
I thought a lot. I thought about who I was, what I was, what I would be. I told entire stories in my head, over and over. I dreamed of places I had never been and places I would never go. I imagined thousands of people, and all the things they could do that I could not.
But most of all, the thoughts that stayed in my mind were of the family I had been separated from. A set of parents, whose faces I had forgotten but their love I had not. An uncle who had disappeared investigating a triangle in the sea. Most of all, I remembered a pair of twins, younger than me and as different as black and white.
I loved them most dearly of all. As I sat in my frozen vault of despair, I preserved what little sanity I had by thinking of them, imagining their possible adventures and all the things they could've gotten into. I dreamed of a million realities they could be going through, but deep inside I knew that I would never know. And I was satisfied.
But then...the Genesis Corps captured a girl named Seria, transforming her into the most powerful Pokemon they could fathom, and locked her near my frozen vault to break her spirit. Instead, they made her stronger.
But I remember her early days, when her psychic powers ran rampant. Her emotions ran through a rollercoaster of hatred and despair, and I could sense that she would inevitably destroy herself, if no one helped her. And no one could...save I.
She doesn't know what I did. She probably never will. It doesn't bother me. But in those early days, I took all my stories of the twins who I had lost, and pumped all the calm, peaceful feelings they gave me into her mind. It worked. Instead of crumbling into madness, she regained a grip on her mind and built her powers instead, increasing her strength exponentially.
So exponentially, in fact, that it allowed her to destroy the very prison we were trapped in.
Escape had never been a situation I had thought of. I had made peace with my captivity long ago. But when Seria tore down my icy lair, exposing me to the outside for the first time in years, I found myself grasped with the desire of freedom, to travel out and experience some of my adventures for myself.
Perhaps even find the family I'd been separated from, all that time ago.
So I took my opportunity, and sure enough, it paid off. Less than a week after we'd escaped that prison, I found them.
Zeke and Rei. They were much different now, but then, so was I. I was quite content to see them, and admired watching them fight. It was like seeing my thoughts rise to full life right before my eyes.
But as time passed, I realized that I hadn't even spoken to them yet. And nothing ever seemed to be the right way to do so. It appeared my time in isolation had affected me far deeper than I imagined. I couldn't even talk to my own family.
And when the DM spoke about fixing Rei's condition and reuniting her family, Zeke's words stung me deeply.
'The only family we have is each other.'
But it was true, wasn't it? I had been gone too long, and our parents and uncle had been gone even longer. And I had no idea how to fix anything.
It made me feel almost as helpless as I had in that dark, cold cell. Twisted and alone, with only my thoughts for company.
My growing sense of weakness had only been exacerbated in Salara's lair. All of my processes had been focused on preventing myself from melting and unleashing the destructive, volatile energies locked deep inside me. As such, I had been completely useless in the fight against Salara.
And now, that one Eevee had been harmed, perhaps permanently.
Why couldn't I do anything? With all this power contained within my body and all the mechanical parts attached to it, I could've single-handedly defeated all these foes we'd fought. And yet...I hadn't. I was too slow, too cautious, too distant.
Too weak.
As the portal dumped us out to its chosen destination, I found my mind locking onto the area around us. Dejected thoughts could wait. I needed to analyze all new forms of input.
We were standing on a grassy hilltop, overlooking a barbed wire fence. Ahead of us, stretching to the horizon, was a vast mess of rocks and hills and dangers. Traps laid in wait all throughout the jagged fields, and monsters lurked in the shadows. At the very end of all of it, there was a towering, three-peaked black mountain, glowing with ominous red light and surrounded by a fierce, scarlet storm.
On one side of it, there was a strange robot lizard. Puzzling.
"What the heck is Vah Rudania doing there?", asked Peter, pointing towards it.
"I dunno.", replied Zoe, "Maybe the DM likes Legend of Zelda."
Joel commented, "Well, I don't care about that. What I AM interested in is...HOLY ARCEUS THERE'S A LOT OF STUFF OUT THERE!"
"Kermy wasn't exaggerating, I see.", Sherlock stated, "This will take some effort to get through."
He looked up as a fighter plane flew past, emblazoned with Nazi colors.
"Huh, that is a surprise.", he added, "I thought the Nazi part was actually an exaggeration."
Akio yelled, "I don't care whether it was an exaggeration or not! What I do care about is getting through that stuff without dying horrible deaths!"
Eddie declared, "I know what to do!"
He walked over to a piece of wood and knocked on it with his paw. Then he grabbed Vidar's foot (OI! WHAT THE BLEEP ARE YOU BLEEPING DOING!?) and tied it to his newest hangglider. Additionally, he nailed a horseshoe to the glider's wings, and smashed a champagne bottle against it.
"Darn, that was my secret stash.", muttered Vernon. Miss Melody gave him a vicious glare.
"Argh!", cried Vidar, the alcoholic beverage soaking his fur, "Once I get myself free, I'm gonna make you regret every single one of your nine lives, you-"
He proceeded to unleash a tirade that made Brianna blush.
"Looks like we could take lessons from each other.", she declared.
"I don't even know how you guys broke the profanity filter during those tirades of yours.", stated the DM, peeking down from the heavens in an oil-stained apron and welding goggles, "Please stop it."
He disappeared before anyone could reply, but one could hear the sounds of various tools for a couple minutes afterwards.
None of this bothered Eddie. He picked up Matthew and duct-taped him to the rocket engine.
"Alert: Craziness is about to ensue.", Matthew said, "Activating rocket ride protocols. Warning: stand back."
Eddie then picked up Hunter and tossed him in front of Matthew, before passing him aviator goggles and a green scarf.
"Um...do I want to know?", asked the Poochyena nervously.
"It's important.", Eddie replied, "Just imagine this is a Sopwith Camel. We are about to fight Nazis in a literal dogfight."
"But dogfights and Sopwith Camels were World War One.", Hunter replied, "Nazis were the second one."
Eddie chuckled. "Who cares!? Matthew, what's our cartoon logic levels at?"
"Scanning...levels: high. Hunter has been temporarily designated: Snoopy.", Matthew answered.
Will's eyes widened. "Wait wait wait, what are you doing with my bro?"
Eddie slapped on a pair of his own aviator goggles. "Time to be a hero!"
He fired up the engine, and they zoomed off into the sky.
"Somebody stop them!", cried Will, but it was too late.
Hundreds of Nazi planes went berserk, zooming after the intruder in their airspace. Eddie reached up, and started tugging on Vidar's ears, forcing him to shoot off fireballs at their foes. From what I had determined of that Scorbunny's personality, I suspected that Eddie's lifespan was dramatically reduced to the point I doubt he'd see the next sunrise.
But it was working. Planes were falling out of the sky left and right, and I could hear exaggerated screams...was every Nazi there named Wilhelm?
They were zooming all throughout the air, enduring literal bullet hell. Holes filled the wings of Eddie's glider, and Hunter struggled to not die. They kept flying around, racing towards Eternatus's mountain. They disappeared out of sight, and neither they nor the Nazis reappeared on the other side. We waited fifteen minutes. Nothing.
Sherlock stretched. "Welp, they're gone. I expect they'll magically reappear later. Until then, let's travel across this place on foot."
Will growled, "If Vidar doesn't kill that Luxio first, I will!"
Simon the Alolan Vulpix shrugged. "This IS Eddie. He'll probably survive both of you."
"Good. Then I can kill him again!", snarled Will.
"No killing each other, please.", pleaded Miss Melody, "Let's just get going!"
So we set off into the rocky hills, my footsteps clanking against the hard ground. The storage tanks vented a bit more frost across my body, keeping me together in the warm sun. I sighed to myself, feeling my icy energy churning inside me in response.
The ground was rough and jagged, but the metal plates strapped to my feet protected me. Everyone else who had to walk, though, looked uncomfortable. Lulu, however, was distant as she held Gavin close to her chest, seemingly not noticing the painful ground.
For a while, though, nothing else happened as they walked. Miss Melody and Seria worked together to detect and avoid the traps, and Erik did his best to help. However, he kept making false alarms, since his psychic powers were still new and not yet focused.
But finally, we ran into something.
A pit of Jell-O.
"Yay, terrifying.", declared Brianna sarcastically, staring at the quivering mound of artificial cherry-flavored snack.
"You know, Kermy might've exaggerated just a little.", stated Nicholas, "Not seeing nearly as much monsters as he suggested."
"Knowing him, he was probably scared off just by this Jell-O.", stated Draco, "After all, it IS jiggling creepily."
"Umm...is it just me, or is it climbing up those walls?", asked Simon nervously, looking at the pit.
The Jell-O pulled itself out, growing to a towering height. Now that it was out of the pit, one could see piles of bones, armor, and weapons inside it.
"Aaaaah!", screamed Mia.
"It's a gelatinous cube!", declared Zeke, "Well, this realm's equivalent, anyway. We need magic!"
Morgaera used Fireball.
It wasn't very effective.
Zeke frowned. "That's bad. What are we gonna do?"
The Jell-O monster flowed towards us, reaching towards the biggest targets, which included Rei, Zeke, Allister, and I. Glaring at the sugary hand coming for me, I knew I could not stand idly by this time.
"Take cover!", I roared, before opening up the cannons attached to my wings. The temperature dropped drastically, frosting the ground and freezing the Jell-O solid. The thing was now a giant, red, ominous sculpture.
Morgaera had summoned a shield to protect the others, and released it after I had retracted the cannons. She looked at me with a newfound intrigue.
"Impressive.", she commented, "With such power at your command, I'm surprised you do not use it more often."
I remained silent. I did not particularly enjoy this power, and everything that had come with it. But perhaps I did need to use it more frequently.
Miss Melody floated ahead, then froze. "There is an underground fortress nearby."
Seria closed her eyes, then said, "It appears to be the only way into the mountain. But it is vast, and messy, and clouds my vision."
"A dungeon.", muttered Zeke, "Of course, there's no way we could start playing D&D without running into a dungeon."
"Where is the nearest entrance?", asked Sherlock.
Miss Melody pointed ahead. "About twenty minutes that way. I'm not sensing any dangers there-"
"ZAAAAPPPP!", screeched a nearby creature.
One of the nearby rocks crumbled to dust as a massive bird leaped in front of us, inflating its spiky orange feathers. It was a hundred feet tall, with glowing red eyes, powerful leg muscles, a vicious beak, and massive talons. A fiery red aura burned around it, and as we watched, it swallowed the rest of a bullfrog as big as I was.
"Well...that is definitely a giant fiery frog-eating chicken of death and despair.", commented Brianna, "Do we run now?" (-o-)
AN: A wild Galarian Zapdos appears! But this is no ordinary Pokemon - it's Dynamaxed, an Alpha Pokemon, and imbued with powerful magic! Can our heroes even reach the obviously deadly dungeon without dying a painful death to this boss fight? Stay tuned!
Until next time, happy Pokemon hunting in Scarlet and Violet! They released today, after all!