Pokémon: Wings of Beginnings
Chapter 16: An Eon to Find Part 2
June 20th, 2020
12:03 p.m.
Outer Ruins of Old
"Hrah!" Blitz spun an arm and hit one segmented end of a staff away before he saw the other incoming end come towards him. He used his other arm to deflect it and used some psychic waves to prevent the staff's psychic energy from hitting him. He flew back as Latios spun his staff and fired a barrage of aura at the group. Blitz floated around while Scorch jumped about to evade the attacks.
She looked at one attack she couldn't evade and snarled. Lusiane watched as it didn't do any damage to Scorch while she threw her chakrams at Latios. He flew away and clashed and Blitz went in to attack him again with his fists.
Swamp looked and he was steadying his aim, but Blitz's frenzied strikes and movements were making it hard to aim without hitting him.
He needed a good shot but he couldn't get it done. One stray attack from Latios flew down, he aimed his gun and fired at it. It dispersed before it could hit Iron. Iron was still unsconscious, he needed something on how to defeat Latios. All of them combined couldn't beat him, but he knew something about this Latios. He was strong, indeed, however, he lacked experience. His attacks were wild and careless, Swamp looked at some leaks over the walls.
He looked at Lusiane and Scorch firing Pyro Balls to destroy the aura from hitting Lusiane.
"You owe me one." Scorch called Lusiane while Lusiane fired her chakram at an incoming Dragon Pulse to Scorch.
"Does that count?" Lusiane asks.
"Oh...Yeah." Scorch muttered. "I lack any Fairy-type moves."
"Think nothing of it." Lusiane tells her. She noticed Swamp's behaviour. "Swamp?" She quickly scanned where his eyes looked over at. The one from before. She analysed it and calculated where it would fall if they removed it. She looked at the battle before them.
"You fiend." Latios taunted Blitz. "You're weak and pathetic, how can you dare to beat me?"
"I'll bash you up and down for Iron!" Blitz shouts.
"Iron? So that's what your comrade's name?" Latios smirked. "Then you shall join him."
"Don't count on it!" Blitz snarls.
They relented from their clash and Scorch fired a Gunk Shot at Latios face and jumped at Blitz and redirected his position.
"Go here, Dumb UFO!" Scorch ordered.
"Huh!?" Blitz exclaimed.
"Now!" Swamp shouts.
Latios chased after them while Lusiane detonated the C4 and caused the walls to part and sent a geyser of water out. Swamp concentrated and forced the water onto Latios. Latios wasn't able to react fast enough and was sent into the torrent while vibrations inside the waters intensified and struck him in all directions. Latios choked in the waters.
"Whoa-oh! Seal~" Glitch waves an arm about and points it, creating a digital cube around Latios. The dragon swung against the cube, but the staff bounced off the surface. Latios gurgles at this before he felt the cube lock him in place, the waters soon filtered out of the digital prison created to give him breathing space as it lowered with his vitality seeping.
"Gah!" He gasped as the damage from the attack earlier combined with this cube Glitch fired wore him off more. His vision began to fade. What was happening? He didn't know until his eyes dropped and he fell onto the cube's ground with a thud.
"Okay, we beat him!" Scorch exclaimed and turned to Swamp. "Okay, I am going to put your attractiveness up with what you showed. You may not look like it but you sure are smart!"
"O-oh... Sure..." Swamp scratched the back of his head with a blush on his cheeks.
"And down with the UFO." Scorch added. "Used too much brute force, whoah! Hey!" She held tightly onto Blitz as he tried to shake her off his head.
"Too much brute force!?" Blitz shouts. "See what he did to Iron!?"
Lusiane used some kind of seed on Iron and he slowly woke up. He looked at Lusiane with steady breath. He seemed to be alright despite the bruises.
"Ms. Lusiane." He muttered slowly.
"Are you doing fine, Ir-"
"Iron!" Blitz shot over.
"Gwah!" Iron gagged when Blitz snuggled him close. "I am fine, fine...ack..."
"Iron...!" Blitz soon, after some seconds, released the hug.
"Hey Lusiane, what should we be doing with this guy?" Scorch asked while Swamp and Glitch looked over the lock of the door before them.
"...He said something about having a sibling." Lusiane spoke, remembering the start of their battle. "...Let's look at his side of the story."
"Still, not the excuse of attacking us head on." Scorch sighed. "He was in so rush and what's with this so much supplies he got?"
The gathered looked over at Scorch. "...This..." Lusiane turned to Iron.
"It's the ones missing from the storage." Iron confirmed. "Half were gone now...Must be because of using them too much in these parts. Lacks the way Swamp had."
Swamp let out a gasp about what Glitch did in the lock. It buzzed and the door beside it opened. He looked in disbelief while there was another voice inside who groaned in annoyance and relief of getting out of the place behind the door.
"Ho-ho! Open!" Glitch announces.
Swamp looked over the new arrival who was jamming on the panel at the other side and exiting through the door. She didn't notice Latios yet but she looked similar to him but with red accents and softer looks. She held something close and sounded peppier.
"I am finally out... whew!" She speaks. The team was taken aback. This dragon...
"La..." Iron started before the dragon noticed his wounds.
"What happened!?" She asks, hovering over to Iron.
"Oh...La...Latios...Attacked..." Iron muttered. "He...hit me hard and...I blocked most of the attacks he hit me."
"Latios... what!?"
"Grr..." A moan came as Latios got up and reached for his staff. "Must...destroy...in-"
Latias took out her weapon and smacked Latios with her staff. What she held was rather an long staff, but with a heavy head. Possibly a mace, in actuality. "Big Sister Club!" she announces.
"Gwah!" Latios exclaimed.
"I told you, I'll be fine, Latios! I didn't even need rescuing at all!" She snaps at the blue accent dragon.
"But, the-" Latios began.
"We were here to investigate where our supplies went." Iron cut in.
"Who told you to cut in a Legenda-"
"Latios!" Latias snaps at him. "Don't interrupt them!"
Latios visibly cowered and looked down.
"As we were getting here." Iron continued. "I...used up too much magic to block that attack. It was aimed at me."
"The one who couldn't fight, that's a dick move!" Scorch scolded.
"Hey, my brother's not a dick!" Blitz shot back.
"I wasn't talking about Iron!" Scorch shot at Blitz. "UFO!"
"Violent Bun!"
"Silver Blank!"
"Manly Ears!"
"What was that, Shiny Boy?"
Lusiane sighed while the two fight. Swamp helped Glitch gathered the supplies Latios took and looked at Latias with Latios on the ground after he received his sister's scolding techniques. Which were hitting him.
'A custom in disciplining children from the eastern countries...' Iron muttered.
Soon, after some minutes, Latias turned to Latios, urging him to apologize for his behaviour. "...Sorry about everything." Latios mumbles, surprising Blitz and Scorch.
"He's really timid!" Scorch exclaimed.
"What happened to the him from earlier!?" Blitz yells.
"The one who is such a snot-nose a-hole who mocked the Smart UFO and arrogantly clashed the Dumb UFO?"
"Ho-ho." Glitch looked over at Latios. Latios gulped when he saw Glitch. He felt something dreadful just by seeing him. Swamp looked over the stuff and Latias went to him and helped with the stuff.
"Okay... everything's all accounted for..." Swamp checks the stolen inventory and turned over to notify Iron and Lusiane.
"Alright. Now, we have to leave..." Lusiane looked over around them. She looked at Latios and Latias. She wondered about what to do while Swamp looked at Iron. Iron took the orb out.
"You want this?" Iron asked.
"Yes. Thank you, Iron." Swamp held the orb with both hands. "Now if I just do this... and that..." His fingers ran around the sphere with a few rotations before it begins to glow.
He nodded at it then pressed the center of it. It shattered to pieces and everyone, including Latios and Latias, glowed. Scorch jumped.
"Whoa!" She exclaimed. "Where the heck is happening!?"
Swamp motioned to them to calm down with the supplies also glowing. Iron looked.
"I feel...The cold of Mt. Coronet." Iron muttered.
"We're returning back home." Swamp replies. "Set the coordinates to there."
Iron looked. What did Swamp do? "That orb..." Iron asked. "What was it?"
"It's a bit of a special form of item said to be common in another world. This one allows the user to escape from a place after activating it to a designated safe location." Swamp answered.
"Ah...Th-That's..." Iron muttered, he heard about those rare items...They were... "I think they had the common term, 'Wonder Orbs'. Because they usually have some for of providing a strange form of effect around or so. I've heard one of those orbs can make all opposing forces freeze up for a long time until they are struck by an attack."
Swamp nodded and by the time everyone blinked...
"Ya'ow! What are these!?" Gray exclaimed.
"...Get off me, pervert!" Scorch shouted and there was an explosion.
"Yo!" Gray screamed and Lusiane looked to see Gray flying away.
"Look~ Bro is a falling star~" Guy sang while Weiss groaned.
"Please... No..." Weiss covered his eyes.
"And we're back." Swamp tells them.
"What happened...Huh?" Latios looked around and was surprised to see so much of these Pokémon around them. He looked over them and heard a call.
"Commander..." Iron called out.
A Corviknight came down over to the group with great flaps. "You've all returned." He nods. He looks over at the unfamiliar beings. "And this Cinderace is...?"
"Scorch Bacon and..." She looked around him with a calculating look. "Hm...Wisdom, age...Wow, he is pretty handsome despite his age. Okay, top-tier!"
Gardious studied her for a minute. "...Bearing a Dynacrystal."
"Oh?" She muttered while Gardious looked at her thigh. He lifted the cloth over her right thigh.
"Right there." He points. He had her do something and watched as a Dynacrystal appeared there. "...What do you remember?"
"...Nothing." She answers solemnly. "Just living in my house, just by myself."
"...I see..." Gardious looked at her face. "...Have you heard of WINGS?"
"Hm?" Scorch wondered. "Just now when I joined them. I was wondering about the news about them but...What do they mean?"
"You're looking at the very HQ of where WINGS stand." Gardious tells her.
She jolted. "Whoa, so this is the HQ!" She exclaimed in awe. "So big! Bigger than my house!"
"Yes... it is. Since about twenty-seven years ago, this HQ was built for Pokémon like us."
"Huh?" Scorch looked. "This is something and...Can I join?" Gardious looked at Lusiane. "Let her join." Lusiane tells Gardious. "We've all already seen how she fights: she'll be able to handle herself."
Gardious nods and he looks over at Scorch. "Well then... Welcome to WINGS, Scorch Bacon."
She jumped and embraced him.
"Thank you so much, Grandpa Bird!" She exclaimed, causing both to widen their mouths in shock. Gardious forgotten his pain with the scar but...How did she not hit his scar like she knew where it was?
"...It is... no issue at all, Bacon." Gardious slowly answers.
Scorch nodded and held her head. What was this? She felt something that she knew everyone but...how?
Gardious looked at the two Legendary Pokémon.
"Can I apologize for my little brother taking all of these for my rescue?" Latias asks him.
"..." Latios looked at the rest and Glitch eyeing him.
"...So, he was the culprit in the theft. And his reason for this was to rescue you, no?" Gardious asks. There was some silence before Latias answers with "Yes." A nod from Latios and Latias's wounds were not too serious. She looked better than him.
Gardious then nods after observing both Pokémon's conditions. "...If you had wanted assistance, you could have informed us."
"So... you'll forgive my little brother?" Latias confirms.
"Yes. Provided he doesn't do a repeat of yesterday."
Latios looked above him. He looked shocked from his words. That meant...
"You guys...Aren't cold-hearted soldiers?" He asked.
"No." Came Gardious's answer.
"...I'm...I'm sorry I dismissed you those." Latios apologized. "You aren't what I've heard about in the news. I stole those because I wanted to let you fail but...It was foolish of me. I am still just a child, after all."
"It's alright. We got these time to time..." Gardious assures Latios.
Latios nodded and looked around. What should be done here now? Latias wondered about what she saw down there. The carvings of the Dulled she found. "Do you think we can repay you with these information I've got in my head?" She asks.
The group looked at her while Glitch was advancing...
"You found something?" Iron inquired.
"Hey, you. What's with that look?" Latios exclaimed from the back, the rest were busy about what Latias had that they didn't recognize him.
"Yes. Let me write it down..." Latias tells Iron.
Iron nodded and took out a tablet from his Dynacrystal. Behind them, Latios ran with Glitch giving chase.
"It would help communications better." Iron nodded. "Thank you so much."
"I don't think we could repay you with anything else..." Latias ponders.
She began writing down on the tablet. She wondered about the things she saw there and began to replicate it on the tablet. Iron looked into what she draw. Glitch was heard laughing.
"No! Let go!" Latios exclaimed.
"Oho~" Came Glitch's monotone... laughter.
Iron, Lusiane, and Swamp looked while Blitz and Scorch argued from their spot.
"I got more Dulled than you, 21 of them!" Scorch screamed.
"No, me!" Blitz screamed. "21!"
"That's the same number!" Scorch complained. "How about the shots Latios made, I scored 15 and you didn't hit anything!"
"I am closer to Latios!" Blitz shoots back.
Their rivalry continued...Gardious looked over the data with a wing under his beak in thought. What were these writings? After a while of observing them, he turned to look at the Eon duo. "Thank you."
Latias smiled and nodded while Iron looked over this thing.
"Where you two going to go to now?" Iron asked once the drawings were done. "We lacked a Summoner to call you when we needed your help. We only had the ones that would knock us unconscious when summoning."
Latias looked at him and nodded.
"I think then, we will go about to find one." Latias answers. "I'm pretty sure we can help when that comes."
A Summoner...Gardious looked up of the memories he had with a candle being. Who was the opposite of the deceiving nature of those species. A kind and sweet one. Why did he remember her? He never knew. If she was still alive, he wanted to hold her close. To know that she was safe and him, alive.
Gardious looked at Latias and urged her to find one.
"Perhaps... you could... find someone who's a candle-like being..."
Latias wondered about it and nodded happily. Latios crawled out from some portal while panting. His face looked like he saw everything.
"Latios?" Latias asks.
"Hah..." He panted. "Can...we...go now?"
"Sure?" She ponders what could have happened to him. She turned to the team and bowed down. "We will be leaving now, we hope that the day we can help comes soon...!"
"I see..." Iron nodded and looked. "Then, this is farewell and...thanks, for giving this to us. This will help us in the future."
Latias nods and she turns to Latios, motioning him to follow her.
"...Good-bye, WINGS." Latios managed to blurt out to show his status as a Legendary, even if he was part of its sub-category as a Mythical.
The two flew out of the sky after waving their good-byes. Iron and Lusiane looked over the pieces of drawings Latias had and looked over Swamp. They knew what should be done.
"Okay then, how about the cold waters spring they had!?" Scorch dared. "Who would last longer over cold water!"
"Come on!" Blitz punches rapidly.
The two rushed ahead while Lusiane looked over Scorch's intelligence. It was average at best and her combat capabilities were a bit lower than Blitz's. She does make it up with her speed and skills.
"She'll make a great addition to WINGS's fighting force..." Lusiane nods. "She'll need to prepare some gear and so on..."
"Iron, let's bring this to the Professor." Swamp nods to Iron.
"Understood."
June 20th, 2020
3:30 p.m.
Research Department
Pentaster looked over the drawing Swamp and Iron brought in. He began to scan this along with the picture Swamp drew. He looked over the time Swamp calculated the drawings' age when made. It was during the, "Age before the Darkest Days." Pentaster analysed. "Before King Arthur was born, before the time the Ruins of Alph was made..."
Had these entities been crawling around the land since then, if that is spoken by these inscriptions..
"...Cornus, can you make out what these inscriptions meant?" He pointed at the ones Latias did.
Swamp looked closer. These inscriptions detailed the times of which conflict stirred on the lands not ruled by anyone... It was believed that some were possessed by unknown entities...
"People are being manipulated by unknown entities, doing unspeakable actions during then..." Swamp turned to Pentaster.
"The fall of this civilization." Pentaster looked over some drawings. "While it is biased due to being memories of Latias, Psychic-types have better photographic memories than normal ones and more so with someone of the rank of Latias. These are accurate drawings."
"Yes..." Swamp nods.
"...I see." Pentaster nodded and looked at the two. "This intel provided by Latias was helpful. It will improve the communications in detecting Dulled activity. Polarize, you take these to Stor and Necrome. It may help in their line of work."
"On it, Professor." Iron affirmed and took the backup data. "I shall send it right away."
He then left while Pentaster looked at Swamp with a nod.
"Cornus...Thank you for all of your help." He answered. "These documents helped greatly and you helped improve the detection with those skills. From all of WINGS, we thank you and for being a part of this organization."
"It's no problem." Swamp replies. "I'm happy to help from my experience in this field, Professor."
"Alright, then you earned your rest." Pentaster ordered. "Looking forward to your help once again."
Swamp did one gesture of affirmation and went out of the room without a moment's notice. It was a tiring day, a nice bath and sleep would be nice after all of those things that happened. Once he was alone, Pentaster looked at one last drawing.
He looked closer and there depicted some form of avian rising into the skies. It was so beautiful, even if it was drawn in these ancient drawings. He looked down and there he saw 22 unique drawings of figures. Two of those were now crossed out and drawn lying down as if they were dead. Other remaining 20 of those appeared to be featureless like the many other figures, but they appear to have some sort of aura emanating from them based on the wisp-like markings around them.
He wondered about this. He tried to look over to more but then...
"!!!" Pentaster gasped and held his core.
When his vision returned, he could feel the life out of him being drained... was he... performing a summoning?
He looked at the members of WINGS before him. All of them were those who were the top of their class in Magic and they collapsed one-by-one. He was among them because while his aptitude for magic was strong, he lacked the combative skills needed for him to use it. The Summoner, it was...
"Commander?" The words left him as he watched the old Corviknight grunt in difficulty with the overflowing magic surging around them.
He gasped in pain and stopped momentarily but he forced himself to continue, even if the core couldn't handle the strain and parts of the purple body crumbled to pieces. Only five pointers were left, it was painful but he continued anyway. His core shattered more as magic was drained out of him.
"Commander...Go on, please summon him." He heard himself called out. "Alexander...Even if all hope is lost, let him become the stronghold and light to guide them."
He could no longer hold onto his starfish body and was now a gem on top of a heap of the body that continued to provide Gardious magic. The gem cracked as Gardious exclaimed...
"...Enter... from the heavenly skies... sounding the rite... to dispel torment incarnate...!"
A magic circle covered him. He looked into the skies and shouted out, "...Come! Heavenly Bastion, Alexander!!!"
Everything was covered in a bright light soon afterward.
...
...
...
He didn't know how much time had passed. He didn't even know but everything...everything was painful. He hadn't felt the pain before when he transferred magic to the Commander but now he did. The way his body crumbled every second until what was left of him was his core. The core in which his soul was kept remained and being the only thing that was left of him. He heard it crack...It was painful. Memories were gone again, all were blank. He took our some gasps and then...He heard someone crawling toward him.
"Gah...hah..." Pentaster groaned. "Com...mander...?"
"...Pentaster..." He could hear such a ragged voice... "...I've seen it... the destiny set in stone for me..."
...Pentaster couldn't speak...It was too painful to do now.
"...The younger generation... They will continue on... I pray that... they won't falter..."
...
He felt his core shatter to pieces. He already expired but he remembered what Gardious saw afterward. Once he died, Gardious glows a brilliant red, but it wasn't Dynamax. Instead, the glow brightened and covered his entire frame. As the light dispersed, Gardious was encased in a bright red crystal...
Pentaster looked down and panted. That thing came again. Like what everyone experienced. He wondered what were those and looked back at that bird on the picture. What was it and... wasit related to these things they were experiencing? He looked at the books again and knew that they weren't Ho-Oh. She may be beautiful but she didn't match the drawing's outlines.
Then... what was it...?
He held his head and took a phone to contact the Commander. Gardious heard of the tired breath the Professor let out.
"Another one of those visions?" Gardious asks.
"...Guessed it." Pentaster answered. "This time, the way how I died but don't know how. You gained the ability to Summon those beings out of our realm and logic. A mechanical being who, despite having a body made by man that destroys life, is the bringer of hope."
"...I see..." Gardious murmurs from the other end.
"...How about you, getting enough sleep?" He asked. "I've been told by Emberkin about your sleep schedule after those dreams."
"...To be honest, no. My sleep schedule has been fluctuating."
"Then mine would be too." Pentaster replied. "I'll try to get some sleep tonight but...it's 15 hundred and 50 hours now. A bit too early to get to bed. Some would be returning for dinner later and someone ought to prevent Veildert from entering the kitchen to cook dinner."
"..."
"I know...I..." He heard some rummaging from his end. "...Commander?"
...No reply came.
"...Guess he went ahead to stop him."
And from the echoes that made its way to his room, he heard the following:
"Veildert! Do not cook!"
"I-"
Pentaster sighed...He also never wanted to taste it after seeing what it did to the Commander. Then came two screams, one of them was new.
"No, no, no! I don't want to eat that!" came the shrill shouts of the new voice.
"What is THAT!?"
...
"...This isn't what a banana split should look like!"
"Veildert... put that down..."
"It's a giant penis!"
"Why does it have a mouth and...tentacles?"
"I don't know..."
Pentaster sighed and looked over some reports of members for this day. There were casualties for a search mission, a hunt for Dulled...
A sigh. There goes the streak with no casualties...
Hopefully... tomorrow won't bear these...
June 20th, 2020
11:59 p.m.
Longue
Aria rubbed her eyes, finding an easy, efficient way of travel through the aqueducts built around HQ for most aquatic Pokémon. She was asked to head to the longue right away... but wasn't told why.
She went out the aqueducts that led to the longue and looked around the area.
"Is anyone there?" She asks, noting that the lights were switched off. Maybe she could just find the lights-
A horrible, blowing sound of a horn sounded.
"What are we doing here again?"
"Mmm."
"Gray, you are blowing the horn the wrong way...!"
"Hahaha, oh bro~"
"Didn't know you want to come, my Hubby~"
"I AM NOT YOUR HUBBY!" Aria flinched at the sudden scream.
"We're being too noisy, Blitz, don't eat that."
"What? What?"
Aria sighed before... Click!
"Surprise...?"
Everyone let out when they realized that they ruined the surprise with them arguing with each other. Aria looked around her to see that aside from the ones she had been with since childhood, some of the new recruits were there. Blitz held a half-eaten cake and Sunai took out a backup birthday cake.
"At 12:00 a.m., on June 21st, Happy Birthday, Aria Symphonia." Sunai announces.
Aria looked at him for a while, then jolted. She had forgotten all about it because of all this time, they were busy with their job. She clasped her hands together to restrain herself from squealing with joy.
"It's another time of the year, where you celebrate the day of your birth." Lusiane told her. "Celebrate it for you should be thankful of being able to live. To be born and of the friends you made. One of old and new."
"Mmm." Arubo mumbled happily and presented her something. Aria looked to see that it was an...
"An ice flower?"
Arubo nodded. An ice flower was shaped into a pear blossom. A flower that symbolizes a lasting friendship. Aria looked to see that aside from his usual ice, it was made with Nevermelt Ice. To never melt no matter how hot it would be.
"It's so beautiful... Thank you, Arubo." She smiles at the large snowmon.
Arubo nodded and stood to the side while she looked over the group. The one who wasn't here was Luigi and the older ones.
"Commander and Professor had to go to bed early." Lenna told her. "They prepared some things early so that we could do this instead."
"Oh..." Aria looked at Lenna and nodded.
She looked over at Iggy. Was he... holding something behind him?
Could it be something? Something she had always wanted?
"Everyone told me to get a gift for you today, I'd forgotten it was your birthday today." Iggy explained. "So..."
He took out a cylindrical object.
"Lipstick?" She looked at it, it was an expensive brand... Did Iggy really go out of his way and budget to get this for her?
"Are you sure... it's alright for me to have this?" She asks in disbelief.
"Yes. Why're you asking?" Iggy wonders.
"Ignatius, this cost an exorbitant amount for our salaries. You really think that this is for me?"
"Yeah. Go ahead, try it."
"A...Alright, then..." Aria held the lipstick and twisted the cap off. The members present watched as she put the gloss of red over her lips...
"Everyone?" She looked back at them after she was done putting on the lipstick. Silence was mainly their answer.
"How do I look?" She asks.
"You look really beautiful..." Iggy was the first to speak.
Everyone nodded.
"Mmm." Arubo agreed.
"Oh... Thank you so much for this present..." Aria smiled at Iggy. "I will really treasure it." She was really happy to receive such a considerate, though expensive, gift from her crush. Nothing could possibly-
"It's a gift binding our friendship!" Iggy replies to her.
...
...
...M-Mood crusher as always... It took several seconds for Aria to find her voice. "Y-Yes... Our... f-friend...ship..."
"He..." Pretzel looked at Sunai.
"Quite so." Sunai replies.
They sighed while Aria looked at this lipstick and looked around the confetti around. The backup cake and the one Blitz ate. The first was a cheesecake decorated with a filling of cream around and having seaweed-like chocolate strips. The backup cake was a fruitcake, but there is a more prominent design of the sea around it with sea blue icing.
"I thought you didn't like cake, UFO!"
"I was taste-testing!"
"Half of it's gone too!"
"...I think it was good!"
Aria looked over at the Cinderace in a verbal fight with Blitz. She is new starting today? Then...Why was she...familiar?
"...Hello?" She calls out to Scorch.
"Oh, hey!" Scorch called back. "Nice to meet you, Scorch Bacon here!"
"Aria Symphonia." Aria greets, holding her hand in a customary handshake.
She looks at Arubo, apparently staring at the cake. "Arubo, you can go ahead and eat it." She nods to him. "You should enjoy yourself as well." Arubo looked at her silently before partaking in the cake while he looked down at his belly. Scorch looked at him with a thought.
"...Well, he is really cute-looking, rugged, and very muscular." She muttered. "Above average."
Blitz looked at her. She finds him more handsome than him? How!? He gobbled the remaining parts of the cheesecake that caused Iron and Sunai to gasp.
"I'm more glossier and fit than that fat-"
He was frozen solid instantly in a sudden blow of arctic winds.
"Grr..." Arubo snarled angrily while Blitz slid away. Brandt and Pretzel chased after the cube.
"Nope, not you getting in trouble." Brandt called out.
"Otherwise we'll ruin the rest's rest." Pretzel added.
"Nice one, Pretski~" Guy complimented while Weiss nearly spat his drink.
"That's not...!" He coughed for a few moments.
"Its pretty lively here." Lusiane commented. "We've been together since childhood but these new ones...are something. Why do we know much about them?"
"Yo, whaddya mean?" Gray asks.
"...I do not know." Lusiane muttered while she watched Zakh and Arubo did an armwrestling match. "It's something from our dreams and memories because of the Dynacrystal's side effects."
"...Huh... I ain't gettin' that, ah." Gray scratches his head.
"I know you won't but...It is weird." Lusiane mumbled. "I don't know whether we'll learn it soon or never."
They looked back at the armwrestling match becoming rather neck-to-neck...
She wondered, it happened to them when they met Zakh and Safka years before.
"Zakh Stor." They looked at the Zangoose who they were introduced to.
"Zakh Stor..." Lusiane repeated, she was still a young Mienfoo by this time. She looked at him closely. "Pleased to meet you, I am..."
"Heard about you from the Professor, Lusiane Yundet." Zakh tells her.
They looked. Wait, what did he mean? They continued to look at him.
"How did you know that the Starmie was the Professor?" One of the higher ups asked.
"Wasn't I introduced to him? ...Right?"
"You did but he didn't tell you that he was the Professor." They told him. "Also, he didn't tell us the names of the children here to protect them. Only shared their names to those he trusted like the Commander."
"...What? Then who..."
"Some have knowledge over who we were and others but not those who had passed." Lusiane recounted. "I do see those at times. I felt like I've known them since childhood too." She looked at Gray. "Have you?"
"When ya talkin' about it, I kinda do, ya'ow. But does that make us crazy?"
Lusiane opened her mouth, but heard a scream of "I'M NOT YOUR HUB-" before a slam was heard in an instant.
"Mmm." Arubo let out a triumphant mumble and nodded.
"I was distracted!" Zakh yells.
Lusiane sighed at this. He tried to deny it but she knew how close Safka was to him.
"Still can't be honest." Lusiane whispered.
She looked at Aria looking around. She seemed to be overjoyed. To see them around her, like they did before...
Chapter 16 Concluded