Chapter 14: Frantic Foxtrot
With a groan, Mauve blinked her eyes open and tried her hardest to figure out how things had derailed so far in the last three seconds. Her back felt sore, and she realized she was splayed out against the wall of the hallway. She coughed after inhaling some specks of dust, and took stock of the wood boards and other debris that must have come from some object that crashed through the wall opposite her.
Belatedly, she realized that she was that object.
Just as she staggered to her feet and downed an oran, the source of her current troubles hopped on top of the pile of wood from the hole in the wall.
The golden light from the ballroom behind her shrouded most of the Whimsicott's features, all except for her orange eyes and white smile, showing teeth. Mauve crouched low at her appearance, claws crossed defensively in front of her as her breath struggled to stay steady. In the few seconds they regarded each other, Mauve tried to size up her opponent with clenched teeth.
She was having a hard time reconciling the immense strength the Whimsicott had shown moments prior with her small and innocent frame, but the power didn't lie.
Her ears flattened against her head when the fairy began to chuckle.
"My, but I want to savor this," drawled Pandora as she stepped lightly down the pile of wreckage. "Am I right in assuming you were the one who laid hands on Absol and my apprentices?"
Mauve didn't respond, and instead slowly made her way around the fairy, where her back wasn't against the wall. Unbothered, Pandora huffed and put a paw on her hip. Her orange eyes dissected every movement the Weavile made.
"I'll take that as a yes. You realize you've made quite the mess for my guild, haven't you?"
"What we're doing is necessary. You would think Absol's guild would be a bit quicker on the uptake, but it looks like you're just as useless as all the others." Mauve finally found her voice, scratchy and rough though it was.
"Oh, big words! And I suppose you know all the details to this sticky situation we've found ourselves in, hm?" Pandora raised an eyebrow. At Mauve's silence, she shrugged and rolled her head, letting out loud cracks in the hallway.
"Well, thank you for making this interesting. I will more than enjoy beating the information out of you. Don't think you will have the same luck as when you went against Abs-"
A deafening roar interrupted her, one that clamored through the hall with enough force to shake the walls. Mauve whipped her head around to try and find the source of the noise, but the rumbling seemed to be growing louder from ahead. In front of her, she saw that a red glare emerged from the dark behind the Whimsicott, and was quickly growing larger.
Pandora didn't change her stance. Instead, she huffed and rolled her eyes, only giving a quick glance behind her at the approaching Dusknoir. She saw that the Weavile was positioning her body to run further into the hallway, and put a lazy paw up to halt her.
"Stay there, this will only take a moment," she said, with no more inflection to her voice than if she were saying she needed to turn the stove off.
The moment she turned to regard the horror behind her, Mauve had written her off. Even if the insane Whimsicott could somehow hold off the Dusknoir, it would surely occupy her for a while. All she had to do was let this fairy battle the ghost, and she could slip off and perhaps help Nook make a clean escape to the Keystone.
Mauve paused when she saw the Whimsicott reach into her back fluff to pull out two objects, but snorted when it looked to be two simple, jagged wands that she held in both hands. The one in her left was made of a jet black wood, while in contrast the other was a pale ivory.
The wands were unfamiliar to her, but it seemed ridiculous that two mere items could do anything to that creature. With the fairy's back fully turned to her, Mauve eyed the opening into the ballroom and crept over, an eye on the Whimsicott at all times. She saw the Dusknoir rush forward, stomach maw open wide and shadows undulating with wild movements.
In response, Whimsicott held up the black wand. Mauve was almost to the opening when an abrupt sound like rushing water mixed with air decompressing made her stop.
The sound made her look, and then do a double take. The sight made her stop cold, a new feeling of dread digging a pit in her stomach. The Dusknoir was howling, screaming, wailing in front of the Whimsicott. It was a different sound than what she had heard before, it wasn't angry this time.
It was in pain.
Streams of fluorescent-purple energy seeped from the Dusknoir into the black wand. It moaned as its body seemed to dissipate and lose form. Even the shadows beneath it seemed to get the very energy sucked out of them, getting turned into a multicolored mist that flowed into the wand.
Over the wail of the desperate Dusknoir, who tried in vain to turn and flee, Mauve heard a low chuckle coming from the Whimsicott. The more the creature tried to escape, the louder her laugh got, until eventually she was visibly shaking with raucous laughter. Mauve wasn't sure what chilled her more: the sight of the once menacing phantom of these halls dissipating into nothing but mist in a matter of seconds, or the way the Whimsicott tried to compose herself afterward, giggling like a young child.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? An absolute marvel!" exclaimed Pandora, turning on a dime to face Mauve, who flinched when her attention shifted to her. She raised up both of the wands, the black one having taken on a strong purple glow.
"Destruction and creation! Such a primal antithesis. And yet, would you believe me if I told you these were wrought from the same tree? Many, many nights of study, and even longer for testing, but the result is nothing short of divine."
She stepped forward, and waved the black wand over the white. The purple glow transferred between the two, and now the white wand glowed with a periwinkle sheen. Pandora's orange eyes and the wand both twinkled. She flourished it above her head with a wide smile.
"I have made many toys over the years, but this is the only one I am bold enough to call a Masterwork. Can you appreciate the truth in it, I wonder? Two concepts so opposed, and yet one feeds the other. The applications are...numerous."
"Y-you...you're insane," squeaked Mauve. Pandora laughed in response and waved the wand in a short arc in front of her. A stream of purplish mist seeped out of it and gathered in two spots on either side of her. In a matter of seconds the streams took shape, and the result made Mauve audibly gulp. One thought reigned supreme in her head.
"Oh my God. What the actual hell is going on?"
There were now three Pandoras.
"I call them the Manifest Wands," spoke the one in the middle. The two on her sides looked on with eager smiles and adopted battle stances, a hungry look in their eyes. "I do get excited when I get to show them off, even to wretches like you. Try to make this interesting for me, hm?"
Mauve looked at Pandora, then at Pandora, and finally at Pandora. If there were ever an emergency situation, it was now. She ripped open her bag to pull out a pearl, and shattered it in an instant.
"Oh...damn," she muttered as pink energy wreathed her claws. She sundered the space in front of her with a slash, and let out a battle cry.
"Soooo, what do we do with him?" Purl asked, gesturing towards the Thievul who still struggled in his grasp. His eyes scrunched as he commanded the Ever Scarf to tighten a bit, further restricting the fox's movements.
"I suppose we simply hold him, until Pandora finishes her business?" offered Esther.
"Ah. Okay." replied Purl. Nook continued to scream muffled obscenities from their position further up, but that was about all they could do. A few minutes passed with nothing but the sounds of those struggles, although a commotion from the outside hallway clued them in that Pandora was currently crossing something off her list.
"You know, I gotta be honest. I was expecting, like, a more climactic fight. Or something," stated Purl. Esther nodded at his side.
"No, I agree. I had this sense of buildup leading towards this moment, and...well here we are."
"And it's just one Thievul. I was honestly expecting someone a little more intimidating. No offence!" he called up to his captive, who screamed in offence. "And he's wearing such a cheap looking beret too..."
"Quite. It's...wait, hold on a moment..." Esther floated up a bit and squinted. At Purl's questioning gaze, she gasped with a disbelieving laugh.
"Oh my God, Purl. Bring him down. Closer, now." She motioned for the Sylveon to do so.
"Why? Is something...oh wait."
"You see it?"
Purl lowered the Thievul so that they were only a few inches on the ground and a few feet away. He looked at their hat and shook his head and disbelief, a smirk growing on his face.
"Oh, that's rich. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have visited a boutique earlier this morning, would you?"
He allowed the scarf to lower just enough for the Thievul's mouth to be free. They fixed the two with a glare and bared their teeth.
"...I don't have to answer any of your questions," they ground out.
"No, no you definitely did. Purl, this is that moron my sister Poly dealt with during breakfast."
Earlier that morning
Esther, Purl, and Pandora had all gathered around a table in a fashionable dining room. Poly, a shiny Banette and Esther's sister, just finished setting out orange juice and a pancake breakfast. Purl sniffed the food and hummed in appreciation.
"Ooh, this smells amazing! Thanks again for putting us up for the night, Poly."
"It's no problem at all. I figured my sister would get in trouble with the law eventually, so I'm glad I can do my part and help in any way I can. Plus, I get to meet her highly esteemed partner and superior at once!" Poly replied in an upbeat tone. Her voice was breathy but in a higher pitch, and she had an altogether more cheerful demeanor than her sister.
"Ah, we're 'highly esteemed' are we?" inquired Pandora with a coy smile toward Esther. Said ghost cleared her throat in a not so subtle fashion.
"Poly, can you please pass the-"
"Oh yes!" her sister steamrolled over her. "She writes about you all the time. Especially Purl~"
"Oh? Go on..." Purl leaned forward with a paw under his chin. Esther tried to physically restrain her laughing sister from saying more, and Pandora leaned back with a sip of juice, content in watching chaos unfold.
"I know where both of you sleep," threatened Esther.
"Literally every letter starts with how she's fucked with you in some way. Every one. Like it's her proudest achievement."
Purl couldn't speak through the laughter, slapping the table with a paw. Before Esther could let loose the shadow ball she was charging at her sister, a voice from the storefront cut above the commotions.
"Excuse me!? Couturier? I expect to be serviced at once!" came the haughty demand. Poly sighed, but then put on her professional face, and floated out into the store proper. The others were silent as she conducted her business, although the words ' sizable sum' and 'status of wealth' were clearly heard.
After a moment, Poly came back into the main room, and made a beeline for a bin on the side of the room titled "scraps and junk." Esther went to float beside her sister.
"I know that look in your eyes. Just what are you planning?"
"I'm planning on turning this..." she whipped out a battered, deep brown cap that, after beating some of the dust and wrinkles out, turned out to be a shoddy beret. "Into a cashmere designer's item made from shiny Dubwool wool." She looked at Esther and the two shared a devious grin.
"Watch your sister make some money."
Purl and Esther looked at each other with the same cheshire grin before they both fell out laughing. Nook looked on with an unamused glare as the Banette was on her back, legs kicking from chuckles that wracked her body, while the Sylveon openly pointed at them, unable to keep his composure.
"You...you really...on that piece of trash!?" wheezed Purl.
"Piece of...How dare you! This is high quality cashmere-"
"Do you even know what cashmere means!? Oh my..."
"Look, that pattern doesn't even match with the seams!" chimed in Esther, sending them both into another laughing fit.
The two traded roasts at Nook's hat, growing progressively more hysterical at their choice of headwear. The Theivul ground their teeth at the verbal abuse, but their ears perked when something felt off. After wiggling their shoulders a bit, they found that the ribbon that constrained them wasn't as tight as before. They looked up, and observed that the more the Sylveon laughed, the looser the scarf became.
It seemed his focus was clearly elsewhere.
Nook sucked in their pride and endured the humiliation. The moment they could slide their paw into their bag...
"Oh...oh wow, that was good," muttered Purl, still giggling.
"I hope it was worth it, because you are not getting your money back," stated Esther, with a smug grin.
"Are you finished?" Nook asked, clearly irritated. At their nods, the Thievul exhaled. "Finally, in that case..."
A sound like glass shattering lanced through the air, and a purple wave of energy pulsed from Nook's position to cover the rest of the ballroom in the span of a second. Purl and Esther sobered up quickly, and looked at Nook with suspicion. The Thievul smirked, and their long tail, which now glowed pink at the tip, shot out to the left.
With a jolt, the room rotated sideways.
The columns that ran around the circumference of the room, which before stood straight up, now turned ninety degrees to the left, and the floor tilted upward into a wall in an instant. Purl yelped as gravity slipped out from under him and pulled him down to land on the wall where the paintings hung. In his surprise, his Ever Scarf was fully untangled from Nook.
On impulse he threw his ribbons and scarf out, and managed to snag hold on one of the columns before impacting the wall. He dangled for a bit before hoisting himself up to stand precariously on the column, which now served as a very narrow platform.
He struggled to keep his balance on shaky legs, but Esther flew beside and kept a claw on his side to steady him, eyes trained on the Thievul that now stood in defiance of gravity, and who looked down with a haughty glare. They began to walk at a steady pace down the side of the floor-turned-wall.
"I would love to take this opportunity to make myself scarce," they started, voice loud in the wide arena. "But you've gone and made it personal! We'll see who's laughing after I'm done with you!"
They began to sprint down the side of the wall. Just as Purl got his bearings, Nook's tail flicked to the right, and the room rotated counter-clockwise. and gravity now shifted toward the wall with the entrance to the room. Purl was sent hurtling past rows of columns, and couldn't secure a strong enough hold in time before his body banged on one of the stone pillars, knocking him to the side with a pained yelp.
He felt his center of balance change again when the room tilted backward, and he was quickly becoming dizzy from the disorientation. He flung out from the pillars out into the open space, gravity now pulling him back towards the opposite wall.
Falling head over tail, he only reacted enough to widen his eyes in surprise when a brown blur sprinted across the wall and leapt toward him with a paw out.
Just as the Sucker Punch was about to impact, Esther burst in front of Purl and caught it with both claws; the glimmer of a Protect washed over her. She pushed back with a grunt and followed it up with a hasty Shadow Ball, forcing the Thievul to back away. She glanced back at Purl who continued to fall backward and then brought her attention to the dark type who prowled toward her.
She grimaced. Fighting one on one wasn't her style, especially in this matchup, and the one who could put an end to this quickly was currently falling further and further away from her.
Luckily, she had just the plan to get out of the spotlight.
With her claw shoved in her bag, she used a good deal of energy to burst backward to the still falling Purl, and wrapped her claws around his neck. She shoved a Vanish seed into his mouth, and chomped down on her own. The two shimmered and disappeared from sight a second later. With some strength, she was able to steady his turbulent spin.
"Get us on a pillar. Quick," she urged.
"Uh...s-sure..." he mumbled, dazed.
He blinked hard and, through the headache and a growing pain in his side, shot the scarf out to wrap onto the nearest pillar. At Esther's insistence he wrapped the scarf tight to give them both a solid hold, which proved to be wise as the ballroom began to spin like a globe on an axis.
"Oh come now! Where was all of that bravado earlier!?" taunted Nook as they turned their tail in random directions, shunting the orientation of the room however they wanted. "I must say that I'm disappointed, it's obvious by how quickly you resort to items that you're not just some Haxorus blockheads. Are you members of the infamous Absol Guild? It must be so annoying not being able to show your face in public!"
While the agitated Thievul raged on, Purl and Esther hid on the side of the pillar. Esther didn't have to worry too much about the shifting environment, but Purl had anchored himself as tight as possible, and squeezed his eyes shut at the constant motion.
"Ugh...okay. I think we got a little...overconfident," he managed, all fours clung to the pillar. He felt a gentle prodding at his mouth, and opened it to allow Esther to slip an oran in. She rubbed on the red bruise that formed on his side as he chewed, and he sighed in appreciation.
"We have about a minute before the Vanish seeds wear off, and I don't have any more, so let's figure something out," she offered. Purl didn't say anything for a few seconds, but eventually opened his eyes and met her gaze. He huffed in frustration.
"Mew, this fight is gonna be annoying...do you have your Heal Bell?" he asked.
"Yes. Good point, this chime wasn't doing much anyway." She dug in her bag and pulled out a spherical yellow bell with a much more cheerful chime than the Curse Bell. A wave of healing energy pulsed off of it every time it rang. While she affixed it to her head ribbon in place of the other bell, Purl stared at the Thievul who stalked across what was now the ceiling.
"Okay. All I need to do is get close."
"You seemed to have trouble just standing, how are you planning on getting in?" she replied, though not unkindly. He rolled his eyes.
"He caught me off guard is all, I can maneuver. I just can't focus on reorienting myself when things shift and also try to weave my way in."
"Then I'll just keep him occupied."
"But-"
"Save it, I know how to dodge," she waved off his concerned frown. "Type advantage means nothing if you just don't get hit. You just focus on getting into position."
Purl stared at her for a bit, before he nodded.
"Alright, fine." He glanced up at the Theivul, and felt the effects of the seed begin to wear off.
"Time to dance."
Mauve was not having a good time.
From the moment the Whimsicott's doppelgangers went on the offensive, she was forced to be on the move constantly. Her opponents all had the same wide smile on their faces, but seemed to behave differently.
One of the Whimsicotts preferred to rush in with quick strikes, not utilizing moves, but powerful enough to overwhelm her with their speed and strength. Dealing with this one was difficult enough, but she was forced to keep one eye open for Fairy Wind attacks that came from one that preferred to stay back. Between the two, her agility was already severely tested, and although the hallways were wide enough to allow for some movement, their relentless attacks severely limited any openings.
Thankfully, she could create her own.
During the frantic fight, the Weavile ripped portals in the air whenever she got the chance, small swirling openings that she could dip into and appear in her opponents blindside whenever she was pinned.
Short range portals like these could stay up for longer, and didn't drain the energy she got from the spatial pearls as much as a long distance one over miles would. She used this tactic liberally, adopting a hit and run strategy of heading off the close range Whimsicott to hop in a portal, and scoring a hit on one of the clones before ducking into another to repeat the process.
She would have been proud that she could even last against such an opponent, were it not for how it was clear they were toying with her. Fairy Wind was not a strong attack, and the Whimsicott that fought her up close skipped and laughed as she approached, clearly not taking her seriously.
A fact that the original Whimsicott with the two wands was more than happy to remind her of throughout the fight.
"Are you quite finished yet? You look positively knackered," she jeered as Mauve dipped and dodged around attacks.
"Ooh, that one looked like it hurt!" she called when a clone slugged her clean in the face and sent her reeling back.
"Consider this a bit of payback for that 'useless' comment," she stated to the side. Mauve was currently on the ground grappling with one of the clones. She was too focused on the wild smile of this Whimsicott to pay much attention to the primary one, but her senses screamed at her that something was a grunt, she shoved the Whimsicott off of her and looked up.
A sturdy oak wardrobe fell down toward her.
She screamed, and rolled out of the way. The ground rumbled as splinters jutted up from the floor from the impact, and the heavy piece of furniture tumbled with a crash to the side.
Mauve's breath heaved as she stared at the sight, but her eyes picked up a trail of fluorescent energy that petered out from it. She followed the trail to the tip of the white wand the Whimsicott held, who held a hand on her hips with a pout.
"Drat, I missed. Oh well," she aimed the black wand at the ground and sucked up Aether from the very floor itself. The carpeted wooden flooring lost its structure and form, instead turning to a multicolored hole. She raised the wand again, doppelgangers about to strike, but Mauve shot up with her claws out, eyes wide open. She was exhausted and in pain, but although her legs began to shake, she kept a steady stance.
"...I suppose I should commend your tenacity, but it's starting to get annoying," remarked Pandora, a hand on her hip. The fight had gone on for about fifteen minutes, yet she looked no worse for wear.
"You haven't even landed a hit on me. Why stay and fight when you could just as easily escape with these portals of yours?"
It took Mauve a second to muster the breath for a response, but she eventually managed.
"Have...to fight," she wheezed through her breath. "You'd just follow...and get us all ejected with the way you wave those around," she pointed at the Manifest wands. "You're agitating the Dungeon with those, manipulating it's Aether like you do."
"As if you're one to talk about agitating the Dungeon! Ignorance is one thing, but I loathe hypocrisy." The smile slipped from Pandora's face, and she dispersed her clones with a wave of her wand. Mauve's eye twitched, and a hiss escaped her at the last word. She pointed a claw at the Whimsicott.
"Hypocrite? You're the hypocrite! You and all the rest of the guilds that do nothing but seek their own glory at the expense of those who they brand 'criminal' or 'outlaw' when they don't bend to their system! Your guild should have been the first to do something when the world began to deteriorate, and yet where was Absol? Gone, probably sleeping somewhere or-"
She was interrupted by a fist to the face that sent her sailing back a few feet. With a pained moan she landed, and looked up to a blank expression on the Whimsicott's face. Mauve rolled onto her knees and struggled to stand.
"Insult him again and I'll remove a claw," she stated. Mauve's orange eyes alighted with frustration, and she stood in defiance.
"We're doing what needs to be done, to avoid another disaster, one we can't come back from."
For a split second, the cool expression on the Whimsicott's face turned surprised. The fairy crossed her arms and glanced down, as if in thought, but she shook herself and returned Mauve's glare. She stretched her arms one more time in preparation to attack.
"Get out of my way!" yelled Mauve.
"Make me." Her tone was bored, and she regarded her hand rather than the fuming Weavile in front of her.
The Weavile clenched her teeth and shoved a claw into her bag, which had miraculously stayed on during the battle. The Whimsicott had stepped forward into a position where she was in the center of a collection of portals spaced around her, and Mauve jumped at the opportunity.
She ripped out a Quick orb, and with a battle cry, activated it to blur into motion.
She zipped through a portal, and came out another near the fairy's blind side. In half a second she raked her claw against her opponent with a Night Slash and rushed into another portal, coming this time from slightly higher above with a downward swing. She rushed in and out of the portals, a streak of grey in the dim hallway, yelling as she rained swipes on the Whimsicott's body. Cotton fluff plumed around in the air to float to the ground.
With one last shout, Mauve fell down from a portal directly above, a claw reared back for a powerful strike. The small fairy had her back turned, and enough fluff had been removed to have a clear shot at her upper body. She aimed, and brought her claw down in one final swipe.
A split second before impact, the Whimsicott turned, and the last thing Mauve saw before she blacked out was a swift kick aimed for her face.
Back in the ballroom, chaos.
Green in the face, Purl managed to prevent himself from hurling as he flung himself from column to column, spidermoning his way around the perimeter of the room.
The floor continued to rotate at random, and he was forced to adjust his movements based on where gravity happened to shift. His goal was to reach the massive chandelier at the center of the room, but it was one step forward, two steps back trying to get there.
Thankfully, he didn't also have to worry about fighting. Esther had that handled.
He perched on a column, the room currently tilted sideways and gravity pulling downward towards the wall, and looked up. His partner had the bright idea to also don a Spotlight scarf, just one more example of how much better prepared she was than him, and engaged in a dangerous game of tag with the Thievul.
He huffed a breath in worry, but resolved to just move faster. What Esther lacked in the ability to take a hit, she more than made up for in sheer slipperiness. Judging from the enraged shouts, she was also doing a good job of antagonizing their opponent.
Purl held no doubt in his mind she was saying something ridiculous to piss off the Thievul. The scarf probably wasn't even necessary. The thought brought a smile to his face and a flutter in his heart.
"Will you shut up!?" screeched Nook as they took another swipe at Esther. The grinning ghost juked out of the way like nothing, going so far as to do a little twirl.
"You know, the more you attack me, the less I want to ask my sister to give you a refund." The Thievul rushed forward to bite, but she floated up and placed her hands on their head to front flip over them. She stayed upside down as they turned to face her.
"Honestly, I think the look fits you. I hear tacky and overpriced is all the rage these days." The fox snarled deeply and glared at her, pure malice in their eyes. Esther recognized the Nasty Plot and took a breath. She had managed to irritate her opponent enough for their strikes to be uncoordinated, which helped her slip out of the way more times than not.
Still, she wasn't an up close fighter, and was relying on her Heal Bell's chimes to give her the energy needed to endure the effective strikes against her.
The Thievul's tail, which glowed a bright pink on its end, raised slowly as they sized her up. In that brief moment, she risked a glance upward. She used the massive chandelier as a marker for which orientation the room was currently in, and right now the large light fixture was heavily tilted to the left, which meant the room's gravity was shifted toward the walls. She caught a lick of deep purple in the corner of her vision, and noted how Purl was currently swinging his way toward the chandelier.
She had an inkling of what the plan was, and thought of how to move the fight underneath the chandelier. Unfortunately, the Thievul did something unexpected.
They rushed forward and pulled a feint, which baited Esther to dodge. While she got her bearings, their tail shifted forward and brought gravity back to its original place. In the split second it took Esther to orient her float, she was knocked backwards with a nasty Night Slash.
With a pained cry, she flew back hard onto the floor, and her claw flew to her shoulder to nurse a stinging pain. The Thievul sauntered forward, and she threw out a hasty Shadow Ball which they sidestepped with ease.
Up above, Purl had almost reached the chandelier by using the pillars as grapple points. He heard Esther's yell right as he latched on the top of it, and yanked himself up. The chandelier was so large, the golden metal joints which branched out to hold lights were long and sturdy enough to hold his weight, a fact he was thankful for as he prowled toward the center on careful paws, feelers out for balance.
He flicked his eyes down and saw that, while the Thievul was almost directly underneath the large ornament, they also stalked towards a currently downed and vulnerable Esther.
Purl typically considered himself a lover, not a fighter. The sight of his Partner in such a state gave him the rage of the latter, feelers visibly shaking in anger. With a glance at the heavy chain that suspended the chandelier, an evil smile grew on his face as an idea became crystal clear in his head.
Beneath him, Esther used the last of her energy to burst away from an attack. She reappeared on her back, arms shaking with exertion. That hit had taken a lot out of her, but she still stared with a tired grin at the Thievul as they swayed walking up to her. They chuckled in a haughty tone.
"Aw, are you finally done? Have you run out of little quips, hm?" Esther picked up a metal rattling from above, and spared it a glance before the Thievul could notice. Her grin turned smug in an instant.
"Not a quip, but a joke. What do you call an interesting ceiling?" she said. Genuinely baffled, Nook tilted their head in confusion.
"What?"
"Oh, I don't know. You should look it up sometime," she finished, with a merry chuckle. Confused, Nook looked up.
The chandelier plummeted towards him.
"Esther! I'll save yoooooouuuuuuuuuu!~"
Wrapped around one of the bottom rungs on the chandelier, Purl whooped as he fell with the massive light fixture, having blown the chain off with a blast seed a second earlier.
His stomach lurched as the marble floor rushed closer, and he was keenly aware that he would be squashed by the chandelier given that he was positioned on its bottom. He got a good look at the wide eyed look of astonishment on the Thievul's face as he fell further.
Good, that's what he was hoping for.
More than halfway towards the ground, he saw the glowing tail of the fox jerk itself down, and he had to tighten his scarf on the chandelier as he felt gravity completely reverse itself, and watched the room rotate a full one-eighty degrees. The precise moment the chandelier hung in the apex of its shift downward, Purl crouched low and then jumped upward, toward the Thievul.
He sent his scarf out and wrapped himself toward them before they could do anything. With a wicked smile, he grappled the dark type toward himself and they collided in midair.
With the fox wrapped securely in his scarf and arms, Purl stared right into their eyes and winked. He leaned forward and, with a breath, smooched the fox right on the cheek.
Nook's eyes bugged out as they felt the majority of their strength leave them, their limbs practically going limp. The Draining Kiss left a harsh sting where it landed, and made their whole head throb in pain. That move had no business being as potent as it was, and it seemed the Sylveon knew that with the expression on his face.
With a grunt, Purl turned in midair so that the Thievul faced the ceiling they were headed towards, and pushed off with his legs, sending the fox hurtling towards the surface.
Nook hit the marble ceiling with a rough landing, and a wheeze escaped them as they bounced from the impact. They had just barely missed the chandelier that crashed into a heap of metal bits and debris next to, they rolled to the side and barely managed to stand. Their knees wobbled.
Purl descended through the air and used the momentum from his scarf to swing around the columns and toward the ground in a graceful arc. He touched down in what would have been a feather light landing if he didn't trip over Esther's body and send the two in a brief tumble. He ended up rolling on top of her.
"...So, how was that for heroic?" he tried, breath heavy. She blinked and averted her gaze.
"It was...fine," she mumbled. Purl waited for a second, expecting some kind of follow up, but instead she simply pushed him off and floated onto his back, facing away from him.
"Well...alright." He decided to focus on the heaving Thievul in front of them, and pointed forward with a paw. "You! Villain with horrible fashion sense! Give up now, and come quietly. You're obviously outmatched. Oh, and uh, please put the room back where it's supposed to be! I'm slowly remembering my fear of heights just standing here!" he stated with diminishing authority.
"You think it'll be...that easy," Nook wrenched their head up and fixed them with a mean glare, still gasping for breath. They took a step forward, and held back a wince. "I'm not falling here, I can still-"
"Oh dear. What is this topsy-turvy mess?" called a voice from up above. All eyes turned to the entrance way to the ballroom, which was now above them. Pandora stuck her head out and glanced around, clearly confused by the room's orientation. Her expression brightened when her eyes landed on the group, and she hopped out to float down gently in an unseen breeze.
Clutched tightly by the ankle like an often abused child's doll was Mauve, limp in the air.
"Did this one give you any trouble?" she asked as she touched down with barely a sound. Purl scoffed and waved a paw.
"Trouble? Pfft, no. Isn't that right Esther?"
"There was alot of screaming. I'll give you two guesses from who."
"That's not-hey! Stop!"
The Sylveon had picked out the movement of Nook bringing out a pink orb. The sound of its shatter rang out in the large space, and their paw was briefly saturated in pink before they motioned forward. The pink leapt from their paws into a multicolored portal. Before Purl's scarf could reach, the fox stumbled through the portal that closed right after. It all happened within the span of a few seconds.
"Oh, dammit!" Purl stomped his paw down. He growled lightly in frustration. "I keep getting distracted...there goes another lead."
The room started to tilt.
"What's happen-oh." With haste in his step, Purl jogged closer to a column and wrapped a scarf around it, just in time for the room to right itself to its proper orientation. He slid down with relative ease, while Pandora floated down with hardly any movement, only mild curiosity as the chandelier took its rightful spot above them instead of next to them.
"I can't say I fully understand," she remarked as she landed next to a column, and propped the Weavile up against it.
"Join the club," Esther said. She gestured to the Weavile slumped to the side. "I'm assuming she's merely knocked out and we'll question her later?"
"You'd assume correctly, for better or worse," replied Pandora as she rubbed her chin. "Hm. Vert mentioned them earlier, but this is the second time I've seen those pink pearls used in action. I want to get a closer look, they're unlike anything I've seen before. This one here used them to create short range portals."
"That guy used one to shift the room around! And defy gravity...and create a portal. Ugh, I can't keep track of what they do..." muttered Purl.
"Indeed..." Pandora went quiet, a pensive frown on her face. The silence was broken when she clapped her hands loudly, and turned to face her apprentices with a wide smile.
"Regardless, this mission can be classified as a success. We've defended this Dungeon's keystone from its would-be attackers, and as a bonus secured a hostage from whom we can extract information. Well done you two," she commended. Purl's mood brightened significantly at the words.
"Yes! What did you expect from Team Dazzle?" he struck a pose, Esther too tired to stop him. Pandora nodded with a chuckle.
"You were an excellent leader. Team Dazzle will have to dissolve for now-"
"Awww," he whined.
"So that we can plan our next steps. I want you to go back, detain this Weavile, and get some rest. You've more than earned it."
"And you?" asked Esther.
"I have a bit more research to do. The Keystone is up ahead, so I wanted to record as much as I can about it. Don't worry, I won't be long."
"Sounds good. I'll report everything to Vert, and then maybe take a nice hot bath. Care to join me?" He asked Esther. The Banette shrugged in a noncommittal way.
"Don't know. I'll take a visit to the infirmary and then perhaps turn in early for today. I'm tired."
Pandora and Purl shared a look at the answer, but decided not to comment on it. Purl handed her the Echo orb and, with final goodbyes, activated an escape orb and flashed out of the Dungeon, leaving Pandora alone in the room with the giant painting for company.
Before she stepped through the way towards the Keystone, she attempted to call Vert, but only got a ring tone. With a roll of her eyes, she left a message instead.
Vert felt a nudge on his shoulder. When it got progressively more insistent, he grunted, and the world slowly came into focus. He blinked his eyes open and recognized from the towering book cases that he was in the library, a few of his other apprentices spread out on the pillows engaged in some kind of study. After a moment, his thoughts finally caught up to him, and he sighed heavily.
"Dammit," he muttered.
"Oh, uh, sorry," came a small voice. He glanced down and noticed one of the small Scraggy children who looked up at him with both curiosity and apprehension.
"No, not you. Did I fall asleep?"
"Uh, I dunno? I thought you were awake cuz your eyes were open, and I tried to ask you a question, but you didn't say anything so..."
Great. Now was the perfect time to be dozing off. He sighed heavily, but the Scraggy seemed to think he was upset and stepped back.
"S-sorry mister, uh, guildmaster. I was hanging around waiting for my brother to come back, and someone asked me to come get you, so I just wanted to help," finished the little lizard. He twiddled his fingers and looked down. Vert mentally kicked himself and bent down to try and get on the kid's level.
"No, you're doing fine, thank you for waking me up. Can you tell me what time it is?"
"I think around eight-ish? It's dark outside," he responded. Vert nodded. Last he checked it was still evening, which meant he couldn't have napped for too long. He had fallen asleep without meaning to multiple times today, but at least they weren't for long each time.
"Okay. Can you tell me your name, kid?" he asked with his most reassuring smile.
"My name? Does that mean you wanna be friends?"
"I'm friends with your brother, so it would be nice to be friends with you too," responded Vert. He didn't really know how to talk with kids, so he was just honest. It seemed to work with Basil, and judging by the expression on the Scraggy's face, it was working now.
"Okay! My name is Kip! What's yours?" he asked. A soft smile rose on his face.
"My name is Vert. It's nice to meet you, Kip."
"You too!" Kip's smile lifted Vert's spirits too. It wasn't often he got to see someone outside of his guild legitimately smile at him.
"Alright kid, can you help me find who needed me?" asked Vert. Kip nodded with enthusiasm, and Vert plucked him by the neck and settled the kid onto his back.
Before leaving, he glanced at the table he was working at and its contents: books, papers, and the piece of the Keystone Van snagged at Match Quarry which was held in a protective case. The books had nothing on Keystones, even after reading through them all day. The papers held his task list.
When he wasn't reading, he was moving throughout the guild to make sure things were running smoothly, as well as offer some suggestions for things that could help them move forward. He knew he wasn't nearly as thorough as Pandora, but he wanted at least his presence known regardless, in case someone needed anything.
The yellow chunk of the Keystone still glowed with faint traces of energy, and he kept it next to him as he studied. He had asked several of the apprentices in Dynamo to take a look at it, and they had managed to determine that, while it was only part of a much larger piece, it still produced Aether at a constant rate, enough to require a special seal around it made from the same technology as the Proto Dungeons.
Not much else was found, but that didn't stop his mind from thinking of possibilities. Even during his impromptu naps, his mind still processed as much information as he could.
Just because he wasn't out in the field didn't mean he could take things easy, especially not with his Partner and apprentices out risking themselves.
With Kip on his back, he made his way out of the Library and through the Residential Wing. He passed by more of the other guild members on the way, and gave pleasant nods as he walked through. Dinner would be soon, so he saw some who were beginning to make their way to the Mess Hall.
The thought made him wonder when the teams who were sent out would come back. He pursed his lips, well aware that anything could happen, but hoping they would be back either tonight or tomorrow, as planned.
"Ooh, hey what's that buzzing?" asked Kip. The question brought him out of his musings, and alerted him to a vibration in his bag. He set it down and extracted the Echo orb, which glowed green. Kip hopped down and looked at it with wide eyes. Vert was about to activate it, but smirked at the kid.
"Want to see something cool?" he asked. Kip nodded fervently. He put a paw to the orb, and saw he had a message from Pandora.
He let it play.
"Hello dearest, I hope I'm not interrupting your beauty sleep. I wanted to let you know that things went well at Moonlit Manor, and I've sent Purl and Esther back home, along with a not so welcome guest. They should be arriving momentarily. I stayed back to get some more readings on the Keystone, so I might not make it for dinner. Save me something, if you would? Also, I've been thinking about it for some time, and I think I've recalled that familiar feeling I had regarding the Keystones, although it's not a pleasant feeling.
I don't want to alarm you, but we might have another Fall Rend situation. Things are different, but also similar, don't you think? It might be in our best interest to contact our friends who just so happen to be very well acquainted with that event.
See you soon, love you.
It ended.
"What's the Fall Rend?" asked Kip after a bit of silence. Vert's mind became a storm. thoughts of doom and worst case scenarios raged inside his head. His breathing increased, but the sound of Kip trying to get his attention reminded him to breathe.
He shut his eyes and took stock of what, exactly, he could do right at this moment to make things better, an exercise Pandora had taught him long ago. His heart rate slowed as he concluded that helping his guild was more important than thinking of all the ways things could go wrong. He stood up and placed Kip back on his back.
"Not anything good. But, we'll deal with that later. Who did you say needed me?"
"A Sylveon who talked kinda funny."
Purl was back then. Good. That set his mind at ease somewhat. He hurried through the guild to reach the Development wing, and there in the center of the main circle was Purl, sat next to a Weavile he recognized in an instant. For some reason, Esther wasn't with him.
The Sylveon's ears perked up at the sight of him, but instead of the usual bright smile he wore, there was an urgent frown. Before he could ask what was wrong, The flaps to the dynamo branch burst open, and Damia's whole team barreled through. Kip gasped at the sight of Van and hopped off to scurry towards the Scrafty, who set him on his shoulders with a small glance.
Everyone began to speak over each other. The volume increased in the room significantly.
"We have a situatio-
"How soon can we get over to- "
"He's alone! What are we supposed to"
"-should have checked on them sooner. We're sor-
"Quiet," Vert stated with absolute authority. He didn't yell, merely raised his voice to be heard above the din. The room hushed in an instant. He turned back to Purl and gestured forward.
"Purl. Tell me slowly what the problem is."
Purl gulped and glanced around at the rest of the group. Everyone, even Damia, had nervous looks on their faces. He sucked in a breath and said as steadily as he could.
"We all got a call from Basil. Brook and Willow have been captured."
There was a gravid silence as Vert digested the information. Everyone, even Kip, waited with baited breath for what he would say next. Vert opened his mouth, and everyone leaned in.
He sighed in relief.
"Hoo boy, had me worried for a second," he said simply, shoulders slumped with released tension.
The group stared at him confused. Damia stepped forward.
"You heard what he said, right? We got a message from Basil saying that Brook and Willow have been detained and arrested by hunters from the Haxorus Guild."
"Yes, I heard that."
"That doesn't bother you?"
"Everyone. There is a reason why I let a literal child, albeit a talented one, accompany Brook and Willow on a dangerous outing. Let me ask, did Basil sound worried at all?"
"...He mentioned something about 'hide-and-seek'?" offered Clara.
"Now that I think about it, it kind of sounded like he was laughing too," said Lumi, who rubbed his chin in thought. "It sounded kind of fun..."
"B-but, they're in custody!" exclaimed Purl.
"I am much more concerned for the ones who have the pleasure of trying to hold down and interrogate those two. They have the tendency to behave like walking disasters," he looked to the side and shivered almost imperceptibly. "So much disaster..."
"In the meantime," he straightened up and continued. "Let's all debrief in my office, I'm sure we have a lot to go over." He looked meaningfully at the knocked out Weavile, who Van and Lumi just noticed right then and backed away.
"Holy shi-"
"Damn, that's a big bruise."
"I'll get someone to detain her. Now, is there anything else urgent that we can go over on the way there?" he asked as he turned to walk away. The group followed behind, a couple other apprentices coming to collect their prisoner.
It was silent for approximately five seconds before Lumi spoke up.
"Yeah, so. We met Dialga. I think they're like, my third parent?"
The silence returned for a long time after that.
A little shorter than normal, but I enjoyed it nontheless. Thank you for the reads! I'm excited for alot of things coming up.
And I just want to ask, who is your guy's favorite character so far?