Well, shit.
That's another world they're gonna tell me to stay away from. But what was I supposed to do? You hear all this yapping about bonds between humans and pokémon. So I can't stand by and watch some kid harass an ogerpon cuz he thinks he's entitled to be her trainer cuz he likes her so much.
The worst part was it was like an awful look back at the distant past. Cuz I'm not sure I'd have acted much different back when I was human.
Sometimes this omniverse stuff's a bitch.
Leo ran into the hanger not long after Noctum and Valkyrie. It was a mess of skorps darting about between computer consoles, several pointing and waving their mutant incineroar hands.
"What's the matter?" Noctum wondered, looking between the skorps and Cid. The orbeetle's spots flashed asynchronously with the funny sensors attached to them.
"What isn't the matter?!" Cid responded, staring at Cyril's "big board" of computer screens. "This is a nightmare! I can't get a hold of anyone who's over in Tulpise. I just keep hearing that annoying chatot pirate."
The cosmic arceus trotted up to the dragons' sides. Both of them flinched. "Isn't this thing supposed to be a secure magical line?!" the garchomp hissed. "What gives?"
"M-Maybe Gilbert stole an X-transceiver the last time he was here?" Noctum tapped his index claws together. Valkyrie gently smacked the back of his head with her right elbow fin. "Hey, it was a suggestion!"
"Tough. There isn't a Gene or Cyril around for me to slap." Valkyrie crossed her arms. "Why the hell do they even let that pipsqueak and his crew show up here if they're against us?"
"Technically it's not Gilbert's—" Noctum saw Valkyrie's death glare and shrank back. "Never mind."
Rolling his eyes, Leo approached the small computer array. "So, like, what's really the sitch? Cuz why would you complain about pirates if you weren't trying to reach the teams in Herbrides?"
Cid wobbled as his levitation momentarily faltered. "Right. Quite perceptive." The orbeetle pointed at a skorp. One of the larger monitors brought up footage of some kind of heavy machinery embedded in a craggy brown environment.
Leo's eyes widened. That rippling static in the center...
"We got us an anomaly, eh!" the skorp who pulled the footage up exclaimed.
"Where are we looking at?" Valkyrie said. Heavy metal thuds followed from her running up behind Leo.
"Iron Island," Skorp said. "Think it's part of that there Sinnoh region."
Sinnoh. Sinnoh. Why was that name familiar? "Wait." Leo stood up straight. "Isn't that on the same planet we found the last anomaly on? The one with that Indigo Plateau place?"
"It's not just that." Cid motioned at skorp. "Next recording."
What came up was blurry. A rush of purple and navy blue slammed into a large, upright sandaconda that was practically a living brown twister. Sandaconda slammed into a rock wall. Boulders and scraps of machinery crashed down on it from above.
The footage flickered a few times. When it steadied, purple, armored legs and fiery blades vanished into the static. Instead of a sandaconda, there was a tiny orange pixie at the base of the rubble. Leo's starcloud tail curled up. Had he seen those big V-shaped ears before? Why did they make him think of wheels?
"That big ol' sandaconda matches one of Cyril's descripterinos for a Paradigm lieutenant!" Skorp boxed the air in front of him. "But looks like some ceruledge gave her the ol' one-two and made off with her power!"
No, it couldn't be just "some ceruledge." It was a Whisper. It had to be. And if they couldn't reach his mom and her friends...
Leo stepped toward Cid. "Are those empire dweebs at the island already?"
Three of Cid's spots glowed. "I don't think so. Why do you—"
"Don't wait up for me." Leo turned around.
"Whoa, hey!" Noctum reached for the cosmic arceus. "What are you doing?"
"Going there."
"Hang on." The cosmic charizard frowned. "We have to come up with a plan. You can't go rushing in looking like that."
"Then I won't." Leo concentrated on two of the plates nestled deep in his spirit. His body squashed and stretched, molded by the energy he drew out of the plates. Bright light filled his vision.
"A heracross?" Valkyrie gasped. "Since when can the kid transform?!"
Leo's opened his chitinous elytron. Wings buzzing, he hovered into the air. "If we make a plan, the empire's going to storm the island. We don't have time. I'm out."
He wouldn't wait for anyone's protests. Leo slashed the air with his pronged horn. Warm sunlight spilled out from the rift. Leo shot through it, though he didn't immediately close it behind him. Might as well let the others have a shot at it.
The anomaly rift sat a couple of dozen meters away, amidst the wreckage of a bunch of machinery. Black bands and plating from conveyer belts to his left. Broken remains of lifts and platforms to his right. There were even a few hard hats and worker vests poking out from piles of dirt littered around the rift.
Leo beelined for the pulsating static sphere. It grew a bit with every pulsation, chewing away at steel beams, pistons, and other wreckage. He glimpsed the orange pixie from earlier. Those two dragons would totes take care of her. No way they didn't follow him.
The heracross flew into the static without a second thought. It brought him into a tunnel of bright lights and swirling, distorted colors. Leo saw jagged, island-shaped crystals in the distance. Sparkling lines crisscrossed far in the distance, too blurry to get any other features from.
He was in that Ginnungagap place again. Like with the first anomaly they'd flown through. That's fine. All Leo had to do was fly through this tunnel, and he'd reach the dimensional mystery dungeon on the other side. Easy pe—
"Ohhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"
Was that... a flailing toxtricity ahead of him?
It was! It was Nikki! And judging by the big, spectral wing reaching out to grab her...
"Mom!" Leo shouted, surging toward her without a second thought.
Air hockey truly was a strange game. Yuna was often transfixed on all the tiny holes in the white table shooting constant air streams. Large enough to lift the red plastic puck millimeters off the table, but small enough not to do anything else.
"Ten to nine," Nikki declared. "Game point, baby!"
Igneous was leaning so far forward he was practically climbing onto the table. He struck the puck with his green handle. It banked off the gray wall, but Nikki intercepted with a quick swipe. The puck zigzagged back to Igneous' side. Holding her handle in her mouth, Scarlett slid it forward, but only clipped the side of the puck. Igneous missed his ensuing swipe, but course corrected to pin the puck in the corner.
Every click and clack of the puck satisfied Yuna in a way she couldn't put to words. She'd have to see about coming up with some sort of similar game for the taverns in Aeon when this was all over.
"C'mon, Twiggy." Nikki's mohawk sparked. She ran her handle back and forth rapidly at the center of the table. "No camping on the puck! Only pussies camp!"
Igneous gently tapped the puck, then slammed his handle into it. The puck beelined by Nikki's handle. "Shit!"
"Eep!" Yuna swiped right with both arms. She got the side of the puck. It banked backwards. Her ectoplasm shriveled. She quickly relaxed when the puck struck the corner of the goal and bounced back. Yuna gave it a hearty smack with her handle. It banked off the wall just past midfield.
"Gow eeh!" At its middling speed, Scarlett easily intercepted the puck. Nikki blocked her shot. Scarlett missed the counter, but Igneous swiped his handle all the way to his right, practically knocking the dragonair over in the process.
When the puck clacked off a wall, a distant rumble followed. Scarlett's neck bauble flickered. She looked up, as did Yuna.
"Did you guys hear that?" she said.
A couple of more clacks. Nikki lightly shoved Yuna, who watched the lights rattle in the ceiling.
"Um, guys?" Yuna's tail crinkled. "I think we have a prob—"
"Don't interrupt!" Nikki growled. More clacking followed.
"Yeah!" Igneous said. "This is important!"
The next rumble was louder. The pachirisu twins who were watching the group from the next-door ping pong table exchanged panicked expressions, then leaped off and headed for the exit.
Scarlett spat out her handle. "We have a problem!" She grabbed Igneous with her tail and pulled his head up. "The whole pace is shaking!"
One last clack sounded, followed by a crunchy "What a goal!" from the speakers overhead. Igneous and Scarlett's goal flashed with blue light.
"Winner! Winner!" the same crunchy announcer voice declared. A small spotlight shined on Yuna and Nikki from the box-shaped scoreboard above the table.
"Ha!" Nikki pumped her fist. "Suck it, Twiggy! Loo-hoo-seeeer!" She made an L with her hand and pressed it against her forehead.
"Like hell you won!" The grovlazzle's head leaf caught fire. He stomped over to the toxtricity. "You saw that. Scarlett grabbed me! The goal doesn't count! Redo!"
"Guys, seriously?!" Scarlett cried.
"Aww, boo hoo." Nikki rubbed her cheeks as if she was crying. "Cry me a river. Scarlett was being gentle with y—"
Yuna heard the crash seconds before a part of the ceiling collapsed. She thrust her hands forward. Two gray, shadowy legs shielded her friends from the rubble. Screams erupted all around her as the arcade patrons and staff made a beeline for the exit.
"What the hell?!" Mohawk frazzled, Nikki hopped back onto the ping pong table.
The dust settled and showed a giant metal... claw? It had multiple colorful arcade cabinets ensnared in its grasp. And there was an electabuzz with a magmortar-esque cannon in place of their left arm riding on it.
"We got the cabinets! Hoist me up, mateys!" Electabuzz shouted.
As fast as the claw appeared, it shot up through the hole in the ceiling.
"Wait, mateys?" Igneous sprinted toward the hole. "I don't see anything!" He tapped the side of his head. "Gene, someone just made off with arcade cabinets from the mall! What's going on?"
Yuna heard distant crashes and rumbles that mirrored those that preceded the giant claw. She also flipped on her X-transceiver.
"—need to explain anything to vous, kitty cat! Why wouldn't we take ze advantage for a fresh place to plunder?"
"No way," Yuna whispered. She flipped her X-transceiver off. "It's the pirates! And they're in our X-transceiver line!"
"No fooling?" Nikki leaped off the ping pong table. "Then we've gotta regroup with the others."
"How?" Igneous volcarona wings burst out of his back in swathes of fire. "Gene's not responding. It's like he can't even hear me!"
More crashes sounded in the distance. "Ahh, forget that!" Scarlett's white wings unfurled. She flew toward the hole. "It's not safe inside! Let's go!"
Igneous and Scarlett were first through the broken ceiling. Yuna hovered in place while Nikki ran up the wall and along the ceiling, her feet surrounded by blue electricity. When the toxtricity was through the hole, Yuna darted after her.
The back part of the mall was concrete. Which was a good thing, since most of its glass ceiling wasn't there anymore.
"The hell is this?" Nikki's mohawk undulated wildly. "Giant claws shooting out from nowhere?"
Flashes of gray metal peppered the air in front of them. Assorted large electronic appliances vanishing alongside the metal claws gripping them.
"They're hiding their ships." Igneous looked around. He gripped his red honedge in his hands. "That has to be it."
"With what? A freaking zoroark armada?" Nikki strummed her gills. "I say we shoot straight over where the roof was and see what happens."
Igneous held the honedge up. "Or we have Starlene sense them." He glanced at the dragonair.
"R-Right!" Scarlett's neck bauble glowed pink. Starlene appeared. Her electronic wings glowed in time with Scarlett's bauble.
"Uhh..." The latias frowned. "I'm not getting anything." She wrinkled her snout. "No way they can block psychics. These are pirates, not the empire!"
Swirling blue ice emerged right in front of them. "Move!" Yuna yelped. The quartet all broke off in different directions. When the Blizzard buffeted the stone part of the roof, everything slowed to a crawl around Yuna. It was like someone painted the whole world around her in a purple crystal glaze. And an unseen clock loudly ticked in her head.
She'd seen this before. When she dodged Leo's attacks while training with him. Why could she move normally? Is this... from Yaldabaoth?
Yuna couldn't call out to her friends. They were barely moving. But what she could do was fly away from the Blizzard. After a couple of seconds, the crystal tinge vanished. Everything moved normally again.
"H-Hey! Princess, what are you doing?!"
The dragapult turned. Scarlett struggled to juggle her own flight with Starlene levitating Nikki. She glanced up and saw another Blizzard forming from nothing.
"Malpirg!" Yuna shouted. Shadows twisted in her hands, and then Reshiram appeared in gouts of blue fire. He gathered a giant orange fireball and spat it into the Blizzard, blowing it apart in a torrent of steam.
"Watch over them!" Yuna ordered, then returned to focusing on the destroyed roof.
Blue flickered in the corner of her vision. Yuna rolled away from an Ice Beam in the nick of time. Like before, everything took on a crystal tinge and slowed to a crawl. Yuna seized her opportunity, flying toward the shattered glass roof. She glanced at the mall. Her shadows tugged on her long tail.
"Yes, I see it." Yuna gulped as the time crystal thingy stopped. She'd have to come up with a better name later. Because there was an anomaly in the mall! The pirates couldn't have made it... could they?
No, she didn't have time to consider the why. Yuna tapped the right side of her head.
"— a fool's errand to interfere. Zese snobby so-and-sos could use ze excitement!"
Yuna's tail lashed the air. The line was still down. How was she supposed to get a hold of Leo like this?!
"Ice Beam from above!"
Igneous' shout alerted Yuna. She rolled right. The crystal time stasis took over again. Curiously, Yuna noted Reshiram moving at full speed. "Fire! There!" The dragapult pointed toward the empty space where the Ice Beam formed.
Reshiram immediately spewed a Blue Flare. When the time stasis faded, a blue barrier flickered in and out of existence. The flames barely poked through it. Startled shouts came from the other side.
"It's their ship!" Reshiram said, tail turbine crackling. "Or, uh, a ship. I dunno. This is conf— eep!" He frantically darted left and right as Ice Beams and a massive Blizzard rained down from above.
"Help! I'm allergic to grog-scented ice!"
Yuna reached her right arm out. Reshiram returned in a stream of light. "Nikki!" she shouted.
"A bit busy!" The toxtricity batted Ice Shards away with her lightning guitar before they could strike Scarlett. Yuna shot toward her.
"Whoa, hey!" Nikki gasped when Yuna wrapped her up in her large tail. "What's the big idea? At least buy me dinner first!"
"Cut the jokes! Anomaly in the mall," Yuna said. She took off away from a flummoxing Scarlett. "I can't reach Leo."
"Then rift us back to the outpost!" Nikki squirmed in Yuna's grasp. The dragapult wasn't bothered, speeding past Ice Beams before they could even prove a problem. She flew through the empty space between the hallways on the third and second floors.
"It's growing... and fast!" Yuna realized. "We have to see what we're dealing with."
"What about Twiggy and Scarlett?" Nikki tried to look up.
Yuna paused and looked back. Flames swept overhead, striking against the same blue barrier as Reshiram's attack earlier.
"Someone has to try and help people out here," Yuna mumbled. "We're already disjointed."
Nikki didn't offer a counterargument, so Yuna took that as her cue to fly into the static. Bright, multicolored lights flooded her vision. Her ectoplasm was tugged in six different directions. Grunting, Yuna lost her grip on Nikki. Arms flailing, the toxtricity fell through the open air.
"Ohhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"
Instinct took hold. Yuna stretched her right arm out. A spectral wing appeared to catch Nikki. It wrapped protectively around her like some grotesque, oversized scarf.
"Mom!"
The dragapult's head whipped around. A heracross sped toward her. But that voice...
"Leo?!" Yuna rubbed her eyes. A familiar cosmic arceus replaced the heracross. "What are you doing here? Did you come through Tulpise?"
"No!" Leo galloped toward her, despite the lack of ground. In a flash of blue and white light, he shifted to a large altaria and snagged Nikki out of the spectral wing.
"Whoa, hey!" Nikki almost fell off his back in surprise. "The kid's carrying me now?!"
Yuna flew after him. Unexpected arrival or not, she still had to find the mystery dungeon on the other side. And this bright, flashing tunnel had to be pointing them in the right direction. "How did you get here then, Leo?"
"Anomaly showed up in Eternatus' Earth!" Leo said. "And it spat me out here."
This was bad. If it sent him into the same Ginnungagap tunnel as the Tulpise anomaly, then they were connected! "Was yours growing quickly, too?"
"Yeah!" Leo flapped his wings, moving right. "Head's up! There's big— agh!"
The altaria banked left. Yuna followed his flight path. The bright lights made it hard to discern what he was dodging until she got close and saw big blue circles for herself.
"Right! No, left!" Nikki yelped. "Wait— gaaah!"
There was a loud pop followed by an explosion... of blue juice?
Yuna slowed up. The juice splattered against the light of the tunnel and dissolved into blue smoke. The dragapult sped forward. Her facial ectoplasm rippled.
"Blueberries?" Yuna cringed. More giant blueberries floated haphazardly inside of the tunnel. Leo, covered in blueberry juice, struggled to maneuver around them. "Watch out!" She surged forward. "Rayquaza, go!"
An emerald arrow torpedoed through the tunnel, passing Leo by and ramming through blueberry clusters. Rayquaza stopped his Dragon Ascent charge and looked back at the blue mist. "Tis not the manner of treachery I expected when I awoke this morning, Princess! Why art these oversized fruits attacking us?"
"I dunno!" Yuna pressed onward. With a bit of concentration, dragon energy sparked in her horns. To her delight, dreepy-shaped blue blasts shot out of her horns, popping a couple of blueberries and letting the juice-stained Leo and Nikki fly past.
"It's gotta be cuz of the mystery dungeon." Leo flapped his damp wings, flicking blueberry juice all along the tunnel.
"Ugh, seriously?!" Nikki was still desperately trying to wring juice out of her jacket. "The hell's on the other side, Dieticianopolis? I get my antioxidants already, damn it!"
"We shall find out soon enough!" Rayquaza declared. After a brief recharge, he Dragon Ascented ahead. Blueberry juice filled the air, then evaporated against the harsh light of the Ginnungagap tunnel. "I see a distorted rift up ahead! Tis the dungeon for sure! Tally ho!"
The path ahead was clear of any giant blueberries. Which was enough for Yuna to recall Rayquaza in streams of black and emerald light. Leo flew toward the dungeon. Yuna was ready to head after him when a ripple in the bright tunnel wall caught her attention.
"Hmm?" The dragapult looked to the tunnel wall on her right. Everything outside remained a swirl of blues, purples, and smudgy gray shapes in the distance. But there was one blur darting quickly around the tunnel wall.
A purple, white, and black blur.
"No, no, no! C'mon, shrink! Shrink!"
That voice... it's Vince!
Even though the rift was still a few hundred meters away, the tunnel was pulling her toward it. Yuna fought against it, her tail undulating rapidly as if she were a fish swimming upstream. It had to be the real Vince out there. Not just one of his projections. And that meant real answers! If she could just reach him...
God, this tug was strong. Yuna was getting tired. The lights were getting brighter. "C'mon, I just—"
"Stupid anomaly! Cut it out!"
No, she couldn't let this chance slip through her fingers! Focus!
Roaring, the dragapult's arms stretched out into Giratina's large, black wings. She slammed the red spikes into the tunnel wall. Light filaments exploded all around her. A burning pain shot through her wings.
"Rrrrgggh... you won't... get away!"
Keeping her left wing buried in the light wall to stop her descent, Yuna forced her right wing deeper into it. The pain was awful. But she had to endure. Fight it for that chance at grabbing the Overseer.
Bit by bit, the wall parted, until Yuna's wing finally burst through. Rough scales grazed the black ectoplasm. Gotcha!
A surprisingly high-pitched scream rang out as Yuna coiled her wing around the rough scales and yanked the wing back through the wall and into the tunnel.
And there was the purple and white koraidon, eyes wide with terror. His legs kicked at the air.
"No, wait, stop! What do you think you're doing?!"
"Getting us... some backup!" With one last snarl, Yuna ripped herself off the light wall and hurled Vince through the remaining Ginnungagap tunnel beneath her as hard as she could. He tumbled away from her, screaming pleas for Yuna to send him back. Instead, the dragapult watched the fuzzy rift a hundred meters below her swallow Vince up.
She fell through the rift not long after. Sky blue light spilled over her. It faded quickly to a bright blue sky and yellow sun reflecting off a giant white and blue dome.
Yuna threw her arms over her face. Talk about one heck of a glare! "Guys?" she called out, still blinking rapidly to adjust to the light.
"Down here, Princess!"
After several more seconds, Yuna spotted Nikki waving to him atop the white dome. She stood under an impromptu shower supplied by a pelipper. Leo, judging by the golden glint in his eyes. Vince was next to them... however, he was now on all-fours for some reason. His dewlap had deflated, his feathery crest looked far less impressive, and his tail was curled up to resemble a wheel. He refused to meet anyone's gaze.
Yuna quickly confirmed there was a fuzzy rift above her, though it blended in quite well with the bright sunshine. Then she flew down to join her teammates. "Good to see you're both okay."
"And juice free," Leo said. He stopped spitting up water. Nikki stepped away to take off her leather jacket and wring it out over the dome. "That was hella disgusting. Remind me to stay away from berries for a while."
"Uh... sure." Yuna rubbed the back of her neck. Oversized fruit was weird, but far from the worst thing they had to contend with.
"So, uh, what's with the plus one?" Leo pointed a wing at Vince. "That's Vince, right? Why does he look like he'd be featured in an ad for low testosterone?"
Yuna did not want to acknowledge that comparison. She knew Leo was watching EV programs during their down time. But what channels?
"This is a nightmare," Vince mumbled. "I'm hallucinating." The purple and white koraidon squeezed his eyes shut. "I just gotta wake up. Wake up and— eyowch!"
Nikki had whipped his right flank with her soggy jacket. Vince stumbled forward. His feathery horns curled up.
"Yup, not dreaming." The toxtricity resumed wringing water from her jacket. "How'd you find him?"
"He was outside the tunnel in Ginnungagap," Yuna explained. "Figured this was a good chance to finally be face to face with someone who knows what's going on."
Vince shrank back. He shook his head rapidly. "You idiots! Do you have any idea how bad this is?!"
"Tch. Yeah." Nikki waved her right arm dismissively. She put her right index finger against her head. "We've already had it drilled into our skulls a dozen times. 'Dimensional cataclysm.' 'The end of life as we know it.' Blah, blah, blah. Frankly, it's about time at least one of your weirdo secret society decided to pull their weight around here."
"You don't get it!" Vince's dewlap puffed out. He stepped toward Nikki. "I was keeping the anomaly in check! Because this one was growing out of control! And there's a real chance it does some serious damage and ruins me helping you guys behind the scenes!"
He looked toward the rift. "I have to go back. I—"
"No." Yuna hovered higher in the air. "If this anomaly's really growing that fast, then we need you here."
Vince shrank back again. "It won't work." His horns curled up further. "You dragged me in here. I don't have most of my powers. I'm—" He looked down at his webbed feet. "I'm just a koraidon here."
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Nikki's mohawk sparked. "Are you an Overseer or aren't you?"
"There's a protocol!" Vince said. "Higher-ranking Overseers can keep some of their powers when they enter worlds on their own. But most of the time, if we want to be at our best, we have to coordinate with the gods to gain access."
He walked away from them, looking out at the sprawling blue surrounding the dome. "But that didn't happen. And I'm a very junior overseer."
"What about Leo?" Yuna gestured to the pelipper. "He can still change his form and everything."
"Because some of his power is in this realm by accident," Vince exclaimed.
Right, his plates. Yuna looked out over the water. This dome was practically in the middle of the ocean. Where were they?
Having put her jacket back on, Nikki crossed her arms. "So, you're saying you're useless, then?" She rolled her eyes. "Puh-leeze. If I can find ways to make a difference, then you can."
Yuna was tempted to say something to Nikki, but her ectoplasm rippled. Her tail tugged on her lower half. The dragapult spun around. Leo was already looking in that direction, flapping his wings slowly.
"It's... some sort of small battlefield?" Yuna floated over to Leo. It wasn't a large arena, but it was just as white and sparkling as the dome. There were some humans scattered around. One standing at the edge of the battlefield had hair that practically looked like an onion.
Her ectoplasm rippled again.
"It's them," Leo said.
"Huh?" Yuna followed the pelipper's gaze until she found a ceruledge standing on the opposite side of the battlefield. Sunlight glinted off the two crystals jutting out of his head. One resembled a ghostly blob and the other was just a jagged black box with a smirking face.
"That's the Whisper." Leo pointed a wing at Ceruledge. "I saw them go through the rift in Eternatus after defeating a Paradigm member."
A Whisper with two of Leo's plates in its possession. And one that had defeated a Paradigm member, to boot?
As Ceruledge raised his blades and let out a triumphant laugh, Yuna looked back at Vince and Nikki. They stared at her with perplexed expressions.
What do I do? We're not prepared for this!