Hello! I decided I wanted to do another one of these weird for fun chapters, but when I was thinking about doing it I thought "Hmmm, my original explanation for what these chapters are was kinda not exactly what I wanted them to be." So uh, lemme fix that then, the αnomaly chapters are just weird chapters that don't really fit as either main chapters or special episodes, they're as the name suggests, anomalies. I also wanna go back on something I said in the last one, these chapters can be canon, but just like the holiday stuff it's on a case-by-case basis. I uh, also didn't intend on this just turning into a dream journal for all the members of our main cast, but that's just kinda how the first two came to be. Now with all that rambling out of the way, let's just jump into this.

February 7th, 10:26 pm

Team Echoes Base - Joseph's room

Coast Continent

Yumi was sound asleep in her bed when suddenly she felt something strange. It wasn't enough to wake her up, but it was enough for her to start tossing and turning in her bed. Right as she started tossing and turning, Mesprit got up to get a quick drink when she noticed Yumi's struggles and thought she should do something about it, 'Must be having a nightmare, don't worry, Mesprit's got you.'

Mesprit used Dream Eater to peer into Yumi's dreams, expecting a somewhat normal nightmare, instead, she was met with Yumi lying down in a black void, 'That's odd, this doesn't look like your average nightmare, what's going on here?'

At this point, Mesprit had completely forgotten about how parched she was and peered further into the dream, hoping to find answers.

?

?

?

Yumi opened her eyes and was met with a black void, the same black void that Mesprit saw when she peered into the dream, "H-hello!? Can anyone hear me?"

Yumi's voice echoed through the void, she felt hopeless, "Well if I wasn't dead before I definitely am now."

Yumi stared at her feet as tears started to well up in her eyes, as the first teardrop hit the void's floor a new world was born, one without a sun, without a sky, it almost felt unfinished.

Yumi didn't notice the new world forming around her as tears continued to roll down her cheeks, that was until she felt something touch her shoulder, "Hey, what's wrong?"

The once-human Zorua looked up to see a Phanpy smiling, behind them was a lush forest coated in the void's darkness, "Huh? I thought-"

The Phanpy wrapped its trunk around Yumi as it hugged her, "It's ok, whatever it is, I'm here for you."

Yumi's tears stopped as the Phanpy continued to comfort her, once she had fully calmed down she broke off from the hug and smiled, "Th-thanks."

The Phanpy smiled back, "Don't mention it, I'm just doing my job."

Yumi gave the Phanpy a puzzled look, "Your job?"

The little elephant nodded quickly, "Yup! I've been tasked with keeping everyone's spirits high! We can't have everyone in the kingdom giving in to the gloom of this void."

"Kingdom?"

Seeing Yumi's cluelessness made the Phanpy giggle, "Gee, you're really lost, aren't you?"

Yumi sighed as she looked at her feet, "I'm lost in every sense of the word bud…"

"It's alright, I'll help you, just stick with me and everything will be A-OK!"

The elephant Pokémon led Yumi through the dark forest, as the pair walked, a light breeze blew over them, the breeze wasn't enough to stop Yumi's racing thoughts though, 'I still don't know what's going on here, why is everything so dark here? What even is this place? Why am I here? How do I get home?'

Yumi was yanked out of her thoughts by her guide's friendly voice, "So, where are you from?"

"W-well, I'm from a place called Hisui, it's much brighter than this place and it-"

Yumi was cut off by the sound of laughter coming from a certain elephant Pokémon's trunk, "Aren't we all from a place brighter than this?"

"I-I'm afraid I don't really know what you're talking about."

The Phanpy looked over its shoulder, "None of us were born here, we all just kinda woke up here one day, nobody has any idea why."

Yumi was unsettled by how nonchalant this Phanpy was being about things, "H-has anyone made it back home?"

The little elephant laughed so hard they snorted, "Heavens no! No one's ever made it out of this void, that's simply preposterous! How would anyone make it out of this place!?

For a moment, the brown in Yumi's was replaced with a color more in line with her fur, "W-what!?"

"Yup, this is your home now! Forever! Until the end of time!"

Yumi began shivering intensely, she was shivering so much in fact that simply standing was a challenge, that was until she abruptly bolted off through the forest, leaving her guide in the dust.

"N-no! This can't be! I can't be stuck here! Th-there's gotta be a way out, right!?"

Her thoughts would come to a crashing halt as she, well, crashed into someone, almost like a certain other Zorua. She looked up to see a Ninetales wearing a blood-red scarf and a pair of red heart shades, the rose-tinted lenses of said shades obscured the fox's eyes. The Ninetales sighed as she stared Yumi down, "Give me one good reason not to curse you."

Yumi was too scared to speak, thankfully her reason came running out of the forest after her, "HEY! Running off isn't gonna change anything! You're still stuck here!"

The Ninetales lowered her shades, "Oh heavens! Forgive me, miss, you must be scared out of your mind!"

Yumi was lifted back to her feet, bringing her to her senses, "W-who are you?"

The Ninetales flicked her shades back up before striking an attention-demanding pose, "The name's Peach, but most folks know me as Nine of Hearts."

Yumi gave Peach a puzzled look, "Nine of Hearts? What kind of nickname is that?"

"It's my producer name, I make music!"

"O-oh, uh, ok."

"I was in a band before I ended up here, we were known as the Stacked Deck, but now… Those days are over… I've been stuck here for way longer than I care to remember…"

A frown appeared on Yumi's face, "Is there really no way out?"

The Ninetales paused before answering, "It's complicated…"

Yumi tilted her head, "Huh?"

Peach waited for the Phanpy's eyes to fall on her again before suddenly causing an outburst, "HEY LOOK! ANOTHER NEWCOMER!"

The Phanpy flipped around quickly, "Where!?"

While he was distracted, Peach grabbed Yumi and darted off as fast as she could, dragging her through the forest and into a strange medieval-style village, at first everything seemed old-timey until Yumi noticed faint lights lining every single brick in the village. Before Yumi could process what she was seeing, Peach stopped at a house and tapped the door, said door slid open revealing a rather lavish-looking interior. The pair stepped into the house and the door shut, locking them in, "Great, we lost him." Peach sighed.

About a million questions ran through Yumi's head as she struggled to process the blur of colors she had just witnessed, "What is going on!? What is this place!?"

"Don't worry, I'll explain everything, just bear with me, this is gonna take a while."

Yumi took a second to look around the room she had ended up in, it matched Peach's red heart motif perfectly, everything was either heart-shaped, red, or both, well except for one thing, sitting on a heart-shaped table were a few plushies of Pokémon.

Yumi stared at the plushies for a moment, garnering a reaction from Peach, "Those are my bandmates, in plush form, of course, I figured I'd keep those to remind myself what I'm working toward."

Yumi took a closer look at the plushies, among them there were; A Galarian Zapdos, A Toxtricity, A Rotom, and a Kommo-o, "So these are your friends? They certainly look like a colorful cast of characters."

Peach giggled, "Yeah, we really were…"

Yumi noticed Peach's expression start to dim, so she decided to change the subject, "So what did you mean back there? Why's getting back so complicated?"

The Ninetales started to stare at a record on the wall, "Well… For starters, if you wanna get back home, that little elephant dude's gotta go."

"Go with us or?"

"To the morgue." Peach clarified, "He practically owns this place, he tries luring in newcomers so he can take advantage of them."

"The morgue!? But w-we can't kill him!"

"If we don't he's just gonna find a way to manipulate you into doing his bidding."

"B-but what about you? If this is what your place looks like, then surely he isn't using you."

Peach turned away from the record and made eye contact with Yumi, "That's the thing, it's because I've avoided him at all costs."

Yumi buried her face in her paws, "That doesn't make any sense!"

"It doesn't matter, what does matter is that I've flown under the radar long enough to find a way out of here, now are you gonna help me out here or not?"

"I-I'll help! J-just don't expect me to land the killing blow on that guy, ok?"

"That's what I wanted to hear." Peach said before turning back toward the record on the wall, "Lemme grab my things."

Peach grabbed the record and ran off into another room, when she came back she had a record player strapped to her back like a backpack, "Let's rock!"

The pair exited the house and ended up back on the village streets. This time Yumi was actually able to take in the scenery, she noticed a giant castle looming over the entire village, "Uh, does your plan involve going into that castle up there?"

"Briefly," Peach sighed, "Don't worry, it'll be in and out, we just need to pass through."

"Phew… I thought for a moment we were gonna have to raid the castle."

"Nope, that's a death sentence, passing through on the other hand is completely feasible."

"Alright then, let's get this over with…"

The pair began the trek toward the castle, as they walked Yumi noticed that the bricks that made up the road were really strange, but she didn't really know how to describe them, "Why do our footprints appear on the bricks?"

"They're not bricks." Peach replied, "They're really advanced panels that use your body temperature to make them glow, thus the glowy footprints."

Yumi, being from the ancient past, didn't really understand how that worked so she just went with it, "Well alright then, I'm not really sure how that works, but it looks neat."

"Fair, who cares about how it works, all that matters is that it does I guess."

The pair continued leaving glowy footprints behind them as they made their way to the castle gates, the footprints dissipated after a few seconds, helping them keep a low profile. After walking for a little while, the two reached a gate that was guarded by two Iron Valiant, they crossed their swords, preventing the pair from entering, "Halt!" They said in a robotic voice, "What business do you two have here?"

Peach gave Yumi a little shove as if to tell her to do the talking, this however could've gone a lot better, "U-um, w-we're here to do some inspections on the integrity of the castle, y'know to make sure it doesn't fall apart overnight?"

The guards rolled their pixelated eyes, "Nice try, but nobody gets through, especially with such a bad excuse."

The guard in front of Yumi drew their blade and swung it at her, just narrowly missing her. Meanwhile, the other guard pointed their blade at Peach, "A-alright, time for plan b!"

A dark aura surrounded Peach, she started to utter otherworldly tomes under her breath, and her eyes turned pitch-black. Suddenly the dark aura surrounded the guards, they started short-circuiting, and sparks began to fly erratically until their eyes powered off. Once that was all over, the guards began to turn to gold as if King Midas himself had tapped them on the shoulder.

"W-what did you do to them!?" Yumi gasped.

"I cursed them." Peach clarified, "What choice did I have?"

"A-are they dead!?"

"Not entirely, usually when I turn someone to gold like that, their soul is still in there." Peach said in a rather poor attempt to reassure Yumi, "Although those were robots, so I don't think they have souls."

"R-robots?" Yumi quavered, "What are robots?"

The Ninetales was taken by surprise, "You don't know what a robot is?"

Yumi nodded before adding, "And you do?"

"Ugh… I wish I didn't, this place is infested with them."

"So, could you tell me about them?"

"They're living machines with no soul, that's all you need to know."

Yumi sighed, "That's not freaky at all."

"Well, you won't have to think about it anymore once we're outta here now come on!"

Peach opened the gate and ran through as quickly as she could with Yumi trailing behind clumsily, the pair made their way through the castle looking for a backdoor, unfortunately they couldn't find one.

"Drat! This place is a dead-end factory!" Peach growled, at this rate, we're never gonna get out of here!"

Yumi's eyes began to wander around the room, looking for anything that could prove useful, eventually, her eyes landed on another guard. She flinched before realizing it was deactivated and resting on the floor, "H-hey, uh, Peach? What do we do about this guard? It's not moving."

Peach looked back at Yumi and the guard before rolling her eyes, "Just leave it, it'll probably activate if you mess with it, so don't."

Yumi continued to stare at the lifeless guard, she started to hear Peach's voice echo in her head, "Living machines with no souls."

"Wait a sec, that's it!"

Yumi dove at the machine, using her ghostly powers to take control of it, once she was in control she was overwhelmed by the robot interface, it had a bunch of unnecessary stats on display like how fast she was going and what the current weather was. She was quickly snapped out of her trance by the sound of Peach's voice, "I told you not to touch that thing!"

Yumi responded by using the robot's blade to punch a huge hole in the wall, creating an escape route, "I'll explain later, let's get going!"

The duo ran through the newly created hole in the castle, they kept running until Peach ran out of breath, "W… Wait… Wait up…" She rasped.

Yumi skidded to a halt before flipping around, "Wow, this robot body is great! I don't have to breathe or anything! I can just run for hours!"

After waiting a moment to catch her breath, Peach looked at Yumi's new robotic form and asked, "How'd you even take control of that thing anyway?"

"Oh, I possessed it, I'm a ghost."

"Ah, so you really took that soulless thing to heart then, huh."

"Yeah," Yumi said as she nodded her head, "Feels nice to walk on two legs again!"

"Again?" Peach questioned, "Since when did you walk on two legs?"

"O-oh, i-it's complicated," Yumi stuttered, unsure if it was safe to reveal her true identity, "I uh, used to be a human."

Luckily for Yumi whatever world her nine-tailed companion had come from had better human relations as Peach smiled at her, "Well I'll be damned, I never thought I'd meet another human like this."

"Wait, you're human too!?"

"Yep, long story short, I was turned into a Vulpix one day to fill in the gap in an up-and-coming band, that band would go on to be known as the Stacked Deck, also known as the same band I played for before I got taken here."

Yumi didn't understand the logic behind summoning a human for a band, "That sounds so weird, why couldn't they have just, I don't know, looked for a new bandmate normally?"

Peach laughed, "Well let's just say they wanted our band to be special, which it is."

"Fair enough, I guess…"

The two continued along the trail behind the castle, Yumi looked up at the sky and noticed a giant vortex atop a mountain very reminiscent of Mount Coronet back home, "So I take it the giant rip in the sky is our ticket out of here?" She asked.

"Yep, but it's not gonna be as simple as getting there and getting out, that little Phanpy from earlier is gonna try to stop us."

"What's so special about that little guy anyway?"

"He owns this void, and he doesn't want anyone to escape, that's about all you need to know."

Yumi still didn't understand, what would compel someone to trap innocent humans and Pokémon in this strange void, and why would they go to such lengths to keep them rotting here? "What is the end goal here?"

"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, this guy's trying to play god by creating a world he has total control over."

Yumi shuddered, "L-let's put a stop to his plans before we let a sociopath wreak havoc."

Peach skipped ahead a bit, "Couldn't have said it better myself!"

Time Unknown

Void Gate Mountain - Entrance

The two humans ran toward the mountain, but they stopped when they noticed a big metal gate blocking their way forward, "Of course, there's a giant gate here, why wouldn't there be a giant gate here?" Peach sighed.

"Who puts a gate in front of a hole in the side of a cliff?" Yumi asked as she looked around for another way forward.

"Someone who's desperately trying to keep us here, that's for sure."

Yumi walked closer to the gate, it seemed to be locked electronically with no clear way to open it, that was until she noticed a terminal with a bunch of flashy colors on it, she took a closer look at the terminal and was immediately overwhelmed, "Um, wh-what's this thing?"

Peach looked at the terminal and determined, "It looks like it controls the gate, but we aren't authorized, so unless you're some sort of computer wizard we need to find another way through."

Yumi chuckled nervously, "Would you believe me if I told you I barely know what a computer is?"

Peach was shocked, "Wait, for real!? Where'd you blow in from, the Stone Age?"

"W-well…"

"Wait, don't actually tell me-"

"I-It's not th-that bad! I-I'm just from a time before most technology!"

"Well, it doesn't matter, either way, we're not getting through here, we gotta find another way!"

Peach walked off to begin looking for another way to reach the top of the mountain, Yumi was going to do the same when the robot she was possessing started moving on its own, "H-huh!? Wh-what's going on!?"

Peach whipped back around to see Yumi furiously tapping buttons on the terminal, "What are you doing!?"

"I can't control it! It's got a mind of its own!"

"Cool, maybe next time you should leave the dormant robot where you found it!"

Yumi panicked as she desperately tried to regain control of the robot but to no avail, the robot finished whatever it was trying to accomplish before giving the reins back to Yumi, "Th-that was so freaky!"

Suddenly, the robot took control away from Yumi once again and grabbed her by the neck, "Argh! It's fighting back!"

Peach's eyes shot wide open, she watched in horror as Yumi struggled to stop the robot from choking her out. But before she could make a move, the robot ripped Yumi out of its body and dropped her onto the ground. Yumi hyperventilated as she tried desperately to get to her feet, only to hear the sound of the robot's blade stabbing into the ground next to her.

Yumi made eye contact with the mechanical beast, only to cringe when she saw it glaring into her soul, "Don't ever do that again." The robot threatened, "Or else I'll turn you into an organic scrap heap."

Yumi was paralyzed by fear, this monster was towering over her, at a moment's notice it could pick up its blade and decapitate her without a second thought, not to mention that said blade was inches from her face, it was almost as if it were yearning to decapitate her. Thankfully, Peach picked her up and dusted her off with one of her tails, "Why'd you hesitate!?" Peach shouted, "What are you playing at!?"

The robot pulled its blade out of the ground and spun it around before splitting it in half and slotting the two blades into its arms, "We have a common goal, we all want to return to our world of origin, therefore I shall be using you to achieve that goal."

"Hold on, using?" Yumi questioned.

The Iron Valiant nodded, "Indeed, you mere mortals mean nothing to me, I only intend to use you to reach my end goal."

Yumi was understandably a little offended by this, but before she could protest a spark flew out of the back of the robot's head as a more feminine voice took over, "Wow, way to go Mr Edgelord, now they're just gonna leave us behind!"

Peach lowered her heart-shaped shades and shot Yumi a confused look, "Am I crazy or is that thing arguing with itself?"

Yumi shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."

The masculine voice took control again, "You don't seriously care about these strangers, do you?"

The two Pokémon in the robot continued their back and forth, "You're heartless! You really want to leave these two to die!?"

"It's not my problem."

"Uh! That's so messed up! How dare you say such a thing!?"

Finally, the masculine voice had enough, "Ugh, look, if I help these randos will you leave me alone?"

"Could you do it with a smile on your face?"

"WE BOTH KNOW THIS BODY IS INCAPABLE OF SMILING!"

"I meant metaphorically!"

"Ugh, fine whatever…"

Once the robot was done arguing with itself, it turned to the two former human foxes, "Sorry about that, it's just ever since the two of us got shoved into this robot body, it feels like we can't agree on anything."

Yumi was beyond confused, "H-hold on, slow down, there are two of you in there?"

"Yup, some mad scientist shoved our brains into this robot body, it was not fun."

Peach flipped her shades back up as she raised a question, "So what were you doing in that castle if you weren't one of the guards?"

The masculine voice opted to answer, "They tried to reprogram us, that's all you need to know."

Yumi was starting to get the picture, "Wait a sec, does that mean I sav-"

The feminine voice took over once again, "Don't use the S word, he doesn't like admitting he needed help."

"You did not save me! You merely… Got me out of a jam."

Peach rolled her eyes under her shades, "That's… Literally the same thing…"

The robot stomped his foot, "Whatever, we've been gawking for too long, let's get a move on!"

With a snap of their metal fingers, the robot opened the gate, much to the shock of their companions, "How'd he do that!?" Yumi blurted.

Peach didn't care to dwell on the details, instead, she ran after the Iron Valiant, "Hey! Aren't you gonna tell us your name!? I don't like how you're leaving us in the dark here!"

Time Unknown

Void Gate Mountain - Inside

The trio entered the hole in the mountain only to be greeted by more complex machinery, much to the dismay of Yumi, "I really wish I had any idea what any of these blinky lights meant."

"You won't need to, just sit tight and let the machine do everything." The self-proclaimed machine said.

"You still haven't given us a name!" Peach huffed, she was getting a little annoyed that she didn't know what to call this guy.

"Call me Argon."

"And call me Neon." The Feminine robot quickly added.

Yumi tiptoed beside the robot and looked at them with a raised eyebrow, "You have separate names?"

"Yep," Argon sighed, "It's the only shred of individuality that we've got left."

Peach took off her shades, so the robot could see her roll her eyes, "Dang, I'd feel bad for you if you didn't almost kill my friend here." She ribbed.

"Don't worry, next time I'll make sure to finish the job."

Yumi jumped back with a squeak, "W-what!?"

Neon took control to slap Argon in the face, "What did I tell you!? These are our friends! We're not going to kill them!"

"DON'T MAKE ME CUT THAT ARM OFF!" Argon shouted back.

The robots started arguing again, meanwhile Peach comforted Yumi, "He won't lay a finger on you, and if he does, I'll lay a curse on him so vile that he'll wish he was dead."

Yumi really appreciated Peach's kindness, it was like for a moment she felt like she was safe, that nobody could hurt her, despite the situation they were in, it was the same feeling she felt around Joseph, "Th-thanks." She said as a smile crept its way onto her face.

Peach smiled back, "No problem, I'll be here if you need me."

As the robots continued to argue, Yumi tripped and pressed one of the colorful buttons in the room, causing the ground to start shaking, "W-what's going on!?" Yumi squeaked.

"The elevator was powered on." Argon affirmed, "Which one of you pressed that button?"

Yumi started shivering, she didn't mean to press anything, she just got unlucky and tripped at the wrong time, "U-um… I-I…"

Surprisingly, Argon wasn't actually mad at Yumi, he actually commended her for her 'efforts', "You're pretty clever. You found the elevator controls and used them to stop our quarrel, I commend thee."

Yumi brought her paw to the back of her head, "O-oh, w-well I uh, didn't really intend on doing that, but if it works it works I guess."

"Hold on, you mean to tell me this was an elevator the whole time?" Peach asked.

Neon took control of her shared robot body and bowed, "Indeed! This room was an elevator hiding in plain sight, we'll be at the top of the mountain in no time flat!"

Yumi started to feel butterflies in her stomach, "S-so, what are we gonna do once we make it to the top?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Peach asked as she flipped her shades back on, "We fight!"

The robots nodded, "Correct, there's no dancing around it, we need to take out that little organic kickball that trapped us here!" Argon shouted as they drew their blade and spun it around.

Neon agreed, "He may be cute but that Phanpy is a monster who needs to be dealt with, thankfully we're more than capable of doing so."

Yumi was starting to feel a wave of confidence wash over her, but just as that confidence arrived, it left as robotic Pokémon dropped down onto the elevator, Peach was the first one to react, shooting a Flame Burst at an Iron Bundle, "Looks like showtime's come a little early!"

Argon was ready to strike down one of the robots when Neon gave some words of encouragement, "Alright, then get rockin'!"

Peach pounced on the Iron Bundle and sprayed it with her Flamethrower, causing the body to explode, sending her and the head to fly across the room, meanwhile Argon and Neon struck down an opposing Valiant.

Yumi was overwhelmed by all the madness going on when an Iron Thorns dropped down in front of her, she panicked and shot a couple of stars at it, the stars bounced right off its metal armor and shattered when they hit the ground.

The Mecha Tyranitar wannabe wasn't hurt, but it was still offended as it swung an electrically charged metal fist at Yumi, who just narrowly avoided the brunt of the attack by virtue of being about a tenth of its size, it still left a little bit of a scratch, however.

The pain Yumi felt from being grazed by such a powerful attack brought her to her senses, she was overwhelmed by negative energy, launching a Bitter Malice attack at her opponent. The attack hit the diamond on the robot's chest, and its eyes filled with static as 'Error attack fell' appeared in red text.

The robot lashed out and swung wildly in protest, Yumi did a good job of avoiding this 'attack' until she took a direct hit in the face from the mechanical beast's tail, she was sent flying until eventually, she crashed into Peach, who was about to jump in and help her out. Yumi bounced off Peach harmlessly and hit the floor, "You ok Yumi?"

"I-I'm fine, are you?"

"Felt like a marshmallow just hit me, it didn't hurt a bit!"

Peach helped Yumi back to her feet and the pair rushed at their assailant for revenge, Peach opened up with an Energy Ball while Yumi used her Shadow Sneak to get behind her opponent and kick it in the tail.

The robotic Tyranitar whipped back around to slam Yumi with its tail once more when it noticed that she had disappeared, it scanned the area for her only to get kicked in the face moments later, "Peekaboo!" Yumi taunted, "Looking for me?"

The beast was furious, flailing around in outrage once more, only to take another Energy Ball to the face. The glass display serving as the beast's eyes cracked, letting smoke escape from the inside of the machine. Just as it looked like the beast was about to attack again, it started to speak more intelligibly instead of its robotic growls, "Condition: Critical! Attempting to launch preservation protocol #7823: Plead For Mercy!"

Peach ignored its words and prepared another attack when she heard Yumi's voice, "Hold up!"

Yumi used Shadow Sneak to appear before the beast, "So, you're pleading for mercy?" She asked.

"S-s-systems overheating! C-c-c-c-critical damage r-received! Total system failure imminent! The Regeneration System cannot conduct repairs without Oran Berries!"

Peach rolled her eyes, keeping her energy charged up in case the beast made any sudden moves, "Yeah, we get that, but why should we help you? You literally attacked us!"

Warning lights started to appear in the robot's eyes as it pleaded for its life, "D-don't decommission me! Please!"

Peach glared at the exclamation points in the robot's eye before caving in, she reached into her scarf and produced an Oran Berry, "Ugh… You're lucky I've got a secret stash of these things." She huffed, "You know it's an off day when you're sympathizing for a soulless heap of metal."

Peach tossed the berry to her newfound ally, they proceeded to chomp it down happily, once the berry was in… Uh... Whatever the robot equivalent of a stomach is, a green glow overtook the robot as the damage it had sustained magically repaired itself, "Repair success! Coolant systems back online! Initiating Protocol #6424."

Yumi was a little confused, "Protocol #6424? What does that even mean?"

Peach's face scrunched up, "Probably nothing good! HEY! I didn't give you that just so you could-"

The metal monster picked Peach up and gave her a big bear hug, "Do not fear, we're friends now!"

Peach looked up to see the cutest little pixelated smile on the Iron Thorns' face, "H-hey! Careful! If you grab my tails you'll get cursed! A-and watch the shades!"

The robot dropped Peach back on the ground, the roughness of said drop left her shades all crooked, she readjusted them and got back to her feet only to watch in horror as the robot hugged Yumi next, it dropped Yumi onto the floor with about the same amount of care as it did with her, which is to say none at all. Once Yumi was released from the big metal bear hug she waited for the world to stop spinning before running back to Peach's side, "That was… Very unpleasant… But it's better than getting my skull caved in by its fists, so I'll take it."

"Agreed…" Peach sighed, "We should probably let the other machine know that we made a friend here."

The robotic Gallade-Gardevoir fusion put its blade away and rejoined the group, "We already know, sweetie." Neon assured them, "We saw you give them the Oran Berry."

Argon rolled their pixelated eyes, "Sweetie? Really? That's so corny."

"Nice opinion, Mr. Edgelord, unfortunately, it exceeds your allotted character limit for opinions by about 33 characters."

"So I'm just not allowed to have opinions now?"

"Not unless you respect everyone else's opinions first!"

"My Arceus, you're unbearable!"

Neon took the wheel and turned the robot pair's body around, 'Do you seriously still believe there's an Arceus after what we've been through?' She asked telepathically.

'Good point, if there is one, they must really hate us…'

The pair turned back around as the elevator finally reached its destination, "It seems we're at our destination." Neon said as she took a deep breath, "We're at the apex of the mountain, and subsequently our adventure here."

Yumi was getting the shivers, "S-so, all that's left is…"

"Kicking that conniving Phanpy into next week!" Peach affirmed as she blew out a puff of flames.

"R-right…"

"What's the matter? Are the nerves getting to you or something?"

"Y-yeah, I'm not exactly the bravest Pokém- err, Human, out there."

Peach lifted Yumi's chin up and looked her in the eyes, "That's not true! You stood your ground against our friend here! And they're like 10 times your size! Heck! You even convinced me to befriend them in the first place! That takes courage, courage that you definitely possess!"

Yumi started to see where Peach was coming from, "I-I guess you have a point, but I only really acted out of self-defense."

Peach was about to reply when the Iron Thorns stepped up, "Your defense protocol was enacted with a lethal dose of grit and determination, I have no doubts that whatever stands in your way is merely another stepping stone for you to overcome, now come on! Show us that glimmering soul! Show us that you're better than the rest!"

The robot's words pushed Yumi over the edge, her nervousness faded as she felt something fierce brewing inside her very soul, "Y-you're right! There's no way out unless we go teach that Phanpy a lesson!"

As the elevator door opened, Yumi, Peach, and their robot friends walked out onto the mountain battlefield. Yeah, you heard that right, strangely enough, there was a whole battlefield on the top of the mountain, it's almost as if Phanpy was expecting a fight, "Alright Phanpy! Show yourself!" Peach demanded.

"Bravo, I applaud you for getting here, I really didn't think it was possible for anyone to make it here without my assistance." Phanpy said as they appeared before the group, "No matter, I'll just have to show you that nobody makes it any further without my explicit permission, that means NOBODY LEAVES THE VOID!"

Phanpy pulled out a remote with a big red button on it, once the button was pressed a suit of robotic armor custom-tailored for the little elephant Pokémon rose from a slot in the floor. Phanpy donned the armor, leaving their old identity behind, they would now be known as… King of the Void: IRON TREADS!

Once Phanpy had attained their new robotic form, they challenged Yumi and friends, "Just try defeating me now!"

Iron Treads initiated the fight by rolling toward Yumi at high speed, she dove out of the way just in time to avoid the attack, meanwhile Argon and Neon drew their blade and rushed into the fray, and while that was happening Peach set down the record player and started it up, "Alright… I know that it's been a while since I last performed but… I gotta do this, even though I'm on my own now, I gotta do this."

The record player started playing, starting off somewhat softly with a piano before taking a nose dive in the other direction as harsh metal guitars started blaring, as the song started up Peach took one final deep breath, "It's showtime."

Yumi looked back at Peach and noticed she wasn't jumping into the fight, 'What's going on with her!? She's just, sitting there!'

Peach was still preparing for her part of the song when Iron Treads started rolling barreling toward her at full speed, "L-look out!" Yumi cried.

Iron Treads was moments away from crashing straight into Peach when suddenly she roared, "COME ON!" Sending it flying back into a nearby wall.

The music started blaring louder as the song started to really get going, all the while Peach provided some lyrics, "We're the Stacked Deck, cheatin' death and wrecking the set! To mess with us is a losing bet, so go on, get!"

(Sorry if the lyrics here comes off as kinda cringey song writing is not my forte.)

Yumi couldn't describe why but Peach's song made her feel, pumped up, maybe it was the high energy or the passion Peach was putting into her lyrics, but it didn't really matter though, what did matter was that Yumi felt like she could take on the world right now. Using her newfound motivation, she struck Iron Treads with her Bitter Malice, knocking it onto its back and stopping it from rolling around.

Iron Thorns took advantage of the situation and slammed the former Phanpy with a Fire Punch, launching it toward Argon and Neon, who followed up with a flurry of punches and kicks.

Unfortunately, Iron Treads ended up on its feet and started rolling around again, this time it hit Yumi before pivoting and hitting Iron Thorns too.

Seeing their teammates take damage made Neon angry, she took control of their shared body and slammed Iron Treads with their sword, leaving a massive scratch on the metal coating of the armor, then they flipped the blade around and sliced through the treads on the front half of its body, severing them and causing sparks to fly everywhere as the severed part deactivated.

"You think taking my ability to roll around is gonna stop me?" Iron Treads scoffed, "Well, think again!"

The ground shook violently sending Neon off their feet, as the robot tried to get up Iron Treads pressed all of their weight onto them, crushing their torso.

As the lights in Neon and Argon's eyes started to falter, Iron Thorns whacked Iron Treads as hard as they could with their tail, sending the former Phanpy flying into a radio antenna that had been positioned on the mountain.

Phanpy's robot armor was shocked relentlessly as a result of breaking the radio antenna, the armor couldn't take the shock, ejecting a defeated Phanpy, just in time for the end of Peach's song.

Peach and Yumi walked over to Phanpy and stood over him, ready to hit him if he got up, "Owie… A-alright alright, you win, I'll let you go!"

"And." Peach insisted.

"A-and what? I don't know what more you want from me!"

Dark energy surrounded Yumi as she prepared an attack, but that wouldn't be necessary as Phanpy caved, "OK, OK! I won't bring any more Pokémon here!"

The dark energy disappeared as Peach spoke up, "Now, tell us how to leave."

"W-well, you see, the t-tower there was preventing you f-from waking up, s-seeing as this is all technically a shared dream and all."

"So now that it's broken?" Peach questioned.

"W-well…"

February 7th, 11:43 pm

Team Echoes Base - Joseph's room

Coast Continent

As the dream came to an abrupt end, Yumi woke up from that strange dream and took a look around, "Oh, thank goodness I'm back…" She whispered.

She stepped out of her bed only to jump back onto it as Mesprit appeared right in her face, "Oh, hey, that dream was uh, kinda weird."

"W-were you peering into my dreams?"

"Only a little… Once I saw it wasn't a nightmare, I went to check on everyone else. I bet Specter really appreciated that."

"S-so that really was a dream?"

"Yup!"

Yumi sighed, "Phew, that was not fun."

"What happened? I thought I confirmed that you were having a normal dream before checking up on everyone else!"

Yumi yawned as she curled back up onto her bed, "It's a long story, and frankly I'm tired, so I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Well alright then, goodnight!"

Yumi responded by snoring lightly, she was out like a light, and as she drifted off she could faintly hear a familiar tune start to ring out through her mind.

Ok, I think I need to go back on that whole "I'm not gonna keep making a big deal out of taking a long time" thing because this took way longer than I anticipated, lemme explain I guess.

So for starters, I went into this one knowing the general idea of what I wanted to do with it - Yumi's in a dream that feels all too real, and she has to make it back to reality or something - that much I had thought up before going in, everything in between however, different story, so I took some time just thinking "What do I want to do with this concept?" and whilst doing that I was collecting ribbons for my ribbon master Pokémon and stuff, and uh I may have sidetracked myself for a little while so uh, yeah, that's how we ended up here with a short inconsequential chapter taking even longer than the last real chapter.

Now with all that said that puts us in an awkward spot, I'm at a crossroads between writing a chapter for this fic's first birthday next month, writing chapter 18, or writing something spooky. I'm not sure what I want to do first or whatnot, so uh, take a guess, and we'll see if you're right whenever I actually get the next part of this thing out.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, let's just close this thing out.

To KirgizovVlad: Yeah, sorry, I should've clarified that chapter 17 picks back up immediately from where chapter 16 ended, as for Mewtwo, well uh, I think you said it perfectly yourself, it's really hard to say anything about them yet, we'll just have to wait and see if Mew ever lets them out.

That about does it for this time, I mean I could write a boss write-up for Iron Treads, but I was already starting to joke with myself that I wasn't gonna ever finish this part so uh, I'm just gonna skip it. Maybe once it's out I'll come back and add one but for now, I think I'll just leave things here.

'Till next time!