Watcher of Arceus

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Only the idea and OC's.

Author Notes:

-X-This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.

~xXx~ This will identify where each paragraph breaks.

"Human Speech" 'Character Thought' {Pokémon Speech}

Co-author: Catsithx

The following is a total and complete Reboot of the story "Watcher of Arceus".

~xXx~

Chapter 56 : Twisted Reality

A dozen legendary pokemon were circling the crater that was once the ceiling of the prison that they had built over two thousand years ago. The remains of the ancient city of Pokelantis were now exposed to the sky, a new fault line running through the middle of the city center. Some pieces of the ceiling that weren't blown free from whatever had happened were barely hanging on above the city, aside from a few spots that were falling into the city now.

A total of forty Regirock, Registeel, and Regice had already gathered around the opening, and in unison all jumped down through the opening to the tomb below. Thomas and Radara were in a rush, but kept stumbling and falling over repeatedly, before Lugia flew down and grabbed them and Xent to try and take them to the side of the crater.

"Get your head together damnit!" Xent yelled seeing how Thomas didn't even seem to notice that he had been flown to the crater as if a bit lost. As they were set down, Lugia took off to help circle the crater, to try and make sure that the evil held within didn't have a chance to get out.

Xent once again called out Zai, and slapped her even to get the point across that they had work to do showing off the crater of the prison, as well as the devastation that had been caused. Before Xent could ask for direction though, Thomas and Radara had jumped into the crater.

Their descent was fast, but controlled, Thomas forced to use the Guardian Aegis to help control their fall as they fell into the crater waiting until they were half way down to slow their fall and look for any signs of trouble. With their slowing descent, they could see the extent of the damage easily all around them. The central temple of the city was torn right in two, massive cracks scattered through the streets around it, and several buildings close to the building had fallen over entirely. An entire section of road over the catacombs had collapsed in full, multiple large sink holes having formed from the incident.

Rayquaza had rushed down into the city along with Latios flying to Thomas and Radara's side, only for dozens of fissures to appear before them, tears between the world and the distortion. Before Latios or Rayquaza could react, a dark cloudy fissure had tore itself open under Thomas and Radara, both of them falling through before it closed, the crystals of the prison still trying to protect the prison. Most of the fissures closed immediately, but a few remained opened for several seconds, Rayquaza flying through one herself intentionally before it closed as well.

-x-

Thomas tumbled hard onto the ground, rolling along the surface with a loud cry but still holding tightly onto the sheath of the Guardian Aegis as he rolled over and over. He was slowed as he lost momentum from the initial sudden landing, thinking it was over only to start rolling backwards and upwards, and then just off the surface entirely. He wanted to stop himself, but his concentration was shattered already, unable to even stop himself from the first landing. An echoing silence was still piercing his mind, a cold feeling all throughout his body and even worse, his mind as he felt alone, unable to feel Radara.

Thomas began to fall again, and opening his eyes to try and find out what was going on, realizing that he had been rolling on plastic siding of a house, the wall of a house only to realize why he was falling again. A hard thud and Thomas was suddenly on his head, before falling in a rather harsh manner onto his side. Trying to get up, grabbing part of a twisted gutter, he quickly realized that he was on a underside of a roof, the covering for a patio or something. Worse, the direction of gravity and the design of the building were not in agreement if he was on the ceiling.

"Radara!" Thomas yelled out, only to hear a small mewling cry and Thomas stood up as best he could, looking up only to see the underside of a ceiling above him, another patio roof or something. Looking carefully around, he found himself on some kind of towering structure, two small houses mirroring each other stacking on top of each other, but built floor to floor. The house he was on was upside down, and then one that was right side up was stacked on top of it, but looking around, more he noticed that it wasn't just two houses.

He was in a tower of houses stacked roof to roof and floor to floor, but there wasn't a single straight corner or even properly flat surface to be seen. Even the windows were curved like an hour glass, the walls of the house bulging out and then it all clicked. The twisted copies of structures, gravity being a mere suggestion, and the deranged silence in his head made everything worse. "Radara! Radara where you are?!" He shouted out in a small panic, hearing the mewling again, smashing the window and climbing through, uncaring about how he had slit his hand doing that.

Even the furniture of the place was a twisted mess, spiraling around itself with the legs of a table stuck on both sides of the table top and even the floor was wavy, unaligned and with plenty of holes. The table was also stuck to the floor and trapped within its spiral form was Radara. Thomas rushed up and drawing the spare blade that he had, he began to hack at the legs above the table top. Using two of the now broken legs, he forced them into the space between some of the other legs and with Radara biting into them to pull them in further, the two began to slow pry the twisted wooden cage of a table open.

It took a little work and as soon as Radara could get out, she jumped into Thomas's arms, both pressing their heads into each other. It took a few, before at least the silence was gone, the feeling of loneliness fading as their minds reunited. 'Don't tell me...'

"We've crossed to the other side... Its a total mess. You think its bad here... we're currently in a stack of houses built floor to floor and ceiling to ceiling, stacked up and down on top of each other." Thomas explained, his breath only getting a little quicker as he couldn't fully reconnect to Radara.

While he could feel her panic in her chest from her own breathing, and he could hear her voice, it wasn't enough, the broken link between them and silence still in their minds clouding their minds in fear. 'We must find an exit. This place is still in flux, have to be quick before the world restores itself and begins to push itself back to safety.' Radara stated, Thomas slowly letting her go and grabbing a spiral carpet, throwing that into the window.

Jumping back over and getting a proper look around the area, there were hundreds of what he could most easily describe as stacks of objects. There were more stacks of houses, all without a single straight edge to be seen, resting on to of each other floor to floor and ceiling to ceiling. Each individual stack of house appeared to be the same one recreated over and over again, but each stack had small differences that were mirrored throughout the entire thing.

While Thomas thought that the houses were weird, the stacks of trees were even more confusing though. Much like the houses, they shared large clumps of roots with each other, growing up and down from the same bundle of roots. But they also shared branches of leaves, the trees growing into a massive sphere of leaves and branches with trunks on top and bottom of the clusters. The leaves didn't even match though, and a quick look showed that the same branch had a dozen different leaves belonging to different trees that he knew of, and even some leaves that looked foreign to him.

"This places just..." Thomas started, Radara starting to notice the bizarre nature of the copied environments in full now as well.

'Really messes with our heads doesn't it...' Radara whined loudly looking around, for both of them to start feel a strange shift around them. It started with a small tilt, and then grew, Thomas reaching back and grabbing the support post for the patio ceiling as gravity started to shift. Radara just casually walked with it, small enough to just walk on another support post.

What had been their left side was now down, and the patio ceiling was now a wall, Thomas carefully holding onto it like a ladder now with gravity having shifted a little over ninety degrees, not quite a perfect shift, but it wasn't like they could do much. Looking down, they realized that gravity wasn't shifting though, just the collective stack of towers. They had reoriented themselves.

A large land mass was below them, a partial town instead of just stacks of buildings, trees, and other things copied upon themselves in large tower like constructs. There was movement below which caught their attention easily, something was happening although at this distance they couldn't be sure what. "Do we risk it?"Thomas asked, knowing that more land was better, experience had taught them that large masses of matter usually had more stable gravitational effects. "It can't be any further then the drop down into the prison."

'Can we manage such a thing given the effects of this place. I am still confused over which way is which, my head still swirling as though I ran myself in circles too much.' Radara started, only for a rapid dash of movement below them catch their eyes.

"Rayquaza!" Thomas yelled out, recognizing the green blur that had moved down before though them through the streets, only to see shadows chasing them, and then an explosive blast. Thomas didn't need opinions though, he just jumped and Radara jumped with him. As he stepped off, she jumped to his shoulder and he held the Guardian Aegis out to control their fall while helping Radara secure herself on his shoulder.

While Thomas controlled their fall to make sure that they landed in the village mockery, Radara kept track of Rayquaza and whatever was fighting her. It was hard to reach the land mass below them, but Thomas managed to safely guide them down and reach the edge of part of the twisted town.

'Four blocks in front of us, three blocks to our right, but there are road blocks. Follow me.' Radara stated, jumping down and rushing forward, Thomas following along. As they rushed along, there was the sounds of an explosion and smoke rising up above the roofs around them. The sound of fighting seemed way further off though then the smoke looked however. Thomas went to say something, but even as he spoke there wasn't any sound, Thomas couldn't even hear himself speak.

As Thomas tried to think about it again, he realized that sound wasn't exactly natural here either. He couldn't hear his boots on the ground as he was running, and thinking about it, the sounds of fighting seemed way farther off. Thinking about that Radara had said, he knew that should have been there, only for the wall to explode next to their side. Rayquaza was being strangled by something, a large black snake like creature, flying through the buildings to try and dislodge it. Even with Rayquaza right there though and slamming through another building, there was barely any sound.

~xXx~

Xent was just more or less pacing along the cleanest strip of newly created cliff side over looking the ruins of Pokelantis. Zai was released again, and had to be slapped to get her thinking properly again while Akra was in the sky above them looking for any signs of danger. He was just watching as nearly a hundred small fissures were busy flickering in and out of reality since the one had that had swallowed up Thomas and Radara, each closing itself less than a minute later.

The entire city seemed to be filled with them, opening and closing at random while the place looked a little visually wavy and mirage like now, like there was a massive gas leak in the city or it was overly heated compared to the rest of the Kanto. The deep chill of the space around them just made it feel worse for Xent though, his stump of arm hating the unearthly chill as he was forced to just wait.

Above him, Akra suddenly descended and disappeared from view somewhere in the trees only to fly back up holding both Verna and Dahlia, not that Xent noticed distracted as he was. He was so focused on trying to find any sign of anything weird below them, hoping to somehow help point an escape attempt if this great evil broke, he never noticed that Dahlia and Verna were dropped right next to him.

"What's the situation? Where's Thomas and Radara?" Dahlia quickly asked, instantly rushing to his side, Xent turning immediately with a crowbar raised, only to lower it.

"I'm just gonna hazard a guess here and say that the big vortex of swirling gases that keep showing up go to the bad place..." Xent said, quickly pointing out the constantly changing space of things above Pokelantis, dozens of small fissures still opening and closing, but remaining open for smaller amounts of time.

"Where's Thomas and Radara..." Dahlia slowly repeated, her voice quickly filling with worry and dread hearing Xent's answer and not liking what she heard and now saw.

"Swallowed up by one of those swirling vortexes when they tried to jump in. It looks like its only in the center of the city though. A bunch of the Regice, rock, and steel all jumped in along the sides but I think they all made it down. I saw Rayquaza rush into another one after Thomas and Radara were swallowed up, but Latios continued into the city." Xent explained quickly, Verna moving up and reaching out for Dahlia who started to give a few small shakes now.

"Dahlia, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go in after them. If the Distortion messes with the link between twins, I'd rather nor risk finding out what it'll do to you." Xent said, genuinely worried and unsure if it wound throw her into a breakdown. He already knew that she was overly reliant on the minds of others, and recalling how isolated and broken the bonds she had even Argyle when she had described entering before, he knew that it would be worse with her as she was now though.

'Dahlia... take it easy.' Verna tried to say, but a significantly larger fissure opened close to the surface. Xent had to dive out of the way when a massive golden light appeared through it that came barreling out. Whatever it was, it struck the cliff side and large portions of the cliff began to crack and fall apart. A large chunk of the cliff began to slow fall down into the exposed ruins of Pokelantis, but the cliff side was quickly showing several other large cracks.

Verna had to grab and pull Dahlia off the collapsing cliff, but Dahlia seemed to be in shock. "No... no no no!" Dahlia stated trying to move forward instead, having seen through the fissure and the fight that was taking place on the other side.

"We need to move!" Xent tried to yell, turning back only to see Dahlia trying to move further towards the cliff side and not away from the still cracking and collapsing cliff side. He rushed back towards Dahlia to try and help Verna pull her along, but as he rushed up to Dahlia, the entire cliff collapsed at last.

Xent, Dahlia, Verna, and Zai all fell, Akra rushing down to try and help, but Dahlia, Verna, and Xent were all pulled through another fissure leaving Zai and Akra behind.

~xXx~

Thomas ducked under a thrashing limb, what he thought was a tail, but couldn't be sure in the small confines an alleyway filled with debris and tossed furniture. He then jumped up and over it when it tried to come back for a second strike. When the limb thrashed a third time though, it wasn't even at him and Thomas had to wonder of it really there to attack him.

He rushed away from the tail, and up a set of wavy misaligned steps that went up and over the mess in the alley way. He knew that Rayquaza was struggling hard against whatever was attack her, curled up in its coils. Radara looked like she was snarling and jumping out of the way of some kind of shadowy limb as a large couch that looked like it was made of bone smashed into the creature's head.

Thomas ran up the twisted steps as fast as he could, almost stumbling on a few steps that were tilted at wrong angles and wet. Finally up and over the debris, Thomas jumped down, one of the spare blades he had in both hands coming down. Pouring a massive surge of electrical power, he wasn't hidden as the blade started to glow and sparking with electricity.

The beast noticed him, and rapidly let go Rayquaza to try and strike at Thomas. He parried the blow from two shadowy limbs, discharging a large blast of electrical energy against both of the limbs. It still ended up tossing Thomas back, but Radara caught him to keep Thomas from getting tossed through a wall. Even more, the two limbs that tried to attack Thomas were no longer holding Rayquaza in place.

Rayquaza freed herself from the strange beast, uncoiling herself and with most of her body free, she twisted her head around with a roar. A bright glow appeared in her mouth, the lights forming a dragon head like figure before blasting the strange beast right in its head. Another otherworldly roar of pain cried out as she hit him directly.

Rayquaza quickly used the chance to fully free herself and when Radara began to assault it as well, Thomas was now recovering and finally got his first proper look at the beast. Long and snake like, gray and black in color with red stripes, with several yellow or orange spikes along the sides of its body and six large shadow like apendages sticking out of its back, each tipped with a massive red claw or spike. When Rayquaza finally finished her attack, Thomas got a clean look at its crowned head and what he believed to be its eyes.

Whatever this beast was, he knew that it was more then strong enough to attempt to take them all on. He jumped forward, throwing one of the spare blades he had at its face, one of the six limbs slapping the sword away, only to for Thomas to slice through that limb pouring his mental strength into sword he had to cut through the limb trying to disable or at least weaken it.

Another limb slammed into his side, smashing him into a wall, a third limb moving to impale but Radara was already at his defense, holding that limb. A blur of bright green glowing movement had grabbed the limb trying to impale Thomas, Rayquaza biting hard into the limb and trying to drag the whole beast away. Already knowing that she wasn't like to drag the beast far, Rayquaza still pushed everything she had into the attack and kept a solid grip, already aiming for an alleyway to its side and twisting the beast around exposing its gut.

Thomas was freed easily and Radara was lifting up a large wooden pillar already. Thomas rushed the pillar and made a single cut. Like with the limb, he poured his mind into the attack and made a large wide swing into the front of the pillar giving it a clear pointed tip now.

With the slice however, he also quickly realized that the wooden post was more like bone, a softer spongy middle that seemed to be leaking now and harder outside, this broken beam wouldn't make a good projectile once he cut it trying to give it a sharper edge. Taking another slice perpendicular to the log, Thomas cut a large chunk free and Radara quickly moved the large impromptu spike trap down into the middle of the roadway.

Rayquaza had still been trying to keep the beast occupied, only for Thomas to rush it now. Slicing off another one of its limbs, or at least attempting to, he needed to get its attention as Radara explained their plan. She was trying to just slow it down and keep it sluggish, letting Thomas attack it to keep its attention and while Rayquaza did her own part.

With sound still not traveling far at all, Radara's telepathy gave them a great edge letting them communicate easily while also hiding what they were really doing. Thomas made a few more cuts through the bone log, giving Radara a few more spike traps to work with before Thomas turned his attention to the beast.

It was still struggling with Rayquaza, giving Thomas an easy opening to its back. A charged thunder attack, channeled through two of his blades and then into unguarded back of the beast made it very angry as it roared out, Rayquaza rushing off into the sky now. With its full attention against Thomas, Thomas was forced to defend with Radara's help, Thomas slowly backing himself into the middle of the spike traps.

Thomas couldn't even keep track of what all was being tossed at him, even forced to use the Guardian Aegis to help bolster his defensive moves beside Radara against the lashing tentacles, attacks of various kinds, and whatever else the beast was trying to do to him. Above them, though, Rayquaza was ready, a green light starting to shine brightly. Radara yanked Thomas out of the way hard, Thomas dropping one of the two extra blades he had, only for Rayquaza to land on top of the beast with her Dragon Ascent attack.

Rayquaza slammed down hard into the back of the beast, who had been tricked into moving right over the four large spike traps, slammed belly first into the ground. The ground shook and tossed up dozens of bricks, a massive wave of smoke from displayed dirt, dust, stone, and whatever else was there. It was slow to clear, Rayquaza nursing her head, giving a pitiful whine over the body of the beast stuck in the ground and trying to rise up. Rayquaza quickly tried to fly back up, only to smash her head twice into some walls, and then uneasily into the air.

As the beast tried to rear back up, giving a dying whine, three of the spike traps were still embedded in its belly. A large whole from the fourth was there as well before one of the others fell out of its gut as well, piece by piece the broken log pulling little bits of innards from the beast as it fell out. It was far from pretty,

Thomas had no intention of letting it suffer, and neither did Radara, who pulled it forward and with another heavy slash of the blade, beheaded the beast hoping to give it a quick death over the slow one that defeated it with. Thomas could only hope it was over now, but looking over the gasous like wounds the beast had, he began to wonder if it was connected to the great evil that he was all too familiar with.

He knew that this specific beast could never have been that great evil that was breaking free even as they were trapped here, but he wondered if it was the same kind of beast, perhaps an evolution of it. Turning back towards Radara, Radara called out for Rayquaza, only for someone else to move up beside them.

Thomas quickly turned, blade drawn and sparking, only to recognize who it was, lowering the blade as Xent tapped his head a few times. It was clear that he was trying to get communicate, but the sound disruption was still in effect. Radara had to shake her head though, already strained enough right now. Although two years of working with Xent made it easy to her to read his mind and more, right now in the distortion, it was a strain just to stay fully connected to Thomas, who also shook his head.

Xent already heavily annoyed and nursing the stump of his arm still clearly tried to cuss again, but just pulled out a notepad he always kept in his pocket. He wrote down a few things before passing it to Thomas, but his words only served to worry Thomas and Radara greatly. "Dahlia + Verna likely fell in. Akra + Zai unsure. D unstable if here. Find D + V fast."

Thomas quickly wrote a single word reply and turned it back to Xent asking "when" and handing the paper back to Xent who shrugged, before responding.

"Feels like minute, unsure if time flow steady here?" Xent wrote back, only for Rayquaza to fly down and grab Thomas and Xent, before Radara jumped into Thomas's hands and Rayquaza took off. Thomas about fell out of her arms three times even in short trip before Rayquaza dropped them onto a ceiling when gravity shifted again as she tried to set them down on the floor of a twisted bell tower.

The shift in gravity even got Rayquaza to smash into one of the support beams of the seemingly unfinished tower, making her thrash around a bit and grabbing her head again as the others tried to pick themselves up. It was a mess either way as Rayquaza even almost fell on top of them, before catching herself and getting out of the small space. That smashed beam only caused even more trouble though as the ceiling started to crack and began to gave away, the tower starting to break free now from its poor construction.

~xXx~

Verna smashed through a few large curtains, but it wasn't a soft landing. She yelled out flipping head over heels a few times and then landed hard into what she thought was a curtain but it was like hitting liquid cement and then rolling a few times before hitting the ground. She wasn't even fully sure what had happened, only to get crushed under something, and then crushed a second time a few seconds later. Verna whined loudly, trying to pull herself out, only for someone to grab her hand and tug hard. It helped unwedge her just enough to see now, her psychic abilities not working right away before at least she could do something.

It was a small struggle to get out, but she managed to climb about halfway out only to realize that she had no idea where she was. Even worse, what had grabbed her arm pulling her out was a large rope made of what she could only think was flesh, tied to the curtains and collection of ceiling rods that had fell on her.

She rushed to finish pulling herself out, finally able to push things with her mind now to finish freeing herself and then had to fight with the rope on her hand. It was a major struggle, only for things to get even more complicated when she tried to get a better grip and stance. The wavy floor and her already messy sense of balance right now resulted in her just falling over and toppling the mess that had been on top of her even worse. The mess that had collapsed on top of her now completely fell over and tugged on her arm jerking her up off the floor entirely now leaving her hanging with her arm stuck in the rope.

Verna tried to call out, only to finally notice the lack of sound in the area. She managed to grab what she thought was a pipe, but instead it was a handle for a weird looking metal soup pan, and began banging it on the wall. Even banging the pot on the wall and on some pipes, there was barely any sound. What little she did hear sounded like a far off echo of a banging pans, so she knew that it had to be her since it was all timed with her strikes.

She tried to scream again to try and figure out what was going on, only to drop roughly when something started messing with the pile of fall debris in the door way. It took a little work, and Verna was trying anything she could think of, move after move but she was still too disoriented. At last the whole thing broke, the curtain feel entirely as half the door frame collapsed tossing Verna around again, but Dahlia finally standing there in the door way.

A look of panic on her face, her eyes darting around, before seeing Verna and rushing at her. Dahlia just grabbed Verna, holding her tightly as the rope on her was shredded and Dahlia just pulled Verna into her even more. Verna quickly held Dahlia back, both pressing their heads lightly into each other and thinking, concentrating hard before at last pulling back over a minute later.

'We're in the distortion aren't we?' Verna's voice, weak but there sounded in Dahlia's head, and Dahlia nodded.

'Its cold... I can't feel anything... this silence, its deafening, madness...' Dahlia's voice was like a weak echo all around Verna's head, powerful and yet distant and struggling. Even Dahlia's emotions were weak as if never there, just a memory trying to intrude in Verna's mind. There was still enough there to know how much trouble this was for Dahlia, and how much she was shaking both in her own head and her body.

'I'm here, stay calm, think, concentrate.' Verna urged Dahlia now, slowly pulling back and trying to kneel with Dahlia, bringing Dahlia slowly down onto her knees. 'Calm yourself, listen to me, feel me my mind, feel your brother.' Verna continued.

It took a little bit of work, but things began to slowly come together in their minds, Verna calming down Dahlia some before the two finally stood up several minutes later. 'Easy... careful, the floors not right.' Verna stated, looking around, and helping Dahlia to a window to look around.

'Nothing is "right" in this place...' Dahlia stated a little shakily, looking around some.

'Is there supposed to be sound here? I tried banging on pots and pans to get some attention, but there was nothing.' Verna asked, Dahlia just giving a weak shrug.

'I... I don't know. It... its always weird here, things don't work like I know them, understand them...' Dahlia replied carefully wiping down the window. While she could wipe it down a little bit, Dahlia found that it was covered in some kind of film and started to pull some of it off only to find the entire window popped.

Verna quickly felt sick to her stomach and backed up a bit, but Dahlia just pulled the film from the window entirely, knocking it all out now. With the window now gone though, it was much easier to see over the possible town that they were in.

Looking around, movement caught their eyes, a large green thing in the sky flew into a building but behind some trees. Verna pointed it out and it took them a few to realize it was Rayqauza. 'We need to go! Now now, hurry!' Dahlia screamed into Verna's mind, just jumping out the window, only to try and take halberd with her still ready for battle and in a wide stance.

This jerked the whole window and part of the wall tried to move, but it held and kept Dahlia in place. Verna even tried to jerk Dahlia back inside, but feeling the halberd caught on something, Dahlia took it as a sign of confrontation. 'Dahlia, calm down! You can't rush into things right now!' Verna tried to reason, but it was too late, Dahlia was pulling the entire wall down.

'Dahlia! Please ca-'Verna tried yelling out, only for several loud snaps to start sounding and then a crumbling sound. The wall gave way first around the halberd but caught on some wires in the wall before those snapped as well. It quickly fell apart from there, with first the wall of the room starting to come down, and then most of the wall on that entire floor and the floors above and below it. With Verna hanging into Dahlia trying to catch her pull her back into the room, she was forced to follow Dahlia down with a growing pile of debris falling around them both now.

Even before they hit the ground though, things would only get worse as there was a shift around and suddenly down wasn't down anymore. The two of them were suddenly pulled by gravity away from the ground below along with chunks of the wall and building that was starting to collapse entirely now.

~xXx~

Xent fell through the ceiling into a large wavy bell, smashing into the fixed post that was imitating the bell's clapper. A thick fixed rod ending with a hammer head capped with large foamy panels on the ends and what looked like plates to hit the side of the bell on the side of the hammer well out of reach, there was no way that this bell would have worked. It did however make a great handle for Xent to grab and hold tightly onto even with just one arm.

Radara came rushing up past into sliding into the sides of the bell before getting stuck inside it, Xent just barely catching one of Thomas's swords between his feet to keep it from hitting Radara. She had been hit hard though from the sudden shift in gravity, dazed and nearly knocked out from things.

Thomas however had entirely missed the bell and fell away from the tower itself, barely grabbing onto the gutter around the top of the bell tower. He still held a firm grip on the Guardian Aegis and managed to pull himself up, but the place was still unsteady, a large cracking noise sounding and the supports of the bell tower were tearing themselves apart under the new strain.

Thomas could see Xent and jumped up to the side of the bell, before it all gave way and they started to fly clean off the building. Rayquaza caught the bell though and held Thomas carefully climb into it, using the bell as a seat to ferry them back to the ground though.

As they were moving back up towards the ground, Rayqauza looking for a place to set them down safely, Xent quickly moved. He saw something falling away from the town, and without sound, it was a hassle to get his point across while still trying to hold onto the bell.

Seeing no other solution, he wrapped his legs around the post in the bell as tightly as he could, let go with his arm, and then smacked Thomas hard before trying to point into the distance. Thomas gave him an annoyed look, already shaky from the flight, before looking where Xent was trying to get his attention.

It was a struggle to try and get Thomas to look in the right direction since Xent still kind of had to keep hold of things with just one arm, but Rayquaza had noticed anyway thankfully and very quickly took off into the sky again. It was a rough catch, with Dahlia and Verna getting caught in the bell on top of Thomas and Xent, Radara safe in the bottom of it under a barrier that Thomas was using to protect her.

Just as they were caught in the bell though, Rayquaza almost lost them all again when gravity decided that down was down again and nearly pulled them all out of the bell. Rayquaza almost lost her balance mid flight and almost threw them all out of the bell.

Thomas strained himself, giving a silent yell of pain when he grabbed Dahlia and Verna when they were almost thrown from the bell, Xent and Verna pulling them back into the bell before Rayquaza rushed back to the ground. Things were still a mess however and with Rayquaza still unsteady, her landing wasn't the best, smashing into the ground and just barely managing to keep from crush the bell under her weight. Everyone came tumbling out of the bell, rolling for several feet from the crash site.

The entire thing was a mess front to back as the group were slow to pick themselves up. Radara was now fully unconscious, Thomas's left arm had been ripped right out of the socket, and Rayquaza was covered in dozens of small but still bleeding cuts. Verna and Dahlia were mostly unhurt physically, but Dahlia was going into a full blown panic attack and the strain on her mind was affecting Verna who was doing anything she could to try and help as the situation unfolded.

By sheer chance, Xent was the only one mostly unhurt, and looking over things right now, he knew that was only because his mind was his own, he wasn't sharing thoughts or feelings, or likely the physical pain with the others right now. Getting up, he quickly grabbed the Guardian Aegis and forced it into Thomas's good arm, before propping him up. Thomas nodded as Xent helped him up.

Seeing Thomas's limp hanging arm though, Dahlia rushed to Thomas and Thomas braced himself up against the wall, giving another nod and then it was easy to see his cry of pain when Dahlia forced it back in. She was shaking the whole time, possibly going mad and then Thomas rushed over to Radara, trying to wake her up.

It took a few minutes for Radara to finally regain consciousness and it was clear that she was out of it, stumbling around and unable to walk in a straight line. Nothing was going right for the moment, but they were forced to stay still long enough for them to recover for a bit. Finally after several minutes, the group felt ready to start walking around, trying to find a way out.

The group walked slowly down the street trying to just orient themselves in the twisted landscape. Thomas was doing all he could to help manage Dahlia, even Verna needing a break from the mental strain that Dahlia was forcing on her. Verna still held Dahlia's hand and was reaching out to her, but Dahlia was just focusing on Thomas for the moment and it helped a lot.

As they were walking though, both Verna and Xent couldn't help but be overcome with a feeling of deja vu. As they moved down the street, Verna stopped, blinked several times, looking back and forth down the road, and then even lightly smacked her face a few times as if to wake herself up.

Grabbing Xent's little notepad, she quickly wrote a message for the group. "I cant be the only right? I- this place, I swear I know it I've been here? Is that even possible?" Verna wrote slowly, as if pleadingly looking to the group, but only Xent seemed to understand. Even as the others shook their heads, Xent had to look carefully around them, and Verna quickly picked it up on it as Thomas wrote a message down himself.

"None of us know this place. Its all a poorly attempted copy of space just pieced toget" Thomas had started, before Verna took the note pad and almost forced the pen into Xent's hand, Verna tapping hard a few times on the paper to get him to write something.

"Maybe? Hard to tell. Like he said, jumbled mess." Xent wrote, before Verna quickly took the pen again.

"There will be a clock or something around the next corner. Its supposed to be in the stomach of a skeleton holding up a sign, an arrow sign advertisement." Verna quickly wrote, and confused the group a little, before Xent took the pen again.

"My height, vampire fangs, cape." Xent added, and Verna quickly nodded, before rushing forward and down the road to the next intersection. Sure enough there was something standing in an alcove in the wall. Like everything else though, it was a twisted mess, with bones of all kinds carved into the wall, but none of them were in order or even close to where they were supposed to be. Some weren't even in the alcove, but stuck in the street or the walls around it.

Xent reached down and found the skull, running his fingers carefully over it since it was stuck in the ground, only to give a silent yell, pulling back up a bleeding finger. He quickly took the pen and notepad again, before writing a single words. "Fangs."

'You know where we are?' Dahlia quickly asked, only really able to speak with Verna right now, barely able to speak clearly even with Radara's help.

Verna quickly put Dahlia's question on the notepad before adding her own comment for the group. "I think so. Its a prop collector."

Xent quickly took the pen himself and shook his head before writing "Karen's Vault. Five doors down. This a copy of town Stemville. Quiet, small, 2 things there. Private ranch, breeds professionally for leaguers, and the vault, owner's movie prop collection." Xent added, giving a clear if still silent sigh, pointing down the road.

"We'll have a chance to find out for sure. I can feel the pull of home in that direction." Thomas added now, making sure that they could all see it, before flipping to the next page with the former filled up again.

"Its faint, but I can feel a solid path home down the road. I don't know how far, but its there. I'm pretty sure its the First Blade enhancing my senses. I still feel like we are being watched though. The pulse of home is getting strong though, it might be a passage that we could open if it doesn't open before then on its own." Thomas continued, Dahlia not even looking just focusing on the road as if searching for the path home. Verna had to make sure that Dahlia read it, Dahlia almost giving a shudder of fear again, before just marching at a rapid pace down the street, having to get home and leave this place.

As they were moving through, something flew very quickly past them, a large gray and black shadow with masses on it and as it flew past them, part of the street next to them exploded. To complicate matters even more, gravity shifted as the explosion was already throwing them away from each other.

Thomas and Rayquaza were practically on top of the blast, the clear intended targets. The attack had been aimed right at them, but hit behind them, Rayquaza was thrown up into the overhang on a few roofs, a loud scream of pain starting to sound as pointy bits hanging on the underside of the ceiling dug into parts of her skin while Thomas was blasted several feet right into the air only to start flying to the left side of the street, up and over the roofs colliding with the wall of a much larger building. As he was tossed through a window, the sounds of splittering wood and shattered glass sounded around him assaulting his ears on top of everything else.

Dahlia was barely able to defend herself, but still thrown to the ground, and then forced to roll a bit, barely able to catch Radara who had been knocked out by the blast, stopped Radara from getting impaled on the opposite side of the street by the same spikey accents on the awnings of the roof. The shift in gravity didn't help as the two of them were thrown tossed aside, both falling into a large glass window that they bounced off of it however.

Xent and Verna were tossed through the wall next to them, thrown right into the movie prop shop however. Xent fell several feet through the room, before landing hard in something. His head, arms, and upper chest were all stuffed into a small space, something tightly wrapped around his upper body. Verna fell in almost the same spot, but landed in front of whatever Xent had landed in. Xent almost kicked her in the head with his struggles, Verna rolling over and away from him only to take in the full view of what was towering above her.

A large black scaled head with open maw, slime dripping around Xent's lower chest and down his legs on an eyeless head as it pulsed and shifted over the swallowed portion of Xent. Even partially shoved down the things long long neck that was wiggling around a bit, paired up with the return of sound to the world, Verna now heard a roar that she could only hear from above her.

An earsplitting scream sounded and echoed through the space as sound returned in full, no longer dampened. Xent tried to kick around a bit more, trying to feel around for any kind of foot hold. Stuck as he was, he could only use his legs with his arm firmly stuck to his side, but he found no hold. He wasn't even aware that his attempts to try and find a foothold wasn't helping. His swinging legs kept Verna pinned and even made it look like he was struggling before he started to go limp.

Dahlia came trying to rush in at the sound of the scream, halberd raised ready to kill anything in her path only to see the same sight as Verna and Verna's fears came flooding into her mind as Dahlia tried to reach out to Verna. In a panicked move, Dahlia tried to rip Xent free with her mind, a massive tug on his body. It didn't stop at Xent though, Dahlia also pulling the massive beast that was swallowing Xent up. Jerked forward and falling down on Verna, Xent and whatever was swallowing him buried Verna and made her panic more, only amplifying the fear that Dahlia was feeling.

Thomas came barreling in, a massive two handed blade almost as tall as he was at the ready despite the dozens of cuts he had on his body now. All he knew was that something bad was happening and he came rushing in to try and help. He didn't have much of a chance however as the large black creature like thing he saw was starting to fall again, Dahlia rushing after it.

Verna and Xent still trapped in the mouth of whatever it was were in free fall, the floor having given way, a vortex forming under it and pulling both of them in. Dahlia rushed after it, the long ribbed tail of the slowly getting pulled into the vortex as well. Thomas rushed forward and slammed the massive blade he had into the tail to try and catch it. The blade easily tore through the creature's tail though, severing a large chunk of it and Thomas only just then realized it wasn't real, but Dahlia had already dived through the vortex to follow it.

It took Thomas a moment to pull the blade free, he found Radara's mind and rushed towards her back outside the room. "I found the way out!" Thomas yelled, Rayquaza quickly turning towards him, and then dashing into the shop as Thomas grabbed Radara who was barely conscious again. As he turned back towards the shop, he heard the roar and just barely dodged another attack by something that flew over the street.

Inside the shop, the vortex was only getting larger, and dozens of things were falling into now as Thomas ran and jumped into it following Rayquaza.

~xXx~

Verna fall fast while still in a panic, only to hit the ground hard. The thing eating Xent landed roughly on top of her, pinning her down and Verna was still screaming the whole time. Still disoriented, the shift back to the world messing with her head again, and then being trapped under whatever was eating Xent, Verna couldn't concentrate at all. Her screams of fear turned to a scream of pain however with a sharp stabbing pain in her side.

Dahlia came through the vortex halberd point down, one leg on underside of the ax head adding her full weight to the strike in full. She landed easily on top of the creature's center of mass, it caving under weight of the halberd and herself striking into its back. The large spikes along its spine and back caught Dahlia in the face, but even those caved just under her weight coming down on it as the creature collapsed.

The halberd went clean through the creature, only for a raging cry to sound and then something tore through the beast. Zai ripped the upper chest and base of the creature's long neck, Zai's claws glowing with purple energy. Her shadow claw easily shredded the thick skin of the empty creature, Zai turning and slamming a pair of shadow balls through the creature as well.

So heavily assaulted, shredded and torn to pieces, it was easy to identify the creature as a prop now, if still made of some kind of fleshy material before more things started to fall through. Dahlia gave her own scream however, finally seeing Verna under the creature, the spear tip of Gali's halberd stabbed right into Verna's side.

Dahlia fell off the halberd, Zai quickly freeing Xent and Xent just acted, quickly returning Verna to pokeball as more things started to fall through the vortex and began to fall on top of them. Zai dragged Dahlia out of the way as Xent rushed to get away from all of the things falling through the vortex before Rayquaza and then Thomas holding Radara came through.

Random things from the prop vault and Thomas, Radara, and Rayquaza weren't the only things to come through however. An otherworldly roar sounded and a large black, gray, and red beast fell into the pile of things too. Rayquaza grabbed and pulled Thomas and Radara to the side, and just in time too.

The beast from the distortion world had followed them and tried to attack them, just barely missing. Even though it had missed, it tried to stomp on them with a pair of its six legs now. Thomas threw the large blade he had at it, striking its chest and making it rear up but that only seemed to enrage it as it began to gather energy in its mouth.

The beast never got a chance to retaliate however as a number of various legendary pokemon all converged on it. Ho-oh came down first, rose golden flames showering its face and chest and Lugia quickly joined it. Lugia let loose its own blast of silver blue energy from its mouth, the beast caught between Lugia's aero blast and Ho-oh's scared flame now giving a pained cry.

As the two let up on their attacks, Latios moved up with its own assault. A bright purple light struck the beast's left wing, before several smaller objects were thrown into its right side, a few of the regi-golems all joining the assault. A blast of lightning came striking down from the sky as Ho-oh and Lugia renewed their assaults again, the beast was covered in a rainbow like aurora of bright lights.

The legendary pokemon didn't let up, not risking this thing causing more harm and just assuming that it might be the great evil, let loose with everything, leaving only a partial corpse behind when they were finally done.