Altered Bonds Extras
Omake 7 — Novice's Ninth-Tier Niflheim
(Best read after Chapter 14)
(Canon? — Mostly no)
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Floor B6F of Stringed Forest. Eevee cursed as his Quick Seed ran out, leaving him too woefully slow for the mission he needed to accomplish. Insect clicks and chitters ran throughout the dark, webbed woods, almost like garbled voices warning him of his impending failure—
Why can't you run faster? Hurry!
You're taking darn forever! The girl's going to die!
Forget the dying part, what if Aerodactyl gets her first?
—though then again, he literally did have voices in his head doing just that. Hush it, Jolteon and Flareon! Eevee snapped. And Sylveon, you're supposed to be better than this!
It's a possibility though! Sylveon said back. Lucario might save Eira in time, but what happens if Aerodactyl catches up?
Other voices echoed. Umbreon grumbled about the ridiculousness of the situation, and Glaceon and Leafeon were giving anxious remarks to each other in the background. Their thoughts were in a disarray, and even Espeon had her worried thoughts laid bare, wondering if their efforts would be enough. If they could really—
Yes, we can, Eevee. The rest of you, give your brother a moment of peace.
Bless Vaporeon. She was the most unflappable of their group, and her authority kept the others in line. The others went quiet, leaving nothing but the muted buzz of their concerns behind, and Eevee enjoyed those moments of near-silence.
True silence was impossible, of course, what with their hive-mind nature. But it was good enough.
The stairs, Eevee.
I see them, Vaporeon. Eevee exhaled, the exhaustion touching the fringes of his mind lifting at the sight of worn stone bricks in the middle of a clearing, a sign of the staircase they were built around. Was this the one that'd take him into Ariados's lair? Would his Tiny Reviver Seed be their saving grace after all?
Curse that spider. He hadn't been ready in the slightest for her ambush, but he'd been smart enough to take precautions. Lucario had been long gone by the time his Tiny Reviver Seed kicked in — obviously, Ariados had stolen the girl, and the jackal had given chase. Aerodactyl was in Stringed Forest too, to make matters worse. Eevee had only gotten a peek of his shadowy form darting around a corner, but he knew his eyes hadn't deceived him. He had eight other siblings as witnesses after all.
A nuisance that Espeon couldn't track the Dark-type Abhorrent. Still, Eevee almost appreciated having him here. He'd take down two Pidgey with one Geodude today.
Eevee took haste, a Quick Attack launching him straight into the stairwell. The closing of its entrance took too many precious seconds, seconds he might need for the human's sake. For Eira's sake. His foot tapped with impatience, with agitation, until at last the stone door at the bottom of the stairs began to shift. He squeezed through the little opening it made, wondering how meaningful the time save would be—
And then, against his better self, he paused. And gaped. The dungeon mist touched him, and the words 'Stringed Forest Village' entered his mind. He hardly noticed.
It was a village all right, with huts, little houses, and the occasional clay and stone buildings all over the place, complete with a quaint fondness for using silky string as either decoration or as a structural material. A village in a Mystery Dungeon — and somehow, that was the normal part.
There was snow everywhere. And ice. And permafrost.
Why is the whole place frozen over?
This section of the village was somewhat spared, with only occasional large patches of frost that had strained to spread their frigid infection so far out. But around the center? Literal pillars of spiked ice, icicles strewn about like giant blades of grass, and snow several inches deep. With Eevee's little stature, it'd come up to his chest. Even the massive trees ringing the village weren't spared, coated white and blue and feeling the sting of frostbite.
His siblings were utterly speechless, their thoughts half-formed at best. Something is wrong, Espeon eventually managed to say.
Very wrong. Vaporeon recomposed herself, urging Eevee onward, and onward Eevee went, shuddering at how abominably cold it was. His paws dashed over snow piles and across slippery rooftops, Espeon alerting him to scores of still-stock villagers huddled in between alleyways and from distances further away—
Ah.
There. A large barren field. Lucario was present, the jackal worrying over a collapsed Eira the Alolan Vulpix, her face smushed into her chest and tails, one of which was tightly clutching the white wristband on her paw. And to the side? A great expanse of ice, spread out in a conic shape that blasted past a few buildings in its wake.
Ariados was encased in a giant block of ice, struck point-blank by the wintery assault with eyes bugging out, and a Rabsca, Scyther, Heracross, and Spidops were furiously chipping away at the ice to free her. Frostbite made them shudder, the unnatural cold stinging the myriad of cuts and bruises their bodies had, yet they refused to tire. Not with the matriarch in such critical conditions.
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The Spidops in particular kept shooting Eira the Vulpix fearful glances, before Scyther promptly turned his head away with a severe grimace. Said Scyther had his eyes elsewhere too, focused on Aerodactyl—
Oh yeah, Aerodactyl was here. A shadowy glob of his former self, his bony body was only beginning to reform, judging from the white spiny pieces floating about and the flimsy mockery of a skull encasing his head. Many villagers watched him with apprehension, but Aerodactyl didn't even twitch, floating overhead with glazed, bewildered eyes.
Strike him? asked Leafeon and Glaceon.
Take him down? said Sylveon.
Bash his skull in? suggested Flareon.
Eevee entertained the thought, seeing a clear chance to strike. But no matter. Aerodactyl twisted toward him in that moment, and he tensed, ready for anything.
"What is she?"
Except for a question. A genuine one. "E-excuse me?"
Aerodactyl pursed his shadowy lips, seemingly torn on what to do. He took in Vulpix's state of weakness, considered, before snarling as Lucario shot him a death glare. Now Eevee felt stares upon him, villagers whispering with dread and terror—
"Odd."
Eevee's soul leaped around the earth, him and his siblings joining the villagers in shock as they collectively processed a word spoken in a Mew's tongue. Behind him, Eevee found the culprit — a floating, catlike creature encased in black crystalline armor, with colorful glass-stained eyes. Eyes laser-focused on Vulpix.
"Odd. Very odd." The Mew Abhorrent scratched his ears with a large three-fingered claw. "If I did not know better, I would garner that a Kyruem had ravaged this place, or that an unusually destructive Subzero Slammer was responsible — and yet, the only possible culprit is weak in Level and thoroughly spent from the backlash, not to mention that she lacks a Icium-Z. Unless you, Abhorrent Eevee, have some elemental affinity for Ice?"
Eevee felt Glaceon quiver and mentally deny any relationship to what happened, deep within himself. Espeon? he said.
I didn't sense him beforehand, was Espeon's uncomfortable response. I did not know of him.
"Primal Gear?" Aerodactyl's lips contorted as he processed Mew's presence, Eevee's ears snapping at the name. "You come at a strange time. What—"
Mew darted and pulled Aerodactyl's mouth shut. The shadow lich hissed, but a glare from Mew kept him silent. "Brainless fool, running around without permission and trying to mutate a Lugia," he chastised him. "Have you no common sense in you? You realize the calamity you nearly caused? I came here to drag you off and see how you explain this heinous act away—"
He waved at Vulpix, and the monstrosity of ice she'd expelled all over the village. "But the perplexity of this situation also catches my fancy. What sorcery is this, that such a spell could be used by a child who couldn't know how to cast it? Before me, a power that expends the soul wholesale seems to be unleashed — scarcely have I heard of a Pokemon wielding such a power, to warp a landscape in such a way that even terrain-based moves cannot. Such magic, its style almost appears reminiscent of something the humans of old might have done, at risk to their inner spirit."
Lucario had now noticed Mew, his expression a muddled mess. Eevee couldn't help but notice how he edged ever-so-slightly closer to Vulpix, still huddled into herself. Rabsca, Scyther, Heracross, and Spidops were inching back too, and Ariados, somewhat free from her ice prison, had finally had recouped enough to use her Warp Scarf to teleport herself out, before staggered back with remnant shards of frost attached to her legs. Somehow her eyes were bugging out even more than they had from Vulpix's attack, her face colorless.
"I don't suppose you would explain this mess? Or anyone else here?" When Mew found Lucario refusing to speak, and the villagers just as silent, he gave out a bored sigh. "Be it that way then. As much as it'd entertain me to pry open your minds, I have more important business, and I haven't any quarrel with your lot."
Aerodactyl blinked. "Gear, the Ariados—"
"Do not dare speak of the Ariados's artifact to me, nitwit. I am not interested in stealing trivial tools of power at the expense of a village's continued survival." Primal Gear the Mew shoved Aerodactyl forward, toward the village exit. "Leave."
Aerodactyl grumbled, but obeyed. One last time did he eye Vulpix, doing so in wonder and consternation, before departing. Mew followed suit, but not before acknowledging Eevee.
"You see a sworn enemy in the Aerodactyl, methinks. You and that Lucario and Vulpix, were you present to stop him from committing his idiocy?" Mew let himself smile as Eevee gave a start. "A mere guess, fellow mutant. Mayhaps we will all meet again, if you mean to see him put down for good. Why, I almost look forward to such a confrontation."
The Mew Teleported, and Eevee rubbed his eyes, in sheer disbelief. A disbelief he knew was shared by the villagers, Lucario, and Ariados. The matriarch's numb whimpers seemed to echo throughout the village, a noise he found nearly as irritating as the unrelenting cold. Vulpix still hadn't moved.
So uh, could someone explain what just happened? asked Jolteon.
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Eira the Vulpix practically limped, her soul feeling like a blackened, smoking piece of toast. "You're kidding," spat Eevee.
"I wish I was kidding." Lucario's voice was raw, her guardian spent — mentally so. "The aftershock had me coated in snow pellets. I ran into the field and found her collapsed—"
"In human form? She can cast magic as a human?"
Vulpix whimpered to herself. "Her wristband was lying a short distance away," mused Lucario. "Ariados must've fought her for it when she did, well, the thing."
The thing. Encasing a whole section of the village in the torment of a dead winter beyond the worst of Sinnoh's storms. It wasn't her intention — she had only been desperate, unwilling to let Ariados take her wristband, her only safety net, and rip it to shreds.
Apparently she'd been too desperate. She might've tapped into her soul in her panic, scrambling to find something, anything that would let her live on, despite her fears of the prophecy's curse. And she might've, in her panic, pulled out a little too much at once.
I did that.
I turned the village into one big ugly popsicle.
I messed up so many homes and hurt so many people.
Her tails clutched her forehead, feeling the Extrasensory screaming within. She could've killed Ariados, doing that! She didn't want that! She didn't want to burn her soul out, throwing giant spears of ice and snowfall everywhere she went, just to stay safe!
Was this related to the prophecy? Why did she have such a power as a human anyway, and how did she manage to do that to begin with? Vulpix couldn't help but wish her magic act was penitence enough, that it alone was enough to complete the prophecy's demands upon her.
But i-it's not that simple, is it?
"Kid, easy now." Lucario's palm glowed, caressing Vulpix in a shower of pleasant, warm, cozy feelings she wanted no part of. "It was just a first time thing. We can figure out a way to control it."
"Maybe Glaceon could help keep her, uh, magic in check." Eevee let out an unsettled sigh. "Whatever the girl did back there, it certainly seemed like something out of a human folktale. Left me too distracted to do something about Mew and Aerodactyl when they left."
"Not like we could face something like a Mew anyway. Kid? Eira? You can say something, you know."
Eira the Vulpix made a whining noise. She hadn't taken much notice of Aerodactyl and the Necrozma Mew Abhorrent who had shown up — it was hard to pay attention to such minor monsters.
I conjured an ice wastescape by sheer accident.
I'm a freak of nature.
"T-this is how I s-shatter the world, i-isn't it?" she said.
Lucario and Eevee gave collective sighs.