Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Altered Bonds
Chapter 12 — Chaos Crackle
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Thunder flashed in a cloudy, rainless sky, the ocean churning in apprehension. A large dark figure blurred over the beach, then a smaller one, flying into a nearby cove.
Espeon only sensed the smaller Pokemon. Peeking out from the foliage of a tree bordering the beach, Eevee saw both, and recognized the other.
Aerodactyl.
His siblings awoke from their ghostly stasis, thoughts and emotions whirring between them. Eevee’s ears flicked at the growing buzz within his head — their head? With their mutation making them like a hivemind of sorts, he sometimes slipped into thinking as if they were all a collective entity — before adopting a grin.
Aerodactyl had come. Lucario’s idiocy hadn’t cost them their opportunity after all.
Blunders, rebutted Sylveon. Lucario made blunders. It’s not his fault.
Are you kidding? He should have known better, Flareon said with a scoff, Umbreon giving a mental nod. Who messes up this bad in hiding one’s secrets?
Leafeon jumped in. You think we haven’t made mistakes of our own? he said. For crying out loud, Eevee—
Eevee grimaced. Running when we got seen wasn’t a good idea, finished Glaceon. We looked so suspicious!
And what were we supposed to do? Explain ourselves? said Jolteon in his defense.
Even as a hivemind, family bickering never changed. Eevee gritted his teeth as his siblings spoke over each other all at once, Espeon tsking in the background. Their argument turned their melded minds into a battlefield, sides forming over whether Lucario or themselves were to blame for messing up their plans. Try as he might, ordering them to settle down did nothing.
Excuse me?
Vaporeon, however, wasn’t him. Just two words and the noise evaporated, Espeon’s tsk echoing all the louder for it. Aerodactyl, the Psychic-type said on both his and Vaporeon’s behalf, and the others shook themselves, remembering their current priority.
Eevee thanked his two reasonable sisters — ignoring Glaceon’s snort and Jolteon’s protest — before breathing in. His paw touched the pouch hung around his neck, aware of the orbs, Berries, and seeds stored in the spatially enlarged space inside. He lifted his rear paw, the one with the anklet.
The corrupted brown Z-Crystal inside greeted him, like a dull memorial. Mistakes, thought Eevee.
Fool or not, meeting Lucario had led to a fortunate series of events. Eira the Vulpix could free them of his mistake, with Kabutops’s assistance. Aerodactyl could free them.
Aerodactyl. The monster who brought the human here in the first place. He has a Silver Wing, huh? And he even has a partner, Eevee thought with a savage grin. Tough luck, Aerodactyl, but you’re not getting your Lugia.
He moved.
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For all the constant traveling Eira had done with her mother, she rarely had to move as she did now. Did she always have this much endurance, or was that the fault of the extra energy packed into her Alolan Vulpix form?
Regardless, she kept pace with Lucario and Gabite, their hurried gait leaving her panting in silence, while Togetic hung a distance behind them. They traveled northward through the forest where Gabite’s home was, over the dirt road that split it down the middle.
It had yet to rain, but the clouds continued to darken still, like a timer urging them back toward the beach where everything started. Every step she took deepened the thorny terror gripping her heart, her reasonable self begging her to reconsider throwing herself into what would surely escalate into a deadly conflict with Aerodactyl, or even Lugia.
Every step that followed spat in the face of both terror and reason. Eira, we can’t do this! they yelled in tandem.
Step.
After everything you’ve gone through, you’re going to throw your life away?
Another step.
Shaymin abruptly flew in, staying at eye level with Gabite. “We’re alone,” she said with a gloom as dreary as the weather. “No one’s helping us. Couldn’t even find Teacher Kecleon, and I was sure he’d understand, just this once.” She rolled her eyes as Lucario moved his lips, adding, “Dojo was the first place I checked. What, did he tell you where he disappeared to?”
Her guardian frowned. His glowing blue eyes flicked elsewhere, scouting for danger abroad.
Not an emotion showed on Gabite’s face beyond resignation, like he had expected this battle to be theirs alone. He nudged Lucario, quietly asking about Aerodactyl, and Lucario admitted he knew little about his abilities or his motives, though he did describe his demeanor and the full details of his appearance. “He’s probably Dark and Flying,” he guessed.
Shaymin harrumphed. “And you kept this to yourself?” she said. “Come on, I can’t be the only one who thinks this reeks of crud! Forget whatever your deal is with Eevee, everyone’s been looking for any lead on this skeletal freak and you didn’t even say—”
“Stop pestering him, Shaymin.”
Vulpix and Lucario blinked as Gabite threw Shaymin a silencing look. “Wha- G-Gabite, he should’ve told us—”
“If Lucario and Vulpix don't want to speak, they won’t. Focus on the task at hand.” A beastly flare ignited in Gabite’s dull eyes, and a muttering Shaymin backed off, Togetic coming over to soothe her.
Vulpix hardly believed it. Gabite, of all Pokemon, not wanting to get nosy about them keeping quiet about their knowledge on Aerodactyl! The same Abhorrent who caused the shipwreck, could slice her to meaty ribbons with a single stroke, who she was so foolishly running toward—
Don’t think about it, she snapped at herself, pushing against the dread that threatened to freeze her cold. She didn’t want to do this, but she had to follow along, she—
I shouldn’t have told Togetic.
Said angelic was now approaching her, her arm pressed her Treasure Bag. “You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered.
Much like how the forest began to open up into a series of spaced-out trees, Vulpix found herself falling into a sea of contemplation. “It isn’t your fault,” she told Togetic. Why was she and Lucario hurrying toward Rocky Shores to stop Aerodactyl’s plans for Lugia? Because she told Togetic things she shouldn't. Because she pushed Lucario to do this—
But it isn’t your fault either, her inner self chided. The others knew about Eevee. And why did we have to hide our knowledge about Aerodactyl, anyway?
Yet she still acted behind Lucario’s back, and Eevee’s. She shouldn’t have!
And so you’re going to blame yourself as the reason that Lucario’s bringing you to Aerodactyl?
Vulpix bit her lip. Admittedly, Lucario had very different reasons to bring her along. The thought of Ariados confronting her alone made the void of nothingness in her soul prickle. She could’ve stayed with Kecleon, or Hattrem and Feebas, or gone back to the cottage, but was that security enough?
And so she agreed to this death mission instead. “Please, Vulpix,” said Togetic, wanting to talk her out of it. “This is too dangerous for you.”
So was Ariados. But at least Lucario would be there to guard her. And Togetic too, and Shaymin and Gabite.
Up ahead was a fork in the path, the dirt road splitting to either side — away from the beach, as if afraid to confront the stirring nightmare there. But Vulpix understood too well the calamities Pokemon like Lugia could cause. Weak as she was, could she live with the thought of herself doing nothing to stop it?
Mother wouldn’t have either. The horrors of a widespread catastrophe had been engraved deep into both their heads. They could upset nature, devastate and distort lands, rend apart families—
Father.
A bitter frown slashed across Vulpix’s face. In one leap she was flying over the path and through the grass, breaking through.
For you, Father.
Step. Another step.
Seeing she couldn’t be swayed, Togetic dropped her head. “I’ll do everything to see you’re safe,” she promised.
Vulpix’s frown lightened. “I know that,” she said. “But thanks, Togetic.”
The beach was in sight, Vulpix’s eyes sliding off the human-warding monolith far out at sea. Even here, she felt its suggestion to go and look elsewhere, to ignore it. A bolt of lightning flashed out, its light refracting at the horizon where the distortion field was.
A tremor pulsed through her paws, and Vulpix staggered. She instinctively went flat on the ground, Lucario and Gabite toppling into each other before getting into all fours. “What in—?” her guardian said, Togetic and Shaymin gaping as the earth shook with a growing rumble.
Trees splayed their leafy branches all around. Vulpix turned to Gabite, the dragon-shark baring his teeth toward the direction where Rocky Shores was. Instantly she understood.
Trouble was beginning.
Gabite pushed himself back up, keeping his balance as he trudged onward. “Get to the dungeon!” he ordered, and they obeyed, Lucario copying Gabite’s scowl. As Vulpix half-ran, half-crawled toward the beach, pushing through the earthquake, a single thought permeated through her head—
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What is that Aerodactyl doing?
Eevee hugged sand as the fourth floor of Rocky Shores tossed it all about, pools of water splashing against rocky formations in a heightened frenzy. Amidst the continuous shouting of his siblings in his head, Eevee forced himself to look up, the red light hovering over his eyes following. Behind a series of rocky pillars, the light exposed Aerodactyl’s and his bird servant’s exact position, outlining their floating figures in a glowing outline.
He moved too slow, and now the entire dungeon was shaking. Aerodactyl must’ve reached the secret Lugia pillar area and used the Silver Wing.
As if to confirm his thoughts, a thin, vertical pillar of light appeared where Aerodactyl and his partner were. It was hardly distinguishable from the dungeon’s unnaturally clear sky, but it grew brighter and brighter, until it suddenly flashed like a beam of lightning.
The dungeon shook its hardest — too hard. It began to rip.
Ruptures of jagged black lines appeared in the sand, in the water, in the sky, red-purplish particles bursting out from their infinite darkness. Eevee wilted as they formed a haze, Vaporeon’s warning to Get out of the dungeon! making him turn around—
The path in front of him, once a straight path, was zig-zagged. And literally curling in on itself.
The very space Eevee was in was curling on itself, the world around him appearing to turn sideways. Or was he sideways? He ran despite the quakes, only to trip over himself, finding himself somehow flung into the air. Before him, paths curved and flipped themselves upside down, the sky expanded and ebbed, and black chasm-like tears ripped through the dimensions, spilling out more dungeon particles.
With a jolt he landed on his side, finding himself next to a pillar etched with symbols and the image of a great winged being, under the shade of strangely bent palm trees. A shining silver feather rested on top, encased in a bubble-like container.
The disoriented roar of voices in his head went silent at once, Eevee’s fur standing on end. “Primal Gear always wanted to see one of these,” purred a raspy, gnarled voice, and Eevee turned to find Aerodactyl looming over him.
A reanimated skeleton of a winged prehistoric lizard, consumed in fire-like darkness — it was the most succinct way to describe him. A black pouch hung around his neck. With him was a Corvisquire, her beak curved in a zigzag shape and with bright yellow feathers mixed with her black and blue, all standing on end like she’d been overcharged with electricity. Her eyes were just as yellow, and filled with ferality.
Both were dripping wet, observing the warping world. A bare layer of bone-colored lips parted to reveal his teeth as he smiled at Corvisquire, who hissed back but kept still. “Maybe you’ll meet him someday, friend,” he said, before turning that smile upon a stone-like Eevee. “Well, what a surprise! I didn’t know I had a rascal following us.”
He was at the hidden Lugia pillar. With Aerodactyl. How?
More and more rips appeared, particles scattering everywhere and twisting the land with their presence. Soon they were like a bloated tumor with no concept of personal space, writhing and tearing at everything. “Isn’t it beautiful?” said Aerodactyl, amused at Corvisquire’s disturbed squawks and Eevee’s loud intake of breath. “Such a splendid sabotage, if I’ve ever seen one. And you’re just in time for the best part.”
The earthquake began to abate, but too late. His siblings screamed over each other as the black tears began to quiver, matter losing cohesion before it—
Before it—
It—
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Lucario’s ears folded against a cacophonic boom. Togetic, Shaymin, and Vulpix froze, while Gabite cursed.
With the tremors finally settling down, the group managed to reach the beach, waves tossing themselves and slamming onto the shore like the fists of angry children. The driftwood he and Eira had held on to when entering the archipelago was nowhere to be seen, likely stolen by said waves. On a less sentimental and far more important note, Rocky Shores’s cavern entrance was coming into sight.
And it was crackling with chaotic energy, red-purplish wisps bursting out to shake hands with the blackened clouds above. The cove itself fizzled and writhed, twisting itself and its shadow into unnatural shapes, as if trying to rip itself asunder. “He’s altering it!” yelled Gabite, Vulpix sucking in her breath at the sight. Lucario looked at it, then the silly signpost beside it.
Well, at least its warnings of ‘Rocky Shores Mystery Dungeon, beware if you value your life and sanity’ made sense now.
“I told you.” Though the earthquake had stopped, Gabite still shook in place, eyes wide and his breath shallow. “Abhorrents can tamper with dungeons too. Oh, I hate this, I hate this, I hate—”
He clasped his head, forcing himself into a state of rationality. And to think Eevee’s inside, Lucario thought, a scowl lodged into his face. The things he ought to do to that Aerodactyl! Never had his sense of justice been so aggrieved, so disgusted by any other being before, and the searing need to pummel him to the dirt ate at him.
Aerodactyl would pay. He had to.
“But why?” yelled Togetic, breaking out of her stupor and practically flinging herself between Gabite and Shaymin. “Is this bait for Lugia? What does Aerodactyl get from corrupting a dungeon?”
“Don’t know.” Shaymin wore a resolute face. “Don’t care either. Gabite?”
Gabite came as close as he dared to the dungeon entrance. “Ambush him at the entrance,” he ordered. “Throw everything you have. Vulpix, stay back and Disable him. Shaymin, stun him with Air Slash. Lucario and Togetic, just keep pelting him from afar — he must have some mutation items on his person. Try to avoid friendly fire on Eevee if he comes out of there too.”
Unease rippled through Lucario’s veins. Beyond his concern for Eevee’s well-being, their plan sounded easy, too easy. If this was like every other encounter he faced on Haven Archipelago so far, wouldn’t this be the part where something went wrong? His aura-lit eyes searched around, checking the sea for a brief moment. No Lugia yet.
Then he turned back to the dungeon’s cavern entrance. And its shadow.
The shadow shifted in a pattern completely unlike the cavern that cast it. It made Lucario think of hungry appendages, searching through the sand for their next meal. “We’re too close,” he blurted, “we shouldn’t be—”
The entire cavern rippled into distorted shadow. And then the surrounding beach, the sand beneath Lucario’s feet shattering into an abyss of spectral colors and impossible darkness. He gasped as shadow snatched his ankles, shoving him inside—
Reds and blues and purples, breaking and reforming—
Things prodding at his nape, breathing down it—
The shadows—
What was time or space? What was earth or heaven—
Agony, a strange, sickly agony—
A terrible jolt made him spasm, and suddenly everything condensed and settled down. Lucario coughed like mad and awoke upon an island, under the deluge of crashing rain and booming thunder.
Too-green grass tickled his prone form, and his muscles howled as he got onto his legs, narrowing his eyes at the palm trees swaying in submission to the winds. The island abruptly turned sandy at its edges, and beyond, an ocean of tumultuous waters slammed against titanic rocky formations. More islands appeared, scattered throughout the fake sea and connected by thin, half-submerged sandbars.
In his head, sigils from the red-purplish fog coalesced into a set of words: Stormsoaked Shores, BF1.
Gabite and Vulpix laid splat against the sand, and further away, Togetic thrashed as if warding off something. “It grabbed me!” she said, a swollen mark on her side. “Something took me in there and- and—”
She jumped as Shaymin flipped onto her back next to her. “Agh,” the Mythical groaned, rubbing her forehead. “What did the dungeon just do to us?”
Lucario wondered himself — whatever just happened, it had taken something out of him. The others seemed no different, groaning from phantom aches. Especially Vulpix, whose pain complemented the soul backlash within her.
The kid had her own question. “What,” she whispered, “happened to the dungeon?”
Only then did the others notice the new state of Rocky Shores, or rather, Stormsoaked Shores. Togetic and Shaymin shared a grimace, while primitive hatred burned through Gabite’s eyes as he pulled himself into a battle stance in one swift motion. As the others got up, they took notice of a few giant red-purplish tentacles that rose in the far sea, swishing about in patient motions.
“That’s not a Pokemon,” said Vulpix.
“That’s not a Pokemon,” confirmed Lucario.
Gabite snorted. “A dungeon trap, actually, and somewhat normal. That distortion thing that happened back there? Completely not normal.”
Another such tentacle emerged next to their island, shaking off water droplets before snapping in their direction. Vulpix and Togetic yelped, but Lucario was there before it could grab anyone, his Force Palm blasting against the appendage.
It instantly exploded into dungeon wisps, fading into the faux stormy sky. “Surprisingly easy to destroy,” remarked Shaymin.
“But still a threat.” Gabite was hastily digging through his Treasure Bag. “This whole island gimmick is unusual, even for a dungeon, and I’d guess this place might be an S-ranked dungeon or worse. I’m certainly not staying to learn about its Pokespawn.”
Out of the bag came an Escape Orb as black as space, with starry dots of green and white drifting within. “This dungeon can’t stop us,” said Gabite. “If we can get out before Aerodactyl—”
And then his expression broke. The orb rolled off Gabite’s claw, and Lucario saw the true extent of their misfortune.
“Orbs don’t work here,” whispered Gabite.
Twin noises of horror left Togetic and Shaymin as they swiped the Escape Orb, fiddling with it as if somehow they could use it. Lucario too took the object, feeling for the mental switch that would activate the item — except it was jammed, Lucario only finding the noxious touch of dungeon fog that somehow disabled his access to the item’s power. He turned to Vulpix, the vixen refusing to even bother trying, her face vacant of emotion.
A laugh not too unlike Weavile’s taunted him in the back of his head. The thief used this very orb to escape him back in Sapling Woods. Now here he was, unable to use one, and thus allowing Aerodactyl to get away with his scheme.
The monster, the cause of his woes, was going to turn Lugia into a mutant.
Just like at the dojo, Lucario never had the chance to lose it. Gabite did it faster and better, anguish screaming out of his throat as he thrust both fin-blades into the nearest palm tree, throwing himself against it. “No, no, NO!” he roared, all sanity drained into the surrounding ocean. “NOT LIKE THIS! NO, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! CAN’T LET HIM WIN, CAN’T LET—”
“Gabite!” yelled Togetic.
Abruptly the dragon-shark snapped his head over, and Lucario recoiled at how maddened his expression was. “I won’t fear him,” he babbled, Vulpix scrambling back as one of his fin-blades slid out of the half-cut palm tree like a sword being unsheathed. “Not this time! If I have to claw my way through this accursed dungeon to stop Aerodactyl, I’ll do it, mark my words! This won’t be like before! I’ll do it, and tear that blasted fiend apart and throw him into the Distortion World where you scourges belong!”
“Gabite?” yelled Shaymin.
At once Gabite dropped to his knees, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Only then did he actually notice his teammates, his gaze refocusing. A claw fell upon his face.
“Ah.” He caressed his forehead. “So much for your help, Braixen. I slipped again.”
He let his eyes wander about, before shaking his head. “I’ve got scars in this head of mine,” he said with a bleak chuckle. “Shaymin, can you scout for the stairs? We might still have a chance if we’ve fast enough.”
Shaymin narrowed her eyes at their team-leader. She didn’t waste time, however, speeding off to explore the various islands. Togetic and Vulpix threw a look of their own toward Gabite before the former approached the latter, assuring her that everything would be alright. Lucario was last to break off his stare, a deep frown on his face.
For all of Gabite’s odd behaviors, he never acted like this before. Hatred of Abhorrents indeed, mulled Lucario. Just what exactly happened in his past that he’d react this way to impending failure?
He’d bug him about it later — ironic as it might be, this wasn’t something he was going to ignore. For now Lucario turned his gaze toward the ocean, a frown on his muzzle as lightning snaked throughout the sky in hypnotic patterns. He thought about his brief moment in the abyss he’d been thrown into—
And reeled, refusing to relive the moment, the scenes too unbearable to make sense of. Then reeled further as Mismagius’s talk of spacetime distortions plagued his head. His mind’s eye drifted to the dungeon name inserted into his head, in letters shaped like eyeless Unown.
He imagined that for a moment, the letters screeched at him in warped, alien warbles. He hissed and shoved out the distorted noise at once, trying to recompose himself.
Aerodactyl, what did you do?
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A sharp turn and Eevee evaded the beam of pure darkness roaring past him, his tail tingling from the dreadful fallout it left in its wake. “What did you do, Aerodactyl?” he shouted over the clamor of the dungeon thunderstorm. “What did you do?”
Rocky spikes jutted out of the sand and grass, Eevee thankful for his small size as he weaved between them. One thing he was not thankful for?
The fact that there’s no hiding from this guy? deadpanned Flareon.
Eevee cursed as a skeletal figure zipped in front of him, Aerodactyl wearing a bloodthirsty grin as his winged claw swung down with crackling dark energy. Eevee swung around, his tail taking on a Steel-type sheen, and thunder laughed at their sport as Night Slash grinded against Iron Tail.
“Me?” Aerodactyl laughed along with the thunder, Eevee biting his lip as his claw began to burn through the metal. “Oh, if only, little Eevee! You think I did this to the dungeon?”
Eevee turned tail and ran. Not that he could run. Not from the memory of everything twisting before his eyes.
Rocky Shores, with its tight, mazy corridors of sand, was gone. He and his siblings had seen it rupture into motes, leaving behind a cosmic soup of ever-shifting colors that seared their minds, up and down losing all sense of meaning. They saw voided light, light-filled void, things they collectively couldn’t hope to comprehend. It was like the entire dungeon had fallen into its own version of a Distortion Frenzy. So maddening was the scene, in fact, that he was sure they themselves had fallen into a Distortion Frenzy, nine pairs of eyes that couldn’t blink facing insanity upon insanity.
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And then just before that collapsed too, the madness restitched itself together, leaving behind Stormsoaked Shores’s series of islands in an open sea. To his annoyance, this constricted his movement, while Aerodactyl and Corvisquire could fly. And Aerodactyl was freakishly fast when he wanted to be.
Not to mention that whatever had happened, it had left him exhausted and with scratches that shouldn’t be there, hurting in ways that shouldn’t. Eating an Oran Berry helped, at least.
A dangerously close bolt of electricity only worsened Eevee’s mood, the Abhorrent Corvisquire screeching in feral fury as she appeared to intercept him. “You think I altered the dungeon? It was already growing unstable!” yelled Aerodactyl as Eevee took cover from Corvisquire’s assault, using the palm trees to his advantage. “All I did was activate the pillar, and it was enough to collapse it!”
It was mocking, the skeleton mutant casually taking mirth out of his running around. And we’re just gonna play passive? questioned Jolteon.
Plan B, reminded Eevee. He failed to get the jump on Aerodactyl, but there was one other trick up his fur.
“In fact, I’m sure Lugia was counting on that, hoping I’d get injured during the distortion. Not that it worked!” Aerodactyl’s wheezy laugh was like the rattle of bones. He smiled a little harder, before darting.
Eevee gasped as he came upon him, his claw clamping over his body. “But enough,” he said, motioning to Corvisquire. The mutant obeyed him like a disgruntled trained animal, stilling itself in the air. “I know you’re here to thwart me, traitor. You realize how futile this is? How little you can do to stop progress?”
Eevee scowled at his captor, but inwardly, he and his siblings saw their moment. “I barely need to lift a paw to stop you,” he taunted.
Aerodactyl guffawed. “Brave words, coming from—”
And then he screeched, Eevee slipping out of his grasp as a menagerie of attacks struck him. Electricity, ice, and fairy light all fell upon him, Corvisquire squawking as psychic power crushed her against sand while dark waves frayed her feathers. On sheer reflex Aerodactyl lashed out behind him, only for his claws to swipe harmlessly through Jolteon, Glaceon, and Sylveon, their misty forms rippling yet untouched.
A split second of pure disbelief was enough for Flareon, Vaporeon, and Leafeon to punish Aerodactyl, their elemental triangle of fire, water, and grass attacks making him tumble toward a waiting Eevee. Only at the last second, like a grain of sand slipping through his paws, did the skeleton upright himself and soar past his Iron Tail.
Aerodactyl flew several yards before turning. He looked at him, then his brothers and sisters, then Corvisquire, reduced to a pulp by Espeon and Umbreon’s savagery. She must’ve been frailer than expected, perhaps in part due to the dungeon distortion, for red-purplish tendrils ruptured out of the sand. Resembling the bones in a ribcage, they latched on to her, dragging the bird through solid ground to evict her from Stormsoaked Shores.
“Oh.” Aerodactyl smiled.
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Stormsoaked Shores, B3F. And the exit to the next floor was in sight.
Unlike previous dungeons, the exit wasn’t a staircase, but instead a ruined structure of gray brick, a circular platform in the middle. It glowed as Vulpix and the others stepped onto it, before slowly descending into layers of deepening void, the world above vanishing. All that could be was the platform, its brilliance etching out the shape of a stormy canvas, capturing the chaotic landscape of the dungeon down to its strange islands and unscalable rocky spires. The void then swallowed it up too, Vulpix queasy at the unnatural darkness that remained.
It reminded her too much of the paradoxical scenes she witnessed when she got dragged into the dungeon, even if it barely held a candle to those scenes. I never want to see a dungeon get altered again, she thought, calming herself by focusing on the lingering taste of Oran Berry juice instead. Everyone had eaten one to recover from any pain they’d received, both from the dungeon distortion and from Pokespawn.
Eventually holes tore into the darkness, until it ripped away altogether, revealing the island they now stood on. And it was an utter mess.
It was as if the dungeon-made lightning that sizzled above but never fell decided to make an exception this once — if that lightning was also joined by a surge of elemental turbulence. Burnt grass and palm trees, some smoking with dark, evil wisps, coated the area. Some spots were coated in thin yet resilient layers of ice, and a few trees had blade-like leaves cutting into their bark. Slash marks and mounds of displaced sand were everywhere, along with little paw prints, all speaking of a glorious battle.
Another island a relatively short distance away looked identical in terms of damage. “Uh?” said Shaymin.
Lucario’s glowing eyes searched with thrice the hastiness shown in earlier floors. “Eevee,” he muttered. “Don’t see him. Nor Aerodactyl.”
“All these attacks?” whispered Togetic. “By that Eevee?”
Gabite’s face was an uncanny stone wall. It’d been that way after his freakout. “He—” Vulpix said, before meekly eyeing Lucario, who gave an indifferent sigh. “He has siblings.”
That only made Togetic and Shaymin more lost. Gabite inspected the various pathways, before pointing.
Further away still was a relatively huge island, a grand stone temple in its center that attracted all who saw it. “The way out,” said Gabite.
Enough said. At once the group advanced toward it. Toward doom.
From island to island were half-flooded land bridges of sand, just wide enough for Lucario and Gabite to walk astride if they dared, and with sections where jumping became a must to avoid the water. Pokespawn leapt out of the sea the moment they crossed one, Tentacruel and Seadra and Mantine alike, and Togetic and Shaymin dispelled them before their ambush could do anything. A Pelipper dive-bombed them from out of nowhere, but Vulpix caught notice and strained her eyes, paralyzing it with Disable. It fell right into Gabite’s waiting claws, whereupon the dragon-shark slashed the large-billed pelican to motes, while Lucario’s Aura Sphere crashed and eliminated a giant dungeon tentacle before it even rose halfway out of the water.
No chances, no mistakes. Gabite, Shaymin, and Togetic were already a well-oiled team, Vulpix could see, and they covered each other without needing to say a word. Even when Togetic or Shaymin missed or failed to bring down a Pokespawn, Gabite was ready with a Blast Seed. Lucario held his own alongside them. She helped a little too, and a little was a lot. Just one slip—
A Mantine rammed her, Vulpix gasping as the beady-eyed ray tossed her into open waters. Her head plunged underwater, and memories of her shipwreck experience made her kick like mad. She managed for a moment to rise and swim — her! Swim as a four-legged Vulpix as if it was the most obvious thing in the world! Was the wristband doing that too? — only for a large mass of tentacles to burst out of the water, looping around her body. Vulpix could’ve sworn eyes watched her from deep below, connected to the tentacles dragging her down.
With a start Vulpix found arms pulling her up at the same time, Shaymin and Togetic yanking at her. One sweeping Tri-Attack from the latter and the tentacles popped, the eyes vanishing. Supported by the flying duo, Vulpix half-swam, half-flew back to the shore, panting for herself and her wide-eyed guardian. Multiple times she assured everyone, herself especially, that she was fine.
—One slip and someone would drown. Left for Aerodactyl to play with like carrion.
It took relatively little time until they reached the island where the temple sat, Gabite grumbling as he pointed out the lessening amount of battle markings. Said markings vanished around the temple steps climbing up to a smattering of ruins at the top, except for steaming dark wisps clinging to the stonework. Vulpix would’ve dwelled on its ominous meaning, had she not spotted the large circular platform at the center of the temple ruins. The exit.
And in front of it, displayed with wicked pride? A gleaming silver feather, suspended in a bubble-like case upon a short, etched pillar. Everyone flinched at its bold presence.
Oh, was all Vulpix could think.
Gabite drew in a mouthful of air as he gingerly approached it. A tap on the bubble and his claw bounced back, the dragon-shark shaking it like he somehow burnt himself. He spat an ember of Dragon Breath, the group backing up when it too forcefully rebounded off the bubble.
“I didn’t think we’d just come across this,” said Gabite. “Shaymin? Does it mean anything to you?”
Shaymin pressed her lips. “It might.”
She dropped, landing in front of the markings on the pillar. Her paw sketched over the image of the great winged Lugia, then drifted to three inconspicuous dots at the base of the structure. The leftmost one glowed blue.
Currents of uncertainty rippled through Team Heavendust. “There’s more pillars?” asked Togetic.
Shaymin tapped her paw against the stone, as if to chip it away. “Three pillars,” she thought aloud. “They can’t each be a means to summon Lugia, so why? Or is Aerodactyl after something more?”
Gabite rubbed his claw, staring at the shiny feather. A piece of art, floating naively in its own little bubble that would never be popped, guarding it from reality. Placed upon a pedestal that chose no longer to be hidden, in the wake of the dungeon’s reformation.
“No point standing around,” he said. His breath grew labored, terrified, for a moment, the dragon-shark calming himself with a claw upon his heart. ”Aerodactyl. We have to get him.”
Shaymin rose back up. “Yeah. He’ll give me answers, one way or another.”
The circle platform descended once they set foot upon it, Vulpix’s nerves knotting into each other as darkness consumed them. Unlike before, this platform didn’t vanish, instead blurring into indistinct shapes, its glow swimming over her eyes and rippling over the darkness. One blink and suddenly they were in the cavern entrance again, in the real world, where the rain had yet to come crashing down.
Red-purplish mist lingered in the area, Gabite unfazed at its presence. “I’ve seen this,” he whispered. “Particularly dangerous dungeons always have warning signs like this. Lucario, are we too late?”
Lucario’s eyes stared through the stone as the others crept toward the mouth of the cave, everyone holding their breath. It’ll be fine, Vulpix told herself once more. Eevee’s softened him up, right? You can stand against Aerodactyl.
Lucario’s gaze rose and fell before he frowned. Cautiously he came to the edge, a croaking noise leaving his body. “Aerodactyl and Eevee aren’t here,” he said, “But—”
The others made similar noises, and Vulpix brought herself to peek outside. And cry out.
A Corvisquire. Doubtlessly the same one she’d seen catching a rabbit for her meal, her mutation only noticeable by how her feathers stuck out as if charged with static. Some of those feathers were now yellow, just like her half-lidded, glazed eyes.
She convulsed and violently coughed, stuck in multiple waking nightmares. “Dungeon Plague,” Gabite hissed.
The group left their shelter, surrounding the stricken crow Pokemon. “Aerodactyl got one,” whimpered Togetic. “Is she—?”
“Feral,” Lucario said, his glowing gaze intense. Corvisquire stared back as if she didn’t see him, or any of them, in the slightest. At once the jackal reeled back, hacking out air. “Her thoughts are completely animalistic. I-is that the plague I can sense from her?”
“A severe one,” replied Gabite. “It’s bad enough in low-level dungeons, but when evicted from a place like Stormsoaked Shores, the illness comes with adverse effects. It won’t kill itself, but it’ll cripple her for weeks if left untreated, if not leave her open to things that do kill.”
Vulpix knew Pokemon could fight even while under poison or paralysis — for them, status effects were painful, but more of a hindrance than a death threat. Corvisquire, however, looked like she was nothing more than a bug whose legs were cut off. She was truly, horribly sick. And a feral Abhorrent, she thought. Why?
Lucario ripped his gaze away, toward the ocean. “No Lugia either, but the storm’s still stirring,” he remarked with a dark scowl. “Where’s that cursed Aerodactyl gone?”
No sooner did he say it than Vulpix saw his feelers twitch. Towards the black clouds Lucario jerked his head—
Sand. Sand in her eyes.
Vulpix scrambled back and blinked rapidly, tails covering her face as displaced sand swept over her. The others suffered less, Togetic and Shaymin avoiding the brunt of it by being airborne, while Gabite and Lucario threw their heads back, arms raised. In a moment the sand wave passed, and they saw him.
She’d never seen Aerodactyl before, but Lucario’s descriptions were only ample enough to describe how fearsome he looked. Like a demon from a fantasy story brought to life.
A monstrous fiend of bones dwarfed them all, the grim dark weather a perfect compliment for the shadowy mantle that enveloped his skeleton, hissing and spouting out like murderous fire. Bloodshot rubies were the color of the glowing pinpricks that served as his eyes, eyes that instead of repelling her as the human-repelling towers did, sucked her in instead. Eyes that forced her to relearn the meaning of dread.
In his claws, Eevee slumped, face buried deep into a ditch of sand. “Pitiful nuisance,” cackled Aerodactyl, before raising his skull, an eerie smile appearing at the sight of a deathly still Lucario. “Oh? Explorers too? More friendly friends? I didn’t expect you to be here, Lucario, friend of Abhorrents.”
Vulpix trembled — the appearance she was unfamiliar with, but the voice she knew, even if she thankfully couldn’t understand the words back then. “And this vixen child?” Aerodactyl said, dropping the limp Eevee. “You guard her like your fallen friend guarded you? A strange thing, for a sympathizer to work with explorers who hate—”
“They know,” growled Lucario.
Aerodactyl blinked, his pupils dimming out before glowing harder. “All of you, sympathizers,” he realized, fingering the black storage pouch hung around his neck. His own pouch, not Eevee’s. “Friends of Abhorrents, but not quite. It means little to respect the gifted when you still refuse the gift.”
Everyone held their distance as they noticed the pouch, but Gabite paradoxically stayed his ground, looking like he saw a ghost risen from the dead. “Just like them,” he hissed. “Of all you horrors, you’re the most like them.”
Aerodactyl’s eye sockets shifted shape, as if to raise a brow. “No, things are different here,” Gabite continued. “Old fears won’t stop me. I don’t know what drove you to warp Rocky Shores with your sorcery, Abhorrent, but you’re not getting Lugia too.”
Aerodactyl stared. And laughed.
It scraped Vulpix’s soul, that foul, mad laughter, tearing right into the throb of nothingness in her soul. His cackles cast upon her fear, terror, and… spite?
“The dungeon? The consequence of Lugia’s poor attempt to harm me from within. You think I know the means to manipulate dungeons?” Aerodactyl grinned to himself. “Oh, Gear, how you’d laugh if you heard these naive fools!”
Shaymin paled. “You mean—”
“Why, look at you all,” Aerodactyl cut her off, “a menagerie of Pokemon seldom seen around this island. You think I need Lugia, Mythical? You alone would make half as great an ally, and twice as convenient as that seabound beast.” His head whipped toward the ocean in seething defiance. “ARE YOU LISTENING, COWARD? I KNOW YOU’RE LURKING DOWN THERE! I, OBLIVION MATTER, CHALLENGE YOU!”
The rain finally let itself down, at first a slight plop-plop on Vulpix’s head, before turning into a shower, then a barrage of rain. Aerodactyl smirked as if he’d already won, the rain fizzling against his inky flames.
“A pity. He’s content to watch me, mock me. But we both know I no longer need him, although this would be so much easier if he’d just give in to change.” Aerodactyl idly shook Eevee, checking his condition. “Lugia’s hiding something, you see, something I mean to take in due time.”
Shaymin’s forehead creased. “The pillars,” she said. “They don’t summon Lugia. You’re seeking entry into his dungeon lair.”
A twitch from Aerodactyl. “What would a Lugia protect in his home that an Abhorrent wants?” Shaymin wondered aloud. “Powerful artifacts? Ways to better produce your mutations?” A hint of certainty entered her voice. “Or perhaps, ‘the means to manipulate dungeons?’”
Faces twisted, Gabite’s most of all. Aerodactyl tilted his head, before allowing himself to clap a few times.
“Perhaps,” he said. “Perhaps. But regardless of my motives, you explorers want to stop me. So let me ask: why aren’t you?”
Lucario and Gabite bared their teeth, Togetic biting her lip, but no one attempted to move. No one wanted to. Vulpix almost hoped they wouldn’t have to.
Aerodactyl gave a dry chuckle at their hesitance. “Unsurprising. You’re afraid of what I am, of what I have. I’d beg you to reconsider your stance, but your biases are too strong, yes? It’s fine, I’ll help you. I’ll show you the way to a new, wonderful order. I’ll make friends out of you yet!”
He pointed a bony talon, and Eevee jolted. His head shot up, and he screamed. Aerodactyl pointed to Corvisquire too, and she screamed. Lucario’s feelers snapped back as he echoed both screams, and Vulpix found the world in a state of thunderous uproar. Aerodactyl’s eyes consumed that world.
“I’ll GET YOUR LOYALTY, MY KIN!”
Eevee threw his head back and, with maddened eyes filled with rainwater and tears, lunged at them.
Vulpix barely knew when she started defending herself. Eevee’s siblings manifested in every direction she looked, their eyes haunted and wild as the mist-like spirits let their elemental powers go haywire. Eevee himself blurred around, each haphazard sweep of his tail firing star-shaped projectiles. She’d find herself breathing out a heavy Powder Snow to shatter the homing stars, throwing Ice Shards at Razor Leaves, or falling flat and sucking in air as searing waves of heat caressed the top of her body.
Once or twice she saw Togetic and Shaymin, bewildered at the sight of the Eeveelution ghosts as they tried to ward off their colorful assault. She thought she heard Gabite’s snarls redouble, and judging from whatever Lucario was yelling at him, probably because he learned the hard way that attacks simply phased through the siblings. Was that Water Pulse that crashed into an Energy Ball meant for her? Did that Tri-Attack save her from a Psybeam she nearly leapt into?
Weak volts of electricity blinded her as they snaked around the battlefield, Corvisquire looking like she was killing herself trying to discharge every last spark of electricity within her. He is killing her, isn’t he? Vulpix thought, barely glimpsing Aerodactyl as he hung in the background, laughing. He’s doing this to her, and Eevee!
And he could do the same to Lugia.
Horror, flowing in her blood. Panic in her blood. Dread. Spite? She never felt this kind of bitterness before, not even when Father had been—
Corvisquire cried out, and Vulpix acted, the bright blue light of Disable flashing out from her eyes. It was more than effective, the bird dropping limp and ceasing all her attacks. Unconsciousness claimed her.
One issue down, but it was only the beginning. Aerodactyl had moved in the corner of Vulpix’s eye, his claw elongating into a blackened, accursed blade aimed for Gabite. The dragon-shark gave a mangled gasp, like an animal meeting its natural predator.
It struck a nerve in her. No! snapped Vulpix as her eyes burned with loathing, Aerodactyl staggering in surprise as a dark blue outline locked onto his body. Too slow did Gabite thrust his fin-blade forward, the pterodactyl darting back and swiveling his head—
Aerodactyl seemed impossibly large so close to her, his scowl vile and slimy. “RUDE,” he hissed, and Vulpix’s bravery melted as fast as it came, her feet glued as his claw now reached for her. The emptiness in her soul contracted, the rain pounded against her ears—
----------------------------------------
“Claws off!”
Even without Force Palm’s added power, Lucario knew the slap he threw against Aerodactyl’s ribcage would’ve sent him veering off. As it was, it sent him straight into a craggy cliffside.
Lucario barely caught the way Vulpix blinked her eyes in wonder, all thoughts consumed by the desire to break Aerodactyl. He darted, speeding into his ribcage and shoving him further into the cliff, rocks chipping off. The mutant grunted, slashing at him point-blank with Dragon Claws, but aura suffused Lucario as Detect made him dodge every move.
And for every dodge, he struck right back, straining against the abominable aura that flared out from the skeletal Abhorrent, leaked into Eevee and his siblings, and bashed against his feelers. It didn’t affect him, but he sensed it regardless, from ten different sources — nine agonized by oily, polluted tendrils that drilled through their brains like infectious nails, and one creating the agony.
Aerodactyl was controlling them. He held power over fellow Abhorrents.
He made Abhorrents. He made Corvisquire into a feral mutant and, despite the Dungeon Plague leaving her bedridden, made her hack out electric attacks to harm them. Only now in her unconscious state was she spared, but Lucario didn’t forget how rotten it felt to sense the plague within her.
Aerodactyl did that to her. He fought Lugia. He sunk his and Eira’s ship!
Even in his just fury, he couldn’t bring down Aerodactyl fast enough. A nauseating wave of command flowed from Aerodactyl to Eevee, and Lucario found himself mentally thrown aside by Espeon, the jackal forced to roll under waves of electricity and ice from Jolteon and Glaceon. “Strange,” remarked the skeletal Abhorrent as he casually pulled himself up. “You act as if we have a personal grudge.”
Flames from Flareon, darkness from Umbreon. Lucario darted onto his feet, jumping back with a scowl as the Eeveelutions kept pushing him away from his target. “Murderer,” he spat.
HE TOOK ADAM AND THE OTHERS AWAY.
Aerodactyl’s expression twisted in a strange way. “Murder?”
Gabite roared as he bolted in, Aerodactyl parrying his Dragon Claw. “Corvisquire, you cretin!” he spat, slashing without abandon. “Look at what you did to her!”
Another silent command from Aerodactyl, and Gabite retreated as Glaceon and Sylveon fired Ice and Fairy projectiles at him. “You too hold a grudge,” said Aerodactyl. “How odd, childish even. Grown Pokemon should know better than to seek revenge for every little misunderstanding they face.”
He wagged a talon, and Gabite snapped. With a bestial cry he charged, strafing past an Ice Beam, and unleashed his Outrage in Aerodactyl’s direction. Draconic energy laced the field wherever he swung, Aerodactyl’s smirk as he dodged only furthering his anger. With a start Lucario found himself recklessly charging in as well, and too late realized their own emotions had been turned against them.
Taunt.
Aerodactyl intercepted his strike, grabbed Gabite’s arm mid-swing, and slashed with a metal-coated tail.
Gabite tumbled into the sand in a complete stupor, while Lucario was flung to his side. Gasping for breath, he caught wind of Eevee bouncing between Shaymin and Togetic, pestering them while his siblings did the actual damage. Eevee suddenly switched direction and blurred at him, fangs blackening and bared at somehow him and Aerodactyl alike.
The Bite didn’t come — Disable’s blue glow encapsulated him, and he tottered, his siblings suddenly pausing their chaos and twitching in place. “What? No, don’t resist!” said Aerodactyl, before glaring daggers at the Vulpix responsible.
Lucario moved on instinct, but Togetic was closer to the frozen vixen, throwing up a bubble of light up — a Safeguard — that Aerodactyl shattered with a single swipe. “Get back!” she warned, casting a Fairy Wind his way.
Aerodactyl hissed and reared back. He took an Air Slash from Shaymin, his black flaming cloak flaring out with spiked intensity. Lucario’s tail curled into itself as he spat out a Dark Pulse, crackling with unusually great energy.
It imploded against the ground and spread out in wrathful shockwaves, Detect the only reason Lucario managed to bypass it. Shaymin had moved too, throwing Protect over Vulpix. Gabite and Eevee had no such protection and groaned out as the waves tore them off their feet, and Togetic only held due to her resistance against the vile energy, while Corvisquire helplessly rolled into the distance. “Dark Aura?” Shaymin said. “Guys, he’s—”
A shift of Aerodactyl’s claw and Stone Edge pillars burst out of the ground, walling Lucario off just before he could reach the blighted Abhorrent. They smashed into Shaymin, prematurely silencing her, and dug into Togetic’s wings, ripping a scream out of her throat. Both fell dazed, Aerodactyl slapping Shaymin aside with an Iron Tail for good measure.
Eevee and Gabite hadn’t recovered yet. That left Lucario alone with Aerodactyl and Vulpix, the latter scrambling back. At once he leapt in front of the frightened kid, seeing the scratches on Aerodactyl’s bones that he himself inflicted. Too few.
“You fight Oblivion Matter, fool.” Aerodactyl cocked his head. “You think to resist perfection?”
Murderer. Lucario’s palms flashed with justice’s desperation, Aura Spheres flying out.
Aerodactyl laughed despite the pain as they pounded against his skull. He brought his claws together, a violet sphere buzzing into being between them. “No!” Vulpix cried out, her eyes glowing up.
But Aerodactyl shifted away from her line of sight, the sphere detonating into a death beam. Lucario’s fur felt like it was being turned to stone as it ripped through him, scraping at the very fiber of his being, the jackal yelling and buckling. Then Aerodactyl redirected the beam—
----------------------------------------
Pain unimaginable. Like she was being baked into hardened clay.
The torment seemed to suck the literal life out of her, Vulpix screaming out with the all-consuming desire for mercy as Aerodactyl’s attack withered her away. It even touched the voided nothingness within her, amplifying it several notches. Her insides stabbed at her, like daggers being used as sewing needles. It hurt so much, so much!
Without warning the killer beam swung off her, and Vulpix found herself collapsed and disheveled, the pouring rain a strange relief for her throbbing body. She dared to peek up, finding Shaymin had pulled herself together and interrupted Aerodactyl, dueling him with blustering Air Slash blades. Aerodactyl himself looked filled with new vigor as he struck with force equal to Shaymin’s. “Eevee, to me!”
Eevee roused, head snapping to the side as if Aerodactyl was yanking him by a chain. Gabite burst out of the ground before he could fall back under the lich mutant’s control, however, turning Dig’s momentum into a wild slash that left the Abhorrent sprawling. The dragon-shark flashed a primal smile at Aerodactyl’s irritated expression, before joining Shaymin.
Togetic was rising with a groan, and beside Vulpix, Lucario was kneeling, panting for breath against whatever Aerodactyl did. Vulpix herself huffed, a paw against her thumping chest. She should’ve done better, but in the end, fear won. Aerodactyl had gone for her, struck at those who protected her, and she just stood there. Exactly like when Ariados first tried to kill her. And now she suffered for it, the ripping feeling in her soul unrelenting—
Her wristband. It was scorched.
Vulpix blanked out as she saw the charred lines blackening a good portion of the band, ruining the pristine white color that fit perfectly with her snow-like fur. The nothingness with her had evolved too far, the vixen clutching herself as it sliced her from within, a pain she struggled to hold herself against.
Was it the damage done to the band? Was her curse attached to it, and had Aerodactyl accelerated it?
Her Pokemon form was intact, her moves and language still accessible. But it could’ve been worse. If Aerodactyl hadn’t been interrupted, Eira the Vulpix realized, he could’ve destroyed the band altogether.
Even if she didn’t die, she would have been as good as dead then. The torrent of falling rain filled Vulpix’s head as she turned to the trembling ocean, then to Aerodactyl, fending with all his might against Shaymin and Gabite.
He hurts people with his mutagens. He wanted to hurt people with Lugia.
He could’ve killed Corvisquire. He could’ve killed you. He’s killed before.
He killed Mother.
Emptiness. Then sheer hatred, an experience novel to her.
Aerodactyl’s entire body flared out like a vengeful miasma as he dove back, his gleaming eyes covered by the Dark Pulse he was charging up. One that seemed even more terrible than his last. Vulpix grunted. A blue tint coated her eyes, then a dark blue tint, before becoming a baneful purple.
She cast Spite.
It marked Aerodactyl, the skeleton making an awful clicking sound as he slumped to the ground, his attack dispersing. Specters seemed to rip themselves out of his body, cackling at his sudden weakness. “What—” he heaved.
Gabite slashed. And Shaymin slashed.
Their combined force brought out a real screech of pain from the Abhorrent. He darted away, thunder booming as he narrowed his eyes at Vulpix. A split-second later and he was upon her.
She Disabled, and Aerodactyl’s Dragon Claw lost its power, dully striking at her. “BRAT!” he roared, only for Vulpix to spit Powder Snow in his face. “STOP IT!”
Another Spite. Aerodactyl gagged as it sapped his strength, and Lucario shifted from his spot. He Force Palmed him toward the cavern where Stormsoaked Shores was.
Aerodactyl crashed into the stone, spitting out gibberish. He moved, only to be Disabled again, letting Lucario throw a free Aura Sphere in his brief pause. Then Gabite’s Dragon Breath crashed upon him, and a Tri-Attack from a determined Togetic. He howled, dropping to the sand in a moment of submission.
And then he blurred, and Shaymin blurred too.
She threw herself in front, and Protect came up, sparks screeching out as Aerodactyl shoved a tiny barbed object against the green shield of light. The vindictive fog in Vulpix’s head lifted at the sight of it, replaced by a heavy dose of alarm as she realized what he must’ve held, despite the rain obscuring its shine.
A Z-Crystal mutagen.
Aerodactyl withdrew, and Shaymin followed suit, the latter shuddering as she stood guard in front of her leery teammates. “Enough,” said Aerodactyl, waving the crystal toward them. His eyes burned horrendously bright. “I tire of playing this game. I wanted to save my crystals for Lugia, but with you meddlers around, I see little point in conserving. You think you can protect them from what I wield, Shaymin the Mythical? Or you for that matter, Vulpix the pest?”
Vulpix could almost feel the crystal drilling into her, merging with her inner agony and warping into something too horrible to speak about. She huddled closer to Team Heavendust, to Lucario and Togetic. Their stances were taut, and Gabite’s and Shaymin’s even more so.
He was going to target her. Of course he would.
Aerodactyl put on a sardonic smile. “You’ll understand in time, friends.”
His bones shifted.
Vulpix readied her gaze and prayed.
But no need. Eevee crashed into him mid-flight, throwing Aerodactyl sideways while his siblings exploded out of the crystal-spikes on his head. The skeletal Abhorrent bellowed as they sought their revenge, pelting him with elemental attack after attack. Espeon mentally ripped the Z-Crystal out of his grasp, and she, Leafeon, and Umbreon took a moment to strike at it with all their fury.
Before everyone’s awestruck eyes, it shattered. Reduced to less than even flecks, the ooze within the crystal instantly evaporated with a shudder. “No, NO!” said Aerodactyl. “STOP IT!”
Eevee’s face scrunched up, but he didn’t relent. No matter how many times Aerodactyl ordered him, he and his siblings kept assaulting him, almost as if their single-minded goal was the only thing blocking out his mind control.
Before they could finish him, however, Aerodactyl darted to the sky, bones cracked in multiple places. “Terrible friends, all of you!” he yelled, clutching the pouch on his neck. “Wasting my time when I’ve got better things—”
The pouch ripped off its cord, Aerodactyl watching it rip out of his grasp and toward the sea. The sky rumbled, and several bolts of lightning fried the bag to a crisp, eradicating whatever was inside. The water split open, crashing waves reversing back in fearful respect.
And Vulpix saw him. Lugia.
A majestic silver beast of a bird, covered in scales and blue protrusions, its wings so enormous she knew they were enough to hurl hurricanes. The Psychic glare in his eyes dimmed, but the glare itself sharpened.
His tail flicked, and electricity snapped upward, jumping into the sky. Aerodactyl stared upward at the blackened storm clouds, crackling with violence, before grumbling.
“Coward.”
Vulpix shielded her eyes as everything flashed an electric yellowy-white. Somewhere she faintly recalled hearing of Thunder, a devastating move that always struck its target during a storm, and understood why Aerodactyl didn’t bother dodging. He deserved it, she thought, before frowning — when was she one to wish evil upon someone?
Aerodactyl’s bones were altogether gone, leaving a smoking shadow sprawled on a pile of sand. It laid still, before gnashing its fangs, Vulpix jumping as it glared at everyone with bloodshot red eyes. Burning straight through the sand, it vanished just before a second bolt landed with a deafening blast.
Gabite’s eyes had bugged out at the shadow, a claw resting on his chest. “That was Aerodactyl,” he whispered.
Lucario seemed nearly as creeped out, Vulpix and Togetic giving each other uncomfortable frowns. “And he got away,” said Shaymin with a harrumph. “Great.”
Eevee rested a good distance away, taking slow, methodical breaths. Corvisquire was still knocked out. Vulpix chewed her lip in concern for the abused bird’s health, before turning to Lugia.
The Legendary stared at where his second Thunder had struck, superheated sand having turned to glass, with a rigid scowl. His gaze swept around to inspect the damage, overlooking them, arching once at Eevee.
And then his neck craned toward Vulpix. Eyes widened. Then narrowed.
Pressure struck her head, Vulpix gasping as she swooned and choked on air. She saw nothing but Lugia. Lugia saw nothing but her.
WHAT TRICKERY?
His voice slammed into her mind like the deluge of an entire sea. Drowning her in her own head.
I THOUGHT I HAD DEALT WITH ALL OF YOU SURVIVORS. YET HERE YOU ARE, A STRAGGLER DISGUISED THROUGH SOME SORCERY.
YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE, HUMAN.
No air to breathe. He knew. He knew, and now she would—
Shaymin slammed into her, Vulpix gasping and hyperventilating. “Snap out of it!” she yelled, Togetic brutally shaking her at the same time while Lucario stared on with horror. His gaze alone fired emotions of willforce and serenity into her like lasers, breaking her panic.
Gabite had his gaze transfixed toward Lugia. The Legendary held his wings out in front of him, a pink orb of light conjuring itself before launching into the air. “Blast,” whispered Gabite as the clouds directly above took on a pink tinge, sparking.
THEY SHALL NOT REMEMBER YOU FOR LONG. NOR WILL YOU, THEM.
Psychic-empowered lightning fell, a bolt of each of them.
Eevee’s siblings poofed into existence and formed a ceiling made out of Protects, walling it all off. Eevee himself stood right next to Vulpix, his legs buckling as if feeling the bolts straining against the shields. He pulled an orb out and smashed it, a wave of light radiating out that left her feeling light like a feather, yet as quick as a flying arrow.
Lugia screeched. “Run inland!” Eevee told their dumbstruck party. “Go!”
They did. They practically vaulted out of the beach and over grassy fields, so fast were they, the storm seething at their retreat. Lightning boomed all around, rain and wind battering at them. Vulpix could still feel Lugia’s eyes locked onto her fleeing tails.
She almost expected any moment to find Lugia tracking her down, locking her within some psychic force and finishing what he started. He spoke to me, she thought, powering through the sharp pain within her. He was going to get rid of me, just like—
Her mind churned. Survivors?