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Gyeig

Junior Trainer
Pronouns
he/him
Partners
  1. samurott

Review of Special Episode 2​


Time for a special episode. Just one chapter, but these are supposed to round off parts of the fic (IIRC), so might as well.

So starting off, this already fits in way better than the last special episode. The characters + events whose story is being told here directly gives context to what’s happening in the fic at that time, which is good - else we’re left wondering why a mute and feral Zoroark is a guardian. On top of that, the story of Ra, Step and their daughters is compelling, even if it does get lost a little amidst the mechanics and world of the fic. You get a feeling for why Star is such a divisive character in universe, and what it’s like being caught up in the middle of all this shit to begin with. Helps raise the stakes for Owen more.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but notice the prose in this chapter isn’t as good as the chapters before. It’s far more bland and workmanlike, in a way that doesn’t help sell the more off the wall shit that happens in this chapter. Things like the conflict between Ra and Star, and then Ra’s dead + subsequent passage into the afterlife would hit harder in my eyes with some extra colourful prose.

Aside from that though, I don’t have much more to say about this. It’s nice backstory to have before diving further into Enet - maybe some of Ra rubbed off on her. We’ll see. Thanks for the chapter.
 

Spiteful Murkrow

Busy Writing Stories I Want to Read
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Partners
  1. nidoran-f
  2. druddigon
  3. swellow
  4. quilava-fobbie
  5. sneasel-kate
Heya, running a bit late, but I figured that I'd jump on that Review Tag that I called for:

Chapter 14

... Which surely only portends good things™️ with a title like that...
:copyber:


Owen had barely slept last night—nobody had answered his questions when he asked. They had said, brushed him off with 'what are you talking about?' like nothing had happened.

Maybe it was a lapse in memory. Sometimes evolution can change the mind slightly. Gahi is just confused. He’ll sort it out. Don’t worry, Owen. You evolved, too. Maybe you need to settle a bit?

There's a weird mix of verb tenses here in the opening paragraph. I think that the intent is that everything from the third sentence onward is stuff Owen is actively thinking in live-time, but if so, it probably makes sense to keep the formatting consistent with how his "inner thoughts" are rendered in prior chapters.

But Owen knew that hadn’t been some trick of the mind. It felt too… real to be a trick. But then—how could he know? If his mind thought it was real, but it wasn’t… he wouldn’t know. But then, why did he have that thought? Gahi did fly before. He was fast

I see that Nevren's memory deletion he uses on the villagers and presumably also Owen wears off eventually given that Owen's able to reconstruct past memories from prior "cycles" of his life or whatever's going on here. Though I can already tell that just keeping up with "yeah, you know too much" is a full-time job for him.

Days passed while Star went searching for more information about the Guardians. That left them with time to decompress. Willow had made herself a little mushroom village in her abode, where she happily conversed with her screaming, playful spirits. ADAM had spent his time obsessively polishing every corner of his abode until it was a smooth cube inside. Afterward, he had dedicated his time to “defragmenting,” whatever that meant. Valle… did his thing in the town square.

>defragmenting

... Do I want to know how badly messed up ADAM's hard drive or whatever storage medium he runs PoryOS off of has gotten in the span of almost five centuries? Like how is there anything left of it right now?
:copyka2:


The new normal was settling in. Every day, Anam would leave with Nevren to manage the Association. Rhys would leave with his students to take a mission or two after their usual meditation.

“I’m not crazy. Not crazy. Not…” Owen shook his head. “I know it happened. I—I can’t just make that up, can I?”

Owen, imagine reflexively assuming this considering what happened the last time you saw strange things and thought you were going crazy in this story.
:copyka:


“I’m sure you can’t, Owen,” Zena said. “But you have to admit, it’s a little strange, don’t you think?”

She was coiled up in the corner of her room, staring at a set of little marbles on the ground. Rhys had a bag of them in his room, and Owen knew the rules to a game they could play. He flicked one of two large marbles into the pile, knocking two out with precision. Zena, opposite to Owen, clumsily rolled her marble along her pink ribbon. It fell a few times, but a gentle, Mystic force kept it from hitting the ground.

Huh. I wouldn't have pegged an oarfish as being able to use those feelers to manipulate things, but I suppose that makes for better precision than nosing the marble.

Though that's the second "Char that's surprisingly good at marbles with a thing for an aquatic noodle" I've read in a PMD story thus far. Funny how coincidences between writers happen like that.

“Mom’s not telling me a thing. I tried pressing Dad, but he got so flustered that he exploded and hid in Mom’s Fire Realm or whatever.” He snorted and eyed the marble floating above Zena’s ribbon-eyebrow. “Is that thing you’re doing the same force you use to fly?”

“Hm? Oh, yes. It is.” Zena fired the marble into the circle, freeing four from the perimeter in one shot.

Owen: "... Wow, you're much better at this game with that aerokinesis thingy or whatever it is than with your feelers."
:bulbuhhh:

Zena: "Uh... thanks?"
:eltywtf:


“Good one,” Owen said. The four marbles floated to Zena’s side. “But, yeah. That’s pretty cool. Maybe if I…” Owen focused on his marble. It wobbled in his claws, floating above his hand. It fell right after. “That’s weird.”

“It is,” Zena said. “I think it’s the same force that keeps some Pokémon afloat. Mm, Castform, Claydol, off the top of my head…”

“Levitation powers?” Owen hummed in thought. “Yeah, I didn’t think about it that way.”

Oh, so this is literally the thing that makes Levitate work... I think. Though that makes me wonder if fishmons in this setting are also Flying Seafood Specials on land.

“Hmph. Star said it was ignoring gravity, but that doesn’t explain it all. We also choose which direction we want to float.”

“Ignoring gravity,” Owen repeated. He stared at the remaining marbles in the circle. There were just ten. But he saw a good angle, and he rolled the orb in. With one flick, the marble bounced against six of the smaller ones, pushing them all out.

“How did you do that?” Zena said.

Latent memories. It's an amnesiac Char protagonist thing. o<o

“Do what?” Owen asked, picking up the six that fell out of the ring. “It’s just a bunch of spheres. It’s easy to predict which way they’ll all go.”

“Yes, but,” she said, staring curiously “you predicted all of that?”

Oh right, Owen has an ability akin to Mythra's Foresight from XB2 / Shulk's future visions from XB1 if his portrayal in BLC2 was anything to go by. Guess that's the first depiction of it in this story here.

“Well, the last one was a little luck,” Owen admitted. “Your turn.”

Zena counted her marbles, then Owen’s. [ ]

I can’t win.”

“Huh?” Owen looked at his marbles, then at Zena’s. “Oh. You’re right. Even if you got ‘em all, I’d be two ahead…” He rubbed the back of his head, gripping his horn. “H-ha, sorry. Maybe I should’ve gone easier.”

IMO, it might've made sense to make a passing mention of Zena's disappointment or something like that to set the mood a bit more. Though smooth moves there, Owen.

Zena flushed. “You were going easy?”

“No!” Owen said quickly. “I was just—I mean—”

“Don’t go easy,” Zena growled.

Yeah, I can already tell that Owen's going to be faceplanting in front of his crush / probable future GF quite a bit in this story.
:lultias:


“Okay.” Owen lowered his head. “Well—why don’t you pick the next game?”

“Hmm…” Zena scanned the marbles. Owen helped to gather them into the small sack Rhys kept them in. She then eyed Owen. “I think I’m going to meditate. Would you care to join me?”

“Oh, sure. Um, can I meditate while reading something?”

Zena blinked. “I do not believe that is how meditation works.”

Zena: "Just saying, the entire point of meditation is to block out any sensory experience, Owen."
:eltyunamused:

Owen: "Hey, it's not as if others don't mention getting into zen-like states while doing stuff! Doesn't that count as medita-?"
Zena: "No."

“Well, I haven’t been able to read for a while.” Owen bumped the claws from each hand together. “I feel like my mind’s getting rusty.”

“Well, what do you read?” Zena asked.

“Books,” Owen said. “I usually like nonfiction. Or comics. Actually, I think I kinda like to read books in general…”

Ah yes, it's time for the first appearance of Druddigon Cube in this story. Even if you had a missed opportunity to lean into the weebness and make it alliterative as Crimgan Cube

“Books,” Zena repeated. “You’ve said that word before. But I’m not sure what they are.”

“Uhh—remember those weird, rectangle things in Anam’s office?”

“You mean the one that was encrusted with his… mucus?”

I'm now reminded of that one
:TailsEww:
"pages are stuck together" line from Borderlands, even if thankfully the thing doing that here's a bit less gross.

“Please don’t call it that.” Owen winced, nodding. “Those, yeah. Well, you can actually open them on one side. It’s filled with really, really thin sheets, called paper. And the paper has words on them. You can spend days reading one book, depending on how thick it is, and how small the letters are.”

“Goodness, that sounds like incredibly detailed craft. It must be expensive.”

Owen: "... No, I'm pretty sure that we just make them with printing presses nowadays. Assuming that Nevren and the rest of the tech geeks didn't cook up some sort of ink printer." ^^;

“Not really.” Owen replied. “We’ve got these things that can print them really easily. Nevren invented them with the help of some of the other Pokémon. You can make a bunch of copies of the same book really quickly—you could send it all across Kilo!”

Yeah, I knew it. Though I wonder if those fall closer to the scale of "printing press" or "modern electronic printer", since the setting technically has the means to support both, IIRC.

“Kilo,” Zena repeated, nodding. “The world, right?”

“Yeah. Wait, back then, you didn’t even have a name for the world?”

“No, we did,” Zena said. “But I don’t think it was Kilo. In fact, I don’t think Kilo Mountain was called that, either.”

Well then. Implying that something happened roughly five centuries ago to either prune large chunks of the broader world, or at the bare minimum cause a renaming.

“Oh. What was it called before?”

Zena paused, looking down. “I can’t remember. Perhaps I haven’t used it in so long, I forgot. Q… Qu… Hm. I’m not sure.” She sighed. “It’s not important. Names change all the time.

I'll take 'Genre Blind Statements' for $500, Alex. Since, yeah. I'm not convinced at all that this is anywhere near as unimportant as Zena makes it out to be. Though given that I already know that HoC has a thing for SI prefix naming, I'm guessing that this was once upon a time most likely a play on 'Quetta'.

Owen nodded. “Well, how about we get something to read, huh?”

He headed back to his home and slipped to his room, and then into a little alcove in the back where he kept his books. He had to buy special editions of them, printed on Rawst paper. “If we ever get you any books, Zena, I think we’ll need to find some books made of Passho paper.”

“Passho paper? Is that not a berry?”

I mean, given that Owen has a Rawst Leaf bed, wouldn't it be more likely that they're made from the leaves/stems/trunks of those plants? ^^;

“Yeah. It protects against water damage, so you can even read it underwater!”

Well, that definitely sounds handy. Even if I wonder how on earth the thing would absorb ink to begin with with properties like those.

“I’ve never heard of making something waterproof before,” Zena said. “Let me guess. This is another one of those Dungeon items, or perhaps one of those odd blessings by Anam?”

“Yeah. Blessed berries and seeds and scarves really enhance their power. I heard that one blessed Chesto Berry can let you pull an all nighter easily!” Owen pulled out a book that was bigger than his head. “Here! Let’s read this one together.”

Zena: "I'm sorry, but how is Anam able to do any of this again?"
:lucariwhat:

Owen: "... Probably Mystic Power?" ^^;
Zena: "Owen, I have Mystic Power and I can't change the properties of items like that!" .-.
Owen: "Maybe it's a thing you can do after you get more experienced? Since Anam is kinda a gigantic outlier among all of us in terms of the sorts of cool stuff he can do with his powers, so..."

Zena blinked, rising a few inches higher from her leisurely coil. “I’m reading with you?”

“I mean, this might be interesting to read, don’t you think?” He showed her the cover: Scarves and Seeds: Basic and Obscure Dungeon Equipment, Third Edition.

That sounds more like a way to never make it to a first date with Zena, just saying. Though I wonder if this leads into the scene that's depicted in the banner art that the forum versions of your story have.

Zena looked tired just hearing the title.

“Here, let’s go to the Scarves section, huh?” Owen said enthusiastically, walking to his bed. His flame was bright, lighting up Zena’s eyes. She followed. He opened the book to the middle and started pointing and reading out a few of the standard Scarves, all of their effects, where they were found, and even their rarity when found in the wild.

Yeah, getting some banner art vibes right about now.

Zena: "Um... Owen?"
:gardexhausted:

Owen: "Oh! Oh! We're getting to a good part! It's the Harmony Scarves section!"
:owengel:


Somehow, Zena became interested, coiling near Owen to read with him. The pages turned slower and slower; by the time they were reading about Pecha Scarves, Owen had paused for so long that Zena spent a good amount of time simply re-reading.

I'll admit, I didn't see that one coming. Though yeah, I can already tell that this is where the banner art between those two came from.

“Owen?” Zena asked, nudging his shoulder with one of her brows.

“Zena, am I crazy?”

Zena was quiet for a few seconds too long. “I certainly don’t think so,” she said. “Owen, it was just a lapse in memory, was it not? Gahi just evolved. It’s simply not possible for him to have flown around before, and the evolution has everyone slightly confused.”

Narrator: "It was not just a lapse in memory."

“It feels so real, though,” Owen said. “I… I don’t get it. I know he—”

“Owen,” Zena said softly, “don’t get so worked up over it. Okay?”

On the one hand, this feels like terrible advice for the sort of story this is, but... yeah. Given the track record of how things are going thus far, I can already tell that Owen will find the truth out about those lingering memories one way or another before long.

The Charmeleon hesitated, but then turned the page. “Okay,” he relented. “Thanks. I guess I’m just getting worked up over nothing. Lapse of memory from evolving. That makes sense. I guess the brain changes a little when you evolve, so maybe that’s why.”

Zena nodded. And so, they resumed their reading.

“So, I’m not crazy?”

“No, Owen. You’re just fine.”

Narrator:
Image


“This one here is the Spire of Trials,” Star said. “Fighting Guardian Manny lives here—he’s pretty cool. We go way back. I’d go there, definitely.”

She pointed at the map they had brought in to Hot Spot’s main square. The Spire of Trials was that odd, narrow triangle on the map to the east, just below Nightshade Forest.

Hmm, I guess the Sunshine Highlands is also a good one, that’s the Flying Guardian, Cara.” She pointed to the far west, where white hills dominated the landscape. “Uhh… Oh! And why don’t we also try Forrest, the Ground Guardian in the Endless Expanse?”

She headed southwest, to an odd, gray-colored portion of the map that looked like a place the artist forgot to finish.

Oh boy, she's back again. Though this paragraph was dense enough with stuff going on in it that it could be three or four paragraphs without missing a beat.

The group agreed and started shuffling around to divide up their numbers. With three new Guardians, they could have a full team for everyone and then some. After the fiasco that was Alex’s fighting abilities, he quietly retired to be replaced by someone else.

“I shall not go,” said Valle.

No surprises there since he's busy sticking around as a living statue.

“Let me guess,” Star said, crossing her arms. “This place is your new mountain, and you’re gonna keep watch of any abnormal movements here instead? One with the stone?”

“Yes.”

Yeah, I figured. Though it's making me curious as to if there's anything that could get Valle to come along even if it involved dragging him kicking and screaming.

Star sighed, rubbing her paws between her eyes. “Okay, okay. So, who else is going, then? We’ve got Anam, James, Zena and… ADAM, yeah, that’s pretty balanced… that seems like a pretty solid group, right?”

Zena glanced at Owen again, but didn’t protest.

Oh, so he is starting to grow on her. That's certainly fast, though it makes me wonder if this is really the first time these two have met each other before.

“And then there’s Rhys, and his three students… Okay, group two.”

“Wait, hang on,” Owen immediately protested. “Why can’t the whole Team Alloy go together this time, huh? We’re all evolved! That’s gotta be strong enough, right?”

I mean, considering what the chapter title is, I'm not sure you want to be that confident going into things, Owen.
:fearfullaugh~1:


“Owen, that’s not even close to strong enough on your own.” Star motioned to Rhys, who was avoiding their eyes.

“I understand your desire to work as your proper Heart quartet,” Rhys said. “However, I can’t in good conscience send you four out alone. I must accompany them.”

[ ]

“But… but I’m never allowed to just go on a mission with them.” Owen’s tail dimmed. “Why not? Is it really that unsafe for me to just go out for a little while?”

Maybe it's just a stylistic difference as an author on my end, but part of me feels like it would've made sense to show a bit more of Owen's disappointment to Rhys' insistence of "no, you're not coming with the gang".

Rhys nodded firmly. “The Hunters could take you at a single unlucky moment. We can’t afford for a Guardian to be alone without any elites keeping them safe.”

Owen wanted to protest. But he didn’t find an opening; compared to the Elite Hearts, he was just backup.

Yeeeeah, I can already tell that this is going to feel weird and "why did I ever think that?" down the road.

“Sorry, Owen. When you’re ready, but not now.” Star then turned to look at the rest of the group. “Who’s left? Willow, Owen, and Amia—oh, hey, Alex, you can come with us again!"

[ ]

"…Owen?”

“H-huh?” Owen straightened his spine.

“Owen, are you… okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Owen replied weakly.

I think that we're missing a step here for what makes Owen stand out so much, since I didn't really get a vibe that Owen was that visibly disappointed / upset due to the lack of description. Expanding out the pause in Star's line feels like the easiest and most natural way to slot that information in.

The group shuffled uncomfortably. Demitri, Mispy, and Gahi were a bit unfocused, too. It had been quite a few days since their odd lapse of memory, but it obviously lingered in all of Team Alloy’s heads. Everyone knew it, but most didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Hey… don’t sweat it, alright?” Star said softly. “It’ll be okay. How about we just get to fighting, huh? Fighting is always fun! Right?

Are we just forgetting how Willow almost gooshed Owen and his parents last chapter? Since I don't know if anyone would call that a fun experience.
:copyber:


Willow: "I would! Or at least up until the part where I got all tangled up, anyways..." ^^;

This lifted their spirits slightly. “Y-yeah, I guess so.” Demitri smiled. “Yeah… um—which one do you think would be the best fight? Of those three?”

“Well, Forrest will probably give you a lot of obstacles to go through. And I’m pretty sure Manny will be the same. Cara’s more of a run-and-hide ‘mon, so… maybe Anam should do that one, since he’s the most outwardly friendly of us, y’know? And isn’t on fire.” She nodded at Amia.

My money's on Manny given that I know that he apparently gets mentioned a decent number of times for the later parts of the story, but I suppose we'll see.

“Oh, okay,” Anam said. “So, we’ll handle Cara. What about Forrest?”

“Ground, right?” Gahi said. “I can avoid all those attacks now that I’m flying. Levitate’s a pretty nifty move fer all those techniques. I say we do that one.”

“But Rhys is weak to Ground,” Demitri said. The Fraxure worriedly glanced at his teacher.

“I will survive,” the Lucario said.

Rhys: "Demitri, I literally can arbitrarily float in the air like something straight out of Druddigon Cube since I'm Mystic, remember?"
:lucariwhat:

Demitri: "... Doesn't that wear you out or anything? What if you get caught off guar-?"
Rhys: "Demitri. I'll be fine."

[ ]

“Guess that leaves us with Manny,” Amia sighed. “I’m not much of a fighter, but… I will try.”

“Excuse me?” Owen mumbled, recalling the time she melted the ground for Zena’s new lake.

“And I will, too!” Willow said, hopping onto Owen’s head. “You! Carry me when we go. Understood? You are my servant for the day.”

This might work a bit better with something to more explicitly transition the focus back to Amia there. Though oh boy, Willow's coming along for the ride too, huh? I'm sure that no negative consequences will come from this at all.
:copyka2:


“E-excuse me?” Owen said again.

[ ]

“Now, Willow, at least ask permission,” Amia said.

Willow growled. “You don’t mind if you are my riding-Pokémon, do you, Charmeleon?”

Ditto here, especially if you want to play up Amia's
:gardexhausted:
-ness dealing with Willow's more childish antics right now.

[ ]

“I—I guess I will,” Owen said, looking away.

“Cool.” Star clapped her paws in a soundless plap. “Then let’s split up. If you guys run into any trouble, use those communicators like before. It might be useful!”

Part of me wonders if there's more thought process behind what Owen was saying here, and if so, if more should've been shown of it.

“Of course,” Amia said, looking around. “Owen! Let’s go. Willow, won’t you lead Owen with us to Kilo Village?”

“Of course! Servant, you will move!”

[ ]

“Okay…”

Same deal here, especially if Owen's internally having a "... I had to skip being with Zena for this?!
:WHY:
" reaction right about now.

Owen: "Yeah, I can already tell that I'm going to hate being in this group." >_>;

Amia giggled. “Oh, be a good sport, Owen. I’m sure Willow is just playing.”

“I sure hope so.” Owen looked up in an attempt to see the Joltik. He felt her balanced on the top of his horn.

She is totally not just playing. And even if she was, considering what Willow defined as 'playing' last chapter, I'm not sure that's remotely reassuring, Amia.
:copyber:


“See you guys!” Demitri waved a tiny arm at the other teams.

“Be careful!” Anam called back. They all vanished, set to rescue the three Guardians.

Owen: "Dear gods, I hope that our end of things is fast-forwarded..."
:mewtwofacepalm:


The rocks of Sunshine Highlands glimmered like cut diamonds. There was no escape from the sunlight here, and the further along the highlands they went, the rockier it became. Everything was either white or prismatic; turning to the left risked seeing a rapid rainbow of colors, and turning to the right risked a whiteness that would rival the sun.

So... opals and marble everywhere? Or am I getting the wrong aesthetic from this description?

“I hope she’s okay,” Anam said, looking around through squinted eyes. “Cara, right? The Flying Guardian…”

“I guess that means she’s got quite the… hrm.” James said. “Well, perhaps her tendencies will be to flee rather than to battle.”

“Yeah,” Anam said. “But I’ll take the lead, if that’s how it’s gonna be.” He squinted, holding his slimy arm over his eyes. “It’s so bright!”

Should've brought some Black Glasses with you for the trip, Anam. That'd probably help with the blinding light right now.

“Indeed,” James replied. “Part of the hazard here is how the rocks reflect the sunlight. We should have come here later in the day.”

Eventually, Anam had to cover his eyes completely. “I can’t see…”

Skill issue. Since just saying, if you can cook up a printer, it shouldn't be that hard to come up with protective eyewear for situations like these.

“It’s… quite difficult, yes,” Zena admitted. She’d been slithering blind for quite a while, and had a splotch of slime on her neck and face from bumping into Anam so much. James kept his head down, using his natural hood to protect against most of the sunlight.

“We must advance,” ADAM said. “My light sensors have been shut down due to overload. However, my other senses indicate that there is a Mystic aura further ahead, and is currently hiding. Would you like to continue? Options: Yes, cancel.”

I was going to ask why ADAM didn't do "Yes/Cancel", or "Y/N" if getting more computer-y, but then I realized that you can't exactly speak a slash in dialogue so this is a good enough approximation of ADAM speaking out the equivalent of a terminal prompt.

“Yes,” Anam said. “I guess… I guess we should keep going. How much longer?”

“We are approximately 98% to the hiding spot.”

“Oh, that’s close!” Anam said. “So, we should be finished soon?”

I just realized, but how on earth are they going to fight this Guardian in this state? Since nobody here other than ADAM has senses that we know of that would prepare them for fighting blind. .-.

... Unless Mystic Power also has a workaround for that. I suppose we'll find out shortly.

“We are approximately 98% to the hiding spot.”

“Um… yeah, so…”

“S-stop right there!” a shaky voice called out.

Anam stopped and tried to look ahead. He saw a flash of something flying toward them. Zena narrowly dodged the blast, but the strong gusts of wind left small cuts on her back. “Ah—ngh—that’s not very friendly.”

I mean, the speaker sounds kinda terrified right now, so... yeah. Kinda hard to be friendly when you're actively frightened, Anam.

Anam squinted and saw a bird flying high in the—no, that wasn’t a bird. It had wings, yes, but… it also had arms. And—something about the wings didn’t quite fit, either. What was wrong with…

Anam saw flashes of brown when the light didn’t fight against him, and he realized that this fuzzy Pokémon was a Lopunny, its ears transformed into sky-blue, feathery wings. She flew through the air with an agility that Anam could only dream of. She was also extraordinarily large—perhaps twice the size of a normal Lopunny.

So... she's an Alpha Lopunny? And I wonder what's the rhyme or reason behind which guardians got visible mutations / tweaks to their base forms and which ones didn't. Since Zena, Amia, and Anam all look superficially normal, but almost every Guardian other than ADAM has been noticeably "off-spec" one way or another.

“There! That’s definitely the Flying Guardian!” Anam pointed.

“Wh-what do you want with me?!” Cara yelled back. “I don’t want to fight! Please, leave me alone!”

[ ]

“We aren’t here to fight!”

“How can I know that?! You already came here once before! You—your kind—!”

It might make sense to lean into the sensory disorientation a bit harder, also helps for breaking up the dialogue a bit more than what's there. Also, that underlined bit...

Image


“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Anam said.

“Cara! Whoever came here before, we aren’t them!” James outstretched his wings. “This is our first time here! Look!” He vanished into the ground in a black fog, and then reappeared. “Anam is the Ghost Guardian, and I am his spirit, yes? Did Star not tell you about us?”

:sceptikarp:


... Not sure if I believe this one, but even if Anam and James aren't lying... yeah, Star totally kept Cara in the dark, I can already tell.

Cara stopped her flying, but it was still too hard to see. “Wh-what do you mean?” She stopped flying away, and instead looked down at them. The way the sun was positioned, she was directly in front of it. “The Ghost Guardian, yes, I… I think Star mentioned you before. Yes. O-oh, I’m sorry. Hold on.”

The lights of the crystalline field dimmed enough for them to see. They still sparkled white, but it wasn’t blinding. Was she somehow controlling the intensity of the light?

Cara:
Image

"... Though I suppose that makes it a bit more probable that you're really not here to hurt me, since boy did you come woefully unprepared if you did."

Zena sighed. “Thank goodness.”

“Yeah! I could barely open my eyes!” Anam said. “That’s not fair, you know, fighting your opponents when they can’t even see!”


Cara: "Yes, and that's the point since I didn't want to fight." :|

“My visual sensors were completely shut down,” ADAM said.

Cara beat her wings-ears a few more times. “I’m—I’m so sorry,” she said, slowly descending. “I didn’t mean—”

Anam suddenly went blind to a white flash of light. An instant later, the boom of thunder deafened him, leaving nothing but a loud ringing in his ears. Zena and the others shut their eyes again. ADAM blared an alert signal, but nobody heard it. The ringing faded. Anam tried to open his eyes, but everything hurt when he did, and he shut it again. Something heavy thumped dully a few feet ahead of him. He smelled something burning.

Oh, well that's a good sign right now. /s

Anam felt James grab his arm and tug him back; he fell down and heard another thunderous explosion. If he wasn’t so slimy, his body might have caught on fire. Anam knew not to open his eyes for a while, but when he finally did, through his blurry vision, he saw something black a few paces ahead. There was something glowing in this blackness. A pale, whitish light. It reminded him of the clouds that the bird Pokémon flew above.

Heavy paws walked toward the black thing and the glowing orb. A tiny, gray creature floated toward it next, wrapping it in some sort of cloth. The light vanished. A forceful, invisible blast blew the blackness away like dust. And finally, Anam’s vision—as well as the others’—returned. Standing before them was Espurr Rim—and some… other creature.

Oh, so we are going to have Hunter problems during this Guardian collection arc after all. I was starting to wonder from how much they'd been absence for all the hoopla that there was about them being a danger.
:FearfulMeowth:


Long, black fur along its head, chest, and rear; short, blue fur everywhere else. Bits of yellow in the ears and behind its forelegs, and a four-pointed star at the end of its black tail. But there was something different, too, from how Anam was familiar with the Luxray species. It was bulkier, with intense, sharp eyes and a slightly more elongated muzzle. Its fur stood even more on-end than usual, constantly sparkling with electricity, more like a Jolteon’s fur style. Every so often, they saw black flashes—some kind of dark light, if he had to describe it—accompany this electricity. Its tail was long, and whip-like, like a Raichu.

Oh, hello mutant Luxray thingy.

Anam couldn’t move. He just realized what had happened. That Luxray was the one who attacked—and the Flying Guardian, Cara, was—

Rim vanished with the strange Luxray, taking the Flying Orb with her.

Well. I see that's where the chapter title came from, though I suppose I should heavily take the under on us ever seeing Cara again on this side of the Spirit World, huh?

The Endless Expanse was named as such because, upon entering the field, it was hard to determine where the horizon was. It was a great flatland that had a perpetual, thin layer of water over a field of salt. The water perfectly reflected the sky, blending into the horizon an eternity ahead of them. Every step that Rhys, Demitri, Mispy, and Gahi took into this flatland sent small ripples ahead of them, disturbing the salt on the ground.

Oh, so it's basically the Uyuni Salt Flats:

Image


Will have to keep that one in mind for location design at some point, since that seems like a trippy place to be in.

Gahi’s wings beat rapidly, making the most, but smallest, ripples. Demitri walked beside Mispy, and their steps, with Rhys’, made the most impact. There was no Dungeon here. Instead, the challenge of finding the Ground Guardian came from actually locating him in the completely uniform mirror. It was too large for Mispy to detect a Mystic aura for the whole area, and the same went for Rhys.

Oh, so their strategy for finding this guy is like that one gif from Jurassic Park with the shaking cup of water, huh?

Gahi flew ahead multiple times to get a better visual of the fields for any abnormalities. Each time, he returned with no news, and they advanced forward to continue their scan. Around noon, Mispy started to complain about food, and Rhys sighed and dug through his bag for their rations. Rhys winced when he realized that he also had brought some of the food he planned to use for later.

“GROSS!” Demitri shouted. “What is that?!”

“It’s—it’s leftovers,” Rhys said, holding out what appeared to be a purple lump of… something. “I wasn’t going to throw it away. That would be wasteful.”

Ah yes, Grimy Food. Hope you all brought a Cleanse Orb before putting that in your mouths.

“I think it’s moving!” Demitri said.

Mispy glared as if the purple food had insulted her.

... On second thought, maybe that's not just Grimy Food there. Since... yeah, I think a Cleanse Orb would be a bit inadequate for handling that.
:FearfulMeowth:


“I didn’t intend for it to be for you,” Rhys said, holding the grimy-looking food in his paws. “This will be my meal, then. It’s not as bad as you make it out to be. You may have these instead,” he said, offering Mispy two large apples. Demitri and Gahi took one each, but they stared at Rhys. “What?”

“You’re gonna eat that?” Demitri said.

Rhys: "I mean, I am a Steel-type and immune to poisoning, so..." ^^;
Demitri: "That doesn't mean that you need to put that into your mouth!"
:squirpuke~1:


“Of course,” Rhys said. He then opened his mouth and—to their horror—he downed the purple lump in one gulp. They watched the lump descend into his chest. He cleared his throat. “It’s not very difficult if you know the proper way to eat it.”

“I thought you didn’t need to eat,” Demitri said.

If I’m performing some strenuous effort, I do,” Rhys said, looking ahead. “These past few days have been taxing, particularly after you decided to take on that high-ranking mission into the Southern Abyssal Forest.”

Can't tell if that's an artifact of Rhys being a lesser Mystic or else if that's a limitation all Mystics have when sufficiently overtaxing themselves.

Team Alloy:
:VonVomit~1:

Rhys: "Yeah, yeah, you don't see me judging you for your tastes. And look, it's to help you here." >_>;

“Bah, scariest thing about that place is the rumors, nothing else,” Gahi said. “Okay, I’m gonna fly ahead and scan fer more weirdness, see if we can spot the Guardian, eh?” He flew ahead, having finished his apple.

>doing this in a giant, featureless salt plain where your only guide for relative location is whatever you can see in the distance plus whatever's reflected from the sky

Image


Mispy finished her two by the time Demitri had finished half of his. She wrapped a few vines around his body and pulled him onto her back, where she happily carried him across the salt flats.

Yeah, I knew it. Though I wonder if you knew about the Uyuni Salt Flats specifically when designing this place, or if it's based on something more general.

Gahi flew back prematurely, and his zigzag in the air suggested he actually found something.

“Let’s hurry,” Rhys said.

Gahi descended to their level. Once they all caught up, Rhys stopped, eyes wide.

There were claw marks in the ground that Gahi flew above. The ground was filled with huge fissures from some Pokémon’s attack. There was also a pit left behind in the ground where the Guardian of the Ground Orb likely once was. Some of the pits were still filling, slowly, with water, suggesting that the clash was recent. But for a battle with a Guardian, the struggle didn’t seem to be very intense, all things considered. Even their clash with Valle, while underwhelming on a relative scale, left quite a bit of damage.

Oh, so we're just having all the fails at recovering Guardians this chapter, huh? I suppose it was only natural that the gang's luck would run out, but I wasn't expecting the bad news to heap up this rapidly.

“What is all this…” Demitri said, looking at the ground. The Fraxure couldn’t help but admire his reflection, picking at a smudge on his left tusk.

“Good thing I can fly,” Gahi muttered, looking at his reflection.

“I don’t… sense anything,” Mispy said. The Bayleef had her eyes closed, worriedly scanning for any sort of Mystic aura. If the clash was here, surely the Ground Guardian would be here, too.

Bold of you to assume that there's still a Ground Guardian left, Mispy.

“But it looks like something just got here. There,” Demitri said, pointing at a particularly huge gash in the ground where water was still pouring inside. It was deep, but the bottom was clearly visible and the water level was slowly rising.

They saw something lying in the flat ahead. “What’s that?” Mispy said.

“Let’s look,” Rhys said, running forward. Gahi was the only one able to keep up.

Whelp, I suppose that this is the point where we find out whether or not Kilo still has a Ground Guardian or not.

It seemed to be a small tree lying on the ground, cut near the base of the trunk. “What’s a tree doing here?” Gahi asked. “There ain’t a tree er a plant here fer… I mean, where’d it even come from?”

“This is a Torterra’s tree,” Rhys said gravely. “It grows on their back, Gahi. But for it to be severed like this…”

That... doesn't sound positive for how much longer this 'mon's going to be around.
:copyka2:


The water was covering most of it, but he saw heavy footsteps and multiple, converging imprints of other, attacking Pokémon. Rhys walked along and followed the path. He saw a particularly large pit in the ground—and at the bottom, he saw the victim. “Ngh.” Rhys squeezed his paws, forming little flashes of cyan aura.

We’re too late.”

Gahi, Demitri, and Mispy followed Rhys. “What d’you mean?” Demitri asked.

The current of the water and swirling salt obscured the corpse at the bottom of the pit. Demitri flinched once he realized what he was looking at, covering his mouth in shock. Gahi’s wings fluttered slower, looking for something to do with his legs. Anything but stare at something so morbid. Mispy frowned, pensive, wondering if he died quickly, or if…

Yeah, I knew it. Though I suppose that explains why this guy was called 'Forrest' since that's some punny wordplay there. And that confirms that Cara is just flatly dead from that last scene where Rim showed up.

Rhys fired a few weak Aura Spheres at the ground; salt and sand burst and shifted into the flooded pit, burying the bottom completely. Rhys closed his eyes and lowered his head for a few seconds, waiting for the body to be buried completely.

Then, he said, “It seems that the Hunters have arrived here shortly before we did. Unfortunately, they extracted the Ground Orb.”

“Forrest…” Mispy couldn’t tear her eyes away from the pit. On her back, Demitri trembled, suppressing a few sniffles.

Team Alloy was there when the Guardians started out, weren't they? Since while I was expecting Team Alloy to be shaken, I wasn't expecting them to apparently be able to reflexively namedrop this guy as if they're familiar.

“We… we could’ve saved him,” Demitri said. “If we just got to him a day earlier…”

“A day earlier,” Rhys repeated. “I have my doubts. The Hunters… Could they have been tracking our movements? After we rescued the first three, could they be trying to predict our trajectories, just based on which Waypoints we take?”

Oh, so there are dangers to leaning on the in-setting fast travel too liberally. I hadn't considered that, but it does make sense, especially if there's some way of monitoring them.

But Demitri, Mispy, and Gahi were too dejected—and perhaps, too inexperienced—to strategize in the middle of Forrest’s unmarked grave. Without really suggesting it outright, they all stood there in a respectful silence until the pit completely filled with salt and water.

I’m sorry for your suffering,” Rhys said to the ground, head bowed in respect. Then, after another handful of silent breaths, he addressed Team Alloy. “There’s nothing we can do here. Let’s return home and report to the others.”

Well that's a very particular "rest in peace" message. I wonder if there's a story behind that, since something about that phrasing makes me feel as if there's a story behind how it came to be.

“Should we use our Communicator?” Demitri asked.

“No,” Rhys said. “We shouldn’t lower anybody’s morale. We’re already going as fast as we can; they won’t be able to go any faster than they already are.”

inb4 Anam and his party wind up calling them and promptly nuke their already lousy moods further.

“Okay,” Demitri said. “If that’s the case, let’s just… I mean, yeah. Let’s go back.”

They didn’t want to admit it, but Demitri, Mispy, and Gahi were all still itching for a battle. But in the solemn atmosphere of this lifeless salt flat, there was nothing to fight anyway.

Rhys dug through his bag, searching for their Badge. He dug a bit more. And then more.

“Rhys?” Gahi said.

Rhys looked up. “Where are our Badges?”

Well. Looks like there might be something to fight in that salt flat after all. Since it wouldn't be impossible for someone to sneak up on the gang and pull that off...
:uhhh:


“Oooh… this place is a bit creepy,” Amia said, hugging herself. There was very little light in this mountain’s cave; only by her flames and Owen’s tail could they see the path. The spire itself wasn’t much to look at from outside. It merely appeared to be a giant spike in the ground, perfectly conical with an entrance on the southern side. Internally, it was a great, winding spiral of polished rock.

“I certainly didn’t expect the Spire of Trials to be some sort of literal, ascending spiral inside,” Alex said. “Just where are we going?”

I take it that Manny's a fan of meditation from the described surroundings. Since this feels very "martial artist chilling in the mountains to git gud" in vibe.

“From the outside it looked pretty big. Just a giant spike sticking out of the ground. So maybe we’re heading near the top?” Owen said.

“That’s likely it,” Alex agreed.

[ ]

“Well, I don’t like it!” Willow said, stomping on Owen’s head with her tiny feet. “Owen! You’re going to turn around immediately!”

“I—I can’t just turn around! We’re already inside!”

Another spot that IMO would benefit from taking some time to describe the characters' reactions a bit more, in this case, Willow's reaction.

“Then make it prettier! I need fresh air for my fur! And good smells, too! And light! Make it brighter!”

[ ]

“Mom, help!”

“Willow, dear, why don’t I help make it brighter with my fire?” Amia offered. “I usually do blue light, but would you prefer something like green, or red?”

Same shtick here, especially for selling the sense that Owen's getting a bit at the end of his rope.

Owen: "Please tell me that 'make it brighter' is also going to involve setting her on fire..." >_>;

“Ooo! Make it green!” Willow said, hopping on Owen. “Green reminds me of the fields!”

“Green it is.” Amia smiled and created a small fire bubble in front of them to light the way. This, it seemed, pleased Willow enough to keep her from complaining the rest of the way.

Ah yes, just casually conjuring hitodamas as a glorified flashlight. Though I wonder if these are based off the Lava Bubble / Ember enemies from TTYD, since they came in exactly these three color variations in that game.

They walked quickly, but slow enough that they didn’t trip on anything. By the time they were a quarter of the way up the spire—going in a sort of inward spiral—they suddenly turned to the right and saw a large chamber. Echoes of explosions and shouts and roars radiated from the opposite side. Owen had to concentrate to get a better sense for what the sounds were—it was… something else. Who was that? Those roars didn’t sound normal. They were intense. Too intense for a normal Pokémon.

Mutants. They're from mutants, Owen.

The chamber was at least a hundred of Owen’s Charmeleon paces across. The walls looked like they had been buffered a thousand times over many centuries to get that perfect smoothness, and the same could be said for the floor. But there were imperfections. Cracks and faults, like battling had taken place there before. Still, the arena was empty. They could easily advance. The team of four stepped into the chamber and made it a quarter of the way across.

“Ha HAAA!”

After being so quiet to hear the others, the shout made Owen double over in panic, clutching his chest. Alex made the exact same gesture as Owen. Was it possible to die of shock? Perhaps not as a Mystic.

Well, that's a sign that Manny's probably not dead? Possibly. Maybe.

A spirit rose from the rocks in the center of the arena-like chamber. The Feraligatr pumped his fists in the air. His scaly arms were thicker than Owen’s body, and the same could be said for the bulk of just about every other part of him.

“I am the First Guardian Spirit, Feraligatr Azu!” he shouted. “I am one of three that you must defeat in order to see the Fighting Guardian, the greatest and strongest fighter of the Dungeon!”

I see that Manny must be on the more experienced side as a Guardian if his conjured spirits are capable of throwing down with normal Pokémon like Anam's can.

His voice boomed through the air—Owen wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear him for much longer.

“You, a team of four!” said the Fighting Guardian Spirit. “What a perfect number! There are three of us in all, three Guardian Spirits! As the first… you are to give to me your weakest fighter, and we shall battle! If you lose… then that will be it! And you must turn away!”

Owen: "... Oh my gods, I just realized, we're going to have to make Willow handle the last of these fights from typing advantages."
:mewtwofacepalm:


“W-weakest?” Alex said.

“Wait,” Owen said, tilting his head, “doesn’t that mean you’re the weakest of the three Fighting Spirits?”

“I—eh—” For a fraction of a second, his enthusiasm wavered. “No! I am the most powerful spirit that Manny can summon solid. I am at the perfect strength level.”

Dunno how much of this is being pre-planned by Owen and how much he's blundering into on the spot, but that's definitely a handy way of sidestepping a bunch of challenge fights.

Owen crossed his arms, frowning. “So there are even stronger spirits inside Manny? You’re even weaker than what you said the first time.”

With even more confidence and volume than before, Azu grinned and bellowed, “I am the third in line of the strongest spirits Guardian Manny can summon! I am truly formidable! And so—you shall NOT get to the higher levels without beating me!”

“B-but I’m not that good of a f-fighter, you see…” Alex admitted. “I—I wouldn’t want to…”

Amia: "Alex-ay! Ix-nay e-thay eakness-way alk-tay!" O_O;

“We don’t want to fight Manny. We want to talk to him!” Amia said. “And… what’s that fighting I hear from the rooms above us? It’s coming from ahead.”

“Manny is dealing with a number of guests at the moment. To be another, you must get past me!”

... I like how this guy is just completely unconcerned about what's most likely yet another Hunter ambush in favor of gatekeeping Owen and his party. Talk about having your priorities straight.
:copyka:


“So, they all got past you, too?” Owen asked. “How many times did you already get beaten?”

“My little Charmeleon!” Azu thumped his tail on the ground with a laugh. A few rocks flew in the air, and a few cracks formed on the ground with each scaly thud. “You say such INCREDIBLE things!”

So... I take it that Owen's getting sucked into this fight in place of Alex, huh?

“I—I think what Owen means,” Amia said, “is… if we don’t want to fight Manny, that means we’ll only be doing three battles. So why don’t we start with the second weakest in our group? And then the second strongest, and then the strongest.”

“Ha! Then very well. Which of you is the second weakest?”

“I think that’s Willow,” Owen said without thinking.

Amia:
Image


Willow exploded with electricity atop his head, screeching and biting his horn. She tore off a few scales in the process.

“Y-yow! Ow! No, NO, bad Joltik—” Owen tried to grab her, but she was too fast. She hopped off of him and landed on the ground, skittering around the rocks.

“You’re the weakest! You, you!” Willow screeched and hissed like a feral Glameow. “You have a clever mind but in raw power, you’re NOTHING to me!”

Owen: "Ow! Ow! Ow! Mom! Seriously, how are you just okay with this right now?!"
:grohno~1:

Amia: "Look, Owen. It's for the good of the mission. Just bear with it a little longer."
:gardexhausted:


“But Willow, you’re smaller than my feet!”

Willow sent another volley of thunderbolts at Owen. The Charmeleon hopped in some sort of frantic dance, going from foot to foot on the cold, polished floor. Amia, sighing, rummaged through their bag for an Oran Berry. Willow prepared a great, shining ball of lunar energy above her head—but Owen quickly said, “O-okay, okay! I’ll—I’ll fight first! I’ll fight!”

Smart Charmeleon, there. Even if it took him a while to come to the less painful conclusion. ^^;

The Fairy Guardian let the charging Moonblast dissipate. “That’s better.

Owen sighed. “Why aren’t you bigger, anyway?” he asked. “Can’t you evolve?”

“I look cuter as a Joltik,” Willow said, raising her tiny body upward. “And going forward and backward in evolution is easy for a Mystic. It’s not in one direction with a little divine power!

Aaaaaand there's our explanation for why Owen remembers him and Team Alloy being fully evolved in the past. Or at least I'm pretty sure that's the implication.

“O-oh, okay.”

[ ]

“Stall no longer, challengers!” the Feraligatr said, thumping his tail one last time. “Approach me, witty Charmeleon! I shall show you the superior power of muscle!”

[ ]

“Good luck, Owen.” Amia smiled apologetically, giving him an Oran Berry to fight in top form.

These feel like more parts where dropping in a bit of description to center the proverbial attention on these characters would be in order.

“O-okay,” he said. “I… I’ll do my best!”

With a puffed-out chest and a blazing, red tail, the Charmeleon was ready. But then, during the walk toward the Fighting-Type Feraligatr, feeling the sheer power that radiated from him—despite his bluster, and despite the silly disposition of this spirit… he knew. He knew when he was standing face-to-belly with the behemoth of a spirit. Seeing every detail of his disturbingly chiseled body, his toughened scales, and his impeccable jawline…

Owen didn’t stand a chance.

Owen: "... Crap."
:ohnowen:

Azu: "What's that, witty Charmeleon? Do I hear an offer to forfeit?"
:AlviseDetermined:

Alright, made it to the end, and I suppose I should start summing things up with an old friend of mine for my reviews:

Image


And how. I'll admit, I was kinda caught off-guard by how hard and fast the Hunters became a problem for the roundup of the elemental Guardians in this story, but it did a good job at shaking the emerging status quo up in the story. I might have been getting a bit tinfoil at times, but there seemed to be a decent amount of foreshadowing for where things will wind up going later in the story, which was fun to see, even if I wonder just how quickly that'll become relevant since... yeah, this story is still throwing curveballs on short notice like it's been doing for the past 15 or so chapters up to this point.

For criticisms, I noticed that there were a few spots where there were certain moments where you could kinda piece together what had happened in terms of character reactions or moods that would've been more expressive explicitly showing them off a bit more. There were also a couple of places where I didn't see eye-to-eye on paragraph formatting, but those are all pretty easy tweaks to make if so inclined.

The bigger meta issue that I saw is that part of me wonders if while the "Too Late" was very apt for a chapter title, if the individual losses of the Flying and Ground Guardians would've each had more individual impact were they in distinct chapters from each other. e.x. smash cutting with Cara's death as the end of one chapter, and having Forrest's death in the next since it'd also double as a revelation of what exactly happened to Cara. Even if I'm not really sure what I'd suggest as an extension of the second chapter in that case since it'd otherwise be really short.

Though even what's there seems decently put together, especially since this is ultimately still early on in the story and a stepping stone onto much bigger things in Kilo. Hope the feedback was helpful and fun to read @Namohysip . And until next time! ^^
 
Chapter 174 - Overseer Evaluation New

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
Thanks, all, for your reviews! I responded to you elsewhere, but they're appreciated as always.

Chapter 174 – Overseer Evaluation

Ho-Oh was a lot bigger in person.

And imposing. Compared to Lugia, compared to any other Legend he’d met in Kilo, Ho-Oh radiated an aura of someone who… was far more than a Pokémon.

The metal sphere at the top of Citadark Isle was entirely hollow and decrepit. Constant wind and storms wore away at the structure, which had once been some mechanical marvel based on what Owen’s Perceive told him.

The center of the sphere had a distortion. A tiny, concentrated Dungeon that would be their ticket home.

Ho-Oh stood near that entrance, staring them down.

“I’m glad you’re here, Owen and Zena. And you are…”

The Charmander greeted politely, “Mu!”

Oh, good. At least Mu listened to that much. But the way she slouched again, that was probably the most politeness they’d get from her. What happened to that innocent vanilla bean in Alola?

Zena was already guarded. “How do you know our names?” she said. “And… you… you spoke our language. That wasn’t feral.”

Owen blinked. He hadn’t even realized. “What? Ho-Oh can talk?”

Ho-Oh shook his head. “I’m borrowing this body. Ho-Oh and I communicated in a dream and I explained things to him. After realizing the gravity of the situation, as a part of this reality’s pantheon, he allowed me to borrow his body. He is listening from within for the time being.”

“What?” Zena whispered. “What does that mean?”

“Then you’re an Overseer,” Owen concluded.

“The spirit of one, projected into a Legend’s body. But yes.” His expression grew firmer. “…Now, Owen, I’m here because I do not want you reentering Kilo until I perform a brief… evaluation.”

Owen’s tail flame popped. “Like a battle? Against a Legend…’s body?”

Ho-Oh nodded. “Yes. But it is only after we talk about the nature of the fight,” he said. “Owen… do you know why we’re aware of who you are and the world you’re from?”

He could guess a few things… but it was slowly occurring to Owen that what he said might become incriminating somehow. He didn’t know the extent of this person’s authority.

“Your countenance tells me you have more than zero idea,” Ho-Oh said.

Owen hardened his expression. Zena, meanwhile, shifted uncomfortably and looked around to find other things to pay attention to. This great sphere left little to stare at.

Outside, it was beginning to show signs of an overcast afternoon. The winds whistled through cracked and eroded sheets of metal that made up the sphere. A distant rumble reminded them that this was technically an active volcano.

“What do Overseers do?” Owen asked. “Patrol Ultra Space? We were talking to people in Alola about that.”

“Beyond that,” Ho-Oh stated.

“Beyond… Ultra Space?”

“Yes. In your language, I believe the closest word for where I am from would be… the Overworld. In your feral language, I think another term could be the Sky Past All Skies.”

For some reason, the latter made more sense to him. “Beyond everything? What’s… out there?”

“Everything else,” Ho-Oh stated. “And Overseers, of course, are people who watch all worlds to make sure no one world is in danger of plunging others into turmoil. If there is a risk of danger spreading beyond their local network, we step in. Usually with the cooperation of the local gods… I believe you know them as ‘Mew Star’ and ‘Arceus Barky.’”

Mu snorted. “His official name’s Barky.” She turned a page while lounging on Zena’s back.

“Cooperating with them…”

“Yes. The first Overseer we sent to you was Hecto. He acted under the guise of Star's emissary to investigate a... small risk. You see, Star and Barky are very new gods. This is their first world. Templated, even, for ease of creation. But something went unexpectedly wrong and Barky was unable to contact Star. He reached out to the Overseers to investigate; Hecto was who they sent.

“Afterward, we lost Hecto’s signal, so the situation was escalated. The one you know as Valle was sent next, but by the time he’d arrived, great damage was already done. A dark power sent shockwaves from the material world into the divine through Star… and Barky, seeing Star in that state, went into a brief, uncontrolled rage. This led to the destruction of the island you see here, today.”

Ho-Oh gestured around him.

“This island, formerly known as Quartz Isle, was erased from this world’s history. The souls within were rendered ‘missing’ forever, destroyed. That appears to be how this world reacts to… a Lockout. Even if they wished to restore them… the gods would not be able to. When a soul is destroyed in a universe, it cannot return to that same world. The fabric of its reality will not acknowledge it.

“…Or so we thought.”

“Wait—” Owen raised a hand. “But I’m here now.”

“Yes. And I have determined that you are the same soul that had been Locked Out,” Ho-Oh said. “Or, theoretically so. This means you were never destroyed at all like most of the others there, who had to be reincarnated into the world you know as Kilo.”

“E-excuse me,” Zena said, raising a ribbon. “I’m… confused. I don’t know what this ‘soul Lockout’ has to do with… anything here.”

“Of course. My apologies.” Ho-Oh bowed. “Who sent you three to this realm?”

“Necrozma sent Zena and I over,” Owen said.

“Mu came on her own,” Zena added, turning so Mu was in Ho-Oh’s view.

“Yo, bird up.”

Ho-Oh blinked, stoic as ever. “Yes. Bird up. I’m a bird today,” Ho-Oh replied. He then faced Owen and Zena again. “Necrozma might have sent you here as a mercy, though I wonder if it was to make you lost entirely after the same dark force possessed him. But instead, he proved that you were somehow spared from Lockout. Perhaps your proximity to Mew Star at the time of destruction shielded you enough from the blast. There could be others who were similarly spared… and that may have contributed to your latent talents in Kilo.

“Do you know of others with abnormal talent?”

“Abnormal talent…” Owen hummed. “I guess it’d… be the ones who climbed Destiny Tower in the first generation. You know, all the people who were directly reincarnated. I always thought it was because Star and Barky, you know, rigged the ascent so we’d have an easier time. Since we saved them and all that. But… Are you saying there was more to it?”

“I can’t say. It could have been both,” Ho-Oh said. “But… thank you. That may be important information to us.”

“Are you investigating something?” Zena asked.

“Yes. We are specifically trying to determine how dangerous Kilo’s existence has become. So far, two Overseers have lost contact with the Overworld upon entering this network. Each lost Overseer has led to an escalation of this network’s threat level.”

Threat level?” Zena repeated. “Yes, it’s a big threat level—Dark Matter is the reason for all of this happening. Can you help?”

Ho-Oh didn’t reply immediately. He instead turned to Owen. No words were exchanged. Owen knew what would have been said. At this point in the world’s fall… an Overseer’s “help” was not what they wanted.

“We’re going to take care of it internally,” Owen said. “I just finished researching an answer here. I’m confident it will work.”

“Our records show,” Ho-Oh said with a sudden, distant coldness to his voice, “that you have done this before… Usurper Owen.”

“…Usurper… Owen?” Zena echoed. “Because of… how he tried to save Kilo?”

“Usurper is the title, translated, to give an individual such as Owen. It can only be applied to a mundane, ordinary mortal in the context of their reality. Someone with no divine instincts, training, or formal knowledge of the process of creating and maintaining a world. Then, this person, a Usurper, must gain those powers such that it rivals the gods in question, and then undermine the will of that world’s creator.”

The explanation left Owen feeling colder. An Overseer—this authority above the gods—was classifying him as an outlaw. He could sense the weight behind the term, even if it was merely a translation from some unknown language.

“And what happens if the gods are wrong?” Owen asked. “Am I still a Usurper?”

“Yes.” Ho-Oh nodded. “It is merely a descriptor. It can mean several things in context and we consider all of them. But you, Owen… When you undermined the power of the gods, who did you instead side with?”

Owen could sense Zena tensing. She was already preparing for a fight. He didn’t want that. Not against an Overseer.

“I didn’t want Kilo to be destroyed. It’s my home. If the Overseers’ answer to problems is to just… destroy our homes, all these lives that we made for ourselves, I…”

“You’ll oppose the decision,” Ho-Oh completed. “We know. And we understand your perspective. It is a common one. But… you sided with Dark Matter, the entity that is now spreading its influence into other worlds. We need information on what you know about this entity. Our knowledge of how it manifests in this world is limited.”

“I don’t… I don’t have time for that,” Owen said. “I’m sorry. I need to go back to save Kilo. I know that time is flowing differently here, but I’ve already been gone for so long. A whole explanation could take… a lot of time, you know?”

“Seconds are precious there,” Zena said. “A Usurper even more dangerous than Owen could hope to be is already harnessing Shadows for evil. Owen may have made mistakes in the past, but he always did what he did to help people. Alexander, this new Usurper, just wants power for power’s sake!”

“Are you sure of this?” Ho-Oh asked.

The foul look Zena gave Ho-Oh… Owen only saw the Overseer flinch thanks to his Perceive.

“Yes,” Zena said, her voice suppressed and even. “I’m positive. Objectively, he has only caused suffering to keep others down and has absorbed spirits to bolster his power. Owen may reflect powers, but he also tries to empower others when he can. We just spent the last few moons researching ways for mortals to defend against Shadows without us.”

“I see.” Ho-Oh nodded. “We understand your rush. But this will not take long if you consent to our procedure.”

“How long will it take?” Owen asked.

“On this planet’s timekeeping system, it should be done within the hour.”

“Oh.” Owen did some quick mental math. “Well… I guess they can afford to wait thirty seconds or so…”

“Raise your head and concentrate. Act as if you are… opening your mind to someone trying to communicate with you telepathically,” Ho-Oh said. “My colleague is waiting for you to reach out to him. Have you done this before with a deity?”

“Yeah, I talk with Barky that way, kinda,” Owen said. “I’ll try that.”

Owen tilted his head upward. It was a little awkward to do it when there was a decrepit metal sphere in the way of the sky, but that was all in the mind. The connection would work all the same.

Hello? Owen called, expanding his aura like unfurling ethereal wings. He peeled the layers back, searching for something with a sixth sense.

Suddenly, he felt like he was falling.

<><><>​

“Oof!”

And he landed in a very familiar forest an instant later, flat on his back. Gracelessly, he grunted and rolled until he was on all fours.

“Oh, not again,” he grunted. “I’ve had enough mental walkabouts for at least… ten lifetimes at this point…”

A canine Zygarde stood at the edge of the glade behind Owen. Compared to the one Owen knew, this one was thinner and… smiling. And not the creepy smile Hecto did when failing to look friendly, either. A genuine smile.

That alone meant this was a different Zygarde.

“Hey,” Owen greeted. “Are you, uh… the Overseer?”

“Yes!” Zygarde replied cheerfully, entering a sitting position. “I’m happy to meet you, Owen! I’ve read a lot about you in the reports. I know you very well, ah—Usurper may be an intimidating title, but it has a lot of good meanings, too!”

Something about this disturbed him more than most things he’d encountered the last year or so.

“Y… yeah…”

“Hm? Is something wrong? Oh, don’t worry!” Zygarde hopped to his feet. “I’m just here to get information. I promise, none of this will hurt, or harm you in any way! I can’t do that! You’ll shunt me right out!”

“I will?”

“Well, he will.” Zygarde flicked his head to the right.

In the shadows was another dim orange flame. Owen flinched. Wishkeeper? Here? But he was… in him, now. He was Wishkeeper.

“Mental guardian, sort of a representation of your inner psyche. Happens during spirit invasions. No need to worry! I’ll be right out, Mister Guardian!” Zygarde called in a singsong voice. “Oh! Where are my manners? I don’t think I’ve introduced myself. I won’t be here long, but you can call me Bean!”

“B… Bean.”

“Bean!” Bean nodded. “Because my tiny Cell form looks like a bean! And because my real name is hard to pronounce. That’s a translation-friendly name I was told about.”

“Okay. …Is my name weird to you?”

“Ah! I’ve studied this side of the Overworld’s language well enough. It’s not strange at all! But mm, if you ever wanted a name like mine… go for Tamato!”

“Huh. I like those.”

Bean giggled and turned around. “In any case, I hope you don’t mind if I put my paw on a few of these trees. I think they’re abstractions your mind is forming for your thoughts and memories. If you cooperate, this will be a lot faster!”

“S-sure, uh, what do you need?”

“I’d like you to think about everything you know about Shadows.”

“Okay, I can do that…”

And as Owen focused, one of the trees further into the clearing glowed brighter. Zygarde thanked him and trotted over to it, placing a paw at the base of the trunk. The light expanded into Zygarde’s body, whose hexagons flickered rapidly. Owen didn’t sense anything bad happening… He glanced at ‘Wishkeeper.’ He was watching like a silent sentinel, nodding at Owen. He, too, sensed nothing wrong.

“Okay.” Bean pulled his paw back. “Thank you! Now, do you mind doing the same for Radiance?”

The process continued, tree after tree. About Radiance, Dark Matter, Kilo, his time as Wishkeeper, Valle…

“So,” Owen said as they walked, “how often do you do these… memory dives?”

“Ohh… Not too often. I’ve usually been a scout, but I did fieldwork, mostly. Working remotely isn’t my strong suit. I hope this isn’t too slow for you!”

“No, uh, it’s fine. It doesn’t feel like a lot of time is passing…” Owen wasn’t sure how he knew that. Maybe it was some kind of… internal clock in his body or brain? The longer he spent thinking about it, the more he felt a headache coming on. He refocused on something simpler.

“How good are you at fighting?” Owen asked.

“Oh, not the best. I do like a good spar now and then, though. My colleague, the one inhabiting Ho-Oh? Not part of the same… culture.”

“Yeah, I kinda had that feeling.”

“He is trying, though. You know, you should suggest a quick spar with him!”

“How come?”

“It might help him understand you more. He doesn’t realize that Pokémon bond by fighting.”

“Bond by fighting… right…”

Michael mentioned something similar. And that bond, the flow of power, was the basis of the purification circle, too…

“Just one last tree, if that’s okay with you,” Bean said.

“Sure, what is it?”

“Could you think about the Voice of Life?”

“I’ve heard that one before… Right. Hang on.”

Another tree glowed like a torch down a long cave. The lack of birdsong or wind started to unnerve Owen. Did that mean his mind had no wind, either? What did that mean? Or was it because he was holding his breath, nervous?

Why trees, anyway? He was a Charizard! At least have a volcano, or a cool cave, or something… Maybe the Grass Core messed with his mindscape.

As they got closer, the tree’s appearance came into view. And this… was the strangest tree Owen had ever seen.

A tree was an exaggeration. It was like he was seeing the idea of a tree. Hollow, transparent, flat. When Owen turned, the tree turned as if to always face him, like an ethereal cutout that tilted to the angle of his view. It wasn’t there, yet it was supposed to be.

“Interesting…” Bean placed a paw on the idea of the tree, but it passed right through. “The only tree that’s not here.”

“Uhh—what’s… that mean? Am I forgetting it?”

“Oh, you can’t forget things in this state,” Bean replied. “This forest holds all your spirit’s experiences. I’m sure if you walked far enough, you might even find past lives! …If this world has reincarnation, at least. I don’t know that one.”

“Y-you know, Overseers have a bad habit of dropping… really existential things at random,” Owen said. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird to say crazy things like it’s normal?”

“Don’t you do that all the time?”

“What?”

“Hm?”

“…Well… anyway,” Owen said slowly, “what’s with this tree? Are you getting memories from it?”

“That’s just it,” said Bean. “This tree? It represents some segment of your memory that’s cut off. And if I had to check…” Bean scanned the environment around him, hexagons flickering. “This is the last one left. It must be frustrating… I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Owen said. “I… have a guess where it is. So, I can’t recover these memories at all?”

“Not until you find that final spirit fragment. How interesting, though! This reality must be able to do that…”

“Do what?”

“Well, a soul doesn’t forget, and it is immutable. You cannot split or combine them permanently. But within a reality… well, then it would be subject to that reality’s rules. And here, it seems you can temporarily… split it. And therefore, utterly keep some memories totally inaccessible, even here!”

“We’ve had that happen a lot lately,” Owen said.

“Right, right. The Legend halves, yes?”

These Overseers were a little too thorough with their research. Owen wondered if they had a log on his favorite foods, too.

“Well!” Bean grinned. “I hope you find that final fragment of yours. I think I have everything that I need. Thank you so much for your cooperation.”

“I’m, uh, I’m not in trouble, right?”

“Oh, even if you were, we wouldn’t be able to extract you like this!” Bean nodded. “A soul can only exist in one reality at a time. You’re missing a piece! You’re anchored.”

“…That… didn’t answer my question.”

Bean smiled again. “You aren’t, Owen. You didn’t intentionally cause any of this and you aren’t capable of it, either. We don’t try to take people away unless they’re at that level. But… your friend, Dark Matter—”

“He’s going to be better,” Owen assured him quickly. “He’s been working with us to stop his other fragments.”

“Ahh, yes!” Even after getting those memories, Bean sounded surprised when he spoke of it. “Dark Matter, an ally…”

Owen nodded again. “I gave him a tiny piece of light or something. He can change. And… if I can, I’m going to complete that.”

“I see…” Bean seemed contemplative. “Well… That is a surprise, Owen. We’ll watch to see how this goes.”

“What happens if… it fails?” Owen asked.

Bean was fading away as if withdrawing to some other, upper plane.

“The world will be destroyed,” Bean said apologetically. “Now that it’s spreading into this world… we can’t risk much more. We hope, for your world’s sake, your plan works, Owen. There are no more chances.”

Bean seemed… grave. And then he was gone, leaving Owen alone with his mental guardian.

“No more chances,” he repeated. “This… this is it, then. Now or never…”

A great light enveloped the forest. Owen’s body felt weightless. He took a sharp breath… and felt himself wake up.

<><><>​

The thunder was getting closer when Owen awoke on his back, resting his head against Zena. Mu was reading a book and Ho-Oh had gone to meditate near the Dungeon’s rippling edge.

“I’m awake,” Owen murmured. “How long was I out?”

“Not too long,” Zena said. “About… half a kilo?”

“Oh, that’s not bad…”

“Good. You’re awake.” Ho-Oh nodded. “Well, it seems my colleague got what he needed as an update on this world. It seems that the decision is to leave things to you. And if you fail, we will step in to help.”

“And by help,” Owen said, “you mean you’ll destroy the world entirely.”

Zena flinched.

“Wow, that’s metal,” Mu hummed.

“I’m sorry,” Ho-Oh said. “But I believe now you know the consequences of faltering. Not only will Kilo be in danger, but this whole other world and all connected worlds will be in equal danger of falling to the Voidlands. You recognize that if you fail, the only safe option is to eradicate everything and halt the spread. Correct?”

Owen could sense Zena’s defiance surging in her tense body. But she said nothing. Owen wanted to defy it, too. But… what power did he have against someone who spoke so calmly about it?

“Do you not know how to fix it any other way?” Owen asked.

“Not without risk. And we already took that risk with Hecto and Valle. We are… done with risks, should you fail, Usurper.”

“That… title,” Owen said. “If I succeed, what will you try to do with me next?”

“You are observant,” Ho-Oh said, nodding. “But you don’t need to worry. If you properly hand over that power to skilled individuals to rework the reality, all will be well. You can return to your world and everything will return to normal.”

Owen nodded uneasily. “Okay,” he said. “Well… then I need to follow one last thing that Bean asked me.”

“And that is?”

“Can we fight?”

That disrupted Zena’s tense stance. “Owen,” Zena said, somewhere between befuddled and exasperated. “You can’t possibly—”

“No, no,” Owen said, “That’s what Bean said I should propose! To bond!”

“But with an Overseer?” Zena asked. “He apparently isn’t even a Pokémon, you know.”

“He’s one now.” Mu turned a page. “So that’s something.”

Ho-Oh shook his head. “Fine. If Bean asked that… I’ll humor it. But only…” He raised a wing but then glared at it like it was missing something. “…One strike. From each of us.”

“Uh, I’m out,” Mu said, rolling while still reading her book. “I’m, like, still a minor, or something.”

The three adults squinted at Mu, then looked back at one another.

“You’re aware,” Ho-Oh said, “that I’m a Legendary in this body, yes? I’m not aware of my strength as it stands. I could incinerate you where you stand.”

“I think I’ll be able to handle that much,” Owen said. “Zena?”

“Yes. We’ve… dealt with the gods before. We have the durability for it. Even if we’re weaker in this part of reality, I think it will be fine for one strike.”

“Just one, huh…” Owen’s wings drooped. “Not going to be a whole lot we can get through with that, but…”

“We’ll have to put everything we have into one strike, then,” Zena stated to Owen.

“Mm, exactly,” Owen agreed.

Ho-Oh tiredly fluffed up his feathers. “Right. Well, I have not battled in a very long time.”

“Do you… know how to attack?” Owen asked.

“I’m a bird. So, I’d peck at you.”

The hollow metal sphere around them groaned with another gust of wind. Zena gave Owen an incredulous look.

“He’s not trolling,” Mu stated, turning another page.

“You—” Zena squinted. “You don’t know how to use Ho-Oh’s moves, but you took on his body? What happens if you’re attacked?”

“I’m a scout, not a fighter,” Ho-Oh muttered. “Hold on. Let me consult with him.” He closed his eyes.

As Ho-Oh remained still, standing upright yet seemingly unconscious, Owen turned his attention to Mu.

“So, was that cringe?” he asked.

“Supergod Overseer dude borrowing a body he doesn’t even know how to use?” Mu said. “Yeah, kinda.”

Owen nodded. Good. He was learning.

“I believe I learned enough to channel one move for this,” Ho-Oh said, opening his eyes. “Are we ready?”

The energy in the air changed. Mu closed her book and hopped to her feet, lightly jogging several paces away. Zena shifted and tensed her muscles, entering a defensive stance with her feather-fan tail in front of her. Owen crouched and unfurled his wings, readying a shield. It gave himself away, sure, but he doubted Ho-Oh was experienced enough to sense that. It was just one strike anyway.

“Charmander,” said Ho-Oh, “could you call the match’s start?”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Mu looked between the three of them. “Ready… go!”

Zena feinted and slithered to the right, distancing herself from Owen. She hid her head behind her tail, looking defensive, when in reality she was charging a Hydro Pump to strike at Ho-Oh’s flank.

Owen kicked forward, uplifting years of dried ocean salt mixed with rust from the ground. He spiraled to Ho-Oh, who deemed Owen to be the greater threat and opened his beak. His wings lit up with divine fire, spiraling around a sphere of heat in the middle of his mouth.

This attack… Owen wasn’t familiar with it. But he knew enough about the elements to copy it all the same.

When Ho-Oh fired, so did Zena, a cascade of water splitting across Ho-Oh from the side, drenching his feathers and knocking several out of their place. The Sacred Fire hit Owen’s swiftly conjured barrier, crawling around it and threatening to burn him even through that. This divine strength couldn’t be blocked by a mere Protect.

Owen landed harshly on the ground, salt crunching beneath his feet, water from Zena’s attack rippling in deep puddles. The fire sizzled in the water and boiled it into steam, obscuring Ho-Oh’s vision. Owen could tell by the way he was squinting.

But Owen held the advantage there. He seized that power, grasped at the threads of aura left behind in the blast, and curled it around his fingers like weaving a string or knitting a quilt. From his chest, he pumped Radiant energy into his claws, then combined it with Shadows.

That same sphere appeared in Owen’s palm, but now it swirled with a vortex of bubbling black and white embers. He hurled it forward like a softball, striking square in Ho-Oh’s chest where the energy exploded into a flurry of fire. Zena’s residual water bubbled off of him in a plume of scorching steam, cutting through his elemental resistances. That did real damage… even against this divine being.

Ho-Oh shrieked in surprise as the vapor dissipated. The dome creaked again, unbothered by their struggle but complaining about the impending storm.

And when Ho-Oh inspected his feathers again and as Zena lowered her guard, the Overseer bird finally chuckled.

“Now, what was that?” he said.

His gaze was… friendlier.

“Huh?” Owen asked.

“Just then. Did you… use some sort of telepathy?”

“No? I don’t know if I can do that to non-Mystics,” Owen said. “Especially not here… Everything’s weaker.”

“What do you mean?” Zena asked. “Do you mean… the feelings through battle, or something?”

“Is that how it feels?” Ho-Oh asked.

Now that Owen thought about it… he only sensed that kind of thing strongly in this world. In Kilo, it wasn’t as present…

“Yeah,” Owen said. “It’s a special property of this world. Pokémon communicate through battle. It’s like a conversation where you can’t hide your true feelings. Like… how I know you’re curious what I’ll do with this.”

“I see… I try to be stoic. I’d almost call it unprofessional.” Ho-Oh said. “But, if we’re being so transparent… I felt something curious from you two. Milotic… From you, defiance, fiery and desperate. You really wanted to hurt me, didn’t you?”

Zena flinched. “I… wanted to defend my world. And make sure I could prove it. If I couldn’t hurt you…”

“…Then how could you hurt Dark Matter,” Ho-Oh completed. “Yes. Your duty is in strength to save a world out of time.”

“I was born there,” Zena said. “Most souls there were. We deserve to defend our home, don’t we?”

“Well said.” Ho-Oh nodded. “And, Owen…”

“You felt…?”

“It’s what I didn’t feel,” Ho-Oh said. “You gave me a blast of energy that used both Shadow and Radiance. Darkness and light. Negative and positive, overflowing in both. In other worlds where we have seen this kind of interaction, it’s been given many names. Nihil, Blacklight… But personally? I would call it Chaos. Two energies not meant to coexist, swirling in a dangerous vortex ready to explode. Shadows pull up all of your doubts and negative emotions while suppressing anything that would have calmed you; Radiance forces your thoughts outward, turning you impulsive and erratic.

“Yet from you, I felt none of that. You have harnessed the power completely… and it does not corrode you.”

“I’ve had… practice,” Owen said. “I’m just a Charizard. But I had time to train with it, even when I didn’t realize it. I’ve been… exposed to that for so long that it’s become normal.”

“Yes. And yet…” Ho-Oh paced. “I sensed guilt. Self-reflection. Excitement… You do love your battles. But most of all…” Ho-Oh’s expression brightened so subtly that even Owen’s Perceive narrowly missed it. “That light in your eyes… it’s just hope, isn’t it? Mundane, simple hope that I felt… even in the face of so many adversaries back home. You’re returning with an answer and a dream.”

“And the sooner the better,” Owen said with a nod. “I hope it’s… enough. I want to fix this. Not just because I broke it, but because Kilo deserves better.”

Ho-Oh nodded. “Then face this Dungeon and pass into Kilo,” he said. “Consider it your final test before you can turn that hope into action.”

Mu jogged over to Owen and hopped onto his tail. Owen flicked his tail, flinging Mu up to his shoulder with practiced ease.

“Goodbye,” Ho-Oh said. “Should you fail, rest assured that your plague will not spread to other worlds. We’ll cut Kilo from its other neighboring worlds and find a way to destroy it.”

“Oh, sure, yeah. No big deal,” Owen muttered. “Just kill us all if we fail…” He understood why. But the Overseers’ perspective was… too insensitive for him to accept at face value. He had no choice but to save the world. Any other outcome was death or worse.

Zena led the charge to the Dungeon distortion in the center of the dome.

Ho-Oh continued. “But should you succeed… Well. Kilo’s fate is not sealed just yet. Good luck, Usurpers.”

His expression became firmer just as Owen walked through the Dungeon’s barrier.

“And I am not cringe.”

With those inspiring words to remember him by, Owen marched through the barrier with Zena by his side and Mu on his shoulder. He was leaving behind his original home, possibly for good this time. And he was returning to the one he’d truly spent most of his life in.

He wondered if his mother would approve of all this. His necklace felt just a little warmer. Somehow, in some way, Owen sensed that he was walking in the right direction.

<><><>​

“They’ve returned,” Barky announced.

CRASH!

Anam jumped in surprise, his slime dribbling all over his work station.

Demitri, behind one of the desks in their makeshift strategy room in Kilo Village, accidentally split the table in two. Hakk, Mispy, Jerry, and Star happened to be in the room with Anam; everyone else was out doing fieldwork with the stabilized zones in anticipation of Alexander's reawakening.

Demitri tried to push the splintered pieces of wood back together. It wasn’t working. “S-sorry. You startled me…”

“That table was elementally reinforced,” Hakk whispered. “How’d you split it like a toothpick?”

“Barky’s voice is super intense…”

“Wait, what did he say?” Star asked, lounging in a bubble of psychic energy while poring over documents of Dungeon findings. “Barky! Who’s back?”

“Owen, Zena, and Mu,” Barky said. “Gather everyone. I’m currently figuring out where he is… I need to return to Destiny Tower to get communications running.”

“Yo, wait up!” Star said, disappearing and reappearing on Barky’s back.

“What’re we planning on this end?” Jerry said, standing up straighter. “We don’t even have a tenth of Kilo back to normal. How can we even get Owen here?”

Skitter, skitter… Willow zipped into the building. “Nate says Owen’s back!”

“Yes. We know,” Barky said. “…Wait, why does Nate know already? Can he sense his life force, too?”

“How should I know?!” Willow growled. “What, you want me to ask that, too?”

“…Yes, actually. I feel as though Nate is keeping something from us when we can’t afford any variable to be left unknown.”

“Oh.” Anam shifted nervously. “…Um, I’ll go with you, Willow.” Anam had a feeling that Willow wouldn’t be very good at getting the information that was important…

“Get Diyem if you need help,” Barky dismissed. “We need to do our part to secure Owen.”

“O-oh.” Anam played with his feelers. “Okay.”

“Now then, Jerry…” Barky addressed the Aerodactyl again. “We’ve been coordinating with Owen on just where he’d enter. I can sense his presence and we’ll work from there,” Barky explained. “It should be another Dungeon near a powerful aura.”

“…Couldn’t that be Ghrelle?” Jerry said.

Barky closed his eyes. “I’ll let you know if it is through Willow. But I’m hoping not. Star?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Good luck!” Anam called. “I’ll, um, I’ll see Nate!”

And yet, not one empty street later, Anam stopped and waved at an incoming, gigantic leviathan made of darkness and eyes.

“Hey, Nate!” Anam called cheerily. “Thanks for letting us know about Owen!”

I’m going to head to Zero Isle Spiral.

“Huh? How come?”

I… need to meet Owen there.

Anam tilted his head. “So… Owen, Zena, and Mu turned up in Aramé’s place?”

The leviathan’s great five heads nodded.

“Um… okay. But, that reminds me, um, if it’s not too much… why do you need to meet him? Barky said, um… you know, that you know more than you say, so…”

Oh. I thought nobody noticed. I’m sorry.

Anam tittered but didn’t press more. If he did, he might upset Nate…

Okay, Nate said. Since we’re already so close… I’ll talk about it. But first, let me show you something…

Nate extended one of his heads forward. Anam leaned in, curious, as a golden mote of light flowed through that blackened body.

Anam gasped. “But that’s…!”

<><><>​

Warm, tropical air mixed with salty ocean scents. Sunlight bathed Owen, Zena, and Mu with liberating energy. It felt like an oppressive force had finally been lifted.

Owen deduced this was them returning to their proper domain, where they could use their full strength uninhibited. This was unmistakably Kilo.

But it was also still a Dungeon. Tall corridors made of seashells and stone mixed unnaturally with wood and grass sprawled in all directions. A mysterious force kept Owen and Zena from flying too high above them. Thankfully, there weren’t hostile, feral Pokémon, or even wraiths to bother them.

The walls of the Dungeon glowed a gentle cyan.

“This energy,” Zena said. “Is this a Mystic Dungeon?”

“We’ve never been in one with this kind of climate, though,” Owen said. “Unless…”

“We never entered the Dragon Dungeon,” Zena said. “Could this be it?”

“The Dragon Guardian, Aramé. And the final Divine Dragon…”

Mu leaned back while atop Zena’s head, grasping Zena’s horn to keep from falling completely over. “Well, that means we can go through easily, right?”

“Yeah. Let’s find the distortions. We have to go through it to get out.”

It was only a short walk. A few turns led them to one distortion, then another, and soon they found an empty chamber that had fewer strange walls. A stable zone.

Owen sighed. “Finally,” he said. Just as he passed through the stable zone, Zena and Mu disappeared from his Perceive. This was normal; his Perceive couldn’t go past distortions.

The problem was when they didn’t follow at all.

“Zena?” Owen said dumbly, realizing his voice wouldn’t carry through. He knew not to pass through again—that could send him to a random part of the Dungeon again. “What’s…”

He focused harder on his Perceive. Nothing, no living creature other than himself. He tried to ignore how much faster his heart was beating. After spending so many months with Zena and Mu in relative peace, the two suddenly being gone was shaking him.

No. He had to stay calm. He had to trust that Aramé was still an ally. Barky didn’t warn them about anything like this, after all. And he’d surely know after that Ghrelle incident.

His Perceive instead caught a note in the middle of the chamber, recently written and fresh.

“Please leave your horns in the basket before passing through. They are not allowed for this final test. Replacements have been crafted for you.”

Nearby was a basket with two horns that looked a lot like Owen’s, though he could tell they were made of clay.

It was a trap, but a telegraphed one. Whatever test he was going to take couldn’t be seen through his Perceive. Some kind of illusion, maybe? That in itself was a hint…

Owen sighed. If he disobeyed, he would probably be attacked. Could he defend himself?

No, that wasn’t what he had to be concerned about. Zena… Mu…

Barky, Owen thought gently in prayer, I’m here and in the Dragon Dungeon. Zero Isle Spiral. Aramé is asking me to remove my horns and proceed through her test.

I’m going to follow through with it. If you think I should fight back, if you think this is a trap… give me a sign.


Even across dimensions and within a Dungeon, Owen knew Barky would hear him. That mysterious connection the gods left behind was enough.

And for a while, Owen waited patiently. He watched the skies. He felt for tremors. He checked for glows.

Nothing came.

Maybe he should have asked for a sign if he should proceed. But… admittedly, he did not know if disturbances could go through. So instead, he called one last time. I’m going forward. If you didn’t want me to go, I couldn’t hear you. Send rescue if I’m going into a trap. Wish me luck.

Barky could have sent him word back, right? Or… was that cut off here? Aramé was strong. Supposedly the strongest Guardian.

He wondered why Aramé never fought alongside them.

The clay horns fit surprisingly well and felt cozy in their sockets. He left his true horns behind and hoped they would be returned. If not, Nevren had said they’d regrow after a few days…

But he couldn’t afford a few days anymore, could he?

Logically, this was a bad idea. Aramé could be a traitor, somehow. But his instincts told him it would work out. He knew Aramé from the past, vague memories of Wishkeeper informing him that Aramé meant well.

So, he put his faith and trust in her as he walked through the distortion.

The colors swirled, the labyrinth returned around him… and a strange light shone on the far side of the hall.

Owen’s arms tensed, ready for a Protect—but he’d been too slow. The light became a beam before he could react, slamming into his forehead.

“Aghh—”

He shambled forward a few steps and leaned against the wall. “What… what was that?” he huffed, trying to see more than a few feet in front of him. Darkness crept at the edges of his vision…

And he passed out.

<><><>​

Salty air. Tropical warmth. He remembered those. He remembered going on a mission for… something. He had to get back home to Hot Spot.

Right. He remembered that. Gods, he remembered a lot of that. And he knew he was prone to losing his memories. The pang of annoyance that followed informed him he lost them again.

“Alright,” he muttered, groggily standing up. “I fell for… a trap… Hello?” He squinted, rubbing his throbbing forehead. He took several more breaths and did a body check. Tail, blazing. Wings, a little stiff but fine. Arms, legs, doing well. Belly, a little overweight. He looked a little like a normal Charizard again.

Fine enough. Grunting, he got to his feet and stomped down the hall.

It was a labyrinth, a Dungeon, so there was a way forward somewhere inside.

Not five seconds later, he heard the sound of a small Pokémon sniffling. His nature took over. Someone needed help!

“Hello?” he called again.

The sniffling stopped.

“It’s alright. I’m here to help. I mean, I didn’t know you were here, but…” He walked down the nearest twisted corridor.

Just around the corner, in a small room, was a Charmander with his back turned to him. On Charmander’s back was the mark of Necrozma, a little birthmark like a vertically stretched star.

“Oh, hello,” he said gently.

Charmander, startled, sprang to his feet and took on a defensive stance.

“I-it’s okay, it’s okay!” He raised his hands and folded his wings back. “Are you… are you okay? What’s your name?”

The Charmander kept his guard up a while longer. Then, seeming to lose his will, he plopped onto his rear again, head down. “Owen,” he said quietly.

“Owen…” He didn’t know that name. “My name’s Charizard. Just Charizard. May I sit by you?”

“Sure…”

Charizard gingerly approached and took care not to shake the ground when he took a seat.

“Okay, Owen,” Charizard said gently. “What’s bothering you?”
 
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