DeliriousAbsol
*Crazy Absol Noises*
Okay! I've managed to finish 2022's Christmas Mash-up in good time! I had a lot of fun with this. I've tried to keep people's characters in-character, and I have to thank K.S once more for running a small role-play. It really helped me get a feel for characters without having to do a lot of reading before I wrote this. I hope you all enjoy my Christmas present to Thousand Roads! =D If you do, please let me know in a short review. Nothing fancy is needed review-wise, this was just for fun!
Roleplay refresher (not compulsory if you just want to read this story)
Disclaimer - I don't own pokemon or any of its characters. All characters within belong to their respective owners (see also Stars of the Show above)
Additional disclaimer - For those who might recognise the setting from my comedy story What? I'm a Pokemon?!, please do not take this as self-advertising. I wanted to do something different this year, like the past two were very different. And despite how much I tried to talk myself out of it and come up with something else I just... couldn't resist this. Enjoy! XD
Several pokemon had gathered on the grassy bank, their heated discussion drifting into the cool midday air. The topic was mainly about a world-eating pokemon. Eternatus, the mewtwo had called it. Was that the reason they were all here? Had their own worlds been swallowed up? The milotic seemed to think so. The persian, however, was enjoying the panic going on beneath him while he egged them on from his perch in a large sycamore tree.
A froslass zipped back and forth, chiming in every now and then while she made frozen accessories for everyone (a few of them had already started to melt, much to the garchomp’s silent delight…), and the alarmed metang had barely moved, wearing a frozen crown that Fray had declared ‘really brings out its eyes’.
A loud scream pierced the air, bringing the discussion to a halt. All eyes turned to the trees across the river. Fray dropped the ice she’d been molding. Gene brandished his large spoon like a battle axe. Persian finally dropped from his tree and stretched, tail brushed slightly while trying to maintain an expression of disinterest.
A long silence followed the sudden scream.
Persian broke it. “I smell prey.”
Victoria rolled her eyes and swam gracefully across the river. “Well I’m going to see who it was. They might need help.”
“You are right, Victoria,” said Antares. “A scream means potential distress!”
The garchomp leapt across the river, landing on the bank as Victoria surfaced.
Persian faltered at the edge of the river with one paw raised. “Erm… any chance you could come back here and carry me?”
Antares shook his head. “Someone needs help. Perhaps wait and we’ll rejoin you?”
Not wanting to miss anything, Persian looked over at Nocitlālin and widened his eyes. “How about a roomba-ride?”
Nocitlālin trundled past the other pokemon, stirring ripples across the water in its wake. “Target detected twenty point five feet away. Threat level - moderate.”
Antares trotted behind the metang. “Lead the way, my metal friend.”
“Wait for me!” Fray cried cheerfully, catching up with Antares. “Do you think whoever it is would like a ice-lace choker?”
The froslass’ question landed on deaf ears as all attention was focused on the distress call. Gene zoomed across the river to join the rest, leaving a rattled Persian on the other side of the bank. The white cat sought out some stepping stones and, after a deep breath and a silent wish that they’d be bone-dry, bounded over them. The air turned warm above him as a volcarona flew delicately over the trees. He watched it for a moment, considering giving playful chase as it trailed after the rest of the rag-tag group.
The trees parted in a small clearing. An oshawott stood huddled at the base of a tree clutching his red hood in both paws. His wide eyes were fixed on a prone body sprawled near his feet. The tiny emolga barely moved besides breathing softly.
When the oshawott saw the group emerge through the trees he rushed over to them and dived behind Antares’ leg.
“Whoa!” The garchomp swerved to the side to avoid tripping over the smaller pokemon. “Were you the distress call?” He pointed a fin at the emolga. “What happened to that guy?”
Persian joined Victoria’s side, stared at the emolga for a moment, then licked his jaws. “Mmm, prey.”
The milotic cast him a sideways glare. “Oh, don’t. It’s just a hatchling!”
Persian cast a glance at the sky then licked a paw. “Well, it is snack time.”
“Assessing situation.” Nocitlālin drifted forwards, its eyes fixed on the emolga. “Target very much alive yet unconscious. Medical attention required. Medicines at disposal - zero. Assessing other options… processing… option selected. Initiating resuscitation.” The metang darted forwards and crashed into the emolga.
The tiny body rose into the air and arced through the clearing. All eyes watched it as heads raised to follow the little hatchling.
Antares leapt forwards, arms raised, as Gene vanished into a wormhole to reappear behind the emolga. Antares’ eyes widened as he darted past the emolga right into Gene. The mewtwo raised his spoon a little too late. The garchomp crashed into him, sending them both to the ground. The emolga landed right on Gene’s stomach, eliciting a small ‘oof!’ from the dark-furred mewtwo.
Silence.
Then Fray clapped her paws together and whooped. “Nice catch!”
The oshawott took a nervous step forwards, his gaze fixed on the emolga. “Is… is he okay? He just… fell out of the tree, and-”
Sparks crackled on the emolga’s cheeks and Gene’s eyes flew wide open. His body lit up with electricity, and Antares scrambled backwards as sparks bounced harmlessly off his scales. The emolga jerked his head up and back-flipped off Gene’s frazzled body. The mewtwo met the emolga’s smoldering glare with one of equal intensity.
“You little punk!” Gene growled.
“Who are you callin’ ‘punk’?!” The emolga placed his paws on his hips and tapped his little foot. “Did you push Mushu out of his tree?! Where even is Mushu?!” He turned around, staring up at the canopy. “Mushu doesn’t know this forest!”
Victoria softened her gaze. “None of us do, sweetie.”
“’Sweetie’?” Gene smoothed out his fur with the back of his spoon, then looked up at Persian. “Still fancy a snack?”
Persian idly groomed his whiskers. “I don’t like my food quite so spicy.”
“You can’t eat him anyway!” Fray zipped towards the emolga and grabbed his cheeks in her frosty paws. “Look how cute he is! Oh, how small and deli-”
Her sentence ended in a squeak of surprise as Antares grabbed her and swung her aside. Electricity sizzled on the ground where she’d been standing.
Mushu stood with his paws clenched, glaring at the froslass. “Don’t touch Mushu!”
“I’m so sorry!” Fray gasped.
Nocitlālin’s gaze was calculating as it strafed from side to side. “Re-assessing situation. Threat has escalated to ‘critical’. Activating urgent countermeasures.” The metang darted like a bullet towards Mushu.
Electricity lit up the clearing, dazzling everyone’s eyes. Mushu soared into the canopy, vanishing amid the leaves. Victoria gasped and raised her tail fins to cover her mouth. Persian rolled onto his side laughing.
Gene raised a paw to shield his eyes against the sun and nodded. “Impressive for a hockey puck.”
Mushu poked his head out of the leaves and shook his large ears. He then waved a tiny fist at Nocitlālin. “You’ll regret that!”
The oshawott rushed to the base of the tree and placed both paws on its knotted trunk. “Are you okay?!”
Mushu said nothing, instead leaning back against the trunk, sulking.
The volcarona drifted down into the clearing, drawing a few gasps from the other pokemon. Persian watched her curiously, letting out a low purr.
“I am sorry to interrupt, but I believe arguing is not appropriate at the moment,” said the volcarona.
“Where did you come from?” Gene asked, scratching his ear.
“Oh sgargiante… she’s been here the whole time!” Persian smirked up at the mewtwo. “And I thought psychic-types were meant to be observant?”
“The persian is correct,” said the volcarona. “As I was explaining, none of us are in our own worlds right now. For whatever the reason may be, we have been brought here.”
“You too?” The oshawott adjusted his red hood over his ears. “I was getting worried. One moment I’m on a mission with my friends and the next I’m here, alone.” He hugged his arms around himself.
“The same has happened to all of us.” Victoria placed her tail fins gently on his back. “I was with my trainer before this happened.”
“A human trainer?” The oshawott seemed to perk up at that. “You’re from the human world?”
“As am I,” the volcarona went on. “And our persian companion, too. Perhaps Gene is right and our worlds have been eaten, or we have been drawn here for some other reason? But I think it is crucial we work together for the time being.”
“Apologies,” said Antares, still clutching Fray. He nodded to the volcarona. “I don’t believe I caught your name?”
“I have not introduced myself yet. My name is Taiyoko.” The volcarona lowered her head. “I have spotted a building on the far side of the river. I suggest we head there and see if anyone can help us.”
“Well, Taiyoko, you might be right.” Antares placed Fray back on the ground, where she hovered. “We might need to work together to get back from whence we came. Where exactly is this building?”
“A short flight from where we landed,” Taiyoko explained. “It is quite unusual, but it is definitely a building.”
Persian narrowed his eyes at the moth. “If you are about to tell us this building resembles a pokemon…”
“Then you will have to see it for yourself,” said Taiyoko.
Mushu jerked his head around at them but said nothing.
Persian rose to his feet. “Very well, lead the way, luce del sol.”
Taiyoko drifted gently into the air and soared over the trees, her wings whipping up sparkling scales. The other pokemon followed behind them, either walking, drifting, or ramming the passing trees. Leaves rustled above them as Mushu leapt long the branches.
“Coming with us, lo spuntino?” Persian purred.
“It’s Mushu!” The emolga bared his sharp little teeth. “And Mushu can work alone! But you weak pokemon look like you need help.”
“Weak?” Gene drifted up to Mushu’s level with his arms folded. “I could best you in a show of strength, you scrap of fur.”
Mushu fired him a glare.
“Sgargiante, your whiskers are still smoking.” Persian broke off in a husky chuckle.
“He caught me off guard, that’s all!” Gene drifted back down so he was level with Antares.
Victoria offered to carry the oshawott across the river, despite the fact he could swim. He introduced himself as Gen, and happily sat astride the milotic’s neck as she kept his flippers above the water.
Once across the river, Taiyoko lead them across a flat grassland which dipped down into a field of rolling hills. Perched between them was a lone building. Tall, yellow, and shaped like a pikachu’s head and torso.
Persian choked and pulled his ears back. “You have to be kitten me!”
“Pika’s Place!” Mushu darted through the long grass, vanishing from sight.
Fray rose into the air and clasped her paws together. “Oh it’s so cute! It looks just like a pikachu!” She looked up at Taiyoko. “Is this the building?”
Taiyoko nodded. “This is the building.”
“What idiota designs buildings like that?!” Persian began choking, his eyes bulging from his head.
Victoria began smacking him on the back with her tail.
“I’m fine!” he yowled at her between coughs. “Seeing that mostruosità just gave me a hairball, that’s all!”
“Pokemon built it,” said Gen, raising his paws. When greeted with a raised eyebrow off his companions, he added, “Some of the buildings in Overcast Village look like pokemon, too. Or pumpkins.”
“If it’s pokemon,” said Victoria, “then it won’t be pokemon hunters trying to trap us.”
“Humans do that?” Fray gasped.
“There are some bad humans in the world,” said Gen, hugging himself.
“There are humans in your world?” Victoria asked, still keeping her tail on Persian’s back while he gnawed on the grass. “I thought you said they had pokemon-themed buildings?”
Gen glanced aside and toyed with his hood. “Well… I suppose there’s no harm in telling you, but I was a human once before I got pulled into another world and… well… changed.”
“Oh.” Victoria nodded. “That’s… well that’s fine!”
Gene shrugged. “It happens.” He tapped his temple with a claw. “I was also from the human world, although I was a pokemon in that one, too.”
Fray looked at each of her new friends. “This is all so much fun! And very interesting! I bet you all have loads of fun stories to tell! I never knew there were so many worlds before.”
“It is getting dark,” said Taiyoko. “Perhaps we can save stories for when we are safely indoors? We do not know what threats this world holds.”
Nocitlālin shifted slightly so he was looking up at the sky. “Sunset in exactly fourteen minutes. Surroundings - unfamiliar. Shelter is the designated option. Cannot ram nothingness.”
“I say we check out that building,” said Antares. “Mushu seems to be familiar with it, so why not give it a go?”
Persian stopped chewing the grass and took a rasping breath. “Sure. Unless it is filled with more unsavoury folk.”
With that decided, they approached the pikachu-shaped building.
Mushu stood nearby, his wide eyes fearful and confused as he took in the hills. When he spotted the others he flicked his tail up and down and shuffled his feet.
“Where is Mushu’s tree house?” His snippy tone had gone, instead sounding like the fearful voice of a little child. “And the orchard?”
“Are you saying this isn’t where this building is supposed to be?” Victoria asked, gazing from Mushu to the building.
Mushu shook his head, then took a step back from the building as if it had suddenly sprouted wings.
Nocitlālin drifted forwards, keeping itself between the pokemon and the over-sized pikachu. “Computing ways to assess new threat. Threat is not a life-form. Threat is a construction of mud, leaves, and berry-tinted paints. Listing options. Processing… processing… option selected. Initiating ramming.”
The metang darted up the steps towards the door situated beneath the pikachu’s chin. Nocitlālin struck the door then bounced back from it. After a heartbeat, it struck it again. The door opened and Nocitlālin froze mid-ram before it collided with a pikachu.
The yellow pokemon adjusted his tie and looked from Nocitlālin to the pokemon gathered at the foot of the stairs. At least, he may have been looking… His eyes were closed. “Good evening.”
“Are you wearing a suit?” Persian asked, his crooked muzzle twisting in a sneer.
Mushu bounded up the stairs towards the pikachu, cheeks sparking. “Why is Pika’s Place in the middle of nowhere?!”
“Mushu! You’re okay!” Pika stood back to give the emolga some space. “But funny you should ask that, because I fear that is exactly where we are.” He turned his head to the other pokemon and his brow furrowed between his closed eyes. “I’m not familiar with you. Are you lost?”
“That would be correct,” said Antares.
“Well, so is most of Pika’s Place.”
“Your friends are missing?!” Fray gasped.
“Yes. Scattered, I believe.” Pika motioned for them to enter. “Come on in. I can tell you everything.”
The group of pokemon exchanged confused looks, painfully aware that Pika was still waiting for them at the top of the stairs.
“Well, Mushu trusts him,” said Victoria. “Why shouldn’t we?”
Gene tapped his temple. “Mushu is also a volatile scrap of fur. Why should this pikachu be any different?”
“Well I’m going in.” Victoria slithered towards the stairs, tailed by Fray.
Persian, without contributing anything, bounded past her onto the stairs.
“You’re going too?” Gen trotted after him.
“Naturalmente.” Persian looked back and flicked his tail. “It smells like rain, and I hate to get my fur wet.”
Gene immediately looked up at the sky and held out a paw.
“Seriously?” Antares shrugged. “A little rain never hurt anyone.”
“Try telling that to a numel.” Persian hopped up the stairs after Victoria.
Taiyoko followed after them, and after a pause Gene and Antares did the same. At the top, Victoria gave Nocitlālin a nudge with her nose and it darted on ahead of her, bouncing off the walls as it spun into the hallway.
“Just like a roomba,” Persian purred.
Gen snickered into his paw and Victoria rolled her eyes.
Antares exchanged a glance with Fray. “What, pray tell, is a roomba?”
The froslass shrugged. “I dunno, but it looks like fun!”
Once inside, away from the not-quite-rain, Gene waved his spoon and closed the door behind him. Pika led the group into a room that smelled delightfully of cake and sugared fruit. A large dining table stretched out before them with little wooden logs to serve as seats. The table was set up as if a huge party was expected to attend. The pikachu took the head of the table where Mushu was nibbling on a steaming cookie.
The group hesitated in the doorway, gazing sadly over the table. The delicately painted floral plates and polished glasses looked so lonely in such a wide room empty of guests.
“You said your friends are missing?” Fray held her paws together and looked up at Pika. “So many?”
Pika nodded and sipped at a glass of juice. “I want to be prepared for when they return. I currently have four search parties - all that was left of Pika’s Place - out looking for them.” He motioned to the seats. “Please sit down, your hovering is enough to make one anxious.”
The group complied, gathering at the end closest to Pika to save him shouting across the long table. Fray made sure she was beside Antares, a permanent smile etched upon her dainty face. A crash came from the kitchen, followed by a string of rather polite exclamations from a deep voice.
Gen looked up as if noticing the kitchen for the first time. “Is… is your chef okay?”
“Rexi?” Pika glanced at the closed serving hatch. “Oh, he spends most of his time in there. He quite enjoys it.”
“I might see if he needs a helping paw.” Gen hopped from his seat and crept into the kitchen. “Do you need a-”
“Oh!” A little squeal followed. “You gave me a start! Another oshawott! Oh I’d be glad of some help. I’m afraid I just dropped the custard!”
Gen closed the door behind him.
All eyes were on the closed door.
“I’m curious to see what’s going on in there,” said Antares.
“It’s a rather small kitchen,” said Pika. “And Rexi often tells me ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ and sends me out. Now… onto more urgent matters.” He set his glass back down and wiped his mouth on his napkin. “Since you have arrived here, this suggests to me the situation is more dire than I first feared. I honestly thought we’d been whipped up in a storm and most of my residents… well… rained down on this new location. I was worried they might be hurt, and what was left of my explorers have been sent out on rescue missions to try and find them. However, if you are also lost, then something else might be going on.”
Antares had produced a notepad from somewhere. “Do you recall a storm at all?”
“There was a lot of rain and wind yesterday, but not enough to uproot an entire building.” Pika nodded to the emolga now licking crumbs off his paws. “And Mushu here told me that he’d seen an anomaly from his tree house. How did you describe it?”
“Like a giant bubble of electricity!” Mushu barked.
“An exploration party came back and told me they’d seen a similar thing,” Pika went on. “They said there were pokemon they’d never seen before walking around inside it, and in the bubble the terrain was completely different. Trees frozen with ice, and the ground was thick with snow. They didn’t dare step paw inside it, of course.”
“This sounds like it could be a worm hole.” Gene’s fur prickled. “Don’t tell me Ultra Beasts are involved in all this!”
Pika blinked at him, which was an odd movement with closed eyes. “Ultra-what-now?”
“Destructive alien pokemon,” Gene explained. “They come in from Ultra Space and cause all kinds of…” Seeing the bewildered look on the pikachu’s face, Gene shrugged and gave a small sigh. “Never mind. I’m obviously wrong. Perhaps some legend is behind all this?”
“Like the wold eater?” Victoria asked, looking from the mewtwo to Pika.
“I don’t know of a World Eater,” Pika said in a way that suggested it should be capitalised, “but it’s funny you should mention a legend. I did wonder if perhaps my old friend knows something about all this? You kind of resemble him, actually.” He waved a paw at Gene. “He’s a dark-furred mew with a purple mane.”
Persian started to choke again, getting another back-pat off Victoria.
“Purple mane?” Gene scoffed. “What mew has a mane at all?!”
“This one does.” Pika sat back on his stool and steepled his paws. “I was kind of hoping he might show up rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment and tell me all of this is some crazy prank that went out of control and he now needs my help. But I’ve not seen tail nor whisker of him since we got here.”
“He’s a jerk!” Mushu exclaimed, sparking dangerously and disturbing the fine china. “Mushu will shock him if he’s destroyed Mushu’s tree house!”
“What is this mew called?” Antares looked up from his notes.
Pika sipped his juice again. “Bootleg.”
Persian let out a loud gag and a bundle of wet white fur landed on the table. “Finalmente.” He rolled his head back and sighed. “I feel much better now.” He took a breath and looked at Pika. “What kind of mew calls itself ‘Bootleg’? I’m guessing it’s a contraffatto?” He then smirked at Gene. “Much like sgargiante here?”
The crystal in Gene’s shoulder sparked. “I am not a fake! My appearance is a result of my battle with Necrozma!”
Persian closed his eyes and laughed. “So permaloso! I merely jest!”
“Who is Necrozma?” Pika asked.
Gene calmed himself just as quickly and looked up at the confused pikachu. “You really don’t have Ultra Beasts here at all, do you?”
“Not to the best of my knowledge, no.”
Gene seemed to relax at that. He folded his arms and closed his eyes with a nod.
“So we can rule those out then.” Antares jotted down quickly, poking his tongue between his teeth. Fray was stood on her stool beside him, happily reading over his shoulder.
“If it is not down to wormholes and Ultra Beasts,” Taiyoko said slowly, “there are other legends we can consider.”
Gene fixed her in a stare. “The only ones I know who can bend time and space are Palkia and Dialga.”
“I had reached a similar conclusion.” Pika’s statement drew their attention. “But Palkia and Dialga vanished from my world a long time ago. If this is their doing, then it boggles the mind as to ‘how’ this came about.”
Before anyone could add anything further, the kitchen door opened as a tyranitar stepped out carrying a steaming plate of pancakes. He wore a lacy apron with a scalchop printed on the front exactly where one would have been on his stomach should he have had one. He beamed at the gathered pokemon.
“I bring you supper!” He set the plate down on the table. “Just like Mama Dewott used to make! Oh I do hope you enjoy! I had a helpful paw in the kitchen.”
Gen joined his side, carrying a large jug in both paws. He carefully climbed onto a stool to set it beside the pancakes, spilling very little in the process.
Persian made a thoughtful noise and looked up at the tyranitar. “Do you have any ketchup?”
Rexi blinked. “Pardon?”
Gen caught Rexi’s eye. “It’s made from tamato berries.”
“What? With pancakes?” Rexi twiddled his claws together and shifted his weight from foot to foot. He looked back at Persian, bewildered. “Are you really certain you want tamato berries with your pancakes?”
“No,” Persian growled. “I want ketchup.”
Gene scowled at the white cat. “Well I don’t think you’re getting it.”
Persian let out a low hiss and swished his tail.
“I’ll see what I can do!” Rexi told him in a bid to placate the cat before he got his claws out. “Tamato berries… Do I have any?”
“We can improvise,” said Gen.
“Great idea!” Rexi grinned at the oshawott with an unnerving set of sharp teeth. “Shall we get the rest, little cousin?”
“I’m on it!” Gen raced back into the kitchen with a giggling Rexi in tow.
Nocitlālin watched the tyranitar curiously as the door swung shut behind him.
“Erm.” Victoria caught Pika’s eye. “Does your chef erm… believe he’s an oshawott?”
“Yes.” Pika stared back at her with a look that said the topic was to be dropped there and then.
The milotic nodded and said no more.
“I think it’s adorable!” said Fray. “But it would be way cuter to believe he was a dragon.”
Antares placed a claw over the froslass’ mouth and she fell silent as a blush took over her cheeks.
After Rexi and Gen brought out yet more food - waffles, porridge, berry souffle, watmel juice… basically anything that didn’t say ‘supper’ - the pokemon happily tucked into their first meal in this strange new world. He’d even managed to make a vague rendition of ‘ketchup’ for Persian which the white cat tucked into quite happily, although he said it didn’t hold a candle to the ‘real stuff’. Rexi, however, remained in the kitchen after admitting he’d broken too many little log stools due to his unusual gargantuan size (he was the right size for a tyranitar, everyone noted, but much much too big for an oshawott.)
Nocitlālin assessed every meal presented to him by ramming the plate across the tablecloth. Gene caught each plate in a psychic bubble and brought it back to the metang. Even for science, one should not explode another’s fine china.
Antares dabbed his muzzle with a napkin and turned to Pika. “So… what should we do?”
“You are welcome to stay here the night,” said Pika. “As for what to do, I currently have no idea. As I explained, I have already sent out rescue parties. Right now my goal is, as it always has been, to help those who are lost. Not of this world. But right now, I am also not of this world. I have reached the conclusion that I am no longer in my home region. Scouts have found no familiar surroundings. Just endless hills and greenery, with a forest that seems to go on forever and a river with no end.”
“So…” Fray scratched her head and sighed. For the first time since she’d appeared in the world she actually looked a little sad. “We’re just stuck here?”
“We won’t remain stuck here,” said Pika. “I suggest we all get some sleep. Perhaps after a nice long rest we’ll come up with a plan?”
With supper finished, the pokemon were shown to the nest rooms. Pika’s rules were to keep any non-family males and females separate, so they bade each other goodnight before turning down their respective corridors.
Then, overnight… one of the search parties returned…
A blaring horn shook the very walls of the nest rooms, jerking the sleeping pokemon straight out of their dreams. One by one they all sat bolt upright in their nests. Cue montage:
Fray’s eyes widened. “Nomi?”
“What the-?!” Victoria sent a flurry of hay raining across the room.
“Mamma?!” Persian wailed.
“I’m blind!” Antares paused for a moment then nudged his eye mask off his face.
Gene raised his spoon and the horn on the wall exploded in a burst of psychic, plunging the boys’ room into silence. He slowly lay back down in his nest and yawned.
Meanwhile, in the girls’ room, Victoria and Fray huddled in the corner desperately covering their ears. The sound finally stopped, while Taiyoko hovered before the hollow brass horn with her head on one side.
“Curious,” said the volcarona. “I did not think pokemon possessed such noisy contraptions.”
Fray raised her head from her paws. “I’m guessing that was the alarm, huh? Oh wow! Is it breakfast already?”
“That’s a noisy way to tell us it’s breakfast.” Victoria slid from her nest and yawned. “Perhaps it’s more urgent and Pika has something to say?”
Back in the boys’ room, Persian was grooming his ruffled whiskers while Antares smoothed out the hay he’d been sleeping on. The garchomp looked up at his room-mates and raised an eyebrow.
“Does anyone know where Gen is?” he asked.
Persian lowered his paw and yawned. “I have no idea, squalo di terra. Perhaps our wake-up call caused him such a fright he ran away?”
“You don’t seem rather bothered?” Antares stood up and dusted stray hay off his scales. “He could be in dire distress and need our help!”
“Negative.” Nocitlālin stood in the corner of the room beneath the horn. “The oshawott left the room fifty seven minutes and fourteen seconds ago.”
Gene sat up on one elbow, glancing from the metang to the garchomp.
“Did he say to whence he was headed?” Antares asked.
“Negative.” Nocitlālin drifted towards the door. “The alarm call suggests we are to seek out the pikachu and perhaps consume nutrients.”
Gene rubbed his head and groaned. “What are our other options?”
“Invalid request.” Nocitlālin turned to face him. “There are no other options.”
“Great.” Gene pushed himself to his feet. “I suppose we should at least investigate. It might get us back home.”
Antares blinked at the metang. “Did you even sleep?”
“Sleep.” Nocitlālin raised its gaze to the garchomp. “A process used by biological lifeforms to replenish energy. Approximate time for efficiency - eight hours.”
Antares stared at Nocitlālin, waiting for it to elaborate. When it did not, he asked, “So is that a ‘yes’?”
“I think it was a fancy ‘no’.” Persian rose from his nest. “Let us follow the roomba and find food. I am ready for my breakfast.”
The two groups met each other at the top of the stairs and followed the route down towards the kitchen. Sweet, delicious smells greeted them and they strolled into the dining hall with rumbling bellies.
Pika was already there, standing in the kitchen door with his back to them. Gen’s voice could be heard from the kitchen announcing that the berry pancakes were almost ready. Pika looked over his shoulder as the group gathered around the table.
“Good morning!” Fray chirruped as she took her spot beside Antares.
“Good morning!” Pika replied. “I trust you all slept well?” A few mutters about the alarm rose from the table which the pikachu chose to ignore. He perched himself at the head of the table and his closed eyes curved in a beaming smile. “I have some good news. One of my exploration parties has returned.”
The group glanced around the table as if wondering if the returning pokemon were, for some reason, invisible (and in Gene’s case, if the pikachu was delusional.)
“They are in the medical ward,” Pika told them. “They have come back… well… a little worse for wear.”
“Hang on there, PikaSuit.” Gene raised a paw. “What do you mean ‘worse for wear’?”
“They have come back without any recollection of why I sent them out in the first place,” Pika explained, a sweat drop forming on the side of his head. “It would seem they have lost their memories of everything except Pika’s Place. They don’t even appear to know that this isn’t our home world.”
The group blinked at the pikachu.
“No, no,” said Antares slowly. “You should really have opened with that.”
“So who is treating them?” Fray asked.
“Our nurse, Joy,” said Pika.
Persian choked on his water, spraying the tablecloth. Antares offered him a napkin.
“And Mushu, of course,” Pika finished.
“That volatile scrap of fur is a nurse?” Gene scoffed.
“He’s a ‘mon of many talents,” said Pika. “But at present we need all the helping paws we can get! I am afraid, since you are still in possession of your faculties, that I might have to ask you urgently to seek out a possible cause for this phenomenon. You see, they came back with this.” He handed a ragged scrap of paper to Taiyoko who happened to be sitting at Pika’s left.
The volcarona nudged it closer to her while the other pokemon leaned over for a better look.
“It’s a piece of a map,” Victoria declared.
“What? Of this world?” Antares politely dragged it towards him so Fray and Gene could see it better.
“They don’t know where they found it,” Pika told them. “All they can remember is that they were at the edge of the forest not far from here.”
“That’s where we arrived,” said Antares, glancing from the map to Pika. He pointed a claw at the trees sketched on the map. “So this might be a map of that same forest.”
“I am wondering if, perhaps, there are more pieces of this map scattered across this world,” Pika explained. “Gathering them might give us a much-needed answer.”
The scrap was surrounded by purple psychic energy as Nocitlālin dragged it towards itself. The metang’s expression was calculating.
Taiyoko gestured to the paper with a wing. “Then I suggest we look for this map’s missing pieces?”
“I was going to suggest the same,” said Pika. “Finding this map may answer more questions than merely where we are. It might give us some indication as to what entity is behind all this. I will have to ask you to look into all this for me, since I am unable to leave this place myself.”
“Why?” Persian purred.
“I am the leader here. If I leave, and someone returns, then they’ll be looking for me.”
“Yeah, that seemed pretty obvious,” Victoria told Persian.
Persian licked his paw and washed his ear. “I just don’t see why I need to put myself in pericolo for il padrone here.” He aimed a sarcastic smirk at Pika.
Gen tottered out of the kitchen into a thick, heavy silence. “Breakfast is ready!” He immediately set about placing a large stack of pancakes and a jug of syrup on the table.
Pika reached across for the pancakes and plonked two of them on his plate. “While it might indeed be dangerous, we need to find out what has caused this and, well, return to our respective worlds.”
“If Eternatus has caused this,” said Gene, “we won’t be able to find our worlds.”
“Can Eternatus wipe memories, though?” Victoria asked.
“That sounds like the work of a psychic-type to me.” Antares stuffed a fork full of pancake into his jaws.
Gene narrowed his eyes. “Then perhaps this Bootleg is behind it? Mew are known for their childish behaviour.”
“That is what I would like to find out.” Pika poured extra syrup on his pancakes. “I don’t want to point claws, but if he is behind this then he might know how to reverse it. Or perhaps he’s already in the process of it? Or unable to for whatever reason?”
“Like he’s in peril?” Antares seemed a little too excited about that prospect.
“Maybe so.”
Antares clenched a fist and rose from his seat. “Then we must rush to his aide post haste!”
Persian licked syrup off his whiskers. “Can I finish my pancakes first?”
“Danger waits for no ‘mon!” Antares told him. “We must make haste! Eat on the go, my four-legged friend.”
Persian spat air. “I am not your amico, squalo di terra.” He lowered his muzzle back to his plate.
“Why are we just assuming this poor mew has anything to do with this?” Victoria asked. “He could be completely innocent.”
“I am not assuming anything,” Pika said before Gene could retaliate. “He could also be in peril, like everyone else in Pika’s Place.”
Victoria gave a curt nod and returned to her pancakes.
“So how do we go about this?” Gene asked. “Do we just wander around this unknown region trying to find small scraps of paper?”
“Yes.” Antares set his notebook down neatly beside his plate. “I also suggest we split into two groups to cover more ground.”
Fray looked up with a start. “You want us to split up?!”
“We are not splitting up!” Victoria gasped. “What if something were to happen to us? If we forgot our memories too-”
“Then it wouldn’t matter either way.” Antares shrugged. “I’m hoping it won’t come to that. But splitting up increases our odds of finding someone in danger, not just these scraps of map!”
“I have a suggestion.” Persian licked his lips free of syrup. “How about you lot split into two groups, and I wait here.”
Everyone fell silent, but Fray was practically bursting with curiosity.
“Why do you want to wait here?” she asked, beaming. “In case someone comes back and needs help? Are you going to help Pika?”
Persian stifled a purr and blinked at the froslass. “Si.”
Fray blinked back at him with confusion. “See what?”
Gene narrowed his eyes at the white cat pokemon. “You aren’t getting out of this so easily, Kitty. We all landed in this world together and you will play your part in getting us all back home.” He paused and tapped his temple in thought. “If that’s even possible…”
Persian yawned and scratched behind his ear with a hind paw. “Well how about you all find out if it’s possible, then I might lift a claw to help you.”
“Object analysed.” Nocitlālin lowered the scrap of paper back to the table. “Object contains traces of sitrus juice and dew from winter crocuses. Item has sustained water damage from fresh water sources. Tooth and claw-marks from several living lifeforms are on its surface - detected zorua and emolga, however other marks are unidentifiable. Ramming would not be a suitable means to further investigate such a fragile item.”
The pokemon stared at Nocitlālin in silence. Antares wagged a claw and his mouth flapped open as he searched for a response.
“I am assuming the emolga is Mushu?” Victoria offered.
“Mushu was examining the map this morning,” said Pika. “The zorua must be Showa, the leader of the rescue team that returned this morning. I’m guessing there are so many marks on that map that our metallic friend cannot decipher them?”
Gene folded his arms. “Or they’re from something not of this world.”
Nocitlālin flipped the tattered map with a burst of psychic energy. “There are also scratchings on the underside. Deciphering…”
Everyone leaned across the table again to stare at the back of the map.
Pika furrowed his brow and a small smile adorned his muzzle. “Huh. I appear to have overlooked that.”
“’Ralt’,” Antares muttered. “That can only mean one thing.” He straightened and placed a claw to his chest. “Our culprit… is a ralts!”
“Moron,” Gene scoffed. He jabbed a finger between the L and T. “There is a space there!”
Antares raised his claws in a weak shrug. “Perhaps the culprit had shaky paws?”
“What is it?” Fray inclined her head on one side. “An an-no-gram?”
“I think you mean ‘anagram’,” said Gene. “And no. Unless the culprit is trying to say ‘tral’ or ‘lart’.”
“Or ‘ralts’,” said Antares a little too proudly.
“It looks like the rest of the writing has been torn off,” said Taiyoko. “Perhaps there is more to this? I suggest we find the other maps.”
Victoria sighed and slumped her head onto the table. “So we are still non-the-wiser? But I’m with Taiyoko. If there are clues on these maps then perhaps we are better off splitting up to find them?”
“Fantastic!” Antares rose from his seat. “Then I shall take Gene, Persian and Fray! Together we shall find this ralts!”
“Chances of the culprit being a ralts are zero point zero two percent.” Nocitlālin raised its head slightly. “Scrivenings are of an unknown origin. One with small paws, of which there are approximately three hundred and ninety outcomes.”
Antares nodded. “Like a ralts.”
Victoria looked at the pokemon sat around her, pointedly ignoring Antares. “Then us four shall group together. Taiyoko, Gen and this metang. I’m sorry… what is your name?” She placed her tail on Nocitlālin’s back.
The metang drifted sideways from her and turned fully to face her. “Unit010_100000111. Since Class_Milotic may not be able to translate this Unit’s name, Class_Milotic may refer to this Unit as Nocitlālin.”
Victoria nodded once. “Okay… may I… may I shorten it to ‘Noci’?”
Nocitlālin stared at her for an uncomfortable moment, then shifted its body in what could only be described as a nod, or a bob. “Affirmative. Class_Milotic may refer to this Unit as Noci.”
At that moment, Gen stepped out of the kitchen and began gathering up the used plates. Victoria waved a tail to get the oshawott’s attention.
“We are going to explore and see if we can find our way back to our homes,” she said. “We’ve found some vague clues, but we might now know where to start. Would you like to join us?”
Gen looked up from his task and blinked. “Oh! I… I was going to help Rexi make dinner for tonight.”
Victoria lowered her tail and her head fins drooped. “Oh…”
Pika leaned towards the oshawott. “Rexi will be okay. Mushu can help him. Your friends may need your cooking expertise on their journey.”
“Well I do like to cook.” Gen adjusted his hood around his shoulders. “Okay. I’ll come with you.”
Victoria perked up at this and exchanged a glance with Taiyoko. “You’re with us, Gen. We’re splitting up to cover more ground.”
After Gen had been filled in on what had transpired (despite having overheard a lot of it from the kitchen…) the groups made their way back out of Pika’s Place.
“Just so you are aware,” said Persian as he followed behind Antares’ group, “I am not coming with you because I want to assist.”
Antares froze in the doorway, and Persian’s snout bounced off his tail. The cat strung together a string of Italian slurs as he rubbed his nose with a paw.
“What in the world-?!” Antares gasped.
Fray drifted past him and raised her paws to her mouth as a gasp escaped her.
The rolling hills that had been green the night before were buried under heaps of freshly fallen snow.
“It’s like a dream!” Fray flew down the steps and scooped up some snow in one paw. “Oh it’s so beautiful!”
Persian peered around Antares and chuckled. “Does the squalo di terra not like the cold?”
“What’s going on?” Victoria peered around Antares’ other side. “Oh my!”
Gene gave the garchomp a hefty shove with his psychic. “Get a move on!”
Antares staggered down the stairs as he fought to keep his footing then landed with a soft ‘sploop!’ in the snow.
Fray flew to his side and placed a frozen paw on his back. “Are you okay, new dragon friend?!”
Antares spluttered snow and rose, trembling, to his feet. “I’m f-f-f-fine!”
“Oh that’s good!” Fray drifted backwards and beamed at the snowy landscape. “Isn’t it beautiful?!”
Antares hugged his arms around himself in a bid to stop shaking. “’Tis like a clef-f-fairy t-tale!”
Gene, Nocitlālin and Taiyoko flew through the air, not touching the snow with so much as a claw, while Victoria and Gen moved effortlessly through it. Persian remained on the stairs with one paw raised, looking from it to the snow.
“Problem, Kitty?” Humour shone in Gene’s eyes. “Don’t you want to get your clean, white coat wet?”
Persian met Gene’s gaze then sat neatly on the stairs. “I’m just wondering if I’ll be of much better use to you if I remain here.”
Gene raised his spoon and the white cat was lifted off the stairs with an ear-splitting yowl. He thrashed in the psychic hold then, with a snap of his claws, Gene released Persian. The cat landed with flailing limbs in the thick snow, muffling his yowl of protest. The mewtwo burst out laughing as Persian’s head poked up from the ground, spitting slush.
“That,” Persian growled, his ears flat against his head, “was not funny.”
“Oh it was.” Gene wiped a tear from his eye.
Antares shook his head at the mewtwo, mirroring Victoria.
Fray helped the persian from the snow and dusted him down. “You’d have made a beautiful snow-cat, you know?”
Persian spat more slush from his mouth and raised his head. “Oh, I do know.” He moved over to Gene and shook his pelt clean.
Gene managed to raise a barrier in time and tutted. “Let’s just get this over with, shall we?”
“Yes.” Antares forced his arms at his sides. “Moving w-will warm us up!”
“Why would you want to be warm?!” Fray gasped. “This is glorious!”
Persian huffed. “Maybe to you, Principessa di ghiaccio! But the rest of us are warm-blooded!”
“Actually I’m c-c-cold-blooded,” said Antares. “That’s w-why I’m…” he caught Fray’s wounded glance, “t-t-totally not t-trembling.” He turned with defiance towards the rolling hills. “F-friends! We go n-north!”
Victoria wriggled away from him. “Then we’ll check the forest again to see if there are any clues where the map was found. Be safe out there!”
The sound of the river was tranquil in the cold, white landscape. It rushed away from Victoria and her new friends, carrying slush along its frothy surface. The forest was almost hidden under the heavy snow, weighing down the branches of the trees and thinning out into clear, sharp icicles.
“Well, here we are.” Victoria curled her body slightly against the chill. “Back where we started.”
Taiyoko drifted over to the edge of the river and frowned at the forest. “What do we think we will find?”
“Clues as to whatever has wiped the memories of those poor pokemon,” Victoria explained. “I mean, whoever did it obviously didn’t want them to reveal their identity.”
“Query.” Nocitlālin drew the other pokemon’s attention. “If this entity is able to wipe the database of another life-form, then what is to stop it doing the same to these four life-forms?”
Gen fiddled with the fastening on his hood. “Noci has a point. I mean, if we go in there and we find it, then-” He broke off with a yelp as a clap of thunder split the air.
Victoria swirled her body around her head as Taiyoko stiffened above her. Nocitlālin turned to face the source of the sound, blinking a few times.
“Well, that was rather unexpected,” said Taiyoko.
Victoria pulled her head out of the snow and cleared her throat. “Yes, it was quite. I… I’m not frightened of thunder, normally.”
Gen shifted his flippers in the snow and glanced aside at the milotic. “It wasn’t thunder.” He pointed a quaking paw.
The others followed it, except for Nocitlālin who was already fixated on the spot. A huge, foggy dome had risen further down the river, beneath a black cloud of miasma. Lightning crackled across the dome’s surface.
“Have any of you seen anything like this before?” Taiyoko asked.
Gen and Victoria shook their heads while Nocitlālin declared, “Negative.”
“It’s certainly rather strange…” Victoria trailed off. “I wonder if this is an anomaly like Mushu said he’d seen?”
“Quite possibly,” said Taiyoko. “It seems to fit the description.”
“Should we start there?” Gen asked, a hint of hope in his voice that his new friends might suggest they get as far away from the anomaly as possible.
Victoria nodded and, summoning confidence, weaved her way into the water. “I suggest we get there fast. Someone might need our help!”
Gen’s expression turned stoic and he nodded before rushing towards the water’s edge. He hesitated for a moment, as if fearful of getting his fur wet. Victoria lowered her head for him to climb onto her neck, which he did gratefully.
The milotic zipped through the water, whipping up foam as she followed the current towards the anomaly. Taiyoko and Nocitlālin drifted alongside her, the former taking the lead as she rose higher for a better vantage point.
“Can you see anything?” Victoria asked.
“Shadows,” said Taiyoko. “Moving within the dome.”
“Are they big?” Gen asked. “Or do they look like they need help?”
“It is hard to say.”
“Static detected in the air,” said Nocitlālin. “Storm is not normal. Situation elevated to ‘threatening’. Caution is advised.”
Nocitlālin was not wrong. The static in the air grew in intensity the closer they drew to the anomaly. Gen’s fur fluffed out like a sea urchin, and the water grew so uncomfortable that Victoria was forced to surface onto the snow. The distortion loomed above them, the lightning crackling over its surface and strobing across the surrounding snow in a fluorescent yellow light. Yet beyond the wall it looked foggy and dark. Shadows flitted across its surface, and a distorted yell came from within.
Gen squeaked and his ears pricked. “I think someone really needs help!”
“Class_Gen is correct,” Nocitlālin said. “Yet the wall appears impassible. Suggested method of testing has been selected. Initiated. Testing surface tension.”
Before any of the others could fully process the metang’s words, it zipped across the snow straight for the anomaly.
Victoria gasped while Gen raised a paw and cried, “Noci, wait!”
The metang reached the wall… then promptly vanished beyond it. The electricity flickered and buzzed with static, then fell back into place as if nothing had touched it at all.
The remaining trio stared at the wall for a moment.
“What…” Gen cleared his throat. “What do we do?”
Taiyoko fluttered over to the wall. Victoria tapped Gen on the back with her tail and wriggled after the volcarona. Gen raised his head and drew his scalchop before following after the milotic. Static tickled their skin as they forced their way through the distortion. Bright light dazzled their eyes, then cleared to give way to a murky, foggy night beyond the dome. Victoria yelped as she almost collided into Nocitlālin. The metang hovered near the wall, gazing out across the brown grass.
Gen blinked the dazzle spots from his vision. “What’s going on?”
“Insufficient data,” Nocitlālin replied.
Inside the distortion was chaos. Pokemon lumbered around at the heart of it, or at least they looked like pokemon. They had metallic hides like Nocitlālin, but they resembled familiar pokemon with digital eyes that flashed and blinked with rage. There were two of them, and their attention was fixed on whatever was screaming in the middle of the distortion.
“They’re attacking someone!” Scalchop raised, Gen rushed towards the rabble of robotic pokemon.
“Gen wait!” Victoria shouted. Together with Taiyoko, she took off after the oshawott.
Gen lobbed his scalchop into the fray, and it bounced off the back of a shiny delibird with a clang! The scalchop landed at Gen’s feet. Slowly the delibird turned to face its assailant. Its digital eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed with malice. It lowered its head and launched it towards Gen.
Gen squeaked with surprise and dived backwards, letting the robot’s head soar over his body. The head reached the end of its spring and it snapped back into the delibird’s neck.
“What on earth is that thing?!” Gen gasped.
Victoria didn’t answer. Scalding water gushed from her mouth as a hariyama launched its detached paws right towards them. It beat back the robot’s paws into its body and it keeled back from them, teetering precariously on its feet.
Beyond the robots, the frightened pokemon were lifted into the air in a psychic embrace. Nocitlālin drew them back towards it, out of harm’s way. An eevee peered down at them, her brown eyes wide, as a teddiursa sat beside her sucking on her paw. Were they wounded? Flames spread out across the distortion, blocking their view of the rescued pokemon. Taiyoko danced through the blaze, radiating heat from her wings. The hariyama dropped like a stone while the delibird fought back with dazzling frosty water propelled from its metallic tail.
Gen intersected the attack, shielding Taiyoko with his scalchop. Once the delibird had ended its assault, Gen lurched forwards in a jet stream and struck it in the chest. The robot soared across the distortion to be slammed by Victoria’s tail.
Taiyoko’s blaze came to an abrupt stop as the volcarona came face to face with two more robots. She blinked at them as they hovered before her. They were identical, and looked every bit like a pair of volcarona with blades for wings. The hesitation was all the robots needed. Thick, purple gunk formed over their wings and they braced themselves to scissor into Taiyoko. The volcarona whipped up flames to counter their attack, but a purple blast of light slammed into one of the robot moths and knocked it into its partner with an almighty crash. They fell from the air, steam spraying from their joints.
The robots blinked from existence, and another flash lit up the far side of the distortion. The delibird and hariyama had also vanished, and in their place floated two robotic hydreigon. Distorted roars sounded in their throats and they aimed their pincers at Taiyoko. The volcarona swerved towards the ground as four jets of dark energy pulsed towards her.
“Where are they coming from?!” Victoria screamed.
Two more robots spawned behind her, both resembling a gallade. Their raised their bladed arms.
Victoria jerked her head from them back to the dragons. “What is going on?!”
Gen moved backwards towards her, his scalchop raised as a hydreigon loomed towards him. “I think we need to get out of here. There’s too many!”
Muffled barking filled the distortion as the eevee scampered backwards, her canines bared at another delibird around a scrap of paper in her jaws. The teddiursa stood at her side, her face set with defiance. The delibird had its attention fixed on the eevee and launched its head at her. The teddiursa then leapt in front of it, grabbed it with both paws, and swung it behind her. The robot bounced across the floor, spewing steam. Then it vanished.
The eevee rushed to Victoria’s side with the teddiursa in tow. “We need to get out of here! Now!”
With the two pokemon rescued, the team didn’t need telling twice. Victoria called to Nocitlālin who had one of the gallade in his psychic grasp. The metang dropped it to the floor then veered to ram into the other one, knocking it aside before it could cut the fleeing pokemon off.
Static washed over their bodies as they ducked out of the distortion. Shadows loomed behind them as the robots gave chase, but they didn’t leave the confines of the strange anomaly.
The pokemon gasped for breath as they fled from the dome, static still dancing over fur and scales.
“Final-ah!” The eevee froze as a jolt of electricity struck her in the back of the neck. The paper fluttered from her jaws and she collapsed to the floor.
“Oh no!” Victoria screamed. “She’s hurt!”
The milotic swerved over the floor towards the eevee but froze as a jolt of lightning just missed her tail. Gen and Taiyoko rushed out of the way of two more stray bolts which sizzled harmlessly in the snow. The teddiursa went flying with a grunt as Nocitlālin rammed her away from the distortion. Lightning struck the floor where she’d been standing.
A strange sucking sound filled the air and the distortion shrunk, then vanished with a ‘pop!’ Victoria, Gen and Taiyoko blinked at the spot it had occupied, which was now filled with undisturbed snow and zero robots.
“The anomaly appears to have disintegrated,” Nocitlālin declared.
The small bear cub rolled onto her side, fixing the metang with an accusing stare.
“If I did not ram you,” Nocitlālin said slowly as it looked down at her, “there was a one hundred percent likelihood of you being struck by lightning.”
The teddiursa opened her mouth to speak but a groan from the eevee drew her eye. She pushed herself to her feet and rushed to her friend’s side. The eevee sat up awkwardly and shook out her fur.
“Where am I?” The eevee looked around at everyone. “Who are-” Her paw brushed the scrap of paper at her feet and she frowned down at it. “Who’s littering? I…” She inclined her head on one side and moved her paw, revealing a scrawled map. “Did I draw this?”
The teddiursa placed a paw on her friend’s shoulder. “Kiki… are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” The eevee looked up at her. “What are we doing out here in this snow? Did Pika send us on an errand? Because… I don’t remember it…”
The teddiursa stared at her, unblinking. Worry was etched on her face as she raised her head to where the anomaly once was.
“Peg?” The eevee pawed at her friend. “Are you okay?”
“We were in a fight with robots.” Peg looked back at Kiki then at the other pokemon. “These four helped us.”
“Robots?” Kiki scoffed, a laugh in her voice.
Victoria and the others nodded as Nocitlālin declared, “Affirmative.”
Kiki’s nervous smile melted into confusion. “What? Really?” She followed everyone’s gaze to the spot the distortion had occupied. “Why don’t I remember this?”
“I don’t know.” Peg stood up and placed a paw on Kiki’s shoulder. “We should get back to Pika’s Place.”
Peg rose to her feet and her ears drooped. “Where even are we?”
Gen retrieved the abandoned scrap of map and dusted it free of snow. He glanced at the eevee and teddiursa then joined Victoria’s side. “Do you think that lightning had something to do with her losing her memory?”
Victoria nodded.
Nocitlālin drifted over to them. “There is a ninety nine point nine percent chance it was the lightning.”
Victoria’s head fins drooped as she realised how close they had been to meeting the same fate. “Let’s escort them back to Pika. Now we know, we can tell him what likely happened to the others who came back.”
With one last glance back at the undisturbed snow, Gen tucked the map inside his hood and followed after the others as they caught up with Kiki and Peg.
The hills seemed to go on forever. Antares had warmed up with the walking, but his feet were still very cold as they sank into the thick snow with each trudging step. Fray drifted along beside him humming to herself as she tossed fresh snow between her paws, sculpting it into glistening ice. Persian had ceased his complaining, although he claimed ‘it had nothing to do with Gene’s threats whatsoever.’
The group stopped on the peak of an exceptionally large hill and gazed out across the landscape, their hearts sinking like lead. It all looked the same. Hills, and lots off them, each one white and seemingly devoid of trees.
“Where in the world are we?” Antares muttered.
Persian squinted beside him, his fur bristling along his shoulders. “Yeesh. This is enough to give one snow blindness.”
A low growl formed in Gene’s throat and his crystal sparked. “Oh forget this. We don’t even know where we are! Let’s just turn back and look for a different way home, before we get hopelessly lost.” He turned and began marching back down the hill.
“But we can’t just go!” Antares gasped. “What if someone needs us?”
Gene met his eyes and flashed a canine. “The only ones who need help here, Wannabe, are us!”
Antares spat air. “’Wannabe’?!”
“Now whether or not you’re coming, I’m heading back.” Gene jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “You can stay out here and freeze for all I care.”
Persian chuckled and turned to slink after Gene. “I’m with sgargiante. I’ve had enough of this snow to last me nine lifetimes.”
Antares looked from the retreating felines to the hills and back, his jaw clenched so tight it hurt. Fray remained beside him, her usually cheerful expression sullen.
The froslass looked up at Antares and lowered the ice which now resembled a tower. “So what are we going to do?”
Antares didn’t reply. He began to run after Gene, but a bright flash dazzled him and he reeled back until he landed hard on his tail. Cold snow shocked his bones and he let out a rather puppy-like yelp.
Fray darted to his side and opened her mouth to speak, but their gazes went to the huge dome of crackling lightning that now occupied the hills to their right. Gene and Persian stood side by side, frozen to the spot, their fur bristling.
“I was right!” Gene growled. “It is World Eater who’s done all this!”
Antares lumbered to his feet and joined Gene’s side while rubbing his frozen tail. “Are you telling us that crackling thing the World Eater?”
“No, that’s a distortion.” Gene folded his arms and frowned at the dome. “And I suggest we stay well away from it.”
Shadows moved back and forth beyond the veil of lightning in a frantic display. Flashes of light lit up the dome and one of the shadows fell back, vanishing into the darkness.
Antares took a step forwards, his eyes widening. “Someone is trapped in there!”
“Yes, and they’re probably hostile!” Gene turned from it. “Let’s head back to PikaSuit. At least we’ve something to report.”
“Well I’m going to help whomsoever it is!” Antares took off towards the distortion. “I cannot leave someone who might be in danger!”
Fray dashed towards his side, leaving a trail of bitter ice behind her. “I’m coming too! They might be a new friend!”
“Leave it, Wannabe!” Gene roared. “You and the Ice Queen are gonna get yourselves killed!”
Antares and Fray vanished beyond the distortion, and electricity swelled over the gap to swallow them beyond the veil.
Gene sighed and rubbed his paw over his muzzle. “I know I’m going to regret this.” He teleported to the distortion and, with a deep breath, stepped inside.
Persian watched all this, the tip of his tail twitching in the snow beside him. Curiosity prickled his pelt and he pushed himself to his feet and plodded towards the distortion. Static washed over his fur, pushing it on end. He licked at one shoulder to no avail then stared at the imposing wall. The electricity was almost dazzling, and he took a wary step back as a jolt flashed harmlessly over the surface. Well… if everyone else was doing it he wasn’t about to miss out on something interesting. He’d never live it down. He grit his teeth and pushed himself through, static spreading over his fur. Far from the jolt of an electric rat, it instead washed over him as harmlessly as water. Persian’s paws met dry, warm sand, a blissful change from the cold snow. The sun beamed down above him, evaporating the snow from his thick coat. A low purr formed in his throat which was soon choked out when he saw the pokemon beyond the distortion.
Antares had already leapt into the chaos, beating back a pokemon that looked an awful lot like a mismagius. His attacks did nothing to it. A blast of pink light sent Antares rolling backwards, followed by a laugh from the unusual spectre. Antares wasn’t down for the count. He leapt back to his feet and sent a flurry of dirt at the ghost. It was met by a cascade of ice from Fray, the two attacks engulfing the strange pokemon.
Gene flashed before Persian’s eyes, swinging his over-sized spoon at a giant mutant volcarona. The large bug swung its tail with the intent to whip Gene’s feet out from beneath him, but the mewtwo leapt over the volcarona and waved his spoon in an arc. The volcarona erupted in a blast of psychic with a shrill wail. It vanished from existence, and Gene turned to face yet another of the volcarona.
Two pokemon appeared on Persian’s right. Or they would have been pokemon if he’d any clue as to what they were. One looked like a salamence, the other like a jigglypuff with a bad hair day. It was the latter that ran at Persian flashing sharp teeth in its gaping maw.
He arched his back and hissed, lashing out with his claws. He caught the monster across its inflated face, sending it rolling across the distortion and spraying up dry dust. A purr rose in his throat and he leapt after it, swatting at its ponytail as it rolled beneath a towering palm tree.
Two more pokemon moved back and forth in the chaos. A scalchop whizzed past the feline’s nose, bouncing of the snout of the feathery salamence. The scalchop careened back into the paw of an oshawott and she leapt forwards in a jet of water to knock the dragon away from Persian, leaving him to continue his fight with the jigglypuff.
He turned his attention back on his quarry, but the balloon pokemon had found time to recover. It opened its toothy jaws wide and screamed, blasting Persian with a disarming voice. He pulled his ears back flat against his head and yowled, swinging his claws at his assailant. It silenced its onslaught and blinked the pokemon out of existence.
“Purrfect! That’s two down.” Persian turned, tail flicking, to face the salamence. “Three more to go.”
The mismagius vanished as Fray and Antares struck it with another dual attack of ice and sand. They turned back-to-back, gazing around the distortion. Their eyes widened as two more pokemon appeared, one on either side of them. Another mismagius and something akin to a donphan with spikes. The latter was engulfed in a tornado of leaves, making short work of it. It gave an echoing bleat and vanished into thin air. A snivy landed where it had once stood and shouted something to the oshawott that was drowned out by a sudden scream.
Fray gasped a few times and wiped a paw across her brow. “I’m getting a little worn out in all this heat.”
“Hang in there, friend,” Antares told her. “We’ll fight our way back out.”
Another jigglypuff landed right between Persian and Antares, blocking the dragon’s retreat. Gene appeared beside it and struck it hard with his spoon, sending it across the distortion like a shuttlecock.
“They just keep coming!” The mewtwo landed beside Antares. “We need to get out of here, now!”
Three more jigglypuff appeared, accompanied by a pair of monstrous amoongus. Vines draped from the heads of the giant mushrooms which swung before their eyes as they waddled over to the group of pokemon.
“Your tall, shadowy friend is right.” The oshawott joined Antares’ side. “This is too much for us, we need to get out.”
“We can report back to Pika’s Place.” The snivy clutched a scrap of paper to his chest and moved closer to his companion. “He might know what to do. ’Cos this ain’t right!”
Antares herded the pair ahead of him and rushed for the wall of the distortion, clutching Fray under one arm. Vines leapt from the floor, snagging at his feet. He lobbed Fray on ahead of him as the vines wrapped around his leg, and he struck the ground with an ‘oomph!’
“Oh no! My dragon!” Fray doubled back to his side and promptly began to freeze the vines with her paws. The scorching heat rapidly melted the snow away. “Hurry! See if you can break them!” She breathed more ice onto them, trying to keep them frozen in a race with the blistering sun.
The cold bit into the garchomp’s scales but he grit his teeth against it and yanked his leg. The vines shattered and he pushed himself to his feet. Fray turned on the amoongus and blew through her paws, sending a blizzard at the two giant mushrooms. They raised their shield-like paws and screeched as they were forced back into the distortion before vanishing entirely.
Fray then clung to Antares’s shoulder as he followed the others out of the distortion. The wall crackled as he pushed through and stray lightning streamed down onto the ground.
Fray’s eyes widened and she yelped. “Look out!” She sent a stream of ice out to freeze the snow and knocked Antares off his feet.
The dragon let out an exclamation of unimpressed surprise, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground where he’d been standing, shattering the ice. Several more jolts fell among the pokemon, scattering them. Persian leapt aside with a yowl, his fur on end as he stared at the steaming patch of snow where the lightning had just struck.
The oshawott slid along the snow on her belly then turned to shout to her snivy friend. He sat on the floor dazed, rubbing his neck where a red welt had begun to form. The paper lay discarded on the snow beside him.
Gene landed among them and twirled his spoon, sending it to Hammer Space. “Are we all okay?”
“I… I think so.” Fray lay back in the snow, spreading her arms blissfully through it. She stared at the distortion as it shrank away into nothing and vanished with a ‘pop!’ “What was all that? It was so horribly hot in there!”
“Beats me.” Persian yawned and scratched behind his ear. “Let’s head back. I need a bite to eat after all that.” He blinked at where the distortion had occupied, which was now a sheet of untouched snow. “My prey was too rubbery and vanished when I killed it.”
The oshawott shuffled over to the group of pokemon. “Thanks for your help in there! I’m Merry, and this is Flynn.” She motioned to the snivy.
“Erm.” The snivy stared at them in confusion, hugging his arms around his slender body. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on? Like… why am I sat freezing in the snow?”
The pokemon blinked a few times, words failing them.
Merry waddled to his side with a look of concern on her face. “What are you talking about, Flynn? We just fought some really weird pokemon?”
“What? These guys?” Flynn nodded at the group sat before him. “Did… Did I take on that massive black Mewtwo?!”
Gene huffed and rolled his eyes. “You wish. If you tried you wouldn’t be sat there, Salad.”
“Salad?” Flynn snorted. He pushed himself to his feet. He met his friend’s worried gaze and his expression softened. “I’m sorry, Mer, I don’t remember it.” He rubbed at his neck again. “Maybe I hit my head?”
Merry quickly examined him and frowned. “I think the lightning hit you…”
“Did it hit anyone else?” Fray looked at her friends, getting a ‘nope!’ of Antares and shakes of the head from the two cats. The froslass’ eyes widened slowly as she turned back to Flynn. “Maybe it erased his memory!”
Flynn stared at her helplessly and his tail drooped. “Merry, make her stop!”
The oshawott made a thoughtful noise and stood back from Flynn. “You remember who you are, right?”
“Sure I do!” Flynn folded his arms and stuck his pointy nose in the air. “I am an awesome snivy who was once a human!”
“Then it’s not that serious.” Merry picked up the scrap of paper and dusted the snow off it. “Let’s talk to Pika. He might know what to do.”
Antares looked down at the two smaller pokemon as they walked past him. “You didn’t by any chance see a suspicious ralts in there, did you?”
Merry and Flynn looked up at him and Merry shook her head slowly.
Gene rolled his eyes and exchanged a glance with Persian. They fell into step behind Antares as they all followed Merry and Flynn back down the hill.
Flynn stopped and rubbed his head, gazing over all the snow. “Where even are we? Like… where’s Pika’s Place?”
Merry placed a paw on his back and steered him along beside her. “It’s this way. Prepare yourself for a shock.”
Fray drifted up to Gene’s head and spoke quietly near his ear. “Is this what World Eater does? Eat your memories?”
Gene shook his head and tapped his temple slowly. “World Eater devours worlds. Whatever this is… I don’t think it’s him. If this erases memories then it might be the work of a powerful psychic-type?”
“Like you?” Fray asked, beaming.
Gene flushed slightly and looked away. “Well… yeah… but I don’t take people’s memories.” Not that he could. That wasn’t what he was made to do. But she didn’t need to know that. He paused and cast her a sideways glance. “It’s impolite.”
Much to everyone’s surprise, the two groups arrived at Pika’s Place at more-or-less the same time. Pika herded them all into a large hall with scatter pillows tossed about the edges. The pokemon gladly curled up or sat on them, just happy to be out of the snow (except Fray, who had brought some snow inside with her). Gen had immediately gone to the kitchen, insisting he help Rexi prepare some warming snacks and drinks.
“So you’re back!” Pika declared, which was a little redundant at this stage.
The pokemon exchanged glances and a few mutters spread throughout them.
Gene folded his arms. “Of course we are.”
“Well…” Victoria cast a glance at Kiki.
Persian purred. “Piu o meno.”
Antares rubbed the back of his head as he stared at Flynn. “More or less.”
The snivy was musing over the scrap of paper he’d been holding. Merry set her glass of hot berry juice down and rose to her feet.
“We appear to have a problem,” she said. “Flynn has lost his memories.”
Pika’s eyes actually opened at that point. “Oh my!”
“So has Kiki,” said Peg.
The eevee shook her ears and looked at each of the pokemon sat around her. “I’m fine. Really.”
Merry caught Pika’s eye. “Something very strange is going on here, Pika.”
The oshawott’s declaration sparked a flood of information from the gathered pokemon. Pika turned his head to each speaker, managing to keep up surprisingly well as they told him of the distortions that had formed, the strange pokemon they’d encountered, and the lapse in memories of two of the rescued pokemon. Not to mention the close shave Victoria’s team had experienced as they just managed to skim past the lightning.
Once the room had fallen into silence, Pika broke it with a loud slurp of his juice.
“Well, this is all…” He paused and sat back, lowering his glass into his lap, “very unusual indeed.”
Taiyoko met the pikachu’s closed-eyed stare. “Have you any idea what might be causing it?”
“Because we’ve ruled out World Eater.” Gene tapped his temple and diverted his gaze to the far wall. “Eating memories is not his style.”
Fray looked up from the snow castle she was sculpting on the floor. “There was also no snow in those distortions. Ours looked very different to where we actually were.”
“It was just like you said others had reported,” Taiyoko added.
Pika nodded a little too happily. “They sound like pockets in time and space.”
“Well we didn’t find the culprit.” Antares folded his arms, keeping his back straight. “Not a single ralts to be found.”
Gene rolled his eyes.
“We did find another piece of the map, though.” Victoria nudged the scrap Kiki had been carrying towards Pika. “And it looks like our new snivy friend also has one?”
Flynn let out a long thoughtful noise as he turned the map upside-down. Merry took it rather briskly and Flynn yelped ‘papercuts!’ and stuffed his paw into his mouth. Merry placed the map beside its sibling. Pika stared at them for a moment then procured the first scrap from inside his little jacket. He set it down with the others and sat back on his paws, staring at each one somehow. All of them had writing on the back. ‘RAL T’ ‘TEMPO’ and ‘OWER’.
“What do you make of it?” Taiyoko asked.
“I think I’m onto something,” said Pika slowly.
“Tempower Ralts,” said Antares with a nod. “Sounds like a sinister individual who needs stopping at all costs!”
Fray looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. “Do you think we’ll catch him and get everyone’s memories back?”
“Of course we will!” Antares told her.
“It doesn’t say that at all!” Gene scolded. “For one thing, there are two ‘O’s!”
Persian yawned and scratched behind his ear. “It’s not a ralts at all. Look carefully, ciascuno. The answer is glaringly obvious.”
Nocitlālin drifted towards them and stared at the scraps with a calculating stare. He lifted them all in a bubble of psychic and flipped them around like a magician trying to hide a ball in a cup. He then set them back down on the floor so the writing was face up.
Everyone gathered around the metang for a better look.
“Well I’ll be a barbaracle’s uncle,” said Antares.
Gene fired him a sideways glare. “I told you it didn’t say ‘ralts’.”
The words staring up at them now said ‘TEMPORAL TOWER’.
“Just as I thought,” said Pika. “Time and space distortions. It sounds like our culprit may be manipulating Temporal Tower somehow.”
“Well how do we get there?” Victoria asked. “If even Pika’s Place has been sent to another world-”
“Then so has Temporal Tower.” Pika gestured to Nocitlālin. “If you please, my good fellow.”
Nocitlālin flipped the papers over so the maps were neatly facing upwards. A blinking dot flashed at the edge of the rolling hills. A trail of blue dashes lead away from it towards an exclamation point near the northern edge of the map, situated between the mountains which seemed to box in the contents of the map nicely.
Victoria’s head fins drooped. “It’s so far away!”
“Not if we teleport,” said Gene. “I could warp us all there in a heartbeat.”
Pika raised his paws. “There’s really no need.”
“Really?” Victoria raised an eyebrow at Gene. “I thought psychic-types could only teleport to places they’d already seen?”
A sweat drop formed on Pika’s ear. “Guys, please-”
“I don’t need to see it,” said Gene. “That’s a myth. I can take us there right now if you want!”
“Guys!” The exclamation had come from Peg. The teddiursa stood beside Kiki, her paw still in her mouth. Her black eyes seemed to bore into each and every pokemon, freezing them like the stare of a gorgon. She lowered her paw a fraction and said in an oddly sweet, quiet voice, “You don’t need to teleport. It’s a WonderMap. Just touch the destination. It will take you there.” She sat down again and commenced sucking on her paw.
The other pokemon (sans those who resided at Pika’s Place) kept a wary eye on the teddiursa. A chill seemed to have washed over the room that had not come from Fray.
The door opened as Gen stepped in, holding a tray of pastries in one paw. He yelped as a sparking furry cannonball shot from under his flippers and made a beeline for Merry and Flynn.
“Oi! Leafbutt!” Mushu skidded to a halt, unleashing a thunderbolt.
Flynn froze as electricity coursed through his body for a few seconds, then collapsed in a smoldering heap on the floor.
“Mushu!” Merry gasped, turning on the small rodent. “What are you-?”
“What do you think you’re doing, going out without Mushu?!” The emolga placed his tiny paws on his tiny hips, electricity still dancing from his cheeks. “Mushu could have helped you! You would never have lost your memories with the awesomeness that is Mushu!”
Everyone stared, slack-jawed, and took a wary step back against the wall.
Flynn sat up with a groan and rubbed his smoking head. “You little tree ratatta! What was that for?” He pushed himself to his feet and met the emolga’s livid eyes. “I aughta drag you back there and leave you in that weird place to be trampled by ancient dinosaurs!”
Nocitlālin jerked his head up towards the snivy.
Mushu sparked dangerously. “You could never take Mushu and you know it!”
Merry’s eyes widened.
Pika cracked one eye and fixed it on Flynn.
Antares rose to his feet. “Hold your mudsdales! Did you say ‘dinosaurs’?”
Flynn didn’t look at the dragon. He folded his arms and kept his gaze on the smoldering emolga. “Yes. I did. He’d make a nice snack for them, don’t you think?”
“Flynn…” Merry placed a paw on the snivy’s shoulder. “Do you remember that distortion?”
Flynn’s eyes widened as he took in her question. Then a look of focus took over his face, resulting in him going somewhat cross-eyed.
Peg lowered her paw from her mouth. “It looks like Mushu’s thunderbolt might have triggered something.”
Pika nodded. “Indeed.”
“Assessing situation,” Nocitlālin said, drawing everyone’s eye. “Lightning from the distortion has caused a lapse in memory. Perhaps a block in the synapses to remove any knowledge of the tampering of time and space. However, a second shock removes this block, suggesting the culprit is still experimenting or inexperienced in what they are doing.”
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Merry nudged Mushu away from Flynn. “Try it on Kiki!”
“What? No!” The eevee’s ears pricked and she raised a paw, looking from Merry to Mushu and back. “Have you any idea how long it took me to get my fur like this?!” She nodded to the bow on her tail. “I’ve only just washed up and put this on!”
Persian purred. “It would be an interesting experiment.” He turned to Mushu. “Go on, lo spuntino. Shock the little vixen.”
Kiki jerked her head from the now-crackling emolga to Persian. “Don’t you dare encourage him!”
Persian gave a dry chuckle and received a scolding nudge from Antares.
Pika stood up with his glass in one paw. He turned to address the newcomers to Pika’s Place. “Well this is our problem. I suggest you lot explore Temporal Tower and find the culprit behind all this.”
Gen joined their side, still carrying the tray of pastries. “Can’t we eat first? Rexi and I just finished baking these!”
Antares took two and handed one to Fray. “It makes perfect sense. Crime never sleeps, but one can’t hunt it on an empty stomach!”
Fray blew a dusting of ice over her pastry and took a bite, a fond smile on her face. “So good!”
“Very well.” Pika beamed at them. “You have all earned a rest. Leave when you are ready.”
The WonderMap was wonderful indeed. One tap, and the pokemon were stood before a large clock tower still with the comfort of breakfast in their bellies. A deep ticking noise came from the tower which loomed over them. A deep blue in colour, with visible cogs turning within its crystalline walls. It ended in a large dome inside which a bell could be seen hanging from the roof. Despite the size of the tower it was dwarfed by the vast mountains rising up on either side of it.
Nocitlālin dashed right towards the tower until he bounced off the walls with a disconcerting ‘thunk’. Taiyoko took off to circle the tower, her wings shimmering in the winter sun.
Nocitlālin returned to his friends and stared at the tower. “Walls are made of solid, impenetrable crystalline ice.” Without waiting for a reply, he dashed across the snow towards the door.
“Ice?!” Fray gasped, clasping her paws together. “That building is made of ice?!”
“Jumping joltiks,” Antares gasped. “What is this place?”
“Temporal Tower.” Gen indicated the map which had been roughly taped back together. “I guess that’s why it’s ticking?”
Antares didn’t want to tell the oshawott his question had been merely rhetorical, so instead he just nodded a quick thanks.
“What do you think is inside?” Fray’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Ooh, do you think they sell clocks?! I’d love to get one for Litno! I should really bring him back a souvenir.” Her smile quickly melted into a sentimental frown and she sank slightly. “He’ll be wondering where I’ve gone.”
Antares placed a paw on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, little one. We’ll get you back to your friend.”
Nocitlālin returned to the party and faced the tower. “Door is also made of solid, impenetrable crystalline ice.”
“So if it’s ice,” said Victoria slowly, “then we could melt it?”
Fray’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack. “Why on earth would you want to melt it?! It’s so beautiful!”
“If it’s causing the distortions then we need to stop it, right?” Victoria tried to placate the froslass with a sympathetic look. “We all want to get back to our friends, Fray.”
Persian silently groomed himself beside her, but they caught a faint mutter that could have been ‘Speak for yourselves’ or something else entirely in Italian.
“There’s an equal chance that whomsoever is inside is responsible,” said Antares. “Might we consider that before we commit ourselves to a life of arson?”
At that point, Taiyoko returned, stopping a foot above the dragon’s head. “I have searched the perimeter, and all the windows look as impenetrable as the walls. However, I did see movement beyond the ones near the bell tower. I suggest we try the door and work our way to the top.”
Antares waved a claw to the volcarona. “See?”
Victoria gave a stiff nod. “I stand corrected. Let’s climb this tower.”
Persian stopped his grooming and looked up, flicking his tongue over his whiskers. “Melting the tower would bring the culprit down to us quite firmly. And it would save us a lot of energy.”
“We can’t melt it!” Fray gasped. “I mean, look at it!” She flew around the tower once, kicking up a spray of snow, before coming to a stop near the door. “This is a testament to the wonders of ice!”
“It is something.” Gene drew his spoon. “I say we knock it down.”
“We can’t do that!” Antares joined Fray’s side and spread his arms. “What if this tower controls the flow of time here? We’d bring it to a stop, or worse!”
“It’s also made of ice.” Gene waved to the snow. “And all this just… suddenly appeared the night before last!”
“Snow does that!” said Antares. “’Tis called ‘weather’!”
“Precisamente.” Persian moved to Antares side and curled his tail around his feet. “And if you’d ever spent a day in Galar, you’d know a thing or two about weather.”
Taiyoko looked from the tower to Gene. “I am also in agreement that melting this tower could carry devastating consequences.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Gene asked. “Given that there’s a monolith befitting Kyurem right there!”
Taiyoko narrowed her eyes but said nothing else.
Antares met Gene’s stare and folded his arms. “Don’t say you think Kyurem is responsible now.”
“Kyurem?!” Fray’s explosive fangirl squeal almost shook the very icicles above the door. She spun towards it and grabbed the handle. “I can’t wait to meet him!”
The others lurched towards her with a unified ‘don’t!’
Fray turned the handle.
Nothing happened.
She shook it with a frustrated sigh. “Oh no… It’s locked.”
“It’s almost as though someone doesn’t want us to get inside.” Gen shuffled as everyone’s eyes went onto him. He raised his paws in a weak shrug. “Well they don’t.”
Gene drew his spoon again. “There’s one solution to that. Stand aside.”
Antares cut before the mewtwo. “Hang on just a moment!”
Gene swept him out of the way with a sweep of his spoon and engulfed the door in a psychic bubble. There was a strange pulsating noise that caused those with better hearing to clasp their paws over their heads. Then, with an ear-splitting crack, the door shattered. Gene twirled his spoon triumphantly and sent it back to hammerspace.
Fray made a sound like a deflating balloon and picked up one of the chunks of ice, smoothing it with a paw. Tears shone in her eyes and she hugged it to her chest, standing to stare at the jagged gaping void where the door had once stood.
“Oh great.” Persian glared at Gene. “Now they’ll know we’re coming. Have you never stalked prey before?”
“It got us inside, didn’t it?” Gene marched past them, brushing shoulders with Fray. “Come along, Ice Queen. Perhaps Kyurem is waiting for us.”
That seemed to perk Fray up a little and she followed after the mewtwo, still clutching the chunk of ice to her chest. “Do you think he’ll forgive us for breaking his door?”
Nocitlālin trundled along after them, followed by Victoria and the others.
“To be honest, I hope we don’t meet Kyurem,” she said.
Gen looked at the milotic. “Why not?”
“Because he’s a hollowed-out moody husk who once tried to destroy Unova.” At Gen’s confused eyebrow Victoria turned to Taiyoko. “You should know. You’re from Unova, right?”
Taiyoko drifted along delicately beside her. “There are legends.”
The inside of the Temporal Tower was bitter cold. The floor had been sculpted from ice and sported a blue lace rug that cut a path towards the stairs. The ticking was louder inside like some form of clockwork heart. The cogs turned inside their icy prison, but there was no sign of what they might be powering.
“Taiyoko said she saw movement near the bell tower,” said Victoria. “So it makes sense to climb straight there?”
“Did it look big enough to be Kyurem?” Gene asked over his shoulder.
“It is hard to say,” said Taiyoko. “The ice distorted what was beyond it, making it incomprehensible. I apologise.”
Gene turned towards the winding staircase. “Then let’s take the stairs.”
“Take them where?” Taiyoko asked.
Gene flinched, his crystal sparking, and cast the volcarona a scathing look. It vanished into a look of bafflement when he realised Taiyoko wasn’t joking.
“He means ‘climb the stairs’,” Victoria said quietly to the confused moth.
Taiyoko gave a stiff nod. “Understood.”
The group had to take the winding stairs in single file. Gene insisted on taking the lead given ‘he could handle a legendary pokemon or two’. Antares decided the heroic thing to do would be to cover the tail-end of the group in case anyone snuck up on them. The dragon hugged his arms around himself, his teeth chattering noisily.
“Mind keeping it down?” Persian glanced over his shoulder at the garchomp.
Antares tried to still his quaking jaw. “I can try. ‘Tis like a cryogonal’s house party in here.”
“Have you ever been to one?” Fray asked from near his head. She’d insisted on riding on his shoulder. “What was it like?”
“I-I’ve not been to one.” Antares gave her a shrewed look. “But if I ever do, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
Fray closed her eyes in a smile. “Maybe I could come with you? I could bring Litno and we could meet your friend!”
Gene gave a sharp ‘shush’ and raised his spoon for silence. They all stopped near the top of the stairs. Voices could be heard, albeit faint.
“Someone’s up there,” said Gen quietly, drawing another ‘shush’ off Gene.
The mewtwo motioned for them all to gather behind him. There wasn’t much room at the top of the stairs. They ended at a door perched on a very narrow hallway. The voices were definitely coming from beyond it. Gene grabbed the frozen handle and turned it. The door opened under his paw and he darted into the room. Then froze with a distressed cry.
“You have to be kidding me!”
The others moved in behind him and stopped with matching looks of bewilderment, save for Fray who beamed from Antares’ shoulder.
The room was huge and round with the large bell affixed to the ceiling. A blinking array of lights mixed with primitive technology akin to a 90s rendition of a space-ship’s bridge filled the edge of the room. A small ralts sat in the middle of it clutching a strange device in his tiny paws.
Antares pointed dramatically. “I knew it! What did I tell you?! A ralts! A mastermind of epic proportions, no doubt!”
“You flatter me.” The ralts’ voice was oddly deep for a creature of his size. “The name is Tempower Ralts, Master of Time and Space!”
Antares’ grin only widened further and he took on a rather herioc pose. “A monster of which I shall vanquish!”
Persian had practically doubled over with laughter, blocking the door like a fuzzy little draught excluder.
Gene threw his paws up in the air, making his spoon vanish. “I give up! I quit! I shall not help save a world in which Antares is right!”
“Oh I rather hope you shall.” The snarky voice came from above them. “I was wondering when someone might come along and help me.”
A black-furred mew with a purple mane sat inside a cage of ice. Diodes were attached to his head, giving off faint jolts of electricity. They were wired into the blinking machinery, seemingly powering it in some way, or vice versa? Much like Pika, his eyes were closed yet he seemed to be watching the group rather intensely.
Gene stuttered for a moment then shook his head. “What sort of cruel joke is this?”
Persian’s laughter spluttered out into a fit of hacking coughs and he pushed himself up to dislodge yet another hairball. Victoria placed her tail fins on his back, keeping one eye on the unusual mew.
Antares turned to address the mew. “Am I right in assuming thy name is Bootleg?”
“That is correct.” Bootleg smiled down at him and rubbed the back of his head with one paw. “Although I am of no use to you right now! You see, I seem to be in a bit of a predicament.”
“He is the battery I need to power this thing,” Tempower Ralts told them. “And I am not about to let you get in the way!”
Nocitlālin had been watching everything, looking from the ralts to Bootleg to the machinery. “Situation assessed. Threat level is critical. Must be eradicated immediately. Activating first line of defence.”
The metang dashed across the room, eliciting a squeak of surprise from the ralts. He crashed into the machinery which shattered under the impact. Electricity sprayed from the hole, and the lights began to blink fiercely above it.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” Tempower Ralts gasped.
“Bringing an end to your reign of terror!” Antares declared. “Do it again, Nocitlālin!”
The metang obeyed, smashing into another section of the machinery.
“No! You don’t understand!” the ralts cried. “This is no reign of terror! I am bringing together worlds and time-lines! There is stuff out there you could only dream of!”
Gene immediately trapped Nocitlālin in a psychic bubble, raising it off the ground. He turned to the ralts. “Keep talking.”
Nocitlālin waved its legs in a bid to free itself. “Disagreeable action shall result in a thorough ramming.”
“I’ve seen things,” the ralts explained. “Things no others have seen. It comes to me in dreams. Worlds filled with primitive pokemon or robots from the future. Other worlds where strange two-legged creatures keep pokemon as companions, and worlds where pokemon don’t even exist! There are worlds like ours where legends roam free, or ones where those legends are in control of our fates! Don’t you see?! There is so much out there we don’t even understand! And each of you are from different worlds, too! You would never have even met if it weren’t for me!”
The pokemon were silent for a moment, save for a grumbling Nocitlālin still trying feebly to free itself.
Victoria lowered her head and spoke in a soft voice. “That’s all well and good, Mr Ralts. It’s nice we’ve been able to meet new friends from different worlds, but what you are doing is wrong. You’re messing with things you don’t understand.”
Nocitlālin’s eyes flashed red. “Danger! Danger! Release this unit at once!”
“But I do understand!” Tempower Ralts protested.
“You do not,” said Gene. “This is how worlds end.”
He promptly released Nocitlālin who immediately dashed over the mewtwo’s head and into Bootleg’s cage. The mew fell towards the ground, landing in Gene’s waiting arms. Gene ducked as Nocitlālin went whizzing over his head to crash onto the ground.
“Why thank you!” Bootleg shifted weakly. “I thought I’d never get out of there.”
Gene ignored his words and wrenched the sparking diodes from the mew’s head. The lights on the computers instantly went out.
“No!” The ralts ran to his computers, avoiding the now rampaging metang spinning around the room. “Everything I’ve worked for! Everything I’ve dreamed of! Ruined!”
“You enslaved an innocent pokemon for this!” Antares told him. “What you did was nothing short of cruel! Wait…” Antares looked at Bootleg still perched in Gene’s arms. “Did you deserve it?”
Bootleg shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably?”
Antares’ shoulders slumped. “That… wasn’t the answer I wanted…”
Persian sat up and wiped a paw across his muzzle. “Well it’s the answer you got. Now.” He turned and pounced, pinning the ralts under one paw. The little device he’d been holding skittered across the room to be trampled by Nocitlālin. Persian picked the ralts up in his claws. “Send us home, genio malvagio.”
“I can’t!” the ralts gasped. “You’ve ruined everything!”
“Danger! Danger!” Nocitlālin twirled across the room, tearing up wires in its wake. “Removing all threats!”
“Noci!” Victoria cried. “Please! Calm down!”
The metang screeched to a halt and turned to face her, its eyes returning to their usual black with red rings. It glanced around the room and seemed to nod. “Threats eradicated.”
Tempower Ralts hung limply, sobbing, in Persian’s claws. “Ruined. Everything is ruined.”
Gene tapped his claws on his arm. “Can you reverse everything?”
The ralts lifted his head weakly, his eyes just visible beneath his fur. “How? You’ve destroyed my life’s work!”
“He’s forgetting who was powering it all.” Bootleg leaned back in Gene’s arms and crossed one leg over the other in an act of nonchalance. “I am a world and time traveller after all.”
Gene shifted his grip, almost dropping the mew, and grabbed him by the scruff. He lifted him to his eye level. “You can travel through time and space?!”
If Bootleg was intimidated by Gene he didn’t show it. He just beamed back at the mewtwo. “But of course!”
Taiyoko made a thoughtful noise. “This is why Pika considered Bootleg to be a potential culprit.”
Bootleg gasped and feigned innocence, his purple eyes opening slightly. “Pika accused me? Little old me?”
Everyone was silent save for the sobbing ralts, and Gene who was growling slightly.
Bootleg chuckled and folded his arms. “Well, I suppose he does have his reasons.”
“What reasons exactly?” Gene growled.
Bootleg chuckled again and raised a claw. “That… is a secret.”
Everyone visibly sank, while Gene almost lobbed Bootleg across the room but resisted the temptation.
“Forget it!” he growled. “Let’s just take this mew, and this ralts, back to Pika to deal with.” He spat those names as if they tasted bad.
“So this is it?” Fray asked from Antares’ shoulder. “This little ralts is what was causing all this?”
“Barely a threat at all,” Gene huffed.
“To be fair,” said Antares, “what he was doing was a pretty big threat. Those monsters we encountered were no joke!”
“And pokemon have lost their memories,” Victoria added.
“They had to!” Tempower Ralts whimpered. “If they remembered those distortions then my plan would have been ruined!”
“Well it didn’t work!” Gene told him. “Most of us kept our memories.”
Persian purred and swung the ralts in his claws, eliciting a shrill squeal. “Not such a master mind after all, are you, genio malvagio?”
“Let’s just get back,” said Antares, rubbing his arms. “’Tis freezing, and I could use some hot berry juice.”
Everyone gathered together as Gen pulled out the map. With a little tap on the location of Pika’s Place, the group were warped right back to the door and the promise of warm drinks and pancakes.
Pika sipped his hot spiced berry juice at the head of the table. He almost spat it back out as the door swung open, followed by a cacophony of noise.
“Oi, il padrone!” Persian swung a small ralts in his jaws, sending the poor thing skidding along the table. “Brought you a present!”
“Two presents, actually.” Gene stood among the rest of his companions, holding Bootleg by the scruff. “But I’m not going to throw this one at you since I don’t trust it.”
“A reputation well earned.” A small smile appeared on Pika’s muzzle as he dabbed the juice away on his napkin. He cracked one eye open as he looked up at the dangling mew. “Good evening, Bootleg.”
Bootleg gave a nervous laugh and rubbed a paw through his purple mane. “Well, this is an embarrassing situation.”
The ralts struggled to sit up with a groan and shook his head. “Where am I?”
Pika looked from the ralts to Bootleg then to the rest of the pokemon as they gathered around the table. “I believe I’m going to need a bit of an explanation?” Everyone began to speak at once, prompting Pika to raise his paws for silence. “One at a time!”
So, in an unusual display of co-operation, the group began to explain what had happened in Temporal Tower. All the while, Tempower Ralts sat on the table sobbing into Pika’s napkin. At some point during their story, Rexi had given them all hot spiced berry juice - including the ralts.
After the story had concluded, Pika stared at the ralts while warming his paws on his glass. “Well. Are you going to explain yourself?”
“I already did.” Tempower Ralts looked up at the pikachu. “I wanted to unite worlds and time-lines. There is so much we miss! So much we don’t know!”
“Messing with the fabrics of time and space is not your place, though, is it?” Pika sipped his juice. “And erasing a pokemon’s memory is just abhorrent. Every good psychic-type should know that.”
“What about drowzee?” the ralts scoffed.
“They consume dreams, and the good ones help those who suffer with nightmares.” Pika fixed one eye on the ralts. “They don’t take memories away. And they don’t mess with reality.” He cast a glance at Bootleg who was reclining in the air beside him. “You also forced another pokemon to use their powers for ill.”
“Like some giant biological battery,” Antares added.
Pika nodded once. “Yes, quite. Using him to fuel your plan only adds to the severity of it all. It’s not my place to issue punishment, but in the absence of any law enforcers I find it only fitting that you serve out a lifetime of commitment to right your wrongdoings.”
“Community service.” Antares nodded. “I like it.”
Gene huffed. “So what? We’re going to trust this little ne’er-do-well to send us all home?”
Tempower Ralts twiddled his paws together. “I don’t have that power. Not anymore.”
“So we can’t get back?!” Victoria gasped. “How are we going to get back to our worlds?”
“Stuck here in all this snow?” Persian scoffed. “Sgradivole!”
Fray sank onto the table besides a winded Antares. “But I want to see Litno! He must be so worried about me!”
“We may have one solution,” said Taiyoko.
But no one seemed to hear the moth. Their fears and worries were voiced across the table, mostly aimed at the ralts who’s large eyes turned watery under his fuzzy helmet.
Bootleg cleared his throat, drawing everyone to silence. The oddly-coloured mew seemed to stare at them through his closed eyes.
Gen stepped out of the kitchen at that moment, carrying a tray of tiny steaming pies. He froze in the silence, looking from the pokemon to Bootleg. “Have I interrupted?”
Bootleg chuckled. “You are all forgetting why I was the one powering that device. I can send you all back to your own worlds in a jiffy.”
Gene rammed a fist onto the table, making the glasses hop. “Then why didn’t you say so?!” He cleared his throat and sat back on his stool. “Not like I was worried or anything.”
“You’re going to send us home?” Gen set the tray of pies on the table and turned to the mew. “Back to where we came from?”
“The worlds you came from, yes.” Bootleg nodded. “That is, unless you wish to stay here?”
“Pika’s Place is needed back where it belongs,” said Pika firmly.
“That’s not what I meant-”
“I need to get back to my trainer,” said Victoria.
“As do I,” said Taiyoko.
“Likewise.” Nocitlālin shifted so he was facing Bootleg. “This unit does not belong in this universe. Requesting transportation back to World 00462-” Nocitlālin’s string of digits continued as Bootleg turned his attention on the others.
Fray gave Antares a small smile. “I really need to get back to my friend, but I shall miss you, little dragon.”
Antares fondly ruffled her head. “And I you, little Ice Princess. You were a great sidekick there!”
Gene rolled his eyes and sighed. “Let’s just get this over with?”
“We all made good friends here,” said Victoria, her eyes turning watery. “I won’t forget any of you.”
“This unit’s memory is finite,” said Nocitlālin. “But when data needs archiving, this unit will keep these data files available for regular assessment.”
Gen wiped his eyes on the back of his paw and forced a huge smile. “I’ll be telling all my friends about this, too. This was quite the adventure!”
“Well I’m not going to miss any of you.” Persian smirked and flicked his tail. “Now send us home.”
Victoria nudged the white cat with her tail. “Oh you will! Surely!”
Persian rolled his eyes. “Probablimente. Let’s just go?”
Bootleg opened his mouth to speak, but Pika raised a paw to stop him.
“Before you all head home,” said the pikachu, “I’d personally like to thank you all for your help. We were in dire states when we arrived here, and Pika’s Place could not have done this without you.”
Victoria lowered her head. “I’m just glad we could help, and get your friends back safely.”
“There are still exploration teams who haven’t made it back yet,” Pika told them. “A few came back last night and are resting. I don’t think the stragglers are in immediate danger, but before I get Pika’s Place back where it should be, I am hoping Bootleg will help me to find my missing explorers?”
Bootleg nodded once. “Of course.”
“In the meantime…” Pika’s closed eyes curved in a smile, “Safe travels!”
Bootleg twirled in the air and raised his paws. The room warped around the pokemon present, and before long, everyone was back in their own worlds, still warmed from the pleasant spiced berry juice.
...
I hope you enjoyed that! =D It was crazy fun to write XD
Footnotes:
Please leave until after you've read it to avoid spoilers
- K_S' Persian
- Persephone's Nocitlālin
- Torchic's Victoria
- Abra Punk's Antares
- ShinGojira's Frey
- Ambyssin's Gene
- System Error's Taiyoko
- IFBench's Gen
- Persephone's Nocitlālin
- Torchic's Victoria
- Abra Punk's Antares
- ShinGojira's Frey
- Ambyssin's Gene
- System Error's Taiyoko
- IFBench's Gen
Roleplay refresher (not compulsory if you just want to read this story)
Disclaimer - I don't own pokemon or any of its characters. All characters within belong to their respective owners (see also Stars of the Show above)
Additional disclaimer - For those who might recognise the setting from my comedy story What? I'm a Pokemon?!, please do not take this as self-advertising. I wanted to do something different this year, like the past two were very different. And despite how much I tried to talk myself out of it and come up with something else I just... couldn't resist this. Enjoy! XD
Bringing it Home!
Several pokemon had gathered on the grassy bank, their heated discussion drifting into the cool midday air. The topic was mainly about a world-eating pokemon. Eternatus, the mewtwo had called it. Was that the reason they were all here? Had their own worlds been swallowed up? The milotic seemed to think so. The persian, however, was enjoying the panic going on beneath him while he egged them on from his perch in a large sycamore tree.
A froslass zipped back and forth, chiming in every now and then while she made frozen accessories for everyone (a few of them had already started to melt, much to the garchomp’s silent delight…), and the alarmed metang had barely moved, wearing a frozen crown that Fray had declared ‘really brings out its eyes’.
A loud scream pierced the air, bringing the discussion to a halt. All eyes turned to the trees across the river. Fray dropped the ice she’d been molding. Gene brandished his large spoon like a battle axe. Persian finally dropped from his tree and stretched, tail brushed slightly while trying to maintain an expression of disinterest.
A long silence followed the sudden scream.
Persian broke it. “I smell prey.”
Victoria rolled her eyes and swam gracefully across the river. “Well I’m going to see who it was. They might need help.”
“You are right, Victoria,” said Antares. “A scream means potential distress!”
The garchomp leapt across the river, landing on the bank as Victoria surfaced.
Persian faltered at the edge of the river with one paw raised. “Erm… any chance you could come back here and carry me?”
Antares shook his head. “Someone needs help. Perhaps wait and we’ll rejoin you?”
Not wanting to miss anything, Persian looked over at Nocitlālin and widened his eyes. “How about a roomba-ride?”
Nocitlālin trundled past the other pokemon, stirring ripples across the water in its wake. “Target detected twenty point five feet away. Threat level - moderate.”
Antares trotted behind the metang. “Lead the way, my metal friend.”
“Wait for me!” Fray cried cheerfully, catching up with Antares. “Do you think whoever it is would like a ice-lace choker?”
The froslass’ question landed on deaf ears as all attention was focused on the distress call. Gene zoomed across the river to join the rest, leaving a rattled Persian on the other side of the bank. The white cat sought out some stepping stones and, after a deep breath and a silent wish that they’d be bone-dry, bounded over them. The air turned warm above him as a volcarona flew delicately over the trees. He watched it for a moment, considering giving playful chase as it trailed after the rest of the rag-tag group.
The trees parted in a small clearing. An oshawott stood huddled at the base of a tree clutching his red hood in both paws. His wide eyes were fixed on a prone body sprawled near his feet. The tiny emolga barely moved besides breathing softly.
When the oshawott saw the group emerge through the trees he rushed over to them and dived behind Antares’ leg.
“Whoa!” The garchomp swerved to the side to avoid tripping over the smaller pokemon. “Were you the distress call?” He pointed a fin at the emolga. “What happened to that guy?”
Persian joined Victoria’s side, stared at the emolga for a moment, then licked his jaws. “Mmm, prey.”
The milotic cast him a sideways glare. “Oh, don’t. It’s just a hatchling!”
Persian cast a glance at the sky then licked a paw. “Well, it is snack time.”
“Assessing situation.” Nocitlālin drifted forwards, its eyes fixed on the emolga. “Target very much alive yet unconscious. Medical attention required. Medicines at disposal - zero. Assessing other options… processing… option selected. Initiating resuscitation.” The metang darted forwards and crashed into the emolga.
The tiny body rose into the air and arced through the clearing. All eyes watched it as heads raised to follow the little hatchling.
Antares leapt forwards, arms raised, as Gene vanished into a wormhole to reappear behind the emolga. Antares’ eyes widened as he darted past the emolga right into Gene. The mewtwo raised his spoon a little too late. The garchomp crashed into him, sending them both to the ground. The emolga landed right on Gene’s stomach, eliciting a small ‘oof!’ from the dark-furred mewtwo.
Silence.
Then Fray clapped her paws together and whooped. “Nice catch!”
The oshawott took a nervous step forwards, his gaze fixed on the emolga. “Is… is he okay? He just… fell out of the tree, and-”
Sparks crackled on the emolga’s cheeks and Gene’s eyes flew wide open. His body lit up with electricity, and Antares scrambled backwards as sparks bounced harmlessly off his scales. The emolga jerked his head up and back-flipped off Gene’s frazzled body. The mewtwo met the emolga’s smoldering glare with one of equal intensity.
“You little punk!” Gene growled.
“Who are you callin’ ‘punk’?!” The emolga placed his paws on his hips and tapped his little foot. “Did you push Mushu out of his tree?! Where even is Mushu?!” He turned around, staring up at the canopy. “Mushu doesn’t know this forest!”
Victoria softened her gaze. “None of us do, sweetie.”
“’Sweetie’?” Gene smoothed out his fur with the back of his spoon, then looked up at Persian. “Still fancy a snack?”
Persian idly groomed his whiskers. “I don’t like my food quite so spicy.”
“You can’t eat him anyway!” Fray zipped towards the emolga and grabbed his cheeks in her frosty paws. “Look how cute he is! Oh, how small and deli-”
Her sentence ended in a squeak of surprise as Antares grabbed her and swung her aside. Electricity sizzled on the ground where she’d been standing.
Mushu stood with his paws clenched, glaring at the froslass. “Don’t touch Mushu!”
“I’m so sorry!” Fray gasped.
Nocitlālin’s gaze was calculating as it strafed from side to side. “Re-assessing situation. Threat has escalated to ‘critical’. Activating urgent countermeasures.” The metang darted like a bullet towards Mushu.
Electricity lit up the clearing, dazzling everyone’s eyes. Mushu soared into the canopy, vanishing amid the leaves. Victoria gasped and raised her tail fins to cover her mouth. Persian rolled onto his side laughing.
Gene raised a paw to shield his eyes against the sun and nodded. “Impressive for a hockey puck.”
Mushu poked his head out of the leaves and shook his large ears. He then waved a tiny fist at Nocitlālin. “You’ll regret that!”
The oshawott rushed to the base of the tree and placed both paws on its knotted trunk. “Are you okay?!”
Mushu said nothing, instead leaning back against the trunk, sulking.
The volcarona drifted down into the clearing, drawing a few gasps from the other pokemon. Persian watched her curiously, letting out a low purr.
“I am sorry to interrupt, but I believe arguing is not appropriate at the moment,” said the volcarona.
“Where did you come from?” Gene asked, scratching his ear.
“Oh sgargiante… she’s been here the whole time!” Persian smirked up at the mewtwo. “And I thought psychic-types were meant to be observant?”
“The persian is correct,” said the volcarona. “As I was explaining, none of us are in our own worlds right now. For whatever the reason may be, we have been brought here.”
“You too?” The oshawott adjusted his red hood over his ears. “I was getting worried. One moment I’m on a mission with my friends and the next I’m here, alone.” He hugged his arms around himself.
“The same has happened to all of us.” Victoria placed her tail fins gently on his back. “I was with my trainer before this happened.”
“A human trainer?” The oshawott seemed to perk up at that. “You’re from the human world?”
“As am I,” the volcarona went on. “And our persian companion, too. Perhaps Gene is right and our worlds have been eaten, or we have been drawn here for some other reason? But I think it is crucial we work together for the time being.”
“Apologies,” said Antares, still clutching Fray. He nodded to the volcarona. “I don’t believe I caught your name?”
“I have not introduced myself yet. My name is Taiyoko.” The volcarona lowered her head. “I have spotted a building on the far side of the river. I suggest we head there and see if anyone can help us.”
“Well, Taiyoko, you might be right.” Antares placed Fray back on the ground, where she hovered. “We might need to work together to get back from whence we came. Where exactly is this building?”
“A short flight from where we landed,” Taiyoko explained. “It is quite unusual, but it is definitely a building.”
Persian narrowed his eyes at the moth. “If you are about to tell us this building resembles a pokemon…”
“Then you will have to see it for yourself,” said Taiyoko.
Mushu jerked his head around at them but said nothing.
Persian rose to his feet. “Very well, lead the way, luce del sol.”
Taiyoko drifted gently into the air and soared over the trees, her wings whipping up sparkling scales. The other pokemon followed behind them, either walking, drifting, or ramming the passing trees. Leaves rustled above them as Mushu leapt long the branches.
“Coming with us, lo spuntino?” Persian purred.
“It’s Mushu!” The emolga bared his sharp little teeth. “And Mushu can work alone! But you weak pokemon look like you need help.”
“Weak?” Gene drifted up to Mushu’s level with his arms folded. “I could best you in a show of strength, you scrap of fur.”
Mushu fired him a glare.
“Sgargiante, your whiskers are still smoking.” Persian broke off in a husky chuckle.
“He caught me off guard, that’s all!” Gene drifted back down so he was level with Antares.
Victoria offered to carry the oshawott across the river, despite the fact he could swim. He introduced himself as Gen, and happily sat astride the milotic’s neck as she kept his flippers above the water.
Once across the river, Taiyoko lead them across a flat grassland which dipped down into a field of rolling hills. Perched between them was a lone building. Tall, yellow, and shaped like a pikachu’s head and torso.
Persian choked and pulled his ears back. “You have to be kitten me!”
“Pika’s Place!” Mushu darted through the long grass, vanishing from sight.
Fray rose into the air and clasped her paws together. “Oh it’s so cute! It looks just like a pikachu!” She looked up at Taiyoko. “Is this the building?”
Taiyoko nodded. “This is the building.”
“What idiota designs buildings like that?!” Persian began choking, his eyes bulging from his head.
Victoria began smacking him on the back with her tail.
“I’m fine!” he yowled at her between coughs. “Seeing that mostruosità just gave me a hairball, that’s all!”
“Pokemon built it,” said Gen, raising his paws. When greeted with a raised eyebrow off his companions, he added, “Some of the buildings in Overcast Village look like pokemon, too. Or pumpkins.”
“If it’s pokemon,” said Victoria, “then it won’t be pokemon hunters trying to trap us.”
“Humans do that?” Fray gasped.
“There are some bad humans in the world,” said Gen, hugging himself.
“There are humans in your world?” Victoria asked, still keeping her tail on Persian’s back while he gnawed on the grass. “I thought you said they had pokemon-themed buildings?”
Gen glanced aside and toyed with his hood. “Well… I suppose there’s no harm in telling you, but I was a human once before I got pulled into another world and… well… changed.”
“Oh.” Victoria nodded. “That’s… well that’s fine!”
Gene shrugged. “It happens.” He tapped his temple with a claw. “I was also from the human world, although I was a pokemon in that one, too.”
Fray looked at each of her new friends. “This is all so much fun! And very interesting! I bet you all have loads of fun stories to tell! I never knew there were so many worlds before.”
“It is getting dark,” said Taiyoko. “Perhaps we can save stories for when we are safely indoors? We do not know what threats this world holds.”
Nocitlālin shifted slightly so he was looking up at the sky. “Sunset in exactly fourteen minutes. Surroundings - unfamiliar. Shelter is the designated option. Cannot ram nothingness.”
“I say we check out that building,” said Antares. “Mushu seems to be familiar with it, so why not give it a go?”
Persian stopped chewing the grass and took a rasping breath. “Sure. Unless it is filled with more unsavoury folk.”
With that decided, they approached the pikachu-shaped building.
Mushu stood nearby, his wide eyes fearful and confused as he took in the hills. When he spotted the others he flicked his tail up and down and shuffled his feet.
“Where is Mushu’s tree house?” His snippy tone had gone, instead sounding like the fearful voice of a little child. “And the orchard?”
“Are you saying this isn’t where this building is supposed to be?” Victoria asked, gazing from Mushu to the building.
Mushu shook his head, then took a step back from the building as if it had suddenly sprouted wings.
Nocitlālin drifted forwards, keeping itself between the pokemon and the over-sized pikachu. “Computing ways to assess new threat. Threat is not a life-form. Threat is a construction of mud, leaves, and berry-tinted paints. Listing options. Processing… processing… option selected. Initiating ramming.”
The metang darted up the steps towards the door situated beneath the pikachu’s chin. Nocitlālin struck the door then bounced back from it. After a heartbeat, it struck it again. The door opened and Nocitlālin froze mid-ram before it collided with a pikachu.
The yellow pokemon adjusted his tie and looked from Nocitlālin to the pokemon gathered at the foot of the stairs. At least, he may have been looking… His eyes were closed. “Good evening.”
“Are you wearing a suit?” Persian asked, his crooked muzzle twisting in a sneer.
Mushu bounded up the stairs towards the pikachu, cheeks sparking. “Why is Pika’s Place in the middle of nowhere?!”
“Mushu! You’re okay!” Pika stood back to give the emolga some space. “But funny you should ask that, because I fear that is exactly where we are.” He turned his head to the other pokemon and his brow furrowed between his closed eyes. “I’m not familiar with you. Are you lost?”
“That would be correct,” said Antares.
“Well, so is most of Pika’s Place.”
“Your friends are missing?!” Fray gasped.
“Yes. Scattered, I believe.” Pika motioned for them to enter. “Come on in. I can tell you everything.”
The group of pokemon exchanged confused looks, painfully aware that Pika was still waiting for them at the top of the stairs.
“Well, Mushu trusts him,” said Victoria. “Why shouldn’t we?”
Gene tapped his temple. “Mushu is also a volatile scrap of fur. Why should this pikachu be any different?”
“Well I’m going in.” Victoria slithered towards the stairs, tailed by Fray.
Persian, without contributing anything, bounded past her onto the stairs.
“You’re going too?” Gen trotted after him.
“Naturalmente.” Persian looked back and flicked his tail. “It smells like rain, and I hate to get my fur wet.”
Gene immediately looked up at the sky and held out a paw.
“Seriously?” Antares shrugged. “A little rain never hurt anyone.”
“Try telling that to a numel.” Persian hopped up the stairs after Victoria.
Taiyoko followed after them, and after a pause Gene and Antares did the same. At the top, Victoria gave Nocitlālin a nudge with her nose and it darted on ahead of her, bouncing off the walls as it spun into the hallway.
“Just like a roomba,” Persian purred.
Gen snickered into his paw and Victoria rolled her eyes.
Antares exchanged a glance with Fray. “What, pray tell, is a roomba?”
The froslass shrugged. “I dunno, but it looks like fun!”
Once inside, away from the not-quite-rain, Gene waved his spoon and closed the door behind him. Pika led the group into a room that smelled delightfully of cake and sugared fruit. A large dining table stretched out before them with little wooden logs to serve as seats. The table was set up as if a huge party was expected to attend. The pikachu took the head of the table where Mushu was nibbling on a steaming cookie.
The group hesitated in the doorway, gazing sadly over the table. The delicately painted floral plates and polished glasses looked so lonely in such a wide room empty of guests.
“You said your friends are missing?” Fray held her paws together and looked up at Pika. “So many?”
Pika nodded and sipped at a glass of juice. “I want to be prepared for when they return. I currently have four search parties - all that was left of Pika’s Place - out looking for them.” He motioned to the seats. “Please sit down, your hovering is enough to make one anxious.”
The group complied, gathering at the end closest to Pika to save him shouting across the long table. Fray made sure she was beside Antares, a permanent smile etched upon her dainty face. A crash came from the kitchen, followed by a string of rather polite exclamations from a deep voice.
Gen looked up as if noticing the kitchen for the first time. “Is… is your chef okay?”
“Rexi?” Pika glanced at the closed serving hatch. “Oh, he spends most of his time in there. He quite enjoys it.”
“I might see if he needs a helping paw.” Gen hopped from his seat and crept into the kitchen. “Do you need a-”
“Oh!” A little squeal followed. “You gave me a start! Another oshawott! Oh I’d be glad of some help. I’m afraid I just dropped the custard!”
Gen closed the door behind him.
All eyes were on the closed door.
“I’m curious to see what’s going on in there,” said Antares.
“It’s a rather small kitchen,” said Pika. “And Rexi often tells me ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ and sends me out. Now… onto more urgent matters.” He set his glass back down and wiped his mouth on his napkin. “Since you have arrived here, this suggests to me the situation is more dire than I first feared. I honestly thought we’d been whipped up in a storm and most of my residents… well… rained down on this new location. I was worried they might be hurt, and what was left of my explorers have been sent out on rescue missions to try and find them. However, if you are also lost, then something else might be going on.”
Antares had produced a notepad from somewhere. “Do you recall a storm at all?”
“There was a lot of rain and wind yesterday, but not enough to uproot an entire building.” Pika nodded to the emolga now licking crumbs off his paws. “And Mushu here told me that he’d seen an anomaly from his tree house. How did you describe it?”
“Like a giant bubble of electricity!” Mushu barked.
“An exploration party came back and told me they’d seen a similar thing,” Pika went on. “They said there were pokemon they’d never seen before walking around inside it, and in the bubble the terrain was completely different. Trees frozen with ice, and the ground was thick with snow. They didn’t dare step paw inside it, of course.”
“This sounds like it could be a worm hole.” Gene’s fur prickled. “Don’t tell me Ultra Beasts are involved in all this!”
Pika blinked at him, which was an odd movement with closed eyes. “Ultra-what-now?”
“Destructive alien pokemon,” Gene explained. “They come in from Ultra Space and cause all kinds of…” Seeing the bewildered look on the pikachu’s face, Gene shrugged and gave a small sigh. “Never mind. I’m obviously wrong. Perhaps some legend is behind all this?”
“Like the wold eater?” Victoria asked, looking from the mewtwo to Pika.
“I don’t know of a World Eater,” Pika said in a way that suggested it should be capitalised, “but it’s funny you should mention a legend. I did wonder if perhaps my old friend knows something about all this? You kind of resemble him, actually.” He waved a paw at Gene. “He’s a dark-furred mew with a purple mane.”
Persian started to choke again, getting another back-pat off Victoria.
“Purple mane?” Gene scoffed. “What mew has a mane at all?!”
“This one does.” Pika sat back on his stool and steepled his paws. “I was kind of hoping he might show up rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment and tell me all of this is some crazy prank that went out of control and he now needs my help. But I’ve not seen tail nor whisker of him since we got here.”
“He’s a jerk!” Mushu exclaimed, sparking dangerously and disturbing the fine china. “Mushu will shock him if he’s destroyed Mushu’s tree house!”
“What is this mew called?” Antares looked up from his notes.
Pika sipped his juice again. “Bootleg.”
Persian let out a loud gag and a bundle of wet white fur landed on the table. “Finalmente.” He rolled his head back and sighed. “I feel much better now.” He took a breath and looked at Pika. “What kind of mew calls itself ‘Bootleg’? I’m guessing it’s a contraffatto?” He then smirked at Gene. “Much like sgargiante here?”
The crystal in Gene’s shoulder sparked. “I am not a fake! My appearance is a result of my battle with Necrozma!”
Persian closed his eyes and laughed. “So permaloso! I merely jest!”
“Who is Necrozma?” Pika asked.
Gene calmed himself just as quickly and looked up at the confused pikachu. “You really don’t have Ultra Beasts here at all, do you?”
“Not to the best of my knowledge, no.”
Gene seemed to relax at that. He folded his arms and closed his eyes with a nod.
“So we can rule those out then.” Antares jotted down quickly, poking his tongue between his teeth. Fray was stood on her stool beside him, happily reading over his shoulder.
“If it is not down to wormholes and Ultra Beasts,” Taiyoko said slowly, “there are other legends we can consider.”
Gene fixed her in a stare. “The only ones I know who can bend time and space are Palkia and Dialga.”
“I had reached a similar conclusion.” Pika’s statement drew their attention. “But Palkia and Dialga vanished from my world a long time ago. If this is their doing, then it boggles the mind as to ‘how’ this came about.”
Before anyone could add anything further, the kitchen door opened as a tyranitar stepped out carrying a steaming plate of pancakes. He wore a lacy apron with a scalchop printed on the front exactly where one would have been on his stomach should he have had one. He beamed at the gathered pokemon.
“I bring you supper!” He set the plate down on the table. “Just like Mama Dewott used to make! Oh I do hope you enjoy! I had a helpful paw in the kitchen.”
Gen joined his side, carrying a large jug in both paws. He carefully climbed onto a stool to set it beside the pancakes, spilling very little in the process.
Persian made a thoughtful noise and looked up at the tyranitar. “Do you have any ketchup?”
Rexi blinked. “Pardon?”
Gen caught Rexi’s eye. “It’s made from tamato berries.”
“What? With pancakes?” Rexi twiddled his claws together and shifted his weight from foot to foot. He looked back at Persian, bewildered. “Are you really certain you want tamato berries with your pancakes?”
“No,” Persian growled. “I want ketchup.”
Gene scowled at the white cat. “Well I don’t think you’re getting it.”
Persian let out a low hiss and swished his tail.
“I’ll see what I can do!” Rexi told him in a bid to placate the cat before he got his claws out. “Tamato berries… Do I have any?”
“We can improvise,” said Gen.
“Great idea!” Rexi grinned at the oshawott with an unnerving set of sharp teeth. “Shall we get the rest, little cousin?”
“I’m on it!” Gen raced back into the kitchen with a giggling Rexi in tow.
Nocitlālin watched the tyranitar curiously as the door swung shut behind him.
“Erm.” Victoria caught Pika’s eye. “Does your chef erm… believe he’s an oshawott?”
“Yes.” Pika stared back at her with a look that said the topic was to be dropped there and then.
The milotic nodded and said no more.
“I think it’s adorable!” said Fray. “But it would be way cuter to believe he was a dragon.”
Antares placed a claw over the froslass’ mouth and she fell silent as a blush took over her cheeks.
After Rexi and Gen brought out yet more food - waffles, porridge, berry souffle, watmel juice… basically anything that didn’t say ‘supper’ - the pokemon happily tucked into their first meal in this strange new world. He’d even managed to make a vague rendition of ‘ketchup’ for Persian which the white cat tucked into quite happily, although he said it didn’t hold a candle to the ‘real stuff’. Rexi, however, remained in the kitchen after admitting he’d broken too many little log stools due to his unusual gargantuan size (he was the right size for a tyranitar, everyone noted, but much much too big for an oshawott.)
Nocitlālin assessed every meal presented to him by ramming the plate across the tablecloth. Gene caught each plate in a psychic bubble and brought it back to the metang. Even for science, one should not explode another’s fine china.
Antares dabbed his muzzle with a napkin and turned to Pika. “So… what should we do?”
“You are welcome to stay here the night,” said Pika. “As for what to do, I currently have no idea. As I explained, I have already sent out rescue parties. Right now my goal is, as it always has been, to help those who are lost. Not of this world. But right now, I am also not of this world. I have reached the conclusion that I am no longer in my home region. Scouts have found no familiar surroundings. Just endless hills and greenery, with a forest that seems to go on forever and a river with no end.”
“So…” Fray scratched her head and sighed. For the first time since she’d appeared in the world she actually looked a little sad. “We’re just stuck here?”
“We won’t remain stuck here,” said Pika. “I suggest we all get some sleep. Perhaps after a nice long rest we’ll come up with a plan?”
With supper finished, the pokemon were shown to the nest rooms. Pika’s rules were to keep any non-family males and females separate, so they bade each other goodnight before turning down their respective corridors.
Then, overnight… one of the search parties returned…
...
A blaring horn shook the very walls of the nest rooms, jerking the sleeping pokemon straight out of their dreams. One by one they all sat bolt upright in their nests. Cue montage:
Fray’s eyes widened. “Nomi?”
“What the-?!” Victoria sent a flurry of hay raining across the room.
“Mamma?!” Persian wailed.
“I’m blind!” Antares paused for a moment then nudged his eye mask off his face.
Gene raised his spoon and the horn on the wall exploded in a burst of psychic, plunging the boys’ room into silence. He slowly lay back down in his nest and yawned.
Meanwhile, in the girls’ room, Victoria and Fray huddled in the corner desperately covering their ears. The sound finally stopped, while Taiyoko hovered before the hollow brass horn with her head on one side.
“Curious,” said the volcarona. “I did not think pokemon possessed such noisy contraptions.”
Fray raised her head from her paws. “I’m guessing that was the alarm, huh? Oh wow! Is it breakfast already?”
“That’s a noisy way to tell us it’s breakfast.” Victoria slid from her nest and yawned. “Perhaps it’s more urgent and Pika has something to say?”
Back in the boys’ room, Persian was grooming his ruffled whiskers while Antares smoothed out the hay he’d been sleeping on. The garchomp looked up at his room-mates and raised an eyebrow.
“Does anyone know where Gen is?” he asked.
Persian lowered his paw and yawned. “I have no idea, squalo di terra. Perhaps our wake-up call caused him such a fright he ran away?”
“You don’t seem rather bothered?” Antares stood up and dusted stray hay off his scales. “He could be in dire distress and need our help!”
“Negative.” Nocitlālin stood in the corner of the room beneath the horn. “The oshawott left the room fifty seven minutes and fourteen seconds ago.”
Gene sat up on one elbow, glancing from the metang to the garchomp.
“Did he say to whence he was headed?” Antares asked.
“Negative.” Nocitlālin drifted towards the door. “The alarm call suggests we are to seek out the pikachu and perhaps consume nutrients.”
Gene rubbed his head and groaned. “What are our other options?”
“Invalid request.” Nocitlālin turned to face him. “There are no other options.”
“Great.” Gene pushed himself to his feet. “I suppose we should at least investigate. It might get us back home.”
Antares blinked at the metang. “Did you even sleep?”
“Sleep.” Nocitlālin raised its gaze to the garchomp. “A process used by biological lifeforms to replenish energy. Approximate time for efficiency - eight hours.”
Antares stared at Nocitlālin, waiting for it to elaborate. When it did not, he asked, “So is that a ‘yes’?”
“I think it was a fancy ‘no’.” Persian rose from his nest. “Let us follow the roomba and find food. I am ready for my breakfast.”
The two groups met each other at the top of the stairs and followed the route down towards the kitchen. Sweet, delicious smells greeted them and they strolled into the dining hall with rumbling bellies.
Pika was already there, standing in the kitchen door with his back to them. Gen’s voice could be heard from the kitchen announcing that the berry pancakes were almost ready. Pika looked over his shoulder as the group gathered around the table.
“Good morning!” Fray chirruped as she took her spot beside Antares.
“Good morning!” Pika replied. “I trust you all slept well?” A few mutters about the alarm rose from the table which the pikachu chose to ignore. He perched himself at the head of the table and his closed eyes curved in a beaming smile. “I have some good news. One of my exploration parties has returned.”
The group glanced around the table as if wondering if the returning pokemon were, for some reason, invisible (and in Gene’s case, if the pikachu was delusional.)
“They are in the medical ward,” Pika told them. “They have come back… well… a little worse for wear.”
“Hang on there, PikaSuit.” Gene raised a paw. “What do you mean ‘worse for wear’?”
“They have come back without any recollection of why I sent them out in the first place,” Pika explained, a sweat drop forming on the side of his head. “It would seem they have lost their memories of everything except Pika’s Place. They don’t even appear to know that this isn’t our home world.”
The group blinked at the pikachu.
“No, no,” said Antares slowly. “You should really have opened with that.”
“So who is treating them?” Fray asked.
“Our nurse, Joy,” said Pika.
Persian choked on his water, spraying the tablecloth. Antares offered him a napkin.
“And Mushu, of course,” Pika finished.
“That volatile scrap of fur is a nurse?” Gene scoffed.
“He’s a ‘mon of many talents,” said Pika. “But at present we need all the helping paws we can get! I am afraid, since you are still in possession of your faculties, that I might have to ask you urgently to seek out a possible cause for this phenomenon. You see, they came back with this.” He handed a ragged scrap of paper to Taiyoko who happened to be sitting at Pika’s left.
The volcarona nudged it closer to her while the other pokemon leaned over for a better look.
“It’s a piece of a map,” Victoria declared.
“What? Of this world?” Antares politely dragged it towards him so Fray and Gene could see it better.
“They don’t know where they found it,” Pika told them. “All they can remember is that they were at the edge of the forest not far from here.”
“That’s where we arrived,” said Antares, glancing from the map to Pika. He pointed a claw at the trees sketched on the map. “So this might be a map of that same forest.”
“I am wondering if, perhaps, there are more pieces of this map scattered across this world,” Pika explained. “Gathering them might give us a much-needed answer.”
The scrap was surrounded by purple psychic energy as Nocitlālin dragged it towards itself. The metang’s expression was calculating.
Taiyoko gestured to the paper with a wing. “Then I suggest we look for this map’s missing pieces?”
“I was going to suggest the same,” said Pika. “Finding this map may answer more questions than merely where we are. It might give us some indication as to what entity is behind all this. I will have to ask you to look into all this for me, since I am unable to leave this place myself.”
“Why?” Persian purred.
“I am the leader here. If I leave, and someone returns, then they’ll be looking for me.”
“Yeah, that seemed pretty obvious,” Victoria told Persian.
Persian licked his paw and washed his ear. “I just don’t see why I need to put myself in pericolo for il padrone here.” He aimed a sarcastic smirk at Pika.
Gen tottered out of the kitchen into a thick, heavy silence. “Breakfast is ready!” He immediately set about placing a large stack of pancakes and a jug of syrup on the table.
Pika reached across for the pancakes and plonked two of them on his plate. “While it might indeed be dangerous, we need to find out what has caused this and, well, return to our respective worlds.”
“If Eternatus has caused this,” said Gene, “we won’t be able to find our worlds.”
“Can Eternatus wipe memories, though?” Victoria asked.
“That sounds like the work of a psychic-type to me.” Antares stuffed a fork full of pancake into his jaws.
Gene narrowed his eyes. “Then perhaps this Bootleg is behind it? Mew are known for their childish behaviour.”
“That is what I would like to find out.” Pika poured extra syrup on his pancakes. “I don’t want to point claws, but if he is behind this then he might know how to reverse it. Or perhaps he’s already in the process of it? Or unable to for whatever reason?”
“Like he’s in peril?” Antares seemed a little too excited about that prospect.
“Maybe so.”
Antares clenched a fist and rose from his seat. “Then we must rush to his aide post haste!”
Persian licked syrup off his whiskers. “Can I finish my pancakes first?”
“Danger waits for no ‘mon!” Antares told him. “We must make haste! Eat on the go, my four-legged friend.”
Persian spat air. “I am not your amico, squalo di terra.” He lowered his muzzle back to his plate.
“Why are we just assuming this poor mew has anything to do with this?” Victoria asked. “He could be completely innocent.”
“I am not assuming anything,” Pika said before Gene could retaliate. “He could also be in peril, like everyone else in Pika’s Place.”
Victoria gave a curt nod and returned to her pancakes.
“So how do we go about this?” Gene asked. “Do we just wander around this unknown region trying to find small scraps of paper?”
“Yes.” Antares set his notebook down neatly beside his plate. “I also suggest we split into two groups to cover more ground.”
Fray looked up with a start. “You want us to split up?!”
“We are not splitting up!” Victoria gasped. “What if something were to happen to us? If we forgot our memories too-”
“Then it wouldn’t matter either way.” Antares shrugged. “I’m hoping it won’t come to that. But splitting up increases our odds of finding someone in danger, not just these scraps of map!”
“I have a suggestion.” Persian licked his lips free of syrup. “How about you lot split into two groups, and I wait here.”
Everyone fell silent, but Fray was practically bursting with curiosity.
“Why do you want to wait here?” she asked, beaming. “In case someone comes back and needs help? Are you going to help Pika?”
Persian stifled a purr and blinked at the froslass. “Si.”
Fray blinked back at him with confusion. “See what?”
Gene narrowed his eyes at the white cat pokemon. “You aren’t getting out of this so easily, Kitty. We all landed in this world together and you will play your part in getting us all back home.” He paused and tapped his temple in thought. “If that’s even possible…”
Persian yawned and scratched behind his ear with a hind paw. “Well how about you all find out if it’s possible, then I might lift a claw to help you.”
“Object analysed.” Nocitlālin lowered the scrap of paper back to the table. “Object contains traces of sitrus juice and dew from winter crocuses. Item has sustained water damage from fresh water sources. Tooth and claw-marks from several living lifeforms are on its surface - detected zorua and emolga, however other marks are unidentifiable. Ramming would not be a suitable means to further investigate such a fragile item.”
The pokemon stared at Nocitlālin in silence. Antares wagged a claw and his mouth flapped open as he searched for a response.
“I am assuming the emolga is Mushu?” Victoria offered.
“Mushu was examining the map this morning,” said Pika. “The zorua must be Showa, the leader of the rescue team that returned this morning. I’m guessing there are so many marks on that map that our metallic friend cannot decipher them?”
Gene folded his arms. “Or they’re from something not of this world.”
Nocitlālin flipped the tattered map with a burst of psychic energy. “There are also scratchings on the underside. Deciphering…”
Everyone leaned across the table again to stare at the back of the map.
Pika furrowed his brow and a small smile adorned his muzzle. “Huh. I appear to have overlooked that.”
“’Ralt’,” Antares muttered. “That can only mean one thing.” He straightened and placed a claw to his chest. “Our culprit… is a ralts!”
“Moron,” Gene scoffed. He jabbed a finger between the L and T. “There is a space there!”
Antares raised his claws in a weak shrug. “Perhaps the culprit had shaky paws?”
“What is it?” Fray inclined her head on one side. “An an-no-gram?”
“I think you mean ‘anagram’,” said Gene. “And no. Unless the culprit is trying to say ‘tral’ or ‘lart’.”
“Or ‘ralts’,” said Antares a little too proudly.
“It looks like the rest of the writing has been torn off,” said Taiyoko. “Perhaps there is more to this? I suggest we find the other maps.”
Victoria sighed and slumped her head onto the table. “So we are still non-the-wiser? But I’m with Taiyoko. If there are clues on these maps then perhaps we are better off splitting up to find them?”
“Fantastic!” Antares rose from his seat. “Then I shall take Gene, Persian and Fray! Together we shall find this ralts!”
“Chances of the culprit being a ralts are zero point zero two percent.” Nocitlālin raised its head slightly. “Scrivenings are of an unknown origin. One with small paws, of which there are approximately three hundred and ninety outcomes.”
Antares nodded. “Like a ralts.”
Victoria looked at the pokemon sat around her, pointedly ignoring Antares. “Then us four shall group together. Taiyoko, Gen and this metang. I’m sorry… what is your name?” She placed her tail on Nocitlālin’s back.
The metang drifted sideways from her and turned fully to face her. “Unit010_100000111. Since Class_Milotic may not be able to translate this Unit’s name, Class_Milotic may refer to this Unit as Nocitlālin.”
Victoria nodded once. “Okay… may I… may I shorten it to ‘Noci’?”
Nocitlālin stared at her for an uncomfortable moment, then shifted its body in what could only be described as a nod, or a bob. “Affirmative. Class_Milotic may refer to this Unit as Noci.”
At that moment, Gen stepped out of the kitchen and began gathering up the used plates. Victoria waved a tail to get the oshawott’s attention.
“We are going to explore and see if we can find our way back to our homes,” she said. “We’ve found some vague clues, but we might now know where to start. Would you like to join us?”
Gen looked up from his task and blinked. “Oh! I… I was going to help Rexi make dinner for tonight.”
Victoria lowered her tail and her head fins drooped. “Oh…”
Pika leaned towards the oshawott. “Rexi will be okay. Mushu can help him. Your friends may need your cooking expertise on their journey.”
“Well I do like to cook.” Gen adjusted his hood around his shoulders. “Okay. I’ll come with you.”
Victoria perked up at this and exchanged a glance with Taiyoko. “You’re with us, Gen. We’re splitting up to cover more ground.”
After Gen had been filled in on what had transpired (despite having overheard a lot of it from the kitchen…) the groups made their way back out of Pika’s Place.
“Just so you are aware,” said Persian as he followed behind Antares’ group, “I am not coming with you because I want to assist.”
Antares froze in the doorway, and Persian’s snout bounced off his tail. The cat strung together a string of Italian slurs as he rubbed his nose with a paw.
“What in the world-?!” Antares gasped.
Fray drifted past him and raised her paws to her mouth as a gasp escaped her.
The rolling hills that had been green the night before were buried under heaps of freshly fallen snow.
“It’s like a dream!” Fray flew down the steps and scooped up some snow in one paw. “Oh it’s so beautiful!”
Persian peered around Antares and chuckled. “Does the squalo di terra not like the cold?”
“What’s going on?” Victoria peered around Antares’ other side. “Oh my!”
Gene gave the garchomp a hefty shove with his psychic. “Get a move on!”
Antares staggered down the stairs as he fought to keep his footing then landed with a soft ‘sploop!’ in the snow.
Fray flew to his side and placed a frozen paw on his back. “Are you okay, new dragon friend?!”
Antares spluttered snow and rose, trembling, to his feet. “I’m f-f-f-fine!”
“Oh that’s good!” Fray drifted backwards and beamed at the snowy landscape. “Isn’t it beautiful?!”
Antares hugged his arms around himself in a bid to stop shaking. “’Tis like a clef-f-fairy t-tale!”
Gene, Nocitlālin and Taiyoko flew through the air, not touching the snow with so much as a claw, while Victoria and Gen moved effortlessly through it. Persian remained on the stairs with one paw raised, looking from it to the snow.
“Problem, Kitty?” Humour shone in Gene’s eyes. “Don’t you want to get your clean, white coat wet?”
Persian met Gene’s gaze then sat neatly on the stairs. “I’m just wondering if I’ll be of much better use to you if I remain here.”
Gene raised his spoon and the white cat was lifted off the stairs with an ear-splitting yowl. He thrashed in the psychic hold then, with a snap of his claws, Gene released Persian. The cat landed with flailing limbs in the thick snow, muffling his yowl of protest. The mewtwo burst out laughing as Persian’s head poked up from the ground, spitting slush.
“That,” Persian growled, his ears flat against his head, “was not funny.”
“Oh it was.” Gene wiped a tear from his eye.
Antares shook his head at the mewtwo, mirroring Victoria.
Fray helped the persian from the snow and dusted him down. “You’d have made a beautiful snow-cat, you know?”
Persian spat more slush from his mouth and raised his head. “Oh, I do know.” He moved over to Gene and shook his pelt clean.
Gene managed to raise a barrier in time and tutted. “Let’s just get this over with, shall we?”
“Yes.” Antares forced his arms at his sides. “Moving w-will warm us up!”
“Why would you want to be warm?!” Fray gasped. “This is glorious!”
Persian huffed. “Maybe to you, Principessa di ghiaccio! But the rest of us are warm-blooded!”
“Actually I’m c-c-cold-blooded,” said Antares. “That’s w-why I’m…” he caught Fray’s wounded glance, “t-t-totally not t-trembling.” He turned with defiance towards the rolling hills. “F-friends! We go n-north!”
Victoria wriggled away from him. “Then we’ll check the forest again to see if there are any clues where the map was found. Be safe out there!”
...
The sound of the river was tranquil in the cold, white landscape. It rushed away from Victoria and her new friends, carrying slush along its frothy surface. The forest was almost hidden under the heavy snow, weighing down the branches of the trees and thinning out into clear, sharp icicles.
“Well, here we are.” Victoria curled her body slightly against the chill. “Back where we started.”
Taiyoko drifted over to the edge of the river and frowned at the forest. “What do we think we will find?”
“Clues as to whatever has wiped the memories of those poor pokemon,” Victoria explained. “I mean, whoever did it obviously didn’t want them to reveal their identity.”
“Query.” Nocitlālin drew the other pokemon’s attention. “If this entity is able to wipe the database of another life-form, then what is to stop it doing the same to these four life-forms?”
Gen fiddled with the fastening on his hood. “Noci has a point. I mean, if we go in there and we find it, then-” He broke off with a yelp as a clap of thunder split the air.
Victoria swirled her body around her head as Taiyoko stiffened above her. Nocitlālin turned to face the source of the sound, blinking a few times.
“Well, that was rather unexpected,” said Taiyoko.
Victoria pulled her head out of the snow and cleared her throat. “Yes, it was quite. I… I’m not frightened of thunder, normally.”
Gen shifted his flippers in the snow and glanced aside at the milotic. “It wasn’t thunder.” He pointed a quaking paw.
The others followed it, except for Nocitlālin who was already fixated on the spot. A huge, foggy dome had risen further down the river, beneath a black cloud of miasma. Lightning crackled across the dome’s surface.
“Have any of you seen anything like this before?” Taiyoko asked.
Gen and Victoria shook their heads while Nocitlālin declared, “Negative.”
“It’s certainly rather strange…” Victoria trailed off. “I wonder if this is an anomaly like Mushu said he’d seen?”
“Quite possibly,” said Taiyoko. “It seems to fit the description.”
“Should we start there?” Gen asked, a hint of hope in his voice that his new friends might suggest they get as far away from the anomaly as possible.
Victoria nodded and, summoning confidence, weaved her way into the water. “I suggest we get there fast. Someone might need our help!”
Gen’s expression turned stoic and he nodded before rushing towards the water’s edge. He hesitated for a moment, as if fearful of getting his fur wet. Victoria lowered her head for him to climb onto her neck, which he did gratefully.
The milotic zipped through the water, whipping up foam as she followed the current towards the anomaly. Taiyoko and Nocitlālin drifted alongside her, the former taking the lead as she rose higher for a better vantage point.
“Can you see anything?” Victoria asked.
“Shadows,” said Taiyoko. “Moving within the dome.”
“Are they big?” Gen asked. “Or do they look like they need help?”
“It is hard to say.”
“Static detected in the air,” said Nocitlālin. “Storm is not normal. Situation elevated to ‘threatening’. Caution is advised.”
Nocitlālin was not wrong. The static in the air grew in intensity the closer they drew to the anomaly. Gen’s fur fluffed out like a sea urchin, and the water grew so uncomfortable that Victoria was forced to surface onto the snow. The distortion loomed above them, the lightning crackling over its surface and strobing across the surrounding snow in a fluorescent yellow light. Yet beyond the wall it looked foggy and dark. Shadows flitted across its surface, and a distorted yell came from within.
Gen squeaked and his ears pricked. “I think someone really needs help!”
“Class_Gen is correct,” Nocitlālin said. “Yet the wall appears impassible. Suggested method of testing has been selected. Initiated. Testing surface tension.”
Before any of the others could fully process the metang’s words, it zipped across the snow straight for the anomaly.
Victoria gasped while Gen raised a paw and cried, “Noci, wait!”
The metang reached the wall… then promptly vanished beyond it. The electricity flickered and buzzed with static, then fell back into place as if nothing had touched it at all.
The remaining trio stared at the wall for a moment.
“What…” Gen cleared his throat. “What do we do?”
Taiyoko fluttered over to the wall. Victoria tapped Gen on the back with her tail and wriggled after the volcarona. Gen raised his head and drew his scalchop before following after the milotic. Static tickled their skin as they forced their way through the distortion. Bright light dazzled their eyes, then cleared to give way to a murky, foggy night beyond the dome. Victoria yelped as she almost collided into Nocitlālin. The metang hovered near the wall, gazing out across the brown grass.
Gen blinked the dazzle spots from his vision. “What’s going on?”
“Insufficient data,” Nocitlālin replied.
Inside the distortion was chaos. Pokemon lumbered around at the heart of it, or at least they looked like pokemon. They had metallic hides like Nocitlālin, but they resembled familiar pokemon with digital eyes that flashed and blinked with rage. There were two of them, and their attention was fixed on whatever was screaming in the middle of the distortion.
“They’re attacking someone!” Scalchop raised, Gen rushed towards the rabble of robotic pokemon.
“Gen wait!” Victoria shouted. Together with Taiyoko, she took off after the oshawott.
Gen lobbed his scalchop into the fray, and it bounced off the back of a shiny delibird with a clang! The scalchop landed at Gen’s feet. Slowly the delibird turned to face its assailant. Its digital eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed with malice. It lowered its head and launched it towards Gen.
Gen squeaked with surprise and dived backwards, letting the robot’s head soar over his body. The head reached the end of its spring and it snapped back into the delibird’s neck.
“What on earth is that thing?!” Gen gasped.
Victoria didn’t answer. Scalding water gushed from her mouth as a hariyama launched its detached paws right towards them. It beat back the robot’s paws into its body and it keeled back from them, teetering precariously on its feet.
Beyond the robots, the frightened pokemon were lifted into the air in a psychic embrace. Nocitlālin drew them back towards it, out of harm’s way. An eevee peered down at them, her brown eyes wide, as a teddiursa sat beside her sucking on her paw. Were they wounded? Flames spread out across the distortion, blocking their view of the rescued pokemon. Taiyoko danced through the blaze, radiating heat from her wings. The hariyama dropped like a stone while the delibird fought back with dazzling frosty water propelled from its metallic tail.
Gen intersected the attack, shielding Taiyoko with his scalchop. Once the delibird had ended its assault, Gen lurched forwards in a jet stream and struck it in the chest. The robot soared across the distortion to be slammed by Victoria’s tail.
Taiyoko’s blaze came to an abrupt stop as the volcarona came face to face with two more robots. She blinked at them as they hovered before her. They were identical, and looked every bit like a pair of volcarona with blades for wings. The hesitation was all the robots needed. Thick, purple gunk formed over their wings and they braced themselves to scissor into Taiyoko. The volcarona whipped up flames to counter their attack, but a purple blast of light slammed into one of the robot moths and knocked it into its partner with an almighty crash. They fell from the air, steam spraying from their joints.
The robots blinked from existence, and another flash lit up the far side of the distortion. The delibird and hariyama had also vanished, and in their place floated two robotic hydreigon. Distorted roars sounded in their throats and they aimed their pincers at Taiyoko. The volcarona swerved towards the ground as four jets of dark energy pulsed towards her.
“Where are they coming from?!” Victoria screamed.
Two more robots spawned behind her, both resembling a gallade. Their raised their bladed arms.
Victoria jerked her head from them back to the dragons. “What is going on?!”
Gen moved backwards towards her, his scalchop raised as a hydreigon loomed towards him. “I think we need to get out of here. There’s too many!”
Muffled barking filled the distortion as the eevee scampered backwards, her canines bared at another delibird around a scrap of paper in her jaws. The teddiursa stood at her side, her face set with defiance. The delibird had its attention fixed on the eevee and launched its head at her. The teddiursa then leapt in front of it, grabbed it with both paws, and swung it behind her. The robot bounced across the floor, spewing steam. Then it vanished.
The eevee rushed to Victoria’s side with the teddiursa in tow. “We need to get out of here! Now!”
With the two pokemon rescued, the team didn’t need telling twice. Victoria called to Nocitlālin who had one of the gallade in his psychic grasp. The metang dropped it to the floor then veered to ram into the other one, knocking it aside before it could cut the fleeing pokemon off.
Static washed over their bodies as they ducked out of the distortion. Shadows loomed behind them as the robots gave chase, but they didn’t leave the confines of the strange anomaly.
The pokemon gasped for breath as they fled from the dome, static still dancing over fur and scales.
“Final-ah!” The eevee froze as a jolt of electricity struck her in the back of the neck. The paper fluttered from her jaws and she collapsed to the floor.
“Oh no!” Victoria screamed. “She’s hurt!”
The milotic swerved over the floor towards the eevee but froze as a jolt of lightning just missed her tail. Gen and Taiyoko rushed out of the way of two more stray bolts which sizzled harmlessly in the snow. The teddiursa went flying with a grunt as Nocitlālin rammed her away from the distortion. Lightning struck the floor where she’d been standing.
A strange sucking sound filled the air and the distortion shrunk, then vanished with a ‘pop!’ Victoria, Gen and Taiyoko blinked at the spot it had occupied, which was now filled with undisturbed snow and zero robots.
“The anomaly appears to have disintegrated,” Nocitlālin declared.
The small bear cub rolled onto her side, fixing the metang with an accusing stare.
“If I did not ram you,” Nocitlālin said slowly as it looked down at her, “there was a one hundred percent likelihood of you being struck by lightning.”
The teddiursa opened her mouth to speak but a groan from the eevee drew her eye. She pushed herself to her feet and rushed to her friend’s side. The eevee sat up awkwardly and shook out her fur.
“Where am I?” The eevee looked around at everyone. “Who are-” Her paw brushed the scrap of paper at her feet and she frowned down at it. “Who’s littering? I…” She inclined her head on one side and moved her paw, revealing a scrawled map. “Did I draw this?”
The teddiursa placed a paw on her friend’s shoulder. “Kiki… are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” The eevee looked up at her. “What are we doing out here in this snow? Did Pika send us on an errand? Because… I don’t remember it…”
The teddiursa stared at her, unblinking. Worry was etched on her face as she raised her head to where the anomaly once was.
“Peg?” The eevee pawed at her friend. “Are you okay?”
“We were in a fight with robots.” Peg looked back at Kiki then at the other pokemon. “These four helped us.”
“Robots?” Kiki scoffed, a laugh in her voice.
Victoria and the others nodded as Nocitlālin declared, “Affirmative.”
Kiki’s nervous smile melted into confusion. “What? Really?” She followed everyone’s gaze to the spot the distortion had occupied. “Why don’t I remember this?”
“I don’t know.” Peg stood up and placed a paw on Kiki’s shoulder. “We should get back to Pika’s Place.”
Peg rose to her feet and her ears drooped. “Where even are we?”
Gen retrieved the abandoned scrap of map and dusted it free of snow. He glanced at the eevee and teddiursa then joined Victoria’s side. “Do you think that lightning had something to do with her losing her memory?”
Victoria nodded.
Nocitlālin drifted over to them. “There is a ninety nine point nine percent chance it was the lightning.”
Victoria’s head fins drooped as she realised how close they had been to meeting the same fate. “Let’s escort them back to Pika. Now we know, we can tell him what likely happened to the others who came back.”
With one last glance back at the undisturbed snow, Gen tucked the map inside his hood and followed after the others as they caught up with Kiki and Peg.
...
The hills seemed to go on forever. Antares had warmed up with the walking, but his feet were still very cold as they sank into the thick snow with each trudging step. Fray drifted along beside him humming to herself as she tossed fresh snow between her paws, sculpting it into glistening ice. Persian had ceased his complaining, although he claimed ‘it had nothing to do with Gene’s threats whatsoever.’
The group stopped on the peak of an exceptionally large hill and gazed out across the landscape, their hearts sinking like lead. It all looked the same. Hills, and lots off them, each one white and seemingly devoid of trees.
“Where in the world are we?” Antares muttered.
Persian squinted beside him, his fur bristling along his shoulders. “Yeesh. This is enough to give one snow blindness.”
A low growl formed in Gene’s throat and his crystal sparked. “Oh forget this. We don’t even know where we are! Let’s just turn back and look for a different way home, before we get hopelessly lost.” He turned and began marching back down the hill.
“But we can’t just go!” Antares gasped. “What if someone needs us?”
Gene met his eyes and flashed a canine. “The only ones who need help here, Wannabe, are us!”
Antares spat air. “’Wannabe’?!”
“Now whether or not you’re coming, I’m heading back.” Gene jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “You can stay out here and freeze for all I care.”
Persian chuckled and turned to slink after Gene. “I’m with sgargiante. I’ve had enough of this snow to last me nine lifetimes.”
Antares looked from the retreating felines to the hills and back, his jaw clenched so tight it hurt. Fray remained beside him, her usually cheerful expression sullen.
The froslass looked up at Antares and lowered the ice which now resembled a tower. “So what are we going to do?”
Antares didn’t reply. He began to run after Gene, but a bright flash dazzled him and he reeled back until he landed hard on his tail. Cold snow shocked his bones and he let out a rather puppy-like yelp.
Fray darted to his side and opened her mouth to speak, but their gazes went to the huge dome of crackling lightning that now occupied the hills to their right. Gene and Persian stood side by side, frozen to the spot, their fur bristling.
“I was right!” Gene growled. “It is World Eater who’s done all this!”
Antares lumbered to his feet and joined Gene’s side while rubbing his frozen tail. “Are you telling us that crackling thing the World Eater?”
“No, that’s a distortion.” Gene folded his arms and frowned at the dome. “And I suggest we stay well away from it.”
Shadows moved back and forth beyond the veil of lightning in a frantic display. Flashes of light lit up the dome and one of the shadows fell back, vanishing into the darkness.
Antares took a step forwards, his eyes widening. “Someone is trapped in there!”
“Yes, and they’re probably hostile!” Gene turned from it. “Let’s head back to PikaSuit. At least we’ve something to report.”
“Well I’m going to help whomsoever it is!” Antares took off towards the distortion. “I cannot leave someone who might be in danger!”
Fray dashed towards his side, leaving a trail of bitter ice behind her. “I’m coming too! They might be a new friend!”
“Leave it, Wannabe!” Gene roared. “You and the Ice Queen are gonna get yourselves killed!”
Antares and Fray vanished beyond the distortion, and electricity swelled over the gap to swallow them beyond the veil.
Gene sighed and rubbed his paw over his muzzle. “I know I’m going to regret this.” He teleported to the distortion and, with a deep breath, stepped inside.
Persian watched all this, the tip of his tail twitching in the snow beside him. Curiosity prickled his pelt and he pushed himself to his feet and plodded towards the distortion. Static washed over his fur, pushing it on end. He licked at one shoulder to no avail then stared at the imposing wall. The electricity was almost dazzling, and he took a wary step back as a jolt flashed harmlessly over the surface. Well… if everyone else was doing it he wasn’t about to miss out on something interesting. He’d never live it down. He grit his teeth and pushed himself through, static spreading over his fur. Far from the jolt of an electric rat, it instead washed over him as harmlessly as water. Persian’s paws met dry, warm sand, a blissful change from the cold snow. The sun beamed down above him, evaporating the snow from his thick coat. A low purr formed in his throat which was soon choked out when he saw the pokemon beyond the distortion.
Antares had already leapt into the chaos, beating back a pokemon that looked an awful lot like a mismagius. His attacks did nothing to it. A blast of pink light sent Antares rolling backwards, followed by a laugh from the unusual spectre. Antares wasn’t down for the count. He leapt back to his feet and sent a flurry of dirt at the ghost. It was met by a cascade of ice from Fray, the two attacks engulfing the strange pokemon.
Gene flashed before Persian’s eyes, swinging his over-sized spoon at a giant mutant volcarona. The large bug swung its tail with the intent to whip Gene’s feet out from beneath him, but the mewtwo leapt over the volcarona and waved his spoon in an arc. The volcarona erupted in a blast of psychic with a shrill wail. It vanished from existence, and Gene turned to face yet another of the volcarona.
Two pokemon appeared on Persian’s right. Or they would have been pokemon if he’d any clue as to what they were. One looked like a salamence, the other like a jigglypuff with a bad hair day. It was the latter that ran at Persian flashing sharp teeth in its gaping maw.
He arched his back and hissed, lashing out with his claws. He caught the monster across its inflated face, sending it rolling across the distortion and spraying up dry dust. A purr rose in his throat and he leapt after it, swatting at its ponytail as it rolled beneath a towering palm tree.
Two more pokemon moved back and forth in the chaos. A scalchop whizzed past the feline’s nose, bouncing of the snout of the feathery salamence. The scalchop careened back into the paw of an oshawott and she leapt forwards in a jet of water to knock the dragon away from Persian, leaving him to continue his fight with the jigglypuff.
He turned his attention back on his quarry, but the balloon pokemon had found time to recover. It opened its toothy jaws wide and screamed, blasting Persian with a disarming voice. He pulled his ears back flat against his head and yowled, swinging his claws at his assailant. It silenced its onslaught and blinked the pokemon out of existence.
“Purrfect! That’s two down.” Persian turned, tail flicking, to face the salamence. “Three more to go.”
The mismagius vanished as Fray and Antares struck it with another dual attack of ice and sand. They turned back-to-back, gazing around the distortion. Their eyes widened as two more pokemon appeared, one on either side of them. Another mismagius and something akin to a donphan with spikes. The latter was engulfed in a tornado of leaves, making short work of it. It gave an echoing bleat and vanished into thin air. A snivy landed where it had once stood and shouted something to the oshawott that was drowned out by a sudden scream.
Fray gasped a few times and wiped a paw across her brow. “I’m getting a little worn out in all this heat.”
“Hang in there, friend,” Antares told her. “We’ll fight our way back out.”
Another jigglypuff landed right between Persian and Antares, blocking the dragon’s retreat. Gene appeared beside it and struck it hard with his spoon, sending it across the distortion like a shuttlecock.
“They just keep coming!” The mewtwo landed beside Antares. “We need to get out of here, now!”
Three more jigglypuff appeared, accompanied by a pair of monstrous amoongus. Vines draped from the heads of the giant mushrooms which swung before their eyes as they waddled over to the group of pokemon.
“Your tall, shadowy friend is right.” The oshawott joined Antares’ side. “This is too much for us, we need to get out.”
“We can report back to Pika’s Place.” The snivy clutched a scrap of paper to his chest and moved closer to his companion. “He might know what to do. ’Cos this ain’t right!”
Antares herded the pair ahead of him and rushed for the wall of the distortion, clutching Fray under one arm. Vines leapt from the floor, snagging at his feet. He lobbed Fray on ahead of him as the vines wrapped around his leg, and he struck the ground with an ‘oomph!’
“Oh no! My dragon!” Fray doubled back to his side and promptly began to freeze the vines with her paws. The scorching heat rapidly melted the snow away. “Hurry! See if you can break them!” She breathed more ice onto them, trying to keep them frozen in a race with the blistering sun.
The cold bit into the garchomp’s scales but he grit his teeth against it and yanked his leg. The vines shattered and he pushed himself to his feet. Fray turned on the amoongus and blew through her paws, sending a blizzard at the two giant mushrooms. They raised their shield-like paws and screeched as they were forced back into the distortion before vanishing entirely.
Fray then clung to Antares’s shoulder as he followed the others out of the distortion. The wall crackled as he pushed through and stray lightning streamed down onto the ground.
Fray’s eyes widened and she yelped. “Look out!” She sent a stream of ice out to freeze the snow and knocked Antares off his feet.
The dragon let out an exclamation of unimpressed surprise, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground where he’d been standing, shattering the ice. Several more jolts fell among the pokemon, scattering them. Persian leapt aside with a yowl, his fur on end as he stared at the steaming patch of snow where the lightning had just struck.
The oshawott slid along the snow on her belly then turned to shout to her snivy friend. He sat on the floor dazed, rubbing his neck where a red welt had begun to form. The paper lay discarded on the snow beside him.
Gene landed among them and twirled his spoon, sending it to Hammer Space. “Are we all okay?”
“I… I think so.” Fray lay back in the snow, spreading her arms blissfully through it. She stared at the distortion as it shrank away into nothing and vanished with a ‘pop!’ “What was all that? It was so horribly hot in there!”
“Beats me.” Persian yawned and scratched behind his ear. “Let’s head back. I need a bite to eat after all that.” He blinked at where the distortion had occupied, which was now a sheet of untouched snow. “My prey was too rubbery and vanished when I killed it.”
The oshawott shuffled over to the group of pokemon. “Thanks for your help in there! I’m Merry, and this is Flynn.” She motioned to the snivy.
“Erm.” The snivy stared at them in confusion, hugging his arms around his slender body. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on? Like… why am I sat freezing in the snow?”
The pokemon blinked a few times, words failing them.
Merry waddled to his side with a look of concern on her face. “What are you talking about, Flynn? We just fought some really weird pokemon?”
“What? These guys?” Flynn nodded at the group sat before him. “Did… Did I take on that massive black Mewtwo?!”
Gene huffed and rolled his eyes. “You wish. If you tried you wouldn’t be sat there, Salad.”
“Salad?” Flynn snorted. He pushed himself to his feet. He met his friend’s worried gaze and his expression softened. “I’m sorry, Mer, I don’t remember it.” He rubbed at his neck again. “Maybe I hit my head?”
Merry quickly examined him and frowned. “I think the lightning hit you…”
“Did it hit anyone else?” Fray looked at her friends, getting a ‘nope!’ of Antares and shakes of the head from the two cats. The froslass’ eyes widened slowly as she turned back to Flynn. “Maybe it erased his memory!”
Flynn stared at her helplessly and his tail drooped. “Merry, make her stop!”
The oshawott made a thoughtful noise and stood back from Flynn. “You remember who you are, right?”
“Sure I do!” Flynn folded his arms and stuck his pointy nose in the air. “I am an awesome snivy who was once a human!”
“Then it’s not that serious.” Merry picked up the scrap of paper and dusted the snow off it. “Let’s talk to Pika. He might know what to do.”
Antares looked down at the two smaller pokemon as they walked past him. “You didn’t by any chance see a suspicious ralts in there, did you?”
Merry and Flynn looked up at him and Merry shook her head slowly.
Gene rolled his eyes and exchanged a glance with Persian. They fell into step behind Antares as they all followed Merry and Flynn back down the hill.
Flynn stopped and rubbed his head, gazing over all the snow. “Where even are we? Like… where’s Pika’s Place?”
Merry placed a paw on his back and steered him along beside her. “It’s this way. Prepare yourself for a shock.”
Fray drifted up to Gene’s head and spoke quietly near his ear. “Is this what World Eater does? Eat your memories?”
Gene shook his head and tapped his temple slowly. “World Eater devours worlds. Whatever this is… I don’t think it’s him. If this erases memories then it might be the work of a powerful psychic-type?”
“Like you?” Fray asked, beaming.
Gene flushed slightly and looked away. “Well… yeah… but I don’t take people’s memories.” Not that he could. That wasn’t what he was made to do. But she didn’t need to know that. He paused and cast her a sideways glance. “It’s impolite.”
...
Much to everyone’s surprise, the two groups arrived at Pika’s Place at more-or-less the same time. Pika herded them all into a large hall with scatter pillows tossed about the edges. The pokemon gladly curled up or sat on them, just happy to be out of the snow (except Fray, who had brought some snow inside with her). Gen had immediately gone to the kitchen, insisting he help Rexi prepare some warming snacks and drinks.
“So you’re back!” Pika declared, which was a little redundant at this stage.
The pokemon exchanged glances and a few mutters spread throughout them.
Gene folded his arms. “Of course we are.”
“Well…” Victoria cast a glance at Kiki.
Persian purred. “Piu o meno.”
Antares rubbed the back of his head as he stared at Flynn. “More or less.”
The snivy was musing over the scrap of paper he’d been holding. Merry set her glass of hot berry juice down and rose to her feet.
“We appear to have a problem,” she said. “Flynn has lost his memories.”
Pika’s eyes actually opened at that point. “Oh my!”
“So has Kiki,” said Peg.
The eevee shook her ears and looked at each of the pokemon sat around her. “I’m fine. Really.”
Merry caught Pika’s eye. “Something very strange is going on here, Pika.”
The oshawott’s declaration sparked a flood of information from the gathered pokemon. Pika turned his head to each speaker, managing to keep up surprisingly well as they told him of the distortions that had formed, the strange pokemon they’d encountered, and the lapse in memories of two of the rescued pokemon. Not to mention the close shave Victoria’s team had experienced as they just managed to skim past the lightning.
Once the room had fallen into silence, Pika broke it with a loud slurp of his juice.
“Well, this is all…” He paused and sat back, lowering his glass into his lap, “very unusual indeed.”
Taiyoko met the pikachu’s closed-eyed stare. “Have you any idea what might be causing it?”
“Because we’ve ruled out World Eater.” Gene tapped his temple and diverted his gaze to the far wall. “Eating memories is not his style.”
Fray looked up from the snow castle she was sculpting on the floor. “There was also no snow in those distortions. Ours looked very different to where we actually were.”
“It was just like you said others had reported,” Taiyoko added.
Pika nodded a little too happily. “They sound like pockets in time and space.”
“Well we didn’t find the culprit.” Antares folded his arms, keeping his back straight. “Not a single ralts to be found.”
Gene rolled his eyes.
“We did find another piece of the map, though.” Victoria nudged the scrap Kiki had been carrying towards Pika. “And it looks like our new snivy friend also has one?”
Flynn let out a long thoughtful noise as he turned the map upside-down. Merry took it rather briskly and Flynn yelped ‘papercuts!’ and stuffed his paw into his mouth. Merry placed the map beside its sibling. Pika stared at them for a moment then procured the first scrap from inside his little jacket. He set it down with the others and sat back on his paws, staring at each one somehow. All of them had writing on the back. ‘RAL T’ ‘TEMPO’ and ‘OWER’.
“What do you make of it?” Taiyoko asked.
“I think I’m onto something,” said Pika slowly.
“Tempower Ralts,” said Antares with a nod. “Sounds like a sinister individual who needs stopping at all costs!”
Fray looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. “Do you think we’ll catch him and get everyone’s memories back?”
“Of course we will!” Antares told her.
“It doesn’t say that at all!” Gene scolded. “For one thing, there are two ‘O’s!”
Persian yawned and scratched behind his ear. “It’s not a ralts at all. Look carefully, ciascuno. The answer is glaringly obvious.”
Nocitlālin drifted towards them and stared at the scraps with a calculating stare. He lifted them all in a bubble of psychic and flipped them around like a magician trying to hide a ball in a cup. He then set them back down on the floor so the writing was face up.
Everyone gathered around the metang for a better look.
“Well I’ll be a barbaracle’s uncle,” said Antares.
Gene fired him a sideways glare. “I told you it didn’t say ‘ralts’.”
The words staring up at them now said ‘TEMPORAL TOWER’.
“Just as I thought,” said Pika. “Time and space distortions. It sounds like our culprit may be manipulating Temporal Tower somehow.”
“Well how do we get there?” Victoria asked. “If even Pika’s Place has been sent to another world-”
“Then so has Temporal Tower.” Pika gestured to Nocitlālin. “If you please, my good fellow.”
Nocitlālin flipped the papers over so the maps were neatly facing upwards. A blinking dot flashed at the edge of the rolling hills. A trail of blue dashes lead away from it towards an exclamation point near the northern edge of the map, situated between the mountains which seemed to box in the contents of the map nicely.
Victoria’s head fins drooped. “It’s so far away!”
“Not if we teleport,” said Gene. “I could warp us all there in a heartbeat.”
Pika raised his paws. “There’s really no need.”
“Really?” Victoria raised an eyebrow at Gene. “I thought psychic-types could only teleport to places they’d already seen?”
A sweat drop formed on Pika’s ear. “Guys, please-”
“I don’t need to see it,” said Gene. “That’s a myth. I can take us there right now if you want!”
“Guys!” The exclamation had come from Peg. The teddiursa stood beside Kiki, her paw still in her mouth. Her black eyes seemed to bore into each and every pokemon, freezing them like the stare of a gorgon. She lowered her paw a fraction and said in an oddly sweet, quiet voice, “You don’t need to teleport. It’s a WonderMap. Just touch the destination. It will take you there.” She sat down again and commenced sucking on her paw.
The other pokemon (sans those who resided at Pika’s Place) kept a wary eye on the teddiursa. A chill seemed to have washed over the room that had not come from Fray.
The door opened as Gen stepped in, holding a tray of pastries in one paw. He yelped as a sparking furry cannonball shot from under his flippers and made a beeline for Merry and Flynn.
“Oi! Leafbutt!” Mushu skidded to a halt, unleashing a thunderbolt.
Flynn froze as electricity coursed through his body for a few seconds, then collapsed in a smoldering heap on the floor.
“Mushu!” Merry gasped, turning on the small rodent. “What are you-?”
“What do you think you’re doing, going out without Mushu?!” The emolga placed his tiny paws on his tiny hips, electricity still dancing from his cheeks. “Mushu could have helped you! You would never have lost your memories with the awesomeness that is Mushu!”
Everyone stared, slack-jawed, and took a wary step back against the wall.
Flynn sat up with a groan and rubbed his smoking head. “You little tree ratatta! What was that for?” He pushed himself to his feet and met the emolga’s livid eyes. “I aughta drag you back there and leave you in that weird place to be trampled by ancient dinosaurs!”
Nocitlālin jerked his head up towards the snivy.
Mushu sparked dangerously. “You could never take Mushu and you know it!”
Merry’s eyes widened.
Pika cracked one eye and fixed it on Flynn.
Antares rose to his feet. “Hold your mudsdales! Did you say ‘dinosaurs’?”
Flynn didn’t look at the dragon. He folded his arms and kept his gaze on the smoldering emolga. “Yes. I did. He’d make a nice snack for them, don’t you think?”
“Flynn…” Merry placed a paw on the snivy’s shoulder. “Do you remember that distortion?”
Flynn’s eyes widened as he took in her question. Then a look of focus took over his face, resulting in him going somewhat cross-eyed.
Peg lowered her paw from her mouth. “It looks like Mushu’s thunderbolt might have triggered something.”
Pika nodded. “Indeed.”
“Assessing situation,” Nocitlālin said, drawing everyone’s eye. “Lightning from the distortion has caused a lapse in memory. Perhaps a block in the synapses to remove any knowledge of the tampering of time and space. However, a second shock removes this block, suggesting the culprit is still experimenting or inexperienced in what they are doing.”
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Merry nudged Mushu away from Flynn. “Try it on Kiki!”
“What? No!” The eevee’s ears pricked and she raised a paw, looking from Merry to Mushu and back. “Have you any idea how long it took me to get my fur like this?!” She nodded to the bow on her tail. “I’ve only just washed up and put this on!”
Persian purred. “It would be an interesting experiment.” He turned to Mushu. “Go on, lo spuntino. Shock the little vixen.”
Kiki jerked her head from the now-crackling emolga to Persian. “Don’t you dare encourage him!”
Persian gave a dry chuckle and received a scolding nudge from Antares.
Pika stood up with his glass in one paw. He turned to address the newcomers to Pika’s Place. “Well this is our problem. I suggest you lot explore Temporal Tower and find the culprit behind all this.”
Gen joined their side, still carrying the tray of pastries. “Can’t we eat first? Rexi and I just finished baking these!”
Antares took two and handed one to Fray. “It makes perfect sense. Crime never sleeps, but one can’t hunt it on an empty stomach!”
Fray blew a dusting of ice over her pastry and took a bite, a fond smile on her face. “So good!”
“Very well.” Pika beamed at them. “You have all earned a rest. Leave when you are ready.”
...
The WonderMap was wonderful indeed. One tap, and the pokemon were stood before a large clock tower still with the comfort of breakfast in their bellies. A deep ticking noise came from the tower which loomed over them. A deep blue in colour, with visible cogs turning within its crystalline walls. It ended in a large dome inside which a bell could be seen hanging from the roof. Despite the size of the tower it was dwarfed by the vast mountains rising up on either side of it.
Nocitlālin dashed right towards the tower until he bounced off the walls with a disconcerting ‘thunk’. Taiyoko took off to circle the tower, her wings shimmering in the winter sun.
Nocitlālin returned to his friends and stared at the tower. “Walls are made of solid, impenetrable crystalline ice.” Without waiting for a reply, he dashed across the snow towards the door.
“Ice?!” Fray gasped, clasping her paws together. “That building is made of ice?!”
“Jumping joltiks,” Antares gasped. “What is this place?”
“Temporal Tower.” Gen indicated the map which had been roughly taped back together. “I guess that’s why it’s ticking?”
Antares didn’t want to tell the oshawott his question had been merely rhetorical, so instead he just nodded a quick thanks.
“What do you think is inside?” Fray’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Ooh, do you think they sell clocks?! I’d love to get one for Litno! I should really bring him back a souvenir.” Her smile quickly melted into a sentimental frown and she sank slightly. “He’ll be wondering where I’ve gone.”
Antares placed a paw on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, little one. We’ll get you back to your friend.”
Nocitlālin returned to the party and faced the tower. “Door is also made of solid, impenetrable crystalline ice.”
“So if it’s ice,” said Victoria slowly, “then we could melt it?”
Fray’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack. “Why on earth would you want to melt it?! It’s so beautiful!”
“If it’s causing the distortions then we need to stop it, right?” Victoria tried to placate the froslass with a sympathetic look. “We all want to get back to our friends, Fray.”
Persian silently groomed himself beside her, but they caught a faint mutter that could have been ‘Speak for yourselves’ or something else entirely in Italian.
“There’s an equal chance that whomsoever is inside is responsible,” said Antares. “Might we consider that before we commit ourselves to a life of arson?”
At that point, Taiyoko returned, stopping a foot above the dragon’s head. “I have searched the perimeter, and all the windows look as impenetrable as the walls. However, I did see movement beyond the ones near the bell tower. I suggest we try the door and work our way to the top.”
Antares waved a claw to the volcarona. “See?”
Victoria gave a stiff nod. “I stand corrected. Let’s climb this tower.”
Persian stopped his grooming and looked up, flicking his tongue over his whiskers. “Melting the tower would bring the culprit down to us quite firmly. And it would save us a lot of energy.”
“We can’t melt it!” Fray gasped. “I mean, look at it!” She flew around the tower once, kicking up a spray of snow, before coming to a stop near the door. “This is a testament to the wonders of ice!”
“It is something.” Gene drew his spoon. “I say we knock it down.”
“We can’t do that!” Antares joined Fray’s side and spread his arms. “What if this tower controls the flow of time here? We’d bring it to a stop, or worse!”
“It’s also made of ice.” Gene waved to the snow. “And all this just… suddenly appeared the night before last!”
“Snow does that!” said Antares. “’Tis called ‘weather’!”
“Precisamente.” Persian moved to Antares side and curled his tail around his feet. “And if you’d ever spent a day in Galar, you’d know a thing or two about weather.”
Taiyoko looked from the tower to Gene. “I am also in agreement that melting this tower could carry devastating consequences.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Gene asked. “Given that there’s a monolith befitting Kyurem right there!”
Taiyoko narrowed her eyes but said nothing else.
Antares met Gene’s stare and folded his arms. “Don’t say you think Kyurem is responsible now.”
“Kyurem?!” Fray’s explosive fangirl squeal almost shook the very icicles above the door. She spun towards it and grabbed the handle. “I can’t wait to meet him!”
The others lurched towards her with a unified ‘don’t!’
Fray turned the handle.
Nothing happened.
She shook it with a frustrated sigh. “Oh no… It’s locked.”
“It’s almost as though someone doesn’t want us to get inside.” Gen shuffled as everyone’s eyes went onto him. He raised his paws in a weak shrug. “Well they don’t.”
Gene drew his spoon again. “There’s one solution to that. Stand aside.”
Antares cut before the mewtwo. “Hang on just a moment!”
Gene swept him out of the way with a sweep of his spoon and engulfed the door in a psychic bubble. There was a strange pulsating noise that caused those with better hearing to clasp their paws over their heads. Then, with an ear-splitting crack, the door shattered. Gene twirled his spoon triumphantly and sent it back to hammerspace.
Fray made a sound like a deflating balloon and picked up one of the chunks of ice, smoothing it with a paw. Tears shone in her eyes and she hugged it to her chest, standing to stare at the jagged gaping void where the door had once stood.
“Oh great.” Persian glared at Gene. “Now they’ll know we’re coming. Have you never stalked prey before?”
“It got us inside, didn’t it?” Gene marched past them, brushing shoulders with Fray. “Come along, Ice Queen. Perhaps Kyurem is waiting for us.”
That seemed to perk Fray up a little and she followed after the mewtwo, still clutching the chunk of ice to her chest. “Do you think he’ll forgive us for breaking his door?”
Nocitlālin trundled along after them, followed by Victoria and the others.
“To be honest, I hope we don’t meet Kyurem,” she said.
Gen looked at the milotic. “Why not?”
“Because he’s a hollowed-out moody husk who once tried to destroy Unova.” At Gen’s confused eyebrow Victoria turned to Taiyoko. “You should know. You’re from Unova, right?”
Taiyoko drifted along delicately beside her. “There are legends.”
The inside of the Temporal Tower was bitter cold. The floor had been sculpted from ice and sported a blue lace rug that cut a path towards the stairs. The ticking was louder inside like some form of clockwork heart. The cogs turned inside their icy prison, but there was no sign of what they might be powering.
“Taiyoko said she saw movement near the bell tower,” said Victoria. “So it makes sense to climb straight there?”
“Did it look big enough to be Kyurem?” Gene asked over his shoulder.
“It is hard to say,” said Taiyoko. “The ice distorted what was beyond it, making it incomprehensible. I apologise.”
Gene turned towards the winding staircase. “Then let’s take the stairs.”
“Take them where?” Taiyoko asked.
Gene flinched, his crystal sparking, and cast the volcarona a scathing look. It vanished into a look of bafflement when he realised Taiyoko wasn’t joking.
“He means ‘climb the stairs’,” Victoria said quietly to the confused moth.
Taiyoko gave a stiff nod. “Understood.”
The group had to take the winding stairs in single file. Gene insisted on taking the lead given ‘he could handle a legendary pokemon or two’. Antares decided the heroic thing to do would be to cover the tail-end of the group in case anyone snuck up on them. The dragon hugged his arms around himself, his teeth chattering noisily.
“Mind keeping it down?” Persian glanced over his shoulder at the garchomp.
Antares tried to still his quaking jaw. “I can try. ‘Tis like a cryogonal’s house party in here.”
“Have you ever been to one?” Fray asked from near his head. She’d insisted on riding on his shoulder. “What was it like?”
“I-I’ve not been to one.” Antares gave her a shrewed look. “But if I ever do, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
Fray closed her eyes in a smile. “Maybe I could come with you? I could bring Litno and we could meet your friend!”
Gene gave a sharp ‘shush’ and raised his spoon for silence. They all stopped near the top of the stairs. Voices could be heard, albeit faint.
“Someone’s up there,” said Gen quietly, drawing another ‘shush’ off Gene.
The mewtwo motioned for them all to gather behind him. There wasn’t much room at the top of the stairs. They ended at a door perched on a very narrow hallway. The voices were definitely coming from beyond it. Gene grabbed the frozen handle and turned it. The door opened under his paw and he darted into the room. Then froze with a distressed cry.
“You have to be kidding me!”
The others moved in behind him and stopped with matching looks of bewilderment, save for Fray who beamed from Antares’ shoulder.
The room was huge and round with the large bell affixed to the ceiling. A blinking array of lights mixed with primitive technology akin to a 90s rendition of a space-ship’s bridge filled the edge of the room. A small ralts sat in the middle of it clutching a strange device in his tiny paws.
Antares pointed dramatically. “I knew it! What did I tell you?! A ralts! A mastermind of epic proportions, no doubt!”
“You flatter me.” The ralts’ voice was oddly deep for a creature of his size. “The name is Tempower Ralts, Master of Time and Space!”
Antares’ grin only widened further and he took on a rather herioc pose. “A monster of which I shall vanquish!”
Persian had practically doubled over with laughter, blocking the door like a fuzzy little draught excluder.
Gene threw his paws up in the air, making his spoon vanish. “I give up! I quit! I shall not help save a world in which Antares is right!”
“Oh I rather hope you shall.” The snarky voice came from above them. “I was wondering when someone might come along and help me.”
A black-furred mew with a purple mane sat inside a cage of ice. Diodes were attached to his head, giving off faint jolts of electricity. They were wired into the blinking machinery, seemingly powering it in some way, or vice versa? Much like Pika, his eyes were closed yet he seemed to be watching the group rather intensely.
Gene stuttered for a moment then shook his head. “What sort of cruel joke is this?”
Persian’s laughter spluttered out into a fit of hacking coughs and he pushed himself up to dislodge yet another hairball. Victoria placed her tail fins on his back, keeping one eye on the unusual mew.
Antares turned to address the mew. “Am I right in assuming thy name is Bootleg?”
“That is correct.” Bootleg smiled down at him and rubbed the back of his head with one paw. “Although I am of no use to you right now! You see, I seem to be in a bit of a predicament.”
“He is the battery I need to power this thing,” Tempower Ralts told them. “And I am not about to let you get in the way!”
Nocitlālin had been watching everything, looking from the ralts to Bootleg to the machinery. “Situation assessed. Threat level is critical. Must be eradicated immediately. Activating first line of defence.”
The metang dashed across the room, eliciting a squeak of surprise from the ralts. He crashed into the machinery which shattered under the impact. Electricity sprayed from the hole, and the lights began to blink fiercely above it.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” Tempower Ralts gasped.
“Bringing an end to your reign of terror!” Antares declared. “Do it again, Nocitlālin!”
The metang obeyed, smashing into another section of the machinery.
“No! You don’t understand!” the ralts cried. “This is no reign of terror! I am bringing together worlds and time-lines! There is stuff out there you could only dream of!”
Gene immediately trapped Nocitlālin in a psychic bubble, raising it off the ground. He turned to the ralts. “Keep talking.”
Nocitlālin waved its legs in a bid to free itself. “Disagreeable action shall result in a thorough ramming.”
“I’ve seen things,” the ralts explained. “Things no others have seen. It comes to me in dreams. Worlds filled with primitive pokemon or robots from the future. Other worlds where strange two-legged creatures keep pokemon as companions, and worlds where pokemon don’t even exist! There are worlds like ours where legends roam free, or ones where those legends are in control of our fates! Don’t you see?! There is so much out there we don’t even understand! And each of you are from different worlds, too! You would never have even met if it weren’t for me!”
The pokemon were silent for a moment, save for a grumbling Nocitlālin still trying feebly to free itself.
Victoria lowered her head and spoke in a soft voice. “That’s all well and good, Mr Ralts. It’s nice we’ve been able to meet new friends from different worlds, but what you are doing is wrong. You’re messing with things you don’t understand.”
Nocitlālin’s eyes flashed red. “Danger! Danger! Release this unit at once!”
“But I do understand!” Tempower Ralts protested.
“You do not,” said Gene. “This is how worlds end.”
He promptly released Nocitlālin who immediately dashed over the mewtwo’s head and into Bootleg’s cage. The mew fell towards the ground, landing in Gene’s waiting arms. Gene ducked as Nocitlālin went whizzing over his head to crash onto the ground.
“Why thank you!” Bootleg shifted weakly. “I thought I’d never get out of there.”
Gene ignored his words and wrenched the sparking diodes from the mew’s head. The lights on the computers instantly went out.
“No!” The ralts ran to his computers, avoiding the now rampaging metang spinning around the room. “Everything I’ve worked for! Everything I’ve dreamed of! Ruined!”
“You enslaved an innocent pokemon for this!” Antares told him. “What you did was nothing short of cruel! Wait…” Antares looked at Bootleg still perched in Gene’s arms. “Did you deserve it?”
Bootleg shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably?”
Antares’ shoulders slumped. “That… wasn’t the answer I wanted…”
Persian sat up and wiped a paw across his muzzle. “Well it’s the answer you got. Now.” He turned and pounced, pinning the ralts under one paw. The little device he’d been holding skittered across the room to be trampled by Nocitlālin. Persian picked the ralts up in his claws. “Send us home, genio malvagio.”
“I can’t!” the ralts gasped. “You’ve ruined everything!”
“Danger! Danger!” Nocitlālin twirled across the room, tearing up wires in its wake. “Removing all threats!”
“Noci!” Victoria cried. “Please! Calm down!”
The metang screeched to a halt and turned to face her, its eyes returning to their usual black with red rings. It glanced around the room and seemed to nod. “Threats eradicated.”
Tempower Ralts hung limply, sobbing, in Persian’s claws. “Ruined. Everything is ruined.”
Gene tapped his claws on his arm. “Can you reverse everything?”
The ralts lifted his head weakly, his eyes just visible beneath his fur. “How? You’ve destroyed my life’s work!”
“He’s forgetting who was powering it all.” Bootleg leaned back in Gene’s arms and crossed one leg over the other in an act of nonchalance. “I am a world and time traveller after all.”
Gene shifted his grip, almost dropping the mew, and grabbed him by the scruff. He lifted him to his eye level. “You can travel through time and space?!”
If Bootleg was intimidated by Gene he didn’t show it. He just beamed back at the mewtwo. “But of course!”
Taiyoko made a thoughtful noise. “This is why Pika considered Bootleg to be a potential culprit.”
Bootleg gasped and feigned innocence, his purple eyes opening slightly. “Pika accused me? Little old me?”
Everyone was silent save for the sobbing ralts, and Gene who was growling slightly.
Bootleg chuckled and folded his arms. “Well, I suppose he does have his reasons.”
“What reasons exactly?” Gene growled.
Bootleg chuckled again and raised a claw. “That… is a secret.”
Everyone visibly sank, while Gene almost lobbed Bootleg across the room but resisted the temptation.
“Forget it!” he growled. “Let’s just take this mew, and this ralts, back to Pika to deal with.” He spat those names as if they tasted bad.
“So this is it?” Fray asked from Antares’ shoulder. “This little ralts is what was causing all this?”
“Barely a threat at all,” Gene huffed.
“To be fair,” said Antares, “what he was doing was a pretty big threat. Those monsters we encountered were no joke!”
“And pokemon have lost their memories,” Victoria added.
“They had to!” Tempower Ralts whimpered. “If they remembered those distortions then my plan would have been ruined!”
“Well it didn’t work!” Gene told him. “Most of us kept our memories.”
Persian purred and swung the ralts in his claws, eliciting a shrill squeal. “Not such a master mind after all, are you, genio malvagio?”
“Let’s just get back,” said Antares, rubbing his arms. “’Tis freezing, and I could use some hot berry juice.”
Everyone gathered together as Gen pulled out the map. With a little tap on the location of Pika’s Place, the group were warped right back to the door and the promise of warm drinks and pancakes.
...
Pika sipped his hot spiced berry juice at the head of the table. He almost spat it back out as the door swung open, followed by a cacophony of noise.
“Oi, il padrone!” Persian swung a small ralts in his jaws, sending the poor thing skidding along the table. “Brought you a present!”
“Two presents, actually.” Gene stood among the rest of his companions, holding Bootleg by the scruff. “But I’m not going to throw this one at you since I don’t trust it.”
“A reputation well earned.” A small smile appeared on Pika’s muzzle as he dabbed the juice away on his napkin. He cracked one eye open as he looked up at the dangling mew. “Good evening, Bootleg.”
Bootleg gave a nervous laugh and rubbed a paw through his purple mane. “Well, this is an embarrassing situation.”
The ralts struggled to sit up with a groan and shook his head. “Where am I?”
Pika looked from the ralts to Bootleg then to the rest of the pokemon as they gathered around the table. “I believe I’m going to need a bit of an explanation?” Everyone began to speak at once, prompting Pika to raise his paws for silence. “One at a time!”
So, in an unusual display of co-operation, the group began to explain what had happened in Temporal Tower. All the while, Tempower Ralts sat on the table sobbing into Pika’s napkin. At some point during their story, Rexi had given them all hot spiced berry juice - including the ralts.
After the story had concluded, Pika stared at the ralts while warming his paws on his glass. “Well. Are you going to explain yourself?”
“I already did.” Tempower Ralts looked up at the pikachu. “I wanted to unite worlds and time-lines. There is so much we miss! So much we don’t know!”
“Messing with the fabrics of time and space is not your place, though, is it?” Pika sipped his juice. “And erasing a pokemon’s memory is just abhorrent. Every good psychic-type should know that.”
“What about drowzee?” the ralts scoffed.
“They consume dreams, and the good ones help those who suffer with nightmares.” Pika fixed one eye on the ralts. “They don’t take memories away. And they don’t mess with reality.” He cast a glance at Bootleg who was reclining in the air beside him. “You also forced another pokemon to use their powers for ill.”
“Like some giant biological battery,” Antares added.
Pika nodded once. “Yes, quite. Using him to fuel your plan only adds to the severity of it all. It’s not my place to issue punishment, but in the absence of any law enforcers I find it only fitting that you serve out a lifetime of commitment to right your wrongdoings.”
“Community service.” Antares nodded. “I like it.”
Gene huffed. “So what? We’re going to trust this little ne’er-do-well to send us all home?”
Tempower Ralts twiddled his paws together. “I don’t have that power. Not anymore.”
“So we can’t get back?!” Victoria gasped. “How are we going to get back to our worlds?”
“Stuck here in all this snow?” Persian scoffed. “Sgradivole!”
Fray sank onto the table besides a winded Antares. “But I want to see Litno! He must be so worried about me!”
“We may have one solution,” said Taiyoko.
But no one seemed to hear the moth. Their fears and worries were voiced across the table, mostly aimed at the ralts who’s large eyes turned watery under his fuzzy helmet.
Bootleg cleared his throat, drawing everyone to silence. The oddly-coloured mew seemed to stare at them through his closed eyes.
Gen stepped out of the kitchen at that moment, carrying a tray of tiny steaming pies. He froze in the silence, looking from the pokemon to Bootleg. “Have I interrupted?”
Bootleg chuckled. “You are all forgetting why I was the one powering that device. I can send you all back to your own worlds in a jiffy.”
Gene rammed a fist onto the table, making the glasses hop. “Then why didn’t you say so?!” He cleared his throat and sat back on his stool. “Not like I was worried or anything.”
“You’re going to send us home?” Gen set the tray of pies on the table and turned to the mew. “Back to where we came from?”
“The worlds you came from, yes.” Bootleg nodded. “That is, unless you wish to stay here?”
“Pika’s Place is needed back where it belongs,” said Pika firmly.
“That’s not what I meant-”
“I need to get back to my trainer,” said Victoria.
“As do I,” said Taiyoko.
“Likewise.” Nocitlālin shifted so he was facing Bootleg. “This unit does not belong in this universe. Requesting transportation back to World 00462-” Nocitlālin’s string of digits continued as Bootleg turned his attention on the others.
Fray gave Antares a small smile. “I really need to get back to my friend, but I shall miss you, little dragon.”
Antares fondly ruffled her head. “And I you, little Ice Princess. You were a great sidekick there!”
Gene rolled his eyes and sighed. “Let’s just get this over with?”
“We all made good friends here,” said Victoria, her eyes turning watery. “I won’t forget any of you.”
“This unit’s memory is finite,” said Nocitlālin. “But when data needs archiving, this unit will keep these data files available for regular assessment.”
Gen wiped his eyes on the back of his paw and forced a huge smile. “I’ll be telling all my friends about this, too. This was quite the adventure!”
“Well I’m not going to miss any of you.” Persian smirked and flicked his tail. “Now send us home.”
Victoria nudged the white cat with her tail. “Oh you will! Surely!”
Persian rolled his eyes. “Probablimente. Let’s just go?”
Bootleg opened his mouth to speak, but Pika raised a paw to stop him.
“Before you all head home,” said the pikachu, “I’d personally like to thank you all for your help. We were in dire states when we arrived here, and Pika’s Place could not have done this without you.”
Victoria lowered her head. “I’m just glad we could help, and get your friends back safely.”
“There are still exploration teams who haven’t made it back yet,” Pika told them. “A few came back last night and are resting. I don’t think the stragglers are in immediate danger, but before I get Pika’s Place back where it should be, I am hoping Bootleg will help me to find my missing explorers?”
Bootleg nodded once. “Of course.”
“In the meantime…” Pika’s closed eyes curved in a smile, “Safe travels!”
Bootleg twirled in the air and raised his paws. The room warped around the pokemon present, and before long, everyone was back in their own worlds, still warmed from the pleasant spiced berry juice.
...
I hope you enjoyed that! =D It was crazy fun to write XD
Footnotes:
Please leave until after you've read it to avoid spoilers
(Please note not all made it into the final product, but it's fun to see what wasn't said!)
Gene - sgargiante - Gaudy
Mushu - lo spuntino - Little Snack
Noci - roomba
Antares - squalo di terra - Land Shark
Victoria - spaghetto - Spaghetti
Taiyoko - luce del sole - Sun Moth
Fray - Principessa di ghiaccio- Ice Princess
Gen - Rossa - Red
Pika - il padrone (sarcastically) - Boss
Tempower Ralts - genio malvagio - Mad Genius
Gene - sgargiante - Gaudy
Mushu - lo spuntino - Little Snack
Noci - roomba
Antares - squalo di terra - Land Shark
Victoria - spaghetto - Spaghetti
Taiyoko - luce del sole - Sun Moth
Fray - Principessa di ghiaccio- Ice Princess
Gen - Rossa - Red
Pika - il padrone (sarcastically) - Boss
Tempower Ralts - genio malvagio - Mad Genius
so I’m here now to fix that!!