Kate stood back and looked on with astonishment as black goop spewed out of the Ultra Stone. The goop just kept coming, and coming, filling up a good chunk of the other end of the dorm room in the process.
"Whoa! Just how big are these Ultra Shades supposed to get?!" she exclaimed.
The black sludge began to shift and rearrange itself into a two-legged creature with icy, rigid wings, a vaguely turbine-shaped tail, two stubby arms and a long neck. Kate's mouth hanging open in astonishment when she realized that the shade forming before her was none other than a Kyurem.
"No way..."
The Ultra Shade's body filled in, remaining completely black for a moment, before her eyes cracked open glowing yellow, with the center of the creature's head crest and two rings on each of her wings following suit before the dragon reared up and let out a bellowing roar.
"GRAAAAWRRR! Hah! Had to let that out now that I'm finally able to stretch my limbs from that rock!"
The dragon stepped forward, and craned her head down to face Kate, still stunned and wide-eyed from the development. A frosty puff of breath escaped the shade's mouth as she began to speak.
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face, Kate," the dragon said. "You may call me 'Kyurem, der lebendige Schwelle zwischen Wirklichkeit und Wünsche.'"
Kate blinked, fumbling with her words as she tried to speak back, before finally managing to clear her thoughts enough to voice a lingering question brought on by the Kyurem's self-introduction.
"Er... I think that that 'Kyurem's' taken already, and that full title's kind of a mouthful," Kate said. "Though how do you know Hightongue anyways if you're based off my thoughts?"
The icy dragon blinked a moment, before sheepishly pawing at her chin with a claw.
"... Er... I don't actually know it," the shade admitted. "I just know the handful of phrases that you do."
Kate paused and remembered the explanations she'd received about shades being formed from their creator's memories. While it was true that she didn't know that much Hightongue, she knew a little, and she certainly knew that Kyurem in life was said to be fluent in it like all the other Legendaries who had been felled in Varhyde. As for the title, she supposed that it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise to her...
"Right, 'the Living Threshold between Reality and Wishes'," the Sneasel murmured. "Every ankle-biter in Varhyde learns that one before they're out of school. Kind of a waste if you ask me, since I preferred what 'mons called you in normal speech anyways."
The Kyurem curled her mouth up into a beaming, toothy grin back, batting her wings out proudly.
"'The Great Boundary between Truth and Ideals', eh?" the Kyurem asked. "You're right, it does roll off the tongue a bit better, and it's definitely easier talking to you without having to be so formal."
The dragon stood there for a moment, before blinking and giving a puzzled tilt of her head.
"Though what are we to do about my name if it's really so troublesome for me to go about as 'Kyurem'?" the dragon insisted.
Kate hemmed and hawed, before pawing at the back of her head.
"Well... a Pokémon's always got a name that she shares with her closest friends, right? I dunno if that's something Kyurem back home would've done, but there's no reason you can't have one for yourself," Kate explained. "After all, I expect a stranger to call me 'Sneasel', or 'Sniebel' if it's some stuck-up talking down to me, not a close pal."
The Dragon-Type looked about her body in reply, and after taking a moment to examine it, turned back to the Sneasel.
"So... 'Black' then?"
Kate flattened her ears out, before narrowing her eyes in minor annoyance.
"Let's... think this through a bit, since this is what everyone's going to be calling you normally, after all," she insisted. "And my hide's mostly black myself."
"Well... Is there any name meaning 'Black Ice' that you can think of?" the dragon asked. "That'd certainly fit, wouldn't it?"
Kate thought for a moment to herself. 'Black Ice' certainly didn't sound like any name she'd give a 'mon. In Varhyde, it wasn't unheard of for a 'mon to take an otherwise simple name in Hightongue as a flourish, but 'black ice' was normally called 'Glatteis' or 'Blitzeis' in Hightongue. And she was pretty sure that if she remembered right, 'Glatt' was supposed to be 'slippery' while 'Blitz' was supposed to be lightning...
"I mean, I guess we could try one of the Hightongue words for it," she said. "But both the ones I've heard of are mouthfuls, and I'm pretty sure that neither of them actually mean 'black ice' if you translate them literally."
The Kyurem stared back blankly, before sitting down and pawing at a cheek.
"... I'm stumped then," the shade replied. "You think that coming up with a name based off yourself wouldn't be this hard..."
Kate tried to think of some suggestion to offer back in reply, when her mind came back to an alias that she'd used once to scout ahead for a job: 'Melanie'. She didn't know how true it was, but it was explained to her when she took the alias that was a way of saying 'black'. Now, she never heard any 'mon use it as such, but it couldn't hurt to offer, at least.
"How about 'Melanie'?" the Sneasel suggested. "It means 'Black', and doesn't make you sound like a Wilder gave you your name after getting drunk off overripe berries."
The dragon repeated the name to herself quietly a couple times, before getting up and proudly posing as she beamed back to the Sneasel.
"Heh, I think I like it!" the newly-named Kyurem exclaimed. "Melanie it is!"
