Chapter 28: Let’s Do the Crime Warp Again

The further Cyril led Noctum and Seifer through Eterna’s gridded streets, the brighter things became. More and more artificial lighting from street lights to unnatural purple crystals to neon signs advertising everything from household appliances to fast food chains to some sort of production involving an inteleon in a tuxedo.

“How much further? I thought we were going to the bazaar,” Seifer said, eyes darting back and forth. There were other people walking on the cobalt sidewalks. Noctum recognized some species, but others were totally alien to him, like a walking sunflower or a black-furred rapidash-like creature with white stripes and a lightning-bolt shaped tail.

“We’re not.” Cyril was a few paces ahead of them. He had a set of goggles over his eyes. “I was going to go there originally. Now I need to take you to a good spot to access the factory.”

“Isn’t it, like, a bad idea to be out here?” Noctum looked around nervously. A vaporeon with the spiked neck ruff of a jolteon noticed his Malice Crystal and quickened her pace in a panic. The charizard’s tail flame shrank. “What if someone pulls me aside?”

“What’s really going to screw us over is you acting so nervous,” Cyril growled. “Stop swiveling your head around like a lost helioptile.”

“Sorry.” Noctum instead looked down, following cracks in the sidewalk. “It’s just hard to focus on anything with all the bright lights. Do you, like, ever get use to this kind of stuff?”

“All this liveliness is part of the city’s draw for folks.” Cyril paused, then bitterly added, “At first.”

“It all feels like a bit much,” Seifer said. The trio rounded a street corner onto a much larger street. Hovercars and busses slowly moved past in both directions, reflecting multicolored lights from a giant monitor showing silhouettes of a blaziken, absol, lucario, and sudowoodo dancing in tandem with headphones on their heads.

“No shit.” Cyril shook his head. “Sure, all this big, flashy stuff seems appealing at first. But like everything in the Qliphoth, eventually it gets old. So, maybe you turn into another species. Rework your being, change jobs, and take on a new life.” He flipped strands of white hair out of his goggles. “Eventually things get stale and you become part of the crud all this glitz and glamor is covering up.

“And if you ask me, with no new planets getting swallowed up, there hasn’t been any real stimulation in over a thousand years.” There was an unsettling chill in Cyril’s voice. “Is it any wonder Phantoms are spilling out into Etherium? People are eroding into Phantoms like weeds spreading through a crop field.”

He turned right to point to the television screen, where metal squares now surrounded the dancing silhouettes. “And that shit right there? That’s the archbishop’s attempts to cover it up and distract people.”

Text spread out under the silhouettes: “uPhone: a universe of potential.”

“Those squares are the phones?” Seifer blinked at the ad.

“A far cry from those kooky crystals you use in Radiance, eh?” Cyril shook his head dismissively. “Wouldn’t surprise me if Vortex and his stooges somehow pulled schematics for their stupid stuff out of the distortion itself.”

Noctum gulped. “They can do that?”

Cyril shrugged and proceeded forward. Noctum opted not to press the matter further. Instead, he changed the subject. “If the factory is underground, do you think the Phantom Warp is enough to get me to it?” He looked down at the jet-black sidewalk. The metal was cold against his scaly feet.

“No,” Cyril flatly responded. “But factories like this one need ventilation systems. So, we’re going to find one of the grates.”

“… oh.” Noctum traced a claw nervously around his belly crystal. “And, um, will I be able to fit into it?”

“Probably.” Cyril was focused on the other sidewalk. “Before that crystal, I’d call you embarrassingly thin for a ‘zard. You a vegetarian or something?”

Seifer side-eyed Noctum, who frowned. “No. I just… struggled to get decent meals as a charmander.”

“That so? Bummer.” Cyril stopped and sat on his haunches. His goggle lenses flickered with small white lights. “Mmm. Think we’re here.”

“Here?” Seifer looked up at a neon street sign and traffic light. “We’re at some random intersection! What makes you so sure?”

Noctum looked in the direction Cyril was facing. He tapped Seifer’s flank with his wing. “Uhh…” The charizard pointed a claw forward.

Seifer followed it. Both of them saw assorted humans and pokémon lined up on the sidewalk. The line stretched several blocks down, before turning a corner and disappearing from view. A couple of the saucer-like Eternatus Troopers floated back and forth around the line.

One dark-skinned human in a crop top and short shorts threw his arms up with a victorious look on his face. “Aaaaand seventeen hours in line! Hot dog, that’s a new record!” He held up a hand, but the lavender tangrowth standing behind him merely rolled its eyes.

“These people… are willing to wait that long for a phone?” Seifer’s jaw dropped.

“Welcome to Eterna City,” Cyril deadpanned. “In any case, that’s how I’m sure we’re where we need to be.”

One of the street lights on the opposite sidewalk tilted upward and projected a hologram of Paradox in front of the people in line.

“What is up my guys, gals, and non-binary pals?” Paradox was disturbingly cheerful. “I hope you’re all as excited for the new uPhone launch as I am.” His right tentacles twisted into an arm and he pulled out the phone. “With its improved map and QPS functions, it’ll get you where you need to be, when you need to be there! Enjoy the launch… and don’t forget to show off your new uPhone on Chatter with the hashtag ParadoxRules to be entered to win an autographed uPhone case from yours truly!”

The hologram disappeared to raucous cheers from the people in line. Noctum winced. That enthusiasm sounded so forced it was painful. “I think I’m ready for a change of scenery,” he said. Whatever awaited him in the factory couldn’t be a sorrier sight than this.

“Great.” Cyril pointed to a grate where the street met the sidewalk. “If my intel’s correct, this’ll lead you into the factory’s ventilation system.”

Seifer squinted at the grate. “And if your intel’s wrong?“

“Then Zardy gets to take a nice, refreshing dip in the sewers,” Cyril chirped. Seifer’s snout wrinkled in disgust as he turned to Noctum.

“You don’t have to agree to this.”

Noctum shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”

That earned a frown from Seifer. Noctum stepped toward the grate. Multiple floating taxis sped by. “Hey, uh, how am I supposed to do this without someone seeing me?”

Smirking, Cyril grabbed a canister from his bag with one of his tails. He glanced at Seifer. “Might wanna plug your nose.”

That exasperated Seifer. “With what? I have hooves!”

Cyril twisted the canister open. A huge cloud of black smog spread across the street corner. Noctum’s nostrils burned and his gag reflex nearly kicked in. Fortunately, he’d gone so long without a meal there was nothing he needed to keep down.

The charizard felt the grate under his feet even as car horns blared around him. Like he’d practiced earlier, Noctum concentrated on the strange spark of power coming from his belly.

Within seconds, the smoke disappeared, along with the horns. Warm air buffeted Noctum’s belly. Cold gray steel surrounded him on all sides. Fans whirred in the distance.

Noctum had enough room to spread his wings, though the ventilator air rippled across his membranes like silverware poking flan. Still, Cyril was right. Noctum was thankful to not be taking a dip in a sewer.

He slowly drifted down the ventilator until he spotted a fan a few meters below him. “Psst! Cyril, you there?”

“I read ya, Zardy.”

“There’s a big fan blocking my path. What do I do?” Noctum slowly flapped his wings to keep his altitude.

“Maybe try offering it an autograph?”

Noctum heard a groan through the X-transceiver. Probably Seifer.

“In all seriousness, dismantle it. Can’t have ya getting sliced into ‘zard sashimi.”

Noctum glanced at the fan, weighing his options. Ultimately, he opened his mouth and spewed a flamethrower. Though some of it threatened to blow back into his face, he applied enough force to blast apart the fan. An initial burst of hot air threatened to blow him several meters back up, but he pressed his hands and feet to the sides of the shaft and inertia did the rest.

Sighing in relief, Noctum continued forward. Every fan he crossed paths with met the same fate as the first one. After a while, Noctum reached a fork in his path, with the vent continuing down but also branching to his right. He relayed this new detail to Cyril.

“I’m pretty sure the finished product is at the top floor of the factory,” Cyril explained. “So, I’d go right.”

There was some muttering. Seifer objecting, perhaps? Noctum did have to admit he wished he was going off more than blind faith in someone who’d deceived him multiple times already. As he glided through the shaft, he silently prayed to Bahamut that he’d find what he needed.

“A reminder to all employees that a clean workplace is a happy workplace. Anyone caught littering will be subject to pointing and laughing.”

Noctum hoped the eerily-cheerful female voice meant he was on the right path. Grates began to appear beneath him. All Noctum could see through the first few were gray floors. Hallways, if he had to guess.

The charizard approached another split path and hovered there, trying to listen for any sounds that could point closer to, well, the actual factory part of the facility. Realizing the occasional wing flap was making that harder, Noctum landed. The cold metal stung his feet, but Noctum ignored it and focused.

“Flapple would like to remind all employees that communication is the key to any successful workplace. As such, if you notice your colleagues slacking off, please report them to your supervisor.”

The announcement came from the right path. Noctum took off once again, only to immediately encounter another fan. He paused, biting his lower lip. It was easy to get away with blasting them earlier. But now that he was within the facility, wouldn’t someone hear the fan breaking?

Noctum shook his head. He could just fly away, right?

Please reward my faith, Bahamut. The charizard spewed another burst of fire. The fan broke apart and Noctum continued forward for a bit, stopping when he realized grated slits replaced the entirety of the shaft floor.

Now he had a clear view of everything. A black conveyer belt snaked across the floor beneath him. The walls were adorned with disturbing posters. One had an eevee sandwiched between a smiling umbreon and espeon with the caption “TEAM: Together Eternatus Achieves More.” Another had a lopunny kneeling at a human’s feet and pressing its face to his boots. It read “Leadership is knowing when to kiss up.”

Gulping, Noctum focused on the conveyer belt. There were all sorts of strange mechanical arms and pincers moving in time with it, producing sparks on small black squares. Based on the ad Noctum saw earlier, that was likely the uPhone he needed to swipe.

Some of the arms had people standing next to them looking bored out of their skulls. A corphish was dangerously close to nodding off. Several meters away, a snover pulled a metal handle up and down, eyes glazed over.

Noctum frowned. He couldn’t imagine a job where he stood around in one spot, doing the same thing over and over again. Where was the stimulation in that?

“Zardy, you still with us?”

He nearly jumped at Cyril’s voice. “Yeah,” Noctum whispered. “I found the phones. I think I’m where they put the finishing touches and box them up.” His eyes moved with the conveyer belt and, sure enough, the end of the line saw two mechanical arms lifting uPhones into flattened cardboard for a pair of purple, grookey-like pokémon with two long tails ending in giant hands to fold up.

“Then snag one of the boxes before they get off the conveyer. Once you have it, use your crystal and you should be able to open a rift back home.”

Noctum’s heart fluttered. He’d get to go back to Horizon Gardens? Back to Yuna and Baraz? It was too good to be true!

“Sound the alarms! We’ve got an intruder in the vents!”

So good, in fact, Noctum didn’t realize he’d stepped onto the grates and put himself in full view of the factory until one of the purple grookey yelled and pointed a tail-hand at him.

“Oh crap,” Noctum squeaked. There was no sense hiding now. He smashed through the grate with a swipe of his metallic claws and dropped onto the conveyer belt below him.

“Protect the product!” a human in a lime-green jumpsuit and hard hat shouted from atop a yellow platform. She pulled a lever and the conveyer screeched to a halt while a klaxon blared throughout the factory.

Both purple grookey hopped onto their work stations and let loose a flurry of Swift stars. Noctum met them with gouts of fire, but he heard approaching footsteps. With a flap of his wings, he took off seconds before a spiked, electrified mace would’ve socked him between his wing joints. An Eternatus Trooper raised the mace back up.

“Halt, rebel!” the Trooper shouted. “Flapple is not responsible for any concussions or broken bones sustained as a result of your poor afterlife decisions!” It whipped both its spring-loaded arms back and shot them forward. At the same time, more Swift stars spread out behind Noctum.

Focusing on the Malice Crystal, Noctum warped several meters backward. The Trooper’s fists struck air. “Hey!” Its maces dropped to the ground. “Dodging is not permitted!”

Noctum opened his mouth and spewed a large smokescreen. The purple grookey descended into coughing fits. Noctum dove down and grabbed the boxed uPhone they were in the process of completing when he’d been spotted.

“No, stop him!”

It was the forewoman, who now had a strange cannister trained on Noctum. A large rock shout out of it. Noctum had enough distance to easily strafe to his right, but there were now two Eternatus Troopers with their maces raised. Yelping, Noctum Phantom Warped up, but slammed his head against the sealing. He was fortunate enough to keep his grip on the uPhone, but another blow would cost him it, for sure!

“Zardy, what’s going on? I’m hearing alarms through the X-transceiver!”

“I got spotted, but I got the phone!” Noctum said, coughing out another smokescreen that faded under a bevy of Swift stars. He flew for the broken vent, but the forewoman shot another rock from her bizarre rock launcher. It reminded Noctum of a concentrated Rock Blast. Why did she even have something like that?

The charizard rolled out of the way, managing to dodge a mace swing as well.

“Then make a rift and get out of there! Job’s done!”

“How?!” Noctum approached the back corner of the factory. He’d have to turn around at this rate.

“Focus on your Malice and think about prying it apart like bursting through a locked door!”

He didn’t have time to criticize Cyril’s analogy. Noctum clenched what was left of his stomach muscles. The crystal, already glowing from his Phantom Warps, responded in kind. Purple shards formed on the wall Noctum flew toward. They opened up a jagged rift in the wall. Squeezing his eyes shut, Noctum dove into the rift seconds before a rock would’ve struck him. He could tell because its broken remnants pepper his backside as he tumbled through the distortion, curling around the boxed uPhone and trying not to look at the multiple red and purple eyes.

After a few seconds, Noctum landed on a bed of tulips and rolled to a stop against the outer rim of a flower garden. Groaning, he clutched his head.

“Did I… do it?”

The charizard sat up. Although he didn’t recognize the tulip bed, he absolutely recognized the cozy brick buildings a few hundred meters in the distance.

He was back! Cyril had told the truth! Oh, thank God! Noctum wanted to cry, but there were more important matters to attend to. Namely, finding Yuna.

Fortunately, as he stumbled to his feet, Noctum was offered an obvious clue: several tables and booths sitting under a huge white tent, with a sign reading “Horizon Academy Club Fair.”

Smiling and tucking the uPhone under his arm, Noctum took to the air and flew toward the tent. He got about halfway when he spotted a familiar toxtricity sitting on a rock absentmindedly strumming her gills. Noctum glided down and gently landed on the grass about a meter away. “Nikki!” He jogged the rest of the distance, waving at her.

Nikki pivoted atop the rock. “Look who’s alive and kicking. I bet Princess will be—” She stopped herself. Her gaze fell toward Noctum’s stomach. She rolled off the rock and held her hands up. “Yeah, I’m-a need you to stay where you are, dude.”

Noctum stopped on the other side of the rock. “Ah, right.” He looked at the Malice Crystal. “I can explain.”

“Save it.” Nikki took another step back. “I’m going to go… find Princess. Or Twiggy.”

She turned and ran off, leaving Noctum standing in the field, clutching the uPhone box while his tail flame shrank.

As best Yuna could describe, the school day was a complete fog. She didn’t remember waking up or Baraz escorting her to class. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Shimmer and Vegna were absent from the law class. Instead, there were instructions on the board about reading book chapters and answering questions based on them.

Likewise, Cid wasn’t teaching his history class. Instead, there was a klefki whose name Yuna missed. She could hardly pay attention to him. The dreepy couldn’t shake the sense that her classmates were staring at her. Reshiram insisted it was in her head, but that did her little good.

It was bad enough that she opted to skip lunch. Baraz offered to bring some food to her, which she accepted. Midmeal, however, Vortex broadcasted an announcement about the school’s club fair. It would take place in the afternoon on the greens overlooking Horizon Gardens.

And so, at Baraz’s insistence, Yuna found herself hovering toward the large white tent set up atop a hill to the west of the small town and its train station. Baraz waddled beside her, a newspaper clutched in his tiny hands.

“You’ve been carrying newspapers around all day,” Yuna said. “What’s the deal?”

“I, uh, couldn’t help wanting to see what they wrote about yesterday.” Baraz scratched his midsection with his free hand, generating a few sparks.

Yuna’s gills shriveled. “Ugh. What did they say? Are they laying into me and Kain?”

“No.” Baraz frowned. “In fact, aside from the Radiant Beacon, they’re not covering it at all.” He unfolded the newspaper in his right hand. Its cover had a picture of Starlene holding up a poster of herself and smiling for the camera. “They’re all focused on this new song Starlene released yesterday: ‘Hope Conquers All.'”

That gave Yuna mixed feelings. She was relieved to not come under fire. However, a part of her understood how callous it was to brush the event aside. Shouldn’t Radiance’s journalists be concerned about Xeromus? Or even Vegna? The former seemed especially dangerous to her.

“But if you went to talk about what you experienced, would they even listen to you?” Reshiram wondered.

I don’t know. These are faceless strangers. Yuna’s arms sagged as she floated on ahead.

“Ah, don’t let it get to you, Princess.” Baraz’s large feet thumped against the grass as he awkwardly ran after her. “I’m sorry for bringing it up. You shouldn’t let it detract from this club fair.” He offered her a shaky smile. “Maybe you’ll find something here that strikes your fancy? A way to unwind… or even make some friends!” His tail wiggled.

“Maybe,” she whispered. Yuna couldn’t shake her guilt. Vortex was trying to distract her classmates. She wanted to call it out for what it was, but who would listen to her? Her teammates, perhaps. But they seemed like outcasts at the school, too.

So, Yuna would play along. Perhaps she’d glance at the club tables briefly, determine nothing there suited her, and take her leave. Yes, that sounded like a solid plan.

She floated toward the south side of the tent. White folding tables stood in neat, evenly spaced columns. Some displayed signs. Others had posters on them. And a few had colorful tablecloths holding bowls filled with wrapped candy.

Where to start?

“What sorts of hobbies dost thou have?” Rayquaza asked.

Yuna started down the column of tables on her right. Uh, reading, I guess? And painting my friends’ claws. And, uh…

She stopped next to a table for the chess club. The luxray seated behind the table slid the sign-up clipboard away from Yuna.

… okay, wow. I’m more boring than I thought.

“Nonsense! That’s quitter talk,” Rayquaza harrumphed. “Reading is a gateway into worlds beyond. Mayhaps there is a book club hiding amongst this labyrinth.”

“Something wrong, Princess?” Baraz asked, stepping to her side. “If you’d rather I wait outside the tent, I can do that.”

Yuna was prepared to answer when brown swathes caught her attention. She glanced at the far end of the tent. A table that had, of all things, circular pieces of wood stacked up in neat little pillars. Curiosity piqued, Yuna began floating toward it when something cold and metallic brushed her left horn.

“Gah!”

She pivoted left and found Chiaki standing there. He’d gone back to his black button-down shirt and pokébase cap.

“Got a second?” he whispered.

“Uh…” Yuna glanced at the table again. “I was kind of hoping to check out that club over there.”

Chiaki’s brow furrowed. “Wasn’t a request. That charizard servant of yours is back, but there’s a bit of a problem.”

Yuna’s ectoplasm quivered. “What happened? Where is he? I need to see him!”

Chiaki turned around. “Then you’ll have to follow me.”

Even as Noctum explained everything to Yuna, she couldn’t take her eyes off the crystal in his stomach. It seemed to suck in the light around it. The normally warm oranges and yellows from Noctum tail flame were now hues of violet and lavender that sent a chill down Yuna’s tail. How was he standing there talking like everything was okay?

And that wasn’t even getting into what he had described. Sure, Aquardah had made her aware there were people living in Eternatus. But a linked civilization ruled by some tyrannical alien and his legion of weaponized unown? Humans and aliens mingling with pokémon? Some underground rebel group whose leader was a species that didn’t exist as far as Etherium was concerned? And his assistant was Chiaki’s mechanic… who was really a dead spirit walking amongst the living?

Yuna wasn’t sure if she had the Soul Dew to thank for not passing out from information overload.

“I suppose you and Noctum are more alike than you thought,” Reshiram said. “And now you both have powerful trinkets bonded with you.”

“Yes, but his represents the power we art trying to thwart,” Rayquaza reminded him. “In that sense, they are opposite sides of the same proverbial coin.”

Is that supposed to make me feel better?

Yuna saw winces from both dragons in her mind’s eye. She focused on the hardwood floor. Each plank looked as if it’d been laid with care and glazed by hand.

“I’m not sure why you roped me into this.” Leaning against a wall of tan wooden slits, Nikki yawned into her hand. “Or why we’re in some cheap wooden box.”

Beside her, Chiaki rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who found Noctum. And I already told you, this is my bodyguard’s apartment. She installed all the wood furnishings herself.”

“Uh-huh.” Nikki leaned to her left and squinted. “Your bodyguard lives in a shack instead of in the servant’s quarters. Which would, y’know, put her closer to you.” She shrugged her shoulders and jammed her hands in her jacket pockets. “Really feeling that team love and camaraderie, Twiggy.”

Yuna rubbed her temples. “Guys, can we save this for another time?”

Nikki shrugged and Chiaki scowled. Both looked away from one another, silently approving Yuna’s request.

“What happens now?” Yuna asked. She wanted to go up and hug Noctum, but the crystal in his stomach worried her. What if it reacted to the Soul Dew?

No, she had to push that thought aside for now. Business first, right? Yuna looked at the box Noctum gingerly held. “Those rebels want you to deliver that to them, right?” Her gills drooped. “Does that mean you have to go back to that, um, asteroid belt?”

Noctum tilted his head. “I’m not actually sure. But I assume that’s the case.”

“… oh.” Yuna looked down. She had an urge to ask to go with him, but couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“Oh, wait!” Noctum rubbed his forehead. “Cyril gave me this X-transthingy to keep in touch with him. Maybe it works out here?”

Baraz wagged his stubby tail. “Wow, that sounds amazing!”

The charizard pinched his right horn. “Hey, Cyril, can you hear me?”

Yuna looked at her teammates, who shrugged in unison. “I mean, you guys know more about this stuff than me,” she said. “With those gemcom things.”

“I’ve got reception!” Noctum cheered. Nikki jumped in surprise, mane frazzling.

“Cripes! Didn’t anyone ever teach you about using your inside voice?” she growled.

Noctum grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. It caught me by surprise, that’s all.” He tapped his horn. “This thing’s incredible.” He paused. “Maybe not worth all the craziness in the big techno city, but still cool.”

“… tch. I could’ve told you it’d work,” Chiaki grunted, arms crossed and head tucked against his chest. “What’s the deal, then? Cyril going to send you back to this Eterna City place or what?”

Noctum repeated the question out loud while squeezing his horn. He closed his eyes in thought while everyone else looked at him expectantly.

“The city’s on high alert?” Noctum winced. “Yeah, I guess that’s my fault. B-But you’re the one who told me to—” He suddenly went silent and stared at the box.

Nikki smirked. “Heh, how does it feel knowing your servant’s a wanted ‘mon, Princess?”

“Pot calling the kettle black much?” Chiaki scoffed. “I bet your disciplinary file is longer than a six-car train.”

Nikki blew a raspberry at Chiaki.

“Real mature,” the grovyle sneered.

“Bite me.”

“I would, but you’d probably like it.”

Yuna ignored them and turned back to Noctum, who repeatedly nodded and whispered, “Uh-huh.”

“Well?” She tilted her head.

“He’s not sure how to complete the handoff,” Noctum said, rubbing the back of his head.

Chiaki pushed himself off the wall and approached the charizard. “Would he be willing to try and meet you in Venish?”

Yuna quirked a brow. Wasn’t that the city that had come up in Benedict’s trial? Why there of all places?

Noctum looked ready to ask the same thing when Chiaki held up his good hand. “I’ve got business to attend to there tomorrow night.” When he was met with skeptic looks, he added, “Family business. And I might need Fen— sorry, Cyril’s help.”

“Family business… while your so-called bodyguard is chilling inside Eternatus?” Nikki squinted. “Yeah, that totally makes sense. Except for the part where it doesn’t.”

“Obviously he’d bring Valkyrie with him.” Chiaki flicked his prosthetic arm dismissively. “Look, just ask him if that can be arranged.”

Noctum had his hand on his right horn. “Did you get all of that, Cyril?”

Silence, then Noctum nodded slowly. “Okay. Yeah.” He nodded again. “Sure, I’ll tell him.” Noctum took his hand off his horn. “Cyril said he’ll try and make it work. Apparently Venish is linked to some sort of processing plant called Outpost R3X. The rebel leader has a bunch of friends who work there, converting tar into building materials.”

A smirk tugged at Chiaki’s lips. “See? It works out for everyone.”

“What about us?” Nikki gestured to Yuna, then thumped her chest. “We supposed to twiddle our thumbs while you two go stuff your faces with Venishian food?”

Chiaki rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you want to go where I’m going.”

Nikki slouched against an oaken cabinet. “Ever the buzzkill, huh, Twiggy?”

Yuna looked to her right, where a window had been boarded up. Was there still time to get back to the club fair? Maybe she could leave with Noctum and Baraz while her teammates bickered?

A knock at the door drew a surprised squeak from Yuna. Chiaki whirled around. “The hell?” He crouched low. “Who’s out there!”

More knocks, followed by a, “Look, just open the door.”

Nikki’s brows raised. “Hey, I recognize that voice.” She stepped away from the cabinet and raised her right arm. “Take a chill pill, Twiggy, this guy’s cool.” The toxtricity walked up to the door and swung it open with more force than was necessary.

Yuna gasped. A milotic was coiled up in the hall, but his scales lacked the usual sparkle and luster she’d come to expect from them. In fact, he was downright shabby, with patches of graying scales and dirt caked on his ribbons and tailfins.

“I guess that might explain why Nikki knows him,” Reshiram mumbled. “He must be from a shaky financial situation, like her.”

Maybe? That’s still a bit… harsh to say, Yuna countered.

“You were thinking it, too, though.”

Yuna didn’t respond. Instead, she addressed Milotic. “Can we, um, help you with something?”

“Actually, I think I can help you.” Milotic pointed his ribbons at Nikki and Yuna. “You guys need a reason to go to Venish, right?”

Chiaki stomped up to Nikki’s side. “You were eavesdropping?”

Milotic pursed his lips. “I mean… yeah? I just admitted it.”

Chiaki narrowed his eyes. “And we should trust you because…”

“Because I caught Vortex and his gardevoir assistant skulking around the servant’s quarters,” Milotic declared. “They’re moving the Crowne Cup’s first leg to Venish and intend to rig things to get your team kicked out.”

CDL-201A: Eternatus Brawler
The Eternatus Trooper model specializing in close-ranged combat. Like all standard models, its UFO-like hull houses the unown controlling the mech suit. Its three legs have gyroscopic sensors to allow the Brawlers to maintain their sense of balance all while relentlessly pursuing their targets. Their armor plating is supposed to be tougher than their Gunner counterparts, but Boss Kitty can still rip through them when he’s actually trying.

The real danger is in their spring-loaded arms. Each one ends in a spike-covered mace with Hidden Power augmentation. I don’t know if they can change the typing of their maces or not, but they always seem to have the right energy to deal with whatever threats the archbishop wants incapacitated.

Like other Troopers, aim for their glass domes and try to knock out the unown. Otherwise, the hull will eject itself and try and press forward with its mission.