Chapter 41: Fallout: New Venish

It took every ounce of Yiazmat’s willpower not to crush the gemwhatever in her right hand. Every breath she took grew heavier. Her horns were heating up, bathing her onyx throne in red-orange light.

She had to stay calm and composed. For her husband. And for Yunavresca. The dragpult looked into the weird communicator’s central gemstone. “Dimitry, did you get all of that?”

Yiazmat focused on the gem. She had to ignore the red creeping into her vision. Deep breaths. She couldn’t slip into anger in front of Calcifer.

“I did, ma’am. I’m on my way to fetch Baraz as we speak.”

“Good.” She pivoted to her left, glaring at the light torch sitting over an archway. “Proceed to Scale City using the waypoint the Ryujin have in Horizon Gardens. I’ll meet you there.”

“What?” Calcifer gasped. “Dear, you can’t be serious. If Radiance is in a crisis and someone catches you in their territory, they’ll declare war for sure!”

Yiazmat whirled on the duraludon. “I’m aware of the risks. But this is our daughter we’re talking about.” Her tail lashed at the air. Flames bristled in her horns. “I am not going to sit by any longer.” She held the communicator up to her face. “Sakaki, I understand if you can’t join us. Your son—”

“Is, for all intents and purposes, in the custody of the Ministry of Justice.” The voice on the other end was deeper than Dimitry’s. If Sakaki was as upset about his son as Yiazmat was about her daughter, he was doing a better job hiding it. “He’s being airlifted to another hospital due to Venish’s current situation. If I try to go to Vellguarde before Healing Wish Hospital has even contacted me, I’ll show my hand. Chiaki is on his own.”

“I see.” Yiazmat shut her eyes. “My condolences.”

A loud sigh followed. “He brought this upon himself. I’ll see you in Scale City.” Then there was a click.

“Captain, are you still there?” Yiazmat asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Make sure no one follows you to the waypoint,” Yiazmat ordered. “I’ll be taking the underground tunnels, so it will quite some time before I get there. Gather what additional intel you can.”

“Understood. Godspeed, Your Highness.”

Another click sounded. The metal device’s central gem dimmed. Yiazmat turned away from Calcifer, toward the same archway as before. She floated forward, past onyx statues of Bahamut.

Heavy footsteps thudded behind her. “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?” Calcifer said.

“No.” Yiazmat approached a door with the eight-pointed star of Aeon carved into it. Two kommo-o with the eight-pointed Aeon star painted on their chests stood at attention. “Open my armory.”

The kommo-o on her right thumped his chest with a fist, then grabbed a key ring and unlocked the door. It swung into pitch black.

“Then at least let me come with you!” Calcifer caught up to Yiazmat’s side.

“Out of the question.” Yiazmat took the torch hanging over the doorway and floated inside. The room had various sets of plated armor, designed to fit a dragapult’s torso and bulky head. Most of them, however, had the eight-pointed star on their chest plates. They’d be too obvious.

At the back of the room, Yiazmat found what she was looking for: sleek, black plating. Lighter than the other armor, with no insignias to speak of. She set the torch in a slot on the back wall and set the chest plating on.

“Dear, I know you’re worried, but—”

Yiazmat fastened the armor into place. “Someone has to look after the rest of the kids.” She glanced briefly at the duraludon silhouette opposite her, then returned her attention to the black helmet on the floor. “I gave her leeway to stay at that school because she convinced me she could handle it.”

The dragapult adjusted the helmet’s chin strap. “But neither of us could have imagined such a… traumatic series of events.” She floated back into the air. “As her mother, I won’t leave her to fend for herself any longer.”

Calcifer poked his metal arms together. “I… suppose.” He shuffled back to let Yiazmat float past him. “I just wish there was some way I could help you.”

“Oh, sweetie, you are helping.” Yiazmat turned and tapped her claws against Calcifer’s slender, metal neck. “By staying with the others, you’re giving me peace of mind.”

“Does that mean Mom’s leaving?”

Yiazmat’s tail crinkled. Wincing, she turned to find eight dreepy of varying sizes floating in the middle of the throne room. She bit her lip. So, all four sets of twins had snuck down here, huh? She’d have stern words with the guards before departing for Saint Zygardesburg.

“I’m sorry, little ones.” Yiazmat bowed her head sadly. “Your big sister is… in trouble. So Mom’s going to help her out.” She gestured to Calcifer. “But Dad will be here with you the whole time.”

One of the smallest dreepy floated forward, clutching a tiny stuffed salandit. His beady eyes glistened. “Mama go bye short or long time?”

Yiazmat leaned over and tussled the dreepy’s little gills. “Mama will make it as short as she can.”

He seemed satisfied with that. “Mama hug Spicy bye?” The dreepy held up the salandit doll.

A smile slowly crept over the dragapult. “Mama will hug everyone goodbye.” She gestured to the other seven dreepy, who all shot forward. Yiazmat wrapped them all up in her long, wispy tail. “Ohhh, I’ll miss you all so much, little ones. Behave for your father, okay?”

“Okay!” they chirped in unison. Yiazmat’s smile broadened, but the warmth in her chest faded fast.

She had a bad feeling that it would quite some time before she’d get to see them all again.

Shimmer’s legs burned. His heart pounded in his chest— hell, in his head, too. Every gallop brought fresh, aching pain to his hooves. The ponyta wouldn’t consider himself out of shape by any stretch, but running was not his strong suit.

Yet, as he galloped down what was supposed to be a smoothed, paved road, he found himself wishing this was nothing more than a nightmare.

Another purple light rippled past him and the other students attempting to flee the city. “Look out, Shimmy!” Xander cried.

The ground gave way under Shimmer’s hooves. He barely had enough time to dive to his right before a part of the street split open. A water geyser erupted from the fissure, drenching several frustrated classmates. Robin held his shield over his head and offered his leek to Shimmer. The ponyta gently bit it and the sirfetch’d hoisted him up so they could press on.

Red swirled in Shimmer’s vision. Even as Radiant Guards wearing lights and sirens cleared other panicked civilians aside to make room for them, Shimmer still couldn’t believe this was happening. Flyers should have been on standby to evacuate them from the city immediately. But they had all decided to book it the moment these… obscene rifts popped up around Venish.

As soon as Shimmer was safe, he’d be sure to report the entire flyer’s guild chapter to his mothers. He’d ensure their charter was voided and the lot of them were out of work.

… No, he couldn’t think about that yet. He had to make it to the train station first.

“How… much farther?” Shimmer wheezed. He managed to hop over vines made of pizza dough and pepperonis that spilled out from the remains of what Shimmer assumed was once a pizza shop.

“Not much!” Minister Vincenzo hovered ahead of the students, propelling himself with his windmill-like tail and hydropack. “The station is just past Piazza Lavanda up ahead!”

The ground trembled. Another purple ripple ran past anyone.

“Nonono… help! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllp!“

“BIMMY!”

Slightly ahead of the group, a purple rift split the air open over the canal. A white, glassy tentacle had wrapped up a screaming whimsicott and was dragging him into the rift. A second whimsicott, with a cottonnee in each arm, was running for the canal.

“Get back!” a sharpedo guardsmon in a violet hydropack barked. “I’ll handle thi—”

“No! Your job’s to protect the students!” Vincenzo hissed. “Press on!”

Sharpedo’s eyes widened, as did Shimmer’s. The tentacle disappeared into the rift, which closed behind it.

“No, not my Bimmy! Why?!” Whimsicott dropped to her knees while Shimmer and the others ran past her.

“Tell me I didn’t just see that!” Xander squeaked.

“You did.” Robin bowed his head.

“But that was, like, a freaking kraken!” Xander’s ribbons curled up. “From movies and cartoons!”

“Or maybe it was a really big tentacruel,” Robin muttered. “Either way, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

The canal broke off to the left and the street gave way to a giant, lavender square…

Shimmer’s ears folded. The shouts and screams were louder than before. There was smashing glass. Loud bangs. Cries begging people to stop.

“What’s going on here?” Vincenzo hovered higher in the air. “It’s utter bedlam!”

Ahead, flashes of light and plumes of smoke came from wreckages of what must have been the plaza’s market.

“Smash and grab, bros!”

Atop a gyarados statue in the middle of the plaza’s central fountain, a grapploct stood brandishing a bullhorn in one tentacle and a handful of small seeds in another. He turned and hurled the seeds at one of the market tents still standing. The granbull desperately trying to defend it saw the seeds and fled before explosions burnt away the tent.

“This is our broment! Grab what you can and make with the bromoosing!” Grapploct shouted. His accent was so thick, it was hard to parse what he was saying. “The Medicis will grab this dying city by its horns!”

Uproarious cheers followed, with various pokémon filling burlap sacks with all sorts of goods that had spilled out from the destroyed market stands.

“Everyone keep moving and keep your heads down,” Vincenzo ordered.

Shimmer frowned. What about all the chaos in the plaza? There were criminals running around like overflowing sewage. He couldn’t even tell who was with Grapploct and who was an ordinary citizen capitalizing on the opportunity.

“But sir… what about the market?” Robin rested his leek on his shoulder. “These people… their livelihoods are getting torched before their eyes.”

Vincenzo whirled on Team Excel. Shimmer flinched at the frenzied look in the barraskewda’s eyes. “Our lives are more important. Keep your heads down and move!“

The minister had a point. Of course Shimmer didn’t want to die. He was the crown prince. His life was worth more than a hundred commoners’!

… Wasn’t it?

Just when it seemed like the end of the plaza was in sight, however, gale force winds threatened to sweep a whinnying Shimmer off his feet. The ponyta ducked behind Robin and his shield, then his horn lit up and he caught a screaming Xander with his telekinesis before the sylveon could tumble away.

A loud neigh then echoed across the plaza. At first, Shimmer’s heart skipped a beat. Had one of his mothers shown up?

Then he realized that couldn’t be the case. The neigh was… intimidating. Cold. An uneasy chill ran down his spine. “Vincenzo, what’s going on?” he cried, only to scream and jump back in fright.

A frozen solid Vincenzo lay couple of meters in front of them, alongside three grimmsnarl Radiant Guard. And pacing in front of them was… an unfamiliar rapidash?

Shimmer blinked a few times. “Is that white rapidash… made of ice?”

“That can’t be a rapidash. It’s too big.” Xander shivered. “And cold. Look at those hooves. They’re frozen! And so is half of its face!”

“Forget that. Look at what’s on that thing.” Robin held his leek at his side. His arm trembled slightly. That was bad. Robin always kept his cool.

Shimmer followed the sirfetch’d’s gaze to a gray suit of armor. Two legs, two arms, a broad chest, a round helmet, and two red eyes staring him down. “W-We have to go,” he squeaked. “Have to get the minister and the others to saf—”

The armored stranger yanked on the ice rapidash’s reigns. She reared up on her hind legs, neighing loudly.

“Scatter!”

It was their luxray classmate. Shimmer looked up to see massive Icicle Crash spears forming overhead. The ponyta scrambled backward, tripping over his own hooves and skidding across the cobblestone ground. The icicles shattered on the ground behind him. When Shimmer looked up, he realized the Medicis had taken notice of the newcomer. The grapploct with the megaphone was bringing up the rear as a small crowd fled out the south end of the plaza.

“Shimmy, get up! We have to go!” Xander cried, before his ribbons wrapped around Shimmer and stood him up. “Creepy Armor Guy’s capturing people in little ball—”

Red light surrounded Xander. Horror overtook his face. He reached a foreleg out to Shimmer before dissolving away in a red stream. His soft ribbons faded from Shimmer’s flanks.

“Xander?” Shimmer blinked, following the stream toward the armored knight, who held several purple spheres in his hand.

The realization finally set in. Tears blurred the corners of Shimmer’s eyes and he charged forward with reckless abandon. “Xander, no!” His horn lit up. “Give him back! Give him back!“

He fired a Psybeam ahead of him. The knight produced a glistening sword and slashed the Psybeam. Shimmer failed to realize his attack had rebounded on him until it struck his horn and a psychic shock made his pink mane and tail puff up.

“Get back, my prince!”

Robin lunged ahead of Shimmer, swiping at an incoming purple ball with his leek. However, that merely caused the ball to split open and swallow Robin up in red light. Shimmer’s eyes widened further.

“No… no! This can’t be happening!” Shimmer shot a Psybeam at the ball to try and break it, but it was effortlessly dispelled by an icicle from the knight’s steed.

The ponyta looked around for help. Classmates. Radiant Guard. Somebody.

… But he was the only one left, save for bystanders fleeing the plaza in terror. “H-Hey! Someone help me!” His voice reeked of desperation. It was so unbecoming of a prince. “Your prince needs you!”

The air around Shimmer chilled. He skittered away, whinnying in fright. The ponyta’s ears twitched. Something whizzed through the air behind him. Shimmer spun and caught one of the small orbs that captured his friends with his telekinesis and broke it in half.

“Give me back my boyfriend!” Shimmer huffed, horn sparking. “You… don’t know who you’re dealing with!”

But his legs were trembling. This wasn’t some sort of training exercise. This was a real enemy who really wanted to hurt him.

“Pathetic.”

The knight’s voice was distorted. Was the armor doing that… or something else? Regardless, he lifted his sword high.

“All pokémon exist for the glory of Te—”

He stopped suddenly. His round, gray helmet trembled slightly. Then a circle surrounded by five diamonds appeared on the knight’s chest plate.

“All pokémon exist for the glory… of Eternatus.”

Shimmer’s ears folded back. He had to flee.

But Xander…

No! Boyfriend or not, Shimmer was the crown prince. He had to escape. He had to survive.

The pontya backpedaled, but the knight’s white steed reared up, neighing. Icy spears jutted out of the ground, as if the steed was using some sort of ice-infused Stone Edge. Shimmer wasn’t fast enough to outrun the ice. A spear struck him between the hind legs and knocked him airborne. He had never experienced such awful pain before.

Shimmer hit the ground hard, tumbling across disrupted cobblestone. Tears glistened in his eyes.

How could this have been happening? Where was the rest of the Radiant Guard? Or his mothers? He couldn’t die here! He just couldn’t!

“Krrraggh!”

Another whiney reached Shimmer’s ears, but this one was far more distressed. Shimmer blew frost and hair out of his eyes to see the knight and steed skidding away from him, with a familiar corviknight and talonflame fluttering in place where the knight had previously stood.

“My eyes ain’t playing tricks on me, right, V? That’s an honest-to-hell glastrier standing there?” Griffon shook his head in disbelief. “Thought they were gone for good!”

Shimmer looked up. His heart fluttered upon seeing Vegna descending toward his bird allies. It wasn’t a full cavalry, but Shimmer would take it!

The knight raised his sword. Glastrier responded with Icicle Spears that dangled over Vegna and the birds. Vegna pointed a hand up and Talonflame destroyed some of them with a Flamethrower. Griffon flew toward the knight, while Vegna drifted toward Talonflame with a Protect shield at the ready, saving them both from falling icicles.

“Even the lousiest present can hold a surprise,” Vegna said, holding up his right hand. While the knight kept Griffon at bay with slashes from his sword, Will-O-Wisp embers formed behind him. The knight swung his sword around and caught one, while the remaining two contacted Glastrier’s flanks before she could try and stomp on Griffon with her hooves.

Shimmer’s eyes widened. The Will-O-Wisp the knight had slashed was right behind the dusknoir. “Behind you, Vegna!” he cried.

Talonflame swooped up and harmlessly absorbed the shadowfire. Vegna’s red eye coldly glared at Shimmer.

“This is no place for a clown prince,” he scoffed. “Flee with your tail between your legs like the others.”

Shimmer flinched. He knew he was out of his league, but Vegna’s insult stung even harder this time. “I can’t!” Tears glistened in his eyes again. “Xander. He has Xander. And Robin.”

“And the rest of the Bratty Bunch!” Griffon sneered, slicing through Icicle Crash spears with his glowing wings. “We already saw it, Dimmer!”

“Then why didn’t you stop him?!” Shimmer hissed, vision blurring.

He was ugly crying. In front of Vegna and his stooges. If he wasn’t so worked up, this would’ve humiliated Shimmer.

But he had to get Xander back. He couldn’t lose the sylveon. Even if the ponyta was sure a gaggle of guys would line up to court him, none of them would get him like Xander. They wouldn’t understand that pressure to be poised. Be elegant. Be perfect.

All things that failed Shimmer in this moment.

Two streams of purple light caught the ponyta’s attention. He saw a flash of brown, then dropped to his belly. Pointed stones whizzed over his already-frazzled hair. Shimmer glanced left to see a gray, metallic rhydon revving up the drill on its nose.

Squealing, Shimmer shot a desperate Psybeam, only for sudden pain to strike his rear. Shimmer somehow managed to roll to his right and avoid Rhydon charging him down for a Horn Drill. The ponyta caught a glimpse of a metallic nidoking stomping toward him, poison gathered in its gray hands.

That wasn’t Radiant Guard armor. It was more like the mysterious knight Vegna was fighting. Were these flunkies?

Shimmer didn’t have time to think any further, because Nidoking hurled the poison in its hands forward. Try as Shimmer might, the Reflect he conjured wasn’t strong enough to dispel every bit of Poison Jab. Purple ooze splattered onto his nose, filling his breath with noxious fumes. Shimmer thought he might lose his dinner, but instead his breathing grew ragged and purple splotches appeared in the corners of his vision.

The ponyta tried blinking them away. No good. This… was poisoning. He learned about it in class, but hadn’t paid much attention. After all, he had Pastel Veil! This was impossible! So how was it happening to him? Nidoking and rhydon didn’t have any ability-suppressing moves.

Shimmer tried standing up again, but the ground trembled beneath his hooves. He collapsed on his belly. Sharp, stabbing pain followed a forceful inhale. Every breath was getting harder. He had to heal himself. He had to flee, like Vegna said.

Rhydon revved up its horn again. Shimmer didn’t know what to do. Nidoking could knock him down with Earthquake. And even if he dodged, the poison would do him in soon enough.

He needed Robin and Xander. Why did this have to happen to him? Why couldn’t it have happened to that stupid dreepy? Where even was she? She vanished and then all of this happened. It couldn’t have been a coincidence!

Though he braced himself for the incoming Horn Drill, nothing happened. Only a loud clang. Shimmer poked an eye open and saw Rhydon and Nidoking in a tangled heap. Griffon flew in place in front of them, though he was shakier than before.

“Yo, V! I hate to be that guy, but I think it’s time to bring out the big guns, don’t you?” Griffon cawed. He flapped his wings once, hovering out of the way of Stone Edge slabs jutting out from the ground. “Aww, c’mon, can’t a guy yell at his boss in peace?” he huffed, slamming into the nearest slab with his metallic body and knocking it back at Rhydon.

“P… please help,” Shimmer wheezed. “I… they… poison…”

“Bit busy, Di— yowch!” Lightning zapped Griffon’s chest, knocking him to the ground. He dug his talons into the stone to stop his backsliding, then shot metallic feathers forward with flaps of his wings. Nidoking parried them all with electrified fists. Horn spinning, Rhydon charged for Shimmer.

“No! Stop!” the ponyta squealed, meekly covering his face with his forelegs.

“Come on, V!” Vegna cawed.

Shimmer’s pelt stood on end. The air around him was charged and a thunderous boom made his skull rattle. He was still awake, however. Growing wearier every second, but awake. His vision was fuzzy, but blue haze filled the plaza when he opened his eyes. Rhydon and Nidoking had stopped their attacks and stared blankly into the distance. A pained neigh reached Shimmer’s ears, likely from the knight’s horse. He was too tired to look behind him, however. Every breath hurt so much. Poison was truly awful.

Then Rhydon and Nidoking disappeared in streams of purple light. “Yeah, that’s right, you better run, torchic!” Griffon cawed. He strutted around, flapping his wings. “Bawk bawk bawk!” He met Shimmer’s weary gaze and froze. “Ah, shit. Yo, V! Dimmer needs a li’l pick me up!”

There was a loud, annoyed sigh. Shimmer would’ve winced, but he lacked the strength. His vision was getting darker. The poison won out.

Xander… I’m sorry.

The ponyta was about to pass out when a sudden jolt of energy surged through his system. Shimmer’s squeezing chest pain vanished. He found the strength to sit up, though his limbs trembled. Vegna lowered his right hand. Slight gold wisps faded from the edges of his crimson eye.

“A horse misus’d upon the road calls to heaven for human blood,” Vegna said. Silence followed. Shimmer was too petrified to tell the dusknoir he had no idea what that meant. “Are you about done making a fool out of yourself?” He turned away from Shimmer. Talonflame flew onto his right shoulder gauntlet.

“I—” Shimmer looked around. “Wait, where’s the knight?”

“Fled once I sent his steed to the Twilight Realm,” Vegna responded.

That meant that Vegna and his birds had won, right? Shimmer’s legs shook harder. Vegna was intimidating, but he had never truly seen the dusknoir fight. Just what sort of power did he possess that he could emerge triumphant against someone who could effortlessly reflect attacks?

… Wait, had Vegna said the knight fled?

“What?!” The ponyta’s tail shot up in alarm. “But… but he captured my classmates! He got Robin! He got Xander!” Shimmer stumbled toward Venga. “D-Don’t just stand there! Go after him!”

“… I will not.”

“What?!” Tears stung at Shimmer’s eyes once again. “No, I won’t accept that! You’re our professor! It’s your job to protect us! And… he committed a crime! He kidnapped them!”

Vegna turned to him, eye glowing ominously. “Do you think me daft, Clown Prince? I’m well aware of that. But the knight teleported away. A fool runs blindly into the night. A learned man takes stock before setting forth.” He gestured behind him. “Feel free to run off.”

“Or you can just give yourself a pity rubdown in the shower later,” Griffon sneered. “Because let’s face it, you ain’t gonna go after that guy. Not after that lousy performance.” He leaned over, guffawing at the ponyta.

“You… you can’t say that to me!” The tears were getting worse again. “Where’s your empathy? I’m hurt! I lost two people I care deeply about!”

“Pfbt. Yeah, sure.” Griffon rose slightly into the air. “I’ll be sure to put in a call to the whambulance for ya, Dimmer. Ha ha ha!” He flew to Vegna’s side. The dusknoir bonked him on the beak. “Oof! Okay, okay. Message received.” He rubbed his face with a wing.

“I’m not here for empathy, sympathy, or anything of the sort,” Vegna growled. “You faced real danger and wilted like a fragile flower.” The dusknoir began floating away. “If you want your precious boyfriend back so much, steel yourself and act. Otherwise, your words are as empty as Griffon’s head.”

“Hey!” The corviknight narrowed his eyes. “At least I have ideas!”

“Wait!” Shimmer stumbled trying to catch up with him. “T-Take me with you! I need to get home!”

“I refuse.” Vegna didn’t even turn back around. “I still have a job to do… and a suspect to interrogate.”

A suspect? “You know who the knight is?” Shimmer’s voice cracked.

“No. But I caught that stuffy grovyle classmate of yours breaking into Starlene’s trailer during her concert,” Vegna growled. “And this chaos immediately followed, so I will at least question him on his actions.”

The dusknoir grabbed hold of Griffon and flew off before Shimmer could get another word in. Instead, he seethed at the ground.

Chiaki had done something to mess with Starlene, then Venish descended into chaos? It wasn’t some coincidence. There was malicious intent. Shimmer was sure of this.

“Team Bastion did this,” the ponyta hissed, tears falling down his cheeks. “They took my Xander from me!”