Chapter 57: Getting Hot in the Kitchen

Eternatus’ insides looked identical to outer space. Blackness filled with occasional colorful spots denoting other planets it had absorbed. Yuna expected something more… horrifying, given everything Eternatus-related she’d experienced up to this point. The drakloak took the small victory and pulled her head away from the window. She lay down on the cot in the back of the spaceship. Leo, now disguised as a dreepy, snuggled up against her.

“So, we’re looking for a guy who’s part of a company that exists on this planet in name only?” Nikki scooched back on her own cot, leaning against the ship’s wall. “Sounds like a fantastic way to run around like torchic with our heads cut off.”

“And that’s not even accounting for whatever the dimensional anomaly’s done to the place,” Seifer said, anxiously tapping a forehoof on his leather seat. “We could use the ship to cover ground faster, I suppose, but that doesn’t drastically improve the situation.”

“At least we have a photo,” Gene said from the pilot’s seat. The mewtwo flicked his right wrist, levitating up a color photo of a man with very pale skin and thin, silver hair. Even though she’d never seen a human face to face, Yuna found him sickly.

“Personal experiences can cloud one’s gut impressions,” Reshiram piped up. “You were sick for a while. Now you might be more sensitive to such things.”

Gee, thanks, Yuna mentally growled.

“S-Sorry,” Reshiram squeaked.

The X-transceiver speaker crackled. Yuna flinched. Though she hated the thought of more voices rattling around her head, she couldn’t afford not to take an X-transceiver and constantly be in the dark.

“We’ve finished gathering up the data,” Cyril announced.

“Go ahead.” Gene returned his attention to the ship’s dashboard. Yuna spotted a blue and purple fissure in the distance. Their destination, probably.

“Right. So, like Nikki said, the Devon Corporation branch you’re looking for is little more than a shell outfit,” Cyril explained. “Only a PO Box and a single employee.”

“That being this Sigurd Stone fellow?” Seifer asked. He, too, couldn’t take his eyes off the fissure. Yuna wondered how nervous he was.

“Correct,” Cyril replied. “Originally, Devon manufactured electronic devices, but after Eternatus absorbed Earth, the company took a contract with the Matriarch to mass produce type: full units based on schematics from something called the Aether Foundation.”

A squeaking mattress made Yuna’s tail crinkle. She looked up at the cot above hers, expecting Widget to say something. But the cosmic type: full stayed silent.

“One of the last missions I did with Nova involved raiding Devon’s headquarters and remove all traces of type: full data from their servers,” Gene added, a twinge of nostalgia in his voice. “And, well, once Matriarch went offline they couldn’t do business as usual.”

“Right. So, they pivoted to architecture and civil engineering,” Cyril continued. “They still take contracts for the empire. The current president, Stephanie Stone, isn’t shy about her support for Paradox. You should see her Chatter page.”

“I’d rather take your word for it,” Gene scoffed.

They were at the fissure. Purple and blue expanded around the ship, as if some ethereal hand was grabbing hold and pulling it in. Yuna resisted the urge to squirm and disturb Leo. Instinct told her to flee the rift, yet she couldn’t control the ship. She had to go through it. Too much was at stake.

“From what I can tell, Sigurd is Stephanie’s son. Spends his time researching Centroviner Volcano’s geothermal energy,” Cyril said.

“A volcano?” Nikki glanced nervously at her leather jacket. “It’s on Earth, right?”

“No, it’s on Quasar Prime,” Gene responded.

“Greeeeeat.” The toxtricity took her jacket off and threw it onto the nearby pillow. “I bet you’re happy, huh, Princess?”

Yuna had to admit, the prospect of a volcanic landscape offered reminders of home. It was a nice, if strange, comfort. “But what does the volcano matter?” the drakloak wondered.

“Sigurd thinks the volcano houses a slumbering, mutant zygarde,” Cyril said. “He writes about all his findings on his blog, because it sounds like he’s blacklisted from academic journals. Probably his mother’s handiwork, if I had to guess.”

“Heh.” Nikki snickered her hand. “Hear that, Princess? You’re not the only one estranged from a parent. He’ll fit right in with us!”

Yuna got stuck on the mention of a mutant zygarde. She recalled brief parts of the vision where an unknown force pulled out a Needle and called for Saint Zygarde.

After blinking a few times, the drakloak shook her head. “I… I’m not estranged from Mom,” Yuna mumbled, tapping her right hand against her blanket. “I just… need a bit more time before I talk to her again.”

The ship lurched. Yuna bounced into the air with a squeak, nearly bonking the bottom of Widget’s top bunk. “Hey! A little warning next time!” she growled.

“Sorry.” Gene now held the steering wheel tightly. “We’re inside the rift. I think the ship’s having some trouble with the gravity. Maybe you guys should head for the seats and buckle up?” He flipped a switch beside him. Red seatbelt icons came to life near the top of the ship’s walls.

“This is Ginnwhatever?” Nikki hopped out of her bed and plopped down in one of the nearby chairs. Rather than fastening her seatbelt, she simply gripped the arm rests. “Looks like the pictures in those dumb biology textbooks that’d put me to sleep in a wink. At least the neon aesthetic’s pretty cool.”

Clutching Leo in her arms, Yuna floated into the seat opposite Nikki’s, wondering what the toxtricity meant. She saw shimmering, multicolored shards that brought broken glass to mind. In some ways, it resembled the rifts she made, but on a massive scale.

“I don’t get it,” the drakloak admitted, making sure the seatbelt secured both her and Leo. “What’s sciency about this?”

“Crystals and light motes connected together to look like neural networks or DNA,” Widget replied. He hesitantly climbed into the seat opposite Seifer, brow furrowing. “If you look closely, you can see light streaming across the shards. Like neuronal signals charging down axons and leaping across synapses.”

Yuna had no idea what the cosmic type: full was talking about. She instead focused on the small, luminescent islands in the distance. Some were sideways. Others upside down. Crystal coils sprouted from the islands. Otherworldly tree equivalents, perhaps?

Then again, maybe the drakloak was better off not focusing too hard on any of it. Vincent called this place the space-time mystery dungeon, didn’t he? So, of course it hurt her head trying to think about it. Mystery dungeons didn’t make a lick of sense!

A bright blue flash enveloped the ship windows. It shuddered again. Squealing, Yuna tried not to squeeze Leo too tight. “Gene?” she whispered.

“We’re fine!” the mewtwo insisted. “Just a little, uh, transdimensional lightning storm?” He scratched his head. “Sure, yeah, let’s go with that.”

“That doesn’t sound remotely fine!” Reshiram squawked, nearly forcing himself out of Yuna’s Soul Dew to make his protests known to everyone else. She didn’t blame him when Gene sounded like he was grasping at straws.

More blue light streaked by the ship’s windshield. Yuna opted to close her eyes. She imagined one of Drasbraznav’s nearby volcanoes. The drakloak visualized the huge plumes of smoke and sulfur drifting into the sky. Tiny embers floated around her while she hovered through the castle courtyard, bobbing her head at the gummy bushes a couple of vibrava groundskeepers tended to.

“Can you guys hear me?”

Yuna kept her eyes closed, only silently acknowledging Cid’s voice. Guess the X-transeivers could work inside an anomaly. She had no idea just how much Cid’s powers had grown, but at least she had a connection to home through all this madness.

And to think, minutes ago she mentally complained about having the X-transceiver.

“Sheesh! That bright light’s killer!” Nikki cried, before the ship jostled once again.

We’re okay. We’re okay. We’re—

“Wh… what? This can’t be right!”

Widget’s cry was enough to get Yuna to open her eyes. They’d left the strange shattered glass behind, entering a purple and red sky full of ash and fireballs. And it was easy to see why.

“Is that the volcano?” Yuna said, resisting the urge to get out of her seat and fly to the front of the ship. At first she wondered if she was still daydreaming. But a quick pinch of her cheek told her otherwise.

Well, that and the fact that it easily dwarfed the volcanoes back home.

“No.” Gene gripped the steering wheel tight. “This is far bigger than Centroviner.”

“… that sounds bad,” the drakloak squeaked.

“Thou tellest me! The volcanoes I remember doth not hold a candle to this behemoth!” Rayquaza exclaimed. “Tis a blade of sulfur and brimstone piercing the heavens!”

“It might be part of the anomaly. Look at the fireballs.” Seifer leaned forward, frowning.

Lava, fireballs, and sulfur clouds sat frozen in midair, casting distorted shadows down the volcanic mountain.

Yuna blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes to confirm she wasn’t imagining things. Her breath grew shaky. “That’s… not how eruptions work.”

“No duh.” Nikki held her fingers in front of her face in the shape of a rectangle. “Someone hit a literal pause button. Talk about a hell of a view.”

“None of this makes any sense!” Widget curled gold talons around the edge of his seat. “How can a giant volcano just… appear from the ether? And what about the people of Centropolis?”

“Wait, there’s a city here?” Nikki got out of her seat and squished her face up against the nearby window. “Oh, damn, Jigsaw Puppy’s right! Look at all those little dots scurrying down there!”

Yuna didn’t have to press herself to any windows. She glimpsed multicolored dots far below the ship. She had no idea if they represented humans, pokémon, or a mix of the two. All she knew was that they could see the danger clear as day and were trying to flee.

Nikki’s mohawk frazzled. “What idiot builds a city next to a damn volcano?“

Yuna’s torso shriveled. “Uh…”

The toxtricity facepalmed. “Ah. Right. Forget I said anything.”

“No, hang on.” Gene stopped moving the ship forward. He rested his arm against the dashboard. “This isn’t right, either. Centropolis isn’t this close to Centroviner.”

“If the volcano is the anomaly, then that would explain the contradiction,” Cid piped up. “It spawned beside the city, and now it’s in the process of erupting. Perhaps a volcano from another dimension was drawn to Centropolis because of the similarities?”

“Then all the movement we’re seeing must be an evacuation attempt,” Seifer concluded. He gazed out the window. “I don’t know how we’d even begin searching for Mr. Stone in such conditions.”

Widget nearly hopped out of his chair. “Forget about that! If they’re in an anomaly, there’s nowhere for them to evacuate to!” The cosmic type: full looked around nervously. “And who knows how long the lava and fire will remain frozen in midair. We have to do something!”

“Got any bright ideas, then?” Nikki crossed her arms. Widget went silent. “Yeah, didn’t think so. Frozen in time or not, lava’s still lava. It’s not like we can just… push it somewhere else.”

“But he’s a powerful psychic.” Widget pointed a gold talon at Gene. “If anyone could do that, it’s him.”

The mewtwo rolled his eyes. “Much as I appreciate getting gassed up, psychic powers don’t trump time stasis magic.”

“How would you know?!” Widget countered, blue-purple light swirling around his cheek bolts.

“Basic techniques like Trick Room have messed with the speed of my telekinesis,” Gene admitted, nearly slouching over the steering wheel.

“Guys?” Leo said. The fake dreepy squirmed in Yuna’s gasp, but she was too deep in thought herself.

She pressed her hand against the Soul Dew and out popped a small Rayquaza. “What about you?” the drakloak said.

“Me?” Rayquaza’s red eyes blinked. “What dost thou expect me to do?”

“Guuuuuuys?” Leo freed himself and floated into the middle of the group, waving his arms around.

“I don’t know.” Yuna rubbed her right shoulder. “But the legends say your transformed state could create wind so powerful it could shield an entire city from any sort of weather!”

Seifer raised a brow. “So, what, you want him to blow the lava away?”

Yuna flinched. “I suppose that’s one way of putting it.”

Rayquaza frowned. “But Princess, I hath not used mega evolution since I forged my part of Eternatus’ seal.” He clicked his index claws together. “I doth not know if I’m capable of it in this state.”

“Guys!”

“Eep!” Yuna’s torso schlurped into her rectangular head. “Something wrong, Leo?” The fake dreepy was surprisingly loud given his tiny body.

“Yes.” He puffed out his ectoplasmic cheeks. “Everyone’s talking about saving Centropolis, but we’re not in Centropolis!”

That was enough to get Widget out of his seat. “What are you talking about? We know Quasar Prime got swallowed by an anomaly. That’s why we’re here.”

Still frowning, Leo floated onto Yuna’s head and pointed to the window behind her. “Then explain that.”

Everyone in the ship turned in the direction Leo was pointing. Smoke and fire filled the air, with tall buildings lining the ground and tiny dots all trying to move in the same direction. But what really caught Yuna’s attention was a group of pelipper flying several meters away, carrying some sort of electronic sign.

EMERGENCY ALERT: ALL MALIE CITY RESIDENTS EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!

Noctum had never gone into a safe house before. He didn’t exactly understand what made it safe to begin with. By all accounts, the house the waypoint had taken Team Bureau to lacked any strong fortifications. Apparently, that was the point, though? “Safe” meant unassuming. And that unassuming nature allowed it to provide safety to its inhabitants… from the Radiant Guard and Stoutland Yard.

That didn’t detract from the living room’s coziness, though. Pictures of trains and the supposedly-famed Centrado Station sat on soft blue and pink-striped wallpaper. Bookshelves housed pieces covering the history of Radiance’s railway system, along with engineering textbooks, and some unassuming nature photography collections. Model train sets sat on tables and the carpeted floor. The black charizard even flipped a switch on one and the tiny train began chugging along the tiny track.

“Why is this place so train-themed, anyway?” Yiazmat wondered, floating somewhere behind Noctum. He sat on the floor, still watching the model train set in action. The rhythmic rattling of the train on the tracks brought a smile to his face. He had no idea why he found it soothing. It was a lot more… involved than his stamp collection, that was for sure.

“This is the type of place an elderly couple would inhabit,” Valkyrie responded. She stopped pacing near Noctum. He looked up and saw the incredulous expression on the garchomp’s face.

“What? I think this is pretty cool.” Noctum beamed at her.

“… tch. Dork.” Valkyrie rolled her eyes and resumed pacing. “It’s easy for cops to leave an elderly couple alone. And a place full of keepsakes from someone’s glory days as a civil engineer is a good enough cover to stash our waypoint.”

“Casaroja is the birthplace of Radiance’s railway system,” Igneous added. He sat on one side of an old sofa, leaning on its armrest. “Plenty of people who live here work there or have worked there.”

Noctum nodded. That lined up with the goal of making this place as unassuming as possible. “So, how long do we stay here, exactly?”

“Just waiting to hear from our eyes on the ground,” Igneous said, sitting up a bit straighter in his seat. “You trust this Dimitri guy, right?”

Yiazmat looked insulted at the question. “Of course. I’d have sent Baraz with him, but I’m afraid he’d draw a bit too much attention.” She lowered her head glumly. “For obvious reasons, of course.”

“Seems like it was a pretty stupid idea to even bring him to Radiance in the first place.”

Noctum was sorely tempted to stand up and issue a retort to Valkyrie, but Yiazmat responded first. “That’s a fair, if blunt, point. Yuna likes him, though. I wanted her to be as happy as she could, given the circumstances.”

Valkyrie shrugged. “Whatever. Guess it’s all moot anyway thanks to all this shit.”

Noctum sighed in relief at Valkyrie dropping the subject. Maybe she was getting better at reigning in her attitude after all. The black charizard returned his attention to the model train, which had fallen off the track. He gingerly picked it up and placed it back on the track, where it immediately resumed moving. His tail flame grew a bit.

“Oh, that reminds me, Noctum. I had Gene go retrieve something for you.”

Yiazmat floated over and dropped a circular armor plate beside him. Noctum looked at it and quickly realized it would cover his belly. “Ah.” He glanced at the dragapult. “You don’t want people to see this in public.” Noctum pointed a finger at the Malice Crystal in his belly.

“Would you?” Valkyrie piped up. “Scarlett doesn’t even want to go out in the city thanks to her mug getting plastered all over the news. That belly gem of yours may as well be an ‘I’m suspicious’ sign.”

The black charizard sighed. “I know.” He nudged the armor piece with his left hand. “Just sucks I have to deal with it.”

“Welcome to the club,” Igneous said, lazily raising his right arm and waving it around.

Noctum managed to stop himself from countering that the grovlazzle consciously chose his present situation. He returned his attention to the train, which had finished another lap across the tracks.

“Sorry for the delay. The scouts finally reported back to me.”

Sakaki’s voice crackled through Noctum’s X-transceiver. Everyone else in the room perked up in attention.

“What can you tell us?” Yiazmat floated toward the doorway that led out of the living room.

“Things remain peaceful so far,” Sakaki reported. “A crowd is parading around the entrance to Centrado Station. It seems that a grapploct and a conkeldurr in red sweat suits are leading the crowd in chants of some… choice words.”

Valkyrie kicked her leg back against the wall she leaned on. “Medicis? Figured they’d try to twist this into free publicity. Doesn’t concern us.”

“It does,” Igneous growled. His tails smoldered with embers.

Noctum raised his right hand. “In what way?”

“When I crashed Starlene’s backstage area at the Venish concert, there were Medici thugs guarding it.” Igneous grimaced. “Including this nickit and greedent duo guarding her trailer alongside the Mr. Rime I’m pretty sure is Minister Charles, but brainwashed to work for Eternatus.”

The black charizard chewed on that for a moment, then hopped to his feet with an, “Ahh!” He flinched when his tail knocked over a portion of the model train track. “I, uh— Yuna mentioned those two.” Noctum bent down to try and tidy up the mess. “They’re the ones who attacked her that morning at the academy.”

“A rival syndicate went after my daughter?” Yiazmat sounded ready to fly out the door and challenge the Medicis herself. She took a deep breath to steady herself. “Perhaps this protest is the work of Eternatus’ forces, then?”

“… tch. I bet the Medicis would hitch their wagon to Paradox’s to save their sorry asses.” Valkyrie huffed out blue-purple embers. “What do you think?”

Noctum finished putting the broken train track pieces together and stood up. “Um, what about the robo bugs? Are they here, too?”

“They’re not at the protest,” Sakaki said. “In fact, we believe one was sighted going into the train station.”

“So, they’re going to ride a train?” Noctum wondered, scratching his head. That seemed stupid. They could fly, right? Why would they need a train?

“Cyril, you there?” Igneous said, tapping his right foot on the carpet. “Any chance you can get any information on Centrado’s rail schedule?”

“Pfbt. ‘Any chance,’ he says.” Cyril’s chuckling filled Noctum’s ear frills. “Yeah, I looked into it when I spotted the bugs on a camera feed. They’re genesect, by the way. Old fossils the emperor tried bringing to life and outfitting with giant cannons. When they proved no match for Boss Kitty, he scrapped the project.”

“So how the hell did Isola get a hold of them?” Valkyrie growled.

“Beats me,” Cyril replied. “I’m just here to be the schedule lookup guy, apparently.” He laughed again while Valkyrie rolled her eyes and huffed more dragonfire embers. “And it looks as though Centrado station is closed to commuter rail transit today.”

“What?” Igneous tensed up. The grovlazzle’s tails curled. “That’s impossible. Centrado’s the biggest station in the country. It never shutters.”

“I don’t know what to tell ya, kid,” Cyril said. “I only see authorization details for one train: a heavily armored freighter. Other details are redacted.”

Valkyrie pushed herself off the wall. “A freight train? Those don’t usually run through there. Where’s it heading?”

Cyril sighed. “Redacted.”

Noctum frowned. “Freight trains carry supplies?”

Igneous and Valkyrie nodded.

“Maybe they’re bringing stuff to help Venish?” the black charizard said. “We’re, uh, not that far from it. And if they’re worried about something bad happening to the supplies, they’d want to keep it a secret, right?”

“You really expect me to believe Isola would activate a swarm of these genesect thingies for a supply run?” Valkyrie scoffed. “Nah.” She paced in the doorway. “Something stinks to high heaven about this. I want a closer look.”

Yiazmat’s tail crinkled. “I’m still worried about this protest, but that does sound concerning.”

Noctum stretched out his wings. “Then let’s fly over and—”

“Idiot. We can’t fly to a place crawling with guards,” Valkyrie said. “We gotta go on foot.”

Igneous quirked a brow. “And what should we do when we actually get there? There’ll be Radiant Guard on the ground, too.”

A toothy grin spread over the garchomp’s mouth. “We rile up the protesters a bit. And when the Radiant Guard jumps in to quash it, we sneak into the station.”

Yiazmat shook her head. “I’m not looking to cause a scene.”

“Then leave it to me.” Valkyrie thumped her chest with her right arm. “I know how to get under Medici skin.”

“No, I mean in general.” The dragapult crossed her arms. “There has to be a way to get there that doesn’t involve whipping a peaceful protest into a frenzy.”

“We still don’t know how legit this protest actually is, though,” Igneous said, frowning. “If the empire’s got a plan, maybe Val crashing the party will unknowingly disrupt it?”

“It’s reckless,” Yiazmat countered. “I don’t like it.”

The grovlazzle flinched at her first comment. He turned away from Yiazmat, scowling. “Got any better ideas?”

“If I may?”

That was Cid.

Valkyrie sighed. “Oh, great, the egghead.”

“Casaroja’s sewer system includes the rail station. You might be able to get in that way.”

“Hell no!” The garchomp wrinkled her snout in disgust. “I ain’t wading through sewage. I’ll take my chances with my idea.”

“You will not.”

Valkyrie stiffened at Sakaki’s voice. The fight immediately drained from her face. “Sir?” she whispered.

“You are valuable assets and I will not see you risk yourselves unnecessarily,” the nidoking said. “Try the sewer method first. If there are guards down there, then Valkyrie can enact her plan. Is that a deal?”

Noctum wondered whether Igneous or Valkyrie had to agree. The grovlazzle bowed his head. “Yes, sir,” he said, his tone neutral.

“Good. Keep us updated.”

Igneous sucked in a sharp breath. “Will do.”

Noctum swallowed hard. So, this was the kind of authority a Yakuza boss wielded? It made his neck scales prickle. And the queen cooperates with him willingly?

The black charizard pushed those thoughts aside as he lumbered toward the doorway.

“Madame Archbishop.”

Sticky saluted the oversized serperior propelling herself across the cold steel floor with her thorny vines. Dozens of poipole and xurkitree workers similarly stood at attention, a few of the former shifting about nervously. The naganadel floated after her, making for the giant, mechanical hydreigon hanging from harnesses on the other side of the room.

Uroboros’ serperior head split apart, revealing the seviper inside. She scrutinized the machine. “This is it, then?”

“Yes.” Sticky glanced down at his tablet. “An autonomous combat unit made with multiple parts of the hydreigon evolution line and Eterna energy, running off data from the defunct Type: Zodiark alpha model. We call it the Iron Jugulis.”

“I don’t care what it’s called,” Uroboros scoffed. She yawned into a thorny vine. “We both know the emperor only cares that it gets results.”

“Right.” Sticky returned his attention to his tablet. “This was, um, cobbled together quite quickly, so it may—”

“Bring it online.”

“I beg your pardon?”

The seviper head stared Sticky down. “Bring it online. Cassius just informed His Excellency the Benefactor’s prisoners are sending their pathetic aid shipment to the city we ransacked. We can’t allow that to happen.”

“Could we not send some Eternatus Troopers, instead?” Sticky asked. This seemed like a bad idea hot on the heels of losing both the Seekerskorch and its pilot.

“We will. But His Excellency wants bigger fire power, as well.”

“I understand.” Sticky looked over his shoulder and nodded at some poipole. They floated away in a hurry. “The team will get right on that.”

“Very good.” The seviper retreated back inside the serperior head, which closed itself back up.

As Uroboros turned to leave the room, the Iron Jugulis whirred to life. Bright purple light from its LED heads spilled over Sticky.

For the Benefactor.

OSL: Ginnungagap, the Cosmic Mystery Dungeon
Also known as the bridge between worlds. This constantly shifting realm of space-time is the threads holding the omniverse together. The deeper one travels through it, the more it changes to reflect the states of nearby dimensions. However, any living soul that spends too long inside of it will find themselves blown away to a distant corner of the omniverse. This can lead a soul to corrode into a Whisper.