Chapter 68: Meticulously Engineered

Why did my spirit powers work?

It doesn’t make any sense. Overseers are meant to be bound by the rules of the worlds they visit. Everyone said POV-2020 is the kind of world where this sort of stuff should be impossible.

They sent me away, of course. I don’t blame them for doing it.

But I can’t stop thinking about that place. And that other necrozma. So much anger in his heart. Or brain prism. Whatever.

I bet I’m stuck on it because it reminds me of him. Funny. It’s been so long since the team put a stop to him, but now the memories are fresh in my mind again. Like this all just wrapped up last month or something.

I really hope I’m just misreading this whole situation. The alternatives scare me.

ATTENTION: THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED.

“Well, shit.” Cyril leaned against the red door leading back to the staircase Team Bastion just exited. “Talk about bad timing.”

It’s more than bad timing, Yuna thought, eyeing the gray-carpeted ramp sloping down to the exhibit entrance, which had a gray metal shutter closing it off. A staff member with short black hair stood in front of the shutter holding a small megaphone.

“Sorry, folks! The collider’s closed to the public right now,” the staffer said, an apologetic look on his face as small groups of people saw the sign and frowned. Some immediately turned back, dejected.

One red, curly-haired lady with two small children stood her ground, though. “Why wasn’t there any sort of announcement?! I brought my kids here to see the collider!”

“Apologies, ma’am. This just happened.” The staffer rubbed the back of his head. “Chief engineer’s orders.”

The woman’s expression softened. She said something to her kids Yuna couldn’t make out and they quickly left.

“What’s a chief engineer?” Leo wondered, rolling onto his side on Yuna’s head. “Sounds important if that lady left without a fuss.”

“As best I can describe it… the chief engineer’s supposed to oversee the machine’s operation.” Cyril scratched his chin. “So, if they’re saying to shut it down, then it’s a big deal.”

I thought so. Yuna sighed. She didn’t have anything other than gut instincts, but that wouldn’t stop her from bringing it up. “What if… the chief engineer shut the collider down because there is an anomaly in it?”

“Would these people even know what dimensional anomalies are?” Widget wondered. The silvally tilted his head to the side. “Then again, I guess they are researching that stuff.”

Cyril crossed his arms. “Well, if the anomaly caused a worrisome readout, then that would drive the chief engineer to shut things down for sure.”

“Then we should go find out for ourselves!” Leo said, rolling back on his belly. “You can pretend you’re a pokémon ranger guy again, Mr. Cyril.”

“Shh. Keep it down, kiddo.” Cyril put his right hand on the fake dreepy. “Not a bad idea, though.”

“I guess.” If it got them into the collider exhibit, Yuna couldn’t protest. The drakloak followed Cyril down the ramp.

“‘Scuse me, bud.” Cyril already had his fake ranger badge out of his sweatshirt pocket. “Couldn’t help but overhear the collider got shut down.”

“Hmm?” Like the dronetom, the staffer acknowledged the badge. “Oh, a ranger. I’m not sure what sort of help you can provide here, though.”

“My buddies and I are here investigating reports of space-time distortion,” Cyril explained. Yuna wasn’t sure if going vague was the best route here, but she didn’t have a counterargument. “A supercollider sure sounds like the kind of place to find one.”

The staffer scrutinized Cyril’s tie-dye attire. Yuna didn’t blame him. It was no uniform like the Radiant Guard had.

Fortunately, the staffer reached for a radio clipped to his belt. “Gimme a sec.” He stepped back from the group. “Yeah, Chief? It’s me. There’s a ranger here who says he wants to help. Something about space-time distortion.”

“Dost thou think the engineer will fall for the ruse?” Rayquaza wondered.

Well, we got this far, didn’t we? They weren’t entirely lying, either. They were here to find an anomaly. Just not as a part of the rangers.

“Okay, if you say so.”

The staffer put the radio back on his belt and waved the team over. “Chief says to head on through. She’ll meet you on the other side of the walkway.”

“Great.” Cyril bowed his thanks. “And, uh, what does she look like?”

“Real short. Blue hair tied in a bun with a ribbon.” The staffer held his right hand a bit above his belly button. “Oh, uh, don’t mention the short bit to her. Liza’s kinda touchy about it.”

“Duly noted.”

Cyril stepped aside so the staffer could open the metal grate high enough for everyone to pass through. They headed through a glass tunnel full of sunlight. Ocean waves rippled in the distance to the left. Large wailord blew water through their blowholes while wingull and pelipper flew overhead.

“It’s pretty,” Yuna whispered. “The ocean, I mean.”

“Right. You don’t have beaches back on Aeon, do you?” Cyril said. “Come to think of it, how did you guys even get drinking water with all the ash and soot in the air?”

“Special rocks to filter the water. Boilers to burn up any icky stuff,” Yuna said. Yiazmat had taken her through a water plant once, but she barely remembered the trip. “Then we let it cool.”

“But you guys don’t have heavy machinery, right?” Widget said, cheek bolts slowly turning. “So, does that mean—”

“That these were people’s jobs? Yeah.” Yuna rubbed her shoulder. She didn’t recall any workers complaining about it, though they might have been acting polite because Yiazmat was visiting. “We make do with what we have.”

“And a little help from the Ryujin.” Cyril smirked at her. “Including yours truly.”

Yuna’s torso shriveled a bit. “I suppose so. Mom always mentioned we had allies in Radiance. Never gave me details.”

“Well, how would you have taken learning they’re a crime syndicate?” Reshiram wondered.

Not well. The fact that there was so much else going on at the moment made it easy to brush that aside, though. Maybe if the team got the whole dimensional instability thing under control Yuna would have to grapple with it. But there were bigger things to worry about.

Reshiram yawned in the back of Yuna’s head.

Do you mind?

“Sorry. Feel sleepy for some reason.”

Another yawn. This one from Rayquaza.

Frowning, Yuna pushed them out of her head. They’d reached the metal doors at the other end of the tunnel. Like the staffer said, a young lady in an orange jumpsuit paced nervously on the other side of the doorway. Her blue hair was tied in a button with a ribbon that looked like an espeon’s ears.

“What are they saying? What are they saying?”

“Hello, Miss Engineer Liza Lady!”

Yuna winced at Leo’s loud greeting. The fake dreepy was waving enthusiastically judging by how his other hand tugged on Yuna’s head.

“Ah, you!” Liza whirled around. The goggles around her neck almost smacked her face. “Tell me you’re hearing it, too!”

Yuna looked at Cyril. She had no idea what Liza meant. Had she somehow connected with the team’s X-transceivers?

“Hearing… what?” Cyril scratched his head.

“The message from beyond!” Liza intensified her pacing. “The message from the pink!“

Widget leaned over. “Uh, hey, I’m no engineer, but last I checked pink doesn’t make noises.”

“An astute observation.” Cyril tucked his hands into his sweatshirt and approached Liza. “Howdy. I’m Cyril. Nice to meet you, Liza.”

“Please, no need to be polite.” Liza waved Cyril off. She continued pacing, not making eye contact. “We both know it’s my brother you’d rather meet. Lemme guess… subscribed to his NickNack?”

Cyril blinked. “Uhh…”

“Glitch TV follower?”

“Huh?”

“You listen to his podcast?”

“What?”

“No? Well, how many of his travel vlogs have you seen?”

“Excuse me?”

“Forget it.” Liza turned around. “Tate’s irrelevant. Head-in-the-clouds piece of work,” she mumbled.

“Is this what it means when someone’s ‘having a moment?'” Widget whispered.

“How would I know?” Yuna whispered back.

“Maybe it’s aaaaaawwwwm—” Reshiram cut himself off with another yawn. “Sorry. Maybe it’s a nervous breakdown? Her big collider thingy’s on the fritz, after all.”

“Let’s cut to the chase,” Cyril proposed, studying the large, steel doors beyond Liza. There were other hallways extending to either side, with brightly colored paintings of pokémon that looked… off. Like misdreavus with feathers in their ectoplasmic hair or jigglypuff with long, curly tails and tiny fangs.

“Of course, of course.” Liza pinched her brow. “The sooner I can solve this, the better.” She gestured behind her, to the hallway on the right. “You see the pink, right?”

Yuna squinted. Looking closer, there was a pink tint to the hallway. Even the painted walls and metal railings had a fine layer of pink over them. She glanced at the ceiling lights, which also had a bit of pink.

I’m guessing that’s not normal.

Neither Sage responded. Uh, guys? I’m saying you can talk.

Reshiram yawned again. “Ah, sorry. Don’t know why I’m so tired.”

“The pink art is quite relaxing,” Rayquaza mumbled. He was coiling himself tightly in the back of Yuna’s mind, happily resting his head by his tail.

As if she needed more proof that, yes, this mysterious pink glow was a problem.

“I was doing my routine checks on the collider when I got some weird pings,” Liza continued. She resumed pacing. “Before I got the chance to investigate any further, I saw pink coming from outside the collider room.” She jerked her head toward the shut steel doors. “Went outside and saw these intense glowing spots… and that’s when I started hearing things.”

“What kind of things?” Widget asked.

“A garbled message.” Liza held up her right arm. There was a small monitor strapped around her jumpsuit. “I can’t quite put it together, so I sent three of my beldum to find the sources of the pink.” Liza tapped the monitor. “But they didn’t come back and I’ve lost their signal.”

“So, you closed the exhibit?”

“I was ready to close it the moment I got the pings!” Liza huffed. “But Da— Dr. Lund said not to. ‘Science doesn’t stop for a funny ping or two.'” She shook her head. “With my beldum vanishing, though? No dice. I don’t want people here. So, I shuttered the place.”

Widget stepped toward her. “So, how can we help?”

Liza looked him over. “Pretty weird-sounding silvally you got there.” She shook her head. “Is what it is. Best way to help would be retrieving the beldum, but…” Liza looked over her shoulder.

“That means walking into the pink,” Cyril said.

“Do you have any idea what Daaaactor Lund would do if he found out I let a civilian get, like, atomized by chronons or something?!” Liza squeezed her goggles.

“Guess it’s a good thing I’m a ranger, then.” Cyril smirked. “Danger’s in the job description. Or, at least, on the liability waivers I signed.”

“Wow. He’s good.” Reshiram whistled. “I wonder if Leo’s power boost also made him a better liar?”

I think that’s probably all his years with the resistance, Yuna responded. He had the Ryujin completely fooled, remember?

Liza’s eyes lit up. “Waivers! Yes, of course!” She held her right arm up and frantically tapped at the screen with her left hand. Then she stuck it out in front of Cyril. “Sign here, please.”

Cyril raised a brow. “You got your own waiver?”

“Absolving me and the museum of any liability in cases of injury, dismemberment, dimensional and/or temporal displacement, death… yadda yadda. You get the idea.”

Yuna would’ve raised an objection, but Cyril hastily scribbled on the screen with his fake human index finger. “Done.” He pulled his hand away. “How do you want to do this? We have X-transceivers if you want to sync up a line for communication.”

“Seriously? That old Unova junk?” Liza looked Cyril over. “No, actually, fits your hippie-dippie aesthetic I suppose. Next you’re going to tell me your desktop doesn’t even have an SSD.”

“Bold of you to assume I even own a desktop,” Cyril countered. He handed his X-transceiver over to Liza, who held it near the monitor on her right arm. Some lights blinked on the screen and she handed it back.

“Okay, so the first beldum, Bob, went over to the right.” Liza pointed to the hallway behind her. “It’s the shortest distance, so start there.”

The team silently acknowledged her and headed down the hallway. The paintings of the weirdly fuzzy and feathery pokémon were much clearer, along with placards and small monitors talking about the relationship between time and space and how the hadron collider allowed Dr. Lund’s team to investigate this further.

“The entities that stabilize space and time are ethereal in nature, you see.” Small round speakers played a recording of Dr. Lund. “Chronons provide temporal stability. You can think of them like blood cells and Earth as the body they race across as Dialga’s heart beats. Thus, a stable flow of time.”

The pink glow got brighter. Yuna didn’t feel any different from before, but both Sages kept yawning, forcing the drakloak to push them out of her mind. How could a couple of souls chilling inside of her even get tired? They weren’t doing anything!

“Hey, Leo, how you holding up?” Yuna wondered, reaching a hand up to feel for her fake dreepy son.

“I’m okay.” Leo shifted on her head. “Though I think I’m sensing… something. The back of my neck’s all prickly.”

“Maybe we’re getting close to the source of ‘the pink,'” Cyril mused. “Quite an unscientific name, considering where we are.”

“Give me a break. I was crunched for time,” Liza huffed. “If you’ve time to gab, you’ve time to go faster!”

Cyril picked up his pace. Bright pink light obscured the end of the hall. Pink lines and fissures trickled across the dimmer pinks of the walls, floor, and ceiling like an ariados web. Leo shifted again on Yuna’s head.

“So, Lund’s your dad, huh?” Widget said.

“What, how did you—”

“Kinda hard not to hear you reflexively stopping to switch from ‘Dad’ to ‘Dr. Lund,'” Widget responded, shaking his head.

“Yeah, yeah.” Liza grumbled something the X-transceiver couldn’t make out. “He’s not one of those accomplished scientists who holds his kids to impossibly high standards or anything. He’s just… very devoted to his work.”

“To the point where he ignores you?”

“Not important!” Liza dismissed. “Maybe Tate and I were able to switch places when we were little kids and Dad wouldn’t realize, but that doesn’t matter. Focus on the pink.”

“Well, we’re, uh, at the pink?” Cyril stopped short of the bright pink sphere swallowing up the hallway, holding an arm over his face. “I don’t see any beldum.”

“I don’t see much of anything.” Widget pivoted left. “It’s way too bright!”

Yuna, however, sensed something within the bright light. So did Leo, judging by his shifting around on her head.

“… de… cept…”

The drakloak’s tail crinkled. “There was a voice.” She hovered closer.

“Huh? I didn’t hear anyone but you,” Widget said.

But Yuna was already reaching into the pink light with her right hand. And the moment the pink fully engulfed it, a soft tingle ran up her arm.

Then the pink light flickered on and off in tandem with a dark, starry sky and silhouettes of rocky slabs floating haphazardly. There were bright flashes of light far in the distance.

“… have to… me! Whatever… do not…”

Yowling, Noctum ducked underneath a swipe of a gallade pirate’s glowing pink arm. The black charizard swung his tail around, knocking Gallade over on the ship deck. Noctum spewed fire at point-blank range until Gallade had passed out.

“Noctum, on your six!” Valkyrie cried behind him.

“Huh?”

Then a garbled holler came from behind him. Noctum spun around and saw a pidgeot with metal wings lying on their side, twitching from paralysis.

“You’re welcome.”

Noctum glanced up to see Nikki standing upside down on a part of the ship’s mast. The toxtricity quickly turned and lobbed poisonous globs to intercept Air Slash crescents from a staraptor.

“‘We’ll board the ship and take the fight to them!’ Gene said.” Nikki leaped from the mast, landing upright beside Noctum. “‘It’ll keep ’em occupied for sure!’ he said.”

“Well, they’re all here, aren’t they?” Noctum said, shooting a blue bolt toward a strafing mantine. It struck their right flipper, sending them tumbling through open space. The black charizard tugged Nikki’s jacket and pointed to Mantine. She got the message, striking her gills. Overdrive shockwaves rippled through the air, zapping Mantine and the staraptor that had attacked Nikki before. Both went still, their previous momentum sending them drifting away from the ship.

“Arrrrgh! You fools!” Gilbert slapped a wooden railing on the side of his tiny, personal ship. “What do you zink you are doing?! You have zem outnumbered!”

“Quality over quantity, bitch!” Nikki retorted.

Noctum tensed up. His gut churned under his armor. He couldn’t help but drop to one knee, grimacing. And he caught sight of Gene pausing above the other ship, too. The shadowy mewtwo’s Malice Crystal flickered pink. He looked off into the distance.

“Noctum, look alive!”

Valkyrie glided in front of him, bludgeoning an umbreon in the side with a Dragon Claw and sending them tumbling across the ship’s plank.

“S-Sorry!” He hastily got to his feet. “I just… I think my crystal reacted to something in the debris!”

“It’s probably the others.” Valkyrie landed atop a wrecked scope lens cannon. “Which means we have to focus.“

Gasping, Yuna jolted her head back.

“Mom? Mom!”

The pink light faded, revealing Leo’s hand waving in front of her face.

“W-What?” The drakloak looked around. She was back in the museum. And she could see a metal door with an emergency exit sign at the end of the hall. Yuna rubbed her eyes. “Did you guys see that?”

“See what?” Widget tapped a claw on the carpet. “You reaching toward the pink light, only to have it disappear within seconds and give us this beldum?” He jerked his head to his right. A beldum floated by his shoulder, looking between Cyril and Yuna.

“No, not that.” Though, Yuna had to admit it looked that way. “Everything faded out… and I saw Kalidron’s ruins, but through a pink filter.”

Silence. Cyril and Widget exchanged uneasy looks.

“What about you, Leo?” Yuna whispered.

“I didn’t see anything but pink.” The fake dreepy yawned. “And the closer you got, the more I wanted to go to sleep. Can I take a nap?”

“Uhh, I think that’ll have to wait.” Yuna sympathetically nudged the front of her head. “Are you Bob?” she asked Beldum.

[Ah, guests!] The beldum’s mechanical voice was cheerful. Their circular head spun around in their socket. [You are correct. One moment while I engage my charming accent.]

Cyril scratched his head. “Don’t really have a moment. Liza’s waiting for you.”

[Well, shine my boots and call me Sally!] Bob’s new accent was… homely, to Yuna’s surprise. And concern. [I reckon I ought to head back to the ol’ farm, then. Y’all should follow me over yonder. It ain’t safe ’round these here parts.]

Bob turned around and hovered toward the entrance of the collider wing.

“Bob just pinged me!” Liza said. “With a… howdy. Guess you found them.”

“Yeah.” Cyril started after him. “They’re… something.”

Liza sighed through the X-transceiver. “I thought I’d fixed that quirk of theirs. They watch one cowboy movie and suddenly they’re talking like ’em at the drop of a hat. I swear the guests are encouraging them.” She paused. “Jim’s down the other hallway from where you started. Looks like Bob did find something, so I’m working on piecing the data together.”

The team headed back down the hallway, passing the speakers and paintings of overly furry and feathery pokémon. When they reached the entrance, they headed left. A familiar pink hue awaited them. Pink lines rippled through pictures of magneton with bizarrely long magnets. And was Yuna imagining things or did their heads have hair?

“Oh! Uh—” Yuna rubbed the back of her neck. “Miss Liza? I think you might’ve right about the, uh, pink.”

“You heard something?”

Widget looked over his shoulder. “You heard something?”

“Maybe?” Yuna fidgeted with her hands. “There was a garbled voice. I couldn’t make out more than a syllable or two. But it sounded like words.”

“I see,” Liza responded. “Wait, hang on. Who just spoke?”

Yuna stiffened. So much for letting Cyril and Widget do all the talking. She shot them an apologetic look.

“My drakloak,” Cyril hastily said. “Worked with a decent psychic to make it happen.”

“Ah. One of those types.” Liza sounded intrigued. “Yeah, that stuff fascinated me when I was a kid. I had those kinds of powers myself. Tate did, too.” She sighed. “We had one of those, y’know, twin connections. Except it was deeper.”

Yuna wondered if they were meant to press Liza on that. She instead fixated on older video footage of Dr. Lund supervising a team of construction workers building some sort of giant metal cylinder.

“You ‘had,’ huh?” Cyril said, resting his hands behind his fake human hair.

“We drifted apart. It happens. The psychic stuff was cool, but the more I went through school, the more interested I got in machines. That stuff never clicked for Tate, though. Did the bare minimum he needed to skate by.”

“So, you’re here because you want to be?” Widget asked.

“Yeah. What? Are you going to call me a nepotism baby?”

“N-No,” Widget tittered.

“I was thinking it, at least,” Reshiram mumbled. He sounded even groggier than before, so Yuna shoved him out of her mind again.

“Oh, look, it’s the next pink source.” The silvally laughed nervously and stepped aside to let Yuna do her thing.

Except Yuna didn’t want to do her thing. What if it pulled her between the dimensions harder or something? Was that even possible?

But if she did nothing, then everyone was at risk.

Sighing, she reached out toward the pink light. Again, everything flickered. She saw glimpses of the planetary ruins back in her dimension. Except it was clearer this time, with less of a pink tint.

“… troy… net.”

The voice was back again. Yuna still couldn’t make out more than broken syllables.

“… one out… not… time…”

Noctum tensed. A fireball got caught in his throat. The black charizard hunched over, coughing up smoke.

“He be losing his resolve!” a sandaconda pirate shouted. “I’ve got him!”

“Like hell you do!”

Valkyrie dropped down from above, squishing sandaconda against the deck of the ship. She grabbed his coiled midsection, spun around, and tossed him overboard. Momentum hurtled him away from the ships, forcing a staraptor and pidgeot to break off their attacks to fly after him.

“What was that about?” the garchomp growled.

“Crystal reacted again.” Noctum rubbed his armor plate. “Felt like a kick to the gut.”

“Well, I’m going to give you a real kick if you don’t keep your head on straight,” Valkyrie huffed. “Focus!”

“No, Zardy’s got a point.”

Pink spheres exploded all around them, clearing the area of any pirates. Gene hovered over them, gaze fixed on the debris in the distance.

“Someone’s out there.” The mewtwo was projecting himself into Noctum’s head without speaking. Was this what things were like for Yuna with the Sages? “I saw a ship. Too small to be the empire. Some idiot civilian’s trying to get themselves killed!”

Noctum fought the urge to point out they were idiot civilians doing the exact same thing.

Yuna’s breath came in short gasps. She almost collapsed on the carpeted floor before managing to catch herself.

“Mom?” Leo got off the drakloak’s head this time. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m… fine.” Yuna swallowed hard. The pink light was gone. “Where’s the beldum?”

[I’m right here!] a cheerful voice proclaimed. Jim drifted down to Yuna’s eye level. [Hello, non-hostile entities! Are you my new best friends?]

Yuna blinked once. Twice. Leo looked ready to make Jim his second sibling, so she hastily said, “No. Your trainer’s looking for you.”

Jim’s lone eye teared up. [Friendship request: denied. Initializing sad noises.] Their gaze fell, then they produced a crackled recording of a crying baby.

“Sheesh.” Cyril had his hands over his ears. “How about you initialize returning to Liza?”

The crying abruptly stopped. [Command accepted.]

Jim spun around and zipped down the hallway.

“Oh, good, you found Jim.”

“Are all your beldum this… quirky?” Widget wondered.

“Jim’s a rescue, actually. Poor thing spent a long time in isolation before I found them. Even though they have plenty of buddies now, they still want everyone to be their best friend.”

To Yuna’s surprise, Widget flinched. He glanced around nervously, before staring at his feet. “Where’s the last one, then?” he muttered. “We ran out of hallways, didn’t we?”

“Janet’s the closest, actually. Lost her on the other side of the doors I closed.”

Their trek back down the hallway was short and silent, with Yuna contemplating what exactly would happen the moment she dispelled the last source of pink. Would the anomaly core become visible? Surely, these things had to be tied to it. The drakloak couldn’t think of any other explanation.

Yuna passed Leo over to Widget for this last stop. Liza wasn’t waiting for them by the closed doors, so a shrugging Cyril just opened the closest door to him.

Pink light spilled out. Cyril shut his eyes and looked away. “I think that’s your cue, Yuna.”

Yuna swam through the air and squished herself through the ajar door. Pink light flooded her vision for all of a second, before flickering in and out like the other two sources. Yuna got clearer glimpses of the debris field. Giant chunks of rock and metal floating haphazardly. Some rubble twisted into spirals. Others had glowing lustrous ore shards wedged into them.

“… av… ten to… ging you!”

A few more syllables this time. But nothing cohesive.

The debris field slipped away once again, leaving Yuna floating in the middle of an open, circular room. There were railings with signs giving more details about the collider, along with some sort of project where it was used to stop things called Ultra Wormholes from appearing.

Yuna was about to call in the others, when the beldum floating opposite her darted about frantically, their head swiveling around with reckless abandon.

[Danger! Danger!] Janet’s mechanical voice was more feminine than the other two beldum. [The readings! They’re off the charts! They’re—]

Janet stopped moving. [Oh.] She looked around. [The readings have stopped.] The beldum turned to face Yuna. [Thank you, kind stranger. Would you like a coupon for the gift shop? I can offer you thirty percent off collider souvenirs.]

“I’ll pass.” Yuna jerked her head toward the doors. “Liza’s waiting for you somewhere over there.”

Janet nodded and headed for the same door Yuna floated through. The drakloak was going to open it and let the others in when a sudden shout in the back of her head made her ectoplasm jiggle from face to tail.

Jeez, Reshiram! What’s the big idea?

In her mind’s eye, Reshiram was still bleary-eyed and tired, but now his fur was all puffed up and his tail turbine crackling.

“I know why I’m so tired.” Reshiram stifled a yawn. “Maybe she got fragmented into the pink or something, but now I can sense her for sure. It’s Cress!”

Wait, as in—

“Cresselia! She’s here! I feel her right underneath us!”