Chapter 79: You Wyndon Some, You Lose Some

Two weeks went by in a hazy blur. Perhaps because the outpost buzzed with activity. The monks kept their eyes out for anomalies, but came up empty. Gene and Vegna worked with an Aeon platoon to deal with tracking Necrozma. The only reports so far were of the Phantom jumping through rifts, followed by long stretches of purposeless ambling. It led the resistance to conclude that, unlike their rift makers, Necrozma struggled to conjure portals.

Cyril made plans to try and create a machine for tracking anomalies with the help of the two Red Chain fragments the team had. But there were issues making sure the fragments could remain stable in such a machine. Or something. Most of that technical jargon went over Yuna’s head. Probably, Seifer’s, too. Yuna figured that, given the talk around the outpost, the keldeo hung around Cyril for different reasons.

Cid was happy to have a handful of skorps assisting him with all the monitors. It actually gave him a bit of breathing room. He asked Yuna if he could puruse Bahamut’s old journal and she directed him to Vegna. Perhaps the orbeetle wanted to compare what was written with his own past research?

The big oddity was Shimmer. Igneous apparently got permission to explain Shimmer’s situation. Yuna felt a pang of sympathy, but never got to talk with him. Since Gene insisted on more rest before he seriously exerted himself, Shimmer mostly kept to himself. Only appearing when he had to eat. He was polite, yet stiff. At least, compared to what Yuna remembered. Nikki always studied him skeptically. Yuna worried if it was the toxtricity’s old grudge toward the so-called ponytales.

With everyone finding things to keep them occupied, that left Yuna with training. Something she’d never done much of in her life. But something she sorely needed. Not in the sense of bolstering her own limited attacks, but in keeping the shadows firmly under control. And calling on Sage powers faster.

To her surprise, Alder proposed she train in tandem with Leo. The drakloak hesitated to have her son do that. But the psychic braviary emphasized the importance of Leo learning to control the powers his plates gave him.

Today was one such training session. Yuna hovered over some metal platforms Guzzie Jr. had separated off his main arena. She focused on the Soul Dew’s light. A small Fusion Flare formed over her head. After a moment’s hesitation, she hurled it toward the cosmic arceus. His wheel shifted from gold to a sparkling ocean blue. Leo melted into a puddle. The Fusion Flare sphere harmlessly passed by him.

Yuna curled her right hand. The Fusion Flare erupted. Leo reformed from the puddle. “Fast, right?” His starcloud tail wagged. “Now, water attack thingy go!”

His blue wheel flashed. Water burst from the ground directly underneath Yuna. Meeping, she shot forward. White Quick Attack energy trailed behind her.

For a brief moment, the platform and water columns stopped. Had they… crystalized?

No, wait, that didn’t make any sense. The columns splashed water all around, then disappeared. Yuna rubbed her eyes. She must have imagined it.

“Ah, splendid!” From beside the platforms, Alder clapped his legs together. “No soaking of the peanut gallery, Leo. I’m impressed!”

The cosmic arceus looked around, eyes sparkling. “You have peanuts?”

“Ah, no.” Alder’s pink head feathers drooped. “That’s an expression.”

“Ohhhh. Right.” Leo nodded. Yuna frowned, uncertain if Alder’s correction actually stuck.

“What now?” The drakloak drifted to the ground and stretched out for a quick rest. “Junior’s going to open his arena soon, right? I’d rather not practice around all those people.” She gestured vaguely toward the empty stands. Not to mention the noise.

“Hmm.” Alder stroked his chin with a wing.

“Anomaly identified! Anomaly identified!”

With a holler, Yuna’s body shriveled up into her head. “Owww…” Yuna’s head flopped over. “Not so loooooud. We keep these X-transceivers by our heads, Skorp!”

“Aw, shucks. Sorry ‘boot that!” Skorp laughed nervously. “Guess I got a bit excited, eh. First time ‘n all that.”

I can tell. Yuna slowly managed to pop her body out of her head. Guess they knew what they’d be doing. At least she was well-rested this time.

“Brother Kora’s agreed to go with the scouting team like we discussed?” Seifer asked over the X-transceiver line.

“Yepperino,” Skorp chirped.

“Great. If they can stabilize the rift, we can know what we’re getting into,” Widget said.

“Where is it, though?” Valkyrie wondered. “At least, on our side of things.”

No response at first. Frowning, Yuna hovered off the ground. “Uhh, guys?”

“Sorry.” It was Cyril. “Needed to know if Gene was online.”

“… It’s Earth, isn’t it?” Gene was terse.

“Kanto, specifically.”

“Which part?”

“Indigo Plateau.”

Yuna looked toward the aurora on the horizon. Who names a plateau after a color? She then had to imagine an invisible hand muzzling Reshiram before he could give her an answer.

Gene’s sigh echoed through Yuna’s X-transceiver. “We better hope that anomaly’s outside the Pokémon League. Otherwise, we’ve got problems on top of problems.”

“Pokémon League?” Yuna said. She glanced at Alder, who had landed on the platform and was furiously flipping through one of his books.

“A system where humans train pokémon to battle for sport,” the psychic braviary declared. “It’s near ubiquitous for worlds where humans and pokémon coexist!”

Yuna quirked a brow. Battling for sport wasn’t an issue. They did plenty of that in Aeon. Tests of strength and whatnot. But what role would humans have to play in that?

“Thou hast seen it with thine own eyes,” Rayquaza piped up. “In Malie and LaRousse. Humans partnering with pokémon.”

I dunno, Yuna responded. Molayne and Liza felt more like… bosses with pokémon employees.

The X-transceiver crackled again before Yuna could say anything else.

“Yiazmat reporting with the scouting team. The anomaly is immediately behind a very large building at the center of this structure. Not seeing Eternatus Troopers, but humans have the area cordoned off.”

Well, that sounded bad. If the people there already knew about the anomaly, they could alert the emperor!

“Assuming they haven’t already,” Reshiram pointed out.

Not helping!

“Sorry…”

Yuna gestured for Leo to come to her side. “Let’s get ready, Leo. We might have to move fast.”

The cosmic arceus trotted through the air, nodding. “I’ll puddleify if I have to!”

Sighing, Yuna forced a smile. “It’s liquify, sweetie.”

“Right, that too!”

“Okay.” Gene wasn’t quite as terse as before. “Not the worst case scenario.”

“We still need a plan,” Widget countered.

“Cyril will go and provide an illusory cover for the scouts,” Gene said. “We’ll break into Teams Bastion and Bureau based on what they find. Bastion’ll head in the rift with Yuna and Leo. Bureau will stay behind to ward off any Troopers that drop by.”

He paused. “Any objections?”

No one spoke up. Yuna put Cyril’s disguise collar on Leo, turning him into a dreepy again. He floated onto Yuna’s head. The drakloak buckled briefly. Deeeefinitely heavier than before. She straightened herself up. “Heading back to the restaurant. You coming, Alder?”

“Yes, of course.” The braviary placed the book back in his white head plume and flew after them.

Indigo Plateau wasn’t indigo. In fact, there were hardly any shades of blue to speak of! At least, that was Yuna’s impression as her eyes traced the gray stone walkway past rows of empty pop up shopping booths to a stone staircase. It climbed up to a gold, circular building. A stadium, judging by pictures Yuna had seen.

INDIGO POKÉMON LEAGUE: HOME OF THE INDIGO AND SILVER CONFERENCES

Hanging underneath the gold sign was a “TEMPORARILY CLOSED.” Hastily placed, judging by how it dangled from frayed ropes.

“Indigo Plateau my ass.” Nikki rested her hands behind her head. “More like ‘False Advertising Plateau.'”

Seifer rolled his eyes. “We’re not here to judge its outer appearance.”

“No duh.” The toxtricity’s mohawk frazzled. “You put this shit next to its name and anyone’s gonna sit back in their chair and say ‘My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.'”

“Isn’t that a bit dramatic?” Yuna said, raising a brow.

“It’s making a point.” Nikki jabbed an index finger into Yuna’s ectoplasmic torso.

“Shh!” Cyril glared over his shoulder. “Invisibility illusion doesn’t work if you keep yapping it up. I’m concentrating, here.”

Nikki pantomimed zipping her lips shut, then tossed the imaginary key over her shoulder.

Yuna hovered next to her, studying the humans scattered around the grass at the facility’s perimeter. Their blue uniforms reminded her a bit of Molayne’s. I guess it’s still the local police.

“Strange. You’d think by now the empire would do something,” Reshiram said. He paced around in Yuna’s mind. “Unless they’re monitoring things from afar?” His fur puffed out. “You don’t think we’re wandering into an ambush, do you?”

The drakloak bit her lip. Wouldn’t they have attacked our scouts, then?

“Not if they realized the people they’re really after hadn’t shown up,” Reshiram countered.

Yuna hovered faster. She didn’t want to entertain the possibility that the empire had strong aura readers waiting in the wings. Besides, wouldn’t Gene and Cyril have covered that?

A familiar jagged purple rift lay ahead of them. Out in the open, pulsating with static. The humans kept their distance. Assorted growlithe, arcanine, and houndoom whimpered whenever the officers tried to get them to sniff the ground close to the rift.

Taking deep breaths, Yuna prepared herself for what was ahead. Another big city, apparently. A place called Wyndon. Things were calm, yet hectic, according to Koraidon. Which could have meant any number of things. But put that together with the anomaly core giving off a signal from a highly populated part of the city… and Yuna couldn’t help but think about the Butterfree Effect’s warning.

She glanced at her hands. No shadows. No reaction to the rift. Good. Her training was paying off.

“I don’t recall your shadows appearing solely because of the anomaly rifts,” Reshiram said.

Let me have this, Yuna hissed, sending Reshiram scurrying from her mind.

Cyril stopped. The cosmic zoroark made a few hand gestures… which Yuna hadn’t the foggiest idea how to interpret. She tilted her head. Cyril appeared irritated. He scratched his right ear, then covered his snout with his hand.

“It’s going to be a handoff.” Cyril’s muffled voice came through the X-transceiver. “You guys will swap with the scouts, except for Brother Kora. Capiche?”

The trio nodded.

“Once you’re there, you’ll follow him to the anomaly core,” Cyril continued. “Then try to get a sense for how much extra help you need.”

Seifer shifted uneasily. The keldeo walked up to Cyril and whispered into his ear.

“Get away from it if your X-transceivers don’t work, then” Cyril said. He knelt down and pecked Seifer’s cheek. Seifer’s face reddened. Nikki snickered. Yuna frowned at her. The toxtricity simply made a kissy face, earning glares from both the guys.

“Ready for the exchange.”

That was Koraidon. Cyril hopped to attention and guided them toward the rift. He kept as far from the police dogs as he could, then eventually dashed across the grass. The trio hurried after him.

Unlike other anomalies, this one greeted the team with… chilly air? Strange, but Yuna would find out the reason soon enough. Cyril pointed to the jagged rift.

Nodding, Yuna checked to make sure Leo was balanced on her head. Then the drakloak flew through the portal.

The result was the inverse of her previous anomaly jumps. Instead of shifting from dark to light, she’d gone from daytime to nighttime. Though there was still a fair amount of flavorfully colorful light several meters away. Courtesy of bright signs advertising fashion boutiques, hair salons, and restaurants like “Bob’s Your Uncle.”

Chills rippled through her ectoplasm. Yuna rubbed her hands together. “Cold…”

“‘Mon up.” Nikki strutted past, taking in a deep breath. “Crisp air like this is great!” She stretched her arms up. “Tells us we’re alive!“

The toxtricity took one step onto the stone walkway in front of the rift, then abruptly jumped back. “Gah! Hot!” Her mohawk frazzled. “The hell is this?!”

“A heated walkway.” A cyclizar stood on it, happily swishing his tail back and forth. “Isn’t it lovely? The power of science is amazing!”

Yuna tilted her head. That voice… was Koraidon’s? “Did you take one of the disguise thingies?”

“Of course. Can’t go causing a scene.” Koralizar clasped his hands together and bowed. “It would be quite un-zen of me.”

Leo hovered off Yuna’s head and reached a fake dreepy hand out to touch the stone. “Oooooh! It is warm!” His eyes sparkled. “It’s a magic path, Mom!”

“Magic schmagic.” Nikki crouched on the edge of the grass and poked the pathway with a twig. “Probably some dumb human technology.”

“Yes, yes.” Seifer walked onto the path, shaking his head. “We can marvel at their wizardry later.” The keldeo looked at Koralizar. “You can guide us toward the core, correct?”

“Absolutely.” Koralizar nodded. “Happy to go as fast or leisurely as you want.”

“Let’s make it quick.” Seifer impatiently tapped a hoof on the ground. “We don’t want the others staying around Indigo Plateau for too long.”

Yuna nodded. She picked Leo up and placed him back on her head. The drakloak flew after the others. Their path followed a still river along the outskirts of a city whose colorful lights were mainly hidden by relatively tall brick buildings.

“More like Venish than LaRousse,” Reshiram said. “Has a certain rustic charm to it.”

She had a hard time drawing that conclusion just from brick buildings and a river. But then colorful sparks danced across the sky in the distance.

“Whoa!” Leo wiggled excitedly atop Yuna’s head. “It’s like a rainbow of Fire Blasts!”

“They’re fireworks,” Seifer said, galloping beside Koralizar. “And a lot of them, too. We’re not arriving in the midst of some sort of festivity, are we?”

Nikki held her hands up by her eyes in mid-stride. “Does ‘Pokémon World Coronation Series’ sound like a festivity?”

The keldeo tripped, nearly stumbling to the ground. He managed to keep his balance, albeit falling back to Nikki’s side. “It sounds… like they’re crowning a monarch!” Seifer frowned. “Which wouldn’t just be a festivity, it’d be a historical event! Do you have any idea how many people attended Isola’s coronation?”

“Pfbt.” Still running, Nikki rolled her eyes. “I couldn’t give a rattata’s ass about that!”

Yuna was still confused where Nikki had even pulled that phrase from. “How do you know there’s a coronation?”

The toxtricity pointed ahead. Amidst all the fireworks was… a flying wailord machine?! At least, it was big, round, and blue like a wailord. But it had a screen on it with some sort of gold sigil. The phrases “Pokémon World Coronation Series,” “Wyndon 2020,” and “Opening Ceremony, Sponsored by DENSOKU and Mach Motors” flashed by one after the other.

“Do coronations usually have opening ceremonies?” Yuna wondered. Again, she and her friends could effortlessly read what was on the flying wailord machine. It wasn’t a coincidence. It had to be her.

She glanced at her torso. No shadows. Was this a part of that chaos the Butterfree Effect claimed she spread?

“Oi, Princess, keep up!”

“C’mon, Mom!”

Leo tapped the edge of the drakloak’s rectangular ahead. Nikki waved at her from several meters away. Yuna hovered after her.

By now, things were much brighter. Both from the closer fireworks display… and the positively massive circular building underneath. Red and white light spilled out over the stone walkways surrounding it, as well as the river that curved around it.

“Hot damn.” Nikki slowed to a jog. “Look at all those people. No chance we’re getting through something like that without a whole tauros herd.” Smirking, the toxtricity rolled up her sleeve. “Or I could Boomburst ’em into a collective evening nap.”

Seifer’s tail scrunched up. He, too, slowed his pace. “Let’s not default to assaulting the humans, please.”

“Speaking as a monk, I must concur,” Koralizar added. “And I don’t think it wise to bring a keldeo toward all of those people. We’ll attract far too much attention.”

Nikki’s mohawk frazzled. “Then why’d we bring Pony Boy along instead of, like, Chompy?” She hiked up her leather jacket. “And what was the point of scouting ahead if you can’t tell us there’s a giant roadblock.”

“Would you believe me if I told you the crowd wasn’t there before?” Laughing nervously, Koralizar scratched his head.

The toxtricity glared at him.

“It’s the truth though.” Koralizar rested on the railing beside him, staring at the river.

Yuna continued watching the fireworks display. The bright, colorful bursts were practically hypnotic in the way they erupted against the night sky. Cool for sure, but she doubted she could simply fly toward the place undetected.

“What about the oppaaaaaawmsite?”

Cresselia’s yawning made Yuna’s tail crinkle. The opposite? Like going down?

“Undaaaaaaawmground.”

The drakloak looked down at the path. Phasing through the ground? That would be an awfully long way to travel through. Did she have the strength to pull that off?

“Hey, um, one of you tech people?” Yuna mainly addressed the X-transceiver. “There’s a giant crowd by this big, uh…” She blinked. “That’s another stadium, right?”

Nikki nodded.

“Okay. So, do you think there’s something underground I could phase into?”

Yuna waited for some sort of response, though she didn’t know which resistance member would have an answer. Assuming any of them did.

“Gotta be a sewer system, then.” A response from Valkyrie isn’t what Yuna expected. “Just like when we had to get past the protestors to Casaroja’s railyard.”

“That’d be my guess, too,” Cyril added. “If you’re looking for a way to get in underground, that’s your best shot.”

Seifer tapped a hind hoof against the path. “You’re going off on your own?”

“Do you have a better idea?” Yuna gestured to the fireworks display in the sky. “Because flying doesn’t strike me as doable.”

The keldeo opened his mouth to respond, then promptly shut it. “Fair. I guess… back off if you think there’s trouble?”

Yuna nodded. That was doable. She reached up and passed Leo over to Nikki. “C’mon, seriously?” The toxtricity held the fake dreepy at arm’s length. “Why do I gotta look after Squirt?”

“Because you were standing next to me,” Yuna mused. She rubbed her hands together again, then dove into the ground. Fortunately, it wasn’t proofed against ghost phasing like LaRousse’s collider room. Yuna easily phased into the ground. She didn’t have to push that far through rocks and soil before spotting rounded tunnels carrying water and big metal cables in different directions.

“Hey, can you guys hear me?” she whispered, popping out of the ceiling. Yuna kept close to it in case she needed to phase back inside.

“Loud and clear,” Noctum chirped. “Did you find some sewers?”

“Yeah.” So far, it was a straight shot. The only lights were occasional small blue ones. And a couple of the bulbs had gone out. She wondered if any pokémon that liked dark, damp places actually lived down here.

“But how wouldst they get any food?” Rayquaza asked.

Yuna simply shrugged, then continued forward. To her relief, the sewer remained empty. No humans. No pokémon. Just dark water passing by underneath and blue light glinting off metal pipes and cables.

“Find the stadium yet?”

“No, Nikki.” Yuna was pretty sure the group stopped a good distance away from it. “Though I guess there are more tunnels going straight up? With ladders and stuff.”

“Probably leading to manholes on the streets,” Cyril said. “I think that’s a good sign? A stadium’s bound to have a lot of manholes by it.”

The drakloak kept going forward. “Then should I try going up?” What if she popped out of the ground and hit a human’s shoe? She could cause a panic!

“When we went to the train station, we found some sewer entrances for employees,” Valkyrie responded. “Try looking for doors or staircases.”

Doors or staircases, Yuna mentally repeated to herself. She swiveled her head around, looking for anything that wasn’t just a ladder going up or some other big sewer tunnel. Seeing nothing, Yuna flew forward at a slower pace, keeping her eyes peeled all the while.

Eventually, one branch point had no water coming out of it. And was halfway between the base and ceiling of the sewer. Yuna cautiously approached and was rewarded with a metal door. Black and yellow bars ran across it. She floated up to it and pressed a hand against the metal. After recoiling from how cold it was, she put her hand back on it… and successfully phased it through. The rest of Yuna followed her hand through into some sort of dark shaft.

Up it is, then. Yuna quickly ascended, passing metal beams and girders. Eventually she saw the base of a metal cube approaching. An elevator, probably. Like the ones at Cyril’s outpost.

She easily phased through the bottom of the elevator. Yuna didn’t stop to take in its sights other than how shiny its white floor was. She could practically see her reflection in it.

The drakloak phased through the gray elevator door into a dimly lit corridor. She passed by empty, gray metal walls. Light trickled in through cracks in a closed door at the other end. “Okay, I’m—”

Yuna’s X-transceiver flooded her head with static. She abruptly stopped talking and it went away. If she lost the signal, that had to mean she was close. But how close?

Hesitantly, she glanced at her torso. Her shadows pooled at the base of her tail. More toward the left. Yuna took a breath to steady herself. A quick enough glimpse was all she needed. Let’s get it over with quickly.

She darted for the door on the other end, easily phasing through it. Bright blue and white light forced her to shield her eyes. It was another hallway. The white, pristine floor ended abruptly by a gray railing with glass underneath. Probably to keep smaller people from falling down to the other hallway below them.

And there were people walking around down there. Yuna hastily looked left and saw multiple humans with uniforms similar to the ones the Indigo Plateau people wore. They had arcanine and boltund standing guard beside them. The police are here?

Her shadows were trying to swing her tail in the officers’ direction. And it didn’t take long for Yuna to realize why.

They stood in front of a door made of a heavy-looking black metal. There was a very large lock and some sort of screen underneath it. Both of which had ripples of distortion running across them.

“Oh no,” Reshiram squeaked in her mind. “The core… is inside a vault? Why does a stadium even have a vault? Look at it! It’s practically as tall as Jade is!”

Arcanine and Boltund locked eyes with her. Both started to bark at her. The officers’ heads whipped in her direction.

“Are you lost, little drakloak?” He reached for a radio attached to his belt. “Do you have a trainer?”

Yuna didn’t dare open her mouth. Even if it was just a couple of policemen and their dogs, this counted as trouble for her. It was time to double back to the others. As she turned around and got ready to phase back through the door, however, one of the officers shouted, “Wait, Drakloak!”

“I’m getting the sergeant on the horn,” the other said. “We oughta sweep the sewers.”

Yuna phased her way back through the door, ready to quickly retrace her steps back to the others. But the moment she got through the door, her shadows swung her tail forward. Squealing, Yuna righted herself… and found a familiar purple figure standing in front of her.

“You’re early, Yaldabaoth.”

GL Exploration Log: Wyndon, Galar (Dimension POV-0773)
The novelty of being in PokéLondon wore off with, like, the fifth Wyndon I visited. This one’s pretty par for the course. Macro Cosmos already folded in the wake of their CEO deciding to unleash Eternatus. The various subsidiaries were taken up by competitors or became government-controlled utilities. Nothing special there. But, hey, Parliament seized all that Rose doofus’ assets. So, that’s different from the last few!

I guess if I had to list anything that actually sets this one apart, it’d be that it’s a good deal foggier than other Wyndons. Quick internet search suggests they average about fifty to sixty days of sunlight a year. Which ain’t going to jive well with my inner light dragon. Despite the gloomier weather, this Wyndon’s a popular spot for hosting the Pokémon World Coronation Series. It functions more like the Olympics in this universe. Every four years regions send their best trainers to compete for the gold. How they pick them ranges from actual qualifying tournaments to just sending off gym leaders and their elite four and calling it a day.

Not a tea guy, but the biscuits are a solid seven out of ten.

Path of Valor Almanac
The dimension number is the national dex number for Silvally. Which wouldn’t be terribly significant on its own, but I used it as the uniform number for my character in Pokémon Sword.