Chapter 85: Distant Tails

OS Discrepancy Petition #94862048
PETITIONER: [Redacted]

CATEGORY: Other
SUBCATEGORY: Not Applicable
COMMENT: Look, I don’t know which category this goes under. Just read the description!
DIMENSION: POV-2020
LOCATION: Not Applicable

DOES THIS PERTAIN TO SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS (Y/N)?
Yes

HOW MANY INDIVIDUALS ARE INVOLVED?
One

WHAT AURAL STATUSES APPLY TO THE INDIVIDUAL(S)?
Unsure/decline to answer

ARE YOU SEEKING TO OPEN AN INVESTIGATION?
Yes

PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DISCREPANCY. INCLUDE REASONS FOR SEEKING TO OPEN AN INVESTIGATION IF YOU ANSWERED “YES” TO THE ABOVE.
I was going to a group session and there was a new member. A necrozma with an aura of mostly shadows augmented by a secondary light source. He called himself “Bahamut” and referred to a few details we found while investigating POV-2020. I didn’t want to pry as to the exact circumstances of why he was in this group, but I’m thinking he’s some sort of copy.

Whether he’s a copy or the real deal doesn’t matter, though. Someone was somehow able to get something out of POV-2020 and I’m betting it’s after the dimension was sealed off given some of the stuff this guy was saying. And I shouldn’t have to tell you guys why that’s bad. The quarantine’s coming undone! We need, like, a bunch of people on this ASAP!

PETITION STATUS: Closed. Not eligible for appeal.
REVIEWER RESPONSE: We are already aware of the situation. Senior Overseers checked Ginnungagap and found no vulnerabilities in the seal.
ADDENDUM: The petitioner has been placed under probation for trying to circumvent this case’s final status by repeatedly refiling this petition as new discrepancies.
ADDENDUM #2: One millicycle following the above addendum, minute vulnerabilities were discovered on POV-2020’s seal. The petitioner is off probation. See Incident Report POV-2020-10 or personnel file “Void Bahamut” for more details.
ADDENDUM #3: Personnel file “Void Bahamut” was renamed to “Tama” following the subject’s requested name change.

---

The stadium’s torn up ground shook every few seconds. A result of the giant robot continuing to stomp around outside. Gene kept his eyes fixed on the meowth head, weighing his options.

Yuna had gone off to get the kid and seal the anomaly. That meant everyone would return home soon, right? He couldn’t let those Rockets walk off with scores of pokémon. Yet that metal hull looked quite sturdy. And if Gene didn’t aim his attacks precisely, he could injure the captured pokémon or break captured poké balls.

“Jade. You still have eyes in the sky?” Gene asked. He wasn’t trying to sense the salugia’s aura. “Robot still causing problems for people?”

“I don’t think so?” Jade replied. She’s flown somewhere outside the stadium. “It’s walking around a plaza in front of the stadium. No one’s there. Maybe they’re taking a victory lap?”

Gene’s yellow-tipped tail lashed back and forth in irritation. He drifted closer to the ground. Quetzal paced nervously between Ifrit and Shiva’s unconscious forms. The orange zapdos locked eyes with Gene.

“They’ll wake up, right?” Quetzal glanced at the birds. “They’re breathing, so they have to be okay. Just because they didn’t turn back to normal doesn’t mean there’s a problem.” He stuck a bulky leg up. “I didn’t turn back to normal.”

“You mean back to electric and flying?”

Quetzal shot the snickering toxtricity behind him a dirty look. He turned back to Gene. “You have to know something about this, don’t you?” His feathers puffed out. “What about the buzzwole? He got corrupted by a fighting-type core.”

“And I seem to recall it took a few days before he woke up,” Nikki countered. Tiny sparks jumped off her mohawk. “Meanwhile, the kid’s coming to.” She jerked her head in the direction of the young trainer who’d been on Shiva’s back earlier. His red and white pokébase cap was torn, as was his blue vest and the white shirt underneath.

Gene hastily Phantom Warped over, practically flinging Nikki aside with a burst of levitation.

“The he— hrrrmmmph!“

A quick bit of ESP silenced Nikki. The kid was bound to freak, but better for an actual psychic like Gene to talk with him. Try and smooth stuff over.

As long as that robot doesn’t fly the coop.

The boy’s eyes opened. “What?” He blinked slowly. “Ugh. So tired.” He slowly sat up, running a hand through his black hair. “Pikachu? Did we make it to…”

He met Gene’s gaze and his voice trailed off. The shadowy mewtwo opted for telepathy. “Hello there. I need you to remain calm. You’ve been in an accident.”

Gene expected panicked screams, but instead got a tilt of the boy’s head. “Mewtwo?” he said, raising a brow. “What happened to you? Your color’s all weird.” He eyed the Malice Crystal. “And that doesn’t look healthy!” His concerned expression intensified. “And what about all the pokémon you said you’re protecting?”

Oh, wonderful. This dimension had a mewtwo. Gene decided against grappling with those implications. But he didn’t feel as remorseful about ripping the proverbial bandage off.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not the mewtwo you know. Name’s Gene. Here from another universe. Can I get a name?”

“Yeah.” The boy slowly got to his feet. “The name’s Ash Ketchum. From—” He reached up to adjust his hat only to cut himself off. His expression darkened as his fingers grazed the torn fabric. “Pallet Town, I guess.”

“You guess?” Now it was Gene’s turn to raise a brow.

Ash tipped the brim of his cap down so it obscured his face. “Something happened. My friends and family… turned against me. Took all of my pokémon away, saying I didn’t deserve them. Only one who stood by me was Pikachu.” He lifted his cap brim. “Ah! Pikachu!” Ash cupped his hands over his mouth. “Piiikachuuuuu!”

“Relax, he’s fine.”

Gene’s Malice Crystal sparked as Nikki walked up, carrying Pikachu by the tail. “Out cold. But fine,” she said.

“Oh no!” Ash ran right past Gene. “Pikachu, what happened to you?”

“Brainwashed. Same as you.” Nikki made a cuckoo sign. Gene immediately glared at her and pulled Pikachu away with a telekinetic yank.

“Here.” Gene handed Pikachu over to Ash, who cradled him in his arms. “You seem remarkably calm for someone who just saw a pokémon talking like a human.” He paused. “And casually claim you were brainwashed.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Ash shuddered. “And I know a talking meowth.”

“Right. Team Rocket.” Gene resisted the urge to turn around and look for the robot.

“Wait, they’re here?” Ash almost took on a fighting stance before remembering he was holding Pikachu. “Don’t tell me they’re up to something! I—” He stopped and glanced down at Pikachu. “—don’t have a way to stop them.” His shoulders sagged.

Gene held up a hand. “One step at a time, kid. Let’s go back to Pallet for a second. What do you actually remember?”

Ash frowned and looked away. The shadowy mewtwo rolled his eyes. “We can do this the easy way or the ‘powerful psychic sifts through my thoughts’ way. I’m pretty sure you’d prefer the former.”

There was an awkward silence. Then Ash stepped back. “That’s more like Mewtwo,” he mumbled. He fixed his gaze on Pikachu. “I don’t want to remember it. They were all just… so angry with me. And I don’t even understand why! Calling me an idiot and a fool and stuff.”

Tail twitching, Gene nodded slowly. “And did anything else seem off about them. Like, say, facial expressions?”

Ash’s face scrunched up in thought. “Uhh, I don’t really know.” He lightly kicked at the dirt under his sneakers. “All that stuff they said piled up so quickly I just shut down. I felt so empty.” Ash then held up Pikachu. “Pikachu shocked them all and managed to get me away. And it felt like… like he knew what would be able to help me. So, I followed him.” He looked around. “And now I’m here.”

It was hardly concrete. But from that alone, Gene had a sneaking suspicion that the mysterious voice that warned Yuna about the kid being in the vault in the first place was behind this.

“Okay.” Gene clasped his hands together in front of his head. “So, like, I get you think all your friends and family hate you or whatever. But there are definitely people who care about you.” Now the shadowy mewtwo allowed himself to turn around. “Those Team Rocket doofuses were worried about you. They agreed to work together with my team so we could rescue you.”

Ash’s eyes widened. “They did what?!”

“Oi, pick up the pace!”

Gene glanced at Nikki, whose legs and waist were fading away. The three birds were also mostly gone.

Shit. “Okay, look.” Giving up on telepathy, Gene floated into the air. “I don’t have time to give you a ‘ra ra sis boom ba’ pep talk, kid. You got hurt. Two options for that.” Gene raised one finger. “You can let it drag you down and become some depressed loner no one actually wants to be around.” He then punched his right hand with his left. “Or you can ‘fight’ like hell and get to the bottom of it.

“It’s up to you.” Gene turned around. His legs were disappearing. “As for me… I’ve got a ‘partnership’ to break.”

The shadowy mewtwo charged through the air. To his relief, the robot was still there… but it was heading into the water.

One shot. He had to make it count.

“We got a buncha pokémon! We got a buncha pokémon!”

… Wait. Why did Gene have to shoot? What if he just… ripped whatever was holding the captured pokémon out of the damn machine?

But would that work?

His waist was fading. Gene was out of time. He thrust his arms in front of him, concentrating on his ESP as much as he could.

“We got a buncha pok—”

“EEP! Jessie! The hull!” James screamed.

Gene didn’t care that those idiots were still using their megaphones. Something heavy tugged against his psionic sense.

“Rrrrgh. Our deal’s… off!“

He mentally yanked with all his might. The robot’s back shattered as a stack of metal cages came flying out, landing in the grass by the riverbed.

Team Rocket’s microphones amplified their screams as the giant puncture in the hull caused sparks and explosive bursts to race all along the meowth robot.

Right before Gene faded out of the dimension completely, the head exploded. The Rockets and their wobbuffet careened through the air. Gene somehow managed to hear one final cry from them.

“We’re blasting off agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!”

---

“Please stand by for a message from Grand Emperor Paradox!”

Noctum awoke to an obnoxiously cheerful news bulletin music blaring out of the speakers surrounding Cyril’s tower of computer monitors. Someone laid him down atop a large crate, giving him a perfect view of the top left computer monitor. It showed the Eterna Empire sigil before quickly cutting to footage of where Noctum and the others had just been.

Indigo Plateau was a mess of torn up ground and rubble from the building, but a combination of assorted ground-type ‘mons and Eternatus Troopers were working quite quickly to clean things up.

Everything came rushing back at once. The Trooper assault, with the king’s forced transformation into Halvus. The devastating Dyna Depletion attacks. Noctum throwing himself into one. The strange visions and that searing pain from his Malice Crystal…

Noctum glanced at his belly. It was still blue. His wings were still jagged and his tail flame was a starcloud like Cyril’s mane and Leo’s pelt.

Why? The mega charizard kept hearing that one phrase over and over in his head.

Lustrous heart. Lustrous. Lustrous…

“As some of you are not doubt aware,” Paradox began, snapping Noctum’s attention back to the monitor, “another one of those dreadful rifts opened up on Earth’s beloved Indigo Plateau.”

The deoxys then walked in front of the footage. Noctum’s starcloud mouth flames rippled. “W-Wait, he’s there?!“

From his spot beside the monitors, Cyril rolled his eyes. “It’s a greenscreen, dumbass.”

Seifer’s prosthetic horn poked his right hip. “Ow!” The cosmic zoroark’s black fur flickered red. “What?”

“They don’t have greenscreens back in Aeon,” Noctum mumbled, looking down dejectedly.

“Thanks to the strong work of my Eternatus Troopers and support from Paradigm Lieutenant Halvus, the rift has been successfully dealt with!” Paradox declared, tentacles coiling into arms as he applauded footage of the hulking duraludon they had to battle. He then faded out so the footage could zoom in on the building.

“It’s already halfway rebuilt?!” Noctum’s jaw slackened. “What kind of devilry is this?”

He was immediately shushed by Cyril and a few skorps seated behind some of the keyboards.

“Unfortunately, there was some collateral property damage during the process,” Paradox continued. “But not to worry. As you can see, repairs are well underway. The Indigo League should be good as new by tomorrow.”

The deoxys reappeared on screen. “It’s exactly as I told you all. This whole silly little rift situation is entirely under control. Thanks to me, your beloved grand emperor!” Paradox slowly bowed. “That will be all for now. Have a pleasant day.”

A new male voice followed the end of Paradox’s bulletin. “We now return you to a new episode of All My Stakataka.”

Two of the skorps clapped their mutant incineroar hands together excitedly, only for their moods to deflate when Cyril pressed a button and shut the monitor off.

Sighing, he ran yellow claws through his starcloud mane. “Well, that’s just peachy.” He lazily walked across the hanger floor.

Noctum slowly sat up. “What do you mean?”

“He means the emperor took our hard work and spun it to make himself look like the hero,” Valkyrie spat. The garchomp sat on a metal crate to Noctum’s left, watching as a few helioptile and croconaw tended to some of the Aeon soldiers injured fighting Halvus.

“Oh.” Noctum tapped his claws together nervously. “Can’t we, um, send our own message with the truth?” He looked expectantly at Cyril. “Like when you hacked the blimps in Eterna City!”

Cyril froze. He scratched his right ear. “Dude, the emperor had video footage to back it up. And we bailed before the rift vanished, remember?”

“What about a big, fancy illusion?” Noctum offered. Surely, there was something they could do to compete with this evil greenscreen.

The cosmic zoroark pinched his brow. “Ugh. No.” He held up his right hand, which disappeared. “Just because I can illusion enough of an invisibility dome to hide a few of us doesn’t mean I can conjure up some elaborate scene to make people think Paradox used a deep fake.” Cyril dispelled the illusion around his hand. “I’m not that strong. I can just… actually fight like a pokémon now.”

Noctum’s shoulders sagged. “So, what, we stand around and take our licks?” He might’ve personally had more concerning things to worry about, but he welcomed the distraction. Noctum looked around the hangar. “I can’t be the only one who thinks that sucks, right?”

“Tch. Amateur.”

The mega charizard’s cosmic tail flame shrank. Wincing, Noctum glanced at Valkyrie. “What now?”

“So we can’t compete with his propaganda machine.” Valkyrie waved dismissively. Curiously, she continued staring at the floor. “Whatever. Let the emperor think he’s all big and successful. We’re still dismantling the Paradigm. This keeps us under the radar.”

Noctum supposed that was true. But weren’t they also trying to expand their ranks? Wouldn’t it help if they could show people in the empire that their leader might be vulnerable?

Metallic hoofbeats interrupted Noctum’s train of thought. Seifer stopped beside him. “I think… talking strategy ought to wait until everyone’s together.” He glanced over his shoulder. “And, perhaps, rested up.”

“Ah!” Noctum’s tail flame expanded. “The king and queen!” He tried to drop from his perch, but a wave of vertigo stopped him. Noctum braced himself against the edge of the crate. “Where did—”

“Your queen took your king off to a private room the moment we returned.” Seifer pointed to the hanger’s exit with a forehoof. “Baraz showed up to help them along, too.”

“And Yuna and the others aren’t back yet,” Cyril added, tapping a foot impatiently.

“Oh,” Noctum mumbled. So that was what Seifer meant when he suggested waiting.

“Huh. Speak of the devil.”

Noctum hastily turned left at Valkyrie’s comment. An array of blue lights peppered the area in front of the hangar’s large ship door. Valkyrie abruptly hopped off her seat, silently walking toward Noctum’s crate.

“We’re back, bitches!”

Nikki was first to step out of the light, stretching her arms up. “A bit of an annoyance, but nothing we couldn’t—”

“Commander!”

An orange blur whizzed over to the keldeo, who whinnied in surprise when he saw two unconscious birds on Quetzal’s back. Noctum didn’t recognize them.

Seifer’s prosthetic horn flickered. “Wait, Quetzal, are these who I think they are?”

“Ifrit and Shiva, sir.” Quetzal adjusted them on his back. “They were corrupted and turned into Phantoms.”

“They’re actually Whispers!” Gene and Nikki heckled simultaneously.

“Ugh, whatever!” Quetzal was practically trotting in place. “We have to get them somewhere to rest.” He looked around at some of the dragons. “Somewhere, uh, better than here?”

Cyril walked over, scratching his ear. “Just head into the hall and take a couple of rights. You’ll find a special infirmary.”

“Thanks!” The orange zapdos zipped away. Cyril’s cosmic hair rippled from the wind Quetzal’s momentum kicked up. He fiddled with locks of hair.

“All right. Anything else?”

“Wait, where’d Mom and Dad go?”

Noctum turned left. Had Yuna’s voice gotten a bit deeper?

A dragapult floated beside a larger Leo. But her tail. And that weird gem in her chest…

Noctum’s eyes widened. Why was that gem… familiar?

“P-Princess?”

“What?” Yuna raised a brow, then looked down at her torso. “Oh, right. Yeah, this happened.”

“All that and spades, apparently.” Nikki clapped Yuna’s back.

She squeaked, then frowned at the toxtricity. “Seriously?”

“You’re gonna complain about a congratulatory back pat?” Nikki snickered. “Guess you’ve got thin skin.” She paused. “Or no skin.”

Yuna rolled her eyes. Noctum wasn’t waiting any longer. Despite the vertigo, he was at the dragapult’s side in an instant. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?” He looked her over. This nagging familiarity brought back everything that happened to him. “Should I get your mother?”

“I should be asking you that.” Yuna scrutinized his appearance. She had the same concerned expression as him. God, his head was hurting. Noctum took it as a sign to give her a bit of space.

“Look, we had to deal with a couple of the Whispers,” Yuna slowly continued. “And I evolved. We got the plates.” She gestured to Leo, who stuck a foreleg and hind leg out. Some sort of pose, Noctum figured. “There were two this time, though. And a Needle, to boot.”

“Wait, what?” Gene decided to sit on the same stack of crates Valkyrie used before. “Two plates and a Needle?”

“Yeeeessss?” Yuna’s tail rippled. “Didn’t I just say that?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Gene’s tail twitched in irritation. He crossed his right leg over his left, then swapped. “Yo, Kora!”

“Hmm?” Koraidon turned around from the far corner of the room, where he was gathering up monks.

“Got an explanation for this?” Gene gestured at Yuna.

“Ah, apologies.” Koraidon bowed slowly. “I’m making sure everyone got back okay. What was it you said?”

Gene facepalmed. “Oi, Widget. You were on crowd control, too. Gimme a machine headcount.”

Widget’s eyes flickered blue, then yellow, then purple. “Everyone’s present and accounted for. Including Cid.” He blinked several times, then shook his head. “Ugh, at least ask politely next time. I don’t like having to run that part of my processor anymore.”

Yuna cleared her throat. “Alder already offered a possibility. That plates and Needles are getting drawn toward one another. Which might be why things stabilized for a time before.” She wiggled her right arm up and down. “They’re, like, migrating to each other.”

“Aww, snap! That oughta make it tough for Necrozma to— awk!“

In the front corner, Vegna grabbed Griffon’s beak and forced it shut. The corviknight disappeared into the dusknoir in a stream of black smoke. “There’s more you’re not telling us, isn’t there, Yunavresca?”

Yuna’s gold-ringed tail crinkled up. She did her best to straighten it out. “I, uh—” Yuna fidgeted nervously. “Yeah.” She took a shaky breath. “There’s a lot to share. And it’s, um, best that everyone’s here for it.”

Nikki crossed her arms. “Define ‘everyone.’ We got most of the squad here.” The toxtricity gestured at the hangar.

“Quetzal,” Yuna said. “And Igneous and Scarlett.”

“What about Pillow Prince?”

“Shimmer too,” Yuna said. “And I don’t see Artemis, Baraz, or Alder.” She glanced at Noctum. “And no one’s told me what happened to Mom and Dad…”

Her eyes darted between his cosmic tail flame and the ones at the sides of his mouth. “… Or you, apparently. Your Malice Crystal is gone. And you’re mega?”

“Think he absorbed it.”

Noctum tensed at a scaly arm on his right shoulder. Valkyrie had gotten the jump on him again.

“Calcifer was hit by some strange blast,” the garchomp explained. “It corrupted him like other Paradigm daemons we’ve seen. So, we had to fight him.” She glanced at Noctum. “Your butler buddy… saved me from a blast that could’ve torn me to shreds.”

He blinked in surprise. So, she was acknowledging it? Noctum figured she was too prideful. Though it sounds like it’s bugging her…

“We were able to beat the daemon, but your father’s unconscious.” Noctum scanned the hangar and noticed Biff off to the right… lying on his back, bench pressing one of the metal crates. And a few hakamo-o sitting on top of it. “It might be like Buzzwole. He’ll need time before he wakes up.”

Noctum offered her a nervous smile. It must have been good enough, since Yuna’s worried expression faded slightly.

“All right.” The dragapult rubbed her ectoplasmic temples. “Let’s get everyone else here. Then we can talk.”

She looked around the room and gulped. “We can… talk.”

Noctum went to drape a wing over her, but stopped. Yuna was almost double his size now. The gesture looked silly. And Yuna knew that, judging by the confused look she gave him.

“I’ll, uh, help you gather them up!” Noctum offered, laughing nervously.

“Okay.” She glanced at Nikki and Gene. “Keep everyone occupied for a bit, okay.”

“Oh, sure.” Gene rolled his eyes. “We’ll play canasta or something.” He waved his right arm dismissively.

With a flap of his wings, Noctum followed Yuna. Lots of things were changing quickly. It left a sinking feeling in his newly-healed gut.

… And what the heck’s canasta?!

---

“We’re definitely close.”

Ninetales’ soft, white legs brushed against tall grass as he padded his way forward. The rising sun cast a soothing orange-yellow glow over the Wild Area. The chirps of assorted birds sounded in the distance. But there wasn’t much activity in this particular patch of the sprawling plains.

“Mmm. There aren’t any pokémon nearby. Suppose people randomly crashing out of the sky would send them running off.”

Plodding along beside Ninetales, a pyroar with a gray mane yawned loudly. “Why am I here, exactly?”

Ninetales froze mid-step. “Uhh…”

“They’re not a threat.” Pyroar paused beside Ninetales to fix his stern gaze on him.

“I know, but I thought some company would be nice!” Ninetales’ tails wagged asynchronously.

Pyroar snorted gray fire at his feet. Ninetales jumped back with a yip. “H-Hey, c’mon!”

“I wanted a vacation,” Pyroar grumbled, shambling forward. “Deserved one, you ungrateful—”

Flinching, Ninetales quickened his pace. “I’m aware. I was there, too!”

“For all of five minutes.”

Another flinch. Ninetales almost tripped over a rock hidden by the tall grass. “Yeah, well that was enough to save your hide for a bit, wasn’t it?”

Pyroar’s expression only hardened. “Your quarry lies ahead.”

“Right.” Ninetales shuffled forward, trying to imagine Pyroar training his unamused look elsewhere. It was fine. He was just being his usual self.

“… Had it in da palm of our hands.”

“I told you two we should’ve flown the coop.”

“You? Puh-lease! You wanted us ta head for da city and try to snag a bigger haul!”

“WOOOBBBBBAAAFFFEET!”

“Hey! Don’t side with them!“

Ninetales chuckled. Yup, definitely who he was looking for. Swishing his hair behind him, the fox hopped through the remainder of the tall grass and popped out on the other side.

“Hello!” he telepathically chirped. And, yep, these three Rockets looked exactly like what he was expecting.

“Aaaaah!” James backed up against a large boulder. “Jessie, make the psychics go away!”

Jessie was on her feet, glaring at James. “That’s no psychic-type, you dolt!”

“What’s an Alolan ninetales doing all da way over in Galar?” Meowth wondered.

“M-Maybe he wants to join Team Rocket?” James laughed nervously.

Ninetales had to cut in fast, or he’d be stuck listening to their babbling for a while. And he could feel Pyroar’s glare on the back of his head.

“Sorry. Not interested,” he said. “But I did catch a glimpse of what happened in Wyndon.” Ninetales pivoted to his left. “I’m actually after the person who made your, uh, twerp friend disappear.”

“Friend?!” Meowth unsheathed his claws. “What an insult! I oughta turn dat pelt into a fancy coat for da boss!”

“You’re welcome to try!” Ninetales winked at Meowth, who stumbled over to James. “Except I can’t stay all that long. Basically, I’m asking if you guys might be willing to help me out later. With the guy who caused your problems.”

The three Rockets looked at one another. And Ninetales got a strong sense they were going to shoot him down, so he quickly tried to save face. “Aaaand I fully intend to make it worth your while! Scout’s honor!”

That only made them more skeptical.

“What could a ninetales possibly have to offer us?” Jessie wondered.

At that, Ninetales stuck his forepaw out. Concentrating, he drew on a well of light deep down. He nudged it along his forehead, until it took shape into a familiar Z-Crystal. Ninetales rolled it over to them.

“How’s that for starters?”

The Rockets looked down at the crystal, then up at Ninetales. “Dis some kinda magic trick?” Meowth wondered.

Ninetales nudged the crystal closer, gesturing for Meowth to pick it up. Meowth’s whiskers twitched the moment he touched the Z-Crystal. There was a tiny spark of gray embers running along his arm.

“You’re welcome to use it,” Ninetales said. “Or not. Gave one to your twerp buddy, too. Just in case.” He winked at them.

That seemed like as good a place as any to leave things off. Ninetales turned to bound back into the tall grass.

“Hey, wait!” James called. “When are you even going to call us? And whatever for?”

Ninetales’ ears swiveled in thought. “Oh, that?” He stepped toward the tall grass. “When the time’s right… you’ll know.”

He hopped into the tall grass. The grass fluttered against him as he ran. It didn’t take him long to reach Pyroar. “See? Didn’t take too long.” Ninetales’ tails wagged. “And we’re good to go.”

Pyroar’s face remained stern. He crouched down slightly, pressing a forepaw into the dirt. Motes of gray light spread out from his forepaw.

Ninetales braced himself. Within seconds, the tall grass and cool Galarian morning air fell away, replaced by the sharp blues and purples and fierce, rippling winds of Ginnungagap.

Four luminescent gray wings burst from Pyroar’s back. Gray crystals tore away at his body until, with a powerful flap of his four wings, the grayscale necrozma that emerged flew off into the depths of the mystery dungeon between worlds.

With a brilliant ripple of golden light, Ninetales, too, shed his body for one that matched his counterpart. His gold light surged through the swirling blues and purples, passing strangely shaped crystal chunks. And rocky islands with barren trees that grew upside down. A few had glass light bulbs sprouting from their branches instead of leaves.

The gold necrozma got a bit ahead and looked back. “C’mon, Bah—”

“Tama.”

“Right.” Head tendrils shriveling, he continued forward. Ever since he learned about Tama — an anomalous copy of Bahamut another Overseer accidentally created from the real one’s empty shell — he tried to spend time with the guy. There was friction, but he had the patience for it.

Though it seemed his hopes that Tama would be more amicable with him following their time apart were unfounded.

“St-still, you could at least, y’know, say something instead of looking so dour.”

“What’s your plan, Shane?” Tama flapped his gray wings. “I’ll look as dour as I want until you give me more than a ‘trust me, bro.'”

Shane nearly stopped mid-flight, which would’ve been bad, since he had to roll right to avoid splatting against a donut-shaped island. Or was it a malasada-shaped one?

“Whoa, whoa. Who told you I had a plan?” Shane’s golden tail crinkled. “I have an idea. A train of thought!”

He glanced back at Tama, whose mismatched gray eyes were narrowing. “That’s worse.”

“I-I’m not good with plans,” Shane squeaked. The squeaks echoed through Ginnungagap. Distorted eighth and sixteenth notes spawned on a distant island, then broke apart into clusters of ethereal chatot that flew off in all directions. “There’s no guarantee this goes anywhere, but I’m holding out hope.” A mix of green and orange spread over his eyes. “I don’t need to tell you about the power of hope, do I?”

Tama looked offended at the notion. He flew faster, closing the gap with Shane. “How many citations are you racking up for this? Last I heard, you weren’t to meddle with that world anymore.”

Shane’s golden glow dimmed. “I don’t—” He flew faster. “It’s not meddling. I’m trying to be proactive. They’re working hard on the inside. Only seems right to lend a discrete hand from outside.”

“Doubt they see it that way.” Tama passed him, snorting. “I think it’s something else.”

“Like what?” Shane flew faster, then banked left. He passed by several small islands with tiny ripples. Means of entering other worlds.

Tama didn’t respond, though. He continued ahead silently. “Where is it, again?”

Shane frowned. This guy was supposed to give straight answers. Why the evasiveness? “A few more down,” he said, flying further ahead so he could locate the origin point for his little pocket.

After passing a few more of the small islands, Shane made it to one haphazardly littered with shrubbery. Bushes of vulpix and ninetales tails. Shane felt Tama’s disapproval crawling along his ethereal back, but shrugged it off. He approached the small, distorted ripple and pressed an upper wing to it. A golden ring of light spread out, like water rippling after a pebble was dropped in it.

A familiar checkerboard portal formed. Shane turned aside and gestured to it with an upper wing. Tama simply flew past silently. Sighing, Shane followed the gray necrozma inside a dark, circular room.

“Will you give me an answer now?” he wondered, watching Tama curl up in the middle of the room in an almost serpent-like fashion. Tama gazed up. There was no ceiling. Only a seemingly endless sea of stars stretching overhead.

“Fine.” Tama folded up his lower wings. “It’s attachment.”

Shane landed on the ground. He tucked his wings in and concentrated, shrinking down. And down. Tama grew steadily larger as Shane’s golden form shrank to a much more… silvally shape. Yet still a mix of light and crystals.

“I was kinda hoping there was more to it,” Shane said, golden talons clicking against the crystal floor. He strode toward Tama. Gold light melded with gray.

“There is.” Tama slowly slid onto his side. “But I’m tired.”

Squawking, Shane almost lost his footing and faceplanted. “S-Seriously?!”

“You pulled me away from my vacation,” Tama huffed. He rolled onto his back, crossing one gray crystalline leg over another and resting his head against his upper wings.

It wasn’t funny. And much as Shane wanted to say that, that would just play into Tama’s hands. Wings. Whatever.

“Should I get you a beach towel? Maybe one of those drinks with the funny umbrellas?”

“That’d be a start,” Tama scoffed.

“Please.” Shane rolled his rainbow eyes. “We both know you don’t eat or drink.”

“You shouldn’t, either.” Tama tapped a lower wing against one of his chest spikes. Each clink echoed through the room. “Surely you’ve heard about your reputation, no?”

Shane’s head crest shrank a bit. “Maybe?”

“The almighty idiot.” Tama held up his other lower wing… and popped it from its joint. “Who always seems to break things.” The gray necrozma’s wing reattached on its own. “Before fixing them in a way more senior Overseers would never consider.”

He shook his head. “The one who sees the trees but not the forest. The god who thinks like a mortal. Who, despite it being a shrinking fraction of his whole life, still keeps the memories of his days in Horizon freshest in his mind.”

Tama slowly rolled onto his side again. “An immense amount of power… yet always reluctant to use it.”

There was some slight resentment behind Tama’s words. Shane pawed nervously at the ground. “Well, yeah. I mean… y’know… ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ and all that.”

Tama’s gray eyes swirled with disapproval. “Ah, yes, your favorite line you ripped from some comic.”

“Cuz it’s a good line.” Shane laughed nervously. His gaze fell to a jagged reflection in one of the crystal walls. “Where are you going with this?”

“You want to fix this because you still haven’t let go.” Tama practically slithered across the ground, curling around the smaller silvcrozma. “You see POV-2020 as a second chance of sorts. To fix lingering shadows of regret.” Bits of dark shadows bubbled within his gray body. “Small, but enough for someone who zeroes in on the little things.”

Shane’s cheek bolts turned slowly in his sockets. Was that really it? Or was Tama looking for the most negative reason? “Maybe I just want to help them so a lot of people don’t get hurt.”

Yeah, that sounded right. Shane straightened up a bit. “It’s not about me. And, like, they’re still the ones at the front of this. If I can help them from the sidelines, then that’s good enough.”

He blinked slowly. “… I think. Never did learn sports metaphors.”

Tama’s grayscale eyes stitched themselves into vaguely humanoid proportions so he could roll them. “If you insist.” He uncurled from around Shane and began to float away.

“Wait, you’re already leaving?”

“I want to find that beach again.”

Shane flinched. “Right.” His cheek bolts flickered like dying light bulbs. “You’re not, y’know, going to tell anyone about this, are you?”

Tama stared at the exit. “… Against my better judgment.”

“Good. I can work with that.”

“Fine.” Tama held an upper wing up. Gray light rippled. Another wormhole appeared. Ginnungagap’s blue and purple swirls peeked in from the other side. Tama glanced back at Shane. “I will say one thing, though.”

The silvcrozma tilted his golden head. “And that is?”

“You’re off the mark on one key assumption.”

Tama was about to fly through the portal, but Shane couldn’t leave it at that. “Wait! What’s that supposed to mean?”

The question hung in the air for several seconds. Tama practically curled an upper wing against the wormhole’s outer ring like it was a railing. He sighed.

“Bahamut and I are not versions of the friend you couldn’t save. We never were.” Tama shook his head.

“As loathe as I am to admit it… we’re alternate versions of you.“