Enter the Shadows

At the edge of the town, a four pokemon team of Carkol and Rhydon led by a Rhyperior were hauling a massive piece of ore down a path leading into the main square. It was easily twice the size of the large, stony reptile, however it bore a peculiar hue. But the group of rock types seemingly paid no mind to the ore’s slow but rhythmic shifting between black and dark red as it was dragged through the shallow snow.

 

“What the hell is this?!” a Coalossal shouted, holding out his hands as he stomped towards the group of rock types. 

“U-Uhh… Thought it might be valuable sir,” the Rhyperior answered, rubbing the back of their neck. 

 

Facepalming as he let out a loud groan, the Coalossal then swiftly pointed at the ore. “If it’s not iron, you leave it. I’ve told you this before!”

 

The scene having gotten the attention of the team of prisoners, Aurora stared intently at the large rock. Something about it didn’t sit right with her, as if the stone itself had an aura of pure malice surrounding it. 

 

“Hey Ice Queen! Let’s go!” Titania demanded. 

 

Turning around, the Beartic could see the other four heading towards one of the larger stone houses in the center of town. 

 

“Ice Queen?” Aurora muttered before rolling her eyes and following the group.

 

“So miss Ice Queen , what had ya so fixated back there?” Blake asked with a smug grin. 

“That rock they pulled in… It gives me a bad feeling.” 

“Really?” the Obstagoon questioned as he tried to hold back his laughter. But a loud, rumbling growl from the Beartic put a stop to his snickering. 

 

“Alright, alright, calm down Ice Queen,” he said as he held up a hand. 

Aurora glared at the Obstagoon as if he were a petulant child. “Don’t call me Ice Queen.” 

 

“Nah wait,” Obsidian piped up as he started walking backwards to face the two. “I’m liking the sound of that. It’s like a codename… Wait, do we all get codenames?!” 

“No,” Titania tiredly said, wanting nothing more than to leave the dreary town. But she had orders to get necessary supplies from Ironpost before bringing the team to fight the shadows. 

 

“Ah come on!” Obsidian protested. “It’ll be fun!” 

“This isn’t supposed to be fun you twitchy imbecile,” Jade said, not bothering to look at the Lycanroc. 

 

Aurora raised a large paw to her temple and groaned before walking up towards the front of the group. Feeling a tap on her side, she looked down to see Jade.

 

The Gardevoir turned her head back towards Obsidian. “If this town has any, I will get you a beer.” 

 

The Lycanroc’s crimson eyes lit up, but soon saw Jade lift up a hand. “ If you can solve this riddle.” 

“Lay it on me,” he said with a wide grin.

“The sentence after this one is false. The sentence before was the truth.” 

 

Obsidian raised a claw in preparation to answer but found himself perplexed as he soon brought his paw to his chin. 

 

Aurora, Blake, and Titania each breathed a sigh of relief, silently thanking Jade for putting was likely a temporary stop to Obsidian’s blabbering.

 

Reaching their destination, Titania took a deep breath. She glanced back at the group of criminals before staring at the door in front of her. 

 

“Drag them inside where they’ll make a mess of things… Or leave them out here… Unsupervised.”  

 

Shaking her head, Titania tapped on the large metal door with her wrench.

With a loud creak, the door opened to reveal a large Magmortar. The flame-bodied, duck-like figure stared down at Titania before looking at the four pokemon behind her. 

 

“Mind telling me what this shit is?” 

 

“Work stuff I’d rather not talk about,” the Tinkaton answered, only growing more annoyed.

---

 

The inside of the large house looked more like a workshop than a place somebody actually lived in. Stacks of ingots and metal shavings sat across the floor, while a Charmeleon worked the roaring Heatran-shaped forge in the far end of the room. 

 

“I thought I told you two to start cleaning!” the Magmortar barked at the Magmar and Monferno who were standing around.

 

The Magmar finched. “Dad, I was just-” 

“You said you and your friends wanted to work here, didn’t you? So quit screwing around.” 

 

Hanging his head in defeat, the Magmar shuffled away with the Monferno in tow. 

 

“Kids I tell ya,” the Magmortar said as he turned back to his ‘guests’. 

 

At the mention of this, Aurora lowered her head and clenched her paws as she glared down at Titania. 

 

The Magmortar stared at them for a second before letting out a sigh and walking deeper into the workshop. “So I assume you have business, right?” 

 

“Don’t touch or do anything,” Titania ordered before walking off. However despite this, Obsidian immediately grabbed an ingot off a pile and began inspecting it.

 

Once some more distance was put between her and the smaller, wrench-wielding pokemon, Aurora opened the door and stepped outside. The beartic stared out at the gloomy town, occasionally wiping her eyes with a large paw. This went on for a few more minutes until she heard the creak of the door behind her.

 

“Fucking hell, it’s stuffy in there!” she heard Blake say. “I’ll be honest, I thought it was just you being an ice type and all, but- What’s with you?” 

 

Aurora didn’t answer. 

 

“Look, if you’re gonna get all weird during this thing, it could fuck us all over later.”

 

“I’d argue that picking fights with the… less stable among us could do the same,” Jade piped up. 

“I did not start that,” he protested. 

 

“Yes, you did,” Aurora flatly chimed in. However her mind went back to thinking about the Magmortar and his son. 

 

“Do either of you have families?” 

 

A shocked Jade suddenly felt a burning in her throat, being caught off guard by the question. She instinctively reached for her bracelet, gently feeling over it with her fingers. 

 

Regaining her composure, Jade turned her head towards the Beartic. “Why do you ask?”

 

“Yeah, what are you on about?” Blake asked, holding out his claws. 

 

Realizing what she said, Aurora flinched and quickly reverted back to her more stoic demeanor. “Just curious.” 

 

A few long, awkward minutes passed between the three before Something caught their attention.

---

 

“What’s he doing?” the Magmortar asked as he pointed towards Obsidian, the Midnight Lycanroc gnawing on the ingot he had been inspecting. 

 

Titania gave the rock type an annoyed glare before getting a better look at the bar of ore. It was the usual chrome she expected, but splotches of black with bleeding red edges stained the ingot. 

 

“What’s with the color?” She asked, turning towards the Magmortar. 

“New ore the team’s been digging up. Head of the dig team thinks it might be valuable and sends it here behind ol’ hothead’s back.”

 

The Magmortar crossed his arms as he turned to the side. “But it’s weird… it crumbles in the forge unless I mix it with iron. Never seen anything like it.”

“Just out of curiosity, what are its effects on the body?” Obsidian asked as he held up a paw. 

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

 

The Lycanroc grinned as the two recalled what he had been doing. Titania sighed, noticing the ingot was now missing. 

 

“You didn’t…” 

 

A small hiccup would be the only response she’d get from Obsidian. 

 

Turning her attention back to the Magmortar, Titania placed a hand on her temple. “So you do have what we talked about, right?” 

 

It was shortly after this, a loud rumbling coming from outside put Titania and Obsidian on high alert. 

 

“It’s probably just the team dragging something here again,” the Magmortar reasoned. “You get used to it.” 

 

Just after he said this however, a nearby window shattered as a shadowy claw followed by the head of a Baxcalibur burst through. But unlike the blue of a normal specimen, this one’s hide was ebony and maroon.

The shadow’s feral jaws snapped at the air as it tried to pull its way inside. But before it could,  Titania rushed towards the broken window with one swift movement and thrusted her large wrench into the reptile’s face, causing it to dissipate.

 

A wide smile crept onto Obsidian’s face as the Tinkaton leaned against the wall. 

 

“Finally, some fucking action!” he said as he rushed towards what was left of the window before jumping through it.

---

 

Outside, Ironpost was in chaos. But when the large rock the mining team brought in had started spilling a shadowy aura onto the snow covered ground, there was no immediate panic. Rather there was an air of curiosity amongst bystanders, as if they were waiting to see what would happen. However, they would soon get their answer as viscous bodies rose from the expanding puddle of darkness.

 

Now Aurora, Blake, and Jade watched as packs of feral shadows stampede towards them. 

 

“Behind me!” Jade called out before using Reflect, casting forward a large barrier of light. 

 

While it did hold back a number of the incoming shadow pokemon, the more agile among them were able to get around their defenses.

 

Leaping around and up towards Jade, a shadow Glaceon was about to bite down on her side before it was grabbed by Aurora. The shadow pokemon squirmed and writhed in her vice-like grip, several times trying to bite the Beartic. 

But with swift movement, Aurora tossed the small quadruped clear across the town square. 

 

“How in the hell are we supposed to kill all these things?!” Blake shouted, brandishing two silver spikes from his belts. 

 

“Like this,” Aurora said as she used Bulk Up. A reddish-orange aura covered her body as she broke from their formation. 

 

“What are you doing?! We need a plan!” Jade scolded. But her words fell on deaf ears as the Beartic stepped up to the Gardevior’s barrier. 

 

“Lower it.” 

 

“What?! No! We need a pla-” 

“I have one! Push them back and lower it!”

 

Jade grunted and scowled, using Psychic to push her Reflect along with the shadows behind it. When the barrier dissipated, a cold, cyan aura flooded over Aurora’s large paws. Grasping them together, the Beartic slammed down her paws as hard as he could. A burst of large icicles shot up from the ground, skewering most of the shadow pokemon in front of her.

A few managed to avoid being impaled by Aurora’s icy spears. But the remaining stragglers however were quickly dispatched as Blake tossed his silver spikes in the spaces between their eyes.

 

“That wasn’t a plan. It was an idea,” Jade remarked. 

“Yeah. A good idea,” Blake said before a blur of red and black swept past the other shadows, tearing each of them apart with vicious swipes of their claws. 

 

The others stopped to look at the panting Lycanroc who was grinning with maddened glee. Obsidian then began to laugh maniacally as the shadow staining his arms spread across his red and white fur. 

 

He slammed his paws on the ground, summoning a series of serrated, black stalagmites with pulsing red veins. Each one pierced up and into surrounding shadow pokemon around him, not even giving them a chance to fight back. 

 

“Stygian stalagmites, I call upon thee! To smite and sunder my foes into pieces of three!”

 

Blake stood in awe and horror at what became of Obsidian. “What in the fu-” 

 

Before he could finish, a pink, sparkling sphere of energy shot past his head, and into an ebony stained Cryogonal. 

 

“Pay attention!” Jade ordered. “I’m not dying because you decided to get careless-” 

 

A distorted screech rang out from behind her. Turning around, she saw a shadow Glalie dissipating after Blake threw a spike at a gap in its icy armor. “Back atcha.” 

 

However, the Cyogonal behind Blake was still standing. As it floated back up, icy blades sprouted from the edges of its snowflake-like form. Spinning rapidly, the Cryogonal turned on its side and charged towards Jade. 

Holding out her hand, a wave of psychic energy stopped the ice type in their tracks. Using Psychic to forcefully spin her adversary, Jade pointed them towards the other shadow pokemon.

 

“It now seems I have an idea,” she thought. 

 

Using the Cryogonal as an improvised saw blade, Jade began to mow her way through the shadows and towards the puddle of darkness surrounding the mysterious rock. 

 

“The two of you cover me!” she yelled towards Aurora and Blake. 

 

By the time the three made it to the source of the shadows, Aurora and Blake stood by Jade as she used the still spinning Cyogonal to cut at the shadowy stone. This had begun to work at first, until it got stuck in place and was unable to cut further. 

 

“Dammit!” Jade hissed before a wave of darkness pushed the trio back and onto the ground.

 

While pulling themselves up, they watched as the surrounding shadow pokemon started disappearing. 

 

“Did we do it? Aurora asked, as the stone began to crack. 

“Fucking hope so… Running out of spikes,” Blake complained. 

 

“You just missed a hell of a ride,” the Obstagoon remarked as Titania ran up towards the group. 

 

“We’re not done here,” grumbled Titania. 

“The job was to kill the shadows, wasn’t it?” Aurora protested. 

 

“It is. And now I think I know where they’re coming from.” 

 

The Tinkaton then held out a shard of what looked like a piece of the large, dark rock. “This was in the back of one of the shadows’ necks. 

 

“So, we’re going into the mine I assume…” Jade said, crossing their arms. 

 

The group then turned towards the large mineshaft at the edge of the town, at least until Obsidian leapt up onto the large piece of ore. He lifted his still shadowy paw above his eyes as he surveyed the area. The state of his arms however did not go unnoticed by the others though, as they all stared at him with shock and confusion.

 

“Looks like we didn’t kill them all,” Blake said, brandishing one of his spikes as the others readied themselves for a fight. Picking up on this, Obsidian leapt off the rock and turned towards them with a curious look on his face. 

 

“What’s with this?” he asked, pointing at them. 

“What’s with that?!” Blake shot back. 

 

“This genius swallowed an iron bar with some of that dark stuff in it,” Titania said, glaring as she lowered her wrench. 

 

Hearing this, Blake, Aurora, and Jade turned their attention towards the Lycanroc. 

 

Blake pointed his weapon at his teammate. “What in the fuck is actually wrong with you?” 

Meanwhile Obsidian felt around his trim, white-furred stomach for the ingot. “Yeah, no one’s really clear on that,” he casually said. 

 

“Why is he even here?” the Gardevior inquired. 

“Look, I didn’t pick the team,” Titania groaned. 

 

“So you fucking ate it?” Blake asked, as he and the others stared at Obsidian. 

“Not on purpose!” The Lycanroc argued as he flexed his shadowy digits before once again rubbing a paw over his stomach. “But I’ll admit, not my best move… That’s gonna be a pain coming out.” 

 

“At least we know what this shadow ore does now,” Titania groaned.  

 

“Well if you thought that all was fun, you should see what’s up next!” Obsidian piped up. 

“What are you talking about?” Aurora asked, crossing her arms. 

“Aye! This be just the first wave!” the Lycanroc said, hopping back on the chunk of ore. 

 

Aggressively sniffing at the air, Obsidian narrowed his gaze towards the nearby woods by the mine as he leaned forward. “Somethin’ big is comin’… I can feel it.” 

 

As the others looked towards the woods, they saw nothing. But after a few seconds, they felt it. A sense of unease that poured out of the forest. 

 

Aurora could feel the same malicious aura she had sensed from the stone when they had first arrived. More agonizing seconds passed until an echoing roar reverberated through the now much colder winds. The five stood on guard as a rhythmic thumping sounded in the distance as something escaped the treeline. 

 

To everyone’s surprise, it was a Beartic. But unlike Aurora, its fur was black as night and its murderous gaze was a bright crimson. A large, crystalline shard of shadow ore jutted from its left shoulder, emanating a pulsing red aura. The shadow was a fair amount taller then Aurora as well. Its fur and limbs were thicker, and its breath heavy as it heaved frigid air from its frozen maw.

They watched in stunned silence as the Shadow Beartic looked straight towards them, having found its next targets. With a focused, but feral gaze, it lowered to all fours and began charging straight toward them. 

 

“Everyone, behind me!” Jade shouted as she used Reflect. 

 

Pushing herself, the Gardevoir created two more layers over what she had already raised. However once the shadow was close enough, they leapt up into the air and over the barriers. Landing behind them, the five were met with a tempest of stinging cold as if Kyurem itself had brought judgment upon them. 

 

Titania used her massive wrench as an anchor as their adversary’s Blizzard had sent all but her and Aurora flying past the chunk of shadow ore. Standing behind it, Titania tried to think of what to do, however Aurora decided to take action into her own paws as she took heavy, determined steps towards the shadow.

While she didn’t receive too much damage on the count of being an ice pokemon, she could still feel the shards of ice pelting and cutting at her through the rushing wind. Quickly raising her arms above her head, a cold, cyan aura covered them as ice began to crystallize. From that, icy gauntlets formed over Aurora’s paws.

 

Bringing them together, she then slammed them down onto the shadow Beartic’s head with all the force she could muster. They shattered as her umbral doppelganger crumbled to the ground, bringing the battle to an end. 

 

Aurora panted heavily as she stared down at the shadow until a thought quickly came to mind. 

 

“It’s not vanishing…”

 

In one swift motion, the shadow grabbed Aurora’s leg, taking her by surprise and pulling her down to the ground. As it climbed over her, Aurora did her best to hold them back, but they were stronger than she anticipated. Something had to give, and in this case it was her arm. Managing to push past, the shadow lunged forward and bit down on her left shoulder.

Aurora let out a bestial roar in response before using Slash on the shadow’s side. This however only made it bite down harder. This went on for what felt like an eternity until the shadow quickly let go and stumbled back. Taking the opportunity, Aurora kicked them off and quickly realized why they had backed off. Within the shard on its shoulder, a silver spike lay embedded in its surface. 

 

A lavender aura covered her body as Aurora felt herself being pulled back. Jade soon stood over her as Obsidian charged towards the shadow Beartic. A dark red stain spread across her indigo vest, as she pulled herself up. 

 

“Not your first time I assume?” the Gardevoir asked. 

Aurora snarled, trying not to focus on the pain. “It’s never been this bad before.”

 

Obsidian was darting around as the shadow repeatedly swung at him. The Lycanroc’s shadow-stained arms shifted into massive claws as he grabbed the umbral Beartic’s sides. Pulling down, Obsidian simultaneously used Stone Edge beneath himself. Using the rising pillar of stones as a platform, the Lycanroc shot up onto the shadow’s upper body.

 

Blake and Titania watched as the two were trying to rip each other apart, the black-furred Beartic stumbling around erratically as they struggled to throw Obsidian off. 

 

With that, Titania rushed forwards and swung her wrench at the beartic’s leg, allowing Obsidian to get a better grasp around their neck. The Lycanroc then opened his jaws as wide as he could, snapping them down on the shadow’s head. 

However the tables were soon turned as they grabbed Obsidian, pulling him off and tossing him at Blake who was trying to line up a good shot. The two were sent flying into the side of a cabin before their assailant charged towards them on all fours. 

 

Blake dove out of the way, leaving Obsidian attempting to hold back the bear’s jaws. 

 

“Fuck you, Blake!”

 

The Obstagoon ignored this however, picking up a chain that was knocked off the wall in the collision. On its end was a hook, giving him an idea. 

Blake swung the chain around before letting go, causing the hook to slam into the Shadow Beartic’s back. “Hey ladies! Could use your help here!” he shouted as the shadow began to thrash around. 

 

Before the Obstagoon could lose his grip on the chain, a lavender aura appeared, holding it in place. He craned his neck to see Jade concentrating on using Psychic, and Aurora and Titania rushing towards the shadow. 

 

The Tinkaton attacked with Brutal Swing, her wrench glowing with a red aura before sweeping it across the shadow Beartic’s legs. Obsidian opportunistically wheeled and onto the back of his assailant’s thick neck, putting them in a choke hold as Jade bound their arms with the rest of the chain.

 

Aurora raised her good arm before an icy gauntlet formed over her paw. She slammed it down on the shard on the shadow’s shoulder as hard as she could, the force of the Ice Punch causing the shadow to roar in pain and toss Obsidian off. Ice crystallized over her left paw as she held the shadow’s head down as she continued to smash her fist into them. With each strike to the shard, it further fractured into countless more pieces. After a few moments, there was nothing left of the crystal. 

 

With a weak growl, the Beartic collapsed to the ground. It lay limp, its body beginning to dissipate. The group watched as its body turned into a black smoke, leaving only the remnants of ore behind.

 

Aurora gasped for air, growling each heavy exhale. As the adrenaline wore off, the sharp pain in her shoulder returned, causing her to drop to her knees, the Beartic grimaced as she looked up to see the others staring at her. 

 

“Did you really have to kill it so fast?” Obsidian asked as he pulled himself up. “I wasn’t done with it yet.”

 

Titania picked up one the largest fragments of shadow ore before turning towards the huge chunk sitting in the middle of the town. The two pulsated in sync with a dull, red glow.

 

“Obsidian, go smash that thing,” the Tinkaton said as she pointed at the piece of ore. 

 

The Lycanroc groaned as he began walking towards it. “I get the next take down, you kill stealing-” 

“Now, Obsidian!” She yelled, following him as she held up the control orb.

 

“This place have anywhere to drink?” Blake asked as he picked up his chain. 

Jade gave the Obstagoon a strange look. “Is that all you can think about right now?” 

“Please, after all of this? I’m surprised you’re not.”

 

Pulling herself up, Aurora looked over the state of the town. It was an all too familiar sight of damaged homes and splotches of crimson staining the snow covered ground. It made her angry. Angry that the guild would rather send them to deal with this then do it themselves, and more so that it took them this long in the first place.

 

Turning towards Titania, the Beartic was about to give the Tinkaton a piece of her mind until Jade marched past her. 

 

She stopped, glanced at Aurora, and held up her hand. “I recommend you have that looked at.”

 

“Look at it all,” Aurora said, ignoring her shoulder. “And of course the guild will do nothing.”

 

Soon, some of the town’s residents began to approach Aurora. However an angry few led by a Rhyperior went right past her, and straight for Titania. 

 

As he watched Obsidian chip away at the rock, the large, stone-skinned reptile stomped the ground to get their attention. “What do you think you’re doing?!” 

“Deposing dangerous material,” Titania replied with her best professional demeanor. 

 

“Is that so?” the Rhyperior asked as his clubbed tail thumped against the ground. 

 

Titania looked at the team of rock types and sighed. “I’m not sure if you saw, but this ore is responsible for the shadow’s attack on the town.”

The Rhyperior froze as his team’s gaze shifted away. “I see… Well in that case, rather than destroy it, how ‘bout we make a deal?” 

 

Titania raised a brow at his suggestion. 

 

Putting his hands together, the Rhyperior continued. “Surely since the guild is so concerned with the Shadow situation, they’d want to research as much as they can about-” 

“Whatever this is, just get on with it,” Titania groaned. 

 

The Rhyperior huffed, but otherwise complied as his more pleasant attitude crumbled. “We’d be happy to sell this and any other samples to the guild… For research of course.”

 

As much as the prospect of researching the shadow ore intrigued her, the Tinkaton had a strong feeling Pyre and the council wouldn’t approve. “Especially with how much they’re spending on maintaining the city walls.”  

 

“I’ll think about it.” 

 

The Rhyperior’s face morphed into a scowl as he turned his head, the words souring his mood. “You know, I remember one of you guys said the same thing back when we proposed a new trade deal with the city. Last year .” 

 

He and his team began to walk away, causing Titania to sigh and massage her temple. 

 

“What’d you guildies do to piss ‘em off so much?” Obsidian asked. 

Titania whipped around to face the Lycanroc. “I swear to Arceus, if you don’t shut your fucking mouth right now-” 

 

Obsidian silently hopped off the large rock, before landing to the side and sitting in the snow. 

 

The Tinkaton raised a brow. “What are you doin-” 

 

Just as the words left her mouth, the chunk of ore exploded. Either out of instinct, or the sheer force of the blast, Titania quickly found herself on the ground.

 

Pulling herself up, the Tinkaton frantically glanced around. Her eyes settled on the Rhyperior with his arms out, in the same place they presumably were when he destroyed the ore. 

 

“Rock Wrecker?” she thought as she tried to pinpoint the move he had used.

 

“What the hell?!” 

“We don’t have any more business here,” the Rhyperior coldly stated before stomping off.

 

A loud bang sounded as Titania slammed her wrench into a shard of ore, causing others to crane their necklaces in surprise. The shard flew away before Obsidian smashed more of the remnants into dust.

 

“Well at least one of them’s happy,” Blake remarked. 

“I thought you didn’t care for the Lycanroc?” Aurora asked, her vest draped over her right side as an Abomasnow from the town wrapped bandages over her shoulder. 

“I don’t. But somethin’ tells me the small one being pissy’s gonna be bad for our health.” 

 

Jade reflexively touched the front of her collar before reading a sigh. “As much as I hate to say it, I agree. Titania in a bad mood is just a problem for everyone involved.” 

 

As they were talking, a thought crossed Aurora’s mind. While Ironpost was a good way south of her hometown, it was still within a day’s walk. Looking down at where the shadow once laid, she remembered that a Beartic’s claw marks and the word of the surviving guild member were what was used as evidence against her before all of this. 

 

“Surely it couldn’t,” she thought. 

 

“Oi, Ice Queen! Anyone in there?” Blake said as he snapped his claws at the Beartic. 

 

Aurora looked over at the Obstagoon and swatted them away. 

 

“What?” she grumbled.” 

“I said, what do you think we should do about Pissed Off in Pink over there?” 

 

Aurora thought for a moment before gritting her teeth. “I think I’ll join you for that drink.”