Chapter 15: Ghosts Fighting Ghosts
by poper466Heads up, this one starts pretty similarly to the last one, so uh if it looks like I posted chapter 14 twice I didn’t, don’t let me repeatedly throwing weird dream stuff in your face deceive you!
Time Unknown
Joseph’s Dream Space
Joseph once again awoke in the dream space, this time the space took inspiration from the mirror garden Joseph had found himself in a few hours ago, or at least he thinks it was a few hours ago, it’s kinda hard to tell when you’re not exactly in reality.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” Joseph called out into the void, expecting to hear back from his mother in a few seconds.
Nothing… Not a peep…
“Hello?”
Still nothing… It seems that his mother would not be joining him this time.
“Uh, ok then, I guess I’ll just have a look around…”
So look Joseph did, he traveled over the flowing river he observed from last time and over to a large mirror peaking out of the side of a giant rock, he took a closer look at the mirror and noticed a familiar figure in a yellow hoodie talking to a tall masked woman.
“Everything is going fine ma’am.” Christian said.
“You haven’t been tampering with the subject, have you?” A distorted voice asked.
“Nope, not at all, any extra weirdness is probably the result of time-space instability.”
The masked woman didn’t seem convinced, “Are you absolutely sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure, the laws of time and space seem to merely be a suggestion in their current state.”
The woman slapped her inferior across the face, “Don’t lie to me! I know you meddled! Admit it!”
“What the hell is wrong with you!?” Christian blurted as he rubbed his cheek, “You can’t just go around abusing your workers like that!”
“I can and will, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”
“Look, I knew you were sick, but I didn’t think you were this bad, how can you call yourself the head of the peacekeepers when you’re an abusive prick!?”
“Because the only ones who’ve seen my true self are you insolent idiots, now stop giving the subject lifelines and just let them die already!”
The masked woman walked off, leaving Christian standing alone, “I can’t wait to destroy her and take ownership of this organization, that way, I can restore order and help it live up to its name.”
Joseph stared in awe at the mirror, ‘W-was that real?’
“I still can’t believe I have to put up with this crap, I mean, after all I’ve done for this train wreck of an organization you’d think I’d get a bit of leeway, but no, apparently murdering a young adult in the most roundabout way possible is this stupid company’s top priority.” Christian paused to sigh, “Joseph doesn’t deserve this, he’s a good kid, he doesn’t deserve to go on some fruitless quest just to die without a trace…”
Christian shook his head and began looking at the ground, “No, that’s not gonna be his fate, I don’t care if I have to tear reality apart to save him, I’m gonna do it!”
‘S-so let me get this straight, the IDPK want me dead!? And Christian’s been trying to help me this whole time!? But why!?’ Joseph thought.
Suddenly, Joseph felt a gust of wind blow by, the next thing he knew, a massive windstorm picked him up and dragged him out of his dreams before he could dwell on it too much.
February 5th, 7:00 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
Cinder was on top of Joseph’s bed trying to wake Joseph up, “Hey, wakey wakey! We’re back! Do you want some food?”
“Ugh… I just had the weirdest dream…” Joseph groaned.
Cinder giggled a bit, “It happens, I had a dream where my flames were replaced with ice, that was weird.”
“N-no, I’m not talking about weird as in goofy weird, I’m talking weird as in if this was real then that makes things super worrying weird.”
“Oh, so like that dream Rory had about being a zombie?”
“Kinda, I’ll explain it later.” Joseph said as his stomach rumbled, “Food sounds nice right about now, has Vulcan started making anything yet?”
Cinder shook her head, “Nope, he actually told me to wake you up.”
“Why’s that?”
“So he could ask you what he should make silly!”
“Oh, I see, he’s gonna make me my comfort food, that’s nice of him, but why, aren’t I just another weak human in his eyes?”
“I- uh, I’m not actually sure, maybe you could ask him.”
“Well, uh, I can’t.”
“Huh!? Why not!?”
“I can’t walk.”
“O-oh, I uh, forgot about that heh heh…” Cinder said as she rubbed the side of her head awkwardly.
“Can you go get Midnight for me?”
“Sure, I’m, uh, not sure that’s gonna help, but I’ll go get her.”
Cinder went to leave the room when Midnight came flying through one of the walls, “I’m here!”
“Cool, can you carry me to Vulcan please?”
“You got it cap!”
Joseph was once again lifted by Midnight’s psychic power, catching Cinder off guard, “Woah! Since when were you a psychic?”
“Uh, since I hatched? My father is a Delphox remember?”
“O-oh, right…”
Midnight lifted Joseph up into the air and the trio left the room, they walked into the lounge where Vulcan was preparing to cook literally anything that Joseph could think of, “Let’s see, I’ve got my trusty pan here, what else do I need?”
“Hey Vulcan, we have Joseph here!” Cinder announced.
“Oh, that’s right! The human! He needs to tell me what to make after all!” Vulcan exclaimed as he turned to Joseph.
“U-uh, I’m not exactly sure what I want, I’m still not too well versed on food in this world.” Joseph responded.
“It’s not about that, it’s about what food you’re used to, so what’s your comfort food?”
“Well soup is one of them, but I just had soup a few hours ago, so… Oooh! Pizza! It’s a bit of a basic pick, but it’s always nice when I’m feeling down!”
“Y’know, I’ve been craving a bit of pizza recently too, that’s not a bad choice.”
Joseph raised a nonexistent eyebrow, “Wait, there’s nothing weird about that?”
“No, why would there be?”
“W-well, I just thought since cheese is made from milk- n-never mind.”
Yeah, I expect to get a lot of confused glances for making meat taboo but not milk, uh, I’ll probably explain myself at some point, wait, I’m breaking the fourth wall again, aren’t I? *Sigh* Sorry about that…
Vulcan just shrugged and continued on as if Joseph hadn’t said anything, “I’ll get to making some fresh pizza pies for everyone, you just go lie back down, I’ll bring you your food when it’s ready.”
“Alright, Midnight, take me back.”
“On it!” Midnight bubbled as her flame flared up.
One trip back to Joseph’s room later and Joseph noticed a whole bunch of uninvited, yet welcome guests in his room, Yumi sat in one corner chatting with Specter while the two hugged their neck fluff, while Stumpy sat in another corner, tapping his tail as he sat on the floor, “O-oh, sorry, we probably should’ve asked before barging in here.” Stumpy apologized as he lowered his head.
“I-it’s fine, you guys don’t make me uncomfortable, so you aren’t hurting me or anything.” Joseph responded as Midnight dropped him onto his bed.
“Phew, that’s good…”
“So, uh, what’re you guys doing in here?”
“Well I’m here to hear about how Cinder and Vulcan got the Spooky Plate.”
“Hey! I helped too!” Tiny said as she peeked out of Cinder’s bag, “I was actually the one who Giratina gave the plate to!”
“Yup, she was given the plate, then she took it back to my bag.” Cinder confirmed, “I’ve even got it right here!” She continued as she pulled the plate out of her treasure bag
Joseph grabbed the plate feebly and began reading the text inscribed on the back, “The other side of this world was given by the Original One to its raging third.”
“Huh?” Cinder questioned, “What’s that mean?”
“It’s written on the plate, it refers to Arceus giving the Distortion World to Giratina or something.”
“Oh… That makes a lot of sense.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ll explain it when Vulcan brings us our food.”
25 minutes later, Vulcan arrived with a nice cheesy pizza, making sure to deliver within 30 minutes as to retain his professionalism, as for why the delivery took 25 minutes? Well, he had to make enough pizza for everyone obviously! Vulcan held the pizza in his trusty frying pan, which had more than a few dents in it, he set the pan down on Joseph’s nightstand and began cutting the pizza up into slices, once the pizza was cut, he pulled out some paper plates from his bag and handed everyone two slices each, “Alright everyone! Dig in!”
Cinder took a massive chomp out of her first slice of pizza as she began to scarf down her meal, meanwhile, Joseph savored his pizza as if it were a tiny slice of his home given to him in edible form, which in a way it was. Once everyone had their food, Vulcan took a seat next to Yumi and Specter, Yumi was a little hesitant to eat her pizza, but Specter was trying his best to comfort her, “C’mon, it’s good, I promise.”
“S-sorry, it’s just I-I’m not that used to trying new foods.” Yumi quavered as she held her pizza close to her face.
Vulcan attempted to place a paw on her back before realizing she was a ghost, “Trust me Yumi, it’s gonna be tasty! I would know, I made it!”
“I don’t doubt your abilities, I just, I’ve never had pizza before.”
“Oh, well pizza’s one of those foods that almost everyone likes, just give it a try, chances are you’ll like it too!”
“A-alright.” Yumi shivered as she brought the pizza slice closer to her mouth.
Yumi hesitantly took a bite of the pizza, after letting the taste sink in she let out a sigh before continuing to eat her meal, “See? I told you it was good!” Vulcan chirped.
“Thanks for comforting me guys, I get really uncomfortable when it comes to food, I often just eat the same stuff all the time.”
“Oh, don’t mention it,” Specter responded as he waved a paw at Yumi, “I used to be the same way before-” He cut himself off with a shudder before changing the subject, “S-so, Vulcan, you wanna start story time? Or should I do it?”
Vulcan was a little caught off guard by Specter’s sudden topic change, but he didn’t feel like prying, “Alright, lemme get everyone’s attention.”
Vulcan got up from his seat before clearing his throat, “Ahem, shall we begin talking about our day?” Vulcan asked as he stared at Cinder.
“O-oh, yeah, I got so caught up in talking with Joseph about food that I almost forgot that’s what we came here for.” Cinder said, “Do you wanna do the honors?”
“Sure!”
“H-hold on, before we begin, can we turn the lights out?” Joseph asked, “I think it’d be cool to just chill, in the dark.”
“That’s fine,” Vulcan replied, “someone get the lights!”
Midnight appeared at the light switch and flicked it off, she bowed before disappearing back to wherever she came from.
Disregarding what just happened, Vulcan began explaining the events that transpired earlier that day, “So it all started after breakfast…”
February 5th, 8:00 am
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Vulcan had just finished cooking breakfast for everyone, he was making his way back to his room when Cinder stopped him, “Hey, we’re meeting up in Specter’s room.” She informed him.
“O-ok, what’s with the sudden change in plans? I thought we said we’d meet in our room?”
“Well, that was the original plan, but Specter said we should probably think more carefully about what plate we chase after.”
“Oh, I see, so we’re gonna think this through instead of just running in flames blazing?”
“That’s plan A, you already know what plan B is.”
“Running straight in and brute forcing our way through whatever trials are thrown our way?”
“Kinda, I mean there’s more to it than that, but yeah, you got the gist of it.”
“Heh, I know you all too well.”
The siblings made their way into Specter’s room and sat by the table, Specter was pondering the crystal ball before noticing the pair was staring at him, “O-oh, hey guys.”
“Hey Specter, uh, I never really got the chance to apologize for hitting you with that Fire Blast that one time.” Cinder said as she scratched her head awkwardly.
“It’s alright, I deserved it.” Specter sighed, “It gave me a bit of a necessary reality check, besides, I got to meet you guys because of it didn’t I?”
“I guess that’s fair.” Cinder replied with a relieved sigh.
“Hold on, you hit Specter with a Fire Blast!?” Vulcan blurted.
“Yeah, he was holding the entire town hostage, turns out just saying you’re related to a human is enough to scare the daylights out of most folks in this world, it begs the question though, why aren’t they afraid anymore?” Cinder asked.
Specter shook his head and sighed, “They all just kinda laugh now, before giving a sigh of relief anyway…”
“Well that doesn’t really matter right now, we should be planning out what we’re doing today.” Vulcan reminded the duo.
“I have a good feeling about the Spooky Plate, let’s go after that one.”
“Hold on, shouldn’t we put more thought into this before we just dive into a dungeon head first?” Voiced a very concerned-looking Cinder.
“We’ll be fine.” Specter assured her, “Just trust me.”
“Uh, ok I guess?”
Just then, Tiny popped out of Cinder’s bag, “WHY DO YOU TRUST HIM!?”
“I don’t know, I just have this gut feeling, y’know?”
“No, I don’t know! I don’t have guts!”
“Sucks to suck I guess.” Specter said, “I also have a gut feeling that things are gonna go smoothly.”
“Ugh, whatever, I’ll go with your stupid ‘gut feeling’ Just don’t make me regret this.”
“You won’t, trust me, everything will be nice and peachy.”
Vulcan wanted to comment about Specter’s strange word choice there but decided against it in favor of asking a more important question, “So where is the Spooky Plate located?”
Specter pulled up his watch and showed it to Vulcan, “The map marker says it’s on one of the StepStone Isles, I’ve heard rumors about strong Pokémon living there, but not much else.”
“Well I guess the rumors are true if there’s a plate resting on one of the isles, but how are we gonna get there?” Cinder said as she brought one of her nubby little arms to her chin.
“Maybe we can ask Mesprit?”
“She’s probably busy making sure Fiora doesn’t find her plate.”
“True… Maybe we can just take a ferry over there?”
Vulcan shook his head, “I don’t think there’s a single ferry that could take us there and back for a reasonable price, and that’s assuming they know how to get there in the first place.”
“Welp, I’m out of ideas!”
Cinder thought for a moment before realizing something, “Hey wait a sec, Lanturn told me about the StepStone Isles before, maybe he knows a way there!”
“Alright, let’s go ask him then!” Specter bubbled as he grabbed his bag and headed for the door.
February 5th, 9:05 am
SurfSpark Guild – Guildmaster’s Quarters
Coast Continent
Cinder led her team into the Lanturn’s pad, the group immediately noticed a team of Pokémon chatting with Nail and Lanturn, the team was peppered with scrapes, bruises, and other minor injuries even though most of them were tough rock types, well that was aside from a Scyther who looked about as out of place as a fish in the desert, what didn’t look out of place however was the frown on her face.
“I don’t think things are really panning out…” The Scyther sighed as she lowered her blades, “Team Granite is built around everyone dishing out massive hits in a slow yet methodical rhythm, meanwhile, I’m over here hitting my opponents with weak but ceaseless flurries until I get clobbered, then the rest of the team follows suit…”
Lantern placed a fin on Scyther’s shoulder, “Scyther, it sounds like you’re just having a hard time adjusting to their strategies, maybe you should give it a little longer before you throw in the towel.”
“It’s been 2 years! And I still can’t adjust!”
“Well maybe you could try evolving.”
“Becoming a Scizor wouldn’t change anything, I’m just too fast and too frail…”
Cinder couldn’t put a digit on why, but she felt like she was forgetting something as the two continued, ‘Didn’t Joseph mention something about Scyther at one point?’ She mused.
Then it hit her, “Wait! I might have something that can help you!” Cinder shouted from the other side of the room.
Vulcan covered Cinder’s mouth, “Excuse her, she’s just getting a little impatient.”
Cinder threw Vulcan’s paw off of her face, pulled out the little shard of Black Augurite, and continued speaking, “I’ve heard rumors that this stone can make Scyther evolve into a new species of Pokémon.”
“You did?” Lanturn questioned as he shot Cinder a confused look.
Nail noticed where this was going, “Wait, you seriously found a piece of Black Augurite!?”
“Yep! I think anyway.” Cinder replied, “I’ve actually had it for a while, I wasn’t sure what it was until Joseph told me.”
“Well, that should fix Scyther’s problem here.”
Lanturn flickered the lights on his head before butting in, “Hold on, is this another one of your tall tales?”
Nail rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, “For the last time they’re not tall tales!”
“Prove it then.”
“Fine then!” Nail snapped as he swiped the rock from Cinder’s grasp, “You ready Scyther?”
“Um, I’m not exactly sure-“
“Great!” Nail bubbled as he placed the stone on Scyther’s blade.
Suddenly, bright light enveloped Scyther, blinding everyone in the room, when the light dispersed Scyther was nowhere to be seen, in her place stood a bug coated in a thick layer of rock with stones that resembled the one Nail had given Scyther, and in place of where Scyther’s blades would have been stood two giant stone axes.
Lanturn couldn’t believe his eyes, “Woah dude! That’s like totally wicked!”
“I TOLD YOU I WASN’T MAKING IT UP!” Nail shouted as he basked in the glory of his ‘I told you so’ moment.
While the two were bantering Scyther, now a Kleavor was still sitting in confusion, “W-what are you two going on about?”
Cinder walked up to Kleavor and presented her mirror, “Here, you might want to take a look.”
Kleavor peeked into the mirror and jumped back, “THAT’S ME!?” She shouted as she lifted her massive stone axes into the air, “I LOOK SO SCARY! I LOVE IT!”
Kleavor’s stone axes hit the ground with a loud thud as she went to go show her new form to her teammates, who had all left the room right around when Nail gave Kleavor the stone, much to Cinder’s dismay, “WAIT! I Gotta get this for my Pokédex! Crud… She’s gone…”
Vulcan placed a paw on one of Cinder’s back spots, “Well… There’s always later I guess… For now, let’s just focus on our mission.”
“Oh right…”
February 5th, 8:08 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
“Wait, so I was right?” Joseph asked.
“Yup, my little lucky stone was indeed Black Augurite!” Cinder said with the happiest little smile she’s smiled in months. (Gives off ^_^ vibes in case you were curious).
(Idk why I put so much detail into that)
“Wow, maybe my lucky charm will come in handy too.” Joseph thought aloud as he pulled his Shiny Charm out, “Eh, probably not, but just having it makes me happy in an indescribable way.”
Cinder’s smile faded a bit as she rolled her eyes under her eyelids, “I still think it was a waste of Poké.”
“Eh, you’re probably right… Can we just continue the story?’
Cinder’s smile perked back up as she nodded her head, “Alright.
February 5th, 9:30 am
SurfSpark Guild – Guildmaster’s Quarters
Coast Continent
Once everyone had recovered from the shock of Scyther’s evolution, Cinder and Vulcan approached Lanturn with their question, “Hey, surfer boy, rumor has it you’ve been to the StepStone Isles, do you know how we can get there?” Vulcan asked.
Lanturn’s eyes shot wide open once again, but this time it was accompanied by a toothy smile, “Oh boy do I! Wait here while I go get my stuff dudes!”
Lantern swam over to a Warp Panel and disappeared briefly, Vulcan began tapping his feet while he and his team waited for Lanturn’s return.
A few moments later, Vulcan was hit in the face with a surfboard designed to look like a Bruxish, Vulcan pulled the surfboard out of his face to reveal Lanturn staring at him with a huge smile on his face, “Surf’s up dude!”
February 5th, 9:41 am
Beachy Outskirts
Coast Continent
Lanturn took the team outside and prepared them for what was ahead, “Ok, so just get on the board and ride the waves out that way.”
“Uh, that’s not how waves work, genius.” Specter pointed out.
“I can make waves for you all, just ride them out there, oh, and try not to fall in.”
“W-wait, I’m not so sure about this!” Vulcan fretted, “If I fall in I’m dead! Like really dead!”
“Alright, don’t fall then!” Lanturn reiterated.
Cinder saw Vulcan’s worried expression and decided to help out, “Here, take this, you’ll be fine if you fall in.” She said as she placed her Ever Burn Charm on Vulcan’s neck.
“But what about you!?”
“Don’t worry about it! Adrenaline is what I live for!” Cinder shouted as she hopped on her Crawdaunt patterned surfboard.
Vulcan looked over at Specter and watched as he hopped on his surfboard, once he was on the board he pulled his Tera Scarf over his face, “I’m with ‘ya on that Cinder, Adrenaline helps me feel alive!”
Vulcan was still really nervous, but he figured this was the only way so… He reluctantly got onto his surfboard and got ready to surf to the isles.
“Ready dudes?” Lanturn asked as he readied his Surf.
“R-ready as I’ll ever be.” Vulcan stuttered, gulping heavily afterward.
“Alright! Surf’s up!”
Lanturn formed a massive wave, pushing the team out to sea on their boards, the next thing they knew the shore was out of view, “WOOOO!” Cinder exclaimed as she spread her arms wide, “This is AWESOME!”
Cinder’s enthusiasm wasn’t doing much for Vulcan’s nerves, he was still clinging to his board for dear life despite the charm Cinder had given him, only taking brief peeks at his teammates to make sure they hadn’t fallen off their boards, which thankfully nobody had, in fact, Specter managed to throw in a trick while he was at it, Cinder went to mimic this but by the time she had tried the trio had already hit land, so she just fell off the board and face-planted in the sand.
Once everyone was safely on land, Vulcan brushed the sweat from his forehead, “Phew… I was so scared that something bad was gonna happen…”
“Nope, we’re all good!” Cinder chirped, “Now we just gotta make sure we ended up in the right place.”, Cinder checked the map on her watch and sure enough, the team ended up on the right island, “Yep, we’re here!”
Vulcan took a look around the island before noticing a massive vortex jutting out of the ground behind the team, “Uh… Guys…? There’s a weird hole thing behind us.”
“Well, what are we waiting for!? Let’s hop in!” Cinder exclaimed as she continued to ride her adrenaline high.
“W-wait! I’m not sure that’s a good idea!”
Cinder disregarded Vulcan’s warning and dove straight into the vortex, Specter followed quickly after her, leaving Vulcan in the dust, ‘Great, I just can’t catch a break today can I?’ Vulcan thought before jumping into the vortex himself.
February 5th, TIME UNSTABLE
Distortion World
StepStone Isles – Distorted Isle
Vulcan landed unceremoniously on his face, when he picked himself back up he noticed that his surroundings were a little… Otherworldly… He noticed that he was sitting on one of many barren floating landmasses, but that was the least of his concerns, massive plants were reaching at least 10 to 15 in the air and waterfalls were flowing in all sorts of crazy directions, “W-what is this place!?”
Vulcan’s shouts caught Cinder’s attention, “Oh, hey Vulcan, we thought you were never gonna jump through there.”
“W-what!? I jumped in right after Specter!”
“Yeah, like 30 years after I did.” Specter interjected, “You need to work on your hesitation dude.”
“Ugh, whatever, let’s just get going…”
The group began walking for a bit when Cinder spotted a stone tablet that looked just like the one she had seen in the forest the day prior, “Hey! It’s a tablet! Maybe it’ll tell us where we are!”
“I sure hope so.” Vulcan said, “This place hurts my brain.”
Cinder walked up to the slate and inspected it closely, “FOOLISH MORTALS! YOU HAVE FOUND YOURSELF IN MY REALM! IF YOU CAN’T DEFEAT ME IN BATTLE, THEN YOU SHALL SPEND ETERNITY HERE WITH ME!” Cinder read.
“WHAT!?” Vulcan blurted, “WE’RE GONNA BE STUCK HERE!?”
“Hold on, there’s more,” Cinder said before continuing to read, “I’m warning you now, I’m a big scary ghost who will haunt you! I will not bake you cookies, do not listen to the lies of the other ghosts, signed Lady Giratina the tomboyish ghost.”
“I don’t think that makes things any better…” Vulcan groaned.
Specter started laughing hysterically, “Really!? You’re still taking them seriously after that last line!? It’s probably just a cheap spook meant to deter explorers, besides, if they really meant it then we’d be trapped here, but the vortex back is right behind us!”
Vulcan quickly turned around to fact-check what Specter had just said and sure enough, the vortex was still there, “W-well what if it’s just there so we have the option to turn back? Y’know, in case we don’t want to risk being trapped here?”
“I highly doubt it, usually in these kinds of scenarios escape is cut off.”
“Whatever… If we get trapped here, then I’m gonna spend the rest of eternity blaming you for our fate.”
“I’ll hold you to that, now let’s get going.”
Vulcan and Specter began walking for a bit before noticing Cinder was still staring at the stone tablet, “Hey sis, you comin’?” Vulcan asked.
Cinder kept sitting there for a moment before uttering, “Giratina’s a girl?”
“That’s what you’re concerned about!?”
“S-sorry, I-I just wasn’t expecting that, let’s just get going.”
The trio began walking again, that was until they reached the end of the floating island thing that they were standing on, “Now what?”
Cinder began eying the gap between the island they were standing on and the one immediately across from it, “I think I can make that jump.” She said.
“Oh nonononono, you are NOT jumping that, I’ve had enough stress for one day, you are not gonna-“
Cinder jumped across the gap with ease, it seemed that gravity’s influence didn’t matter too much here, it was as if she had left the atmosphere and entered space, “Hey! Check it out! It’s all spacey here!”
“Wow, you just jumped like really far!” Specter whooped, “I wanna try that!”
Specter jumped after Cinder and landed right beside her, “Wow! This place is super cool!” Cinder exclaimed, “Come on Vulcan! It’s your turn to jump!”
Vulcan hesitated for a second before taking a deep breath and jumping for the platform, he ended up overshooting it and landing on the one behind it, “W-woah, it’s like leapfrog on steroids!”
“See! There’s nothing to be worried about! This place is cool!”
The trio kept playing leapfrog on the floating islands for a bit until they reached a flat platform with a lot of room to run around, once they had all landed on it a ghostly barrier formed around them.
“W-what’s going on!?” Vulcan squeaked as he looked around frantically for a way out.
Cinder adopted a fighting position, “Looks like it’s time for a fight!”
“F-fight!?”
“Yup, get ready!”
Specter laughed and shook his head, “I swapped Quick Attack for Bite before we came here, poor ghosts won’t know what hit them.”
Tiny started shaking Cinder’s bag violently, once she was let out she hopped onto the ground and punched her gooey little fists together, “Alright, LEMME AT ‘EM!”
In the blink of an eye, the group was surrounded by ghosts, among the ghosts there were a couple of Gastly, A Misdreavus, a Haunter, a few Duskull, and a Sableye. The Sableye lunged at Vulcan, who jumped back quickly, he retaliated by shooting a circle of flames around his assailant, trapping them, he used the opportunity to look through his bag for items, eventually, he pulled out a bag of Gravelerocks and his trusty frying pan, ‘Perfect!’ He thought to himself.
The flames around the Sableye started to die out a bit, releasing the Sableye from his prison, the Sableye readied another attack only to get clocked on the head by a rock the size of a golf ball, it looked up to see Vulcan tossing a rock in one paw and holding his pan in another, the Sableye tried to make another move when Vulcan tossed the rock up into the air and struck it with his pan sending it barreling toward the Sableye once more, the stone hit him right on the dome, knocking him out.
Vulcan turned his attention to his teammates and caught a glimpse of Specter mauling one of the Duskull with Bite as he pinned him down (somehow). Tiny was holding her own as well, fending off the Haunter with her Flash Cannon and flat-out trivializing its Sludge Bombs with her steel typing, Cinder however was in big trouble, she had both Gastly, the Misdreavus, and the remaining Duskull all on her and they were hitting her quite a lot, that was until her scarf started glowing, “Oh gosh, here we go…”
“What do you mean ‘here we go’!?” Vulcan fretted, “What’s about to happen!?”
But before anyone could explain what was going on Cinder was snapped up by a cluster of crystals once the crystals dispersed Cinder emerged with a crystal crown with a giant ghost emerging from the center of it, there were also ghostly flames circling her, “Guess I’ll die…” Cinder sighed.
“Hold on, what the heck is going on!?”
“You remember that thing Joseph did when we had that tournament?” Specter asked.
“Yeah?”
“It’s that, but Cinder’s a ghost type now judging by her hat.”
“She’s a ghost!?”
“Yup, it’s only temporary, but she’s definitely a ghost now.”
Cinder’s wispy aura flared to life as balls of ghostly fire struck her opponents, knocking them all out in a cloud of glittery sparkles, once her opponents were down for the count she wiped her brow and sighed before speaking in an echoey and somewhat distorted version of her voice, “Phew… That could have gone very poorly had I not decided to try learning Tera Blast over Defense Curl…”
Cinder covered her mouth as her teammates looked at her, “Woah! Your voice!” Vulcan shouted, “It’s all ghostly!”
“Great… Now I have to deal with feeling a weird cold sensation and a weird ghostly voice, just great…” Cinder groaned.
“Oh, I was gonna ask about how being a ghost feels, I wasn’t really expecting it to feel cold of all things.”
“I feel cold and dead, that’s about all you need to know.”
“Well just flare up your flames! That’ll kill two birds with one stone, right?”
“Oh right, and I almost forgot…” Cinder said as she flared up her flames, “My flames are stained pinkish purple now.”
Vulcan stared at the dyed flames, “Woah! That’s a neat party trick! You gotta teach me that one!”
“It’s because I’m a ghost! There’s nothing to teach!”
“Oh, well uh… Is it bad that I kinda want to become a ghost now?”
Specter facepalmed, “Great, Vulcan went from fearing for his life to wanting to die, that’s just fantastic.”
Vulcan ignored Specter’s comment and kept thinking about how cool it would be to become a ghost, “Just think about it, walls would just be suggestions, I wouldn’t have to worry about dying all the time, oh and maybe this ol’ eye would start working again, that would be nice.”
“Look, if you want colored flames I can get you some fur dye for your flame spots, you don’t gotta die to dye if you know what I’m saying.”
Now it was Cinder’s turn to start ignoring things, she glossed right over Specter’s masterful speech skills and asked, “Wait, would that even work?”
Specter suppressed his disappointment and just answered Cinder’s question, “I’m pretty sure it would, I mean, I think I remember reading about that somewhere.”
“I’ll add it to my list of things to try later, let’s just keep moving.”
Tiny hopped back into Cinder’s bag, “Well said, lead the way sparkly ghost girl!”
Cinder closed the bag, “You’re going on time out for that one.”, she said as she looked at where Tiny was standing. She thought she could faintly hear Tiny sigh as she began pushing forward again.
The trio moved onward through the world of distorted horrors (Ok maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration), Cinder used her ghostly state to her advantage, floating over the gaps instead of jumping them, the others were trying to keep up, but Cinder’s ability to float was leaving them in the dust. That was until they reached another roadblock in the form of giant plants blocking the path forward.
“Uh, something tells me these plants aren’t gonna burn as easily.” Vulcan said as he eyed the plants.
Cinder adjusted her crown before asking, “What makes you say that?”
“They just look like they aren’t flammable, they’re too dark and too tall.”
Cinder readied her Flamethrower, “Nonsense, plants were born flammable, no matter the shape or size.”
Cinder’s Flamethrower connected with the giant stem, but it didn’t even singe it, it seemed Vulcan’s assumption was correct, “Darn, I was right…” Vulcan sighed, “Now what?”
“I guess I’ll just phase through and see if there’s something on the other side that can help us.”
Specter gave Cinder a gesture that resembled a thumbs up, “Alright, let us know if you see anything.”
Cinder had already crossed through the plant, but she peeked her head back through to say, “Alright!”
Cinder passed through the plant again and noticed a strange crater on the island, she stepped into it and the island began moving through the void, catching her off guard, “Wah! It’s moving!”
The island moved closer to another cluster of islands that seemed to lead somewhere significant, once it had stopped, Cinder could hear her brother shout out, “You did something!”
Cinder floated back through the fireproof plant and regrouped with her teammates, or at least she thought she did, then she noticed that they had already jumped on forward, “Guys! Wait up!”
The boys rushed ahead while Cinder did her best to play catch-up, that was until the trio reached another arena-like area, once they entered said arena, a ring of ghostly flames trapped them on the landmass, “Crap! Looks like we’re in for another fight!” Specter announced.
Purple flames started to surround Vulcan, “I-is anyone else starting to feel a bit weird?”
Tiny popped out of Cinder’s bag, similar purple flames surrounded her too, “W-what’s going on? Why do I feel so light-headed?”
Suddenly, a flare of yellow light appeared in Vulcan’s good eye, this unsettled Cinder so she decided to ask, “Uh, Vulcan are you good?”
Vulcan responded with a distorted cackle, “I’m better than good! I’m great!”
“Uh, big bro? Cut it out, you’re scaring me!”
“Don’t be afraid, I’ll make sure to kill you quickly!”
“Huh!?”
But before Cinder could get a grasp on what was going on she was surrounded by a Fire Spin, the flames were tinted a deep purple just like the ones that surrounded the arena. Cinder could faintly hear Specter growling, “Time for an exorcism you freak!” followed by what sounded like a frying pan hitting something.
Cinder braced herself to run through the flames when she was struck in the flank by a Flash Cannon, “Ack! What the!?”
She looked down to see Tiny staring her dead in the face with a beady red eye in place of her usual metallic black one, “Lay down sweetie, it’ll make my job a lot easier!”
Cinder grabbed Tiny and chucked her through the flames before diving through herself, but she was forgetting one key thing, ‘Wait am I still a fire type with this gem on my head?’
As she dove through the flames pain rushed through her entire body, it was like touching the sun itself, “OW! OW! HOT! HOT!”
Cinder doubled over in pain, burns coating her entire body, beside her lay Specter who had been very literally panned by Vulcan, “What’s wrong? Can’t handle the heat with your little princess crown on?” Vulcan’s possessor taunted.
Cinder tried to get up, but her body screamed in protest, “Ugh… It’s not a princess crown!”
“Heh, even in the face of death you still bark like a pathetic little puppy, when will there ever be a story where the hero just shuts up and accepts death!?”
Vulcan approached Cinder with his trusty pan in hand, ready to finish his sister off with a quick yet loud strike, meanwhile, Cinder was preparing to quickly move out of the way, but neither of them would get to make their moves as when Vulcan raised his pan it was shot out of his hand by a star.
Cinder looked to her left to see Specter standing up once again, “Did you really think that would be enough to take me out!?”
Vulcan rolled his eyes, it seemed the ghost possessing him had somehow managed to move his bad eye too, “Honestly yeah, I did, my bad for underestimating your stupidity I guess…”
Specter wasn’t offended by the ghost’s snarky remarks, in fact, he laughed, he laughed a lot actually, it was almost like he had used a Reviser Seed, “ME!? STUPID!? Are you sure you know who you’re talking about!?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then you might want to check your bag.”
Vulcan checked his bag, nothing was amiss, so he looked back up, that’s when he noticed that something WAS amiss, Specter had fooled him into giving him a window to heal Cinder, “GAH! CURSES! I’M THE IDIOT!”
“Sorry to break it to you?”
“I’m never gonna live this down, am I?”
“Eh, probably not, unless you find the Blast Seed I planted in your bag, then that’d make me the fool.”
“Wait, you really did put a Blast Seed in there!?” Vulcan said as he frantically searched through his bag.
Specter looked over at Cinder, trying desperately to hold in his laughter, “So uh, hehe, do you want to do the honors or, am *pft* am I gonna do it?”
“I got this.” Cinder sighed.
Cinder walked up to Vulcan and tapped him on the shoulder, “Hey, I uh, found the Blast Seed you were looking for.”
“Oh, uh, thanks.” Vulcan replied.
Then Cinder ate the Blast Seed and spat out a huge explosion in Vulcan’s face, causing him to collapse and spit out a cloud of smoke, once that had fully played out both Cinder and Specter were laughing so hard tears started to form in their eyes, “Wow whatever got into Vulcan is a massive airhead.”
The two kept laughing for a second as a giant shadow appeared over the void, it floated there for a moment and sighed, “One job Goofball, one job.”
Cinder and Specter stopped laughing to search for the source of the voice, after their search came up short they just shrugged and prepared to help Vulcan back up, that was until they were interrupted by a certain angry little possessed goo pile with a hex nut on her head, “HEY THAT HURT Y’KNOW!” Tiny shouted.
Cinder facepalmed, “Right, she’s still possessed.” She groaned before tossing Specter a Reviver Seed, “Get Vulcan up, I’ll take care of her!”
Specter nodded before running to Vulcan’s side, Cinder on the other hand spat out a few embers in an attempt to intimidate the ghost in control of Tiny, the ghost unsurprisingly was not amused, “Your little flames won’t scare me you-“
Before the ghost could force Tiny to finish that sentence, Cinder drowned her in a stream of flames, when Cinder let up all that was left was a small silver puddle, right beside the puddle sat Tiny’s hex nut head.
Cinder was shocked, “UH! SPECTER!? I THINK I KILLED HER!”
“YOU WHAT!?”
“OHMYGOSHALLTHAT’SLEFTISAPUDDLEWHATDOIDO!?”
“WHAT CAN WE DO!?”
Cinder started to feel a little dizzy, she began to stumble around as if she were about to faint when a Reviver seed dropped out of her bag and onto the puddle of silver liquid, the seed sank into the puddle and disappeared, moments later the puddle regained its form and picked up Tiny’s head, once it stuck the head back on its rightful place an eye appeared in the center of it, “Phew… Thought I was a goner there, thanks Cinder.”
Cinder shook off her dizziness, “W-what!? You’re ALIVE!?”
“Yep, I may have melted, but I’m all good now!”
“Uh, a-alright then, I’m not exactly sure how that happened, but at least you’re not dead.”
“I think you dropped a Reviver Seed onto her, uh, I’m reluctant to say body, but puddle feels offensive.” Specter said as he waited for the Reviver Seed to take effect on Vulcan.
“Oh, I guess that makes sense…” Cinder sighed, “So if she melts, just give her a Reviver Seed.”
Vulcan groaned and got back to his feet, “What happened?”
“You got possessed by the dumbest ghost in existence.” Specter informed him, “The irony that he called me an idiot before falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book TWICE.”
“A ghost possessed me? Is that what that strange feeling was?”
“I assume.” Cinder said, “Maybe you can ask Yumi or Midnight to confirm that when we get back.”
“No thanks, I prefer being in control of myself thank you very much.”
The group began searching for a way to move forward when suddenly gravity just up and flipped on them, sending them falling upward toward another landmass thing. They hit the ground unceremoniously and got up quickly as to not let the inevitable swarm of ghosts overtake them.
“Ok, what the hell just happened!?” Specter shouted, “Gravity shouldn’t be able to switch up on us like that!”
“I don’t think this world operates on the same set of rules as ours.” Vulcan replied, “My head’s still spinning…”
Once the group caught their bearings, they spotted a strange yet familiar Pokémon staring at them eerily, “Uh, why’s that weird-looking Pikachu staring us down like that?” Cinder asked.
The strange raggedy Pokémon gasped, “A Pikachu!? Where!?”
“Uh, that’s not a Pikachu Cinder.” Specter warned, “That’s a Mimikyu, they like to pretend to be Pikachu so that they can fit in more easily.”
“Oh, you thought I was the Pikachu, now I see.”
“Usually Mimikyu hate Pikachu for being more popular or something.”
Cinder raised an eyebrow at that, “Why? That sounds like super petty!”
The Mimikyu darted over to Cinder and shook her hand with a shadowy Claw… Arm… Thing, “I totes agree! Pikachu are like SUPER cute! I wish I could meet one without freaking it out! But unfortunately, I have to wear my best attempt at a Pikachu cosplay to even get near another Pokémon, let alone a Pikachu.”
“So, you don’t hate Pikachu?”
“Uh, are you kidding me!? Hell no, I don’t hate them! I’m like the world’s number one Pikachu fan girl!”
“You are?” Vulcan questioned, “Then what are you doing in a place like this?”
“Oh, uh I live here, I’m sort of a demon hiding under a rag so it’s only natural that I’d live in such a weird place.”
“A DEMON!?”
“Woah, calm down there buddy, I ain’t gonna hurt you so long as you don’t go peeking under my disguise.”
“And if I do!?”
“Your heart will stop beating.”
“WHAT!?”
“I don’t make the rules here bud, I just follow them.”
Vulcan pulled Cinder away from the Mimikyu, “Stay away from my sister, foul demon!”
“B-but, I’m not gonna hurt you!”
“Well, I’d rather not have a sudden gust of wind reveal whatever’s under there and kill us all!”
Cinder broke free from Vulcan’s grasp and moved back toward the Mimikyu, “Relax Vulcan, it’s probably just a rumor, I bet she’s a real cutie under there.”
Mimikyu was flattered by Cinder’s comment, “Why thank you, you’re quite cute yourself! Maybe I should try a Cyndaquil disguise at some point!”
Cinder chuckled, “I think you could pull it off!”
“Really!?”
“Absolutely! Your current costume is adorable! I’d love to see one of a Cyndaquil in the same style!”
Mimikyu was blushing like a tomato under her costume, “You’re so sweet! Are all surface dwellers this nice?”
“Surface dwellers?” Cinder questioned.
“That’s what we Distortion World Pokémon call non-Distortion World Pokémon.”
“Oh, well uh, we’re not all that nice, but most of us are, I’d say the normal world is pretty nice.”
“Oh, I see…” Mimikyu said as she briefly looked away from Cinder, “Y-you don’t think… They’d be nice to me, do you?”
“Of course they would!” Cinder exclaimed, “I’ve yet to meet a Pokémon that doesn’t fit in with at least somebody!”
Vulcan was a little unsettled by the idea of a Mimikyu walking around town, “Uh, Cinder, are you sure that she’d fit in?”
“Vulcan, it’s not about fitting in, it’s about finding a group that you vibe with, so to speak.”
Vulcan sighed, “Alright, but let’s say hypothetically if we were to take her back with us and she couldn’t find anyone who likes her, what would happen then?”
“Then she could join Team Echoes with us.”
Vulcan really didn’t like that idea, he was worried that someone would find out that the rumors were true the hard way, “Uh, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, what if that rumor is true?”
“Are you seriously gonna let a little fairy tale stop you from making a new friend?”
“Well if it puts my life at risk then yeah, I kinda am!”
“Uh, guys, aren’t we supposed to be grabbing the Spooky Plate?” Specter reminded the two.
“O-oh, right…” Cinder said, “We’ll have this discussion later, for now, let’s just keep moving!”
“C-can I come with you guys?” Mimikyu asked.
Cinder and Vulcan readied their answers like revolvers in a wild western duel, preparing to get the first say in the matter, but unfortunately for Vulcan, Cinder was one step ahead of him, “Of course you can!”
“Yay!” Mimikyu exclaimed, “I won’t let you down!”
The group began traveling again, hopping between strange landmasses to reach, uh… Some sort of goal, “Wait, are we even sure we know where we’re going?” Specter asked as he skidded to a stop on one of the seemingly infinite floating, barren landmasses.
“Well it depends, are you trying to make it back to the normal world, or are you trying to meet up with Lady Giratina?” Mimikyu asked.
“Well, Lady Giratina has the Spooky Plate, right?”
“Yup, although she won’t give it up without a fight.” Mimikyu said with a shiver, “I get goosebumps just thinking about opposing her…”
“Is she that much of a tyrant?”
“Tyrant!? No! She’s like a mother to all the ghosts here, but that doesn’t mean she’s a pushover.”
“Ah, I see, so that thing about cookies-“
“Oh my gosh, don’t even get me started about her cookies, they’re like the best thing I’ve ever had!”
Specter felt super awkward after being cut off like that, “Right… Well, uh, could you take us to her?” He said as a sweat droplet rolled down the side of his head.
“Of course! Follow me!” Mimikyu chirped as she motioned the team to follow her with a shadowy claw.
The group followed Mimikyu through the void, that was until she led them to a very confusing body of water, “You can swim, right?”
“I think?” Vulcan said, uncertainty filling his words, “Normally large bodies of water would kill me but with this charm, I should be able to, Cinder on the other hand.”
Cinder looked down at her neck and remembered that Vulcan had her charm, “O-oh, right, I forgot you had that, so uh, what do I do?”
“Well, that gem on your head looks ghostly, maybe you can just float over the water with me.” Mimikyu suggested.
Cinder facepalmed, “Duh! I’m a ghost right now! Why didn’t I think of that!?”
Cinder floated over the water’s surface, beckoning the rest of her team forward. Specter jumped straight in after her and began his little doggy paddle, “I guess we will be swimming today after all.”
Vulcan stepped into the water hesitantly and began swimming next to Specter, “Just try to keep the water out of my bad eye, ok?”
“Alright.”
Mimikyu floated beside Cinder and continued to lead the way, the water bent in a multitude of ways that broke just about every law of gravity, Cinder decided to use this to create a bit of small talk while the group pressed onward, “What’s with the gravity-defying water?”
“O-oh, gravity’s really just a suggestion here.” Mimikyu replied, “Lady Giratina tries to keep things unpredictable so that the Spooky Plate doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. Oh, that reminds me, you’re after the Spooky Plate, right?”
“Yep, some scary Pokémon are trying to get the plates so they can use them for evil and we’re tryna stop them.”
“Oh, that’s… A bit concerning…”
“Yeah, but we’ve got the means to defeat them, we just need to keep the plates out of their paws.”
“Well uh, hopefully, things turn out good for you, otherwise I’m not sure what to say, if evil wins then it might just be lights out for the whole world.”
“Heh heh…” Cinder chuckled awkwardly, “W-well if it makes you feel any better, this isn’t exactly my first rodeo with the whole saving the world thing.”
“It isn’t!? But I thought the last world-ending event was over 100 years ago!”
“Lemme explain…”
As the group floated onward, Cinder explained the events that transpired back in the Grass Continent and the events that led her here, once she had concluded her story they had conveniently reached another landmass, this one seemed bigger and more open than the others, it seemed like the perfect arena for a boss fight.
“So, uh, now what?” Specter asked, “This is a complete dead end!”
“Oh, Lady Giratina must be late.” Mimikyu said, “Wonder what’s keeping her.”
Moments later, Giratina slammed into the ground, “Who DARES enter my domain!?“
Vulcan began to shiver, “Uh, Cinder? I know you were just telling a tall tale about how you totally almost saved the world, but I think we’re in way over our heads here!”
Cinder shot out a stream of smoke through her nose almost like a bull in a cartoon, “Nonsense, I’ve dealt with worse.”
Giratina let out a cackle worthy of Satan himself (Despite the fact that Giratina is not in fact Pokémon Satan), “Such foolish arrogance, I’ll have fun tearing you to shreds!“
Dark energy enveloped Giratina, transforming her from her origin form(e?) to her altered form(e?)sending shivers down Vulcan and Specter’s spines, “S-seriously Cinder, we’re out of our depth here! We should be running!”
“SHOWTIME!” Cinder shouted as she flared up her ghostly flames.
“Fine then mortals, come forth and die!“
Cinder fired a ghost-type Tera Blast at Giratina striking her in the chest but not leaving much of a scratch, Giratina retaliated by shooting a Shadow Ball at Cinder, also striking her in the chest, sending her flying back a bit, but she managed to hang tough. Before Giratina could ready her next attack Tiny shot a Flash Cannon at her hitting her between the eyes, she celebrated by pumping her fist, “Eat that you big freaky giant!”
“Eugh… Something about that attack was… Familiar to me…” Giratina groaned.
“Maybe I kicked your tail in another life or something.”
Giratina shook her head before disappearing into the shadows, Tiny looked all over for her before spotting a pair of red glowing eyes appear behind Vulcan, “Look out!”
“Huh!?” Vulcan gasped before being struck by Giratina’s Shadow Force from behind.
Vulcan was sprawled out on the ground as a result of this attack catching Cinder’s attention, “HEY! Nobody hurts my brother and gets away with it!”
Cinder curled up into a ball and rolled into Giratina at high speeds, ghostly fire enveloping her as she rolled, she crashed into her target a few times before stopping by Vulcan’s side, “Ngh… I kinda expected that to hurt worse…” Vulcan groaned before shakily getting to his feet, “Wait a sec, I just tanked a hit from a legendary Pokémon! And LIVED!”
With his newfound revelation, Vulcan pulled out his pan and charged at Giratina, ‘What’s he doing?‘ She thought.
*CLANG*
Vulcan struck Giratina on the head with his trusty frying pan causing her to stumble back, creating an opening for his team, Specter was the first to jump in, biting Giratina’s neck, next came another Tera Blast from Cinder followed by Thunder Wave from Tiny, “She’s on the ropes! Give it all you got!” Tiny exulted.
As Giratina struggled through her paralysis she swung her tail violently, she missed the main party with this attack, but she managed to knock Mimikyu off the floating landmass and into the void, “I was part of the audienceeeeeeee!” She screamed as she fell into the abyss.
“MIMIKYU!” Cinder squealed as she looked over the edge, “S-she’s-“
Mimikyu floated back into view and chuckled, “I’m alright silly, now go get her!”
A little sweat droplet rolled down Cinder’s head as she nodded, “R-right.”
With that little, uh… Interaction… The fight resumed, Cinder used another Rollout, Vulcan hucked some Gravelerocks, Specter downed a Violent Seed, and Tiny fired another Flash Cannon, Giratina, on the other hand, broke through her paralysis and grabbed hold of Tiny before once again sinking into the shadows, when she popped back up she used Tiny as a weapon and clobbered Vulcan, knocking him to the floor unconscious.
“One down, three to go!” Giratina cackled.
Cinder rushed over to Vulcan only to be met with a Shadow Claw, causing her crown to shatter into a million pieces as she collapsed. The anxiety was starting to get to Specter, ‘Th-this isn’t good, Cinder and Vulcan are out and I’m not exactly in the best position to take out a big ghost dragon thing, I mean, I ate a Violent Seed but that’s not nearly enough to turn my teensy little Bite into a big threat so that just leaves Tiny, who seems to think she has things under control.’
Just as Specter finished his train of thought a Shadow Claw went straight through his face, causing him very mild discomfort but no pain whatsoever, “‘Scuse me, angsty little Eevee dude? You gonna sit back and put me to sleep or are you gonna fight me?“
“Give me a moment I’m strategizing!”
Giratina rolled her eyes before swiping at Specter with a Dragon Claw, Specter managed to avoid this attack and latch onto Giratina’s face, he then began biting her face like the little gremlin he was, “GAH GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!”
Tiny used this opportunity to pick up her fallen teammates, using her knowledge of Cinder’s bag-sorting technique to quickly get to her reserve of Reviver Seeds and shove them into Cinder and Vulcan’s mouths, “Ugh… What happened?” Cinder groaned.
“Giratina messed you up while you were trying to help Vulcan.”
“W-wait that means-“
“Yep, you’re among the living once more.” Vulcan sighed, “That kinda stinks… Now we’ve only got one option for super effective damage…”
“What’s that?”
Tiny pointed to Giratina, who was still being mauled by Specter, that was until she flicked him off with a wing, then she hit him with a Dragon Claw, knocking him out.
Vulcan facepalmed, “Me and my big mouth…”
“Well we might not have any super effective moves, but we can make a super effective strategy.” Cinder suggested, “Got any ideas?”
Tiny shook her head, “There’s no way she can still have a ton of strength left, I say we all just chuck rocks and crap at her until its light’s out!”
“Uh… Alright… And if that doesn’t work?”
“Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B!?”
“Plan B is Plan B, I’ll tell you when the time comes.”
“Wh- hey! It’s never a good idea to withhold information from your teammates!”
Tiny disregarded Cinder’s worries as she pulled a couple of Blast Seeds from Cinder’s bag, she then proceeded to chuck the first seed at Giratina, causing it to blow up in her face, “URGH! You just don’t know when to quit, do you!?“
“You’re one to talk!” Tiny snapped back.
“Ooh, you’re a bit feisty for a little blob of alloy!“
“Oh yeah!? Well I’ve got the bite to back up my bark, so just try me!”
“Fufufufufufufu I look forward to crushing you. All. Over. Again.“
Tiny was a little confused by that last comment, but she wasn’t given time to dwell on it, as she was struck by a Dragon Claw, her teammates avenged her by throwing Gravelerocks and Blast Seeds.
And just as Tiny suspected Giratina went down… But you all already know where this is going…
Tiny pranced over to Giratina, “WE DID IT! Now give us that Spooky Plate!”
Giratina’s eyes flashed red as she got back up and switched back into her origin form (Screw the ‘e’, the official spelling is weird anyway).
“WHAT!?”
Vulcan facepalmed and sighed, “We’re doomed.”
Cinder flared her flames up once more, “It’s not over until it’s over. If she gets a second wind then so do we, now come on, let’s defy the legends!”
Vulcan sighed once more, “Alright…”
Vulcan was just about to throw another Gravelerock when Tiny shouted, “LOOK OUT!”
Giratina tried the same dirty trick she used to knock out Vulcan earlier, this time though Vulcan was ready to counter with a quick swipe with his pan.
His counterattack caught Giratina off guard, sending her reeling to the ground and creating an opening, Tiny used this opening to throw her second Blast Seed, which she combined with a Flash Cannon for massive damage! While this was going on, Cinder picked Specter back up, “Th-thanks, I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry about it, I gotta make up for hitting you in the face with that Fire Blast somehow, am I right?”
“Cinder you have more than made up for it at this point.”
The pair looked back to see Giratina slashing at Tiny and Vulcan with her claws, Specter downed another Violent Seed and lunged at Giratina again, this time though she was ready for it, slapping Specter with her tail and sending him on a crash course for his point of origin, “FOOL! You REALLY think I’d fall for that again!? How insolent!“
While Giratina was busy scolding Specter, Vulcan got in an Extrasensory, “Yeah! How do you like that!”
Giratina was less than amused, she retaliated with a Shadow Claw, knocking Vulcan onto his back, and then she prepared to stomp him out, “So sad, despite all the trash talk your life still comes to an unceremonious end, how unfortunate.“
Giratina went to stomp Vulcan out when she heard a scream, “NO!” She turned around to see Cinder down a Violent Seed, mere moments later Cinder rushed at her and hit her with a barrage of Rollout attacks, once her attack ceased she stood right in front of Giratina, her flames burning brighter than ever, “YOU’RE NOT GONNA TAKE MY BROTHER FROM ME AGAIN!”
Cinder’s flames continued to grow until they turned blue, then she fired the biggest Fire Blast she had ever fired in her life.
Giratina stepped out of the way of the attack, avoiding all damage, “Ha! Looks like your aim could use a bit of work!“
Cinder proceeded to collapse, having achieved her goal of saving Vulcan, who sat speechless as he tried to wrap his head around what had just happened.
Now Giratina’s attention was back on Vulcan who was in no position to do anything, ‘What do I do!? Cinder’s down and Vulcan’s in danger!’ Tiny thought, ‘If only I had one of those Violent Seeds… WAIT!’
“Specter! You got any more of those Violent Seeds?”
Specter checked his bag, he rummaged around for a moment before pulling out his last Violent Seed, “Last one! Make it count!”
Specter chucked the seed to Tiny, who proceeded to eat the seed, ‘I’m so lucky I can eat seeds and berries for their effects…’ She mused.
Giratina cackled once more, “No more running from death boy, your sister led you into a corner, it’s almost as if she wanted you to die.“
With time at the essence and pressure rising, Tiny fired a Violent Seed boosted Flash Cannon at Giratina quelling the beast in one clean hit, “AUGRH! This can’t BE! I, Lady Giratina of the Distortion World, felled by Tiny and her band of dweebs!? Absolutely unacceptable!“
As Giratina fell to the ground Tiny wiped her nonexistent brow, “Phew… That was intense…”
Specter fell to the ground, letting his fluff catch him, “You said it… I think we all went down at least once during that fight.”
“Well uh, if that were in a book or something then our audience would probably appreciate the struggle, can’t have every fight be a cakewalk am I right?”
“Yeah… I get where you’re coming from… You better be a giant by the time we fight Fiora otherwise we might have to break some hearts.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Someone’s definitely gonna die if we don’t step up our game.”
“O-oh right, uh, that’s unnerving to think about.”
“Then let’s stop thinking about it and help Cinder and Vulcan not die.”
“Right!”
Tiny and Specter helped their friends one last time, depleting their Reviver Seed stash, as the pair rose from the ground Specter noticed something, “Wait, since when did Vulcan faint?”
“O-oh, I uh, passed out when I saw that big flash of light, I thought that it was over for me.” Vulcan responded.
“Wait, so you mean to tell me that my attack caused you to pass out!?” Tiny shouted, “Wow, I guess those Violent Seeds are no joke.”
“Yeah, there’s a reason we carry those things with us when we plan on fighting tough foes.” Cinder chuckled, “Now let’s just get that plate and get out of here.”
The team approached Giratina once more, only to be pulled into the shadows abruptly.
February 5th, 3:53 pm
Giratina’s Kitchen
StepStone Isles – Unknown Isle 1
Giratina dragged everyone through the Distortion World and back to the real world, when they caught their bearings they realized they were in a dark kitchen somewhere, “Where are we now!?” Specter blurted.
“My home away from home, welcome to my kitchen.“
“HUH!? But I thought we tore you to shreds!”
“You did, and I commend you for that, however, there’s a reason I brought you here.“
“Well then uh, why’d you bring us here?” Cinder asked.
But before Giratina could answer, Mimikyu popped out of the shadows, “COOKIES!”
“Ugh… Yes Mimikyu, cookies…“
“Yay!”
Giratina began baking some cookies as Team Echoes sat in silence, that was until Vulcan broke the silence with a very valid concern, “Is that seriously all you brought us here for!?”
Giratina held out one of her tendrils as if to say “One moment.” or “Give me a minute.”
“I don’t see why cookies are so important! Like I know how to bake so if they’re really a big deal then I can just make so-“
Vulcan was shut up by Giratina forcefully shoving a cookie into his mouth, he ate the cookie, letting it dissolve his worries, “Not bad, whatever was in that thing tasted nice.”
“It should help you with your crystal powers.” Giratina clarified, “Y’know, like your sister used?“
“So these cookies enhance our Terastallization?” Cinder questioned.
“Not exactly, you see, these cookies enable you to Terastallize at will as long as you’re wearing a Tera Scarf or similar accessory.“
“Oh, that’s neat, may I have a cookie?”
“Sure! You’re all welcome to have a cookie!“
Giratina dropped her intimidating demeanor and pulled a tray of cookies out of the oven, the cookies were a pale color, like a sugar cookie, but they had this melty crystal-looking stuff in them, “Uh, what’s with this melty stuff?” Specter asked, “It almost looks like colorful sparkly chocolate chips.”
“It’s something a friend of mine made, I myself am unsure what they are called, but they taste good and it’s hard to argue with the results.“
Specter threw caution to the wind and took a giant chomp out of the cookie, “Huh, it does taste really good!”
“Could I get a recipe?” Vulcan asked, “We have some friends at home who would probably love to give these things a try, plus that ability could be nice to have going forward.”
“Of course, although you’re probably gonna have a hard time gathering more of the secret ingredients because they’re not sold in stores.“
“That’s fine, we probably only need enough to feed the rest of our team.”
“And how many is that?“
“There’s twelve of us total, so minus 4 that’s 8 right?”
Tiny raised a nubby little arm as she butted in, “7, I can’t eat most non-metal items.”
“Oh, you’re in luck, I have a metal version of the recipe.“
“You WHAT!?”
“Yup, about a couple of thousand years ago, I was BFFs with a Meltan and her friends, that Meltan was you wasn’t it Tiny?“
“Wait, is that why you meant by ‘I look forward to crushing you all over again’!? We’ve fought before!?”
“Yup, then we became friends. It’s good to have you back, Tiny!” Giratina giggled.
“Give me one of those cookies right now!”
Giratina supplied Tiny’s demand, handing her a metal cookie with the same crystal-like stuff in it, she proceeded to absorb the entire thing into her eye in the blink of an eye, “IT’S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW!”
“What’s coming back to you?” Cinder questioned.
“A memory of long ago! I met Giratina while traveling with some friends, A Shinx and a Snivy, we came here to investigate something.”
“What were you investigating?”
“We heard rumors of Giratina causing the end of the world.”
“Needless to say, rumors are stupid and should be taken with a shaker’s worth of salt.” Giratina added.
“I guess that answers those questions I had about those strange dreams, although what that means for the future I have no clue.” Tiny concluded.
Cinder nodded awkwardly, “Well uh, let us know when you have an idea, I guess.”
“Alright.”
“Well uh, now’s probably a good time to bestow these upon you.“
Two balls of light appeared above the group, one floating over to Tiny and the other splitting into two and floating over to Vulcan, the light dispersed to reveal, a piece of paper with a recipe on it, a bag of colorful crystals, Vulcan stashed the items away in his bag, as for the third ball of light, it became… Drumroll, please… The Spooky Plate!
Tiny took the Tiny Plate and shoved it into Cinder’s bag hastily and recklessly as she hopped back into the bag, “WE DID IT!”
Cinder looked at Tiny and giggled, “We sure did, and we couldn’t have done it without you, ‘ya little bag gremlin.”
Tiny returned the giggles, “Glad I could be of assistance.”
The two giggled for a bit, then Specter reminded them of something, “We should probably tell the others that we achieved our goal here.”
“Right!” Cinder blurted, “Thanks for reminding me!”
February 5th, 9:14 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
“And that’s about where I started trying to call Joseph.” Cinder said.
“So that’s it then?” Joseph asked, “Man, that was a long story.”
“Well it’s not quite over yet…”
February 5th, 6:24 pm
Sunset Square
Coast Continent
Team Echoes had made it back to the Coast Continent along with Mimikyu, who decided to see if she could truly find a group that she “Vibed with”.
“Do you think I’m gonna be searching for long?” Mimikyu asked.
Suddenly, she was rammed from behind by a face unfamiliar to her, but familiar to everyone else, “Malachite! How’s it going?” Specter greeted.
“O-oh, hello Specter, uh, nothing much, just running around crashing into folks as per usual, speaking of which, who’s this fella?”
Mimikyu turned around to see Malachite sprawled out on the ground and staring up at the fake eyes on her disguise, “O-oh, my eyes are down here.” Mimikyu said as she pointed a shadowy claw at her real eyes.
“OH! I’m sorry!”
“It’s fine, everyone tends to make that mistake their first time meeting a Mimikyu.”
“Mimikyu, is that what you are?” Malachite asked before using her illusions to transform into a Mimikyu, “Huh, it’s pretty dark in this cloak.”
“Woah! You look just like me!”
“Yeah, I used my illusions to become you!”
“That’s so cool!”
“I know right!? I use my illusions all the time while exploring Mystery Dungeons and stuff. I’m actually the leader of a team, we used to be Team Shadows, but I decided Team Mimicry works better.”
“Wow, you rebranded already!?” Cinder blurted.
“Yep! It was Candy’s idea.”
“Is that the Applin’s name?”
“Yup! We’re still trying to get her to evolve but our luck has been a little rotten.”
“Oh, well that stinks.”
Malachite turned her attention back toward Mimikyu to see that her eyes were sparkling, “I-I would love to go exploring, w-would you mind i-if I joined your team?”
Malachite picked herself off the ground as a smile formed on her face, “Of course not! I’d love to have you around!”
“R-really!?”
“Of course!”
Mimikyu tried to think of how to put her gratitude into words, eventually, she gave up and settled for scooping Malachite up in a hug, “Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
Malachite returned the hug, “You’re welcome! Welcome to the team!”
A sweat droplet rolled down Vulcan’s head, ‘Great… That means she’s sticking around… Oh well… At least she’s not gonna be in our base all the time…’
“Well, we should get going, Joseph’s a little injured right now and we need to make sure he’s doing alright.” Cinder said.
“O-oh! A-alright then! I wish him a speedy recovery!” Malachite blurted.
“We’ll tell him you said that!” Cinder said as she ran off.
February 5th, 9:28 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
“And that’s basically the whole story.” Vulcan said as Cinder wrapped up the last part, “Now I’m gonna go make dessert for everyone.”
As Vulcan walked out of the room, Joseph yawned, “Well that was pretty interesting… Well, I’d love to tell you about our day, but it’s getting kinda late, so I’m probably just gonna call it a night after we eat our dessert.”
“Oh, well uh, goodnight.”
“Goodnight!” The Pokémon in the room chorused.
And with THAT this chapter finally comes to a close, this took a while to write… I’ll explain why things took so long after the normal ending stuff.
/ /Boss data downloaded successfully!\ \
Lady Giratina: The Queen of the Distortion World
Giratina rules over the Distortion World with an iron fist and yet she’s not really that much of a tyrant, she actually acts more as a mother for the poor souls (pun intended) that end up there. However, she doesn’t take kindly to intruders, especially intruders who are after the Spooky Plate. In the end, Team Echoes just barely managed to take her out and earn the Spooky Plate AND the ability to Terastallize at will, that last part raises a few questions, who is this “Friend” of hers? Why did she trust her to guard this power? What even are these strange edible crystals? We may never know.
And there are no reviews/comments as far as I’m aware…
Yeah, uh, I don’t wanna say I’m psychic, but I think this fic might be able to predict my future. You remember how Joseph gets injured after taking a break, so he’s forced to take another? Yeah I uh, had a similar experience, I took a short break after making the last chapter, and then I got sick and took a longer one, and then I got sidetracked by like 30 other things but that’s getting off-topic.
So uh, yeah I hope you enjoyed this chapter because it took a long time to actually come out (Sorry about that), and uh yeah, I’ll uh see you guys next time (Also happy pride month!)
Next time: Joseph enjoys a nice chill day off, we meet up with some side characters we haven’t seen for a bit, and we find out more about the strange looming psychic presence, assuming I didn’t summon an angry mob when I mentioned that cheese is normal in this universe, if that ends up happening then uh I guess we’re moving on to αnomaly 2 where I presumably am tried for my crimes or something, see you guys then!
(Oh and the Draco Plate story will get a chapter, but I’d rather not just have characters regurgitate what happened on Feb 5th for the second chapter in a row, so uh that’ll come after what I said above)
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