Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

An engine rumbled in the distance.

Mesprit's eyes shot open to the pitch blackness of her cavern. Something somewhere was very, very wrong. She was patient, waiting for the last vestiges of her hazy dream to disappear before making assumptions, thinking that it might have been a nightmare that woke her up. The electric feeling didn't subside even after a few more minutes had passed. The fairy unfurled her tails as she stared off into space. It felt like a meteor was about to crash through the ceiling and land directly on her head. Was there something wrong near the lake?

Azelf's telepathic voice shattered the silence. 'Did you guys feel that?'

'I was really hoping to be the only one,' Uxie answered back.

The booming sound of the lake's currents above, which were normally white noise to Mesprit's ears, suddenly became overwhelmingly loud. Thousands of tons of water were moving all at once, shifting uneasily in place. It was as if the whole world around her was shuddering from the tension. A shiver ran down her spine.

'Well don't just sit there all quiet! Tell me what it is'! Mesprit demanded through her thoughts, speaking up if only to distract herself from the sounds of the lake.

Azelf sent out a mental grumble. 'How are we supposed to know? We're in our caves, too! Hrmm...I think it's closest to me--whatever "it" is. It feels kinda north, probably around that one city that's supposed to be carved out of rocks or something.'

'Veilstone,' Uxie corrected him automatically. 'It's a little vague, but I can make out that the anomaly is to my east. It doesn't necessarily need to be heading in the direction of the city, but it's a good estimate nevertheless. The question still stands as to what the danger is.'

'It's something bad. Really seriously bad,' Mesprit said as she lifted off the ground and began to pace around the cave. 'Or maybe it's not. I dunno! All I can tell is that it's something here that isn't supposed to be!'

Azelf went through the effort of expressing a sigh through his telepathy. 'What are we waiting for, anyway? It's just going to show up at our doorstep if we don't go out to deal with it! We should have started moving the minute we felt it!'

With each moment that passed, Mesprit felt her insides twist into tighter and tighter knots. As soon as she couldn't take it anymore, the fairy flipped around and plunged into the the inky pool that connected her with the outside world, cringing against the sudden rush of cold. Could it have been a huge fire? No way, Veilstone's just one big rock anyways. Did a sinkhole open up and swallow hundreds of lives whole? Was it a mudslide that buried an entire neighborhood? No no no, it didn't feel like any of that!

Mesprit burst out from the surface of the lake, twisted herself in the vague direction that the foreboding seemed to emanate from, and shot off as quickly as her psychic flight would allow. A full moon shined down on her from above, then passed right through to the treetops as her body became transparent and disappeared.

"Holy crap, look! That's so pretty!" Graci spoke over the roar of the motorboat. She ripped off her helmet, her bright orange hair cascading over her shoulders. The pale blue tint of her skin seemed to meld with the moonlight. "Hey Cymon, look up for crying out loud! All the clouds cleared away! It's Earth's moon! Man, that light is so gentle compared to Megalo Tower!"

"We didn't come here to take in the sights," the brutish Cymon answered, still refusing to glance up from the passing waves. "And keep your helmet on, Graci. We’re criminals. We shouldn’t be bringing attention to ourselves."

"Oh, screw off! Do you honestly believe we're not going to stick out like sore thumbs anyway? Who cares if someone sees our faces? I haven't seen anyone else with blue skin and weird suits running around." Graci scoffed as she brushed her hair back into a manageable state, one boot braced against the railing. "You really should get out more. We've just started our adventure into this crazy alien world and you found yet another corner to brood in! Was stealing the boat really not thrilling enough for you?"

A catty voice spoke from beneath the shadow of the pilot’s hood. "Don't be so harsh on him, dear. He's a straight-forward man, all goals and muscle. What's not to like about someone who can get down to business?" Ottelia sat with her legs crossed, somehow managing to look graceful despite the constant rocking of the boat. Violet curls escaped from the back of her helmet and bounced freely against the seat behind her. "This boat is far from the most exciting thing we've stolen today, to say the least. And besides, all this waiting is fussing up my complexion."

Without speaking a single word, the tall man at the wheel reached up with his free hand and pulled off his own visor. His confident blue eyes were cast upwards towards the glow of the moon. Everyone's backs stiffened up as he drew a breath through his nose and held it in his lungs.

"It is a beautiful view, isn't it?" Solisano finally said, and suddenly everyone couldn't help but look up. A thin layer of clouds began to pass over them, but the moon still managed to pierce through the haze. Seconds dragged on before he decided to speak again. "The land we’re looking for shouldn’t be too far off now. We've already taken our first and second steps into this new world, and we'll have to take a hundred more before this is done, but just look up towards the sky if you need any more motivation! Now that’s something to fight for if I've ever seen it!"

Graci gave a loud shout, Ottelia an affirmative hum, and Cymon a stoic nod. Not quite a rousing cheer, admittedly, but it was more than enough to carry them through. After all, there was much more work to be done before they could to return home.

The first day of summer didn't come with any fanfare. Without the grating sound of the alarm clock, Uzume only realized it had begun at all when the noon sun snuck past her blinds and shined straight into her face. Groaning, she flipped the pillow over her eyes and laid motionless for another few minutes.

When it became one-hundred percent clear there wasn’t an ounce of sleep left in her, she pushed the pillow aside and threw off her covers, knocking several plush pokemon onto the floor in the process. She sat on the edge of the bed for another few moments. It was funny, she thought to herself. For the first time in her life, she'd rather still be in school than on summer break.

Uzume went through her morning routine without a thought. It was only when her hairbrush got caught on a knot and made her wince did her mind finally wake. What exactly was she planning on doing today? Without any friends to hang out with, what was the point of even going out? She flinched as the brush caught on another tangle.

...No, of course she couldn't just sulk! If she wasted today, then what was going to stop her from wasting tomorrow, and then the whole break after that? There’s only so many summers in a person’s entire life! The thought of wasting even one was next to insanity!

“Ow! Stupid hair.”

Getting dressed for the day was a mental exercise in and of itself. Uzume chose thinner clothes to help stave off the heat, but her heart insisted that there was no reason to go outside at all. It was still way too hot for pajamas, though. What could she even do while cooped up inside, anyway? She shot a glance towards her sketchpad, but this probably wasn't the right mood to practice, anyway. It would only end in frustration.

Above the desk hung the one good portrait sketch she'd ever done--a pencil rendition of her best friend Sakuya. It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but just this one time Uzume had somehow managed to capture her smile almost down to the millimeter. It was lifelike enough that her chest started to hurt just from looking at it. Yeah, not a good day for drawing at all.

The entire house was silent. Apart from the ticking of a clock and the distant sound of a lawnmower, there was hardly a peep. Dad was at work like usual, but the absence of her mother was what made everything seem so desolate. On a gorgeous day like this, it was no wonder why mom would be out on the town. Uzume shoved some saltine crackers into her face as she stared out the window, her mind blanked out into oblivion. It was probably horrible out there. The sun's so bright that it'd hurt her eyes, and you could practically fry an egg on the sidewalk with the way things were heating up...

In a fit of frustration, Uzume downed her entire glass of water in one gulp, then slammed the cup back down onto the counter.

"Fine then, brain! Be that way!" her shouts echoed through the empty house. "I'm going out for ice cream whether you like it or not!" She wasted no more time, rushing from the kitchen to the front door and pressing out into the sweltering heat before she could come up with another reason to lounge around. The door shut behind her with a click. There!

...Ice cream did sound nice, though. No forcing herself to try something new, either. She needed an especially heavy duty snack to combat this horrible start to a day. Only her favorite flavors today, sprinkled with brownie crumbles and covered in fudge! Then she’d let the fudge melt the top layer of the ice cream so that the consistency was nearly melted yet still cool!

Fantasies of swirling flavors filled Uzume’s thoughts as she sped down the sidewalk. She barely noticed as a pair of Growlithe started barking at her from behind a fence, too focused on her goal to pay the distraction any mind. The smell of freshly-cut grass wafted over on a breeze, but was quickly overcome by the sweet scent of blooming flowers. A tiny voice in the back of her head urged her to slow down and enjoy the scenery a little more, but when she finally stopped and obeyed that urge, things immediately got weird.

Across the street was a woman in a peculiar white jumpsuit, searching up and down the block and displaying all the symptoms of being hopelessly lost. When the stranger finally saw Uzume walk past, she called out and rushed across the road towards her. "Hey, hey! You there! Excuse me!"

"Hi?" Uzume stopped in place, still trying to piece together exactly what she was looking at. What little showed of the woman's skin seemed so pale that it nearly looked blue. Wait, was it actually just blue? How much makeup did you even need to get that deep a color?

"Okay so, I'm kind of in a weird spot right now," the woman began, panting for breath. It was hard to imagine just how horribly warm it was inside that costume. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could find a library around here, would you? Also, have you seen anyone around here dressed kinda like I am? There's a big guy who hates fun and never smiles, a skinny girl who looks like she uses too much conditioner, and a tall handsome guy that sorta carries himself like he's always got places to be, you know? Any of them around?"

Though Uzume couldn't see the woman's eyes beneath the notched visor, it very much felt like they were bearing down on her. "Uhh. I mean, you're not going to find the library around here, that’s for sure. It's all the way across Veilstone, two blocks down from the city hall. It would take about an hour to walk there from this neighborhood." The stranger’s frown was already starting to deepen. "And no, I haven't seen anyone like you around here. Sorry!"

The woman threw her hands up into the air. "Agh! This was supposed to be the easy part! Oh yeah sure, I’ll split up so we can cover more ground! That won’t end in disaster at all! Sheesh! I can't even find the meeting spot!"

"So, uh," Uzume didn't really know where to begin. "What are you wearing those costumes for, anyway? Is there some kind of party going on?"

"Hm? I'm wearing this suit because god forbid I even try to fit in. Nevermind the hundred-degree weather, that's definitely not as important as sticking out like a sore thumb! Stupid Cymon..." She looked back one last time before storming off down the sidewalk. "Thanks for the help!"

The strange woman turned the corner and disappeared before Uzume could tell her that she was still heading in the wrong direction. After a few stunned seconds, she let the breath fall from her mouth, shrugged, and continued on her way.

After that encounter, nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened for the rest of the way. Cement and pavement faded into pale grey brickwork, supposedly carved from the mountains nearby. Now, they were just another bright surface for the sunlight to reflect off and shoot straight into her eyes, putting her in a permanent scowl. She wove past the crowds and shops, tracing the same path she took every other weekend and trying hard not to think about how she was walking it alone.

Just a short ways past the old park, around that decent burger place where someone once fist-fought a Toxicroak, past that black-haired girl in her class who always jogged around with a Mienfoo, and there it was. Uzume plunged into the ice cream shop without a hint of hesitation, and if not for the line, she would have made her order right then and there. She rapidly tapped her foot while she waited for an indecisive little kid to glance over every last flavor. When he finally chose a strawberry cone, she silently nodded in approval. At least he had good taste.

It finally came time for her to step up to the counter. The gangly man running the joint, who looked thoroughly pleased to be surrounded by freezers in an air-conditioned building, recognized her immediately and smiled. "Uzume! There you are! I was wondering when you'd show up. With no school and enough heat to melt the street lamps outside, it was only a matter of time. I could've sworn I actually saw somebody getting ready to cook something on the pavement while I was coming in today. Your usual, then?"

"Please!" Uzume's mouth started to water as she eagerly watched the process unfold from behind the glass window. Wasting no time, she reached deep into her pocket to pull out the last of her allowance from last month and started counting.

"You usually don't come in here alone, you know," the owner said as he scooped up an overly-generous amount of ice cream. "Where's Sakuya? Did her parents drag her off to a business trip again?"

Uzume paused. A brief pang of pain shot through her chest. "She moved away," she said as flatly as possible, concentrating on counting the same few dollar bills over and over again. Something was off, but what was it? Come on, stop getting distracted! One, two...

"Ah. Hopefully she's doing alright, then. I know it can be hard to move around at that young an age. Tell her I said hi next time you speak with her, yeah?" After the finishing touches were finally made, the man slid the overfilled plastic boat over the counter. "There you go. Remember to actually drink some water while you're out there. Ice cream ain't going to cut it."

One, two, a half...Oh no. Not now. Literally any other time but now.

"I- uh. I don't think I have enough-"

"Whatever you have's fine by me. It don't matter much."

Uzume's eyes shot up. She was met with a wrinkled smile as the owner continued. "Really, it's fine. You stop by plenty often enough. It's the least I could do for customer like you, yeah? 'Sides, it really is hot out there."

It was like her heart just dove off a cliff with a bungee cord around its waist. After Uzume sputtered out as many thanks as she had the breath for, she took her ice cream and left out the heavy glass doors, cradling the dessert like her life depended on it. She came to the first bench she could find and sat straight down.

The wondrous aroma of chocolate goodness overpowered any other scent the breeze could send her way. This was what summer was about right here. No school to worry about, no obligations or to places to be, and certainly no work to do. Just hot fudge and strawberry ice cream and not caring at all.

...Was there someone crying nearby?

Uzume looked up and slowly pieced together the scene that had unfolded while she was occupied. The same little kid that was before her in line was sitting on the corner of the sidewalk, wiping at his eyes and trying to hold back his sobs. Meanwhile, the ice cream cone he had bought was laying in the street, half-melted and totally unsalvageable. Poor kid must have gotten too excited and tripped on his shoe laces or something. And so close to the store, too--he couldn't have gotten more than a few licks in before he lost it.

Man, that could have been her. Seriously, how bad would it have felt if she walked five steps out those glass doors and immediately fell flat on her face, tossing her last hope for a decent day into the street? The thought was almost too much to bear, which made it all the more conflicting inside when she stood up and started towards the boy.

Oh come on, Uzume! Don't do this! You can't just throw your whole day away like this! Just this one time, let nature take its course around you! There's not even anybody around, stop feeling like you're being judged!

Despite every siren that was blaring in her head, Uzume knelt down next to the boy.

"Hey,” she spoke up. “Did you drop your ice cream?" Yes of course he dropped his ice cream you idiot.

The boy sniffled in surprise, blinking away at his tears to look at her. "I- some lady r-rushed by and I almost fell over." By the time he had choked out the one sentence, another sob had already gotten stuck in his throat.

"Hey hey, no more crying. Sssh. It's alright. I'll let you have mine if you want." Uzume presented her favorite treat with a smile, her gut twisting up into knots. "I know it's a little extra than what you got, but the ice cream itself is the same flavor, right? You wouldn't mind a little extra chocolate?"

"N-no..." The boy reached out and slowly took the ice cream from her. A long moment passed while he first tasted what was essentially mankind's greatest creation. His face softened considerably, and he quickly went in for another spoonful.

"There we go. Be more careful with this one, alright?"

After the kid nodded blissfully, Uzume stood up, started walking back towards the bench, then dodged right past it and into the grassy park. The polite smile she had stapled onto her face finally fell away.

Uzume shook her head as she sped past a boy and a Riolu playing frisbee, her legs moving quicker on their own. It was the right thing to do. What kind of monster would chomp down on their ice cream while watching a kid sob like that? Certainly not her, that's for sure. It was more than just the right thing, it was pretty much her only choice.

A short ways deeper into the park was a tiny gathering of trees and bushes, one that had been growing ever since her parents moved here twenty years ago. Nobody really bothered to trim it away since it was planted here as a part of some community event however long ago. The only value it had to her at this very second was as a place to crawl into and die in peace.

Without caring who might have saw, Uzume pushed straight through the barrier of bushes, ignoring the scratches the branches gave her. She emerged into a cool pocket of open space amidst the foliate, shaded from the blistering sun and ripe with the scent of rich soil. There was something intensely familiar about this place, though whatever memory it drew upon was too vague to recognize.

Uzume slid down the trunk of a tree and rested her chin on her knees. She must have come to this park hundreds of times, but the only time that seemed to stand out was from a picnic when she was only five. That's probably what it was, honestly. Just barely long ago that she could remember what happened, but still old enough to form long-term memories at all...That was the picnic where her parents met Sakuya's, wasn't it?

She sighed and hid her face behind her knees. What difference was that ice cream going to make, anyways? What did she plan on doing about the rest of this miserable day once it was eaten? What about tomorrow, and for the rest of the summer? She was alone, For today, tomorrow, the week, the month, and all of summer until it was over. That wasn't going to change no matter how much ice cream she ate. It was going to be the same thing every single day until-

"What're you doing in here?"

Uzume's thoughts were interrupted by a tiny, feminine voice. She didn’t bother looking up. It was probably just some kid who saw her crawl into here and thought it was interesting.

"Nothing," Uzume answered as she burrowed deeper into her own arms and legs, hoping that the child would eventually become disinterested and leave. The shuffling of leaves told her that the attempt was totally unsuccessful.

"This is kind of a weird place to be hanging out, don't you think? Are you lonely?" The voice came even closer than before. "I could hang out with you if you want."

God, why couldn’t they just go away?! "Listen, kid. Why don't you go mind your own-WAH!"

Uzume looked up expecting to see a little girl or something, and instead was face-to-face with a tiny floating creature. She recoiled backwards and fell into the brush, losing all sense of direction in a blur of leaves. After recovering from the shock, she started upright with a jolt. "What?! Oh geez you're a pokemon. You were a pokemon the whole time."

The tiny creature crossed their arms, an indignant look on their pink face. Its two long tails twitched. "I've been a pokemon since before your great grandfather was born, I don't see why that would be an important fact now...What? You never heard a pokemon talk before? It's more common than you think, you know."

"I- I don't even...How are you talking to me?" Uzume gasped, less startled and more amazed than she was a moment ago.

"With my mouth," the pokemon chuckled. "No, actually I use psychic powers to vibrate the air in my throat in different ways so that it sounds like words. Then I propel those words from my face with that same power like a weird tiny electronic megaphone."

Uzume narrowed her eyes and huffed through her nose. "I mean- I’m pretty sure you’re just messing with me, right?"

"Well that's what you get for asking silly questions," the fairy stuck their tongue out. "Does it really matter how I can talk? You're the one that was sitting in a bunch of bushes looking like you were about to cry. I think it's more important that you stopped doing that."

Effortlessly levitating in the air, the pokemon circled around Uzume as they were searching for any last signs of misery, finally coming to a stop right in front of her face. "Are you gonna let yourself be sad all day or are you gonna actually have fun? Name something you wanna do besides sulk and we'll do it."

"What? I mean- well, uh..." After a few moments of silence, it became painfully clear that Uzume still had no idea what to do. Her chest started to hurt again. What all this introspection eventually boiled down to was a shrug and a sad look on her face.

"Seriously?" the creature scoffed. "Well if you're going to be like that then I'm going to have to force you to be happy. Don't even think about arguing, you’ve brought this upon yourself."

The fairy reared back, sucked in a deep breath, and lurched forward again with crossed eyes and ballooned cheeks. It took Uzume a good few seconds to even register the silly face in the first place. The longer she stared, the more ridiculous it became, the harder it was to stop herself from smiling.

Before it was too late, Uzume looked away and covered her mouth, trying as hard as she could to force the smile away. That's way too cheap! It’s not a reason to feel better in the first place! The pokemon persisted in its efforts, constantly trying to float into her field of vision all the while keeping up that stupid face. It was practically insulting to think that a cheap laugh could ever make her situation any less horrible.

"Ah! You smiled! I saw!" the fairy cried out, spitting out all the air that was stuck in their cheeks.

"Go away!" Uzume screamed back to keep a traitorous giggle down. Upon feeling one of the pokemon’s tails brush against her arm, she clenched her fists and recoiled away. "If that's all you're going to do then leave me alone! My problems aren't going to fix themselves just because you're making stupid faces!"

The pokemon's expression softened. "What would make your problems go away, then?"

"Nothing! Nothing's going to make them go away! My friend’s gone now and I’m completely alone! What am I supposed to do about that, huh? What do you expect me to do now? Something as dumb as a single smile or a boat of ice cream is never going to help fix that!”

Despite all the verbal abuse that had been flung their way, the fairy seemed completely unphased, and simply blinked back with bright golden eyes. "Do you want to be left alone?"

Uzume was just about ready to start pulling out her own hair. "Yes! Of course I want to be alone!”

“But you don’t want to be alone, though.”

“You- I- I want to be alone right now, though! That’s why I crawled into these bushes in the first place! Now’s not the time for random talking pokemon to burst in and bug me!” Uzume turned away and crossed her arms, reflexively rubbing the spot that its tail had touched her.

The fairy frowned. "Nothing's going to change if I leave. You'll just sit in this spot for a while and wait for some revelation to come until you finally decide to go home. Then you'll wake up tomorrow with the same feelings that you have now. If I stay with you here, then maybe it won’t have to be that way."

"Oh yeah?" Uzume snorted. "You really think you have it all figured out, huh? Is that really what’s going to happen?"

She glanced back and saw the pokemon's pupils sharpen. "That is exactly what would happen," they said without a shadow of a doubt, glaring straight through her. "And you already know that. That’s why you’ve been worrying about it so much."

Wake up, stay in bed, waste the day away waiting for Sakuya to come back, go to bed. A few days burn away, that turns into a week before long, and it would only take a few of those before summer is gone and the loneliest school year of her life finally began. Uzume felt her throat tighten up.

"Okay. So what now, you dumb magical know-it-all fairy? What parts of me are you going to pick apart next?"

"None." They sighed and settled down into the brush. It was only when the pokemon nearly disappeared beneath the leaves of a fern did Uzume realize how tiny it really was. "I didn't mean to make you mad. I just know that you aren't going to feel any better on your own. Nobody ever really does, you know?"

Uzume slid back down the trunk of a tree. Her chest felt hollow and her throat was hoarse, but she didn’t really feel like crying anymore. "What do you care, anyway? Why would you go through all this trouble just to cheer me up?"

"It's pretty much my job to care!" the pokemon exclaimed with a proud grin. "I did follow you for a while, though. It’s pretty easy to notice when someone’s having a bad day in the middle of a bustling park, right? I got-.. Oh no.”

Without warning, the fairy bolted straight up into the tree’s branches, muttering loudly as they flew from one end of the thicket to the other. "Oh gosh. Who was I supposed to be looking for out here? Uhh...Was it a white suit or a white helmet? Was it both? Dang it, I can’t just ask Uxie again! He’ll get mad at me!"

"You're looking for someone in a white suit?" Uzume shouted up to the canopy, brushing the dirt off her clothes.

The pokemon continued to flit around at random. "Was it just white clothes in general or was it something more specific? It was supposed to be super important and I got distracted again!"

"I saw someone in a white suit and helmet earlier!" she called out.

In a startling burst of speed, the creature zipped down and flew straight up to her face. "Really?! Where?! What were they doing--was it something weird and otherworldly? I bet it was, wasn't it!? Can you take me to them?"

Uzume stuttered. "A-all they did was ask for directions. If they did manage to find their way then I probably know where they went. We could-"

"Take me to them, please!" The same eyes that pierced through her like a sword were now glistening and desperate. It was like the fairy had become a completely different person in the span of minutes.

Uzume crossed her arms and tried to look conflicted, but it was far too difficult to resist a look like that. "Yeah, I guess. It's kinda far away, though, so try to keep up."

Pushing past a cloud of sharp twigs and leaves, she emerged into the blinding sunlight once again. The world outside was exactly the same as she had left it. A Riolu ran after a frisbee that had been tossed too far while its owner cheered wildly. A family had a picnic beneath the shade of two trees. A slight breeze whipped up, blowing away the sweltering heat to an almost comfortable level.

Why did this little thing even need to find someone in a white suit..? Oh, duh! That weird woman was probably the trainer of this weird pokemon! How did it even take more than a few seconds to figure that out?

Uzume didn't even make it to the other side of the park before she heard someone in heavy boots stomp on by. By some miracle, the sound ended up being the very woman she was thinking about. A disheveled braid of bright orange hair dangled from her crooked helmet as she jogged past, panting and gasping for breath. After a few moments the stranger suddenly stopped, whipped around, and growled from the bottom of her lungs. "You!"

"Hey! I think I found your pokemon, miss!" Uzume glanced around for the little fairy, but it was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, uhh...I mean, it was just around here, I swear! It can't have gone-"

"You BRAT!" the strange woman screamed before ripping off her helmet the rest of the way. Underneath was a scowling blue face covered in sweat and full of fury. "You think you're sooo funny, huh? Leading me around like some kind of-.. of-.. some kind of joke?! Like 'haha I know I'll point her in the wrong direction won't that just be so HILARIOUS?' You rotten child!"

Uzume took a step back. "I- You just started running in the wrong direction! I even yelled after you and you still didn't hear me!"

"Psh. Yeah right. Like I'm supposed to believe another stone-faced lie like that! You're just covering your tracks so you don't get into any trouble, but I'm already three steps ahead! Actually, you know what?"

The woman reached around to pull a small metal object from the back of her belt. The device clicked and sputtered, rung in a horrendously high pitch, then suddenly expanded into something that looked like a dagger of shimmering light. "You know what, though? I don't care what Solisano said. I'm the one that's invading your world! And as my first real act as invader, I'm going to make the world a better place by ridding it of delinquents like you!"

"Y-you're just going to stab me?!" Uzume could barely speak up, a freezing cold fist wrapped around her guts. She took too many steps back at once and ended up falling onto the grass, but her legs still pushed her backwards.

The woman smirked. "Oh no, even better! I'm going to tear apart the fabric of the universe and let whatever comes out decide what to do with you! My name's Graci, by the way. Just thought it would be kinda rude to get rid of someone without them even knowing your name!"

In one swift motion Graci took the bar of light and stabbed it into the thin air, where it seemingly made impact with something and disappeared right down to the hilt. She pulled down on the device with all her weight. Distortions of light began to curve around the wound, bending inward like the refraction of a glass sphere. The mirage got worse and worse until, finally, the universe gave way with a bright flash. Graci went flying backwards, and in her place was a huge crack of frozen blue light.

Time seemed to stop. Breathless and stunned, Uzume stared at the anomaly in utter amazement. There was a flicker of motion from deep within the crack. She scrambled to her feet, never taking her eyes off the tear for even a second. Something was coming through! Something was actually coming through!

Graci's merciless laughter rang out into the sky as a creature burst through the portal, landing with a dull thud in the grass. The very first thing Uzume thought of when she saw it was a carnival. Its spindly legs struggled to find their balance at first, but it moved in an almost whimsical way that appeared intentionally clumsy. The colors that ran up its thin body made no sense at all, and its head seemed to literally just be a ball suspended above a neck of ribbony frills.

"Ah, now that’s a wonderful find!" Graci cheered on from the sidelines. "Now you'll see what happens to little girls who think it's funny to pick on poor, helpless young women! Blacephalon, wreak some havoc!"

The clownish creature made a noise that crossed between a whistle and a bunch of tiny popping firecrackers. It turned towards a parked car and somehow picked up its own head, which was now colored nearly completely red, and threw it.

At first, Uzume thought it was actually kind of funny. She would have giggled, had the car not exploded in a fiery blaze just one second later. The shockwave hit her like a brick wall, nearly knocking her to the ground outright. Ears ringing, she turned in horror to the creature, who was already starting to regenerate another head. It looked red and angry, and it looked like it was glaring right at her.

"Run!"

Uzume heard the fairy’s voice from somewhere behind her, but she was already booking it in the opposite direction. Screams erupted around the park. Cars screeched to a halt and honked. The world rushed by as her heart pumped hot adrenaline straight into her bloodstream. The fairy seemed to be running with her, a pink blur just on the edges of her vision. Not that she had any time to care. There was another explosion from behind her, and it wasn't nearly as distant as she would have liked.

She ran as fast as she could, but the creature never seemed far enough behind. Uzume ended up ducking into an alley at some point, weaving past the dumpsters and finally coming to a dead-end. Her lungs burned for air, and her heart practically jumped into her throat with every beat.

"What...the heck..." she muttered to herself. Okay, stop. Think. What just happened? What the heck was that thing? Did someone seriously just tear open a hole in time and space to summon an alien clown that blows things up with its head?

"We have to keep going! Come on!" The fairy appeared once more and tugged on her sleeve. "It's still not safe here!"

Uzume shook her head. "No way. I'm not going-.. I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers. Graci is your trainer, isn't she? Explain that portal! Explain all of this!"

The pokemon stuttered. "W-what? I have no idea who that was, or what that monster is! I have about as good an idea of what happened as you do! Look, we're both going to die if you just sit here and wait for it to find us!"

Right on cue, another boom echoed off in the distance, the reverberation bouncing through the alley. It was starting to get closer again. Where was Maylene? And the whole gym? Aren't they supposed to handle dangerous stuff like this?!

The next explosion was just around the block. Uzume's breath caught in her throat, but she swallowed it back down. There was no way it could just blow stuff up forever. She just needed to stall for time until someone stronger got here to deal with it. Easy enough, right? Just keep running.

Fists clenched, Uzume turned the corner and prepared to bolt out into the street once more, only for a misshapen shadow to move over the entrance of the alley. Just as quickly as she gathered her courage, Uzume twisted straight around and slipped back behind a dumpster.

"Oh god oh god oh god It's right there isn't it."

"Stay low!" the fairy whispered harshly in her ear. As if she needed to be told that! Desperately trying to get a grip on her quivering breath, Uzume crouched down and listened to the creature's light footsteps against the concrete.

Tap...tap...tap. It made another whistling pop. 'Found you'.

The footsteps came closer and closer. This was gonna be it. This was how she was going to die. It was really funny how big of a deal she’d been making today out to be. God, even the ice cream thing was just a ridiculous memory now, wasn't it? Was she seriously crying over that? At least Sakuya wasn't here to get blown up by a freaky dimensional alien with her!

Tap...tap...tap.

"Hey," the pink pokemon muttered from beside her. "I can probably get us out of this. Or at least, I can do something that gives us a chance. I just need one thing from you, though."

Uzume was barely listening. "Do it then. Whatever it is, just do it. Don't wait!"

"I'm serious," it said, flying straight up to her face. "I just need you to make a promise. And I really do mean an honest, genuine promise has gotta be made. No kidding around here."

Tap...tap...tap.

"Hurry up, then!" she choked.

The fairy smiled for some reason, and it was the most comforting thing Uzume had ever seen in her life. "I like you. You might be a little moody, but your heart is always full, no matter if it’s with good feelings or bad. You know how to be kind, too, even when it hurts. I know that I can trust someone like you until the end of time. So, will you be my friend?"

It was possibly the most ridiculous thing Uzume could have ever imagined hearing while death was less than ten feet away. And yet, despite everything, she somehow managed to smile back.

"Alright, I promise."

Their hands met. Uzume's fingers enveloped the fairy's tiny arms, but for the first time since Sakuya left, she didn't feel quite as alone anymore. The creature's shadow was towering over them now, but a wave of calmness had washed over her. Then came a pang of determination, intense and undeniable. The creature lifted its head into the air.

The little gems that adorned the fairy’s body started to glow a brilliant red, and in the blink of an eye, it rushed forward and disappeared straight into Uzume’s chest. A huge gust of wind suddenly whipped around her, knocking the alien completely off-balance and effortlessly blowing open the metal lid of the dumpster. A tingling sensation washed through her body as her legs stood up on their own. Her feet left the ground entirely.

Shrouded in a warm light, things started to change. Her body soon no longer felt like it belonged to her, but to someone more lithe and strong. Her hair grew half a foot in an instant, then arranged itself into two long twirls down her shoulders. Even her clothes started to tighten and change. Words that weren’t her own bubbled up from somewhere deep inside her chest, but it felt so right that she couldn't bear to keep them down.

And then Uzume realized she was floating, staring down at the monster who was staring back up at her with its own head in its hands. Silence fell, and aside from the gentle wind, everything was completely still.

"What?" she muttered. Even her voice had changed. "What did you just do to me? Why am I...not me? Are- are these your tails? Why are the coming out of me? Just what kind of pokemon are you?"

'We should probably run away now,' the fairy’s voice came from directly within her own mind.

Before Uzume could ask any more questions, the creature reared back to launch its own head at her. She panicked, kicking her legs through the air to no avail until something finally clicked in her brain and carried her forward. The bomb missed her by just an inch, but the resulting shockwave still tossed her out into the street like a weightless ragdoll. If the pokemon inside her hadn't taken control and corrected the course, she would have fallen out of the air and gotten a face-full of cement.

Dazed but assumedly not dead, Uzume managed to right herself and glance back at the dust cloud where the alley had once been. The monster waded through a pile of crumbling bricks and whistled with rage--or at least, she figured that it was rage by the overwhelming red aura that seemed to surround it.

"Okay, magical friendship fairy, If you had any plans for the part after you flew into me, now would be a really great time to say! I don't like the way that clown thing is looking at me."

The voice in her head hesitated. 'Well don't you feel how angry it is? Obviously you've gotta calm it down somehow!'

"How do you expect me to go about doing that?! You want me to give it my ice cream or something?!"

'You're a super-powerful ancient warrior now so I'm sure you'll figure it out!'

Despite the raw malice emanating from the monster, it danced and twirled around the rubble like it was having the time of its life. For the split second Uzume let her guard down, it immediately launched a huge plume of flames from the hole in its neck. She gasped, held her arms in front of her face, and shut her eyes tight.

By all rights, she should have been burnt to a crisp, yet for some reason, the only thing that washed over her was an uncomfortable wave of heat.. When Uzume opened her eyes once more, she found herself surrounded by a glimmering pink bubble, stray embers flitting through the air.

'See?' Mesprit spoke up.

Wait, how did she know its name was Mesprit?

'Mutual telepathy, dummy! We're reading eachother's minds!' the fairy answered the private thought without hesitation. 'Now stop messing around and fight that thing already! Just use your instincts or something, I'll help out where I can! Remember, you're Scarlet Verity right now!'

What was that even supposed to mean? Uzume looked down at her hands--which she really didn’t believe were her own hands anymore--then back up at the enraged creature. Realization struck like a bolt of lightning. This was obviously all just a dream! So little things make sense right now, there’s no way it’s all real! And if that was the case than fighting back should be as easy as...

A flick of the wrist and a little bit of faith was all it took to feel some kind of energy waft through her fingers. Uzume took that same mentality but to a fist instead, aiming it towards the monster. With a swing of her arm, she fired off a bright bolt of light, which landed squarely into the monster’s thin torso. It reeled back and fired off two shadow balls in return, which Uzume dove around with ease. Oh god she was actually doing it.

'Come on, let's lead it back to that tear in space! I think I've figured out a way to beat it!' Mesprit chimed in.

"And that would be?"

'You'll have to get in really close and touch it!'

"Oh, sounds wonderful!" Uzume groaned.

Flying around was not nearly as difficult once she stopped thinking about it. Pumped full of adrenaline and struck with an unnatural sense of duty, Uzume soared over the deserted city streets, dodging airborne explosions and returning fire with her own strange projectiles.

The monster eventually stopped trying to do its deceiving jig altogether, sprinting after her with all guns blazing. Even after getting serious, however, Uzume was too fast of a moving target for it to reliably hit. Before long they were battling on the same grassy field where all of this began, the smell of smoke still fresh on the breeze.

Graci, who had been fanning herself on a bench nearby, instantly shot up from the commotion. She took a long look at the pink-haired girl who was flying through the air and shooting bolts of light at the beast she had summoned, then slammed her helmet against the bench. "Gaah! What is it now? Why can't I get a single minute of rest in this unbearable world? Blacephalon, hurry it up!"

The creature was trying its best--it really was--but all this effort and exertion was starting to take its toll. Its movements started to become sluggish, and every subsequent toss of its head was further and further off its mark. For all the blind rage the monster exuded, Uzume started to sense desperation and pain. This thing wasn't just a mindless rampaging monster. Sure, it only knew how to dance around and blow stuff up, but who could blame it? The last thing anyone would want to see in the morning was Graci's screaming face.

"Mesprit, it's going to hurt itself if we keep going! We have to do something now!" Uzume shouted, dashing ahead further than its attacks could reach. She was starting to get tired, too. Her new body definitely felt like it wasn’t used to fighting like this. For a lucid dream, this felt a little too vivid for her liking.

'We only need to wear it down just a little bit more! Once you can get in close, put your hands on it and let me take care of everything else!' Sensing the obvious reservations Uzume had about getting anywhere close to that thing, Mesprit continued in a hushed tone. 'Part one of being my friend is that you gotta trust me, alright? I'm not going to let you get hurt. I promise.'

This was all just a dream, right? Uzume clenched her fist, stretching the tight glove that had been superimposed onto her hand. She twisted around mid-flight and slowed to a stop, tingling jolts of electricity coursing through her veins. The monster was really hurting now, but it just kept on pushing through the pain. This had to end sooner rather than later.

She took in a lungful of air and motioned like she was kicking off of a wall, launching forward with as much speed as she knew how to harness. The colorful beast crouched down and placed both its hands on its head, nearly tripping over itself in the process. It lifted up. She squinted against the wind. This was really going to hurt.

'Just one touch! Uzume!'

Uzume collided with the creature's thin chest. Almost all her momentum instantly disappeared, but it wasn't because she crashed. It was like some kind of brake went off in her head right before the impact. She glanced upwards, not daring to even take a breath. The creature was in a perfect position to bring the bomb straight down on her back.

It never did. Cloaked in a gentle red glow, it had stopped moving entirely. An odd sense of tranquility seemed to replace the smoke in the air.

"Relax. It's done now," the words that spilled out of Uzume's mouth weren't her own, but this time they didn't feel so foreign this time. "You don't have to fight anymore. Leave this place and return home. Let go of your rage. Let go, let go..."

The glow intensified, shrunk into a single point on the creature’s body, then blew away like an ember in the wind. Uzume pulled away from the beast, who lifted up its head and placed it back over the opening on its neck. It gave a quick chirp before turning towards the pulsing rip in space.

"Hey! Hey wait a minute! No, no no no! You get back here right now!" Graci ran in front of the beast to block its path, but it merely danced around her and sauntered onward. The blue woman started to shake the portal device up and down in anger. "Do you know how much work somebody else put into making that wormhole, Blacephalon? You can't just leave!"

And yet, it did just that. The creature jumped right back into the tear, which quickly closed behind it with a loud pop. Aside from all the destruction everywhere, it hadn’t left a single trace.

Graci whipped around and pointed a finger towards Uzume. "You're that same brat, aren't you? Why, why, WHY?! Why are you so determined to RUIN EVERYTHING? You have made the WORST mistake in your LIFE by making an enemy out of me! I swear I'll remember this!" For as much as she screamed, the strange woman didn't seem nearly as intimidating when she was running away, helmet beneath her arm and sweat rolling down her face.

As soon as Uzume’s feet touched the ground, a sudden burst of exhaustion spread through her entire body. There was a blinding flash, then both her and Mesprit collapsed on the grass. It was a kind of tired she had never really experienced before, like all of the heat had been wrung out of her insides. She decided to just sprawl out on the ground and soak up as much sunlight as possible, hoping that it could warm the cold fatigue that gripped onto her.

"This isn't a dream, by the way," Mesprit sputtered, gasping for breath. "That was real, and I haven't done that in like...I haven't done that in like two hundred years!"

"Pssh. Of course it's a dream." Uzume replied, squinting up at the sky. Still, though, the sun was awfully bright for it to just be her imagination. And you know, in most nightmares she would have been able to wake herself up during that part where the monster was walking down the alley towards her hiding place, but she was very much not awake by the time it reached the dumpster...

"Oh my god all of this really just happened didn't it?"

The fairy raised her head and smiled. "Alright, new-friend. What else are we gonna do today? Unlocking ancient powers got me so hungry that I could eat a whole car!"

"Hey, could you turn your head to the right a little?" Uzume motioned with her pencil, then glanced back down at the sketch paper with furrowed brows.

"Like this?" Mesprit tilted her head in the wrong direction. "Anyways, I'm the one that had to fly the farthest to even get to this city, right? Even though I was totally the one that sensed the threat first! Could you even believe that lady, though? I mean, what the heck was up with her? Blue skin, orange hair, very angry, likes to tear holes in space and time...Sheesh! Wait, why am I up here? What have you been doing this whole time?"

Adjusting the lamp with her free hand, Uzume hushed the fairy and stared intensely at the sheet of paper. She eventually shook her head and added to the growing pile of eraser shavings, starting again with a renewed fury. "I'm drawing you, duh. What else does it look like? Hold still for a little bit longer I just need to get this one part right."

"Is it really that hard? I'm just a cute, tiny fairy is all. Nothing too complex about that." Mesprit kept tapping her foot on the desk, but managed to stay still well enough. Her eyes wandered around the room until they eventually met with a portrait of a young girl, proudly displayed up on the wall behind her. "You sure do like drawing, huh? Who's that supposed to be?"

"That's Sakuya. She’s been my best friend since I was in preschool. She moved away just after school ended for the summer, and I've been alone ever since." Despite how morbid it sounded coming out of her mouth, Uzume didn't seem to actually feel much saying it. Maybe she was concentrating on drawing a single curve over and over a little too much.

"Oh." The fairy stared down at a metal cup of pens for a while. "Why'd she move?"

"Her parents moved for business reasons, so she had to go with them. Now she's all the way in Unova." One more violent erasing later, Uzume was back at it again.

"Right. You told me about that earlier today. Sorry I forgot."

Uzume hushed her again. "No time to be sad about it. How's this look?" She held up the sketchpad. The drawing was clearly rushed, and it at least kind of looked like the pokemon, but there were a bunch of tiny mistakes that ended up making her look like a sumo wrestler with ten mile long tails. Before the fairy could even giggle at the drawing, Uzume pulled it away and hissed to herself. "No no no, don't answer that! I'm gonna need to work on it later!"

"What'd you even ask me for, then?" Mesprit chuckled. Just then, a fuzzy feeling invaded the back of her head.

'Mesprit! Where are you?' Azelf shouted with as much authority as telepathy could allow. 'It's been six hours since we've heard anything from you! Did you even try to get to the library?'

The fairy's face sharpened. 'Uh, duh? Of course I did. But I ended up finding another one of the white-suited people, so it doesn't really matter whether I made it or not! Also I made another Scarlet Guardian just so you guys know.'

'U-um,' Uxie stuttered out. 'Could you repeat that last thing you just said?'

Azelf completely overtook the mental airways. 'You did WHAT? Since when did any of us okay that at literally any point?! You can't just go around and- and-' There was a long pause. 'Why do you always do this? Why do you always gotta be the one that makes the first Guardian? Shouldn't it be a unanimous vote kind of thing'?

"Uh, Mesprit?" Uzume waved her hand in front of the fairy's face, but she continued to stare off into the distance with a disgruntled look on her face. "Mesprit! Is something wrong or is this a normal thing for pokemon like you?"

"Wha- huh? What's going on?" After a moment or two, Mesprit finally seemed to snap back to reality. "Oh, it's nothing. I'm just arguing with my two siblings over the ethics of creating superpowered warriors. And also we really need to go to the library tomorrow, apparently. That's where I was supposed to go today, but you kind of distracted me, and then the explodey dude also kind of distracted me. There was another of those blue people there today."

Another one? Uzume bit the end of her pencil. "I guess I'm committing to this Scarlet Verity thing, huh?"

"You sure are!" the fairy chimed.

"Hm." Leaning back in her chair, Uzume glanced up towards the ceiling and sighed. Yeah, maybe all of this was crazy. Yeah, maybe it was all moving way too fast. And yeah, it was a lot of responsibility to have to make sure people don't get killed or hurt by monsters that can throw their heads as bombs. But the feeling from this morning--that gnawing loneliness--it was completely gone. Every time she looked over at Mesprit, every drop of pessimism stuck inside her just evaporated on the spot. It felt like hope. Even if this summer was going to suck, she wouldn’t be alone.