“So then, dear gentlemons, do any of you own this supposed magical vessel?”

  The Star Allies tensed up, especially Magolor, who indeed owned this specific magical vessel. The group didn’t expect another set of Pokémon to go investigate their ship, especially royal guards from the king of this land. Like, they expected a royal investigation at some point because Energy Spheres falling from the sky one night would be the cause of many concerns… just like what happened in Popstar all those years ago.

  Sure, Dedede was nice about it because of Kirby, but unfortunately, whoever this King Solgaleo was probably won’t be as kind and merciful to the alien ship that crashed in his land, which meant… the Lor was in danger.

  Magolor’s fur bristled a bit as he considered blasting these soldiers a bit, but he was held back when he considered stuff in the long run… and because Dedede already stepped forward to start negotiating. “Uh… yes, my friend here owns it. We were all on this ship when we crashed for unknown reasons.”

  As the penguin motioned a flipper to Magolor, the magician cat clenched his paws and smiled nervously, thinking a bit madly. ‘You imbecile! You were supposed to lie about it and not tell them the truth for us to be in more trouble!’

  The mushroom cap Pokémon hummed in thought as he eyed the nervous cat. He then sighed before crossing his arms and tilting his head. “Are you aware that your ship has caused massive damage to the forest close to a town belonging to the kingdom’s borders? Not only that, your ship, for some reason, decided to drop these orbs with strange gears in them all over the continent. I hope you’re aware of what these gears do…”

  Magolor sighed and took some steps forward, clasping his paws. “Yes, I am indeed very aware of what they do and hold responsibility over each and every one of them. If they are missing, I, myself, will go and find them.”

  Bandana tilted his head and asked. “But didn’t you ask us last time-”

  The brown-furred meowscarada inched his face closer to the twin-tailed otter and shushed him, putting a finger on Bandana’s mouth. “Be quiet, kid, the adults are talking right now.”

  The buizel rolled his eyes and responded when the furry finger was removed from his mouth. “I’m not even that young-”

  Magolor quickly addressed the soldiers, cutting Bandana off as he crossed his arms. “ANYWAY, my dear soldiers! If you want to investigate my pride and joy, go ahead. There is nothing to hide in such a pristine and beautiful ship.”

  As Magolor motioned to where the ship would be, the three Pokémon soldiers looked around for a moment in confusion. Even the beedrill started buzzing a little, trying to find it a little higher up. But when nothing was found, the bastiodon with a deep female voice turned around to the cat and said. “You say that, yet I see no ship…”

  “Or do you?” Magolor smirked for a bit before clapping his paws together twice.

  Suddenly, the invisibility cloak from the Lor faded away, revealing the giant ship in all its glory and even surprising the soldiers who took a step back from the sudden appearance. The bee spoke first. “W-what!? The ship can become invisible!?”

  “What kinda magic is this thing made of…?” The shield dinosaur asked, astounded.

  “Remarkable…” The breloom spoke in awe. Meanwhile, the magic cat just continued having his ego a bit inflated as he saw the soldier’s reactions. But before he could gloat about it, the scarf-wearing grass type cleared his throat and turned to the Star Allies. “I guess one of our questions is answered. And now for the next question… why did this ship even fall out of the sky? And where does it come from, along with all of you?”

  Meta Knight took a step towards the soldier and bowed curtly. “We apologize for the disturbance we have caused to your kingdom and the neighboring ones. It was not our intention in the slightest. We came from a faraway land, and our ship was suddenly attacked out of the sky, thus causing us to crash into this continent.”

  “Another continent, eh?” The breloom said while tapping on his chin with his claws.

  The beedrill tilted his head and asked. “Wait, are you guys perhaps from the Gemstone Continent? I heard that a kingdom there is heavily advanced in technology!”

  Susie scoffed silently and looked at her hands while posing sassily. “Please, like a place in this world is close to the level of my company’s tech.” She muttered to herself.

  Dedede began speaking again. “We mean no harm. We just wish to fix our ship, find our missing friend, and return to our home.”

  As the breloom hummed, the bastiodon commented. “Missin’ crew, damaged ship, and all those bubble gear thingies you gotta get… wow, you guys havin’ it rough there…”

  Elfilin sighed and scratched his arm while looking away. “Yeah… almost nothing went our way here…”

  “May I suggest something?” The mushroom cap Pokémon suddenly spoke as he raised a claw.

  Marx leaned his body forward. “Oh, you're gonna actively search for all the Energy Spheres for us while we sit in this ship, relaxing? Oh, you’re such a buddy!”

  All of the transformed Pokémon glared at Marx with a death stare while Magolor just thought to himself with twitchy fingers. ‘Why the heck didn’t I throw him into the depths of Another Dimension already?’

  The mage cat immediately looked back at the breloom and bowed very apologetically to the soldiers. “I’m so sorry about his behavior! We cannot control it as much as we want to…”

  The breloom soldier chuckled a bit. “We don’t mind a few jokes here and there, as long as you don’t step out of line. But anyway, what I was going to propose was… You search for these… Energy Spheres, as you call them, with the king's help.”

  The Star Allies had a surprised reaction to the offer the breloom just proposed, Bandana and Elfilin being the only ones saying “WHAT!?” in pure shock from it.

  “You heard me right. Now that we know why this mysterious ship has fallen out of the sky and the issue with it, we will report back to King Solgaleo about our findings and see if there is anything he can do to aid you. After all, a powerful material was scattered all over his kingdom along with the entire continent, who knows what ill-intended Pokémon plan to do with an object so powerful to power a magical ship?”

  Magolor mused after putting a paw on his chin. “If contraptions in this world are powerful and run on magic… add an Energy Sphere into the mix and said contraption is going to have infinite clean energy while powering it up to an unfathomable level…”

  “That’s how powerful these things are!?” Elfilin asked, a bit baffled.

  The breloom sighed and crossed his arms. “And that’s what our king was worried about the most. Our royal scientists have gathered ten of those magical orbs already, and they have begun testing on them. That’s all we know so far-”

  Magolor suddenly got inches away from the breloom’s face and grabbed his arms in utter terror, the soldiers and the Star Allies looking a bit surprised. “YOU GUYS ARE PUTTING THE ENERGY SPHERES THROUGH TESTING!? DO YOU GUYS REALIZE THE MISTAKE YOUR SCIENTISTS ARE DOING!?” Magolor calmed down a bit, but not by much, just enough to release the mushroom fighter from his grip and step away. He then pointed at them. “Go tell your king and scientists about the utter error they are committing and bring these spheres to us!”

  The bastiodon growled and took some steps towards the meowscarada. “And who do you think you’re orderin’ while bein’ an outsider to this continent-”

  The breloom put a claw in front of her face and continued speaking. “Alright, we’ll do it. If these spheres are as dangerous as you say, then we shall warn the king about it.”

  “Woah, wait, wait, wait.” The beedrill said before fluttering in front of the breloom, crossing his arms. “Are you really sure about this? Taking this guy at face value? Are we even sure anything he or his crew says is true?”

  Magolor felt the need to hold a curse, but he didn’t need to since the mushroom had already spoken again. “I trust them. These fellows show that they are being truthful because of the knowledge they shared about those gears.” He then pointed at the Lor. “And they have that to confirm their claims as well.”

  ‘Oh gods of the multiverse, at least they have common sense.’ Magolor thought to himself as he subtly sighed in relief.

  The breloom nodded in gratefulness. “Thank you for warning us about the danger of these gears. We shall warn our king right away. We will return to you once he answers and suggest a deal between your crew and him. We shall be seeing each other. Come on, guys.”

  As the breloom walked away, the two other soldiers looked at themselves before they began following the mushroom fighter. And with that, the Star Allies were alone again before Magolor muttered. “Bunch of fools…”

  Meta Knight turned to the cat and asked. “Magolor, could you explain why you reacted in such a way to the soldiers?”

  The magical cat sighed and turned to the group, crossing his arms while looking at Meta Knight, Dedede, and Bandana. “Do you three remember when you guys came across certain Another Dimension portals where you fought Sphere Doomers for the portals to close, and you retrieved the Energy Spheres?”

  The empoleon nodded. “Yes. Those Sphere Doomers consumed the Energy Spheres to gain power and attack us. And once we defeated them, the portals closed. Why… do you ask?”

  “Well, about the Sphere Doomers consuming them, that’s… where you’re wrong. Another Dimension, the Sphere Doomers, and the Energy Spheres… they’re all connected.”

  The Star Allies had their eyes widened, even Marx to a certain degree. Bandana gasped and blurted out. “H-how!? How is that possible!?”

  Magolor then began explaining. “Halcandrians were smart beings. So smart, in fact, to the point of transforming the very dimension they inhabited into literal energy. As you know, Sphere Doomers and their counterparts are born in Another Dimension, they are created by the dimension itself. But what you guys didn’t know… is that they are part of that place. They sustain that place, and whenever a new Sphere Doomer is born, they expand Another Dimension even more.” The meowscarada then folded his arms behind his back. “And here, where it gets interesting. Halcandrians grabbed these creatures and studied them, and they discovered the amount of energy they held. And by using the doomers, they achieved something powerful, Another Dimension energy in its purest form…” With that, he pulled out the Energy Sphere they retrieved from that cactus Pokémon from his pocket space, making Bandana, Elfilin, and Dedede gasp while leaving the others with a surprised look.

  “Wait, so… all of those Doomer creatures we fought to get those spheres back… they were… they were just returning to their original form?” Dedede rationalized, putting the info he received into use. “And by returning to their original form… they created those small pocket-sized Another Dimensions!?”

  Magolor flicked his fingers at the penguin. “Quick thinking, Dedede.” He then motioned with his paws again as he continued explaining. “Yes, whenever a Sphere Doomer forms outside of Another Dimension, it generates its small pocket-sized version of that place to live in, sucking in the environment around to create it.”

  “Just like we saw when we traveled around Popstar…” Bandana said while looking aside.

  The knight then took a step towards Magolor. “And you didn’t even bother to explain it to us then? Why?”

  “Hey, hey, chill, pal.” Magolor put his paws in front of him. “I didn’t even know about any of that, and I actually put some research into it right after your… adventures.” He looked aside and sighed. “I was heavily focused on something else during that time…” He then shook his hands and looked back at them, putting a finger up with his free paw. “But hey, let’s not reminisce about bad times; let’s focus on now!” The cat then motioned to the sphere. “Since last time, I figured out that the Lor doesn’t just use these things as an energy source, it also stabilizes them so they don’t have the chance of turning into Doomers again.”

  “So basically put… every Pokémon who got their lil’ paws on the Energy Spheres are having their first experience with the Doomers, eh?” Marx said with a giggle.

  Elfilin looked at the jester hat-wearing oddish and spoke with a scowl. “It’s not funny, Marx! Those poor Pokémon could be in danger fending off those creatures, they need our help!”

  “Ah, yes, the creatures that have magical abilities at their disposal, yes, they definitely need our help, mhm,” Marx sarcastically said while tapping his feet.

  “The chinchilla makes a point, Marx,” Susie commented as she crossed her arms. “They don’t know what happens when a Sphere Doomer emerges, and they might get trapped in their own dimension.” She then looked at the cat. “Magolor, do you know what happens when multiple Energy Spheres are turned into Doomers in relatively the same space?”

  Magolor scratched his cheeks. “Well, I only read some records of it that happened in the past. The halcandrians didn’t mention what happens to multiple at once, but if my hypothesis is correct… drat…” He then looked at the Lor and ran to it. With a simple flick of his paw, he threw the Energy Sphere in the air. And like it was metal, the sphere got sucked into the ship, getting absorbed by it in the process. But the brown meowscarada didn’t stick around for that; he went back to the group and talked to them a bit hastily. “We've got to follow those soldiers back into the castle, or science lab, whatever!”

  “What? Why?” Dedede asked, a bit concerned and confused.

  “If they have ten Energy Spheres already, then imagine what would happen if suddenly all of them become unstable because of their testing? We need to clean up their mess before something horrible happens there and a bunch of those Pokémon die.” Magolor said with a sense of resolve. Back then, when he first crashed into Popstar, he couldn’t save the inhabitants of Popstar who messed with Energy Spheres wrong… but now? He could save the ones in this world as well.

  He had to prove himself after all that he had become a better person!

  “Man, just when I thought I could rest for the rest of the day…” The buizel slumped a bit with a whimper.

  “Despite being sudden, it is still an urgent matter.” The dark blue jigglypuff said, resolute on his word. “We may be talking about a catastrophic event that could happen, along with ten of the required objects to go back to Popstar. Even if the rest sounds nice, we need to be there.”

  “Besides, think of all the Doomers we get to play with if they are to be released!” Marx giggled mischievously.

  Dedede called out. “If we’re actually doing it, we have to hurry then, before it could potentially get worse!” He then began running ahead while motioning for the group to follow. “Come on, guys, let’s do this!”

  “Going into a lab, huh…” Elfilin muttered to himself as he looked aside. He then shook it off and began following the group.

  As everyone went a bit ahead, Susie thought for a moment, muttering to herself. “Hm… imagine the value I could glean from those scientists… I may be able to finally imbue magic into technology… something Magolor never let me have!” She giggled to herself before running behind them, her powerful legs starting to catch up to them quickly.

  The Star Allies ran quickly through the forest, Marx and Elfilin flying in the sky, trying to search for the trio of soldiers. Magolor couldn’t help but grimace at his thoughts when more scenarios of what could happen appeared in his head. Would this new pocket dimension be the size of a mountain? Or would it be the same size as the other ones? How many Doomers would they have to fight? … you know, it’s better to stop theorizing to not make the anxiety increase…

  Eventually, they reached Cometon again. Just when they thought they had lost the soldiers, Elfilin shouted from the air, “I see them!” Marx looked at where the chinchilla was pointing, seeing the trio of Pokémon already between the first few buildings of the town.

  “Oh, there those fellas are!” Marx said before swooping down along with Elfilin to the other Star Allies. “Pick up the pace, our ticket to the castle is just a bit ahead!”

  “Alright, let us make haste then!” Meta Knight nodded before he began sprinting faster along with all the other Star Allies.

  Eventually, the group reached the trio of soldiers when arriving at Cometon. The three Pokémon heard the group's footsteps and turned around to meet them. The breloom began speaking when the Star Allies stopped in front of them. “Ah, you guys again? Strange meeting you all this soon again.” He gazed upon their faces before noticing how distraught they were. “Is there… a problem?”

  Bandana took a step and pleaded. “Please, take us to where they’re testing the Energy Spheres. We realized something really bad is gonna happen if the scientists touch them wrong!”

  “We are talking about multiple casualties in that lab. We must head over there before it’s too late for the scientists.” Meta Knight stated with certainty.

  “Woah, woah, wait. Are you guys actually speaking the truth or…” The beedrill said a bit uncertainly.

  “Wait, wasn’t the kitty freakin’ out about it before this too? I mean, I don’t trust ‘em fully either, but-” The shield dinosaur spoke before getting interrupted by the loud voices of the Pokémon around them. It seemed like a crowd was gathering around a specific part of town. The soldiers and the Star Allies looked at the crowd, and the bastiodon spoke again. “Huh…? The heck’s all this crowd about?”

  Elfilin commented with a paw on his chin. “Maybe there is some kind of commotion going on around…?”

  The beedrill buzzed his wings a bit in nervousness. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this…?”

  The scarf-wearing breloom motioned with his claw for his teammates to follow. “Only one way to find out.”

  The soldiers went torwards the commotion before the Star Allies looked at themselves for a moment. Magolor frowned and dared to ask. “Do you think it’s…”

  Dedede sighed before beginning to walk after the soldiers as well. “Like he said… only one way to find out…”

  The star allies followed the soldiers to the commotion and went to the small crowd that gathered at the town square. Upon reaching there, they found that in the center of the crowd, there was an alolan raichu with a cute lab coat that was perfectly sized for them. Once they got close enough, they could hear her panicked, squeaky female voice as the mouse floated around on her tail. “We’ve provoked a singularity! E-everyone back at the lab… they just… oh Arceus… the world is doomed!”

  “Is… is she okay?”

  “Isn’t she a renowned royal scientist of the kingdom? Why is acting like that?”

  “W-what does she mean by… the world is doomed. Is… is the world actually…”

  The crowd was beginning to go into an uproar, with more whispers and murmurs than ever. The Star Allies looked around the crowd of magical creatures in concern before Bandana commented. “Wait, did one of them say that she was one of the royal scientists?”

  “A singularity, eh?” Marx commented as well before looking at the meowscarada with a sly grin. “Hey Mags, does that mean what I think it means~?”

  Magolor hummed in thought. ‘Judging by the way this floating mouse is acting and from the rumors from this crowd, not only is she a royal scientist but she probably was one of the Pokémon that made the Sphere Doomers appear, and judging from her panic… it was recent so we have a chance to reverse it.’ He then walked over to the breloom soldier and tapped him on his shoulders. “Hey, would you be so kind as to disperse the crowd for us? She might have the answer to what we warned you guys about.”

  The mushroom fighter looked at Magolor for a moment with a slight frown before nodding in determination as he realized the severity of the situation. He then walked a bit more into the crowd, pulling out a badge from his bag. It looked like a sun with the face of a lion engraved in it. “Everybody, go back to your businesses now. This is a royal issue, step aside!”

  The Pokémon of the crowd looked at the soldier and widened their eyes once they saw the breloom’s badge. They then moved out of the way, most of them returning to their business, trying not to think much about what the raichu said, while some others decided to stay to see what would happen.

  The three soldiers approached, with the Star Allies following suit. The mouse scientist noticed the two groups approaching and tensed up a bit, and a bit of electricity sparked out of her cheeks in nervousness. “Ah, Doctor Jahla,” the breloom began speaking. “Would you be so kind as to explain why you came all the way here to speak those things and frighten the population?”

  The mouse trembled, floating a bit back a little, muttering just loud enough for the two groups to hear. “I-I’m sorry…” She then floated to the breloom and began tearing up as she hugged him for comfort. “I’m sorry! I’m so, so, so, so, sorry! I messed up! A-and now, because of those tests… the whole world is going to pay for our sins…”

  The beedrill and bastiodon felt a chill go down their spine before the shield dinosaur tilted her head. “Hey Doc, you ain’t playin’ with us, right…?”

  Magolor then got beside the breelom and asked. “Excuse me, but… perhaps do your tests involve these gears inside these floating orbs? And did they perhaps become unstable during one of these tests and create a black hole torwards a pocket dimension…?”

  The soldiers looked at the brown-furred meowscarada in confusion while the raichu had her eyes widen in shock. She slowly looked at Magolor as if she had seen a ghost. “H-how… how did you… know that…?”

  “Call it a mage’s intuition,” Magolor said with a smirk before turning to the Star Allies. “Alright, guys, this is exactly what I suspected, we’re going to act on this one before the situation gets worse.”

  Bandana nodded determinedly before speaking with a clenched paw. “Count us in! We’re professionals at dealing with things like these!”

  “Believe in us. We have encountered situations such as you have experienced, we will not relent in dealing with them.” Meta Knight reassured, nodding his body while his cape was folded in front of him.

  Dedede tried to do as best with a thumbs up with his new claws. “Trust us, this is just another Tuesday for all of us!”

  Doctor Jahla looked at the Star Allies in utter bewilderment, seeing how they had just quickly accepted her request despite possibly hearing that she had made a huge mistake that caused the world to end. Yet… they say like they confronted situations like these casually!? “W-who… who are you guys? How can you just call a literal black hole just another Tuesday!?”

  Susie stepped in with her arms crossed. “If our hypothesis is correct, the singularity you’re talking about is just a portal to a pocket dimension that was created by the misuse of those gears you guys have been testing.” She approached the floating mouse, who by this point had stopped hugging the breloom. “But if you are so kind as to show us where this black hole problem originated from, we’ll be glad to take care of it with no problems whatsoever.”

  The mouse was awestruck, not sure what to say as she stared while blinking a bit, dumbfounded. Eventually, she managed to find her words. “Are… are you guys really doing this? Can you really save us all?”

  “Duh.” Marx rolled up to her in his beach ball, bouncing on it without issues. “We wouldn’t be offering all of this if we couldn’t even do it. So what, ya gonna moan around all day or what? We’ll just take back what we said if ya don’t want it~” The oddish said with a fanged smirk.

  The floating rodent gasped before flailing her arms wildly. “Fine, fine! I’ll teleport you there, please, I just don’t want the world to end and lose more Pokémon already!”

  Elfilin tilted his head and asked. “Wait, you can teleport?”

  Jahla nodded a bit melancholically, scratching her arm with a grimace. “It was the only way I escaped from getting sucked in after all…”

  “Well, convenient enough then,” Magolor said with a smile. “Alright, take us there-”

  “Wait.” The breloom called out, his arms crossed as he continued speaking now that the Star Allies and the doctor had turned to him. “I said this was royal matters after all, and so, we are going with you.” The mushroom cap fighter stated, which made the group look at him in confusion, as did the other soldiers. “We have to look for survivors of that incident. I became a soldier of the kingdom to protect my fellow Pokémon after all.”

  The beedrill soldier flew in front of the breloom and stopped it. “Woah, woah, wait a moment, Mycelius! You sure you want in on this? Like, from what the doctor said. This can potentially be really dangerous, and you could even get yourself killed!”

  The mushroom, Mycelius, huffed and crossed his arms. “I’ve made an oath to myself after becoming a servant of the king as one of his many soldiers. I would protect my people as much as I can, even if the threat is impossible to beat!” He looked up in absolute determination before looking back at the beedrill. “You and Fortalina can stay out of this if you want, but just so you know, I’m not backing down from this either!”

  The beady eyes of the bug continued staring at Mycelius for a moment before he sighed through his mandibles. “I see… I’ll be staying out of this, but I won’t stop you.”

  “Yeh, sittin’ this one out too, sorry. I… uh… still don’t trust these weirdos to win against a blackhole, but well, eh…” The bastiodon turned to the Star Allies. “Hope yous can succeed at least on this one. Wouldn’t wanna have my buddy die in this mission.”

  “Oh, and we will succeed on this one, alright?” The meowscarada said with smug confidence. He then turned to the mouse doctor and asked. “So then…?”

  Jahla blinked and spoke with a stutter. “O-oh, right! G-gather around… I have the strength to teleport everyone here.”

  The cat thought with a hum. ‘So she has enough power to teleport many people at once? How convenient of an ability… just makes me wonder how strong these Pokémon are. Because teleportation magic is a very complex process, especially when teleporting multiple people at once…’

  Wordlessly, the Star Allies and Mycelius gathered around Doctor Jahla. Bandana and Dedede touched the rodent’s sides while Marx touched Dedede, and Susie touched Bandana. Meta Knight touched the mouse’s back, followed by Magolor and Elfilin. Mycelius then held the doctor’s paw before she finally spoke. “Is… everyone ready?” The group nodded, and the mouse sighed. “Alright… here we go again…”

  And within the blink of an eye, the entirety of the group disappeared with a flash of purple being left in their wake.

  From one moment to another, the Star Allies and Mycelius arrived at their destination, courtesy of the psychic mouse. The group opened their eyes and got familiar with their surroundings for a moment, some of them having their mouth agape in awe of what they saw. Stone walls covered the background of their new location, and the planted trees and bushes around them also showed them that this was a very prestigious location.

  But of course, not everything was sunshine and rainbows.

  In front of them there seemed to be the remains of a building at the edges, but where that building was supposed to be, there was just one single star-shaped portal. Oh, and it wasn’t the small ones that the Dedede, Bandana, and Meta Knight were already used to. This one was… huge. It was basically the size of a 4-story-tall building.

  Doctor Jahla noticed the shape of the portal as she released her paws from Mycelius. She tilted her head. “What the…? Why is it the shape of a star? And why is it not expanding like an actual black hole would!?”

  Magolor took a step in front of the doctor and began speaking while pointing a finger towards it. “That is a portal to a place called Another Dimension. A world between worlds that can only be accessed if you’re extremely unlucky while traversing through portals or trying to actively get to it by all means necessary…” He then put his arms behind him and smugly grinned while turning to the rodent. “Ooooor messing with literal energy that comes from that place and testing on it without even knowing what it does.”

  “W-what…?” The lab coat-wearing mouse said with a stutter as she pieced together what the meowscarada just said. “H-how do you know all of this?”

  Mycelius then spoke. “So… turns out that these Pokémon are actually the ones that came from that rumored flying ship that dropped all of these bubble gears on the Eclipse Continent. So they actually know what they are and…” He then motioned to the portal in front of them. “What… that is.”

  Meta Knight then spoke after approaching Jahla. “Let us cease your worries and tell you that whoever got sucked into that portal can still be saved like we have done many times before. We only have to beat the perpetrators who created this rift.”

  “Y-you mean… those… winged orb creatures that summoned the black hole in the first place…?” The doctor asked in confusion.

  Elfilin’s eyes widened. “You saw the Sphere Doomers as well!?”

  “So… that’s what they’re called…?” Jahla frowned as she recalled what happened, not too fond of the recent memory. “We were just… trying to increase their energy output in one of the tests, and then suddenly… they grew out of control and they transformed into those… things before they… they…”

  “Yeah, we can surmise what happened there,” Dedede said with a frown of his own as well. But then he looked at the rodent with a determined look. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of those things and rescue your fellow scientists no problem!”

  “Yeah, you keep saying that, yet I don’t know how you guys can solve something as big as this.” The breloom spoke as he motioned to the portal.

  “It’s straightforward, actually!” Bandana said with a smile. “We just hop into the portal, gather everyone sucked in to safety and then we go beat the Sphere Doomers that formed the portal!”

  Jahla and Mycelius just blinked for a moment as they stared at the buizel, a bit baffled. But instead of any of them speaking, Elfilin spoke. “Wait, it’s just that simple?”

  The mouse looked away with an embarrassed blush as she fiddled with her paws. “Feels like I exaggerated back at Cometon then…”

  Meta Knight pat the rodent’s shoulders. “There is no need to feel embarrassed about it. You had no way to know what was about to happen during the time of panic. But now…” The masked jigglypuff then took some steps forward, getting in front of the portal and pulling the Galaxia out of the scabbard. “Let us not waste any more time. Let us move, Star Allies.”

  With that, Meta Knight ran, with sword in hand, into the portal, getting sucked into it in the process. Susie put a vine hand on her hip and asked the others. ”Are we actually going in like that without a concrete plan?”

  Dedede shrugged. “Well, the doomers ain’t that hard to beat once you figure out what elements they are. But I have a feeling this time would be more complicated…”

  “Let’s have it like this then.” Mycelius began directing. “How about you guys go deal with the threats while I go scout for survivors over there with a little help, huh?”

  “Say no more!” Marx spoke before jumping out of his beach ball and unfurling his wings, surprising both the rodent and the mushroom lizard. The oddish then turned to the bandana-wearing buizel and spoke. “You go help the fungus, meanwhile, I’ll go have fun with the funny birds! Have fun!!!”

  With that, Marx flew towards the portal, getting sucked into it while laughing like a maniac. Jahla blinked for a moment and said with a trembling voice. “What just… that oddish…” She just sat on her tail like a floating seat. “I’ll just… be here, if… well, any other Pokémon arrive here while… you’re doing your work…”

  “Alright then…” Mycelius spoke again before looking at Bandana. “What the demonic oddish said… You wouldn’t mind helping me find the other scientists, right?”

  “Of course not! I want to help everyone I can! So let’s go already!” The buizel announced, and the breloom nodded. So, the two of them ran to the portal as well and went inside the dimension.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Susie said as she cocked her laser blaster. “It’ll be just like last time when we helped that Jambastian folk.” Dedede nodded and followed behind her as the two of them entered the portal.

  Elfilin scratched his cheek. “I’m… a bit nervous about this… is it really that simple to fix this?”

  “Oh, trust me, it IS that simple,” Magolor said with a smile before starting to walk to the portal and ushering Elfilin to follow with a wave of his paw. “Come on, I’ll teach you all the basics on how to navigate in Another Dimension of this size.”

  And with that, the cat and the chinchilla entered the portal, getting sucked into the pocket-sized version of Another Dimension. Their vision warped, the purple sheen of the portal turning white as a bunch of starry objects entered their field of vision, and the white eventually faded away. They were falling a bit as the ground revealed itself.

  Magolor quickly used levitation magic to soften the fall before landing, while Elfilin just floated down beside him. They spotted the other Star Allies a bit ahead of them, gazing at their space-like surroundings. The Star Allies were already familiar with these sights, having their own experiences with them in some way or another. The swirly vortexes that led… somewhere, the stars scattered around the strange cosmos of the place, and of course, the grey landscape of the area that got sucked in.

  The masked cat took a deep breath. “Ah, back to this place. No matter where we go, it follows us, it seems like.”

  “This place… I remember this place!” Elfilin explained before he turned to Magolor, who looked at him in confusion. “Back in the forgotten land, while I was travelling with Kirby and Bandana, there were sometimes these rifts that appeared all over the place during our travels, and there were some of these… precious materials that Kirby got from those places that were used to upgrade his abilities.” He then looked at the sky again. “Although… I remember having some pretty funny symbols floating all over the place, not just some stars and meteorites…”

  Magolor hummed and asked. “Have you seen any Doomers over in those places?” Elfilin turned to the cat and shook his head, making the feline think for a bit more. ‘So… those rifts appeared to be formed either naturally or haphazardly… after all, there was a chance that the same portal that pulled most of Dreamland’s inhabitants was the cause of said destabilization…’ “Interesting… you should tell me more about what happened over there another time, I’m intrigued.”

  Elfilin nodded chipperly. “Will do!”

  The two of them caught up with the other Star Allies and the Pokémon soldier as they stood in front of what appeared to be a fragmented building. Judging from how the windows were spaced, the building was large, with six floors. The building was grey, like the garden they stood in; the windows didn’t even have reflections on them.

  Mycelius adjusted his scarf as he looked at the surroundings, mesmerized and a bit stunned by the view. “My word… what in Giratina’s wings is this place…? How are we even breathing in a place like this? Isn’t this… sort of like the cosmos?”

  “Well, Another Dimension is part of many worlds, like a gap between them or an alternate version,” Susie explained. “So, of course, there would be oxygen in a place like this. Especially if it sucked things out of somewhere with oxygen like this entire building.”

  “Is this supposed to be the lab?” Bandana asked while scratching his cheek.

  The breloom nodded and walked up to the big double doors. “Yes. I’ve been in this place sometimes, being sent to guard this place whenever an important package arrived. But seeing it like this… it just sends a small shiver down my spine, to be honest.” He then turned back to the group. “Say, if we beat those… Sphere, whatever freaks, does the lab go back to the way it was?”

  Meta Knight shook his body. “Unfortunately, no. Once something is pulled into Another Dimension, it becomes part of Another Dimension. That is why we have to rescue any survivor that may have been left in this place.”

  Mycelius hummed in thought. “I see…” He then sighed and nodded determinedly. “Right, those scientists are not going to save themselves.” He then turned to Bandana. “Let’s go find ‘em, Buizel.”

  “Well, they call me Bandana but… yes, sir!” He said that before both the twin-tailed otter and the mushroom lizard entered the building, they first went inside.

  Marx cackled a bit while still flying. “Oooh Doomers, here I come~!” He said before flying inside, and the rest of the Star Allies followed.

  As they entered the fractured construction, something strange happened, as per usual in Another Dimension. They felt the air shift around them, feeling the wind hit them in the face as they were forced to shut their eyes.

  Once Magolor opened his eyes and found himself in a part of the building that was… definitely not the entrance that he saw for a second when he entered through those doors. Grey, large corridors stretched where his eyes could see, crystals of unidentifiable origin floated in contained pillars of the wall, supposedly ones that powered the building… or well, what remained of it. The meowscarada looked around, trying to find the others, but he only found Elfilin by his side, who was also recovering from the strange occurrence.

  Elfilin shook his head and asked. “Ugh… what was that…?” He then looked around for a moment before his eyes widened. “Wha- HUH!? Where are the others!?”

  Magolor crossed his arms and huffed. “So… that’s their big idea? Separating us? Pfft, if only they knew that only accelerated the process of cleaning this whole mess.” He chuckled before starting to walk forward, motioning for Elfilin to follow. “Come on, let’s go find those Doomers.”

  “Uh… right beside you!” The chinchilla floated over to the meowscarada before looking around, seeing the floating crystals, the thick high-voltage cables spread on the corners of the wall and ceiling, and even a map of the place. Elfilin then frowned a bit. “I hope the others will be okay…”

  “You’re worrying about them too much. You’re talking about the same people who slayed the destroyer of worlds together, after all. They can definitely handle some annoying elemental birds.” Magolor spoke with a shrug. “Still, speaking of the Doomers, I wonder how many will there be over here. After all, there were ten Energy Spheres in one place.”

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Do we have to beat them all to get out of this place and close the rift?”

  “Pretty much,” Magolor confirmed. “But don’t worry, with us split like this, I’m sure we’ll find those pesky fliers much faster… wherever they’re hiding, of course-”

  “Is… someone there?”

  The sudden male voice made the duo of cat and chinchilla stop and look around for a moment in confusion. Magolor then activated one of the magical glyphs around the wrist of one of his paws as he called out. “Who’s there?”

  They could see a black claw poked out of the doorway from one of the doors down the hallway. Then a furry face popped out, revealing a very scared zangoose with a lab coat. Once he saw the duo, he gasped before asking. “You… you guys are not feral, right? Nor affiliated with those winged creatures…?”

  “Feral…?” Elfilin asked as Magolor dropped his magic. “W-wait, we’re not with those creatures that created this place! We’re just trying to fix this and rescue some Pokémon.” The chinchilla floated closer to the zangoose, who got out of the doorway. “You’re one of the scientists here, right? Do you know where the others are?”

  The zangoose stared at Elfilin for a moment before muttering. “What kind of Pokémon are…” He then shook his head before responding to the chinchilla’s question. “Well, yes, I’m a scientist here. And uh… I can’t really tell where the others are. We were separated when the incident occurred…”

  Magolor asked with a tilt of his head. “Do you know how many more were here when you got sucked in?”

  The scientist hummed for a moment, trying to recall. “Well… if everyone in the entire room got sucked in… there should be… six other scientists around here.”

  “Well… you’re in luck since one of them actually managed to teleport before getting stuck in here,” Magolor assured with a smile.

  The zangoose looked at the meowscarada with widened eyes. “Seriously!? Then that must mean that Jahla…” He then sighed in relief before smiling. “I appreciate the help. But…” His smile then turned into a frown. “How are we getting out of here? It’s clear this place has been turned into a Mystery Dungeon, but… It’s like whatever those winged creatures are, they are keeping us inside this place…”

  Magolor hummed in thought, a bit confused. Mystery Dungeon? What is a Mystery Dungeon? Well, more like a question for later, and no time to explain the situation. “Don’t worry about those guys.” He reassured. “We’ll deal with them. Now we just have to find a place for you to stay safe-” It was then that a thought crossed the meowscarada’s mind as he remembered something very quirky about Elfilin that could be very useful right now. “On second thought…” He turned to the chinchilla and asked. “Elfilin, are you capable of creating a portal to where Jahla is?”

  Elfilin turned to Magolor, a bit confused before processing what he said. “Oh! Sure, I can do that!” He extended a paw to his side and concentrated. The zangoose’s face turned from confused to shocked in a moment once a star-shaped portal of his size manifested into existence, showing the world outside the rift, even the psychic mouse was visible from a small distance. “There you go, just cross it no problem!”

  The scientist blinked in pure confusion and awe. “Woah… how… how can you create portals like this? Are you perhaps Hoopa’s-”

  Magolor sneakily got behind the mongoose Pokémon and spoke. “Well, I bet Doctor Jahla would be so willing to explain everything to you, so go on ahead, we’ll take it from here and rescue the others.”

  With that, Magolor casually pushed the scientist into the portal, eliciting a grunt out of him that called the mouse’s attention. And then, the portal closed while Magolor waved a bit. Elfilin smiled a bit. “At least that’s one of the scientists rescued!”

  “Alright, let’s get a move on. Hopefully, we can regroup with everyone along the way,” Magolor said before the duo began walking around again.

  POV CHANGE

  “Ah, Doomers and their quirky lil’ ways of separation. Oh, they’re in for a treat once I find them, a time of pure fun~!” Marx said he giggled a bit, flying around the hallways of the buildings.

  Oh boy, oh boy! So the Doomers actually thought they had a small chance of just separating him from the others? Oh, that’s cute~

  Too bad they won’t escape the fun that he had prepared for them!

  Marx checked the halls of the place he was trapped in, going from door to door as he tried… surprising the Doomers once he opened them, yet there were none of those fliers to be found. Once he tried out the last door on one of the corridors, he rolled his eyes. “Ugh, where are they!? This is starting to become boring real fast-”

  As he was about to close the door with his wing claw, he heard the sound of some object clattering coming from the same room. Once he looked back at the room, he saw a blur moving towards a locker and closing it a bit half-assedly, a small aluminum pot on the ground.

  Marx grinned widely as he entered the room and began hovering slowly, pretending to look around. “Man, sure is boring around here… no friends to play with, nothing to do in these gray areas… such a shame…” While approaching the locker, he began speaking. “Unless… there is something… or someone that could cure any kind of boredom I’d have if they played with me…” The oddish got even closer to the locker, ignoring the flasks and certain machinery that fell by his wings. “Someone that’s hiding away in a locker… specifically one in this room…” He stopped in front of the locker, his grin wide and menacing as ever, as his eyes bulged slightly out of their socket. “It would be so funny…” He then opened the locker. “WOULDN’T IT!?”

  However, once he saw the contents of the locker, his creepy demeanor was morphed into one of confusion. In the locket, this small purple rodent with thick whiskers was sniffing around. Once it saw Marx, it screeched at him before running away from the locker.

  Marx stared at the empty locker for a moment before groaning. “Just when I thought I would’ve found someone-”

  The oddish interrupted himself to grab a claw that was aiming to slash his back, without even looking behind to see it. “W-what the!?” The poor, unknown female voice spoke before managing to free her red claw from Marx’s grip and taking some steps behind.

  “Oh, what do we have here!” Suddenly, Marx’s body split in half, revealing this purplish cyan goop that came out of his body. The two halves spun around horizontally and in opposite directions, and Marx could see an absolutely horrified zoroark in a lab coat who began trembling in absolute dread. “Did you honestly think that a cheap trick like this would work on lil’ old me? Hilarious!” He said before plopping his two sides back together with a broad and predatory grin on his face. “Unfortunately for you, in this fun lil’ game of pee-ka-boo, I’m always the champion!”

  The black and red-furred fox then curled up on the ground, whining from pure fear. “P-please don’t kill me! I-I don’t wanna die! I-I have kits back home that I need to take care of and-”

  And that was just the reaction that Marx wanted… oh, how he loved those! “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, how I missed reactions like this back in my world, hehehehe!” The fox stopped her whining a bit and began looking up in fear and disbelief. “You should’ve seen your own face, it was priceless!”

  The zoroark scientist stared at Marx in disbelief for a moment, their claws still trembling a bit. “T-then… you’re… not going to kill me…?”

  The jester laughed a bit more. He then landed on the ground and made his wings disappear, having a beach ball appear from… somewhere so he could stand on it. “Consider yourself lucky, because if you were born as this lil spherical creature that flies and eats gears for breakfast, I would. But you’re not, so you’re spared, hehehe.” He then tilted his body to the side. “Speaking of those spherical creatures that fly and eat gears for breakfast, have ya seen them?”

  The fox glanced aside for a moment and then looked back at Marx in confusion. “Uh… you…?”

  Marx sighed. “No, not me. I tried eating gears one day and they tasted bad. Talking about the Doomers that trapped you in this funny dimension because of your poor handling of Energy Spheres, of course.”

  The fox tilted her head for a moment before she realized what he meant. “O-oh… uh… no, I haven’t seen them yet. I spent most of the time hidden here. I don’t know where the other scientists are…”

  Marx smiled with a giggle. “You are in good luck! Because with your good buddy Marx here, your time of hiding in boredom is finally gone! While searching for a way out of here, you’ll get to have tons of fun with-”

  Hisses and growls of angry creatures could be heard outside the room, getting louder and louder until some of the sources of the noise entered the room. The entire room got flooded with feral Pokémon of many shapes and sizes, hissing threateningly at both Marx and the zoroark. “O-oh no… the dungeon ferals we had for study escaped!”

  As the same rattata from earlier hopped on a table and growled at the duo, Marx laughed. “Hehehe, seems like the fun came earlier than expected!” He turned to the scientist. “Hey, Foxy, can you defend yourself or something?”

  Foxy stared at Marx in confusion and blurted out. “What!? Of course not! I signed myself to be a royal scientist for research, not fighting! I can only do illusions!”

  “Great!” The oddish then looked back at the rat with an innocent smile. “Leaves more for me!” He then jumped from his ball and kicked in front of him, hitting the rodent in the face before the ball exploded, launching it onto a wall with the knockback of the explosion. The other ferals then went on the offensive, and Marx just retaliated by laughing and spreading his wings, flying straight at them while shooting a myriad of electric arrows at the enemies that came from the hexagons of his wings.

  The arrows pierced the bodies of the feral Pokémon, launching the ones on the front a bit back from where they came and allowing the ferals in the back to step in. A charmander shot fireballs at the jester from the corner of the room while a snorunt shot ice shards at him. However, Marx dodged with ease, looping around in the air while laughing maniacally. He then got above the ferals and curled his wings before shooting four cutter blades that hit the ferals around him, the sharp boomerangs doing a small loop before going back to his body. He then teleported away, appearing above the ferals in the corridor. Meanwhile, the scientist could only ask while in pure shock. “W-what t-the heck is g-going on…?”

  “Hey there, lil’ critters! I have a present for you!” Marx then felt this weight in his mouth, his cheeks bulging from the sudden icy object that materialized in his mouth. He then spat it out right below him, this iron ball that suddenly released this icy shockwave that froze most of the ferals on the spot. He then teleported away from them again and appeared in front of the table before diving into the ground, this shadowy spot being where he was. The spot moved while the ferals tried to spot him, some sniffing around, while some completely succumbed to the feral instincts while trying to flee. However, all efforts proved to be for nothing since Marx emerged from the shadowy spot, blowing them all away with his powerful wings as he flew to the ceiling and then emerged from the wall. He soared by the Pokémon while cackling like a maniac, blowing the Pokémon all away as he twirled in the air. He then suddenly teleported away, appearing next to the zoroark. “Hold tight on something, Foxy! My next magnificent act might get a lil bit messy!”

  Foxy immediately dug her big claws into the crack between the floorboards, not caring about it anymore since this entire place was a mess anyway. She then had the bravery to ask. “W-what the heck are y-y-you going to do now!?”

  As the remaining ferals approached, Marx simply said with an innocent face. “This~”

  He then teleported above the remaining ferals, his face already twisted into the manic face he was used to. His body then split itself in half again, the two halves distancing themselves from each other, all the while Marx cackled loudly. Suddenly, this spacial distortion appeared where Marx split before opening even more into a black hole that began sucking all the ferals in. Everything was getting sucked in, the objects lying on the ground, the unfortunate ferals that picked a fight with the wrong Dreamlander-turned-Pokémon, and even the table that somehow didn’t put a plug in the blackhole. Everything got sucked in while the zoroark scientist was trying her best not to get pulled in while screaming loudly in fear.

  Once all the ferals got sucked in, the black hole ended once Marx’s two halves rejoined themselves. Marx licked his lips and spoke. “Mmmhmmm! That sure hit the spot!” He said before looking at the zoroark. “You doin’ well over there, Foxy?”

  The scientist fox undug her claws from the ground, trembling all the while as she did so. She panted heavily, her ears flattened against her head as she slowly looked back at Marx in pure, unadulterated dread. “W-what… what are you…?”

  Marx landed in the air and folded his wings, giggling a bit. “Me? Oh, I’m Marx! Your friendly neighborhood jester!” He winked innocently. “Pleasure to meet ya!” He then looked away, humming as he walked out of the room. “Where was I again…? Oh right, the Sphere Doomers!” He smirked at the scientist. “Ya might wanna follow me in case you don’t wanna be in this place forever~”

  “Y-yes, will do!” The zoroark said as she got up in trembling feet, hesitantly following the oddish around as they began exploring the place in search of the doomers.

  POV CHANGE!!!

  Dedede looked at the ceiling as he commented. “Those laughs…” He sighed as he scratched his forehead with his free flipper, the other one holding his hammer. “Yep, Marx is at it again… hopefully he doesn’t ruin things for us this time…”

  “Hard to ruin things within Another Dimension, to be perfectly honest,” Susie commented as she looked at her tablet. On her tablet, it showed a radar and a beeping signal at a particular spot on the radar. Susie then switched the radar to a rough map of the place, humming in thought. “We’re close to one of the doomers, and from what I’m gathering, this one has two Energy Spheres contained in it… or well, I guess, formed from them.”

  “Are you sure we can trust your gizmo? Last time we were in Another Dimension, it was pretty much a pretty big labyrinth of the entirety of Popstar and, well, those other planets we’ve been through.” Dedede reminded. He remembers that entire event well since it was one of the more recent incidents. Hey, at least those Jambastion folk are alright and not trying to resurrect the bad version of Kirby’s… uh… dad? Mom? He was still not sure how all of that baloney worked and if he was to trust what Hyness said that one time. But… if Kirby feels that sort of connection, then… that must mean it’s true, right?

  The tsareena shot a small, offended glance at him. “And do you remember that most of the technological advancements of the Haltmann Works Company are designed around travelling said unknown dimensions? So much so that we have created our own expansive digital dimension?”

  The empoleon sighed and looked away. “Right, right, my bad.” He then looked around the corridors of the facility, not finding anything else to talk about. He hummed in thought. ‘Gee, these Pokémon fellas were more advanced than I had expected them to be from what I saw in that town. Although I do wonder where they get these crystals from… they seemed to power this place somehow.’

  Susie hummed in thought as she stopped all of a sudden and gazed around. She then looked back at her tablet and sighed.

  Dedede looked at the tsareena in confusion. “Something wrong?”

  The CEO looked back at Dedede and spoke. “We’ve been looping this whole time.”

  The penguin blinked for a moment as his beak fell a bit agape. “What!?” He groaned a bit. “I knew your map was really broken.”

  Susie stomped on the ground angrily, making a small crack in it. “It’s not my tablet’s fault, you doofus. It’s something else…” She looked around for a moment. “Remember when we entered this place? There was a spatial shift that separated us from the others. This might be the same entity that is making us loop in place…”

  Dedede gripped his hammer tightly as he looked around his surroundings more warily now. “So uh… any idea of how to break out of a spatial loop such as this one?”

  “Well, obviously, we have to find the perpetrator behind this mess. But since it can warp space, it is likely hidden somewhere around this area.” Susie readied her blaster in the other free vine hand while looking at her tablet.

  “So… how do we find ‘em? Do I just have to break things until I accidentally hit them?” Dedede asked, looking at a certain crystal, having a small urge to smash it into pieces.

  “Normally, that would be ideal, or if you were a speedster, run faster than light to break the loop. But fortunately enough…” She began to tap on things on her tablet, having a bit of difficulty doing so with her “hands”. But fortunately enough, the tsareena was able to switch the map of the building into another radar of sorts. “You have me for help. Come on, I figured it out, follow me.”

  As the plant woman began to walk off, Dedede reluctantly followed her. While walking, he began by asking. “What did you figure out?”

  “Well, I changed the radar to find the center of the distortion. I noticed we were close to the Energy Spheres, yet, no matter how much we walked, we never seemed to get any closer to them. But… if the Energy Spheres are close, then that must mean the center of said distortion is also nearby.” Susie explained while also looking at the tablet.

  “So we just need to find the center and hit it hard to break the loop?” The empoleon asked while following her along. “Will that get us out of this mess then?”

  “Yes, that should be the case.”

  And so, the two of them kept walking, Dedede being wary of his surroundings as he gripped his hammer hard while Susie followed the radar that scanned for the center of the spatial distortion. Being honest with himself, the eerie silence of the lab was starting to get to him, and Dedede couldn’t help but think that something was watching him, like this little invisible thing that kept an eye on every single step he took.

  Eventually, while walking in one of the corridors, Susie suddenly stopped and looked around, spotting a floating crystal that was connected to some high-voltage cables. She hummed before glancing at her tablet again and then at the crystal. “Yep, this is it. It’s hiding right here.” The tsareena then looked at Dedede after holstering her tablet. “Care to do the honors?”

  The penguin stared at the crystal for a moment before a grin grew on his beak. “You got it!” Dedede got close to the crystal and arched his hammer back, readying it up for a big strike. And with that, he swung, a noise of glass cracking echoing throughout the entire corridor. However… it wasn’t the crystal that cracked… and more so, the air in front of the crystal. Dedede took some steps back as the air continued cracking even more.

  And then… space shattered.

  Fragments of the previous fake reality broke all around them like pieces of glass. And from that fake reality, in front of the crystal, there was this lone ice Sphere Doomer who flapped around in distress. Dedede called out. “There, that’s an Ice Doomer! It can manipulate ice and warp reality to mess with people!”

  “Thanks for the info, it should be easier to deal with them now!” Susie exclaimed before jumping back and shooting a laser at the Sphere Doomer. However, it managed to twirl to the side to dodge, screeching at them in pure anger. “Good grief, this one is going to be a hassle…”

  “Nothing we can’t handle together! Come on, cover me!” Dedede said before running at the Doomer and jumping, spinning his body and hammer rapidly. The hammer spin attack managed to hit the doomer a bit, launching it a bit back before it teleported away.

  It then appeared next to Susie, opening its mouth to shoot an ice ball of pure energy at her. However, the tsareena managed to react quickly by sidestepping the ice ball. She then aimed her gun at it and shot more laser blasts at it, two of three shots hitting the flyer, who screeched in pain. It then teleported away once again, Susie groaning in frustration and preparing her blaster.

  Susie and Dedede then rushed towards each other and covered each other’s backs. Dedede gripped his hammer tightly while Susie’s vine hands were touching the trigger. “Keep watch of it, wherever it appears next!”

  “No need to tell me twice…” The tsareena argued as her foot began getting covered in grassy energy while the CEO wasn’t noticing. A second later, the Ice Doomer appeared again, slightly above them, before it folded its wings around its body, getting encased in this icy energy as it slowly approached them. “There!”

  Susie aimed her blaster at it before shooting at the Doomer. However, despite shooting at the doomer with her laser shots and damaging it, it wasn’t enough to make it drop its charging ice attack. Fortunately, Dedede noticed in time and coated his hammer in pure steel. “I’ll handle this!” He shouted before arching back with his hammer and charging it for a moment. And after charging it… he struck the flyer, knocking it out of its freezing charge and launching it away.

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to defeat it, and in retaliation, it flapped its wings rapidly while screeching. Suddenly, their entire view of space became inverted. Despite both of them still being on the ground, it felt like they were falling yet stuck to the ceiling like a bug. “Drat!” Susie said before aiming her gun at the Doomer. However, because of her warped view, her laser blasts missed, only grazing the spherical winged creature. The Ice Doomer then swooped down, headbutting Susie in the stomach and making her fall on the ground, and making her drop her blaster. “Gyah!”

  “Susie!” Dedede called out to the tsareena. However, he didn’t linger on her for long, a scowl plastered on his face as he looked at the Ice Doomer. “Oh, you’re gonna get it this time, pal!” He said before charging in with a hammer swing, spinning around like a top. Unfortunately, for Dedede, it teleported away from him. And as Susie recovered and got up, the flyer reappeared again… behind Susie. “Susie! Behind you!”

  The tsareena looked behind her and saw the Ice Doomer charging up for another icy explosion. Unfortunately, Dedede was too far away to reach her in time, and her gun was knocked out of her hands. But before panic could strike, she looked at her legs and seemed to remember something about earlier today. “My legs…” She looked back at the Doomer and looked at him with a scowl. Instead of running from it, she ran to it. With pure instinct taking hold of her body, she jumped and pulled her leg back before making a diving kick towards the Ice Doomer, her feet glowing in pure leafy energy. “Take THIS!”

  Dedede’s beak went agape as he saw Susie dive kick the Doomer with her glowing legs. The icy flower cancelled its charge completely as it was dragged down to the floor by the tsareena’s powerful legs. Once the Doomer made contact with the ground, crushed by her foot, it burst into white mist as Susie jumped back, two Energy Spheres floating out of the small explosion while the warped reality returned to normal. “S-Susie… that was…”

  The tsareena looked at the two Energy Spheres in silence before looking down at her hands and then at her legs, tapping a foot onto the ground. “Incredible… so this is the true potential of this body? Amazing…” She then walked towards her blaster and looked back at Dedede. “We got what we wanted, let’s grab them and find the others.”

  Dedede nodded a bit as he smiled, making him drop the steel coating of his hammer. He walked to the Energy Spheres along with Susie and grabbed one of each. Alright, that was two out of ten around here. Hopefully, the others were lucky in finding them already.

  POV CHANGE

  “Gee, your group does know how to make a ruckus, don’t they? I’m still impressed how they didn’t destroy the entire laboratory yet.” A fire and ghost marowak scientist spoke while crossing his arms and walking.

  Meta Knight looked at him and spoke. “Why would we want to destroy the place where there are civilians in need of rescuing, along with the objects we need to go back home? Rather dumb observation there.”

  The skull-headed lizard huffed and looked away. “I suppose you’re right.” Silence fell on the two of them for a moment as they continued walking through the silent halls of the grey building. “So then… remind me… what are we searching for again to get out of this place?”

  “The fliers you released while researching those gears, as you call them.” Meta Knight replied coldly as usual. He did not need to play it sweet with these researchers. He was here on a mission after all, and he would not stop until he finished said mission. Search for the Doomers, find the others, and get out of Another Dimension with the scientists they rescued. A simple mission that still could be rather annoying by navigating in the enemy’s territory. “Thread carefully. They could appear at any moment to strike. I have dealt with these creatures before, so I do know their weaknesses and how to effectively counteract them.”

  “... right then.” The marowak said while scratching the back of his head. “So you’d also be able to protect me effectively, right?”

  Meta Knight sighed. Another annoying part of this simple mission. Escorting. As a warrior, the knight of Popstar he was, if there was one thing he was bad at, it was escorting civilians. And it wasn’t because it was difficult to endure their annoyance or anything like that; he was trained to have a calm mind and not be bothered by the things others say. But… when he was in battle? It’s as if a mental switch completely turns on, and he cannot focus on anyone BUT the opponents. “Tell me, do you at least know how to defend yourself?”

  “Well… aside from my immunity to electricity… I have great control of my fire… at least.” The marowak scratched the side of his head. “That’s all I know…”

  “Hmm… adequate.” Meta Knight said while continuing to walk forward, his cape covering most of his body as he walked.

  As they continued walking forward, they passed by some doors, and when they reached one of the doors, they heard the sounds of electricity running behind it. Meta Knight stopped for a moment, along with the marowak who commented. “This sound… do you hear it? It’s not the usual sounds of the Tera Crystal’s energy…”

  Meta Knight uncloaked from his cape and drew the Galaxia from its scabbard. He looked back at the skull lizard before ordering. “Stay quiet.” The marowak nodded before the knight went towards the door and opened it quietly. He took in the spacious room for a bit before his eyes were locked on what was at the end of it. It was a big piece of machinery that had the biggest of the crystals he had seen in this facility. And the thing biting on said crystal, sucking some kind of energy from it was none other than a green Electric Doomer. “There it is…”

  “Uh… so what are you going to do? Sneak quietly and-”

  The marowak quickly interrupted himself when Meta Knight, with a flourish of his cape, suddenly vanished. The skull-headed lizard’s mouth went agape when the knight suddenly appeared again, however, he appeared beside the Sphere Doomer. The masked jigglypuff slashed it with his sword, the knockback of the slash made the Doomer get launched away from the crystal before it corrected itself in the air, recovering from the blow. It looked at Meta Knight before screeching and flapping its wings wildly.

  Meta Knight, already on the ground, pointed his sword at the flyer as it began generating some electricity. “We shall duel to the death. Prepare yourself!” He spoke before twirling his sword on his gloved nub and expertly handling it.

  “Uhhh, odd time for you to be honorable with a wild creature…” The marowak said as he watched the scene, shielding himself behind the door. “But… you do you, I guess-”

  The spherical flyer screeched before teleporting closer to Meta Knight and shooting electrical orbs at him. The knight easily deflected three of them with his sword before launching a blue energy cut projectile torwards the fourth and final orb. The Doomer shrieked before swooping down on him, aiming to tackle him in the face. However, Meta Knight easily dodged the attack by sidestepping before speaking. “Predictable.”

  As retaliation, the jigglypuff charged his sword in fae light before spinning around, slashing the Doomer multiple times by spinning. However, Meta Knight did not relent. After finishing the spin attack, he then began by slashing away at the doomer before kicking it away with his feet. The Doomer recovered from the attack and began flapping wildly in the air, crackling with electricity running around its body. The knight could feel the ozone around him getting heavier, so he jumped back, and thankfully so because a plasmatic lightning struck where he was.

  Meta Knight knew what it was up to, so he began running around, just avoiding more thunder strikes from the Doomer, trying to get closer to it. The Electric Doomer then shot lightning that grazed the Meta Knight’s tuft of fur between his ears as he ducked. Unfortunately, for some reason, once the jigglypuff thought he was safe from the lightning attacks and free to strike back, the bolt of lightning that was just shot impacted the Tera Crystal and bounced back, hitting the knight square in his back, making him spazz from the sheer strength of it. The knight then fell on the ground, the tip of the sword poking the floorboards as he held the hilt for support. His body couldn’t move, judging from how he trembled and how the tip of his fur ran that electricity. “Dang it, I got careless…”

  “Oh no!” The marowak shouted as the Doomer teleported closer to the knight. The flyer then began spinning around itself as it summoned electric orbs around it, making it spin around it as it approached Meta Knight. “Wait, those orbs! Maybe I can…”

  The marowak then entered the room and began running torwards the scene. Meta Knight averted his gaze from the certain hit, his body still paralyzed a bit, as he looked at the approaching marowak. “What are you doing!?”

  “Saving you, of course!” The marowak pulled out from his lab coat a giant femur bone that had both ends of it lit up in teal flames. He then stopped running and pointed his bone towards the Doomer, and suddenly, the orbs spinning around suddenly got attracted to the lizard, getting pulled towards him as the marowak absorbed the orbs. The electric flyer stopped spinning around and madly glanced at the marowak. “You’re welcome, by the way!”

  Meta Knight looked a little stunned at what he saw. Did he just… attract the orbs and absorb them like a lightning rod? What a useful ability to have… still, his escort now was in danger! … or was he? “T-those flames… can you use them?” The dark blue jigglypuff asked through his paralysis.

  “I said that before, didn’t I? I’ll stall it!” The lizard spoke before he twirled his bony staff around with his hands, before it began twirling by itself and rising by some ghostly powers. From the staff, three orbs of teal flames came from it and were launched towards the Doomer. As the staff came back into his hands, the spherical flying creature began thrashing from the flames that began consuming it. The marowak then looked at Meta Knight and asked. “Can you still fight?”

  “O-of course I…” Meta Knight grunted and groaned, trying to move his limbs before finally being able to break from his paralysis. “I can!” He then looked at the Doomer and rushed to it. As he began to cloud his mind with dark thoughts, his sword began glowing a deep blue as he dragged the tip on the ground, scraping it. “Know my power!” He then did a rising slash to the Doomer, and suddenly, Meta Knight started moving so quickly that it almost looked like there were multiple of him at once once slashing the Doomer multiple times from multiple angles; the marowak even had his mouth agape as he saw that move.

  Eventually, the knight then did the finishing strike as he launched the Electric Doomer to the ground with one final slash, the flyer exploding into green mist as two Energy Spheres were released from it.

  Meta Knight landed back on the ground and looked back at the marowak, nodding his body at him. “I must thank you for your assistance, your bravery will not be forgotten.”

  The flames on the marowak’s staff vanished as he rubbed the back of his head. “Oh, uh… like I said, you’re welcome. But… holy Arceus, how did one jigglypuff like you manage to get so strong and handle that sword like a master?”

  Meta Knight sheathed the Galaxia and walked to the Energy Spheres. “As a warrior who faced many challenges and hardships in my life, of course that I would be as strong as I am now.” He then grabbed the Energy Spheres, inspecting them for a moment. “But those are stories for another time.” He then put them inside his cape before looking back at the lizard. “Let’s move for now, understood?”

  “Yes, sir!” The marowak replied.

  POV CHANGE

  “I hope your fellow crew found the other scientists. The fact that we only found two so far bothers me…” Mycelius said while frowning and putting his claw on his chin.

  Bandana smiled at him reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I’m sure the others found them already! Trust me, we’re good at this kind of stuff!”

  “So this really is a rescue mission after all, huh?” The male tandemaus, who had a small tie wrapped around his neck, commented.

  “I’m so glad we’re getting rescued from a creepy place like this…” The female tandemaus, who had a small bowtie on her chest, continued, shivering a bit before asking the buizel. “Were you sent by King Solgaleo, or are you guys from some sort of guild?”

  “Uh…” The twin-tailed otter scratched the back of his head. “No, we weren’t, and no, we aren’t. Me and others were doing this because we wanted to.” ‘And because the things we need to get back home are right here, but rescuing civilians would be very good as well.’ He thought after replying.

  “Well, I would’ve done it as well, even if it wasn’t direct orders from my king.” The breloom added before turning to the mouse couple. “I’m delighted you two are safe, after all.”

  They kept walking for a bit, being careful of their surroundings and checking every room they came across, checking for any remaining survivors. However, they found none, so they kept walking to go look for the other objectives, the Doomers.

  Eventually, after passing through two doors, the group entered some kind of outdoor area where they had a full view of the starry warped skies of Another Dimension. It looked like some sort of fragmented garden or backyard, filled with things made for animals to go through. The tandemaus looked around at the sky before the male one asked. “Where the heck did we get sent to…?”

  “This place is called Another Dimension,” Bandana answered as he looked around. “It’s a very strange place to be honest. I don’t know much about it, but… anything could happen here, genuinely.” He then observed the contraptions, which basically consisted of large tube labyrinths. “Uh… can I ask something? What is this outdoor area for?”

  “This is the feral recreation area.” The bowtie-wearing mouse responded. “It’s the place where we let the dungeon ferals roam free, engage in some fights with each other, and even reproduce.”

  “Oh, I see, just like a… daycare for them? You do overlook the fighting, right?” The otter asked, a bit worried. After all, there was a chance of ferals from different species taking the fight a bit TOO seriously, like if they were in the wilds.

  “Don’t worry about that. We have a caretaker for them when we aren’t having them for testing. Fortunately, she wasn’t here today when this whole incident happened.” The male tandemaus spoke.

  ‘Well, at least that’s nice- wait… testing? Oh yeah, this is a lab, not a daycare center for animals. So they probably do some lethal tests with some of them… eh, I shouldn’t judge them on their culture, despite how weird I think it is to do lethal testing on feral versions of their own kind.’ Bandana thought for a moment.

  However, he was cut out of those thoughts when Mycelius suddenly shouted. “Bandana, look out!”

  The buizel looked back at Mycelius, letting out a “Wha-” before getting tackled to the ground by the breloom. And just in time since the otter was about to get hit by a dark orb projectile that grazed the lizard’s mushroom cap. Meanwhile, the two mice screamed before hiding away in one of the tubes of the small maze. Bandana grunted a bit before saying to Mycelius. “Thanks for the save.”

  “You’re welcome.” The soldier said before getting off the otter who dusted himself a bit. The duo then looked at their opponent, who descended in the air… or rather, opponents. Two Sphere Doomers cornered the duo, one of them being a dark purple one and the other being a fiery orange one. “So then, are these the fabled Sphere Doomers you guys talked about?”

  “Yep, these things are nothing but trouble. Two of them at once is nothing to scoff at either. We’re going to have to be very careful here.” Bandana spoke while taking out his spear, gripping it tightly with his paw. “Are you ready?”

  “I don’t know what kind of creature they may be, but… Pokémon or not…” The breloom grinned. “I’m ready!” With that, Mycelius zoomed towards the Fire Doomer, his claw glowing orange as he arched it back. Within a second, he was already in front of the orange flyer, punching it directly in its mouth and launching it to one of the tubes.

  Meanwhile, the Dark Doomer shot a shadowy orb at Bandana, however, the buizel simply stabbed the orb with his spear, making it dissipate with the attack. The buizel then retaliated by running up to the purple flyer and jumping, starting to stab it repeatedly. With one final stab, the Doomer was launched away from the buizel as he landed back down. “That’ll teach it!”

  “Huh, expected much more from these guys-” Mycelius was cut off when the Fire Doomer coated itself in flames, flapping its wings widely as it screeched. “Curses, I spoke too soon…” The orange flyer then started spinning, still surrounded by its flames, before charging towards the breloom like a rocket. He managed to dodge the attack, however, the Doomer looped around while still burning like a meteor, aiming to strike the breloom once again, only for it to barely graze the cap of the lizard, who ducked. “Uh… Bandana, care to switch opponents? Your water attacks would be very useful against this guy!”

  Meanwhile, the buizel was busy dodging tackles from the Dark Doomer and retaliating a bit with his spear and a few kicks with his new legs. He then looked at Mycelius and asked. “W-water attacks?”

  “You’re a buizel, you know, fire beats water, all that thing! After all, I’m not fit for fighting fire types!” The breloom shouted before jumping away from a fireball shot by his opponent.

  Bandana was a bit confused with what Mycelius was saying, but that didn’t matter at the moment since… if that meant that Mycelius was in danger, then he needed to do it. Bandana turned his back on the Dark Doomer and began to run towards Mycelius, who did the same to his opponent. Both tagged themselves as they passed each other, switching their opponents. While facing the Fire Doomer now, Bandana asked. “So uh… how do I… do water attacks then?”

  “Aren’t you a buizel, though? I thought you would know how to!” Mycelius shouted before he focused on his opponent again, watching out for its projectiles before dodging one of them.

  Bandana struggled to come up with a response, stuttering a bit as he dodged the flaming Doomer and stabbed it in retaliation. “Uh… I only fought with my spear for like… a majority of my life!”

  “Well, at least you should know Aqua Jet, then. It’s a buizel staple!” The breloom shouted before looking back at its opponent, just in time to see it diving in towards him. Once the Dark Doomer swooped in, Mycelius side-stepped and used the momentum to tackle the doomer out of the air and grab it while dragging it onto the floor. He then shook his mushroom cap, letting out some poisonous spores from it, poisoning the flyer, which flapped its wings wildly.

  “How the heck do I even do that move!?” Bandana asked a little bit, stressed out a little. Like seriously? Why did he even need to do that when he was fighting just fine with his spear? Sure, he guessed water would work wonders against the Fire Doomer, but wouldn’t it be just slightly more effective?

  The buizel was cut out of his thought process when the Fire Doomer shot some fireballs at him. His eyes widened before he began to dodge some of the fireballs, although a bit sloppily. Unfortunately for him, the last fireball hit his arm, making him drop his spear from the sting of burning fur. “Gah!”

  Mycelius punched the Dark Doomer by stretching his arm for a moment, using the same quick punch from before. While his opponent recoiled from the punch, the breloom retracted his arm and looked at Bandana, his eyes widening upon seeing his struggles. He then shouted to the twin-tailed otter. “Bandana, listen to me!” With a burning arm, Bandana looked at the mushroom lizard. “Think of water for a moment! I don’t know how to explain it well, but I’ll try! Try to imagine like you’re swimming, propelling your tails around like usual! After all, as long as there is water around you, you can swim in it! That’s your Aqua Jet!”

  Bandana blinked for a moment, his arm stinging a lot from the fire on it. As he processed Mycelius' words, he slowly looked back at the Fire Doomer for a moment as it teleported above him, beginning to drop embers at him. However, time stopped for him as he thought about swimming for a moment. He closed his eyes as he thought about how calm the water felt, how weightless he felt underwater, and how peaceful and serene the water felt. His instincts kicked in and his tails began turning and turning like a screw.

  The sound of something sizzling made his eyes open. Bandana saw that he was covered in some kind of veil of water, submerged in it, like a curtain protecting him from the world outside. “Woah… what is…” He looked at his arm, the fire burning away at his fur was gone, and even the fire attack raining from below dissipated as well. “Is this… Aqua Jet…?”

  “Ngh!”

  The buizel turned around, seeing Mycelius getting his feet slightly burned by the dark geyser, the Dark Doomer summoned. The lizard shook his foot and tapped it against the ground. “Would love teaching you more, but unfortunately, kinda busy over here!” He said before running towards the Doomer and shooting explosive seeds from his mouth at it.

  “Right, good luck on your end!” Bandana shouted through the water bubble he was currently submerged in. He then looked at the Fire Doomer with his newfound power, preparing himself.

  The Doomer screeched at him before beginning to spin around with its mantle of flames around it, preparing for a charge. Bandana then prepared his tails as well. If this was going to be like swimming in normal water, then he had to try it out as much as he could with his propeller tails.

  And with that, both of them charged. Both the Doomer and Bandana did a loop in the air as they left a trail of water and flames behind them. Once they finished the loop, they flew at each other until they clashed. It was a battle of fire and water. The Fire Doomer spun around, its charge was like a flaming meteor. Meanwhile, Bandana was like an aerial torpedo, from the way his tails spun around endlessly, propelling him forward, pushing him against his winged opponent.

  However, it was obvious who would win the clash from the start.

  Bandana managed to push the Doomer backwards a bit, just enough so it dropped its fire mantle entirely and slowed down its spinning. Bandana grunted and groaned before coming out of his own mantle. He punched the Doomer towards one of the tubes in the area, making it pierce the side of the tube entirely. Once it came out on the other side, its body exploded in orange mist as two Energy Spheres came out of its body. “Nice!” The buizel said as he landed.

  The otter then looked to see how Mycelius was handling his opponent. His eyes widened when he saw the mushroom lizard kick the Doomer into the air before stretching his arm to unnatural lengths to punch the Dark Doomer, piercing its body entirely. Once he retracted his claw from the flyer, it exploded in purple mist, letting two Energy Spheres float in its place. “Ooh boy, that was a good workout session I needed.” He then turned to Bandana. “You weren’t kidding, these guys don’t mess around.”

  “Yeah, they can be annoying, sure, but they aren’t pushovers,” Bandana said before looking at his paws while he hummed. “That power… it felt so… natural, even though I never felt like that before…” He muttered to himself. So that’s what comes with having a new body to get used to… well, he could work with that if he could gain an advantage over his foes.

  As the mouse couple left one of the tubes, looking at their surroundings, Mycelius stretched his arms again and grabbed the two Energy Spheres. He glanced around a bit. “So… did we do it or…”

  Bandana looked at the ground and then at the tubes after jumping on one of them. “No… once we do it, all the color returns to this place, and the portal back to the normal world appears for all of us.”

  “I see… so there is still one or some more to beat, huh?” Mycelius stated uncertainly before looking at Bandana while the Tandemaus approached them. “Are you sure your crew can handle the others?”

  “If they haven’t handled them already, I’m definitely sure.” Bandana smiled as he grabbed the two Energy Spheres.

  POV CHAAAAANGEEEE!!!

  After a few more minutes had passed, Elfilin could definitely say: he didn’t like this place.

  This place brought back a lot of bad memories to him when he was back at the lab, the place where he was born, the place where they kept him imprisoned… the place he had a part of his ear chipped away from him by those people. He pleaded for them to stop with the tests, the pain, yet they continued, clearly not paying any sort of attention to him.

  This building reminded him of that place. He saw cages meant to contain some creatures in some of the rooms. He saw medical equipment meant to hurt, he also saw chambers that were shaped similarly to those tubes back in Discovera…

  Elfilin was trying so hard to suppress those memories. For some reason, not only were those memories coming back to him, but they were also affecting him, despite him not suffering nearly as much as his other half. What was happening? Why were these memories starting to get to him?

  “Elfilin? Are you okay?”

  The psychic chinchilla snapped out of his trance as he looked back at Magolor, panting a little bit. For some reason, his fur was on edge, he was hyperventilating with his paws on his head. Elfilin was clearly not okay, but as always, he responded: “Y-yeah, I’m alright. It’s just… things I’m remembering…” He then scratched his cheek a bit as he looked away, a bit sheepishly. “Anyway, um… what do you think they uh… researched in this lab?”

  Magolor hummed in thought as he stared at Elfilin for a moment. He then relented and answered his question as he kept walking. “Well, usual lab stuff, I suppose. The environment, flora, fauna, and all of that stuff. But I’m no scientist, so I can’t really confirm.”

  Thankfully, this wretched place is destroyed already.

  Elfilin’s head snapped around as he tried to find the source of the alien yet familiar voice in his head. Once he didn’t find it, he looked at the meowscarada who walked a bit in front of him. ‘That voice… it wasn’t Magolor’s… then, who was-’

  A screech interrupted the rodent’s train of thought as he yelped in surprise. Magolor’s ears flickered as he processed it. “That screech… It’s a Doomer!” He then motioned for Elfilin to follow with his paw. “Come on, that screech means it is under heavy strain of holding this place together. That must mean the others have defeated other Doomers in the area!”

  “R-right! I’m backing you up!”

  With that, the duo picked up the pace, following where they kept hearing the panicked screeches of the Doomer, the noises just getting closer and closer. Eventually, the two entered through a big set of double doors that led into a strange area. They were in some sort of pool room with some cables going through the ceiling. There were some fish Pokémon in the pools, just lazily swimming away in the area. But it wasn’t the fish they were searching for, but rather… “There!” Magolor pointed at the Water Doomer in the distance, just flapping away and hitting the walls, like it was desperate for something.

  “It looks pretty lost… or confused,” Elfilin said as he stared at the Doomer, floating a bit forward, above the pool. However, when he hovered a bit above the water, his big ears flickered once something came from the water. He looked down while sidestepping, seeing this blue and red fish with sharp teeth trying to get a bite out of him before diving back underwater. “Woah!”

  The Water Doomer snapped its attention torwards Elfilin before screeching at him. Magolor then got beside Elfilin, standing on magical hexagonal platforms so as not to fall into the water. “It’s desperate, so it’s coming with everything it's got. Be ready, Elfilin!”

  Weakling.

  Elfilin gripped his head for a moment before getting into a battle position, shrugging off his headache. “Yes, I’m ready!”

  The Water Doomer covered itself in a bubble of water before teleporting with it and appearing above the cat and the chinchilla. It began spinning around, shooting high-pressure water jets all around it. “Get behind me, Elfilin!” Magolor said before summoning a star-shaped shield. Elfilin floated behind the meowscarada, just in time as the shield protected him and the chinchilla from the high-pressure jets. Once the attack was done, Magolor shouted. “Attack it, now!”

  With that, Elfilin summoned his winged spear and floated away from Magolor. He pointed his weapon at the ceiling as blue magical spears appeared around him. The spears were launched at the Doomer, stabbing it a bit until it began dodging the spears. However, Magolor covered it for Elfilin by shooting out dark orbs of electricity from his paws, homing in on the flyer and doing major damage to it. Elfilin decided to follow it up by entering a portal and appearing behind the Water Doomer as he came from another portal. But right as he struck, the Doomer teleported away, making the chinchilla miss. “Wh-what!?”

  Elfilin looked around for a moment before spotting the Doomer at a bit of a distance from him and Magolor. It flapped its wings wildly before water geysers like rising whirlpools began forming from the pool, even lifting some of the fish swimming around it. The water geysers got close to them, and the meowscarada yelled out. “Dodge!”

  Elfilin and Magolor danced around the geysers, making sure to stay away from them as best as possible to avoid getting hit. Magolor ran along his platforms with his powerful legs, avoiding the geysers with ease, while Elfilin used his portals to not fly into the geysers. Both were getting closer to the Doomer as the flyer began getting more panicked. It then began charging its last resort, covering itself in its water bubble again and curling itself as the mantle of water bubbled with power. “Is it preparing that attack again!?” Elfilin asked a bit in panic.

  “It seems like a stronger version than the one before!” Magolor spoke before making a summoning rune with his paw, summoning his Ultra Sword. “Come on, let’s finish it off before it can unleash it!”

  “Alright then! Let’s do it!” Elfilin said before summoning a portal in front of him. He then stabbed his spear into it and manifested four portals around the Water Doomer.

  From the four portals, four gigantic versions of Elfilin’s spear appeared from the star-shaped rifts, beginning to stab into the Water Bubble. Elfilin grunted and groaned as he put all of his strength into popping the bubble, but as much as he was trying, it was so hard to do it…

  Is this what the Ultimate Lifeform has been reduced to? I expected more from you, Elfilis.

  The chinchilla growled in sheer strength as he poured everything he had into his thrusts. And eventually, the spears managed to pierce the bubble, popping it entirely and stabbing the Water Doomer. “NOW, MAGOLOR!”

  The meowscarada arched his arm back before slashing the Doomer diagonally with the sword, slicing it in half. And with that, the Water Doomer exploded in a blue mist as two energy spheres were released from it.

  As the building around them regained its original color, it told Magolor all he needed to know. Meanwhile, Elfilin pulled his spear back and undid the rifts. However, he didn’t notice the two very small horns retreating back into his forehead. He sighed for a moment and looked around, seeing the building in its original color instead of the gray shade it once had. “Did… did we do it? Was this the Doomer we needed to defeat?”

  Magolor nodded before dissipating his massive sword. “Yep, that’s the problem solved.” He walked towards the Energy Spheres and grabbed both of them. He inspected them for a moment before looking at Elfilin. “Let’s regroup with the others, maybe they have already rescued the scientists here.”

  They should’ve left them to rot-

  The chinchilla suppressed that alien thought by clawing his head a bit and shaking it. He then sheepishly smiled at Magolor. “Y-yeah, let’s do that.”

  With that, the two of them started going torwards the exit of the room. As they did that, Elfilin looked at his paws and wondered to himself. ‘What are these thoughts in my head…?’