Ch. 12 Godsibb

Night fell across the sky, with the stars shining past the thin clouds as Maya lay near a tree. She turned halfway to the beach, imagining that giant Flygon-looking object lying there before getting off and flying off to the distance. She shook her head, her mouth tasting bitterness, before turning to the dead-like Kyle laying there. His body already turned stiff and remained still even as she rubbed one of her eyes against her paw. A chill crawled down her spine before she sighed and stood up.

Kyle’s paw twitched.

Her eyes widened as her fur stood up, purple energy surrounding Kyle for a few seconds before it disappeared, and his eyes snapped open.

“Kyle?” Maya said, sitting down as Kyle stood up, his bones cracked with every movement.

“How long was I out?” Kyle asked in return, pressing his hand-paw against her chest. Although she flinched, his touch felt warm.

“For a few hours,” Maya answered while stepping back, her tail fluffing up. “What happened? I thought you died for a moment.”

“I did,” Kyle said, and Maya’s shoulders fluffed up. “But it seemed that my master finally chose to forgive me.”

“What are you—”

At that moment, the wind blew harder even as it spun in front of them, with various sand grains flying up to it. She turned upwards, the clouds much thicker than a minute ago even as thunder roared around them. The area turned far colder, with snow coming down and mixing with the sand. She felt every instinct to run, but her legs fought against its will, the clouds covering every bit of the stars.

“Kyle, what is going on?” Maya asked, her voice loud and shrilled.

Kyle remained focused on the clouds, with waves of purple lighting circling above. “Ah.”

“What?!”

“Dramatic.”

Maya barred her fangs, only for a flash of purple lightning struck down at the center of the spiraling circle of wind, sand, and snow. A fire broke from the ground, joining the others, even as the lightning turned black. The bolt struck there for several seconds before stopping. The spiral broke and left nothing but burnt ashes.

The moonlight pierced through the scattering clouds, shining down at the kneeling figure.

Maya blinked, taking a step back as the figure stood up, its shadow vast. Standing tall over the others, the figure turned its head to the others with a slight green glow from the eyes. It carried a long, thin object, with gems on its tip, before slamming it against the ground, causing a shake and a ball of light coming down from it, shining down bright on them.

She held her breath, feeling the urge to laugh as this anthro, masculine-shaped, stepped forward. Even for someone who had never seen an image of an anthro, she thought this one looked bizarre, with blue fur with black ‘socks’ down the elbows and knees and red on the torso and long hair. His five tails swayed, blue with a red tip, while he gripped on his ash grey staff, with green gems on the tip. His back spread out enormous wings, feathery with blue on the upper half and red on the lower half. His eyes shined green, though the sclera was dark grey rather than white.

This anthro looked down at Maya with an arrogant grin, his teeth white and sharp. His free hand-paw rubbed against each other while giving out a low hum. The cape, purple with a golden string under his neck, fluttered against the wind. His fingers snapped, almost metallic-like, and Maya flinched.

Purple orbs formed around this anthro, hovering around him with him casting an eye on them. As they appeared, his grin grew even more prominent, his fangs exposed. Soon, around thirty of them hovered around him, and he gave out a soft chuckle.

“I must say, Maya, you are a stubborn one,” he said as he grabbed one of them and held it against his face. “Far better than Kyle, who only lasted half as long.”

“What are you talking about?” Maya asked, a chill rolling down her back. “And how did you know my name?”

“Because you told me,” he said as he let go of that orb and let it hover to Maya. She flinched some more, wanting to turn away, and yet her legs fought against her. As the sphere came closer, small white dots appeared within the purple glowing orb, almost like stars. “As you can see.”

The orb touched Maya’s nose—

The anthro towered above Maya, growing ever larger than her. Though she grew as well, she couldn’t go beyond sixty feet before stopping, the illusion device unable to generate the energy to boost her Illusion. Soon, the anthro grew so large that even one of his claws was larger than her entire body. His arms and wings spread out, breaking apart and dragging along the clouds as he lifted up his foot-paw.

Maya glared up at the vast foot-paw, slamming her paw against the shaking ground. “Stone Edge!”

The stones, far more massive than herself, shot up from the earth and flew up against the foot-paw. For a couple seconds, the attack paused the falling foot-paw before they shattered into dust, the foot-paw falling once more. Maya closed her eyes, resigned as the darkness engulfed her.

—and she stumbled back, her eyes wide and shaking.

“What was that?!” Maya yelled, her back against the ground.

“Oh, nothing more than a sweet memory,” the anthro said, twitching his staff and the orbs floated back to him, fusing with his tails. “All of them are, thanks to you.”

“What are you talking about?” Maya asked, rolling over and standing up. “That never—”

“—happened? It did in another time,” he said, and Maya blinked. “You see, I can set up ‘tethers’ in time to go back to. Once set, I’m placed within a time loop where the only limit is my great abilities. Though everything done has been undone by the time the loop began again, I can record the loops so I can look back into it.”

“But,” Maya said, her ears flattened back, “but that’s impossible. Only a few Pokémon could control time like that.”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘controlling time,’” the anthro said while rubbing his muzzle. “More like ‘cheating time.’ Of course, to even set it up requires a lot of my magic, at least half of it. As such, such a good power is only useful for fun such as this rather than combat.”

Maya raised one of her eyes. “Who are you?”

“Who am I?” the anthro repeated, and his eyes glowed green for a few seconds. “Call me Fëanor, the one who will surpass God!”

Maya stared into Fëanor’s eyes, seeing an endless hunger for power, and shuddered. Though she thought of herself as a deity of destruction, this anthro proved to have the ability that rival, even if just a little bit, many Legendary Pokémon. And every movement he made, every word, every spell showed how dominant his power is, that he could pet a Tyranitar knowing how weak they were to him. And that wasn’t enough.

“Still, I should get to the point,” Fëanor said as he turned to Kyle. “You tried to summon me four times in twenty-four hours. Why?”

Maya’s ears flattened back, with Kyle not even keeping his gaze at him. “I do apologize if my attempts at contacting you were at an inopportune time,” he said, kneeling down. “I have news thanks to Maya.”

Fëanor grunted, turning to both Maya and Kyle. “Do you? I warned you that the only reason to summon me is if you found Daren the Ninetales, also known as A-Ninetales, not to bring any random news.”

Kyle inhaled a bit. “It was about A-Ninetales, my lord. We found out where he was yesterday, and I tried to apprehend him. Unfortunately, we also tracked him to here, where he left to the anthro continent.”

Fëanor tilted his head, rubbing his hair by his left eye.

“He is not lying,” Maya said, digging her claws into the ground. “He had a few companions: an Absol named Saria, a Vulpix named Faith, a Flareon named Adrian, and a Zoroark named David. While I heard the news of A-Ninetales and his exploits, I had no idea that he was important to Kyle and your goals at the time and, by the time I had known of it, I was too injured to assist Kyle.”

A purple light emitted from Fëanor’s staff, with his eyes closed. “This is troubling. But Kyle, why didn’t you tell her?”

“When I sent her out, it was to pick up Faith for my own goals,” Kyle answered, his tone not having any sense of denial or defense. “I never imagined that she would be a traveling companion for A-Ninetales. I am sorry for my failure, my lord.”

Kyle lowered his head enough that his nose touched the ground. Fëanor’s hand-paw clutched the staff tight before he sighed and shook his head. Maya’s heart leaped when the purple light faded from his staff, his eyes opened once more.

“It seems that we are all at fault here,” Fëanor said, his black ears flicking a bit. “When you tried to summon me, I was finalizing my plans to attack the heart of the anthro’s continent, The Second Capitol. The simple truth is that if you wish to attract the right Ninetales who also have a heroic mindset, you need to give them a perfect reason. So I thought that setting up an incident where twenty giant Pokémon attacked the city and elsewhere would bring him back as fast as possible. The fact that my far lesser opponent just left was just icing on the cake.

“What I didn’t expect is that it’ll bring in others who will stop it.” Fëanor paused, turning upwards to the darkness between the stars. “And I have miscalculated how determined they were at stopping it. They looked so normal, but those two took down my enchanted Pokémon one by one until three remained. Perhaps I should’ve acted sooner.” He shook his head. “But even after I tried to stop them, they managed to take down two of them. They should’ve been drained after half an hour of fighting, but they actually managed to defeat me!”

Kyle blinked, lifting up his head even as the ground shook. Fëanor grunted before slamming down his staff against the ground, where purple lighting emitted from the ground and shot upwards to the sky. It spread outwards, dissipating any remaining clouds even as Maya stumbled back.

“My lord?”

“Not only that, but they nearly killed me,” Fëanor said, panting a bit. “I only survived thanks to summoning a doppelganger to take that powerful blow.” His brow furrowed, with him rubbing his face. “If only I saw his eyes much sooner. I would’ve taken them much more seriously and salvaged my plan.”

“What do you mean?” Maya asked, tilting her head.

But Fëanor shook his head. “Never mind that part. What matters is that my plan failed and, as if God wanted to rub it against my face, you two revealed that you actually found A-Ninetales. If I bothered to come when you called, then none of this would’ve happened.” His eyes glinted, though it was black. “And I’m guessing that he is back in The Second Capitol, correct?”

“Indeed,” Kyle said. “And they left within some kind of anthro tech the shape of a Flygon.”

“Of course,” Fëanor said, his voice calm even as the grass underneath and around him turned brown and turned to dust, with Maya taking a step back. “That ship took down the last giant Pokémon. And worse of it all is that I can’t make my attack so soon even though I know where he is. Even without those two who ruined my plan, the city will be on high alert. It’ll take months until they relaxed enough to make my next move.”

“Believe me, my lord,” Kyle said, pressing his left hand-paw against his chest, “when you do, I’ll be by your side.”

Fëanor shook his head a bit, turning around before he paused mid-step. His eyes glinted black again, rubbing his chin before rubbing his hair. His wings folded back, and purple images of a Vulpix, a Flareon, and a Zoroark appeared in front of him.

“Now that I’m thinking about it,” he asked, “why were they traveling with A-Ninetales and Saria anyways? And why were they invited to the anthro continent?”

Maya swallowed, though it wasn’t enough to get down all of her fears, before she answered, “My guess is that it’s because Faith has macro capabilities.” Fëanor’s left ear folded to the side. “I do not know how she gained such abilities—”

“I do, and it’s your fault,” Kyle said, glaring at Maya. “You nearly kill her with a Fire Stone and, in trying to cure herself, she accidentally got A-Ninetales’s Flash Fire copied and put into her.” Electricity emitted from his fist as he lowered it. “And believe me, if it weren’t for the fact that you’re still needed, I would’ve killed you first before Adrian for almost killing my Vulpix.”

Fëanor rolled his eyes. “Ugh. So that’s the Vulpix you talked about when we first met.” Kyle growled a bit even as Fëanor gave a slight grin. “You confuse me. Still, that can’t be the reason why A-Ninetales took her along with two other Pokémon. There got to be—” He paused, with him blinking and rubbing his chin. “Wait. Explain more, Kyle. Specifically, about how this Faith got A-Ninetales’s Flash Fire ability.”

“Huh?” Kyle tilted his head. “If I heard and guess correctly, Jirachi needed a Vulpix or a Ninetales to help fix this ‘evolutionary flux’ problem since he was ignorant about such Pokémon. He just happened to find A-Ninetales and used him as a basis, ignorant that Pokémon growing from absorbing fire is unnatural.”

“I see,” Fëanor said, his grin growing bit by bit. “Then, he might have copied that and implanted that into Faith’s body as well. If so,” he laughed for several seconds, so hard that Maya’s fur stuck upwards. “Excellent. And you help cause this, Maya. You should be rewarded.”

“Huh?” Maya blinked, her eyes widening. “What are you talking about?”

“What?!” Kyle’s appendages flowed upwards, his eyes glowing. “You—”

“You know my goal, Kyle,” Fëanor said, his grin wide with his teeth shining white even through the darkness. Kyle calmed down and turned away. “In fact, I’m thinking of several plans right now to reach it, thanks to Maya.” He extended his staff over to her. “Now, let me offer you a gift.”

She gulped, envisioning a Midnight Lycanroc behind Fëanor trying to get her attention. This Lycanroc shook his head even as she felt an old wound reopening within her heart. His fur dripped as though drenched in water, but when she blinked, the other Lycanroc disappeared. So near, so far, and what remained ahead was a far powerful being who may or may not take no for an answer.

She sighed. “OK. What is this gift?”

Faith yawned wide, having seen nothing but white walls for hours. Throughout it all, she felt as though she went through every possible test for Pokémon and anthros. Her limbs shook, sore from standing for so long, her stomach empty and growling, and her head hollow enough that it could float away. Even after giving complaint after complaint, Glorfindel insisted on more testing. His voice was firm when he insisted, though his face told another story. As though he was looking for a Voltorb about to Self-Destruct.

Her ears twitched, with Glorfindel casting spell after spell on her and with him looking at some kind of see-through device that he tapped through. Two of his tails held onto his staff, waving a bit as he muttered some words she didn’t understand. Her body glowed blue then green, with him kneeling down and rubbing his chin. Minutes passed before he waved his arms and her body stopped shining.

“I do apologize for putting you through all this,” Glorfindel said, touching onto the magical device before it compressed into a green sphere, and it went to his staff. “We, that is both A-Ninetales and me, wanted to be absolutely sure of this.”

“And the results?” Faith flopped against the hard floor.

Glorfindel’s sighed, sounding relieved. “That you’re a normal Vulpix outside of having an ability that causes you to grow, nothing more.”

Faith tilted her head a bit, but her stomach growled again. “That’s a relief. I was wondering if I was going to explode or not.”

“That was never a threat,” Glorfindel said, tugging the bow off from her neck before he spun it against his hand-paw. It glowed bright even as he grabbed his staff and put its head under it. He muttered some words, and it stopped gleaming. Soon, it went around Faith’s neck and wrapped itself into a bow once more. “This enchantment allows you to store as much excess growth that A-Ninetales can with his badge. I didn’t put in an ability to use it to expel the growth into life energy like he can, so don’t expect to create a forest in a desert.”

“Oh well,” Faith said, patting her bow. “I wonder how much we can contain in them and,” she rubbed one of her ears, “I wonder if I need to replace it. Of course, I don’t want to replace it since it was a gift from my mom.”

“Huh? Oh!” Glorfindel rubbed between his eyes with two fingers. “Sorry. My focus is failing as well, and I need to recharge soon. There won’t be any need for replacement, I’m happy to say. Still, if it gets damaged or something like that, contact me, and I’ll fix it.”

Faith squinted one of her eyes before sighing. “If you insist. Still, I need to settle a more pressing matter. Namely that I’m starving! Are there any foods I can get?”

Glorfindel laughed, though it was tempered with nervousness. “It’s a good thing he isn’t around to hear that. But, don’t worry,” he added when Faith blinked at him. “I doubt you two will meet anytime soon.

“In any case,” Glorfindel said as he picked Faith up, cutting her off, “I’m sure A-Ninetales and Saria will take you out for a late dinner. I would join, but I got an unusual request that I need to do first.”

Faith nodded, bobbing her head up and down as Glorfindel carried her out of the room, the door sliding open when he went near. His staff tapped against the floor with every step, though without an echo. Even so, Faith’s ears flattened to the sides, wondering if there was something that he or A-Ninetales ‘neglected’ to say to her. Just like what happened when the battle ended that night.

She hoped that the answer wouldn’t harm her or the others.

Her thoughts paused when she spotted Adrian, A-Ninetales, and Saria sitting by a wall. Her face brightened up as she was lowered, and she walked to Adrian. Glorfindel chuckled, and he kneeled over to A-Ninetales and Saria, talking with them in a low voice.

Faith went up close to Adrian and nuzzled his mane. “Hey there. How are you doing?”

Adrian sighed. “Doing OK here.”

Faith’s smile faltered a bit, with her pulling herself back. “Where is David?”

“He already went to bed,” Adrian answered with a shrug. “It’s already past midnight, and he went to sleep praying to Arceus that he’ll turn back into a Zoroark. To be honest, I would be asleep myself.”

“But you chose to wait for me,” Faith said, her smile returning as her tails wagged. “That’s very sweet of you.”

“That isn’t why I’m here.”

Faith blinked, her heart pounding against her chest. “Are you—”

“That’s great news!” A-Ninetales said, loud enough that Faith hopped an inch off the floor. She heard chucking behind her and, when she spun around, A-Ninetales, Saria, and Glorfindel, who bent down, laughed a bit. “We were so worried.”

Faith rubbed the back of her head while laughing as well. “I doubt that I would’ve gotten anything horrible from you, A-Tales. If anything, it would’ve been awesome like that Flash Fire!”

A-Ninetales’s face paled a bit, so tiny that Faith wondered if she imagined it. “Y-yes, indeed.”

“In any case,” Glorfindel said, standing upright even as A-Ninetales sighed, “there is one last request I need to fulfill. Adrian, you’re up!”

Faith felt her heart froze, her muscle numbed, and her thoughts paused upon hearing those words. Though it took an exceptional level of effort from her, she turned her head a bit. Adrian walked past her, nodding, and soon he followed Glorfindel. Her throat clogged up, yet she wanted to say words to her. But it wasn’t until he disappeared past a hallway that her throat unclogged, but she had no words to say. Instead, she fell.

“He hasn’t told us what he wanted from Glorfindel.”

“You mean, he hasn’t told you, silly.”

A-Ninetales tilted his head, with Saria giggling, before he blinked. He went over to Faith’s side, with her sobbing her heart out, and he gulped. Saria’s eyes widened before she rubbed Faith’s back.

“There, there. Just relax,” Saria said.

“It’s all my fault,” Faith said, her voice hollow even as her limbs shook. “It’s all my fault.”

Saria lowered her head and wiggled a bit until her horn got under Faith’s body. Soon, she lifted her up, with Faith laying on her back, and she gulped, looking guilty. Still, she nodded to A-Ninetales, who nodded back, and they walked out. Faith sobbed some more, her tears soaked up on Saria’s fur, yet she tugged tight against it.

Hope failed, and fear consumed her.