[attr="class","body"]






"Nothing." Nothing of note, anyway.[break][break]

It was difficult to discern mountain from mist as they continued on. Already, Barnaby could hear groans and wails coming from deeper within the thickening smog, hinting at troubles waiting for them if they dared venture in further.[break][break]

But there was no choice. They had their directive — penetrate the mountain at all costs.[break][break]

"Wait," Admin Bee held up his hand in warning, his body stilling as he tilted his head in concentration.[break][break]

There was a strange sound emanating from the mist. Familiar, but not. Whatever it was, its guttural roar was so intense Barnaby felt as if it was vibrating every bone in his body.[break][break]

Then, a dark, crystalline claw emerged in front of them — a single limb of what was an assuredly enormous monster.









[break][break]

[attr="class","credit1"]

[attr="class","credit2"]

[attr="class","body"]

Zev stilled, too, at Bee's warning, his entire body on high alert. His ears strained to pick out the different sounds emanating from the mist, until a furious roar drowned them all out.[break][break]

His heartbeat spiked. Adrenaline flooded his veins. He knew that roar, heard it in his dreams. And when the claw appeared, monstrous in size and made of black crystal, some part of Zev thrilled at the sight.[break][break]

Necrozma loomed above him and Bee, its multicolored visage glowing in the sudden darkness. Ominous clouds gathered in the sky, their undersides illuminated by a sickly magenta light.[break][break]

Before Zev could speak or act, however, someone else shouted.[break][break]

Someone with his voice.[break][break]

[break]

Zev whirled around, astonished. The man standing a few feet away looked exactly like him, only aged by twenty years. A crown of void-black crystal spikes adorned his head, while he was dressed himself in leather armor and furs—like a warrior from a bygone age.[break][break]

Most curiously, a longbow formed of crystal extended from his closed fist, the bowstring crafted of pure, pink light.[break][break]

A bird's shriek cut through the thick air, heralding an avian form as it emerged from the mist. Zev glanced up to see a flash of lavender feathers and black metal.

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","body"]






Barnaby's blood chilled upon seeing the monstrous claw cleave through the mist. He took one step back, then another, as the creature stood to its full height. [break][break]

Had they honestly just manifested NECROZMA, of all Pokémon?[break][break]

No, not they. Zev. And as BARNABY FINCH glanced at his companion, he wondered if there was a look of excitement behind the cold mask her wore. This was his patron, after all, was it not?[break][break]

Would that connection stop the thing from attacking them? [break][break]

Before they could test that theory, a voice rang out through the smog. A man resembling Zev Harcourt — but older, grizzlier, and looking antiquated, in a way. Following him was a vaguely familiar, cunning-looking bird. The sight of it brought pulsing memories back to the surface of Barnaby's mind.[break][break]

But that wasn't the end of this grand parade. After the Galarian ARTICUNO came a ghostly rider astride a galloping SPECTRIER, his own bow at the ready. Eerie blue flames blazed at the tip of the arrow drawn back on the bowstring, poised to be shot at the avian monster. The rider was beautiful, with flowing raven hair and piercing cobalt eyes that flashed with the thrill of the hunt.[break][break]

"This mist is conjuring quite fantastical dreams now, I see." Barnaby commented, content to stay on the sidelines while the storybook scene unfolded before them.










[break][break]

[attr="class","credit1"]

[attr="class","credit2"]

[attr="class","body"]

Zev frowned at the arrival of the purple-feathered Articuno, recognizing it not from the memory that had been Galar, but from its appearance in the Cave of Origin. For a moment, he wondered if the real Pokémon had emerged from the mist.[break][break]

But its form was wrong. Black metal coated its body, much like it had on the GUZZLORD AND BLACEPHALON in Lesser Megalopolis. Bee's words were true: it was a delusion.[break][break]

"It doesn't make sense. Why am I here, looking older?" Zev asked aloud, brow furrowing from behind his mask. His gaze shifted to the rider on a Spectrier. "And is that you?"[break][break]

Unfortunately, there was nothing to stop Necrozma from attacking. But Zev and Bee were not its targets—at least, not their present versions. Its massive claw came crashing down upon the Articuno, trying to knock the bird out of the air.[break][break]

Zev's older version whirled around to face the avian Pokémon. He drew back an arrow of pure light and fired.

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","body"]






Beneath the mask BARNABY FINCH wore, a slow look of realization formed on his face, so similar to the Spectral Rider galloping across from him now. Sparks of memory shot off like firecrackers in his mind, leaving an all-too unsettling feeling in the admin's gut.[break][break]

This was familiar. No matter how much he wanted to resist the notion, there was no denying the flashes of recognition these Pokémon — and these warriors — brought to the surface.[break][break]

"The mist draws from our collective conscience..." Barnaby started, sounding cold and detached. These were not fond recollections for him. "It has to be..."[break][break]

A word rang out in his mind, quiet at first, but growing louder and louder.[break][break]

"Galar." [break][break]

The dream. Or the nightmare, really. What more appropriate place to manifest than within the Interdream Mist itself?










[break][break]

[attr="class","credit1"]

[attr="class","credit2"]

[attr="class","body"]

Galar.[break][break]

The word settled unpleasantly in Zev's stomach like GASTRO ACID. He hated the constant reminders of the collective delusion others seemed to accept as reality. As truth.[break][break]

Yet even he could not deny what unfolded before his eyes. Extensive research had confirmed what Bee said aloud: that Interdream Mist drew on people's subconscious. Zev and Bee's older forms had to have come from somewhere.[break][break]

And if not from the collective delusion, then what?[break][break]

A HURRICANE kicked up as the Galarian Articuno struck back against Necrozma. Though they had manifested from the surrounding fog, they were as flesh and blood as the two Rockets. Ferocious winds clawed at Zev's clothing and mask.[break][break]

"We need to keep moving," he told Bee, raising his voice over the howling storm.[break][break]

Leave the fight to their hallucinatory selves.

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","body"]






With one last lingering look, BARNABY FINCH took in their mist-summoned counterparts. The SPECTRIER, the ARTICUNO, the NECROZMA. And how they all fought one another in a futile frenzy.[break][break]

As Zev beckoned them onward, he couldn't help but wonder if this scene was a portent of things to come.[break][break]

What else lay hidden within the smog?[break][break]

"The mist is only getting thicker the deeper down in the mountain we go." Barnaby commented, apprehensive of what lay ahead.[break][break]

"Do you think its origin point is beneath us?"[break][break]

What awaited them at the bottom?










[break][break]

[attr="class","credit1"]

[attr="class","credit2"]

[attr="class","body"]

Zev frowned at Bee's suggestion. The possibility was certainly high, especially with the mist enclosing them on all sides, so thick they could barely see past a few feet.[break][break]

"It could be," the hitman admitted. He uttered a quick whistle, calling his Gengar to his side. "Scout ahead. Report back if there are any dangers."[break][break]

Grinning, the ghost nodded and disappeared into the mist.[break][break]

The Beast threw one last look over his shoulder as Necrozma ripped up rock and stone with a scintillating PRISMATIC LASER. His eyes lingered on the armor-clad form of his older manifestation, and at the crown that graced his head.[break][break]

Something inside Zev stirred, too subtle for him to notice.[break][break]

Turning away, he forged ahead into the CHILL fog.

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","body"]






As the GENGAR faded into the smog, Barnaby fell in line beside Zev Harcourt. [break][break]

He did not look back, either, even as the sounds of battle echoed around them. Where Zev saw a king in his counterpart, BARNABY FINCH saw nothing but a ghost in his own. He refused to humor what the mist thrust into their faces. Specters like that deserved to stay locked in the recesses of his mind.[break][break]

The two ROCKETs continued on, venturing deeper into the belly of the mountain.











[break][break]

[attr="class","credit1"]

[attr="class","credit2"]