OCTOBER 25, 2023

MARCH 2023

The chaotic hum of the giant Space-Time Distortion beneath Sootopolis pounded at Shalin's ears, horde after horde of dangerous Pokémon appearing in flashes of white light. NOBLE ROARS from Kiara simply were not enough to scare them off, the girl letting out a loud yelp as a Delphox's PSYBEAM tagged her in the back as she fled through a narrow corridor. Shielded from another horde of them as she rode through a trench so narrow her legs rubbed against its grey, rocky borders, she came to a dead end, a large crack in the south wall before her. She didn't like how much noise she would have to make to open it, but what choice did she have? South was the only way she had forward.

Withdrawing Kiara for Treble, Shalin remained on foot while her dragon's vibrating CLANGING SCALES reduced the cracked wall section to rubble. Beyond was a truly bizarre sight: jet floor tiles glowed grey in the outline of a giant skull, its left eye blinking an unsettling red, with several other tiles glowing blue, including ones in the top two corners. Referring to her hastily drawn map, she noticed the arrangement of the labyrinth so far had been in the shape of a skull. While it was not a true COMPASS or MAP, like what she had found in many of her dives into the eight ruins and temples containing the Medallions of eight, it served the same function.

You got the MAP! The dark rooms are the ones you haven't been to yet.

You got the COMPASS! Now you can see the locations of many things hidden within the dungeon!

Treble wandered the room, looking for another cracked or otherwise weak wall to level and provide an escape path for. He found none. Grimacing, Shalin mounted up and held on for her life, vibration surging out of ever pore on her body from her ride's powerful scales. The sound of a PSYBEAM crashing into a doorframe made her breathe a sigh of relief. Had that hit either of them, especially Treble, it may have been an injury she could never recover from. The Pokémon here were dangerous!

Searching for a way to the northeast corner of the skull, Shalin and her Kommo-o kept their eyes open for signs of structural weakness. Her rump sore from the rattling beneath her, Shalin swapped ride Pokémon to Scar, the newest Pokémon on her team. The large male was Kiara's lover, the two of them having met on top of the dome covering Death Crater while she and Ashley Shepard had searched for its entrance. She winced with every rumble, its noise attracting Crobat, Reuniclus, and other Pokémon her fighting-type ally could not handle.

Sores formed on Shalin's skin as she and her Pyroar served as living shields while the Kommo-o did his work, eventually finding a way to the northeast corner. Finding a diamond-shaped array of statues of legendary Pokémon much like the Ultra Beast statues surrounding the first cellar, she recognized none of them. Present among them were Uxie, Mesprit, Giratina, and other Sinnoh-native gods. She and her Pokémon tried shoving each of them aside until the one depicting Azelf gave way, leading to another cellar. Instead of leading deeper into the Halls of Origin, this one had a truly powerful relic for the taking: the RED VEST. Excited to find the change of clothes, Shalin removed her BLUE VEST and stowed it after she had donned the garb.

You obtained the RED VEST! This armor reduces incoming damage even more than the BLUE VEST!

Feeling unstoppable, the girl again retraced her steps, heading due north on her Pyroar's back, with her Kommo-o following closely behind. Once all three were past the door frame leading to the labyrinth's northernmost boundaries, a grey, rocky slab sealed them in the room, their only hint of escape a phantom Lucario with a message for her, written in visibly dense Aura:

"GO TO THE NEXT ROOM."

OCTOBER 26, 2023

MARCH 2023

Yes, she had to go to the next room. But where! With her trapped inside, she was forced to treat the phantom-filled hall like an escape room, moving around its perimeter with Treble's rattling fist. While the noise did eventually find a completely unmarked wall still weak enough to bore through, the noise also attracted the attention of several more Delphox, including two Shiny ones who danced around the room with erratic teleports. She immediately withdrew her Kommo-o for Flit the Yanmega, who flew to the top of the small chamber and churned his wings in a BUG BUZZ that rumbled about its volcanic walls. Three of the five fell with their hands over their ears, writhing in pain. The other two stood strong, encasing Shalin and her bug in MYSTICAL FIRE.

Her Pyroar steed empowered by the flames, Scar lunged at the remaining Delphox after the other had shot the other between the eyes with an AVIAN ARROW. An illusion masking yet another staircase disappeared, leading her into an underground passageway that directed her to a three door Monty. Good thing she had her PYROAR-HEADED KEY to open all those locks!

Bravely heading north, having withdrawn her Yanmega for his safety, she stepped into yet another dark room with a phantom Lucario with a cryptic message for her:



"THE SILVER TO KILL THE BEAST LIES IN NORTHWEST OF SKULL."

Being on the complete opposite end, all she could do was search for more passages like the one she had found. With how maze-like the Halls of Origin were, she expected little hope of a direct path there. Taking advantage of the lull, she sent out her Milotic, Levy, who promptly showered her and the rest of her Pokémon in LIFE DEW. While it didn't soothe all their wounds, it brought many of her Pokémon back from death's door and in fighting condition again.

After seemingly aimless wandering, her Milotic taking many blows against the fire-types populating the skull's southwest corner, she at last found a tunnel that took her to the northwest. More teleporting Delphox pelted her and her Milotic with PSYBEAMs while her Kommo-o rumbled his fists against the dead-end chamber's walls. It was not until after the Milotic completely gave his fighting spirit defending them that the coast was clear, allowing him to break through. On a dais in the next room floated a quiver of SILVER ARROWS. She wondered what Alexei Ivanov and Rowan Wrynn would think of such a holy weapon.

Was this what the Lucario spirit was referring to?

Feeling she had little choice, Shalin slowly walked up to the floating artifact and wrapped her arm around it. Their power throbbed in that arm.

You obtained the SILVER ARROWS! Their light of justice will smite evil, dealing severe PIERCING FAIRY-TYPE damage to those they strike!

As a test, Shalin grabbed one of the many arrows and nocked it on her AVIAN BOW. It glowed with a brilliant gleam that burst into a light bright as the sun on impact, blinding her for several seconds. She could feel tremendous divine power radiating from them. The spirit referred to a beast that these arrows would kill. How could she get there, though? And what was its nature? Was this the key to getting to the Halls of Origin's deepest depths?

OCTOBER 27, 2023

MARCH 2023

Backtracking from the tunnels and corridors to reach the hidden treasure that would be needed to defeat the mysterious beast deep within the Halls of Origin, Shalin resumed her exploration of the skull's southwest side. As she headed north, a stone slab slammed shut behind her, preventing her from going back and putting her in close quarters with an unpleasant horde of Swalot. One grabbed Scar from underneath and engulfed him in sludge, forcing Shalin to leap off her Pokémon and withdraw him. Bonking her head on the west wall, another one nearly swallowed her, too.

Shakily holding her AVIAN BOW, she let fly with a SILVER ARROW toward the closest poison-type. One shot to the face earned a gargled cry from the foe, and a second caused it to disappear into the bright white light from whence it came. She repeated the process to free her Pyroar, who promptly collapsed, still as a sleeping child. The sharpshooter switched Pyroar to Kiara, mounting up to remain mobile while she let her newfound ammunition handle the powerful Pokémon. Verily, they did possess the light of justice; she had to look away with every shot she landed.

Shalin carefully maneuvered Kiara around a corridor of bladetraps, another cellar-like passageway taking her to the "head" of the skull. As if the Delphox beyond were waiting in ambush, one pounced her almost immediately after, blasting her with a PSYBEAM and knocking her off her mount. Were it not for her RED VEST, that would have hurt a lot more. The predators circled one another swiftly, lunging toward one another like jousters looking to knock each other off their steeds.

Worn down by combat, Shalin chose flight over fight, sending out her weakened Kommo-o to grind away another cracked wall with his vibrating fists. A stray PSYBEAM beaned the dragon in the back of the noggin a split second after he had trailblazed the way westward. Ignoring the next horde of Swalot, she sprinted toward another semi-hidden tunnel that she had her exploration instincts to thank for sighting so quickly.

On its other side was a golden lock covering a rather large stone slab serving as a sealed door. As she approached it, she could hear the cries of what she at first thought was a Hydreigon, but they were far too deep to be of that species. What was on the other side? Was this the beast that the spirit was referring to? Her heart raced; she was feet away from solving the mystery behind the Medallions of Eight and realizing a forbidden power that had been under Rockets' noses this time.

Breathing a deep sigh, Shalin withdrew Kiara and released her most loyal Pokémon: Queen Zing, her Shiny Beedrill. She donned her earplugs before inserting her PYROAR-SHAPED KEY into the lock. The chains holding the lock in place fell slack, the slab slowly receding into the ground. Mounting her prized insect, she hovered into the chamber the loud cries were coming from. Beyond was total darkness, with the exception of a three-headed silhouette whose very presence accelerated Shalin's heartbeat to a degree where she was sweating profusely.

A gruff voice echoed in Shalin's mind, clear as crystal despite the cacophonous buzzing echoing around her:

"How cold of your people to seal me all alone for centuries! But my, aren't you courageous... and foolhardy! You will be the first to see my true might!"

As the seal she had just opened closed once again, locking her within the cavernous chamber, the silhouette became clearer: it was a Hydreigon. A giant one, at that. But it was no ordinary Hydreigon: its main head effervesced a freezing mist; its left head, blistering flames; its right head, sparks of a fierce lightning storm. With such a variety of frightening breath weapons at its disposal, no Pokémon was safe.

"You will pay for your people's misdeeds with your life! Now, Shalin... it is your turn to taste despair... and the fear of death!"

The mighty black dragon spread its six wings and soared to the top of the tall, pitch black chamber, its grey mortars the only visible boundaries. With at least three terrifying breath weapons, there was no Pokémon Shalin had on her team safe from all of them. She had to end things quickly. As the Hydreigon tilted its head back and forth rapidly, spewing an inescapable cone of fireballs that converged on Shalin and her mount, she raised her hand to her MEGA CIRCLET, the BEEDRILLITE at the end of the insect's saddle glowing with the INFINITY ENERGY-fueled light of MEGA EVOLUTION.

While the Beedrill was unharmed thanks to her new form, Shalin was far from it, her green hair catching on fire as a red-hot sphere grazed her. Forced to rein the killer insect low enough to safely roll off and put out the flames, the Beedrill took matters into her own hands. She zipped toward the dragon, plunging all four of her foreleg stings into it and driving it into the invisible ceiling in a DRAGON HAMMER. Roaring and dripping dark-colored dragon blood, the Hydreigon's main head torched Queen Zing with a stream of FLAMETHROWER, singing her wings. Unable to use many of its natural weapons at range, the grounded bug-type fired two barrages of TWINEEDLE before reverting to her standard form, Shalin forced to withdraw her.

With Levy and Flit spent from fighting their way toward the center of the Halls of Origin, Shalin had only one Pokémon she could rely upon: Kiara. Jumping on the lioness' back, she bravely stared down the three-headed monster, its FROST BREATH filling the room and dropping it to subzero temperatures that made it more difficult for the Pyroar and trainer to keep their reaction times sharp. The lion queen's FLAMETHROWER melted some of the mist, making direct contact with the right head and disabling it. The other two heads bellowed in anger as the ice head hung beneath the rest, a CHARGE BEAM from the left head singing Shalin's hair and leaving it far shorter than she would have liked.

Both of them breathing heavily, their backs were to the wall. Raising one of her Z-CRYSTALS skyward, it shattered, empowering Kiara with the Z-POWER needed for the royal cat's lungs to expel the loudest roar she could:

The Z-MOVE: EMPEROR'S ROYAL ROAR.



At the same time, the two remaining heads converged their fire and lightning breath weapons into one another, the supercharged DRAGON PULSE's shockwave meeting the roar's sonic explosion. The force of the clashing attacks blew Shalin off her mount and blinded her, the white light of the blast making it impossible to see.

When the light faded, Shalin smelled blood. Dragon blood had been splashed all over the walls and floor, five of the Hydreigon's six wings and its tail detached from its corpse. That blood had mixed with a much lighter-colored red ooze. As her eyes turned toward its source, Shalin let out a scream that echoed throughout the core of the Halls of Origin.
Kiara's body had been rent in two, the lioness no more.

As the slabs receded and she said her tear-filled goodbyes to one of her most loyal friends, she advanced to the very center of the Halls of Origin. While the ULTRA WORMHOLE that had once been there was no longer present. its residue had prompted the hatching of the two Ultra Beast eggs she had found within the Ultra Wilds. Was this the forbidden power sealed away by the Medallions of Eight? An Ultra Wormhole? The only power that remained from its residue now was the ability to hatch Ultra Beast eggs. Very useful, but underwhelming.

Certainly not worth Kiara's life.

---

Shalin woke up to the tapping of Olivia's proboscis against her sweaty head, the sun rising to illuminate the girl's Romping Grounds outside the top level of her hollow tree-home. "What was that dream...?" she asked herself, bewildered. "I haven't thought about Kiara in months... why now...?"

A deep buzz from just outside the tree caught her attention. She climbed the ladder toward the back entrance, Toxrill the Poipole and Olivia the Buzzwole following her. Seconds after creaking the back door open, she was greeted by a purple-colored Yanmega with similarly-colored wisps floating around his wings. Opening his mandibles wide, the giant, saddled insect dove for Shalin, Toxrill diving in front of her to protect her from the incoming QUICK ATTACK. Shalin jaw dropped at what she witnessed.

"...Flit?!"

NOVEMBER 11, 2023

VRRRRRRRRR - Shalin Nariya

Nickname: Wydwen

Shalin possesses great resistance, but not immunity, to the effects of whiplash, vibration, and other forms of extreme motion.

Wisps flew outward from the distant Flit's invisible wings, the aggressive Shadow Pokémon buzzing with such ferocity that it would have eaten into her Sygna Suit's protections were she to attempt the feat from the outside world. The entire forest buzzed like a giant hive, her Yanmega camouflaged among the many other Shadow Pokémon within the dark woods' confines. With great agility, they flitted about as though trying to keep Wydwen from rescuing her precious Flit.

The hive's members were enormous, and included many Pokémon she was familiar with. They were all wild, aggression fueled by their corrupted, closed hearts. Shalin loved bug Pokémon, but wild bug Pokémon were terrifying. They were often aggressive without being Shadow Pokémon. The Shadow Beedrill before her, eyes glowing sinister shades of purple and red, showed no signs of holding anything back. Thrusting its rear sting at Wydwen, she dove beneath it and let it pass over her. Hearing a loud impact, she tilted her head toward its source, the enormous wasp's sting stuck in the bark of a thick tree. Without any Pokémon to fight for her, she fought the one way she knew how otherwise:

Mount up, hold on, and don't yell.

With the King's granted unique ability standing in for her Sygna Suit's Infinity Energy, she scurried between the giant, yellow insect's wings, turned to look down one of them, and slid onto it. The key difference was that without her suit, her apparent weight would not be reduced. She could use that to her advantage... if her powers held out long enough for the wing to snap from the force of her own weight.

Furious, the Shadow Beedrill's buzzing roared across the woods, stripping nearby trees of their leaves and scattering the rest of the hive. Dislodging itself from the tree, the red-eyed Pokémon churned its wings with deafening speed and power in an effort to send Wydwen flying. Her skin rippled with force that would have greatly injured her without her strange and unique power. Even with it, the vibration caused her skin to tingle, unable to see a thing until the wing snapped under her weight.

With only one wing functioning, the Beedrill was unable to move meaningfully, Wydwen safe from the Shadow Pokémon after she dizzily crawled away. She had a few minutes to catch her breath before Flit charged toward her as well, landing on her and trying to vibrate her into paste. Even her strange powers had limits, tingling turning into pangs of pain as she was shaken with earthquake-level force. When Flit took a moment to catch his breath, the girl raised the Dream Ball in her hand, her vision fading to white.

When the Dream Ball encapsulated Flit, Wydwen's vision faded to white, a prompt hovering above her head. When she saw the option to open the door to Flit's heart, she couldn't select it fast enough.

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

VRRRRRRRRR - Shalin Nariya

Nickname: Wydwen

Shalin possesses great resistance, but not immunity, to the effects of whiplash, vibration, and other forms of extreme motion.

Wydwen found herself near Sylvis' castle once more, hugging Flit before withdrawing him to the DREAM BALL and heading inside. Listening to the Fairy-type monarch's speech, it seemed another threat loomed within the Halls of Origin. It was her job to rout it once again. She had already routed nine such deadly foes in the outside world as Shalin Nariya . What was stopping her from vanquishing a tenth?

The first chance she had, Wydwen checked her inventory and status screen. Upon using her BATTLE CARD, a green Tech Point gauge appeared under her Hit Point gauge. Tech Points? This was new. Did this mean she had powers of her own? Scrolling to the new "Techs" menu, she saw she had three to work with:

Nickname: Wydwen

The Vibrating Vexation
- Vine Whip, Bug Buzz, Boomburst

Not only was she capable of withstanding vibration, but she, too, was capable of producing it on her own? She wondered how her new powers worked. Would she sprout wings of a Yanmega and flutter them too fast to be seen? She had a feeling she would be finding out in a place she could not test them. As fun as it was, her ability to withstand vibration served only as a conduit to make her new powers usable.

Wydwen's vision faded to white again, finding herself breathing the stale air of a subterranean expanse alongside Cillian Quinn , whom Shalin knew in the real world as Finn. Not far into the expanse was a giant, grey temple that looked all too similar to what she dreamed of weeks before, and a place that carried many traumatic memories:

The Halls of Origin.

Its labyrinthine insides had been scarred into the girl's mind after spending so much time inside it with Alexei Ivanov . She remembered it so well that navigation was a breeze, Harbinger following her past everything she didn't need to fight. Where she had once fought the three-headed Hydreigon, each head having a different breath weapon, the final room's floor gave way to the remnants of a large sinkhole containing an enormous Flygon dwarfing the size of a building.

Rather than squealing and screeching like Sandy's wings did, the colossal creature's sounded a deafening drone that drowned out all other noise - even that of Flit's buzzing. She fought the only way she knew how - by hopping on her Yanmega and flitting after the dragon-type. Its first assault on the two was a BUG BUZZ that made Wydwen and the Harbinger feel like their ears were going to rupture. Her partner disappeared into a thick fog, letting him fire off attacks without the threat of retaliation.

Wydwen was not so lucky; though she could withstand vibration to an extent, even as far as sitting on a buzzing insect wing and surviving, this was orders of magnitude more intense. Their size made it impossible for them to turn invisible, but the wind gusts they produced were unlike anything she had ever seen. Though she had taken out a Shadow Beedrill by riding on its wing, trying to do so with a Flygon this large would only end poorly for her.

Left with one idea, she tapped into her newfound power: the power of her BUG BUZZ. As Flit stretched his wings wide, similar ones sprouted from Shalin's shoulders. While they did not allow her to fly, she could create a grating drone of her own with them. The green bar in the top left corner of her view gradually shrunk as both Yanmega and Wydwen churned their wings too fast to see. The waves of displaced air tore the Flygon in different directions, stunning it and leaving it vulnerable.

While her powers would be useless against the raw might of the weakened dragon's wings, they were not against its tail. Flit fluttered toward the dazed foe's tail. Normally too thin for even the smallest human to wrap their legs around, the Flygon's Dynamaxed nature made it the perfect size for her to try to drag the foe out of the air and get it to crash. Loosing her VINE WHIP, she used it to strap onto the tail, serving as the ultimate distraction for Cillian Quinn to loose his strongest attacks upon the foe.

As the dragon wildly swung its tail back and forth to try to dislodge Wydwen, the Harbinger's SHADOW STORM finished the job. Her vision once again faded to white, the girl able to feel a medallion in her hands as she was whisked away to an unknown destination in Sylkis.

DECEMBER 26, 2023

Wydwen's powers had peaked. The terrible, heaven-rending sound of her Yanmega's wings rumbled around them both, his rider passing through her own wake countless times per second. The rhythmic yet violent motion did not bother her one bit; if anything, she wanted the wing she was grabbing onto to vibrate even faster. The high-frequency air waves shook and stretched the bodies of Pokémon in their path, blowing away smaller Pokémon at dizzying speeds and causing even larger ones to start bleeding from the inside out.

As long as she was in her element, she felt invincible.

Not even a god could stop her, and certainly not Laurence Anderson , determined to protect the very world that made her drunk on her own power. Every time the Iceborne Mirage froze Wydwen and her Yanmega steed, the ice shattered from the inside out, a deafening whine from the insect's wings sending loose chunks flying in all directions with far too much speed to see.

Z-Moves clashed: Articuno's THE END OF THE WORLD met Flit's FLITTING FORTISSIMO, its already staggering volume raised even higher thanks to her presence on the wing creating the noise. The ice bird collapsed, their partner only able to shield their ears from further damage. It had already been done, though; both their eardrums pounded, feeling like they could rupture at any moment.

"I have graduated, Head Ranger," were the words out of her mouth as the world around her faded to white...