she'd take this weird mecha kingdom over any of the other ones, honestly. sure, the giant mechanical bird had been fucking terrifying that one time, but she and amulius scraped by with the help of some insanely talented ladies. 

and now she's gonna ride through that again with little miss melody miro. 

the first time she held her in her arms, she'd been simultaneously smitten and had the .exe has failed error screen flashing in her brain. 'cause duh, melody's a superstar and she's super hot, but now parker's a taken woman. 

still doesn't mean she can't appreciate her. and how nice she is. 

"i fuckin' hope so," she says. amulius does so too, and shows as much with a punching of his chicken fists together. 

Melody Miro

☉

oh, she remembers the song alright, but this time parker's not going to go breakdancing. she even brought some wired headphones with her this time if she needs to tuck them in. but of course, the one time she actually thinks ahead, she doesn't need them.

the music doesn't seem to be affecting her this time around.

through the steam cloud they go, with amulius' feathers growing darker from the dampness. fire sizzles along his wrists in preparation. 

the music takes them to an ornate facility, behemoth front doors somewhat ajar. parker shares a look with her partner and melody and nudges a toe in. the color drains from her face and she steps back out. 

"um...there are other you and me's in there. i don't think they saw me, though," she says. 

and a booming voice, distinctly, mechanically parker's, says:

"ENTER, PEASANTS!"

Melody Miro

☉

"holy fuck, do i have a MECHA ARM?" she says as she trips into the warehouse behind melody, steel-blue gaze landing right on her mechanical likeness. she's built like a truck, like someone cut out a bunch of rectangles with steel and went 'eh, that'll work' whereas melody's figure is all curves and beautiful angles, adorned with bits and baubles. 

parker thinks her other self is fucking badass though. 

so no, melody, she has no clue what's going on here. mecha melody and mecha parker are standing beside each other, chins held high. mecha parker gives human parker a shit-eating grin and points and parker gives her a bigger shit-eating grin and points back. 

"I FORGOT HOW GOOD I LOOKED," says mechanical parker. 

"what do you mean forgot? don't you like, live here? or are you like a super old version of me? is this a looper scenario?"

first rule of a looper scenario: it's always a looper scenario. 

"YOU MEAN YOU DON'T REMEMBER?"

she looks at mecha melody. and then at human melody. "did both of 'em get bonked on the head or something? or like short circuit? maybe we gotta find their memory cores or some shit and they'll give us some secret key to the castle."

Melody Miro

☉

"your copy's kinda a bitch," parker grumbles under her breath to melody. her own copy is looking at her curiously. or maybe that's not the right word. the whites of her eyes are actually yellow and glow in the dim, steamy workshop. 

melody and mecha melody's back and forth give her an opportunity to look around and to tear her gaze away from the unnerving stare from her own copy. bits and pieces of automatons lay around. mostly put-together forms dangle from strings. 

some of them make parker's brain itch. that stupid itch she's felt ever since coming back from that raid with nomi. 

"WHERE'S YOUR RING, PARKER?" says her double. 

it jumps down from its pedastal, landing on one knee, gauntleted hand slamming fist-down into the ground. sparks fly and amulius puffs up his chest. behind her mechanized self lumbers a red pokemon, its blue eyes dull with age. it pays them no mind, only fiddles with some of the pieces on the ground. 

"girl, i just found out what mega evolution is. i don't have whatever new fancy superpower ring you or melody have," she says, not understanding. "but you sound like you wanna go, so let's aaaa-fuuuuckin-goooo."

and then she trots forward, ignoring amulius' warning clicks, thumbs her brass knuckles, and goes to punch it in the face. 

Melody Miro

☉

melody's an elite four member. she's going to do what she does best and battle her doppelganger until there's only one victor. parker's on a different field. she's going until there's only one left standing.

the odds are not in her favor. 

amulius wants to help, but a mechanical bird in his likeness, all sickass fiery engines and sparking ember servos to boot, has engaged him too. not-parker gives parker a wolfish grin as it ducks away from the punch and grabs her forearm with that mecha hand of its. 

"COME ON. I KNOW I WASN'T THIS SLOPPY."

but for some reason the copy isn't looking at her stance or what she's doing with her feet. it's looking at her left hand, and then at her neckline, and then, for some reason, it's getting really, really angry. parker's not about to look a gift horse in the mouth; she uses her momentum, throws it into a pivot, and uppercuts her double in the jaw. 

metal meets metal with an unholy screech. screws pop out of the left side of parker 2.0's cheek. 

"oops," she growls out with a delighted grin and keeps on the heat. 

"YOU HAVE TO SAY IT BACK!" her punch to the solar plexus is blocked. a stupidly hard fist connects to her own abdomen and knocks the wind right out of her. she hurks but doesn't give it the satisfaction of doubling over. 

"i don't - " wham!

"know - " blam!

"what - " kercham!

"you're talking about!" screeeeeeeech!

gears start spinning. its hand flares up, glows, and parker thinks, simultaneously cool and this is gonna hurt. knuckles meet skin and parker suddenly has the terrible sensation of something being ripped away from her. the torn metal and ragged scratches on her double's face start bubbling and after blinking the sweat from her eyes, those dings are gone.

with beautifully bad timing, blood spurts right out of her nose and parker reels back, looking just as shocked as the mech. 

it's melody that stops her guard from being broken. the psychic screeching of her scream tail makes 2.0 shake, golden mouth twisted in a gross display of human pain. there's a wetness in her own ears and she barely comprehends why her own arm is glowing. 

a blur of red feathers and tongues of flame sprints past her and amulius, swathed in mega energy, brings a blaze kick straight into 2.0's chest. it simply breaks apart. 

when the screeching stops, parker mops up her ears and staggers over to the wreckage. yellow light wanes by her boot and she shifts her foot. the lower half of a jaw chitters. metal eyelids blink out of sync twice. the voice box inside it is half-melted, but it still manages a stuttering: 

"S-SAY I-I-T B-BACK-K-K-ZZZ."

she crouches down by the pieces and awkwardly pats the metal. "okay," she promises and its light fades. 

"well, that was - " 

she starts, but she's interrupted by the gravelly timbre of the pokemon she'd spied earlier. it approaches them slowly, weary and wary as it looks over the mess that's become of their doppelgangers. 

"some dreams are meant to fade away," it murmurs and then it turns. the crescent moon cables on its back split at the middle and one side waves towards parker and then outward, as though insisting she follow. it fiddles with some of the pieces, bits of the hanging dolls, and parker tries not to look as skeeved out as she is. she looks helplessly at melody and shrugs her shoulders.

"oh, my beloved, can i find you now that their ghosts have gone?"

it toils rapturously, fitting together a new body. that cable of its fits neatly in the center of the construct and slowly, a pink light waxes in its eyes. the artificial pokemon sits up slowly and pushes away its maker with a nubby hand. 

"you are not the one," it sighs and then it simply wanders off, leaving parker and melody alone with a newborn baby. 

"and i thought my dad was a shithead," she muses and fumbles for a pokeball around her belt. "let's see if this works..."

Melody Miro

☉

"eh? oh." she looks down at her knuckles, a mottled purple and red from the exchanged blows. the brass had stopped any serious injury, but bones don't enjoy rattling against muscles and bones, nevermind whatever these fucks are made out of. 

"no, it's okay - " she protests, turning a little red when melody lets out a gardevoir to tend to her. she looks up, turns her body away to hide her sheepishness and looks at the rocking and then stilling ball in amulius' hand. 

as soon as the capture clutches, the doll pops right back out. 

"wait, you know what these things are?" she says, aghast. it shouldn't surprise her, in retrospect, but parker still thinks of melody as an idol first and elite four seco - well, probably fourth. she thinks a lot of things nomi probably wouldn't like when she thinks of melody (WHICH ISN'T OFTEN, BUT IT'S HARD WHEN THE WORLD'S HOTTEST POP STAR IS IN ARM'S REACH, OKAY?). 

"i think it's - she's - showing us something," she says and, flexing a mostly healed hand, mumbles a thank you to the gardevoir and follows doggedly after her new doll. 

she fits a piece of her arm into a section of the wall and it completely slides away, revealing a portal. and through that portal. home. 

Melody Miro

☉