FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I watched Clara walk carefully towards the mountain. Opal limped on her left, moving just as slowly, as they scouted a path through the time-shredded landscape.

Sonata rested on Sara's shoulder as she walked behind the Espeon and the Umbreon. The Cherubi used her Sunny Day move to brighten the early morning sun all around.

Phoenix and Constella rested in their Pokeballs, kept safe from stumbling into the strange threat.

And I walked between Clara and Opal to make sure the blind Espeon didn't miss one of Opal's warnings.

The world all around us was... I still don't know how to describe it. It was wrong. It was the middle of summer; there were flowers in bloom all around us, the air held that 'morning freshness' quality to it, and if I glanced up the clear sky had an unbroken view of the sun.

But just a little to my right I could see a pile of snow larger than I was. It simply started - right before it the ground was clear of obstruction and had vibrant, healthy grass... and then I was staring at the center of a pile of snow. There was no way snow could have been there. It was far too hot; it should have melted. But it was there anyways.

And the snow was dark. It wasn't snow like it would be in the early morning - it didn't glitter and sparkle in the morning light enhanced by Sonata's ability. It didn't reflect harsh light back at us and cause us to squint, like would sometimes happen in the middle of winter. It was dull, the way snow usually looked in the middle of night.

The snow stretched on for some distance... and then it ended just as unsettlingly abruptly as it began. But instead of returning back to the summer landscape we were walking through, it changed to a scene of autumn rain - the plants on the ground were beginning to turn brown, and the leaves on the occasional tree had shifted from lively green shades to the oranges and reds that came before the leaves fell to the ground. Tiny droplets of water could be seen clinging to the grass, or the leaves, or the bark of the trees...

But they were also suspended perfectly immobile in mid-air.

That was the most unsettling part, I think. When I looked in some directions I could see motion - trees shifting with the breeze, grass moving as a Caterpie or some other small Pokemon crawled through it to get away from us, or flying-types traveling around in search of food. But that motion would just suddenly stop all at once in other places - a Starly was in the air some distance away, but instead of moving its wings or falling to the ground, it simply hung motionless in midair. I couldn't even see it breathing. It was utterly, completely still.

When we had started out I had been singing, but... it was too unsettling.

The problem had begun two days ago, at least according to what we had been told when we arrived. Some professors had been called in first, but they hadn't made any progress. They had sent a robot into the affected area; a simple test to see what would happen. It had been told to drive in, turn around, and drive back out, and it had managed to drive in... at which point it had simply frozen in place. They used a long hook to pull the robot back... at which point it had turned back towards them and continued following the instructions as if nothing had happened. The professors were certain the problem was with time, and that the robot had been working just fine even though it had obviously not been doing anything, but that for whatever reason we could only perceive that one split-second instant of time. The robot probably didn't know anything was wrong and had been perfectly ready to turn around... but we wouldn't see it actually happen until enough time had passed for us to catch back up with it.

That had made my head hurt when they had tried to explain it to us.

Despite having a really long explanation with lots of big words as to what was happening, the professors clearly had no idea why it was happening. So Sara had been called in - she did have a better understanding of what time meant, or at least what it meant in Pokemon battles, and the people in the area had gotten increasingly desperate.

The professors had noticed that the affected area of Twin Lakes Town was a nearly perfect circle, centered around the mountain. So Sara's idea had been to go look at what was there.

That's where Opal and Clara came in. The places where time suddenly shifted weren't always obvious - a Mareep was grazing in what appeared to be the perfectly normal summer morning... but it wasn't moving. It was leaning down to pull up some of the grass beneath it, but no matter how long I watched it, it never moved from that position. And there was no difference at all between the area around it and the area around me. At least not that I could tell.

But Clara could sense the position of the sun. When we neared an area like that she would notice and stop suddenly. She would walk to the side for a bit, until everything felt normal again, and then start moving ahead again.

And Opal could sense the position of the moon. Sometimes Clara wouldn't notice anything wrong, but Opal would. He would usually bark out a warning, but sometimes he just froze and looked sharply to one side. Other times he just looked sick, like the moon had suddenly changed so drastically that his sense of it was making him dizzy. Those were the times I had to catch Clara - since she couldn't see Opal, she would keep walking unaware.

It took me a while to figure that out, but I was able to piece it together. The difference between areas wasn't just a matter of a few days - if that was the case, the sun would be slightly off in the sky, and Clara would be enough. It wasn't just a matter of a few months either - if that was the case, the position of the moon would always be a little different too, and Opal would be able to navigate the dangerous path through the shifts in time. But it wasn't that simple.

Time had been shattered in years.

The snowdrift wasn't necessarily a few months away. It could be that the coming winter would have snow, and that the scene I was watching was from sometime soon... or it could be the next year, or the year after that, or even longer. Or it could have been the winter from last year, or even longer ago - the professors had noticed that some of the scenes of heavy rain seemed linked to a disaster several years before.

I had noticed Sonata droop a little when they told Sara that.

But that was the problem, at least as I understood it - Sara would often leave the television on for Opal and myself, and there were a lot of educational programs on it - a year from now, the sun would be in the exact same position. A few months from now, the moon might be in the same position. But at very, _very_few points in time would the moon and the sun ever again be in the same position in the sky as they are right now.

So we relied on both Opal and Clara to find the safe path to the mountain.

It was_excruciatingly_ slow. Sonata's Sunny Day would make it a bit more obvious where time was and wasn't broken, since the extra brightness only existed in the parts we were in, but we still didn't want to risk stumbling into a broken area. And even when the path was safe to walk through, it didn't always lead us towards the mountain - there were plenty of times we would spend an hour or two walking only to have the way forward blocked entirely, leaving us no other option but to backtrack and find a new path.

It took us three days to reach the mountain. Sara let Constella and Phoenix out when we moved into the caves, feeling safer as the breaks in time became fewer and more obvious when the light my wisps or the light from Opal's Flash suddenly vanished into a patch of sudden darkness.

I remember thinking several times that the whole thing was taking forever, and wanting it to just hurry up and be done with...

What I would have given afterwards to be able to spend even one more moment walking that path with them all...

"What is it?" Opal had stopped suddenly, and I had caught Clara for what felt like the billionteenth time. I wasn't sure billionteenth was actually a word, but I was sure I had done it that many times anyways.

Opal looked different this time - he wasn't looking somewhere above him or somewhere below him like he usually did, when he was feeling out where the moon was. He was looking ahead of us, and his rings had dimmed down to almost nothing.

"I'm not sure... there's..." Opal frowned in the flickering light of my wisps and stared into the cave's darkness. "It's... hate. And worry."

I squinted into the darkness too, but I couldn't make anything out. I started to urge my wisps forward, to send them into the darker areas to make it bright enough for us to see, but Clara hissed and shook her head at me. "Wait. Don't do that yet." She grew quiet and stared blankly into the area Opal was watching... then nodded. "Something's there. Something big."

Sara pulled her phone out and began tapping on it. It stopped working as well when we moved into the caves, but after a few tries she nodded back at us. "We're at the center. Phoenix and Constella, you two get in front."

"Finally." The Flygon lurched past me and stood in front of Opal. The Ledian was right behind him and began to stretch in place after she stood before Clara. They both glanced towards the darkness ahead of them, and I could see anticipation in their eyes. They were ready to fight something.

I slunk back towards Sara and stood next to her. She fiddled with the phone a bit longer... then sighed. "I sent a message but it didn't go out. The phone's going to keep trying but we aren't going to wait on it. Opal, Sinori - light it up."

I nodded and focused my will on the trio of wisps still hovering around me. They began brightening even as Opal's rings did, and they shot forward into the cave beyond...

The cavern was suddenly completely lit. That was the first surprise - there were no patches the light from myself and Opal couldn't reach. No dangers of stumbling into the wrong area and getting frozen in time.

The second surprise was the creature in the middle of the cavern.

It was_huge_. It towered above us all, even forcing Phoenix to crane his head back to see it all. It seemed to be made of solid metal, and its skin gleamed in the light. Blue lines ran up its body, glittering and shining in as the four sources of light shifted and bobbed in place. Jagged plates seemed to spring from its back in a fan shape that looked like it might be a tail... but its actual tail was the same darker blue of the rest of its body, and extended out beneath the fan of plates. More plates covered its chest, legs, and head...

And two red eyes glared at us from beneath the steel-colored plates.

The massive Pokemon twitched randomly, as if various bug types had landed on it and it was trying to shake them off. Its tail swished through the air, then stopped suddenly and jerked in the opposite direction; its head began to tilt to one side, only to shake suddenly and refocus back on us. One of its heavy legs started to lift upwards, only to slam downwards in what felt like an angry stomp.

We stared up at it for several long seconds, then looked back at the sudden electronic voice from behind us.

"Cannot Identify. Searching." Sara had pulled out her phone and pointed it at the gigantic Pokemon, and I recognized the voice - the Pokedex function, used to provide information on new Pokemon other trainers would bring to challenge us with.

"Searching."

It usually just gave a name and a brief description of the Pokemon. Sara had shown me what it had done for Vulpix by pointing it at me. It had come back instantly with a description that had seemed strangely obsessed with my tails, as if there was something unusual about them. I remembered thinking it wasn't my fault other Pokemon only had one, or didn't have ones that were as beautiful...

"Searching."

But it hadn't taken this long.

"Partial match found: 83.7% similarity to legends of Temporal Pokemon 'Dialga'. No data available."

Temporal Pokemon? Was that...

"Temporal? Dialga - are you doing this? With the time?" Opal glanced around Phoenix to look up at the large Pokemon.

The Pokemon's neck lowered as it looked harder at the Umbreon. Another long moment passed... and then it laughed.

"YOU."

The laugh echoed in the cavern, a sound that could only be described as heavy rocks slamming into each other. It was a cruel sound completely devoid of happiness, and it made my fur stand on end. I moved forward, putting myself between Dialga and Sara, and was dimly aware of Sonata hopping down from her shoulder to stand beside me.

The six of us moved on instinct to form a protective wall between our trainer and the strange Pokemon.

"I WAS WORRIED I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO GET ENOUGH CONTROL TO FIND YOU."

I felt a sudden pressure drive me towards the ground as the Dialga took a step towards us. It caught me off guard, but it wasn't enough to overwhelm me. Our lights seemed to grow darker, and I felt the air grow colder, malevolent, and it gained a poisonous scent to it. I heard a cough come from Constella.

"BUT YOU CAME TO ME. EVEN BROUGHT YOUR TRAINER WITH YOU. SO CONSIDERATE."

A ripple seemed to pass through the ground beneath me, something that wasn't physical in any way I could point to but which I had definitely noticed. I felt my fur standing on end... though... none of my friends seemed to have noticed.

"NOW... PERISH."

The cave walls around us vanished.

Clara let out a strangled gasp and fell to the ground. Opal swayed on his feet, but looked like he would fall over if even a light breeze came his way.

Constella leapt straight up into the air and slammed her fists right at Dialga's face. She missed his eyes, instead hitting the steel armor surrounding them, but the creature was definitely shocked by the attack. If growled and made a quick motion with its head, causing the jagged points along its metal armor to slash at the Ledian... but she was already dropping back down to the ground, and it missed her. Dialga lifted its leg as if to stomp her...

...and howled in pain as Phoenix's claws glowed with the strange draconic light and slashed at the dark-blue skin. It stomped back down and whirled towards the Flygon that was even now zipping out of the larger Pokmeon's reach... which would leave it open to another attack by Constella.

I had seen the two of them do this plenty of times before. They were good at it, and I would just get in their way if I jumped in.

So I moved to Opal's side and tried to help him. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

His expression was pained, and he wobbled a little. "It's... the moon, it's... all at once, it's not stopping..."

I tilted my head, confused. I glanced back at Clara and saw Sonata next to her, trying to nudge the Espeon but not getting any response. Something was wrong with the moon, something bothering Opal? But why would that hurt Clara too...

My eyes widened as I looked back at Dialga again... and then looked further up, to the sky above us.

Flickers of bright light dashed through the sky. A small blob of light appeared, zipped overhead, and then vanished somewhere on the other side of us. Other pinpoints vanished and appeared just as quickly, causing the entire sky to glitter like one of the snowglobes that had been given to Sara one year as a prank... and another blob of cooler light flickered around the sky, moving with no apparent direction that I could determine.

Opal's wobbles seemed to match the motion of that blob of cooler light.

Dialga roared again as Constella unleashed a flurry of powdery scales at it. Her Silver Wind attack. It didn't seem to do more than annoy the Pokemon, but I watched the scales as they flew onwards. They reached a certain point... and then they vanished in a tiny flicker of silver light. That was odd...

Constella rolled away from Dialga's stomp and threw another Silver Wind upwards. I frowned. The first hadn't seemed to do anything at all; even her Mach Punch at the start of the fight had seemed to hurt Dialga more. Why would Sara ask for a second one like that?

I blinked. Wait... had Sara actually called out any of these attacks?

I looked behind me. The ground behind me simply ended in darkness.

Sara wasn't there - we were on our own.

I nudged Opal. "Come on, you have to focus! Something's wrong; Sara's gone - we need your help!"

The Umbreon wobbled again... and then slunk to the ground. "It... ugh... need a minute..."

"I don't think we have_a minute!" I glanced up at the sky above me. The lights continued flashing rapidly. Were they moving _faster? I nudged Opal again, but he just groaned.

I looked back to Sonata, but she wasn't having any more luck with Clara. "Sonata, Dialga is causing this - can you stop him?" I frantically searched my memory. What was Sonata's strongest attack again? Would it work against... what even _was_Dialga? Phoenix's attacks seemed to hurt him the most, the dragon types... what types were weak to those? Would Sonata's attacks be able to hurt it?

I shook my head. "Use Solar Beam, maybe that will stop it!" I hopped away from Opal and Clara, took a deep breath... and unleashed a blast of intense fire straight at Dialga's face.

The fire slammed into the armor around the Pokemon's head and dissipated around it, the last bits of fire dispersing somewhere in the air above it... but the armor had gained an angry red sheen, and Dialga's expression of hate and rage had shifted to one of pain. My attack had hurt it! Yes!

I gulped as it turned away from Phoenix and Constella and focused its attention completely on me.

Dialga reared upwards, rising up on its hindlegs... and then fell downwards, slamming its forelegs into the ground in a heavy stomp. The ground shook all around me... and then I felt myself hurled into the air. I flailed in midair, having plenty of time to suddenly remember those silvery scales Constella had hurled at Dialga... then I was on the ground again. I glanced to the side and saw how close I had come to the darkness where the ground just seemed to disappear - it was far too close for comfort. I tucked my tails in and dashed back towards the Dialga, deciding that striking it from a distance could actually be a very bad idea.

The gigantic Pokemon slashed a leg at Phoenix, just narrowly catching the Flygon as he buzzed past. There was a painfully loud crash as he was dashed into the ground, and I heard Constella cry out in shock. I was dimly aware of her leaping up to punch at Dialga's face even as I took another deep breath and prepared to exhale more fire in an attempt to distract the Pokemon from Phoenix...

A shrill sound filled the air as a beam of angry, crackling black light suddenly slammed into Dialga. The heavy plates of armor dented underneath the assault, and the large Pokemon wobbled... then fell over, listing slowly to the side before landing heavily on its side. One of the legs kicked outwards, towards where Constella had been... but she had darted away when it had begun falling.

I glanced behind me. What had done that?! It had seemed like a Solar Beam attack, but the color had been off...

Sonata panted for air in between Clara and Opal. I knew Solar Beam took her a bit to prepare for, but she usually seemed just fine after. This time though...

The ground shook as Dialga rose back to its feet. I glanced back at it and saw it staring at Sonata... who was helpless in between the equally helpless Umbreon and Espeon.

Dialga reared upwards again, repeating the same attack it had used on me after my Fire Blast attack.

I dashed towards them, moving to put myself in between the attack and my stunned friends. I saw the gargantuan Pokemon begin to fall out of the corner of one eye, saw Sonata start to realize what was happening and begin to move... she wouldn't get clear in time, and that wouldn't help Opal and Clara, but I was almost there...

I made it!

I felt the ground shake as Dialga slammed back down into the ground... and then I was thrown into the air. I felt myself twisting and saw Sonata suddenly in front of me, felt myself hit her... and saw her go flying. I landed with a heavy thump as my own momentum moved to her, sending her into the air, and towards the ominous darkness that enveloped everything beyond...

A sudden light appeared in the darkness as Sonata flew towards it. Arching upwards into... a doorway?

Sonata sailed through the doorway and was gone.

A new Pokemon yelped in surprise as it emerged through the doorway as Sonata flew past it. It was a green Pokemon about my size, with stubby legs, thin arms, and a head that reminded me of an onion - a nasty plant Sara had tried to give me to eat once. It floated in midair for a second, looking behind it towards the doorway in shock, then shook its head.

"Dialga! What are you doing?!" The new arrival waved its arms up at the Dialga as if to get its attention... but the monstrous Pokemon ignored it to slash at Constella again.

I started to dash towards Dialga to help Constella, but stopped myself. That was a losing option - we had to get out_of here, and fast. The lights in the sky_were moving faster, and... I didn't want to think about what that meant.

I looked towards the Pokemon that had arrived from the darkness, and that had - hopefully - opened a way out of it. "Do you know what's going on? Can you help us; I don't think we should be here!"

The strange Pokemon flew towards me, moving by what seemed to be simple willpower. "Dialga's pulling you back in time, you need to get out of here! I'm a Celebi, I can open a way out of here, but you need to go - it's getting faster!"

The Celebi pointed upwards and I looked up - the tiny pinpricks were gone; all that was left were the two larger blobs. And they were moving much faster than they had been.

I looked back at Constella and Phoenix, then back at the door. They had to get out, and Clara and Opal did too; I couldn't just leave them. I hesitated, trying to think...

Constella first. She was doing the least against Dialga, and she was strong enough to help Clara.

I nodded at the Celebi and turned to dash back towards Dialga. I heard a startled exclamation from behind me - "That's the wrong way!" - and then I was back in the fight.

I inhaled and threw fire back at the Dialga, distracting it - but also getting the attention of Phoenix and Constella. "There's a door, we have to get out - Constella, get Clara and go! Phoenix, help me distract it!"

The Dialga blinked and looked towards Clara and Opal - and at the door beyond them - and roared. "NO!" It started to move towards them... but Phoenix took a deep breath and exhaled fire of his own into the massive Pokemon's face.

I knew from experience that the Flygon's fire wasn't like my own - it didn't burn the way mine would and didn't feel that hot - but it seemed to work just as well. The Dialga jerked away from the flames, roaring again and shaking its head.

I saw Constella hop past me and towards Clara. The Celebi was there, hovering near the doorway... and then Constella was through it.

Three of us were safe.

I glanced back at the Dialga just in time to see its heavy leg slamming towards me. I jumped away... but the pressure grew suddenly heavier and dragged me down. The leg hit me and drove me back towards the ground, slamming me into it hard and causing me to roll with the shockwave as Dialga's leg hit the ground a half second later.

I felt pain at my side and glanced back, trying to see how bad it was. There was a gash at my side where the jagged metal had caught me... but... something was wrong with my tails, too. They had changed color - not much, but the reddish-orange fur had shifted to be a more orange-yellow color. And... something was going on in the air around them; what looked like strange empty wisps formed near them and floated slowly into them. They seemed more an absence than anything solid, and while black was the only color I could describe them as, they seemed more empty than black. I didn't feel anything at all from the wisps - there was no pain or heat, like when I touched my own wisps - but my fur shifted color a little more every time a wisp touched it.

I tugged my tails away from the glowing lights, fighting the heavier pressure to do it... and the lights just followed them. They didn't seem interested in my paws or any other part of me, just my tails, but they were clearly determined to get to them.

I started to fight the growing pressure to twist back and bite at one of the motes of light... but another crash drew me away from the problem.

I turned to see Phoenix dashed to the ground by one of Dialga's attacks. The Flygon slid past me, towards Opal and the Celebi, but managed to arrest his motion and get back into the air. It was definitely a strain though - the Flygon's wings were beating furiously, and even still it only brought him a little bit off the ground. He glanced up at the Dialga... and I saw nervousness in the eyes hidden behind the glassy goggles.

Phoenix was worried.

I didn't blame him - I was too. The lights were still racing above us; we had to go.

I pushed back against the heavy pressure and wobbled. Opal... I wasn't strong enough to get him out. But Phoenix would be. I could distract Dialga long enough, then follow after them.

"Phoenix! Get Opal out of here, I'll hol-"

Dialga whirled and slammed its tail into the ground. " NO!!"

The pressure grew even more intense... and I fell back to the ground. I struggled to get up, but it was too much. I couldn't stand.

I saw Phoenix out of the corner of my eye. He was still upright, but he was no longer flying - he was standing on the ground and beating his wings furiously, but he was standing.

I moved my head towards the Dialga and angled it upwards, towards its face.

I took a deep breath, struggling to get enough air in my lungs, and prepared to unleash enough fire at Dialga to let Phoenix and Opal get out...

A sudden blast of yellow light slammed into Dialga again, hitting the dented plates of armor where Sonata's Solar Beam had. The Dialga was driven back by the force, staying upright but leaving noticeable gashes in the ground where it had been slammed backwards.

I broke off the fire and looked towards the source, struggling against the pressure.

Opal!

The Umbreon had risen to his paws, even against the pressure still driving me down. He panted from the exertion of his Hyper Beam attack, and the lights in the sky still dashed quickly overhead... but he didn't seem bothered by it anymore. He grinned at me when he saw me watching him. "Told you. Just needed a minute."

He looked towards Phoenix. "Phoenix! Get Sinori out of here!"

I felt myself being delicately lifted between the Flygon's sharp claws. "What about you?"

"I'll be right behind you! Go!!"

The world tilted suddenly as Phoenix surged towards the exit. Opal flew by, then the Celebi...

There was a sudden 'pop' in my ears as we passed through the doorway... then the pressure was gone.

Dialga roared in fury as the Flygon escaped with the Vulpix. Only the Umbreon remained - the Umbreon and that Celebi, but it didn't matter. Dialga focused all of its attention on the Umbreon, forcing it back down to the ground.

And it_got back up_. The Umbreon pushed back against the intense pressure and started towards the gateway.

NO!!!

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY. I WILL FIND YOU, WHEREVER IN TIME YOU FLEE TO. I WILL DESTROY YOU." The words left Dialga, resonating through the small pocket of reality it had dragged backwards through time. "AND THEN I WILL FIND YOUR TRAINER AND FINISH WHAT YOU STOPPED ME FROM DOING. WHEN YOU ARE BOTH FINISHED, I WILL FIND EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR OTHER FRIENDS AND DESTROY THEM JUST AS COMPLETELY. OVER AND OVER AGAIN, THROUGHOUT EVERY INSTANT OF THEIR LIFE."

The Umbreon turned away from the doorway, back to the Dialga. Its bloodred eyes squinted, the thoughts furiously racing in its head as it tried to understand... then they widened suddenly in recognition.

Yesss. Revenge would have felt empty if the Umbreon hadn't even known who had been behind it all. Possessing the body of another Pokemon had meant that was a necessary risk if it meant getting his revenge. But now...

The Umbreon limped forward as best as it could with the heavy pressure pushing it down, and Dialga moved to meet it in combat. The Celebi fluttered around, throwing its own distractions at them both... but it didn't matter. None of it mattered, really - it was over.

The motion of the sun and the moon accelerated further, surging faster towards the destination Dialga had picked. Seconds that had already been decades moved to centuries... then longer.

He had won - and nothing the Umbreon could do would ever change that.