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Chapter 4- De Capo Aria: Ritornello

Mimi sighed heavily as her daughter wandered off in the general direction of the school. She couldn’t remember the last time that girl looked up from her phone to watch where she was going during her daily commute. Thank God nobody hits her on the way over there! She groaned and leaned backwards against the door. Momo began breakfast that day pestering her about heading over to some boy at school’s place after class that day, and she’d told her no, so she had to argue with her own daughter. Again. What was it with her and boys anyway? I hope that girl doesn’t get up to anything… And of course Mano wasn’t up yet, so she had to deal with that herself. Mimi had already downed two cups of tea this morning, but she already felt that she needed another.

A voice from next door sent a shock coursing through her spine, snapping her eyes back open and saving her from falling back asleep. “Oh, Mim, darling! I understand that you’re a practicing Hindu, so pardon my ignorance, but I don’t think your front door makes for an appropriate bed.”

Mimi breathed a sigh of relief. It was just the neighbor, Doris. The two were friends, and Doris liked making fun of herself and her lack of understanding of Hinduism. She’d learned to just take it for what it was. “Morning, Doris. Thanks for that.”

“Think nothing of it, dear,” she called back as she scuttled over to the fence. Mimi remembered how Doris’ spider legs and abdomen freaked her out the first time they met. “You’re usually a bit more restive, darling. Anything on your mind?”

“Oh, Momo’s just being a bit testy today.”

“She was frowning more so than usual,” Doris cooed as she glanced over at the diminishing figure of Momo in the distance. Mimi could only nod. Doris always seemed to pick up on the little things. The fact that Doris and her husband always seemed to have money to make their property one of the prettiest on the block, and that they both used to have jobs at the palace that neither one would give a straight answer about made her wonder what kind of secret agent gadgetry they were hiding in their house. And she and Doris were the same age, too…

Doris turned her gaze back to her friend. “So what was it this time? A boy, perhaps?”

Mimi rolled her eyes. “What else?”

Doris chuckled. “So predictable at that age, aren’t they?”

Mimi sighed, glanced down at the ground, showing her fatigue once again, and rubbed her temple. “Sometimes she makes me want to start the day with something stiff.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t recommend that, darling! Believe me, I’ve seen how much worse off that makes someone. You know Vasu Liepard, by chance?”

“Not personally.” Vasu was someone that showed up regularly to the socials at the Palace, an old guard of the court whose eccentricities were what COCville tall tales were made of. According to Doris herself, the man would sometimes show up to the same galas as high profile movie stars, business tycoons, and world leaders with nothing fancier than a bedrobe. “Is that why they say he’s so weird?”

“Oh, no, but it certainly doesn’t help.” Doris sighed. Mimi always thought it was because she missed her time at the palace. Doris even tried to invite the town’s social elites to lunch at her place from time to time, with varying success. “On a related note, I heard that Carl Charizard had passed away recently. Yesterday, I think it was?”

“Yeah, I heard about that. His nephew works for me.”

“Oh, that poor young man must be going through so much. I’ve spoken to him just last week, Carl I mean, and he spoke highly of his nephew. They must’ve been close.”

“Well, he’s going to be fine. He’ll have that opera house to take care of on top of working for me.”

“Oh, Mim, darling, how cold! What I-“

Mimi held her hand up to placate her friend. “Oh, I know what you meant,” she answered quickly. “I’m just saying he’ll be kept busy, so maybe that’ll take his mind off of it.”

“Oh, yes, I see. But not as busy as your family’s been keeping you, am I right dear?”

Mimi gave her neighbor a light glare. “You were so close to making me feel better.”

Doris chuckled before losing her smile. “How… how’s your husband been doing?”

Mimi winced and scratched the back of her head. Mano hadn’t been himself lately. “His migraines have been getting worse,” Mimi began, “and lately he’s just been-“

Both women started at the sound of Mimi’s front door slammed open as an extremely groggy Mano proceeded to pull himself out of the house backwards, his tail and waist the only part of his body standing at attention. The face on his tail grinned out at the world with its yellow, unblinking eyes as it managed to pull the otherwise inert man by walking him backwards with his knees. His entire upper body dragged along the ground, including the man’s face. Mimi noticed his regular head try to blink once before almost heading back to sleep as his left cheek became steadily redder.

Mimi shook herself from the shock at this sight. “M-Mano, what the f-?”

“Outta…coffee…” was the only response from the man, still barely conscious, as the other head on his tail cackled and hopped a few times upon seeing the two women. Doris was visibly uncomfortable, trying to hide her shallow breaths behind the back of her hand. The Tail Head glanced around until noticing the car and hopped a few times. “CAHFEE, CAHFEE!” it screeched before lunging at the car door handle, gripping it with its teeth, and somehow managing to open it with its tongue before stuffing himself into the driver’s seat, noticeably positioning itself so that it could see while it apparently planned to drive with his feet and push the pedals with his hands. It ignored the still open door as it pulled out of the driveway, barely avoiding one of the neighbor’s mailbox as it the car then careened towards town.

The two women could only watch, completely dumbfounded by what they just saw. Doris was a bit paler than she was a moment ago, but managed to regain her composure first. She cleared her throat and glanced down at her fingers. “I… know that I’ve, erm, already said this, darling, but… well, I think you might want to bring your husband to Dr. Bill. He is the best at what he does, after all. Which is everything.”

Mimi didn’t turn her eyes from the end of the road, helpless dread etched across her face. Doris was right. Her husband was getting worse in every way she could think of. The only way she could think of her husband being able to move like that was if he were dropped into a cartoon. She recoiled at the sound of a loud crash. “Oh, God…”

Doris rolled her eyes. “Not again. Do you need a ride, darling?”

“No, that’s fine, I have to go.” She ran off without another word. These crashes never seemed to get her husband hurt, but someone needed to be there to explain what had happened to the police. Again. I hope he wasn’t too far from Nereus’ place…

==

Connor folded his apron and threw away his plastic gloves as he headed for his usual booth for his lunch break. Sam was already sitting there, so he decided to approach a tad slower than usual. He knew that it was hard for Sam to admit when he was wrong, so he wanted to go as easy on his friend as he needed to. He flashed a friendly grin as he approached. “Hey, Sam-“

“I’m sorry, I can’t stay long,” Sam interjected pointedly, “I forgot I had work today.”

This didn’t bother Connor too much. “Don’t worry about it,” he replied as he sat opposite Sam. “I should probably make this quick anyway. Mimi’s pretty stressed out today.”

Sam looked up. “Did her husband crash again?”

“Yeah, she said something about him getting another ticket for, uh… trying to drive with his butt?” Sam only stared at Connor with a dumbfounded look on his face, not sure if he’d heard him right. “Yeah, it’s weird.”

“Does he drink, or-?”

“No, nothing like that. Some say he’s getting sick with something.”

“Hope it’s not contagious, damn.”

Connor chuckled, feeling a bit bad that he was.

“Anyway, I’ll buy today, what would you like?”

“Oh, uh, don’t worry about it, I brought my own,” Connor replied as he pulled out his lunch bag.

Sam nodded and turned to Estelle, who had since approached their booth with pen and paper in hand. Well, in her ribbon-like feelers. Same thing. “I’ll have a hamburger, please. And extra fries for Brier Rabbit over here.”

“Hey!” Connor objected, having just opened his salad.

Estelle giggled as she scribbled the order onto her pad of paper. “Coming right up!”

As she walked back behind the counter, Connor glanced back up at Sam. “So, about your rug-“

“Look, everything that needs to be said has already been said, let’s just be friends again and move on.”

“Really got a way with words today.”

“Yeah, well, swallowing my pride isn’t the easiest thing.”

“I get it, don’t worry about it.” Connor took his first bite of his salad.

“And thanks for buying me a replacement.”

“Least I can do.”

Sam went quiet for a few minutes as the two waited for his meal, looking more and more at ease all the while. This made Connor happy, though. It meant that they were friends again. “So, I, uh, heard your Uncle died.”

“Yeah, he went night before last.”

“What’s gonna happen now? Will there be a funeral, or-?”

“No, he asked that we not have a service for him. Just that he be cremated and have his remains buried next to my Aunt.”

“No memorial service? Why?”

“He just didn’t want to make a big deal about it. He said to me that death is just another part of life, and really shouldn’t be treated like it’s some big, scary thing that everyone needs to know about. At least, that’s what he said to me a few years back when we first talked about it.” Sam just nodded, and they each took bites from their meals, Connor stealing a few fries when he thought Sam wasn’t looking. After thinking about something to say, Connor finally asked “So, what’s been going on with you lately? How’s Amber?”

“Oh… well… um… She’s fine. I’ve just been working, that’s all.” Sam said.

“You used to be a lot more proactive about chasing girls in high school, you know,” Connor mused. After Sam just grunted, he continued, “What’s changed exactly?”

“Remember that talk I had with my dad back in the day?”

“Oh. Yeah…” Connor did remember some of it. After the house party at Sam’s place, Sam never was the same. Whatever his old man said to him must’ve been drastic if it changed him this much. They’ve sworn off talking about it much, though, so he didn’t press. “Well, you need to come out of your shell sometime, buddy. Uh, figuratively,” he added as Sam gave him an odd look. “But, yeah, Amber’s a great gal. Unless you’re not into girls anymore, I’d suggest biting the bullet and asking her out.”

“There you go with insinuating I’m gay again.”

“What? I’m not judging-“

“Sure you are.”

“Is that a confession?”

“Nope, not the one that needs to make one.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not the one trying to steal an engaged man from his fiancé,” Sam replied as he flashed Connor a sideways smirk.

“Ouch,” Connor murmured as Sam laughed at himself. “Anyway, like I said, just ask her out. You never know when you’ll miss your chance. Oh, and speaking of that, remember that girl I always used to talk about? My Uncle Carl’s neighbor?” Connor said between bites of food, making sure not to speak with his mouth full.

“I think I do. Was her name Andrea?” Sam asked, showing just how much he paid attention to Connor’s childhood ramblings.

“Close – Anna. Anna Altaria.” Connor answered. “I saw her at the opera last night.”

“Really? That was your childhood best friend? The singer who replaced Wiona last night?” Sam exclaimed, nibbling on a fry.

“Yes. She left town right before I met you.” Connor sighed, moving a carrot away from his salad with his fork.

“Well, what do you know?” Suddenly, a whizzing sound rushed by the two of them, this invisible something kicking up enough wind to toss some of the lettuce in Connor’s salad out of the bowl. Sam just glanced up and noticed a fresh newspaper sitting on the table in front of him. He sighed, “Raja takes his job a bit too seriously.”

It was true. Raja Ninjask was the only postman in town, but every attempt the Princess made to add more to the post office staff failed because of Raja’s request. Nobody else in town really complained because he always managed to deliver the mail early, and he never seemed to be overworked because of it. “Anything new?” Connor asked.

Sam sighed as he picked up the paper. “Probably just more fluff pieces talking about CWCville again. Op, yep.” He laid out the paper on the table for both of them to see. “Front page,” was his only explanation as he pointed to the headline:

Chandler’s Merge: Dangerous or Necessary?

Following the devastating battle across the city of CWCville, Christine Weston Chandler has arranged with city authorities to prepare for a massive interdimensional “merge”, as she called it earlier this morning.

Connor read through the first sentence and looked up at Sam, bewildered. “How would they even do something like that?”

“Hold on,” Sam replied as he continued reading, this time out loud.

“Yes! This dimension! Right here! 1218. Is going to be merged with our sister dimension "C197" where all of our s- where most of our superheroes, super-villains, OCs, and what have you, and other characters, consisted, have been existing and co-existing. Yep!” Chandler had to say during an interview with KCWC Radio.

“Okay, hold on,” Sam interrupted himself, “Why would she allow super-villains into her universe, let alone her city?”

“Well, some of her decisions have always been poorly thought out,” Connor offered.

“This might take the cake, though,” Sam muttered as he pulled up the paper to continue reading.

In order to accommodate for any surges in criminal activity, Chandler revealed the formation of a new superhero team of protectors of CWCville, a team that goes by the name “The Terrific Twelve.”

“Would that even be enough, though?” Connor asked, starting to feel concerned for the citizens of that city. It was always considered by everyone in COCville to be a bit more dangerous in CWCville, but if this “Merge” was bringing in super-villains…

“I doubt it,” Sam snarled to himself, clearly having the same thoughts as Connor was. “There are some pictures of the new heroes,” he added as he laid out the paper again.

They were all laid out in four rows of three, with two of them sharing the same picture and the remaining space being used for additional text. The first one in the upper-right corner showed two Sonichus with orange hair giving smug thumbs-up to the camera. The subtitle indicated that this was Sturbenchu, team leader. Powers: Superhuman characteristics and cloning.

The picture next to it was of a Rosechu with a hairstyle that Connor always associated with the Sonichus. But her tail was shaped like that of a female Pikachu, so he knew for sure what her gender actually was. She had white fur and seemed to irradiate confidence through the photograph. Perceptor Rosechu, team liaison to Antifa. Powers: Genius-level intelligence, developing psychic powers.

“Antifa?” Connor asked, feeling that the name was familiar.

“Over in CWCville’s universe, it’s a group that labels itself as being anti-fascist. Y’know, like going after Nazis, I guess.”

“I didn’t know that CWCville had a Nazi problem.”

“Neither did I.” They both glanced back down at the paper.

The picture on the top-right was of a Rosechu that Connor honestly thought didn’t look too different from any of the other Rosechus over in CWCvile. She was wearing these cute eyeglasses, though, and was flashing a decent smile, a clipboard in hand. This picture must’ve been taken from a lab or something. Cryzel Rosechu, liaison between the team and city hall. Powers: Genius-level intelligence, ability to create portals.

The picture on the left of the next row down was of another Rosechu, this one with short lime-green hair. The picture was taken from a higher vantage point, and only showed her tossing flowers into the air. Gracidala Rosechu, a Grass Type. Powers: Plant manipulation.

The next picture was of two Sonichus together, with the rest of the space on the row taken up by text. The one on the left was a large silver-haired Sonichu with a sour expression directed towards his compatriot, a happy-go-lucky brown-haired Sonichu that had his arm over the other’s shoulders and flashed a thumbs-up at the camera with the other hand. On left: Slavachu, weapons expert. Powers: Weapons master with large arsenal of military-grade weaponry. On right: Mauserchu, weapons expert. Powers: Weapons master with large arsenal of firearms.

The next row started with a picture of an older-looking Sonichu with light crème-colored fur, a gaunt face compared to his teammates, and a stare that cut right into Connor’s soul. Silvachu, team scout and recon agent. Powers: Immaterial physiology.

Both Sam and Connor recoiled at the sight of the next one, a Sonichu with dark green fur that seemed to be sitting on a chair in the photo, wearing what Connor thought was a straightjacket. The Sonichu just smiled deeply into the camera, clearly communicating to the two that he wasn’t all there. Doctor Silvestrechu, team medic and cybernetics expert. Powers: Genius-level intelligence, cybernetic implants. Note: Chandler and Sturbenchu have gone on record in stating that Doctor Silvestrechu is not the official team medic.

Sam balled his fist over the picture of Silvestrechu and looked Connor in the face. “They’re out of their mind!”

“Well, hold on,” Connor countered, “this picture looks a bit older than the others.”

Sam sighed. “I hope this isn’t just Pippa being Pippa again…”

After the picture of Doctor Silvestrechu was a Rosechu with dark red hair in a Kung-Fu stance. Mina-La Rosechu, hand-to-hand combat specialist. Powers: Channel ki through her physical attacks.

The final row began with a magenta-colored Sonichu with white fur patches on his forehead and the back of his hands that resembled hourglasses. He was meditating with his eyes closed, levitating in midair by the looks of things. Timéchu, lead strategist. Powers: Chronokinesis.

Sam leaned back after reading about this last Sonichu. “Damn.” Connor agreed with this sentiment. Maybe they weren’t so screwed at CWCville after all.

The next picture showed a younger Sonichu, or perhaps a statue of one made from pure jade. It was pointing at itself with both thumbs as if very proud of itself. Jadechu, front-line combatant. Powers: Can generate and control jade crystals from its body.

The final picture was of a black-furred Sonichu with a cowboy hat, simply chewing on a toothpick as he hid his eyes from the camera and leaned against a street sign. Slick Sonichu, spec ops. Poweers: Can transform into and control oil slick.

At this time, the city of CWCville declined to provide an official statement regarding the vetting process for incoming interdimensional refugees, or a proper path to citizenship.

The two stopped reading. Connor shook his head and sighed before rubbing his eyes. “Sometimes I worry about what’s going on over there. I hope this doesn’t spill out over here.”

“Me too, last thing we need is to get caught up in that city’s latest gaffe,” Sam replied as he pulled the paper up close. He read for another minute before seizing up, as if surprised by something. “Uh, Connor?”

Connor lowered his fork before he took the final bite of his salad. “What’s up?”

“You know that Anna gal you mentioned earlier?”

“Yeah, why?”

Sam handed him the paper without answering. Connor glanced at the front page before turning the page to the headline “Local Rising Star Missing”. His eyes widened as he sped through the article, which composed of a few paragraphs about who she was, until he reached the part that mentioned when she was last seen- right after Connor met up with her. “I have to do something,” Connor murmured to himself.

“You can’t just leave work-“ Sam began, but to no avail. Connor jumped from his seat and shot towards the kitchen, leaving Sam to lean over to try and see what his friend was doing.

“Can you take my place?” Connor hurriedly asked Egon. “I’ll pay you as much as you want if you do.”

Egon opened his mouth to speak, but could only manage a nod before Connor had already hung up his apron and snatched up his jacket. Connor thought he heard Sam calling out to him, but he ignored him. He had to get to the opera house now.

==

Anna stirred from her slumber and quietly groaned. Her head hurt, and the surface she found herself on was cold. She just had the strangest dream. In her dream, a masked man standing over seven feet tall had entered her room completely uninvited. At first she thought it was Connor, but the man insisted he was the “Angel of Music”. She said… something, something about not believing that he was an angel, so the man angrily swept her into some basement hidden behind one of her mirrors. She yelled out, she cried, she bit down, kicked and hit the man, but it didn’t do any good. She remembered the fear she had.

She gingerly pushed herself into a sitting position, cradling her head with her left hand. With the other, she stretched, a soft, musical yawn escaping her lips before she could catch it. The rest of her dream involved a lair of this “Angel of Music”, who simply sat her down beside a gigantic antique piano and began to play. He’d asked her to sing, he pleaded to hear her voice. She’d refused, she said that this whole thing was creepy. But he’d kept asking, becoming more and more adamant that she must sing. Afraid that he’d become violent again, she finally caved, and sang as best she could, as if her life depended upon it. Upon the conclusion of the piece, the man showered her with praise, the exact wording she couldn’t remember. Was she having this dream because of her reuniting with Connor for some reason?

She reached for her headboard to grab her coat. But it wasn’t there. And neither was the headboard. Anna looked around, panic boiling up with each passing second. This wasn’t her room. Next to the bed was a chair with a wedding dress draped across it. Anna’s eyes widened. “The Angel of Music” offered her the same dress to wear. She’d refused, but he insisted that it was merely to symbolize the marriage of her voice to his music. She’d refused and passed out from exhaustion after that. It was all coming back to her now. It wasn’t a dream. With her blue hair still all messed up, she dashed from the room and found herself in the Angel’s lair once again.

She steadied her breath. Okay, so whatever this was, it was indeed real. She pinched her elbow to make sure, and nothing changed. She needed to keep her composure. Panicking in a strange place wouldn’t help her. She needed to think of a way out. Her gaze wandered over to the middle of the room, the best-lit part of it. There was that piano from before. Now that she had a good look at it, she couldn’t help but admire it a little bit. The masterpiece of a piano was made entirely of mahogany and was extremely well-kept, despite clearly being at least as old as the opera house. Anna wondered if she was still even in the opera house. She thought back to the Angel playing this piano, and remembered him saying something about the keys being made from ebony and ivory.

Anna approached the instrument, hoping to sit and think of a plan of escape, when she noticed someone playing the piano very quietly. Him. He must’ve decided to keep his playing quiet so he wouldn’t wake her. There was no way she was going to get past unnoticed. But what if I don’t have to? She cleared her throat. “Pardon me,” she began. She remembered that this man spoke very formally, so if this were to work…

The man stopped playing his song and straightened up, clearly startled, but his expression seemed to soften as he noticed who was speaking. “Ah,” he chuckled at himself, “Anna.” He smiled through the mask covering most of his face. It was styled after French masquerade, and only had two small slits for his pupils and two holes for his nostrils. He stood up and walked out from behind the piano, one hand rubbing across it the entire way. “I hope you rested well.”

“Well enough, thank you,” she answered, rubbing her neck. “I know you said you were “The Angel of Music,” but, well, I was wondering. Do you have a name?” She had to play this carefully.

“My name is Derick Dragonite, madam,” he answered as he bowed graciously. “I apologize for the meagerness of my abode. Living behind the walls of an opera house for a lifetime like some rodent doesn’t offer one a clear understanding of comfort and luxury, not like the life an angel from God’s choir such as yourself.”

So they were in the opera house. Anna looked around and noticed the place was illuminated by more candles than she could count. Several feet behind the piano was a diorama of the opera house, populated by miniature dolls modeled precisely after the staff. There was even one of her.

Derick returned to his seat at the massive piano. “Of course, I’m not a fool. I know what others would call this place. Not a home,” he ruminated as he cracked his knuckles, readying to play once again, “but a lair. The lair of the Phantom of the Opera.” He chuckled to himself, as if a bit sad about this thought, before he began playing his song.

Anna remembered Madame Leavanny talking about how the opera house played Phantom of the Opera a little while back. Anna took the time to notice a few things about Derick, notably how similarly he looked to Connor. Derick’s mop of blonde hair housed a light orange streak down the middle, a bit lighter than Connor’s. His skin was a bit lighter than Connor’s too. His tail didn’t have the flame on it, so that sealed the deal on whether or not this was just Connor playing a stupid trick on her. Rather than a dark blue like Connor’s, the man’s wings were a shade of teal. Perhaps the largest difference was his eyes, his brownish-green eyes.

She finally decided upon what to say next. “But… You’re not a phantom, though. You’re a person, like me-“

Derick accidentally missed a note before balling up his fist. “No,” he growled. “I am not a person. I am not human, I am less than a human! Unlike you, I was born… damaged. Imperfect. Flawed.”

Anna was surprised to notice that she wasn’t scared of him. He’s not mad at me, she found herself thinking. She couldn’t slip up any more. “Is… that why you wear the mask?”

“Yes…” Derick replied before his music got loud enough to drown out his voice if he were to continue talking. After a moment, he stopped playing to turn to her. “Are you ready to sing again?”

“Um, I don’t feel like singing,” Anna replied slowly.

Derick turned to her once again, surprised. “You should always want to sing. If you don’t, you will lose your talent.”

“I want to get to know you first,” Anna added quickly, trying to draw from everything she learned from art school. She was likely going to be playing a long game for her freedom. The curiosity on Derick’s face was an encouraging sign. “Why did you want Wiona to leave?” Back when Wiona was still singing, she was almost crushed by a piece of the scenery. Attached to it was a note signed by “The Phantom” with threats that such attempts on her life would continue until she left. The wording was so strong that the woman left for the day crying. When she asked her friend Catrina Butterfree about it, she said that this had been happening to Wiona for years. Whoever had been sending them had been making demands such as a regular supply of money and food.

“Oh, that shrill grackle ruins any music she sings,” Derick replied calmly, as if he’d accepted that as a fact long ago. “Once I finish writing my very own opera, I only want those who can add to the music.”

“You’re writing an opera?” Anna asked, seeing an opening. “May I listen to some of it?” she asked, sitting on the bench next to Derick.

He smiled, nodded, and proceeded to play the most beautiful music Anna had ever heard in her life. It was as if his talent transcended mere skill and had breached into the realm of magic. It brought to mind images of a rural country side, of forbidden love between a noble prince and a fair peasant girl, of political schemes and impending wars. This masked man was casually weaving a narrative without uttering a word, without showing a single picture. The mask. She knew that this wasn’t her friend, but… what was hidden behind the mask?

She didn’t want to push her luck or anything. The music calmed, as if reaching the intermission. “That was incredible!” she exclaimed. It helped that she meant it.

Derick chuckled to himself. “Somehow I knew you would, dear Anna.”

“Um, if you don’t mind,” she began. What harm would there be in simply asking? “What are your conditions for me leaving? It’s not that I don’t like your music, but someone will eventually come looking for me.”

“Ah, yes, yes. You’re free to come and go as you wish.”

Anna was taken aback. “Really?”

Derick looked up at her, looking deep into her eyes. “Of course. But my conditions are that you mustn’t me to the others. That, and that you return to me every so often.”

“Yes, I can do that.” She smiled.

“I have more requests,” Derick added pointedly. “I also ask that you avoid getting too close to that Charizard. To perform in my masterpiece, you must be free as a bird.”

“Um, o-okay,” she replied. This was an odd request. After all, the two of them weren’t about to get romantically involved anyway. Right? She heard footsteps above their heads. “I should probably go.” And then, despite her reservations, she began to reach out. “May I see under the mask?”

“No, you must-!” But it was too late. She’d removed the mask and revealed the man’s face. What… What had happened to it? She recoiled and put her hand over her mouth, trying not to scream, ultimately failed by letting out a yelp of terror, and, her eyes welling up with tears, she stepped back and tripped. Derick watched as she did, moved to catch her, but wasn’t fast enough. His face, his abominable, misshapen face, was laced with concern, almost spoiled entirely by the creases and wounds that never healed. “Anna, are you alright?” he asked.

She shook her head and pulled her hand from him, unable to lift her face to meet his again. She was hurting him by doing this, she knew that, and didn’t know what this would do for her situation, but she couldn’t help it. All the emotions of the moment welled up and overflowed as she cried.

Derick stepped around her and bent over to collect his mask. He was quiet as he did so, which frightened Anna even more. “… I suppose… after my treatment of you before… You at least deserved to know…” He held out his hand to her. “I intend to make good on my promise, Anna Altaria. Please don’t betray my goodwill.”

Still without looking him in the face, she accepted his hand and he helped her up off the floor. “I assure you I am not a monster, Anna. I will take you back to the upper levels. I fear my masterpiece may have sullied the music of your friends. But, I take solace in knowing that you will return to me because of it. I… promise to wear my mask once you return.”

Anna didn’t want to return, ever. But he was right. The music the others would play would never sound the same to her now. He’d caught her, and she would need to return sometime. Back to the man that was ruining the career of her coworkers, of her friends. Back to the man whose face will forever haunt her nightmares.

==

Connor burst into the opera house’s foyer, startling William, Travis, and Madame Leavanny, who had all clustered on the stairs. “Any word on where she is?”

“You mean Wiona?” William asked. “She hasn’t come bac-”

“No, Miss Altaria. Where is she?” Connor asked again, more anger in his voice.

“How would we know?” Travis asked.

“She is your new main star until Wiona comes back.” Madame Leavanny said, her hands on her hips. “We can’t perform that opera tomorrow until she comes back.”

“Are you sure you left her alone in her dressing room, Mr. Charizard?” William asked.

“Wait, you think I had something to do with this?” Connor protested.

“Well, we heard a bit of a commotion in her dressing room, so we-” Travis began.

But he was interrupted by the doors slamming into the walls once again. “Where is he?!” Wiona screeched as stormed in, her pink curls already coming undone in her furor and her dress and jewelry casting a kaleidoscope of light across the room. A gaggle of her groupies trickled in behind her.

“Where’s who?” Everyone in the room asked.

“Mr. Charizard!” Wiona exclaimed, finally looking around in the room to see who was in there.

“Yes?” Connor asked. He had met Wiona the day before, before the opera, during their dress rehearsal.

“You sent me this note!” Wiona yelled as she shoved a piece of paper in Connor’s face. He snatched it from her hand so he could read it better.

“Your days at the COCville Opera House are numbered. Anna Altaria will replace you as she is the superior singer.” Connor read. Everyone around him gasped. “I did not write this!” Connor bellowed at the woman. “It’s not my handwriting at all, I can find plenty of people to look at it to tell you that! And why would I sign it as “The Phantom”?”

Madame Leavanny joined Connor’s side. “He’s right, Wiona. We’ve been haunted by this phantom for years now, and he’s only been with us for a few days.”

Wiona pointed at everyone in an accusatory manner as she continued her irate screaming, fire burning in her eyes. “This is a conspiracy to have me replaced by that, that chorus girl!! You went to her dressing room last night, alone, and now she’s gone! You’ve hidden her so you can make her better than me!”

Connor opened his mouth to say some choice words to this self-righteous bag of air but was stopped by a sweet little voice. “Anna is back!” Catrina exclaimed, walking in on her tippy toes. The room nearly exploded from everyone exclaiming in relief.

“Hopefully she’s not worse for wear,” William sighed.

“She just needs rest,” Catrina replied.

“Where is she?” Madame Leavanny asked.

“I thought it was best that she was alone,” Catrina said.

“May I see her?” Connor asked.

“No, she will see no one,” Catrina replied firmly.

“Will she sing?” Wiona and the rest of her trail of sycophants asked.

“I have a note,” Catrina said, outstretching a purple-sleeved arm holding a small envelope.

William was the first to grab the note and began to read it aloud to the rest of them.

“Dear COCville Opera House, tomorrow night at the new opera opening, Wiona will be playing the silent role of the donkey. Anna will be playing the lead. My usual box seat will be kept empty. All my orders are to be obeyed unless you wish to bring a stroke of bad luck to your beloved opera house. Signed – The Phantom.” William read.

The small crowd all gasped in shock.

“That settles it then,” William said. “We will ignore this 'phantom’s’ warnings!”

Everyone but Travis and William gasped.

“We have always obeyed his requests and it has brought us only pain!” Travis cried. “Let us see what power this ‘phantom’ has!”

“I am being cheated!” Wiona yelled as she threw her purse on the ground. “I know Mr. Charizard is going to do something to ruin my performance just to ruin my career and let Anna take my place!”

“Will you give it a rest?!” Connor burst. “I’m keeping the doors open with my own money!!”

“Stop accusing Mr. Charizard, Wiona,” Travis muttered. “If we lose his money, you’ll be singing for bread and water, not a lush dressing room and a bouquet of flowers.”

Wiona scowled but stood firm in her decision to not sing. “No, it’s perfectly fine. Get your little precious chorus girl to sing. Nobody in this dump deserves my talent anyway!” Wiona moaned before storming off towards the front door.

Travis and William followed her, pleading with her to stay. They eventually got her to agree but after a long, uphill battle. While the three of them settled the matter, Connor turned to Catrina. “Will you tell her that… that I’m worried about her and that I want to see her as soon as possible? Here’s my phone number.” Connor said, pulling a piece of paper from his coat pocket and writing his phone number on it before giving it to Catrina.

“Alright.” Catrina nodded.

“Come on, my butterfly. We have to practice.” Madame Leavanny said with a nod towards Connor before dragging her away.

“Okay, Mama,” Catrina muttered, pocketing the piece of paper and remembering the message.

Something about all this was bothering Connor. Aside from the drama, his friend disappearing in the middle of the night, and this strange Phantom suddenly making threats. He didn’t know what else to do, so he decided to head into town and find the police station. Why did something about this seem… familiar to him?

[cocvillereloaded-blog]

Chapter 3- De Capo Aria: Bel Canto de Verismo)

Connor shifted his weight for the fiftieth time that night, visibly uncomfortable. He absolutely hated these stuffy, boring formal outings. Everybody around him always felt so tired and lifeless, at least that’s how they made him feel. The way these posh elitists talked with their weird accents just rubbed him the wrong way, as if they never knew what they were talking about but they were so sure of what they said anyway, hoping that someone would be impressed with them. Why did his uncle even bother with this place?

It didn’t help that the opera was dull as dirt either. He glanced down at his tiny, six-page program. These damn things never told you what was supposed to be happening. The only thing that told him anything was the front that read “COCville Opera House Presents: Where Love Goes.” He groaned and tossed the program over his shoulder. He didn’t even need to read the plot blurb for this, or even to understand what the singers were even saying to know what was happening. The dead boyfriend from the scene earlier had returned to his girlfriend, who sang and gestured at other people that had to be the family she had during the guy’s absence. And here was the guy’s vows to not leave until she returned his love, or something. He groaned again. God, this is so boring! Who wrote this?! He tried to shift in his seat so he can get the program back in a way that wouldn’t grab the attention of the one person in the box with him that he recognized.

“Yes, my dear sir, five hundred feet tall, it was, I say! Nothing at all like the shabby thirty-foot curtains in this excuse of an establishment!” the fat, frilly Gengar sitting opposite him was yelling to his guest beside him, who looked as if he wanted to leave more than Connor did. He couldn’t say he blamed him, though; this man was around complaining since Connor was a child. “Yes, sir, I say they should’ve demolished this eyesore of a theatre when that Charizard fellow left us! Oh, what was his name, Charles wasn’t it? But no, instead he just had to leave it with his nephew! Or was he the man’s son? Oh, I’ve never been so good with remembering these things! All I remember is that he didn’t leave the property to Gerald Gengar Pewtersby!”

Connor always felt like this Pewtersby guy didn’t like his uncle. He sighed and sat back in his seat. If for no other reason, he supposed that the best thing for him to do would be to wait it out. He felt like doing anything else would just leave Uncle Carl’s standing legacy to the mercy of this disrespectful fat cat. Outside of that, though, Uncle Carl always stuck it out for him before, so it only felt right to do the same for him, even if he passed on. This could be seen as payment for the money too. He thought back to that large inheritance. Man, he just couldn’t get over that. He already did his best to make a difference in the lives of his friends with it. Bram’s ring, Sam’s rug. He hoped Sam liked it enough to forgive him.

Once the overture came on, Connor felt his phone buzzing. He tried to check it in a way more respectful to those around him than stupid Pewtersby was. It was a text from Sam asking if he wanted to go out to lunch tomorrow. Connor texted ‘yes, of course’ back to him then added that to his calendar before the curtain went up. Good, we’re making progress, at least.

The curtain went back up, and Connor did his best to turn his head in a way that made it seem like he was paying attention. And that was when he saw her. She must have been an angel, she was far too beautiful for this world. This new lead singer had deep black eyes and bright blue hair that stuck up in two places almost like a cowlick. Connor could see the silver string keeping her hairstyle in place from where he sat. She was wrapped in a white and blue dress and wore a furry white scarf around her neck. Her voice was everything Connor assumed to be all of heaven and everything good in the world converted entirely to sound.

Connor found that he could ignore that idiot Pewtersby much easier now. (“I swear, the morons in charge must want to leave the business. They promised up and down that this role would be Wiona Wigglytuff!”) It took him a minute more until it struck him. He’d seen this lovely woman before: “Anna…” he whispered to himself.

After not seeing her since before high school, Anna Altaria, the girl from next door suddenly reappears. He kept his eyes on her, remembering back to the days of their childhood, the entire concept of the opera now completely irrelevant. He remembered when his uncle introduced him to her and her parents. He always said that his neighbors were very good friends, and up until that point Connor didn’t understand why. Then again, he was quite young, so he didn’t understand a lot of what his uncle said or did. He thought back to their treehouse, where the two kids would spend their entire summers together. As the years went on, Connor and Anna were said by the adults to be like two peas in a pod, if Uncle Carl was to be believed. He remembered how much Anna liked to make s’mores with his tail and talk to him about how she wanted to be a singer or ballerina. To be on stage, to have everyone clapping and cheering for her, that had always been her dream. Connor smiled wider; looks like she’s gotten her wish. Even back then, Connor didn’t have a dream like she did. He remembered how this bugged her. As he continued reminiscing he remembered how Uncle Carl would play on his violin as the sun went down. He still remembered the melody and shook his head in bemusement as he remembered on in particular. Looking back, it was as if Uncle Carl wanted them to get together. Maybe that’s why he asked me to come here. The old dog.

Connor sighed again, but was suddenly brought back to reality when a pair of opera glasses tapped him on the head. Connor died a little inside when he learned they belonged to Pewtersby.

“I must say, my good fellow, it’s impolite to those around you to be so loud and obnoxious in the middle of an opera house.” Connor didn’t reply; he just stared at the Gengar, dumbfounded by the lack of self-awareness, before turning back to the opera and returning his cheek onto his knuckles. Quietly.

Anyway, that treehouse. Connor loved that old treehouse. But it did have a few sobering memories tied to it too. He last saw Anna in that treehouse, right before they went off to high school. They lived in different towns, and Connor was only with his Uncle during the summers. At the time, he thought the kind of sadness he felt at their parting ways as what every friend felt in that situation, when school beckoned them away from each other, never to see one another again, it seemed. He knew better now, though. He didn’t feel the same way he did towards Sam or Bram as he did for Anna; Connor definitely had a crush on her. Maybe Uncle Carl just acted on what he saw from Connor, trying to make him happy. Connor didn’t know for sure. Despite how much time he’d spent with his uncle, he still wasn’t entirely convinced he knew how that weirdo thought. Connor could not bring himself to remember the exact conversation they had before she left. All he remembered was that Anna was going away to a prestigious art school a very long ways away and she would not be able to spend summers with him anymore. He still remembered quite vividly the knot that developed in his chest. He tried to hide his feelings, but it was obvious to Anna that he was upset by the news. Connor cried a little that night once she had left since he was trying to be a manly man about it in front of her, back when he still cared about such things. Ever since, he would ask his uncle if she was back, to which he’d always answer no. He seemed rather down every time he had to answer this way.

Man, Anna Altaria! He still couldn’t believe he finally saw her again. As the curtain fell, Connor immediately shook away the memories, escaped from the still-complaining Pewtersby, and made his way towards the opera owners – Travis Flygon and William Beedrill. Connor had met them earlier that day when he dropped by to confirm that he was taking his uncle’s place as the main supporter of the opera house.

“Well, she seemed like she did fine to me,” Travis was saying as Connor began walking over. It sounded like he was trying to convince William of something. “I don’t know why we have to give the main spotlight back to Wiona if she ever comes back.”

“If we don’t, there will be rioting in the streets! Wiona is a world-renowned opera star! We can’t replace her with some… with some nobody!” William snapped.

“Look, Will, I see why you’d be concerned, but I feel like we really have some untapped goldmine on our hands! I’d hate to see any of our talent go to waste.”

“It’s too much of a risk to do it now, Trav. I want to see our actors used as best they can be too, but we have too much to lose if we replace Wiona right now.”

Travis shrugged before running his hands through his dark green hair and wiggling his pink shaded glasses a bit. Connor noticed that Travis’s tail twitched as well.

“Hello, gentlemen!” Connor said in an amiable voice. Travis and William both scrambled to finish the preceding conversation and greet Connor. “Who was on stage tonight? I thought Wiona was going to -” Connor began.

“Oh, well, that’s Anna Altaria.” Travis stammered.

 “Really?” Connor gasped. It was her!

 “Wiona will come back, we’re sure of it though. Anna is just a chorus girl after-” William started.

“May I go see her?” Connor asked, not even realizing William had begun a sentence.

“Wiona?”

“Uh, no, Anna.”

 “Oh. Um… sure.” The two businessmen instantly agreed. They headed back towards the changing rooms, which a grim-looking Sierra Leavanny watched over.

“Do you need an introduction?” William Beedrill asked nervously, doing his best not to upset his opera’s newest and biggest patron.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Connor said before he began to knock on the door. If she truly remembered him, she would remember this knock. One knock, a slight pause, two soft knocks. It was his signature knock – he used it when he wanted Anna to open her bedroom window back in the day.

“Come in,” came a soft, hushed, humble voice from within. Connor let himself into the room and smiled as he was met with a grown-up version of his friend taking off her jewelry and makeup.

“Madame Leavanny, you don’t have to check on me every-” Anna began before catching Connor’s reflection in the mirror. “Oh, you’re not Madame Leavanny.”

“Never said I was. You’re Anna, right?” Connor asked.

“Yes. If you’re here to ask why Miss Wiona left today, I’m afraid I don’t have the slightest idea.” Anna replied, taking off the giant jeweled necklace she was wearing over her scarf.

 “No, actually, I’m not. To be honest, I don’t care if Wiona falls off a cliff. You were wonderful out there.” Connor said, stammering on his last sentence. He broke into a cold sweat, realizing too late how he sounded. Damnit, why’d you rush it?!

She was looking at him with suspicion now, and Connor knew he’d creeped her out. “Um, okay. Look, I don’t know who gave you permission to come back here, but I’m going to ask you to kindly leave before I call security-” Anna began.

“No, wait! I’m sorry,” Connor squeaked quickly. Squeaked. Damnit. He hated himself so much, why’d he have to be an idiot this quickly?! “I’m not in here to do anything to you, I swear! I just… I just wanted to know if you remembered me.”

Anna remained motionless for a second before removing her scarf and turning to face him. “Remember you?” She lifted an eyebrow dangerously, or at least it felt dangerous to Connor. “Can’t say I do. Where would we have met each other?” This was not going the way Connor had hoped it would at all. A small part of him expected that he’d stride in confidently and greet her with a smile, earning her fawning adoration. Apparently that only worked for Bram.

“Well, um, it’s- it’s Connor. Connor Charizard. You remember, right? We used to spend every summer together as kids… I had a tree house?” He began, not budging from his spot near the door in case he had to flee suddenly.

The silence between them was pushing down on Connor’s shoulders more and more. The only sound in the room came from the after party outside the door. Anna’s eyes danced around as they did whenever she was deep in thought. Just as Connor could no longer take the suspense, Anna lit up and gasped. All of the memories they shared when they were younger may as well have been playing back on a projector reel behind her eyes. “Wait, Uncle Carl, right?”

“Yeah!” Connor felt he could die inside, this time for a completely different reason.

 “Yeah, I remember now! Uncle Carl would play the violin, and I’d sing along. You always said I was wonderful at singing.” Even though they weren’t actually related, Anna always referred to Uncle Carl as her own uncle, a sentiment that he didn’t shy away from sharing with the girl. Thinking back to it, Connor remembered how he seemed to want the two kids to be together, how he’d ask them if she was staying every time she had to leave. At the time, they both thought he was joking.

Anna, beaming and looking even more beautiful than she did on stage a few moments before, began excitedly listing off her memories they had together, which Connor was more than happy to join in on. Together, they remembered the times they got into trouble with the neighbor behind Uncle Carl, the awful Mr. Sullivan Granbull, by accidentally dropping things into his backyard. “Still not sure why he didn’t actually live in his house,” Anna wondered aloud. They recalled the time that they were stuck in their treehouse during a terrible lightning storm. It actually got to the point where Anna had to do everything she could to keep Connor dry or else his tail fire would have gone out. They were almost afraid to go back into the treehouse for a few days afterwards. Connor remembered how Anna got so exhausted from protecting her friend from the elements that she fell asleep on top of him. He said nothing to her about it back then, and he wasn’t about to say anything now. Anna then recollected the one summer where they tried to make a go cart in their tree house. They almost had it ready before they realized they didn’t know how to get it back out. Because it was more Uncle Carl’s idea, they both just left him to get it out. He didn’t seem to mind, though, he always was such a good-natured man.

“Did Uncle Carl send you?” Anna continued. “I haven’t seen him for weeks now. He’s always talking about you.”

Connor felt like he’d been rudely punched in the gut as he was pulled back to the present day. “Um… no. Uncle Carl’s…. well, he passed away last night.”

Anna gasped in shock, tears welling up in her eyes as she turned back to her mirror to try and hide them. “Oh, I… I’m sorry.” She turned back to Connor, not trying as hard to hide the tears. “Why didn’t I hear sooner?”

Connor reached for her hand, trying to be reassuring. “It’s not your fault, Anna. It only happened last night, and you’ve been pretty busy lately.”

“It’s just- I knew he was sick, but I- I thought he was getting better…” Anna choked, tears rolling down her cheeks. Connor knew she and Uncle Carl got along, that they probably still talked when she started working here, but he didn’t think they’d been this close for all this time.

“He left me the opera sponsorship. So that’s why I came here. Maybe, in a way, this was him sending me.” Connor chuckled, trying to make her smile. He was starting to believe his own words, though. He really was trying to enforce his will from beyond the grave, it seemed.

Anna sniffled and looked at her vanity, searching for a handkerchief to dry her tears. “First time in years you see me, and I have to start crying,” she muttered bitterly, the last word uttered as if cursing herself. “I’m sorry, Connor.”

“Don’t be.” Connor handed her the handkerchief he found in his suit pocket earlier that day when he bought the suit.

“Thank you,” Anna said between sniffles.

“You can keep it. I’ll get another one.” Connor smiled.

Anna smiled back, her eyes still a little weepy. He hated to see her cry, he always did, but he couldn’t shake how cute she looked.

“Oh, Connor!” Anna exclaimed suddenly, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him close. “I thought you had forgotten all about me!”

“Forgotten you? I could never forget you!” Connor replied, hugging her back. “I went to Uncle Carl’s almost every week to ask him if you came back from school yet. By the way, when did you come back?”

“Just a couple of weeks ago,” Anna admitted, pulling away from their hug. Connor let her go, albeit with a reluctance he tried to hide. “I was thinking about going to look for you, but I thought that’d be weird. That I’d look like a crazy stalker or something.”

You mean like I just did? He felt himself turning red.

Anna noticed this and smiled. “Well, anyway. I have a job here at the opera as a member of the chorus.”

“Only the chorus? But your voice… you were the star tonight!” Connor added. He wished someone told him about her being in the chorus, whoever came up with that idea would have a piece of his mind!

“Well, that’s only because Wiona left the opera house today in a rage. Someone wrote her a note about how she’s our worst singer. I can’t blame whoever sent it, though, her singing sends me to sleep.” Anna sighed.

Connor thought this over. The only person he could think of that would care enough would have to be that Pewtersby guy. Wait, no, that doesn’t make sense. He wanted her to be here, didn’t he? Right?? He shook this off and laughed a bit. “Well, you deserve her job anyway.” Connor was being as serious about his words as he felt he could be. Anna let out a slight, weary chuckle. “What?” Connor asked.

“You always think things like that, Connor. You always say I’m amazing.” Anna sighed.

“But it’s true!” Connor interjected.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Anna mused. “What have you done since I’ve been gone? It’s been a good… eight, ten years?”

 “Oh. I’m a chef at Mimi’s Diner.” Connor muttered, trying to say it under his breath so she wouldn’t notice his embarrassment.

 “Oh, you work at Mimi’s? I’ve been planning on going sometime, I haven’t been since they first opened! I’m glad to see that you’re cooking professionally!” Anna said, grinning ear to ear as she slid off her bracelets. “You always made the best food. You need to make me that award-winning quiche of yours now that we found each other again!”

Connor matched his friend’s smile at the mention of his quiche. Not only was it award-winning, it was an undefeated champion. He’d perfected it because his Uncle Carl and Anna loved it so much. She was better than he remembered. Not only has she not changed as the sweet person she was, but she was now the star that liked being a person just as much. There needed to be more people in the world like her.

Anna and Connor spent a good half hour chatting away until Anna asked him to leave so she could change out of her bulky opera costume. Connor agreed, said goodbye, and decided he’d head on home. It was the first time in forever that either one of them had felt so cherished.

I hope it stays this way for a while, Connor thought as he walked up the stairs to his apartment.

==

Chris glared over at the approaching enemy as she stood defiantly between them and her fine city of CWCville. Yet another day of fighting; hopefully this will be the last. Her friends in the Chaotic Combo stood behind her, awaiting the battle alongside her. Chris was glad they were all there for her. And not just them, but also her otherdimensional counterpart, Night Star, and the Draconequus Discord were there to help her out. Punchy smacked his spiked fists together a few times and swung at the air. "Let's get going!"

Chris pointed imperatively at the approaching horde and shouted "Graduon!" The army stopped in response, and the two leaders, Count Graduon and Dr. Ren Skysoar, pulled up to the front. Skysoar looked bemused by all this, while the wizard Graduon looked more serious about this whole thing. "You and Kurome are both misguided! You're stopping here and now, so make this easier on yourself and turn back!"

Sonichu jumped in front of his mother in a ready stance. "Yeah, go away before we make you!"

The horde of villains laughed. Chris didn't falter, but took a quick look around at the army of Jerkops, Janekops, enormous lumbering Decepticlones, and artificial lifeforms from the world of Gamindustri. Graduon replied with "Hmph. Sorry, Christine Weston Chandler, but we've prepared for you all this time. You cannot stop us this time!"

Chris looked around at her friends. Sonichu, Punchy, Wild, they were revving to go. Rosechu, Bubbles, Robee, Cera, Christine Rosechu, they eyed the enemy with determined expressions. Angelica Rosechu hovered above them, hands clasped to ready herself for healing. Silvana, Blake, and Simonla looked over to Chris, hoping she knew what she was doing. The unicorn Night Star and Discord glanced at each other, light, knowing smiles on their faces. Chris glanced at Magi-Chan, who stared ahead with his arms crossed, and smirked before turning back to their opponents. "Okay, have it your way." Magi-Chan, give the signal.

Right. And with that, the psychic hedgehog closed his eyes, prompting a small army of police officers, and several Transformers to run in from around the many street corners to join the heroes. Five figures in body suits, one red, one yellow, one blue, one pink, and one green, all jumped in from atop a building, all striking different martial arts poses directly behind Chris. Angelica gasped in surprise when she looked around her and found five girls with mechanical wings hovering around her. “The Gamindustri Goddesses!”

One of these Goddesses with orange hair laughed. “Yep! Chris thought it’d be a better idea to get this going before taking the time to tell you guys.”

Chris laughed at the surprise on Graduon’s and Skysoar’s faces. “Uzume’s right, guys! Sorry to keep y’all in the dark! Well, Count Graduon! If we can’t convince you with words, I guess we’ll just have to do this the old-fashioned way.” And with that, she pressed her hands across her chest, and the Sonichu Medallion around her neck. She burst out in a flash of bright light, and immediately traded out her human form for the form of a blue-furred humanoid hedgehog like her allies, including a thunderbolt-shaped tail, ears, and a black nose. Chris pointed at their enemies, who have now recovered from the shock of a small army appearing from nowhere to oppose them. “Get ready, everybody!”

Graduon’s eyes glowed red as he seemingly grew a couple of inches in anger. “ATTACK!!” he hollered in a distorted, deeper voice than the one he used a moment ago. Skysoar pressed multiple buttons on a remote control as he cackled madly. Seemingly in response to his inputs, the army of Jerkops advanced on the defense force, the Transformers immediately engaged with a swarm of Decepticlones. A man in a full suit of metallic and red jumped forward yelling as he attacked the Power Rangers, the Jerkops strangely acting as if setting a defensive perimeter around this man. Another Jerkop with metal limbs bounced around several times, screaming a battle cry, as he attacked Blake, who managed to block the hit with a well-timed elbow strike. The two combatants continued to trade blows as they ran off. A forty-foot-tall robot with a head in a jar affixed atop the body ran forward and clashed with Son-Chu, the two giant robots wrestling each other, refusing to give ground. A black man in golden armor rushed the Goddesses, letting out a roar more like a lion’s than a man’s as he rammed himself into Neptune. Another black man from the PVCC’s side yelled out a sentence that nobody managed to hear properly as he shot after Punchy, Bubbles, and Wild.

Sonichu rushed in as fast as he could, leading his family in the charge, as he made straight for Graduon. “You’re wide open, Graddy!-“ He suddenly yelled out in pain, his family in surprise, as a large yellow metallic object rushed him and flew about with him in tow. Sonichu grunted as he tried to break free. “Metal Sonichu!” The robot replied by pushing its prey into the side of a building, running him along the windows, dealing lots of damage, and showering the embattled streets below with glass and debris.

Robee found herself leading the family this time, now in pursuit of her father. “C’mon, guys, they’re getting away!” She blew down 30th street, bowling over Jerkops along the way, with her mother and sisters doing everything they can to try and keep up.

“Slow down, we can’t keep up!” Cera yelled in vain after her sister.

Christine ran alongside her mother and glanced over inquisitively. “You have a plan, Mom?”

“Uh, let me think…” Rosechu examined the area as they ran along, trying to find something they could use to maybe make a trap of some kind.

+++

Chris didn’t have time to wonder what happened to Sonichu before she ducked under and knocked away several Jerkops. She could see him. Graduon. If she could take him out, they win. She rushed at Graduon, who noticed and simply stood there, glaring at her. Suddenly, she too got knocked back by some unseen force. She gingerly lifted herself off the ground as a familiar laughing voice came closer and closer. “Naitsirhc!”

“We’ve got a score to settle, Christine,” the green-haired hedgehog spat before kicking her several feet into the air. Midway through her arc, however, Chris managed to regain her composure, perform three flips in midair, and land on the ground. She immediately dodged away from a dive kick and pushed herself back into the new opponent’s stomach.

“Why didn’t I expect you to appear?” She blocked two punches aimed at her face and replied with a kick.

Naitsirhc blocked the kick and smirked. “Maybe it’s because you’re a stupid girl, now, bro!”

Chris growled, noticing in her peripheral vision as Graduon lifted his hand, palm facing towards her, as he prepared to fire an energy blast at her. Suddenly, his arm transformed into a tree branch. “What?!”

“Not so fast, Graduon!” Chris smiled; it was Night Star. Discord floated beside her, the way he held his claws suggesting that the transfiguration was his doing. “You can’t get past all of us! Magi-Chan!”

“Right!” The hedgehog fired a Psybeam at the villain, who managed to break off his tree branch of an arm, replaced with an instantly-regrown human arm, just in time to engage the attack in a beam lock. Graduon yelled out in anger as he held back the magic from the two Equestrians and the attack from Magi-Chan.

Chris continued trading blows evenly with Naitsirhc, who seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. They rushed in and out, punching and kicking and shooting off lightning at each other each chance they got, but neither managing to gain any ground on the other. Chris grunted and turned her attention to Graduon again as an idea struck her. She didn’t exactly need to defeat Graduon. “Graduon, you have to listen! Kurome doesn’t want what she told you she wants!” The wizard didn’t pay her any heed, probably because of the battle he found himself in. Still, she had to try. “She doesn’t want to rule the world, she wants to destroy it!”

Naitsirhc laughed and landed a punch on Chris’ left cheek. “What’re you tryna do, win him over with lies or something? You should focus on me first, bro!”

Chris rubbed her cheek and narrowed her eyes at Naitsirhc. “Rrgh. Fine.” She yelled out and ran at her opponent, fist clenched.

+++

Uzume blasted their opponent with her megaphone as the others tended to Neptune. Whoever this guy was, he knew how to hit hard. Vert was shouting at Neptune, trying desperately to get her to answer if she was alright, and Neptune, who was still not quite on her feet yet, was yelling back that she couldn’t hear her friend. Eventually she ran out of breath, much to the Manajerk’s happiness.

“I said ‘Are you alright’?!” Vert asked again, louder than she probably needed to.

“What?!” Nep asked again. “Oh, whatever! Let’s get ‘em!” She yelled out, knocked away her friends’ hands, and swooped forward, attempting to slash at her target. Right behind her, Noire followed suit, her sword in hand and trying to yell louder than Nep. The Manajerk simply smirked and parried Nep’s backflip kick and three kicks from midair, before being staggered by a sudden high-speed slash from Noire. Nep then followed this up with two slashes to the man’s head and uppercutting him into the air.

“Good work, Nep!” Noire shouted as she slashed at her target three times, getting him to yell out and ragdoll a bit. Nep followed this up by slashing at him a bit more and knocking him back to the ground, where Noire encircled the opponent at high speed and slashed more times than the girl could count. The man snarled in annoyance as he continued hitting the ground from these attacks.

Nep clenched her fist victoriously. “Yeah!”

“I didn’t need your help, Nep.”

“Yeah, sure. Ready?”

“Yeah.” The two girls readied their weapons, yelled again, and rushed their opponent once more.

The Manajerk rubbed his chin before swinging his kanabo, sending the two girls flying backwards to collide face-first with the ground. The other three gasped as Vert called out “Nep!” and Uzume called out “Noire!” in concern. The Manajerk stood back up and cracked his neck. “Annoying bitches,” he said with a rumbling hiss before beginning to lumber towards them, his studded club in hand.

Nep pulled her head from underneath a mound of dirt. “Wow, that hurt. What’ve they been feeding him?!”

A cackle erupted from nearby, a voice belonging to Skysoar. “Only the finest in genetic manipulation, my dear! Now B-Manajerk is so much more than a man!”

Blanc crossed her arms in disapproval. “’Manajerk’? That’s what you’re calling them?? Really?”

“Exterminate them!!”

B-Manajerk raised his weapon and rushed at them, each step shaking the ground around them much more than a man of his size should have. Acting on instinct, Neptune reached for every single Preset Disk she had and threw them at the advancing soldier, who ignored every single effect they inflicted on him. Ice forming, blasts of fire and wind, growths of rock, they did absolutely nothing to penetrate his golden armor, and did even less to the man’s killer instinct. He reached the girls in a few seconds and smashed them all into the side of a building with a single swing of his weapon.

Uzume could barely see straight. Nep was right. This guy did hit hard, really hard. She felt a large lump on her head as she drunkenly flew her way back to the battlefield ahead of the others. “’Genetic manipulation’, you said?” she asked without even really thinking about why she was asking this.

Skysoar put his hands on his hips dramatically and smirked up at them proudly. “That’s right! He is now no longer human!” He pointed imperatively at Uzume before continuing. “B-Manajerk now has the genetic makeup of the legendary oni! B-Manajerk, a demonstration!!”

The man bellowed like a cow as he transformed before everyone fighting nearby, growing horns and tusks, a third eye in the middle of his forehead, and growing to fifty feet tall. His roars now shook the nearby buildings, breaking some windows along the way, and prepared a small hellstorm of magma breath. “EVERYBODY DUCK!” Neptune yelled as everyone narrowly avoided being scorched. Vert flew as high as she could, Uzume bolted to the left, Noire to the right, and Blanc jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding getting her hat singed. Neptune looked up and noticed what everyone just did. “Guys, why didn’t you duck?!” Everyone replied by yelling “Shut up, Nep!!”

B-Manajerk roared once again into the sky, shaking his head like an enraged bull, and rushed at Blanc, who barely managed to jump out of the way. They all rushed in with everything they had. Neptune tried turning into her jet form and encircling the battlefield, unloading her guns into the large new target. Blanc ran in with her hammer, swinging wildly and causing small ice explosions on the areas of impact. Noire slashed away, jumped into the air screaming, and lunged back down with a fiery slash attack. Vert tried summoning a giant spear and telekinetically hurling it into her target, an attack that he effortlessly blocked with one hand. Uzume ran in and hit everywhere she could, each punch counting for several hits through her powers helping her out. Vert tried again, this time summoning multiple spears. None of these attacks did anything to their opponent, who surprised them by scooping them all up and tossing them into Neptune, laughing all the while.

The girls found themselves in a pile of arms and legs on the ground. Skysoar swooped about laughing at everything going on. “Gwah hah hah! It’s useless!! His golden armor is invulnerable to any damage, and his new physiology makes him resistant to all of your elemental attacks! B-Manajerk! I’m going to check on my other beautiful creations and be right back! Have fun with your new toys!” Neptune and Uzume glanced up at their opponent, who grew larger and larger while roaring all the while.

+++

Not much more than a few hundred yards away, down Third Avenue, the Power Rangers found that they were faced with similar problems. Each of the Rangers was fighting as hard as they could, but the sheer numbers of Jerkops were starting to wear them down. The Red Ranger grunted as he was kneed in the chest before grabbing the leg of the Jerkop who hit him and tossing him over his shoulder. “You never could fight fair, could you, Baggett?!”

The Jerkop in grey and red jumped atop a car and pointed dramatically at his opponent. “Of course not, old friend! Villains and criminals don’t fight fair, and neither should I!”

“How many times- urgh!- do we- hiya!- have- grah!- to tell you?!” The Blue Ranger cried out. “We’re not criminals!”

Baggett stood back up and crossed his arms. “Hmph! Didn’t you hear, Tony? Sanctuary Cities break the law!”

The Yellow Ranger managed to floor four Jerkops in a single twisting motion in midair. “If this city wasn’t- grah!- then I wouldn’t be here, Baggett!”

“I know.”

“This creep!” The Pink Ranger yelled out and attempted a flying roundhouse kick on Baggett, but he was simply too fast and threw her over his shoulder, avoiding the attack completely.

“Silvia!” the Green Ranger called out as he saw his friend tossed aside. “That does it! This creep needs to die!”

“Why’d you give the boy my suit?”

The Rangers didn’t answer. Instead, they pushed back the Jerkops and all gathered together to take a ready stance. The Red Ranger turned his head at the others. “Be careful, everyone! Baggett’s a tough one!”

Baggett held out his hand theatrically. “Allow me to show you one of my new toys, courtesy of Doctor Skysoar!” He held out one of his fingers and pressed it to his temple, causing the Jerkops to all perk up. The Green Ranger looked around at them, clearly uneasy. “Uh, what’re they doing?”

“JERKOP SWARM!!” On command, the Jerkops clumped together, almost as if they were a bunch of humanoid magnets. They continued to group together until they formed around Baggett, lifting him into the air and using their collective bodies to form a dozen very large arms.

The Rangers eyed what was happening apprehensively. “Uh-oh,” The Blue Ranger muttered. “This is bad, guys,” The Pink Ranger chimed in. “Gee, you think?” The Green Ranger replied, attempting to stay tough by being snarky.

“JERKOP PUNCH!!” Baggett yelled as one of the arms, now the size of a tanker truck, slammed into the ground the Rangers were just a second ago. “JERKOP KATA!!” he yelled as he continued the assault, launching punches in a way very similar to how he would’ve fought on his own.

Each Ranger managed to dodge, albeit barely, but The Yellow Ranger caught her leg on one of the punches in midair, spinning about and yelling as she flew into a nearby café. Baggett laughed, now using every voice of the Jerkops to amplify his own. “JERKOP….!!” He yelled as he cupped the hands together into pairs.

The Red Ranger had a pretty bad feeling about what was coming. “Everyone run!” And it was a good thing they did, because Baggett finished preparing his attack by them. “…BALL!!” The fists broke off as large boulders built from men, which chased down the Rangers throughout the streets under their own power. “Split up!” They all did, and the men-boulders all split up as well, one for each remaining Ranger, decimating whatever cars or combatants they came across.

Baggett laughed and hoisted himself up more with his new bodily extensions. “THIS IS YOUR END, RANGERS!!” he called out as he pursued The Red Ranger.

+++

Meanwhile, Silvana and Son-Chu found themselves pushed back Downtown, where they faced off against a mechanical Manajerk the size of Son-Chu himself, the two robots trading blows ferociously. Silvana had since transformed into a European dragon, and was doing everything she could to keep the pressure on. She reared up onto her hind legs and roared at her opponent, before being knocked back and winded from a concussive blast from the cyborg’s palms. The head floating in a jar atop the robot cackled loudly, the bubbles of the preservation fluid audible even from the ground.

Simonla popped out of the ground, flipping over and knocking out several hapless Jerkops, not noticing that they were wandering listlessly down the road. “Hangin’ in there, partner?!” she called up to the panting dragon. Silvana pushed herself up and growled in reply. “’Atta girl, Silvana! Let’s go get ‘em!”

The two girls yelled as they joined the fight with Son-Chu. The robot, which had the letters “W” and “M” on either of its shoulders, glanced down at Simonla before getting knocked around by a particularly nasty right hook from Son-Chu. W-M took a moment to recover, during which his head swirled around, making him dizzy. After everything settled down for him, however, he readjusted his head and chuckled. “I’M DISAPPOINTED, HEROES. I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT MORE FORCES WOULD’VE BEEN DEEMED NECESSARY FOR DR. SKYSOAR’S GREATEST CREATION.”

Simonla continued to rush her opponent. “We’re more than enough to deal with the likes of you!!” She yelled out and drilled the robot’s foot. But to no avail. To her surprise, she didn’t even scratch it. “What in…?” Then she got a better look at it and gasped. “Simitanium!” This was the same material that her own skeleton was made from! Before she could say anything else, W-M twitched his ankle and kicked her away and through several buildings.

Silvana noticed this blow on her friend and roared in anger. She blasted the Manajerk with her fire breath as the Transformer continued to pummel him, but it was no use. The cyborg just continued to laugh as he traded blows with both of his opponents. The titans continued to stomp around the park, kicking up everything they could to try to get the others to lose ground, which didn’t exactly work. W-M eventually started kicking large balls of compressed Jerkops into Son-Chu’s face, getting in a few blows each time he did so. A collection of voices from the distance cried “DAMNIT, W-M, I WAS USING THEM!!” The slurry of Jerkops somehow all managed to stand up and wander over somewhere around the corner. Moments later, as they continued fighting, these titans didn’t even notice that they almost pulverized the Red Ranger, who leapt from building top to building top to try and escape the Jerkop Ball chasing him.

W-M pulled back for a bit and grinned smugly. “THIS IS REALLY THE BEST YOU CAN DO, ISN’T IT? ISN’T THERE SOMEONE THAT CAN HELP YOU OUT, MAKE THIS MORE FUN-?” He was cut off by a building falling on top of him. Son-Chu and Silvana looked over to where the building fell from and saw Simonla whooping and hollering at a small crater where the building used to stand. As the dust began to settle, W-M marched out from under the wreckage, looking more happy than damaged. “OKAY, THAT MIGHT MAKE THIS INTERESTING.”

+++

Blake ducked under another extending punch from his opponent, who continued to bend and contort his arms and legs in seemingly random configurations. All the while, this human combatant continued to yowl a continuous war cry at him, as if he had nothing to lose from going all-out here. The mechanical limbs continued to stretch and bend, creaking and croaking as if made from extendable metal and plastic. Blake ran about, jumped off of the arms and legs as best he could, rolling and ducking as he went. The damage this maniac was doing was insane!

He weaved in closer and closer, trying to find the opening he needed. He rolled along the man’s arm for a moment, propelling himself into the air, and he saw it. The Manajerk noticed this too, but smirked. Blake could hear Angelica call out “Look out, Blake!” before he got smacked out of the air and through two buildings. He yelled out. Everything hurt.

But then Angelica flew in and used her Catholic healing spell, or whatever it was, closing his wounds and easing the pain. “Thanks,” Blake mumbled as he pulled himself from the wall.

“Blake, I think I have a plan-“

“No, you stay back and keep up the healing.”

“But-“

“If that Manajerk gets one good hit on you, you’re down for the count. Don’t try to jump in and help,” he warned as he activated his rocket shoes and rushed at the Manajerk, the one he remembered to be named “Merried Seinor Comic”, or something to that effect. Merried retracted his limbs and held out his hands, readying himself for the impact, and managed to hold Blake back, causing them both to push at the other with all their might as they grappled.

Merried flashed a mischievous, toothy grin. “Always wanted t’crush yer head, Blachu!”

“Don’t call me that!”

“’Cuz if I can, I can do it t’ the yellow one! And maybe move in on your girl. Heh?” Merried licked his lips.

Blake roared as he suddenly relented so he can toss the mechanical man over his shoulder. As the lanky Manajerk pirouetted through the air, however, he used this momentum to slice everything around him in a singular cyclonic motion, barely missing Angelica, who was hovering not too far from the fight. “Angelica, I said stay back!”

“You’re going to need healing, Blake!”

“I’m doing fine- ARGH!” Blake flew back from a sudden blow to the face and felt half his teeth fly from his face, only for them to miraculously reappear. Merried Seinor Comic laughed as he launched himself forward as if his legs were large springs. The two proceeded to wrestle on the ground, kicking up dirt as they did so.

Angelica looked up, startled as a maniacal laugh erupted from not too far from her. It was Skysoar. “Ah,” he called out as he swooped in from around the street corner. “It seems my new and improved Manajerks are exceeding my expectations!”

Angelica narrowed her eyes. “Skysoar…” She coated her wings with a metallic aura and proceeded to divebomb towards him. Underneath her, however, Merried broke away from his scuffle and performed a one-handed handstand. “Not so fast, Missy!” he called out as he shot out his other hand, intercepting her and crushing several of her ribs as she cried out in pain, flying through three office buildings from the impact.

Blake noticed this and froze up. “Angelica!” He hated to think what Punchy would say if he were to find out about this. He overclocked his shoes and rushed over to where she landed and found her lying limply on the street. “Hey, wake up! C’mon!” He shook her, managing to his relief to wake her up.

“Ughhh… Blake… Did you get him?”

“Not yet. I told you to stay back!”

Angelica grimaced and held her side. “I’ll be fine. Just… Just need to heal.”

“You don’t have-“ A loud crash interrupted Blake as Merried stood back upright, having bounded over to them once again for more combat.

+++

Rosechu examined the tunnel the rest of the family found themselves in. If Christine was right about this, then Metal and Sonichu would fly in through the tunnel very soon. Cera backed the last eighteen wheeler into place, completely blocking the road through. “Mom, he can still just fly over, though.”

Christine looked at her mother with deep concern in her eyes. “What’re we doing about that, Mom?”

“I’m throwing that truck into them.”

Both the girls were taken aback by this. “But,” Cera interjected, “won’t that hit Dad too?”

“He’ll be fine. See Robee yet?” The yellow Rosechu appeared beside her, kicking up a small windstorm as she did so. “They’re coming, get ready!”

Rosechu barely had time to jump get into position when the sounds of jet engines cascaded throughout the tunnel. Without even taking the time to think, she forced her arm muscles to bulge a sudden burst of power, easily flipping the truck into the air. However, to their surprise, Metal Sonichu simply punched a hole through the side of the airborne vehicle through sheer momentum, completely ignoring this useless obstacle. The merciless robot landed several yards away and bashed his helpless captive into the side of every vehicle he could as he stomped along.

Robee watched with a tear forming in her eye, noticing the cuts and bruises on her dad’s head. She ran at the robot. “Let go of my Dad!” The robot responded to this sudden attack by taking flight, causing the young hedgehog to miss, and spat a laser from his chest, the tunnel now sliced in half and expelling cars into the air like blood from an artery. The hedgehogs barely managed to jump from car to car and land on the ground in ways that, while still painful, didn’t kill them. They all panted and watched as the robot flew off with Sonichu, who yelled something they couldn’t understand.

Rosechu gingerly stood back up, helping her daughters to do the same. “Any other ideas, kids?”

“You mean you don’t have any more?”

“Um…”

“What if we forced him into the river?”

“He’s too fast for us. We need something else, sis.”

“Oh! How about the crane over at-?” Christine found herself cut off by a loud metallic crackle as they looked up to find the gigantic W-M-Manajerk uprooting the crane to smack Silvana as he held Son-Chu in a headlock. “Oh, no!”

Robee followed the robot with her gaze, trying desperately to think of a plan. Metal Sonichu buzzed around W-M-Manajerk’s head, choking her father until he almost turned blue. She had to act. She thought back to something her father told her about acting on instinct, so she did. She ran up the side of a building, barely even noticing the static electricity building underneath her feet or across her body. She didn’t notice the giants’ struggle narrowly missing her several times as she scaled the side of the building. She didn’t even notice that she almost bowled over the Red Ranger when she reached the top. She simply continued running until the familiar clouds formed underneath her feet. She leveled out and readjusted herself to find the robot, who now held a limp Sonichu and held its clawed hand up to the sky, ready to land the final blow.

“I SAID, LET… GO… OF… MY… DAD!!” She ran at the robot at full force, creating a Sonic Rainboom upon impact and reducing the robot to smithereens. Robee circled around her father, who seemed to be falling in slow motion, until she slowed down enough to actually grab him.

The Sonic Rainboom wreaked havoc on everything around her, the other Chaotic Combo members barely managing to even remain standing. W-M buckled as the ground beneath him crumbled completely, swallowing him into a large sinkhole. The wind kicked up and rainbow-colored flashes emanated throughout the city block. Son-Chu, Silvana, and Simonla looked down the hole, confused. “Y’all think that did it?” Simonla asked her comrades.

Robee finally caught her dad and came to a halt once she reached the ground at a much more manageable speed. The rest of the family rushed over, ecstatic that Sonichu was still alive.

“Sonichu, darling, wake up!” Rosechu shook her husband, worry still etched in her face.

Sonichu coughed and opened his eyes, his vision very blurry. “What happened?” he murmured, his voice scratchy and weak.

“It was incredible, Dad!” Cera interjected. “Roberta here ran up that building, caught some clouds to run on like that one time, and then rushed at Metal Sonichu fast enough to create a Sonic Rainboom!”

Sonichu coughed again as he wobbled his way up to his feet. “You’re getting better at those, sport.” He chuckled. “You might even be close to getting faster than me.”

“What? Dad, c’mon-“

“Where are the others? We need to help them.”

“Sonichu, dear, you can’t help anyone right now.”

“I’ll be fine,” he murmured as he stumbled forward. “Just need to find Angelica, and I’ll be zappin’…”

+++

Baggett covered his face as the rainbow energy flew by. He didn’t know what that was, but he saw it knock W-M down into a sinkhole. Whatever it was, it was some strong stuff. He had to make sure to avoid whoever did that. A noise from over his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts, and to his surprise it was the Rangers, including The Yellow Ranger, who Baggett noticed was unsteady on her right leg. He smiled at this. “SO YOU’VE ALL MANAGED TO SURVIVE MY JERKOP BALLS!! BRAVO, RANGERS!! BUT YOU WON’T BE LIVING THROUGH THIS!! JERKOP….!!”

The Rangers stood ready as the nearby Jerkops, which now numbered into the thousands, rushed with unnatural speed to gather around their foe, who continued to grow in front of them. “Oh, no!” the Green Ranger cried out. “At this rate, even the Zords won’t be big enough to fight that!” The Blue Ranger yelled out.

Baggett laughed a thunderous laugh, now taking on a semi-serpentine appearance and dwarfing the buildings around them. “THE ONLY GOOD SANCTUARY CITY IS A LEVELLED SANCTUARY CITY!! TIME FOR A GOOD STOMPIN’!!” He glanced over a few city blocks at B-Manajerk, who was still fighting evenly with the Gamindustri Goddesses. “DON’T WORRY, B!! I’LL BE THERE TO GIVE YOU A HAND IN JUST A MINUTE!!” He ignored the Purple Goddess, he was pretty sure she was called Neptune, who yelled out “Hold on, what!!?” Instead of answering, Baggett uprooted a skyscraper and attempted to squish the Rangers with it.

The Rangers tried to run, but couldn’t make it in time. They held their heads in a vain attempt to cover their heads, but quickly realized that the building hadn’t hit them quite yet. Red Ranger looked up and noticed that the pink Transformer, Excelina, was barely holding the building back, despite the intense strain on her robotic face and how much her arms and legs were shaking from the effort. There was no time. “Keep going, everybody!” Red Ranger called out as he rushed the rest of the way.

The Rangers barely managed to get away from the impact site before it came crashing down, Excelina’s hand reaching to the sky from underneath the building. Green Ranger shook his head. “We have to stop him before he destroys the whole city!”

“It’s Zord time, everyone!” The Rangers took their positions and summoned their Zords, five thirty-foot humanoid robots in different colors. The Yellow Ranger struck a pose and called out “Huang-di!” before jumping up high and materializing inside the yellow-colored robot. The Red Ranger struck a pose and called out “Chidi!” before jumping up high and materializing inside the red-colored robot. The Blue Ranger struck a pose and called out “Cangdi!” before jumping up high and materializing inside the blue-colored robot. The Green Ranger struck a pose and called out “Baidi!” before jumping up high and materializing inside the green-colored robot. And finally, The Pink Ranger struck a pose before calling out “Heidi!” before jumping up high and materializing inside the pink-colored robot.

The Rangers all landed snugly in their cockpits before the Yellow Ranger opened up a communication link between the Zords. “Time to come together, everyone!” In sync, the Rangers all crossed their arms and yelled out “Emperor Megazord!” The robots jumped into the air, transforming in different ways all the while, before they all conjoined into one larger Megazord big enough to wield a skyscraper like a polearm.

Baggett turned towards this new opponent and smiled to himself. They’re finally a challenge. The Megazord unsheathed a large sword and rushed at its opponent, who responded to each slash with an outstretched clawed hand deftly catching it before it landed. After thirty seconds of close combat, the monstrous Jerkop grew a tail and jabbed the Megazord before tossing it away and laughing. The Rangers yelled out before they managed to right themselves. The Green Ranger punched the stabilization button before turning to the Red Ranger. “Man, he’s going to be tough!”

“He was our best before he turned evil. We have to give it everything we’ve got. Ready guys?”

The other Rangers turned to him and nodded as one. “Ready!”

“Alright! Celestial Dragon Tooth!” The Megazord’s arm transformed into a giant drill as they rushed the target. With a great crash, they slashed through the Jerkop’s abdomen, nearly ripping him in two. Baggett roared and clutched his side before yelling out angrily and closing the wound as more and more Jerkops joined the conglomerate being, leaving the citizen fighters to look on in awe.

“That didn’t finish him off?!”

“HA-HA-HA-HA!! DOCTOR SKYSOAR, YOU’VE OUTDONE YOURSELF THIS TIME!! HOW DO YOU LIKE SOME OF THIS?!” Just by raising his hands, Baggett created tentacles from the ground large enough to completely encircle the Megazord from many more surrounding Jerkops, preparing to demolish his former comrades.

+++

Still in her dragon form, Silvana looked down at Simonla. I don’t see anything down there, do you?

“Not a lick ‘a movement.” She looked up at Silvana and smiled. “Looks like we won!” She then turned and screamed as a small forest of metal tentacles erupted from the hole. Simonla narrowly avoided getting grabbed by the top of her head, and Silvana managed to keep four of them at bay with her fire breath, but Son-Chu wasn’t so lucky, and yelled out in a metallic scream as close to eighty clawed tentacles latched onto his body, effectively holding him in place.

A moment of struggle later, and the source of these new threats became obvious. W-M’s head slowly lifted from the hole, revealing a levitation device at the base as all of the metal tentacles protruded from a large ring on the bottom. As the disembodied head smiled smugly, several tentacles morphed into buzz saws, lasers, and three-pronged hooks. “DID YOU THINK IT’D BE THAT EASY?” He glanced down, the expression on his face suggesting everything he was doing was casual, and fired eight unbroken laser beams at Simonla.

Simonla narrowly dodged the lasers as if playing Limbo, and yelled out “Shit!” as one of them took off a tuft of her hair. “Just had that done!”

Silvana roared at the Manajerk, but soon roared from pain as he jabbed the dragon several times with spiked tentacles. This was not going well. If Chris can just get through to Graduon…

+++

Bubbles fired off Water Pulse after Water Pulse simply by pointing at her opponent, the heavily-armored Jerkhief, making a show of the effort on her part being virtually nonexistent. She intercepted each of his missiles, knocking them off-course and causing them to explode harmlessly. Beside her, Wild continued throwing Razor Leafs at him, hitting soft spots at his joints. “Where’d Punchy go?” Wild asked out loud. Bubbles didn’t answer, instead opting to blast the Jerkop in the face with some water.

The large man yelled out angrily and looked around. “Damnit, where’s my backup?! You took them, didn’t you, Baggett?!”

“Still have the chance to give up, Jerkhief!” Bubbles offered.

The man growled as his suit powered up, enabling him to rush at the Rosechu. “NEVER!” Before Bubbles could react, she was caught, and the angry Jerkop tossed her into a fifth-story window.

“Bubbles!” Wild called. “Punchy, where are you, man?!”

Jerkhief reached over for Wild now, but suddenly his arm was batted away by a red blur before he got hit in the chest and knocked into a post office. “Okay, I think I have an idea!” Punchy said to announce his presence. “Bubbles! You okay?!”

“Yeah!” she replied, even though Punchy couldn’t see her.

“Great! Wild, you see those traffic lights?”

Wild looked over where he was talking about and saw them, and then he understood. “Got it! How we doin’ this?”

The Jerkhief tore the walls around him apart as he angrily got back to his feet and rushed at the two hedgehogs. “I’M GONNA STUFF YOU ALL UP MY BUTT!!” He seemed like he was going to say something else, but a geyser of water erupted from the manhole underneath him, kicking him up into the air. Wild then quickly followed this up by wrapping his arms in vines and suspending him from the traffic lights. Punchy then finished the plan by lunging at the Jerkop and smashing the metal suit to pieces.

Bubbles jumped down from the window and slowed her fall with a smaller water geyser. “We did it!”

Punchy chuckled. “Nothin’ to it, huh? Let’s find the others.“

+++

Blake picked up the injured Angelica without even thinking. “How dare you injure a woman!”

Merried shrugged, clearly bemused. “War. Time to die, bitches!” He pulled back his arm and swung it at Blake’s face. But Blake was through with his bullshit. He caught the arm mid-flight and tore it straight off the man’s shoulder with one movement.

“Angelica, heal yourself. I’ll deal with him.” Without even waiting for an answer, Blake rushed at the Manajerk, a new fire burning in his eyes, and before the man could yell out in protest, he’d torn off the man’s other arm and both his legs.

Merried knocked his chin on the ground before managing to right himself. “Sunovabitch!” He hopped as he turned to Blake and attempted to bite his ankle. “I’m not done with you!”

Angelica finished her quick healing and nodded at Blake. “Well, that was quick.”

Blake just grunted and turned away. He wanted to find out how Bubbles was doing.

Angelica looked down at the Manajerk and noticed his eyes glowing blue. “Blake!” Blake looked down and noticed this too, before both jumped back. Blake suddenly grimaced as a quarter hit him squarely in the back of the head. “What the?”

+++

Punchy turned to walk away from the fight scene, but then the pieces of the mechanical suit began rattling, as did the nearby cars and every other metallic debris in the area, before they all began to float and whiz around at random. Before any of them could really process what was happening, a nearby car rammed into all of them, knocking the wind out of them.

+++

Blake and Angelica turned and noticed the maelstrom of metal closing in and ran without a second thought. They watched in amazement as Merried Seinor Comic not only grew back his limbs from the debris, but managed to encase himself in a shell of junk that towered over them. He laughed, the sound like that of scraping metal, and launched another punch at them.

Blake somehow managed to catch the fist on instinct, and did everything he could to hold it back. Angelica flew up and tried to hit the new monster with a Steel Wing, but soon found herself stuck to his shoulder, so she had to stop the attack.

Blake yelled out from the effort of holding back the Manajerk. “ANY IDEAS?”

Angelica thought for a second before replying. “Yeah! Keep holding him there!” She flew up to the monster’s face and began a prayer that she was taught as a Rosee. She didn’t think she’d ever have to use it, but if she was ever going to, then now was the time. She prayed to God and Jesus for them to use their power to vanquish this opponent, to lend them the strength to win. As soon as she muttered the last “Amen!” Merried groaned as if heavily weakened.

Blake’s eyes widened in amazement. “That did it, Angelica!” He gave another heave and just as before managed to tear the arm from his opponent. He then proceeded to swing it around and hit Merried in the face with his own hand. He then tossed it aside and leapt into the air, performing a Spin Dash and cutting right through the monster’s chest. Blake stood up and crossed his arms as the exoskeleton fell apart behind him. “Hm. Let’s find the others.”

+++

Neptune yelled out, very frustrated, as she peppered the target with laser fire, of course doing no damage. Of course! The giant ogre of a man laughed and lunged at her, propelled forward by his jetpack, and smashed her yet again with his weapon. Neptune flew backwards in a heap next to the others. “OW!! This is stupid!”

“Anyone have any ideas?” Blanc asked nobody in particular.

“I’ve got one,” Noire chimed in suddenly. “Everyone know how concussions work?”

“Intimately,” Neptune fumed, rubbing her head and finding the eighth lump.

“Follow my lead!” Noire then began her transformation into Next Black, the others all following suit with their respective forms. “Hit him so that he bruises on the inside!”

The girls all roared as they rushed forward. B-Manajerk swung once again at Noire, who managed to zip through his guard and land a nasty slash that erupted with lightning. The man crumpled from this, but not much more than that before Neptune slashed at him herself and gauged the fabric of reality from her strike. Vert then summoned an uncountable amount of spears and pelted him incessantly with a rain of blades. Blanc then finished the combo by firing a freezing shockwave at B-Manajerk, summoning a large laser cannon, and torching him with it.

The girls all landed several feet away as a group and reverted back to their civilian clothing, panting as they eyed the monster cautiously. Uzume prepared her megaphone just in case. The monster groaned, roared in pain, stumbled forward, clenching his kanabo, and inched forward. After three small steps, his breathing heavy, he fell forward, belching a black darkness from his mouth before closing his eyes and hitting the ground.

Neptune couldn’t even celebrate properly. Her arms were heavy, and her head hurt. She panted heavily and managed to shout “Yeah!... Take that…. You… Monster!”

“The day’s saved now, right?” Vert asked as they turned to look at the city. They noticed Baggett and W-M’s tentacles and groaned.

“You’re kidding me! We have to take out more of these guys?!”

“Not me, I’m clocking out.” Blanc threw down her weapon in the middle of the road and began to walk away.

Uzume began looking around. She couldn’t stop now, not when she promised Chris that she’d help.

+++

Naitsirhc landed yet another kick across Chris’ face, knocking her backwards once more. She couldn’t see straight, her eyes have swollen over. Things shouldn’t be ending this way. Magi-Chan, Night Star, and Discord continued their struggle with Graduon, who had since taken a knee to better steady himself against this assault. “My, my,” Discord commented, seemingly disinterested. “You’re a tought nut to crack, aren’t you?!” Night Star and Magi-Chan just continued grunting from the effort of continuing their assault, and Graduon was likewise doing everything he could to hold their attacks back.

“Graduon, you can’t do this!” Chris began.

“I’ll defeat you or die trying, Chandler!”

“No, it’s not that, listen!” She yelled out as Naitsirhc slammed her head into the ground. When he pulled her face from the asphalt once again, she continued. “If you keep following this path, then Kurome will just destroy everything!” Graduon wasn’t listening; he was too preoccupied with his fight. Chris then had an idea. “Guys, stop fighting him!”

Night Star glanced over in confusion. “What?”

“Just do it!” Magi-Chan answered, and the three let down their guard in a way that allowed the beam to fire harmlessly into the sky.

Graduon and Naitsirhc were dumbfounded. Graduon turned on her with a new expression. “What is the meaning of this?”

“I’m telling the truth! Kurome doesn’t want to conquer the world like you, Graduon, she wants it destroyed! She told Blanc this when she tried to destroy her region of Gamindustri.” Graduon stayed silent, so Chris continued. “If you want to conquer the rest of the world, then fine. But help us stop her first. You can’t rule over something that isn’t there.”

Graduon continued to avoid Chris’ gaze, thinking over this new information. Finally, he returned Chris’ gaze and nodded. Chris smiled, but felt something encroach in the back of her mind. “You useless fool,” she muttered in a voice not her own, and she began to yell out in pain as her body contorted and began to levitate. Naitsirhc jumped back in shock. “What the hell?!”

Chris continued to yell, a dark energy emanating from her body. This energy danced about like a flame and began expanding, firing off flares across the city and drawing the attention of all. Uzume gasped as she saw this, clenched her fist and ran at Chris, holding out her hand and creating a bubble of energy around her before jumping in herself. Inside the bubble was another dimension, made entirely from Share Energy and created by her own power. While Chris and Kurome were inside this, then the rest of the world was safe.

The energy continued to surround Chris, beginning to morph her appearance into a dark version of Uzume herself. Behind Chris the energy began to grow a face of some kind. Uzume knew what she had to do. She held out her hand imperatively. “Kurome, you’re coming with me!”

Chris began to contort again, this time the new voice screaming out in protest. “NOOO!!” Uzume continued to absorb her evil half, not even paying any attention as the right side of her face began to scream too. She concentrated hard, and after ten seconds of supreme effort, everything was silent. Chris lay on the ground, not moving for a few seconds, before coughing, groaning, and slowly lifting herself up.

“Uzume…? What-?”

“Kurome tried to take over your body, Chris. But don’t worry. She’s taken care of now. She’s now a part of me, and she won’t be a problem anymore.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Uzume.”

Uzume giggled. There’s something I need, though. Chris, I’m afraid I need to take my powers back.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Without another word, Chris extended her arms in offering as a softer orange energy glowed from her heart and into Uzume. “Let’s get out of here.”

The two girls exited the pocket dimension, which faded behind them. Both sides had stopped fighting and were watching them. Chris turned to Graduon and smiled. “We don’t have to stay enemies, Graduon. For your whole life, you’ve never known love. How about you stay with us, and we show you?”

Naitsirhc shook his head. “How lame would we be-?”

“Very well,” Graduon boomed. “Henceforth, the PVCC forces and the city of CWCville are now allies!”

Everyone from the CWCville side cheered. Uzume hugged Chris. “We did it!”

“We sure did!”

“But, Chris. We have to go back to Gamindustri now. We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do. Oh! I have an idea.” Uzume reached into her pocket and handed Chris a holographic card. “If you ever need our help, let us know, okay?”

“Thanks for everything.”

Uzume then smiled and waved as she turned to leave with the other Goddesses. A man in armor and a military-grade gas mask approached Chris with several magical girls behind him. “Good work, Chandler,” the man began in an electronically-augmented voice. He looked around at the heavily damaged city. “Well, you’ve managed to minimize damage, at least.”

“It was a war hard-fought, John. But now we’ve got new friends,” Chris explained as she looked around at people from both sides of the war helping each other tend to their wounded.

John looked around, his expression understandably unreadable. “Mazel tov,” he said finally. “There are still some cloaker agents that Kurome had set up, so we’ll need to deal with those.”

“Perhaps I could be of some assistance, Mr. Yamada,” Graduon interjected from over Chris’ shoulder.

“That’d be great,” Yamada replied, almost as if distracted. “But I need to bring something… else to your attention…”

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COCville Daily ~ Police Chief Election Results Are In!

{A/N: This is canon. COCville Daily is the local newspaper}

Eric Evens gave a short (but sweet) speech today about his new position as COCville’s Police Chief.  “I am deeply honored by the votes that you have given me. I only hope that I live up to everyone’s expectations and bring about an era of hope and enlightenment for our hardworking officers here at COCville Police Station.” Police Chief Evens told a crowd of enthused onlookers. After his speech, Dinah Delcatty, Princess Buttercup’s assistant, gave Chief Evens his ceremonial all gold police badge that every Police Chief gets.  COCville Daily reached out to the other runners in the race, but only Mr. Heishiro had something to say.  “I am very proud that Mr. Evens got the position. Honestly, I do not know what I would have done with it. Mr. Evens has not only focus but a very clear vision. I actually voted for him myself.” The ex-samurai mused before giving our reporter Rita Raticate a thumbs up and walking away into the mist to never be seen again. 

 52% of the eligible population voted. Chief Evens won by a landslide, gaining 63% of all the votes. Mr. Heishiro got 20%, Setasuka got 11% and Xaldin got 6%. 

Written by Pippa Raichu, reporting done by Rita Raticate, statistics thanks to Dinah Delcatty

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COCville Anatomy

WARNING: This post may not be suitable for younger audiences due to the discussion of sexual body parts. There are no diagrams of these things, but there is a text discussion about it. 

Keep reading

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Carina Meganium - Character Profile

Full Name: Carina Meganium

Age: 26 ½

Species: Meganium

Skin Color: Pale

Hair Color: Yellow

Eye Color: Amber

Misc. Details: Always wear a lucky scarf that mimics Meganium’s neck flower

Relatives: Max Meganium (father), Sarah Slowbro (mother – deceased), Silas Slowpoke (brother)

Relationships: BFFs – Luna Rosechu (OC by The Paper Goddess, used with permission), Evens family (mainly Estelle and the twins).

Love Interest(s): Bram Venusaur (fiance)

Occupation: Elementary School teacher, babysits on weekends

Brief Biography: Carina grew up in a suburban environment with her caring but shy about his ‘girly’ appearance father Max and her mother Sarah. When she was 12, her brother Silas was born. Sarah died of birth complications, and Carina blamed Silas for it for a while. However, after some maturation on her part, Carina warmed up to her younger brother. Especially after Max and Carina found out that Silas was different. Silas was not keeping up in school with the other children and had to be placed in a special class. Carina had to help Silas with his homework, especially math and science because their father was busy working. Helping Silas led Carina to find her passion for teaching. A nerd in high school and college, she had a long-standing crush on Bram. She couldn’t stand him though, thinking that he was just a typical idiot jock. However after they attended the same Botany class in college, the two started to date and eventually fell in love and got engaged. Carina lives in her own apartment, works as an elementary school teacher and babysits on the weekends.

~

First Appearance: COCville Origins, Chapter 2 (mention), Chapter 3 (first physical appearance)

Appears in: COCville Origins Chapters 2 & 3

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Character Profile: Bram Venusaur

Full Name: Bram Venusaur

Age: 27

Species: Venusaur

Skin Color: Pale

Hair Color: Teal w/ pink highlights

Eye Color: Red

Misc. Details: Retractable vines, wears a lot of pink, teal and green

Relatives: Bella Bellossom-Venusaur (mother), Briar Vensuaur (father), Blair Venusaur (actually a Bellossom, estranged sister)

Relationships: Best friends – Connor Charizard & Sam Blastoise

Love Interest(s): Carina Meganium (fianceé and childhood friend)

Occupation: Temporary Gym Teacher, Athletics Director, Coach for all sports and schools in COCville

Brief Biography: Raised in a trendy apartment by his trendy parents, Bram Venusaur was great at everything he set out for. School, sports, and friends were easy for Bram. He graduated high school with his best friends and went on to COCville College. Bram had a full scholarship and majored in athletics. Bram played for the COCville Roosters in every sport. He was close to his family until they moved away to a neighboring town, leaving their apartment to Bram. After graduating college, Bram got a job at the COCville School System. He and Carina used to bully each other as children until they were in the same Botany class in college. Since they had their first date on November 25th, 2014 the two have been inseparable.

~

First Appearance: COCville Origins, Chapter 2

Appears in: COCville Origins, Chapters 2 & 3

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Character Profile: Connor Charizard

Full Name: Connor Charizard

Age: 27

Species: Charizard

Skin Color: Tan

Hair Color: Orange

Eye Color: Blue

Misc. Details: Wings, tail with flame on end, fangs

Relatives: Uncle Carl (deceased), Mother & Father (deceased)

Relationships: Best Friends with Bram Venusaur and Sam Blastoise (to an extent), Carina Meganium (friends), Mimi Ampharos-Girafig (boss), Egon Evens (co-worker), Estelle Evens (co-worker)

Love Interest(s): n/a

Occupation: Chef @ Mimi’s Diner

Brief Biography: Growing up in the lower middle class, Connor was the only and favorite child of his parents. After they mysteriously disappeared in 2012(ish), Connor was taken in by his Uncle Carl, a shiny charizard. Connor graduated from COCville High School alongside Bram and Sam but did not attend college. He instead found a job where his tail and passion would be most useful – Mimi’s Diner. He works as the main chef there. In November 2017, Uncle Carl died and left Connor a nice inheritance of 5,576,620 pokédollars and a donor of COCville’s Opera House.

~

First Appearance: COCville Origins, Chapter 2

Appears in: COCville Origins – Chapter 2 and 3 (mention)

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Out of COCville

Do you like our new look? I spent some time making the blog look pretty, but I may also look for a theme that will work. I don’t know yet. 

I will be reblogging some stuff from the original COCville blog. Just maps and other supplemental material for convenience's sake. You’ll still want to head to Buttercup’s blog for her works. I’ll be tagging her stuff as #buttercuporiginal.

- Rass

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Chapter 2 Submission

Chapter 2- Crazy Little Thing Called Love)

The morning passed by slowly at the fire station. Sam finished the inventory and was reading the Daily. Amber was still entrenched in her college books working on who-knows-what. Sam needed to ask her about that. Meanwhile, Ethan continued playing his video games, although he seemed to be slowly losing interest. At long last, the time to head over to Mimi’s drew near.

“I’ll walk a little behind you guys so you can tell her,” Ethan whispered to Sam as they approached Amber’s desk.

Upon noticing her compatriots approaching, Amber got up, put on her coat and smiled. “Ready?” Amber asked.

Sam and Ethan both replied that they were, and the three headed out the door. Amber turned around upon closing the door behind her and locked them up. Not that they ever needed them locked, but they were required by code to lock the station when nobody was there. Once they began the trek to the diner, Ethan did as he promised and stayed a little away behind Amber and Sam.

Amber breathed in the cool air and looked around at the surrounding plant life. “Man, it turned out to be a nice day today.”

“Yeah, it did.” Sam agreed. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you studying in college?”

“Oh. I’m studying for a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry,” Amber replied with palpable enthusiasm. “My dad’s always been big on chemistry.”

“Ah. I liked science in school,” Sam added, trying to link his interests to hers.

“I liked high school science better, to be honest.” Amber sighed. “You learn more in college, but I had a lot more friends back then.” Sam saw a little sadness in Amber’s expression.

“But you have Ethan and me as friends, right?” Sam asked, hoping she would say 'yes’.

“Yeah. But, there’s one girl in high school. She and I used to be friends, then she did something a little stupid and I stopped talking to her because of it.” Amber admitted. “I wish I had the strength to forgive her back then.”

Sam knew what she was doing immediately, but he didn’t want to let on. “What’d she do? This friend of yours?”

Amber gazed off absentmindedly down the road. “Oh, I don’t even remember anymore.”

Yep, he knew it. She wanted to get him and Connor talking to each other again. He frowned at her, only to lose the expression when she turned to face him, instead opting to return her smile.

After a few more minutes of walking, during which Amber told Sam more about her experiences at college, they reached the front door of the diner, which Sam courteously opened for Amber. Ethan ran up to Sam once she had gone inside.

“So?” Ethan asked.

“We just talked, Ethan,” Sam said.

“About?” Ethan asked.

“Her college studies and stuff.” Sam shrugged.

Ethan’s face fell from disappointment in his friend. “Hmph. Coward.” He slipped through the open door before Sam could close it on him.

==

The rest of Connor’s day was going by normally when the firefighting squad came in. He waved at Sam, who pointedly ignored him by hiding behind a menu. Amber shrugged at Connor when she noticed it. Well, he tried. At least Ethan got Sam to smile from time to time. Connor found it odd to see a firefighter with a mermaid tail and a frill around his neck right out of the Elizabethan age. Then again, looking odd was the Even family’s specialty. When you come from the largest and weirdest family in town, looking normal is hard to do. Only two things reminded Connor that they were all related – their large, pointy ears and how they constantly talked about their other family members.

Speaking of the Even family, Egon and one of his brothers showed up for work. Connor felt bad for not remembering which one, but there were just too many of them, so he felt like he would be forgiven for it.

“Egon, I have to leave in thirty minutes,” Mimi said after the typical greetings.

“Oh, alright.” Egon sighed. His slightly red tinted skin glowed under the dim lightbulbs. Connor was secretly jealous of his hair – Egon had a tuft of fuzzy yellow hair on his head that must have required a jar of styling gel to keep in place. Egon’s bushy tail was also a point of envy for Connor, mainly because any tail that didn’t burn everything around him was better than one that did.

“You clock out in thirty minutes, okay?” Mimi told Connor.

Connor nodded and flipped a burger. Egon took his spot beside him and began to cook the next order on the line. The two weren’t the closest or best of friends, but they got along pretty well.

Connor kept stealing glances over at Sam, hoping that they’d accidentally match each other’s gaze. However, he had no such luck. Sam seemed to be in a particularly sour mood today for some reason. He wasn’t proving very talkative either, so Amber and Ethan instead opted to at least talk with each other. Satsuki took their orders, but Sam’s lack of expression left her clearly wondering if she did something wrong. Connor turned back to his work. Oh, Sam, you can’t stay mad forever. Pretty soon, the firefighters finished their meals and headed out. Connor shook his head and sighed.

Satsuki suddenly burst into the kitchen, her wings flapping and a look of great excitement on her face. “Dinah’s here! She wants to see you, Connor!” She exclaimed. This Dinah was Dinah Delcatty, assistant to none other than COCville’s next leader Princess Buttercup. Connor put down his spatula, nodded at Egon then walked out to the dining area, where Dinah was waiting.

Dinah was an accomplished model before she became Princess Buttercup’s assistant. Her lightly tan skin contrasted beautifully with the light purple dress she had on. Rumors said she had a new dress for each day and never wore the same dress twice. Connor wasn’t sure if this was true, but then again he wasn’t surprised if it was. After all, working for the princess had to have its perks. Her purple hair was dwarfed by her giant cat ears. Her dainty tail had a flower-like shape on the end, and Connor assumed based on what he heard about her that it never did anything Dinah didn’t want it to in terms of styling. She had a scarf on that closely resembled purple fur around her neck while her black eyes shimmered underneath thick lashes.

“Connor Charizard?” Dinah said in a posh accent. No man, not even Connor, could resist Dinah’s charms.

“Yes, that’s me,” Connor replied stupidly, getting nervous.

“I have some bad news. Your uncle, Carl Charizard, has passed away last night.” Dinah said gently.

Connor was shocked. Carl was his closest family member. He blinked as if he felt if he did it hard enough, it would all go away. Connor’s parents lived up in the mountains far away, and he only got to see them for holidays. Carl, while he lived in town, was the black sheep of the family. Literally, this time too, since Carl was that scientist guy Bill called a Shiny Charizard.

“I am sorry for your loss, as is Princess Buttercup,” Dinah stated gently. “Your uncle left you this.”

Dinah handed Connor an envelope. On the back was the Charizard family seal. Connor’s family was one of the oldest in COCville, going all the way back to the Middle Ages.

Connor opened it up, not hesitant at all. Inside the envelope was 5,576,620 Pokédollars. Connor’s jaw almost dropped to the floor at seeing all this money. He quickly closed the envelope up before anyone else could see it.

“The will states that in order for you to keep that, you must take over your uncle’s position as patron to the COCville Opera. He’s already set aside a bank account that will automatically donate money to them. All you have to do is show up to the Opera tonight.” Dinah added.

“But I don’t have tickets! The Opera always sells out of tickets on opening night.” Connor protested.

“They’re in the envelope,” Dinah smirked. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer. The Princess wishes that you have a good day, Mr. Charizard.”

Connor nodded, waved goodbye to her, then went to the kitchen so he could clock out.

A few minutes later, Connor was walking back to his apartment deep in thought. His uncle was dead, but he left his nephew rich. How was he supposed to feel about this? What was he even supposed to do with all this money? He thought hard as he continued onward, until suddenly he had an idea. He changed course towards the mall.

==

Bram’s day turned out to be typical and boring. Just the usual dealing with kids elementary to high school. Bram did want to eventually have kids, but as the school gym teacher, he couldn’t help but feel like he was seeing only the worst of these children. High school kids always had some faux drama to complain about, and most of them seemed to suffer under the delusion that they would become mega sports stars, if they didn’t think they’d hit that point already. Bram knew from experience that COCville didn’t produce any such mega sports stars- the best this quaint little town could do was occasionally find a kid that deserved a full ride to COCville College to play on their teams against other minor league teams. Bram was one of those kids, and all that got him was a position as a little league coach and substitute gym teacher. Middle school kids had so many hormones ravaging their bodies that they never seemed to know what to do with themselves. One minute they could be sobbing about their changing bodies, the next they could be screeching about losing to their friends in Magic: The Gathering, or whatever kids seemed to play nowadays. By far the hardest to deal with, however, were elementary school kids. This group of enlarged rugrats had no idea what they were doing no matter the task at hand, they got snot everywhere, and by the end of class period they would inevitably end up cranky. Again, Bram kept having to remind himself, he did want to have kids, and he took this job for a reason, but children seemed to possess an innate capacity for pushing adults to lose their patience with them from their sheer persistence for ineptitude.

To Bram’s gratitude, there were no games that night and classes ended at three o'clock, so he was able to leave work early. And it was just as well, too, because he feared that the weight of the evening would cause him to say something to a young boy that he definitely would have regretted later on. His first stop was to COCville Fashion, where his custom engagement ring was waiting. It cost him 280,000 Pokédollars saved over more than six months, but it was worth it. After all, he had to find the perfect dream ring! Price was but an obstacle to overcome.

The main gemstone was a circular pink diamond. It blended a little into the golden rose pattern encapsulating it and it was a small diamond, but Bram was certain that Carina would enjoy it. Around the main gemstone sat several peridots enthroned in golden flower petals, while the last layer of stamped gold petals was emblazoned with regular clear diamonds. The rest of the band was separated into lines of green and pink gems, leaving the beautiful piece of jewelry more precious stone than metal. Camilla tried to convince him to get a fancy customized box for the ring, but Bram felt comfortable with just the little black box.

Bram snatched himself away from his memories for the moment. He had the right ring, the right setting… He just needed the right way to bring it up. Maybe he could just opened the dinner with the question. But he didn’t want to ruin Carina’s night if she wasn’t ready for it. But if he waited until the end, he would be sweating over it. As he continued to weigh his options, Bram got out of his car and headed into Cville Fashion, making sure he at least seemed anchored to reality.

==

Unfortunately, Bram almost failed at this impression, as he had nearly walked straight past where he wanted to be without noticing. And he certainly would have if not for a wholly unwelcome, eerie, slithering voice from behind the counter. “Ahhh… Missss-ter Bram… Had a feeling you’d sssstop by…” Bram grimaced visibly. It was Aramis Arbok, the slippery snake. Nobody that Bram ever talked to liked Aramis one bit. Everyone agreed that he was snobbish, unnerving, and continually gave one the impression that he was about to try and sponge you out of your possessions. What was worse, this tall, lanky man even had the appearance of a literal snake, with a hood of skin bearing a pattern reminiscent of a ghostly face, actual fangs, and a forked tongue that flitted in and out of his mouth whenever a patch of silence between him and a customer appeared from the aether. He was bald, had black, beady eyes, and was always smiling to some degree, just adding to how irksome Bram found this man. Absolutely everything about this man, even his soft-voiced, well-mannered way of dealing with customers just never failed to rub Bram the wrong way.

Aramis widened his smile, as if he’d read Bram’s mind and wished to bother him more than he already had. “No? … Nothing to ssssay? … Hm. I ssssuppossse I wassss misssstaken, then. You sssseem lossst, Missss-ter Bram… May I offer… assssissstanccce?” He flicked his tongue through his fangs for a brief moment as if to punctuate this uncomfortable moment.

Bram shook himself and grimaced before regaining his composure. “Is Camilla in?” Bram asked.

“Mm, yeessssss…” Bram found himself shivering at how he said this. Then again, Aramis had a very slow, deliberate speech pattern in general, so everything he said creeped him out. “Sssseemssss I’ve pegged you correctly after all. I’ll go ssssee if ssshe’ssss available… One moment… pleasssse…” And with that, the slimy serpent of a man slivered to the back of the store as if in one continuous motion.

While Bram waited, he decided to distract himself from the prospect of Aramis returning by running the proposal through his mind again. He decided to open right up with the proposal. If she said no, she could leave. If she said yes, they would have a wonderful dinner. Yeah, best to get it out of the way nice and quick. Bram nodded to himself over his decision as Aramis returned with Camilla.

“Hi!” Camilla exclaimed. She was far more regal and inviting in her fashion choices than her coworker– a long, simple white scarf, gray hair and warm brown eyes with a dress of a darker gray made her look like the fashionable grandmother everyone wanted.

“Hi.” Bram nervously said in reply. He was very excited to finally see the ring after all this time.

“Here’s your ring,” Camilla said, pulling the tiny black box from a safe under the cash register.

“Sssstraight to bussssinessss assss alwayssss…”

“Oh, enough from you, Aramis,” Camilla retorted as she handed the box over to Bram, rolling her eyes as she did so.

Bram cautiously opened the little box, and for the rest of his life he would swear up and down he had gone into cardiac arrest for a whole minute. It was ten times more beautiful than any picture could have shown! The sight put a grin on his face that nothing could wipe off (not for lack of trying on Aramis’ part, his voice was drowned out Bram’s by pure ecstasy). After staring at the ring’s magnificence for a moment more, Bram dug into his pockets for his debit card. Camilla smiled and shook her hand as if to tell him not to worry about it.

“Wait, what- But I haven’t paid for it.” Bram stammered, confused. Aramis continued to smile, and only commented with a simple “Hmm…”

“I’m not allowed to tell you who, but a friend of yours came by and paid for the ring.” Camilla said gently.

“And before you assssk, no, ‘twassss not I. I’m not your friend…”

“Yeah, I figured as much,” Bram replied absentmindedly as he raised his eyebrow at the box in his hand. The only two people in the world that Bram told were Camilla and Connor, the two most secretive people in town! This didn’t make sense. Connor was the only other person who knew, and he was working on a salary that was half of what Bram made before his raise. Camilla was just the local fashion store owner and her small business couldn’t afford to give handouts. Things just didn’t add up.

It was not until Bram thanked Camilla and left the store that he really began to freak out. He headbutted his truck a few times and muttered “Shit, shit, shit!” What if Carina found out and bought the ring?! That would ruin any of the magic he could’ve mustered for the proposal… Bram checked his phone. Carina had texted him just five minutes ago, telling him that she was excited to see him tonight. Bram let out a gasp. She must have known! Bram had to do damage control, and fast. There was only one person he could turn to.

He pressed seven on his phone’s keypad, Connor’s number on speed dial. Bram got into the car as he listened to the phone kept ringing on and on. When he finally heard that annoying robotic voice asking him to leave a message, he wanted to throw the phone out the window. Bram sighed and rubbed his temples. Not only was Carina onto him, but when he needed Connor’s help the most, he wasn’t there.

Then an idea hit him. If Carina did know about it and went ahead and bought the ring, then that meant that she wanted to get married. She wanted him to propose! If she found out and didn’t want to marry him, she would have done the opposite. Why didn’t he think of that first?

Bram started the truck after making sure the ring was still in his pants pocket. He smirked when he felt it and drove back to his apartment to get ready. He donned his nicest outfit that could fit the occasion, nothing too extravagant for the diner while still looking good on him. As Bram left his room, he looked at the clock. Five thirty. How on earth did it take him two and a half hours to get the ring and prepare for the date?! Bram just shrugged, grabbed his white jacket and bolted out the door. Right before he locked the door, he made a mental checklist of everything. Ring? Check. Money? Check. Flowers? Uh… nope.

Bram growled in frustration. He forgot the flowers! Normally, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but tonight marked their fifth year being together. Before he even thought of doing anything, Bram jumped back into his truck and flew to COCville Mall to remedy this problem. There was a little florist shop in the mall that he could probably get in and out of quickly. Or so he thought. Unfortunately for him, a lot of people were ordering bouquets of roses to give Winona Wigglytuff, the famed opera singer at COCville’s opera, that same night. What usually would have taken five minutes took Bram twenty. Not only did he have to wait, he also found out they didn’t have any ready-made bouquets with pink flowers in them, so he had to settle on white flowers instead. It was not that big of a deal, Bram told himself. Carina would like any flowers from him. As he exited the building, he looked at his phone to see that it was six fifty-five.

Shoot! He was going to be late to his own proposal... anniversary… dinner… thing! He couldn’t even think clearly. He did his best to look calm and collected, but inside he was seething. Silently contemplating the entire ordeal, Bram got back into the car and drove straight to the diner.

==

As soon as he got back to work, Sam immediately made a beeline to the back of the firehouse and slept on the couch. He had a sinking feeling that all fire types were in cahoots together, since Amber tried to manipulate him earlier into apologizing to Connor with that sob story of hers. While that was slightly true, that sob story was a real one. Sam, however, was not going to ask Amber about it anytime soon.

For the next fifteen minutes, he continued pretending to sleep. He tossed and turned, trying to think of what he should do. It was just a rug. Amber was just a girl. There were a million other girls in the world, across multiple dimensions. He could sign up for a dating service. TV advertisements claimed they worked.

Eventually, Sam sat up, grabbed his cellphone and downloaded a dating app called LoveDate. He created a quick little profile, nothing much. An innocent profile picture that showed his handsomeness, a description of his likes and dislikes. He never understood how these things were supposed to really work. Surely enough people lied about themselves to render these things pointless. But, whatever, might as well give it a shot to find out.

Once he was finished, he exited the app and pulled up his messaging app. He typed Connor’s name into the 'send to’ box and then stared at the blank screen in anxiousness.

“Just say you’re sorry,” Ethan whispered in Sam’s ear.

Sam nearly jumped out of his seat, kicking Ethan in the face by accident. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” Sam yelled, angry at both himself and Ethan.

“Ow,” Ethan said, rubbing the bump where Sam kicked him on the cheek.

“Hang on, I’ll get ice!” Sam offered as he tried to unwrap himself from the blanket.

“Nah, I’ll get it. You just tell Connor you’re sorry. Just type 'I’m sorry about the rug, can we talk about it at lunch?’. That usually works,” Ethan explained as he rummaged through the freezer to collect as many ice cubes as he could find.

“Okay, simple enough,” Sam said, more to himself than to Ethan. How was this kid so good with interpersonal relationships, and yet decide to only intentionally annoy him? On second thought, Sam knew that probably wasn’t true. He wrote the text as Ethan recommended and added a smiley face. Once he finished he sighed. “Want to go a round, Ethan?” He slipped to the floor as he asked this and picked up one of the video game controllers.

“You know it,” Ethan replied as he playfully tapped Sam in the back of the head with his tail. He sat next to Sam as he did this and scooped up the other controller in one movement. “After all, you kicked me in the face, so you owe me.” Sam sure did owe him alright, and Sam decided to make things even by letting the little guy win. If he didn’t, then this score would never be settled.

==

As he finally pulled into the diner’s parking lot, Bram spotted Carina’s car. He shook his head in disappointment: he had hoped that she would be late as well. It was five minutes past seven when he walked in. There at their favorite table, there sat Carina – as beautiful as ever! The fluorescent lighting hit her blonde ponytail in just the right way. Carina wore their favorite pink and white striped dress and a light green cardigan. She looked a little downbeat until Bram approached her.

“Hi, honey!” She grinned. Bram instantly felt himself frown. That grin she gave was a fake one.

“Hey, Carina. Is something wrong?” Bram asked, taking his across from her.

“Oh, I don’t want to ruin our anniversary dinner with idle complaints.” She sighed, straightening out her napkin and taking a sip of her diet soda.

“Carrie, you could never ruin a night of my life.” Bram replied. As cheesy as it was, Carina blushed a little.

“I just had a bad day, that’s all. The principal is going to enforce a new dress code and I won’t be able to wear my sandals anymore. I have to get a pair of sneakers before Monday. Then, I caught about half of my class cheating on the easiest test I have ever given, so now I have to give them all zeroes and have them flunk my class. You won’t believe the calls I’ll be getting as soon as they whine to their parents and say that I’m the bad person in all this… Then the Evens family called and now I have to cancel my stylist reservation with Camilla on Saturday so I can babysit.” Carina sighed. Bram would have said she whined, but her complaining was a rare thing. If he had not let her vent, she would have just bottled it all up and let it spill later.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Bram said sympathetically, reaching for her hands across the table. “How about I go to that stylist thing for you? I picked out that dress for you and you like it, right?”

“You wouldn’t mind?” Carina asked sweetly. When he promised he would not mind, she commented, “I need close-toed shoes, nothing too fancy or too casual. Something that fits with my work clothes. Nine-thirty in the morning. I trust you.”

Bram grinned. As Estelle brought a pitcher of diet soda to refill Carina’s cup, Bram quickly lowered his hands to his sides on the seat, nearly dropping his flowers, only managing a save thanks to his vines.  Once clearly overworked Estelle left to attend to her other duties, Bram tenderly handed the flowers over to Carina. She grinned a little. Bram was a little disappointed. She had come to expect the flowers. Bram looked at her for a split second in frustration. Not at her, but at himself for not planning a better surprise.

“Um… Carina?” Bram began. Just say what you need to. He couldn’t think of a better way to begin.

“Yes, dear?” Carina asked, briefly looking up from her menu.

“… I got something to ask you. I know you probably already know about this, but I’m going to do it anyways.”

“Darling, what’re-?”

“S-Stop me if you- don’t want this…” Bram stammered and muttered, nervous as ever. Damnit, why am I losing my cool now? Bram pulled the ring box from his jacket pocket, placed it before Carina and opened it. She gasped in surprise and delight at the sight of the ring. “Carina, will you marry me?” Bram asked.

Carina squealed in ecstasy, her shrill voice filling the diner and causing several people to look up from their meals to figure out what just happened. She was close to jumping up and down in her seat. “YES!” Carina said, laughing with joy. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Bram couldn’t believe his ears and eyes. She was acting genuinely surprised and happy. As Bram put the ring on her finger, he felt the moment crawl by for at least a year.

Carina then got up and grabbed him the big hug she’d ever given him, about to squeeze the daylights out of him. Bram just smiled as he tried to breathe and hugged her back. When she sat back down and they got their usual appetizer, he finally asked her the question he dreaded. “Did you know about that?” Bram asked. “The proposal, I mean.”

“No!” Carina promised. “I had no idea! This was a pleasant surprise for me! And this ring, oh, it’s so beautiful! I can’t wait to tell all my co-workers and friends! Luna especially will be happy to hear about this. She told me earlier that if you didn’t propose soon then she’d call for Dr. Diggersby to check on you!”

As Carina continued on about her happiness, Bram stewed over this revelation. So it wasn’t Carina who paid for the ring, it wasn’t Camilla, and it couldn’t be Connor… Suddenly Bram felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. As the couple had a rule against the use of cellphones at the table, Bram got up to use the bathroom and check his phone.

It was a text from Connor.

Sorry, I missed your call, I was busy and didn’t let Camilla tell you. I wanted that honor for myself. I’ve always owed you one for being such a good friend. Don’t worry about paying me back. Seeing you happy with her is good enough. Tell me if/when she says yes!

Bram had to exert some self-control to make sure he didn’t cry. Not that crying was unmanly, but if Carina saw him cry, she would cry and then the never-ending cycle of pity crying would begin…

Bram exited the bathroom, his phone in his pocket, his dream woman wearing the engagement ring he just gave her and the best feeling in the world freeing his mind for the first time all day. Right before he sat down, he realized that this would not be the end of his schemes. I can’t get married without a wedding, can I? Bram thought as he drank in his fiancée’s smile.

[cocvillereloaded-blog]

Chapter 1 redone.

Chapter 1- Just another Day in Paradise)

Eric sat up in bed and noticed he’d beaten his alarm again. He let out a deep breath, shivering from the cold. It was five in the morning – enough time for him to get himself and his seven other siblings ready for daycare or work. It was a duty thrust upon him by their circumstances, sure, but as the eldest, he didn’t mind. After all, someone had to. He rolled out of bed, flipping the light switch as he went. Nice reflexes, Eric, he mused to himself, still sarcastic due to just waking up. All that police training paid off there. He picked himself up and gazed into the mirror, carefully examining his pitch-colored skin and long, pointed ears with two small golden piercings that he had to take out before leaving. He also made a mental note to brush his golden hair before he left.

“Ugh!” Ethan, one year his junior and his partner in crime, was a little slow to react in the mornings. Maybe that stupid Elizabethan collar finally cut off his circulation. With one relatively small movement, his mermaid tail pulled all his blankets from the bed.

Eric felt his red eyes narrow in frustration at his lazy brother. “Come on, Ethan. You need to get up.” Eric urged, tugging on his brother’s ear.

“Ow! Alright, alright… I guess the most handsome firefighter in town never gets to sleep.” Ethan moaned. Eric could only shake his head at his brother. He didn’t even feel up to his usual retorts today. Ethan slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, stretched, and finally stood up. His blue hair was a mess. His weird… ear-fin things stood up at strange angles. Ethan tried to say something else, but was too groggy to manage anything intelligible.

As sleeping beauty got up and lumbered into the kitchen in search of coffee, Eric set about waking up his other family members. The four eldest Evens children – Eric Umbreon, Ethan Vaporeon, Egon Flareon, and Elwood Leafeon all stayed in one two bedroom apartment. The rest of the siblings shared a three bedroom apartment across the hall.

After musing for a moment about how they each had two last names, dismissing this thought as one of those disjointed thoughts one gets when still waking up, Eric knocked on the door of Egon and Elwood’s room, to which Elwood chirped that he was already awake in reply. Egon mumbled something about time. His job now done in that regard, Eric got dressed in his police uniform, took care of basic hygiene, and headed across the hall to wake the others.

Upon knocking, Eric was greeted with the door being opened by two prehensile, ribbon-like feelers. This didn’t startle him at all, however, because he knew they were attached to his sister, Estelle Sylveon. “Hi!” She whispered through a smile, holding the slumbering forms of both of their youngest siblings, the three-year-old twins Elgin and Elena Eevee. She held one in each arm, but still managed to stroke Elgin’s silver hair.

“Oh, good, you’re up. How about the others?” Eric asked.

“I haven’t checked yet,” Estelle replied, still cradling the twins. “These two were crying since I got up, I haven’t had time yet.”

Eric nodded and went to knock on the door to the last three siblings’ room. He loved them all, but it seemed that everyone in town found at least one of them to be an oddball. Personally, Eric thought that these three got that the most. First there was Emmett Jolteon, whose electric powers were reflected perfectly in his skin color and his wardrobe, which consisted entirely of clothes that had perfectly geometric shapes to them. Next up, you had Elfred Espeon, or Freddy as everyone called him. He was on the force with Eric, but that didn’t mean he was exempt from the curious scrutiny people extended to the family. Firstly, he possessed a red jewel on his forehead that everyone joked made him related to Mimi Ampharos, the owner of the nearby diner. He always managed to laugh it off, though. What he had more trouble laughing off, though, were the jokes that he was gay. His pink, velvety fur certainly didn’t help with this image. But Eric wouldn’t dream of moving him to anything else, even without taking into account their familial ties. After all, Freddy’s psychic powers made police work exponentially easier. And finally, there was Emest Glaceon, the blue-haired, cold-hearted banker of the family. Well, ‘cold-hearted’ was a bit much, but Eric only said that because he knew better.

As the three piled out of the room, Emest tripped over his long blue hair and soon the three were on the floor, laughing. Eric couldn’t help himself but laugh along with them. Unfortunately, the laughter woke the twins and they began to cry again. Estelle just rocked the two back and forth in her arms, using her feelers to get a bottle of milk from the fridge. Eric always felt sorry for his sister. Their parents’ deaths were hardest on the pink haired, blue eyed 19-year-old. She busied herself with being a fake mom to her younger siblings and working as a waitress at Mimi’s.

“Hey, we have to work tomorrow, right?” Elfred asked, rubbing his shoulder from the fall.

“Well, I have to work, I know that,” Emmett sighed. “I have to wire up the street we’re going to live on once our house is done.”

“Yeah, we do have to work tomorrow.” Eric suddenly remembered.

“Don’t look at me. I took that day off last Friday, so I have to work tomorrow.” Emest interjected, not being very helpful.

The four turned to Estelle.

“Saturday is my biggest working day! I get so many tips!” Estelle exclaimed indignantly. “I have college classes tomorrow after my shifts anyways.”

Eric sighed. “I know Egon has to work the night shift at Mimi’s,” he said aloud to himself.

“Oh! Elwood has that meeting with Dinah.” Elfred added.

The family sighed together. Except for the twins, who had no idea what sighing was, let alone how to do it.

“I’ll text Carina to babysit tomorrow if she doesn’t mind. Too bad the daycare closes on Saturday.” Estelle quipped.

==

Connor sat up in bed, sighing as he blankly stared up at the ceiling in his apartment. Another sleepless night filled with nightmares. He could never really string anything together from them, but he always felt as if they had something to them. They were like little, fractured memories, but from another person, in another life. He allowed his alarm to ring before stretching his way back into a functioning mentality for work, his wings unfurled and stretched out farther than he could with his arms. That always managed to wake him up for some reason.

As he got ready for work at the local diner, Connor looked at his reflection in the mirror. His tanned skin was beading with sweat, bags clung underneath his blue eyes. He couldn’t remember what his last nightmare had been about, but it must’ve been a doozie this time. At least his sharp teeth were white and shiny still. Connor looked at his clock to see he only had thirty minutes to get ready. “Dang!” Connor hissed, quickly combing through his twin orange mohawks with his fingers. Thankfully he had his lucky apron at work still, so all he needed to put on was a shirt and pants.

Dressed for work, Connor stepped out of his apartment. If Square Apartments did not make doors that only the sun could melt, his tail would have melted the door right off. Despite how it inconvenienced him at times, though, Connor never would’ve given it up for anything. His tail was the main reason that Connor even had the job at Mimi’s Diner. He was always able to get the ovens to work thanks to his always-lit tail.

“Connor!” A familiar voice called from the neighboring apartment.

“Hey, Bram!” Connor grinned, clearly still a bit drowsy. The green haired man smiled as Connor spotted him. Under his pink baseball cap, matching pink shirt, and white tie was the best sports player in COCville. Basketball, football, baseball; if it was a sport, he could play it, and if he could play it, he could be good at it.

“Hey, it’s supposed to be cold out today,” Bram said as he approached his friend, fumbling with a fresh-looking jacket. “I have a spare jacket, you want one?’

“Oh, no thanks, I don’t have to worry about jackets.” Connor bragged.

“Yeah, yeah, thanks to that tail of yours, got it.” Bram sighed. “You know jackets can be pretty comfortable.”

“I know. I just like being special.”

“And you’re not without it?”

Connor chuckled. “Well, I am pretty cool without it, I guess.”

“Yeah, right. You and I both know you’re nothing without that flaming tail of yours,” Bram replied with a smirk.

“Hey, shut up, shrub kraken, it’s too early in the morning.”

Bram burst out laughing. “’Shrub kraken’, huh? Guess you didn’t sleep well.”

Connor replied only with a long yawn as they headed outside. “How’s Sam doing?” Connor asked with a slight annoyance in his voice.

“Oh, he’s fine. I tried telling him that last week wasn’t your fault, but he’s a stubborn guy. Doesn’t help that he puts out fires for a living.” Bram sighed. “He’ll get over himself eventually.”

==

Sam slipped into his blue jeans while trying not to fall over, planning out his day all the while. Today was Friday, the day he and the other firefighters went out to Mimi’s for lunch. That would mean seeing Connor. Sam growled at the burned hole in his great-grandmother’s rug. Deep down he knew that Connor didn’t mean to ruin Sam’s favorite rug. It still hurt though. Sam planned out his petty revenge – avoid Connor at all costs. It would be hard to do that if he was going to his workplace, though! Connor and Sam were best friends, mainly only because Bram insisted on getting the three to hang out together. Connor was a nice guy, sure. A little hotheaded, though.

At six thirty, he heard Ethan’s little passing knock on his door. Ethan would do that every morning to make sure that Sam was up, which he usually was. Sam texted him an emoticon to let him know that he was indeed awake.

Sam did his best to straighten up before rubbing at his back. This humongous shell sure made his life difficult sometimes. On the plus side, he mused, it is a pretty convenient place for Blast and Squirt. Sam remembered the day he got the license to carry his pistols. While some may find it odd that a firefighter carried as much firepower as a regular cop, Sam felt justified by the level of preparedness their presence on his person provided. Anything could happen, so why leave anything to chance? Did this make him paranoid? Maybe. But probably not, he reassured himself as he slipped on his coat. Besides, very few people outside of the local government knew about his babies.

Sam felt the phone vibrate in his palm, which knocked him out of his early-morning trance. He glanced down at the small screen to see that it was a text from Amber Arcanine. Those two words – Amber Arcanine – sent a shiver down Sam’s spine. A pleasurable one though. Sam kept trying to convince himself that he did NOT have a crush on her, that it was all just a platonic thing. There was no way Amber would agree to a date with Sam. They belonged to types diametrically opposed to one another by nature – water and fire. They belonged to entirely different egg groups as well. If either one of them wanted children, they would either have to cheat or adopt. Sam pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as he answered Amber’s text.

Fires rarely happened in COCville. People were usually careful with fire. The people you had to watch out for were the Charizards. Every generation produced at least one catastrophic fire. Carl Charizard, that shiny old coot, once lit a fire in a water park. Princess Cassie had to shut down the water park just because of all the damage. The new princess rarely had time to discuss such things. It had been hard for her thanks to the loss of her best friends and daughter in a car accident. Sam wondered how she could even smile anymore. Another thought he decided to push to the back of his mind as he finished readying himself for the day and stepping out into the hall.

==

Connor and Bram breathed in the crisp morning air as they headed towards Bram’s truck. The family of Eevees from across the hall, the Evens family, were basically wrangling each other into a giant passenger van across from them. Or, rather, it only seemed that way because of all their chattering. It sounded like they were trying to one-up each other with what they had to do at work that day. The two friends looked over at each other and shrugged as they climbed into the truck.

“When Carina and I get married, I’m getting rid of this old gas guzzler.” Bram sighed, mainly to himself. He used his vines to buckle his seat belt while revving the car. It was thanks to Bram’s job as a coach to all the COCville children that he met his girlfriend Carina Meganium.

Connor chuckled over the clicking of his own seatbelt. “You haven’t even asked her yet. You got the ring?”

“I’m still looking. I’m waiting for the perfect ring to come in from the CWCville mall. It should be here any day now.” Bram said while backing out of the parking lot.

“It’s the flower-shaped one with pink and white diamonds, isn’t it?” Connor asked.

“Of course! Thankfully she and I have the same favorite colors… If she says no, I’ll keep the ring for myself.” Bram chuckled.

“Sometimes, Bram, I swear you were meant to be a girl.” Connor sighed.

“Hey, men can like pink!” Bram exclaimed. They were already closing in on Mimi’s diner.

“Don’t get so offended,” Connor said with a grin.

Bram pulled into the diner’s parking lot. Using one of his vines, he unlocked Connor’s door.

“Bye, Connor!” Bram said. “Don’t burn any hearts!”

Connor chuckled and got out of the truck, closing the door behind him.

==

Bram leaned up in his car seat a bit, using one of his vines to readjust the rearview mirror. He had just finished dropping off Connor at Mimi’s. Bram shifted the truck’s gears before breathing in deeply to contain himself. Glancing down at his phone, he reread the text message from Camilla Cinccino: “Your ring came in today!” the digital message read. Even as he reread it for the fifth time, it still made his heart skip a beat.

He had been planning this engagement for a long time, ever since they first discussed what they wanted for their future together. A happy marriage, a house, some children, turns out they both wanted all that. Ever since learning this, Bram only really wanted to bring Carina’s dreams to life. He knew that this engagement would probably be a long one since he was just a coach for COCville’s children and she was a high school teacher who would babysit on the weekends. But there really wasn’t a better time for him to propose. They both just got raises from work thanks to Princess Buttercup fighting for higher pay for city social workers, particularly those in educational services like Bram and Carina were.

A few short moments later, he pulled into the school parking lot, and there he saw Carina about to walk into the building. “Carrie!” Bram called, jumping out of the car.

Carina turned to face him and smiled, recognizing his voice. That smile, even after three years of dating, melted his heart every time. Her yellow eyes glistened in the sun like dabs of amber. Her blonde hair was done up in two pigtails which were tied off with white hair scrunchies and ended just above her lucky scarf – a pink and white flower-shaped accessory that she swore gave her good luck. Her light green pantsuit finished the look.

She looked around to make sure no one was looking before she ran up to him and trapped Bram in a great big hug. “Bramie-boo!” She cooed, using her secret nickname for him. Bram had learned to love it, ever since the two were teenagers – him just an Ivysaur-looking boy and her a Bayleef-looking girl. It was meant as an insult since the two of them staunchly hated each other as teens. He was on the basketball team, she was in the science club. It wasn’t until they were in the same college Botany class that they realized they both had the same passion for science. While Carina was proud of it, Bram kept it hidden since he was COCville’s golden athlete.

Before Bram could compliment her, Carina looked down at her watch and saw the time.

“Sorry, I gotta go!” Carina said. “Dinner is still at Mimi’s tonight, six?”

Bram only nodded, too tongue-tied for words. The reminder of his proposal plan reignited his anxiety. Carina was so perfect, she deserved a perfect proposal. After Carina went inside, Bram headed over to the gym’s entrance to start another day.

==

It took an hour and ten minutes to get everyone where they needed to go. Estelle was dropped off at the college’s library so she could study and socialize. Egon would pick her up when he went to work. Elwood got dropped off at the palace to do the gardening there, then he walks to the park. Emmett was dropped off a little ways from the palace, on the spot that their house was being built. Then Emest got dropped off at the bank, Ethan was dropped off at the fire station, and Eric and Elfred got out to head to the police station. Egon drove the twins back home and would take care of them while everyone else was at work. Figuring out that part always took a while with this family. Eric sighed at the thought of the day’s logistics.

Elfred noticed his brother’s distress. “Hey, at least we got all that out of the way, right?”

Eric turned to his brother, a bit confused. “I thought you couldn’t read my mind.”

“I can’t. It’s just easy to see how hard you and Estelle push yourselves.”

Eric could only nod at this. He could tell that his brother was trying to make him feel better about everything. He and the others noticed, he pretty much just admitted this. He was more than happy to do the things he did for the family, and he was sure that Estelle did too. And it wasn’t like they were the only two looking out for everyone else. However, sometimes it felt like so much.

Elfred placed his arm over his brother’s shoulder. “Well, maybe you’ll feel better once you see the election results.”

Eric gulped. He’d submitted his name to the ballot for the police chief elections. There really wasn’t much competition, but the little bit that was there made Eric feel the least qualified for the job. But he felt like he had to. He loved working for the city, and was pretty sure that he was well-known enough to get votes. He was also quick to learn the ropes, and it certainly helped that the job would pay well. “Honestly, bro, I think Mr. Heishiro’s getting it.”

Elfred only smiled mysteriously. He could see into the future, so Eric knew that he already saw the results. He patted his brother on the shoulder. “Guess you’ll be finding out soon.”

==

Mimi Ampharos, the owner of the diner and Connor’s boss, stood at the door, fumbling with her keys. Her yellow hair was done in two buns on either side of her head tied off with black bows. She wore a simple white dress with an apron of red over it. Maybe cursing under her breath, her black eyes glared into the lock, as if trying to get it open through sheer will alone. Apparently she was going at this for a little while, because the orb on her tail was blinking with each particularly sharp syllable uttered. If Mimi was not a happily married woman with a child of her own, Connor would have liked to ask her out.

“Hey, boss.” Connor grinned.

“Oh! Connor,” Mimi turned quickly and flashed a smile at him. The odd red dot on her forehead was still there, as always. She said it was a religious thing. Connor kept meaning to ask her more about it but always forgot. “Early again.”

Connor smiled and watched while Mimi fumbled with more keys. If he offered any help, she would have angrily told him that she could handle it. Mimi had to fend for herself until she met her husband Mano Girafarig, an odd man with a black tail that had a strange face on the end. The two hit it off and were the first married couple in COCville in a decade. Connor knew they had a daughter named Momo Flaafy, but the only other thing he knew was that she preferred texting to schoolwork.

“I have to pick Momo up from school today again. Egon will be here at three to do his shift. I just need you to make sure the transfer goes over well. At least he’ll get to work with those two siblings of his at last. Like he’s been whining about. Satsuki should be here by now…” Mimi sighed.

“Don’t worry, she’ll show up,” Connor stated. Satsuki was a girl that had several traits of a bat, like wings and large ears, as well as a natural collar of fur and a heart-shaped nose. She was also what most people call a weeaboo; she loved – no, obsessed – about Japan. She was usually upbeat, fun and carefree, but ever since the death of her girlfriend, Battina Zubat, she had become sullen. The once studious and punctual worker started coming late to work.

Mimi finally got the locks to the diner opened and the two got to work. As opening time closed in, Mimi feared to have to triple her duties as manager, cashier, and waitress until Satsuki finally showed up.

==

Sam walked to work, as he usually did. Unlike Connor and Bram, there really wasn’t a point in him driving. As a firefighter, you have to stay fit! Besides, he didn’t mind the looks he got from some of COCville’s single ladies. Sam was once named in the paper as one of the most eligible bachelors in COCville. Maybe one day he’ll work up the courage to talk to one of those single ladies out there. He never said so out loud, but between the nerves he got from talking to a woman and the nerves he got from rushing head-first into a blazing building, he’d choose the blazing building. Heck, he’d stand in the fire! Wait, I’m a Water Type, bad example.

Just as he’d resolved to get Amber Arcanine off his mind and stop worrying about all that, he turned the corner and nearly walked straight into her. The young woman looked up and smiled at him. “Oh, hey, Sam!” Sam blushed on the inside.

“Amber, come on!” Ethan Evens called from inside the building. “You’re going to let the cold air out!”

Amber rolled her eyes. Ethan had this habit of turning the AC up all the way to its coldest setting, while Amber would turn on the hot air when she could. Sam didn’t really care for either temperature, but he did find the whole situation funny. All he needed to be satisfied was lunch, not too much stress, and good pay, all of which firefighting in COCville provided.

The two entered the building, Amber taking her spot at dispatch, while Sam and Ethan headed towards the rec hall in the back of the building. Sam thought she was perfect for the job. She had a way of being pleasant to pretty much everyone, and was the best communicator on the force, hands down.

“Not gonna hang out with us today, Amber?” Sam asked. “Probably not missing anything.”

“No, not today. I’m working on college stuff today and I need the quiet.” Amber replied with a smile.

“Oh? You’re going back to college?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, it’s just something my parents wanted me to.”

“Um… how old are you again?” Sam felt a little stupid for not knowing Amber’s true age. He had guessed she was 25 at the least. Please don’t tell me you’re eighteen.

Amber glanced over her shoulder at Sam, still smiling. “You know, it’s kind of rude to ask a woman’s age.”

Shoot. Sam erupted into a bright shade of red and began stammering unconsciously. Form words and explain yourself, idiot!

Amber giggled. “Sam, calm down, I was teasing.”

Sam breathed a sigh of relief and tried to regain his composure. “Oh.” He felt himself continue to blush. The smile she was giving him didn’t help for some reason.

“And to answer your question, I’m 23.”

Sam sighed in relief once again, but not for the reason Amber probably thought it was. Thank goodness, she’s not 18. If she was, he would’ve felt like a creep. If he was going to date someone, he wanted to be sure they’d at least be mature- the latest social app coming out didn’t exactly strike him as interesting conversation. He’d felt that way since high school, and he didn’t think he’d change his opinion.

“Oh, okay. Cool! Um… what time are you leaving for lunch at Mimi’s?” Sam asked. He was secretly hoping Ethan hadn’t already asked her. Ethan had a clear suspicion that Sam liked Amber and he tried to keep the two apart. Something about trying to get Sam to fess up to his feelings. That kid was strange.

“I was thinking about leaving at 11:30.” Amber grinned, showing off her pearly white fangs.

“You, uh, y’know, want to head over together?”

“Sure, why not? Good time to discuss the Princess’ new budget coming up.” Amber chirped.

Sam thanked her, nodded, and headed to the back of the building to hang out with Ethan. Man, she’s going to college.

Sam found Ethan lying upside-down on one of the recliners, his mermaid tail curled around his head and a wry smile on his face. “When are you going to tell her, dude?” Ethan asked.

“Tell who what?” Sam casually scoffed without even looking at Ethan, hoping not to betray anything.

“Look, if you never tell Ambear how you feel, she’ll just find someone else.” Ethan knew Amber since the two were in high school, and had his own nickname for her. “Good-looking girl like her, won’t even be that hard for her. Smart, confident, very friendly. Guys love that kind of crap.”

Sam sighed, trying his best to ignore Ethan’s teasing, and took the seat on the couch opposite him. “We’re so different, though, Ethan. She’s going to college, and I didn’t even start.-”

“La, la, la. Excuses, excuses.”

“Look, some guys just find the girls with so much going for them to be a bit intimidating, that’s all.”

“Aww, is Sammy scared of his own crush?”

Sam sighed and covered his face with his left hand in exasperation. “Everyone’s picking on me today.” He noticed Ethan’s smug, probing stare, and glared at him for an entire minute before groaning angrily. “Alright, fine, I’m a little skittish about it! Happy?”

Ethan adjusted his position. “Yep.”

“Well, stop rush me about this, okay? My relationships with fire types always tend to go up in flames.”

“So still not talking to Connor, are you?” Ethan said, falling onto the floor so he could sit cross-legged in front of Sam. “Tsk, tsk, tsk!”

“He burned my rug!” Sam whined.

“He was your best friend!” Ethan replied harshly, straightening his collar. “Promise me you’ll talk to him.”

“Fine,” Sam said begrudgingly.

Ethan sighed and got up, turning the television on in the process.

“Wanna play some video games?” Ethan asked.

“Nah, I’d rather not get fired if Ms. Delcatty comes by.” Sam mused, stretching out.

“Pfft. You’re no fun, Sam. No wonder Ambear would rather go out with me.” Ethan teased.

Sam grabbed a pillow off the couch and smacked Ethan with it across the head. He didn’t hit the kid that hard, but Ethan still yelled out in surprise.

“Dude, that’s so mean! Why’d you do that?”

“Stop it, Ethan.”

“Stop what? I didn’t do anything to get you mad at me.”

Sam glared at him and stood back up. He was going to see what work needed to be done around the station. Ethan, meanwhile, satisfied that he’d annoyed his friend enough, turned and grabbed the Nintendo 64 controller sitting beside him.

==

As Eric sat at his desk, he kept thinking about the hectic way his morning went. For three years he had been running the house, doing his best to make the best life not only for himself but for his siblings. He wondered what their lives will be like when they finally get everything in order. What it was like to actually run a household. In a house. God, he couldn’t wait until their house was finished.

Eric expected another quiet day like usual, so he reached for the day’s newspaper. Odd; he didn’t remember it being there a few minutes ago. He shrugged it off, though, remembering back to what Elfred said earlier. Maybe he put it there; he clearly wanted him to see what was up with the election.

COCville Daily ~ Police Chief Election Results are In!

Election officials have confirmed the end of their counting process, and have determined the winner of the election for the position of COCville Chief of Police. The head of the election committee, The Honorable Norris Noctowl, agreed to an interview with Rita Raticate, where she delivered the results herself.

“After carefully counting the votes fourteen times, as is our custom, we’ve determined that our next police chief will be Eric Evens.”

Eric fell over backwards out of his chair. He read the sentence over four times before continuing.

“52% of the eligible population voted. Chief Evens won by a landslide, gaining 63% of all the votes. Mr. Heishiro Mitsurugi earned a comfortable second place at 20%, while Setasuka got 11% and Xaldin got 6%.”

Princess Buttercup Wilson released an official statement congratulating our new police chief. “The people of COCville are proud to call you our new police chief. We’re sure that you’ll do a wonderful job keeping us all safe. Chief Evens, I look forward to your inauguration tomorrow morning.”

The ceremony where Evens will be sworn in as police chief, as the Princess said, will be held tomorrow-

Eric stopped reading and stood up to find Mr. Heishiro, as everyone called him. He wanted to be sure, this was such a big shock that there had to be a mistake. But when he spoke to the man, he learned that there was indeed no mistake. “How did this even happen?” Eric asked, shocked.

“The people clearly liked the message you sent better than everyone else’s. You may be young, but you have vision. People know you, and know that you’re an honest man.”

“Well, everyone that ran’s honest.”

“That’s not my point.” The ex-ronin smiled at him. “My point is that you’re the best man for the job, plain and simple.”

Eric stared back down at the newspaper in his hands. He still couldn’t believe it. What this meant for his family….

“Your brother must’ve foresaw the results. Did he not tell you?”

“No, he kept it to himself. He did tell me I’d want to see them, though.”

“This is a proud day for you, yes?”

“Well, yeah, I’m thrilled!”

Mr. Heishiro smiled and shook his coworker’s hand. “Congratulations, Eric.”

“Thanks.” Eric was beaming. He couldn’t really say much else to the man.

“Well, I have paperwork to get through. In case I don’t see you again today, I look forward to seeing you swear in.”

Eric thanked the senior officer once again and returned to his desk. He won. He wasn’t sure if anything could ruin his day now. This more than made up for the cyclonic morning he’d been having so far. He sat back down and flipped through the paper again.

Ceasefire Declared in Lowee

The Gamindustri nation of Lowee declared a formal ceasefire this morning, marking the end of a seventeen hour siege from Planeptune. Formal statements from the Basilicom have revealed that they received military aid from CWCville, which is currently also under attack from Planeptune.

Official statements from Magi-Chan Sonichu, on behalf of CWCville founder Christine Weston Chandler, were released late last night. “We have no ill will towards the people of Planeptune. Christine wants everyone to know that our real enemy is Kurome Ankokuboshi, the negative and evil version of Uzume, who is currently assisting Christine in every way she can. We have word that Count Graduon, who is working alongside Kurome to destroy CWCville, and is readying an attack as we speak. We urge all tourists and vacationers to evacuate the city and await the all-clear. We also have word that our agent, Silvana Rosechu, and the Goddess Neptunia, are currently escorting our Gamindustri contact to safety. They’ve encountered resistance, but they should soon be enjoying the safety of CWCville later today.” The last statement lines up with otherwise random sightings across the United States.

Eric folded up the newspaper and placed it back next to his desk. Nothing else of interest in the news, apparently. He and his siblings had a theory that the Daily reported the news from neighboring universes whenever it had no local news to fill up their pages, something that must happen often based on how much of that material made it into the news. Then again, it made sense diplomatically why they’d do that. COCville relied more on its technological advancements and the trades that its citizens provided for interdimensional commerce, so whatever made visitors feel more at home was considered a good thing. Or that was what he thought, anyway. He reached over for the picture of his smiling parents. He held the picture close as he fought back tears. Tears of joy and pride for his accomplishment, and tears of sadness because he could never know how his parents would feel about it. They probably would’ve been proud, though. “I love you, mom and dad,” he whispered before beginning his long day properly.

[cocvillereloaded-blog]

Chapter 1- Just another Day in Paradise

Connor sat up in bed, sighing as he blankly stared up at the ceiling in his apartment. Another sleepless night filled with nightmares. He could never really string anything together from them, but he always felt as if they had something to them. They were like little, fractured memories, but from another person, in another life. He allowed his alarm to ring before stretching his way back into a functioning mentality for work, his wings unfurled and stretched out farther than he could with his arms. That always managed to wake him up for some reason.

As he got ready for work at the local diner, Connor looked at his reflection in the mirror. His tanned skin was beading with sweat, bags clung underneath his blue eyes. He couldn’t remember what his last nightmare had been about, but it must’ve been a doozie this time. At least his sharp teeth were white and shiny still. Connor looked at his clock to see he only had thirty minutes to get ready. “Dang!” Connor hissed, quickly combing through his twin orange mohawks with his fingers. Thankfully he had his lucky apron at work still, so all he needed to put on was a shirt and pants.

Dressed for work, Connor stepped out of his apartment. If Square Apartments did not make doors that only the sun could melt, his tail would have melted the door right off. Despite how it inconvenienced him at times, though, Connor never would’ve given it up for anything. His tail was the main reason that Connor even had the job at Mimi’s Diner. He was always able to get the ovens to work thanks to his always-lit tail. 

 “Connor!” A familiar voice called from the neighboring apartment.

“Hey, Bram!” Connor grinned, clearly still a bit drowsy. The green haired man smiled as Connor spotted him. Under his pink baseball cap, matching pink shirt, and white tie was the best sports player in COCville. Basketball, football, baseball; if it was a sport, he could play it, and if he could play it, he could be good at it.

“Hey, it’s supposed to be cold out today,” Bram said as he approached his friend, fumbling with a fresh-looking jacket. “I have a spare jacket, you want one?’

“Oh, no thanks, I don’t have to worry about jackets.” Connor bragged.

“Yeah, yeah, thanks to that tail of yours, got it.” Bram sighed. “You know jackets can be pretty comfortable.”

“I know. I just like being special.” 

 “And you’re not without it?” 

 Connor chuckled. “Well, I am pretty cool without it, I guess.”

“Yeah, right. You and I both know you’re nothing without that flaming tail of yours,” Bram replied with a smirk.

“Hey, shut up, shrub kraken, it’s too early in the morning.”

Bram burst out laughing. “’Shrub kraken’, huh? Guess you didn’t sleep well.”

Connor replied only with a long yawn as they headed outside. “How’s Sam doing?” Connor asked with a slight annoyance in his voice.

“Oh, he’s fine. I tried telling him that it wasn’t your fault you burned his rug, but he’s a stubborn guy. Doesn’t help that he puts out fires for a living.” Bram sighed. “He’ll get over himself eventually.”

Connor buckled his seat belt after getting comfortable in Bram’s car.

“When Carina and I get married, I’m getting rid of this old gas guzzler.” Bram sighed, mainly to himself. He used his vines to buckle his seat belt while revving the car. It was thanks to Bram’s job as a coach to all the COCville children that he met his girlfriend Carina Meganium.

Connor chuckled. “You haven’t even asked her yet. You got the ring?”

“I’m still looking. I’m waiting for the perfect ring to come in from the CWCville mall. It should be here any day now.” Bram said while backing out of the parking lot.

“It’s the flower-shaped one with pink and white diamonds, isn’t it?” Connor asked.

“Of course! Thankfully she and I have the same favorite colors… If she says no, I’ll keep the ring for myself.” Bram chuckled. 

 “Sometimes, Bram, I swear you were meant to be a girl.” Connor sighed. 

 “Hey, men can like pink!” Bram exclaimed. They were already closing in on Mimi’s diner. 

 “Don’t get so offended,” Connor said with a grin.

Bram pulled into the diner’s parking lot. Using one of his vines, he unlocked Connor’s door. 

 “Bye, Connor!” Bram said. 

“Don’t burn any hearts!” Connor chuckled and got out of the truck, closing the door behind him. Mimi Ampharos, the owner of the diner and Connor’s boss, stood at the door, fumbling with her keys. Her yellow hair was done in two buns on either side of her head tied off with black bows. She wore a simple white dress with an apron of red over it. Maybe cursing under her breath, her black eyes glared into the lock, as if trying to get it open through sheer will alone. Apparently she was going at this for a little while, because the orb on her tail was blinking with each particularly sharp syllable uttered. If Mimi was not a happily married woman with a child of her own, Connor would have liked to ask her out. 

“Hey, boss.” Connor grinned. 

 “Oh! Connor,” Mimi turned quickly and flashed a smile at him. The odd red dot on her forehead was still there, as always. She said it was a religious thing. Connor kept meaning to ask her more about it but always forgot. “Early again.” Connor smiled and watched while Mimi fumbled with more keys. If he offered any help, she would have angrily told him that she could handle it. Mimi had to fend for herself until she met her husband Mano, an odd man with a black tail that had a strange face on the end. The two hit it off and were the first married couple in COCville in a decade. Connor knew they had a daughter named Momo, but the only other thing he knew was that she preferred texting to schoolwork. 

“I have to pick Momo up from school today again. Egon will be here at three to do his shift. I just need you to make sure the transfer goes over well. At least he’ll get to work with those two siblings of his at last. Like he’s been whining about. Satsuki should be here by now…” Mimi sighed. 

 “Don’t worry, she’ll show up,” Connor stated. Satsuki was a girl that had several traits of a bat, like wings and large ears, as well as a natural collar of fur and a heart-shaped nose. She was also what most people call a weeaboo; she loved – no, obsessed – about Japan. She was usually upbeat, fun and carefree, but ever since the death of her girlfriend, Battina Zubat, she had become sullen. The once studious and punctual worker started coming late to work. 

 Mimi finally got the locks to the diner opened and the two got to work. As opening time closed in, Mimi feared to have to triple her duties as manager, cashier, and waitress until Satsuki finally showed up. The rest of the day went normally. The entire firefighting squad came in for their weekly lunch. Sam, still holding a childish grudge, ignored Connor when he waved. Amber Arcanine, a fellow fire type, shrugged at Connor when she noticed it. Ethan, the brother of Egon, got Sam to smile at least. It was so odd to see a firefighter with a mermaid-esque tail and a frill around his neck right out of the Elizabethan age. Then again, looking odd was the Even family’s specialty. When you come from the largest and weirdest family in town, looking normal is hard to do. The Even family was the Eevee family of the town. Only two things reminded Connor that they were all related – their weird ears (pointed and large) and how they constantly talked about their other family members. 

 Speaking of the Even family, Egon and one of his brothers showed up for work.

 “Egon, I have to leave in thirty minutes,” Mimi said after the typical greetings. 

“Oh, alright.” Egon sighed. His slightly red tinted skin glowed under the dim lightbulbs. Connor was secretly jealous of his hair – Egon had a tuft of fuzzy yellow hair on his head that must have required a jar of styling gel to keep in place. Egon’s bushy tail was also a point of envy for Connor, mainly because any tail that didn’t burn everything around him was better than one that did. “You clock out in thirty minutes, okay?” Mimi told Connor. Connor nodded and flipped a burger. 

Egon took his spot beside him and began to cook the next order on the line. The two weren’t the closest or best of friends, but they got along pretty well. 

 Satsuki suddenly burst into the kitchen, her wings flapping and a look of great excitement on her face. “Dinah’s here! She wants to see you, Connor!” She exclaimed.  

This Dinah was Dinah Delcatty, assistant to none other than COCville’s next leader Princess Buttercup. Connor put down his spatula, nodded at Egon then walked out to the dining area, where Dinah was waiting. 

 Dinah was an accomplished model before she became Princess Buttercup’s assistant. Her lightly tan skin contrasted beautifully with the light purple dress she had on. Rumors said she had a new dress for each day and never wore the same dress twice. Connor wasn’t sure if this was true, but then again he wasn’t surprised if it was. After all, working for the princess had to have its perks. Her purple hair was dwarfed by her giant cat ears. Her dainty tail with a flower-like shape on the end never did anything Dinah didn’t want it to. She had a scarf on that looked like purple fur around her neck while her black eyes shimmered underneath thick lashes.

“Connor Charizard?” Dinah said in a posh accent. No man, not even Connor, could resist Dinah’s charms. 

 “Yes, that’s me,” Connor replied stupidly, getting nervous.

“I have some bad news. Your uncle, Carl Charizard, has passed away last night.” Dinah said gently. 

 Connor was shocked. Carl was his closest family member. He blinked as if he felt if he did it hard enough, it would all go away. Connor’s parents lived up in the mountains far away, and he only got to see them for holidays. Carl, while he lived in town, was the black sheep of the family. Literally, this time too, since Carl was that scientist guy Bill called a Shiny Charizard. 

 “I am sorry for your loss, as is Princess Buttercup,” Dinah stated gently. “Your uncle left you this.” 

 Dinah handed Connor an envelope. On the back was the Charizard family seal. Connor’s family was one of the oldest in COCville, going all the way back to the Middle Ages.

Connor opened it up, not hesitant at all. Inside the envelope was 5,576,620 Pokédollars. Connor’s jaw almost dropped to the floor at seeing all this money. He quickly closed the envelope up before anyone else could see it. 

 “The will states that in order for you to keep that, you must take over your uncle’s position as patron to the COCville Opera. He’s already set aside a bank account that will automatically donate money to them. All you have to do is show up to the Opera tonight.” Dinah added.

 “But I don’t have tickets! The Opera always sells out of tickets on opening night.” Connor protested. 

 “They’re in the envelope,” Dinah smirked. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer. The Princess wishes that you have a good day, Mr. Charizard.”

Connor nodded, waved goodbye to her, then went to the kitchen so he could clock out. 

 As Connor began to walk down the street to his apartment, he debated over if that day was indeed the best or the worst day of his life.  

[cocvillereloaded-blog]

Prologue- Welcome to COCville

Author’s Note:

This story is in honor of Buttercup Wilson, or @1ov1yw3ath3r on Twitter. She began this story back in late November, and has since asked The Paper Goddess and me (@DespicableFool on Twitter) to finish it in her stead. Wherever she is now, I hope that we do COCville justice. Because I don’t have any notes from her or anything, I’ve been doing my best to interpret what she wanted with the story and going from there. Join me, now, as we explore the world that Buttercup Wilson has left for us to cherish and enjoy. 

 As it has for several years now, the sun slowly began to dip past the horizon, separating the sky between a cool, light blue and a cheery orange. The light spattering of cloud cover began to glow bright yellow as the sun passed behind them. This was a sight all too familiar to Buttercup. She smiled as she walked alongside her friends down the woodland trail towards town. The familiarity was welcome to her, not just from the sunset but from everything in her life. 

Familiarity brought stability, safety, and moments like tonight become all the more memorable and important because of it. She laughed a bit at her friend Pixel, a Vulpix/Hedgehog hybrid, as she chattered on about her excitement over Cassandra’s being officially declared the princess of COCville, their hometown. In fact, if she was being completely honest, Buttercup had tuned her out a bit. Pixel had been going on like this for almost a week now, so she probably wasn’t missing anything. Bless Pixel’s heart, but one of these days she’s going to end up dying from being worked up like this.

 “Ooh, ooh! How about nice, big homes for us all to live in?! Or- or how about nice, fun, easy jobs that pay us lots of money, working for you?! Actually, no, we don’t even have to work, right?!-“ Cassandra, the other human of the group, chuckled. 

“Pixel, I can’t just give you all money for doing nothing, that’s nepotism. But if you really want to, I can definitely find a job for you at the palace.” 

 “Besides,” Buttercup added, “we’ll still be friends. We can just visit Cassie whenever we like.” 

 Cassandra smiled. “Exactly.” 

 Pixel just continued to skip along, undeterred. “Oh, right. Sorry, I just can’t get over the fact that you’re the princess now!” She squealed and pounced on Cassandra in a hug. “Oh, I can’t believe it, I’m just so proud of you!” 

 “We all are, Pix!” Battina called from up ahead, as she continued to balance her way across tree branches above the path. “This isn’t that surprising, though. Cassie’s a smart girl. There’s no way she would’ve failed that written portion.” 

“That wasn’t a written exam, Batts, that was just our personal information.” Battina continued onward, almost absentmindedly, not even looking down. “Oh, was it?” She tapped the branch with her foot with a smart rap-rap. 

 “How about you come back down and join us, Batts?” Buttercup called up to her. 

 “Sure thing.” The Zubat/Hedgehog hybrid unfurled her wings and fluttered over to her friends, flapping as if with all her might and whistling all the way. Buttercup didn’t mind when she did this. After all, Battina couldn’t see with her bangs covering her eyes like they did. She was functionally blind, so she relied on her sonar abilities to figure out where she was. After a few attempts where she almost flew past them several times, she finally managed to land next to Buttercup and walk alongside the rest of the group.

 “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you. You guys got a check too, right?” 

 “A check? No, lemme see!” Pixel’s ears stood up as she let go of Cassandra. Battina held up a folded piece of paper and gave it to Pixel to read. Once she quickly looked it over, though, she giggled, flushing a bit as if in embarrassment. 

“Uh, Batts… This is-“ 

 “-The agenda, I know. I was just messing with you.” The friends all chuckled. Buttercup sunk back into her thoughts. It was hard to think that four years ago she and her friends were going to school back in CWCville. To be honest, she was glad to be gone from that place. It wasn’t exactly hell or anything, but at the same time they weren’t very nearly royalty over in CWCville. 

When they heard that this scientist named Bill had created his own city in a parallel universe, they all agreed that they would have better options for their lives over here instead. After all, what was there in CWCville for them? College and no jobs? No. As soon as the word spread and the city teleporter was up and running, she and Cassandra were some of the first to make the jump across universes. And as of today, they had absolutely no reason to regret that decision. It couldn’t get much better for them. Pixel sighed. “Oh, I can’t believe I have to go back to my day job after this. I’m not even going to be able to sleep tonight.” 

 “Wait, you sleep?” 

 “Ha, ha, Batts. Oh, Cassie, I bet you’ll be so bored after a while! You don’t have any responsibilities like we do.” 

 “Sure, I do. Running a city isn’t exactly something just anyone can do, you know.” “Yeah, you remember what that Bill guy said about it, right, Pixel?” 

“Uhh…” Buttercup shook her head and smiled. “Wow, Pix.” 

 “I’d roll my eyes at you if I had, any, Pix.” Battina lightly elbowed her friend in jest. 

 “Shut up.” Cassandra turned to Buttercup. “Oh, that reminds me. You remember what Bill said about successors and everything, right, Buttercup?”

 “Uh, yeah. What about it?” 

 “Well, Bill said that if I didn’t have one figured out for myself, then the job of running the city would go back to him. He made it sound like he didn’t really want it to turn out like that, so I’d rather have that figured out now.” 

 “Well, yeah, but that’s for when you die, isn’t it? Why the rush?”

 “I just want to be ready for anything, that’s all.” Battina nudged Pixel. “That’s our Cassie for ya.” 

Buttercup nodded. “Okay. So, who were you thinking?”

Cassandra smiled. “You.” 

 Buttercup blushed. “Wait, me?! Hold on.” 

 “What do you mean, ‘Hold on’, girl?” Pixel piped in. “You’d be the princess too!” 

“Well, yeah, but it’d be right after Cassie dies! I don’t know if I’d be capable of doing everything a princess needs to do right after one of my best friends dies.” 

“Oh, yeah.” 

 “Well, if you had the time to think about it, would you say yes?” Cassandra looked into her friend’s eyes expectantly. After a moment of silence, only undercut by their footsteps and Battina’s whistling, Buttercup sighed. 

“Well… Because you’re my friend… Sure.” 

Pixel clapped her hands. “Yay!” 

 Cassandra draped her hand over her friend’s shoulder. “Thanks. And, don’t worry. Like you said, we won’t have to worry about that for a while.” 

 Battina stopped whistling and wiggled her ears. “Why does something sound like metal?” 

 Cassandra looked ahead where Battina’s unseeing gaze was pointing. “Oh, that’s Bill’s lab! We’ve never been this way before.” “That means we’re not too far from town. This way, guys!” Buttercup called out as she led the way down the road.

                                                       ~ ==  ~

Bill pulled off his dress coat and began replacing it with his well-worn lab coat as he entered the laboratory, his assistant Namine standing ready and waiting as always. 

“Welcome back, sir. How’d it go?” 

 Bill sighed and accepted the clipboard Namine passed him. “As well as can be expected, I suppose. At the very least, I don’t have to worry about leading the city anymore.” 

 “Very good, sir.” 

 “And how are the Regicide Squad doing?” Bill turned at a scoff from across the room. An anthropomorphic, feline creature with yellow fur, sharp claws, and a long tail shaped like a lightning bolt was manipulating the dials on a large machine, his back turned to the humans.   “What’s bothering him this time?” 

 “He doesn’t really think “The Regicide Squad” is a good name for them.” Bill turned back to the creature. 

“And what do you think would be a better name, Zeraora?” Zeraora glanced over his shoulder at his creator. “The Talos Four.” 

 Bill met his creation’s glance with his own, unreadable as always. “Duly noted.” He turned back to Namine. “So, how are they?” 

 “Their vitals are holding, and genetic splicing has been a success. No side effects as of yet.” 

 “Good. Let’s wake them up.” 

 “Well, not so fast, sir.” 

 “What’s the matter?” Zeraora turned to face him this time. 

“We’ve run the simulations like you told us, and we think there’s a 70% chance of them going completely insane once they wake up.”

 Bill furrowed his brow and lowered his gaze deep in thought. This was certainly unexpected. “We weren’t sure whether you wanted us to keep going with this, or what, sir.” After a moment of thought, “… What if we gave them neuroleptics?” 

Namine shook her head. “We don’t have any more, sir.”  

“What do we have?” 

 Zeraora gave him a list, which he scrutinized carefully. After gazing at it as if trying to catch it on fire, he finally got it. “Mix these together.” He pointed at five different items on the list, which he gave back to Zeraora. Zeraora snatched it from his hand and examined it. 

 Namine thought carefully. “Are you sure it’ll work?” 

 “Positive. What’re the chances of the subjects having psychotic episodes now?”  

Zeraora approached a computer and typed something in with his large clawed fingers. “… 20%.” 

 “Good enough for me. Let’s get on it.” Namine snuck a concerned look at Zeraora, who returned in kind, and headed to grab the items Bill ordered. 

                                                      ~ ==  ~

 The girls laughed at a joke that Battina just finished telling when they turned a corner towards town. From where they stood, their home was in clear view. 

“Hey, there it is!” Pixel yelped as she caught sight of their home. 

 “Oh, of course,” Battina replied, her face turned slightly away from where everyone else was looking.

 “And look at that, it’s closer than you thought, Buttercup.” 

 “It really is, actually.” Battina perked up and twitched her ears. “Wait, really?” 

Cassandra giggled. “Yeah, it’s only about a quarter mile from here.” 

 Just then, the night was pierced by a loud crack, followed by a thud and a loud rustling in the bushes behind them. Buttercup, Cassandra, and Pixel all jumped and yelled out in surprise, while Battina just perked up, twitched her ears, and turned towards the others in confusion. 

“The hell was that?” But nobody could answer her, because a rumbling erupted from behind them in the direction of the lab, where they could hear indistinct, inhuman yelling. 

                                                      ~ ==  ~

 No. No, no, no, this was all wrong! Bill typed furiously into the console, giving it every command it had, but nothing was doing any good. The injections had failed, and the subjects were going ballistic. 

 “Tranquilization Procedure Tau-6 unsuccessful! ... They’ve pulled themselves from their restraints!” Namine continued calling out these status updates, which of course did nothing to help, but Bill didn’t think this was the time for getting annoyed. Not in an emergency like this. Zeraora grunted and looked around, clearly antsy. 

 “Pacification Procedure Theta-4 unsuccessful-!” Namine screamed as the wall broke directly behind her, belching out a maimed robotic humanoid torn from above the waist to come to a screeching halt on the other side of the room. 

The decimated robot could only call out “Follow my lead as we continue to take slow, dee-eee-ep breath-breath-br-br….” in a distorted, dying tone. Zeraora tensed up and grunted, looking to Bill to give him an order. 

 Namine tried to regain her composure and began in a shaky voice. “Bill, talk to me, what do you want me to try next? I was thinking we can try the knockout gas-“ 

 “The Regicide Squad don’t have respiratory systems anymore, that won’t-“ Bill couldn’t finish his sentence as he was lurched forward, as if the floor itself was rebelling against him. 

 And that was when the yelling started, and it sounded worse than he’d feared. “OH, GOD, WHAT DID THEY DO TO ME?!” 

“THAT’S NOT MY FACE!! WHERE’S MY FACE?!!” 

“WHO DID THIS TO ME??! I’LL KILL YOU!!!” 

Bill could feel his pupils dilating. How could things have gone this badly? “Sir, we might want to leave,” Namine suggested. “We’ve done all we can, but at this point, I think we-“ She didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence before a gargantuan white tube-like arm demolished what remained of the wall and nearly crushed the hapless humans. The gargantuan horror attached to this three-fingered arm let out a hopeless wail, completely drowning out Namine’s screams. Bill glanced underneath the arm through the hole and watched as his creation raised its other arm to cover two blank, empty holes in what could be considered the monster’s face where eyes would be located for humans, wailing as it does so as it notices that the other five holes along the golden centerpiece running down its front also acted as eyes. He took in its entire being, examining as best he could the six gemstones dotting its front, the black patterns across its body, the golden bands around its massive shoulders and wrists, before it retracted its arm from the room they were in and proceeded to stomp out of the building, treating the barriers before it as nothing more than wet tissue paper, wailing all the while. The three other golems wandered out behind it, continuing to yell, scream, and curse at the world as they went. 

 Bill was speechless, he felt numb. His expression was empty. Namine’s wasn’t, though; she had no trouble expressing her horror. “Oh, my God! What have we done?!” 

 Zeraora smirked and pounced at the hole. “Looks like I need to take initiative, then.” 

 Namine shook herself back to reality. “What? Wait, Zeraora, don’t! You’re not-!” But again, she found herself unable to finish her sentence as the Pokemon shot out after the Regicide Squad as if he were suddenly made of lightning. Still, Bill didn’t move. He had to figure out how to fix this.

                                                      ~ ==  ~

The girls stared on in horror and confusion as they watched this automaton-looking creature stomped past, apparently crying too hard to notice the utter destruction a single footstep left behind it. Pixel was hyperventilating. 

“Guys,” Battina asked quietly, “What was that?” 

 None of them could say anything, as suddenly another golem burst through the forest behind them, furiously swinging its club-like arms and swatting trees away as if they’d each insulted it personally. Unlike the last one, this golem was seemingly made patchwork from random rocks, had large shoulders that jutted up past its head, and had several orange dots in place of its face arranged in the shape of the letter “H”. It continued to stomp around on its comparatively stubby legs and yelled in a tinny, artificial-sounding voice. 

“I’M GOING TO KILL EVERY SINGLE PERSON I FIND UNTIL YOU FIX ME!!” 

Every single one of them screamed. But nobody screamed louder than Battina, who screamed loud enough to emit ultrasonic sound waves that visibly rattled the golem, much to its apparent displeasure. It stumbled around as if dizzy, and Battina took to flight, the visible parts of her face steeled with determination. 

“Pixel, help me out!” 

 “Uh, right!” Pixel planted her feet into the ground as her eyes glowed an ominous purple. “Cassie, Buttercup! Get somewhere safe!” Her eyes glowed brighter, and a large purple sphere appeared behind her, revealing a red eye in the middle. The eye released several dark purple waves of energy at the golem, which flailed around and yelled out as if agitated. Buttercup came to her senses first and pulled Cassandra along by the hand into the nearby bushes. 

Meanwhile, the golem rubbed its head with one of its clubbed hands and howled in anger, having successfully shaken itself from its confusion. Battina fluttered about to try to get another angle, but got clobbered by the angry golem, which only had to blindly flail about in madness. Battina grunted audibly, a crunch rung out throughout the forest, and the limp girl’s body shot clear across the forest. Buttercup gasped, feeling as if the broken bones had been hers. She screamed. The blow from this monster had just crushed her friend. 

Meanwhile, Pixel called out Battina’s name, something that didn’t even register on Buttercup’s ears, and the golem prepared to scoop up its other attacker. 

Something brushed against Buttercup’s shoulder. Buttercup blinked her way back to reality. It was Cassandra. “CASSIE, WHAT’RE YOU DOING??!” 

But it was no use. The girl knocked the struggling hedgehog clear out of harm’s way just in time, only for her to be crushed under the weight of two earthen club-like hands and tossed unceremoniously across the forest as Battina had been. 

The golem yelled out louder, completely ticked off, and thrashed about, shedding sharpened rocks that planted themselves around what remained of the forest as he stomped hard enough to cause a powerful earthquake. The world seemed completely still as Buttercup flew through the air. Nothing seemed real anymore. She and her friends were happy and smiling just moments ago. She smacked back down to the ground, her legs suddenly split with pain and a small trickle of blood oozing down her forehead. The golem had noticed her and lumbered over, clearly seething with rage. Buttercup didn’t understand this. What did we do wrong? The golem once again raised its arms to deal the final blow, when suddenly something had blown it clean off and reduced it to a cloud of pebbles, along with a third of its chest and part of its head. The golem reeled in pain, yelling with something other than anger now. Buttercup glanced over to where the unknown attacker landed, and noticed a yellow feline creature holding its shoulder, which somehow had gotten frozen. It growled at the monster, one eye closed, seemingly bruised. Without making another sound, it dashed off somewhere with nothing but a thunderclap before returning to Buttercup with an unconscious hedgehog in its arms. 

“Take her and run, now,” the creature told her, something she could only barely hear through her own heart beating in her ears. She gingerly shifted herself, noticed that through some miracle her legs had not broken, got back to her feet, and accepted the unconscious hedgehog. 

To her surprise, it wasn’t Pixel; it was someone she’d never seen before. This one had black fur and purple hair, and was unconscious with a very large bump on her head. She accepted her fellow victim and ran towards the city as best she could. Her savior stayed behind and faced the monster, who had somehow managed to reassemble its arm using the rocks littered about. It roared as loud as it could and unleashed another almighty stomp, which laced the ground with deep cracks, glowing with an unknown energy that seared the yellow one on contact. It yelled out in pain, but somehow managed to hold on. It laced its fists with an electrical aura and lunged at its target, which attempted to stomp down on its opponent’s head. The attacks clashed, but somehow the yellow one seemed to become much more energized by this clash. Buttercup stopped looking back and tried to ignore the cut on her forehead. She managed to carry the unconscious hedgehog until she ran back within view of the city, which had been virtually demolished and set ablaze by the rampage of the bigger golem they’d seen earlier. Even from this distance, Buttercup could hear it wailing. This was like a bad dream, a sight that only belonged in a movie. There had to be somewhere else she could go. Buttercup thought for a moment before turning to run towards the lab…

                                            ONE MONTH LATER

 They were dead. All three of them were dead. There wasn’t even enough of them to properly identify if it weren’t for her. She couldn’t accept this. Battina and Pixel were the first Rosechu eggs to hatch in this dimension, and just like that they were gone. And Cassie. She’d just been nominated as the princess. Buttercup felt as if that monster, Bill called it “Regirock”, had rubbed off on her, she could barely contain her seething rage. It was Bill’s fault, he just finished admitting it! She’d been shouting at the scientist, probably more than she should’ve, but she didn’t care. She’d still be doing so if she hadn’t just now lost her voice. 

All the while, Bill just sat there watching her, completely unperturbed by her scathing diatribe. “Are you through, Princess Buttercup?” he finally asked once she’d fallen silent. It was almost as if he didn’t care about what happened!

 Buttercup tried to calm herself. She shouldn’t be losing her temper like this, it was unbecoming of her new position. “Why were you even working on those… things?” 

 “Think of it as a matter of pride.” He shifted in his seat, glancing around at his demolished laboratory, finally appearing as if he were not comfortable with this situation. “Back in CWCville, I was hired to create artificial life from nothing.”

 “Wait. Why didn’t you just do what you did back then? I thought you said that you used humans for these monsters.” 

 “The project was a failure. You have to understand, once a scientist gets an experiment wrong, it drives them up the wall.” 

 “I don’t care about your pride, Bill. Because of you-“ 

 “Your friends are dead, I know. I was the first person to be notified that my successor to this dimension was killed.” 

 Buttercup bit her lower lip, fighting back some more angry words. “Give me a reason, just one reason, why I shouldn’t just leave you to rot in jail.”

Bill replied without a shred of uncertainty, “The fact that because of me, there’s now only one in four people still alive.” 

“Okay, that’s your crime. What’re you getting at?” 

“I know what I’ve done wrong. I can repopulate COCville if you let me. But I have to go undisturbed to do so.” Buttercup mulled this over in her mind, ignoring the expectant look from that one Pokémon that saved her that day. Her feelings aside, she couldn’t think of a better way to get around that problem. 

“…Fine. But in exchange, I want them put down. Understand? If you do that, I won’t put you behind bars for the rest of your life.” 

 Bill smiled lightly. “Sounds like we have an agreement. Will that be all?”

 Buttercup sighed loudly. “Sounds like we both have work to do.” 

 “We certainly do. Zeraora, could you show the Princess the door? And while you’re at it, fetch Namine. I think we’ve given her enough time off.” 

 The Pokémon nodded and lightly tugged on Buttercup’s shoulder. She stood up, glared at Bill one last time, and followed the Pokémon out of the room. 

“… ‘Zeraora’ was your name?”  Zeraora looked up at her a bit surprised, and nodded. “Thanks. For saving me, I mean.” 

 Zeraora returned his gaze to the corridor before them. “Sorry about your friends.” 

 “You did what you could. If you ever feel like you need to get away from here, feel free to come visit me at the palace.” Zeraora looked back up at her with clear surprise this time. “I could use a bodyguard like you. And… And a friend.”

 After a moment of walking in silence, the Pokémon smiled. “I appreciate it… Your Highness.” 

 Buttercup wiped a small tear from her eye she hadn’t noticed a few minutes ago. She didn’t have the time to stay angry. She had to be the best princess she could be. For Battina. For Pixel. For Cassie.