Dastardly Desires (Chapter 9) (Patreon)

My eyes stray from Merlin. To floating Loki. To currently unconscious Loki.

"What just happened?"

"Ghost... Kill Ghost..." Merlin replies in my head as he faces the numerous Yamask.

"You... You punched his soul out so he could fight them on the same level?!" I gasp, eyes growing wide.

What the actual fuck?

The Yamask ready their attacks once more, preparing to fire.

"Fuck it. We ball. Loki. Swift. Let's see if this does anything now."

After shooting Merlin a small glare, Loki spins in place, swishing his tail at the Yamask.

Spewing from his fluff, what was once bright white stars of normal type energy seem to have changed somewhat, they are now duller in color, more of a grey color, losing a lot of their glow and being mostly see-through.

The stars strike true, causing the pokemon to recoil as if punched, others shoot jagged beams of darkness towards us that zigzag like little bolts of lightning.

Merlin made Loki for all intents and purposes a ghost type.

A rift opens up in the world in front of us, showers of sparks scattering across the walls as the attacks disappear into it... and promptly reappear through another portal, a barrage of the ghost type's own attacks peppering the Yamask.

The ground rumbles slightly, sand raining down on Courtney and myself every now and then.

It appears Cynthia's battle is intensifying.

But. We can't really worry about that right now.

I step over, grabbing Loki's... vacant... body and cradling it in my arms as a horde of swift stars are shot towards the Yamask.

They begin actively retreating from the barrage, Loki tilting his head back...

Then energy begins to gather in front of his mouth.

What's he doing now?

He begins glowing as he swings his head downwards.

An orb of darkness shoots out as a blinding flash fills the hallway.

I am... once more lost.

What the actual fuck is happening?!

I blink the spots from my vision as Courtney lets out a quiet 'Huh?!'

And, well, she put my own thoughts very eloquently as now, standing there, instead of Loki is a black fox... one quite a bit larger than the miniature Eevee. He... had evolved.

But what he evolved into was quite special. Not Sylveon, not Espeon, nor Umbreon, none of the stone evolutions either.

Loki seems to look over his new form briefly, fur jet black, ethereal wisps that look like flames cling to his body, being a deep blue color. He lacks a tail now, or rather in the place of it, there's a large plume of that same wispy fire.

He looks over, white fur adorning his face, sort of like a skull mask.

His eyes are a deep purple that glint with mischievousness.

He turns back to the yamask, then opens his mouth.

A torrent of swift stars rush forwards, shredding through the ghosts and dissipating them.

He stalks forwards, causing my gaze to slowly move over towards Courtney.

She looks just as surprised as I am. Our eyes are drawn back to Loki as he shoots a shadow ball, and as the attacking Egyptian-like ghost types try to dodge, the orb physically twists and follows them, like a curveball thrown by a master pitcher.

"Soooo uuhhhh..." I begin quietly.

"My lips are sealed." The girl informs.

"Thanks."

There's a dull explosion as the shadow ball makes contact. We begin working our way forwards yet again.

"It is... Interesting to see the birth of a new Eevee Evolution."

"Honestly? Yeah." I nod slowly, a frown on my face. "What do I even call it?"

"Spectreeee-oooon!" Loki cheers as he shoots a barrage of swift stars from his mouth. The ghosts are practically screaming at this point as they recoil in pain.

most attacks that slip through and are shot towards Loki are quickly intercepted by Merlin, and with the small choke point, there's really only one way the attacks can come from. Plus, Loki is doing quite a good job making sure they don't have time to attack us back with his hail of stars and avoiding the attacks Merlin misses.

"So... Spectreon, then? That works." I hum.

We spy Cynthia's Glaceon at the end of the hall, it runs up the wall briefly avoiding a shadow claw from one of the sarcophagus pokemon, then it spins, shooting an ice beam towards a second. Barely rolling under the shadow ball of a third.

The Yamask flee. Quickly rushing past the battle with little ghostly wails as they try to get away from the vicious ghost fox.

"Loki, Help her out. Shadow ball."

He charges up another shadow ball and swings his head downwards.

Then something unusual happens... Again. For the millionth time in the past two to three minutes.

A large sigil appears in the air about half way to the battle, as the shadowball strikes it, the orb of darkness duplicates into three.

The three orbs crash into the back of one of the Coffin pokemon, causing it to let out a pained scream and dissipate a moment later.

This, of course, draws the attention of the other Cofagrigus, but, that turns out to be a mistake, as in the moment they are distracted, Cynthia's Glaceon proceeds to hit them with shadow ball after shadow ball, causing them all to dissipate with their own anguished screams.

All is calm for a moment...

If you'd ignore the rumbling floor, explosions, and the sounds of combat in the other room.

Cynthia's Glaceon looks over Loki's form, sniffing him briefly, then turns and lets out a low growl towards the main area where combat appears to be still happening.

"Merlin... can you do anything?"

The pokemon stares for a long moment, then floats off my head.

He faces me, magical lettering begins forming around him.

One by one the lettering begins thudding into my body.

A dim light surrounds my body as more and more letters are stamped into place. Then... they fade.

"What is... this?"

"Guardian... Vishanti..."

"Protection." He elaborates a moment later.

He turns to Courtney, the girl flinching slightly as he begins to do the same for her.

"What- this feels... strange." The girl whispers.

She's right. There's this weird sort of warm-coolness to my body.

I know those are literally the opposite of each other, but I don't really know how to describe it.

He turns, doing the same to Cynthia's Glaceon, he appears to be getting mildly tired at this point, but, he still has enough energy to do the same to Loki's astral form.

His hat droops slightly as he lands atop my head again.

"Tired..." He intones. "Lootad..."

The Ice Eeveelution stomps on the ground twice with a paw, looking over the glowing runes that flicker over its body, then it turns, rushing into the room as it shouts over its shoulder to Loki. "Glacee!"

"Spetree..." Loki pouts slightly moving to the left and pausing in the middle of the entrance to the hallway where he drops into a ready stance, purple eyes skimming the surroundings.

It appears that Glaceon told him to stay here to protect us and he's pretty bummed about not getting to fight with all of his new power.

I close my eyes briefly, taking a deep breath, then exhaling.

I look to the back of my hand, to the magical characters scattered across it that appear when I clench my fist.

Maybe my magic was not appearing due to the fact that I didn't know where to look.

I've memorized this feeling, so now, hopefully, when I get home, I can make some actual progress.

In the room beyond, ice seems to explode outwards, pulses of water drench ghosts, and leaves seem to spiral wildly in twisters.

The number of ghost types remaining has dropped considerably.

Yamask cower in the corners of the room, there's not a single Cofagrigus remaining at this point

Oh... Cynthia mega-evolved her Garchomp...

Huh...

I watch the large blade-limbed dragon raise its fin and utterly LAY OUT the mummy Lucario.

Cynthia proceeds to hit it with a pokeball, causing it to disappear with a flash of red.

Its two weapons clatter to the floor, then promptly rise up-

They are also hit by a pokeball, the two items apparently being linked as they both are sucked into the same pokeball.

Were... they that one sword pokemon? The second stage evolution one where there's two swords.

Doublade?

"What... what the hell?" Courtney whispers. "Is- Is that a Garchomp? Why does it look so... strange?!"

"Mega evolution." I note.

"H-Huh?" She whispers.

"Mega evolution is... sort of a secret to most people. Typically only the stronger gym leaders and champions know about it... and they aren't too keen on letting others know. I'll tell you later."

The Garchomp returns to its normal state as the pokemon glare towards the remaining ghost types.

"So... should I pretend we didn't see anything?" The girl mutters quietly.

"Honestly, it's up to you." I shrug. "It's not so much of a 'you cannot know this' and more of a 'we don't like to use it publicly and instead as a secret weapon against criminal organizations and natural disasters'."

"And the more people know about it, the less secret it is." Courtney observes. "But... surely more people would know about it, right?"

"We can talk about it on the ship ride back to Blueberry." I note as I slowly walk forwards.

The danger... has subsided.

Cynthia looks over, to us and begins walking forwards, her pokemon quickly cleaning up the remaining ghost types with zero remorse.

Cynthia promptly misses a step as her gaze strays down to the little ghost fox standing in front of me.

"Wh-"

Her eyes flick back up to me, then to the eevee in my arms.

Pity briefly crosses her features, then a little guilt.

I crouch down, facing Loki.

"Alright, little bastard. Get back inside." I demand as I hold out his limp body.

"Spectree~" he hums as the ghost type dissipates into gas and flows into the eyes, nose, and mouth of his previous from.

The eevee twitches slightly, legs spasming.

The breathing of his comatose body becomes deeper as I can feel his heart thud in his little chest.

He wriggles out of my grasp and drops to the floor. "Spectree!"

He turns to look up at me, an impish looking expression on his face. His purple eyes staring up into my own.

"Spectreeeeon!"

"Eevee!" He exclaims a moment later as his eyes return to their original red coloration.

"Spectreevee!" He exclaims eyes rapidly switching from red to purple, then back again.

"What is... what has happened?" Cynthia whispers as she quickly approaches, looking down at Loki in utter bewilderment. "Your Eevee... became a ghost type?! How?!"

"Merlin punched his soul out of his body." I shrug. "Then he sort of just evolved from there."

"Wh- huh?!" She seems genuinely shocked.

"One moment." I mutter as I pull out my scanner. "Loki, can you do the purple eye thing?"

With a couple pushes, I activate the function that compares a specific Pokémon to its previously recorded statistics.

Two glowing ethereal eyes stare up at me as the little fox circles my legs.

"Let's see here..." I whisper under my breath.

Species: Eevee
Ability: Eeveemental Flux, ?
Type: Normal/Ghost
Moves: Covet, Quick Attack, Swift, Double Team, Takedown, Bite, ?, ?
Size: 1'1 Feet tall, 1'9 feet long
Size Comparison to Previously Recorded Size: +0.1%
Weight: 17.2 Pounds
Weight Comparison to Previously Recorded Weight: +0.4%
Physical Strength: +3.13%
Spiritual Strength: +182.5%
Agility: 6.12%
Durability: +17.4%

"Hah?" I blink slowly.

He... gained a new ability?

"That- That can't be right, can it?" I mutter, eyes straying lower.

"What is it?" Courtney mutters.

She peers over my shoulder eyes briefly pausing on the ability section, before going downwards. Her gaze freezes over Loki's spiritual strength. "Hm. That is unusual..."

"What is wrong?" Cynthia frowns.

"His Eevee's spiritual strength is nearly thrice what it was the last time he recorded it." Courtney dully observes.

"That is- quite a substantial increase." Cynthia whispers.

"If I had to take a guess... he is both evolved and not evolved." I frown, cupping my chin as the Little fox leaps once and lands on my shoulder, he gives my cheek a small lick, causing me to reach up and gently brush a finger along the side of his head. "Technically speaking... Loki did evolve... into a ghost type, but because he re-possessed his old body, he returned to being an Eevee... Evolving likely improved all of his abilities by a fair portion, but through... whatever the hell just happened, he discarded most of the physical improvements... the speed, the strength, the durability, and kept the spiritual ones... for all intents and purposes, he IS a Spectreon, just not physically."

"Spectreon... so my eyes weren't playing tricks on me... you- you really discovered a new Eevee evolution."

"It appears that way." I nod slowly. "Though, I'm probably going to keep that rather close to my chest to see how it even happened and if it's possible to replicate it."

"Vee-Vee!" Loki intones, sounding a little bored at my researcher aspects beginning to get the better of me.

"That does beg the question... what happens if I were to try and evolve him into something else? Can he even evolve into anything else? Would the evolution cancel this one out? Would they stack, further improving his spiritual power by a great amount?"

They don't need to know that his first ability makes it so he can shift forms at will.

Though, I am curious... will he keep this ability upon evolution into another Eevee?

"If that's the case..." I mutter. "It would be most beneficial to evolve him into an Espeon, as they are probably the strongest Eeveelutions spiritual power-wise."

I shake my head. "Regardless, we don't' have much time. We should continue. I'll have all the time in the world to ponder about Loki later."

"Ah... Right." Cynthia eventually relents with a nod.

She turns, walking back towards the center of the room.

She recalls most of her pokemon, leaving just Lucario behind yet again, then looks over the battle damaged coffin.

She takes several photos, a frown tugging at her lips, likely at the fact she wasn't able to disable the lucario without causing damage to the surroundings.

That's a little fucking terrifying.

Like, I get it, there were possibly hundreds of Yamask, and a few dozen Cofagrigus, but this onslaught gave Champion Cynthia pause and forced her to Mega Evolve her Garchomp.

I was right in my assumption that if this is the 'greatest guardian' of the Relic Castle, those three Darmanitan outside would honestly be nothing in comparison.

Cynthia lets out a small sigh, not seeing any form of text upon the sarcophagus, then turns to the door on the other side of the room.

Walking over to it, she gently shoves the doors open to reveal large stone tablets on the walls, upon each, lines upon lines of text are scrawled.

I can feel her emotion briefly spike wildly out of control. I bet the archeologist part of herself just creamed her pants.

From just a brief glance, I can tell that...

This is going to take me a while to read through.

My eyes skim the room, as Cynthia approaches the wall.

Wait- is that-

Oh my god it is. And that...

Heheh heheheheheh.

'MERLIN'

"Yes?" An ethereal voice echoes out within my head.

'take those stones. Not the jewels. The-'

"I... understand... Special Feely ones?"

'Exactly. Make sure they're not on my person.'

'Yes...'

I walk forwards as Cynthia looks over to me. Merlin floating off my head as Cynthia's Lucario look back into the room we just left, looking for any threats it might have missed.

"So... what does all of this say?" The woman asks.

"With this much text... perhaps it would be better to take a bunch of photos as well." I begin, causing the woman to blink and nod once, reaching into her bag for the phone she had just put away.

My eyes slowly skim the walls as she begins taking photographs of the text.

The corners of my mouth turn upwards as I glance back.

Oh? He's already finished? Good.

Courtney gives Merlin a perturbed look.

Shit.

She was watching him.

Her eyes flick to me as I bring a finger to my lips.

She just offers me a single nod.

"From what I can tell, this appears to be the entire five hundred year history of the Kemet people..."

My eyes stray to the numerous gold statues, coins, and other assorted objects like ivory numels, jade magikarp, just a bunch of weird loot. "Also, it appears to be the treasury."

Of course, a few items are now missing, but Cynthia doesn't really need to know that.

Loki is staring at the old objects.

He leaps forwards towards the pile-

I snag him by the scruff. "Nope! Not breaking any valuable stuff today, you little shit. Back in the ball you go."

"SPECTREE-"

He disappears with a red flash.

"He's going to be unbearable and pouty when I let him out again." I note while staring at the red and white sphere in my hand.

I wordlessly clip it to my belt, ignoring Cynthia's gaze. She seems to briefly reminisce about something before she closes her eyes and shakes her head with an amused smile.

"So. Let's get to translating." I begin, turning back to the wall.

"Our tribe of people first stumbled upon the Oasis of-"

**Linebreak**

I quietly lay there, arms behind my head as I stare up at the ceiling of the little ship's cabin.

It is currently transporting us back to Undella town.

I'm going to be honest... translating all of that text for Cynthia was totally a pain, but... I can't say it wasn't a worthy detour.

Firstly, Loki evolved into a ghost type. That is quite interesting if I do say so myself.

And after that... well... I picked up a few souvenirs.

"Xander." Courtney begins from her spot on the second bed within this little shared room. She looks over to me, a faint frown on her lips. "I would like an explanation."

"Hm- Oh. Right. Mega evolution." I mutter as I sit up, a little calm since both of our rotom devices are currently with Mrs. Fennel. "Alright, what do you want to know about it?"

"Before that... I want to know why you risked such a thing right next to the Champion of Sinnoh?"

"Risked what?" I ask, an innocent smile on my face as I tilt my head. "I didn't risk anything. I have full faith in the Sinnoh champion and her ability to protect us!"

"You know what I mean." She frowns, causing my own expression to fall slightly.

"It sort of ties into mega evolution." I explain as I lay back down. "To tell you the truth, most 'final stage' pokemon aren't actually the full capabilities of a certain species. Some trainers, through a tremendous bond between themselves and their pokemon, can bring their partners to entirely new heights."

"I-" the girl begins. "I see... how much stronger does this evolution make the pokemon?"

"Well, it's a further evolution, so... Imagine Charmander to Charmeleon... or Charmeleon to Charizard." I shrug.

"That is impressive... tell me, why don't more people know about it?" She asks.

"The people that can do it aren't very keen on revealing it. Like I said, secret weapon." I answer.

"But- but- each and every day people are deepening their bonds with pokemon. It makes no sense that one of these events haven't happened randomly in a tournament or in the heat of battle. Are you telling me that those bonds aren't enough? That those people don't love their pokemon enough?"

"It's a little more Nuanced than that, Courtney. Firstly. The trainer and pokemon must be completely in sync. Full trust from both parties... next, the trainer themselves must be healthy as mega evolution drains not only the pokemon, but the trainer themselves when it is used. Thirdly, and this is the main reason as to why it isn't widely known, is the fact that Mega evolution requires items."

"Items... then back there-"

"You got it in one." I announce slowly, reaching into my bag and pulling out a small orb about the size of a grape. I look over the little rainbow marble, its colors iridescent and prismatic. Deep inside of the orb I can see a symbol that looks a little bit like a double helix. "This... is a keystone... and this is merely a single part of Mega evolution... this is an item the trainer themselves must hold."

The girl gets up, quickly walking over and peering at the little stone as I show it to her.

"All keystones look similar to this... and without one, there's no possible Mega evolution regardless of strength, bond, or relationship... this is why it is so difficult for trainers to discover mega evolution. Stones like this are excruciatingly rare. Those in the know tend to buy them up whenever they see them... and those not in the know see a one of a kind gemstone to adorn their jewelry."

"So... they are expensive?" She sighs.

"Very." I nod once. "Here."

I offer the stone to her.

"Wh-" She blinks owlishly at my extended hand, keystone in palm. "Wait... what? Are you- giving this to me?!"

"Yes. Think of this as a bribe." I announce. "Zip your lips, and this is yours. Besides, if you take it you'll go down with me."

I've got six more, but she doesn't need to know that.

"Technically speaking... the items within that tomb were unowned. Reasonably I do not think even Champion Cynthia held any claim to it."

"Then take it as payment for saving my life, huh?"

She takes the stone gently, looking over it for a brief moment before clutching it in her hand tightly. Her voice comes out in barely a whisper, the corners of her mouth turning upwards. "Thank you."

"Honestly, I should be the one saying that. An arrow to the throat would probably be a relatively painful way to die... I've heard that drowning is horrible but drowning on my own blood? That sounds even worse."

I scratch the back of my head as I glance away. "Regardless. I'd suggest not being seen with that out in the open."

"For the same reason as your Lotad?"

"Exactly." I nod once.

"hm." She hums.

"Anyways, now that I've explained Keystones... allow me to tell you that getting your hands on one of those is the easy part. The hard part comes with getting the counterpart. The item the pokemon must hold. These being called 'Mega Stones'."

I reach into my bad and pull out a solid orange orb, deep inside there's a streak of red and white in the same general shape as the double helix within the keystone.

"You- You managed to get both?!" The girl gasps.

The corners of my mouth turn upwards. "Perhaps... but the reason as to why these are so difficult to get a hold of is one reason... well, not really difficulty to acquire... more... difficulty to acquire the one you want. Each pokemon species- theoretically- has their own mega stone... some even have two. Like Charizard."

"I see... then what pokemon is this mega stone for?" She questions.

"That's the thing... I genuinely have no clue. It's orange, so it could be a fire type... then again, these tend to mirror the pokemon its trying to mega evolve, but that isn't a rule set in stone, of course... realistically this could work on anything ranging from Hydreigon to Raichu... and that is why people don't show off mega evolution... it's extremely difficult to figure out what goes to what."

Better not let her know I have seven mega stones either.

"I see..." The girl notes as I slip the mega stone back into my bag.

Man... the Archeology elective is fucking cracked.

I might just re-take it next year to see what else I can grab instead of taking the Tech elective.

Of course, by that point, I might have enough to begin experimenting in creating my own pokemon, so it might just in general be better to not take any electives next year and focus on studying genetic sequencing.

I close my eyes and relax in my bed, noting through my barely cracked eyelids how the girl looks from me to the stone in her hand.

Maybe now I'll be able to talk her out of joining Team Magma.

Sort of the least I could do for her saving my life... keep her from that self-destructive hero worship that made her want to crash a planet killing asteroid into Hoenn because her boss lost one time.

If this will make a difference... I don't know.

Time will tell.