The Cold Shadow of Statues of the Great

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"Right this way!" the drowzee spoke with calm enthusiasm, gesturing for the eeveelution to follow him. He made his way through the rough shack to the rooms where they performed the different services The DreamCatchers had offered. The glaceon was the first customer in months! Why was this service so unpopular? Was it too expensive? He wished he could have made it free, but he needed a way to pay Kyrie and support himself. The worries of the drowzee were masked by a cheerful grin.

"Just have a seat and we can begin. I'm going to have to hypnotize you, so don't be alarmed if you suddenly fall asleep. Some rather odd things may happen once you're asleep and dreaming, but just don't move and keep calm. I've done this plenty of times. Any questions or concerns?" he asked, after gesturing to a light purple cushion. Morpheus made sure to keep the cushions comfortable, so that the nervous clients would not get uncomfortable.

Don't know?  How could it not know?  Wasn't it supposed to be a copycat?  Sova sighed and turned to continue moving up the tower, as he could no longer look at this creature.... its sad look was making him feel bad, even though he knew it was fake.  "Well, if you're coming, I won't stop you....", he offered to the.... thing, just so he had more assistance if anything bad happened.  At least, that was what he was telling himself.  Honestly, he just wanted to hear his mother's voice more, perhaps see her occasionally.  Even if she wasn't real.

"What's your favorite color, by the way?", he questioned to "Esprit", curious of how well this thing could portray his mother.  He was hoping for a wrong answer or no answer, so he could assure himself further that it was fake and that no one could pretend to be his mother.

(Numbers: 22, 23, 24)

"Uh...white? I'm not really sure why you're asking..." the leafeon seemed to smile a bit as the glaceon allowed her to tag along. She bounced ahead of them, happily moving along and getting a bit too close to Morpheus for his liking. His Psycho Cut claw struck the ice, giving him an anchor point and preventing him from falling over and possibly off of the staircase. He swallowed, looking down, before regaining his footing and continuing onward.

The leafeon seemed to skip about up the stairs, grass and flowers popping up from where her paw steps touched the icy staircase.

Kat carried out 1 launched of one tower :

14

Sova watched the leafeon bound off in front of him, his ears flattened as it answered the question correctly. "It must be based off my memories....", he thought to himself. If this was true, there was no way he could stump it with questions, so he decided to just give up on that and enjoy it while it lasted.... NO, no no no, no enjoying it. It was a fake, it wasn't real, it didn't even actually have emotions, no matter how authentic it seemed. He couldn't let himself like it. Besides, what if it turned hostile!? He would NOT be played like that.

He had to admit though, the contrast in scenery where ever she.... it stepped was a nice touch. He followed along, since it was apparently taking the lead, occasionally looking down at the interesting grassy marks left on the otherwise icy stairs. "Just wanted to see.", he finally replied, keeping it a bit vague as he still wasn't completely convinced it had no emotions; if it did, he didn't want to piss it off and get attacked. Even if it wasn't real.... it was still so close.

They moved up and up and up, until eventually the leafeon took a hop onto a rather specific stair. As soon as she laid her foot upon it, an icy blast pulsed from it. It was not strong enough to blow them off of the stairs, but it was enough to send a chill through Morpheus. The step below them suddenly stretched out, reaching across the open spaces and creating what seemed to be a platform that did not allow any way for them to fall unless they purposely broke it. The leafeon gave a gleeful yip, and hopped onto the platform, skidding a bit as the icy floor proved slippery enough for her paws to slide. She had misjudged the slippery floor, and was sent sliding across to the other side of what was now a room of ice with a really really high up ceiling that could not be seen.

She collided with the wall on the other side, giving a surprised cry as suddenly icicle pillars appeared from nowhere and slammed down onto the ice floor, the harsh sounding impact not even cracking the icy floor below. The leafeon was cut off from the group, she struggled to stand, a worried look on her face as she rushed towards the pillars, attempting to run through them and back to the group. Her expression could be seen as fear a split second before the pillars were connected by an icy wall.

"Oh dear..." Morpheus spoke, as he heard what seemed to be a roar shake the very pillar. Something seemed to be falling from above, a white shape crashed into the floor. The ice cracked and shattered near it, but did not break the thick layer of ice. Shards of ice flew into the air as the crater near the pokemon was made, the pokemon was on four legs, its head bent down as it had landed. The pokemon slowly raised its head, a blade upon its blue head seeming to shine as a coat of ice surrounded it. In fact, various parts of the disaster pokemon seemed to be frozen, but it seemed to armor it more than hinder it.

The white beast opened its jaws, another roar echoing and shaking the tower before the small crater it had made began to rose until it was atop a pillar. The beast glared down at Morpheus and Sova, obviously not too happy with their presence.

A hostile guard had appeared...

Sova watched as Es.... not Esprit leaped onto a new-formed platform and became trapped and cut off from him by icicles, as if it had already been planned. His first thought was to ram into the ice to save his mother, but he reminded himself once again that it WASN'T his mother.... He took a step forward to CALMLY handle the problem, but found himself instead backing away as something hurdled down from above and slammed into the newly formed ground in front of him. It appeared to be an absol.... but.... It was covered in ice. How could this dream world seem so beautiful, yet tug at his heartstrings so violently?

"I assume you're "Alma", then? This is probably a stupid question to ask, but are you by any chance not planning on attacking us?", he spoke with as much confidence as he could, though he slowly backed away from what seemed to be a warped version of his father all the while out of fear. It probably wasn't helping his image that he sounded as hesitant and worried as he felt, his voice being quiet and shaky despite him doing his best to sound the opposite of such.

He did NOT want to fight this.... thing.

Morpheus looked to the absol, taking a deep breath before getting into a fighting stance, his gauntlet of psychic energy returning. He stepped off of the stairs, knowing that this thing would probably not allow them to continue without defeating it. He glanced in the direction the leafeon had been encased in, before returning his gaze to the absol. He struggled to keep his footing on the slippery floor, but waited as the absol reared its head, giving another bellow that shook the tower.

The innards of the tower grew brighter, and warmer. Once the temperature and brightness had risen considerably, the absol lifted his head once more, a swirl of energy gathering at its jaws. The absol continued to gather energy, until a large ball of flames had gathered just inches from his lips. The absol sharply turned his head, and used Fire Blast on the staircases that had lead further up the tower.

The white beast turned his glare back the duo once it was finished destroying their only means of escape. The absol leaped off of its icy pillar and on to level ground with the two pokemon, now that he was closer, Morpheus could spot something around his neck, it was a necklace similar to that of Sova's, along with a strange red rock Morpheus had come to identify as a Heat Rock.

His confidence dropped as he realized the meaning of this, the absol had used Sunny Day, and it knew Fire Blast. At first he had been worried that the tower might get melted, but it seemed that the tower remained just fine. His next worry turned to Sova, he was an ice type, fire didn't exactly do well with ice.

The armored absol glared at the two with what seemed to be hatred. The icy blade upon its forehead seemed to shine slightly, as he seemed to move around oddly, showing off the blade on his head. As he did so, visions of swords appeared to surround the absol, he was using Swords Dance.

Morpheus swallowed, this was going to be a difficult fight...he could already tell.

Sova began to pant moments after the sharp temperature spike, his body not agreeing with the heat at all. For a moment, he began to panic as a Fire Blast made sure the stairs weren't going to be used, before remembering something he hadn't done in a while. The air temperature around him began cooling ever so slowly as he dropped his body temperature, lower and lower, not letting up until it couldn't go any lower. The heat was surprisingly potent, he was having trouble even keeping his body cool and the area around him just seemed to stay heated, despite his best efforts.

Other than the heat, there was still another issue. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't see this thing as anything other than his father. The last thing he wanted was to lose, especially to a fake warped image of his father, but how could he lay a paw on someone so close to him? Even if he managed to, how was he supposed to WIN!? The frustration only scared him further, however, where it would usually have fueled him.

He moved into a position away from Morpheus, so that this thing would have to choose between attacking one of them. He then proceeded to focus all of his energy into an Ice Beam and.... fire it? Nope. Nothing. He couldn't use Ice Beam!? How was he supposed to fight without it?? "M-my Ice Beam! What happened to me!?", he questioned in his panic, hoping for Morpheus to shed some light on it. If only he'd listened better when the drowzee was explaining things to him....

"I told you, it was on the sign up sheet as well," Morpheus explained, hiding his slight irritation and panic at the scene, "When we step in here, we're reset, moves, strength, items, everything. It's just the moves you were born with."

The absol's ice tipped claws began to take on a dark glow, as the absol suddenly lunged for Morpheus. The drowzee attempted to flee, but only ended up slipping and sliding on the ice. He fell onto his stomach, sprawled out on the floor. The absol missed, but only because the tapir had managed to fall at a rather lucky time. The dark type gathered an orb of fiery energy at his jaws once more, before attempting to fire it at the glaceon.

"No!" Morpheus shouted, attempting to Pound the absol while it was still close. He messed up the pokemon's accuracy, and it shot towards the encasing of ice where the leafeon had been captured.

Sova watched as the beastly absol attacked his escort. Of course, he moved to help, but stopped dead as a blast of fire was aimed right at him. Before he could even maneuver to dodge, the drowzee had knocked it away from him.... and towards the caged leafeon. "No, no!", he exclaimed as the fireball hurdled towards Esprit. He ran as fast as he could, which was slower than usual. Of course it was; he'd been RESET to a pathetically weak state. Instead of running, he took to sliding on the icy floor, using his paws to propel him forward when ever he slowed, which was faster.... but not fast enough.

What would he even have done if he'd been able to catch the fireball anyways? Jump in front of it? Yes, eating a Fire Blast seems like a very healthy idea for an Ice Type.

The fiery blast clashed with the icy encasement, leaving a large hole in it as if the ice refused to melt. Inside the encasement was...nothing. There was nothing in there. Just shattered ice and piles of snow.

Returning to the major threat, the absol's horn was glowing a dark color, he shoved the drowzee back to the floor his blade glowing and his eyes wide as he was about to use Night Slash on the drowzee's soft exposed stomach.

A flash of tan and green collided with the Absol with incredible speed, stopping it before the absol could gore the drowzee. The leaf upon the leafeon's head glowing as it used Leaf Blade to counter the absol's Night Slash. The absol's eyes widened, before backing off. He took a large leap back to the top of his pillar, confusion in his eyes.

"Knock it off! He's not bad!" the leafeon huffed, pointing to Sova with a paw.

The absol blinked, looking between the leafeon and the glaceon, "Huh?" it spoke, its voice was deep and gruff, seeming to echo throughout the tower. An icy pillar brought the leafeon up to the absol's level, the leafeon being caught off guard by the sudden rise, but staying where she was.

Morpheus watched the duo talk, he could hear nothing. This was strange, was two parts of the tower conflicting with each other? Usually the tower either sent pokemon to attack, or to help. What was this all about?

The two pillars suddenly shattered beneath the two, as they fell to the ground. The leafeon stood near the absol with a happy grin, while the absol took a seat, bowing his head, "My apologies, I thought you were someone else."

Sova looked helplessly onward as the events unfolded. Every time he thought he had his course of action decided, something changed to make him reconsider. Leafeon is dead - make Absol not live any more. Leafeon is not dead - save Leafeon. Marital dispute.... sit there awkwardly, not knowing how to handle the situation and feeling useless. This entire world was confusing.

"Um.... Okay....", he hesitantly replied, a bit confused by the absol's sudden change of heart. How could he be mistaken for someone else? Wasn't this supposed to be HIS world? Maybe this was just some excuse the Dream Tower was making up for the absol to suddenly stop being hostile. He looked back and forth between the leafeon and the absol. Aside from the absol's icy armor and larger size.... they were pretty spot on.

"....What now? Up?"

"Yes," the absol stated, upon his word the entire floor shook and rumbled, as if it were about to collapse. However, instead of collapsing, the floor shot upwards. They were scaling the tower at what was now a high speed platform. The absol remained where he seated, allowing the lift to carry them. The leafeon gave a bounce of glee, grass sprouting from the spots her paws touched, "Yay! Yay! How are you Honey? Did you get hurt?" she asked Sova.

'No i'm perfectly fine thank you very much' Morpheus refrained from huffing, though he understood that these two were probably close to the Glaceon, plus this was his dream tower. It was likely that he was going to be ignored except for when being attacked or killed or something of the sort. He instead smiled, as if happy that things were going so well.

Sova looked at the ground as it shook and thought about trying to get off of the unstable surface, but where would he even have gone? He simply waited until it began moving upward, relieved to see it was doing the opposite of what he'd worried it would do. It seemed like a much more efficient way in reaching the top of the tower than walking. Then again, it seemed like the tower its self decided how far they traveled.... He recalled the ground being much farther down than it should have been when they were still walking. So perhaps this form of transportation wouldn't actually be faster, but at least it'd be more relaxing.

As "Esprit" spoke to him, he contemplated what to say. He wanted nothing more than to just play along with this fantasy and pretend she was real.... but she wasn't. It would only be more painful when he had to leave, or worse yet, if these mirrors of his parents somehow died here. Yet he found himself responding anyways. Not only that, but responding kindly, "I'm.... alright, thanks. It seems like everyone but me got hurt.", still trying to keep up his usual far-from-serious attitude.

He was slipping into this fantasy and he knew it was going to hurt when it was taken away.

"Pfft! Nobody got hurt," the leafeon spoke, waving a paw at the glaceon, "Alma didn't get hurt, I didn't get hurt, and you didn't get hurt! All that matters is well~" The glaceon stood up, "this thing is probably going to be moving a while, so how about we-"

The leafeon was cut off by the floor shaking once more, this time it was a warning. Once it was done shaking, two figures dropped onto the platform. Each figure made more impact onto the ground than they should have, as one was a Gengar and the other seemed to be of similar light nature, being a Sylveon. Each had dark red eyes that seemed to glow, and both had a dark and sinister look. Wide grins were plastered onto their faces, and their eyes were wide with glee.

Morpheus looked to the Gengar, swallowing slightly, before taking out his Psychic Gauntlet he used for Psycho Cut. It seemed that these two weren't friendly.

"Ok now those two aren't nice guys..." the leafeon huffed, her cheeks puffed out as if she were pouting.

The absol stood, giving a quieter bellow as the temperature in the room began to increase once more. The leafeon was surrounded in a green glow, as its chlorophyll ability kicked in.

It was time to fight, for real this time.

Sova was surprised by the sudden appearance of two familiar faces.... who seemed to have gained some issues with their facial features. That certainly wasn't how he remembered what he presumed to be copies of Geo and William, but he wasn't going to complain about a chance to attack William.... However, his job was suddenly made a bit more difficult as "Alma" once again heated the area with his Sunny Day. "Thanks, how'd you know I love the heat?", he commented in a sarcastic and unamused - but not mad - tone before preparing to fight, seeing that the absol was more interested in looking after the leafeon than anyone else.

Unlike his parents, he had no quarrels with hitting these two.... and he was definitely going to be focusing on the gengar. He started off running in the direction of the ghost with red eyes, reflexively trying to activate Ice Shard, but remembering the burdening limitations as he failed. No matter though, there was no way he was going to let his dream parents have all the fun. There was still one thing he could do; his fur bristled and all began to freeze, though it was slower than usual due to the heat and not as thick as he would have preferred since he didn't have Ice Shard to armor him. He took to skating along the ice instead of running to make up for the slow speed he wasn't used to having and prepared to spin around on the icy floor and use his momentum to make up for his huge decrease in power as he attempted to whack the gengar with his tail.