"Pika—CHUUUU!!!"
A blinding bolt of yellow lightning exploded outward, scorching everything in a wide radius. The blast lit up the sky and carved a ring of charred earth into the forest floor.
At the last second, Yarrow yanked Peach Fox (Tao Hu) back, wrapped his arms around her, and dove to the ground. The electric current sizzled just above their heads, crackling like a furious storm.
When the noise finally subsided, Yarrow cautiously lifted his head. The yellow mouse—looking entirely too smug for a creature that had just tried to fry them—scratched behind one ear, then scampered off into the underbrush like nothing had happened.
Yarrow exhaled slowly. "That was easily as strong as a Lesser Zen. There's no way a base 300 stat is pulling that kind of output. Did we run into the real deal?"
Tao Hu, wide-eyed and trembling slightly, looked around at the scorched forest. "I-it was so cute… but that was terrifying."
"Yeah," Yarrow muttered. "Note to self—next time we see anything yellow, we run. We're not built for trial-by-electric death."
Just then, Tao Hu squirmed a little in his arms and whispered, "Um… Yarrow… you're crushing me."
"Oh—sorry!" Yarrow quickly scrambled up, face slightly red, and helped her to her feet. "Let's stay close from now on. This place is full of surprises, and none of them are gentle."
He dusted himself off and was about to move on when a sharp whistling sound pierced the air. Looking up, he caught sight of two figures streaking across the sky on a massive bird.
"…Was that Brock on a Pidgeot?"
He blinked. "This world really is a crossover buffet."
They pressed on through the forest. Despite walking for hours, they still hadn't reached the edge. The sun had begun to dip, casting long golden shadows.
Yarrow pulled out his phone. "Siri, open the map."
"Map opened," came the robotic voice.
The screen lit up with their current location: Petalburg Woods.
Yarrow swiped across the screen, eyes narrowing. More place names appeared: Bear Ridge, Green Green Grassland, Gravity Falls, Land of Fire, Wano Country, Energy City, Bikini Bottom…
"…Why is Kasukabe here too?"
He shut the phone off and rubbed his temples. "This realm is massive. And ridiculous."
"And there aren't even any mounts or vehicles!" He wiped sweat from his brow, muttering, "I'd pay real money for a ramen right now…"
"I'm hungry," Tao Hu said softly beside him.
"Alright, break time." Yarrow found a shaded patch under a tree and summoned the lunch Serena had packed from his storage pouch.
He opened a jar of tomato-beef vegetable soup, heated it gently with a magic flame, and poured it into two bowls. Alongside it were soft rolls of bread still warm to the touch.
As they were eating, a rustling came from the bushes—and out trotted a fluffy, brown-furred Eevee.
"Woof."
Startled, Tao Hu immediately hid behind Yarrow. "It—it's another one of them!"
"Relax," Yarrow said. "This one doesn't look dangerous."
He tore off a piece of bread and held it out. The Eevee sniffed the air, tilted its head, and padded forward to gently take the bread from his hand.
"Eevee!" it chirped happily after chewing, its eyes sparkling with joy.
Yarrow couldn't help but smile as he patted its head. "Too cute to be a threat."
Tao Hu peeked out and slowly reached toward the creature. The Eevee leaned into her touch, rubbing its cheek against her palm.
"It's happy," she said softly, cheeks tinged with pink. Then, glancing at Yarrow, she asked, "Do you think she might be a fox too? Like me?"
Yarrow scratched his chin. "Well… she's fox-shaped. Close enough."
He noticed the heart-shaped tuft on Eevee's tail. "Ah, this one's female."
Just then, the earth rumbled beneath them. A boom shook the ground, and the sky filled with flapping wings as dozens of Pidgey scattered in alarm.
"Ee-vee!" the small Pokémon yelped and darted away.
Yarrow steadied Tao Hu as she stumbled. "Something just crashed."
"Should we go look?" she asked.
Yarrow hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah. Something that big doesn't just happen. Could be a new encounter… or a new threat."
They packed up quickly and followed the rising smoke through the trees.
When they arrived, the sight was surreal.
A massive, cigar-shaped aircraft lay half-buried in a trench of blackened trees. It looked like it had been cobbled together from scrap—mismatched steel plates, exposed framework, a sputtering rocket booster at the back… and most baffling of all, a pair of oversized underpants fluttered from a flagpole mounted at the front.
Tao Hu blinked. "What is that thing?"
Before Yarrow could reply, the front hatch blew open with a loud bang, and smoke poured out of the cockpit.
A gruff, irritated voice boomed from inside.
"Rookie! I told you not to touch the console without supervision! If the engine's toast, we're stuck here for days!"
Then came another timid, almost squeaky voice.
"S-sorry, boss… I messed up. Again."
A sigh, heavy with exasperation, echoed from inside. "Not now, Rookie. We can do self-reflection after we get airborne. Kowalski! Status report!"
There was a short pause. "Uh… according to the radar… we've only flown about 300 kilometers. We're still, um… very, very far from New York."
As the smoke cleared, Yarrow and Tao Hu could finally see into the cockpit—and blinked in disbelief.
There were four penguins inside. Each one wearing a serious expression, fiddling with control panels, switches, and blinking lights like they'd done it a hundred times.
"Time waits for no one!" barked the penguin at the front—clearly the leader. "Stop dragging your flippers, boys. Restart sequence, now!"
"Boss," said Kowalski, frowning at a monitor, "several systems are redlining. Multiple alerts. We don't even know where the fault is!"
"Leave it to me! Cool—Flight Repair Manual!"
The penguin with the slicked-back hair nodded, opened his beak, and spat out a book. The manual sailed through the air and landed squarely in the leader's flipper.
He flipped through exactly one page.
Then smashed every flashing warning light with the manual.
"Fixed. Prepare for takeoff!" he declared, tossing the manual behind him like yesterday's news.
"But boss," said another penguin nervously, "we've got a fuel issue. One of the tanks is cracked. We're too heavy to lift off with what's left."
"Then toss the unnecessary weight!" the boss commanded. "Let's see… multi-functional amphibious motorcycle? Out. Biological evolution gun? Out. Soul exchanger? What the heck even is this? Cuteness detector? How is this still on board?!"
One by one, random, absurdly high-tech (and potentially world-ending) items were hurled from the aircraft, crashing into the forest floor below with thuds, sparks, and the occasional musical jingle.
Cool slammed the hatch shut, and with a roar of blue flame from the thrusters, the battered aircraft bulldozed over a swath of trees before gaining lift—soaring unevenly into the sky and disappearing into the clouds.
Tao Hu, still staring up in stunned silence, finally asked, "T-those penguins… they're spiritual beings too?"
Yarrow slowly shook his head, expression stuck somewhere between awe and resignation. "No. They've always been like that."
He watched the shrinking dot in the sky, still trying to process what just happened.
"I was hoping to talk to them, maybe learn something about this realm… but I guess stealth jet-powered penguins have other priorities."
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