Another Day at Unity (9) (Patreon)

Cody met her eyes for a long time, his face unreadable. But then his concentration faltered, and he broke into giggling laughter.

"What's so funny?" she asked, straightening so she could stand up. She had to be careful about the celebi in her lap, urging her into the air under her own power before she released her. No matter how upset she got, Hayden would never take the chance of accidentally harming Cody's daemon. "I'm gonna die!"

"You don't have to be so melodramatic about it," he finally said. "Why do you think I'm here? I'm saving you." He reached into his pocket, removing a few sheets of white paper. They were... strange, each perfectly cut and whiter than snow. Plain block letters covered them, as though penned by someone with the most regular handwriting who had ever been born.

There were also several illustrations—maps, dotted lines, dates. Several had Cody's own scribbles, usually with times or locations next to them.

"We're not gonna be on the ship when it happens. Because in... a few minutes, we'll sail near the route of a cruise. We jump forward a century, then we can ride that instead. I know that one doesn't sink, already checked."

Hayden guided him back to the floor, easing him into a standing position. The specifics of what he said meant very little to her, though at least the intentions were obvious.

Leave the ship before it sank.

"I can't do that, Cody." She slumped onto her bed, and her daemon joined her a second later. She pulled her knees up to her chest, staring out the little round window. "This ship has a crew. I can't just... leave. If they keep sailing, they die. And if they don't..."

"Tell them you're leaving," Cody said, exasperated. "They turn around. We can take the scenic route for a few weeks, then bring you back home. Nobody dies."

Except all the people Manaphy House drowns because we don't sign the peace treaty.

She didn't say it out loud, but even young Cody could probably sense her discomfort. He backed away from her, lingering near the window. "You don't have to solve all the world's problems. There's a lot of other people."

She shrugged. "Did I ever tell you how Liz settled? My parents told me that wasn't my problem to solve either. I don't care whose job it is if I can help."

She waved, and the little clipping flew back into her fingers. She bit her lip, thinking. "They plan on murdering me. How do I make them sign the treaty instead?"

Cody folded his arms, glaring. "I did all that research... we were gonna go on a cruise together! You don't even know what that is yet!"

She'd forgotten just how immature young Cody could sometimes be. But if he was any different, he probably wouldn't be a celebi. He wanted to be off on some adventure, heedless of the consequences.

She didn't usually say no.

"Can we go on another cruise after?" she asked instead. "If you let me finish my mission first, I'll go. Anywhere you want, as long as you want. Promise."

He turned back, scratching thoughtfully at his chin. "As long as I want?"

Was this Cody old enough to understand the rules she lived with? "Short enough that the mythicals don't find me," she added. "I'm good at hiding, but the Eldest is good at finding. We still have to be careful."

"I know that!" He paced back and forth in front of her, then shrugged out of his jacket. "And I knew you'd say no. I just... had to try. They have a fruit bar with all you can eat fresh produce from all over the world! And three water slides."

He tossed his route notes onto the floor, then reached into his jacket again. He pulled out several more pages, a whole stack of perfect white with a little staple on top, and handed them over.

"We gotta make sure to burn that when you're done reading it. I can save you, but I can't start rewriting history. Then we'll both get so tangled in paradoxes we can't do anything anymore."

She took the stack, skimming over it quickly. "Myrmidons of Pokélantis" said the first page, divided into several sections. "Origin, History, Tactics, Notable Raids, Modern Era, Dissolution."

"You brought this from... after they were already gone," she said, flipping eagerly to "Tactics." She read the article quickly, absorbing everything it contained. Ruthless raiders, relying on the blessing of the Sea Crown to raid any vessel that passed too close to the sea temple. Which could be anywhere, since it moved.

"Yeah. Figured you would want to fight them. I brought, uh... some other junk too. For the crew."

He turned back, crouching down beside the open cabinet and clambering inside. He emerged with a dirty backpack, which he dumped onto her bed beside her.

There were a dozen identical objects, each one about the size of her arm. Strange metal somehow worked into curves, with a mouthpiece of soft black stuff and little frills folded to either side.

She picked one up, and the frills spread out, like strands of lace.

"Wasn't sure about their daemons, so I brought enough for both. Power cell should last about twelve hours. But there's some issues with depth too... I've never been diving before."

"Don't like salt water," Sierra said again, sticking out her tongue. "But we figured you would've bubbled the ship if you could."

I probably did. Making a shield that big would take considerable power and focus, making her vulnerable to almost anything that happened around her. But if she didn't need to create one...

"Anything else I should know? If I'm gonna fight off these... Myrmidons... did you bring weapons?"

He grinned. "Bring you weapons? What would you do with them?"

She stammered, opening and closing her mouth several times. Shaymin House trained her vigorously, and the honored ancestors even more so. Yet none of them ever needed weapons. That kind of fighting was for common pokémon. She was something else. "Okay, you're right. I... don't know how to shoot a bow. Or use a sword. My big brother never taught me, and Lady Gracidea said fencing was a waste of time."

Cody slipped past her to the closet. He eyed her outfits, before removing one from the hanger, holding it towards her.

This looked nothing like any clothes she'd worn before—not that unusual for Cody. Yet of all the clothes he wanted her to wear, none had ever been so strange. A single piece of cloth woven into a tight, flexible outfit, ending at the neck. "What is it?"

"Dunno? Got it from an old space thing. It blocks force. If you wear it under everything, it should help keep you safe. Except for the head... but if you put on a hood, it would block your powers."

She took it, running the cool fabric between her fingers. It weighed much more than she expected—though the strangest part was the way it moved. When she was gentle, it flowed between her fingers like silk. When she tugged, it got instantly hard, resisting her like metal. "Woah. I can just..."

"Hole for the tail," he pointed. "But I only got one. I know you'd never let me fight with you."

She tucked the outfit aside, then pulled him into a tight hug. "You were never a fighter, Cody. Did that change since the last time?"

"No." He looked away. "Always kinda figured... you'd be there to fight for me, if I needed it." Cody looked up again, staring up into her face. "You do it for everyone else. Will you be there for me too?"

She squeezed him tighter—as tight as she dared with a younger version of Cody. "I will. But what I'm doing now is fighting too. One day... I'll be important enough to make the Great Families stop hunting you."

She released him, ignoring the moisture on her face. "Someone has to build a better world, Cody. It won't fix itself."

"I know." He sniffed, then rubbed his eyes against her dress. "I could've just grabbed you, brought us forward. But that's not who you are."

"Do you… want me to send you back to land? The captain will be here for dinner soon... I have to prepare."

He nodded, then took her hand with both of his and squeezed. "I mean it about burning that report. As soon as you're finished, make it go away. The rebreathers aren't a problem so much—they're too advanced for anyone here to reverse engineer. Just say they're mew magic and the crew will believe you."

She leaned close to him and kissed his forehead. Any more felt wrong—this Cody was younger than her. He needed more time to grow. "I'll see you when I get out of Pokélantis. I'd rather be going on that cruise."

Before Hayden could second-guess herself, she focused, bridging two points in space together. She pushed Cody and Sierra across the gulf, then closed it again with a loud implosion of air.

Someone was at her door in an instant, some nervous member of the crew. "Lady Hayden? Is everything alright? It sounded like something fell..."

"All is well," she answered. "Apologies. I was... focused on something. I'll be more considerate going forward."

She would not, in fact. But it felt like a nice thing to say.

Hayden changed into the outfit Cody brought, wearing it under a loose dress and set of stockings. It would still look a little strange to have something shiny peeking out from the gaps, but considering the alternative...

She had plenty of studying to do, and plans to make. The SS Spiral was not about to become another victim of the feud between their houses. It was time to cheat.

The ship didn't alter its course but sailed on for her rendezvous with Manaphy House. What changed was the crew's behavior, and Hayden's own. She slept with the day, keeping the use of her powers to a minimum. When the moment finally came, Hayden was prepared.

She felt the impact as something struck the ship, followed by a terrible groan. That was someone ripping into the hull. The Myrmidons fought best under the ocean, where any sailors would be struggling to stay afloat, powerless to stop them.

They probably didn't expect the crew to be waiting below. Several shouts echoed from beneath, followed by a pained gasp and strangled screaming.

"Guess it's time." She rolled out of bed, already dressed and fully alert. Practical clothing, with a pocket for her daemon. Not that she expected her to need it.

"Lady Gracidea isn't going to like this!" Liz called, her voice echoing in the captain's private quarters.

"Neither is Cody!" she shouted back. Her savior probably hadn't expected this path—the suit crushed both wings painfully to her back. That wouldn't stop her from flying.

Hayden's antennae didn't point at any part of her bedroom—they looked forward in time. She saw the windows shatter, and a thick tentacle of water ripping its way in. Someone fired a harpoon into her chest.

She shot up into the air, pressing flat beside the chandelier, and readying her focus.

You have to, Hadie, whispered Liz into her mind. They're killing us.

She watched a dozen paths play out, wrapping and blending together—until she found the one she wanted.

Glass shattered beneath her, carrying a tendril of living water as wide as a man. Someone floated in the center, a muscular figure wrapped in bronze armor wielding a trident in strange, silvery metal. An armored Absol floated in the water behind him, blade ready.

Hayden crushed the man's neck with a wave of gravity so strong it split from his body. The watery tendril fell instantly limp, splashing over her quarters. Hayden landed beside the corpse, catching the harpoon from the air.

Her eyes met the Absol daemon's, long enough to see its eyes go glassy. The pokémon dissolved before her, turning to dust and ash.

Watch the future, Hadie! Not the present!

Two more soldiers entered, one from the window and another from her door. They fought, overwhelmed her with their dark-type daemons. Her head ached, wings straining against her jumpsuit. Cody's powers might not be as visually dramatic as hers, but they were no less—there!

She dropped flat beside the bedroom door, then gestured, lifting a thousand glass shards into the air in front of her. She crushed dozens of them, shearing each into a blade.

One Myrmidon shot into the opening, shouting something she could not understand. Her powers told her the words anyway. "Commander, did you find the—"

Most spikes shattered or deflected—but two found their mark, piercing the warrior's eye-slits, and emerging out the back of his head. Seconds later the door ripped off its hinges, and a brutish woman stomped her way inside, blade in each hand.

Liz struck her back with another wave of force, flinging her out the opening and up in a wide arc.

The fall might not kill her—but as she fell, her machamp dropped to the ground, gasping in one final agonized moment as his human was ripped away. The daemon dissolved like the first.

Four more. In the hold. Hayden the mew would've teleported straight there. Hayden the celebi flew instead. She passed a bleeding crewman hiding under the mess table, then down into the hold where the battle raged.

Her crew were losing, badly. These were sailors, not elite soldiers. But in this case, the Myrmidons' tactics worked to their advantage. They weren't trying to confirm any kills, just brush their enemies aside and continue their task. Once they sank the ship, all would be at their mercy.