Altered Bonds Extras

  Omake 16 — There's Two of Them

  (Best read after Chapter 17)

  (Canon? — No)

  Myrna eyed the black void-like tear in spacetime that was plastered on her kitchen ceiling. Tsked. Then turned her gaze to the Alolan Vulpix with a white wristband who had tumbled out of said hole, groaning to herself. A Lucario had fallen with her, and was now staring gobsmacked at Myrna — and by extension, her twelve-year-old daughter Eira, who was currently hiding behind her with wide eyes. He kept looking between mother and child with undisguised amazement, and for once, Myrna had a feeling it had nothing to do with how amazingly similar in appearance they were.

  “” the Vulpix mumbled in Alph. In her own daughter’s voice. “”

  She tilted her head up, and freaked at the two humans. Sputtered and stammered, before gaping at Eira for the longest time. Eira stared back too, spooked, before the two averted gazes. They instantly turned to Myrna, who tsked again.

  “” she said.

  “” both replied in mirrored voices.

  Almost a decade’s worth of being a fantasy novelist, and none of her works had prepared her for this. The Lucario turned back to the void tear on the ceiling, making a flummoxed face that Myrna felt was all too fitting for whatever madness this was. “Lucriio?” he said.

  “Vi? P-pixili vulpix vulipi?” cried Vulpix, frantically waving her tails about. “”

  The Pokemon kept ranting on and on, her breath growing heavy. Eira, her actual daughter, clutched Myrna’s arm like it was a lifeline. “” she questioned. “”

  Myrna made a rueful noise. For all that she’d wished she had gotten another child before the Spacetime Pandemic had taken her late husband, a Eira in a Vulpix body was not at all what she meant. Seeing the Vulpix begin to break down into a full-on panic, she made her Eira let go of her arm, scooping up the Vulpix version of herself and clutching her close to her chest. Vulpix stiffened with a yelp, before melting in her grasp, her cold body making Myrna shudder.

  The vixen began to sniff aloud. “” she choked out.

  But not as much as those words did. Eira put her hands over her mouth, aghast, and Myrna’s blood froze over. Ah. That explained everything.

  She redoubled her hug, stroking her vixen hair. The girl cried a bit, pressing her snout against her. Was it uncomfortable? For a loving mother, not in the slightest. Myrna held her there for a long while, conscious of Lucario watching the pair with a bittersweet expression. Had he lost something too? It seemed he had bonded with the other Eira — something Myrna wouldn’t imagine her own shy, reclusive girl ever doing in normal circumstances.

  There was quite a story to unpack here, clearly. “” Myrna lightly chided. “”

  A strangled laugh told Myrna she’d done something right to put the girl in a better mood. “” she managed to say. “”

  Eira, her actual daughter, went googly-eyed at that. Too many emotions entered Myrna’s head as she processed the idea of it, her gaze dropping toward the white wristband in question.

  “”

  “” Vulpix made an awkward face as she turned to properly face Myrna. “”

  Lucario made a snort as Myrna put the girl onto the floor. One part of her, the part that was a dedicated writer, was already considering a variety of story ideas from this one interaction. The other part of her was a fantasy-obsessed geek that was beginning to squeal like crazy.

  “” she inquired, smiling a little as Lucario made a disgusted noise and fervently shook his head. Ah, too bad, a Pokemon turning into a human was too funny not to think about. “”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Vulpix nodded. Then pursed her lips as she stared at her wristband, then at Myrna and Eira. Her actual daughter was doing her very best to avoid staring at the wondrous accessory, much to Myrna’s mirth. Her daughter always had dreamed of being an Alolan Vulpix — curious, how there was another version of her that somehow succeeded.

  Her daughter was tempted to ask her other self if she could try the wristband, it was clear as day. And Myrna couldn’t blame her, “” she said, tickled by the thought. “”

  For some reason, Vulpix put on the oddest expression Myrna ever saw. Lucario began to bark out in chortles, egging the girl on with a few terse words. She muttered something back in the Pokemon tongue, uncertain, but Lucario eventually made her give in.

  Her form rippled into light. Myrna had half-expected her to transform at some point, and managed not to flinch as the vixen changed into a perfect clone of her own human daughter, save for how her blue dress had been torn in places by what looked like Pokemon attacks. Eira, her own Eira, blinked several times at her duplicate self, before frowning at the ripped clothing. “” questioned Myrna. “”

  Before she could say another word, however, shapeshifter Eira brought out her hand, concentrating. A fleck of ice formed, and Myrna forgot everything else.

  She stared. Eira stared. Lucario cackled a little more as the twosome’s jaws dropped at magic.

  “” said her daughter.

  Myrna scowled at the void tear on her ceiling, a burning desire consuming her mind whole. “” she yelled, making both girls jump. “”

  A good part of her was still struggling to catch up with whatever was happening here, but there was a copy of her daughter here. One with what had to be some terrible baggage, and magic coming out of her fleshy human fingers. She to know.

  “” Myrna sharpened her glare as much as she could, even knowing that her words would be all bark and no bite to such entities. “”

  Shapeshifter Eira turned to Lucario, who stared at the kitchen with a thoughtful look, before sharing a few words with her. “” she muttered. “”

  “” Myrna had a double-take as she looked at the girl, her eyes glimmering with a hint of longing. Ah, but of course she’d say that. No Myrna to go back to in her original dimension, after all. “”

  “” Shapeshifter Eira clasped her hands tightly. “”

  “Rio lura ca,” said Lucario, almost absentmindedly.

  “Vul? ”

  Myrna bit her lip at this. “” she pointed out. “”

  “” Shapeshifter Eira eyed the portal with trepidation. “”

  The despair in the last few words made Myrna writhe inside. She eyed the rips in the girl’s fabric, and felt a grave, unfathomable horror. Like she had stumbled onto the darkest machinations of fate. Dare she ask about the specifics?

  No. Not yet, the other Eira clearly needed time. “” Myrna considered, shooting a glance at her own Eira. Her daughter slowly shrugged, and Myrna noticed how the bewilderment in her eyes was slowly fading, replaced by a sense of fascination.

  Could she keep both girls? Two Eiras would get along well — who better for her quiet daughter to make a friend with? On the other hand, the appearance of a second Eira would probably lead to a lot of questions by neighbors and Eira’s school. And what about documentation? Goodness, she’d have to contact the Faller agencies to get this properly sorted out, and she wasn’t sure if they had ever handled anything remotely like this. They’d surely smooth things out, but how they’d do such a thing, that was beyond her.

  Never mind her finances. Her writing business only made so much, and two girls and a Pokemon were a little pricey to care for. But magic! She got a magic daughter in return! Which definitely needed hiding, entirely unlike her Faller nature, because a human with a shapeshifting accessory and literal ice magic was too much trouble for anyone’s worth. But magic!

  Myrna had to stop herself from giggling like a loon. Magic would make all the hassle worth it on its own. “” she told shapeshifter Eira, before snapping her fingers at the rift. “”

  Three Pokemon cried out and hurtled out of the rift, Myrna facepalming as a Gabite crashed onto the floor. Then a Togetic, and then a — wait, was that little white reindeer with the grassy mohawk and petal scarf a Shaymin? An actual in her house?

  Her daughter gawked at the threesome, while Lucario and shapeshifter Eira just stared, unamused. “” the other Eira said in a flat voice.

  Only in an alternate world would her daughter make her first serious bonds with a group of rare Pokemon. “” said Myrna.

  “”

  The Gabite jerked with a start at the sight of Myrna, before choking on a fearful grunt as he noticed the twin Eiras. The Togetic and Shaymin were frantically looking about at the kitchen like it was some alien world, before pausing too at the double-human situation. Myrna eyed them, looked at shapeshifter Eira, and realized she had a Pokemon translator standing right in front of her. And a Shaymin.

  “” added shapeshifter Eira. “”

  Myrna’s face was steel. “” she shouted at the rift.

  Congrats, you got more content for Eira's Mother (and better yet, the guardians of the canon didn't step in to cause any canon events!). Also a really weird alternate universe where Eira and the cooler Eira? simultaneously exist. At this rate we'll have a whole MCU multiverse made out of these omakes.

  I honestly do wonder what people make of Eira's Mother. Kind of a pity that such a fun character was left to drown in the main timeline.