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Featured
Team Auraskies Renew by Sekkitsu
Sheepish Smiles by LenisLynx
Just tell her by TeeterGlance
Timey Wimey Shippy Stuff by RockingScorpion
Missions
In the Future of Darkness - PMD Comic (pg 4) by GoldenDragonJinLong
In the Future of Darkness - PMD Comic (pg 6) by GoldenDragonJinLong
In the Future of Darkness - PMD Comic (pg 5) by GoldenDragonJinLong
In the Future of Darkness - PMD Comic (pg 8) by GoldenDragonJinLong
Official Boss, NPCs, and Mission Art
Boss Battle: Mega Mawile by Srarlight
Dour the Mega Houndoom Pokemon-MD-Club by Mad-Zazzy
*Boss Battle* - King Ven by KilaWolfsblut
*Boss Battle* - Mega Abomasnow by KilaWolfsblut
Official Team Profiles
Shining Spirit - New Grovyle and Dusknoir Comic! by GoldenDragonJinLong
Grass-type siblings by GwynSkyfeather
Gligar Reference -- 1000 Pageviews special teaser! by DukeofBrittany
Team Seven Sins App 2 by Ama-Encyclopika
Artwork
Play in the snow by MrokDragon
Monster House! [Team Exodius] by IronRiot99
Orchid the Weavile by slavvko
The first of December by Kairi-Z
Comics
PMD Season of Change-Chapter1 page-6 by TheTechman1998
PMD Season of Change-Chapter1 page-7 by TheTechman1998
PMD Season of Change-Chapter1 page-9 by TheTechman1998
PMD Season of Change-Chapter1 page-10 by TheTechman1998
Fanfiction
My Badge of Honor pt.1This is so stupid! I still can’t believe that I had gotten myself lost like this! Here I am now, walking the floor of some forest like a goshdarn Teddiursa! Of course fate just wanted to see me suffer, grounded not by injury or anything else, but being the middle of autumn with its cooler temperatures and constantly high atmospheric pressure. I was already stranded in the middle of wheretheheckinstin, couldn’t a girl at least be allowed the luxury of being allowed to get even just a bit of horizontal movement? Course not. Because that would require someone, or something, to take pity on me for once. I adjusted my neckerchief in frustration, and caught myself reaching for my badge again. Even knowing it wouldn’t work just like the other fifty times I tried it, I still removed it from the fabric with one pincer and tried to get it to work its power. It did nothing. I wanted to beam it against the nearest tree. It took a lot of effort to put it back in its rightful spot, clipped securely to the left side of my fading indigo neckerchief. I shook my problems to the side and kept moving. At minimum I need to keep my blood flowing to keep some level of warmth about me, because this scrap of cloth sure wasn't helping much of anything now. I sighed, my breath misting just a bit in the morning air. Sure would've been nice to at least have not somehow lost everything else I had been carrying. Better yet, I should have maybe prepared to pull out my winter gear early in hindsight. Such outfits are usually superfluous, so of course I am missing the option of having a full set of clothes now. I shoved my way through yet another bush, and was met with an unexpected sight. Have I really regressed to such a state that stumbling upon what looked to be some kind of actual ROAD for the first time in two days is now considered surprising? Perhaps it's only a surprise because this is the first sign of actual civilization, so I’m willing to take anything at this point. Letting my guard down, I stepped into the open, the underbrush rattling behind me. “Are there… two of them?” I wondered aloud, examining a strange detail about the roadway. The ground actually had two sets of tracks, separated by a thin layer of grass, that maintained a perfectly equal distance between themselves all along the trail length that I could see down. “What the heck could have done such a thing?” Welp, beggars can’t be choosers. I did ask for signs of civilization, and I have been granted one. I marched down a direction at random, confident that if I just followed one for long enough, I would eventually reach something, and I would finally be freed from this prison! But I heard the sounds of another traveler far too late. I had hardly processed the distinct pattern of footsteps when a stone struck me in the back of the head! I wheeled around, shouting, “Alright! Who the heck-” before I found myself unable to finish that sentence. There was a Voltorb spinning rapidly in the air. Then it stopped, and still hovering, stared at me for a moment, eyes closed. Then the Voltorb split in half, revealing a hollow, dark interior! Even as my veins flooded with adrenaline, I was frozen in terror at this sight. Did I just see somebody just get murdered?! I shouted in shock only to again be stopped as my lungs suddenly went devoid of air! My vision went red, and I was forced to move as I suddenly felt some unnatural force dragging me closer. I tried to anchor my tail and talons into the earth, but my muscles were like mush! I was unable to look away as I was dragged screaming helplessly into the center of the Voltorb! The two halves slammed together and I was submerged in darkness as the corpse fell to the ground violently in a kinetic ‘clack’! I too fell to the ground like a raw potato as I slammed face first into the bottom of the inner shell as it rebounded off the ground outside, not having the time to decelerate nor the air resistance to catch my wings on myself to avert my own crash landing. The Voltorb continued to bounce into a jittery roll before coming to a stop, and I was left very dizzy and disoriented. Attempting to not allow whom-or-whatever another opportunity to stop me from mounting a defense while I had already been discombobulated inside some metallic sphere, I scrambled to pincers and knees trying to rise to my feet, but I fell over again anyway and this time landed on my back, thankfully not crushing my tail in the process. First observation that isn't, “it’s too dark to see in here”; the inside of this shell is a lot more cramped than I initially felt; something that really should not be a surprise despite the fact that it is. Second observation, the inside of this Voltorb has been skinned cleanly down to the steel shell with a disturbing precision. Whoever did this is a heartless bastard. Third observation, and far the most important, I was no longer wearing my neckerchief! I couldn’t afford to lose that at all, so I proceeded to feel around myself frantically for wherever it may have landed, but I was unable to feel it. Then, it only could have landed outside somehow? I never felt it get torn off my neck! Trying again, even as the inside of this thing continued to prove very unstable and easily jostled by even slight movements, I deliberately stabbed the side of the Voltorb shell to try to pierce it, but my tail just bounced off uselessly and only rocked the sphere some more. Feeling slightly defeated already but by no means undeterred, I laid there on my back for only a moment when a very pronounced CLICK reverberated across the length of the carcass, one laced with feeling that I had just missed my last window out of here, though there’s no way that’s actually possible, right? But I couldn't help but notice that it stopped moving… Then… I heard a strange voice, one of a nature I was unfamiliar with, being monotone and rather disjointed phonetically. I couldn’t tell if it came from outside or inside, or perhaps was even being said to me Psychically. “Gligar captured successfully! Running first capture diagnostics.” The vaguely feminine voice said. “Gligar’s data has been processed and uploaded to your pokedex. Would you like to view the entry on Gligar?” Another voice responded, “Nah. Not right now.” While the previous voice was presumably being spoken Psionically but was otherwise hard to identify, this one clearly came from outside the voltorbs’s shell and had the distinctly scratchy sound of a young boy. “Understood.” spoke that psychic voice again. “Pokeball diagnostics check has run successfully, zero issues have been reported with the capture process or the Pokeball’s system integrity. Generating species micro-habitat and running full bioscan of specimen. Data summary will be ready in… two minutes! Would you like to give a nickname to the captured Gligar?” “Maybe in a minute?” the boy said. “Understood. Finishing pokeball setup.” Was I supposed to know what they were going on about? Were they even talking to me? They were absolutely talking about me, I think, but the only thing I knew for sure is that, whatever is going on, it can’t be good. “... Care to repeat that?” I asked innocently, clinging to the off chance they were unrelated to *this*, however unlikely that chance may be. They responded with actions that spoke louder then they ever could with words. I felt myself get shrunken down even further within the confines of this “Pokeball(?)” as the inside lit up! All around me, materializing out of thin air was an entire landscape! A decently sized cliff appeared before me composed of creme dirt and rock, as if to emulate some kind of mountain pass? I say a cliff, but it really wasn't that big of a space on closer inspection. The landscape cutoff hard on the sides of the ball, and while no longer claustrophobic, it was barely bigger than my living room. And yet, upon touching it experimentally with one of my pincers, the ground seemed to be real? I sure am glad that I'm not like most people. Others would be freaking out at whatever the heck is going on, but fortunately, I know better than that, despite how much I admittedly want to panic right now. “Obviously, there’s a psychic or ghost type messing with me right now, making me see the things they want me to see as usual. Just focus on trying to escape and survive; this whole ‘mountain inside a voltorb’ fiasco is not real.” I told myself. “The Pokeball has finished its first time boot cycle and is now fully operational. It is now safe to eject and recall the pokemon.” the monotone voice droned on again. Their repetitive and uncanny ability to keep their speech consistent started to ring similar to the likes of Magnemite, though still I haven’t encountered a machine-like pokemon that could sound this way before. ‘Eject the pokemon?’ No, there’s no way I heard that correctly. My captors, whomever they are, just caught me! They haven't even interrogated me yet. So that’s another boldfaced lie. Back to looking for a way out. But I couldn’t ignore the sound of approaching, massive footsteps. Two of them, actually, with the second being noticeably lighter than the first set. “Is… is Blake really just going to ignore the scrap of cloth?” Said a third voice. Unlike the other two, this one undeniably belonged to a separate species from the first two, and even though they seemed to be muttering to themselves, they spoke with a strong and deliberate tone. The ground shook lightly, I assume from somebody picking the orb I was in up. “Gligar, come on out!” the boy shouted before the whole sphere was slung. I had barely even the time to register that much before the landscape around me fizzled out, the sphere split in half again and swung open at an impressive speed, and the weirdest sensation washed over me. It tickled as my body glowed a brilliant blue-white and I was sent flying out of there as I grew back to my full size in less than a second! As usual, I hadn't the slightest opportunity to unfurl my wings and slow down before I impacted right back into the grassy road I started on. Honestly, why is the weird part that this face-first fall didn't hurt in the slightest? I scrambled to my feet and turned around to face my captors, “Allright, who wants to…” I trailed off as I fully scanned the pokemon standing before me. One was much shorter than me, and a species I recognised right away: a Sneasel. They weren't wearing any clothing or personal identifier and were quietly staring at me. They seemed to be physically matured, but not yet a true adult. Standing over a foot taller than me but no more, side by side with Sneasel was another pokemon, this one of a species I was unfamiliar with, but my first impression was that they are likely a normal type and was the young boy I was hearing. I guess they would look prepubescent if I was to make a blind guess. In contrast to their friend(?), they were decked out head to toe in a frankly ridiculous amount of clothing. Someone has some money to burn, clearly. It was hard to miss how he was absentmindedly holding the voltorb/pokeball/thingamajig as well as my neckerchief and badge in one hand. Looks can always be deceiving, but I couldn’t pick up any ill intent from their passive, soft expressions. The thought they made a mistake in kidnapping me flashed across my mind, and I clung to that wild fantasy hard. The boy got down on one knee and extended their free hand to me, saying, “Hey there, buddy! It’s nice to meet you!” I backed away, holding my claws close to my chest. ‘Why do people always try to give me a hand shake?’ I thought to myself, with a bit of concern for the other party, ‘I don’t have hands, I have pincers! Do they want to lose a finger?’ After a moment, their eyes widened upon realizing the same thing, and also pulled back sheepishly. “Wow, girl.” Sneasel suddenly commented, “Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to turn down a handshake? And to a new friend no less? Yeesh!” I shot them a scornful look, and turned back to the pokemon in front of me. “Ummm… so, who are you exactly?” I asked him, gesturing forward with one claw, a patch of sun illuminating my wing’s membrane, “Where am I exactly?” He stared back at me absentmindedly for a second. Sneasel forcefully prodded him in the side with folded claws, snapping him back to attention. “Oh, uhhh, right.” he said, “...I got a little sidetracked thinking about what to call you...” Uh, what? “My name is Blake! I am an experienced Pokemon trainer, and you are going to be the newest member of my team!” he said, lighting up a little. Sneasel did the same. Oh, is that the scam they’re pulling? “Excuse me? YOUR team? Pokemon… trainer?” I asked, “That’s not-” But Sneasel cut me off. “You heard him, idiot.” Sneasel jeered again, “He… captured you?” She suppressed a laugh as they said that. So I interrupted her, stepping away from the larger pokemon as I did so, “Oh, so you admit it!” I snapped to Sneasel suddenly, “Then in that case, WHY? I don’t even know you! Should I? What kind of cult are the two of you recruiting for anyhow?” I accused them of the first crime I could think of. Sneasel was caught off guard, evidently. “Woah, what? C-cult?! What are you going on about? He caught you, so-” “So you admit that you are indoctrinating random peo-” “Oh, you are just adorable!” The boy interjected, stepping in front of both of us, “And I’m happy to see that you are already making fast friends with Sneasel, too!” That horrendously off base comment made Sneasel visibly flustered. I could envision her blushing underneath that thin charcoal fur of hers. I turned my attention back to him. “First off,” I said with a pinch of added sass, “‘Fast Friends’? Making a lot of assumptions here buddy. Secondly, I still want to know why you think kidnapping a -” but Sneasel cut me off again. “What the heck are you going on about?” they asked rapidly, “Why are you acting like this is a bad thing? Do you really-” And that’s precisely the moment I started to really lose my temper. “QUIET! I’M NOT ASKING YOU!” I screamed at her. She backed off, momentarily intimidated. Starting with a clear click of my pincer at the boy to get his attention, I took a single deep breath and asked him more calmly. “Sir, I don’t know who you think you are, but you have better back off before things get ugly. So I will be merciful and ask you only once more. Who are you, and why have you tried to kidnap me? You are aware you have made a grave mistake in trying to detain a member of the rescue association, right?” I was partially bluffing of course, as I had yet to pick up any real malice from either of them. At the same time, I will still do what I must. “Anyway, this is perfect.” He said, actually looking AWAY from me. Does- does he not hear a single word I'm saying? “I have been looking for another good pokemon to add to my team, and I was just thinking that adding a flying-poison type to the team will be very beneficial. And being resistant to ground should be useful for the next gym as well.” He responded. Did he just call me a poison type? Beyond that… incorrect but surprisingly common assumption, he IS in fact recruiting for a mission right now? So why did they…? He continued rambling off on that previous tangent. “But what a catch! A Gligar? Here? Just for that, you are so worth it.” Then, out of nowhere, he suddenly reached his hand out and started petting me on the head??? My tail acted on impulse, and shot towards the boy’s appendage! I stopped myself from impaling the kid and manually swung it back with enough force to slam my barb against a random rock behind me at an unnatural angle. I yelped and recoiled before just turning away and rubbing it gingerly. He started rubbing my forehead harder, as if he thought that was me exhibiting a positive reaction. “What’s the matter, miss?” Sneasel called out, “Do you not like being touched or something? Sorry, you’re gonna have to get used to it with him. I’ve tried.” Was that supposed to be conciliatory or insulting? ‘Just keep it together, girl.’ I told myself, ‘You don’t want to take this fight, so don’t provoke her.’ I took another deep breath and turned back to face them. ‘You don’t know the first first pokemon’s type or capabilities, and trying to take a Sneasel by yourself would be a fool's errand. Just play nice and maybe you can walk away shortly.’ The vaguely feminine voice from earlier spoke out again, “The caught Gligar’s individual data summary has been fully compiled and is now ready to be viewed on your Poryphone2.” Oh, right, I had been hearing mainly their voice earlier, but forgot about them. I looked around, but didn’t see them. Therefore, the speaker might be a ghost type? The kid had now crouched down again and pulled out some blue and red brick, and both he and Sneasel were looking over it intently. In the process, they had lowered both that Voltorb device and my stuff to the ground beside them. “Pull up Gligar’s pokedex entry, please.” the kid said. “Gligar: the Flying Scorpion Pokemon. Ground-Flying type.” The mechanical voice said. I could now tell it was coming from the blue and red brick they were holding. The kid questioned the “Ground? Not Poison?” aspect of my biology openly. Sneasel looked at me slowly, their mouth pulling faintly into a smile. ‘I guess they really didn’t know…’ I thought to myself as the third pokemon resumed its lecture. “They are most commonly found in cliffs and foothills, where they use their large membrane wings to catch warm air currents and glide great distances. They rely on the winds of their habitats as they are too heavy to fly even short distances under their own power, often needing a jumping off point or needing to use a move to get airborne. While omnivorous, they much prefer to hunt for their next meal, diving at their prey from above and finishing them off with a fatal strike from their venomous tail. Being immune to both ground and electric shocks and having few weaknesses, strong trainers often equip Gligar to wall against all sorts of foes! Be mindful though, as their cold-blooded nature renders them particularly vulnerable to the cold, and as such often migrate into low lying forests to stay out of the winter’s snow.” I stood there, stunned as I listened to the voice ramble on. I don’t think I have ever heard someone read me like an open book like that before, and I know a few Psychic types who have tried. They know that much about my species habits? “Uhhhh… you! What’s my lifespan and continent of origin?” I found myself suddenly blurting out. I then had the thought to start inching towards where ‘Blake’ set my stuff down while we’re distracted. “Gligar reach physical maturity after a period of about one year, and have an average life expectancy of twelve years. They are native to the Johto and Sinnoh regions, but can also be found in Unova and Paldea where they are seen as an invasive species.” Oh. I actually started laughing. “Oh, well then! I guess you were just making all that up! Twelve years?! ‘Jo-to’? Hah! Nice try!” that made me feel just a little bit better about my situation, weirdly. They both ignored my comment as the kid asked, “What does it say about their habitats in this region?” “Wild Gligar have not been observed to live here or the surrounding areas.” “Hmph.” Sneasel thought aloud, eying and picking up my neckerchief and badge before I could take it back without their noticing. “I suppose that would explain this alright…” I again spoke without thinking. “H-hey! That’s mine! Give that back!” “Yeah, cool.” She responded, not even looking at me. Instead, they turned to the other kid and asked, “Hey, Blake! You think the reason they were wearing this is because they belonged to someone and got lost?” As they asked it, they made these weird, unusual gestures with their claws. But that just gave me a crazy idea. Standing back up, ‘Blake’ responded, “Yeah, you might be right about that one.” He took my neckerchief from her claws. “Well, I suppose the right thing to do is hold onto them until her owner comes looking for them? Although, if they weren't already registered under a pokeball or trainer ID then it’s unlikely they are a runaway. They must be a stray then. Oh, I never thought of a name for them, did I?” I ignored him as I acted on yet another random idea, “what’s ‘Blake’s’ species?” The brick pokemon ignored me. Sneasel did not. “Y-you can’t be serious, can you?” she asked, “Did you really just ask that? What rock did you crawl out from anyway?” I mellow-dramatically interrupt them and ask, “And what? Next you're going to tell me that he’s a human?” “Yes.” They said that as if I had lost my mind or something. “Oh here we go…” I sighed. “You think that just because he claims to be a human, that automatically entitles him to getting special treatment and being better than the rest of us, don’t you?” “Ye-, no-, what?” She stammered. “Don’t bother answering.” I told her, “Actually, I don’t think I care what you think. It won’t make a heap of a difference, now see here! Whether he actually is a human or not is irrelevant right now, as you have yet. To answer. My question. What is their species?” I could see the question marks floating around their head as they for some reason struggled to wrap their head around such a normal question. Have they really never had this problem before? “I-I already told you! Stop being so… dismissive! They are a human!” “I’VE GOT IT!” The so-called human suddenly shouted, spooking the both of us. “Poryphone2, I would like to give Gligar a nickname! Since Gligar supposedly have difficulty flying by themselves, and they are a ground-flying type, plus they were carrying around this faded purple bandana, that makes me think of those old-timey biplane pilots. I am going to call her ‘Aviator’!” He said this while pointing dramatically with a massive smile plastered on his face. Yep, this kid’s officially a dweeb alright. “What? No, don’t call me that.” I said. “Pokemon’s name registered as: AVIATOR.” the brick pokemon said. “I just said don’t call me that.” I repeated, louder this time. “That’s not my name.” “Alright, Aviator? Are you ready to go on an adventure with us? Air control says you’re all clear for takeoff!” Blake the ‘human’ said with an honest grin. “Stop it!” I insisted, “Please, call me Gligar!” “I’m glad you like it! I’m proud of it too! Don’t worry, there will be ample time to soar above the horizon with us. We will be flying into the unknown in no time!” he cheered. “STOP!” I was getting a bit desperate. “Awww, what’s the matter Aviator?” Sneasel mocked, “Having some engine trouble on the runway? Letting a little rain get in the way of a great day in the friendly skies?” “YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!” I shouted so urgently that my voice cracked. “Hokay fiiine, you’re no fun.” Sneasel said with an overly mocking sigh, “I will ask him to call you Aviator- I mean Gligar!” She got the kids attention with a solid thump to the waist, saying, “The pink bat would like for you to stop calling her that,” Again, making these weird hand motions as she did so. “Certainly!” he said, “Anyway, Aviator, I feel it’s high time that we hit the road. What do you say?” I slowly turned to face Sneasel and leered her intensely. If I had the move in my movepool I would have absolutely popped it to drive the point in even harder. She stared back passively for a moment before shrugging. I did not let up. She held the shrug for a second longer before slinking downwards sheepishly. “Eheh… yeah, sometimes he is just like that.” She admitted. “It can be in one ear and out the other with him. Either that, or he can be weirdly stubborn on the most trivial of things. It's not worth fighting him on, believe me. So we should probably get going.” “Alright, before you go,” I asked. I pretended to start walking with the group, but started getting ready to make my move. Blake the ‘human’ had stuffed my neckerchief and badge in one of the side pockets in the bag he had slung over his back. “I’m still trying to get home myself. (I have been lost for days now as a matter of fact.) Can you please do me a solid and point me in the direction of Zillfiji? That, and give me my stuff back?” “Uhhhhh… we're not going to Zill-whatever.” She said. I bluffed harder, “I never said you were? I just need my scarf and badge back so I can report back to base. I have been missing for like three days now, probably. I just, well, where are you going right now?” “I don’t know?” She said, “We go wherever he goes, so, come on.” I thought I would try one more time before I dropped the act. I was already well in position anyway. Doing my best to hide my actions, I snuck a breath and tapped my movepool. “Well, at least you must know where the nearest major city is, right? How far are we from Lendingstone? I can navigate my way back home from there.” “What is Lendingstone? I’ve never heard of it. But, what part of ‘Blake is a pokemon trainer’ do you not understand? You’re not leaving.” So much for that. Having a clue as to where I am would have been nice, but here we are. “Hmph. Pity that.” I said with disappointment. “For you see, your opinion doesn't matter. Acrobatics.” I expended the power to use the move and with a forward leap I extended an arm and pickpocketed my things from the kid at a blinding speed. He had barely even noticed before I hit the ground again and rebounded the other direction. Taking the opportunity to style on them, I bounced off my pincers, got a glorious mental image of Sneasel in a slack jawed awe forever etched into my memory as I flipped elegantly over her head, and with one final decisive stomp into the dirt behind them, I turned back with an evil grin; “BYE!” And catapulted myself skywards, already clearing the treeline by the time the move’s effect ended. The air pressure and temperature was still not ideal, but I have a high enough velocity to get a good deal of distance between us before I'm forced to land again. Sailing upwards from the momentum, I turned back to see Sneasel by Blake's side, the latter of whom had stumbled forwards in recoil. After patting the figures side, Sneasel spun back around and… threw something? “HA! Like that will ever do-” My gloating was stopped as a red beam of light shot towards me and hit me square in the chest, freezing me in place! NO! NOT AGAIN! I tried desperately to respond, but same as before my whole body had frozen solid as I was yanked the other direction! The most horrible sight however, one I had mercifully missed the first time, was the way I could see myself glow brightly in that same shade of red light, before I then turned transparent! As the cursed ball recaptured me, the neckerchief I was holding in my claws phased right through me and fluttered back down to the forest floor without me! In a matter of seconds, I was once again dragged effortlessly back into the dim clutches of the sphere by that red harpoon. I got up slowly, very dizzy from the emotional and physical whiplash. And same as last time, that fake mountainous landscape reemerged. “This… this isn't right. Fool me once, how could you? Fool me twice…? No! There’s no way that this thing is that powerful! There has to be something I’m missing!” This time I was booted from the confines of the device far more quickly. Sneasel stood before me, holding the ball in one claw. Blake was behind them, still picking some odds and ends that I apparently had scattered off the ground. “What the heck is your problem?” She shouted. “Just let me go!” I pleaded, “Please!” “Sneasel,” The ‘human’ said, attempting to be reassuring, “What have I told you about trying to swipe things from me?” Sneasel protested, once again speaking to him with those weird movements. “That wasn't me! It was Aviator! She-” “Don’t blame the new girl!” he said, “She has been standing there this whole time! Now just hand her pokeball back to me and let's get going?” “I… I…” I stammered. I wanted to escape, but they just casually had a device that could prevent me from doing so very easily? I wanted to fight, but one matchup I don’t think I can win, and the other… just what is this feeling about him? It’s not intimidation or malice, and yet even a single look at his stupid face makes me terrified to see anything happen to it, despite how much I would love to clock him in the jaw all the same. The fact I had a golden opportunity to get rid of him barely three minutes ago but consciously acted against such drastic measures suddenly is singing a different tune. He’s just so… innocent! Clueless, even. “Don’t worry about her, Aviator,” the kid said with a compassionate ring, “Sometimes she is just like that. I think Sneasel is just a little jealous, that's all. I will make sure she treats you with respect, don’t you worry.” And there it is again! Now that I have realized it, it's obvious what he is doing, or to be more accurate, what he isn't! He’s so effortlessly childish and innocent, happy and genuine. I don’t think it is possible that he has a bad bone in his body, so how is it that Sneasel acts beneath him? I hear his words and I just… want to believe him! Or at least… I don’t want to see a soul lay a claw on the kid for speaking honestly. When he called Sneasel jealous just now, there was no mistaking it; she seemed called out while I felt a small wave of relief. “So, how about I put you back in your ball and we can get to know each other properly once I have camp set up?” the way he speaks and acts is eerily similar to him, only actually oblivious instead of willfully innocent. Despite having come to an understanding of the boy, I still can’t run from the inevitable, so with a heavy heart I told him, “I will not!” I have places to be and things that belong to me, and I can’t lose sight of what is truly important! I turned and ran. I spotted my stuff lying on the ground a short distance away, and moved as fast as I could to grab them. “See? Told you.” Sneasel chastised behind me. I grabbed the neckerchief in one pincer and stopped for half a second to plan. Getting airborne is still likely my best bet, but in retrospect I shouldn’t have put so much energy into one single usage of Acrobatics. I checked behind me, and froze. Sneasel was holding that stupid ball out in one claw, pointed directly at me with a knowing smile. And Blake, he looked sad. He stepped forwards before speaking cheerfully again; “Oh, right, those! They must mean a lot to you, don’t they? I’ll make sure not to lose them.” I panicked and just hissed like some feral as I clutched my neckerchief and badge closely. Blake recoiled, confused. “I’m sure you're a great guy and all, but I cannot stay!” I asserted, quivering, “I have places to be, so I need to get home as soon as possible!” They both responded, however Sneasel’s voice and actions spoke more clearly than Blake’s. “You really don’t get it, do you?” She said with a sigh, “So let me spell it out for you, Aviator.” With a smirk, she clicked the button of the white and red ball, and I was once again sent back into that tiny device against my will. After that prison cell of a cliffside appeared around me for a third time, she said, “He is your new trainer whether you like it or not. Your opinion doesn't matter.”—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They didn’t let me out again right away. Having some time to myself in there, I noticed a few things about the insides of this sphere I hadn't before, and I studied it more closely all around. The whole, oh, roughly 7 meters by 7 meters space was set up to mimic that of a small alcove sitting somewhere on a dry mountainous decline. There really wasn't much to speak of, save a small pile of dried reeds sitting just within the overhang. It took me a while to consider it, but was that supposed to be my bed? The terrain cut off abruptly when it intersected with the sides of the ball, so the brightly lit dirt and rock clashed against the dark, looming walls. The walls themselves jutted out with these thick looking gray bands that, as far as I could tell, wrapped the whole inner surface of the ball that rose both from the bottom of the sphere to the top as well as striped horizontally in parallel with the actual sphere’s clamshell. Whenever they intersected, not counting the ones on said clamshell, they created these blue disks that glowed softly. Just looking at them, I had an eerie feeling that it was those disks that were responsible for creating this place, and that attempting to tamper with them could only end badly for me. The shells that the bands supported were composed of an unfamiliar substance. They were very hard and solid, but I could at least scratch them with a lot of force and finesse. They weren't metallic, earthen, or even wooden, frankly I have never encountered anything like them before in my life. So just brute forcing my way out through one of the walls seems a no go. Interestingly enough, while the bottom half was opaque, the upper shell was pretty transparent, just with a harsh red tint. From the right vantage point, I could net a pretty decent view of the outside world, though I think their intended purpose was actually to be seen through the other direction, so that I could be monitored by outsiders. Because I hadn't felt violated enough already I guess. Something weird though; it seems that somehow, no matter how the pokeball is oriented on the outside, in here, everything always stays constant. I can literally see and hear Blake and Sneasel moving and jostling the ball around in their grubby hands, and I feel literally nothing. The ball can be left of a table with the red, transparent half pointed down while I can be on the “ground” in the “bottom” half of the ball looking “up” at the top of the table, and not even feel the slightest gravitational discrepancy. I can fly with no issues in here save the cramped conditions; and yet trying to wrap my head around how this works makes me dizzy. Looking at the mechanisms that bound the two halves of the sphere together meanwhile were a different story. On one side, we had a hinge. It was extremely complicated and sophisticated looking, but definitely a hinge. Directly opposite them we had the reverse side of the big gray button that jutted out from the top half of the shell. The two halves were stuck fast together, far too strongly for me to ever hope to move it, but it seemed as though there was no physical lock on either side of the device or along the insides of the shells. Perhaps they are magnetic in nature, though I have no way of knowing for sure. Unlike those regular, steady blue discs, a cursory examination of the back of the button told me one thing. This might be my ticket out of here. If anything here had the potential for me to mess with them and eventually breakout, I believe it would be this thing. Nothing struck out to me as obviously exploitable, moreso, it's one where I would need time to weaken and study it. That is something that I normally don’t care for, but in this situation, it’s clear that I might be stuck here for a long time. There really wasn't much else to do in here after all, besides watch that kid walk endlessly through the forest, apparently having clipped the ball to waistbelt of sorts… somehow. Unfortunately, it seems that I have completely exhausted any and all interesting things about the insides of this device, and no more feelings of wonder and/or awe can be drawn from what is, at the end of the day, nuaght more than a prison cell. So now, I wait.—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "My mission report?" I rambled on at absolutely nobody at all in a futile attempt to stave off boredom, "Swoobat, there's so much that happened that is ultimately unnecessary so I will just give you the short version. At first it was going fine and all, but then out of nowhere, I got separated from my teammates. I swear I looked behind us for like two seconds, then... they were just gone and it was dead silent. I could only go like one direction and found an exit after all of twenty seconds. And I assure you, I couldn't get back inside the dungeon from the way I had just come from. I genuinely don't know what else to tell you, the cave just... went nowhere. Then, to summarize a lot, it became clear that I had no clue where I had ended up. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and was completely lost." "Then, a whole two days of walking and gliding later, I ended up getting kidnapped and forced under the control of a pair of pokemon. One's a Sneasal who's rather annoying, and the other is this very young idiot that has the audacity to claim to be HUMAN! I mean, how-" My train of thought was derailed as the fake ground I was sitting on fizzled as the ball opened and I was shot outside, once again regrowing to normal size in less than a second while glowing that red light. The instant I could move my body again, I stumbled forwards onto my pincers. Of all things, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Do you mind? You could at least give me a warning before letting me out, I can hear you from inside and all." "Eh, you will get the hang of it soon enough, Aviator." Sneasal said from a short distance away as I got up and turned around, "You will have too, trust me. ... Right, so how about this spot?" "So, have you both come to your senses and decided to let me go?" I retorted. My eyes were immediately drawn to Blake who, aside from standing rather close to me and was still holding the ball, had made the bold and dangerous decision to wear my neckerchief and badge around his own neck. That little... What’s worse? The fact that it makes it that much harder to get them back without hurting someone I can only assume hasn't hurt a Joltick in his life, or that my neckerchief and badge honestly doesn't clash as much as it should with the rest of his frankly excessive outfit. On that thought, despite how much clothing he was wearing and its intricacy, it somehow seemed to be rather cheap and worn, like he was wearing it just because he can and likes to, rather than a compulsive desire to display how opulent and wealthy he is. The fact that I can’t label this kid as rich despite what he has already revealed as having is disturbing. Sneasel was a ways behind him, doing something or other with a couple other people. "Alright Aviator." Blake chirped, demanding my full attention, "I know we got off to a bit of a bad start earlier, but let's try this again over dinner. Firstly, let's focus on getting camp set up. The others are getting the tent up right now, so how about you help me..." I stopped listening as I watched Sneasal attempting to lay out a tarp with the aid of a Darumaka and a Rosellia. Attempting is a strong word given how much the three of them were clearly struggling. The biggest issue stuck out to me like a fire alarm. I pushed past Blake with a rush of ambition. "Nuh-uh-uh!" I stated, "what do you think you are doing?" "Pitching the shelter?" Rosellia responded, using simplified-universal pokespeak, a dialect rarely heard outside of trading purposes. "Why don't you help us?" Darumaka followed up, also in SU pokespeak. The two of them must be from much further afield, as the dialect Sneasel and Blake use is so similar to mine, I wouldn't have even noticed a difference to begin with without the comparison. Perhaps they have been captured the same as I have? Still, my impulses still got the better of me and took priority. I practically scoff at their responses. "Yeah, you need it clearly. Ugh, you are doing ALL WRONG!" "Mam." Sneasal also interjected, "What so happens to be the problem?" "Well, for starters, you REALLY need to be laying that out flat and neatly on a level surface. Don't tell me you aren't seeing that massive root right there!" I lectured. "Come on, just move it over three meters to the left and it will be fine!" The two of them looked at each other awkwardly. Sneasal took a deliberate breath before responding a bit crossley, "Well, nobody asked for your opinion, now did they?" Before directing the others to slide the tarp over just a little bit. "You say that now, but you WILL be the one complaining when you wake up with a massive krick in the back!" "Who made you the expert? Look, I don't know what all... *this* is, but could you just shut your trap and help us?" I think Sneasel is a bit insulted. "Because I AM the expert. And you three obviously have no idea what you're doing." "S-Shut up!" Sneasel spat. Darumaka visibly recoiled. "You- You have no idea what you are talking about! I have had to do this numerous times over the last couple months, we can get this over and done with in twenty minutes flat without your help, so how about you just run back to your ball before you do something your gonna regret." Oooh. Fighting words. "HA!" I actually laughed. "Do *you* even hear yourself?! Listen kid, I have done this FOR YEARS. Twenty minutes you say? I can have this done in ten, EASY." "Sneasel?" Interjected Rosellia, in an apologetic tone, "Please, don't be mean to the new girl. Sorry, err..." "Gligar." "Sorry Gligar, she can be a bit... bossy?" Yeah, I noticed. "Don't mind her. If you think you know a better way to do this, I would certainly like to learn it." Rosellia, he certainly was playing Giratina's advocate just to not cause an argument, but you know what? I should probably heed him. Restrain myself before I do anything... rash. Sneasel seemed to get the memo herself, and was looking down, hands trembling. "FINE!" She steamed, dropping the tarp outright, the fabric having frosted around where her claws were, "I'll take you up on that bet. Ten minutes. You are betting your right to seconds. OI! PORY! SET A TEN MINUTE TIMER!" Then she walked away in a huff. With that, I helped the others pitch the shelter. Even without having seen a model like this before, with its poles strung together along such a miraculously stretchy fabric, we had the whole thing set up in several minutes, including the rainfly which they apparently had no intention of putting up as it turns out. Having that done in such a fast time, the other two seemed very impressed. They were oddly silent throughout the whole entire process, but at least they followed my lead rather well, and did not attempt to argue with me at all. I thanked them to which they returned with some genuine smiles that reeked of an ignorant but earnest respect. Ok… now that that’s all squared away, I was doing something important, now wasn't I? … Oh, right, escaping; or at least the plotting of it. I recollected my bearings. Judging by the reddening sky and the sun peeking between the trunks of trees, It seems Blake had stopped near the edge of a modest grassy field stretching between two woods, and was going to camp for the night. With the tent itself set up, the other two pokemon had joined Blake and Sneasel around a cooking set up, and just by the scent; it was obvious that it was nearly ready. Of course, despite the degree of separation that was now between them and I, how they all have their back turned to me at this moment, how easily I could just break into a run and pop my forward momentum upwards then and there; I knew one thing: Escape would be untenable without two other things changing first. To get out of there, that accursed Voltorb, the Pokeball, would have to be out of the possession of the “human” kid Blake, and by extension Sneasel and the others too. Furthermore, the isolation of the one component in it of itself wouldn’t be enough, for I also must secure my neckerchief and badge from him as well. This is further confounded by the fact that, as of this moment anyway, he has taken to wearing them himself! And if the rest of today is anything to go by, there’s little chance he will respond with anything but a “No.” And as I stood there, watching the four of them sit happily around a small, controlled fire, reality and common sense forced me to concede a third point. I haven’t eaten in like three days and I am VERY hungry. I whined internally as I resigned my pride and approached the gathering. Fleeing custody might be a matter of days if I am unlucky, and the only thing I would be escaping from is this mortal coil if I don’t accept whatever it is they are making. What they’ve got shouldn’t be spiked or poisoned anyhow, I can see them all taking portions out of the same skillet, and only one of them would live if that were true. Of course Sneasel was the first one to notice me approaching the congregation. She gave me an ungrateful eye before opening her mouth melodramatically, “So what, again, was their final pitching time, Porygon2?” she practically bellowed. Darumaka gagged on their food in surprise, dropping their utensil into the dirt. “From your count, Sneasel,” That un-naturally inflected female voice spoke from… somewhere, “The team of Dahlia, Red Boy, and Aviator, took twelve minutes and thirty-eight seconds from the your command to set a ten minute timer to just now. As I could not hear or see them erecting the camp setup, I cannot-” “Thank you Pory, that’s enough.” Sneasel talked over the other speaker, cutting them off. “So, you did not manage to clear the target time Aviator. As agreed, I will be taking your seconds for dinner, thank you very much.” Plopping down between Darumaka and Rosellia, just to not be next to Blake or Sneasel, I butt in, “I agreed to no such thing! And, you guys were apparently going to forego the rainfly? It’s fall! The term ‘morning dew’ ring a bell?” “Well,” Blake responded, “Twelve minutes sure is the fastest any of you have ever done that regardless! So good job! Sneasel, perhaps you could learn a thing or two from Aviator, they certainly looked like they knew what they were doing.” Oh you sweet summer child, learning a thing or two is the understatement of the millennium. Sneasel scoffed and folded their arms before reaching back for their servings of food. “So that goes for all of you!” He continued, “So on behalf of all of us, I officially welcome you Aviator to the team! I know we got off to a rough start, then you got right down to business, so Red Boy, Dahlia, this is our new Gligar buddy, Aviator. Say hello you three!” They greeted me earnestly, giving themselves a short autobiography the best they could, despite the limitations of the jargon they spoke. In short however, they all played out eerily similar to my own story, what with them just minding their own business when one day this kid showed up with his trusty Sneasel who quickly captured them, and now they are here. Hearing them talk a bit more, I couldn’t help feeling as though they were very similar people, both being unambitious, soft spoken, and prone to just follow orders by those stronger than them, with little drive of their own. They honestly reminded me a lot of what frustrated me so much about him. But in stark contrast to how he is, it’s also self-evident that these people would have little to say even if they had nothing stopping them, and seem to hold this weird admiration for their captor, almost to the point of idolatry! I asked them openly why they continue to stay with Blake, instead of going back home to the places they really belong. They only returned with soft smiles and an air headed, “?”. So I doubt I will be able to get much more out of them, at least for right now. As we talked, Blake quietly passed around a small bowl of this rice curry thing to me, or at least I think it is. The rice is a bit overcooked and dry for my liking; plus I would have preferred a bit more spice and meat in the sauce, but to be fair, considering I am currently kidnapped, it’s not worth complaining over. It's filling and reasonably nutritious for what it’s worth. I turned my attention back to her. “So, who are you?” I asked Sneasel directly, “Why are you here?” If anyone here is actually going to tell me useful information, it would be them. In contrast to those two, and possibly even Blake by the looks of things, it seems that they are the one with the strongest agenda. “Well,” Sneasel began, her words taking on a texture of calmness and pride, also once again making those bizarre hand gestures absentmindedly as she did so, “I don’t have a nickname as I was Blake’s family pet before he started his journey. So I just go by Sneasel.” ‘Family pet?’ I wondered. What in Hydragon’s name is that supposed to mean? Is that supposed to be some title? Like a maid or butler? She continued, “I’ve grown up in their household for as long as I can remember, and I think it would be more fair to call me Blake’s little sister, instead of as his pokemon in many ways. (In another life, perhaps… Ahhhh well.)” Her comments seemed truly heartfelt and pure as she reminisced. Blake chuckled and nodded encouragingly at that. That statement I think is one I can believe at face value. “I think I was, oh, ten? Eleven months old at the time when Blake entered fourth grade? With a bit of pleading from the both of us, his mother filled out the prerequisite paperwork and I was allowed to go to school with him! Er-, so long as I stayed in my pokeball at the appropriate times of course. I can’t speak for many pokemon, but I actually really enjoyed the ability to learn new things and meet new people and pokemon.” ‘People AND Pokemon?’ Again, what is that supposed to mean? “Heh, honestly, I think that I would have made a better student, if only I was the one sitting behind that desk.” “But I digress. What I really came to love about being able to go with him to school almost every day was that I came to really love the art of battling! Being in perfect sync with my ‘trainer’, feeling my blood rush and adrenaline pump, it's amazing! There was this one day, he still claims he had let me out by accident, but this one day at recess, there was a group of kids bullying Blake and Bella, I don’t even remember what for, and he accidentally hit my pokeball’s button. It was a confusing chain of events, but I do remember standing in front of him, staring down at the other kids. Then the next thing I knew, we were all in an impromptu double battle with a small crowd cheering us on! I had never felt so alive! All I could see, all I could think about in that moment was, ‘I must protect Blake as if my life depended on it! And I am the only thing stopping those other pokemon, those other kids, from doing harm to him!’” She paused and smiled gleefully. I too was hit right in the feels by that. It’s a story that I have often been told, but I still sympathize with just the same. It reminds me a lot about why I continue to do what I do to this day, and is therefore all the more reason I need to get out of here so I can get back to that! Blake chimed in and continued the story from his own perspective. “Heh heh, yeah… thing is, that only lasted for about a minute before a bunch of teachers forcefully separated all of us and sent us all to detention. I was nearly suspended, and Sneasel herself was barred from the school entirely for like a month. Would have been harsher for both of us, but they eventually let it go after I insisted that she was only acting in my defense.” “Yeah.” Sneasel agreed. “It’s still crazy to me that they had a ‘no battling’ rule like that outside of that hour long class they had once a week, when it turned out that the middle school was completely fine with it as long as you did it on the field or that one single arena right outside the cafeteria. ‘Bunch a fun hating jerks! Anyway, Blake was able to get his trainer’s license for this league season, obviously, and it was a no-brainer that I was to be his starter. We have been going for about a month now, and are fresh off getting his fourth badge.” “Considering the league isn't until this February,” Blake contributed yet again, not that I have any clue what they are going on about anymore, “We are so ahead of the game that I thought we would take a break to focus on training. Plus, I was planning on taking the steel type gym next so hey, lucky you, right Aviator?” Roselia actually made a comment before I could say anything. “And I for one welcome it, considering the performance the two of you put on display. Next time maybe I will make YOU have to solo the whole leader’s team, huh?” Even despite having to unpack and extrapolate meaning from the Lingua Franca he was speaking, the amount of scorn he felt was undeniable. “Well… what did you expect me to do, Dahlia?” Darumaka responded, humiliated, “They were rock type! I was just following Blake’s instructions, not my fault he’s so bad at strategy and typing.” “Oh, don’t blame him, he’s your trainer, and we all know he knows what he’s doing.” The fact I detected zero sarcasm in that statement struck me as odd. “As for you, I don’t know, try dodging them? Learn some half decent fighting moves? You’re going to be a pseudo-fighting type, start acting like it!” His tone had drifted to one that was meant to be taken in a more teasing capacity. Darumaka cowered a bit further. “I mean, I did try my best and all, donno about you.” Sneasel responded defensively, “What more could you really ask of me?” “Says the woman who took not one but MULTIPLE point blank rock blasts from their ROGGENROLA?!” And Roselia was back to being salty again. “Trying your best? You call it working hard, all I saw was ‘hardly working’.” Perhaps my prior impression that they both have little to say was misjudged? “Or hear me out? Let Rosselia take the rock head on while the two of you get behind it?” I said, chuckling to myself, “Or, or perhaps get to medium range, wait for it to fire at a distance you can avoid it from, then as soon as it does, rush in close while it's wide open? In fact, best case scenario, just let me hit it with dig, no fuss. Come on, it’s that simple.” Darumaka looked at me sheepishly. “See, miss Aviator gets it.” Agreed Rosselia. Even Sneasel begrudgingly admitted it was not a bad idea. Sneasel had a look of mild inspiration in her eyes a moment later, and started jammering, “Anyway, that’s my life story. You hold on just a second there, there’s one other person you meet real quick before we completely forget about them.” She can’t seriously be referring to Blake, can she? She eagerly reached for Blake’s things and promptly fished out that blue and orange brick from… somewhere. Even Blake looked a bit impressed at her sleight of hand. Right, that. I saw a glimpse of what I assumed to be the back of the brick pokemon as she so callously held them up in front of her. Flipping the individual around in her hands revealing… a vacant stare from the pokemon’s face upon which it rested on a reflective black surface. Sneasel’s uncharacteristically wide smile made meeting this new pokemon all the more horrifying. Oh frick, is this what they have actually been doing to pokemon? I was too stunned and disturbed to react. Sneasel snickers. Everyone else did too. “Oh Pory, you should see the look on her face! It’s priceless!” The face remained static, but the solid black crystal came to life, shining sky blue for a second before… well it's too complicated to explain but there was some super complicated and confusing to look at piece of art where the black was. And, swooping in from the side of the art was some other red and dark blue pokemon whose face was vaguely similar to that of the one that Sneasel was still holding, just far less angular. “For the love of Cresselia, what?” I exclaimed, darn nearly dropping my dinner into the campfire. The pokemon in the pokemon watched me squirm and laughed, which sounds extremely bizarre in their irregular, emotion-deficient voice. “I lost again, SNEASEL!” they said, spinning around inside that art set, “I scare everyone equally after all!” Even now the face above them was still dead and unmoving. Is- is that part not alive? “Oh that never gets old!” Sneasel laughed. It took a moment for everyone, including myself, to settle down. The other’s laughter still made my shock slip to a soft feeling of being made fun of. “Anyway, eheh, anyway, Aviator, this is Porygon2. Say hello Pory!” “Hello!” it said, desperately trying to add an energetic and bubbly flair to their robotic language despite how much they couldn't. “Nice to see you with my own personal detection software and not just through a pokeball’s sensors! And before you ask, I am the one down here. The face up there is fake. Been three years and I still don’t know why I was designed that way!” “I have met some weird species out there, but you take the cake for bizarre shapes. What phenomenon creates something like you?” I asked, letting my guard down. “It’s not even that-!” Porygon2 went on to say, “Spawned from a mysterious phenomenon like a Grimer or Cryogonal? I wish! First off, just try being a deliberately invented species that’s still only a few decades old from when their first ‘successful prototype’ was declared eligible for inclusion in the ‘98 regional pokedex. Then, of course, I personally had my first time startup two years, six months, four days and twenty three hours ago, only to find out that *this* was to be my hard drive? Yeah, I was confused too. What's worse is that it’s outdated. I received a firmware update allowing me to evolve to V.2 without compromising the device’s RAM or file size not long after that, so here I am! A Porygon2 in an OS1's cloak!” I stood there awkwardly, having not understood a single word they just said. Where does someone even start with a story like that? “Before you get carried away, why don’t you also show off that thing?” Blake said. “Yeah!” Porygon2 said, their pupils dilating, “Wanna have your mind exploded even more? Check this out!” Without letting me respond, Porygon2 flew upwards and disappeared out of sight. Then, the eyes of the face on the device flashed before another red beam shot out of them at the ground, where same as it had done for me, Porygon2 miraculously appeared and floated before me, standing at about half my height. “The best part is, I'm not just some self aware navi or digital assistant that looks vaguely animalistic, (and certainly not some Rotom that only pretends to be made of computer code,) but I am in fact a fully fledged pokemon myself! Isn't that cool?!” Reeling back a bit by how close to my face they were floating and twirling around, I said, “I… I’m not sure what you mean by that? Of course you're a pokemon.” It hemmed quietly before saying, “Well, the thing you should know upfront is that just because this is what I technically really am, I'm not a part of the team.” “So, you're a navigator then?” They just looked so effortlessly happy as they talked with their facial expressions and movements, despite how one-note their voice remained. “I think that I don’t know what you really mean by that either, but as I would define a navigator then in a sense yes, I am! Of course battling is fun and I might do it occasionally to exercise my physical form, but a hefty blow to my firewall runs the risk of scrambling files, loss of data, stuff getting corrupted, and at worst the dreaded crash to bluescreen! It’s usually ill advised. Besides!” it said, hopping back in its ‘hard drive’ effortlessly the same way it came out, “being in here is so much more fun! So many things to run! So many apps to troubleshoot! A twelve hour battery to snack on at my leisure! Blake, my owner can actually understand me and can use me so much more effectively than he ever could as my trainer! For crying out loud, you called me a navigator earlier? Heck yes, in here my GPS is top of the line and you will be hard pressed to see me dropping bars, even out here!” Despite how passionate and ecstatic they appeared to be about all of this, do I really even need to say it? Once again, I have zero clue what they were going on about. So… at this rate I can be very sure of one thing: all these people are insane and completely out of my depth. “Yeah, I think that will be a very succinct place to wrap up for Pory,” Blake cut in, “so, if everyone else has gone, then I guess that just leaves you, Aviator. Tell your new friends, who are you?” I reclined a bit at that question and crossed my arms. Yeah, I should have figured that was coming, given how I was digging into them. “It’s complicated, but for starters, I am a rescuer.” They all looked mighty disinterested, which is unsurprising. “Been an independent contractor for about two years before management forced me to start a team, and the three of us have been unstoppable for the past six months give or take a few weeks. Just got my silver rank just last quarter! And…” I openly sighed as it became apparent that nobody here seemed to really appreciate the effort that such a rank requires. Might as well play that card. “And if you must know… I actually started out as an explorer several years ago, where I also just so happened to be on a team created by a human no less!” “Oh, is that right?” Sneasel asked, clearly interested. No surprises there. “What was that like?” “I mean, it wasn't… awful per-say, but make no mistake. I was not the guy’s partner. I had just applied under his team at random and found out they were human after the fact.” Apparently, something I said confused Roselia, as I could see the question marks and complex equations floating in front of his eyes. “I worked under him for a while but I left the organization after a while due to…” “You all will be going without food for Skiddo’s poor performance today.” “Oh, you say that you shouldn’t be sent out on missions today because you tore a huge hole in your wing? Well, I say you are making excuses!” “Why can’t you be more like Raichu, Gligar? He saved tens of thousands of pokemon, and you don’t see him complaining about a little sentry duty.” “A break? I’m the one who has to keep you lot in line, so if I can’t get a vacation, neither should you!” “The only reason I let you do your own thing is because you are so bad at teamwork!” “Sarah?! What… What did you do?!” “I-I-! I didn’t-! This… This is your fault!” “...Creative differences. Still, over the like… two or three years I worked there, I managed to reach silver rank, but couldn’t quite bear to stick it out just that little bit longer to reach the gold. And before you say anything, no, I still have no regrets. That was several years ago, anyhow. I settled down for a few years, but I got bored and restless working at that hardly profitable retail business in my small isolated town, so my fortune turned when a friend of mine recommended that I go become an independent for the local rescue base. Best decision I ever made in my life! Seriously, if any of you ever wanted to do any sort of adventuring in your life, don’t become an explorer! Find one of the many rescue associations instead! Simply put, one has a militaristic day-to-day operation, and the other actually pays their dungeoneers! There is an incorrect option is all I am saying.” Once again, I was returned with abject confusion from all. Are… are they all really that surprised I threw away such a prestigious and enviable position to be who I am now? Of course they are. Darumaka finally said something, “Er- uh, so what are… rescuers?” Or maybe they are just dumb. I shot him a look and gave him a slice of my mind. “Did you really just ask me that question? Dude. What's next? You're going to ask me ‘what are dungeons?’ Or,” I suppress a laugh, “Or claim that you all have never heard of the explorers guild?” Sneasel had a claw raised prepared to say something, only for the irises of her eyes to visibly contract with a curling and retraction of the claw when I asked that rhetorical question. Everyone else had similar, but more understated reactions. Even Blake cocked his head to the side. “You gotta be kidding me. You guys can't seriously be that stupid, can you? What kind of rock…” A thought came to mind. It's a stretch to be sure, but, “you know what? Hey Porygon2? Tell them what mystery dungeons are.” I said with a smirk, further adding under my breath, “because if you know that much about me, you clearly know everything.” “Uh, yes mam!” Porygon2 said, seeingly put on the spot, which to be fair they absolutely were. They made some unusual spiraling noise for a good two seconds that sounded nothing like their normal voice. “Your web search for ‘Mystery Dungeons’ has yielded zero results.” I had to sit there in silence for what felt like ten seconds before the full gravity of what they just said hit me. “You- YOU-! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” I shouted, standing suddenly, “Are you all daft?! Is this some sick joke??? What do you mean none of you have heard of dungeons once in your goshdarn lives?! How in the heck have you never once gotten yourself stranded in a dungeon in your childhood!? We all have done it! Probably more than once!” “But I swear that I-” Roselia tried to say, and I was having none of it. “I DON’T! BELIEVE YOU!” I snapped, scowling at him. “Aviator?! What are you going on about?!” Blake stammered rapidly, getting up and backing up, even raising his hands as if to show surrender. I breathed deeply, feeling my frustration boiling again. Maybe I WAS letting my emotions get the better of me. I was above that sort of emotional outburst. I was a woman with self control after all. I don’t throw a tantrum over a single instance of mob stupidity. And that Sneasel was still sitting right there across from me, a flick of the wrist from that contemptible device. And we both knew how that would play out. “I… uh…” Sneasel struggled to think of something to say. “Ok, I think there's been some miscommunication here, evidently. Maybe sit back down and tell us what they are yourself, then?” I took a deep breath, one shaky and not particularly calming, but a deep breath nonetheless. It took an unusual amount of effort to sit back down, and just talk. “So, Wait, what did she just say?” Blake said after a moment. I did attempt to actually explain them myself but dropped it when it was clear he was listening to Sneasal's version of events, as opposed to my own. "Oh, you know, she is just going on about about random stuff. Like, she’s clearly not very bright," pointing to me directly, "Because I think spending too much time by herself in the woods has messed with her head and reason. I think she imagines the woods as some kind of alive, somewhat aware entity! Sounds too me like she needs some professional help, and likely your guidance to set her mind right again." Sneasel went on, keeping eye contact with her 'trainer'. The strange hand motions she had been doing were even more pronounced now and were absolutely intentional this time around. I let the direct insults slide this time around, as another thing was becoming far too bothersome to ignore. "What the heck are you doing?" I asked Sneasel, "With your claws? You have just been waving them around every time you open your mouth all day. Ain't anyone told you to keep your paws to yourself and not gesture so aggressively? You should watch where you swing those knives before someone gets hurt!" She looked at me fiercely. "YOU-!" She stopped herself, took a deep breath, and chose to address me without shouting, like a normal person. "Care to try that again? Pokemon normally don't take kindly to being mocked, you know." I wasn't mocking her? "But it's USL, for future reference." Uhhhh... what? That didn't answer the question. "So... what is that?" "What is what?" "UCL, or whatever you just said." Sneasel rolled her eyes. "I said U*S*L, mam. Unovan Sign Language? It's... pretty hard to explain if you're unfamiliar with it, but it's basically using your hands as a visual substitute for spoken English. You know, because I'm physically not capable of speaking English and all." I have several questions. "First off," I said, "I can't speak English, nor have I ever heard of that before." "And? So?" Sneasel retorted. "And secondly, why is that necessary? I can understand you just fine." "Never said it was for you," she said, pointing a claw in Blake's direction, "it's for him. You know, so he can be a part of the conversation too." "And why does he need it? Guy has ears right?" I said matter-of-factly, "if I can hear you just fine, so can he! Just admit you have no self control." I of course was expecting Sneasel to get defensive yet again, which she did, but my statement even got a response from the other two as well. "Are you...?" Darumaka commented. "Please tell me you're kidding us, right?" Rosellia agreed. The only person to not respond was Blake, who was just watching all this unfold with increasing levels of disappointment. "Are you real?" Sneasel asked, her face having reached as of yet unheard-of levels of visible confusion. "Are you having a stroke? Does your brain need to be restarted?" She paused for a second before adding in a weird voice, "Are you havin a giggle mate? Do you have a giraffe? Are-". "SHUT UP!" I cried once. Sneasel actually did stop talking, surprisingly. "Now I don't know what all... this is, or what you are trying to prove, but it's not funny. So Blake!" "Hm?" He snapped to attention and made eye contact with me. "Why don't you just admit that you can hear me and stop pretending like you are reliant on these fancy hand tricks, ok?" He glanced at Sneasel. "What did-" I stood up. As he was still sitting comfortably on a modest blanket stretched over the ground, that meant I was several centimeters taller than him at the moment, which raised my confidence even further. "I said, you can understand me just fine, right? I can understand you just fine, so why don't you-" He again started looking at Sneasel, who again was silently signing beside him. H-how dare he just ignore me like that? I stomped up to him, and clicked my left pincer to get his attention. "Mister, look at me when I'm talking to you!" He recoiled and raised his arms slowly. "Y-yo, what are... Please stop looking at me like that!" "Maybe I will once you learn some manners?" "Aviator?! Calm down! Why does every little thing need to be an argument with you?" Sneasel also stood up, also appearing slightly frightened. I ignored her. "Please-!" Blake stammered, further slinking back down, "just, just don't stand over me with your tail like that!" I felt for my tail without looking. Hmm. I suppose I had raised it in an over-the-shoulder striking position unintentionally. I let it drop down, slowly. I did it of my own volition, not because he asked me too, of course. Sneasel then grabbed my right arm with one of her claws, the scythes curling slightly around my wing. I gave her my full attention, raising my tail back up, though I kept it pointed away from her. Even stepping up on her tippy toes as she was now, I was still much taller than her. "Can you chill out?" She demanded. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" I reciprocated her actions by taking her free arm with my other arm, of course closing my pincer around the base of her claws as to not *actually* hurt her. "Why don't maybe you chill?" I told her. She actually did chill out. Her claws. My skin burned on and around where we grabbed each other from the sudden onset of frostbite. "Gladly!" She responded, intentionally cooling her own lungs just to allow her breath to give off a visible puff of steam. I can't lie. That was pretty well played of her. We held that position for another moment longer, glaring unshakably into each other's eyes. Her point was abundantly clear. Her very touch was acidic to me, if she wanted it to be, and I would never be able to beat that, no matter how much stronger I might be. I already knew that. She already knew it. But of course, it never hurts to hammer that point in even further. I let her go with a swift release of my pincer, letting my tail drop slowly, before stepping backwards. "Alright, good." She said with an impressive level of respect. She slowly released me. I disengaged and returned to my seat, refusing to break eye contact with her the whole time, even as I finished my meal which by now was starting to get cold. Blake would be so much easier to deal with if it was not for her! This Sneasel was going to be a colossal thorn in my side. "Well... o-ok!" Blake cautiously started saying. "I think with that, we're pretty much done here for tonight. Gosh, it's already like seven o'clock. We have got a lot ahead of us tomorrow as always, plus it's going to be Aviator's debut tomorrow and she needs to learn the basics of combat!" Oh, goody, combat training. My favorite. Ughhh... Blake pulled out all of his pokeballs, and he grabbed one and pointed it at Darumaka. He let the red beam of death grab him, and drag him within the confines of that red and white sphere without even the slightest acknowledgement. He pulled out a second, and did the same for Roselia. He also just accepted it without the slightest care in the world. And finally, he reached for mine... "Gligar? Please, just... don't. I know you disagree with the guild master's procedure, but, it's never going to change, alright? So please, just give it a rest before we get penalized, or worse." The Raichu looked at me with a sad disappointment, like he was embarrassed to even have me on his team at that moment. He was visibly exhausted, even more than I was, so I couldn't understand how he could say such a thing. "I- I-!" I struggled to say, so overwhelmed with emotion that I was on the verge of tears. My manager held the clipboard up just that little bit higher, tapping their pen against their skull impatiently, their mocking intent lost on no one save Skiddo, who wore their cautious optimism proudly even now. "F-fine! Be that way! See what I care!" I scowled, not hiding my rage at all. Skiddo seemed content with my response. Gurdurr just started scribbling something on their notepad. And Raichu? He just threw a paw hard against his small muzzle, leaning their head back and flexing his nimble tail with an audible groan, "Oh, Gligar... what am I going to do with you...?" Everything said and done, I turned and stomped away, needing to find a private space to clear my head before I did something I would regret. "See, was that really so hard?" Gurdurr finally replied. "I will forgive your insubordination this time, as I agree it was probably necessary in the moment, and you all admitted to wrongdoing. However, I will be doxxing 50 poke from your mission rewards for each of you for being rude to management." The other two, surprisingly, actually both grumbled at this news. As for myself? I couldn't stop myself from shooting a death glare at Gurdurr while I marched off to my team's bunkroom. "Make that 200 poke." I could have fought it, but I didn't. This thing was truly unlike anything I had dealt with before, and it was plain to see that any attempt to resist would be fruitless, for now. I merely glowered as that barbaric device was used on me, the blinding red flash and sensation of becoming weightless occurring far faster than it had the first time, the sphere now no longer even needing to open to absorb myself, dragging me headlong into and through the button without so much as me feeling the slightest resistance from the solid object. So same as before, one second I was sitting on a downed tree around a campfire, and the next I was standing in that completely fictitious landscape once again. The bare earth beneath my feet? I already hated how real it felt, the way the dirt and sandstone convincingly crumbled and cracked as I shuffled my talon into it in a disgruntled stomp. That thought reverberated in my head like a pounding headache, “I have been mentally bested by Psychics and Ghosts before, and yet even the strongest and most elaborate illusions I have been subjected to all seem amature compared to this! How is this possible?” I shouted. I reached forward with all my might and drove my right pincer into the cliff face in such a fit of rage that I had expended the energy to use ‘Dig’ without intending to. I don’t know what I was expecting or trying to prove, but… my exoskeleton, notably glowing as the move went off, plunged into the dirt and rock and tore down the side of the wall with little effort, and the earth responded exactly as I would have expected it too. The way the dislodged dirt gave some resistance to my slash, the way some tiny fibers got wedged in the gap between my two interlocking mandibles and stained my purple shell with a tan dust, how it all just fell to the ground with a satisfying crumpling sound; it was as this place was going out of it’s way to mock me. I could have just torn this place up then and there, but… I didn't. I wanted to, the stress was already overbearing but... even just feeling the weight of the rubble within the confines of my pincers and letting it fall to the ground... I'm not that desperate. Yet. The cynical thought made me laugh. Judging by what's in store for me, I will have plenty of time to do that later. For now...? I need to play along, lie low, and bide my time. And to do that, and in extension everything else that needs to be done to get out of here, I need to rest and save my breath. I know myself, I will need the catharsis much more later, surely. I took a beleaguered groan and spied that bundle of reeds on the ground under the overhang. I had to remind myself that this is, evidently, what Blake must think passes for bedding on the cheap. I plopped down and did what little I could to make myself at least marginally comfortable. It was scratchy and had this weird... frictional texture that isn't easy to enumerate. But, it was at least more cushion than the ground is, and felt at least slightly warmer than the ground. ... Gosh I miss having a bed. I lied there, staring up at the ceiling, otherwise known as the transparent top half of the pokeball, and just absent-mindedly stared out as I waited for sleep. My vantage was poor, but it would seem that Blake put the ball on his belt again, then he and Sneasal cleaned up their camp for the night. Afterwards, they climbed inside the tent, where Blake tossed all our pokeballs into one corner and went right to sleep. Sneasel decided to curl up right next to her so-called 'older brother' and dejectedly traced something on the tarp in front of herself with a claw for a while before dozing off, leaving me alone in complete silence. ... goodness me, I really miss having a bed. Even a single blanket would be worthy of praise. Why couldn't he have left the ball by the campfire, let me share a ball with Darumaka, or I dunno, stuffed them in his sleeping bag or something? Porygon2 did tell him I was cold-blooded, does he want me to wake up rested tomorrow, or what? Even if it wasn't night already, I had already discovered that there's basically nowhere to sun myself in here. ... and I still can't fall asleep. That is why beds were invented, ones with a basic mattress and blankets and all the other fixings. I rolled over, no closer to finding that "comfortable spot." I clipped a couple individual strands of straw out of boredom into super small pieces with my natural scissors. ... I can't believe piles of straw were the standard for people once upon a time. A few old pokemon once told me that, back when they were hatchlings, everyone including even very well off folks slept in these. And in only a generation or three’s time, even the urban poor had some kind of actual bed, with straw being considered passe, if not outright scornful or humiliating. And that was before those manufacturers got dismantled for being monopolies, too, or at least it’s what I'm told. I think Minccino once tried to lecture me on monopolies once. I didn't get what they were at all. So what? How is it a bad thing that they were the only people selling beds in the city? … I yawned and got up. Eventually, I hopped to the top of the cliff and perched on the edge for a bit. From here, I got a different enough view out of the pokeball that I could see through the only window in the tent and spotted the moon way out on the other side. Sure, I was far, FAR smaller in size at this moment in time than I normally was, and granted I was seeing it through not one but two filters, but despite how it was a dim crescent shape right now, I unfortunately couldn’t spot any lunar lights tonight. Normally, I would be indifferent to them, but at this moment in time, even that was a tiny bit disappointing. … “Hey! Hey! Heli! Look! It’s a lunar light! Are you going to make a wish?” “Ooh! Well… I dunno Gligar, why don’t you take this one? You are always letting me have them.” “But… But… that would be greedy. And… and the wishes would never come true that way.” “Alright, alright. I wish that we could be best friends forever!” “You always wish for that, choose something else!” “Heh, *yawns*, I could; but then my wish would always be selfish and greedy. Besides, you are already the greatest friend I could have ever wished for.” ... I'm going to be here for a long time, aren't I? End of part 1....
The Tale of Twin Hearts (Remastered) - IntroWelcome and Enjoy., The Tale of Twin HeartsIntro, "No Time.""No explanation.""No reason." "Why do the Guardians feel they can do whatever they want? They're no different than us." "..." "Why was my son Chosen?" "Why was my son chosen?" "...""..." "It is no surprise the sight of a Legendary Pokemon such a Jirachi is something to behold";"Such a visit is unexpected." "His expression was...dim, speaking in a hushed tone." "Asking him of his visit, there was barely an answer." "Forcing a smile, he tells us he has a gift for our sons;" "A...curse..." "When asked what it was, all he does is ask both of them to reach out their hands towards him." "When they did, he touched their hands and they began to glow." "A small mark appeared on their Foreheads." "A Mark in the shape of a familiar Symbol." "My son began shimmering red." "My son...began glistening blue." "Such as sight made me curious." "Such a sight made me worry." "Dismissing them, he told us what his gift was. He told us why he gave the gift." "..." "My son, bearing such a heavy burden." "My son...carrying such a heavy responsibility..." "Why?" "Why..." "..." "It's been years since then." "It's been some time since then." "For our sons to never see each other again"..."It's been heavy on the both of them." "We never told them what it was or what it was for." "We never told them why it happened." "They don't even know they aren't allowed to see each other." "They don't know they aren't allowed to be near each other." "Should we have told them?" "Should...we have told them?" "..." "Today marks the day of my son's Journey." "Today marks the hour of my son's adventure." "To the home of exploration he goes, will he ever cross paths with his best friend?" "To the heart of exploration he follows, Will he ever meet ends with his true companion?" "..." "As sad this may be"; "As painful this may feel.""I hope that day never comes." "I hope that day never comes."
Another Day on the JobI woke up. Well, I say ‘woke up’, but to be far more accurate I had already been half awake for… awhile? I don’t actually know for how long. It was the sort of being awake where you're not actually able to really think of much else than immediately turning over and going back to sleep, or at least something approximating sleep, for another five minutes. Not unless someone actively drags you out of bed or there is something that demands your immediate attention. Some people are wise enough to put their alarms on the other side of their bedrooms, requiring them to actually get up and get their blood flowing to shut it off. I am not that smart; though I suppose it would be more accurate to say I don’t even have such a luxury as an alarm clock. I used too… but not anymore. Eventually, though, I begrudgingly sat up from my pillows and let my eyes take in the world around me. The window outside displayed a modest grassy field before abruptly hitting the forest treeline beyond. The weather was very bright and sunny, and it hadn’t rained in a few days. Despite that, with the way the grass was a pathetic shade of brown and yellow with the trees being bare save small patches of leaves that haven’t quite fallen, the look of a chilly but bright late autumn midmorning was unmistakable. I looked to the analog clock on the next wall over… It read that it was already after 9:30. I blinked groggily as I mulled that information over, my brain protesting having to do complex calculations so soon after waking. 9:30… 9:30… I stared at my hands aimlessly for a moment. … “Daw, Crap! I work today!” I suddenly realized, mentally punching myself. I overslept again?? Why can’t we ever just be able to wake up and instantly know everything that we need to do on a dime?! That sudden, brutal realization giving me a burst of energy, I hopped out from my covers to the floor, and promptly began rushing to get ready to go. ‘If it’s already like 9:40, the daily job distributions have already closed, so most likely my coworker is already coming back here with a list of tasks to do by now.’ I thought as I grabbed the stool and began pushing it towards the dresser. ‘If I was this unpunctual in any other career, I would have certainly been fired by now. I’m still shocked he has managed to prevent me from getting written up over this most of the time.’ I made a mental note to work on getting up earlier in the morning, same as I did practically every morning, as I climbed up the stool so I could see myself properly in the mirror that sat atop the old dresser. It’s strange but, even after all this time I still find myself doing a double take at the figure that stared back at me from the world on the other side of the reflection. Despite how I have been this way for eight months now, I'm still often surprised to see a figure staring back that is distinctly not me, only for me to remember, “Right, that IS me now.” The being in the mirror, of course, wasn't human, even if it was once upon a time. No, the figure was small, barely over a foot tall and was about as heavy as a hardcover book. Honestly, I was more head than I was torso in both size and weight distribution, and yet somehow my ears were collectively bigger than that! I can confidently say that a good 60% of my total mass is exclusively just from my ears and some three or four coats of DENSE fur I wear, and that's with some generous rounding. My eyes were big and brown, my teeth small and sharp while remaining comfortably omnivorous, my hands (If you can call them that) lacked thumbs and a fifth finger, but I would exercise some caution at actually defining them as paws considering they also lacked padding and were somehow ‘alright’ as graspers somehow. They paled in comparison to actual human hands all the same, but relearning how to hold things and write was a lot easier than I had anticipated. The paws I had for feet were big and flat but whose legs, if you can even call them that, were fully hidden within my torso, and my long fluffy tail featured this odd break in it whereupon the couple joints at the end of the tail were permanently paralyzed. No, I swear that I never broke my tail at any point, I think I would know if I did, it just seems that I showed up here with an inexplicable injury having already occurred. For some reason. The doctors that have looked at it have said that it genuinely looks like the fracture had occurred and healed incorrectly years ago, something we all agree to be… highly improbable considering this Minccino didn’t even exist a few years ago. Is there even an explanation or not? Do I even WANT an explanation? I’m not convinced that it’s necessary, considering that a single arbitrary physical trait being one way or the other makes just as much sense as the fact that I had spontaneously become a Minccino one day anyway… Right, right, kinda on the clock here. Despite going through the effort to even use this dresser, there was actually little that I really needed. All that can be blamed on the fact that, due to the diverse physiological proportions of this universe, clearly it had never been truly necessary or feasible for complex and intensive production of textiles and clothing. Of course, that was merely just my personal take on it all. More often than not, pokemon did tend to wear at least some kind of attire, but often I think that was primarily a symbol of status, as a necessity from one’s occupation, or even just as a fashion statement. ‘Besides, I do feel that most clothing that is used around here is of a distinctly human origin, as I can’t imagine most species having the need, much less the ability to wear pants. For example, while I have been able to get my hands, or front paws depending on your persuasion, on a few well fitting shirts complete with pockets; any kind of pants have been proven to be a lost cause considering a Minccino’s physiology lacks any kind of support for such garmates, plus, as already established, this world lacks both the demand and technological feasibility to design a sufficiently marketable solution. I suppose Pokemon simply have little need for complex economic models in their still largely agrarian and sedentary lifestyles. Ironically, though, there still are those weirdos who choose to live a far more eccentric and bold lifestyle. Take the company I now work for, for example. I suppose “company” is a poor word to describe them, as they much prefer the term “guild”. I know, I'm not the most learned individual and all, but the only guilds I had ever heard of are those medieval cliques that were basically the era’s equivalent of modern day trade unions. I most likely am misremembering my highschool history classes in that respect, I seem to remember them talking about like those four major wars and very little else. Regardless, the rescue team… organization, as I suppose is its most accurate label, does require all its members to wear two explicit articles of clothing while on duty; that being some kind of element that can be worn around the neck, I assume because the majority of species have them, and a badge signifying your affiliation to the guild and your personal rank. Personally, when I first got my badge, oh, six months ago, I for whatever reason was swiftly drawn to this bright blue scarf that I found to be somehow even fluffier and softer than myself! I won’t lie, this thing has actually become just a bit of a treasure to me, almost like a security blanket if you will, and I cherish it fondly as one of the few major consolations for just about everything I have to deal with on a nigh daily basis. Of course, without any way of being able to properly clean it; and also due to the nature of my job it has a tendency to get dragged through the mud; it has grown a touch itchy, but has impressively retained its overall color and shape remarkably well. It does make me wonder if there are any significant differences between wool sheared from Mareep and cotton grown by Cottonee, compared to that produced by sheep and cotton of the non-sentient variety. The last thing necessary to complete my ensemble, aside from the pair of leather bags I carried my equipment in that I slung over my shoulder, was of course my rescue badge. I actually had three of them? Well, its more like I had received my rookie rank when I completed my training, before getting the ‘normal rank’ not that long later. Receiving my bronze rank badge was a far more recent development than that, and I ended up receiving it in the same ceremony that she… well, anyway. Now that I was properly all dressed and set for the day, I spied another glance at my clock. It was only reading to be 9:46, so it had only been about five minutes. Concluding that I surely must have at least a few more minutes before I absolutely HAD to get going, I turned back to the mirror and pulled out a brush to perform at least a basic grooming of my fur. I can vaguely recall some women telling me back in the day that it can take them like a half hour to convert their messy bedhead into “Something basically presentable”, 45 minutes if they wanted to actually wear their hair with confidence that day. I'm curious how those sorts of girls would respond to the situation I now find myself in, where my fur is sooo thick and fluffy, or to be more precise eternally grungy and oily. Even as a guy who used to never give his hair a second thought back in the day, I now find myself often being super restless for the rest of the day until I am able to give myself even just a quick brushdown. Today, unfortunately, I hadn't the time to give myself a proper grooming, a fact that was already making me feel just the slightest bit tense, BEYOND just being late for work again, but I absolutely could still justify taking just a couple moments to just work out the couple major knots in the coat that had sprung up overnight. I had barely even finished going over my tail before I saw my colossal ears in the mirror’s reflection suddenly pirk up and swivel towards the direction of my own front door, almost before I had even realized that I had actually heard anything at all. “HEY! Minccino! We have got to go!” Shouted a voice I knew all too well as they politely knocked on the door, “Don’t make me come and bang on your window again, so wake up, won’t you?” Hmmm… they sounded a bit… uncharacteristically exasperated. They must have gotten chewed out by the guildmaster for my own lack of punctuality again. Yet another reason I need to stop sleeping in so much. I respected the voice’s owner far too much for me to wish to see this sort of thing continue. They stuck their head out for me far longer than I could ever possibly do for them in return, and sometimes my own apathetic responses made me feel like a bad friend. I really should be counting myself lucky to have such earnest and loyal friends as I do. With a defeated sigh, I shoved the brush back into the top drawer of the dresser, inspected my scarf and badge once more briefly, then hopped off the stool back down to the floor and stepped out into the main room of my house. The place I now called home was not a huge place, just one bedroom, one bath, plus a kitchenette and living room. So, only three rooms in total, but it was still comfortable and roomy enough. It was actually a slightly smaller floor plan then the studio apartment I used to live in, before all this, but thanks to my smaller size and perhaps just some better spatial positioning of the walls and furniture, it felt far more like an upgrade overall. The property was intended only to house a Pokemon of an approximate size, and to be perfectly honest how could they make a perfectly sized house unless it was being paid for and commissioned by a pokemon specifically for themselves? I myself stood at only a little above a foot; I don’t actually know at what specifically as pokemon also have not yet established standardized universal measurements; but it's obvious that the place was built assuming the occupant would be like two feet tall. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure the previous occupant to actually live here must have been fully quadrupedal, given the way some of the furniture was designed. When I first broke in, *Ahem*, moved in, it was decked out with a couple wide windows complete with curtains, plastered walls providing decent insulation, an external furnace and stove but no real fireplace or appliances, public tap water, a couch, bed, blankets, functional bathroom, and some weird device called a psyche-tron which was basically a radio but required these externally crafted batteries storing a combination of pokemon generated electricity and psychic power in order to function. Too bad that the local broadcasters went off air permanently a while before I showed up due to dwindling profits or so I'm told, rendering it a useless novelty for me. Pokemon had a radio culture back in the day and it had already died before my time so I won’t ever be able to experience it for myself no matter how much I cry about it. If I had the time and money, and willingness to get myself there on foot which I don’t, I would vacation to the big city just to check out things like that! That aside, I could picture a Sylveon living pretty comfortably here. Legally, the house was mine now, but I was only able to get to that right by agreeing to mortgage it from the town itself. When I decided to claim the place, within only a couple weeks the local administration caught me and demanded that I find a way to pay my rent in two weeks time or be forced to find a nice box on the street corner to live in. Thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, several despaerate circumstances all came to ahead at once and I found myself employed at the rescue guild which… provides enough financial security for reliable food and lodging, but gives little else and fewer benefits. My budget is balanced and is in the green, but man it really doesn't feel like it. People like Numel and Curseola think the way I view money and income is crazy. Pokemon don’t understand the culture I come from. Not one bit. Not really wanting to keep my friend waiting, and not really needing much else here, I decided that I should just grab some much needed breakfast for the road, and by that I mean, just grab a banana from the bowl of fruit from the counter. That alone should be plenty for something of my size. Stretching up onto my tippy toes in order to reach the knob, I opened the door. The person on the other side was nearly the height of the doorway itself and who’s front was shadowed against the harsh sunlight behind them. “There you are, Minccino! I was about ready to smash your door down!” The Charmeleon said, just a bit annoyed. “Alright, good. You all ready to go?” “Yep, just about.” I responded. He turned and motioned for me to follow him. I did just that, I knew how he rolled far too well. He most likely planned to explain today’s objectives on the way there. I closed and locked the front door and immediately had to shield my eyes from the bright sunlight for a moment upon leaving the limits of my roof’s overhang. I would just have to let my eyes adjust as I walked. My real name is Evan. However, most people just call me ‘Minccino’. It was a byname that took a bit of getting used to, but now I see both names as fully interchangeable. I met Charmeleon, oh, about seven months ago now. It was his rescue team that I had been assigned to after my identity was first discovered. To be honest, despite my various misgivings about this and that, and the fact that I had been bullied into becoming a rescuer in the first place, I do wholeheartedly believe that the organization had ultimately made the correct decision when they had hand picked me a team. Charmeleon, although often we all just called him ‘The Knight’, (I always forget to ask about the story behind a nickname like that), was a very talented and go-getting rescuer. Given what I know now, the fact that they decided to entrust an independently operating GOLD RANK with a nobody like me really is a high honor. Granted, by the time I was experienced enough to really get what that even meant, I had known him long enough to understand who he really was. He was energetic, young, and just a bit of a jokester. I would say he had all the makings of a natural born leader and planner, traits I personally could never have myself even if I tried. He also was quite impulsive and my gosh, I have never met anyone with as consistently bad luck as he had. It was crazy to think about sometimes that despite the fact he towered at over twice my height and had gotten his gold rank all by himself years ago, whereas I still occasionally underestimated the weight of my own ears and tail and had only recently acquired my bronze rank, (a title some say is a rank just about anyone can reach without too much difficulty,) he was barely 17 years old whereas I was a 36 year old office drone! Its strange the things that crossing the very fabric of reality can do. Eight months ago, I would have told you that Pokemon was a franchise that I knew basically nothing about and cared just as much for. So imagine what it was like to wake up one morning to find out this odd cartoon about a yellow rat was not only real, but I had been turned into one! Well, not the yellow rat anyway. As already established, I’m a Minccino, not a Pikachew. While I have never met one, comparing myself to one of them, heck, comparing myself to other townspeople and my own partners; annoyingly, I honestly looked rather plain and normal. Most have biologies that I would have once labeled as fantastical …or more likely just some furry trash… and yet of course I had to become a species that I could honestly believe existed where I come from, but yet I can’t think of a close substitute for the point of comparison despite how I look. That is something that annoys me on such an irrational level! Again, it's so strange the things that crossing the border between one reality and the next can do. “Hey, you listening to me?” Oh, right, he was talking to me about today's jobs. “I…. no. What did you say?” “At least you're honest about it. Good thing to be. Many people wouldn’t pay attention, then claim they did. Zoning out happens to the best of us.” ‘Oh Charmeleon,’ I thought about him, ‘You're so innocent and forgiving. Always seeing the best in people, so willing to put others needs before his own. That's one of the main reasons he was such a great rescuer.’ “Ok, today we have six jobs to do at Fallow caves. Gotta rescue a Houndoom on floor 5, need to escort a Psyduck to the Flygon on the eighth floor, gotta deliver a parcel to someone on level 18, that one had a particularly high reward for the service~, and then at the back of the cave we have a three for one! Apparently, There was some treasure found back there, two people claimed it for themselves, got to it about the same time, and one of them got kidnapped! All evidence is suggesting the other person who got to this treasure is using the first guy as a bargaining chip in order to keep whatever this treasure is for themselves. So at minimum we’re going to need to negotiate their release, and most likely arrest the kidnapper and bring this treasure back to base with us if we need to as well.” “So we’re unlikely to get much of, if any, of this treasure in the long run as usual?” I asked him, aware that we both knew how this was likely going to play out. He laughed a bit shamefully in agreement. ‘Seems like a pretty standard selection of jobs to me.’ I further added in the back of my mind. ‘Today shouldn’t be all too difficult, if that's all it is. Its been awhile since we last went to Fallow Caves, but it tended to be pretty middling in depth and challenge if I remember correctly. Then again, if there are reports that a treasure has appeared within, that might have attracted more than just two people. Actually…’ I repeated my thoughts to him openly, further asking, “You thought about that too, that this would have attracted a lot of gold diggers, both those with malicious intent and people not prepared to deal with the wild pokemon that already live in there, didn't you?” “Yes, of course!” He said, proudly at that, “Yesterday, when I was looking over the job board and I realized that those three separate jobs were all related to each other, I came to that exact same conclusion! So I took all three, plus anything else that was for the dungeon, because obviously, and…” He stopped himself before talking a bit more slowly. “I’m rambling again aren't I?” “Maybe? I think you were about to explain to me the whole entire process of submitting job listings to the guild master.” I teased him. He had to facepalm so hard that he full on stopped marching for a moment there. “Yep, you’re right about that, I think. (Man, I cannot shut up sometimes.) Anyway,” he rolled his eyes and continued walking, “You really didn't miss anything from the official briefing this morning beyond everything we have both already figured out, so I think I can just skip that. Oh, and I couldn’t find a third team member that was around that was willing to work today, unfortunately.” Yeah, that sounds about right. He started doing his rundown of the equipment we brought in the toolbox to ensure that we were not missing anything crucial. I quietly tuned him out. I knew him. Either the thing we suddenly found that we needed and lacked was something that we usually didn't pack anyway, or he brought too much of it, to the extent we often wouldn’t have enough space to carry interesting things we would find scattered about. Simply put, I trust his judgment infinitely more than my own. The couple times when we ran out of food or one of us got seriously injured honestly were outliers. As the two of us walked across town, I couldn’t help but appreciate how nice a day it was. For a chilly fall mid-morning, the streets hadn’t been livelier since the end of summer. Practically every vendor and artisan on the main roads had their shop fronts open and had displays set up, there were more Pokemon wandering, conversing, and milling about than normal, and the cold air bristled with excitement and anticipation. If this was how it was at only a little past 10 in the morning, I can only imagine how busy it would be in a couple hours. And seeing multiple tables and tents halfway erected down the center of the town’s normally wide Parisian boulevards, I'm sure this is the kind of local entertainment us commoners would hate to miss. However as we both knew already, miss it we would. We had some jobs to do, a dungeon to crawl, and that hardly ever was not an all day affair. Paying attention just enough for me to realize that the Knight had moved on from talking about the jobs he had taken for today, or something, I opted to tune back in. “... so of course when Oliver then suddenly bursts into the lobby just as Swoobat was approving all the requests, Swoobat for once just stamped all the documentation and just let me make myself scarce. I didn’t want to hang around in his presence either so I noped out of there before he started trying to talk to me.” Charmeleon rambled, “So I left to come and get you. By the way, Swoobat says that this is the last exception they will make, you need to be present at the base right at eight.” ‘Not like they insist that every time…’ I thought to myself, rolling my eyes. Wait… “Oliver showed up? But- why?” Oliver’s a pokemon I actually don’t know well, or really have even met for that matter. Honestly, I know his name better than his species which is… unusual i’m coming to learn. My partners knew him though, perhaps a little too well, and their perceptions of him have absolutely been rubbing off onto me. I’ve heard some… less than pleasant things about him so I hope to never have to engage him directly if I can avoid it. One of the few things I know for sure is that he is an explorer and not a rescuer like we are; a distinction that I still don’t understand the significance of despite having it explained to me numerous times. “Heck if I know.” Charmeleon snorted, doing an even poorer job of hiding his distaste for the man than I do, “As said, I got out of there the moment he showed his smug face! Jokes aside, I think he was the first from the ongoing expedition to show up.” “There’s an expedition?” I asked. His normally ever-cheery attitude cooled a touch. “You know, the expedition? The one the explorers guild have been intending to send through here for weeks now?” “N-no…?” I admitted. “ … Ah, right. You never come to base in the mornings.” He said under his breath. “I’ll just give you the sparknotes version because it hardly matters anyway. The explorers guild had been planning an expedition to senic where-the-heckinstin and one of their planned stops was right here in our town. So our guildmaster has been adamant that we be on our best behavior to ‘Impress our sister organizations’ or something along those lines. ‘Can’t have the explorers see our proud rescue organization as some hokey, unprofessional volunteer program, now can we?’ he said. It’s like, don’t they think EXACTLY THAT about us anyway? All I knew was that was just not our problem, because we were scheduled for today like two months ago.” “Ah, yeah. That would explain somethings. Like all the shops. I think some people are hoping this is an ample opportunity to make some cash off those rich kids.” I teased. “Man, you KNOW it. Would you expect anything less?” he asserted. “Arceus knows what the extorters actually do with all that cash they intake; cus it sure as aint going to their actual dungeoneers, that’s for sure.” “Everything all right Char?” he was coming off unusually hostile. “Oh, it’s nothing! I maybe would have liked to go browse the flea market myself for twenty minutes but SOMEBODY wouldn't get out of bed so I had to cover for them, AGAIN.” “Jeez… I’m sorry, I-” he interrupted me. “*Sigh*, don’t worry about it, it’s fine.” He said, relaxing a bit. In my head I was screaming, ‘Is it though?!?’ “Let’s just get on with the mission.” “Yeah, alright…” I said, feeling just a little defeated. Having worked with him this closely for several months now, it's still rather disheartening to see him acting like this. I would have thought someone like him was too empathetic and good-humored to respond this way, and while he was absolutely taking the whole thing better than I was, it did suck to see the tell-tale signs of stress begin to chip away at his personality. He’s been in this line of work for years now, and I for one know all too well what it's like to work passionately on a project for weeks at a time, only for it to be rejected with nary a glance from your superior. Still, it’s not like it's the job itself that's been getting him down. It’s something I've been struggling to come to terms with myself. Nobody could blame him for that. But of course, thinking about that just made me think about how I ended up with this freaking job in the first place, because there really was just no other way to describe it other than I got bullied into the position. So, from what I hear, pokemon here have this legend, phenomenon, thing that just happens sometimes, where humans from another universe are forcibly dragged into this one and turned into a pokemon against their will. From there, they also forget their previous life and start a new team with the first person that wakes them, an individual that also really, really, REALLY wants to be a famous rescuer, or equivalent, themselves. From there, they save the whole planet from some existential crisis and get the option to return to their previous world, or stay put. Usually, they stay in this world. Apparently, that decrepit Typhlosion that lives an hours walk from the village is one of those humans, but A, I barely know the guy, B, he retired years and years ago, being very old and frankly a bit senile, and C, how does anybody just believe a story like that? Sure, he very well could have saved the world back in his day, I won’t dispute facts, but where’s the proof he was ever human? And yes, I do in fact know full well how ironic it is for me to even suggest such a thing. Regardless of any of that, it took nearly four weeks for anyone to even notice that, “Oh, hey, that weird and reclusive Minccino that quietly moved into town and took up residence in the abandoned house on 4th street? You think they might be implying more than we think when they say, ‘they’re not from around here?’ And why exactly do they seem to not understand basic things about their own species’s diet and basic type matchups? Wonder why that keeps happening?” Yeesh. Sentient species have proven to always be consistent, it doesn't matter how wise and intelligent all the people individually are, as a whole they can be dumb as hell. After I was discovered, everyone kept touteing me as some hero of legend, a few even went so far as to claim to be my fated lifelong partner, (Ugh, glad I DON’T have to deal with any of that noise anymore). Because I had proven that I had not been woken up by any of these people, and by ‘proven’ I of course mean that I kept insisting that I wanted nothing to do with them and kept begging them to leave me alone, thank you very much, I begrudgingly signed into the organization. What was supposed to happen was that I was to fill out the form to start a new team and accept one of those pretenders to be my first partner, (heck I could have technically accepted all of them and instantly had a full-size team, complete with at least one reserve member at that,) what I did instead was swap it for one of the other ones when nobody was looking. In doing so what I had effectively just done was seize a moment of power and apply instead on the general interest form to just be slotted into either an independent position or placed in any random team that wanted me. I also wrote that I would specifically NOT like to be in a team with any of those weirdos. Of course, I was caught pretty quick, but surprisingly, they actually accepted it at face value; after pointing out that “I took the wrong form” no less. Then the guildmaster, (Without consulting either of them I might add), decided to take two independents that already had quite a bit of experience together, that being the Knight and a slightly older woman named Sarah, and forcibly reclassed the both of them into a proper team and threw me into the mix. The Knight and Sarah actually didn’t care all too much, they had already come to see each other as a very reliable partner and were already a bit of a known duo. If anything, this just made it official. Basically everyone in the whole guild has come to agree that I and the Guildmaster both couldn’t have made better judgment calls if we had actually tried. Simply put, if it wasn't for these two, I would have never been seen as a competent rescuer in any sense of the word, and I would have absolutely quit the guild after my first outing with zero regrets. I don’t think there would have been any two other people in the universe more qualified to actually prepare me for life as a pokemon, and making getting into fights twice a week actually something I could put up with. When I was down, they got me back up. When they needed my backup, I could support them knowing full well that they wouldn’t give me crap for helping them. When I didn't know what I was doing, which was often, they would always know exactly what to teach me. Seriously, how do you tell somebody that they need to relearn how to walk from literally the very beginning, so that my natural gait is actually taking into account the fact that I don’t have legs and is compensating for the mass of my tail and ears, all while not being demeaning throughout the entire training process? How was I supposed to know Minccino WEREN'T known for tripping all the time? Seriously though, The guild normally gave fresh, zero-experience recruits two weeks minimum of training before they could get their first jobs, but I needed four weeks. Basically the first four days were just the two of them teaching me how to walk, as if I was some kind of toddler. I mean, to be fair, it was more complicated than simply learning how to actually move in this body, but knowing things like how I can use my tail as a fifth limb, (It has a fully unique ruleset from both legs and arms), figuring out precisely how flexible I am, and even determining precisely the times and ways I am to swap to being on all fours. That last part Is particularly impressive considering that neither of them are even morphologically able to move like how my species can!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There it was. Fallow Caves. Been there a couple of times before so I could tell where the main entrance was even from this position. Nobody is quite sure how long this dungeon has actually existed, but we do know that the easiest place to enter the first floor is from this sinkhole found tucked behind a few rows of trees, just a short distance away from a commonly used road. Perhaps that’s why people end up down there… We stopped a bit short of the entrance and got set up as usual. The Knight threw on a couple bits of light armor, mostly just a simple chestplate and a custom helmet. Some rescuers might call it a bit excessive, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t agree, but then again I have witnessed him take a few hard hits to the face now and again so… He also slung a hefty lance over his back. The last thing he did was clip a small pouch to his waist and slipped a couple small odds and ends in there. I didn't need to take much beyond a similar purse loaded with a couple throwing stones and some snacks basically, as well as the party’s main toolbag. We both knew I didn’t need anything more than that, that was not my role in the party. My job was to be faster, smaller, and harder to hit than my opponent, and the quickest to respond to any number of issues. I was the guy who, instead of attacking head on and hitting like a truck, was the guy you couldn’t hit, was always behind you, and would either trip you or strike you in the back of the head at the worst possible moment. Seeing that we were all set and prepared for like the fourth time that morning, without any further ado we both approached the lip of the entrance. The hole in the ground was only a few meters in diameter, and from here, it looked like the ground had merely collapsed around the top of some surface tunnel, the total distance between where the ground *was* and the roof of the subterranean tunnel being only like a meter tall. We knew better than that. Looking each other in the eye and nodding confidently, we held each other’s hand as a safety precaution and slid down into the unknown. I personally call the effect the Event Horizon. When I first got my badge, the guild didn’t have an official name for this extent of the natural phenomenon. The first time I went through it myself, I likened it to the property of Black Holes of the same name. The point by which you are no longer bound to the laws of the real world and are now bound to the clutches of the dark, confusing, reality-bending abyss that is a Mystery Dungeon. As we went over the edge of the short hole in the ground, what should have been a two second drop in a single instant became anything but. Some believe that no two people have ever quite experienced the Event Horizon effect the same way. Some believe that we’re simply not capable of understanding the true nature of the dungeons. I would be inclined to believe them. The gap between the ground and the ceiling began to grow, and grow, and grow. The pit below us deepend faster than gravity accelerated us. Natural light was snuffed out by the void, before it too got replaced by an eerie, everpresent ambient glow that had no source. We fell, and fell, and fell. I spied a glance at the Knight. His face was frozen, expressionless, almost dead. His entire body refused to move. I knew he would see the same happen to me. He would see me as nothing more than a statue in freefall. It was disturbing, once. We fell ever faster, the colossal walls stretching ever higher and roaring by faster and faster, yet the end of our descent continued to only get further and further away. But we had to reach a bottom eventually. After what seemed like an eternity of our bodies descending at terminal velocity, the ground came to meet us! “You ready?” The Knight was already pulling my arm to the door. Seems that he had ‘landed’ before I did. I hadn’t felt a thing when my feet hit the earth. “Yep! Let's do it!” He finally let my arm go. Now that we were through the strange border, we wouldn’t be separated so easily. The chamber we had landed in was small, but not too small as to force the two of us together. There were only two things of note. Far above us, the sky shone like a star. I have always wondered if it would be possible to climb back up to the entrance from here. Did that question even have an answer at all? The only other thing in the room was a single lone, ornate doorway. Behind it, a staircase plunged deeper still. The Knight was already approaching them. I followed. The ambient light of the dungeon was always bright enough to see everything well enough, but The Knight’s tail still glowed more brightly than the room around it. It's the little things that keep me going, keep my spirit up so. He can always be visible so I can quickly get behind him again. The staircase let off into a winding series of hallways and rooms. Typical dungeon affair. The Psyduck we needed to escort was already there, loitering by the staircase. I don’t know why some people do this. If these places are too dangerous for them to travel inside by themselves, why would they wait INSIDE the dungeon rather than right outside? Yeah, I know that sometimes this only happens because they were near the limits of the dungeon too long but… Right, right, I need to pay attention now. We met up with the Psyduck, and after handing him an apple, the two of us plus guest began our usual patrol of the first floor. Basically, figure out where the stairs are, pickup any lost and scattered items whenever possible, make sure that we have checked every room in the complex for unconscious non-ferals, and pacify all crooks and ferals running around. If any of them willingly backoff, let them go or send them out of here if they so desire. All standard procedures. According to my role in the party I took the lead and prioritized gathering information with my oversize ears first, and my eyes second. I had been educated in usage of my nose as a way of seeing of course as well, in accordance with standard guild doctrine, however as it turns out; and this is one of the few things I actually know to be a fact and not just informed conjecture or hearsay; it turns out Minccino actually have relatively poor senses of smells compared to most species of Pokemon. What is conjecture is that I would describe it as only a modest improvement over that of a humans, given that I think I can only pick up and interpret various smells with *only a bit* more sophistication overall. Not that I would even want to smell much of anything anyway because… well… EVERYTHING INCLUDING MYSELF REEKS OF NOT HAVING BEEN WASHED WITH REAL SOAPS AND SHAMPOOS EVER. One never truly appreciates chemical antiperspirants and the washing machine until they move to a place where bleach hasn't been invented yet and the concepts of modern chemistry and the periodic table are still in their infancy. Actually, that does remind me of this one hilarious urban legend I have heard a couple of times where, to boil it down as far as it will go, one of the humans to show up here claims that he knew of a strange liquid metal that he swore was called mercury, and thanks to the egging on of his partner obviously all the Pokemon he would explain the concept to would always just laugh. So the story goes, he made it his personal mission in his later years to see if he could prove its existence within the pokemon world, and to his credit, he somehow did it! I think it was determined that the alloy that Meltan were composed of was in fact 30% mercury, and everyone was shocked that it retained its liquid state despite being no longer alive once separated. Allegedly, this all had the wildly unexpected effect of unilaterally disproving every single last commonly held belief on how steel types actually work, to the point that Pokemon are still at a complete loss as to how Magnemite actually form and come to life. Sounds a bit suspect to me, but hey, I haven’t really met any steel types and I still have yet to even see a Meltan, so… take all that with an ounce of aluminum 27 really. What was I doing again? Oh, right, I was scouting out each floor of the dungeon! I had just sort of been going on autopilot this whole time while going off on yet another crazy inner monologue in my own head. I think the Knight noticed me doing that again too. “Your eyes are looking around and not at your own brain, right Minccino?” Charmeleon asked me, who as usual was walking a few feet behind me. His quip netted a couple confused snickers out of Psyduck. (Oh, yeah, they were still here.) “Oh! U-uh yeah! Of course! It’s, well, there just hasn't been much of anything to report this whole time.” I lied through my muzzle. “Yeah, ok; can’t really fault you there…” he agreed, his tone so passive I honestly can’t tell if he believed me or not. Knighty wasn't wrong though, I have a job I'm expected to do, and I really shouldn’t be wasting time mulling over irrelevant details. Still, wasn't much to miss anyway. Just as always, the floors of the dungeon was merely a seemingly endless array of empty rooms, dank hallways, and some suffocating silence that was only broken by the shuffling of our own footsteps, the steady and healthy crackle of my partner’s tail flame, and rarely, the muted cries of pokemon and combat breaking out on other floors. Oh, right, As I meant to say before I interrupted myself, my hearing is far stronger now by a margin I previously could have never imagined. For once, I will attempt to keep it brief and say that, I am so glad that Minccino physiology is so much more resilient and responsive to both detecting very quiet things while also not being hurt by loud things. It’s a huge relief considering all sound is multiple orders of magnitude louder and more sophisticated in information now, yet it's all less painful. I only bring that up because, well, I wasn't picking up practically any movement around us, whether it seemed to be from our floor, or from abroad. How odd… and mildly concerning. Overall, the first floor was on the larger side, but completely empty save the dust that littered the ground. After what we both were pretty sure was only a six minute span of time, we were certain that the first floor had been fully explored and it was time to head down to the second floor. The second floor was much the same story, the only difference being that this time it was just a linear three room straight shot to the staircase with the only thing of note present being a half rotten Lum berry lying on the floor that no person, or pokemon for that matter, would ever consider eating. Not unless they wanted to spend the next forty minutes vomiting for some inane reason. True to form, the third floor was also just as barren, as evidenced by the still as of yet unbroken silence. “Yeah, ok… At this point, it would honestly be more exciting if this place was just a normal sinkhole.” I mused aloud upon seeing yet another empty room come into view. After just checking behind the ascending staircase that we had just used for any potential valuables, as well as indicating that the coast was clear to the others, all as standard policy, we once again walked towards the one and only doorway in the room. Once again, the surface of the dungeon was devoid of any evidence suggesting that something had recently been through this area. The cragged soil and stone that made up the walls, ceiling, and floor; the dungeons twisted mind and heart normally capable of turning an abandoned shack into a SUPER haunted mansion and the sunny small farm plot it sits on gets converted into a sprawling expanse of tall grasses and precarious rusty farm equipment infested with bug types and other rodent-like normies such as myself; while it can occasionally have neat moments where a fire is lit in the back of the mansion that engulfs the complex and the field around it, such that we finish the mission by grabbing water from the nearby irrigation to extinguish the burning shack and wheat strip; more often than not most missions are like this one: monotonous, boring, and it feels like the force that took root here and corrupted this stupid hole in the ground is just phoning it in. ‘What shall I do with this floor?’ I joked internally, imagining myself as the dungeon trying to decide its layout for the day, ‘oh I know! Let’s put a room here, then a slightly larger room here, then a small one here, then gonna connect them with a hallway like this, plus one like that, then how about another room… there as well! Now just add a stair here and we're done! At this rate, I can take my lunch in thirty minutes if I keep this up!’ Sigh. I will admit, I for one never looked into that whole ‘backrooms’ thing, but if they are anything like their real life counterparts being the mystery dungeons, I unironically think you have higher odds of dying from boredom, -and hunger-, than from being jumped by some eldritch abomination. Besides, I’m very confident that if the Knight and a supernatural horror crossed paths, I’d pity the horror. Charmeleon is just that talented of a- Oh? I stopped suddenly, almost stepping on the deformation in the sand in the hallway, before indicating to stop the convoy. "Oop, yep, that's a pressure plate right there..." I said under my breath. There was a subtle square shape hidden just under a thin layer of sand and rubble. That's a trap there, surely. "Kighty, tactical stick, if you please?" "Tactical stick." Chameleon said just as indifferently, handing me an 'Analog trap disarming tool', otherwise known as a small branch. Taking a hefty step back and indicating for my friend and guest to do likewise, I tentatively lowered the end of my tactical stick into the surface of the pressure plate until a decisive --- CLICK --- sounded in the hall. I let go and dove away as the device released its payload. After waiting a good several seconds to ensure that whatever I had just activated ran its course and I had been left unharmed, I tentatively opened my eyes, saw that my partner and escort were fine, then turned around to asses the damage, already very aware that the trap only had made a soft hissing sound. A plume of dust had been kicked up, one who’s blueish fibers were gradually falling back down to the ground, slowly. “Looks like a sleep trap.” Charmeleon commented. “Pretty sure it's all sleep powder. Minccino, you know what to do.” He asked, knowing full well that what I was expected to do next really wasn’t my thing, even if I was aware that it was absolutely a necessary precaution. Turning around, I began to awkwardly and somewhat blindly sweep the ground on and around the pressure plate with my tail, walking that fine line between a quick job and a thorough one. As I did so, the way all the sand, dirt and dust clung to my tail’s fur was so irritating. I can’t believe my species is known for compulsively cleaning everything around them. I can bet you 200 poke that is ONLY because my thick fur renders me a walking feather duster, and just about anything and everything can and will get stuck fast in the fibers in a matter of seconds. I really don’t like it. True, it is very useful for safely getting rid of ‘Powders that induce status ailments’ without actually absorbing them, I have seen others get crippled by these things when I am largely only vulnerable to then in the facial area so I really should count myself lucky, but even still I never enjoy how my tail is just caked with soot after every last mission. I’m not even authorized to carry a dustpan with me either. After at least thirty seconds had passed, I inspected my work once quickly then addressed the other two. “Alright, that seems good.” Charmeleon nodded encouragingly. “Psyduck, when we go through here, be careful and hold your breath, as some of it will be still hanging around in the air. Don’t breathe any of it in.” The mission continued on in much the same manner as before. We went to a few more rooms on floor three, found still more nothing in four, then finally found Houndoom after only two minutes on the fifth. As always upon finding a client or other sane pokemon in clear need of assistance, we first moved to resuscitate them and determine the severity of their situation, in this case it would seem that Houndoom was primarily only half starved and a bit spooked, so ‘OK’ as far as the typical client goes. Then Charmeleon fed them an oran berry to give them back just a bit of strength as we always do, before I likewise then presented them my bronzed rescue team badge, explaining to them that they need merely to touch it and wish to be warped back to base. As most clients do, Houndoom eagerly accepted with zero hesitation and placed their paw which was wider than the surface area of my badge and then vanished with a quick burst of light. We kept moving. Finished up with floor five, got annoyingly turned around in floor six for longer than we would have preferred but regardless had no actual issues to report, and inevitably made our less than merry way to floor seven. Finally, I was able to hear that something was up as we entered the landing chamber. Letting my ears do the searching, they swiveled automatically in the direction of what sounded like combat coming from beyond the third doorway on the left. I hung just outside the doorway and listened closely. Yeah, definitely combat, and judging by the horrible screeching just now, one of them might be steel type. I looked to my partner. “Yeah, we're going to want to do something about that.” He said, looking like he was just happy that something interesting was finally about to happen. I for one agree with him. “I will attempt to resolve the situation. Psyduck, stay close to me, but if things get hot don’t attempt to be a hero. Stand back and stay safe. Gli- er, Minccino, see if you can come in from another direction and either way, be prepared to cover me!” “Yes sir!” I responded confidently. I listened to the action once again, stepping to the center of the room. The sound was echoey and muffled, but mostly coming from the doorway Charmeleon and Psyduck were now marching into, the former having pulled out his trusty lance and the latter seeming a bit frightened but willing to follow the Knight. The room I’m currently in has several passageways, so surely the other room has multiple points of entry. That’s what Charmeleon is betting on too. I just need to listen carefully to hear if I can pick up the sound coming from a second entrance. … My ears perked up at the sound of a distinct cracking coming from the main doorway, but then the same sound came again more quietly a second later. There is another entrance! I listened again, and this time my ears locked onto the other point of entry with laser precision. There! It had to be that one! By now, I think Charmeleon was in the room and getting their attention by the sounds of it, so now is my chance to come in from another unexpected direction, just as planned. With only enough further hesitation to take a last deep breath to ready myself and ensure my bags and scarf were secure, I turned to the desired door and took four quick steps and leapt forward. It’s so odd how, despite it not being this way for most things, one of the few new concepts I feel that I have actually managed to internalize and get to the point where I don’t have to think about it in order to do it is how to move in this body. It has taken quite a lot of time and practice, but finally I think I’m successfully now able to swap between two legs, used at most times and good when hands are needed, and four legs, useful for reducing my size even further, running VERY quickly, and stability. I came down from my leap and made sure all four of my paws landed correctly. My right hand- I mean my right front paw transitioned correctly to the quadruped position. So did my rear paws. My front left did not, sliding an inch on the ground and pulling the fur covering the palm with it painfully, and I nearly fell forward. I said I could do it nearly on instinct. I did not say I was any good at it. Brushing the failed landing aside, I bolted forward and down the hall, rapidly accelerating to my maximum speed in a matter of seconds even as the path inclined to arc up and over other halls and rooms. The hallway veered right before dropping back down and opening into what is unmistakable as the wrong room. I rushed to the center, stopped on a dime and popped up to listen again. The sound had been coming from this way, but it seems to have stopped for the moment. Then I heard Charmeleon shout, “Armaldo, you will stand down immediately or I will be forced to make you!” from down another hall. But it was very close. Something roared before it seemed like a metallic object was whipped at the wall. “ALRIGHT YOU PSYCHOPATH, NOW YOU’VE GONE AND DONE IT! Psyduck, stay back.” Charmeleon then shouted back, before engaging the thing that roared which I can only conclude is an Armaldo. Why am I just standing around? I dashed again, this time down the short corridor into the room the fight was in. I stopped at the entrance, peeked around the corner and assessed the situation. The room wasn't that big, but if I must it WAS larger than the other two rooms on this floor. The big thing was that Charmeleon was currently engaging some other pokemon in the center of the room and currently towered even over him. It’s about as tall as a typical human if I had to guess. The characteristics that I was confident of was that it seemed to be fairly ‘dinosaurian’ in its general shape with a wide triangular torso that tapered seamlessly into a large tail. Actually, it's very similar to the Knight in overall shape, except whereas Charmeleon chose to wear a couple pieces of light armor due to his personal fighting style, this thing was decked out head to toe in a thick, brittle looking exoskeleton colored predominantly blue and yellow. I’m making a bet now that this creature must be at least part bug type, though if it has a second one it’s not immediately clear to me what it would be. Surely, this is the Armaldo. And as evidenced by its rather brutal, wrathful swipes with the two heavy organic scythes it has for arms and it only roaring and grunting thus far, this must be a ‘dungeon feral’. Beyond those two, across the room, I could see Psyduck also peeking out from around the corner of the other entryway, very frightened. ‘Don’t worry, you will be safe with us.’ I thought. There was also something else lying on the floor at the foot of one of the walls of the room. I didn’t quite get a solid look at it before whatever it was suddenly righted itself and scurried out of the room in a third direction. Yeah, whatever it was, it sure as heck is not a pokemon I have ever seen or heard of before, and might be the source of the malalic clanging, because the Armaldo (if that is in fact what that is) definitely is not a metalloid. Speaking of which, the Knight and the feral were currently in a furious close-quarters brawl and had their full attention on one another. The Armaldo slashed downward with its two huge pincers onto their opponent, and just as I knew he could, Charmeleon managed to grab both of them in his claws and absorb the full force of their mass with only a determined clenching of their teeth. He held the insectoid attacker off for a moment before dropping his resistance and slipping off to one side, letting himself out of that situation cleanly while Armaldo, unable to halt their momentum stumbled forward giving Charmeleon ample opportunity to make his next move unopposed. A voice I knew all too well echoed in my mind, ‘Don’t just stand there, Minccino!’ her voice had said, ‘Rescuing is not a spectator sport! Always be prepared to step in!’ Keeping my eyes on the action, I blindly reached into my bag, feeling around for a distraction. Without any hesitation he pulled out his lance and surged forward, managing to crack a plate in the Armaldo’s side. He pulled it out just as quickly, as the Armaldo turned back to face their attacker with a resounding stomp. Charmeleon hopped back to create some distance as he took a deep breath. Armaldo crouched forward and roared as they slashed the ground and pulled out a decently sized hunk of rock and slung it forward with an unrivaled aggression. The Knight was forced to abandon his next move to dodge the attack, jumping to the side but ending up slipping onto their stomach and exhaling suddenly, the air igniting involuntarily in his throat. He laid there coughing on his own flame breath for a moment. He shot me a look that silently screamed, ‘I totally meant to do that!’ as I felt my hand finally locate the gravelerrocks. I took a bold step out into the limelight as the Pokemon towered over my prone partner. They were about to attack the Charmeleon in the back but were stopped by the small dense stone I hurled at them, the pebble bouncing uselessly off their tough hide. Ferals are almost never capable of speech, but I'm sure this one would have said something along the lines of, “Really dude?” if they could. I also wanted to make some sort of sassy or heroic one liner, but instead I just sorta stood there awkwardly. Even then, some people can look tough just through the simple act of standing there. Sadly, I am not tough, and Minccino can’t look tough. All compounded, I had the imposition of an angsty gerbil instead of a badass hero. All three of us were frozen for a moment. I spied Psyduck from the other door tilt their head a bit with a wide-eyed stare. The Armaldo turned back to the pokemon at their feet, growling seeing that Charmeleon had been scrambling to theirs. Again, Armaldo moved to hit them with ‘Smack Down’ but again, I stopped them by hurling another gravelerrock their way, this one being much more effective as it struck them square in the eye socket! Understandably, they reeled with a ragged groan. Rapidly, they tried a third time to actually attack Charmeleon, but were stopped this time by Charmeleon himself having gotten up and jumped to clock Armaldo straight in the chin! They scrambled backwards as the two of them resumed the same close quarters brawl they had been doing in the first place, as they rapidly traded blows in a furious three round slugfest. Armaldo got increasingly desperate as Charmeleon held the initiative and whose claws were tougher than their own exoskeleton. It cannot be compared to a hot knife through butter, but it was plain to see that Armaldo’s soft underbelly would be exposed if this continued. I however changed strategies, closing my bag up and dashing forward and around behind my opponent. Even still, I kept my distance from them somewhat, seeing the battle unfolding the way it was. Seeing my partner had the upper hand and was comfortably holding the initiative in this brawl, I simply let him push our opponent into me, and so I weighed my options carefully for another moment. I could pop another item, I could use a move, I could improvise something distracting, and yet I just hadn't the time to ever truly think about it and make the right choice! But I think I have an idea. I hopped backwards onto all fours and prepared to lunge at the monster, taking one final instant to calculate my launch trajectory, and mentally bracing for when I inevitably mess this up somehow. The Armaldo took another slash at the Knight, and managed to very decently break my partner's guard and slap him in the chest. Charmeleon took the impact and stumbled backwards somewhat on purpose, somewhat just from the sheer recoil, and narrowly avoided getting himself stun locked into a combo. Managing to fix his eyes back onto his opponent, he suddenly gasped wide eyed and shouted, “Look behind you!” while pointing directly at me! I took the cue and jumped forward. Armaldo kept his attention squarely on his primary threat, and that was their mistake. I would say how they reacted, but I was too busy rotating midair upon slamming my tail right over their big face! That was my own mistake. What I do know is that all parts of my body collided with the monster's head rather painfully and I promptly fell to the ground like a bag of rocks, with the actual bag of rocks I was carrying landing right on my left ear. I tumbled forward for a moment and came to a stop, lying face up. The pro’s always make that look so easy, being able to magically hit their opponent with all their might but then also stop and completely redirect their momentum on a dime in MIDAIR! I would say that I too would love to know the secret to completely breaking the laws of physics like they seem to, but that would be painfully ironic considering the things I can actually do. And of course it’s only now that I realize using swift likely would have been a far better plan in the first place instead of trying to hit him with my tail. I groaned as I staggered to my feet, getting another scan of the situation. Ok, first off, I don’t think I hurt myself in that impact as much as I initially thought, and both combatants were slowing down in their intensity. One look at Charmeleon told me everything I needed to know, he was slowing down by choice. And the reason why was evident by one look at Armaldo, who was having trouble keeping his eyes on their opponent. I exhaled in relief, I accomplished exactly what I had wanted. Despite how much they wanted to pretend otherwise, Armaldo couldn't hold it in any longer, and sneezed! They sneezed violently again, and again! While the feral entered into a massive sneezing fit, Charmeleon was free to just stop fighting completely and step away, very pleased. Stopping a good twenty seconds later, or lightyears in combat time, Armaldo was left very very disheveled, dazed, and sluggish. This fight was over. Charmeleon could see this as well, and, as if he was to do a cartwheel, rolled forwards onto his hands and acrobaticly swiveled to slam Armaldo decisively with this thick, heavy, burning tail, before expertly landing back onto his feet, and leisurely dusted his armor off as the aggressor fainted helplessly into the ground. Like I said, why are the pro’s able to ignore physics like this? Stepping beside my leader, Charmeleon retorted, “And THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why you ALWAYS look behind you when someone says to. It’s the oldest trick in the book for a reason!” That retort got a laugh out of me. He turned his gaze to me, very pleased with how that whole engagement played out all things considered. “And well played there, Minccino!” the pitch and energy of his voice rising to its natural state for the first time all day, “Thanks for pulling me out of that one bind. You have been getting way better at stepping in at the correct times and being at the ready. You did that second attack almost flawlessly, though as usual I recommend that you actually use a move when doing so. Never forget that they have applications beyond just straight ‘inflicting damage,’ but otherwise, well done!” He held out a fist and as I was far too short to pound it with a hand, I hit it back with one of my ears, just as usual. He still giggles at this, despite how often I do it. Maybe there’s just something inherently funny about that to a person such as him, or perhaps he values our friendship and teamwork far more in a way I simply never could, just due to our backgrounds and personalities? Whatever the case may be, the way Charmeleon’s eyes can light up and sparkle even now with the things weighing him down, it does remind me to always cherish his infectious positive energy. I was going to respond to the comment he made, but I just as quickly shut myself up as to not accidentally kill the mood. I chose my words carefully, as saying the words I really wanted to say would undoubtedly be a huge mistake. “Ahh… well, thank you! I mean, I think you still could have won that fight yourself easy peasy. But I appreciate the support.” ehhh… in hindsight, perhaps I should have chosen my words better even still. “Uhhhh… how did you two…?” Psyduck said slowly, finally stepping out from the doorway with a bit of trepidation. I for one quietly appreciated the interruption, before things got… awkward. “Oh, nothing really that complex, save a fur coat laced with sleep powder!” I said with a sudden rush of confidence. “Not enough to knock out a creature of his size, but as you saw, even a small dose can seriously disorient just about anyone.” “Oh, really?” They said, interest certainly piqued. They pondered that idea for a moment. “You say that like you have done exactly that regularly. Yet you had only swept up the one trap earlier.” “Well, actually yes!” I admitted. “I can’t take credit for the idea though. It was… one of my other party member’s ideas.” “Oh, ok!” they said, snapping to Charmeleon on the spot. “What other ideas have you had?” The Knight froze at this… admittedly sudden question. Well, so much for protecting that smile of his. His voice spoke with a shaky embarrassment that gradually simmered back down to the suppressed tone he had been using all day. “Oh, no no no no… he didn’t mean me, I'm just the team leader is all. It was… someone else but they’re not… here right now.” “Huh, ok, cool.” Psyduck continued, “well, once i’m done meeting with my friend and help them with… whatever it is they wanted me to do anyway, we’ll most likely come back to base together, perhaps we could meet them later?” “Yeah, sure! Totally!” The Knight and I said in unison, exchanging a nervous look as we did so. “Oh, they aren't with you today? Pity that.” another voice said unexpectedly, making me jump. We all turned to the third entrance of the room to see a large creature perched casually under the doorway. My first impression concluded that it was a sort of green, vaguely kangaroo lookin’ pokemon with big red eyes and some sort of cape? Wait, no- actually, I think that is actually some kind of dragon actually? And those eyes… actually their eyes are beneath some larger red visors. As so often is the case with meeting species I have never seen before, I had to suppress the urge to say, “The flip am I looking at?!” “Oh! Flygon! There you are!” Psyduck exclaimed before waddling rapidly over to the pokemon easily thrice their size with room to spare. “Oh, that’s a Flygon?” I muttered to myself. Charmeleon nodded patiently. An errant concern suddenly itched at the back of my mind. Something felt… I don’t know, slightly off about that… but I couldn’t place it. Infact, I think there’s multiple things I’m forgetting, but what they are I can’t remember. I did want to say what was on my mind, but… I didn't actually know what the source of the problem was. I stayed quiet and brushed the thoughts aside. Meanwhile, Charmeleon then addressed the two of them, “You are Flygon, correct?” He said. They confirmed as such. “Alright, as per the request, we have escorted Psyduck to you safely. I trust that you can handle yourself? We can also offer to send the both of you back to base at this time, if you so wish. If not, then we ask that you present payment before we see you off.” The green dragon rolled their eyes, “*sigh* Yes, of course. I will pay for it. What do we owe you?” “Five-hundred Poke, three-fifty if you prefer to pay in goods.” Charmeleon replied with an innocent inflection. That got their attention alright. “What- really?” Flygon said. “That’s… shockingly reasonable.” Psyduck agreed. “Normally you people charge like… a three day paycheck. Weren't you charged two-thousand five-hundred or something once for a rescue as a Vibrava?” “I know right!?” Charmeleon chuckled, “oh, you must have us confused with the explorers. They are a full time gig and have nigh continental reach. We’re just rescuers.” “OOOhhhh…” Flygon said, “So you guys are just those hokey part time volunteers, then! You must be from the nearby base in that case. What, are we too unimportant to be trusted with proper explorers in that case?” They said with a huge smile. I have… zero clue if they were actually trying to be insulting, or just airheaded, but either way, her words made my fur crawl and Charmeleon’s tail burn that little bit hotter. “Uhhhh… no!” Charmeleon insisted, “We’re two entirely different organizations! One of us was set up by a guy that went about devising the most powerful pyramid schemes ever devised, and WE actually pay our dungeoneers living wages! One of them was established by an egomaniacal dictator, and we actually try to behumble and reasonable.” From there, he seemed to take his response one step further without context, as if he was getting a long held opinion off his chest as he had the opportunity. “I mean, really now! Darci the explorer might be remembered by history as one of the most daring and influential travelers and historians of all time, but boy the things that he did to get there have NOT aged pleasantly.” “Excuse me?!” Flygon said, taken aback, “What are you talking about? The would could have ended multiple times over if it wern’t for the guild he sought to create-” “So what-” he was about to retort, but he stoped himself with a not-so-subtle grumble. It’s little things like that which make it obvious that he has never worked retail in his life, despite how compassionate he otherwise was. “Sorry, I got a little carried away there, and I don’t want this to get political either. Let’s just… move on.” Flygon also seemed to agree, and pulled out some coins and began to count through them in silence. My mind began to wander as it so often does, and I found myself compelled to ask Charmeleon, “Who is Darci?” I nearly slapped myself upon releasing how stupid a question that was, even before anyone else had even the time to process what I had just said. My words were so unexpected that Flygon were completely thrown off in their concentration, paused for a moment, then restarted their count from the beginning. Psyduck too was utterly baffled, saying something along the lines of, “ARE YOU REAL? How the heck do you not know who Darci is?” before going on about a sudden aneurysm at my apparent stupidity. “They’re not from around here,” Charmeleon intervened, having learned a while ago how to effectively fix these situations that I seem to always stumble into, “Ok, to be brief, Darci was one of the first great explorers hailing from overseas to set foot on this continent, and while on one hand his numerous expeditions culminated in the contacting of countless societies and peoples and his cartographic work is STILL influential in contemporary map making, he also founded the explorers guild, was indirectly responsible for the conquest of a frankly absurd amount of land, openly enslaved multiple tribes and civilisations, and… well, weather you love him or you hate him it is impossible to deny the fact that the man was a massive imperialist. Also, despite their highly questionable reliability, many first hand accounts seem to paint him as an extremely petty individual, so make of that as you will.” “Huh,” I told him back, “Well, he is the quintessential controversial historical figure I take it? I would imagine they had bit of a Walt Disney complex in that case?” “Who is…? Never mind.” He said. “Let’s just… get on with the mission.” After another moment, Flygon appeared satisfied with the payment they had ready, and stood before us. The Knight had to non-verbally remind me that I was the one who always held the team’s moneybag. I fished the separate pouch out of my bag and held it out for them. They had to stoop downwards to put it in there, almost as if I was trick or treating for the very first time. It was still loaded with several missions worth of Poke, and I couldn’t help but notice Flygon’s tiny little eyes beneath those weird red visors widened at the sight of it all sitting inside. They dropped the coins inside without another delay, and I packed the wallet away before the green giant got any ideas. “Thank you!” the Knight said, “If that will be all, then we shall be off.” He turned to walk away, then a small realization came to him. “Oh, actually, before we do, Flygon, did you happen to see where that stray Falink ran off to?” Flygon gave a questioning remark. “You know, the one that the Feral punted? It ran off the same place you entered from, or so I thought…” “I didn't see a Falink.” Psyduck unexpectedly volunteered. Flygon claimed they haven't seen anyone else either, they only were following the sound of battle and walked in after the fight was already over. They gave a look of disgust at the Armaldo which had been out cold on the cave floor this whole time. That question bothered me as well, had there been another person in the room? I couldn’t recall, the rush of battle tends to blur together very quickly. “Hmmmph.” Charmeleon relented, “I could have sworn there was one. Well, if it turns up, we’ll be sure to reunite it with it’s battalion.” I’m sorry, battalion? “Come along, Minccino, and take care you two!” Having that whole situation resolved, the two of us left the room and went about our standard patrol of the floor. I couldn't help but hear the two clients start whispering to each other the moment we left their line of sight. I paid it no mind, as such behavior is honestly pretty typical and I’m never one to eavesdrop without good reason. That one fight done and dusted with, the dungeon returned to its previous, boring state. We were off to the eighth floor after only another few minutes, and were now approaching the halfway point of the dungeon after barely an hour and a half. At this rate, maybe we will have time to go check out that flea market after all! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “You know,” I remarked as we stepped down the stairs to the eleventh floor, finally admitting the nagging thoughts in my mind to my friend, “Today has been feeling weirdly… easy, hasn't it? I’m not the only one feeling like there’s been no real threat going on today, has there?” “Yeah…” the Knight agreed, thinking as we walked, “Hmmm. I really did think there would be a bit more trying to kill us by now. But no, it's been highly suppressed if anything. Only one guy has actually even been hostile to us thus far, and out of what? Two, three people? That is odd. I won’t lie, I had been thinking the same thing, but did not want to say anything in case I jinxed it. (At this point, i’m so bored I would be fine with that.)” “Yeah… my concern is that this state of tranquility that Gaul has been reduced to can’t last.” I told him, not hiding my hesitations at all. He stopped and gave me an odd look. “Gaul? What?” Right, right, he has no context for what I just referenced. “I was partially quoting Julius Caesar, making a joke about how completely wrong he was when he claimed that, ‘He had successfully passified the Gualic frontier,’ reducing the region of modern day France to, as he put it, ‘a state of tranquility’. No, he was back at war with them literally the next spring.”“ What is…? Nevermind. Tell me about it later.” He dismissed the whole thing with a twinge of annoyance. There was so much for him to unpack with just that one statement, and I could tell he did not want to deal with that right now. We have both made that mistake before. “But no, I don’t expect it to stay quiet like this either. If I had to guess, there might be something that has all the ferals spooked.” “So the individual that is holding someone hostage you think?” “Yeah. Yeah I think that’s a safe bet. Never can be too sure, though. But, if we’re correct about our assumptions, then I would advise that you hang a bit closer to me from now on.” “I mean, alright, whatever you say boss.” The Knight gave me an odd look as we landed on the eleventh floor. He promptly dropped it and pressed on. “We should have asked the Houndoom or the Flygon if they thought anything was up, now that I think about it.” “We still have that parcel for floor 18. Perhaps the recipient might know?” I suggested. “Fair, fair. Still, though the main objective of the mission was at the back of the dungeon apparently. Floor 21 if I'm not mistaken. I think then, yeah, they probably would know.” “You aint thinking of stealing our treasure now, are ya fellas?” an unknown voice said. My sharp ears picked up the origin point of the voice. In front of us, just off to one side of the room we were just in was the one and only doorway connecting here to another area of the dungeon, besides the staircase we just climbed down. The voice was a bit gruff, but at the same time I felt just a little like perhaps the speaker was putting on a fake voice to sound more threatening. We can't ever be too careful, and the Knight motioned for me to stay close behind him and cover his back. “We all went through quite the lengths to get it, and it's already being divided rather thinly. And do you know what soldiers do when they don’t get paid? They get a little… rowdy. Men, deploy for battle.” A chorus of more highly pitched snickers and jeers echoed around as many metallic sounds and a lot of light footsteps began approaching quickly. The Knight whispered something under his breath. “Falinks”. He again signaled for me to cover his back as he got his lance out. It was hard to see at first, but a small round shape with vivid glowing blue eyes appeared at the doorway. The pokemon marched out into the room with some open aggression followed by a second, then a third! It was impossible to see their true shape behind their full body helmet, but their helmets were brass with a red plume on top. Not only that, but a Treecko stepped out with them as well, unambiguously a part of this gang. “Look, Falinks,” The Knight tried to reason, well practiced at doing this sort of thing, “We don’t want any trouble, nor do we want your treasure. Were just here on a regular list of missions and, oh, if you were looking for one of the soldiers in your devision, we saw it just a-” The Knight was interrupted by the voice from a moment ago, which I could now verify to be the tiny ball with the largest headdress. “Yeah, right! I know you silly little rescuers! You’re no better than the rest of us. You think just because you have some silly little badge, you are entitled to come into these places and beat us up and take all our stuff? What makes you any different from us? Are you really here just for that greedy Swadloon? What do you think, boys?” The leader’s ‘men’ all cheered. Some of the voices came from behind us as well. I turned around to cover the Knight’s tail. Marching down the staircase came not just two more Falinks, but accompanying them were Psyduck and Flygon! The Flygon stared at me dead in the eyes. Were they in on this as well!? How- How haden’t I heard either of them following us? They also formed up around our other exit, the two Falinks slamming their shields together in unison. “Don’t act so surprised, Minccino.” The Psyduck said, somehow sounding more intimidating than the leader. “Boss! These two have picked up quite a bit ‘a cash off the ground. Least a couple thousand, maybe more!” The Treecko had a look of wide eyed malice at what their partner just said, and they duked back into the hallway and I overheard someone say, “You lot, come with me.” The leader spoke up again. “So how about this?” He said a bit threateningly, “First, BOY, drop your weapons, and nobody will get hurt.” The Knight held his trusty lance hesitantly for a moment, but then slowly lowered it to the ground. “Good. Good. Now…” He glanced behind him, spotting Treecko strutting back into the room. Behind him came in a weakened and wilted Swadloon escorted by two more Falinks. “Give us ALL of the shinies you have picked up in this complex today, that is, if you really want this one to live?” “I-I-I I don’t have any of…” The Knight started to say. As he did so, he also rotated his head slightly to stare at me wide eyed. I couldn’t remember more than one other time he seemed this frightened. “Be quiet and do as you're told, whelp!” Promptly jeered Flygon. “That goes for you too shorty!” They craned their long, slender neck close to my face. “Don’t think that does not include *that* from earlier, either. I recall giving it to you…” Ah, yeah, figured that was coming. They had given us a payment for the ‘service’ of escorting Psyduck. Guess they are looking for a quick turnaround on that investment. I stepped forward an inch, gradually reaching for one of the bags on my belt. “I have it, I have it here.” I pulled out the separate pouch containing all the coinage we have collected thus far. Boy am I suddenly glad they require that we don’t mix everything together all of the sudden. I pulled out a small handful of Poké to prove it. “EEEXCELLENT!” The leader said, “That should more than enough pay off your friend here. Step forward, alone. Give the goods to my associate here. Don’t even think about trying somethin’ your going to regret.” The Leader was referring to the Treecko, who then in turn motioned for their hostage to be brought beside themselves. I’m starting to think this Treecko plays the silent bruiser role of the gang. I also stepped forward cautiously, holding the money pouch in front of me. Once I was close enough, Treecko signaled for me to hold still and took the bag out of my hands. He took it and dumped the contents out onto the dank floor of the cave. The Treecko finally broke off that insulting permanent grin of theirs and seemed to need a moment just to really process what they were looking at. All the bright blue eyes of all the Falinks also seemed to glow just a little bit brighter. “Well well!” The leader cheered, their impressed inflection sounding genuine, “That will do nicely. Your organization really knows how to clean these places out. Let the sneaky bug go, boys.” The Falinks thrust the Swadloon forward, and they instantly rushed to embrace me. “You’re going to be alright, you’re safe now.” I whispered reassuringly as I hugged them back. It's always important to make sure clients are alright. They were shaking, miserable, and a bit beaten and wilting in places, but they were going to be alright. We locked eyes and I gave them a patient smile, before I uncliped my bronzed badge from my blue scarf to send Swadloon back to base. Without warning, Swadloon was yanked backwards by the two Falinks and a green hand snatched the badge from my paws. It happened so quickly that neither I nor the Knight had enough time to fully process what just happened. I turned to the left to see Treecko now examining my badge rather greedily before snapping their head right to me with a glare. With some impressive speed they let the badge drop from their left hand to the floor while they rushed me with their right, grabbing one of my ears in a death grip and pulling me closer with enough force that I thought could have easily just ripped it off completely. I tried to struggle against him, somehow, but Treecko just stomped down hard on my tail! With that, he was free to pull my other ear and leave me effectively grappled for the moment. “MINCCINO!” Swadloon tried to make a run for it, but the Falinks’s leader tackled her before turning to me, then to the Knight. I’m supposed to be better than this! I struggle again, but with the manner Treecko has me pinned while standing, I can’t fight back in any way effectively, and anyway I try to move just causes the amount of force they are applying to me to hurt even more. Darn these arms! These stubby appendages and lack of thumbs aren't good for anything! Wait, that’s true, they didn’t grab me by the arms. “LET HIM GO!” The Knight instantly rose to the occasion, settling into an openly hostile stance, ready to make a break for either me, Swadloon, or their lance the first chance they get. “You wanted our money, there it is! Let them go, NOW!” His earlier concern was now boiling into some… uncharacteristic rage. But this was not the time to dwell on that. My range of movement was still limited and I was being stretched, but I think I can still reach the rest of my stuff just fine. I need to wait for a good opportunity. “Boys, I think our friends here misheard me!” The leader said. Some of his men, Psyduck included, nodded encouragingly. “I said I wanted all of your shinies, didn't I? I’m not blind! That little medallion you have there is likely worth more than this entire pile! And yet you thought you could keep it from us!? Don’t make me laugh. You two, search him; see what else they thought they could keep from us.” The two Falinks standing by their leader turned and approached me. I relented and uncliped my main bag as they approached, hoping to look as cooperative as I could. The leader at that moment was too busy taunting the Knight some more and that’s precisely the moment Treecko realized that they should have found another way to restrain me. I took my opportunity. I pulled out one of several blue spheres at random that were mixed in with the various other items collected, and confidently asked the two metal balls before me, “Shinies like this?” One of them still reached for my bag, but the other one looked up at it confused, before their bright blue eyes widened. “BOSS! IT’S A TRICK!” shouted Flygon, before they moved to attack the Knight. Just because he had his back to the attack, doesn't make a guy like him exposed. He swung his burning tail at them before swiveling around and bearing his claws. I didn’t hesitate a moment longer. I pulled against Treecko’s grip as hard as I could, (owch!), and smashed the orb against the helmet of the Falink before me. There was a momentary flash, and Treecko let go of me so suddenly I completely toppled over. I was expecting an instant retaliation, but thankfully there wasn’t one. I was suddenly hearing a whole lot of shouting though, but I couldn't pick out any of it. I Rushed to my feet again only to see that everyone had disappeared, except Swadloon who was standing by herself, The Knight who had slashed the air in front of himself but hit nothing, and the gang who were all now tied up in the corner, and were arguing loudly amongst themselves. “What just happened?” Asked Swadloon as they meekly approached me a second time, as I massaged the massive dent in my tail. “Lasso orb, by the looks of it,” commented the Knight as he picked up his lance and also walked over. “Boy, that was convenient. Well played, sir!” He held out a fist, and I bumped it back with one of my ears as always. The Swadloon watched and finally smiled and laughed.The moment of comradery over, I rushed to grab my main equipment bag again. I could worry about all the money or figuring out where my badge ended up in a minute. I also fished out a sitrus berry from my things and handed it to Swadloon. The arguing gang kept getting louder and I could see them working furiously to get out of the meager bindings they found themselves in. The shouting was getting to Psyduck especially, as they got a bit red in the face before looking like they were about to explode. “They’re about to break free!” The Knight said quickly, “Minccino, get ready! Swadloon, either duck out to safety or back us up, Don’t just stand there! Please!”“Yeah, ok!” she said and proceeded to start wolfing down the berry as fast as she could. I finished refastening my things and formed up by my partner’s side. Yeah, figuring out where my badge went is a problem for later. Right now we needed to strategize. “Char, what's the plan?” “The Brass is the biggest threat-”, he remembered i’m a human that doesn't know what he’s talking about, “The Falinks’s leader, I mean. They’re called a Brass. Dismantle them, and his squad will be confused. Then we can worry about their friends.” “Turn it from an 10v2 to a 3v2 ASAP, got it!” I said, cutting my superior off. If I am reading everything correctly, Falinks must be a hive-minded pokemon, and are therefore best fought by neutralizing their command, so I started digging for something that could do the trick. There were tons of bizarre items with crazy effects in here, and the opposition never expects them to actually be used. The Knight always says most teams sorely underappreciated the things found just lying around, and I wholeheartedly agree! No, seriously, imagine just minding your own business, you kick a random blue crystal on the ground, and suddenly you turn INTO AN APPLE for a few hours! That really sucks, and I would know, ‘CUZ IT HAPPENED TO ME ONCE! Even more impressive, there’s orbs that just put all people in its vicinity on the brink of DEATH when lightly touched, so of course I'm the person who has to handle them. If Foe-hold and one-shot orbs existed back home, I'm sure the atom bomb would seem merciful by comparison. Anyway, I had to have something useful here! The enemy arguments had also died down now, as the ‘Brass’ had gotten his men to settle down and two of the other gang members had gotten limbs free.. Flygon was trying to deal with the rope but their claws and teeth proved ineffective. They then seemed to try to move to some kind of earth shaking attack, but couldn't strike the ground properly, yielding only minimal results. ‘Thanks for telegraphing your move pool, idiot’ I thought as I swapped to all-fours preemptively. Psyduck had also gotten their hands free, and yet they for some reason appeared to be throwing some sort of temper tantrum in the corner. They had their hands on their head and seemed to be on the verge of tears. If they didn't just try to mug us I would feel bad for them. Then their eyes shone a brilliant purple and the bird let off some kind of massive energy pulse that nearly knocked us all over and shredded the ropes binding them. Oh, right! I forgot about that! Without missing a beat, Flygon roared to the air and dived right towards me rapidly. I rolled to the right to dodge it, (although I was going to do that regardless of how I was attacked), and Flygon only grazed me. They were focused more on myself in their rage than anything else and ended up skidding the ground and tumbled helplessly into the back wall. Well that went better than expected. The Knight turned to deal with the dragon before they recovered from the impact while I dashed forward, still intent on following the plan. The gang was still disorganized, and the Brass was too preoccupied calling Flygon an imbecile to pay attention to the gray object rapidly approaching them. By the time the Falink's leader noticed me, it was already far too late for them. All I can assume they saw was me suddenly appearing in their face as I smashed them upwards with a confuse wand. They were knocked right back against the wall, and actually managed to stick the landing... for a moment before collapsing to the ground. I'm very curious whether they were left more dazed by the actual effects of the wand, or the double concussion from being hit by a bat into a wall. There wasn't a single moment to celebrate however as the other members of the gang instantly moved to retaliate. Treecko jumped to my side while more of the metal balls tried to encircle me. The wands effects may have been used, but it was still very sturdy regardless, so I swung it at the big guy. Treecko simply caught the thing in one hand and tried to grab for me. I let go of the stick and barely dodged their swipe, but backed right into one of the Falinks who promptly shoved me right into Treeckos cold embrace. The grass type dropped the staff and properly pinned both my arms to my sides this time as they lifted me off the ground. Staring up at his big, yellow eyes, I could see he was struggling to keep up his 'silent but deadly' act beneath some building frustration. I didn't have to stare very long at all, as suddenly a spike of white hot metal was slung within millimeters of his face before it lodged itself in the wall. ‘Yeah, that got him.’ I internally snarked between everything else going on, ‘clearly the intent was to not actually hit your opponent with the lance and just miss completely; good job Knight.’ Sometimes I can’t even tell if I am being sarcastic or not. Treecko, not that I can blame him, panicked, screamed and let me go as he ducked for cover. The instant I was back on the ground I surged forward and punched him square in the gut. He reeled, clearly not expecting to have been hit that hard, so I followed up by taking a deep breath and prepared to use the move ‘Pound’. I don't know if this will ever feel natural to me, but at least I have finally figured out how to do it reliably. Using 'moves' as everyone calls them is such a weird thing. I still don't understand how punching someone is not the same thing as using the move 'Pound', in which you punch someone. Feeling the slight bit of energy within me, I 'used Pound' and slugged Treecko right in the bottom of the jaw. That was too much for him, and he stumbled back over, not unconscious, but very hurt. Somehow, my own power still amazes me. If I had just hit him in the exact same way as hard as I could without using a move, odds are he would still be standing right now. But I can just 'use Pound' and I basically don't even have to try to get far better results. I spun around to knock away the other Falinks immediately surrounding me with my tail before getting a quick assessment of the field. Most of the Falinks were separated from each other and wouldn’t be of much concern just as planned. Swadloon actually was in the corner and had a Protect set up, it seems the sitrus berry had worked its magic as well and gave her a bit of determination, nice nice. The Knight was still locked in a duel with Flygon and both looking very roughed up, but seemed like they were alright for the second. The Knight also had forgone his lance as previously established to bail me out from Treecko. Treecko was still down and was not a concern at this second. And Psyduck… Psyduck was still clutching her head in anguish, her eyes still glowing brightly and shining through her clenched eyelids. An unstable Psychic aura emanated from her and from the loose rocks around her. If I remember correctly, these pokemon do occasionally demonstrate bouts of tremendous psychic abilities, but at the cost of some horrible migraines. (I should possibly check back with the Psyduck back in town if that’s correct. Might be a bit awkward as I haven't really met them properly.) Er- wait! “GOSHDARNIT! Evan! Focus!” I suddenly yelled at myself for everyone in the room to hear! “Stop being in your own head for two seconds and just battle the enemy!” I fixed my attention square back on Psyduck again, and they evidently weren't the only one with concentration issues. They had failed to maintain their psychic state due to the unbearable brain strain and had fallen one hand gasping for air as their eyes reverted to normal. ‘Don’t hesitate! Don’t think about it! Just act!’ The Knight’s advice echoed in my mind for the millionth time and so I averted my gaze to my bag and started digging through it for another good item. Probably something throwable would do. We have plenty of Gravelerrock but… there! An iron spike would do. Seeing I had a couple spare I spied a glance at my target yet again. Psyduck had stood up and I think were preparing another move, this one being ‘Water Gun’. They weren't looking at me though- Oh jeez! Letting go of the nine inch nail, I did what I do best and bolted forward at an insane speed, just barely managing to intercept the rush of water to stop it from hitting the Knight right in the back. I was hit with a strong rush of hard water to the body and face, hopefully taking as much of the hit for him as I could. Even as a move, I could afford to be hit by that. The Knight couldn't. Psyduck let up after a few seconds, looking a bit drained. I also struggled to stay standing after that, but that was less taking damage and more from the wall of force I just withstood. But really the worst part from all of it was that I was now drenched. My clothes, bag, and worst of all my fur was now all sopping wet and quickly getting heavy and making me feel sluggish already. Getting wet in a body like this SUCKS because- ‘Stop it!’ I yelled at myself, internally this time, ‘Stop complaining and just fight this stupid bird like a man!’ but of course my mind went right back to complaining, this time about how I was also cold and I had a lot of trouble feeling like a man for months. Can’t a guy just complain about their problems? Unless… That’s it! Without a moment's delay I silently used one of the weirder and often forgotten about moves that I have in my so-called ‘move pool’, one that goes by the name Charm, and let it do the talking for me. Letting the strange move guide my actions I let my posture slouch and ears droop, tail falling to the ground. “Awwww what the heck did you go and do that for, man?” I suddenly began to whine at Psyduck, “Do you have any clue how long it can take me to dry my fur? You water types are all the same! You would never know what it's like for normal people like me. I have this thick, fluffy, DENSE fur, you know? Add a bit of water and it gets matted, grungy, and gross fast. You think fire types hate it? Spend even a day with my coat and you wouldn’t ever look at the ocean the same way again!” Psyduck looked at me like a statue, or like it's the first time they saw an *actual* human. “W-what are… you…” they stammered. Yellow_migrane_water_birb.exe has stopped responding, evidently. Good, it was working. I doubled down, using another one of the random moves in my repertoire, this time being Fake Tears. With that I began to just cry where I stood, spinning some massive sob story about how “Nobody appreciates how difficult it is being a rescuer” and whatnot. I’m not even sure what I was actually saying anymore, but it was having the intended effect nonetheless. Psyduck had completely dropped their guard and was acting genuinely apologetic towards me now. They approached me asking if I just wanted to surrender peacefully, give up the rest of the goods and go home now. I played along, and sobbed that yes, I very much would like to this instant. She held out her hand, asking only that I drop my bag on the ground and take her hand. I took off my bag again, letting it fall to the ground with a wet plop. Then she held out her right hand. Rubbing my teary eyes with my left, I firmly took her hand with my right; then I twisted her arm as hard as I could! She screamed loudly as she reeled back in pain, clutching her now limp looking wing. Ohhh, did I just dislocate something? Yikes. Unfortunately, the circumstances dictated that I can't show her mercy just yet; not until she *actually* gives up. Trying my hardest not to think about how much harm I’m doing to them in the long run, I used another move, this time being Tail Slap, and spun around hitting them as hard as I could with my tail. In fact, I hit them three times. Psyduck was knocked dizzy and sprawled onto the ground in a pathetic heap. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath and see what they did in response. They were still conscious and struggling to their feet, an action made more difficult by the fact they were having to lift themselves up with one arm. Yep, that arm is very broken. Treecko was now up and was running to their partner's aid. He glared at me with some frustration and opted to turn towards me instead. Taking yet another deep breath and a couple steps back, I focused my concentration on the two of them and musterd as much of this strange power within me that I could, and jumped straight up into the air! With a hefty swing of my tail, I unleashed this power as a torrent of stars that screeched down to my opponents. Psyduck was completely knocked out and despite a commendable effort to get out of the line of fire; Treecko ended up taking the brunt of the attack. Impressively, he did manage to stay standing for a good several seconds before finally collapsing to the ground as well. Seeing that I had won for the moment, I also fell forward onto all fours and panted dearly, feeling multiple muscles cramp up momentarily. ‘Ah yes,’ I thought, ‘that’s why I'm not supposed to rely solely on moves.’ Simply put, it’s what makes them so exhausting that also makes them so strong! ‘Not only do you chain four of them together back to back like that, but then you go and overclock Swift by an insane margin! In retrospect I probably didn't need to give it half that amount of power.’ I then got hit in the back by another attack! A Dragon Breath I think it was… It sure did hurt and shake me, but being in my quadruped position it didn’t knock me down. I turned to the direction the attack came from. Unsurprisingly, it was Flygon. Both them and the Knight appeared to be pretty worse for wear and at a bit of a standstill. That’s why that hit was so weak, my partner has really done a number to them. However, I think I might just still have enough in me to finish them off. I still had that iron spike pulled out at the top of my bag so I contributed what I could and hurled it at Flygon. Unfortunately, if unsurprisingly, I threw it poorly and it merely hit them side-on in the neck, but did cause enough of a distraction to allow the Knight to pretty harshly slash their hide. Impressively, Charmeleon’s claws are stronger than dragon scales! Flygon roared and after first attempting to bowl over their opponent with their huge tail and shouted a few obscenities; stumbled back over to the back wall, glaring at the both of us in what seemed like defeat. The Knight took the opportunity to take a knee and opened up their own bag, pulling out an Oran Berry. Oh, shoot! Once again I am just standing around, aren't I?! I started looking for a berry of my o-. “Now, I really DON’T appreciate those that hurt my men, Minccino.” Derided the voice of the Falink’s leader. Or I suppose I could deal with the last major threat. I turned to the direction of the voice. Yep, the Brass had gotten all his underlings properly into formation and were now marching forward, displaying impressive discipline for a bunch of Bowling Balls. “And the two of you have demonstrated a complete lack of mercy or honor. No retreat, boys.” The line clearly used some sort of move as they steadily marched forward. I don’t know what it was or what it did per-say, but it sure did suddenly make them seem far too tough for me to take on myself. Was it some kind of status move? I need to be careful as attacking head on like this is suddenly sounding like a bad idea. For once, a Falinks that wasn't the Brass spoke up. “Don’t say anything!” “You're worse than us!” “We're corrupt! Not evil!” “What is wrong with the both of you?!” “We were never going to seriously hurt anybody!” “Seriously? Who sets a lance on fire?!” they all began shouting one after another. “Thank you boys. So as you can see…” The Brass reasoned, “At this point, it really don’t matter to us who’s fault this is. The fact is that you and your friend here were the ones to escalate the situation, and now some of my men have been seriously injured! Since outsiders will only ever see you both as the ‘heros’ here, I think there's only one way you can pay off your outstanding debts with us.” “Thank you for voicing your grievances, sir…” I said, backing up very slowly but allowing the gap between us to close. I needed to come up with another strategy immediately so I stalled for time. I didn't think this charm/fake tears gambit was going to work on this guy, so it wasn't worth the risk. “But unfortunately I'm not in charge of filing any formal complaints; that’s an issue you are going to want to bring up with my superiors or take to our customer service department.” I spied a glance at the Knight. Having scarfed down the berry, he was looking better and was silently getting into position. We made eye-contact for half a second; which was enough time for him to telegraph, ‘keep him distracted!’ “Figures you're going to make me go an’ wait through the prerequisite bureaucracy.” The Brass joked right back, “But I for one hate waiting and playing by the rules. So let's just cut all that red tape and tell your boss that a Falinks will be dropping by for a visit, immediately.” Was he, laughing? He must get a huge kick out of this sort of malicious banter. Can’t say I blame him. The Falinks to the right of the Brass suddenly broke formation with a sudden misstep. Instead of just getting back in line, they paused as they noticed Flygon trying to signal something. They hopped back to their leader’s side, before intentionally getting their attention urgently. “Uh, boss?” The Falinks’s bright blue eyes darted nervously to the giant red lizard standing two feet behind them. Flygon, despite looking like they were a stiff breeze away from fainting, had enough strength left to facepalm. “Wellifyou’rehavingproblemswithourcustomersupportyoucancall1-800-get-lost!” I completely flubbed my comeback. I charged the brass as hard as I could, and hit the column head on with ‘U-turn’. As intended, I used the momentum of the attack to vault up and over my partner and landed a short distance away. “We have almost done it!” The Knight cheered, before turning to fight the Falinks the same way you would fight a bunch of toddlers. “Finish off Flygon then arrest the three of them.” I hesitated for a moment even still, watching in pride as Charmeleon took on the crowd. Whereas I was genuinely intimidated by these things, it seemed like this fight was only going to be a chore more than difficult for him, unlike his desperate duel with Flygon. Speaking of which… “So I have noticed that you have just been bracing yourself against the wall this whole time, instead of blasting me with that purple mouth beam of yours. What’s up with that?” I taunted them. They responded by glaring at me something fierce, before finally shoving themselves back onto their own feet. They slammed a clawed hand hard into the ground roaring at me, sending a shockwave into the ground from the point they struck, while they sent another dragon breath from their mouth. This time I was ready for this combo and dropped prone onto the ground, the beam grazing the fur between my ears. However, I think that is what they were waiting for as well, as they suddenly rushed me before I could scramble back to my paws. Entraping me in both of their hands, they swiftly traversed the room before pinning me against the wall with one arm. For them the solution for my continued slipperiness was to yank the Knight’s lance out of the wall where it had been lodged by grabbing it by one hand and directing it right at my face. “That's what's up,” they said. “Now give up!” Truely, I wanted so desperately to say yes to that ultimatum; but deep down I knew one thing for certain. ‘When will they learn that pinning me or backing me into the corner doesn't work?’ I swung my fluffy tail at Flygon, suddenly tickling them all over as I flailed beneath their claws, getting as much out of the move as I could from this position. They let their guard down for just barely long enough to once again slip out of their grasp, and I proceeded to grab them! The size difference being large enough, I crawled up their back and, seeing no other real option, hit them with ‘Last Resort’ with everything I had left! They roared and FINALLY collapsed down to the ground, defeated. I mean, I probably would too if I was hit by ‘last resort’ to the back of the head myself. I crumpled on top of them, panting uncontrollably. ‘There!’ I thought to myself, ‘I have done it! The big green dragon is-’ “...Is that… really… all you have… have got?” Flygon gasped, trembling, struggling to so much as to even crane their neck to look at me with one eye. “Oh come on!” I exclaimed in equal exhaustion. The worst part is, that really is all I have got! I didn’t have anything else up my sleeve. They are looking almost as durable as her! I scrambled to think of something, ANYTHING I could do here. “It’s just as I suspected, Minccino,” they said, somehow still defiantly attempting to stand. “Now I see, you're just an old man trying to pretend that they are still in the prime of their youth. And, let me guess, you're one of those ‘humans’, aren't you?” “I-” “Don’t bother answering. I know your type. Strong, heroic, and brave. Either that, or your just a fool. But you won’t ever beat me. A lame rodent like you simply cannot deal enough damage to someone like me…” I tried to attack them again, and again, desperately trying to stop them from getting up. But I couldn't even so much as Pound them anymore, I simply didn't have the stamina. The only thing I really could do was bap them the old fashioned way, something that clearly was not going to work either on their thick hide. Almost casually, they swiped at me with both one of their claws and a wing, but I almost didn't even need to actually try to dodge that attack. Clearly, I can’t just run away either, not when they are basically in the exact same position as me. “It’s funny,” they continued, a hint of life and confidence returning to their words, “They say size isn't everything, and I for one would be inclined to believe them. But, really, here and now, what exactly do you think you are going to accomplish? There's a reason someone like me is working for lowly Falinks. But I won’t tell you that. A human like you would never understand.” ‘Don’t let that dragon get to you!’ I thought. Surely, there is something I have not tried yet! I went with my gut instinct in the moment. I jumped on their head, taunting, “Hey. I’m up here now. Name’s Evan. I have your antenni! What are you going to do about it?” I pulled at the antennas on their head as hard as I could, hoping to tick them off again. “*sigh*. That old trick?” They said with complete nonchalance and a strained grin, as they stared up at me through those crimson visors I was practically standing on. I could only assume they were grinning at me. “Okay, sure, grab them! Pull them as hard as you can!” I heard them buzz their wings and proceeded to lift off the ground, hovering unstably. “Don’t let go of me, not even for an instant!” They proceeded to start bucking their long neck around wildly. Somehow, I managed to keep ahold of them despite the odds. I don’t know if they truly were so weakened such that they couldn’t do it any harder, or they were just messing with me. “Impressive! Most pokemon don’t last this long! I can see that you're the type that doesn't get dizzy!” They were definitely messing with me, as this roller coaster was about to make me puke! “Heh! (Arceus, I wish that were me.) But, here’s something that I have that you will never have, grandpa! A THICKER SKULL!” Dazed and confused and exhausted, I was helpless to do much of anything as Flygon proceeded to fly headfirst into the wall! I blacked out.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I snapped awake again, slumped against the wall. The first thing that I could see was that the Knight was desperately trying to patch me up. The instant he realized I was awake, he dropped the gauze roll and embraced me, teary eyed. I hugged him back. It was a bit painful to move, but I managed to still assess a couple things. We were still in the same chamber of the dungeon, but it was devoid of anybody else. My gear was sitting a couple feet away from me and he had already pinned my badge back onto my scarf. A faint wind was blowing in the background. Judging by the way they were acting, the only thing I could think to say in response was, “That bad, huh?” He suddenly let me down a bit hard, or maybe I was just bruised all over, and he went right back to tying up my minor injuries. “N-no, I-I don’t think it's too serious, but, I- I just-” I could see him stop and hold the emergency equipment in his hands apprehensively. The expression on his face said everything; the ‘oh no, AM I overreacting?!’ in his eyes was unmistakable. I should say something. “No, no, you’re fine! Please, better safe than sorry! I understand, Char. I would probably do the same given the circumstances. So please, just take a deep breath.” The way he looked at me, eyes big and teary, I had to remind myself that despite EVERYTHING, he really was only half my age. Despite being more experienced, higher level, taller, smarter, and just flat out better than me, he was just a teenager in reality. Despite how I always looked up to him, he cared about us just as deeply. “I, I just couldn’t think of anything else when I got a better look at you, Minccino, then, ‘I can’t afford to lose you!’” He took a shaky breath before finishing the splint he had started and then started to pack all the equipment away. “While I was taking care of arresting all of the gang members, I-I thought you had merely fainted, o-or were just resting! When I realized you were struggling to breathe and had a decent gash along your waist, I just panicked! I had been so worried that Flygon had actually tried to kill you; and I hadn't even noticed! I couldn’t- I couldn’t afford to loose another team member!” I figured as much. “Charmeleon. Listen. Look at me.” “Yes…?” He asked, seeming a bit worried about whatever it is I had to say. “Well, first off, if that’s the way you found me, then yes, absolutely you did the right thing. You’re a good kid and an excellent leader, and possibly the closest friend I have ever had. What would I ever do without you?” “T-Thank you…” “But, we need to talk. I think you need a vacation.” “WHAT?” He looked at me like I'd gone mad. “No, I could never-.” “Yes, you do! Don’t deny it, please! I am not asking for my own sake, I'm asking for YOU. You haven’t taken any time off since you first were given your badge, at the very least not since you met me. I know you very well, ever since that day a month ago, you have been hurting. It's been chewing at the back of your mind this whole time, and yet you have continued to put on a brave face for the both of us. I won’t lie and say I haven’t appreciated it, I most certainly have, but I think you have been feeling in some way guilty about it all. You have been trying to work through your own grief by taking on even more missions and trying to fill her role in the group. Something, anything to try to make the pain go away, haven't you?” He didn't answer. I might have pushed the envelope just a bit too hard, as He was trying so hard not to cry. I couldn't blame him in the slightest. I mourned her for a few nights too. I still miss her dearly. “Look.” I told him, “I know you don’t want to talk about this right now. I don’t really want to either. I don't see myself as good at the whole, ‘comfort talk’, sort of thing. So please understand that all I am saying is that I don’t think what you are doing is healthy, for you or your clients. You of all people should know that. So please, let's just finish the mission for now and discuss this later, ok?” “Ok…” he said, rubbing his eyes before putting out an arm to help me up. Wow, it hurts to stand! He pulled out and handed me an oran berry without missing a beat. His eyes drifted down to the floor and he continued to hold onto me rather tightly. ‘I truly have never seen the Knight act this emotionally shaken before,’ I thought as I nibbled at the fruit in my hands. I have never really been able to eat them quickly; the flavor reminded me a lot of pears. I never liked pears. ‘For now, I should try to get his mind off of things.’ “So…” I started, trying to think of something to say, “What became of the gang? Have they all been arrested? Is Swadloon safe as well?” “Oh, uhh… yes!” he said with a bit more brightness. “Falinks actually ended up surrendering in the end believe it or not, and Flygon had been weakened enough such that it was pretty easy to restrain them. All of them had been teleported back to base to be put away, and Swadloon was sent back as well. But-, seriously, dude! Did you actually break Psyduck’s arm there? What the heck, man? I genuinely don’t know whether to reprimand you or encourage you to do that more often. Anyway,” he went silent for a moment to punctuate what he was about to say. “If you haven't noticed the wind is picking up so we should get a move-on before the dungeon just kicks us out, and we still have a parcel to deliver.” “Ah, yes of course.” I said, feeling a bit of strength return to me thanks to the magic blueberry. Indeed it was, despite the fact this cave was very much not laid out to allow such airflow, the ambient air of the room was beginning to stir and an ominous wind could be heard in the distance. And he was quite right in my opinion on finishing the jobs, despite the condition we both were in. Doesn't matter what may actually transpire, because at the end of the day, all our post-mission report will care about is that we completed multiple rescues, an escort, and an arrest just fine, but we ‘couldn't be bothered’ to also finish a trivial delivery mission. And to the middle management, that report’s bottom line is all they will ever see, and will only think we're making excuses if we try to explain the situation. Some things just never change, do they? Taking just another two minutes we were confident we had to gather up all our supplies, we FINALLY were able to leave the landing chamber of the 11th floor. So much for a short, low stress day. Almost wordlessly as we roamed the halls attempting to locate the inexplicable stone stairwell, we agreed that we were far too on the clock to do anything else once we found it but leave the floor. We also decided that we could likely just call it a day once we delivered that parcel. “So apparently,” The Knight told me as we searched for the staircase, “Falinks claimed that the treasure actually wasn't anything special at all. I was interrogating them after they were all tied up, and Swadloon said this as well which is why I'm inclined to believe it all, the treasure found at the back of the caves appeared to have been an already looted mysterious house. Falinks only knows that his gang happened upon it before Swadloon did. Then Treecko had the ‘brilliant’ idea of, “hey, let’s kidnap her and attempt to ransom her!” and, “As extra bait lets plant an escort quest as well so that we can get around them as well.” So they waited in the house for like three days but…” “Lemme guess. They ran out of food?” I asked somewhat smugly. “Yes, yes they did. Honestly though,” he suddenly interjected into his own explanation, “You would think ne’er-do-wells would have learned by now that trying to set up a base of operations within the influence range of a dungeon is a horrible idea. You’re just asking, BEGGING to go hungry! It's very simple! All dungeons make you get hungrier faster, so why do-” I looked at him flatly. “Well, anyway, they apparently were just going to leave the dungeon themselves when we just so happened to bump into them.” “Well, that sure was convenient.” “Yep! On that note- Oh, there it is.” He spotted the stairs in the room just down a short hallway from the chamber we were in currently. Walking in that direction now, he began to reminisce a little, “But that whole endeavor honestly reminds me a lot of this one mission I did a couple years ago. I had a couple jobs in the Iron Plains, I don’t recall what they were about, and I had brought along Spidops as well. We hadn't been there for very long at all when all of the sudden Spidops goes all, “I think the purple dude i’m after went this way”, so I asked-” — CLICK — For an instant, I could see the Knight’s wistful expression shift to raw terror as his eyes shot downward to the barely visible plate in the ground before- BAM! The two of us were sent flying violently in opposite directions as the big blast trap was set off! I heard his armor clatter on the stones while I had bounced multiple times on the rough floor before rolling uncontrollably into the wall into a pathetic, aching heap. I had barely the time to even process how much pain I was in or how much of my fur just got torn off in bloody chunks; MUCH LESS even considered using my rescue badge to warp myself back to base when it happened. Despite my assuredly unnatural landing position, I could also see where Charmeleon was thrown. Charmeleon, the Knight, well, the single greatest friend I have ever known in my life, he could do nothing but watch from the other end of the room as the sound of something crumbling rang out from the ceiling above me. He let off one single terrified scream as he watched the ceiling come down onto me. “EVAN-!” “WHAT IN BLAZES DID YOU JUST DO!?” the colossal white deer thing shouted into my face, completely livid. “What the-?” I shouted in surprise as I took a frightened step back. I hadn't even perceived the slightest gap in time just now, and yet I was suddenly standing in some white abyss as some gargantuan creature stood above me. I had no time to react, respond, or so much as get my bearings. Where is-? What is-? Who-? Am I-? “HUH?!” The being stood out vividly against the neverending white void I now stood in. “WHAT DID YOU DO?! I DEMAND AN ANSWER, MORTAL!” “I- I don’t understand- I-.” I couldn't speak. I couldn't even begin to formulate an answer about the situation I abruptly was now in. My fur stood on end as I stumbled backward in fright, nearly landing on my tail. I spied a glance at the fact that I no longer had any of my equipment on. ‘Oh no, am I de-’ “SILENCE, YOU INSOLENT LITTLE IMP!” They screamed, seeming to only magnify their voice with some sort of magic. I covered my large ears with my paws on instinct, and I think that mistake only made him angrier. “Nnngh- IF YOU’RE JUST GOING TO IGNORE ME THAN I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU ADMIT TO YOUR OWN BLASPHEMY!” Parallelized and trembling in fear sitting beneath this… THING, he raised a paw? Hoof? Appendage. He raised one of his front white and gold colored appendages and pressed it against my tiny noze. Suddenly, everything changed completely for a second time. But this time, I somehow just KNEW everything that was happening. I really don’t know of any other way to describe it other than being a bit dream-like, where anything and everything can just happen, and regardless of how it makes you feel, it just ‘makes sense that this would happen.’ I think that’s the closest approximation I can provide. This entity had just effortlessly broken into the depths of my mind and hijacked control of my body, shoving my consciousness into the proverbial corner while it inserted a projection of itself into my mind. From there, it created a strange room of sorts within the depths of my mind enabling it to pull out all of my memories and thoughts and put them all on some kind of massive display. Lastly, the entity grabbed my consciousness and planted it firmly within that room as well, forcing me to watch it dig through my memories from a short distance away. It's such a weird thing, all of this. I have never once even considered any of this, yet being able to perfectly understand how this presumably devine being was restructuring the very essence of my spirit into a format useful for itself and forcing whatevers leftover to just sit inside its own head and watch is such a weird thing. Even weirder, is that i could still see with my consciousness but not my eyes, leading me to see my spirit be shaped as and move like the human I used to be and clearly still am deep down, but still continue to FEEL the body of the Minccino that I am outside, one that is also completely paralyzed through all of this. Anyway, the entity, or at least their identical projection, was looking very closely at all of my memories from the last 24 hours, and despite having a face consisting only of a pair of green and red eyes with sort of white headpiece on an otherwise striped gray color, I would claim it would be impossible to mistake the being’s expression shift from pure rage to a frustrated confusion as they swiped through the memories one after another. It would seem that whatever it was looking for, it was not finding them. In all honesty, I couldn't yet tell you if that was even a good thing or not, considering that I didn't know what they were expecting to find, and I further got the impression that they didn't know either. After a bit, it appeared to have decided that my recent memories were not helpful and started flipping backwards. A couple days at first, then a week, then a few months! Occasionally it would even come across a memory that I have forgotten or can’t quite recall properly, and miraculously it would be able to force me to remember the whole thing in insane clarity by just tapping the screen with that particular memory once or twice. However, this whole thing was starting to drag on and I couldn’t help but feel a little bored and impatient. It's like waiting in line at the DMV, except you can watch the guy at the desk, seeing exactly what they see while performing your background check. I studied the apparition of the entity a bit more. I had previously described it as a sort of white deer that towered over me, and I stand by my comparison that it was notably equine in its rough shape, being mostly white with a few bands of gray running the length of its head as well as its underbelly. The main thing about it that kept drawing my attention was an odd… crest… structure… thing that was placed right dead center of the thing’s body. Multiple goldenrods came out from the center of the creature's abdomen, which in turn circled the creature a second time, with a sizable gap to keep the whole structure in two parts. I couldn't fathom what their purpose might be, but the sheer arua of looking at them, as well as my time with pokemon told me that I probably wouldn’t like to find out what they might be capable of. But eventually, the entity had backed up several months worth of memories until it had blown right past that day eight months ago. It scrolled back for another moment longer before it suddenly stopped, stared apprehensively at the memories before it, before backtracking to the day I got here, and then… well I’m not entirely sure. The divine entity started flicking though all the memories from before that day eight months ago with a disturbing level of interest, and the arbitrary manner in which they tabbed through them at random told me that this is something they were completely unprepared to find. “Impossible…” they finally declared, glancing over to my consciousness with concern, “You remember… You know who you are! No voice has been guiding you. What is this? What is… What is THAT?!” it exclaimed as something suddenly grabbed it attention within my memories. He peered carefully at two of them, both belonging to that day eight months ago, the day I became a pokemon. The two memories told it all. I was at work, in my office cubicle, working admittedly less than diligently when I kinda decided to set a five minute timer on my phone and rest my eyes at my desk. I opened them again when it suddenly got quiet less then two minutes into it, just in time to fall onto my back in the grass due to suddenly not being in a chair or having legs anymore. Embarrassing, yes, I know; but that’s not really why the entity had taken a such keen interest in these two memories. It was not the contents themselves that mattered, but somehow, the very way in which they were being displayed to the both of us that got its attention. Like all of my memories, the metaphorical screens were being split evenly by time and partitioned into relatively uniform clips in lengths, with a few notable exceptions where applicable. These two memories, despite being back-to-back and arguably deserving of being saved as one memory… Weren’t. That in itself doesn't actually seem to be the issue, and yet, as evidenced by how the gap that separated the two of them was causing the entity to stare back at it, dumbfounded; maybe it was? “What… What is this?” the entity pondered under its breath as it stared at the gap in the memories. I glanced at the other memories surrounding these two. So far as I can tell, there was nothing unusual about that one gap compared to the rest. The spacing appeared to be the same, the visions were well preserved from how often I think about that day, there simply did not appear to be anything out of the ordinary going on here, and yet the entity was confounded by the split all the same. Suddenly, it occurred to me that if this entity truly is somehow divine, it might be capable of seeing something that I flat out cannot. With some impressive precision, it raised one of its front appendages and touched the tip of the golden hoof to the point directly between the two memories. What happened next was rather frightening in its implications. Until now, the entity had been touching, moving, and arranging all my memories, and I hadn't felt a single thing. But just now, the point that it touched sent a shiver down my spine, making my skin crawl and fur stand on end; the muscles in my tail, ears, hands and feet all tensed; there were butterflies in my stomach and for an instant my mindscape was dizzy. There's zero chance that this could be normal. The entity clearly noticed my reaction, but did not openly acknowledge me. Instead, it merely glowered and acted more decisively. It used what I can only assume to have been a move and struck that same spot forcefully with some sort of concentrated energy. On top of being hit by another wave of that same horrible feedback, I could sense it grab hold of something… and then it yanked at that point hard! I can think of no other apt metaphor to describe what happened other than like it had just pulled off a thin layer of mucus that had been wrapped tightly around my entire body like plastic wrap! It felt as cold and gross as it sounds… Even just being here in my own head like this with my real body paralyzed, I was left reeling and collapsed to the floor, desperately gasping for air; air that, you know, doesn't even exist in the personification of one’s own train of thought… “What the heck is that?!” we both said in unison as we both stared at the… thing that the entity just surgically removed from my spirit. I still couldn’t see it, but I was positive the entity could, plus, I could tell where it was supposed to be by the way the entity held it with the same power it used to remove it. The entity’s eyes kept darting between my own consciousness and this thing, concerned, afraid even! After another moment… I gasped hard as I entered a massive coughing fit, rolling over as soon as I could to avoid crushing my tail any more. ‘Well, I'm back in my real body now, at least.’ I thought as I tried to avoid hyperventilating. This sudden level of exhaustion was insane! Was this from not breathing while having my mind penetrated that whole time, or from suddenly having that whatever-the-flip probed and ripped off of me? Did it matter? I don’t have a clue what the standard resting heart rate of Minccino is beyond, ‘way faster than humans’, but I could tell even this was not healthy given the way it was pounding. The entity appeared to allow me a few to catch my breath, and I soon staggered to my feet. “You better?” it asked me, in a calm inflection and at the perfect loudness. I looked up at it, and wow, I had almost forgotten just how much bigger this thing was in comparison to who I am… That projection didn't reflect that at all. I nodded, still cowed by the size and sheer weight of power that this creature possessed. I made a mental note about how it was still holding the invisible whatever-the-flip. “Alright, good. “Now, I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but forget about that and listen. First, I apologize for throwing a hissy fit at you like that, I apologize. You were fully ignorant and incidental as to what happened, so I elect to pardon you. SO DON’T STAND THERE WAITING FOR ‘THE BAD NEWS,’ OK? And second, don’t be alarmed, because you are not dead… anymore! You did in fact die just a moment ago, but I brought you back to life two nano-seconds later because… well lets not get ahead of ourselves, alright? We got quite a bit to discuss, and really no good starting places. (Well I say discuss but its more like I am going to be monologuing at you for the next ten minutes so…) S-so listen up!” The entity cleared its throat, which was kinda weird to be honest considering they didn’t even have a mouth or even appear to be actually making any real sound at all for that matter, before resuming the more emotionless and self righteous tone of voice that you would expect somebody of their status to have. “We both know that we both know who you are. You are a human by the name of Evan. And who am I? I go by many names, and posses many titles. I am both the universal creator and the constant. The beginning and end of all that is. I am the god that you know as Arceus. “About 15 minutes ago now, something unexpected happened. Something that I did not see coming, nor did I even notice until it was too late. I am omnipotent you see. Nothing should be able to happen without my knowledge. However, just due to how vast and complex the universe is, things inevitably slip through the cracks. You were one such thing that I had missed. Why? Well, I will get back to that, because it will hopefully make more sense in context. So like I said, something unexpected happened about 15 minutes ago. To put it in terms that you would understand, the very universe itself suffered a catastrophic failure, rending a tear in the spacetime continuum so great and so unexpected that neither of my children, Dialga and Palkia, could properly respond!” “Why haven’t you just thrown the perpetrator away yet?” Two voices suddenly shouted out in a perfect unison but from opposite directions, both sounding like they came from quite a long distance away. “I was going to!” Arceus shouted back, “I will explain what’s up later, just sit down and do your jobs!” Focusing back on myself he continued. “They couldn’t solve the issue despite it being their freaking jobs and all so I was forced to step in. Of course, the issue was trivial for myself to fix and I had the dimension running as if nothing had ever happened in a jiffy.” “But that’s a lie and you know it!” the other voices cried again, “You kept insisting it was an eight dimensional issue when we kept telling you it was a four dimensional failure in non-Euclidean polar physics minus E! It took you forever to-!” “Says the guy who thought it would be a great idea to distribute the time gears across the span of a continent instead of just leaving them in the tower like you KNOW they were supposed to be!” Arceus called back with increasing condescension. This time, only one of them responded. “WHAT?! That’s not even slightly a fair comparison! Yes, it was a bad idea! Yes I messed up! But our current timeline has progressed beyond the limit that the other ‘bad future’ had gotten to, -relatively speaking-, so please just let that go! Its been like two centuries since the time gears were put back!” “Yeah, dude,” the other voice asserted, “Don’t act so high and mighty about this! You just sat there and let all of that play out, and yet here you are making a big show of intervention over this?! Seriously! Giratina’s-” “SILENCE! Evan, ‘scuse me for one sec.” Arceus openly fumed, before vanishing. I overheard… something indescribable that rang out. Zero clue what it was, but it can’t have been good. Arceus then reappeared back in front of me just as suddenly after all of ten seconds of being gone. “Sorry about that.” it said. I thought I heard the other two voices whimper before going silent. Did- Did I just bear witness to a god bullying other gods?!? “Don’t mind them, they’re incompetent. As I was saying, I patched up the eighth dimensional error and had the universe functioning again in no time at all! “Now, what does any of this have to do with you?” It asked rhetorically, “Everything, actually. So, you know the legends, yes?” !? I had gotten so confused at how this thing speaks in layers upon layers of narrative digressions that I almost didn’t even realize that it was actually even talking to me anymore. That, and well… I was mentally more focused on all of the everything else that was transpiring. I still don’t even know how I had actually died for sure, and I for one would like much more to find out what the whatever-the-flip the god had found actually is, plus, now that I think about it, what ever happened to- “Do. You. Know. The. Legends?” Arceus pressed. Oh, right, he asked me a question. “Legends? Could you be a bit more specific?” I admitted sheepishly. ‘Legends’ could refer to so many things. “Ugh, ok, so! You are not the first human to ever come to this world. At various points throughout history, humans from other worlds are summoned to our world and are turned into a Pokemon.” “Oh, yes of course, those legends. Yes, I have heard of them, to put it mildly.” I said, trying to get him to not tell me the story I have heard a million times by now. “These humans are always wiped of their former memories and are tasked with saving the world from a great calamity, in the middle of which they come to form a lifelong friendship with the other pokemon around them, including notably the first individual to stumble upon the sleeping human.” “I- Yes, I have heard these legends before. I don’t want to have to explain to you why I know that can’t be true.” “But you, uniquely, aren't one of those legendary heroes.” Clearly, I was being ignored. “You arrived here with your memories intact, and a full knowledge of who you are! You haven’t borne witness to any impending disaster at all, and you had to earn the friendships you currently possess!” “Yes, sir, I figured all of that out a long time ago, can you please get to the point?” “You quite simply weren't called here by anyone or because of anything either, you just showed up!” “Oh, no, that was another guy! Their name is shit Sherlock, first name No!” I sassed it back. “Oh, is that right?” They asked, “And where did-” they paused as something dawned on them. “Oh ha ha! You’re lucky I am able to understand things just through contact or hearing about them! Other pokemon surely would have not gotten that reference.” “Oh, really?” I asked, interest piqued, “What do you mean by that? Oh, is that how being omnipotent is supposed to work?” “One of my many mighty powers is omniscience!” Arceus claimed, “I have the ability to know literally anything and everything! So in the event that I come across something that I don’t know, by simply interacting with it or contemplating the concept, I am made aware of many things about it and how it works and why! ~It's a very cool ability I know.~ Mortals like you would have their minds shattered instantly if they possessed such an ability even if only for a second!” You know, actually, that does actually make a lot of sense for how omnippitance would actually work- wait a second. “Wait, if you know everything, why weren't you listening to me when I said I had heard the legends? Why did you have to read my mind at all? How didn't you know I was apparently going to brick the universe somehow?!” I suddenly complained, rather exasperated. “Did I not already tell you? It’s because I know everything, am all powerful, and am infallible!” It declared in complete confidence. I stared back at him in slack jawed disbelief at that answer. Over the last eight months, I have had my mind expanded repeatedly, and so many things that I once thought impossible are now passe and kitschy to me. Yet nothing in all that time could have prepared me for the fact that… I really am having this conversation right now. Here I was, standing before literally god, and I am finding out firsthand that they’re just a massive child with a literal god complex! If I was in his position, would my own ego be propped up by such grand delusions of self-righteousness?! “If I may,” I said, suddenly feeling rather done with this thing’s crap, and just wanting to avoid dragging the whole situation out any further, “Let’s just cut to the chase. Yes, I am not a human who got here by normal means; I got that. Let me guess, the actual reason I am here and a pokemon is the fault of that whatever-the-flip you just found and removed from my memories, correct? Furthermore, you suspect that the whatever-the-flip being attached to me is also what caused the universe to implode?” “Um, yes.” It pulled back in surprise, doing a bit of a double take as it did so. “H-how did you figure all of that out?” “It was kinda obvious?” I told him bluntly. “Anyway, I’m just getting sick and tired of all this expositing, and I'm sure you are as well. So please, let's just get to the point because I really don’t think I benefit from having every last thing explained. So, tell it to me straight, what is this thing you found, and where do I go from here?” He looked at me a bit funny, before rattling back to attention. “Ok, first off, rude, and second, don’t ever talk to me like that again, unless you like being smited!” he said like a spoiled brat, “But fine, I will give you that because you’re correct, I don’t enjoy this whole, professional voice thing I have to use constantly. It's annoying and is inefficient. I’m busy enough as it is, I hardly have the patience to talk to you mortals like that. But to answer your question, Unfortunately…” He glanced at the invisible whatever-the-flip he was still holding before once again nervously looking back in my direction, “How about I just put this eloquently. I have no flipping clue.” “Huh?” Wait, if he can understand something just by… “Oh, no…” “Yeah, you see the problem, don’t you?” he said, almost cringing at such an admission. “I don’t know what this is. I have never seen it before, and with it being in such a weak and benign state like this, I am getting almost no information on it! This, this is… unnerving, to put it mildly. (I assure you- this almost never happens.) First, let me coin a name for it here and now. This ‘Anomaly’, from what little I do know, appears to be some kind of byproduct or waste product from something else entirely! I don’t know anything about what its a side effect of or where its point of origin is, but one fact is certain. This isin’t native to my dimension!” “Alright,” I said, not entirely sure where Arceus was going with this but actually interested in the conversation now, “does that mean-” “No!” He said forcefully. “This has literally nothing to do with you in any capacity! In fact, so far as I can discern, it’s unlikely that this thing’s point of origin is from your universe. Not impossible, just highly improbable. It has to be from another reality, there's simply no other feasible reason for how this could have ended up here! I will be clear. It would seem that my initial impression of you was not just mistaken, but flatout irrelevant! The fact that this affected you can’t be chalked up to anything but raw bad luck!” “Bad luck?” “No, really! This thing is harmless and doesn't do anything. It exists here in such an unbelievably weak state that even I can barely detect it, and yet somehow it still has the power necessary to send someone across multiverses, change their shape and native language to something befitting the place they are being sent, and even brick the very universe? And somehow, it's all just simple serendipity! There truly doesn't seem to be any further explanation! I would have called something like this blasphemy, but here it is!” Arceus, the actual god of Pokemon, was sounding genuinely panicked now. It’s a shame that there probably is nobody alive that would believe me when I said that I saw it on Mulberry street. He hesitated and took a deep breath. “You want to know the really crazy part?” he said with more composure, “somehow, beyond all logic and sanity, when it suddenly attached itself to you and sent you to my world, the weirdest thing is the WAY it did this!” “Ok, hold on.” I interjected yet again. He’s going to start rambling on and on about something stupid, I just know it. “Is what you're about to tell me actually something relevant to me and something that I could actually understand?” “Well… No…” He admitted. Was that disappointment in his voice just now? “Ok, then for right now I really don’t care so please, tell me another time. I’m tired of people who just worldbuild at me. What sent me here is not the actions of an individual, and from what you know, the only explanation is that it happened and that’s all that can be said about that. Alright, what do we do from here? What is to become of me, and what is to become of this anomaly? (if you really want to call it that)?” “(you insolent little-!)” he said under his breath, “What did I just tell you about being rude to me like that?” “Er-” Whoops. I did not even consider that could be something he would take offense to. What did I say? “Sorry,” I apologized, suddenly realizing that perhaps I was not taking him very seriously and so I made a point to backpedal on the attitude-ridden body language I was currently using. “It's just that…” … that what? What DO I tell him? That I think he’s dumb and immature? That I despise being given a talking to by someone with authority over me for something I already had figured out that I shouldn’t have done? That it really annoys me when people get huffy over the mildest of inconveniences? Heck, that I don’t care about my job and life, both as an overworked and underpaid office worker and as an low rank, incompetent failure of a pokemon that does little but hold his team back? That he literally just told me that I had just died so what does it matter that I am even here? “*Sigh*, It’s just that I got a bit worked up, is all. I’m sorry sir. Won’t happen again.” I lied through my teeth. I considered using ‘Charm’ but then again, that might be pushing it so I held off. He gave me yet another hairy eyeball, (What is that like the fifth time he’s done that now?) and seemed to just take my wording at face value before moving on. “Anyway, as I was saying…” he started again. Great, so that whole attempt at getting him to stop talking was pointless. He went back into explaining what he does know at length and ad-nauseum, so I will just summarize it all for both of our sakes. If I understand it all correctly, in short it turns out that there’s actually a lot of ways to cross dimensions and time that have been proven to work across all realities, (not the most surprising thing really,) and basically the anomaly appears to work in a method that none others do. All other methods of getting from point A to point B or, “crossing the spacetime continuum into another plane” require some manner of punching a hole into the fabric of spacetime for both the start and the destination and a way of forcing its way through the border between realities. Apparently, the Anomaly just doesn't do this. It somehow bypasses all of that and tecnichly fails the whole, “Process of getting from point A to point B part” as well. Cool, you got all that? No? Well good, because he made me sit through an entire lecture to give that same amount of information. “And that, Evan, is why the anomaly is so scary.” he finally concluded after an agonizing amount of time. “Any questions?” “No.” “Alright, now.” he mused, lowering the still invisible anomaly between us. “That leaves a couple questions left unresolved. Most importantly, what to do with this?” I instantly threw out the first thing that came to mind. “Is there any reason we can’t or shouldn’t just delete it here and now, since you fully removed it from me and it's contained to your realm? You are a god, surely you can create or destroy just about anything.” “Actually… Yes, that actually sounds like a much better and simpler plan than what I had in mind. Removes a lot of variables and steps. This way, if anything goes wrong I can just have Dialga rewind to here. I am unable to prevent its effects, but as you can probably guess, I have not even checked if I can destroy it. So just let me try this.” With that he stretched out one of his front legs and touched the center of the ball of energy with his hoof thingy. The cloud of energy then gradually dissipated. I have this weird feeling that, if I was capable of seeing the anomaly in the first place, what he just did would be somehow breathtaking. As Arceus finished doing… that… a realization flashed across his eyes and he took a step backwards. “Ah… that’s? Well, then. Huh.” he muttered. “Something the matter?” I asked. Don’t tell me he just broke the universe again by doing that. “Ummm… no, not really.” he said. “Erasing this anomaly just gave me another tiny scrap of information.” Rolling my eyes at what’s about to happen, I asked apathetically, “What did you learn-”. I had to stop myself from adding, ‘oh wise one.’ to that last statement. “Simply put, you are by no means the first to be affected by this… thing. The anomaly has in fact existed for a while now relatively speaking, and it has messed with many people across countless dimensions, throwing them suddenly into another universe and changing them toa shape befitting that place. What happened here today, i.e. the universe bricking itself upon the carrier’s death, is fortunately an only uncommon occurrence. The bad news is that… not every universe hosts an entity equivalent to myself to deal with such a failure.” oh… no… that’s a… lot of casualties. And we’re talking multiple universes permanently destroyed? “This is…” He trailed off and it became evident that he was suddenly lost in thought over what he should do next. Somehow, it was as if there was something that Arceus so desperately wanted to say, but was really conflicted about weather or not he just wanted to come out with it. Sensing his hesitation, I spoke up yet again, believing that I might just be getting somewhere with this guy. “Just like before, you were able to just erase the Anomaly’s residue without much of any consequence. If I might make another simplified suggestion, is there any reason we can’t just go to these other dimensions, find the people who have been displaced by the anomaly, have the effects removed then just send them back home?” “I mean… I totally would, but…” He explained, “I’m not really allowed to interfere with the affairs of other universes, especially when it doesn't concern my own. Moreover… I have to stay within my own universe at all times, lest my own universe experiences a lot more problems than one singular spacetime error. I absolutely agree with you though, I think that would be the easiest solution, at least until we know more about this whole debacle..." He trailed off. “Look, Evan.” he suddenly said far more frankly, and abruptly changing the subject, “Yours is a special case, alright? There are people who have had it far worse than you, true, but… tell you what. I am going to do something… I really shouldn’t be doing.” Considering the fact that god himself is saying this, oh boy. I braced for something ugly.“So originally, I was going to make this big thing and offer you a choice, either stay in this world and just act like nothing had happened, or I send you back home, and you act like you haven’t disappeared for most of a year. However, I have seen your memories and thoughts. You’re previous life was incredibly boring and pointless to the point where… that almost sounds like a punishment. And here, while you have made some true friends…” “Being a rescuer freaking SUCKS!!!” I snapped! “I could go on for hours about how much I don’t like it, but I won’t and spare you the details! There’s only two reasons why I even continue to tolerate it, make that one because she had to and disappear on us. And you know the worst part about it? I know that I died right in front of my best friend's eyes! The Knight has lost two team members back to back; - Who knows what is even going on in that head of his?!” I stoped myself from going on a bit of a rant. “Sir, tell me this; Charmeleon is safe, correct?” Seeing that I was finished with my interjection, of course he continued with, “yes, yes he is;" In possibly the single most dismissive voice I have ever heard, "And that’s why I am not going to make you relive all of that. I grant those that I deem worthy, from time to time, small boons in compensation. Don’t get me wrong, I have already brought you back to life. That alone is a pretty hefty boon. However, I’m not about to send you back to a place that would make you unhappy, which is why i’m not going to offer you that choice. …yes, I know the lack of personal agency has been eating at you for years now, but please, hear me out! I have… something that I need you to do for me. It’s something that I can’t do myself, and quite frankly I think you are the best person for the job.” Despite how I had tried to hide it, my ears betrayed me by perking up at this. “I need you to find some of the people who have been displaced by the Anomaly, and return them to their home worlds.” “Huh?” “Not all of them… not yet, anyway. But for now, I am tracking a few individuals that have been affected by the anomaly and I predict you can save them! There’s three of them, to be precise!” “Erm… alright.” I said glumly. “You need me to do this. Are we SURE I don’t get a choice in this?” “No.” Yeah, ok. So much for that whole, taking my life back into my own paws thing. Probably won't benefit from asking any questions either, so I should probably just take all this at face value. “I guess, I accept. What do you need done, and what do I need to know?” “Wonderful!” He chirped, seeming very pleased with himself. “All I need you to do is go across dimensions and do what you do best! Blend in, and don’t cause trouble. Trust me, my predictions say there is a very low chance of failure for you, so just go out and do the best job that you can. Oh, And you are going to need this as well.” Without so much fanfare as even a blink of an eye from him, a familiar soft and warm scarf appeared around my neck, its bold blue fabric only broken by a small, shiny gold and bronze egg with wings. I couldn’t help snuggle it a little as I adjusted it to my liking. Like a security blanket, already my nerves were just a little bit soothed. ‘Ok,’ I admitted to myself, ‘maybe there ARE a few perks to being a rescuer…’ Either it’s softer on my fluffy fur than I remember, or Arceus washed it with magic fabric softener before he returned it to me. -I think he put some polish on my badge as well.- Boy, I wish the pokemon world had access to fabric softener and detergent, because I have missed this. That, And chemical shampoos. So I guess there are a few perks to being human as well… “Now, please, show me your badge really quick.” With a bit of apprehension I did as I was told and unclipped my badge from my scarf and showed it to Arceus. He stared at it, causing it to levitate out of my palms and directly before him. His eyes locked on to the shiny bronze badge with a deadly precision, the four gemstones riding the strange arches on his back glowed confidently. For only an instant, they sent out a bright flash that impacted the small alloyed badge, and that was that. “There, it is done. Take it.” He said, allowing my badge to drift back down to me delicately. Even from here, I couldn’t tell what he had just did because it absolutely was not a physical thing, but I could already feel it. The inherit powers this badge held, the arua they exuded had become more potent, gotten redirected somehow. I took the thing out of the air gingerly with one hand, grasping the metal with my tiny fingers. Interesting. So that’s what he did… But… He can’t seriously be trusting ME with this power! And why has he chosen to do it like… THIS?! “Ah, good.” He said with just a hint of arrogance of all things, “I see that you already understand the responsibilities I have allotted you. For the record, I have implanted one of my 1000 arms, an impossibly small fragment of my infinite power, within the confines of that badge. Don’t lose it, for if it falls into the wrong hands, it will eject back to me, leaving you quite stranded. I believe you understand everything else that is expected of you?” “Yes, sir!” I said with a prideful grin as I hung the badge onto my scarf just above my heart as always. I have never been so proud to wear it as I am at this moment. Even if it has been stripped down to only a few VERY specific abilities, and each and every one of them comes with a textbook's worth of rules, restrictions, and quirks; man! This is going to make my life so much easier! I would love to take this bad boy out for my daily commute instead of the city bus, but Arceus would never let me get away with that. I didn’t like it, but I was a trained, licensed, and lightly experienced rescuer, and I have just been given three very important jobs to complete. My clients were in need of rescue, and it would be a crying shame if anyone didn’t raise a finger to aid them. I see now why he chose these three people for me to save. I didn't know who they were, what they looked like, or where they might have ended up, but I now knew where to look. There's a dimension not far from this one, I can’t see into it, but I know that I must start my search there. One of the people in need of my rescue is stranded there, there’s no way they aren't! Understanding the expectations laid out before me, I used my rescue badge in the same way that I always have, to do something that I have never had to do before. Taking it in one paw and holding it out, the badge glowed brightly of it’s own power, and within a few seconds a portal to a new world opened up. Its not like it was a window or anything, allowing me to see through the spacetime border or anything like that, but I knew roughly where it would take me. Had I more information about who I needed to reach out to and where specifically they were, I could ensure that I could place the other end practically on top of the person and be done with the rescue in a matter of hours, but as it stands, I am working with an inaccuracy of 30% or higher. That means I could end up several hundreds of miles away from them if I was unlucky! I-. A sudden wave of dizziness washed over me and the badge slipped out of my paws. As soon as it clattered to the ground, the dizziness escalated to a full on migraine! I practically screamed as I tripped backwards, clutching my forehead the best I could. The portal I had summoned quivered and collapsed. What the heck was that? What was I just doing?! WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST-?! “Whoa! Easy there, Evan!” Arceus shouted with surprising concern, “Be careful with that!!! It's an infinite power! You only had it back for half a second! Don’t over do it! Only tap into what you actually need! ” “You… power… dimensions… targets…” I muttered incomprehensibly and without anypoint as I struggled to sit up given how my head spun so. “Only… a second…?” already, the pounding headache was receding, as too did all the inherited wisdom and knowledge. Paradoxically, the more I forgot the more I understood. “”Wow.” I said, looking longingly at the badge as it sat there in the endless white void a few feet away from me, “I… I think I get why you embedded this power within the badge instead of giving it to me directly. Aside from the security features including rightful ownership and operations, and even a kill switch to eject the power if necessary, I can’t think of a more sure and immediate death than absorbing it directly!” Even as the knowledge of all the abilities I had tapped into one by one were forgotten, the risks were not. The problem is very simple. I am mortal, therefore I am inherently finite and bound to limits. This power is infinite. It doesn't matter how high my limits are, for the power will be infinitely larger. Something inanimate can hold it just fine, given that it can’t use or tap it. Living creatures, as they can tap it and use it, make terrible places to store that power, unless you wanted to specifically store it within a cadaver for whatever reason. Of course, Arceus being devine is a natural exception and can carry it with zero worries. I briefly groomed my fur as I shook the rest of the acquired knowledge out of my tiny Minccino brain. “Alright, let's try that again!” walking on all fours, before I grabbed it again, I thought out loud, “Alright, new plan. Let's turn it on to like 0.5% power this time instead of full blast like I did the first time, given that it won’t make that much of a difference, and shut off all functions that I don’t absolutely need as most of that is completely useless anyway.” I hovered my left paw over the badge and waited for a response. “Yep, now you're getting it!” Having been given the go ahead, I bravely let a couple strands of fur off my hands make contact with the badge. Once again, that same feeling of connection, of total understanding and reason returned to me. I spied a glance at Arceus. Yep, my perception of time had sped up significantly as well, he wasn't lying when he said half a second. It must not be an ability he needs to use regularly, but it sure could come in handy in a pinch! Luckly, my understanding still told me that I had, relative to my current perception of time, 20 seconds roughly before I would start hurting myself again from over exposure. And with this understanding, twenty seconds was more than enough time for me to do the one thing I needed to do. “Stop.” I commanded. The feeling of understanding promptly went away and the sense of time to resume to normal. As expected the feeling of connection remained. I let out a huge sigh of relief, and I couldn’t help but hear Arceus do the same. Standing up and now able to hold it safely, I turned it back on in as low a setting as I possibly could, letting the powers and wisdom trickle in very gradually instead of completely flooding my mind all at once. Besides, there's simply no need to fully envelop my brain like that anyway, a couple drops is really all anyone needs. I gave myself a moment to let the most important facts seep into my real memories, as having those few in my actual knowledge could prove useful. Beyond that, the rest is only necessary to know if I need to locate someone approximately or use one of the handful of powers I am being loaned. Simply, I only need to know enough legitimately in order to plan things out without having to properly tap into that power. I only need to know the rest when actually using it. With that surprisingly complicated ordeal out of the way, I shut it off again, letting the badge resume its normal functionalities. “Alright, sir, I don’t think there’s anything else that we need to discuss before I leave for my mission?” I said, already prepared to re-lay the portal, only waiting for some sort of official go ahead from the big man. Unexpectedly, he actually stopped me. “Actually… Yes, there are two more things. One. I have already overstepped my authority greatly, in bringing you back to life and loaning you a divine power. Under no circumstances can I do anything more for you, period. Whatever happens, happens. Understand? If you get hurt, mess up, or even DIE, I can’t and won’t intervene for you. Second, none may know of this, including those you save. We never met, and this never happened.” “Well… I hadn't anticipated that I would have even gotten saved from death once, so that’s just par for the course. And who are you, by the way?” I joked. “ Good. With that settled, bye! See ya! Get out of my office I got stuff to do.” and he spontaneously warped away. I can only assume he went to go bark at those other gods some more. ‘Yeah, ok then, rude. Have a nice day I guess. Don’t have too much fun doing… whatever it is you do.’ I thought as I rolled my eyes, and got back to the mission at hand. ‘Just remember, Evan,’ I told myself as I summoned the portal to the dimension most likely to contain an individual displaced by the anomaly, ‘just because I have these powers, that’s no reason to get cocky. Just my luck that there's going to be unforeseen complications. You have done enough rescues to know that we should always expect the unexpected. Just think of it like another day on the job.’ On instinct I steeled myself and imagined my partners standing next to me, just like we always did. The Knight asked us if the two of us were prepared. We both nodded decisively. With that we all turned to the portal and with one brave step I plunged headlong Into the Unknown.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yep, I had no clue where I was or where I was supposed to go a-looking. The sun had risen and set twice now and yet for all I knew I was still stuck in the exact same temperate rainforest that I had landed in when I first got here. By now, for all I knew, the person I was trying to find was long gone in some other direction and I might as well have been walking in circles. And no, being in the same dimension as the individual I am after DOES NOT make them any easier to pinpoint and locate. I’ve tried. The only things I have determined this whole time is that this dimension, whatever it is, it’s somehow even weirder than the one I had just spent the last eight months in. That’s only because, in a lot of ways, its far more familiar to what I am accustomed to. It reminds me a lot of the pacific northwest, which just so happens to be the place I grew up. Its heavily forested and thick with vegetation, hilly and rocky, and very wet. It's actually a bit cold, but with my thick fur the wet conditions make it feel perpetually muggy. Boy, once I can find some proper shelter I am going to need like two blow dryers and three hairbrushes to get dried off in a reasonable time frame. I have even seen some familiar animals, mostly rabbits, small birds, insects, and what looks to be a beaver dam. It would not surprise me if I started hearing a pack of Coyotes hunting tonight. There's even the unmistakable evidence of human activity, as I have stumbled upon more than one aluminum can and glass bottle each half buried in the dirt, and other random bits of scattered trash that seems to always accumulate in even the most untraveled places. I have looked a couple of them over, mostly out of an morbid curiosity, but despite being readable to me, (though I would hesitate to label it as English being that I could always read pokemon’s script which certainly wasn't a Latin script, so that might just be dimensional weirdness), I don’t recognize any of the brands or companies that I could locate on their labels. Yet… if only that was all there was, I would say that I, the bright blue scarf wearing Minccino would be the weirdest thing present in this universe. But… no. I said there were wild animals running around that I recognized from my home dimension, I still stand by that, but they are not the only ones! There’s a few pokemon running around as well… I have only seen a couple thus far, but that's still far too many for me to believe that they are all in need of my rescue. I DO know for a fact that all signs are pointing to there being only one individual in this dimension that has been displaced by the anomaly, so there is ZERO chance that this is not the status quo of this universe. But even then, I continued to be taken by surprise by the way they had all behaved. The Pokemon I knew all were similar to humans in many ways, but really I can boil it down to two core shared traits. Humans and Pokemon were both highly social, and society builders. Both humans and the Pokemon of the last dimension actively worked to create towns, cities even, and would assemble in high enough populations to necessitate the formation of jobs, labor, specialization, money, governments, laws, tax codes, land and property rights, trade, agriculture, and more. I mean that’s also excluding the existence of dungeon ferals but… that’s a completely different can of worms as far as I’m aware. The Pokemon here though just aren’t like that! They are nearly indistinguishable from the wild animals of the forest they share. I have tried talking to a few, but their entire vocabularies are extremely limited and simple, making it a nigh fruitless endeavor trying to talk with them. The first Pokemon I ran into, that being a family of Pachrisu, I called out to them only for them to scramble up a tree and into a knothole. You know, like you would expect a Squirrel or Chipmunk to do. There was also this one Fletchling that I saw from a fair distance away hunt a small tan Rabbit. I might have been too far away, but I don't think it even used an actual move to finish it off, instead only using its own inherent ability to shoot fire to finish it off. A while later I found it singing its heart out for a mate while perched high upon a tree, nearly indistinguishable from any of the other birds around, much less the Stellars Jay doing the exact same thing just two trees away. And just earlier today, I had stopped to rest by a creek after having located and picked a decent supply of Blackberries, because of course blackberry bushes are as invasive as ever, only to spot an Eagle dive in unexpectedly and snatch a Finneon from the waters! Darn near had a heart attack when another one tried to go for me as I was following the creek’s course, but I somehow ducked out of the way. When it tried for me again a few minutes later, I gave it a piece of my mind, and by that I mean I used Pound and punched it square in the beak when it tried to strike me with its talons. Something tells me non-pokemon aren't really equipped to handle pokemon moves used in full-force. That… does beg the question though, now that i’m on the subject. This whole time I had been lead to believe that “Pokemon” and “Animals” were mutually exclusive concepts, yet seeing them coexist like this does damage the credibility of that claim, even if I don’t feel that it outright disproves it. Does this situation make all ‘Animals’ actually ‘Pokemon’? Would that make all the creatures of my home world, in fact, ‘pokemon’ and not animals? Or is the opposite true? I haven’t seen *proof* that the pokemon here can use moves yet, only observing so far that they have natural abilities and characteristics. I mean, these natural abilities are a trait that the pokemon from the last world also shared, as Charmelon did give me like a fifty minute lecture that one time on why, using himself as an example, “Breathing fire” is a distinctly unrelated concept from “using the move Ember”, which is something that in his case just so happens to manifest as him breathing fire. Heck, as already established, I know the move Pound, one of the most basic moves out there, and it's quite simply obvious that Pound is something more complicated than, “hitting something really hard”. If its true that pokemon here can’t use moves, does that make them all animals in this case? On second thought, does that even matter? Probably not. Man, I can just go on the weirdest tangents when I'm bored… Having been following the course of the creek downstream all day, I finally have come across what appears to be some kind of man made road. Geez, it took long enough. It was only a dirt road, but was wide enough for two lanes of cars going either direction. The creek cut right through the road and had been eroding it for some time, but the road itself seemed to be maintained only by the cars that use it, judging by the fact tire tracks are barely visible and there's basically no vegetation within it. However, a road is still an improvement, because that means that eventually I should come into contact with civilization, which, hopefully, will be my best bet for eventually finding my client. However, as expected, even progress as mundane and unproductive as a dirt road still presented its own complications. Despite my excellent hearing, the sound of rushing water generated by a small stream being far louder to me than to a human, plus the fact I just was not really paying attention, I heard far too late that I had company. I had barely enough time to recognize the sound of shuffling footsteps and something whooshing through the air before I was suddenly struck hard in the side of the head. For once, my training, (and also adrenaline), managed to do me some actual good so I had successfully caught myself squarely onto my front paws. Keeping the momentum of my own fall going in the same way that I always do when transitioning between two legs and four, I managed to swivel around on my front paws and land in a defensive quadrupedal position now facing the direction of my attacker. What I saw next was somehow horrifying. There was a sphere spinning in the air about the size of a baseball. It rotated rapidly as it sailed away from me slowly, before somehow canceling all of its momentum to freeze midair, some kind of small gray circle pointing directly at me. For only a few microseconds the white and blue ball, with its strange red bands running the blue field on its top, stared me down before the gray strip circling its diameter suddenly snapped open. I barely had enough time to get a single paw off the ground by a few millimeters, much less either grab my badge or run for the hills, when the black interior of this fear-inducing contraption flashed an ominous red. This light enveloped everything that I could see, and all of my senses were horribly dulled. I could barely feel the ground beneath me. I wanted to run, but my limbs went numb. I wanted to scream, but I suddenly lacked the air to make sounds. I wanted to be able to do anything, but I was forced to stare directly into the core of this… thing, as my consciousness was unwillingly dragged headfirst into it! Then there was darkness. I could barely feel myself, much less understand everything else. Then there was a brief feeling of falling before I slammed against the ground. I was in a black void. The ground shook. I tried to stand, but another shake interrupted me. I tried to reach for my badge, but my scarf was no longer wrapped around my neck!!! I was shaken a third time! In desperation, I tried to call for help, but I have no clue if the sound I made was even real! The only response I got was a hearty — CLICK — That emanated all around me. Oh no… It’s funny, but, I swear, at that moment, I heard a voice that I knew all too well cry out, “E-Evan?!” Something about how it was a bit muffled suggested that I couldn’t just be hearing things either.Impossible…...
Photography and Sculpture
Pokemon Dedenne by LuisMonterieArt
The lake trio Polymer clay by Thunderboy0312
Polymer clay Uxie (Pokemon) by Thunderboy0312
Polymer clay Mesprit (Pokemon) by Thunderboy0312
Video and Animations
Aeenjyl and Diiminn celebrate PMD Explorers of Sky by KrooZX
Queen the Gardevoir (Animation) by Graffiiti3000
Everything PMD animatic by Hawktalon07
Pikachu Determined (PMD Animation) by KrooZX

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*°<INFORMATION>°<Interview With The Creators!>°<Bulletin Board>°<Member Ranks>°<Storyboard>°<Friend Codes>°<Pokemon SUPER Mystery Dungeon Discovery Blog>°*
--------------------------
:damphyr:  Welcome:damphyr:  
Hi there ^^
Welcome to Pokemon-MD-Club a club dedicated to the Pokemon GBA and NDS Game, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon!:w00t!:  

::Would you like to join? No problem - just join! There are no expectations. Just hit that join button and become immersed in our wonderful story!

--------------------------

:star:News:star:

by Guildmaster :iconama-encyclopika:

:star: Hey everyone!

:star: Our SUPER has expired and I will not be renewing.

:star: That said, we have one more hit on King Ven in order to get past this. I still have DA points from people donating to the group. The next person to submit a hit onto King Ven gets 500 points. It can be anyone, even if you have already made a hit. Details below:

FROM LAST TIME:

:star: It's with a heavy heart that I let you all know that after the story bit is complete, we will no longer have RPG elements in the guild - no more story, no more missions, no more rank, etc. I can tell interest and engagement have really fallen, and, same, fam. I still LOVE PMD, and will be sure to get whatever new game they come out with. However, I have to be honest, I've moved on to other things and fandoms. I'm sure it's obvious I haven't given this place my whole attention, and that's not fair. Now, we aren't closing - like hell we are. We will still accept artwork/fics/etc in the proper folders as we always have, there just won't be anymore events and no more rankings for me to fuss over. Once we are finished with this story, anyone who gets Arceus Rank in the interim will get their prizes and whatnot, but then, that's it. Ranks will freeze.

It was a good run guys, and we will still be here to accept your art and talk! I hate to see community places close, but I have to limit what we do here for my own sake.

Now, if you would LIKE to see ranks and RPG elements continue here, consider sending me a Note if you would like to take the reigns as a sort of "assisstant guildmaster", so basically Chatot lol. You would be given all powers to update and handle things here as I have done. Previous and current admins and contributors will have first dibs if they want, followed by interested members who have been here a long time and who I know I can trust (so don't take offense if I deny you). I would still be around, but in a more reduced capacity. So, let me know if you are interested and send me along a Note.

:star: Don't forget about our ongoing boss battle! This event will not end until we defeat our current objective.

We cannot lose this battle! Both of these Pokemon need to be behind bars and a new king or queen must rise up! Until then, we cannot move on!

BOSS BATTLE - King Ven & Rebel Leader Dour

Dour the Mega Houndoom Pokemon-MD-Club by Mad-Zazzy Hits: 5
*Boss Battle* - King Ven by KilaWolfsblut Hits: 4

Mission - Defeat King Ven & Rebel Leader Dour!
Hits Needed - 5 (for each, for a total of 10 hits)
Expiration - Ongoing - there is no expiration date for this battle. It will remain open until we have 5 hits for Ven and 5 hits for Dour.
Spoils 500 Rank per Boss (for a total of 1000 if you hit both. See below for directions), Mega Venusaur/Mega Houndoom Doll(s) (depending on who you hit. If you hit both, you get both)
-The Guild gets: 1000 Gold Pieces, the location of The Light

Rules - Draw your team fighting King Ven OR Rebel Leader Dour.
-I can't stress enough that you must choose one or the other. Your work, be it art or writing, must only focus on hitting ONE target. Work featuring your team fighting both simultaneously will only be counted as 1 hit and I will decide where it goes.
-Yes, it is entirely possible that one boss gets more hits than it needs while the other is not yet defeated. An extra hit on one boss does not roll over to the other one. You will still get your Rank points, so feel free to do the challenge missions regardless.
-You may not hit one boss twice, but you can use your Dolls to hit the same or a different boss than the one you drew/wrote about.
-Upload your work to DeviantART and then submit your work to our gallery. Feel free to post your work in response to the boss arts above! It is Pokemon-MD-Club tradition!

-CHALLENGE MISSION: Make two separate arts/writings to hit them both. This will net you 1000 Rank Points (500 for each). One piece must be about fighting/defeating King Ven, and the other must be about fighting/defeating Rebel Leader Dour.
-EXTRA CHALLENGE MISSION: Above, but do one HIT as a visual art piece and the other HIT as a written piece. Earn 200 more Rank Points for this.

Allies: Rally, Aukai, Spark's Guild, Azure, Ada, Lavender, & Agate are here to assist us! This is just short of the hits we need. However, some of them have beef with a particular target and will only hit that boss - these are: Rally (Dour), Azure (King Ven), Ada (King Ven). This will be made obvious in the polls.

Spark's guild has hit Rebel Leader Dour!
Azure has hit King Ven!
Rally has hit Rebel Leader Dour!
Ada has hit King Ven!
Lavender has hit King Ven!
Agate has hit Rebel Leader Dour!
Rebel Leader Dour was DEFEATED!
Aukai has hit King Ven!

Go to the polls to decide who hits next!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments!

:star: All hands on deck for the above mission. We will not be answering any more side-missions until we have completed the boss battle.

:star: For those of you who read our Storyboard -> pokemon-md-club.deviantart.com…  you may notice that I try to include member's real PMD teams they use here at the guild. If you'd like to be a part of that, consider filling out one of MewScaper's team sheets and submit to the group.

Team Application and Reference (Pokemon-MD-Club) by Mewscaper

Happy Exploring!

--------------------------


:star: Chapter 10: The Quiet Cold

Azure shouted. "Look, I was one of your Overseers! And the things you had us do was unforgivable. Children ripped from their homes to toil in the mines..."

King Ven cut her off. "No price is too great for order in this kingdom!"

The Venusaur began to step down from his throne. He clutched his Mega Stone hanging right near his throne and instantly Mega Evolved. Dour approached from behind the guild, baring his teeth as he, too, Mega Evolved. "No price is too great for our freedom!"

It was clear neither the King nor his rebel enemy had been aware they had both been duped by The Light for their rescources - money and manpower. Unfortunately for the guild, the two leaders snarled in their direction, more upset now that the guild had successfully dismantled their operations. It was time to fight and dethrone them both.

 


--------------------------

We are listed in --->  :iconpokemon-directory: & :iconthe-anime-manga-list:

~~~~~~~~~~~ We are the OLDEST PMD Club on DA! ~~~~~~~~~~
More Journal Entries

Comments


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:iconflippygroud2:
flippygroud2 Featured By Owner 3 days ago  New Deviant
hello i am new ...
Reply
:iconbloominghead:
BloomingHead Featured By Owner Jul 28, 2023  Professional Digital Artist
Reply
:iconkhystar:
Khystar Featured By Owner May 11, 2022  Hobbyist Digital Artist
:iconpkmnadventurers:
Hello, PKMNAdventurers is OPEN! We are a growing, friendly, and casual-oriented community!
We are a Pokemon art roleplay group whose main goal is making friends and having fun. We have a mystery dungeon story that you can participate at your own pace. Currently, we are up to Mission 1 and post mission 1 side stories. You can join in whenever!
Reply
:iconfrankenbeanz254:
Frankenbeanz254 Featured By Owner Oct 25, 2020
hey anyone know some good PMD Rp groups i could join i'm try to join but i'm kind of hesitant.
Reply
:iconsuomen-ukonilma:
Suomen-Ukonilma Featured By Owner Jun 7, 2020  Professional Interface Designer
Is this group alive?
Reply
:iconarthurnewton:
ArthurNewton Featured By Owner Jul 27, 2020  Hobbyist Writer
Hopefully
Reply
:iconsaltnpepperbunny:
SaltnPepperBunny Featured By Owner Jun 6, 2020  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Hey, I submitted some deviations a few days ago and they still haven't been accepted? Is there any reason for that? O.O
Reply
:iconsamanthawolfox:
SamanthaWolfox Featured By Owner Apr 10, 2020  Hobbyist Digital Artist
I cant find the button to join i really love pmd
Reply
:iconkilawolfsblut:
KilaWolfsblut Featured By Owner Edited Apr 14, 2020  Student Artist
Hello SamanthaWolfox, I made a screenshot for you, showing the button ^^

After you clicked the button, you can put in a Note. Just leave that blank and "Submit Request". You should be in the group now :D

Unbenannt2 by KilaWolfsblut  
Reply
:iconsamanthawolfox:
SamanthaWolfox Featured By Owner Edited Apr 14, 2020  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Oh darling thank you
But im.on my phone and its not popping up
Would you be so kind and send me an invite ;0;
Reply
:iconkilawolfsblut:
KilaWolfsblut Featured By Owner Apr 14, 2020  Student Artist
Here you go, you should be invited now. The mobile version is really, really bad when it comes to DeviantArt groups, may it be the mobile version of the browser or the app itself...
Reply
:iconville247:
Ville247 Featured By Owner Jan 13, 2020
are there any pokemon oc name experts here?
Reply
Hidden by Commenter
:iconama-encyclopika:
Ama-Encyclopika Featured By Owner Dec 22, 2019  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
I mean, you can do that, but why? Would definitely name it so that it's obvious to us you're submitting two in one. 
Reply
:iconfoxswipe:
Foxswipe Featured By Owner May 19, 2019  Hobbyist Writer
Is this still open for new people to join?
Reply
:iconama-encyclopika:
Ama-Encyclopika Featured By Owner May 20, 2019  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
Yup!
Reply
:iconfoxswipe:
Foxswipe Featured By Owner May 25, 2019  Hobbyist Writer
Oh sweet! I'd love to join.
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