Treasure Town ~ Marketplace

[Virgil134]

Cabot bit his tongue as he did his best not to show any reaction to Diyem suddenly speaking up. He did have a point though. Something about Truffle felt... off, and it was probably wise not to trust him completely.

"I... see. That's very impressive," Cabot said. "Does that mean you talk to Arceus a lot? And what's your team called?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Well, we don't necessarily have a team name in the formal sense," Truffle said, "though my partner has... popularized a team name, so to speak. It's--"

"What, you're gonna say it without any flair?"

The voice came from the left, but there was no body to attach it to. A small distortion of light. Owen perked up, his flame crackling, and he reflexively tried to cover himself with his blanket, useless as the gesture was.

"Ahh, hello," Truffle greeted the air. "If you could reveal yourself and not startle the others..."

"Was just listening in." The light distorted in a patch of empty space near Truffle, revealing a muddied and matted Zoroark. "Sorry for the look. Just got back from getting my ass handed to me by Magikarp. No dice on any attempts at hurting the thing, let alone diverting it. My illusions evaporate faster than I can make them..." He rolled his eyes, irritated, and then added, "Oh, right. The name's Zoroark Soda, and we're members of God Squad."

"Y... yes. God Squad." Truffle deflated slightly.

 

[Virgil134]

"God... Squad?"

Cabot stared at them blanky for a moment before shaking his head, opting to focus on Soda's introduction instead of their... unusual team name.

"Er... well it's nice to meet you Soda, I'm Cabot. Though I know what a Zoroark is," he said. "But, how did you just appear like that? I've never heard of a Zoroark that can teleport."

 

[Dragonfree]

Oh, Jesus fucking Christ. It's a cult.

Dave felt his fur fluffing up in dismay and tried to stop it, however that worked, not sure if it was at all successful. "Fun! God Squad. That's great." He was about to start making an excuse to immediately leave, but then Cabot was asking about the teleportation, and actually, that would be good to know. "Yeah, uh, that was pretty awesome. Love to hear how that works."

 

[Namohysip]

"No Teleport here," Soda said with a casual flick of his wrist. "Just advanced illusions. I'm pretty good at those. Invisible, soundless, lots you can do with light and sound." He clicked his claws, and suddenly a bouquet of roses appeared between them, which he tossed in the air over Dave. The roses exploded into a flurry of petals that had no tangible form, yet they were quite pretty.

"Whoa..." Owen's eyes glimmered and he leaned in. "That's so cool!"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave grimaced at the rose petals in his face. "Okay. So by that you mean you're not actually here, just a projection from somewhere else?"

 

[Namohysip]

"No, I'm definitely here. I can't project my illusions too far off. Though I bet if you used that sniffer of yours, you'd notice that I'm actually standing next to you."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave gave the Zoroark a deadpan stare. "So in other words... it's not an illusion. Jesus. I guess what you actually want to say is you just walked over here but you magicked yourself invisible for shits and giggles."

 

[Namohysip]

"Guess so. Illusion is a cool word, though." Soda nodded, and then snapped his claws again. The false Zoroark disappeared and the real one appeared next to Dave. Soda crouched down to get to his height. "You're saying some weird terms. Not from this world, are you?"

...We're doomed, Diyem lamented.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Wow. Truly an astounding leap of logic there. Somebody says some words you don't know and clearly the only explanation is they're not from this world. Genius."

Diyem, Dave thought, doing his best to keep the exasperation off his face, who the fuck are these people, what exactly can't they know and what aren't you telling us?

 

[Namohysip]

I don't know, but if they work for this world's Arceus, it probably means they won't appreciate interlopers. I sensed an interloper is behind this mess... but we, too, count. We may be confused for them, or perhaps even associated.

"Mmmhm." Soda stood back up before Truffle could tell him to stop harassing the newcomers and said, "Well, anyway, my work's done. I'm gonna take a bath and get this mud off. Magikarp's probably going to get tuckered out soon and fall asleep. Might not get closer until later next morning, so maybe you guys can take that time to rest and prepare. Attacking while it's asleep will just wake it up, and I dunno if that'll mean much for you guys. Your choice. Traveling there is hard; distortion makes warping close impossible, so no badge work there."

"Hmm, quite the predicament," Truffle hummed. "But I suppose waiting for it to come closer, so long as it does not damage other settlements, may be our safest approach..."

"Um--" Owen spoke up. "So that means you'll wake us up if something bad does happen?"

"Yep. Don't worry, kid."

"I'm--I don't think I'm a kid," Owen said quickly, and he wasn't sure why he felt offended. But he certainly did.

 

[Dragonfree]

"All right, rest sounds great. Lovely to meet you people, thanks for rescuing Owen. I guess we should get out of here and, uh, find a nice place to sleep, huh?" Dave gave Owen a meaningful stare.

 

[Namohysip]

"...U-um," Owen said to Dave, noticing his stare immediately. "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm ready for a relationship. I don't even remember if I used to have one."

Soda looked like he was trying his best not to laugh, and instead widened his smirk. Truffle fluffed up his feathers and murmured an astonished, "Oh, goodness," under his breath. "I'll be sure to find a private room for you, Poochyena."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave fought the urge to facepalm, which he was sure would just look incredibly dumb on a Poochyena. "Oh my god. You fucking people. No, Owen, I mean sleep. Amazingly enough I have never in my life wanted to fuck a Charmander. No offense." He was going to just turn around and leave, but there Owen was, that innocent little face, starstruck by these bastards. He gritted his teeth. Diyem. How hard should we be trying to extract Owen from the Arceus cult right now?

 

[Namohysip]

Just be careful for now. Working with them may be our best option to not arouse any suspicion.

Soda was scratching Owen under the chin, which made his flame grow as the Charmander himself let out a content growl.

"Due to the... short notice of matters," Truffle said, "we are arranging for various rooms in Marowak Dojo to be used as your temporary housing, at least for now. The rooms are large and we can bring in some nests and other bedding shortly. I do hope that is acceptable."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave took a deep breath. Well, on Diyem's head be it if these dodgy-ass clowns abducted Owen. He tried.

"Yeah. Sounds great. See you around."

And with that, he turned and trotted away.

 

[Namohysip]

Truffle watched him go, then smiled toward the others. "He seems very straightforward!"

 

[Virgil134]

"I guess you could say that," Cabot said sheepishly as he pawed at the back of his head. "But thanks for giving us a place to stay. I think I'll go to the dojo as well so I can practice some moves."

The Cranidos paused as there was one last thing he wanted to ask of the two.

"Though who are the other four members of your team? Do they have any special abilities as well?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Ah, certainly," Truffle replied. "We all make up a fairly well-constructed team for taking down various threats as they arise, and--"

"Speaking of which, figure we should get a report set before it's too late," Soda added, pointing a claw at Cabot, Owen, and the others. "If these guys fail, we need to let Maple know what happened and maybe find a way to seal that Magikarp or something."

"Ah, of course." Truffle turned toward Diyem's heroes. "You take care, now. I have some errands and reporting to run."

 

[Virgil134]

"Er... okay."

I think they're trying to avoid our questions...