Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Infirmary

[Cresselia92]

“Hmm, yeah. I wish he told something. Perhaps he was about to tell me what he had in mind, but…” Petram began scratching his head. “I dunno, after I received the last message everything was so… murky. I dunno how to explain.”

Petram glanced at the statue again, then at the ribbon that was at its forepaws. He retrieved that item and hovered upward to wrap it around the statue’s neck.

“There! He… looks a bit more lively like this, huh?” he said, before giving a quick hug at the statue. “Please, come back soon, Daddy…”

With a resigned sigh, he hovered toward Celeste and beamed a reassuring smile. “C’mon! Everything will be fine! Let’s try to keep our spirits up for him, yeah? He… wouldn’t want us to worry too much about him, even if it can’t really be helped…”

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Celeste forced a smile. "Yes. You need not worry about him... He will be back."

Sitting and staring at the statue wouldn't help. Celeste turned to leave the infirmary. He didn't know where he was going, though...

Back to bed, perhaps. What else was there worth doing?

 

[Cresselia92]

Petram stared as Celeste exited from the room. Even if he was trying to look reassured, the way he walked out was proof that he wasn’t definitely okay.

“Celeste…”

He turned to the statue, his tails twitching. Then, his eyes narrowed, and his voice became deeper all of a sudden. “You truly messed up here, bud? I hope what you’re doing is worth it. And if you don’t return, I’ll come for you.”

Just as quickly as that voice came, it vanished. However, Petram was more puzzled than anything. “Huh… What was I saying?” He blinked. “Oh! Yeah! Even if Celeste said he was gonna take care for me, I have the feeling it’ll be me who will have to take care of him…”

Petram tilted his head in thought, then chirped. Bouncing off of bad stuff had worked once more.

“Well, then, gotta find some way to make him smile.” He glanced at the statue. “For you, Daddy.”

And without another word, he bolted out of the room and looked for Celeste. As long as Daddy was missing, it was his job to be the beacon of hope.

<><><><>​

 

[Negrek]

Nate still needed to talk to Diyem, kinda urgently, about what the fuck all that Overseer shit was about and what exactly they were supposed to do about it. But when he arrived in the infirmary, the guy wasn't there. Apparently he was all healed up and they were just, like, letting him run around wherever now.

For a few seconds Nate simply stared at the empty bed in frustration. But it was probably for the best, honestly. Especially after what he'd just said in the forest... Diyem could probably use some space. No doubt the last thing he wanted was another draining conversation.

After basically everyone getting stuck down here the past few weeks, it was almost weird to see the infirmary emptied of Team Spectrum and the people they'd either beaten up or who'd got beaten up on their account. Or not entirely empty--Silver was still there, propped up against a wall.

Grimacing, Nate padded forward to take a look at him. Shoulda come by earlier. Obviously the guy hadn't evolved yet, or Nate would have heard about it, but still. And it had been way too long since Nate'd gone to see the team. Soon. He'd definitely do that soon.

Silver was the same as ever. Same sleeping face at the center of his glassy body, and the weird swirling, sparkling mist that cast dancing lights behind him on the wall. And the stupid bowtie was still there, too. If the thing was even working as intended, apparently taking out Joule hadn't been enough energy to get an evolution going. With Nate's luck, Silver probably needed a stone to evolve instead or some shit.

"Still sleeping, huh?" Nate asked. Dragged off and used as a fucking battery, then just chucked back here like a piece of furniture. Fucking Maple. "Hope you're dreaming up something good in there. We could use all the help we can get."

 

[Namohysip]

"His energy levels had actually gone up by the time he was back," someone said from the entryway. Zinc stepped into the room and nodded at Nate as a greeting. "Though, I was really worried about the plan. I have no idea what Silver is supposed to be, but..." The Goodra frowned. "It feels like he's going to wake up soon. I wonder if there's a way to do that sooner? Sleeping for so long... Is that normal for his species? I know Cynthian had gone through hibernation for a while, too."

 

[Negrek]

Nate jumped when the goodra appeared out of fucking nowhere. Jesus, he thought he was alone in here. Privacy, much?

"I thought you guys had an idea of what was going on with him," Nate said, trying to sound casual. "Nobody around seems to know much. I think sleeping all the time's normal, yeah, but other than that... I dunno, Bahamut was saying something about absorbing starlight or sunlight or something like that. You tried putting him outside at all, to, like, soak up some rays?"

 

[Namohysip]

"We did," replied Zinc, nodding. "We followed a lot of Bahamut's instructions, actually. It seemed to improve his condition tremendously, or at least accelerated his growth. We--"

"Mmmnn..." Silver, perhaps for the first time, made a sound in his sleep. Even during the fight with Joule, he hadn't made even a grunt. His voice was like an echoing whisper in a suit of armor.

 

[Negrek]

Today was just full of fucking surprises, wasn't it? Nate squinted up at Silver, not sure if he'd really heard what he thought he'd heard, not sure if the tingling in his chest was hope or anxiety. "Silver? Hey, Silver!" He raised his voice. "You in there?"

Turning to the goodra nurse, he said, "Can you open a window? Maybe we oughta get some light in here right now."

 

[Namohysip]

"Um, right!" She quickly went to the opposite end of the room and pressed a button. The wall slid open, revealing what seemed to be a tunnel of mirrors that brought in the light from the outside into the underground floor--either that or it was simulated light somehow. "We could also, well, carry him... out?" Carry was the wrong word. He was too heavy on his own and he floated otherwise.

"He's attacking..." Silver stirred again, his floating becoming a little more erratic. "Dark... Matter..."

 

[Negrek]

"Uh..." Nate looked back and forth between Silver and the gleaming mirrors. Maybe they could kind of push him outside? Nate felt like they were going to want plenty of space, and being out under the real sun just felt right.

On the other hand, he had no idea how long it would take to get the guy outside, and rearing up on his hind legs and shoving against Silver's golden shell barely moved him at all. "Let's at least try the lights first," he said, then shoved Silver in that direction again, harder.

Meanwhile, Silver was muttering again. For fuck's sake. More Dark Matter bullshit. On the bright side, maybe that meant some of Silver's memories were coming back. "Hey, it's all right!" Nate said. "Wake up, Silver. It's just a nightmare."

 

[Namohysip]

"Nnngh... nightmare..."

"Oh, he's responding," Zinc said. "Silver...? Can you hear us?"

"Not... a nightmare... not scared of... going to make you have a..."

"Aw, he's fighting back." Zinc giggled. "That's kind of cute."

Silver was pressed against the window, though actually pushing him out would require going through the whole underground hospital for easy passage. Thankfully, they didn't have to. With a sudden gasp, Silver's eyes shot open. His body exploded with white light that was hot to the touch; Zinc grabbed Nate and pulled him away just in time. The light wasn't stopping, and there was a sudden, inward gust of wind overtaking the whole infirmary, all concentrated toward Silver.

Waves of power left small cracks in the stone. Loose papers and supplies flew into Silver, disappearing into the light.

 

[Negrek]

Nate smiled when Silver started trying to threaten them. "Well, I guess he's feeling better. Hey, Silver, you'd better get waking up if you're gonna pay me back for that o--fuck!" Nate yelped as Silver's body erupted in heat and light, and the goodra dragged him back before he could get burnt up in the evolution.

Nate watched, dazed, as the light spilling out of Silver grew larger, larger. "Hope none of that shit's important," he said dumbly, watching charts and medical supplies get sucked up into the rising light.

 

[Namohysip]

As a precaution, Zinc went further out of the room, even as the winds weakened. The light was also fading, but it had briefly become so brief that she had to look away, covering her eyes with her horns.

But when Zinc tried to open her eyes again, it was like the sky had gone out. Even underground, the very light of the room was siphoned away. And then, seconds later, it came back. There was a silvery sheen to everything in the lower floor...

The room felt warmer, but not too warm. Then, a chilling cold seemed to suck the air out of the room. Zinc shuddered. "Ooh... I don't think my body's ready for a temperature rise and drop like that. Are you feeling okay?"

"Not really," came a deep, ethereal voice from within the room. "What happened...? Ugh, I feel like I was hit my a Tyranitar..."

Splayed across the ground of the nearly emptied infirmary was a creature that was very flat and very wide. Two crescents outlined large, purple wings, with a smaller but similar pattern making up his galaxy-colored head, reminiscent of the haze that had surrounded Silver's Cosmog form.

"...Something... doesn't feel right," Silver mumbled. "Was I dreaming?"

 

[Negrek]

Nate shielded his eyes as the light intensified, only for the glow to be snuffed out and the burning heat to be replaced with biting cold. He blinked and squinted into the infirmary as the light slowly returned. Jesus. Dramatic much?

But after all that, everything had turned out fine. Nate's heart leapt as Silver began to stir, and he wriggled out of the goodra's sticky grasp. Looked like Silver had ended up as that big bat thing Bahamut had shown him. Lunar-something?

"You tell me," Nate said, bounding back into the room. "Something about Dark Matter, anyway. You were claiming it wasn't a nightmare, but I dunno if I buy that. Next time warn a guy before you decide to nap for three months, huh?"

He looked around discreetly for the joy ribbon. Hopefully it had gotten burnt up during the evolution.

 

[Namohysip]

"Three WHAT?" Silver jolted up, slamming his head into the ceiling. He shouted and covered it with his wings, but then fell forward when he realized he didn't have any legs. "What the--uff!" And on the ground he went, flopping uselessly. His instincts must not have kicked in yet.

Against all odds, the Joy Ribbon had survived. Silver didn't notice it, but it was on the left crescent of his head.

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah, apparently cosmog evolves into a pokémon that sleeps all the time," Nate said, venturing a little closer and then feeling stupid for it. It wasn't like he could offer Silver a hand up or anything. "I hope you, uh. At least had some interesting dreams."

Nate glared at the ribbon. Fucking figured. At least Silver was distracted by things like still not having fucking legs. It would probably take him a while to notice.

 

[Namohysip]

Silver growled again, propping himself up with his right wing. "Perfect. Fine... What did I miss, then? Is everything fixed, or is it worse? Knowing who you're fighting, he's probably five steps ahead of you still..."

He looked skyward, like something was bugging him, and then shook it off. "...What am I now? Is it strong?"

"Bahamut said this form was a Lunala. Um, bringer of the moon, or something, according to Maple..."

"...The moon? I thought that was Cresselia's role."

Zinc shrugged nervously.

"Well, there's something in my gut telling me something is wrong. Did the moon get damaged?"

 

[Negrek]

Nate laughed hollowly. "Everything fixed? Around here? Come on, this is Cibus. The bullshit just keeps coming. But Giovanni got his ass kicked pretty hard a couple weeks ago, so that's a plus, at least. Fucker might be out of commission for a little while. We managed to get his big light dragon away from him, too, and bust up his Radiance machine. On the other hand, Red's been popping up and causing trouble, along with Giovanni's weird science experiments, and we still ain't got a clue what all he's playing at."

Nate rubbed the side of his head. "This is the first I've heard about shit going down with the moon, though. With our fucking luck, there's probably another eternatus hiding up there or some shit. But, hey, you're a similar kinda thing to Bahamut now, so you're definitely way stronger. Ain't all bad news."

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmph..." Silver crossed his wings, then tried to float a little higher. "I think I'm getting used to this floating thing, at least. It's almost the same as... Hmph. Then what's the point of wings if I float like this?"

"Maybe it looks nice?" Zinc asked.

"I don't think nature cares about that for what I am."

Zinc wasn't sure if Silver counted as natural.

"Should we check the moon, then? Am I discharged?"

"Oh! Um, yes. You look healthy. A very pretty bow on your head, too!"

"...What did you do to me while I was asleep."

 

[Negrek]

Almost the same as... being a cosmog? Seemed like a weird thing to say, but Silver had definitely already gotten the hang of floating from that, right? Nate frowned, uneasy, but said, "I mean, yeah, let's go see if the moon's still doing okay up there."

That goddamn ribbon. He should have taken it off before putting Silver in the light. "Eh, you kinda sucked all sorts of random shit towards you while you were evolving. Who knows where that came from. Anyway, you should be able to get it if you just..." He mimed brushing something off the left side of his head.