Chapter 3 – Darkwhite Skies
Team Spice was defeated and freed of the Shades that had possessed them. And while the remaining Shades had possessed Darkrai, Thyme and Pepper had enough strength in them to fight Darkrai back and thwart them completely. Starr had used a Useless Lump on Thyme, and no Shade seemed to emerge from him when he was defeated, but the other four had Shades each. One was destroyed, and the other three captured.
Zane and a few others had some trouble escaping from Aegis Cave due to troubles with operating their devices. However, after a lot of back and forth, Brisa was able to help the Boomgoose into using the new tech to escape.
Mellow, realizing that she was not built for combat in quite the same way as others, decided instead to take on the role of team morale boosting with her talents from home—tea, and set up a stand in the marketplace to help in her own way.
Meanwhile, at the Guild, Maple decided that it was finally time to grant the team the powers over Radiance. While it was normally something that would take a long time to manifest, Maple was confident that, with how quickly they were strengthening, they would be able to adopt these powers rapidly. As a result, Maple created a Radiant sphere for everyone to touch—mere exposure was enough to infuse Diyem’s heroes with Radiance, whether they wanted it or not.
At the beach, Maple followed Bahamut after his strange, trance-like state after seeing the Radiance to give him his own dosage of the light. This restored his old form, albeit without the ability to retain it in the middle of battle.
Shortly after, several members tried to test out how their Radiant powers manifested. Celeste rediscovered a shadow of his old perceptive abilities, able to see attacks coming a split-second in advance, which would, when activated, allow him to evade quite a few strikes. Cino uncovered an ability to protect himself. Icetales, too, helped Cino with his training, with his endless eloquence by his side.
After being prompted about their Radiance, several members including Owen, Jaro, Nate, and Dave decided to get together to comb through town in search of more “slugs,” as they were called, or “Shades” more formally. They narrowed their search down to three key locations: the main square of Treasure Town, where most explorers passed by; the marketplace, where the population was the densest; and the residential district, where an infection was the most likely to spread in undetected silence.
At the marketplace, Dave and Owen set off on their side of the investigation. It was there that they ran into Darkwhite, who was struggling valiantly against the same curry bowl challenge the team had dealt with only a little while ago. After a confrontation, they were able to deduce a few things: Darkwhite was weak physically, but could revive repeatedly, based on Owen and Dave’s readings of her power. She also claimed that there were multiple Pokémon infected in town, with two in the Marketplace. Deciding to trust her words, they searched for a Garchomp, who apparently was the most dangerous of the infected.
A Garchomp they did find, and she was attacking an Arbok in a sparring match gone too far. After some quick thinking, they were able to draw Garchomp’s attention away, and Dave manifested his Radiant power of protection without him even contacting the golden orb from Maple. While this upset him, it was a welcome change in the moment. Owen had been badly injured, but was also able to assist in distracting and ultimately taking down Garchomp with the help from Nip and Soda, who had been alerted thanks to a call from Dave and Mellow heading to the dojo to get more help.
With the Shade defeated, Nip seriously injured the Shade before it was placed in a jar. Despite the injuries it caused to Owen and the others, Owen proposed giving it an Oran because it, too, was hurt. Soda objected, as did Dave and Nip at first, until Owen was healed somewhat with an Oran of his own. Then, reluctantly, they fed the Shade next; not only did it eat the Oran, but it healed, too. From there, its hostility lowered.
Shades were intelligent; they understood what Dave said, and responded to basic mathematical questions in chirps. With this new information, suddenly killing and hunting the Shades was a much stickier endeavor…
The marketplace group disbanded to rest and recover.
Meanwhile, Nate, Truffle, and later Lauchs gathered together in the residential district to do their side of the investigation. They uncovered that a neighborhood leader had been possessed, but Truffle was able to quickly defeat him. It seemed that some possessed Pokémon were not able to absorb normal attacks the way others could, such as the foes that the team had been battling.
Back at the dojo, Cynthian and Seyka had a talk about being a hero. Cynthian continued to doubt himself and his power, the last fight not going as well as he would have hoped. Seyka, similarly, lamented his lack of use for flight. It seemed they both had some trouble in their new bodies.
A newcomer was summoned by Diyem: Icetales, the regal frigid Vulpix. Diyem was growing less careful with his powers by now, and he w as able to catch a glimpse of the black flame at the end of the Charizard’s tail.
Icetales made it a point to get to know as many as he could, and one of them was Mellow. After some mingling, they commemorated their meeting with a bow for Mellow, which was both cute and stylish.
Later in the day, Bahamut was finding new places to meditate. During that time, he took the opportunity to speak with, and in a way taunt, Diyem and his insistence on keeping the team in the dark. There, Diyem ultimately also revealed his nature to Bahamut, and they decided that the sooner, the better in terms of disclosing this information to the rest of the team, as well as to Maple.
Brisa had exploded during her training with Radiance, and as a result, had been brought to the Guild infirmary. By a lucky happenstance, Brisa also happened upon Thyme there, as well as Pine, Nanab, and Buffet—the team from Paradise that she had written to a week prior. There, they gave her some perspective on what it meant to be human. It was eye-opening, yet also something of a solemn affair. Brisa’s father was nothing like them, after all, and perhaps that is why his story ended so differently.
Bahamut was not the only person that Diyem had revealed his true nature. In fact, several Pokémon had come before him. Curio and Cabot were among the first, who both took them in vastly different ways. Cabot, while startled, accepted Diyem as someone who could change; Curio, still reeling after a mishap with Brisa’s Radiant Arrest attack dredging up old memories, took it in stride and shrugged it off. In some ways, Diyem had been offended by both reactions.
Zane and Nip busied themselves with a sparring match that, similar to Brisa and several others, left Nip feeling the effects of Radiance very quickly.
Next came Brisa, who also accepted it well. This, too, annoyed Diyem, as he believed at least a scream would have sufficed, regardless of how it may have complicated things. Couldn’t they have at least screamed a little?
At the dojo, Owen also elected to train and awaken his Radiance. It was a resounding success; in fact, it was such a great success that Owen seemed to regain a large portion of his lost memories, as his Grassy form from his Radiant ability has led him to recalling a similar incident at home. Thankfully, he recovered, but it seemed that the cheerful Charmander had a lot more weighing on him…
At the Crossroads, Starr, Astrid, and Cuicatl had a strange hybrid of apologies and why-are-you-apologizing exchanges, eventually got together to have some time eating. Slowly, it seemed, the bonds of friendship between everyone in town had been growing, perhaps from the fires they thrust themselves within, or simply over time as they spent their idle time amongst one another.
Spinda Café was home to many lighthearted and heavyhearted exchanges, several of them between Curio, Starr, and Brisa. Old wounds had been reopened from innocuous battles, leading to cycles of self-loathing and traumas rapidly bubbling to the surface. Still, with some talking, they were able to come to a better understanding of one another… mostly. Eventually. Dave and Curio also had an exchange about science, biology, theology and, of course, alcohol.
Several days passed where several shifts were rotated in the town square to search for Shades. While little happened, eventually Cynthian, after having a less than stellar time after a sparring match against Cabot, Astrid, and Brisa went badly. After lamenting over his loss, a Shade suddenly possessed him, though he managed to resist just enough to get back to the main square. Curio was able to save Cynthian with the power of friendship and violence, and a new Shade and a new set of trauma was acquired by the team.
After Darkwhite’s attack on Celeste, the Absol stayed in the dojo to recover, where Nip helped tend to his injuries and his general mood. During that time, they had a nice chat about gods from their respective worlds.
A few days later, out of the great blue horizon, a Lugia flew and landed on Sharpedo Bluff to be discovered by Cabot and a few others. Taken quickly to the Guild to recover, they learned that he was Meringue, the Lugia-in-training and to-be successor to the current Lugia. They had been training as usual, and suddenly Lugia had disappeared right before his eyes, and he had to run away after being under attack. They were helpless to stop it, and Meringue, crestfallen, did not know if his master was safe.
Back at the Bluff, Bahamut meditated and spoke with Cuicatl, and later Cynthian, about themselves, their power, and of course, Bahamut’s suspicions of Diyem and his concerns over whether keeping everything a secret would be good in the long run.
Brisa and Starr tried to patch things up with another talk. However, a series of terrible phrasing and in general bad understanding on both sides led to a greater rift between the two of them. While Diyem was greatly nourished by this negativity, he was also very disappointed, though he had arrived too late to say anything to them.
After the investigation, and after Dave was able to get Squiggly in a proper jar in his room, confronted Maple and asked why despite not touching the Radiant orb, he still gained Radiant powers. Maple said that it was likely due to their strange bodies, but the confrontation quickly turned cold. Maple expressed her suspicions of their team, and Dave, wanting to get a feel for how powerful Maple was, realized that her power was practically otherworldly. Maple, knowing what Dave was doing, gave him a not-so-subtle threat: If she ever suspected that their team was not truly trying to save Cibus, she would personally end their stay.
On more friendlier terms, Cynthian met with Balm and Cepa once more and asked them about what they were doing here. Their story was simple: They came from the parallel world that had been freed of the dark future from the Time Omen. Afterward, they noted that all of the crises that happened in Cibus happened at a later date in their own Cibus… except for Dark Matter, who did not appear at all.
At the beach one night, Diyem frantically woke everyone to save Celeste, who had been attacked by Darkwhite, battered and beaten into unconsciousness without restraint. Meringue, too, tried to fight against Darkwhite, but all of his attacks had no effect on her. By the time enough of them were gathered, Darkwhite proposed a challenge: To show up at the Silver Trench to fight Darkwhite and a special surprise…
Not long after that took place, Owen and Bahamut had a heart to heart by the beach. Bahamut claimed that Owen would one day crack from the pressure of his cheerful façade, despite the weight of his past. Owen seemed to acknowledge it, though he did not appreciate the delivery… but in some way, at least respected Bahamut’s wisdom, warped by cynicism as it may have been.
Cabot and Meringue had a talk at the Bluff, where Meringue spoke of his past as a mortal, and eventual, potential ascension into becoming the next Lugia. It was very different from Cabot’s world’s pantheon, but nevertheless, Cabot swore to save Lugia and restore order to Cibus. The optimism wasn’t convincing Meringue, but he smiled along anyway.
Days passed, and a few days before Darkwhite returned with her promised match in the Silver Trench, Karat had called for assistance. Team Spice and their kids had failed the mission, and it became clear why: the Rattata had returned, and was running amok. Thankfully, the combined efforts of Owen, Nip, Skara, Mellow, and Icetales allowed them to capture the rat, extract the slug, and save Karat from a cruel and unusual fate of having a nuisance in his edgy isolation forest.
The day finally came. Surprisingly, Darkwhite had followed through with her promise, and Maple spotted Darkwhite at Silver Trench with Lugia. However… Lugia had become something darkened and monstrous. While unsurprising, actually seeing it in person was a sight to behold—a horrifying sight.
They had to defeat her and Darkwhite. Otherwise, there was no telling what destruction she could bring to the world…
