Destiny Tower

[Negrek]

Well, that certainly was a godlike display. Nate grimaced. Why did he get the feeling this was going to hurt?

"What? You mean, like, why you instead of Diyem? Ain't he spending all his energy looking for suspicious shit and making sure we don't completely suck? Other than that, who were you expecting? I don't got a list of who can zap people into other dimensions or nothing. But, I mean, you're fucking Arceus. You want shit done, who the fuck are you going to call, you know?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Mm, a'ight, a'ight. I get that."

The spheres continued to glimmer, a few of them coalescing together.

"How d'you think your friends're gonna react to this, y'wonder?"

 

[Negrek]

"Well, if it works like Diyem said and I end up at the same time that I left and don't remember shit, then I guess they aren't gonna react at all. Nobody'll notice shit, and we can all be on our merry way. If not, and I've been gone a while, then I mean I guess I hope they'd be... happy to see me back." Could Arceus read minds? Fuck. Not psychic-type but possibly omniscient, or could do psychic shit if necessary. Hopefully he couldn't, 'cause that'd be super fucking inconvenient right about now. Talk about things you don't want to get into right now. "But probably they'd be pissed at me for disappearing in the first place. And if it's been a real long time, they might not remember me at all. Or maybe they'd all be dead. You'd know that better than me."

 

[Namohysip]

"Nah, nah," Pop went on, though by now it seemed that the spheres had stopped their expansion, or perhaps the strike was already prepared. "Wasn't talking about y our friends back home. If what Diyem said was true, nothing's changed for them." Those green-red eyes glinted a little. "I was talkin' about your friends here."

 

[Negrek]

"What friends?" Nate asked in exasperation. "What's going to happen to them? What happened the last time anybody on 'Team Spectrum' disappeared mysteriously? Oh, that's right, fucking nothing, because everybody was more interested in their own little personal dramas than actually trying to do shit about it. So if tomorrow I'm gone, what's gonna happen? Hmm. I predict... somebody's probably going to hit the bar. And somebody's gonna go, I dunno, shopping or some shit. With friends like these, you know?"

 

[Namohysip]

"You mean Brisa and Starr?" Pop asked. "Nah. I know about that. They were ready to scout the whole continent 'til we put the hol' up on that so we could search more carefully. Here's my prediction... you're gonna disappear, I'm gonna say why, and everyone's gonna feel bad for how alone you felt. That smiley Charmander's gonna get all dejected 'cause he didn't know how much you were hurtin'. Bunch o' others, same thing. They'll get mad. Mad at me, mad at Diyem, maybe mad at you..." Arceus tilted his head. "I think you're underestimatin' how much they wanna vibe with you."

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, really? That's funny, because I remember it really fucking differently." Good Christ. What was with all this nonsense about friendship? It was like some kind of nightmarish summer camp where everybody was all up in each other's business and so concerned about whether little Johnny made friends or not. Friendship was something that happened or it didn't, not something you could force. And actually, if people didn't want to be friends? It wasn't the end of the goddamned world, holy shit.

But yeah, if Arceus was going to try and guilt him about hurting whatever asshole's delicate fee-fees, this probably wasn't going anywhere. The guy was just straight-up clueless. Last shot. "Look, I think we're kind of talking past each other here," Nate said. "I ain't saying I want to go home because I'm feeling 'alone'"--he made air quotes--"I'm saying I want to go home because at home I'm not about to get zapped by any sort of nightmare machine that's going to make me try to kill people. Gotta admit it, that pretty much fucking sucked. Also, apparently it's going to keep happening, and who knows? Maybe next time I'll get it together and actually murder a dude. Fun for everybody. So if you're really so concerned about my 'mental health,' consider sending me back to my own world, where I have an actual 'support system' and don't have to deal with 'horribly traumatic events.'" Well. At least no horribly traumatic events that might make him a killer, probably-almost-definitely. "As for everybody else, if they get pissed about it, like, oh well? I guess they can enjoy being pissed instead of fucking murdered."

 

[Namohysip]

Pop listened quietly, and once Nate's voice stopped echoing across the walls again, going back so he could hear them a second time, he shook his head. "Well, sorry, li'l guy." Arceus, without warning, fired one of the beams of light toward Nate; it suddenly arced away from him and slammed into the wall where it felt a smoldering hole in the stone. "Can't kill folks when my mind's not set to it. Self-regulation thing. You're gonna have to ask someone else. More'n that... if you died, the rift it will leave on everyone else... Nah. It might make their Shadows worse."

 

[Negrek]

Nate closed his eyes when the beam of light shot towards him, cringing despite himself. His jump when the attack boomed against the wall wasn't exactly very dignified, either.

Ah. So Arceus had been planning to kill him all along? What a huge fucking waste of time. Nate looked up at the smoking hole the... judgement?... had left behind. Did that mean Arceus didn't realize that taking somebody out here only meant they'd respawn in Veritas City, not actually get sent back to their original world? He supposed there was no way for him to know how things worked, seeing as how he couldn't actually talk to Diyem himself. Huge fucking waste of time.

"All right, whatever," Nate grumbled. He rummaged in his pack for a moment before coming up with Rocky. "Can't, won't, it don't really matter to me. But if you can't do that, could you at least break the link between me and this little guy?" He held the shade-stone up towards Arceus. "If you remember the whole 'horrible trauma' thing, well, it's hurting this guy, too. It ain't fair that he's got to deal with it just because he got accidentally stuck with me. If you break the link, then I can give him to someone he'll be happier with."

 

[Namohysip]

Pop's gaze softened then, and he leaned forward to take a closer look at the little stone. "...You're right," he said. "It seems that your own mental turmoil is causing some trouble for this little guy... But that seems to be some kind of telepathic link. More than that..." Pop had dropped his accent façade briefly. "I don't know if I can safely sever it right now. But if you give me some time... Perhaps I can at least dull the link so it can think for itself. Prevent what might be a feedback loop..."

 

[Negrek]

Nate sighed. "Sounds better than nothing, at least. Guess I can't really leave the guy here for you to take a look at. But if there's anything you can do... Yeah. That'd be great." He tucked Rocky back into his bag. It was fucking stupid, feeling like shit over that. He already knew he was fucking Rocky up with all his issues. Maybe it just really sucked to hear somebody--God--confirm it. Or maybe he was getting weird emotional shit on account of nearly dying? If that was what had just happened?

"That's it, I mean, as far as favors go. But there's something I been wondering... That smeargle, Maple. She says her gang was all fixing to wipe the lot of us Team Spectrum types out as soon as we showed up, but you told her not to. Why's that? You knew we were working for a Dark Matter, didn't you?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I did," Pop said, nodding as a small ring of gold wrapped around Rocky. It wasn't painful, but it was a little warm, like a morning sun. "In fact, I knew the moment you had arrived that some dark power was behind your arrival. But... Well." The ring constricted until it was more like a decorative loop around Rocky. "I'm not one to make hasty decisions. The first one to arrive here, Owen? His first act was to fight the gigantic Pokemon--an entity that we were unable to subdue on our own. Seeing that, I decided to see how you behaved. It seems to have been the right call, hm?"

The ring faded, but its presence was still there was a subtle warmth. "Just because something is shrouded in darkness does not necessarily mean it is evil. And even if it is evil, there are sometimes opportunities to make use of something to take out a greater foe, than to eliminate it immediately. Should you all turn out to be enemies, you are still a lesser threat than the original interlopers to come here."

Pop gestured with a hoof toward Rocky. "I've suppressed unconscious telepathy between you two, but if Rocky actively wants to speak to you, or send a feeling toward you, it will still happen. The same goes for you. But there will no longer be unintentional 'leaks' between your link. I'm afraid that is the best I can do without damaging Rocky."

 

[Negrek]

Nate stared transfixed at the golden ring that slithered around Rocky's uh, midriff. Equator. Whatever. "Oh, uh, I thought when you said it was gonna take some time, you meant like a week or some shit," Nate said, staring at the play of golden light. Now there was some real pokémagic. You didn't see that kind of shit every day.

When the light faded, Nate held Rocky up for inspection. The stone was still a little warm from whatever Arceus had done to it, but more importantly, something felt different, like there'd been a ringing in Nate's ears that he'd gotten so used to ignoring that he didn't even really remember it was there until moments like now, when it was gone. If he didn't know what the rock was, he'd think it was nothing more than, well, a boring ordinary rock. And if he couldn't feel Rocky anymore, hopefully the shade wouldn't be picking up anything from him, either. "Th-thanks," he said. "I think that worked. I think that's gonna... thanks."

He squeezed Rocky between his hands and thought at him, Feeling better, little guy?

As for Arceus' explanation for why he hadn't let Maple destroy the lot of them already, well, fair enough he supposed. "Dunno if we can say whether keeping us around was the right move just yet," he said while stowing Rocky for real. "But yeah, you ain't wrong about us being way less scary than whatever's going on out there. At least for the moment." He paused a second, frowning. "What's that smeargle's deal, anyhow? Do you know? I mean, now she's all going on about being a Voice of Life and shit. I'm kinda foggy on what that means, exactly, but it don't sound right to me."

 

[Namohysip]

Pop's eyes dulled a little. "I'm sorry," he said. "It is not my place to speak of her personal matters. I can at least assure you that I trust her. I believe she is telling the truth as much as she herself knows. I, too, do not think that her story completely adds up. There are some things about a Voice that should be plainly impossible... At least, of the Voices I know about. But I also don't sense anything dishonest about how she spoke of it to me. Still, her energy is strange. I always assumed it was because of how she associated with a Necrozma."

 

[Negrek]

"Huh. So she may not know what's up herself? Hadn't really thought of that." That did put a different spin on things, didn't it? Bad enough to crash-land in the middle of an unknown crisis and have one of your squad go missing; a whole lot worse to deal with that shit if you couldn't remember who you were. If that was even what was going on. Ugh. The whole Rocky thing must be getting to him. Who gave a shit if Maple had amnesia or whatever the fuck?

"Well, whatever. I'm sure you got important shit to do, being a god and all. Thanks again for taking the time, you know, fixing things with Rocky. I--we, we really appreciate it. And keep it... Keep it real, h-homie?" Fuck. He wanted to punch himself just for saying that. Why couldn't magicfun pokéworld have halfway normal gods, good Christ.

 

[Namohysip]

Pop's eyes glinted again. "Catch you on the flip side, bro. Peace."

He disappeared in a flash of light.

<><><>​

 

[Namohysip]

By some miracle, they had escaped. Maple had conjured some energy into Bahamut to flee the Reverse World, and despite the resistance and the chaos, they had done it. The team fell out of the portal and into wherever Maple had directed them to flee with her power--and it turned out to be the base of Destiny Tower.

Beaten, battered, burned, Shadowed, Radiated, the team all had done injury or two to their name. The Blacklight Dragon lay unconscious and perhaps the most injured of them all, still unmoving, but its aura was calmer than before.

Arceus wasted no time appearing in the pillar of light at the center of the tower's ground floor. "Yo," he said in a halfhearted routine as he drifted to the group. His eyes darted about, every single one, and then he nodded. "Nice. You've got everyone with you. Ten outta ten."

 

[Ambyssin]

"Not exactly."

Bahamut should've been missing several pieces. But he wasn't. Instead, he was back in cat form. But it felt more... solid this time.

And had he just doubled in size or was his mind playing ticks on him? His teammates looked... smaller. The bastard dragon was smaller. Arceus was smaller. And still stuck in that fence.

"There was... some doppelganger light dragon. It got captured in a pokémon-catching device." His core turned orange, as did his eyes. "Been eons since I've seen one of those used."

His stone was vibrating on his back. Bahamut pressed one of his hands against it. He gestured to Starr and Brisa with his free hand. "Ask the girls if you want more details. They seemed to take the ending of this whole fiasco quite personally."

 

[Disco]

Mellow barely heard him. She couldn't be around any of them right now and so she ran away.

Not only had she used that Radiant power, she'd injured one of the team. Nevermind the fact that she had evolved into Luxio the very next moment...

She shouldn't have done that. She should have just...
She didn't know.
If she knew how to fight... Really knew how to fight... She wouldn't have made a mistake.
...Maybe if she....

Mellow began to mutter to herself as she went to her greenhouse as fast as she could go.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

“I think I hate this world. I hate it. I really do.”