Destiny Tower

[Namohysip]

"Joule..."

The word was said so softly, but in the relative silence of Destiny Tower and everyone's exhaustion, it had echoed.

Maple was on one knee, held up by Truffle on one side and Potluck on another. The Decidueye and Silvally both had gold blood on their feathers, but they didn't seem to mind.

"Joule... what..." Maple stared blankly downward.

"Maple, you're too weak," Truffle said. "Rest for now."

"I need... I need to save him... he's..."

"Not now, Maple," Truffle whispered. "you need rest."

"It's gonna be okay," Potluck said. "We'll save him! But... but we need to rest for now, okay?"

"I can't... not while..."

Soda clicked his tongue, arms crossed. He said nothing, though his eyes trailed to Flesh. In all the chaos, he'd dropped the illusion... The Guzzlord was there, large and quivering, its several tinier mouths snapping with anxiety. And despite the fact that it only knew its strange language, it seemed to know at least one word. "B... Blade..."

Leg shuffled toward Maple next, poking at her side with a tendril.

"I..." Maple sank lower. "Joule..."

And, finally, she collapsed. Truffle descended beneath her, keeping her up.

"Keep her here," Arceus said, nodding. "I will heal her. Normal treatment will not do for her, will it?"

"It will not," Truffle replied. "But I've never, in all my time with her, seen her so badly injured before."

"I got it," Arceus said. "you're real lucky, saving her. She looks like one more hit woulda done a lot more damage." Then, addressing the rest of the team, he said. "Y'all're too weak to go out and about. I say you rest for the next few days. We'll have medics checkin' on you at the dorms, that cool?"

Despite his words, the tone suggested it wasn't a request.

 

[Ambyssin]

"Perhaps it'll heal the physical wounds, but I fear there are mental ones no amount of time will mend." Bahamut licked a forepaw and brushed his mane. God, why did he feel so compelled to do that?

 

[Phoenixsong]

"*kzzzt* Yo *bzzkkt* everyone *krrzzztch* outta ten *zzbbzzt*."

Slowly, agonizingly, the searing blue-white light that was everything began to dim. Other colors worked their way back into the world. The sounds were slower to rejoin the party. Everything was still buzzing.

"Not *brzzzt* ex*kkzzcht*ly. *krrkkkrzzzk* dragon *zzzzkkkzt* device. Ask *kzkrrrzk* whole fiasco *bzzzk*."

She was slumped on an even surface. Flat, regular, cool. Not ground, but floor. Inside. Patterened tiles of alternating color. Somewhere fancy. The tower?

"Maple, you’re *tkkkk*. Rest *krrk* now."

"I *kkkktz* not while…"

A higher ratio of words to that fog-damned crackling, finally. What was that, anyway? Some kind of awful tinnitus? It was receding now, though something about the quiet hissing and popping seemed to linger, less a sound and more a sensation that ran back and forth just under her exoskeleton. Like heavy numbness gradually giving way to a not-unpleasant tingling.

"I say you rest for the next *kkklkz* days. We’ll have medi*kkz* checkin’ on you at the dorms, that cool?"

It registered that floors were not generally perpendicular to one’s eyeline. She was lying on her side. Which didn’t feel terrible—she suspected she could get the recommended rest just fine right here—but she probably ought to head for the guild hall. Just had to muster the strength to roll over, and…

…to roll over, and…

…just had to roll over, and...

Skara did not roll over. She did not so much as budge. No amount of twisting caused her to tip back onto her feet. She tried pushing with her legs for a little more leverage, and found them unable to move. They felt like they were pinned underneath her. She couldn’t touch the tiles, she couldn’t rock herself onto her belly, she couldn’t reach for her bag.

…did she even still have her bag? Was Limax still there? Something chirped in the back of her mind, piping up above the whispering of the static. Okay, good—it was safe. So she still had the stone, and…

The stone.

She’d picked up one of the lumps in the first place because they’d reminded her of her everstone.

Which Diyem had not been able to send with her.

Shit. *zzzzkt*

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot had looked at Pop in awe the moment he had floated over to him and his teammates. Even if this wasn't his world, it was still Arceus, right here in front of him! The Cranidos continued to stare in amazement when Maple saying Joule's name caught his attention and made him look over. He grimaced when he noticed the state she was in... or the rest of the team for that matter. Most of his teammates were a lot more injured than he was, and while some of them had evolved, Skara didn't seem to be handling things too well. Not to mention Dave getting shadowed...

As Cabot looked around the room more he saw Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina still fused as the Blacklight Dragon laying on the ground, prompting him to turn over to Pop with a worried look.

"What's gonna happen to them?" he asked. "Can they be unfused?"

 

[Namohysip]

Arceus nodded. "Fix what we can first," he said simply to them all. "You should take care of your physical wounds for now, and be with one another for emotional support. That, uh..." He straightened himself. "That's real fly to do."

Owen squinted. Seems Pop had trouble keeping up the lingo. Though, from Owen's time in Cibus, it seemed that the manner of speaking was... dated.

"If you are ever in need of counseling or therapy," Pop added, "I would be happy to provide some of the best in Destiny Village to assist. But for now... rest. You all need rest."

He then nodded to Cabot, floating toward the fused trio. "...I can sense that they're stable, mentally," he said. "But these three were not meant to be put together in this way. Yet... I do not see an easy way. This will take some time, perhaps months to pry them apart." He sighed, shaking his head. "They will have to live together until then. But they need time to rest just as you do, anyway." He nodded. "...Thank you for saving them. Perhaps in a few days we can sort this out together, but you're all in no state for that now."

"Right." Soda crossed his arms. "Rest and recover. We'll be on the lookout for what we saw in there, and I guess we'll let you know what's up. If Maple's out, then I'm next in command. Any objections, Truffle?"

"I suppose I have a few," Truffle said, frowning. "You will actually perform your duties?"

"When haven't I?" Soda smirked. "If anything, I'll do it in the most efficient way possible."

Albeit still displeased, Truffle relented. He tended to Maple, gesturing for her to stand. When she couldn't, he and Potluck started to guide her out of Destiny Tower as supports on either side, before ultimately placing her golden, bleeding body onto Potluck's back.

"Does anybody need help walking back?" Owen asked the others. "Cabot, let's try to help everyone to their beds, and maybe the infirmary if they're really hurt. Dave... I'll carry Dave."

 

[Ambyssin]

“Oh, brother. Just put them on my back.” Bahamut loomed over his smaller teammates. “Mind the stone.”

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot gave Bahamut an unamused stare, before turning to Owen with a nod.

"Right! Let's help out who we can."

He looked over his teammates, before noticing that despite her new evolution, Starr was among the more injured members of team. Cabot made his way over to her and extended a helping claw.

"Hey, need some help?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa looked around, breathing deeply. Curio was safe. Astrid was okay. Owen was in one piece. Everyone else... also fine. Her priorities remained Starr and Dave, then. Dave was unconscious by her forepaws, Starr was...

"Starr? Starr, are you with us?"

The human didn't reply. She stared at something not present in the room with them, her torracat body betraying her feelings: some unpleasant cocktail of dread, horror, and confusion. She held her tail low, her ears flat, and her hackles up. Why? The shock of seeing... whoever that was?

Starr recognised him. He didn't know her. He's a familiar enemy. Why do I feel like I should know the answer?

"Starr! It's okay. You're safe now. We're all safe."

For however long.

"Hey, need some help?"

Brisa looked down at Dave. She'd have to carry him to the infirmary, huh. She couldn't do that and make sure Starr was okay. Alright.

"Howdy Cabot. I could use a paw gettin' Starr outta here. Starr, let's go get some rest, huh?"

 

[Persephone]

Cuicatl walked over to the litten — the Torracat. Others had whispered about evolution, and she did smell a little different.

But she held back a few body lengths away. Brisa was dealing with her. Starr would rather deal with her friend, anyway.

She had no further business here, but it would be rude to leave someone who was supposedly a god. He certainly didn’t sound like one, and after all the legendaries she had helped defeat here she was seriously starting to doubt these were real gods at all.

But rest did sound nice right now. Even if she’d stuck to the sidelines, using small doses of radiance to empower others, she was still exhausted.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr was frozen with numb, anxious fury still coursing through her veins, even after they'd gone through the portal and wound up somewhere else.

He was here. In Cibus. She'd been expecting it. Ever since talking with Silver. It shouldn't have affected her. Why the hell...

It wasn't even really him. So then why--

People were talking nearby. She registered Brisa's voice and relaxed slightly without really knowing why. Then Cabot held out a claw to help her up.

"Yeah," Starr muttered, holding out a paw. "Help would... be nice." She winced suddenly as the pain from her injuries caught up with her with the adrenaline ebbing away.

 

[Namohysip]

"Take care," Arceus said, levitating the Blacklight Dragon off the ground. "I will handle this. You all need to rest for now. If anything is wrong, send a prayer to me, and I shall hear it."

He disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the team to rest and recover on their own.

If Pop wasn't even bothering to keep up that informal façade... it must have really affected him. Despite the victory against the Blacklight Dragon, the situation felt all the more dire.

 

[Negrek]

In the end, impossibly, everybody made it back through the portal, even the fuckoff stupid dragon mashup the... necrozma?... had apparently conjured up somehow. Nate was giddy and exhausted at the same time, riding the tail-end of the battle high but perfectly aware that he was going to crash and feel like shit any second now. He needed to grab a drink, and then yeah... Lying low for a week or so sounded like a good plan.

At least he wasn't near as ripped up as a a lot of the team. He scowled as he looked over at the luxio and the... the whatever a litten evolved into, who'd decided to throw themselves at a living nuke and who looked like absolute shit. Dumbasses were lucky to be alive. And evolved. He should have figured people would start doing that soon. And here he was, stuck as a mudkip until the end of his days. Wonderful.

Nate loitered around after Arceus left and the other team members started to drift away, in case anybody might notice him breaking off from the rest of the group and give him shit for it. As the crowd thinned there was someone else who seemed to be left behind, though. Some kind of bug? Not one Nate recognized. But it didn't look to be having a good time of things, sparking and twitching and rocking a little side to side but not exactly going anywhere.

Nate approached cautiously. "Hey, uh, are you... okay?" he asked. "Can you move?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

Skara managed to hold back her incoherent frustrated buzzing long enough to realize that she recognized the voice. The... the mudkip, right? She wasn't sure whether it was more or less embarrassing to be stuck like this in front of someone who sort of knew her versus a complete stranger.

"Oh... n-no, I can't... I mean, not on my side like..."

On her perfectly flat, 90-degree angled side. Of course. No everstone, and she wasn't even strong enough to stop this from happening by herself, and now she was just a liability squished into a little box. A knight with a noble standard reading "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!" Majestic. Heroic. Perfect.

 

[Negrek]

On its side? Nate did a quick side-to-side check of the bug--had to be a bug, probably the cocoon phase. He had to admit there were some worse options out there than mudkip. Goddammit. Which side was supposed to be the feet?

Well, this side was all green, but this one had brown nubs that might be some kind of legs? Dubious, Nate gently tipped the bug sideways until its brown nubbins all touched the ground. "That better?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

Some foolish part of Skara's mind had still anticipated a gentle roll over back onto her feet. Shame that 90-degree angles did not work that way. The mudkip did his best to ease her over, but there was still an unpleasant jolt as she went past the corner and landed flat. A hefty *tzzzt* accompanied the impact. She couldn't tell whether that was just the electricity still buzzing inside or something that had come out of her mouth.

"T-thanks," she said, trying and probably failing not to wince. (Would a wince even be noticeable with this rigid shell?) "I think I can take it from here." Maybe. How much work was it going to be to get these chunky segments to move forward? She gave it a shot, trying to wrench her thorax up and forward and hoping the shell would play along. It did not achieve nearly the height or distance it would have before—not that that was much to begin with—but at least she was staring down at a slightly different row of floor tiles.

Skara sighed. "Thanks," she said again. "Let me get out of your way. Hope your shade's doing all right." And slowly, stiffly, she inched herself toward the door. Maybe, if she was lucky, she'd be back at the dorms before dark.

 

[Virgil134]

"I got you."

Cabot grabbed hold of Starr's paw and lifted her up, before moving her arm around his neck to help keep her steady. He looked over to Brisa who started to lift up Dave, and nodded to her in affirmation.

"Let's get them to the infirmary."

With that, he set off for the tower's exit alongside Starr. Despite everything they'd manage to save the day once again, even if things got rather close towards the end. That said, there were still several questions that nagged his mind. Who was this Mewtwo that appeared to be behind everything? And how did Starr know him? He certainly didn't seem to recognize her...

He supposed those questions could wait for another day. For now it was probably wise to do what Arceus had told them... namely to rest.

 

[Negrek]

Nate jumped back when the pokémon's "feet" hit the ground, accompanied by what sounded like a snap of electricity. The bug didn't exactly look happy about life, even after having been righted, but it assured him it was all right and began to inch away in the direction of town. "Y-yeah. Good luck, I guess." Wait, what about his shade? Should he know who this was?

He watched the bug's slow, slow progress towards the guild. He'd offer to help, but... What the fuck could he even do? Push the guy along? The bug was bigger and, he'd discovered, heavier than his entire fucking body. And, well, he probably could carry the bug, pokémon strength considered, but it wouldn't be a fun or dignified process for either of them. In that position, he would probably rather inch along than suffer the embarrassment himself, but still... That fucking sucked.

Nate watched the bug's progress for a couple more morose seconds, but the shade comment had reminded him. There was something he'd forgotten to do that was completely unacceptable to leave lying. Nate fished Rocky out of his bag. The golden ring around the stone had faded again, but it nevertheless felt like it was humming with more energy than before. "Hey, nice work back there," he said. "You were incredible, you know? We all woulda been fucked if you hadn't been able to, uh, do whatever the fuck that was." Voices from other worlds? A couple of them in particular--nope. He wasn't even going to deal with that shit right now. Instead he patted the top of the rock, which vibrated under his hand. Happily? He hoped happily.

Rocky shuddered again, beaming a thread of excitement and delight into his head. Nate smiled. "Great. Well, come on. You deserve something special after that. They gotta have gourmet berry shops or whatever the fuck around here somewhere."

The bug had by then inched its way about halfway down the hill and was still going strong. Nate shrugged his bag higher on his shoulders and sighed. Right. Well. Booze for him and food for Rocky. And after that... Yeah, some sleep sounded good. A nice, long sleep, and maybe then he could start to worry about whatever the hell all the implications were of that horrific battle.

<><><>​

 

[Ambyssin]

There was some sort of party going on, but Bahamut wasn't showing up. What point was there? It wasn't like his teammates liked him and it wasn't like the environment would help change that. Certainly not with the stone having become an enchanted spirit. So, he padded his way toward the big tower instead. While the team goofed off, he'd just busy himself was something that could be compared to work.

"I'm checking on Maple's condition," Bahamut announced to the front door. It wasn't polite to could barge into Fence-God's house without permission.

 

[Namohysip]

Like before, a delay followed by a flash marked Pop's appearance. "Mm, she is stable, but weakened," Pop replied. "Would you like to see her? She may not be the most responsive..."

 

[Ambyssin]

"I would." Perhaps she'd be unresponsive, but Bahamut was banking his apparent 'species' to win him points that his teammates wouldn't get. That and the fact that the bulk of the team's opinion of her kept getting lower and lower thanks to the only folks around who were arguably grouchier than him.