Destiny Village ~ Chip's Lab

[Namohysip]

"Air Continent. Lines up pretty well. We didn't get any messages sent from them for their supposed trek to the Sand Continent..." Chip twitched again. "You don't think they're spies, right? Mmmzzzz no, I don't think that's possible..."

 

[Negrek]

"I don't. I was wondering if we could narrow things down at all, make it a bit easier on Bean. Like, you know, have less than a whole continent to search. But you can't get more specific than that, huh?" Nate shook his head. "And I was thinking about what happened to Deoxys. They were working with Karat, right? But Karat seems worried about them, like he don't know what they're up to anymore, either. I thought they disappeared months ago, like way before any of this shit with Shield and all them. But you're saying the last you got from them was Air Continent, too? Around the same time you saw the last messages from Bone and them?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh, yeah. Karat and Deoxys are best buds and stuff. I don't really want to ask what else they do with each other, but they're close. That guy may think he's slick, but I can tell that they only really separated a little while ago, and not because they were in a rough patch of the relationship, either! ...Not sure why they were so secretive about it, though. Unless you think Deoxys ran off with Team Drumstick? It's possible..."

 

[Negrek]

Nate's eyes narrowed. "No. I meant Deoxys turned up missing months ago, back around the time we fought Lugia. But you're saying the last message sent from Deoxys' badge was from the Air Continent? When?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Eh? Uhhh..." Chip buzzed again, his head swiveling a full 360 degrees. "A few weeks ago, last we checked. During initial interrogations, Karat slipped a little and mentioned that he and Deoxys had talked during a time when he should have been missing... Which means Deoxys might have still been fighting even while Karat was working with you guys as that move tutor. But then he went missing for real..."

 

[Negrek]

So the damn mewtwo had been going around pretending to be broken up about Deoxys going poof, when they'd actually been in touch the entire time? Jesus fucking Christ. He probably was going to have to try and talk to that asshole, wasn't he? Fucking mewtwo. "Guess it serves the two of them right, playing a game like that," Nate growled. "Giovanni might've nabbed Deoxys back when that lot showed up in his hideout. Guess Shield wouldn't remember, since his head's been fucked with."

Nate sighed and took an idle look around the lab. Seems like a pretty shit life, hanging out underground with a bunch of machines the entire time. Maybe that was why the porygon was so weird. "Well, thanks, anyway. There's some useful info in all that. I know you've been working hard." Nate frowned. "Only one other thing I wanted to ask. Not related. Back in my world we've got a thing called an experience share. Basically a machine that lets a pokémon grow from battle it don't actually fight in, like it transfers some of the battle energy or whatever to them. There anything like that here in Cibus?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh! You must be talking about Joy Ribbons." Chip nodded. "Having trouble with the evolution thing? Kinda weird, since I think Diyem was channeling power into you guys to power up, or something, right? I don't think you guys grow stronger the same way... Hmm. Something odd must have happened for you in particular... Mmmmzzz well either way, you can ask Maple or S'more if they can get one for you. They're pretty hard to find, but it essentially lets some of the energy exerted from your allies channel into you instead." Chip waved dismissively. "Pop calls it a Good Vibe collector. There are lots of variations on them, too."

 

[Negrek]

(( Rejoice! Those were all the questions I had for Chip. ))

Nate smiled. "It ain't for me. But thanks, I'll ask Maple about it." He glanced over at the door past which Silver's team had been hanging out the last time he was here. "Are Silver's pokémon still hanging out here? I was hoping I could see them if they're around."

 

[Namohysip]

"Yep, same as always. They've been kinda down ever since Silver fell asleep... Though I don't really know if he got along all that much with his team. Probably too busy brooding. Seems like a real brooding type."

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, yeah. For sure. Lotta brooding." Or, well, lotta snoring, these days. Sucked that Silver hadn't really been able to connect with his team at all... for him and for the pokémon both. And now they were just kind of stuck down here.

Rocky easily outpaced him to the door--probably bored with all the talking and eager to meet some new friends. "Hey, Silver's team! I'm Rocky! We already met, but not for very long."

Nate rolled his eyes and pushed past the familiar. "They can't fucking understand you, dumbass." Which made it all the more awkward when he found himself standing there, staring up at Silver's pokémon, without any idea what to say... since they couldn't fucking understand him, either. "Uh, how're you all doing?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Rrraah?" Typhlosion asked, cocking his head. His ears twitched, and Weavile whispered something too Alakazam, who nodded sagely. Weavile snickered and jabbed at Gengar next, who let out a hissing laugh with him. They must have been mocking Nate for one reason or other...

Typhlosion snorted at the trio and looked back at Nate inquisitively.

 

[Negrek]

"I think they're laughing at you," Rocky whispered, loudly, to Nate. The mudkip's smile hardened, but he wasn't about to give up that easily.

"Yeah, maybe," he said. Taking off his badge, he used it to project an image of the sleeping Silver. "Just thought you should know, if nobody told you. Silver's fine. Your trainer? He's okay." He pointed at the image and gave the pokémon a thumbs-up.

 

[Namohysip]

Typhlosion didn't seem surprised, nor did any of the rest of Silver's team. However, seeing the image of Silver, and then Nate's explanation, it seemed like he understood at least a little of it. His frown deepened, and then he turned around, going to the rest of his team to say something. Alakazam hummed, thoughtful. Crobat made a small screech, displeased. Gengar's smile weakened a little.

 

[Negrek]

Well, that wasn't... the most enthusiastic response. Hopefully they were just feeling a little blue because the guy was still out of commission and they didn't know when they'd see him again, and not any of the other hundreds of things Typhlosion might have touched on.

Super fucking frustrating. It didn't feel like it had ever been this hard to understand his own pokémon, although at least they could tell what the fuck he was saying.

Rocky exchanged a morose look with Nate. Yeah, real mood killer, that. And if they didn't much care for that picture, Nate had a feeling they wouldn't like this next one, either. "So, I was wondering, uh..." Nate changed the image the badge was projecting to a still from a news broadcast, what had been a rather low-quality recording of a charizard wearing a scarf, tail blazing with unnatural flame. "Recognize this guy?"

 

[Namohysip]

Instant. That was how quickly they recognized the Charizard--even Weavile, who had been joking around with Alakazam and Gengar, stopped mid-laugh and stared at the hazy image. Typhlosion's expression lit up, like he'd seen an old friend--but then it dissolved into confusion and concern. He didn't seem to recognize the ethereal flame--in fact, the picture showed that Charizard's flame was a normal color, instead of what they had seen themselves--but they could tell by the body language that something was not right with him.

Typhlosion growled confusedly. 'What's wrong with him?' he seemed to wonder.

 

[Negrek]

Yeah, there it was. That pretty much meant it had to be Red's charizard, right? If he'd gotten turned into a charizard himself, Silver's team might not have actually seen him afterwards. They probably wouldn't have recognized him so fast. Now... what had happened to him?

"You got the paper and shit?" Nate asked, holding a hand out towards Rocky, who produced a notebook and pen from his bag and handed them over. Nate put the notebook in front of him on the floor and scribbled as fast as he could, trying to draw something that would explain what happened to the charizard.

"You should let me draw," Rocky said, watching the process with a critical eye. "I'm good at drawing." Nate ignored him.

After a couple minutes, Nate put the pen down. "Something like that," he grumbled at what he'd drawn, then held it up for the pokémon to inspect.

(( I figured I shouldn't make you try to guess how interpretable Nate's picture would be based on a written description. :P ))

 

[Namohysip]

Typhlosion looked over the image, then showed the others, who seemed to be impressed by Nate's drawing skills, aside from Alakazam. But as they looked over the image, there seemed to be something wrong with it, based on what Alakazam and Weavile were muttering to one another. Magnezone buzzed, proposing a plan. Weavile replied with a shrug, which made Magnezone twitch one of his magnets. Then, he relented, and then Typhlosion asked the others a question while pointing at his head. All heads turned to Crobat, perched on Gengar's head, who blinked. He hadn't been paying attention, so he was surprised and beat his wings angrily when Typhlosion grabbed him.

Weavile, meanwhile, ran to the corner of the room to get what looked like some Cheri berries. He smooshed it onto the 'cheeks' of Magnezone's body, and made sure that he was floating near Typhlosion, who was now affixing Crobat onto his head. Crobat looked humiliated, even as Weavile smeared a bit of Cheri paste onto Crobat as well, making him look redder in color.

Alakazam scribbled something down on Nate's drawing on the final image of the corrupted Charizard, putting a hat on his head and a bag with six circles on his side.

Gengar, finally paying attention, hopped onto Typhlosion's back and spread his arms as far as he could, flapping them like wings. Magnezone buzzed halfheartedly, sending sparks to the two red circles on his cheeks.

Then, Typhlosion tilted the Crob-hat down, using the wings like a visor, and struck a cool pose.

"... ... ...," Typhlosion said, staring into Nate's soul.

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, man. That's so good!" Rocky laughed and applauded. "It's Red! You're really good at looking like him."

"Huh." So he'd been wrong after all. "So you're telling me Red got turned into Charizard?"

 

[Namohysip]

Typhlosion made what might have been a bark of approval, but he seemed pleased. Alakazam, however, made sure to tap at the six circles that he'd drawn on the previous Charizard drawing. It seemed that Red was not alone... But he had also become a Pokemon himself, just like Giovanni and Silver. Ironically, he was the only one of the three to not become a Legend...

 

[Negrek]

Nate nodded. "Right. We gotta worry about them, too."

He looked down at the paper in front of him. Okay... okay. They were getting somewhere. But this next bit was going to require a lot more drawing.

Rocky leaned in close to watch, but thankfully didn't have any helpful advice to offer. Dammit, how the fuck were you even supposed to draw weavile? "Do you want to... join up with us?" Nate asked.

More scribbling. "We're gonna fight Giovanni. And then... We can get your friends back. And then maybe you can go home."