Destiny Village ~ Library

[Namohysip]

"The Air Continent," Bean said. "You used to be on the Grass Continent with Treasure Town. Air is just north of that. Generally cooler climate. Drier, too... Hence the name."

"Bone's world... She came from a world similar to yours, I believe. One with Pokemon and humans living together--not like Pine, who came from a world without Pokemon at all." Buffet sighed, contemplative. "Where could they have gone...? Perhaps we should check places that they had gone to previously again."

"Even if there were never distortions there?" Bean asked.

"We've checked the known distortions. What if a new one appeared, hidden?"

 

[Negrek]

"World like mine, huh?" Nate smiled mirthlessly. "Not too much, I hope. Wonder if she was ever a trainer, then. Not important though. Don't suppose you know what she was up to before she disappeared, do you? No talk of wanting to visit anybody, or taking a job somewhere out of town?"

The map still didn't mean much to Nate, though Rocky seemed amused, being able to zoom in and out and make places light up as Bean mentioned them. A northern continent, colder than this one. Not exactly what he was looking for. Plenty of mountains, though, it looked like. "Air Continent got any volcanoes? Or anyplace with magma, lava, that kind of shit? Maybe underground?"

 

[Namohysip]

"No, nothing of the sort." Bean frowned. "They weren't being particularly odd with their usual patterns. They went to investigate something in a Dungeon nearby, and... simply didn't come back. We searched for all kinds of signs for them, but--"

"Wait a moment," Buffet said. "If they never left the continent, how did Bone's club wind up on the Isle of Light? I know they're on the Air Continent now. I feel them vaguely in that direction, yet..."

"Then they briefly went to the Isle of Light, and then returned to the Air Continent," Bean concluded. "Perhaps with Shield... who has Psychic blocks on parts of his memory."

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah, I was wondering about that, too," Nate said when Buffet mentioned that the group supposedly hadn't left the Air Continent but the bone had shown up in the Isle of Light nonetheless. "So that's how you know they ain't left the place? Kinda a Life sorta feeling, even if you can't tell exactly where they are?"

Shield had been to the Air Continent? If Bean's theory was right, anyway. The guy got around. It would probably be a good idea to see if he'd cough up what exactly he'd been up to before the whole battle they'd had, or what he could remember. Good thing the whole scarf thing had gone and gotten him even more pissed off at the team, then.

"You know what dungeon Bone was thinking of checking out before she disappeared? Or if not... What dungeons are around where she lives, anyhow?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Mostly simple Dungeons. I'm pretty sure most Dungeons on the Air Continent had all but evaporated by now..." Bean looked the map over. "Hmmm, but that still begs the question..."

Buffet listed out several Dungeons, and Bean promptly confirmed that he'd checked each one for signs of Team Drumstick, to no avail.

"The only other place they'd check would be Bone's network of, ohh, what were they called? Friend areas? I'm sure your team has seen some of it, like that old human lab, or those lovely swamplands..."

 

[Negrek]

Nate inclined his head slightly at the mention of an "old human lab." That would almost be too obvious... but it was certainly interesting. Might be worth checking out later.

Right now, though, they were looking for something else. "Any of these friend areas hot? Like, I mean 'fire' hot. Lava, magma, that sort of thing. Underground. Ringing any bells?"

God, though. "Friend" areas? What the fuck was this place's entire deal with friendship?

 

[Namohysip]

"A few places," Buffet said. "Why do you ask?"

"I've already checked everywhere underground or hard to approach," Bean said. "What other places would be better to hide than a place hard to approach, right?"

"But it seems they either moved around, or they picked somewhere new..."

 

[Negrek]

"Diyem mentioned burning," Nate said. "Wherever he was, it was burning him. So, I mean, he's like a living ball of darkness and hatred or whatever the fuck, hugs and pictures of cute baby meowth probably burn him, too, but I figure Giovanni ain't building no torture dungeon of hugs and sappy holiday movies. So, fire. Or maybe acid, I guess. Underground's Giovanni's style, but it doesn't have to be, necessarily. So hot places, fiery places, that's where I'd check first. Wherever they are, they probably ain't been there too long. Giovanni probably moved shop after the attack on his place over on the Isle of Light. Anyhow." Nate pushed the bone a little towards Bean. "I didn't bring this along just to look pretty. I figure you got a pretty decent nose on you, right? This ought to have Bone's scent on it. Thought maybe you could use that to help track her down."

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmm... Compared to everything else, I'd definitely have a bit of a lead with that." The Zygarde leaned forward. "But it isn't just my nose that's good. That you were able to find a Marowak's Bone Club... That's much more than a scent. She uses so many of her attacks through this bone that the residual energy from her attacks is still there. With this..."

"Oh! With this, you could do a lot more than just scouting! You could probably retrace her steps completely! But... You won't be able to track her if she went into a Dungeon." Buffet sighed. "I suppose that's why we didn't try."

"Unless she didn't go into one." Bean's eyes flashed rhythmically. "It feels like it hasn't been too long since she's touched this. No more than a few weeks... It's faint, but maybe... just maybe..."

Buffet waited. "Are you sending the signal to all of your others?"

"I am. Nothing on the Water, Grass, or Mist Continents. Nothing here, of course. And nothing in the Sea of Wonders. There's a trace of it in the Sand Continent, but we knew that... and of course, it's strongest on Air. I think while you are all searching the Isle of Light, I will try to hone in on where Bone is on the Air Continent. The fact that I'm getting a scent at all..."

"She isn't in a distortion." Buffet crossed her arms. "But then why can't Arceus find her? Or anyone on her team?"

"Something other than a distortion is interfering," Bean said. "The only other thing that'd do that would be... associated with Giovanni."

 

[Negrek]

"That's great!" Rocky said. "Then Diyem's got to be on the Air Continent! That's a whole lot less to search than the entire world." He grinned at Nate, tail thrashing behind him with excitement.

"Don't get your hopes up," Nate said, although he couldn't suppress a faint smile. "We know he was there at some point. Giovanni could've moved him again, easy."

"We'll find him!" Rocky said brightly. "And Sword, too, and Red, and everybody else Giovanni stole. He can't hide from us forever!"

Maybe not. What worried Nate was what Giovanni would do when he decided it was time to stop hiding. "When you're talking about things associated with Giovanni, you mean those gadgets that block attacks and shit?" he asked Bean. "Like whatever Shield had that was stopping Arceus from reading his mind?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Red?" Buffet asked. "what do you mean, Red? And--yes, I do think that GIovanni's technology would be a factor here."

"That's quite an odd name," Bean remarked.

"It is, but it's also a name I'll never forget. A very famous recurring entity," Buffet explained to Bean. "Not in our world, but certainly in the world Bone is from, for example. Worlds with humans and Pokemon often have a human who is... legendary, in a sense. They are often called Red in outer worlds, though apparently his name is not always that. Nate--why do you think there is a Red with Giovanni?"

 

[Negrek]

"Well, Silver can't remember much, but he sure as fuck remembers Red. Says he gets a real bad vibe whenever he sees a charizard or pikachu, and real bad vibes from the idea of Red himself. No guarantee he got dragged here along with Silver, but it seems pretty likely to me. And hard to imagine him being here wouldn't be tangled up with Giovanni somehow. Charizard and pikachu might be members of his team, but they could be pokémon he got turned into, too. Wouldn't be surprised if the charizard flying around here wrecking shit the other night was Red's, or even Red himself." Too bad he'd had to miss all that excitement. He hadn't been anywhere near the Guild, obviously, and by the time his fucking stupid tiny mudkip legs had gotten him over there, the charizard was long gone.

"So Red's so cool he's even a legendary trainer on lots of worlds," Rocky said, but he sounded uncertain rather than enthusiastic. The familiar exchanged a nervous look with Nate. They had the same memories of the guy, after all.

 

[Namohysip]

"I see... It's possible." Buffet hummed. "Yes. Very possible. But I'm not really sure... how to go about proving that until we can actually find them. Goodness, Giovanni is very good at evading detection from the two best sentinels in the world!" Buffet laughed, but he seemed a little distressed about it.

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah. No proof. And Silver conveniently just decided to take a thousand-year nap or whatever the fuck." Nate sighed. "But be on the lookout for strange pikachu, I guess. That's the little bastard you really gotta watch out for." Though now that he was thinking of it... Goddammit, he needed to talk to Silver's team again, for real. The whole evolution thing had distracted him from a lot of important shit. Too bad none of them understood a goddamn word of Cibean.

Rocky was still looking pensive, staring at nothing behind Buffet. "Well, I guess that's about it from us," Nate said. "Good luck with the search and all. Like I said, fiery places might be where I'd look first, but hopefully the bone gives you something more solid to go on. If there's nothing else, I guess... Is there anything we can do to help?"

 

[Namohysip]

"For now, as much information you can get from the Isle of Light could help," said Buffet. "We'll leave that investigation to you all. We can handle the Air Continent and see if we find anything there. Even the low-likelihood places..."

 

[Negrek]

"You can count on us!" Rocky said. "We'll do the best investigation ever! There's no way Giovanni's gonna get away from us!"

"Yeah," Nate said, with another hint of a smile. "I guess we'll catch you later, then. Maybe someplace with food next time, huh? I'm sure you know a few good places."

After that, it was back out through the library, and fortunately Rocky was too lost in thought to want to linger and look at books. "We're gonna find them, right?" he said. "We'll find sword, and Diyem too! This is awesome!"

"Sure. Awesome," Nate said, and for once he didn't sound sarcastic about it. "Let's get ready, huh? If we trip over Giovanni, we kinda want to be prepared."

"Ooh, yeah! When we find Giovanni, we need somebody to taunt him so he can't teleport away! Or put him to sleep. Somebody should put him to sleep." And Rocky was perfectly happy to expound on strategies for stopping Giovanni all the way across town, long after Nate had stopped listening.

<><><>​

 

[IFBench]

Burhalla stood outside the library. It was a place of interaction, a place of relaxation, a place of truth.

The truth was always comforting. There was no room for error with it. There were no secrets kept with it. You didn't have to worry that something being a lie when you knew the truth. It was valuable to Burhalla.

Was it really valuable to him, though, or was it just valuable to Burhalla? He felt about the truth as strongly as the memories he had of Burhalla did, but was that really him?

Was he Burhalla, or just someone masquerading as him?

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Luz didn't recognise this charmander-shade... Definitely not Cal, though. Fantastic, another familiar she hadn't met!

"Howdy, there!" she called. "I'm Zeraora Luz. I don't believe I've had the pleasure?"

The fella looked as if he was going through some deep brooding. So long as he answered her, the interaction should be interesting~

 

[IFBench]

"I'm Burhalla, or at least, I think I am," the familiar said, looking over towards Luz.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Luz beamed. Oh, yes, an excellent start! She offered a massive paw to shake.

"Y'think you're Burhalla, huh? Well, partner, that either means y'got unclear memories, which don't seem likely, or y'got a crisis of identity, which sounds exactly like th'sorta thing a Team Spectrum familiar would be dealin' with. So, am I right? Y'got some doubts as t'whether yer a real person, or at least th'real person y'remember bein'?"