Destiny Village ~ The Hero

[Flyg0n]

"Yeah, I am!"

His ears perked up and he felt himself smiling a little. There was a bit of immediate kinship he felt with her. Even if he didn't know each other, they had something important in common.

Even more exciting was the prospect of yet another pokemon world out there. There was already Shiron's and his own, so what was hers like?

"So what region are you from? What's your world like? What was your team like?"

He paused sharply and gave an awkward, halfhearted chuckle as it dawned on him he'd started to ramble. Still, his curiosity remained undeterred.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr blinked at him, a bit dumbfounded. Well, that sure was some enthusiasm. And she really wasn't expecting to get bombarded with questions, but... screw it, talking about home was nice.

"You expecting you'll know about it?" she asked him with a small bit of a smirk. "You know some of our worlds have nothing in common, right?" And even when they did come from similar worlds like her and Cuicatl, there was always the odds of living halfway around the world from each other.

"But sure, I'll bite," she went on, munching some fries. "I'm from the Kanto region in Tohjo. You heard of it?"

 

[Flyg0n]

"Obviously. But if there's other places with humans and Pokemon I want to know what they're like. And I do know Kanto!" he replied. The name Tohjo wasn't exactly ringing any bells. He briefly wondered if perhaps it was related to Johto somehow.

"I'm from the Sinnoh region, actually. Canalave City. Home of Canalave library." As far as he was concerned, there wasn't a city on the planet he'd rather live in, considering that Canalave's most well-known feature was its library. Kanto though... a lot of tough trainers hailed from there. The infamous Red, and plenty of the toughest gym leaders. Not to mention the legendary birds. It was certainly an interesting place.

"What about you, what town are you from?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Huh, so he was Sinnohan. A surprising number of teammates were from the same country as her. And come to think of it, so were Red and Silver and all the others who kept showing up here. Was that important? Weird...

"I've taken the train up to Sinnoh a few times, a few winter vacations when I was a kid." Man, that was ages ago... "Mostly around Hearthome. Haven't been there in a long time though," she went on, rubbing the back of her head. Maybe it'd be nice to travel up there. It'd be far away from all the Rocket shit. "I grew up in Viridian, traveled around Johto for a bit, then worked in Celadon for a few years."

 

[Flyg0n]

"Oh cool! My cousin is from Johto, or at least he was born there. I really wanna go sometime and see the Bell Tower and Burned Tower."

He took a seat, resting his paws on the table. It felt good to discuss things with someone else who was a trainer, and not have to worry about explaining everything about his world. "So what's your team like? Who'd you get as a starter?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr nodded. "Oh, yeah, I've been there before. Wasn't super into it, but I've got some friends who were." That place sure was popular with people who were into legends and such. Ajia had totally dragged her and Jade there when they'd visited Ecruteak.

She leaned her arm against the table. "As for my team--always thought I was gonna be a water-type trainer, so my starter was Feraligatr. Ended up training mostly fire-types in the end, but at least that means she can keep the rest of the crew in line. She's a hardass but I wouldn't have her any other way." Starr idly found herself wondering if she could actually hold her own when wresting with Feraligatr now that she was an Incineroar.

Her attention snapped back to Koamaru. "So who's yours?"

 

[Flyg0n]

Water types? For a moment he stared dubiously at the Incineroar. He didn't know her well, but he had a hard time imagining her training water-types.

"I actually got a Zubat as a starter," he said, chuckling awkwardly. "I really wanted a Shinx but I sorta accidentally caught this really determined Zubat." He said. The memory brought a smile to his face now. "I wasn't very nice to him at first, but he stuck with me," he said, embarrassed. Why Echo chose to stick with him he'd never really understood. But he was thankful nonetheless.

"After that.... Well, I sorta ended up with a weird team. Before I started my journey I had my whole team planned but... Never caught any of them."
He wouldn't trade any of his team for the world though. They were perfect to him.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr nodded with a bit of a grin. "I feel you there. Pretty much everything I had planned when I started my journey went out the window." Granted... most of that had been because of work changing things in a big way. What would her team have been like if she'd gotten to meet all of them like a normal trainer?

"...I wouldn't really want to change anything though." At least, not with them. They'd had her back for years, in that hell. Had she ever told any of them how much that meant? Well, Feraligatr would probably brush it off--that's just how she was. But still...

Starr shook her head. "So what kind of trainer were you aiming to be anyway? Going competitive or just out to see the world, that kinda thing."

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa considered his answer carefully, as he always did. Not everyone reacted to his ideas so well. Still, Starr seemed.... trustworthy, and Brisa trusted her too.

"Well... the truth is I'm not that interested in the league or stuff like that. What I really want to do is to catch a legendary." He paused, wondering how she'd react to the statement. In retrospect, he had no idea what her world was like, or if it even had legendaries. Not every world seemed as fortunate as his.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr had to stop herself from doing a spit-take. Man, this kid sure was something. Kinda reminded her of that friend of Jade's from back home. The one partnered with Moltres? Yeah, him.

She gave him a wry grin. "Gonna go out on a limb and guess that that's not quite as controversial as it'd be in my world."

 

[Flyg0n]

Well at least she hadn’t dismissed him instantly. Koa chuckled awkwardly. “Well. Sort of…” How to explain? “It’s… not forbidden. And people have been able to accomplish it, but not for a long time because-“ his mouth twisted into a frown.

“Well, lets just say some unsavory people tried to do it a few years ago in my world. They wanted to catch Dialga and Palkia.” He shuddered. Just thinking about that made him feel uncomfortable. Even if they were worlds away and the event happened years ago. “They failed, but now some people get nervous when the subject of legendaries gets brought up. Back home I try to avoid telling people about wanting to catch one.”

It felt nice, just to talk about normal stuff for a bit, even if her world sounded different from his own. "Why is it controversial in your world?" he asked, almost dreading the potential response.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Boy, a lot of that sure sounded familiar.

Starr folded her arms, mulling over her response. "Wellll... legend-catching is pretty new in my world too. And yeah, not exactly the best people doing it either." And she'd been one of them. "You can probably guess that they're not exactly being used for anything good, so it's made a lot of people pretty upset."

There were also a lot of people who weren't upset. That sort of politics didn't really need to come up, though.

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa snorted. Of course. Was it the same everywhere, wicked humans chasing down the legendaries for selfish reasons? Enslaving them to use their power? A bitter taste gathered on his tongue and he frowned.

Still... if Starr was here, chosen to help Cibus, did that mean-? His gaze brightened with curiosity. "Are you like... a hero back home? Were you trying to stop them from catching legends?" Perhaps that was why she'd been chosen. He could only assume that was the case, since he guessed Diyem had chosen or contacted him because.... well maybe because he was fighting Team Blackout? Perhaps Starr was like that too.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr's chest tightened. Her expression faltered for just a second, but she kept it from being any more than that.

'A hero.' For a moment she imagined herself telling him the truth. 'Nah, sorry kid, I was the exact opposite of that. I was the bad guy.' God, wouldn't that be something. Part of her almost wanted to see it. Almost.

She forced a smile. "Nah. My friends are the crazy ones doing hero shit. I'm just stuck with them for the ride." Diyem should've picked one of them.

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa nodded. He briefly found himself wondering if he'd be one of those friends. Probably. Blake was always reprimanding him for getting into trouble. How many times now had he seen the inside of a police station? ... Or a hospital? He snorted and shook his head.
"I feel that. Although... I think I am one of those friends," he said with a laugh. "But you still came here, so I guess you still got some whatever that... hero's aura stuff is."

He fell silent, then sighed ever so slightly. "You ever miss it all? I'm glad I came but..." he frowned a little, trying to piece his thoughts together. "I miss training with my team and just traveling. This is pretty crazy by my standards. Worst I ever dealt with back home was a few criminals trying to kidnap pokemon."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Somehow it wasn’t too surprising that he saw himself as being like her friends. A younger, more reckless Ajia, maybe. (It was fine if he wanted to think Starr was a hero. She didn’t have to correct him.)

“It felt pretty lonely here early on. Spent pretty much every day just wanting to finish the mission and get home. It’s better now—I’ve got people to care about. ...Still miss my friends and my team though.”

She had to throw up an eyebrow at the mention of dealing with Pokemon thieves. “Yeah, you would’ve fit right in with the rebel kids back home.”

 

[Flyg0n]

"Rebel kids? That sounds like it was... intense," he murmured.

He stared down at the table for a moment, lost in thought. Something nagged at him, and had been ever since he'd approached Starr here. A question he didn't want to ask but he couldn't get out of his head.

"Hey Starr... I know you weren't at that meeting but-" he hesitated. Part of him didn't want to broach the topic at all. He'd be happy talking trainer stuff all day honestly. But Brisa trusted Starr. He needed to know what she thought.

"What do you think about... Everything? With this spy stuff I mean?"
Had they made the right choice?

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr let out something between a sigh and a groan. "Right, the spy thing..." Brisa had been anxious about all that too. And in a way, Starr couldn't really know what they were going through, because she hadn't even known the full details of what was going on until they'd gotten to the tree. She just knew that she'd trusted what Brisa was going for. And then learning that everyone else had their panties in a twist because the two of them had done the sensible thing and kept that info secure.

"You guys did the right thing. Things could've gone way the hell worse if that info had gotten out. It's not even about trust, it's about people being in danger if they know the wrong thing." Too many ways to slip up. Too many ways to get info dragged out of them.

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa nodded nonchalantly. Inwardly though, he wanted to scream. He wanted to grab Starr by the shoulders and yell; 'Then why doesn’t it feel like I didn’t? Why does it feel like I screwed everything up?'

Because you did.

The Team had been hurt because of him. Even now he could still feel the lingering tension among them. He was sure some of the Team still hated him, not that he blamed them.

“So you don’t think we could have-”

Saved Maple and Eien? Stopped all this from happening? Done better?

“- figured something different out if we had told everyone?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Ah, fuck...

Starr fought back the urge to just say that it was stupid to expect some magical solution to have spawned out of nowhere from leaking sensitive info to anyone who could hear it. Well, it was true but... there had to be a better way to put it. The kid was beating himself up bad enough as-is.

Starr rubbed the back of her head. "Look... yeah, maybe there was some possible better option, but that doesn't make it likely. The most likely thing that would've happened there was a bunch of people learning some real dangerous shit and making everything go even worse. And it's not even like we can't fix things here."