Destiny Village ~ X-Eye Cauldron

[Dragonfree]

"Hmmm." Diyem in trouble with the Overseers? For running interference beyond what the council has decided? Not filing the proper paperwork? Escaping the interdimensional institution where they were therapying the evil out of him? He should talk to Diyem, figure out what the hell was going on with all that.

"So you, the God Squad, sometimes do work, what, on the Overseers' behalf? Or just picking out things they haven't gotten around to that you think should get done?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Pretty much that second half. The main difference between what we do and what they do is we don't report to them or anything." Soda shrugged. "Never felt the need to since we're stronger on average, for one, and it'd just slow us down. Every now and then we have run-ins and they hem and haw and give us disapproving glares, but the fuck are they gonna do, y'know? We aren't breaking any of their rules and we're lightening their load."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave clenched his jaw. There he went, casually declaring they were stronger than the universal accountability organization and could just do what they wanted. Of course. God Squad gonna fucking God Squad.

"It ever occur to Maple to go fix your universe? Depose that Arceus? Sounds plenty bad to me. Why'd you go for Cibus and not any of the other worlds ruled by malicious fucks who think eternal torture or brainwashing people into sex is a cool idea?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Tch... we tried," he said, looking off. "Didn't go so well. Too many things were in balance. If we fought him, we'd be putting that whole world, maybe that whole universe at risk, not just us or Arceus or my partner or whatever. And, weird thing is, Cibus was just gonna be a pit stop. We didn't think it would be anything huge. Maple just mentioned there was something odd coming from here and she wanted to check it out. Well, lo and behold, we found something odd alright. We got attacked on our way in by something and that's probably related to the Blacklight."

 

[Dragonfree]

Yeah, they'd talked about that, hadn't they. And that was how Joule'd gone missing, right?

"You think the something was Giovanni or his lackeys, or Eien, or something else ridiculous that we haven't figured out yet?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Not a damn clue," Soda replied flatly. "Figure the best person to ask that would be Joule himself, but I bet if it was something critical he'd've told us already. He might not know either."

 

[Dragonfree]

"What made you figure it's related to the Blacklight? Just the timing of getting attacked and then finding that going on on Cibus?" He furrowed his brow. "What does 'the Blacklight' actually mean anyway? Near as I can tell it's just Radiance and Shadows combined, and the Radiance half at least apparently comes from Joule. Heck, the shades that were making people go Shadow when we first got here apparently came from him too." Dave narrowed his eyes.

 

[Namohysip]

"That--" Soda paused, running a claw on his chin. "...Huh, you're right. How about that. What came first, I wonder..." He leaned against the cushion of his seat and mulled it over. "Blacklight's just Joule's Radiance and someone's Shadows, I guess maybe Dark Matter's somehow? So how'd that... your dude came here afterward, right? And according to Arceus, this place was Dark Matter-free until you showed up... What gives?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Well, Joule was dispensing shades after getting corrupted by Giovanni. So one way or another Giovanni got his hands on Shadows before Diyem came here." Dave wasn't sure what to make of Soda apparently not having thought about this before. "Think Giovanni's the reason that one parallel world never had its Dark Matter crisis? He just grabbed it to use for his own purposes before it could happen, the way he grabbed Joule?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Mm. No idea on that, either." Soda shook his head. "The way I heard the story, Balm and Cepa never had their Dark Matter crisis but it seemed like he'd been there up until a while before it was supposed to happen. And then at the same time, Cibus was having its Dark Matter crisis, give or take a few months-ish delay or whatever. But that means Giovanni had been here for years, and something about that doesn't really add up for me. No way he'd be undiscovered for all that time."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Hmmm. Then maybe that's not how it vanished, but Giovanni still got his hands on that one, one way or another. Maybe that's what the creepy fucking Mewtwo he had with him is. Just a Dark Matter in Mewtwo form, the way Diyem looks like a Charizard."

He'd gathered some people had gone and 'interrogated' the Blacklight Mewtwo but it was completely unresponsive. Didn't mean it wasn't a Dark Matter, though. Whatever Giovanni'd done to it could probably be done to a Dark Matter, too, if he was able to stuff Diyem in a Radiant Machine.

 

[Namohysip]

"Maybe." Soda scratched under his mane. "That guy freaks me out. The way he just stares, y'know? And not, like, at anything, but straight ahead. Creepy fucker. And I thought Karat was already intense." He paused. "Hey, now that I think about it, any weirdness with how he looks that we can't already see?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"I mean, I don't know? Kinda dark purple, black eyes, tailtip turns into a shadowy haze, big red glowing Eternatus starburst in the middle of its chest? Does that all sound like what it looks like to you?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Yeah, looks right," Soda said. "Kinda the same as the pictures taken. I think if a picture looks the same to both of us, then that means whatever they have going on is either so corrupted it's leaking into their real appearance, or... I dunno. Pokemon here are weird energy beings, who knows how twisted energy can interact with that..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave nodded slowly. "The Mewtwo basically has the same thing going on that Darkwhite did, appearance-wise. Whatever the fuck that tells us."

He paused for a moment. Took another wing and ate it. "What are your thoughts on the Worldcore thing? Other than what you said in the forest?"

 

[Namohysip]

"...I guess that we oughta go and save her," Soda replied simply. "That's really all there is to it. There's gotta be a way to do that. It's the goddamn Worldcore. That thing rewrote the laws of the world to allow Pine to stay here... Which is why Darkwhite being in there is bad news."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Rewrote the laws of the world?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Yeah." Soda rolled his eyes. "Kinda. Let's just say that for one reason or another--never looked into it, probably some arbitrary shit--worlds like Cibus don't allow humans in. And they only get them because they need the power boost they have on Pokemon to get rid of some bigger disaster. So usually, when the human is done with their work, they return to their world. Not allowed to stay any longer. With some exceptions. Well, turns out the Worldcore was the one making those exceptions. Nanab, that Serperior? She made a wish in the Worldcore when Pine departed, so he could come and go as he pleased. Wished really hard with all her heart. And it fuckin' worked."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Huh. Is the Worldcore alive?" Destroying some kind of... sapient location didn't sound fantastic, if that was what it was. God, what on earth was Cibus.

 

[Namohysip]

"It's kinda tough to say," Soda said. "Maybe it's a fragment of Arceus. Or Buffet. Or its own thing. It's kinda hard to tell since I kinda don't study up on stuff like that."