Grass Continent ~ Treasure Town Beach

[Namohysip]

"We have stories?" Cepa asked, leaning a little closer. "Hmmm... Well, that does make sense. I bet Pepper talked all about us, even if Thyme's probably the one who would've..." She trailed off, but then shrugged. "What do you think, Balm?"

Balm frowned, still staring at Maple. "You aren't normal."

"A pleasure to meet you as well," Maple deadpanned. Glancing at the others, she added, "So you're saying Balm here has a similar condition to Turf?"

Balm's expression somehow hardened even further. "What happened to Turf?"

 

[Adamhuarts]

Oh wow, it really was them! But there were supposed to be four heroes in the story. An exploration team of two and then Grovyle and Celebi. He'd already inferred from Maples story that the order of events happened differently than in his world, but...

Cynthian narrowed his eyes at the three of them. "Who in the world is Turf? Is it someone we should know?"

 

[Virgil134]

"I think Truffle mentioned that she lives inside that bluff over there with her sister Surf," Cabot said, pointing at the Sharpedo Bluff. "But, I heard she got sick, and when some of our teammates found her she was breathing out this black, shadowy haze that nobody else could see."

The Cranidos paused a moment in realization, before turning to Celeste.

"Wait, Celeste, you were there when it happened, right?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

“Turf was... not well. Her body was warped, she was coughing black smoke... and Surf couldn’t tell. None of the locals could see it at all, only the members of our group. I tried to heal her, and then... she attacked. She was much stronger then she should’ve been. It took a half-dozen of us to stop her, and when we did... we knocked some kind of disease spirit out of her. We captured it and and... Well, I’m getting sidetracked. I’m supposed to be talking about Turf...

“The whole time, she was shouting things about how she didn’t want to be a hero, how she thought we were going to make her be a hero because of her father. We’d never said anything like that, but the sickness seemed to have latched on to her fears and used them to... puppeteer her.

“The reason we’re concerned about you is... Well, you had the same shadowy haze. Unlike Turf’s, yours was only when you were attacking, and it went away when Cele- Cepa reached out to you. Your body still looks normal to us, too. I think you’re in the... early stages of infection.”

 

[Adamhuarts]

"So, that's what the rapid infection Maple mentioned is like?!" Cynthian asked with a small jump. "Wow, I sure I'm glad I wasn't there to witness that."

 

[Umbramatic]

Oh no. A certain Mew is floating over.

"Hey guys! Whatcha talkin' about?"

 

[Ambyssin]

A shadowy haze? Some sort of infection? Well, it sure seemed like Maple's attack had done... something. Whereas his Confusion was... borderline worthless. Fitting, he supposed. But if this sceptile was suffering, why were they just standing around talking?

Necrozma looked at his light orb. Then he looked to his right hand. This won't be pleasant, but I cannot let you suffer any further. He hovered around until he was behind Balm. Then, with a surprisingly-fast wind up, he fastballed the light orb right at Balm's backside. Between the shoulder blades, where it seemed like the haze was thickest. He begged this would work.

 

[Negrek]

The water gun hit home, and Nate didn't attempt to hide a sneer at the Celebi's distress. It was completely pointless, of course. As the legend itself was protesting, this wasn't the right Celebi. Soaking it wasn't going to do even the tiniest thing to whichever one of its alternative timeline selves or whatever bullshit actually deserved it, but God if it wasn't satisfying to watch one of those fuckers squirm.

The water gun left Nate dizzy and exhausted, another grand side effect of getting yanked off into yet another world. It's not like he'd be able to do much to a Celebi even under ordinary circumstances, but here he couldn't even must a proper hydro pump or anything. A bit of running, water gunning, and a single mud-slap, and Nate couldn't do anything but sit and gasp for air, waiting for his vision to steady again.

The Celebi shook his attack off, no problem, and Nate braced himself for some kind of counter, an energy ball or a psychic blast or whatever, not like it particularly mattered. But the attack never came, and in fact the Celebi zipped off to join the sceptile, leaving him alone to recover from the strain of his own fucking attacks. Nate stared after Celebi in shock, dimly registering something about a disease, or a slug, or something. (Surf? Turf? Why was this world like being trapped in a bizarro restaurant all the damn time?) The sceptile was smoking? Nate could hardly hear anything from where he was, not that it mattered. Not that anything mattered. He hadn't even put a scratch on Celebi, and it wasn't like he'd be able to do better even if he ever found the one he was actually looking for. All his life spent jerked around by assholes who didn't give the first shit about him and only thought it was funny to make him dance for their amusement. And in the end it wasn't that they didn't care how he felt about it, it was that they wouldn't even fucking notice, because what good even was he, anyway?

"Don't you fucking ignore me!" Nate screamed, heaving himself to his feet and charging down the beach towards Celebi. With the last of his energy he threw himself at the legend's back, hoping to tackle it out of the air.

 

[windskull]

That shadow... was he about to strike? Nip tensed, prepared to run or else strike again. But then it was gone the moment Celebi (was celebi always supposed to be pink in the legends? How odd) tapped him.

Necrozma was moving. Nip tilted his head, watching him curiously while ignoring the approaching mudkip. What was he doing? Oh-

 

[Namohysip]

Cepa yipped in surprise and sank a few feet toward the ground. "Augh! Look, if you have a crush on me, I'm sorry, but I'm taken! And you're a little too forward for my tastes, anyway! And if you're a worshiper--at a distance!" She twirled around, forcing Nate to hang upside-down on her back.

Meanwhile, Balm looked back at Necrozma incredulously, but didn't react in time when he shoved the ball of light into his back, particularly since it seemed harmless. He grunted, like he was offended, and suddenly the slug thing came bursting out of his chest. No wound was left behind, and the blackness that was left behind closed up in seconds.

"What are you doing?" Balm growled at Necrozma just as the slug thing flopped on the sand. It made a splash in the loose terrain--something that Maple, Balm, and Cepa all noticed.

 

[Adamhuarts]

"Seriously, what even is that thing?" Cynthian twisted his face I'm disgust and made very well sure not to go anywhere near the wriggly creature.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Celeste stared in surprise at the thing Nameless had just disgorged from Balm. “Woah. How did you know that would work? You really know your stuff, I guess... You wanna jar this one up, too, or are we just going to try to destroy it?”

 

[Virgil134]

"Ah! We should capture it quickly!" Cabot exclaimed as he looked around for something to contain the creature with.

 

[Umbramatic]

"Wait, there's a monster? Is that an extradimensional mon? A Glitch? Someone's five week old Berry salad?"

He notices Cabot.

"Oh! Here!"

Transforms into a Dewpider, which blows a large bubble at the creature.

"Use this to help keep it still!"

 

[Ambyssin]

“I didn’t actually know if that would work,” Necrozma gingerly scooped up his stress— err, light ball. “But Maple’s attack felt like it had a similar aura about it. So, I went for it.” He turned to Balm and bowed. “I apologize for my rudeness. I simply couldn’t stand seeing you in pain.”

 

[Namohysip]

"...Pain?" Balm said, frowning again. Now that he mentioned it, though, there was a certain lightness to his shoulders compared to a few moments ago. He glanced at the bubble, and then wondered if Necrozma was secretly some kind of... chiropractor.

The bubble was fast enough and the slug thing was dazed enough that it was trapped inside almost instantly.

And then, suddenly, Maple, Balm, and Cepa all stared at it.

"What in the world is that?" Cepa said worriedly. "It's... I've never seen a Pokemon like it!"

"How were you able to spot it so easily?" Balm asked. "I have a keen eye for this sort of thing and I only noticed when it fell."

"We can see it from how the water is displaced," Maple explained to the others.

 

[Virgil134]

"Oh, clever thinking!" Cabot said to Mithos. He had no idea what sort of Pokémon he was or how he could transform like a Ditto, but he sure was glad he was on their side. "Though we should probably put that slug creature in something more permanent."

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmm, another one?" Maple said, sticking her paw in a small portal like it was a purse. "At this rate we're going to start forming a collection. Still, more specimens might be useful..." She pulled out another jar from the portal and approached the bubble.

Whatever it was, it didn't look like it needed to breathe. It was also weak on its own, unable to escape its watery prison.

"That thing was inside me? How?" Balm frowned. "This is somehow worse than when I was possessed by Spiritomb..."

"Something is strange about this one, though," Maple said, looking back once the jar of water was sealed. "We did not have to subdue Balm like we did with Surf. And I highly doubt that light I gave Necrozma would have been enough on its own..."

 

[Virgil134]

"Maybe it's because Balm only recently got infected?" Cabot wondered.

 

[windskull]

Nip recoiled in disgust, looking over the captured... thing. "I think Cabot's on to something. When I met Surf before, it seemed like Turf had been sick for a while." And from the sound of things, it had been a Big Sickness. One of the ones that seemed to have no cure. He tilted his head up so that he could look at the sceptile's face. Had you felt... well, sick at all, lately? Even a little?"