[Inaccessible] Veritas City

[Namohysip]

Veritas City is a world between worlds. A dimensional crossroads where the spirits of many other realms can sometimes find themselves by chance. This city, surrounded by seemingly infinite fields and forests in all directions, is home to mysterious, but friendly, natives, as well as several visitors from well beyond. To exit, one simply has to go to the coliseum and answer a question or perform a task. It is a quirky attribute to this world, but one that is very consistent and reliable.

Yet today, in this modern city in the middle of a remote field, a strange native to the city has called for a task less standard...

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"I didn't know the coliseum had a basement," Charmander Owen said.

Far above them, through thick dirt, a new dare was being performed, something about a song-and-dance tune. He wasn't really sure what it was for, or the whole reason behind strange tradition of this world between worlds, but it was fun to watch. More curious was why Diyem, a Charizard and apparent insider of this world, was leading Owen into this secret passageway.

"It is simple," Diyem said. "I recently sent out a message for assistance. However, I also have you on-hand."

"Oh. Assistance? Is something wrong with the coliseum?"

"This world is just fine. It is another world that is not." Diyem looked back at Owen, and then turned down the marble halls. He had left a sign for others like Owen to follow, should they be summoned, but Owen was currently the only one conveniently present. "Owen, do you have any desire to return to your world?"

"Well, sure!"

"To do so now."

"Well... I'd like to stick around here for a while longer," Owen admitted, playing with his claws. "Time doesn't pass while I'm here, right? So it'd be like I was never gone. And I don't seem to remember this place while I'm home, either..."

"Yes. It is a property of this world for those who have a hero's aura."

"A hero's what?"

Diyem shook his head. "Unimportant. Owen, do you want to save a world?"

Owen perked up. "Well, yeah! But--wait, is that what you brought me here for?"

They entered a large chamber that pulsed with that same mysterious light, enough that their twin flames were made redundant. At the back of this rounded, white room was a square screen, completely blank. In the center was a table with nothing on it that went up to Diyem's chest.

"Now then," Diyem said. "We've known each other for long enough. Would you like to go?"

"Um. Okay," Owen said. "But will I, y'know, what happens if I get stuck there?"

"You cannot. Your spirit will be tied to mine, and I will remain here." Diyem clicked his claws, forming little sparks of fire. "Due to how far away this world is, I cannot send your body or your aura there, only your spirit, which can travel much faster. I will use my own power, remotely, to construct a new body for you with as much power as I can muster. Then, when the threat is defeated, I will bring you back, and we can return to normalcy. This will not take very long."

Even Owen, with his undying optimism, looked skeptical.

"At the very least," Diyem growled, "no time will pass in your world for your own obligations."

Owen frowned, but he could tell by Diyem's flame that he was desperate. No matter how calm his tone was, something was clearly bothering Diyem, and if he was so hasty... "Why me? I'm not all that strong."

"My options are limited."

Comforting. "Well, okay," Owen relented. "When do I go?"

"Now. Good luck."

"Wait--"

A bolt of black lightning struck Owen, and he was gone.

A few seconds of silence passed and Diyem closed his eyes. "...He will die on his own, but at least it will buy time," he said to himself, turning toward the entrance. "Oh well. Time to get more heroes."

<><><>

 

[Namohysip]

This is too cramped. I did not expect so many worlds to readily answer my call.

Diyem stood in the middle of his pristine chambers, arms crossed and wings folded behind him. The Charizard's reptilian eyes scanned the eclectic crowd before him, Pokemon to humans to Legends alike. He could already sense that a few of the would be trouble. Too headstrong, too optimistic, too glory-seeking, too brooding. But perhaps they could be cannon fodder like the last one.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He didn't return here. So Owen wasn't killed. He was probably captured, or trapped, or he's just passed out in the fields still. Any of those options were useless.

Oh, they were staring at him expectantly, weren't they? And the last of the prompt arrivals were shuffling in. The late arrivals he could rely on the others catching them up.

"Hello," Diyem said, eyes scanning the group. "I imagine a few of you are surprised to see a talking Pokemon. Get used to it. If you are not aware of why you were sent here, allow me to enlighten you: A world is in danger, and they cannot handle it themselves. I am in need of heroic souls in... one way or another. You will not be in any danger while you are there; your spirits will be returned back to the worlds you came from when this is over.

"You will... usually not remember what happened, at least not until your hero's aura fades. Do not worry about the term; it is not important. What is important is that you will be needed to save a world... And perhaps, in exchange, gain their appreciation, and some time to relax. And so on and so forth." He absently twirled his hand. "What? It isn't as if you have anything better to do. Your worlds' respective realities sent your spirits here for a mission."

Diyem turned around, motioning to a screen on the back wall, which flashed on. "This is the last footage I was able to gain of this world before my connection was severed. It relies on the consciousness of the Pokemon I am linked to, and I had only sent one. Afterward, things became so distorted in his general area that I was unable to observe further..."

As Diyem spoke, it showed footage of a little Charmander--one that seemed familiar to a few of the group, who watched more intently--battling what appeared to be a giant, building-sized Magikarp, large enough to flatten whole streets effortlessly.

The final moments included Charmander being washed away by a Hydro Pump, and then the whole screen distorting. Then, after what seemed to be a lot of time, it showed that same Charmander flat on the ground, deep in mud, and a great shadow looming over him. A second later, the giant Magikarp landed on him--and the screen blacked out.

"...The good news is," Diyem said, "he isn't back here, which means he isn't dead. The bad news, then, is that he might have been trapped, or captured, or perhaps he's merely unconscious in the field still. Either way, your first mission is to stop that gigantic Pokemon from destroying the place. It is currently on its way toward a very important town on that continent, perhaps less than a day's worth of time... I will be sending you there, instead, to prepare. During that time, I will be searching for Charmander from here. I will be your eyes to the world at large, vast as it may be."

Diyem shut his eyes, nodded, and then scanned the crowd. "Do you have any questions?"

 

[Ambyssin]

The first thing the large, black prism registered was pain. A dull ache set in on his arms and he sank to the floor. This mysterious character's chambers... they were too dark. Lighter than the distortion of Etherium, to be sure, but he was without his precious light rations. The more he looked around at everyone else who'd been summoned, the more an invisible vice squeezed his core. He quickly opted to shrink himself down to a more-reasonable 1.5 meters, putting him closer in size to the pale, furless meatbags that had been summoned. It dampened the pain enough for him to listen to the speaker.

Fortunately, he had no mouth or lips. Else the other people there would see him drawn them back into a sneer. Heroic soul? A hero's aura? Laughable. Someone as worthless as him possessed nothing of the sort. Perhaps in the past... but this charizard — and he sincerely doubted a simple charizard could pull lifeforms from countless realities together, which meant they were being deceived — didn't pull his past self here. Though it wasn't like his home really had anyone who actually fit the description of possessing a hero's aura. So, if he was going to be on this "team," then he'd be the lowest. The weakest. The most expendable. It was all he deserved.

Necrozma was lost enough in thought that the sudden appearance of the footage made him tense. The moment he glimpsed the giant magikarp, his claws dug into the chamber floors. A distorted scratch echoed all around him. "A giant pokémon," he muttered. "So, World Ender has its sights set on another planet."

 

[TheGOAT]

It was all so foggy.

Astrid had no idea what had come before this. A nap, maybe? A night’s sleep? Had she been walking down the boardwalk with her friends? That memory was the clearest in her head, but that couldn’t possibly be correct. She felt like she’d been asleep, arriving sometime later at this bizarre dream located a step beyond her consciousness...

“Hey, um,” Okay, this wasn’t a dream. She looked around; okay, there were a lot of Pokémon here. “Who are you?”

 

[Equitial]

Ashwood blinked and suddenly they were in a room surrounded by... things? Pokemon??? What.

But, suddenly, it came pouring back. They had received a strange message, telling them they needed to be a hero and save the world. Then... they showed up in some strange dimension, and had played Truth or Dare.

That had been fun.

Oh god, did that mean...? They looked at their hands. So they hadn't been turned into a Pokemon. Yet.

They were completely freaking out through Diyem's entire speech. But wait, Diyem had said they had a hero's soul. They had to focus! That Charmander, Owen, he was in danger.

"I have questions," Ashwood said, raising their hand. "First of all, hi everyone, my name's Ashwood, nice to meet you. Guess we're going to be saving the world together. So... cool." They took a breath. "Anyway... that is one big Magikarp. Does it like -- I know the newest games have something like Giant-maxxing -- does that have to do with anything? And what is it doing there? It's a fish. Also, do we get to choose what kind of Pokemon we get to be? That question isn't as important, but, you know."

 

[Namohysip]

"I am Diyem," the Charizard replied to the icy Vulpix. "I will be your guide for this mission. No, I am not a normal Charizard." He glanced at the shrunken Necrozma in the crowd, sensing his accusatory stare. "I suppose you could say I am in charge of this city, and with that comes a few special powers and privileges. One of those include assisting with worlds beyond. Unimportant." He waved it off.

Next came one of the humans, Ashwood. He was one from a human world that had grazed Pokemon realities. "The term is Dynamaxing, and yes. It is very likely related to that power, or someone attempting to harness that power. While you are handling the Magikarp, I will be searching for the source."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

Seyka glanced around the room at the assorted pokemon that he could and couldn't name. Cocking his head to one side, he pushed his annoyance away and decided that, while unfortunate, it might be exciting too. Listening to some of the others ask questions, he decided to speak up.

"I have a question too!" he said, bouncing from one foot to the other. "You said that Charmander wasn't dead. But how do you know he wasn't faking it?" A conspiratorial look crossed his face. "What if they changed their mind about the world thing?"

The Skarmory stared at the floor for a moment. "So- about saving the world. Is this more of a spiritual experience, or are we contract workers?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"Unimportant? It's very important." Necrozma shakily pointed his right arm at Diyem. "How do we know this isn't a trap? You could be working for World Ender and sending us all off like wooloo to a slaughter." His arm fell back to his side with a resounding clang. "Just because I'm of no use... doesn't mean you should deprive these souls of the chance to live out their lives."

 

[Persephone]

The screaming stopped abruptly, leaving Cuicatl with the lingering feeling that her soul wasn’t large enough to fill her body. The Voice was larger than she could ever be.

When she finally began to pay attention to the world, she noticed that something vaguely draconic was speaking. In... English? Nahuatl? Draconic? None of them? All of them. Her abilities stayed helpfully silent.

She reached down to her belt out of instinct but found no balls there. That put her on guard. The dragon wanted her to be a hero? With no Pokémon? Of all the people in the world... in all the worlds... why her?

The questions started. She recognized two of the voices: a vulpix and something alarmingly like The Voice, but infinitely quieter.

She began to put the pieces together. A video had been shown, apparently of a giant magikarp (?) beating something to near death. And the creature isn’t dead because he didn’t show up...

“Is this Mictlan? The Land of the Dead?”

 

[Namohysip]

"Spiritual in a sense," Diyem replied. "In that I will be sending your spirits to this world. And I assure you, that Charmander has not given up on saving the world. I know him well after his time spent here... And he happened to be on-hand at the time. But if any of you happen to be skeptical of my intentions... know this: If I wanted to do something like that, why have I not already?"

Then, the human with a curiously psychic aura about her. "It is not that place. You are in Veritas City. Though soon, since it seems you accepted this call, you will be going to another world entirely."

 

[TheGOAT]

“Obviously not.” At least he was correct about that. A normal Charizard wouldn’t have bent time and space to bring them here.

...Them. Astrid looked around. Who were these—?

 

[windskull]

An off-colored sneasel near the back of the group moved forward, weaving around the legs of some of the taller creatures — the humans, mostly — so that he could get a better look at the charizard that had brought them all here. His ear flicked a couple of times as he crossed his arms, giving the pokemon and humans he'd be working with an inquisitive look over. Some of them seemed nervous. Other's brazen, or even cheerful. Only time would tell if they would be helpful allies. The strange, crystalline one he'd seen back at the bonfire was particularly interesting to him. It was something he couldn't put his paw on, like there was something missing that he couldn't quite piece together. But it felt like the creature... the pokemon? Whatever he was, it felt like there was more power in him than he let on.

Finally having heard enough, Nip stepped forward, letting out a frosty puff of air. "I am Nip, of—" He cut himself off. Explaining that he was of the Half-Moon Tribe would mean nothing to anyone here. There was no need to open up his own old wounds. "Well, I come from the northern part of my world, but that doesn't matter here."

He turned his attention first to the human that had just spoken. "That name is unfamiliar, but I am quite certain we have not passed on to the Land of the Dead. Otherwise, Yveltal would be here to greet us and welcome us under her wing."

Next, he turned his attention back to Diyem. "I take it you hope to send us all to deal with this... giant magikarp. There is power in hunting and fighting together. But... let me ask. How do you plan to search for more information, if you need us to be both your eyes and your fighters?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"You have done nothing sinister because you are selling us a bed of false hope to lie in." Necrozma brought his arms close to his jagged torso. "Hope is the well from which despair springs... and the scent of despair attracts World Ender." He didn't care if people looked at him funny, like the odd sneasel and the meatbag with the curious aura about her. He knew what this was. If Diyem was just World Ender's stooge, he'd have to use his powers to ensure the others would be safe.

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem looked Necrozma over with an amused smirk. "Had it been any other circumstance, I feel like I would be able to get along with you. You seem level-headed enough to recognize the unknown... Still." He hummed. "That is also the most difficult person to convince, isn't it? I have shown you all I had. I have told you about the mission. I lied about nothing, and I have no way to prove a negative otherwise.

"As for how I will see the world..."

Diyem made a motion, and the screen lit up again. Dim and flickering, but eventually it showed an overview of a once-beautiful field of grass, now muddy and imprinted with Magikarp-shaped craters. "I can still have a basic view of the world, limited as it may be. While you are all on the ground, I shall be here searching from the heavens. It isn't... the best, and there are distortions due to the powers involved... but it will have to do."

 

[The Walrein]

Jaro's large eyes grew even larger as he took in the riot of different creatures around him. He had no idea so many different tribes existed in the world! (Or, wait, it seemed like people here came from more than one world? Maybe that explained it). The only Pokemon whose species he recognized was a Clefairy, who he guessed must have also come from his own world. He wasn't exactly on good terms with the Clefairy tribe where he came from, but maybe this one was different if she wanted to be a hero, like him?

The young Jigglypuff was so distracted looking around at everyone he missed most of Diyem's explanation, but he gathered that he was going to be fighting a Magikarp (thankfully a creature he was familiar with, although he wasn't really certain how one could be a threat outside of water (or even in the water, for that matter)). Direly confused, he was about to raise his voice and ask a question, but paused when the angular black creature (it barely even looked like a living thing, but rather a roughly cut rock formation!) raised the possibility of this all being a trap. Crap, could that really be true? And what was that 'World Ender' it was talking about? Sure sounded ominous... Well, if the whole thing was a trap, it was probably too late to do anything about it now, so might as well just keep going on as if it wasn't...

Jaro emitted a loud hum to indicate he wished to ask a question. "Wait, hold up! Okay, so we're in this... 'Veritas City' now, and the world we're going to save is someplace else? Is it Venus? Or Mars?" he asked. Those were the only other worlds he knew of besides Earth (there was also the moon, but he knew that world was already beyond saving). "And, wait, how were you able to trap the Magikarp inside that... thing there?" Jaro gestured vaguely at the screen. "Can't you just... do that again? Seems like it'd be easier than tracking it down and fighting it."

 

[SparklingEspeon]

...Oh. This place again.

Fennekin Tricky yawned, rolling over onto her feet. She'd been here before, but always with Espurr. Espurr was practically terrified of the place, and Tricky didn't understand it. What was there to be scared of when all you had to do was say the word and all the cake you could ever wish for popped up out of nowhere?

......Tricky was sorely tempted to indulge in a slice of cake right now.

She looked around for Espurr. She didn't see Espurr, but she saw what must have been almost a thousand other pokemon - where did they all come from? She hadn't seen any of them before, and she only recognized the species of half. Excitement overtook Tricky, and she quickly bounded off towards the center of the crowd to see the sights.

This clearly wasn't a party. There was an air of seriousness in the chamber, and no-mon laughed or talked like they were having fun. Tricky slowed to a stop as she reached the center of the room, where a very grumpy-looking charizard was having a back and forth with some of the other pokemon. She sat on her haunches at the front of the crowd, perking her ears in tense curiosity to hear everything going on. Once she had a good idea of what was going on (the transmission of that giant magikarp had helped more than Tricky would admit), she loudly asked her one all-important question:

"How did a fish get that big?"

 

[Fusion]

"Isn't hope also the thing to dispel despair? Even if it's false hope, it's almost better than having none at all." A Litwick popped up at Necrozma's side. She had been squished and smooshed by all the other people and Pokemon, but wasn't really phased by it all. She carried a satchel, perfectly sized for her, and a far more optimistic look than... whatever look Necrozma had.

"If this Diyem guy had any ill intentions, why wouldn't he act on them now? When we're confused and lost, you know, when he has the upper hand?"

 

[Persephone]

“Dragons don’t lie much,” Cuicatl murmured, more to herself than anyone. “As the ghost(?) said, they have all the power they need to finish things directly.”

This wasn’t Mictlan. And there were... world enders? That can’t be right. The world isn’t set to end for another few years. And Diyem talked about “the heavens.” A servant of Quetzlcoatl’s? Or perhaps this was the sun’s train, with fallen warriors and mothers. But she had died neither of those deaths. That couldn’t be right, either...

 

[Equitial]

Ashwood stepped toward Litwick, who had just popped out of nowhere. "Hey yeah," Ashwood said, "calm down Necrozma. I really doubt Diyem has some big bad plan to get us all killed or something."

They looked around the room. So many people, more than had appeared in that place where they played Truth or Dare. There was another human, brown skinned with green hair, who thought she was dead, and other people who appeared to not know what was going on. They stepped toward the middle of the room.

"For what it's worth," they said, raising their voice, "I can vouch for Diyem and that Charmander he showed us on the screen. Me and some other people met him before. Diyem's a little... grouchy, but he and that Charmander are still cool. And you all received that invitation asking us to come here, right? You all accepted, so you must have believed what he was saying. We gotta focus. Owen's in trouble."

 

[windskull]

Nip tilted his head slightly as the view changed. He... supposed that made sense. Probably. He then turned his attention to the jigglypuff. "It's not really there. That's obviously some sort of zoroark illusion. Or else perhaps some powerful psychic is conjuring it. Although..." He tilted his head down, bringing a paw to his face. "I've never heard of a charizard that has either of those skills."