Marowak Dojo ~ Living Quarters

[Dragonfree]

Dave glanced at Squiggly. This whole thing still gave him the creeps, to be honest. Could they get out? Even if they were drawn to it, did that actually mean it was good? Flies were drawn to Venus flytrap plants, for fuck's sake. Even if they felt great in there, technically, if you locked a human in a box barely bigger than them and they said they felt great about it and wanted to stay there forever, that would not inspire confidence. Was this some kind of shade wireheading thing? And frankly the fact it apparently powered Nip up made it worse.

"I'm sorry, you don't sound terribly surprised," he said, looking at Chip. "What, did you figure this out already and just thought gee, maybe they'll object to trapping these slugs that do math in rocks for their own personal gain, let's pretend we know nothing about this?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I didn't know this would happen at all!" Chip said, not losing a single beat. "The fact that our hypothesis is confirmed so far is amazing! And what was that? Resonant?"

Soda shrugged. "You know, I can't fault ya for being careful," he said, "but we really weren't totally sure."

Squiggly looked between Dave and Soda, then chirped once.

Owen, too, seemed unsure. "I think Dave has a point," he admitted, looking at the Shade, then at the stone. "Is there any way we can try to read their minds or something? Have we tried that at all?"

Soda, who seemed perpetually baffled at how they were turning these literal emotional parasites into pets, squinted at Owen. "Read the mind of something you can't even see?"

"Well, I mean--what are some other things that we haven't tried yet?" Owen asked. "Maybe if we get a few things together... Is there anybody who can read minds really well? We can ask the one in Nip's right now how it's feeling more specifically. Or if its mind is being altered in some way? Or, you know, all that..."

Soda harrumphed and paced, thinking. Chip looked dejected, mumbling something about Zekrom again.

"...Two things," Soda said. "There were two things we haven't tried yet. One is a crackpot theory that's sort of risky, but it's worth a shot. The other one is... Karat."

"Karat?" Owen asked. "Oh! I know him! I met him in the woods, and he seemed really shy."

"...Shy. Right. Well, Karat's a Mewtwo. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy knew how to read minds, especially for things as simple as Shades. I'll call him now. Chip, call Cepa, for that other thing."

"Okay..." Chip sadly said, followed by a series of beeps. Apparently his badge was installed somewhere on his person.

 

[windskull]

"Abilities?" Nip tilted his head. "You mean like those, uh... the dungeon gemstones, do you know what I'm talking about?" Realizing not everyone would know, Nip continued his explanation. "They're formed by dungeon distortions and deteriorate when you leave the area. But when you're in the dungeon, they can make you stronger, or gift you certain abilities.

"Also... Mewtwo? I've met Karat, but I'll have to admit I don't know what a 'mewtew' is. I'm... guessing he's psychic though, from your explanation?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave blinked, looking between Chip and Soda. "I'm sorry, a Mewtwo?" He let out a disbelieving chuckle. "Are you serious? Fucking Mewtwo?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Yeap," Soda replied nonchalantly. "Lemme guess, just an old tale where you're from or something? Heard that one a lot, but he's as real as all the other Legends you've probably heard about." Soda meandered to the edge of the room and settled down after closing his badge's interface. "He'll be here soon. Try not to laugh at him or he'll get irritated."

 

[Phoenixsong]

"Ah, sorry," Skara said quickly. "I'd meant to ask that of Chip, since I thought he'd seen Cabot's stone before. It sounds like he doesn't know either, though? I guess we'll just have to find Cabot later."

She frowned at the stone for a moment, letting the talk of mewtwos go over her head, before something clicked. "Do you prefer possessing the stone, or possessing pokémon?" she asked it. "Oh, wait, that's not yes-or-no... wiggle once for the stone, and twice for pokémon?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeap," Soda replied nonchalantly. "Lemme guess, just an old tale where you're from or something? Heard that one a lot, but he's as real as all the other Legends you've probably heard about." Soda meandered to the edge of the room and settled down after closing his badge's interface. "He'll be here soon. Try not to laugh at him or he'll get irritated."

Dave snorted. "Yeah, uh, they're not very old tales. Mewtwo, the definitely real superweapon genetically engineered from the definitely real Mew by the government, hidden at a top-secret military facility, something something aliens, Big Brother is watching us, the deep state wants to mind-control everyone, wear aluminum foil dipped in Dark-type piss to stay safe, only $200 at my dodgy online store with an animated gif background? That Mewtwo?" He shook his head. "Jesus. How the fuck is Mewtwo real? You don't even have humans. I thought the whole point was it was supposed to be this manmade genetically enhanced clone. Who engineered it over here? Or like, are we talking a totally different Pokémon that just happens to have the same name?"

 

[Namohysip]

"...Wait, uh--" Owen glanced worriedly at his Shade, who seemed to be contemplating this question for a worrying amount of time. "What're we supposed to do if they prefer possessing Pokemon? We can't let that happen!"

Owen's Shade chirped in response and waved its vaguely leech-tendrilled body in the air while balanced atop of head. It didn't seem to totally understand what Owen was saying and was only mimicking his distressed tone.

"Shh, shh, it's alright," Owen replied, lowering his voice. The Shade growled, pacified, and curled around Owen's skull again.

Soda, meanwhile, addressed Dave. "Nope, he's real. Manmade Pokemon, based off of Mew's DNA. Except... he's not from this world. He came here like all the other humans did, only, as a Mewtwo, well... he was strong enough to keep his body. He doesn't talk much about the world he came from, though, but at least it explains why his name is spelled weirdly."

"Weirdly." Someone appeared just behind Soda.

"Eyyy, here he is!" Soda stepped aside and bowed exaggeratedly, still smirking.

It was a tall Pokemon covered completely in loose, brown cloth. His eyes glowed faintly behind his hood. "...Nobody can follow us inside the dojo?" he asked Soda.

"Nah, no adoring fans to harass you here." Soda winked.

Karat huffed and made a smooth gesture with his right hand. In an instant, the cloth disappeared, revealing the Mewtwo, flesh and blood and real.

Owen flinched, but said nothing, and instead focused on the Shade on his head.

 

[windskull]

Genetically engineered? Military? Big Brother? 200 dollars? Nip understood some of these words, and he wasn't totally convinced Dave wasn't just making them up. Who had ever heard of something called aluminum foil? Sounded fake, but whatever. He had no chance to question the poochyena, though, as the mewtwo in question showed up. Now that he had a chance to see the pokemon up close, he could see a vague resemblance to the mew (mew, not Mew, because he refused to believe that pokemon could be a creator god) that was in their party.

 

[Phoenixsong]

"I hope they don't prefer it!" Skara offered quickly when the charmander interjected. "If they do, though, that doesn't really change how we're approaching them now. But if they like the stones better, maybe we can use that in some way? Have people carry them around or something, so there are alternatives, or at least distractions, on hand? It seems like it'd be safer for both parties..."

The newcomer certainly was... something. Most of Soda and the poochyena's words flew right over her head, and frankly she wasn't sure what the deal with the "mew" stuff was, either. Wasn't there a pokémon called a "mew" in their group? What did this brooding giant have to do with that guy, and why did it matter? The important part was that he could help get to the bottom of how to handle the shades, right?

 

[Torchic]

Cino's attention was all on his shade being possessive. How was he gonna make it merge with the Lump when it doesn't let him do exactly that?

It managed to bite him once. It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would, it felt more uncomfortable than hurtful.

"Can someone please help me with that-" he looked at the others and saw a new Pokemon in their group. "Wh- who's that?" For how long wasn't he paying attention again? He hated his short attention span.

 

[Namohysip]

"Are you sure you want to do that before we look into it?" Owen asked Cino, stepping closer to see how the Shade was doing. "Like, even though the Shades seem okay in there, we don't know if it's actually harmful or not..."

"So that's why you want me here." Karat sighed and approached Owen first, looking him over. "An invisible creature that you want me to see if they're... what, exactly?"

"Just read their thoughts and see if anything is off about it. Maybe, compared from a normal Shade to one of those stones." Soda shrugged.

"...A stone. The stone thinks, now?"

"He-ey! Someone called me here?"

At the back of the room, a pink Celebi came flying into the room, waving happily. "How come you guys wanted me?"

 

[Torchic]

Are you sure you want to do that before we look into it?"

"Well, it's not like the one from Nip wants to escape, right? So it should be fine?" Cino looked at his slug wiggling protectively around the Lump. "And I first have to actually get the Lump away from my slug, but it keeps trying to bite me. Maybe it's confused and thinks I'm trying to hurt it?"

Another hiss came from Cino's cage.

 

[Negrek]

Nate left the dojo the first opportunity he got, blinking in the sunshine outside, as perplexed as if he'd been underground for hours. Yeah, sure, he wouldn't have wanted to miss that, but what in the fuck was he supposed to do with, "Yeah, I'm a manifestation of pure negativity and despair and I maybe tried to chuck the planet into the sun a couple times, but I'm really, really sorry now and don't want to murder everyone anymore. In fact, I want to save everyone instead." If you could believe that. If you could believe any of that shit.

Nate wished he could simply discard the "manifestation of pure negativity" thing out of hand on account of it being fucking stupid, but unfortunately given everything else that had happened it barely even registered as far-fetched. And it would fit, wouldn't it? It would be just his luck. When in his entire fucking life had he not been working for Big Evil?

He couldn't deal with that shit now anyway. More important things to focus on, like he'd said. But nobody seemed to care. They all went their separate ways, off to do whatever fucking thing. What was he supposed to do now? What could he do now? He couldn't think, he couldn't come up with anything, when his mind kept running back to Diyem's confession and what if one of those other pokémon really was running off to tell Maple what was up and put all their asses on the line?

Yeah, this was great. This was a lot of fucking help. What a great contribution he'd make, wandering in fucking circles until the smeargle ported in and skewered him like a kebab, and then if he was lucky he'd wake up in the company of Most Evil to Ever Evil and get the chance to do it all over ag--

Nate froze for a second when a shadow flashed across him, head snapping up instinctively. Some kind of bug, buzzing wings, big head--oh. Celebi. Celebi?

Celebi--yeah, he owed that bitch a visit, didn't he? And she'd come from another world, supposedly. So people wanted to talk to her, right? See if she knew anything about what happened to the shinx and the litten? Right. Yeah. He could do that. That was something, at least.

Nate followed the pokémon's looping, erratic flight, not caring who he shoved aside as he made his way back across the square. Of course, there was no chance of him keeping up, but fortunately the legend's destination was perfectly clear by the time Nate lost sight of her. The dojo, precisely the place he'd just come from.

A couple minutes later he charged into the building, breathing hard enough that he could barely get out, "Hey, Pinkie. You got a--" Celebi wasn't alone. Nate vaguely registered the God Squad zoroark, the twitching, glitching form of what had to be a Porygon-Z, a few Misfits. But what immediately drew his eye and froze the words in his throat and the blood in his veins was the pokémon who towered over all the rest, surveying the room with horribly familiar purple eyes.

Nate might have run then, actually, if he'd been able to move at all. No. Not fucking possible. There was no fucking way he could be here, too. "W-what in the fuck is going on in here?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Quiet. I'm reading a mind." Karat said, not even looking back at Nate for a second glance.

"Oh, no, it's him," Celebi mumbled to herself, still recalling his disruptive behavior the first time. "Um! Hello... Mudkip! Good to see you! We were actually called here to do some kind of experimenting or something, so... Well, it was mostly to inspect these Shades." She gestured to the ground, having only a guess at where they were. Not there, though.

"You aren't gonna accidentally read my thoughts, right?" Owen asked.

"I am trying to detect simple-minded entities," Karat said, "so there is a risk of that."

Owen's flame crackled and he decided to let the joke slide for the sake of getting the task done sooner.

 

[Negrek]

Nate barely heard whatever Celebi said to him, his attention fixed on Mewtwo. It couldn't really be him. It was some alternate-reality version again, had to be. Nate tried to reason with the fear strangling his chest. He didn't actually know anything about this guy. Nobody else was freaking the fuck out about him being here. There was no reason the bizarro reverse-world special edition Mewtwo couldn't be a perfectly nice guy.

Although, in what reality would your specially-designed superweapon be safe to be around? Plus the guy had just gone and been a dick to the charmander for no reason, so how different could he really be? Asshole there, asshole here. And used to getting away with it just because he could turn somebody's brain to soup if they ever objected.

Yeah, fuck that guy. That was a feeling Nate could work with. That was the indignation that could get his mouth moving again. "Some fucking lousy excuse for a psychic you must be, if you can't even tell what a charmander mind looks like. Maybe they should've brought in a psyduck or something, it'd probably do a better job."

And he'd come here for a reason, too. To Celebi he said, "Yeah, cool. Dunno if you've heard, but a couple members of my team went missing, and some people think they might've gotten stuck in another dimension or some shit. You're from another world, right? You know anything about how to find them if they got sent somewhere else?"

 

[Namohysip]

Karat glanced back at Nate, eyes narrowing. "He with you?" he asked Owen.

"Um, yes."

"Mm. So I can't blast him away."

"Please don't."

Karat huffed through his nose and then resumed reading the mind of the Shade on top of his head.

"Hmm... Sorry, I can't say for sure," Cepa said to Nate. "There are a lot of ways to travel around a world, but between worlds? that's not very easy most of the time, if at all... but if someone did do that, hmm..."

Karat finished, "You should ask Pop yourself."

"Pop?" Owen asked.

"Arceus," Karat said. "He decided to choose a normal name so he could be more approachable to mortals."

"R-right. Normal."

"Yes, normal. Owen."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave let out a burst of laughter as the Mudkip waltzed in and barely paused before throwing insults at Karat. The balls on that kid, huh?

But then... "Pop, huh. Pop. So you think he created the universe? Has he always been so friendly and approachable?"

 

[Negrek]

Nate was already opening his mouth for a sarcastic comment about Karat's failure to "blast him away," but the Mewtwo's comment about Arceus caught him off guard. "What?" he squawked. "I mean, yeah, if we can just... fucking ask Arceus for help with this shit, then sure, why not? I thought that was a God-Squad-only kinda thing."

Only then, with Mewtwo and Celebi both temporarily pushed from his mind, did he properly register the shade sitting on Owen's head, languidly waving its filaments. "Wait, were you fucking infected, or...? Why the hell is that thing on your head?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

"'Pop'...?" Like a loud, sudden noise? Or, perhaps, like what someone might affectionately call their father? That didn't sound like much of a "food" at all, but Skara supposed that being seen as paternal or avuncular might make this Arceus less intimidating. It seemed a bit odd that she hadn't heard anyone from the God Squad call him that so far, but maybe it was just because they were on a real-name basis or something?

Not the important part, anyway. Skara didn't exactly appreciate all of these interruptions—when was Karat going to get a result?—but if there was a way they could be more proactive about locating their missing teammates, then that was worth hearing about. "How would we ask Pop, then? Will we get a chance to do that once we're settled into Destiny Village? Is there a way to contact him about this any sooner?" It had only been a few hours since the trench, or thereabouts, but given that no one had the faintest idea where those two were, how long they had was anyone's guess.

"Apparently the shades can be docile if you feed them berries," Skara explained to the mudkip. "I don't think I'd be that bold about it, personally, but it's useful to know."