Mist Continent ~ Paradise

[Namohysip]

Once a completely desolate wasteland, the efforts of Team Colada had turned the barren fields just east of Post Town into the wonderous, lush fields called Paradise. The town itself had settled into and around Paradise in harmony with civilization and nature. Pokemon-made waterfalls, fields, ponds, and so many other landscapes dotted an ever-expansive territory, open to all under the condition that they keep the peace while visiting.

Leader of Paradise was Serperior Nanab and her long-time team members, including Pine, Buffet, and others who had saved the world from the Bittercold Omen. It was one of the few places in the world that could be considered both lively and calm at once, with even the winter cold being no match for the forever pleasant weather.

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"I'm really sorry about this, but we have no idea where Giovanni might have gone," Nanab said with an apologetic frown. "We saw the blast, and some observers out east said they caught a glimpse of where they had landed, but after that? Nothing."

"Hmmm... And you're sure?" Maple asked. "Any eyewitnesses at all would be useful at this point. We have reason to believe that Giovanni's ability to teleport is hampered as of now, and we would have detected any powerful warping. I don't think--Cal, don't do that."

"I wasn't!" Cal let go of a rock, which plopped onto the soggy ground of a nearby river.

"No skipping rocks. ...Nanab, do you have anything like that? I don't think Giovanni left the Mist Continent. He's very likely somewhere here."

"Unfortunately, the Mist Continent is very large," Nanab said. "I wouldn't know the first place to start looking..."

 

[Negrek]

It was weird not having Rocky lurking around. Nate kept turning to look for him, suddenly remembering that if he couldn't see the familiar, that probably meant he was causing trouble somewhere, but no, now it was just because he wasn't here at all. Nate shifted uncomfortably and tried to shake the feeling that the familiar was getting up to something even worse now that he was literally fucking continents away from Nate.

So this was paradise, huh? Lots of, like, plants and shit. Nate preferred buildings, personally, but this place sure felt more pokémon-y than Destiny Village.

"That fake badge signal probably came from here, right?" he asked. "So Giovanni's probably got a base here, or at least he's been hanging around here a lot for whatever reason. Probably woulda crawled off there if he could. There any of those distortion-y places around?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr's tail swished back and forth agitatedly while she listened to Nanab's explanation. Since it was going to be a while before the team set out for the Tree of Life (aggravatingly so), Starr had joined the party searching for Giovanni. It was at least something to focus on for the time being. Anything to keep the anxiety from gnawing on her brain.

"Where was the blast?" she asked Nanab. "Anyone find anything artificial in the area? Anything he'd be interested in?"

 

[Namohysip]

So Giovanni's probably got a base here, or at least he's been hanging around here a lot for whatever reason. Probably woulda crawled off there if he could. There any of those distortion-y places around?

"The Mist Continent didn't have too many distortions for a while. Dungeons have been fading rapidly, but recently there has been a resurgence of it... Just slightly, but it's enough to be worrying. Old places that had cleared up completely are distorting all over again..." Nanab sighed. "And here I thought we'd have less work to do."

"Where was the blast?"

"Pine?"

The Haxorus produced a map and spread it out for them to see. Nanab pointed one of her vines at the top corner of the map, which made sense. Destiny Village was to the east and slightly north of the Mist Continent, so if Joule had blasted Giovanni anywhere, it would have been there. "There was an explosion near the southeast shore near Moonlit Forest," Nanab said. "But when we got there, we didn't really see anything out of the ordinary..."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr folded her arms. So it was just where he'd crashed down, then. Unlikely that it'd give any indicator of where he'd headed after that. Ugh, what a pain...

"Any noticeable disappearances around here lately?' she asked. "Seemed like every other week we were hearing about some hero or legend or whoever disappearing on the other continents."

 

[Negrek]

Nate frowned at the map. "Lots of mountains around there. Plenty of places to hide, plenty of places to hide a base." He sighed. It was certainly a good idea to check up on any disappearances around the continent. Other than that... "Any other weird sightings that might be that shadow Mewtwo thing, or Sword? Or, hang on, Shield can, like, sense when Sword's around, right? Any chance we could grab him and have him do an aura sweep around where we think Giovanni crashed?"

 

[Namohysip]

"We could get him," Maple said, nodding. "Karat could also help us out. You never know. One Mewtwo may have an easier time detecting the other... Psychic resonance, maybe." She seemed uncertain, but they also had almost nothing else to go by.

"There hasn't really been anything too crazy going on here, to be honest," said Nanab. "It's a little eerie. I mean, we had the Shade problem, and there was that time Dunsparce became a giant and tore through the valley, but that kinda resolved itself..."

"Mhm. Someone swooped in and beat him up." Pine nodded. "You guys did a good job with that."

"...Hm? We didn't have that logged. We thought Dunsparce was one of the Pokemon that didn't have the energy nullification."

"Huh? No, he did. He was just defeated so quickly that we didn't really think it was an issue..." Nanab frowned. "You weren't the ones who beat him? Should have been. I know their leader was a Charmander..."

"We've... had a lot of Charmander lately," Maple replied flatly.

"So have we," Pine added. "Recently. Really weird. Like ghost sightings."

 

[Negrek]

There really were too many fucking charthings around. Nate assumed Diyem hadn't been sneaking out of the infirmary and fighting crime. Could it be Red, somehow?

"How do you mean, 'like ghost sightings?'" he asked. "Disappear when you turn on the lights kinda thing? Or this one that fought the dunsparce... You said the leader was a charmander, right? Do you remember any of the other pokémon on the team?"

 

[Namohysip]

You said the leader was a charmander, right? Do you remember any of the other pokémon on the team?

"Uh..." Pine tapped his chin. "Well, he was riding on a Charizard. That's kinda why we assumed it was you guys, since Diyem likes being one or something."

"You know, why is that?" Nanab asked. "Do you think maybe the human that defeated him was a Charmander?"

"No, it'd be the partner," Pine said. "Does that mean our Dark Matter became a Charizard, too? Since Nutmeg was the one who convinced him to give up, or something."

"We're getting distracted," Maple said. "Aside from the Charmander and a Charizard, did you see any other Pokemon?"

"Yeah, a Pikachu. For sure. And a strong one, too." Nanab nodded. "But you guys don't have a Pikachu, so we weren't really sure what happened there..."

"We thought it was the human and partner Pokemon sent to save us for the Blacklight crisis," Pine said, "but uhh, Buffet had no idea what we were talking about."

"It could have been a Voice from a different world," Nanab theorized.

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, hell," Nate said. "That charizrd ain't no hero or nothing like that. That's Red. Same guy who showed up to blast Destiny Tower a few weeks ago. Remember him?" He tugged on his gills. He'd have to file away the question of why Diyem was a charizard. His impression was the guy hadn't really gotten to pick his body, but somebody must have. Maybe there was some weird cosmic resonance with charthings the way there apparently was with Red himself. "Anyhow, best we can tell he's working with Giovanni. So that's kind of a plus, I guess. If we can track him down, maybe we'll be able to find that bastard, too."

He turned to Maple. "I meant to ask you about this earlier, but... Buffet was telling me that Red is some kind of like, I dunno, mythical person who shows up again and again in a bunch of different worlds. Do you know anything about that? I didn't know if it was some kind of Voice of Life thing."

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Oh, hell," Nate said. "That charizrd ain't no hero or nothing like that. That's Red. Same guy who showed up to blast Destiny Tower a few weeks ago. Remember him? Anyhow, best we can tell he's working with Giovanni. So that's kind of a plus, I guess. If we can track him down, maybe we'll be able to find that bastard, too."

Starr narrowed her eyes. "If Red's working with Giovanni, should we be assuming he's been brainwashed too? I mean, you said he was the one who knocked Gio down a peg in your world--hard to believe he'd be all buddy-buddy with Rockets in whatever world this Gio came from." She paused, realizing something else. "And if that's true, would this be the first time that we know of that Gio managed to brainwash a former-human? There's a fun thought."

 

[Namohysip]

"Red..." Maple thought about it. "He doesn't always go by that name, but it often translates to something like it. A human with an incredible aura, overflowing with stoic kindness and power. Considered to be a living legend for how strong his affinity is toward Pokemon. I ran into a few of them in the past, or those that are like him. I will admit, he is..." Maple looked for the right words. "He is someone you certainly can get a sense for being 'legendary.' He's pretty quiet, though, typically. Yet I still had a sense for what he was thinking..."

"Sounds weird," Pine commented. "And maybe he's all Blacklighted somehow."

 

[Negrek]

"Definitely Blacklighted," Nate said. "We could see it when he showed up at Destiny Tower. All kinds of crazy flames and shit."

"Pretty quiet" was one way of putting it. But, yeah, Red the hero. What Maple said pretty much tracked.

"I dunno about brainwashed," he said to Starr. "Obviously the Blacklight fucks with your head, but all this about this team showing up and taking down giant pokémon or whatever... I kind of wonder if Giovanni's feeding him some story about how he's the real hero and whatever Giovanni's up to is what's gonna save Cibus, we're the bad guys, whatever whatever. Of course, you'd have to be pretty fucking thick to trust Giovanni about anything, but there's definitely something up here. Or... maybe he erased Red's memories of him being a shitheel and then tried to get him on-side? We ain't seen any other humans that got brainwashed, but Giovanni did fuck with Silver's memory." Nate frowned, thinking. "I dunno. What do you figure he'd go in for? The old brainwash, or more a manipulation kinda deal?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I dunno. What do you figure he'd go in for? The old brainwash, or more a manipulation kinda deal?"

"I don't know if speculating is going to help," Maple said. "In the end, Red is hostile. If that really is Red..."

"It probably is," Pine said.

"So, like, Red, Silver. Do color names kinda just follow heroes in human worlds or something? Does anybody ever catch onto that?" Cal tilted her head.

"How come you guys are all sound effects?" Pine asked.

"What?"

"Well, you aren't."

Maple sighed. "With little to go by, I think we should check the shorelines of the impact site. Perhaps we can find traces of Blacklight with some of Team Spectrum attending. Are there any objections?" She looked like she was already conjuring a portal.

 

[Chibi Pika]

I kind of wonder if Giovanni's feeding him some story about how he's the real hero and whatever Giovanni's up to is what's gonna save Cibus, we're the bad guys, whatever whatever. Of course, you'd have to be pretty fucking thick to trust Giovanni about anything, but there's definitely something up here.

Starr grimaced. "Well, it sure as hell wouldn't be the first time someone thought we were some kind of demonspawn here to fuck up everything." Now she was thinking about Shield again. God dammit.

"With little to go by, I think we should check the shorelines of the impact site. Perhaps we can find traces of Blacklight with some of Team Spectrum attending. Are there any objections?"

"Might as well see if our weird auras are good for anything here. Not a fan of scouring the whole continent with no leads."

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah. It ain't that hard to make Team Dark Matter out to be the bad guys," Nate said. "May as well go check out the crash site, yeah..." He was thinking of something else, though. "I know Giovanni was all fucked up after Joule attacked him, so maybe he can't teleport. But that other Mewtwo he has with him would be able to no problem, right? Is there any way to figure out where a teleport's going to or, like, hitch a ride? If you can catch them in the act?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Powerful Teleports leave behind small traces of energy, but not really where they went," Maple said. "One from a Mewtwo would definitely leave traces of energy. We didn't find any in the area. They might know this..."

"Or something is keeping them from trying to Teleport," Cal theorized. "You think they're searching for something?"

"Or Giovanni died," Pine added. "Joule's no joke."

"Regardless." Maple carved a portal. "Shall we go?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Ahh! Nothing like another afternoon in the sun, huh?" Nanab tried to absorb as much as she could, spreading her leafy hood to gather even more light into her body.

"Yeah. The sun's nice." Pine stared up, then glanced at his finished plate of food, and then unceremoniously flopped onto his back. "Good suggestion, Brisa," Pine added, as he'd taken her recommendation on what to try for lunch.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa nodded, looking around at Paradise with a scrutinising gaze as she finished off her own helping of quiche. Delicious food was par for the course anywhere in Cibus, it seemed. Was pleasant weather the norm here, hence the name?

"Makes a nice change fer me after months in DV," she remarked. "I coulda used a break like this an age ago, but I could never justify it t'myself when there was so much work t'be done."

There was more to it than that, though. There was something about Pine she needed to intuit that she'd only recently been able to get a grip on, after fighting him up close, after gettin used to Cibus.

"I'm so bored. Paradise, explorations, Pokemon... I'm so bored of it all. I saved the world and now there's nothing left. I guess... I just need to make my own crisis."

She grinned drily at Pine. "The way I hear it, y'all created this settlement from scratch. How d'you like the results of yer labours?"

 

[Namohysip]

"It's pretty good," Pine said.

"It's wonderful!" Nanab replied with a cheerful roll so she could curl up against Pine. A little smile curled at the edge of his mouth. "Dark Matter was a real scare, and so was this Blacklight thing, but... I feel like things are going to be alright now that you guys are on the case. And we'll do everything to help when we can!"

"Mhm. Real exciting, in a way," Pine commented. "I got turned to stone right away during the Dark Matter stuff, so I couldn't do a lot back then."