Mystery Continent ~ Northern Pines

[Namohysip]

"Oh, I should be able to carry most of it. That's no problem." Zinc smiled. "I'm a little stronger than I look."

She reached down first with her arms and picked up a few of the baskets. Then, she tilted her head forward, and her horns lengthened and wrapped around most of the other baskets. With a grunt, she hefted them all up and started to walk, her horns behaving as arms even stronger than her real ones.

 

[Disco]

"Oh.", said Mellow, very intelligently. She then got her pack and the last bunch of her belongings, then followed Zinc out the door.

After they were both a ways away, Mellow sent the roots that made up her home back underground, leaving nothing but a strange clearing in the middle of the woods...

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[Negrek]

The pine forest was quiet as always, the heavy snow muffling all sound. But that snow was mostly in drifts and patches now, pushed back into shade with scraps of bare needles showing here and there. It was actually almost warm today, though the sun overhead was still weak and watery, lying close to the horizon already.

Which made how long since Nate had gotten transformed into a fucking mudkip? Four years? Closer to five? Who the fuck knew how much time had passed in his own world. His own time. What the fuck ever. And it felt like he was only getting further from it by the day.

He'd seen Silver out here now and again. Seemed like it was something of a favorite haunt, now that he was a giant fucking bat. It felt especially shitty to drop suspicion on the guy when he was just trying to get some privacy, but to be fair, Silver seemed like he was just trying to get some privacy no matter where he went. At least they weren't in the fucking library.

"See anything?" he called ahead to Starr.

 

[Namohysip]

Not too far ahead, next to a campfire that had gone out long ago, was a crumpled-up crescent moon of a Pokemon that had fallen onto a pile of snow, still asleep. It looked like he had been trying to hang on one of the branches, perhaps out of some odd instinct? Yet he had failed to stay put, or the branch broke, and he'd landed flat on the ground.

Still, he was breathing properly, at least...

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr was tromping through the snow ahead of Nate, using her height advantage to see if she could spot Silver first. Probably would've been easier if they'd gone looking at night, but the guy always seemed to be busy or on the move around that time, so daytime it was. The snow was slightly slushy, and Starr felt the urge to kick the water from her feet every few steps.

"Found him," Starr announced after reaching a small clearing with the remnants of a campfire. "He's, uh... asleep?" How the hell was he still asleep after falling out of a tree.

 

[Negrek]

Nate struggled forward until he could see into the little clearing. Huh. Yeah, that... Did look like he'd passed out and fallen out of his tree, didn't it?

"Last time I caught him asleep, right before he evolved, he was having some kinda nightmare. Going on about Dark Matter and all," he told Starr quietly. "I'm gonna try to get close and see if he's got anything interesting to say before we wake him up."

Great. Like he didn't feel like enough of a dick about this before. Thinking about how he'd react himself if somebody pulled a stunt like this on him... Jesus. Not like it's going to stop you or anything.

Nate scowled and crept forward, straining to hear whether Silver was muttering anything in his sleep.

 

[Namohysip]

Silver was completely quiet this time. Didn't look like there would be much to glean. Eventually, he stirred, for one reason or another, and one of his bright, red eyes flitted open.

"...Shoo."

 

[Negrek]

"Heh." Nate sat down. "Glad you're okay, then. Looks like you had a bit of a fall." He cast a look behind him for Starr. "We saw you out flying the other night. Thought we'd see if we could catch you out here. Seems like you're starting to get the hang of the whole bat thing. You figured out how to make portals yet? Like the ones Bahamut can do?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr tilted her head, unimpressed. Yeah, figures that he wouldn't want to see anyone right now, but too fucking bad. This was too important.

"Look," Starr began with a sigh, "I know you're not happy to see us, but there's been a lot of shit happening lately that affects everyone, including you, and we kind of need your help to figure it out." Like hell was she going to open with the fact that she'd suspected him.

 

[Namohysip]

"...Hmph." He slowly sat up, looking a little goofy with the way his body worked. Couldn't be assed to levitate. Wasn't in the mood to do anything else. "I'm starting with the basics. Wormholes... Not so much. Not yet. What else do you want?"

Cold as ever. At least it matched, compared to what was apparently a warmer, sunnier alternative that he could have become. "You aren't pestering me with more Psychics, are you? They already tried unlocking what's sealed. It's not working."

 

[Negrek]

"Ah, that's too bad," Nate said. "It'll be pretty great when you can manage those. At least you got a lot more firepower to work with than you did when you were a cosmog, right?"

He felt fucking stupid trying small talk. Dancing around the real reason they were here. Starr was obviously hoping to get straight to the point. "Not psychics, no. But there's another guy, recently, who we found out Giovanni's been using him like a puppet. Making him do dirty jobs, watching through his eyes, all that shit. Your situation seems like it's kinda similar to his. So we were wondering if you felt the same way. Like maybe there's some periods of time since you woke up as a cosmog that you can't remember. Things you apparently did but don't know why or when. Maybe you found yourself somewhere without knowing how you got there. Shit that don't add up, basically."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Yeah, even Nate of all people was trying to be sensitive about it. Giving the guy the benefit of the doubt and all. That left Starr as the asshole here. But was there supposed to be a nice way of saying that she'd at one point seriously been considering whether or not Silver was a fake who'd been replaced?

Part of her still wanted to think it wasn't him. They had a lot in common, after all.

 

[Namohysip]

Silver looked at Nate like he was a slack-jawed idiot. "This sleep in the forest is one of the first times nobody's been watching me." His simulated eyelids lowered. "Or so I thought."

 

[Negrek]

"Really?" Nate looked aside, rubbing at his gills. "I thought you were just busy figuring out how to be a lunala and shit. But they've been watching you? Yveltal and, what, and Chip?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr folded her arms. She wasn't about to go feeling sympathetic or anything. She absolutely wasn't.

"As in... they're not letting you out of their sight, or what?"

 

[Namohysip]

"They don't want to take any chances. I thought I was alone for a whioe, but then I started gaining some kind of... psychic sense. There's usually someone keeping an eye on me. Usually Bean. I'm not even allowed to see my team without surveillance, not that it matters." He looked off, wings folding. "I still don't feel anything toward them. I haven't really been visiting anymore."

 

[Negrek]

"Fucking Bean," Nate snapped without thinking. "That guy is--" Shit. No. He had no... No idea if Starr knew about that. And he definitely couldn't get into that with Silver.

Instead he growled in frustration, folding his arms and staring at the ground. The fucking pokémon again. That above everything... Nate didn't know who to be pissed at about it. Fucking Cibus again, why the fuck not.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr glanced away awkwardly. Just because she'd been suspicious of him didn't make it any better to imagine being in his position. Even if it was stupid that she kept imagining herself in his shoes.

Also Nate sure had some kind of reaction to Bean. Starr wasn't sure what was up with that. She was more concerned about the issue with Silver's team.

"Do you wish you felt anything toward them?" she found herself asking, without really knowing why.

 

[Namohysip]

"I—" Silver paused, then looked down. A wing went to his chin, like he hadn't considered that before. He had memories of his team sealed somewhere in there. So he was obligated to get them back, wasn't he?

Silver thought and thought. And then thought some more. Finally, with an odd and aloof coldness in his voice, he remarked, "I don't think I do."

 

[Negrek]

Nate clenched his hands. He was sure he could feel the blood pounding in his head. "Yeah, you don't care about them. We get it," he said harshly. "You got reactions to other pokémon, though. Mewtwo, charizard, all them. What about persian?"