Mystery Continent ~ Northern Pines

[Negrek]

Rocky couldn't help gasping when Soda showed himself. If he really showed himself? He could still be making an illusion... A special costume, basically like a superhero! Soda was a superhero, after all, like everybody else in the God Squad. He was the coolest in the God Squad. It was a good thing they had him on their side. Right? Of course it was.

Maybe Soda couldn't absorb Cola the way Pop could, but still, if he. He was reminding Rocky of somebody else. Somebody... who wanted power. Who still had a few pieces he wanted to collect. So maybe... Maybe...

No matter how he tried to reach for Mudkip, he couldn't find anything. Rocky's core shuddered, glowing briefly golden.

"S-stop," Rocky said, hugging his arms tight against his chest. "You're scaring him. You... you're being really scary. Are you..." He glanced away for a second, ectoplasm fizzing and warping around the edges. "Are you the person who hurt Sword? Who stuck her in the Worldcore and put that... put that eterna thing inside her?"

 

[Namohysip]

Cola was inches away from touching Soda's hand when he stopped. "Hurt Sword? What do you mean?"

Soda frowned, pulling his hand away before turning around. He sighed. "I didn't want that to happen," he said. "I needed to put her someplace safe after getting her out of that slimeball's hands. And I needed somewhere she could be restored and that kind of thing just isn't possible normally. She was corrupted to her very core... But I knew that the Worldcore could grant wishes. Just like the one where I used to live. It was a lot of little happy coincidences that lined up nicely for me when I thought about it.

"I'd get my power, Sword would get purified, and it'd all work out. Really fucked it up when the Worldcore actually reacted to Sword in that way, but... You guys ironed that out. And once you guys had it under control, I made sure to step in and give you the nudge to save her the right way."

"So you... made a mistake when trying to... save everyone?" Cola asked.

"Yeah. And I tried my damnedest to make it right. Still doing that even now, y'know." He laughed a little. "It's funny, but I think I might be the only person in the whole world who can actually handle the Blacklight. Must be luck. Ever since Eien attacked us upon entering Cibus..."

 

[Fusion]

So Soda was even more on their side! Everyone makes mistakes every now and then, but unlike Pop or Joule, all Soda did was try and make up for it! That explains why everyone looks up to this dude!

"Goddamn, that's so badass..." Puddle muttered, its boil long since settled. "Then, like, other than to look like more of a badass, why don't you help everyone else out more with this blacklight stuff? Or... do you think Pop would try and take your power too, if he ever found out?" it asked, simmering slightly. "That dick..."

 

[Negrek]

"You didn't answer the question," Rocky said, ears drooping. "Maybe Sword being in the Worldcore helped her not be corrupted anymore. But she was only corrupted because of you in the first place, right? Because you needed somebody... Somebody to get eterna energy from. That's what you said, wasn't it? And you said you still had pieces you needed to collect."

Rocky tried to draw himself back together, agitated wisps of ectoplasm still rising off his body. He took a step closer to Soda, looking for an opening to put himself between Cola and the zoroark, umm, almost-zoroark. "Was Cola one of the pieces you needed? Do you want his power, too?"

 

[Namohysip]

"...Heh. Right. Okay." Soda shook his head, raising his arms again. "There might be a misunderstanding here. Darkwhite, Sword, whatever? I didn't do that. She started off that way. No clue what got her like that. I just... took advantage of a situation while helping her out, is all. She needed that energy gone, and I wanted that energy for myself. I just had to figure out how to get that done. I didn't want to hurt her, and to be honest, I didn't think the Worldcore was gonna react the way it did."

Cola glanced at Rocky, then inched a little closer to Soda. They were too close to get between...

"Yeah, I need Cola's help," Soda replied. "I have a little divine power, but not a lot. Cola has a lot. If we combined our efforts... I'll have almost everything I need."

"What do you mean by... need me?" Cola asked.

"You're gonna possess me," Soda replied simply. "After that, we'll be partners for a while. It'll keep you away from Pop, and you'll still get to be you. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me... I dunno. What do you think?"

"...I'll get to stay away from Pop? He can't make me disappear?"

 

[Fusion]

Puddle, despite the glare still being on its face, grinned excitedly. Everything Soda was saying was just the right things to convince it, apparently. "That'd be perfect! Can you imagine how strong you'll be, Cola? You'd be, like, as strong as Pop, or stronger!" Puddle cheered. "You should totally do it, I can't think of a safer place for you!"

Although... there was a little something bugging Puddle. "Hmmm... what about Rocky and me? We'd gotta stick with you guys, right? Pop ain't gonna be happy about his power boost not returning home, I bet."

 

[Negrek]

Rocky's heart sank when Cola edged away from him. It wasn't like the arceus had any reason to listen to him. They hadn't even gotten to be friends, not really.

Rocky took a deep breath, remembering what it felt like to breathe from someone else. "How do we know we can trust you?" he asked Soda. "You'd better prove you aren't going to absorb Cola. How can we be sure you'll let him go? I'm not going to let you just take him, either!"

 

[Namohysip]

And once again, the haze around Cola's body seemed to tighten anxiously. As much as he wanted to trust Soda and as much as he believed it would be a way to get away from Pop... Soda was still looking more and more like an Arceus. And he made mistakes. And Sword... Did Rocky have a point?

"Prove that I'm not gonna absorb Cola?" he asked. "Dunno how I can prove something like that..."

Cola's haze flared a little, then calmed down. "Do you really want to help?" he asked.

"There's a lotta things I can help if I get the power I need. And seeing the way Pop treats you, the way y'talk about the guy... Yeah. I'd say I wanna help you, too."

"...Okay. Then you might not be able to prove it. But... I can make it so you have to do that anyway."

"Eh?"

Cola glanced at Rocky, then back at the Zoroark-demigod. Another chill-wind ran through the clearing. Bits of snow landed on Cola, evaporating.

Cola's red circles were focused entirely on Soda. "If you hurt me... you'll die."

 

[Fusion]

...Fuck, Cola was kinda scary when he wanted to be. The whole shapeless thing he had going on just added to that. "W-With that bein' said, uh, I feel it's safe enough to trust Soda now, right Rocky?" it asked its fellow familiar.

 

[Negrek]

"You told Silver you wanted to help him, too, and then you made him do bad things and put him in prison," Rocky muttered. "You say that to everybody." He glanced at Puddle for a moment, then looked down at the ground again.

 

[Fusion]

"But, like, that was different... I think," Puddle muttered, sighing after Rocky looked at it. Of course there was a more to it, but it's not like... making someone do a bad thing made you a bad person, right? "Y-Yeah, that was different. I don't know everything about all that that, but... i-it was different, right Soda?"

All that excitement started to waver, but Puddle still hoped that whatever happened with Silver was different. It had to be, this was their best chance to keep Cola and everyone safe... They needed Soda to make them strong, he had to be trustworthy...

 

[Namohysip]

"Silver was a fucked up Mewtwo who was only in on it for his own good. I'm actually trying to save people here. That dude just wanted more power for the sake of power." Soda flicked his claws again, but then eyed Cola. "...So what, is that some sorta threat?"

"No," Cola said. "It's a fact." He tilted his head. "You want to work with me, right? Then you have to promise that you won't hurt me. That if I tell you to stop, and you don't listen, or you try to control me, you'll break that promise. And if you ever do something that breaks that promise... you die. You die and I get to control you instead."

"...And you can do that, huh?"

"Uh-huh." Cola's haze was completely solid, now. He stepped forward and disappeared, reappearing behind Soda. "So? Are you gonna agree?"

Tiny filaments of light were emerging from Cola's back...

Soda glanced at Rocky and there was a hint of a glare in his eyes. Then, he looked back at Cola, like he was weighing his options. "So what if I, like, accidentally hurt you?"

"That won't count... but I'll know if it's not on accident. The promise will know. You'll know. You can't escape it."

"What's all this security for?" Soda downplayed, shrugging. "C'mon, do you really want to go back to Pop?"

"Do you really want to not have the power you want?" Cola asked. He was talking a lot like Soda...

 

[Fusion]

Things were getting a bit heated, which probably wasn't good. Or definitely wasn't, or maybe things went to shit forever ago, take your pick.

"I can tell you from experience, if Cola wants to control you, he can. He even managed to control me," Puddle said to Soda, walking to Cola's side. That glare on its face made it look more serious than it was. "We just... don't want someone else to take Cola too. We want Cola to stay Cola, not someone else's power trip."

"If you ain't gonna promise Cola that you won't be a dick like Pop, then..." For a moment, Puddle didn't know what to say. Soda was strong as hell, or heaven, whatever... What could Puddle even do to this guy? Puddle shook its head, keeping those rational worries aside and glaring up at Soda more fiercely. "If you're tryin' to trick us, then we'll stop you. So like... don't try to trick us."

 

[Negrek]

"You're really strong, Soda," Rocky said. "I bet if you wanted to help Cola, you could take him somewhere safe, and you wouldn't even need to fuse with him at all. Maybe if you're nice to him, he'll want to help you out just on his own. Then you won't have to promise anything."

He raised his head and smiled at Cola. "Puddle's right. Cola's really strong, and smart, and he has friends! We'll make sure nothing bad happens to him. Maybe we should do something different. Maybe Cola should come with one of us instead, and then if he wants to lend you some power, he can. He'll be safe if he stays in one of our cores. They're really strong! We could work together!"

 

[Namohysip]

"Staying in one of your cores hasn't really done anything," Soda said flatly as his mane flared up, and when he shifted his weight, the snow depressed where he stood. "That's just housing him. What's gonna happen when Pop gets impatient and just takes Cola? Time's running out, y'know. He might do that the second you see him again."

"I..." Cola gulped. "He... wouldn't do that. He's... he said he wouldn't."

"And you'd trust a god with their power, when they can do it so easily?"

"...Then why should I trust you?"

Silence. Silence that lasted a second too long for Cola's tastes. He drifted toward Rocky.

 

[Fusion]

"...Great," Puddle sighed, its mouth vanishing. Usually it'd be filled to the brim with rage, or sadness, one of those two emotions. But this was new, utter disappointment. "Soda, dude... what the hell? I really, really want to trust you, and it's lookin' like I'd be the only one here to do that. For a second there, I thought I did! You sound like our best bet at giving Cola a chance when Pop tries to go after him, but..."

There really wasn't a god you could trust, huh? Not Pop, not Joule, none of the cat things that keep showing up... and now probably not even Soda. And what would Puddle even be able to do about that, or Rocky, or anyone? It's just Gods coming in left and right just stealing power... Puddle wasn't alive for all that long but it was already getting sick of this shit.

"Did you really only help us so you could get stronger, Soda? So you could steal Darkwhite's Corruption, and gain Cola's trust to steal his power too?" it asked, faint black wisps rising off its body.

 

[Namohysip]

"Look, it ain't like that," Soda said when Cola started drifting further. "I just--d'you get what you're asking here, Cola? A promise like that means I'll be under your control, basically. So then I won't really get anything out of it, and if I break that promise, suddenly you're the one in control. And I'll be back to where things were before I got this power."

"...What do you mean?"

"The promise is one-sided. That's all I mean. Only I can really break it, y'know? If I'm gonna make a promise like that... you have to promise not to break it with me, either. I won't hurt you and you won't hurt me. And the promise will go away when we don't need each other's power anymore, so, like, when we split back off."

"I... So I can't hurt you, and you can't hurt me, as long as we're together? No fighting over control, we need to agree?"

"Well, we're supposed to work together, right?" Soda asked gently, and he smiled a little. "Like I said, I just... want things to be okay. I wanted Shield and Sword to be happy together. Now they are. I want you to be your own person. I want you Shades to be independent and not have to worry about getting claimed by Joule. And..." His shoulders slumped a little. "Yeah, fine. I want to go back home, too. Moonlit Forest made that pretty fucking obvious. That's why I'm doing this in the first place. After that... I don't care. I'll give it all up. I just want to go home... D'you get me?"

 

[Negrek]

Rocky hesitated, itching to try and reach out and grab Cola and get him away from here. But that would probably only spook him, and then he'd go right back to Soda anyway. Besides, if Soda really was telling the truth... If he really did want all those things... Then they should be on the same side. Soda seemed like he was bad, but he did good things too, didn't he?

"So why?" he asked. "Why are you being so scary? I want Cola to be safe, and I don't want to go back to Joule, and I want you to be able to go home, too. If you helped us save Eien, you know we would all help you get back home. If you had told us what Giovanni was up to, we could have gotten Sword back, and she wouldn't have to be stuck in the Worldcore, all scared and by herself." Rocky glanced up at Cola, then back over at Soda. "It's not too late. You know everybody on Team Spectrum would be happy to help you if you just told them what was going on. Mudkip might be pretty grumpy, but even he'd get over it. He wants to go home more than anything, too. If you want to be one of us, there's still time."

Rocky crossed his arms again and hunched his shoulders. "If you really want to do this, if you two want to promise to each other to work together, then okay, I won't tell. As long as you don't hurt Cola, I won't try to stop you. But wouldn't it be more fun to do this as friends, instead of treating us like your enemies? All we want to do is help you."

 

[Namohysip]

Soda's claws twitched again, and it occurred to Cola that maybe Soda was actually where he was standing for once.

"...I can't," Soda said. "Not to Maple. Not to Joule. And not to anyone else in God Squad. Not even Flesh knows. And I care about that guy. Dude has a tough life. But Maple doesn't know about the full extent of what I can do. She's... I'm keeping an eye on her, but she's..." He looked off, choosing his words carefully.

"When we go into the Tree of Life, and Maple comes face to face with Eien for the first time, I don't know what's gonna happen. Just thinking about that is giving me a really, really bad feeling. We need to be careful about Maple. And I'm not gonna tell anyone else about this because if they leak this to Maple, we're fucked. And there's no way you're convincing her not to go in and help you guys, either."

Soda paced. "That's why I can't tell anyone. I'm all for this whole... friendship and teamwork and happy-go-lucky attitude when it actually helps, and it really does. It's so fucking stupid, but Pop crafted this world where friendship and being good people has tangible effects."

"...And I'm only being scary because that's how you see me," Soda said. "I'm a Zoroark. I'm a natural deceiver. I'm never going to be able to escape that for as long as I live. Trusting a Zoroark is something people don't do. I can only work with guarantees." He shrugged, turning away. "Guess I had my hopes up that you'd trust me anyway."

"...I..." Cola looked down. "I... I..." His wispy form sizzled as a bit of snow landed on him. He looked at Rocky, then at Soda, then at the ground. In a shaking, whispering voice, he said, "I don't know what to do..."

 

[Fusion]

And this... was where Puddle had to disagree with Rocky for the first time so far. Which did not feel good, like disagreeing with a friend. Probably because it was. It walked between Soda and Rocky, its glare softening a fair bit. "We... can't trust everyone in Spectrum, or the God Squad, or... anyone who's got in good with Pop. Or Joule. Which is why Soda picked this ass-backwards way to help, and why we started Team Usurpers in the first place, remember?" At least, that was why Puddle did, and why it thought Cola did. Rocky honestly felt more like a "fun-times" kinda guy.

"I really want Cola to do what he wants and live like everyone else, which is why I want to team up with Soda still," Puddle said, gesturing to the demi-god in question. It then looked to Soda with disappointed eyes. "But like... You're makin' it hard for them to trust you. Or you were, but... still. I'm a part of Vix, and Vix would trust you with her damn life, Soda. She never doubted you for a second, and if she found out about this she still wouldn't doubt you... and I feel the same way. Natural deceiver my ass, you were born with a power and you fuckin' used it for good! To hell with anyone who can't trust that!" Not that Puddle had to worry about having an untrustworthy power, he might as well have been talking out of his ass.

This was a... strange situation Puddle was stuck in the middle of, actually. On one hand, Cola and Rocky, two of the people that actually hung out with him, weren't ready to trust Soda. On the other, Soda was just about ready to go back into hiding, and he's probably the only god here that would have given a shit about any of them... He was the only one actually strong enough to protect them.

"...Cola, Rocky, I get where the both of you are comin' from. This almost feels like any other god makin' any other promise that they'll break the second they think it ain't worth it," Puddle said, taking a deep breath and exhaling. "If neither of you trust, Soda... that's fine. But I'm..." the familiar clenched its fists, shutting its eyes and turning away from its friends. "I'm gonna stick with him. Sorry. I want to keep us all safe... and he's the only one I can trust to do it."