Overgrow Forest

[Flyg0n]

Just beyond the training rooms and courtyard spreads a verdant green forest. Sparkling lakes and hidden groves can be found within, providing a peaceful retreat. The woods are also teeming with wild pokemon. Many are happy to oblige in a sparring match, or even make a new friend.

A few trainers and staff whisper rumors about a green fairy like ‘mon that occasionally appears here..

***​

 

[Dragonfree]

Where would a Tropius go? Maybe the forest. That seemed like a dumb answer, but she didn't have a better one. Coleane was a trainer, too; why would her haunts be the same as what you'd imagine for an average wild Tropius? But it was all she could come up with, and Spirit concurred, so they walked out beyond the courtyards and threaded cautious paths between the trees.

"Coleane? You here?" May called.

Spirit was sniffing the ground. "I think I smell Tropius, that way."

Were there other Tropius here? Maybe. But maybe it was her. It'd be a change to actually find someone in the first place she looked.

 

[IFBench]

The sound of wingbeats could be heard, as a Tropius soared above May and Spirit, delight evident in her grin. Oh, how much she loved flying! She wouldn't give it up for the world! Too bad Gen was scared of heights, she'd love to take him flying! She hoped he was doing well at the cafe!

Oh! Those were voices! Coleane looked down, and saw the human and Ninetales she met before! She better say hi!

She swooped down, landing in front of the two, fanning her wings out to balance herself, before draping them across her back.

"Hiya!" she said. "Nice to see you again!"

 

[Dragonfree]

The Tropius was large, her enormous leafy wings creating gusts of wind as she landed that had May holding onto a tree for balance, her hair whipping in her face.

"Hey," she said. "We never finished talking yesterday. About where you came from? You said Pokémon just... spoke human where you lived?"

"Who is the Voice of Life?" Spirit asked. "Did they bring you to Hoenn for some mission?"

May rolled her eyes a little. Of course Spirit was all about legendary-given missions.

 

[IFBench]

"I...don't know if they speak 'human', but I don't hear any difference in how they and humans speak!" Coleane said, smiling. "And the Voice of Life is basically the planet's soul! It's a tiny bit of all the spirits on the planet all rolled up into one person!"

 

[Dragonfree]

Tiny bits of... what? May squinted at her. Was Coleane just... kind of crazy? The planet having a soul?

Spirit was still looking intently at the Tropius, though. "You don't hear any difference? So where you came from humans and Pokémon all spoke the same language? And... the Voice is not a legendary?"

 

[IFBench]

"Oh, where I come from there aren't any humans at all! Well, except for the heroes!" Coleane said, a brief sparkle in her eyes.

"I'm not sure if the Voice is a legendary or not! But I know that they can take on a variety of forms, or sometimes no form at all! Last I heard, they're taking the form of a Hydreigon!" she added, fanning out her wings for emphasis.

 

[Dragonfree]

May stared at her. No humans except for... heroes?

"Exactly where did you say you come from?"

Spirit's brow furrowed. "I have never heard of this Voice of Life. That's strange if they're as important as you say."

 

[IFBench]

"I come from the Mist Continent!" Coleane said, grinning. "It's where Paradise is!"

 

[Dragonfree]

May squinted at the Tropius, who was smiling as if nothing were more natural. "Well, that's definitely not a real place."

Spirit looked at Coleane closely. "You say the Voice of Life brought you to Hoenn. How did it send you there?"

May wasn't sure they should even be continuing this ludicrous line of questioning. Coleane was fooling around with them somehow, and she didn't like not being in on the joke. She frowned at Spirit, but the Ninetales seemed far more interested than she should, almost as if she was figuring out something.

 

[IFBench]

"It is! It's from the world I originally came from!" Coleane said. "The World of Pokemon!"

"And...I'm not sure how they brought me here, but I'm certain it's how the heroes were brought to my world!"

 

[Dragonfree]

Spirit nodded slowly. "A different world. One that has only Pokémon, but they all speak human?"

"Spirit, this is ridiculous. Why would a bunch of Pokémon in a world of Pokémon speak human? Most Pokémon can't even make human sounds without some kind of legendary interference."

"But different worlds... It has precedent. Arceus resides outside of our universe, does he not? What if there are other universes beyond ours, where things are different? It would explain Jade's world where Team Rocket is still at large, too. And if Hoopa can create portals between places... perhaps they can create portals between worlds. Maybe everyone here comes from a different universe, with different rules."

"That's..." May's fists clenched. This sounded like silly fantasy. Different universes? What a joke. So all this time, they could all have just gone to a universe where the world wasn't ending? Chaletwo'd been clear the Destroyer's influence wouldn't reach Arceus, outside of the universe. Unless all the universes had their own Destroyers, other bands of recruits trying to save them.

"These... heroes brought to your world," she said, hating that she was entertaining this. "So they were humans? From a world with humans?"

 

[IFBench]

"Do...you not believe me?" Coleane asked, frowning as her wings began to.droop. Why wouldn't she believe her? She was telling the truth!

"Yes...they come from the human world," she said, with much less enthusiasm than before.

 

[Dragonfree]

And now Coleane was sad, because she didn't instantly believe she was from a different universe. May took a deep, agitated breath. "And the Voice of Life brings them over to... to save the world, or what?" Was Chaletwo basically her universe's Voice of Life equivalent? Was that what the Preserver was?

"We believe you," Spirit said. Speak for yourself, May thought, and yet. "But in our world, there are no travelers from different worlds. We didn't know any others existed, or that people could travel between them."

 

[IFBench]

"Yep, brought them over to save the world," Coleane said, before taking a step back at May's agitation. This human wasn't like the ones she looked up to...

Maybe she should just go.

"Um...it was nice talking to you!" the Tropius said, a forced smile on her face, as she began to flap her wings, beginning to lift off from the ground. "But I gotta go!"

 

[Dragonfree]

Spirit stepped forward, ears flattening. "Wait," she said. "What kind of threat were the humans summoned to combat? What did they do to stop it?"

This was stupid, unfair. What was May supposed to do? Act like talking Pokémon cheerfully declaring they came from another universe were just perfectly normal? She clenched her fists at her sides. "Just let her go if she wants, Spirit."

Spirit ignored her. "We were also recruited to save our world!"

"Spirit, what," May hissed under her breath. Wasn't this supposed to be a secret? And yet, if Coleane's world had already stopped the War...

She looked sharply back at the Tropius.

 

[IFBench]

Coleane stopped flying, eyes widening in shock as she fell back to the earth. "You...you're heroes?!"

She hesitated, then fanned her wings out for emphasis. "The heroes...they saved my world from a falling star, the end of time, the embodiment of negativity, and Dark Matter. They...went on journeys in order to stop the Crises, and...they saved the world by telling Rayquaza to look up, defeating Primal Dialga and placing the Time Gears in Temporal Tower, defeating the Bittercold, and accepting Dark Matter respectively."

She looked down, and added, "Please believe me..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Oh. Totally different world-ending disasters. Go figure. Was every world just ending in its own way, in need of storybook heroes to save them?

Too bad they weren't exactly storybook heroes.

May took a breath. Nothing felt real anymore. Maybe she'd wake up soon and none of this nonsense would have happened.

"Yes," Spirit said, puffing out her chest. "We are part of a group of heroes in our world, on a journey to stop the War of the Legends by temporarily capturing every legendary Pokémon before an unknown entity known as the Destroyer forces them to slaughter one another and anything in their path. And I am Entei's Chosen, tasked with carrying his soul safely past the disaster."

She left out the part where Entei'd meant to just have the end of the world happen, so long as it didn't happen to him. Of course.

"Yeah," May managed to say. "Sounds like a pretty different thing from what went on in your world, though."

"But they succeeded," Spirit said, looking at her. "And they were three different disasters. Perhaps ours is just another kind, and we just another set of heroes, saving another world."

May clenched her teeth. "I doubt it, Spirit," she muttered. She'd read books to her sometimes, when she was a Vulpix. Spirit had always been taken with the idea of being special and important. May'd never quite gotten it.

Spirit looked back at Coleane, bowing her head. "Thank you. It is good to hear efforts like ours have succeeded before." She looked up and cocked her head. "So if the Voice of Life summoned you to Hoenn, are you a hero, too?"

 

[IFBench]

Wow...so this human and Ninetales were real heroes! Just like the humans in her own world!

But...was she a hero? She was summoned by the Voice of Life, so...

But she was never told to save the world. Never told to help anyone. Just...defeat the Champion.

She wasn't even human, so how could she be a hero?

"I...I don't think I'm a real hero. Not anymore. I was only told to 'defeat the Champion and become the greatest trainer there ever was'," Coleane said, wings drooping. "Nothing special like you two. I'm not even human."

But...even if she wasn't a hero, maybe she could at least help some real heroes.

She dug into her bag with a vine, and pulled out a seed. It had a rainbow sheen, interspersed by golden stripes, and twisted in an almost "Z" shape. It was worth thousands of Poke in her world, but...

She extended the vine towards Spirit. "Take this. It's an Empowerment Seed. Eat it if things get really bad, and you need to be the strongest you can be."

She hoped her gift could make a difference. She heard the very first Tiny Reviver Seed Team Seedlings had received, from their very first rescue, saved their lives in the climb up Sky Tower, so maybe she could make a difference. Maybe she could help. Maybe, even if she wasn't a hero, she could help a real one.

"I'm gonna go now. It...was nice meeting you both," she said, beginning to flap her wings once more. "Bye, and good luck with hero stuff."

As Coleane soared through the air, she felt only a fraction of the enjoyment she felt flying into the forest.

 

[Dragonfree]

Spirit's explanation only seemed to upset Coleane more. She'd been summoned to... defeat the Champion and become the best there ever was? What the hell was that about? A spirit entity, soul of the planet, that usually summoned heroes to save the world, just sent a Pokémon to become Champion for a laugh?

Then the Tropius brought out a gift, a shimmering rainbow seed twisted into a helix, and Spirit gasped. May'd never heard of an Empowerment Seed in her life, but something about it vaguely resembled a Key Stone...?

"Thank you," Spirit said, bowing again as she carefully took the seed in her mouth and put it down between her paws. "We will guard it well until we need it. Good luck in your own journey."

And then Coleane was in a right hurry to leave, flapping her wings and taking off through the trees.

Spirit looked after her. "Perhaps becoming Champion is only the instruction that she needed in order to do what must be done."

"Or the Voice of Life just has a sick sense of humour." Import human heroes, export Pokémon who go on badge quests.

"You should keep this seed safe," Spirit said, picking it up again. "Perhaps it might save us in an upcoming battle."

Could it? Ninetales couldn't even Mega Evolve, unless maybe they could do that in this universe. But May took the seed anyway and put it in her pocket.

"I guess we'll see."

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