Pokémon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Double-Edged

[LukerUpgradez]

Chapter 21: Red​

Mathew stumbled, tripping over everything in the dark corridor of the cavern. Each time he did, the aching in his feet became all he could think about. Mathew tilted his head upward, the image of that hulking gurdurr spurring him forward. He put the brunt of his fists, clutching his bone club and the satchel, against the walls to get his bearings and kept climbing.

In retrospect, he wasn't sure why he thought going after the gurdurr alone was a good idea. He wasn't experienced and frankly he wasn't that great of a fighter either. But he couldn't just stand there and watch as Jermy and Demurke were carried away. These OCEAN soldiers had come here to kill his friends. Mathew would never let that happen.

Never again.

Slowly, the pitch-black of the cavern brightened. When Mathew made one more turn, the source of the glow revealed itself, pouring in. He was close. He could feel it. He could hear it.

"...really think I'd be stupid enough to not figure out what's going on here?" In faded the heavy, breathy voice of the gurdurr as Mathew walked out. They were standing on a large and wide platform overlooking the lower floor of the cavern where the river passed by, given light by a hole in the surface above. He was standing at the edge, a weapon Mathew couldn't discern from so far away laid at his side. Jermy, clutched in his right arm, was held in front of the ledge. If his grip came undone now, Jermy would fall into a bed of stalagmites. Held out of danger in the other arm was Demurke. To so tightly grip both was an incredible feat, but Mathew could swear that the gurdurr's breaths were heavier, and his stance more slouched than when he caught a glance of him earlier.

"B-Big Timmy!" Demurke cried. "You've g-gotta stop this!"

Big Timmy, huh? Demurke knew this person by name… Mathew slowed his pace to a careful tiptoe and hid himself behind a rock. He needed an opportune moment to fight back or 'Big Timmy' might drop Jermy before he could act. In the meantime, he wanted to hear this.

"And let you traitors run all willy-nilly? Not a chance, bird."

"Traitors? We haven't d-done anything wrong! The plan just went—"

"You know what? No." Despite being trapped, Jermy's wide-mouthed snap made him look more loose than Mathew was used to. "I'm sick of not being able to speak my mind. Yeah, I'm the one who messed with your plans! Sorry that I got tired of saying nothing while the company's gone around killing people left and right. Consider this my official resignation from OCEAN!"

So that was what this was all about… No wonder Jermy was resistant from the moment Dit introduced the plan. Mathew really wished Jermy had just come out and said all this, though.

Big Timmy scoffed. "Resignation from life, more like it. Look where you are! Those spiky rocks down there would do a number on anybody, short-stuff."

"Better than living the rest of my life knowing I have blood on my hands!"

"Aww, now I feel bad for poor David over in the science division. Has he always had to rope in such crazy talk?" Big Timmy held Jermy out even further. "You're going right down the same path as that lousy sister of yours. Too bad you don't have nearly the voice she did." The grin Mathew could see on that gurdurr's face made the cubone want to stomp out of his hiding spot then and there. "Who's gonna be leading your fight when they see your tombstone?"

"I...I would!" Demurke exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Jermy! I d-didn't want them to die, either! I just...I didn't know what to do." There were tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry…" she repeated softly. Jermy's ears sank, the passion he showed before mellowing out.

"Oh, so you admit it!" Big Timmy brought both arms together, holding them both over. "Honestly, you two have no sense of loyalty. Especially you," he said to Demurke. "It's kind of sad. I wonder how your mom and dad will feel if I told them what you've been doing?"

Suddenly, Demurke was struggling intensely in his grip. "No, no no no no, please don't…!" she cried.

"Well, I can't just toss a bird off a cliff, can I? Have to see to your punishment too somehow."

Mathew had been the one to mistakenly put Demurke in danger — now he would get her out of it. The cubone sprung from the rock, charging in for a surprise attack…but his footsteps were too loud. Big Timmy turned his attention to Mathew, surprised and a bit curious.

"Eh? Now who do we have here…?"

As he skidded to a stop, Mathew pulled the Whirlwind Wand out of his satchel, then pointed both it and his club at the gurdurr. "And here I thought OCEAN had some fucking standards."

Big Timmy shook his head at him, disappointed. "So you heard all that, huh? Looks like the jig's up." He turned towards Mathew, bringing his hands away from the cliff's edge as he stared him down with his mismatched eyes. "Name's Timothy, if you didn't catch that. They used to call me Little Timmy, but, well, then I got bi—gah!"

Mathew's emergence was just the distraction the others needed. Jermy fired a surprise bolt at Big Timmy's face. He dropped the mouse and lost his grip on the bird. Both of them made a break for the tunnel leading to their friends.

"The garchomp caved in the exit! It's just the three of us now!" Mathew passed the pair before they could turn around, swinging his Wand at Big Timmy.

Big Timmy's eyes widened as he narrowly avoided the gust from Mathew's weapon, leaving it to peter out high over the rocks. He gave a little "Heh" that seemed to relax his tensed shoulders, then nodded to himself and grinned. "Garchomp'd do that, wouldn't he…" Suddenly, Big Timmy reached for the weapon on the floor. "He knows who can handle things on his own!"

Before Mathew could react, a gust of wind from Demurke pushed him and Jermy toward another stalagmite. The cubone put his arms out, his large toe-claws raking against the ground as he skidded against it. Both of them managed to land and take cover just before a stream of rock pellets shot through the air.

"It's a real shame," Gurdurr shouted over the rat-tat-tat of the mock-rifle in his arms, slowly walking towards them. The pellets bounced off of the pair's cover, some landing in front of them. "Dit put in a good word 'bout you, Mathew — showed me a kind of gun you made that's way more creative than this one. Too bad you won't be puttin' that knowledge to good use."

Mathew peeked over the side of the stalagmite. Demurke was circling Big Timmy, occasionally passing tense looks Mathew's way. She needed an opening — and, as the only person here with near-limitless long-distance attacks, Mathew knew who'd be the one to make it. He lowered his mask and hands and eyed Jermy expectantly.

"Huh? Oh!" Jermy got the picture, using Mathew as a makeshift stepstool. The two of them together were just tall enough for Jermy's head to clear their cover. Before Big Timmy could knock Jermy's teeth out with rocks, he zapped the gurdurr quickly and lightly, making him jolt.

The only confirmation Mathew was given that their tactic worked was the swish of Demurke's wings through the air, and the grunt of the gurdurr taking a blast of wind. It was quickly punctuated by the murkrow tumbling to the ground, stricken by pellets — and the furious panting of Big Timmy as he stormed their hiding spot.

"Gotcha!"

When the gurdurr turned towards them, Mathew had no escape. Jermy could leap off of his shoulders, out of the way of the weapon, but all the cubone could do was face it head-on. A stream of pellets rapidly battered the cubone's mask, making his whole head shake. It was better his mask take it then his body, though. It left him the strength to swing the Whirlwind Wand. Just as Mathew had a second ago, Big Timmy was pushed away, skidding along the cavern floor. He winced and grimaced in pain as his back slammed into a stalagmite.

Moving faster than he could think, Mathew put the Wand away and took out his own mock-firearm. The easiest way they could end this fight is by getting leverage to get Big Timmy to do what they wanted. He'd planned to do this to Meowth, but Mathew didn't mind pulling it off against—

Big Timmy recovered a bit faster than Mathew had expected. Before Mathew could blink, the gun's barrel had been ruined by rock pellets. When it landed on the ground, it was broken in parts, exposing the type stone within. "Shit…!"

"There we go!" Big Timmy spoke between breaths. "Third time's the charm." The gurdurr lunged at Mathew, shoving him away with a kick to the chest. Jermy went in for a metallic tail smack, but Big Timmy punted him with his free hand, too. That left only one of the three rushing him down. He held the rifle at his side and prepared for a close-quarters brawl.

Mathew watched as Demurke evaded fist after fist like they were nothing. From up close, the cubone could see something that his long-range weapon had hid from them. His loosened stance, his weak punches, his effortless shuffles of steps… Big Timmy looked exhausted. And yet he kept pushing, putting pressure on the murkrow. A low kick at the ground. A hammer arm through the air. He kept refocusing his energy as he held strong.

Demurke seemed unfazed. She took her time, holding back, leaping from the ground to the air as she sought the right moment. Big Timmy stepped back, aimed, and shot more pellets at her as she flapped idly in the air. This time she was ready, gliding out of his line of fire. Deep purple energy gleaned off of the tips of her wing, shading them like the night. Big Timmy tried to block her approach, but he was too slow. She came up to him and—

Slash!

Big Timmy groaned, almost doubling over. Demurke landed, looked back, and…she gasped in shock, beak gaping open as she studied her own handiwork with wide eyes.

Blood was oozing from the wound.

The gurdurr stared at his own chest. For a second, all of them did. Mathew could feel the air in the cave change — and it wasn't just the introduction of a metal scent. Past their own adrenaline, a new tension seeped into the room, all of them now intensely aware of a possibility nobody had been willing to acknowledge.

Big Timmy was the first to come to his senses, slamming his body into Demurke and sending her bounding across the rocks. The murkrow's usual stoic composure in battle completely vanished — when she rose, her talons trembled, and she made no attempt to get out of the way as she was pelted with rock pellets. Mathew and Jermy moved to intervene, but faster than they could react, Big Timmy picked her up and slammed her back against the edge of a stone.

It'd been a long time since a scream had caused the cubone to even wince—

A yell filled the house as her back was pressed against the hard-wood floor of their kitchen. "Shit! Hey, hey put that thing down! Mathew—"

—but Demurke's cry was enough to make Mathew lurch.

"Demurke, just get out of here for a bit!" Jermy called out. An electric shock surged between her and Big Timmy, separating them. "We'll take care of the rest!"

Demurke wordlessly obeyed, and with a burst of wind, she flew through the hole casting light into the cave, out of all of their reach. Big Timmy growled in anger. "You buncha wimps!" he yelled. "Can't even take what you dish out!" With a sudden burst of speed, the bleeding gurdurr was upon them, coming down from a leap into the air. "Lemme teach you a lesson…"

Jermy was too slow to avoid getting kicked by the large pokemon, splaying him out on the ground back first. Big Timmy looked down on the pikachu, then made his move. He pulled his front end of his weapon back


and for a second, everything was still. Mathew realized, too late, what was about to happen. He tried to call out Jermy's name, but nothing came out.


Big Timmy swung the barrel of his railgun
right into her head.


She hit the kitchen floor hard, motionless. The bandit stared down at his own handiwork, clutching the nail-covered bat.


In the blink of an eye, Mathew's world came rising up — memories, feelings, dreams — and crashed down. His own screams, distant to him now, echoed through the house.


"OH MY GOD! LAURA!"


The next thing he knew, the bandit was disarmed, trembling underneath the gaze of his firearm.


"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! GET OUUUUUT!"


Mathew didn't know why he didn't take the coward's life then.


He should have.


But Laura… Mathew needed to tend to Laura. Surely she was still alive, wasn't she? He needed to call somebody for her, anyone.


He passed by her, making for a phone
but curiosity and concern got to the best of him, and

Oh god
Oh god

Why did he look down
Why did he look down
Why did he look down
Why did he look down

Why



Mathew fell to his knees. His arms were shaking, barely able to keep himself from collapsing. His heart was beating out of his chest.

He didn't know at what point Big Timmy's battle-worn body began casting a shadow over him. "The heck's wrong with you?" he asked, poking Mathew's back with his weapon. "Come on…I put my neck on the line for this fight and you're cheapin' out on me? You — pant, pant — could at least pretend like you've got some fight in you left."

Mathew mustered the energy to look ahead. Jermy was splayed out on the floor, but aside from some bruises, he wasn't any more hurt than that. He would be okay.

…But that didn't change this tension in his chest…

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the club in arm's length. As he reached for it, the trembling faded. Everything he felt that day rippled on the surface of his mind — and now, all of it fueled a deep, burning desire.

"Hey, there we go! I knew you still had it in you! Keep gettin' up and we can—gyaaah!" Big Timmy was cut off by the sharp end of Mathew's club tearing through his leg. It was the second wound he had that was coated in crimson. It wouldn't be his last.

Mathew flipped his club around and bashed in his kneecap. The gurdurr, panicked, shifted his weight to the other foot and swung with his giant fist. Mathew scuttled aside, the punch grazing his muzzle. He went in for another cut at his side and slashed though. Who knew how easily a pokemon gave way after the first piercing strike?

Big Timmy drove his foot into the cubone, at once kicking him over and pinning him to the ground. The club rolled away, just barely out of his reach. "You think you're freakin' tough, huh?! Messin' me up like this…" It sounded like a threat, but all Mathew could hear was the fear in his voice.

Even as Big Timmy put the muzzle of his railgun right to his face, Mathew would not relent. He wriggled under Big Timmy's foot, putting his hand into the satchel ever at his side. Deeper, deeper, deeper…there! Mathew flicked the Whirlwind Wand forward, and wind blasted past the gurdurr's shoulder and loosed the railgun from his hands. It tumbled through the air and slammed into the cavern ceiling above — as it descended, a sharp dent in the barrel was obvious.

"Wha—!" Big Timmy gawked, staring upwards. His lost attention was all Mathew needed — with a lurch, he grabbed the bone and jammed it between the digits of his foot.

Big Timmy cried out, taking his foot off of Mathew's head as he rubbed it. The cubone scrambled away, staring the gurdurr down as he regained his composure, the sea of stalagmites at the bottom of the cliff backdropping his bloodied self. Mathew brandished his club and his Wand — Big Timmy brandished his fists. Gritting their teeth, both of them leapt at one another.

Big Timmy's punch collided with Mathew's Whirlwind Wand. An explosion of strange-colored dust burst all over Mathew's face, getting into his mouth, as a rush of wind roared through the cavern and launched both of them back.

Mathew hit the ground mask-first.

There was a scream.

And then there was silence.

---

At this stage of the fight, Joey wasn't sure what to do next.

Liepard, the bandit he and the couple had been fighting earlier, was no slouch. Even now, she was handily taking on Politoed, Poliwrath, and Chip all at once without much effort. Her claws blocked fist after fist, then slashed upward to pop the bubbles and keep the bird away. Joey wanted to help, but the claw marks on his maw reminded him that it wouldn't end well.

The other two bandits, on the other hand, were losing their lusters. The longer the fight went on, the more Breloom, Meowth, and Minichino's attacks landed. The crocodile imagined it wasn't easy to respond to a tail slap to the face when it was followed by coughing up a storm.

Joey was left to pick between joining a fight he stood no chance in and joining a fight that was all but handled already. Neither option inspired confidence in him, especially after his helplessness in trying to get to Jermy and Demurke. So, he decided the best thing he could do was take a moment to breathe and watch these mysterious foes from afar.

Even from a distance, the totodile could feel the change in atmosphere. Although Mathew and the others were away with Big Timmy, the seven of them could easily defeat the worn-down trio of bandits. It was only a matter of time at this point - and he could tell that their strongest had taken notice. Between attacks, Liepard's eyes sweeped around the cave, her mind churning. Then… "Garchomp! Crawde!" She suddenly pivoted and broke into a sprint towards the crocodile. "We're done here."

"What?! After all this effort…hrrk! you wanna retreat?" Despite the fervor in Garchomp's voice, he still looked like he could hardly hold himself up.

"They haven't given us much of a choice," Liepard remarked. She lunged forward with her sharp claws, forcing Joey to leap out of the way. He braced himself for the follow-up, but it never came. Instead, she went past him, making a beeline for the unconscious plant pokémon nearby.

"But what about Big Timmy…?!" the crab asked. With how much he was faltering, he seemed like neither iron nor a wall. Big Timmy… Was that the gurdurr's name? Joey could only assume.

"He can find his way back on his own! If any of us could do that, it's him. Let's move!" Liepard picked up her unconscious ally with her mouth. Quickly, the bandits pulled away from their fights, making a hobbling, stumbling break for the exit. The cat pushed the two poisoned pokémon along, practically carrying the entire group herself.

"They're getting away!" Chip exclaimed, soaring over the others. "Sire, let's move!" He glided towards them, giving chase.

"Sure that's a good idea?" Politoed asked, bending over. "Both of you look tired, and that liepard handled three of us at once already."

"Takin' care of guys like these is what we do!" Poliwrath had already taken off. "If y'all don't wanna come, then be mah guest, Toed!" With that, the pair split off from them.

Politoed could only sigh, disappointed. "Off he goes again… Didn't even stop to heal up." He gestured to Meowth to pass him an Oran Berry. Meowth seemed a bit disgruntled, but tossed him one anyway.

Again? "Do y'all know him?" Joey asked.

"Can explain that later, Joey," he said, shrugging it off as he downed the berry. He looked to the collapsed tunnel entrance. "Gotta help them first."

"Minichino had a Tunnel Wand with her when we split up. If she still has it, we could use that to get through the rubble." Meowth looked expectantly at Minichino, who was crawling around on the floor of the cave.

"Right when we started fighting, I dropped it somewhere! C'mon, c'mon…where did it go…?" Minichino scurried around, eyes held to the floor like a sunflower to its namesake.

"Looking for this? You're lucky it didn't explode into dust."

Minichino looked to her side and gasped. Next to her was ORB, clutching the Tunnel Wand in his claw. "ORB! Dude! You're my hero!" She pried the Wand from his claw and gave the metal robot a hug.

"You should focus on saving Jermy," the robot suggested, using his claw to force the hug apart. "If he couldn't remember to use Quick Attack when somebody was gunning straight for him, he probably doesn't remember now. That's a bad sign."

"Yeah, sounds like a plan!" Minichino waved the Wand towards the collapsed tunnel entrance. A gray light soared through the air. When it phased into the rubble, the stones broke down to dust and settled, exposing the entrance. "Let's get going, guys!"

Without another word, everybody charged ahead. There was no telling how well or poorly Mathew and the others were faring, so they needed to be prepared for one last effort. Joey was the last one into the pitch-black tunnel. Luckily for him, Meowth was kind enough to slow down and guide him through without bumping into the walls or tripping on the rocks.

The first thing that Joey noticed when the group arrived at the platform was the stillness of the scene before them. Whatever fight had transpired here was all but over. The second thing he noticed was the absence of one of its participants. Where had the gurdurr gone?

Joey wasn't given much time to question it. "Oh shoot, Jermy!" cried Minichino. Some paces away, the pikachu was laying down, unconscious. Meowth was already coming to his rescue, a reviver seed in hand. It was only when the group approached the pikachu that Joey finally saw them.

The two were at the edge of the cliff, looking out over the long bed of stalagmites below. Neither of them looked like their usual selves. Demurke's wings and talons were trembling, and Mathew was completely still.

The ends of Mathew's club were coated red.

"Mathew…?" Joey called out.

That seemed to throw them out of the moment, whipping their heads towards the crocodile. Even from afar, he could see Demurke's heavy, erratic breathing. Behind his skull mask, Mathew's expression was concealed.

"Hey," Mathew told the group around Jermy, excluding him, "keep the kids from coming close to the edge. They…shouldn't."

"What, you think we're gonna fall off?" Minichino's retort echoed, answerless. Her grin slowly faded.

A look of disbelief swept over Politoed's face. "You didn't…" He slowly approached the pair.

Breloom, not waiting for a response, rushed up to the edge — and gasped. "Holy crap, you three," she muttered, eyeing them.

Joey watched as Demurke buried her face in her hat and stepped away, making room at the cliff's edge for the couple. She refused to look any of them in the eyes.

"Waaah!" Meanwhile, Jermy had just awoken, launching into a sitting position in front of Meowth. "Guys? Did we win…?"

"One way to say it." Politoed grimaced. "Guess he made it him or you, huh?"

Mathew nodded. "That's about what it came down to. Uh…" He seemed at a loss for more words.

"It's self-defense then. Unfortunate, but not a crime." He took Mathew's club and, with a gentle Water Gun, cleaned the red off of the weapon before handing it back. "Still…" he glanced at the pit below, taking a breath. "What happens next is going to be ugly."

It was around this point Joey decided that he would be much better if he chose not to take a single step closer to the edge. The uneasy atmosphere, the worried looks, and the horrible stench of iron in the air was enough for him. Not to mention…

Why did Mathew seem so…calm?

Breloom was the one to break the tension. "We don't have time to waste," she said, already pacing back the way they came. "All of us are about to have trouble nipping at our tails if we don't get out of here now."

"She's right," Meowth said, next to follow suit. Joey couldn't help but notice that he wasn't looking at Breloom when he said that, but Mathew. Had he noticed his calmness, too?

As the group began to file out of the cave, the pair watched as Mathew walked over and picked two things up from the ground: the poison gun, broken, and another busted weapon. With some work and some banging on a nearby rock, the cubone pried both type stones from the weapons. "Do we have to un-imbue these?" he asked.

It took a second for Joey to realize he was talking to him. "Oh, uh...I think David said the imbue stops if they get split up."

Mathew nodded, seeming to remember that advice now. "Right. Thanks." He was still wearing those dark goggles. It was hard to see at a distance, but they were coated in something Joey couldn't recognize.

How could he even see like this…?

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Chapter 22: The Confrontation​

When Joey had arrived to Misery Cave, there was a tension in the air that none of the Club could shake. The crocodile couldn't have imagined how much more tense the atmosphere would be now.

A number of big problems hung over the group's head. Aside from the obvious, Demurke was no longer with them. The moment Politoed told them where they would all have to go now that they had turned the knife on OCEAN, the crow took flight towards Kalmwa'er on her own without another word. Her awkward departure punctuated Poliwrath and Chip's failure to apprehend the remaining bandits, who had scaled the cliffside with their remaining strength and disappeared into the shade of Pawalmtry Forest. But what sat at the front of Joey's mind was Mathew. Joey kept passing glances at him, waiting for him to yell, to cry, to give a mad laugh…any kind of reaction to what's just happened. But he remained ever-stoic and calm in a way that Joey was unfamiliar with.

He still had those goggles, too. The only time he had taken them off was to dip them into the river to clean them. Joey was sure that hypnotizing Mathew would be the last thing on Meowth's mind right now. How long was he going to keep wearing those?

Fortunately, the buggy had gone untouched throughout this ordeal, so the group still had a ride back to town. It was a tight fit — Meowth and Minichino were squished on the sides of Poliwrath, and Chip was forced to glide along with the vehicle — but they would manage, somehow. Joey was left to the back row with the other humans and ORB. For a moment, they all sat still, listening to the roar of the engine.

"I just don't get it." Joey's hands dug into the seat cushions as he broke the silence. "What were those bandits even doing in that cave?"

Minichino craned her neck back. "You haven't figured it out already? Those weren't bandits, dude. Those were OCEAN soldiers, disguised as bandits, coming over to kick our butts."

"Hah?" OCEAN soldiers? But that didn't make any sense. This whole plan only involved him, Mathew, Jermy, and Demurke. He looked to the pikachu. "That's not true…is it?"

Much to the crocodile's dismay, Jermy nodded. "They're right. The plan had two parts — you, me, and Mathew would handle Meowth, and Demurke and everyone else would take out the others. If it worked, you guys would've never seen who did the dirty work, and we could write it off as the geodudes or a rogue bandit group."

"It would also serve as a warning to Meowth, on top of whatever Mathew would do." ORB piped up from Jermy's lap. "Needless to say, somebody didn't like that plan. Otherwise, Jermy would've had to carry at least three of you to Kalmwa'er's graveyard."

"But why?!" Joey exclaimed. "Why would they wanna hurt Minichino, Politoed, and Breloom?"

"Well, probably because they figured out I was totally stabbing them in the back by leaking their stuff to their enemies," Minichino said in a completely casual tone. "That'd probably do it."

Meowth was quick to cut in, leaning forward to talk around Poliwrath. "So, what was that about you not being noticed if I did your dirty work for you?"

"We didn't think they would know! Guess they were ahead of the game or something."

Joey was left stunned. He got the impression that the other Club members were up to something, trying to sway him and Mathew to leave OCEAN, but he had no idea just how willing the group had been to get their hands dirty. And somehow, they had figured out that all of this was a part of OCEAN's plan? "How the heck…"

"Joe," Breloom said, her voice carrying from the driver's seat. "You remember when I gave Gurd— or, Big Timmy, I guess, that uppercut?"

That moment stuck out pretty strongly in the totodile's mind. "Yeah. You knocked out a color contact. I reckon he was wearing black ones…"

"Wearing ones that match his species' natural eye color," Politoed clarified. "Like how your species' eyes are usually red, a gurdurr's are black. Color contacts like those are popular because they help people like us stand out from the rest of our kind…because we all have the same natural eye color."

"Unless, say, you happened to have been human originally," Breloom said. "In that case, you keep your normal eye color."

Meowth's ears perked up. "I see what you're getting at." He peered at Joey. "That explains their weird eyes."

Mathew idly played with his goggles as they rested over his mask. "So you're saying that you all knew that they were human the whole time."

"Wait a darn second!" Joey exclaimed. "If a totodile's eyes are supposed to be red, and I've been moseying around with brown ones, then y'all must've already known I was human before I said so!"

"Wait," Mathew cut in. "You told them we were human?"

…Maybe he should've thought first before he spoke. "Uh, sorry, Mathew…"

"Don't get too upset with him," Politoed advised. "Breloom, Minichino, and I peer-pressured him into it a little. Wanted him to have our trust."

Suddenly, Meowth spoke up. "So how long are you guys going to dance around explaining yourselves? Whatever you three have been trying to do nearly got us all killed, and you still haven't told us what it was."

"It seemed crystal clear to me!" Jermy said. "You guys are trying to fight back against OCEAN, right?"

"More to the story than that, obviously," Politoed said. "You see, Breloom and I are a part of this little group. Minichino technically isn't because we hadn't met until joining the Club, but with how big of a help she's been, she basically is now." Politoed smiled in response to Minichino beaming at him.

Breloom followed him up. "We know that OCEAN has been manipulating the Great Legendary War from the sidelines and is preparing to get involved. Moreover, they've been secretly abducting dozens of hapless humans, rendering them amnesiacs, and training them to be a part of their fighting force." She raked one of her claws against the wheel idly. "Our job is to protect as many lives as we can by busting that operation."

"So you were never here for the trash, then…" Joey was beginning to realize just how little he actually knew about Politoed, Breloom, and Minichino's lives. What else had they been keeping a secret?

"Are you kidding, dude?!" Minichino sounded offended. "Of course I was here for the trash! At least, when I wasn't helping with Politoed's stuff. Heck, I'm the reason the non-recruitment part of your day is all about cleaning dungeons! Even with OCEAN breathing down my neck, I'm not gonna let them take away my ability to make the world a better place!"

The crocodile sighed in relief. At least it wasn't all a lie…

"Was becoming my roommates in Higher Ed part of getting on their good side?" Meowth asked.

"Nah, just a heck of a coincidence. Breloom and I didn't know about OCEAN at when we first enrolled, much less knew they had their roots in Kalmwa'er." Politoed shook his head. "Not everything is a conspiracy…"

"HA!" Poliwrath, who had previously seemed content to let the former Club members talk around him, gave a guffaw. "Based on everything I'm hearing from you lot, that's pretty rich! All this junk about OCEAN and ASHES and the Legendary War and—"

"Wait." It was Jermy who interrupted him. "ASHES?"

Poliwrath pointed a finger at the passenger's seat. "That's the name for this piece of work's 'group'."

"Means 'Association for Stopping Humans from Ending Solceus'. Pretty corny, but the name's not our call," Politoed explained.

"...Why does that name sound so much like—?"

"Hey, Jermy, hold that thought." Breloom slammed on the brakes, making everyone in the buggy lurch. They had made it to the edge of town. "Mathew, let's switch out."

Before leaving, all of them had agreed to divide and conquer. It was almost certain at this point that they were going to have to vacate Kalmwa'er to get as far away from OCEAN as possible. However, they still needed to pack their belongings, as the journey to a safer location could be lengthy. Since OCEAN knew that was where the humans lived, it was most likely that they would go to Meowth's condo first after they found out what transpired in Misery Cave. Thus, Mathew, Joey, and Meowth would have to go there and throw the group's possessions into the buggy as quickly as they could, with one of the Service Guild members accompanying them for protection.

As for the others, they would all walk to Kalmwa'er Town Hall, the base of operations for the Service Guild. Politoed explained that coordinating an escape from OCEAN would require the help of its guildmaster. Ideally, by the time the four of them returned, they would have a plan in mind. Jermy and Demurke were also supposed to come with them to prove their trustworthiness as former recruiters… They could only hope Demurke had flown off to get there first.

"Meet us at Town Hall in ninety minutes. If you're late, we'll go looking for you." Breloom dangled the keys to the buggy in her claw, then tossed them to Mathew. She gestured to a long, sloping path that led to the top half of town. "Try not to crash again, okay?"

"I wasn't planning on it." Mathew hopped into the buggy, then patted the passenger's seat. "Come on. You don't have to stay in the back, Joey."

"...You're sure?" Joey was a little surprised. He needed a little nod from the cubone to affirm what he was saying. After all that talk about traitors in the past, Mathew hardly seemed bothered by Joey intervening in his attack on Meowth earlier. Just what was going on here…?

As they drove off, the last thing Joey could hear from the other party was the sound of Jermy crying out "She's alive?!" He had no idea what that meant.

It didn't take long for Joey to miss the distractive noise of their other friends' chatter. It had momentarily drowned out the nightmare that they had all been drawn into. Now that it was just him, Mathew, Meowth, and that parrot Chip, the tension was all they had. Joey was desperate to broach the subject on something, anything — but he was still so hesitant. How in the world do you even start a conversation like this?

Aside from the occasional yell to get pokémon to move out of the way of the buggy, none of the them shared a word until they finally arrived in front of Meowth's condo. "I'll stay out here and make sure nobody's coming our way," Chip informed them as Mathew parked. "If you need any help with the luggage, say the word."

"We'll probably be fine," Meowth asserted as he hopped out of the buggy and crossed the yard. He was probably right — Joey and Jermy hadn't brought in anything besides themselves into the condo, so Mathew's backpack and Meowth's belongings were all they would need to carry.

The moment the three of them stepped through the front door, Joey felt his whole body decompress. It was as if all of the adrenaline that had sustained him through the past hour or so had spilled out of him like a busted bag. There was something about the strange but pleasant scent that permeated the condo that made the crocodile feel at-ease.

He tried not to think about the fact that this might be the last time they would be here for a long time.

"I'm going to box up some things from my room," Meowth declared, already drifting for the door. "Joey, can you stay out here in the living room while I pack up? I might need some help carrying it after it's in boxes."

Joey thought about asking Mathew if he needed help before accepting…but that idea didn't really sound good right now. "Yeah, of course."

"Give me a bit, lemme get my shit…" Mathew was already in the middle of picking up his box-shaped game console and carrying it upstairs.

While he waited for Meowth and Mathew, Joey collapsed onto the couch with a long sigh. He was so tired of fighting. It wasn't just those bandits or stopping Mathew or Meowth — he was always fighting. Fighting his own weaknesses, trying to become a better battler… Fighting the conflicts between the Club members, trying to help them get along… Fighting himself, trying to decide what path he was on. Everything about his week on Solceus had been exhausting.

That was when he remembered what he had slid underneath the couch he was laying on. Mathew would be real unhappy with himself if we didn't take this with us… Joey pulled it out from the couch, patted the dust off, and before he could tell himself to resist the urge, he was already flipping pages, searching for the truth behind a life he didn't know. There was nothing new, of course — he was just desperate.

All that is to say, good or bad…you're pretty special.

You should take things one step at a time. Maybe you could focus more on cracking that noggin, if you can. Not having memories is a pretty big deal.

Whatever is going on in your corner of the world, the three of us are here to listen and help.

It was all so obvious, now. Minichino, Politoed, and Breloom all knew exactly what OCEAN was trying to make them become. They had done everything they could from their position to give the two of them an out. They were saving them — saving him. But all he ended up doing was resigning himself to the hope that OCEAN's promises would be enough to bring Mathew back to his senses. What a stupid plan that was! Look what he had happened when he twiddled his thumbs and let the world crash down around—

…What?

Joey had put his fingers down the sleeve of a photo of himself and Mathew's unmentioned child without thinking, but when he did that, he felt something weird. He raked his finger against the edges to prove he wasn't imagining it, and he could clearly feel it. There were two photos inside this sleeve, one blocking the other. Joey couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it until now — the back photo was a bit bigger, so he could see its white margins even while the front photo was blocking it.

Joey pried it out without hesitation. What he found was a photo of a half-dozen people standing together. There was Mathew, his mother, and his father, as well as three more people. There were two of them he didn't recognize — an older man with graying blond hair and a woman wearing a formal jacket. The third was that red-haired woman he’d seen earlier. Even here, she looked like she was having more fun than anybody else with that mad-looking grin of hers. Joey had to wonder if that rabbit plushie with the cute tophat and bowtie was what made her smile that way.

Why did Mathew hide this photo? Him and his parents being here felt…important in some way Joey couldn't understand. If Jermy or Meowth or David or Dit or Emily hadn't distracted the two of them for so long, maybe Joey would have already known the answer.

He was so tired. He had to lay this to rest.

Just then, he heard footsteps slowly stomp down the stairs. Once he reached the bottom, Mathew laid his backpack down. "Phew…" Mathew panted, looking to Joey. "Hey Joey, can you help me carry this? It's no lighter than it used to be."

"Mathew." Joey put the photo back in the scrapbook and set it down on the table before standing up. "Are we really gonna keep acting like nothing happened in there? That we didn't have that fight?"

Mathew seemed stunned, then deflated a little. "I didn't know if learning what OCEAN was doing had changed your mind." He moved away from the backpack, coming towards him.

"We shouldn't have run off and tried to fight Meowth," he asserted, looking Mathew as firmly in the eyes as those goggles could allow. "We shouldn't have gotten all roped up in any of this. I was real stupid for not speaking up until it was almost too late."

Mathew reached out to touch his shoulder. "Joey—"

The memory of him looking so fierce flashed in his mind, and reflexively, Joey swatted his arm away. "Don't you come here comforting me like you weren't the one going all in on this!" he exclaimed. "If you hadn't pushed us on this job so hard — if we'd gotten out when Minichino handed it to us on a silver platter — none of this would have happened! And you had me strung along the whole time because you just can't treat any of this like it's real!"

"Joey, I get it, I—"

"I really don't reckon you do." Joey couldn't stop himself at this point — all of the feelings he had left pent up were coming undone now. "You sure didn't think much when you were talking with Dit about all the ways you could snap Meowth's bones. How about when you beat up that rabbit in front of a huge crowd? Or when the others had to reign you in after you started chasing after those sand castle guys? Heck, on our first day, you drove the buggy through the middle of town and barely even had a care in the world!" Joey picked up the open scrapbook in one hand. "But any time we ever try to deal with our problems, suddenly you get all clammy. Like when we talk about my parents, or our jobs, or Meowth, or this." Joey put it straight in Mathew's face, forcing him to see the photo of him and these mysterious people.

Mathew clasped the top of the book and pushed it down to meet his firm gaze. "Joey, listen. Later, when Meowth and Chip aren't around—"

"It's always later with you!" Joey dropped the scrapbook back onto the table. "After we found out we could use that machine of yours to get my memories back, I really thought things were gonna get better for you and me. But now look. You…" His voice withered. "You killed somebody, Mathew. And you hardly even look bothered about it."

Mathew seemed hesitant, standing there silently for a few seconds. Then, the wrath Joey was more familiar with finally spilled forth. "If you were worried about me killing someone, Joey, you're about two years too fucking late," he spat.

Too late…? "What?"

"You wanna find out how I knew your parents, huh?" He slammed his hand down on the scrapbook. "Two years ago, I met your dad. When I called the police that night, he was the one who answered." He pulled out the photo, then put it in Joey’s face, imitating his own motion. "A couple months later, I started working with him and Catherine in this group right here. We were all there to do the same thing — to bring some sanity back to the world and take care of people like Big Timmy. I came up with and built all sorts of machines to be used all over the Western States to apprehend…and to eliminate, if needed."

The crocodile gasped. His mother and father were a part of a group like that? "Why would you ever join something like that?"

"You don't know what pieces of shit like them are capable of, Joey!" he yelled. "If it gives them even the slightest leg up in the world, they will take and take and take. They took from everyone… They took from my friends… They took from me."

"...From you?" Something clicked for Joey just then. Mathew's wife, and his kid…he had always wondered why they weren't here with them on Solceus.

"YES!" he screamed, throwing his arms out. "Why the hell do you think I came here instead of staying on Earth? There's nothing LEFT for me!" he slammed a fist on the table. "NOTHING. Nothing at…fucking all."

Joey was about to cut in, but he was stopped by the waver in Mathew's voice — and the tears swelling up in his eyes.

"I think about Laura every day, Joey…how she looked when she died…the way it felt when Greg told me they couldn’t find that monster…and it makes so upset, and angry—" Mathew collapsed onto the couch. That flicker of fury faded into a deep despair. "I thought they or OCEAN or Meowth could help me, could make it stop. But it just keeps getting worse." Mathew pulled his goggles away to wipe at his eyes. "Why am I doing any of this, Joey? I don't even know anymore… I just don't know…"

Joey was silenced by Mathew's tears. Here it was — the truth that he had wanted for so long. Now he knew the kind of people his parents were, and what they meant to Mathew. He should be happy, shouldn't he? Learning this is what had kept him by the cubone's side all this time.

But there wasn't anything fun about this.

Joey sat down on the other end of the couch, waiting. Mathew needed several long, painful minutes before his weeping subsided enough for him to speak. "Whenever your family came over so that your — your parents and I could talk, you'd…spend all your time with Mark." he said between sniffles.

Mark… MW. "I was friends with your kid," Joey thought aloud.

He nodded slowly. "Mark was pretty bright. About as good as…you could get in a life of balancing homeschooling with — with online school. He — He — He meant the world to me." Mathew took a few fast breaths. "But after we lost Laura, he and I had — we had different outlooks on what to do next. So he'd always…pull you along to the other side of the house instead of — of sticking around with the adults. I have no idea what you two did with all that time, but you two…you were always smiling, so…" Mathew buried his skull mask in his arms, and he got worked up all over again.

Joey took off his hat and held it in front of his face. Don't forget. It was a message from Mark to him that Joey had lost the meaning to. If only he was here to tell him… "What happened to him?"

"Things at home…they only got worse after your family moved a state over. Mark — he helped me work on the portal technology, but — but I know he never really was on-board. I still remember when — when I woke him up after getting those blueprints. He gave me this look and told me…he told me I was crazy. He was probably right." Mathew laughed weakly. "Two or three months ago, we — we had this argument about that, and I thought things calmed down, but the next morning he was just…gone." He slumped over, another well of tears quietly streaming down his face. "I never saw him again."

Joey hung his head. "So he ran off."

"He was…so sad when he found out you were moving. That hat you're wearing, he — he gave it to you on his own birthday. He wanted you to have it as a reminder of…something. He — He never told me what. So, when he left, my first thought was — I thought he ran away to see you. I…" Mathew sounded so frail. "I don't think he made it."

Mark…a friend he had lost that he didn't even know. Before Joey had come to this world, did he know about any of this? Did his parents keep all this about their 'group' a secret from him? Had he mistakenly assumed Mark was still alive? There was a lot he didn't know, but that spark that motivated him to seek that knowledge was dying out. At this point, Joey just wished things were better.

"Joey." Mathew sounded a bit more controlled now. "As soon as this is over, and we have a chance…I'm gonna find that psychic type stone the Wristlet needs, and I'm gonna get you your memories back." And, after that, if you wanna go find your parents and never see me again…that'd be okay with me." He shook his head, looking shameful. "Dammit. I should have just told you all this from the beginning. You're too young for all of the shit I've been throwing on you… I'm so sorry."

Joey pondered this for a moment. If there was a chance to turn around and leave Mathew…would he take it? Should he take it? He didn't even know at this point. "…Let's just take a few minutes," he muttered. "We need it."

"Yeah… Yeah, you're right." Mathew leaned back, and they both just sat there, on that couch, for a few minutes. Mathew's breathing grew less and less erratic, and soon enough, his distress began to fade.

That was when the door to Meowth's room slowly creaked open. Out he came, carrying several boxes sealed shut and stacked atop each other. Joey rose to help, but was quickly stopped.

"Just stay there," Meowth calmly insisted. "I can move this on my own. We'll only leave when you're both ready."

Meowth had been listening to their conversation the whole time, hadn't he? He must have been waiting for a good time to leave that room of his. Joey looked to Mathew, anticipating a fierce, snappy—

"Okay." That was all Mathew said. It was raspy, and a little firm, but there was no malice behind his voice. It was almost relieving to see him so calm towards Meowth. Joey wondered how long it would last.

Meowth kicked the door open and starting speaking to Chip outside, but whatever they said was muted by it shutting. The two were left alone for a bit longer.

As the tension between them subsided, and as Mathew stood up and said he was ready to keep moving, and as the two of them carried his backpack out of the condo and into the buggy, and as the four of them uneasily drove away, Joey wondered what awaited them on the path ahead. He was hopeful that the others would bring some brightness back into this terrible situation — he was almost eager for it. But it wouldn't change how today had brought out the worst of the both of them.

Could it get any worse than this?

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Chapter 23: Receding​

"This is town hall?!"

Mathew was left bewildered as he drove the buggy up to the building. Made of worn brick and cloudy windows, it reminded him of an Earth town hall, but the sheer size of it threw him off. Its doorless entrance, hid behind dark green pillars holding the building up by the edges of the roof, could easily fit him even if he was four times larger.

"It's huge!" Joey exclaimed.

"Well, when you have to create a building everybody is meant to enter, you kind of have to make it huge," Chip explained. "You wouldn't want to lock out your good friend Dragonite just because he's too big, right?"

"Oh, I guess that makes sense…" On second thought, that should've been obvious to Mathew. He supposed he was still feeling a little overwhelmed from his talk with Joey. He regretted that he didn't stay in the condo longer to fully collect himself, but he knew that OCEAN wouldn't wait for him to feel better. Not to mention, none of the others were familiar enough with vehicles to drive the buggy through town, so that left the task to him.

The cold air of the cloud-covered sky outside was replaced with something much warmer as soon as they stepped through the entryway. There was a large crowd filling up the spacious lobby — a sign on the ceiling suggested a food court was that way, and they were just in time for the start of the lunch rush. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to wait in a line for food. "So, where are they?" he asked Chip.

"If they're still in that meeting, then they'd be in the guildmaster's office," Chip said, already leading the way. "There's an elevator that goes down to the basement over here on the right." He took a moment to wave down a guild member — a purple monkey with a hand-like thing on her tail — and get her to keep an eye on the buggy, then they made for the massive elevator Chip had pointed out.

When it opened into a basement hallway, they were greeted with a painting of a large beast pokémon captioned "In memory of Fogside and Mayor Scapelli. 1804 - 2060." They turned a left, and there it was: a pair of extremely tall double doors. Next to it was a plaque that read "Guildmaster's office".

Joey stared at the door. "Uh… How do we—"

"Like this." Meowth grabbed a subtle knob and pulled open a part of the door. He gestured to Mathew, pressing him to go first.

A door inside of a door… From the euphoric to the miserable to the comical, Mathew felt like he had experienced everything today. He pushed forward as Meowth opened it the rest of the way. "Hello? Guildmaster? We—" Mathew's throat constricted as he realized that he certainly had not seen everything yet.

There was Jermy, Minichino, Politoed, and Breloom, and Poliwrath, alright, talking to a monolith. The quadrupedic beast, resembling the one in the painting, must've been seven times taller than the cubone. Its head protruded upward like a minotaur, and its backside bore a tail like a mermaid's. Its front and hind legs bore a mismatch between green and talon-like and black and paw-like, respectively. To top it all off, on its crest and tail were highlights of a contradictory bright pink. It looked like a gross fusion of Frankenstein's monster and a wolf, topped with a pixie dust-colored bandage.

Needless to say, Mathew took the door out of Meowth's paws and immediately slammed it shut. "Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed.

"Mathew?!" Joey said. "What's in there?"

"It's a…it has a…!" Mathew tried to recount the creature's appearance, but words failed him. "I don't even know how to say it!"

"Woah, hey!" Breloom shouted from inside. "Silv isn't gonna bite!"

"You're not interrupting, if that is your concern!" The beast spoke with a deep, voluminous voice.

Mathew slowly pried the door within a door open again. "You could've warned me your leader was gonna look like that," he mumbled to the others as he stumbled into the room. It was a tall and wide space in which the beast stood at the back, behind a desk suitable for his size. There was a little tag on the desk that said "Guildmaster Silvalla". A smaller table in a half-ring shape was where everyone else was seated…besides Minichino, who was sketching something with chalk on the hard-wood floor in the center of the room.

"Hey guys!" she exclaimed, looking up from her work. She gave them a grin that faded slightly when she saw their expressions. "Everything okay? You guys look down…or, more down than usual in Meowth's case." Minichino's prod prompted a sigh from Meowth.

Mathew was not all interested in talking about this more than he had to. "It's fine…"

"We're a little out of wack because of what's going on," Joey mumbled. "We'll figure it out."

"That is understandable," The beast, Silvalla, said. He focused his attention to Mathew. "If it's of any concern to you, Mathew, let it be known that what occurred today is clearly an act of self-defense. So, unless Meowth wants to…" Silvalla was silenced by a cutting glare from Meowth. "There is nothing to charge you with."

Oh. Well, that explained a bit of what they had talked about before their arrival. "Good to know, I guess…"

They each settled into some of the open chairs. After sinking into the beanbag chair, Mathew noticed a set of plates had been laid out on the table, spread out so that each of them could easily reach one.

"There is complimentary food, if you wish," Silvalla clarified.

Mathew leaned forward. On the plate… Garlic bread? He picked a loaf up, studying it. What kind of place serves garlic bread as complimentary food? He hadn't had anything like this since-

"Wait a minute." Mathew looked up at the beast. "Isn't there a restaurant in town that shares your name?"

"Ah, my side project."

Mathew slowly put the loaf down. This place gets weirder by the goddamn second.

"Where's Demurke?" Meowth asked.

"She's still in questioning, I think," Jermy answered. "I dunno how I got done faster than her."

"With how fast you were blabbering, you would out-talk most people," ORB, next to Jermy's chair, said.

"Well, she did send half of us into an ambush," Breloom said. "If any of us needed more thorough questioning…"

Chip idly tapped the table with his wing. "I agree with the idea, but not in the time it's taking."

"Well, it gives me some time to keep working on this," Minichino said. She seemed to be slowly drawing a circle…a Gate?

Mathew was tempted to ask about it, but there was a, literally, much bigger thing on his mind. "So, what's a g—" Right, they didn't know what a god was. "Er, legendary doing running this whole service thing, anyway?" Mathew asked.

"Well, that's somewhat of a history lesson," Silvalla said. "I'm uncertain if we have the time."

"Oh, they don't know about this?! I'd be glad to explain it quickly. I studied this topic heavily in Higher Education…" Chip was so excited he hardly even waited for permission to continue. "Back when when services like guilds were run by mortals, for mortals, the city of Rimek had a guild with an exceptional reputation. Behind closed doors, however, it wasn't so pleasant."

"I remember readin' those reports in one of our history classes," Poliwrath cut in. "It was crazy!"

"Little more than just crazy…" Politoed remarked. "Members treated each other terribly and supervisors turned blind eyes."

"Well, yes," Chip cut in, "but previous guildmasters knew how to make sense of all that chaos. Then, some three hundred years ago, they got Guildmaster Gothitelle. To make a long story short, she lost control of the guild's worst members, which led to infighting so severe that, one day, tensions snapped and the in-groups started killing each other."

"Killing…?" Joey gawked.

"It went about as well as you'd imagine a practical free-for-all between the greatest fighters around could go," Breloom said. "Twelve dead, including the guildmaster herself, and more than triple that injured. Their facility got leveled. Pretty much everyone retired or got arrested by other guilds. Crime rates skyrocketed. Lots of mourning on all fronts. You get it."

"Yes, I do." Mathew slouched. All good rules are written in blood — it was a truth of Earth, and now it was a truth of Solceus as well. He was such a fool for thinking running off to Solceus would result in him living in a paradise where he could keep his friends safe.

Chip seemed a little miffed by Breloom's interruption. "And that is why Arceus and the four Tapus collaborated on the LeadType Project!" He swung a wing towards Silvalla. "One of many silvallys has been provided to every major town, city, or other congregation of people to establish standards across all local service groups and ensure that an incident like Rimek's does not happen again. There was pushback on the idea, but after the success and reputation of groups who accepted the help of their silvally skyrocketed, that minority quickly dissolved. Now, we hardly even think about it."

Silvalla straightened his neck. "Thank you, Chip." The chatot gave a nod of appreciation, then let him have the floor. "One of the lesser-known services that us silvally provide is a form of protection for those who are being hunted or otherwise in danger. People are led along what we call the Silvally Safety Trail to a location that is kept secret between us silvally, where they are able to keep living while, ideally, not in constant danger."

Mathew could see where this was going. "So we're going into witness protection."

"If that's the closest human equivalent to what I'm describing, then yes. All of you will be moving to a new location temporarily until this 'OCEAN' force is no longer a threat. On the trip there, you will be accompanied by Poliwrath and Chip, as additional protection in case you encounter problems on the trip.

Poliwrath groaned. "Say bye-bye to our plans for the week, Chip…" he quickly caught himself and redoubled his vigor. "B-Because we're gonna put our A-game into gettin' these guys safe!"

"How flattering." Politoed gave an amused smile, which seemed to make Poliwrath seethe in his seat.

"And that's not all!" Minichino leapt away from her drawing that was much more clearly a Gate now. "I just finished my way of getting us some secret extra help!"

"Extra help…?" Mathew was intrigued. What more could this girl possibly be hiding?

"So, when I first showed you guys I was a priest, I didn't tell you everything about what it's like to be one," Minichino said. "See, each priest like me is given a blessing by one Legendary Pokémon. It's supposed to be our job to represent them to everyday pokémon, so we can help guide them."

"You were blessed by a legendary?!" Jermy exclaimed. "You're fifteen!"

Minichino turned towards Jermy with a giddy grin. "I know, right?!"

Something clicked to Mathew at this realization. "Then…what legendary were you blessed by?"

"And that's why I didn't tell you that detail when we were in the Church of Arceus," Minichino said, giving him a side eye. "I didn't want you trying to figure me out. So if you didn't know that about priests, you wouldn't think to ask!"

Meowth wasn't impressed. "Couldn't they have asked any of the other priests in the church about what they do and learned about it that way?"

Minichino whirled to clap back at Meowth…then stammered. "I mean…well…uh…they didn't! So yeah!"

Politoed just shrugged. "Wasn't in charge of that part of the plan."

"So, what does this have to do with the Gate?" Mathew asked. "Do priests get to do some kind of special imbuing?"

"Imbue?" Minichino smirked. "Nah, for us, Gates have a whole 'nother feature we get to use. Watch this!" She dropped to her knees and planted her paws on the floor. Suddenly, the Gate on the ground glowed brightly. Even without anything to imbue, Minichino was somehow activating it. There was a brief moment of silence, and then…

"Minichino!" A bright and youthful voice echoed through the air, a bit muffled but still easy to hear. "That's you I'm sensing, right?!" the voice exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's me!" Minichino said. "Got a couple minutes? I've got a lot to tell and show you guys…"

"Couple minutes, coming right up!"

Mathew's eyes widened as a glowing light filled the office — then it dispersed, and another figure appeared, standing in the midst of the Gate. Before them all was a cream-colored colt, coated in a blue hue that matched the color of his tail, the end of his hooves, and a great horn that sprouted from his forehead. He had a fiery red mane, flowing gracefully from his head. Three strands at the front had been dyed different shades: the left green, the middle orange, the right blue. The cubone found him familiar, but the name eluded him.

Minichino stood up and dramatically gestured to him. "Everyone, please welcome to the room—"

"Minichino!" A voice bellowed with the gruff deepness of a bass. At the edge of the Gate, a second figure suddenly formed, charging straight into the colt.

"Wait—waaah!"

The colt was barreled over, almost crushed underneath the gray and brown bovine with two curved horns. "There you are!" he looked at Minichino with a wide grin. "What've you been up to this whole time?"

"Going undercover, like I said," Minichino answered. "I had to make myself look totally innocent, so OCEAN would buy it!" She rubbed the back of her neck. "Did I make you worry?"

"We we were a little worried, yes." A woman's voice came through, and yet another figure leapt smoothly into the Gate — a green antelope with a cream-shaded underside and hooves shaped like boots. A leaf tipped with bright red sprouted from her neck, matching the shade of her eyes.

"A proper warning would have been appreciated." One more pokémon marched in. The blue stag with yellow horns in the shape of lightning bolts looked down upon the minccino, the white beard-like mane on his neck instantly giving him an age and authority. "We were forced to reroute to pass Kalmwa'er so we could check up on you."

"Yeah, that's my bad…" Minichino fidgeted with her hat, seeming a bit embarrassed.

"H-Hey, if it makes you feel any better…" The colt pushed the bovine off of him and rose to his feet. "I always knew you were okay." That seemed to make her smile again.

Mathew couldn't believe his own eyes. He hadn't been able to recognize one on their own, but all gathered here in the middle of the room, it was clear now. "You're a priest for the Swords of Justice?!"

All four of them whipped their heads in Mathew's direction, but none of them seemed to actually lock their eyes on his body. "Oh, we have an audience?" Cobalion remarked.

"Yeah! We're actually in the middle of Kalmwa'er Service Guild's office." Minichino acknowledged the confused Mathew. "They can only see people and stuff that's inside the Gate."

"Hello, Swords," Silvalla called down to them. "This is Silvalla. You're surrounded by a few mortals who, along with your priest, we are helping to take on a passage to safety."

"A passage…you mean the 'Safety Trail' then." Cobalion looked up to roughly where Silvalla sat. "Are you absolutely certain that their destination will be safer than where they are now?" Mathew could feel some underlying tension in that question.

Silvalla shut his eyes and gave a long sigh. "What happened there was…unfortunate. But I assure you, Mithlline offers no such risks."

"Oh don't tell me that they rerouted that whole thing to go there…!" Poliwrath mumbled.

Politoed nodded, much to his dismay. "Going to be taking the humans home with us."

The moment Politoed said that, the demeanor of the four changed. "There are humans with you?" Virizion asked, seeming surprised and a bit intrigued.

"Oh! Oh! Bring them over here! I wanna see!" Keldeo exclaimed.

Mathew was not particularly interested in presenting himself to a bunch of strangers, even if they were Legendary Pokémon. So when Joey voiced an "I can come up there," Mathew did not object. Once he stood inside the Gate, the red-haired colt slowly approached him.

"Hmmmmm…" He squinted as he stared Joey up and down. "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm…"

"Uh, hi, mister," Joey said. "I'm Joey. Is everything okay?"

Keldeo cocked his head, seeming a little disappointed. "Huh. I thought you'd look a little more…human-y."

Virizion shook her head, amused. "See? We told you they look the same as any Solcean."

"But that's so lame, though!" He exclaimed to the antelope. "It'd be way cooler if they got, like, a little hairtuft or something."

"On a crocodile?" Terrakion chuckled. "That's a riot!"

"Let's get back to business." Cobalion's eyes sweeped the room, addressing everyone. "We are about two days away from Kalmwa'er. Is there a way we could assist with your escort of Minichino and these humans?"

Silvalla pondered for a moment. "How long would it take for you to reach Bylaide Forest?"

"The dungeon south of Vahle Village? We could easily reach that by tonight," Cobalion said. "That will provide us all with some cover…meeting there would be wise."

"Bylaide Forest is pretty far from here," Breloom mused. "If we wanted to make it without stopping to sleep, we'd have to leave this evening and travel through the night."

Jermy groaned. "Even without OCEAN, I'm never gonna get any sleep, aren't I?"

"According to my calculations," ORB said, "the probability of you fixing your circadian rhythm is 0.00—"

Suddenly, the door within a door to the guildmaster's office burst open. Mathew turned, expecting to see Demurke…but instead, it was the purple monkey from earlier. "Guildmaster!" she exclaimed. "Somebody outside is begging to be let into your office! He says he needs to talk to some people here!"

A tense silence fell over the group. Mathew could feel his heartbeat quicken. Had they already been found out by OCEAN?

"Who is this person?" Silvalla asked.

"He claims to be the owner of the vehicle Chip came in on earlier, Guildmaster. He is a light persian wearing a purple bowtie."

"What the heck?" Minichino said. "Mr. Persian is here?!"

Mathew was immediately suspicious. It wasn't David, or Dit, or any of the soldiers they had fought earlier, but that just made him more concerned. "This might be a trap. They might have sent Mr. Persian to act as a familiar face to lure us—"

"You guys have a meeting to finish. I'll handle this myself." Meowth sprung out of his seat, making a beeline for the door.

"Meowth! Wait!" Joey cried, but he was already past the monkey and through the door.

The cubone shook his head, disappointed. Of course he would run off like that…

---

That was so selfish of you, Meowth. You could've gotten all of us killed!

Already, Meowth could hear the rambling of the others after he returned to that meeting he just abandoned. He didn't care.

Going to Misery Cave had been an opportunity to get a taste of what his father was hiding from him. Mathew going over the deep end, those OCEAN workers fighting them to the death, and that gurdurr whose blood was now on their hands… Mr. Persian had been overlooking all of this, he was certain. That message he sent this morning proved it.

Soon, he was stomping his way out of town hall, making a beeline for the buggy. Sure enough, there he was, looking desperate as he spoke with a random guild member. "Please, is there any way I can convince you that…" Mr. Persian's voice fell away as he approached.

Meowth planted his feet down so firmly, his claws almost dug into the dirt. "What are you doing here?"

"Meowth…" His ears drooped. "You didn't get my letter, did you."

"Of course I got the letter. Why are you here?"

Mr. Persian slowly walked up closer to him. "Did they hurt you at all? I know you always have Oran Berries and Reviver Seeds on you, but—"

He took a step back. "Answer the question." Meowth closely studied his father's face. Where was that grin of his?

Mr. Persian paused his approach, giving him a look full of despair. "When I saw the buggy coming in, I knew you all were going to leave town. There are a few things I need to do before you go…but this is the one that mattered the most." He reached back and clawed at his own hind leg. Some piece of clothing had been wrapped around it.

Meowth watched his father with scrutiny as he pulled it off his leg and laid it flat on the ground. What could he have possibly gotten him that—

Oh. Oh.

A tie. Just like Mathew's. Although, this one wasn't a simple burgundy like his — it was striped, alternating between a pure black and a pure green.

"I wanted to give this to you personally when you turned fourteen, but I never got the chance." Mr. Persian said solemnly. "When I learned you were going to be a physician-therapist, I thought you might want something like this." Unable to meet his gaze, he looked away from Meowth. "I'm sorry if it doesn't fit, or it's not your style. It matched your contacts, so…"

Meowth picked up the tie and let it dangle. It was fashionable, stylish, appropriate for his career, and it really did match his eyes. A few years ago, he probably would have hated it — he remembered hating neckwear, and he'd avoid wearing anything like this even when his academics called for it. He couldn't really remember why…

No. He did. Meowth just had to take a look at his father's bowtie to remind himself.

Immediately, Meowth began wrapping the thing around his neck and tying it into shape. At this point he didn't even know where he wanted to point his spite anymore, so he didn't have a good reason not to try it on. He fumbled with it for a bit, tying it into ugly and clearly incorrect knots before undoing it and starting over.

Mr. Persian reached a paw forward. "Do you need me to—"

"No. I got it." He whirled away from his father, pausing to recollect his thoughts. What was it that his classmate said that one time…? Wrap around…up and over…thread it through…

Better. One or two more attempts later, and the tie was tied, only slightly loose around his neck. Meowth tightened it as he returned his attention to his father.

"Oh. You did it all by yourself…" Mr. Persian's expression was surprisingly sunken. "Good job, Meowth."

He focused his attention back on his father. "Five years is a long time to find a chance to give a gift." Meowth reflexively dragged his foot against the ground a little. It was only natural, since that was what Mr. Persian'd been doing.

"I know." His sullen demeanor didn't change. Even now, he was denying it? "These past few years have been so difficult. I imagine it's been as hard for you as it's been for—"

Forget this.

"Can you just stop being so fake?!" Meowth almost grit his teeth as he spoke. He knew there were people watching, but it hardly mattered now. "I'm tired of having to fish this out of you. Just tell me that you hate me, so that we can move on!"

Mr. Persian flinched at his raised voice. "Fake?" He sounded as though he was in disbelief. Then he retreated further from him, looking off towards that resort of his. "Is that how long I've been gone…?"

"You threw me into a dorm the moment you got the chance and never let me come home. Then you'd send your assistant to handle me instead of yourself, because you preferred it that way. The only reason you got me to join that stupid Club was because I had a career that was convenient to you! Now I…" He only let himself hesitate for a second. "I know that it's true. I got in your office and saw the contract. That document to keep me away…you signed it yourself."

Mr. Persian spent several seconds soaking his words in. He lowered his gaze from the resort. "I signed so many things, Meowth. All those years ago, I was a hopelessly naïve businessman. I wanted to make a vacation space anyone could enjoy — and support you and your mother along the way. I really did think that 'SEAS' meant well, offering to partner with me and make my business thrive…" Then, he found it in him to once more meet Meowth's eyes. "But that contract I signed with Emily isn't one I regret."

Because it got rid of you.

Meowth crossed his arms. "You really care about the resort that much? Was it really worth throwing away our whole family for?"

"No! I hardly care about the resort anymore!" Mr. Persian exclaimed, seeming distressed at even the thought. "That contract…it was supposed to protect you."

…Wait, what? Meowth blinked, a bit stunned.

"Using SEAS, OCEAN hunts for 'business partners' that get them what they want. Food, or resources, or people, all without having to put their name on it front and center. For me, they wanted a small place to train new recruits from Earth — and an appealing reward for their most loyal workers," Mr. Persian told him. "Meowth, if you had stayed close to me, they would have gotten you involved in all of my responsibilities. Signing you away to Higher Ed was the only way to keep you safe…and to give you the closest thing to a normal life."

No… No, that couldn't be true. Mr. Persian was just making this all up. He had to be! "Then what's been these past few weeks then?" Meowth asked. "Nothing about this job you gave me was normal."

Mr. Persian seemed strained. "I've missed you so much, over all these years. So, when I saw they were going to make Minichino run a recruitment front in the resort, I thought I could use that to…reconnect in a way that kept you safe, somehow. But after all this, I guess that was a terrible mistake."

None of this was the answer Meowth was looking for. Mr. Persian hated him. It was the only explanation that made sense of his distance from him, and the way he was so dodgy, and how he'd send Demurke in his place… Everyone hated him! So how could he just walk up to him and say…

His world was splintering. That doubt he had that this started and ended with his father's malice, that maybe he was wrong about him… If all this was true, then Meowth had been right to think that way.

What did that mean about everything he had done these past few weeks? These past few years?

"...Meowth?" Mr. Persian's voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"I don't know whether I can…believe you," he said.

His father seemed sullen, but not as heartbroken as he was initially. He seemed to be making peace with Meowth's uncertainty. "I have no idea how long it will take them to notice I'm not where I'm supposed to be. This might be the last time I see you," he whispered. "You need to go live your life, where it's safe, away from me. But please…please don't wonder whether my love for you was fake. Because it was real. It always was—"

"M-Mr. Persian?"

The two of them snapped their heads towards the source of that familiar voice. Demurke was standing, stunned, just inside of town hall. The red on her wings was clearly on display, clutching a folded-up piece of paper. Seeing her here filled Meowth with concern.

Mr. Persian gasped. "Demurke!" he cried, sprinting up to her. "Thank goodness! I was so worried about you."

"Wh-What are you doing here?! You're…supposed to be…"

"I came to say goodbye." Mr. Persian peered back at him. "To both of you."

Meowth walked up to the murkrow. "So you're done with questioning. Why aren't you down in the meeting with the others?"

"Yes, I-I finished getting questioned and everything! But… I…" She tipped her hat. "I'm not going."

"Not going?" Meowth didn't know what to make of that. Where did she planning on going then? Home, whatever that was for her?

But instead of him, it was her father she focused on. "I was going to…buy you t-time. So that you c-could go with Meowth."

"What…" Mr. Persian was taken aback. Then, he shook his head, panicked. "No, no, no, Demurke, you need to go! You've lived with them for so long, you of all people deserve to—"

"I can't." She seemed nervous, but still looked Meowth's father dead in the eye. "Not after…what happened in that c-cave. If they f-find out that I went missing with everyone else…they'll do everything they can to find me. You know how my dad is. A-and…" That was the moment she broke eye contact with him. "my mom…"

Mr. Persian reached for her. "I get that, but—"

"Please!" Demurke found her composure again. "You've been…waiting for s-so long to be with him again. I w-won't let you walk away! I can make th-them look for you in all the wrong place for…an hour, at least! I…" She raised her wings, then caught her own intensity and lowered them. "L-Let me do this for you."

Mr. Persian stared at her in disbelief. Then in a burst of emotion, he lowered his head and leaned in, hugging her the best he could. "Thank you." His father's whisper wavered as much as his breath. "For everything."

Demurke was dumbstruck. "I…I should be the one th-thanking you," she said.

Mr. Persian pulled his head back and looked her in the eyes, his forepaws on both of her shoulders. There were tears in his eyes. "Demurke, stay strong, okay? Take care of yourself. Promise me you will. Please."

She quickly nodded. "O-Okay…I'll try." With her wings, Demurke pushed Mr. Persian's embrace away. "It's been…a-a good few years, Mr. Persian." She turned around, set the note down in a seat of the buggy, and outstretched her crimson-painted wings. A single red eye met Meowth's gaze. "And Meowth…I'm sorry that I c-couldn't do more. Goodbye…"

As Meowth watched Demurke take off for what might be the last time, he could only feel the weight of the past hanging on his shoulders. Demurke was just Mr. Persian's assistant, wasn't she? She only ever visited him in Higher Ed because Mr. Persian could never make the time to see him. But, after what he just told him, and what she did, and how they spoke with each other…

Reflecting on all this ate away at him in a way he couldn't explain. Just how much of this had he gotten wrong?

"Meowth!" That was Joey's cry, coming from within town hall. He was followed by the rest of the Pick-it Up Club.

"Demurke's heat signal is currently above us," ORB announced as they formed a crowd next to the buggy. "She is flying in the direction of Kalmwa'er Resort."

"What the heck is Demurke doing?!" Joey asked the two of them.

Mr. Persian was the one to answer. "You just missed her. She's going to sacrifice her own freedom for all of ours…including mine."

"Oh no! Demurke!" Minichino cried. She tried to break out into a run, but she was promptly stopped by Breloom's foot stepping on her tail. She grunted, trying to pry it out from underneath. "Lemme go! We gotta save her!"

"We're supposed to be dead, remember?" Breloom said, seeming upset herself. "By this point, OCEAN's probably only now finding out the sting didn't go to plan. If any of us show our faces, they'll figure it out even faster."

"Then we can get one of the humans to go or something!"

Jermy seemed surprisingly calm in the face of this, if gloomy. "I dunno if we'd talk her out of this either…"

"Minichino," Meowth said. "She made her choice. We can't take it back for her."

"No!" She gave Meowth a cry of defiance, but seconds later, her resistance faded. When Breloom lifted her leg, she didn't try to run. "I at least wanted to say goodbye…" Mr. Persian came to her aid, patting her head.

"Think we should probably focus on what this means for us," Politoed said, looking irritated. "Chances are that she might spill our plans to OCEAN, which means they could come for us fast."

Mr. Persian's softness faded, his paw recoiling from Minichino as he gave Politoed a fierce look. "Demurke wouldn't do that."

Politoed could only shrug. "And we thought Demurke wouldn't put our lives at risk, but here we are now."

Mr. Persian's mouth held agape, but only air came. He hung his head.

In the meantime, Meowth made his way to the note she had wordlessly left behind. Written on it was the name of…huh. He passed it on to the nearby totodile. "She addressed this to you."

"Me?" Perturbed, Joey unfolded the letter and read it aloud.

Joey,

I don't have time to say it to your face, but I wanted to tell you that I'm very sorry. On the first day of work, I had to say that I didn't find out anything about where your mom and dad could be. I always felt bad about that, so I'm going to make things right now.

Greg and Catherine were being recruited into OCEAN in Rimek. I tried to figure out what was going on with them, but everyone I talked to either didn't know or didn't want to tell me. Jermy doesn't know anything either, so don't be mean to him. All that I got is that there was some kind of big fight and it has all of the leaders stressed out. I really hope that you find them.

There are more things I've said and done that I want to admit to, but I can't write about them and save Mr. Persian at the same time. I'm sorry for all of it. Just please be there for Mathew. He's going to need it.

Sincerely,

Demurke

"She knew about all this?!" Mathew cried.

Jermy seemed to have a flash of recognition. "So that was…"

Joey, stunned, gave a sweeping look to the rest of the group. "My parents are here on Solceus." He seemed both in disbelief…and relieved. That made sense to Meowth — he'd spent so much time knowing nothing about them, and now he had learned who they were and where they might be in a matter of hours.

Both of them were learning a lot about their families today, he supposed.

"Something we can think about back inside," Politoed asserted. "Gotta get back to the meeting before we make any more of a scene. That includes you, of course." His serious expression gave way to sympathy as he looked again at his father.

As they all filtered back into town hall, Meowth's uncertainty did not fade. But it wouldn't change what he had done, nor would it change what was happening now. Would he be able to accept all this? To be honest with himself, he had no idea. All he could do now was face it. He looked to his father as they began to walk inside. "Welcome to the club, I guess."

Mr. Persian nodded his head. "Thank you."

---

The sun finally met the ocean.

Mathew had watched the sunset several times through the window of Meowth's condo. Each time he did, it only made him more determined to spend on sitting on Kalmwa'er's beach after he got everything in order with his rise into OCEAN's ranks. Now, he was finally getting that chance, sitting down on a blanket laid over the sand near the edge of town going away from the Asulaguah Beach dungeon.

Joey, Jermy, and Meowth were with him as well. After the meeting, the lot of them had gotten a few hours' nap inside of town hall to rest and recuperate. They were now ready to set out — except for Jermy, who had thrown himself onto the blanket and immediately passed out again. In response, ORB had begun working his way through a playlist of all of the most childish Earthen lullabies. Mathew couldn't help but find it amusing, and the music seemed to pique Joey and Meowth's curiosities too. It was a nice distraction while they waited for the rest of the Solceans to pack their belongings.

To protect them while they were out on the beach, Breloom elected to stay with the humans. But right now, she wasn't around the blanket. A couple minutes ago, she'd taken her guitar case and walked off into the darkness. Mathew tried to peer through the dark in search of the kangaroo. Where…?

It wasn't his sense of sight that found her first, but his sense of hearing.

Backed by the roar of the wind and the chatter of the waning tourist trap, a lone guitar's melody filled the air. Mathew could just barely see Breloom sitting in the sand, her silhouette's edges lit by the town's lights. The kangaroo faced the ocean as she idly played, completely lost in her music. Her cape was blown about by the breeze, completely unfurled behind her back.

Mathew had never heard this song before, but it sounded so…melancholy. He could feel a wave of strong emotion wash over him, and he was left speechless. Nobody else dared speak, either, and ORB's lullaby stopped. The beach fell to silence.

"The best part about music?" Laura sat before her computer, clutching a guitar in her arms. "Damn, that's not an easy question…"

Mathew, sitting on a chair out of her stream's way, was impressed. "Huge props to chat tonight," he called out. "I was prepared for these questions to be some of the worst shit in the world, but we actually got good ones."

Laura patted her guitar. "The best part about music…is that you can't take it away from anybody. We can always express ourselves whether there's six billion of us or only one. For me, it's almost like…music gives me the power to defy everything that's been going on. I can tell the world that it doesn't matter how bad it gets — I can keep lifting spirits and telling stories. And that message'll live forever, you know? Even when I die, I'm still kind of living, in a way. Knowing that is what keeps me making music, I guess."

Suddenly, the playing stopped. Mathew could see Breloom flinch, claws silencing the strings. She seemed to have only now taken notice of her captive audience. "Sorry, my bad. I probably shouldn't be playing when we're trying to lay low…You guys can keep doing what you're doing."

"No, please." Mathew wondered if, in this light, any of them would notice him wiping the tears from his eyes. "Keep going."

Breloom seemed uncertain, but she wasn't met with any objections from Joey or Meowth, either. So she kept strumming, and her melodious sound returned to the beach. Mathew leaned back, satisfied.

She really would have loved this.

They all stayed that way for a few minutes, listening to Breloom play, until they finally heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. "I have to say, you do play a good tune," Chip remarked. With a few wingbeats, his colorful silhouette set its talons upon the blanket's edge. carrying a bag joined them,

"Well, I try my best," Breloom said modestly as she rejoined the group forming around the blanket. Mathew saw her take a few cursory swipes at her legs to clean off the sand.

"So, what's left?" Meowth rose from a sitting position and addressed the rest of the hardly-visible crowd.

"Not much," Politoed told him.

"The buggy's hidden away, Sire and I have cover stories for leaving town, and we've packed everyone's stuff," Chip listed off.

"Yep! I was so ready for them to be staking out my place, but nope, they weren't there at all!" For emphasis, Minichino tossed a single blue leather bag onto the blanket. It crumpled when it landed, as if it were empty.

After the commotion outside town hall died down, Silvalla offered the group that small, inconspicuous-looking bag. Apparently, they had bought this so-called 'Dwelling Bag' off of somebody in the quaint Vahle Village to the north, and kept it around in case of an emergency like this. Because of the conditions, Silvalla wanted them to have it so that they could pack all of their precious belongings without the luggage being a burden.

"I still can't get over this thing," Mathew remarked. "Shouldn't trying to make this just create a black hole or something and…" He trailed off as he grabbed the Dwelling Bag and tested it for the umpteenth time. When he reached into the pure black interior, he found nothing but a void of darkness far larger than the actual bag, as if he was reaching into a wardrobe that had no back wall. He pictured his scrapbook, and just like that, he felt a book grazing against his hand. Then he cast it away and took his hand out. "Just — how does any of this work?"

To his surprise, Mathew had learned that even the native Solceans were mesmerized and confused by the Dwelling Bag. "Maybe it's a kind of portal to some place, like one of Hoopa's rings?" Politoed proposed. "Think we'd know if there was a market for 'Hoopa bags', though…"

"Forget how it works!" Minichino cried. "Do you know how much more trash we could've cleaned up if we had something like this when we started out?! We could've done weeks of cleaning in a day!"

Mr. Persian, who'd been hanging on the edge of this group around the blanket, finally spoke up. "Sorry, Minichino," he said. "If I had known there was something like this out there, I would've asked OCEAN to find out how to make some."

"Speaking of OCEAN…" Politoed gestured back towards town. Night had crawled a bit closer, so the street lights illuminating Kalmwa'er had gotten brighter. The resort was especially luminous.

"It's hard to believe." Mr. Persian looked at his creation longingly. "I've lived in this town for more than twenty years now, and I've worked on making the resort a reality for just as long. And now, just like that, I'm leaving it for good."

"Hey, maybe after all this is over, we could at least start up the Club again?" Minichino offered. "And not make it a secret human recruitment plot this time, obviously."

"That does sound nice…"

Breloom put her guitar in its case, then slipped it into the Dwelling Bag. "We should probably get moving. We've gotten lucky with not running into them so far, but I'm not interested in testing their luck any more than we already have."

Everyone quietly agreed. Meowth and Joey yanked the blanket out from under Jermy, which, combined with ORB's mockery, quickly woke him. Minichino sweeped both of them clean with sand and looked happy with herself. Politoed took initiative, leading their march away from Kalmwa'er. Poliwrath and Chip walked side-by-side, in their own little world.

Before it'd go out of sight, Mathew looked back at Kalmwa'er one last time. When it was lit up by night owls and busy businesses trying to make a quick buck, it seemed just as beautiful as the day he first laid eyes upon it. But he knew now that all that was just innocent fun — to the side, the obelisk of OCEAN's craft blistered the view with its hidden malice. From here in the sand, the cliff walls seemed so much taller and so much more daunting, surrounding the town. From the oceanside, it couldn't be more vulnerable.

It really didn't turn out as great as he felt it'd be.

Maybe it never was.

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Chapter 24: Tsunami​

"Eighty-nine bottles of milk on the wall… Eighty-nine bottles of miiiiillk." As if Mathew's normal singing was shaky enough, even he could tell that his own hoarse voice was in no condition to be doing this. And yet, the age-old tune must go on. "Take one down…pass it 'round…ba-da-ba-ba bottles of milk on the wall."

Then, a groggy Joey sang eighty-eight. After that, a surprisingly awake Jermy would sing eighty-seven. ORB would provide the closest approximation he had to song for eighty-six. Minichino, already looking like she was desperately trying not to pass out, would sing eighty-five with gusto. Chip would try way too hard on eighty-four. And finally, it would come back to Mathew for the magic number eighty-three.

This is what over six hours of non-stop walking through the night had done to them.

Of course, not everybody agreed in perpetuating this cycle. "Will you lot cut that stupid song out?!" Poliwrath exclaimed.

"I dunno…are we there yet?" Mathew grumbled. "This song keeps going…until we get there…or we die."

"That's kind of morbid." Meowth had both of his paws firmly in his ears. Mathew was beginning to get the impression that he wasn't a music fan in general.

"What did you do to a poor miltank to get that many milk bottles?" Mr. Persian asked.

The tired cubone groaned. "Damnit, Mr. Persian, you didn't have to put that in my head…"

"Okay, seriously," Breloom cut in, "What does that mean? I get that it's a word from Earth, but context clues aren't helping."

ORB was quick to reply, rolling along with the rest of them. "Profanity. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Profanity is a socially offensive use of language, which may also be called cursing, cussing, swearing, or expletives—"

"The abridged version, please," Chip said.

"Fine, be like that, then," ORB retorted.

As ORB explained to the Solceans the intricacies of swearing, Mathew tuned it out, only giving attention to the others to perpetuate the extraction of milk bottles. The good news for all of them was that they were pretty close to their destination — thanks to ORB's front glass acting as a decent flashlight, Mathew could make out the tall, pointed trees that the others had told him were the signature of Bylaide Forest. The bad news was the booming sounds they could hear behind them. Storm clouds were rolling through the clear night sky, encroaching upon them. Flashes of lightning and bangs of thunder sometimes interrupted their music.

"...that's it, huh?" Breloom said. Mathew tuned into the conversation just as ORB finished explaining. "Well, I guess that makes sense. It sounds kind of like filter vocals in a song — it doesn't mean anything, but if you don't sing, it sounds weird, you know?"

Politoed seemed disinterested in all of their nonsense. "If you're done with that… Everyone!" With his call and a wave of his hand, Politoed got everyone to stop moving and chatting. They never made it past seventy-six. "Midnight dungeon shift is in a little under ten minutes. Before that happens, we should settle in the dungeon itself. Hopefully the shift will get us further along, so we can meet the Swords towards the north edge of the dungeon."

"Ain't the dungeon shift gonna split us all up?" Joey asked. "That seems like a real bad idea…"

Politoed looked to him with an amused curiosity. "Don't know about the rope trick?" he remarked. "Thought OCEAN would've taught you."

Jermy rubbed the back of his head. "That was in the third week of lessons. We, uh, obviously didn't get that far."

The frog didn't seem to judge them any further. "When a dungeon shift happens, every living thing — the trees, the flora, and any kind of pokémon like you or me — gets scrambled around to some part of the area. Not convenient for groups going through a dungeon together. Happens to be a trick for emergency situations like this, though: living things that are touching each other get moved together. All dungeoneers have to do to keep from getting split up is to tie a rope around everyone in the group."

"A rope we brought, by the way." Chip reached into the Dwelling Bag and revealed a comically long rope. "You're very welcome."

"See, this is why having that Dwelling Bag would have been freaking awesome while we were in the Club," Minichino said. "We could have taken a super-sized rope and stayed in the dungeon all day!"

"If only…" Mr. Persian said wistfully.

"On top of the midnight shift, we also got a Thundurus-shaped motivator to deal with!" Jermy pointed a hand to the storm in the sky. In the minute they'd been strategizing, it had already gotten much closer.

"Yeah, been keeping an eye on that," Politoed remarked. "Weather report said tonight should be nice and clear…"

"I don't see what's so strange about it," Joey said. "Don't tropical places get stormy all the time?"

"They do, but…" Mathew stared upward. This thunderstorm was rolling in at breakneck pace. Rain drops were already hitting his mask. "Do Solcean storms normally roll in this fast?"

"I don't think so," Minichino said. "Unless the Ghosts of the Legendary Birds are hanging around or something, this—"

It came too suddenly to stop. There was a hiss in the air — and then, an arrow coated in violet energy stuck to the grass right next to Chip.

"What the…!" The chatot struggled in place, looking like he wanted to lurch away, but he didn't actually move from where he stood. It was as if the arrow had pinned him to the ground without actually driving into him at all. "Spirit Shackle?!"

"What the hell is a Spirit Sh—"

Mathew couldn't even get the words out before a green blur sped through the group. When it passed, Jermy was plucked from the ground where he stood. "Aaaagh! Dayyyyviiiiid!" The pikachu's angered scream drew Mathew's eyes to the sky, where the decidueye was holding him in the air with his talons.

With Chip pinned, none of them could quickly intervene, so the cubone had to act fast. He reared back and chucked his club. It whipped through air and struck David dead-on. Both of them came down to the ground — Jermy splatted on the dirt, then scampered away, while David planted himself. In one motion, he rose his wing in the air, forming the shape of a bow with a faux-hoodie string, and nocked a quill-like arrow through it. "Stay still, and I won't shoot!" The decidueye's aim shifted from Mathew, to Chip, to Joey, to Minichino, to Jermy, all with pinpoint speed. Even in the fierce rain, Mathew was convinced that, if he released that arrow, David would not miss. "I just wanna talk."

"Just wanna talk?" Poliwrath called out. "Ya nailed Chip to the ground and just about kidnapped that pikachu!"

"To be fair, that second part's kind of normal for us…" Jermy muttered.

"I was trying to keep you from jumping me so I could explain that I come in peace to Jermy, so he could calmly explain it to you and…" David's firm face faltered. He used the side of his wing-bow to wipe it — water kept dripping down from his faux-hood. Mathew noticed then that something was strapped around the top of his head. A mask? "You know, now that I say that aloud, that was a stupid plan. My bad."

Minichino slouched over. "Now I get why you're the science guy and Dit's the war tactics guy…"

"Anyway!" David refocused. "I heard about what happened in Misery Cave. I know it got ugly, and…bloody. And I want to say that I'm sorry for that. It wasn't at all supposed to be this way, and it doesn't have to get any worse."

"Yeah." Meowth wasted no time in drawing out his claws. "Half of us could be dead."

"And the other half would be forced to mourn their innocent friends!" Mathew brandished his club, enraged. How dare he act like the good guy after what he signed them up for?

"That's not—!" David bit his tongue, "the point. What I'm offering all of you is a way out. We can put the Club back together." His gaze landed on Mr. Persian. "We can make the workplace better." Then on Mathew and Joey. "We can give you those jobs you want." Then on Jermy. "And we…can work something out. We're fighting for the same thing here, right?! Peace and safety on Solceus!"

"David Emmons, head of the science division, telling us all about peace and safety?" Breloom remarked, fearlessly marching up to him. "Apparently, you're pretty good in the 'volcanic explosion' field of science." Her gaze was cutting. "I dunno about you, but that sounds pretty far from the 'peace and safety' field."

Mathew watched as both Jermy and David winced at the same time. "How do you…?" David looked to his former assistant. "Did you tell them?"

"Why should I tell you?" Jermy spat. "I quit. You and me are done-zo."

The decidueye sighed. "I don't think you all really get what's happening." He raised his aim upwards, using the arrow's tip as a pointer. "Over there on the hills to your right is a whole unit of our best fighters. They're sitting up there waiting for me to signal them to move in. And if you don't turn yourselves in now…I will."

"What?!" Mathew brandished his bone club and whirled around, as if they were right behind them. Their escape had been going too well up to this point…he should've known. "How the hell did you get an army here so fast?! We left in secret!" Looking for somebody to blame, he turned to ORB.

"Don't look at me," ORB said. "Jermy never had the brains to put me in the OCEAN system."

"Definitely not ORB," Politoed muttered. "Think you can put the pieces together based on yesterday, Mathew."

Mr. Persian looked mortified at even the implication. "No…"

"I want to do this as little as you do!" David cried. "Do you think it's fun to condemn people I like to death?! The world would be losing some hard workers…and a talented engineer…and a dedicated owner…" David lowered his wing-bow. "And a friend. So please—"

"Don't let that arrow fly!"

Everyone was silenced by the rallying cry of Poliwrath, putting in the full force of his throwing arm to get another in the air. David was a second away from being smacked by twenty pounds of angry blue crocodile — flying straight for his wings.

But the arrow wasn't what they had to stop. David dropped the arrow, pointed his wing to the sky, and—

Krrrrak!

Joey was blasted back by a forceful electric shock that surged into the sky like a reversed lightning bolt. He crashed to the ground, singed.

Mathew couldn't believe what he just saw. Since when could a decidueye use lightning attacks?!

But it didn't matter now. The signal had been given.

"Alright then. Whatever happens now, there's no way for me to save you from it." David pulled the blue mask down over his head. The mask concealed everything but his eyes, which were devoid of color thanks to the shaded eyeholes. He turned his back to them. "I'm sorry, Jermy."

Dammit! Mathew charged David with his club, striking at his back. In response, he turned, wing coming down—

The next thing he knew, rain was getting into the eyeholes of his vibrating mask, as he laid with the top of his head up against a tree. A distant yell from Jermy told him that David had gotten away.

He and Joey hardly had the time to down Oran Berries from the Dwelling Bag before Minichino got their attentions. "Uh, guys?!" She pointed towards the nearby hills, almost towering over the trees. ORB shined his light towards them.

Atop the highest hill, Emily stood tall, looking down on them with firm, studious eyes. The digits on her right flipper clutched the lengthy pole of a flag, flying gracefully in the wind. The flag was a brilliant blue, and in the center of it was a round, jagged, silver-colored circle.

Mathew squinted at the flag, trying to examine it. "What does that sawblade thing mean…?"

"Remember something about OCEAN having a flag," Politoed said. "Don't know what it's for, though…"

"That's not a sawblade."

When Mathew turned to Jermy, the pikachu's focus was entirely on Emily and the flag, gritting his teeth as if the gravity of the situation had struck him all at once. "It's supposed to be a storm — a hurricane," he explained. "It's OCEAN's battle flag. Planting it down is supposed to be…a formal declaration of war."

Before they could say anything else, Breloom was already charging ahead. "We've got to get to the dungeon and shift out of this. We have maybe seven minutes. Let's go — now."

Mathew regretted not forcing them all to take a break before now. Every pounding step he took felt like hell on his heels. He panted hard, trying his best to keep up with the rest of the group. It was hard enough to keep his heart from beating out of his chest before one of these scumbags did it themselves. The voices of charging pokémon that seemed to come from every direction did not make it any easier.

"How do we know if we make it or not?!" A panicked Mr. Persian cried.

"Keep an eye out for yellow marks on the trees! They outline the dungeon—" Before Chip could finish, a large boulder nearly struck him.

"Chip!" Poliwrath jumped into the air, grabbed the chatot, and wrapped him in his arm, keeping him out of the air.

More attacks followed. A silver beam shot over their heads, narrowly missing Politoed's King's Rock. Familiar fins slashed through the trees, dropping branches from above. A psychic blast hit Meowth in the back point-blank, only rendered useless by his dark type. Mathew looked left and right, looking for their attackers, but it was so dark and so rainy, he could only see shadows—

KRRRAK.

Except when lightning struck, giving him snapshots of the world around him. A blade-shaped pokémon cutting their way through the shrubs in order to keep up. A tiny, green bug nipping at Minichino. High in the sky, an ancient-looking yellow bird, flocking overhead as if the storm was nothing to them. A red monkey leaping from tree to tree, looking down on him with a mischievous sneer. All of them wore blue masks that concealed their eyes.

He wasn't sure if he preferred the extra light from the bolts or not.

Next to him, Meowth's claws whipped out. "Mathew, on your left—!"

The cubone turned, club in hand, just in time to block the blow. One of the shadows leapt in straight for him and clash with it using a sword whose blade was nothing but ice. Although the mask hid his face and the darkness hid his body, the orange weasel's floaty wrapped around the neck made his species a giveaway. Had he seen this buizel somewhere before?

There wasn't enough time to think about it. Once Meowth lobbed an energy coin in their face, Mathew picked up the pace as much as his little cubone body could muster. A buizel could easily catch up with him — he needed to get distance.

But that's not what the buizel went for. Mathew watched as his shadow zipped ahead in a Quick Attack. At the same time, a pokémon coated in shadowy energy from leapt over the group. The pair landed in front of the group side-by-side. Maybe they could have just barreled over them, but somehow, Mr. Persian had gotten to the front of the pack. In a panic, he skidded to a stop, forcing everybody else to do the same.

"Okay!" the buizel called out. "We can do this the easy way…or the hard way!"

"Fucking hell, dude…" The coating of energy dissolved, revealing a white mountain lion-like pokémon with a curved dark blue horn. "Could you have picked something less cliché to lead with?"

"Well, it's true! What was I supposed to say?" he snapped at the other.

The absol, Mathew presumed, just sighed. "Forget it. Keep going."

Just then, the cubone noticed the shuffling of the shadows around them had begun to quiet down. When it stilled, it was just their group and this pair. Everyone else—

KRRRAK.

—was surrounding them in every direction, waiting, watching.

"Anyway! We've been told that we can take you dead or alive. We can just put you guys in a cell, but if you want this to be how you go out, we'd be happy to make that happen!"

Surprisingly, the first one of them to snap back was ORB. "Dying to a bunch of wannabe warriors would be too pitiful, even for Jermy."

With a wing, Chip rubbed his head. "Well, I can think of worse ways to go down…"

"Why the heck are you entertainin' them?!" Poliwrath snapped.

"Sorry, Sire! I didn't mean it that way!" he exclaimed. "I meant as in…at least I'd be spending my last moments fighting with you."

Poliwrath put his hands over where Mathew imagined his heart might be. "Aw, Chip…"

"Will you punks stop and take this seriously?!" the absol learned her head down, pointing her horn at them. "This is a threat. We're threatening you."

"I dunno, I wouldn't call it a threat…" The buizel turned to his allies in the shadows. "Just telling them that most of us have a preference here."

"Hard way! Hard way! Hard way!" The chant of the soldiers, prompted by the buizel, was powerful enough to drown out the rain.

Mathew knew that the chant was supposed to intimidate them — and it did — but there was something about this crowd that seemed off. This was the first chance for him to gleam at exactly who they were up against here, and his first reaction was that they seemed…awfully juvenile. ORB calling them 'wannabe warriors' was shockingly accurate.

Then, something else struck Mathew. The rest of the attackers had slinked away to watch…this? This buizel and absol could probably put up a fight, but the fear he had felt while getting chased by them was wearing off with each word they said, dripping with a lack of practice. Not to mention, they already look pretty tired out. It was like they'd led with their Jack instead of their Ralph. If this was their unit's leaders, then there probably weren't too many people in this group older than them. They were probably around Meowth, Politoed, and Breloom's age. Some of them were maybe even Joey's…

Mathew was not the only one who noticed this. "Huh, Besides Emily and David, where is the rest of OCEAN?" Jermy asked them. "I thought they'd bring out more of the senior members."

"Of course they're here, dumbass!" the absol said. "Not that we need them."

Meowth got his own choice words in next. "I see what's going on here. The adults of OCEAN have sent you all on the most depressing field trip in Solcean history. Did they remember to pack you your midnight snacks for after you're done?"

An annoyed grunt from both the buizel and the absol was accompanied by several groans and boos at Meowth from the bystanders. The cat hardly even reacted.

"Honestly, you're giving them too much credit." Breloom marched up to them, looking confident. "A better squad would've taken us all out already."

"Hey, don't act like you know how to run an army!" the buizel exclaimed.

"That's funny." She crossed her arms. "I'm pretty sure I do."

"Ugh." The buizel shook his head, then studied Breloom for a moment. "Nice cape, by the way. I bet with some scissors, it'd make for a nice arts-and-crafts project."

"Nice sword. How long did you have to leave it the freezer to keep it from melting?" The wind was already rushing due to the storm, but as Breloom gave her retort, Mathew could feel it shift just a little. "Because however much time it took…it was a waste."

Breloom blasted through the group, jumping towards the buizel at incredible speeds. Before he could pull it out of the way, she brought her arm down on his blade, smashing it into pieces.

The absol flinched in panic. "Oh, shit!" she leapt away.

It took Mathew one second too long to realize she wasn't reacting to Breloom.

A massive fireball was surging through the group, right down the middle. Everyone hurriedly leapt out of the way. Compared to the cold rain, the sheer heat it gave off as it passed by Mathew was overwhelming. Nothing could stop its advance — not Joey, not Politoed, not Poliwrath, and not the storm. It was heading straight for the buizel.

The buizel had no need to get out of the way. Breloom, who he clutched tightly, would be her shield.

Mathew heard several of them scream at once. Himself… Meowth… Mr. Persian… Minichino…loudest of all Politoed. None of them were given a chance to react as the fireball landed on Breloom. It exploded on her point-black, torching everything it touched as it burst into flickers that extinguished fast.

Then the buizel slashed her chest as a parting blow. She crumpled over in the blackened grass. Red spots dotted the tips of the blade, reformed by unknown means.

Instantly, Politoed and the others rushed in to give her aid. Mathew probably should have, too. But he was too preoccupied looking to the source of the fire.

"Get them!" somebody in the trees cried, and all at once, the rest of the soldiers started moving. But for Mathew, the chaos of the moment gave way to disbelief. From elsewhere, he heard Jermy gasp. Joey was by his side, looking on in mortified confusion.

In one hand was a lingering flame — in the other, a double-sided spear. His eyes were concealed by goggles not unlike Mathew's own. His head, adorned with a black mark between the eyes, resembled Mathew's skull mask.

And on its right side, sealed like a scarring wound, was a long crack.

The marowak turned to face him. "Hi, Dad."

---

This fight was a nightmare.

No amount of darkness vision could help Meowth get a sense of everything going on around him. Higher Education had trained him to fight small groups of Dungeon pokémon, not small armies equipped with extravagant weapons. A thorn-covered boxing glove scratched and pricked his arm. A flaming stick nearly singed off his whiskers. If this went on too long, he wouldn't be able to survive.

His only lifeline was the Dwelling Bag. Chip had been holding it before, but Meowth had found it on the ground when he dove under a staticy hammer. When Silvalla had shown it to them, he quickly realized how much of an incredible upgrade this was from his tiny medical kit. He was so glad he had bought healing items to stuff it with prior to leaving Kalmwa'er — the moment he felt his knees wobble after a hard-hitting attack, he downed an Oran Berry and kept moving.

Meowth had no idea where the others were. Sometimes he caught a glimpse of somebody in the flash of the lightning, or thanks to ORB running around and shining light while dodging his own attackers, but otherwise, it was lights out. The only person he could keep track of was Mr. Persian, who clung to his back like an eelektrik.

"Meowth! You're doing great!" Mr. Persian called out. Meowth knew that his father was not practiced like he was. He could claw back at an oncoming granbull, but if a drilbur came up to his other side at the same time, Meowth was forced to cover him.

He was fighting faster than he could think. Slash at the nearby vibrava. Toss a coin at the simisear in the trees. Leap towards the minccino—

"Hey! Watch the friendly fire, dude!" Minichino was lucky that Meowth could retract his claws in time.

"Sorry." As an apology, he tore an Oran Berry in half and offered it to both Mr. Persian and Minichino.

Only a moment later, the group stumbled into a miracle. As they fought off a pair of OCEAN soldiers, Meowth peered behind them to see…no shadowy figures behind them. Had they made it out of the fight? "We need to make a break for it!" he told the other two before breaking off into a run. The seconds felt like they had run so long…was it really not midnight yet? Were they too late? Regardless, they had to get to the dungeon fast before—

"Stay where you are!"

Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Descending from the sky was a tall, imposing penguin pokémon. They landed right in front of the trio, blocking their way forward. They wore no mask, leaving only the trident-like guard her beak provided her face.

"E-Emily…" Mr. Persian muttered.

So this was Emily Prest… The woman who had signed him into his life of isolation. Even now, she was the only thing standing between him, his father, and their freedoms.

Meowth was prepared for the battle of his life, but she wasn't in a combative stance at all. She looked down at his father calmly. "Is there really nothing I can do for you now, Mr. Persian?" Emily asked him.

Mr. Persian's claws dug into the dirt. "You promised me that Meowth wouldn't get hurt if I started the Club. Then you turned around and made one half of the Club try to kill the other!" Mr. Persian exclaimed. "I was willing to do anything you asked. But I draw the line at harming my son."

How dare you defy me?! Your attachment to Meowth has ruined you. For this, I will destroy you!

That is what Meowth expected her to say. The actual Emily, however, seemed…solemn? "I suppose that's fair. And, considering the warzone surrounding us now, I don't know if I can blame you for it." She gestured to the fight behind them.

Meowth was not having this. "Are you just going to stand here and pretend like this isn't your own army?"

"None of this would've happened if you guys hadn't forced Mr. Persian and I to make the Club your personal playground!" Minichino added. "You guys are just the worst!"

"Yes, we are 'the worst.' This entire situation was built on cruelty." Emily raised her massive flippers. "Leading them along…using their visions for our own purposes…duping your home with the idea of a noble goal to hide our intentions…forcing them to face the pressure of our recruitment…all of it. But what other path is there for us to take? How could we hide the building of an army in plain sight? Forge bases of operations, training grounds, and storage for us all without coming at a ruinous price?"

Minichino boldly pushed herself to the front of the group. "You could, like, not do any of that, maybe?"

Emily squatted down a little to better meet Minichino. "I understand that my pursuit is taboo to a world like yours, that doesn't know of anything better. In circumstances like these, sacrifices have to be made to move forward. And unfortunately, one of the first things to be sacrificed is the ability to fight 'purely' and with dignity."

"This sounds like an elaborate way to say you have no morals," Meowth said. "No wonder you sent a bunch of—"

Plink.

An energy coin had been tossed right in the middle of his sentence, aiming straight for Emily's eyes. But it wasn't Meowth's — the one who had struck first was Mr. Persian. Unfortunately for them, a glowing barrier of light formed around Emily, leaving the coin to bounce off and dissolve in the rain.

"I'm so sorry, all of you. But if I let you go, the future of our mission will be put into jeopardy — and so too will the future of your world." The empoleon's booming voice accompanied her somehow rising into the air, pink energy flowing around her head. "For the sake of everyone, and for the power of life I've been given, I will not let our hope die! Please…forgive me for this!"

All at once, a psychic wave burst from the empoleon, and Minichino and Mr. Persian were launched away. Meowth barely had enough time to catch her giant flipper swinging for him with both his claws…then he couldn't stop the other flipper from making him double over. Before he knew it, he was on the ground with three stinging cuts.

Minichino was stubborn — even after seeing Meowth go down, she charged in, tail dripping with water, and immediately was given a reason to regret it. As if swimming through the air, she dove forward, spinning like a drill with her beak as its tip. Minichino was mowed down at high speed, sending her tumbling through the damp grass.

Meowth slowly climbed to his feet just in time to watch Emily land. "Now that I've shown you how the power I possess, do you wish to continue this fight?" she squinted down at the cat. "I wouldn't blame you if you had a change of heart."

Meowth held a paw over one of the gashes. Only a couple blows and already two of them were struggling to stay standing. It would've been hard enough to fight back on a bright sunny day… He still had a few healing berries left, but Emily was too fast for him to sneak one. If they stood any chance of escape at all, it was extremely—

KRRRAK. KRRRAK.

The first flash of lightning revealed a cream-colored cat clinging from a tree behind Emily. By the time of the second, he was on her back, his head peeking over her shoulder.

"Goooo!" Mr. Persian's yell was punctuated by him sinking his teeth into her blubber. It didn't seem to hurt much, but Emily still looked panicked, reaching for her back to pry Mr. Persian off of her.

For a moment, Meowth stood there, stunned. Was he…sacrificing himself? For them? For him?

Of course he was. He'd been sacrificing himself from day one. Until now, Meowth had simply never seen it with his own eyes.

"Meowth! Come on!" He felt Minichino tug at his arm, and the storm once more raged in his ears. Gritting his teeth, Meowth turned for the forest. They could only hope that the dungeon was close.

Weeks ago, Meowth had chosen to 'play Mr. Persian's game'. To find out why he had abandoned him. To learn what he was using him for.

"Mr. Persian, get out of the way!" Emily's voice pierced through the rain.

"I won't…!" Mr. Persian cried. "Anything you do to them, you can do to me instead!"

There was his answer. His father had never hated him. He wasn't the one who made Politoed and Breloom give a disappointed sigh whenever he entered their dorm. He wasn't the one who made Minichino grumble at how bored he was in the Club. He wasn't the one who made Poliwrath and Chip arrest him. He wasn't the one who made Mathew poison him.

KRRRAK.

Meowth passed by a pair of trees with a strip of yellow painted around its bark. He couldn't see Minichino anymore.

It was just himself and the storm.

There was no one left to blame.

---

Mathew didn't want to get up. If standing up meant having to face Mark jabbing him in the face, he'd rather plant his snout into the dirt forever.

Anything but this.

"Come on, get up already!" Mark's black and blue scales blended in with the rain and the night as he prepared to follow up. "I didn't tell them to leave you to me so you could do this!"

Mathew could only manage to take two prods from the sharp spear before he was forced to struggle to his feet and back away. There was a distance between the two of them and the other shadows dancing around the trees — Mark wasn't bluffing. Weakly, he held up his club in a defensive pose. "Why… Why are you doing this…?"

"Because, Dad!" He spat a small flame at the tip of his spear, but the rain doused it. "You had one job. All you had to do was get yourself hired, and we could've went and saved the world together. But now look! Do you even know what you're doing right now?"

"Of course I do!" Mathew eagerly reached into the binder, turning the blueprints for Mark to see. "These blueprints I got are extremely detailed. And we can definitely buy all of these parts online!"

Mark just shook his head, turning himself around and pulling the covers over him. "And I thought you'd already gone crazy before."

"Hey, that's what I'm saying!" He joked. "Until that light literally threw this in my face, I really thought this was it for—"

Mathew's skull mask pulsed from the force Mark put into smacking him with the spear. "Say something!"

He brought the spear down from above, but Mathew raised to block. "Mark, after what they put me through, I…" he knocked away the attack, but couldn't motivate himself to retaliate. The moment he even so much as laid a finger on him, Mathew would be beyond saving. He knew that.

"Hey, don't act like you're the only one who's got it tough!" Mark exclaimed. He took a moment to do a strange twirling motion with his staff. For some reason, this seemed to agitate him even more. "How do you think it felt to wait two months for you to finally make it here, then you go off and kill one of our buddies?! This is hard for me!"

"'Hard' is right. Honestly, naming the thing you made is half the battle." Mathew sheepishly scratched at his shoulder. "Give something a stupid name, and even if the actual project is amazing, people will still laugh at it.."

Mark peered away from the detailed sketch of the device. "Like Cat-Tongue?"

He grinned. "Like Cat-Tongue, yeah."

Mark turned back to the page, tapping the eraser of his pencil against the tip of his mouth. "Well, if this thing is supposed to go on your wrist like a watch, I guess you could call it, like, a wristlet or something—"

Mathew was brought back to reality by a fireball launching him onto his back. A searing pain coated his chest. By the time he raised his head, Mark was already preparing another. He hardly had the will to dodge.

He didn't need to. A blue blur leapt over him, shielding Mathew's body with his own. Joey winced as the flames bounded off of his back. "Mark…" Joey helped Mathew up, then looked to the marowak. He clung on to the rim of his hat with one hand. "So this is what you moseyed off to?"

Mark gasped, lowering his spear and his hand. "Who the heck? You stay out of this!"

"...Hah?" Surprised, his hand came off of his hat. "You don't recognize me eith—?" Joey was cut-off by an axe coated in static slashed at him.

"Joey!" Before Mathew could act, a yellow lynx-like pokémon leapt through the shadows, tackling the totodile.

"I got this one!" she called out to Mark in a squeaky voice. She dragged him away, axe floating right by her side.

Mathew looked on in helpless disbelief. How had this happened? Putting his relationship with Joey aside, working under high stakes again and again, fighting Meowth…and this was what OCEAN had intended to repay him with?

All he'd wanted was to find some peace in this world…and look what happened.

Mark was moving in for another strike, but all Mathew could do was collapse and cry. Everything he worked himself up for was a waste — a lie. He'd lost any reason to fight.

Mathew waited for a finishing blow.

And waited.

It never came.

When Mathew looked up, Mark had his spear poised to stab, but he hesitated to bring it down. In his wavy vision, he could see a stunned expression on his son's face. "Dad—"

Just then, a jet of water blasted Mark away, giving Mathew room to rise.

The time, the save wasn't from Joey.

A figure leapt over Mathew's head, coming down on Mark with a glowing yellow blade of a horn. Its glow exposed the colt's bright red mane, matted down by the downpour. The horn clashed with Mark's spear, leaving the marowak stunned. "Oh, crap. You're…!"

"Go get to the dungeon!" Keldeo called out to Mathew. "We'll come find you after the dungeon shifts. You gotta lay low until then!"

Mathew stood and watched as Keldeo smacked and slashed at Mark. Even as a quadruped, he was outmatching his son as if he were a master sword-fighter. Whenever he landed a hit, Mathew would look away into the forest. He could see similar glowing blades between the trees — blue, green, and red — cutting through the night.

"Mathew!"

The cubone flinched at a hand touching his shoulder. Somehow, Jermy had found him in the chaos, holding ORB in one arm as if he were a massive flashlight.

"We gotta get going!" he told him. "We're running out of time!"

"No…!" But before Mathew could think, ORB's claw lurched forward and gripped his arm, Both the robot and the pikachu worked to drag him along. "Wait, Jermy, stop!"

"Sorry, buddy! But I can't just leave you behind!" Jermy exclaimed. His grip on his sides shifted as the rain forced him to re-tighten.

Mathew tried to pull away, but he couldn't find the strength. All he could do was watch as Mark got farther…and farther…and farther away.

None of this had to happen.

None of this should have happened.

None of this would have happened, if he wasn't so fucked up.

Desperation boiled inside of Mathew, and with newfound force, he lurched out of Jermy and ORB's hands, running back for his son. The pikachu stumbled, dropping the robot.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark!"

He couldn't escape the dungeon in time.

A flash of light filled his vision.

And then, darkness.

---

End of Book I: The Scourge of Kalmwa'er​

---

We usually don't take the time to do author's notes because we prefer to let the story speak for itself, but eh, this is where the 'about the author' section would usually go in a book, so why not?

Hey there, this is Luker speaking on behalf of my other team members, Dommy and Paper. We wanted to give a huge 'thank you' to everyone who has followed Double-Edged over the years.

The journey it's taken to reach this point has been long, arduous, and sometimes very difficult. We made the beginner's mistake of getting into the big epic project too fast without learning lessons from smaller, more achievable projects, and it shows in the many versions this story has gone through. When I first joined that silly little RP in December of 2017, I could never have known that I would still be working on it in 2023! Still, I learned so much about storytelling and writing from all this that I'm not sure how much of it I'd take back if I could.

If you've been with us even before our reboots and revisions, we deeply appreciate you. I can't imagine it was the best experience to have as a reader, seeing all that you just read get torn down and put up again. Trust me, it wasn't very fun to be known as 'the rewrite guys' for a good while either.

But hey, we made it in the end. We officially finished Book I: The Scourge of Kalmwa'er. And if you ask me, it's a pretty good read.

Which means that it's TIME TO REWRITE IT ALL AGAIN BABY!

Nah, just kidding. We are planning to do some mild cleaning up on our older chapters, but these aren't dramatic rewrites like those of our past. The plan is just to trim down the bloated word counts of certain chapters, make the narrative more consistent in quality, and just generally clean-up inconsistencies and errors. At worst, you may notice a chapter or two were broken up into smaller ones.

We hope to use the months that this will likely take to finalize our plans for Book II. Double-Edged has undergone four big iterations: the first RP that got Dommy and I to start working together (V1), the second RP where we made the story our own (V2), the first fanfiction version which retold the second RP with the addition of Paper (V3), and the one you've read just now (V4). This upcoming Book is a reimagining of the story of that original RP, a story quite different from all other iterations of D-E. We're really excited to play it out, so stay tuned!

I don't think Double-Edged has ever had more forward momentum. Even with college in mind, I'm hopeful that we can meet our goals and get one step closer to the completion of this story. I hope that you stick with us and enjoy the ride.

Before we go, I'd like to give special thanks to everyone who has supported and reviewed Double-Edged so far. In particular, Namohysip (author of Hands of Creation), SnapDragon (author of Flowerbeds), Dr. Glutamate (author of Traveler from the Stars), and MadderJacker (author of A Home Far Away) have all served as sources of knowledge, advice, and inspiration; Double-Edged would have been lesser without them. If you are looking for more fics to read while awaiting updates from us, you should try these other authors' works.

Oh, and one more thing. While we are busy refining Book I and preparing for Book II, Double-Edged itself won't be going entirely dark. For some time, we've been holding on to a…secret project of sorts. When we start posting, we hope you find it as interesting as we did.

Thank you for reading this far! See you in Book II!

—LukerUpgradez, DommyMcDoodle, and PaperCutz

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Meeting R-0002-01
Transcript from Thursday, 9/24/65
Subject: “Nail”​

{15:38:22} [user_COSTUME opened room_R-0002-01.]
{15:38:30} [user_ABYSS has joined the room.]
{15:38:30} ABYSS: Costume!! Hi!!!
{15:38:45} COSTUME: Good afternoon, Abyss.
{15:38:52} [user_SEADOG has joined the room.]
{15:39:01} SEADOG: Ah. Abyss beat me to the first join again
{15:39:01} ABYSS: Fast fingers >:D
{15:39:17} COSTUME: Welcome, Seadog. How are matters on your end?
{15:39:29} SEADOG: They are...alright. The diplomatic meeting with the Floridians is coming up quick
{15:39:37} SEADOG: For obvious reasons, I am somewhat nervous.
{15:39:37} ABYSS: Good luck Seadog…………….
{15:39:51} COSTUME: I am nervous myself. I do hope your deal ends amicably, for everyone’s sake. It would be an unfortunate waste otherwise.
{15:41:13} [user_KEY has joined the room.]
{15:41:13} ABYSS: Hi Key!!!!!
{15:41:15} KEY: sup
{15:41:28} COSTUME: Good afternoon, Key. How was the drive?
{15:41:31} KEY: kinda a pain in the ass ngl
{15:41:35} KEY: those guys i told you about kept hounding me
{15:41:36} KEY: but i made it
{15:41:53} COSTUME: Excellent. That means we can now address the topic at hand.
{15:42:05} COSTUME: Abyss, would you please recount the minutes of our previous relevant meetings?
{15:42:12} ABYSS: Yeah sure!!!!
{15:42:15} ABYSS: Two days ago, Costume opened meeting G-0156-20, one of several wellness checks intended to ensure the positivity and productivity of Nevada branch member Nail, AKA Upfbsa.
{15:42:15} ABYSS: Despite having never joined any previous meetings later than eight minutes, twenty seconds after creation, Nail proceeded not to join the meeting at any time.
{15:42:16} ABYSS: Upon observing this, Key proceeded to privately message Arizona branch member Spur, who should be in close contact with Nail. When no reply was given, further messages were sent to Arizona branch member Dolphin. Neither replied to any prompt.
{15:42:16} ABYSS: All three members are now presumed out of commission for unknown reasons. This meeting is one of two as part of a mission to determine the status of the members. Due to proximity, Key was requested to approach Nail’s home first.
{15:42:23} SEADOG: Ah, the beauty of well-written minutes…
{15:42:27} KEY: yeah abyss has a way with that
{15:42:29} KEY: took a lot of work to get him that way
{15:42:30} KEY: but it was worth it
{15:42:45} COSTUME: It’s incredible how elegantly it’s written, considering your own work, Key.
{15:42:47} KEY: wow
{15:42:48} KEY: okay
{15:42:50} KEY: my minutes werent THAT bad
{15:42:55} ABYSS: Thanks guys!!! :D
{15:42:55} ABYSS: You know, I can always make better and better reports than that……..
{15:42:56} ABYSS: Anyways, now that my minutes are complete, how is your visit to Nail’s house going, Key?
{15:43:37} KEY: sorry needed a hot second to settle in
{15:43:40} KEY: just got here a couple minutes ago
{15:43:44} KEY: already did the song and dance thing he wanted us to do in emergencies
{15:43:48} KEY: (i looked like a dumbass, it was great)
{15:43:50} KEY: no answer
{15:44:04} SEADOG: doesn’t Nail have that machine manning his home? What was it called… Buttons?
{15:44:06} KEY: yup
{15:44:08} KEY: which means getting in by force
{15:44:11} KEY: is gonna take a while
{15:44:24} COSTUME: We’ll give you a few minutes, then.
{15:44:29} KEY: aight

---

{15:56:47} ABYSS: How’s it going??????
{15:58:36} KEY: tried finding a way around
{15:58:39} KEY: fuckers too clever to let me sneak by
{15:58:41} KEY: back doors locked too
{15:58:44} KEY: looks like im busting out the keyboard
{15:58:46} ABYSS: :(
{15:58:47} ABYSS: You want me to come over?? I could get there in no time…….
{15:59:03} KEY: nah
{15:59:06} KEY: not while youre looking into spur and dolphin
{15:59:07} KEY: you wouldnt get past this anyway
{15:59:09} KEY: nail knows how to keep you out
{15:59:10} ABYSS: Awwwwww, I’m sad that you’re right…….
{15:59:21} SEADOG: You can do this, Key. If anybody can work through Buttons, it’s you
{15:59:35} COSTUME: ...But remember that there’s no shame if you can’t.

---

{16:22:03} KEY: son of a bitch
{16:22:06} KEY: nails got this thing encrypted front to back
{16:22:09} KEY: i KNOW there’s a protocol in here that deactivates it
{16:22:11} KEY: he showed me it forever ago
{16:22:15} KEY: i just
{16:22:16} KEY: cant find it
{16:24:40} COSTUME: Perhaps it was a bad idea to separate you and Abyss. In hindsight, we should’ve handled these cases one at a time.
{16:25:01} COSTUME: I imagine Nail would likely have revealed himself if both of you were there…if he is still alive, that is.
{16:25:16} KEY: if???
{16:25:19} KEY: the hell are you talking about
{16:25:21} KEY: nail is alive.
{16:25:24} KEY: i dont have to break in to know that
{16:25:32} COSTUME: I wouldn’t be so sure.
{16:25:55} COSTUME: I think we can all agree that Nail has not been in a good place even before he joined us.
{16:26:14} COSTUME: And, with what we heard in the past three meetings, his situation worsened significantly recently.
{16:26:22} KEY: shut up
{16:26:25} KEY: i talked with nail irl way more than you did
{16:26:27} SEADOG: Let’s not get at each other’s throats
{16:26:30} KEY: nail would not kill himself. not a chance
{16:26:34} KEY: im not mad lol
{16:26:36} KEY: just telling costume shes wrong
{16:26:45} COSTUME: Fair enough.
{16:27:07} COSTUME: You should consider asking around the neighborhood. If I remember correctly, Nail said his neighbors were decent enough.
{16:27:18} COSTUME: Maybe they could provide some insight.
{16:27:26} KEY: good plan

---

{16:41:40} KEY: aight
{16:41:41} KEY: asked around
{16:41:44} KEY: apparently nail was acting his normal self
{16:41:48} KEY: before he disappeared and everything
{16:41:50} ABYSS: Did they say anything about him sounding relieved???? That is an important sign to look out for.
{16:41:57} KEY: nope
{16:42:12} COSTUME: It seems the mentality doesn’t quite line up for the act of taking his own life.
{16:42:29} COSTUME: Still, that leaves us with no explanation as to why he would either stay in his house and not answer, or, in the case that he is not inside, why he would run off…
{16:43:52} KEY: goddamnit
{16:43:55} KEY: cant believe this shit is happening again
{16:44:00} [Message from user_KEY deleted.]
{16:44:11} COSTUME: Key, you know that that username is blacklisted in the automod.
{16:44:19} KEY: i know but
{16:44:22} KEY: it legit is almost the exact same thing
{16:44:29} SEADOG: Why are you so concerned about similarities with the Mjyvojses situation, anyway?
{16:44:32} KEY: oh yeah, forgot to censor
{16:44:35} KEY: anyways
{16:44:36} KEY: because
{16:44:43} KEY: i dont WANT mjyvojses to happen again
{16:44:59} SEADOG: Ah, that makes more sense. If you mean more disappearances, no, I do not. But that was 10+ years ago
{16:45:13} SEADOG: The circumstances are quite different. I’m not sure they are as comparable as you think
{16:45:21} KEY: that i can kinda agree with
{16:45:24} KEY: this time the answers arent out of our reach
{16:45:26} KEY: if i can just get past buttons
{16:45:28} KEY: im sure well know exactly what happened to nail
{16:45:51} COSTUME: The answers do seem cruelly close, but don’t get too fixated on one idea.
{16:46:04} COSTUME: Maybe going inside Nail’s house won’t reveal anything.
{16:46:19} COSTUME: Maybe there’s a reason Nail didn’t want us knowing what he was doing.
{16:46:43} COSTUME: ...Key?
{16:47:23} ABYSS: Key are you okay????
{16:47:50} KEY: give me a bit

---

{18:01:10} SEADOG: Key, it’s been an hour now. Please tell us what you’re doing
{18:01:50} KEY: ive been trying to crack it still
{18:02:00} KEY: nothing
{18:02:04} KEY: now im getting weird stares from people
{18:02:31} COSTUME: Key.
{18:02:43} COSTUME: Go home. That’s an order.
{18:02:58} COSTUME: You worked hard. You should go take a break. Get a meal, if you’d like.
{18:05:25} KEY: ugh
{18:05:26} KEY: alright
{18:05:29} ABYSS: It’s okay Key!!!!
{18:05:29} ABYSS: Knowing our luck my investigation tomorrow won’t go any better.
{18:05:30} ABYSS: We’ll be failures together!!!!
{18:05:42} KEY: thanks abyss
{18:05:43} KEY: i appreciate it
{18:07:51} KEY: asked the neighbors to let the cops know if they see him
{18:07:55} KEY: gonna drive back now
{18:07:55} KEY: cya
{18:08:01} ABYSS: Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
{18:08:01} [user_ABYSS has left the room.]
{18:08:14} [user_KEY has left the room.]
{18:10:24} COSTUME: Thank you for trying to ease Key’s worries for me. I would have done it myself, but…
{18:11:45} SEADOG: I understand. We can discuss this privately later
{18:12:02} SEADOG: We have more to do between Nail and Spur and the Floridians. Let’s just keep our focus on that
{18:12:21} COSTUME: Right. Again, thanks, Seadog. I really appreciate it.
{18:17:02} [user_COSTUME has left the room.]
{18:17:49} [user_SEADOG has left the room.]
{18:17:49} [Archiving room_R-0002-01…]
{18:17:51} [Archival complete. room_R-0002-01 is now closed.]

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Meeting R-0002-02
Transcript from Friday, 9/25/65
Subject: “Spur and Dolphin”​

{11:10:34} [user_COSTUME opened room_R-0002-02.]
{11:12:15} [user_SEADOG has joined the room.]
{11:12:43} SEADOG: My attendance will be spotty for this. Currently splitting my attention between this and negotiation planning
{11:12:58} COSTUME: Understood. Just post when you can. I should be able to handle most of this myself.
{11:13:22} [user_KEY has joined the room.]
{11:13:25} KEY: yo
{11:13:40} COSTUME: Good morning, Key. Are you feeling any better?
{11:13:44} KEY: yeah
{11:13:46} KEY: i did some thinking
{11:13:49} KEY: just gonna play by ear for now
{11:13:51} KEY: before i do anything else
{11:14:01} COSTUME: That sounds wise.
{11:17:22} SEADOG: I wonder where Abyss’s “fast fingers” are now?
{11:17:25} KEY: probably on the wheel
{11:17:27} KEY: he said hed leave at 9
{11:17:30} KEY: but phoenix is pretty f
{11:17:30} KEY: far
{11:17:31} KEY: from where he was
{11:17:32} KEY: iirc
{11:17:39} SEADOG: Ah, yes, his fake hands are on the wheel that he doesn’t need to use. But alright
{11:17:43} COSTUME: I am going to suggest we go ahead and start while we wait for Abyss. He can catch up after he arrives.
{11:17:55} SEADOG: I have no objections to that
{11:18:06} COSTUME: Alright. Key, the recount, if you would?
{11:18:10} KEY: whats there to say really
{11:18:13} KEY: i went to nails house
{11:18:15} KEY: fucked around for a couple hours
{11:18:16} KEY: and went home
{11:18:26} COSTUME: …See, this is why we started splitting up who gives the minutes each meeting.
{11:18:30} KEY: lol
{11:18:53} [user_ABYSS has joined the room.]
{11:18:53} ABYSS: Hi guys!!!!!!!!!!
{11:18:57} KEY: hey
{11:19:06} COSTUME: Good morning, Abyss. Are you in Phoenix now?
{11:19:19} ABYSS: Yeah I am!! Actually I have been for the past couple hours :D
{11:19:20} ABYSS: I thought I should begin the investigation by paying the police dept a visit before I went to the house.
{11:19:20} ABYSS: You’ll never believe what I saw……………..
{11:19:41} COSTUME: Do share, then.
{11:19:56} [User_ABYSS posted an image. Images are automatically deleted after five minutes.]
{11:20:03} KEY: oh damn
{11:20:05} [Transcript complete.]
{11:20:05} [IMAGE TRANSCRIPT: MISSING — Sheriff [NIBXPJKS]. Last seen Sunday, the 20th. Reward: $68,000. Tip line: ***-***-****]
{11:20:12} COSTUME: Well. The force there is certainly on top of things.
{11:20:18} ABYSS: Yeah!!! With this poster and bounty, there are a lot of people on the lookout :0
{11:20:20} KEY: not that crazy tbh
{11:20:20} KEY: i mean
{11:20:21} KEY: if the sheriff in my city
{11:20:23} KEY: literally just up and dipped
{11:20:25} KEY: id get everyone on it too
{11:20:37} SEADOG: If I may note, this might not be as optimistic of a look as we’d like to think it is. If he’s still missing, even with the city searching for him, it could be a bad sign
{11:20:49} COSTUME: Let’s not say anything definitive until Abyss gets more information. Please, let us know when you’ve made your search through Spur and Dolphin’s home.
{11:20:54} ABYSS: Will do!!!!!!!!!!

---

{11:44:12} ABYSS: Okay. Got some intel…………
{11:46:02} SEADOG: How much of the house did the officers allow you to see?
{11:46:03} ABYSS: A lot, actually!!!!
{11:46:04} ABYSS: Safe to say……. This is a weird case :/
{11:46:06} KEY: you hate to hear it
{11:46:18} COSTUME: Please, explain what made it so strange.
{11:46:20} ABYSS: For one, it doesn’t look like a kidnapping. There aren’t any signs of a struggle or a break-in.
{11:46:21} ABYSS: But there is no indication that Spur and Dolphin fled the home, either. All of their belongings have not been disturbed, and there was no proof of them packing up luggage of any sort. Even their car is still here.
{11:46:22} ABYSS: I ran through some transcripts of the officers’ interviews with their friends and colleagues. According to them, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with either one before the disappearance. A few even confirmed that everything in the house seemed to be in the same place as it was the last time they had visited the property.
{11:46:23} ABYSS: All in all, the trail is pretty cold :(
{11:46:57} SEADOG: Very unfortunate. Is there really no evidence to go off of?
{11:47:01} KEY: ngl
{11:47:02} KEY: i feel like the fact that there is
{11:47:04} KEY: straight up nothing to go off of
{11:47:06} KEY: is way weirder than if there were clues
{11:47:07} ABYSS: Well, there was one thing!!!! But the officers just don’t really know what to make of it
{11:47:08} ABYSS: And, to be honest…….. Neither do I.
{11:47:14} SEADOG: You, confused? This has to be interesting
{11:47:15} KEY: ??? what is it
{11:47:18} ABYSS: In the master bedroom, the officers found three patches of an unknown substance on the floor. It was very unusual; none of my databases have any information of a substance like it.
{11:47:19} ABYSS: The officers explained it like this…………
{11:47:20} ABYSS: Do you remember what happens when petrol and water mix?
{11:47:36} COSTUME: Of course. It makes this sort of gross, mushy rainbow color.
{11:47:37} ABYSS: Think that, but with dust instead of water.
{11:47:49} SEADOG: Hang on. How does that even work? The rainbow stems from the liquid substances
{11:48:02} SEADOG: Is each individual grain a different color?
{11:48:03} ABYSS: It is a highly unusual substance. :/
{11:48:04} KEY: okay
{11:48:06} KEY: is there alarm bells going on in anybody elses head rn
{11:48:06} KEY: because
{11:48:08} KEY: that is WEIRD
{11:48:11} KEY: and not what happens when somebody dies or something
{11:48:29} COSTUME: Let’s not make any rash assumptions. Did you find any kind of gasoline in the household?
{11:48:30} ABYSS: Not at all…….. Besides, Dolphin would not keep gasoline in her house. It would be against what I know of her character.
{11:48:33} KEY: so whatever this shit is
{11:48:35} KEY: it had to come from somebody else
{11:48:36} KEY: right?
{11:50:04} COSTUME: I feel as though I should remind you that the officers have found no evidence of a break-in, by Abyss’ testimony.
{11:50:06} KEY: whats your opinion on this then?
{11:50:08} KEY: what happened to spur and dolphin?
{11:50:09} KEY: where do we look next?
{11:50:10} ABYSS: It’s a high profile case!!!!! And they’ve been looking alot around this dust! If there was proof, we’d probably be close to finding it by now…….
{11:50:22} COSTUME: I’m unsure. I don’t feel like we can definitively state whether they are alive, much less left somewhere for us to look next.
{11:50:24} KEY: okay
{11:50:24} KEY: costume
{11:50:25} KEY: with all due respect
{11:50:27} KEY: shutting down literally every theory
{11:50:28} KEY: and offering no ideas
{11:50:30} KEY: other than the ones where they just mysteriously die
{11:50:31} KEY: is not fucking helping
{11:50:32} ABYSS: Woah.
{11:50:40} SEADOG: Keep things civil here, you two
{11:50:45} COSTUME: I’m sorry if I’ve given off the wrong impression, Key.
{11:50:47} KEY: im sorry, i just DO NOT get it
{11:50:49} KEY: three of our best members vanish into thin air
{11:50:51} KEY: all of us have deja vu
{11:50:53} KEY: things are getting weird
{11:50:53} ABYSS: Key, let Costume type!!!!!!!!!!
{11:50:55} KEY: and youre not curious at all???
{11:50:56} KEY: sorry
{11:51:05} COSTUME: It’s not that I’m not curious or concerned for their safeties. But we all need to remember what we’re here for. We can’t afford to get our hopes up and chase conspiracies that we have no basis with to determine their actual existence.
{11:51:19} COSTUME: Regardless of their actual fates, we need to address the reality of the situation. We sought to determine their conditions, and the answer is that they are gone. We now need to act accordingly.
{11:52:17} SEADOG: I understand, Key. I really do. It’s difficult to lose a friend, or several friends, so suddenly
{11:52:26} SEADOG: You were closer to all three of them than any of us, I know that
{11:52:34} SEADOG: But life’s just not fair sometimes
{11:52:46} SEADOG: I’ve had friends just up and leave the Navy one day. I’ve had friends who seemed invincible perish in a random Floridian skirmish
{11:52:58} SEADOG: If there’s anything I can do for you, please, speak with me after this meeting.
{11:53:09} SEADOG: But for now, there is little we, as a collective, can do. The best action we can take is to be patient and wait for answers, then act accordingly
{11:53:22} COSTUME: I hope this is making sense to you, Key.
{11:55:46} KEY: yeah
{11:55:47} KEY: i get it
{11:55:49} KEY: ill let it be i guess
{11:55:50} ABYSS: Sorry Key…….. :(
{11:55:51} ABYSS: Anyway, the officers agreed to let me take a small sample of the dust!!! I’m gonna run an analysis of this through a wider internet search
{11:55:52} ABYSS: Key, do you want me to update you when I receive more data???
{11:56:06} KEY: if anybodys posted about it on the internet
{11:56:08} KEY: the answer is
{11:56:10} KEY: probably lol
{11:57:11} COSTUME: Alright. You two can research that on your own time. With that out of the way, I believe we can return to our regularly scheduled meetings.
{11:57:23} SEADOG: Then I will see you all in three days, to keep you updated on the matters of my actual negotiations with the Floridians.
{11:57:24} ABYSS: Looks like this meeting’s over!!! So I’m gonna drive to Key’s!!!!!!!! Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
{11:57:25} [user_ABYSS has left the room.]
{11:57:46} SEADOG: Getting back to discussions now. Have a nice afternoon
{11:57:47} [user_SEADOG has left the room.]
{11:57:51} KEY: sorry about all that costume
{11:57:53} KEY: both now
{11:57:54} KEY: and in advance
{11:57:57} [user_KEY has left the room.]
{11:57:59} COSTUME: What do you mean, in -- oh
{11:58:09} [user_COSTUME has left the room.]
{11:58:09} [Archiving room_R-0002-02…]
{11:58:11} [Archival complete. room_R-0002-02 is now closed.]

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Meeting F-0031-01
Transcript from Monday, 9/28/65
Subject: “Seadog”​

{14:51:23} [user_COSTUME opened room_F-0031-01.]
{14:53:11} [user_SEADOG has joined the room.]
{14:53:25} COSTUME: Good morning, Seadog. How are you feeling?
{14:53:34} SEADOG: Uneasy. This is going to be a long negotiation
{14:53:51} COSTUME: I don’t blame you. It’s not like the Floridian Empire is particularly easy to work with. I wish I could be there to help the rest of the Congress.
{14:54:02} SEADOG: I thought all of this preparation would ease my worries, but they haven’t. I would really like to stop being at war
{14:54:23} COSTUME: A part of me hopes they will realize they wouldn’t be able to take any more casualties in a longer war and give up Panama. Another part of me doesn’t want to put that much stock in their decision-making.
{14:54:46} [user_KEY has joined the room.]
{14:54:48} [user_ABYSS has joined the room.]
{14:54:48} SEADOG: As long as they’re committed to using the Caribbean to compensate for their sinking mainland territory, I don’t believe they will want to give up their control of the ocean without more fighting or a heavy trade.
{14:54:48} ABYSS: Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
{14:54:49} KEY: sup
{14:55:02} SEADOG: That’s the reason why I’m concerned. Anyways, hello
{14:55:03} ABYSS: Hey, you guys started before we could give the minutes D:
{14:55:18} COSTUME: Sorry, Abyss. We are somewhat tight on time. I didn’t intend on opening this room so late.
{14:55:20} KEY: thats fair
{14:55:22} KEY: it was kinda helpful ngl
{14:55:26} KEY: made the most of the extra time
{14:55:27} ABYSS: Yeah, we’re all good!!!!!!!!!!
{14:55:46} COSTUME: In any case, I think you’re right to be concerned, Seadog. These so-called “Florida men” haven’t exactly proven that they wouldn’t stoop as low as to spring a surprise attack if given the opportunity.
{14:55:47} ABYSS: lol!!!
{14:55:51} SEADOG: No memes in a non-general chat, please
{14:55:51} KEY: lmfao
{14:55:57} COSTUME: …That’s a meme?
{14:55:58} KEY: seadog over here thinking costumes capable of intentional shitposts
{14:56:04} SEADOG: I was just being safe.
{14:56:07} COSTUME: If it is, it was indeed not intentional.
{14:56:33} SEADOG: Anyways, I’m not THAT concerned. I just don’t want to have to give up too much of our resources to make them back down.
{14:58:12} SEADOG: Meeting is starting in the next two minutes or so
{14:58:16} KEY: glhf
{14:58:34} COSTUME: Right. Keep us posted. Let us know if there is any way we can help.
{14:58:35} ABYSS: Go get them, Seadog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---

{16:00:54} SEADOG: We are taking a recess now. I have no idea what I was worried about
{16:01:01} COSTUME: That is the best news I’ve heard all day!
{16:01:08} KEY: woah
{16:01:09} KEY: what changed
{16:01:16} SEADOG: It turns out these politicians actually do have some sense. We might be on the verge of a reasonable peace treaty where we get Panama
{16:01:17} KEY: legit?
{16:01:18} KEY: goddamn
{16:01:18} ABYSS: All that strategizing paid off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
{16:01:23} COSTUME: Fantastic work.
{16:01:29} SEADOG: Yes, I am incredibly relieved, as are my peers. The Floridian politicians are sounding positive as well, as far as I can see
{16:01:30} ABYSS: Wait a minute……… Most of those politicians participated in coordinating the war. Florida’s government is very hands on with its military……….
{16:01:34} KEY: oh shit
{16:01:36} KEY: you think we could do this right now?
{16:01:38} KEY: would be hella helpful
{16:01:43} COSTUME: …What would be helpful, Key?
{16:01:45} KEY: nothing crazy
{16:01:48} KEY: may as well
{16:01:51} KEY: were not doing much with this meeting anyway
{16:01:52} SEADOG: Would you and Abyss please care to explain what you’re talking about?
{16:01:54} KEY: so
{16:01:57} KEY: last meeting you said if there was anything you could do for me
{16:01:59} KEY: just to let you know right?
{16:02:05} COSTUME: I don’t like where this is going.
{16:02:11} SEADOG: I suppose I did, yes. Is there something you want me to do?
{16:02:12} ABYSS: Here is what you need to do:
{16:02:13} ABYSS: Calmly and clearly approach some of the politicians. As you do so, try to make small talk while respecting their security. Keep your distance so you don’t make them feel threatened.
{16:02:14} ABYSS: After you’ve established yourself, tell them that you are curious about something, not for tactical reasons, but out of concern. You want to know the whereabouts of General Bello Fobi.
{16:02:15} COSTUME: Abyss, what is this?
{16:02:15} ABYSS: Gauge their reactions to being asked this question. You are looking to see whether they are exceptionally defensive about who he is and what happened to him. Take note if they are calm, and their response seems unrehearsed. Report to us what you see.
{16:02:26} SEADOG: General Fobi? What does that bastard have to do with anything?
{16:02:28} KEY: long story
{16:02:29} KEY: well explain after you do the thing
{16:02:31} COSTUME: Huh, somehow I forgot to put that name in the blacklist. That is frustrating.
{16:02:49} COSTUME: Abyss, are you seriously suggesting Seadog walk up to the enemy and start probing them for information? Do you not realize the consequences that may have on the quality of their meeting?
{16:03:03} COSTUME: I’m vetoing this plan. Key, you should probably troubleshoot Abyss’ logic after this meeting.
{16:03:07} SEADOG: Does this have to do with the disappearances?
{16:03:09} KEY: long story short
{16:03:11} KEY: there is a small chance the floridians could have something to do with it
{16:03:12} KEY: if you do this
{16:03:14} KEY: we might be able to find out
{16:03:15} ABYSS: You are running out of time, Seadog…….. Recess is only so long D:
{16:03:20} COSTUME: …Did I not say that this research should be done on your own times?
{16:03:22} KEY: yeah
{16:03:23} KEY: but this is our only shot so
{16:03:37} SEADOG: Alright. If this will make things better, then I suppose today I will be Glitchtrap’s vessel
{16:03:39} KEY: i dunno wtf that means
{16:03:40} KEY: but thanks
{16:03:56} COSTUME: Seadog, are you actually entertaining this?! You realize you are jeopardizing your own meeting, right?
{16:04:34} COSTUME: Seadog, if you are at your keyboard, send a one-word message now, please.
{16:04:39} KEY: looks like hes doing it
{16:04:51} COSTUME: Key, what is wrong with you?! If Seadog angers those politicians, we could lose a clean Panama deal.
{16:05:08} COSTUME: You directly disobeyed my orders, and it could potentially put hundreds of thousands of more lives in danger.
{16:05:10} KEY: bro
{16:05:12} KEY: its not gonna be that bad
{16:05:15} KEY: worst case scenario is that seadog looks like a dumbass
{16:05:17} KEY: and he looks like a genius the rest of the time
{16:05:18} KEY: he can take it
{16:05:19} ABYSS: I prepared thirty five different versions of this plan. The version I provided Seadog is the most risk-adverse.
{16:05:19} ABYSS: He will be okay!!!!!!! :)
{16:05:37} COSTUME: Why are we even taking this risk at all?! We gain nothing from this, other than overstepping our bounds for the sake of affirming a conspiracy theory that we neither understand nor have any basis for.
{16:05:39} KEY: we are finding out about where the FUCK they went
{16:05:41} KEY: how many times do i have to say this?
{16:05:43} KEY: as long as theres even a chance we can find nail
{16:05:44} KEY: and spur
{16:05:44} KEY: and dolphin
{16:05:48} KEY: and mjyvojses
{16:05:51} KEY: we owe it to them to figure this out
{16:06:07} COSTUME: I see how it is. If nobody has any interest in listening to me, then I will leave this to you. You clearly have a better idea of what we should do.
{16:06:09} [user_COSTUME left the room.]
{16:06:10} KEY: shit
{16:06:14} KEY: ugh
{16:06:16} KEY: why is she fucking like this abyss
{16:06:18} KEY: i am talking about HER friends too
{16:06:23} KEY: abyss?
{16:06:34} KEY: oh ofc she disabled him so i cant do shit
{16:06:36} KEY: just heard him fall over in the other room
{16:06:37} KEY: goddammit
{16:06:40} [user_ABYSS has been kicked by user_KEY.]
{16:06:42} KEY: ill work on that later
{16:10:10} SEADOG: I see things went badly after I left.
{16:10:12} KEY: you could say that again
{16:10:16} SEADOG: I see things went badly after I left.
{16:10:17} KEY: oh screw off
{16:10:22} SEADOG: Sorry. I wanted to lighten the mood
{16:10:24} KEY: well thanks for trying
{16:10:27} KEY: howd the talk go
{16:10:35} SEADOG: Somehow, they were quite receptive. They said that he simply vanished one day
{16:10:41} SEADOG: Is that true? I thought he was decommissioned
{16:10:43} KEY: he disappeared yeah
{16:10:45} KEY: apparently his son’s gone too
{16:10:49} KEY: qpempdg/qpem is his name
{16:10:52} KEY: dunno if hes on the blacklist, but im not trying
{16:11:06} SEADOG: I can see some pattern recognition here. But we should probably deal with something else first
{16:11:08} KEY: yeah
{16:11:09} KEY: um
{16:11:11} KEY: any ideas at all?
{16:11:19} SEADOG: I might have an idea. Outside of our meetings, Costume has been quietly voicing her distress over this situation to me.
{16:11:24} SEADOG: She seems really concerned about what is going on.
{16:11:26} KEY: okay
{16:11:28} KEY: so its a front to make herself look calm
{16:11:29} KEY: that i can get
{16:11:31} KEY: but why order us NOT to look into it?
{16:11:39} SEADOG: I’m not really sure. I’ve tried asking her about it but she’s been somewhat dodgy.
{16:11:41} KEY: im gonna talk to her
{16:11:43} KEY: if shes not gonna listen to you
{16:11:46} KEY: shell listen to what i have to say
{16:11:48} KEY: im sure of it
{16:11:50} KEY: (no offense seadog)
{16:11:56} SEADOG: None taken. I know you and Costume are close as well.
{16:12:04} SEADOG: Just be careful. I’d hate for her to become any more upset
{16:12:07} KEY: ill be careful
{16:14:12} SEADOG: My recess is close to ending
{16:14:16} KEY: gotcha
{16:14:18} KEY: gl with the rest of your meeting
{16:14:20} KEY: one more yhing though
{16:14:20} KEY: thing
{16:14:25} SEADOG: What is it?
{16:14:27} KEY: i was wondering
{16:14:29} KEY since you brought it up
{16:14:32} KEY: whos glitchtrap
{16:14:38} SEADOG: You remember William Afton?
{16:14:39} KEY: oh
{16:14:41} KEY: its a fnaf character
{16:14:42} KEY: never mind
{16:14:45} [user_KEY has left the room.]
{16:14:47} SEADOG: A wise choice.
{16:14:50} [user_SEADOG has left the room.]
{16:14:50} [Archiving room_F-0031-01…]
{16:14:53} [Archival complete. room_F-0031-01 is now closed.]

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Direct Message
Transcript from Monday, 9/28/65
Participants: Key, Costume​

{18:12:03} KEY: hey
{18:12:05} KEY: can we talk?
{18:14:39} KEY: sorry for fucking up your meeting
{18:14:42} KEY: i probably shouldve gone about all this differently
{18:14:44} KEY: maybe asked abyss not to do that
{18:14:50} KEY: it was a dick move
{18:23:17} COSTUME: Don’t worry about it.
{18:23:21} KEY: costume
{18:23:22} KEY: i gotta worry about it
{18:23:24} KEY: i know ive given you shit
{18:23:25} KEY: but you are our leader
{18:23:28} KEY: without you the western states would probably be fucked
{18:23:31} KEY: thats why i was trying to get you in on what i was finding
{18:23:33} KEY: and seadog obvs
{18:23:34} KEY: but you especially
{18:25:56} COSTUME: If that was your intention, I do appreciate your concern. But your presentation has come off as quite the opposite.
{18:26:00} COSTUME: You seem to have no respect for my choice in priorities.
{18:26:05} KEY: because i dont really understand your priorities
{18:26:08} KEY: and im not gonna understand them until you tell me
{18:26:15} KEY: does it not bother you that mjyvojses disappeared
{18:26:17} KEY: came back ONLY to see you
{18:26:18} KEY: and vanished again?
{18:26:20} KEY: and now weve lost nail spur and dolphin the same way?
{18:26:23} KEY: because it bothers the shit out of me
{18:26:25} KEY: and i wasnt even there when it happened
{18:26:28} KEY: so why write it off as a conspiracy theory and ignore it?
{18:30:41} COSTUME: Are you kidding? Of course it bothers me. I reflect on my conversation with MjyvOjses often.
{18:30:53} COSTUME: However, I also can’t help but think about what was said during her visit, more than the fact that it happened at all.
{18:30:56} KEY: what part of it?
{18:31:04} KEY: mjyvojses just came in to tell you that shes alive and we dont need to worry
{18:31:04} KEY: right?
{18:31:13} COSTUME: Well, yes. But there were other intentions there.
{18:31:25} COSTUME: MjyvOjses also asked me to call off any search for her, specifically because she was “walking a path she did not want us to follow.”
{18:31:27} KEY: wait
{18:31:28} KEY: she said that?
{18:31:29} KEY: i dont remember you saying that
{18:31:32} KEY: (tho it was a decade+ ago, that might be my bad)
{18:31:44} COSTUME: I never really said it out loud, although I figured honoring her request would make her wishes evident.
{18:32:00} COSTUME: Key… MjyvOjses has done a lot of good for this world. I think we can both agree on that.
{18:32:03} KEY: yea
{18:33:50} COSTUME: Here is the truth: I don’t really believe Nail, Spur, and Dolphin are simply missing or dead. But, if we completely commit to chasing after this, I worry we are going to discover the reason why MjyvOjses wanted us to stay out of whatever is causing this.
{18:34:29} COSTUME: I think it is going to be ugly. And I don’t really know if I want to entertain the possibility of seeing that.
{18:34:47} COSTUME: I know it’s unreasonable, but… She was a good friend.
{18:35:03} KEY: you know
{18:35:04} KEY: i guess i can kinda get that
{18:35:06} KEY: she was great back in the day
{18:35:07} KEY: but
{18:35:08} KEY: turning a blind eye
{18:35:11} KEY: just so she can keep looking good to us
{18:35:13} KEY: isnt gonna help things either
{18:35:15} KEY: maybe we couldve stayed out of it
{18:35:17} KEY: if everyone was still here
{18:35:19} KEY: but weve just lost three of our best members
{18:35:22} KEY: i know a lot about nails work but i cant replace him
{18:35:25} KEY: phoenix couldnt ask for a better sheriff than spur
{18:35:29} KEY: and the pacifics gonna be hurting without dolphin
{18:35:32} KEY: losing all that means we gotta act
{18:35:46} COSTUME: …You make a fair case. Operating without any of them would be much more difficult, much less all three at once.
{18:35:48} KEY: and if we find out mjyvojses wasnt all who she made herself out to be
{18:35:49} KEY: well
{18:35:49} KEY: forget her then
{18:35:51} KEY: we made it pretty far without her help anyway
{18:35:53} KEY: thanks to a certain somebody giving it her best all these years
{18:36:04} COSTUME: Thank you. I’m flattered, although I question the need for the compliment.
{18:36:08} KEY: you earned it after all this shit
{18:36:10} KEY: anyways
{18:36:13} KEY: im gonna stop being an ass and let you do your job
{18:36:15} KEY: whats our plan of action?
{18:36:21} COSTUME: First, I intend to re-enable Abyss.
{18:36:23} KEY: hell yeah
{18:36:39} COSTUME: Then, I’m going to message Seadog and see how the remainder of his meeting went. And also thank him as well.
{18:36:52} COSTUME: If the agreement went badly, our next objective will be to help him course correct.
{18:37:14} COSTUME: If it went well, we will be proceeding straight into efforts to track these disappearances tomorrow.
{18:37:28} COSTUME: Either way, you are right. We do need to unearth the truth about this. I’m sorry for struggling to come to that conclusion for this long.
{18:37:31} KEY: youre fine
{18:37:33} KEY: we were both acting stupid
{18:37:35} KEY: whichever one happens
{18:37:38} KEY: youve got both me and abyss backing you up
{18:37:54} COSTUME: I’m incredibly glad for that.
{00:00:01} [Archiving messages from 9/28/65…]
{00:00:02} [Archival complete.]

 

[LukerUpgradez]

Meeting R-0001-13
Transcript from Tuesday, 9/29/65
Subject: “MjyvOjses”​

{08:00:19} [user_COSTUME opened room_R-0001-13.]
{08:00:22} [user_ABYSS has joined the room.]
{08:00:31} [user_SEADOG has joined the room.]
{08:00:36} [user_KEY has joined the room.]
{08:00:41} KEY: damn were fast today
{08:00:59} COSTUME: I don’t know if I blame any of you for joining quickly, honestly. I am antsy to start unpacking this subject.
{08:01:10} SEADOG: Glad to hear it, Costume. We have a lot to talk about
{08:01:11} ABYSS: Do we need to do the minutes first??
{08:01:13} KEY: sure
{08:01:15} KEY: but make it quick
{08:01:16} ABYSS: One quick minutes, coming up!!!!!!!!!
{08:01:17} ABYSS: With Seadog’s peace negotiations out of the way, Costume told each of us that our next objective is to deduce the cause behind Nail, Spur, Dolphin, and MjyvOjses’ disappearances.
{08:01:17} ABYSS: It was expected that each of us research anything that connects these cases together, so we may develop plausible theories and find a way to the truth.
{08:01:29} KEY: there we go
{08:01:41} SEADOG: First thing’s first. Key, Abyss, I want to know what you found that convinced you that Bello has something to do with this
{08:01:43} KEY: both of us could explain
{08:01:45} KEY: but abyss types faster
{08:01:48} KEY: so ill let him do it
{08:01:50} ABYSS: On it!!!
{08:01:52} ABYSS: As previously noted, the substance that was found in Nail and Dolphin’s home is unrecognizable to any element currently known to exist in this universe. Information on this mystery substance is minimal.
{08:01:53} ABYSS: However, this is not the first time the dust has been seen. There are a few forums and obscure websites in which these strange cases are being discussed.
{08:01:54} ABYSS: Notably, every single occurrence of it is in relation to a recent disappearance in the area where it was found.
{08:02:03} SEADOG: You’re serious? If true, that is huge
{08:02:09} KEY: when abyss found this shit i was floored
{08:02:18} COSTUME: Please, send your sources for this. I want to know how I was not made aware of this at all.
{08:02:20} ABYSS: It wasn’t known to us because the majority of these disappearances occurred almost entirely on the east side of North America, not the west, as observed and cataloged on this forum[1].
{08:02:21} ABYSS: It seems that appearances of the dust has been noted, but not studied on a wider scale due to a lack of communication between similar cases, primarily because of inefficiency from law enforcement in those countries[2].
{08:02:22} ABYSS: The scientific community in the United States received no reply from relevant parties when seeking samples of the mystery substance, multiple times [3][4][5].
{08:02:22} [User_ABYSS posted a message with a hyperlink. Messages with hyperlinks are automatically deleted after five minutes.]
{08:02:39} SEADOG: So there’s a general apathy for these cases on their side of the world. Frustrating
{08:02:56} COSTUME: If we were positioned in the United States and not the Western States, Abyss would certainly have ensured law enforcement provided this dust for research years ago.
{08:02:57} ABYSS: You know it!!!!!!! :)
{08:03:11} SEADOG: Anyways, that explains the dust. But what does it have to do with the Floridians? I’m not seeing the connection
{08:03:14} KEY: well
{08:03:14} KEY: this dust
{08:03:16} KEY: showing up where all of these guys vanish
{08:03:18} KEY: its like a signature right?
{08:03:20} KEY: who or whatever is causing this
{08:03:22} KEY: plants this dust like a sorta marker
{08:03:24} KEY: so we can assume this isnt an accident
{08:03:27} KEY: somebody wants these people gone or moved or whatever
{08:03:28} KEY: and well
{08:03:29} KEY: whose population is kinda
{08:03:30} KEY: dying off?
{08:03:34} ABYSS: If a large body of people is conducting these disappearances, the Floridian Empire is our most likely candidate.
{08:03:35} ABYSS: It would explain why most of the disappearances are in the east, but some are in the west. They’re close in proximity to the United States, but could reach the Western States in secret if they wanted to.
{08:03:36} ABYSS: Considering their aggressive posturing, it is possible they intend to use these people as hostages for leverage in the wake of the Panama War.
{08:03:37} ABYSS: Alternatively, with the rising sea levels decreasing the size of their nation and the population shedding caused by the war, they could be forcefully bolstering their numbers somehow.
{08:03:55} SEADOG: Ah, I see.
{08:04:01} COSTUME: I can understand the justifications for your theory.
{08:04:20} KEY: cant believe we live in an era
{08:04:21} KEY: where florida
{08:04:23} KEY: could be literally abducting people
{08:04:25} KEY: to make more florida men
{08:04:33} SEADOG: Key, I should get Costume to kick you from this chat
{08:04:40} COSTUME: Okay, seriously, what’s so funny about Florida men?
{08:04:43} KEY: because
{08:04:45} KEY: theyre really dumb
{08:04:46} KEY: lol
{08:04:58} SEADOG: News websites liked to use the phrase ‘Florida man’ to describe individuals who tried really stupid things in the state of Florida
{08:05:03} SEADOG: Until around the 2020s
{08:05:05} KEY: yeah that
{08:05:11} COSTUME: …The Internet was so weird back then.
{08:05:14} KEY: bro youre gen alpha
{08:05:16} KEY: and seadogs gen z
{08:05:18} KEY: thats more your fault than mine
{08:05:22} COSTUME: I know. And I hate it.
{08:06:49} SEADOG: In any case, if it turns out that the Floridians have to do with our losses… I’m going to go to their side of the continent and rip them apart
{08:06:51} KEY: amen brother
{08:07:09} COSTUME: I don’t know how I’d help, but I absolutely support that effort, Seadog.
{08:07:11} KEY: i mean
{08:07:14} KEY: youre the politician here
{08:07:17} KEY: just go over there and tell them if they dont stop
{08:07:19} KEY: youll force them to like
{08:07:24} KEY: distribute government-mandated fursonas and declare “nineteen eighty fur” a national holiday
{08:07:29} [user_KEY has been kicked by user_COSTUME.]
{08:07:30} SEADOG: With that being said - fuck off, Key.
{08:07:35} SEADOG: Thank you, Costume.
{08:07:36} ABYSS: Key is in a funny mood today……….
{08:08:10} [user_KEY has joined the room.]
{08:08:14} KEY: ok im sorry
{08:08:16} KEY: i deserved that lmao
{08:08:29} COSTUME: Forgiven. Just…don’t do it again.
{08:08:43} SEADOG: Anyways, with that being said, I think what I observed at the negotiation may have shot the Floridians theory in the foot. They have no reason to abduct their own people
{08:08:56} KEY: its not 100%
{08:08:59} KEY: iirc there were rumors that bello had changed
{08:09:02} KEY: and wasnt into the war as much
{08:09:06} KEY: but the guys he worked with being so honest about it
{08:09:09} KEY: and not getting defensive or offended or anything
{08:09:11} KEY: is a pretty hard clear
{08:09:14} KEY: (rip florida men theory)
{08:11:08} COSTUME: Personally, I don’t believe these disappearances could be conducted by a government at all. If it was, we would have heard something about this already.
{08:11:24} COSTUME: The size of such a conspiracy is infeasible. Consider how small we are, and then consider how many close calls we’ve had with keeping ourselves unknown.
{08:11:39} COSTUME: Most governments are several times our size, and they must have been coordinating this for almost as long as we have existed. Surely there would be a whistleblower by now?
{08:11:51} COSTUME: The size of these kidnappers has to be smaller than a government -- and, considering three of our members were all targeted simultaneously, have the connections needed to know who we are.
{08:11:59} KEY: shit
{08:12:01} KEY: thats a good point
{08:12:10} SEADOG: Are you not including MjyvOjses in that list?
{08:12:32} COSTUME: I am not convinced MjyvOjses is a victim the same way the others are. Her case is unique, considering she briefly returned to see me.
{08:12:43} COSTUME: I’ve also heard nothing about the mystery dust being involved in her disappearance.
{08:12:46} KEY: surely with the coverage that got
{08:12:48} KEY: somebody wouldve pointed out dust
{08:13:05} SEADOG: So, we’re looking for a small group with connections to us, probably through MjyvOjses. I’m not sure if there’s anybody who fits that description
{08:13:19} COSTUME: Well…I bring this all up because I have already found a group that might fit the bill.
{08:13:20} ABYSS: Nice! :D I can fact-check anything you want if you need it, Costume…….
{08:13:34} COSTUME: Thanks, Abyss. The group I was looking into is Suuiyz Laboratories. All of this had somewhat reminded me of its CEO.
{08:13:46} SEADOG: What’s so strange about him? I thought he was still around
{08:13:59} COSTUME: He is, but not in the way he used to. A decade ago, he was the life of the party. Nowadays, he barely ever shows his face to the cameras.
{08:14:00} ABYSS: Collecting information related to this topic. Estimated completion time: three hours……………….
{08:14:05} ABYSS: Done! :D
{08:14:06} ABYSS: This is backed up by the news networks!!!!!!! Here are some editorials about how the CEO’s change in personality lowered public opinion of him and his company:
{08:14:07} [User_ABYSS posted a message with a hyperlink. Messages with hyperlinks are automatically deleted after five minutes.]
{08:14:18} COSTUME: I always forget how fast you work, Abyss. The resources are appreciated.
{08:14:25} SEADOG: Five major news networks commented on this? Across the political spectrum, too
{08:14:39} SEADOG: Looks like a lot of Xprjx fans caught on to it.
{08:20:27} COSTUME: Huh, going through these… I didn’t know that even his employees became distant and private as well. That is useful information.
{08:20:51} COSTUME: However, those aren’t the reason I bring his company up. I was trying to find any connection Suuiyz Labs might have with MjyvOjses, and I found this.
{08:20:56} [User_COSTUME posted a video file. Messages with videos are automatically deleted after five minutes.]
{08:20:58} [Video transcript from given timestamp (8:36 - 8:58):]
{08:20:59} [[interviewer]: So you’re in favor of Mrs. [REDACTED], then?]
{08:20:04} [[XPRJX]: Well, here’s the thing, [interviewer]. Something I think is important, and something important to [SUUIYZ] Laboratories, is people who give their best efforts to make the world a better place. We don’t have a lot of that these days, because things have already taken a turn for the worse, right? And a rising way of thinking here is that there’s nothing left to be done. But [REDACTED] tries. She tries hard. She gets a lot of other people to try.]
{08:20:06} [[interviewer]: Does she get you to try?]
{08:20:11} [[XPRJX]: She does! [REDACTED] really inspires me. I’ve had doubts about my work in the past — whether the ways I’m trying to help the world is really going to amount to anything. But, when I see her out there, fighting in one of the toughest places to fight, I think…maybe us people aren’t so hopeless, after all.]
{08:20:13} [[interviewer]: It sounds like her message really resonates with you.]
{08:20:16} [[XPRJX]: Yes. If you believe she’s weak, cruel, a do-nothing… That’s okay. Everybody has the right to their opinion. But I think she’s pretty great.]
{08:21:01} SEADOG: Wow. That’s a big endorsement
{08:21:22} COSTUME: I don’t have any evidence that the two of them ever interacted, but I can’t help but wonder if Xprjx’s departure from the public eye could have something to do with MjyvOjses.
{08:21:48} COSTUME: Especially because of another detail I noticed. Apparently, Xprjx started becoming more reserved around the later half of 2054 — right around when MjyvOjses visited us for the last time.
{08:21:50} ABYSS: Editorial dates: 11/24/54. 12/16/54. 2/9/55. 4/12/55. 5/2/55.
{08:21:51} ABYSS: Accounting for the time it would take people to notice the change……. That would line up with the date of Meeting R-0001-09, 7/4/54.
{08:22:09} SEADOG: I guess there’s a connection there. But why would Suuiyz Labs want to do any of this?
{08:22:17} SEADOG: Aren’t they just a tech company? They have no reason to abduct people
{08:22:44} COSTUME: That is…an unfortunate hole in my theory, yes. Although they are a believable candidate for a connection to the disappearances, any kind of motive I could provide for their involvement seems flimsy.
{08:23:06} COSTUME: Although I will note that one of the departments in Suuiyz Labs involves some…unconventional research. If they were to succeed, producing a dust nobody has ever seen before doesn’t feel like an impossibility.
{08:24:31} KEY: ok im back
{08:24:32} KEY: read up on this
{08:24:36} KEY: you mean the dept based on that cjymsk guy?
{08:24:45} COSTUME: Yes, that one. Mr. Cjymsk’s.
{08:24:47} KEY: yeah
{08:24:49} KEY: his work was kinda wack
{08:24:53} KEY: crazy xprjx kept going with that
{08:26:31} SEADOG: Just looked him up to refresh. Considering how much of a crackpot he was, it’s impressive Xprjx is as successful as he is
{08:26:36} KEY: dont really have much to say abt all that
{08:26:38} KEY: but i did find some crazy shit
{08:26:41} KEY: so after you pointed out how nobody talked about dust with mjyvojses
{08:26:43} KEY: i looked into the investigation
{08:26:46} KEY: to see if i could find out who was involved
{08:26:48} KEY: if anybody would know about dust
{08:26:49} KEY: itd be them
{08:26:49} KEY: right?
{08:27:04} COSTUME: That makes sense. I might be able to get into contact with them.
{08:27:08} KEY: ok but heres whats fucked up
{08:27:19} KEY: apparently the guy leading it was pdyikx viixupy
{08:27:21} KEY: hiring and managing people and shit
{08:27:24} KEY: even gave up the general title
{08:27:25} KEY: to focus on it
{08:27:37} SEADOG: Him? From what I know, that makes sense
{08:27:40} KEY: and guess who the FUCK
{08:27:42} KEY: left his position
{08:27:44} KEY: and vanished off of the face of the earth
{08:27:47} KEY: three years after starting that hunt?
{08:27:49} ABYSS: None of his socials have updated in seven years, after he left politics………….. :(
{08:27:50} [User_ABYSS posted a message with a hyperlink. Messages with hyperlinks are automatically deleted after five minutes.]
{08:28:06} SEADOG: And so the rabbit hole gets deeper.
{08:31:18} COSTUME: Hmm. Across all of us, it seems like we have a lot of leads, but no idea how any of this connects together.
{08:31:33} COSTUME: I am going to make an executive proposal: we need to put our heads together in a way that our logs do not allow us to.
{08:31:41} SEADOG: Are we moving to a voice chat?
{08:32:07} COSTUME: We could, but I think the subject is too significant to risk being recorded by a company. I believe we should all meet together for some time and work as a unit to pursue answers.
{08:32:09} ABYSS: You should come meet us in Nevada Costume!!!!!!!!!! Key and I can keep a seat cozy for you and Seadog ;D
{08:32:32} COSTUME: That’s what I was thinking. I will head out as soon as I safely can. Luckily, I can afford to put less stake in my position to focus on this.
{08:32:34} KEY: shit
{08:32:36} KEY: i better get the house ready then
{08:32:47} SEADOG: I can come, but I might be late. Still need to make sure this negotiation is wrapped up before I leave
{08:33:03} COSTUME: You should stay where you are until that is finished, Seadog. We need to stay timely, but not rush this process. Perfectly solving this is going to take time.
{08:33:05} KEY: yeah
{08:33:06} KEY: we can hella do this though
{08:33:07} KEY: im sure of it
{08:33:14} COSTUME: Your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated, Key.
{08:34:55} COSTUME: See you in about two days.
{08:35:02} [user_COSTUME has left the room.]
{08:35:33} SEADOG: Best of luck to you all. Next time you see me, it’ll be in-person
{08:35:37} [user_SEADOG has left the room.]
{08:35:40} ABYSS: Ready to bust some conspiracies? >:)
{08:35:42} KEY: yeah lol
{08:35:44} [user_KEY has left the room.]
{08:35:45} [user_ABYSS has left the room.]
{08:35:45} [Archiving room_R-0001-13…]
{08:35:49} [Archival complete. room_R-0001-13 is now closed.]