41 - Cursed With Knowledge
Sudmensch
Professional Procrastinator
- Pronouns
- he/him
41 - Cursed With Knowledge
Despite how much I'd like to say I came out of that subway tunnel confident and celebrating, I'll go ahead and admit it. I had no idea what was happening anymore.
From the moment Rye pulled me up out of that hole and into the desert moonlight, an air of tension had hung over our party, especially as Delcatty had taken our find from us. As they studied the bundle of paper, we'd tried to ignore it and turn in to make up for the night down in the ruins, but I'd found myself unable to sleep. Quite a bit nagged at me as I stared at the backs of my eyelids, watching as the light shining through them gradually grew brighter. The skeletons, the stadium, the rusted cars, and just about everything else I'd seen down there still weighed down on me, though my biggest question pertained to how I'd even found those papers in the first place.
What was that tugging? No, who was it? Was it the Voice again? For Arceus' sake, why couldn't it just leave me alone for once?
Ugh.
One thing I did notice as I laid there, though, was how the voices outside suddenly seemed to get far more excited as the sun came up. At present, I could hear Hitmonchan eagerly reentering the Guild's little camp as he spoke to someone unseen.
"No, no, it has to be a Psychic," I made out from the voice. "...yeah, a map... we need to reach our Guildmaster as soon as possible."
My ears stuck up as I pried open my eyes. Was that our papers he was talking about? I hesitated for a moment before silently pushing myself up and off the seedy cushion I'd been using for a bed. Tiptoeing to the door, I glanced back at my partners to make sure I hadn't woken them. Thankfully, Rye was still splayed out twitching his tail and Mavy still laid curled up, a stupid grin on his face as he dreamed of Darkrai knows what. With a quiet sigh of relief, I slunk out into the chilly desert morning.
It took a moment to gain my bearings among the sea of other Guilds' tents around me, but I soon picked out the biggest of ours and waddled over, being careful to not trip any explorers here going about their morning routines. Giving a quick look around, I gingerly opened the tent's curtain a crack to look inside. Inside, I found Delcatty and Hitmonchan standing around a Beeheeyem as it floated there, its digits floating rapidly. I couldn't tell quite what was going on, but kept watching as Delcatty continued.
"Yes, Guildmaster Arcanine, I understand this is very exciting, but please calm down for a bit. What action should we take?" she asked the air in front of her. A moment of silence passed before she continued. "Yes, sir, we'll be quick about it. Rest assured, we'll keep the artifact safe. You don't just find a map through... that and not do that. ...yes, sir, I'll pass that on to Haxorus. ...you, too."
With that, the Beeheeyem's lights went out as Delcatty sighed.
"That should be everything, Beeheeyem, thank you. You wanna stay for a quick drink?" she asked.
The Beeheeyem responded with a quick flash of one of its lights and a short beep, which apparently meant yes since Delcatty turned to fish something out of her bag, leaving me to try and consider what I'd just snooped in on. Before I could get very far, though, Beeheeyem snapped its large head towards me, apparently having sensed my presence. It immediately pointed at me with the flashing lights on its hands as it let out a series of frantic beeps like some sort of weird Morse code, and as I stumbled back, the tent's curtain doors flew open to reveal a panicked Delcatty and Hitmonchan. Their appendages glowed faintly in preparation for an attack, but the two settled down as they caught sight of me on the ground.
"Oh, it's just you," Delcatty sighed in relief, looking back at Beheeyem as it hovered behind them. "Don't worry, just an apprentice of ours. Uh, just go back to your tent, Oshawott. It's not polite for civilized to eavesdrop, alright? We'll explain everything later."
"Y-yes, mahm," I said. Although miffed at her condescending comment, I got up off the cool sand and made my way back to my tent as Beeheeyem started making questioning beeps behind me.
Quietly slipping in and making sure Rye and Mavy were still asleep, I sat down on my cot, sighing as I considered what I'd just snooped in on. It was just one side of the conversation, and a pretty straightforward side at that, so I didn't have much to really dissect there.
Well, save for one thing.
'A map through 'that,' she said. What's 'that' supposed to be?'
Before long, the sunlight shining through the doorway met Rye's scales, causing the Treecko to groan and sit up, rubbing his head.
"...urgh," he simply said.
"Yeah," I agreed. Rye blinked back the bloodshot in his yellow eyes.
"Rough night too?" he asked. I gave a nod as Mavy groaned behind Rye.
"Y'all shut it. Need sleep," he protested. Rye gave him a nudge, causing the Zigzagoon to peel himself off his bed. "Aight, fine, fine, ah'm up. What do you want?"
"W-well, uh, we wait till we hear news," Rye shrugged. "Y-you... you wanna talk till then? Like, we never got a chance to really talk about everything."
"Yeah," I said. Mavy sighed from his curled-up position.
"Sure, fine," he said.
And so it was; for the next little while we just sat on our makeshift cots and discussed our dive. At least, Rye and Mavy talked while I tried to give my occasional input. From the place's history to what we'd managed to do together, we just had a nice time to let off steam and assess everything we'd seen.
"...I-I don't know, I never thought I'd ever actually discover something, you know? Like, even if I somehow landed on a team, I probably wasn't gonna get sent to a place like this. But... I don't know, i-it's weird just sitting here, saying I... w-we've done it," Rye mused.
"Heck, Pa always told me he'd help me find something one day, didn't think I'd be the one doin' the findin'," Mavy said, tiredly grinning to himself. "Shit, just wait till he hears 'bout this. Might could take you to meet him once he gets home, ah reckon he'd like y'all."
"Yeah, shaagh," I added.
"That all you gon do? You just gonna agree with us? Come on, Scruffy ol' pal, give us something other than 'sha sha.' Like... ah dunno..." Mavy pondered. He considered for a moment, stifling a yawn before he suddenly perked up. "Oh, how'd ya know to go down there in the first place? We'd've just given up at them doors if you didn't insist there was something there, what was that all 'bout? Some sixth sense only ferals got?"
Rye gave him a stern look, but nodded as he thought it over. "Y-yeah, that is kinda weird. How did you know, Beck?"
I sat there for a bit, gulping as the two's eyes rested on me.
"Uh... t-tah-ging," I said.
"Tagging?" Rye asked. I shook my head and made a tugging motion, which thankfully got the message across. "T-tugging! Uh, there was, like, a tugging?"
"Yeah," I said, pointing at my gut. Rye hung his head as he thought this over.
"D-do you know what it was?" he asked.
"Nah," I said, prompting more thinking on Rye's end. After a minute, he gave Mavy a sideways glance and leaned in towards me.
"I think you should go to Mr. Arcanine, maybe he'll know something. Uh, maybe this was whatever gave you those visions? It could be important," he whispered.
I nodded in agreement, so we pulled out of our little huddle to face a suspicious look from Mavy. The Zigzagoon didn't say anything, only rolling his eyes after a minute, so we returned to trying to make conversation. We'd just gotten to the little things we'd come across in the old car park when our tent's door suddenly flew open, revealing Hitmonchan looking us over.
"Team Reach. Start packing, we're starting back to Impetus Town by midmorning," he said. Rye sat up, clearly just as confused as I was.
"What? Why?" he asked.
"We can't disclose that right now," Hitmonchan simply said before moving on from our tent. The three of us stared after him for a second before exchanging a glance. A silent agreement was reached as Mavy stretched and finally hopped out of bed, watching while we started gathering our things.
The sun was glaring down full force on our camp by the time Rye finally stuffed the tent into our bag. As he led Mavy and I panting towards our gathered guildmates, I couldn't help but envy his coldbloodedness in the heat, though it seemed we wouldn't have to wait for very long as Delcatty and Hitmonchan stood to address us.
"Everyone here today did excellent in last night's dive, but we must go now. Sorry, Teams Ruby and Frontier, but the stadium will have to wait for another time. We'll debrief you once we're on the road," Hitmonchan announced.
A murmur arose among the group as we followed the two to the waiting herd of Mudsdale that'd brought us here only yesterday, and once we'd thrown our bags onto their backs and hoisted ourselves up, I held on as best I could as the herd set off. With sand being kicked up around me as the Mudsdale began galloping faster and faster, I squinted over towards Rye and Mavy as they settled in for a long trip out of the desert. As I too shifted in my seat, I finally took the time to really consider everything: that Haxorus, the bones, the stadium, everything it implied, the papers, and... whatever "that" was.
I had a lot I'd have to consider on the road, I was sure.
The wooden box was decently small, no bigger than my head. It was unimpressive at best, being a splintery mess with only a simple lock to clue at its contents. Not a word had been said about it, but I was certain we all knew what was inside. The flimsy bag and its several pieces of folded-up paper had disappeared after we'd surfaced, and judging by how Delcatty and Hitmonchan refused to let the box they carried out of their sight, even after we'd stopped for the night... yeah, bit of a no-brainer.
As I watched the sun dip below the treeline, the others ambled around me, setting up camp in the rolling valley we'd settled in. Still aching from the rough Mudsdale ride through the desert and our hours of walking afterwards, it was a relief to finally rest, even if Mavy kept heckling me for not helping out. However, getting to sit gave me time to understand something: I wasn't happy.
I mean, yeah, we'd just explored an old ruin, we'd succeeded as a team, and we'd apparently made a decent discovery, so why wasn't I happy? No matter how I looked at it, the sad just wouldn't go away. I didn't know, maybe-
The crunch of reeds and sticks startled me out of my thoughts, and as I looked up to check what had happened, Arden gave me a look over the fire he was building.
"You busy?" he asked.
"Wha? N-no," I said. Arden gave a sigh in response.
"Metaphorically, I mean. You've just been sitting here staring into space since-" he started.
"Agh, am fine," I snapped, to which Arden raised his paws defensively.
"Alright, sorry. Just asking," he said, turning and running back into the brush to look for more firewood. With that out of the way, I bit my lip and pushed myself up, waddling over to Rye as he and Mavy tried to pitch our tent. Despite how I was feeling, I quietly resigned myself to trying to help out.
We fiddled with the tent and some other things for a while until darkness fell, after which the three of us headed to the fire. As we joined the twenty or so Pokémon there, I tried to join Rye and Mavy in sliding into the excited chatter, though I didn't get far before the campsite fell quiet and turned its attention to Delcatty and Hitmonchan as they arrived. The former cleared her throat.
"Everyone. I'm sure you've all been carrying some questions with you since we set out from the site, and I think this is a good place to answer them," she said. "In summary, during the dive in the stadium, Team Reach here discovered an artifact of interest to our Guild. The item in question, as I am sure you all know, is the remains of a fabric bag containing several pieces of paper. After extracting said paper, we were able to translate them and discern their contents."
She paused for effect, watching as Rye and I looked at each other eagerly.
"The artifacts in question were reassembled into a set of six maps dating back to the late first century before the Ruin. The most notable of these, however, was a complete map displaying the fabled Caverns of Being in detail. Furthermore, we believe that we may be able to use the information given to determine the Caverns' present location." she said. I heard quiet gasps and excited murmurs coming from many around me, Rye included, but I just cocked my head. The Caverns of what?
"We will be discussing our next course of action with the Guildmaster over the coming days. For now, though, we believe this expedition to be a success. Thank you all for your vigilance down there," Delcatty finished. Silence hung over the campsite for a minute before an Emolga climbed on top of Luxio's head.
"What is this, a funeral?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm with him. We found the fuckin' Caves! Let's get shitfaced!" Pike demanded, looking to Delcatty for approval. She gave him a flat look, and after exchanging a glance with Hitmonchan, rolled her eyes and quietly nodded her consent. Immediately, our squad ditched its professional demeanor as the explorers around us gave a mighty whoop and pumped their fists and paws in the air, jumped around, and pulled out canteens I got the feeling weren't filled with water.
"No. No, you all know you weren't allowed to bring... screw it, let me have a swig," Hitmonchan shrugged. As the explorers around me either went bottoms-up or began raucously singing to start out the celebration, I felt eyes rest on me. Rye gave an unsure look, clearly remembering the tug in my gut I'd told him about, while I noticed Arden staring at me from across the fire as Pike nudged him.
"C'mon, Arden! Lighten up, 'ave a drink!" he encouraged the Quilava. When Arden didn't answer, Pike followed his line of sight towards me and just barely repressed a grimace. "The feral botherin' ya?"
"Huh? No, no, I can't drink, remember? I'm a Fire-type, you know, alcohol doesn't exactly mix well. Uh, you all have fun, I'm gonna go hunt," Arden said, abruptly getting up and heading into the brush. Pike concernedly watched him go for a minute before shifting his wings.
"You do you, bud," he called before turning back to the celebration and accepting a drink from May. The three of us just kept sitting there for a bit, soaking the festive air in for a moment before Mavy looked up at us.
"What're the Caves o' Bein'?" he asked. Rye hesitated for a moment before muttering something involving his being a stupid idiot to himself.
"S-sorry, I should've figured you two wouldn't know. Uh, the legend goes that they're these caves somewhere in the Gray Continent that connect to Sun Minor," he said.
"Sun Minor? Ain't that on the other side of the world? How's a cave 'bout to go there?" Mavy asked.
"No one knows for sure, but... I-I can't believe we actually... I need a bit," Rye responded, staring into the fire. As I joined him in staring, I considered this bit of trivia. A connection to Sun Minor... from everything I'd gathered, especially the mentions of the Coronets, I got the feeling I knew what that place was.
The idea that something would want me to find a cave leading to Sinnoh, of all places, especially considering the Legendary presence there...
'…there it is again. A nice little reminder.'
I shook my head a bit to try and get that out of my mind, then turned my attention back towards the party. The three of us just awkwardly sat there as excited chatter, singing, and chugging rang out around us, though we only had to watch for a minute before Luxio suddenly stumbled over towards us and took a seat next to us.
"H-hey, Treecko," she slurred. "Why don'tcha get Oshawott there to play something on the thing?"
Rye and I exchanged a glance as the others started chanting to encourage me on, so I sighed and reached behind me, fishing my banjo from our bag, much to their delight. I'd initially worried about leaving it in our tent during our trip into the stadium, but it seemed nothing had happened to it. With that in mind, I positioned the instrument over my little legs, and after a minute's hesitation, started plucking away at random. This was routine at this point, as I found that my lost muscle memory was all too happy to resurface sometimes. All I really had to do was just strum away till I found myself playing something familiar and go from there.
Indeed, it wasn't long before I found a tune that struck a chord, no pun intended. As I went along with the sentimental tune I'd settled on, I frowned a bit as the music resonated in my mind. Echoes of a memory seemed to spark in response, taking the form of an aged voice encouraging me on. Something told me the tune was not made to be played on banjo, but my memory seemed to be managing just fine.
"Good! Now onto the reprise!" the old man's voice echoed in my head. Hanging my head, I complied and started quietly humming along to the slow tune.
'Home, home again... I like to be here when I can...'
My frown only deepened as the lyrics involuntarily cropped up.
'When I come home cold and tired... it's good to warm my bones beside the fire...'
My breath became shaky as I kept crudely playing.
'Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell calls the faithful to their knees... to hear the softly spoken magic spell...'
I let the banjo fall to the ground and wilted as the others cheered around me. Bright grins, pats on my back, and praises and requests met me, but I didn't pay any heed. I just stared at my instrument on the ground, not even daring to move as the pit in my stomach grew deeper and deeper.
"...hey, th-that was good. We liked it! You're... B-Beck?"
I caught a glimpse of Rye's face as I pushed past the confused explorers gathered around me, trudging out of the camp. As I approached the grass, I stepped around Arden as he stared at me with a carcass in his mouth, apparently having been doing so for some time. Looking back at him, I could've sworn I saw sympathy in his eyes before he started back to the fire. I didn't care, though, I had other things to contemplate as I sat down with my back to a tent.
The song's painfully ironic lyrics aside, the thought I put into it was not happy. I didn't know where it'd come from, but... here I was, probably the last person alive that knew it existed. Everyone else from that old man to the songwriters themselves? Dead and forgotten for centuries, just like everyone else I'd known.
I'd been carrying this for over a month now, but now it was hitting me like a raging Tauros. Everyone I'd known was dead. I had to stare the bodies left behind in the face, both metaphorically and literally. I couldn't talk with anyone about it, and even if I could there was barely everyone who'd understand. To top it all off, I was little more than just 'the feral' to my peers, even if they tolerated me by now.
I as a human was completely and utterly alone in this world.
...it hurt.
Once the first tear fell, I couldn't stop myself. With little else to do, I just crumpled in place and started quietly weeping, mourning for everything I'd lost. My family, my friends, my world, my speech, my humanity...
I didn't stop for a solid few minutes, only hugging my tail tight as I cried. After a while, it seemed I had no tears left to shed, so I propped myself up and blinked my undoubtedly bloodshot eyes to stare up at the stars. The oh-so-damn-familiar stars...
Crunch!
I heard a stick in the tall grass ahead break. I flinched violently and stuck up my ears as I peered ahead, listening for anything else.
"R-Rye?" I hoarsely called. All that responded was rustling that seemed to get farther and farther away until it disappeared among the chirping of Bug-types and the lively chatter behind me. I stared into the brush for another minute before sighing and pushing myself up. Whatever it was, I figured I must have scared it off. That in mind, I slowly dragged my tail back into camp, hanging my head as I looked up. Rye and Mavy sat there waiting, and at the sight of me, the Treecko got up and put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"I-it's okay. I'm here. I-it's gonna be okay," he quietly reassured me. I didn't respond, only nodding and wiping at my wet, snotty face. As we started back towards our tent, Mavy just gave a morose look, clearly unsure of what to make of this.
Staving off the other explorers' concerned looks, we filed into our tent and sat down, thankfully remaining silent until Rye shifted in place, reaching down for something.
"Y-you dropped this," he said, holding up my banjo. I stared at it for a minute before frowning and lying down in my bed, my back to him. I didn't want to think about it right now. I... just needed sleep was all.
'Yeah... maybe I could just stay asleep, not have to worry about any of this...'
-o-
...oh, no.
The dream again.
He felt a pang of dread as it all materialized around him again.
The screams. The booms in the distance. The sound of crumbling rubble.
He tried to push himself up, only to be met with pain. His body was broken, pinned to the ground.
With no way to move, he frantically looked around. Panicked faces swarmed past him, trying to find some sort of safe haven. It would be of little help, of course, but among the faces...
"Mom... Dad..."
Despite his pleas, the familiar figures disappeared into the chaos. Staring after them for a moment, he painfully put his head to the ground, clenching his eyes shut and trying to force himself out, to end this nightmare before-
Then the sirens began.
"...no, no! J-just go!"
"Stop! Let me-"
"G-get as far away as you can!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"I said go! I-I'll find a way!"
"..."
Alone.
Wake up.
It wouldn't be long now.
WAKE UP.
It was coming, and fast.
WAKE UP, DAMN IT.
His chest burned. His head throbbed as if trying to burst. It was all pain.
WAKE UP!
The moon shined through the crack in our tent's door as I stared at it, hoping to find some comfort in it. Despite the soothing tug in my core, though, my mind wouldn't stop racing. Rye and Mavy had long since gone to sleep and the celebration outside had ended a good while ago, but I hadn't been able to get any shut-eye since my meltdown. Unfortunately, that gave me plenty of time to wallow in my puddle of sad.
Most of what raced through my head as I stared at the moon was just more of the same, though among it were some new worries that'd cropped up.
'I've only got two Pokémon that know I'm human: Rye and the Guildmaster. Rye probably won't be able to help much, but I don't want to barge into Arcanine's place just to say I'm upset.
...damn it, what am I supposed to do here? Just wait for-'
A sudden ruckus rang out from one of the tents, startling me out of my contemplation. Shuddering, I stole a brief glance out the door's crack before crawling out of my bed and peeking outside to investigate. For a moment, nothing looked out of the ordinary, but then flickering light suddenly shone from one of the tents as it opened up. I squinted curiously as the source revealed itself as Arden, his vents sparking and his face distant. He stepped out into the moonlight and sat on one of the empty seats around the dark fire, staring at the sky for a moment before his face twisted into one of anger. As his vents burst into flame, he got up and gave the ground a kick, though his quadrupedal stature apparently didn't like that, so he tumbled to the ground. With a groan of frustration, he made to push himself up, only to suddenly stop as his eyes met mine. I shrunk back into my tent, though a quick peek back out showed the damage had already been done. Before the Quilaba could push himself up to confront me, though, an anomaly in the background noise caught my attention.
My ears sticking up, I looked off to the side to try and see what it was. Was this the same thing I'd heard while I was out there? Clearly there was something there, as it seemed Arden noticed the noise too. The quiet rustling quickly gave way to hushed noises, almost like... whispering?
"Who's there?" Arden demanded. The noise stopped, only to start back up after a bit, inciting a look from the both of us as I stepped out. Whatever it was, I could say for sure now that at least some of the noise was a couple of voices frantically whispering to each other.
"We can hear you, assholes, come on out!" Arden said. There was silence for a bit before the grass started rustling again, the sources of the voices apparently moving away from us. Arden and I exchanged a glance as I drew my scalchop and joined him in cautiously watching the brush. We watched for a few minutes, though it seemed the noises had stopped. Despite this, Arden remained on guard as he stared backing towards Delcatty's tent.
"Kid, keep watching, I'm waking up the cat and getting the box safe. Yell at me if-"
A sudden bright flash burst from the grass, barely missing Arden and slamming into the top of Delcatty's tent. As the smell of ozone hung in the air, the Quilava stared at where the Charge Beam had struck before running into the damaged tent. Pulling myself out of the shock of the sudden attack, I ran back into my own tent, waving my arms frantically.
"Shaah! Shaah!" was all I could manage to say as Rye and Mavy woke up, though as I turned around to gesture at the damage out the door, the grass parted to reveal several Pokémon who immediately stopped to briefly assess the situation.
"Y'all hold 'em off, ah'll get the map!" a voice barked. At this point, most of the other explorers had awoken and figured out something was up, so the group of attackers quickly moved into position to attack as Arden bolted out of Delcatty's tent and joined his teammates, though their staggering indicated that the alcohol they'd consumed hadn't entirely left their systems. The Quilava's eye twitched.
"Fucking DAMMIT!" he roared, spinning around to unleash a cloud of flame at a couple of incoming attackers. As he charged to try and take on the onslaught himself, I snapped back to reality and gestured to my now very awake teammates.
"Camahn!" I ordered, wielding my scalchop and charging into the madness with Rye and Mavy in tow. No communication was needed, I just pointed at a Jolteon in the group and started swinging at it. The Electric-type seemed all too eager to shock the living daylights out of me, though a Pin Missile from Mavy got lodged deep into his chest before he could follow through. A Dragon Breath from Rye sent the Jolteon into retreat, allowing the three of us to get a good look at the chaos around us.
Although most of the squad was probably half-drunk, they still fought hard against the attackers. Arcs of electricity and flames rose above my head as I dragged my partners along, firing off a couple Water Guns while I was at it. It seemed not all was well, though, as I could make out a good few injured among our numbers, Luxio and an Aron among them. Grinding my teeth as I weaved between legs, I caught a brief glimpse of Arden in fierce combat with another Pokémon at the burning remains of Delcatty's tent, though I got a hard blow to the gut before I could make out any more.
Mavy and Rye quickly engaged with the Toxicroak as I tried to recover, barraging it with Pounds and Pin Missiles before I joined in with a Water Gun. The Toxicroak responded by spraying the three of us with a Venoshock, sending Rye onto the ground as I charged forward and slashed it with a couple of Razor Shells. Before our opponent could do anything else, Mavy gave a quick call.
"Watch out!" he yelled before jumping onto my head and springing off it. Flying through the air for a moment, he sailed through a Venoshock in his direction and slammed into the Toxicroak's head with a Headbutt, sending it to its knees for a precious bit and allowing me to hit it with a couple of Aqua Slaps, the first knocking it to the ground and the second slamming its head against the ground and knocking it out. As I panted for a second, taking in that victory, Mavy jumped for joy through what I could only imagine was a painful covering of Venoshock juice.
"WHOO! Who wants some?!" he cheered. He seemed all too ready to charge back into the chaos when, as I helped Rye onto his feet, the commotion suddenly died down.
"...hey! Dickheads! I've got your leader here! Try anything and I blow his fucking head off!" Arden roared. The fight around us seemed to have entirely stopped by now as the attackers stared in the direction of his voice, allowing me to lead Rye and Mavy through the crowd to try and see what was up.
"Who sent you?" Arden demanded.
"Let me go, you damn-" another voice answered.
"I said who sent you, you damn weasel?!" Arden yelled, the sound of his vents flaring up meeting my ears.
"Dammit, the Phoenixes!" the other voice managed out as I emerged at the front of the crowd, though my face quickly fell as Rye gave a quiet gasp. Standing atop the charred remains of a tent, a bruised Arden held the apparent leader of this group in a chokehold with his foreleg. But the leader...
'...oh, no.'
I turned my head just in time to see Mavy pop out of the crowd, only for him to stagger back as his confident face immediately morphed into one I never would've expected from the Zigzagoon: horror.
"P-Pa?" he choked out after a minute. The Linoone stopped struggling for a bit as his eyes widened.
"...Maverick? Is that..." he asked. Mavy's breath shook as Linoone remained still, then abruptly started struggling again, only for Arden to tighten his chokehold.
"I said hold still, you-!" he demanded, lighting his paw ablaze and raising it to strike.
"NO!" Mavy screamed.
Within what seemed like an instant, Arden was on the ground with a Pin Missile in his arm, Mavy was frozen in the attack position, and Linoone was running away as fast as he could.
"Team Horizon! Retreat and regroup!" he called. A Smokescreen suddenly filled the air as indistinct orders and footfalls started moving away from us. By the time Pike Whirlwinded the smoke away, the Phoenix attackers had all run into the brush, save for Linoone. With a final forlorn look at Mavy, he turned and ran to follow his team, finally leaving us with a moment of quiet.
The silence hung for a bit until the explorers around me started clamoring and running around. Some attended to the wounded, some assessed the damage, and others still looked to Delcatty and Hitmonchan for something, anything. The two exchanged a glance, prompting Hitmonchan to silently take a box out from under his arm- the box. A collective sigh of relief seemed to echo through our ruined camp, but on that note, the roar of raging flames abruptly cut into the peaceful ambience.
"We had them! We fucking had them! What the fuck is wrong with you, Zigzagoon?!" Arden yelled as a couple of Pokémon ran to hold him back, though this didn't stop him from grabbing and swinging at Mavy. The furious Quilava didn't deter the Zigzagoon, though; as Rye and I looked down at him helplessly, he didn't say a word or even move an inch.
All he did was just stand there in shock, still staring after his father all the while.
"You know what he did, correct?"
"Y-yes, ma'am."
"And you are aware that for attacking a fellow member of the Exploratory Society, Zigzagoon will be subject to expulsion from the Guild unless your team pays the fine of ten thousand Poké, correct?"
"...yes, ma'am, w-we can cut from our earnings. I-it can be paid off over time, right?"
"That is an option."
"Whew, okay, okay. I-I'm sorry again, Ms. Delcatty."
"This wasn't your fault, there's no need for apologies. You know Quilava's not pressing anything, this should all be behind us soon."
"Sorry."
"Thank you for your time, Treecko. You may-"
"H-he's innocent, you know."
"...I'm sure he is, Treecko, but given the recent revelation that he has immediate family within the Phoenix League, there is the possibility that he is involved with the group as well. Protocol calls for an investigation. We can tell the witnesses to stay quiet, but nothing else."
"I... y-yes, ma'am. Thank you."
As I waited outside the door listening in to the conversation finish, I stood up to meet Rye as he hung his head.
"W-well... that went well, huh?" he asked. I replied with a sigh as we left the small office, stopping for a moment to look over the bustling Guild. We'd shakily returned to the Guild earlier that day, the battle of the previous night still fresh in our minds. With five of our number needing medical attention and most of our tents useless, the remainder of the trip home had been chaotic, to say the least, but we'd managed to get back in one piece. It seemed no one was any the wiser about our absence, so we'd dropped back into the daily grind just in time to deal with the nightmare that was the aftermath of Mavy's outburst.
Mavy hadn't been the same since last night. Where his quips, condescending comments, and occasional rural charm had been, there was only quiet shock as we walked back. Since we'd gotten home, he'd just elected to be left alone to lie in bed in our base, which led us here to the present. Neither of us really seemed to know what do do now; it seemed it was all still sinking in for Rye. I, meanwhile, was at a loss. I'd suspected that that Linoone had some connection, but I'd been quick to dismiss it. Now, though... I just didn't know. The current plan was to just try and slowly reel Mavy back in over the next few days and hope for the best.
As we turned into our base, Rye gave the door a soft knock.
"Mavy? Hey, w-we finished talking with Ms. Delcatty. You shouldn't have to worry, we'll-"
He paused as Mavy gave him a look, dropping some trinket into the sack he'd brought along from home.
"Ah, hey. Was wonderin' if you'd show up," he said quietly.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Rye asked. Mavy just sighed and slung his sack over his back.
"Leavin'. Ah'm goin' home," he said.
A bit of stunned silence hung over Rye and I as he watched us, waiting for a response.
"L-leaving? Why? Wh-what'd we do?" Rye soon stammered.
"Y'all didn't do nothin', yer alright. It's just ah can't do this. If Pa's with 'em, then... I-I can't," Mavy replied.
"Magh, I-" I started.
"I know, I know. Look, Ma's prolly worried 'bout me, ah gotta be there if..." Mavy said. He paused before hanging his head and slowly zigzagging past us. "Thank y'all for givin' me a shot. Ah won't forgetcha."
The Zigzagoon walked out the door and turned the corner out of sight, not looking back once. Rye and I took a moment to soak in what we'd just seen before we ran out the door and after him.
"Magh-" I called.
"Don't. Just lemme go," Mavy snapped back.
"We... h-heer. Fah yeh," I tried. Mavy stopped, apparently rolling his eyes.
"Oh, fuck off," he growled, turning around to face us. "Don't gimme that corny shit. It ain't gonna make me change my mind."
"Mavy, I... i-it's okay. We'll help you through this, alright? As a team," Rye tried.
"Hah, a team. The 'mon helpin' to arrest his own pa, yer scrawny wimpy ass, and the glorified feral. Some team," Mavy rebutted. My paws twitched in frustration, though Rye only bit his lip and sighed.
"Y-yeah, and we managed to do all that! We were... th-that, and we found that map! W-we took down that Toxicroak!" Rye reasoned.
"Scuse me, Beck and I took it down," Mavy said.
"Uh, e-exactly! Y-you couldn't have done that by yourself, could you?" Rye asked. Mavy's face twitched, his eyes watering as his gaze darkened.
"Yeah, but... a-ah can't do this. Pa's... he's... I can't do this, not to him," he said. Rye bit his lip and scratched at his head, seemingly unsure of how to convince Mavy from here. As the two stared each other down, I decided to give my two cents.
"W-we heer. We'll halp," I offered. "We... halp yeh. Help Pah. Yeah?"
Mavy narrowed his eyes at my flimsy diatribe, though Rye seemed to realize what I was going for.
"Y-yeah, we'll help you get through this. Y-you... uh, you don't have to be... sorry, uh, d-defined by this. We'll get through this as a team, w-we'll find Linoone and get him back. G-going home won't help, doing something will," Rye said, holding out a hand.
"Yeah. Wha think... M-Maf-vy?" I asked, joining him. Mavy hesitated long and hard as he stared at the two of us, a couple of tears coursing through his fur. After what seemed like hours, he let out something between a laugh and a sob.
"A-ah didn't know you had that in ya, Treecko," he said. Rye gave a sad smile.
"Honestly, that's just Sinni speaking," he said. "S-so what do you-"
"Before ah leave, I need y'all to do me a favor," Mavy interrupted. Our faces fell. Our efforts hadn't been enough after all...
As we looked at each other, Rye swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Wh-which is?" he croaked.
"Parchment. Gotta write to Ma, then ah'll be back fer dinner," Mavy said. At our stupefied faces, the Zigzagoon burst into giggles, tears still staining his face's fur. "Damn, y'all's faces! W-wish ah could've gotten a Smeargle for that!"
I growled quietly, averting my gaze as Rye sighed annoyedly, though Mavy quickly straightened up. "Yeah, I can get through this myself, that's fer sure. But I reckon I'll trust y'all on this one for now. A-ah'll stay."
A little smile found its way onto my face as Rye let out a sigh of relief, crouching down and reaching for Mavy as he offered quiet words of comfort.
"Rye, no, come on, don't do that. N-no hugs," the Zigzagoon said, squirming out of the Treecko's attempt at consolation. As Rye muttered a quiet apology, he picked his sack up and slowly followed us as we started back up the dirt path. Looking over at the two, I found myself strangely at peace for the first time in a couple days.
We'd get through this as a team, we'd said. I was alone, yes, but not entirely. At least until I could find some answers, I could at least count on these two.
Somehow, that eased the pain a good bit.
"Y-you gonna be okay?" Rye asked Mavy, who sniffled as he zigzagged alongside us.
"I'll live, I guess. Got... this to live with now, but I got faith. Better not disappoint me, I can still leave whenever," he said.
"W-we won't. We promise," Rye said.
"Sure, sure," Mavy sniffled as he put his sack back down by his bed, wiping off his wet face with his tail. "Y-y'know, this feels like a pattern. We all got daddy issues now, don't we?"
"What?" I asked.
"Yeah, ah got this goin' on, Rye's got the whole Totodile thing with his, and yours're prolly rabid. Yep, Team Reach, the daddy issues team," Mavy elaborated, lying down in his straw bed and staring out the window. I grimaced a bit at the rabid comment, though his comment made me think.
'He still thinks I was born a feral... huh.'
"Rye?" I asked, leaning in to whisper into his earlobe. "We tehl?"
"Huh? You think...?" Rye asked. I nodded, and after some hesitation, he nodded back. "O-okay. Okay. Uh... Mavy?"
"I'd like some alone time, thanks," Mavy said.
"D-do you want us to fill you in? Like, on that secret you kept asking about?" Rye asked. Mavy immediately looked up, clearly interested.
"Seriously?" he asked.
"Yeah, just please don't tell anyone. I mean it, just... p-please don't," Rye said, watching as Mavy managed a grin.
"Well, shit! Never thought I'd be hearin' this... go on, then," he said, making himself comfortable in his hay bed.
"Right... y-you might wanna sit down for this, er, or j-just stay sitting, y'know," Rye said. "So, uh, the meat of it is... uh, Beck's not actually a feral. He's... h-he's a human."
A couple seconds of silence passed.
"He's... a hoo-mon? Like the not-Pokémon things that made that stuff in the desert?" Mavy asked.
"Y-yeah, those. So, basically, I found Beck in-" Rye started.
"That don't make no sense. He's pretty obviously an Oshawott, yer tellin' me he's a hoo-mon, too?" Mavy demanded. Rye paused, his face going pale.
"Wh-what? No, I mean like he used to be one, but he's an Oshawott now. L-like they say Luxray the Lightbringer or Grandmaster Lucario were," he tried to elaborate.
"Who?" Mavy asked.
My tail sagged as I looked at the defeated Rye. After some hesitation, he groaned and took a seat on the floor.
"Dammit... o-okay, so back when the world was created, life sorta split into two tiers, that's Pokémon and humans..." he began to a very confused Mavy. I let out a sigh and took a seat against the wall, listening as Rye kept trying to explain this Buneary-hole.
'Well, we'll be able to get it across in time to grab breakfast tomorrow if we're lucky. I'm glad he's staying, though. Life would be way less interesting without him around.
Honestly, I think I need all the interesting I can get at this point.'
Despite how much I'd like to say I came out of that subway tunnel confident and celebrating, I'll go ahead and admit it. I had no idea what was happening anymore.
From the moment Rye pulled me up out of that hole and into the desert moonlight, an air of tension had hung over our party, especially as Delcatty had taken our find from us. As they studied the bundle of paper, we'd tried to ignore it and turn in to make up for the night down in the ruins, but I'd found myself unable to sleep. Quite a bit nagged at me as I stared at the backs of my eyelids, watching as the light shining through them gradually grew brighter. The skeletons, the stadium, the rusted cars, and just about everything else I'd seen down there still weighed down on me, though my biggest question pertained to how I'd even found those papers in the first place.
What was that tugging? No, who was it? Was it the Voice again? For Arceus' sake, why couldn't it just leave me alone for once?
Ugh.
One thing I did notice as I laid there, though, was how the voices outside suddenly seemed to get far more excited as the sun came up. At present, I could hear Hitmonchan eagerly reentering the Guild's little camp as he spoke to someone unseen.
"No, no, it has to be a Psychic," I made out from the voice. "...yeah, a map... we need to reach our Guildmaster as soon as possible."
My ears stuck up as I pried open my eyes. Was that our papers he was talking about? I hesitated for a moment before silently pushing myself up and off the seedy cushion I'd been using for a bed. Tiptoeing to the door, I glanced back at my partners to make sure I hadn't woken them. Thankfully, Rye was still splayed out twitching his tail and Mavy still laid curled up, a stupid grin on his face as he dreamed of Darkrai knows what. With a quiet sigh of relief, I slunk out into the chilly desert morning.
It took a moment to gain my bearings among the sea of other Guilds' tents around me, but I soon picked out the biggest of ours and waddled over, being careful to not trip any explorers here going about their morning routines. Giving a quick look around, I gingerly opened the tent's curtain a crack to look inside. Inside, I found Delcatty and Hitmonchan standing around a Beeheeyem as it floated there, its digits floating rapidly. I couldn't tell quite what was going on, but kept watching as Delcatty continued.
"Yes, Guildmaster Arcanine, I understand this is very exciting, but please calm down for a bit. What action should we take?" she asked the air in front of her. A moment of silence passed before she continued. "Yes, sir, we'll be quick about it. Rest assured, we'll keep the artifact safe. You don't just find a map through... that and not do that. ...yes, sir, I'll pass that on to Haxorus. ...you, too."
With that, the Beeheeyem's lights went out as Delcatty sighed.
"That should be everything, Beeheeyem, thank you. You wanna stay for a quick drink?" she asked.
The Beeheeyem responded with a quick flash of one of its lights and a short beep, which apparently meant yes since Delcatty turned to fish something out of her bag, leaving me to try and consider what I'd just snooped in on. Before I could get very far, though, Beeheeyem snapped its large head towards me, apparently having sensed my presence. It immediately pointed at me with the flashing lights on its hands as it let out a series of frantic beeps like some sort of weird Morse code, and as I stumbled back, the tent's curtain doors flew open to reveal a panicked Delcatty and Hitmonchan. Their appendages glowed faintly in preparation for an attack, but the two settled down as they caught sight of me on the ground.
"Oh, it's just you," Delcatty sighed in relief, looking back at Beheeyem as it hovered behind them. "Don't worry, just an apprentice of ours. Uh, just go back to your tent, Oshawott. It's not polite for civilized to eavesdrop, alright? We'll explain everything later."
"Y-yes, mahm," I said. Although miffed at her condescending comment, I got up off the cool sand and made my way back to my tent as Beeheeyem started making questioning beeps behind me.
Quietly slipping in and making sure Rye and Mavy were still asleep, I sat down on my cot, sighing as I considered what I'd just snooped in on. It was just one side of the conversation, and a pretty straightforward side at that, so I didn't have much to really dissect there.
Well, save for one thing.
'A map through 'that,' she said. What's 'that' supposed to be?'
Before long, the sunlight shining through the doorway met Rye's scales, causing the Treecko to groan and sit up, rubbing his head.
"...urgh," he simply said.
"Yeah," I agreed. Rye blinked back the bloodshot in his yellow eyes.
"Rough night too?" he asked. I gave a nod as Mavy groaned behind Rye.
"Y'all shut it. Need sleep," he protested. Rye gave him a nudge, causing the Zigzagoon to peel himself off his bed. "Aight, fine, fine, ah'm up. What do you want?"
"W-well, uh, we wait till we hear news," Rye shrugged. "Y-you... you wanna talk till then? Like, we never got a chance to really talk about everything."
"Yeah," I said. Mavy sighed from his curled-up position.
"Sure, fine," he said.
And so it was; for the next little while we just sat on our makeshift cots and discussed our dive. At least, Rye and Mavy talked while I tried to give my occasional input. From the place's history to what we'd managed to do together, we just had a nice time to let off steam and assess everything we'd seen.
"...I-I don't know, I never thought I'd ever actually discover something, you know? Like, even if I somehow landed on a team, I probably wasn't gonna get sent to a place like this. But... I don't know, i-it's weird just sitting here, saying I... w-we've done it," Rye mused.
"Heck, Pa always told me he'd help me find something one day, didn't think I'd be the one doin' the findin'," Mavy said, tiredly grinning to himself. "Shit, just wait till he hears 'bout this. Might could take you to meet him once he gets home, ah reckon he'd like y'all."
"Yeah, shaagh," I added.
"That all you gon do? You just gonna agree with us? Come on, Scruffy ol' pal, give us something other than 'sha sha.' Like... ah dunno..." Mavy pondered. He considered for a moment, stifling a yawn before he suddenly perked up. "Oh, how'd ya know to go down there in the first place? We'd've just given up at them doors if you didn't insist there was something there, what was that all 'bout? Some sixth sense only ferals got?"
Rye gave him a stern look, but nodded as he thought it over. "Y-yeah, that is kinda weird. How did you know, Beck?"
I sat there for a bit, gulping as the two's eyes rested on me.
"Uh... t-tah-ging," I said.
"Tagging?" Rye asked. I shook my head and made a tugging motion, which thankfully got the message across. "T-tugging! Uh, there was, like, a tugging?"
"Yeah," I said, pointing at my gut. Rye hung his head as he thought this over.
"D-do you know what it was?" he asked.
"Nah," I said, prompting more thinking on Rye's end. After a minute, he gave Mavy a sideways glance and leaned in towards me.
"I think you should go to Mr. Arcanine, maybe he'll know something. Uh, maybe this was whatever gave you those visions? It could be important," he whispered.
I nodded in agreement, so we pulled out of our little huddle to face a suspicious look from Mavy. The Zigzagoon didn't say anything, only rolling his eyes after a minute, so we returned to trying to make conversation. We'd just gotten to the little things we'd come across in the old car park when our tent's door suddenly flew open, revealing Hitmonchan looking us over.
"Team Reach. Start packing, we're starting back to Impetus Town by midmorning," he said. Rye sat up, clearly just as confused as I was.
"What? Why?" he asked.
"We can't disclose that right now," Hitmonchan simply said before moving on from our tent. The three of us stared after him for a second before exchanging a glance. A silent agreement was reached as Mavy stretched and finally hopped out of bed, watching while we started gathering our things.
The sun was glaring down full force on our camp by the time Rye finally stuffed the tent into our bag. As he led Mavy and I panting towards our gathered guildmates, I couldn't help but envy his coldbloodedness in the heat, though it seemed we wouldn't have to wait for very long as Delcatty and Hitmonchan stood to address us.
"Everyone here today did excellent in last night's dive, but we must go now. Sorry, Teams Ruby and Frontier, but the stadium will have to wait for another time. We'll debrief you once we're on the road," Hitmonchan announced.
A murmur arose among the group as we followed the two to the waiting herd of Mudsdale that'd brought us here only yesterday, and once we'd thrown our bags onto their backs and hoisted ourselves up, I held on as best I could as the herd set off. With sand being kicked up around me as the Mudsdale began galloping faster and faster, I squinted over towards Rye and Mavy as they settled in for a long trip out of the desert. As I too shifted in my seat, I finally took the time to really consider everything: that Haxorus, the bones, the stadium, everything it implied, the papers, and... whatever "that" was.
I had a lot I'd have to consider on the road, I was sure.
-o-
The wooden box was decently small, no bigger than my head. It was unimpressive at best, being a splintery mess with only a simple lock to clue at its contents. Not a word had been said about it, but I was certain we all knew what was inside. The flimsy bag and its several pieces of folded-up paper had disappeared after we'd surfaced, and judging by how Delcatty and Hitmonchan refused to let the box they carried out of their sight, even after we'd stopped for the night... yeah, bit of a no-brainer.
As I watched the sun dip below the treeline, the others ambled around me, setting up camp in the rolling valley we'd settled in. Still aching from the rough Mudsdale ride through the desert and our hours of walking afterwards, it was a relief to finally rest, even if Mavy kept heckling me for not helping out. However, getting to sit gave me time to understand something: I wasn't happy.
I mean, yeah, we'd just explored an old ruin, we'd succeeded as a team, and we'd apparently made a decent discovery, so why wasn't I happy? No matter how I looked at it, the sad just wouldn't go away. I didn't know, maybe-
The crunch of reeds and sticks startled me out of my thoughts, and as I looked up to check what had happened, Arden gave me a look over the fire he was building.
"You busy?" he asked.
"Wha? N-no," I said. Arden gave a sigh in response.
"Metaphorically, I mean. You've just been sitting here staring into space since-" he started.
"Agh, am fine," I snapped, to which Arden raised his paws defensively.
"Alright, sorry. Just asking," he said, turning and running back into the brush to look for more firewood. With that out of the way, I bit my lip and pushed myself up, waddling over to Rye as he and Mavy tried to pitch our tent. Despite how I was feeling, I quietly resigned myself to trying to help out.
We fiddled with the tent and some other things for a while until darkness fell, after which the three of us headed to the fire. As we joined the twenty or so Pokémon there, I tried to join Rye and Mavy in sliding into the excited chatter, though I didn't get far before the campsite fell quiet and turned its attention to Delcatty and Hitmonchan as they arrived. The former cleared her throat.
"Everyone. I'm sure you've all been carrying some questions with you since we set out from the site, and I think this is a good place to answer them," she said. "In summary, during the dive in the stadium, Team Reach here discovered an artifact of interest to our Guild. The item in question, as I am sure you all know, is the remains of a fabric bag containing several pieces of paper. After extracting said paper, we were able to translate them and discern their contents."
She paused for effect, watching as Rye and I looked at each other eagerly.
"The artifacts in question were reassembled into a set of six maps dating back to the late first century before the Ruin. The most notable of these, however, was a complete map displaying the fabled Caverns of Being in detail. Furthermore, we believe that we may be able to use the information given to determine the Caverns' present location." she said. I heard quiet gasps and excited murmurs coming from many around me, Rye included, but I just cocked my head. The Caverns of what?
"We will be discussing our next course of action with the Guildmaster over the coming days. For now, though, we believe this expedition to be a success. Thank you all for your vigilance down there," Delcatty finished. Silence hung over the campsite for a minute before an Emolga climbed on top of Luxio's head.
"What is this, a funeral?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm with him. We found the fuckin' Caves! Let's get shitfaced!" Pike demanded, looking to Delcatty for approval. She gave him a flat look, and after exchanging a glance with Hitmonchan, rolled her eyes and quietly nodded her consent. Immediately, our squad ditched its professional demeanor as the explorers around us gave a mighty whoop and pumped their fists and paws in the air, jumped around, and pulled out canteens I got the feeling weren't filled with water.
"No. No, you all know you weren't allowed to bring... screw it, let me have a swig," Hitmonchan shrugged. As the explorers around me either went bottoms-up or began raucously singing to start out the celebration, I felt eyes rest on me. Rye gave an unsure look, clearly remembering the tug in my gut I'd told him about, while I noticed Arden staring at me from across the fire as Pike nudged him.
"C'mon, Arden! Lighten up, 'ave a drink!" he encouraged the Quilava. When Arden didn't answer, Pike followed his line of sight towards me and just barely repressed a grimace. "The feral botherin' ya?"
"Huh? No, no, I can't drink, remember? I'm a Fire-type, you know, alcohol doesn't exactly mix well. Uh, you all have fun, I'm gonna go hunt," Arden said, abruptly getting up and heading into the brush. Pike concernedly watched him go for a minute before shifting his wings.
"You do you, bud," he called before turning back to the celebration and accepting a drink from May. The three of us just kept sitting there for a bit, soaking the festive air in for a moment before Mavy looked up at us.
"What're the Caves o' Bein'?" he asked. Rye hesitated for a moment before muttering something involving his being a stupid idiot to himself.
"S-sorry, I should've figured you two wouldn't know. Uh, the legend goes that they're these caves somewhere in the Gray Continent that connect to Sun Minor," he said.
"Sun Minor? Ain't that on the other side of the world? How's a cave 'bout to go there?" Mavy asked.
"No one knows for sure, but... I-I can't believe we actually... I need a bit," Rye responded, staring into the fire. As I joined him in staring, I considered this bit of trivia. A connection to Sun Minor... from everything I'd gathered, especially the mentions of the Coronets, I got the feeling I knew what that place was.
The idea that something would want me to find a cave leading to Sinnoh, of all places, especially considering the Legendary presence there...
'…there it is again. A nice little reminder.'
I shook my head a bit to try and get that out of my mind, then turned my attention back towards the party. The three of us just awkwardly sat there as excited chatter, singing, and chugging rang out around us, though we only had to watch for a minute before Luxio suddenly stumbled over towards us and took a seat next to us.
"H-hey, Treecko," she slurred. "Why don'tcha get Oshawott there to play something on the thing?"
Rye and I exchanged a glance as the others started chanting to encourage me on, so I sighed and reached behind me, fishing my banjo from our bag, much to their delight. I'd initially worried about leaving it in our tent during our trip into the stadium, but it seemed nothing had happened to it. With that in mind, I positioned the instrument over my little legs, and after a minute's hesitation, started plucking away at random. This was routine at this point, as I found that my lost muscle memory was all too happy to resurface sometimes. All I really had to do was just strum away till I found myself playing something familiar and go from there.
Indeed, it wasn't long before I found a tune that struck a chord, no pun intended. As I went along with the sentimental tune I'd settled on, I frowned a bit as the music resonated in my mind. Echoes of a memory seemed to spark in response, taking the form of an aged voice encouraging me on. Something told me the tune was not made to be played on banjo, but my memory seemed to be managing just fine.
"Good! Now onto the reprise!" the old man's voice echoed in my head. Hanging my head, I complied and started quietly humming along to the slow tune.
'Home, home again... I like to be here when I can...'
My frown only deepened as the lyrics involuntarily cropped up.
'When I come home cold and tired... it's good to warm my bones beside the fire...'
My breath became shaky as I kept crudely playing.
'Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell calls the faithful to their knees... to hear the softly spoken magic spell...'
I let the banjo fall to the ground and wilted as the others cheered around me. Bright grins, pats on my back, and praises and requests met me, but I didn't pay any heed. I just stared at my instrument on the ground, not even daring to move as the pit in my stomach grew deeper and deeper.
"...hey, th-that was good. We liked it! You're... B-Beck?"
I caught a glimpse of Rye's face as I pushed past the confused explorers gathered around me, trudging out of the camp. As I approached the grass, I stepped around Arden as he stared at me with a carcass in his mouth, apparently having been doing so for some time. Looking back at him, I could've sworn I saw sympathy in his eyes before he started back to the fire. I didn't care, though, I had other things to contemplate as I sat down with my back to a tent.
The song's painfully ironic lyrics aside, the thought I put into it was not happy. I didn't know where it'd come from, but... here I was, probably the last person alive that knew it existed. Everyone else from that old man to the songwriters themselves? Dead and forgotten for centuries, just like everyone else I'd known.
I'd been carrying this for over a month now, but now it was hitting me like a raging Tauros. Everyone I'd known was dead. I had to stare the bodies left behind in the face, both metaphorically and literally. I couldn't talk with anyone about it, and even if I could there was barely everyone who'd understand. To top it all off, I was little more than just 'the feral' to my peers, even if they tolerated me by now.
I as a human was completely and utterly alone in this world.
...it hurt.
Once the first tear fell, I couldn't stop myself. With little else to do, I just crumpled in place and started quietly weeping, mourning for everything I'd lost. My family, my friends, my world, my speech, my humanity...
I didn't stop for a solid few minutes, only hugging my tail tight as I cried. After a while, it seemed I had no tears left to shed, so I propped myself up and blinked my undoubtedly bloodshot eyes to stare up at the stars. The oh-so-damn-familiar stars...
Crunch!
I heard a stick in the tall grass ahead break. I flinched violently and stuck up my ears as I peered ahead, listening for anything else.
"R-Rye?" I hoarsely called. All that responded was rustling that seemed to get farther and farther away until it disappeared among the chirping of Bug-types and the lively chatter behind me. I stared into the brush for another minute before sighing and pushing myself up. Whatever it was, I figured I must have scared it off. That in mind, I slowly dragged my tail back into camp, hanging my head as I looked up. Rye and Mavy sat there waiting, and at the sight of me, the Treecko got up and put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"I-it's okay. I'm here. I-it's gonna be okay," he quietly reassured me. I didn't respond, only nodding and wiping at my wet, snotty face. As we started back towards our tent, Mavy just gave a morose look, clearly unsure of what to make of this.
Staving off the other explorers' concerned looks, we filed into our tent and sat down, thankfully remaining silent until Rye shifted in place, reaching down for something.
"Y-you dropped this," he said, holding up my banjo. I stared at it for a minute before frowning and lying down in my bed, my back to him. I didn't want to think about it right now. I... just needed sleep was all.
'Yeah... maybe I could just stay asleep, not have to worry about any of this...'
-o-
...oh, no.
The dream again.
He felt a pang of dread as it all materialized around him again.
The screams. The booms in the distance. The sound of crumbling rubble.
He tried to push himself up, only to be met with pain. His body was broken, pinned to the ground.
With no way to move, he frantically looked around. Panicked faces swarmed past him, trying to find some sort of safe haven. It would be of little help, of course, but among the faces...
"Mom... Dad..."
Despite his pleas, the familiar figures disappeared into the chaos. Staring after them for a moment, he painfully put his head to the ground, clenching his eyes shut and trying to force himself out, to end this nightmare before-
Then the sirens began.
"...no, no! J-just go!"
"Stop! Let me-"
"G-get as far away as you can!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"I said go! I-I'll find a way!"
"..."
Alone.
Wake up.
It wouldn't be long now.
WAKE UP.
It was coming, and fast.
WAKE UP, DAMN IT.
His chest burned. His head throbbed as if trying to burst. It was all pain.
WAKE UP!
-o-
The moon shined through the crack in our tent's door as I stared at it, hoping to find some comfort in it. Despite the soothing tug in my core, though, my mind wouldn't stop racing. Rye and Mavy had long since gone to sleep and the celebration outside had ended a good while ago, but I hadn't been able to get any shut-eye since my meltdown. Unfortunately, that gave me plenty of time to wallow in my puddle of sad.
Most of what raced through my head as I stared at the moon was just more of the same, though among it were some new worries that'd cropped up.
'I've only got two Pokémon that know I'm human: Rye and the Guildmaster. Rye probably won't be able to help much, but I don't want to barge into Arcanine's place just to say I'm upset.
...damn it, what am I supposed to do here? Just wait for-'
A sudden ruckus rang out from one of the tents, startling me out of my contemplation. Shuddering, I stole a brief glance out the door's crack before crawling out of my bed and peeking outside to investigate. For a moment, nothing looked out of the ordinary, but then flickering light suddenly shone from one of the tents as it opened up. I squinted curiously as the source revealed itself as Arden, his vents sparking and his face distant. He stepped out into the moonlight and sat on one of the empty seats around the dark fire, staring at the sky for a moment before his face twisted into one of anger. As his vents burst into flame, he got up and gave the ground a kick, though his quadrupedal stature apparently didn't like that, so he tumbled to the ground. With a groan of frustration, he made to push himself up, only to suddenly stop as his eyes met mine. I shrunk back into my tent, though a quick peek back out showed the damage had already been done. Before the Quilaba could push himself up to confront me, though, an anomaly in the background noise caught my attention.
My ears sticking up, I looked off to the side to try and see what it was. Was this the same thing I'd heard while I was out there? Clearly there was something there, as it seemed Arden noticed the noise too. The quiet rustling quickly gave way to hushed noises, almost like... whispering?
"Who's there?" Arden demanded. The noise stopped, only to start back up after a bit, inciting a look from the both of us as I stepped out. Whatever it was, I could say for sure now that at least some of the noise was a couple of voices frantically whispering to each other.
"We can hear you, assholes, come on out!" Arden said. There was silence for a bit before the grass started rustling again, the sources of the voices apparently moving away from us. Arden and I exchanged a glance as I drew my scalchop and joined him in cautiously watching the brush. We watched for a few minutes, though it seemed the noises had stopped. Despite this, Arden remained on guard as he stared backing towards Delcatty's tent.
"Kid, keep watching, I'm waking up the cat and getting the box safe. Yell at me if-"
A sudden bright flash burst from the grass, barely missing Arden and slamming into the top of Delcatty's tent. As the smell of ozone hung in the air, the Quilava stared at where the Charge Beam had struck before running into the damaged tent. Pulling myself out of the shock of the sudden attack, I ran back into my own tent, waving my arms frantically.
"Shaah! Shaah!" was all I could manage to say as Rye and Mavy woke up, though as I turned around to gesture at the damage out the door, the grass parted to reveal several Pokémon who immediately stopped to briefly assess the situation.
"Y'all hold 'em off, ah'll get the map!" a voice barked. At this point, most of the other explorers had awoken and figured out something was up, so the group of attackers quickly moved into position to attack as Arden bolted out of Delcatty's tent and joined his teammates, though their staggering indicated that the alcohol they'd consumed hadn't entirely left their systems. The Quilava's eye twitched.
"Fucking DAMMIT!" he roared, spinning around to unleash a cloud of flame at a couple of incoming attackers. As he charged to try and take on the onslaught himself, I snapped back to reality and gestured to my now very awake teammates.
"Camahn!" I ordered, wielding my scalchop and charging into the madness with Rye and Mavy in tow. No communication was needed, I just pointed at a Jolteon in the group and started swinging at it. The Electric-type seemed all too eager to shock the living daylights out of me, though a Pin Missile from Mavy got lodged deep into his chest before he could follow through. A Dragon Breath from Rye sent the Jolteon into retreat, allowing the three of us to get a good look at the chaos around us.
Although most of the squad was probably half-drunk, they still fought hard against the attackers. Arcs of electricity and flames rose above my head as I dragged my partners along, firing off a couple Water Guns while I was at it. It seemed not all was well, though, as I could make out a good few injured among our numbers, Luxio and an Aron among them. Grinding my teeth as I weaved between legs, I caught a brief glimpse of Arden in fierce combat with another Pokémon at the burning remains of Delcatty's tent, though I got a hard blow to the gut before I could make out any more.
Mavy and Rye quickly engaged with the Toxicroak as I tried to recover, barraging it with Pounds and Pin Missiles before I joined in with a Water Gun. The Toxicroak responded by spraying the three of us with a Venoshock, sending Rye onto the ground as I charged forward and slashed it with a couple of Razor Shells. Before our opponent could do anything else, Mavy gave a quick call.
"Watch out!" he yelled before jumping onto my head and springing off it. Flying through the air for a moment, he sailed through a Venoshock in his direction and slammed into the Toxicroak's head with a Headbutt, sending it to its knees for a precious bit and allowing me to hit it with a couple of Aqua Slaps, the first knocking it to the ground and the second slamming its head against the ground and knocking it out. As I panted for a second, taking in that victory, Mavy jumped for joy through what I could only imagine was a painful covering of Venoshock juice.
"WHOO! Who wants some?!" he cheered. He seemed all too ready to charge back into the chaos when, as I helped Rye onto his feet, the commotion suddenly died down.
"...hey! Dickheads! I've got your leader here! Try anything and I blow his fucking head off!" Arden roared. The fight around us seemed to have entirely stopped by now as the attackers stared in the direction of his voice, allowing me to lead Rye and Mavy through the crowd to try and see what was up.
"Who sent you?" Arden demanded.
"Let me go, you damn-" another voice answered.
"I said who sent you, you damn weasel?!" Arden yelled, the sound of his vents flaring up meeting my ears.
"Dammit, the Phoenixes!" the other voice managed out as I emerged at the front of the crowd, though my face quickly fell as Rye gave a quiet gasp. Standing atop the charred remains of a tent, a bruised Arden held the apparent leader of this group in a chokehold with his foreleg. But the leader...
'...oh, no.'
I turned my head just in time to see Mavy pop out of the crowd, only for him to stagger back as his confident face immediately morphed into one I never would've expected from the Zigzagoon: horror.
"P-Pa?" he choked out after a minute. The Linoone stopped struggling for a bit as his eyes widened.
"...Maverick? Is that..." he asked. Mavy's breath shook as Linoone remained still, then abruptly started struggling again, only for Arden to tighten his chokehold.
"I said hold still, you-!" he demanded, lighting his paw ablaze and raising it to strike.
"NO!" Mavy screamed.
Within what seemed like an instant, Arden was on the ground with a Pin Missile in his arm, Mavy was frozen in the attack position, and Linoone was running away as fast as he could.
"Team Horizon! Retreat and regroup!" he called. A Smokescreen suddenly filled the air as indistinct orders and footfalls started moving away from us. By the time Pike Whirlwinded the smoke away, the Phoenix attackers had all run into the brush, save for Linoone. With a final forlorn look at Mavy, he turned and ran to follow his team, finally leaving us with a moment of quiet.
The silence hung for a bit until the explorers around me started clamoring and running around. Some attended to the wounded, some assessed the damage, and others still looked to Delcatty and Hitmonchan for something, anything. The two exchanged a glance, prompting Hitmonchan to silently take a box out from under his arm- the box. A collective sigh of relief seemed to echo through our ruined camp, but on that note, the roar of raging flames abruptly cut into the peaceful ambience.
"We had them! We fucking had them! What the fuck is wrong with you, Zigzagoon?!" Arden yelled as a couple of Pokémon ran to hold him back, though this didn't stop him from grabbing and swinging at Mavy. The furious Quilava didn't deter the Zigzagoon, though; as Rye and I looked down at him helplessly, he didn't say a word or even move an inch.
All he did was just stand there in shock, still staring after his father all the while.
-o-
"You know what he did, correct?"
"Y-yes, ma'am."
"And you are aware that for attacking a fellow member of the Exploratory Society, Zigzagoon will be subject to expulsion from the Guild unless your team pays the fine of ten thousand Poké, correct?"
"...yes, ma'am, w-we can cut from our earnings. I-it can be paid off over time, right?"
"That is an option."
"Whew, okay, okay. I-I'm sorry again, Ms. Delcatty."
"This wasn't your fault, there's no need for apologies. You know Quilava's not pressing anything, this should all be behind us soon."
"Sorry."
"Thank you for your time, Treecko. You may-"
"H-he's innocent, you know."
"...I'm sure he is, Treecko, but given the recent revelation that he has immediate family within the Phoenix League, there is the possibility that he is involved with the group as well. Protocol calls for an investigation. We can tell the witnesses to stay quiet, but nothing else."
"I... y-yes, ma'am. Thank you."
As I waited outside the door listening in to the conversation finish, I stood up to meet Rye as he hung his head.
"W-well... that went well, huh?" he asked. I replied with a sigh as we left the small office, stopping for a moment to look over the bustling Guild. We'd shakily returned to the Guild earlier that day, the battle of the previous night still fresh in our minds. With five of our number needing medical attention and most of our tents useless, the remainder of the trip home had been chaotic, to say the least, but we'd managed to get back in one piece. It seemed no one was any the wiser about our absence, so we'd dropped back into the daily grind just in time to deal with the nightmare that was the aftermath of Mavy's outburst.
Mavy hadn't been the same since last night. Where his quips, condescending comments, and occasional rural charm had been, there was only quiet shock as we walked back. Since we'd gotten home, he'd just elected to be left alone to lie in bed in our base, which led us here to the present. Neither of us really seemed to know what do do now; it seemed it was all still sinking in for Rye. I, meanwhile, was at a loss. I'd suspected that that Linoone had some connection, but I'd been quick to dismiss it. Now, though... I just didn't know. The current plan was to just try and slowly reel Mavy back in over the next few days and hope for the best.
As we turned into our base, Rye gave the door a soft knock.
"Mavy? Hey, w-we finished talking with Ms. Delcatty. You shouldn't have to worry, we'll-"
He paused as Mavy gave him a look, dropping some trinket into the sack he'd brought along from home.
"Ah, hey. Was wonderin' if you'd show up," he said quietly.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Rye asked. Mavy just sighed and slung his sack over his back.
"Leavin'. Ah'm goin' home," he said.
A bit of stunned silence hung over Rye and I as he watched us, waiting for a response.
"L-leaving? Why? Wh-what'd we do?" Rye soon stammered.
"Y'all didn't do nothin', yer alright. It's just ah can't do this. If Pa's with 'em, then... I-I can't," Mavy replied.
"Magh, I-" I started.
"I know, I know. Look, Ma's prolly worried 'bout me, ah gotta be there if..." Mavy said. He paused before hanging his head and slowly zigzagging past us. "Thank y'all for givin' me a shot. Ah won't forgetcha."
The Zigzagoon walked out the door and turned the corner out of sight, not looking back once. Rye and I took a moment to soak in what we'd just seen before we ran out the door and after him.
"Magh-" I called.
"Don't. Just lemme go," Mavy snapped back.
"We... h-heer. Fah yeh," I tried. Mavy stopped, apparently rolling his eyes.
"Oh, fuck off," he growled, turning around to face us. "Don't gimme that corny shit. It ain't gonna make me change my mind."
"Mavy, I... i-it's okay. We'll help you through this, alright? As a team," Rye tried.
"Hah, a team. The 'mon helpin' to arrest his own pa, yer scrawny wimpy ass, and the glorified feral. Some team," Mavy rebutted. My paws twitched in frustration, though Rye only bit his lip and sighed.
"Y-yeah, and we managed to do all that! We were... th-that, and we found that map! W-we took down that Toxicroak!" Rye reasoned.
"Scuse me, Beck and I took it down," Mavy said.
"Uh, e-exactly! Y-you couldn't have done that by yourself, could you?" Rye asked. Mavy's face twitched, his eyes watering as his gaze darkened.
"Yeah, but... a-ah can't do this. Pa's... he's... I can't do this, not to him," he said. Rye bit his lip and scratched at his head, seemingly unsure of how to convince Mavy from here. As the two stared each other down, I decided to give my two cents.
"W-we heer. We'll halp," I offered. "We... halp yeh. Help Pah. Yeah?"
Mavy narrowed his eyes at my flimsy diatribe, though Rye seemed to realize what I was going for.
"Y-yeah, we'll help you get through this. Y-you... uh, you don't have to be... sorry, uh, d-defined by this. We'll get through this as a team, w-we'll find Linoone and get him back. G-going home won't help, doing something will," Rye said, holding out a hand.
"Yeah. Wha think... M-Maf-vy?" I asked, joining him. Mavy hesitated long and hard as he stared at the two of us, a couple of tears coursing through his fur. After what seemed like hours, he let out something between a laugh and a sob.
"A-ah didn't know you had that in ya, Treecko," he said. Rye gave a sad smile.
"Honestly, that's just Sinni speaking," he said. "S-so what do you-"
"Before ah leave, I need y'all to do me a favor," Mavy interrupted. Our faces fell. Our efforts hadn't been enough after all...
As we looked at each other, Rye swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Wh-which is?" he croaked.
"Parchment. Gotta write to Ma, then ah'll be back fer dinner," Mavy said. At our stupefied faces, the Zigzagoon burst into giggles, tears still staining his face's fur. "Damn, y'all's faces! W-wish ah could've gotten a Smeargle for that!"
I growled quietly, averting my gaze as Rye sighed annoyedly, though Mavy quickly straightened up. "Yeah, I can get through this myself, that's fer sure. But I reckon I'll trust y'all on this one for now. A-ah'll stay."
A little smile found its way onto my face as Rye let out a sigh of relief, crouching down and reaching for Mavy as he offered quiet words of comfort.
"Rye, no, come on, don't do that. N-no hugs," the Zigzagoon said, squirming out of the Treecko's attempt at consolation. As Rye muttered a quiet apology, he picked his sack up and slowly followed us as we started back up the dirt path. Looking over at the two, I found myself strangely at peace for the first time in a couple days.
We'd get through this as a team, we'd said. I was alone, yes, but not entirely. At least until I could find some answers, I could at least count on these two.
Somehow, that eased the pain a good bit.
"Y-you gonna be okay?" Rye asked Mavy, who sniffled as he zigzagged alongside us.
"I'll live, I guess. Got... this to live with now, but I got faith. Better not disappoint me, I can still leave whenever," he said.
"W-we won't. We promise," Rye said.
"Sure, sure," Mavy sniffled as he put his sack back down by his bed, wiping off his wet face with his tail. "Y-y'know, this feels like a pattern. We all got daddy issues now, don't we?"
"What?" I asked.
"Yeah, ah got this goin' on, Rye's got the whole Totodile thing with his, and yours're prolly rabid. Yep, Team Reach, the daddy issues team," Mavy elaborated, lying down in his straw bed and staring out the window. I grimaced a bit at the rabid comment, though his comment made me think.
'He still thinks I was born a feral... huh.'
"Rye?" I asked, leaning in to whisper into his earlobe. "We tehl?"
"Huh? You think...?" Rye asked. I nodded, and after some hesitation, he nodded back. "O-okay. Okay. Uh... Mavy?"
"I'd like some alone time, thanks," Mavy said.
"D-do you want us to fill you in? Like, on that secret you kept asking about?" Rye asked. Mavy immediately looked up, clearly interested.
"Seriously?" he asked.
"Yeah, just please don't tell anyone. I mean it, just... p-please don't," Rye said, watching as Mavy managed a grin.
"Well, shit! Never thought I'd be hearin' this... go on, then," he said, making himself comfortable in his hay bed.
"Right... y-you might wanna sit down for this, er, or j-just stay sitting, y'know," Rye said. "So, uh, the meat of it is... uh, Beck's not actually a feral. He's... h-he's a human."
A couple seconds of silence passed.
"He's... a hoo-mon? Like the not-Pokémon things that made that stuff in the desert?" Mavy asked.
"Y-yeah, those. So, basically, I found Beck in-" Rye started.
"That don't make no sense. He's pretty obviously an Oshawott, yer tellin' me he's a hoo-mon, too?" Mavy demanded. Rye paused, his face going pale.
"Wh-what? No, I mean like he used to be one, but he's an Oshawott now. L-like they say Luxray the Lightbringer or Grandmaster Lucario were," he tried to elaborate.
"Who?" Mavy asked.
My tail sagged as I looked at the defeated Rye. After some hesitation, he groaned and took a seat on the floor.
"Dammit... o-okay, so back when the world was created, life sorta split into two tiers, that's Pokémon and humans..." he began to a very confused Mavy. I let out a sigh and took a seat against the wall, listening as Rye kept trying to explain this Buneary-hole.
'Well, we'll be able to get it across in time to grab breakfast tomorrow if we're lucky. I'm glad he's staying, though. Life would be way less interesting without him around.
Honestly, I think I need all the interesting I can get at this point.'
It's also nice to open with people who kinda know what they're doing. When everyone is a stuttering, anxious mess, it starts to lose its value; we need something to compare to. On the other hand ... Team Apex is getting a lot of page time considering oshawott-friend and the treeko are actually the main characters. I guess I would have to read more to see how important Team Apex is in the story overall. If their wants and actions really are very intertwined with the isekai'd human's drama, then it's probably fine. If they're just a means to introduce Treeko, you could trim that first section down.
