Poppin' Arms ~ Cafeteria

[Namohysip]

"Same." Soda stood up. "Anyway, good luck out there, welcome to the team and all that. Maple sent me to do that, so my job's done."

 

[BlackHairedPsycho]

Pana gave him a small smile as she finished off her last bite of bamboo. "Thanks. Any place I can get some sleep?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Eh, find a room with that other newbie and you'll probably find a spot approved by the Guild," Soda replied. "I dunno. Maple was the one who handled that sorta thing but she's busy with her mate."

 

[BlackHairedPsycho]

"I'll just find somewhere empty then. Thanks."

Soda blinked, and Pana had just disappeared without a trace.

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[Negrek]

Pretty much anywhere in the Guild was a good place to avoid Mudkip, and of course there were so many people there to meet. It was so nice to be able to go out and actually talk to people, instead of being stuck around Mudkip, hanging out at home or way out of town unless there was some reason they really needed to go talk to a person. Rocky was going to make so many friends!

The infernape was down in the cafeteria, tray piled high with berries, looking for somewhere to sit. There were some people already off chatting in their own groups, that rhydon, she wasn't very friendly, and there--oh! That electrike! Was that one of the new people?

Rocky grinned hugely. This was great! New people were so interesting. And maybe he'd get to show them all the cool things in Destiny Village, too!

"Hi! You're one of the new people, right? On Team Spectrum?" Rocky asked, approaching the electrike's table. "Can I sit with you?"

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa had wandered through the guild until he found himself in what appeared to be a cafeteria. As a pokemon, particularly an Elecktrike, he realized his sense of smell was much stronger... which was sick. He gathered himself a plate with some awkwardness (trying to carry a plate in his mouth was a lot harder than some pokemon made it look) and filled it with a little bit of everything. He was shockingly hungry, and ate through much of his food even faster than he expected.

As it turned out, the food was positively delicious.

"Hi! You're one of the new people, right? On Team Spectrum?"

He stopped eating and looked up to see what looked like an Infernape in body, but was completely different in color. Seeing a pokemon native to Sinnoh was somehow comforting. Unlike the Infernape he was used to seeing though, this one's fur was black, which Koa had never seen before. His eyes widened. "Yeah uh, I guess I am. I guess I arrived late or something though."

"Can I sit with you?"

"Sure," he said. "Are you a shiny Infernape of some kind?" he asked eagerly.

 

[Negrek]

Rocky beamed and took the seat across from the electrike, his flames dancing high and scattering embers onto the table around him. "Nope! I'm not an infernape at all. I'm what people call a 'familiar,' but I don't think anybody really knows what that means. We're kind of like special friends who can read your mind! A lot of the people on the team have a familiar with them now. You can probably find one of us, too, if you want. All you need is to find a special stone like this." He pointed to his chest, where a darker lump was visible through the shadows that made up his chest. "And then you need a shade. Hmm, I wonder if there are any still around since Joule's a good guy now. Hmmm..."

He dismissed that thought with a flick of his tail and grinned at the electrike. "Sorry! I bet you already have a lot of stuff to get used to. Don't worry about it for now, just have fun! I'm Rocky, by the way. What's your name?"

 

[Flyg0n]

"Nope! I'm not an infernape at all. I'm what people call a 'familiar,' but I don't think anybody really knows what that means. We're kind of like special friends who can read your mind! A lot of the people on the team have a familiar with them now. You can probably find one of us, too, if you want. All you need is to find a special stone like this." He pointed to his chest, where a darker lump was visible through the shadows that made up his chest. "And then you need a shade. Hmm, I wonder if there are any still around since Joule's a good guy now. Hmmm..."

A familiar? He eyed the stone on the Infernape curiously. It looked like nothing he'd seen before. What a strange concept. The last thing he could picture himself wanting was anyone who could read his mind. The thought was horrid, anyone being able to see his thoughts or know who he was. Better to keep that thought to himself.

"Sorry! I bet you already have a lot of stuff to get used to. Don't worry about it for now, just have fun! I'm Rocky, by the way. What's your name?"

"My name's Koamaru," he replied. He found himself enjoying Rocky's cheerful personality. "So where exactly am I? I mean I know I guess I'm in a world called Cibus but what's this place?"

 

[Negrek]

"Koamaru's a nice name! Does it mean anything special?" Rocky asked. "I'm called Rocky because I used to be a rock."

"This place like the building?" Rocky waved an arm around at the cafeteria at large. "This is the Guild! It's where all the best pokémon heroes get together to fight evil and protect the world from darkness! I guess darkness happens around here a lot for some reason. Anyway, people on Team Spectrum are staying here because we've been working with the guild people to figure out all the bad stuff going on on Cibus. And the Guild's in the middle of Destiny Village, which is a really cool city. There are legendary pokémon all over the place! Even Arceus! And all kinds of crazy technology, too."

Rocky started picking berries off his tray, shoving them into his chest by the handful. His fingers came back sticky each time, but the berries themselves were gone. He kept on talking like nothing unusual was happening. "Have you gotten to see the village at all? I can show you around if you want! I know all the best spots."

 

[Flyg0n]

"Koamaru's a nice name! Does it mean anything special?" Rocky asked. "I'm called Rocky because I used to be a rock."

"It's actually a color." He tilted his head and frowned. "But I don't know if I was named for the color if it was just a cool name." Huh. That was one reason to name someone. He'd wondered why a fire-type would be named Rocky. Or was Rocky even a real fire-type, if he was a familiar? It almost hurt to try and think about. "That's a nice name though." It was simple, almost like a nickname a trainer might give a pokemon. He liked it.

And the Guild's in the middle of Destiny Village, which is a really cool city. There are legendary pokémon all over the place! Even Arceus! And all kinds of crazy technology, too."

"Wait what?" he yelped. "There's legendaries here?" His eyes bulged. Arceus? How could someone just casually talk about Arceus like that? the creator of the entire world was just... hanging out in a village? That couldn't be. "You mean like. Legendary pokemon watch over this village right? They're not just living here."

Because that'd be ridiculous. As ridiculous as you getting turned into a Pokemon to fight some kind of crazy evil force?

Rocky started picking berries off his tray, shoving them into his chest by the handful. His fingers came back sticky each time, but the berries themselves were gone. He kept on talking like nothing unusual was happening. "Have you gotten to see the village at all? I can show you around if you want! I know all the best spots."

His voice trailed off as he watched Rocky "eating" berries. Was that some kind of weird familiar thing?

What if Rocky was serious about legendaries though? "That'd be sick if you could show me the village," he said eagerly.

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, that's really cool! I learned a new color today," Rocky said. He giggled over Koa's reaction to hearing about Destiny Village's legendaries, passing another handful of berries into his chest. "No, they really live here! Most of them have houses and everything. If you saw the big tower on the hill"--Rocky raised his arms and brought his palms together to make the suggestion of a pointy tower--"that's where Arceus lives!" His smile faltered. "We can't go see him, though. He got really hurt during the last battle, so he's resting. But." Rocky leaned forward and went on conspiratorially, "I hear there's a baby Arceus now! And he's sneaking around with familiars like me! So maybe we'll see him out there somewhere."

Rocky grinned. He hoped so! Maybe he could even see if Baby Arceus wanted to hitch a ride with him. He was so jealous that Mudkip had gotten to meet him, and not Rocky. "Anyway, that's great! I'm ready to go when you are. Where do you want to see first? Hmm, there are a lot of legendaries around everywhere, but..." His glowing eyes gleamed brighter than usual. "Do you like battling?"

 

[Flyg0n]

"No, they really live here! Most of them have houses and everything. If you saw the big tower on the hill"--Rocky raised his arms and brought his palms together to make the suggestion of a pointy tower--"that's where Arceus lives!"

Koa just stared at Rocky for a solid five seconds, trying to wrap his mind around Rocky's statement. Arceus-Creator deity of Sinnoh and perhaps the whole world-lived on a house on the hill? How? Why?

"I hear there's a baby Arceus now! And he's sneaking around with familiars like me! So maybe we'll see him out there somewhere."

He stared for even longer upon the revelation that somehow there was a baby Arceus. How? Sure he didn't even know what legendaries were capable of, but a baby Arceus was hard to imagine. What did it even look like? But to think he could just meet legendaries like that. "That would be sick," he said. To meet Arceus. Although the thought was a little scary too. He wondered if every world had their own Arceus, or if it was one Arceus who could see every world.

"Anyway, that's great! I'm ready to go when you are. Where do you want to see first? Hmm, there are a lot of legendaries around everywhere, but..." His glowing eyes gleamed brighter than usual. "Do you like battling?"

For a moment, Koa was torn. He wanted to meet all the legendaries. But then, maybe they wouldn't want to meet him. Maybe they wouldn't even like him. He was just some human turned Pokemon, not a hero. And it wasn't like he could catch one of them.

On the other hand (or was it paw now?)... "I love battling," he said, his eyes lighting up. "I've never battled as a Pokemon before though." He stared at his paws curiously. "I don't even know how to attack or do anything."

 

[Negrek]

"Great!" Rocky said. "Haha, well, it would be kind of bad if you didn't. The team does a lot of fighting. A lot of them weren't pokémon before they got here, and they learned real fast. I bet you will, too. But anyway," he slid his empty tray aside, "let's go see the village!" He waited for Koa to finish his food before leading the way out of the Guild.

Once they were outside the building, Rocky pointed up towards the hill that rose behind Destiny Village's buildings, the tower that was visible from pretty much anywhere in town. "See? That's what I was telling you about. That's Destiny Tower, where Arceus lives! And there's a lab at the bottom of the hill where there's a porygon-Z who studies all kinds of weird technology. Now, let's see... I know exactly where we should go first!"

He set off down the street, which was bustling with pokémon this time of day. People seemed a lot happier now that Joule wasn't frozen in the sky overhead. "So you used to be a human, I guess?" Rocky asked while they walked. "If you say you've never fought as a pokémon before. Were you a trainer?"

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa scarfed down the rest of his food and trotted eagerly after Rocky. As he stepped outside, his senses were flooded by all the new sights, sounds, and smells. New pokemon, everywhere, and he could actually detect so much just by nose alone, which was weird.

He looked towards where Rocky pointed, gazing in awe. He still couldn't believe Arceus just lived right there. But Rocky had also said it was resting, that it had been injured in the fight. What were they fighting that was so much stronger than Arceus himself? The thought was a little frightening.

"So you used to be a human, I guess?" Rocky asked while they walked. "If you say you've never fought as a pokémon before. Were you a trainer?"

Koa nodded. "Yeah, I was." He felt a momentary pang of sadness for his team, and the friends he'd left behind. The only thing that made him happy was that regardless of the outcome, he could go home again, right where he left. "I had the best team," he said as he wagged his tail, the action almost unconscious for him.

He glanced at Rocky curiously. "What about you?" He wasn't sure how the whole being a familiar thing worked. "How do you know about trainers?" As far as he was aware, there was no real equivalent for a trainer in this world. In fact, he didn't even think humans existed here.

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, Mudkip is a trainer. So I know about that kind of stuff from his memories," Rocky said cheerfully. "Who did you have on your team?" The memories told him, too, that that was always a good question to ask a trainer. "Ooh, but here we are, see? Destiny Colosseum!' He gestured up at the huge, circular building rising overhead, dominating the street. It looked much like any battle stadium in Kanto, or at least the Kanto Mudkip was familiar with. "Legendaries like to come here and fight all the time. Actually, some people on the team have fought them before, too, so I bet you could later if you wanted! Plus there's training rooms down in the basement so you can practice and get used to doing attacks and stuff. Here, let's go inside."

The colosseum lobby was vast, made to fit even the tallest of pokémon. Without a battle on today it was rather empty as well, although a few pokémon were coming and going from the hall Rocky would point out as leading to the training rooms. "That way's the stands, and that's where you'd go if you wanted to register to fight," Rocky said. "And, look, there's one of the legendaries I told you about. That's Bean! There are a lot of him around Destiny Village." Behind the registration counter was a bright-green canine zygarde.

 

[Flyg0n]

"Who did you have on your team?"

Koa perked up. "My starter was a Zubat, actually. Then I have a Joltik, a Tyrunt, a Houndoom, a Breloom, and a Spheal." He sighed wistfully. "They're the best team. I had a whole plan for what Pokemon I was gonna catch but I ended up not following it at all. But I'm glad. Echo, my Crobat, is like a best friend to me. I don't know what I would do without him."

As Rocky led him up to the coliseum, he trailed off to stare at it in awe. It was huge, like the ones he'd see on TV for League tournaments.

"Legendaries like to come here and fight all the time. Actually, some people on the team have fought them before, too, so I bet you could later if you wanted! Plus there's training rooms down in the basement so you can practice and get used to doing attacks and stuff. Here, let's go inside."

"Legendaries fight there?" he shook his head, still in awe. "And Team Spectrum fights them? Sick." The Pokemon here had to be strong, incredibly strong if their sparring partners were legendaries. Or maybe the legendaries here were weak? Somehow he doubted that was the case. This was practically a dream come true! Legendaries everywhere and he was a Pokemon and he could get strong enough to try and fight them. This would be awesome.

"That way's the stands, and that's where you'd go if you wanted to register to fight," Rocky said. "And, look, there's one of the legendaries I told you about. That's Bean! There are a lot of him around Destiny Village." Behind the registration counter was a bright-green canine zygarde.

He stared in awe at the sight of the green canine that would have caused a stir if it had appeared back home. Here it seemed so casual. And what kind of name was Bean? He turned to Rocky. "So... all the legendaries just live here in the village?"

 

[Negrek]

"Well, not all of them," Rocky said thoughtfully. "I think a lot of them kind of do their own thing, usually, but they came back here for protection when bad stuff started happening again. There are some that still live other places, too. Like I guess Xerneas is at the Tree of Life, and Dialga would be at Temporal Tower if Giovanni hadn't stuck him onto the other Sinnoh legends..." Rocky trailed off a moment, thinking. "But a lot of them are here, yeah! And we have fought them before. There was a big battle here with a lot of us against Rayquaza, Kyogre, and Groudon! And Cabot, he even fought one of the lugia all by himself! And nearly won!" Rocky beamed. "I bet if you wanted to fight a legendary, you'd be strong enough to do it. Or team up with some friends! But come on, there's some other places you should see!"

He bounded off, heading back out onto the street, chattering all the while. "Your team sounds really nice! Lots of different kinds of pokémon, wow. And a tyrunt! Cuicatl trained a tyrunt, too, I guess. She has one as her familiar! And Silver has a crobat, his team's here with us, too. They're really nice pokémon. I don't know who I'd want on my team if I was a trainer, but I guess it doesn't matter! Since I'm not a human or anything..."

Their next destination wasn't far from the colosseum, and the building was nearly as large as the stadium had been, white with red designs along the edges of the stone and above its huge doorway. "This is the library! It's the biggest one in this world, and it has books about basically everything. So if you want to learn more about Cibus, this is the place to go. Although you can look up a lot of stuff with your badge, too." Rocky started. Oh, he'd almost forgotten! "They did give you a badge, right?"

 

[Flyg0n]

Like I guess Xerneas is at the Tree of Life, and Dialga would be at Temporal Tower if Giovanni hadn't stuck him onto the other Sinnoh legends..." Rocky trailed off a moment, thinking. "But a lot of them are here, yeah! And we have fought them before. There was a big battle here with a lot of us against Rayquaza, Kyogre, and Groudon! And Cabot, he even fought one of the lugia all by himself! And nearly won!" Rocky beamed. "I bet if you wanted to fight a legendary, you'd be strong enough to do it. Or team up with some friends! But come on, there's some other places you should see!"

So many legendaries... And the Sinnoh legends too? Dialga, Palkia and Giratina were here? He wondered if he could get to see them. But even if they were here, they probably weren't the same ones he knew, from his Sinnoh. So seeing them or getting to talk to them probably wouldn't mean anything... The thought of getting to battle a real legendary was strangely thrilling. Such a feat would have been impossible back home, since he had to rely on the strength of his team. It was definitely exciting, and scary.

When Rocky showed him the next location, Koa's eyes lit up. "A library?" he yipped. "This is awesome!" His tail started to wag of its own accord. There had to be so much information here he could look up, things no one had ever read! Oh, he was definitely coming back here.

"They did give you a badge, right?"

Koa cocked his head. "No, never got one. What's a badge?"

Something Rocky had said before confused him, however.

"What did you mean earlier, about sticking Dialga onto the other legends? What did Giovanni do?"

 

[Negrek]

"They're really cool! They're magic items that let you talk to people far away." Rocky unpinned his own from his scarf and showed it to Koa. It looked something like a police badge, but with wings on its sides and a large button in the center. Rocky clicked this a couple times so it would show its holographic display. "It's important to have one because this is how everybody on the team talks to each other, and you might miss important stuff without it. Plus it has a locator, so if you get lost people will be able to find you. There's loads of stuff on here, though. You can play games or watch TV or look up information. It can even work through telepathy if you're not good at typing. So what I was talking about, with the Sinnoh legends, well, people have been taking pictures of them because they look pretty funny!"

Rocky clicked around for a few seconds, then showed the badge to Koa again, now displaying a picture of the Blacklight Dragon the team had defeated. "I guess we don't know if it was Giovanni that did that," Rocky said thoughtfully. "He showed up pretty soon after we found them like that, but I think he wanted to catch them. Like, he hadn't already got them before that happened. Maybe it was Joule? I guess we could ask him now. Anyway!" He closed his badge and pinned it back on his scarf. "Basically they got fused together into one ultra mega legendary! Arceus has been working on getting them apart, but it's kind of hard and it's taking a while. They're still kind of stuck together. Anyhow, when we get back to the Guild we can ask them to give you a badge. They're really handy!"

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa stared at the badge, fascinated. So this was the pokemon tech version of a Rotomphone? He watched as Rocky handled it with ease, eventually bringing up a picture of...

Unease filled him as he stared at the creature. It felt... so wrong, to mess with legendaries like that. Giovanni had done that? That was nearly as bad as- Shaking his thoughts aside, he looked back at Rocky.

"Thats... that's crazy. You guys had to fight that?" He knew how much power one legend possessed, but three together was just too much. At least they sounded like they were ok. "How did you do it? I mean, you'd have to be ridiculously strong to even pull that off, and ... what type would something like that even be?" he asked, saying the last part almost to himself.