Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Main Lobby

[Namohysip]

"Either way, Soda can hide wherever he wants. So for all we know maybe he is just hanging at the fucking Cauldron or wherever. Christ."

"What about something that'd get his attention? Anything that could make him come out of hiding?"

"...Hmm..." Cal rubbed her chin. "What if we threatened Flesh?"

"C-Cal!" Owen gasped. "We aren't threatening Flesh! He's innocent in all this!"

"I didn't mean threaten for real, I meant put up a short! Like, maybe we fake-torture him for information, or fake-starve him, or I dunno, plant him down on a remote island and make him look sad or something."

"How do you fake-starve someone?" Owen squinted. "This is only going to scare and confuse Flesh."

"Well, hey, maybe that'll draw him out!"

 

[Dragonfree]

"I mean, Yellow did come out and talk to me when I went to the Tree. But that required, you know, knowing he was at the Tree." He pawed at his muzzle, trying to think. "Would he be paying attention to what's going on with us? I mean, Green was the one who was supposed to keep an eye on Flesh and attended our meeting and all that. Would the last one be keeping an eye on what we're doing too, but stay quiet and hidden even though we've learned Prime is out of his mind and the plan is a bust and we're the only people who can stop him? Seems weird. At least if he was, one'd think he'd be here too, right? Wouldn't want to miss it." Dave sniffed vaguely at the air just in case he smelled the presence of another Zoroark. "On the other hand, if he's not paying attention to what we're doing, he's not going to even know if we're pretend-torturing Flesh or whatever, right?"

 

[Negrek]

Nate winced. He couldn't deny that he'd been thinking along the same sort of lines as Cal, but Jesus, no need to put it like that. "I mean, if he's paying any attention, there's no way he ain't heard what's up with that shithead on the moon, but does that mean he believes it? And if he ain't paying no attention to us, well, he was supposed to hide in case something happened, right? He's gotta be paying attention somewhere to know if something's going down. So we make some noise, make sure people outside just the team hear. And I mean, he's a Soda, ain't he? If he's worried about something happening, he's got to be most worried about it happening to Flesh, right? So he's at least gotta be keeping up with what's happening to that guy."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Well, one would've thought even if he doesn't believe it he'd maybe check with Yellow what's up, you know? If you hear something like that, aren't you going to want to at least talk to one of the other yous and either hear what it is you're missing or convince them to come off that nonsense?" Dave looked up at Yellow.

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmmh... Maybe." Yellow crossed his arms. "But we gotta be careful, y'know. If either of us die, or even the last one, Prime's going to get our memories. And then he might know we're scheming, and who knows what'll set him off after that... And just so y'know, I don't like this whole... torture Flesh talk." He glared. "If you guys even entertain the idea of hurting him for real, I'm out."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Nobody's hurting him for real. What the hell do you take us for?" Though it wasn't like there weren't some real nutcases on Team Spectrum. Bahamut'd probably torture Flesh if he got the idea in his head that it served some greater good. Fucking god-legendaries.

"Look, what if Flesh just... asked for him? I doubt it's a great idea to make him think we're hurting him either way; not exactly going to make him dying to cooperate and listen. Wouldn't he just come if Flesh needs him? Calls for him? I'm betting if the guy raises his voice even a little there's not a lot of places in Cibus that wouldn't hear him."

 

[Negrek]

"Oh, fuck no," Nate said, crossing his arms. "Like I said, Flesh would have to be okay with it. And the substitute who's in the cells right now. And you, obviously. It won't work without the three of you."

But what the mightyena had said... fuck. "I guess if Flesh tries getting in touch with him first, that'd be easier," Nate muttered.

He glanced over at Diyem. "We obviously gotta go up there and do something about Soda. Ain't real comfortable, having a huge fucking death laser pointed at the planet. But don't we gotta find some way to stop Eien first? That storm was getting bigger pretty fast. How long do you think we have?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmmmmhhh... Eien is the more immediate threat. Soda on the moon appears to still be waiting for something. If we can halt that, perhaps it will buy us more time... but... We must still monitor it as much as we can. If Soda got what he wanted, we would have already lost. We are halting something, somehow... And we know for a fact that Eien's storm is expanding."

"According to initial scouting from me," Truffle added, "all of the Sea of Wonders will be consumed within a week or two, if it expands at this rate. From there, the rest of the world may be absorbed within the next two months... It's a miracle it did not land in another continent, or the results could have been catastrophic..."

"In other words," the Salamence, Protein, spoke up from the side of the room, "we're going to start preparing the authorities in the Sand, Grass, and Water Continents will be next, followed shortly by the Air and Mist Continents."

"Grass... That's where Thyme and Pepper live," Owen said. "Water is where Pita and Nutmeg live. And Sand is where we found Giovanni's lab..."

"We have to assume that the Sea of Wonders is a loss," Diyem said. "After that is an expanse of ocean to delay. That means we have two to three weeks to prepare before more populations are in immediate danger."

 

[Negrek]

Shit. It wasn't real comfortable to think of a whole region of the planet just being "a loss." Three weeks was a lot longer than Nate had expected them to have, though. Maybe they would have time to get some work done on the Soda problem--if they didn't have to spend all of it scrambling to find some way to stop Eien.

"You got any ideas how we can put a stop to the whole storm-eating-the-planet thing, then? You seemed pretty confident back at the Tree, but right now it seems like we can't even get close."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stared at Truffle. Shit. A second apocalypse, while Soda sat up there waiting, his brain deteriorating into further lunacy by the second. Don’t take too long, he’d said.

He turned back to Diyem, gritting his teeth. “Fine, fine, then what the fuck are we going to do about it? You got some kind of plan? She’s your girlfriend.”

 

[Namohysip]

"I'm thinking of ways to get through now," Diyem said to both of them, "but my first guess is that we will be able to break through... perhaps very easily, but only us--those who are immune to the effects of Eterna energy... or can at least resist them." Diyem nodded, curling his tail around himself in thought. "Mm... We will need to think about a lot of this... but we are also tired. In the coming days, we will be planning. Any input from you all, any new thoughts as always, will be appreciated."

Owen admitted quietly to himself that, indeed, he was tired. Perhaps a break to clear his head would be nice...

"There is one thing we can decide right now, before we break to recover," Maple said, noticing Dave's anxiousness. Three weeks might be too long... "Let's decide now what our timeline is. We need to strike Eien first. How soon?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa shut her eyes. Part of her screamed to go fight right this instant, part of her never wanted to face the power in that place again.

Luz, by contrast, brightened a little.

"Well, the team will heal fast, so what are we really waiting for? There some plan or means of gettin' an edge on Eien that we're hopin' will manifest at some point? 'Cause as far as I can tell, we'll get a little tougher as each day ticks by, but that's it."

 

[Namohysip]

"Mm. But if we go too soon, I fear some of us may not yet be ready. I heard from Pop that apparently, even before we went to the Tree, he has been trying to develop something that may help us."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Luz thumped one fist into her other palm. "Then we better get t'work readyin' those of us as need remedial trainin', and if'n there's anythin' any of us can do to aid in Pop's project, jus' say the word."

Brisa tilted her head at that. What manner of thing might Pop be trying to develop? Something technological, perhaps...?

 

[Negrek]

Nate scowled, not feeling tired in the slightest. For whatever reason the vision of a red storm devouring the planet wasn't putting him in a sleepy mood.

"Three weeks is a while, yeah," he said. "I at least want to see what we can do about that mewtwo before we head back, though. Don't want there to be any chance of him getting free or causing trouble while you're distracted. And he's the one supposedly been commanding Eien--maybe if we can squeeze the parasite or whatever the fuck outta him, he'll be able to help us out somehow."

Something he should have tried to do a long time ago. Or tried harder, anyhow. No excuse for letting that ride when he'd had the chance to do something about it way back. Nate tuned out the rest of the conversation, turning options over in his mind.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa cleared her throat quietly.

"Ah, I'd care t'give that a try. I'm comfortable with the Voidlands and I..."

you just don't give up on people, do ya

"I'm a dab paw at reachin' folks, I guess."

 

[Negrek]

"Huh?" It took Nate a second to realize anyone had spoken up. "Yeah, sure, I mean, the more the merrier and all. It took like four people to deal with the thing that got Owen, and if anything the mewtwo's problem is worse."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave might have offered to come along for trying to extract the probable parasite from the Mewtwo, but if he did he’d probably have to put up with Nate thinking he was there somehow specifically to harass him the whole time, and he had many better things to do with his time than subject himself to that. “Yeah, you have fun with that. I’ll stick to the parasite at the lab. For my parts, I think we should go as soon as feasible. If Arceus thinks he can help, he needs to give a more specific timeline for that.”

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem nodded. "That should do it, then," he said. "Everyone, this is our timeline. First, we will gather as much information, and attempt as much treatment, as we can regarding the Eterna Parasites and Blacklight Mewtwo. In the meantime, Arceus will work on whatever boon he has been developing for us. As soon as we can have both of those things done, we shall begin an assault against Eien. I at least know that defeating Eien, one way or another, will put an end to the storm."

"Then that will be everything for now," Maple stated. "You are all dismissed. If you have further questions, you can pull any of us aside so we may answer them and consolidate information later. Make sure you all get some rest. We will need to be at full strength against Eien."

With those parting words, it seemed that the meeting was over for now. Some were restless and others were tired, but most of all everyone was fatigued. Perhaps, after a day of recovery, they could all think with clearer heads.

<><><>​

 

[Namohysip]

"Is there... a reason we're here?" Diyem said with an irritable hum. He had returned to his Charizard form for the time being. "What is the purpose of this?"

"Well! I just decided that we would have a little... Voice get-together, is all," Buffet explained with a cheerful lilt to his voice. The Hydreigon looked next to Maple--who, in the recent days, had managed to return to her Smeargle form again.

"And we called those who could attend from the team as well," Diyem murmured. "Why?"

"As a welcoming party!" Buffet replied.

"...I'm skeptical," Maple stated. "You're stalling."

Buffet fidgeted. "Well, er... you see, I... well..." He glanced at the hallway. "If you'd just be one second," he said sweetly, and then hastily flew into one of the rooms. There was a high-pitched voice coming from inside.

"No! No! I refuse!" said the tiny voice. "This is degrading, and wrong, and you should have done nothing like this! I'm... never talked to you again!"

"Please, I'm trying to make this as painless as possible, and give you a warm welcome back, but--"

"To be fair," said another, only slightly deeper voice, "I do feel... vulnerable like this. Really, I do appreciate the efforts, but..."

"Well, it seemed wrong to simply announce it as a grand message, so... oh, I must have made a mistake..."

"You certainly did!"

Diyem and Maple glanced at one another, looking mildly worried. "Should we leave?" Maple asked.

"Mm. Let's wait this out. I'm morbidly curious." He glanced at the others in the room.