Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Main Lobby

[Virgil134]

"Huh?"

Cabot looked over and grimaced slightly when he saw Maple was looking at the Necrozma piece that Luz had grabbed earlier.

"... Oh, that," he murmured, hesitating a bit as he thought of the best way to explain it. "Well... it's something we found in that other room. We were gonna tell when you asked if we had found anything, but then we heard that rumbling sound and we went over to check it out, and you know..."

He uneasily rubbed at the back of his neck. "It's... part of a Necrozma... But it wasn't a complete body and I doubt Joule would just die like that, so I'm sure that he's fine! ... Or, at least sort of fine. That Mewtwo probably still has him in one of those capture spheres."

 

[Negrek]

Nate had been stuffing bits of tech back into the net, figuring that Rocky could haul it over to the lab. He still ached, though, worse than he would have expected from a little fall, and there was some kind of weird bruise running up his side. Had he gotten hit by an attack or something? With all the chaos in the last couple seconds of their escape, he hadn't even noticed.

Well, at least he was fucking alive. No easy feat coming out of another hostile encounter with a mewtwo.

Maple's voice made him look up from what he was doing. The rest of the group had found fucking necrozma bits lying around. Nate glanced at Rocky, who was giving him a similarly worried look, ears drooping. Oh, shit.

 

[Namohysip]

Maple took the piece and inspected it in silence. Her hand was trembling as she turned it over, looking at the finer details, running a along the side of one of the smoother bits. The color of the armor was unmistakable in the brighter lights of Destiny Village. Silvery. Joule was a rare Necrozma, one with a silvery sheen rather than the typical gold. "It's... this is his," Maple said, squeezing it until it left an imprint in her grip. "Joule..."

"So what's the big deal?" Darkwhite asked, crossing her arms. "It's just a--"

"Shh," Owen said firmly.

"Hey, don't you shush me! What's going on? Who's this Joule guy?!"

Maple's Ultra Stone slipped out of her bag and tried to bump against her heel, but she didn't notice. She fell to her knees, holding that tiny piece to her chest.

"He--he can survive without that, can't he?" Owen asked. "H-how much of that did you guys find, huh...?"

"I'll get S'more," Toffee said, quickly leaving the lobby.

 

[Virgil134]

"It... is his?" Cabot's heart sank. Part of him had hoped that it belonged to a different Necrozma, but as Joule's mate Maple would surely know. "I-I mean, I'm pretty sure that the pieces we found were less than half of his body, so he could still be alive...? Maybe Bahamut would know if Necrozma can handle that..."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Grieving a loved one who you feared may be dead was an alien concept to Luz. With empathy out of reach, she tried for sympathy and support.

"Hey, this is a scary thing to find, but we don't yet know it means what yer afeared of. I doubt he's gone, it makes no sense fer that Giovanni fella to do away with him. And hey, maybe it's an opportunity to help! I haven't the faintest idea how necrozma work, but I'm guessin' there's somethin' we can do, whether it's trackin' down where the rest of him is located, or else somethin' I ain't thought of."

 

[Negrek]

Jesus Christ. If that was really bits of that necrozma guy... and the team had found more of them lying around there... well, pokémon were fucking weird, but "we found maybe half his body" didn't exactly sound fucking great.

Was Maple, like, going to fucking cry or something? Rocky looked like he was going to fucking cry. And he'd never even met the guy! Unless the necrozma was kind of, like, technically his dad or some shit?

Nate inched a little bit away from Maple and busied himself with gathering more random tech shit. There were other people here who could handle all the feelings shit way better than him. Maybe Rocky could go say a few words or some shit, if he would stop fucking wibbling. About all Nate could think of to do was try to get the person most likely to say something hugely fucking insensitive out of the picture. "Say, Darkwhite, this net is supposed to immobilize a pokémon and shock it into submission. Want to see if it still works?"

 

[IFBench]

Saltriv looked towards Luz after they said someone might have hit them, then at the bruise running up Nate. Did they do that when they panicked?

Oh no...was that shiny crystal that Joule person?

"They can't be dead! Maybe that's just a decoy to make us lose hope!" they suggested.

There were tears welling up in their eyes.

 

[Cresselia92]

Well, that didn’t sound reassuring at all. So, those crystal pieces truly belonged to Joule. However, it was unclear what happened to him, nor whether he was still alive.

But perhaps… his body worked in different ways than mere mortals. Perhaps he wasn’t dead. Perhaps he was just… in stasis or something. Who could tell? No ‘mon physiology was the same, after all.

“My good folks, do not despair just yet,” implored Icetales, gazing at the most affected members of the team. “Hope is the last thing that shall expire, so do not let your hope slip out of your hearts.”

He approached the crystal parts and studied them accurately. “…I have heard of some ‘mons who go through a process akin to hibernation, if their bodies were to be shattered. Sir Jirachi had gone through a similar process back in my homeworld, after Yveltal slain him with a fatal blow on his core. And then… a ritual was performed on him, so that he could recover his body.”

He tilted his head. “I wonder if there could be some enchantment that could restore our damaged fellow…”

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh boy, you bet!" Darkwhite flew toward Nate. "Okay, but before I tie you up and make you submit, let's get some better attire at this cool shop I found downtown!"

She was already flying away. What fresh hell had Nate just roped himself into? He'd better hurry and 'lose' it at the lab.

--

Maple seemed to hear their words, but it didn't fully register. Words were little against the piece of Joule had was in her hands right now, pressed to her chest, cold and lifeless. Joule was not in hibernation. Maple knew it. At best, Joule was missing portions of his body, shambling about unguided. At worst, he was dead, or still under Giovanni's control. And she had no way to know. As a Voice, she once knew the whereabouts of spirits. But this wasn't her world. Buffet would likely not know, either, as they were not native to here, not tied to Cibus, the spirits that Buffet would perceive.

"Joule..." Maple squeezed her eyes shut "I..."

And then, Maple's Ultra Stone hopped, leapt, and then rumbled.

It flashed with a blinding light.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Luz drew closer. She had an intuition about what, exactly, was about to happen. Surely the emerging shade would take the appearance and persona of their sire. Her sire. She'd been in Joule's presence before, but it wasn't something she remembered. While this would not be quite the same experience, she couldn't help but feel an irresistible yearning to know what Joule was like, even in mimicry.

And judging by that blinding light, it might be close mimicry indeed.

"Cover yer eyes, y'all," she said. "We're about to have some brilliant company."

Luz did not look away. She stared into the heart of it, enraptured.

 

[Namohysip]

"FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS I LAY DORMANT!"

The booming voice rumbled Owen's chest and he had to take a step back on reflex. He clutched at his ribs with one hand, feeling winded. How can one be so booming and yet not deafening? His words were not overwhelming to his ears, and yet they held such power...

"WHO DARES AWAKEN ME FROM MY ANCIENT SLUMBER?"

A spiral of darkness enveloped a spire of light; the Ultra Stone, gleaming, traveled to the center of the rod. An eight-sided star formed along the body, creating a tail, wings, legs, and a head. While it lacked the typical armor as seen from Bahamut, parts of its amorphous body hardened to mimic the appearance. And there he was--covered in black armor, but otherwise a silvery, overwhelming white...

"IT IS I, MINI-JOULE, THE ULTIMATE ULTRA SHADE!"

Soda, in the corner, was running his claws over his face, sighing loudly. "That's 'Joule,' alright..."

"Oh, come now!" The familiar's light dimmed to something vaguely tolerable. He shook his left wings toward Soda. "The least you could do was applaud the theatrics!"

"Rah rah, congratulations on hatching, or whatever it is you guys do when you adopt forms..." Soda rubbed his forehead. "And here I was starting to enjoy the quiet..."

'Joule''s grin widened and he looked down at Maple, who stared with disbelief. "Indeed, Blade. While I may not--"

Maple's face screwed up, finally breaking her typically stoic expression. It was ugly, a grimace, a pained cry that wanted to tear itself out of her, but it never came. She got to her feet and ran out of the room--anybody who tried to chase her, they'd find nothing. She'd gone through a portal the second she'd rounded the corner.

"Maple..." Owen watched helplessly, then looked up at the false Joule.

He dimmed more, bringing a wing to his chin. "Was it something I said...?"

"Um... this may be a bad time," Toffee said upon returning, "but I think I forgot to mention... we found another stranded Team Spectrum member on the Water Continent. Team Gyro came to deliver him..." She motioned behind her, down the hall, where they were coming.

 

[Ambyssin]

With an annoyed twitch in his tail, Bahamut lumbered back to the guild. The necrozma threw the front door open and his metal forepaw thumped against the floor. He froze in the middle of the door upon seeing Owen and the... shade he was looking up at. His eyes and core darkened to a deep violet. "... oh bloody hell."

Esper poked his head up. "Geez, what's with the morose looks. Someone die?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"Eh?" Esper broke off from Bahamut. "You the pizza delivery guy? It's been way longer than thirty minutes, so the pizza's free, right?"

Bahamut, it seemed, was still focused on the new shade and the suspicious looking crystal parts laying in the hallway.

 

[Negrek]

"Jesus," Nate muttered as Darkwhite floated cheerfully away. Time to get scarce for a while. How the hell had he managed to add "horny pokémon" to his list of problems? The rest of the team fucking owed him for getting that creep out of their hair before she could ruin the moment.

"Rocky!" he said. "Rocky, come on, we've got to get this shit to--"

A blinding flash of light cut him off, and the problem of Darkwhite was momentarily driven out of his mind as Maple's familiar hatched in the most spectacular way. For a second he almost wondered--the familiars had come from Joule, after all, so maybe if you put enough energy into one, he could be, like, reborn from it? Maple's reaction really said it all, though. Well, that had to fucking suck. It really could get a lot worse than getting stuck with Rocky.

Right now, though, he could seriously use a familiar who was quicker on the uptake. "Rocky!"

The familiar had been staring up at "Mini-Joule" open-mouthed, his earlier sadness completely forgotten. He dutifully came over and picked up the bundle of random Rocket tech, but didn't budge when Nate headed for the door. "Get your ass over here!"

"But Maple's familiar just hatched! I wanna talk to him!" Rocky protested. "And there's new people! We can't leave now."

"Yes we fucking can! And we very well fucking are, unless you really want to find out what Darkwhite's idea of fun is like."

"Oh, well... She does like to do some pretty mean things," Rocky said, but he kept looking longingly over at Mini-Joule.

"You ain't got the first fucking clue. Come on! We need to get that shit to the lab right the fuck now!"

"But--"

"Now!"

Rocky sighed and cast a last longing glance at the hitmontop who'd just spun into the lobby, then hurried to catch up with Nate, who was on the move again. It only took a second for him to outpace the mudkip, even despite his burden. "That was fun, right? Even if Mewtwo was scary. And we found a lot of cool stuff."

"Yeah. Cool stuff. Great." Nate was focused on running.

"Why was Maple being all weird about Mini-Joule, though? Now she doesn't have to be sad anymore! She got her friend back!"

"You familiars are the fucking worst, you know that?"

"That's not true," Rocky muttered, flattening his ears. But that was the last he said, all the way up the hill to the lab, and Nate was perfectly content with that.

 

[Ambyssin]

"Wow. A pizza guy with no pizza." Still floating in the air, Esper shook his head. "Where do you work? I'm going to put in a complaint to your manag—"

A pink outline appeared around Esper. Bahamut telekinetically yanked the poipole back and grabbed him with one of his prism arms.

 

[Namohysip]

Joule, who was still trying to decide on what name to truly call himself, looked worriedly between them all before looking toward where Maple had gone.

"Do you know where she went?" Owen asked, but then nodded to Genki, if only to acknowledge his arrival. Though, he had to do a double-take when he saw Pita. "What's Shield doing here?"

"Shield? I'm Pita," the Lucario said. "Isn't Shield that outlaw you captured? You know, not all Lucario look alike."

"N-no, I know, I know two back home," Owen said. "But you look... exactly like..."

"Well, that makes some sense," Joule commented, crossing his wings like they were arms. "After all, Blade's world and this one are near-parallel. Practically cosmic neighbors, down to the species. It's no wonder Maple would be so upset by everything..." Joule glanced at his feet, then his tail. "I suppose, myself included... Mm. I would like to speak with her. It is my duty as her Ultra Shade to protect her."

"Duty?" Cal repeated skeptically. "I like the guy but I dunno if I'm obligated to protect Owen."

"It is simply how I feel," Joule replied, nodding. "I was born when Blade felt an incredible sense of loss. An overwhelming sadness flowed through my very being. I do not want her to continue to experience such emptiness. I know precisely where she went. If anybody wishes to follow me..."

Joule wasn't as large as Bahamut, but he was still more than enough to carry the smaller members that wanted to tag along.

 

[Virgil134]

"No, Maple, wai-"

Cabot reflexively reached out after her, but it was too late. She had already ran off. For a moment he just uneasily stared ahead, not giving much of a reaction to his new teammate or Bahamut entering the room, only for Pleo to snap him back to attention by prodding at him.

"What... do we do now?" the Lugia wondered.

"I... I'm not su-"

Cabot trailed off as his eyes fell on Brulee. Right. They couldn't just leave the young Ho-Oh on the guild lobby's floor like this.

"Actually, could you fly around and look for Meringue?" the Cranidos asked. "Tell him that we've rescued his brother."

"Right!" Pleo chirped.

He quickly left the lobby, leaving Cabot to turn over to the guild's receptionist.

"Toffee, could you help me get Brulee to the infirmary?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh--of course. I'll get a room right away!" Toffee practically flew down the halls and down to the infirmary.

Owen nodded. "Cabot, you're more familiar with, uh, Meringue and all that. I'm going to go with Joule to find Maple. Who else wants to come?" He hopped onto Joule, who had let down a wing to help him up.

Cal, meanwhile, stayed behind, looking pensive. "I'll stay back," she said. "We'll cover more ground, right? Keep me in touch, I'm gonna look around town."

"For what?" Owen asked.

"Something's bugging me."

Owen and Cal shared a look in silence. They might have been communicating telepathically. Then, Owen nodded. "Okay. See you later."

"Onward!" Joule declared.

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot nodded back. "Good luck." He turned around and started helping up Brulee to carry him off to the infirmary.

 

[Cresselia92]

“Heavens! Just… what…?”

Icetales ran his leftmost tail over his face, trying to make a sense of everything that just happened in that precise moment. So, Maple’s familiar has become a copy of her missing partner… yes, he could see how the news shocked her. He knew he would have freaked out if his own familiar took the shape of his deceased mother, or…

‘Good thing that I’m way better than that! Ain’t not, Daddy?’

Icetales blinked at the telepathic link from afar, and projected a mental smile. ‘That thou art, Petram. That thou art.’

‘I think you should go check on her, Daddy. I know she… did questionable things with you back then, but nobody should be left alone when they are in that state.’

Icetales nodded. ‘I concur. I shall go and make sure to lift her spirits.’

He glanced at Genki spinning on himself, and while he wanted to introduce himself, he knew that his presence was more needed elsewhere. So, he strode toward the Joule-like familiar. “Greetings, New Joule. As Maple’s familiar, thou should be able to sense her presence. What is her current location? I desire to check on her.”