Poppin' Arms ~ Holding Cells

[Dragonfree]

Dave squinted at him. Was that why he had this big complex about Soda? Just felt bad for leaving and having his memory wiped of his version, trying to make it up to a whole other Soda who never knew him anyway?

“Look, we’ve known from the start that we’re going back with no memory of any of this. Which is a good thing, from my end. Don’t want to spend the rest of my life as whatever kind of fucking lunatic thinks he was abducted by a shadow entity and turned into a dog to save the cartoon Pokémon dimension. Soda’ll be fine. I’m not his fucking reason for living.”

 

[Fusion]

"Oh? You guys don't get to remember all this when you leave?" Kora asked, tilting his head. "I mean, that might be for the best. There's a lot of stuff I wish I could forget, and it kinda looks like the same things happened but worse here."

He sighed, falling on his back. "And I know you aren't gonna be his only reason for living, but you can't deny that you've still helped him through some rough times, and he isn't gonna forget about you for that. Whether you remember this place or not..." Kora turned his head, watch a few leaves flutter to the ground, and frowned. "...I wish I left that kinda impression on someone."

"But," Kora popped back up, specks of shadow flittering off his body. He... didn't say anything for a moment, then pouted. "...Huh, I forgot what I was gonna say. Probably wasn't important. In that case--" Kora stood up, smiling, "--Thanks for humoring me for so long, this might be the first time a while one of the serious ones don't hate my guts after chatting for a while. And... it's nice knowing there's a Soda with someone caring for him somewhere, after everything he's been through."

"He was the first Zoroark I met that was, well, actually a Zoroark. Even though he never gave me his life story, he still told me about how people naturally didn't trust him and how shitty he was treated just for being one of us. I always thought he needed a break... and I hope the one I left finally caught his."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stared at him. "The fuck do you mean you guys? What, did Diyem let you keep your memories?" God, what the fuck. Diyem had a lot to answer for if that was the case. He pointed the thought vaguely in Diyem's direction, in case it got an answer.

"And what do you mean, actually a Zoroark?" he added after a pause.

 

[Fusion]

Kora snickered. "He gave us a choice, I should say. Obviously, I decided to remember all this. Yeah, it was rough, but if I forgot everything then I'd be the same dumb, dangerous kid I was when Diyem hacked me up."

"Oh, and my Mom's a Zoroark, but she used to be human. Apparently... just like Soda. But she never taught me illusion things, and she fought with electricity and a helluva lot of punching instead of, like..." Kora waved a paw in front of his face, trailing dark ribbons behind it. "This stuff."

"Other than her, and I guess my brother, I hadn't met another Zoroark. That was actually a Zoroark. I know I don't count because of this." He snapped his claws, darkness enveloping his form for a moment, then fading to reveal a more dragon-like Zoroark, with a helm similar to Giratina's. "And I can't help but think my little bro might be the same."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave recoiled as Kora transformed into something else. "The fuck? What's that about?" Maybe he shouldn't even be fucking surprised, after Brisa casually turning into a Zeraora every fight.

"Unless my memory's wildly off, what Diyem said to us was we'd lose our memories and return exactly as we were, but might recover them in some vague far future when whatever fucking 'Hero's Aura' fades, which mostly just sounds like bullshit for 'it won't happen'."

 

[Fusion]

"How can do I explain it..." Kora hummed, tapping his chin. "So like, imagine telling a kid that they can make a bowl of ice cream any way they wanna. Then, give them too many things, and remind them that they can use everything they want. The kid'll throw every fucking thing into the bowl and it'll make a disaster," he laughed, then pointed at himself with a thumb claw. "You're lookin' at that disaster, haha!"

How optimistic...

And... oddly accurate?

Thanks! I made it up myself!"

Kora tilted his head, humming again. "...Yeah, he told us about the Hero's Aura too. I don't think any of us really gave that much thought, and I just thought it sounded cool!" he snickered, then sighed. "Then I got back home and whoops, my life is now hell, like a real hero's..." He shook his head, looking back at Dave. "What about you? I dunno much about human worlds, and I'm pretty sure human heroes and pokemon heroes don't exactly hero the same."

 

[Dragonfree]

What on Earth was he on about. "Well, my 'heroics' if you could call them that aren't exactly the storybook type, if that's what you mean. Nobody's fawning over the virtues of geneticists advancing medical science."

He debated for a moment whether he really wanted to know. "Okay, I'll bite. Who exactly is the kid in your ice cream analogy?"

 

[Fusion]

"Funny you mention geneticists, and also the kid in my analogy," Kora chuckled, then sighed... then grimaced. "Hmmm... I can't think of a cheeky way of saying it, but it's not like that matters. My father was a scientist, and his body was his guinea pig."

Shadows began to rise off his body, thin and wispy like smoke. "My old man tweaked and altered his body so much that when he tried to have kids, he had me instead. A super-powered, bastard amalgamation of a god, a human, a Zoroark, and something that barely counted as just a Lucario." Kora held his breath for a moment, dispelling his shadows, then crossed his arms.

"And honestly, I don't think that's all, I'm still finding more things in me as time goes on," Kora said, shaking his head. "It's almost funny how mundane all this Blacklight stuff looked in comparison, haha..."

 

[Dragonfree]

“Jesus.” The Miracle Matters apparently had the same kind of collection of wacky backstories Team Spectrum did. “I mean, the way genetics works in my world, if you alter your own body you’re generally not going to pass it on to your kids, directly. You’re sure he didn’t do anything to you?”

 

[Fusion]

Kora shrugged. "That's how my dad made it work, he didn't just alter his genes, he altered his aura messed, with divine whatevers... Even if I know it fucked me over, I never bothered giving a shit long enough to learn it exactly."

Kora's gaze drifted to the side, and he gripped his elbows, an uncertain look on his face. "But... I wouldn't put it past him if he did do something to me. If I can accidentally make myself forget... well, something I don't want to remember, how easy would it be for someone like him, with the people he knew, to force me to forget something."

"He died when I was eight, murdered on the island we lived on. I... feel like I can remember everything before that, but if what happened to Soda has any say in this..." he chuckled grimly, clutching his chest tightly. A dark red and purple liquid seeped from him. "Shit, if I have a parasite in me... I don't think Eternatus even exists in my world, but..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave watched Kora as he talked, uncomfortably reminded of Green. Shit. "I mean, if you're worried your memory's been fucked with, Breaker's the one who confirmed what was going on with Soda. Said his mind was like, uh... shattered glass held together with silk? Something in that direction." He waved a paw. "Point is, she's creepy as hell, but if you let her just look, probably she can tell if your memory's been tampered with."

He paused. "I'm guessing if you wouldn't put it past him, he was pretty shit, huh." How did everyone in this place have shitty dads.

 

[Fusion]

"Breaker, huh? Sounds like a fun gal," Kora chuckled.

He then sighed, rubbing his arm. "...I can't, say he was shit from experience. Growing up, he and I had so much fun training and camping... and when he died... I felt nothing but pain for an entire decade, up until I got recruited by Diyem. If I didn't experience all this Blacklight shit, I don't think I would have... really, made it."

Kora shook his head. "I missed him, and I still miss him, but I can't tell if I'm remembering me and my dad having fun father-son bonding, or a scientist logging the results of his latest experiment." The fox looked down at his paws, letting some darkness crackle over them. "...Goddamnit, this is why I hate thinking things over..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave looked away, a sudden tightness in his throat.

"Right. Who the fuck knows." This was not even any of his goddamn business. "What, there something specific that made you reevaluate?"

 

[Fusion]

Kora pointed at his still-transformed, crowned head. "This feels like reason enough reevaluate. Back home, I had to be pushed pretty damn far for this to happen. But, whenever I have Blacklight, I can just do it freely."

"And, also, me finding some of his work in some broken down lab might've tipped me off a bit. From what I could find that wasn't burned to ashes or waterlogged, he kept track of almost everything he did to himself, and kept notes about me up until a year before he died." Kora let out an aggravated groan, falling to his back. "I don't have the full picture, but I have enough to know I'm this because of him."

"...But, it's not all terrible at least. I'm strong enough to protect my friends and family, which is more than enough for me," the fox-dragon hummed, then grimaced. "Even though... a lot of the trouble we get into is because I'm strong, so... I think the phrase for that is a double-edged sword?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"Until a year before he died? Any idea why he stopped?"

Dave glanced at the bizarre Giratina-headpiece out of the corner of his eye. If it'd existed in his world, they probably could've found out which genes were involved, spliced them into another genome. Like Roselia's spikes, or Scyther's scythes.

"I mean, here's a thought," he began without really meaning to, "maybe he just thought you were interesting. Why shouldn't the guy keep notes, if you're a new kind of batshit combination of things that's never existed before? Doesn't mean he must've had some secret fucking mad scientist ulterior motive for everything he ever did with you."

 

[Fusion]

Kora shook is head, then remembered he was on the floor and wagged a claw instead. "The lab was a wreck, and the latest things I could find was from then, and even those could've been better kept. There might've been things from later on, or maybe he wrote something saying why he stopped, but who knows."

"And... actually..." Kora slid into the ground, re-emerging to face Dave at eye once again, the tiniest bit miffed. "Other than finding his fuck off lab, hundreds and hundreds of miles away from where I was born, that he never told us about mind you, and that I'm half of a creature that he and my Mom and their team almost died trying to kill..." he sighed, shaking his head. "It doesn't look good for him, does it?"

...Huh...

"Huh" what? I can't read your mind.

No, it's just... I just realized he said he was a geneticist too, right?

Yeah..?

And, like, we already know about how some things are the same but different in other worlds...

...No, I do not believe this is an alternate version of your father.

But what if he is?

Kora blinked, then leaned in a bit closer, staring into Dave's eyes. "...You wouldn't happen to be a dad too, would you?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave took a step back as Kora got way too close, staring at him in the creepiest way. "I mean, yeah, I've got a kid. What's your point?"

 

[Fusion]

Kora sat back, crossing his arms in thought. "...I dunno, obviously you look like a pretty great guy, but... You're a geneticist with a kid, I had a geneticist dad. You are human, but..." His brows furrowed, and he grumbled as he mumbled to himself.

I seriously do not think he is another version of Kora's father.

But he could be! We'll just have to ask something really specific, and if he answers how Orion would, then we have our answer!

Alright, but what..? Other than being a scientist, Orion was a pretty normal... -ish guy. Maybe we could... uh... ask about one of Dave's favorite things?

"Off the top of your head, what's your favorite kind of pie?" Kora asked, snapping his claws. "Don't think about it, just say the flavor."

 

[Dragonfree]

"What." What on God's green Earth. "Blueberry, but what the fuck are you talking about. I'm not your fucking dad."

 

[Fusion]

Kora sighed, relieved. "Oh thank gods, his was Lum Berry. Hopefully that means I worry about another scientist is grey to dark morality splicing DNA together to make more things like me."

"Sorry about dropping that on you, just had to make sure," he chuckled, grinning. "...I already discovered more like me, kinda, and I want to make sure, if I can't stop other like me from being made, that they're at least stuck mostly in my world." He held a paw over his chest, purring gently. "I can protect them, then, from assholes who wanna use their power."