Treasure Town ~ Crossroads

[Namohysip]

Truffle looked back at the Charmander with worry. "Hrmm... I'll follow and try to guide her to the dojo for now. Perhaps the battle has her in a panic..."

...And for the record, Cynthian... I do not think your mission is over yet. This was merely a symptom of a greater problem.

Truffle flew after Mellow--Charmander legs versus Decidueye wings, it took no time for him to trail behind her.

Soda stopped mumbling into his badge and announced to the others, "Alright, Maple should be on her way."

"When?" Owen asked, still feeling his bones ache.

"About five seconds from now."

"Five? Maple, wait, is she the one who--"

A portal tore itself open in the air a few seconds later, widening into a vaguely eye-shaped opening. From it, freezing wind billowed out, and out came a Smeargle. The portal closed seconds later and Smeargle brushed herself off, adjusted her cap-shaped fur, and addressed the others.

"...I believe some of us have met before," Maple said, though she didn't recall it specifically. She had been very groggy at the time; up until then, she hadn't been totally sure that it was just some fleeting dream. That Zangoose, however... certainly solidified that it had indeed happened. "My name is Maple, and, hm. And we're going to be investigating the origin point of Sushi and Sashimi's path of destruction?"

"Yeah. Sashimi's coming to, and Truffle carried Sushi over to the Guild to look her over. I'll escort Sashimi there, yeah?" Soda asked.

"Go ahead. I shall guide these... fighters... to the origin point to investigate."

Grasping her tail, Maple casually drawing a line in the air. It tore open a portal like the one before, though this time cold air did not billow out. The other side of the portal showed a ruined field of grass...

"Follow me if you wish," Maple said. "Otherwise, you can return to the dojo to rest. I will be going there soon to debrief you all about what is happening in Cibus."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave watched with interest as the energy Truffle produced healed him, fixed bone and muscle, vanquished the pain. Pokémon healing wasn't quite this clean in his universe, but still impressive. His body still felt light and delicate somehow, like he couldn't do much at all, but he was fine.

He wasn't exactly thrilled by the prospect of spending more time with the 'God Squad', but at the same time, seeing where the Magikarp had come from did prick his curiosity. "So, uh, if we come along to check that out, what do we do if we bump into more unfriendly Pokémon? I know I'm feeling pretty spent."

 

[Namohysip]

"I do not think so," Maple replied to Dave. "The area seems to be abandoned due to being... crushed."

 

[TheGOAT]

Her legs ached. Her mind swam. They’d won handily enough, but she could practically still feel the vibrations in her fur. That Magikarp had come way too close to crushing her.

Astrid stepped towards the Prarie at first, but paused. There were already plenty of Pokémon heading that way, and quite frankly, she was tired. This new body still needed some getting used to.

So, instead, she turned tail towards the dojo in the hopes of resting up for later. She had a feeling she’d need it.

 

[Jedi Shulk]

Soda pointed toward the east. "I think I'm gonna follow their path of destruction backwards. We might find something at the origin point."

"Follow me if you wish," Maple said.

Fay get out from behind his cover and followed maple.

 

[Persephone]

They won. Somehow.

Really, "somehow." She had no idea what went down. She just kind of kept tackling the sort-of-dragon until it eventually fainted.

Probably thanks to her dragon strength. After all, dragons are only weak to dragons. Anyone who says otherwise has never tried to pit an ice-type against a fire-breathing monster.

They're going to explore where it came from but that path feels cold and just because a full grown dragon could take an ice-type and win didn't mean that she wanted to face a bunch of they blind and as a baby dragon. Cuicatl walked back in the direction she thought the dojo was in.

 

[The Walrein]

Ugh, what happened? The last thing Jaro could remember was flying through the air after getting struck by the tail of that Gyarados. He rolled to his feet and looked around. ...had they won? He couldn't see Sashimi anywhere. Jaro turned and squinted back in the direction of Treasure Town. It certainly didn't look as if it'd been completely flattened, but it was rather blurry at this distance.

Overhearing some of the other Pokemon's comments quickly cleared up the matter, though - they'd won. And no thanks to Jaro! All he'd really done was flail about making weak attacks, provoke Sashimi into becoming even more pissed off than she already had been, then collapse from exhaustion after accidentally Copycat-ing a move. Perhaps some of that was forgivable, given that he'd never fought an opponent even remotely like the giant water-dragon before and still wasn't entirely used to his new powers, but something still rankled.

It had been difficult to tell in the tumult of combat, but as far as Jaro remembered, he'd been the first to get knocked out. That stung. Back home, he'd known he wasn't quick, or strong, or wise, or graceful, or a hundred other things, really... but at least he'd been able to hold his own in fights by absolutely refusing to give in, no matter how much pain he was in, no matter how exhausted he got! If he didn't have that anymore, than what did he have? Stars damn it! Jaro whirled around and punched a nearby tree, probably the same one which had arrested his Gyarados-induced flight earlier.

But all that did was remind him of how weak he was - he was still completely innervated after the fight, and the punch hit with the force of a falling leaf. He'd thought that this whole thing with getting sent to another world was a chance to finally be someone, to become the hero he had utterly failed to be back home, and although he'd undeniably become rather stronger, he was just a slightly-larger fish in a much, much bigger pool.

Tears threatened to form in Jaro's eyes, but he shut his eyes closed and fought them down. Fine. So he was still a nobody. Well, he'd been dealing with that his whole life, so there was no reason he couldn't deal with it now, even in this strange world where the temperature kept changing and wind - or Pokemon - could appear out of nowhere, Jaro thought, noting the arrival of Maple.

He was tempted to follow the Smeargle to see where exactly the giant karp had come from, but was hesitant to step through the bizarre... gash in mid-air, and simply gawked at it until it closed again. Welp, guess that meant he was headed back to the dojo...

 

[Persephone]

Cuicatl stumbled into the crossroads. (It was the crossroads, right?) She came to a stop abruptly, tripped, and decided that it was a good time and place to take a breather. Deino were prone to moving too fast, doing too much, and wearing themselves out.

She was pretty sure that Astrid had got her message. And maybe... yeah. She also fired one off to Starr, suitably cryptic, to meet her at the crossroads “to talk about something important.”

Yeah. That would do.

She lowered her head to the ground and started to rest. She’d pull herself up whenever Astrid or Starr came by.

 

[Chibi Pika]

So Cuicatl wanted to talk, huh. Said it was important. Not like that wasn't ominous or anything. Still, probably best to meet with her. Starr didn't... think Cuicatl had anything against her. Probably? She really couldn't remember that much from their conversation on the beach two weeks ago. The Deino had said some weird stuff about gods and such, and Starr was pretty sure she hadn't said anything offensive despite her... less than stellar view of legends. Hopefully, anyhow. Last thing she needed was to get chewed out for some random crap out of nowhere.

So the Litten made her way out to the crossroads on the edge of town, where Cuicatl was already waiting for her.

 

[Persephone]

Cuicatl heard someone approaching. She smelled vaguely like fire. Starr, then. She gracefully pulled herself up so it looked like she hadn't been sprawled out on the ground at an awkward angle.

"Hi, Starr. I..." Deep breaths. This was necessary for the psyche. So that her radiance doesn't do anything too horrible. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry for insulting your gods. I know you're angry at me, but... yeah."

 

[TheGOAT]

Astrid hadn’t made it five paces down the Crossroads before she noticed something was amiss. Cuicatl (whose message Astrid had not yet seen) rested on the ground as Starr stood over her, visibly in the dark about what she was doing.

“Hi!” Astrid called, raising a paw, then snatching that paw away as she realized her brashness. Last time she did that, Starr hit the highway; she needed to approach gently. “—Err, sorry, uh…”

 

[Chibi Pika]

“Hi!” Astrid called, raising a paw, then snatching that paw away as she realized her brashness. Last time she did that, Starr hit the highway; she needed to approach gently. “—Err, sorry, uh…”

Starr froze. Great. It was her. The Vulpix probably still thought that she was completely insane after the way that she bolted away from the beach for no goddamn reason, and Starr had been avoiding her ever since because she felt like a huge moron. All because of the stupid, irrational twinge she felt from thinking about that name. (It was just a name.)

"Hi, Starr. I..." Deep breaths. This was necessary for the psyche. So that her radiance doesn't do anything too horrible. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry for insulting your gods. I know you're angry at me, but... yeah."

Starr blinked, all thoughts of the Vulpix gone. "What?" If she was supposed to be mad at Cuicatl, this was news to her. "You didn't... what? I was the one trash-talking them. And like... you defended them. Which I guess was kind of annoying, but it's whatever. My friends back home don't exactly share the same views as me either," she added with a slight huff.

Cuicatl looked so hesitant. Was this seriously all because of that?

 

[Persephone]

“I... what? Then... why did you run away?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

What? That conversation had happened way before Starr had run away. A bunch of other Pokemon came and went, and then...

Dammit. And now the Vulpix was here too, and she'd wanna know.

Starr turned away brusquely. "That had nothing to do with you," she said to Cuicatl. "It was just some bullshit."

 

[Persephone]

Oh.

Cuicatl should have been relieved. It wasn’t her fault after all. She hadn’t really screwed anything up since she got here, which was definitely an improvement over her previous “massive fuckups per two weeks” rate. Maybe she could keep her radiance in check, after all.

But Starr didn’t seem happy. Maybe she was lying. Without telepathy it was hard to be sure.

“Want to talk about it, or...?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr gave a small half-glance toward the Vulpix. "Not really."

 

[TheGOAT]

“I... what? Then... why did you run away?”

Astrid couldn’t deny that she wanted to know herself. It would cross her mind from time to time whenever she’d idly cross paths with Starr in the living quarters or in town—not unlike a long forgotten memory to look back and cringe at, except in this case, Astrid wasn’t sure why she was supposed to be cringing.

She glanced to the left, down main street. In the distance, Pokémon from Treasure Town went about their day.

I wasn’t planning to stop here, but… I would like to find out how I offended her…

Starr gave a small half-glance toward the Vulpix. "Not really."

Astrid didn’t flinch at the briefest eye contact, at least. That was something.

“Hi Cuicatl! Hi, uh, Starr. Umm,” A paw was raised halfway, unsure whether to proceed towards them or simply walk further into town. “Am I interrupting something? Sorry, I was just…”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Geez, now the Vulpix was nervous to be around her too. Why was everyone nervous around her. They didn't even know anything about her, they didn't have any reason to...

"Hey," Starr said, making an obvious effort to sound indifferent. "It's fine, you're not interrupting much."

 

[Persephone]

"We were just... talking." Sort of. Starr didn't seem to want to talk about it. Which was fair. Cuicatl was used to that from people. From herself, sometimes. Although this particular brand of reluctance-slash-anger reminded her more of Kekoa than anyone. "About last time. But we can talk about other stuff. If either of you wants."

 

[TheGOAT]

That was good enough for her. Astrid shrugged off her bag and took a seat in the grass.

“Last time?” she repeated, puzzled. She flipped through every instance of seeing Cuicatl and Starr in her mind; none of them were overlapping, except at the very start—at the beach on that first day. So that was last time.