Treasure Town ~ Marowak Dojo

[Ambyssin]

"Excuse me? You're... a pokémon?" Necrozma crossed his arms. "But you... your aura... nrrgh. It's like someone mashed everything together." He gripped his head. He was clearly in pain.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Celeste stared at Potluck.

“Well then. I don’t believe I’ve heard of a “Silvally” before... Nice to meet you.”

Celeste inspected him curiously. As bizarre as he was, he had a sort of... dissonant coherency to him. Potluck didn’t look quite as odd as written description of him would’ve made him sound.

 

[The Walrein]

Jaro arrived at the dojo a little later than everyone else, having been dragging his feet and sulking on the way back. When he got there, he boggled at the strange new Pokemon sitting in the pile of blankets. Unsure of what to say to them, Jaro instead turned to Necrozma, who appeared to be somewhat hurt, maybe? ...thinking back, he actually vaguely remembered seeing the strange angular rock-like Pokemon bravely taking a hit directed at Nip right before he passed out.

"Oh, hey, are you feeling okay?" he asked Necrozma. "That last battle was pretty rough, right?" Jaro tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

 

[Ambyssin]

"It's nothing." He waved Jaro off. "A psychic-type thing. You wouldn't understand." Necrozma couldn't bring himself to look at Potluck, but addressed him anyway. "You there. Silvally. Are you with Truffle and Maple? Why weren't you helping with the rampaging magikarp?"

 

[Namohysip]

Potluck giggled. "Everyone here has funny names," he said, looking between Cuicatl, then Nip, and then Celeste. "Oh!" To Necrozma, Potluck nodded and said, "I was here to try to defend in case Magikarp got through you guys! I wouldn't be able to hurt it, but maybe I could scare it with an Electric attack! ...But that wasn't needed, so I went to the dojo to see what you guys did in your spare time instead!"

"Well, it isn't as if you had very much spare time," Truffle added, carrying Mellow in with him. "Most of their time was spent preparing, one way or the other. Very diligently, in fact! And it all paid off, too. Congratulations again!"

 

[Ambyssin]

"You are... not fazed by my appearance either." It was, again, an observation. "I take it that everyone who works for Maple knows about my so-called 'kind?'"

 

[The Walrein]

"Thanks, but as far as I'm concerned, we won that fight by sheer luck," Jaro said in response to Truffle's congratulations. "Just look at the state we were in after the fight!" (He was pretty sure he wasn't unusual, at least, in becoming exhausted after just a few moves, and had taken note of the state of the other Pokemon on the way back to the dojo.)

"Imagine if Sushi and Sashimi had attacked in a staggered fashion, letting us exhaust ourselves fighting one and then the other swooping in to finish us off. Or if there'd been some other enemy waiting for us like that weird apparition that appeared in the marketplace. Until we find a way to deal with this stupid you-can-only-use-a-few-moves-before-collapsing thing, we have to be extremely careful about where and when we choose to fight, not just throw literally everyone we have - or at least, everyone with this 'Hero's Aura' thing - at the foe with no backup!"

He took a quick pause to take in everyone's reactions, before continuing with "For now, we should at least agree to try to keep our weakness a secret. Someone from outside our group asks how the battle went? We tell them it went great and we felt totally fine afterwards." Wait, could this 'Potluck' character be trusted to keep a secret? Oops, too late now...

Jaro sighed. "Look, sorry, maybe I'm overreacting. That was a pretty impressive victory, I guess. I just can't shake the feeling that we're still really, really vulnerable..."

 

[Disco]

Mellow carefully let herself to the ground and glanced towards the very strange Pokemon in the center of the room. He was like nothing she had heard of... Just what was he...? Instead of being rude and asking that out loud, Mellow instead went to relatively unoccupied space to rest against the wall and to try to listen.

Hopefully she didn't fall asleep mid-explanation...

 

[Namohysip]

"There's no need to be too fearful of your own weaknesses, but awareness is the first step toward improvement!" Truffle nodded sagely. "If endurance is your weakness, then training in endurance is the next thing to look toward! Ah... And yes, Potluck was briefed about any abnormalities with your team."

"Like you!" Potluck said, beaming at Necrozma. "It's okay. You may look scary, but you're just like everyone else!"

"Potluck..." From the dojo entrance, Maple stepped inside. Apparently she'd made quick work of gathering up the strange stones they'd found. "Why did you gather all of the blankets into a pile?"

"Because it was soft!"

Owen, just behind, tried to hide his smile. Potluck had a point.

Maple, too, hid her smile, and said, "Well, it's time to pass them out to everyone else. I think now that Magikarp is no longer a problem--and the issues around the world are at least somewhat handled--I can take a moment to catch everyone here up on... what might be the context of this crisis."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

The context of this crisis? Sounded like a long story... and Celeste loved long stories!

He settled into the remain of the blanket pile.

“It is soft! I want to go to sleep in it... but I’ll stay up for the story.”

Hearing Maple say they needed to pass them out disappointed him... Wait, no, what was he doing? Acting like a child... What had come over him?

“Oh, yeah, I guess we can distribute them. Of course.”

 

[Adamhuarts]

I can take a moment to catch everyone here up on... what might be the context of this crisis."

Cynthian heaved a heavy sigh. "There's a crisis going on in this world? I guess thinking our troubles would end with just the magikarps was my wishful thinking. So, are we going to go rounding up more oversized mons around... or Is there something even worse than that out there?"

That last part was a joke, but Cynthian had a dreadful feeling that he'd get an affirmative response. As if fighting mon that can flatten one easily weren't scary enough!

 

[Namohysip]

Everyone gathered in the main dojo hall, which was becoming a makeshift resting spot since Potluck had brought all the blankets there, and Maple stood near the wall with her arms crossed and head down.

"...Mm. That seems to be everyone. I'm sorry if you're all tired and groggy, but I'd rather tell this all to you sooner rather than later. The most attentive can spread this information to the rest, or... What are you doing?"

Owen had found a stack of unused papers, probably meant for dojo attendance logs, and sat back down. "Notes!"

"...Notes. Of course."

"What? I may have forgotten stuff but I still remember how to read and write."

"No, no. It's fine." Maple was unsettled at how attentive he was despite the battered and dirtied body that he had. "This world, Cibus... It's clear you are not from here. And while I don't know why you are all here..." She looked suspicious of them briefly, but then continued, "my commander said that you are to be trusted for now. I do not intend to question Him. In any case... over a decade ago, Cibus was nearly destroyed in its entirety by something that called itself Dark Matter."

Already, Owen was scribbling notes down with an ember at the tip of his claw, leaving dark but surprisingly precise scorch marks on the paper.

"Dark Matter was made of the negativity of the world's Pokemon. Hatred, sadness, and rage were considered to be its primary components, but it likely had several more. Ages ago, whole civilizations in the past, Dark Matter had been defeated before, yet had been defeated improperly. He was not completely destroyed. As a result, Arceus knew that he would one day return, as did the heroes who had defeated Dark Matter the first time. A human and Mew sent themselves into the future--the time when Dark Matter would return--to defeat Dark Matter again.

"Only this time... they succeeded. It was not by defeating Dark Matter, but by accepting him, that Dark Matter was truly annihilated. From how they described it... They were able to give him peace. Something that was incompatible with Dark Matter's very essence. And, as a result... he was destroyed, this time for good. Not a trace was found of him to return.

"Are you all following so far?" Maple surveyed the group, even as Owen frantically jotted down everything Maple had said, occasionally asking for repeats while Maple stood in silence for the others to digest the information.

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot carefully listened along, but as Maple started to explain the origins of this 'Dark Matter', he couldn't help but give her a skeptical look as he tilted his head.

"Eh? But how can something be created from a bunch of negative emotions?" he questioned. "Things like hatred or sadness are things that Pokémon feel, but it's not tangible or anything... or alive for that matter."

 

[Namohysip]

"Eheheh, matter," Soda mumbled, appearing in the other corner as his illusion faded.

"Pokemon are creatures that are in-tune with much more than simple materials," Maple said. "Dark Matter... was something that emerged from a variety of factors during the world's very creation. Small imperfections that led to a great culmination that could have ended it altogether. Feelings, on their own, are nothing... But this entity fed off of them, because they came from Pokemon--who can often make the immaterial--" Maple flicked her tail, forming a floating bubble of water "--real, so mundane that it's taken for granted."

"In other words," Soda said, "the mon upstairs made a few oopsies when the world was created, and eventually it globbed up into a big sphere of bitterness, kinda like me when I got dumped for the first time."

 

[Adamhuarts]

Cynthian's face paled at the story of Dark Matter, and his body visibly trembled. He sprang to his feet and glared at Maple.

"Dark Matter?! The very same one that nearly threw my world into the sun, and it's here too?!"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Augh, they were just dumping as much information as possible into as few words as possible. Had they no respect for the fact the group would remember it better with some proper storytelling? This was just an exposition dump.

Hmph. At least there was no brooding romance subplot distracting from the real interesting parts.

 

[Disco]

Dark Matter...? Something made up of negative things...? So much that it nearly destroyed everything....

But....

"But if it was destroyed... Then why are things happening now? So soon after it was beaten...?"

 

[Persephone]

A monster made of mental pain. That sounds like a nightmare to just be close. Both because Cuicatl would feel it and she would feed it.

It was gone, though, and Cuicatl wasn't psychic anymore. But she could understand how it would still cause problems. Alola dealt with whatever had happened a few years back (Kekoa and Genesis argued abou it, she figured the truth was somewhere in the middle but closer to Kekoa's version). There were still Ultra Beasts and maybe a necrozma that followed in its wake.

"Did Dark Matter open a portal then? And stuff is still coming through?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Dark Matter?! The very same one that nearly threw my world into the sun, and it's here too?!"

Maple nodded gravely. "It appears that several worlds have their own Dark Matter, one way or another," she said.

"But if it was destroyed... Then why are things happening now? So soon after it was beaten...?"

"Did Dark Matter open a portal then? And stuff is still coming through?"

It seemed that they were catching on. "Dark Matter should have been destroyed," Maple said. "He was responsible for the creation of Mystery Dungeons across the world. The increase of Mystery Dungeons corresponded directly to his increased power as he reawakened from his defeat so many civilizations ago. At the time, the individual crises that came before his rise were thought to be isolated incidents. In retrospect, however... we came to know them as Dark Omens."

Potluck was tumbling around in the blankets, but settled down when Maple spoke. It was only during pauses that he tried to reposition himself. Even Soda was quiet, legs crossed and half-attentive.

"There were several small incidents, but the ones in most recent memory, corresponding to the rise of Dungeons again, included a meteor falling from the sky, and several Legends tinged with a subtle darkness that made them hostile. Rayquaza, protector of the skies, ignored his duties entirely due to the distortion that his home had become. It was only when a human, who became a Cubone, and her Torchic partner of this world ascended Sky Tower that they were able to bring sense to him again.

"Years later, on another continent, time began to freeze in isolated areas of the world. Darkrai, touched by that same nihilistic darkness, corrupted Dialga in shadowy dreams and turned him near-feral. Had it not been for Team Spice--a human who became a Chikorita, and his partner, a Totodile--this world could have been plunged into a frozen darkness forever.

"Years later still, the greatest omen appeared: A creature half of darkness, half of Kyurem's essence known as the Bittercold threatened to drain the life of the Mist Continent's inhabitants, and then perhaps the world. Once again, a human who became a Pokemon, and his partner native to this world, defeated the Bittercold and delayed the world's destruction again.

"And then..." Maple nodded. "And then Dark Matter himself appeared. He seized the Tree of Life so rapidly that Xerneas, its embodiment and protector, had been his first victim. With frightening precision, Dark Matter froze Legends one by one until the world was unstable enough to send out of orbit. The distortions across Cibus gave him near-complete control of the planet's fate... But as I mentioned before, the heroes of the past who had fought Dark Matter once, made the jump to this present day to save the world for good.

"And so, Dark Matter was destroyed, and over the years, Dungeons shrank and faded. There wasn't a trace left of Dark Matter in this world. Everything was becoming as it should have been. And then... just a few days ago, Arceus sensed something from beyond enter our realm. And now a new crisis even more rapid and unknown has gripped this land. Dungeons... have stopped shrinking."

 

[Disco]

Mellow was quiet. There were dungeons in her world, but they had always been there. From the very beginning. And they weren't bad or good, they simply were. ...Were they really not as harmless as they seemed? Sure, some of them were dangerous because of the terrain, and how far they would go... But usually, they were just where the Legends dwelled. That was all. Maybe it was different in other worlds...

She decided to simply listen and see if there was anything else she needed to know.