Treasure Town ~ Residential District

[Namohysip]

North of Treasure Town is a somewhat recent extension to town where more permanent residents called home. While Treasure Town was largely a traveler's pit-stop, particularly for explorers to quickly get to many other locations across the continent, it was also home to those who did not travel, and merely enjoyed living somewhere near the Guild and so many different explorers.

Houses of all shapes and sizes to match the diverse inhabitants lined long, winding roads that oversaw cliffs or large fields. Waterfall Cave's mountain was just a little speck in the distance, but its long river was what helped provide this town with such a bountiful grasslands.

Compared to the rest of Treasure Town, the residential district was calmer and quieter, with lazy lounging at front yards and leisurely Pokemon living in their abodes being the most common sight. It was not unlike a suburb, only with buildings that seemed to have no rhyme nor reason without the context of the resident themselves.

Could such a quiet town be the breeding ground for corrupted Pokemon...?

<><><>​

 

[Negrek]

Mercifully, the decidueye walked a bit slower as he made his way to the residential district, presumably out of deference to Nate's pace. Unfortunately, Nate absolutely fucking hated when people acted all sorry for him, like he couldn't keep up if he wanted to, so he charged on at a half-run anyway. At least his hand wasn't hurting quite so much now.

"So, Destiny Village," he said, doing his best not to sound winded. "All the fucking God Squad's from there? I'm guessing you ain't, not originally. Or are people from Destiny Village the only ones Arceus allows to join his posse?"

As Treasure Town's busy streets started to give way to quieter, more meandering lanes, Nate kept his eyes open. If the pokémon here were anything like what he was used to, you'd be able to tell from the shape of the house what kind of pokémon lived there. What sort of people had decided to make Treasure Town their home?

 

[Namohysip]

Surprisingly, that was not the case here, at least not by the shape alone. Some of the homes were carved of polished stone and had very little gardening work, suggesting the inhabitants were Rocks. Further down the road, another plot of land had been converted into a pond that, despite not going anywhere, looked surprisingly pure. Down the road, a young Swinub chased after a Duskull, though with how the latter sank into the ground, and how the former burrowed through the soft mud, it seemed most of the action happened below.

"Indeed," Truffle replied. "I am not native to Destiny Village, though I was eventually one to travel there when I joined Arceus' main fold. The Mystery Continent is not the easiest place to go into for residential purposes, but they do allow both visitors and permanent inhabitants, even if they are mortal. The primary purpose of Destiny Village, though, is for the Legends themselves to live.

"Ever since Team Gyro of the Water Continent defeated Dark Matter, the world has changed dramatically. Prior to this incident, we were entering an era of awakening and peace at once. Bit of an awkward state for the gods, you see. As a result, Arceus decided that forming a city for them to retire for the time being would be appropriate. Quite a few were interested enough to at least reserve temporary homes."

Truffle stopped by one of the homes. This one was completely covered in tall grass and twisted bushes, suggesting something that was at least partially Grass in nature.

 

[Negrek]

It was a surprise that the houses were, well, almost like normal houses, not advertisements for the pokémon living in them. Kinda weird when the shops back in town were still doing the whole blissey head thing or whatever, but at least that meant if some larvitar wanted to move into a golem's old house they wouldn't have to redo the entire place.

"Oh, so, like, it's mostly legendary pokémon?" Obviously not all of them, if the regis were supposed to have been hanging out in that cave the feraligatr and all had been in. "Are any of the ones living there the ones that've gone missing, or is it only ones who decided they'd rather hang out on desolate mountaintops or whatever?"

And when Truffle stopped in front of a densely-overgrown home, Nate asked, "You like this one, huh?" It didn't look like anything special to him, but it would make sense if the decidueye just liked the bushes or something. "So, uh, how do we want to play this off?" It probably would have been a good idea to figure that out before getting here, but he'd been too distracted trying to figure out what hootface's deal was. "We probably don't want to scare nobody, at least at first. Are they going to recognize you, you think, or not until you show the logo thingy?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh, so, like, it's mostly legendary pokémon?"

"Well, no. We have some natives and also those who had been devout to Arceus at the time. They helped set up the village to what it is today--I suppose Village is a misnomer in that sense..." Truffle looked ahead. "Legends, however...

"So, uh, how do we want to play this off?"

"Hmm, hmmmm..." Truffle walked across the grass--there was thankfully at least a path to go through--and stopped at the door. "We knock, declare our purpose, and be on our way! They will surely inform us if any of them are feeling ill, as we can help! Perhaps the emblem will also be of assistance!"

Something shuffled inside the home, movement behind one of the windows. Truffle was talking so loudly that everyone within three houses down probably heard him...

 

[Negrek]

"Oh my fucking God." Nate sprinted up to join the decidueye on the porch before he could do anything even more horrifying. Tell the whole goddamn world, why don't you? Jesus. "Okay, yeah, great plan. How about instead I'm gonna knock, and you're gonna follow my lead?" Nate reached up to give the door a solid rap.

Nate fumed while he waited for someone to answer the door--or not, in which case things would get interesting. What the hell was the decidueye's damage? The whole cheerful buffoon schtick had to be an act; he obviously knew way more than he let on. But why the hell would he go warn the whole damn street like that? He didn't actually want to scare off anybody infected, did he?

 

[Namohysip]

The door, by some miracle, opened. On the opposite side was a Cherrim, looking purple and gloomy, though perhaps only because she had been hiding inside. There did not appear to be a haze around her.

"Yes?" she asked quietly. "Is something wrong?"

There appeared to be someone else inside, watching suspiciously--an Ivysaur, who relaxed a little upon seeing Truffle flashing his Arcean icon.

 

[Negrek]

No point making shit up now, not when they'd surely heard the decidueye's announcement. Nate fixed a broad smile on his face and said, "Yeah, hi. We're with the God Squad, and we've just been going around to check on people, you know, make sure everybody's doing all right after the evacuation and, uh, revacuation, all that. Is everybody here feeing okay?"

Smile, smile. Mudkip were cute. He heard it all the time. People wouldn't shut up about it, actually. The one advantage this stupid body had. So it had damn well better do some good work for him here.

 

[Namohysip]

The way Cherrim looked at Nate suggested it was working. there was, for the briefest moment, a cooing smile on her face at the adorable Mudkip doing the big hero business with the strong, heroic Decidueye. "Oh," Cherrim said, suddenly much more pleasant. "Well, no. We've actually been doing really well about that, and so are all my neighbors as of yesterday. I, actually--you know, if you go four houses down, you'll find our neighborhood leader. Why don't you ask him and he can spread the word all around town?"

 

[Negrek]

Yeah, that's right. Cute, harmless mudkip. "Ah, thanks, that's a great idea," Nate said. "We'll be sure to talk to the leader, then. Anything else we can do for you while we're here? Couldn't help but notice you seemed a little nervous about us coming to your door. Nobody's giving you grief, are they?"

 

[Namohysip]

"No, none, just--" Cherrim glanced to the side. "Everything's been so... tense lately, with these rumors going around... And then suddenly Arceus' chosen are here, and those lightning strikes, and of course there was the recent attack... Team Spice being found battered and bruised... what's going on?"

"It's all under control," Truffle assured. "In fact, that is part of the reason why we are here! Treasure Town is under our protection."

 

[Negrek]

"Oh. Yeah." And what the fuck was he supposed to say to that? Probably some shit about how it was all going to be fine and not to worry, like the decidueye said. If you see anything weird, tell one of the Arceus types. That kind of shit. For a second he struggled to come up with some kind of happy bullshit that would make the cherrim feel better, but... fuck it. Who the fuck was he kidding? "Yeah, it fucking sucks. Watch out for yourself. But thanks, anyway."

Nothing more to see here. "Let's go," Nate said to the decidueye, starting back down the path.

 

[Namohysip]

Cherrim flinched. Such vulgar language from a child! But she supposed he also had a point. Ivysaur, in the back, looked entertained and smiled wryly as the door closed, and nervous laughter came from Cherrim from within. It was responded to by a heartier chuckle from Ivysaur.

"Well! I think that went quite nicely," Truffle said. "Onward to the neighborhood's leader!"

If their plans weren't known yet, they certainly were now...

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah, you would fucking think that," Nate muttered. Where was the neighborhood leader supposed to be, again? Four houses down? He headed that way, meanwhile trying to concentrate. It was probably never going to stop feeling stupid just thinking really hard at somebody who wasn't there. Wasn't even on the fucking planet, supposedly.

Hey, Charizard. You know anything about this whole legends-disappearing thing?

 

[Namohysip]

--What? Legends? Disappearing?

Diyem sounded like he had been distracted by something else.

Yes, I know about some of that from what the others had said. I have the list somewhere here, where did I... rrrgh, I'll find it later, but I'm aware that the Legends are evacuating. I took a look at Destiny Village and see several of the remaining ones living there, so at least some are safe and under Arceus' watch. Not that I have much faith in such things...

Truffle walked up to a building that smelled of brimstone and, somehow, had patches of hot ground nearby. No grass grew here, perhaps deliberately, and walking in the wrong place left scorching burns on the unfortunate visitor. Thankfully, Truffle was careful enough to avoid this as he declared their presence. "Hello, neighborhood leader!" he said, and then knocked. "It is I, Decidueye Truffle of Destiny Village, and I wish to speak to you!"

Truffle was probably not part of stealth raids.

 

[kyeugh]

It was a nice day outside, and Lauchs had nothing better to do, so of course he was taking a leisurely stroll through Treasure Town and admiring its many fine homes. The last few days had been wrought with incomprehensible events of every sort, and he was glad to give his mind a rest for a moment. Yet when Truffle's booming voice rang out from halfway across the neighborhood—"We knock, declare our purpose, and be on our way!"—Lauchs could not quash his curiosity even if he really would have preferred to. Instead, he made his way over to the voice's point of origin. He pressed his back against buildings and dived into bushes as he went, employing every stealth trick he knew and then some.

It was imperative that he wasn't spotted, not because anything particularly severe would happen if he was, but because if Truffles found him, he might ask him to join him in his task, and that was no fun at all. Lauchs had spent quite a lot of time playing as part of a team now... He missed playing for himself, damn it! If the only solo mission available was a top-secret reconnaissance one for information he could just as well ask for and receive freely, well, so be it.

The decidueye was walking along with a mudkip when Lauchs found him. He fell back, careful not to put himself within range of Truffle's superior hearing. Decidueye were known for their powerful ears, but, well, Lauchs figured Truffle would have to hear over the sound of his own voice first. The pair approached a rather severe-looking house, one where all the grass had died off and the air smelled of... something unpleasant. Lauchs peeked past the side of the house he was hiding behind as Truffle called to the "neighborhood leader," and—curses, the view from here was terrible. He scooted just a hair to the side, then just a hair more, and then he was on his tiptoes, trying his best to get a glimpse of the door so he'd be able to make out the person behind it—

Poff! He lost his balance and fell flat, the bottom of his beak smacking the ground. Somehow, he managed not to let out any sound... until he felt the searing heat of the ground. He pushed himself up frantically, a yelp escaping his throat, and then his hands hurt for having touched the ground, too. "Hoo! Hah! Ooh! Hot!" The floor was lava, and he was shouting. Mission compromised...!

Now that his cover was blown anyway, he hopscotched his way over to Truffle and his little companion. Sometimes his foot burned when he took a step, and he yelped; sometimes it didn't. Strange land, this... He hoped the neighborhood leader had received a steep discount on the real estate.

"Good day," he said to Truffle between breaths. "Fancy meeting you here. I do hope I'm not interrupting anything. I was just, ah, having a bit of a walk around the neighborhood, you see, and then I spotted you, and, well, here we are... And who's this?" he asked, looking down at the mudkip. "Why, I don't believe we've met! My name is Ser Lauchze—or, well, just Lauchzelot, I suppose. Lauchs, if it please you."

[ i promise all my posts won't be this long i just wanted to write the dumb stealth mission. ]

 

[Negrek]

[ Lauchs is a good!! ]

Wait, evacuating? Birdboy said going missing[/i]. So you know where they're going, then? Is anybody actually missing, or is this guy just--[/i]

Nate was distracted when someone stumbled out from behind the house and hot-footed it over to them, yelping and squawking the entire way. It was a farfetch'd, he thought, one of the foreign kinds. Nate would say he felt like he'd walked out of reality and into some kind of fucking stupid cartoon, except of course that life always felt like that nowadays.

This was supposed to be the "community leader?" Or, no, he had a normal name, right? Not like a food? But then how the ever-loving fuck had his "bit of a walk" ended up with him here of all fucking places? "Nate," he snapped. "Why the fuck were you following us?"

 

[Namohysip]

Both. Some are missing, and the remaining ones are evacuating and taking refuge in Destiny Village proper. Hrm, yes, I found the list. As of now I have noticed a distinct absence of the Regis, Lugia, Rayquaza--the rulers of Land and Sea as well, in fact...

"Ahh, a wonderful time to meet, Lauchs!" replied Truffle. "I believe he wished to join us on this noble mission! And what wonderful timing as well, for we are about to meet the--"

The door creaked open. A thick, black haze billowed out.

"Ah, wonderful!" Truffle said. "The neighborhood leader is here! Thank you and apologies for our sudden appearance!"

It was a Typhlosion... or, used to be. His entire lower half was a mess of black sludge that only vaguely formed what might be legs. Its back oozed more of this darkness, and the flames were black like Diyem's when he was upset. His eyes looked this way and that, golden and luminous, and a wraith-like phantom floated just behind him.

"More requests? More work? More complaints?" Typhlosion said with a low, distorted growl.

 

[Negrek]

Well, shit. Nate was going to have to come back to the whole legendaries thing, and the damn farfetch'd, too. Imagine finding somebody infected on literally the house they tried. The place must be crawling with them.

Nate sized the typhlosion up a second. He hadn't gotten a great look at Team Spice when they were all possessed and shit, but they hadn't looked this bad, had they? The dude was like fucking melting. And the decidueye apparently saw nothing wrong, smiling like a moron just like usual. Nate shoved past him before he could do anything stupid, standing right in front of the oozy typhlosion.

"Nah, nothing like that. We heard people've been giving you trouble. Who's been bothering you? Anything we can do about it?" Maybe they'd get a chance to learn who the typhlosion had spread the sickness to, or who'd infected him in the first place.

Nate kept an eye on the decidueye, wondering how long it'd take him to catch on. At least Nate didn't have to worry about getting incinerated. Even with a type advantage, the owl would definitely be able to take this guy. They definitely should have come up with a hand signal or something for "that guy's totally infected, get him!" before getting here, but whatever. He'd been distracted by the owl guy's bullshit, put it down to that.

 

[Namohysip]

"Giving me... trouble...?" Typhlosion opened the door a little wider, revealing that his entire abode looked mostly normal, aside from the black flames that speckled the walls and the floor. It probably used to be normal fire. "The only trouble I'm seeing..."

The ground rumbled...

"Now, we don't mean you any trouble!" Truffle said. "In fact, we are here to help you!" He made an odd motion with his wings, which cast light in an eight-sided star. "I swear by the sigil of Arceus!"

Typhlosion didn't look convinced. "Leave."

His fists became wrapped in thick darkness. If they didn't listen, he would attack, yet Truffle was smiling as wide as ever. His guard appeared to be completely open.