Wigglytuff's Guild

[Negrek]

Nate hesitated a moment longer. The poochyena had a point, after all. There wouldn't be anything all that sketchy going on here if the smeargle's lot didn't seem quite so invested in making sure everybody touched the light. Best thing to do would be to try to leave, and if they didn't make a fuss about it, it was probably fine. Or better yet somebody else could try to leave and he could see what happened instead.

With Diyem reluctantly admitting that the light probably wasn't harmful, though, and a couple suckers trying it with nothing worse than scorched fingers, Nate was getting impatient. Yeah, still weird, and probably best not to take the smeargle up on her offer, at least for now. But he was already in deep shit as it was, and was he really going to sit around and whimper about what-ifs when everybody else was walking out of here with fuckoff cool sword powers? Fuck no. If he was stuck in this shitty dimension anyway, at least he could be stuck here in style.

Nate shoved his way to the front of the group, reaching out to touch the ball of golden light.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Look, other people could have as many doubts as they wanted, whatever, the point was they'd seen the kind of power this shit was capable of. It was real, right in front of their faces. And the agreement required them to... do exactly the same thing they were already doing for Diyem. Maybe it was a risk, but every fight was a risk. It was just plain stupid to pass up more power.

(Maybe that was why the chosen had... no. No, that was different.)

Steeling herself, Starr walked forward and stuck a paw into the ball of light. It was... warm. Then burning. She'd expected that, from seeing how Owen and Nip had reacted. But she wasn't ready for the sudden pulse of energy that shot through her veins, like molten heat spreading throughout her body, each pulse carrying it deeper. Her paw jerked back, golden flares clinging to her fur and slowly seeping inward.

Well, for better or worse, no going back now.

 

[Namohysip]

I'm not drinking your fucking Kool-Aid. We just beat your world-saving heroes in a fight without this radiance shit. Why do we need this again?"

Soda shrugged noncommittally. "Don't have to if you don't want to. Maple already left, what do I care?"

"Well, it would certainly help, particularly because it seems to be extremely effective based on our studies," Truffle said. "Radiance against Shadows... It seems to be the same as Fire toward a Paras."

"Bah, don't bother. If they don't wanna they don't gotta." Soda made a motion for his badge, then grumbled when he realized Maple still had it. "I'm gonna get my badge back. Ruined my high score streak..." He walked toward the ladder, but halfway there, he faded away.

Truffle sighed, frowning in disapproval. "In any case," he said, "while I recommend it... Soda has a point. And that aside, I do wonder what our next steps should be." He brought a wing under his beak. "Darkwhite mentioned that another location right here in the Grass Continent may be in trouble, yet that could be simply to mislead us. Should we be searching for that corrupted town, or for the Darkwhite herself...?"

 

[Namohysip]

In the meantime, Truffle smiled in approval toward Nate and Starr as the great light dug into their bodies and into their cores. It didn't take long after that for them to be forced away from that same radiance with a horrible stinging concentrated on the contact point.

"You're all taking this very well," he complimented.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr snorted. "Don't have to say that like you expected us not to."

 

[Phoenixsong]

Skara clicked her pincers thoughtfully. A power that could defeat these "shades" would obviously come in handy, and was more than a little tempting, but qualms about these pokémon's religion aside (she still wasn't entirely clear on what an "arceus" was) she'd touched enough things she probably shouldn't have touched for a little bit.

"I think I might... wait a bit," she said at last. "I'd kind of like to see more of the sorts of things it can do first, if that's okay? It definitely sounds fascinating, though! Is everyone really going to get something different...?" She closed her eyes thoughtfully for a moment, trying to imagine the sort of power she might manifest if she took in the light (after careful consideration, of course). It was hard to think of anything other than a big blast of blinding energy, something like the vikavolt could do back home. If it was half as potent as a zap cannon, she supposed she wouldn't have much to complain about, at least.

She paused and clicked again when Truffle posed another question. "Do you not have enough resources available to do both? No offense; I'm genuinely not sure, is all. Or is there something we can do to help handle one of those things? With a bit more information about where and how you've already searched, what the other settlements on this continent are like, we might be able to help you narrow down some locations."

 

[Namohysip]

"Well, each proposal is vast! An unknown amount of time and effort would be required for both." Truffle nodded, looking down. "Ultimately, we could try to split our resources equally for such a search, but in the end... we have to consider what we must prioritize, and how much we can trust what Darkwhite told us. There is a chance she is watching us even now..."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr narrowed her eyes at that. "Yeah, uh, please tell me we're not actually thinking about listening to that Darklight asshole. Playing along with manipulative shitheads like that never helped anyone, trust me."

 

[Adamhuarts]

The ball of light Maple left behind burned brightly, and Cynthian spent a long time just staring at it while unease gnawed at his senses. The braver ones in the team have already gone ahead and touched it, but he remained fixed in place regardless.

"Um, Maple said this 'radiant thing' could manifest in us either way without us having to touch that thing, right?" Cynthian asked Truffle.

 

[Negrek]

"Ow! Motherfunghrrr..." Nate bit off his exclamation, rubbing sourly at his sore shoulder. You didn't hear anybody else squealing about a little shock. For a moment golden flames danced around his fingers, then died away, leaving his arm and hand throbbing. Other than that, the light seemed to have done... absolutely jack and shit. What a surprise.

Meanwhile the decidueye was going on about what they ought to do next. Finally. They couldn't sit around here the whole time, waiting to see if another giant magikarp would fall out of the sky to crush the place. Presumably "Darkwhite" was the Mew thing the poochyena'd been talking about earlier. "I mean, ain't you able to check what's going on in the other towns and shit without actually having to send somebody out looking? Like, you know, with these things or whatever?" Nate flicked his badge so it caught the light. "You oughta be calling them anyway to ask if they've seen the Darkwhite thing. One way or another, way easier to search them than to go looking for one pokémon running around out there. Least they all stay in one place."

 

[Namohysip]

"I'm afraid we've already done that, and every town we contacted said the same thing: They didn't see anything that matched the description given. If it truly is a Mew, there's a strong chance that she can also transform to disguise herself..."

"I don't know if we can trust her, either," Owen said. "But... at the same time, why would she say something like that in the first place? It's out of nowhere..."

"Could be to make us paranoid," Soda said. "So what, is the decision to ignore what Darkwhite says and just go after her directly? She seems like the first person we can apprehend to question what's going on here."

 

[Adamhuarts]

"How do we apprehend someone who can literally sink into the shadows without a trace and can also transform?" Cynthian asked. "I'm not sure if that's possible unless your Arceus has some kind of all seeing eye."

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot winced and hastily pulled back his claw after touching the orb. Fire danced around his claw until it got seemingly absorbed into it his scales, prompting his to nurse his claw. While he did so, his teammates began to talk about their next step, prompting him to speak up.

"I think we should try to go after Darkwhite as well," Cabot said. "She keeps trying to play these games with us, so doing what she tells us to do probably won't end well. Maybe the way we can beat her is by not playing along and catching her off guard."

 

[Namohysip]

"Possibly, yes," Truffle said with a nod. "I only hope that we won't earn her ire by doing so, but... well, calculated risks. I suppose that will be our main effort, then--searching for Darkwhite. Whole efforts!" Truffle nodded, and then spread his wings. "In any case, I suppose that means you are all dismissed to go as you like. I believe there was an investigation planned to search the town for potential Shades... among other things. Hopefully that will be fruitful. I shall join you!"

"I'll go, too," Owen said. "But we probably shouldn't crowd around too much or it might get strange looks... or, you know, get the town in a panic."

 

[Adamhuarts]

"That is true. Let us know if you guys find out anything. I'll just wander about aimlessly till I'm needed," Cynthian said with a voice devoid of any enthusiasm.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa had, as usual, been one of the last to arrive to the group meeting, and not bold enough to speak over anyone else. Instead, she listened attentively, and watched as other pokémon touched the light and received radiant energy in exchange for momentary pain. The choice was not difficult. She would do it. Surely they all would? Every one of them had said yes to Diyem, with less information to go on than this.

I'll just wander about aimlessly till I'm needed

But some were having doubts. Brisa padded over to the roselia, intent on rousing him from his dejection.

"Cynthian. Remember when I told you to be brave?"

She smiled at him. It was not an easy expression for her to make. She'd smiled more times in the last two weeks than in the last two years, but that still wasn't much.

"You were brave against the magikarp. You were brave against Team Spice. Be brave now. Come on, I'll be right beside you."

 

[Virgil134]

"Sounds good," Cabot said to Truffle. "I think I'll get some rest for now. That fight against Team Spice was a long one and it is already evening."

 

[Adamhuarts]

Cynthian rubbed an elbow with his flower and pursed his lips. He spoke only loudly enough for Brisa to hear next to him. "I wouldn't really call that bravery. All I did in the last fight was be a body shield and that's about it."

His black and white roses stared at him while he raised them. "I feel like I'm not cut out to be on this team. So, what does it change even if I touch that thing?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"You made a difference in the fight, and you'll keep makin' a difference in fights to come, whether or not you feel that's what you're doin'. That's good enough for me. It oughta be good enough for you."

She looked towards the light.

"The way I understand it, you'll get these light powers either way. But if you touch that, it shows you're committed. That you mean to keep makin' that difference. So how about it?"

 

[Adamhuarts]

How about it? Cynthian slowly looking at the burning light while he mulled over Brisa's words. He did want to make a difference, and he was committed to seeing that come true. Perhaps it was wise to believe in the words of his friend.

"Okay..." Cynthian took a deep breath and approached the light. He reached out his white rose and lightly touched it.

The same overbearing shock the others experienced rattled him to his very core, and alarm sirens blared in his mind after he jerked away and found embers dancing on his flower. Cynthian eeped and smacked his flower repeatedly on the ground till there was no trace of the embers, though he was baffled his petals hadn't burned to a crisp.

"Ow."