Chapter 19 – Glyph the Thief

Rickety, Lexxi and Dusknoir could already hear the members of the guild chattering amongst each other before they even made their way down the ladder. They all sounded like they were panicking, and quite badly at that, too.

“How could this have happened?! A-Are we running out of time?!”

“I’m dreaming, right? Please tell me I’m dreaming!”

“I don’t understand! Why?!”

Rickety picks up his pace, carrying Lexxi on his back as the two descend down the ladder, hopping off and following Bungie right behind. “We’re here! We’re here! Sorry, we came as fast as we could!” Rickety exclaims, running over to the group, Chatot and Wigglytuff standing by one of the job boards, their expressions rather grim. “What’s going on?”

“Two more Time Gears were stolen!” Chatot exclaims, flapping his wings. “Right from under our noses, at that!”

Rickety and Lexxi’s eyes both widen, Dusknoir standing behind them, equally shocked, but staying silent, taking everything in. “Two of them?!” Lexxi shouts. “But how?! And where?!”

Chatot tries to recompose himself, ruffling his feathers as he shuffles awkwardly in place. “One was stolen from a cave system southwest of here. The other…” He goes silent, his gaze drifting towards the ground.

“…Oh no.” Rickety mutters, expression turning more worried, even slightly panicked himself. “There’s no way it could’ve been, right?”

“Yep.” Zorora says, leaning against a wall, more composed than most of the rest of the group, but still rather upset and and disgruntled. “Some jerkoff stole the Time Gear from Fogbound Lake.”

Rickety’s face goes pale as his body goes stiff. “Okay, I’m officially freaking out.” He begins to pace around frantically, paws against his head as he stares down at the ground, muttering to himself. _{“How, how, freaking HOW?! We all promised not to tell anybody! We were the only ones that knew! Did somebody in the guild leak it out or-“}

“HEY!”

Loudred shouts at Rickety in a scolding manner, frowning angrily at him. “You think that’s really necessary?!”

“I’m just thinking out loud, okay?!” Rickety shouts back, his body trembling and his breaths coming in pants. “I’m panicking like the rest of you are! I trust you guys but there’s no reason this should’ve even happened in the first place!”

Lexxi stares up at Rickety worriedly, reaching for him with a paw to his hand. “Try to take it easy? Maybe sit down?”

“…R-Right, right, I should, uhh… I really gotta sit down.” Rickety lets out a shaky sigh, slumping against one of the walls as he holds his head, trying to slow down his breathing to a more steady pace.

Xero leans out from next to Zorora, staring at Rickety. “Honestly, I can’t exactly blame you for jumping to that kind of conclusion. It happened so soon after our expedition.”

Dusknoir awkwardly leans forward, lifting his hand up. “Err… Pardon me for interrupting, but I don’t quite think I understand. You’re saying there was a Time Gear at Fogbound Lake? I recall you all telling me that your expedition came back fruitless and uneventful.”

Wigglytuff’s giant ears droop against his head, expression falling. “I’m sorry, Dusknoir. We’d all made a promise that we wouldn’t tell anybody about what we found, and that even meant you, as great and trusting as you are.”

Chatot sighs, trying to recompose himself as he ruffles his feathers, addressing the group at large. “A lone intruder had slipped into Fogbound Lake and knocked out Uxie, making off with the Time Gear.”

Rickety gasps, standing back up a bit. “I-Is Uxie alright, Chatot?!”

“They’re fine, don’t worry about them.” Chatot nods. “They’re being watched over by Magnezone’s squad for the time being. “

Rickety sighs in relief, shaking his head as he rubs at the back of his neck. “Oh, thank goodness…”

Chatot’s expression grows nervous once again. “According to Uxie’s victim statement, the thief’s identity has been revealed. But… It’s something I don’t think any of us ever could have possibly anticipated, and this situation might be even more troubling that we initially thought.”

“Well, freakin’ fess up already, will you?!” Zorora barks, leaning forward from where she stood. “Who took the Time Gears?! Tell us so we can go hunt ’em down!”

Chatot nervously clears his throat. “I-It’s, err… Not a matter of who, but a matter of what.” He takes a few steps back from the job board, gesturing with a wing. “There’s already a wanted poster up for the thief, just, prepare yourselves for what you’re about to see.”

One by one, the members of the guild walk up to the board, with Lexxi and Rickety right up in front.

The sight of the poster leaves everyone awestruck and dumbfounded.

“That’s…” Chimeco could be heard stammering from behind. “That’s not a Pokemon, is it?”

The wanted poster showed a creature that looked like a Grovyle, to an extent, but at the same time, didn’t look like a typical Grovyle at all. A dark, black visor stretched out from both sides of its face, revealing a pair of glowing, orange eyes that seemed to be represented by multiple dots that made up their shape. It’s body made of of various kinds of metals, a bright yellow, holographic leaf hanging from the back of its head, which, rather than being rounded like a typical Grovyle, were curved upwards into two tipped points.

“That certainly doesn’t look like any Pokemon I’ve ever seen! Nuh-uh!” Bungie speaks up as well, his voice wavering. “It’s a freaky looking thing, whatever it is!”

Lexxi’s eyes linger on the poster, just trying to process it, taking everything in. It almost reminded her of those humans she saw in the visions from the necklaces, something that looked so familiar, but at the same time, had this uncomfortably feeling of wrongness that came from looking at it, something so uncanny and unnatural. Her eyes glance down at the name below the creature, reading it aloud. “Glyph…”

Could it be an Android? A Cyborg? Whatever they were referred to in her visions? It would make the most sense, but… Why? What would one of those be doing here in Treasure Town? Why would it be stealing Time Gears? What did it want to do with them in the first place?

“The poster just arrived a few minutes ago, issued on Uxie’s statement as part of an all-points bulletin.” Chatot explains. “You may have seen dozens of Pelipper flying around outside, all trying to deliver this notice. It’s been issued as urgent, and catching this “Glyph” character has been declared an utmost priority. ” He glances up at the poster, shivering a bit as he ruffles his feathers. “As you can imagine, they’ve put an incredibly high bounty on Glyph.”

Lexxi keeps staring at the poster, still trying to take everything in. Such a strange… Thing. It didn’t look like a typical Pokemon at all. It looked constructed, as if someone had built it. But who would build such a thing? To look like a Grovyle of all things? She was going to ask Rickety what he thought of it, but when she turned to him, she just saw him staring at the poster, his body trembling and shaking, his breaths coming in pants again, panick stricken in his eyes.

“Why does it look like that?” Rickety says, his voice shaky and incredibly wavering. “Why does it look like that? What even is that?” He places his hands on his head again, staring to pace around. _{“What is it what is it how does it exist? That thing shouldn’t exist, there’s no feasible way that thing should even EXIST!”}

Rickety sits down on the ground, still clutching at his head and burying his face in his knees. _{“How dangerous is it? Can it hurt us? How bad can it hurt us? W-What typing even is it?! It can’t just be grass it has to be grass and something else! Why does it even look like a Grovyle if it doesn’t even have a leaf?! T-This thing this- What do you even call it?! That’s not a Pokemon, that’s not a freaking Pokemon.”}

Lexxi’s expression turns nervous again, glancing back at the wanted poster before returning to Rickety, sitting herself down beside him. _{“Deeeeeeeep breath. Slowly, nice and easy.}

Rickety’s eyes briefly glance at Lexxi, giving a soft, but understanding nod. He closes his eyes, breathing deeply through his nostrils before slowly exhaling. “Mmnnhhh… I can’t even begin to imagine how scared Uxie must’ve felt.” He whimpers. “We promised them that we would keep the secret of Fogbound Lake safe, but then that… That Glyph thing comes in to steal the Time Gear, i-it’s…”

He buries his face in his knees once again. “I-I can’t look at that thing, I don’t even want to look at that thing. I don’t know what it is but it can’t be anything good. If it took on Uxie, what else can it do? Who else can it hurt? What can it even do? What sorta powers does it-“

“Rickety.” Lexxi says a bit louder. “We’ll be fine. Like Chatot said, Magnezone and his group are all looking into it and they’re all on the case, okay? It’ll be alright.”

He looks over to her, staring at her for a few good moments as he tries to slow his breathing down a bit. “…Thank you.” He says, letting out an exhausted sigh.

The more guild members that look at the wanted poster, the chattier they seem to become, getting louder, a bit more panicked and worried.

“W-Where do you think it’s gonna strike next? Should we stop it? Can we stop it?”

“I don’t even know if we could hurt it! Look at its body! Not even Magnezone is built that strong!”

“What if it comes for our next?! What’ll we do?!”

The guild suddenly begins to rumble and shake, and everyone attention immediately turns to that of the Guildmaster, who’s eyes are scrunched shut. “Yoooooooooooooooooom…TAH!” He suddenly exclaims, spreading his arms into the air as the rumbling abruptly stops.

“G-Guildmaster?” Chatot stammers, his body still shaking a bit.

“Everyone!” Wigglytuff exclaims loudly. “We might not know who this Glyph is or what it is, but they WILL be caught! And we’re going to help! I vow it upon the name of Wigglytuff’s Guild! All other assignments and jobs are to be put on halt until the thief is captured and arrested!”

Wigglytuff focuses back on the rest of the guild. “However! …As much as I’m sure we’re all itching to jump into action, we simply cannot afford to do so until tomorrow. We are all still exhausted from the expedition and haven’t even settled back yet, we need at least a day of rest before we’re even ready to start searching for Glyph. We will catch it! That’s an order from your Guildmaster!”

Everyone in the guild is quiet for a few moments, until Zorora eventually speaks up with a laugh. “The Guildmaster making a decision I can fully get behind? Well I never thought I’d see the day! You freakin’ bet I’m in! What about the rest of ya?”

Rickety stares at Zorora for a few moments, taking a deep breath and steeling himself, standing back up. “I’m in too! Let’s all pull this in together! For Uxie!”

The rest of the guild perks back up at the two’s words, all seemingly in agreement. “For Uxie!” They all say together in unison, Lexxi smiling up at Rickety, tail swishing behind her.

“Wigglytuff,” Dusknoir begins, looking in the Guildmaster’s direction. “I believe I fully understand the severity of the situation now. I will join in your guild’s pursuits to capture Glyph. With your permission, of course.”

“You have our full permission, Dusknoir!” Wigglytuff nods firmly. “Any and all help would greatly benefit us! Especially someone as wise as yourself!”

Chatot clears his throat again, ruffling his feathers, glancing between Wigglytuff and Dusknoir. “So it’s been conferred! Dusknoir, the Guildmaster and I will devise a strategy to capture Glyph. In the meantime, all of you should get some rest in preparation for tomorrow. We’ve got a big day ahead of us! And we need all the strength we can get if we’re going to tackle this issue head on! We’ll have a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. Until then… Dismissed!”

---

Rickety was sitting up on his cushion as he stares down at the ground, blankly, just listening to the sounds of the waves crashing up against the cliffside from outside the window, the sun having long since set as the moon began to rise up into the sky.

Lexxi, laying down, glances up at him as she shuffles a bit in place, staring at him inquisitively as her tail idly swishes from side to side. “…You wanna talk about it, Rickety?”

The Riolu sighs, gazing down at his necklace. “I can’t remember the last time I had a breakdown like that.” He scrunches his eyes shut. “It felt like I was being crushed, exploding from the inside. Like everything I thought I knew and everything I understood just came crashing down. Whatever Glyph is, it’s not natural, it’s not explainable.”

“Hmm…” Lexxi nods a few times. “It reminded me of the humans I saw from the necklaces’ visions. They mentioned Cyborgs and Androids, whatever those are. You think Glyph might be one of them?”

“It’s not a human, Lexxi, and I’d be…” He winces a bit, shuddering. “Very hesitant to even consider it a Pokemon. It feels like a copycat, like those weird drawings we saw in the play palace. It looked like it was trying to be a Grovyle, but it couldn’t get all the details right. Even Ditto does a better job at mimicry.”

“It just-” Rickety stammers, sighing. “It struck something in me, some weird, primal fear I didn’t even know I had, and the worst part is I don’t even know what it is about it, I look at that thing and I wanna do everything I can to stay as far away from it as possible, but… I know I can’t be like this, I gotta be strong for the guild, strong for Uxie… Strong for you.”

Lexxi smiles softly, muffling a laugh to herself. “You’ll be alright, Rickety. I can kinda tell thinking about it is making you upset, so we can move onto something else if you want.”

“…Well, it feels really embarrassing when you put it like that.” He chuckles, scratching at his head. “Uhhhmm… Oh! There actually is something I wanna tell you, something I couldn’t really talk about since we were all caught up in the moment back at the Amp Plains.” He glances down at his necklace again, gripping it in his hand. “Remember how, back at Apple Woods, it slowed down time when Team Skull tried to ambush us?”

Lexxi looks at him curiously, nodding her head.

Rickety lifts the necklace up to his face a bit, studying all its little intricate engravings. “It activated again. But it didn’t slow down time. I think it… Reversed it.”

She blinks a few times, tilting her head. “Reversed time? But I didn’t notice anything change.”

“See, that’s the thing,” Rickety explains, turning his gaze back to Lexxi. “What I think happened was, Luxray was charing up an attack and he launched it right at me.” He scratches at his head. “I think I remember getting hit, and I remember almost getting knocked out. But when I was losing consciousness, it started glowing. Before I knew it, I was back up on my feet, back in the fight, dodging the attack he was throwing at me.”

Lexxi stares at his necklace, leaning forward to get a closer look. “So not only can it slow down time, but also turn it back, too?”

“Only to a small extent, it seems.” Rickety sits back down, leaning back on his cushion. “Maybe if I actually figured out how to get this thing to work on command, I could understand how it works better, but it just seems like it’s happened haphazardly.” His brows furrow. “The only connection I can make is that it’s activated when we were in danger, which is convenient, sure, but I still can’t understand why can’t get any response out of it on my own.”

The Skitty hums curiously, tilting her head to the side, trying to really think. “It almost seems like some sort of… Instinctive reaction? Like you know we’re about to get hurt, or something along those lines, and something kicks in, some kinda survival instinct, knee-jerk reaction.”

“Huh… I guess that would make sense.” Rickety shrugs. “Though, I’d kinda like to be able to use its powers when I’m not panicking, you know? Have to learn to use it properly somehow. Maybe I need to dedicate a day to myself to try and train with it.” He sighs, sinking back into his cushion. “Not for a while, though, not until this situation with Glyph is resolved.”

Lexxi shifts and sinks deeper into her cushion, making herself comfortable. “Well, at least with someone like Dusknoir on our side, I think we’ve got a pretty good chance of coming out of this a-okay.”

Rickety chuckles softly to himself. “Heh, yeah. I’m really glad we’ve got him looking our for us on this. We gotta pay him back for saving us some day. But for now, I’m just… Gonna try to get some sleep, and hope I don’t have any nightmares of Glyph or whatever.”

Lexxi muffles a laugh to herself, then stares down at her own necklace. Her own curiosity seems to grow again. Rickety’s necklace had all these time powers, but her’s… Was it capable of anything? If at all? What would a “LOVE” necklace do? Hmm…

Another thought for another day.

There’s more important issues to be dealt with.