Despite that he hoped for one, he blinked into the new day with little but the very being of existing, with nary a dream to be had.
Sanvu had to briefly wonder if he’d actually experienced any dreams before realising that he hadn’t had one. He looked around as he woke, the dawn was still young, and Pachuku still appeared to be asleep.
He attempted to fall back asleep, if only to not experience the disappointment that came with consciousness, but came up short. So instead, he put his too-active mind to reassuring himself, to maintain the current state of affairs.
He could at least be grateful if they were immune to the mind warping the others appeared to be experiencing, but then, there wasn’t really any way for them to quantify that beyond that they couldn’t connect the dots behind why some of the others acted as they did from a rational point of view.
On and on his mind went, in silence, in a manner that felt familiar to him. Perhaps he had been like this before he lost his memory, he supposed. It was the only explanation for why he wasn’t so bothered about it. He then got to wondering what else was familiar to him, fumbling his mental branches as he searched.
It hit him so hard that he almost physically slapped himself, only stifling to not wake his partner.
The disappointment that he felt in a large population of others acting strange and abnormal; he hadn’t been as surprised to learn about their strange behaviour, nor had the suggestion even elicited anything unfamiliar in him. His eyes idly darted to the slip that read ‘Return of the Stars’ at the end of his bed, almost automatically.
Nothing came to him, looking at it in particular. But the isolation Pachuku felt… he had felt it too, and not just because he was a foreign creature in a foreign world far from home. Why that was, however, he couldn’t actually put his finger on.
He wouldn’t get the chance, though, now that Pachuku had roused from his slumber.
After yawning and climbing out and down, Pachuku noticed Sanvu staring contemplatively at the ceiling, and smiled, tilting his head.
“Good morning! Anything happen?”
Sanvu shook his head. “Nope, I didn’t even get a dream this time. Guess they’re holding out on me or something.”
“Nah, I don’t think so. You had a streak going for a while there, even if it’s been a bit patchy. Maybe they just need more time or something,” Pachuku went to their bag, digging around in it, “I’m sure you’ll get another one soon.”
Sanvu couldn’t help but smile, “I did sort of figure something out though, but it isn’t much.”
“About what?”
“This whole… the town’s whole… dissociation from you,” Sanvu waved his arm around as he stood, gesturing to the town and then to Pachuku, “I’m not as surprised about it as I thought I’d be, despite… not being from here.”
“So what do you think that means?”
“Maybe this whole happening isn’t a coincidence? I thought it might make more sense as to who I was, if such a thing doesn’t affect me as much as I thought, even though I don’t agree with anybody, if that could be related to this whole thing.”
“Hm, well, it’s something, I guess. Little steps at a time,” Pachuku hummed, fishing out a small bit of purple fabric. It was the band from yesterday.
“Huh, that stuff’s gone.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t last long outside dungeons, so I was counting on it being usable.” Pachuku turned it over, letting Sanvu see a lot more of it. It was a pretty purple colour, with a small pink berry embroidered on the side of it. “Do you want it?”
Sanvu recoiled a bit. “Me? Would it even be that useful?”
“Both of us would benefit, but, well, only one of us can have it at any one time.”
“I’d… rather you have it. Didn’t you say if you were confused that your attacks will hit me, or something?”
“They could, not will. Alright, I’ll take it, but you let me know if you change your mind,” he acknowledged as he started to put it on using a combination of his teeth and his paws, eventually managing to tie it around his neck to resemble a scarf.
“Now let’s get on with the day!” Pachuku puffed his chest out, which spread to Sanvu as an infectious smile.
As per usual, they went over to the embedded orb in Mindscape, only to find it wasn’t really glowing, and it looked more like an ornament than anything technically sound. Sanvu watched the Natu who was often sitting in the centre of the room, and wondered what he often did here, if anything, before the looming figure of Didra walked in.
“Ah, there you are. I see you’re ready to go,” she noted, with some modicum of interest. “We lost proper connection to the orb, yesterday, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to give you pretty much all your missions henceforth. I apologise for the inconvenience, it’s something we’re looking to fix,” she looked away, and her eyes narrowed, as if angry for a second, but they couldn’t really be sure while she was so silent. She continued after changing her expression to something a bit friendlier, “So, you’ve had an amazing luck streak with the discoveries you’ve found regarding the Amnesiacs, what with the whole type energy thing, among various other phenomena related to the dungeons reacting to that. So, if they’ll appear shortly…” she trailed off, her face distantly looking down the hallway towards the door, where the Natu was once again just standing, away from them.
“I’ll give them a minute, but you’ll be paired with another team again, explicitly, for purposes of examining a situation here in town.”
“W-Who’ll that be?” Pachuku stammered, his body lightly shaking.
As if the world wished to beat Didra to the punch, the door opened to reveal their teammates, who walked in proudly.
“Us,” the Oshawott confirmed. “Right? You said our mission tomorrow was with them, didn’t you, Didra?”
“Yes, I did.” Both the Minders could only stare with uncomfortable neutral expressions at Oshee before Didra spoke again.
“Now, then, according to Oshee, several Pokemon in town have had their items stolen. The culprit was never found, and it appears as if they made no sound, nor did they leave any trails. We want to try and identify a pattern here, since there’s too little to actually chase anybody down with, but if someone wants something from Mentage, then it’s clear we’re key here in regards to this investigation. That’s all, you three are to stay within the boundary of Mentage and do not go outside.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they get it,” Oshee teased, moving to turn around, aiming at the door leading outside. Her teammates followed behind, including the Minders, who were designated as such for the day.
Both were silent, sharing their discomfort in secret, not even withheld feelings could mask the discomfort they each held for Oshee right now. Her teammates weren’t entirely sure what had them so concerned, but they didn’t press.
“So, Didra told me yesterday she wanted you to team up with me for the sake of dynamics. So, take it up with her if you don’t particularly like this part,” she warned. Both of them side glanced at one another as she breathed to continue.
“We’re a bit big to be going around Mentage as a clump. So, we’re gonna need to split the team up. Pachuku, you and Swensie can take the outskirts. Pachuku’s Pickup and general attentiveness will help identify any scraps the thief left behind, if any, which there has to be, which leaves us to figure out what exactly was stolen by asking the populace,” on that last sentence, she puffed herself up, head tilted towards Sanvu, with a big grin on her face.
“We can’t just… swap teams?” Pachuku asked, Oshee deadpanning.
“Is there a problem? Swensie has the sky, and you’ve got the ground, and we’ve got society; which I’m keeping you away from, since I’m well aware how you like to hide yourself away.”
“It’s only for today, right?” Sanvu specified, and she nodded.
“Yeah, so what’s the big deal? It’s like, a day. This mission should be easy.”
“Alright, fine!” Pachuku shouted, walking towards the bat with his head low; who looked down at him warmly. Sanvu noticed a bit of that trademark anxiety what with his paws beginning to wring again, but if it was the better option, then there wasn’t much he could do. As they moved away, towards the trees leading to the woods for searching of the outskirts, the Oshawott turned to him.
“So, we should get started, huh?”
He nodded, trying to stifle some of his lingering contempt. The three of them began to move, Sero in particular rolled everywhere he went, which perplexed Sanvu for a moment, but Oshee paid it no attention, so he figured nothing of it and followed after them. It was somewhat amusing, so he kept the mental and physical images in his head, if only to distract himself from being apart from Pachuku.
After a while, he couldn’t really keep the nagging question in him away, “So… what’s your issue with me?” he piped up, the Oshawott looking at him with eyes wide. “I talk about something in my dreams that might relate to this whole thing, and you immediately write it off. Have I done something… has Pachuku done anything… wrong?”
She waited a little before responding, “I just don’t want anyone to jump to conclusions without any real evidence. A dream’s just, what, a dream? I know there’s the whole thing with humans using them to see what’s wrong with our world, but it’s… just not really too sound?” she explained, which had Sanvu thinking. “I don’t know why Pachuku is so scared of me and everybody. Like, yeah, Mentage isn’t the same as it used to be, but I don’t remember doing anything that worried him that much. It’s… not healthy to attach to someone like that,” she looked at him with big eyes, before focusing ahead. Despite that Sanvu wanted to disagree, she did have something of a point, but he continued.
“What about before I came along? Apparently there was that whole maintaining appearances thing that had everyone making fun of him or something? What’s that about?”
“Didra’s very strict that only Pokemon who work as a team must join. Because everyone’s so… kept to themselves…” she made a gesture with her paws as if she were holding something close. The clink of the rolling of the Ferroseed continued behind her, “being a team means you hold a close connection to one another, at the very least, in order to consider it an option to join.”
“So, he was not only trying to find an Amnesiac, but a teammate at that? And she didn’t react until I came along?”
“Precisely, and she saw that in you, probably because of what happened to you. Whatever you exhibited with Pachuku, she liked. “
“Basically,” the egg chimed in, still rolling about next to them, “we were only like that because Didra wanted to be sure we upheld the rules. Pachuku tried to flaunt them, so we were told and thought.”
“I don’t want to denigrate your good relationship you have going on, cause the both of you have done amazing work for Mindscape,” she began, smiling in Sanvu’s direction as they walked.
“But everyone’s got something to hide, and so I sometimes wonder what it is, at times, that you’re not telling,” she went on, Sanvu laughing at that.
“I’m pretty sure my humanity is hidden, since not even I can properly remember it. That’s all it is for me, I think.”
“What do you remember?”
“Well, my name, I had a house, family, what I might’ve looked like… and nothing else.”
“I’m sure there’s more in there,” she quipped, but it was less of a demand and more of a joke. Her head turned back down the road, they were turning left to where Pachuku had taken Sanvu yesterday, past the stores, to where most of the huts were.
Sanvu glanced again at Sero, who often shared his silent glance with little a word said. “What?” the seed eventually asked, as they continued down a pathway.
“Sorry, it’s… not every day you see a giant sentient spike ball rolling about, and it’s bugging me how you deal with it.”
“Eh…” he responded, eyes looking away for a second as they continued, eventually responding, “I wanna evolve someday, that way I’ll get actual legs, but for now, I just gotta deal with it.”
“Evolve?”
“Evolution, which means he’ll change forms,” Oshee clarified, looking back. “Swensie evolved a while ago, but you can only do that when you’re most ready, and generally only in very specific locations. You generally get stronger and bigger in evolution.”
“Really?” Sanvu reacted.
“Yeah, Sero would become a Ferrothorn, which basically means he’ll tower over everybody. I want to evolve, but the last time we went to the spring, I wasn’t ready,” she grumbled, holding her shell, “I want to as well.”
He looked away, staring at his own arm. She responded, noticing.
“Oh yeah, you would be able to evolve. I think you lose your legs upon evolving though.”
“So… I’d be more snake-like?” Sanvu asked, which prompted her to nod.
“Yeah, whatever that means. Make of it what you will; you’d lose your legs for more speed, and you’d be way taller.”
They continued down the path, the thought dawning on him. “Do you have to evolve?”
“No, of course, there’re some that choose not to,” she answered, “but either is a choice; you can’t go back once you have, my opinion is that once you’re done it’s just simply better. But it’s up to you.”
These thoughts proceeded to swirl in Sanvu’s mind for the rest of their trip through Mentage.
Many of the houses looked the same, particularly to Sanvu as the trio wandered about down the path Pachuku had taken him yesterday.
Eventually, they came to one house in particular that didn’t appear to look much different, but bits of the hut looked electrical, or at least wired up to something that Sanvu couldn’t see. He was more surprised when Sero just lurched upright, even though it was to be expected for a ‘mon of his type. Oshee knocked on the door, eventually, what answered was a red and blue Pokemon comprised of various blocky shapes. The shapes vaguely reminded Sanvu of a bird, its beady black eyes peering down at the Pokemon it floated above, in a manner that was quite robotic.
“Are you the team I sent for?” it asked. The voice sounded almost like a recording from a computer, though sounded feminine.
“What are you?” Sanvu faltered, unsure what to make of it.
“It’s a Porygon. One of those kinds of Pokemon that just… sprung outta nowhere for the most part. Yeah, we’re at the right place,” Oshee responded, the bird appearing to slow down. “So, what’s your name? I was only given directions to the location when we got the mission yesterday, Didra couldn’t provide us many details. Apparently your items were stolen?”
“I’m Pormice, you are the team?” it verified, before leaning back up, continuing. “Yesterday I was thinking about going into the nearby forest dungeon to search for supplies, when I noticed something before leaving.”
It lifted what appeared to be a small lid of a box inside the door. “Normally, I keep an AI Brooch in here. But when I went to scan for it… it had vanished. There exists no record of anybody who came in here in my personal storage.”
“Personal-“
“It means its memory,” Oshee quickly clarified. “You’re sure it was an AI Brooch?”
“Positive. It was a gift I’ve had for a long time now.”
“What does an AI Brooch do to a Porygon?” the Ferroseed wondered, the bird in question acknowledging his inquiry, floating towards him.
“It is an invaluable item for us Porygon,” it began explaining, legs rotating quickly in excitement, “Its effects only apply to myself and evolved forms of this Porygon line, but it is an item that changes our type based on the playing field.”
“That’s interesting,” Oshee commented. “But what does it do for you, exactly?”
“I was getting to that,” it interjected, sending a dry look the Oshawott’s way, “if I were hit by a Water-type move, for instance, the AI Brooch would interface with my body to change it either to a Water-type, a Grass-type or a Dragon-type, so as to prevent further Water-type moves from doing too much damage.”
“Hmm, sounds like our culprit might’ve been after it for unsavoury purposes,” Oshee hinted, winking at Sanvu who only partially understood all of that.
“Any clues left behind?” Sero supposed; the Porygon bowing.
“There exists no record of any break-in, nor does any record of myself losing the AI Brooch. I have also not become Amnesiac, at least, not to any of my personal understanding.”
“Alright, that’ll probably do, thank you,” the Oshawott waved, the door to the mechanical hut closing, leaving them outside, where they continued down the path.
“So…” Sanvu started, before Oshee started.
“Clearly, whoever was after it was after it because it helps with the whole Amnesiac thing in general,” she started. “Anybody could figure that out, but it couldn’t have been the Aerodactyl.”
“Because it’s too big?”
“Yeah, the Porygon would’ve noticed immediately. They’re too brutish to attempt things in the stealthy manner, and something that interfaces with a Porygon is likely to be small, so I don’t think they could’ve been trusted with such a thing.”
“Well, would there be a kind of Pokemon who wouldn’t leave much of a trace?”
“Ghosts,” Sero started. “They don’t tend to make noise, but some notice them.”
“They do make noise, though,” Oshee retorted, looking back to the hut with a brow rose, “They shift and shuffle in the walls they go through. It wouldn’t be quite as noticeable, but likewise, it would’ve been noticed.”
Sanvu piped in, recalling something. “Like that Ghost-type that Pachuku and I found a couple of days ago. It was like he attacked me for no real reason, until it was just… there.”
Oshee nodded. “Yeah, he would’ve heard the shuffling if he were right next to it. They’re not totally stealthy creatures.”
“Eh, I guess it’s just cause I don’t hear them as well,” Sero grumbled.
“So where’re we going next?”
“Didra gave me directions yesterday for this mission with a couple of houses to check. Apparently multiple items were stolen. We have an idea as to what happened what with the brooch, but well, I don’t need to explain the rest, do I?”
“But then if we know that it’s type energy, why continue on?”
“If we can get an idea what else was stolen, we can figure out how to retrieve them? No good to go in unprepared, you get it now?”
“Yes, sheesh,” Sanvu mumbled, looking away.
As they approached the next house, he idly wondered what Pachuku was up to.
Pachuku was basically silent. The two of them, shortly after leaving the trio behind, had a miasma between them, primarily kept up from Pachuku’s silence. They had left Mindscape earlier; Pachuku had suggested going to his training area since it wasn’t far outside Mentage and it being shrouded would probably elicit results, so the duo were making their way there.
Eventually, Swensie spoke up, looking down at the small squirrel, “So… what do you think of Mindscape?”
He didn’t answer, as they proceeded through the trees. Every step felt like it took longer than it usually did, even as she continued to ask, he just wouldn’t answer. Eventually, they reached his little training area with the burned trees, and that’s when he decided to respond.
“It’s… so-so. I… I’ve never liked how some things are done but….” he put a paw to his chest, despite that he could almost feel the shivering amidst the sparkling within. “I’m… mostly fine with it,” he half-lied.
It wasn’t as if wandering into a dungeon every now and then wasn’t fun… but it was like he’d told Sanvu earlier, he insisted internally, it’s hard to trust anybody, these days.
If Swensie could pick up on this, she hardly showed it. “Well, I mean, you could’ve just said that. I don’t know what Oshee could’ve done that has you so worried but… I assure you that we’ll get this all done together, right?”
“Y-yeah…” he stammered, not looking at her directly. Eventually, as he looked away though, he noticed something peculiar.
It almost looked like it blended in with the grass, but some manner of glass had been strewn all over this area. He’d been in town long enough to know that besides himself, he was sure there weren’t really that many others who came to it, never mind any that would’ve been holding any items.
“Hey, what’s this…” he murmured, leaning down to inspect the shards. His large bat companion landed nearby.
“Hey, aren’t those sharp?” she warned, Pachuku prodding them carefully.
“Yeah, I know, but what are these? Shards of an orb? Or some kind of glass container? A move?” He was asking to nobody in particular.
Eventually, carefully weaving through so that he wouldn’t cut himself, one in particular was glowing before petering out into a blue colour.
“It’s some kind of Orb,” Pachuku concluded, based on the colour. “Maybe an Escape? But that means that somebody actually came here, and then dipped.”
“Whoa, you’re sure all this is from an Orb?” Swensie gawped, unsure what to make of it herself.
“Yeah, that one was… glowing; then it turned blue. That’s what Orb shards do when you smash them to use them. The energy inside leaks out; and the residue gets caught in the shards until it wears out. Plenty normal,” Pachuku explained.
“So, that means somebody came here, but we still don’t have any clues. What if they just came here to wait for somebody else?” Swensie speculated.
“Either way, somebody used an Escape Orb here to get… somewhere. That doesn’t help much,” he slumped.
“Hmm, not quite, if they were too reckless enough in leaving these behind, they may have been rushed into leaving; which probably means something went wrong.”
“What’re you trying to say?” Pachuku tilted his head with creased brows.
“You’re onto something, and we should keep looking around this area if there’s anything else they left behind!” Swensie beamed, which got Pachuku to continue digging around, besides his continuing shivers.
She pushed herself off the ground again, while Pachuku followed the trail. He could at least put up with this, for today, at the very least. He had half a mind, though, to wonder how Sanvu would be putting up with Oshee, since every interaction with her hadn’t ended as well as they’d liked prior.
They had gone around 4 houses in what felt like the whole town, down the winding paths. The story generally went exactly the same for all of them, including the last one, a Bronzor by the name of Dohzor, who had this story to tell.
“I had a bottle of Steel Dust that was passed from a friend in Simmcination, but it is gone!”
The stories all seemed to involve some manner of type items, specific to a few types out of all of them, those being Normal, Steel and Fighting, generally. It didn’t paint a pleasant picture when the result was that there was no visible break-in, nor had the culprit made any sound; as if the items themselves had vanished into thin air.
As they were making their way back to Mindscape, Sanvu continued to wonder what it was this ‘type energy’ was for, alongside the means. “Would they even have the means to cover their trail?” he speculated.
It prompted the rolling orb next to him to grunt,“Only possible thing would be Ghosts, but they’d make too much noise, as we’ve established.”
“Clearly, they just want to keep it from us so that we have no means of defending ourselves. The suspicious activity around town emphasises this,” she hypothesised, “Hah… this really doesn’t sound all that good.”
“No, but would we have any chance of recovering the stuff that was stolen?” Sanvu asked.
“Likely not,” she retorted, not bothering to look his way. “We should report what we learned, anyway, that we’re not even safe here,” she moaned, prodding her badge.
“But why not?”
“Whoever it was likely teleported it out, and fast, which could suggest any Pokemon from Dark to Psychic type to anything in-between. Isn’t any point in continuing today now that we’ve figured that much,” she pointed out. The day had indeed gone on long, with all the questioning, the sun had travelled quite a distance, making it at the very least mid-afternoon.
“So, we’re done, for today?” Sero piped up, and she nodded his way.
“Yup. Let’s hope tomorrow we get more interesting missions. No offense meant, Sanvu,” she side-eyed, but he wasn’t particularly bothered.
“At least Pachuku will probably feel better after all of this,” he mused, a thought coming to mind. “Hey, uh, if it’s no bother-“
“…Go ahead,” she interjected, before he even finished, but he resumed anyway.
“Does Pachuku… have the ability to do this… evolving thing?”
“No,” Sero responded, not deviating from his path. “He can’t, plainly.”
“Not that it’s required for one to be able to work at Mindscape,” Oshee clarified, “but if it’s the creator’s choice to make him stay as he is then that’s how it is.”
Sanvu was pretty well silenced after that question, as he ruminated on his own decisions on the matter on their way back to Mindscape.
A few hours later, Swensie was using her badge to look at something in particular. In following the shard trail, eventually they came across a marking that resembled a swirl, and Swensie was using her badge to examine it.
Pachuku could do little but watch, unsure but there were various markings that had led to a particular tree with bits bitten out of it like a meal for some Pokemon.
“This’ll be pretty big, if we can examine this, this’ll be quite useful,” Swensie beamed, Pachuku still shivering.
“There were bits of stuff near the shards, but I’ve no idea what it is. Was that what was stolen?”
“More than likely, yeah,” she answered, “but who would’ve eaten this?”
“Not me. I can’t use moves involving my teeth, and even if I did, it wouldn’t be on the trees.”
“Hmm… I wouldn’t think it was you, but more so a type…”
“Poison? Or Dark? I’m n-not…” Pachuku stammered.
“Hmm… let’s just go with that for now. We’d better get back. Real shame we didn’t find them. But you did good!”
“Th-Thanks. Let’s just… go back, already.”
The bat nodded, as they slowly made their way back to Mindscape.
When both groups returned and reported what they’d found, Didra simply dismissed both groups, leaving the Tenditions to bid them farewell. After both of Sanvu and Pachuku had shared what had happened to the other, Pachuku could only begin to chatter endlessly about what it was for as they made their way home.
“Well, we saw what happened the other day, right?” Pachuku said, uncaring about specificity.
“Which other day?”
“When we got Maluw’s recovery type energy and when Didra lied about the Treaders. Sure, it could be being kept from us to prevent Amnesiac recovery, but there’s gotta be something more to it, right?”
“But what would that be? You weren’t even sure what it was when we first saw it.”
“Yeah, which is why I wonder if there’s more we don’t know, that it’s being used for something, that they need it for, and that just getting it from the dungeons isn’t cutting it.”
“And also who this ‘they’ is.”
“Whoever stole it, we already know Aerodactyl was working for them, maybe Froslass? You were hung up on her knowing you.”
“I still am,” Sanvu maintained, “You’ve said it could’ve been type advantage but… I don’t know; her eyes just… looked like they knew me. Besides, didn’t she mention a superior?”
“Ah, you have a point there!” he pointed, looking at him. “So who’s the ‘superior’ and did they order all the items to be stolen? Were they the one that teleported away?”
“Clearly only over a short distance, given what you said about the orb,” Sanvu quipped. Pachuku rubbed his cheek again, creating a few sparks.
“Hopefully I’ll get strong enough soon to deal with it when the time comes,” he mumbled.
Sanvu could only agree, hoping the same of both of them, unaware of what that particularly entailed.
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