It was a regular old forest. Tall trees blocked all visible angles of these square halls.
Someone wanted them to be here, didn’t they? Who had thought this, couldn’t be known.
No… it isn’t as if you could have known or could ever know. After all, there existed nothing here.
Something might have struggled here. There might have even been an attempt at a conflict, the snuffing out of something once so vibrant, once so full of vitality. Maybe there was intelligence, or maybe there was nothing.
It seeped from the walls, the imposing darkness that flooded the room, filling it like the world was in need of a desperate cleansing.
Was it dark in here? Maybe, but maybe it was also just light that couldn’t be seen. There was darkness in the room, but in order for there to be a ‘room’ there should be some definition of light, otherwise there would be nothing at all; like trying to open your eyes in a pitch-black room. The difference in sensation between closed and open eyes in such a room is so minimal so as to be the same thing, the only thought of visibility itself being a questionable act.
So something was here. But the question remains whether that something was actually a thing that existed and not just a meaningless abstraction of thoughts. No use in dwelling on has-beens.
Something that is of no use after all would make all of this so frivolous so as to be meaningless.
When Sanvu awoke the next day, in Pachuku’s home, there wasn’t anything significant about the waking up process. He’d woken up fairly alright, with little in the way of any weariness or exhaustion, in fact, for all intents and purposes, he felt great. Except in his mental space, of course, there wasn’t going to be anything but ‘decent’ for that part of himself.
“You got anything?” Pachuku inquired, “You’ve been having them constantly now, right?”
Sanvu agreed silently, there were way more of the dreams these days. He hadn’t gone a night without having one for a long time now. It was equally worrying as it was intriguing, for the former human. After all, he’d woken up each and every time, right, so what use was there in worrying, he thought.
So Sanvu explained the dream to the waiting squirrel; who got a little confused when he got to the part with the letters.
“R-O-T-S? That’s what you heard? What… could those mean…”
Sanvu nodded, speculating himself, until his eyes fell once again on that slip at the end of his bed.
“Wait… Return of the Stars?” Sanvu rasped, “But… what do they know about Return of the Stars for?”
“Oh, the slip! You’re saying it matches up?” Pachuku guessed, clapping his paws together after that, smirking wide. “That’s amazing, Sanvu! They’re trying to tell you about your past!”
Sanvu almost snickered with how ridiculous that sounded, but instead, he frowned and kept it to himself. Pachuku seemed satisfied with that answer, continuing. “Aw, and I was worried about it hurting you, unless you feel weird or something. Do you?”
“No, I’m fine, I don’t even feel tired,” he admitted, truthfully.
“Maybe they just messed up a couple times. Who knows?”
“Well…”
When he explained the rest of what he could remember, mostly involving ‘the human’ having escaped and that the tree appeared to have more colour, Pachuku jolted for a second, before shrugging.
“Didn’t you say that guy you were seeing… that he was human too?”
“That’s what I think too. I think he got out of that… horrible place he was in. They knew all about it, but they seemed… okay with it?”
“Well, good for him, I guess?” Pachuku shrugged, turning around to the other room. “Maybe they’re just trying to give us hope now. Kinda necessary at this point, aha.”
Sanvu somewhat forced a smile, against all intents, only to placate Pachuku. The way he was acting had been something strange since yesterday, and he couldn’t entirely be sure what it was, and since he couldn’t get an answer directly, he somewhat worried at Pachuku’s sudden change.
He couldn’t exactly pinpoint what the change was. Was it his demeanour? The squirrel practically looked at bliss, which was much unlike Pachuku, even on a good day. The only thing he could think it had been either that something was beginning to affect him that he didn’t know about, or he was just really hyper today.
‘Maybe he just got a good night’s sleep. We were both tired yesterday… maybe scaring himself out made sleep so much easier to rip it all out.’
It would do to placate the former human for now.
“Your mission today,” Didra began, inside her office space just a little further forward from the entrance. They were never really sure why Didra took them where she did, Sanvu figured given how bare the interior was that she just picked based on mood. It hardly mattered, anyways, she was suspicious either way she went.
“…is to go inside Mystical Woods. Yes, I know, for some reason, the dungeon has been installing traps to simulate some sort of mysteriosity-like transportation, and I’m not sure what exactly the logistics for this is, so I’m working on figuring it out.”
“Mysteriosity-like?” Pachuku echoed.
“It’s not true mysteriosity, because that is a phenomenon exclusive to the Mist Continent, due to the structure of the ley-lines below that continent explicitly,” she divulged, “so it is, in essence, some kind of ‘compromise’ between true mysteriosity and the simple functionings of a trap,” she surmised. She continued, making gestures of sweeping arms. “You don’t need to worry, I would prefer it, because as of recently, they’re not going to any underground dungeon, but it’s some kind of Electric-type dungeon. Two Pokemon appear to be trapped there, and the dungeon is brimming with Amnesiac energy. I’ve been informed that the Pokemon in this dungeon appear to be extremely weak, so you needn’t treat this as anything more than a simple rescue mission. I can’t ask anyone else to take this on, and given your types, well, it’s not great, but what can we do, when another Pokemon is in danger, and cannot fight back?”
“Y-Yeah…” Pachuku agreed, Sanvu nodding silently next to him.
“One other thing. I’m getting rid of the board.”
Both narrowed their eyes as she resumed explaining, “We’re being tracked, I wouldn’t know how, but my guess is that the board, which is connected to the Orb, which is a device that can make connections with the mind, and minds of various others, is the culprit for why they’ve been able to do so. We must take our protection seriously, so unfortunately for you two, it is not that your promotion is being taken away, but that I must take measures so then we’re safe. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, it does,” Sanvu conceded, at least to some degree. He figured that explanation was as good as any in one respect, but he had a suspicion at this point that it wasn’t just the single Orb. But he still couldn’t be certain of how far this reached. Not that he could contemplate while Didra was talking.
“I may sometimes send Notey to find you, like I did earlier, as well. We cannot risk anyone hearing of any way that we can potentially stop the crisis if they’re part of our enemy’s forces. Mentage is significantly more dangerous these days…” she complained, sighing. “You don’t need to treat this mission with too much fuss. Just save the Pokemon there, and get out. No funny stuff.” She squinted, hoping they got the message, their nodding heads being the only confirmation she needed. “Good, off you go,” she waved off, the two off and out on their way, ready to gather items for the day’s mission.
*Music: Luigi’s Mansion 3 – 10F: Tomb Suites (Tension)
When they left Mindscape to visit the shops for a bit of a perkup of the bag, they knew something was wrong. Voices shouted from the distance, a crowd with voices blurring and weaving together, a commotion only heard and not seen.
“What’s going on over there?” Sanvu pondered aloud, the Kecleon in front shrugging.
“I’m not sure, sonny. It’s been so quiet here, and so worrying with the fact we’re all trapped and all,” he mused. “Not much we can do here.”
“Maybe we could check it out?” Pachuku prodded, mostly to Sanvu, who was mostly indifferent to wherever they went today. As they prepared to leave after buying little but a few basic supplies, they were joined by somebody else.
“Well, look who we have here. You wanna come check out what that racket is with us?”
It was Oshee, who along with her two teammates, all donning neutral expressions. Sanvu and Pachuku could only exchange a worried glance, and a goodbye to the friendly Keckle, as they continued down the road.
They passed many houses, closer and closer to the noise, weaving in a direction that turned rightward the more they went, neither exchanging much of anything with one another, Sanvu still found Sero’s method of movement odd, and sometimes the round seed would need to course-correct to catch up with the group due to the fact he had to pay attention to the direction differently than his compatriots who all had fairly normal anatomy in comparison.
Despite this, the unease that Sanvu felt during this walk wasn’t just coming from the trio of Pokemon who had joined them. He couldn’t quite place it, but something was terribly significantly wrong even from just the air, the feeling culminating in his chest, sinking into something dark. Pachuku seemed to make it obvious; his cheeks were joining in with his paws wringing, and his tail hung low.
After what felt like a couple of minutes, eventually the group of five had met up with the commotion, as if every Pokemon in town were all here, shouting loudly.
“Another one!”
“There’s been plenty of them now, haven’t there. Wonder why Mindscape ain’t doing anything about it, they are kinda supposed to look into this, right?”
“Hey, look, there are some teams now!”
Oshee turned back to them. “We’ll handle this,” she muttered in Sanvu’s direction with a side-eye, as she began to talk with the other Pokemon, taking their place as they watched.
The house in question was significantly large, but not that much bigger than Mindscape itself. It resembled many of the houses here; white, tree-like, and curving at the top. It had a sign in front of it, presumably it used to have names on it, but it was just a large slab of wood sticking in front of the house as if it were some kind of decoration.
And Pokemon were crawling all in and over it.
“It’s another house appearance…” Pachuku trembled, coming to the realisation almost instantly. “Oh… oh no…” he shook his head, as Sanvu went to put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down, hoping it would do the same for himself and his own beating heart.
“Do you… want to… leave?” Sanvu whispered, the implications clicking in his head. If what he suspected had happened had indeed happened, he didn’t want Pachuku to be too upset by lingering on it for too long. Pachuku nodded slowly, a few sniffles escaping his nose.
“Y-Yeah…” he said, gazing in the direction of the house. Both of them walked away slowly, as the trio of other Pokemon seemed perfectly willing to answer the few Pokemon that seemed like they wanted to know why this was happening.
It was several more minutes, but Sanvu and Pachuku had found solace in going back the way they came, a small alley away from most of the noise, most of it reduced to murmuring in the distance. It still put Pachuku on edge, but it seemed it was much less easy for him to break down here, despite the terror that laced his demeanour.
“So, you’re thinking what I’m thinking, right?” Sanvu suggested, before Pachuku looked at him with silent, round eyes. “Who didn’t we see, in Mindscape, earlier?”
“Trunie or Kichy… or… the Cognition. N-Neither of them were there…” Pachuku admitted, so quietly in a voice that Sanvu didn’t hear. “B-But… what… what… happened?” he stammered, as if unable to figure it out.
“Whatever it was, it was the same that happened to Roin and Ritza,” Sanvu pointed out, assertive. “The last time we had a ‘house appearance,’ was when they mysteriously vanished, and no one would hear us out on what happened to them. It happens again, and Mindscape is down at least a team or two. That can’t be coincidence,” Sanvu stated, his arms crossed. “Something is targeting Mindscape, and trying to rout us out, one by one.”
Pachuku whimpered for a second, before his eyes flared, the tears staining his cheeks as what turned into a whine became something of an aggravated rant. “This is exactly why we need to do better! Cause clearly, no one else can!” he shouted angrily, Sanvu wincing slightly as Pachuku continued, “But… and I don’t know why I feel this way, but… I don’t know what we can do, and I hate it.”
“I’m not saying we should give up, quite the contrary, but we need to be on our guard,” Sanvu remarked, before a set of familiar sounds came to meet the two of them, the clinking of metal, flapping of wings, and footsteps.
“Yes, indeed,” the Oshawott agreed. “I already went and cooled them all off, so you don’t need to worry, they’ll all start going home. But you heard them back there, right? This ‘house appearance’ stuff has been happening more often. More of the Amnesiacs we’re supposed to be saving are escaping our grasp, and we’re all losing it,” she imparted, not helping either of their cases in regards to the terror that invaded their minds.
“What about what Didra mentioned about-“ Swensie started, before Sero piped in.
“So what? It’s going to be harder because they actively want to kill us now,” he stated matter-of-factly. “That’s just common sense?”
“What did she say?” Sanvu probed. Oshee shrugged in response to her green-skinned peer.
“Earlier, when we got to Mindscape today, Didra told us that Mindscape is going to have a harder time keeping up with all this,” she pointed behind Sanvu and Pachuku, where some of the mist from the ocean was coiling around some of the trees behind them in the distance. “The fog’s closing in, so she suspects that it’s increasing in intensity, and thus that’s why things are about to get hectic,” she divulged, retracting her paw as she stood up taller, chest puffed out, though Sanvu could tell, to a small extent, that she was masking her own fear. “It’s just what we gotta do, that’s what we signed up for, after all.”
A moment of silence was shared between the five, as Oshee’s words, messaged from Didra or not, settled in. It wasn’t as if any of them could hide from the truth now; Mentage Town was in danger, and they had to do as they were told, otherwise, this crisis would eat them alive.
“So, I suppose we should probably get to our missions. Where are you two meant to be, today?” Oshee inquired, with Sanvu providing the details to his recollection. This got her to nod, revealing her own mission right after he’d finished explaining. “Right, that sounds like it’d be literally awful for us, at the very least, Didra’s aware you two aren’t literally Legendaries,” she sighed. “We’re to go to Elevated Forest, which sounds almost as bad, but like you guys said, apparently it’s deserted save for one Bug-type?”
“Wait, you don’t mean-“ Sanvu faltered, “But, all the Grass-types… they were-“
“Knocked out?” Sero hinted, “We know, Didra told us.”
Swensie puffed out her chest. “I’ve protected Sero many a time before, and I’d do so again!” she cried, with Oshee giggling.
“Our ranks are… not as large as they once were…” she admitted, cradling her scalchop as she said it. “But we were told to do a sweep. You remember what I told you a couple of days ago, right? About the Aerodactyl?” she reminded them, smiling. “We handled him just fine, so this Yanmega you found should be a cinch to take out, if we ever get to that point. It was probably more dangerous for you to be there, all things considered. I’ve no idea what got into Didra then, but she must’ve had her reasons,” she surmised, with a hint of sarcasm.
“We’d better get going,” she figured, turning back to her team, who seemed equally as ready to depart. “You two don’t shirk on your work. Anything done is one step further to saving us all!” she called out as she left them alone in the alley, both still very uncertain, even if Oshee was right about her team being the most prepared, they still didn’t entirely know if they could trust them.
“They didn’t… even know who… we don’t have anymore…” the squirrel murmured, with Sanvu sighing in resignation.
“It sucks, cause if it’s Tenab and Derjie… then they’re the only ones who noticed…” Sanvu observed, beginning to piece together what might be going on. This caused Pachuku’s trembling to increase exponentially, his shivering visible enough to cause literal sparks to eject out of his cheeks.
“W-What if… we’re… we’re next?” Pachuku squealed, extremely panicked. Sanvu silently raised a brow in his direction, as he continued. “It j-just makes sense, right? Oshee… and the others, they couldn’t tell anything was w-weird about the house appearance, just that t-there’s been a lot of them,” Pachuku worded, his voice increasingly growing louder and more fearful with each word. “P-Plus… you… y-you’re… human… I don’t know what all that stuff about “Dark Matter” was about yesterday, but, you’ve already… lost so much… you don’t know anything… it’d be easy for us to be the next ones in l-line…” Pachuku stammered, as he sat down to try and control his breathing, which had rapidly increased. Sanvu’s own fear was apparent in his own shallow breathing, and while he could figure that Pachuku had a point, he was still inclined to understand Oshee’s intent, as he also tried to remain calm, for the sake of Pachuku.
“So, what do you want to do? Sit around while this happens?” he gestured towards the fog that hadn’t moved from the trees with an arm before turning to look at him directly. “Be honest with me, if you really think we’re next, and that has you like this, should we just quit?”
“Q-quit?! Why would I want to quit? I just said we needed to do a better job now that another of our teams has been plucked! If we q-quit… willingly… what good would that do?”
“Look at yourself,” Sanvu pointed out, trying to make it clear to the little squirrel. “I’m not so oblivious so as to not notice that you’re clearly worked up over this, and if this has been going on for longer than you’ve met me, then I get it, I really do,” Sanvu turned so that he was somewhat facing the wall beside him. There were more footsteps outside, he noticed several Pokemon dispersing back into their homes, though none of them noticed the two in-between in their little alley. “We can just disband if it would make you feel better, and it can all just end. Would that make it better?”
“Wh-What?! No! Of course it wouldn’t! U-Unless… you want to stop?”
“I’m just trying to make you see sense,” Sanvu told him, as he sighed once again in resignation. “It is scary, don’t get me wrong, why any of this is happening, it doesn’t make sense,” he snapped in acknowledgement, his own weary posture evidence of this, “I don’t want to sit around or disband the team. But there’s no use doing this if you’re going to work yourself up like this, so I’m just asking, what do you want to do?”
Pachuku could only hang his head as he continued. “We can either try to do the mission we’re told today and make a little more progress, or we can just go back there and stop. What do you suggest, I’m open for either,” Sanvu challenged the little squirrel, before waiting for an answer. It took about a minute of Pachuku fiddling silently, with small little whimpers before he responded.
“L-Let’s… do the mission. B-But… just… be careful… this time, okay? I mean it…” he pleaded, with Sanvu nodding in agreement.
“I’m okay with that. Especially after yesterday,” he mused, rolling his eyes and tilting his head away from Pachuku so as to imply he meant self-deprecation towards himself. “But don’t just say that if you don’t mean it, okay?”
“N-No… I mean it; I’m just… psyching myself up. Thanks,” he looked up at Sanvu with eyes that shone, a small smile forming on his lips. “Thanks for caring… about me.”
“Don’t mention it,” Sanvu smiled back, the two happily strolling off to their mission, despite the terror that both felt inside, neither could really do this without the other, and they both understood that, even if it wasn’t entirely obvious to either of them.
~~
It was much similar to the previous time they’d been to Mystical Woods. The bubbles appeared to be evermore present, but otherwise the area still retained its pink hues.
It also retained the traps, the Pokemon falling for them the second time by encountering them just before the first set of stairs, though since they knew to expect it, neither were all that particularly surprised, nor worried to have come across it.
When they did, there was brief fizzling before both of the Pokemon were plunked into a new location.
Tall trees with branches that zigged and zagged, twisting and turning, littered the area about them. For some reason, though, they were only shaped like trees, and only somewhat resembled trees in appearance, because everything about them shone with some kind of light, allowing sparks to dance between them like they were individual electrical towers. A small wall of some kind of rocky structure surrounded them, the tree-towers placed on top.
The Electric-type squirrel’s face was practically beaming, his own cheeks joining in with the sounds of crackles that pressed through the sky. Sanvu looked at him oddly, before he began to clarify, “I just… really get into these kinds of places. Sorry, it’s just how I am.”
“Don’t need to apologise, but, do we need to be careful here?”
“Probably a little bit,” Pachuku responded. “You resist Electric, so it won’t be as bad, but then they’ll resist me as well, so we’ll just have to be… um… careful with items? And like, use them a lot, careful?”
Sanvu got the gist.
So on and on they went; Pachuku sometimes stumbled on the names of his fellow Electric-types as they came across them. Sanvu was a little surprised at this given how much he knew of basically every Pokemon before this point, but Pachuku simply explained it away as his mind could only store so much information on items and Pokemon at once.
And boy, were there varieties. A ball with a red underside, a Voltorb, or a floating metallic ball with magnets attached to it, a Magnemite. Sanvu was learning to avoid fights, especially since Pachuku was getting increasingly more anxious with each one they came across. Sanvu tried to understand and carry out his wishes by only using an item or two, and then following up with a move if one blocked their only path forward, but they were both out avoiding fights, rather than actively looking to make them.
The irony only amplified when an identical Pachirisu manifested into the room about a couple floors deep, its face adorned with only the menace of a rat.
“Gyeesh!” Pachuku zipped out of the way as it attempted an electrified tackle into its doppelganger. Sanvu didn’t need to squint to tell who was different; Pachuku still wore that Persim Band that they’d obtained before, and this squirrel was inherently more feral than Pachuku, even with Pachuku’s anxiety still in play making him act strangely, he was still leagues more normal than this one, in a strange sort of twist.
But it fell just as easily as the rest, melting into the floor after but a few leaves and slams from each of its assailants.
“I guess that’s not exactly a fun surprise, all things considered,” Sanvu joked, attempting to lighten the mood after getting zapped a few times. It had been unpleasant, all things considered, but it hadn’t done much, of course, since his Grass-type resisted Electric attacks pretty well, so he barely felt the jolts, and imagined the consequences would be worse were he still human.
“Eh… you get used to it,” Pachuku muttered in response, “Every Pokemon isn’t exactly unique; dungeons never make exceptions when it comes to any and every species being an apparition,” he grumbled, “it’s just part of life.”
“Still, can’t help seeing an identical member of your species just go and attack a brother like that would be pretty…”
Pachuku should only shrug, despite the circumstances. “I guess you could put it like that, but it doesn’t bother me, not like that, anyway.”
“It’s hard for me to tell,” Sanvu confessed, rubbing his head.
Both would continue to proceed; the dungeon’s items being picked up Pachuku as per usual. Sanvu was never not surprised at the speed at which Pachuku went and picked all these items up. Sometimes it seemed like he brought them out of thin air, and for a while, it seemed like the one thing Pachuku could be proud of, well, besides the electrical sounds and sensations flowing through the air. Sanvu couldn’t help but be a little unnerved, even if it seemed constrained to the trees that surrounded the stage away from him, he couldn’t help wincing a few times.
“You alright?”
“It’s just… so… staticy,” Sanvu would describe, sweeping an arm around. “Of course I’d be worried, such a place like this is dangerous, and we’re not exactly invincible.” Both had a few scuffs on one another, but it was nothing major.
“You’re not exactly scared, are you?” Pachuku queried; which got him to shake his head.
“No, no more than usual. I just can’t help it.”
“Is it… something you don’t want to talk about?”
“I don’t think I could talk about it even if I wanted to,” Sanvu motioned at his head. “All I remember is that this much electricity is just… dangerous. It’s probably just old instincts.”
“You don’t like storms of any kind?”
“I… don’t think I did. Couldn’t tell you why though.”
“Shame, I do. It’s only around for a short while, but it’s so cool! The feeling in the air is amazing” Pachuku cheered, before going on to gush about thunderstorms for another moment or so, before another apparition appeared to block their path. They’d gone through several floors in by now, so both were somewhat fatigued, but were both ready to attack if need be.
But the apparition instead was of some kind of deer-like Pokemon, with a yellow flower on its head, its coat flushed in orange, though its coat was otherwise mostly cream-coloured, on its legs and underside.
“What’s a Deerling doing out here?!” Pachuku started, as the deer went to tackle Sanvu, who’d already used his vines to smack it before being careened into the nearby wall. Pachuku had launched a Discharge, now donning a 6th ray, as they all reached out to zap the part Grass-type, leaving it somewhat damaged, but because of the resistance, it was easily able to shake it off and pummel Pachuku down.
Both Sanvu and Pachuku then decided their respective Normal-type attacks would do best, especially when Pachuku told Sanvu of its partial Grass-typing, which meant both were doubly-resisted. It wasn’t too long before it once again joined any others who had opposed the Minders in the floor, both heaving heavily.
Sanvu, however, was stunned.
“You… you said it was Grass-type, right?”
“Part Grass-type. It’s also Normal too, I think,” Pachuku shared.
“I didn’t… get any visions anymore, and I was touching it repeatedly during the fight.” Sanvu muttered, as if bothered. “I don’t feel any of that stuff from yesterday, either?”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Pachuku wondered, clearly puzzled at what Sanvu meant; it’s not like he figured the former human wanted to be in pain, and Sanvu had mentioned something about feeling ‘heat’ whenver he’d touched a Pokemon yesterday, and Pachuku couldn’t exactly ignore that connection.
“It means that our link to whatever’s going on with this Dark Matter stuff is gone,” Sanvu conferred, putting his hand to his head again. “Not to mention, ironically, it was kinda cool…”
“Well, I’m at least glad it’s gone, that way you won’t have to hurt yourself,” Pachuku asserted. He thought he could hear something for a second, but Sanvu wasn’t talking. They just needed, instead, to get through the electrified forest, and so Sanvu didn’t say a word about what he meant earlier in regards to Pachuku, especially if he could just tell him later what he thought.
“…You take onto this so quickly!”
“…Do I?”
“Yeah!”
“…Probably just my ability or something. You know I’m still weak, right?”
“…Knowing is at least something though, right? Who knows what it could do in the future!”
“…I guess y-you’re… right…”
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