*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Twilight Trail
Back here he was, providing solace through only clutching the uncomfortable ground, a singular eye watching the tree, which was no longer shadow in any capacity, as it emanated energy through the space, none of which the former human was feeling in any way, ironically, as if he were a ghost in a place that held no existence otherwise.
“Fulfil… assignment…”
Sanvu’s limited state of consciousness only allowed him a singular process of thought, what assignment?
After the word ‘assignment’ petered out into the space of nothing, he could finally recover a sense of clarity. He picked himself up, trying to look up at the tree. If this place was related to Dark Matter… then that had to be the Tree of Life.
But… what was it doing here?
Sanvu tried to wrack his brain, only to remember that it was apparently being ‘taken’ by Dark Matter. So was it part of the ‘assignment?’ he only had to question again what that assignment was, given that he still didn’t quite know his place in all this, and how it related to this plan.
He moved closer to the tree, only to falter, and fall forward.
~~
Unfortunately, the waking world needed him more.
Sanvu managed to rouse himself, as he picked his head up, only to see white fur.
Right, Pachuku had apologised to him the prior night, he recalled. After that, they’d returned back, and he’d seen the fallen basket on the floor. Pachuku was going to take it back up, but Sanvu had instead asked if he could share the bed, instead, given that Pachuku had taken quite the bumpy fall, if the basket’s position had been evidence enough. There was just enough room for the two of them to coil up without taking up too much space, and Sanvu figured he’d extend that gesture, if only because of what Pachuku had revealed about Keelee and the reason he’d been so paranoid. He figured leaving him alone probably wasn’t the best idea, not that he’d really wanted to, as he’d admitted. The slip had also disappeared, but neither of them really cared to chase it; Sanvu hadn’t made much progress on that front anyways.
Pachuku similarly roused once Sanvu had opened his eyes, the squirrel making careful steps to not wake Sanvu, until he noticed that he was also indeed awake.
“Hi, hi…” Pachuku greeted, a bit of weariness still present. “W-Well, uh, nothing much happened, I guess… you’re better?”
The human shrugged. “Well, it certainly wasn’t uneventful. You wanna hear?”
Pachuku nodded as he went to grab various berries, as Sanvu recollected the dream. The way the morning advanced, it was like the past couple of days had never happened, even if their presence loomed over the house as they managed themselves for the day.
“So, that’s all you heard? ‘Fulfil assignment?’”
“I almost feel like they’re intentionally withholding information from me at this point. What assignment? The turning to stone business in the other world?”
“Hmm… it’s a stretch, but… an ‘assignment’ is kinda like a mission, right? You don’t typically make your own missions so maybe Dark Matter’s…. working for something? Somebody?”
“But everybody we’ve seen is working for Dark Matter… unless there’s somebody above… even it?”
“Potentially, you never know. That’s just what I think. Doesn’t it make sense?”
“Question is what ‘they’ want, whoever this other person is that the assignment’s for.”
Silence hung over them as they ate the morning away.
Pachuku shivered a second. “If turning to stone isn’t bad enough, or a town where nobody’s real… l-like… what could be worse than that?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out, right? We either do, or end up like the others. No two ways about that.”
Pachuku was still somewhat hesitant, but it was a shared hesitancy. Neither of them could really claim to be oblivious to the implications of this, especially if the world manipulated itself against them just to spite them. But Sanvu wasn’t about to give into that line of thinking, the world threatened everything if they gave up now.
So they continued, eventually trudging their way towards Mindscape, praying all the while that nothing would hinder them today.
When they got to Mindscape, Didra was waiting with Notey inside the entrance, ready to greet the two. Both wore smiles, in contrast to the neutral faces the two smaller Pokemon wore. Didra motioned as if to follow, and they proceeded silently as she stopped a fair bit down the hallway, away from the entrance’s invisible ears.
They stopped and waited; the silence tense. Didra yet still remained smiling, as she left them alone for a second, coming back with a small box.
“You’ve been such a good team lately, that I’m lucky we managed to find this, because I’ve been feeling bad about having to take everything down because of our situation, so here, this is a gift, for you.” She held the box out.
Pachuku opened it, and inside was some sort of bow. It was primarily pinkish, with white and light-blue spots dotting it.
“No… you’re not serious,” he gasped. Sanvu didn’t quite understand, furrowing his brows.
“Oshee found it yesterday, and I figured I should give it to you, so that we might have a better chance at solving this crisis.”
“What… is it?” Sanvu finally spoke up.
“It’s a Miracle Bow,” Didra explained as Pachuku began wagging his tail, “Provides Pachuku with immunity to Ground-type attacks, which should give us an edge in this situation.”
“Hiii!” a voice from behind them waved. Oshee ran up behind them. “I see you finally found that gift of mine? I swear it was almost miraculous I came across it.”
Pachuku laughed loudly at that, and Sanvu couldn’t help but smile, even amidst his racing thoughts. They just found this lying about? Maybe things weren’t entirely hopeless after all, though the idea that they may have heard him talking about him being weak didn’t fail to cross his mind either.
“Good timing, because I’m not sure it’ll help us today, all things considered, but I’d just keep it for safe-keeping, I suppose.”
“Why’s that?” Sanvu wondered.
“You’ll be paired with Oshee today, she’s been granted permission to work alone, but our situation is becoming ever direr, so we should combine forces to better achieve our goals. Today, you’ll be going to Elevated Forest.”
“But isn’t that dungeon blocked off? You can’t even go to the beach,” the Oshawott piped up, causing gapes out of her peers. Didra didn’t look bothered.
“I know, but I have received notice that there’s an Amnesiac still in there, and it simply wouldn’t do to have more being taken out of town, now, would it?” she pondered, before crouching down. “I want you to go with Oshee today because I’ve also received notice that it’s become full of Fire-types now, for whatever reason.”
“It’s full of what?!” Pachuku shouted, Sanvu wincing despite not understanding the full implications. Fire sounded bad, after all.
“That’s why you’ll be with me, so you guys don’t have to worry about burning up in the midst of a terrible dungeon. You just leave all the fighting to me,” she winked in Sanvu’s direction, who could only muster a weary look in response.
“Just see if you can rescue the Amnesiac, and be on your way. I’ll provide an Orb so then you can warp there without the need to go through the fog, since it is encroaching ever closer,” she waved them off, as they agreed to the mission, which had Sanvu particularly on edge.
“Fire doesn’t sound very good,” he muttered after they were outside at the entrance on their way home.
“That’s why I’m here. We all gotta help each other out at some point, right?” she grinned towards Pachuku, who was fiddling with the bow as if to emphasise her point. “You know you can just have it in the bag and it’ll work for you, right? Then you can keep the Persim Band.”
“I wanna have it on. It’s nicer that way,” Pachuku retorted, as he went over to their storage to prepare while the two others sat and waited. Oshee thought she’d pick up conversation.
“So, how’re you two doing? Thought I heard something about you two having issues from Didra.”
Sanvu made a sweeping motion with his hand. “That’s… in the past. Just team issues to sort through, you know how it is.”
“Oh, is that so? Well that’s good. Wouldn’t want you two to fall apart, after all,” she finished, before looking solemn. This continued for a good few minutes as Pachuku packed.
“Man, I had so many Rawsts that we’ll be totally stacked if any of us gets burned, so I think we’re all set!” Pachuku finally shared after he’d finished. “It’s amazing they grow where Fire-types never show up, huh?”
Oshee briefly looked struck for a moment, as if bothered by something, despite that Pachuku laughed.
“Something up?” Sanvu asked, quickly noticing.
She briefly looked confused, before turning back to the other two. “I’m… fine, I’m not sure what came over me. That was weird, but, uh, we shouldn’t delay the mission, shouldn’t we?” She started back down the path after saying that, allowing the two to share a silence glance of acknowledgement before following after her.
They went back to Mindscape to be provided with what looked like an Orb with an image of a burning forest inside. Notey went on to explain that it was single-use, and that they would have to warp out with the badges themselves in order to get back. Once that was all exacted and understood, the trio made their way into the dungeon.
It was immediately apparent that if they hadn’t been told this was the spot, they’d hardly recognise it. Everything burned with an intensity to rival the sun in the sky, enough for Sanvu to immediately launch into a hacking fit.
“Oof, what a change!” Oshee commented, as she waved a paw around to cool herself off. “Looks like the dungeon’s literally in the process of falling apart, maybe. So, you guys, stick behind me. Maybe stick behind Sanvu, Pachuku, we wouldn’t want to expose him to any suspecting Fire-types who want a part of our rear,” she predicted, and so they got into formation. Eventually Sanvu recovered enough of his strength to be able to walk, and so they proceeded.
Their trip through the dungeon was almost as quiet as last time, but this time, it wasn’t completely silent due to the forest literally being on fire, and so the sounds of it permeated the air, never mind the intense pressure. Sanvu thought back and the only time he’d felt such intense heat was Dark Matter’s dream, or when he touched those Grass-types in this very forest, which he and Pachuku had attributed to Daniel, since he’d been a Fire-type.
It wasn’t often that an apparition would come after them, but this time, the forest was indeed populated, and it seemed; purely of Fire-types, surprising nobody in the group. Since Oshee was up front, it usually took only one or two Water-type moves before the apparitions got the idea that it wasn’t worth attacking the team. The heat was doing more damage than the phantoms in the air; ironically enough.
Eventually, after about four floors, they stopped for a break in an area that was considerably less burnt up than the rest of the forest. As they did, Sanvu felt something particularly unpleasant, especially in this situation.
“Ow, ow ow!” he shouted, his tail immediately flat against the ground. He winced as he sat down, glancing at it out of the corner of his eye, the pins-and-needles particularly shocking to his exhausted limbs.
“You too, huh?” Pachuku noted, the sparks on his tail crackling. “What is it, I’d say it’s paralysis, but then, Electric-types can’t really be paralysed, can they?”
“What’re you two on about?” Oshee looked between them with suspicion, her brows raised.
“Have you ever like… slept on your, uh, tail, the wrong way, god that feels so weird to say out loud,” Sanvu moaned, continuing to wince. “That’s what I’ve got, right now.”
“You learned any new moves, lately?” Pachuku probed, which prompted her eyes to sparkle.
“Oh, yeah, I did!” she gushed. “I’ve been hoping to use it if the apparitions get close, Aqua Tail! But what’s learning a new move have to do with… this?”
“W-Well… this happened when I learned Nuzzle, and Sanvu, too… didn’t you feel the same before you learned Leaf Tornado?”
Sanvu nodded, “Yeah, right, this happened then too, but it was… a different spot.” He went to point right at the leaf. “It was lower, before, not literally right on the tail.”
“That’s weird, I haven’t experienced anything like that, and I’ve been learning new moves non-stop since I joined Mindscape, and I wasn’t far behind…. you guys, all things considered.” She paused if only to look somewhat more solemn for a second before shaking her head again. “I haven’t heard of new moves to cause physical pain of any sort.”
Just as quickly as she’d finished, they both recovered, which both found extremely odd. Though they were both more confused at what she said than the fact they’d recovered.
“We’ll break for a bit, but, we should hurry. Wouldn’t want to keep this Amnesiac waiting, you’ll probably have to put up with it,” she shrugged, as they both looked at one another. She continued scouting about for any Fire-types, only mildly panting from the heat. Once she was far enough away, they started whispering.
“I thought you said it was normal,” Sanvu motioned, to which Pachuku pouted.
“That’s what I thought, but maybe I’m not so sure.”
“That’s suspicious.”
“Y-You keeping an eye on her? She’s… doing the-“ Pachuku motioned with his paws like he wanted to shy away, insinuating her memories.
“I know, and I probably know why that is. It’s not worth it to ask,” he responded, sending her a look as she turned around in the distance. “You ready to get moving? The sooner we’re out of this furnace, the better.”
“Agreed,” Pachuku stood, shaking himself off, “At least be grateful you don’t have fur.”
Onward they continued through the burning exhaustion. Luckily, as some kind of reprieve, the floors were somehow shorter than their last time through. They reasoned it as the dungeon beginning to lose form, which they figured made sense, since outside the dungeon was the space-defying fog where none of them knew what lurked within besides space-warping destruction.
“You know, I thought you said you hated being here before?” Sanvu heaved to Oshee, which prompted her to huff.
“Oh trust me, I feel like I’m gonna evaporate if I stay here too long. But Didra’s orders,” she gestured with her paw. “I couldn’t disobey her even if I wanted to. Besides, unless you fancy doing this on your own?” she panted. “Tough.”
“Just asking if you’re okay, basically,” Sanvu muttered, which prompted her to nudge him with a paw.
“I’m fine, thank you very much. Learn to care about yourself once in a while.”
“But-I-“
“It’s fine, just leave it,” Pachuku called out. “Don’t waste… your breath.”
Neither could find it in themselves to argue that point as they silently wandered. The floors continued to shrink as the floors went on, eventually meeting at the 7th floor, when something truly incredible happened.
Oshee stopped, eventually feeling out with her paws, before grabbing her scalchop and slashing in front of her.
Dink!
She stepped backwards a bit, almost tripping Sanvu over, before walking around, only to meet the same impenetrable barrier.
“An… invisible wall?” she observed, which prompted the two to move up ahead to meet it with her, only to find nothing stopping them.
She continued pushing against it when they clearly moved in front of her, but the fact she couldn’t clearly baffled her. “What is going on?!” she yelled, when their equally unsure gazes managed to bother even her as she growled, shaking her head again before murmuring something they almost couldn’t hear.
“H-hey, you guys? Don’t go too much farther, you hear?” she clutched her head, as she raged for a second. “Something wants to get you two, so hurry up, find out what it is, and come back. I can’t go with you, clearly,” she snarled, though it seemed as if she were cursing the dungeon more than them.
“That’s… fine. Go back and tell Didra what you think will be most effective for us,” Sanvu insisted, which prompted Oshee to nod, as she ran the opposite direction.
“Why only her?” Pachuku wondered after she’d left.
“I hate this because she was our best shot,” Sanvu growled, as he stared ahead. “Let’s only go for a floor or two, and then call it, huh?”
“Gotcha,” Pachuku agreed, as they continued ahead.
*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Bowser’s Theme
When they proceeded, all they saw was a wide-open field that resembled the area they’d fought Yanmega in, though any semblance of a cliff had been virtually razed down to mere dirt.
In the centre of this large plain sat a Pokemon. It darted its eyes around before settling on the two that had wandered into this space as both of them panted. Pachuku noticed the badges were glowing as it approached.
“Oh, thank goodness! I was beginning to fear nobody would come…” the Pokemon huffed, moving closer. In amidst the haze, Sanvu could make out features that he managed only to gape at when he recognised them; yellow fur, four thin legs, with a fox-like face, with two large ears, brimming with orange-red fur.
“Where… have I-“
“Sanvu, it’s a Fennekin,” Pachuku informed him. “That’s what they… look like,” he managed to make out.
“Yeah, and you were sent here? Oh, goodness, I’m so sorry,” the Fennekin noticed as the Grass-type heaved. Her voice sounded light and airy, a pitch higher than Oshee’s prior. “I’m Dianmu, but unfortunately, that’s all I could tell you right now. I certainly didn’t intend to end up here, much as it’s, well, somewhat cozy, for me, depressing for others, especially you guys.”
Pachuku fiddled with his badge before sending her back before she could say any more, as he turned to Sanvu to suggest they should leave, but the moment he did, a squawk ran out amongst the trees.
A wind brushed over, knocking them down and when Pachuku managed to recover himself, he looked up, only to see the worst thing he could’ve ever seen.
A large bird with orange plumage was encircling the area, and in its talons, Sanvu was stuck, as he desperately tried to wriggle free. The intense heat had instead been replaced with intense wind; at his height, it wasn’t so much hot anymore.
Pachuku noticed a semi-burnt tree, and quickly darted up it, eventually managing enough spark to make it drop Sanvu.
Right onto the fire of something below.
The Fletchinder dived towards Pachuku, intending to use a Fire-type move, but Pachuku quickly Nuzzled so then the bird was unable to move as he darted past, hoping Sanvu wasn’t burnt up.
He quickly darted around the trees, eventually managing to find Sanvu, who wasn’t moving.
“No… no-no-no” Pachuku panicked as he reached in, noticing several of the berries they’d packed were burnt, but some weren’t, so he quickly fished them out, forcing them into Sanvu’s throat as well as his own.
Right as he did the huge bird darted behind him, having been freed of its paralysis as Pachuku made to zap it again, the Flying-type quickly dodging all of the 8 rays with a precision that made him wince.
Pachuku quickly charged up more electricity, eventually managing to stop it with his charged tail once it had attempted to dive-bomb Pachuku. The bird remained standing, as the Grass-type began to rouse, immediately coughing. Once he’d recovered, Pachuku was panting from the amount of voltage he’d pummelled into the Flying-type.
“We… should leave…” Sanvu groaned, before launching into another hacking fit.
“Can’t disagree,” Pachuku agreed, as he zapped the bird one last time before it faltered, allowing an opening for Pachuku to use the Escape Orb they’d packed earlier. Both of them disappeared as the bird dive-bombed one last time.
As they did, the sky began to collapse, burying the bird in amidst the confusion, as it squawked its last cry.
~~
Due to Oshee, Notey had explained upon their return that they need not report to Didra, especially since they found the Amnesiac, which was all the mission entailed, so they have virtually no need to return there anymore. Neither of them fancied a return trip, anyways.
When they returned home, Pachuku continued to feed Sanvu Rawsts as his burns covered most of his body and they did indeed sting, which, combined with the pinpricking, made for an extremely unfun experience as he laid down trying to cool himself off.
“Why’re they so bitter…” he groaned, as if that was one extra thing on top of another. Luckily, the pain did appear to be subsiding, the burns on his body shrinking.
“It’s cause they’re ‘burnt’ or whatever, taste like fire so it can find the fire or something like that,” Pachuku informed. “Just let ‘em go down and you’ll be good as new by tomorrow.”
Sanvu groaned for a second before falling flat on his stomach. He internally cursed his new anatomy; this would be one of those moments where he’d bury his face in his arms if they weren’t so short; not even his vines could provide a proper surrogate due to their width. “…Thanks… by the way,” was all he managed to croak out, Pachuku sighing.
“I hope I didn’t hit you with all that, honestly, it’d suck if I had to deal with that on top of the burning.”
“Honestly, it probably wouldn’t have mattered to the literal falling on fire,” he mused, before coughing out the last few bits of smoke still stuck in his system.
“Take it easy, we’re gonna need it after today,” Pachuku reassured, Sanvu resuming his silent communicative skills by nodding in response. “Especially after… whatever that was.”
Sanvu tilted his head, which prompted Pachuku to continue. “Oshee being singled out; and our whole thing with the moves, plus the Fletchinder… I’m pretty sure something specifically only cares about us. I know Crobat said that, like, everything’s manipulated for you, but like… something about this feels, I dunno, more specific? None of that was normal, right?”
Sanvu shook his head in response, as Pachuku practically almost fell off the table. “Yeah, exactly, so maybe… it’s some kind of set up? For what I wonder?”
Their questions were practically on the cusp of being answered, yet ignorant they remained, while the hours ticked by, their strength recovering all the while as they shared these silent and verbal sentiments in the fading light of the night.
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