Upon returning to the Water Continent, while the Expedition Society welcomed them with open arms, they instead desired working as their namesakes allowed, apart from its headquarters as much as they allowed. It was decided that something as grand as a trip across worlds would have to be worked on as a secondary task; given that society at large seemed a bit preoccupied with the enhancement of itself than finding a place which may or may not exist.

So about two weeks had passed since the ending of that mission where they had met with the Hydreigon after travelling a significant portion of the world. The Water Continent had revealed nothing thus far since their return, but interesting developments had been popping up all over that piqued their interest nonetheless, if only so the team had something to do.

There was, of course, all the new Pokemon to learn, alongside a new phenomenon wherein the space that a Pokemon took up could be warped to exorbitant degrees inside dungeons, making them gigantic if only for a brief moment or two. These distractions would serve to keep them busy; Pachuku was never one to skimp out on information, even if it was ultimately frivolous. Despite this, it was something Sanvu admired, in a strange sort of way, the way the squirrel would go with gusto to figuring something out, even if it seemed like his tiny body wouldn’t fare that much better even with it in mind.

Today’s particular mission was something mundane; as they were working for the Expedition Society even from afar, sometimes they were assigned missions through their own Connection Orb that required attention, however uninteresting it might have been. Today, it was a small delivery of some item that needed to be picked up from this new village slightly north of Serene Village; the village of Florair, a newly formed offshoot of the comfortable village surrounded by more floras, with an air of wanting to make a new beginning.

So the two had made their way to the village slowly; the village was surrounded on one side by a large river that snaked its way to a large mountain the duo had been informed of as a particularly sacred spot, it being the spot where Daniel and Sparky had turned to stone a couple of years prior.

What mattered more was what was necessary in the moment. Anything long-term in either the past or future had been snuffed out long ago, so it had felt.

“So… I wonder what it’ll be like.” Pachuku reckoned, bouncing along. The two had ended up in a small field of flowers that barely reached halfway up his body. Sanvu subconsciously knew which places to put his feet so that such plants wouldn’t be disturbed, and he’d never given this feeling too much thought; any reminder of his lack of humanity wasn’t exactly welcome to pry his mind open, so he thought, these days.

“…Dunno. Probably not much different from Serene?” he replied, not looking to check. As long as he could hear the crackle of Pachuku’s cheeks, it was instinctual at this point; he didn’t need to see to check. Not that he had to look very far, but he was often steadfast on the mission at hand, rather than anything else.

“I mean, yeah, but I mean, they only formed up like a couple weeks ago. I guess I wonder why they bothered splitting up at all. Hopefully they’re, like, nice.”

“As nice as anyone can be in this world,” Sanvu snapped his head back, smirking. Pachuku at this point knew he was an exception in this particular book, and figured he knew of probably few other exceptions. “I just want this over with,” the Grass-type commented.

“Like with any mission, obviously. Just another on the line, isn’t it?” Pachuku joked back, eliciting comfortable hums from his teammate in front. Many a mission would go like this; where they would joke with one another like old friends, only comfortable sharing their secrets with one another. Pachuku noticed him smiling at the flowers, and would often joke about this, it was a funny inside joke the two shared. The sky today was particularly nice and clear too, clouds filled it up as it usually did, it was a good warm day today with the sun shining down, the flowers all absorbing its many rays, as were the many Pokemon besides the two who fancied themselves light sponges.

It wasn’t long before the two began to see a forest in the distance. They’d already passed through one smaller Mystery Dungeon, so they knew they were close, especially since the Orb continued pulsing in the bag; it would do so provided they got within a sensible distance of the location in question that their assigned mission would take.

“We’ve gotten a whole lot of nothing lately,” Pachuku mentioned as they stopped to sit for a break. “maybe it’s like the world’s telling us to ease up, just a little bit?”

A single laugh escaped his friend’s throat as they sat down. “Am I not in enough ease around so much of this?” he gestured around at the various plants around him, self-deprecatingly. “If the world’s trying to tell me that, I’ve got the message already.”

“I guess so… even still, worth thinking about.”

A small break, and off they went again.

Across the bridge they were supposed to cross, their only barrier now was a particularly small forest with no sign of any Mystery Dungeons anywhere. Since they figured it wouldn’t be far before they saw civilisation, it was time for another break, as they sat down.

“You know…” Pachuku spoke up, “I just thought of something. Back when we were looking for… you know, our longer term project, nobody ever brought up the others. You know, the ones that… didn’t make it out, or at least… the ones we haven’t heard from?”

Sanvu nodded silently, as Pachuku continued. “I wonder how long it’ll be before we find them. I hope it’s soon, especially so then we can get an excuse off of the boring missions, huh?”

Sanvu didn’t bother to respond with anything but a smile and a hum. Pachuku knew then it was time to drop it, as they continued along, Florair being visible in some parts through the trees they expected to cross to reach it.

*Music: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet – Battle! Vs Professor Sada/Turo

“I know it’s all… worrying but I just… think about it sometimes and all…” the squirrel trailed off, noticing that Sanvu had stopped.

The wind continued to blow, but Pachuku couldn’t notice anything in particular about their surroundings as he passed his head around. Shouts rang out nearby; Pachuku thought it confusing, until he followed Sanvu’s gaze, into the sky.

At first glance, it might have seemed that he was looking at the sun. But upon squinting, one could notice that it looked like a stationary ball of electricity, or some sort of crackling light, hovering several feet in the air. It appeared to be growing; when Pachuku finally looked at it, it looked barely as big as either of them, or so he could guess, anyways, and it was expanding.

“Is this… meant to happen?” Sanvu muttered, questioningly, though not towards anyone that could actually hear it.

“I… I don’t… know?” Pachuku responded, equally as confused.

The ball of light continued to expand for several minutes as both of them stared at it confusingly. The shouts multiplied in the distance; it appeared the residents of Florair had also noticed the strange attack that had formed above their town. It was merely mesmerising, the duo could only presume some Electric-type was having a ball tormenting the heck out of somebody else… if only for a moment.

An indescribable sound exploded that sounded like a shockwave that pierced everyone’s ears.

The intensity of such an explosion could not be understated; streams of light darted out from the ball, raining down into the forest right in front of where the Drifters stood in a flinch as the sound careened all around them, the pandemonium of the strange happening itself, as well as the sounds coming from the village were enough to change what had otherwise been a peaceful day into something strange.

It continued for several minutes; the air fizzling with a strange energy that neither of the Pokemon could describe, as if someone had attempted creating a mirage but had forgotten a few crucial steps.

Miraculously, all of the streams of light appeared to launch either straight down or over the Drifters as they’d found a tree to hide under while the noise continued.

Eventually, it cleared, the only remnants there had ever been an attack being that of smoke and a small fizzling out sound that droned out of the air as quickly and as rudely as it had introduced itself.

Both of the Drifters stole a silent glance at one another, both thinking the same thing: this needed to be investigated.

Both proceeded towards Florair as fast as their legs could take them.

~~

“Hey!”

“What?”

“What is it?”

“What’d you find?”

Huffing and panting, a Bibarel returned home to the small crowd that had appeared around the edge of the small forest, many of the buildings within his town being untouched.

“Well? Are we alright?”

“That was awful scary…”

The beaver stood up slowly, as he addressed his fellow townmates.

“I think everything’s alright… no one was hurt, but… someone… there’s… I don’t know how many… knocked out Pokemon all around here.”

“Knocked out…”

“Pokemon?!”

The crowd murmured amongst themselves.

“A whole bunch of Pokemon… appearing from the sky? Is it a mirage?!”

“Where would they have come from? Why so… violently?”

“We should figure out if they’re dangerous or not. It’s what Conky would have us do.”

“I would,” a large hulking Conkeldurr appeared behind the group, clearly having listened. “Search all around here, especially if we receive an attack like that again, we should be on our guard.”

Many of the Pokemon nodded, heading out into the forest to tend to these knocked out Pokemon, in the hopes that it truly was something benign and not a sign of worse. All that and more awaited the Pokemon as they dispersed into the forest to check on the visitors they’d attained, nature proceeding as if nothing had happened.

Little did they know the horde that the light had attracted to their little village wouldn’t be simple enough to just write off as a mere attack on the village alone.