Chapter 11: Coin Chaos
by poper466Heya, chapter 10 ended somewhat abruptly, so how about we pick up where we left off?
January 28th, 7:00 pm
SurfSpark Guild – Dining Hall
Coast Continent
Team Echoes was just wrapping up dinner when Rory decided to discuss her plans for tomorrow with everybody, “Hey everyone, I got something I want to say!”
“Alright, go ahead.” Cinder said.
Joseph gave the one-second finger gesture, “Hold on a sec, FLINT STOP TELLING YUMI PUNS FOR A MOMENT RORY’S GOT SOMETHING TO SAY!” He shouted.
“O-oh sorry! I genuinely didn’t hear her say she was going to say something.” Flint apologized.
“It’s alright.” Joseph sighed, “The floor’s yours Rory.”
“Ok, so basically Gimmighoul stopped Sammy and me while we were on a walk earlier, so we checked out his stuff and you won’t believe what we found!”
“What is it?” Tiny asked as she peeked out of Cinder’s bag.
“We found what we believe to be a Lucarionite!” Sammy chimed in.
“But weren’t we gonna wait for Cloak and Razor to bring us one?” Cinder questioned.
“Well, they haven’t gotten back to us yet, so this is probably how we’re gonna have to go about getting one.” Rory said, “Besides, I bet they’d appreciate us taking a bit of stress off their backs, I mean they have a kid to take care of after all.”
“True… I guess it’s settled then, we’ll begin looking for coins tomorrow.”
“But how do we find these coins?” Specter asked.
“Roaming form Gimmighoul carry coins with them, so if we chase them down, they should drop them.” Joseph said, “We just need to find some and take the coins.”
“Isn’t that stealing?” Sammy asked.
“I mean technically not if they’re dropping them, but I understand your concern.”
“I think we should ask Lanturn about this.” Cinder said, “I think he’d know how to gather coins.”
As if right on cue, Lanturn floated over to the team and greeted them, “Sup dudes!” He said as he looked at the small army and noticed a few new faces among them, “Seems like you picked up a few new dudes since we last met.”
“Yup, indeed we did!” Cinder bubbled, “Vulcan, Stumpy, Yumi, Flint, this is Guildmaster Lanturn, he runs this place.”
Yumi began shivering as Lanturn floated up to her, “U-uh hello.” She trilled.
“Sup dude? You see a ghost or something?”
“U-uh I’m a girl.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“He calls everyone that.” Cinder clarified, “It confused me at first too.”
“O-oh, well uh to answer your question, yes I did see a ghost.”
“Oh really? Where?”
Yumi proceeded to point at herself awkwardly, “Me, I’m the ghost.”
“Oh, then what do you have to be afraid of, you’ve been a ghost your whole life right?”
“Well, yes,” Yumi lied, “but that’s not what I’m afraid of.”
“Oh I get it, you’re just a little shy aren’t you?”
“How’d you know?”
“Because one of my best friends is a ghost and she was the same way when we first met, but now she’s the best chef in the entire continent.”
“Ooh, uh hate to break it to you bud but I think your info’s a little outdated.” Vulcan said, “I took her title earlier today.”
“You did!?” Lanturn blurted, “Just who are you!?”
“That’s my brother for you!” Cinder cheered.
“Wait, that dude’s your brother!?”
“Yup, I’m still surprised that he’s here, I thought he was dead for 20 years and then he just shows up here one day!”
“That’s certainly interesting, maybe you could tell me the full story later.”
Cinder chuckled, “If I remember to that is.”
“Come on, give yourself a little more credit, you’re not usually one to forget things.”
“Well, I’ve been a little stressed out lately, so I might end up forgetting anyway.”
“Oh? What’s got you all messed up?”
“Well, it’s that slime stuff that Rory mentioned when she first washed up here, if it really is capable of eating away at the entire world then how long are we gonna be safe?”
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about, life’s too short to be worrying about stuff like that, just ride the waves and see where they take you.”
“But what if it is something to worry about!? What if we just sit here twiddling our thumbs too long and we all die because of it!?”
“Then don’t spend your final moments worrying, spend them thanking the ones who made your time here what it was.”
“That’s super reassuring…”
“Sorry, I’m not good at worrying about the potential end of the world, I’m just too chill for that y’know?”
Everyone at the table sighed, “The sky could literally be falling and Lanturn would probably still be sitting out and sunbathing.” Specter commented.
“Yeah, I probably would actually, it’s like my father told me, ‘Live every moment of your life to the fullest, enjoy life even when you’re staring death in the eyes.’.”
“I’m… Not sure that’s what he meant by that…” Joseph sighed.
“Well, that’s how I interpret it.”
The group kept chatting for a bit when a familiar metal bird started stalking them from a distance, “Thank the ones who made it what it was, huh?” Skarmory questioned, “Well, the ones who made my time here what it was are GONE! AND IT’S ALL HER FAULT!” Skarmory screamed as she pointed a wing at Rory, “I’m gonna make you pay blueberry, you just watch.”
Skarmory started cackling to herself as she flew away, “Did you guys hear something? Joseph asked.
“Nope, I didn’t hear anything.” Rory replied.
“Eh, must’ve just been the wind then.”
“Oh, uh before I forget.” Cinder said to Lanturn, “We were looking at something in Gimmighoul’s inventory but we don’t have enough coins for it, how would we go about acquiring said coins?”
“Oh, they can be found in a dungeon called Gimmighoul Grotto, it’s somewhere close to town.”
“Oh, I guess that makes things pretty easy.”
“Be warned though, the Gimmighoul there really hate it when other Pokémon try to take their coins.”
“They shouldn’t be too hard for us to take care of.” Joseph interjected, “I mean, they don’t really get any powerful moves until they evolve anyway.”
“Well, don’t let that fool you, the sheer amount of them is what’s so scary about that place.”
“Well, I guess that settles it then, tomorrow we’re gonna go to Gimmighoul Grotto and we’re gonna grab as many coins as we can!” Rory announced to the team.
“Right!” Everybody chorused.
January 28th, 8:30 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
Team Echoes cleaned up their tables and returned home for the night, eager to get some rest after a long day once they returned home Joseph went straight back into his room and got ready for bed but just before he did he had an unexpected visitor, “Uh, Joseph are you still awake?” Yumi asked as she knocked on the door.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Joseph replied.
“You mind if I talk to you for a bit?”
“I was about to go to sleep for the night.”
“Can I please ask this before you go to bed? It’s something that’s been on my mind since this morning.”
“Alright, fine, come in.”
Joseph went to open the door but before he could do so, Yumi phased through the door and giggled, “Doors are overrated.”
Joseph rolled his eyes, “So what did you want to talk to me about?”
“A few things actually.”
“Dang, you’re really tryna keep me up all night.”
“I-I’m sorry, it’s just most of the stuff I want to talk about relates to humans in some capacity and you’re the only one I can really talk to when it comes to that stuff.”
“I guess that makes sense… Alright, I’ll let you speak.”
“So the first thing I wanted to ask you is, why am I like this?”
“Excuse me?”
“Like why am I a Zorua?”
“Oh, I thought we already went over this.”
“That’s not what I meant, I know why I’m a Pokémon now, but why am I a Zorua specifically?”
“Oh, uh, well from what I can tell a human’s Pokémon form is determined by their personality, for example, I’m rather hasty and impatient, so I became a Shinx and Fiora became an Eevee because she had a lot of potential.”
“Who’s Fiora?”
“The human that’s trying to rip the world apart right now.”
“Oh, I see… But what about me? Why did I become a Zorua specifically?”
“Well I don’t know for sure but if I had to guess it’s because you’re pretty shy.”
“That’s actually pretty fair, I didn’t have a lot of friends back in Hisui, in fact, I think the only people I talked to were the other members of the survey corps and Laventon himself.”
“I guess that checks out then, so what else did you want to talk about?”
“Uh, well… I was thinking about… If I were to go home would I stay a Zorua?”
“Eh, probably not, I’ve seen a lot of stories about humans becoming Pokémon and in the end, they all either go home and return to their human life or they stay in the Pokémon world as a Pokémon for the rest of their lives.”
“But my case is probably a bit different from theirs.”
“True, I mean you did just kinda end up here from some freak accident, but I doubt that really matters too much.”
“Phew… Ok… That’s a relief…”
“So, is that all you wanted to ask?”
“No, I have one more question.”
“What is it?”
“What’s with your room!? It’s so weird looking compared to everyone else’s!”
“Oh, uh that would be because this is a replica of my room back in my world with a few additions.”
“Oooooh, that explains why I was getting human vibes from it.”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty basic human room.”
“Wait, how’d you even get all this stuff?”
“Well the Pokémon posters were pretty easy to get a hold of, but the bed Cinder just happened to find in a furniture store, oddly enough it’s still just as comfy now as it was back when I was a human.” Joseph explained.
Yumi continued looking around Joseph’s room until she spotted the mask Christian had given him, “So is it normal for humans to wear masks like that one where you’re from?”
“No, unless you’re robbing a bank or something.”
“Were you a criminal when you were a human!?”
“What!? No! I was just given that mask from some weirdo at the IDPK.”
“The what?”
“Oh right, I forgot to tell you, I was brought here by some corporation that handles world-ending events across the multiverse or something.”
“And that means?”
“I was sent here by a whole bunch of world savers.”
“Ah, I see, so are you one of them or something?”
“Nope, for some reason they’re all occupied with something else so they set aside one guy to find someone to solve their problems for them, that someone was me.”
“Oh, that’s a bit unfortunate…”
“I guess, but I mean I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t at least somewhat fun, especially because where I’m from Pokémon are just fictional characters so seeing them in the real world has been really cool, I’m just not a fan of being one of them.”
“Wait, Pokémon aren’t real where you’re from!? That’s crazy!”
“Yeah, I know, Rory said something similar, I’d feel the same if I were in her position.”
“Wait, then how is Stumpy, your Pokémon!?”
“Oh, that’s because when I go to sleep sometimes the people who brought me here use some weird machine to pull me into their world in my dreams and they’re somehow able to give me stuff, so I was given Stumpy’s Pokéball as a gift.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”
“Is that everything you wanted to talk about?”
“One last thing, your room is super cool.”
“O-oh.” Joseph said as he blushed a little bit, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Hey, Joseph, you still awake in there?” Rory asked as she knocked on the door.
“Oh, that’s my cue to leave, sweet dreams Joseph.” Yumi said as she approached the door.
“Good night Yumi!” Joseph said as Yumi phased through the door again.
“Ack! Yumi! Don’t do that!” Rory shouted.
“S-sorry I didn’t realize you were so close to the door.” Yumi quavered.
Joseph walked up to the door and opened it, on the other side Rory was shivering and Yumi ran out from behind her into the hall, “I’m starting to dislike living with a ghost.” Rory said as she entered the room.
“Really!? Already!?”
“Yeah, I hate the spine-chilling thing they do when they phase through you!”
“She only did it once though and it was an accident!”
“Well, that doesn’t make it any better!”
“Just calm down! It’s not that big of a deal!”
“Yeah, I said I was sorry!” Yumi said.
Joseph and Rory turned around to see Yumi in the room again, “GAH!” Rory exclaimed.
“O-oh, I-I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you!”
“Rory! Calm down, there’s nothing to be afraid of!”
Rory took a deep breath and came to her senses, “If you really don’t think it’s such a big deal then why don’t you have her give your spine a chill then?”
“I don’t exactly see what that’s solving, but fine I’ll humor you, Yumi send a chill down my spine.”
“That sounded a little weird.” Yumi said, “But no matter, one chilly spine coming right up!”
Yumi jumped at Joseph and phased right through him, but Joseph didn’t feel a chill, instead, he felt a strange feeling that almost felt like she just tickled him, he fell to the floor and burst out laughing, “Uh, you alright Joseph?” Rory asked.
“That tickled!” Joseph exulted.
“Huh!?” Yumi exclaimed, “What did I just do!?”
“Uh, I’m not sure.” Joseph said as he came to his senses and stood back up, “But it sure as heck wasn’t a chill.”
“Well, I think I changed my mind.” Rory said, “Maybe having a ghost tickle you to death could be kinda funny.”
“You better not tell her to do that when you’re mad at me!”
“Eheheheh, I can’t make any promises.” Rory said with a devious grin.
Joseph and Yumi both yawned at the same time, “Well I think I’m gonna go to sleep now, good night!” They said in unison.
“Uh, good night you two.” Rory said awkwardly, ‘I find it a little creepy that they just said the exact same thing at the exact same time right after yawning in sync.’ She thought.
Yumi was just about to leave the room when Joseph shook his head somewhat abruptly, “Woah, what just happened?”
“Huh?” Yumi said as she looked back at Joseph, “Did I do something?”
“I think you just possessed him.” Rory said.
“What makes you say that?” Joseph asked.
“You seemed like you just broke out of a trance and before that you and Yumi yawned in sync and said the exact same thing at the exact time, it was creepy!”
“Oh, is that so?” Yumi asked, “Maybe I should try it again then.” She said as she approached Rory.
“Wait, what are you doing?”
“I’m testing this out!” Yumi shouted as she jumped toward Rory.
“BUT WHY ON ME!?” Rory shouted right before Yumi flew straight through her.
This time Yumi disappeared as she hit Rory who tried bracing for impact right before Yumi jumped at her but unfortunately for her when she opened her eyes she was no longer in control of her body, “Woah, I’m Rory now!” Yumi exclaimed.
“What the heck!?” Joseph blurted.
Yumi gave herself a more in-depth look, “Blue fur, a longer tail, and I’m taller than before, I’ve definitely taken over Rory’s body, but how did that happen!? This wasn’t what happened last time I ‘possessed’ someone.”
“I’m… Gonna get some sleep.” Joseph said, not wanting to deal with this situation.
“Wait! Can you at least help me figure out how to let her go first!?”
“I’m not an expert when it comes to ghosts.”
“Well, can you at least try to help me!?”
“Uh… Maybe…?”
But before Joseph could give any suggestions on how to fix this situation, Rory’s eyes started flickering between Yumi’s eye color and Rory’s usual eye color, “Urgh, get out of my body you demon!” Rory shouted.
A few moments later, Yumi was forced out of Rory’s body hitting the floor comically, “Oof!” Yumi said as she hit the floor, “Ugh, ok, note to self if someone has a strong enough will they’ll take back control.”
Joseph was just about to jump onto his bed when he saw Rory giving Yumi a dirty look, “Woah Rory calm down, she didn’t mean to fully possess you!”
“She didn’t have to try her possession stuff on me!” Rory shouted.
“I’m sorry, I just thought Joseph would appreciate it if I didn’t do that to him again.” Yumi whimpered.
“I’m starting to dislike your little ghost antics!”
“What!? But I’m not up to any antics! I’m just discovering things as I go and slipping up along the way, I swear!”
“Ugh fine, but just keep your little slip-ups as far away from me as possible, got it?”
“U-understood ma’am…” Yumi said as she lowered her head in disappointment.
“And don’t call me ma’am, I’m too young for that crap!”
“Alright…”
“So can I catch some z’s yet?” Joseph asked.
The girls looked at him awkwardly, “O-oh yeah sorry…” They both said in unison.
“Well, I’m gonna rest up so I can get back at Cinder tomorrow.” Yumi said, “See you in the morning!”
Yumi phased back through the wall and Rory curled up in her bed, “Good night Joseph, sorry we kept you up for so long.”
“Good night Rory…” Joseph said in a somewhat disappointed tone.
The two closed their eyes and tried to begin sleeping, but something was still on Joseph’s mind, ‘What was with Rory all of a sudden? She started being all aggressive toward Yumi over something minuscule, I just don’t get it! She apologized and everything, so I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal! Oh well… I’m not gonna let it keep me up all night.’
Joseph started to drift off once again, looking forward to having a normal dream for once, unfortunately, that wouldn’t be what happened tonight.
Time Unknown
Joseph’s Dream Space
Joseph awakened in a forest that was shrouded in the shadows of the clouds above, when he looked up at the clouds he noticed they were various vibrant colors, ‘Oh boy we’re doing this again?’ He thought.
His thoughts echoed through the space until eventually, he heard his mother’s voice give a reply, “Doing what again?”
“Mom!” He shouted, “Is that you!?”
“Yes sweetie, it’s me.”
“What’s going on here!? Why am I back here!?”
“Stay calm sweetie, everything will be ok.”
Joseph completely ignored his mother’s instructions, “Where are you!?” He asked.
A few moments passed with no response until eventually, his mother walked out of the forest and presented herself to Joseph, “I’m right here.”
“Mom!” Joseph blurted as he stood up and ran toward his mom to hug her. The two hugged for a second, “I thought I’d never see you again!” Joseph said.
“I had faith that I’d see you again.” Joseph’s mother replied, “It’s not like you to just disappear without a trace.”
“Yeah about that, I was actually taken to another world for a bit, it’s been a weird experience because I haven’t been a human since I got there.”
Joseph’s mom giggled, “Joseph, you’re so silly, that’s not possible!”
“But you gotta believe me, it actually happened!”
“Joseph, it’s alright if you want to tell me that you wanted to leave home.”
“I didn’t want to though! And if I did, I would’ve told you! I’m not like Dad!”
“That’s true, you’re not like your father, you’re too nice to leave without telling anyone.”
“Yeah… I still wish I could have asked him where he was going before he left though.”
“Don’t worry about him, sweetie, he never cared for you anyway.”
Joseph broke the hug and backed up a bit, “Woah! That is a bold accusation there!”
“What? It’s true though.”
Joseph was a little skeptical but he did kind of see where she was coming from with her statement and considering he was her husband, she’d know better than anyone, so Joseph didn’t think too much of it, “I guess you’re right… As messed up as that is…”
Just as Joseph finished saying that the clouds flickered with a peculiar light, “That’s our cue, I have to go.”
“Goodbye Mom.” Joseph sighed.
“Goodbye sweetie, I’ll see you soon.”
The clouds turned a deep black color as Joseph’s mother disappeared back into the forest, however this time the dream didn’t end with any sort of scare, instead it kinda just faded to black.
January 29th, 3:30 am
I.D.P.K. Headquarters
Joseph awakened once again in the IDPK Headquarters, this time however he woke up to Christian looking at him, “Rise and shine Mr. Freeman.”
“GAH!” Joseph blurted, “Dude, what the heck!?”
“Sorry, I just thought I’d try to be funny.”
“I think you mispronounced fail.” Lucario called out from the other side of the room.
“Well it’s not like you could do any better!” Christian shouted back, “The funniest joke you’ve ever made was saying you weren’t simping over Team Charm for the same reason as everyone else!”
“That wasn’t a joke!”
“Pfft, ok, sure buddy.”
“Just get on with your stupid request or whatever!” Lucario shouted as he blushed like a tomato.
“Request?” Joseph asked.
“Yup, I have a bit of a request for you.” Christian clarified, “Don’t worry, there’s something in it for you… Kinda…”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well I have something that might be of interest to someone you know.”
“So you have a gift for one of my friends?”
“Cinder specifically!” Lucario called out.
“Dude, stop spoiling it!” Christian shouted back, “Anyway, yeah I have a gift for Cinder, but it might also benefit you and your team as well.”
“Just tell me what your request is.” Joseph said impatiently.
“Ugh, fine.” Christian said before pulling a Pokéball from his bag, “Joseph, I challenge you to a Pokémon battle!”
“WHAT!?” Joseph blurted before looking down at himself, “But I’m in my human form! I can’t fight your Pokémon!”
“You’ve got the one I entrusted you with don’t you?”
“Well yeah, but you didn’t bring him here, did you?”
“I did.” Christian said, “The dream device brings any Pokémon owned by the one we pull here with them.”
“Oh, that’s strange…” Joseph said, “But whatever I guess, I accept your challenge-“
“EEEEEEEK!” A familiar voice shrieked, “WHERE AM I!?”
Christian looked over toward the source of the voice to see a girl with long brown hair and brown eyes wearing what appeared to be a Hisui survey corps uniform, “Who-“
“Yumi!?” Joseph blurted, “Is that you!?”
“Joseph!? ” Yumi blurted, “What are you doing here!? And why are we humans again!?”
“This certainly is an interesting development.” Christian said as he walked over to Yumi, “Hello, Yumi right?”
“Uh, y-yeah who are you?”
“My name’s Christian, I’m a researcher here at the Interdimensional Peacekeepers Headquarters, I take it you’re a friend of Joseph’s?”
“Y-yeah, I am.”
“Lemme just check some info about you.” Christian said as he put his mask on, “Ah, I see, so you became a Zorua after an accident in Hisui that led you into reality #34672 also known as the universe that we sent Joseph into.”
“H-how-“
“Not, important, what is important is that you remain calm, if our supervisor finds out you’re here she might get the wrong idea and fire us.”
“Us?”
“Hello!” Lucario called out from the other end of the room, “Don’t be alarmed, you should be able to understand me as long as you’re here.”
“Oh, uh h-hello.” Yumi said as she waved at Lucario awkwardly.
“So, you got any Pokémon with you Yumi?”
“Uh, y-yeah, only one though…”
“Care to team up with Joseph for a battle?”
“U-uh s-sure, I’m not that good at battling though…”
“Great! Let’s get this started then!”
Joseph and Yumi got into position on one side of the lab while Christian positioned himself on the other side of the lab, “Ready?”
“Let’s do this!” Joseph said.
“Alright! Here we go guys!” Christian said as he threw his Pokéballs, out of the Pokéballs popped out a Scolipede and an Ampharos.
“Alright, here we go Stumpy!” Joseph shouted as he threw his Pokéball.
“Flint go get them!” Yumi shouted.
Flint and Stumpy emerged from their Pokéballs completely confused as to what was going on, “H-huh!? Where am I!?” Stumpy asked.
Flint looked back at Yumi in confusion, “Master Yumi!? You’re back to normal!”
“Look, we’ll explain it in the morning, just focus on battling his Pokémon, alright?” Joseph said.
“Ok.” Stumpy replied.
“Sure… Just make sure your explanation doesn’t give me a headache.” Flint responded.
The two turned to face their opponents, who were giving them the death glare, “Look at Mr dinosaur legs over here!” Ampharos called out.
“I see him alright, you’re really tryna tell me this kid picked him over us?” Scolipede asked.
“Huh?” Joseph asked, “What are you on about?”
“Oh yeah I forgot to mention, these are the other two Pokémon that you didn’t pick.” Christian explained.
“Oooooh that makes a bit more sense now.”
“Just shut up and fight us kid!” Scolipede demanded.
“Alright! Alright!” Joseph said, “Stumpy use Flamethrower!”
Stumpy did as instructed, he shot a Flamethrower right at Scolipede who sustained a pretty hefty burn from the attack but still stood strong.
Scolipede retaliated with a Megahorn striking Stumpy right in the chest and knocking him over, “Ouchie!” Stumpy cried.
While Stumpy was recovering, Ampharos shot a Dazzling Gleam at the duo’s Pokémon, causing Flint to stagger a little bit and bringing a tear to Stumpy’s eye, “Looks like things aren’t going well for you two huh,” Scolipede said, “maybe you should just throw in the towel now and save yourself the humiliation.”
“Flint Triple Arrows!” Yumi shouted.
Flint delivered a mighty axe kick to Ampharos’ forehead, knocking him down, he then fired three arrows at him lowering his defense, “Hmph…” Flint grunted.
“You fool.” Ampharos jeered, “You struck the orb on my head, and now…”
Flint felt electricity take hold of his body, “Ergh, w-w-w-what the-“
“My Static activated, you’ll be lucky to make another move during this fight!”
“Stumpy Dragon Tail let’s go!” Joseph shouted.
Stumpy ran up to Ampharos while he was still laughing and struck him with his tail knocking him onto the floor and eliminating him from the battle, “Shoot, you guys are actually pretty good at this!” Christian remarked.
“Don’t lie to them, they’re terrible!” Scolipede shouted, “They’re just lucky that they hit Ampy with a combo!”
“Well show us how much better you are then!” Joseph challenged.
“Hmph.” Scolipede grunted as he ran toward Flint, he then whacked Flint with his poison-coated tail.
“Oog.” Flint groaned.
“Flint! Finish this off with a Brave Bird!”
Flint struggled to move but just managed to muster enough strength to fly up and crash into Scolipede with a reckless dive bomb, once he landed from this attack he collapsed on the spot before being returned to his Pokéball by Yumi, Scolipede collapsed shortly after crowning Joseph and Yumi the winners of this battle.
“YEAH!” Joseph whooped, “I won my first real trainer battle!”
“Woo-hoo!” Stumpy rejoiced, “We did it!”
Christian fell to his knees dramatically, “Guess you picked the best Pokémon…”
“Uh, you alright dude?” Yumi asked, “You seem distraught.”
“I’m fine, it’s kinda an unwritten rule of being a Pokémon trainer, you gotta give an overdramatic reaction every time you lose, just ask Leon.”
“Who’s Leon?”
“He’s a strong trainer from Galar.”
“Oh, ok, I’ve never heard of him.”
“Probably because he’s from the modern era, and you’re from the distant past, well relatively anyway.”
“I am!?”
“Yeah, Hisui is known as Sinnoh now and Pokéballs look like the ones that Joseph and I used.”
“That’s a little weird but I guess it makes sense, I mean I did travel through a Time Space Distortion.”
“Well a deal’s a deal, Joseph, take this.” Christian said as he pulled out a red Game Boy Color.
“Huh!?” Joseph blurted, “This is just straight up a Game Boy Color!”
“Yeah, give it to Cinder.”
“Why though!?”
“Well I used to talk about video games all the time and she would always tell me how much she wanted to play them, so I figured I’d let her try out a game, that Game Boy has Tetris loaded into it right now, but I also have a few more games here that I think she might like.”
“Oh, I didn’t expect to get an actual logical answer to that question.”
“That’s probably the last time that’ll happen here!” Lucario called out.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t doubt it…”
Joseph took the Game Boy Color and the cartridges and placed them into his bag while Yumi stood in the back with a confused look on her face, “What’s a video game?”
“It’s kinda like an actual game but it’s played on a device like that one.”
“Uh, ok?” Yumi replied, “But what about our Pokémon, are you going to heal them for us?”
“Oh, yeah, uh hold on a sec.” Christian said before walking over to one of the machines in the lab, “Just gotta press a few buttons here and… Got it!”, One of the panels on the machine Christian was messing with flipped over, revealing a big red button and some slots for Pokéballs, “Just place their Pokéballs into the machine and press the red button.”
“Thanks Christian.” Joseph responded.
“You’re welcome my friend.”
Yumi and Joseph placed their Pokéballs into the machine and activated it, the machine made the Pokéballs shine briefly before letting out a familiar chiptune fanfare to signal that it was done healing, the pair then reclaimed their Pokémon and placed them back into their bags, “How does that even work!?” Yumi blurted.
“Advancements in technology, now Joseph, normally I’d ask you if there have been any signs of Space Time Distortions, but I think that question kinda answered itself this time, so instead I’ll ask how bad do you think the problem’s gotten?”
“Oh boy, so first off, there’s a Kecleon who just sells weird stuff he finds that is presumably from distortions.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Cinder managed to get her hands on a piece of Black Augurite because of this guy, and when I checked his inventory, it was just a whole bunch of stuff from other worlds.”
“Ah, I see, continue.”
“Next, there was a Feathery Bed for sale at a furniture store which was described as being strange and it was found in the middle of nowhere.”
“And by Feathery Bed you mean a human bed right?”
“Yup, it’s literally just like my bed from at home.”
“Interesting… So anything else?”
“Then a distortion formed over Mega Crater, and that’s when I found Yumi, I went into the distortion for the items and I ended up saving a life.”
“I’m still not even sure if I’m alive, considering I became a ghost.” Yumi added.
“Well that depends, do you have a physical form?”
“I think so.”
“Then you’re alive, just slightly less so than before.”
“That doesn’t make any sense…” Yumi sighed.
“Well, I’m afraid that I can’t give you a better explanation.”
“Why not?”
“I’m still a little unsure of how being a ghost type works myself, and I’m surrounded by the things.”
“You are!?” Yumi blurted.
But before Christian could respond a beam of light shot out of his pocket, from the light emerged a shiny Hisuian Zoroark along with some sparkles, “WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He screamed, “I could stay awake for DAYS!”
“VISION! What did I tell you about popping out whenever you felt like it?” Christian scolded.
“O-oh sorry, I still can’t contain myself.”
“Lucario, remind me to never give Vision soda ever again.”
“Noted!” Lucario called out.
“A Z-Zoroark!?” Yumi blurted, “You somehow tamed a Zoroark!?”
“And a shiny one no less.” Joseph added.
“Yeah, some would say that I’m a shiny hunter as they’re called, that’s why a lot of my Pokémon are shiny.” Christian explained, casually flexing on everybody in the room.
“I-I’m still a little concerned, don’t Zoroark hate humans!?”
“Nah, Christian here’s my best buddy, plus it’s fun to pretend to be him sometimes.” Vision answered.
“So you’re not going to attack us?”
“Nope, I’m not one to give into the stereotype.”
“Yeah, Vision has never actually hated humans, which doesn’t make much sense when you consider what the Pokédex has to say about Hisuian Zoroark, but hey, as long as he’s my buddy I don’t care.”
Yumi looked at Vision, “So, do you happen to know if you’re alive or not?”
“Eh, it kinda depends on how I’m feeling that day, today I’m 100% alive but yesterday I felt like I was 100% dead, bottom line is it doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, I guess you’re right… Wait, that does bring up a good point though, if I was actually dead I’d probably still be a Zorua right now.”
“Well not necessarily.” Christian said, “You’re only a human right now because that’s how you appear in your dreams, the machine that brought you here takes your dream self here but not your real self, so you’re still technically asleep right now.”
“Oh, great, so what you’re saying is that I could’ve still died that day in Hisui.”
“It’s a possibility but at the same time my mask didn’t say anything about you dying so you could still technically be alive, I still think it’s best not to think about it though, all it’ll end up doing is stressing you out.”
“R-right, all it’ll do is stress me out, got it.”
“Well, I think that concludes our time here, hopefully, next time you visit things will be less chaotic.”
“Yeah, I hope so.” Joseph said, “Nothing could’ve prepared me for having a tag battle with Yumi to get a Game Boy Color, makes me feel like I’m having one of those weird disjointed dreams.”
“Yeah, I feel the same way, and I’m still wide awake!”
“Yeah this has been pretty trippy.” Yumi agreed.
“Well either way, it’s still time to send you back, Lucario, hit it!”
Lucario hit the button and sent Yumi and Joseph through the whole dark void thing and back to their bodies in the real world, just in time for breakfast!
January 29th, 7:30 am
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
Joseph woke up and stretched for a moment before remembering his dream this morning, “Oh yeah, I almost forgot.”
“Almost forgot what?” Rory said as she peeked out from under Joseph’s bed.
Joseph grabbed his bag and pulled out the Game Boy Color, “I was given something last night.”
Rory took a look at the device and read the text underneath the screen, “Game Boy Color? What does that mean?”
“It’s what this thing’s called, it’s a device that plays games.” Joseph explained.
“How is that helpful!?”
“He said that Cinder might like it, maybe it could help her de-stress a little bit.”
“I don’t think that’s gonna help anything but sure whatever…”
“That was a really strange meeting though, first he challenged me to a battle, and then-“
But before Joseph could finish that thought, Yumi came flying through the door, “Joseph!”
“Oh, hey Yumi, I was just about to talk about what happened last night.”
“Was that all real!?”
“Yup, surprisingly.”
“Wait, did Yumi go with you!?” Rory blurted.
“Yup, along with Flint and Stumpy.”
“So we really just had a battle against that person in our dreams?” Yumi asked.
“Yup, and we beat him, all so he could give us this!” Joseph said as he presented the Game Boy Color.
“Oh boy… I was really hoping that my head was just messing with me…”
“Well on the plus side, we got something for Cinder, so how about we go deliver it to her?”
“Uh, alright I guess…”
Yumi phased through the door while Rory and Joseph opened it up and walked through normally, the trio walked down the hall and to Cinder’s door, Joseph knocked on the door, “Hey Cinder, we got something for you!”
“You too!?” Cinder blurted as she opened the door, “But I didn’t even mention that it was my hatch day today!”
“Wait, it’s your hatch day!?” Rory asked.
“Nah, I’m just kidding, my hatch day is actually on July 4th.”
“You were born on the fourth of July!” Joseph said.
“Yeah, that’s what she just said…” Rory said awkwardly.
“What’s so special about that?” Cinder asked.
“Where I’m from, that day’s known as Independence Day, it’s when the United States gained its independence from Britain.”
“Uh, ok, I’m not sure what that means, but that’s a cool coincidence.” Cinder said, “Do people celebrate it or something?”
“Yeah, we usually celebrate by shooting off fireworks and stuff.”
“Fireworks!? I’m down! Take me with you next time!”
“Uh, I’m not sure how that would work considering Pokémon don’t exist where I’m from but I guess I’ll try if I can somehow find a way to travel from this world and my home world freely.”
“That’d be sick!”
“Well, here you go.” Joseph said as he handed the Game Boy Color to Cinder along with the game cartridges, “I was told by someone that you might like this.”
“What even is this?” Cinder asked as she eyed the console, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s a video game console, an ancient one, but a video game console nonetheless.” Joseph explained.
“Wait! Did Christian give this to you!?”
“Yeah, we had to beat him in a Pokémon battle first though.”
“We?” Cinder questioned.
“Yes, we.” Yumi replied.
“Wait, you were there too!?”
“Yeah, I’m not really sure why though.”
“He seemed rather unsure of how that happened too, so maybe he’ll have an explanation later?” Joseph wondered, “But I wouldn’t count on it considering how he normally answers our questions.”
“Well, how do I use this thing?” Cinder asked, “It’s not like there’s an explanation anywhere.”, Cinder kept looking at the system from various angles until eventually she flipped the power switch by accident, “Uh, did I break it!?” She blurted.
“Congrats, you turned it on without me telling you how to do so.” Joseph said.
“O-oh, uh I knew that!” Cinder giggled.
Rory rolled her eyes, “Clearly.” She sassed.
Cinder flicked the power switch back off, “Well I’ll figure out the rest later, we got stuff to do today!”
“Do you ever take a break!?” Vulcan called out from in the room.
“How can I!? I’ve been ripped away from my friends and my home and placed in the middle of a dying world, this world needs me!”
“Yeah, but you’ve got friends who I’m sure would be ok with you taking a break on one of the less serious days.”
“Well I don’t really want to take a break right now.”
But as soon as Cinder finished saying that Slippy’s door swung wide open, “Cinder you’re taking the day off of exploring today!”
“What!? Why!?”
“I NEED your expertise on this!”
“My expertise!? What expertise!? And what are you even talking about!?”
“Look, I’ll explain but it’s gonna take a long time, so I would suggest forgetting about today’s mission in favor of helping me out with this.”
“Ugh fine,I guess I’ll take the day off then.”
“I guess Rory, Yumi, and I will go pick out who’s going then.” Joseph said, “Hope you have a good day off Cinder!”
“Have fun guys!” Cinder called out as the trio walked down the hall toward Specter’s room.
The trio knocked on Specter’s door, a few moments later Specter answered the door, “So you guys are trying to drag me into this whole scavenger hunt?”
“Uh, yeah you don’t have a problem with that right?” Joseph asked.
“Not at all, just make sure we get back by 6 Malachite wanted to make caramel apples together.”
“I highly doubt we’ll be out that long.” Rory said as she rolled her eyes.
“Good, then let’s get going!”
“Hold on, we still gotta ask everyone else if they want to go!” Joseph mentioned.
“Fine, let’s go ask Sammy then.”
The quartet approached Sammy’s door and knocked, “I’m feeling out of it today.” Sammy replied, “I’m gonna take the day off.”
“Oh, uh ok.” Rory responded.
Something seemed off to Yumi though, “Is everything alright?” She asked.
“Yeah, I’m just feeling under the weather today.” Sammy lied.
“Do you mind if I come check on you real quick?”
“You’re fine…”
Yumi looked back at the others, “Do you mind if I talk to him in private for a moment?”
“Sure!” Joseph answered.
“I don’t know about that.” Rory responded, “What makes you think you’re the best one to talk to him?”
“I understand your concern Rory, but just let me talk to him, I promise I won’t hurt him.”
“Ugh, fine.”
“Thank you Rory.” Yumi said before slipping through the door.
Rory turned toward Joseph and Specter, “I don’t understand why she wouldn’t let me go in there. I’ve been friends with Sammy all my life and all of a sudden she thinks she’s a better candidate for talking him out of his slump than me!?”
“Rory calm down, I’m sure there’s a reason Yumi wanted to talk to him.”
“Oh yeah!? Like what!?”
Yumi floated over to Sammy’s bed, “So what’s up?”
“What’s up!? I let my chance with Rory slip! That’s what’s up!”
“Ah, so you couldn’t work up the courage to tell her, could you?’
“No, I know, I’m a failure…”
“It’s not your fault! It’s mine! I underestimated how much time we actually had until the world ends, just wait until you can gather the courage to ask her and try again ok?”
Sammy thought for a moment before responding, “Yeah… Yeah! Alright I will!”
“Perfect!” Yumi bubbled, “Alright I’ll let you take your time off now, see ya!” She said as she left the room.
“Thanks!” Sammy shouted as Yumi left.
“So how’d it go?” Joseph asked.
“I’d say it went well.” Yumi answered before looking at Rory who had a strange expression on her face, almost as if she was blushing under her fur, “What’s with her?”
“Uh, I’m not sure.” Joseph lied.
“Whatever, let’s just get going.” Specter said.
“Hold on, what about Stumpy and Flint?” Yumi asked.
“They said they were doing some much-needed furniture shopping.”
“Oh boy, is Stumpy using my money?” Joseph asked.
“Nope, Cinder gave him some, she said something about it being her way of repaying him for the flowers he had given her.”
“But I thought Cinder hated flowers.” Rory said.
“Oh, she does, and that’s why Stumpy gave them to her, so she could torch them.”
“Oooooh that makes sense now.”
“Well, I think it’s time to get going.” Joseph said.
January 29th, 9:00 am
Sunset Square
Coast Continent
The team left the base and enjoyed breakfast at the guild before stopping in Sunset Square to gather supplies, once they had stocked up on supplies from the Kecleon mart they approached the department store, “Do we dare enter the department store again?” Joseph asked.
“I have a feeling Ribombee’s gonna find another way to drown us in confetti.” Rory groaned.
“So!? I love confetti!” Specter rejoiced.
“I’m lost, what’s going on?” Yumi questioned.
“Every time we enter this place, we’re bombarded with confetti and told that we won some sort of prize.” Joseph explained, “The first time we came here I was the 10000th customer and the second time there was a celebration for every new face and we just so happened to bring Stumpy there for the first time on that day, and the third time there must’ve been something going on because Malachite was being bombarded with decorations by all the Alcremie.”
“Dang, I guess they really just love celebrating, huh.”
Specter laughed, “Yep, Malachite told me about what happened later that day, she said that the Alcremie were celebrating their shop’s anniversary by giving anyone who made a purchase a makeover whether they liked it or not.”
“That sounds rather scary!” An unfamiliar voice called out from behind the group.
The group turned around to see a Spheal that looked just like Slippy standing right behind them, “Slippy!?” Rory blurted, “I thought you were back at the base!”
“Oh, I’m not Slippy.” The Spheal said, “Everybody keeps mistaking me for him.”
“O-oh, sorry, what’s your name?”
“Uh, I can’t tell you right now.”
“Why not?” Specter asked, “That’s a little suspicious if you ask me.”
“Well it’s because I’m not exactly safe right now, someone’s after me, so I’m trying to lie low so they don’t kill me!”
Just then, a Leafeon walked up to the Spheal and sat beside him, “Dude relax it’s not like he’s gonna find us.”
“Dude he literally found us here in town yesterday!”
“Yeah, but just think about it, it’d be stupid for us to stay around town right?”
“Well yeah but-“
“So he’s definitely looking elsewhere because he knows we’re smarter than that.”
“I don’t know where you’re going with this.”
“Sometimes the smart thing is to do the dumb thing y’know?”
“Huh, I guess you’re right.”
The team looked at each other with confused expressions, “What are they on about?” Specter asked.
“No clue but it’s kinda scaring me.” Yumi responded.
“Sorry ’bout that, my name’s Basil, and this little guy’s name is Blublin.” Basil said.
“Sup.” Blublin said.
“Uh, hello.” Rory greeted awkwardly.
‘That Spheal.’ Specter thought, ‘Could it be the one from Cinder’s story?’
But before Specter could dwell on it any further, Basil walked up to him and started talking, “So, whatchu want to evolve into?”
“Uh, I want to become an Espeon, having psychic powers has always appealed to me.”
“Tch, you’ll never get the ladies as an Espeon, you should try something cooler like a Leafeon for example.”
Blublin jumped in front of Basil, “Please excuse my egotistical friend here, he’s just a complete moron who’s never talked to a real girl before.”
“Dude! That’s cold!”
“Well I’m an ice type! Being cold is kinda my thing!”
“Wait until Mr ladykiller over here finds out that Specter already has a girlfriend.” Rory whispered to Joseph with a side-eyed expression.
Joseph rolled his eyes and continued watching this mess of an interaction unfold, “Whatever man, I don’t need some pretty boy telling me how to live my life.” Specter shot back.
“Uh, how about we break this up.” Blublin suggested, “Do you know where we could find some food, preferably food that’s already been cooked?”
Specter looked to the rest of the team, “Well I think we found our way out of the confetti gun crosshairs.” He whispered.
“By lying to them and telling them there’s food in the department store?” Joseph asked.
“We’re not lying to them, there’s plenty of food in there, heck, I think there’s a whole grocery store in there!”
“Alright, I’m down.” Rory said.
The team broke their huddle and Specter started talking, “There’s food in there.”
“Really!?” Blublin blurted.
“Yup, everything from veggies to cake it’s there for you to take… That sounded really cringey…”
“Thanks Mr!” Blublin bubbled before dragging Basil into the store.
“And now we should be safe to enter without getting bombarded with confetti, you’re welcome.”
“Sick! Let’s go then!” Joseph exclaimed.
January 29th, 9:30 am
Sunset Square Supplies
Coast Continent
The team walked into the department store confidently, that was until they were bombarded with confetti once again, “CONGRATULATIONS!” Ribombee burst.
“This is getting a little ridiculous!” Joseph shouted.
“Huh!?”
“Every time we come here, we get bombarded with confetti, or we watch someone else get bombarded by some sort of celebration.”
“O-oh, I’m sorry, you guys are just super lucky, on the days you haven’t been here there weren’t any celebrations.”
“Of course…” Joseph sighed, “What is it this time?”
“Today, we’re giving out a goodie bag to anyone of a species we haven’t seen before.” Ribombee said before flying up to Yumi and giving her a little snoot boop, “And this little cutie made the cut.”
“Hold on a sec, you’ve never seen a Zorua before?” Yumi asked.
“Not one that looks like you.”
“So what you’re saying is regional differences count?” Joseph asked.
“Yep, they might technically be the same species name wise but they’re still different enough for us, although I’ve never heard anyone say anything about a white Zorua before.”
“Yeah, there’s a reason for that…” Specter explained, “It’s rather cruel…”
“O-oh that’s terrible! Where did you hear about this!?”
“My friend Malachite told me, she read about it in a history book somewhere.”
“Hm… I guess I gotta brush up then.”
“Just a little warning, it’s very sad.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Ribombee said, “In the meantime though, let me go get your goodie bag.”
Ribombee flew off leaving the team in the pile of confetti, “Dang, there are so many little pieces of confetti.” Specter noted, “Reminds me of how the leaves would pile up during the fall back in the Plains Continent.”
“Why do I suddenly have the urge to jump around in the confetti?” Yumi asked.
“Because playing in confetti is fun!” Specter exclaimed, “Just like the leaves!”
Yumi desperately tried to stop herself from making a massive pile of confetti and diving head-first into it but even with all of her willpower she was only able to hold out for about ten seconds before giving in and piling it up and diving in, “Oh boy…” Rory sighed.
“Can’t… Resist… GAH! I must!” Specter declared as he jumped into the pile after Yumi scattering the confetti everywhere.
It wasn’t long until the entire team gave into the intrusive thoughts and began playing in the confetti like a bunch of kids, when Ribombee returned she caught a glimpse of the team playing around, “Uh, you guys ok?” She asked.
Everybody’s attention snapped to Ribombee awkwardly, they then began laughing, “The intrusive thoughts won.” Joseph explained.
“It happens.” Ribombee sighed, “Anyway, here’s the goodie bag I promised.”
Ribombee tossed the bag to Yumi who caught it with her face comically, “Thanks miss…”
Ribombee giggled, “You’re welcome.”
Ribombee flew off to continue her work while Team Echoes stopped playing around and did the rest of their shopping, that was until they visited Porygon’s, “Ah welcome-” Porygon said before catching a glimpse of Yumi who was trying her hardest not to run away in fear.
“Is something the matter?” Specter asked.
“No, it’s nothing.” Porygon lied, “I just thought I remembered seeing a Zorua like her when I was out gathering items for our little store here a few days ago.”
‘He knows, doesn’t he.’ Yumi thought, ‘Why else would he be staring through me like that?’
“Um, ok…? So do you have any new TMs?” Specter asked.
“We have one new TM, it came in a day early.”
“Cool! Can I see it?”
“Sure!” Porygon bubbled as he presented the TM selection on a small screen.
“Psychic Noise? That sounds interesting!”
“But you can’t even learn it!” Rory reminded Specter.
“I know… Not yet anyway.”
“So would you like to purchase the TM?” Porygon asked.
“Sure, nothing wrong with getting an early start on my Espeon moveset.”
“Alrighty then!” Porygon bubbled before turning around and shouting to his co-worker, “HEY Z WE’VE GOT AN ORDER!”
“O-o-o-ok!” Porygon-Z replied from in the storage closet, “O-o-one shiny disk, coming right up!”
“Huh, he seems a lot more stable than last time.” Joseph noted.
“Yep, he’s actually fighting back against all that malicious spaghetti code and he’s winning!”
“That’s great! Maybe he’ll be able to run the shop on his own one day!”
“I-I-I’ve got the shiny disk!”
Porygon took the TM and inspected it before handing it back to Porygon-Z, “This is Psychic Fangs, not Psychic Noise!”
Porygon-Z responded by making a goofy sound, “D-d-d-darn…”
“It’s alright bud.” Specter replied, “I’ll take that TM too!”
“So you would like to add the [TM063] to your order?” Porygon asked.
“Yes, I would.”
“Alright well here you go.” Porygon said as he handed the TM to Specter, who then handed it to Joseph.
“Here, I want you to have this, it’ll probably be more useful than your Double Kick going forward.”
“You sure? I thought you wanted to get your Espeon moveset going early?” Joseph asked.
“Yeah I’m sure, it’s a physical move anyway so it’s not like I’m gonna get much use out of it as an Espeon.”
“Uh alright then…”, Joseph took the TM out of the case and slapped it onto his forehead immediately, ‘Hm… Interesting…’ Joseph thought as the TM’s strange power instructed him on how to use the move, ‘So if I…’
Suddenly a pair of disembodied, transparent, pink fangs appeared in front of Joseph, “Woah!’ Rory shouted, “Watch where you’re pointing those things!”
“Sorry! I’m still getting used to the whole psychic power thing.” Joseph replied before realizing, “Wait, I have psychic powers!”
“Yeah, extremely limited ones.” Specter said, “It’s not like you can see into the future or anything.”
“Way to shoot me down…” Joseph sighed as his Psychic Fangs faded away.
“And here’s your Psychic Noise TM sir!” Porygon bubbled.
“Thank you good sir!” Specter replied.
“No problem [unstable lifeform]!”
“Uh, I’m not exactly sure what he means by that but I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“So that should be everything, right guys?” Joseph asked.
“Uh, where’s Rory?”
“She slipped away just a second ago.” Yumi said, “She said something about getting some lollipops.”
Specter facepalmed, “Of course… Let’s go stop her before she spends a fortune on candy.”
The trio rushed over to Alcremie’s in an attempt to stop Rory from buying an unhealthy amount of lollipops but it was already too late when they got there they saw Rory’s bag overflowing with lollipops, “Oh, uh hey guys.” She said awkwardly, “You uh, want any lollipops?”
Specter facepalmed again, “Let’s just get going already…”
January 29th, 11:00 am
Gimmighoul Grotto
Coast Continent
Team Echoes approached the entrance to Gimmighoul Grotto and shuttered, “Is it just me, or is something off about this place?” Rory asked.
“It’s not just you, I’m getting bad vibes too.” Specter agreed.
“Well it’s super close to town, so odds are it’s not that dangerous.” Joseph assured the group.
“I’d love to trust your judgment but I have a feeling that this place is cursed.” Yumi quavered.
“Well you heard the ghost, this place is definitely cursed, let’s pack it up and head home.” Specter joshed.
“Are you kidding me!? Mr twelve-year-old ex-criminal is afraid of getting cursed!?” Joseph blurted.
Specter replied by pulling his Tera Scarf over his face, “You seriously think I’m afraid of a little curse!? I’m already cursed! I’ve got nothing to lose!”
“Right, let’s get going then!”
Team Echoes entered the dungeon and were immediately surrounded by Gimmighoul, “Well uh… This is awkward…” Specter said as he lowered his scarf.
“Seize them!” One of the Gimmighoul ordered.
“Alright guys, time to fight!”
Joseph lunged at one of the Gimmighoul with Spark, while Specter swung an Iron Tail at a group of them, once the Gimmighoul took a hit they folded like a deck of cards leaving behind a couple of coins, “Nice! I think we already have enough for the stone!” Rory rejoiced.
“Great! Now we just gotta get outta here!” Joseph exulted.
“Hehe, he thinks they’re making it out of here.” A Gimmighoul chuckled from a distance.
“Tch, you wimps will never take us down!” Specter taunted.
“Oh yeah?” The Gimmighoul asked, “What if there were hundreds of us?”
“It’d still be a cakewalk! You fools are too weak to leave a scratch on any of us!”
“Alright then you asked for it, BRING IN THE ARMY!”
Hundreds of Gimmighoul started flooding the cavern and surrounding Team Echoes, “Really dude!?” Joseph snapped.
“C’mon, they’re weak! We can take ’em!”
“Uh, I can’t hit ghost types.” Rory admitted.
“Oh great this is just gonna become a rerun of yesterday then isn’t it?”
“Yeah… I’m not looking forward to getting tied up again…”
“Oh we’re not just gonna tie you up, we’re gonna take your soul and use it to summon our lord Giratina!” One of the Gimmighoul exclaimed.
“Oh boy…”
“Y’know, it’s moments like these that put my genius front and center.” Specter said as he pulled out a Spurn Orb, “BEGONE DEMONS!”
The orb emitted a bright light before sending all the Gimmighoul away somewhere in the blink of an eye, “What the!?” Yumi blurted.
“I’ll explain later!” Joseph promised, “But we gotta get outta here before they get back here!”
“Right!”
Team Echoes scrambled out of the room and into the next to find the stairs being guarded by a manageable amount of Gimmighoul, “Hey! There they are!” One of them shouted.
“Keep dreaming kid, you’ll never beat us!” Specter taunted as he took them out with a single Iron Tail sweep.
January 29th, 12:00 pm
Gimmighoul Grotto – Basement Floor 2
Coast Continent
Specter practically dove down the stairs while everyone else ran as fast as they could, once they appeared on the next floor Rory had toppled over entirely, the group took a moment to scan the environment for potential hordes of Gimmighoul, but thankfully there weren’t any in the area, the group took a moment to breathe and take in the scenery, vines were hanging from the ceiling all around them and the walls were covered in a thick layer of moss, above the group light was filtering in from above even though they were underground, “Wow this place is breathtaking.” Joseph marveled, “Makes me wish I had my phone with me, I’d definitely make this my wallpaper!”
“I have no idea what you’re going on about.” Rory said.
“Right… I forgot you guys don’t know what a phone is…”
“We don’t have time to be talking about this stuff!” Specter blurted, “We gotta keep moving or we’re gonna watch our souls get ripped from our bodies!”
“How would that even work!? I’m pretty sure my soul is my body!” Yumi shouted.
“Let’s not find out! C’mon!” Specter said before running through a corridor in a panic while the rest of the group stood still for a sec a few moments later Specter came running back, “Bigger problem! BIGGER PROBLEM!”
“Oh boy…” Rory sighed, “Please tell me it’s something I can actually damage…”
Specter rejoined the group and hid behind Joseph like a little coward, a few moments later a familiar face came around the corner, once they caught a glimpse of Joseph and Rory they flashed a toothy grin with both of their heads, “Oi, ya miss me?” Scovillain burst, spreading his arms wide as if to say “I’M BACK BABY!”
“WHAT THE!?” Rory and Joseph blurted in unison.
“Eheheheheheh, figures you two would be surprised by this development although that little scamp doesn’t seem to feel the same way.”
“Y-you didn’t actually map out that entire prison, did you!?” Specter asked.
“Nope, even better, I found someone who had already done it!”
Scovillain stepped aside to reveal his partner in crime, as soon as the group laid eyes on his partner they were filled with sheer terror, “Hai!” A tiny Floette with an orange flower greeted, “I’m Daisy, nice to meet you!”
“PFFFFFT!” Joseph burst, “You’re joking!”
Scovillain walked up to Daisy and whispered in her ear, “Oh, these are our enemies? Ok then.” Daisy said before turning back toward the group, “It seems there was a bit of a mix-up, it’s actually not nice to meet you, well I mean it is but it isn’t if you catch my drift.”
“Just shut up and fight us!” Rory demanded.
Daisy giggled, “You seem rather eager to fight, well I won’t stop you from making a fatal mistake.”
And just like that the fight broke loose, Rory started off by rushing toward Scovillain to hopefully hit him with a Low Sweep only to be blocked by Daisy who shot a Dazzling Gleam her way, “ACK! My eyes!” Rory shouted as she stumbled back.
“Tee hee, if you wanna take out the boss you’re gonna have to go through me first!”
Joseph followed up by hitting Daisy with a normal Tera Blast, “That shouldn’t be a problem considering you appear to be a huge pushover.” He quipped.
Specter shivered, “Don’t let her appearance fool you, she’s a heartless murderer!”
“Say WHAT!?”
Daisy giggled again, “FINALLY SOMEBODY RECOGNIZES ME!”
“Don’t worry hun, you can pose for a photo once you’ve added them to your kill count.” Scovillain’s green head said.
“HUN!? AS IF I’D FALL IN LOVE WITH A PIXIE!” The Red Pepper boomed.
“You know you have a crush on her.”
“URGH YOU’RE INSUFFERABLE!”
The two heads started bantering back and forth while Daisy danced around like a little princess, “Oh, just think of the exotic coat I can make with all of your furs.”
Yumi took notice of the bantering heads and began to form a plan, ‘Hm… If we can somehow get rid of this psychopath then taking out that guy in the back shouldn’t be too difficult.’ She thought before coming up with an idea, “Specter! Hit her with an Iron Tail!”
Specter kept shivering, “I-I-I can’t bring myself to fight, I mean this little fairy’s a murderer!”
“What happened to seeing scarier stuff!?” Joseph blurted.
“Nothing is scarier than a pixie with a lust for blood!”
“Ehehehehehehe, thanks for the compliments, maybe I’ll think about making your death quicker than everyone else’s.”
Specter rolled his eyes, “That’s reassuring…”
Yumi tried thinking of another plan but all she could think of was how much she hated Daisy, even though they had just met she resented her with a burning passion, suddenly dark thoughts popped up in her mind, ‘The first chance I get I’m gonna rip her head right off!’ She told herself before laughing maniacally.
Joseph turned back and shot Yumi a concerned look, “Yumi!? What’s gotten into you!?”
“I-I don’t know! These really dark thoughts popped into my head and for some reason, I had the urge to laugh!”
“It sounds like she just learned how to use Nasty Plot.” Specter said, “Don’t worry, nothing’s wrong with you, it’s just a move, you’re not gonna act on any of those thoughts.”
“O-ok.” Yumi replied, “Speaking of moves are you gonna make one?”
“I-I still can’t, I’m paralyzed by fear!” Specter squealed.
But suddenly Specter heard a voice in his head, “Just ring the bell!”
“Huh!?”
But before Specter could locate the source of the voice, Daisy shot another Dazzling Gleam, this time aiming for the whole party instead of just one member, she scored a K.O. on Rory and struck everybody else for a pretty hefty amount of damage, “RORY!” Joseph wailed.
“Ehehehehehe, looks like she’ll be the first to die!” Daisy cackled.
“No!” Specter shouted as he placed the Soothe Bell back in its rightful place around his neck, “I’m not gonna let fear paralyze me any longer, I’m gonna take you out and end your little murder spree!”
“Yeah right, I doubt you could even withstand my Moonblast!”
Specter’s Tera Scarf began glowing, “I’m not playing around anymore! I’m not gonna let some stupid fear get the better of me! And I’m sure as hell not gonna sit around and let a fairy murder my friends! I’ve been an outcast my whole life and of course when I finally find a group of Pokémon who don’t hate me because of some stupid superstition or some other dumb reason and you’re trying to take them away from me!” Specter shouted as crystals began to appear around him, “I’M NOT GONNA LET THAT HAPPEN!” He concluded as the crystals swallowed him up.
Bright light filled the cavern, catching the attention of everyone except for Scovillain who was still fighting with himself, a few seconds later Specter reemerged from the crystals with a giant silver crystal in the shape of an axe on his head and a thin layer of gray crystals coating every inch of his body.
“WHAT THE!?” Yumi blurted.
“MESS ‘EM UP SPECTER!” Joseph whooped.
“Pfft, the boss was right, you are just a pretty little princess, huh.” Daisy scoffed.
But right as Daisy shut her mouth she caught an Iron Tail right to her face, knocking her out with only one shot, there was only one small problem though, now Scovillain had the type advantage against Specter, but he was isolated and distracted, so Team Echoes still had the advantage!
“C’mon! Get up!” Joseph demanded as he used a Reviver Seed on Rory.
“Ugh… Did we get ’em?” Rory groaned as she woke up.
“Not yet, but we did get one of them.”
“Sick…”
Rory stood up and gazed at Specter, who was still emanating Terastal energy. Yumi was also staring at Specter, both confused and in awe. “What happened to you!?” She asked.
“I tapped into my Tera Scarf’s power and became a steel type!”
“What!? How does that work!?”
“This scarf has tera crystal energy inside of it which allows the wearer to change types.”
Rory noticed that Scovillain’s heads were getting a bit more violent, “Uh hey guys we can discuss this later, for now we gotta focus on actually winning this fight!”
“R-right sorry.” Yumi quavered as she walked up to Scovillain, “EAT MY NEGATIVE EMOTIONS YOU TWO-FACED CROOK!” She shouted as she bombarded Scovillain with her Bitter Malice.
“Huh!?” Both of Scovillain’s heads exclaimed but it was too late, they were sprawled out on the floor in an instant, “OOF!” They grunted in unison.
Yumi dusted off her paws and giggled, “Y’know, that was kinda fun all things considered.”
“Oh was it now?” Daisy asked.
Rory gasped, “B-but I thought we knocked you out!”
“You think you’re the only ones who can use Reviver Seeds?”
“Darn… She’s got a fair point there!” Specter huffed, “Whatever I’m just gonna keep hitting you with my Iron Tail until you’re out of lifelines!”
“Eehehehe, you can try but I’ve got a nearly endless supply!”
Joseph didn’t hesitate to slam Daisy into the ground with his new attack and Rory followed up with a Vacuum Wave, the team kept trying to deplete her supply of Reviver Seeds when suddenly, Chandelure appeared behind Daisy and grabbed her and hit her with an Embargo, “So you thought you could run from me eh?” She snarked, “No amount of Reviver Seeds will save you from what’s to come!”
“Argh! Let go of me you freaky ghost!”
“Oh I’ll let go of you alright, Lampent! Bring out the frame!”
Suddenly a Lampent appeared beside Daisy, she was holding a massive picture frame with a blank canvas in it, “Nighty night!” She shouted as she slammed the picture frame onto Daisy, once she lifted it Daisy was turned into a painting, “Ehehehehe, I’ll cherish this painting until the end of time.”
“Spice! Get the other one quick!”
Spice appeared out of thin air and attempted to mimic Lampent’s graceful painting attack but ended up failing spectacularly, dropping the painting onto Scovillain and falling onto it as it hit him, “G-got ’em.”
Chandelure facepalmed, “Whatever works…” She sighed.
“So you wanna explain how Scovillain broke out of prison!?” Rory asked.
“Somehow that murderous pixie was able to map out our prison and figure out how to disarm our traps, it won’t happen again as long as they’re stuck in our art gallery.”
“Oh, well can you get us out of here before we get swarmed by an angry mob of Gimmighoul?” Specter asked, still sparkling radiantly from the crystals coating his body.
“Oh!? You guys are friends with Chandelure!?” A Gimmighoul blurted from a little crevice he had crawled into.
“Uh yeah, you know her?”
“Yep! She brings us the guild’s leftovers!”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”
“Yeah these guys are with the guild.” Chandelure said, “They’re definitely a weird bunch but they’re still with us.”
“Ah, I see now, well I’ll go ahead and call off the horde for you all, feel free to keep those coins!”
“Thanks!?” Joseph blurted in confusion.
Chandelure sighed, “Thank Arceus I got here when I did, these Gimmighoul love to screw with any Pokémon who dare to pass through this place.”
“So they’re not feral?”
“Nope, just little troublemakers.”
The Gimmighoul reappeared and waved to the group, “Alright, you should be all good to go!”
“Thank you little guy.” Yumi said with a smile.
“You’re welcome miss.”
“So I guess we should be getting these coins back to our Gimmighoul now.” Specter said.
“Hold on, you owe us a bit of an explanation!” Rory barked, “Who was that girl and how’d you know she was a murderer!?”
“Well, back when I still worked with Scovillain’s gang, he had this bulletin board of the most wanted criminals in the area and she was at the tip-top of the list until one day she got caught or something.”
“I feel like there’s more to this story.”
“Well there’s not, so don’t go prying any further ’cause you’re not gonna find anything!”
Rory rolled her eyes, “Sure bud.”
Chandelure put herself between Rory and Specter, “That’s enough! If there’s nothing more to it then there’s nothing more to it!”
“But what if there is!?”
“Then it’s not your business!” Chandelure boomed as her flames flared up
“Alright alright! I’ll back off!”
“Good, now hurry along back to the guild so you can go give Gimmighoul those coins.”
“Oh, right! I almost forgot that’s what we were here to do!”
“I wouldn’t blame you.” Joseph sighed, “It’s been a very chaotic day as per usual…”
“Is every day going to be like this?” Yumi asked.
“At this rate, probably.”
“Of course…”
“Let’s just get out of here.”
Joseph produced an Escape orb from his bag, it then began to shine with bright blue light, the light started to form a pillar around the team until eventually the pillar faded and the team disappeared.
January 29th, 1:00 pm
SurfSpark Guild – Job Room
Coast Continent
The team appeared in the job room in the guild, throwing everybody off, “Huh!? Why are we in the job room!?” Rory exclaimed.
“No clue.” Specter replied, “But I’m not really complaining, I mean, we’re right next to the attic right?”
“True! I guess I should go run up the stairs and grab that stone!”
Rory began running toward the stairs when suddenly she was grabbed by Chandelure and placed back with her teammates, “Stay here a moment dear.”
“Hey! I’m trying to go buy something before it’s too late!”
“Just calm down a moment, I have something I’d like to give you.”
“Huh!? You do!?”
“Of course I do! You four completed a job before it was even posted on the job board!”
Yumi’s head was still spinning from teleporting, “We did what now?” She asked.
“You captured those scoundrels before I could even put in a request!”
“Cool?” Joseph said as he tilted his head, “Does that mean we get something special or something?”
“Yes in fact it does, just hold still and I’ll go get it for you!”
Chandelure disappeared and the team just sat there awkwardly, well except for Yumi who was trying to teach herself Teeter Dance by fumbling around.
“Yumi!” Joseph called, “Get ahold of yourself!”
Yumi shook off her dizziness and looked at Joseph, “Huh!? What!?”
“Sorry I should’ve warned you that you were gonna get all dizzy when we teleported.”
“I-it’s fine, I’m all fine after all…”
“Are you sure? You look rather nauseous.”
“I’m fine!”
“Alright, I’ll take your word for it then.”
Joseph looked at his friends and noticed that Rory seemed a bit confused, “I just don’t understand how we made it out of that situation so easily.” Rory said.
“Hey, the world threw us a bone today, don’t go complainin’ about it.” Specter replied.
“I guess that’s fair, I wouldn’t want another repeat of yesterday after all.”
“I really hope that that’s the last we see of Scovillain and Daisy and any other crooks for that matter.” Joseph sighed.
“Yeah, you and me both.” Specter said as he lowered his head, “They’ll probably try to kill me for ratting them out like Scovillain did, I’m lucky I was able to dodge his Fire Blast in that corridor.”
But before the conversation could continue any further, Chandelure returned, “Uh, this is awkward.” She said as she rubbed the back of her head with an arm, “Delphox said he needs you four, I have no clue why, but he needs you.”
“Where is he?” Rory asked.
“Just hold on to my arms and don’t let go or else you might end up in the afterlife or worse you’ll be stuck in the guild’s floor for the rest of your life.”
“Huh!?” The group collectively blurted
But before anyone could protest, Chandelure scooped them all up and dragged them through the floor and into a more medieval-looking room with a cauldron in the center, Delphox was stirring the cauldron and adding various ingredients, y’know witch stuff, “Hey! I brought them!” Chandelure shouted.
Delphox’s attention snapped toward Chandelure, “Ah, thanks honey!” He chirped before turning his attention to the team, “Don’t be shy, come here!”
The group approached Delphox and sat down beside him, “Sup?” Specter asked.
“You know what’s up, I’ve got a reward for your efforts out there.”
“Ok… Then what is it?”
“Not done yet, that’s what it is.”
“Ok… then why are we here?”
“Just wait a sec.”
Delphox kept stirring the cauldron until eventually the contents turned yellow, then he whipped out his wand and started blasting the inside of the cauldron with magic, nobody knew what was going on, so Specter made the mistake of asking, “Not to question your process or anything but what are you even doing?”
“SILENCE FOOL!” Delphox shouted as he blasted Specter with his magic.
Specter began glowing for a bit before being engulfed in a cloud of pink smoke, when he emerged from the smoke he was no longer an Eevee, instead, he was possibly the world’s smallest Froakie, “What the- Hey! Turn me back into an Eevee!”
Chandelure butted in, “Delphox! This is no way to treat our guests!”
Delphox turned to Chandelure, “Aw come on hun’ live a little, a little magic’s never hurt anyone.”
“Yes it has!”
“Really!? Since when!?”
“Since the last time you tried using magic to ‘enhance’ my cooking, poor Nail had pie all over his face after that incident.”
“I’d also argue that turning someone into a frog is a form of attack!” Specter yelled, “Now change me back!”
“Ugh fine… You’re no fun…” Delphox sighed before reversing his spell.
Specter hugged his neck fluff, “Oh thank Arceus I’m not stuck like that!” He exclaimed, “That damp frog skin felt horrible!”
“So what should I turn him into next? A Stunky or a Grimer?”
“Neither is fine thank you!”
“How about something funny like a Wooloo?” Rory suggested.
“Oooh that’s a good one!”
“RORY! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Specter burst.
“Relax it was just a joke, he’s not actually gonna turn you into a Wooloo, isn’t that right?”
“Y-yeah I’ve had my fun already, I was just messing with you!” Delphox said as he darted his eyes, “No more spells, heh heh…”
“Just hurry up and give us whatever it is you were gonna give us so we can leave, I have a date in a couple of hours and I’d love to make it there as an Eevee!”
“A date huh? Maybe you could use another spell then.”
“W-well date’s probably the wrong word for it, it’s more like I’m going to hang out with a friend who I have a crush on.”
“Ah, I see then, so you haven’t asked her out yet.”
“Can we just cut the love talk!?”
“Ugh fine…”
“Actually I have a question.” Rory interjected, “Is Litwick your son?”
“Yes, he is actually, and Lampent is my daughter.”
“How does that work!?”
“The same way turning your friend into a Froakie does, magic!”
“Oh, I guess I should have thought about that.”
“I have another question.” Joseph interjected, “Why does the guild need a witch?”
“I asked Lanturn that same question, he just shrugged and said, ‘I think it’d be cool.’ which doesn’t make a lot of sense but I’m not complaining.”
Chandelure floated next to Yumi and nudged her with an arm, “You might as well get in a question too, I mean everyone else seems to be asking about stuff.”
Yumi hesitated at first but eventually spoke up and asked a question of her own, “Delphox, can you tell if I’m alive?”
“Of course you’re alive, I mean you’re speaking to me right now, aren’t you?”
“But I’m a ghost, wouldn’t that make things a bit complicated?”
“Not really, I mean if you were dead then you’d probably be in some sort of afterlife or something.”
“Yeah, what he said.” Chandelure chimed in, “Us ghosts aren’t technically dead, we’re just ghosts, we’re neither dead nor alive, we just kinda exist.”
“Oh, ok I guess…” Yumi replied, ‘I still wish I could get a concrete answer about my whole situation but I guess if I can’t get one then it’s probably not worth worrying about if I’m dead or not.’
“Yeah I wouldn’t worry about it, ghosts are just ghosts, we don’t gotta worry about anything.”
“R-right, I forgot that philosophical questions are pointless to us ghosts, I’ll stay away from them going forward.” Yumi said awkwardly, ‘Might’ve made it a tad obvious something’s off about me there…’
“So Delphox is the thing ready?”
Delphox tapped the side of the cauldron with his wand, it responded by exploding with an orange light, “Yep, I’d say it’s done!”
“So what is ‘it’?” Specter asked.
Delphox reached into the cauldron and grabbed the orange liquid and pulled it out, as he did so the liquid materialized into a necklace with an orange and red crystal on it, “A fine Lava Charm if I do say so myself.”
“Lava Charm?” Specter questioned, “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“That’s because it’s a magic item, magic isn’t too common here in the Coast Continent, but in the Lava Continent it’s everywhere, they usually make these charms for tourists so that they can enjoy the lava hot springs.”
“Ah, so it grants the wearer lava immunity?” Joseph asked,
“That and it functions as a fire Tera Scarf,” Delphox boasted, “pretty neat right?”
“Uh yeah! That’s sick!”
Delphox put the necklace on Joseph and smiled, “Well it’s all yours now, you’re welcome!”
“I will treasure this thing until the day I die!”
“Thanks again for catching those scoundrels for us!” Chandelure bubbled, “We’ll see you later!”
“Wait, where’s the door?” Rory asked.
“Oh you won’t be needing the door.” Delphox chuckled as he waved his wand.
Suddenly, Team Echoes was being lifted up by some weird magic power, but before anyone could ask about what was going on they appeared in the attic, “Well that was rude!” Joseph huffed.
“Yeah just kick us out why don’t you!” Specter added.
“Whatever… At least they were nice enough to take us to where we needed to be.” Rory said as she turned around, “But where’s Gimmighoul?”
“In hiding!” Gimmighoul shouted from his hiding spot.
“And why’s that?”
“Because I made a grave error!”
“And that was?”
“Selling that weird stone thing to a little kid!”
“You WHAT!?” Rory boomed as flames appeared in her eyes.
“EEK!”
Rory began stomping toward some of the clutter in the attic in an attempt to find Gimmighoul, Joseph jumped up and began to hold her back so that she didn’t end up getting them kicked out of the guild, “Rory! Calm down! It’s not like that was the only one in existence or anything!”
“HE SAID HE’D HOLD ONTO IT FOR US THOUGH!”
“Ok, but sometimes things just don’t pan out, and sometimes even though we try our hardest to get somewhere on time we still fail! It’s part of life!”
Gimmighoul uttered an awkward chuckle, “Uh, about that… I sold it immediately after you left…”
Joseph let go of Rory, “Are you kidding me!? Never mind, rip him to shreds all you want, he’s entirely to blame for this.”
“W-wait! I’m sorry! I swear it wasn’t intentional!”
Rory was going to rip Gimmighoul limb from limb when suddenly she heard a voice echo in her head, “Blair! You’re not allowed up here!”
“Wait a sec, you sold that thing to Blair, didn’t you?” Rory asked.
“You know that kid?”
“Yeah, we’re uh, quite close with his parents.”
“Oh, well then you might be the friends that Blair was talking about.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He said he was buying that stone as a gift for his friends.”
“Oh, well I guess I’ll ask him about it later then, who knows maybe he’ll give it to us.”
“So you gonna buy something else while you’re here?”
“What else do you even have?” Joseph asked.
“I don’t know, whatever junk Lanturn puts up here.”
“Ok… Mind if I take a look?”
“You’re free to look as long as you don’t ask me a million questions.”
“Uh, ok, is there a reason you don’t want me asking any questions?”
“Because I can’t answer any of them.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because I don’t know what half of this stuff is.”
“Then why are you selling it!?”
“Because I need the coins!”
“I guess that’s fair…”, Joseph walked over to the giant chest that Rory and Sammy dug through the day prior and started rummaging around in it, he struggled to find anything useful, tossing the things he deemed useless to the side, he kept digging until he pulled out a book, “Hey Gimmighoul what’s this?”
“I thought I told you to keep questions down to a minimum.”
“But it’s a book! You’ve gotta know what it is!”
“Can’t you read?”
“No, I’m uh… Slightly illiterate.” Joseph admitted.
“Then why do you care about the book?”
“Maybe someone could use this book to teach me to read or something?”
Gimmighoul sighed, “The book’s titled ‘The Basics of Growing Your Own Berries’ and if you want it it’ll set you back about 11 Gimmighoul coins.”
“11 coins!? That’s a bit steep for a book about gardening!”
“Well if it’s too steep for you then you can just go buy a copy from the bookstore in the department store!”
“Fair… I was just curious…”
“Well considering you’re a cat I would recommend keeping your curiosity to an absolute minimum.”
“Oh right, I almost forgot about that old saying, uh yeah I’ll make sure curiosity doesn’t kill me.”
“Good, now buy something or get out!”
“Jeez, he seems peeved all of a sudden.” Yumi said as she walked up beside Joseph, “What’s gotten into him?”
“No more questions!” Gimmighoul shouted, “Well except for price-related questions!”
“I guess I asked him too many questions, even though I only asked him one question.” Joseph muttered.
“Well if you have any more questions just ask me and I’ll pretend to know the answer.” Yumi said with a smile.
“Couldn’t I just ask Specter or Rory though?”
“They just left.”
“Oh…”
“Here, let’s just look through the stuff together.”
The two kept digging through the seemingly bottomless chest, anytime Joseph would find something Yumi would try to guess what it was, usually she’d be extremely far off and Gimmighoul would correct her and then she would start laughing and then Joseph would begin laughing and then they wouldn’t stop laughing, this cycle repeated until eventually Joseph found something that caught his interest, “What’s this?” He asked as he held up a box full of items.
“Ugh, I’ll spare you from the endless cycle of laughter and just tell you, it’s Hula’s old gardening kit, she put it up here when she bought that gold set last month,” Gimmighoul explained, “it’s a bit girly but it works, you wanna take up gardening?”
“Actually, that sounds kinda fun.”
“How ’bout I cut you a deal then, I’ll sell you the kit and that book you pulled out earlier for the original price of 11 coins.”
“That sounds like a pretty good deal actually!” Joseph exclaimed before turning to Yumi, “What do you think? Should I take up gardening?”
“I mean do you want to?”
“Absolutely! Just think about it, we could have all the berries we want!”
“Well that’s if you can actually grow anything safe to eat.”
“That’s fair… I mean you could help me with that.”
“Me!? What could I do!? Everything I touch dies!”
“You could scare off any bugs that try to eat our crops!”
“You really think I could do that?”
“I’m sure of it!”
“Well alright then, I’ll help you with your gardening endeavors.”
“Alright! Gimmighoul I’ll take you up on your offer!”
Joseph walked up to Gimmighoul and handed him the coins, “Pleasure doing business with you good sir, now get out lovebirds!”
“Lovebirds!?” Joseph and Yumi blurted.
“You don’t think I didn’t pick up on what was going on here? She was getting you to laugh like that because she has a crush on you!”
“No I don’t!” Yumi countered.
“And he was laughing because he wanted you to think he liked your jokes! In reality, he doesn’t he just can’t get enough of your smile!”
“That’s not true! I thought it was hilarious that she was pretending to know what some of this stuff is!” Joseph rebutted.
“Keep telling yourself that bud.”
“Look, Flint would kill me if I fell in love, you really think I would risk getting torn apart by a giant bird!?” Yumi shouted.
“He’ll only tear you apart if he finds out, which is perfect because he’s not here.”
“Look, I get where you’re coming from, but I’m not that typical!”
“Yumi, just save it, all arguing with him does is prove his point, if we want him to stop teasing us then we should just stop talking and leave.” Joseph said.
Yumi sighed, “Good point, let’s just get going.”
Joseph and Yumi turned around and left the attic but on their way down the stairs Yumi tripped and fell down the entire flight of stairs, she lay sprawled on the floor until Joseph rushed to her side, “Are you ok!?”
“Ugh, I’m good.” She said with swirls in her eyes, “These stairs put up more of a fight than those crooks we faced earlier.”
Joseph laughed, “They did, didn’t they?”
“Hehe, yeah.” Yumi said as she got back up, “Alright let’s go catch up with Rory.”
“Alright!”
January 29th, 2:00 pm
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Joseph and Yumi took the warp panel back to the base and immediately heard Cinder scream, “WHAT IS THIS STUFF!?”
“I guess we should go check on her.” Joseph sighed.
“Never a moment’s rest should really be our tagline at this point.” Yumi giggled.
“Truer words have never been said.”
The two ran off toward Slippy’s room to find Cinder and Slippy sitting at a kiddie table reading one of the books that Slippy bought, “Uh, Cinder, are you ok?” Joseph asked. Cinder’s attention snapped toward Joseph, she then sprinted toward him and began pulling him to the table, “Woah! Woah! Woah! Calm down! Just tell me what’s going on!”
“This book makes no sense!” Cinder exclaimed, “It’s got a whole bunch of futuristic-looking Pokémon in it! But there’s also this strange page with all the words crossed out!”
Joseph looked at the book and immediately realized what it was, “What the! This is the Violet Book!”
“You’ve seen this book before!?”
“Yeah, it’s from another world, it’s about the mysteries of Area Zero in the Paldea region.”
“So what you’re saying is I shouldn’t have to worry about what this crossed-out page means?”
“Well at the rate that time and space are destabilizing, I’d say you might have to.”
“Oh, Arceus I think I’m gonna have nightmares about this!”
“Calm down! It can’t be that bad!” Yumi said as she walked up to the table.
“Not that bad!? This book could be telling us about how the world ends and you’re telling me to calm down!?”
“Relax, I know what it says.” Joseph said.
“You do!?”
“Yep, but I don’t think it’s too relevant to our situation.”
“Tell us anyway!” Slippy called out, “I’ve been dying to know since we got to this page!”
“Alright, give me a sec to remember what it said.”
“I thought you knew!”
“Well I’ve seen what it says but it was just one line of dialog in that game so it’s kinda hard to remember.”
“Oh, ok in that case take your time.”
Joseph tried to remember what the page said while the rest of the group looked at him expectantly, he took a second to rack his brain before finally spitting out an abridged version of it, “The page is talking about how the research team’s leader discovered a disk in the Great Crater of Paldea aka Area Zero, they weren’t sure if this disk was a Pokémon or even a living creature at all but it shined brighter than even the brightest gemstone, the creature was dubbed Terapagos and is thought to be the creator of the Terastal Phenomenon in Paldea.”
“Terastal Phenomenon? Now where have I heard that before?” Cinder questioned.
“It’s talking about Terastallization, y’know that thing that sometimes happens because of our Tera Scarves?”
“OH! I didn’t even think of that! Maybe this does have a bit more relevance to our situation than you thought.”
“Is that what happened to Specter earlier? He used Terastallization?” Yumi asked.
“Yep, he channeled the power of the Tera Crystals in his scarf to become a steel type.”
“That’s so strange.”
“Yeah, it is somewhat strange, but the people of Paldea are used to it, some of the wild Pokémon there Terastallize naturally and most trainers can Terastallize their own Pokémon at will.”
“Wait so if the page about this ‘Terapagos’ is really something then what are these other pages?” Cinder asked as she turned to a page with an Iron Thorns on it.
“That is a Paradox Pokémon, they’re mysterious creatures that exist in Area Zero.”
“They actually exist!?”
“Yup, let’s just hope we don’t have to face one going forward because they’re quite scary.”
Cinder shut the book and jumped up from her seat, “Well I think I’ve read enough of that book for one lifetime, you guys wanna check out Stumpy’s new room?”
“Oh boy would I!”
Joseph and Cinder walked out of Slippy’s room and walked to Stumpy’s door, “Ok, prepare to be blown away.” Cinder said before opening the door.
Joseph walked in and was indeed blown away, it was like walking into space itself! The floor, walls, and ceiling were all turned into starry skies with shooting stars flying by, the theming was perfect, he even had star-themed furniture including a big table that displayed some major constellations on it, finally a table that put Specter’s round table to shame, “Woah! How’d he do this!?”
“Apparently he went to a place that sold magic wallpapers and flooring that mask the actual walls and stuff with different animated scenes, pretty neat right?”
Joseph sighed, “Where have I heard that before?” He asked rhetorically as he visualized his Animal Crossing character turning his house into an indoor beach.
“Do humans have something like this!?”
“Pffft I wish, I mean we have stuff like this in video games but not in the real world.”
“Oh, uh speaking of video games, I gave a couple of those games a try, so far I’ve played Tetris, Super Mario Bros Deluxe, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX.”
“Oh that’s cool, did you like them?”
“Oh I loved them! I just wish Mario was a bit faster.”
“I’ll forward that to Christian, who knows, maybe he’ll give you a Sonic game next.”
“I think I’ve heard him talk about Sonic before, maybe I’ll like that more than Mario.”
“I think you might, I mean you both are blue hedgehogs.”
“Wait really!? I wanna play a Sonic game even more now!”
Joseph chuckled, “I’m sure you’ll get your chance sometime soon, anyway, have you seen Stumpy anywhere?”
“He said he was going to take a nap, something about shopping wearing him out.”
“I bet it did, poor guy was born in an era before shopping existed.”
Suddenly, Joseph heard the sound of Stumpy popping out of his Pokéball followed by a few seconds of snoring followed by a “*Snort* Huh?”
“Oh there you are Stumpy, how are you doing today?” Joseph asked.
“I’m doing great! I had a lot of fun shopping and hanging out with Flint!”
“That’s great! I’m glad that you two are getting along!”
“Oh yeah! Do you like my room? I picked everything out myself!”
“It’s sick! I love the space theming!”
“Thanks, I picked it because I don’t want the stars to get angry again and fall down to earth.”
Joseph and Cinder started laughing, “The stars aren’t going to rain down from the sky Stumpy.” Cinder assured him, “Or at least if they are it won’t be for another million years.”
“Well I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“Well if this is what safe looks like I’m all for it.” Joseph said as he gave Stumpy as close to a thumbs up as he could give with his stupid annoying Shinx paws.
“Thanks bud!”
“You’re welcome!”
“I feel like I could just lie on the floor in here and stare at the ceiling for hours.” Cinder added.
“Yeah, it’s quite pretty.”
Stumpy smiled, “I actually want to start sleeping outside my Pokéball going forward so that I can fall asleep under the stars.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s it like in there?” Joseph asked.
“You mean to tell me you don’t know!?” Cinder blurted.
“Nope, it’s like the one detail they never give us in the Pokémon lore.”
“Well it’s hard to explain it but it’s like super comfortable.” Stumpy explained, “It’s not very spacious but for some reason I don’t mind.”
“Didn’t Sammy get another one of those Pokéballs?” Cinder asked.
“Yeah, he got a Luxury Ball which is probably like 10 times more comfortable than the standard ball.” Joseph answered.
“Maybe you should use that ball on yourself and see what it’s like for yourself.”
“Nuh-uh! Nope! Not happening!”
“What!? Why not!?”
“Well for starters, I’d rather not have to learn how to pop out of one of those things, and also I’m pretty sure it would just implode on itself if I used it on myself given the fact that Pokéballs track who originally caught the Pokémon inside, so having the owner and the occupant be one and the same would probably cause some sort of problem.”
“What if I used it on you?”
“The first point still stands Cinder!”
Just then a devious smile appeared on Cinder’s face, “Eheheheheh, I think I just found my April Fools’ prank for the year.”
“If you shove me in that Luxury Ball I’m never talking to you again, which would be ironic because that thing’s supposed to help you become friends with the Pokémon inside faster.”
“How does that work?”
“It’s probably got something to do with the fact it’s more comfy.” Stumpy pointed out.
“Wait a sec, I think I thought of a better way to use that Luxury Ball!” Joseph exclaimed.
“What is it?”
“What would happen if we used it on a feral dungeon Pokémon?”
“Ooh, that is a really good question!” Cinder agreed, “And I’m all for experimentation!”
“Then maybe we should try that tomorrow!”
“I’m down as long as we don’t have any other plans.”
“Well I guess that settles it, tomorrow we try the Luxury Ball out in a dungeon, as long as Sammy’s ok with donating it to science of course.”
“Well alright then, in the meantime, you wanna see if you can beat my high score in Tetris?”
“Oh you are so on!”
Joseph and Cinder left Stumpy’s room and spent a few hours taking turns playing Tetris, Joseph never did beat Cinder’s score mostly because she’s like waaaaaay smarter than him and like waaaaaaaay better at puzzle games as a result (Oh yeah and because this was Joseph’s first time playing Tetris with paws), But it didn’t really matter, they both had a lot of fun.
January 29th, 5:00 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
After a few hours of INTENSE TETRIS GAMING, Joseph returned to his room, once he arrived he noticed that Rory was inspecting the metal arm device thingie Joseph bought her yesterday, “Whatcha doing?” Joseph asked.
“Oh, nothing, I was just looking at that strange thing you bought me yesterday.” Rory replied.
“Oh the Snag Machine?”
“Is that what it’s called?”
“Yup, it’s a rather strange device that allows the user to capture another trainer’s Pokémon.”
“Wait, wait, wait, so you mean to tell me this thing can basically kidnap Pokémon from their friends!?”
“Sort of? It’s only meant to be used on shadow Pokémon as their trainers are typically horrible people who don’t deserve to be trainers, it’s usually used by people who want to purify said shadow Pokémon.”
“What’s a shadow Pokémon?”
“Think like a dungeon feral but they keep attacking even after you’ve been knocked out.”
“Yeesh, that sounds scary!”
“Yeah, thankfully they shouldn’t exist here as I don’t think it’s possible for Pokémon here to have the door to their hearts sealed shut.”
Rory let out a sigh of relief, “Phew, you had me worried for a bit.”
A few moments later there was a knock on the door, “Hello? Mr Joseph? Are you in there?”
“Uh, yeah, I’ll be there in a sec!”
Joseph ran up to the door and opened it to see Blair standing on the other side with his parents standing right behind him, “I got you a gift, I wanted to thank you for showing me I still have a long way to go before I’m ready to dive into my first real battle.” Blair said as he presented Joseph with a gift box.
“Oh, uh thanks.” Joseph said awkwardly before accepting the gift box.
Joseph opened the box to find the Mega Stone that Rory so desperately desired, Rory responded by pumping her fist in the air, “YES! OH THANK ARCEUS!”
“Huh!?” Cloak and Razor blurted.
“It’s the Lucarionite!” Joseph exclaimed, “Rory wanted to buy this yesterday but we didn’t have the coins and when she came back today it was gone!”
“Oh, well all’s well that end’s well I guess.” Razor said with a chuckle.
“Well, I’m glad you like it!” Blair exulted, “I just bought it because it was pretty but if it’s actually something useful then that’s even better!”
“Thanks little guy, you’re the best!” Rory chirped.
Blair stuck a heroic pose, “I knew that, no problem.”
“Oh great he’s gonna start going around saying he’s the strongest Pokémon and the best gift-giver in the world.” Razor sighed.
“Let him have it love, he’s earned it.” Cloak said.
“Has he though? I mean yeah it was a nice and thoughtful gift but does that really make him the best gift-giver in the world?”
“Well if Team Echoes play their cards right this gift could enable them to save the world, and last time I checked nobody in this world can hold a candle to that.”
“I see your point.”
Joseph handed Rory the stone and she stuffed it in her bag, the two pumped their fists in the air before hearing a loud thud sound.
“You lot wouldn’t happen to have a Rattata problem would you?” Cloak asked.
“No, I don’t know what that sound was but it definitely wasn’t a Rattata.” Rory said, “I would’ve packed up and left if any unwanted guests were living here.”
“Well we should probably check out whatever made that sound then.”
But before anyone could move a muscle, Yumi phased through Joseph’s wall and flopped onto the floor, “Ouch… I’m never trying that again…”
Cloak walked up to Yumi and looked at her awkwardly before turning back to the rest of the group, “And who might this be?”
“Oh, that’d be Yumi.” Joseph responded, “We found her in a Space Time Distortion a few days ago.”
Yumi shook off her dizziness and looked up at Cloak, “EEP! A Ninetales! Please don’t curse me!”
Cloak turned back toward Yumi, “Curse you? Why would I do that?”
“W-well I’ve heard rumors that Ninetales curse anyone they don’t like.”
“Oh heavens no! We only curse those who pull our tails!”
“EEEK!” Yumi said as she backed into the corner, “So the rumors are true!”
“Relax love, I’m not going to curse you!”
“Yeah! She’s not!” Blair chimed in, “Besides, I’ve pulled her tails like 30 times each now and I still haven’t been cursed!”
“That’s different love, you’re immune to my curses because you’re my son.”
“Oh, I was wondering why I hadn’t been turned to stone yet…”
“Cloak really seems to like that curse in particular.” Razor added.
“Yeah that one’s at the top of my list, it’s simple yet effective.” Cloak replied.
“Yumi it’s alright, you can come out of the corner, she’s not going to hurt you.” Joseph reassured her.
“B-but what if I trip or something and I accidentally pull one of her tails?”
“It’s fine love, you have to deliberately pull my tails to get a curse.”
Yumi sighed in relief, “Oh thank Arceus…” She said as she walked out of the corner, “I was afraid you were gonna turn me into a frog or something.”
“Dude Delphox literally did that to Specter and you weren’t afraid of him so what’s the deal!?” Joseph asked.
“W-well it’s not like I wasn’t afraid of him, it’s just w-well I felt more comfortable around you all.”
“Oh, I see.”
Razor ran up to Yumi and grabbed her paw, he then gave it a good shake, “Nice to meet you Yumi, I’m Razor, and this is my lovely family” He greeted.
“U-uh nice to meet you.” Yumi quavered as Blair and Cloak waved at her.
“So where are you from?”
“Uh, I’m not sure if I remember.” Yumi lied.
Razor looked at Cloak and the two began laughing, “Love, you don’t have to lie to us, our trainer sent us here to help Joseph out, we’re not going to rat you out if you tell us the truth.”
“Don’t lie to her!” Flint shouted as he came sprinting out of the room, “You’re only asking so that you can rat her out! You really expect me to believe that you’re really from another world!? I bet you don’t even know what a human looks like!”
Razor sighed, “Thought there’d be a skeptic here at some point… Cloak put me back in the ball.”
“On it.” Cloak said as she pulled out a Luxury Ball from her bag.
She pressed the button on the ball and retrieved Razor into it causing Blair to freak out, “Dad!? DAD!” He squealed as Razor faded into a ball of blueish light that was pulled into the Luxury Ball.
“Relax, he’s still alive, he’s just in the ball.” Cloak said as she rubbed Blair’s back reassuringly.
“I still don’t trust you!” Flint shouted, “Show me a picture of this trainer of yours!”
Razor popped out of his ball and began yelling, “What do we got to do to get it through to you!? We’re not gonna hurt your human!”
“Just show me the picture and all is good, unless you don’t have a picture, then I’ll know that you two are full of it!”
“Here!” Blair shouted, “This is the picture, they gave it to me because they wanted me to look forward to meeting him!”
Blair handed Flint the picture and gave him a somewhat ticked look as if to say “You have trust issues”, Flint took a look at the picture, ‘Well that’s a human alright, but what is he wearing!? That bright-colored shirt is god awful and why does it have a big ol’ pocket toward the bottom, and that’s not even the weirdest part! Like what’s that weird hat on his head? Wait is he even a he? If so then why is his hair so long and girly!? And the shoes, my Arceus what ARE those!?’ He critiqued, Flint handed the picture back and sighed, “Well that’s definitely a human, and judging by the way they’re dressed they seem to be from another planet entirely.”
Razor laughed, “Yeah, he’s a bit different from most humans, but he doesn’t seem to mind that at all.”
“That’s a dude!?”
“Yeah, humans can grow their hair out like that, it’s pretty wild.”
Flint was so caught up in critiquing Christian’s outfit that he didn’t even realize that he had already seen him, “Wait a sec, I saw that kid in my dreams last night!”
Razor’s eyes shot wide open, “Wait did you get caught up in that dream meet crud that Christian’s putting Joseph through?”
“I think so?”
“Well you seem rather confused, so I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you were.”
“We had a 2 on 1 battle.” Joseph explained, “It was Yumi and I versus him, and we won because we have closer bonds with our Pokémon than he did with those other Pokémon that I didn’t pick.”
“Well that’s great to hear, I heard him say something about wanting to give you something if you beat him, was that true?”
“Yep, he gave us a Gameboy Color for our efforts.”
“That’s it!? The world’s at stake and the best he can provide is a Gameboy Color!?”
“Eh, I’m not too upset about it, I mean if he had something genuinely important then he’d probably just give it to us, besides, I got to actually battle as a Pokémon trainer! How awesome is that!?”
“Well I guess that’s cool, but he should really save your meetings for when he’s being serious.”
“Getting back on track, you guys were right, Yumi’s a human from another world too.”
Right as Joseph said that Flint yanked him off the ground by the scruff of his neck and pointed him so that they were face to face with one another, “What did I tell you about spouting off information about Yumi!?”
“B-but we already confirmed they’re not going to rat us out!”
“That’s not the point! You were supposed to keep your mouth shut ENTIRELY!”
“Sir, calm down, it’s not that big of a deal!” Razor shouted.
“Not that big of a deal!? He’s compromising the safety of Yumi!”
“Flint it’s ok!” Yumi shouted, “It’s like he said, if I get found he’s gonna get found immediately after!”
“Ugh! Fine, you live for now.” Flint groaned as he dropped Joseph unceremoniously, but thankfully, Cloak caught him before he could get hurt.
“You were seriously gonna kill him for that!?” Razor blurted.
“Uh, yeah, and you too, the less word gets out about this the better, I don’t need a bunch of potential hazards walking around saying crap all willy-nilly.”
“Dude would you just calm down!? Nobody here is going to say a thing!” Cloak chimed in as she set Joseph back down.
“This man’s so paranoid that he’s becoming delusional.” Razor scoffed, “As if you could even come close to killing us.”
Flint was beginning to get enraged but thankfully Stumpy left his room right as this whole thing went down and quickly swooped in and stopped a fight from breaking out, “FLINT! JUST TAKE A BREATHER MAN YOU’LL BE FINE! YOU DON’T NEED TO FIGHT HIM!”
Flint took a deep breath and calmed down, “R-right… Gotta keep my temper in check otherwise I’ll become a bigger liability than any of you could ever be…”
“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry dude I didn’t mean to get you all riled up, I just wanted to warn you.” Razor apologized.
“Warn me? Of what?”
“That threat wasn’t really a threat at all, Cloak and I are like way too strong for our own good, we’ve actually almost killed our friends on accident while just sparring normally.”
“Jeez! How does that happen!?”
“They’re just not on our power level so we end up putting too much power behind our attacks and boom somebody’s leaving in a stretcher.”
“Well remind me never to make you mad, I would hate to have that happen to me.”
Flint and Razor kept chatting casually after that causing Joseph and Rory to let out a sigh of relief but unfortunately for them things were about to escalate again, not with Flint or Razor but with a certain other Pokémon, Joseph was just about to walk back into his room so he could set his bag down and start packing up for the day both mentally and actually, when suddenly Mesprit appeared in his room, “Uh, hey Mesprit, got any good news?” He asked.
“NOPE, I’VE GOT NOTHING BUT THE OPPOSITE!” She boomed.
Mesprit’s anger gained the attention of everybody else in the hallway area, causing her to shrivel up a bit, “I guess it’s just visitor hour around here.” Flint said as he rolled his eyes.
Mesprit took in a deep breath and began speaking in a much softer tone, “I got the intel you guys wanted me to get but you’re not gonna like it.”
“Should we discuss it around the round table?” Cinder asked as she joined the group.
“Gah! When did you get here!?” Mesprit blurted.
“Just a second ago, I was gonna just chill out in my room until dinner but I was drawn out here by what I can only describe as the almighty wrath of a lesser goddess.”
Mesprit sighed, “Whatever let’s discuss this around the round table…”
“Actually can we use the table I just bought?” Stumpy asked, “It’s much bigger and cooler!”
“Fine, whatever, just let me vent ok?”
“Ok!”
The group entered Stumpy’s freshly decked-out room and gathered around the constellation table, once everyone was settled around the table Mesprit began her venting, “Ok so Joseph you remember how I mentioned that another human entered this world?”
“Yep, she’s sitting here at the table with us actually.”
Yumi waved to Mesprit awkwardly but Mesprit didn’t give her a proper greeting, instead opting to threaten her, “If you turn to the dark side I will personally bury you alive, understand?”
Yumi answered by hiding behind Joseph, “Uh, yeah she’s a bit too skittish to be evil.” Joseph said.
Seeing Yumi’s reaction made Mesprit feel a little bad so she quickly retracted that statement, “U-uh I meant welcome to our wonderful world human!”
Flint was going to interject and hit Mesprit with a threat of his own but Stumpy stopped him, “Not worth it dude, she’ll mess you up, I’d know because I fought her.” He whispered.
“So what were you going to say?” Joseph asked.
“Well uh there’s now another human here, that makes four total.” Mesprit replied, “He actually arrived the same day as her if I’m not mistaken but I was unable to relay that until now.”
“That’s a little concerning.” Rory interjected, “Any idea what he’s up to?”
“Well I would assume he’s up to no good as he tried to nick the Fist Plate from Zapdos.”
“Well did he get it?” Cinder asked.
“Nope, but its whereabouts are unknown, Arceus said that he thinks it’s here but I think he’s just saying that because he doesn’t trust Joseph.”
“Well it’s definitely not here so you should probably check elsewhere.”
“If I may ask,” Cloak butted in, “what is the significance of these plates?”
“Well you see a long time ago some idiot thought it’d be a fun idea to give whoever gathered all the plates a chance to meet Arceus himself, oh yeah and they get to wish for whatever they want with no limits whatsoever.”
Everyone at the table gasped, “And why’s that a thing!?” Joseph blurted.
“Arceus said something about pleasing the birthday girl but that’s about all he’ll tell me.” Mesprit muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean!?”
“Your guess is as good as mine…”
“So this fourth human is trying to wish for something?” Cinder asked, “What do you think they’re wishing for?”
“I have no clue, but whatever it is, it can’t be good, otherwise they’d probably just settle for asking Jirachi to grant their wish.”
“So what about Fiora? What’s she up to?” Joseph asked.
“She just found out that she can use her powers to control other Pokémon.”
“EXCUSE ME!?” Rory squealed.
“Yup, now she’s gathering a small army to do her dirty work for her.”
“And how exactly did you find out about this!?”
“Well…”
Earlier that day
January 29th, 9:30 am
Palm Wood Forest
Coast Continent
Mesprit was taking a break from spying on Fiora for a little bit, she was floating through one of her favorite dungeons on the Coast Continent when she heard something rather unusual, “I’ll get that stupid Riolu and once I do, I’ll avenge Corviknight!”
‘That’s odd last time I checked none of the Pokémon here could speak.’ Mesprit thought to herself, ‘Well I guess there’s no harm in eavesdropping.’
Mesprit kept listening in when she heard an “EEEP!”
She took the cry as her cue to reveal herself but much to her dismay Fiora had appeared before the mystery Pokémon who turned out to be a Skarmory, Fiora gave the Skarmory the death stare before attacking her with a blob of her resentment goo, “And that should take care of things in the Coast Continent, now for the Plains Continent.” She said to herself.
But something a bit peculiar happened, instead of turning into a puddle of goo, Skarmory absorbed the goo and began to glow with a dark aura, “URGH!”
“Come again?” Fiora asked.
“This RAGE! Revenge is no longer sufficient, this whole world MUST FALL!”
“Uh, did I do that?” Fiora questioned.
“Please, do whatever it takes so we can be rid of this horrid loveless world!”
“Oh, I guess I did, uh sick, I guess you can go deal with those pests I crossed back on the Glacier Continent while I go study what the hell just happened, that sound good to you minion?”
“Of course! I’ll have them dead by the end of the week, is that ok?”
“Oh that’s more than ok, that’s PERFECT!” Fiora said before cackling maniacally.
‘Yeah I think I’ve seen enough here, of course that sadistic pest found out how to corrupt other Pokémon, like why wouldn’t she be able to do that!?’ Mesprit thought to herself.
“You better count your days Rory, you’re gonna be the first one I absolutely MUTILATE with this power!”
Mesprit gasped, ‘What could she possibly want with Rory!? It’s not like she did anything wrong! I’ve read her mind like a hundred times, she wouldn’t hurt a fly unless she was provoked! I gotta warn them about thi- EEEK!’
While Mesprit was deep in her thoughts, Skarmory spotted her and managed to grab her before she could slip away, “So you were eavesdropping on us! I guess I gotta change my plans then, Rory’s not gonna die first, you are!”
Mesprit was just barely able to slip from Skarmory’s grasp and teleport away, once she was safe all the stress from the past few days came crashing down onto her at once, “URGH! You’re such a failure Mesprit! Why couldn’t you have just picked a better human back then, why did you have to pick some psycho!? Now time and space are falling apart and anyone can just drop into our world and wreak havoc!” She screamed, “N-no, I can’t beat myself up about this, I need to vent, but to whom?” She then remembered her friends at Team Echoes, “Right, they probably won’t mind if I vent for a bit, besides, I have to warn them about Skarmory anyway…”
January 29th, 5:30 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Stumpy’s room
Coast Continent
“And that basically sums it up.” Mesprit concluded.
“Skarmory’s going to try to kill us!?” Rory blurted, “What do we do about that!?”
“Well I honestly have no idea, I mean you could tell Lanturn about it but the problem is he probably wouldn’t believe you, soooooooooooooo…”
“So what!?” Razor roared, “You’re just gonna let her kill them!?”
“W-well no, but let’s just say hypothetically I have no idea what to do in this scenario.”
“Well, I think that the big mean bird lady would just break in and kill them in their sleep.” Blair pointed out.
“S-surely that’s not gonna happen right?”
“This doesn’t look good at all…” Cinder groaned, “There’s really no good answers here, like we could try to block off the entrance to the base at night, but considering the fact that this is a tree and she’s a bird, she could just fly in through the roof, so where do we go from there?”
Razor snapped his digits (somehow), “I’ve got it! How about Cloak and I stand guard while you all sleep peacefully?”
“Do you really think that we could manage that?”
“It’s just a Skarmory, how hard could it be to take her out?”
“Resentment is no joke, she won’t just stop at knocking you out, she’ll straight up go for the kill and considering the two of you are in love she’ll probably just kill one of you and leave the other to suffer, oh yeah and she’ll probably get your kid too.” Mesprit said.
“That’s fine, we’ll just leave Blair with Nail and ask Christian for some backup surely a 1-on-20 against some of the strongest Pokémon in existence isn’t something Skarmory could reasonably win right?”
“True, but that’s if you can stay awake long enough to catch her as she arrives.”
“Isn’t there a coffee shop that sells a Salac and Chesto berry blend in town somewhere?”
“I used to frequent that place when I was still having nightmares.” Cinder answered, “That blend tastes awful but it works wonders, well unless it’s been 6 days since you last slept.”
“I guess we’re good then, we’ll be fending off the bird while you all sleep peacefully.”
“But what about after tonight!?” Joseph interjected, “Surely she’ll just try again while we’re out doing jobs and stuff!”
“I’ll ask Heatran if he’d be willing to dispose of her.” Mesprit said, “And if he declines then I have a long list of contacts who could easily take his place.”
Joseph let out a sigh of relief, “Phew, well I guess that settles it then, let’s just hope this works…”
“Alright…” Rory sighed, “I’m not too confident in this plan, but it’s better than nothing…”
Joseph walked over to Rory and put one of his forelegs around her back, “Hey, it’s gonna be alright ok? I promise!”
Rory began shivering, “B-but what if something goes wrong.”
“Nothing’s gonna go wrong love, I can assure you!” Cloak chirped.
“Look, if something does go wrong I’ll buy you as many lollipops as money can buy, well after convincing some legendaries to come save you that is, do we have a deal?” Mesprit asked.
Rory hesitated for a second before answering, “Deal.”
“Alright then, plan Team Echoes Tower Defense is now in play!” Joseph bubbled.
Everyone cheered, except for Rory who was still understandably a little uneasy, eventually the cheering died out and the room stayed silent for a bit, “So… Now what?” Stumpy asked.
But before anyone could answer, Cinder’s stomach decided it was her time to talk, her stomach rumbled like a volcano easing the small amount of tension in the room and turning everyone’s attention toward Cinder, “Really? Of all times my tummy could rumble now’s the time?”
“Actually, that gives me an idea.” Razor said, “How about Cloak and I treat you all to dinner?”
“That sounds great!” Cinder exclaimed, “I’ll go get the others!”
“Well, I guess that’s my cue to leave.” Mesprit sighed.
“Hold on, the invite’s open if you wanna come too!” Razor blurted.
“I’m flattered but I think if I sat down in a restaurant I’d probably end up attracting a ton of attention.”
“Don’t worry I have a plan!”
“Oh boy…”
So everybody left and ate dinner at a fancy restaurant, well except Specter who decided he’d rather spend more time with Malachite, which was fine, the group had a blast chatting and the food was great, it almost distracted them from the situation they were in, needless to say, they needed this.
January 29th, 8:30 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
Once everything was said and done Joseph and Rory returned to their room and got ready for bed, but just before they drifted off, Yumi entered the room, “Uh hey Joseph, are you still awake?”
“Yes, is something wrong?” Joseph asked.
“Well not really, but I wanted to ask if I could stay in here tonight.”
“Why!? You’re just putting yourself in harm’s way!” Rory blurted as she peeked out from under Joseph’s bed.
“Well for one thing I’m not the biggest fan of what Flint did to our room but I also wanted to be here for you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Look, I know things haven’t exactly gone off to a great start but I still believe that we can be friends and I wanted to prove that I care by being there for you in your time of need.”
Rory was a bit surprised, “You want to be friends?”
“Yes, it was never my intention to tick you off, I just haven’t fully adjusted to my new body and unfortunately you got caught in the crossfire, I didn’t mean to possess you like that and I’m sorry, I’ll try to be a little more careful going forward.”
Rory smiled, “Aw come here you!” She said before going in for a hug, unfortunately, she was unable to complete the hug as she just phased right through Yumi and fell flat on her face, “Oof!” Rory cried out as she hit the floor, “Fine I see how it is!”
“Wh-what!? N-no, I didn’t- am I immune to hugs!?”
Joseph watched in horror as Rory got up with an angry expression on her face and Yumi started to cry, “Hold on, lemme check something…” He said as he approached Yumi, Joseph tried hugging her and promptly phased right through her.
Rory sighed, “So it wasn’t a personal thing…”
“Hold on, Yumi, now you try hugging her.”
Yumi did as instructed and oddly enough she didn’t phase right through Rory instead giving her the most awkward hug in recorded history (Ok maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but still it was awkward) Yumi then stopped crying, “See? I wasn’t trying to do that.”
“I think that was the coldest hug I’ve ever received.” Rory noted, “No offense.”
“Sorry… It was probably because of the whole ghostly spine chill thing…”
“It’s fine, it’s the thought that counts.”
Yumi walked back over to Joseph and scooped him up in a hug, “Thanks for helping me out, you’re the best.”
“You’re welcome.” Joseph replied, ‘This is strange… I’m getting a similar feeling to when Yumi tried chilling my spine last night but it feels… Warmer… But I thought that feeling was from her possessing me, does that mean she’s possessing me again?’ He thought to himself.
Yumi broke the hug and looked down at the floor, “S-sorry, that was probably very unpleasant.”
“Eh, it wasn’t really unpleasant per se, just a little confusing.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll explain it in the morning, for now, let’s just get some rest.”
“Yeah that sounds good.”
“Alright, good night everybody.”
“Good night!”
Joseph jumped up onto his bed and tucked himself in, ‘Here’s hoping Razor’s plan works, otherwise we might need to hire a bodyguard or a bouncer or something…’ He thought.
Joseph shut his mind off there before his thoughts started to keep him up all night, he drifted off into his dreams, hopeful that things would work out and Skarmory would be dealt with in the morning.
A few hours later…
January 30th, 3:15 am
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
Joseph woke up in the middle of the night to get a drink, ‘I’m getting a heavy sense of déjà vu right now…’ He thought to himself. In his quest to quench his thirst, he wandered into the hall like a zombie, ‘Oh right… We don’t have a sink or a fridge or anything… Guess I gotta go find a pond to drink from… Hopefully I don’t give anyone a scare…’, Joseph left the base and got a drink quickly before returning without any problems, he then hopped back into bed, “Goodnight guys…” He whispered.
“Goodnight Joseph.” Yumi responded.
“Wait you’re awake?” Joseph asked, but Yumi didn’t give a response, she just started snoring, it turns out she wasn’t awake after all, she was just sleep-talking, ‘Oh well, see you in the morning I guess…’ Joseph mused, But something was definitely off, Joseph didn’t hear Rory’s snoring, ‘Maybe Yumi’s just that loud…’ He thought, ‘It’s probably nothing to worry about…”
And so Joseph ignored a very obvious red flag and went back to sleep, surely nothing bad will come of this, right?
Holy crap, this one took a super long time to finish, uh if you’re reading this I’m still alive! I didn’t abandon this thing!
Jokes aside, I just took a small break while writing this part so it took a little longer to finish, which is fine because I never really expected to be consistently uploading parts of this thing, but once I started I just wanted to keep going.
Anyway onto the boss bios and other outro stuff.
Boss data downloaded successfully!
I.D.P.K Overseer Christian.
Christian’s a bit of a wild card, one moment he’s some creepy mystery man in a mask and the next he’s handing Joseph a Dracozolt and challenging him to a battle, is there some sort of ulterior motive behind his actions or does he just want to be friends with Joseph, only time will tell…
Boss data downloaded successfully!
Scovillain and Daisy the escaped convicts
Scovillain’s back for round two, and he brought a friend! Unfortunately though, he’s even more of a pushover than before, getting taken out by a single Bitter Malice, to be fair it was boosted by Yumi’s Nasty Plot but Scovillain’s a joke all the same.
Daisy however is a very dangerous foe, she’s got a bag full of Reviver Seeds and other nasty items at her disposal and she’s got a mean Dazzling Gleam, thankfully Chandelure prevented her from using her items and Specter’s Tera-boosted Iron Tail knocked her out cold in just a single shot, let it be known kids, stabbers never prosper.
Alright it’s review time!
To KirgizovVlad: Thanks for the words of encouragement! Uh sorry I left you hanging for so long but hey the wait’s finally over, so uh, yeah I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
And that just about wraps things up, next time, Team Echoes sees how well Razor’s plan held up and they go from there.
Buuuuuut really quickly before I sign off I’d just like to mention that I’ve been considering posting this fic on another site, don’t worry, I’ll still update it here, it’s just I was considering posting this fic on a site simply known as pmdfanfiction dot com (I think I heard something about links being weird here so just to be safe I’ll just leave it like that.), from what I’ve heard it’s got a lot of cool bells and whistles to it that I kinda want to experiment with, again I’ll still be updating here if I choose to post this there too but I just wanted to let you all know bc from what I’ve heard that site is pretty cool and I might see how posting there works. (Hopefully, I’m not breaking any rules by shouting out another site.)
Anyway see you next time!
This was uploaded around when I found out about this site so I mention it here and in the next chapter.
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