Chapter 13: Crash Course
by poper466Hey, I hope you enjoyed that stupid April Fools chapter, it was fun for me to write despite how I was doing so, anyway onto a normal chapter.
February 4th, 7:00 am
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Joseph woke up and stretched, he was finally back in his room after the little vacation he had in the Lava Continent, he was just about to greet Rory when he remembered ‘Oh yeah, she moved into Sammy’s room.’
Just then he heard a yawn from across the room, “Good morning Joseph!” Yumi chirped as she hopped out of bed.
“Morning Yumi.” Joseph returned, “How’d you sleep?”
“I slept quite nicely actually, it’s kinda weird, but I think I’m starting to like having this neck fluff.” Yumi said as she hugged said neck fluff.
Joseph chuckled, “I imagine having an extra comfy neck pillow attached to your body at all times is pretty nice.”
“It is, I could get used to it.”
Yumi continued to hug her neck fluff when suddenly there was a knock at the door, Joseph got up and answered the door to see Cinder standing next to a Linoone, “Good morning you two.” The Linoone said, “My name’s Zib, and I’ll be handling your lessons today.”
“Lessons!? What lessons?” Joseph asked.
“He’s here to teach you our script.” Cinder answered, “Because if you two can’t read, then there’s a high chance of you getting found out.”
“Are we sure we can trust this guy?”
“Relax, he’s one of Christian’s Pokémon, he’s not gonna hurt you.”
“Physically anyway.” Zib added.
“That’s reassuring.”
“I jest, I won’t be hurting anyone.”
Joseph sighed, “Thank god… I really wasn’t looking forward to having another bad teaching experience…”
“Same here.” Yumi said, “My parents were awful teachers…”
“I assure you things will be different here, I’ve already proven myself to be an excellent teacher.”
“You have!? To who!?” Joseph blurted.
“That’s not important.”
“Uh, ok?”
“Come now, we’ve got some learning to do!”
Zib led the former humans into Cinder’s room, which now sported a neat table in the center of it, Vulcan was also just chilling at the table, eating some breakfast, “Sup, guys? You hungry?”
“Food can wait, these two have got to learn to read.” Zib said
“Who are you?”
“My name is Zib, I’m a Linoone from a place called Hoenn, I’m the smartest of my trainer’s Pokémon by far, and I’m here to teach these two humans how to read footprint runes.”
“Wait a sec, I saw you in a dream last night!”
“I assure you that version of me was nothing like the real me.”
“I’m kinda starting to think that too, the other one was a bit more hardcore, I mean I didn’t really like him, but he was more hardcore.”
“Ah, I see, so your dream was at least slightly accurate.”
“I’m not really seeing it here.”
“Just this morning I left scorch marks in some trees in one of those Mystery Dungeons, I wasn’t actually fighting anything, I was just firing off warning shots.”
“With what move!?”
“Hyper Beam, folks give it a lot of flak, but it gets the job done.”
“JEEZ! Of course, you left scorch marks! It was a miracle you weren’t just obliterating those trees! I’ve never heard anyone give Hyper Beam any flak!”
“Humans say it’s pretty bad because you have to give up your next turn with their rules, those rules are dumb though.”
“Well yeah, humans are kinda wimps, they probably did that because they couldn’t survive a Hyper Beam!”
Things were getting a little off-topic and Joseph’s impatience was starting to get the better of him again, “Hey, are you gonna teach us or are you gonna keep blabbing about Hyper Beam?”
“My apologies human, I’ll get to teaching as soon as Cinder fetches the reading material she promised to grab.”
Cinder laughed awkwardly, “Eheheheh, about that… I thought I had something to read, but I was wrong… I’ll have to go out and grab something.”
“It’s fine! I have something!” Joseph shouted.
“You do?”
“Yeah, I picked up a book about gardening with some of the Gimmighoul coins we gathered, I was actually thinking about picking up gardening once I learned how to read.”
“Good thing my expertise covers that too,” Zib boasted, “Once we’re done reading I’ll take you two outside so we can begin gardening.”
“Sounds good to me!”
Zib was about to crack open the book on gardening when he noticed that Yumi was hugging her neck fluff with her paws, “Excuse me, what are you doing?”
Yumi shot out of her trance as she snapped her attention toward Zib, “O-oh! Sorry, I’ve just been obsessed with my neck fluff ever since Specter pointed out I had it yesterday.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask, how’d your training with Specter go yesterday?” Joseph asked.
“It went well, I can actually use Swift whenever I want now!”
“Awesome! That should help you defend yourself in dungeons!”
“I still think I prefer Bitter Malice though, it’s much stronger!”
Zib walked beside Yumi and attempted to put a paw on her shoulder before watching as his paw went straight through her, he chuckled and sighed before saying, “From what I’ve heard some weaker moves can be pretty useful in dungeons due to their special properties, for example, some moves can cut corners to hit their targets, Swift is one of those moves.”
“Oh… So if I hear someone around the corner I should use Swift, got it!”
Zib walked back to his seat and cracked the book open, “Alright… let’s start with the basics of reading…”
Zib explained what certain symbols meant and began to slowly inch the two humans toward reading their first full word, this process took a little while but not as long as you’d think, it seems that Zib wasn’t lying about being a good teacher, “So… This says… ‘Plant’, right?” Joseph asked.
Zib’s eyes lit up as he began to clap for Joseph, “Correct! You’re starting to learn!”
Yumi on the other hand was still lagging behind just a tad, “The next word is… T… H… A…? I’m still not sure…”
“You’re getting there, it was an E, the word was ‘the’,” Zib said reassuringly.
“Darn… I never thought learning to read would be the hardest part of becoming a Pokémon…”
“Eh, I’d still say that learning my moves was harder, I kinda cheated by using TMs though.” Joseph said.
“That reminds me, what is a TM?”
“Oh, I almost forgot, TMs didn’t exist where you’re from, did they?”
“Nope…”
“Yeah, that checks out, TMs are pretty high-tech.”
“High-tech?”
“Yeah, like something new and advanced! TMs are discs that teach Pokémon moves.”
“Oh… That’s cool, maybe I could learn some new moves from TMs!”
“Well, maybe we can stop by Porygon’s after this and buy some.”
“Uh, I don’t know, something about Porygon gives me the creeps.”
“Yumi, you’re a ghost, what do you have to be afraid of?”
“I can still feel pain, you know!”
Zib watched the two banter for a bit until finally, he decided to step in, “Ahem, do you two want to read or not?”
“O-oh, sorry.”
The reading lesson continued until Joseph and Yumi could comfortably read at a beginner level, “Alright, that’s all you two need to know.” Zib said, “Now follow me outside.”
“Wait! We’re done learning to read already!? But we’re still not great at it yet!” Joseph blurted.
“You’ll get better as you go, for now though, all you two really need to know is how to read in general.”
“Ok… But if Cinder makes fun of me for reading at a first-grade level, I’m blaming you.”
Zib just shook his head and said, “Good grief.”, Zib led the two outside and brought them to a nice flat area near the base, “Alright, so first you want to find where you’re going to start your garden, this spot’s pretty good, next you get your supplies and your seeds, and you plant them here.”
“Crud, I left my supplies in the base!”
Zib laughed, “It’s ok, just go get them really quickly.”
Joseph ran back into the base, grabbed his gardening supplies and the seeds he bought, and began running back only to crash straight into Rory on his way back, “Oof…” Joseph groaned as he fell to the floor.
“Hey, Joseph! It feels like it’s been forever since I last saw you!” Rory bubbled.
Joseph looked up to see Rory smiling as she towered over him, “Wow, I’m still not used to seeing you as a Lucario.”
“Yeah, I’m still not fully used to being one myself.”
“Gosh, I can’t imagine what that must be like, I mean, just a few days ago you weren’t that much taller than me.”
“I don’t mind it, I like the extra height, and I’m definitely much stronger now, oh yeah, and I’m immune to poison!”
“That’s cool, I’m not sure I like being this much shorter than you though…”
Rory crouched down until she was at eye level with Joseph, “Why’s that?”
“Well, it makes me feel less human than you, so to speak…”
“I have no idea what you mean by that.”
“Well when I was human I was around your height, I was definitely scrawnier than you, but I was still around your height.”
“Oh, so seeing me like this makes you miss being a human?”
“Sort of.”
Rory grabbed Joseph and stood back up, “Well here you go, now you can feel like you’re a human again… Until my arms get tired.”
“I’m not sure if this helps, I just feel kinda uncomfortable…”
“O-oh, sorry…” Rory said as she set Joseph down, “At least I tried…”
“It’s alright… It’s the thought that counts…”
Just as Joseph finished that thought, Yumi sprinted into the base, “Joseph! There you are!” She said before laying eyes on Rory, “Jeez! You’re TALL!”
Rory giggled, “So I’ve been told.”
“No, you’re like really tall! I think you might even be taller than I was as a human!”
“Really!? I don’t think I’m that tall.”
“I wish we could compare your sizes,” Joseph said, “But unfortunately we can’t…”
This gave Yumi an idea, “Wait a minute, maybe we can!”
“How? You’re a Zorua now!”
“Yeah, and Zorua have the ability to create illusions!”
“Wait a sec, you’re right! Alright then, give it a shot!”
Yumi closed her eyes and tried to picture her human self, once she got a clear image she opened her eyes, and low and behold she had turned back into a human… Well, sort of anyway, “WHAT IS THAT THING!?” Rory blurted.
“Uh, that’s a human,” Joseph said, “Not what you were expecting, was it?”
“Wow, that thing is creepy looking!”
“Um, Ouch! I have feelings, you know!” Yumi ribbed.
“O-oh, s-sorry I didn’t-“
“It’s fine, I was kidding!”
Rory sighed, “Thank goodness… I was afraid I hurt your feelings.”
“You’re fine, I understand how jarring humans are compared to Pokémon.”
Just then, Vulcan walked out of Cinder’s room and into the lounge, he went to take a seat when he caught a glimpse of Yumi’s human illusion, “What the- CINDER! THERE’S AN ALIEN IN THE BASE! IT’S REALLY FREAKY!”
Cinder came out of the room and immediately saw Yumi, “Woah, what kind of Pokémon are you?”
Vulcan ran over to Cinder and hid behind her, “IT’S NOT A POKÉMON! IT’S AN ALIEN!”
“I’m not an alien! I’m just using my illusions!” Yumi shouted.
“CINDER, IT HAS YUMI’S VOICE TORCH IT BEFORE IT TAKES MINE!”
Cinder rolled her eyes under her very confusing eyelids, “Vulcan, calm down, you’re overreacting!”
Yumi dropped her illusion and walked over to Vulcan, “It’s alright, it’s still me, I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Vulcan swatted at Yumi with his paw, “I don’t trust you for a moment!”
Yumi rolled her eyes as Vulcan’s paw flew through her ghostly face, “Well, you’re not exactly doing a good job at fending me off with those pathetic paw swipes.”
Vulcan opened his eyes and saw Yumi giving him a rather unamused look, “O-oh, uh sorry…”
“It’s alright, just try not to freak out like that again, ok?”
“Sorry, I just have a huge fear of aliens.”
“This is news to me.” Cinder said, “I thought your only fear was my cooking.”
“Well, that all changed when Ember told me about aliens.”
“Heheheh, noted…”
“Oh, you little jerk!”
“I doubt aliens are even real.” Joseph said, “I mean, the closest thing I can really think of are Ultra Beasts.”
“Ultra what now?” Vulcan asked.
“You know what, I’ll save you the nightmares and shut my mouth.”
Cinder looked at Yumi and tilted her head, “So uh, Yumi what kind of Pokémon was that?”
“It actually wasn’t a Pokémon at all, that was me as a human.” Yumi replied, “I just randomly thought to use illusions to become a human.”
“That’s what humans look like!?” Vulcan blurted.
“Wow, you look way different than Christian does as a human, your fur is much thicker.”
Joseph and Yumi laughed, “Humans don’t have fur silly, they have hair on the top of their heads!” Joseph clarified.
“Then what was that weird blue stuff on Yumi’s body?”
“Those were my clothes, since humans don’t have fur, we wear clothes.” Yumi answered.
“Oh, that makes sense, Christian didn’t really explain that to me when he sent me pictures, so I was a little confused.”
“We gotcha!” Joseph said as he gave Cinder a thumbs up and a wink.
“Ok, now you’re just being a dork.”
Joseph sighed, “Ouch…”
Yumi chuckled before realizing that Zib was probably still waiting for Her and Joseph to come back with the gardening supplies, “Crud! I almost forgot that Zib was waiting for us!”
“You’re right!” Joseph blurted, “We gotta get going! See you guys!”
“Wait!” Rory shouted, “I wanna come with you!”
“Wait, you do!? What about Sammy!? Where’s he?”
“He’s over at Stumpy’s island, they’re setting something up there, besides I haven’t spent time with you since before I evolved.”
“True… Well, let’s get going then!”
The trio ran outside and brought the gardening supplies back to the soon-to-be garden plot, once they had arrived they found Zib taking a nap in the sunlight. Joseph was going to wake him up when he noticed Yumi slowly floating her way over to the snoozing Linoone. She crept up to him, letting out a loud “BOO!” Once she was close to his face. Zib’s eyes shot open, but he wasn’t afraid, he just sat there and glared at Yumi causing her to let out some awkward laughter, “Eheheheh, I’m sorry… I couldn’t help myself…”
“It happens…” Zib sighed.
“So uh… What are you doing here?” Rory asked.
“I’m teaching the humans stuff, why, you wanna learn something too?”
“Uh, I guess?”
“Great! Then just sit tight while I teach gardening!”
“Gardening!? That sounds super boring…”
Zib shook his head disdainfully, “Gardening isn’t boring, you’re just immature!”
“I don’t think it’s that, I think it’s just that gardening is boring.”
“To each their own, I guess.”
“So, can we get this started already?” Joseph asked, “I want my plants to get as much sunlight as possible!”
“Alright, alright, I’ve kept you waiting long enough, let’s just get on with this.”
Joseph read through the gardening book and followed its instructions, as Zib gave him some pointers on how to make his garden just a bit better, eventually the garden was set up, “Wow, that was actually pretty easy.”
“Yeah, gardening is pretty self-explanatory, you just plant your seeds, water them every day, and find a way to keep the bugs off of your plants.”
“I’ve got us covered on that front.” Yumi said, “I’ll scare them away with my ghostly powers!”
Zib shook his head, “You do realize that not everyone fears ghosts, right?”
“Really!?”
“Yep, I, for one, am not afraid of them at all, quite the contrary actually, I have quite a few ghost friends.”
“That’s cool! I wonder if I’ll meet any other ghosts.”
Joseph chuckled, “Well, we’ve already met a few at the guild.”
“I know, but I wonder if we’ll meet any more going forward.”
Rory shivered, “I hope not, I’m not the biggest fan of ghosts…”
And as if on cue, a ghost appeared behind her right as she said that, freaking everyone out, barring Zib, “Heya, what’re you guys talking about?”
Rory turned around to see a smiling Lampent behind her, “EEEEEK!”
“Ooh, I wasn’t expecting to get a good spook out of this whole thing!”
“What whole thing?” Joseph asked.
“My introduction! I’m joining your team!”
“What!? You are!?”
“Yep, my mom told me you guys could use a bouncer for your tree house, and I’m happy to fill that role for you!”
This immediately sent Rory and Yumi into panic mode, if Lampent were to join the team then she’d undoubtedly find out about the humans they were hiding amongst them, “Y-you can’t join! We’ve got too many members already!” Rory blurted.
“You guys already have 64 members?”
“What n-no! We only have 11 members, but that is still like, way too many!”
“Well, your team is quite big, but there’s still room according to the guild’s rules! Besides, I don’t even need a room, I’ll just sit by the entrance!”
“Y-you don’t understand, things are a bit complicated with our team!” Yumi asserted.
“I’m sure I’d understand what’s going on.”
Joseph decided to jump in on the conversation, “I don’t exactly feel comfortable adding another Pokémon to the team, I feel like if we did, nobody could have secrets anymore.”
“I can keep a secret! I swear you won’t regret this!”
Lampent’s persistence was a bit annoying, it was almost as if she was trying to get them to leak their secrets to her. Lampent’s persistence was starting to wear Joseph out, so he just sighed before giving in, but before he could voice that, Zib stepped in, “It’s not a good idea, Joseph, you should know that by now.”
Lampent tilted her head, “Who are you? And why’s it not such a good idea?”
“The name’s Zib, and I’m not allowed to disclose that information to you.”
“ZIB! That just screams suspicious!” Joseph shouted.
“As if you shouting about it makes things better.”
Lampent didn’t like seeing Joseph and Zib yell at each other, especially because she had no idea why they were doing so, “Look! I don’t care what you’re hiding! You could literally tell me you killed someone, and I’d just smile and nod! Just let me protect you!” She pleaded.
Joseph sighed, “If I tell you, do you swear on your life you won’t freak out and tell everyone?”
“Well, it’s a little too late for the ‘Swear on your life’ thing, but yeah, I swear!”
Joseph sighed again, “Follow me inside.”
“Woah, ok, is there something you wanted to show me?”
“No, I just can’t risk anyone else finding out about this.”
“Oh, it’s that serious huh, well I won’t tell a soul, pun intended.”, The group moved inside and made themselves comfy in the lounge, Lampent was astounded by just how cozy everything looked, “Wow, for a tree this place looks lovely.”
“Yeah, it’s really nice, it’s roomy, and it’s somewhat hidden.” Rory said, “Or at least it was until the incident.”
“Speaking of the incident, whatever happened to Skarmory afterward?” Joseph asked.
“Oh, she took a break from guild work so she can do some soul-searching,” Lampent answered, “Lanturn said it’d be a great way for her to recover from all the trauma she’s been through recently. I’m still not sure about what actually happened to make her go crazy like that, though.”
“Oh, well, uh, we know a little bit about that.”
“You do!? How!?”
“It’s a long story, but to put it simply, I-“
Joseph was cut off by the sounds of warp panels activating, the rest of the team had come back from Stumpy’s island, “Hey guys!” Cinder exclaimed, “What’s Lampent doing here?”
“I’m here to join the team!” Lampent replied.
“Oh, uh, shoot, I wasn’t expecting that!”
The group joined Joseph and the others in the lounge, turning the once cozy room into a bit of a crowded mess, “You don’t see a problem with this?” Joseph asked as he looked at Cinder.
“Nope, no problem here!”
Joseph looked around a bit in an attempt to ease his anxiety, but his eyes landed on Flint, ‘Crud if I tell her Flint is gonna rip my head off…’
And then Cinder realized what Joseph was getting at and immediately blurted it out without warning, “WAIT, SHE’S GONNA FIND OUT ABOUT YOU BEING A HUMAN!” Cinder burst before covering her mouth.
“Wait, are you for real?” Lampent asked.
Rory put her paws on Cinder’s mouth, then Sammy added his, and then Slippy added his flippers for good measure, “She didn’t say anything!” The three insisted.
“No, it’s ok, I was gonna tell her anyway.”
That sentence garnered a collective, “WHAT!?” from the group.
“I don’t know, I just feel like we can trust her.”
“You can’t! We’re the only ones you can trust with that information!” Vulcan shouted.
“Just think about what would happen to you if someone found out you were human, EEEEK! The horror!” Stumpy squealed.
“There’s no way she’d just be ok with-“
“I don’t mind it.” Lampent said.
“WHAT!?”
“Yeah, I don’t care what those stupid old fairy tales say, I don’t think it’s fair to judge one’s character off of something stupid like that.”
“You’re pulling my leg, right?” Joseph asked.
“Nope, not at all.”
The tension in the air immediately dropped, “Well that’s a relief…” Joseph said.
“So, uh, now that that’s been cleared up, can you tell me about what happened to Skarmory?”
“It’s a long story…”
Slippy jumped up from his seat and pointed at Specter, “It’s his fault!”
“Wha- my fault!? Last time I checked, I’m not the one spreading the void to every part of the world!” Specter shot back.
“Your ancestor, your fault!”
“That’s not how this works!”
“Could you two shut up for a sec so that we can give a proper explanation!?” Rory shouted.
“Sorry…” Slippy whimpered, “It was just supposed to be a joke…”
“Sorry about that,” Rory said before turning her attention back toward Lampent, “you know how when I first arrived I mentioned that slime stuff?”
“I think Lanturn mentioned something like that.” Lampent replied.
“Well, as it turns out that stuff is called resentment, and it just so happens to be an evil power being used by some weirdo who cheated death somehow.”
“That’s a little confusing… How does this relate to Skarmory?”
“The one in control of that stuff found out she can take over the minds of others if they’re feeling bitter toward the world, and it just so happened that Skarmory was feeling bitter after watching Corviknight die.” Joseph said.
“Oh, so she wasn’t really in control of herself, got it, but how’d you find all this out?”
“Mesprit told us, well, that, and we had a run-in with the monster.” Sammy replied.
“What does this ‘monster’ look like?”
Sammy opened his mouth, but before he could utter a word, Slippy presented a drawing of Fiora, “This is the monster, it’s what’s left of Specter’s ancestor, Fiora, she’s an evil human who was turned into a Pokémon hundreds of years ago and she tried to kill us!”
“She’s also rendered the Crag Continent and the Glacier Continent uninhabitable.” Sammy added.
“Jeez, so the world’s just been falling apart under our very noses?” Lampent asked.
“Pretty much.” Joseph answered, “I was brought here by some weirdo in an attempt to stop that from happening and despite my situation, I may have accumulated a small army.”
“Ah, I see, well thanks for filling me in, I can assure you I won’t go snitching on you.”
Flint walked over and tapped Lampent on the shoulder, she turned to look him in the eyes only to find he was glaring into her soul, “Good.”
“Woah, what’s with the stern tone all of a sudden?”
“He’s just trying to protect me,” Yumi clarified, “Joseph’s not the only human here, I’m one too, and Flint is my protector of sorts.”
“Ah, I see, so he’d rip my head off if I told anyone, got it.”
“Well, I guess now that that’s all settled, welcome to the team!” Joseph bubbled.
“Thank you! I’ll be sure to keep you all safe at night!”
“You sure about that? You don’t exactly look that tough.” Zib ribbed.
“I assure you I’m much tougher than I look.” Lampent replied as she took something out of her bag, “Mostly because I’ve got a pretty neat strategy.”
“What’s that?”
“Check this out!” Lampent cheered as she presented the item that she had just pulled out, it was a simple Poké coin (Not to be confused with a Pokécoin) then she used her ghostly abilities to lift it up into the air, and then POW! She shot the coin across the room like a bullet, “That’s Poltergeist, my favorite move, I mostly like it because it’s really strong and it keeps my enemies far away from me.”
“That’s neat!” Cinder exulted, “I’ve never seen a move like that!”
“Hehe, thanks, I rarely get praised for that move, for some reason lil’ bro hates it and my mom says that it’s impractical.”
“Impractical my butt! That move is sick!”
“Hehe, I’m flattered.” Lampent blushed,
“So, uh, do you have a nickname?” Vulcan asked, “I mean Lampent is fine, but if there are other Lampent around then we might get confused.”
“Oh, my friends call me Midnight.”
“Midnight… That’s a pretty name.” Yumi said.
“Thanks uh…”
“Yumi, it’s a somewhat common name where I’m from.”
“Oh, uh, thanks, Yumi.”, The group spent some time getting to know Midnight, asking pretty basic icebreaker questions like what her favorite food was, “Oh that’s an easy one! Soul energy! With ketchup!”, what her favorite color was, “Either a deep violet or jet black.”, stuff like that.
Then an interesting question popped up, “If you could be any kind of Pokémon, what would you be?” asked Slippy.
“I uh, don’t know, maybe I’d just like to stay the same.”
“That’s boring! What about you, Joseph? What would you be if you had the choice?”
“I don’t know either, I’ve never really thought about it until now…” Joseph said as he tried to rack his brain for an answer, “I mean being a legendary could be cool, but aside from that I guess being an Eevee could be cool, I mean there are a bunch of choices for evolution and I’d be super cute.”
“Ugh, being an Eevee is the worst.” Specter commented, “Everyone’s constantly trying to tell me what I should evolve into, especially other Eevee evolutions.”
“Dang, that sucks.”
“There’s also the fact that I got Run Away for my ability, which is just terrible.”
“I’ve heard Porygon sells a drink that can change your ability.” Cinder interjected, “If the rumors are true, then that’s incredible!”
“That sounds like an Ability Capsule.” Joseph said, “Yeah, those exist, there’s also the much rarer Ability Patch which changes a Pokémon’s ability to its rare Hidden Ability.”
“Woah, maybe I should ask Porygon if he’s got any of those next time I go to his shop.”
“Hey! Quit dodging the question, Joseph! What Pokémon would you like to be!?” Slippy shouted.
“Woah calm down! I’m not forgetting about your question! I was just talking!”
“Yeah, calm down, dude!” Cinder added.
“Sorry, this is just a very interesting question,” Slippy said.
Joseph kept thinking for a while, “Maybe a winged Pokémon would be kinda cool, I mean I’ve always wanted to fly!”
“Dude, flying is so tiring.” Flint said, “I almost wish I couldn’t fly sometimes.”
“Well, I’d love to be something like a Flygon, I mean, they could probably fly for hours without getting tired.”
“I guess that’s a good answer.” Slippy said, “What about you, Yumi?”
“Me!? I, uh, I don’t know! I’ve never thought about it, either!”
“Just think of something!”
“W-well,” Yumi jumped up from her seat and put a paw to her chin, “I could be a Spheal, that’d be kinda cute.” She said as she turned into a Spheal, “But then it would become hard to move…” She sighed as she dropped her illusion, “Maybe something closer to home then? Like a Gardevoir?” She asked as she once again used her illusions to transform into a Gardevoir, “Eh, I’m not feeling that one.”
“I’d say what you are now fits you quite well.” Joseph said, “I mean, you can shift forms on the fly and other cool stuff like that!”
“I guess you’re right… Although I don’t think Slippy’s gonna be happy with that answer.”
“No, it’s ok, I understand.” Slippy said, “I’m sorry I got all rowdy when I asked that question.”
“It’s alright, bud, I forgive you.”
“So, uh, what now?” Joseph asked.
“Maybe we could put Midnight’s abilities to the test! Let’s go dungeon diving!” Cinder suggested.
“Oh boy…” Vulcan sighed, “Classic Cinder, always wanting to dive head first into danger.”
“I’m down, but who’s coming with?” Midnight said with a nod.
“I was thinking it could be you, me, Joseph, and Rory.”
“Sounds good, unless they don’t wanna go.”
“I’ll go! I’ve been dying to jump back into a dungeon since we got back!” Joseph exclaimed.
“Same here! I’ve been wanting to give this Mega Stone a spin since I evolved!” Rory agreed.
“Alright then, how about we get going then?” Cinder asked.
Joseph jumped up from his seat and put his bag back on his side, “So where to?”
“I’ve got a place in mind.”
February 4th, 11:30 am
StepStone Stream – Entrance
Coast Continent
The team arrived at their destination in the middle of the forest, there was a stream with stones peaking out of it, creating a clearing, “This place is pretty!” Joseph gushed.
“I know right!? It’s got crystal-clear water, tons of luscious trees, and it’s got tons of rocks to hop across!” Cinder chirped.
“Wouldn’t the water hurt you if you fell in?” Midnight asked.
“I’m fine, I’ve got my Ever Burn Charm! Water’s got nothing on me!”
“Ever Burn Charm? What’s that?”
“It’s some amulet she found in a chest back at the Tempest Cave.” Rory clarified, “It looks kinda old and janky.”
“Well, it works!” Cinder said as she flicked the charm, “And that’s what matters.”
“Well be sure to put it to good use then, I wanna see how this thing works.” Midnight said.
“I will!”
The group hopped across the river and entered the forest on the other side, which just so happened to be the dungeon, “Alright, here we go, Cinder, HIT IT!” Rory ordered.
“Not so fast! We should wait until we get into a fight before activating that Mega Stone, besides, I’m not exactly sure how to activate it.”
“I’ve got you covered.” Joseph said, “Just lift the stone up into the air and hold it there until it’s done its thing.”
“Gotcha!”
The quartet wandered through the forest until they stumbled upon a tiny little Rattata, “The perfect target!” Rory exclaimed, “Let’s get ’em!”
“What!? Are you crazy!? It’s just a tiny little Rattata! We can’t go bullying him! Or her!”
Rory sighed in disappointment, “What would you consider a prime pick, then?”
“A Togepi!” A voice shouted.
“Huh? Who said that?” Rory asked.
“Wait a sec! I know that voice!” Cinder exclaimed.
Suddenly a Spheal came into view, “You do?”
“BLUBLIN!” Cinder exclaimed, “I MISSED YOU!”
“Wait a second! Cinder!” Blublin cried.
The two enveloped each other in a hug before breaking the hug and saying, “It’s not safe for you here!” In unison, “W-wait, what!? What’s going on with you?” They said, “N-no, you first!”
The two started laughing a bit before sighing, “Alright, “I’ll go first.”
“Hold on, who is this guy?” Rory asked.
“I could ask you the same. You don’t look like the Lucario I know!”
“That’s Rory.” Cinder answered, “She’s the one who informed me about the beginning of the end of the world.”
“Wait, the end of the world!? What’s been going on with you since we were separated!?”
“Well basically-“, You’ve heard this explanation a million times at this point, so I’ll spare you the details.
“That’s terrifying!”
“I know right!? So, what’s going on with you?”
“Well, I woke up in some strange world where humans actually existed! But then some crazy human used a Space Time Distortion to enter this one and now he’s trying to gather all the plates so he can wish for total control or something.”
“So let me get this straight, now there are two threats!?” Joseph blurted.
“Yeah, that’s right Christi- oops sorry, you remind me of a friend.”
“I think there’s a good reason for that.” Cinder said.
“Is there?”
“Christian ended up in some weird facility that tries to save the world, he ended up sending this human here.”
“And how’d you figure that out!?”
“We met some of the Pokémon Christian met as a human and they established communications between us and him.”
“This is making my head spin, and I just recovered from a major head injury.”
“You did!?”
“Yup, Ursaluna got me good, but it wasn’t enough to kill me.”
“Right, I almost forgot about that.”
“Hold on, were you that Spheal that had that bandage on their head the other day?” Joseph asked.
“Yep, thankfully I was able to make a swift recovery thanks to some healthy soup stuff that Chandelure made.”
“So you’ve been hanging out near town!?” Cinder blurted
“Yep, only for a few days, though.”
“Well, at least you’re safe now…”
“I’m not exactly in the clear until I keep that plate away from Volo!”
“Hold on, run that by me again!?” Joseph fretted.
“What, does the name Volo ring a bell?”
“Yeah! He tried to take over Hisui!”
“Wait, you know about that!?”
“Yeah, where I’m from, that all happened in a video game.”
“Well, I can assure you it’s very real now!”
“I wouldn’t doubt it at this point…”
“Well, we’re here now! Let’s go protect that plate!” Cinder affirmed.
“Right!”
The team fought their way through the first floor of the dungeon, absolutely trashing its inhabitants, first Joseph took out a Pidgeotto with Spark, then Rory took out a Dwebble with a Flash Cannon and Vacuum Wave combo, followed by a team attack from Cinder and Midnight taking out a full-on Leavanny with Overheat and Fire Blast, a combo they dubbed ‘Forest Fire’.
Finally, Blublin got in on the action as the team walked into a monster house, “Crap! We’re surrounded!” Joseph shouted.
“Tch, I like these odds.” Blublin quipped before sending a Blizzard crashing into all the enemies in the room, knocking them all out in one clean sweep, “Alright, let’s keep moving!”
“HAHA! It’s just like old times!” Cinder exulted, “Man, have I missed this!”
“Same here!”
The group approached the stairs when suddenly Basil entered the room, “Woah, hey ladies watcha doin’ in a place like this?”
Cinder’s expression immediately soured as Basil asked that question, “Oh, great, a ladykiller…”
“Woah, what’s with you all of a sudden?”
“E-excuse me for a sec, Cinder.” Blublin said.
Blublin pulled Basil aside and promptly slapped him across the face as hard as he could with one of his flippers, “OW! What the hell, man!?”
“You know that thing I mentioned about the love of my life?”
“Y-yeah, but she’s dead righ-“
Blublin slapped Basil again, “No, you idiot! She’s right there! That Cyndaquil is her! We got separated, but against all odds, she’s here!”
“Oh…. It’s all starting to make sense…”
“You think you could, like, not act like a huge douche for once?”
“Ugh… Fine… I’ll stop hitting on her… The others are fair game, though.”
Blublin sighed, “You’re hopeless…”
The two rejoined the group and Blublin apologized for having to pull Basil aside as Basil immediately went back to his usual antics, “So uh, where was I?”
Rory sighed, “This feels insulting… I just started dating Sammy and now this dweeb’s tryna hit on me? I’m good.”
“What about you hot stuff?” Basil asked as he looked at Midnight.
“Oh, uh, I’m not into guys.”
All the rejection in the air crushed Basil’s whole ladykiller cool guy act and made him feel slightly sad, “Fine, I’ll just stay lonely…”
“For the record, hitting on anyone and everyone under the sun isn’t helping you.” Joseph assured, “That’s how you end up as one of those guys that thinks everyone likes them when in reality everyone hates them.”
“Tch, what would you know about relationships?”
Joseph rolled his eyes and sighed, “A lot more than you, clearly.” He muttered.
“We shouldn’t be dilly-dallying! We gotta stop Volo!” Blublin reminded the group.
“R-right, sorry!” Joseph replied shakily.
February 4th, 11:55 am
StepStone Stream – Floor 2
Coast Continent
The team scrambled up the stairs and onto the next floor, they immediately heard chattering as they entered the next room, the group paused to listen in on the conversation, Rory taking the opportunity to put a lollipop into her mouth, garnering side eyes from the other members of the group, “What!? It helps me stay calm!”
Blublin sighed, “Whatever works, I guess…”
The group kept listening until eventually, Basil opened his big stupid mouth, “Oh hey, it’s Arcanine, I wonder who she’s talking to?”
“Arcanine?” Cinder questioned, “Who’s Arcanine?”
“She’s one of Volo’s Pokémon. Don’t worry, she’s a traitor, so she’s on our side.” Blublin answered.
“I don’t like how you worded that as if he owned her.”
“That’s kinda how trainers word things.” Basil clarified, “Everyone just calls me ‘Adaman’s Leafeon’.”
“The most annoying Pokémon I’ve ever met is probably a common substitute.” Rory snickered.
“WOW, ok, jeez, you’re absolutely not a fan of me, I see how it is.”
“With all due respect, I don’t think anyone’s really a fan of you.” Blublin added, Basil, clenching one of his vines as if they were fists in response.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go after her!” Cinder exclaimed. Cinder was positively oozing excitement, she was happy to be back with one of her friends again, exploring a dungeon and preventing the end of the world, just like old times.
That was until Blublin metaphorically slammed her excitement with a stop sign, “We should wait, she could be confronting Volo right now for all we know.”
“That’s all the more reason to rush in! We’ve been through similar situations before! You remember when we fought Grovyle when we still thought he was our enemy!?”
“This is different! Grovyle had mercy! This guy though… I’m not quite sure if I can say the same for him, he seems crazy!”
“We have more firepower though! Not only do we have more party members, but we also have Mega Evolution on our side!”
“Mega what now?” Basil questioned.
“Mega Evolution! It makes Pokémon super strong!”
“Yeah, something tells me that’s not gonna be enough to stop Volo, despite my prior comments.” Blublin said, “Like I said, this guy’s insane on a whole new level.”
Suddenly the voices got louder, interrupting the conversation at hand, “Hey! Is anyone there!? I need some help over here!”
“That’s our cue, dude!” Cinder insisted.
“Ugh, fine, let’s go, but just, be safe, I don’t want to lose you again.” Blublin said.
The group started running toward the source of the voice, once they arrived at the scene they noticed Arcanine standing in front of what appeared to be an injured Emolga, “Who are you!? State your business before I rip you apart!”
“Hold it!” Blublin shouted, “It’s us! We found some friends in the forest!”
“And how do you know they’re friends?”
“Because! I found her!”
“Wait, you mean…”
“Yes, I found Cinder.”
“Howdy!” Cinder said as she waved at Arcanine with one of her nublet arms.
“Oh, she’s so cute! I mean, I was expecting her to be much bigger, but I think I like her better than what I imagined.”
“He told you about me?”
“Yeah! He said that you were everything to him, more than anything in the world.”
Cinder started blushing, “R-really!? That’s so sweet of him!”
Blublin hopped over to Arcanine and raised an eyebrow, “What’s the situation, Arcanine?”
“W-well, it’s… Complicated… I was just minding my own business when suddenly there was another distortion, so I hid in a bush until it cleared up, but once it did, I found this creature lying on the ground, we talked for a bit until suddenly she just passed out!”
“How’d she pass out!?”
“Well, she was breathing very heavily and for some reason, all she would say was ‘Dunsparce’, no matter what I asked her.”
“Wait a second, I think I know who this is!” Cinder said.
“I certainly do.” Joseph interjected, “That’s that Emolga from that team in the Mist Continent!”
“I knew I remembered her from somewhere! Those guys took a vacation to the Grass Continent! I met Emolga once at the Kecleon Shop!”
“Dude, what is with this world and bringing familiar faces back together!? First, it was Cinder and Vulcan, then it was Cinder and Blublin, and now Emolga and Cinder!”
“Maybe Cinder has some kind of superpower.” Midnight suggested, “I mean, it would make sense since she’s the only one that it’s happened to so far.”
“Well, there are some other examples, but they involve Pokémon you haven’t met.”
“Oh, makes sense.”
“Now’s not really the time to be chatting, we need to get this Emolga some help!” Arcanine insisted.
“But we need to stop Volo! We can’t do both at once!” Basil fretted.
“Ugh… I wish there were an easy way to get out of this place.”
“I’ve got you!” Cinder chirped as she pulled out an Escape Orb, “Use this, it’ll take you out of here in a flash!”
“Oh, thank you, sweetie! You’re a lifesaver!”
Arcanine took the Escape Orb, then she picked up Emolga and used the Escape Orb to take her to safety, “Alright, now that that’s been taken care of we should probably get going!” Blublin asserted, “There’s a chance Volo’s already snagged the plate!”
February 4th, 12:15 pm
StepStone Stream – Floor 3
Coast Continent
Upon arriving at the next floor, the group noticed a few feral Bellsprout approaching them slowly, just then Joseph had an idea, “Hey Midnight, do you have anything flammable you can shoot at them?”
Midnight dug through her bag for a bit until eventually, she pulled out an acorn, “Yeah, why?”
“Try shooting it through Cinder’s flames!”
Midnight did as instructed, as Cinder ducked down and lit up her flames, Midnight shot an acorn straight through the flames creating a fireball. The fireball hit one of the Bellsprout in the face, knocking it out, “Huh, that’s neat, I never thought to upgrade my projectiles as I shoot them.”
Cinder finished off the other Bellsprout with a simple Flamethrower before turning to the group and adding, “And I never thought I’d see anyone use my quills to add onto their attack! Where’d that idea come from?”
“I got it from a video game, there were plants that could light projectiles on fire.”
“Sounds interesting, I’ll have to play that one at some point.”
“What even is a video game?” Midnight asked.
“Oh, they’re games that humans invented, you play them on machines that humans also invented.”
“Sounds weird… But interesting.”
“Well, I’ll elaborate more later but, we gotta keep moving!”
“Right, full steam ahead or whatever.”
The gang continued onward until suddenly they heard a *click* from under Basil’s feet, “What was tha-“
Basil was whisked away by a Warp Trap, how unfortunate… “Oh great, now we’ve gotta sweep the floor before continuing…” Joseph groaned.
“Can’t we just leave him? I mean, he’s a bit annoying.” Rory remarked.
“We’re gonna need all the firepower we can get.” Blublin responded.
“Ugh… Fine…”
The team did a sweep of the floor, unable to find a trace of Basil’s whereabouts, that was until they found the stairs, Basil was sitting beside the stairs, helping himself to a nice meal of berries and fruit while he waited on his teammates, “Oh there you guys are, took you long enough to get here.” Basil ribbed.
Rory’s face scrunched up, “There you are! Why didn’t you try to make your way back to us!?”
“Because the stairs are right here, no sense in leaving them.”
“I mean, you could’ve led us to them, but I guess not…” Cinder interjected.
Joseph stared at Basil’s food, his stomach growling as he did so, “Man… I’m so hungry… Why’d Zib have to make me skip breakfast…”
Basil overheard Joseph’s mumbling and handed him an apple, “Here, eat up bud.”
“Wow, thanks, maybe you aren’t such a bad guy after all.”
“Heh, thanks kid.”
“Don’t let it get to your head.” Rory quickly added.
“Oh come on! I can’t have anything around here!”
Joseph and Rory broke out into laughter as Basil cleaned up his mess, once that was done the group moved on quickly.
February 4th, 12:47 pm
StepStone Stream – Forest Clearing
Coast Continent
After a short climb up the seemingly endless stairs, the team arrived at a clearing in the forest, the clearing was absolutely stunning, a beautiful, lush, forest, accompanied by crystal clear flowing water from the nearby stream, and at the center of it all, was a stone tablet. The team noticed the stone tablet and drew closer to it, “Huh, weird stone, wonder if there’s more to it?” Cinder thought.
Joseph walked up to the stone and inspected it more closely, “There’s… Writing… On the tablet!”
“Well, what are you waiting for!? Read it!”
Rory facepalmed before looking at Cinder and yelling, “He can’t read dingus!”
Joseph turned to Rory and shot her a smile before starting to read the tablet, “Long ago, the original one shaped the universe with its thousand arms, in the process, powerful artifacts were created, these artifacts are invaluable to the original one, so invaluable in fact that they’ll do anything to get them back, including granting the wishes of anyone who manages to assemble them all, just bring them to the Temple of Light and all your dreams will come true. As for where these plates are? Well… All I can really say is that one should be nearby… Assuming you’re not here like 3000 years too late…”
“WHAT!? HE CAN READ!?”
Joseph giggled as he looked back at Rory, “Well, uh, thanks for confirming that I read that properly. Yeah, I just learned how to read today.”
“You just learned how to read today!?” Basil rudely exclaimed, “How have you gone this long without the ability to read!?”
“I’m a human! Er, well, I was one anyway… I had to learn to read again… From scratch… It wasn’t great…”
“Wait! Hold on, you too!? First that Volo guy and now you, what’s up with this world and turning humans into Pokémon!?”
“No clue, but I’ve just gotta deal with it until we deal with whatever’s going on here, then I can go home and cherish my hands like they’re my most prized possession.”
“Well, at least you’re not crazy…”
Cinder was just about to say something about finding the plate when a certain Togepi popped up from behind the stone tablet, “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
“Speaking of crazy!” Basil blurted as he crouched down into a fighting position.
“So there are more humans? Interesting… Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to find one who shares my ideals.”
“This game ends here, you creep!” Blublin shouted, “Your former friends have already turned on you, now just give up your little scheme and go home!”
“Home!? You think that hellscape was my home!? Just how dense are you!?”
“He’s not as dense as you!” Cinder interjected, “If you think you can beat us, then you got another thing coming!”
“And just who are you supposed to be!?”
“I’m the one who’s gonna remind you that you’re messing with the wrong Spheal!” Cinder declared as she flared up her flames.
Volo cackled maniacally, “Come at me then, I’ve already got what I need from this place!”
Cinder looked at Rory and nodded, “This is it! It’s time!”
“Cinder, HIT IT!” Rory demanded.
In the blink of an eye, Cinder pulled out the Key Stone and held it up into the air just as Joseph instructed, then a purple aura started to emanate from it, then that same aura appeared around Rory, suddenly, a crystal sphere appeared around Rory, and after a few moments she shattered it into a million pieces and emerged a Mega Lucario, “Now THIS, is where the fun begins.” Cinder exulted.
Rory let out a mighty roar, “You’re going down!”
“Erm… I may have picked the wrong group to mess with.” Volo squeaked as he looked at his feeble Togepi form.
Rory just laughed and said, “Damn right, you did! Now hand over the plate!”
“Uh, how about no! Togekiss! Get them!” Volo shouted as he tossed a Pokéball.
“Huh!? He’s still got friends!?” Basil gasped.
“It doesn’t matter, I’ll beat up whoever you throw at me!” Rory shot back.
“Right!”
Togekiss appeared from the ball and immediately sprung into action, firing an Air Slash right at Rory, she skirted the attack and retaliated with a brilliant Flash Cannon that almost blinded everyone in the vicinity. The attack struck Togekiss and blew her straight out of the air, causing her to scream, “AAAAH!”
“Ugh, YOU FOOL, I HATE YOU! WHY CAN’T YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT!?” Volo scolded, “YOU’RE UTTERLY USELESS TO ME!”
This sudden outburst shocked Team Echoes and Co, “Holy crap, that’s so harsh! I thought you trainers were supposed to love your Pokémon!” Basil yelped.
“Not me, Pokémon are nothing but tools to me, and I’ll use them as such to achieve my goals, then I’ll ditch them!”
Upon hearing that, Togekiss began crying, “B-but why? We’ve been t-together for as long as I can remember!”
“You honestly think it’s because I cared? How stupid.”
“You’re insane! How could you say something like that!?” Joseph asked.
“My goals are beyond your comprehension.”
That statement ticked Joseph off, so much so that he lunged at Volo without thinking, “GRAHHH!” He shouted as his attack connected.
“AUGH!” Volo howled as Joseph’s Spark stuck him head-on, “YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT!”
Cinder took the opportunity to get an attack of her own in, firing a Fire Blast straight at Volo, just narrowly missing as he shoved Joseph aside and got up to his stubbly little feet, he was then struck by a Water Pulse from Blublin, toppling him over and putting him back at square one, “Basil now!” Blublin exclaimed.
Basil rushed in and struck Volo with a Leaf Blade, followed by a Poltergeist from Midnight, using Volo’s entire bag as a weapon against him. But unfortunately, that very move reminded Volo, “Right, I don’t have to waste my time with you fools, I just gotta get out of here!”
Rory shot another Flash Cannon, this time fixing her gaze on Volo. But it was in vain, the attack missed as Volo disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Once the smoke cleared, Volo was nowhere to be seen, “Crap! He got away!” Rory hissed.
“It’s ok! He only got one plate, it’s not literally the end of the world yet.” Blublin assured her, “Besides, I gave the Fist Plate to some kid, he’s never gonna find that one.”
“You did!?” Cinder blurted, “That doesn’t sound safe at all!”
“It was the only option I had…”
“Well, it still wasn’t a very good one!”
“I never said it was! I just said I had to!”
“And just how do you plan to get it back!?”
“I don’t need to, as long as it’s away from him, it’s all good.”
“Actually…” Joseph interjected, “If we manage to assemble the plates first, we could maybe wish to defeat all evil or something like that.”
“That sounds super basic and lame.” Rory remarked.
“Well, it’s better than having a bunch of murderous interlopers running around.”
“Fair point, I guess.”
Joseph turned back to Blublin, “So, Blublin, what was that kid’s name?”
“They were a fellow Spheal, the one you confused me for the other day.”
“WAIT WHAT!? So we already have the first plate!?” Cinder blurted.
“Yep, funny how things turn out, I guess…”
“Well, this was a bit of a mess.” Midnight sighed, “I never thought guarding your base would rope me into stopping two different causes of the apocalypse.”
“Hehe… Sorry about that…” Joseph chuckled awkwardly.
“So, I guess we should be heading back now?”
“Hold on.” Joseph said before walking over to Togekiss who was less than thrilled to see him.
“What do you want?” Togekiss asked, “I already lost.”
Joseph pulled out an Oran Berry and offered it to Togekiss, “Look, what Volo said was cruel, and I’d hate to see you die here, so, I’m offering you a second chance.”
“A second chance? For what? My trainer never cared for me and I have nothing else to live for, so what does it matter?”
“You don’t have to live like this, you can live life the way you want to, you don’t have to worry about what anyone else thinks, as long as you’re happy that’s what matters.”
“The way I want to? What even is that?”
“That’s for you to decide.”
Tears started streaming from Togekiss’ eyes, “B-but you heard what Volo said, I’m nothing more than a tool.”
“That’s how he sees you, I don’t think there’s a single soul on this planet who sees you the same way.”
“I-I don’t even know what to think anymore… Thank you… For enlightening me…”
“You’re welcome. If you ever feel lost, just come find me, and I’ll help.”
Togetic munched on the Oran Berry Joseph presented her, once her wounds healed she started flying again, “We will meet again, I’m sure of it, and when we do, I’ll be sure to greet you with the biggest smile I can muster!”
“I’ll be sure to give you one just as big.”
“Ehehe, your smile is so adorable!” Togekiss giggled.
Joseph blushed a little bit, “Thanks…”
Togekiss nodded, “Don’t mention it.”
Joseph turned back to the rest of the group to see them all smiling, clearly, they were impressed by Joseph’s willingness to help, “Well if there was any doubt in my mind about humans, it’s definitely gone now.” Rory said.
“You and me both.” Midnight added, “Joseph’s nothing like all those fables said he’d be.”
“Volo on the other hand…” Cinder muttered, “He’s the worst.”
Blublin turned to Cinder and put one of his flippers on her shoulder, “We’ll stop him, I know we will, if what those other humans said before is true, then he’s already been stopped once, so we just gotta do it again.”
“I guess…”
Basil split the pair up with his vines and walked up in between them, “Woah, woah, woah, Volo was stopped by a fierce trainer, how do you expect to beat him on your own?”
The two started laughing, “If only you knew the half of what we’ve been through.” Cinder said.
“Yeah, this ain’t our first rodeo, so to speak.” Blublin chuckled.
Basil was shocked, “Wait, so you’re telling me this isn’t the first time you’ve had to stop the end of the world!?”
“Sort of, we were kinda the underdogs in our story, Christian and Lucario handled most of the heavy lifting.”
“Remind me never to mess with those guys, phew, they must be tough stuff if they could handle saving the entire world.”
Cinder had a flashback to the time Lucario squealed in terror as her tummy rumbled and chuckled, “Yep, tough stuff.”
“Well this has been a fun little excursion.” Joseph beamed, “I mean, it sucks that Volo got away, but we found out about his schemes.”
“Am I the only one who’s a little unnerved by the fact that we have Fiora and Volo to worry about now?” Rory asked as she pulled a cotton candy-flavored lollipop out of her mouth.
“Nope… I, for one, am terrified, but we’ll bridge the gap when we get there, I guess…”
“Don’t worry about Volo, we’ll keep him busy while you handle Fiora.” Blublin declared as he tapped his belly with a flipper.
“Sounds good,” Joseph replied, “Here’s hoping the two don’t team up somehow.”
“That might just be a great idea!” a distorted voice rasped.
Suddenly, Fiora appeared behind the group, “Such a good idea in fact that I’ll delay taking this continent over again, thanks idiot!”
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” Joseph shouted.
“Ehehehehehehe, well, see you morons later!”, And just as quickly as she had arrived, Fiora left, leaving the group in shock.
“Crap…” Joseph groaned, “I shouldn’t have given her the idea…”
“It’s not your fault… I probably would have made the same comment.” Cinder sighed.
“WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!?” Midnight cried.
“Simple, we just get all the plates we can and figure out a way to beat them, which is much easier said than done…” Joseph suggested.
“We should probably inform the others about what happened here first…” Rory said, “Leaving them in the dark is a recipe for disaster…”
“Alright then, take us to your base, we’ll inform Arcanine afterward.” Basil said.
February 4th, 2:39 pm
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
After exiting the dungeon with an Escape orb, the group guided Basil and Blublin to the base, this process took way longer than it needed to thanks to Basil’s terrible sense of direction and need to hit on every single Pokémon that even somewhat resembled a female, but that’s not important, what is important is the meeting that followed, upon entering the base Cinder called a meeting taking everyone into her room and putting that table she just put in there to good use.
“Ok, we’re all aware of the whole thing going on with Fiora right?” Cinder asked.
“We’re talking about that weird slime stuff, right?” Flint responded.
“Yeah, that.”
“Please don’t tell me things got worse.”
“Well uh, they kinda did, you see, she has a teammate n-“
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” Flint roared, “AFTER ALL THE CRAP I’VE GONE THROUGH TO PROTECT MY HUMAN, YOU’RE TELLING ME THINGS ARE GONNA GET HARDER!?”
“Flint, calm down please, you’re scaring me!” Yumi squeaked.
Basil slid up next to Yumi and did his usual thing, “Hey, if you’re scared, I’ll let you cuddle me so you can feel safe.”
Flint’s attention turned to Basil as he continued screaming, “ARE YOU TRYING TO HIT ON MY HUMAN!?”
Basil was just about to duck under the table when suddenly Yumi tapped his shoulder. When Basil looked over at Yumi, she donned a scary illusion, scaring Basil back into his seat and shutting him up for the rest of the meeting.
Cinder rolled her eyes under her eyelids and got the discussion back on track, “I understand your frustration, but I can assure you things will be ok, we just need a strategy, is all.”
“What kind of strategy!?” Specter blurted, “How do we fight someone who can eat an entire continent in one fell swoop!?”
As Specter voiced his opinions, Joseph realized, “She probably won’t do that going forward!”
“What sense does that make!?”
“Just think about it, if she manages to pick up Volo as her ally then she’ll probably want to keep him safe, so she probably won’t want her abilities catching him in the crossfire!”
“But what if she can choose not to kill him with her ability?” Sammy raised.
“Well, she’ll need to grab the plates, and unless she can do that after she’s destroyed everything, then she’ll probably leave the environment alone at least until after she’s gathered all the plates.”
“So what you’re saying is there’s a chance we can confront her on fairer terms?” Tiny asked as she peeked out from within Cinder’s bag, drawing the attention of the few Pokémon unaware of Tiny’s existence.
“Something like that.”
“That works for me.” Tiny said as she ducked back into the bag.
“So, how are we gonna go about getting these plates?” Yumi asked.
“I’ve already got one!” Slippy bubbled, “The nice mister at the other end of the table gave it to me!”
Blublin was staring at Slippy awkwardly, “Gosh, I’m starting to see why everyone mistook me for you, you’re identical to me!”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“I feel a little creeped out by it, but it’s probably fine.”
“Oh, that’s weird…”
“Getting back on topic… Basil, Arcanine, and I will go after some of the plates while you all go after the others.”
Cinder gasped, “What!? But why!? We just met back up and you’re saying we should split up again!?”
“We can cover more ground if we split up, besides, I don’t want to lose you if something goes wrong.”
“B-but we just met back up! Can’t we just catch up first!? It’s been like a whole year!”
“That’s how long it’s been for you!? It’s only been like a few days for me!”
“That’s not the point! I’ve felt so lonely since the incident! Even if I’m surrounded by all these new friends, my heart’s still with you guys, Team ShinyStar!”
“I understand it’s painful, but this is life or death here, we have to do this, otherwise, Team ShinyStar is history!”
Tears started welling up in Cinder’s eyes, “B-but…”
Blublin hopped off his seat and over to Cinder’s, “Look, I know how you feel, I’ve felt the same way since I got here, but, I can assure you if we pull this off you’ll never feel like this again.”
“B-but what if something goes wrong and you don’t make it?”
“Then I guess I should get this in while I still can.”
Blublin pulled Cinder in for a kiss, catching her by surprise, ‘WHAT!?’ Cinder thought to herself, ‘HE’S HAD A CRUSH ON ME THIS WHOLE TIME!?’
Cinder was going to say something, but she couldn’t, she was speechless, her face was as red as the flames on her back which were flaring up more than they ever had in her entire life, she was smiling a radiant, yet goofy smile, and her eyes were wide open, “Sorry for giving you a mini heart attack.” Blublin apologized, “I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you once this is all over.”
Cinder finally recovered enough to utter a few words, “T-that would be lovely.”
Everyone in the room was shocked, well except Basil, who was halfway between being jealous and proud… Somehow… ‘That’s what he was yapping about back in Hisui… Hmph… I bet my first kiss is gonna be like ten times more epic…’ He thought, ‘At least he got her, I guess…’
“CINDER! YOUR EYES!” Vulcan shouted in fear, “THEY’RE OPEN!”
Cinder pulled out her mirror and sure enough her eyes were open again, “Aw really!? That totally ruins the moment!”
“I don’t mind, I think they look pretty.” Blublin complimented.
“R-really!?”
“Yeah, they’re like little rubies hidden in the prettiest mountain I’ve ever seen.”
“Oh come here you!”
Cinder wrapped Blublin up in a hug and the two started laughing, leaving the rest of the table smiling, well except for Specter, who just chuckled and said, “That’s gonna be Yumi and Joseph in a couple of months.”
Joseph just looked at Specter and shot back, “Nah, that’s definitely you and Malachite, I mean you two already have something going on after all.”
Specter sighed and admitted defeat, “Guilty as charged.”
Basil was still kinda jealous of the two lovebirds, “So, like that’s all we really needed to talk about, right?” He asked.
But before anyone could answer, Mesprit appeared above the table, “Sup… guys…” She said, “Did I miss something? What is going on in here!?”
“We just discussed our new game plan, and Blublin just kissed Cinder.” Rory replied, “Oh yeah and we have a new teammate.”
Midnight didn’t expect to see a legendary Pokémon just pop up all nonchalantly like that, she began to sweat and shiver a bit before giving a very shaky greeting, “H-hello… Um, I’m M-Midnight, nice to meet you! P-please don’t nuke me for siding with the human.”
“I’m not gonna, just keep him in check for me, ok?” Mesprit said with a wink.
“Y-yes ma’am.”
Mesprit looked back at the others and got back on track, “Anyway, you’re not gonna believe what happened with Fiora!”
“She’s got a crazy nihilist friend now, yeah, we know.” Rory responded.
“Wait, how’d you find out about that already!?”
“On what was supposed to be a test run of Midnight’s strength, we found Volo, who is trying to gather all the plates so he can wish for Arceus knows what!”
“Ah, I see…”
“And this guy gave Fiora the idea to team up with him!” Basil shouted as he pointed a vine at Joseph.
“What!? Hey! I didn’t do it intentionally!”
“I believe it.” Mesprit said, “Joseph has already proven to be a merciful human who cares about the world, he wouldn’t side with that maniac.”
“W-well he still did it!” Basil continued, “He’s not exactly as smart as someone like me, not as good looking either. You, on the other hand, are stunning!”
“Are… Are you trying to hit on me?”
“You bet I am! You’re a piece of art!”
“Come here for a sec.”, Mesprit flew over to Basil quickly and disappeared with him, a few moments later she brought him back, he looked terrified and he was shivering intensely. As Mesprit set him down, she giggled and said, “So, what have we learned?”
“D-d-d-d-don’t h-hit on g-godly babes…”
“Well if that’s how you’re gonna refer to me then maybe you need a couple hundred more years there.”
“N-NO! STAY BACK, FIEND!”
The whole table was confused, “What just happened?” Joseph asked.
‘Just between you and me, I sent him to the Distortion World very briefly.’ Mesprit responded with her telepathy.
Joseph burst out laughing, “That’s what you get!”
Mesprit cleared her throat, “Well, now that we’re all on the same page about the plates, I guess I can give you some helpful info.”
“Yes please!” Joseph said.
“Just tell me who to take out!” Sammy added.
“Yeah! Same here! I’ll shoot ’em!” Flint chimed in.
Mesprit chuckled at the team’s enthusiasm before nodding, “Can I see your watches?”
The team handed over their watches and Mesprit shot each one of them with a small amount of psychic power before handing them back, “So… What was that all about?” Specter asked.
“Check your maps.”
The group all pulled up their maps and noticed a bunch of new markers, all color-coded and labeled with the various plates, “So there are two here…” Sammy noted, “The Fist Plate, and the Mind Plate, we know Slippy has the fist one, but where’s the mind one?”
“I have it.” Mesprit affirmed, “But I can’t give it to you right now.”
“WHAT!?” The team blurted, “Why not!?”
“It goes against da- I mean Arceus’ wishes, he wants us to keep the plates from the mortals until they complete a specified challenge.”
“And if you don’t?” Specter asked.
“He threatens to bring both the recipient and the guardian of the plate to the Distortion World, never to return.”
“Jeez! That’s overkill!” Joseph blurted.
“Yeah, he’s serious about keeping the plates out of the wrong hands.”
“What about the Fist Plate? That weird bird Pokémon dropped it when it tripped over Volo.” Blublin mentioned.
“Oh, that one’s the exception, everyone at the Temple of Light knows that Galarian Zapdos is kinda stupid, so when it’s his time to guard the plate everything goes out the window in favor of being fair to the unfortunate soul who ends up with the plate.”
“Why even have them guard it, then?” Stumpy politely asked.
“Because if we don’t Galarian Zapdos might get jealous, I mean he’s the only one without a real purpose after all.”
“Wow! Ok, that’s kinda messed up!” Sammy exclaimed.
“It’s true though, he doesn’t really have much of a purpose, he kinda just argues with the other Zapdos, it makes me wonder why Arceus even created him.”
“Hold on, isn’t Arceus your father?” Joseph asked.
“Pfft, what makes you say that?”
“You’ve literally cut yourself off of saying dad when referring to Arceus multiple times now, doesn’t even take a genius to put two and two together there.” Specter said.
“Alright fine, I admit it, Arceus is my father, but how is that relevant to this conversation?”
Joseph brought his paw to his chin, “Then isn’t Galarian Zapdos kinda like your brother? I mean Arceus created you both didn’t he?”
“That’s not how us legendary Pokémon work, but I get the sentiment, I shouldn’t be bad-mouthing him behind his back.”
“Actually, maybe we can give him a purpose!” Stumpy suggested.
“How do you suggest we do that?”
“Well just think about it, we need all the firepower we can get, so why not let this Galarian Zapdos guy redeem himself by having him gather more of the plates?”
“Ugh… You raise a fair point, but that’d mean actually talking with him, and no offense to him, but he’s unbearably annoying.”
Joseph decided now would be the best time to get back at Basil for throwing him under the bus, but funnily enough, he wasn’t the only one who got this idea as Blublin and Rory chimed in too, “I mean, he can’t be as bad as Basil.” The three said in unison.
“WOW! Ok then, I might as well duct tape my mouth shut then.” Basil murmured.
Mesprit sighed, “You do have a point there, I don’t think Galarian Zapdos is gonna hit on me anytime soon, so he’s probably much less annoying than Mr ladykiller over there.”
“Do you have to rub it in?”
“At least you’re smart enough to know what love is, I mean you might not be great at finding it, but I’m pretty sure if you told Galarian Zapdos about love, he’d write it down as his new word for the day.”
Joseph noticed that Mesprit was starting to bad mouth Zapdos again, “Mesprit!”
“S-sorry, too far I know…”
Flint shook his head, “This is getting way off-topic, just tell us what we gotta do to get that Mind Plate!” He demanded.
“Alright alright! To get the Mind Plate, you’ll have to meet me at the end of the Mirror Maze.”
Joseph raised an eyebrow at that name, “What is this, a carnival?”
“Yeah, what he said, is this just gonna be a cave with a bunch of fun house mirrors in it?” Specter added on.
“Kinda? Do these fun house mirrors mess with your head?”
“Also kinda, they’re kinda just distorted mirrors that make you look fat.” Joseph replied.
“Ah, ok, so it’s kinda similar, only these mirrors are a little deadlier.”
“Ah, just your average Tuesday outing, I see.” Cinder ribbed.
“Yeah, what she said, not a big issue, we just gotta hope that Fiora doesn’t notice what we’re up to, otherwise she’s definitely gonna snag that plate first.”
“What is she up to right now?”
“Doesn’t matter, she can just appear where ever she wants when ever she wants, we just have to make sure she doesn’t know about our plan.”
“Ah, got it…”
“I suggest you split up your numbers, have the humans go after the Mind Plate while the others go after the other plates marked on your map.”
“Woah, hold on, you want us to go alone!?” Yumi blurted, “Just the two of us!?”
“Take your weird devices and their bound Pokémon as well, but only let them out if need be, that way we can draw as little attention to ourselves as possible.”
“Right, makes sense to me. Yumi, Flint, Stumpy, and I will head out tomorrow, meanwhile you all figure out what plates you’re gonna chase and get to it, sound like a plan?” Joseph asked.
“Sounds good to me.” Blublin affirmed, “I’ll relay the message to Arcanine!”
“Sounds like a plan.” Vulcan said with a thumbs up, “Hopefully I provide something useful to the cause.”
“Perfect!” Mesprit exclaimed, “I’ll be sure to get Galarian Zapdos and that Luxray and Ninetales couple in on this too!”
“We’re gonna make it through this, mark my words!” Joseph declared.
“YEAH!” Everyone cheered.
Meanwhile…
February 4th, 4:26 pm
Palm Wood Forest
Coast Continent
Fiora was bossing Volo around, training him for the battles ahead, “C’mon! You gotta evolve if you wanna be of any use going forward!”
Volo was learning how to use his moves as he took out Fiora’s illusions and whatever dungeon Pokémon happened to walk by, he even managed to wipe out a beginner team on their first mission, he was getting a bit tired but knew if he wanted to succeed with his plan he’d need to put in at least 100 times the effort he put into his original scheme in Hisui, then he realized something, “Why aren’t you doing anything? Shouldn’t you be training as well?”
“I don’t need to, I’ve killed several hundred Pokémon at this point and I can easily kill a gang of wannabe heroes and some pacifist human weakling!”
“Not to discredit you or anything, but I don’t see any proof.”
Fiora proceeded to pull a bloody Empoleon out of a puddle of goo on the ground, “There’s your proof, now keep training!”
Volo gulped, “Noted.”
Fiora put her trophy away and continued monitoring Volo’s training before deciding, “Ok, now it’s time for the performance enhancers.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Come here.”
Volo walked up to the disfigured Eevee cautiously and awaited whatever she was about to do, Fiora proceeded to share a very small fraction of her power with Volo, causing him to glow. A few moments later, Volo had skipped the whole friendship requirement and evolved into a Togetic, “Woah, I’m starting to like this crazy power you’ve got.”
“Get used to it, it’s pretty good for destroying the entire world.”
“But why did you choose to recruit me instead of just destroying the world on your own?”
“Because… My power is still in its infancy, I can’t destroy the entire world in this state and without my teacher Zeal, I can’t let that power grow… Unless…”
“Ah, I see, so you’re going to wish for your full strength, a good choice.”
“And I assume you’re going to wish for your perfect world?”
“Bingo! It’s like you really get me!”
“Yeah, it’s almost as if most villains have the same ideals.”
“Hey! I’m not that basic.”
“Your plan is literally the exact same as Cyrus’ plan, it’s just you tried executing it differently.”
“Who?”
Fiora sighed in defeat, “Never mind, let’s just go find you a Shiny Stone so that you can reach your final form.”
“Ok then.”
February 4th, 9:30 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Stumpy’s room
Coast Continent
Team Echoes went out for dinner once again, meeting up with Cloak and Razor, who apologized for their slip up the other day. Once that was all over, Stumpy decided to call it a night, as it was getting pretty late. As he curled up in his starry bed in his starry room, he heard a knock at the door, “Who could that be?” He asked himself.
Stumpy walked over to the door and opened it, on the other side Joseph, Yumi, and Flint were waiting, “Hey bud, you mind having a sleep-over?” Joseph asked.
“Oh, that sounds fun! Come on in, make yourselves at home.”
Yumi giggled and said, “This is our home, silly.”
“Hehe, I know that.”
The three got settled in the room, with Joseph choosing to snuggle up with Stumpy. Flint yawned as he started to lie down, “So, tomorrow, huh.”
“Yeah, we’re gonna have to go grab the Mind Plate.” Joseph replied, “Things just keep getting crazier around here.”
“At least we had a little bit of a break.” Yumi sighed.
“Well we might be in the home stretch now.” Stumpy assured them, “As long as we can retrieve the plates.”
“Yeah, as long as we collect godly artifacts.” Joseph chuckled awkwardly, “Totally not a daunting task…”
“Well dwelling on it all night isn’t really gonna help us, you should get some rest so we can give it our all out there.” Flint advised.
“Alright… Goodnight everyone…” Joseph yawned.
“Goodnight.” Everyone said.
Joseph closed his eyes as his mind started to wander, ‘Man this is a weird change of direction, but at least we sort of have some guidance on how we’re supposed to salvage this situation… I need to think about something else or else I’m gonna be up all night.’
Joseph opened his eyes again and looked down at his paws when he remembered he was sleeping on Stumpy’s back, ‘Man if you told me a few weeks ago that this would be my life I’d laugh at you… Stumpy’s feathers are pretty comfy though… I still wonder where his name even came from… Maybe Cinder thought that pattern on his chest area looked like a tree stump? I don’t know… I think it’s kinda cute but a little strange at the same time…’
As Joseph was letting his mind wander, he heard Stumpy whisper to him, “Hey Joseph, are you still awake?”
“Yeah… just barely though…”
“I just want you to know that whatever happens, you’ll always be my best friend.”
“Aw… Thanks bud!”
Stumpy yawned one final time, “Don’t mention it…”
Just as Stumpy finished saying that, his head fell back onto his pillow, ‘I guess I should get some sleep too…’ Joseph told himself.
And so Joseph once again drifted off into his dreams… Hoping for something normal for once…
And that’ll do it for this chapter! The pacing of this chapter was kinda all over the place, but now the plot has proper direction. Well I mean I had a vague idea of where we were going, but I admit I didn’t have the clearest vision of how we were getting there until now, now things should kinda maybe sort of be smooth sailing from here on out, well barring special episodes and αnomalies, which will probably be a little problematic with when I decide to make them (I mean Vulcan’s been overdue for a Special episode since like what chapter 5?) But I’ll bridge the gap when I get there, I guess. On the note of the pacing stuff though, I actually originally intended this chapter to just be about Joseph and Yumi learning some stuff while some other less impactful stuff happens and then Midnight joins the party, but I thought that would be kinda boring, so I decided to steer the ship toward progressing the story a bit more. I swear next chapter will be less messy.
Anyway, I don’t really think that the fight against Volo and Togetic really constitutes as a boss fight as Togetic just kinda gets ganked and Volo runs away like a coward, so no boss bios this time either, and lemme just check for comments and stuff… Oh! Uh, we do have some!
Got some guest reviews on FFN this time, but this time they’re not entirely just spam! Yay!
You’ve got some nice, valid feedback here, and a lot of it too! So I guess I’ll just highlight some of your points…
From your first comment: I kinda just randomly thought of the idea and ran with it, ngl, that’s usually how I do things now that I think about it, but yeah, as for why nothing was really explained, well again it was kinda just a stupid idea that I had, but also it’s kinda a running gag at this point that anything super complicated is just left with little to no explanation. Lastly, I think the reason I’m able to sustain a huge plot is kinda a mix of things, but there are two main reasons, reason A is that I read through each chapter before posting them, not just to weed out any of the errors I’m able to catch on my own, but also to make sure the story’s actually enjoyable, that includes making sure story stuff still adds up (Which if you’re not doing you totally should before you end up making something that contradicts itself so much that it literally becomes obsolete.), I also make sure to reread certain things to make sure they line up with what I’m about to write. I might not be the best at writing, but I think that every writer should at least do this. (Also frequent wikis if you’re writing about a video game, it’s helped me make some of the references more accurate, I will drop a link to every resource I used at the end of this fic or something.)
Oh boy, I’m gonna end up extending this chapter by at least a thousand words with these replies alone… Uh, anyway, onto the second comment. Yeah, I’m sorry… I knew I didn’t do enough with the whole ‘human being thrown into an unfamiliar body and thus having to relearn things’ thing, I’ll be sure to throw in a couple more of those moments in the coming chapters (I hope the short scenes of Yumi and Joseph learning to read at the beginning of this chapter suffice for now). As for your other point, yeah, that’s kinda intentional, like I said earlier, it’s kinda a running gag that everyone’s kinda just fine with weird and complicated stuff happening, sorry if that’s a little annoying.
And your final comment. I’ll be sure to keep any advice I receive in mind, so feel free to keep leaving feedback, it helps me make this story the best it can be!
Thanks for your compliments and criticisms!
Phew… Anyway, that’s it for this chapter, next time: we join “The humans” in their pursuit of the Mind Plate as we begin the first real story ark, see you all then!
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