Chapter 14: Self Reflection
by poper466Hello once again! I’m running out of ways to start these things off, so I’m just gonna shut up and get to the point.
Time Unknown
Joseph’s Dream Space
Unfortunately for Joseph tonight was not another normal night, he found himself in the ever-expanding dream space, this time, the forest had shaped itself to appear more like the one that they found Volo in the day prior, it had a small stream cutting through parts of the forest and small stones peaking out of said streams, ‘It’s this place again…’ Joseph thought, ‘That means…’
Just as Joseph remembered where he was, his mother appeared before him, “Hey, sweetie! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Mom!” Joseph cried out as he ran over to his mom and hugged her tightly, “I missed you!”
Joseph’s mother giggled, “I find it funny that even though you’re so old now, you still run to me like a little kid.”
“It’s because I love you and I don’t want to lose you like I did with Dad…”
“I feel the same way, I’ve been feeling sad and lonely back at home, when do you think you’ll be back?”
“Well, um, I’m not exactly sure…” Joseph said awkwardly, “And there’s actually a chance that I won’t make it back.”
Just then Joseph thought just for a moment that he saw a sinister smirk on his mother’s face, “Good.” She muttered under her breath.
“What was that!?”
“What was what?”
“What you just said!”
“Are you feeling ok, honey? I didn’t say anything.”
“But- never mind…”
“So, is there anything you wanted to ask me?”
“How are you able to reach me through my dreams?”
“I… Don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“Huh!? You don’t!?”
“I don’t, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“O-oh, well, that stinks…”
“I’m sorry honey, I wish I could help you, but I can’t…”
“It’s alright… Just… Give me one more hug before we leave.”
“Sure thing sweetie.”
The two hugged each other one last time as the clouds began their whole flashy thing and the dream faded out…
February 5th, 7:00 am
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Joseph surprisingly woke back up in Stumpy’s room as opposed to the IDPK lab this time, or at least that’s what he thought before the smell of breakfast hit his nostrils, “Oh, hey buddy, I hope I didn’t wake you up when I started moving.” Stumpy said, “I decided to get breakfast a bit early.”
“Nothing wrong with that.” Joseph said, completely skimming over that strange dream he had the night prior, “Did you get me a plate?”
“Yup, it’s right here!” Stumpy chirped as he placed a plate in front of Joseph, the two ate breakfast together, once they were done they started theorizing what Mesprit meant by her comments yesterday, “Maybe it hurts to look in the mirrors?” Stumpy suggested.
“Nah, that sounds too tame… Maybe the glass shatters into shrapnel if you get too close to it?”
“That sounds scary!”
“Yeah, I’m not too particularly fond of shards of glass being launched at me.”
As the two were chatting about the horrors to come, Yumi and Flint entered the lounge and joined the conversation, “Hey, you guys, what’re you talking about?” Yumi asked.
“Oh, we’re speculating about what Mesprit said yesterday.”
“You mean the thing she said about deadly fun house mirrors?”
“Yeah, that.”
“My guess is that it just makes you look so ugly that it gives you a heart attack.”
“I feel like that’s too straightforward, it’s gotta be something crazier.”
“How about we just worry about it when we get there.” Flint suggested, “No sense in worrying about it before breakfast.”
“Fair point…” Joseph sighed, “I just wanted something to talk about while we passed the time…”
“There are plenty of other things to talk about, just focus on a less stressful topic.”
“Ooh! I’ve got one!” Stumpy bubbled, “How about I tell you about the island?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that, what’s going on with that place?”
“We just built a little hut so that I have somewhere to stay when I visit the island, I also started growing some plants.”
“Oh right! That reminds me! I gotta go water my plants!” Joseph shouted as he jumped off Stumpy’s back.
“Wait!”
Joseph sprinted off and grabbed his gardening stuff, then he bolted out of the base and toward his little garden, once he arrived at his destination he began watering the plants, that was until he heard a familiar voice, “Hey buddy, I haven’t seen you in like forever!”
“Who goes there!?” Joseph blurted as he began searching for the source of the voice.
“Come on, it’s me, Watt, don’t you remember me!?”
“Ooooh, that’s why I can’t see you… You’re microscopic…”
The Joltik popped into view, “So you do remember me!”
“Yeah, it’s just you’re kinda small, and you caught me off guard…”
“Oh, uh, sorry, I was just admiring the little sprout over here.”
“Wait, there’s a sprout already!?”
“Yep, it’s over here.”
Watt pointed out the little sprout and smiled, Joseph, on the other hand, was staring in awe, “It’s growing! I don’t kill everything I touch!”
“Congratulations?”
Joseph started laughing, “Thanks, I just planted this thing yesterday!”
“Oh, I see, you’re just picking up gardening, I see.”
Stumpy came running outside, “Hey! Joseph! You can’t just go running off like that!”
“Oh, uh, sorry! I just needed to water my plants before leaving!”
“Oh, well, could you be a little less frantic about it next time?”
“Sorry, I’m still new to the whole gardening thing, so I’m still prone to freaking out over plants.”
“Something about that doesn’t sound normal.”
“Eh, it’s probably fine…”
“Ok then… Well, Yumi and Flint just wrapped up their breakfast, so do you want to get going?”
“Yeah, let’s get going.” Joseph nodded.
Watt waved to the pair as they walked back toward the base, once they regrouped with the rest of their crew, they grabbed a ticket for the Wailord Ferry and set sail into the open sea…
February 5th, 9:00 am
Crystal City
Crystal Continent
The team arrived in Crystal City once again, but they weren’t going to stay there long, they had places to be and plates to receive, they were however stopped by a certain Joseph-obsessed Shinx, “Ohmygoodness! Hi! It’s been so long since I last saw you!” Comet bubbled.
“O-oh, hey Comet… What’s going on with you?”
“Oh nothing much, I’ve just been chilling, I’ve got the day off for once.”
“That’s nice!”
“So, do you wanna hang out? I know of a place that sells this amazing tea!”
“Sorry… I’m a bit busy, it’s guild business.”
“O-oh… Sorry to hear that… Maybe some other time then?”
“Maybe.”
“Well ok then… See ya.”
Comet walked off with a bit of a frown on her face, ‘Sorry, but this is life or death here.’ Joseph thought as he watched Comet walk off.
“Dang… That’s sad…” Yumi muttered, “She looked so excited until you said that…”
“Yeah, I know… I didn’t want to say that, but I had to… We have to get the Mind Plate ASAP.”
“Then what are we dillydallying for? We need to keep moving!” Flint asserted.
“Right…” Joseph sighed, “I still kinda feel a little bad though…”
“Wasn’t she just hitting on you the last time we were here?” Stumpy asked.
“Yeah, but even if I’m not interested in dating her, I’d still like to be friends, I mean she’s the only Shinx I’ve seen since getting here after all.”
“That’s true… I wonder where they’re all hiding?”
“I’m willing to be they all have jobs like she does, so they’re all probably hiding behind an office cubicle.”
“What does that mean?” Stumpy asked as he tilted his head awkwardly.
“I’ll explain it later, for now, let’s just get going…”
February 5th, 10:21 am
Mirror Maze – Entrance
Crystal Continent
The group followed the map on Joseph’s watch to find the location of the Mirror Maze, once they arrived they had no idea what they were looking at, this dungeon didn’t exactly stick out like a sore thumb like most of the other ones, this left the group a little confused.
“So… are we here?” Joseph questioned.
“You tell me.” Flint replied, “You’re the one with the map.”
“Well, the map says we are, but a quick look around says we aren’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, the map says we’re here.”
“Maybe it’s hidden or something?” Yumi suggested, “I mean, if this place is supposed to guard the Mind Plate then logically they wouldn’t just leave the entrance out in the open, right?”
“That’s a fair point… We should probably sweep the area real quick then.”
And so the team investigated the area more thoroughly, eventually, they stumbled upon another stone tablet similar to the one they found in the woods yesterday, Joseph went up to read it when Yumi politely asked, “Um, may I read it please?”
Joseph stepped back and motioned Yumi toward the tablet, “Sure thing, go right ahead!”
Yumi walked up to the tablet and scanned it a bit before starting to read, “Hello humble explorers, I’m sure you’ve heard of the legend about the plates, but if you haven’t then leave and go read about it because I’m not explaining it, anyway, if you have, I’m sure you’re aware of the challenges associated with them, well my humble reader, you’re about to go through hell, if you wish to proceed then hit this stone with your strongest attack, don’t worry, it won’t break, trust me.”
“That tablet had a completely different tone than the last one.” Joseph noted, “The one we found yesterday was somewhat bubbly and childish, but it was also more vague on how to obtain the plate.”
“Well, I’m not complaining.” Flint replied, “I like the attitude of whoever wrote this one, let’s smack that stone into next week!”
“Alright, have at it then.”
“Wait!” Yumi blurted, “There’s some small text at the bottom!”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Read it!”
Yumi inspected the fine print for a sec before facepalming and reading the last little bit aloud, “Signed Mesprit.”
“Oh, I guess that checks out…” Joseph said, “I mean, she is the one who brought us here after all…”
“Alright now let’s smack the stone!” Flint shouted.
“Alright, have at it!”
“Hmph.” Flint uttered before absolutely decimating the stone with a kick.
“Huh, she lied.” Stumpy said, “The stone did break.”
“She was probably anticipating someone much weaker to find this thing way before us.”
“Maybe that’s why she told us to keep you in your Pokéballs, so we didn’t deface her tablet.” Joseph suggested.
Just as Joseph said that the ground began to shake, once the shaking stopped the tablet repaired itself and a new path opened, leading down into a cave, Yumi also noticed that the text on the tablet changed, “Told you it wouldn’t break.” She read.
“But it did!” Flint huffed.
“Well, it fixed itself, so it doesn’t technically count.” Joseph ribbed.
“Whatever, let’s just get going…”
“Well first…”
“Oh right…”
Yumi recalled Flint into his Pokéball, “I’ll send you back out if things get rough, ok?”
Flint answered by shaking the ball once as if he was nodding.
“Alright, Stumpy, thanks for letting us hang out in your room last night.” Joseph said as he pulled out Stumpy’s Pokéball.
“You’re welcome! It was fun having you in there! Made things feel less lonely!”
“Well, that’s good, but uh, now it’s time to go back in the ball.”
“Oh boy, nap time!”
Joseph chuckled before retrieving Stumpy, then he turned to Yumi and sighed, “So, it’s just you and me huh…”
“Yup… Let’s just hope we don’t run into any trouble…”
“Well, if we do, then you know the deal.”
“Right, send out Flint and Stumpy and hope they can handle things.”
“Yep…” Joseph said as he started to stare at Yumi awkwardly.
Yumi stared back awkwardly for a bit before saying, “Let’s just get going…”
The pair entered the cave and were immediately met with a maze filled with mirrors, “Well, at least she was honest.” Joseph remarked, “It is indeed a maze of mirrors.”
“Something’s a bit off with these mirrors, but I can’t put my finger on it…” Yumi said as she walked past one of the mirrors.
“Maybe it’s because you don’t have any fingers anymore.” Joseph teased.
“You’re one to talk.” Yumi giggled as she punched Joseph’s flank with her paw.
“True… I miss my hands…”
“Yeah, same… Holding stuff is super awkward now…”
“Tell me about it!”
“Hehe, well at least I’m not the only one dropping stuff all the time…”
The pair kept walking through the surprisingly empty maze of mirrors until a little discrepancy caught Joseph’s attention, “Hold on, my reflection… It’s wrong!”
“What do you mean?”
“Look closely at it.”
Yumi looked at Joseph’s reflection, “Wait a sec… Your little head fluff thing is a bit shorter!”
“I think it’s called a cowlick.” Joseph commented, “But yeah, the mirror is inaccurate!”
“Wait a sec, your fur on your hind legs is also wrong! Your feet have yellow fur instead of their normal black fur!”
“Wait a sec, that reflection… That’s a female Shinx!”
“That’s weird, why are you a girl in the mirror?”
“I’m not really sure, but I can assure you nothing’s changed here.” Joseph said as he flourished his cowlick.
“Well, that’s a relief… I imagine telling everyone that you became a girl would be super awkward.”
“Gosh, that would be…”
“Well it’s just an illusion, so it’s nothing to worry about, let’s just keep moving!”
The pair continued down the corridor and found the stairs, but as they approached the stairs they heard a strange, almost magical sound, “What was that?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I think we should just push on forward before we find out.”
“Good point.”
The pair began climbing down the stairs onto the next floor, but for some reason, they couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched…
February 5th, 10:34 am
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 2
Crystal Continent
Joseph and Yumi appeared in a room full of mirrors (go figure) but this time all the mirrors had at least one discrepancy with their reflections, one mirror showed Yumi as a Unovan Zorua, while another had Joseph’s fur color incorrect, there was one that showed the former humans with normal eyes and another that showed them with their tails swapped.
“Ok, I’m starting to see the thing Mesprit was talking about.” Joseph noted, “All of these mirrors are wrong in some way, I’m just failing to see how this is supposed to kill us.”
“P-please don’t say stuff like that, you’re going to jinx us.” Yumi quavered.
“Sorry, it’s just nothing’s really happened this whole time.”
“Well, saying stuff like that is just begging for trouble!”
Speaking of trouble, the pair heard more of the strange sounds they heard on the previous floor. They looked around for a bit until they found something strange, “Huh!? How’s there another Hisuian Zorua in here!?” Joseph blurted as said Zorua entered the room.
“Uh, is it just me, or does that Zorua look just like me?” Yumi asked as she squinted at the Zorua.
Joseph was going to answer, but the Zorua suddenly lunged at him, he just narrowly avoided the attack and retaliated with Psychic Fangs, the attack shattered the Zorua like glass, breaking the illusion, “Oh… So that’s where the deadly part comes in…” Joseph said with a shudder.
“Was that my reflection?”
“That’s my guess…”
“That’s creepy! Why was my reflection trying to kill you!?”
“No clue, but we should probably run before all these other reflections attack us.”
“Good point!”
Yumi broke off into a full sprint, leaving Joseph in the dust, “Yumi, wait!” He called out as he chased after her.
Yumi was terrified of the idea of murderous reflections, so she ended up letting her instincts take the wheel, she didn’t stop to think about the consequences of her actions, she just kept running, ‘I gotta get out of here!’ She thought.
Joseph, on the other hand, was hot on her tail, well that was until he stepped on a Pitfall Trap, “GAH!” He screamed as he fell.
Joseph’s screams snapped Yumi out of her trance, “Joseph?! JOSEPH!”
February 5th, 10:46 am
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 3
Crystal Continent
Joseph landed on the next floor very painfully, “Ouch…” He groaned as he shook his head and got back to his feet, “Crap… Yumi’s still probably running around like a headless chicken up there… I need to get back to her somehow…”
Joseph observed his surroundings, he noticed that he had ended up in a huge hallway full of mirrors, ‘Great… So much for trying to escape a potential attack…’
He kept walking through the hall for a bit, not paying the mirrors any mind at first, that was until he came face to face with another mirror, however, this one was VERY wrong not displaying a reflection of the Shinx standing in front of it at all, “Great, I’m a vampire now, that’s fantastic…” Joseph sighed, he would have chuckled at his little joke, but the stress of the situation was starting to get to him a little bit.
He disregarded the fact that he had no reflection and kept going until eventually he came to a dead end, “Of course… I guess I was supposed to just turn around and go the other way after falling down here… Oh well…” Joseph looked up at the mirror in front of him and saw a perfect reflection of himself, “At least I’m not a vampire anymore…”
But then, the reflection blinked at him, “Jeez! I think that’s the creepiest illusion yet! Imagine looking in the mirror for a bit and seeing yourself blink!”
But the blinking wasn’t the only thing off about this mirror, in fact, the reflection seemed to be moving on its own, Joseph looked at it a little closer and started to shiver, “Uh, ok, this one’s a little too creepy for my liking.”
Then, his reflection stepped out of the mirror, giving Joseph a mini heart attack, he tried to cling on to his consciousness, but it was no use, the shock knocked him out…
A few hours later…
Joseph woke up in a room somewhere else in the dungeon, he could feel something pulling on his tail, but he couldn’t tell what it was, it was then he noticed, ‘Something’s dragging me…’
Once Joseph noticed this, it didn’t take long for him to remember what happened, once he did, he began kicking and screaming, “GET AWAY FROM ME MIRROR CREEP!”
The dragging stopped as a Shinx looked at him in shock, “You can speak?”
Joseph was just as shocked to discover that the Shinx dragging him around could also speak, “W-who are you!?” He quavered.
“Oh boy, this is gonna be hard to explain…” The other Shinx sighed, “I’m you.”
“Y-you are!?”
“Well, sort of anyway… I’m like you, but like from another world, the mirrors connect our worlds together.”
“Oh… My… God!” Joseph exclaimed, “So that’s why all those reflections were all messed up, Yumi and I were seeing into other realities!”
“Oh, I guess it’s not gonna be that hard to explain.”
Joseph took a close look at his mirror-world counterpart, he was almost identical to himself, with seemingly no major discrepancies to speak of, well apart from his eyes that is, “So, what’s different about you?”
“I’m not sure, you look like a perfect reflection!”
“So do you!”
“This is already getting a bit confusing…”
“L-let’s just start with our names.” Joseph suggested, “My name is Joseph, what’s yours?”
“I’m Hpesoj, nice to meet you.”
At first, Joseph thought that the mirror doppelgänger’s name was just a jumbled mess until he realized, “That’s just my name but backward!”
“Huh, weird coincidence…” Hpseoj said.
“So, um, Hpsoej, why are you here?”
“Well, I was supposed to be grabbing something, but then I noticed you on the other side of that mirror, I had heard rumors claiming you can just walk through them and end up on the other side, so I tried it and low and behold it worked, although you seemed rather freaked out by that considering you passed out and all.”
“How long was I out?”
“A few hours, but don’t worry, I made sure nothing bad happened to you while you were out, I even started dragging you toward the stairs.
“Did you happen to see a white Zorua while you were dragging me?”
“Nope, not at all…”
“Great, so Yumi’s probably still running around like crazy…”
Hpsoej raised one of his eyebrows, “Yumi? Who’s that?”
“She’s a friend of mine… She ran off without me, and when I chased after her, I fell down here.”
“Oh, well, I guess that begs the question, why are you here?”
“Uh, well, I was told to come here, you see, this world is kinda going through a crisis right now, and I need to get the Mind Plate from Mesprit to stop that.”
“Oh, that’s unfortunate…”
“Yeah, I kinda wish I could just go home and chill, but that’s not exactly an option right now…” Joseph sighed and dipped his head toward the floor.
Hpesoj placed his paw on Joseph’s shoulder and beamed, “It’s alright, you’ll get everything figured out, and once you do, you can just kick your paws up and watch the sunset with all your buds.”
“That’s the thing… I can’t do that… I have to get back home after all this…”
“Isn’t this world your home?”
“No, I’m actually from another world, and in that other world I’m a human.”
“Hoo… man…?”
“Human, with a U.” Joseph chuckled.
Hpesoj tilted his head in confusion and asked, “What’s a hooman?”
Joseph chuckled again, “They’re kinda like Machoke but without the muscles.”
“That’s weird… How’d you turn into a Shinx then?”
“It has something to do with humans not existing here or something, I don’t know the specifics, all I know is that going from having hands to having paws is super annoying and I wish I still had hands…”
“What about your tail? Does it bother you?”
“Oh, don’t even get me started, I hate how it feels! I hate how I feel like my spine is too long for my body! I hate how charging electricity feels! I hate that I have to keep moving my tail around to charge said electricity! I just wanna go back to being a human!”
Hpesoj’s eyes went wide for a moment, but they shrank back down after a few seconds, “I’m sure you’ll learn to adjust eventually.”
“It’s been like a couple of weeks and I still haven’t got used to any of it yet, and that’s not even scratching the surface, I still feel really homesick and I miss my family…” Joseph whimpered as tears started to well up in his eyes.
“Jeez, you’ve really been holding it back for a while, haven’t you? Gosh, I’m so sorry…” Hpesoj muttered as he lowered his head sympathetically.
Suddenly, a bright flash of light came from Joseph’s bag, once the light cleared Stumpy emerged from his ball, “Oh, uh, that’s weird… I woke up to the sound of Joseph crying and when I popped out I saw there were two of you… Care to explain?”
Joseph’s fur stood on end as his eyes shot open, “Stumpy, it’s not safe for you here! The reflections! They can pop out and attack us!”
Stumpy tilted his head, “Hm? But this one doesn’t seem aggressive.”
Hpesoj stood in shock for a moment before uttering, “W-what is that thing!?”
“I’m Joseph’s friend, Stumpy! Nice to meet you, other Joseph!”
Hpesoj stuck his tail between his legs, “N-n-n-nice to meet you too!” He stuttered as his teeth chattered like crazy.
Stumpy turned his head to the real Joseph, “What’s with him? Doesn’t he have his own version of me?”
“No, he’s not even a human, it’s like Mesprit said, these are deadly fun house mirrors, their reflections aren’t perfect, but they’re still reflections.” Joseph clarified.
“Oh, I guess that makes sense, so he doesn’t have his own version of me?”
“I don’t think so, but if you stare into the mirrors long enough, eventually a version of you will pop out and probably attack us.”
“Noted, I’m going back in the ball!”
And so Joseph returned Stumpy to his Pokéball and faced his reflection once more, “It’s alright, I put him back.”
“Phew…” Hpesoj sighed, “He was super scary.”
“I take it you’re not a fan of Pokémon that are much bigger than you are.”
“Yup, absolutely terrified of anything even slightly bigger than me.”
“Yeah, same here, I almost had a heart attack when I came face to face with a Walrein.”
Hpesoj and Joseph laughed a bit before hearing another one of those strange mirror sounds, “Crap! We have to move, NOW!”
The pair broke off into a sprint, Hpesoj was leading the charge, being more accustomed to his body than Joseph was. That was until Joseph slipped, causing him to skid to a halt. Hpesoj ran to Joseph’s side and helped him up, but by the time he did so, it was too late, the mirror clone had caught up already, “Crap! They’re here!” Joseph blurted.
“Hold on, hold on, hold on, you SPEAK!?” The mirror clone returned in a feminine voice.
“Yeah, we speak!” Hpesoj replied, “Don’t do anything hasty, or I’ll show you that we kill too!”
“Woah! Ok! Calm down! I’m not here to make enemies, I’m just here to get the Mind Plate and dip so that I can just chill and enjoy some Slowpoke tail burgers courtesy of our team’s chef, Artemis.”
“Artemis? Who’s that?”
“She’s Cinder’s big sis, and… Oh, right, mirror-world shenanigans… Sorry, none of what I said made sense, did it?”
“It kinda did.” Joseph said, “My team’s chef is named Vulcan, he’s Cinder’s big bro.”
“Huh, weird, so your world must be like one of those gender-swap alternate universes or something.”
“There’s probably more to it than that but for the sake of not giving everyone a headache let’s just go with that.”
“Sounds good to me!” The reflection chirped, “My name’s Cherry! Cherry of Team Reverb! I was once a human but one day some girl brought me into the world I was just in, she told me I was being used for some experiment or something, but then she just dropped me in and didn’t give me any direction.”
“That’s pretty much what happened to me.” Joseph chuckled, “I’m Joseph, Joseph of Team Echoes.”
Cherry grabbed Joseph’s paw and shook it, “Nice to meet you, friendo!”
“Nice to meet you too!”
“I’m Hpesoj, and I’m not part of any team, I’m just a lone Shinx in a vast world.” Hpesoj interjected.
“Oh, well, I hope you aren’t lonely, y’know, all alone…”
“I’m not, it’s actually quite nice being able to just chill out on my own.”
“Well uh now that we have uh, met… Ourselves… We should probably get going.” Joseph suggested, “I still have to catch up to Yumi.”
“Yumi? Who’s that?” Cherry asked.
“She’s a fellow human, we were supposed to make it through this place together, but uh, she kinda ran off without me.”
“Oh! Then let’s get going! There’s no telling what could’ve happened to her by now!”
“Yeah, what she said, it has been hours after all!” Hpesoj added.
The trio of Josephs began sprinting through the halls in pursuit of Yumi, meanwhile…
February 5th, 12:58 pm
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 5
Crystal Continent
Yumi had gained quite a bit of distance at this point, I mean, it had been a few hours since she ran away from Joseph after all. She still had yet to see Joseph after the incident that separated them, what she had seen were more creepy mirrors, “J-Joseph? Are you there? I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to run away like that!” She cried out.
Yumi’s voice echoed feebly throughout the cavern.
“Hello!? Anyone!?”
Yet again, no response…
Yumi started shivering, ‘Ok, so I’m alone in a cave with murderous mirrors, what do I do!?’ She thought before realizing, ‘Oh wait, I’m not alone! I have Flint!’
Yumi reached into her bag, pulled out Flint’s Pokéball, and hurled it in front of her, once Flint popped out he came to his trainer’s side, “Do you need something?”
“I kinda ran off on my own and now Joseph’s missing!” Yumi whimpered.
“Ah, I see, well that stinks, for you anyway.”
“Huh? What’s wrong with Joseph?”
“I don’t know, I just get the feeling that he’s gonna get too close.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Flint crouched down and whispered something into Yumi’s ear, once she heard him she physically recoiled as her eyes shot wide open, “WHAT!? Yumi blurted, “You think he might have a crush on me!?”
“Yep, and that’s very dangerous considering our circumstances.”
“What makes you think he has a crush on me?”
“Well, I find it very odd that he seemed to warm up to you so quickly.”
“That’s just how Joseph is! He makes friends like it’s nothing, I mean, just look at the size of our team!”
“Well yeah-“
“If anyone has a crush here, it’s me! I warmed up to him just as fast, and I’m a complete hermit!”
Flint shut his beak and sat in silence for a moment, his eyes went super wide, garnering a confused look from Yumi, that was until Yumi realized what she had just said, she began to blush under her fur, “W-wait, I’m the one who has a crush here… B-but…”
Yumi’s thoughts were interrupted by another mirror sound, “What was that?” Flint asked.
“Crap! More mirror creeps! Flint! Get ready to-“
But before Yumi could finish warning Flint, he was caught by a mirror clone of himself pouncing on him with its talons. Flint kicked the faker off of him and donned a fighting stance, “What the hell is that thing!?”
“It’s you!” Yumi shouted, “The mirrors make copies!”
“Well, the real me wouldn’t try a cheap trick like that! I like to make my presence known!”
The two Flints clashed talons a few times until Yumi intervened with a Swift, shattering the fake Flint in an instant, “Come on! We need to get out of here!”
February 5th, 1:14 pm
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 4
Crystal Continent
The Josephs were making good progress, they were taking out any of the aggressive mirror spawns and pressing on like it was nothing, that was until they reached a roadblock, “Woah, ok, that’s a pit.” Joseph said as he stared down into a seemingly bottomless pit.
“I think we’re supposed to use the mirrors to walk around the pit.” Hpesoj suggested.
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“Just walk through, it’s what we did!” Cherry bubbled, “There’s bound to be a world with enough land to keep moving!”
“Hold up, how am I supposed to make it back to this world!?” Joseph blurted as he stared down the mirror uneasily.
“Uh, shoot, he has a good point… Maybe I shouldn’t have walked through that mirror.”
“Eh, we’ll figure it out.” Hpesoj assured the group.
“And if we don’t?” Joseph asked.
“Well, just find a mirror that leads to a world that isn’t about to end, then you won’t want to make it back.”
“I mean, I guess!? But like, why would I want that on my conscience!?”
“It was just a joke, just walk through the mirror, everything’s gonna be fine.”
Joseph was hesitant to trust Hpesoj’s judgment, but he took a deep breath and walked into the nearest mirror anyway, he ended up in a world where the entire room was flipped on its head, now having a bottomless ceiling however that worked. Shortly after Joseph had entered the mirror, his reflections followed, “Ok, this is super weird…”
Hpesoj was surprised Joseph hadn’t abandoned all sense of logic at this point, “Don’t question it, just keep walking.”
And so the trio kept walking, they cleared the gap with ease, seeing as it was above them and all, once they cleared the gap they noticed one of the mirrors on the other side was sparkling, “I think we’re supposed to walk through that one.” Joseph said.
“Alright then, I guess that answers your question about how we were supposed to get back.”
“But that begs the question, is it gonna send you guys back to your worlds, or is it gonna send us all back to where we were?”
“Look, don’t ask, just go in and see what happens!” Cherry ordered.
“Ok! I’m going! Jeez!”
Joseph walked through the mirror and returned to “His” world, his mirror counterparts followed closely, appearing just behind him, “Well I guess that answers that…” Cherry muttered.
“Uh, guys, I think we have a bit of an issue.” Hpesoj warned.
Joseph turned around to see that there were three mirror clones now, “Ok, this is getting to be a bit much, state your business faker!”
The third clone shriveled up a bit in fear before shaking his head, “…”
“I said state your business!”
The doppelgänger immediately started waving his paws around in fear, “…!”
Cherry tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, “I don’t think he can speak.”
The third clone’s eyes shot open in delight as he pointed at Cherry and nodded, “…! …!”
“Great… I guess there are four of us now… But why are there four of us?”
“Maybe there’s some sort of puzzle up ahead that requires all four of us!” Cherry chirped as her eyes began to sparkle, “That’d be super cool! It’d be like that one puzzle back on the Glacier Continent!”
“Or, we could just be together because we’re bored and we got curious… That could be it too…” Hpseoj replied.
“Wow, way to be a buzzkill, dude.”
“…” The voiceless clone said(?) with a frown.
“I guess we’ll just have to find out, let’s keep moving!” Joseph cheered.
The other Josephs nodded their heads in unison and the quartet started sprinting onward.
Meanwhile…
February 5th, 1:53 pm
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 7
Crystal Continent
Flint was panting heavily as he fended off his reflections, Yumi was doing her best to help him but given her small size and general inexperience in battle, she wasn’t making a dent in these mirror creeps, “*Huff* Yumi! You’ve got to run!”
“But what about you!?” Yumi whimpered.
“Just put me back in the ball and run for your life!”
Yumi shook the philosophical questions out of her head and did as Flint ordered, she withdrew him into the ball and sprinted away, the mirror clones gave chase, but they were unable to catch up to the ghost as she phased through a wall, once Yumi was ‘safe’ she pulled out Flint’s Pokéball and let him back out, “I- I think we’re safe…” Yumi rasped as she tried to regain her breath.
“Phew…” Flint sighed as he plopped down onto the ground, “This place is hell…”
“Yeah… Agreed… How does this world manage to one-up itself so much!? It’s like every time I feel like I just survived the most deadly situation I’ve ever been in, this world just laughs at me and proves me wrong…”
“I think that’s just life.” Flint responded, “Or at least life in the wilds, it reminds me of my Rowlet days.”
“I hope Joseph’s ok, it’d be a shame if he were done in by one of these freaky mirrors.”
“Eh, he’ll be fine, he’s got Tacky with him.”
“I don’t think that helps him, I mean you saw how strong your reflections were, now just imagine a huge disfigured thing stomping you out.”
“Good point, he’s probably screwed!”
“You sound rather happy about that!” Yumi huffed.
“Well, if it means my human isn’t falling in love with a Pokémon then, yes, I am rather happy about it.”
Yumi let out a defeated sigh, “I guess you’re right… I shouldn’t let myself swoon over him.”
“Good, because I’m not gonna help you work out the implications of that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m NOT egg-sitting for you!”
Yumi’s face went beat red under her snow-white fur, “I- um- wh- er- WHAT!?”
“You heard me, if this whole ordeal ends in you and Joseph becoming a couple, then I am ABSOLUTELY NOT egg-sitting for you two!”
“O-ok, just because I have a little crush on Joseph does not mean that-” Yumi shuttered before changing the subject, “Look, let’s just keep moving, I’m sure this whole crush thing will blow over in a few days.”
Flint rolled his eyes, “Whatever you say…”
The pair continued walking through the dungeon, passing by more screwed-up mirrors, eventually, the pair came to a rather peculiar mirror, “Um, where’s my reflection?” Yumi asked.
“And why’s mine so… Weird?” Flint added.
Yumi looked over at Flint’s reflection, she noticed his red feathers were nowhere to be seen, instead being replaced with green ones, bright green ones, and the wings on this faker were much longer than Flint’s, or at least that’s what one would gather from a first glance, upon closer inspection, Yumi realized that this faker wasn’t folding its wings, and perhaps most jarring of all, this faker was wearing a hood with a feather atop it instead of the hat that adorned Flint’s head, “You’re right, that doesn’t look anything like you!”
But before the pair could dwell on it any longer, the reflection walked out of the mirror and smiled, “Alola!”
“EEP!”
“GAH!”
The sudden appearance of this faker startled Flint, causing him to go into a blind panic, flapping his wings wildly as he flew around in circles and scattered feathers everywhere.
The faker tilted their head and brought a wing to their face, “Was it something I said?”
February 5th, 2:09 pm
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 6
Crystal Continent
“Ok, so remind me again why you’re here.” Cherry said.
The Voiceless started playing charades again, acting out the events that brought him here.
“So… You were… Angry at a Torchic for freezing your brother?”
The Voiceless facepalmed, “…”
“No!? Then what were you trying to say!?”
“He was trying to say that a barbaric Cyndaquil chased him into this place, and he tried feigning his death by diving into that pit, but he ended up hitting a mirror somehow, bringing him here” Hpesoj explained.
The Voiceless nodded his head and began applauding Hpesoj, “…!”
“Wow, I was just kidding, that’s actually what happened?”
The smile on The Voiceless’ face died as he nodded again, “…”
“That sucks, why were you being chased by a Cyndaquil?” Joseph asked.
The Voiceless reached into his bag, pulled out some Poké, and pointed at his head, trying to minimize any room for misinterpretation, however, he may have underestimated just how bad Cherry was at charades, “You… Had a lot of money?”
“No! He had a bounty on his head!” Hpesoj shouted.
The Voiceless pointed at Hpesoj and nodded again, “…!”
“But why was there a bounty on your head?”
“My assumption is it has something to do with the fact that he’s human.” Joseph said, “This world hates them, so I could only imagine your worlds are the same.”
“What are you talking about!? Mine loves them!” Cherry chirped (Try saying that 10 times fast), “They gave me a whole bunch of welcome gifts that I had to resist eating all at once or else I would literally die.”
“Well, I’d never heard of one until just today, so I think it’s safe to say mine’s neutral.”
The Voiceless responded by pulling out a piece of paper and some ink, drawing a stick figure, and crossing it out as violently as possible, it seems that he was in the same boat as Joseph, “I’m sure whatever you’re going through you’ll make it out just fine.” Joseph said as he comforted the voiceless version of himself.
The quartet continued onward until they stumbled upon a puzzle of some sort, there was a stone tablet and a door with some sort of indicator on it, “Uh, can anyone read this stuff?” Cherry asked, “I may have neglected to learn Pokémon script.”
“I’ve got us.” Joseph chirped, “I just learned yesterday.”
“Alright, get to reading then!”
Joseph inspected the tablet closely before speaking up, “Four colors, four buttons, four locks, four beings, communication is worth four keys.”
“Wow, apparently whoever wrote this is into TF2 trading.” Cherry chuckled.
Joseph rolled his eyes, “I think it means that to unlock the door we need to communicate, but I’m not sure what it means by four colors…”
“Well, let’s focus on what we do know.” Hpesoj said, “There are four buttons in this room and if I had to guess, the four beings thing refers to us.”
“So something about us is the last key to the puzzle.” Cherry muttered.
Joseph looked at his twisted reflections for a moment before noticing something, “Hey… Your eyes… They’re silver.” He pointed out as he stared at The Voiceless.
“…”
Joseph looked at Cherry and started to notice a pattern, “And yours, Cherry, they’re blue!”
“That means…”
“Maybe the four colors part refers to our eye colors!”
Hpesoj looked back at the door and noticed four colors on the lock indicator, “Blue, silver, green, and yellow, yup, I think it refers to our eyes, everyone, find the button that matches the color of your eyes!”
The Voiceless shot Hpesoj a salute before running off, the other two nodded before following suit, and before long the four were standing on the various buttons around the room, a few moments later the door opened, “We did it!” Cherry cheered, “Let’s go team me!”
“Yeah! Team me!” Joseph chimed in.
This only made Hpesoj curious however, “I wonder how your friend made it through here.” He said as he looked at Joseph.
“Oh, she’s a ghost, so she probably just phased through the door, come to think of it, she probably just floated over the pit too.”
“That makes sense, she’s probably way ahead of us then.”
“Begs the question, though.” Cherry butted in, “How’d she get so scared? Aren’t ghosts immune to fear?”
“Nope, she can still feel pain, so she still feels fear.” Joseph explained.
“Oh, well that’s lame, if I ever become a ghost and I still have to feel fear then I’m gonna go beg god for a refund!”
Hpesoj and the voiceless gave each other confused looks, “How would that even work?”
Despite the voiceless’ inability to speak, he still managed to get his point across, “…” He shrugged.
Disregarding Cherry’s comment, the group moved forth toward the stairs…
February 5th, 2:26 pm
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 7
Crystal Continent
‘Team me’ continued cautiously until Joseph noticed Flint standing around the corner, “Hey, that’s-“
“Don’t, it could be a fake.” Hpesoj warned as he placed a paw on Joseph’s chest, “Wait until it goes away.”
“But what if it’s the real one!?”
“Then you’ll meet back up with him later.”
Joseph’s impatience got the better of him, “I- I can’t hold myself back, I need to see if that’s Flint!” He shouted as he ran off.
“Oh come on!”
Cherry rolled her eyes, “Seriously, he’s impatient too?”
The trio of not Josephs chased after the mono of Josephs (If that makes sense) and walked right into the dungeon’s trap, most of the mirror versions of Flint had dissipated at this point, but the one that remained was a little scarier than the original, “Crap…” Joseph whimpered.
Hpesoj stuck his tail between his legs and lowered his head, “H-hey… We’re just walking through, there’s no need to be alarmed… We come in peace…”
The mirror clone responded by piercing Hpesoj’s fur coat with an arrow that shattered into reflective sparkles on impact, blood began spilling from the wound almost instantly, causing mass panic amongst the Josephs, “OH ARCEUS! I’M BLEEDING!”
“…!”
“HE’S GONNA KILL US ALL! I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!” Cherry screamed.
Joseph started breathing heavily, “Th-this isn’t the end of the world, j-just heal up, and we’ll take this guy out!”
“I- I don’t think that’s a good idea!” Hpesoj replied as he began shivering, “This guy looks like he’d totally cook us and make us into a nice four-course Shinx meal!”
“Then we’ll have to resort to plan B.”
The Voiceless tilted his head in confusion, “…?”
Joseph didn’t elaborate at first, focusing his attention on avoiding an arrow that ‘Flint’ had fired at him, “Ok, plan B’s cool and all, but like, what is it!?” Cherry blurted.
Once Joseph was out of harm’s way, he ran over to Hpesoj and shoved an Oran Berry into his mouth before screaming, “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”
“I KNEW YOU WERE GONNA SAY THAT!”
The four took off sprinting as the mirror clone chased after them, firing arrows like a madman, “Um, we have a problem, HE’S STILL CHASING US!” Hpesoj yelled.
“Yup, we’re doomed!” Cherry replied.
“I’ll think of something, I swear!” Joseph promised.
But as they rounded a corner, the voiceless tripped, “Crud! The quiet guy tripped!”
The three skidded to a stop and faced the giant archer bird, “Hey! You leave him alone!” Joseph demanded.
The Voiceless was cowering in fear as tears rushed from his eyes like a violent waterfall, if he could utter even just a single sound, it’d probably sound something like this: “I DON’T WANT TO DIE! PLEASE, HELP ME!”
But just as the bird pounced at the voiceless, an arrow struck him right in the chest, “Pebble, NOW!”
Another arrow whizzed past Joseph and hit the mirror clone in the chest, but this arrow was different, it pierced the chest and continued flying, even redirecting its trajectory mid-flight, only stopping once it hit the clone’s shadow.
“What just happened?” Cherry questioned.
Joseph turned back around and prepared to begin sprinting again, “Who cares!? We need to get out of-“
“JOSEPH!”
“Y-Yumi!?”
Yumi ran over to Joseph and tackled him with a hug, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to run off without you!”
“It’s ok, I get it, you got spooked, it happens.”
“I know… But I still shouldn’t have let my instincts take the reins…”
“It’s alright, you couldn’t help it, it’s fine, I was about to do the same thing if I’m being honest.”
“Yeah, he passed out when we first met.” Hpesoj laughed, “You should’ve seen his face.”
“Ugh, next time, warn me before you step out of the mirror like that!”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works.”
“Who are you?” Yumi asked as she looked at Hpesoj, “Who are all of you actually?”
Cherry came up beside Yumi and sat down, “I’m Cherry! And that’s Hpesoj, and over there is… Uh… We don’t know his name…”
“Why not?”
“He uh can’t speak…” Hpesoj continued, “That’s not really important… Uh, on another note, you’re really pretty.”
“Pretty!?” Cherry blurted, “She’s more than pretty! She’s hot!”
“Oh boy…” Flint sighed.
“Yeah, what he said, we don’t need anyone else going around hitting on everyone.” Joseph said, “Besides, Cherry, aren’t you a girl?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Cherry proudly said, “You got a problem with girls who like girls? If so, then you got a problem with yourself, well sort of anyway.”
“I don’t have a problem with it, I just wasn’t really expecting that, is all.”
“I’m not really into girls myself… Sorry…” Yumi replied.
“Oh, you’re fine, it’s just a compliment, I’m not simping for you or anything, just complimenting you.”
“Simping?” Yumi questioned, “What does that mean?”
“It means she’s not gonna try to force herself onto you or anything, Basil could take a few notes from her book because he is an OMEGA SIMP.” Joseph ribbed.
“Aaaaand you ruined it, don’t you know nobody really says that anymore?” Cherry mocked.
“Then why were you saying it!?”
“Because it was the only way I could put it in my head!”
“Oh because that’s fair.”
“Jokes aside, next time you meet up with this Basil guy, give him this.” Cherry said as she handed Joseph a book.
Joseph inspected the cover of the book, it read, “Cherry’s Guide to Being a Decent Human Being or Pokémon.” with smaller text saying, “Depending on what world I publish this thing in.” underneath it.
“Huh… That’s an interesting title…”
“Yeah, I knew I wanted to publish this thing, but I didn’t know where or when, so I just decided to make the title cover all my options, y’know?”
“I guess, but like, couldn’t you have, like, picked an audience as you were publishing?”
“Eh, logic is overrated, I think it’s funnier to throw logic out the window and make something stupid.”
“Fair point.”
“Ehem!” Hpesoj huffed, “I didn’t get to properly introduce our silent little friend over here!”
“Can it wait? We have to get out of here before that Spirit Shackle wears off.” An unfamiliar voice said.
Hpesoj looked up to see an Alolan Decidueye standing next to Flint, “Uh, y-yeah, sorry…”
The group continued forth until they reached a safe area just before the stairs, “Ok, go ahead.” The Decidueye said.
“Hold on, who are you?” Joseph asked.
“Oh, dearie me… Sorry for my rudeness, my name’s Pebbles, and I come from the distant Alola region, my trainer and I were on a trip once when suddenly an Ultra Wormhole swallowed us up, for the sake of time that’s all I’ll say, now continue with your conversation.”
Hpesoj picked up where he left off, “Uh, ok, as I was saying, our voiceless friend here has been trying to tell us things without the ability to speak, but he hasn’t tried to give us a name, so I’ve just been calling him ‘The Voiceless’ in my head.”
The Voiceless responded by nodding, pulling out a piece of paper, and writing, “Hell of a coincidence.” On it.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cherry asked.
“I think he’s saying that’s his name, but what kind of name is that?”
“I don’t think they give proper names where he’s from.” Joseph said.
The Voiceless nodded once more, “…!” He smiled.
“Well, do you want one? I mean, we can make that happen if you do.”
The Voiceless shook his head and wrote “It’s cool” on his paper.
Cherry facepalmed, “Why didn’t you just write everything down instead of forcing me to play charades!?”
“Low ink, and even lower paper.” The Voiceless wrote, “Like seriously, this is my only piece of paper.”
Joseph began to laugh as Cherry sighed, “Let’s just get out of here…”
February 5th, 2:47 pm
Mirror Maze – Basement Floor 8
Crystal Continent
The group finally reached the end of the dungeon, well sort of anyway… They still had to say goodbye to the mirror clones, the team arrived in a room with a bunch of empty mirrors, “What’s with this place?” Joseph asked.
‘These are grim realities.‘ A voice explained telepathically, ‘For one reason or another these realities don’t have a version of you.‘
“Mesprit!? Is that you!?”
‘Yes, it is I.‘ Mesprit revealed, ‘I am just ahead, but for now, you must say goodbye to your new friends.‘
“Well, it’s been real fun you three, but I guess this is farewell…” Hpesoj sighed.
“Buh bye! I guess…” Cherry bid.
“…” The Voiceless frowned.
“Will we ever meet again?”
‘Of course you will, you dinguses! Just come back here and walk through the mirrors! It’s not like you’re forbidden from ever returning!‘Mesprit shot, ‘I’ll even turn off the fake mirror illusions if you tell me in advance!‘
“Oh… Well, this makes things a bit easier, uh, goodbye guys! I’ll probably be back soon if you all want to hang out!” Joseph bubbled.
“Bye!” The mirror clones said as they returned to their worlds.
“Well, I should be off too.” Pebbles said, “See you later, Flint!”
“B-bye!” Flint blushed as he watched Pebbles return to her world.
“So, uh, what was that all about?” Joseph asked.
‘I would say it was to see how well you can handle being around yourself, but that’s giving myself too much credit, in reality, I just got bored one day and decided to mess with the power Dad gave me, so I created a place that served as a window into other worlds, but then Dad caught wind, so I told him that I made it to keep the Mind Plate safe.‘
“Oh, well that’s… Lame…”
“At least she was honest?” Yumi said as a sweat droplet trickled down the side of her head.
“Whatever, let’s just go grab the plate so we can leave…”
February 5th, 2:50 pm
Mirror Maze – Garden of Mirrors
Crystal Continent
The group pressed onward, exiting the cave into a closed area outside, in the middle of the area Mesprit sat floating next to an Absol with some strange spirit-like aura around them, “So why did you bring me here again, Mesprit?”
“Because there’s a few Pokémon I’d like you to test.” Mesprit responded.
“And by test you mean rough up, right?”
“Yep!”
The Absol sighed, “Why can’t you just let my soul rest for once…”
Mesprit chuckled, “I give you plenty of time to rest, on the weekends, that is.”
“Mesprit, it’s been like what, a couple of hundred years, and you still won’t give me a break?”
“I’m sorry, it’s just you’re the only one I can really talk to anymore.”
“I get it, must be hard being a legendary and all.”
“Yeah… Hopefully, when this whole situation with Fiora blows over, I can chat with Team Echoes a bit instead of awakening your soul every five minutes.”
“What about us?” Joseph asked as he and his team approached the legendary and her soul companion.
“Oh, uh, speak of the devil, hey Joseph, I have a friend I’d like you to meet.”
“Oh, you do?”
“Yup! Say hello to Eric the Absol.”
Mesprit floated aside and presented the Absol to the group, “Greetings mortals, I am Eric, one of the ‘heroes of old’ as Mesprit calls us.”
“Heroes of old?” Yumi questioned.
“We were a team of heroes tasked with defeating Zeal and erasing resentment from the world, that was until Fiora stabbed us in the back, now, we pass the torch on to you.”
“I just hope you picked the right guy.” Joseph sighed, “I wouldn’t exactly call myself hero material, I mean, I’m just a fatherless 18-year-old who still lived with their mom up until a few weeks ago.”
“O-oh… I’m uh… Sorry to hear that.”
“It’s fine… I’m not too upset about not getting to know my father very well, I just wish I knew where he went and why, he kinda just disappeared without a trace.”
The group remained silent for a moment until finally, Mesprit spoke up, “Well, uh, I brought Eric here today to kick your butts!”
“Really!?” Yumi blurted, “W-why!?”
“It’s to test your strength, if you’re truly meant to be heroes, then you probably should be able to defeat a hero like Eric.”
“But what if we’re not strong enough?”
“Well then you better be ready to re-run this dungeon until you are because I’m not giving the Mind Plate to you unless you beat him.”
Joseph rolled his eyes, “Great…”
Eric laughed, “It can’t be that hard to beat me, I’m already dead!”
Yumi tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, “You are?”
“Yup, I died a loooooooong time ago, don’t worry though, I lived a long and happy life.”
“W-wait, so you’re a g-ghost!?”
“Yeah, I am.”
Joseph gave Yumi a confused look, “Why do you sound so scared Yumi, you’re a ghost too remember?”
“O-oh yeah, I almost forgot…”
“She doesn’t look dead to me.” Eric said, “Are you sure she’s really a ghost?”
“Oh I’m sure, she literally possessed me at one point, if that doesn’t scream ghost then I don’t know what does!”
“I’ll uh, take your word on that.”
Mesprit was getting visibly impatient, “Come on, just fight already! There’s no telling whether Fiora and that stupid egg guy have caught on to what we’re doing!”
“Fair point, I guess we should get this started then.”
“Indeed.”
Joseph and Yumi took a few steps back as Mesprit flew out of the arena, once she was out of harm’s way Eric donned a fighting stance, pointing his horn right at Joseph, sending shivers down his spine.
‘I guess this is how pressure works.’ Joseph thought to himself, ‘I wonder if Intimidate works the same way…’
“Come at me!” Eric asserted.
“Alright then, BRING IT ON!”
Joseph lunged at Eric with a pretty sloppy Spark, Eric dodged quickly by gliding out of the way with his ghostly form, Yumi jumped in with a Bitter Malice, but it didn’t seem to faze the Absol very much, the attack did, however, give Joseph a window to get back to his feet, which would prove to be vital in this battle.
Eric retaliated by shooting pink energy blades from his horn, the blades struck Yumi head-on, causing her to tumble over, as Yumi struggled to get to her feet Eric rushed over to her as ghostly afterimages trailed him.
Eric closed in on Yumi and prepared to blow her away with his next attack, however, his next attack wouldn’t connect as Joseph landed a Secret Power which took the appearance of Rock Throw thanks to the battlefield.
“Didn’t see that one coming, why the hell is Secret Power in your move set?” Eric huffed.
“I needed a place to live!” Joseph responded.
“I, uh, don’t see how that helps you with that.”
“You wouldn’t get it.”
“Whatever, quit distracting me from ripping you into giblets!”
Eric thrashed his horn, just narrowly missing the two humans.
Joseph retaliated with another sloppy Spark that once again was easily dodged by Eric, who once again effortlessly glided out of the way, “Your form is terrible, human, maybe you should go back to walking on two legs and using those opposable thumbs to click buttons nonstop.”
“Wish I could! Unfortunately, that’s not exactly an option!”
Yumi broke up the banter by bombarding Eric with a flurry of stars, the attack did much more than her last one, causing Eric to stumble back, while Eric was recovering Joseph was able to seize the opening and finally land his Spark attack.
Eric laughed maniacally, “You must think you’re clever, hitting me while I was recovering, well I’ll tell you now that you couldn’t be more wrong about that!”
In the blink of an eye, Eric disappeared, Joseph tried desperately to find where the ghost disappeared to when he heard a shout from behind him, “JOSEPH LOOK OUT! HE’S BEHIND YOU!”
Joseph did a 180 and got struck by the blade of Eric’s horn, knocking him over, Eric followed up by scooping Joseph up with his horn and flinging him in the air, right before Joseph hit the ground Eric skewered him through his torso, which sounds painful, and it was, but it was definitely much less painful due to Eric’s spectral form.
Joseph’s face went blank, he sat with Eric’s horn piercing his body for a few moments until he was flung off unceremoniously, once he was on the ground Yumi rushed to his aid.
“JOSEPH! SPEAK TO ME, JOSEPH! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?”
“Augh…”
Yumi began frantically digging through her bag for healing items, she eventually grabbed hold of a Hyper Potion and yanked it out of the bag carelessly, spilling various items on the ground including Flint’s Pokéball. Yumi practically forced the Hyper Potion down Joseph’s throat in her panic, causing Joseph to choke a little bit.
“I… I don’t think it’s working…” Joseph rasped, “It feels like he ripped through my soul itself…”
“Are we calling it quits yet, human?” Eric taunted, “It’d be wise to throw in the towel now and save yourself the headache.”
Joseph reached feebly into his bag, he just barely managed to pull out Stumpy’s Pokéball in a last-ditch effort to try to win this fight, “Stumpy… I believe in you… Give him hell…”
Joseph tossed the ball so weakly that it barely managed to get any air time at all, thankfully, the weak throw was enough as Stumpy emerged from his mobile home and stared down his opponent.
Eric began quivering, “What the heck is that thing!? And how did the human fit him in their pocket?”
Stumpy looked back at Joseph and noticed his tattered state, he then turned back to Eric and started roaring, “DID YOU DO THIS!?”
“U-uh, y-yeah?”
“I’LL STOMP YOU OUT AND MAKE YOU MY NEW DOORMAT!
Stumpy ran over to Eric and plowed into him with a Bolt Beak, causing the Absol to roll across the ground helplessly, he tried to fire a Psycho Cut but Stumpy placed his giant foot onto his torso, pinning him.
“THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR HURTING MY FRIEND!”
Stumpy sprayed his fire breath at Eric until all that would come out was smoke and cinders.
Swirls appeared in Eric’s eyes, “Y-you… Win…”
Joseph attempted to get up only to fall down on his face, causing Yumi to panic even more, “OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!”
Stumpy stepped away from Eric and rushed over to Joseph, placing him on his back, it was then that Eric coughed and began speaking again, “Well… Are you gonna finish me off?”
Stumpy walked back over to Eric and prepared to stomp him out one last time when Joseph stopped him, “S-stop… Please… He doesn’t deserve this… He may have injured me, but he still deserves mercy…”
Stumpy looked back at Joseph in his torn-up and tired state, “Are you sure!? He roughed you up good!”
“Well… Yeah… But should he really die because of it?”
“Well, technically, I’m already dead.” Eric interjected, “But that’s irrelevant, you passed!”
“Passed!?” Stumpy blurted, “Passed what!?”
“I was testing you, a true hero shows mercy, a false one kills without remorse, you truly are different, human, no, Joseph.”
“I’d thank you if I didn’t feel like I got hit by a truck…”
“Ehehehe, sorry about that…” Eric laughed awkwardly.
Mesprit reappeared behind the trio and began to clap, that was until she caught a glimpse of Joseph, “God gosh! What the hell happened to you!?”
“I got him good with my horn.” Eric responded.
“I told you not to do that! Oh, this isn’t good…”
Yumi ran up to Mesprit and continued her panic, “IS HE GONNA DIE!?”
“No thankfully, he’s just gonna have to sit out for a bit and soothe his soul, it took a big hit during that fight.”
“How long is he gonna have to sit out for?” Stumpy asked.
“At least? A few days. At most a few months. It just depends on how well he soothes his soul.”
“How does one soothe their soul?”
“Just do stuff you love doing and spend time with friends and stuff, I think anyway…”
“Sounds about right to me.” Eric said.
“Oh, and don’t possess him.”
“Wh-why, what would happen?” Yumi quavered.
“You’ll kick his soul out of his body, turning him into a husk, or an office worker.”
“R-really!?”
“Ehehehe.” Mesprit chuckled before giving Yumi a cold stare, “Yes.”
“W-well… A-at least he’s not gonna die…”
“He should actually be good to walk back.”
“Oh, really? Alright then, down you go, bud.” Stumpy said as he set Joseph back down.
Joseph stood shakily for a moment before a wave of dizziness overtook him, the next thing he knew he collapsed and everything went dark.
“Huh, guess I was wrong… Well, uh, here, just take the Mind Plate and get him home to safety.”
A ball of light appeared in the air and floated down to Stumpy, when the light dispersed a pink plate was placed into his hands, he shoved it into his bag before picking Joseph back up, “Well we best be going now, see you later!”
Yumi scooped up the items she dropped as Stumpy pulled out an Escape Orb, the two then left the dungeon.
February 5th, 5:00 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
Joseph woke up to the sound of his watch buzzing violently, he checked it to see 135 missed calls from Cinder, ‘Why’d she call me this many times?’
The realization hit Joseph like a ghostly Absol horn piercing him through the torso, ‘GAH! That’s right! I passed out at the Mirror Maze garden thing! She must be worried sick about me!’
Joseph picked up the call and was bombarded by a flurry of unintelligible words followed by a, “WHY THE FLIP DIDN’T YOU PICK UP!?”
“What time is it?” Joseph asked.
“Huh? What do you mean, what time is it? You’re looking at your watch, aren’t you?”
“I passed out a while ago, and I just woke up.” Joseph explained.
“Woah, did you at least get the plate?”
“I think? I’m not sure, I must’ve passed out before Mesprit could give it to us.”
“How’d you even pass out?”
“I took a major hit from the ghost of an Absol, according to Mesprit my soul’s a bit damaged now and I gotta sit out for a bit until I recover.”
“Yikes! That sucks, well if it makes you feel any better I’ve been beating up ghosts all day, Vulcan and I managed to snag the Spooky Plate.”
“Hooray…”
“You don’t sound too happy about that.”
“I’m gonna be honest, I feel like I got hit by a truck, I don’t think I can even get out of bed right now…”
“O-oh, it’s that serious huh, well uh, get some rest, and hopefully you’ll be ready to jump back into the fray soon.”
“Alright…” Joseph sighed, “I’ll just be resting here… All alone…”
“You’re not alone, you have Midnight to keep you company!”
“But she’s gotta guard the base…”
“Well, uh, hold on, I’ll see what I can do.”
Cinder put herself on mute for a moment while she presumably chatted with Vulcan for a bit, after what felt like an eternity Cinder unmuted and said, “Vulcan and I agreed to take tomorrow off to keep you company, does that sound good?”
Joseph attempted to put more enthusiasm in his words but ended up just coughing and saying, “That sounds amazing.”
“Great!” Cinder rejoiced, “We’ll be home in a few hours, maybe when we get home we can sleep over in your room or something.”
Joseph was too flabbergasted to catch that last part, “A few hours!? Where are you right now!?”
“Oh, we’re uh, halfway across the world right now.”
Specter could be heard shouting, “This place is insane!” in the background.
“Y-yeah, what he said, I’ll be sure to tell you about it later, if you’re up for a bedtime story, that is.”
Joseph yawned, “That’d be great…”
“Alright then, we’ll be sure to tell you all about our little outing today.”
“Thanks Cinder, you’re the best.”
“Bye!”
“Bye!”
Joseph hung up and started staring up at the ceiling, he was about to comment on his situation when there was a knock at the door, “Come in…”
Arboliva opened the door and entered the room, pushing a cart of medical supplies beside Joseph’s bed, “Sheesh, you could’ve at least opened the door.”
“I don’t think I can even push these blankets off me…” Joseph groaned.
“I’m just teasing, I heard about your injury from the little ghost girl, she was worried sick about you.”
“Yeah… Yumi was freaking out when she saw me get hurt, she even tried healing me herself.”
“Well, judging by your current state, I’d say it was no dice, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Figures, soul injuries are no joke, even as a medical professional I still struggle to help my patients recover from them.”
“Why’s that…?”
“Well, for starters, treatment is a little… Inconsistent to say the least, everyone’s got different definitions of cozy, some think a nice snowy cabin is cozy, others think that a nice pool of lava is cozy, it really depends, if I had to describe soul-related injuries in just a few words I’d probably call them advanced homesickness.”
‘Great, I was already feeling homesick, now I have to cure my homesickness or die trying…’ Joseph mused, ‘Just my luck…’
“So I’m just supposed to do what makes me comfortable?” Joseph asked.
“Yep, take a break, you earned it.”
“Figures, I literally just took a break not too long ago.”
“Well, uh, fate seems to think you need another one.”
Joseph sighed in defeat, “I guess… But wait, what’s with the medical supplies then?”
“Oh, it’s nothing, you just have a few minor injuries left over, and a few broken ribs.”
“W-what…?”
“I’m only kidding, well about the second part anyway, you still have some minor injuries, just some scratches, and bruises, nothing too major.”
“Ugh, just what I needed, gross medicine… Always makes me feel comfy.”
“Don’t worry, this medicine isn’t yucky, it’s actually not medicine at all.”
Arboliva placed a bowl of soup on Joseph’s chest, “It’s soup!” Joseph chirped as he perked up.
“Wow, you seem really energetic all of a sudden!”
“I love soup! My mom used to make soup all the time!”
“Well then, this should help quite a lot.”
Joseph lapped up the soup happily, suddenly, he felt much better, not good enough to get up and start running around, but still much better than before, “Thanks Arboliva.”
“You’re welcome!”
Joseph kept lapping up his soup as Arboliva put little bandages over his wounds until eventually, Arboliva was done placing bandages and Joseph was out of soup, “Well, I’d best be off now, toodles.” Arboliva said as she wheeled her cart out of the room.
It was then that something occurred to Joseph, ‘Wait, how’d she get that cart in here? Did she just carry it on her back and climb? No, it can’t be she’d probably spill the soup…’
‘I helped her.’ A telepathic voice clarified.
“Who!? What!? Where!?”
Midnight appeared in front of Joseph and smiled, “Me silly!”
“Gah! Don’t do that!”
“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” The Lampent said as she dipped her head toward the ground, “I heard about your injury, from the looks of it you’re hurt bad.”
“You can see it?”
“Yup! I’m staring right into your soul right now!” Midnight chirped, garnering a somewhat disturbed expression from Joseph, “N-not in the creepy way though!”
“Is there really a non-creepy way though?”
“Yeah! I can see souls, but like, without causing major amounts of discomfort, I’m actually looking at your soul right now, it seems to have recovered a bit, but it’s still got a ways to go.”
“Uh… Ok…? Well, uh, how did you get the cart in here?”
Lampent brought an arm to her face and giggled before lifting Joseph up into the air with a faint purple glow, ‘I used my psychic abilities!‘ She bubbled as she switched to her telepathy.
“W-woah! Put me down!”
‘Put you down? But why? You can’t walk, can you?’
“W-well no, I don’t think so anyway.”
‘Then let me do the walking for you! Just tell me where you want to go and I’ll float you over there.‘
“O-oh, thanks I guess, could you take me to see the others?”
‘Alright, leave it to me!‘ Midnight saluted.
Midnight carried Joseph out into the lounge and sat him down on the couch beside Yumi, who immediately snatched Joseph up in a hug, “Oh, thank goodness you’re okay! I was so worried about you!”
Joseph shuffled around in his seat a bit after being placed down whilst maintaining the hug, “Mesprit said I’d be fine!”
Rory got up from her seat and took a seat beside the two, “Well, she also said that you’d be fine to walk home.” She snarked, “Or, so I’m told.”
“True…” Joseph sighed, “Well, uh, I’m gonna live, I just gotta chill and shake this homesickness, the only problem is I’ve been homesick since day one.”
“I feel you, I mean, my home was destroyed when we first met, remember?”
“I feel like there’s still hope that your home could come back somehow.” Yumi voiced, “I could be dead for all we know, so even if I do make it home, there’s not much of a point.”
“I guess we’re all a little homesick…” Joseph sighed.
“Just a little.” Rory said, “I’ve been enjoying the whole ‘saving the world’ thing.”
Midnight flew up beside Rory and giggled, “Well of course you have, you found love!”
Rory facepalmed, “That’s not the only reason why!”
“Speaking of saving the world,” Joseph interjected, “did you guys end up getting a plate?”
“Yup! The Draco Plate is ours!”
“Awesome! I look forward to hearing the story behind that.”
“And I look forward to sharing it with you when I can, anyway.”
“Oh, right, you’ve gotta go out and keep collecting plates…”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure I could squeeze in some time to tell you about today.”
“Hopefully, I think I’d go mad if I were left here for too long.”
Rory laughed, “I’m sure you’ll recover before the madness sets in.”
“I hope so, spending a month at home with no one to talk to besides Midnight doesn’t sound fun…”
Yumi moved a little closer to Joseph, “I’m not going anywhere until you’ve made a full recovery!”
“Huh!?”
“You heard me! I’m not gonna let you sit here alone!”
“W-well alright then, just remember what Mesprit said, no possession or else I’m a goner!”
“A-alright! I won’t, I promise.”
“That goes for you too Midnight, if you possess me I’m as good as dead!”
“I gotcha, I’m not the type of ghost who likes possessing others anyway.” Midnight replied as she tossed a coin up into the air and caught it with her ghostly abilities.
Joseph was about to stand up and walk away, but his knees buckled, and he fell back down onto the couch, “W-woah, easy there! You still can’t walk!” Rory reminded Joseph.
Joseph hissed, “Dang it! Midnight, can you take me back to my bed?”
“Got you!”
Midnight lifted Joseph up with her psychic power and carried him back into his room, placing him on his bed and tucking him in, “Thanks Midnight, you’re the best.”
“Ehehehe, thanks!”
“You’re welcome.”
Midnight turned around to leave when suddenly she shook her head and looked down at the ground, “Ok, no, something’s definitely up, I’m getting crazy psychic readings.”
“Huh!? Is there someone trying to break in!?”
“I have no clue, all I know is that something’s emitting huge amounts of psychic energy nearby.”
“Should I be scared?”
“Maybe? I don’t know, let me take a closer look.”
Midnight focused on using her psychic power to track the source of the energy, “I uh… Wait… It’s coming from this room!? There’s no way! It’s just us two in here!”
“Maybe Mesprit came to check on my recovery?”
“It’s not her, either! I saw her psychic energy’s strength, and it’s NOTHING compared to this!”
“Are you sure it’s coming from this room?”
“There’s no mistaking it!”
Joseph sighed and turned over to his side, “Well if it’s not an immediate threat then I’m just gonna get a little more rest in before Cinder and Vulcan get back.”
“A-alright then, sorry for keeping you up.”
Midnight floated out of the room, leaving Joseph to get some much-needed shut-eye, ‘I know I was just asleep less than an hour ago, but I still feel like I haven’t slept in days…’
And so he shut his eyes and drifted off once again into his dreams, he was too tired to beg for some normality this time, opting just to let his dreams take him wherever, and after a few moments they took him somewhere all too familiar…
Aaaaaand cut! That should be a good stopping point for this chapter.
I uh, may have realized a mistake I made last time, so I’m gonna address it here, last time I said I’d credit my resources at the end of the fic, but it wasn’t until after I posted that chapter that I realized the problem with that, it was not my intention to withhold credit, I just wanted to have a nice complete list at the end of the fic, nobody really called me out on this (at least to my knowledge), but I figured I should probably acknowledge my error and apologize anyway.
Anyway, here are the resources I’ve used up to this point:
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Main_Page (For fact-checking pretty much every Pokémon related thing in this fic, so pretty much everything)
https://www.serebii.net/ (For when Bulbapedia was down and for sw/sh curry info bc Bulbapedia didn’t have a good amount of that as far as I could tell, and I completely forgot that I had a finished curry dex myself)
https://dyinglight.fandom.com/wiki/Dying_Light_Wiki (For fact-checking some of the references in the Halloween special episode)
https://left4dead.fandom.com/wiki/Left_4_Dead_Wiki (Ditto with the one above)
https://terraria.wiki.gg/wiki/Terraria (For fact-checking the various Terraria references I snuck into this fic)
This might not be as big of a deal as I think it is, but I’d rather not have a bunch of people getting mad at me for accidentally withholding credit in a sense.
And that should be everything thus far, I will add any resources I use going forward in the chapter where I use them, I’m not withholding credit here, it’s just in case I want to reference another game going forward, and I need to bring up a different wiki or resource or something.
Phew… Now that that’s out of the way I can go back to doing the usual ending stuff.
<Boss data downloaded successfully!>
Heroic Apparition: Eric the Absol
Eric was formerly one of Fiora’s allies, that was until she stabbed him in the back, now, he’s distrusting of humanity as a whole. Well, that was until he met Joseph… Even after severely injuring our hero, he was still offered mercy, restoring his hope for humanity.
Aaaand that should be it, I didn’t see any new reviews or comments so, uh, next time, we hear about Cinder’s plate-gathering endeavors, see you guys then I guess.
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