Chapter 5: The Heist
by poper466So uh yeah that last chapter was pretty strange huh, this one should explain what you saw there, hopefully anyway…
January 23rd, 4:00 am
Team Echoes’ Base – Rory’s Room
Coast Continent
Rory shot awake after having a strange nightmare and after confirming that her fur was indeed still blue she let out a relieved sigh, “Thank Arceus that was just a dream” She said to herself, “I don’t think I’m going to be able to go back to bed after that.”
Rory got up and left her room, hoping that someone else was up at this ungodly hour so she could beg them to let her sleep in their room for the rest of the night. She walked through the halls of the base, passing by her teammates’ rooms. All of her teammates had their doors shut except for Specter.
Rory entered Specter’s room to find him still asleep in his bed, ‘Great, I guess I can’t ask him then…’ She thought. She went to leave his room but decided to check the mirror first just to 100 percent confirm she wasn’t that creepy monster from her dream, ‘Nope still me, what a relief.’
Rory exited Specter’s room, and shortly afterward she heard what sounded like someone hitting the floor, ‘What was that?’ She asked herself, ‘I think it came from Joseph’s room. Maybe he fell off his bed or something?’
Rory walked over to Joseph’s door and gave it a knock, “You ok in there?” She asked.
A few moments later, the door opened, “Rory? What are you doing up this early?” Joseph asked.
“I had a nightmare.” Rory answered, “I feel a little uncomfortable going back to sleep in my room, can I stay in yours?”
“Of course! Just don’t mess anything up.”
“Thanks.”
The two entered Joseph’s room, and Joseph immediately hopped back onto his bed, “So do you wanna talk about your nightmare or are you just gonna try to go back to sleep?” He asked.
“I mean, do you want to hear about it? It’s kinda freaky.”
“I’m ok with hearing about it, I mean, it can’t be as bad as some of the ones I’ve had.”
“Ok… Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Pfft, how bad could it possibly be?”
“Well… Basically, I woke up with green fur and red eyes.”
“Your eyes are already red.”
“I mean fully red, there was no white left in my eyes and I didn’t have pupils.”
“Oh… Were you a zombie or something?”
“That’s what you called me in the dream, you also made me infect you.”
“Oh come on, I’m not that stupid!”
“Well, apparently my brain thinks otherwise, speaking of brains, we were trying to eat them and spread the infection across the entirety of Sunset Square.”
“I’m guessing we didn’t get very far, considering zombies are pretty weak.”
“We infected 3 Pokémon: Hula, Specter, and Cinder. We failed to get Sammy or Slippy, but we would’ve got Tiny if she was able to be infected.”
“Good, this world doesn’t deserve to be overrun by the undead.”
“Our dream selves seemed to disagree, my dream self even killed Tiny out of anger!”
“Oh jeez! That’s terrifying!”
“I know! I wasn’t scared until that happened, and it only got worse from there!”
“What happened after that?”
“We left the base in search of more Pokémon to infect, and we ended up in a fight with Nail, Sammy, and Hula in front of the guild.”
“I’m guessing we lost that fight.”
“Yup… Watching Nail tear us apart was terrifying, especially since he didn’t immediately kill us.”
“Is that where it ended?”
“Oddly, no, I saw some weird creature talking to a Lucario about a vital monitor thingie? I don’t know, the last part was weird, they seemed aware of what went on here, though.”
“Was the Lucario at a desk?”
“Uh… Yeah… Why do you know something I don’t?”
“I think the last part of your dream was in the place conducting the whole ‘experiment’ I’m supposed to be a part of, did they have a name?”
“Their name wasn’t mentioned, the weird creature’s name was though, his name is Christian.”
“That confirms it, what you saw was them finding out I was dead.”
“Oh… That makes sense now.”
“Well, since we’re on the topic of those two weirdos, I had another dream visit with them tonight.”
“Oh cool! Did you get any more info about what’s going on?”
“Well…”
6 hours earlier
January 22nd, 11:00 pm
I.D.P.K. Headquarters
Joseph woke up to the blaring lights of the IDPK facility, “Ugh… We’re doing this again?” He groaned.
“Yup, except you’re stuck with me for the time being!” A voice called out rather enthusiastically.
Joseph looked up and noticed a Lucario towering over him menacingly, “Woah! Uh, who are you?”
“I’m Christian’s assistant, I go by Lucario, but everyone here calls me Lu, well except Christian because he actually respects me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The stupid humans came up with some dumb nickname I don’t like, and they won’t stop using it no matter how much I complain about it.”
“You do realize they can’t understand you, right?”
“Oh, no, they can, there’s some weird machine that breaks that language barrier, they just choose to call me Lu regardless.”
“Oh, well, then they’re just jerks then.”
“Yeah, that much is obvious, they tried to kill Christian when he first arrived here, he’s only still alive because I was here to protect him from their pathetic Pokémon.”
“Jeez, talk about a rude awakening.”
“You call THAT a rude awakening!? I had never seen a human before that happened. I was so scared, and I was still all beaten up from the whole incident in Treasure Town.”
“Yikes! That sounds scary!”
“I’m still somewhat afraid of humans because of that whole first encounter, oh yeah, and because of Pokéballs. Christian had to pretend that I already had one so that they didn’t shove me into one. He also had to make up some lousy excuse about how some Pokémon dislike being inside their Pokéballs.”
“That’s not just an excuse, some Pokémon genuinely dislike their Pokéballs, usually this is because they want to spend as much time with their trainer as possible.”
“THANK YOU! I tried telling him that like 40 times, and he still doesn’t believe me!” Christian interjected as he entered the room.
“Oh, hey, I was just keeping him entertained while I waited for you to come back.” Lucario said.
“I see… Well, now that I’m here, I have a few things I want to discuss.”
“Dude, just get to the point, he’s probably so tired of you constantly dragging these conversations out just to say ‘I can’t tell you that yet’ in the most condescending way possible.”
“Dude, you read my mind!” Joseph exulted.
“Correction, I read your aura, but that’s beside the point.”
“Ok! I’ll get on with it!” Christian huffed, “I sent some Pokémon to give Cinder the Dream Mist and to fix that watch you got there, did you meet up with them?”
Joseph didn’t give an answer, instead, he raised the watch up so that Christian could read the time.
“Great! Now we don’t have to pull you in here every time we want to tell you something.”
“You don’t?” Joseph questioned.
“Nope, the shock should have added us to your contacts on there, don’t ask how that works because we don’t know either.”
“Razor made that clear when he fixed the watch, besides, I gave up on getting explanations from any of you a long time ago.”
“Good, that should make things flow a bit better.”
Joseph rolled his eyes, “Of course it does! Name one thing since this whole thing started that has been easy to explain!”
“Well, we can’t… We can’t monitor your actions from here, we can only monitor your vitals.”
“Of course! That makes total sense!”
“Look, just calm down so we can get through the rest of this.”
“Fine… What else you got for me?”
“A question, actually. Have you found any evidence of Space Time Distortions occurring?”
“I think? There have been a couple of human items that have shown up.”
“Anything that stands out?”
“Well, Kecleon was selling a Master Ball.”
“HE WAS WHAT!?”
“Calm down! It’s in our possession.”
“Oh thank god… You have no idea what kind of damage that could have done.”
“No, I think I have a bit of an idea, I bet Arceus isn’t too hard to find, and having a Master Ball would make capturing him and destroying the world a joke.”
“Yeah, and if the right entity found it, they’d probably have the perfect little human turned Pokémon to use it on.”
“Wh-why would they go after me instead of a god!?”
“Because you pose more of a threat to them.”
“Oh right… I forgot I’m supposed to be some hero or something…”
“Yeah… Sorry about that… I know it can be daunting getting shoved into the role of a hero.”
“Yeah, thanks for that.”
“Look, once this is all over I’ll buy you whatever you want, ok?”
“Ok… But I’m letting you know now, I’m gonna pick something really expensive just to spite you.”
“Go ahead! That’s what I want you to do!”
“Well fine then! If you want me to do it, I’m not gonna!”
Lucario facepalmed, “You idiot…” He groaned.
“Wai- ERGH!” Joseph growled.
“Well now that that’s settled,” Christian chuckled, “How about you get your questions in so we can wrap this up.”
“Ok, first question, are you aware that the two Pokémon you sent on delivery duty are in love with each other?”
“Yup, they don’t think I am, but I am aware.”
“And that doesn’t weird you out at all?”
“No, why would it?”
“Well, I just thought it was a little awkward, given they’re your Pokémon and all.”
“I don’t really think it is, I shouldn’t be able to dictate if my Pokémon get into a relationship or not.”
“Um… Ok… Well, on a less weird note, you know about their egg, right?”
“They had an egg!? Awesome! I hope they take good care of it!”
“I’ll take that as a no… Well, I mean they’re off to a great start so far considering Razor got lost in a dungeon with it.”
“Wait, did they lose it already!?”
“No, thankfully, my first mission as part of Team Echoes was to go find Razor and escort him out of the dungeon he had wandered into.”
“Oh really? I guess I’ll arrange a reward for you next time we meet.”
“Oh yeah, that brings me to my next question, what is the point of these dream meets if you can just contact me on the watch now?”
“Gifts! We can’t give you things from your watch, but we can give you things from your dreams!”
“Why would you need to give me things? And how would that even work?”
“We can give you tools and stuff that you might need going forward so that when you wake up they show up right beside your bed.”
“Ok… But if you knew that I had you in my contacts, then why did you even bring me here tonight?”
“For a few reasons actually, the first was so you could meet Lucario, and the second was so I could give you this.”
Christian pulled a mask similar to the one he was wearing when he initially kidnap- I mean met Joseph and handed it to Joseph.
“A mask? What’s this for?”
“It’s supposed to be some stupid gift from the IDPK to show there’s no hard feeling. I wouldn’t blame you if you just destroyed it once you woke up.”
“Does it have any of the tech your mask had?”
“Nope, this one might as well be useless.”
“Then why even give it to me!?”
“That’s what we’ve been saying.” Lucario groaned, bringing his palm to his face.
“Whatever, worst comes the worst, it’ll just sit on my wall for the rest of this whole ‘experiment’.
“Alright, I think we have time for one more question. You wanna ask one, or should we just send you back early?” Christian asked.
“I’ve got one. Is your name Christian?”
“Cinder told you, didn’t she.”
“Yup, I just wanted to confirm it just in case this was all an odd coincidence,”
“Well, I can assure you it’s definitely not, and that’s probably the scariest part. I don’t like that Cinder is in harm’s way, but the IDPK won’t let me pull her out until this is all said and done. They said she could hold the key to stopping whatever’s going on in that world.”
“And as per usual, they didn’t say anything specific, right?”
“Yep, you’re starting to catch on to how things work around here.” Lucario huffed.
“Well, that’s all we’ve got time for right now, see ya!”
“Wait! What about the reward for saving Razor?”
“Oh, we’ll get it to you next time.”
“Why not just give it to me now?”
“I’ve got something planned, but it’ll take a bit of time to prepare.”
“Ok, I guess… See you next time then.”
“See ya!”
Christian pressed the button to send dream Joseph back to the real Joseph’s dreams, and the whole scene from last time played out, briefly leaving Joseph in a void.
January 23rd, 4:30 am
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s Room
Coast Continent
“And that’s basically what I just experienced.” Joseph explained to Rory.
“That’s… Strange… Are these guys ever gonna make sense?” Rory asked in response.
“Probably not.”
“Right… Well, hopefully, that reward they said they’d give you will be worth it.”
“I wouldn’t count on it, the IDPK seem to love toying with people they deem inferior to them.”
“Did you at least get to keep the mask they gave you?”
“Yup, it’s in my bag, I have a feeling it’ll come in handy at some point.”
“How could a mask come in handy?”
“In case we need to, like, hide our faces or something? I don’t know, it was just a thought.”
“What does it even look like?”
“It’s black with lightning bolts on it.”
“Cool! I bet it’d look great on your wall!”
“That’s what I was thinking too, hence why I mentioned it in my dream.”
Rory yawned, “Speaking of dreams, I think I wanna go back to bed. Hopefully, if I’m in here, I won’t have another bad dream.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I left the leaf bed under this one, so if you want to use it, you’re welcome to.”
“Alright, well, good night!”
“Good night!”
Rory crawled under Joseph’s bed and laid down on the leaf bed underneath it. Joseph meanwhile readjusted himself on his bed and prepared to drift back off into the world of dreams. After a short while, the two had fallen back to sleep.
January 23rd, 7:00 am
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s Room
Coast Continent
The two woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door, “Joseph? Joseph! Rory’s gone missing!” they cried.
Rory rolled out from under Joseph’s bed and opened the door. When she opened the door, she didn’t see anyone at first, but upon looking down, she noticed Cinder.
“Ah! There you are! What were you doing in here!?” Cinder asked.
“She had a bad dream so she asked me if she could sleep in here.” Joseph replied from across the room.
“Oh well, that sucks. I wish I could say I can relate.”
“Wait, did the nightmare stop!?”
“YUP! I’M NIGHTMARE FREE!”
“Great! Now you can actually get some sleep going forward.”
“Well, that’s assuming I can get my sleep schedule in check.”
“Oh come on!”
“I’m just kidding! I got a ton of sleep last night! I’d still be asleep right now if that weren’t the case.”
“Phew, that’s a relief!”
“I on the other hand,” A high-pitched voice said as Cinder’s bag shook, moments later Tiny popped out of her bag and finished her sentence, “got absolutely no sleep.”
“What!? Why didn’t you get any sleep!?” Joseph blurted.
“And what are you doing in my bag?” Cinder added.
“This is your bag? It’s pretty comfy in here.”
“Were you sleeping in there?”
“What? No! I don’t need sleep! I need answers!”
“Answers? What answers? And why would they be in my bag?”
“I need to know why you mortals sleep! I don’t need to sleep, so why do you?”
“Because we need to refresh our brains and last time I checked you don’t have one, no offense.” Joseph answered.
“Wha- HEY! That’s mean! I’m not stupid!”
“I’m not saying you are, I’m just saying that Meltan as a species don’t have brains in the traditional sense. Most living things have an organ in their heads called a brain. We use these brains to control our bodies. But we need to let them refresh every night, hence us sleeping.”
“Oh, ok, so it’s kinda like what my eye does. Except your brains are stupid and need to refresh, while my eye is perfect and doesn’t need to.”
“Your eye isn’t perfect, but yeah, you get the gist of it.”
“Yeah, it is! It does everything I could ever ask it to!”
“But your range of vision is narrower than the rest of ours because you only have one eye.”
“True… But the one eye I do have is still perfect!”
“That’s enough out of you!” Cinder said as she shut the bag.
Joseph and Rory laughed as they heard the muffled demands of Tiny as she begged to be let back out of the bag.
“I’m not letting you out unless you promise me you won’t eat your fork at breakfast.” Cinder said, as she desperately tried to steady her bag while Tiny shook it violently.
“OK, OK, I WON’T!” Tiny screamed from inside the bag.
Cinder opened her bag, freeing Tiny from her prison, “Good, now let’s get going.”
“But wait, if I’m not allowed to eat my fork, then what am I gonna eat?”
“We’ll figure it out when we get there, for now, let’s just go round up the others.”
Rory, Joseph, and Cinder left Joseph’s room, with Tiny hitching a ride in Cinder’s bag. They walked through the halls and assembled their teammates one by one. When it came time to get Specter, however, they noticed him sitting behind his crystal ball.
Once Specter noticed his friends had entered the room he peeked over the ball, “Hey guys, I found something weird with the crystal ball, when I stick my left paw behind it, you can’t see it when you look through it, but with my right one you can still see it.” He said.
“Uh… I’m getting a strong sense of déjà vu.” Rory said with a shudder, “I really hope this doesn’t mean what I think it does.”
“What are you talking about?” Specter asked.
“I had a nightmare last night and in that nightmare, you said the exact same thing.”
“Ok…? Why’s that a bad thing?”
“Later in that same nightmare, your left paw got cut off!”
“WHAT!?”
“That’s terrible!” Tiny blurted before ducking back into Cinder’s bag.
“I know! I could barely go back to bed after that nightmare!”
“I really hope I don’t lose this paw! It’s my main one! I can’t live without it!” Specter quavered in a panic.
“Calm down! Just because something happened in a dream doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen in reality.” Joseph explained.
“Well, what if it does!? What do we do!?”
“It’s not gonna happen! Losing limbs is very rare, you’d have to end up in some freak accident to lose your left paw!”
“Alright…” Specter sighed, “But if it does end up happening, you’re the one who’s teaching me to walk on three legs.”
“Pfft, yeah right.”
“Can we just get going? My tummy’s gonna start rumbling soon!” Cinder huffed impatiently.
“If it gets us off this topic, sure I’m down.”
The team left Specter’s room and made their way to the warp panel in the lounge, and just before Cinder’s tummy could rumble a single time…
January 23rd, 8:00 am
SurfSpark Guild – Dinning Hall
Coast Continent
The members of Team Echoes enjoyed pancakes for breakfast, well except for Tiny because she couldn’t eat them so she just sat there with her arms crossed. When they had finished eating, however, Lanturn came up to them.
“‘Sup dudes!” Lanturn greeted.
“Hey Lanturn! I finally got a good night’s sleep!” Cinder beamed.
“Really!? That’s awesome!”
“I know! I feel so alive!”
“Well, that’s great because I’ve got a job for you guys!”
“You do!? But I thought you didn’t give out jobs like that!”
“Well, you see, this is a bit of a special case.”
“Well, that much is obvious!” Specter huffed impatiently.
“Woah, dude, no need to get so feisty!”
“Get to the point, then.”
“Alright, alright, Cameron, you remember how you gave me that intel on those criminals, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, initially I was going to send Team Lovebirds to go raid their place but…” Lanturn paused for a moment and sighed, “Skarmory is in no shape to go on a raid and Corviknight is well… Y’know…”
“Yeah… I’m a little afraid that she’s gonna try to blame that on me.” Rory fretted.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, dude. If she tries making a scene or something, I’ll calm her down.”
“Phew… Thank you…”
“As I was saying, they can’t exactly raid in their current condition, so the raid’s canceled!”
“Cool, then why are you even talking about it?” Specter sassed.
“Because while I did cancel the raid, I didn’t cancel my plan B: the heist.”
“The what?”
“The heist! I’m sending your team to go steal everything those thieves have stashed away at that base of theirs while simultaneously apprehending them.”
This caught everyone off guard, “What!?” They all shouted.
“You can’t be serious!” Specter exclaimed.
“Oh, I am absolutely serious! I mean just think about it, you’re an ex-criminal so you’re already experienced with the whole infiltration thing, and you were betrayed by those crooks so robbing them would be the perfect way to get back at them!”
“But stealing is illegal!” Cinder shrieked.
“Normally, but I made a deal with the authorities, so as long as you bring back those crooks you’re fine to take whatever you want!”
“Because that’s totally a fair trade.” Joseph deadpanned.
Specter shook his head, “Tch, honestly, I’d say the pay-off is a little low considering who these crooks are, but if it means I finally get to plan the job I’m in!”
“That settles it then, Team Echoes are gonna be the ones to take down the Coin Case Gang!” Lanturn declared.
Rory was less than confident that they could take on a criminal gang, understandably, “Uh, I wouldn’t be so sur-” She faltered before Lanturn cut her off.
“I’m sure you dudes will do just fine.” He assured them, “Well, I got some stuff to attend to, I’ll catch you dudes later!” He waved before leaving the table.
Everybody except for Specter was worried about “the heist” mainly because they had no idea how to go about it, “So I’m not the only one who’s a little… At a loss, I guess? About this whole thing, right?” Joseph asked.
“Nope, I’ve never done anything like this.” Cinder confirmed.
“Good, I was just making sure…”
“Look, it’s not that hard, ok? Just go gear up in town and meet me back at the base, once there I’ll discuss our plan.”
“Ok…?”
Specter left the table and ran off toward the warp panel that led back to the base, while the rest of Team Echoes made their way to the guild’s entrance.
Once they made it to the entrance, they were stopped by Litwick, who was once again asking Cinder to pay the toll, “Flames please.” He said as he stuck his tongue out.
But before Cinder could shoot her Flamethrower at Litwick, Tiny popped out her bag, “Only if you’ve got something metal to feed me.” She countered as she wagged her nubby little arm as if it were a finger.
“Wha- who are you?”
“The name’s Tiny! Nice to make your acquaintance! If you want your flames, you gotta pay the Tiny tax.”
“That’s unfair!”
“Hey, I don’t make the rules, bud.”
Litwick looked back up at Cinder to see her smirking as if to say checkmate, then he looked back at Tiny, “Ugh, fine… Here’s an empty soda can I was going to throw away, you happy?”
“Delighted! Thanks, chump!”
Tiny ducked back into Cinder’s bag and Cinder shot a Flamethrower Litwick’s way, “Pleasure doing business with you!” Cinder chuckled.
“Whatever…” Litwick sassed as he opened the gate.
January 23rd, 8:45 am
Sunset Square
Coast Continent
Team Echoes arrived in Sunset Square after a short run and began to discuss what supplies they would need, “I have a feeling we’re gonna need a couple of Reviver Seeds this time around.” Cinder fretted.
“I mean, it couldn’t hurt.” Joseph responded, “Getting picked back up from fainting is always handy.”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” Cinder chuckled.
But before Joseph could respond, someone bumped into him from behind, knocking him onto the ground. Joseph got back up and turned around to see a Zorua who had fallen onto the ground, presumably because they had crashed into him at full speed.
“Aah! I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to crash into you like that!” The Zorua said with a stutter.
“It’s ok, you didn’t hurt me or anything.” Joseph replied.
“O-oh, good! I’d feel so bad if I hurt somebody on my first day as an explorer.” The Zorua said as she stood up and brushed the dust off of herself. The Zorua locked eyes with Joseph and noticed his green eyes, “Woah! Do all Shinx have cute green eyes like yours?” She asked.
‘Crap! This situation again?’ Joseph thought. The last time he had to explain his green eyes, he was found out, although it was because Cinder knew what human eye colors looked like, but that still didn’t mean his lie was very convincing. Regardless, he had to think of something that wouldn’t end in him getting publicly executed or something, and fast. He tried to think of something, digging through every legend and every weird little thing that could potentially result in green eyes if stretched far enough. He eventually thought of something that he thought was at least somewhat plausible and tried it out, “Well you see I was friends with a Ninetales at one point. One time she fell off a cliff and I had to pull her back up by one of her tails, but unfortunately when I grabbed her tail I was cursed. Fortunately, however, she was able to spare me from getting a terrible curse because we were friends and I saved her life, so all that happened to me was my eyes changed colors, pretty neat right?”
“Pfft, HAHAH! That’s ridiculous!” The Zorua laughed, “It was probably just some weird defect or something when you hatched.”
Joseph was simultaneously disappointed and relieved, “You’re right…” He sighed, “Nobody knows why, but I hatched with green eyes for some reason.” He explained, making absolutely sure that he fixed his error from the last time, even if his instincts wanted him to say ‘born’ instead of ‘hatched’.
“Well, it’s nice to know you’ve got a cute personality to go with those cute green eyes.” The Zorua flirted, “My name’s Malachite, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Malachite, I’m Joseph and these are my friends.” Joseph said awkwardly as he motioned toward his friends.
“Howdy Malachite! My name is Cinder!” Cinder replied.
The rest of the team introduced themselves to Malachite, Tiny even popped out of Cinder’s bag to introduce herself.
“Nice to meet all of you too!” Malachite beamed.
“You said it’s your first day as an explorer, right?” Cinder asked.
“Yup! I’m going to use my illusions to help me ward off feral Pokémon while I explore!”
“Illusions?”
“Yeah! All Zorua can create Illusions to disguise themselves like this!” Malachite said as she used an illusion to transform herself into a copy of Joseph.
“Woah! That’s so cool!”
“It’s a little strange staring yourself in the face, isn’t it Joseph?” Malachite teased, her voice having been replaced by Joseph’s due to the illusion.
“Yeah, it’s like looking into the mirror only to find that your reflection is moving on its own! It’s also a little unsettling that you were able to copy my voice, too.”
“That’s a very unique way of thinking about it… Maybe I should write a story about that… Well, for now, I’ll go back to being myself so that you can feel at ease.”
“Thanks, I would appreciate that.”
Malachite let out a chuckle before transforming again, this time however she became a copy of Cinder instead, “Just kidding!” She giggled, “I think I want to be a Cyndaquil for a bit.”
“Wh- Hey! I didn’t consent to you stealing my identity!” Cinder protested.
“Relax, I’m not gonna slander you or anything, I just wanna see what your eyes look like.” Malachite said as she pulled out a mirror from her bag.
“But I don’t know how to open my eyes, what makes you think you can do it?”
Malachite didn’t respond however, she was too busy looking at her reflection, after a few seconds of staring she managed to open her eyes, “Oooooh, pretty!” She marveled.
The entirety of Team Echoes just stared as if they were seeing something they shouldn’t have, this confused Malachite, causing her to drop her illusion.
“That felt wrong.” Joseph said uncomfortably.
“I agree, I feel like I just saw something I wasn’t meant to.” Rory added.
“Was it really that bad?” Malachite asked.
“N-no, it’s not that it looked bad or anything, it’s just odd seeing a Cyndaquil’s eyes open, that’s all.” Joseph squeaked, trying not to upset Cinder out of fear of being torched.
“Oh, I got you.”
Noticing that he hadn’t been turned into a living fireball Joseph let out a sigh, he then turned to Cinder just to make sure that she wasn’t preparing a Flamethrower or something, which she wasn’t, instead, she was still just sitting uncomfortably, Sammy noticed this and decided to snap her out of her trance, “Hello? Hellooooooo? Cinder, are you still with us?” He asked.
“Wh- y-yeah sorry I was just a little dazed that’s all.” Cinder stammered awkwardly.
“Good, I thought you were lost in a thought or something.
“No, I was just somewhat dazed by Malachite’s illusions, that’s all.”
“I get that a lot,” Malachite said with a laugh, “Especially because I like to play with the Pokémon I’m copying like that, I showed a Swinub what his eyes looked like once his reaction was somewhat similar.”
“Yeah because it’s weird when we closed eye Pokémon see our eyes open!”
“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t know…”
“It’s alright, it’s not the first time I’ve seen my eyes like that, but it still makes me uncomfortable.”
“I’ll keep that in mind next time we meet, see you around!” Malachite said as she waved goodbye.
Once she had left, all eyes fell on Joseph, “Did I do something wrong?” He asked.
“Oh, no, you were fine, she seemed to love you.” Cinder giggled.
“Yeah, I could see that… It made me feel super awkward…” Joseph admitted.
“Why did it make you feel awkward? You should be happy, a girl found you cute!” Rory exclaimed.
“Well, I would be… If It was a human, but since it wasn’t it makes me feel a little weird.”
“Oh, yeah, I should probably mention that humans are a little weirded out by the idea of falling in love with a Pokémon even if they have been transformed into one.” Cinder clarified.
“That just sounds like they’re being too picky.”
“Well, it’s more so because of differences between Pokémon and humans, humans are only meant to love other humans, whereas we Pokémon are obviously able to fall in love with anyone in our egg group.”
“Oh, I get it, yeah that does sound a little weird now…”
“Phew, good, I don’t have to talk about that any longer. I hate talking about that stuff.”
“Why? Did something happen to you or something?”
“No, it’s just that love is not something I’m comfortable talking about.”
“I’m pretty sure we’re all with you on that one.” Slippy added.
“True, but I think it makes me uncomfortable for a different reason.” Rory admitted.
“Aren’t we supposed to be getting supplies or something?” Joseph asked.
“Oh, yeah, why don’t you come with me while the others go to the department store or whatever.” Cinder suggested.
“Alright, well see you guys in a bit then I guess.” Joseph said as the team split up.
Cinder and Joseph were walking to the Kecleon shop when Cinder decided to start up a bit of idle chit-chat once again, “So were you ever in a relationship as a human?” She asked.
“What kind of question is that!?” Joseph huffed.
“I’m just curious!”
Joseph sighed but decided to humor Cinder, “No I’ve never been in a relationship, I’ve always been more of a loner, I think you guys are the first real group of friends I’ve had.”
“Oh… I’m sorry if I made you feel bad…”
“It’s alright, I’ve always been content being on my own, having friends is cool, but I wouldn’t be upset if I didn’t have any. No offense.”
“Oh, none taken, I understand completely, I’m kinda the opposite of you in that regard, I’ve always been a bit lonely, and I’ve never liked being alone because it reminds me of… A certain event…”
“So is what you told Rory a lie?”
“Well, no it’s just I had a pretty crappy childhood, my parents and all of my siblings died due to a rock slide. I was the only survivor as far as I’m aware, I even dug under the rocks afterward and all I found was blood and bodies.”
“Yikes! That’s terrible!”
“Yeah… I’ve only really told my friends about it, although Chatot pressured me into telling him.”
“That’s messed up! Why did he do that?”
“Because I told him I didn’t want to go back to the dungeon I hatched in.”
“What a jerk!”
“Don’t worry, he got what was coming to him.”
“Well, that’s good at least. What happened to him anyway?”
“Christian did his best impression of a lightning bolt and shocked him while simultaneously blowing everyone’s eardrums out.”
“Pfft, ok, that’s hilarious.”
“Yeah, I love how erratic he could be at times, even if he is a little reckless.”
“Well since you asked me, it’s only fair I get to ask you too, have you ever been in a relationship?”
“Yes, I have, I’ve been in a few, actually.”
“Oh, well, what was it like?”
“A bit strange actually… Most of my partners were a bit weird… I’ve dated, a Leafeon who was obsessed with carnivorous plants and living in overgrown caves, a Mightyena who was a total jerk to literally everyone he ever met, and a Nidorina who was just a little annoying.”
“Interesting, so you’re into girls?”
“I have no idea, I tried out dating girls after I dated that Mightyena, and I decided I don’t really have a preference.”
“Oh, that’s cool, you don’t really have to have a preference if you don’t want to.”
“Oh well, that’s good because my love life has been a bit of a mess.”
“Well, that’s to be expected, realistically you’re not gonna find the perfect one for you on your first try.”
“Yeah, I know, but I expected to at least know what I’m looking for by my third try.”
“Maybe you just need to find yourself.”
“Find myself?”
“Yeah, like find out who you really are, find out what you really want to do with your life, find out what your end goal is, that kind of stuff.”
“Maybe I’ll try that out once we deal with whatever this ‘threat’ Cloak and Razor mentioned is.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
The two wrapped up their conversation about life and love and arrived at the Kecleon shop, once they got there they noticed a Quilava having a chat with Cobalt, the blue-striped Kecleon, they stopped beside them and began to discuss what items they should buy.
“So, Cinder, what do you think we should get?”
“Whatever you can afford.”
“I don’t know if I can afford anything, given the fact that I didn’t get any Poké from our job yesterday.”
“Did you find any in the dungeon?”
“I don’t think so? I’ll check just to be sure.” Joseph said as he opened his bag and looked inside, at the top of his bag there was a note, “Wh- what’s this doing in here?” He asked.
“What is it?”
“It’s a note… Oh, there’s Poké attached to it!”
“Cool! You should probably read the note before taking the Poké though.”
Joseph began to read the note
Hey kid, it’s me, Razor!
I found this stuff in that dungeon and I don’t really know what it is so I figured I’d give it to you. You’re probably wondering, “Why are you giving it to me if you don’t even know what it is?” and to that I say I figured you would probably know what it is, or if not, Cinder would definitely know what it is. Regardless, I figured it’d be of more use to you than to me, so enjoy!
See ya!
Razor
P.s.
If whatever he just gave you explodes, don’t say I didn’t tell him so.
Cloak
“Pfft weirdos.” Cinder ribbed, “Whatever, I guess you did end up getting Poké from that job yesterday after all.”
Joseph counted the Poké, “That’s 5000 Poké.”
“That’s almost as much as Sammy got yesterday.” Cinder teased.
“I don’t care, as long as I’m not totally broke, I’m good.”
Joseph bought two Reviver Seeds, two apples, two Max Elixirs, and a Slumber Orb before he decided they were good on supplies.
“That should be good, if not, though, the others should have enough stuff to share.” Joseph said, “You ready to leave Cinder?”
“I’m ready if you are!” Cinder replied.
But before the two could leave, the Quilava that was next to them spoke, “Could you two hold up a sec?” He asked.
“Oh, sure, what for?” Cinder asked in response.
The Quilava turned to face Cinder, “I swear I know you from somewhere, but I can’t pinpoint where. He said, “First your name sounded familiar, then your voice, and now you even look familiar!”
“That’s… Strange…” Cinder said, completely oblivious that she had seen this play out already.
The Quilava thought for a moment before realizing who he was staring at, “WAIT, CINDER! I’VE MISSED YOU!” He said as he snatched her up into a hug.
“Waaah! Who are you!? I don’t know you!” Cinder squealed.
The Quilava let go of Cinder, and she got a good look at him, he had scars all over his face and the color in his left eye was faded. The Quilava was tearing up, “You don’t remember me?” He asked.
“No, I don’t! I’ve never met a Quilava in my life, especially not one with wicked scars all over his face!”
“I know you haven’t! You met me before all this happened!”
“What’s that supposed to mean!?”
“We met when we were kids! Remember?”
“I don’t think my parents would’ve let someone like you within a 30-mile radius of me.”
“They had to! They were my parents too!”
“Excuse me? My parents died in a rock slide along with all my siblings, I even tried digging them out afterward they’re gone!”
“Not all of your siblings, I’m still alive, and I’ve been looking for you all these years!”
“Wait, you’re one of my siblings!?”
“Yup, it’s me, Vulcan! I’m alive!”
“Wait, I remember now! Vulcan! I missed you!” Cinder said as she returned Vulcan’s abrupt hug from earlier.
“So Specter’s crystal ball vision was correct!” Joseph marveled.
“The what?” Vulcan asked.
“Oh yeah, one of my friends used a crystal ball to tell my fortune, I didn’t know it until now, but he foretold that we would meet here, although since I didn’t recognize you and the vision ended abruptly I thought something bad was gonna happen.”
“That’s sick! You gotta get him to mine next!”
“When we have some free time, I’ll ask him to read your fortune, but right now we’re in the middle of something.”
“In the middle of something? Whatcha got going on sis?”
“We’re supposed to be raiding some criminal base or something for the guild.”
“There’s a guild here too?”
“Yup, it’s run by Lanturn: the world’s most chill explorer. Wait, I just noticed, HOW DID YOU GET HERE!?”
“It’s a long story, but the short version is I was pushed into some weird space-time rift thingie by some birdbrain from Wigglytuff’s guild.”
“Ugh! I wish I didn’t know who you were talking about.”
“Well, on the plus side, we don’t have to see them ever again, so there’s that, I guess.”
“But think of all the Pokémon you do want to see again!”
“I am, she’s right in front of me.”
“Aw… Come here!”
Cinder and Vulcan started hugging again, they kept hugging for a few minutes, but could you really blame them? Cinder thought that Vulcan was dead all this time, only to find out that he was still out there, and he managed to make his way to her even in spite of the fact that she had been dimensionally displaced, and Vulcan was able to finally conclude his never-ending search for his family even if what was left of his family was small, so the long hug was entirely necessary.
Watching them hug made Joseph all warm and fuzzy on the inside, he was happy that things were finally going Cinder’s way. After staring and smiling for a bit, Joseph looked to his side and noticed Rory standing next to him, “Oh hi, uh when did you get here?” He asked.
“Just a second ago.” She answered, “How long were we in the department store for? 10 years?”
“Eh, it was more like 30 minutes, but as you can see, a lot can happen in 30 minutes.”
“I see… Who’s the Quilava hugging Cinder?”
Cinder and Vulcan broke their hug to answer Rory’s question, “He’s my long-lost brother! I thought he was dead, but here he is!” Cinder chirped.
Rory got a good look at Vulcan’s face, noticing the massive amount of scars and the desaturated eye, “Ooh, you sure he’s not dead?” Rory winced.
“Wh- Hey! That’s not cool!” Cinder shot back.
“No, it’s ok, I understand,” Vulcan replied, “I was seriously messed up in that rock slide, I’m lucky to even be alive.”
“Huh? Rock slide?”
“Our parents and our other siblings were killed in a rock slide, it almost got me too, but my dad sacrificed himself to shield me from the rocks.”
“Woah! I-I’m sorry to hear that…”
“It’s fine, it’s been 20 years since then, and the wound’s already healed.”
“Speak for yourself! Do you have any idea how many times over the last 20 I’ve wished Mom and Dad were still around!?” Cinder chided.
“Oh! I’m so sorry, I wish I could’ve been there for you!” Vulcan apologized.
“It’s fine… I managed…”
“You don’t sound like you managed very well, though!”
“But I managed nonetheless.”
“Oh my Arceus I’m so sorry, if I had known where you were I would’ve gotten to you sooner, it’s just I had this injury and I needed to be nursed back to health and by the time I was nursed back to health I thought you were dead, and it was only when I heard some explorers say something about a Cyndaquil named Cinder that I decided to give finding you one last shot and-“
“Calm down! It’s ok, I’m not mad that you weren’t there for me, I understand your situation, you don’t have to apologize. Besides, I made some friends during that time, unfortunately, we were separated when I was taken here but Joseph’s been able to contact them with his dreams!”
“Uh, yeah, about that,” Joseph interjected, “I have them on my watch’s contacts now, they said they’d only be using my dreams to give me stuff.”
“Oh, wait, how does that work?”
“It just does,” Joseph sighed, “they didn’t explain how it worked.”
“Well, can we share contacts? I would LOVE to catch them up on what’s happened since this whole thing started.”
“Sure… How do we do that?”
Cinder walked up to Joseph and tapped his watch with hers, both watches vibrated, and a checkmark appeared on their screens, “Done!” Cinder chirped.
“Cool…?”
“Alright, I think we’ve kept Cameron waiting long enough, let’s get going.”
“He likes to be called Specter.”
“Wasn’t that his code name or whatever when he was a criminal?”
“He wanted it to be because the others would make fun of his name for being girly.”
“Ah, I see… Well, I’ll tell you what, if we actually pull this thing off, I’ll start calling him that, at that point, he’s earned it.”
“Alright, let’s go report back to him then.”
January 23rd, 9:45 am
Team Echoes’ Base – Specter’s Room
Coast Continent
The team (and Vulcan) entered Specter’s room to find Specter staring at his left paw through his crystal ball again, “Seriously, why isn’t it visible?” He asked himself before noticing the group, “Ah, there you are! I was getting a little tired of waiting on you- Ah Cinder, It’s the Quilava from the vision!”
“I know! The vision came true, the reason he moved so quickly was that he was hugging me!” Cinder explained.
“Hugging you? Why would he be hugging you?”
“Because I’m her brother! We met back up after 20 years!” Vulcan explained.
“You are!? Then why have you been separated for 20 years? And what’s with the scars?”
“Our family died in a rock slide, Cinder was lucky and made it out unscathed, on the other hand, I was shielded by our father who died protecting me, I still got all beat up though…”
“Oh… That’s not great… Well, at least you’re alive…”
“Well, there’s that… I still miss being able to use my left eye though…”
“I thought you said you were over it!” Cinder shouted as she flared up her quills.
“I said I was over our parent’s death, I didn’t say I was over my eye! I will never get over the fact I’m half-blind now!” Vulcan shouted back as he too flared up his quills
“Settle down! There’s no need to get feisty!”
The two laughed at each other, “It’s nice to see nothing’s changed even after 20 years.”
“You two were always like this?”
“Yeah, usually if we get really angry it’s either because we’re playing or we’re looking at a certain birdbrain.”
“Wait, you both hate Chatot?” Rory asked.
“Yeah, I met up with him one day to ask about my sister’s whereabouts, but he just bad-mouthed her the whole time so I asked someone else instead, but he insisted he would help me, then he ended up pushing me into some weird rift thingie and I ended up here.”
Rory sighed, “Why doesn’t that surprise me…” She said as she facepalmed.
“Well on the bright side, I got what I wanted, I met back up with Cinder after 20 years of being unable to do so.”
“Speaking of that, you said you were nursed back to health?” Cinder asked.
“Yeah, I struggled to get out of the wreckage, but once I did, I found someone who was able to mostly fix the damage I had sustained, albeit very slowly.”
“You still look like a war veteran, though, no offense.” Specter responded.
“Well, you still look like a delinquent despite you being an ex-criminal so I think we’re good to call it even.”
“Fair, speaking of criminals, we should really get back to the point, I’ve got a plan constructed, but it requires a bit of an explanation.”
“Ok, then get explaining.” Joseph huffed as he continued to grow impatient, and who could blame him? We’re like 8000 words into this and- Uh I mean L-let’s just get back to the point.
“Ok, so basically if we send a big group in they’re gonna get suspicious so I decided we’re only gonna send 4 Pokémon so don’t do anything reckless because they outnumber you by a lot.”
“How much is a lot?” Sammy asked.
“I think there were like 12 of them? Not counting me, of course.”
“Dang, I only have 6 Sleep Seeds.”
“I have a Slumber Orb so we’ll be fine, we’ll use the seeds for when there are crooks in other rooms.” Joseph elaborated.
“Ok, I think we’ll be fine then.”
“I have a question, how are we gonna get in?” Slippy asked.
“Well, you’re gonna be staying here with me, I don’t want you getting hurt or anything.”
“Oh, but it’s fine if we get hurt.” Joseph deadpanned.
“I’m not saying that it’s just Slippy’s a little too innocent to be taking down criminal gangs, besides it would have messed up part of my plan.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, I kinda had Lanturn put fake bounties on all of your heads.”
“You what!?” Rory blurted.
“Relax, like I said they’re fake and if anyone tries to turn you in, Lanturn said he’d just pay you guys for the bounty.”
“But why did he do it?”
“Because I asked him to, you see if you wanna blend in with criminals you gotta seem like criminals, and given the fact that the 4 of you just kinda showed up out of nowhere, it’s pretty easy to just put a bounty on your head and claim that you’re criminals”
“Dang, you gotta hand it to him, that’s pretty clever.” Cinder applauded.
“I told you this wasn’t gonna be too hard, criminals come in two breeds: stupid idiots, and masterminds, I’m in that second category. “
“Wow, that’s a bit of a bold assumption, especially considering you ended up getting caught because of a dumb plan.” Rory sassed.
“A dumb plan that wasn’t mine, I didn’t make it, and it was entirely designed to get rid of me.”
“Oh right, I forgot…”
“The next part of the plan is very simple, dumb criminals see high bounty numbers and allow you to join their gang, that’s how you get in, they let you in unknowingly!”
“But wouldn’t they recognize that we’re just a bunch of simpletons? I mean, none of us really look like bad Pokémon.” Sammy fretted.
“Well, that all changes the second you pull that scarf up to your face, wear your scarf as a bandana, and hide your face, that way to the unaware it looks like you have something to hide… well other than your face anyway.”
“I think I have a better idea for myself, actually.” Joseph pointed out.
“You do?”
Joseph pulled out the mask that he was given in his dream and put it on, “I got this baby straight from the IDPK creeps, they said it was a gift to show there was nothing personal between us or something, and while I think the message is a bit hollow I’ve gotta admit that this thing is pretty intimidating.”
“That thing’s perfect! I would have loved something like that if I was still a criminal!”
“Well, maybe I’ll ask if they can make you one or something.”
“I would love that! Just tell them to make it have pink swirls on it instead of lightning bolts, I don’t want people getting the wrong idea about what I’m gonna evolve into.”
“I’ll be sure to do that when I get the chance.”
“Thanks.”
“I have another question.” Sammy said, “Why aren’t you going on this mission?”
“I literally can’t without blowing this whole thing sky-high, they know my voice so they’d be able to tell something was up the moment I opened my mouth.”
“Oh, I gotcha.”
“So once we get there, what should we do?” Joseph asked.
“Well first things first, make your intentions known, when you show up at their base tell them you want to join their gang. From there, you wanna work on getting all of them out of there, so start putting them to sleep and put them outside, the authorities will be waiting outside to collect them so don’t worry about them waking up or anything.”
“Phew, I was worried we would have to worry about that…” Sammy sighed, “So this should be pretty easy then, right? We shouldn’t have to fight anyone, right?”
“Well… No, you will need to fight their boss because he has Insomnia for his ability, but don’t worry, he shouldn’t be too tough for the 4 of you to deal with.”
“Well, that kinda depends on what species their boss is.” Joseph pointed out.
“Oh, their boss is a Scovillain, he’s constantly fighting with himself, so even if he’s a genuine threat he’ll be too distracted to beat you.”
“That’s not the best match-up, though…” Joseph fretted.
“What even is a Scovillain?” Cinder asked, “I’ve never heard of that Pokémon before.”
“It’s a fire-grass type Pokémon with two heads, I think we should flesh out this part of the plan a bit more.”
“Eh, I got a Violent Seed while we were shopping, I think we’ll be fine.” Rory confidently stated.
“Actually, I think I have an idea, Rory, did you use that TM for Tera Blast yet?”
“No, why?”
“Now would probably be a good time to learn it.”
“Why can’t you just learn it? Why do I have to be the one to do it?”
“Because, of the thing that Slippy mentioned about the TM changing color, I think the move changes type based on what Tera Scarf the user is wearing.”
“How would purple help then?”
“Because it could make it poison type, which would give us an edge against Scovillain.”
“Oh, I see what you’re saying.”
“Wait, is that seriously it? That’s seriously all Tera Blast is? Then why were you guys hyping it up so much?” Cinder asked.
“You’ll see.” Joseph answered.
“Ugh! Why do you keep saying that!? Just tell me dang it!”
“Because it’s quite the sight to behold, to say the least.”
“Wait, Joseph, you know what the Tera Scarves and Tera Blast do?” Rory asked.
“I have a vague idea based on what I know from the games I played back home, but I can’t say for certain because this isn’t a game.”
“Oh, I see what you’re saying, that’s pretty smart actually, I mean could you imagine if you just assumed that everything here worked like it did in fiction? That would be super annoying.”
“I agree, I mean, how embarrassing would it be if I just ran in and expected things to work instead of actually testing things out first?”
“Oh, that would be so embarrassing, not to mention you’d probably make everyone around you hate you.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking, so that’s why I’ve been trying to think things through instead of pretending I know everything.”
“You know you could just ask me about anything you’re unsure about, right?” Cinder asked
“I mean, I could, but you wouldn’t have an answer for every question I have, given the fact that not even you know what Tera Blast does.”
“Fair point.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll use that Tera Blast TM then so we can test your theory.” Rory said as she pulled the TM out of her bag, “How do I use this thing?”
“Just take it out of the case and slap it on your forehead.” Joseph answered, winking at Cinder afterward.
“Why’d you just wink at Cinder?”
“Because I borrowed her explanation, I thought it was funny.”
“Oh, good, you had me worried there.” Rory slapped the TM onto her forehead as instructed and learned Tera Blast, “Ok, I know the move now!”
“Cool! I think we should be ready to go now!”
“Actually, I would like to add something to the plan.” Cinder said.
“What is it?” Specter asked.
“Can I bring Tiny as long as she stays in my bag?”
“Sure? I don’t know why you’d want to, though…”
“Ah, I get it, you want to try the shiny object trick, don’t you?” Joseph asked.
“Yep! I mean, thieves are inherently attracted to shiny objects, so having Tiny’s head to use as a shiny object would be a smart idea.”
Tiny popped out of the bag, “I’m fine with this idea as long as my head gets returned to me afterward.” Tiny said, “If it doesn’t however, I’m gonna eat all the Poké in your bank account, got it Cinder?”
“Ok! We’ll make sure we get it back to you! Just calm down with your threats!”
Specter cleared his throat, “Alright now that that’s all settled,” He said, “I’ve marked the location of the base on your watch’s map app, I’ll be in contact with you when you get there so if anything unexpected happens we can plan accordingly.”
“Alright… Let’s get going then…” Cinder said hesitantly as she pulled her Tera Scarf up to her face, the others followed suit except for Joseph who put his mask on before they all set out for the Coin Case Gang’s base.
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: Coin Case Gang’s Base
The faux criminals walked up to the place Specter had marked on their maps, once they had arrived at their destination they looked around the outside. The base was inside a hidden cave of sorts, with a guard stationed outside. The guard was a weak-looking Poochyena who was probably chosen for the job because it would make him a literal guard dog.
The quartet walked up to him and introduced themselves, “‘Sup dude.” Rory said.
“State your purpose, mutt!” The Poochyena barked in response
Rory made sure to get in character before she continued with the plan, “MUTT!? SHOW ME SOME RESPECT! I’M THE RIOLU THAT’S ON THE WANTED POSTERS ALL AROUND THIS STAIN OF A TOWN!” She roared back.
“WELL, THAT DOESN’T TELL ME WHAT YOUR PURPOSE IS!”
“ARE YOU FREAKING STUPID!? JUST THINK FOR A MOMENT, WHY WOULD A CRIMINAL BE APPROACHING A CRIMINAL GANG’S BASE!?”
“Uh, to join them?”
“Exactly! You’d have to be stupid to not know that!”
“Understood… You may enter…” The Poochyena said dejectedly.
Team Echoes passed the guard and entered the base without being called out surprisingly. The inside of the base was almost like its own Mystery Dungeon, with enemy Pokémon everywhere, items sprawled across the floor, and its unknown nature. Speaking of enemy Pokémon, there were a TON of crooks just sitting around doing whatever criminals do when they’re not robbing people and destroying stuff.
“Now would be a great time to use that Slumber Orb.” Sammy whispered to Joseph.
“No, it wouldn’t because we’d end up blowing our cover, we need to wait until we’ve introduced ourselves before we start getting to work.” Joseph whispered back.
“Oh, I got ya.”
Sammy turned away from Joseph and immediately noticed a Rattata with black fur right up in his face, “Uh, can I help you?” Sammy asked.
“You’re that Oshawott from that wanted poster right?” The Rattata questioned.
“Yup, that’s me.”
The Rattata turned around and shouted to the other gang members, “PAY UP! THEY’RE HERE!”
The rest of the gang looked over at the Rattata and groaned, as he went to collect his winnings.
Sammy looked back at Joseph and whispered to him once again, “What’s going on?” He asked.
“That guy must’ve made a bet that we’d be here.” Joseph answered.
Cinder joined their little huddle and whispered, “That means they expected us to come here, that could be bad.”
“Actually, if they don’t know our true purpose, it’ll be easier to join the gang since they’ll have made all necessary preparations.”
“Oh, good point.”
The huddle broke, and Team Echoes was approached by a Zorua, “So, you’re here to join, huh?” He asked them.
Sammy went to answer, but Rory stopped him, answering herself, “Why else would we be here? Did you catch the stupid from the guard you got outside or somethin’?” She sassed.
“Just testin’ you, can’t have any crybabies like my sister Malachite joining us.”
‘Oh boy, I’m gonna feel horrible about this next part…’ Rory thought before she continued her act, “That whiney brat’s your sister!? Arceus I’d wanna off myself!”
“I know right!? She’s so annoying! I wish someone would just trick her into walking off a cliff or something, I mean, she’s gullible enough to fall for something like that after all!”
Team Echoes sat and watched as Malachite’s brother bad-mouthed his sister relentlessly for about a minute, while this was going on Rory whispered to her teammates, “So we all agree that before we turn this guy in we’re going to beat him until he can’t walk right?”
“Yeah.” everyone replied.
“Good, I’m just making sure we’re all on the same page.”
“She was so sweet though, why does he hate her so much?” Cinder asked.
“Probably because he’s a bad Pokémon who does bad things and then wonders why nobody likes him afterward.” Joseph answered.
“Good point… Well, at least we get the opportunity to punish him.”
Malachite’s brother finally stopped blabbing about how much he hated his sister and asked the faux criminals, “You wanna go meet the boss so he can get you all set up?”
“Well, I did, but then you started blabbing on,” Rory said before yawning, “I think I might fall asleep now…”
“W-wait n-no, don’t fall asleep! Just follow me!”
The Zorua pushed Rory into the boss’s room, and the rest of the team followed. As mentioned earlier, the boss was a Scovillain, a plant-like Pokémon with two heads and what looks like an oversized pair of plant jeans for its oversized pair of plant legs. The boss looked at the quartet with both of his heads and scowled, “Let me guess you’re here to join the Coin Case Gang?” He asked.
“Finally, someone who isn’t brain-dead, yes we’re here to join!” Rory stormed.
“I apologize for the stupidity of my underlings, having to put up with them is an insult to your intelligence.” The boss (Bosses? Eh, I think they still count as one entity.) said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
“Darn right! How do you get anything done when you’re surrounded by a circus!?”
“I only keep those fools around because they’re unable to challenge my authority, after all, what good are underlings if they’re constantly challenging your authority?”
“They’re no good at all!”
“Exactly! That’s why I had to get rid of that pretty little princess from that fairy tale, little runt kept challenging my authority, he- Er- she even had the smarts to back it up, I had to get rid of her before she ended up taking down my whole operation here.”
Team Echoes were all thinking the same thing when the boss said that last bit, ‘Oh, the irony.’
“Anyway, enough about that crap, welcome to the gang!” The boss resounded.
“I’ll take you to your room.” The Zorua from earlier said.
The Zorua took the team back out to the room near the entrance, which seemed to be a living room or a lounge of some sort, “This is your room.” The Zorua informed them, “You either fight for somewhere to sleep or you sleep on the floor. Only the higher-ups get their own rooms.”
“Just how I like it.” Rory said jokingly.
“I think you’re the first one to say that, everyone else usually complains.”
“Well, yeah, because they’re weak.”
“Fair,” The Zorua chuckled, “Well, that’s about all I really need to show you, you’re on your own from here on out.”
The Zorua walked away, leaving Team Echoes to begin their plotting, “Ok, so the ‘higher-ups’ rooms are probably in the hall over there,” Cinder thought, “so what I think we should do is clear this room out and make our way through their rooms.”
“But what about the guard outside?” Sammy asked.
“Honestly, he seems stupid enough to believe anything you tell him, so just tell him that one of your Sleep Seeds is an Eyedrop Seed and that it’ll help him be a better guard.” Rory ordered.
“On it.” Sammy said as he left the base.
Meanwhile, Joseph pulled out the Slumber Orb, “How do I use this thing?” He asked.
“For that one, you want to hold it to your chest and channel its energy.” Cinder explained
“Can you explain how I ‘channel its energy?'”
“You’ll know once you start holding it up to your chest.”
Joseph sat upright and held the orb up to his chest as instructed, once he did this he could feel tremendous power radiating from it, the power felt like it was flowing into his soul, he didn’t know how, but he just kinda knew what to do next, the next thing he knew the room was filled with a faint purple mist, causing all the crooks to pass out and collapse.
“Huh, neat.” Joseph said nonchalantly.
“Well, let’s get to rounding them up.”
The trio each grabbed an unconscious Pokémon and dragged them outside, once outside they watched as the Poochyena ate the Sleep Seed and fell flat on his face comically, Rory grabbed him by the tail and started dragging him as well.
Sammy was standing behind a tree nearby to collect the Poochyena, but since Rory had already done that, he just joined back up with the group, “So where are the authorities?” he asked.
“I have no clue…” Rory answered.
“Yeah me neither.” A voice said.
“Huh!? W-who goes there?” Cinder quavered.
Purple flames began to appear in front of Cinder, and slowly the figure of a Pokémon became visible, the Pokémon turned out to be Chandelure, “Boo.” Chandelure said as she popped into view.
“EEP!” Cinder squealed.
Rory facepalmed, “You were really scared by that?” She groaned.
“Y-yeah, I’m not very fond of ghosts!”
“Oh, is that so?” Cinder heard from behind her.
She turned around to see a tiny Pumpkaboo, “EEEEEEEP!” She screamed as spirits formed around her.
“Hypocrite.” The Pumpkaboo huffed.
“Hypocrite, what do you mean hypocrite!? I’m not a ghost!” Cinder quavered.
“Uh, Cinder, I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” Joseph said.
“What do you mean by tha-” Cinder cut off as she looked at her body, or should I say through her body because she had become transparent, “WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?” Cinder squealed.
“Relax, it’s only temporary.” The Pumpkaboo assured her.
“Temporary!? YOU JUST KILLED ME HOW IS THAT TEMPORARY!?”
Chandelure scolded the Pumpkaboo, “Spice! What did I tell you about using Trick-or-Treat on other Pokémon!?”
“Sorry, Chandelure…” Spice sighed.
“I’m so sorry about this Cinder, I thought she was done doing that to Pokémon.” Chandelure apologized.
“Nope! As long as Pokémon are still afraid of ghosts, I’m going to turn them into ghosts!” Spice declared triumphantly.
“Could you at least let them object!? I’m sure they would love to have the option to say no!” Cinder whimpered as she shivered in fear.
“Nope! It’s more fun this way!”
“Don’t worry, like she said it’s only temporary, you’ll be back to normal eventually.”
“What do you mean eventually!?”
“She’ll turn you back when she’s done toying with you…” Chandelure groaned, “I apologize in advance.”
“Oh boy…”
Spice grabbed Cinder’s hand with her mouth and pulled her into the ground, “Waaah! What are you doing!?” Cinder squeaked as she was pulled underground.
“I’m showing you that you can phase through stuff!” Spice chirped back, “It’s super fun!”
Spice pulled Cinder in and out of the ground a few times before pulling her through the trees and even through Rory at one point, sending a chill down her spine. She finally stopped pulling Cinder around a few moments later, “Since you’re a ghost now, I can do this!” Spice bubbled before puckering up to kiss Cinder, as she leaned in however Cinder slapped her as hard as she could across the face sending her flying.
“You ARE NOT kissing me! I WILL NOT be having that, thank you!” Cinder asserted.
“I deserve that…” Spice groaned as she lay on the ground.
Cinder’s body became fully opaque again as Spice got up off the ground and shook off the pain from Cinder’s ‘kiss’, “Ah, great, I’m back to normal now!” Cinder exulted.
“So, how did being a ghost feel?” Rory asked.
“Uh, I feel kind of embarrassed saying this, but I actually really liked it. I didn’t have to worry about the restraints of my physical form, instead, I could just freely zip through things as I pleased.”
“Oh, well, that’s cool, did it feel weird when you phased through things?”
“Not really? It messed with my head a little, but it felt natural flying through stuff like that, although feeling weightless felt extremely weird, and I felt chilly the whole time, which is strange because normally I can’t feel chilly like that unless I’m literally coated in ice.”
“You can’t!? How does that work?”
“I don’t know, I think it has something to do with the fact that my body stores flames somewhere, but I’m not sure.”
“Well speaking of feeling chilly,” Rory said with a shiver, “You two flew straight through me while you were flying around, you think you could warm me up again so we can get back to the job?”
“Sure! Just stand close to me and I’ll flare up my quills!”
Rory stood close to Cinder as she flared up her quills, however when she did so her flames were purple instead of their normal red-orange, “Uh, Cinder, I think there’s something wrong with your flames.” Rory said.
“What!? What happened to them!?”
“They’re purple!”
“WHAT!?” Cinder blurted as she turned her head so that she could get a glimpse of her flames, “OH MY ARCEUS THEY ARE!”
“How did they become purple, though?”
“I think it might be a lingering effect of her becoming a ghost.” Joseph suggested, “It’ll probably wear off in a little bit.”
“I hope it is! Purple is NOT my color!” Cinder protested.
“Well, that scarf you’ve got kinda suggests otherwise.” Chandelure teased.
“Well, I didn’t choose the color of the scarf!” Cinder huffed.
“That’s what they all say.”
“Why are you even here anyway?”
“Oh because my squad of ghosts and I are here to collect the crooks for arrest.”
“Oh, ok, then I guess we should really get back to that before all those crooks in the main room wake up.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
Team Echoes emptied the main room and gave all the crooks to Chandelure and Spice before Sammy stopped to ask why they were handling this, “Why do you guys handle the criminals?”
“Oh, because it’s easy to keep them from escaping when you don’t have to abide by the restraints of a physical form.”
“I guess so, I mean, you can just phase through the walls to go grab them.”
“But what do you do with the nastier ones?” Joseph asked, “Is there like solitary confinement or something?”
“Nope, at that point we just use a Transfer Orb on them, can’t escape if you’re stuck as a Froakie.”
“Yikes! Remind me never to step out of line!” Sammy squealed.
“Agreed, I can barely even function as a Shinx I don’t really want to relearn walking and stuff as a Froakie.” Joseph squeaked.
“Be thankful I’m not a mischievous little ghost like Spice is then, I would’ve probably transformed everyone in the guild at least once by now… I imagine if I did that Delphox would’ve dumped me a long time ago…” Chandelure sighed.
“Let me guess Delphox is the only one who can undo the effects of the orb.”
“Yup, and he doesn’t like casting that spell very often so you can imagine he’d be thrilled to have to do it over and over and over, and you get the point.”
“Ok, that should be the last of them from the main room!” Rory called out as she dragged a Scrafty out of the base by his tail.
Joseph was astonished, “That guy looked heavy! Aren’t you exhausted from that!?” He blurted.
“Nah, that was nothing, I’ve lifted heavier stuff in my sleep.”
“You’re not being serious, are you?”
“I am, I lifted a boulder that was twice my size once while I was sleeping.”
“That sounds dangerous!”
“It was! And it was AWESOME!”
“Were you scared at all!?”
“Not really!”
“Of course…” Joseph sighed before a Duskull appeared in front of him.
“Hey! You two! Quit gawking and get back to the job!” The Duskull barked.
Rory rolled her eyes, “Pfft, ok, boss.” She said.
The two regrouped with their teammates before the Duskull could respond, when they regrouped Cinder was feeding Tiny some of the metal objects she took from the crooks, “Here you go buddy!” She said with a smile.
“Yay! Tasty metal!” Tiny bubbled.
Sammy noticed the objects Cinder was feeding Tiny looked like badges and decided to ask about them, “What are those things? Badges?”
“Yes, actually they are, the gang seems to use these badges to identify their members.” Cinder answered.
“Why didn’t we get any then?”
“Uh… I… Don’t know actually…”
“Crap! It’s probably because the boss was expecting something like this!” Joseph shouted.
“Or he just forgot or something…” Rory said as she rolled her eyes again.
“That sounds very unlikely, an organized criminal boss forgetting part of what makes his gang organized? Fat chance.”
“Well, maybe he ran out or something? I don’t know, he can’t already know what we’re up to, otherwise, why would Lanturn send us here?”
“I don’t know…”
“I just asked Specter about it, he just said we only get badges after we’ve proven we’re not trying to do what we’re doing right now.” Cinder said as she pointed at her watch, showing everybody the text from Specter.
“Huh, so he doesn’t know, but he’s ready for us anyway, not the worst but not the best either.” Joseph sighed.
“Well, he’s about to know, idiots!” a Sneasel shouted from around the corner. The Sneasel disappeared and reappeared next to Rory, “It’s a shame too, you were so close to pulling this thing off.” He taunted.
The Sneasel disappeared again, but before it could go anywhere, Cinder intercepted it by shooting a Flamethrower in between Rory and Sammy, causing them both to jump back. When Cinder finished her attack, the Sneasel was out cold on the floor.
“Well, I guess I just saved us a Sleep Seed!” Cinder exulted.
“That was… Way too close…” Joseph sighed.
But just when the team thought they were in the clear, “HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” A voice shouted from the hall.
The team spun around to see where the shout came from, the source of the shouting was a Meowth with a shiny gold coin on its head, the perfect candidate for the shiny object trick! Cinder noticed this opportunity and took Tiny’s head out of the bag and threw it as the Meowth ran down the hall toward them, the Meowth fell for it hook, line, and sinker! Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sammy snuck up on the Meowth and shoved a Sleep Seed in its mouth, putting the cat to bed.
“Hey, Joseph?” Rory asked.
“Yeah?”
“Could you like tape your mouth shut? Please? It would help us out a lot.”
Joseph sighed but ultimately said, “Fair enough, I’ll shut up now.”
The team continued into the halls and one by one they put all the higher-level crooks to bed and dragged them outside, now only the boss remained, you know what that means! It’s boss time!
Team Echoes entered Scovillain’s room to see him sitting behind a giant chest counting coins, they approached him and made their intentions clear, “SURPRISE! We’re actually here to take you down!” Cinder shouted triumphantly.
Scovillain shook his heads and sighed, “That’s a shame… I was even thinking of giving you your badges early too… Oh well, let’s see if you can handle the heat!”
Scovillain shot a Flamethrower at Team Echoes, narrowly missing the group, in response Cinder shot a Fire Blast back at him also missing… Thankfully, Rory managed to land a Vacuum Wave, which barely even left a scratch on Scovillain.
“Heh, is that all you got, cutie pie?”
Rory rolled her eyes at that half-baked attempt at an insult and responded by throwing a Blast Seed at Scovillain’s chest, it hit its mark and blew up, knocking him off his feet.
“For future reference, that pick-up line was horrible.” Rory quipped, “But in case you missed the memo, I’m NOT interested in you.”
“I figured that much…”
Scovillain got back to his feet and shot a ball of Spicy Extract at Rory, who dodged it with a well-timed roll.
“HEY! You’re not supposed to dodge that move!”
“Well, I did, you gonna cry about it or something?”
“Grrr!”
Scovillain was preparing to attack Rory again, but he was hit by a Water Gun from Sammy. Sammy’s Water Gun allowed Joseph to get in close and use Secret Power, which became Needle Arm, and as the name implies needles sprouted from Joseph’s “arm”, he slammed his right foreleg into Scovillain knocking him back a bit.
“GRRR, I’LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT YOU LITTLE RUNT!” Scovillain growled.
“Leave it on my tab, I left my wallet at home.” Joseph quipped.
Scovillain was fuming at this point, this fight was way too one-sided for someone of his caliber, he thought, but then he had a plan, ‘That Oshawott wouldn’t fair too well against my Solar Beam, maybe if I take him out first the rest will follow.’
Scovillain began charging his Solar Beam, but instead of aiming it at Sammy, he aimed it at Cinder, he planned to fake them out, so Sammy would be left defenseless against it.
“Watch out! He’s charging a Solar Beam!” Cinder called out.
“Yeah, I see that!” Joseph responded, “Everyone spread out! If we’re too close together, he’ll hit more than one of us!”
Rory thought about listening to Joseph, but then she realized what was going on, ‘Why would he aim for Cinder? WAIT! CRAP IT’S BAIT! HE’S TRYING TO FAKE US OUT AND TAKE OUT SAMMY!’
Rory ran over to Sammy instead of listening to Joseph, “What are you doing!?” Sammy asked.
But before Rory could answer, Scovillain turned to Sammy and fired his Solar Beam, Rory jumped in front of Sammy and took the brunt of the attack, but strangely it didn’t hurt her at all. As Rory opened her eyes, she was immediately greeted by a blinding light, she tried to move away, but she couldn’t, it was like something had a hold of her. A few moments later, the light died out, and she heard what sounded like crystals breaking, she looked around in confusion and realized all eyes were on her, “Uh, why are you all staring at me like that?” She asked.
Cinder walked over to Rory and pulled out a mirror so that Rory could get a good look at herself, her entire body was coated in a thin layer of purple crystals, and she had a really goofy-looking crystal crown on her head, on the crown there was a bigger crystal that was shaped like a skull and cross bones.
“WHAT THE-” She blurted, “WHAT IS THAT!?”
“I’LL EXPLAIN LATER, JUST FINISH THIS WITH A TERA BLAST!” Joseph shouted from the other side of the room.
Scovillain quickly caught his bearings and fired a Bullet Seed barrage at Rory. Rory wasn’t prepared for this, quickly throwing her arms up to block her face from the seeds, but strangely they didn’t hurt as bad as she had anticipated, in fact, they barely hurt at all.
“Is that all you got, cutie pie?” She laughed mockingly.
“HOW DARE YOU CALL ME THAT!” Scovillain roared as he prepared his next attack.
But unfortunately for Scovillain, he wouldn’t be getting his chance to redeem himself. Rory took a deep breath and harnessed the crystal’s energy, once she had enough of it she shot the energy at Scovillain which initially didn’t seem to do much, but after a few moments, a geyser of poisonous liquid shot up out of the ground causing Scovillain to collapse onto the floor. Once Scovillain was out cold the crystals that had formed around Rory disappeared, leaving behind sparkles that dissipated after a few seconds.
“That was… AWESOME!” Rory exulted.
“What just happened!?” Cinder shouted.
“I’ll explain it when we get back, but for now we should probably focus on finishing the job,” Joseph explained, “let’s take Scovillain to the authorities and start cleaning this place out!”
Team Echoes did as Joseph instructed, reentering the cave once they had done so, “So where do you think their treasure was stored?” Sammy asked.
“There’s probably a hidden vault or something somewhere.” Cinder said, “I’ll call Specter and ask if he knows.”
After a few moments of waiting, Specter picked up, “What’s up? Did you need my help with something?” He asked.
“We were wondering where these dummies stored their stuff, we’ve already apprehended them all, we just need to take their stuff.”
“You’re actually gonna take their stuff?”
“I mean Lanturn said we could didn’t he?”
“Well, yeah, but I was under the assumption you guys didn’t care about any of their stuff.”
“Well, if we don’t, who’s to say they won’t reclaim it after escaping or something?”
“Oooh I see, you’re trying to keep their loot out of the hands of evil, got it, well alright bear with me here because their safe isn’t exactly easy to crack.”
“Can you start by telling us where it is?”
“It’s in the boss’s room, but you’re gonna have to do some stuff to make it appear.”
Team Echoes entered the boss’s room once again, “Alright, we’re in the boss’s room, what do we do now?”
“Do you see the chest in the middle of the room, you know, the one Scovillain used as a desk?”
“Yeah? What about it?”
“Open it up, there should be something in there.”
Cinder walked over to the chest and opened it, inside there was a giant gem, “Oh wait! I think I know what to do next!” Cinder chirped.
“Wait! Don’t do anything! If you mess it up-“
*Click* Cinder just happened to push the giant gem! Suddenly, the ground started to shake, “I DID SOMETHING!” Cinder shouted as the ground continued to shake.
“YOU DIDN’T PULL THE GEM, DID YOU!?” Specter screamed.
“I DIDN’T I PUSHED IT! WAS THAT THE WRONG MOVE!?”
“Phew, no it wasn’t, you’re good.”
“THEN WHY IS THE GROUND SHAKING!?”
“The wall blocking the vault is retreating into the ground, give it a sec.”
Sure enough, the vault door revealed itself, but it was still locked, Team Echoes’ job wasn’t over yet…
“We see the vault door! But it’s still locked, how do we get in?”
“Uh… I have no clue… It can’t handle too much heat, but a simple Flamethrower isn’t enough, you got anything stronger?”
“I know Fire Blast is that good?”
“It might be, but you might need a boost…”
Cinder turned to Rory and asked, “Hey Rory, you still have that Violent Seed, right?”
“Yeah, but we probably don’t need it now…” Rory responded
“Well, it could help us break into this vault, according to Specter.”
“Alright then, catch!”
Rory threw the Violent Seed to Cinder, expecting her to catch it with her hands, but instead, she caught it in her mouth.
“Ha! I got it!” Cinder exclaimed before swallowing the seed, “Pretty neat, right?”
“Woah! How’d you do that!?”
“My friends and I would always throw Gummis to each other while we were in dungeons, we’d always try to catch them in our mouths, but I’d mess it up sometimes…”
“That’s cool! We should do that!”
“I’d rather not die choking on a Yellow Gummi you guys threw into my mouth, thank you!” Joseph called from across the room.
“Well, that’s because you’re lame!” Rory shot back.
“Whatever, at least I’ll be alive!”
Cinder turned back toward the door and flared up her quills, “Alright, one spicy explosion coming right up!” She exulted before shooting a huge Fire Blast straight at the vault door.
The Fire Blast hit the door and exploded, melting a hole straight through it, “Dang! I could hear that from here!” Specter praised.
“Well no duh! It came through the call!” Cinder ribbed.
“No, like I mean, I heard it in the distance from here! That’s how loud that was!”
“Oh, Uh, I mean, yeah! I meant to do that! Because I’m just that awesome!”
“I would say you just ruined it, but I’m afraid you’re gonna hit me with your next one.”
“Don’t be, my Fire Blast never hits any actual targets.”
“Well, I’d rather not take my chances. So is the vault open now?”
Cinder looked through the hole left in the door, only to find there was another door in their way, “Dang, there’s another door!”
“Right, I heard him mention that one time, it should be vulnerable to any amount of electricity, get Joseph to shock it or something!”
“Alright.”
Cinder climbed through the hole in the door and her teammates followed her in silence as they were still stunned by what had just happened,
“Ok, Joseph shock the door!” Cinder commanded.
“I don’t know any electric type moves, though.”
“You don’t have to, you can just let out a shock at any time.”
“Well, even if I could, I don’t know how to.”
“Ugh, fine, I guess Tiny will have to do it then.”
Cinder pulled Tiny out of her bag and pointed her at the door.
“What are you trying to do?” Tiny asked.
“I was hoping that you heard what I just said, and you’d just shock the door if I pointed you at it.”
“Oh well, I didn’t hear what you just said because I was just asleep, all the feathers you’ve got in here make it pretty easy to fall asleep.”
“I thought you said you didn’t need to sleep.”
“Yeah, I don’t need it, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t sleep!”
“What’s the point of you sleeping, then!?”
“It’s entertaining! I had a dream where I woke up in a cave and I had to protect some Snivy from a Druddigon and an Ariados.”
“Let me guess, you were a Melmetal again so you crushed them?”
“Nope, I was actually a Shinx weirdly enough, I had Ice Fang and Fire Fang though so they didn’t stand a chance!”
“That’s cool, do you think the dream meant anything?”
“I have no clue… I mean, I vaguely remember a Shinx and a Snivy from my past life, but I can’t remember why…”
“Oh, well, that sucks, maybe we’ll figure out more about that later.”
“I guess… Now where were we? Oh yeah, you guys wanted me to shock the door or something? Why can’t Joseph just do it? I mean, he’s actually an electric type, plus did you see how pitiful my last little Thunder Shock was? I’m never gonna get this thing open!”
“I literally don’t know how to administer a shock of any kind, heck, I don’t even know how to charge electricity!” Joseph exclaimed.
“HOW!? You’ve been a Shinx your whole life, haven’t you!?”
“No, actually, I was a human until about a couple of days ago.”
“Human… You guys keep throwing that word around, and it sounds so familiar to me, but I don’t know what it means…”
“Humans are a species from another world, once they enter this world, however, they become Pokémon, and apparently they aren’t given the instincts of a Pokémon so I have no clue how to do certain things a normal Shinx would be able to do just fine.”
“Wait, that’s right, I remember now! I met a human 3000 years ago! The details in my mind are a bit fuzzy, but from what I can remember, he was a hero who was sent to defeat an ancient evil!”
“So what you’re saying is in the past, there have been humans who didn’t try to destroy the world?” Cinder asked.
“Yeah! Wait, are you saying that-“
“N-no, Joseph isn’t here to destroy the world, it’s just in this world’s past there have been humans who brought this world to its knees, if you want to know more about it, I’d suggest asking Specter about it when we get back.”
“I’ll make sure to do that, but for now,” Tiny left off and shocked the door before finishing her sentence, “let’s just get going.”
The door’s lock short-circuited and the door opened to reveal a room full of Poké and other valuables, the team was about to enter the vault when Cinder stopped them, “There’s definitely another trap in here.” She said.
“Correct!” Specter shouted from the other side of the call, “You’re pretty good at this!”
“Thanks, I have a bit of experience when it comes to traps!”
“Well, do you think you could disarm this one on your own, or do you need my help?”
“I would rather not mess things up, so, how about you help me out on this one.”
“Ok, so in the vault, there’s a camera if it spots anyone but Scovillain the floor drops out from underneath them into a pit of spikes.”
“What does this ‘camera’ look like?”
“It’s that thing back there!” Joseph exclaimed as he pointed at the camera.
“Just destroy it, and you’re home free!” Specter announced.
“Alright! Will do!” Cinder exulted. Cinder shot a Flamethrower at the camera, causing it to break, it was over, the heist was successful, and all that was left to do was claim the spoils.
Team Echoes entered the vault proper and started stuffing their bags with everything in sight, Poké, large gems, and anything else you’d expect to find in a criminal gang’s vault, well except for TMs I guess but hey with the amount of Poké in the vault Team Echoes was free to buy all the TMs they could ever want, “WE’RE RICH!” Rory crowed.
“You bet we are! This is probably enough money to fund all our endeavors for the next hundred years!” Cinder cheered.
“I almost feel bad taking it, I mean we could change the world with this kind of money.” Joseph commented.
“Well, if that’s what you wanna spend it on then go ahead, I’m gonna spend my share to get Vulcan the best present money can buy!”
While stuffing his bag full of valuables, Sammy found something strange-looking and decided to ask about it, “Uh, guys, do any of you know what this thing is?” He asked as he held the item up.
The item was a black ball with a gold ring in the center, it was reminiscent of the Master Ball that Slippy had obtained from Cobalt. Cinder and Rory had no idea what it was but once again Joseph instantly recognized it, “That’s a Luxury Ball, it’s similar to the Master Ball that Slippy has, but it’s not guaranteed to capture the Pokémon it’s thrown at, instead it makes them more friendly toward the person who threw it.” Joseph explained.
“How would this have gotten in here?”
“Well, just look at it, doesn’t it look valuable to you?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s not what I meant, what I meant was how are things from other worlds just showing up out of thin air?”
“It probably has something to do with Space Time Distortions, last night I was asked if I had found any evidence of Space Time Distortions occurring, so I think it’s safe to say there might be a problem with space and time here.”
“Yeah, and considering Vulcan ended up here too, I’d say something fishy’s going on.” Cinder said, “I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Chatot showed up one day, I mean I wouldn’t be happy, but I wouldn’t be surprised either.”
“Well, let’s just hope that never happens, I wouldn’t want to meet him considering how terribly he has treated you.”
“Let’s just wrap this up so we can go home.”
Team Echoes cleaned out the entire vault, and left the base, once they were outside they noticed that Chandelure and the ghosts were gone along with the apprehended crooks.
“Well, I guess that settles that.” Cinder said.
“We should hurry home, I heard it’s supposed to rain.” Rory warned.
“It is!? Awesome!” Sammy burst, “I love walking in the rain!”
“Well, I hate walking in the rain, it makes me feel like a quenched torch!” Cinder complained, “What about you Joseph? Do you like walking in the rain?”
“Uh… I don’t know… I usually have an umbrella when I’m walking in the rain so I don’t get soaked.”
“An umbrella? What’s that?”
“It’s something humans invented to keep themselves dry in the rain, you guys don’t have those here?”
“I don’t think so, I mean I haven’t heard of one until now so I guess not.”
“Well, yeah, we humans just use umbrellas so that we don’t get all soaking wet when it rains, but I’d barely even consider it walking in the rain at that point.”
“Maybe you should try it then, I’ve heard electric types love the rain so maybe you will too.”
“Alright… But only if you dry me off afterward.”
Cinder sighed, “Fine… But if your fur gets all fluffy, that’s on you!”
“Fair enough.”
Team Echoes teleported back to their base using their watches, finally wrapping up their mission.
January 23rd, 6:00 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Specter’s Room
Coast Continent
Team Echoes reported back to Specter once they got back to the base, only to find him messing with his mirror and his crystal ball.
“What are you doing? Sammy asked.
“Oh! Uh… I’m trying to see if I can use my mirror to tell my own fortune.”
“I don’t think it works like that.” Rory said.
“Me neither, but I thought I’d give it a shot anyway.”
Rory waited a few moments before asking, “Well, do you see anything?”
“I think? I see something, but it seems super zoomed in, it’s to the point where all I can see is a mess of dark purple, pink, and blood-red.”
“That’s slightly concerning, but I’m sure it’s fine…”
“So, did you guys clear that place out?”
“Heck yeah, we did!” Cinder cheered.
“Awesome! I’m glad to hear that!”
“You want any of the stuff we took from the vault?”
“No, the teamwork we stole was enough for me, besides this job was never about the money for me, it was just about revenge.”
“What do you mean the teamwork we stole?” Rory asked.
“I was just trying to sound cool, we did great as a team and this job was a great teamwork exercise for us.” Specter explained, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go blow raspberries at Scovillain while he rots in his cell.”
Specter left his room and exited the base via the warp panel in the lounge, speaking of the lounge that was where Vulcan was chilling the whole time the team was out on their mission, he got up from his seat and approached Cinder, enveloping her in a big hug once he had reached her.
“Missed you too, big bro!” Cinder beamed as she returned the hug.
While the siblings hugged, Rory turned to Joseph, “Now that that’s all over, do you mind explaining what happened to me during our fight against Scovillain?” She asked
“You Terastallized, I don’t exactly know how, but you did!” Joseph explained.
“Ok, now you’re just making up words!”
“I’m not! It’s a mix between the word tera and the word crystallize, basically, you were enveloped by these weird crystals that changed you into a poison type, normally you’d need a Tera Orb to do that, but I guess these Tera Scarves serve the same purpose.”
“That still sounds a bit weird though, how did I become a poison type?”
“The crystals have the power to change the type of the Pokémon they cover, normally the Pokémon change into their tera type, but I guess these scarves overwrite that, we should probably keep that in mind going forward.”
“None of what you just said makes any sense.”
“Basically, every Pokémon is effectively born with a secret type that can be awakened by harnessing the power of tera crystals, but these scarves let us harness specific types instead, when we harness the power of the tera crystals we replace our natural typing with whatever our hidden type also known as a tera type or the type of our scarf is.”
“I think I get it? I’m not sure, though.”
“Scarf makes crystals appear, crystals change type, scarf picks type. Unga bunga.”
“Ooooh, I get it now, but what does ‘unga bunga’ mean?”
“It’s generic caveman speech, basically humans thought that early humans sounded like that, it’s basically my little snarky way of letting you know I severely dumbed down what I was saying.”
“Hey! I’m supposed to be the snarky one around here!”
“Why can’t we both be the snarky ones?”
“Because that’s like one of my most defining character traits! Besides, Specter’s already the other snarky one.”
“Then it’s not really one of your defining character traits then, is it?”
“I guess not then huh…”
“I’m sure you have another more defining trait.”
“Well, I am good at acting, but I’d hardly call that a character trait.”
“Is that why you spoke to those thugs like that?”
“Yeah, I was just acting, I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but I’ve still got a long way to go if I wanna be a full-on actress.”
“Is that something you wanna do?”
“Well, it’s what I was planning on doing before this all started, now I guess I’m gonna be an explorer.”
“You know that you don’t have to stick with Team Echoes forever, right? I mean, I’m planning on going back to being a human after this is all said and done, and I’m pretty sure that Cinder’s gonna go back home with her friends and her brother.”
“Well… Yeah, but… Uh… Can I… Tell you something in private?”
“Uh, sure.”
Joseph followed Rory to her room, once they were both in the room she shut the door and locked it.
“These doors have locks?” Joseph questioned.
“Yeah, I found that last night,” Rory answered, “But that’s not what I brought you in here to tell you.”
“What did you want to tell me?”
“Well… It’s a bit personal so can you keep it a secret?”
“Of course!”
“Alright, well… I have a crush on Sammy.”
“Oh… Things are starting to make a little more sense now…”
“They are?”
“Yeah because that explains why you reacted the way that you did when we first met.”
“Does it? I feel like I could’ve reacted like that even if I didn’t have a crush on him.”
“Well yeah maybe, but then you fainted when you found out he had amnesia, that is where I would draw the line between ‘just friends’ and ‘having a crush’.”
“Good point… Well, I’m bringing this up because I wanna stay with him even after all this is over, but he wants to be an explorer, and I’m unsure about if I should keep being an explorer with him or move on to my own thing.”
“I think it’s a bit early to be thinking about that, if you really want to be with him in the future, you should just focus on seeing if he even feels the same way.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“What I mean is even though you have a crush on him, he could just see you as a friend and nothing more, crushes are usually one-sided, but if he has a crush on you too then you two can start a relationship.”
“Right… I almost forgot about that… Well, I guess I’m just gonna have to try my best to stand out to him.”
“You can’t force somebody to fall in love with you, so just keep that in mind and try not to overdo it ok?”
“I got it, I won’t fall head over heels for him or anything.”
“Good, because that’s a good way to ruin a friendship,” Joseph said before his stomach rumbled, “Anyway I’m famished, you wanna go get dinner?”
“Sure! Let’s get going!”
Well, for a chapter centered around a heist, this chapter certainly had a lot of love in it oddly enough. Also, yeah, as if it wasn’t obvious already this isn’t a hero x partner story hence the age difference between Joseph and Rory, I actually did that purposefully because imo the hero x partner thing is a little too common for my tastes and I wanted to stray away from that here. But yeah Rory x Sammy is kind of sort of maybe a thing now, yippee! Hopefully going forward I can strike a balance between the main thing of the chapter and everything else I feel like throwing into this story because I have a ton of ideas and no clue when I should throw them in, hence Team Echoes being massive already, don’t worry though I’ll probably only have four members together at a time.
Anyway, onto the first boss bio of the actual main chapters!
/ /Boss data downloaded successfully!\ \
The Coin Case Gang’s leader: Scovillain
Scovillain was the infamous leader of the even more infamous Coin Case Gang, emphasis on ‘was’ because Team Echoes took down his entire operation thanks to a little preplanning from Specter. Scovillain relies on being the smartest one around, otherwise, he ends up getting walked all over, hence why he set Specter up. In the end, though, he was defeated by the power of the Tera Scarves and Terastallization, but what caused Rory to Terastallize? Was it her desire to protect her friend, or did she tap into the power unknowingly? Only time will tell.
I’ve been feeling awkward about just ending the chapter without hinting toward the next one so next time: a walk in the rain or something
(Also I just noticed that the carrots that are supposed to be surrounding the “Boss data downloaded successfully” thingie won’t work 🙁 )
Hey past me that effect works on this site :) Also there’s emojis here :D Also strikethrough works here!
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