Chapter 9: Crystals and Crises
by poper466January 27th, 7:00 am
Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s room
Coast Continent
Joseph hopped out of bed and went to go get Cinder so they could get ready to leave as soon as possible when he bumped into Rory, “Hey! Don’t you know it’s rude to bump into people while they’re having a conversation?” She asked.
“Oh, uh, I’m sorry, you mind picking a better spot for your conversation next time?” Joseph asked.
“Oh right, I forgot I’m just standing in the doorway, sorry about that.”
Rory moved over to reveal that Cinder was also standing in the doorway, “Hey Cinder, you mind moving over so I can go wake up Cinder?” Joseph asked.
“I think I should go wake up Joseph first.” Cinder responded.
“Wait, did I say something stupid?”
“Yeah, but I get it, you just woke up and everything.”
“Oh crap…”
“It’s ok, just eat breakfast, wake up, and get ready to leave.”
“Alright.”
Cinder walked into the room and grabbed Stumpy’s Pokéball, “Oh yeah, before you do that, could you tell me how this thing works?” She asked.
“Just press the button and throw the ball.” Joseph said.
“Oh ok, thanks!”
Joseph fumbled out of the room while Cinder tried to get Stumpy out of his Pokéball, he eventually ended up in the lounge, once he was there he noticed Vulcan was cooking breakfast, “Oh good morning Joseph.” He said, “I’m making hash browns, you want some?”
“Heck yeah I do!” Joseph chirped.
“Alright, then sit tight, I gotta make some for everyone before I start handing them out.”
Joseph took a seat on the couch in the lounge while he waited for his food, he then realized something, ‘Wait aren’t hash browns supposed to be an American thing?’ He asked himself, ‘Does that mean that the Grass Continent is that world’s equivalent of America? Or am I just overthinking things and assuming Vulcan could only make hash browns if he was American?’
“You lost in a thought or something?” Specter asked as he took a seat beside Joseph.
“I was just thinking about a weird thing that didn’t make sense to me.”
“What was it?”
“Where I’m from, hash browns are kinda a regional thing, so it got me thinking, how does Vulcan know how to make them?”
“Because I’ve studied culinary arts since I was little, I figured since I was a fire type it would be a neat skill to have since I always have access to fire.” Vulcan said, “Also to answer your question, they’re a regional thing where I’m from too, they’re a popular thing in the Mist Continent, I went there once and while I was there I picked up a cookbook full of their most popular local dishes, I always tend to do that when I’m going overseas.”
“Oh, that’s cool!” Joseph replied, ‘I guess it would make more sense that the Mist Continent would be the equivalent of North America in his world, I mean it does have a lot of Unovan Pokémon, well around Post Town anyway, I can’t exactly remember if that trend continues throughout the whole continent though.’
“It is pretty cool, I get to learn how to make more food and my friends get to enjoy a nice variety of food from all over the world.”
“I’m all for it!” Specter said, “Any excuse to eat food is a good excuse!”
Vulcan chuckled, “Careful there, you might end up overdoing it with that logic.”
“It hasn’t failed me yet, so I think I’m fine.”
“Ok, just don’t say I didn’t warn you if you end up evolving into a Snorlax somewhere down the line.”
“Hey! I can control myself! Sometimes…”
“That’s reassuring.” Vulcan said sarcastically, “Well breakfast’s ready, try not to overdo it bud.”
“Alright, I’ll go get the others then.” Joseph said.
“Oh, no need.” Cinder said as she entered the lounge along with everyone else, “We’re here already, we could tell breakfast was ready because the aroma was wafting through the whole base.”
“That’s not a bad thing, is it?” Vulcan asked.
“No, it smells great, it’s just the smell made it obvious that breakfast was ready.”
“Oh, good, I was afraid we were gonna start today off with an argument.”
“Nope, we’ve got more important things to do today.”
“Well that’s good, no offense, but I’ve been getting a little tired of arguing and getting angry lately.”
“I understand, unfortunately, it comes with our instincts.”
“I mean, you could try to find a way to evolve into a Hisuian Typhlosion to fix that.” Joseph suggested.
“I’m good.” Cinder said, “I’d rather not become carefree for the rest of my life.”
“That sounds interesting.” Vulcan said, “Could you please explain more about this ‘Hisuian’ Typhlosion?”
“Ugh, they sound like the worst thing ever, they’re ghosts that guide souls to the afterlife, and they also drop their anger in favor of always being super calm.”
“Oh, that sounds weird, I don’t know how I’d feel about being a ghost for the rest of my life.”
“Well that’s the thing, you won’t, because if you evolve into a ghost then that’s when your life ends.”
“Oh, right, I guess that would be the case… Wait, how would that work then? Am I just stuck living on this plane of existence or what?”
“Ghost type Pokémon can hop between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead, from what I’ve heard.”
“Hm… That sounds pretty cool too, how would I go about evolving into a Hisuian Typhlosion?”
“Well, the only confirmed method is to go to Hisui to evolve,” Joseph explained, “but I theorized that going to a place that has a high population of restless souls would also cause you to evolve into a Hisuian Typhlosion.”
“I knew there’d be something stupid like that… Oh well, I guess I’m just gonna stay angry my whole life.”
“There might still be a chance you could evolve into a Hisuian Typhlosion.”
“Yeah, but I’d rather not hang around graveyards for the chance to evolve into one, and I don’t even know how I’d get to Hisui.”
“That’s fair…”
Team Echoes finished up their meal and prepared to get going, “Alright guys, we’ll be back later!” Cinder said.
“See ya, little sis!” Vulcan waved.
“Bye!”
January 27th, 8:00 am
Sunset Square
Coast Continent
Team Echoes’ Crystal Continent Expedition Team arrived in Sunset Square to grab a few things before heading off, “Cinder, why are we here?” Rory asked, “I thought you said we didn’t need any more supplies.”
“I did.” Cinder replied, “It’s just I heard there were new TMs in stock at Porygon’s.”
“Oh, I guess we should go check that out then.”
“Not yet, I wanna get a new scarf first.”
“But you haven’t even used yours yet.” Sammy said.
“I know, I just want to have another one for later, just in case I don’t like this one’s effect.”
“Well, based on the color, I think it’s a ghost type Tera Scarf.” Joseph said.
“Oh Arceus, why does this world want me dead so badly!?”
“No clue, I guess you were just destined to become a ghost.”
“Well, I’m not a fan of being a ghost, like yeah it’s fun, but it feels weird being able to fly through stuff.”
“I understand.”
The team approached the Kecleon shop and Cinder began looking at the Tera Scarf selection, while she was doing that the rest of the team was just waiting around, eventually Malachite walked up to the shop as well, “Do you guys have any candy apples?” She asked.
“Uh, no, unfortunately we don’t.” Crimson the red-striped Kecleon answered.
“Drat! What do I do now?”
“Oh hey, Malachite, what brings you here today?” Joseph asked.
“Oh, hello Joseph, I was looking for candy apples, my partner’s been craving them recently.”
“You mean that weird apple creature Joseph found a couple of days ago?” Rory asked.
“Yep, she wants me to bring her a candy apple for some reason.”
“Isn’t that cannibalism?”
“No, apparently she’s not actually the apple itself, but rather a small dragon that has made the apple its home.”
“That’s weird, then why doesn’t she just eat her home?”
“Because she wants to evolve!” Joseph said.
“Wait really?” Malachite asked.
“Yeah really! Applin evolve by eating different types of apples.”
“That’s a strange way to evolve.”
“Yeah, what’s even stranger is that depending on the type of apple they eat, they can evolve into different forms.”
“Woah, so what does the candy apple make them evolve into?”
“Syrupy apples make Applin evolve into Dipplin, sweet apples make them evolve into Appletun, and tart apples make them evolve into Flapple.”
“That’s so cool! I wonder what Dipplin will be like!”
“Well, once you get a syrupy apple, you’ll know.”
“I wonder actually…” Malachite muttered as she turned back toward Crimson, “Do you have any syrup?”
“No, but I think the Alcreamie at the Batter Splatter have some.” Crimson replied.
“Ok!” Malachite said before running off while yelling, “Thank you, Mister!”
“What just happened?” Rory asked.
“I think she’s gonna try to D.I.Y. her own syrupy apple.” Joseph responded.
“Oh jeez, look what you did.”
“I mean hey, she was probably gonna end up resorting to that even if I didn’t say anything, so don’t blame me.”
“What’s going on?” Cinder asked.
“Malachite’s trying to break the speedrun world record for ‘fastest evolution’ in Pokémon history.” Joseph said jokingly.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You know that Applin that came back here with us?”
“Yeah? What about it?”
“Well, it was craving a candy apple and Malachite didn’t know why, so I told her about Applin’s evolutions, and now she’s trying to make a syrupy apple for the Applin so it can evolve.”
“Uh, ok then? That’s a little weird.”
“I mean it’s completely in character for her though.”
“True.” Cinder said, “So shall we go look at the TMs now?”
January 27th, 8:15 am
Sunset Square Supplies
Coast Continent
Joseph and the gang prepared to be blasted with confetti as they entered the department store, but surprisingly they were fine, Malachite on the other hand was not fine, she was being viciously assaulted by a horde of Alcremie decorating her fur with various toppings.
“What is going on!?” Malachite squealed.
Cinder turned to the rest of the group, “Looks like we dodged a bullet, I have no idea why they’re decorating her but thank Arceus that’s not one of us right now.”
“Agreed.” The rest of the group chorused.
The group slipped by the horde of icing creatures and moved on to what they were there for: the TM store, they approached Porygon’s store, but Porygon was nowhere to be seen, instead, Porygon-Z was in his place, “Y-y-y-y-yo, wHaT’s Up gUyS?”
“Uh, are you ok?” Cinder asked.
But the only response Poryon-Z gave was static.
“Um, ok, do you know where your brothers are?”
The static stopped, but in its place, dial-up sounds started to play.
“What’s going on?” Rory asked.
“I think he’s thinking.” Joseph answered.
“How can you tell?” Sammy asked.
“He’s making dial-up sounds, it’s a joke where I’m from to play those sounds when someone’s taking a while to think.”
“That sounds weird.” Stumpy said.
“It makes sense though, the joke originates from computers that take a while to think, which is kinda what’s going on here.”
Eventually, the dial-up sounds got caught, when this happened, Porygon-Z’s eyes faded into a blue screen with white text.
“Aaand he blue-screened.” Joseph said, “Fantastic.”
“What does that mean?” Cinder asked.
Joseph began to read the error, “Your system ran into a problem and needs to restart.” He read, he then got down to the error code which was an eldritch abomination of jumbled text, “Uh, yeah I don’t think he’s ok.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“To quote Porygon, ‘only use officially licensed Silph Co. products.'”
“What?”
“He used a Dubious Disk to evolve into a Porygon-Z, the Dubious Disk contains a computer virus on it which makes Porygon-Z unstable and prone to crashing.”
“Is that what’s going on here? He’s crashing?”
“Yep.”
A few moments later, Porygon2 hovered out of the storage closet and noticed that Porygon-Z had crashed, his eyes displayed error icons as he floated over to Porygon-Z, “Z! Snap out of it!”
Porygon-Z responded by letting out a low-pitched electronic humming noise.
Porgon2 played a sighing sound effect, “Sorry about this, he’s usually more stable than this.”
“Maybe his nerves got to him?” Cinder asked.
Porygon2 played a laughing sound effect, “We Porygon don’t have nerves, we’re artificial!”
“You are?”
“Yep, we don’t even have to breathe, we don’t got time for that.”
“Then how do you stay alive?”
“We just gotta stay updated and remember to stay charged.”
“I don’t get it…”
“Good, I don’t need you reverse engineering Silph Co.’s greatest invention.”
“Can I just see the new TMs?”
“Sure.”
A screen appeared in front of Cinder, on the screen there was a giant “NEW” indicator over a bunch of the TMs, “Hm… let’s see here… We have, Flip Turn, Meteor Beam, Burning Jealousy, and Triple Axel.”
“None of those seem too helpful.” Rory said.
“I mean Burning Jealousy sounds interesting, but I think I’ll pass.”
“That’s a shame…” Porygon2 said, “Maybe you’ll find something when the next patch drops.”
“When does that happen?”
“A few days from now.”
“Ok, I’ll be sure to check again then.” Cinder said, “Are you guys ready to head out?”
“Hold on, I wanna take a look before we go.” Joseph said.
“Alright, take a look.” Porygon2 said as he passed the screen to Joseph.
Joseph looked through the TMs for a bit until he noticed something strange, “Uh, I don’t think that move’s supposed to be there.”
“Would you like to report a bug?”
“Uh yes, actually, for some reason Bitter Malice appears in the electric type move section.”
“Oh, it must’ve been caused by Z’s crash, yeah that happens sometimes, although I think this is the first time it’s made a new move.”
“You know what, I’ll take one.”
“Denied, you are not permitted to abuse glitches in our TM system.”
“Aw… Ok then, I guess I’ll be leaving then.”
“Ok, thanks for stopping by.”
January 27th, 8:20 am
Sunset Square
Coast Continent
Team Echoes left the department store, “Well, that was a little disappointing…” Cinder said.
“I know right?” Rory said, “Like their stupid machine thing made a new move and they wouldn’t even let Joseph try it out.”
“Why did the thing even show it if it wasn’t something he could buy?” Stumpy asked.
“I’m assuming it would have made the screen crash like Z did.” Sammy answered.
“Oh, well that stinks.”
“I know, I would have loved to see what that move does.”
“I already know what it does, so I’m not too upset.” Joseph said.
“Wait you do?”
“Yeah, it’s a ghost type move that can lower the target’s attack.”
“Then why was it in the electric type section?” Rory asked.
“It’s like Porygon2 said, it was a glitch, it wasn’t meant to be there, besides there are only two Pokémon that can ever learn it anyway.”
“Oh, I guess it’s not that bad, then.”
“So how are we gonna get to the Crystal Continent? Are we just gonna ride Wailord like last time, or did you have something else in mind?”
“I was thinking we could try something a little different this time.” Cinder answered, “This time, we’re taking to the skies!”
“What!?”
“Yep! I got us a Salamence to take us over to the Crystal Continent!”
“Cool!” Rory said.
“But how’s Stumpy gonna ride with us?” Joseph asked.
“Just put him back into the ball.”
“Oh, right… Sorry bud, you have to miss out on the view.”
“It’s ok! I’m scared of heights anyway!” Stumpy said as he shuddered.
“Oh, well I guess that makes things a bit easier then.”
“Our ride should be here any minute now, so just put Stumpy back into the ball.” Cinder instructed.
“Got it.” Joseph said as he retrieved Stumpy.
A short while later, A Salamence landed right in front of them, “Are you fools Team Echoes?” The Salamence asked.
“Yep, that would be us!” Cinder said.
“How’d you know?” Joseph asked.
“I was told to look for a Cyndaquil and a bright yellow Shinx, and considering Shinx are rare anywhere outside the Crystal Continent, it wasn’t too hard to find you.” The Salamence answered.
“Oh, guess that makes sense.”
“Anyway, hop on so I can just get this over with.”
“You sound rather impatient, you ok?” Sammy asked.
“I’m not doing so hot because of the recent fiasco with the Glacier Continent, I barely even want to touch the ground after that, but I have to in order to do my job, so it’s been stressing me out.”
“Jeez that sucks.”
“Yeah, I’m just hoping this all just blows over so I can go back to chilling out and having fun flying around again.”
Team Echoes climbed onto Salamence’s back and got situated, “Alright, hold onto something!” Cinder shouted, “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride!”
Salamence took off immediately after Cinder said that, causing the group to scream a little bit.
“Ugh, first timers.” Salamence groaned.
January 27th, 10:00 am
Crystal City
Crystal Continent
Salamence landed at the pier in Crystal City, “Alright, we’re here.” He said, “You can stop digging your claws into my back now.”
“Oh, s-sorry.” Joseph stuttered.
“It’s fine, my scales are tough, so you didn’t even leave a scratch.”
“Then why was it a problem?” Rory asked.
“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t uncomfortable.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense…”
“Well, I’ll be heading off now, make sure you fools meet me back here by 5.”
“We will!” Cinder bubbled.
“Alright, see you then.”
Salamence flew off, leaving Team Echoes to begin exploring, “So where are we exactly?” Sammy asked.
“My map says this place is Crystal City… Or Crystal Capital? It keeps switching…” Cinder said.
Joseph checked the map app on his watch, “Huh, it does.” He noted, “Why does it keep doing that?”
“Yeah, that’d be because this place has two names.” A voice said.
Joseph looked up to see a Sneasel approaching him, “Uh, who are you?” He asked.
“The name’s Fang, I’m a local around these parts.” The Sneasel said.
“Oh no, we’re not about to get robbed!” Cinder asserted, “I have a Fire Blast with your name on it!”
“Cool it! I ain’t gonna rob ya!” Fang squeaked, “There may be a lotta shady characters around these parts, but I ain’t one of them, ok!?”
“You expect me to believe that!?”
“W-well, n-no, but just hear me out!”
Cinder was beginning to flare up her quills when suddenly Sammy walked up to Fang, “Ok, I’ll hear you out.”
“Huh!?” Cinder exclaimed.
“Phew.” Fang sighed, “I was afraid I was about to get torched.”
“You’re fine, I trust you.”
“Oh, thanks bud.” Fang said as he shined his toothy smile, “Well if you wouldn’t mind, I sort of need help with something.”
“What is it?”
“Last night, I was doin’ some trainin’ when suddenly somebody up and stole my Razor Claw, I need to get that back, but I can’t seem to find the thief.”
“Do you know what they looked like?” Rory asked.
“Yeah, they were some purple flying gremlin with weird crab claws.”
“Uh… Ok?”
“I’ll be loafing around here, so if you find ’em, take back what’s rightfully mine!”
“Uh, I’m still not sure if I trust-” Cinder said shakily before cutting herself off as Fang disappeared.
“Um… Ok then… That was strange…”
“Agreed.” Joseph said, “Let’s just get moving.”
The team walked away from the pier and entered Crystal City proper, true to the name it was a city with tons of crystals everywhere, there were even crystals that had been turned into buildings which was a bit strange but also super cool. The crystals all varied in color, size, transparency, etc. which made the place very colorful and vibrant.
“This place is pretty!” Joseph said.
“I’m sure Stumpy would love to see it too.” Cinder ribbed.
“Oh crap!” Joseph gasped as he took Stumpy’s Pokéball out of his bag, “I didn’t mean to leave you in there bud!”
Joseph released Stumpy from the ball once again, once freed, Stumpy took a look around, “Woah!” He marveled.
“Yeah, this place is beautiful!”
“Did you have anything like this place back home?” Cinder asked.
“Nope, where I’m from giant crystals are usually just a fictional thing,”
“That’s strange, they seem to be pretty common back home, I mean there’s literally a dungeon called Crystal Cave and it leads to like 30 different crystal-related locations.”
“I get it, your world is cooler than mine.”
“Is your world really that boring?”
“Sort of.”
“Then why do you wanna go back?” Rory asked.
“Because like I said yesterday, I would rather not spend the rest of my life with fur and a tail.”
“Why does that matter? If this world’s cooler, then you should just stay here!”
“I mean that’s a fair point, but I also have family back home who are probably very confused about why I suddenly disappeared without a trace.”
“Oh… You got me there, I guess….”
“So where are we going exactly?” Stumpy asked.
“I have NO IDEA!” Cinder exulted.
“Why are you happy about that!?”
“Because that means we get to wander around aimlessly until we eventually find a dungeon or something before finding what we were looking for!”
“Or we could just ask around as any sane Pokémon would do.” Rory sassed.
“But that’s a lot of work, and I’m a little anxious.”
“Fine, I guess I’ll do it then.”
The group kept walking until they reached an area that looked like a shopping district, there were neon signs and buildings everywhere, so one could assume this was a shopping district of some sort, “There are so many signs here, it kinda reminds me of the department store back in Sunset Square.” Cinder commented.
“It’s so visually cluttered.” Stumpy said, “How are we supposed to tell where anything is?”
“I don’t know, maybe read the signs!” Rory snarked.
“I can’t read any of this! It’s just weird symbols!”
“Right, Stumpy can’t read because he’s ancient.” Joseph said.
“Oh crud, I didn’t think about that…” Rory said awkwardly.
“Well I don’t think reading would help me very much, there’s just too much light and too many colors.” Stumpy added.
“I agree.” Sammy said, “The lights are kinda giving my amnesiac brain a bit of sensory overload.”
“Alright, then let’s stop looking at the lights and start looking at the Pokémon.”
But before they could start asking around, they were approached by a Shinx, “Are you guys lost?” She asked.
‘Oh boy, this is gonna be an awkward conversation.’ Joseph thought to himself, ‘Of course, it had to be a girl too, now everyone’s gonna keep messing with me…’
“A little.” Rory answered, “We were wondering where we could find a Key Stone around here.”
“Then why don’t you just ask him?” The Shinx said as she pointed to Joseph, “Chances are he’s from around here.”
“Oh, he’s our friend, but he’s also lost.”
“Dude, how are you lost!? You hatched here, didn’t you?” The Shinx asked Joseph.
“No, I didn’t, actually.” Joseph responded, ‘Crap now I have to play the lying game again.’
“He hatched overseas in the Coast Continent, his mom went on a vacation there one time, but then she met the love of her life there, so she moved there, hence why he’s never been here.” Rory lied.
‘Oooor Rory could just cover for me, I guess that works too.’
“Oh, well, in that case, I wouldn’t mind showing you guys around.” The Shinx said.
“We’re kinda in the middle of something, so could you just point us toward where we can get a Key Stone?” Cinder asked.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“You need to go through a dungeon to get there, and the last time I went into a dungeon, I was hospitalized.”
“Oh, we weren’t asking you to come with us, we were just asking where we could find a Key Stone.”
“Oh, well uh, can I see your map then?”
“Sure!” Cinder said as she pulled up the map on her watch.
“Wait, where did you get this thing? I thought they only sold these here.”
“We got them from our Guildmaster Lantern.”
“Oh right, I forgot we had a business deal with that weirdo, well alright then I’ll just mark it on my map and share my map with you.”
And sure enough, that’s what she did, she pulled up her watch and marked the location before bumping Cinder’s watch with hers.
“Aaand done! See you later!”
The Shinx half walked, half pranced off, causing confusion amongst the group, “What got into her all of a sudden?” Rory asked.
“Uh, I don’t know…” Cinder said, “Let me just check to make sure she didn’t do anything else to my watch.”
Cinder looked through her watch for a bit while she was doing so, however, Joseph’s watch vibrated, he checked to see what caused the notification only to be met with a text from the Shinx they were literally just talking to, “Found out what she did.” Joseph announced to the group.
“What was it?”
Joseph showed the text to the group, the text read: “You look so cute with your friends! I just HAD to snap a photo, I hope we bump into each other again sometime, I’d love to get lunch together or something! Cya! *heart emoji*“
“Oooooh looks like someone’s got a crush on you!” Cinder teased.
Rory rolled her eyes, “It also looks like someone can’t spell.”
“She used an internet abbreviation, ‘see ya’ is kinda long, so when typing it out quickly people just use ‘cya’ instead.” Joseph explained, “Also, can I just say, I have no clue why all these girls are hitting on me! First, it was Malachite and now it’s this girl, it’s starting to scare me how easily Pokémon fall in love here.”
“What concerns me is how quickly she typed that message.” Sammy said, “I can’t exactly read it because it’s on your watch, but it looks pretty long, so it begs the question, when did she get the time to write that?”
“Furthermore, when’d she get the time to take a picture too!?”
“Ok, now I’m starting to see where you’re coming from with all this.” Cinder said, “Like it was funny at first, but now it’s a little creepy.”
It was then that another text popped up on Joseph’s screen, “Oh, and if you’re wondering how I did all that so fast, I’m beta-testing an app that allows you to make texts with your mind, it’s not me being creepy it’s just technology at work.“
“Oh, that makes things slightly better, I guess…” Joseph sighed
“What does it say?” Sammy asked.
“It says she was testing something that lets you make texts with your mind, hence the extremely quick and relatively lengthy text.”
“Oh, ok, I guess we’re not about to get murdered then.”
“I wanna get off of this topic, where’s the mark lead?”
“It leads to a place called ‘Tempest Cave’.” Cinder announced.
“Great… I’m gonna have to learn how to swim, aren’t I?” Joseph groaned
“I hope not because I can’t swim in water either and I’m not sure if I could even learn without killing myself.”
“Why’s that?” Rory asked.
“If my flame spots come in contact with too much water I could potentially die, usually it’s pretty easy to avoid having this happen, but if I get fully submerged it could be lights out for me.”
“OH, uh… That’s not good!”
“Yeah, that would be pretty bad.”
“I’ll let you ride on my back if there’s a lot of water ok?” Stumpy offered.
“That sounds nice, thank you Stumpy.”
“Alright, I guess that settles that, let’s just get going.” Joseph said.
January 27th, 11:00 am
Tempest Cave
Crystal Continent
Team Echoes followed the map until they reached a cave entrance, Joseph went to enter the cave when Cinder stopped him, “Wait! Be careful! We don’t know what to expect walking into this place!”
“Uh, yeah we do, it’s a Mystery Dungeon that’s themed around water.” Joseph replied.
“Yeah, but Mystery Dungeons are unpredictable! We can’t know for sure what’s ahead-“
“Yeah until we get going so let’s go!” Rory interrupted.
“W-wait guys!”
But it was too late, everyone ran ahead into the dungeon.
“What the heck guys!?” Cinder shouted, she then ran into the dungeon after them, however when she entered the dungeon instead of being greeted by a small cave clearing she fell onto some improvised water slide, “AAAAH!” She screamed as she slid down the slide.
“WOOOOOOO!” Joseph exclaimed, “YEAH!”
“Woah! What’s going on!?” Rory shouted.
“It’s a natural water slide!”
“EEEK!” Stumpy shrieked as he flailed around in fear.
Sammy went sliding past the rest of the team at mach speeds while screaming, “Yippee!”
Eventually, the slide split off into two paths, the majority of Team Echoes went down the left path, but Cinder was stuck taking the right one leaving her all alone, “Crap! Guys!” She called out, but it was futile, they couldn’t hear her, “No no no no nononononono!”
The slide came to an end, dropping Cinder in a small pool of water, she quickly got out of there and winced at the throbbing pain she felt on her back, “Owowowow!” She whimpered.
Cinder looked around the area really quickly and confirmed she was indeed alone, “Just great, I’m all alone in a dungeon full of the leading cause of death for fire type Pokémon, what could possibly be worse than this?”
Suddenly, Cinder’s watch started vibrating, she looked at her watch and noticed Joseph was calling her, she picked up and was immediately bombarded by panicked screaming, “Oh my god Cinder are you ok!?”
“Relatively.” Cinder replied, “I mean I’m drenched and there’s water everywhere, but I’m fine.”
“Oh, thank god…” Joseph sighed, “We must’ve gotten separated then.”
“Gee, what makes you say that?” Cinder sassed.
“The fact you’re still alive.”
Cinder’s eyes went wide under her eyelids, “WAIT, WHAT!?”
“Yeah that water slide dropped us into a massive pool of water that was like 6 feet deep, I was lucky Stumpy pulled me out of the water, I really thought I was going to drown.”
“Yikes! I guess it wasn’t a bad thing we got separated after all then, I landed in a much smaller pool of water, it was enough to break my fall but not enough to fully submerge me.”
“Well that’s good, It’d suck to lose you to a place like this.”
“What’s with this place anyway?” Cinder said as she observed her surroundings, “This isn’t like any Mystery Dungeon I’ve ever seen!”
“I don’t know, but what I do know is we gotta get out of here!”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself!”
Cinder surveyed the area again, she noticed a set of stone steps leading up somewhere, she followed the steps, finding a chest at the top of the steps, “I found loot!” She exclaimed.
“Careful! It could be a trap!” Joseph replied.
Cinder didn’t heed Joseph’s warning, instead, she kicked the chest causing it to open slowly, she then hopped up and grabbed what was inside, “I found some weird necklace!” Cinder called out.
“I wouldn’t recommend putting it on.” Joseph warned, “It could be cursed.”
“Well, I don’t see any better options given the fact that these stairs are currently the only thing I can access without the ability to swim.”
“Just don’t do it! We’ll find a Rollcall Orb, just sit tight!”
Cinder decided that since her teammates didn’t listen to her, she wasn’t gonna listen to them, but first, she checked the chest again to make sure there wasn’t anything else in it, “There’s a note here!” She exclaimed.
The note read as follows:
Hello traveler!
If you’re reading this, then congrats! You’re not dead!
I know that was kinda mean, but this place is deadly for us fire types, so that’s why I decided to leave my greatest treasure here. What is this treasure, you may be asking? Well, it’s none other than the one and only Ever Burn Charm!
The Ever Burn Charm allows the wearer to touch water without feeling pain! But it only applies to fire types… It also instantly teaches the wearer how to swim in water which doesn’t make any sense but hey this world doesn’t make any sense.
Anyway, I hope this helps you in some way as you traverse this hellscape.
Best wishes
– Pyre
P.S. If you try to sell this thing, I’ll curse you for as long as you live.
Just as Cinder finished reading the note, the ground started to shake and water began to rise.
“Crud! I think one of us triggered a trap or something!” Joseph shouted.
“Yup, I’m putting this thing on right now!” Cinder said in a panic.
Cinder put the charm on and began to walk away from the rising water, “Cinder, are you doing alright!?” Joseph asked.
“I HOPE THIS WORKS!” She squealed as she braced for the rising water.”
The water rose to where Cinder was, eventually lifting her up to the ceiling before coming to a stop.
“Cinder? CINDER!?” Joseph cried out.”
“I-I’m alive? HA HA! I’M ALIVE!” Cinder responded.
“H-how!?”
“I put on the necklace I found! There was a note that explained that it would give me the ability to swim in water!”
“That’s great! I mean you didn’t listen to me, but hey it turned out well in the end didn’t it?”
“YEP! I CAN SWIM NOW!”
“Great! Maybe you could find a way to meet up with us then!”
“Alright! I’ll get looking!”
Cinder took a deep breath and dove under the water she then noticed a large opening under the water and she began to swim through it. The opening led to a giant tunnel that didn’t have anywhere to pop up for air, which scared Cinder a little bit, but she pressed on anyway.
‘How long is this tunnel?’ Cinder thought to herself, ‘At this rate, I’m gonna drown!’
Cinder had made it about halfway through the tunnel and was starting to run out of air when she was met by Sammy, whose eyes shot wide open when he saw Cinder.
“How are you-” Sammy asked before getting cut off by the panicked sounds coming from Cinder, “Right, right, you need air ASAP.”
Sammy grabbed Cinder by the hand and dragged her through the rest of the tunnel and to the surface, once she was safely above water Cinder took in a big gulp of air, “Oh sweet air!” She exclaimed.
“Alright, now that that’s been taken care of, how did you do that?” Sammy asked.
“It’s this thing.” Cinder said as she lifted up the Ever Burn Charm, “I found it with a note that explained what it did and I had to put it on before the rising water killed me.”
“What is it with us almost dying lately!?” Rory blurted.
“I don’t know, but I love it!” Cinder exclaimed, “The adrenaline is pumping through my veins at mach speeds! I feel so alive!”
“Yep, she’s alright.” Joseph sighed.
“Let’s get out of here!”
January 27th, 12:15 pm
Tempest Cave – Outside
Crystal Continent
The rest of the trip through the dungeon was pretty uneventful, as for some reason this dungeon was mostly full of pools of water the team had to swim through, there were some weak feral Pokémon, but Joseph took them all out accidentally by trying to use an electric type move underwater, thankfully all of his teammates were out of the water before that happened because that could have been baaaaaad.
“Alright, our next stop is at a place labeled ‘Mega Crater’, it doesn’t say it’s a dungeon, but I have a feeling that’s wrong.” Cinder announced.
“If I remember what my parents told me, then it shouldn’t be, it’s actually where the meteor that brought Mega Evolution to this world landed.” Rory said.
“Whoa! You’re saying a meteor hit the earth and it’s still intact!?”
“Yup, it’s actually not the only one, it’s just the one from Mega Crater is the biggest one ever recorded.”
“Wow, that’s actually pretty sick!”
“And pretty deadly!” Joseph added, “Where I’m from, a big meteorite hitting the planet would have caused a mass extinction.”
“Is that what happened to me!?” Stumpy blurted, “Was I victim to mass extinction!?”
“Well from what it sounds like I’d say it’s a safe bet.”
“You’re not gonna kill me again when you get your meteor powers, are you?”
“What!? Arceus no!” Rory answered, “I wouldn’t hurt you if I could help it.”
Stumpy let out a sigh of relief, “Phew, you had me terrified for a moment.”
Rory chuckled, “Don’t worry, there isn’t enough meteor power in the world to make me hurt my friends.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Cinder said, “Where I’m from, Mega Evolved Pokémon are prone to going berserk.”
“Wait for real!?”
“Yeah, it’s quite scary, it makes me thankful that we don’t have many Emeras near Treasure Town, otherwise I feel like I would’ve been hospitalized by an Aura Sphere from my friend Lucario.”
“Yeah, I was gonna say something about the horrifying Pokédex entries that Mega Pokémon have in the games from my world, but I didn’t want to horrify you.” Joseph added.
“What could be worse than going berserk?” Cinder asked.
“To sum it up, Pinsir can’t stop flying or it will start dying, Houndoom burns itself with its flames causing it to sustain an injury that never goes away, Kangaskhan’s baby becomes unable to do anything but fight, stressing the Kangaskhan out, and Glalie breaks its jaw every time it Mega Evolves, I could go on, but I think my point has become clear.”
“Is there anything scary about Mega Lucario?” Rory asked.
“The only thing that I can remember is that they don’t show any mercy.”
“Oh, thank Arceus, I was afraid I was gonna explode or something.”
“Nope, you’re fine.”
“Uh, guys, I think we made it.” Cinder announced.
The group stopped walking and looked over at the crater, “Why’s there just a house on the edge of the crater!?” Joseph asked.
“That’s probably where our guy lives.” Cinder said.
“I mean yeah duh, but like why would you build a house there!?
“I’m not one to judge.”
“Yeah me neither, if they give us the Key Stone then that’s all that matters.” Rory agreed.
“I wasn’t judging, I was just a little confused.” Joseph said.
“Well you can ask about it after we get the Key Stone, ok?”
“Alright, I guess…”
The team ran through the crater and to the house on the other side, once they got there Joseph knocked on the door, “Hello? Anyone home?”
There was no response…
“Hello!? Is anyone home!?” Joseph reiterated in a louder voice.
There was still no response…
Joseph was about to begin yelling when Rory stopped him, “Dude, give it a rest, nobody’s home.”
“Yeah nobody’s home.” An unfamiliar voice said.
The team quickly turned around only to be greeted by an Alakazam, “Greetings travelers! What brings you here?” The Alakazam asked.
“I-“
“Don’t bother answering, I’ve already figured it out, you’re here to obtain a Key Stone, aren’t you?”
“How’d you-“
“I can read minds, Rory.”
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”
“Oh, sorry…”
“Do you have a Key Stone?” Cinder asked.
“No, unfortunately, I don’t.”
“That sucks!”
“You didn’t let me finish, I don’t have a Key Stone, I have 3 Key Stones.”
“Oh, cool! Would you mind giving one to us?”
“I’d be happy to… If you can beat me in a battle, that is.”
“Uh, I’m not liking our odds here, guys.” Joseph said.
“Eh, I’m pretty sure I can take him.” Cinder confidently replied.
“Even if he were to Mega Evolve?”
“Wait, he can do that?”
“Yes, we Alakazam are capable of Mega Evolution.” Alakazam stated.
“Never mind, I’m good, I know how to pick my fights and I can tell this is a horrible idea.”
“Maybe it’s not about beating him in a fight.” Sammy suggested, “Maybe he wants us to beat him in a battle of wits.”
“Correct!” The Alakazam bubbled. “If you can successfully beat me in a battle of wits, I’ll fork over a Key Stone.”
“I’m still not liking our odds.” Joseph fretted, “This guy’s species is known for having an IQ of around 5,000.”
“Well it’s the only shot we’ve got so we might as well take it.” Rory said.
“Agreed, to quote a friend of mine, ‘you miss every shot you don’t take.'” Cinder added.
“Ugh, fine, let’s get our butts kicked then…” Joseph groaned.
“Alright then, let’s take this inside, shall we?” The Alakazam said.
The group moved toward the door before immediately being teleported inside by Alakazam, “Oh I guess that works too…” Joseph said.
“Alright, so we’re going to be playing a game.”
“What kind of game?” Stumpy asked.
“That is for you to decide, usually folks ask to play rock paper scissors, but that never pans out well for them, I mastered that game on my first day alive.”
“How about UNO then?” Cinder asked.
“Excuse me?”
Cinder pulled out her UNO cards, “It’s a card game from another world entirely, it somehow ended up in this world and it’s quickly become a favorite of mine.”
“Uh ok? I mean I’ve never played it, but I’m sure I could figure it out in a few milliseconds.”
Cinder got UNO set up and taught Alakazam the rules, and then the battle of wits began, and oh boy was it a chaotic battle.
Cinder started the game off with a green 3, Alakazam countered this with a yellow 3, Joseph drew a card and got a plus 4 which he saved for later, Rory used a yellow reverse card and…
Yeah, we all know where this is going, so let’s just get to the point, Cinder was down to just two cards left, meanwhile, Alakazam had half of the deck, “I hardly find this game fair.”
“Well yeah because we’re all just ganging up on you.” Joseph said.
“Well there’s that, but there’s also the fact that I haven’t drawn a single good card this whole time!”
“How!? You have half of the deck!” Sammy blurted.
“Look, I never said I was a lucky Pokémon, I just said I was a smart one.”
“And clearly I’m smarter.” Cinder said, “You didn’t even realize that I picked this game for a specific reason.”
“Wait what!?”
“You see, the reason I picked this game is that while skill is pretty helpful in this game it’s not the only thing you need to win, you also need luck, and also your friends can help you out a bit.”
“Drat! I’ve been played for a fool.”
“That you have!”
“How could I be so blind!?”
Cinder’s turn rolled back around and she played a red skip card, “Uno.”
“Darn, there went my last shred of hope, I guess I yield then…”
“You can’t yield until the game’s over.” Joseph said.
“Ugh fine…”
Everyone took their last turn and Cinder finished the game with a smug look on her face, “Good game!”
“Well played, you little twerp.” Alakazam said as his salt levels went through the roof, “I never thought I’d see the day I’d lose a battle of wits to a Cyndaquil.”
“Well, now you have, now a deal’s a deal.”
“Fine, here you go.”
Alakazam handed Cinder the Key Stone, she then quickly stuffed it into her bag along with her UNO cards.
“By the way, if you value those cards, it would be wise of you to NEVER BRING THEM HERE AGAIN!”
Cinder laughed, “Understood!”
Team Echoes left Alakazam’s humble abode with a newfound sense of accomplishment, “Man, I can’t believe we actually pulled that off.” Joseph remarked.
“I know! I expected him to catch on to what I was doing sooner!” Cinder whooped.
“Uh, guys?” Rory said shakily, “What’s that?”
The group all turned around to see a small crack in the sky forming above the Mega Crater, “Oh no…” Cinder muttered.
“It’s a Space Time Distortion!” Joseph exclaimed.
“Wait, you mean like the thing that brought Cinder here!?” Rory blurted
“Yup! That’s one alright!” Cinder shrieked.
“How is it forming here then!?” Sammy shouted.
Joseph shrugged, “Beats me, but I gotta get over there.”
Cinder shook Joseph, “Do you have a death wish!?”
“Maybe, but there also could be some good stuff in there.”
“Why does it matter!? We already got everything we could ever ask for back at the Coin Case Gang’s base!” Rory shouted.
“I know, but there could be stuff from other worlds there!”
“Yeah, hostile stuff waiting to KILL YOU!” Cinder asserted.
“I know, it’s risky, but the pay-out would be amazing!”
“There’s no talking you out of this, is there?” Stumpy asked.
“Nope, my mind is made.”
“Whatever, just don’t drag me into this.”
“Alright, you all stay here, and if I’m not back here in… Let’s say 30 minutes, then assume I’m dead.”
“I’m not gonna let you-” Cinder shouted before watching Joseph run off, “Aaaaand there he goes, of course.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Sammy assured.
“And if he’s not!?”
“Well, we won’t have to hide a human from the rest of society anymore.”
“I don’t think the good outweighs the bad here.”
“Well, at least there is a positive.”
Joseph ran into the Space Time Distortion right as it fully formed, “Alright, run around, avoid Pokémon, grab items, just like the game right?” He said to himself in an attempt to calm himself down.
And that’s exactly what he did, he ran around, collecting all the items he saw, among the items he had collected there were a couple of bags of Stardust, a Nugget, and one of each color of shards.
Joseph was just about to call it quits when he noticed something strange, “What’s that over there?” He asked himself, “It looks like a lump of snow.”
Joseph ran over to inspect the white blob he had seen, upon closer inspection he realized it was a Hisuian Zorua, however, when he approached the Zorua he noticed it was struggling to keep its eyes open, “Ugh…” The Zorua groaned before shutting its eyes.
“Crud! I gotta get it to safety!” Joseph cried out, he then swiftly put the Zorua onto his back before getting the hell out of there before an actually threatening Pokémon appeared.
“What’s taking him so long?” Rory asked.
“He’s probably getting greedy.” Cinder suggested.
“I hope not, I’d hate to see him come back all beat up, or worse.” Stumpy fretted.
“GUYS!” Joseph shouted, “WE NEED MEDICAL ATTENTION, STAT!”
“Yep, I told you, he’s probably bleeding all over the place.” Cinder scoffed.
“WE’VE GOT AN INJURED POKÉMON HERE!”
“Wait, what’s that white blob on his back?” Sammy asked.
Joseph rejoined the group and skidded to a stop, he then set the injured Zorua on the ground, “What the- where’d you find them!?” Cinder squeaked.
“I found them in there, now hand me some Oran Berries!”
“Ok! Ok! Just stay calm!”
Cinder handed Joseph a handful of Oran Berries, he then proceeded to put them in the Zorua’s mouth and make them chew them up and swallow them, which was a little awkward because they were out cold.
“Shouldn’t we be trying to use a Reviver Seed?” Rory asked.
“Not with their condition, the best course of action now is to feed her Oran Berries and hope for the best.” Cinder replied.
Joseph finished feeding the berries to the Zorua, he then tossed her onto his back once again, “We need to get them somewhere safe!”
“Right!” The team chorused before bolting off in the direction they came from.
January 27th, 3:40 pm
Crystal City – Pier
Crystal Continent
Team Echoes ran back into the city, which took them a while because of their newly acquired cargo, “Alright Cinder call Salamence we have to get home ASAP!”
“But what about that machine you wanted?” Stumpy asked.
“Oh right… Uh…” Joseph thought for a moment before handing the Zorua to Stumpy, “Hold onto them until I get back, then I’ll give you the machine.”
“You want me to carry both!?”
“We’ll trade! You give them back to me and I’ll give you the machine.”
“Ok!”
Joseph then ran off to go buy his ever-important air-conditioning, leaving the Zorua in Stumpy’s care.
Cinder then noticed the bag around the Zorua’s waist, “She’s wearing a bag, you think she was part of a guild too?”
“It doesn’t look like a guild bag.” Rory noted.
“It’s got some weird logo on it.” Sammy pointed out, “It’s hard to notice, but that’s definitely some sort of logo.”
“Maybe it’s her guild’s logo.” Cinder raised.
“We can ask them about it when they wake up.” Stumpy said, “Hopefully they don’t freak out or anything.”
Joseph rejoined the group with the machine in tow, “Alright, give me the corpse, Stumpy.”
“DUDE!” Rory shouted.
“What, they’re a ghost type!”
“That’s still insensitive!”
“Wait, you know what Pokémon they are!?” Cinder gasped.
“Yeah, but I’ll save it for when they actually wake up.”
“Alright.”
Joseph traded the air conditioning machine for the Zorua, “Alright now we just gotta wait for Salamence.” Joseph sighed.
“But what about the machine!? I can’t hold onto it if I can’t ride on Salamence’s back!”
“We can just hold onto it when we’re on his back, then once we make it back, you can carry it back.”
“Sounds like a plan, I guess.”
“Alright, then get back!” Joseph said as he put Stumpy back into his Pokéball.
About 5 minutes later, Salamence arrived, “You said it was an emergency?” He asked.
“Yeah! We found an injured Pokémon and we wanted to take them back to our base in the Coast Continent, once we’re there we can have our guild’s nurses treat her wounds more thoroughly.” Cinder answered.
“Alright, just don’t blame me if they’re a goner when we get there.”
The team jumped onto Salamence’s back and got settled, this time making sure not to dig their claws into his back, “I’ll keep the machine safe.” Rory said.
“Alright, just be careful not to turn it on, it might mess with Salamence’s flying.” Joseph warned.
“Gotcha.”
Salamence took off even faster than last time, he understood the severity of the situation and wanted to make sure the little Zorua was safe and sound ASAP.
January 27th, 4:10 pm
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Salamence dropped Team Echoes off at their base, they then proceeded to rush the Zorua into Joseph’s room, placing them on one of the extra beds from the other rooms.
“Phew, safe and sound.” Rory sighed.
“Well, I’m gonna go get Arboliva and Meganium.” Cinder said, “Stay here guys.”
Joseph looked at the Zorua, desperately hoping it would be ok, when it opened its eyes again, “CINDER THEY OPENED THEIR EYES!” Rory shouted.
Cinder ran back into the room as the Zorua fully opened their eyes, “Ugh… Where… Where am I?” The Zorua asked, she then noticed Joseph staring right at her and immediately began to panic, “EEEP! A WILD SHINX!” She screamed as she reached into her satchel, after fumbling around for a moment she pulled out an ancient Pokéball and threw it in front of her, “FLINT! HELP ME!”
Out of the ball, a Hisuian Decidueye popped out, “Hmph…” He grunted.
“Um, uh oooooooh…” Joseph muttered before getting pinned between the Decidueye’s talons.
“You’ve made a mistake messing with her!” The Decidueye roared.
“Hey, get off of him!” Cinder shouted, “He saved her!”
“Did he now?”
“Yes! Now let him go!”
“Never.”
The Decidueye readied an arrow but dropped it when he heard a blood-curdling scream, “EEEEEEEEEEEP!”
He turned around to see a Hisuian Zorua staring at its paws in sheer terror, “Wait, you’re not master Yumi!” He shouted before looking back at Joseph, “WHERE IS MASTER YUMI!?”
“I-I’m a… I-I’m a Pokémon!?” The Zorua shrieked.
“Wait what!?” Rory gasped, “Another human!?”
“Look I have no clue what’s going on here but so help me Arceus if you don’t start explaining it I’m going to nail you to the wall with my arrows and peck out your eyes! DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND!?” The Decidueye threatened.
Joseph nodded feebly, he was then freed from the Decidueye’s grasp, “Phew, ok, so basically what’s going on here is that I found that Zorua in a Space Time Distortion that formed in this world, she was out cold when I found her so my friends and I brought her here and then she pulled your Pokéball out of her bag because she was frightened.”
“How’d she end up with my Pokéball huh!?”
“Flint it’s me!” The Zorua shouted, “I don’t know how, but I got transformed into a Zorua!”
“You did this to her, didn’t you?” Flint asked in a stern tone.
“No, the world did this to her, humans don’t exist here so they get turned into Pokémon.” Joseph explained.
“You expect me to believe that flimsy excuse!?” Flint yelled as he grabbed Joseph in a chokehold.
“LET HIM GO!” The Zorua shouted.
“What!? Why!?”
“Because.” The Zorua said before shivering, “He might be completely terrifying, but he’s innocent!”
“Look, I’ll listen to you because you sound like master Yumi, but just know I’ll tear you to shreds without remorse if your judgment is wrong.”
“No, you won’t.” Cinder challenged.
“Oh yeah pipsqueak!? Who says I won’t!?”
“My Fire Blast.”
“Pffft, as if you could even use that move.”
Cinder shot a Fire Blast right beside Flint as a warning shot, “You were saying?”
“Uh, um, uh, um.” Flint sputtered.
“I want to hear more about this Space Time Distortion.” The Zorua said.
“I’ve told you all I really know!” Joseph exclaimed.
“Fine, tell me how you know about humans not existing here!”
“Because I was one before I got sent here!”
“Wait seriously!?”
“Yup, and if anyone else finds out, then I’m as good as dead.”
“Oh… Oh no…”
“Y-you can’t be serious!” Flint exclaimed.
“I wish I wasn’t.”
“So that means that Zorua really is master Yumi!?”
“Yes Flint, it’s me!” Yumi insisted.
“I’m gonna need a minute.”
Flint walked out of the room, leaving Yumi alone in the room surrounded by Pokémon.
Joseph walked closer to Yumi causing her to back up a bit, “C-could you stay back a bit? I’m afraid of Pokémon.” She squeaked.
“How can you be afraid of Pokémon!?” Rory asked, “You have one with you!”
“Y-yeah, but he scares me too! He knows that, but he tries to help me anyway.”
“This must be pretty weird for you then, you know, talking to Pokémon.” Cinder said.
“Oh, don’t even get me started…” Yumi sighed.
“Tell me about it!” Joseph said, “Pokémon aren’t even real where I’m from, so waking up as one felt like a fever dream!”
“So, how’d you get here?” Cinder asked, “Did you get messed up by a Space Time Distortion or something?”
“Y-yeah… I did…”
“Yeah that happened to me too, I went from my peaceful life at home with my friends to a chaotic life here without my friends from home.”
“Wait, are you a human too!?”
“Nope, but I was friends with one back home, he was a hero!”
“That’s strange… Then why is it such a bad thing for people to find out about us being human then?”
“Because not to alarm you or anything, but this world is currently being ripped to shreds by one.”
“Of course it is…”
“My thoughts exactly.” Stumpy said as he popped out of his ball.
“EEEEP!”
“EEEEEK!”
“WHAT IS THAT THING!?”
“I’m Stumpy, nice to meet you!”
“Get it away! Get it away!” Yumi said as she flailed her paws at Stumpy.
“Stumpy, she’s a little afraid of Pokémon, so it might not be the best idea to pop out like that.” Joseph explained.
“Aw… Ok… I guess I’ll sit outside then.”
Stumpy walked out of the room and sat in the hall, leaving the other (Much smaller) Pokémon to explain what was going on to Yumi, “So basically there’s this human that was sent here like 800 years ago she ended up turning evil and getting defeated by a group of heroes, but now she’s back and she’s got some evil power that’s letting her take over the world.”
Yumi sighed, “I should’ve told Laventon to do his own research, I wouldn’t be in this mess if I just said no.”
“Who’s Laventon?” Sammy asked.
“Let me explain.”
A few hours prior
April 12th, 7:00 am
Jubilife Village
Hisui Region
Yumi woke up on a nice spring morning, she got into her survey corps uniform and grabbed her satchel before heading out. She jogged over to the Galaxy Expedition Team building and entered it, once inside she ran over to Laventon’s lab, “Ah Yumi! Nice to see you!”
“Morning Professor!” Yumi replied, “What Pokémon do you want me to research today?”
“I was thinking since you and Flint have been getting strong, you’d be ready to venture into a Space Time Distortion.”
“What’s a Space Time Distortion?”
“They’re rips in time and space, they’ve become less common now that the Temple of Sinnoh isn’t sitting underneath a giant rip in the sky, but they still occur.”
“Is there a certain Pokémon you wanted me to research in one, or did you just want me to check one out?”
“The Pokémon I want you to research is Porygon, Rei found one a few days ago, but I still need to know more about them in order to make a complete write-up about them.”
“So do they only appear in these sky-rip thingies?”
“According to Rei, yes, they only appear in those mouthfuls in the Crimson Mirelands, so I would suggest looking there if you’re up for it.”
“Alright! I won’t let you down, Professor!”
“Jolly good! I look forward to hearing about your findings!”
Yumi left the Galaxy Expedition Team building and went to leave Jubilife Village, but before she could do so she was greeted by Akari, “Ah Yumi! Good to see you!”
“Hey Akari!” Yumi chirped, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing much, I was just training with my Pikachu.”
“Oh, that’s cool, I’m supposed to be researching Porygon today.”
“Be careful! I’ve heard that Porygon can be pretty dangerous, you might want to bring more Pokémon.”
“I’m sure Flint and I will be fine.”
“I’m serious! I almost lost a battle to one!”
“Well Flint is tough, he’ll be alright.”
Akari sighed, “Whatever, it’s your funeral.”
April 12th, 9:50 am
Crimson Mirelands
Hisui Region
Yumi left the village, completely ignoring Akari’s warning, once she had arrived in the Crimson Mirelands she noticed a Space Time Distortion forming right off the bat, “Great! I don’t have to wait around!” She cheered.
Yumi ran off toward the Space Time Distortion right as it fully formed, once inside the distortion she began to pick up the rare items that were appearing. Most of the items she picked up were just selling items, but one of them stood out from all the rest, “What’s this weird thing?” She asked herself, “It looks like a see-through box with some weird round thing in it.”
But as Yumi took her eyes off the strange item, she was met by a Porygon who was inches from her face, “EEP!” Yumi said as she fell back, “FLINT, GET IT AWAY FROM ME!” She shouted as she threw Flint’s Pokéball.
Out popped Flint, who was immediately shot by the Porygon’s Tri Attack, causing him to grunt.
“AH! FLINT!” Yumi screamed as Flint shook off the attack like it was nothing.
Flint looked back at Yumi with a look that screamed “What are you so afraid of I’m fine” before turning back to face his opponent.
When Flint turned back to his opponent, he noticed a Hyper Beam heading his way, “FLINT, GET BACK!” Yumi shouted as she retrieved Flint.
Yumi turned tail and began to run for her life, but she was too slow, taking the brunt of the Hyper Beam, completely knocking her over. With her consciousness fading fast, Yumi noticed the world around her begin to fade in and out until eventually, the world was unrecognizable, after this happened everything went blurry as Yumi saw what appeared to be a yellow Shinx approaching her, “Ugh…” She groaned as the Shinx ran toward her, her consciousness faded completely after that.
January 27th, 4:25 pm
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
“And that’s basically how I got myself into this mess…” Yumi concluded.
“Wow… That’s terrible…” Cinder lamented.
“Eh, she kinda deserved it.” Rory scoffed, “I mean that Akari girl did give you a fair warning.”
“I only denied her because I was too shy to tell her I was afraid of Pokémon!” Yumi shot back, “Plus, it’s not like any of my other Pokémon would’ve helped me, they’re all super weak!”
“They still would’ve made good fodder.”
“Rory! That’s not cool!” Joseph scolded, “You can’t just use weaker Pokémon as fodder!”
“Yeah! They’re living creatures too!” Yumi added, “Just because they scare me doesn’t mean I don’t care about them!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was under the impression that that’s what that meant.” Rory apologized, “So why are you afraid of Pokémon?”
“Because they’re monsters! They can kill humans left and right without even breaking a sweat!”
“Well, they probably wouldn’t if they had the choice!” Rory said causing everyone to look directly at her, “What? Was it something I said?”
“You literally threatened to kill me when we first met.” Joseph said, “You and I know just as well that, yes, they would kill her if given the choice.”
“Wait, how are they going to kill me if I’m a Zorua?” Yumi asked, “I’m already a ghost… Wait a second, I’M A GHOST!”
“Wait what!?” Cinder blurted, “I thought Zorua were dark types!”
“Normally they are, but she’s special.” Joseph explained, “She’s a Hisuian Zorua, which are normal ghost types.”
“I-I’m not actually dead, am I!?” Yumi fretted, “I still have so much stuff I wanted to do! I was only 18! I was too young to die! I c-can’t be dead!”
“Relax! Just because you’re a ghost type doesn’t mean you’re dead, it just means you’re a ghost.”
“So I am dead!”
“No you’re not.” Cinder said, “If that were the case, I would’ve died a couple of days ago because of Spice using Trick-or-Treat on me.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“Trick-or-Treat is a move that Pumpkaboo learns, when it’s used it gives the whoever it hits the ghost type for a little bit.” Joseph explained, “Spice is the name of a Pumpkaboo that used that move on Cinder.”
“Wait, so Pokémon here have names?”
“Some of us do, but others just go by their species name.” Rory explained.
“Am I gonna have to change my name!?”
Joseph chuckled, “You’re fine, it’s not that hard to conceal your humanity, just don’t go into detail about your eye color.”
“My eye color?”
“Yup, your eyes are still their original color instead of being the color they should be, hence why I have green eyes.”
“So are my eyes still brown?”
“Why don’t you check it out for yourself?” Cinder asked, “There’s a mirror in the other room, I’ll take you there if you want.”
“I-I’m not sure if I can make it there without tripping.” Yumi squeaked.
“Oh, it’s ok, I also have a mirror in my bag.” Cinder said as she reached into her bag.
After rummaging around for a bit, Cinder pulled her mirror out of the bag and held it in front of Yumi, who winced when she saw her reflection, “T-that’s what I look like!?” She whimpered, “I don’t even look like myself at all!”
“You don’t look bad though, you’re kinda cute, actually.” Cinder said.
“P-put the mirror away! I can’t look at myself!” Yumi said as she covered her face.
Flint reentered the room and immediately caught a glimpse of Yumi covering her face and crying, “What have you done!?” He shouted.
“This isn’t what it looks like!” Joseph shot back, “We didn’t hurt her or anything!”
“Cut the crap! Why else would she be crying and covering her face!?”
“I’m a monster!” Yumi cried, “A horrible monster!”
“Huh?”
“It’s ok, Yumi, you’re not a monster.” Cinder comforted.
“I never want to look in a mirror again!”
A sweat drop rolled down the side of Flint’s head, “Oh… Situation misread…?”
“Yeah, maybe instead of trying to rush in and beat everyone up, you should slow down and assess the situation.” Rory suggested.
“But what if there was a problem!? If she were to get hurt, it would be my fault!”
“Relax! You two are safe with us! I thought we already established that!”
“The only thing you’ve established so far is that I have no clue what’s going on.”
“We haven’t even gotten to the confusing stuff yet!” Joseph shouted.
“There’s more!?”
“Yep,” Joseph sighed, “I would start to get used to things not making sense if I were you.”
Stumpy walked back into the room, “Did somebody scream about being a monster?”
“ACK! What the hell is that!?” Flint blurted.
“The name’s Stumpy, nice to meet you!”
“I think I’m going to need a couple more minutes outside, maybe an hour, actually.”
“Go ahead, the fewer Pokémon in here the better, I don’t want to scare Yumi too much.”
“As if you wouldn’t be enough to give her a heart attack on your own.”
“He’s actually kind of cute if you ignore the fact that he looks like a lab experiment.” Rory said.
“Yeah, anything can look cute if you lower your standards enough.”
“Look, do you want me to help Yumi or not?” Stumpy asked.
“If by help you mean put her in an early grave, then no.”
“Good, looks like you finally came around then.”
“Wait, I didn’t agree to anything!”
“Relax, Stumpy’s not going to hurt her, he just wants to talk to her.” Joseph said, “He’s a gentle giant.”
“Ugh… Fine, but if you hurt her at all, even just emotionally, I’ll tear you limb from mismatched limb, you understand that tacky?”
Stumpy chuckled, “Understood.”
“What’s so funny!?”
The other members of Team Echoes started dying of laughter, “Bwahahahaha, tacky!? Really!?” Cinder burst.
“That’s the best you could come up with!?” Sammy said as he continued to die of laughter.
“Your aim might be true, but your insults need a bit of work there, bud.” Joseph ribbed.
“Yeah, what he said.” Rory giggled, “Leave the insults to someone who’s actually good at handing them out, like me for example.”
Flint rolled his eyes and looked back at Stumpy, giving him a deadly glare, “Just calm her down before I change my mind.” He huffed before storming out of the room.
“I believe in you Stumpy!” Joseph cheered, “You’ll make her feel better!”
Stumpy gulped, “I hope so…” He said uncertainly, “I mean that Flint guy may be terrible at insulting other Pokémon, but he seems pretty good with the whole ‘tearing them limb from limb’ thing.”
“Look, there’s nothing to be afraid of, if anyone’s qualified to calm her down now, it’s you.” Rory said.
“R-right, I’ve got this.”
“Deep breaths bud, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Cinder assured.
“Right, thanks for reminding me to breathe.”
The rest of the group left the room and walked into Cinder’s room while they waited for Stumpy to work his magic, meanwhile Stumpy was taking a deep breath to calm his nerves before having a monster-to-monster talk with Yumi, once he was ready, he walked up to Yumi and slowly moved her paws away from her face and shined the biggest smile he could muster.
“EEEP!” Yumi squealed.
“Hold on! I’m not gonna hurt you!” Stumpy replied, “I just wanted to talk to you.”
“About what!? How you want to fry me and eat me!?”
“No, I wanted to talk to you about how you’re feeling about yourself right now.”
“What’s there to talk about!? I’m a monster!”
“No you’re not, just because you’re not how you used to be doesn’t mean you’re a monster.”
“How would you know!?” Yumi shouted as tears streamed down from her eyes, “You don’t know what it’s like to wake up in a different body!”
“I might have some idea.” Stumpy said as he looked at his tail awkwardly, “I didn’t hatch like this.”
“What do you mean?”
“A really long time ago, I hatched from an egg as a little electric type bird Pokémon, but then I died to a giant star or meteor or something crushing me.”
“Where are you going with this? And if you died, then how are you here now?”
“I’m getting there.” Stumpy said softly, “Just listen.”
“O-ok…”
“As I was saying, I died, but fast-forward to a few days ago, some human brought what was left of me to a scientist who fused me with some dragon creature using fossils, they then gave me to Joseph, when I woke up after all this I felt just like you do now, like a monster, but then I realized that not everybody saw me that way, I mean some of us here thought I was a monster, but they came around eventually.”
“But why does that matter!? I’m not like you!”
“Yes, you are, whether you believe it or not.”
“How!? I’m a monster, not a freak!”
“Because regardless of the circumstances that brought us here, we’re in a similar situation, we both woke up in another world in an altered body, we both freaked out at our new forms, and we were both greeted by a group of friends who wanted to help us work through our problems.”
“F-friends? But we just met.”
“Yeah friendship spreads fast here it seems.”
“Well… I guess you’re right… We are one and the same, aren’t we?”
“Yup, just two weirdos who ended up in the middle of an ending world.”
“Right… I almost forgot about that…”
“Eh, I wouldn’t sweat it, Team Echoes isn’t going down without a fight!”
“Team Echoes… Is that what you call yourselves?”
“Yeah, we’re a team of explorers, collectors, and heroes, who go on adventures while we plan out how we’re gonna save the world!”
Yumi wiped the tears off her face, “Well if you’re not going down without a fight then neither am I, I guess, count Flint and me in!” She said with a determined expression.
“Wait really!? Just like that!?” Stumpy gasped, “I thought I was going to have to do a little more convincing before I got you out of your slump.”
“You’ve inspired me! I don’t want to give up hope just yet, plus who knows, if we can actually save the world then maybe I can find a way back home too!”
“That’s the spirit!” Stumpy cheered, “We should go tell the others!”
“Agreed!”
Yumi attempted to stand up but immediately buckled due to a sharp pain in her side, causing Stumpy to rush to her side, “I-is everything alright?” He asked shakily.
“Ergh… There’s something in my side, I think it might be a splinter or something.” Yumi replied.
Stumpy took a look at Yumi’s side and sure enough, there was a massive piece of wood lodged in her side somehow, “Hold on I’ll go get help!”
Stumpy ran out of the room and approached the others, “Did everything go alright with Yumi?” Cinder asked.
“Oh, it went great until she tried to stand up and join the rest of the group.” Stumpy explained.
Joseph began to chuckle, “She must not be used to walking on all fours yet, I guess I gotta teach her then.”
“Uh, can it wait? We kinda have a bigger issue.”
“What is it?”
“There’s a massive thorn in her side.”
“Metaphorically or-“
“Literally.”
“Crap, I guess we gotta keep playing doctor then!” Cinder shouted as she jumped from her seat.
The group ran back into Joseph’s room, preparing anything that could be used to treat her wounds as they did so, “Don’t worry! We’re gonna treat that wound of yours!” Sammy shouted as the group entered the room.
Yumi began to shiver, “C-could you do it from a distance?” She asked, “I-I’m still a little uneasy around Pokémon.”
“You’ll be fine.” Cinder said, “We’re not gonna hurt you… Well… Any more than we need to anyway…”
“Oh no…”
Cinder walked over to Yumi’s side and inspected the damage, “JEEZ! IT’S LIKE SHE HAS A WHOLE TREE STUCK IN HER SIDE!”
“Don’t say anything about it, just pull it out already!”
“R-right sorry it just caught me off guard.”
Cinder pulled the giant splinter out, letting a whole bunch of blood escape from underneath and causing Yumi to yelp a bit, “Ow, ow!”
“Calm down, it’s gonna hurt, but it can’t heal if we don’t get rid of the splinter first.” Cinder said softly.
It was at this time that Flint reentered the room again, the first thing he noticed was the blood that was pouring out of Yumi, “Ok now I KNOW you’re hurting her!” Flint shouted as he ran toward Cinder.
“Stop! I’m treating a wound! You’re gonna make it worse!” Cinder cried out just before Flint would’ve pounced on her.
Stumpy walked over and picked up the splinter, “This was stuck in her side.” Stumpy said, “She tried to get up, but it prevented her.”
“Where did this even come from!? It’s huge!”
“I-I think that Porygon took down a tree with its Hyper Beam.” Yumi whimpered, “It must’ve got lodged in my side when that happened.”
“You should’ve just left it! You’re never gonna be able to treat that wound!”
“She’s gonna be fine!” Cinder shot back, “I’ve recovered from worse!”
“If she dies because of your stupidity, I’m gonna lodge an arrow in your side and watch you bleed out the way she did!”
“Dude shut UP!” Rory yelled, “All you do is stand around and threaten us!”
“Well yeah because-“
“Because what?! Because you can’t be bothered to actually help out!? Or because you can’t!?”
“I uh-“
“I don’t care! Either make yourself useful or get out!”
“Ok! I’m sorry! It’s just I-I’m stressed out and I can’t think straight!”
“Well yelling isn’t going to fix anything, it’s just gonna make everyone else feel the same way.”
“B-but I’m still unsure if I can trust you!”
“Dude, we already told you, you lucked out, this is one of very few places that is safe for humans.” Joseph added, “We’re doing all the heavy lifting, so unless you feel like helping, just go find a place and sit capiche?”
“Uh, ok then…”
Flint walked over to the corner of the room and took a seat, Joseph on the other hand walked over to Cinder and whispered, “Is she gonna be ok?”
“I’m gonna be honest, I’m a little unsure, I think we’re gonna need something a little stronger than Oran Berries.” Cinder whispered back.
“Shoot, is there anything I can do to help?”
“Go get Vulcan, he’ll know what to do.”
“On it!” Joseph said as he raised a paw to his head.
Cinder chuckled, “You’re such a dork, you know that?”
“Just tryna lighten the mood.” Joseph replied right before running out of the room.
January 27th, 5:00 pm
SurfSpark Guild – Empty Member Room
Coast Continent
Joseph took the warp panel to the guild and immediately realized the problem with that, ‘Crap, I have no clue where they are!’ He thought, ‘What if they’re not even here?!’
His worries were quelled a few moments later when he heard Nail’s signature snicker emanating from the hallway, Joseph immediately ran out of the room to collect Vulcan, he was then immediately greeted by Nail and the rest of the team, “Joseph! Nice to see you bud!” Nail chirped.
“Wait, is something wrong!?” Vulcan asked, “Cinder said you were supposed to be just heading back now!”
“We have a small emergency that we need you to help out with.” Joseph explained.
“What why me!?”
Joseph went up to Vulcan’s ear and whispered, “It’s a medical emergency, but I can’t go into detail about it here or else I’m dead meat.”
“Why would it paint a bad picture or something!?”
“SHHHH!”
“S-sorry, I guess I’ll just see when we get there.”
“A medical emergency, eh?” Nail asked.
“How’d-“
“You whisper kinda loudly, not loudly enough for most other Pokémon to hear, but loudly enough for me to hear.”
“How- doesn’t matter, just follow me!”
January 27th, 5:05 pm
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Nail, Joseph, and the rest of the team arrived at the base via the warp panel, they then ran into Joseph’s room, “Holy smokes!” Specter shouted as he noticed Yumi’s blood painting the leaf bed she was lying on.
“Surprise! I got the rest of the team and Nail.” Joseph said.
“Vulcan! I need you to take over! I’m not sure how to treat her wounds with just Oran Berries.”
“Hold on, what’s going on here!?”
“T-they’re not gonna hurt me are they!?” Yumi squeaked.
Cinder’s attention was being split a million different ways and the stress was beginning to pile up, “Look there’s no time to explain, just treat her wounds!”
“Ok! Ok! I’m on it!” Vulcan blurted as he ran to Yumi’s side.
Vulcan pulled a whole bunch of medical supplies out of his bag and began working on healing Yumi’s wound, meanwhile, Nail and Flint were staring at each other awkwardly, the staring went on for a bit until Joseph said something about it, “Uh, are you two ok? You’ve been staring at each other for a few minutes now.”
“He’s from Hisui!” The two shouted in unison.
“Nice observation…?” Joseph replied.
“How’d you get here!?” Nail asked.
“I think you should ask Yumi on that one.” Flint responded.
“Yumi? Whose Yumi?”
“That’d be me.” Yumi whimpered, “I’ll tell you all what happened as long as you’re trustworthy.”
“Trustworthy? What’s that supposed to mean?” Slippy asked.
“She’s a human.” Joseph said, “There’s two of us now.”
“REALLY!?” Slippy gasped, “SO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME MY DREAM CAME TRUE TWICE!?”
“Yup, well 2.05 times to be exact, can’t forget about Specter, oh yeah, and since we found out about Fiora being that freaky figure we saw I guess it’s more like 3.05 times?”
Slippy started to bounce around out of happiness, “THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!”
Specter was covering his ears, “Should’ve told him to contain himself again.” He groaned.
“Nah, he’s been holding it in long enough.” Nail chuckled.
“No, I agree with Specter on this one, blowing my ears out isn’t exactly helping me plug a massive hole in someone’s side!” Vulcan shouted.
“Sorry…” Slippy sighed.
“How’d she even get an injury like this!?”
“This was lodged in her side.” Stumpy said as he showed Vulcan the “splinter”.
“And she’s still ALIVE!?”
“No, yes, maybe? I have no idea!” Yumi cried, “For what it’s worth, I’m a ghost now!”
“How does a ghost bleed!?” Specter blurted.
“She still has a physical form.” Nail replied, “It’s just like a friend of mine once said, some ghosts have two forms, physical and ethereal, the ethereal form is the one that is stereotypically considered a ghost, while the physical form is… Well… A physical form.”
“And how did he know that for sure?”
“He was a Hisuian Zoroark which is the evolved form of what Yumi is now.”
“Oh, uh, that makes sense.”
“Aaaaand done!” Vulcan announced as he finished wrapping a bandage around Yumi’s injury, “She’s gonna live!”
“Oh, thank Arceus…” Yumi sighed, “NOW ALL OF YOU GET AWAY, YOU’RE SCARING ME!”
This caught almost everyone off guard, “Huh!?”
“Right, Hisui’s humans are afraid of Pokémon.” Nail said.
“But I thought you were over that!?” Stumpy blurted,
“I never said that!” Yumi shouted, “All I said was that I was feeling better about myself and that I wanted to join you all in saving the world or whatever!”
“Wait what!?” Joseph blurted.
“Y-yeah I said I wanted to help you guys, b-but I’m not ready to start contributing yet! I still need to work up the courage to be around this many Pokémon.”
“I see…” Vulcan said, “Well you should be good to walk again.”
“Once you learn how to, that is.” Joseph added.
“Could you leave the medical report thing to me?”
“I was just saying!”
“Well you’re fine to walk and stuff but don’t push yourself, alright?”
Yumi was still shivering from the amount of Pokémon in the room, “Ok…” She replied.
“Now do you feel comfortable sharing the story behind that injury or do you want us to leave?”
“I-I Just want to be alone for a bit.” Yumi said before pointing at Joseph, “He can tell you about it.”
“Who, Joseph?”
“Yeah, he’s the one who found me after all.”
“Is that true?”
Joseph nodded his head, “It’s quite the tale, Specter, is it ok if we use your table for story time?”
Specter sighed, “We need another big table…”
“Is that a no?”
“Fine, but don’t take too long, I was planning to just chill out alone in my room for the rest of the day.”
“And by that you mean you were gonna hang out with Malachite, don’t you?” Cinder ribbed.
Specter started blushing, “S-shut up!”
“He doesn’t deny it!”
“How do you even know that I have a crush on her!?”
“Don’t act like I didn’t know about you telling her a bedtime story the other night.”
“H-how-“
“I also saw you sneak her out of the base the other morning.”
“Shoot, you caught him red-handed!” Joseph laughed.
The group kept teasing Specter as they left the room, leaving Yumi and Flint in the room, “Phew…” Flint sighed, “Thank goodness you’re ok!”
“C-can you go with them?” Yumi asked, “I’m still not comfortable even when it’s just you and me.”
“W-well, I’m not exactly the most comfortable around them either…”
“P-please? Just for my sake?”
“Fine…” Flint said as he stood up, “But only because you asked nicely.”
Flint left the room, leaving Yumi in the (Still bloody) bed of leaves.
Once Yumi was alone, she could finally ask the question that’s been on her mind since she woke up, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ She asked herself, ‘I could’ve gone my whole life only having to come face to face with the occasional Starly, but noooooo I just had to join the Galaxy Expedition Team and I just had to agree to help with the Pokédex and I just had to go out today…’ She thought, ‘Now I’m stuck living as a Zorua!’
Yumi shook her head, ‘No, I shouldn’t be beating myself up over this, it wasn’t my fault… The only thing I can do now is pick myself back up and try to get home once whatever’s going on here blows over…’
Yumi looked around the room before yawning, ‘All this stress must be wearing me out, guess a little nap wouldn’t hurt.’
And so Yumi took a nap for a while, completely ignoring the fact that her bed was still all bloody and gross while the other Pokémon were listening to Joseph explain how and why she got here in the first place.
January 27th, 6:35 pm
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Yumi woke up in a clean leaf bed and a new bandage, ‘Huh, I guess they cleaned up my mess.’ She thought, ‘Well I guess I should go thank them.’
Yumi stood up for the first time since becoming a Zorua and almost fell over immediately, ‘Why’s this so hard!? I’m just standing up!’ She mused, ‘Maybe it’s because of my injury or something.’
Disregarding her instability issue, Yumi attempted to walk toward the door, but immediately fell flat on her face, making a loud thud sound.
“Yumi!” Joseph shouted as he ran into the room, “Are you ok?”
“I-I’m fine.” Yumi squeaked.
“Phew, you had us all worried, we thought you passed out due to blood loss or something.”
“No, I was just napping, I’m a little upset that this wasn’t all some elaborate dream or something, but there’s not really much I can do about it.”
Joseph helped Yumi back up, “Yeah I know how you feel, I was desperately hoping that this was all some sick joke from my brain, but unfortunately, that’s not the case…”
“What time is it anyway?”
“It’s 6:35.” Joseph replied
Yumi was thrown off by this, “Was I really out for that long or is time all messed up?”
“It’s a little of both.” Joseph answered, “We found you at about 1:00 pm and when you woke up here it was about 4:10, 4:15-ish, but it’s also January here which definitely wasn’t the case in my world when I arrived here.”
“JANUARY!? IT WAS APRIL IN HISUI!”
“Yeah it was June back in my world, luckily I just so happened to wash up here in the Coast Continent where it always feels like summer.”
“Oh thank Arceus, I was afraid I’d be giving this fur a trial by fire against the winter weather.”
“Nope, you’re all good, I on the other hand wasn’t so lucky, Cinder dragged us off to the Glacier Continent in the dead of winter, and had Vulcan not been there I’m pretty sure I’d be dead by now.”
“Well on the topic of places, would you mind showing me around?” Yumi asked.
“Like right now?”
“Yeah, it’s not too late and I want to watch the sunset.”
“Ok, but you should really learn how to walk first.”
“Pffft it’s walking!” Yumi shouted as she attempted to walk away from Joseph, “How hard could it-” She continued before face-planting.
Joseph walked over and picked Yumi back up, “Here watch me.” Joseph instructed, “One, two, three, four.” He said as he took a step with each of his feet.
Yumi began to imitate his motions until she felt herself becoming more stable, “H-how’d you-” She blurted before Joseph cut her off.
“I’ve been here for about a week now, it’s not quite second nature, but it’s natural enough to where I can move around just fine, the real struggle is using moves.”
“We’ll get there when we get there, ok?”
“Ok.” Joseph answered, “Let’s get going then.”
Joseph led Yumi out of his room and into the lounge, where they were immediately met by Flint, “M-master Yumi!” He gasped, “You’re alive!”
“I’m still on the fence about that.” Yumi responded, “I’m still a ghost, remember?”
“O-oh, right, well you seem to be fine other than that.”
“Yeah, I’m fine, still slightly dinged up, but otherwise fine.”
“You can thank me for teaching her how to walk by the way.” Joseph added, “Speaking of walking, we were gonna take an evening stroll.”
“Absolutely not!” Flint assorted, “She could get eaten alive out there and you just want to go out on a stroll as if this place is some sort of safe haven!? Hell no!”
“You’re overreacting dude, she’ll be fine as long as she doesn’t tell anyone she’s human.”
“That’s a lie!” Flint insisted, “Wild Pokémon always get into fights and I’m not about to lose Yumi because she was attacked by some weakling taking advantage of her injured state!”
“The Pokémon around here aren’t wild, they’re civilized, but I get it, you’re concerned something might go wrong so would you like to come with us?”
“Uh, I’m not exactly in the mood for fighting right now.”
“Fine, then I’ll just take Yumi into town alone.”
“H-hold on! I didn’t agree to this!”
It was at this point that Yumi decided to jump in, “Flint, just calm down, I’ll be fine.”
“Urgh… Fine, but if she-“
“Yeah yeah, if she comes back hurt you’ll execute me publicly, I get it.”
“Wow, you really don’t like to listen, do you?”
“It’s not that, it’s just you’ve gotten to the point where you’re predictable and annoying, and I’m a pretty impatient person, so either come up with something new or just shut up.”
Flint turned to Yumi, “Can you believe this, twerp!?” He asked.
“He has a point you know, all I’ve heard from you are threats.” Yumi pointed out.
Flint walked over to the couch in the lounge and sat down, “I’m getting too old for this.” He groaned as he facepalmed.
“Cool, see ya in like an hour tops.” Joseph said as he ran out of the base.
“Yeah, what he said…” Yumi said before following Joseph outside.
January 27th, 6:47 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Outside
Coast Continent
Yumi climbed halfway down the vine from the tree before falling, Joseph quickly caught her and placed her back down on the ground, “You alright?”
“I-I’m fine, t-thank you.” Yumi muttered, “B-but for future reference, could you keep the physical contact to a minimum?”
“So you wanted me to let you smash your face into the ground?”
“N-no it’s just, you know.”
“Yeah I get it, you’re afraid of Pokémon.”
“Good, at least you’re not going to argue about that.”
“Let’s just get going, follow me.”
Joseph and Yumi walked toward Sunset Square, about halfway through the walk however they were greeted by Malachite who stopped to chat for a bit, “Heya Joseph, what’s up?”
“Nothing much, I was just showing someone around.” Joseph responded.
Malachite locked eyes with Yumi which made Yumi extremely uncomfortable, “Who’s she?” Malachite asked, “I don’t think I’ve seen her around here.”
“Oh, she’s a lost one, you know, like Nail and Hula.”
“Wait, so she’s from another world!?”
“Yeah, she’s a bit of a recluse though, so she tends to get a bit nervous around other Pokémon.”
“Oh, I’m sorry! I’m probably making you feel nervous right now, aren’t I?”
“A-a little.” Yumi uttered, “But it’s ok.”
“Oh, ok then, would you mind telling me what kind of Pokémon you are?”
“I’m a Zorua.”
“Uh, no you’re not, I’m a Zorua.”
“I am too, this is what Zorua look like where I’m from.”
“Ooooooh, I get it now, so that means you can make illusions too, right?”
“Uuuuum…”
“Oh I get it, you never learned how to, don’t sweat it, I’ll teach you right here right now, ok?”
“Um, I’m not sure-“
“I think you should just go along with it.” Joseph suggested, “It’d be a helpful skill to know.”
Yumi sighed, “A-alright then.”
“Great!” Malachite cheered, “Alright, just follow my lead and you’ll become a master of illusions!”
Malachite used her illusions to transform herself into Joseph, “See just like that.” She said.
Yumi tilted her head in confusion, “I-I don’t get it.”
“Oh, right, I forgot, you can’t see into my thoughts.” Malachite said as she transformed back into her natural form, “Well it’s as simple as thinking about what you want to become and closing your eyes when you open them back up you’ll have transformed into whatever you imagined, although do be warned, if you transform into another Pokémon you can’t use their moves, only yours.”
“O-ok.” Yumi squeaked, “B-but how does that work exactly?”
Malachite shrugged, “I kinda just does.” She responded.
“But you never close your eyes when you transform, what gives?” Joseph asked.
“Can you keep this a secret?” Malachite asked, “It’s kinda something us Zorua and Zoroark don’t want others knowing.”
“Uh, sure?”
“Well, it’s because our illusions prevent anyone else from seeing our eyes shut as we transform.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense then.”
Malachite turned toward Yumi, “So, you gonna try to use your illusions?” She asked.
“Uh, I’ll give it a shot, but don’t expect anything to happen.” Yumi replied.
Yumi concentrated and let her mind wander until she thought of a random Pokémon to transform into, why doesn’t she just transform into a Shinx or a Unovan Zorua you may be asking, well she thought that would be too basic, so she searched her mind until settling on a Pokémon to transform into and then she closed her eyes, she then opened them to reveal that she was floating above Joseph and Malachite.
“Whoa!” Joseph marveled, “You became a Porygon!”
“That’s how it’s done!” Malachite cheered, “No need to thank me!”
Yumi looked at herself and then began to panic, “HOW DO I SWITCH BACK!?” She screamed.
“Just close your eyes and open them again without thinking about anything else.”
Yumi did as instructed, but before she opened her eyes, she felt herself fall into Joseph’s arms (forelegs? Eh, I think arms is the correct term here.)
“Phew, that was almost bad, thanks… Uh…”
“It’s Malachite, Malachite the 12-year-old Illusion prodigy and newbie explorer.” Malachite said.
“Wait, you’re only 12?” Joseph asked.
“Yeah just like you right?”
Joseph sighed, “I really am that immature, aren’t I?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m 18, I’m way out of your league.”
“Oh! Uh, I had no clue…” Malachite said awkwardly, “I would’ve never flirted with you had I known you were so old.”
“Well, when you say it like that, it makes me sound old.”
“Because you are! You’re almost ancient!”
Joseph sighed again, “Aren’t you supposed to be meeting with Specter right now?”
“Oh right! I almost forgot!” Malachite blurted before realizing something was off, “Wait, how do you know about that!?”
“Cinder called him out, from the sounds of things he has a crush on you.”
“W-wait really!?”
“Yup, just don’t tell him I told you that.”
“O-ok then.” Malachite blushed, “Thank you for the info!” She shouted as she ran off toward the base.
“That was awkward…” Joseph sighed.
“Yeah especially because you told her I was from another world!”
“Hey, that doesn’t mean anything here, plus it’s the truth, which gets everybody off our backs a whole lot easier.”
Yumi sighed, “I guess you’re right… But just try to tread a little lighter going forward.”
“Noted.”
The walk continued until the pair arrived in Sunset Square, Yumi half marveled half shuddered at the sight of a town that was fully operated by Pokémon, “This feels so… Backwards…” She uttered.
“You’ll get used to it eventually.” Joseph assured, “Just think of it like Jubilife Village but if it were run by Pokémon and placed right in the middle of the tropics.”
“You know about Jubilife Village?”
“It’s a fictional place where I’m from, it’s still in Hisui though, so I think it’s safe to assume it’s the same one that you’re from.”
“That is… Very strange… How does that even work?”
“I’d rather not think about that, it’s too headache-inducing.”
“Alright then… Well, can you take us to where I can buy a Potion or something? I’d love to heal the rest of this wound before the end of the week.”
“They don’t have those in this world if you know how to make ’em then you can do so, but don’t expect to find Potions for sale here.”
“What!? Then how are we supposed to treat our wounds!?”
“Well Oran Berries are enough to treat most non-major wounds here, but there’s also other ways of healing than just Potions and stuff, like Reviver Seeds.”
“You’re losing me…”
“I’ll explain it later.”
Joseph and Yumi walked up to the Kecleon shop right as Crimson was about to close shop for the night, “Ah, lucky you, I was just about to close, but you’ve made it in the nick of time.”
“Oh sweet!” Joseph exclaimed, “May I look at the scarf selection?”
“Sure.” Crimson said as he presented the selection to the pair, “Take a gander.”
Joseph turned to Yumi, “Do you see one you like?” He asked.
“Uh, I’m not sure…” Yumi uttered as she looked at the scarves, “They all look so… Weird…”
“Maybe you’ll like some of the other ones more.” Joseph said, “Can I see the Tera Scarf selection?” He asked as he flashed his guild member card.
“Sure thing!” Crimson responded as he placed the Tera scarves in front of the pair.
Yumi scanned all the scarves, “I’m not sure this is helping.” She muttered.
“It’s ok lass, take your time.” Crimson said.
Yumi kept scanning until she picked out a pink scarf with white polka dots on it, “This one maybe? Bah, never mind, too girly.” She said before throwing it back into the box.
This went on for a few minutes before finally Yumi pulled the pink scarf back out and huffed, “Fiiiine, I’ll go with the girly one.”
“So you want the Pecha Scarf?” Joseph asked.
“Don’t make me change my mind, we will be here all night.”
“Ok, ok I got you!” Joseph chuckled, “So that’s 3500 Poké right?”
“Wow, you really know your stuff.” Crimson complimented, “Yeah it’s 3500, do we have ourselves a deal?”
“Of course we do!” Joseph bubbled.
Joseph withdrew the 3500 Poké from his bank account using his guild card and handed it to Crimson, “Pleasure doing business with you bud!” Crimson exclaimed as he waved to the pair.
“T-thank you mister.” Yumi said as she and Joseph walked off.
Joseph took Yumi to the beach as the sun started to set, “Looks pretty doesn’t it?” He asked as he plopped down into the sand.
“Um, yeah it does.” Yumi replied, “But I’m still a little confused.”
“What’s there to be confused about?”
“Well, for starters, what’s with this scarf? Is it supposed to do something?”
“That scarf makes you immune to poison, plain and simple.”
“Great… Next question, what was that Poké stuff you gave that lizard guy?”
“It’s this world’s money.”
“Oh great… My money’s worthless then…”
“Yeah, unfortunately, but hey, our team’s loaded thanks to a job we did a while back, so you don’t really have to worry about it.”
“Well, it feels a little demeaning having to rely on others to pay for things considering I’m a young adult.”
“It’s not that big of a deal, nobody’s gonna make fun of you.”
“I hope not… Oh yeah, that reminds me, you’re 18 as well, that’s a weird coincidence…”
“Yeah, one that I’m like 110% sure Cinder won’t let us hear the end of…” Joseph groaned, “Ever since I woke up here she’s been teasing me about love-related stuff, which is weird, I’m not gonna fall in love here.”
“You’re talking about that Cyndaquil, right?”
“Yeah, that’s Cinder.”
“Do you think there’s a way we could like… stop her from teasing us about that stuff?”
Joseph thought for a moment before remembering how uncomfortable Malachite made Cinder with her illusions, “I have an idea actually.” He said.
“What is it then?”
“If she teases us, just turn into her with your illusions and open your eyes, she hates it because she feels uncomfortable when she sees her eyes, which isn’t a problem normally because she can’t open her eyes most of the time, but Malachite showed us that illusions don’t have said limitations.”
“Got it, I’ll keep it in mind.” Yumi replied, her stomach then grumbled, causing her to jump a little.
“Relax, it’s just your tummy rumbling.” Joseph said.
“O-oh, right, that brings me to my next question… Where are we gonna get food?”
Joseph went to reply when Yumi cut him off, “Wait, please don’t say we have to hunt for food, I don’t want to have to kill anything!”
“Relax, we don’t have to kill anyone to get food, just follow me and we’ll get some food.”
“That sounds fishy.”
“Yeah… I worded that a little weirdly, just trust me though, the guild’s serving food right now and we planned to get some there tonight.”
“Is there going to be a lot of Pokémon there?”
“Yeah, unfortunately, but you won’t have to talk to any of them… Well hopefully anyway.”
“A-alright, but if this goes south, I’ll curse you… Once I find out how to, that is…”
“Heh.” Joseph chuckled as he stood up, “Looks like Flint’s starting to rub off on you already.”
January 27th, 7:13 pm
SurfSpark Guild
Coast Continent
Joseph led Yumi into the guild’s entrance, where they were immediately greeted by Litwick, “Joseph, my man! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Sup Litwick!” Joseph replied, “The rest of the gang should be making their way here shortly.”
“Oh sweet! I can get Cinder to feed me another Flamethrower!”
“H-how does that work?” Yumi asked.
“Oh, I have Flash Fire for my ability, so I can eat flames.” Litwick answered, “Who might you be?”
“O-oh, I’m Yumi, I’m not from here.”
“Yeah, she’s from another world.” Joseph added.
“Dude! What did I tell you!?”
“Oh, that would explain the strange name then.” Litwick said, “If I hadn’t known any better, I woulda mistaken you for a human.”
Yumi gave Joseph a look that said “never mind” as soon as Litwick said that, “Yeah that’s what I thought too.” Joseph said, “But she explained that she’s from another world, where she’s from Pokémon live peaceful lives without worrying about dungeons and stuff, so any tips about how to use her abilities would be much appreciated.”
“I don’t really know how I can help you with that.”
“You’re a ghost just like she is, maybe you could teach her how to phase through walls or something.”
“No can do, it’s not something that you can just be taught, it’s something that’ll just… Happen.”
“T-that’s unfortunate…” Yumi said as she flashed a frown.
“I know… But you’ll figure it out eventually, you just gotta keep walking into walls.”
Joseph rolled his eyes, “Gee, what great advice.”
“I’m dead serious! That’s how I figured it out.”
“Ok, but if she hurts herself because of your advice, I’m gonna tell Cinder to stop feeding you Flamethrowers.”
Litwick chuckled, “Alright man, but I’m telling you now she’s gonna be fine.”
“She better be!” Joseph shouted as he ran down the hall toward the dining hall, “C’mon Yumi this way!”
January 27th, 7:15 pm
SurfSpark Guild – Dining Hall
Coast Continent
Joseph and Yumi entered the dining hall where the pair immediately caught a glimpse of the crystal chandelier, it was shaped like a Dewott who was holstering one of its shells, “Whoa, it’s sooooooo pretty.” Yumi marveled, “Maybe there is a silver lining to getting stuck here after all.”
“Yeah, this place is so cool, I wish we had something like this where I’m from.” Joseph replied, “So should we go grab a seat?”
“Uh, sure, but can we get one somewhere far away from everyone else?”
“We’re gonna have to with the size of our group.”
“Oh thank Arceus…” Yumi sighed, “Well I’ll just let you pick out a table then.”
Joseph walked over to the balcony area and took the same table that he picked on his first day in this world, “Here, we can just take up two tables.”
Yumi jumped up onto a chair and took a seat at the table, “So are we supposed to get our own food, or is it brought to us?”
“I’ll go get us food, you just sit tight and wait for the others.”
Yumi’s anxiety was starting to get the better of her, “O-ok.” She said with a shiver, “But what if somebody tries to talk to me?”
“Just talk to them, they’re not gonna bite.” Joseph said as he walked off.
‘I really hope I don’t have to…’ Yumi thought, ‘Like, how do talk to a Pokémon without being totally awkward!?’
Yumi’s worrying thoughts were put on pause for a moment as a small, gray bird Pokémon called out to her, “Hey! You seem new around here, are you lost?” The Pokémon asked as it approached the table.
Yumi recognized the Pokémon as a Starly, a Pokémon she wasn’t particularly fond of due to their ability to fly giving her the creeps, “N-no I’m not lost, I’m just waiting on someone.” Yumi responded.
The Starly flew up onto the table and stared Yumi directly in the eyes, completely freaking her out, but she kept her composure just enough to prevent the Starly from finding out that something was off, “You have pretty eyes.” The Starly said.
“T-thank you.” Yumi said.
“You ok? You seem unreasonably freaked out.”
“I-it’s nothing, you just startled me a little when you flew up onto the table.”
“Oh! I’m sorry! I’m so used to flying everywhere that I forgot that some folks are freaked out by that!” The Starly apologized as she spread her wings out.
“I-it’s ok.” Yumi squeaked, “I’m just not used to being around birds that actually fly.”
“What kind of birds are you used to being around, then? Piplup?”
“N-no I’m used to being around a Decidueye who acts as my guardian, he doesn’t fly around too much.”
“Oh, well he sounds like an idiot, like why not use the gift you were given!?” The Starly asked before immediately noticing the look on Yumi’s face, “Hey, calm down! It was a joke! I just really like flying, is all.”
“Good, because he’d be livid if you insulted his intelligence.”
“Well on another note, I’m Stars, an honorary newbie member of Team Takeoff!”
“Team Takeoff?” Yumi questioned.
“Yeah, we’re a team of high-flying Pokémon who are practically allergic to the ground!”
Yumi shuddered a little at the thought of more flying Pokémon, “A whole team of birds?”
“Not just birds, we’ve got a few bugs too!”
Surprisingly, Yumi was intrigued, “Bugs!? Really!? That’s cool!”
“Huh!? You’re not freaking out anymore!”
“Yeah I love bugs, they’re so strange but so fascinating at the same time, I mean they can be creepy, but anything can be creepy.”
“I’m not sure I agree, I mean most Pokémon are pretty neat but even the bugs on our team freak me out!”
“You wanna repeat that?” A voice asked.
Yumi and Stars looked around for a moment before a Cutiefly popped out of the cluster of feathers on Stars’ head, “EEEEEEEEEEEK!” Stars squealed in terror as she desperately tried to get the tiny bug out of her feathers, she then flew away at mach speeds in an attempt to make the bug fly out of her feathers.
Yumi was struggling to stop herself from bursting out laughing when Joseph returned with the food, “Hey Yumi, I got us some Slowpoke tails and fries.” He said as he sat down next to Yumi.
Yumi was still struggling to contain her laughter, letting out a, “Pfft.” as the dam cracked.
“Is something up?”
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Yumi burst, “You missed it! There was a bird and it freaked me out, and then a bug freaked it out and it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!” Yumi laughed as she slammed her paw on the table.
“Are you ok!?”
“Yes, hehehe, yes I’m ok, it’s just something really funny just happened.”
“I heard that much, you said something about a bird and a bug or something?”
“Yeah, a girl named Stars introduced herself to me, I was a little shy at first but that all went out the window when she mentioned bugs, she then mentioned how they freaked her out, but when she said that a bug popped out of her feathers and scared the daylights out of her.”
Joseph burst out laughing, “You’re joking, right?”
“Nope! This all actually happened.”
“That’s hysterical! I wish I could have seen it!”
“What’s going on?” Cinder asked as she approached the pair.
“Yumi saw someone freak out because there was a bug in their feathers.”
“Eh, I’ve seen it before…” Cinder said, “That Stars chick is deathly afraid of bugs, yet she still willingly agreed to join Team Takeoff, which is led by a Yanmega.”
It was then that Joseph realized, “Wait a second, Yumi you aren’t afraid of bugs!?” He blurted.
“Nope, mainly because I had an experience with one that made me fall in love with them.” Yumi explained, “When I was just starting to survey Hisui I met a nice little bug Pokémon, it scared the daylights out of me at first, but then it protected me from a much bigger threat, I just wish I could’ve befriended it…”
“That’s cute.” Cinder said, “I on the other hand am glad I’m a fire type because I absolutely can’t stand bugs, they just have too many eyes!”
“Yeah, I’m with you on that.” Joseph agreed, “God forbid we ever find ourselves in a dungeon filled with spiderwebs or something.”
“That cave would go up in flames so fast it’s not even funny.”
“Why would you do that!?” Yumi squeaked, “That’s mean!”
“Look, I’m just the messenger, I’m not gonna try to light it on fire, it’s just gonna end up happening.”
“Well, considering you flare up your quills when you use your moves, I’d say that checks out.” Joseph responded, “It’d still be your fault, though.”
“Yeah, the table for meanies is over there, you arsonist!” Yumi shouted jokingly as she pointed over toward the other table that Joseph had picked out for the team.
“Fine, I’ll leave you and Joseph to have your little dinner date alone then!” Cinder shot back.
Yumi and Joseph rolled their eyes in sync, Joseph then looked Yumi in the eyes and said, “Do it.”
“Do what?” Cinder asked.
Yumi closed her eyes and envisioned Cinder standing in a black void, she then shot her eyes open, completing the illusion, once she had the illusion up she opened Cinder’s eyes and said, “Man aren’t my eyes pretty?”
“Ok! OK! STOP IT!” Cinder said as she covered her eyes, “This isn’t happening again!”
“Ehehehehehe.” Joseph chuckled, “Thanks, Yumi!”
“You’re welcome Joseph.” Yumi returned.
“Uh, what’s going on here?” Rory asked as she and the rest of the team walked into view.
“WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MASTER YUMI!?” Flint shouted.
Yumi changed her illusion to match Flint, “WHAT DO YOU THINK I DID WITH HER!?” She shouted back, “SHE’S RIGHT HERE!”
“Wait what!?”
Yumi dropped her illusion and started laughing, “I think I’m starting to like this actually.”
“How did-“
“I taught her.” Malachite said as she dropped a disguise of her own, “I see she’s been using them responsibly.”
“Is that sarcasm?” Sammy asked.
“Nope, mischief is better than crime after all.”
“Yeah, what she said.” Specter agreed, “Crime sucks, don’t do it.”
“I support this message!” Slippy bubbled, “It’s got my Spheal of approval!”
“Slippy, you’re so precious, you know that?” Cinder gushed.
“Yeah I know! You guys remind me every day!”
“Aren’t we supposed to be eating or something?” Rory asked.
“Aren’t I supposed to be the impatient one?” Joseph ribbed.
“Yeah, but I’m STARVING here!”
“Fair point. Hey guys, can we just dig into our food already?”
“Alright, alright!” Cinder responded, “Everyone, find a seat and start digging in!”
Rory, Sammy, and Flint joined Joseph and Yumi at their table while everyone else sat at the “meanie table”, the group ate most of their food without much conversation, but Rory changed that right as everyone was finishing up, “So Nail pitched an idea to us while you were out with Yumi.”
“What is it?” Joseph asked.
“He said we should go hard on our training tomorrow.” Sammy said, “That way, we can evolve as soon as possible and get as strong as we can before we go out and try to vanquish Fiora.”
“How are we gonna do that? Is he gonna help us with it or are we gonna have to split our small army that we’ve accumulated and go into dungeons again?”
“Well we’re gonna try the first option but Nail’s not too confident in it so we’re probably going to end up exploring a dungeon in the Crystal Continent that’s been overrun with spiders.” Rory explained.
“Me and my big mouth…” Joseph groaned.
“Excuse me?”
Yumi burst out laughing, “He literally just made a joke about that and how he hoped it wouldn’t happen.”
“Oh, well if it makes you feel any better, none of us like spiders.” Rory shivered.
“THEY NEED TO BE VANQUISHED!” Sammy shouted as he slammed his scallop onto the table.
“Y-yeah what he said.” Rory quavered.
“So what you’re saying is I’m the only one who’s not gonna be afraid the whole time?” Yumi asked.
“Wait, are you seriously not afraid of spiders!? You’re afraid of Pokémon but not spiders!?”
“Spiders and bugs are fine, it’s just everything else that scares me.” Yumi said before shivering, “Especially birds, I’m not a fan of them.”
“Wh-what about me!?” Flint sputtered.
“You’re… Slightly terrifying, but bearable.”
“So you mean to tell me you’ve been afraid of me this whole time because I’m a bird!?”
“It’s part of the reason, the other part is what I’ve seen you do to some of the wild Pokémon we’ve faced.”
Flint crossed his arms and turned away, “They deserved it, they poisoned you.”
“Speaking of poison,” Joseph interjected, “You gonna put that scarf on?”
“I don’t think these paws are physically capable of doing that.” Yumi responded.
“They are, or at least mine are, I’m not sure how though…”
“I’m not even going to begin to think about how that works.”
Joseph chuckled, “Good, you seem to be catching on quickly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing here makes sense, so don’t try to make any sense out of anything that happens here.”
“Oh… Ok…” Yumi said as she pulled out her Pecha Scarf, “Well since you’re able to, do you mind helping me put this thing on?”
“I’ll get that for you.” Flint butted in, “He still can’t be trusted.”
“He’s the one who bought it for me, I think it’s safe to say I can trust him.”
“He could be luring you into a false sense of security so he can kill you at your most vulnerable.”
“Dude, you worry too much!” Rory interjected, “If Joseph was looking to up his kill count, he would’ve done so already!”
“I don’t care, I’m still putting the scarf on her, end of story.”
“Pffft whatever.” Rory scoffed as she rolled her eyes.
Flint took the scarf from Yumi and tied it around her neck, “T-ta-da…” Yumi quavered.
“This scarf is so pink it’s demeaning.” Flint scoffed.
“Yeah that’s what I thought too, but I couldn’t find a better one so here we are I guess…”
“So what did this thing have to do with poison?”
“It prevents the wearer from being poisoned, they can still take damage from poison type moves, but they cannot be poisoned under any circumstances.” Joseph explained, “Now normally this wouldn’t be too helpful because ghost type Pokémon usually resist poison type attacks, but dungeons have traps that can cause poison, so it still helps out a ton!”
“Wait, ghost types resist poison?” Yumi asked.
“You don’t know that!?” Rory blurted, “I thought everyone knew their type match-ups!”
“I-I don’t I’m somewhat inexperienced when it comes to Pokémon battles, all I know is that when Flint fights a fire type he always loses.”
“Oh boy…” Rory groaned, “Well Joseph can explain it all to you tomorrow before we start training.”
“Or I can explain it to her right before we go home tomorrow.” Flint interjected.
Cinder overheard Flint’s statement and laughed, “Good luck with that, I’ve been stuck here for like a couple of months now.”
“Yeah let’s face it we’re probably gonna be stuck here for a while, but hey I can at least have a little fun here using my illusions.” Yumi said.
“That’s the spirit!” Malachite cheered, “You learn to master your illusions so you can use them when you go back home!”
Flint groaned, “We’re going to get out of here as soon as I find out how mark my words.”
“Ok, but could you at least try to loosen up a little?: Yumi asked, “You’ve been so grumpy this whole time.”
“Yeah because this is weird and I don’t like it! I just want to go home!”
“I see where you’re coming from, I feel the same way, but being grumpy about it isn’t going to fix it.”
“I guess you’re right… I guess I’ll calm down a little.’
“Good, now let’s finish up our food so we can go to bed because I’m soooooo tired.”
“Yeah illusions are quite tiring.” Malachite interjected, “But with some practice, you’ll be able to maintain them for a long time before feeling fatigued.”
Yumi yawned, “That’s good to know…”
The group finished up their food and cleaned up their mess, they then headed for the door and got going back home.
January 27th, 8:30 pm
Team Echoes’ Base
Coast Continent
Yumi walked back into Joseph’s room and immediately noticed that her bed was missing, so she decided to ask about it, “Where’s my bed?”
“Oh, we moved it into another room.” Rory said, “I thought you’d like to have your own room.”
“Oh, uh, that’d be nice, could you show me to my room?”
“I gotcha!” Joseph said as he ran up to Yumi and grabbed her by the paw and took off.
“Eep!” Yumi protested as she was dragged into an empty room with two beds made out of leaves, “Oh, this room’s a little…”
“Empty perhaps?” Joseph asked.
“Yeah…”
“It’s ok, when we get the time we can deck it out with whatever you want.”
“So that room I was sleeping in, whose room was it?”
“That was my room.”
“Eep! I’m sorry I-“
“It’s ok, I was the one who put you in there, I’m not gonna get mad or anything.”
“Wait, yeah, why am I apologizing, you were the one who put me there.”
“Maybe you felt guilty about bleeding all over the floor.”
“O-oh yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s alright, we already got it all cleaned up, besides, it’s not like it’s your fault you were bleeding.”
“Well technically it is, but-“
“It’s not your fault, none of what brought you here is your fault, it was just rotten luck, that’s all.”
“A-alright then.” Yumi said before letting out a yawn, “Well, I guess I should get to bed.”
“Yeah.” Joseph said with an awkward giggle, “I’ll let you do that.”
Joseph turned away and walked out of the room, as he did that, Yumi called out softly, “Good night.”
Joseph turned back and peeked into the room, “Did you say something?”
“N-no, I didn’t.”
“Alright, see you in the morning!”
Joseph left for real this time, leaving Yumi with her thoughts, ‘I know I already asked myself this but, what have I gotten myself into? I mean I have a freaking tail now! I think that says it all! Oh yeah, and that Joseph guy, I can’t get him off my mind, I don’t know if it’s because he’s a human too or if it’s… Something else, I really hope it’s just because he’s in the same boat as me and not because of anything else…’ Yumi thought before letting out another big yawn, ‘I should just drop it for now, otherwise, I’ll be up all night…”
And so Yumi drifted off into her dreams, just as the rest of Team Echoes began to get ready for bed as well, Joseph walked into his room once again and jumped up onto his bed before noticing something, “Weren’t we supposed to get an update from Razor?”
“I’ll be handling that.” A familiar voice said.
Moments later, Mesprit appeared before Joseph and plopped onto his bed, “O-oh, uh ok then…” Joseph uttered.
“So Cloak and Razor still haven’t found a Lucarionite yet, but they’re getting to it.” Mesprit explained.
“What about Fiora? What’s she up to?”
“I think she’s summoning more humans somehow, Arceus told me he could sense the presence of another one today.”
Joseph hissed for a moment, “Yeah about that…”
Mesprit grabbed Joseph’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes, “You weren’t the one summoning humans, were you!?”
“No, I wasn’t, I was just the one who found said human.”
“What did you do with them!?”
“She’s in the other room, she ended up here due to an accident and now she’s stuck here, so we filled her in on what’s going on and she’s agreed to help us.”
“How did she get here!?” Mesprit said as she shook Joseph violently.
“You remember those Space Time Distortions Cinder mentioned, well one formed in the Crystal Continent earlier today, I went into it to collect the rare items that were in it and ended up finding her out cold with a massive thorn in her side, when she woke up she explained that she was knocked out by a Porygon’s Hyper Beam back in her home world while researching a Space Time Distortion.”
“What the hell is going on here!? Why does weird stuff keep happening!? Everything was fine until like a week ago!”
“I think Fiora’s influence is causing an imbalance in time and space which would explain the distortions.”
“This is starting to make my head hurt.”
“Basically, the more of the world Fiora claims, the less the world functions properly.”
“So basically we gotta stop her as quickly as we can?”
“Yup, but for now…” Joseph paused to yawn, “I gotta get some sleep.”
“I’ll leave you to that.” Mesprit said before warping away, ‘See you later.’ She concluded with her telepathy.
Joseph let out another big yawn, “Well good night.” He said as he closed his eyes.
“Good night Joseph.” A voice said, causing Joseph to spring up.
“Mom!?” Joseph called out.
“No, it’s just me Joseph.” Rory said, “Is something up?”
“I’m too tired for this…” Joseph groaned as he placed his head back onto his pillow, “Good night Rory.”
“Good night Joseph…” Rory replied.
Joseph drifted off into his dreams as well putting an end to this chaotic day… Unless…?
January 27th, 9:10 pm
Team Echoes’ Base – Cinder’s Room
Coast Continent
“So hold on.” Vulcan said, “Run that by me again.”
“We ended up in a cave full of water and I found this necklace.” Cinder detailed, “The necklace had a note with it which explained what the necklace did, but what’s weird about it is that it was signed.”
“Who signed it?”
“Someone by the name of Pyre.”
“I swear I’ve heard that name before.” Vulcan said, “But where…”
“That’s what I’m saying!” Cinder blurted.
The siblings thought for a moment before coming to the same conclusion, “Dad’s name was Pyre!” The pair shouted in unison.
“But wait, Dad’s dead, so he can’t be the one who left that, right?” Cinder asked.
“Well considering all the time-space bull crap going on I wouldn’t entirely rule it out, but it’s still a hell of a stretch.” Vulcan suggested.
“But you’re saying there’s a chance.”
“Well yeah, an astronomically minuscule chance but a chance nonetheless.”
“Maybe we should go look for him once this is all over.”
“I don’t think we’re gonna find anything, but I mean if you’re really that delusional then sure, we can start looking after Fiora’s funeral.”
“Ok then, good night Vulcan.”
“Good night Cinder.”
Hoo boy, that was a long one, I hope you guys enjoyed that. Also, let me know if you prefer how I did the dungeon this time around, I thought I’d spice things up because the first couple of dungeons were a little boring in my opinion. Anyway, onto the reviews because there weren’t any bosses this time (No I’m not counting the battle of wits as a boss fight)
To KirgizovVlad: I’m glad you’re loving this story! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep the steady stream of chapters coming forever, but I’ll definitely keep working on stuff for as long as I can. I appreciate your constant feedback!
Anyway, that’s all for this time, next time, be prepared for something a little weird, we’re gonna be breaking away from the main story in a sort of ‘for fun’ style chapter, it’s not an impactful chapter, but it toys with an idea I’ve had for a while, hopefully it’s interesting, see you guys then.
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