-Airship Mauled, The Witch’s Fare, late evening, Tianhuo-
I sat there eating a meal quietly in Kuril’s restaurant. A simple soup and grilled vegetable skewers special, it was of course of great flavor and well prepared. However the wonderful meal was without the conversation a speech capable partner could offer.
If the mission to Tambelon was to be successful. It was probably better that we didn’t take any royal guards than the minimum amount into the realm with us, especially when even Fœnum Pom could beat them in a fight. We’d be better using EUP members.
Blighter, the ever lovable pink mass of something, popped from my shadow and nuzzled against me, silently assuring me that Pom would call soon.
It was getting later in the evening and she assured me that she would be doing so the calling this time. Our devices only had so much power and could only give us so much time, there was so much that needed to be said.
Blighter wasn’t the only one to comfort me as Pom’s Puppy Patrol, as Jaded La Perm got everyone calling them and it was a title they didn’t seem to mind being stuck with, also joined in whining and wanting to see Pom and cuddled against my legs under the table while waiting for her too.
“Is everything okay Tianhuo?” Kuril asked as she walked up to me, her ears erect and a serious look on her face. Rarely did anyone see the Abyssinian not present a goofy cheer and catty demeanor.
“I am waiting on someone to converse with me, I just wonder how long they will keep me waiting…” I stated somberly, Kuril patted me on the back in a comforting gesture. “Also your food is excellent.”
“Stay as long as you need Tianhuo, you can even have a guest room here.” Kuril stated pleasantly. “If not, then Grace will certainly lend you a room free of charge, since you’re friends with Arizona.”
“I will gladly accept your hospitality.” When in need, do not look a gift pony in the mouth.
I would wait Pom, even if Blighter and the puppies would sleep, I would wait.
-Ransei, Castle Aurora, Pom-
“Just some light exhaustion and ridiculous amounts of anxiety, how often do you get spa treatments or massages? You need at least half a dozen massage treatments from the stress alone, I’m surprised your wool isn’t falling out.” At least Happiny were noted as being really nice Pokémon, as were their evolutions Chansey and Blissey.
I still haven’t seen what an evolution was, but I’ve seen the end results of it with the Golducks. Also I’m fairly happy that a Fluffmancer can’t lose the ability to grow hair and that it won’t fall out, I was quite comfortable with my wool as it currently was… a shell against blunt and cutting force that keeps me alive another day.
“How’s Captain Skeeball? She kind of jump into the fray when we needed her the most.” I wasn’t the only one concerned, everyone was in Aurora’s infirmary, directly left of the entrance to the castle, getting a checkup.
There was the fact that the Oshawott had said, before we entered the castle, that they could have stayed stealthy and snuck across the bridge like they were originally planning to while we were dealing with all the Psyducks and Golducks.
Instead Captain Skeeball quickly saw what was happening and then rushed to our aid, this was already after a solid week of hard fights that had exhausted and pushed her unit beyond the pale, they still sought to aid us. The Golducks were final a straw that broke most of them physically, but they were still willing to help to the very last.
That wasn’t all, Captain Skeeball went and pulled all that power out of her tiny body to give the one controlling the Pokémon of Fontaine a black eye and ensured our escape without taking any chances that the cart could still be attacked from behind at a long distance.
“Bad… Pokémon can heal from most injuries that aren’t permanently scarring, but you try healing from a spiritual one of a broken heart… given she had to leave her husband behind in Fontaine.” The Happiny sighed. “We can do physical injuries, sometimes rare sicknesses, maybe even some emotional injuries as a ‘mon’ to lean on and talk to about your problems. As for injuries that are spiritual… those run too deep for any of our species line to really help. She’ll recover, but the fact that she can even do Z-moves is a surprise, even to us. We knew Captain Skeeball was an oddball, but that she can actually walk the walk makes her an even bigger hero. Still that injury to her spirit… it’s going to slow down her physical recovery, but she will recover. Her kittens are much better, but they are wiped for the most part of at least two days. Skeeball will take more than a week to recover as Z-moves tends to put incredible amounts of stress on the body, especially an electric type Z-move and Skitty are not built to handle that kind of force. I’m personally fairly surprised she didn’t destroy herself and is going to make a full recovery.”
“Do Happiny fight?” All Pokémon seemed to have the ability to do so at varying levels, I was still curious and that curiosity was driving me not to curl up into a fearful fetal position and not go anywhere near a Pokémon again. Any Pokémon, like those Skitty, could be as cute as they are deadly.
“We prefer to heal, but we can fight… in an emergency or if a patient is thrashing about too much and we need to quickly calm them down to prevent them from hurting themselves. We’re the most noted Pokémon for being the least likely to be battle junkies, any more questions?” Shaking my head to Happiny, she nodded and went off to check the others. “It’s been nice talking to you Pom, you seriously need to learn how to relax. At least find a Pokémon with sweet scent that can make your favorite flower smells to calm your constant problems with your nerves. I can easily understand why you might be learning to fear Pokémon, but not all of us are horribly violent.”
The only time I relax is when I’m frolicking through a field of flowers with no danger in sight… or with Tianhuo…. It was late and I did promise to call her, but we still had a meeting and dinner to go to.
Evan wanted us to be kept up to date on things even if we weren’t going to be under his direct command personally, he wanted us to at least tell us if it was safe to travel to other regions and we had three Pokémon to assist with moving around independent of his forces. Three more and we’d have a complete unit that would personally be by our side out of comradery, friendship and adventure.
Evan was an open hearted fox and would make a great king for it.
“Harmony… the units of this world… eventual working combination maybe…” Ocellus mumbled as I stood up and made to head to the kitchens to start helping the staff, which consisted of a Happiny and Maiden Jigs meager home front team of herself and a Pokémon called a Clefairy, with dinner. “Will we… form a unit based on friendship?”
I didn’t want to lose my skills at running a home and the last time I cooked was when… when… Saint Canard…
Standing still for a moment to collect myself as a few tears dropped onto the floor, I took a long shuddering breath that had my friends looking my way and then pressed forward in a slow trot without looking at them.
-Dinner, Dolly-
A brat I might have been, and I acknowledged that I had acted like that at times, but I was always there for family. Pom thought of Dormarch again and far from it for me to stop her from thinking about the little brother that I lost.
If Arceus was right then we might have a chance to search for a way to revive when we figured out a connection to the worlds Digimon come from. I might not know much about computers or the realms thereof, but I was willing to find a way to bring him back even if did go out how he wanted to with that kill virus hanging over his head the entire time.
I reached a paw up to the Digivice hanging from the top band around my neck, putting my paw on it and sighing before looking to Pom.
I knew eventually that I’d lose a brother or a sister to an accident, I had ninety nine of them… now it was back to ninety eight and I was out of contact with them. That it actually happened… there was slight gap in my heart where Dormarch should be.
My family had to be blessed to not have lost a puppy before now. There was also the fact that the puppies would have to grow up eventually and seek to become independent. I wanted to make good memories that would never be forgotten while we could, I apparently succeeded at that at least.
Not so surprisingly, I was the first out of all of them to leave… the total separation hurts less this way…
I silently looked at the warm bowl of soup Pom placed before me, she knew how to cook for a dog… because this smelled delicious. I carefully blew on the steam rising from the bowl and took up a spoon in my paw, definitely didn’t want to burn my tongue on this.
“Thank you, it smells really good Pom! You’re going to call Tianhuo after this… right?” I received an aimless nod from Pom as she sat down and started into her own soup. I couldn’t connect to my side of our family anymore, but Pom could still connect to hers and I was going to bug her exactly like she bugged me to not shut them out.
Those four puppies calling Pom baa-baa was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard and I intended to hear more of.
I had previously thought the dangers of my world were bad, but this world… it… the escalation we went through on this one day alone was enough to break even the most mentally stable puppy. Glad I wasn’t a little puppy anymore, I’m certainly made of sterner stuff like my bro Dylan when it comes to those who endanger our family… but I wouldn’t want to be in the way of that GIGAVOLT HAVOC thing that that Captain Screwball character used.
I don’t know what I’m getting myself into, I’m in over my head, but I’m not going back away from a challenge. I’m still the best skateboarder of Camden… even if I never won a competition and took my own skateboard to my chin more times than I can count.
I needed some kind of truly hellish training regimen… because my body couldn’t toughen up nearly enough for this world and I definitely couldn’t take a direct hit to save my life. Something would get around my board and helmet eventually, there had to be Pokémon capable of insane speeds and could hit with the raw force of a truck in a way that would result in immediately pulping my fragile body.
Really needed something here, for one I can feel there’s more to my wind magic. It seems like it’s only slightly beyond my reach, I just needed to grasp at it with both paws and put my heart into protecting those I cared about.
“So… Z-Moves… are there more things… like that?” Pom asked as we all ate, she was looking to the ‘No OSHA Compliance What’ guy.
Goodness knows my brother Dylan tried to keep our home ‘OSHA’ compliant in case we get another pest control inspection, apparently it means keeping the house safe to avoid us from dying to accidents in it.
“Before I answer that… it’s about time I’ve introduced myself!” The OSHA-What stated as he stood up drawing our attentions to him and the shell on his chest that doubled as an energy sword, which downright paw-some to me! “I am Motochika Chosokabe, the Rhythm King of Fontaine! If I had my instrument I’d show you what music I could be playing... I had to leave that behind due to the circumstances of why I am here in the first place. Captain Skeeball managed to not only escort me safely, but saved your medicinal shipment as well. Call me Moto!”
“Wait, you’re the King of Fontaine?!” Maiden Jiggy Jams seemed to panic as she realized we had some big shot deal of a guy among us, then again he took one of those Golden Ducks solo and it took four our group to bring one down. “Oh my goodness if I had known!”
“Calm your inflation organs Maiden Jig, your Captain Skeeball won me over by more than a mile and after meeting Evan… I can this kingdom is in good paws. Skeeball both knows how to create rhythm and how to fight, she also stopped to help every citizen she could on our way out of my kingdom. She faced Gyarados, Blastoise, Tentacruel with her unit and even survived a constant barrage of Clawitzer artillery for half a day while saving a still loyal unit of Squirtle from capture as they headed to the north east, all that over this past week with her unit rising to the occasion every time.” Closing his eyes Motorcycle sighed and then chugged some of his soup. I usually don’t like high society people, but this king didn’t act like that at all. “She’s one of the most amazing Pokémon I have ever met in my life! Too bad she’s taken already. Even on the brink of her abilities, she still had time to continue surprising me by pulling off a Z-move to make sure our retreat was certain. Fancy stuff like what you might have rolled out for me doesn’t impress me in the slightest, which is why I’ve been quiet up until now and just getting an idea of all your characters, but the rhythm of a good and true hero like her does! She came to my kingdom to continue brokering peace. Now if only my kingdom was currently at peace, then we’d definitely assist you if a majority of it wasn’t currently enslaved to someone’s will. Aurora may be a small kingdom, but it always gave rise to the greatest of hearts and I’m a sucker for good food and equally good people!”
“Thank you for the compliment, I hope to continue living up to your expectations as a leader.” Evan stated cheerfully with a wagging tail and happily licking the cream of his soup that was currently on his face.
“You asked about things like Zenith Moves? Oh yes, there are definitely more Super Powers like that in this world. Dynamic Maximizing, Z-Moves and Mega Evolving are some of the tricks Pokémon can do for an incredible amount of power, but only for a short period of time.” Motorcycles words caused a shiver to go throughout Pom’s entire body, as if she already knew we’d be seeing each one at least once. “A Pokémon that can do all three at once? They’d be able to rival the likes of Arceus in power for an instant, but the requirements to do all three at once are functionally impossible to do much with as the energy required for all of it would only let you do one single world shaking attack. What do you want to hear about first?”
“Zenith Moves.” Well that was obvious, Pom was worried about having seen one in action. To be fair a cat putting off enough power to keep Camden running for an entire year in the span of a minute was horrifying to witness personally and I wasn’t as close to it as Pom was.
“As far as Super Powers go, the easiest for any Pokémon to achieve is a Z-Move. You just need to acquire an elemental crystal, know a move of that crystals element and then learn to do a weird pose that focuses tons of spiritual energy. Only after all that can you launch a Z-Move. It’s far from simple, but any Pokémon with half a brain can use a Z-Move and can actively do them anywhere.” Explained Motorcycle as he stopped to take a bite of his food. “They can only be used once, maybe twice a day if you’re lucky, due to be horribly energy intensive and extremely hard to control. The stress it puts on the body is immense for concentrating a lot of power into one attack and one attack is how long a Z-Move lasts, henceforth putting the ‘Zenith’ in Zenith Move. What’s next?”
“Mega Evolving… I’ve heard tales of Lopunny being able to do that!” Jiri didn’t know much about these Super Powers either apparently.
“Mega Evolving only works only for specific Pokémon as far as I know, but it’s the longest lasting version of a Super Power. It’s entirely limited to specific Pokémon who can find an exceedingly rare marble sized stone meant for a full evolved Pokémon of some species in particular.” Motorcycle turned and looked at Jiri. “Lopunny in particular are one Pokémon that can Mega Evolve. It’s a temporary evolution, but it’s a powerful one that can change a battle entirely. You would need Loppunite specifically and you would have to be a Lopunny for it to work. When a Mega Evolution occurs all of a Pokémon’s abilities are boosted or multiplied, but the changed form can’t be held forever. The willpower needed to change into and hold a mega form in fight, a form that can only experience for a short time, doesn’t make training the ability very easy. Once you are trained in doing it on command, you have one exceedingly hard to bring down opponent.”
“I believe we are now at Dynamic Maximizing.” Maiden Jiggy-with-it stated in a flat tone.
“Ah, Dynamic Maximizing, a Pokémon can only do it in specific places or under highly unique circumstances. When those requirements are met… you’ll see humongous Pokémon that are far bigger than this castle doing equally humongous things such as shaping the landscape with simplicity as taking a single step.” Clearing his throat with a drink of water Motorcycle continued, much to our groups’ fairly noticeable wariness. “Any Pokémon can Dynamax, but it has to be done in very specific spots which limits its usefulness as a Super Power. It is far more powerful than a Mega Evolution, but its time limit is far shorter for an ability that can create hurricanes, cause floods and or even create literal volcanoes on the spot. If you can weather a Dynamax Pokémon’s attacks long enough or have a friendly Pokémon that has Dynamic Maximized to hold off the attacks and limit damage to the surroundings, they will eventually shrink back to normal size and will find all their attacks to be far weaker for at least a week. Also, like I said, this is only possible in specific locations which are rumored to be where darkened clouds turn red and swirl and the world seemingly falls away, best to avoid those signs unless you want a literal huge battle.”
“Is that all?” Smolder asked looking concerned, a literal dragon was concerned about this world.
“Those are the Super Powers that have been seen, documented and are known. There are other stranger Super Powers that are rumored to be out there that do even more bizarre things than further a complete evolution, make one a giant or a single one shot powerful attack that can make even the simplest of Pokémon exceedingly dangerous.” Motorcycle glanced at Quetal for some reason. “The chances of a Pokémon being able to find all the stones to do all three at once? Not happening… hopefully… wouldn’t want to meet the Pokémon that can. They'd have to be on par with Legendary Pokémon to handle it all.”
“Before you ask, Legendary Pokémon are like gods in their specific domains.” Geoff seemed to be looking thoughtfully to Pom. “Arceus is god of all Pokémon, all Legendary Pokémon are said to have come from him directly and they can shape the worlds he makes for the better or worse. Quite a few Legendary Pokémon are opposites and tend to fight, at least they keep their fights to secluded areas and away from innocent lives. It’s when they don’t that we need heroes to rise up and face them head on.”
After that Pom quietly ate her food and looked forlorn, the only ones at the table that didn’t seem worried were Shanty and for some reason Ocellus didn’t seem as worried as she looked at our three friends we picked up in Leaf Town.
It was as if Pom knew we were going to inevitably see a Pokémon that can do all of them once… just because we were here. Sure it was admittedly a non-zero chance that one could do all three at once knowing the strange situations Pom gets into, but even that was apparently highly unlikely.
While the Pokémon noted our groups quiet, they still talked about a few things. Like Jiri officially trying to build a heavy hitting unit for Aurora’s military which currently consisted of rats and a recently acquired squad of brown pigeons.
King Evan had been busy today trying to hire some air support to stop the northern raids. The Wooly’s were apparently going to remain emergency militia and under Geoff’s command.
I knew what the future might hold after experiencing the things going on in my world. A world that had several levels of insanity going on well beyond the tiny and safe little community in Camden Town and Dalmatian Street, where puppies could play at the park all day and not worry about many things… except Cruella De Ville. That devil woman was barely a blip to me now after the stuff I’ve seen.
-Later at night, Aurora Castle guest room, Pom-
I put the device down and put my hoof to it and suddenly an image of Tianhuo appeared, along with five excited canines. They were at a table.
“Ooh neat … three dimensional magical image projection!” Jaded La Perm appeared behind Tianhuo only to get growled at by my puppies and she held up her paws and backed away slowly. “No harm meant. If you need anything Tianhuo, just ask!”
“Will you be returning the entire armory you stole from Huoshan then?” Stated Tianhuo with a no nonsense tone.
“Finally, someone noticed the weapons rack, thank you!” Jaded La Perm gestured to Tianhuo with a friendly smile, then started to walk off. “Hope you’ll be okay Pom!”
Turning away from Jaded La Perm, Tianhuo scrutinized me and then nodded to herself as if she had an understanding of something.
“Pom… what is wrong?” She noticed immediately, because of course she would.
“I don’t think I’m strong enough for this world… I don’t think I can effectively keep everyone safe by myself…” I lamented while whimpering and curling up next to the device projecting her image. “This world is full of impossibly powerful beings, all of them have powers beyond anything I’ve had to deal with before. Even the smallest cat has destructive force to possibly level a part of one of Huoshan's mighty walls. I’ve already broken my body’s limiter twice, I don’t think I’ll survive doing it a third time if I absolutely must.”
“I believe in you.” It sounded so simple and Tianhuo said it… with absolutely no hesitation at all. I flinched so hard that I flopped over and I could swear I heard her giggling at me. How could she have so much trust in me when I was whimpering and blubbering mess of anxiety? I just stared at Tianhuo who was sending me the warmest loving smile I’ve ever seen. “You’ll find a way to survive, I’m sure of it. No matter how dangerous, you are among friends you’ve kept alive and going forward by your efforts. If you are not strong enough by yourself, then simply seek help that will help you be strong enough, but never look away from your own strengths and achievements. You have a great capacity for finding strong companions, like Dolly. She may not appear to be much at an outward glance, but I can tell she is not to be underestimated. Be by her side Dolly, whereas I cannot.”
“Be strong Baa-baa!” Puff shouted excitedly.
“We’re being good Baa-baa!” Woof said sweetly.
“Baa-baa help others, then Baa-baa get help!” That was Tufts attempt at wisdom, he wasn’t wrong.
“Is Baa-baa getting more family?” Asked Ruff curiously.
“You bet your flaming hot backside I’m going to be by Pom’s side through thick and thin!” Dolly’s words made me blush and my eyes slowly drifted in a particular direction.
“While I do not understand you Dolly… can you please not talk about my backside in such a manner? Body language is not as hard for me to understand.” Tianhuo was almost glaring at Dolly and she ducked behind me with a grin on her face. “Still, do your best to keep Pom’s spirits up Dolly. Now is there anything else you wish to talk about Pom? We still have some time.”
“Well… there may be some times where I can’t call you… and I find myself in grave danger again.” I trailed off sadly.
“I will never lose faith that you will always be a lambkin Pom…" Tianhuo stated with certainty as she looked at the bell around my neck. "Specifically, 'MY' lambkin.”
I felt a smile come to my lips.