//------------------------------// // 270. Passing through?! // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Palicoast, Beach, Gallus- “Okay, this is enough, untie me this instant!” Twilight seemed visibly upset as she sat on the blanket on a really nice beach. The Abyssinians here have a really sunny days too! “We can’t you’ve been foal nabbed.” I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “They untied all you, why didn’t they untie me!” Really Twilight was just being overly uptight about being kidnapped. “Spike can you give me a little help here?” Spike was sunbathing with mirrors, he lowered his sunglasses to look at Twilight and then raised them back up and simply went back to sunbathing. “We signed up for the kidnapping!” Silver Stream stated jovially with Yona nodding alone. “I signed up to be one of the kidnappers to eventually betray them and untie all of those that were kidnapped.” Calmly stated Tianhuo. “Why didn’t you untie me then? Aren’t you on loan from Huoshan to have my best interests at heart?” Yeah, well, about that Twilight, the people who kidnapped you are eventually going to take you back to Equestria. I mean Jaded and Jackie aren’t planning to ransom you or anything and I find it amusing that they let you stay tied up this long, there’s also the wad of tortilla wrapped cheese on your horn preventing you from using magic due to your fear of quesadillas. She ignites her magic, the cheese melts and instant quesadilla… she was going to have to face her fear of some Mexicolt foods eventually. “I do not see any trouble here, do you Woof, Ruff, Tuft or Puff?” Tianhuo was relaxing and building a sand castle, the puppies were simply enjoying digging in the sand for buried treasure. That those puppies had already found two treasure chests of some really strange stuff alone was amazing in and of itself, they also made sure to fill in the holes they left behind too. The puppies stopped what they were doing and made barking noises while shaking their heads. They didn’t see anything going on as being wrong. “Well there is the fact that you didn’t sign up to be kidnapped on purpose, so you’re like a side kidnapping that’s more realistic to the scenario.” That would be Cadence implying Twilight was still in the middle of actually being kidnapped, she wasn’t wrong. “Those who signed up for it are basically roleplaying being kidnapped… which is when Tianhuo betrayed the kidnappers and untied all of us.” “I know, I was there when Tianhuo was wearing that poorly made hippogriff disguise and she untied everyone else in front of me!” If you really wanted to get free sooner, then you would have made the quesadilla happen Twilight. “I’ll rescue you soon enough Twilight, I just got to finish my volleyball match first!” It seems like Shining Armor was finally warming up to Jaded somewhat, he didn’t bring her up in a scathing manner... this time at least. Don’t know if I could do the same with my somewhat clinically insane adoptive sister. “Oh I get it now, this is about my distaste for Quesadillas isn’t it?!” Twilight stated in an angry if slightly fearful tone, she stopped her magic from igniting the cheese and tortilla. She really didn’t want to pop a quesadilla off her horn... and it would solve all her problems sooner. “I’m not afraid of Quesadillas! I’m not!” “Yona is wondering why you haven’t ignited your horn if you are not being afraid.” There was a long silent pause from Twilight and she visible looked down with a frown. “Yona is being afraid of spiders until Yona is meeting Spindle, then Yona is literally having a friend for life!” “You can’t make friends with the horrors that are quesadillas!” Shouted Twilight, actually saying what Yona goaded her into admitting out loud. Smooth move there yak… I held up a curled talon and bumped it against her outstretched hoof. “Okay, now that you just actively admitted that you’re scared of quesadillas, we can begin to eventually start helping you with it.” I stated bluntly, Twilight wouldn’t say anything for the next ten minutes. “So anyone for a game of Twisty?” Jaded said with a grin. “Of course!” Fleur De Lis was only here because she wanted to enjoy a good kidnapping with Fancy Pants. “I’m game!” Fœnum Arizona stated with a keen interest, followed by the other Fœnum heroes we kidnapped into this vacation. “I’ll play when Shiny is done with his volleyball game, oh and Gallus… this is a good opportunity for you to figure out how flexible Silver Stream is.” Given that I was receiving a devilish grin, this would either turn out alright or I should be flying for the hills… I can’t tell which yet. -Ransei, Fountain Mountain Lake, Fontaine City, lakeside, Pom- Fontaine city was a part of Fontaine Castle in floating on the waters south of Fountain Mountain, a city that was made for Pokémon that weren’t as enthusiastic about water as water types were. Most water types could live underwater and that’s where the other half of the city was. We weren’t technically in the city, were camping outside of its borders which includes the whole lake of Fountain Mountain. Said lake feeds into the mountain and the mountain creates waterfalls of fresh water from that and the melting ice at the peak of the mountain. Bidoof were rebuilding both halves after the devastation caused by Carmilla ‘Bloodbath’ Bathory. I don’t know where Ellie got off to, but I hope she lived her best life away from becoming her future self. I still didn’t understand how it was possible for her future and past self to be in the same place at the same time, all I know is that I helped destroy the future self and let the past one run free. The Bidoof, as always, were insanely enthusiastic to rebuild Fontaine. It explains why they were so helpful in evacuating the battlefield, beating up controlled Pokémon and a variety of other things that were not related to the medical support units on the field. Nobody trust the Bidoof with medical practices, I didn’t want to end up as half a house for whatever inane reason a Bidoof would need to try and figure out the logistics of turning someone into half a living space to fix what amounts to a papercut. Hundreds of water, normal and some various miscellaneous types of Pokémon needed time to recover from that battle. Healing Berries can only go so far and healing moves like what Swallow had were a premium and usually for the users benefit. The water Pokémon that could use a move called Aqua Ring were especially tough as that move gives them constant regeneration by flowing water around themselves in a specific sustained manner that it heals them. They were also quite helpful if they knew the move Baton Pass, it allowed the user to pass on positive effects of moves to others temporarily and it worked with the regenerative properties of Aqua Ring. As such Motochika had a supporting medic force dedicated to doing that as his support units that were a match for the Miltank Medics in the backline support. Speaking of Motochika… he and Evan were checking out the damage done to the southeastern coastline by Maiden Jig when she inflated explosively to impossible proportions. I was considering my options of what to do from here and though I’d loathe to bother with what will be an oncoming headache, I was going to check on how Greenleaf was doing while sending everyone else back towards Aurora. Geoff, who was protecting Aurora from any untoward attacks, was happy that the battle fared well and the brutal casualties were fairly low because of Pokémon having ridiculous amounts of resilience to dying. Casualties in this instance was just grievous injuries in the flesh wound variety, there was no lack for methods of healing from severe injuries in this world when healing potions were easily made from local berries and herbs. -Fontaine Peninsula, southeastern coastline, Evan- I still felt somewhat spent after that battle, so many Pokémon are hurting… at least we won’t have to worry about a big battle like that for a while! “Evan…” My attention was drawn to Motochika. “Yeah?” I said as we started to leave. “Remind me to never make your kingdoms administrator mad… for any reason really.” That was understandable Motochika, given the large perfectly curved hole in the peninsula left behind by her. “Do you think she’ll be okay?” I had heard that she was still out cold, apparently she used far too much energy while Dynamaxed, it was even worse than Skeeball being tired after burning a Zenith Move. “Maiden Jig is made of tough stuff, like my administrator. She'll pull through, you'll see.” That’s when a Lapras came up to Motochika and slapped him in the face with her tongue, it made me blush a bit. “Ugh, Plessilia, really now, in front of Aurora’s king?” “You owe me a kiss for doing my job as transportation. Hey there I’m Plessy, Fontaine administrator, I was with Pom’s team for that whole fracas.” Oh, was that a ball on her back… oh no… wait… that was a Spheal. I still wanted to bat it around playfully, it looked fun. “Hm… hey, wait a minutes, did anyone get the Dynamic Maximizing stone that Bathory left behind?” It suddenly made me realize that it hadn’t been destroyed in the fighting. “I’m sure it’s fine, not like Dynamax energy is going to be big enough to cause problems around here anyway with the levels dropping off for a long while until it's needed again.” Motochika should be a little more worried when his region was known for being Dynamax capable, but if he wasn’t worried then I guess I shouldn’t be worried. “I’m sure within the flow of rhythm, it will make itself known to us eventually.” -Fontaine Peninsula, southwestern coastline, Skeeball- “So you must be wondering why I asked you here my tubby hubby?” My big guy nodded while making a sound of curiosity. Using the remaining Dynamax energy in the area, I grew several times my own size. After licking my lips, as I laid on my side in an inviting manner, I began grinning brightly at him. With hearts in his eyes, Wilhelm floated towards me with a cheerful Wailord brand grin. This would be much easier and we’d be taking care of any excess Dynamax energy in the area, it’s the purr-fect plan to make sure the energy left behind was dealt with. For I am Captain Skeeball! -Fontaine City, lakeside, Pom- “So you can now take commissions safely in Fontaine and Aurora, I am personally going to check Greenleaf briefly and will look through Violight for information of anything odd going odd.” So that I could avoid it. I wasn’t taking many people with me for the reason that I wanted to be fast about all this. “I’ll swing back through Greenleaf bridge and then through Ignis bridge and then I’ll be back in Aurora after I’m done getting information in Violight.” “That I’m going with you doesn’t need to be brought up!” Dolly said with a cheerful grin. “Dolly of course is going with me, but I’m only taking one other person with me.” That’s when I noticed Dazzle come forward a bit shyly. “I want to go with you.” She seemed a little nervous, maybe it was because she didn’t do much during all the fighting. Being weak to water types made Dazzle somewhat helpless in a battle full of them. Still, she successfully got off a sneaky poison attack off on Bathory before she purged herself with Smolder and Ocellus’s help. She even prevented Smolder from making the mistake of rushing Bathory blindly. The Riolu and Lucario that helped us out didn’t have as much issue with water types and were a huge swing for the battle, that was Evan’s idea and they accepted it and a few of the Riolu even evolved. Evan said something about being right afterwards, but I wasn’t paying attention as I was still regrouping with my friends. “Sure thing Dazzle, we’ll be traveling pretty quickly though.” That and since I would be going through the Grass type Pokémon domain, she might be thinking she would be a big help in case I get attacked in the grass type kingdom. “Remember girls, stay out of trouble, Smolder your leader for the time being. If I let Shanty lead, she’d probably have you building a rum distillery somewhere.” “How did you know I would be asking… er… I mean I would never be doing such a thing Pom!” I gave Shanty a flat stare and she gave me a big cheeky grin with her front hooves behind her back. “Come on, let’s get a move on.” I motioned to Dolly and Dazzle. Motochika would start the celebrations when all the Pokémon from the battle are healed and their kingdom is mostly rebuilt. “Tell Motochika and Evan that I’m getting a scope of possible situations going on in other places.” -A few hours later- It felt weird traveling the road that was once held by Grit alone, up to the crossroads where we took a left and kept going west. It was going to be late in the evening by the time we got to Arbora, so we’d stay the night there and then would move on to Violight after asking around if anything has happened and maybe drop off information to Vetali about what happened in Fontaine, how her daughter was doing and in general try to avoid any trouble. “I felt really quite useless, she even purged my poison immediately.” Dazzle felt a bit useless, like Favela had. “You were there to help Ocellus stop Smolder from making a big mistake, that’s something I recognize as a good thing.” Given that there were wyvern Pokémon, I knew we would keep an eye on Smolder around anymore like that. “…” Dazzle looked a little thoughtful as we continued on. We were about halfway to Arbora Town when we ran into trouble. “Prepare for trouble.” Started Jessie as she and her group ran in front of us. Were these guys simply more persistent than Geoff was? I thought that was impossible, it boggles the mind that they would keep bothering us specifically. “So… want to just walk around them and head to Arbora while they are doing this?” I asked as the Team Pocket guys continued their motto about robbing us or beating us up or whatever it was they were going on about. I stopped paying attention to them after the third time. “I want to at least talk to Vetali sometime today about how Favela is doing, then tomorrow we’ll head for Violight and will steer completely clear of Greenleaf Castle. I have a hunch things will go much better for us if we do.” “Yep/yes.” Dolly and Dazzle both responded with amused expressions and we quietly skirted around them while they were taking stances with their eyes closed. Scourge was muscle flexing, Jester was dancing about, Meowth was standing tall between Jessie and James at the front as they went through the motions of doing stances. -Fast forward to the finish of the motto, Meowth- “Meowth, prepare for Team Pocket’s might because you’re in for a… wha…? They’re gone… and they left us a note?!” I walked over and picked it up. “Hello my verbose and rather persistent villainous annoyance group, one of constant irksomeness that get launched long distances and somehow are alright despite what would be usually quite painful experiences for people that do not have the ability to handle such falls. We have unanimously decided that since you were taking so long to leave a message so that by the time you were posing with your eyes closed, you would eventually notice that we were no longer standing in front of you and have moved on with our lives. By the time you are done reading this message, we will be long gone and hope that you enjoy the rest of your evening. Also take note of the explosive blob of energy I left among you that will explode as soon as you… finish… reading… this…” We all looked at a wobbling mass of energy in our midst. “Uh oh…” I said as the wad of wobbling energy began to glow brightly. -Pom- We were outside Arbora when I looked up and saw an entire group of Pokémon flying overhead. “Eh, they’ll be back.” While I would normally worry more about people that were more threatening than Mr. Beezy, those guys were a bunch of clowns. Sure they were fairly dangerous clowns, but they were still clowns. Also giving my Buster Bark blasts set commands about when to go off was interesting, they probably shouldn’t have finished reading the note… would it still have exploded even if they didn’t? Well technically if they finished reading the note before completely reading it… doesn’t really matter, it still happened so they aren’t very bright either way. “Most assuredly Pom.” Dazzle nodded with a small smile. “We’ll be ready for them when we actually feel like fighting them.” “Or they could corner us somewhere, somehow, in a way that they will get their whole motto off before we can get bored and wander away from them. They could be even worse and tie us up to watch them go through several renditions of it.” Don’t even joke about that horrifying thought Dolly, that’d be giving them ideas and too much credit for their capacity to torture someone! “Let’s get a room at the Saucy Skiddo after we stop to talk to someone we know.” Dazzle hasn’t been here before, but she seemed to like the atmosphere around here despite how sleepy looking the grass type Pokémon were in the evening. “Saucy Skiddo?” Dazzle seemed curious and was blushing for some reason. “Yeah, it’s the name of the local bar and guild.” As we entered town we saw two familiar Breloom. “Hey Luke, I just wanted to inform you that Fontaine has solved their issues with the mind controlling monster.” “Was it a Malamar?” Luke said with eagerness as he looked to his guard friend. “No it was something called a Noivern that was also a Vampire, my group destroyed her protections and Maiden Jig apparently stomped her into the ground and she burned away in the sunlight.” The fighting mushroom smiled at his guard friend as I informed him of what the problem was. “Anyway Fontaine should be getting back in working order soon and we just dropped by to stay in Arbora for the night. Anything of interest happen here?” “You could say that, also my friend guessed it was something less weird than that, I said it would be some kind of mystically altered Pokémon using some weird artifact and thought something like Malamar or psychic type on top of that.” The competent fun guy leaned against his spear. “We’re both wrong and I’m partially right so I get some Poké. Nice to hear that everything is working out in Fontaine, heard and saw something big and pink around there… didn’t know it was Aurora’s own Maiden Jig, sounds like we missed a huge party. Since you were last here we caught that Robbing Hood guy, your information about it being a Decidueye helped us a lot with catching the culprit in various minor to moderate misdemeanors around here. He had a cross bow and favored hanging around yew trees for some reason. Aside from his stealth, he wasn’t very good at fighting up close and personal.” “So there’s nothing horribly wrong going on around here?” Just wanted a confirmation on that, I was sure that we’d be sucked into something. “Well… no, but I wouldn’t stick around if I were you, might invite something to happen just because you’re here.” Again, Luke sounds like he was speaking from experience. “So just passing through or…” “Passing through, we’re going to Violight tomorrow to see what’s going on there and get some information of what’s happening further afield. Ignis currently isn’t safe and I’d rather not involve myself in their civil war.” Getting a knowing nod, I got a friendly salute and smile from Luke. “We’ll be willing to escort you the Violight border in the morning if you want.” Luke and his friend must not have much going on aside from having captured that Decidueye guy. “I would like that, thank you. We’re heading to the Saucy Skiddo for the night, have a good evening!” He waved us off as we continued on our way. “He didn’t even question my presence.” It seemed Dazzle was mystified by the rather blasé amount of attention she received. “I think that’s because you’re my friend and I trust you like I trust Dolly here.” She seemed so put off by it, I just gave her a light hug and then directed her down the street to the Saucy Skiddo. Upon entering the establishment, it seemed to be quite busy this evening given all the noise going on inside. “Hey Vetali, can we get a room for the night?” “Sure, take a seat and let me get two tables first, then you can tell me how my daughter is doing.” Vetali the Gogoat was moving about and taking care of numerous Pokémon. There were a few Breloom guards here so the rowdiness in the Saucy Skiddo seemed to be low despite the light drinking going on around here. After a bit of waiting Vetali came up to us with a smile. “Anything I can get you?” Vetali stated with decent cheer and a few vines pouring drinks for some of the patrons. “Some food and a room for the evening, we’re passing through and trying to find out if anything is happening in Violight and its surrounding neighbors. Aside from that it’s probably not a good idea to be in Ignis right now considering all the fighting that is said to be happening there.” As for her daughter Favela, I decided to express how she was doing. “Favela is doing okay, but she kind of got dragged into a haunted death trap of a castle with us. It kind of shook her up a bit, but she’s healthy and is a great help. She's even becoming best friends with Shanty.” “My daughter being as adventurous as the rest of my children, but still… a haunted castle?” I would go into the tale of Blood Bathory over some food. Not long after, we settled in for the evening. -Saucy Skiddo upstairs room, night, Pom- Something shook me awake and I sleepily lifted my head from Dolly curled up in my legs and practically dead to the world. “Um… sorry, but can I…” Dazzle looked like she wanted to ask something. “Fine… get in.” I said drowsily figuring out what she wanted, it was cute considering she was one of the Pokémon that liked sleeping on me. “I thank you for the comfort you bring.” Dazzle stated as she crawled in to bed and snuggled up to me. I sighed and went back to sleep, it seemed Dazzle still had nightmares and to my dismay I was a very good and comfortable pillow that chased away said nightmares. -The next morning, breakfast and several hours later- We were making good time today, nothing seemed wrong and I was nervous as to where things would suddenly fall out from under me. Dolly on the other hoof, she was a ball of positive sunshine on me being in a dreary mood. “Come on Pom, we managed to get through most of Greenleaf without trouble. Today is a good day, I can feel it! The sun is shining, the smells in the air are amazing and I feel great… despite…” Today was the day Dolly finally ran out of her world’s kibble. Her right lower eyelid twitched a bit and she continued to keep a positive attitude, despite me knowing she was actively thinking about it. “Anyway, we’re making good time! We have an escort with no trouble in sight and Dazzle doesn’t seem to be making passes at you like Geoff does.” “Well she wouldn’t Dolly, she told me what it was like for a female Salandit, especially one with her notorious nobility. A lot was expected of her and when she evolves things would just get a whole lot worse for her prospects in life.” I even shared that information with Dolly mentally. “She just wouldn’t be allowed to be herself like she is now.” “Yikes… that bad? No wonder she likes you so much, you’re not scared of her being dangerously poisonous and you’ve been nothing if not gentle and kind towards her since you first met.” Dolly certainly gets it readily enough. “I guess I can see why Dazzle isn’t looking for anything more closer in your friendship, it’d basically be her doing the same thing the people of her kingdom were doing to her.” “Exactly Dolly, plus she knows I’m already taken and am not looking to build a herd.” Still it would probably be for the best if Dazzle wasn’t with us if we headed or ended up in the direction of that particular kingdom. “Does the herd thing happen on your world often?” Dolly tilted her head as she walked along and tightened down her helmet. “More often than you would think with quadrupeds in our world, lambkin are less likely to herd due to our rather consistent mental issues.” Of which there were plenty among Lambkin kind and I would know being one member of it. “Anytime we do find someone we’re comfortable with, it’s usually a match made in Elysium.” “I’m helping you with your issues right?” Yes, Dolly and you being here for me does keep me calmer, I even nodded in acceptance to your ever cheerful smile. “Well here we are, northern bridge to Violight, I’ll tell you a few things you need to know before you head off.” Nodding for Luke to go ahead, he did so. “First off Electric types tend to use paralysis attacks, to that end you’ll need a Cheri Berry or two to cure paralysis. They are also tend to be fast Pokémon and are in general weak to ground type attacks and cannot hurt ground type Pokémon easily. So kick up some dirt at them or in the way of an electric type attack if you’re in trouble, it’ll help more than you think it will. Ginchiyo is the Queen of Violight, she’s a bit stern and prideful, but can be nice once you get past her rough exterior. She is a Luxio, a feline species of Pokémon that come in blue, black and yellow. The kingdom in general has higher technological levels than we do, they even have some things called computers there. The only kingdom with more technological heights than them would be Valora the kingdom of Steel Type Pokémon, of whom they share a long distance alliance with. So expect buildings that are made of much tougher stuff than what you’ve seen around thus far. Be aware that electric types, when charged up on food or sugar, can be a bit hyper or a little aggressive. The kingdom is known for its storms, it is also known for lights and unusual magnetic energy fields that can cause odd things to happen. As for one last thing of note, don’t damage any of Violight’s storm towers, they absorb lightning from the constant storms that happen around Violight and some Pokémon need that energy to continue functioning. Underneath the towers are the safest place to be in a lightning storm if you get caught outside in one.” “Well thank you for all the information, but what about directions to where we can get some information?” This was my first time going into Violight and I didn’t want to get lost. “Easy enough, just follow the path northwest up the coast. All the places in Violight have paths to them. If you want information then you can make a stop at Sky Garden, one of the results of the strange magnetic fields I told you about that’s a very popular tourist attraction. Further northwest the coast is dominated by the coastal capital itself Violight Castle and Shiden City. If you’re not heading towards Violight Castle or Shiden City, then try Voltsburg because it’ll likely be the town you can easily reach first and finding information there won’t be hard at all.” “Thanks for the help Luke, take care now!” We set across the bridge northward. “I’m a bit nervous about this. I’ve heard electric types can get quite weird, but what he just said made my worries go up a bit more.” You weren’t the only one that was nervous Dazzle, but I wanted to know if anything was going on around Pugilis, Chrysalia or Violight that might be a problem for the regions surrounding Aurora later. I could almost feel the unseen dominoes being set up somewhere. I was quite thankful the Decidueye in Greenleaf wasn’t going to be an issue to me at this time. -A few hours later, Voltsburg- “Wow…” Shared the sentiment Dazzle, this was kind of amazing. The Sky Gardens were neat to look at, but we couldn’t exactly get up to them and didn’t see a way how. Apparently we should inquire about that in Voltsburg while we’re here. “Violight is likely called the kingdom of lights for this very reason.” We made our way into town and saw lights strung around, the weird and strange electric type Pokémon were moving about in high activity and some of them were selling wares and or odds and end. It had taken us most of the morning to get here, but even I was transfixed by the strange beauty of all the colorful lights were spraying the areas with color. We must have been gawking for too long because a Pokémon that looked like a sheep wandered up to us. “Hello and welcome to Voltsburg travelers. If you want to see something interesting or need a place to stay for a bit, then hit up Professor Pong. He has been looking for assistance into some strange phenomenon going on lately if you’re looking for work. If you don’t want free room and board with him, you can try the Raichu Rooms Hotel. They have generally good rates and if you’re looking for somewhere to eat, then the Power Strip food court is quite electrifying for various types of Pokémon or strangers.” The sheep with sparking wool looked down and saw what had to be a bug type was trying to get his attention gently by poking at one of his legs. “Oh a Grubbin, on tour in Violight and possibly about to evolve into a Charjabug huh? I’ve seen a few visit here quite a few times, so you’re a recognizable sight at least compared to our strange travelers. Aside from Snom you guys have some of the slowest evolutions of bug types.” Interesting to know, but the little guy did kind of interrupt us. Still if we were going to ask anyone about the surrounding area, it would be the sheep Pokémon. “Can you show us where this Professor Pong lives please?” The bug had two long pincers and an orange on his head, he seemed fairly cheerful and full of life. “I’ve learned that Mareep and Flaaffy make really good guides, also I want to get to know who these other travelers are too! We can possibly travel together if they are sticking around. I’m just a normal Grubbin, you can call me Grubby until I become a Charjabug like Mareep just said!” “Well come along, I’ve got free time to show you all where Professor Pong lives.” It was almost lunch time and I was kind of interested in seeing what the Power Strip food court had going for it. “Do you have any questions?” “A few, has any unusual happenings been going on around here, Chrysalia or Pugilis?” I knew Greenleaf had some internal issues which seemed to be resolved, probably related to the Decidueye. Putting that out of mind, I was worried about Ignis possibly going on the warpath in other regions. “Chrysalia was quiet when I was last there.” Okay some confirmation that not everywhere was experiencing trouble from the one Pokémon that was a tourist like us, Grubby was it? He was a cute little guy and seemed to look healthy if he’s been traveling around by himself. “Nothing going on around there except maybe for the usual stocking up on food.” “Unusual as in trouble? Pugilis has been strangely quiet for a while, probably just Pokémon building up for an announcement to yet another fighting tournament… quite common around there really, though there was an issue of Riolu and Lucario being rowdy. I haven’t heard much about that though. Aside from that, if you’re looking for strangeness in Violight then Professor Pong would be your go-to for some strange happening around here.” The Mareep stated as they led us through the streets. I’m glad he told us about Pugilis, because I would rather avoid getting dragged into another tournament against my will. I don’t think I can get accidentally lucky with my anti-magic wool launching me skyward again. “Oh pay attention, on our right is the Power Strip food court remember the general area so you can come back here.” We took a moment to do so and then continued on our way looking at the lights and the strange Pokémon running around. There were a lot of small Pokémon that looked like mice, two that were different kinds of squirrel and a few that looks like metal orbs with magnets or tuning forks. “This is Professor Pong’s residence.” Huh, it was slightly more impressive than the rest of town which was constructed with bricks and wood, the building had some metal in its walls too. “It’s also a laboratory, hey professor I got some people interested in whatever you’re working on.” “Is he a rock type?” I asked as I looked upon the strangest Pokémon I’ve seen yet floating in the middle of the room. “No I’m a normal type, called a Porygon. Specifically I am Professor Pong Porygon and… that’s odd there’s been a sudden increase in instability in this room. Some of the data is going out of control, something about my guests must have changed it.” Professor Pong certainly didn’t scream 'normal type' to me being a weird blocky floating thing. He was looking at a computer’s monitor and studying something. “This data stream seems to indicate that something incredible is about to…” “Digital dimensional breech in progress.” Said the device under the Pecha Berry Scarf Dolly was wearing around her neck. She was still wearing her three colorful bands and the device that was hooked on them called the digivice underneath. The most we knew was that it was something of a connection to another world, a world of which Dormarch had originated from. Dolly looked down at the pink scarf around her neck and then at me like a deer with light shined in their eyes. “Excuse me, but did one of you just say…” One second we were listening to Professor Pong about to ask a question and given that we just met him, we couldn’t get a good judge or read of his character. A vortex opened up and swallowed Dolly, then Dazzle and it tried to get me but I was fighting it. “My word, what incredible data this is! Oh, no, wait… this isn’t good at all! My new interesting guests are all getting sucked out of this…” I decided to let go of the floor with my wool and fell into the vortex after Dolly and Dazzle, it closed up after I entered it… because of course it did! Finding myself in a black space, before I knew I felt like I was spinning out of control and eventually I ended up moving towards the entrance of a tube… that was made of green wires? Further down that tube were hundreds upon hundreds of strange blinking colorful squares making up the tube. At least Dolly and Dazzle looked as confused as I was as they floated there and… wait… what was that yellow spot on Dolly’s back? Okay, not entirely important to worry about yet because… “Digivice establishing connection to nearby new digital world server, please wait… Signaling help from any nearby ally for accidental, and we assure you very much completely unintentional, Digi-destined summoning to network connection space. Please survive the life threatening heavily patrolled security firewall of the new server until then.” The Digivice announced. “Guardromon and Machinedramon will see you as viruses to be deleted and will begin attacking soon. Yggdrisal.sys is quite sorry for this horrendous inconvenience considering prior inconveniences involving deceased digimon partners destruction. Yggdrisal.sys hopes to at least not let you down… for once… warning, WARNING, Chaosdramon X detected invading server connection! Extremely immediate life threatening danger to unprotected Digi-destined... beginning immediate transference to save nullified Digi-destined regardless of trying to fix current firewall issues!” For some reason I had very big gut feeling that this was going to be one of the worst things that I’ve ever experienced in recent history, especially as we all quickly got sucked into the strange tube of squares among the vast ocean of surrounding darkness.