-Equus, Airship Mauled, bedroom, Jaded La Perm-
Hearing a slight whine and something squirming among the five of us, I sat up groggily.
“What…. what is it?” Fizzy stated dazedly as I broke the sacred circle of cuddling.
“Silvers needs to use the bathroom.” I picked up our little chimera cub and carefully got out of bed to help our daughters.
-Fizzle-
“Do you ever regret sharing me with her?” We often time swapped off on taking care of our little oddball of weird genetics.
I was half awake enough to realize that Jaded has done it more than nine times without swapping off, our kitty was getting greedy with little Silvers.
“Nope.” Responded all three of Maries’ voices, brooking no argument whatsoever and without a second thought no less. “We have a both beautiful unicorn and a brilliant idiot.”
That’s when Marie snaked around me in a literal fashion and pulled me into a kiss.
“Still though, Jade is getting rather greedy with Silvers.” This was my statement after I finished letting a forked tongue dig around in my mouth.
“Yes, she is.” Mara was more amused than anything. “At least she is being a good mother, can we blame her for being cute about it.”
“Probably, also ‘Cute’ is definitely the nice word for it.” Maria said still half asleep despite her sisters being more awake.
“One would think that Jaded doesn’t have a feminine bone in her body, aside from occasionally seeing her in a skirt or taking care of Silvers.” Of course anyone would think that I didn’t have one either given what I’m like. Though if anyone were to hurt our little Silvers, then they would definitely be wishing at least Maries gets to them first before Mama Kuril, Jaded or I did.
If someone were try to figure which one of us was the outlier in our marriage, then they would have a lot of problems because we were all quite weird. Many would suggest Jaded being a priestess and a rogue at the same time, also once upon a time completely evil sorceress Mirage of Saddle Arabia. I would say myself for still being the Storm Queen and a royal guard to Twilight after having once almost killed her. Maries would say their selves for being a chimera that was a lawyer and the actual bread winners in the herd.
I silently thought about how our lives could be far more dangerous. Things were actually fairly tame, because we were in the running for the most dangerous herd to mess with on the continent.
Maries… them being lawyers is what many around here would claim to be the absolute tamest thing to be notorious for among our unique family. Mind you most people don’t know that Maries does some bounty hunting on the side with Arizona’s mother ‘The Mad Cow’.
Mara, Maria and Marie enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and the very few times where violence was completely necessary while they were present. Most tried to avoid making said violence necessary, especially upon being confronted by an attractive and particularly large, highly intelligent, chimera.
Eventually Jaded came back with Silvers and plopped them on Maries belly where the little three headed tyke stretched out and then curled up against their mothers.
“Okay ladies, resume cuddle positions. I know dawn is an hour away, but I’ll be darned if I’m not sleeping in before I set out to plan for the future escapades, like finding out more interesting stuff about Pom.” Jade was going to be doing research for Tianhuo, despite them being somewhat antagonistic to one another. Our Jaded can’t help herself around anyone with a profession so much as tangentially related to the word ‘guard’.
Jaded loved reading up on legends and mythology she doesn’t know about. In our world there was always a hint of truth to legends if you weren’t one yourself. The whole ‘Chrysomallus’ thing was something that piqued her interests fiercely. Something that worried Tianhuo to no end as she helped train her counterpart and our other magical next door dimensional neighbors.
We needed all the help we could get, which had me wondering where the Fœnum Fred and Oleander disappeared to. They could have gotten us in contact with our Equus Oleander and Fred to tell them we knew exactly where Pom and the others are now.
Aside from the drama, somehow life just all seemed so… normal… despite the bizarreness of everything we dragged each other into. Jaded being the absolute worst offender for not being able to go a solid week without something incredibly weird happening, even if it wasn’t her fault.
“Silvers is probably going to wake us all up again…” I stated with a yawn and flopped back into the snuggle pile.
“So~?” Jaded stated with a loving tone from behind me as she quickly fell back to sleep while purring happily, her rumbling massaging me slowly back to sleep as I was pressed into the middle with Silvers.
I felt Silvers nuzzle their faces against my belly as I too fell back into restful slumber with a smile on my face.
-Pokémon World, Ransei Region, Kingdom of Aurora, next morning, at the top of the western edge of Arceus Valley, Pom-
“Pom, have I ever told you how cool you are?” Several times Dolly and you certainly enjoyed our howling session last night, as did Lunala apparently. I’m not ‘too’ sure of that or where my life is going other than eventually into the ground.
“… A few times.” I finally responded after a seventeen seconds or so, lost in the memories of the time me and Dolly have spent together not doing anything dangerous. I then proceed to kick us both off the cliff and into the air with my hind legs.
“Honestly, where did you even learn to turn a tent into a functional hang glider?” Dolly said as we glided forward, her paws were holding onto the bar between my hooves as she was underneath me and held in place by my wool.
“You can learn a lot when you’re surviving outdoors for more than a few years, innovating isn’t too hard when you know math and science of things. The physics between all these worlds I’ve been to have been, thankfully enough, consistent.” As we glided through the air, I sighed at the freedom and felt the warm air pass around us as we hit a thermal updraft that sent us higher into the air. We could have done gliding by ourselves, but we were doing this together through less than magical and far more mundane means. Reminds me of that trip to Cornwall where Dylan did something similar. Fun times were always worth remembering. “Also one of my canine companions got stuck on a ledge during a really nasty storm. No one else was going to help us out there that far from civilization and I just had a spare tent lying around. I’ve always had a strange fascination with flying, it’s just unfortunate that I’m a lambkin slowly going Chrysomallus.”
After an hour of gliding about, we finally landed in a tree to the south of Helper’s Hamlet. Well land wasn’t exactly the word for what happened.
“You going to eat that?” Giving the tree monster a flat stare as I pried the makeshift hang glider free, he backed off raising his two clawed limbs with a leafy wrists. “It just looks a lot like a kite is all I’m saying.”
“No, also no you can’t eat this tent, I actually paid Poké for it and that it doubles as a functional hang glider makes it worthwhile to keep around.” The spooky tree eventually respected my need to keep the tent. “Come on Dolly, let’s go talk to the girls about some of my… problems.”
“That was a fun way to start the morning at least.” Dolly stated with a slightly upbeat attitude.
-An hour later, Guild Hall, second floor, Shanty-
“So you couldn’t relax entirely, could you?” Ocellus be having Pom’s number, given she be flinching at the accusation.
“Well excuse me if most of my talents are basically survival, fighting and being a merry little house wife for the most wonderful longma on the entire planet of Equus. If I were to name a hobby that wasn’t geared towards any of that, I would love to say flying or gliding, but that would be in poor taste considering what I have to tell you.” This time it was Pom that be making Ocellus flinch. “I have Dolly watching the door so nobody can eavesdrop on our conversation. Since this is important, I’m going to start off by putting this in the simplest possible way that I can. Take the concept of a ‘Sacrificial Lamb’, make it as literal as possible and take it to the furthest obvious and worst conclusion you can think of, especially when in context to me.”
My eyes widened as my mind ground to a halt, as it dropped anchor and went to shore to see if there was anything that could actually be making me inebriated. I be learning to read, write, do math and all loads of other stuff that be quite conducive to understanding of others and I can be thinking of a lot of horrible things just from those words alone. My face be quickly turning into a big frown as the implications be sinking in like a dinghy hit by a cannonball, Pom wasn’t be subtle.
I be pulling out a bottle of Rum and opening it, I be taking a slow, long, deliberate sip of it while I be gathering my thoughts.
“You’re going to die?!” Ocellus stated, to think I be once thinking she was the smartest of us.
“Ozzy, Ocellus, there are far worse things worse than death, see Discord ‘Lord of Chaos’ or Chrysalis ruling Equestria freely without consequence for more information.” How very dry humor of you Smolder.
“... I be getting it.” I be knowing enough tragedy to be lasting several lifetimes, to think I am barely being a teenager. It was quite easy for me to think of the worst idea imaginable in relation to what Pom be saying, it only be making too much sense.
Pom being something like a ‘blackcap’ be a scary thought, sometimes I be thinking that I am being one too.
“Okay, give me your ideas and I’ll tell you how close you are while trying not to explain it, Dolly already knows and wants to tell you, but I told her to let me have a crack at trying to tell you first.” Was that being the reason you were so despondent Pom? “Death is a highly possible end result, but not necessarily the worst one as Smolder has stated.”
“… if any situation we get into be getting bad enough, you will absolutely sacrifice yourself for us. The question is being, what will you be sacrificing to do so?” There was a weak glance being sent my way, but there was no denial from what I could be seeing in Pom’s eyes. “Helping people is just something you do, protecting those in need means a lot to you even then.”
“Shanty… you definitely have a good grasp of the concept already.” Pom nodded to me. Smolder and Ocellus be looking at Pom curiously. “Do you have anything to say Smolder, Ocellus?”
“Pom, if what you’re trying to imply is correct, are you conceptually obligated to sacrifice yourself for anyone’s sake?” That definitely be something important to ask Ocellus, because we wouldn’t be letting that happen.
“Thankfully enough, no, not just anyone’s sake.” Pom glanced meaningfully at us, I be getting mixed feelings about that. “It’ll be close enough to seeming like it is that way though. While my problem won’t immediately or directly kill me…”
I did not be liking the fact that Pom trailed off.
“It will lead to you getting killed quite easily... so what exactly is a Chrysomallus?” There, the question was now being out there thanks to Ocellus and she was the only one to be being brave enough to ask it directly.
“Let’s start with the definition of a ‘Black Sheep’ and why I’m not one. It’s actually important that you girls pay attention to this.” We were all listening Pom, this was being about her health and safety after all. There was no way we would be ignoring some possible information that could be helping. “Okay if I were specifically a ‘Black Sheep’, then I would have been able to win the Tai Lung fight a long time ago.”
“Well that seems…” Smolder started only to be interrupted by Pom.
“Without even using the Shock-Ram technique.” That… was being a lot to take in… wow… Pom had us all quiet and staring at her. “After some thought, a Black Sheep’s combat potential is just that plain ridiculous. Now think about how I go on the offensive and how some of my techniques are sacrificial in nature.”
“Sacrificial to your total health when using Shock Ram, loss of voice when over using your bark attacks, Dancing Flame abuse plus a nasty projectile injury led to arrhythmia problems and you constantly getting physically weaker from being unable to handle a constant strain on yourself. To the point you were left in a near constantly dying state…. that you used it on top of using Shock Ram at the same time… there’s also the whole lighting yourself on fire.” Ocellus stopped and said that last one with a hint of dulled amusement, then came the scathing sarcasm. “Gee, no, we hadn’t noticed a lot of your techniques have that problem with being a huge double edged sword and of course we’re worried more about you, considering you’ve basically been killing yourself to protect us and others. I think you’re most recent one is the least egregious from the way it sounds. Given what you’ve told us about the ‘Thousand Spears: Huo’ taking a full five minutes to build up to, it will be a complete waste of time if anything so much as distracts you from actually using it. I actually believe that sacrificing a tiny amount of ‘time’ is the much better option than you sacrificing anything else.”
“Provided I live to be thirty Ocellus, then yes that is the least devastating sacrifice for the successful output. You missed a few, like the Wobble Counter. It involves absorbing and returning an impact along with some of my own meager strength added on to it, it requires that I purposely take a hit. Thankfully my wool can take it for me to mitigate the worst of it, but still doing it without wool assisting me would be quite painful. Mind you if done incorrectly it can be severely damaging.” We just stared at Pom as she just threw that out there. “Thankfully Paprika ‘The Demon’ Paca doesn’t teach by half measures and most of my best skills are based around my speed and defensive potential, if not my magical potential being quite huge.”
“Sheep’s clothing, sacrificing your wools protection to make it act like extra muscles to increase speed and strength.” Smolder said wide eyed. “You’re… horrifying…”
“Exactly… at least you understand that now Smolder. I said I was scared of myself and I actively tried to ignore what I am. I am a Chrysomallus, a very unique form of lambkin, said uniqueness of my situation is a not good thing though.” Pom said with sigh, a dull look in her eyes and she be lowering her head to stare at the floor. “I hope you appreciated what I’ve sacrificed to even get us this far. There’s still a long road to home for you and I intend to ensure that at least you guys make it.”
She wanted us to make it because… Pom didn’t be thinking she could…
“We will not be letting that happen, ‘if’…” I was cut off by Pom.
“It’s not an ‘IF’ Shanty, it’s a ‘WHEN’ when it comes to sacrificing my entire being!” Pom be screaming at us and making us flinch, then I be seeing the regret on her face a second later before she be putting her hooves on her face, but she not be crying. “I’m sorry for yelling at you…”
Was she sacrificing peace of mind too? Constantly being under stress to perform to keep us going and alive? She clearly not be enjoying this adventure as much as we were at some points. She did be saying to take the words ‘sacrificial lamb’ and making it as literal as possible. She not be dead yet, but she be pushing it quite close several times.
I be carefully moving forward and wrapping my hooves around Pom’s waist, did it always seem so tiny? Was Pom always being so small? She almost be seeming like an unstoppable juggernaut to us, a brave leader, someone who wasn’t weak willed and couldn’t be stopped.
“A Chrysomallus is worse than a Black Sheep, because the word ‘sacrifice’ has a lot of meaning to such an individual like me in a magical manner. If a Black Sheep is a physical power house with few downsides and are warriors that rise up to be capable of protecting lambkin kind all by themselves, then a Chrysomallus is in turn a magical powerhouse with many downsides… the upside is that I’ll eventually be far more powerful than the Black Sheep at least. Possibly at some major personal cost." Most of Pom’s best moves be using her magic and she be having plenty of that, when her wool was glowing a gold color she be using a lot of magic to destroy that ring in Pugilis. She didn’t seem to be sacrificing much, but she did look tired afterwards, she apparently just sacrificed a lot of magic to do that without hurting Dolly with the raw force she unleashed. “Chrysomallus are known for having golden wool, alongside golden feathered wings and glowing eyes. There’s also the capability of ‘conceptual flight’ to avoid almost any attack conceivable even if the wings I’m supposedly supposed to have were rendered entirely unusable, the ability to give one’s own life force to another or multiple others, incredible wool control and the ‘power of sacrifice’ that will be used unintentionally or not. Being aware of being a Chrysomallus just makes it all even worse, that’s the reason I’m reacting the way that I am… I’m terrified. Not just for myself, but all of you knowing just exactly what I will eventually do on purpose and with a clear mind.”
Smolder and Ocellus soon quietly join the hug, we held onto Pom tightly. We clung to her knowing what we do now.
“Let me guess, it’s addictive. This need to sacrifice yourself… and it’s only going to get worse.” Ocellus said slowly. “Like how we changelings kept wanting more and more love, until we almost started starving ourselves out of existence.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s fairly terminal, given I’m always willing to sacrifice myself for my friends.” That’s not exactly what anyone here wanted to be hearing Pom.
“Do you at least get more powerful from it?” Smolder be asking as we tightly held on to Pom.
“Not physically, but any possible extra magic I gain from it will only actually make it much worse. It’s already to the point I can make a single leg glow on purpose. I think it depends mostly on how much of what passes for ‘free will’ for me and how much I put into actively performing a ‘sacrifice’. If it’s my choice it’s definitely a lot more meaningful at least, hearing that I’m a Chrysomallus put my increasing talents as a fluffmancer into perspective.” Pom be showing us all when her right leg be taking on a powerful golden glow, the glow felt both comforting and safe somehow. She switched the glow to her left leg, before letting it drop to the white soft wool. “As Ocellus said, it’s only going to get exponentially worse… and I won’t even mind doing it either. Since I know I’ll be doing it for a friend or at least someone I believe to absolutely need it.”
“You do realize we’re not going to let you go so easily right?” Smolder stated before clamping down with her claws even harder, I followed suit with my hooves and Ocellus be creating octopus tentacles.
“Like you’ll have a choice in the matter, we can’t stay like this forever… the thought is nice at least.” Pom calmly stated as she started to hug us back with a slight quivering in her legs.
“So Dolly knows all this and she’s still going to try to keep you alive, much less stay connected to you knowing you have something like an out of control death wish going on?” Ocellus asked while holding tightly onto the fluffy leader of our strange group.
“Specifically the ‘she’ll try’ part. After having almost died in her world numerous time, I don’t know how successful Dolly will be no matter how determined she is.” Pom groaned out and stopped hugging us to rub her two hooves in circles on her forehead as we held her close. “Also she’s reaffirming that in my head this moment… that she’s in it for the long haul. Please don’t tell other temporary friends, they… they don’t exactly need to know. What would they think of me if they knew?”
“A lot more than if you didn’t tell them. Hey, we’ll get through this Pom, we’ve gotten through everything else mostly… right sorry.” Smolder realized how much Pom has been through for us. “Just don’t go dying for us at the drop of a hat, that’s an order from me as a dragon to you as a Huoshan Guard! The only one I will ever want to give you Pom!”
“I don’t know how well I’ll be able to follow that order exactly Smolder.” Replied Pom dourly. “I’m already going well above and beyond my station as a ‘simple reservist’. Heh, so why not add more pressure onto that?”
“Well you better darn well try Pom, because we all want you to live a long and fruitful life!” For once Ocellus was being quite forceful, this be surprising both me and Smolder. As she sniffled and burrowed her face into Pom’s chest. “So… what are you going to tell Tianhuo tonight?”
“Whatever my wife wants to hear.” Pom said with a hollowness as she wilted, we still hadn’t stopped hugging her. It be like there was a gaping wound in her heart. “The truth most likely.”
“Now what?” After a full minute of silence, Smolder finally had to ask that.
“Now, we go about our day as if nothing was wrong and everything is fine, because this… things are fine.” The door to the room opened as soon as Pom said that. Dolly slammed it behind her before stomping up to us, then she be leaping onto Pom and wrapping her paws around Pom’s neck. Dolly whined something. “I’m aware Dolly… I’m well aware. I said I’d try for you last night, well I told them and now you all know the horrible truth. What are you all going to do about it?”
“Well we can’t make Pom avoid trouble… she’s like a literal magnet for it.” Ocellus whined. “The way I see it, we should try to mitigate Pom’s necessity in most situation. Which is kind of impossible given her capabilities in a fight.”
“All Pokémon are capable and so are the Digimon, though I’d rather not drag Canard into my problems as he’s already been through as much as I have… if not more.” That be our Pom, always thinking of others. “I’m doing it right now aren’t I… sacrificing for someone else’s peace of mind?”
“We’ll be doing everything we can to be preventing you from sacrificing your life.” I said it so simply, it would be a daunting task on top of all the other crazy things we’ve been through. “We just be needing to prevent you from being in a no win situation.”
“Considering how close things have been for Pom, it’s a particularly huge ask to keep her away from trouble entirely like Ocellus said.” Stated a dour sounding Smolder.
“If it comes down to it…” Pom didn’t finish her statement.
“I already nearly be losing enough on this adventure, I have gained too much to be losing anything now!” The only reason I am being here is because everyone here was family to me.
If I wanted a home I could have stayed with Cooper and he could have been family, I would still call him Uncle Cooper if I ever saw him or the rest of the Cooper gang again. I would have been quitting on living my dream of being a famous pirate on Equus though, I be believing that dreams are the stuff that strength is derived from and I would be breaking my own belief if I quite on any of my friends or family now.
“What if someone be making sacrifices for ‘you’ specifically?” I suddenly asked and Pom gained a disturbed sickened look on her face.
“I…” We be knowing already Pom, you love us!
“You don’t have to be asking us to.” We just needed to be strong enough to prevent ‘you’, specifically, from doing anything like that. “As long as we don’t sacrifice our lives, it’ll be being fine right?”
“No…” Pom didn’t even need to think of her response. “Can we please remember that I’m the adult here girls.”
“And you’ve arguably done a very good job at being our guardian… we would like you to be able to keep doing so and maybe continue being friends when that is no longer required.” Responded Ocellus in a frosty tone that brooked no argument.
“How about we just eat lunch girls, I’m sure Dodo is hungry too and he’s certainly getting back to his old size… new wings adding a bit to that of course.” Pom wasn’t even trying to pep up.
“You could still stand to enjoy life a little more Pom.” Dolly said loudly, that was not being a translation from the device and that hadn’t required her singing it either. “If you’re going to be our hero, then you’ll need some heroes yourself. We’re willing and able to make sure you won’t need all the pressure placed on you to die for us.”
“Uh… did Dolly just speak that sarcastically without the device or having to sing?” Smolder asked in surprise.
“She said that from the heart, so of course she was understandable.” Ocellus nodded as if it were being that simple. “So one last question… how do you know all of this?”
“Well…” Pom started and her explanation quickly started involving the word ‘marmalade’ a lot and it is being a story every lambkin apparently knew.
-Origin Space, Mew-
“Dad…” I slowly turned to the god of all Pokémon.
“I know, knew, and cannot exactly tell you where the future will lead from here. Even Celebi will be hard pressed to keep things in order and they are about to request something of me. Chaos comes for us all Mew, Pom is strong and if she stops being a downer she might even survive the absolute Tauros grade fertilizer of a storm that’s coming, she’s truly a master at surviving the odds. Kind of banking on it actually.” Yeah, but what you were saying Arceus, is that we didn’t even need her for all of this and yet you still brought her into it. Why? “I’m sure Pom knows why I went above and beyond for her, she needs more reasons to continue living than any mortal I’m watching at the moment.”
“May we join you in watching said mortal, we offer an eternity of free taco and noodle stand fare.” We both turned to look at a large black metal dragon and another dragon with several heads that seemed to be smiling mysteriously. “We are Bahamut and Tiamat, we have some interest in a particular mortal. We will not be interfering in the war and will mostly just watch things. It’s been a while since the whole marmalade thing that we’ve seen one such as her rise to prominence.”
“Teach me how to make your recipes and I’ll agree to letting you use Origin Space in a ‘professional’ capacity.” The two dragons looked at each other, got into a slight heated argument… considering one of them was a hydra it was going to be a little awkward.
“Agreed.” The two gods, one with at least multiple personalities stated in unison.
“So want some good old fashioned noodle soup?” Tiamat asked airily.
“You only make that stuff because you can boil water perfectly.” Bahamut stated with crossed arms.
“Oh like you’re tacos are all that hard to make, king of breathing habanero sauce!” Tiamat, from what I gathered as being his sister, started to argue. “Besides we know ‘THE Noodle Incident’ has lead us to being here.”
“What’s THE Noodle Incident? Why does the word THE sound like it has all capital letters?” Being kind of hungry for a taco and some side soup, I ask out of curiosity.
“It’s something we’re not liable to talk about.” Tiamat stated with her heads blushing.
“It’s why the term ‘Noodle Incidents’ is even a thing in any world we even have a marginal claw in, darn Memetic Causality and all she does! She’s been trying since forever to make us come clean about it and then there’s the whole thing with the marmalade.” Bahamut stated with a flat glance at his sister deity. “It was just that bad and Tiamat should feel bad about running a Noodle Stand. Very poor visual pun all things considered.”
“Just to be clear, we’re actually here because some of our worlds power may soon get dragged into this incoming conflict by Moon Cell, we’re here to make sure things stay… fair.” One of Tiamats head stated. “Relatively speaking of course, because the lesser forms of Bahamut or I might be one of the things summoned against that poor lambkin.”
“To think that’s her head with her most honest feelings no less.” Bahamut stated bluntly.
“Hey, at least I chose correctly with Jaded. You just had to choose one of mine after I chose one of yours!” There’s a distinct impression that there was a ridiculous squabble going between Tiamat and her brother Bahamut.
“So… giant spider meat tacos… how do you start with making one?” Arceus didn’t seem bothered by their showing up in his domain of birth.
“Well obviously you start by finding a hero with a consecrated sword of something like ‘anti-poison’ to kill the spider in such a way so that the poison in its body entirely evaporates upon being slain…” Bahamut started to say. “Either that or have a dimension with non-poisonous giant spiders laying around, kind of a hard to find rarity that.”
It was a ridiculous way to start a cooking recipe, it got worse when he got around to the less than evil Demon Lord raising living vegetables from the ground that needed to be killed with an axe in particular. Which apparently is why something called ‘onion knights’ existed, then there’s the whole thing with drying ‘killer tomato’ slices to the point that they were barely damp but not turned completely to jerky.
There’s also the whole thing about needing Invisible Non-Euclidian Lettuce created from the destruction of a highly destructible, barely sentient, cabbage carts. It just required the carts destruction, not the cabbages place within them. The cabbages being ruined tended to be incidental to the process of creating said lettuce.
“And you say my visual puns are horrible!” That was Tiamat, after Bahamut made mention of an optional marmalade based hot sauce glaze that tasted particularly good on the tacos.
-Ransei Region, Aurora Castle, Pom-
Even Dodo was looking at me with worry, because he was going to find out exactly when Shanty did.
“So what’s going on Maiden Jig?” Apparently Aurora’s military units were still taking a bit of time to recover from defending against Ignis’s Rebels.
Don’t know if I wanted to join King Evan in being in Greenleaf at the moment. I wondered how that bit of politics was going.
“I need an escort for a Chrysalia exploration expedition, they are going into Illusio to find out what’s going on. The nation has been far too quiet lately and from what little information has been coming from the east coast being at war… well it’s concerning that the mind readers and future sight specialist of Illusio are quiet about everything that’s going on and aren’t responding to anyone asking after the psychic types at the borders.” Sighing Maiden Jig looked to the other group that was here, an entire group of giant bears with white lances for arms ending it tiny points. “To that end, this is the unit of Beedrill that Chrysalia wants supported for a ‘diplomatic’ escort into Illusio. As you’ll note, they are a combat unit, since we have some idea that trouble might be found in Illusio. Violight, being friends with Chrysalia, are preparing a Morpeko unit to back up the Beedrill on the suspicion that the local psychic types are going to be some form of huge trouble. We’ll need various Pokémon that can deal with a psychological problem and Morpeko will be specifically geared to fighting psychic type Pokémon.”
“Which is where we come in. Are we being hired to go in with the Beedrill first and will we be expecting the Morpeko to catch up with us later? Also what are Morpeko like?” There was a slight cringe when I asked about the Morpeko, not only from Maiden Jig, but the Beedrill as well.
“More or less, yes, that’s exactly the gist of things. Morpeko come in three colors and can change to being two colors depending on their moods, they’re very easy to recognize at least. They are kind of like hamsters in appearance” Maiden Jig stated. “However they are willing to take Rescue Team support if we can’t currently lend them any of our units for this investigation.”
“They are… a little troublesome to work with when they get hungry.” One of the Beedrill buzzed out. “Great battlers though, they could wipe the floor with any psychic Pokémon that only has psychic attacks. Otherwise they are fast and vicious little guys, of course we’re bots calling kettles black in the viciousness departments. Just don’t rile us up and you’ll be fine.”
“We expect this to quickly become a combat operation.” A female beedrill followed afterward. Shanty, Smolder, Ocellus, Dolly and Dodo all turned to stare at me as if expecting the inevitable.
“So we just need to cover the beedrill unit?” I already knew it wasn’t going to be that simple, Maiden Jig looked like she knew it and even anyone that knew me knew that.
“Well if you’re willing to be hired for it that is.” Maiden Jig would never force us to do it. Team Harmony wasn’t exactly subordinate to Aurora Kingdom so much as we were an organization working within said kingdom.
“Okay, we’ll do it, we can talk about pay after everything goes horribly wrong. So will we be going through Violight and Chrysalia?” I turned and asked the Beedrill.
“No we’ll actually be going to Illusio through the southern pass access from the Pugilis and Terrera border access after going through Ignis, it’ll be much faster.” The lead Beedrill assured me. “The punchy Pokémon are watching the borders and are willing to help our expedition into Illusio to find out what’s going on in the kingdom. We’re trying to keep this in the realms of a scouting mission, but we’ll decide once we’re in the area.”
Maiden Jig unrolled a map of Ransei and it showed us traveling up the inner hind legs seam up the thigh and into the region that would make up Arceus’s back.
“So what’s the Illusio region like?” For sake of clarity for our travel preparations.
“Moderately mountainous, but there’s also a lot of magnetic fields, floating rocks and as the name would suggest… entire hidden cities on the ground or floating in the sky. Illusio Castle itself is said to be in the sky and the terrain favors the ability to float around like psychic types are known to do.” Maiden Jig pointed out the pass we were going through between the Fighting Kingdom of Pugilis and the Ground Kingdom of Terrera. She then pointed out the pass heading into the mountain region of Illusio proper from Chrysalis which we’ll be in for a short time, we’d be passing through Chrysalia’s eastern most edge for a short amount of time. “Be careful of mental illusions Psychic types will try to make you see or experience things that aren’t there. The sharper one’s mind or at least the simpler it is, the less likely you are to be effected by psychic types since you’ll either notice or shake off their attempts easily. Dark Types are also fully immune to psychic type attacks. So if someone like Quetal says something is up, then you should pay attention to him if you don’t notice anything being off.”
“So what are a Psychic Types most common abilities? I’m not talking Pokémon Abilities specifically, I mean general ability.” My question took a moment to be thought over and then Maiden Jig nodded to herself.
“Teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis and floating is the general among all Psychic Types, the strength varies from Pokémon to Pokémon though. Psychics are very good at ranged, energy based, attacks.” With that said I had no more questions for Maiden Jig or the Beedrill unit we’re to escort. “I hope you know I wouldn’t ask this of you if I could help it. We’ll try to get at least the Skitty Squad up and running to back you up in case things go horribly south. Just one last thing… are you okay Pom?”
“I can’t honestly say yes to that question.” That was my answer and I wasn’t about to give a better one.
-Some hours later-
I didn’t even try to talk with Geoff before we left, though I have to admit his wool shifted form was adorable and quite a few others agreed with the sentiment that the cleric was cute, dependable and obviously a persistent pervert of the plains.
“Are you sure you want to be on a mission that sounds like it will go to Tartarus in a handbasket Pom?” I calmly hugged Ocellus and then went back to thinking on what we might run into. “You’re expecting it.”
“I expect a lot of things to happen.” I answered evenly.
“So is anyone going to tell us what you guys discussed earlier today?” Dazzle looked quite worried, as did Frizzle who was chomping on a baguette she got from Mr. Schlurp before we left. She turned to everyone else. “It’s something to do with Pom isn’t it?”
We were rather tight lipped about my impending doom, one eventually bound to be brought about by a rather highly lethal itch to help people. Not that my friends would ever want to stop me from helping people, it’s that they wanted me to stop me from sacrificing myself totally and utterly in the most volatile way possible. I kind of wished them the best of luck and that they would succeed at it long enough for me to see Tianhuo in person again.
“I don’t think she’s going to want to talk about it Dazzle, it’ll probably come out one way or another. Don’t force it, it’ll likely end in tears.” Canard wanted in on this particular mission, which was odd. It was not very hard to guess why Sami wanted in on this as well… Sami was quite rather emotionally attached to Canard and would go wherever he did, the information entity was quite smitten with the giant duck according to a whisper between Ocellus and Smolder.
I really needed to use advanced my senses more often.
The one thing I would question is Canard’s sanity of wanting to go with us, he would have been much safer doing small jobs in Aurora instead of getting into trouble with us.
“I will at least say that I will explain what we talked about if it becomes pertinent to whatever is going on. Otherwise we’re trying to keep it to those of us who are all heading to Equus, Canard will be heading back to the world his friends currently occupy and I assume he’ll be taking Sami with him. Dodo and Dolly are from different worlds, but they’ve made their choices to follow us until the end, I can’t ask that of you who are going to stay behind… or will be forced to at least. We’re not even sure Arceus would let Pokémon come with us beyond these adventures.”
I mentally drew up a list of those traveling with us.
Quetal, Shine, Lit, Mundo, Dazzle and Favela were all in attendance as our traveling Pokémon companions. Lit seemed particularly upset at the idea of being separated from Dolly. Favela was obviously the same way with Shanty. I think Dazzle would be okay if we were separated, but she would want it to be on good terms.
There was my main group with Smolder, Ocellus, Shanty, Me, Dodo and Dolly, all of us aware that I’m quite driven to eventually sacrifice myself violently.
The six Beedrill unit from Chrysalia that we were escorting into Illusio.
Frizzle and Sami were auxiliary help, along with Canard and the Cleffa that Canard befriended that was officially became a recent member of the Team Harmony. Then there was the non-combatant of the Charjabug who wanted to see the world, he would help us as needed and wanted to just explore and see the sights.
“Trust me, I, Pirate Favela, will find a way to be a part of Captain Shanty’s crew, come high water or fiery inferno!” Declared Favela as one of the best friends Shanty has ever had. “I’ll likely be told then right? If it doesn’t affect us now, then we shouldn’t worry right?”
“If you can actually swing it Favela. Arceus might just keep you in this world for your own safety, he’s apparently a major controlling factor of whether or not people can cross borders between unconnected dimensions.” We were making good time at least, we were in Pugilis and close to the border of Terrera and closing in on the southeastern pass into Chrysalia. Chrysalia held two bottlenecks at its eastern border and we were going to be passing through both of them as we continued north along the road instead of south towards Pummelton.
-Illusio Kingdom, Illusion Castle, ???-
“Hmm… so the white wooly one is finally coming for me.” I glanced at the Caterpie that recently became a green moon shaped shelled Pokémon known as a Metapod. It was apparently still supposed to be a reason for my defeat and I scoffed as their life seemed particularly normal for a Bug Type of their species. “I guess I can prepare a good welcome for them at least, they won’t have even an ounce power to even threaten someone of my lofty caliber.”
-???-
The scene zoomed out showing a creature with glowing red eyes filled with mirth, it had a ponytail flowing from its head and the two horns at the side of its head that had rings hanging on them as gold as the creatures coloring. Its two arms with glove hands weren’t quite connected to its body for the lack of shoulders, said body was cylindrical with a golden hoola hoop like ring tightly stuck around its waist. The bottom of said waist was a ghostly tail.
On this golden creature’s face, which lacked a nose, was a malevolent, utterly manic, smile that reached its rosy pink cheeks on its opulent golden form.
“Let’s see how well you’ll do against the King of Heroes outsiders and travelers from the beyond. For you’ll soon come to face to face with me, The Legendary Gilgamesh and will be weeping in sorrow at my splendor as every last one of you fails to achieve your goals…” The figure said as he floated above a throne in a floating castle in the skies of Illusio. “Oh what fun games we will play together, when I see all the hopes and dreams of you and your friends dashed upon the rocks of my elegant grace. I might even let you live to wallow in your failures like the bugs you are and might even bother to add their things to my collection once I’m through proving my superiority, hmmhmhm-heh-heh-heh!”
-Nearby, Celebi-
We’ll certainly see about that… not when you have both the understudies of Palkia and Dialga mad at you for taking over Illusio and killing the previous king in cold blood as a tyrannical conqueror. We’re angry that he was giving us Legendary Pokémon quite a bad name, but we couldn’t exactly directly act against the Bootleg Hoopa.
I glanced at the actual Hoopa and he had an equally sadistic grin as the fake counterpart currently running Illusio, we nodded to one another while rubbing our hands together with delightful hints of mischief.
So that golden ponce wanted to play games with the lives of mortals huh…
Well he might be one tough sucker to take down, but we had all the time and space in the world to really screw with him.
Let’s see, there was a Gallade named Kenshin who was going to do big things… no positioning or movements needed as Cotton will actively take care of everything on that front.
We personally could bring in a particularly silly outsider to aid ‘them’ in the right moment… just need to run it by Arceus to see if he’s okay what with the irony of it all.
Finally there’s the whole thing with how the Charjabug was slowly and quietly being positioned into becoming a rather glorious bit of payoff… being completely overlooked because Pom was there and a primarily keeping any kind of focus off of the rather innocent little green bug that Gilgamesh sees as beneath his notice.
Bless Arceus, for he has a miraculously cosmic sense of humor that eventually creates smiles.