-Pokémon World, Ransei Region, Chrysalia, eastern border defense encampment, the next morning, Shanty-
“I still not be getting a flying slash or cutting arc…” I be grumbling, but my new Bounding Bubble was being a fairly nifty defense, utility and offensive technique all in one.
“You’ll get there eventually Shanty, we all have our talents.” Pom is not being wrong, we be all having our unique talents. It is how we even be getting this far. I watched a Pom turned to address Dos. “Okay General Dos, since the Beedrill are still feeling a bit under the weather. Who will be going with us? Aside from the… Morpeko…”
So they be a bit foul mouthed Pom, did you be expecting to get through this adventure without hearing some harsh language?
“Since the problem is going to be of legendary equivalence, our response is to attach Ninjask, Shedinja and four of our advanced heavy combat specialist, the evolved form of Dewpiders, Araquanids to your traveling team. We’ve been given the go ahead to prepare for a counter invasion if needed.” That’s when Dos be pointing out Ninjask, Shedinja and four ‘six legged’ spider like beings with large bubbles of water on their heads and smaller bubbles around the six joints on their legs. “The Araquanids are also our fire-fighting specialists in peace times, they’ll be of great help in case that guy tries to dump any more magma on you and or tries to seal you in with quick hardening magma walls or dome like he did to you in Three Borders Valley. They know the move Crunch, a dark type attack guaranteed to give a psychic type a bad day and possibly a mangled limb or two if they get too close. They all also know Aqua Ring which makes them tough to take down, but what’s better is that they can unit command to combine Aqua Rings into a healing field that works on all their allies as well. Said healing field won’t work on anyone they tag as enemies, it’s one of the reason why they are heavy combat specialists as they are some of the most durable Bug Types we can lend you at the moment.”
“Nice to know we’re going into Illusio with a solid support.” Ninjask stated with some good cheer. “I take it those four are coming from the Water Weavers unit?”
“Yes.” After nodding to his friend, General Dos then be turning to us. “Word of warning, the Psychic Types might know where you are at all times while you are in Illusio, but not what you will be doing. Be very careful about what you do as soon as you cross the border.”
“I thought that’s what the Morpeko unit was for.” Pom be gesturing a hoof to the six Morpeko meandering around and were getting some supplies they could carry, that being a few berries.
“I’m going to be honest here, Psychic types can tell when Dark Types are around in large enough numbers to cause them problems. Mostly because of the absence or hole where a Psychic Types powers should be having an effect when Dark Types group up enough. If that Gilgamesh’s guys range is as good as we think it is, then he’ll always know where you are. From as far away as Aurora even, so he likely knows that a team of Dark Types are already here and our feasible intentions to get a scope of the situation he may or may not be causing our next door neighbors.” Well wasn’t that being quite a terrifying thing to hear General Dos. “The Morpeko team will be generating something like an invisible field or fog that’ll prevent psychic types from getting any long distance mental visuals or seeing your future actions, but they will still be able to see you quite visibly up close and personal. Unless we were to go to the Kingdom of Yaksha for help, which is currently at war with Viperia due to some information we received from a high speed Ninjask scout team, which are currently on leave due to being exhausted from flying across the entire continent to even get us this information. Viperia probably had some poor politics going on with Yaksha again.”
Dazzle be wincing at being reminded about where she was from, and everybody be noticing it. She is being quite self-conscious about it with the way she be rubbing her right arm and looking away. General Dos cleared his throat and waving a leg to draw our attentions back to him.
“Yes, we’re completely ignoring the fact that she’s a wayward princess. Anyway, the Morpeko unit is the best we can get as far as acquiring Dark Types on short notice from allied nations. They might be small, but they are quite the little hellions in a fight when their dark sides are out. I’m fairly certain that other kingdoms have noticed something going on with Illusio and will have likely sent in any Dark Type agents they might have as spies. You are being given the go ahead to befriend or avoid them at your own discretion, for they might not actually be your allies later on. I know Dark Types get a bad rap, but there’s a reason for some of the stereotypes to exist. Still get help where you can.” We be nodding at the advice General Dos was giving us and he was specifically not looking at Quetal, but the Morpeko. I guess we should be being wary of any help that is being offered to us then. “There might be some Psychic Types willing to start an outright rebellion or some looking to help an investigation of what’s going on if things are truly getting dire or bad over there, try to interact with all Psychics Types in a professional manner first and foremost and be wary of mental probing or manipulation. The Dark Types spies from other kingdoms are going to be less noticeable or hard to find if they are acting alone or in fairly small groups, so you might have some unknown and undetected possible allies wandering around if they decide that helping you is a worthwhile expenditure of their time. Don’t rely on them actively coming to your aid if you seriously need help, with that said… we’re going to miss your food Mrs. Lambchop!”
General Dos started spilling tears as did a number of surrounding Bug Types in a comical over the top fashion, it is being both sad and adorable.
“Sure as Bug Types we enjoy our sugar, but we still want different flavors every once in a while for the novelty and health reasons of it!” General Dos was being a very nice guy for someone who could move swiftly and was being very scary in training exercises with all his ambush ploys. He be leading a fairly good fort here too. “Oh, one last thing to know before you set out, Chrysalia has already sent out warning to all western kingdoms in a show of good faith. This is in spite of our general disinterest as an ‘insular’ kingdom. Everyone knows to be on the lookout for possible portal attacks from Illusio. The information you said about how Greenleaf and Aurora’s bridge was knocked out…. that has been confirmed as psychic energies given off by a Hyperspace Hole were what moved that sleeping Snorlax. Apparently this news has changed some opinions in Greenleaf about what to do with the King of Ignis, but we’re not certain on what has changed or how the trial is going there. We’re interested in the sense that we’re hoping that Ignis’s stability gets better, because the western kingdoms are going to have problems from eastern ones eventually and Illusio is showing signs of some major trouble going down.”
“Thanks for keeping us up to date on the happenings around here General Dos, you’ve been a great and humble host to us.” Pom bowed to him and then turned to me and motioned the rest of us to head for the wagon. “Okay guys load up, we’re supplied and heading east for Illusio.”
“Do you be worrying about another attack?” Considering that Gilgamesh guy said he was basically on the throne of the kingdom and was practically running it?
“Oh definitely, but we’re still going to do it…” Lamented Pom as she be having a ‘helping people’ complex that is being quite lethal to her health. “I hope to at least reach the border before things start going wrong, if they start going wrong while we’re still within Chrysalia’s then this is going to be a thing. Shanty…”
“Okay, Dodo let’s be moving!” I called out as I took my seat at the front, I be captaining the wagon.
Dodo be warbling and he be setting out for the gate which is being opened by use of a lot of String Shot from various Bug Type Pokémon. We set out and we be now headed to the eastern pass into Illusio.
“Okay, I would be liking an explanation on something, why is throwing a pebble at them being so effective?” I be turning and pointing as the ghostly shell Pokémon known as Shedinja.
“Shedinja are a fairly unique Pokémon given they are born with the evolution of a Nincada to Ninjask, all Shedinja have something called ‘Wonder Guard’ as an ability… which might become a huge problem if we run into a Ralts line of Pokémon. They have the ability to ‘Trace’ the ‘Wonder Guard’ ability for themselves. As long as something isn’t highly effective against them, A Shedinja will always survive an attack without a single scratch. Fire, Ghost, Rock, Flying and Dark Type attacks are effective against Shedinja, so chucking a pebble at their head will always knock them out immediately since a throwing rock can give off that kind of energy. Shedinja don’t have a lot of endurance, in fact it’s known for having the weakest endurance of any Pokémon to ever exist in always taking one hit to defeat. Something as simple as a candle flame or a charged burst of wind can knock them out… as for everything else… they are a living shield against every other possible form of attack imaginable. Ice Beams, Hyper Beams, Solar Beams, no matter how powerful, do basically jack all too them despite how much energy can be put into such attacks, it’s even easy to say that Shedinja are basically immune to ‘direct’ psychic attacks too. Shedinja can still be hit with special effects such as confusion, poison, burning, weather conditions or battlefield traps like Stealth Rock and Spikes, but direct attacks… they can tank almost anything all day as long as it doesn’t have a side effect that can cause Shedinja trouble, or is naturally effective against them. Shedinja can’t even enter Terrera without passing out given the constant sandstorms, same thing with Nixtorm because of the common blizzard and hailing conditions. Sheddy here is going to be a good support role when there are attacks they know that they can safely block.”
“So he is being a specialized perfect shield against most, but not all, things?” It be fairly amazing to me what some Pokémon were being capable of.
“Yep, now let me tell you what make Araquanids special… they are obscenely powerful with their water attacks despite the limited repertoire they can get in that particular arena. Their head bubbles boosts their water based attacks to an insane degree when it comes to using moves and weakens Fire Types attacks significantly. Also they are immune to getting burns from fire attacks as a kind of sub ability.” Ninjask be pointing out the water bubbles that be covering all the Araquanids. “So when an Araquanid uses a move like Scald, it works insanely well for them compared to any other Water Type and their innate toughness makes them a terror to face on a battlefield. When they shoot boiling water, you would do well to be well out of the way of that attack.”
“What are the Araquanids bad at?” Ocellus asked as she glanced at the water wearing beings.
“They are exceedingly slow in combat, their natural offensive power isn’t the greatest with anything other than water attacks and they have an annoying habit of sticking important things in their water bubbles including small Pokémon like Morpeko.” That be sounding pretty mixed bag to me Ninjask, I be looking to see that one of the Araquanids had already stuffed a Morpeko into its head bubble and it looked to be partially drowning. “It’ll still take a lot to bring one of them down in a prolonged battle with numerous opponents. Even these four can wipe entire units by themselves if given the wherewithal to do so. ”
“Um… is someone going to…” Pom started with concern at the Morpeko frantically trying to get out of the bubble until Lit hit it with a String Shot and pulled it free of the water surrounding the Araquanid’s head.
The Araquanids were fairly large, but we still managed to fit them in the wagon Pom be commissioning from the Bidoof. It was being large enough for our transportation needs, because she specified Dodo had to be capable of fitting in the wagon as well.
“So how much trouble is a Ralts if it does this tracing Wonder Guard from Shedinja thing?” Canard finally voiced with Cleffa sitting next to him idly kicking her legs and humming to herself.
“Exceedingly big trouble, they’re only exceptionally weak to Steel, Poison and Ghost type moves. At least Sheddy knows they’d be a pretty big liability if they let a Ralts actually trace them.” Ninjask then be settling in. “Any more questions until we reach the pass? If not we’re going to be stuck with idle talk.”
Not really, I be looking ahead and seeing the pass is not being too far away. The Bug Type encampment was placed in a fairly defensive spot to watch the road to the west into Chrysalia proper.
-Ten minutes later, outside the pass-
We be having idle chatter as we approach the pass and the Araquanids were especially helpful with their knowledge on how to control water. Dewpider’s required three of their legs to hold a water bubble in place, their evolution into Araquanids made it so that it was no longer necessary to hold the bubbles on their heads and the bubbles doubled as a battering ram in how condensed the water was.
Dodo be slowing down and looking at the shadows cast by the mountain and the pass was eerily silent.
“Are we still technically being in Chrysalia?” As I asked this, Dodo be approaching the entrance and was sweeping his gaze about warily. “Dodo seems to be picking up on something.”
“Yes, this pass between the mountains would be the border point leading into Illusio.” Ninjask took to the air and flew ahead of Dodo and looked around for a bit before flying back and landing. “I don’t know if Illusio has border guards or not waiting for us on the other side or in the pass, but if your Dodo is wary and feeling something is off, then we should be cautious too. The pass isn’t very long, not like Three Borders valley, but I wouldn’t want to be attacked here of all places. We could get bottlenecked.”
“For obvious reasons, we’re not going to be offload everyone quickly in tight spaces.” It was Canard that be answering the particular thought that be passing between us. “Let’s take it slow Dodo, we’re in no hurry.”
With that Dodo started forward at a very slow pace, he be feeling quite wary.
“Dodo is still one of the oddest familiars I’ve ever heard of or seen personally.” Ocellus stated as she watched Dodo pull all this weight behind him without a problem.
“He’s fairly strong, it’s kind of odd that Shanty has been able to maintain the bond with a familiar as strong as he is considering he came back from being almost melted alive. Then again the location the bond was formed was not exactly on Equus or Dolly’s world, there were bound to be differences in the minutiae like what’s going between me and Dolly. There’s also the whole Digimon being something like partial or true familiars with their partners too.” Pom stated as she calmly ran a hoof over a relaxing Dolly’s back. “Then again Dodo is probably weak in how much of him is actually biological, so his more metallic and mechanical nature might not factor into the strength of their bond. So really the bond is more towards Shanty being stronger biologically and possibly mentally.”
“Could be the feasible reason as much as animal intelligence and actual intelligence are concerned, maybe it’s just a mixture of several factors at this point and Dodo refuses to do anything that might break his bond with Shanty. Aside from nearly sacrificing his life for all of us that one time.” Even Ocellus be looking intrigued to discuss my first mate and larger bird buddy. “Twilight has Owlowiscious a familiar that’s remarkably smart, but somewhat physically fragile compared to Twilight. So there is a precedence there for it.”
“Yeah never see a time when that Owl wasn’t meandering around the new library Twilight created in her personal castle in Ponyville.” Smolder be tapping a claw on her left cheek in thought. “Really helpful when you need to find a book… wait… wouldn’t that owl’s lifespan be technically immortal because Twilight’s is now?”
“Good question, never considered what would happen to a familiar bond after one of the bonded ascends into being a goddess or god. We know princess Celestia has a phoenix who still goes through the cycle of rebirth and death, so technically the phoenix was already functionally immortal.” This is beginning to be a very interesting discussion.
“What be happening if the partner be the one becoming immortal?” There was a silence as I brought that up. Pom looked between Ocellus and Smolder, then to me and then down at Dolly with worry.
“Good question, hope I never find out. Immortality without hobbies leads to some nasty horror stories of mad gods.” Shivering quite visibly, Pom’s eye started looking everywhere ahead of the wagon.
Dodo suddenly stopped and made us all look to him as he turned to glance back at us and warbled something.
“He be saying something is being in the way.” To prove his point Dodo turned his head forward and tapped the air with his beak and something shimmered for a second.
“Oh, here we go, looks like there’s a Psychic Type barrier in the way.” Hopping out of the vehicle, Quetal moved forward and glared at the series of rocks ahead. “Come on out, we know you’re there!”
Pom got out and moved up to Quetal’s side as a unit worth’s of Pokémon came out and they all be looking the same.
“Oh, finally someone came through the pass, we are the Mr. Mime!” Said a bipedal female Pokémon, one with strange feet ending in inward curling toes, big floppy looking hands with strange dots on their digits and a falsely cheerful looking face.
They be looking like clowns and I not be seeing many of those since Mr. Cooper took me to a circus while we were traveling around the previous world.
“You’re a girl though, wouldn’t that make you a Ms. Mime?” Pom, I don’t think they be caring.
“Yes, some Mr. Mime can be female, my species is odd like that. Also you have no idea how much that comes up with us… and just for that I’ll double the toll.” What toll was this Mr. Mime talking about?
“What toll?” This was Quetal’s question as he be narrowing his eyes in suspicion, I think we were about to be shaken down and it is being obvious that we would bite on to the scam.
“The toll for getting through this pass of course, odd to see a Dark Type here… but it’s six against one, you’d still lose even if you could get through the barriers we put up. We have barriers blocking the path behind and in front of us.” The female Mr. Mime stated with crossed arms. “You’ll have to pay double, for us to remove and get through both barriers, unless you think you can break them?”
“… I’ll give it a shot.” It seems like Pom be getting the gist of it easily enough.
“Of course you will.” The Mr. Mime stated with a demented grin, she was even rubbing her glove like hands together in glee. “We just know you won’t be able to break through it, so try us!”
-Six minutes later, Pom-
“Thousand Spears: Huo!” The entire pass lit up like the sun from the swirling spear of pure flaming force, I had aimed my attack slightly upwards and the barrier flared into visible existence and it held up against the attack even if it bent slightly inward.
“Whoa, way to make us sweat a little with that heat, but with our two united barriers you won’t break through into Illusio here if that’s the best you can do!” The Mr. Mime and the other five Mr. Mimes started laughing and quite frankly these shysters were in need of a swift attitude adjustment.
Which is why I’m thankful the plan has already succeeded.
The fact that they were even here probably meant there weren’t border guard on the other side of the pass, I seriously doubt they’d let these six Pokémon block things off like this. That or I can test something, before the actual plan comes to fruition.
“Can I say one word?” Seeing the smug barrier making Pokémon nod to me, I decided to bite the bullet and confirm a suspicion. “Gilgamesh.”
There was almost no reaction among them, what I did see was not an easily perceptible one, but I saw it and I looked to Dolly. Dolly nodded that she’d seen it too and she agreed with me.
“So that’s why you’re here. Really though, I was expecting something a little, I don’t know, grander from someone like Gilgamesh.” Receiving some curious looks from the Mr. Mime, I decided to ask them something. “Were you actually the best he could send to stop us? It seems like he just put you here to slow us down at best or at worst…”
I trailed off letting the thought hang in the air, as I had held their attentions completely on me and away from what was about to happen to them.
“Even ranged Dark Type attacks would have a problem getting through our barriers and any Dark Types you have would have to actively go through the barrier to get close to us to do anything. Not going to happen on our watch!” The female Mr. Mime smiled, very unfortunate that none of her group noticed the problem yet. “We’d take them out in an instant. We’re quite good at dealing with Dark Types, I’ll have you know.”
The nose lacking monster, with pink spheres at the hips and shoulder joints, belly and cheeks of the bipedal clown with two tufts of hair coming out the sides of their head, was currently swelling up with quite a bit of haughty pride in their capabilities.
They really shouldn’t be so prideful, especially if they had just missed such an obvious ploy that we just pulled off perfectly.
“So hypothetically, if we could hit you with some incredibly large attack from within those barriers, then would the barriers hold the attack with you in the very concentration of it until the end of it and we wouldn’t get scratched because the barriers wouldn’t go down until after such an attack finishes?” I asked, while specifically not looking at the ground around the group of relatively tall bipedal Pokémon’s feet.
They weren’t going to be in the way for much longer.
“Yeah, but how would you get a powerful enough attack in here to take us all out at once like that when we’re prepared for that?” The Mr. Mime obviously didn’t know that I just did the Thousand Spear: Huo as a distraction, so much for these guys being mind readers. They were apparently just barrier specialists and not very big on the other common psychic abilities.
“Go ahead guys!” It was simply because my attack was so obvious when it came to this current set up that, like a magician at a magic show, it drew all of their attentions away from what was the real threat.
“Unit command, Dark Pulsar!” Shouted the leader of the Morpeko unit that had snuck through the barrier while I was blinding the Mr. Mimes with the flare of my attack.
All the Mr. Mime’s went wide eyed and didn’t have time to react when a huge swirling blast of darkness erupted in their midst, looking like a swirling sea of stars having been created by the Morpeko unit once they gathered enough power together and were in the middle of the Mr. Mime group.
Morpeko’s were far nicer to talk to when they weren’t angry or having raging hormone problems.
I silently watched as the invisible barrier blocking the pass in front of us buckled outwards slightly under the strain from the massive torrent of dark energies being released with explosive force. It was making me miss my friend, ‘Dark Hero’ Oleander somewhat, it was because of Oleander that I even met my wife in the first place… a wife I haven’t talked to in a week.
I just depressed myself…
After the pillar of darkness into the sky stopped, there lay six of what were pink and white mimes, now black and grey in color like actual mimes. It was like a devastatingly powerful bomb blast went off among them, I’m even quite glad we waited for the Morpeko unit.
The results were relatively devastating to the area, not that there was much growing in the pass to begin with, but the barriers were down and we could now pass through without trouble.
“Well if Gilgamesh knows we’re coming with Dark Types already, then that shouldn’t have been too much of a big surprise for him right?” A smiling Quetal stated as we just sent a message that we would hopefully be ready for most of the shenanigans Gilgamesh could possibly throw our way.
“Want us to detain these miscreants?” Turning around, we all looked to General Dos with five other Ariados and I nodded. "Your clear to continue the mission, like I said before 'be very careful'."
The Mr. Mime were soon taken by the eastern Chrysalia border guards, while Ninjask rejoined us in the wagon so we could continue forward into Illusio proper.
“That went… well…” I pulled out a map of Ransei and looked it over. Illusio was a fairly mountainous region, we could take the path north or south. “So we’re about to hit a road with two paths… what the?”
Lowering the map I saw multiple roads going every which direction, some even go into solid stone walls from the pass we just came from.
“Yep, there are only two paths, to the north and south. Whatever you might be seeing, it’s probably wrong and just Illusio living up to its reputation as the ‘Kingdom of Psychic Types’.” If Quetal thought we were seeing things already, then I had to believe him. “Also if you can’t see the two Pokémon fighting ahead of us, then you might want to shake your head a bit and clear out any distracting thoughts.”
After blinking a few times and focusing my mind with a few deep breathes, things shifted about and now there were just two paths like the map showed. The one path distinctly going to the north and one going south, instead of the paths I saw going every which way and corkscrew a second ago. There were also two Pokémon sitting at the sign post arguing about something.
“Okay, I’m a little mildly disturbed that my mind was messed with that quickly.” I pointed my hoof forward. “Dodo can you park us next to those two Pokémon. I think we need to get our bearings for a bit.”
As we closed in on the Pokémon, I heard what they were arguing about.
“I’ve been going in circles, you’ve been going in circles, we’ve both been stuck going in circles, I’m just going to sit here and wait for help in this crazy place!” It was a Furfrou like Monsieur Furfrou, except female this time and with her was a weasel sitting next to her. “You haven’t been exactly helpful, aside from getting food or water and making sure we could find our way back to this crazy crossroad!”
“Excuse me, but can we help either of you?” That drew their attention to me. The weasel next to the normal type canine didn’t look like a psychic type, I already had an idea of what a Pyschic Type might feel like thanks to that Raichu back in Violight.
“No, nothing you could… could… um…” The angry canine took one look at me and started to turn red under her thick white fur, I sighed audibly already knowing what that was about. “Hi there… I um… sorry for being a little terse… being in this kingdom can be quite aggravating at times what with all the mental traps. I’ve escaped four since I got out of eastern Terrera and came to the west up the southern path through Illusio, I was trying to avoid all the fighting with Cragspur. These traps have been quite nasty, unless someone is around to point out what’s wrong. Probably wasn’t a good idea to get separated from my friend Abby from Yaksha, apparently she detected a huge disaster about to happen around Illusio. I want to at least grab her and get out of here.”
“Nasty like these crossroads that seem to always have one running in circles. Have you by any chance seen a Cufant by the name of Heffalump, sometimes goes by Lumpy? I heard he managed to get into Terrera proper before the fighting really got bad, but not much else.” The weasel bowed to us. “I’m Woozle, the Yungoos compatriot of that particular traveling Cufant. I’m also currently regretting trying to pass through Illusio, but I believe I’m close to getting out of here, I just know it. Now if this trap wasn’t messing with my head, I believe I would have been out of here by now.”
“You’ll want to take the pass to the west of here, your friend Lumpy helped us out a bit ago and asked if we could look out for you. Said he’s going to be in Chrysalia for a while until things in Valora blow over.” The weasel blinked a few times as I pointed at the pass.
“Thank you for pointing it out, I shall not take my focus off that pass until I’m well through it!” The weasel was staring at the pass with narrowed eyes. “I was having problems getting free from this trap and misery loves company, hope you can help this poor Furfrou too! Time to go prevent my friend Heffalump from spending all his money on honey!”
With that the weasel took off straight for Chrysalia, another weird guy to meet on the road, but apparently psychic traps were already going to be a problem for us. We were going to need Quetal and the Morpeko to navigate us through this country.
“So you said you were looking for your friend Abby and she said there would be a disaster coming soon, what would exactly make her think that?” It would be the story of my life if the incoming disaster was exactly what I thought it was, but I was definitely asking for at least some clarification and clues.
“Huh… oh right… I’m Fleer by the way, Abby is an Absol… Abby being a common name for females of that particular species, not very creative. Anyway, outsider right?” The Furfrou’s tail was an indistinct blur and Dolly growled at her a bit, I rolled my eyes and mentally reassured Dolly that Fleer was just being friendly. She hasn’t stepped over any line… yet… “Absol’s have the ability to detect imminent disasters… anyone that sees an Absol tries to turn the other way when they look exceptionally determined, mostly because they have a habit of trying to stop the disaster or try to save the people in the way of it. They rarely, if ever, cause the disaster they are detecting, but some Pokémon think they are bad luck to be around. Makes it kind of hard to make friends when you can always tell things are about to go south near you.”
“So they can detect incoming disasters, but I’m guessing not what form it takes?” The nod I received was fairly telling, yep Gilgamesh was doing something and needed to be stopped.
“Can you help me look for my friend, please?” This Fleer seemed like a teenager or close to adult and she was asking nicely, even if her eyes were roving my body a little too much for my taste. “Sorry for staring… it’s just… there’s something about you that feels safe, warm and nice.”
“Sure, we can help you, we’re not exactly sure where we’re going from here anyway. We’re here to investigate the things going on in Illusio and if an Absol is sensing a disaster, then we might already have an idea as to who is behind it at the very least.” Quetal looked back at everyone being idling in the wagon and waiting for us to decide which way we’re going from here. “Did your friend say how large this disaster is or do you have any leads on the nearest form of civilization?”
“We’re at the southwestern most part of Illusio, at least I know that much if we’re near the Chrysalia border, which I can finally see at least. I remember there being three paths from here, you have the north and south path which circle around the mountainous zone and there’s the third path through the mountains themselves which is a little harder to traverse. So the nearest form of civilization would be… Kadabraville hidden at the foot of some of the small mountains around here off these beaten paths.” Fleer was being decent help at the very least. “Would be much easier to find if the psychic energy in this kingdom wasn’t messing with my head so much, at one point I started thinking I was a Flying Type Pokémon and almost jumped off a cliff. As for the disaster, whatever it was that Abby felt coming from this kingdom, it was huge enough for my friend to come running into this country with me tagging along to try and help her.”
“Would she be being a spy for some other kingdom?” Shanty there’s this thing called subtlety.
“She might be a Dark Type from Yaksha and I’m aware there are plenty of stereotypical Dark Types in that kingdom, but no, she doesn’t have nearly that strong enough ties to her home kingdom to be a spy or agent for them. We’ve been mostly drifting around Terrera’s desert and Cragspur’s mountainous tunnels doing small odd jobs for the last few years, right up until a series of wars started up throughout the eastern kingdoms of Ransei. Which is quite weird, because why would Rock Types attack the Ground Type kingdom? They aren’t exactly on the winning side of that type match up, so something is definitely up with that and or someone has called in a stupid amount of favors for it to be a thing.” That sounded like a clue of things to come Fleer, I hope we’re not dragged into it. “Abby is more of a free agent when it comes to trying to stop disasters and likes to move around a lot and I’m kind of worried about her running around on her own after we got separated, the mental traps around here are so annoying! Even if a Dark Type would have a lot of advantages in getting around without notice around here, there are still some things Psychic Types can do to bring a Dark Type down if they were quite determined to do so.”
“So how do we get to this ‘Kadabraville’ Fleer and do you need a ride?” Taking a look at Ocellus who spoke up and the fact that we have seven dark types, Fleer looked at me and seemed quite eager to take the help, for more than one reason.
“Yes please, I don’t want to be stuck going in circles for the rest of my life! As for Kadabraville, I know it’s to the northeast of the Chrysalia and Illusio pass. I wish I hadn’t kept losing track of where I am.” Fleer got a blank look on her face before shaking her head and focusing on me and she started to carefully move forward and climb into the wagon. After a moment she sighed with relief as she rubbed her paws around on her head. “Illusio isn’t called the illusion kingdom for nothing, all the unused psychic energy floating around can really get to your head if you’re not wary and as I’ve said before, the traps made from that energy can really mess with you even more than the ambient energy. The ambient psychic energy not being used for traps can make you see things you want that are not there. You have enough Dark Types that I can keep my head, just tell them to turn up their darkness field or whatever to help you keep your head.”
Like seeing a nearby field full of the devices Arceus gave to me in the form of flowers… yeah, I can see why this place would get to someone quite quickly. Dolly shook our connection and my sight cleared up showing that there had been no flowers that were growing divinely gifted devices, just lots of grass, dirt and mud.
Apparently Dolly and I could cover for one another as the strength of our bond couldn’t be faked. Even knowing that I’m kind of a walking ‘death wish’, Dolly’s still willing to stay by my side. I’m… actually kind of glad for that and the mental hug she was currently giving me.
“Right, it’s settled, we’re heading to this Kadabraville place!” The Morpeko leader stated and pointed Dodo in a direction slightly off the northward path that would lead along the northern shore of Illusio.
“Shanty is Dodo being affected by the energy in the air?” I saw a strange look on Shanty’s face.
“No, but I am… Dodo seems to be being immune to the mental manipulation.” That Shanty stayed quiet afterwards meant she wasn’t willing to comment on what she was seeing, her right eye was certainly twitching a lot with tears.
Shanty quickly pulled out a bottle of rum and started drinking it to distract herself from whatever she was seeing.
-Shanty-
In one eye, I be seeing the world as it was.
In the other there were faint fields of Pom’s skewered, stabbed, bludgeoned, bleeding, mutilated, spilled ograns everywhere, monstrous giant wolf Pom’s eating other smaller Poms violently and there were the less than tasteful heads on pikes of all the people I’ve come to think of as friends.
There were rivers of blood flowing everywhere from fly covered corpses and the various voices of Pom constantly blaming me for not saving them.
It be looking like a fire scorched battlefield. A nightmare is what it was being and it was all just being in my mind. It was horrifying, but I was being stronger than this.
I be shaking my head and my right eye cleared up and was seeing the same thing as my left, I be concentrating on not seeing those horrors that be living in the back of my skull. I also be drinking my rum with wild abandon, somewhat wishing that alcohol could have an effect on me.
Unless that was what being drunk was like, then I’d rather keep my immunity to alcohol.
-Pom-
“The air around here tastes kind of funny, but I think I’m capable of resisting the energy pretty well.” Which would be a first for Ocellus, as usually things that affect the mind like emotional states tended to have something of an adverse effect on her. It sounded like she’d be able to prevent herself from being mentally manipulated at least.
“I’m just seeing hives full of Ocellus’s all around… heh, awesome.” A blushing Smolder stated in a dazed tone, physically tough… mentally not as strong. “I think… I can… keep it together. Why do you have to be so cuddly looking Ocellus, ooh that one is in a really cute dress!”
“Well everyone, try to keep your minds sharp as you can and stay in the wagon until we find the village. It’s the first lead we have to finding out what’s happening around here… other than the obvious we’ve already seen.” We didn’t need anyone wandering off or getting lost in a kingdom where the mind was under constant threat of being distracted or controlled by illusions or other Pokémon. “This is going to be another one of ‘THOSE’ adventures.”
“…” Canard glanced at me with worry, hopefully his mind and the two Digimon’s minds were alien enough that manipulating them was at least harder or even impossible to do.
We needed everyone as strong and 'functionally' sane as we could get with Gilgamesh around.