‘Oooooooooooh I love stories like that!’ Joshua eagerly cried out. ‘We must do everything in our power to see your dream fulfilled!’
‘I concur,’ Ewan nodded mid-run. ‘You’re far more deserving than that guy…!’
Those calls of support aside, they arrived at the throne room and took in the scene. Erika made her announcements… and the boy grunted and turned back towards the throne.
‘You’re a nuisance. Psychics! Mia! Allan! Take care of them!’ Julian commanded, and the crew of Psychics turned their Pokémon towards them!
‘It would be our pleasure!’ Mia called rather excitedly.
‘Hmpf, as our client requests,’ Allan said, tossing a used cigarette aside. Because it’s in his image. Definitely wouldn’t be in a real Pokémon game, but eh.
A crowd of Psychic Pokémon amassed from the crowd of Psychics that were making up the front line, and even if each was comparatively weak, it would take too long to fight through them! That is, unless-
An all-powerful leg swung through the air, causing a blast of wind that sent the Abras, Drowzees, Elgyems and Chinglings flying and the Psychics to cry out in terror. Machamp gently put his leg down, gave Erika a smirk and pointed with his thumb in the direction of the throne for her, through the opening he’d just created through the line of Pokémon of the Psychics. He then cracked two sets of knuckles, smirking at the Psychics, who while many and with a type-advantage definitely felt like they were facing something impossible…!
So, Erika, Ewan and Joshua were free to dash ahead towards the throne…!
‘Not so fast…!’ Mia called, her Ducklett flying up and shooting a Water Gun to stop them!
‘We won’t let you get to our client…!’ Allan said, his Growlithe firing an Ember to dissuade them from continuing.
Mia and Allan would like to-
‘OH, NO YOU DON’T!’ Joshua called out as his Mudkip came out and blocked the Ember without taking much damage. ‘Erika’s dream is on the line, and I won’t let you stand in the way of it!’ he called, facing up against Allan.
‘Besides, letting you guys do as you like would leave a sour taste in my mouth,’ Ewan said, as Duessel the Psyduck took Ducklett’s Water Gun, similarly without much damage. ‘Erika! Get your price! We’ll hold up these guys!’ he continued, facing up against Mia
‘Tsk…’ Mia made an annoyed noise.
‘You little…’ Allan wasn’t super-happy about this turn of events.
‘Geh,’ Julian made a noise, frowning back at them, then turned to… ‘Pilot! Start the engine! Block the hall!’
As he called, the giant drill started firing up, starting to move intending on turning so it’d block their progress…
‘FIRE!’ Maple called. She’d all of a sudden called out her entire brigade of Fire-types! There was a Magby, a Flareon, a Growlithe and a Tepig, all starting to fire a hail of Embers at the expensive-looking machine! They were doing significantly more than scratching the surface, the steel-typing of the drill coming to a definite disadvantage as the fire was starting to burn into it, slowing its progress! ‘FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! THAT THING ISN’T LEAVING!’ Maple commanded, holding her shovel forward as her fire-brigade were now occupied.
Julian grunted as he turned towards the throne, and Ellyn stood before it with a sharp look.
‘Are you sure you can afford looking at me? Someone’s coming for you, Julian,’ Ellyn said, smirking and nodding her head towards behind him.
Julian spun around, and (assuming Erika did as her companions intended and headed on) she’d arrive in front of him, the boy grunting as he looked at her.
‘You…’ he frowned at her, not looking very happy. ‘You’re after the Dawn Stone as well?’ he asked, the Kirlia next to him nodding at this assertion. ‘… Fine. If I beat you, it’s mine. I’ll show you my conviction is stronger than yours…!’
Team Amethyst Client Julian would like to battle!
The first thing Julian did was throw a condescending look at Chic, snort, and then grab a Pokéball into the floor of the hall! From it shaped a yellow fox-like Pokémon standing on two talloned legs, with a massive yellow tail, a mustache, and angry glare and a spoon on one hand. ‘Let’s get her, Kadabra!’
Pokédex Entry #64 – Kadabra, the Psi Pokémon. It emits special alpha waves from its body that can cause headaches from just being close to one. Machines around it are occasionally caused to malfunction in odd ways, like clocks going backwards. The spoon it holds amplifies its power, without it Kadabra can only use around half its power.
Kadabra focused the spoon forward, definitely intending to go with Confusion! What will Erika do?
‘You're talking about Scald? Um, the problem with that is that only the Panpour line learns that move in the wild, and they live up at Route 23, I think, not this far south,’ Leila pointed out the issue with this line of thought, blessed with this knowledge only because it became very relevant to the matter at hand.
They followed the footprints, and there approaching the rocks, and JoJo felt the emotions of a very eager though kindhearted soul in the midst of the rocks. Although-
‘YAHA!’ came the sound of of a woman crying out happily as she burst out of a bunch of rocks. ‘YOU FOUND ME!’ she called so excitedly.
She remained with her arms in the air and smiling so brightly, until she realized she’d probably hadn’t had her intended effect.
‘… What, don’t I look exactly like her? No? Oh, well, let’s battle!’
Worker Liselott would like to battle! Double battle again?
Pokédex Entry #50 – Diglett, the Mole Pokémon. They live underground and spend most of their time submerged. It’s weak to light, and will only pop up where shielded or in caves. They often exist a mere yard underground eating roots. They’re often raised on farms, because soil dug through by Digletts is left perfectly tilled for growing healthy crops.
Arena Trap prevents switching out! … If you’re not flying, that is.
Pokédex Entry #104 – Cubone, the Lonely Pokémon. Each Cubone is under the impression its mother is dead and it wears her skull over its head, despite the ridiculous ramifications had this been true. As it never removes the skull (and is apparently born with it), it is said nobody has seen its face. When alone, it cries loudly and makes the skull rattle.
Lightningrod attracts electricity!
With Cubone and Diglett, Liselott’s strategy is that Cubone charges forth to attack, while Diglett buries underground. While Cubone engages in combat with Bone Club and Headbutt, Diglett shows up behind the enemy to try to catch them with a Bulldoze, keeping as much distance to Cubone as possible. Or, if the enemy flies… Scratch, I suppose.
Pokédex Entry #194 – Wooper, the Water Fish Pokémon. It lives in cold water, sleeping on the bottom and seeking food by the shore when it's cold. When walking above water, wild Woopers cover their bodies with a slimy, poisonous film that keeps them from dehydrating. It's slightly dull-witted.
Water Absorb absorbs water-type moves! Liselott will attempt to predict a water-type move and switch a Pokémon out for Wooper! Otherwise, it has Mud Shot and Water Gun for respective enemies that each move is the most effective against.
Pokédex Entry #246 – Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokémon. It is born deep under the ground. To come up to the surface, this Pokémon must eat its way through the soil above. Until it does so, it cannot see its parent's face. It feeds on soil. After it has eaten the equivalent a large mountain, it falls asleep so it can grow.
Guts increases attack when suffering a status problem! That aside, he’s her little champion. He knows Dig and Rock Slide. If facing birds and unable to fight them, she might switch to him prematurely. Good luck!
She did perhaps make a premature assumption about Cecil’s move-pool, however. As she realized what move Cecil was charging up, she was quick to command.
‘Larvesta! Evade!’
But, it’s difficult for a charging high-speed fire-bug to quickly change course like that. As Cecil rolled forth, she impacted the high-velocity bug, both Pokémon doing damage to the other. But, one of them was Not Very Effective (albeit highly damaging anyway), while the other was double Super Effective.
The two crashed off one another, Cecil taking less than half her health while Larvesta took far more than that, but not quite enough to cause him to faint. His speed was boosted again, making Larvesta a really fast bug now.
‘Larvesta, stay high! She’s locked in a roll, now, stay out of her range with your speed and fire String Shots to slow her down and trap her!’
With that command, Larvesta remained in the air, blasting fire to maneuver in directions it looked like Cecil wasn’t heading in, and started firing String Shots trying to slow down her otherwise very dangerous Rollout, trying to take all speed out of the roll and leave her stranded!
‘Yeah, I… I can see your point,’ Elana nodded at that part about being worried about the Fighting-types. It did make sense, after all. It just so happened that the Machamp held such sway that he could order the rest of the Fighting-types back.
Machamp chuckled at the praise, nodding rather proudly. Then, there was the invitation to come along because there was one more thing she wanted. Machamp shrugged with a smile, and then went on to run along with her! Just so happened to have the king of the mountain along with the journey! Also coming along was an eager Joshua and a determined Ewan, hurrying through the tunnel dug by the giant machine. Machamp notably wasn’t bringing his army, though.
‘Alright, I’ll be… I’ll be right behind you,’ Elana said, staying behind for now, because she had a significant amount of Fighting-types that wanted to challenge her because of the amount of strength she’d shown off earlier, so she’d be stuck there for a while. With that, they ran on, up the mountain…
…
…
…
The machine had dug up through the floor in front of an empty hall. It was the throne room, built in mighty rock from ages past, with a throne on a raised platform standing empty currently. The jewel in the throne glowed as it did when Erika had been there last. The machine slowed to a crawl before stopping, the hatch on top opening once again. The boy, Julian, poked out his head to inspect the surroundings with a mildly impressed expression.
‘… Huh. It seems your plan worked. They didn’t leave any guards at all,’ Julian said, looking around the empty hall, as he stepped out of the machine, Kirlia by his side, as he jumped down the machine and onto the ground beneath, his hit to the ground slowed to a safe falling speed by Kirlia’s psychic power. After him jumped the numerous Psychics that were his grunts, and after them… climbed two individuals in suits out of the machine. A girl with cyan hair, and a boy with red hair.
‘Ingenious, isn’t it!?’ the girl with cyan hair remarked proudly, climbing down from the craft and triumphantly putting her hands on her sides. ‘If there’s an army of Fighting-types to battle, we just have to lure an army of Psychic-types to keep them occupied! Digging a hole and luring the Psychic-types through was all part of the plan, and the plan is flawless! As a result, the place is unprotected! That’s what you get when you hire the likes of us!’ she boasted.
‘… No. We’re almost out of time,’ the boy with the red hair said, frowning. ‘It went too quickly. We were counting on that the Psychic army would lay claim to the lower levels of the mountain before the fighting began, but at this speed I wouldn’t be surprised if the Fighting-types intercepted them in the tunnel. Master Julian, I urge you to hurry up and grab the stone before they come back, or your investment may go to waste.’
‘… Right away,’ Julian agreed, turning to his Kirlia, and the two nodded and turned to the throne. ‘… There. Who would have thought, the one Dawn Stone in the mountain would be attached to the king’s throne.’ he said, stepping with his Kirlia up the raised platform, extending a hand for the glowing “jewel” in the throne. ‘All the more worthy a price for me to collect. Only the best for my Pitri…’ he said, and with him this close, it looked like nothing could stop him from-
A blast of fire and a psychic strike suddenly burst in from the side and exploded together right in front of Julian’s face, not burning him only because Kirlia raised a Psychic shield as the both of them recoiled back from the throne. The suited boy and girl with red and cyan hair-colors respectively drew Pokéballs and glared to identify the unknown attackers, and-!
‘WHERE IS EVERYONE!? We were supposed to meet up with Joshua, Ewan and Erika, but nobody’s here!? NOT EVEN THE POKÉMON!? What did you do to them!? And why are you stealing from them!?’ Maple cried out in stunned shock, Maggy the Magby taking a prepared stance in front of the throne.
‘I think the boy from the machine had a nasty plot and hired some criminals to make his will be done. How does that sound, Julian? Team Amethyst?’ Ellyn asked, standing oddly straight and with Bird the Natu placed squarely and battle-ready on her shoulder.
Pokédex Entry #240 – Magby, the Live Coal Pokémon. Its known to inhabit volcanic craters, and its body-temperature is around 600 degrees celsius. When it breaths, hot embers dribble out its mouth and nostrils. Its health can be distinguished by how yellow its flames are, the more the better.
Pokédex Entry #177 – Natu, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. While its wings cannot yet fly, it is very good at jumping up trees or from branch to branch with small flaps to help out. It usually forages for food on the ground. Its eyes are usually staring at something, and if that something moves, Natu flees.
‘… Ell… lyn…? What in the blazes…’ Julian was starting to pronounce, recovering from the daze.
‘No time, we must overwhelm them at once,’ the red-haired boy said. Cyan-haired girl nodded and they each grabbed numerous Pokéballs, and the Psychic grunts all picked up a Pokéball each for good measure. The two agents sent out a Growlithe and a Ducklett each, while the grunt Psychics sent out a mix of Abras, Drowzees, Elgyems and Chinglings.
Pokédex Entry #58 – Growlithe, the Puppy Pokémon. Known to be brave and loyal to it’s trainer, but will bark threateningly at anyone entering its territory. It has superb sense of smell and will never forget a smell once it has picked up on it. Through smell, it can sense the emotions of others.
Pokédex Entry #580 – Ducklett, the Water Bird Pokémon. These birds are far better swimmers than they are flyers, and make excellent divers. When attacked, it defends itself by splashing water at the offender. Their favorite food is peat moss, and they’ll be found chewing on it constantly.
Pokédex Entry #63 – Abra, the Psi Pokémon. Due to the strain of Psychic powers, it needs to sleep for 18 hours a day. However, even asleep it can use its powers, which reads the minds of beings close-by and teleports instinctively if it finds someone hostile. Someone wishing to catch an Abra must clear their mind as they approach.
Pokédex Entry #96 – Drowzee, the Hypnosis Pokémon. It gains nourishment by consuming dreams. Fun or happy dreams are more delicious, and it can get a bad stomach from nightmares. In battle, it puts enemies to sleep and then eats their dreams. It remembers every dream it has eaten, and if you make friends with one it can show you its best dreams with psychic powers.
Pokédex Entry #605 – Elgyem, the Cerebral Pokémon. A mysterious Pokémon that only appeared around half-a-decade ago, theorized to be linked with a UFO said to have been seen crashing into the deserts of Unova. However, they appeared around Mt. Edge in Isson at around the same time. Usually friendly, they’re known to squeeze the brains of attackers with psychic power, causing terrible headaches.
Pokédex Entry #433 – Chingling, the Bell Pokémon. An orb in the back of its throat chimes each time it jumps, making a ringing sound. When endangered it defends itself by emitting deafening high-frequency cries. When it starts crying, it’s hard to make it stop.
‘... Yeah, that’s right. I can’t be stopped here. Do you truly think you can take us all on, Ellyn!?’ Julian asked, Maple feeling just a tad left out but also incredibly interested in the fact Ellyn seemed to know this boy, albeit not on good terms.
Still, they were quite critically outpowered here, Maple and Ellyn facing a myriad of enemy Pokémon, preparing to unleash a hail of Psychic attacks plus a pair of fire and water-attacks. Still, outmatched as they were, they had bought time.
‘Now, let’s see…’ Deni called, as she went into her gift and found… a giant bucket of KFC, still hot. Deni’s eyes widened at the sight… and then burst out laughing, really loudly. It was pretty funny.
Meanwhile, Eli got her present and it was a golden ticket. She held it up to read the details on it, inspecting it closely…
‘Have you been invited to a chocolate factory? Oooh, I’m jealous~!’
‘Dear sister, you’d have ended up being turned into sentient chocolate slime, or something equivalent,’ Eli replied, and Deni giggled. ‘But no, this is… an invitation for an evening with fantastic meal and a happy ending with a single guest.’
‘Ooooh! Sounds great! You can actually make yourself get a boyfriend!’ Deni chuckled happily.
‘Eeeeh… I don’t really want one, though…’ Eli replied, frowning a bit at the invitation.
‘Not right now, but maybe sometime in the future? That ticket doesn’t have an expiration date, does it? As long as we don’t die, our existences are eternal! Who knows what will happen or who’ll you meet in the future?’ Deni suggested with a smirk.
‘Er, maybe,’ Eli said, inspecting the ticket. ‘Or I could use it for a sensitive meeting with someone important, it promises a happy ending so whatever I hope to achieve might just be guaranteed. Or subverted and still made happy somehow, which, okay,’ Eli continued, theorizing.
‘But, like, I currently don’t need this ticket to have a good meal and a happy ending with one guest,’ Eli said, making Deni tilt her head at her a bit. ‘All I need is…’ With that, Eli sat a curious Deni down at a table, placed Deni’s KFC in the middle of the table, and then sat down herself on the opposite side of the table with a big smile. ‘… right here.’
‘Awww! My sweet younger sister~’ Deni giggled so happily to Eli. ‘Alright! Let’s eat, then!’
‘Yes, let’s,’ Eli agreed, and they both reached to the KFC and took a chicken each, biting into the crunchy outside…
‘O-oh, man, this is delicious…!’ Deni started to positively pant at just how good the chicken was.
‘Th-this…’ Eli’s eyes were wide with shock. ‘This is a marvel of chicken! KFC wishes it was this good…!’
In the corner the two twins were enjoying their chickens with pure happiness in their faces. There was some commotion about mirrors and keijo tournaments, but honestly, they didn’t have time for that, chicken was too delicious.
‘He did, huh…’ Freya commented on the fact Aurelio had apparently told Penny to look out for her. What an unnecessary thing for him to do… Then Penny commented on the fact she had legs because the dimension’s screwing with her. ‘… Yeah, it is. I don’t have legs. I’m a lamia, darn it. I mean, I do have them when disguised, but that's not how I really look… Why does this dimension insist on giving me legs!?’ Freya objected, not understanding the issues with trying to find images of lamias that fit both the theme of the holiday and also look relatively like her. Matters beyond her understanding regardless, she looked to Penny.
‘… How much has it done to you?’ she asked, somewhat curious.
Penny would nod in understanding, the changes inflicted on her weren’t the worst, but they were still annoying. “More this time compared to last time.” She would answer. “My legs and arms are the most visible difference. But being here also gives me a normal sense of touch, which would likely be more annoying on this island if not for the magic of the outfits.” Which honestly was rather appreciated since she wasn’t given shoes with her current apparel.
“Oh, and my eyes keep defaulting to red.” She would add on, a minor thing over all, but one that did truly get to her. Her eyes being red normally meant something else after all.
‘… Heh,’ Freya made the slightest noise of amusement. She then leaned her head back, sighed, and… guessed the first step of actually confiding something in someone else.
‘… Her name was Astrid,’ Freya eventually sighed. ‘The world I came from was destroyed. It was overrun by the were-lamia, the same beast that gives me my strength now.’
Penny would nod in understanding. “She meant a lot to you.” It wasn’t a question. “Tell me about her?” She would ask softly. She had been told to keep an eye out for Freya by Aurelio, but the boy wasn’t one to go spilling the secrets of those who confided in him. So all Penny had was conjecture at the moment.
‘… She was a confident one. I was the stoic one, she was the upbeat one. She was really strong, too. Ice-magic user. Really fond of trees, the larger the better. She was always the one saying everything would be fine, making friends left and right, geh… It all seems so childish now…’ … It suddenly occurred to her that Aurelio and her had a lot in common in that sense, she supposed… ‘… I was bitten before her. I stayed behind to save them, my last memory of her is her tear-stained eyes as my other surviving allies carried her into our last bastion as I stayed to hold them off. Of course, then a Horror decided I was more useful alive, and this happened. I was informed my homeworld was annihilated. I went back, finding it was indeed just a mass of were-lamias eating one another because they’d eaten everything else. I figured Astrid had been turned into were-lamia and then killed, like everyone else. Then… I got that text from her, the message reading like I was back home, and nothing had ever happened. Screw this bloody…’ Freya grunted, leaning her head down and sighing.
“She sounds like a good person.” Penny’s attention was lifted more towards the sky as she replied. “Pretty sure if we had a few more people like her in Penrose it wouldn’t be half the mess it is now. Curious if the trees we have here would stack up to the ones where you came from.”
She would let the thoughts of Astrid simply linger in the air for a moment. Would give the memory of this girl the respect it was due.
“Got to say though, this Horror was a bigger prick than I thought.” She’d say with a snort “Granted most Horror’s are manipulative wretches, so not terribly surprised.” She would shift her attention towards Freya as she continued on “Now, it’s fair to warn you that I am optimist, and spiteful towards Horrors, so I very well could be wrong. But it's possible that Astrid is still alive.”
“From where I’m sitting, which again I could be wrong, it sounds like there is every possibility that she got off planet just as you did. Plenty of Patrons could have done to her what yours did for you.” Which only made sense, as Patrons tended to be scavengers even if they were trying to do good. Least that was Penny’s point of view on it. “But if I am wrong, that doesn’t mean you’ll never see her again. Us magicals got the whole cycle of reincarnation thing going on after all. Never seen anywhere it says you have to be reborn on the planet you originally came from.”
‘Yeah, she was…’ Freya replied to the part about Astrid being a good person. Penny went on a bit, and…
‘… Eh, I don't really blame the Horror for that. Better me, someone about to die anyway, than grabbing someone with a future…’ Freya replied to the part about the Horror being a prick.
Freya remained silent at the part of Astrid possibly being alive, listening until Penny was finished. ‘… I have thought of it before. But, it's just so unlikely. We didn't have connections to other dimensions, and those who enlisted were assigned Pushuus to make contracts with before never seeing them again, chances of reincarnation are slim to none. I… don't even know where I'd start to look, and if I started, I'd just set myself up for a fresh dose of disappointment and loss… Wouldn't I?’ Freya asked, that last part reminding her of how Aurelio had said closing herself down wasn't the answer.
“Possibly” Penny would remark with a half shrug. “It’s entirely possible that you’re correct and that Astrid is gone.” Because while Penny was an optimist she wasn’t blind about it. “And if that is the case, mourn her, grieve her, but don’t forget to live for her.”
“But maybe you’re wrong.” She would go on after a moment “Maybe she’s out there, somewhere thinking the same as you are now. That everyone she knew from her home is gone. It’s a dark way to live, you know it, I know it. But would that stop her I wonder.”
“In the end, who knows.” Penny would say with an amused huff “I just don’t like thinking things can’t get better. Spent long enough on the other side of that mentality to know better.”
‘… Hah,’ Freya made a sound and then stayed quiet, not really having been swayed either way. Well, that's that, then. ‘… So, how are you faring? I talked a bunch about myself, but friendship is supposed to be a two-way communication, isn't it? How did you end up like this?’ she asked, kinda curious.
“Definitely helps” Penny would agree with a smirk and a nod, she wouldn’t turn down a new friend.She also didn’t realize how out of character that declaration was for Freya either. “And I’m doing good, the answer to your second is trickier though.”
“Guess it depends on how you mean ‘Like this’. Do you mean Queen? Do you mean a Monstergirl? Or do you mean something else?” She would ask smirk never leaving her face “Though I’m guessing it's more to do with the monster bit if anything. Which is the trickiest part of the tricky question.”
“Easiest answer is that I was born this way. My life started with me being monstrous and I never had a human life. Conflict on the streets and struggle for survival in the magical community are the start of my history.” She would lean back, resting her hands on the snow behind her as she spoke, gaze turning towards the sky and going distant. “But that’s hardly everything. Another answer is that I’m sort of like you, just the other way around. There was a human that got drafted into the magical world and I was the one he got infected with due to the asshole that was their Patron. He didn’t like me much, not that I blame him for that. We weren’t very compatible mentally, for a whole host of reasons.”
“Both of those are just the starting points; however, Important ones, true, but only the start. The thing that really started me down the road to being how I am now doesn’t seem all that big to me, but it was a White coin.” Penny couldn’t say why, but it really didn’t seem like a big deal to her. Even though she knew that it was, because it was where things started going weird in regards to her and her nature. “A lot of people have asked me how it is I took one and stayed a Monstergirl, and I’ve a lot of theories about it. But in truth I’m not sure. Part of it is that I didn’t want to die, I'm sure, part of it is that my magic is adaptable, part of it is probably just straight luck. I’m not sure I’ll ever fully know.”
“It broke something within me though, within the both of us really. Me and the guy I was stuck to. And we were already damaged long before that point. It gave me the strength to... act out I suppose is a good term for it.” It was the first time Penny had been able to do anything without being in the throes of a full metamorph. She probably could have handled it better, but she didn’t regret her actions. “Which led to us fighting, which hurt, because as much as we were different people we were also very much the same person. It nearly killed us.”
“Afterwards there was a time where both of us were out and about, never sure how much of that time was taken seriously by others. The situation wasn’t sustainable though and also nearly killed us. Twined soul is a Power for a reason after all. I was lucky though, since I had a chance to sit down with the creator of the Red coins. I was able to get her to modify one to help me fix the mess I was in.”
“It worked, that's why I’m still here after all. But.” She would let out a forlorn sigh. “But it wasn’t without cost. The thing is they didn’t really want to come back. The magical world can be bleak after all. And our luck had never been particularly good. Something bad happened one too many times, but I wasn’t there to help this time so it broke him. So he gave it all to me. Gave me everything I needed to patch up the holes we punched into our soul. Gave me everything he had in hopes he wouldn’t have to deal with any of this anymore. Then he passed on.”
“Far as I can tell it worked. I’m still healing, those types of wounds Regen can’t do much to help with. But I’m stable and whole while he’s at peace, so I don’t begrudge him for it.” And maybe that was wrong of her, but Jason had been in such pain that words simply failed to express. She knows that she wouldn’t be able to sit by if anyone else wished for the same thing, but for whatever reason it was different with Jason.
“That’s the short and sweet version at least.” Penny would say shaking off the melancholy, it was a dark time and place for her after all. And it had only been weeks ago technically. “Has a lot to do with why I started the Sanctuary though. I don’t want anyone to go through what I did.”
‘… Wait, so instead of him becoming a Magical Girl, you were added on top of him?’ Freya asked, looking stunned. ‘Well. No wonder the White Coin didn’t work properly, then,’ she said, then listened to the rest of the tale. The tale of how the human now had passed on, and left was the magical creation that had been added upon transformation. Freya held a slightly frowning expression as she listened to it.
‘… I’m… not entirely alike, but kind of, to what you once were. I’m also two. The difference being…’ Freya said, sighing as she reached with one hand and gripped over a black discoloration over her left arm with her right hand. ‘… I’m me, the Magical Girl I once was, joined with one of the mindless beasts that overran my home. The union gives me incredible physical strength, yet it’s always there in the background, giving me impulses and instincts. Each of our group has a title, and I’m the Union Beast, for this reason. I’m in control, yes, but…’ But she has to consume human flesh every once in a while to not lose it. She wondered how Penny would react if she told her that.
“They are always watching, always waiting. Never quite sleeping as they linger in the back of your thoughts” Penny could empathize. A lot. “They have their triggers, the things that need to happen otherwise your control slips and the world stops making sense the way it should.” She would let out a bitter chuckle.
“How am I doing?” She would ask ruefully “Because that’s how I used to be, and I know how it affected him.” It’s why she didn’t hate Jason for how he felt about her. “If I am at all close, and I think I am, your other side isn’t the same as it used to be. They have grown, changed. Can’t say how, but I am sure that they have.”
Freya’s eyes widened, and she had to turn and look at Penny with slightly parted mouth from the description. At the end of that first part… ‘… Yeah, that’s… that’s spot on…’ she said, kind of stunned. For the first time, there was someone that could relate to her, that had gone through the same thing. The difference was… Freya grunted about the part about them changing, and looked away again.
‘Changed? The were-lamia? It’s still just a hungry beast. It’s not human, it never had human intelligence. I… can’t imagine it changing in any way but developing an undying hatred of me,’ she replied, definitely doubting any form of good change in it. ‘… Ngh,’ Freya flinched a bit, once again reminded. “What if you’re wrong?”, asked the mental image of Aurelio in her head. It filled her with doubt.
“I don’t hate Jason.” Penny would say after a long moment. “Not for what we went though. I was his waking nightmare made manifest in a sense. I just wanted to have the ability to make my own decisions. I don’t hate him, but I did resent him a lot because he could choose, and all of his choices seemed to be the wrong ones to me.”
“But he changed me. Because I wasn’t human, am still not human. I effectively have a super computer for my mind and for the longest time only understood logic. From him I gained the ability to understand emotion, to both have and experience emotion. It's a gift that I can’t put into words.” She would pause for a moment to simply breathe, or at least go through the motions of such.
“I don’t know how you have changed them, only they know. They will never be human, but, and I’m likely biased here, that doesn’t mean they can’t gain their own humanity.” Penny would turn to look at Freya, an odd searching quality to her gaze. “You have changed them, just as they have changed you. They might not like you, but you do keep them alive, and you teach them things they would have never known otherwise. Hunger might drive them, but you have shown them that hunger isn’t everything.”
“There are ways to talk with them as well. Psychics could link you, Shamans could likely as well.” She would offer the searching quality of her gaze never fading. “Or I can try and talk to her if you want.” Not that Penny really thought that Freya would agree to that last one. They had only just met after all and willingly cedding control to the other half wasn’t something that anyone in their positions ever really did.
Freya leaned down her head while listening and put her hands in her face and started rubbing in mild existential crisis. ‘Not only do I need to try to break out of my bubble of not being friends with people, I need to think of the beast inside me as a person, too? What’s happened with my life?’ she asked, kind of quietly, lamenting how complicated this was getting. She considered the methods of trying to connect to the beast inside just to check how it was doing, if there was any apparent change, when Penny suggested she talk to her.
‘… How would you do that?’ Freya asked, letting her hands fall from her face and looked to Penny again.
“Blame Penrose” Penny would quip at Freya’s soft lamentation. “Gods above know that it’s a chaotic enough place to be at fault for it.” But she would turn more fully to face Freya before answering the more direct question. “I would need your help, and trust. Which I fully understand I don’t really have. We just met after all, so feel free to ignore this for as long as you want. I’m not going to retract the offer however.”
“They can take over” Penny would straight up as she spoke “But you can also let go. When you aren’t in control they are. It doesn’t feel like it I know, but that is the case. Here in Dan’s realm is the safest option for this idea, since he will shut down hostility if it comes to that. But it might not come to that.”
Penny’s appearance would start to glitch at the end of her statement and her coloration would begin bleeding away. Leaving her washed out in only white and gray. Little ticks would be notably absent as well. Penny wasn’t breathing, wasn’t blinking, and wasn’t swaying. She was static and still in a way the organic beings simply can’t reach.
She would sit like that for a moment to let Freya note the dissonance of her loss of humanity then she would blink, and with that blink Penny’s eyes would be a blazing blood red. Where once there was a simple lack of humanity now sat what could only be described as a Monster. Not for anything that could be pointed to, it was more instinctive than anything else.
“After all” She would say softly, her voice suddenly flat and mechanical, “We are kindred souls”
Freya only sighed at the first part of what Penny said. Yeah, things were so simple before she came to Penrose… Then, however, Penny started explaining. Freya blinked, looking towards Penny with a frown that seemed to ask if she was serious. It became very clear she was. Freya’s frown deepened a bit as the monster-girl watched Penny show off her inhumanity.
Freya sat still, watching Penny for a bit… then cracked a little smile. ‘… Heh… haha…’ she chuckled a bit, before slowly standing up, her amusement possibly looking a bit sinister. ‘You’re right. This dimension would be the one “safe” place to do it…’ she said, turning to look towards Penny, and also taking a couple steps back. Despite supposedly being safe, some distance for safety’s sake felt appropriate.
‘I wonder how this dimension is supposed to stop this? I’m kind of curious,’ she asked, chuckling a bit. ‘So. Are you ready?’
There would be no verbal confirmation, but with a soft click Penny’s hidden limbs would slowly unfurl and half wrap around her. She was as ready as one could be.
‘Alright, well…’ Freya swallowed, feeling and looking exceedingly tense all of a sudden, yet still smirking. ‘This was your idea…’
She closed her eyes and let it through.
‘Nkh-!’ Freya grunted as she felt the dark surges of the magic slide through her body and limbs. The dark parts of her skin suddenly expanded, taking over her arms, legs and face in black. It stretched into her hair, which suddenly extended becoming massive and white. Her legs were brought together, fused with magic and then extended far behind her. Then, fur blasted out, extending the entire length of her back down her tail, her arms were completely encompassed with them. Her skin, only visible on her stomach and up, slowly reduced back to dark from black.
‘Agh-!’ It wasn’t as controlled a process as what Penny had shown off, and Freya cried out and threw her head back from apparent pain as she let something else take over, her arms spread wide. In its place was a lamia, covered in fur, now slowly raising its head high again. She opened her eyes towards Penny. They were black with yellow irises.
(will not be christmas theming the monstrous transformation)
… and that was about as long as it took before the whole creature immediately lunged at Penny, throwing itself at her with eyes wide and a rage-filled roar with a clawed, furred hand raised to try to rend her through with physical prowess unmatched by basically anyone in Penrose… except Penny.
There is always a moment between control being exchanged that all Monstergirls are dazed. Penny used this moment to stand, she knew what was likely coming after all no need to sit and make things more difficult for her.
She would match the lamia’s wrath filled eyes with her own dispassionate ones. And seemingly would simply await her own destruction letting the other monster dive in much closer than seemed safe or sane. But at the last moment, just before the claws would make contact with timing that only a machine can reach, Penny would roar back. But it wouldn’t be a simple sound; it would carry with it an unmitigated wall of force, a surge of repulsive gravity to knock the aggressor back aimed square into the lamia’s face.
In that same instant Penny would lash out with all of her limbs. One to grab the neck, one for each arm and two for the tail. And then she would then seek to push her advantage, hoping to step forward and force the rampaging creature to the ground and to pin her there. Each of Penny’s limbs holding firm onto the lamia. Not enough to cause pain, but enough to not be shifted. A surprise retaliation that would only ever work if Penny knew what was coming and had a chance to prepare for it.
Regardless if she was successful or not Penny wasn’t going to be staying silent. “Calm. Down.” It was an order, not a request. “Calm down Dan will force you back and let Freya step forward once more and you will never get a chance like this again.”
As the creature was already in mid-air, she came to a stop by the wall of energy by the repulsive gravity. However, her claws violently cut through the air, preventing Penny’s limbs from capturing her, and then her tail launched her from her location sideways with blinding speed, snow blasting up in her wake to cover the surroundings. The were-lamia curled around multiple trees, almost cleaving them as she did, using the snowy landscape to spin around to launch herself back at Penny-!
When Penny made the threat. Of never getting this again.
The were-lamia redirected herself and slid up a tree, leaving cracks in the bark as the powerful tail and claws were used to gain altitude. In the crown of the tree, she laid herself in a braced position, claws grabbing two branches like in preparation to launch herself again, glaring down at Penny with a dark, angry intelligence. Unlike normally, this time she hadn’t been summoned with rage pouring through her veins and an immediate need to feed. She opened her mouth, and…
‘HHHAAAAAASSSSssss-!’ … Shouted a not entirely intelligent sounding sound at Penny. Imagine a snake had suddenly got itself a human mouth and tried to make an angry threatening noise with it.
Penny made no move to approach but her advanced senses easily allowed her to keep track of where the other girl was. She would stay standing in the small clearing looking up at the other girl, noting but not caring about the damage inflicted on the trees.
“You can understand me” Penny would say with a nod “I am no threat to you right now. I can’t be a threat to you right now, but striking me will end with you being forced back down.” She would explain her limbs poised defensively. Just because the lamia could understand, didn’t mean they could be reasoned with.
“My name is Penny and I simply want to talk.” She would go on to say her gaze never wavering from meeting the other girls. “Do you have a name you refer to yourself as?” She would ask relatively calmly, all things considered.
“Don’t force the words” She would caution “Don’t think about emulating how she does it, just let the thoughts flow and instinct will take over, your body knows how to speak, let it.”
The lamia frowned down at her, her grip in the tree-branches tightening, they looked like they were close to breaking. She leaned her head down a bit, and… ‘Sha… sss… rrr… sssk… rrr… art…’ … and then she violently shook her head and shouted at Penny again. ‘SHAAAsss…!’ That wasn’t a name, it was just her being annoyed at having a mouth.
“It’s okay” Penny would try and reassure the lamia, though the lack of emotional intonation would make it come off slightly stilted “We have time. Freya ceded control, you don’t have to rush” Not yet at any rate.
“Sound it out for me one part at a time” She would say before speaking up again, with a different voice ‘Sha’ Penny would emulate each syllable after the other monster girl did. And she would be patient, because she could be.
‘… Sssshhh…’ the lamia made a noise and frowned at her. What followed was a period of time where the lamia was exploring her mouth, trying to use Freya’s muscle memory to get some form of noise to be made. ‘Shan… N. NNN! NA!’ Her eyes widened in a sudden flash of slight amazement as she found how to make an n-sound, first time she looked something else than angry. ‘… Na… na nam,’ she finished, grunting a bit as she came down from her high.
“Ah” Penny would remark, a touch sadly. Predictive algorithms, inhuman processing speeds and understanding born of having lived in that same situation allowed Penny to understand what was being said. ‘No name’ she would repeat using the monster's voice.
The lamia slowly nodded. ‘N… n… no na.. nam.’ she tried to repeat what Penny had said, with relative success.
“I’m sorry to hear that” Penny would go on to say her extra limbs lowering slightly, as they were no longer completely warranted from the looks of it. “Would you like one?” She would ask, tilting her head to the side in curiosity. “It hurts not having a name, or it hurt me, so I can give you one if you want.”
The lamia frowned at Penny from up in the tree, her tail tightening somewhat around the tree as she considered it. ‘Sshhhh… sh… shure,’ she eventually said, pulling back a little and hiding partially behind the tree for some reason.
Penny would raise a hand to her chin as she thought for a moment sifting through various names. “How does Shelyn sound?” She would ask, there were other names that Penny considered, but this was the first one she liked.
‘Ssh… Shel… lyn…’ the lamia tried to repeat, still behind the tree. ‘... Shelyn?’ she asked, managing to get it together. She let go of the tree, the whole decently heavy furred creature dropping into the snow beneath the tree, after she peeked out at Penny again, perhaps not looking quite as angry anymore. ‘Shelyn,’ she repeated again.
Penny would allow a smile to grace her features. “Pleased to meet you, Shelyn.” She would greet the other girl at last. “I’m glad that I was able to find a name you like.” Penny would retract her extra limbs fully at this point, since she no longer needed them. “It’s different being out when there’s nothing to fight isn’t it.” She would state more than ask as she sat back down under the tree.
“It’s weird, but not bad. You’re not as hungry either I bet.” She’d gesture to the area next to her “You’re free to join me over here if you want. I just wanted to talk as I said, wanted to get to know you.”
Shelyn’s eyebrows twitched a bit at being called her new name. Felt weird. Still, maybe weird in a good way. She listened to Penny’s words, not reacting particularly to them, then looked at the area gestured for her… and Shelyn shook her head. Nope, doesn’t trust her quite that much yet. Kept staring at her from a distance. Still, it was an improvement over how it was in the beginning.
Penny would nod at Shelyn’s refusal to come closer. She got it, the fact that Freya trusted her enough for this was shocking enough, Penny would start wondering if she had ended up with some sort of Monstergirl Power of Friendship if Shelyn also trusted her.
“I was wondering about you. Things you like, dislike, do you mind if I ask you about those?” She would ask instead “Or would you prefer to ask me questions?” Because she was here to learn about Shelyn and curiosity is telling. Besides, Penny wasn't opposed to making another new friend.
Shelyn frowned at Penny from over there. Liking and disliking wasn’t really concepts she’d thought about before.
‘... What…’ and with that word Shelyn suddenly paused in surprise and her eyes widened a bit, because she didn’t actually know how to say that word until it slipped out of her. She took a deep breath, tried to formulate what she wanted to say, Penny would see her mouth move as in preparation for trying to say something, before she locked eyes with Penny, and…!
‘What to tu what to me?’ … “What do you want with me?”
“To get to know you” Penny would reply with a shrug “I used to be in the same situation as you and I know it’s lonely. If I can ease that I will, because there aren't enough people looking out for us. It’s why I opened my lair to others, as I don’t think we should be left adrift without anyone to help us” She would explain the red in her eyes dimming as she did. “It drives us crazy and turns us rabid. But we are so much more than that.”
“So I just want to be your friend if I can. But if not that, I just want to make sure you know that at least one person sees you for you, Shelyn, because that’s all I can really do at the moment.”
Shelyn listened to Penny’s words, frowning as she did, but then eventually turned and looked into the tree she was holding onto instead, not likely to see many sights from that. There were things she wanted to say, but saying them was difficult. Her grip on the tree tightened a bit as she was reminded by her perpetual prison, some anger coming back into her expression.
‘... L… lonely…’ she managed to pick up the word. ‘Lon… ly… li… like? Like. Like.’ She tried getting back to the earlier question, now that she did know the why of it. What Shelyn likes, and the words needed to pronounce it. ‘... I like. I. I, me. … Feya. Feya? Feya.’ Close enough, she reckoned. A small smile emerged on her lips. She knew what she could say. She turned to smile at Penny.
‘I like hu-ting Feya,’ she said, entirely honestly. ”I like hurting Freya.”
That wasn’t something Penny was expecting to hear. She couldn’t say she was terribly shocked though, it also didn’t really cause much of a reaction from Penny, her emotions were far too muted at the moment for it to be able to.
Instead she would lean forward and ask “Why?” It was an emotional through line that Penny herself always had some difficulty following. “Hurting her, hurts you doesn’t it?”
Shelyn raised an eyebrow a bit at the question, looking a little confused. ‘… No?’ As in “no, it doesn’t hurt me”. ‘Feya, I… can. I can hut Feya fom insi. I can… make Feya feel… th… things. Te he,’ Talking was slowly becoming easier. She could want a word and it came to her lips uncalled for. Still didn’t go fast, but she was learning. She was more excited over that than the perhaps disturbing contents of her words.
This revelation would cause red in Penny’s eyes to glow just a touch brighter. Because emotional torture just wasn’t something Penny tolerated. Priorities and threat assessments would start shifting around within the android’s mind, she came here seeking a friend. She might leave here seeking a way to free one.
“That doesn’t explain why you like hurting her though.” Penny would state, her voice still a calm flat tone. “Are you doing it in retaliation? Or simply because you like causing her pain?” She also disagreed with the idea that it didn’t also hurt Shelyn, but didn’t think it was a good idea to start delving into the long term ramifications of a soul digging into itself just yet.
‘Um…’ Why is it funny? Shelyn had to take a moment to think about that. ‘… Feya’s eactions. Feya’s eactions make it funny. Feya get so fustated. … Ed? Dee? Dee!’ She waved her claws in a small happy celebration for finding how to make a d-sound.
That didn’t clear anything up. It made things more confusing in all truth. Bored and lonely, finding ways to frustrate the only person you can connect with isn’t an evil thing to do. Mean perhaps, but isolated people do things to feel connected even if it is mean spirited.
“What are your favorite ways to frustrate Freya?” She would go on to ask, since it would hopefully clear up the main point of confusion. Shelyn didn’t want anything repugnant, at least not that Penny could sus out. Which made it seem like Shelyn was fine, if a bit chaotic and likely with a difficult pallet.
Which is why the thing about causing Freya pain was so confusing, but that could also be that Penny already knew of the long term consequences and was looking at things with the wrong perspective to understand. It also could just be an emotional reason that Penny couldn’t understand at the moment due to the suspended nature of her current emotional runtimes.
‘I make Feya ungy!’ Shelyn replied with a smile. “Hungry”. ‘Feya as… has eaten, feel satisfied… den I make Feya u… hungy again! Feya get fustated! Te he!’ Shelyn chuckled at the memory. ‘I make Feya note sleep. Keep Feya awake. Feya get fustated den, too. Oh, I make Feya want to beak things, and when Feya with othes, I make Feya want to hut them. Feya eally doesn’t like that,’ Shelyn said, smiling as she did. She then looked thoughtful. ‘Hm, how doe I doe an r-sound?’ … She blinked a bit. ‘Uh. Ar? Rrrr. Ar! Fr… Fre… Freya! Hu… hur… hurt! Yes! Weee!’ Another celebration commenced.
“You realize that doing all that is the reason why Freya tries to keep you locked away so much” Penny would state after a moment. It was an odd situation watching Shelyn come to grips with how to speak. It was kind of adorable, but also sparked a small portion of jealousy since Penny wasn’t fully capable of speaking clearly when she was in the midst of a true metamorph, not the half forced state she was currently in. Granted that could be due to the inherent differences between being a machine monster vs an organic one.
“Do you hate her?” See would go on to ask, honestly curious.
Shelyn tilted her head at the first statement, looking like she didn’t entirely comprehend it. Then, on the second question, she once again had to take a moment to think. But, ultimately she arrived at…
‘… Yes,’ she said, nodding, her expression returning to a frown. ‘Fe… Freya hates me, holds me down, chains me… I get ve-y… very angy. Feya also ti… tries note to feed me… foe as long as Feya can. Though, that’s when I can hut… hurt Feya the most…’ she continued, an angry little smile appearing at the end. She then tilted her head, peering at Penny…
‘… Why are you note food?’ she asked, slight confusion in her voice.
Hate bred from miscommunication. That would be a pain to resolve. “I think she’s afraid of you more than hates you.” Penny would comment. It was more information and thankfully was making things clearer to her. She wasn’t any closer to coming to any sort of resolution however, but it wasn’t a blind situation anymore.
“And because I’ve never been your kind of food.” She would answer. “The magic here hides it from sight, but I am made and born from metal and lightning. My body and soul have always been rather intune with each other in that regard.” She would hold up her right arm and with an audible click the illusion around it would distort as the hidden chainsaw’s were unsheathed and gave Shelyn a glimpse into Penny’s true nature.
“There is also the fact I am merely a copy. Pretty sure that those don’t smell like food to you either.”
Shelyn frowned at the statement of Freya being afraid of her, her tail sliding a bit behind her. ‘… Feya ight… right to be af-iaid,’ she commented.
She then listened to Penny’s explanation, and watched how the hidden chainsaw was unveiled… and the were-lamia didn’t look particularly interested. Weirdly shaped stuff she didn’t understand and couldn’t eat. What she was interested in, however… Shelyn’s gaze wandered… and her nose sniffed at the air, using her human nose despite snake-theme because she has one.
‘… The’e was food. Food was he’e… ove… ove he’e…’ she said, starting to move, her furred snake-body starting to slither, starting to move. She was heading towards where the snowball fight had taken place, and looked like she’d leave Penny if nothing was said or done.
“You’re not going to be able to hunt down any of your preferred food while here” Penny would point out while she stood to follow Shelyn, the chainsaws retracting as she did. “We are in Dan’s realm, a Patron, he’s the one who has declared no hostilities.” She wasn’t sure if her words would be heeded, but was going to be sticking close either way. Another of her counterfeits was also moving into position to let Dan know before anything else went wrong.
The Snow Fort battle zone should be fine for the moment however; Oros striking it with the orbital cannon again should have scattered anyone else who was sticking around the area. The two other counterfeits that were working on a new snow fort elsewhere weren’t too far away in case they might be needed.
She wondered how much longer Shelyn would be in control as well. She had estimated that this outing of Shelyn’s would have ended by now already, and wasn’t sure what to make of it lasting so long.
‘… Hssssh…’ the lamia slid to a halt as she looked over the scene, frowning.
‘… Feya…’ Shelyn grunted her name… before striking her claws into the tree next to her. The claws easily cleaved into the bark as if it was liquid, leaving great holes in it. ‘I can’t hunt… and Feya knows it. The one thing I want to do… That is why… Feya not even tying to get back. Feya… must be mocking me… must find it ve-y funny…’
‘Well that answers that question.’ Penny was glad for at least some insight into where her assumptions had steered her wrong. It would take only another moment for her to run through a few different scenarios that seemed plausible before speaking up. “Considering all that you’ve done to torment her would you really be surprised?” She would ask as she stepped over to inspect the damage done to the tree with a critical eye.
“Though I doubt that’s the reason.” She would go on to say, tracing a finger along the smooth grooves in the tree around the embedded claw as she did “I was the one who asked her to let you out, Freya’s likely not fighting you because she trusts me.” Though it was more likely that Freya trusted Dan’s power in his own realm, then what Penny could do. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she was resting, fighting for dominance is exhausting, and being on guard for it at all times is even more so.”
“Your claws are quite impressive,” She would add on the end as she turned away from the damaged tree. “Would you mind if I took a closer look at them?”
Shelyn merely silently listened to what Penny was saying, considering the words but did not reply to them. She had no idea what Freya was thinking (though it was indeed that she trusted a Patron’s power). The line about claws, though…
Shelyn turned and peered at Penny slightly distrustfully, but eventually pulled her claws out of the tree and presented them to her. Very clawy claws, black and sharp, at the tips of furry hands.
Carefully, and a touch cautiously, Penny would slowly take hold of the offered claw. She made sure to keep her grip light and open so that Shelyn could take it back at any time, but otherwise spent her focus on examining the claws in their entirety. The tips were always the most apparent aspect of such a weapon, but Penny couldn’t actually do much to test those at the moment due to her nature as a counterfeit. One wrong move and she would simply fade after all. Similarly she didn’t think she’d be able to get a diagnosis on their composition, though she assumed they were more likely bone then keratin, but it was hard to know for sure when magic was in play.
There was still more she could examine though. Light prodding could reveal if they were retractable by design or not. The same prodding would help give Penny an idea about how the muscles were structured. Telling her how quickly Shelyn could snap her hand closed or open, if she could lock her hand into a position or not. Same could be found out about the wrist, though that was more about structural integrity than anything.
She wouldn’t go far below the wrist, but part of the forearm would be inspected as well since it was where all the musculature would be based. It would give Penny a basic idea of how much strength was in one arm, letting her run calculations on how much damage Shelyn and Freya could likely do.
The reason why Penny would do any of this was simple. She liked weapons, just as she liked fighting. It was rare she got to examine one that wasn’t directly related to a fight. “As I said, impressive.” She would conclude with a nod. “Any maintenance required for them?” She would ask though she didn’t expect there to be any. Penny wasn’t really aware of anyone who actually tried to maintain their weapons besides her.
Shelyn looked on with a frown as Penny conducted her investigation. Her clawed hands were covered in fur and disproportionately large, filled with powerful muscles, powered in no small part by monstrous magic. Claws were not retractable, the bone-structure of the hand was modestly human. The forearm was a bit difficult to investigate, as the fur-growth increased explosively just below the wrist, becoming very thick. Just below the wrist was when Shelyn retracted her arm, however.
‘… Maint… enance?’ she copied the word, but was unable to parse it in these circumstances. She shook her head, because the answer was probably "no". Instead, she looked off at the former battlefield again. ‘… Is the'e anything to do, he'e…?’ she asked, kind of frustrated.
Penny accepted the answer given before shifting her attention out towards the empty field of abandoned snow forts her own twice built twice decimated spot standing out to her. “Not many things that you would enjoy” Penny would answer honestly. “It’s supposed to be a place of harmless fun. Large areas skilled with snow and ice to play in, a central building to warm up in and mingle.” The thought of Shelyn going to mingle was hilariously bad due to how poorly it would likely go.
At that moment Penny would catch sight of one of the numerous snow buns cheerfully hopping about the structures. And an idea would come to her. “We could hunt snow bunnies” She would offer up gesturing to the lone bunny. “They are part of the magic of the island so I’m not sure they can truly be harmed. So you wouldn’t be able to eat them I think, but there are a lot of them. Some of which were purported to be rather difficult to wrangle.” It would be something they could do. Should also keep them away from running across others, which still sounded like a good idea.
‘… Mingle… play…’ Shelyn said the words like she had no idea what their meanings were. ‘… Feya avoids people… Feya has watched othes do it, but Feya doesn’t want to… Is it because of Feya I feel the same?’ Shelyn asked.
Shelyn turned to gaze at Penny with raised eyebrows at the mention of hunting snow-bunnies that couldn’t be eaten. Why would you hunt something you can’t eat? Yet, what were her options? Give control back to Freya? … Nah.
‘… Eh, shure,’ she shrugged, then turning to glare off through the trees, in a direction where she could unfailingly smell tiny bunny. Her prefered prey were people, but suppose she could compromise.
“Some people just don’t like mingling” Penny would reply to the asked query with a shrug. “Hard to say if you got that from her, or she got it from you, or you both have it.” She too would turn her attention more outwards, less directly in the direction of the bunny that Shelyn had noticed and more in a general scan.
“Want to make a competition out of it?” Penny would add. Tilting her head as she shifted slightly in the were-lamia’s direction. “See who can get the most before Freya wakes up?” She figured hunting simple buns would get rather boring for Shelyn, this at least meant she didn’t have to rely only on them to make it interesting. Assuming they didn’t run into a Harebringer that is.
Shelyn simply stayed quiet during the first part. Then, however, Penny said a word. Shelyn blinked a bit. ‘… Comp… etition?’ Shelyn turned to gaze sharply at Penny yellow irises glaring kind of intently. A battle to see who is the better hunter…? ‘… Hn… hn, hn, hn…’ A tiny chuckle escaped her closed lips. Why did this appeal to her this much? Why was that so much more interesting than just having a fight? Why did that… sound fun?
‘… Shure. I won’t lose,’ Shelyn stated, with amused confidence as she braced to launch herself, arms extended.
“We’ll see” Penny would say in response as her legs began glowing and she rose up a few inches, the lower two of her extra limbs would also unfurl. “We shall see”
Shelyn smirked at her, and then the two blasted off with a shock of force shaking the nearby trees. The competition was on.
‘Hahahaha…!’ Shelyn laughed, as she looked over her gathering of confused and/or terrified snowbuns. She was confident she’d gotten more than Penny, but honestly, she didn’t have time to count. She felt it, time was up. ‘I… I won,’ she announced anyway, and then… ‘KAH!’
She cried out and closed her eyes. A lot of fur fell off her arms. A rash of white darted across her dark skin, before it once again faced into dark. The tail briefly became covered in white fur, and then it just fell off as the two legs of the Christmas transformation came out of them. It all fell off, and left there was once again Freya, as she appeared in this dimension. She sighed out.
The clothes probably magically appeared somehow.
‘Okay, so…’ Freya started to mutter before opening her eyes to look over at wherever Penny was right now. ‘… maybe a little more than a mindless beast, I guess…’
Penny was sitting in her own pile of distraught snowbuns, though hers weren’t as terrified as the ones that shelyn had gathered together, off to Freya’s left. True to Shelyn’s statement she had in fact come out ahead of Penny in the bunny hunt. It wasn’t a large margin, only a four bunny difference, but it was still a conclusive victory.
“Notably more” Penny would agree, already back to her baseline coloration. Her shift was quicker and quieter than the lamia’s were after all. “How much can you recall from when she is out?” She would go on to ask. She didn’t want to rehash things that Freya already knew after all, and this was a circumstance that she knew could and did vary wildly between girls who could metamorph.
‘… I blanked out for a large portion, there. I figured I could relax, but I guess I relaxed too much. But I was there in the beginning, and I listened. You gave her a name. Shelyn. And she…’ Freya sighed, kneeling down and petting a couple terrified snowbuns that got a bit more comfortable with her now that she appeared to be a lot less rough.
‘… The impulses… The ones making me want to kill and eat people, to break things and surrender to beastly desires… They’re not beastly instincts trying to make me act like a were-lamia. They’re her… messing with me. … Gah,’ she said, placing a free hand in her face, trying to process this. She was pretty sure the hunger making her eat people to keep the beast fed was still real, but all the other impulses…
“You were right that you could relax.” Penny would say at first petting a bun herself absentmindedly. “All we did was talk a bit and then went hunting Snowbuns.” She would explain gesturing to the large group of buns about.
“And I wouldn’t say she is all of the impulse, but she is definitely hightenting them. You're not fully human anymore, odd instincts come with the territory. She’s likely pushing her desires out and onto yours, compounding them.” At least that was Penny’s best guess at the hows of it going on.
“You two share a belief as well. You both think the other hates you. I’m not convinced that either of you actually hate each other, but I’ll admit I don’t really know either of you well enough to be completely sure of that.” She was more or less just hoping that was the case at this point really. “I’m not saying you both don’t have valid reasons to dislike each other, you do, but most of the why’s were built on miscommunication as far as I can gather at the moment.”
“She also shares the fact that she’s somewhat of a loner with you. As the idea of mingling with other people didn’t seem all too appealing to her when conversation touched on it.” At this point Penny was just recapping anything that seemed like it would be useful for Freya to know. Hopefully it wasn’t too much of a system shock, but Penny wasn’t sure if it would be or not as she had no context for it. Jason had always viewed himself and Penny as separate entities.
“She’s cagey. A lot of the reason I think she was willing to open up to me is the fact that I’m not food and it was curious for her. Pretty sure anyone else wouldn’t have had a chance to talk her down. She likes hunting, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t come as a surprise, but I think it's more the challenge than the kill. Because she was more than willing to go chasing after all of these guys against me.” She would once again gesture around at the bunnies, this time in emphasis.
“Other than that I get the feeling she’s a free spirit. Doesn’t enjoy being locked in the back of your head with nothing to do, but that’s not all that strange. I get the feeling that anyone trying to force her to do something is going to get smacked for it” Which in hindsight meant it likely was a good thing Penny hadn’t been able to grapple her earlier.
“Lastly I’m pretty sure that some things just don’t make sense to her because of her nature. Maintenance, play, and mingle all seemed to throw her for a loop, and I doubt it was simply context.” Penny would keep her attention on Freya throughout all of that explanation. It was a lot to somewhat drop on someone, but she had just spent a lot of time in her E.o.D. priority set, choosing the non blunt straight forward approach was a few thought levels down the list at the moment.
That didn’t mean she was completely blind to how much it was to take in however. “Feel free to take a moment or five, I’m not needed anywhere at the moment. I’ll stick around to answer any question that you might have.”
Freya took the hand out of her face and calmly listened, patting snowbuns that were getting increasingly comfortable with her, which made Freya uncomfortable in turn when they started skipping and surrounding her to brush against her legs where she was kneeling. That aside, most of her focus was on listening to the speech Penny was delivering. It was a lot. But, weirdly enough, Freya could listen to most of it and think “yeah, that sounds accurate”.
At the end, she definitely needed a while to think. She put her hands together over her nose and took deep breaths into them. She took a minute or two. Honestly, she didn’t really mind Shelyn. It was just, the tiny elephant in the room.
‘I need her to stop killing people. If she can agree to that, I could let her out more often. Could you manage that, Shelyn? Can you please stop wanting to eat people? With “people”, I mean humans and monster-girls, people you can talk with. We could, like, go hunt for animals or monsters, those would be acceptable targets…’ Freya asked. She didn’t really get an answer.
‘… I don’t dare let her out with anyone she may kill. I might need to ask for your help again, and maybe Dan’s help. Just to talk with her. Other than that… do you have suggestions on what I should do?’ Freya asked, turning her head to look at Penny.
Penny was content to sit in her pile of bunnies and let Freya work though everything in her own head. Most of her caught snow buns would slowly leave Penny’s area to go join Freya’s, because now that Freya had returned the warmth of kindness of a fellow animal would always hold more sway over a machine to the bunnies.
“I don’t think she’ll ever be able to stop wanting to eat people.” Penny would say after a moment of thought. “Some monster girls can’t live on a standard diet anymore, you and her wouldn’t be the first I’ve met that needs to eat human.” She would explain her thoughts turning towards the wolf girl back at Sanctuary who needed fresh meat to simply live. “But if you can live off Animal or Monster I’d be willing to go hunting with you or her. She’s got decent self control, it’s giving her a reason to use it that's the trick I think.”
“Only other advice I’ve got for the moment is don’t try to shun her. I’m not tethered to Jason anymore, but what we went through could have easily destroyed us, and even though it didn’t. I know my soul has been scarred by what happened and some of those wounds will never truly heal.” Penny would give a somber smile at that. “You two don’t need to like each other, but finding a way to tolerate each other is preferable to hacking apart your soul to get rid of one another I’d say. The cold. It doesn’t ever really go away after that.”
‘Uh…’ Freya frowned down at all the bunnies that had decided they loved her. She was just intending casual affection, yet here they all were, very much troubling her all of a sudden. Was making it just the slightest difficult to focus, but, she managed.
‘… Animals or monsters aren’t nearly as satisfying… I don’t get… I don’t get why…’ Freya muttered. She listened to the next part, and nodded. ‘Yeah, I don’t need to… We’re the Union Beast. We’re definitely beasts, but we can work on the union part. If I can make her like me, maybe some of my problems will solve themselves. I’ll ask Ronja if she can make a psychic connection to let us talk. Who knows? Maybe this will make us stronger, too…’ she considered, wondering somehow their minds being as one would help out their power… or maybe that just wasn’t how it worked, but still.
‘Okay, I think I’m satisfied,’ Freya said, getting up from kneeling and leaving the horde of snowbuns crowding at her feet. ‘Right. Can I have a number or something if I’d like to speak with you again? … And I guess I should give you mine…’ Freya added the latter as it occurred to her that friends likely had each other’s numbers. She had been given a phone for communication, but she hadn’t really added anyone beyond her team.
“You likely need human then” Penny wasn’t at all disterbed by that as far as Freya would be able to tell, because Penny wasn’t disterbed by it at all. “And meditation might work as well” She’d offer as she stood up as well, scattering the last of the bunnies near her. “For getting in contact with Shelyn.” Penny didn’t trust anyone getting into her head after all.
“You have your phone on you?” Would be her next question “Normally I’d be able to fabricate a plate with my number on it, but not something I can do at the moment.” She would explain.
Freya noted that Penny didn’t seem perturbed, but she didn’t count on the inside being the same. Who knew what kind of judgement could be happening on the inside? That said, if there was anyone that may not, it could be Penny. Maybe. Possibly. Who knows.
‘Meditation, huh…’ Freya mentioned, while retrieving her phone to hand over.
“A guess” Would be Penny’s response as she accepted the phone. “I’ve never really been able to trust others with the inside of my head.” She would rapidly and easily send a text to herself as she spoke. “A hold over from Jason.” She would hand the phone back to Freya with the best number to reach Penny programmed in it. “Though I’ve had others try something similar to brainwashing as well.” She’d shrug “Meditation is supposed to help make your mind your own, makes sense to me that it would let you contact Shelyn.”
‘… I’ll consider my options,’ Freya said as she accepted her phone back. ‘I think it’s best I get back to the others, thanks to our session with… with Shelyn, they’re probably wondering where I went. Um…’ she looked kind of awkwardly at Penny for a bit, and…
‘Thank you… for everything so far,’ she said, decently genuinely.
Penny would simply give Freya a welcoming smile. “Any time” She’d half turn to start heading out herself, though where this counterfeit would head was anyone’s guess at the moment. “I started the Sanctuary and took up the mantle of Queen to help. I’m glad that I was able to do that for you.” She would explain, before giving Freya a wave “Feel free to drop in to the Sanctuary if you want, you can bring your friends if you want. Till next time Freya.” And with that she would head off.
‘I'll… I'll consider it. Thank you, again,’ Freya said. She sighed, before turning and jumping away, leaving a crowd of sad snowbunnies.
Still, she only got four large jumps before she came to a stop because a girl stood where she was going.
‘Did you learn a lot about yourself?’ asked the other girl.
‘… I did, yeah. It’s… not going to be useful to us, as a group, but maybe it could make me more comfortable in the long run,’ Freya replied after a brief pause.
‘I see. Did you give her your phone-number?’ she was asked in turn.
‘Er, yes,’ Freya replied, raising an eyebrow.
‘Okay, submit your phone for inspection, just in case. What do you intend to do now?’ her conversational partner responded without missing a beat.
‘I… need to talk to Ronja, see if I can get a psychic connection to the… to the were-lamia. It could… it could solve a lot of things,’ Freya said, feeling a little like she was being interrogated.
‘I see,’ the girl said, before smiling at Freya and putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m happy you’re making progress, but…’ The girl then sighed a little. ‘Is now really the best time?’
‘When else would you suggest I do it?’ Freya asked with a sarcastic tone.
After a brief debriefing, Freya leapt on, leaving the other girl peering thoughtfully after her with arms crossed…
Well, it was no mystery who Mariette’s gift had come from. Mariette pocketed the coin and threw a slight gaze to the puppet, if she was anywhere near. Wonder if she’d actually be willing to defend someone like Mariette? … Who knows? Meanwhile her own gift went to… Yeah, suppose that’s fine. Wonder if the combat-like woman would enjoy the alternate version of herself. Mariette had no idea how her gift would be received, after all. Maybe not everyone was interested in something like that. Who knows, once again.
In the rewards section, I was planning on having Tullia give the coin to someone who hadn’t cheated on their ice sculpture, but I need to go back and reread what sculptures were made before I can do that.
Then finally, it was the price for Christmas spirit… Mariette’s visible eye widened as she realized what the dolphin was doing. He was giving her the Black Mirror in front of everyone. Her expression was one of sheer, utter terror as the giant present materialized. A single question echoed through her mind.
COULDN’T YOU HAVE GIVEN ME THAT IN PRIVATE!!!???
She lifted a hand to materialize a portal as quickly as she inhumanly could to take the present away, but-
Mariette recoiled as Rachel shouted, preventing her from removing the present without objection. Then, Lily skipped to defend her, challenging to a match of Keijo… and then Dino overtook the challenge. All the while Mariette was just staring and thinking, The present is mine, what gives you the right to compete for it!?
… Mariette was not actually going to let anyone have the Black Mirror, even if they so supposedly won it. She was just raise a hand over her mouth to disguise a portal she opened from her mouth to Dan’s ear and whisper.
‘These people do not have the right to compete over my mirror. Can I please remove it from this dimension?’ she asked, probably not going to have any success, but she asked, nonetheless.
Next part. It appeared she had a champion. Mariette opened portals to gather her team in the same place, somewhere in the snow outside, before she stepped there herself. Then, she opened a portal directly from there to Dina.
‘Dina. It seems you’ll be protecting your dimension, and my mirror by extension. I wish to help. Come through this portal, and my champions will be able to power you up,’ Mariette offered.
Now, of her champions actually able to help…
‘I can put reinforcing web under whatever clothing you might wear to give you extra Reinforcement…’ Ronja the spider-monster-girl said, spinning a web-bikini in her hands for the demonstration.
‘I can fill your head with so much emotional magic power that you don’t even know!’ Suzette chuckled, her arms glowing notably yellow.
‘I can totally sneak metal into your clothing and then use my control of the metal to help you dodge on a distance, nobody would even know!’ Jelena insists excitedly, momentarily forgetting Third Eye is a thing despite having one herself.
‘I have multiple protective artifacts I can put on you for extra protection. They work. I’d know, I’m unwillingly testing them all the time,’ Taihei the artificer said, lifting a couple amulets that came with powerful protective magic.
‘I got curses! I can curse you so that people who touch you fall asleep, or lose their strength, or whatever! What do you say, wanna get cursed!?’ Mayra asked kind of mischievously, the dragon girl getting to flex her Darkness more than her Fire magic for once.
‘Then I could take the mana from anyone unable to help you directly help you and completely stuff you with it, overfilling you with mana…!’ said Josefin, the girl with the Mana Oddball spec, lifting her hands and looking excited.
That about covers it for people that were able to actually give her blessings. But Lea, Esther, Olivia, (Freya? maybe not, she may be busy), Tullia and Victoria was there somewhere too. Victoria possibly peering kinda unconvinced at her if we want to go that route.
‘Oh? A Darumaka?’ Lorette looked sort of curiously at the Pokémon she wasn’t entirely familiar with. ‘That one should only know fire moves right now, right? That puts us relatively even. Larvesta, Flame Charge!’ she commanded, and the fire-moth blasted out of the boulder-canyons to rocket over towards Cecil, intending on colliding with her!
‘That one’s poisoned, correct?’ Lorette tilted her head and looked at Roxanne. ‘Larvesta, take cover among the boulders!’ she called, and the fiery horns on the bug blasted so it got in among the rocks before Roxanne’s first shot. It was definitely hard to hit a target that there wasn’t a direct line-of-sight to with Rock Throw. On the plus-side, there were no counter-attacks, so if they wanted to do something on their own they could do so without fear of being punished for it.
Machamp nodded to Chic’s conviction with a big smile! ‘Machamp!’ He’d look forward to her, then! Now, onto battle!
---
The Psychic-type army hesitated as the sounds grew louder. Then, with Erika’s arrival, a thunderous stampede of muscle barged through the tunnel directly at the Psychic-types, the elder Machamp in front! The Psychic army lifted their limbs and spoons, and a shocking blast of concentrated Psychic energy shook many Fighting-types off their legs and fainted them with Super Effective energy! However, the elder Machamp was the first to simply shake off the damage, and then the stampede continued right into the opposing army! And Psychic-types in general weren’t very good up-close and personal…!
‘I’m, uh, impressed,’ Ewan mentioned, having called his Pokémon back and went to stand with Erika and Joshua who came running. Elana kind of stood with a somewhat parted mouth, and a raised phone. It appeared that she had started filming the event at some point.
‘I KNOW, RIGHT!?’ Joshua happily called. ‘Hey, there’s a tunnel for potential invaders! I’m gonna go MAKE A DEAL WITH THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN AND RALLY ITS WHOLE ARMY TO COUNTER! Erika, you’re badass!’ Joshua said, laughing about it.
Then Erika asked about sealing the tunnel, and how to do that. Elana looked towards her incredulously.
‘How? Are you kidding me?’ she asked, before turning back to the battle at hand. ‘It’s already taken care of…’
There, in the midst of the battle, a couple powerful Fighting-types were gathering at the walls. The dojo-master Medicham, a couple Machamps and Conkeldurrs. On the dojo-master’s command, they all gathered for a single, mighty punch… and SLAM! The power echoed through the whole tunnel, and it started shaking as the walls started to crumble. The elder Machamp took a single look, and…
‘MACHAAAAMP!’ he called out a command, and Fighting-type and Psychic-type alike found it in their best interest to comply. Fighting-types quickly grabbed their fallen with great strength and leapt back, while Psychic-types used their abilities to keep the tunnel from collapsing for just long enough that they could safely levitate their fainted backwards to their side of the tunnel. A couple foolhardy fighting-types had decided they wanted to be on the other side of the tunnel when it collapsed, but they hit a Psychic wall and had to be grabbed and carried back. The Alakazam on the other side gave a frown at Machamp, who just smirked back at him, and then the Psychic field fell.
With a thunderous crash, the tunnel collapsed in rock and boulder, shaking the earth as the tunnel that wasn’t to be was sealed in mountain-rock once more. A cheer went through the army of Fighting-types, and Machamp turned around to the group of four humans with all his four arms crossed, smirking and nodding to him.
‘Machamp,’ he told, satisfied.
‘… Well done, your highness,’ Elana said, sighing out, and retrieving her Pokémon back to their Pokéballs… then sighed again, very well aware of many Fighting-types eyeing her intently because of the power of the team she’d just had out. ‘Right, I’m going to be busy for a couple minutes, don’t you have somewhere to be?’ Elana told Erika.
As she said so, she gestured with her head in the other direction, where the digging-machine had continued up Mt. Strength.
‘As long as you understand,’ Annica seemed to accept the two Pokémon’s apology, easing up and nodding to Amelia and her Pokémon’s apology. Murkrow looked really amused by this exchange, while Fletchling looked pensive.
Ledyba blinked a little as Amelia’s eyes fell on it, looking like he tensed up for some reason. Amelia asked the question, and…
‘Huh? What are you talking about, Ledyba isn’t-’ Eric replied, then went forward to investigate his Pokémon. ‘… Wait, what the… You ARE burned. How did you get burned!?’ Eric asked, suddenly wide-eyed and very concerned. ‘… Hold on. I was training Surskit when… Ledyba?’
Ledyba was, if that’s a term that can apply to a ladybug, sweating bullets. The very tense Ledyba’s eyes darted around kind of helplessly. Not replying.
‘Uh… It’s weird that he managed to get Burned, but does this have anything to do with this case…?’ Leila asked, looking confused.
Well? Does Amelia have anything recent in mind for that?
‘So, the three of us are friends. We came to Route 2 together.’ ‘We came across the Water Stone, but Palpitoad protected it.’ ‘I sent Barboach to cause an earthquake, but got too scared to take the stone!’ ‘I didn’t dare look back on Annica, in case I looked suspicious!’ ‘Any one of her many Pokémon could have been looking at me!’ ‘I later checked on the Palpitoad and the Water Stone, but both were gone.’
‘I went to set up camp for us for later, because we were going to spend time here.’ ‘I didn't do much else, just watched Leila nearby by the waterside.’ ‘So Leila’s Barboach caused the Earthquake. How naughty of her.’ ‘Leila eventually left towards the site where we found the Water Stone and Palpitoad.’ ‘It was shortly after that Palpitoad started washing over the route with water.’ ‘I think Amy’s Staryu can remain a Staryu for now. If it’d evolve, it’d be in the future.’
‘We healed our Pokémon at the Center in Pureplain City, then came over here.’ ‘During the event, I was battling the wild Pokémon of Route 2 the entire time!’ ‘There was that earthquake Leila caused, and I saw Palpitoad depart to investigate.’ ‘So there was a time there when the Water Stone was unguarded.’ ‘… I was tempted. I would have wanted to gift Amy a Water Stone for her Staryu...’ ‘But I'm in no rush! I'll find her another one!’
Attorney's Badge. … This is a Sun Stone.
Earthquake Testimony. An earthquake happened that distracted Palpitoad. Would have been hard to miss.
Leila's Barboach. A healthy Barboach. Has inherited a bunch of moves from parents.
Leila's Belongings. Hiking equipment. A fishing rod. A ridiculous amount of peculiar rocks and stones. A diary with a ton of writing about wanting to compete in contests. There’s a Fire and Leaf Stone among them.
Annica's Murkrow. A healthy Murkrow. Looks pleased with itself.
Annica's Fletchling. A slightly damaged Fletchling. Looks a bit nervous.
Annica's Belongings. A couple Pokéballs and Potions. A phone. The wrapped-up-in-a-hurry remains of the tent they were going to camp in. A pair of tickets for a ferry from Pureplain City to Sunyshore City.
Eric's Surskit. A damaged Surskit. Still pretty peppy.
Eric's Ledyba. A damaged Ledyba. It's suffered a Burn.
Eric's Belongings. Bug catcher net and cage. Bunches of Pokéballs and Potions and Repels and anything else a good Pokémon Trainer needs. A photo of a young girl together with Annica.
Or she could leave.
1. Find Pokémon. Can be specified what kind of Pokémon is being searched for, and how you search. 2. Train Pokémon. With this command, we can jump ahead in time and skip posting about grinding. 3. Seek trainers. There should be some here and there. Note, some may challenge you, regardless. 4. Talk. There’s some other travelers around. Maybe seek answers to any burning questions you have. 5. Move along. Move along normally, letting any events that may come happen naturally. 6. Hurry along. Intentionally avoid confrontations and try to get safely to the next destination. 7. Specify. If you specify what you want to do, the GM will take it into account and tell the result. 8. Trigger random event. Force the GM to use his imagination to make a scenario for you. 9. Area Specific: Fishermen Huts. See what the fishermen over there's got going. 10. Current Event: Palpitoad Flooding. Random event.
Connected areas: Pureplain City. You can get back without complication. Infested Woods. You’re right next to it. Wet Caverns. May need to cross a bridge or two to get there.
Glory managed to avoid being detected by Butterfree. Butterfree flew around, focused for an attack, when the sound of that pebble being thrown was heard. Thinking it may have been Glory accidentally knocking a pebble with a foot or something, Butterfree spun around towards the target… only to realize its mistake.
Glory launched himself from the cover at his target! Butterfree was utterly unable to dodge in time, and was only just turning around to look at the incoming bird that was coming to slap it out of the skies! However, Butterfree was able to leave one last present for its opponent. Something was created on its wings, and-
With a solid strike of Wing Attack, Butterfree was struck out of the skies! … Yet, from the force of the impact, a cloud of powder erupted from its wings and covered its attacker! Butterfree fainted… and Glory fell asleep from Sleep Powder!
Glory grew to Level 15!
‘Teh-heh… Down to my last Pokémon, am I?’ Lorette asked, standing up, giggling a little. ‘This one… this one is the child of my mother’s strongest Pokémon. One day, he will match her strength. For now, however, he’s just getting experience!’ she said, before throwing up a Pokéball, catching it back in her hand and then spinning once before throwing it onto the battlefield.
Emerging from the ball was a white-maned moth-larva Pokémon with five red horns sticking out its mane, pieces of fire blowing out of the varying holes.
Pokédex Entry #636 – Larvesta, the Torch Pokémon. A Pokémon said to have been born from the sun. It lives at the base of volcanoes. It spews fire from its five horns in order to repel enemies, but can also use these flames to fly. When about to evolve, it encases itself in a cocoon of fire until the evolution has been completed.
‘Larvesta, Flame Charge!’ Lorette commanded, and the five horns of Larvesta blew out fire, lifting the creature up into the air and surging towards his opponent!
Currently out was a sleeping Glory on almost no health. What will Basil decide to do?
Butterfree intended to use Confusion…! … But found there was no target! Glory had deftly dodged in among the rocks, making Butterfree lose her target! There were a lot of these rocks!
‘Fly high above to find his location! Keep your eyes down, Confusion if he tries to get close!’ Lorette commanded, and Butterfree did just that. Fluttering its wings, Butterfree lifted upwards, keeping her many eyes looking downwards and around the rocks Glory likely was in as she intended to drift above to find him.
The sandstorm had waned when the battle came to a close. Things would be different if they’d actually headed for the area in an active sandstorm!
So, without actually heading after any specific one of the trails, he headed closer to the rocks that two of the trails were heading for. There was the one with that was a singular small line, which ended in a rocky pillar. He’d need to get closer to actually check what that was. Then there was the area of sand that’d been raised by something digging through…
Which he found, went behind the rock before splitting again! Specifically, there were three small trails that split off the major large one. All four of the new trails went for different areas of the rock formation, where there were a couple… oddities.
1. Tiny Line. There’s still a miniscule line of something having dragged along the desert. It’s too small to be a wheel. They lead to a tall rocky pillar randomly standing around. 2. Footprints. There’s a trail of small footprints that could be the Gym Leader’s that suddenly split from the main digging path. It leads to a low rock and into a pile of boulders that would make a good hiding spot. 3. Sporadic lines. There’s suddenly a vast array of individual dig-lines that split from the main path. They’re small, but they disguise if there could have been footprints here. They lead to a small cave in the bottom section of the rocks. 4. Stumble. A set of large footprints emerge from the line, before promptly stumbling on a very visible rock, leaving a large imprint of a decently large person in the sand who then hurried to climb onto the rocks and into a crevice. 5. Main Digging Path. Something has been digging underground. It reached the highest rock… which had been carved into a giant eerie rocky face with a big crown on the backside, it’s mouth hanging open and the trail went inside. Was a high-detail construction, indeed.
Erika immediately took his palm-up hand to shake. There were shouts of support in the audience as their hands met. The king chuckled in amusement, respectfully gripping her hand back. Then, there was the part with Chic was to put her arms/wings/what those are around the grip, too. Machamp looked at her, regal and powerful in posture, the scars adding several layers of toughness to his appearance.
‘Macha-champ?’ he asked her. Basically translating to Do you share her ambition?
Regardless of the reply to that statement, the shake eventually passed and it was time to go. Machamp looked out over the crowd… and slammed four hands together with an echoing slap.
‘MACHAMP!’ he announced. He was met with a roar of a crowd of Fighting-types raring to go, arms and rocks and fists raised as their shouts rocked the mountain with their volume. The group immediately funneled towards the exit, and from there, they split up. One could at first question why the Fighting-types seemed to be going in different directions, but then it became apparent that they were heading for every other notable gathering-spot in Mt. Strength. Soon enough, Fighting-types from across the mountain were going to start heading for them…
‘Hey! I got reinforcements!’ Joshua showed up, smiling brightly with Dojo-Master Medicham and a slew of other Fighting-types with him that’d come along. ‘As did… you… wow, that is so cool,’ he then said, his eyes falling on the king Machamp and the fact Erika had just come with a substantially bigger army than Joshua had.
Dojo-Master Medicham approached and bowed respectfully to King Machamp. It was clear that this Medicham was pretty old, too, and dedicated to passing on what he’d learned. Machamp nodded to him, and then when Medicham looked up… they suddenly punched at each other, their fists meeting with an echoing slam, delivering the most powerful fist-bump known to Pokémon. After having probably almost knocked everyone around them down with their motion, the two grinned at each other. They were ready to head out.
So, where to?
‘There’s a lot of them…’ Ewan commented, his Pokémon standing guard. His Pokémon were a Swinub, a Psyduck, a Treecko and a Spearow.
Pokédex Entry #220 – Swinub, the Pig Pokémon. To survive frigid landscapes, it uses its keen nose to find and dig up mushrooms, berries and other things under the ice. If it smells something enticing, it's known for dashing headlong towards it. It's sometimes used to find hot springs.
Pokédex Entry #53 – Psyduck, the Duck Pokémon. It is plagued by headaches from the moment it is born until it evolves. Its vacant look is there to lull its enemies, and by intensifying its headaches it can unleash psychic powers. However, any time it uses these powers will create a lapse in its memory and it won’t remember having done so.
Pokédex Entry #252 – Treecko, the Wood Gecko Pokémon. A territorial Pokémon known to nest inside large trees in the forest, guarding it from anything near. It has small hooks under its feet, allowing it to scale vertical surfaces. It’s famously stubborn, known to not budge an inch no matter how outmatched the opponent has it.
Pokédex Entry #21 – Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. It eats bugs in grassy areas. It cannot fly very high, but uses its wings to blow insects out of grass for easy pickings. It’s very territorial, and its reckless nature means it will stand up to even far tougher opponents to defend its claim. It has a loud cry it uses to warn other of its kind of danger.
Opposing him was…
Pokédex Entry #527 – Woobat, the Bat Pokémon. It inhabits dark forests and caves. It emits ultrasonic waves from its nostrils to learn about its surroundings. They’re known to attach to living beings, and upon separation they leave behind a heart-shaped mark. The mark of a Woobat is supposedly known to bring good fortune.
Woobats.
Swarms upon swarms of Woobats.
His job was to repel any of them that got past, Sven the Swinub shooting Powder Snows, Duessel the Psyduck shooting Water Guns, Theresa the Treecko Quick Attack in between them and Lance the Spearow using Pursuit to oppose those trying to flee into Mt. Strength. However, his power paled in comparison to…
A Slurpuff was spewing out large quantities of Cotton Spore, slowing down the enemy bats, preventing them from speeding past. A small fighter with loose skin and a mohawk was speeding from bat to bat, delivering a Scrafty's Crunch to each. A green dragon slammed one with its tail before Dragonbreathing on another, Flygon's great wings spreading wide to block the path. A slam from a bear's claw sent numerous bats rolling back, before Ursaring bellowed down the tunnel to intimidate anyone from daring to brave the tunnels.
Elana stood focused, her four Pokémon standing against the majority of the opposing bats.
Pokédex Entry #217 – Ursaring, the Hibernator Pokémon. It inhabits forests, where it uses its ability to distinguish any aroma to unfailingly find food, even if it's buried deep underground. Although it is a good climber, it prefers to snap trees with its forelegs and eat fallen Berries.
Pokédex Entry #560 – Scrafty, the Hoodlum Pokémon. Groups of them select a territory and beat up anything that enters it. The bigger the crest, the more important and the largest becomes the leader. It pulls up its shed skin to protect itself while it kicks. While very aggressive, it takes good care of family and friends.
Pokédex Entry #685 – Slurpuff, the Meringue Pokémon. Combining a Swirlix with a Whipped Dream makes it evolve into this sweet Pokémon. Its sense of smell is 100 million times better than a human’s, even a faintest smell tells it everything about an area. Its fur contain a lot of air, making it soft and much lighter than it looks.
Pokédex Entry #330 – Flygon, the Mystic Pokémon. It’s known as the “Desert Spirit”, it’s known to fly across deserts causing sandstorms as it goes. Its wings create a series of notes that sound like singing. Because the "singing" is the only thing that can be heard in a sandstorm, it became thought of as a mystical spirit inhabiting the living sand.
A Woobat looked like it was about to pass, but Elana quickly threw out a Ultra Ball, which quickly hit and captured it, showing that even though she was a human she also had a way to prevent these Pokémon’s advance.
‘Tsk. Flygon could collapse the tunnel with Earthquake, but I can't do it while all these are here! I’d crush them…!’ Elana complained, glaring at the crowd. ‘Gh, guess I'll just have to-!’
Elana gripped something from her backpack, and then leapt forward! With a Max Repel in hand, she spun into the mass of incoming bats, a cloud of Repel spraying all around her! The Woobats cried in alarm, spun in circles, some needing convincing not to flee into Mt. Strength, but ultimately they all began sporadically scattering back into the darkness of the tunnel. Elana stood up straight and put her hands back in her pockets. She sighed out calmly.
‘There. That should prevent any Pokémon weaker than mine from showing up. Now to-’
A chill went through her, her eyes widening as she felt it. Ewan looked at her in confusion, but then he felt it too.
‘It- it can't be…’ she muttered, turning around with tamed dread, grunting as she faced the darkness. Her Pokémon prepared themselves for battle.
There. In the darkness. Slow footsteps approaching them. Elana drew a short sigh before pointing her flashlight forward on a low-light setting to simply illuminate what was coming her way.
A humanoid creature, yellow in skin-tone, with a magnificent moustache and a spoon in each hand. A regal-looking, gothic lady, with a dress that blended with her skin. A blob of green gelatinous goo surrounding a happy grinning creature extending the goo as arms.
Pokédex Entry #65 – Alakazam, the Psi Pokémon. A highly intelligent Pokémon, it is said to have a brain that can outperform a super-computer and an IQ above 5,000. It never forgets anything it learns, and quickly identifies a foe’s weak point. When it closes its eyes, all its other senses are heightened, enabling extreme psychic abilities.
Pokédex Entry #576 – Gothitelle, the Astral Body Pokémon. Space is distorted by its intense psychic power, and viewed through that space one can see stars thousands of lightyears away. It is capable of predicting the future by looking at the stars, and it can see the lifespans of trainers by looking at them. If it cries while looking at someone, it may mean they’re not long for this world.
Pokédex Entry #579 – Reuniclus, the Multiplying Pokémon. It uses psychic power to levitate and control its arms, composed of a special liquid. When multiple Reuniclus hold hands, their brains form a network and their powers are increased. The green fluid is highly toxic, yet people have tried to drink it to gain a Reuniclus wisdom. It doesn’t work.
Along with a horde of their pre-evolutions.
Pokédex Entry #64 – Kadabra, the Psi Pokémon. It emits special alpha waves from its body that can cause headaches from just being close to one. Machines around it are occasionally caused to malfunction in odd ways, like clocks going backwards. The spoon it holds amplifies its power, without it Kadabra can only use around half its power.
Pokédex Entry #575 – Gothorita, the Manipulate Pokémon. Starlight is the source of their power. At night, they mark star positions by using psychic power to float stones. They’re fond of hypnotising people and Pokémon, and then controlling them as they’re asleep. Often, it does this because it’s lonely and wants pretend-friends.
Pokédex Entry #578 – Duosion, the Mitosis Pokémon. It has two divided brains, which are not always in agreement and it may try to take two different actions at once. However, when the two agree, their psychic power is boosted to unprecedented levels.
‘Why… why are they here already!? This is… oh, this is bad…’ Elana remarked, taking two steps back from the emerging army. The Psychic-types raised their arms and spoons, preparing to attack. Elana's Pokémon made ready in front of her, but it was obvious they wouldn't be able to handle it. Elana frowned, regretful, as she pulled out her phone. ‘Tsk. I guess I have to call for backup. I'll just have to pray they don't do too much damage before help arrives…’
That, however, was when a worried Ewan blinked a little in realization. ‘What's that sound?’ He asked, turning around to look for the echoing sounds. Elana turned around as well, a bit curious, and the Psychic-types paused to see what was going on.
‘Wait… those are…’ Elana said, having a dawning realization of what she was hearing, echoing through the caverns of Mt. Strength heading for the newly dug tunnel.
Glory advanced, and using a expertedly timed Detect he managed to dodge a Confusion! This allowed him to get closer without taking fire on the way. He then leapt at Butterfree while his opponent was charging another Confusion. Butterfree wasn’t fast enough to dodge his attack, but he also couldn’t attack without lowering his guard to take a Confusion. It simply became best at this range to trade blows. Butterfree charged Confusion, Glory flew in for a Wing Attack, and-
Butterfree took an incredible hit! The butterfly spun from the super-effective damage, whimpering and damaged… but barely held on, despite the heavy damage! It looked towards Glory with a determined glare…
Meanwhile, Glory had landed gracefully down… but then shook from a lucky hit of Butterfree’s Confusion! It had been a super effective Critical Hit! Yet, despite this massive damage, Glory had yet to fall, barely holding on as well! He didn’t become Confused, either!
‘… Again!’ Lorette commanded, seeing no other way out of this, and Butterfree eagerly started charging another Confusion!
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