Frontier Town Nocwell's General Goods

[Cresselia92]

…Oh. So Jade wasn’t part of some epic highly specialized squad that flew in black helicopters and tracked down criminals with their hyper-trained Pokémon. No, Jade’s ‘job’ had hit much, much closer to home than Lyra expected.

“…Team Rocket, huh,” she half-whispered, her ears curling against her skull and her grin reducing to a sad smile.

Right. Jade was from Kanto, and that was the region where Team Rocket started gaining power. And look and behold, the Kanto of Jade’ and Virga’s world was dealing with the same R-wearing power-hungry scourge, as if multiple Rockets across the multiverse had decided to follow a similar script.

“Then your situation is kinda close to mine. Y’know, the whole ‘regular kids fighting back against Rockets’ stuff? Yeah, huh, been there done that. Not an… easy issue.” Lyra snorted and shook her head, the smile leaving her eyes. “Crazy to think it all began with a bunch of friends full of hopes and dreams, eager to start their journey as novice Trainers.”

Lyra pulled an apple slice, slightly spiked on top, resembling a rebellious tuft. “A brave boy who wanted to be like the zeroes-to-heroes from those action-packed, adrenaline-filled movies. Someone who aimed to be the best Trainer in the entire world — even better and stronger than the champion of champions, Red.”

She pulled another slice, this one with two strands of apple peels twirled like upward ponytails. “A studious girl who wanted to bring to justice the redheaded thief who had stolen a Totodile from her father’s lab, and whose quest turned into taking down the very crime syndicate that wanted to conquer Johto after it lost most of its power in Kanto.”

Finally, she pointed at herself with those same slices, her gaze lowering. “And then, there’s me. Someone who only wanted to have fun adventures with her childhood friends, and who became their emotional support whenever they took a step too far. Be it nearly drowning in a storm caused by a rampaging red Gyarados, almost getting stranded in the past during a time trip… or barely surviving a frenzied swarm of Unown after teaming up with the Northern Wind.”

Lyra let out a humorless chuckle. “It was meant to be our journey of self-discovery. A rite of passage to learn more about the world.” She sighed deeply, almost dramatically, then shrugged and flashed a bashful smile at Jade and Virga. “Heh! Guess we ended up learning far more about the world than we expected to learn! But hey,” her smile regained its original cheer, “at least we won.”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Virga observed the display with a perplexed look. "You carry these effigies of your allies everywhere you go?"

Jade gave the Rookidee a look. Virga, please. Buts she had to admit, she found it a bit odd herself. Wouldn't the slices dry out by the end of the day and have to get remade? Maybe it was a morning routine of sorts...

Jade rubbed her arm. "Honestly, what you're describing kinda reminds me a pit of some of my teammates. Like, the ones who had high hopes about being heroes and stuff." In her case, it was different. She'd never been under the impression that The Rebellion was going to be a fun adventure. Getting kidnapped right off the bat sort of put a damper on that.

There was one other thing that'd jumped out at her, though.

"When you say 'you won,' you mean, like... you beat the Rockets?"

 

[Cresselia92]

Virga’s mystified gaze made Lyra respond with an equally mystified blink, but the surprise quickly melted into an amused fit of giggles.

“Oh my, no! I really love my friends but not to that extent!” she explained, stifling her giggles with a paw to her mouth, and eyed her sachet. “Y’see, I was walking around, looking at my apple pieces, then I remembered watching someone cutting some cuuute rabbit-shaped apple pieces, then I unsheathed my claws and I thought ‘oh wait lemme try something’, and ta-daaah!!”

Lyra lowered her sachet. From it poked out the vague apple-textured silhouettes of a Marill, a Meganium, a Venomoth and a Pichu with a bizzarre tuft on its ear. Definitely amateurish and imprecise, but the passion was imprinted into them… and yet, the novelty status seemed to have fizzled out as Lyra simply chomped off the heads of the two human-shaped figures (with a good chance that the real humans would be affected by a mysterious migraine for a few days at best).

"When you say 'you won,' you mean, like... you beat the Rockets?"

Lyra quirked a brow, her munching reduced to light nibbling.

“Well, of course! That’s what we had to do as the local good guys, no? Making sure that the bad guys wouldn’t win and conquer Johto with their nefarious plans and whatnot!” she replied nonchalantly, but the wide-eyed cheery energy was replaced by a thin-eyed seriousness. “But don’t get me wrong! It was no walk in the National Park! I mean, we three wouldn’t have been able to take down an entire organization by ourselves — of course not! Ethan is really strong, yeah, and Kris even participated to the Battle Tower, but like! The Admins alone were so powerful and dangerous and scary, and the grunts might’ve been weaker but they were so many! Y’know the saying ‘there’s strength in number”? Yeah, huh, it was like that.”

Once the human slices were gone, Lyra ran a paw under her hat to reach and scratch the back of her head, her gaze wandering as she collected her thoughts. “It took, huuuh… something like three whole years to get rid of ‘em? And that was with the constant support of folks like the Gym Leaders, some ex-members of the Elite Four, a lot of legendary blessings, and that guy… Looker, I think? Silver knowing a lot about Team Rocket because of his, erm, turbulent past and sharing intel helped a lot, too. I don’t think we would’ve gone much far without his help…”

‘Or still be alive and well, despite what those Ethan and Kris simps and Silver naysayers claim…’ she silently added, a shiver running down her spine and her nose twitching erratically. Such an unfun scenario to ponder and contemplate!

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade leaned forward to get a better look at the assortment of apple slices, then looked down at her own claws, considering. She'd never been all that artistic, but something about the idea of carving simplistic figures out of something temporary sounded kind of... nice. You didn't have to worry about constantly going back and erasing lines, you could just keep going. And if it didn't work out, at least you got a snack out of it.

“Well, of course! That’s what we had to do as the local good guys, no? Making sure that the bad guys wouldn’t win and conquer Johto with their nefarious plans and whatnot!”

Jade's mind immediately filled up with questions she didn't know how to ask. How could... how could she talk about it like it was as simple as good guys vs bay guys? Why was that something that she and her friends needed to do? She could almost see it now, the face of everyone who'd ever told her that this wasn't something that kids should get involved with. But at least with the Rebellion there'd been training, and a means of sabotaging them from the inside. It'd never really been her choice.

But then, as she listened to the rest of Lyra's story, understanding took hold. And with it, a feeling she couldn't place. Help from the Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, a bunch of people all coming together for a common goal, and winning.

Jade smiled. "Man... that sounds really great. Everyone working together like that." Her chest tightened as the feeling resurfaced.

Virga adjusted a few stray feathers. "Hm. I suppose having the human authorities assisting with the job would help, yes. As opposed to throwing their support behind the enemy."

Jade ran a paw down her face. Guess there was no avoiding the topic. "Yeah, uh... turns out that some of the Rockets' goals weren't all that unpopular back home. Mainly the 'Legendary-catching' sort, since people were pretty freaked out about the legends, so." She shrugged helplessly.

"Ridiculous," Virga muttered.

 

[Cresselia92]

Lyra stared at Jade with shock, her ears lifting a little, then realization and understanding hit her, and her ears drooped. “Oh. I see. It’s that sorta people,” she murmured, giving a nod of agreement at Virga’s last comment.

Despite Lyra not being a uber-religious person, she still fully embraced the notion that humans and Pokemon have a symbiotic connection made from mutual understanding and respect, and that same rule applied to gods, with them protecting their regions from natural disasters and cosmic threats.

As such, to hear that other worlds had similar humans who wanted to control and subdue the gods — which she supposed was a natural and instinctive consequence of living in worlds where 95% of the flora and fauna could easily kill them, but still! — filled her heart with a dark, queasy sensation. It wasn’t exactly anger, but rather something close to… disappointment.

Lyra began chomping on another slice more aggressively, and when she spoke again, her voice was nearly monotonous. “Dunno how’s the situation back in your world, but that kinda campaign wouldn’t really work in my world’s Johto. Hunting down or, heavens forbid, killing gods?! Just considering those options would be… goodness, it’d be pure lunacy!”

In her emotional impetus she raised her arms suddenly, flinging the remaining apple slices everywhere. She lowered her paws in embarrassed silence, but that didn’t last as a new fervor flushed through her body.

“Since we’re talking ‘bout gods… Wanna know why Kanto doesn’t have patron gods anymore? It’s because the originals died in a war waged to feed the ego of a tyrannical warlord. Because how dare Sinnoh be the one under the divine grace of the very gods of creation! And the aftermath affected Johto, too, with our own gods going into hiding and Tojoh splitting in two halves.”

Lyra sighed and rubbed her cheek. “From what I’ve gathered, hm, Kanto ended up in Team Rocket’s grip so easily because they promised to provide another powerful patron god in exchange of some ‘deals.’ It went as good as you might guess, aka very badly.” She snorted and chattered her teeth in disapproval. “Meanwhile, Johto learned its lesson and spent decades trying to rebuild its relationship with their gods and to earn forgiveness from Sinnoh, and in the end… it worked! Sorta, in a very unusual way, but it did!”

Her eyes sparkled with awe as a memory surfaced into her mind, like a beautiful illustration from some fairytale. “My friend Ethan… he brought back one of our gods by connecting his heart and soul with him! None other than the Lord of the Storms: Lugia!!”

 

[Chibi Pika]

“Dunno how’s the situation back in your world, but that kinda campaign wouldn’t really work in my world’s Johto. Hunting down or, heavens forbid, killing gods?! Just considering those options would be… goodness, it’d be pure lunacy!”

"As it should be," Virga quipped.

Lyra's pawful of apples went flying. Jade unconsciously caught one of them and idly munched on it as she listened to the history lesson. Some stuff familiar, other stuff very unfamiliar. She wasn't sure what percentage of it was unfamiliar because it was a totally different world versus her just not being super knowledgeable about her own Kanto's history.

"Kanto and Johto aren't so separate where we're from," Jade chimed in near the end. "Honestly, it was mostly just bad luck that the Kanto Rockets got the edge over the Johto Rockets. It could've easily gone the other way if some internal Rocket drama had gone differently." Or if Stalker's forces had gotten Rayquaza instead of Giovanni.

But then Lyra's eyes sparkled as she came to the end of her story, and Jade had to tilt her head to make sure she'd heard that right.

"He connected with Lugia, huh." It occurred to her too late that this was probably a way different reaction than Lyra had been expecting. "Er, sorry, I didn't mean to make it seem like that's not impressive!" she added quickly, holding both paws out. "I just... huh. Small world—worlds?" She threw a glance at Virga.

"Indeed," Virga said, eyes sharp. "If this girl is affiliated with her world's chosen, then..."

"Er, what Lugia means," Jade cut in, "is that you and your friends are even more in the same boat as me and my friends than I thought." She couldn't help wondering, then, if Lyra was also one of the chosen. But it seemed rude to ask without knowing... what if she wasn't, but wished she was?

...It took a few seconds for her to realize the slip of the tongue there.

 

[Cresselia92]

"He connected with Lugia, huh."

…Hm? Well, that was odd. Lyra knew that most Kantonian folks were aloof, reserved or serious people, but that was a fairly tepid reaction even by their standards (and Jade didn’t strike her as that kinda person, either). She knew people well enough to expect someone to react to that kind of news with emotions ranging between awe and skepticism, and yet Jade reacted as if what she told was something normal.

Jade seemed to realize that ‘mistake’ and quickly tried to amend it, but Lyra simply smiled reassuringly in response, surprised but not bothered. If anything, that oddity only made her more curious. Because wow, what kinda stuff did Jade deal with in her own world to make something groundbreaking like an alliance with a legendary seem like an unimpressive event?

"Indeed," Virga said, eyes sharp. "If this girl is affiliated with her world's chosen, then..."

Lyra looked at Virga, her ears twitching as she registered both the tone and piercing expression. Something had obviously clicked in that bird’s mind, this much she could tell.

World’s chosen… Oh. Like ‘chosen by the legends’? Right. Didn’t Eusine say something similar the day Kris earned Suicune’s blessing?

Though, she didn’t quite get what Virga was getting at. Like, yeah, she was friends with Kris and Ethan who were friends with Suicune and Lugia so she probably was second grade friends with legends (at least from Suicune’s side, she’s such a hard-to-get yet fun-loving diva!) but…

"Er, what Lugia means," Jade cut in, "is that you and your friends are even more in the same boat as me and my friends than I thought."

…Wait. Wait wait wait hold it right there what did Jade just say?!

Lugia

Lyra felt her eyes and mouth gaping, nose twitching rapidly and jolts coursing through her body as her brain demanded oxygen to think and ponder!

That wasn’t a regular slip-up or some bizarre case of someone giving a legendary name to their Pokémon for the lulz, was it? The evidence said otherwise, especially Jade’s own realization.

Of course! Everything made so much sense now! That was why Jade acted so casual about a human being an ally with Lugia, and then there was Virga’s visceral contempt toward Team Rocket and humans seeking to keep legends in check, and then what they said earlier…

"I have always been a Pokemon," Virga replied with some emphasis. "Though not so diminutive as the form I was given here."

Virga shifted a bit on her perch. “Your actions weren’t fruitless. Otherwise we would not have been linked.”

"I just... huh. Small world—worlds?" She threw a glance at Virga.

“No way…” Lyra whispered in sheer disbelief. Then, her paws flew to her mouth as she exclaimed in shock. “No waaay! You partnered with Lugia, too?! The Lord…ess of the Storms?!”

Not knowing how else to contain the overwhelming rush of energy and excitement, Lyra whirled on her spot with some hops, scattering a thin cloud of sparkles from her cotton-y pink fur.

A goddess! Heavens and stars, she could be friend with another goddess! What were the odds?!

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, that’s crazy!!” she blurted out, having calmed just enough to stop jumping, but her paws were still shaking as she spoke again, “How did that happen? After some epic fight? A ritual with the Kimono Girls? An instant spiritual connection? A casual dinner?!”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Virga's feathers ruffled at the Buneary's explosive reaction of hopping, spinning, and even... sparkles? This girl... At least she seemed unfazed by how far the sea had fallen, and seemed content to overlook that fact, which was preferred.

Virga gave her human a sideways glance. "As I recall, you did attempt to battle on our first proper meeting."

Jade rubbed the back of her head. "Don't remind me." Virga was unsure why that reminder would be embarrassing... if anything it showed a resolve to fight in the face of certain death.

"Some of our number were required to seek out human allies," Virga explained, for Lyra's benefit. "Mew believed it would be necessary for the conflict that lay ahead." She fixed Lyra with a curious stare. "Your friend—what led him down the path of connecting with his Lugia?"

 

[Cresselia92]

“Well, to preface that with five simple words,” Lyra said, before punctuating every word by wagging a digit, “necessity and race against time.”

Lyra adjusted her silk scarf, considering how to elaborate her response. Perhaps it was best to combine a bit of the prologue with some middle point.

“Dunno where you gods draw your powers in your world, but where I’m from, they’re empowered by mortals’ faith. The Northern—um, Suicune told us that was a measure of the Alpha so that the legends wouldn’t grow complacent or indifferent toward mortals. Hence, gods need mortals as much as mortals need them.”

Lyra crossed her paws, her eyes narrowing and her voice turning serious again. “And Team Rocket weaponized this mechanism. They began an intense hybrid warfare in Johto, attacking places and stealing artifacts connected to the gods to lure Lugia and Ho-Oh back to the region.”

A sigh slipped through her nostrils and she shook her head, still upset and heartbroken by all the damage done to her home region and everyone involved.

“That… was a trap with a double purpose: the gods could’ve protected Johto at the risk of becoming much easier targets for Team Rocket, or they could’ve stayed hidden and lost more and more of the mortals’ faith after each attack, weakening their powers.”

There it was! The best part of that ugly, dark period! Lyra beamed with admiration and struck a pose, holding a paw to her hip and pretending to hold a glorious and polished sword in her other hand, pointed at the sky.

“This is where Ethan came to the rescue, like a shining knight from a wonderful tale! Altruistic, heroic, strong, of steady heart and mind — all the right qualities to mediate with and warn the gods, according to the monks in Ecruteak.” She brought her hands to her cheeks, her tail wagging. “You can imagine my friend’s surprise when Lugia recognized his strength and told him they would’ve fought side by side to protect Johto, syncing their spirits and starting a revolution in the region!”

A proud glint entered Lyra’s gaze, and her grin became almost blinding. “Team Rocket poured so many resources to make us lose faith in our gods and kidnap them… only for some ‘pesky children’ to mend the relationship between gods and Johtonians.” She winked cheekily. “Awesome turn of the tables, huh?”