Landsverd Continental Rail, East Commonwealth

[Jackie Cat]

The station is a new build. Telegraph lines, modern tracks, commercial conveniences in the ticket office. Administered by Continental Rail, subsidised by the Commonwealth. The Trans-Luctemar Line isn't complete, yet, but the service can still take you nearly as far as Blaguarro on a commercial ticket.

The passenger platforms are indoor spaces, with high ceilings and wrought-iron detailing. It doesn't make you feel any less vulnerable.

<><><><><>​

 

[Chibi Pika]

The nexus had dissolved into shimmering light, all of the gathered souls vanishing into the ether. Jade would have screwed her eyes shut, except she didn't have a body. She hadn't had one in the nexus either, but there'd at least been the feel of it, what her mind imagined to be her body. But now there was the bizarre sensation of all her senses going dead, then suddenly reconnecting, and everything being different; ears in the wrong spot, not enough digits, a tail...

Then, without warning, Jade felt what could only be described as something yanking her soul off-course. She was being pulled toward something, away from wherever she was supposed to be going, and she had no idea what to do. She tried calling out but the voice, the nexus, it all felt impossibly far away.

And then suddenly the world snapped back into being solid.

That was then.

---

A lone Meowth stood on the train platform, tapping her hind paws against the wooden boards as she bounced in place, hoping that she was giving off enough "don't ask" vibes that no one else waiting for the train would ask what was wrong. Every so often she glanced over her shoulder, ears pinned. Come on come on come onnnn...

A train whistle sounded in the distance and Jade spun around, ears pricked. It was almost here! But then, where was...

 

[Jackie Cat]

The Luxio loped onto the platform with her head low, ears flat, tail down. She slipped through the 'mon milling around, waiting, walking. Don't draw any attention. As if she could control that beyond keeping her mouth shut and not bumping into any slack-jawed townies. She could use some sleep. She could use any kind of rest at all. When you spent long enough without it, the aches and pains started to blur, 'til you could hardly figure out what you needed anymore.

She padded up to the Meowth. Didn't sit down.

"Fair sure I gave 'em the slip," she growled. "But don't breathe easy just yet. Maybe once we're headin' west on the tracks puttin' thirty fuckin' miles between us and them every goddamn hour."

Her ears flicked at every stray noise. Was that the sound of their train approaching? Was that the sound of them catching up...?

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade relaxed visibly and gave what hopefully sounded like an affirmation. Okay, good, the Luxio was alright, that was one less thing to worry about.

Her paws tightened on the bag slung around her shoulder. The bag she'd taken from that place.

She took an awkward half-step closer to where they'd board, still not yet used to moving around in this body. It could just about balance upright, but moving around was slow and ungainly, and if she needed to make a break for it, the only hope was dropping onto all fours.

Because of course, making a break for it turned out to be the thing she'd needed to do almost immediately after arriving on Forlas. Of course her arrival had turned out to be some mockery of what she dealt with way-too-often back home. It was only fitting.

 

[Jackie Cat]

The train screeched to a halt, and the whistle bellowed again. The conductor shouted something, unheard over his own vehicle.

"Let's get gone," muttered the Luxio. "Sooner we're out west, the safer I'll feel."

She yanked open a door with a grunt, and padded aboard, glancing back at the young Meowth. What in the sight of lightning was that gal doing there, anyway? Her hackles were finally settling down, but she wasn't at ease yet. She wasn't sure if she'd ever be at ease again.

Being at ease was a good way to let yourself fuck up, anyway.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade stepped carefully off the platform and onto the train, following the Luxio down the aisle until the two of them slipped into an empty compartment and settled into a pair of seats facing each other. Finally she could breathe. For now. Jade couldn’t shake the instinct that they needed to keep an eye out for danger, even now. That instinct wasn’t exactly new.

She let her eyes wander the polished wooden interior as the other passengers filed down the hall. Paws clenched and unclenched in her lap, the motion not quite automatic, not with how new they were. She glanced furtively at the Luxio, a million questions brewing in her head. She had no idea where to start. They’d barely spent more than an hour or two together. It had been… sort of an abrupt meeting.

 

[Jackie Cat]

It was a moment before the train set off again. The Luxio drummed her claws on the seat as other pokémon filed onto the carriage. A Zangoose approached their compartment and looked in. She bared her teeth at him, and he hurried along. She shut the sliding door after him, and no further attempts at entry were made.

Outside the window, the Luxio watched the platform – now empty of passengers – slowly pull away, then faster as the train sped up, carrying them from danger.

"Be hard to catch us once we're away," she muttered, finally turning to look at the anxious young Meowth in the opposite seat.

The kid sure seemed terrified. And who wouldn't be, in her position? Still, she'd held up pretty well for a kid. Good at taking instruction under pressure. Quick-thinking, didn't freeze up or cry or lose her shit. And she'd helped, when pretty much anyone else would have been fucking useless. She deserved some credit – and consideration.

"We should know each other's names, if nothin' else," she said, quietly. "Mine is Brisa."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade felt her ears prick toward the voice. The motion was equal parts unfamiliar and instinctual. She had the distinct feeling that a lot of things were going to feel like that in this new body. Hopefully it would be easier to get used to it without the whole 'running for her life' thing.

"Oh, uh... my name's Jade." She immediately wondered if she'd regret giving out her name so easily. Even if there was no way it should have mattered--this was a new world, no one here knew her, none of her old enemies were here. But maybe she had new ones now.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Huh. Like the stone? Not a bad name."

Brisa rubbed a paw against her eyes. She felt like they were gonna shrivel up and fall outta her skull if she kept pushing herself much longer. Her reflection in the window looked worse than she felt.

She turned back to Jade, and looked at her. Properly. There was something about her expressions, something odd... Everything was odd about this situation, and about her, and their being together.

"Listen, kid... Jade. I'm grateful for your help back there. But I can't breathe easy just yet, on account of not knowin' what your story is. ...I'd care to hear what you were doin' in that place. I'm sure you can understand my askin'."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade exhaled slowly through her nose. "That was... kinda the first thing I'd been wanting to ask you." The truth didn't make any sense and didn't seem like the sort of thing to go parading around if the nexus group was supposed to be stopping some unknown crisis. But this was so outside her normal experience that it was hard to even know where to lie. She didn't know enough about this world.

"I was supposed to be teleporting somewhere else and wound up in that place by mistake. I don't have any clue who those people were." An opportunity to redirect, maybe... "It seemed like you knew what that place was, though?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Brisa nodded slowly, eyes narrowed. The girl's explanation sounded paper-thin, but... She didn't sound like a liar. And it wasn't the first time Brisa had met someone confused and alone, displaced from their old life, and – despite every reason to leave them in the dust – helped them.

"Yeah. That place is bad news."

She sighed. The girl deserved more of an explanation than that. The habit of not talking about any of it was hard to shed, though.

"It's hard to know where to start. But those people – that place – they're a blight on this world. Cruel means, for cruel ends."

She could feel her hackles rising. Anger in her throat. She grit her teeth together, and her jaw ached.

"Don't trust anyone who lets on that they're human."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade had to bite her tongue in her mouth to keep from reacting. Human. Humans becoming Pokemon was a thing? A thing outside of the weird gathering of people in the nexus that'd been brought here from other worlds? What was it that the cloud-voice had said? Normally only one hero came at a time from another world. That didn't sound like the kind of setup that would end up with enough humans running around that you would ever have to watch out for them. Let alone why you'd need to watch out for them.

She needed to respond. At least it made sense to be confused.

"I don't... why? Aren't humans supposed to be heroes or something?" She had no idea how naïve or dumb it would sound, but the stuff the cloud-voice had told her was all she had to go off.

And then, for whatever reason, something finally clicked in her head. "Wait. Are you saying those guys chasing us were human?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Brisa winced. Salt and sand, it still made her feel like she was falling to think about. Like she was getting sick off the bitterness in her chest.

"Yeah. Humans are s'posed to be heroes. Those guys reckon they have the only idea as makes sense 'bout what that means..."

She sighed, and shook her head.

"Lotta 'heroes' of myth an' legend were human. Called from another world to help this one. See, humans in this world can do extraordinary things, not least of which is hittin' well above their weight in a fight. Sometimes humans stay a long time here, fightin' on behalf of others. Sometimes they don't go home at all. Sometimes they have even find a partner, settle down, and have kids – like me."

She eyed Jade, looking for a reaction.

"Those silk-skinned parasites who were after us? They'll talk you half to death 'bout the burden humans carry of responsibility to weaker folks. But they're just another breed of gilded leech, scrapin' and clawin' to be petty kings over others."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade felt like her head was spinning. Brisa had a human parent? Pokemon in this world could be descended from humans. At least that explained how there could be more than just a tiny handful of people here with beliefs like that.

"It... sounds like you've had a bad time with them before." And then, before she could decide if it was a bad idea, she found herself saying, "Was. Was one of your parents...?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Human? Of course, hadn't she just said— Ah.

"No. No, he wasn't one of them. He was the other kind of human – summoned to save folks from danger. And he did just that... even if it fucked him up in the head for the rest of his sorry life."

She thought about describing what Jesse Stranger had been like as a father. Restless. Frustrated. Relentless.

"He made a better hero than a father. Guess that's why he left home, lookin' for the same bastards we're runnin' from. As if he could take on an organisation that powerful on his own. Stupid motherfucker."

And now he was paying for it.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade still had about a million questions. Where he was now, what those guys were actually doing, what would they actually want with the two of them.

"So then, when I found you in that base..."--she shook her head, trying to get her thoughts straight--"you were like, infiltrating or something?" Jade's paws tightened around the shoulderbag unconsciously.

She had offered to throw it away once they'd realized they were being followed--maybe the goons chasing them were only after it and would leave them alone?--but Brisa had said not to bother. It was starting to make sense why they wouldn't be appeased so easily.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Somethin' like that."

What was she doing, spilling even this much of her life to this girl? Jade was just some kid, in the wrong place at the right time. 'Gut feeling' was a bitch, but Brisa's intuition rarely led her too far wrong...

"Okay, guess I may as well tell ya, it's nothin' those bastards won't've figured out already. I was lookin' for—"

Brisa cut herself off. She pricked an ear, smelled the air with her mouth loosely open. The chatter from the rest of the train had stopped and there was a familiar scent, faintly present in the train car, of rain and mucus. Her hackles rose.

"He's on the fuckin' train. We gotta move."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade stiffened, hair standing on end. How did Brisa--scent, right, the world had been made of a million new scents in this body, and Jade hadn't gotten used to reading any of them. But that didn't matter, had to get out of the line of fire.

She ducked under the seat, hands--paws--flying to her waist and--

No Pokéballs. Of course there weren't any Pokéballs, why on earth would there be Pokéballs.

God, okay. No team, had to do this on her own. Or--not of her own, Brisa was here. (Just watch while Brisa fought them off alone?)

 

[Jackie Cat]

Brisa slid the compartment door aside, already tensing up for an attack. Her nostrils flared at the scent of amphibian secretions, poison muck, leather coats. Croagunk foot-soldiers. So long as she kept them in her sights, the narrow space would form a chokepoint, stop them leveraging numbers against her...

She stepped out, saw her target, and struck.

Brisa's Thunder Fang dealt 86 dmg to Croagunk Hunter! KO!!
Brisa's Spark dealt 60 dmg to Croagunk Pursuer! He's badly hurt!

She caught her breath, eyeing up the target. He crouched over his fallen squadmate, leering at her. Even near to fainting, an enemy could still poison you... and she hadn't spotted the real threat yet.

"Jade, if you can land a hit, now would be a good time!"

Brisa Called out to Jade! +3 Tempo!

 

[Chibi Pika]

A hit? With what? Moves? God, Pokémon were supposed to know moves, and there wasn't enough time to figure out how to do that. Sure, she had claws now, but making a coordinated lunge and actually landing a hit was another thing entirely and ughhh.

Okay, okay, focus. There had to be something she could do.




Instinct prodded at the back of Jade's head and her eyes locked onto something in her peripheral vision. A loose item, rolling under the opposite seats. She crawled over and snatched it up, feeling the cold metal in her paws, eyeing the sharp tip. Now this looked like it could do some damage.



Jade's ears swiveled toward the hallway. Brisa shot down the hallway outside the compartment, wreathed in sparks. A Croagunk flew backward from the impact, dazed, struggling to stand. Jade grit her teeth, paw tightening on the thorn before letting it fly right at him.

Jade's Iron Thorn dealt 5 dmg to Croagunk Pursuer! KO!!

Spoiler: Full Turn