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Frontier Town Industrial Park

Reader mode
Koa snorted at her joke. Although somewhere in the back of his mind a half baked idea sparked that he was pretty sure Electrike could use Rain Dance...

"Yeah I don't know how many times my pokemon have saved me by now," he said, chuckling. For once, he realized, talking had really helped. He was still angry about everything else but he found himself smiling. He wasn't entirely alone here at least, and he was grateful that he had someone else here he could trust.

"I'm sorry that happened to you. But yeah, it's weird but it's nice to know someone else hates fire... I'll be fine if I never have to be around another." He shuddered internally. By now he felt like he'd had enough fire to last the rest of his life.

"I'm glad you're here though..." He glanced around at the battered makeshift training grounds. "I've still got plenty of energy, want to train as long as you're here? I did kind of steal your spot," he added with a wry grin.
 
Pursing her lips, Odette surveyed the area. With a nod, she slapped her thighs and pushed herself up to stand. “Yeah. I could stand to wail on some metal and boulders right now. And since I’m here, let’s have a talk about your foot placement real quick…”

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Ch04: Like Chimeras (Gladion and Nova)
  • Threadmarks
    • Gladion ducked into the industrial park for a moment to himself. It wasn’t a pretty place, but when he needed somewhere with room to breathe that was still comfortably away from the public eye it always served well.

    Today, though, he heard a pair of talons and paws making their way towards him, pretty close let in-sync for two people…

    “Nova? That you?”
     
  • Threadmarks
    • "Ah. You can hear a lot better than I could with that on..." And peg Nova's footsteps accurately, to boot.

    Nova had mentioned to Jade that he'd wanted to try and help Gladion get rid of the mask. Now that he was actually seeing Gladion in person, a pang of guilt struck him. He'd gotten the freedom he sought, when Gladion was probably closer with more Wayfarers than him.

    Can't get stuck on that. Nova kept a soft expression on his face. "How goes it?"
     
    “It was you or two people, but that was a genuine question. Or a lucky guess, whichever you wanna call it. Figured you were more likely to seek me out.”

    He turned around to face Nova, and saw him without a mask. His eyes widened. “Holy shit, you got it off?” Gladion sounded delighted. “I almost can’t believe it worked. As much I still don’t wanna spend time with Giovanni, I must admit he was onto something. What’s it feel like?”
     
    "I suppose... like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders," Nova admitted. He shook his head, which fluffed out his fur a bit. It wasn't nearly as dirty following his trip to Little Scriven. "Back home that mask had been on so long I'd forgotten what my face had looked like. It's... not quite as much of a shock to see it anymore, but still surprising."

    And considering what awaited Wayfarers at the end, perhaps Nova could liken it to an extended dream.
     
    “Been a long time coming, then. Glad you got the chance to get it off here, at least. I’ll… probably get there. Wasn’t sure if I’d be able to, but it’s been starting to feel possible. And, hey, after how long you’ve had it, you deserve it.”

    He believed it, and sounded as such. Gladion had only had to endure a mask for, what, a month? He’d live. Nova had had his for an eternity. Plus, Gladion really was beginning to believe it might be possible for him to get there, in spite of himself.
     
    "I'm happy to help you get there," Nova offered. "Or, uh, some other Wayfarers can unintentionally help if you want." He doubted Gladion really wanted Mewtwo being the one to tip him over the edge.

    "Either way, I wanted to find you because I remembered something," Nova continued. His cheek bolts turned in their sockets. "I could change types back home." The bolts turned again. "And I don't think I'd have these if that wasn't possible here, too."

    He sat down. "Was curious if you might have any ideas. I don't think it's as simple as having a single disk like I did back home."
     
    “You have been, I’d say.”

    Ah, that made sense. They were done with pleasantries, time for business. Made sense Nova would want to pick his brain on this puzzle, and Gladion did know the answer… Or would, if it applies here. Which it probably didn’t.

    “The RKS System was a manual override added in by a later project leadership change to give a trainer manual control of the typing system. The actual root of the type changing system is based on the biology of Oricorio. You should, per my world’s logic, be able to change type on your own if we can get it to cede control. That being said… Who knows if that logic even applies here? The reasoning certainly wouldn’t make sense in a world without trainers.”
     
    Nova wasn't sure whether to mention Mewtwo thinking he could replicate... some sort of disk-based system. Instead, he offered, "I only had one disk back home. My creator called it the Legend Memory. It would let me change types at will." He lowered his head slightly. "She'd been working on an upgrade to let me multiple types at once when I ran off and rebelled against her."
     
    “Huh. I suppose that probably means your world runs on different logic. But maybe we’re lucky and this one runs more like mine, we are all biological after all.”

    An alternative occurred to Gladion, he raised a brow as if preemptively preparing for disappointment. “Or… is there a Faba involved with this woman in some capacity? I would not put it past him to make a disk to disable his own stupid mistake and then brand it as a Legend Memory.”
     
    "Faba?" Nova tilted his head. "Y'mean like the bean?" Or was it a fava bean? Nova couldn't remember. He tilted his head. "Matriarch was the only one involved in making me. She said she used some data from Canalave Library. Which... didn't make any sense to me until I was shadowed back home."
     
    “Different logic, then. But I feel like I should ask…” Gladion wished he had an easier way to express sympathy. Nova was probably familiar with the difficulty of emoting with the helmet, though. “Until you were shadowed? What happened, what did you learn from it?”
     
    Nova's head crest drooped a bit. "I'm still a shadow 'mon back home. A man named Volo used the Red Chain to seal away my spirit. And that's when the mask appeared."

    Sighing, he shook his head. "What I learned was... the truth. About why my world is the way the way it is. It's... really not anything worth bringing up here. It's too much. Doesn't help Forlas either." Nova lifted his head up. "I'm here to try and help this place, right? Even if it's just a little help..."
     
    “Ah.”

    Shit. Gladion had expected it to be about Nulls or something, if it explained why she used information from that place. Instead, it was just… bad news.

    “There is one other option, if we don’t think the logic will work like that of either of our world’s. Figured out that as of a year ago, there as at least one other Null in Forlas, under the name ‘ARK Unit.’ If they’re alive, in a part of the world we could potentially reach, and possible for us to find, we might just be able to find out exactly the logic we’re running in here in Forlas.”
     
    Nova opened his beak, then closed it. Then opened it again.

    Of course there was a type: null on Forlas. How else would Betel have been able to make bodies for Nova and Gladion otherwise? He doubted that aural plane could just magically tell him what he needed... even if there might've been a human or human descendant on Forlas who knew about them.

    "How long ago were they made?" Nova asked. "I, uh... still haven't really gotten this calendar down. But a good place to start is knowing that. Cuz if they're a recent thing... it's more likely they're really out there, right?"
     
    “Don’t know. But there were alive a year ago, so odds are they still are. But they could be anywhere on the planet, and potentially not even free. Or they could have no interest in seeing us.”

    He’d already asked Laura about trying to get another image of them out there. The chances of finding an ARK Unit at random were slim to none, so the best bet was just to make it known they existed here.

    “We just have to hope they want to be found.”
     
    "Hope..." Nova sighed. If he was a frame of reference, nulls were not exactly looking for others' company. And Nova doubted singing the virtues of the power of friendship would help much. Probably just make the other null think he was crazy.

    "Well maybe they're hoping for people like us to find them?" He slowly wagged his tail to try and sell the optimism.
     
    Gladion laughed. Nova was wagging his fish tail? That was new. It did raise his spirits.

    “Yeah, maybe. I’m trying to see if I can get something like the photo you had in the news out further now that papers about us will have more interest and’ll probably spread further. And if they’re more hidden than that, hopefully it’s Cipher’s fault or something and we can find them that way.”
     
    Nova's eyes lit up— like, the screens brightened. "Oh, wait! I actually took another photo after evolving. It's with Leaf and Archie, but maybe that could help?" He turned toward his bag. "I think I got more than one copy..."
     
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