Taleska Ghost Town, N/A

[Jackie Cat]

Haunted places are where one may feel the lingering presence of the dead. Far worse is a place that is itself dead.

Not all Commonwealth settlements thrive. This one had the misfortune of being built in the shallows of a subterranean mystery dungeon, which eventually swallowed the town – trading the river it was built beside for an underground creek. Its name and address now stricken from the maps, this cursed place has acquired the darkly comical moniker of 'Ghost Town, N/A'. It belongs to no state, and has no living residents. Only rift-phantasms and foolhardy dungeon delvers walk its cold streets; the native cave-dwelling 'mon stay clear of the ghost town.

The town's structures still stand, dragged beneath the surface, and lit by eerie, unattended gas lamps. Boardwalks and unglamorous, rickety bridges provide a surface to walk on, underneath which is a river that has taken on the orderly look of a canal, complete with weirs and locks. It's a strange sight: frontier-style wooden buildings in sunless tunnels, signs declaring BANK and GENERAL GOODS and POST OFFICE to nobody in particular, and a persistent echo of pawsteps and shallow breaths that lingers longer than is comfortable.

It is rumoured in the alleyways of Novelux that the ghost town was buried by the dungeon as retribution for a dark crime done by its former inhabitants. Not the murder that preceded its fall, no. Rather, the witch-hunt that followed, in which first one victim was wrongly hanged, and then another, until every sane 'mon in town alive was either no longer sane, no longer in town, or no longer alive. The phantasms that remain are said to be apparitions of the few that stayed behind, even after their paws were forever stained with innocent blood, now doomed to forever play out a macabre re-enactment of their ill deeds...

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[Butterfree]

Dave's head spun as he came to, lying on hard, barren ground. Fuck. They'd been retrieving Betel, and then...

He could hear footsteps, shuffling, breathing. Christ. Was he still in the Covenant facilities? He forced his eyes open and blinked hard to steady his swimming vision, struggling to lift his head. But no, he was... in a town?

A Western-style town, built on a river, all wooden buildings and rickety boardwalks, lit by spooky gas lamps. But there was no sky above, only a murky impression of cave walls disappearing into darkness. And it didn't look like anyone was actually around, either. The still-audible shuffles and whispers had no visible source.

In other words, this was some dungeon bullshit. He groaned, pushing himself to his feet. "Hello?" he called, just in case anyone else had gotten brought here with him. Betel? he thought, but there was no response, and he couldn't feel the presence of the other Wayfarers at all. Had they all just gotten disconnected from the network? How'd he landed in some random dungeon? He was fuzzy on what'd been happening immediately before he'd lost consciousness. Was Betel okay? Had the Covenant blocked them off?

Goddamn it. Well, before anything else, he'd have to find his way out of here. He padded through the empty streets, ignoring the eerie echoes of nonexistent inhabitants. "Hello?" he said again.

 

[Jackie Cat]

God fucking damnit, should've expected something like this. 'Course he'd rush in, brandish at that fucking guy, everything goes to shit, he ends up right back in square one. So humiliating he could vomit. Nah, he was sick from teleporting. Fucking embarrassing.

Jesse clutched at his gut with one paw and clamped the other over his muzzle. He groaned quietly to himself for a bit. Then he gingerly blinked his eyes open and looked around. Dark – until he lit up a pilot light at the end of his digits. Some kinda basement, or some shit. Not (and this was important) the CDE cell block. Okay. He could work with this.

(Whatever the fuck it was.)

He crept along, feeling for his wand as if it'd be there (of course not, it hadn't been there for months, but he'd be damned if he ever lost the muscle memory for it) and wishing he had something to eat. Or drink. Drink'd be good right now.

Looked like the place weren't in too good a condition, so when he found the door, and it didn't budge, he gave it a firm kick. It cracked a little, gave way an inch. Another, satisfying thump. And then he blew it open with a snap of his fingers. Gods it felt good to do magic again. Simple, thermodynamic magic. Boom.

On the other side of the door was an abandoned house, some dump, clearly not lived in even by squatters or critters. Dark, too. The fuck time of night was it, even?

Or, no, not night. Stepping out, he could see the gaslamps weren't for walking around under the stars. They were for lighting a way between buildings under a stone sky.

"Fuckin' mystery dungeons," he swore. "Don't fuckin' need this shit."

 

[Butterfree]

Dave started at a distinct boom, a soft tremor to go with it - a distinctly physical sound in sharp contrast to the ethereal dungeon whispers. He turned in the direction of the noise, ears perked. "Hello? Anyone there?"

With slow steps, he padded down a street towards where the sound had come from, his heartbeat loud in the silence - and came face to face with someone just stepping out of a building. A bipedal fox Pokémon in ragged, dirty clothing and a hat - Delphox? Weird fucking Delphox, but yeah, the unruly tufts of reddish fur coming out of his ears were a giveaway.

Jesse fucking Stranger, supplied some part of his brain he couldn't entirely explain.

He blinked as it all started to come back out of the haze. Silver had reported over the network that he'd found him in the cells - only Jesse, no Starr. And then there'd been a scream, and he'd been trying to keep Herman occupied, and Jade had found Betel's physical body, and then something had happened. And now they were here.

Something about the sight of the Delphox was pricking his brain like a hot needle. What happened to everyone else? Why the fuck was he apparently alone with him? Was Betel fucking dead or what? Where were the others? Silver'd been with Jesse; where was Silver?

He inhaled. "You Jesse Stranger?" he said.