Blaguarro Town Main Station

[Chibi Pika]

Jade blinked for a second, then had to suppress a small snort as her brain suddenly generated the image of what Nine would've looked like if he had been an even 50:50 split of Pikachu and Zapdos.

"Yeah, no, he doesn't look, like, half-bird or anything--he's not that different from a regular Pikachu. Physically, at least. From what he told me, they mostly messed with the code for energy signature and power generation and stuff like that. No cheek markings since his whole body generates electricity. And, uh..." She paused, tapping a claw on the nearest post. 'How'd that turn out,' Dave had asked.

"His power's too strong, so his body can't really hold onto it that well. And his power supply's lower than it's supposed to be. And it hurts when he charges up."

 

[Butterfree]

Okay, fair. Maybe all they needed to study Zapdos's power, with no other hybrid features, was some kind of Electric-type, and Pikachu was a common, innocuous one of those. Fair enough.

Jade's description, though, was... uncomfortably familiar. He looked away for a moment. "I'm, uh. Actually a scientist working with genetic hybrids," he said. "Very long story, but we were forced into keeping some experimental embryos originally engineered strictly as a proof of concept for medical research purposes. So my daughter's part Ninetales. Similar deal with power in a body that wasn't designed for it. She can breathe fire, but her mouth's not fireproof. The others vary, some of them can use their powers a bit, but it's all weird and limited or has severe downsides. But, you know, they still got it into their heads that having powers means they can play superheroes. Didn't work out that way."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Oh. He'd actually made hybrids? No wonder he seemed so interested in this topic. But then...

"Wait, so like... Pokemon mixed with... humans?" Jade asked, unable to keep the confusion out of her voice. "Aren't they, like... really different?" They were different types of living thing, right? (She really wished she could remember the term from science class, but also it probably didn't matter when talking with someone from literally a different world, as she kept having to remind herself. Also she probably would have just embarrassed herself anyway.)

The rest of his explanation held a heavier tone. "So like... they tried to use their powers and it went badly?" Jade asked with a slight wince, suddenly imagining trying to breath fire without being fireproof.

 

[Butterfree]

Dave grinned at her confusion. "They're pretty different, yeah. Nobody thought it'd be possible to combine human and Pokémon genetics. There's a clever trick to getting them to work together. I figured out the base principle, and the quick and dirty way to see it in action and test how far the method could stretch was to engineer some human embryos with genes coding for all sorts of different Pokémon features from various different Pokémon and watch if they developed as expected. Turned out yes, for the most part. Pretty amazing stuff. All got derailed a bit, though."

He took a long breath. "As you'd expect, society wasn't exactly wild about kids who can do shit regular humans can't and look like it. This batshit cult kidnapped one of them, the others tried to stage a rescue mission. Two of them got shot to death, three more injured. My daughter skipped the rescue because she touched a Fire Stone and half-evolved in an alley while screaming in pain, and thank fuck for that because if she'd gone it could've been much worse."

Not that he had much hope that all this would scare Jade away from whatever the hell she was doing over in her world. Probably wouldn't have scared the morphs either until it'd actually happened and become real.

"Isn't there anyone around out there trying to fight this criminal organization other than you and your friends? Because this sounds way beyond something a couple of random trainers should be trying to handle on their own. Maybe if the legendaries were super fucking helpful, but you don't sound like it."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Two of them got shot to death, three more injured.

It was said so casually. The obvious result of a situation like that.

"That's... I'm sorry." Everything felt cold.

Midnight stadium in flames. Trapped by the entrance, no way out. Gunshots. Reed crumpling in front of her, glassy-eyed in a spreading pool.

"I've seen what that looks like," Jade said neutrally, gripping her left arm, feeling smooth fur where there should have been a bullet's path.

His response was the kind she'd grown used to. Why you? Why not someone else? Someone better.

Jade inhaled slowly. "Fighting them means doing things illegally, so..." Playing war games, the League had called it. "I guess we were the only ones stupid enough to think it was worth trying to fight them."

The jab at the Legendaries hurt, but what hurt more was that she didn't feel like denying it.

<I thought we had something here. I thought we were finally learning to understand each other and fight for a common goal. But I guess you’re willing to throw all of that away.>​

​

<Stop acting like it’s that simple!>​

 

[Butterfree]

Jade looked abruptly distant, shaken. Seen what that looks like. So Jade had gotten lucky but others hadn't? And yet she was still out there, involved in this madness?

Or... was she? She was speaking in the past tense. She'd been speaking in the past tense for a lot of this, hadn't she, technically. He'd assumed she just meant past tense as in this was what she was doing before she got spirited away to Forlas. But we were the only ones stupid enough to think it was worth it...

He took a sharp breath, looking away. "Jesus," he said. "You should've never had to go through any of that. Your world sounds seven kinds of fucked. Let's hope by the time you get back some of those almighty legendaries have managed to find it in themselves to not be dicks."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t thought very much about what was waiting for her back on Earth. She missed her team, her friends, but she’d spent these past few months imagining the reunion as just… seeing them again. Not returning to the world where they’d lost, relegated to chasing dead ends and fairy tales about a stupid rock.

Jade closed her eyes, exhaling through her nose. “I… they’re not—plenty of them sacrificed a ton to do the right thing, and got screwed over for it. And the others saw that happen, and… they were afraid. That’s all.”

If she’d just said the right words, done things differently, then maybe…

 

[Butterfree]

Afraid? The fucking god-beings? When you're a god and a group of goddamn kids are running around trying to fix the escalating war because nobody else will, how about you suck it the fuck up and at least try to make yourself useful with your deity-powers?

Dave exhaled. "Well, that doesn't exactly fucking help, does it." He scowled. "My world is kind of a shithole, but at least it has no gods. If you've got a class of people with the power to cause hurricanes or whatever, then everyone else just exists at their fucking mercy. And sure, they're not omnipotent tyrants, great, but instead you've got, you know, regular unstable individuals except with the power to cause huge disasters if they find themselves in the mood. Or if some criminal syndicate lunatics decide to capture and mind-control them. All-around fucked-up situation. Even if the legendaries are the most well-meaning goody-two-shoes in the world."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade winced. So he was... glad the legends weren't around in his world. Alright, maybe she hadn't exactly made the situation back home sound good. And it wasn't. But that was such a specific and recent thing--it didn't make the thousands of years of making the pact and keeping the balance not worth it. (It had to be. Otherwise Giovanni was right, and he couldn't be.)

Something about what he'd said didn't make sense, but Jade was having a hard time putting her finger on it. It wasn't specifically about the legends, it was about... some people being stronger than others? "Okay, but like... even without legends, it's not like humans can measure up to Pokemon, right?"

No legends meant no pact, so the humans would be at their mercy. Except the Pokemon weren't people... but what did that mean? If you couldn't talk with them, how could the two live peacefully? Or... was it the other way around? If the Pokemon couldn't talk with each other, then maybe they'd be at the humans' mercy? Ugh, it didn't make any sense.

 

[Butterfree]

"What, in single physical combat? I mean, no, but that's what guns are for." Huh. He looked at Jade. Come to think of it, if her world's Pokémon were sapient... "I mean, humans get by on brains and technology. Pokémon will obviously beat an unarmed human one-on-one, but humans outsmart them. Pre-technology we survived thanks to coordination and foresight and planning, then we started inventing shit, Pokéballs and ballistic weapons pretty much clinched it. Is your world just... ruled by Pokémon?" Then how the fuck were there trainers?

 

[Chibi Pika]

O-oh. That pretty much explained it. In Dave's world, a world where Pokemon weren't people... they were at the humans' mercy. And from the sound of it, the Pokemon weren't in a great spot from it at all.

(She couldn't help imagining the attitudes of groups like Team Rocket being not just common, but normal.)

"It's not... ruled by Pokemon," Jade said, still trying to sort through various uncomfortable feelings. "They have their societies, and we've got ours. They wouldn't... like what would they even get out of ruling over humans? It wouldn't make any sense." When humans exploited Pokemon, it was almost always for money, but Pokemon didn't use money. And human society was full of all kinds of nonsense that most Pokemon didn't want anything to do with, let alone be in charge of.

 

[Butterfree]

"Huh." He supposed that was sort of like Forlas in a way, only with actual humans serving the role of the 'civilized' Pokémon that lived like humans. The Escarpa lived out on the plains, shunned most technology, focused on battling, and mostly kept apart from the townies. But... "So you've, what, just divided up the territory? You get any disputes like the townies expanding into Escarpa lands and so on, or does everyone just respect the borders? Where does training come into it?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade rubbed the back of her head. “I guess there used to be more of that, probably, before the routes got separated from the deepwilds. I, uh… I’m not big into history.” That was code for ‘hardly remembered anything from history class.’

She paused for a bit and then added, “Training is kinda separate from all that. Pokemon mostly go looking for a trainer if they want to get stronger, or if they’re curious about human society, that sort of thing. Some species basically never do it, but for others it’s normal for them to go through a few trainers before heading back home and starting a family or whatever.” At least training was a subject she could mostly avoid embarrassing herself on.

 

[Butterfree]

...Huh. Pokémon going out looking for trainers before starting a family? Like it's people going on cute train journeys to see the world or whatever? Maybe that was basically what it was. Step into your Pokéball for convenient, relaxing transport, step out for a scenic view or an energizing battle, your personal coach provides you with all your meals and medical needs? When you put it like that it almost sounded like a sweet deal.

He tilted his head at Jade. "Huh. So your Pokémon picked you, basically? I guess humans do it for the same reasons as in my world, because kids like flashy battles and competitive sports and cool monsters?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade shuffled a paw against the well-worn floor. “Some of them did. Some of them I rescued, and they stuck with me. My training experience… isn’t exactly a normal one, what with the whole ‘fighting a criminal organization’ thing. I sorta never got the chance at a normal journey. Nine and I met on day one, so…” That fateful day on the Team Rocket plane. There’d been varying degrees of normalcy in the time since then, but it’d always been fleeting.

She forced a half-smile. “Flashy battles and competitive sports and cool monsters sounds a lot like a friend of mine, though, so I guess that’s one thing our worlds have in common.”

 

[Butterfree]

Yeah. Jade hadn't exactly gotten to be some Pokémon's luxury trip around the world, had she.

"Well, I hope somehow things work out once you get home," he said. "Maybe one day you can get to have Pokémon battles like a normal kid."

Maybe. Or maybe she'd just die, like whoever she'd seen get shot.

"Your friends, are they still trying to fight those people?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Maybe someday things could be normal. It could even be normal the day she went back—it’d just mean giving up on everything they’d fought for, everything they’d lost.

“Not… actively, no,” Jade said in a low voice, tail swishing idly. “It’d actually been a few months since we last fought them—when I came here, that is. One of them was still hunting for leads.” Ajia really was physically incapable of leaving things alone. And Starr was…

Jade’s chest tightened. She couldn’t hide from the truth.

“One of them’s here,” she said, her mouth dry. “Starr. She’s the one Betel brought us here to help.”

 

[Butterfree]

Dave blinked. "Wait, what? The previous hero? The one who was staying with Brisa at the cabin and all that? She's your friend?"

Come to think of it, he dimly remembered Jade sounding oddly emotional about the previous hero on Powehi's dream-beach, as soon as Powehi had mentioned her name. What was it, 'Starr Sakari'? Definitely an unusual-sounding name, probably a big coincidence for someone to have the exact same one. And they did have precedent for other people from their worlds existing on Forlas, with Owen and Alexander hailing from Mhynt's. So...

"...I'm guessing you hadn't exactly seen her disappear from your world. What time would she even have been taken from, relative to you? What the fuck? Unless she's her doppelganger from some other world, of course, because that's also a thing, somehow."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade nodded distantly. “Yeah, I don’t think I remember her being gone back home or anything, so… I have no idea what to expect for when she was brought here from.” What if Jade hadn't been summoned by Betel, and Starr had never made it back from Forlas? How would that have even worked?

Jade rubbed her arm. “Gladion did mention that it could be a… a different version of her, maybe.” She still wasn’t sure if that was better or worse. “I already know that she probably won’t remember me either way, from what the others said..”

 

[Butterfree]

Jeez. Yeah, Sierra had mentioned the human hero had no memory of her past. So how could you even know if it was her or her alternate-universe doppelganger? Was there any way to tell?

"Well, this only gets more fucked up the more you think about it." Dave sighed. Forlas had better not have any surprise reveals in store about memory-wiped versions of people from his world. "Can't wait until we can start heading east and get to the bottom of all this. Find her, learn what exactly she was sent to do, hopefully dismantle the fucking Covenant, go home."