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?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade was spellbound, listening to Lyra's account. It all sounded so... fantastical. 'Altruistic, heroic, strong, of steady heart and mind.' This was what the heroes of legend were supposed to be like.

“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.”

Jade blinked, shaking her head. "Whoa, what? Yeah, that's... that not something I've ever heard of." She threw a quick glance at Virga.

"Thankfully, that wasn't a concern for us back in our world," Virga added. "Otherwise our situation would have been even worse."

That was Jade's first thought too, but then, part of her couldn't help but wonder... would the public attitude toward the Legendaries have ever gotten so bad if their power had been drawn from mortals? The whole issue was supposedly about 'accountability'...

"In any case..." Jade began, "it's pretty impressive that he managed to pair up with Lugia like that. And that you guys actually managed to beat the Rockets." A weird twinge of self-consciousness had taken hold in her chest. She'd spent week agonizing over whether she'd made the right choices or if she could have done anything to prevent the Rockets' victory. Hearing a firsthand account from a world where they'd actually managed to stop the Rockets, no matter how fantastical, just made her even more unsure. Maybe they could have won. Maybe...

 

[Cresselia92]

Something about the way Jade complimented their achievements rubbed the wrong way in Lyra’s mind, and that was distracting enough to make her respond with a slightly less enthusiastic, ‘yeah, it was’. It wasn’t like the Meowth didn’t mean what she said or anything like that, but more like… there was note of negativity that had entered her gaze. Or, to be more exact, her tail.

That constant involuntary swishing, which Lyra had noticed earlier when Jade talked about her life back home, had been sending faint alarms in the back of her junior breeder’s mind. Rough diagnosis: stress, discomfort, anxiety, uncertainty, a heavy weight in Jade’s mind that grew more intense whenever she focused on Lyra’s friends’ victories. And considering that her world was still dealing with Team Rocket and that things sounded far from rosy, then…

…oh. Oh no. Was Jade comparing herself to Ethan? Feeling weak or inadequate? Who wouldn’t? She didn’t seem to have a strong connection with her own Lugia, then maybe… something didn’t work as it was meant to do? Where did things go wrong in her world?

Well! It’s not like Lyra would’ve found out by simply contemplating a constellation of limitless theories. And even though she couldn’t send heroic vibes to Jade’s world, she could still shed some light and try to understand the full picture of the other girl’s situation.

Enough talking. It was time for some listening.

“But, um, if you don’t mind me asking,” Lyra began, approaching the topic with a calm and soft voice, “how… bad are things back in your world? Slightly screwed up but easily fixable bad or… huh, help-war-is-coming terrifying?”

She gazed at Virga, and another haunting thought crossed her mind.

“And… and the gods?! Are they all okay or…” she hesitated, dreading the other option, “some of them are under Team Rocket’s control, either by force or willingly?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade let out a deep sigh, some of the tension leaving her body from the opening being given to her. "That obvious, huh?" she said with an awkward chuckle before giving Lyra an appreciative smile. "I guess the truth is that I don't know how bad things are back home. Maybe it's fixable, but it's hard to say when we were forbidden from fighting the Rockets any more. I haven't even been to Kanto in months. Er... the months here on Forlas don't count," she added quickly.

"Some of us are still fighting them," Virga said pointedly.

"Mm," Jade replied neutrally.

“And… and the gods?! Are they all okay or…” she hesitated, dreading the other option, “some of them are under Team Rocket’s control, either by force or willingly?”

Virga shifted on her perch. "That is... regrettably correct. Many of them have had their minds taken by the Rockets. Those of us who remain seek to free our kin by any means necessary. To... mixed success."

That's one way to put it, Jade thought. Sure, they'd managed to free one or two legends, but when they could get recaptured at any time, it kind of put a damper on the feeling of making progress.

 

[Cresselia92]

Oh. Wow, there was quite a bit to unpack there. So, Jade and Virga were dealing with a very complicated situation. A dreadful reality that Lyra had already experienced on her skin. But well, at least that ordeal was over… wasn’t it?

Regardless! Team Rocket being perfectly capable of controlling and deploying incredibly powerful gods against harmless citizens or defiant rebels was horrible news. And if they could also rely on shady means like political leverage, yakuza-controlled propaganda and blackmail, then who could have the power, knowledge and morality to stop them? Only very few people who also doubled as prime must-eliminate targets, as she and her friends found out the hard way.

Lyra rubbed her paws, piecing the information together. “‘Mkay… While I sorta understand why some adults wouldn’t want you to get involved with Rocket and potential killer gods stuff anymore,” she held up a paw, “not that I agree with them, of course! But I bet y’know how overprotective and stubborn they can be!”

The Buneary lowered her paw and got back on track. “Anyway! What I don’t get is why they don’t let you go back to your home region and family, at least.” She tapped her chin, then blinked when she formulated a theory. “Some accident happened and Team Rocket targeted Kanto with some gods, right?” Her gaze turned to Virga. “And you and the others are trying to fight back?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

“‘Mkay… While I sorta understand why some adults wouldn’t want you to get involved with Rocket and potential killer gods stuff anymore,” she held up a paw, “not that I agree with them, of course! But I bet y’know how overprotective and stubborn they can be!”

Jade couldn't help laughing a little. "You've got that right, aha..."

“Anyway! What I don’t get is why they don’t let you go back to your home region and family, at least.” She tapped her chin, then blinked when she formulated a theory. “Some accident happened and Team Rocket targeted Kanto with some gods, right?” Her gaze turned to Virga. “And you and the others are trying to fight back?”

Virga nodded. "That's right. Myself and a gathering of legends continue to oppose them."

Jade tapped her paws together. "Er, well... the thing is, we probably could have gone home if we'd wanted. One of my friends didn't get a choice in that." Her chest tightened just thinking about what'd happened. "But staying in Kanto would've meant staying out of the fight for good. Basically house arrest.

"I've gotten used to feeling like we gave up, but the truth is... there's some stupid part of us that's still looking for a way to fix things. We were looking for new allies in Sinnoh when I left, so..." She did her best to channel some of Ajia's optimism and forced a grin. "Maybe we'll figure something out."

Virga had gone quiet. Jade could feel the Rookidee's attention on her.

'So that's where you'd gone.'

'I mean. It wasn't like I was gonna tell you back home.'

'Obviously. I had wondered, that's all. And I didn't expect you to voice it so freely here.'

'Yeah, well... neither of us are gonna remember this when we get home anyway.'