Sojaveña Wilds Silver Ravine Mystery Dungeon

[Tetra]

But then... if you dislike a truth of the world, would you fight to change it?

"If someone is doing something thats hurting innocent people I would try to stop them, no matter what. But not liking the world or just being mad because something isn't perfect enough then thats wrong," Koa said stiffly.

Leaf's point about Victini caught his attention and he glanced at her curiously. An offworlder Saint? He shook the thought aside. He didn't get the impression anyone from their group was the sort to be interested in trying something like that...

"I stand by what I said before. Strength will always exist. Its a responsibility, and you should use it to do good. To help." He paused, trying to gather his thoughts for what he wanted to say next. Maybe everyone on the team wouldn't agree but...

"I don't think not being from here means I don't have the same responsibility to help. To stop Cipher or mon like Ignatius. Thats not wrong. Testing offworlders is good, but why not help too? I mean, you could always help us fight, right? Or help the people here sometimes. We don't have to be enemies." He stopped, realizing he probably was on the verge of a ramble.

 

[Ambyssin]

“Offworlders defy will of nature And yet, in the end, their strength is a natural rule of this world, even if they themselves are not.”

For a brief instant, Nova matched Zapdos' sharp expression with one of his own.

"That doesn't mean it has to be accepted as an immutable truth," he said. "Yeah, limits exist. And where there are limits, there are people who challenge them. It's a give and take. Limits get broken. New ones get found. And then those get tested and the cycle repeats."

His feathers bristled. "I know what an unbreakable rule really looks like. And if this world has one... no amount of strength — from Saints or natives or offworlders or some combination — could save it. The best anyone could hope to do is put a bandage on things."

He looked down. "I don't think this world's like that. It just... needs the strength it has turned in a different direction."

 

[Phoenixsong]

Zapdos shrugged his pointed wings. “It’s ancient history, but that’s the tale as I’ve heard it—the strongest offworlder for the strongest crisis. And I’ve never heard of another offworlder becoming a saint.”

...huh. Did Kotetsu know this? Did his lord know this? (Did it matter? Most likely it shouldn't've mattered. Strength was strength, wherever it came from; a legendary was a legendary, or saint, or whatever. Heckuva weird coincidence if it was true, though...)

Anyway. Absolutely bizarre to see the Cyclone agitated in a way that wasn't just 'I need to get my wiggles out by punting someone into the sunset'. Maybe that was just what happened when you had a problem that was resolutely un-puntable. Leaf couldn't pretend she didn't know the frustration. But...

"I'm here because somebody here asked me to be. For whatever reason that means I get to be a badass magic unicorn now, and that's cool as hell and all, but I still get to pick what I do with that strength. I'm choosing to help. Even if you don't wanna choose that..." Leaf shot Koa an apologetic look. "I dunno. Still sounds to me like you care more about who has power and why than you keep saying you do. Still sounds like you want to be doing something.

"You keep choosing to fight offworlders to 'teach them a lesson', and then that's it. They just go off and do whatever they said they were gonna do, or what they said they weren't, whichever. Doesn't change, in the end. Obviously you're strong enough to deal with 'em. Most of 'em, at least." Couldn't help but smile a little there. "Maybe if the Stormbringer could've worked something out with the farmers—or maybe if the new one eventually can—maybe you can choose to use your strength to change something, too."

She had to screw her eyes shut for a second as lightning cut the sky again, even brighter than before as the night got darker. Probably meant it was time to head back soon.

"Look, uh, about the Stormbringer's relic. Someone's searching for them. A grovyle, some other offworlder pokémon. Not because he wants to be some specific saint—" didn't seem that way, at least, he better friggin' not be "—but for some... other reason. I dunno. Probably boils down to thinking he or his buddies should be making decisions for everyone else." She scowled, lashing the air with her tail. "Point is, if he has to be evasive about it chances are it's not great, yeah? If you know where it is, just... make sure somebody who's trying for real is the one who finds it."

Whatever that meant.

 

[Hap]

"But what happens when groups fail to agree on how to use that strength? Something mortals are famously good at," he added with a laugh. "Or would you say there exists such a thing as unbreakable bonds?"

"We argue about it and try to come to a compromise?" Ridley said, nonplussed. "Admittedly the people here are way more casually violent than they are in my world, but there's got to be a point where everyone recognises that dick-measuring contests won't actually solve anything and we all need to actually discuss the problem, right?"

He said, "Violence is - or at least, it should be - the last resort. It's the failure state. If you need to solve your problems with force, it's because you fucked up all the alternatives so badly that it's the only one remaining to you. And it's the last resort specifically because it's a shitty solution which creates new problems and causes damage in the process."

Ridley was certain that held true even in this world. If Powehi were to be believed, offworlders damaged this world merely by existing in it. They weren't something to be summoned casually; they were a crisis response, a sign that the situation was so fucked-up that there was very little which could make it worse.

He locked eyes with Zapdos. "So, back to my question. What do you make of offworlders and their strength? I don't really believe you have such a detached opinion on this truth. After all... how can your strength amount to anything if someone like me can come along and turn it aside?"

Zapdos stared back, his eyes sharp. “When I clash with offworlders, it’s with the aim of reminding them that their strength has limits. And that no matter their talk of grand ideals, in the end, it’s that very strength that lets them fight for change.”

"Seriously, this is the point I'm trying to make," Ridley snapped. "Your strength didn't do shit. My strength doesn't do shit. I helped fight Articuno, and none of us could have beaten them alone. Unless Zapdos is claiming he's significantly weaker than they are, then the same goes for him. What won those fights wasn't strength, it was teamwork."

He dropped Articuno's name in there intentionally, halfway hoping that Zapdos would rise to the bait and mention something further about them.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Violence is - or at least, it should be - the last resort. It's the failure state. If you need to solve your problems with force, it's because you fucked up all the alternatives so badly that it's the only one remaining to you. And it's the last resort specifically because it's a shitty solution which creates new problems and causes damage in the process."

"Last resort," Zapdos repeated, letting out a crooning laugh. "So you expect to overcome your enemies with words? With systems? Or is it simply by teaming up to use combined strength for as long as that agreement lasts?"

Lightning flashed, and the giant avian leaped up onto an overhanging ledge before the thunder sounded.

"If you've met Articuno, then you know that they're the sort of pretentious, self-important airhead who puts their faith in invisible rules and systems that convince mon that they can't use their own strength to fight for what's theirs," Zapdos said, his words dripping with obvious disgust. "As if the right to live where and how they please were something that words on a scrap of paper could just take away."

"I don't think not being from here means I don't have the same responsibility to help. To stop Cipher or mon like Ignatius. Thats not wrong. Testing offworlders is good, but why not help too? I mean, you could always help us fight, right? Or help the people here sometimes. We don't have to be enemies."

Zapdos gave Koa a sideways glance. He was silent for several seconds, but then replied, "Use your own strength however you wish; that is your right. We'll see where that leads." So then, he wasn't opposed to Koa making that choice, but it wasn't a choice he was willing to make himself. But then, last time he'd said that it would lead to nothing more than being bled dry. This time, he sounded as though he genuinely wanted to see where that choice of Koa's would lead.

"That doesn't mean it has to be accepted as an immutable truth. Yeah, limits exist. And where there are limits, there are people who challenge them. It's a give and take. Limits get broken. New ones get found. And then those get tested and the cycle repeats."

Zapdos chuckled. "The cycle you describe is not unlike the cycle of nature itself. Well then... your group is rather unusual as offworlders go--maybe you'll be the ones to challenge that truth."

"Maybe if the Stormbringer could've worked something out with the farmers—or maybe if the new one eventually can—maybe you can choose to use your strength to change something, too."

The Cyclone tossed his head. "That might be so." Despite the dismissive gesture, something about his tone seemed like he might have taken it to heart more than he let on.

The warning about the Grovyle drew a smirk. "This offworlder would have to overcome the Stormbringer's own might," Zapdos said, no doubt referring to the divine dungeon. "If that isn't enough, he'll have to face my might as well." Message received.

The echoed rumbling of the thunderhead had grown more distant. The Cyclone craned his neck upward and said, "The storm is moving, and so must I."

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova nodded. "Then stormy skies," he said, in a twist on the Escarpa's usual greeting. "I'm sure our paths will cross again soon enough."

 

[Chibi Pika]

The corner of Zapdos's beak curled upward. "Stormy skies."

With a deep crouch and a flying leap, the Roaming Cyclone sprung into the air and sprinted straight up the sheer incline of the ravine, disappearing over the cliff's edge. The flashes of lighting grew ever more distant as the storm moved on with what could have been supernatural pace, as if it had somewhere to be. Until finally, there was nothing left but a starkly clear evening sky overhead.

<><><>​

 

[Chibi Pika]

It was as if an inky curtain had been draped across the skies over the Silver Ravine. No starlight, no moonlight. The occasional wicked spires of lightning and deafening peals of thunder were the only things even marking it as a storm, as opposed to some unnatural black hole. The air itself held a thick aura that something was very, very wrong.

And below it all, racing along the slopes of the ravine, was the Roaming Cyclone.

I don't make storms of this sort, I only ride them, he'd said last time the Wayfarers spoke with him. Last time, the Cyclone's leaps and bounds along the ravine's edge were high-spirited—exultant, even. The purest expression of a primal being in sync with nature. This time, his movements were thick with agitation, and one could get the feeling that he was pushing himself harder and harder. Not enough, he needed to run faster, leap higher. So fast that his golden talons left streaks of lightning on the ground in his wake.

Every so often he stopped and glared up at the unnatural storm before resuming.

 

[Tetra]

The storm had come again. None too soon either. Koa had left at the first sign of the dark clouds, a heaviness in his stomach the closer he got to the ravine.

Everything here felt wrong. Off. Unnatural lightning and a taint to the air. Could this really be tied to Alexander's influence?

For several moments, he said nothing, watching. There was an... anger to the way the Cyclone moved. It felt familiar.

"Zapdos!" he shouted.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

It had been some time since Steven last came to the Silver Ravine. He knew why, but something about the current atmosphere surrounding the dungeon really drove the point home... He tightened the straps of his bracer on his left arm, and proceeded into the ravine.

Koa was already there. Good. It seemed like they had the same idea. Something wasn't right, and it wasn't of the 'I feel like causing problems for fun' variety.

He drifted up next to Koa, offering a silent nod of greeting, and waited for the Saint to notice them.

 

[Chibi Pika]

The Cyclone didn't immediately react to Koa's voice, and it was hard to tell if he'd even heard it. But then, on his next pass racing along the ravine's edge above them, he took a leap down the side, claws digging into the canyon wall to slow his descent until he landed in front of Koa with a heavy thud.

"I expect you're here for the same reason I am," Zapdos said, angling his beak toward the pitch black storm clouds overhead.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven watched impassively as Zapdos landed in front of them in a cloud of dust, sparing a disparaging glance at the gouges left in the canyon walls in its wake.

Seemed rather dramatic for a creature with wings, but this was the Roaming Cyclone they were dealing with.

"Quite the unusual storm we're having here," Steven said, following Zapdos's skyward gesture. "I take it it's unlike anything you've seen before?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Zapdos gave a dry laugh. "Indeed. I've ridden this storm countless times and never seen it in this state. The boy saw it as it is meant to be, wild and untouched."

The Cyclone glanced back up at the jet black expanse, just in time for a flash of lightning to split the sky in two. Even the light cast felt wrong, unnervingly dim and steeped with violet hues.

Zapdos was pacing now, itching to keep moving, to keep training. If he could just leap higher...

"I've heard rumors from the clan, about the demons that had been plaguing Black Water." At this he pulled his gaze from the sky, making eye contact with Koa.

"I can feel it. There's a demon in there."

 

[Tetra]

Koa shifted uneasily, wishing he could physically shake off the sensations from the storm and thankful to have Steven with him. Zapdos was right, this was nothing like the last storm he'd seen here.

He shared a glance with Steven at the mention of demons and Blaguarro. "A demon in the storm?" He stared up into the sky, his hackles prickling. His lip curled in anger. "An offworlder, a Hydreigon named Alexander, got here. He's been taking advantage of the shadows here to get stronger. I think this might be tied to him."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Zapdos's piercing yellow eyes, visible even without the occasional lightning flash, blinked as he processed what Koa had said. Turning his gaze skyward, the thunderbird muttered, "Then he's the one who's defiled the Stormbringer's rest."

Stormbringer's rest... The spread of shadow-corrupted dungeons... The storm itself was a—

Zapdos gave a mighty leap and landed on an overhanging desert willow, shaking its bare branches with the impact. "The storm usually roams the highest reaches of the sky, far higher than most would ever fly. Now, it's fallen to no more than a thousand strides above the ravine."

As he talked, his legs flexed and unflexed, crouching low and standing back up repeatedly, as if willing himself to leap much higher than he had been.

His talons flickered with golden sparks. "I will reach it."

 

[Tetra]

Koa's eyes eyes went wide, equal parts horror and awe flooding through him as he realized what Zapdos meant. The storm they'd seen before, the one the Romaing Cyclone always rode...

That was what Zapdos was always doing out here, why he came with the storm. Why he was training... For the moment, Koa put aside his former annoyance with the Saint.

"We're gonna reach it." He spoke without hesitation, ignoring the absurdity of the statement. A giant living storm dungeon? How on earth could they hope to reach something like that? It wasn't as if any of them here could fly...

Koa looked between Steven and Zapdos, clinging to the spark of hope in his chest. "There's got to be a way up there, right? Maybe if we combine out strength somehow..." What was he even thinking? A thousand strides... How could they reach that far?

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven let out a chime of surprise and stared skyward. The storm itself was a dungeon? He had half a mind to ask how that was even possible, but then again he'd been inside a vanishing oasis that was intangible but for a single day. So was a dungeon inside a stormcloud really the most far fetched thing?

Speaking of the Oasis... 'Stormbringer's rest'? The Saint that had vanished from Sojavena? No, not vanished. They'd passed on. If this was their rest, then... Was Alexander after the Stormbringer's relic? The thought made his skin prickle with anger.

In any other circumstances, he might have given Koa an incredulous look. But now...? Steven drifted next to his teammate with conviction, and stared up at Zapdos.

"It's as we said before, we've been summoned here to help. Last time we were helping those caught in the path of your storm." He glared up at the swirling void storm, at where Alexander was defiling a Saint's resting place. "This time, let us help you."

He still didn't know how, but if Zapdos gave them the chance, he had faith they'd come up with something.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"You'll reach it?" Zapdos crooned, casting an amused glance at Koa. "Ha! Have all of you learned to fly like that Ninetales, then?"

The thunderbird swung himself downward so that his talons clung to the tree while his body hung below, eyeing the two Wayfarers.

"I suppose it's in your nature. I heard from the clan about how you purged the demons of Black Water. This is the sort of thing you set yourselves to." There was a strange, bitter undercurrent to his words, something almost like... regret? Did the Cyclone actually regret not being involved...?

"I'm going to purge the demons this time," he said in a low voice, eyes flashing like sparks.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven stared back at the upside-down bird, irritation growing. Did Zapdos have some kind of inferiority complex? He needed to prove he could run faster, jump higher, and now he needed to defeat more shadows? This wasn't a shadow purging contest.

"Well, what did the clan have to say?" Steven asked. "Hopefully they told you that we had help from another Saint that day. The Wandering Light lent us her strength-- she trusted us to help-- and together we stopped the shadows."

He clenched a fist, recalling the feeling of receiving her Radiance.

"I know this is your storm, but let us help you do the same. Victory at Blaguarro wasn't accomplished alone."

 

[Tetra]

"Maybe I did learn to fly," he retorted under his breath. He glanced at Steven, wondering if there could somehow be a way up. He'd seen crazier things. There was that Magnet Rise technique, but then that only gave a few extra inches...

He shook his head. Of course Zapdos would be too stubborn. "Steven's right. We saved Blackwater because as weak as any single one of us was, we all worked together. And because of the Wandering Light." He spoke the words forcefully, saying 'we' very pointedly. No thanks to Saints acting like you.

Did Zapdos wish he'd intervened? Was that what this was all about? "If you want to make up for something then you have to change, right?" Zapdos had said something about nature being change, hadn't he?

"So let us help you. Even you do reach it, whatever's waiting up there... Can't be stopped alone." He tried to avoid saying Zapdos was too weak.