Blaguarro Town The Dragon's Cellar

[HelloYellow17]

Dig? Burying a whole wagon of mon that quickly? Wes wasn’t so sure, but then again, he supposed a proficient ground type could pull off such a thing…

“Is there any way to identify where a mon has dug before?” he asked. “Any…I don’t know, telltale signs?”

 

[Butterfree]

Dave sighed. "Well, I'm guessing it's not a coincidence there's an Excadrill and a Sandslash poking around." He looked away for a moment. "Are there... Do you know if there happen to be tunnels underground extending some way out of Blaguarro?" Not that they'd necessarily know, would they. For all they knew whoever was behind this could've been digging tunnels for years.

At least, if they relied on digging, they weren't likely to be able to disappear people off the top of the watchtowers, were they.

 

[Inkedust]

M nodded at Wes. "A bit of a cleaner or looser patch of dirt, though 'round here, it tends to be covered up quickly by the winds."

Towards Dave, V clacked his beak a couple times. "Well of course, how else do ya expect folks to have gotten to the mines? Never been in them myself, most folks have forgotten where the entrances are, though I've heard they're quite sizeable, easy to get lost in there."

 

[Butterfree]

Fuckers. So that was where the Charmeleon had come from.

He considered getting another shot but wasn't sure it'd be a good idea; he was already feeling a bit lightheaded.

"So if we went now and checked on some of the places people have disappeared from, we wouldn't find any telltale signs, is what you're saying?" He drummed his paws on the counter, thinking. "Well, at the very least I expect any place someone's disappeared has got to be above some of the tunnels that they use."

Dave took a breath. "Okay. What can you tell me about the city people who came here wanting to build a railway? Are they people who've been around since? How long has it been since all that?"

 

[Inkedust]

"Aye," said V. "And yeah, I guess that makes sense. Problem is nobody remembers the layouts, so it looks like a crapshoot either way."

A considered the poochyena's question carefully. "Well, they didn't seem like anything special. Just ordinary pokémon like you and us."

Tala raised a talon to interject. "A couple years or so. The folks who came by were workers under orders of some higher ups, similar to that vigoroth who brought you here."

 

[Butterfree]

Figured they would've just sent some random underlings. Might be a fucking dead end that way.

What else could they learn? They had a method: the Excadrill and Sandslash would work together to bring people or wagons or what have you down to the tunnels. They had the tidbit that while some just looked like local ferals, some of the 'witching beasts' did look like some of the people who'd disappeared. Impersonation, his ass; they were clearly fucking doing something to them and turning them into that, with some zombification virus or whatever the fuck. They had confirmation the Charmeleon was not from around here, which probably meant it was one of the wagon-transported prisoners.

What was left was, first: who? Clearly some shady fuckers from the Commonwealth, but that was all they knew for now. And second: how were they going to put a stop to it? They sure couldn't. Maybe if Anite just fucking stormed the tunnels. Or maybe that would get her killed.

"Any idea about those workers, whether we could speak to them about their bosses? Is Jaak working for the same people?" he asked before slumping onto the counter, looking up at Tala. "Really the first fucking course of action here should be to warn people off wandering around alone if there's any chance you could get grabbed and pulled into a tunnel. You've got to have a network here, right? Spread the word?"

 

[Inkedust]

"All the workers here work for the same bosses, yeah," Tala replied with a nod. She let out a long sigh at Dave's next statement. "Folks are just too stubborn 'round these parts," she said, shaking her head. "Folks know to be cautious but you can't stop a drunkard or shady businessmon from striking out on their own. I've tried, as has Anite and even then, that won't stop those wagons if what you said about them was true."

 

[Butterfree]

Well, okay. Then it was time to speak to Jaak about his bosses. What the fuck.

"So who are the strongest battlers around here? Anite? You?" He raised an eyebrow at Tala. "How likely is it you could take a witching beast?"

He exhaled. Fuck it. "One more," he added, pushing his glass back toward her.

 

[Inkedust]

"That's right," Tala nodded, refilling Dave's glass. "Anite has a leg up on me in terms of raw power but I can beat her in a match fair thanks to type-advantages. She leaned back a bit. "Based on what I've seen of those attacks? Don't think our odds are too good and multiple at one time is out of the question. You know onix? Those rock-serpents that exchanged all their power for size and intimidation? A witching one appeared close to town one day and Anite tried to take it. Brought her right down to the wire despite the advantage and she wasn't even able to beat it, just shoo it away. Never tried to fight another again, even a weak species."

She looked at Mav. "It's not only how they look and act but the power behind them is also beyond the scope of what's right and it shows. It looks like their bodies are tearing themselves apart 'cause they can't handle the power - especially on the ferals."

 

[Butterfree]

Dave looked up. "'Especially on the ferals', by which you mean you know others that aren't ferals?" Not that he hadn't deduced that himself, but Mav hadn't made it sound like he was really drawing that distinction, just between the local feral species and others.

He scratched the persistent itch in his shoulder (with his fucking hind leg; he'd never get used to that), grabbing his glass and tipping it into his mouth. God. "So," he began as the drink burned through his insides, "the two of us and a few others may have encountered one of the witching beasts ourselves the other day. Probably the same fucking Charmeleon Mav mentioned. Didn't stand a chance in hell. Would've all been dead if it hadn't suddenly dived back underground." He wasn't totally sure where he was going with this. Drink might be getting to him. "I mean, fuck. If you can't take them, the fuck is anyone even supposed to do about it? Just fucking go out there and die? Move the hell away and never come back?"

 

[Inkedust]

Tala listened to Dave's story intently. "Simple inference, really," she then replied. "They match the local species and they don't hold themselves as well as the doppelgangers. My answer to that is 'go where?' We aren't a very wealthy folk nor do other places take too kindly to the Blaguarro attitude. Rundown as it is, this is the only place that gives shelter to a lotta people, not to mention, I ain't too keen to abandon the land of my ancestors. So our only real choice is to tough it out, hope that those beasts start tearing apart and cannibalizing each other instead of us."

 

[Butterfree]

Dave nodded along. Yeah. Tala was smart. Except for clinging to a fucking death trap town.

"Toughing it out and hoping is a pretty fucking bleak way to go, isn't it."

Not that it would really matter for him. The voice said if they died they'd just go home. Probably. Tala wouldn't. Mav wouldn't. Bunch of fucking hicks in a little shithole town who didn't have another universe to go back to, just waiting to be swallowed whole by invincible fucking monsters.

"I mean, at least build some fucking metal walkways or something. No fucking Dig, right?"

He clenched his teeth, fidgeting with his glass. "Sounds like a time for some of those 'human heroes', huh? No Jesse Stranger type seen fit to stop by here and fix everything with their apparent godlike fucking human powers?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

...Hello!? Dave? Wes?​

The heroic spirits at the watchtower have encountered a Shadow pokémon!​

They are in danger!

 

[HelloYellow17]

"I mean, fuck. If you can't take them, the fuck is anyone even supposed to do about it? Just fucking go out there and die? Move the hell away and never come back?"

Wes chuckled bitterly to himself at first, listening to Dave’s utter bewilderment at the harsh environment they all found themselves in. Just trading one hellhole of a desert for another…but then he said the words “move away,” and suddenly Wes found himself bristling.

“Right, because we can all just do that,” he snapped. “If leaving were an option, do you think any of us would stay here?”

Tala gave a far more measured response, and Wes forced himself to relax. He looked away and glared down at his drink. “What he said. Folks aren’t staying here by choice. Doesn’t sound like there are many choices at all for anybody around here.”

And they expect us to fix it, somehow. Gods, what a laugh. This place was about as hopeless as Orre, as far as Wes could tell. At least here, he had the advantage of about two dozen others trying to tackle the issue with him, but really, what did it matter? What was thirty some-odd nobodies with nothing in common and barely any sense of teamwork going to accomplish against an entire region riddled with corruption—?

...Hello!? Dave? Wes?​

The heroic spirits at the watchtower have encountered a Shadow pokémon!​

They are in danger!

Wes felt his blood run cold. Another one.

Flashes of a lightless flame, of claws glinting in the moonlight just before carving down his side and lighting up his entire body with white-hot agony—

He shoved the thoughts forcefully from his head and stood up, pushing away his half-empty glass and shooting Dave an urgent look. “We need to go. Now.”

 

[Butterfree]

The voice spoke, and Dave's blood curdled in his veins.

"Hold... hold on a fucking minute," he said, extending a paw in Wes's direction. "Go and do what, exactly? What's your plan, rush out there and then what?" His paw trembled in the air. "If anyone should go out there I think it's pretty fucking clear it's not us." He looked up at nothing. "Hey, voice, what kind of danger are we talking? Think Tala and Anite could... Fuck." He rubbed at his face, mouth twisting.

 

[Inkedust]

"Waste of resources that are better used on the rail, that's at least what the workers would say," Tala said with a snort. She then eyed both the dogs curiously. "What's this?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"

 

[Butterfree]

Oh. He'd responded out loud. What you got when you put three of those shots in a tiny Poochyena body, he supposed. He slumped down on the counter. "Long story short, we were recently summoned from another world, psychic cloud-entity that summoned us just said the people manning the watchtower are in danger. Another sha-- witching beast."

 

[HelloYellow17]

Wes’s first mistake was to pause at the quiver in Dave’s voice. His second mistake was to look back at him to see the sheer terror on his face.

Wes felt something within him crack.

Blindly following the sense of urgency, not letting any doubts or fears or questions take over—that was how he managed things, it was how he got this far, it was how he survived. He couldn’t afford to let the terror catch up with him, couldn’t allow himself to linger on the nightmares, or else he might stop, might freeze, might never find it in him to keep going—

You don’t belong here.

Gods. Dammit. Why now, why right now of all times did he have to think about that, to let it sink into his chest like a pair of frosted fangs puncturing his lungs? He didn’t have time for this, he didn’t…he had to…had to…

Had to what?

Dave, despite his slurred speech and glassy gaze and the fear permeating his tone, had asked one hell of a question. What could Wes do—what could any of them do, against these shadow Pokémon? The Voice hadn’t been able to help them before, so how was this time going to be any different?

He couldn’t…do anything. Neither could anyone else, neither could the voice. He couldn’t even do anything about the baffled confusion on Tala’s face, which was no thanks to the sheer truckload of insane information Dave had just spilled out to her in a single sentence.

"Just run away next time if you want to so bad."

Wes suddenly realized he was quivering almost as much as Dave was. He dug his claws into the counter to steady himself, burning anger rising to clash with the icy fear in his gut.

“I don’t…I don’t know,” he said at last, more to himself than to Dave. “I—I don’t…I can’t…”

Run away like you always do—

He snarled and swore a string of curses through his teeth and then spun away, hopping off his stool and heading for the exit. “I don’t know!”

Whether Wes was leaving to help, or leaving to run, he couldn’t be sure. His feet were moving of their own accord, and he felt powerless to dictate where they would take him.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Hey, voice, what kind of danger are we talking? Think Tala and Anite could... Fuck."

There is a Shadow skorupi at the base of the watchtower. However, I can sense an even stronger corrupted Aura further away – one belonging to a much larger pokémon.

I have advised Odette, Kimiko and Ridley to avoid drawing any further attention, but Odette asked me to alert you...!

 

[Inkedust]

Tala watched the rockruff depart in a hurry, still confused at what just happened. At Dave she made a mental note of serving him something far less strong the next time he stopped by upon hearing his explanation regarding the cloud-thing.

Mav, on the other hand, jumped to attention. Either their drunkenness made them more gullible or they'd seen enough beasts to take any warning of their presence seriously. "You gotta tell them to hang tight on that tower until dawn!" A yelled, hoping that Wes would hear it on his way out. "Doin' anything to provoke them is a one way ticket to getting yourself maimed!"

"Mav, go check on them. Ensure they're still up there on that tower," Tala said. "If there is one around, I hope that they haven't been noticed by them."

All three of Mav's heads nodded before they ran out of the building, running ahead of Wes and leaving Dave and Tala alone.