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Frontier Town Traveller's Haus - Lobby

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Wes blinked tiredly. Was the name Giovanni supposed to mean something? Nova sure said it like it was supposed to mean something.

“Giovanni, huh? Figures he’d have some pompous name. You know him, or something?”
 
"They usually lead a group similar to Cipher called Team Rocket," Nova said. "But he's ancient history where I'm from. Only knew about him because I worked together with the mewtwo his organization created."
 
Great. Awesome. “Fantastic,” Wes groaned, rolling his eyes. “Because one deranged gang of thugs from another world isn’t bad enough. How in the hell did he get here, and what does he want?”

Actually, no. He had an even bigger question. Wes threw Nova a baffled look. “Wait, you know who this guy is and you still trusted him with the custody of several known criminals? Why?” He tried to keep the accusation out of his tone, but his last question came out in a growl anyway.
 
"Mew," Nova replied. He stood tall despite Wes' harsh tone. "Mew is silent but he just has this... aura about him. It tells me I can trust him. It's... not something any of the other human Wayfarers have felt. Only those of us who've always been pokémon.

"That and Mewtwo helped me with breaking my mask. It'd be awfully boneheaded of him to make me stronger if he wants to lay claim to Forlas."
 
Wes paused and pondered back to his brief encounter with Mew. “He did seem…friendly,” he admitted. “But if things go sideways…Will he be strong enough to keep Mewtwo in line?”

He tilted his head at Nova’s next statement. “Wait, what do you mean, broke your mask? Is that how you evolved?”
 
"It's, y'know, one of those friendship things." Nova laughed nervously. He rummaged through his dirty bag and held the luxury ball up in his beak. "Like gehing eshpeon 'n uhmbeon fum eevee."
 
Wes blinked at the ball—a luxury ball, even, wow. Didn’t think he’d find a ball as fancy as that in this place. Then again, he hadn’t expected Pokéballs to be a thing in this world at all. He was still wrapping his head around it, to be honest.

He felt a little twinge at Nova’s comparison. Flickers of memory brought Neo and Novo’s evolutions to the front of his mind, and he managed a wistful smile. “Yeah, I follow. Makes sense, I guess. Just never knew an evolution like that would involve something so physical.”

He couldn’t look away from the ball, curiosity swelling inside him. He’d had so many damn questions about it since he first saw Nova retreat inside it. “What’s it like? Being inside, I mean. Is it comfy?”
 
"I think so." Nova set the ball down and rolled it around with dusty talons. "It's like... floating in nothing, I guess? I'm weightless and stuff. So if I was sore, that goes away."

He sighed. "It also helps me feel like I'm outdoors again." Nova glanced at the ceiling. "I'm... not so good at being inside too long. Especially with sleeping. It's why I couldn't keep staying here. It was making me restless. Like I'd just have to get up and walk around in the middle of the night.

"The lycanroc body working out for you, though? Most 'mon tend to heal quicker than I recall humans doing." And he was pretty sure that didn't, like, imprint upon the human Wayfarers' souls.
 
Wes shrugged. “Sure. Works fine for me. Can’t say I prefer this body over being human, but I have to admit, the quick healing is a hell of a bonus.” His aches and sores from the battle at Terminal Two were already almost completely gone. “Evolving is an adjustment though. Keep tripping over my own damn feet. I’ll be glad to be past that eventually.”

He shifted his weight on his cushion. “So, you don’t like sleeping indoors, but a pokeball doesn’t make you feel confined? I feel like it’d be the opposite for me.”
 
"The balls are very, uh, ethereal on the inside?" Nova said. He was having trouble explaining it. Being tired didn't help. "I've been homeless for a very long time in my world. You live in the wild long enough, it shifts your instincts a bit.

"Judging from what Seth said, maybe you understand?"
 
Wes snorted bitterly. “Yeah. I do.” He’d spent many a night out in the Orre desert under the stars. Or in small canyons and caves. Or sleeping in ruins. But Orre was different—he knew where he could go for true solitude, for a peaceful night of sleep. Here in Forlas, not even the damn Haus was safe from homicidal monsters breaking in whenever they wanted.

“Honestly, being indoors isn’t what bothers me,” he said. “It’s being around so many people all the time. I’m not used to it. Don’t know if I ever will be.” He glanced at Nova. “I get the feeling you understand that, too.”
 
"Yeah." Nova picked the ball up and returned it to his bag. "Wasn't always that way. But that's how things turned out. And now I'm squatting in the old sheriff's place with Sage."
 
Nova blinked. "Oh, um, Forlas' native type: null." He flicked his head toward his torso. "We rescued them from Cipher. The Covenant had traded them for scrap metal and that tinkaton admin modified Sage to produce shadows. They became Cipher's... shadow battery."

Reminding himself of it made Nova's talons curl up, scraping the floorboards.
 
“A Shadow what?” Wes felt a shiver run down his spine. “Actually—never mind. I don’t think I want to know.”

He glared at the floor and growled. “Bastards. The sooner we can find Terminal One and shut it down for good, the better.”
 
"Agreed," Nova said. "Though the Covenant's hands aren't clean in this, either." He shook his head. "The fact that they could build Sage in the first place is worrying."
 
Right. The Covenant. Nova had mentioned them a moment ago. “Damn, I’d almost forgotten about those assholes.” Wes’s lip curled. “Of course they were in league with Cipher to some extent. Scorching hypocrites.”

He shook his head with a sigh, suddenly feeling very tired. “Guess we still have a whole lot of work to do, don’t we?”
 
"Yeah..." Nova shifted his weight nervously. "Is it strange for you? Fighting other humans directly, instead of through pokémon partners?"
 
Wes chuckled. “Only a little. I got into my share of direct scraps in my world, so the fighting isn’t exactly new. Being able to launch rocks around and use elemental attacks, though? That was maybe a small adjustment.” He grinned. “Not that I’m complaining. There’s definitely something…something there that makes battling even more exciting in this form. Maybe it’s a Pokémon aura thing, I don’t know. But it’s cool as hell, in my opinion.”

He stopped with a blink, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed. Gods, he really needed to stop acting like such an overeager child the second battling was mentioned. “Er—sorry. Battling was…is…one of the few things I actually enjoy as a human. But not everybody feels that way, probably.”
 
"It could be a mix," Nova said, shrugging. "There is... something to be said for the connection between humans and pokémon. That it can... raise our potential. At least, my creator back home thought that way..."

He looked down at the dirty tracks he'd left on the floor. "It makes me wonder if that's the case here. If people like me, Mhynt, Astrid, and Grace are getting strong so quickly because we're offworlders... or because we got brought here with you guys."
 
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