Walled Gardens

[Chibi Pika]

Virga's feathers bristled slightly. Admitting to having fallen so far would almost be more humiliating than being in this form in the first place. What good was claiming the status of a guardian without the strength to back the words?

"No, this species is unfamiliar to me," Virga said, "but I was avian before, and always have been." Evolution would be an acceptable compromise, at least temporarily...

Nova had claimed to have always had the bizarre visage he currently possessed. Which left... the human-speaking Rapidash. (Her name... the psychic impression of foliage had lingered with the words of introduction.)

"What of her, then?" Virga asked, inclining her beak toward Leaf. "Is that form an unfamiliar one?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

The borb continued to glare at her as it chirped... something at Nova. She had to focus on what the graydian was sending to get the gist of it.

"No, I was human back home. But there can't be humans here—those are just the rules, I guess?—so I got turned into this when I agreed to help." She wasn't entirely sure the little Virga guy was getting all of this. (Or paying attention? Something still seemed... weird.) But it sounded like she had come here to help as well, so... "Same thing happened to us. Beetle said someone on Forlas was calling for help, so we helped." If it had been Beetle who'd called out to her. When exactly had they gone quiet? "But they always kept us connected before and did their best to explain... I'm not sure why they didn't tell you more, if they brought you here, too. We don't know... where they are."

 

[Ambyssin]

"No, this species is unfamiliar to me," Virga said, "but I was avian before, and always have been." Evolution would be an acceptable compromise, at least temporarily...

So, always a pokémon, then. And yet... not the correct species on Forlas? Had that even happened to anyone in their group?

"You must have a form that doesn't exist in this world, then," Nova surmised. "Whoever brought you here can only make a body for you of something that exists in this world."

It occurred to him that, as far as he knew, there could be a very small list of pokémon that fit that bill. And if Virga was on that list...

 

[Chibi Pika]

"No, I was human back home. But there can't be humans here—those are just the rules, I guess?—so I got turned into this when I agreed to help. Same thing happened to us. Beetle said someone on Forlas was calling for help, so we helped. But they always kept us connected before and did their best to explain... I'm not sure why they didn't tell you more, if they brought you here, too. We don't know... where they are."

So it was as Virga had suspected—Leaf was human. She didn't know what to make of this information, much less the rest. Some kind of... shelled insect had called the others here... but may or may not have been the same individual responsible for her own calling. But if so, then they were singularly powerful, able to transform humans into Pokémon, and strip the power from a legend. That kind of power was disturbing... most certainly a being that stood above the higher legends.

"Well, it seems we will need to locate this 'beetle,'" Virga surmised. Find it, and give it a piece of her mind.

"You must have a form that doesn't exist in this world, then. Whoever brought you here can only make a body for you of something that exists in this world."

"Perhaps..." Virga mused. In truth, she had never given much thought as to whether another world would have the same guardians as her own... mainly because she'd never had any reason to consider the existence of other worlds at all. "You said there were quite a few among your group... if you two were 'flung' here, then are the others likely to be in the immediate area?"

Virga glanced around the dense foliage in this bizarre, reality-defying space. Though their conversation had gone interrupted so far, some instinct was telling her that the area could not be presumed safe...

 

[Phoenixsong]

"You said there were quite a few among your group... if you two were 'flung' here, then are the others likely to be in the immediate area?"

"Maybe?" She'd sure feel a lot better if they were, because then she'd know they were safe. That wasn't how it'd gone the first time, though. "But when we were brought here, we did accidentally get scattered to a bunch of different places." All within a few days of Frontier Town, at least. This time... "I guess they could technically be... anywhere."

Part of Leaf wanted to press deeper into the dungeon. If they could just find the heart, they could use it as— oh. Right. No making or traveling through waypoints without Beetle to help them. It might still be worth it, though? The dungeon's heart was probably the closest they'd get to being able to talk to "world spirits"...

You're not in any shape to push that far into a dungeon. What use would— how will you be able to help anybody if some feral or phantasm kill— knocks you out?

...but she did still feel dizzy, and nauseous, and not gonna lie part of her was kinda missing the floor a little bit. Not... not just yet. It was safer to wait where you were when you were lost, anyway.

(But only when you could be sure rescue was even coming. Sooner or later, they'd have to do something.)

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Once Gladion had reasserted his sense of self after whatever Betelnet imploding had done to his head and concluded that, yes, Forlas was real and he was presently a Silvally, he was presented with the difficult choice of what to actually do with that information. He had no idea where he was, and his messages to the other Wayfarers were being met with silence. Something had gone seriously wrong with Betel's rescue.

This place was beautiful, and didn't seem obviously dangerous, but it had a creepy, abandoned feel that combined with the fact that the gardens were still very much alive made him worry it was a dungeon. (If it was, was it an old one, or were they finally starting to tear new holes in the canvas? Powehi would let him know that night, he had little doubt.)

He didn't wanna call out and attract too much attention to himself, but he did seem to have control of his Volition again. He crashed his RKS System, made himself psychic type, and started probing to see if he could sense anyone. That led him towards a few presences, who turned out to be Nova, Leaf, and a Rookidee he didn't recognize. Possibly a local?

To his dread, he didn't understand the language the Rookiedee was speaking. Because of course he couldn't. His connection to Betel was fucked. No translation. That would also explain why both Wayfarers were being real quiet. (Nova'd gone psychic too. Were they both being silent, or telepathic?)

He cast his mind out towards Nova and Leaf with a quick message: "This is Gladion." (A sense of relief not to be here alone bled over the link.) "I don't think the Rookidee has spotted me yet." (Accompanied by a shot of the world from his eyes. He'd tucked himself out of sight after spotting the bird.) "Should I stay out of your way while you talk to them?" (Or in other words, were they telling this local anything untrue? That would make it unwise to introduce himself until they told him what he should and shouldn't say.)

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf jumped when a different voice entered her head, but relaxed on recognizing the name. Thank god, or speak of the devil, one of those. At least one more Wayfarer who hadn't been dropped in the middle of the ocean or something.

"No, it's fine if you want," she sent back. "We already told her there are supposed to be more of us. It sounds like Beetle or maybe Auriga or someone just summoned her, too?"

She didn't say anything to Virga yet, let Gladion decide to come forward when he felt like it. She did have to ask him, though: "Don't suppose you've got anyone else with you?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Leaf's response came across hesitant, and uncertain, which Virga took to mean that these other 'offworlders' might be anywhere, and that the three of them awakening in close proximity was through pure chance. Wonderful.

"Well then, we must find a way to leave this place, so that we might locate your allies," Virga said. She still hadn't gotten over the garden having the nerve to forbid her from simply flying out.

 

[Ambyssin]

'It's fine, Gladion,' Nova said. 'Virga already knows there's multiple silvally here on Forlas.'

As he relayed this info, Nova used his ESP to try and sense if there were additional auras in their surroundings. He also listened to the sounds of the aqueducts and tried to follow the direction the water was moving.

'If we follow the water flow, we may find the dungeon core,' he said to the others.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion came out from his hiding place to join the group, and looped the Rookidee into his thoughts.

“So, this Rookidee’s an offworlder too?”

He had a bad feeling about this. They’d seen the fabric of reality get absolutely trashed, then he’d been dropped here and there was an offworlder he’d never seen before among them. Yeah, it could be a coincidence, but…

“You a new arrival? Name’s Gladion. Nice to meet you, I guess? Wish it was under better circumstances.”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Virga squinted at Nova and Leaf as their expressions shifted subtly with the telltale sign of one conversing psychically. But before she could say anything, there was a rustle of foliage behind her. The Rookidee spun around to see another chimera joining them in the tile clearing as though nothing were amiss.

"I see what Nova meant about there being more of you," she said flatly. Upon hearing his introduction, she replied. "You may call me Virga. I do not yet know why I have been called here and forced into this form, but it would appear that our immediate task is finding this—"

Virga's words cut off sharply as a sudden lance of anxiety pierced her thoughts, making her whole body seize up for just a moment. She jerked her head in the same direction Nova had been looking, her already too-fast heartbeat suddenly skyrocketing. What on Earth?

"There's... there's something that direction," Virga stammered. She could feel it, something in the back of her brain forcibly pulling her that way. But why...?

 

[Chibi Pika]

Somewhere else...​

Jade wasn't entirely sure how long she'd spent drifting through a hazy nothingness on the borderline of consciousness. Even as she gradually became more aware of the passage of time and the existence of her own thoughts, the idea of doing anything felt next to impossible. Even thinking about it was hard. No, she just wanted to lie down and not exist.

And yet, as her brain slowly emerged from the soupy nothingness, memories drifted to the forefront. An underground facility. Voices shouting over the radio. Creeping around machinery in a scene that could have come from her days on the Rebellion, if not for the silver Meowth by her side and the Zoroark bursting through the door, eyes livid. A wave of searing darkness cutting across her chest. Then the echoes of Betel's distress reverberating through their link, and everything melting into distorted light. Falling, falling, swallowed up by that endless sea, drowning in it—

Maybe she'd died down there. Maybe whatever happened to Betel had severed the thing that was keeping them all tethered to this world. Maybe this was just what it felt like having your soul flung across the aether, and she'd wake up in her own human skin again, if at all, and the moment she opened her eyes, those memories would vanish like a popped bubble.

Still, as the minutes (hours?) crept by, various sensations slowly came into focus. The scattered patches of sunlight across her skin fur. The light pressure of something tangled around her leg. The stifling humidity and the buzzing of insects. Her ears flicked in various directions without her input, reminding her of their presence.

Still alive. Still a Meowth.

Something dripped onto Jade's fur, and she reached an arm up to brush her hand paw against her cheek. It came away sticky, sweet-smelling, like nectar. What...?

Her eyelids felt like lead, but she slowly peeled them open, squinting at sunlight streaming down through a haze of green. She blinked a few times, vision swimming as she tried to get a handle on her surroundings. She was flat on her back, staring up at was was probably a canopy of trees, with some sort of red mass near her feet. And... everything kept shifting slightly. No, something was pulling her.

Jade reached down and felt around her ankle, her paws brushing against velvety plant-skin. A vine? As her vision gradually came into focus, she could finally make out the giant, bright red flower petals unfurling around a greedy opening full of nectar-laden tendrils, reaching for her—

Jade's eyes shot wide open—"what what what!!"—and her arms swung wildly, fiery claws tearing at the vine until it slackened just enough for her to scramble free, frantically kicking herself backwards for several yards until she collided with a tree. She lay flat against it, breathing hard with her heart pounding in her chest as the flower closed up and the creeping tendrils retreated inside.

Jade let out a huge sigh of relief and sank back against the tree, suddenly aware of just how badly everything ached. Just reaching for the slightest bit of Mystical Fire had left her arms feeling, impossibly, even more drained than the rest of her. God... just what the hell had happened? Where was this? Where were the others? What was—

Jade froze, staring at the thing she'd just noticed in her peripheral vision.

No... no way...

Lying in a patch of ferns was the inert body of a gold and silver Porygon.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"I see what Nova meant about there being more of you," she said flatly. Upon hearing his introduction, she replied. "You may call me Virga. I do not yet know why I have been called here and forced into this form, but it would appear that our immediate task is finding this—"

"There's... there's something that direction," Virga stammered. She could feel it, something in the back of her brain forcibly pulling her that way. But why...?

It was one third of what Nova had meant, at least. There was also Sage and… Neo. That fucker. They should probably set up some kind of Gladion Passphrase if once they all got together again, in case Neo tried to pull the reverse of what he’d just done over the comms.

“Yeah, whatever’s responsible it’s really not good news, so— uhh. There’s a what? Is that a ‘we should go check it out’ kinda something over there or a ‘do not get anywhere near that shit’ kinda something over there?”

Gladion, for one, was still feeling really depleted, he’d gotten trashed in the battle and the weird reality stuff had only made him feel worse. He didn’t want a fight, but also wasn’t sure he could afford to ignore a lead.

 

[Ambyssin]

Virga was looking where Nova was. So the silvally concentrated harder. Trying to sense something. Auras. Geography. He just needed a sign. He'd even take a middle finger.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Virga’s gaze was still fixed deep into the overgrown tropical foliage. “No. No, I don’t believe it’s an omen of danger…” Not that she wanted to disregard the possibility of danger in this so-called dungeon, especially while trapped in this form. But whatever had specifically caught her attention was not. “I feel myself drawn to it, as if it’s what called me here.”

There was nothing rational about this feeling, but the urgency needling at the back of Virga’s brain didn’t allow much room to question it. Without waiting for an answer, the Rookidee took flight.

 

[Ambyssin]

"Oi, hey! Wait up!" Nova took off after Virga. "At least let the big guys go first in case there is something bad waiting in there! You don't wanna be some dungeon feral's lunch."

 

[Phoenixsong]

"Sooner" it was, then. Virga'd already taken off in the direction of whatever she'd noticed. (Kind of a relief when she turned away, honestly. Nicer than being scrutinized like she'd somehow done something wrong again.)

It felt better to be moving again, in the sense that they were finally doing something about this mess rather than because she'd stopped feeling exhausted, because she hadn't. Leaf did her best to look as non-exhausted as possible, at least. Head held high, direct and confident, listening out for danger: every inch the seasoned ranger that the local wilds should think twice about messing with.

"What do you mean, it's like what called you here? Does it feel like the voice that told you they needed help?" Maybe she was onto some clue about what'd happened to Beetle? Weird that she was the only one who could feel it, though...

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Well then. That was a pretty decisive call to go towards whatever was happening. There was no chance in hell that Gladion was gonna let Virgo run off and find out whatever was happening on their own, that was too risky. If they were a new offworlder, then they were probably pretty weak.

He took off in pursuit of the little bird. Just in case they needed backup.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade scrambled through the ferns over to the angular, bird-like construct lying on its side, eyes blank.

"Betel?" she whispered, voice hitching in her throat. She put her paws to the Porygon's side, wiping a bit of humidity from the faceted surface, but there was no response.

'Betel, are you there? It's me, Jade. I-I found your Porygon body. Again. We're not in the lab anymore, we're in, uh... some kind of jungle.'

No response. Physical form unreactive. Astral form unresponsive. Jade was hit with the creeping realization that she hadn't felt any signals from anyone else for the past few minutes. None of the ambient telepathic chatter that had become so commonplace and easy to tune out that its absence now felt like deafening silence.

What... what would they do without Betel?

Jade's paws clenched, and she suddenly hated herself for the thought. Something horrible had happened to Betel and she had no clue if they'd ever wake up, and her first thought was about how this was going to make things difficult? Dammit...

They'd be okay, they'd be okay... Betel was... a world-spirit, right? By technicality... Even if something had happened to the Porygon body... they'd managed well enough without it for all these months, so...

Jade could feel a headache coming on. Or... not a headache, but a stifling pressure in the back of her skull, mixed with a vague sense of urgency aimed at nothing in particular. Not helping... Familiar, why was it so familiar...

She massaged her eyelids before letting her gaze linger on Betel for a long moment. Maybe... maybe she could find help. She had to find the others. If she'd been blown way out here, then maybe some of the others had as well. But at the same time, she couldn't just leave Betel. Even if an inorganic body like that wasn't likely to end up some killer plant's lunch, there was still no telling what else could happen.

Forcing herself to her feet, Jade experimentally gripped the sides of the Porygon body and lifted. Too heavy. Waay too heavy, even if she weren't presently exhausted. But if carrying it was out of the question, then maybe pulling it would work. With a quick glance around the immediate area, she spotted a particularly broad-leaved palm tree. That was as good a place to start as any.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Virga darted through the garden, still unused to this body's rapid-fire wingbeats, nothing like the broad soaring wings she was used to. (At least the cursed beetle had given her a flighted form.) She didn't know what she was searching for, but the pull was distinctly stronger in some directions than others (the same pull that she'd felt in her dream, as ridiculous as it was).

"No. Not the voice that spoke to me. Something else." Someone else?

She could hear the others following her, mismatched footfalls on the garden tile. Good.

The pull brought her to another clearing, this one with a small, domed structure at its center, the walls open so that one could sit inside while looking out over the garden. The support pillars bore a number of ornate carvings, some of them resembling stylized, two-legged canines. Virga landed in the clearing, rapidly turning her head in all directions. Close. It was definitely close by, but what...