Whisper-wind Comb

[Tetra]

As Koa picked his way out of the center and squeezed between the broken doors, his mind scrambled to piece what was happening together. If...if what Archie had experienced was something from... he shuddered at the thought. Was this Archie's memories? Or was it someone else on the team's?

A dying world... That was what Archie spoke about. Supressing another shiver, he swept the area uneasily, taking in the ruined city. All around, haunted landscape of disaster and destruction. He could feel his fur standing on end and he kept glancing over his shoulder. What could have cause that much ice? He shuddered. Kyurem? Articuno?

"Archie?" he called hesitantly. Would Archie even hear him or reply? He knows who you really are."Guys? Is anyone there?" It was impossible to shake the feeling of being a trespasser. Swallowing, Koa followed the trail of footprints, eyeing them as he tried to figure out if they were familiar or not. And what had been dragged....

 

[Weazel]

No sign of life on the street aside from the footprints, and no sound to reach his ears except the mournful howl of the wind as it traveled through the ruins. Following the footprints would lead Koa down to the pier, and then perpendicularly across, where they dropped down to a small patch of land. There, the trail turned again, and lead into a large outflow pipe. There had been a grate covering it once, its shattered remains laid in the snow nearby, but now, it served as an entrance into the city’s sewer system large enough for a grown man to walk through with minimal stooping.

It was dry, now, thankfully. And, if Koa peered deeply into the darkness, his eye might catch the slightest hint of movement. A flash of something red deep in the tunnel, then it was gone again.

This time, when the wind blew, seemingly from within the tunnel, it carried words on it.

Koa? I’m here.

 

[Tetra]

Koa swallowed back the dryness in his throat. Get through the dungeon. That's what they had to focus on (What was he supposed to tell Archie? Sorry I'm in your head?). Bolstering himself against the cold he pressed on, following the footsteps as they veered off the pier and... to a pipe. Squinting, he peered into the yawning mouth of darkness, then flinched back at the flash of movement. What was that?

"Hey, anyone there?"

Sniffing the air, he tried to catch of whiff, a hint of something to expect. Given what Archie had... had seen... that didn't matter now turning back wasn't an option. Brisa. Get through, rescue Brisa, get out. And forget this place ever existed, forget what he saw deny everything to Archie.

And then Archie's voice floated towards him on the wind. A flicker of relief flowed through him. "I can't see anyone else. Did you find the others? I think I'm in some kind of ruined city... There's footprints and a pipe." Without waiting for a response, he started a few feet into the pipe, ears pricked and senses on alert.

 

[Weazel]

"...can't see… others? ...in some... ruined city... There's footprints and..."

Whatever he saw in the tunnel didn’t answer. But, as he stepped into the tunnel, an echoing sound did reach the Electrike’s ears. A rapid tap tap tap that faded with each repetition, as if the source was moving away from Koa. There was no obvious source of light within the tunnel, but as he stepped further in, the place dimly lit as the light from the entrance faded into an inky blackness. By the time the Electrike reached the first fork in the tunnel, there was no longer any back to go back to, the tunnel simply grew darker and darker until it faded out of sight completely.

“...Castelia, my home. I’m sorry... remember.. encounter there… hurt you…”

The words seemed to echo from everywhere and nowhere. To Koa’s left, movement and another flash of red.

 

[Tetra]

Koa was used to traveling but he was used to having his pokemon team with him, and here he'd gotten used to having other Wayfarers. Wandering alone into a dark tunnel went against his instincts, but he didn't see any other choice. What if Archie was here, somewhere? He had to help him.

“...Castelia, my home. I’m sorry... remember.. encounter there… hurt you…”

The voice gave Koa pause, and he pricked his ears, desperately hoping that this was somehow the real Archie. Castelia? Unova region. His heart twisted. So then was this the final days of Archie's world? At least it sounded like Archie could hear him, the way he'd heard Archie on that empty floor.

Hurt me? Archie had mentioned a doppleganger and-.... "I'll be okay," he said confidently. It wasn't fair to make Archie worry about him. "I followed footprints into some kind of tunnel. Like a sewer or something. I think there's something else in here, I think I saw something red?"

Squinting, he peered into the darkness of the left tunnel and started forward. Would moves work in a place like this? His pelt crackled with energy and he tried to summon a light.

Koa used Flash!

 

[Weazel]

"...followed footprints... tunnel... or something... something else… here, I think..."

With a dazzling flash, the sewer lit up around Koa. The pathways to his left and right illuminated fully… But the way back to the outside remained stubbornly shrouded in inky blackness. The movement to his left seemed to repeat, and this time Koa would be able to catch sight of just what it was – a shadowy figure in a blood red jacket. At the next fork in the tunnel, the figure ran from one side to the next almost faster than the Electrike could blink, vanishing out of sight around the bend. Again the fading tap tap tap sound reached the Electrike’s ears. The sound of footsteps, perhaps?

Archie’s voice bubbled up from between the cracks in the mortar of the tunnel walls surrounding Koa.

Be careful...

 

[Tetra]

"I will," Koa murmured, gaze still fixated on the path ahead as he kept moving. Who was that figure? "Hey! Who's there?" he called. The constant darkness behind him unnerved him, but there didn't seem any way to dispell it. And what was that noise?

He picked up his pace slightly, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever he'd seen. A human, or a pokemon? His mind burned with questions he dared not to ask. It would just cause Archie more problems or make him more likely to bring up whatever nonsense the dungeon conjured about Koa.

Could he even communiate with some kind of memory spectre? "Hello?"

 

[Weazel]

No matter how quickly or how slowly Koa followed after, the shadowy figure was always disappearing around the next bend once he’d managed to catch sight of it again. The figure was humanoid, though it seemed to have no distinct features aside from the red jacket it wore. Limbs that were more suggestions than actual flesh, a head without a face. It seemed fuzzy around the edges, more mirage than matter. If the figure could speak, it didn’t, simply leading Koa on further through the sewers.

Eventually, the chase came to its end once the figure lead Koa down a tunnel that ended in rubble. A nearby utility staircase lead back up to the surface. Behind him, the cloying shadow had creeped along the tunnel after the Electrike, seemingly cutting off any way back. No where to go but up…

At the top of the stairs, Koa would find himself in a circular park, dominated by the corpse of a single large tree and surrounded on all sides by the ruins of destroyed buildings. Here, the footprints picked up again, three clawed toes and a shallow trough between the feet, heading towards the tree.

 

[Tetra]

For a moment, as Koa followed the red clad figure, he was struck by an odd sort of nostalgic familiarity and he tugged at his brown jacket. Not so different from the color he used to wear back home. On and on he continued, still not able to get a glimpse of anything concrete, until he was left standing at a utility ladder, with nowhere else to go.

Koa sniffed the air as he poked his head out of the hole and pulled himself out. "Archie? I'm still following these footprints, through some kind of park... There's a big tree." And destroyed buildings everywhere. The fate of a world wrecked by legends... He paused to peer closer at the footprints, trying to glean something about what he was following. Not human, obviously. Biped, something with a tail maybe?

 

[Weazel]

"...still following... footprints... some kind of park... a big tree."

The dead tree groaned as the wind shook its limbs, each sound bringing with it a syllable of a word.

“Castelia Park… don’t go… please...”

The footprints ended abruptly at the base of the tree, where a small pile of rocks had been stacked together into a pyramid, the snow carefully brushed away from them. Atop the pile was a single, crumpled photograph, depicting two men and two Pokemon.

Taken in the desert on a clear, sunny, day, the skyscrapers of Castelia City could be seen in the distance. The taller, and slightly older, of the two men wore the uniform of a Pokemon Ranger, the bright red jacket contrasting sharply against the yellow-orange desert sand. To his right was a Krokorok, which eyed the camera with some obvious distrust. To the ranger’s left, the shorter and slightly younger man wore a blue jacket, though the large eye patch he wore over his right eye, and the hints of scarring that poked out above and below it, was probably the feature that most immediately jumped out. The heavy looking duffel bag slung over his shoulder and the set of Pokeballs clipped to his belt suggested the younger man was a Trainer. To the younger man’s left stood a Dewott, its arms folded, expression relaxed.

The two men looked similar enough to suggest a familial relationship, brothers or cousins or something of that nature. Both blond haired, though the ranger’s was closer to brown. The ranger’s eyes were amber, while the trainer’s remaining eye was blue. Similar builds. Koa didn’t have very long to study the image, however, before the ground began to tremble underfoot. The rock pyramid collapsed, the dead tree shook, and then a gaping wide set of jaws erupted from the earth, threatening to clamp down on the Electrike.

 

[Tetra]

“Castelia Park… don’t go… please...”

Koa stoppd in his tracks, cringing internally. It was all uncomfortably similar. Deja vu. Standing in the empty dungeon and pleading for Archie to turn back, knowing and dreading what he would see. "I'm sorry..."

He found himself glancing around, searching for something that resembled a way out, trying to decide if he could go back into the tunnel, or break the dungeon's illusion (except that hadn't worked for Archie, and Archie had seen-). He searched for something to say to Archie, but his mouth ran dry.

With halting footsteps, he drew closer to the pile of rocks. Tried his best not to contemplate what they meant ( just tricks from the dungeon), and peered at the photo. It reminded him for a second of Blake, and he felt a pang of homesickness. A Dewott, two humans... was one of them Archie? Or friends of his? If Archie had been the only one he knew of to escape... Koa felt the knot in his chest return as he wondered why the dungeon was even doing this.He wanted to ask Archie about it but-

He felt it before he saw it, a tremor in the earth that he wouldn't have felt as a human but with pokemon senses screamed danger! He threw himself backward and reflexively fired a blast of eletricity to stun whatever had attacked him. He stumbled then regained his footing, already readying another attack.

 

[Weazel]

Long crocodile snout, tan and pink scales broken up by circling black bands. Black beady eyes set within similarly black ‘shades’ made of scales. The Krokorok hissed as the electricity passed harmlessly over it, clawing its way fully out of the hole it had Dug. It squared off against the Electrike, tail thrashing behind it. It seemed to like its odds, perhaps due to the ineffectiveness of Koa’s opening salvo. So it opened its mouth wide and rushed at the Electrike again, threatening to Crunch down hard on the Electric Type.

 

[Tetra]

Great. Ground types. Was this somehow the same one from the picture? He pushed the thought aside to focus on the fight, a grin forming.

If this reptile wanted a fight so bad, he was happy to oblige. Good thing these were dark types. His fists glowed with power and he lunged just as Krokorok did, meeting the attack with a flurry of strikes of his own.

 

[Weazel]

The Krokorok snapped and bit, but the Electrike’s pummeling drove it back. Falling back to the base of the tree again, the Pokemon stomped its foot, sending tremors that tore up the ground. The powerful Earthquake uprooted the dead tree, sending it toppling over behind the crocodile…

And then the sun went out.

For a moment, the world around Koa was plunged into pitch blackness. Then, the light erupted into being again, shining brilliant and bright. But it didn’t come from the sky, it came from somewhere within the city. The Krokorok broke eye contact with the Electrike, looking off towards the source of the glow. Then it snatched up the photograph from where it had fallen, and ran off in the direction of the light. Once it reached the wall of debris around that encircled the park, another Earthquake collapsed the ruined building into something capable of being climbed over. Then the Ground Type went up, and over, and vanished out of sight.

 

[Tetra]

Dark, all consuming and complete. Not night but like light itself had been extinguished- He froze, hackles raising, trying to catch a glimpse of his opponent, to figure out what had happened.

Somehow, the return of the light brought no comfort. That wasn't the sun's light, it was something else. Shivers traveled down Koa's spine. The beast that ate the sun...

Movement snapped made him snap his gaze to the Krokorok, scrambling away. Somehow, it had to be tied to all this. Archie's pokemon? Or one of the men in the photo at the least. "Archie! Did you know a Krokorok? There was one here that tried to attack me, and it took this photo with it..." He asked the question before he considered it fully, then found himself regretting it somewhat. Prying felt wrong. Not that he had a choice, considering whatever this dungeon was doing to them.

Battling down a flash of anger at the situation, he started after the Krokorok at a steady lope.

 

[Weazel]

"Archie! ...know a Krokorok? ...one... attack me… took... photo with..."

“Krokorok? ...don’t remember… common... on Route 4... What’s this... photo?”

As Koa proceeded down the road, more shadowy figures began to appear. They stepped out of ruins, out from around alleys, climbed out of manhole covers. Each one in turn began to follow after the Electrike, until he’d amassed a sizable group. The direct route to the source of the light was closed off by a giant crater, forcing the Electrike to go around. Finally, he turned a corner, and was confronted with the Monster That Ate The Sun.

It glowed dazzling bright, as if its body was made entirely of light, almost impossible to look at. Four outstretched wings, two crystalline legs, a long tapered tail. Another crystal growth protruded from its torso, and its head seemed to float within a cross shaped star of light, regarding the world with mismatched red and blue eyes. Standing before the monster, side by side, was the figure in the red coat, and the Krokorok. Then the shadowy figure seemed to shimmer and break down, and in its place stood the ranger from the photograph.

 

[Tetra]

There wasn't much time to consider Archie's disjointed reply (another extremely annoying factor of the dungeon) when he spotted the first figure. He tensed, his ears flattening to his skull. It looked almost human, but not enough. Too dark, indistinct to make out. He dug a paw into the ground, expecting an attack but it didn't make a move to try and hurt him, just.... followed him.

Senses on edge, he forced himself to keep moving, one paw after the other. More and more figures appeared, drifting after him, never trying to do anything but always there, always following.

And then he saw It. In some way he'd suspected from the start what he could find here. This was Archie's world, and he knew enough of what happened... That still didn't prepare him. His body acted on instinct and he shrank back, barely able to open his eyes. It actually hurt at first, until his eyes adjusted slightly, and even then he couldn't stare right at it. Necrozma. Sun Eater.

Him. The figure in red and what Koa thought must be his Krokorok, facing down Necrozma. "Who are you?" Koa called out, not even sure if the figure could hear him. Archie had been a Ranger, hadn't he... maybe this Ranger was from Archie's past?

 

[Weazel]

The Ranger paused, turned to look back, held up a hand, palm facing forward. ‘Stop.’ Was he looking at Koa or at the figures gathered around him? Either way, he was distracted. The Legendary took advantage. With a single flick of its tail, the Ranger was smashed aside. The Krokorok roared, but didn’t approach, frozen in place by fear. The Legendary took no notice. Instead, it turned away, and with a bone shattering roar, tore a hole in reality.

The air in front of Necrozma cracked and broke apart, shattering almost like glass. Behind, a multicolored portal shimmered. The crowd around Koa surged forward. The Ranger, on his hands and knees now, held out his hand again, this time to the Krokorok. The command was silent, but Koa felt the words reverberate inside his skull all the same.

Keep Them Back.

The Krokorok turned to face the crowd. Its confidence returning, it stomped its foot. The Earthquake tore the road apart, the crowd fell back. Then the cracks proceeded up the side of a nearby tower. With a slowly growing rumble, the building pitched forward, broke apart, then began to collapse over Koa and the crowd.

 

[Tetra]

The sight of the ranger smacked aside so effortlessly made Koa wince and he had to remind himself that this was just a trick of the dungeon. Just a phantasm. He started to prepare an attack, just in case, when a terrible roar split the air.

For a single awful moment, he remembered another legendary, and another earth splitting cry and another portal to somewhere else. Was a human somehow behind this too? As the crowd surged, Koa felt himself stumble forward, pushed along. Digging his paws in, he braced himself against the tide.

"Archie! There's a ranger dressed in red and a Krokorok! Who are they?"

Keep Them Back.

The words throbbed in his skull and he grimaced, paralyzed by indecision and confusion as the Krokorok leapt into action. What was the ranger doing? And what was that portal? It's not real, its just mind games. The earthquake didn't feel fake though. What happened if he didn't make it through this floor?

A shadow fell across the ruined area. Koa looked up and his stomach dropped at the sight of crumbling skyscraper, teetering right for him. Keep them back or... He had to do something before he was crushed.

So he acted. Charged forward toward the Krokorok, energy surging through him. He didnt want to pick an unnecessary fight but he was determined to get past it with force if he had to.

 

[Weazel]

"Archie! ...ranger dressed... Krokorok! Who...?"

As it turned out, force wasn’t necessary. Koa charged right through the Krokorok, the Pokemon exploding into black mist as he passed through, only to reform back into the crocodile behind him. The Ranger climbed back to his feet just as the skyscraper completed its descent. Koa managed to get out of the way, the shadowy figures traveling with him weren’t so lucky, and quickly found themselves buried in an avalanche of rubble.

Unlike the Ranger’s command, the screams weren’t silent, and they were unmistakably human. Also unmistakable were the looks of abject horror on the Ranger and Krokorok’s faces. Necrozma turned its head to regard the scene behind it with disinterest. Then it flew through the portal. As the light began to fade from the world for the final time, the Krokorok ran to the rubble and started digging, as if it could save the people it had inadvertently trapped.

The Ranger hesitated for only a moment. Then he turned away, and ran into the portal. Then time froze, leaving Koa alone to witness the last second of Archie’s world.

Don’t know… Can’t remember...