Whispers of Koa and Archie

[Weazel]

The Dewott leaned forward, resting his arm on the barrier as he tried to get a closer look at just what was going on up inside the temple. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the second Koa put his hand against the barrier too. Was it being impeded same as he was? Could it be impeded in such a fashion? His attention was quickly dragged back to the scene in front of him.

Portals in the sky, ringed by red chains. The void in his stomach, the place where shadow gathered, gnawed at his insides as he watched it. He didn’t need to ask what was going on to know it was bad. He was watching a world on the precipice of its end.

"Try... get out of there. Ignore-"

He glanced back at the storm behind him. The world beyond this peak might as well not exist. He clenched his fist, and looked back at the human standing beside him.

“You know, Koa, once upon a time, I was in a situation not unlike this one,” he said, more to the human than to the Electrike. For him, there hadn’t been a happy ending that day. “Koa… When you were confronted by the end of your world on the summit of Mt. Coronet, what did you do?”

 

[Tetra]

“You know, Koa, once upon a time, I was in a situation not unlike this one. Koa… When you were confronted by the end of your world on the summit of Mt. Coronet, what did you do?”

"Nothing..." The wind howled, and it was impossible to tell if the words had come from the Electrike Koa or the human one next to Archie. But the bitter shame in his words was plain.

"...please... it's not real..."

Whose voice was that? The sight before Archie shifted and distorted again. Now he could see silhouettes of pokemon within the portals, bound by the chains. Their forms were hazy and indistinct but enough to recognize vaguely, to know these had to be some kind of legendary pokemon. Before them, the scene seemed to grow still, briefly frozen in time, like someone had hit pause on a show. A man, a boy, and chains.

Beside Archie, both Koa's gaze was fixed on the figure of the leader...

 

[Weazel]

“Nothing, huh?” The Dewott hummed. There was no judgment to his tone. If anything, Archie sounded almost wistful.

He leaned back on his heels, paws in his coat pockets, and looked up at those portals again. The shapes within were ensnared by the red chains. He didn’t know these Pokemon specifically; he probably didn’t need to.

“As for me, I ran,” he said, the chuckled, bitterly. “I guess that makes me a coward. There was nothing I could have done, but… Thinking about that last day still fills me with shame. Sometimes I wonder, if I could go back and do it all again, what would I do differently?”

He glanced up at the human beside him, “How about you? Would you do things different, the second time around?”

 

[Tetra]

Pressure. Chains tightened and the enslaved legends thrashed and cried out noiselessly. Movement from the figures. Voices. Indistinct, muffled. In the background a crackling murmur. Was that the TV from earlier?

Beside Archie, Koa seemed stuck, caught in some war between emotions. Strangely, he appeared younger now. Or perhaps, he had always been? "Can't... st... him. N... gh. Why..." The words were distorted. Hard to hear. Had he heard Archie or was it just a phatasm like before? His gaze was fixated on the scene playing out. On the figure at the head of it all. of all the figures, his was the clearest.

"Archie... -ungeon... tricking us... -.. playing games. -find...way out..."
If he'd heard anything of what Archie said, it was hard to tell. The voice sounded confident, but was it a mask?​

How much was real or memory or trick? Dungeon deception or a vision? The scene felt like a movie still, playing towards some inevitable end. The pressure was almost smothering, no longer just pressing down but ever so slightly pulling. Like standing at the lip of a yawning slope, the world bending towards one singular point.

That figure...

He turned around, hands folded behind him, studying, his gaze glossing over Archie to land on Koa. For a moment, it felt as time and space came to standstill. His gaze cold and analytical, evaluating Koa. Then he reached out with his hand and beckoned to him.

 

[Weazel]

It was starting to seem almost like the whole thing was breaking down around him. The crackling static-y noise went well with the snow that hemmed him in. Like he was trapped in the middle of an old analog broadcast. Koa wanted him to find a way out, so the Dewott reached out again, and felt the barrier between him and the temple. The only way forward was blocked, he couldn’t go back the way he came either. The only thing left to him was to watch.

“It’s okay if you’re scared,” Archie said, looking over to the now younger looking human beside him. He traced the boy’s vision to the man at the center of it all. The one standing before the chained and thrashing Legendaries. There was nothing behind that man’s eyes. The Dewott pushed on the barrier again.

“Seems like he wants you to join him,” he said. “Did you?”

 

[Tetra]

Soft. Strained. "No."

Behind the screen, the man still stood, waiting. Expectant.

Almost frozen, and yet there was the slightest ruffle of spiked hair and moving clothes. A moment, caught in time. Had this actually happened like this? The world contorted around the figure, yawning and stretching, bending around the him. With a still impassive expression, the mysterious figure remained, waiting.

More pressure, tugging, drawing towards that centerpoint. Inevitable. Koa reached out, briefly brushing the barrier. It felt thinner now. He looked torn, as if he were about to step forward, as if he couldn't stop. The figure watched.

"...need to end this. -testing us. Find... break the-"
​

 

[Weazel]

"...need to end this. -testing us. Find... break the-"

Break what? The Dewott knocked on the barrier again. Could he break this? With the snow and the noise, it almost could be a big TV screen. If he conceptualized it like that, breaking it should be well and truly possible. Well, there was only one way to find out. The Dewott drew one of his scalchops, and focused. He summoned up the orange, Fighting Type energy, extending it from the edge of the blade. It seemed only suitable.

“You know, if you don’t like what’s on, you could always try changing the channel.”

The Dewott swung.

Archie used Sacred Sword!

 

[Tetra]

CRASH!

Cracks spiderwebbed the invisible screen, scattering the image of the man, Luxray trainer and enslaved legends into a thousand microimages. And then it shattered. Fragments of nothing fell to the snowy ground.

The barrier was gone, but for some reason the scene before them had changed.

Chains still controlled the legends but gone was the doppleganger Luxray trainer. No longer was the leader facing them, hand outstreched. Instead his back was to them, appraising his work with cold satisfaction, as that was how he'd been all along. And still, Koa's gaze remained fixed on that figure, who now ignored him.

Was this another trick, or somehow the real version? Why had it changed?

Around them, the wind howled. Koa started forward, as if to call out, but the Figure didn't move. For some reason he remained at the center of it all...

 

[Weazel]

So behind the barrier, the scene had been different all along, had it? Interesting. But what caused that difference? Was one version more true than the other? Were they both false? Or were they both true, from a certain perspective? Did it ultimately matter?

He strode forward, drawing his second scalchop. With some focusing, he brought his Razor Shell back to the forefront of his mind, and called the blue Water Type energy to his second shell. The Dewott eyed the two women warily, wondering if they’d try to impede his progress the same way the doppelganger Koa had. He was ready for it if they were.

“You know, someone really smart once told me: There’s no such thing as a universal objective truth. Truth always comes in the context of a story. How and when a truth is revealed matters. How that truth is framed matters. So I have to ask,” he clashed his blades together with a flourish, glancing from the redhead, to the purple haired woman, to the back of the spike haired man at the center of it all. “What story are you trying to tell me?”

 

[Tetra]

Neither of the two women made to stop him, or even acknowledged him. They seemed unaffectd, utterly focused on the unfolding scene.

The Figure spoke, his voice flat. Impersonal. "A perfect world, free from meaningless human strife. From flaw. From imperfection." Talking to himself? It didn't sound like he was talking to Archie... Perhaps reciting a mantra...

At the declaration, Koa stiffened. Bothered. Wounded. Yet the Figure made no effort to acknowledge him. Not as if he didn't know, but as if Koa were no factor. Tension strained the air, like an invisible chain snaking between them, shackling Koa. Binding.

A tremble rippled through reality. If there was a story to be told, what was it? Trick or not, there had to be a reason for the experiences. A truth.

 

[Weazel]

From the top of the stairs, Archie looked from the man, to Koa, and back again. What was important for him to be taking away here. What context was this story being told to him in? It couldn’t be anything the man himself was saying – he might as well have been babbling nonsense. It couldn’t be anything about the women or the Legendaries, they were all hazy and indistinct, rough around the edges. Only Koa and the man himself were in sharp focus. There was some kind of connection between them, then, something that Koa considered shameful enough that he would try to convince Archie to look away from.

“Koa, the man who summoned the Legendaries on Mt. Coronet. Who was he to you?”

 

[Tetra]

Pressure, pressing inwards, sky and earth straining, the whole world holding its breath...

Silence.​

Had Archie's words not gone through? Or had Koa simply not answered? Around Archie, nothing moved.

 

[Weazel]

“Koa?” He sighed, “It’s not going to let me leave unless you open up.”

He looked around again. Was there anything else he could do? Anything else he could affect? He looked at the man again, then down at the scalchops he still held in his paws. He’d never consider doing this to a real person… But this wasn’t real.

The Dewott twirled his blades, and sliced them through the spiky haired man.

Archie used Razor Shell and Sacred Sword!

 

[Tetra]

Inky sludge splattered from the where Archie struck and pooled on the ground. Not blood, just some kind of dark substance... the substance gathered and pooled before reforming back into a spike-haired figure. The Luxray-trainer? Not quite... Similar to before yet so much like the Figure, the one enslaving the legends, the one trying to undo the universe itself. Why had he seemed so similar?

"I, Cyrus, welcome a new world. A Perfect one, free of human spirit." More rote word fro the figure.
​

Snap. The pressure abated momentarily and everything lurched back into its starting place. Cyrus, back to normal, observing the chained legends, hands folded and a pleased yet disaffected expression on his face. Words spoken about a perfect new world. Koa, where he stood before, his gaze hollow. Overhead, the sky breaking under the power of the legends.

​

The silence thickened around Archie, almost suffocating.

"

A sense of a word, or words, spoken yet unheard. Was the dungeon blocking him? Had Koa even heard Archie? Whatever Koa had said, if he'd spoken, was lost. The wind picked up again, howling around the mountain, swallowing up any sound. Koa started to move forwards, toward Cyrus. As if caught in a trance, resigned.

It was as if everything was happening again, stuck on repeat.

 

[Weazel]

Archie sighed, dismissing the aura blades from his shells and returning them to his hips. Seemed like he wasn’t going to be able to brute force this. The Dewott looked between the man – Cyrus, he felt like he’d heard that name before – and Koa. The whole thing seemed so rote, almost formulaic. Maybe living through his own universe dying desensitized him. Maybe repeating the scene a second time took the edge off.

“Alright Koa, so what’s the shameful secret I’m being forced to realize about you here,” he said, looking between Cyrus and the human Koa again. There was a similarity there, he had to admit. It seemed almost too simple, but, then, a parent was a child’s whole world, weren’t they? Looking at Koa again, he gestured at Cyrus over his shoulder, “Is it that this kook's your dad?”

 

[Tetra]

"A r - I-"
A whispering wail of wind like someone trying to call out, maybe Koa, but so muffled, supressed. More work of the dungeon then...
​

The Koa with Archie stopped walking, staring down at the snow piling up, at the footprints leading towards Him. Cyrus. For the first time, Koa looked at Archie and seemed to see him. A nerve, struck raw, hollow distress in his eyes. Fear and shame and anger. His gaze shifted between Archie and Cyrus until he shrank back, looking away. The legendaries overhead cried out, this time their pain heard. Cracks appeared in the air itself, jagged rips of light and dark, reality splitting at the seams.

"I couldn't..."​

That one sounded like the Koa beside Archie.

" "
More muffled words swallowed up by the dungeon.
​

Before Archie, the scene kept playing, past the point when Archie had struck out at Cyrus. Cyrus form wavering unnaturally. The dark inky splotch from before remained, and began to grow, oozing slowly outward. A pile of pure dark nothing, like a pit. Two searing red eyes appeared inside. And then a jagged draconic shape rose from the puddle, a dripping dark sludge. Ragged wings covered in darkness, spreading wide and blotting out the sky. Eerie red striped its sepetine body and shone in its dispasionate gaze.

Balls of ghostly power fired from the pokemon shattered the chains around the two legendaries. With matching cries, they vanished into the craks of the universe. Then the shadowy pokemon turned its baleful gaze upon first Koa, then Cyrus. With a cry that cut right to the bone, to the soul, the pokemon spread its wings and dove down, engulfing Cyrus in darkness. The puddle of dark ooze shrank until it faded, until nothing at all remained.

No Galactic members. No chained legends. No Cyrus. Just Koa, standing, anguish in his eyes, his arm lingering and outstretched, as if to stop Cyrus. To stop his father.

"Why..." Why wasn't I enough?​

His arm dropped to his side and he cast one final glance at Archie, his gaze empty, before he too faded away. All that remained was Archie, standing alone in the empty temple ruins. This time, it didn't repeat.

That was the truth then, torn from Koa's soul and bared before Archie.

​

 

[Weazel]

So, that was the truth of it, then? Koa’s dad was some kind of doomsday cult leader. Suddenly it made sense why the Electrike had been so bent out of shape about Ein, seeing the man as a Manectric had probably hit too close to home. As reality began to fall apart in front of them, Archie could do nothing but watch. Koa hadn’t said anything about his universe ending. But then Koa also never told him his father was a lunatic…

Only, the world didn’t end, after all. The last second intervention of a being draped in cloying shadow freed the captured Legendaries. He decided then he couldn’t watch any longer, as the oozing shadow monster loomed over Cyrus, and his own inner shadow gnawed at the pit it had formed in his stomach, he looked away, towards Koa. Saw the anguish and horror in the trainer’s eyes. When he looked back, Cyrus and the monster were gone.

“Some people are beyond saving,” he said, glancing up at the trainer. It was a callous thing to say, and he hated himself for saying it, but how else could he put it? The way that Cyrus had spoken, the lengths he was willing to go to. How did you even begin to walk someone back from that? The human Koa had nothing left to say to him, simply vanishing, and leaving the Dewott alone on the peak of Mt. Coronet. He looked around, but he found no sign of any exit.

What was he meant to do now?

<><><><><><><>​

 

[Weazel]

Around Koa, the dungeon walls seemed to shift, twisting and crawling all around him. The temperature seemed to drop rapidly, until it started to feel more like the Electrike had been the one standing at the peak of Mt. Coronet. Then, he was plunged into darkness…

When the light returned, it was cast by a single weak florescent. The ruin Koa found himself in might’ve been a Pokemon Center, once. Broken tiles underfoot promised injury if he didn’t watch his step. In the corner, an upturned table and scattered chairs suggested the remains of a rest area. Across the room from that, coins scattered across a counter from a broken cash register glinted in the dim light. Shelves stood behind the counter, at one point they’d been stocked full of every essential a trainer could hope for. Now they were picked bare.

Behind Koa was another counter, this one where the attending nurse would accept one’s weary Pokemon. The nurse was gone now, and the machines they operated were in pieces. The counter had been framed by stairs once, leading up to a second floor meeting place, and then further on to the rooms for trainers looking to spend the night. Both sides had been blocked by fallen debris. Outside, through the broken windows that wrapped around the building, Koa could see similar ruined buildings to either side, and out ahead of him, an ice choked port.

Above, the sun burned weakly in a pitch black sky…

 

[Tetra]

Koa had been standing stock still on the empty dungeon floor, scraps of Archie's voice still ringing in his mind, his thoughts swirling endlessly no matter how much he struggled to bury it. He could have seen anything maybe he doesn't know- except he was sure Archie knew. Mt. Coronet. The.... the... man at the peak- "that kooks your dad? Some people can't be saved."

A knot of dread burned in his chest, strangling him. He'd been prepared going in for the dungeon to mess with his mind. To face his demons himself, and to rescue Brisa. Not for it to expose him to someone else, lay everything bare to-

Sucking in a breath, he forced down the turbulent storm of thoughts, burying it, burying it, he needed to focus- Brisa. Brisa-

Around Koa, the dungeon walls seemed to shift, twisting and crawling all around him. The temperature seemed to drop rapidly, until it started to feel more like the Electrike had been the one standing at the peak of Mt. Coronet. Then, he was plunged into darkness…

A chill in the air cut right through his fur, like he was back home again for a moment. And then darkness.

Koa blinked, taking in the changed surroundings, his nose wrinkling in confusion. What... A ruined Pokemon Center? He glanced around quickly, desperately hoping for Archie, or any familiar face, even Isidora at this point. Nothing. Only empty and broken pieces of what would have one been a welcome sight. The path further in seemed blocked.

"Hello?" he took a step forward and winced as a piece of somethig sharp pricked his paw. He set his paw down more carefully, taking a step towards the windows. He wavered, then decided to head for the outside. Even if the sight of the dying sun and ice covered water made his fur crawl. Maybe there would be a trace of someone there?

 

[Weazel]

The center’s glass door was cracked and sat askew in its track, the top much further towards the closed position than the bottom. This left a gap in the bottom large enough for snow to drift in. Outside, the roads were covered in several inches of the stuff. The door looked well and truly jammed, but, as Koa approached, the mechanics whirred to life. With a mechanical groan, the door shuttered and ground its way across the track, until it was caught halfway along and stalled out. Just enough space for the Electrike to squeeze through.

Outside, the city looked no better than it had from within the center. Koa found himself on a wide avenue, splitting the port off from the city proper. Maybe one in every three streetlights still burned, but no lights shone in any of the windows of the still standing buildings. At one point, a great many skyscrapers stood proud over the sea. Now, many of them had been reduced to rubble lining the roads, closing off many of the streets leading away from this main port road. What buildings remained standing had pieces blasted out of them, and many leaned dangerously this way and that.

The flash of a distant lighthouse provided a steady pulse of light, at least more than what the sun and the lamps could provide, but there were no boats sailing. What ships remained in port were half sunk and covered in ice and snow. Looking left from the Pokemon Center, Koa might see the remains of a bridge that once stretched across the bay. A single set of footprints lead away from the Pokemon Center, and towards this ruined bridge, before veering off and heading down to the shortest of the port’s piers.

Three clawed toes and a lumbering gait, the shallow trail of something dragged along between them.