"I can't believe you dropped Yamato!" Vergil snaps, his tail lashing and wings flaring open as he confronts me. "She was our only way back!"
"I'm well aware of that, Verge," I mumble as I kick at the ground and intently avoid his angry gaze by staring at said ground. "I wasn't expecting the portal to just suck us in like that."
Vergil gives a drawn out sigh after a few seconds and curls his fingers under my chin to make me raise my gaze toward his. "We will simply have to find a way back without Yamato or hope that father can use her to find us." He lets his touch linger, longing flickering through his eyes, then drops his hand back to his side.
"Ya think it'd be okay to explore a bit?" I don't sense any demons which is a miracle considering I don't have Rebellion on me. There's a bunch of wildlife around us though all of it feels kinda weird. It doesn't feel like the wildlife back home but I can't quite put my finger on what is so different.
Vergil opens his mouth to respond and then stops, his eyes going wide as he looks past me and up, right as the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Something incomprehensibly powerful has appeared directly behind me and I find myself unable to move. Not out of fear, but because it feels as if something unseen is holding me in place. Whatever it is, it moves me, turning me around slowly until I'm also looking at what looks like a huge goat. An alien goat.
"What manner of creature are you that you can so easily enter my world? You are human, yet something more." The voice that comes from this oversized alien goat sounds within my head, as if things weren't strange enough already, and it—he?—lowers its head to sniff at me. "Something that does not exist here."
"We're half-demons," Vergil answers tentatively from behind me. "You are not a demon but you are incredibly powerful. What are you?"
The hold that is on me vanishes as the alien goat raises its head and looks down at both us in silence for a moment. "I am what is called a Pokémon and I am Arceus, the one who has created everything within this universe. I do not know what a demon is but your nature, your existence, is upsetting the balance here. I cannot allow the balance to be undone." The alien goat-Arceus, who sounds very much like a dude, raises a hoof and then slams it down onto the ground. White-gold sparks arch up from his hoof, faster than I can even process, and slam into me—through me—without any warning.
Once again I can't move, but this time it isn't because of some unseen force, and the white-gold sparks completely envelope me. It doesn't hurt, more like I'm going numb all over at first and then a feeling of warmth spreads through me. It's pleasant, like sharing a warm blanket with my brother in front of the fireplace back at home.
"It is done," Arceus says after a moment, the white-gold sparks vanishing while the pleasant warmth remains. "You may roam my worlds freely without bringing an upset to the balance." I take a step back to stand beside my brother as Arceus lowers his head again, looking between both of us. "Go south on this road and after a few minutes you will find Pallet Town. The Pokemon Professor Oak's lab should be the very first building that you come across. He can help you get started on your journey here if it is something that interests you."
Just like that Arceus vanishes, not even giving us the chance to ask what he had done to us, and I turn to look at Vergil. He appears unchanged, even smells the same as before, but there is something different about his energy now. It's lacking that distinct demonic feel and is more like how Arceus' felt, if only at a much smaller scale. "So, that just happened. Wanna go find this Professor Oak guy?"
Vergil turns to me, face drawn into an unimpressed scowl, and stares for a very long and awkwardly silent minute. He manages to stay perfectly still, right up until he sighs and looks in the direction Arceus had suggested we go. "Sure, let's follow the advice of the insanely powerful creature that did who knows what to us on a whim. It couldn't possibly do us any harm."
"Oh c'mon, Verge, it's better than wandering around on our own." I start off down the road knowing full well that he'll follow me, a smug grin on my lips. "And who knows, maybe we'll find our way back home that much faster."
"This had better not be a fool's errand, Dante," he growls out, his tail giving an audible snap as he falls in step behind me.
"Will ya kick my ass if it is?" I ask with a glance at him from over my shoulder and give a casual flick of my own tail. "Cuz last I checked I'm up by one."
"I am well aware of the score, brother dear, and that we are due for our next match in two days. Do not even think that our current situation is a reason to postpone." Vergil gives me an incredibly pointed look, as though it was something I had been considering when it is the furthest thing from the truth.
"You know damn well that I look forward to our fights, Verge." It's one of the few ways I can be close to my brother without the damn ward activating on us and I want every bit of contact I can get. I know it's the same for him, that visceral want clawing through him as it does for me. I can feel the weight of it in his gaze on me. "Six more years," I lament, the tip of my tail giving an irritated flick.
"They will pass by quickly enough, Dante." There it is, that breathy, lust-filled utterance of my name from his lips that would have me jumping him where he stands were it not for this fucking ward. I swear he does it on purpose, if only to see me get all flustered. Well, not this time.
"That must be Pallet Town." It's a poor distraction if I'm going to be completely honest, but one with actual bearing. Several buildings have come into view, a total of five if I'm gonna get precise, as the path opens up. Four houses and what can only be this Professor Oak guy's lab up on the hill.
Vergil gives a soft, short noise of acknowledgement, choosing not to call me out on my attempted distraction as he moves past me and starts for the laboratory on the hill. I follow after him with a grin, my tail giving a wave, and let my gaze drift up to the midday sky. There's a few birds floating along high up on the thermals, more of those Pokémon things from what I can sense, and I can even sense some in the grass surrounding us. They're all weak, at least in comparison to Arceus, who is supposed to be some sort of god here if what he said is true.
"So what're we gonna tell this Oak?" I fold my arms behind my head, gaze dropping down to Vergil as we reach the foot of the hill. He pauses and looks at me, a faint frown turning down the corners of his mouth. "We could tell him the truth, ya know, since the alien goat told us to come to him."
He doesn't get a chance to respond because an old guy comes jogging down the path from the lab and stops short when he sees us. Vergil's hands twitch, seeking out a sword that isn't there, as the old guy gives us a rather interested look, more to the point the demonic features that are natural for us. "Oh my… Are you two Pokémon?"
"Uh, I don't know about that, unless that's what the alien goat Pokémon thing did to us with the sparkly stuff." Vergil gives me a nonplussed look at my stellar explanation followed by a shake of his head.
"Arceus—his name was Arceus—he was insanely powerful, enough so that I'm willing to believe that he created this universe as he had claimed, and he told us to come seek out a Professor Oak after using his power on us to change us." The next look Vergil gives me is somewhat scathing, as if to say that I should get the all powerful Pokémon's name right since we don't know all that he's capable of.
"Well, I'm Professor Samuel Oak and if what you say is true…" The Professor trails off, his expression serious for all of a few seconds and then he breaks out into a wide grin. Are his eyes sparkling? "I wish I could have been there! It would have done wonders for my research into Pokémon to get even the tiniest of readings on this Arceus!" Yeah, his eyes are definitely sparkling. Weird. "Could you describe Arceus to me?"
"I could draw him if I had some paper and a pencil," I admit cautiously and I swear the Professor's eyes start sparkling even more. I'm kinda freaked out by it.
"I have some up in the lab! If you wouldn't-oh, how rude of me! I haven't even asked for your names!" The Professor's excitement turns to embarrassment and he rubs at the back of his neck with an awkward smile. "I tend to get a bit carried away when a new Pokémon discovery is made."
"It's fine," Vergil says with a slight wave of his hand, seeming to be unaffected by Professor Oak's enthusiasm. "I'm Vergil and that's Dante."
"You are…twins?" Professor Oak asks uncertainly, looking at each of us in turn with a bit more scrutiny than before. More precisely the differences in our wings and tails.
"Yep," I answer with a grin, my tail giving a wave. "Identical." Well, maybe not anymore since Vergil's got four wings versus my two and then there's the fact that his scales are sapphire compared to my ruby ones. It made mom ecstatic over the fact that she could finally tell us apart if we ever ended up wearing the same clothes.
"We were identical," Vergil corrects with an exasperated sigh. "And we've just turned ten." After a second of giving our age he frowns while the Professor lights up again.
"That is certainly fortuitous! You can both apply for Pokémon Trainer Licenses! The training session to qualify for the exam is-oh goodness, I'm running late for the training session!" Professor Oak checks his watch with a panicked expression then looks down the road further into Pallet Town. "If you'd like to apply for Trainer Licenses then you can come join today's training session."
I give Vergil a look, my brother still frowning but more thoughtfully now. "Sure. We don't have anything better to do." At least not for however long we're stuck here.
The training session is a half-day long thing spent with four other ten-year-olds, all of whom had seemed more interested in staring at me and Vergil than they had in listening to the Professor. Well, if they can't pass the exam that had been given to us at the end of the session then that is their fault. It was easy, but then my brother and I have an unfair advantage due to our rigorous upbringing for the past three years.
"Ya think Arceus turned us into Pokémon?" Vergil looks up from the book he's reading, something on the different types of known Pokémon, and arches a brow. "We don't look any different but, well, your energy is different now."
"As is yours, Dante. It's not just the energy though, there's something else. It feels like I have electricity running through my blood." Vergil has always smelled like a storm, especially right after a lightning strike, but now the scent of ozone rolls off of him even stronger than before.
I bite into my lower lip, rolling around the thought of asking him for a small taste of his blood before outright abandoning it. The answer will be no, if only because our blood is an aphrodisiac for us and will make the warding kick in. So instead I concentrate on that feeling of warmth and find it sluggishly moving through me. As soon as I focus on it the warmth increases, building up to a raging inferno in the blink of an eye.
Vergil gives a sharp little inhale that draws my attention back to him and he's giving me a wide-eyed stare. "Dante, you're on fire."