Uploaded 28.08.17
Chapter 7 is here! Sorry for the long wait, I wasn't able to write anything for a while and I'm trying to keep a bufferzone, just in case. I'm not too happy with the chapter title so it may change. Regardless, enjoy!
Chapter 7: Day 40 – Theoretically Homeward Bound
"Morning, your Majesty," yawned Sandshrew, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. As his vision focused, he saw her questioning gaze.
"Morning?" she asked.
"…How long was I asleep?"
Ribombee rolled her eyes.
"It's the afternoon, Drowzee-head," she quipped. Sandshrew took his position standing next to his Queen. The two of them passed the time with idle talk about several different things.
Their meaningless conversation was brought to a halt by the opening of the doors. A small pokemon, a Servine, from the looks of it, darted into the room. He swaggered up to the throne before kneeling.
"I've got a letter for her Majesty," he said. The smallest glint of a smile snuck its way onto Ribombee's face. She had a sneaking suspicion what this letter was about, and decided to act accordingly.
"Please hand the letter to my guard. I shall read it later," she instructed, using her authoritative voice. The grass-type handed the paper to the mouse pokemon who was awaiting it with an open hand. Without another word, the Servine scurried back through the doors and out of the hive.
"Well, Sandshrew? Do you want to read it?" She just about managed to smother the anticipation from her face. Sandshrew looked down. He breathed in, as though he was about to read it out, only to close his mouth upon seeing the letter. He stared at it, confused.
"What's the hold-up?" Ribombee had noticed his pause.
Fluttering to over his shoulder, Ribombee scanned the contents of the letter.
Mismagius, who had been keenly observing the scene unfold, listened silently.
"I-I can't read this…" he nervously whispered. He was met with a cacophony of unrecognisable letters when he looked at the letter.
"Really? It's a bit scribbly, but not unreadable," she muttered, looking at the chicken scratches on the paper.
"What? That's not what I meant. I don't know what each symbol means. I guess you pokemon have a different thing to humans," he answered in a hushed tone, careful not to alert the nearby ghost-type.
"This way, Sandshrew," said Ribombee as she began to hover out of the room with the yellow pokemon following close behind.
"Well, I put out a couple of feelers to the pokemon city a week ago. It helps to have friends in high places. I managed to get hold of an old friend, Metagross," said Ribombee, proud of her actions.
"It took him a week to respond?"
"Also, Metagross does nothing but work, so he probably only read my letter yesterday," laughed Ribombee.
"Anyway, the letter says that Metagross can help you get home. He's a genius. If anyone can help you, he can," informed Ribombee as she folded the letter up once more.
"So, what do we do now?"
"Well, we got to the pokemon city, silly!"
Flareon walked past the door at that point.
"Flareon! Just the pokemon I wanted to see," cheered Ribombee.
"I can trust you to hold down the fort while we're away, right?"
Flareon took a cursory glance at Sandshrew.
"Where're you going?"
"To the pokemon city," responded Ribombee.
"Are you going to trade him in for a better guard?" she asked nonchalantly.
"Sandshrew's staying, Flareon. Deep down, you have a soft spot for him, don't you?"
Flareon didn't answer the question, merely looking away and grunting in response.
After that, the mouse and the bee walked out of the hive.
"The city is just over the hill," said Ribombee as they disembarked from the hive.
"So… when you said, 'over the hill', you meant 'over several mountains'," said Sandshrew, out of breath after climbing up another hill.
"We're almost there!" she called, ignoring his comment. The pokemon city came into view. A sight of picturesque wooden rooves and stone towers enticed them onwards. From a distance, it looked like a cosy little town of bustling stone streets and antique lights of some kind lighting up each street corner in the dying light of the day.
"Last one down's a rotten Exeggcute!"
Through his growing exhaustion, Sandshrew curled up into a ball, intent on beating Ribombee at her own challenge. Movement was as quick and easy as the breeze as he descended the hill. Ribombee was close behind, her wings carrying her as fast as she could go to keep up with the ball.
As the town grew closer, the two of them slowed down, as to not barrel into a resident. Unfurling, Sandshrew looked back to see Ribombee catching up to him. He waved at her.
"We're here now," assured Ribombee.
"So, where are we going?"
Ribombee pointed at a large stone spire in the middle of the city. Squinting, Sandshrew could see various chemicals perched upon a stand on the windowsill.
Navigating through the thinning crowds of pokemon, Sandshrew squeezed through, taking a moment every so often to take in all of the sights. Vibrant market stalls. The smells. Freshly-baked pastries. The sounds. Footsteps on gravel. Sandshrew wondered why he didn't come here sooner.
A short trek through the streets, taking turns through the endlessly winding streets, Sandshrew saw the entrance to the spire. On several occasions, Ribombee had to look behind her and check that the ground-type was still following behind. Soon, they had entered into the spotless science lab. Sandshrew marveled at the modern architecture as well as all of the complicated apparatus on the shelves.
"Metagross? We're here!" Ribombee called up the stairs as she flew up the spire. A voice called out from the top.
"Don't come up, I'll come down in a bit!" The quadruped began to descend using the stairs, talking as he did so, "I was doing a fascinating experiment into the effects of telepathy in a vacuum. Interestingly, possibly due to the lack of particles between the two, telepathic communications are greatly hindered by the absence of –"
"– I don't understand a word of that, Metagross. Anyway, this is Sandshrew, the one I told you about," Ribombee said, gesturing the mouse pokemon, who waved from behind Ribombee. She rolled her eyes.
"Sandshrew, take a step forward, he won't bite."
Sandshrew did as he was told and greeted the Metagross. The Metagross raised a hand in return.
"So, I've heard that you've got a little problem, Sandshrew," said Metagross.
"Well, I wouldn't call it a 'little' problem, Metagross. Ribombee says you can help me, right?"
"Yes, err, yeah, I recall receiving a letter from Ribombee. Err, which one was it? Was it the one regarding the use of pesticides in the town's merchandise? I can assure, they are safe for bug-types to consume. Well, in extreme cases, they can lead to cases of diarrhe –"
"– It's not that. I…" Sandshrew looked around before whispering to the scientist, "I'm in the wrong world."
From above, the sound of a test tube being dropped could be heard as the building went silent.
"What? That's impossible! Implausible! Err… Beldermash?"
"Balderdash?" chimed Ribombee.
"Indeed, Ribombee. How did that happen?"
Sandshrew looked at the psychic-type, deadpan.
"Ah, right. Lucky for you, I've been doing some research into the existence of alternate worlds. The last few months have been really exciting for us as we've uncovered another world besides ours, residing in the same space but vibrating at a different frequency. These old tales about beings called hoomins –"
"Humans," corrected Sandshrew.
"Them, too! There could be a… a world with only humans! A world that has pokemon and humans!" Metagross was quickly get worked up thinking of all of the possibilities.
"Focus, Metagross. Sandshrew needs to return to his world – the humans-only one. Can you do that?"
Metagross scratched his chin, eliciting an unholy screeching sound at the sound of steel scraping on steel. He seemed to not notice the sound, however.
"It'll take some time, for sure, but…" Metagross considered how long such a feat would take.
"You know, it would take less time if you would allow us to… run some tests," said a voice from the stairs. Slightly unnerved by how the prospect sounded, Sandshrew froze before slowly turning to face the stairs. He was met with the sight of a tall figure, akin to a squid, with tentacled hair flowing around him.
"No!" All eyes turned to face Ribombee, "…It won't be necessary, is all."
"Malamar! Don't scare our guests like that!" Metagross scolded his assistant before re-focusing his attention to the duo in front of him, "I assure, he doesn't mean anything, err, mefirious –"
"Nefarious?" Asked Ribombee.
"– That's the one! He doesn't mean anything like that when he mentioned tests."
Malamar stood next to Metagross. From there, Sandshrew could get a good look at his deep yellow eyes. Eyes that seemed to glow with dubious intentions. Sandshrew shok himself from those thoughts. He was still frightened after his initial comment.
"Of course, of course. I trust this is the Sandshrew you described in the letter, your Majesty?" He eyed the mouse up and down.
"Y-yes, the one and only," she laughed. Sandshrew could hear how forced the laugh was.
"Well, I'd better get back to my research. The furtherment of our kind waits for no-one," grinned the squid as he strolled back upstairs.
"Now, if you'd follow me, I've already started on some preliminary research."
Both of them followed behind the supercomputer scientist as he went up the stairs. As they reached the upper floor, nothing but pristine white surfaces polished to a sheen could be seen. Their attention was directed to something in the corner. It was a small computer screen, half-buried in notepads adorned with the same disjointed writing Sandshrew saw earlier in the letter. Metagross briefly rummaged around the desk for a specific notepad. Seeing the correct combination of undecipherable handwriting, he picked it up with a clawed hand.
"As you can read from my notes, we've been analysing the ripple effects creating by things entering and leaving our world."
"Wait, there are things entering and leaving the world all the time?" Sandshrew asked, alarmed by this idea.
Ribombee grasped for another notebook, skimming through some of the pages as she went. Her skimming stopped when she found something unusual.
"Metagross, should we be worried by this?" she asked, showing both pokemon. Sandshrew could see a string of words, circled several times. An awful sound filled the room as Metagross scratched his chin once more.
"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, Ribombee. Things entering our world happen all the time. Just look at Sandshrew, for example," the steel-type dismissed Ribombee's panicked look.
Sandshrew's head whipped around to face Metagross'.
"I'm not the only one?" Sandshrew's mood perked up drastically at the thought of others like him. Maybe he knew them. The anxiety from Malamar's comment had quickly left his system to be replaced with child-like glee.
Metagross chuckled.
"No, you're the only human that's entered our world. What I meant was that several things of that mignistude –"
"Magnitude?" Interjected Ribombee.
"– Can enter our world and they have never caused a problem before."
Sandshrew tried to understand what they were saying. Being unable to read these so-called 'worrying' notes, Sandshrew felt out of the loop as the two talked.
"…In fact, if I can find it…" Metagross scanned through his notepads again to find another one.
"He you are, Sandshrew. That was the energy reading we picked up when you presumably entered this world."
Sandshrew looked at the piece of paper. He hid his sadness as he realised it was covered in writing. However, there was a small graph doodled into the margin so Sandshrew fixated on that. If that graph was anything to go by, his energy was negligible. Merely a small spike. Barely worthy of any notice.
"Actually, that's quite a small spike," muttered Metagross as he himself looked upon the notes, "You must be very weak here – no offence."
Sandshrew reluctantly nodded.
Ribombee fluttered over to look at the spike.
"That's quite a bit smaller than this, Metagross," Ribombee observed, her face slightly drained of colour.
"Hmm, so it is. I shall look into it. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure. I shall do that tonight," he looked out of the window to see the endless nothingness of the night, peppered with stars. Upon seeing the stars, Sandshrew yawned.
"You've been asleep until the afternoon, Sandshrew," giggled Ribombee, "but you do make a good point. We better head home. Send us a letter if anything happens."
As the two of them exited the building, Sandshrew looked behind him before speaking;
"Are you sure he can help us?"
Ribombee patted him on the shoulder.
"I'm sure of it."
"I can't even read his handwriting, Ribombee! And even if I could read, I'm sure I still wouldn't be able to read it!"
So, there may be a way for Sandshrew to return to his own world...
Note: I'm aware of the urban dictionary meaning of tentacled; I assure you, I mean the regular dictionary definition.
I liked writing this chapter. Again, I enjoyed creating the characters of Metagross and Malamar. Thanks again to my friend who beta-read the chapter for me. It looks like they enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Hopefully, the same was true for you, the reader.
IMPORTANT: There is going to be another short hiatus. I'm taking a step back to think about the plot. Don't get me wrong - I have notes, I know what is going to happen. But, the question is, how will the plot reach that point? The story is evolving in a way I did not predict, and I need to account for that. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.
