Pokemon: Incarnation
Chapter 14: The Face of Melinda
"Melinda...I've been searching all over for you! Y...you're here! You're alive!" I said, crying softly as I picked myself as I ran over to her. This time it was my turn to deliver the hug, but she seemed perfectly happy to give one back as she held me tightly.
"Basil...can you calm down for a moment?" She said as I let go of her, taking a couple of steps back, looking at her curiously. It was still hard to believe that was really her after the turmoil I've endured for the last couple of weeks, not to mention how she looked nothing like the Melinda I knew, for obvious reasons.
"See this behind me? The full moon, with me standing right in front of it, and dramatically announcing the lyrical phrase to let you know who I was? Seriously badass, right?" She said, grinning down at me while posing dramatically in front of the moon. Strangely enough, she didn't seem to treat this as being a big deal, which seemed really odd to me.
"Yeah...yeah it was, wasn't it." I replied, my eyes still watering slightly before I saw her arms slump slightly.
"Right, now that the whole 'I'm so cool' thing is over with..." She said before suddenly looking way more emotional, and rushed at me swiftly, picking me up in a tight hug. "Oh god Basil! I had no idea you were here! When I got your note, I thought they were going to kill you, so I can as fast as I could even though the Expedition Club members tried to stop me since they thought I wasn't strong enough, so I bashed Layla in the face when she tried to stop me and ran as fast as I could to try and save you and..." She kept on spewing the series of words in one, never-ending sentence while she too cried softly.
"Hey, Mel'...it's a pretty scary place this, isn't it, but as long as we're together...I think we'll be ok. What do you think?" I said, my voice still shaking slightly. It took us quite a while to calm down, and it wasn't until Charlie tapped me on the shoulder that I realised just how long our tearful reunion was.
"I think so too Basil. Oh, Charlie!" She said, jogging up by his side. "Basil's staying by the way, and I'm not taking no for an answer." She said firmly, but it didn't look like he needed any convincing.
"Of course, Melinda. Any human is welcome here." He said as I joined them as we started walking back 'home'. I noticed that Charlie didn't smell of drink nearly as much this time, and he seemed to be almost completely sober right now. How pleasant!
"So...how's life been for you here? Pretty exciting eh? Well, aside from the whole Pale Communion people of course. They ruin this pretty fascinating trip, ahem, to say the least." Melinda said, her voice going from cheery, to rather ominous when she mentioned that horrible cult.
"It's, uh, interesting, but I think I definitely want to go home now." I said, chuckling slightly.
"Have you been to any other continent on this world yet? I think I want to see them all before going home. Make this whole thing a world tour." Melinda asked me, sounding considerably more relaxed about this sort of thing. How typical of her. I swear, if it weren't for me, she'd have dived head first into a series of bad life decisions. As much as I loved my sister, her impulsive nature often got the better of her, almost to the point that I wondered whether I was truly the younger sibling or not.
"This world is so damn dangerous though! One wrong move and bam! Dead! I went through two weeks of this to find you, and if you do something daft that gets you killed, I'll kill you!" I said loudly, grinning slightly at my intentional gaff.
"Hahaha, calm down Basil; I promise I won't do anything stupid. With you breathing down my neck, I'll never get the chance!" Melinda said as we laughed together. "Seriously though, we should really take the time to explore this world during downtime. This is an experience that almost no one gets to have. I mean, how many people can say that they've been turned into a pokemon?"
"Yeah but...I don't really like it very much if I'm being honest. Oh, sorry." I said, realising that Nisbeth and Charlie probably overheard me.
"No offence taken. While I'd love to explore the human world one day, as impossible as it'd be, I'd like it to be on my terms." Charlie said.
"Well, Basil hardly had the best introduction to this way of life." Nisbeth said, laughing slightly. "Had to save his life from a feral swampert."
"Wait, you've already met Basil?!" Melinda said, sounding very surprised.
"I was the first one he met. He stayed with me for just over a week." Nisbeth responded.
"Could have told me you know!" She said haughtily. "I thought saying my name was 'Melinda' might have prompted that comment earlier!"
"Hey, when I first saw you, you were fighting as if you had been doing it for years! How was I supposed to think you used to be human?! Well, if it makes you feel any better, you've been doing a far better job there than Basil. Besides, it's policy to stay quiet about human stuff in case people start attracting the Pale Communion. Oh, and a 'thank you for saving my brother's life' statement would be nice." Nisbeth explained as Melinda calmed down.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper there. Thank you, sincerely. I'm assuming that Basil went out of his way to make it up to you for this since the two of you seem like friends." She asked as Nisbeth nodded.
"He talked me into going through with this, and also managed to get Jirachi to put in a good word for me. If it weren't for him, I'd be back in my shack in Serenity. Glad I came here in hindsight." He said.
"Well, good to see he was never truly alone while he was here. Oh, Charlie, is there anything for me to do tomorrow?" She asked as Charlie shook her head.
"We've hit kind of a dead end for now, so just have some fun or something. Don't leave the grounds though, we can't have you or Basil getting another run-in with the Pale Communion, especially now that they know who you are." Charlie said while Melinda scoffed.
"Ugh, you're not my dad! Hahaha, just kidding. We'll stay safe, we promise." She said, while Charlie remained oddly serious.
"I'm serious; we can't afford to have you running off and getting yourself killed. We need you, and possibly Basil too." He said firmly before turning back to talk to Audrey, who seemed a little happier.
"Ugh, Charlie's acting like Nisbeth now! The horror!" I said, chuckling as we approached the grand clubhouse.
"Oh no! Someone wants you not to die for no good reason! I can't think of a worse fate!" Nisbeth said, chiming in. "Besides, you've found Melinda now, so can you please just stay safe for once?"
"For now. I'll be discussing what Melinda and I want to do next quite soon, but for most of the next day...I think I just want to relax and catch up with what's been happening with her." I said, smiling warmly at her, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing. "We do have a day off after all."
"I think I'd like that too Basil. Not had much of a chance to see the town from being all cooped up in there." She said as we entered the building as we were guided to our rooms. Seems like we were going to that secret high-ranking members only part, which both excited and confused me in equal measures.
"We made the room nice for y'all. We figured locking you in here would prevent any assassinations...sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable. This is a very well secured buildings, but we can't take any chances." Audrey said, leading us down stairs, and in spite of being the basement, it looked like the best maintained place. "Anyway, so glad you ended up with us after all Basil."
"You're awful keen on having me join you know." I said, looking at her as I picked out the smaller of the two beds. "And this was before you knew I was a human."
"Well, I don't like it when I see people not living up to their potential." She responded as I began to understand her.
"I feel the same way. Still, I think I'm better in more...human ways." I said back to her as she nodded.
"Part of the reason why we need people like you. Well, goodnight you two." She said, shutting us in our luxurious basement. Shame there wasn't any good vodka around here to drink.
"...Not gonna lie Basil, I feel like a bit of a slave here." Melinda said, suddenly sounding rather bitter. "I mean, I get why they're doing this to us but...you know, as you'd say, they'd get a lot better use out of us if they let us do our own thing."
"So, we're trapped here then?! I...I wondered why I even bothered badgering Nisbeth into joining these people..." I said, responding in an equally disgusted tone.
"Well, I don't blame them for it per se, but...well, you know why we were taken here, right? Wait...no, I said I wouldn't discuss it until we had some fun together. I don't want us to worry about it for at least a day." She replied, looking rather preoccupied until she smiled back at me. "I'm just so happy to see you again Basil."
"Trust me, ever since finding out the Pale Communion, it's been hard for me to do anything else but wonder how you were doing." I said, walking up to her. "I've not slept well, wondering if you were still alive or not, thinking that one way or another, you were ratted out by those bastards."
"Well, it's one thing the Excursion Club does well. They've helped me get to grips with combat, and I think I'm doing a pretty stellar job so far. How have you been doing?" She asked me as I blushed slightly.
"Uh...really badly...hence why I invented this!" I responded, lifting the stick outside of my bag. "This, right here, is the weapon! It has saved my life so many times and has brought death to many Pale Communion members!"
"Well, I am impressed! I always figured you'd be the sort of person to find such strange and wonderful solutions to problems such as them! However, how well do you fight as a pokemon? You're a meowstic, so I think you'd make great use of their abilities if you got to grips with them!" She said, lying down on her bed a couple of meters away from mine.
"...Uh...really badly. I know just enough to fire the weapon, and..." I said before I met Melinda's disapproving eyes.
"...And you expect that'll be enough? Look, I get that this might be a little tricky to get the hang of, but...well, you need trained! I wonder who could do that? I bet you'd need a truly great trainer to be able to teach someone like you to fight and unleash their potential! Hrm...I wonder who that could be? Why, I bet you'd need one of the best in the entire country!" She said as I rolled my eyes, knowing where she was heading with this.
"...You can't be serious! I should be the one who does the training! This is degrading!" I complained and protested against this, feeling like I was going to be degraded to the level of a savage pokemon.
"Such a shame...there's a lot of pokemon who'd die for the chance to get trained by me back in our world you know. Anyway, you're not getting a choice Basil. I'd be a terrible if I left you so unprepared to deal with the world after all." She said as I continued to argue.
"But I have the weapon! You think I'm unprepared? Go ask that nintetails and excadrill...oh wait, you can't; I killed them." I said as she shook her head.
"It's like you said during your short career as a trainer: Learn lots of techniques so you're prepared for anything. Suppose, for whatever reason, you don't have the weapon, or you're disarmed somehow – what would you do then?" She responded as I gave in and sighed.
"I guess you're right Mel'. If we've got nothing better to do, then I suppose we'd better start tomorrow." I said as I pulled the covers over me.
"By the way, you used these notices with some Rush lyrics. Quite clever but...how did they manage to drive you outside of town? From what I heard, they tend not to attack humans in public." She asked as I found myself being very embarrassed.
"Uh...someone did a very good English accent and insisted that we had to stay low and out of the way...not going to lie, it was really stupid of me. Guess I was just that desperate to see you again." I said slowly and somewhat unsteadily.
"Hrm...I'll remember to bring that up if you ever think I'm stupid." She said, laughing merrily. "Seriously though, I'm just so glad to finally have someone I know here well with me. It's been the best day of my life since coming to this world by far, aside from the scare when I figured out that the Pale Communion were onto you. I really don't want to have to go through that again."
"Me too Mel'. Well, goodnight." I said as I fell asleep quickly. While exhaustion made sleep easy to achieve, it was a rather turbulent one, as I felt slightly queasy during the night. Must have been from all the teleporting, since I heard it can make pokemon feel rather sick if they do it too often or over great distances. Still, a very minor price to pay to stay alive and find my sister.
Melinda woke me up the next morning, announcing it was time for a group breakfast. There were a lot of eggs and bacon going around, which I happily munched up, given all the running around last night left me starved. Looking around, I saw there were about fifteen of us in total, and from the way they were speaking and sitting, Jirachi and Audrey seemed to be Charlie's right and left hand pokemon in this club.
"So, have I essentially been strong-armed into this thing then?" I asked Melinda quietly as she nodded as she finished eating the bacon in her mouth.
"Preeeety much. Still, they said they'd help us soon, but I'm getting a little impatient. I'll go ask Charlie about it if you could book us a sparring slot. Maybe Nisbeth could join us if he's not busy." She said, gesturing to the toxicroak sitting to the left of me.
"Sorry, helping Layla with completing a couple of maps for most of the day. I can see you two in the late afternoon if you want." Nisbeth said, finishing off his meal.
"Should be fun. Anyway, Murphy's at that really cheap theatre. Can't remember it's name; you know the one I'm talking about, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, want me to get him too?" He said as I nodded.
"We're kind of trapped in here, so that'd be great of you." I responded. I still wasn't entirely sure how to feel about this, but I guess we weren't in any real danger of dying here. I was wondering how Melinda really felt about this though, since I thought she'd be hating this prison of safety.
"Well...I'll go ask Charlie about seeing if we absolutely have to stay here all the time." She said, even if I wasn't as enthusiastic about it. Still, she seemed alarmingly tough for someone who's only had that body for about a couple of weeks, so I'd feel safe enough with her as long as we didn't do anything stupid. "Go book us in for some sparring, would you?"
"Melinda, you know I'd never want to hurt you, right? I'm really hoping you'd feel the same way! I really don't want to do this." I said as she rolled her eyes.
"Well, that's kind of your first problem: You're not thinking enough like a pokemon." She said, tapping my ears. "I'll help you with that, don't worry. Anyway, go book us in and I'll be with you shortly."
"...Only for you, Melinda." I said, walking off and wrote our names in one of the empty slots. I briskly walked outside and sat on the bench, overlooking our combat field. It was just a patch of grass, which probably went a long way to redefining the word 'ordinary.' While I was really happy about seeing Melinda again, I was really hoping we could just have a happy day wandering around town, enjoying the local culture and doing whatever we wanted rather than have to throw our pokemon abilities, or lack thereof in my case, at each other. Still, I trusted her, and if I could learn of how she came to grips with her new body so quickly, then maybe it'd be for the best.
"Hey Basil; ready to get trained by a top level professional?" She said, pulling me to my feet, looking far more cheerful than I was.
"What did Charlie say about us being able to wander around town?" I asked, wanting to get to the real news quickly.
"Oh, he said we were allowed! Been some great news regarding the Pale Communion! The police found their Newer Orleans base and found a list of members across the entire continent! They're being ratted out and arrested as we speak! Now that they know who they are, they're pretty much finished here!" She said, smiling at me.
"YES!" I yelled loudly. "Those bastards finally got what was coming to them!" I felt so much better, like my struggles of survival against them had been vindicated even more now. I felt a little giddy, knowing that, while it was very stupid of me to follow them out of town, it was all worthwhile in the end. Just the icing on the cake, of course, now that I was with Melinda again.
"Say, since we can go into town now, can we ditch this practice?" I asked as she laughed.
"Not a chance Basil! You'll thank me eventually if we end up in a tight spot, and given that this world is a lot more dangerous than the one back home, it's just sensible to make sure you're prepared. Or, would you rather just wing it and hope for the best? That'd be very unlike you." She said, lighting both ends of her bone with that strange turquoise flame.
"Trust me, I've had to do it so many times to get here." I said, looking at the weapon in my hands.
"We'll be practising without that stick of yours. Yes, I can tell you're very proud of it, but just think how tough you'll be when you can master both that and your regular abilities!" She said as I sighed.
"Fine...let's just get this over with then. Just bear in mind that I suck at the basics. All the pokemon you trained were at least component when you first worked with them. Me? Not so much." I said, sluggishly dragging my feet until I was on the field.
"Well, I suppose I should assess how much of a novice you really are. This sandbag, right here..." She said, pulling one to the side. "Might as well see you at your best. Give this thing your most powerful attack and don't hold anything back."
"Uh..." I droned, staring at the sack, wondering what to do.
"Don't be shy, just give it your best shot. Try not to be too self conscience, though knowing you, that could be a little tricky..." She said, trying to encourage me. Problem is, I think she was underestimating just how useless I was without the weapon. "...Any time now, Basil."
"Ok! Fine! I'll give it my best fucking shot then!" I said loudly in frustration, forcing my ears up and overloaded myself as soon as I got within touching place of the sandbag, the force of the explosion throwing me a few feet in the air before I landed on the ground.
"...What." Melinda said as she helped me up. "I think that hurt you more than it did the bag."
"Duh, bags can't feel pain." I said, giving a nervous chuckle.
"Is...is that literally it?" Melinda asked as I solemnly nodded. "Now you see why I need the weapon.
"Uh...no offence, but I've seen espurrs who are two years old that have better mastery over their psychic abilities. I honestly had no idea you were that...bad." She said, looking rather down and lost about what to do.
"What did you expect? Those espurrs have been espurrs for two years, as you said. I've only been a meowstic for two weeks, so of course they'd be better! Actually, here's the real mystery: You've been in this world for only one day more than me, and you were hopping around that battle, summoning those strange fireballs, and crushing those Pale Communion members as if it was nothing! You could give Nisbeth a run for his money in a fight from the looks of things! How the fuck did it come to you so quickly?!" I said, not being shy to show her my frustration. "You told me to think like a pokemon, but I've no idea how! All I know is how to be a human!"
"Honestly...it just came kind of easily for me. To be fair, I had the people here help me out over the past couple of weeks, but...I'm very sorry Basil, but I can't see where I'd even begin with you. I mean, if you were a wild pokemon, to be blunt, you'd have been dead long ago." She said and sighed miserably. "I wish I could have helped you so badly. Only way I can think I could help you is if Jirachi helped you get to grips with the absolute basics, because from what I saw, there was no real skill in that 'attack.' You just kind of overloaded yourself with psionic energy, didn't you."
"Yup. Aside from that, I can move tiny objects with my mind slightly, but that's it. Still, it helped save me before, so it's not totally useless." I said, shrugging, though it seemed to cheer her up a bit.
"Please Basil, try to get Jirachi to help you at some point. I know he's very lazy, but if he's taken an interest in you, then you could probably convince him." Melinda replied.
"Right, can we just go have some fun in town now?" I asked, wanting to get this somewhat depressing incident over with.
"Well, since I can't seem to help you right now, then yes." Melinda said, clearly wanting to put this incident behind us. "Again, really sorry Basil, but I've never worked with pokemon who don't even have the slightest grasp of the basics of their abilities, so I'm at a bit of a loss for now. I promise I'll be thinking about a way I can still help you for the rest of the day."
"Melinda, you're going to forget about that for the time being. We are also going to forget about any future plans, because for now, we're just going to enjoy ourselves. This could be our last chance to do so for all we know, so I don't want to ruin it by worrying about shit that can wait until later." I said, leading her out of the club grounds. While she looked a little preoccupied with the whole failed training incident, she looked happy enough to finally leave this place and explore town. She seemed rather in awe of all of the surrounding architecture, the balconies shading us from the sun beating down on Newer Orleans.
"So, how's life been for you here?" I asked, hoping she had a better time here than I did.
"Well, it's been rather restrictive if I'm to be honest. I just woke up in this body and wandered around for a while. Naturally, I was very confused, but I bumped into Charlie, well, he bumped into me. Physically and literally. I told him I was human and ushered me into the Excursion Club and pretty much locked me in there. Still, he's given me stuff to do, and doesn't make me do any of it. Been hard at work training so that I'm ready to take this dangerous sounding world head on, though I suppose you'd know more about it than me." She told me as I started leading her towards the docks. I knew she'd appreciate some fish and chips, since the food at the Excursion Club felt pretty bland.
"Honestly, I'd rather have that than all the shit I went through to get here. Woke up in a swamp, which as you'd probably guess, terrifies me enough as it is and wham! A swampert tries to eat me alive. Be nice to Nisbeth, because he saved my life. Other than that, I've been working on getting my adulthood recognized by the people here, which I achieved thanks to the weapon. Aside from that, I've been dodging and hiding from those bastards that tried to kill me last night. It's been hectic to say the least, but I've got a feeling that you'd find that exciting." I said as she shook her head.
"Well...maybe a little, but I'm not that into danger." She said, chuckling slightly as we arrived at the docks. "Well, isn't this picturesque."
"It gets better." I said, pointing to the chip shop. There were two by the docks, and I was hoping this one wouldn't drown their food in salt.
"Ooh, it's been way too long since I've had some of this!" Melinda said, smiling and rubbing her hands together with glee. She ran over quickly as I followed her as we both bought some fish and chips and sat down on the small wall together. Seems like the nostalgic feel I had last afternoon here was now complete. If I closed my eyes, I could almost believe I was in Scarborough, back where some of the cosiest memories of my life were made. Just sitting down on a small wall at the harbour, munching away on some delicious fish and chips and spending a good hour or two chatting and laughing along with my sister. If I looked at her and squinted my eyes, I could almost see her as a human, just like in the old days.
"Ooh, I can't wait to go back home. This stuff's ok, but I'm really missing The Sea Catcher back in York. When we get back, I'll treat you to some. Looking forward to going back?" I asked as she shrugged slightly.
"I guess so..." She said, looking a little distracted by something.
"Guess you're wanting to see more of this world before going home. Still, this isn't exactly a holiday, and as fascinating as it is, I really don't want to die here." I said, giving a slightly uncomfortable laugh.
"...Oh, look. There's a museum just down the road according to the sign." Melinda said, pointing to it. "Have you been there yet?"
"Nope, but I want to go right now! Seems like a safer way to get to know this place." I said, wiping my hands on the wall to get the worst of the grease out of them before throwing the wrappings in the nearby bin. Walking there, we saw the museum in front of us, looking a fair bit bigger than either of us expected for a town of this size, but then again, it was probably the only one on the entire continent, so it made sense.
Paying our way in, we saw that it was rather quiet, with a couple of solitary people wandering around and examining the exhibits and a family in the corner, speaking quietly to one another. Looking at the panels in front of me, I saw many old and battered looking tools that were said to have belonged to the Broussard family themselves. Moving along slightly, I saw a few trinkets with the fleur-de-lis symbol on them, alongside many wild and inane descriptions of what the symbol could represent. Needless to say, with the butchering of Hamlet and theorizing that the symbol was representing Bonnie Broussard, I was beginning to notice an amusing pattern.
"Hrm, seems like they're considering making this the flag of State Broussard, though they don't seem to know what flags are for." Melinda said quietly to me, pointing to a plain blue flag with the fleur-de-lis on it. Looked functional at least, but it clearly wasn't an artifact: That would be the Louisiana flag right next to it, looking old, but in surprisingly good condition. To think I probably had more in common with these relics than just about everything else in this world, given we have far more similar origins. They said they had no plans to adopt that flag as their own since it would, in their eyes, somehow promote pelipper supremacy. This world really was kind of cute.
"So, you two tourists from Conviction?" I heard someone speak in a very thick southern accent. I turned round to see a rather creepy looking eelektross, but that description was kind of redundant in hindsight. If I wasn't startled, I might have even said that he looked friendly, since the pokemon was clearly trying, but, well, it'd take a miracle to look approachable when it looks like that!
"Yes." I said simply.
"Heh, bet you two wish you could stay here on the greatest place in the world. It's too bad." He said, giving a low chuckle as he waddled away.
"So, it seems like they already have nationalists here." Melinda said, laughing slightly before we turned our heads to look at a sign pointing to an ancient history exhibit. How odd, since from what I learned, all the civilizations here were very young, only being two or three hundred years at the most. Could it be things from an older civilization? I heard the ones that founded Conviction were older, so maybe there'd be some artifacts from there.
"This sure is ancient, even by our local standards..." Melinda muttered quietly to me as we found ourselves surrounded by urns, busts and murals that looked like they must have been at least two-thousand years old. Inspecting an urn closely, the handiwork depicted some kind of entity that resembled a giant, majestic deer of some kind. It was covered in many shades of bronze, and while it looked somewhat shoddy, it seemed authentic as it could be. I looked down at the description, to see where such an ancient looking artifact could have came from. According to the text, written by Audrey herself no less, it was found, along with everything else in this room, in a huge undersea cavern. It was sheltered from the water since the only way in is through a huge tunnel that leads all the way to the surface.
"Basil...this is ancient Greek right here! Look at the alphabet! There's theta, phi and omega!" She said, pointing to the carved text in one of the murals. "I think we both know what this means: Seems like humans bringing civilization to this planet isn't that recent a phenomenon after all."
"I guess Audrey would really want to hear this." I said, slowly walking around. Now, if I could read ancient Greek, then I'd already be a bit of a superstar in archaeology in this world! To think: I'd instantly displace that mawile just as soon as I arrived! It was an amusing thought, but my interests were soon captured by a bust of a human head. Guess this might have been one of the humans that came here in ancient times, or one of them at least. Its plain, pupilless eyes stared back at me as I inspected it closely, almost making me a little nervous. The hair curls looked rather expertly carved, its hair descending down to gently touch the back of its neck. There was a clear attempt to make this person look as dignified as possible, so I'm guessing he must have been revered by the population at the time. Looking down at the text panel just beneath it, I saw what Audrey thought of it.
"Not much is known about this human, but as far as we can tell, he is held in great reverence among this mysterious civilization, due to the way he is depicted on the murals. He may have been a leader or a legendary fighter of some kind, but we can only extrapolate theories from the limited information. Until we learn how to decipher their language in better detail, we cannot learn much more. However, I believe I may have been able to translate his name. 'Tarkus.'" I read as I looked up at the murals behind the bust.
The first one I saw instilled a strange sense of dread within me. Seemed like it was what the artist was going for as I saw a whole bunch of fierce looking pokemon at the bottom of the mural, all staring at the would-be viewer. They had a slightly animalistic vibe, yet it didn't seem like they were savage at all, driven by some higher goal that I couldn't understand. Above them was a wicked looking, of all species, snivy, staring in the same direction as those fierce looking pokemon with an expression of mad, sadistic glee. It seemed to hover in the air, but what was most noticeable about it was a pair of dreadful looking dull-red antlers growing out of its head that made him look almost twice as large. I couldn't tell what the black stuff emanating from him was, but it looked very unnatural.
"It is theorized that this mural depicts an enemy army, state or country or anything that is hated in this community. I can only imagine that they exaggerated the effects on this painting to make them look as nasty as possible. I also can't help but wonder how a snivy of all pokemon became a leader. His or her name may be on some of these ancient texts, though figuring out what they say is taking me a very long time. I will get to the bottom of this mystery eventually, however." I read. Seems like Audrey was hard at work here. I have to credit the artist for making that snivy look despicable though, since, even though it was rather simple, there was something about him that just rubbed me the wrong way.
There was only one other picture, and it was of a human holding a large spear in both his hands with strange white streams emanating from it. It was hard to make out any details on this mural since it was pretty basic, but I assumed that this must have been Tarkus, as he was clad in ancient looking bronze armour and a helmet with a large plumed crest on it. Behind him, that same giant, majestic deer-like creature on the urn was looking down to him. It was hard to tell whether this ancient Greek culture revered or feared this strange entity or not. The other noticeable detail was a fairly small pink thing hovering just to the right of the human. It seemed vaguely human shape, but it was only about a third of the size of Tarkus. It had a very long but thin tail and a rather large head. It looked friendly enough at least. Looking at the panel beneath it, it seemed like Audrey couldn't figure out who the other two were, but insisted that she was working on it.
"I'm starting to regret laughing people at university who studied Ancient Greek..." I chuckled to Melinda.
"Well, it doesn't seem like there are any Greek-inspired civilizations here, so I think the archaeologists will be at this for a long time." Melinda said, still looking around. "Says over here that the best theory they have is that the entire continent that they lived on sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Doesn't sound possible, but in this world, I'm still not sure what could be considered impossible."
"Well, I think we've seen pretty much everything here. The town's not that small, so do you want to continue wandering around?" I asked as she nodded and led me out of the museum. We passed through a market square, but we decided to be frugal since neither of us knew when we'd suddenly need a lot of money in this world. It was rather tricky with the enthusiastic sales-people and all these weird foreign stuff they had. Would be pretty great bringing some alien trinkets home with me to remember this wild adventure by.
"By the way Basil, I have a bit of a confession to make." She said, suddenly looking seriously as we wandered onto a slightly quieter road. Closing her eyes in inhaling softly, she finally spoke after leaving me in suspense. "...Rush isn't my favourite band."
"WHAT?! How dare you!" I said, pretending to be horrified, playing along with the hilariously-forced dramatics of the situation.
"Haha, it's Yes." She said as I shook my eyes, a wide grin cracking on my face as I tried not to laugh.
"Ah, you know why we're both unfairly biased towards them. Anyway, speaking of being overly-dramatic, this street we're about to enter has a lot of theatres. This is where Murphy, the other friend I met here, ended up." I said as we walked by a couple of theatres. "He ended up in this crappy looking one. I helped him out in his audition. They were doing...'Hamlet'" I said, gesturing the quotation marks with my hands.
"So, it's Hamlet but really bad?" She asked as I nodded.
"Murphy seemed to think it was fine, and he threw everything into the practice regardless. I mean, he's not good enough to make the play work, but I don't think anyone could make it good. It's that bad." I said as she looked at a couple of posters.
"Seems like they're putting it on tonight." She said as I looked at the poster.
"So how the fuck is Murphy supposed to perform after only a day of studying the script? No wonder they suck! Damn, I hope he gets to a better place soon!" I said, shaking my head in disgust.
"We should go see it regardless. If anything, it'd be funny to watch them fail." Melinda said, grinning slightly. "It'll be on in a couple of hours, then we can return to the Excursion Club."
"Well, it'd make Murphy happy to see me in the audience. He's a really friendly guy, you'll get along well with him, even if he is a bit juvenile. He's only seventeen after all." I replied.
"Sounds good to me. Yes, I like all forms of Drama." She said as I tilted my head to the side.
"Was that a...oh, shut up Melinda! Y'know what? The last two weeks weren't all that bad since I didn't have to put up with your obscure and painful jokes!" I said, folding my arms and pouted at her while frowning. Of course, she gave me a bit of a noggie right afterwards, as she usually did after I predictably complained at her jokes.
"Oh come on, that one was good! Besides, now that you're here, I can finally share these sort of jokes with you. Doubt anyone else here would get them, possibly not even the 'outsiders.'" She said, as we got a bite to eat to pass the time. Not long after, it was time for the show. We paid for our rather overpriced tickets and, since I was rather small now, we sat in the second row from the front. I was amazed they even padded these seats, given the stalls were almost as dirty as the entrance hall.
"Cheap bastards ought to hire a cleaner..." I muttered as I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
"You two enjoy theatre too?" She asked as I turned around to see Audrey. "I'm guessing you're used so something a bit more lavish then, given you two are from New Australia." She winked at us, as I gave her a thumbs up. Even if there were no Pale Communion members, it was good to avoid drawing unneeded suspicion.
"Yeah, I suppose, but I think I'd be missing out on what Newer Orleans has to offer if I didn't see at least one play." Melinda replied, doing a very convincing Australian accent.
"I usually come here in my spare time. I love Hamlet! This is my tenth time seeing it! I heard someone new is playing him this time." She said as Melinda and I looked at each other.
"Well..." We said as we tried not to laugh, leaving Audrey looking a little confused. As for the play itself, it was as disastrous as I expected, not that the others seemed to notice. With the way this thirty-minute spliced shit-show played out, I was amazed that not a single local seemed to notice or care. I couldn't even tell whether Murphy was playing as Horatio or Hamlet, but regardless, he was putting all his effort into it as much as possible. I couldn't tell whether he was getting his words wrong or not since the entire script was a complete mess, but he was still clearly the star of the show, throwing all the right emotions into every line. He occasionally lapped into overrating, but for someone so new, this was impressive, even by human standards. He couldn't survive such a terrible script, but to be fair, I think even the best human actors would struggle with that. Melinda and I were laughing throughout the entire thing, getting a few strange looks from the other audience members. After the bow, everyone applauded and after people started leaving, Murphy bounced down from the stage to greet me.
"Basil! You came and saw me! Was I good? Please say I was good!" He said, bouncing up and down, clearly having a lot of lingering adrenaline in his body.
"You alone made that bearable." I said in a low voice. "Seriously, great job! Hopefully you'll go to better places in no time, because, by my standards, the play was utterly shit. They're holding you back, trust me."
"Everyone else seemed to love it though. Well, everyone aside from you and that marowak. I guess you're used to much better plays then." He said as I stood aside.
"'That marowak', by the way, is Melinda! I found her!" I said happily as he took a couple of swift steps forward to shook her hand.
"Basil told me so much about you! I can't believe you actually found each other! It's incredible!" He said, shaking her hand rapidly.
"I know, right? Can't believe we bumped into each other in Newer Orleans." She said, looking happy to meet one of my new friends.
"Hah! I knew I was right! Take that Nisbeth!" He said, chuckling as Melinda tilted her head to the side slightly.
"What did Nisbeth do? He's one of my colleagues you know." She said, her voice lowering a bit.
"He was like 'ooh, it's too dangerous! Basil, you need to stay where it's safe!' But if Basil did that, he'd have never found you!" He said, feeling vindicated for supporting my risky plan.
"Well, I wouldn't get too angry at him. He still seemed like he wanted the best for Basil; just in his own way. Thank you so much for staying with him though. He'd have been so lost if it weren't for people like you and Nisbeth." She said politely as Audrey spoke up.
"Murphy, mind if I have a quick word with you?" She said, leaving Murphy a little confused. "Don't worry, it's fine if the other two hear."
"Well, sure, I guess." Murphy said, looking a little confused.
"Well, from what I know of these theatres, this is the dingiest and worst of the bunch. Basil here wasn't impressed with anything here aside from your acting, and from what I've seen, you're way beyond this place." She said as Murphy smiled shyly.
"Well, thank you! I'm honoured to hear that, but I don't mind it here." He said as Audrey spoke in a slightly lower, but serious voice to get his full attention.
"I'm from the Excursion Club and we have a lot of contacts from all over the world. You may not mind this place, but what if I told you that I could get you into a much getter theatre. Seriously, you'll probably catch a disease if you stayed here for too long. Better pay too." She said as Murphy suddenly looked more interested.
"Sure!" He said happily.
"I'll get you into a theatre that'll even impress these two right here!" Audrey said, grinning, and gesturing towards us.
"What are you wanting in return?" Murphy asked, clearly figuring she wouldn't do it for free.
"Well...could the Excursion Club get favour from you some point down the line? Don't worry, we won't ask for something that'll be too out of the way for you." She said as Murphy seemed to like the idea.
"Well, I was always pretty good at fighting if you need me to go rescue someone or anything like that." He said proudly, hiding an obvious grin inside his closed mouth.
"You seem like a very talented individual regardless. I'll go look into seeing if I can get you somewhere good tomorrow. Where do you stay by the way? I'll send someone to come find you or just come myself if I find somewhere who'll hire you." She said as Murphy looked a little sheepish.
"Uh, just staying at one of the hostels." He said as Audrey looked like she was thinking about something.
"I'm sure you could stay at the club headquarters for a few days until you find a more permanent place to stay. If you're low on money, I'll let you make up for it by calling in another favour. I won't pressure you into hurrying it of course, so there's no pressure." She said as Murphy looked more than happy to have the opportunity to stay somewhere a bit nicer for the time being.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" He said, grinning and bouncing slightly on the spot. Well, seems like things really were working out for the best. All things considered, if Melinda and I were forced to live here for the rest of our lives...well, there are certainly worse fates out there, and, at least for the time being, I'd have my two local friends close by. They could rely on me even more than I could rely on them, and I was actually kind of happy that way. Still, I miss my own world, and even though I was content for now, I was wondering how long that would last. There was still the business of dealing with The Guardian of Forever too, an issue that would not die so easily.
After arriving back 'home', all of the members, including Murphy, were greeted with a rather tasty evening meal. Charlie briefly called over Melinda after she finished her dinner and said a few words to her, though I couldn't make out what they were talking about. After finishing my own, I followed her back to our room, rubbing a bit of gravy off my mouth. She seemed to slump slightly as she walked, opening the door and sitting down on her bed, sighing somewhat sadly.
"...I...I think it's about time we talk about what we're going to do now." I said, wondering what was said to her.
"Responsibilities have a way of catching up to you..." She muttered as I walked over and sat down beside her.
"Indeed. Look, Mel', I've had a really nice day, but you know that not every day can be like this. We can't stay here. We need to figure out what to do next, although, I've been thinking about that almost as much as I have been thinking about finding you. Listen, here's what we're going to do. The Guardian of Forever summoned us here to this world against our will along with a whole bunch of our kind, and from what I've heard, the Pale Communion has already gotten to some of them. This bastard has indirectly been murdering our fellow humans! We need to find him, beat him to within an inch of his life, and force him to send all the humans back home." I said sternly, frowning slightly at Melinda. I didn't have the heart to tell her what happened to Danil. Some things were truly best left unsaid. "See how close I was to dying Melinda? If he didn't pull me into this hostile, dangerous world, that never would have happened! He almost got me killed!"
"Basil...we can't." She said, shaking her head as my jaw dropped.
"But...why?!" I said, shouting slightly.
"Basil, did The Guardian of Forever tell you why he summoned you?" She asked as I shook my head.
"No, and I really don't care. Whatever he wants with us, it's no business of mine." I said gruffly as I folded my arms.
"So, he didn't spend time telling you...he must be getting desperate." She said, sighing and lighting one of the lanterns in the room with her own fire.
"Wait, on the note...didn't it say something about fixing some kind of problem? He actually spoke to you, didn't he?" I asked as Melinda turned round to look at me after making sure the lantern was safely lit.
"Indeed. As thoughtless as it is to summon us and the others here without our permission, he does have a very good reason to. He needs us to defend this planet, and, supposedly, he believes that humans are the most qualified saviours." She said as I coughed slightly in disgust.
"I assume he hasn't seen how borderline useless I've been here! The fucking idiot! Did he say anything more specific!? What's happening to this planet!? Why are humans needed?!" I said loudly, my voice filling the entire room.
"He needs us for one reason and one reason only." She said, trying to calm me down.
"And what's that?!" I retorted, interrupting her.
"To defeat The Devourer."