Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum
Chapter 28: Unity
"I shall not report you to the authorities." Wigglytuff said after what felt like several minutes, as I suddenly loosened up with relief. Wigglytuff still held me against the wall, and I was assuming that he was just being a little slow at figuring out what to do next.
"Great! So, you gonna let me go and help us stop you all from dying or going completely mad?" I asked, Wigglytuff still glaring at me.
"I never said you could go. Here is how it's going to work – Chatot, since you're the fastest at crossing ground among everyone here, you will go and verify Floyd's claim. You will go to a location where they took a time gear and one where they haven't, and you shall do so as fast as possible." Wigglytuff ordered, having a sudden air of authority around his slightly puffy pink body.
"Of course, Guildmaster! Though which ones have been taken and which ones haven't?" He said, looking at the map on the wall.
"Let me see..." Serge said as he inspected the map, trying to figure out the locations of where the time gears were found.
"Mind not telling him where Grovyle is? We don't want him being attacked by Chatot if that's what they're planning!" I said, trying to yell.
"Oh no, do tell us, else we'll change our mind about having you imprisoned. Don't give me that face Floyd; you know that if you're being truthful about this, then you'll have nothing to fear from us!" Wigglytuff said, which made me glad he was only in charge of this guild and not an entire country.
"We took these two, these three haven't been taken yet, though Grovyle might have taken the one at Fogbound Lake by the time you arrive there, so I'd suggest going to that one in the desert, whatever its name was." As Serge made the appropriate gestures on the map, Chatot already figured out his flight plan.
"I know where to go Serge. I'll be back by tomorrow morning if there's no delays." He said as he gathered some equipment from the storage room.
"Excellent! As for you two, you will be kept here. We'll be watching you and I wouldn't raise our suspicions further if I were your place." Wigglytuff said before finally putting me down, allowing me to breathe easily. "You'll be kept in your room at all times with at least two of us watching you in case you try to escape."
"Can we not at least use the library? It's a long shot, but maybe someone in this world has been to Dialga's dimension before and knows how to get there." I asked, not expecting to be allowed.
"You'll be escorted there if you need to use it, and what do you mean this 'world'? You mean the continent where you come from, right?" Wigglytuff asked, as I nodded.
"Yeah..." I said, trailing off. It was technically true, since Scotland is on a different landmass to this continent for sure. Perhaps it'd be good to finally explain to them once they've all gotten a little less jumpy.
"Right, Loudred, Sunflora, escort these two to their old rooms, and make sure they're never out of your sight." Wigglytuff commanded, pointing at them.
"Even while they're asleep?" Sunflora asked, being ever so slightly tongue in cheek about the whole thing. Hopefully the idea of being apocalypse-bringers was just as stupid to her as it was to us.
"Indeed." Wigglytuff nodded as we were lead to our room. I had a look at all the guild members, and most of them seemed to be more welcoming of us, or at least not suspicious. Bidoof and Chimeco seemed flat out overjoyed to see us as Bidoof gestured that he wanted to talk to us. Everyone was out watching us except for Corphish, and I assumed that he just slept through this entire thing.
"You should get some rest, the two of you look awful." Sunflora said, sounding concerned, and she wasn't wrong at all. My eyes were struggling to remain open as my body swayed ever so slightly on the spot, feeling like I could fall asleep instantly on the crappy excuse for a bed, but I couldn't do that just yet.
"I'm going to the library for a bit, I need to look up some stuff, and Serge is coming with me." I said and yawned loudly.
"I'll check with the guildmaster to get authorization for that." Loudred grumbled and walked off, getting a rather happy looking Bidoof to briefly stand in for him.
"Gawrsh, yer really here in the flesh!" He said, his excitement making his drawling accent sound very strong. Balancing on three legs, he shook our hands rather vigorously.
"Happy to see someone's not part of this inquisition. Seriously, we don't have time for this shit, but on the other hand, it's great to see another friendly face." I said, a smile growing on my face. "I noticed the guild's a little messy right now, has things gotten bad since we were gone?"
"Well, the savages have been really angry lately and finding one that doesn't attack anyone and everyone on sight is quite a rare find, depending on where about on the continent." Sunflora said, who neither looked too friendly or suspicious. "So as a result, we've had a load more rescue requests, which we just can't keep up with. Wigglytuff and Chatot have been arguing a lot over increasing the price of our services, something about using it to fund an increase in resources to help us, but, of course, it means that the poor are left to die. Those poor chikoritas..." She sounded far sadder towards the end of her explanation, looking like she might cry.
"It never gets any easier, picking one mission, knowing that those that you didn't pick to rescue on that day might not survive. I didn't sign up for this, and yet, I can't just go home and bury my head in a log damn." Bidoof said, also sounding rather miserable. "There's been a lot more horrible criminals lurking around as well, and as Sunflora said, we're overwhelmed.
"Well, uh, maybe once we solve this crisis, maybe things will return to normal." Serge said, not sounding too sure about what he said. Still, a connection between time grinding to a halt in some areas and some of the native wildlife going crazy did at least seem plausible.
"Of course! Now, we're trying to sever the root of the problem so hopefully things become more manageable, though I really think that children shouldn't be wandering into dangerous forests alone. What parent lets that happen?!" I said, being slightly facetious. "Anyway, where are Chimeco and Corphish? I missed those guys when I wasn't fearing for my life."
"Oh, Chimeco is fine, she'll probably be free to talk to you in a few minutes..." Bidoof said, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. "...Corphish...oh..." He was visibly sweating by now, and I had begun to fear the worst.
"Remember what we said about some places had gotten very horrible very fast? Well, uh, let's just say that Corphish found out the hard way. This is a very dangerous line of work, but I don't think anyone expected a pack of berserk salamences to suddenly start ripping down the wild orchard." Sunflora voice was very strange when she explained that Corphish had tragically died, pausing every few words in the most awkward sounding places. The vicious and sudden punch to the chest was a cruel reminder that no matter what I, Serge or Grovyle done, we were not going to be able to save everyone. To think I never had the chance to say goodbye to him, or to tell him that he was one of the best people on this continent I ever met. I hadn't even known him for two months, but it felt very painful regardless.
"...Shit..." I whispered to myself as I sat down, my head leaning against the wall. I thought of time where Corphish, Chimeco and I had to constantly save each other from becoming aerodactyl food when we decided to put up the middle finger against Chatot's decision and went on the expedition our own way. His skills and cheery attitude – gone forever.
"We...we should still be going to the library, we, well, uh, we can't let it interfere with out mission." I said, wondering why Loudred was taking so long. Even if Corphish's demise didn't directly impede our progress, I knew that it would remain as a nagging thought that would constantly chew the back of my brain. As if I needed another festering distraction...
"Right, you got thirty minutes." Loudred announced, stomping his way back to our room and ushering us into the library very quickly. "So anything remotely suspicious and we'll be on you in two seconds!"
"Loudred, if we were really trying to ruin the entire planet, then why the fuck would we go to the people best capable of stopping us?! You absolute retard!" I shouted back at him. The loose cannon that I was right now fired at him as I grabbed a book from the shelf while staring at him, not even knowing exactly what I took from the shelf.
"Floyd, I told you not to give me a reason to-" Loudred said, looking almost as twitchy as I was right now.
"Weren't you told just to keep an eye on us or something?! Just fuck off and do as you were told!" I retorted, spitting slightly as I yelled at him.
"Loudred, give him some space and time, he only just found out what happened to Corphish. I can't really expect him to be in good spirits." Sunflora said, approaching him from behind to help him keep an eye on us. Loudred grumbled as we continued to look through the library. We weren't exactly sure what to look for, but fortunately for us, the majority of the books had indexes and the few fiction books were separated from the exploration-based non-fiction majority. I had a feeling we wouldn't find a mention of Dialga in them, but it was worth a try. A lot of the books here weren't put together very well given the primitive technology this world had, with a few of them almost falling apart from the seams. Serge was already building a small pile behind him, presumably of books that might be able to help us.
"Got a bunch of books here with documents of explorers discovering some pretty unusual places. Go through them while I find more of these." Serge said as he got a stool to reach the tomes on the higher shelves. I sat down beside the pile as I started looking through the books. A couple of them seemed to be hand written with handwriting that would make mine look good, with grammar and spelling suggesting that that the people of this world were still getting to grips with English. A lot of them were recounting mountain expeditions, but there was nothing that seemed particularly useful. One of them was written by Wigglytuff himself while he was with Team Charm and it was quite possibly the worst writing I had ever seen by an adult before, looking like he was writing down his thoughts while climbing the hills and caves of this land. I was about to put the book down when I noticed that some pages right at the start were torn out shortly after the contents page, and the first page after that had most of the text smeared out clumsily by ink, with the rest of the page saying that he was happy to join Team Charm.
"Huh, guess Wigglytuff is hiding something here. Either that or he's just embarrassed about something – hopefully no cross-species lust or anything like that!" I said, laughing uncomfortably as I looked through the books that Serge just placed beside me. The first one I picked up was by Chatot oddly enough, and it described him meeting Wigglytuff and how they became a fairly renowned exploration duo, even if he was always in the pink man's shadow. His writing was pretty impressive given he must have had to do some very fancy trick with one of his wings to be able to hold the pen or quill steady.
The last entry told the story of them descending into a seaside cave with air that was supposedly the briniest in the entire world due to the way it lied and how sea water often sprayed the walls of said cave. 'Brine Cave' was described as being notoriously dangerous due to unstable cave walls, tides that had the intentional to flood half of the tunnel networks and the wildlife that had become very tough due to being hardened by their surroundings. After Chatot bragging about how he saved Wigglytuff from an ambush, there was once again some torn pages, later stating that their theory of treasure and other curious artifacts being washed at the bottom of the cave turned out to be false.
"Hey, look at this – Chatot hiding some private time with the injured Wigglytuff?" I said, passing Serge the book as I sniggered loudly.
"I somehow doubt that Floyd." He said as he had a look for himself. "Well, they're hiding something alright, but I don't think either Wigglytuff or Chatot would appreciate us probing. Think they found something dangerous or important in there?"
"Well I doubt it was a time gear, given we know where the five of them already are. It's probably nothing that will help us though. Come to think of it, I could try and dimensional scream it to be sure. If I don't get up from it, it'll probably because I'm real tired." I said and chuckled. "You ready?"
"Of course." Serge said and stood by me as I focused on the words, trying to imagine what the depths of this briny cave would look like, which wasn't too hard given I think I spent more of my time in caves in this world to last several lifetimes. I gripped the book tightly, hoping that it would reveal the secrets of the torn pages. I had become pretty good at this dimensional scream stuff by now, so getting a vision was almost second nature as I felt my disembodied self floating in a small chamber of the cave, looking at an injured Wigglytuff and a worried looking Chatot.
"It's ok Wigglytuff, they're gone now. Oh, no! No! You'll be ok, I promise!" The panicking Chatot said, looking at Wigglytuff's wounds. He looked heavily injured, yet completely unfettered, which must have been an incredible feat of will, given the salty air surely would have made those gashes sting badly.
"Such a worry rat!" Wigglytuff said while chuckling, standing up as if it was nothing. "Come on, let's go deeper in...Chatot, I'll be fine, I'm a real tough guy, silly!" He chuckled as he bounded into the narrow tunnel as Chatot followed. I lost sight of them as they turned round a corner, but the sound of the footsteps echoing off the cave walls stopped very suddenly, making me think they got to a dead end.
"Wigglytuff, I've seen many strange things in my life, and while I like to brag about myself being a living encyclopedia...I've not seen anything like this. Please restrain yourself, it could be dangerous!" Chatot said in wonder and fear at whatever they had found.
"Never seen a symbol like that before. I wonder who left it? Transcribing it already I see? Good for you!" Wigglytuff said, sounding more excited than his avian friend.
"I can't know for sure, but I'm sure this strange large symbol here was no accident and nothing any barbarian left behind. Think it's something the three humans left behind decades ago?" Chatot replied. Not being able to see this symbol they were speaking of was beginning to annoy me, especially how I was locked in position and couldn't move.
"Seems likely. If you think about it, they are the ultimate explorers. If they really did come from another world...say, wouldn't be incredible to visit their home? Ooh, the very thought of it!" Wigglytuff said, as I heard him bounce up and down with excitement.
"Now let's not get too ahead of ourselves." Chatot said and chuckled. "So, I've managed to copy it onto my journal here. What no-hey, don't touch it! ...Why, Wigglytuff, why?"
"Nothing happened you silly bird!" Wigglytuff said happily. "Nothing happened though, think we can do anything else here, or will we just leave?"
"Shortly, just let me write down a few notes...WAK! Who, what, how did you get here?!" Chatot said, squawking loudly in surprise at whoever suddenly appeared with them. They didn't get in through the conventional way for sure, else I would have seen them.
"I am going to have to ask you to leave immediately and destroy any and all information about this place. Seems like this place wasn't as out of the way as we had hoped..." A third voice said that I did not recognize whatsoever. His accent was very unlike the local English accents with varying degrees of French twangs; it seemed to be some kind of Eastern European voice.
"We don't take orders from just anyone you know, who are you? Maybe we can become friends instead, hmm?" Wigglytuff asked the unseen stranger.
"I can't say too much, now I'm going to have to ask you to leave this place now or else I'll have to force you out." The stranger said, his voice holding a firm monotone.
"I think you'll find that's easier said than done!" Chatot said, sounding quite angry. "I don't know what you are, but I'm sure we'll beat you if it comes to blows!" There was a long awkward pause, and the air around me that I couldn't even feel seemed to tense up.
"...Maybe you're right. This right here is the gateway to my father's home, and he has forbidden all from entering his dominion aside from his children and those he has specifically chosen, and trust me, he hasn't chosen you two. Whether the three of us will engage in violence or not, it won't matter too much, you couldn't get in anyway." The stranger said to them.
"Aww, it sounds so exciting! Why can't he let us in?" Wigglytuff said, sounding excited once again.
"Because letting in the wrong sort in here carries great risk to not only us, but everyone you know. This dimension is not only our home, it also stabilizes the world as you know it, so if you know what's good for you, you'll destroy any and all notes you took of this place and tell no one, guarding this secret with your very life. You don't seem like bad people, so I trust that the two of you will do the right thing." The stranger went on and on for quite a while about the importance of keeping this a secret, all while not revealing too many details about what lay beyond, let alone how to get there.
"It's like the Time Gear incident all over again." Wigglytuff said, sounding sad that his escapade hadn't amounted to anything.
"The locals know about them already...duly noted." The stranger said, sounding concerned. "I trust I won't need to ask you again."
"...Of course. We're leaving Chatot." Wigglytuff said, not hiding his disappointment as they came into view once more, chatting to each other. They destroyed their notes in the journal that I was holding onto in the real world as they walked by me, looking almost angry that they felt the need to do it, as if they were forced to break some kind of explorer's code. The vision blurred out, but I felt like I didn't fully return to the physical world as I found myself lying down in what I thought was the library. An aching headache jabbed at my brain as I found myself being lifted to my feet.
"Floyd, you need some sleep. Like we agreed in that horrible future, world saving heroes aren't very good if they don't get some proper shut eye." Serge said as he guided me out of the library. My body swayed as I walked towards our room under the watchful gaze of Loudred and Sunflora.
"Hey Serge, we gotta right down what I saw before I fall asleep. Could be important, and I can't risk forgetting it." I said as I sat down, leaning against the wall.
"Huh? Think you've found a way to Dialga's dimension?" Serge said, suddenly getting excited. His enthusiasm was contagious which briefly jolted me awake again.
"Don't think so, but it could be for all you know! We should ask Wigglytuff about this tomorrow." I said as I explained about what I saw and heard. Serge scribbled down the important details, clearly wondering the same thing as me – who was that stranger?
"Oh no, Loudred's probably going to wake us up in five hours...I sure didn't miss that." I grumbled as I climbed onto my bad. By sheer coincidence, Loudred locked the door from the outside, you know, in case we suddenly tried to assassinate the guildmaster in his sleep or some other pure evil reason like the villains we are.
"Bleh...goodnight Floyd." Serge groaned and also rested himself on his poorly made bed. Even in spite of all that happened, he still held onto his relic fragment as he slept. Using The Righteous Tome as my pillow, I rested my head on it and held it tight, praying for good luck in any way, shape or form in the near future. I also begged for the strength necessary to hold onto my lord's morals and maxims, no matter what the dire obstacles may be in may way. I soon drifted off to sleep, and I soon realised that I should have asked for pleasant dreams because I soon found myself in the streets of Treasure Town. It looked derelict and abandoned, just like how Serge and I found it in the future. The only real difference is that the sun was shining brightly, somehow finding a way to add sparkle to the dead buildings.
"Fuckin' hyperactive brain..." I muttered to myself as I wandered around the ghost town. Unlike the run down future version of Treasure Town, this one was completely abandoned. I saw the air in the distance form into a heat haze as the sun shone fiercely from above, and I was unsure whether my body feeling the burn was just my mind playing tricks on me or not in this dream. The yellow tinge coloured everything the air touched as I continued to wander around, trying to see if there were any water sources to quench my growing thirst. During my search, I saw it yet again – that ominous, blurry blue sphere, just floating there in one of the alleyways, clouded slightly by a haze of black, red and white. I was about to scream at it, demanding whatever that thing was to tell me what it is and why it's been in so many of my dreams, but I was soon distracted by something else.
"Floyd, it's you!" I heard a voice yell from Treasure Town's main street. Keeping an eye on the strange entity every now and then, presuming it was sentient, I went to check on who called my name.
"Floyd, er, me!" I said back to the human version of myself, standing about twenty meters away from me. "Good to see you and stuff, but can you finally tell me who the fuck you are, and what that thing is down that alley over there? Are you really just part of my dream or are you something else that's invading my brain? Answer me!"
"There's more important things than that right now." He responded, but I wasn't having any of it.
"I'm guessing I'm going to be sleeping for another three hours, we have plenty of time. Now, out with it!" 'Floyd' looked taken aback my aggressive tone, not responding right away.
"I've come to help you Floyd, and with this mission, you need all the help you can get." He replied, but I wasn't content just yet.
"Ok, if your just some part of my brain, then you can't offer me shit aside from fortune cookie advice and pep talk. If I remember correctly, none of us back in the human world figured out how to get to Dialga's world, so there's no remaining amnesia that would tell me anything." I said back to him, as he began to look a little frustrated.
"Well, I was going to encourage you, and I still will. I'm also going to tell you how to get to Dialga's world." He said as he finally got through to me.
"Now we're talking! Where do we go?" I asked, all my sensed tuned in intensely for his response.
"It won't be easy, but I'm sure you and your allies can do it. There is an island not too far from this little continent. Remember the desert you crossed to get to the cave where Mesprit was guiding one of the time gears? Well you'll need to go roughly north-west from there until you get to a peninsula. Go to the end and you'll see the island. It has a lot of volcanic activity, so you'll need to be careful." He explained, leaving out a major detail.
"Ok, sounds easy enough to follow, but how do you expect us to get to the island? I can barely swim with these slightly stubby limbs, and there's no chance Serge would make it there alive. I've not seen these pokemon building boats anywhere either." I said.
"I will contact some of the pokemon living in the sea to give you and the rest of the crew a ride across. When you arrive, you'll need to go north. Go past, around or through the volcanoes there then going even further north-west from there, you'll find a huge crater, might have been caused by an asteroid long ago." 'Floyd' explained to me.
"Lemme guess, I'm going into another god damn cave, right?" I responded, rolling my eyes.
"No, actually. Be careful when climbing down to not fall or go to close to any geysers or pools of lava and go roughly in the centre. There you will see the symbol of Dialga which I'm sure that you're familiar with. Stand on it and you'll be taken to his world, and from there, go to Temporal Tower, return the time gears to the alter at the top and hooray! Universal crisis averted!" He said, perking up a bit towards the end of his explanation.
"Right...ok, I got it. I'll tell everyone when I wake up, but will you finally tell me who you are already?! Clearly you're not just part of my dreams if you know all that. What sort of person can enter other people's dreams at will and know this sort of crazy stuff?" I asked, as 'Floyd' stalled yet again. I started walking up to him, but as if I was trying to push against an elastic band when I got within about fifteen meters of him and I was eventually flung back by this mysterious force, landing on my back. 'Floyd' tried to reach me as well, but the same force pushed him back as well.
"What the...?! I think he might be coming! I'm out of here, and I'm waking you up in three, two, one, -." He said as I was very suddenly snapped out of my sleep, my eyes wide open and staring up at the ceiling. I felt inside my bag for something to write with and wrote down all the important information this irritatingly elusive dream-walker gave me. It was still night time, though the sky was a very dark shade of navy blue as opposed to pitch black, so dawn couldn't be too far off. It was hard to write anything down in the dark, but I wanted to get all possibilities and thoughts on this entity and what he could be. Was he telling the truth? Was he trying to actively deceive me? Or was he just part of my own imagination after all, and was just a reflection of my own desperation? I sure didn't need my mind feeding me false solutions to keep me calm.
"You awake already?" I heard Serge groan to the left of me.
"Yeah, crazy dream. I can't remember whether I told you about seeing myself in my dreams and talking to him while I was in the future, but he spoke to me again. He said he knew how to get to Dialga's world. The details are here, I wrote them down." I said as I passed them over to Serge. He already looked surprised when I told him this, but his eyes widened in shock as he read the details.
"I had the exact same dream, except it was a cyndaquil that looked just like me that was there! Did yours take place in a forest?" He asked, jumping to his feet.
"Nah, it was Treasure Town, but I think that proves that it's not our imaginations unless there's some incredibly unlikely coincidence in effect. Serge, do you trust this person?" I asked as Serge nodded.
"Of course! The way there has been revealed! If you think about it, we might even be able to meet Grovyle en route, given he's probably getting the time gear in the desert last." Serge said, sounding excited, but I was a little more reserved.
"I really don't know Serge, he kept dodging my questions about who he is."
"How about this – what reason would he have for lying about all this? Dialga probably doesn't want us dead yet, and I highly doubt that Dusknoir can enter dreams like that. Do we really have much choice but to trust him?" What Serge said did make sense, but that entity I saw in my dream still made me uneasy.
"Maybe you're right Serge, but he still kind of freaks me out a bit. Maybe I just need to relax a bit after trusting the wrong person a couple of weeks ago. He may be very private about who he is, but it doesn't mean that he has some kind of nasty plan or anything. Still, let's ask Wigglytuff and Chatot about what they saw in that deep cave when they wake up – we can't dismiss that completely. If it turns out to be a dead lead, then we'll follow this dream-walker's instructions. Sound good?" I asked and Serge seemed to agree.
"It'll be a bit of an awkward sell though. 'Hey there, some guy visited us in a dream and told us how to get to Dialga's dimension! No, we have no idea who he is at all, but just trust us on this, ok?' Think they'll still help us?" He asked as I frowned slightly.
"It'll be a right fucking disgrace if they don't! They've seen the signs, and if they just ignore them, well, fuck 'em." I said, peering out my window as the sky was getting brighter. "At least Chatot will find out for sure that the end is coming, but knowing him..."
"Just go easy on them, ok? Just try to remember what you were like when you found out what was in store for everyone." Serge said, trying to calm me down.
"I'll be as firm and blunt as I damn well please! ...But you're right; I'll try to restrain myself, but I'm making no promises. I'll sleep a bit more before Loudred-" I said, but upon mentioning his name, someone banged on our door loudly, and I was surprised how the fragile door didn't cave in from it.
"Everyone in the entrance hall now!" Loudred yelled as I heard him shouting at and assaulting more poor doors as we stood up to meet everyone there. Unusually, we were one of the first to arrive, the others trailing behind us. Loudred stood just to the left of me, looking very worried.
"This is earlier than usual. I'm guessing Wigglytuff has a big announcement to make, right?" I asked him, as he grunted slightly.
"He asked me to wake everyone up, but didn't say why. It's bad though, he looked flat out terrified. I'm guessing Chatot has returned with some bad news." He said, as the remaining guild members stood with us in formation. The sound of Wigglytuff and Chatot talking frantically to one another became louder as they descended the ladder to stand in front of us, both of them looking gravely serious.
"Floyd and Serge were right." Wigglytuff said, staring hard at each and every one of us. "I will now have Chatot explain what he saw."
"I found the time gear floating at the place where Grovyle was apprehended, but before I even got into the cave, I felt a strange, deathly stillness in the air. It was windy in the desert, but it suddenly died when I got close to the cave. That same feeling followed me into the cave where I met Azelf, who looked as confused as he did terrified. He told me that the time gear had 'died' ever since Grovyle look it and had tried everything to get it working again, but could not. I have come to the conclusion that Grovyle has already won – he has done irreversible damage to them, and that we are all doomed." He said as I clenched my fists so tightly that my blood vessels almost popped.
"So that leaves only one option! Trusting Grovyle and helping him!" I said loudly, gritting my teeth. "Or else are you just going to sit here and wait for you to all go mad! By the looks of things, I say you already have!"
"But helping Grovyle-" Chatot retorted, but I was having none of it.
"You just found out that we're all going to die or something, so what else do we have to lose! You dumb fuck, get a hold of yourself! I'd...I'd hope you'd come to terms with what has happened and will happen sooner than I did." I said, trailing off. "Uh...if you need a few minutes to discuss things with Wigglytuff and the rest of the guild, go right ahead. Just make sure you come to the right conclusion." A long silence followed as everyone seemed to be pondering the exact same thing – what to do about the end times that were almost upon us. Some of the guild members were sitting down on the floor, their bodies shivering, their heads in their hands. Others took it a bit better and began to think things through more clearly.
"I should go to see my family while I still can." Bidoof said, who looked as sad as he did terrified.
"You'll be able to see them a lot longer if we can stop this you know." I said back to him, trying to be warm and encouraging, but not doing a very good job of it.
"But what if we can't? Then I'll never see them again, and they'll never see me, and-" Bidoof responded, so I tried a harsher method.
"Bidoof, quite frankly, I don't give a shit about how you feel. Sorry to say it like that, but I'm pretty sure that the fate of every damn living thing is more important than your feelings. Now pick yourself up and do something that will make your family proud of you! Let's put it this way – if I were part of your family, I'd be disgusted and ashamed that you could have done something but didn't even try. Think about it Bidoof." I said sternly to him. He looked offended and horrified, his eyes as wide as his mouth, but after a brief moment of contemplation, he started looking better.
"I'll help you, but I don't know how." He said. It was a start at least.
"The rest of you should follow his lead." I said, looking at the rest of the guild members. "Don't force me to try and improvise a big motivational speech, I'd probably fail spectacularly at it. Wigglytuff, can I at least get your support?"
"Of course!" He suddenly said as he stopped staring at the wall blankly and looked at me. "But how can we help?"
"Well, we have two possible leads. One of them involved some entity that appeared in both Serge's dream and my own last night telling us where to go. That being said, the location is on that island there." I said, pointing to the map on the wall. "Looks pretty poorly charted, I'm guessing that's because it's volcano city over there, right?"
"Well, that's both wonderful and horrible." Chatot said, clearly hating the idea of having to go there. "So, what's the other lead?"
"Well, er, if you don't mind me exposing something you and Wigglytuff wanted to keep private..." I said, a few of the guild members sniggering behind me. "That's not what I meant! No, it was this cave expedition that you and Wigglytuff went some time ago. You saw some kind of symbol on the wall but some stranger told you to turn back and not tell anyone over the stability of the world or something like that."
"I was hoping you'd be more responsible with this vision ability of yours Floyd...well, given the circumstances, shall we tell them about it?" He asked Wigglytuff. Wigglytuff didn't seem to like the idea of breaking his word, something I fully understood, but he did so anyway.
"Well, the drawing of the symbol was destroyed, and I don't remember too much about it. I can tell you that the stranger was green and was just a little bit smaller than me. I had never seen anyone like him before. He looked kind of like a fairy, with a big head that looked like some kind of onion and had cute little insect like wings. He really, really did not want us to tell anyone about the symbol or this other world he mentioned. Are you suggesting this world could be where we need to go?" Wigglytuff said to Serge and I. We contemplated this for a second before we had an idea.
"Where is this cave anyway? If it's not too far away, we should probably check it out. Besides, going by that description, I'd say it could possibly be one of Dialga's children, and it's Dialga's dimension where we need to go. It sounds like he might be even able to take us there!" I said, getting a little excited.
"Well, there's good news and bad news." Chatot said, looking stern as he hopped over to the map on the wall and pointed. "Good news is that it's just over here, barely more than an hour's walk. The bad news is, if you've been doing the proper research in the library, that Brine Cave is incredibly dangerous. Frequent cave ins and extremely territorial residents makes it a place that is officially off limits to the guild. If someone is foolish enough to go in there, we're not helping them. Oh, and during high tide, the bottom half is completely flooded, which I'm guessing is the reason why the environment there is so harsh, hence the savages being unusually strong."
"Well, several worlds are on the line here, so we have to go regardless!" Serge said loudly. "Wait, what about Grovyle, he's still getting the time gears, we'll need to wait for him."
"I'm the fastest, so I'll go meet with Grovyle just outside of the desert cave then go back to the guild." Chatot said, but Wigglytuff had other ideas.
"And what if he was nasty all this time? You're tougher than you look, but I'm not sure if you could subdue Grovyle. That job will be left to me. You will take the rest of the guild to Brine Cave and I'll catch up, ok?" Wigglytuff replied, and Chatot didn't look too comfortable with the idea of being left in charge.
"And how can I trust you won't simply try to pummel and arrest him on sight?" I asked Wigglytuff, who smiled in a rather condescending way.
"For the same reason I'm trusting that you're not up to any massive scale mischief. Now, when do you think he'll arrive there?" He asked, already collecting some supplies.
"Probably tomorrow evening as a guess." Serge said, who looked just as uneasy at the idea of Wigglytuff meeting him alone. Now I had never actually seen this pink guy fight, but if the reputation was at all accurate, then even Grovyle might get thrashed if they attacked each other.
"Oh, so we have a bit of time then! Wonderful! I can help you prepare for the briny cave then." Wigglytuff said, sounding very happy once more. I could never quite tell how is deranged and eccentric mind worked, but as long as he was on my side, I wasn't going to question it too much.
"There hasn't been much study with how the tides fill in Brine Cave, but we do know that the low tides start during the evening and rise just before dawn, but that all depends on the time of year. We definitely want to be inside by the time the sun sets, which will give us about five to seven hours, so we can't afford to waste any time while we're in there." Chatot said, and Wigglytuff continuing on his speech really told me how much these two oddballs were on the same page.
"There are several tunnels and more 'openy' parts." Wigglytuff said, not sounding too professional. "It's been several years since we been there, so we don't remember the route at all, so at some points, you'll need to split up. I will assign you to groups of four in just a moment, and you are to not separate from your groups for any reason except to notify another group if you have found something or if someone is injured, in which case, you will go as a pair."
"The air and water is incredibly salty, so if you cut yourself, it will sting. A lot. Trust me, I know first hand. If the residents look aggressive, prepare for a fight. The group leader will decide whether to make the first move for not, since we should avoid fighting them if possible. Just remember that keeping yourselves unscathed is, of course, the utmost priority. Also, check the walls and ceilings as you go for wear and tear – the last thing we want is one of you being crushed to death, and may I remind you that from what we've seen, cave ins are common there. Although even with all of these precautions, I can't guarantee your safety. I can't guarantee there won't be another Corphish...if only I were there..." Chatot said, trailing off.
"I'm gonna leave now, I'll briefly stop by Brine Cave to see if anything's changed, at least near the surface, then wait for Grovyle in the desert. I'll meet you just outside Brine Cave in two days, during the evening. Remember, smiles go for miles, no matter what! Yoom-tah!" Wigglytuff said loudly before bounding outside of the headquarters, leaving us rather confused.
"He just got up and left, just like that?" Loudred said after a long and awkward pause.
"I guess he did..." Chatot said, looking just as puzzled as the rest of us. "Anyway, we need to train and prepare as much as we can before then, starting now!" We ran through some protocols, combat training procedures and teamwork exercises for a while, and for the first time, it felt like we were actually being taught something instead of the 'figure it out yourself' approach that we've had since the beginning. I might finally be getting my money's worth! The guild members seemed to trust us a lot more now, but none of them, not even Loudred, looked confident about entering the briny cave north of here.
"Never seen Wigglytuff and Chatot act like that about a simple cave before. You spied on them, see anything else strange?" Loudred said to me during a short break.
"They looked a little battered and bruised, but nothing too much. Maybe something bad happened on the way out." I said, drinking some water with Serge.
"Ah, just the two I wanted to see!" Chatot said, hopping over to us quickly. "Mind if we have a quick word?"
"You don't usually ask for permission Chatot, how unlike you!" Serge responded, chuckling as he nodded as he took us into the kitchen, leaving Loudred there.
"Well, it's more about Floyd in particular, but I figured Serge should be here as well for this. Floyd...who are you exactly? I remember trying to ask you this before you went into the future for six months, or days for you, and you never had time to answer me. Your accent's really strange to me, you say you're from a town on another island to the west of here, and you can see into the past and future at seemingly convention times. You're no ordinary snivy, if you're even a snivy at all! We, the Wigglytuff guild has known you for some time now, and I think it's time that you're more upfront with us about it." Chatot said, acting rather firm, yet friendly at the same time. He was smart enough to know that he couldn't intimidate me into telling him stuff.
"Floyd's already told you what he knows. Not even he knows everything about himself." Serge replied defensively, Chatot raising his right wing in front of him to get Serge to stop.
"About that island...they all speak a different language there, and the environment is very unsuited for snivys. I know fine well you aren't really from there. So, Floyd, tell me – who are you?" I rubbed the sweat of my head and shuddered slightly. This uncomfortable truth was something I had hopefully put away, but I was not confronting with having to reveal myself. I'd be seen as a lunatic, and I was face to face with the fact that I was a liar. This whole 'protecting oneself from unfair treatment' loophole I kept telling myself was a severe twist of scripture at best and a flat out lie at worst. I was a terrible Dialgan, or at least bad by my own high standards.
"Er, Chatot, will you promise not to treat me any differently if I tell you? It may be a little hard to believe, and I still find it hard to believe myself." I said, my voice shaking slightly.
"Well, I can't exactly promise, but I'll do my best to understand. I've seen many strange things in my life, so I'll be open minded. Spill the beans already! Wherever that phrase came from..."
"Well...oh, this sounds so out-there...I'm a human from the future that had been transformed into a snivy when I crossed between worlds for reasons that I don't know why. As for the whole seeing the future and past thing, no idea either. I just woke up one day and discovered it happened from time to time. I was always here to try and prevent time from stopping, but I must have gotten brain damage on the way. I'm recovering though, so that's all good. Any questions?" I said, smiling awkwardly. It sounded so outlandish when I put it that way, and Chatot seemed to be in agreement.
"...Twenty-one...thousand." He replied, his expression as blank as a whiteboard, as if his his body was too surprised to even react. "...I can see why you wanted to keep this private. Serge, he did say he was a human when you met him, right?"
"One of the very first things he told me. His reaction wasn't pretty when he found out he was a snivy!" Serge said, chuckling slightly.
"Well, uh...I didn't expect that!" Chatot said, still trying to wrap his mind around things.
"Well, if it helps you believe it, it was only with his knowledge of the human world that we were able to find out way back here. Travelled along huge, wide roads, an absolutely colossal bridge, and a city that must have been about a thousand times bigger than Treasure Town. We even saw some humans too! They were just as hostile as the pokemon though." Serge said, sticking up for me.
"This sounds so fascinating! You really must tell me more tonight!" Chatot said, looking quite eager. "Still, we need to train more. Can't let our priorities get shifted, there'll be plenty of time to discuss all this once we're done with this!" The training went very well for all of us. Even some of the weaker members, such as Diglett and Bidoof, looked like they had really toughened up since we last saw them. Bidoof even beat me in a little sparring match.
"Ow, I'm ok!" I said, getting up to my feet. "When did you learn to do that?"
"Practice." Bidoof said, smiling. "I told everyone I'd get there eventually!" Spirits seemed to be rising, yet the air of seriousness never faded. None of us were really discussing what the potential consequences could be, and truth be told, it didn't seem like any of them were really grasping what was at stake here. To be fair, it took Serge and I some time, so maybe they just needed to catch up. Chatot started acting all friendly again after a rather huge dinner, always asking me about the human world.
"So, these 'cars'...humans build them, get inside them, and use them for transport?" Chatot asked, and the more he went on, the more literal his twenty-one thousand question comment seemed. Though over time, he seemed more and more accepting of my story, and was even treating my very nicely.
"We really must try to visit your dimension after this crisis is stopped! I suppose you'll be wanting to go home after all this is done. If you can, take us with you for a while! Providing we can get back to our world, of course." He said, not even trying to hide his excitement.
"I actually went back home for a bit earlier when I briefly quit the guild. I saw the past version of myself, and I couldn't really live in a place where another me existed. Still, I never really thought of it after the whole time gear thing started. I guess I could stay here, but...eh, I'm not sure I'd be too happy either way. Ah, this isn't about me right now, I can worry about that later. Looks like we should be getting to bed, we have a really big day ahead of us." I said, yawning and stretching my limbs.
"I hope that you could consider me as a friend." Chatot said quite suddenly. I turned around and narrowed my eyes very slightly.
"Is that because I've grown on you as a person or because I was a human?" I asked, folding my arms.
"...Both. You were honest with me, so I'll be honest with you – a lot of it is just fascinating for me, but you have grown on me as a person as well." Chatot chirped. I guess it was nice to see him without his usual perpetual frown.
"Thanks, I appreciate you being honest about that, and before you ask, I'll be open about that now. Just don't blab it around, I'd rather tell people myself." I replied, but I then noticed that Chimeco was eavesdropping the entire time. "...You heard all that, didn't you." I said and frowned.
"Oh, sorry, I couldn't help myself! You're not the first person to complain about that to me." She said, looking very embarrassed before floating off to her room. I joined Serge in our room and lied down on my bed.
"Well, that went surprisingly well!" I said, smiling. "We're a really tough bunch, we'll get to the bottom of the cave for sure."
"I'm sure we will. Just wondering what will happen after all this is done." Serge said, rolling over to look at me.
"Like I said to Chatot, we'll worry about that after. Can't get too distracted now, can we." I said, making myself comfortable.
"I heard you mentioning the past self you briefly met in the human world when speaking to Chatot-" He said before I cut him off.
"Has everyone been listening in?! Fuck! ...Yes, I was, what about it?"
"Wonder what'll happen to him?" He told me, and it was something I never really thought of before.
"Both of us will be fine. Look, if I can't ever go back, I can live in this world, and my past self can enjoy the human one. I'll miss my friends and family to death, sure, but...well, I've gone through worse." Serge stalled for a short while before nodding.
"Yeah, sounds good...oh, almost forgot about that entity telling us to go to that volcanic island. I guess it means we're going against that dream-walker's advice then." Serge said, making me pause to think for a moment.
"Well, he seemed really hesitant to tell me who he is. I managed to tell Chatot who I really was, now I deserve to have him tell me about himself. Besides, it sounds like they might have found one of Dialga's children down there, and was talking about guarding his master's dimension, and as nasty as it seems, it looks way less dangerous than going across the ocean to lava city, right?" I truly felt better than I had in a long time – having twelve people on board with the mission felt a lot better than three, and it seems like we had found a likely path to victory.
"I bet he'll visit us again tonight, and I somehow doubt he'll be happy." Serge said, suddenly sounding uneasy.
"He can't do shit to harm us, at least I don't think so, and like I said – if we were really going on the wrong path, he'd tell me who he his to convince me to listen to him. I doubt he's going to be that petty and risk time stopping over hiding his identity if he's really on our side, right? If he visits you again, start asking him, ok? I could use some back up in this." I said, which seemed to ease Serge a little bit.
"Sounds like a good plan, but there's one thing that's worrying me – if he's actually against us, maybe trying to lead us astray or get us killed in one way or another...why? And who would do something like that?" Serge said, sounding a little worried.
"Maybe it's one of Primal Dialga's agents, I'm pretty sure there were a lot more of these fanatics than just Dusknoir. I'm guessing he's too much of a little bitch to try and face us head on, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Goodnight man." I said as I closed my eyes. I fell asleep very quickly, and it wasn't long before I was dreaming again. I found myself in the chamber within Brine Cave, just before the natural curving hallway that led to the symbol. Would be useless trying to go there though, since the symbol would come from my imagination and thus be wrong. I sat down on the ground, throwing little rocks at the wall, waiting for him to appear.
"I know you're there, you can come out." I said loudly, my voice echoing around as I saw my human self walk from the hallway and stood about ten meters away from me, and he did not look happy at all.
"Do you want the worlds to die a slow and horrible death?! I told you where you needed to go, and you're wasting time with this false lead! When you get up, you'd better tell everyone to change plans and head to the volcanic island! I already set up six lapras to take you and your there!" He shouted at me, and seeing myself angry unintentionally looked rather funny. No wonder I wasn't taken too seriously when I got mad back in the day.
"I'm sorry, do I have to make this clear to you once more?! I don't just randomly trust beings who enter my dreams and tell me to do stuff! Now, you tell me who you are and I might trust you. The ball's in your court, mister who-ever-you-are!" I said back to him, as we frowned at one another. Eventually he sighed sadly.
"I hoped that I would never have to do this. I know all to well that you're rather prone to panicking, but it seems like I have no choice. My name is Dialga, and I am asking you for your own sake, for your friend's sake, for every world's sake and for my sake to get to that island. Please, I need your help."
