Pokemon: Incarnation
Chapter 25: In The Land of Grey and Pink
"Wait, so I shouldn't even be here then..." I said, thinking about this to myself. "So, regarding this, Serge, how would you feel about, y'know, sending my sister and I back home, hm?"
"I don't know what brought you here. Maybe it was a simple anomaly, a crack between the dimensions. It happens very occasionally due to Giratina's sloppiness at the job. I can't conceive of any power from this planet that could have brought you here aside from me, and even then, I had some 'help'." Serge explained as I frowned slightly. Dodging the question there, eh?
"I'm sure it's all fascinating to you, but when it comes down to it, neither of us should be here. Just send us back now, and we won't bug you for any potential therapy charges." I said, being rather direct to him.
"No. I need you. Everyone here needs you, or more precisely, your sister and everyone else I summoned." He said as I slowly walked up to him. "Don't look at me like that, I didn't bring you here."
"No, but if it weren't for some cosmic accident or whatever, Melinda could have been dead, or worse! Her blood would have been on your hands!" I said as I saw Serge about to raise some kind of objection or justification. I wasn't letting this filthy bastard have any of this! "Or the blood of Danil or Neervav for that matter!"
"I have never met either of them." Serge said, looking a little puzzled. Did this guy not even know who they were?! With any luck, I could wring a bit of guilt out of him.
"Duke, Adriene, Zhao, Yuda…do those names mean anything to you?! I can remember just about all the names of those champions who were whisked away by you! Want me to continue?! Amelia, Omari-"
"I get it!" Serge suddenly yelled. "Yes, I summoned a lot of humans here. Thirty five years and over two thousand years ago, a human was central from saving this planet from certain calamity! Clearly, there's something your kind has that we on this world lack."
"Doesn't seem to be producing any results so far Serge! I wonder how many people you needlessly murdered?! This had nothing to do with us! NOTHING!" I screamed at him. "How many did you summon, huh?! How many lives have you thrown into the belly of The Devourer?! Some reward winning the battling championships!"
"About fifty." He replied, almost seeming rather nonchalant about the whole thing as he leaned over slightly to look down at me. His face moved close to mine until we were almost nose-to-nose with each other. I'd happily rip of his snout and force him to eat it if I had the strength to do so as I growled slightly at him. "…And I would summon fifty more if I had to."
"You really don't give a shit, do you? A tall task to ask us to risk life and limb for a world that almost no one back home even knows about!" I replied, half spitting on him as he stood up straight again.
"If you had seen the things I have seen, then you know fine well just how fragile this world is. How all of our worlds are. I do what I need to do to help protect it from all manner of threats and dangers. A few innocent lives are worth the price for the safety and prosperity of millions." He said before turning around, shuffling through his bag.
"I wonder what Floyd would think of the man you've become." I said from behind his back. He seemed to shudder slightly as he turned around suddenly.
"He…he has done enough. He can stay out of this." He said, sounding rather uncomfortable.
"The once great hero, helping the magnificent Floyd Munro save the entire cosmos from being frozen in time, now complicit in mass murder! They'll all find out eventually Serge, and they'll all turn on you. And when they do, as much as I need you to help send us back home, I really wouldn't want to get in their way. Speaking of Floyd, he's already caught on that you were behind this. Do you know what he said?" I said as the air around Serge shimmered slightly with the rising heat around his body.
"Stop. Talking." Serge growled, still checking the content of his bags. Good, I was emotionally compromising him. Maybe if I can get him to snap, then perhaps I could be in a better position to persuade me to send us back.
"Floyd was wondering how any version of himself in any timeline or whatever could ever have befriended such a piece of shit such as yourself! He even said he'd have broken every limb in your body for the repulsive stunts you've been pulling if he could!" I said, lying about the latter stuff. I backed off into the water in case he suddenly decided to incinerate me as he suddenly turned to face me, his flame collar ignited brightly. He breathed heavily, growling as he did so as he glared daggers at me, though I couldn't show any signs of fear.
"Of course, there is a way to make this all right. Just send us back, and all will be forgiven. Maybe then, you will actually be able to be the hero this world needs." I said, standing straight in the water, not flinching whatsoever.
"Basil does raise some good points though Serge." Melinda said, looking far more intimidated than I did. She seemed like she was trying to defuse the situation, but maybe this can be a good cop/bad cop thing. Hopefully it could work. "Last time, the world only needed one human – Floyd. Couldn't you just use him again?"
"He's already done his part for the world. I'm not bringing him into this again. He hated his time here, and besides, he's at least fifty years old. It wouldn't work." Serge said, trying to make weak sounding excuses.
"You don't exactly look young yourself Serge!" I said, continuing to prod at him. "I'll ask what Melinda was probably about to – if you're summoning national champions, then why did you summon this, well, not-champion?" I gestured to my sister in an apologetic manner. Serge looked at her for a few seconds, seemingly not knowing what to say.
"Was Omar too old? Zhao's at least sixty from what I remember, but that didn't stop you!" I said as Serge's discomfort became all too clear to anyone watching. He seemed to shuffle slightly with every body movement, not making eye contact with either of us.
"There are people…enough, I'm not talking about this anymore. I don't think The Devourer will find us here for some time given the lack of activity from his proxies in this continent, but I'm not wanting to waste any more time discussing this with you. There are only two things to talk about now: filling you in with everything I know about The Devourer, and what to do with you." Serge replied, turning to look at me.
"Separating Melinda and I would be a bad idea, so I wouldn't try it." I said flatly to him as he frowned slightly.
"It's not up to either of you. Basil, you're an unknown element. It's possible, or perhaps even likely that Giratina is simply being sloppy again, but if some third party pulled you in here, then it could be very bad news for us all." Serge said, still looking down at me rather intensely. His fur seemed to be a bit darker than most typhlosions I've seen in my life, and age hadn't been kind to the guy at all. I swore I could see wrinkles beneath all that fur, though it could be my imagination or the heat getting to me. "As for you Melinda, you're the first human I've been able to meet in a reasonably safe environment, so I'm not sending you back under any circumstances."
"I've never been a fan of this place or its people as a whole, but I have a couple of friends here I want to see live happily, and I hardly want to see The Devourer eat everything here." I said
"The Devourer could have also learned a few tricks since the last time." Serge said as I scoffed slightly.
"From what I heard, a human supposedly drove him off last time, so why the fuck would he want to have even more of us here? Look, I'm making no qualms about how much I despise you, but all things considered, if you're refusing to send my sister back and I'm refusing to be sent back without her, well, we're all on the same side." I said, gritting my teeth towards the end.
"Well, if you two are done having a go at one another…Serge, why don't you tell us more about The Devourer." Melinda said, looking rather frustrated. The typhlosion sighed and sat down in front of us both.
"Admittedly, everything I know comes from someone who left this planet as soon as it all began. They call him 'The Watcher of The Skies', but Rayquaza clearly abandoned that post. Anyway, The Devourer crashed on this planet about 2500 years ago. As you'd expect, the pokemon banded together to figure out how to stop him and the forces he had accumulated, but were having no luck. They, with the help of a strange creature called Xerneas, were able to summon a human from your world, simply known as Tarkus. He was chosen due to his experience leading humans and pokemon alike in battles, and with his help, was able to strike decisive blows against The Devourer." Serge said as I already saw something different between the present and the last time The Devourer was here.
"If he's some kind of ancient general, then even he'd be out of luck here. The Devourer's using subterfuge and guerrilla tactics to whittle down the population here. Sounds like he was just brute forcing the last time, or even if he wasn't, we were strategizing over a specific set of guidelines. It's hardly a similar case over what we're facing right now." I asked, though it seemed clear that Serge probably would have liked Rayquaza to tell him more, as he seemed quite unsure of it all.
"I'm only going with what I've been told. Xerneas again provided much needed help, as he was able to figure out how to use his power to bless others with a total immunity from being turned into black stone. The Devourer must have gotten afraid then, as it started escaping back up towards the stars, but by then, the vast majority had been turned to statues. Tarkus was supposedly able to make chase with a small but very powerful group of pokemon to stop them by clinging onto the mountain that was being used to escape, but as you can tell, Tarkus and the others failed to kill him." Serge said, taking some water from the oasis.
"So, we saw The Devourer earlier in Fremdesland. Huge sickly yellow glowing entity, could blast everything in sight. I've never seen anything like it in my life, I doubt any human would know how to deal with it, and believe me, I don't think any of us want to get close enough to that…thing to find out." I said, but then Serge said something that shocked me.
"The physical body of what you saw – that's not The Devourer." He said as I let out a dry and forceful 'What?!' in response. "What you saw is likely some kind of entity or being from another world. The Devourer is, well, I'd say it's inside…it's rather difficult to describe. See, the last time The Devourer was here, as far as Rayquaza knows, it took the form of a snivy of all things. In fact, it was only towards the end of its rampage that people learned that it was The Devourer causing all this misery and not that snivy. The snivy, who I believe was called Ezekiel from a translator I know, had existed on our world since he was born, and then suddenly, he had the power to turn anyone he desired into a black statue and so, so much more. The Devourer is not that being or Ezekiel, nor is it a shapeshifter. The Devourer, according to Rayquaza, lives inside the minds of those it possesses, yet there seems to be a prime host, but how it acquires a prime host and how it chooses them, we don't know."
"If it was, then it'd have no reason to choose to be a snivy. One blast from this and problem solved!" I said, gesturing to the weapon. "Begs the question why it chose such an ordinary pokemon though…"
"If you don't mind me asking Serge, why seek out the top professional trainers? Were they the closest thing to military commanders you could find? Because we still have those back home." Melinda asked, washing her face with the water from the oasis.
"I wanted people who knew pokemon the best. I figured that The Devourer and the useful idiots in the Pale Communion would be on the looking for any humans arriving, so I had you all become your pokemon selves to hide you from them." He said as I scoffed.
"Yeah, look how that turned out! I still barely know a thing about using this body! As for my sister, maroaks back home are quite different! Also, Floyd's no trainer, he's a policeman, but he was supposedly strong enough to stop time from, well, stopping, while being the one and only human on this planet. Was summoning top level trainers just a best guess then?" I asked as Serge slowly nodded.
"I figured that there'd be a better chance of people who work full time with pokemon would adapt better to being one." He said, looking doubtful whether it was a good idea or not.
"Well, it was starting to cause a bit of a panic across the world with a lot of famous people vanishing. Believe me, the conspiracy theories were already running wild. Still, I understand why you did it. I think I've adapted well enough, and Basil too, even in a less conventional way." She said, pointing to the weapon.
"Least you could do is apologize to us you utter ingrate."
"I'm not going to apologize, let alone send you home until The Devourer is destroyed. If you truly end up a threat to my life, I'll simply have you destroyed, Basil. There are plenty other humans I can rely on." Serge said simply, as if it was some kind of power play. It seemed clearer by the second that I was dealing with a sociopath who cared nothing for the welfare of my people. We were merely tools to be used in his plans, and ultimately, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it aside from playing along and hope we don't get thrown under a metaphorical bus. Blasting his face clean off with the weapon when he least expects it doesn't exactly get us home either.
"So, do you have some kind of plan?" Melinda asked Serge, which made the typhlosion look somewhat uncomfortable.
"Do you?" He asked suddenly, making me frown at him for what must have been the hundredth time.
"Hold on a minute, you don't seem to be an ordinary typhlosion. We saw you make some kind of pink swirly portal to get here. You altered gravity itself and almost crushed me to death against that tree. Anything else you can do that could help? Hey, don't get mad at us for not knowing how to deal with The Devourer, I'm just trying to get your brain jogging." I asked, as he seemed to conjour some of that pale pink energy around his right hand.
"The physical form of that creature, I could likely slice in half. However, Rayquaza did share a story which makes me believe that you can't just kill the prime host and be done with it. A supposedly noble creature called Solgaleo was one of the first to learn about what was happening. The story is unfortunately missing some important details, but soon after, Solgaleo had those strange tell-tale red antler like things on his head, which you may have noticed on that alien creature back on Fremdesland. Shortly after, the incinerated corpse of an alien creature was found, and some time later, Solgaleo was dead, then Ezekiel started taking over." Serge explained as it got me thinking.
"So just killing the host might not get rid of him then, huh…" I muttered to myself.
"If The Devourer can simply move to a new target and make it into a new prime host once it's old one dies, then you can see what will likely happen if I kill that creature. With the abilities that my master has granted me, they could be turned against the world if The Devourer is able to make me into a proxy or its prime host." Serge said as I became rather stumped.
"Well, that makes things incredibly difficult. If it's true, then how in the blazes do we kill this thing for good aside from nuking the entire planet? Also, your master…?" I said, realising the strange powers and abilities this typhlosion has been granted might make a degree of sense.
"Palkia." He said simply.
"Fuck off." I said, not believing that nonsense. Even Melinda was laughing about how absurd that was. "Right, first of all, it implies that he exists, and the fact that he took notice of you."
"Saving the entire cosmos from being frozen in time does get you some powerful connections. Also, did neither of you consider why you turned into a meowstic and marowak?" He said, almost smiling at us.
"Er…a moment, Serge." Melinda said as she took me to one side. "Well, that's a spiritual bombshell and a half! Like, what do we do or believe now?! I never seriously considered that the different faiths or religions back home had a degree of merit to them!"
"You're just gonna believe him like that? It's nonsense! He must have pulled…" I said before sighing. "It does explain quite a lot though. Look, we can think about this after we get home."
"Yeah, but what about afterlives and all that kind of stuff? I mean, we could die here!" She said before I calmed her down.
"Let's just try to settle our minds on stuff a little closer to our plane of existence. We won't exactly do well here if we're caught up thinking about this sort of thing." I said before we turned back to Serge. "I assume Palkia can't just zap The Devourer?"
"Nope. Something about a non-interference thing imposed by his master. I can only assume what he did to me was some kind of loophole. I haven't spoken to him in some time though. Palkia is always very busy." He explained to us as I rolled my eyes. I guess I'm kind of glad that, if these beings do exist, they don't get involved with us directly, but it'd be incredibly helpful if we got some of that interference right now!"
"Ok, so we turned into some fairly unremarkable pokemon while you can slice massive things in half, alter gravity itself and create portals to whisk yourself across the planet. The first two don't seem to be of much use against The Devourer itself, but creating wormholes across the cosmos? Now that is something I think you could work with." I explained to him. Surely he'd have thought of this, or this typhlosion was even less competent than I thought!
"It won't be that easy. I can't just snap my fingers and create one. There's only so much I can do with a body like this, and thus it takes a lot of effort and concentration to hold and maintain a wormhole big enough for me, let alone something that big. Also, any other planet or star is far too great a distance for me. It's why it took me a long time to find enough time to make a portal without The Devourer catching me in the act. As for cutting that creature in half, I can only do so if it hasn't noticed me, since preparing such a blow would likely take at least a whole minute." He explained as I swore loudly.
"Fuck! Now what do we do?! Can't blast the thing or it'll possess you, can't throw it into the sun…we're clearly not that much help, so what the fuck can we do?! You've sent us all to our almost-certain deaths without knowing what you were doing you feckless cunt!" I said, half yelling at him before calming down. "…I suppose you were hoping we could figure it out, huh. No need to tell me to calm down Mel'. He's strong-armed us into this, and there's clearly no arguing with him. It's his way or the highway, it seems."
"Indeed…anyway, we really have no idea where to begin with this, and since no one back on our planet knows about The Devourer, we'll be as clueless as you are." Melinda explained. "Know of others who are trying to figure out how to stop it?"
"There are a bunch of people in New Australia, though I don't think they have found any humans. Given how anyone they let in could be one of The Devourer's proxies, they've closed themselves off. Well, one of them might be a human, or at least he claims to be. I personally doubt it, but just about everyone in New Australia thinks the Syrinx mayor is one. I guess if there's nothing else to say, we should go join them." He said, picking up his bag. We dried off in the desert heat extremely quickly as we got ready to go.
"What's in that huge backpack anyway? It's almost as big as you." Melinda said as Serge suddenly looked a bit shifty.
"Remember how I told you how Xerneas helped summon people and provided us with a key to help combat The Devourer? Well, I've been using his help to summon you here…it's just that, well The Devourer learned its lesson and, well, savagely murdered him on sight. I might have been using parts of his dead body and combine it with my own power to start bringing humans here. Still researching on what more can be done with it." He said, looking extremely embarrassed. Finally, Serge reveals to us that he is, in fact, capable of feeling shame! Wish he'd apply it more liberally.
"Great, the one who could have really been a help is now dead." I said bitterly as I saw Serge make a few gestures with his hands
"Will they try to stop us from entering their circle or something?" I asked as Serge shook his head as the air in front of him started to shimmer with a lilac haze.
"They should be fine with you two after I've introduced you. Just don't do anything that might arouse suspicion." Serge said as the air seemed to converge into a very faint and murky pink circle beside the typhlosion.
"In that case, I'll just say that you summoned me directly, just like you did with my sister. I think you'll find it suits both our interests." I said with slightly gritted teeth. If they found out I was a human but not brought here by Serge, then there'd likely be a ton of questions that I couldn't answer thrust upon me.
"Well, I just hope they won't be too disappointed with us. We're hardly replacements for Floyd from thirty-five years ago." Melinda said as Serge seemed to have completed his portal. Through the blurry haze, I swore I could see another land right in the centre of it, though I couldn't make out many details.
"If people knew Floyd as I knew him for the first two weeks upon his arrival, no one could have predicted what he'd do. You are still a source of hope for this world, and I don't want you to forget it Melinda." He said as he stood back. "Well, through here is New Australia. Should only be a short walk to our hide out from there."
"By the way Serge, I heard that Suicune was responsible for this oasis and one time helped this continent become lush and a generally well-to-do place. Where is he? Is he fine with us?" I asked as Serge gestured us to walk inside the shimmering portal.
"I couldn't take any chances, now please, it is straining me slightly to keep this thing open, so go, now." He replied firmly as Melinda walked in.
"Leaving absolutely nothing to chance, eh? I can see where you're coming from, but you're still full of shit." I said, wondering exactly what happened to Suicune as I walked forward. My body seemed to lurch forward on its own accord as I got within a couple of steps of the portal as I felt myself being suddenly sucked in. A brief moment of weightlessness and dizziness overcame me for a brief moment before I suddenly found myself on firmer, rockier ground. I regained my balance as I saw Melinda looking around at the scenery around me.
While I was grateful to get away from that desert heat, I wasn't expecting to be lurched into the freezer like this! I suddenly became very grateful for the blue and white for on my body as the cold swiftly descended upon my body. Regardless, it wasn't intolerably cold, so I didn't fear hypothermia kicking in.
The landscape we found ourselves in was covered in grey rock of many different shades, unevenly making its way across the land around us, forming hills and mountains. Lines of snow criss-crossed their way along the higher regions and vanished entirely to the lower grounds. In the distance, at the bottom of the slopes of these jagged hills, I saw what must have been a properly fully-sized city. I could not tell for sure from all the way up here, but it seemed to be, by far, the closest thing I have seen to a modern pokemon civilization. They looked a long way off from having skyscrapers and cars however, and upon staring at it closely, it may simply be because they didn't appear to have some older historical roots like State Broussard and Fremdesland had.
"It's not usual for the environment here to be this clear. Most of the time, this place is covered with a volcanic mist that makes it rather tricky to see too far." Serge said, closing the portal behind us. "Rather stunning when you get a good look, isn't it." He gestured off into the distance, or at least I think he did, since he seemed to be looking at something much closer.
"Behind that boulder, that's where we'll be staying. It's a whole mile off the path, and people rarely venture this far off it. We should be hidden." Serge said as a sudden burst of steam burst out of the ground a few meters in front of us. "Just be careful and follow my steps."
"Is that some kind of dugout in a land this volcanic we're going to?" Melinda said, looking around at the sulfurous steam leaking out around me across the ground.
"It was built by a heatran. Don't worry, they know the underground volcanic systems better than anyone. It's perfectly safe." Serge reassured us as I noticed a tiny pond of water bubbling nearby. I had never been to any area back on Earth with volcanic activity, but those who said that it smelled like rotten eggs weren't kidding! I cursed my enhanced sense of smell as we followed the typhlosion around the boulder and saw a metal trapdoor, partially concealed by some of the gravel and dirt from the surrounding area. Serge knocked in a fairly long, rhythmic pattern, as if it were some kind of password, and after brief moment, I heard a click as the trapdoor gave way.
"Oh my gosh, it's Serge! He's finally back!" A rather old-looking sunflora said as she turned to look at Melinda and I. "...And two others, who are they?"
"Melinda and Basil, two humans I summoned. I've finally been able to locate some without them being picked off by The Devourer or the Pale Communion. Neither The Devourer or its proxies know we're here." Serge explained.
"You're completely sure they're not proxies?" She asked, looking at us closely. She didn't seem to speak in an Australian accent as I expected, and from the sounds of it, came from Conviction.
"I saw them on the run from them, and if they were, well, I'd likely be dead." He said as she stalled slightly before gesturing us to come inside. It was a surprisingly spacious tunnel that led steeply down, that seemed to be warmed significantly by the surrounding volcanic activity. I had heard of heatrans making tunnels amidst volcanos back on Earth, but I still felt uncomfortable that the tiniest leak could spell instant death for all of us. It wasn't long until it widened into a cavern with a few pokemon sitting inside.
Inside, the surprisingly black rocky interior was lit by some rather odd looking lights. They had some very crude looking cover over them, with wires leading from beneath them that seemed to lead into the cavern walls. I couldn't tell if this was supplied by electricity, gas, or something else entirely. It very much seemed like the pokemon here tried to learn some more advanced human technology, but ultimately went about it in a different way.
"Impressive, isn't it." I heard a low, gravelly voice say from nearby. Its strange body seemed to have rock, metal and lava flowing all over it as it looked down from us, being about as tall as Serge and significantly "I'm Heatran Jr of the Heatran Geothermal Corporation. My father helped bring the great continent of New Australia the power to ascend beyond…eh, there's more important things than that going on right now. Don't want to become too obsessive like him. Why do you think I'm here?" While extremely rough, this guy's voice seemed far more local.
"Trust me, if you're on about the power to make these lights, you'd have a field day from where we come from." I said, smiling slightly. Even just standing next to the guy seemed to make me sweat on my paws slightly given how much heat was radiating from his body!
"So The Guardian of Forever finally found some humans then! I hope you're the answer we're looking for…" He said as my sister and I smiled somewhat nervously. Probably not a good idea to tell them that Serge's faith in our kind as grand saviours from beyond this world was misplaced. I saw Serge talking to a few pokemon from the other end of the cavern, with some of them sitting around a large table. Many of the walls were surrounded by maps, charts and other kind of nonsense which I hoped were some kind of cohesive plan to deal with The Devourer, but given what I've seen of the pokemon here so far, I wasn't getting my hopes too high.
"Come over and meet the others." Serge said as he gestured us to come over. I saw a large, elderly looking Emboar, and, to my complete surprise…
"BASIL!" I heard a voice yell as a yellow blur suddenly made its way towards me at such a speed that I couldn't quite make out what it was before I was half-hugged and half-tackled by an old friend of mine.
"Murphy! You survived! I had no idea if you managed to survive that dreadful night!" I said delightfully in a rather high pitched voice before hugging him back. "Oh thank whatever god may be out there that you're still alive! I'm so sorry, my sister and I had to run and we were cut off from the others!"
"Me too! Me too Basil…" Murphy said, looking like he was trying really hard not to cry, which would explain why he seemed to be short on words. His frill quivered slightly as he sniffed as he patted my back gently.
"Well, it's very good to see you again Murphy, but how did you get here? It would have been very hard without some backdoor entrance, so to speak." Melinda said, smiling, but not looking entirely convinced. Her question and mannerisms seemed to snap me back into the moment a bit as I let go of Murphy.
"I'd be asking you the same question. They've closed off the entire continent to outsiders entirely, heard straight from the Prime Minister himself, Michael Rutherford." He said, pointing to an emboar speaking to Serge not too far away from us.
"Well, how about you start off Murphy." I asked as the heliolisk sat down on a wooden stool nearby.
"Audrey and I were able to stick together after the chaos that went down on that horrible, horrible night. We tried looking for you and the others, but all we could find was Charlie, and…" He said, looking like he was about to tear up for very different and tragic reasons.
"We know, Murphy. We were there when it happened." I said, exhaling slowly and lowering my head. "If it weren't for him, neither of us would have been alive."
"It's why we have to see this through; I'm not letting him die for nothing!" Melinda said firmly before gesturing Murphy to continue.
"Audrey has now become the leader of the Excursion Club, and as a result, we figured the only chance we had was to go to New Australia via the east coast. We hadn't heard of any incidents happening there, so maybe The Devourer didn't manage to get any of its proxies there. Audrey told me that the Excursion Club were in contact with Heartan Jr, who was, at the time, helping his dad try to come up with technological and power solutions to the current crisis. The plan was to use the remaining funds from the Excursion Club to try and pay someone a lot of money to sneak us into New Australia." Murphy explained as Melinda chimed in.
"Who got you in?" She asked.
"A lapras. According to her, the north-east coast isn't too well guarded, so we managed to sneak in just fine. We were on our way to Syrinx to try and find Heatran Jr, but we had discovered the hard way that this island already has a proxy in it! Audrey and I were almost turned into one of those awful statues as we made our way across one of paths across one of the volcanic fields just East of here, but Heatran Jr and that old Sunflora helped save us from them!" He said, the emotions on his face matching the story he told at every moment.
"Ok, so they've even arrived here…shit. Any victims yet?" I asked as Murphy shook his head.
"None that Michael has been made aware of. We might have gotten lucky and managed to take out the only two proxies on New Australia. Michael ordered there to be way, way more guards around New Australia now. A quarter of everyone who lives here is watching the shorelines as we speak!"
"Good to hear Murphy, but where's Audrey?" Melinda asked as Murphy pointed to her. She was in the corner of the cavern, inspecting something closely. It seemed like it was a tablet of some kind, and she seemed to be studying it with another archaeologist.
"Tarkus? No, it's Argus! That isn't a 'tau' at the start, though given the way it was inscribed on this particular tablet, I can't blame you for getting confused. Whoever did this did a rather scrappy job. I'll be able to get more in here tomorrow to show you, which are thankfully in better condition." The strange pokemon next to Audrey rambled on for a fare bit, and on a closer look, I had no idea what that thing was. It looked almost like a cartoonishly proportioned humanoid creature with a large red spot on its belly. I could have sworn it was wearing boots for a moment, and looking at this odd creature further, it picked up a crooked icicle next to it and hobbled along, using it like a walking stick.
"Oh, you must be the humans! G'day to you two! The name's Mr Rime!" He said, having possible the thickest accent here.
"…Hi, we're Basil and Melinda." I said, not exactly feeling too comfortable around this…thing, and yet, it didn't look as off as those strange mime pokemon you occasionally see around France.
"Basil and Melinda who? I must know where you come from!" He said, possibly trying to act like a prim-and-proper gentlemen, but was being a bit too forward about it for my liking.
"We'd tell you, but it wouldn't make much sense. I'm Basil Squire, and this is my sister. Do you have surnames on this content?" I asked as he looked very puzzled.
"Basil Squire? No, you're not a corvisquire!" He said, looking rather confused at us.
"A what?" I asked, and from the looks of Melinda, she was just as puzzled.
"It's pronounced 'cor-veh-scwy-r', not 'ba-zil-scwy-r!' Not that it matters, since you're clearly a meowstic and not a corvisquire. You two are strange! I look forward to seeing you again!" He said, hobbling along, using the icicle as a walking stick.
"Never mind him. He's…he's a weirdo, but he's harmless, and has been very useful to us so far." Serge said, gesturing us to come over and meet the emboar.
"So, I've heard that you were once a human too Mr Rutherford." I said, looking up at the Emboar, who seemed to be about middle aged, so probably just outside the age range that someone would use one for competitive battling. I had a lot of doubt about this ragtag crew here: A lot of them seemed to be past their prime in terms of raw combat ability.
"That I was! But I returned upon hearing that my work from 1980, Earth time, was being undone, and as you can tell, we've all done a fantastic job, though the greatest challenge awaits…" He said as I looked at a nearby map of the continent.
"Syrinx, Xanadu, Cygnus…a Rush fan!" I said with a big grin on my face, with Melinda also looking happy.
"Ah yes, the names of the major towns were named after Rush things." He said as I stood upon the table to speak to him more clearly.
"Oh how I wish I could listen to some right now! Or some Genesis! Speaking of them, funny coincidence how you share one of one of their members. Anyway, got a favourite Rush album? I'm A Farewell to Kings guy myself." I asked, speaking very quickly and excitedly. It was the first time I was able to share a common interest with someone new here in quite a while.
"Er, yes! That is also my favourite Rush album!" He said after a slight delay. Serge didn't seem to believe he was the actual Michael Rutherford, but with some actual knowledge of Earth, I could grill him and tell for sure.
"Ok then, what's your second favourite one then?" I asked as he began to look rather uneasy.
"You go first." He said, fidgeting his flaming beard.
"That's not how it works 'Michael', so you can tell me yours now." I said rather sternly.
"Well, anyway, that's besides the point. We were just about to-"
"Your second favourite Rush album. Tell me it. Don't worry, I'm sure The Devourer can't use that information even if I somehow was a proxy. Oh, if you're just indecisive or are just one of those, ahem, 'likes them all' people, then just name another Rush album. You're clearly a big fan if you personally named those towns." I said, trying to keep my voice low as so others wouldn't overhear.
"…What's your point with all this?" He said, frowning at me as he folded his arms.
"Well, I did a bit of reading up on the history of these places in this strange world, and according to some books, Michael came to this planet about 85 years ago, and returned once more, this time as an Emboar about 20 years back. You should know all about Australia, since it's your native homeland on Earth, so you should be able to tell me the island just south of the mainland."
"Again, what is your point, Mr Meowstic?!" He said, getting a little angry. I wasn't intimidated as he didn't look like the sort to lash out physically. I walked a bit closer and stood on my tiptoes, trying to get as close as possible to his head in order to speak very quietly.
"I don't know how you convinced everyone on this plant that you were that man, but I see someone that's way too young and lacks the most basic knowledge about my homeworld to be the real Michael Rutherford. It was an impressive con, I'll give you that." I said as he coughed slightly, and was noticeably avoiding eye contact.
"…I wasn't conning them for power. A series of natural disasters, from earthquakes, tsunamis, and, of course, volcanic eruptions did a number on New Australia, almost to the point where civilization had broke down entirely. I remember Serge coming here when I was a child, and told the story about how he and Floyd prevented time from stopping, and while not many people believed it, a fair few of them did. All this really did was having those people elevate humanity as some kind of hyper advanced saviour deities, and hearing Floyd of becoming a pokemon, it gave me an idea. I had to fake my death as a tepig, make myself evolve into an emboar so no one would recognize me, and do everything I could to convince people that a human had once again came down from your world to fix their problems." He said, looking rather stressed out and embarrassed as he explained it. Melinda didn't seem too happy about all this, but I was rather enthralled in all honesty!
"Seems like they all believed it too." I said, looking around the room.
"Yeah, they handed me the power to make the decisions as the new mayor of Syrinx, and through the authority that I had, I helped reunite the people of this land, bringing their skills together and organizing them to bring about Syrinx's redemption and spread it to the rest of New Australia. If you're still mad at me, then know this: it worked." He said, breathing rather deeply, as if speaking in a quiet voice was somehow exhausting for him.
"I'm not mad at all…that's actually fucking brilliant! Do the others here know?" I asked as he looked at them.
"I doubt Serge believes me, but everyone else seems to. The last thing we need when the entire world is under attack from a series of imposters is exposing me as a regular pokemon and not the actual Michael Rutherford. That could cause a panic across this great continent." He told me as I nodded.
"Don't worry my man, I'm not telling anyone. Got nothing to gain from it anyway. Just don't piss me off too much, since I do now have a useful weapon. Just laying it on the table." I told him, just to try and keep him away from doing anything undesirable to Melinda and I.
So, my kidnapper, two archaeologists, some old wilting flower, a rich son of a CEO, one of my closest friends and my sister. Not gonna lie, I didn't have much confidence with this. I didn't have much confidence in pretty much anyone in this planet. I'd love nothing more than to just get out of here, but Serge was denying that from me.
"Ok then Serge, you got a plan? Don't ask us, you know more about this planet than we do! You can stop stalling now, come on! Did you actually expect us to just think of something on the spot?" I told him as he looked down at me.
"I was hoping we could work that out together." He said, muttering something to himself. If I heard correctly, it was probably about how he discovered me of all the humans that came here.
"I'm not likely to pull off a Floyd, but…ok, wait a minute, you have a very rich man over there that can supply us with enough money to do what we like, the Prime Minister who has a lot of political authority, so why the sunflora and…what ever the hell that archaeologist is?" I said, trying to piece together this typhlosion's logic.
"Sunflora is an old colleague of mine. Very reliable, and if The Devourer can manipulate plant life, she'll be the first to know what to do about it. As for Mr Rime, he's an oddball, but probably the most respected archaeologist in this planet. He joined the Wigglytuff guild shortly after Floyd died, and he and Wigglytuff were able to do a lot of the preliminary research on the ancient civilization that once existed…here." He said, pointing to a map of the world on the cave wall.
"Erm, Serge, that's the ocean." Melinda pointed out as Serge nodded.
"The continent's sunk. There's evidence that it was once above the water due to how the rocks were structured, but how it could have sunk, we have no idea." He said, as I peered over to the stone tablet that Audrey and Murphy were looking at.
"Is this relevant to The Devourer in any way?" I asked.
"The Watcher of The Skies told me that The Devourer was here once before, though he fled beyond the skies when things looked hairy, so I couldn't get much out of him. It's a long shot, but maybe some information about The Devourer could have been inscribed by this ancient civilization." He said as I slowly looked up at him.
"So what are we waiting for? I remember there being a small museum back in State Broussard, so there must be one in Syrinx just down in the valley there. We must get any and all artifacts, stone tablets or whatever else came from there." I said to him before hopping onto a nearby stool.
"I've not heard of any museum raids yet, so this may be something The Devourer hasn't thought of. This could be our chance to get a let up on the bastard! You have a lot of influential people here, you probably don't even have to steal them! From what I overheard, Mr Rime and Audrey have made attempts to decipher the ancient language, which, if Melinda was correct about back on State Broussard, is ancient Greek, a very old human language. Unfortunately, Melinda and I can't speak or read it at all, so you're out of luck there." I said before staring Serge right in the eye.
"The solutions to the problem could be right there in front of you, but you pratted about with this 'we need humans' nonsense! Get your arse in gear and get those ancient artifacts! Oh, and while we're at it, if there are entities as old as The Watcher of The Skies on this planet, then we should try to get them out of their hermitage and ask them what happened! You said it was a bit of a stretch, but it's pretty much the only thing going for us right now, so I say we double down on this until we see it's a dead duck or we find something better! There! That's why I'm here! To screw your head on straight! Now, could you send my sister and I back home please!?" I rambled, my speech becoming faster and somewhat tightened the longer I spoke.
"I see…thank you Basil." Serge replied, finally showing some gratitude.
"He's had to put me on the right track a few times back on our world." Melinda said, smiling at me.
"Still, we may need you, so I can't send you home yet." Serge said as I swore loudly. "Maybe you'll come up with some more good ideas soon."
"Syrinx doesn't look too far away, so I suggest you head out there now. Meanwhile, I'm exhausted…" I said, looking for somewhere to lie down.
"Here Basil, there's a few mattresses over there." Murphy said, smiling at me and pointing to them.
"Oh, that does look rather nice…" I said sleepily as I sat down upon one of them. "Hope Audrey's been good to you on your little adventure."
"She has, she helped keep me safe." He said, sitting down next to me, wagging his tail slightly before lowering his head slightly. "To think Basil, all I wanted was to become was an actor, and now all this has happened."
"It's not your fault Murphy, none of us wanted this to happen." I said before patting him on the back. "Say, after all this has blown over, I'll see if Serge can let me stay a little longer so I can finish helping you."
"That'd be wonderful Basil! Though, I can't blame you for wanting to go home. You arrived at such a bad time!" He said as I chuckled slightly.
"Well, I know two people I can blame for that." I said, and, speak of the devil, that typhlosion approached me.
"Ok, given there's been no activity from The Devourer on this continent after Heatran Jr saved you, we've decided that we're all going together to the museum to take everything we can back here. We don't know for how long that monster will leave this continent alone for, so we should act quickly." Serge announced as I groaned. I was already feeling half asleep, but I suppose I could keep going for another couple of hours.
"Fine…" I muttered, though since this was all my idea, I couldn't exactly point fingers at Serge this time. "Serge, does Syrinx have any of those human temples down there?"
"Yes, though I wouldn't go there. Bunch of fruitcakes." He said as we strolled outside the hideout
"Oh, Melinda, do you know what that means?" I said to her as she looked a bit confused.
"Not exactly…" She replied as I grinned wider.
"Down there…" I said, pointing down to the city in the valley. "There are priests of the temples of Syrnix!" She suddenly howled with laughter as we started singing the passage in that song together.
"Is this some human thing you're doing?" The emboar asked as I smiled broadly at him.
"It's something Michael would understand." I said before laughing with my sister. As we made our way downhill towards Syrinx, I started to wonder about how safe we truly were. I wasn't there for any of the vetting for the people here, but I could at least assume that most of them were truly themselves. Murphy seemed to act like his usual self, so he's likely ok, and from what I could tell, the story of them being recruited into his entourage seemed consistent with the others that I asked. Regardless, it seemed like we'd take at least half an hour to get to Syrinx, so I guess I could try and do my own detective work along the way with an absolute truckload of questions. I was able to suss out 'Michael', so perhaps I could do the same for everyone else.
I just hope I could ask the right ones.
((Rest in peace Neil Peart, I wouldn't be making these awkward Rush references without you!))