Extended Epilogue Part 1
- Construction Efforts -
"Why exactly am I being included in this?" one of Strip Mine's new Champion stage bodies, currently the largest she had, asked Mew critically about a week after the ADDWARE's defeat. "I get why the Protector needs to have a place for pokemon to come see them, but why do I need one?"
They were at the new construction site, where a mass of Dark Network cables were being used as a basis for Basirablemon's new shrine structure. Gazimon's contribution would be hidden under a rather natural looking stone and wood mixture that the entire team had decided on for the appearance of their shared Legendary shrine.
"So the point of these things is a place specifically for other Legendary pokemon to come meet them," the much happier cat pokemon practically chirped. "And as I noted the last time we spoke, Arceus is asking for someone with your skills."
"Which means I have to be the one to deal with that why?" she asked in reply with a cautious look at the variety of Ichor pools that were going to join the original. "I barely agreed to be out here with you physical creatures at all."
"Because every time I ask about one of the previous creatures with your kind of ability that Arceus made I discover they are less personable than you are," Mew replied with a laugh at the other small technical Legendary. "I've been told the odds of the end result needing to be stopped as well when we're done with them is at 9 to 5 by the bookie that I know who covers that sort of thing. For comparison your survival was at 2 to 1."
"There is a Legendary pokemon bookie that thought I survived?" Strip Mine asked with a disbelieving tone she now considered was just for 'DSS stuff is happening'. "Wait, you were serious about needing me to crash some not-digital worlds?"
"I'm unfortunately more comfortable with the first question, and given she is a Victini who just about none of us really trust with more than just a few berries to bet that is a fairly high bar to cross," Mew replied a bit more fragilely. "Her species is known for literally bringing victory, just by being on the same side as someone," he then added at her slightly confused look. "Obviously it isn't common to let one bet on anything major, but she tries to be an edge case and sort of works as a way to judge how likely things are."
"You are doing badly at reassuring me that DSS is an outlier when it comes to physical creatures," she bluntly informed the Legendary cat.
Shawn, Serperior, and Gazimon all looked over the planned internal layout of their new team building yet again from a meeting room with a window that could just barely see the construction. "You sure you want me in on this with you guys?" Gazimon asked quietly.
"Bit late to get the courage to ask that," Shawn jokingly replied. "The Hybrids need it, and we want help from your HardWare units with the rest anyway."
"Shawn, did you know she survived?" Serperior then asked in response to the dig about courage. The room was silent for a moment, then Gazimon quietly grumbled that it didn't seem to be that great of a plan anymore. "I just- You were so confident."
"If she was dead we had her infected on standby to see if they could do anything," Shawn somberly admitted. "I knew, knew, she would show up if she was alive the moment we outright said she was dead." The red eyed trainer turned to look out the window towards where they knew Strip Mine was looking over the site. "I didn't want to test it."
"Serp, I think that's enough," Gazimon informed the snake pokemon. "That's as far as he wants to say it, and I know what that is like. Some things you just can't admit."
"I'm not going to date her," Serperior said after another moment. "And you are explaining whatever the two of you have to our mom."
"To change topic away from that minefield, 326 wants to know more about if we are going to have any HardWare units in the physical side of the shrine," Gazimon cut off his teammate. "Honestly, I think we might want to go with that, but some of them have personality issues we wouldn't want there."
"Larry?" the other two asked together, and looked slightly better for the chance to match up again.
"Larry is surprisingly not the worst of them. He at least can be counted on to look like he can do his work," the rabbit digimon laughed. "Some of the worse ones have been getting Ichor Dragon wrangling lessons the past few days to see if that can make them reach at least Larry's level of not-actively-a-problem."
"Larry isn't the worst they get?" the pair asked darkly, to which Gazimon could only laugh.
"So, who exactly will be visiting me, and why can't they just make the trip to a digital world we set aside instead?" Strip Mine asked as she led the Mew into the Troubleshooter Lab, with help from a series of signs that worried the Corrupt Destroyer. She felt that nobody should already have set up a sign to send people with problems specifically with her attacks to the right place. Let alone one that the receptionist said sympathetically that they were thankful she survived to justify keeping up.
"They had a sign just for visiting Legendary pokemon," Mew said a bit faintly, a bit more shocked than she was. "I think it was here back during the first time I went through there, but I haven't been stopping to read the signs."
"I think that might be my fault," Giratina said from a pool of shadow. To Strip Mine the Ghost/Dragon felt like the resistance to traveling between worlds, which made her more nervous than the idea he was one of the first creatures to exist in her local multiverse. "I was a bit public when I first arrived here myself."
"We might update that one to point out the shrine when its done," Janice complained more than commented. "And I have to agree with Strip Mine about the more important question. Who is most likely to ask about her, and why can't they just travel like you do?"
"To be honest, the big thing is going to be the Legendary pokemon who can make artificial worlds sort of like you guys," Mew admitted with a nod towards Janice. "It isn't a common skill, but enough can try it that it can be a problem."
"Self made worlds can be connected to someone," Strip Mine noted about that darkly. "Just destroying that kind of thing can cause some serious injuries."
"You are really bad at being one of the truly hazardous Legendary pokemon I have met," the cat pokemon said in response to how considerate that note had been. "But at the same time, there are ways to do it so wrong that the resulting world is already hurting the pokemon." He frowned deeply. "And from what I've heard you have a surprising amount of control over the side effects on connected things already."
"Janice, could you have at least tried to keep that part of things quiet?" the Corrupt Destroyer asked the Troubleshooter Lead.
"He did not hear that from me, but since he apparently knows I do want to start to cover what you need to do with the whole digital world creation fiasco we're dealing with," Janice replied with a harsh look at Mew. "Which is nothing you don't want to do. We can find other options, and honestly I would prefer it greatly if people were less liberal with digital world creation. Having to do something with the worlds once they have them is a good way to slow that down."
"So, that's honestly a good argument why you should be picky with the Legendary pokemon too," Mew slowly admitted at that information.
"If 'picky' is an option then they can figure out how to get to digital worlds first," Strip Mine said bluntly.
"Why does Strip Mine get to be picky?" Serperior asked as his team arrived in the room as well. "I think I'd prefer being picky to this mess. The construction company wants a rework because of the architect's new idea for the Network cables."
"I'm getting real tempted to just build things ourselves," Gazimon sighed with an open black pane held in one of his claws. "Sure, they have more Grass types around to make the living wood we were after, and I don't know if we have the Rock types for the stone."
"DSS possesses Rock types for landscaping purposes," Metagross said thoughtfully. "Alpha 30 has a standing request for any additional work for them we have. We have been under the impression that they were already assisting to cut down on construction costs."
"Janice, are those our Rock types out there?" Shawn asked seriously at that news, and she nodded to confirm. "Get rid of that construction company, I'd rather grow the place myself than deal with yet another issue from this architect. I've already had to stop them from putting in an attempt at an Ichor waterfall." The red eyed trainer then froze in horror as he realized he used the word 'Ichor'.
"I think the ship has sailed on what the stuff is called, Shawn," Serperior admitted at that look, although he also didn't sound happy about it. "Our rather sizable army of Ichor creatures is a bit insistent on the name."
"At least you two have stuff that matches you. I'm picking up bits and pieces from other groups," Gazimon added with a huff of dragon fire. Then blinked at the sight of one of his first changes. "Then again, that's sort of been my thing since... Actually if Azulongmon is to be believed about that archive being Light it has always been my thing."
"It has been a thing as long as I've known you," MasterTyranomon commented from the far side of the room, where Quagsire's team had apparently stopped their work to listen in. "Arguably Arukenimon counts there. Your classes were the more oddball ones. Still, you have a knack for finding random things that work out for you."
"I think we're being included in that, Shawn," Serperior said with a wide smile. "Actually that reminds me, we kept your stuff as safe as we could, Strip Mine. Just let us know when you want to take it over again."
"I'm touched, but its going to be weeks before I have enough bodies to manage that, and I've just got the basic large ones," she replied with a huff. "Honestly, I'm a bit worried about getting enough. Not that I'm not grateful for the extra power you and Refactor are giving me for that. I just don't like charity." The lizard corruption then looked deliberately thoughtful. "Or idiots who don't get the right way to trick me. I know the typical thing is to not try and trick Fairies, but I'm a corrupt Fairy. The whole point is to outmaneuver me."
"So, are you alright with what the ADDWARE tried then?" Quagsire carefully asked.
"There is a difference between exploiting the rules and ignoring them," Strip Mine darkly replied. "It didn't face us, in fact it lied about there being a conflict over the strongest at all. We were infected before it suggested that given how far back I lost my backups. Still, I think despite that you three still won."
"I am not a corruption," Gazimon said bluntly at that. "Unless we are going to just count the entire team now?"
"You were there doing the whole protecting me thing too," she replied with gratitude. "I was clearly just a subordinate, but you were part of the group. Also I can see how you've actually infested more worlds than they have, and on reflection I think Goldie might have barely counted." Her final statement was tinged with sadness. "You might not be a full corruption, but I think I can extend the title to an entire trainer's team."
"Wait, you're a subordinate Legendary?" Mew asked thoughtfully. "I think the etiquette there is to go to the Legendary you are subordinate to in order to contact you in that case. Especially if you are in a place they have unique access to."
"I'm guessing Arceus doesn't count there?" Shawn carefully asked Giratina.
"I haven't been properly 'subordinate' to the Creator since before we built this world," the Ghost/Dragon answered easily. "I think Mew means like those birds that work for bigger birds, and with Rayquaza you definitely ask first before waking anyone up."
"Does Giratina know they both got woke up at once a while back?" Grant asked with unease.
"The world seems to still be here, so I will assume that was resolved sufficiently," Giratina responded to that idea, and then glared at Mew. "Those two got another chance for their damn fight? They have been causing problems literally since Arceus learned about tectonics and decided we should have some."
"'Learned about tectonics'? Didn't Arceus make everything?" Gazimon asked with a great deal of unease.
"Technically, yes. Typically Arceus makes things that do stuff the Creator didn't know they could do, or makes stuff to keep doing things that other things have already done," Giratina replied as he noticed that most of those present, Mew included, seemed unsure about that point. "Just because Arceus started everything up didn't mean Arceus knew what the things we made back then actually did. I still don't know everything there is to know about world-barriers, and I was one of the first things. I was made just to deal with those and I spent, uh. Well I don't actually know how long stars live for, but I know at least one full lifetime for those and it took a while for us to even have stars."
"Giratina, I need you to tell me that Mew don't get our habit of copying things we find neat from the Creator," Mew said with a slightly hysterical tone.
"So, anyway, there is a great reason why I know our humans aren't the same as the digimon humans, and it relates to why we just happen to have versions of all their mythological things," Giratina said instead of that.
"We need to stop asking Legendary pokemon questions," Serperior grumbled. "And yes, I am aware I count. Just because I find it funny to see how people react to our whole thing doesn't mean I don't know that actually telling people about it is a trial for them."
The building wasn't even half finished when their first visitor that didn't know a someone present at DSS during the prior year arrived. "I have heard that there is a new powerful pokemon with a direct connection to humanity," the Mewtwo said as soon as he floated down to where Shawn and Serperior were using their Basirablemon form to grow several of the main supports. "I can see that you are strong, but I do not see the huma-"
"Ugh, really?" the red eyed head of the Ultimate cut him off. "Serp, keep things stable. I have to once again justify my humanity to someone." Then Shawn returned to his human form at the base of where his half of Basirablemon had been.
"Oh, you are a forme changer? And two different individuals?" the Mewtwo said with a now confused tone. "Would your brother not have to justify his humanity as well?"
"The only humanity I have is due to body swap issues," the Basirablemon half still present shouted with annoyance to match Shawn's. "I'm in the body that was originally his, and he's in the one I started with."
"What," Mewtwo said, and not as a question. "If you aren't the same thing then why not contest being brothers first?"
"Our mom has two bodies," they replied together. "One is a human and the other is a Serperior."
"What?" the large Legendary cat asked this time, and seemed to not even know where to begin. "I- What? How?"
"If we knew how we might be able to do more about our sister knowing what it is like to freeze to death," Shawn grumbled.
"Guys, are you messing with him on purpose or is this just how we're going to treat people who try and ask questions?" Gazimon asked loudly and bluntly.
Author's Note
The parts of the Epilogue will be posted one a day from now until the final tenth one is posted.