Smeargle, Gicasu, and I peek out from behind a small slate wall, looking over at the performance. Some Braixen and an Alolan Sandslash are doing some improv comedy. Among the seats are Walker and Marble.
"...Tell me why we're out here and not in the seats with them?"
"We didn't pay for a ticket, Lere," Smeargle says to me. "We'd get kicked out in a heartbeat."
"Right. How did you know these two were here, Gicasu?" I ask the tin can.
"I am unsure. But that is not the point here. What matters is that-" Gicasu is interrupted by some spectators in the crowd being disgruntled about the play, saying the pacing sucked and the improv was bad.
"That's strange. Weren't they happy about the play just a moment ago?" Smeargle points out. I squint over the brick wall to try and read the expressions of the actors. They look a little nervous, but they keep on.
"Yeah… Huh. I'm no critic, but that performance was fine..?" I say.
Suddenly, they all start leaving. All in droves, leaving only Walker and Marble looking confused. I'm tempted to run out and knock some sense into them, but before I can, Smeargle pulls me back.
"Your temperature is rising. Cool it," Smeargle says.
"'Scuse me?"
"You start to flare up like a fireball when you start getting mad."
"Oh. Y-yeah, I do," I say, embarrassed. I hadn't even realized.
"Don't blow up on a bunch of random civilians because they were unfair to some performers you don't even know…"
"If I had a heat based generator, irritating you would be very efficient," Gicasu says smugly.
"Shhh!" Smeargle hisses at us.
"S-Sandslash, it's freaking happening again! People are leaving again, at the same time, even though we did a different performance!" Braixen cries out
Sandslash drops the pan, which clangs on the wooden stage floor. "Dammit. I thought it got fixed!"
"Wait! WAIT! Don't go! I swear we have more to show! We haven't gotten to the good part yet!" Braixen hops offstage with Sandslash following behind him toward the drove of leaving Pokemon.
"Yeah!" Sandslash says. "Don't you wanna get your money's worth!?"
Walker motions Marble to get the heck outta there by pointing to a side gate. They slink out of their chairs and start to slowly walk out.
"UGHH! How did we blow it again!? We did everything perfect!" Braixen throws up his arms.
"...Poor guys," Smeargle says.
"Wh- are we gonna follow our teammates? We can explore the city without them and come back, but we can't just leave two Pokemon here." I start to walk away and then stop when I realize they're too distracted by the two performers.
"Uh, guys? Are we not going?"
Smeargle shakes her head. "Sorry, was spacing out a bit. You're right." She gets up.
"Gicasu?"
"Quiet," she says in a harsh robotic whisper. It catches me off guard. "Listen closely to them," she continues. Smeargle and I sit back down and listen in.
"The heck?" Braixen growls. "We finally get new Pokemon to show up to our play- show thing, whatever! Then they just leave! We didn't set up the posters any different this time. It's always the same ones who show up every day and the same ones that leave every day at the same time, it feels like! But then suddenly there's two new Pokemon out of nowhere…"
Braixen slumps and groans. "Maybe we should stop it with this whole looping thing and just give up."
"Don't say that!" Sandslash encourages Braixen. "We'll get it eventually. Dialga gave us these gifts, so we'd better damn well use them."
..!?
"Make the countless months we spent waiting and exercising patience to gain their favor actually worth it. I'm not about to let you just waste all that time we spent. We have to get this right, and we have eternity to do so."
…
"Do you think we'll see them next loop?" Braixen asks.
"Pff, maybe, but I say we ignore them and keep trying. They'll probably leave the city and it'll be like they weren't even here," Sandslash says with a smug, toothy grin. Braixen smiles gleefully.
"Hah! You're right? Yeah, you're right!"
"Well come on now. Let's head home, then. We can set off a little earlier tonight," Sandslash says. She waves Braixen on and they both set off.
"What… What the heck are they talking about?" Smeargle says, deadpan and confused. Sandslash and Braixen start to get ahead of us. I shake my head. Dialga? Freaking Dialga?
"They're bending the time of this city to their whim. Dialga gave them the power to do so, the fool," Gicasu says, stepping forwards. "We're following them. We can get back to the others later. If they look back at us, act natural. Cross the street or something."
"H-hold on? How is this OUR problem?" I say.
"I can explain along the way. Come on," Gicasu says. I stay in place stubbornly.
"Lere, come on," Smeargle says, annoyed.
"Ok fine! Sorry…"
We all group together, with Gicasu trailing behind me and Smeargle. Gicasu says to position this way to make sure she isn't as visible. I assume it's because she's a robot.
"So, why are we doing this?" I ask
"I'll explain if you say it again quieter," Gicasu replies. I sigh.
"Ok, so… Why are we doing this?" I repeat myself, a bit quieter.
"We're following them because they're the source of this city having messed up time. I think this city is in a constant state of looping because of them."
"How can you be so sure?" Smeargle says, validating my skepticism.
"I can be sure because as soon as we entered the city, the electromagnetic field was messed up and my clock was spinning. When I backed up to try and leave, I always found myself back in the same spot, despite having the memory of getting out of this city."
"Why didn't you say anything?" I ask.
"I initially thought it was just my memory being messed up on account of some of my circuits being fried. Computers aren't perfect, you know."
Sandslash and Braixen start to walk a bit faster. I start to quicken my pace, but Gicasu extends a robot arm from her side to grab my tail. I suppress a yelp.
"The heck?"
"If you pick up pace along with them, they'll KNOW we're following them."
Once Braixen and Sandslash have gone a ways up, Sandslash sighs, and they go back to a normal brisk walking pace.
"Hun, do you remember the way? I know we've done this an uncountable amount of times, but I can't put my claw on where…" Sandslash asks Braixen.
"Oh, just this way." Braixen points forwards. "We just keep going for a bit till we get to a right turn into our alley."
"Right, right."
They turn and we follow. The alleyway is dreary and wet, stained with melted ice. We follow them for a while, until…
"Ok, this is it, Sandslash!" Braixen says.
Smeargle whispers, "Hide!"
Gicasu hides behind a broken cabinet of some kind, I hide behind a barrel that's giving off smoke from a recently extinguished fire, and Smeargle hides behind a ripped up green couch.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Lift it open," Sandslash commands.
"O-ok…" Braixen lifts open a blue trap door leading into a stairwell. The two step down and shut the hatch behind them. I slip out of my hiding spot, and Gicasu and Smeargle follow suit. Quietly, I lift open the hatch and we descend. The stairs are wet, and I take care not to slip. I hear Gicasu almost slip. Me and Smeargle stop in our tracks until the tinny noise fades. Eventually, we reach the bottom.
We find ourselves in a large room with blue orbs racked on the walls and a small altar in the middle to slot some in. Sandslash fiddles with orbs between her claws and juggles three at once.
"You know you're not supposed to play with those, Sandslash."
"Pah! I know. But they come back anyways- they're just fun to mess with," Sandslash says. She rolls the three orbs into the altar along her arm.
The altar glows, blue and green sparkles flying up to the dark stone ceiling before fizzling out.
"What should our next play be?" Braixen asks.
"Hmm… Maybe let's just do a generic good-doer save-the-princess kinda story."
"OOH! Can I be the princess?"
"Pff, yeah! Of course, Braixen," Sandslash says. "Now… are you ready?"
"Yeah!"
"What the heck… are they actually...?" Smeargle mutters.
"On the count of three…"
"On the count of three…" they say in unison.
"One…"
"One…"
"Two…"
"Two…"
"Wait no they- AHH!" Smeargle stepped down a step and trips forwards, pushing me forwards in the process. Now we're out of the darkness and into plain view. Gicasu sighs and steps down the stairs. Sandslash and Braixen gasp.
"Wh- who the heck are you three!?" Braixen says.
"Our names are not important," Gicasu says flatly.
I shake and my fur stands on edge. I feel like we just walked into some weird cultist ritual. Smeargle regains her footing. She quickly glues herself to the wall. The weird pair's attention is on Gicasu right now. Smeargle gets out her paint palette from her bag and starts to paint the wall a light purple. She's got quick thinking.
"What is more important now is that you stop whatever you're planning," Gicasu continues.
"What are you on about, Miss Volts-and-Bolts?" Sandslash bites.
"Stop messing with time. You may have trapped this city in a time loop, but everything outside of this city goes on. That means anything that enters the city finds itself stuck in the city."
The Sandslash stays silent and stone faced. Braixen looks brimming with rage.
I try to find a time to say my piece, but with their attention focused on Gicasu, I decide to try and sneak behind them.
"You could say… we don't have time for it."
"Haha. Very funny," Sandslash says.
"I try to make light of a serious situation. Taking anything too seriously, I've found, is bad for everyone. But anywho…"
Gicasu extends two robotic arms from her side. Smeargle looks like she's putting finishing touches on the painting. I've managed to sneak behind Sandslash and Braixen by now. With their backs turned to me, I crawl up on the altar. I catch an alarmed glare from Gicasu at me, but she quickly hides it.
"I say we propose a deal. You end this time cycle yourselves, with no adverse consequences, and we all leave this city just fine." The robotic arms raise higher.
"Or we end the cycle ourselves."
There's a moment of silence only filled by Smeargle's tail brush dragging against the wall.
"So what will it be, then?"
Sandslash seems to ponder. "I thi-"
"Tada!" Sandslash is interrupted by Smeargle's sudden cheer. She moves out of the way and now, with Braixen and Sandslash's attention on her, they see the painting on the wall. In light purple, an Espurr with dead eyes stares down their souls. Looking at the painting myself, I'm filled with a sense of dread, but also a sense of confidence. Hard to describe. I feel like I have to punch or bite anything in my way immediately without hesitation, or else I'm doomed.
However, I think these two got a different emotion out of the painting. Each of them with a crashing fist smashes an orb on the altar, sending shards and sparkles around the room.
"YOU'VE CHOSEN OPTION 2, THEN!" Gicasu's already extended arms shoot out and punch Braixen clean in the face. I jump towards Sandslash to bite, but she reacts too quick, slashing me away. I hear the sound of metal being deflected right after, another smash of glass, and the two are gone.
I get up and look around.
"Wait… DAMN IT! Did they get away? WHERE ARE THEY!?" I yell.
"They finished it, Lere," Smeargle says, looking down at the floor. "I think I… picked the wrong emotion."
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
Braixen sits on the floor, still recovering from the punch. Sandslash lays on the altar limply, looking exhausted.
"Sandslash. SANDSLASH!" Braixen yells, getting up and shaking Sandslash. "What was that!? Who are those Pokemon?"
"Hey- HEY! Hands off!"
Braixen lets go, startled.
"Ugh… Give me a moment, I need to process."
Sandslash stretches, her ice quills jutting out. She begins to slowly slide herself off the altar and onto the ground to stand. She huffs.
"GOD!" Sandslash kicks an orb shelf, sending a bunch of orbs crashing down onto the floor. The ones falling from the top shatter.
"S-Sandslash?"
"I'm fine. I'm fine!" Sandslash sighs.
"You… you're clearly not."
"I don't know who the heck those Pokemon are. Or what they're talking about, or how they even know we're messing with time. It's a closed loop, isn't it? No one should be able to enter. But…"
"...They did anyways."
"Those two at the play, too. Did they also somehow get into the city?" Sandslash asks.
"Probably…"
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"How did we… RAAAGGHH! Damn it!" I knock an orb off of the shelf.
"Lere!" Smeargle says.
"It's ok. I think it'll come back the next day. I think perhaps I wasn't… reasonable enough for those two." Gicasu retracts her appendages back into her side.
"No! You were damn well enough reasonable. It was Smeargle's piece on the wall that messed it all up!" I hiss.
"H-huh? What was wrong with it?"
"Now, now is not the time for fighting about a painting. We have much, much more time to plan again, haha."
"We don't need this. This isn't even our problem!" I storm up the stairs. "I'm gonna call the other two! Walker, probably!"
"Lere! Wait! Didn't you hear what Gicasu said? We can't leave until-"
"I don't believe it!" I let the blue hatch slam behind me. I pull out my wand and twist the orb as I walk. To my surprise, it actually calls.
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"...Wait. Isn't she not gonna be able to call?" Smeargle asks.
Gicasu brings a paw to her face and lets out a deep sigh. "No, those wands should work now. The only reason they didn't work, it seems, was because we were trying to call from outside the city."
"...W-well aren't we gonna go after her?"
"Nope. Let's go to a uhhhhhh/$54|%{[_) charging station something or other. Have you ever drunk oil?"
"... No, can't say I have. Isn't going after Lere more important right now?"
"I think I'm pooped, actually. I'd rather log away some memory right now than go after more stupid stuff. But if we must- then let's go."
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
Ok so, I'm going to start releasing new bits of the story in arcs from now on. So I won't be uploading anything new until I'm finished with this arc. When I am finished though, expect 5 new chapters released at the same time with an interlude following it. It'll give me more time to plan and more time to work on ost along with the writing! Right now there's one track (Marble's theme) which you can view at the end of chapter one. It's a tinyurl link that leads you to soundcloud, I'm sure you can figure it out. The rules don't say anything on external links I'm pretty sure but just in case, I've encoded it in a very simple way so it's not a direct link. I'm sure you can figure it out.
Also yeah sorry this chapter leaves on a cliffhanger and it'll be a bit before the next 5 chapters or so, so lmao. Sorry for the inconsistent release dates, too.
See you in a bit!
-Molly