step nine
So Do What You Can…
The walls of the Deep Point were a thunderstorm of shifting yellow paint. The lines maked unending jagged movements as they spun into an interweaving kaleidoscope of patterns against the rock. Pulses of imaginary sunshine and listlessness reverberated off David's hide as he stepped towards the middle of the chamber. They weren't as overbearing as an actual shock and he managed to keep his mind on track but… he wouldn't mind staying here for another hour or so. Heck, if it wasn't for the hole of crazy for a door, he wouldn't mind coming here more often. Maybe.
Meanwhile, with a far less enthused look on his face and tail clutched tightly to his chest, Sobek inched his way through the room. To the Totodile, it was like thousands of little needles pricking at his hide, and if he was caught outside David's influence on the chamber they all stabbed at once. Almost tripping, Sobek shuddered and scrambled four steps closer, keeping low and a ways away from David in case anything did spark from the walls. He laughed nervously to himself and forced his eyes to stay locked onto the Magnemite and ignore the bright yellow swirls beyond them, barring for the occasional glance behind him to the way out.
The two Magnemite were hovered stock-still at the very center of the Deep Point's chamber, a solid ten feet (that has to be around five… no, a torb is exactly one foot, eight inches sooo around six?) from the walls and a foot or so (maybe one torb, at the most) above David's head. That meant… about two torbs in the air?
The two were attached back-to-back with the ends of their magnets stuck together at an odd angle. Only one of them had the yellow paint around the eye, this one's shape being a triangular arch with the point above the eye, a horizontal line connecting the sides of the arch below to go with the usual yellow circle around the eye itself. Neither seemed to notice the two lizards below.
David squinted at the other, absolutely no traces of any paint at all on that one. Huh…
Hopping up, David waved a hand in front the unmarked Magnemite. It didn't react, its eye lost in the swirls of yellow in front of it. David ducked underneath and jumped up in front of the other. Nothing. He lightly prodded them with his club… nope, nothing. No reaction at all.
"Okay, D-David," the Totodile squeaked with a small voice. "I-it looks like th-they're out of it. We're gonna have t-to p-push them out of here. P-pull them, I mean."
"And by we, you mean me," David indifferently glanced back over with a whimsical scoff. "You could have just stayed at the entrance, Sobek."
Sobek laughed a little louder as he fidgeted with his claws, unconsciously whetting them against each other, "A-and get z-z-zapped when the surge starts? Ha-ha-haa—I-I'mma stayin' near you, but aaaaall the w-way over here, thank you v-very much."
"All righty then." David sighed as he spun his club through his claws idly, glancing over the fused Magnemite above him. Spinning the pointy end of the club into his hand fully, he hooked the knobby bit through the magnets and pulled.
They moved slightly but not easily, snapping back into the very center of the room when the club slipped out. The two shook in the air, reverberating back and forth like a, well, like a magnet being pulled and pushed in all directions.
David idly twirled his club again as he looked over the walls and the shifting yellow lines, pausing every so often to trace out an interesting pattern with the club's point. "…electromagnet pulse, huh. That's why it sounded so weird to me—wrap enough electricity around a metal object and that metal object becomes a magnet." He blinked rapidly, eyes bouncing all over the room as something sifted out of his memory, "And it works the other way around, too—Sobek, you said the dungeon walls shift from time to time, right? When you're not looking?"
Sobek was a fair distance from him with his eyes shut and arms hugging himself into as small a target he could make himself and his voice matched his size, "Yeah—but less thinking, more moving, David!"
David turned back to the Magnemite, frowning as he pulled at loose threads in his mind, "Magnemite feed off of magnetic forces. There's Magnemite here, so there's got to be natural magnets in the area. Dungeons take whatever is around them and use them to create themselves, so there're magnets—"
"David!" the Totodile snapped as his claws dug into his arms, "That's cool! I'm sorry, but I want to get out of here as fast as possible! Tell me later, just get a move on! If the cave was flooding, I'd think it'd be neat too and that you'd want to know exactly where the water's coming from."
David winced, scowling at himself, "Right-right, sorry!" He darted to the other side of the two Magnemite and lined himself with the entrance at his back. With a glance at his satchel, he shoved his club into it. It didn't fit fully, the knobby end stuck out a bit, but his hands were free. He rubbed them together. "Okay, we just go straight out the way we came, right?" David hopped up and latched onto the magnets.
Sobek nodded, straining to keep his voice calm, "And we go from… a hundred torbs underground… to above ground instan—"
"Uhhrmmm. Small problem, Sobek."
Sobek looked up and paled.
David hung from the Magnemite. His weight had pulled them down slightly, but feet kicked in the air an inch or two off the ground. He scoffed, "And you said I was tall."
"Can you like… wiggle them to the ground or something?"
"Watch." David pulled his chin up above the magnets and then let himself fall, his weight and momentum making him and the Magnemite dip low enough for David to kick forward off the ground. The three lurched forward a torb before the Magnemite snapped back, the magnets flying out of David's grip and launched him into the air. Flailing, David landed unevenly and stumbled to a stop next to the Totodile, "…Sobek, you're taller and heavier than I am, you give it a shot—if the pulse happens, it'll hit me." David lightly pushed his friend forward. "You will be fine, Sobek. You won't get zapped."
"That's what Chie always said and look where that got me…" Sobek mumbled, unconsciously scratching the webbing on his right hand.
"Sorry, what?"
"Nothing—just…!" Sobek winced as he looked at the Magnemite above him, "It's nothing." With one final roll of his shoulders, he hopped up and grabbed ahold of the magnets, his weight dragging the two down enough for him to walk flat-footed. He seethed, shifting his grip in between experimental tugs, "Eesh, what mess are they caught up in?"
"I think it's the same…" David faded off. What was the word what was the word he had it a moment ago aaaaaaand it was gone… "Thingie that's making all the electricity. I think it's pushing and pulling them to that spot in the room—like a whirlpool! Or-or something!" He scoffed at himself, "Do we both need to pull or do you have it?"
Sobek braced himself against the ground and pulled. Inch by inch, the Magnemite were dragged through the air. "I… think I got it…. Might… need a little—" Whatever force he was pulling against dropped away he stumbled backward for a second before the force snapped back on. With the Magnemite hitting another invisible wall, Sobek lost his footing and he and the Magnemite skidded back into the dead-zone. David quickly caught them and Sobek sobbed a sigh, "Owww…."
David frowned, looking through the air as he held onto the Magnemite for Sobek. In the dead-zone, he could drag them freely through the air but once he hit the next bit of the force they tried to pull him upwards again. Must be all the magnet-stuff canceling each other out in this specific spot. …whatever that means…?
No, it's like ripples in a pond. Throw enough rocks in, and the ripples cancel each other out. The magnets in the walls are the rocks and the ripples, the air is the pond, and David was a whirlpool sucking all the water down to where it didn't affect anything anymore. It's like that!
…why—why is it like that? Does it have to do with the electricity or something that just isn't clicking for him? All that electricity is building up and then shooting out into the rest of the dungeon in pulses. Wait. If the rest of the cave just breaks out into bolts of lightning, what happens here? At its source?
Well, it probably goes even more nuts here. Maybe there would be so much electricity that David would be part-Electric type for a moment or two. Or there would be more than his lightning rod could handle.
…that would suck for Sobek. Well, it would suck for anyone but a ground or electric type, but far moreso for Sobek. Now the Totodile's panicking makes sense. Though… what would happen if the pulse did go off?
A flash of ingenious sparkled in David's eyes that he quickly hid from Sobek as he marched over, the Totodile scowling to himself.
Wordlessly, Sobek grabbed onto the magnets and joined in on the tug-of-war. David pulled two steps and missed the third, freezing for a second before rolling his shoulders.
Sobek hesitated in his march. "…David?"
The Cubone glanced over through unfocused eyes, "Hmm? Oh, yeah. Sorry." He shook himself awake. "Whatever's going on in here is affecting me—" He flinched again and his shoulders drooped. "…a bit more. You're more sensitive to ele…" he let out a gigantic yawn, "eeeeh-icty? Hmph." David shook himself again and met Sobek's unnerved look. "Um… you didn't feel that, did you?"
Sobek frowned in unease, "…no. What I'm feeling's been steady s-since we got here. I mean it varies where I stand in the room but…"
"Um, I'm starting to feel it more so—"
Sobek froze, face in horror, "Oh, no! No, no, no—it's building up—it's going to happen again! No no no no no!" And before David knew it, Sobek was off running as fast as he could with the Magnemite in tow with no regards to whatever was in the air fighting him. When he hit the threshold of the tunnel, his feet couldn't carry him fast enough and he was gone.
David bit his lip, snickering for a moment but burst out laughing the moment the Totodile vanished from sight. Sure, he'd be an invaluable partner once they become Detectives, but for now, it serves him right! Pumping his fist slightly, he trotted towards the tunnel and out of the Dungeon.
"BZZZZZZZZRT! … YOU HAVE RETURNED WITH MAGNEMITE AND MAGNEMITE … YOU HAVE SAVED THEIR LIVES … WE ARE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL … WE ARE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL TO YOU AND THE DUCHESS"
The early afternoon sunshine blinded David as he stumbled out of the cave. But that didn't stop his budding Detective skills as his feet quickly deduced the location of Sobek's tail. This promptly led to a first-hand observation of the exact location of the Totodile and the ground.
"You could have at least told us that there was a literal wave of electricity in there," Sobek grumbled lowly as he pushed David off his leg.
"WE APOLOGIZE … AGAIN WE THOUGHT YOU KNEW … THEN YOU ARE NEW INITIATES OF THE DUCHESS, CORRECT"
Finding himself quite comfortable on the smooth rocks of the ground and in the actual sunshine and his body craving for that long promised and long denied nap, David just limply raised a hand, jabbing a claw in the general direction of the grating voice, "No. We are not."
He was his own Private Eye, he answered to nobody. Except maybe his stomach.
"WRRRRRRR"
Sobek sighed, his voice weary, "What he means is that it's complicated. …are those two going to be alright?"
David lazily opened an eye to see a much larger one staring back. He jumped back with a not-so-small squeak; the two Magnemite lay on the ground in front of him. He huffed, rolling his eyes as he stood and found the other four Magnemite floated around them. The one that had led them to the cave in the first place was the one addressing them, the one with the L-shaped line on its front.
The Magnemite with the squashed figure-eight—the first Magnemite they met here— orbited above the two David and Sobek had rescued, spinning its magnets as it studied them. It let out a wrrr and answered, "YOUR EARLY ARIVAL HAS SAVED THEM THEY WILL SOON BE FINE—"
The unmarked Magnemite bolted into the air, dragging up the other Magnemite it was still stuck to. Its eye was empty and it screamed a blast of static into the air. Words eventually followed.
"SO THE WORLD WILL SOON REST WITH ONE LOUD CRY, FOR THE INQUISITOR SHALL AGAIN BEAR WITNESS. WITNESS! ACCUSE! LAMENT! RAGE! AND YET, TURN AWAY, NEVER KNOWING WHY.
"SO THEN THE WORLD WILL SHRIEK! FOR THE ANKOU DRAWS HERE! AND THE WORLD WILL SHRIEK! AS THE FORGOTTEN DRAW NEAR!
"AND WE WILL SHRIEK EVERMORE FOR WHAT IS HERE DRAWS CLOSER. SHRIEK, FOR WHAT IS GONE DRAWS CLOSER. AND SHRIEK EVERMORE, FOR WHEN WHAT IS NOWHERE BECOMES EVERYWHERE.
"WE WILL CRY FOR ETERNITY. FOR WHAT IS EVERYWHERE IS GONE; AND THE MISSING WILL SLUMBER NO LONGER. THE REST IS LOST."
It blinked four times, shocked silence filling in as it hesitated. Then, ever so quietly, "and then—only then… we will finally rest… and the rest is lost"
It gently lowered itself, stopping four times in the air before it found the ground. It blinked twice more. "I WILL REST—WILL REST—WILL REST—WILL REST—REST—BUT THEN-THEN-then-then—THEN THE REST IS LOST…? I … I… I… I AM ILL? I AM ILL. I AM ILL. I AM ILL—ILL—ill— WILL… ILL WILL ILL WILL WILLLlllll… tck"
With one final flinch of its body, it sunk heavily into the dirt, unconscious with the eye wide open.
And then, silence.
David was the first to move, slowly uncurling from his ball on the ground. His flailing to deaden the screeching had knocked his helmet off and tangled his arms and tail together over his ears. It took him a long moment to turn away from the giant eye that looked straight through him.
Fishing for his helm, David slowly looked to Sobek to see the Totodile's jaw slightly dropped in bewilderment. Sobek twitchingly shrugged to himself, slowly shaking his head as he half formed words he never said, his mind trying to gain traction on what just happened.
After a minute, the Magnemite with the Figure-Eight finally turned to the three behind it and bowed a nod. The four moved alongside the unconscious pair of Magnemite and lined up their magnets. Snapping them together, they gently lifted the two off the ground and carried them away through the trees.
Sobek flinched, then palmed his eyes and rubbed them harshly. "What. Just. Happened."
The sole remaining Magnemite revved for an answer, "WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR THE GREAT THUNDERWAVE HAS AS MANY DANGERS TO US AS IT DOES BLESSINGS … IT SOMETIMES SPEAKS STRANGE THINGS TO US … AS IT HAS HERE … THE MEANING TO SUCH PROPHECIES WE STILL MUST DECIPHER … IF THERE IS SUCH A MEANING TO IT … WE HAVE BEEN LED ASTRAY BEFORE … HOWEVER … ONE THING IS CERTAIN … WE MUST TAKE THOSE IT SPEAKS TO AWAY FROM THE GREAT THUNDERWAVE TO RECOVER ELSE THE THUNDERWAVE OVERWHELMS THEM … THEY WILL RECOVER SOON"
"So why were they even in there to begin with?" David asked. He gave the departing Magnemite one last incredulous frown before sticking his helm back on.
"TO HEAR WHAT THE GREAT THUNDERWAVE WISHES FOR—"
"Okay, that's all I need to know, thank you very much." David huffed and tossing up his hands slightly as he paced away. He stopped mid-step as he caught three Nidoran running from the forest, carrying berries to a congregation of Plusle and Minun just to the left of the mouth of the cave.
There were about twenty to thirty of them; all moving around several Pokemon sprawled out on the largest and flattest rocks this close to the cave. Carefully, he slowly walked over to the group. Slowly, he fished for the opening of his gravelrock bag and slid his club inside and his shoulders slumped as he realized what the crowd actually was.
Scattered on the ground all throughout the bustling mice lay five female Nidoran, seven Rattata, eleven Poochyena, four Voltorb, five Elekid, and a single pair of Plusle and Minun; each in various states of consciousness and injury.
David's eyes stopped on one of the Nidoran at the fringe of the group. She was licking an open wound on her foreleg, her eyes glancing up when he approached. She blinked and looked up fully. Her clouded eyes focused for an instant in a half-thought, the ears falling and head tilting. She licked the mix of blood and Oran berry juices off her nose and her head tilted the other way. A small Minun sitting next to her squeaked, immediately grabbing her attention away from the Cubone and to a half-eaten oran the mouse poked towards her. The Nidoran squeaked and graciously took another bite before turning her attention back to her leg. The Minun set what was left of the oran next to it and sighed, setting its head down on the large pecha berry in its lap, its own ears drooping down against the back of its head.
The small Minun made a deliberate effort to not look at David, instead watching the three Rattata off to their left nibbling on slices of their own pecha berries, then at another Nidoran. This one was flicking her ears in clouded confusion at a Plusle that sat a foot or so away from it, slowly sounding out squeaks to the Nidoran.
The Minun David was watching glanced away towards the trees and immediately flinched. It quickly turned back towards David but kept its eyes on the Nidoran.
David frowned and looked away from the group towards the trees, to where the Minun refused to look.
Far off to the side where the large rock broke apart into smaller, slightly slanted ones, three Plusle and two Minun surrounded one of the Elekid, the mice chattering back and forth in increasingly panicked tones. The Minun held the oran berries one of the Nidoran had ferried in, the Nidoran herself ran off to most likely get more, and the Plusles were covered in various amounts of blood that were not of their own. The largest of the three was a solid smear of red on its front and it panted faint little squeaks to itself; frantic, panic-stricken thoughts as it bolted all around the Elekid, shaking its head in utter panic all the while.
They all stopped when two noticed David, the group instantly parting so he could see what was going on but more to shrink away from him. Slowly, David ran his eyes from the feet of the Elekid, to the two sucking wounds on its chest, to the dark mixture of blood and Oran berry pulp flowing out of its mouth and nose, to finally the massive bruise showing through its fur on the forehead.
The Plusle and Minun looked at him, their eyes darting down to his feet and the still-drying blood, to the holes on the Elekid, then back. The mice all shifted uneasily.
David turned and walked away.
Two steps later he stopped, and, turning halfway back, "Don't bother, guys. He's already gone; he's just too stubborn to realize it. Punctured lungs, shattered ribs, skull fracture, traumatic brain injury, no doubt mass internal bleeding…. he'll be dead in two min—" But it is zappy meat over fire, hunter~!
David flinched, uncomfortably rolling his shoulders as his stomach rolled on itself.
As he turned back, he made eye contact with one of the Voltorbs. The orb's eyes slammed closed and immediately spun away, bowling over two Minun and ramping off a Nidoran into the air. It slammed into the rock of cliff where it then fell down to the ground, unconscious again.
All the Plusle and Minun healers froze for an instant and glanced to David. He put his hands up and quickly walked away, head lowering to watch his bloody talons clink off the rock.
Sobek and the Magnemite with the L-Shaped mark waited for him back near the cave opening. Sobek wore a pale astonishment and fumbled as he tried to put words together. The Magnemite, meanwhile, was completely blank and expressionless. Which is why it spoke first.
"WE THANK YOU FOR RESCUING THE UNFORTUNATE FROM THE DUNGEON AS WELL … THE RESIDENTS WILL TAKE THEM INTO THEIR SOCIETY AND TEACH THEM WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE FREELY AGAIN … AWAY FROM THE DUNGEON … THE ELEKID AND VOLTORB WILL BE MOVED TO A PLACE BETTER SUITED FOR THEM"
David scowled to himself, looking back to the Elekid. The crimson-stained Plusle seemed to have understood him, or at least came to understand on its own, and was pushing the others away from the Elekid, "Yeah. Well. …hope that works out for them."
…at least there seems to be some sort of comradery amongst the residents here. A tight-knit family, helping the newcomers in few ways they can. Least they got that going on for them.
David sighed again, looking down at his blood-covered talons and legs with a grimace. That wasn't his blood. "…if… if we're done here, I'm good to leave."
The Magnemite bowed, "OF COURSE … WE UNDERSTAND THIS IS A wrrr STRANGE PLACE TO BE FOR OUTSIDERS … WE UNDERSTAND THINGS ARE NOT LIKE THE SQUARE … BUT WE MAGNEMITE TRY TO MAKE IT BEST FOR THE RESIDENTS HERE DURING THEIR STAY … WE WRRRRRRRRRRRRRR WE WRR ARE STILL LEARNING ABOUT WRR THEIR NATURE … WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"
Holding the note, the Magmemite slowly pivoted through the air, looking all around before turning back to the two lizards. "RRRRrrrr they are not like magnemite and wrrr we are often at a loss of what to do"
David and Sobek exchanged blank glances. David shook his head.
Sobek spoke up, "I don't even know where to begin with Irrationals… But when we passed by that statue, they were all on edge to the point where it wasn't even funny. They're afraid of something… do you Magnemite know what happened to the Sawmill up the road?"
"we haVE BEEN INFORMED AND QUESTIONED INTENSIVELY BY THE TEAMS INVESTIGATING THE MATTER WRRRR THREE DAYS, SEVEN HOURS AND FIFTY-FOUR MINUTES AGO AT … tck! … WE MAGNEMITE HAVE NOT WITNIESSED ANYTHING RELATING TO THE MATTER NOR DID WE OBSERVE ANYTHING FROM THE RESIDENTS THAT INDICATED THEY KNOW ANYTHING THEMSELVES … but i have since observed such behavior from the residents myself … it is noted but the cause eludes me … i require more information before acting on such matters"
It quickly spun around, checking the empty trees.
"wrrrrrRRRRRR IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE?"
David sighed and spoke up, "I don't like that statue. I don't think they like it either." He glanced back at his club in his bag, "I—"
"Min," The Minun next to David spoke up. David double-taked, it wasn't there a second ago. …it actually was the Minun that led them earlier—the gnawed on ears and patchy fur and lack of paint—there was only two Minuns they had seen here without any paint on their pelts and one was still admiring the Solrocks spinning around its head.
The Magnemite lowered itself next to the Minun, "THIS MINUN IS ONE OF FEW WE TRUST TO OVERSEE THE RESIDENTS IN OUR STEAD … SHE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE ROAD SO YOU MAY RETURN TO THE DUCHESS AND REPORT YOUR SUCCESS … THE DUCHESS WILL HAVE YOUR REWARD THERE … PLEASE PASS OUR UTTER GRATITUDE TO THE DUCHESS … WE THANK YOU … WE THANK YOU AND THE DUCHESS"
"Uh, hey! One more thing!" David spoke up before the Magnemite floated away. The Minun rolled her eyes and huffed slightly as she grudgingly turned back around. David gave her a cautionary glance, she hissed a scoff at him and angrily crossed her arms.
"YES?"
…there was actually a twang of a question in that.
"Ummm. W-what exactly is with the yellow paint on…?" He pointed towards the paint around its eye, limply tracing the loop in the air.
The Magnemite wrred for a second before turning to look around and wrred for a few more. Out of the corner of his eye, David caught the Minun silently hiss at him a venomous glare. Sobek clearly heard it too as he took a large step away from her, frowning considerably and rubbing his arms. When it turned back, its mechanical tone was in a different tone, a confused querying tone, "WHAT IS A 'YEL-LOW'?"
David blinked. If they don't know what yellow is….
"Errrrr, a Magnezone?" David fumbled, "What color is a Magnezone's antennae—or the better part of a Plusle or Minun?" He pointed to the Minun. She flinched then immediately stood straight and forced a blank face as the Magnemite looked over her.
"WRRRR—TCK!" Its tone snapped back to a warbling monotone, "A YEL-LOW … THAT IS THE TONE FOR WHAT YOU CALL THE WONDERFUL COLOR OF THE PUREST STEEL … I HAVE LEARNED SOMETHING TODAY!" It twirled its magnets and tilted in the air as it spun completely around twice, emitting a sort of warbly tune. Its eye was actually closed for once… …it was actually showing an emotion and David guessed this was 'happy.' The Minun let out a faint sigh of relief as the Magnemite spun.
"It's not a word everybody uses for it though!" Sobek butted in. "David isn't from the area so, uh, nevermind."
"YEL-LOW … YELLOW … YEL-low .. yel-LOW-low-YEL-low … IT HAS SUCH NICE RING TO IT … THANK YOU FOR TEACHING ME SUCH A WONDERFUL TONE … YES THIS IS MY FAVORITE TONE NOW!" It bowed respectfully, happily spinning its magnets again, "I MUST BE OFF NOW, THE RESIDENTS WILL TAKE CARE OF THE NEWCOMERS … I MUST SHARE THIS WONDERFUL TONE WITH THE OTHER MAGNEMITE … IF WE ARE IN NEED OF ANY FURTHER AID, WE WILL SPECIFICALLY REQUEST FOR YOU TO HELP US … MANY THANKS TO YOU AND TO THE DUCHESS … MANY THANKS TO YOU"
And then it floated off, almost dancing through the air as it chirped its new favorite word over and over again in a variety of pitches and tones.
David glanced to Sobek, both not exactly happy with the impression they had left with the Magnemite, "…I guess they can't see the color yell-ow!" He jumped away from the Minun, hopping on one leg as he rubbed the shin of the other. The Minun hissed at them through bared teeth, an even deeper venomous look in her eyes her cheeks sparked slightly. She marched after him, punching his shoulder harshly. "Ow-ow-ow! Hey!" He caught her arms and met her glare with a slightly tired one of his own. She let out several sparks into his arm. His hand fell asleep as his confusion was overridden with mellow moods of meehhh. "Stop it!" She kicked his shin again and David hopped away, "Ow! Seriously! What did—ow! What did I do!?"
Sobek tilted his head, taking step after large step away from the Minun to put David between them, "…she only got mad at you after you mentioned the whole yellow thing—"
"Mi! Tck-tck!" the Minun chirped, pointing and nodding at Sobek. She twisted her face as she fought to pronounce the syllables, "Yel… oo. Nnn-uhh!" She kicked David harshly one more time before turning away, sighing. Her entire posture slouched, shoulders and ears drooping as she took a few heavy steps. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, mumbling gibberish to herself.
Sobek carefully stepped over to David and whispered when the Minun turned her back to them, "So if Magnemite can't see yellow…."
"…the residents are the ones who painted the yellow markings on them," David finished. "My ankle tells me it has to be. But why? And the Magnemite don't even know about the paint so… they put it on them when the 'mites slept? Why though?"
"No idea. …what does your Line-of-Sight memory say? On the Magnemite not seeing yellow thing."
"Line-of-Sight isn't giving me anything. Which is weird because this entire yellow thing is trivial enough to set it off. But it is nagging me—like there's something in my head about it. I've figured out that I can't force it, it's got to be a lost in thought—"
"Tck-tck!" The Minun clicked her tongue and pointed to her ear, half turning towards them.
"…I think she can hear us," David mumbled. The Minun snapped her claws and pointed to him with a nod.
"She can also understand us quite well for an Irrational," Sobek said with an impressed scoff. "The Magnemite are actually doing a lot here."
The Minun rolled her eyes into a glare and impatiently pointed in front of her through the trees as she tapped her foot, "Tck-tck!"
With another weary glance shared between the two, Sobek walked after her.
David gave one last look to the residents. There wasn't a single Plusle or Minun around that Elekid and whatever pitiful attempts at breathing it had had ceased so now it was time for zappy meat!
"It'll go away, David," he mumbled to himself. "It's like a headache, forget that you have one and it disappears." The Cubone slowly turned and caught up. "Just ignore it."
The Minun wasn't one for conversation, aside from her of squeaks and tongue-clicks to berate the two lizards for moving so slowly; she was content with just silently leading them along to wherever they were headed. …hopefully out of this place. Hopefully. They weren't so much following a path as they were weaving through the trees and bushes, circling around distant clearings where the residents, well. Resided. The Minun clearly didn't want the two near any of her kin, which was fine by David.
Strangely enough, even Sobek said little. He marched in front of the Cubone, with his arms crossed and anxiously drumming his claws against his elbows as he blankly watched the ground move under his feet. The longer they walked the more he fidgeted, the more his tail flicked in random ways. Every so often he scoff at himself, mumbling at no one as he discarded whatever thoughts he was having aside as he anxiously glanced around only to sink back into his thoughts. Which was fine by David.
He wanted the silence; it gave him a chance to not think about what all had happened. The voices in his head, the encyclopedia and the feral. The blood of the Elekid on his feet. He… didn't even remember doing any of it. A-a-a-a—a blind anger! That's the only thing there was. A blind anger fueled by the frustrations and stress that Sobek always seemed to keep injecting into his life.
He wasn't sure what to say if Sobek asked him about it. Then again, he never knew what he was going to say to whatever Sobek would say so there really wasn't that much of a change. It didn't matter either way, right now he just didn't want to bother with the effort of responding at all. He didn't want to be here anyway, in this forest. Following a half-insane Minun. Having a three hour walk back home. Oh, no, no, no, no, no he wanted none of it! Even if Sobek's eyes were on the ground, he followed the Minun well enough. So David let his eyes blur over and just set his feet marching after the bright blue object in front of him.
Right now, what he wanted to do was just focus on the bits of warm sunlight that filtered through the canopy overhead and remember what he felt yesterday afternoon at home as he stood in the sun. A total loss of the senses, or all his senses saying something that amounted the same thing: warm, pleasant sunlight. Warm pleasant sunlight. And absolutely, positively, nothing else. Like… like…
…like at home, in the sun, the ground and the dirt and the rock took on a sort of bright earthy smell. A bit dusty, sure; a bit stale, okay, fine, yes. But that smell surrounded him… it blanketed him, like the feeling of the sunshine and the slow, tingling warmth it brought…
..at home, in the sun, the inside of his eyelids were lit up a muddy red by the light passing through them and the whole of his face and chest and arms and everything felt like he was near an unflickering, never-ending fire.
At home, in the sun, where the ground itself felt like it was cradling his feet, the soil giving way underneath to hold him. Where the sun shined on the rock and the dirt and the ground and him, all in the same steady glow. Where there were no grass or plants between him and the earth, where he was the earth. …a part of the earth… a part of the earth…
At home, a small clearing with a humble little house where he wanted to be all this morning and afternoon. Home… a three hour walk away but… but home… where his weary body shed its weight to the earth below and the churning power of the planet below crept into his soul, easing his migraines and cradling him to sleep.
But then the wind shifted and the leaves tinged the inside of his eyelids green and he didn't really like the color green because green meant plants and plants meant zombie Sunkerns and zombie Sunkerns meant Mystery Dungeons and he just didn't want to deal with any more of holes of crazy! Not today or tomorrow or ever again!
…well… maybe if it was a very large plain of grazing Mareep. Huh. Lots of sun, lots of electricity. Maybe the sun never even sets in a Mystery Dungeon…? Well… who says that home had to be his anyway. He was at home wherever there was open ground and a sunny day. Electricity and eternal sunshine… what if he— "Ow!"
The Minun kicked him a second time, "Ai! Tck-tck!"
David sighed and rubbed his ankle for a moment before continuing along—thunk. …that was a warning for a tree, not just her being generally annoying. He sighed, and turned back onto the path, ignoring Sobek's concerned frown.
"David—?"
"No. I am not okay."
Well, at least that answer will never change.
Sobek frowned, glancing over to the Minun to see her glaring at him. Sobek sighed quietly, "Is this over what the Magnemite said, or the Elekid?"
David glared beyond where Sobek stood, looking for a pool of sunlight to stand in ahead of them.
"Ai!" The Minun pointed left. They had stumbled upon an actual dirt path worn into the grass. Faint, but a path still. "Tsk!" …except for one shaft of light a small distance away, it was in a persistent shadow.
"We're headed this way, David. I think this is where we came in—ow!"
"Eya-eya-eya!"
Sobek snorted, glaring at the Minun for a second, "You know, David, I don't think she likes us."
"Well, I don't like her very much either. So there."
"Ai!"
David glanced to her and ignored the daggers she glared his way. He flipped up his helmet, groaning as he rubbed his eyes, "Where are we going anyway?"
"Back to the road, hopefully," Sobek sighed as he glanced around, "We're heading out in a different way we came in, so I have no idea where we are…" He faded off, glancing to the Minun as she scowled loudly at them, tossing her hands up and storming off down the path, hissing to herself. "…come on, David. Seriously. Forget about the Magnemite—Elekid, I mean!"
David hung his head, letting his skull fall back into place, "Then stop mentioning it, Sobek. Stop pulling me into these places. I'm done. I did my one dungeon. I want to go home. I'm going home, and then I'm never going to leave it again. At least not for a week. Okay? I am just going to find a sunny spot, in my home, and… I dunno—hibernate for a week."
Sobek nodded with wavering patience. "Alright, fine then. Let's get walking then."
David sighed glumly, slowly making his way over to the pool of sunlight. Back in the warmth, he took a deep breath. "I… really don't want to walk for three hours, Sobek."
"Do you really want to stay here then? …David?" Sobek's face fell as David collapsed to the ground. "Oh for the love of—come on! David!" The Totodile roughly grabbed David by the arm and dragged him along and received a swift swat on in the shoulder from the club.
"Let me go, Sobek."
"No—" Sobek winced as a slightly harder blow came. He huffed, clenching his jaw and forced out a pleasant tone, "You want to go home? You know what—I'll drag you. You don't even need to walk, I'll drag you all the way there, David and no amount of—ow!—give me that!"
Planting his tail on the ground, David hopped up onto it to plant both his feet on the Totodile's side and kicked Sobek away. As the two tumbled away from each other, David spun the club across the small his back, hooking his elbows around it and grabbing onto his forearms, locking the bone in place. Sobek stormed back to him, eyes enraged and claws pulling back to slash.
Sobek stopped. Sobek forced a deep breath. Sobek talked in a forced calm. "You know what. This works." He grabbed the shaft of the bone and dragged the Cubone along behind him. "You want to hit me with it? Well, you'll have to loosen your hold on it. I'm going to drag you all the way back, David. It's going to take a few extra hours, pulling you along dirt roads. Definitely more than three. Rocky roads. Over roots and through thorns. If I see water—oh joy! I'm going to detour into it! Maybe it'll even rain! But I'm gonna drag you all the way there whether you want it or not."
David scoffed as he closed his eyes again, searching for the spots of warm sunlight from above and patches of dirt below.
The Minun had stopped just a ways down the path, trying to hide her snickering as Sobek dragged David past her. Sobek chose to ignore her; David didn't bother to notice her.
Sobek scowled. "That Elekid has you this worked up, huh?" No answer. "Well? Come on. You said you needed to talk about it, so talk, David. Give me something to ignore the fact that I'm going to be dragging you all the way back home, far into the night, through the rain and snow and hail and as many rivers as I can find. I'm sure it'll all pass faster if we don't talk about how slow we're going."
"Sobek, we just went through a hole of crazy, got ambushed by a bunch of prophesizing Magnemite, then kicked repeatedly by a crazy Minun—please don't kick me again."
The Minun snickered, patting David on the shoulder on her way by.
The Cubone sighed, taking a long moment before mumbling, "I just want to take a rest. Is that okay, Sobek?"
Sobek's step faltered. He let out a defeated sigh. "Okay. Yeah… yeah, okay. We do need an hour's rest after that. But I just want to get as far away from that cave as fast as I can!" He was fighting to keep a rising frustration out of his voice. "I want to get out of here, David. This entire place doesn't sit well with me and I don't do well in crowds. We can rest when we reach the road—we are going to the road, right?"
"Nyih-nyih," the Minun shrugged.
"Nyih-nyih? That a yes, or are you just leading us in circles?"
The Minun snickered and shrugged again.
Sobek scowled, "Now I don't like you." He scoffed as the Minun stuck out her tongue at him with a nyehhhh. "Seriously. David, you are no doubt the worst Cubone I've ever met."
"Not this again…"
"Yeah, this again. Seriously."
"…you say that after the thing with the Elekid."
"No sane Cubone I know would even do that Death jump thingie!"
"Death Leap. Only wild Cubone usually do it."
The Minun stopped and looked over her shoulder, meeting Sobek's confused look with one of her own as if to say, you heard that too, right? Sobek slowed. "Oookay. David. What do you mean?"
And there's the sunshine back… no… too windy… it's gone….
"David—"
"There was a voice in my head and I—" He opened his eyes, head half-turning to look at the Minun. Her head was tilted with ears at odd angles. "…I'll tell you later."
Sobek stopped, "David, forget the Minun, she won't harm much—what the heck do you mean by wild Cubone?"
David looked up to see an incredibly uneased Sobek looking down at him.
"Um… there… it-it was like—you know how your instincts tell you stuff…? There was a literal voice. In my head. Telling me what to do for all of that and I had to fight it off! Do this, watch out for that… and then there was this other thing…?" David faded into mumbles, shaking his head. "I mean, can dungeons make you wild…? Or bring out your wild instincts…?"
"David, do you know what they call wild Cubones?" Sobek said carefully, "Kangaskhans. Remember when Butterfree first saw us? My original idea was for us to pretend we were wilds. A wild Totodile might be odd but—"
"Cubone and Kangaskhans are two completely different species—Kangaskhans aren't even reptiles! Well, they sorta are but—"
"That is the joke—the point I mean! There is no such thing as a wild Cubone! Everybody knows that! Even she knows that!"
The Minun nodded.
"Well, I don't, Sobek!" David snapped and spun. With a flail of his tail, a jab of his elbows, and a kick of his foot, he had Sobek off his club and knocked several feet away. David clumsily rolled onto his feet but shook the clumsiness away. He stormed towards Sobek but again stumbled over his feet, eyes clouding for a moment. "No wild Cubone… that's not right! I know that's not right!" He lifted up his helmet and rubbed his eyes.
Sobek picked himself up and glanced to the Minun. She stood a distance away from the group down the path, half-smirking, half-frowning with her eyes narrowed in thought. "…maybe you're thinking of irrational Cubone, David. Those exist—any Pokémon can get Dungeon Phage and become irrational if they get stuck in—"
"Sobek!" David huffed. "There was something else. W-words? Flashing through my mind—I can't remember them—not all of them. But… there was… there specifically was…." He staggered, head flinching. "You're telling me wild Cubone don't exist, but I know they do—I… might have fought one before…?" He half-stumbled, hands pressed to his eyes. He huffed. "And what do you even mean there's no such thing as a wild Cubone?! There's wild Rattata, wild Poochyena, wild Totodiles, right?"
Sobek watched the Minun's confused look slowly smirk. He bit his lip, and let loose a silent hiss at himself. "Okay! Maybe they do exist somewhere in the world—"
"Now you're doing that again—saying something's true when you don't know everything!"
"Well, here in the large amount of the worldI do know about—which is quite a lot, David." The Cubone groaned and stomped ahead on the trail. Sobek chased after him, continuing sharply, "In this large amount I know, I've never heard of a wild Cubone. Or a wild Magnemite, or a wild Tepig, or a wild… oh, what were they called, black shape-shifting foxes, with the generally twisted personalities—nevermind," Sobek huffed, tossing up his hands. "It's not that uncommon for there to be only, you know, civilized Pokémon of a species! I guess they all became non-wild all at once or the wilds were all killed off one of the Purges. I know that's what happened to the, uh, Zorros. Same thing almost happened with Ditto, but it was easier to tell a fake with them. The eyes and the laughing thing."
David frowned, rolling his eyes and letting his helm fall with the motion, "And in the small part of the world you don't know, there can be wild Cubones and wild Zorua and Zoroark." He huffed and turned with a warning glare and an accusatory point with a claw. "I don't know much, Sobek. But I'm pretty sure I'm all for socking an insufferable know-it-all in the snout."
"I am not a know-it-all! I'm just saying—"
"But you very much are insufferable!"
Sobek snorted and rolled his eyes, walking away and down the path. "If anyone is being insufferable here, it's you, David."
"But at least I have good reason to be!" David shouted as he watched the Totodile walk past the Minun. David bit his lip and shook his head slightly. He beat the ground with the pointy end of his club in rising anger. He chased after Sobek, "Who had a mental breakdown, then threatened with toxic poison right afterwards? Who got dragged through two dungeons now completely against his will? Who had his home ratted out to the Duchess? Who is having his instincts go haywire and start saying two things at the exact same time!? But I at least trust those instincts more than you, Sobek. And one of them is telling me that I have fought with a wild Cubone at some point!"
"Or an irrational," Sobek said simply.
David grabbed Sobek's shoulder and spun him around, sticking an accusatory claw between the Totodile's eyes. "No. Wild. I know it's wild. Millions of years, Sobek. There was something in my head talking about millions of years wild Cubone used their skulls and clubs and never progressed past them, but the moment th—" David recoiled a step with a flinch. "Dah! …my… my point. Sobek." He huffed, rekindling his anger, "There's no way you can know everything and that everything you do know is law! There's…" He winced and shook his head. "…there's…."
Sobek's eyes narrowed, "David. I've been in every country of the Guilded Lands, half of its domains in the Phione Expanse, and was hatched in the Armaldo Underkingdom. Didn't stay there for long, but I was there. When I was little, I was taught by teachers from the Uxian Collective of Ferrocala because my father wanted me to have the best education was. Even after I ran away, I kept learning. The Lugia Library of Masquerade, Dialga's Archives in the Crystal Abby—I even managed to sneak into the Guilded Halls itself once or twice, the second time I stole a copy of the map of the entire Guilded Lands!
"But the thing is, David, all these names mean nothing to you, so let me put this simply. Am I the smartest Pokémon in the Guilded Lands? No, I don't pretend to be. I don't remember most of what I learned, my father would be furious with me for wasting the education but I don't care. But I know more than most Pokémon do about the world at least. I've traveled farther than most Pokémon in the world at least. And I know more about you than you know about yourself."
"As if that actually means anything—and then there's you saying I'm hu—"
"I'm saying you're a terrible Cubone." Sobek scoffed far too loudly.
"What you mean is I'm not like the five of the Cubone you ever knew!"
"But you Cubone are all the same after what the Guild did to your species! Regulating your hunts and your skulls and your clubs and such because they don't trust your kind with getting them yourselves! Remember what Seve said, that either Cubone are fighters or creators? That's because Cubone and Marowak are either in the Guild's army, or they're forced to be carpenters or some benign trade. Wear wood masks instead of skulls, even!"
The raging fire in David's eyes flash froze into an icy glare of disbelief and the Cubone's claws latched onto Sobek's shoulders.
"What. So I'm basically a second-class citizen is what you're saying!?"
"Why are you yelling at me?!" Sobek shoved David away. "I don't know! It might be different now and that was just for the Abby even—and yes I know I'm generalizing and I don't mean to! At least on that! Fine. I take that bit back!" He snorted loudly, then turned and slowly walked back down the path, waiting for David to catch up before quickening the pace.
"Well I think I'd rather be that benign trade but you've gone and made me the Duchess' goon! I haven't had a single choice since I've woken up yesterday!"
"What!? No! You chose to come with me here!"
"Because you are the only person I can call my friend right now and I need you to be not fried extra crispy!"
But fried crispy is delicious hunter~!
"David, listen! All we need to do is when we get back is sort out the entire mess with the Duchess and all, say it's all one big mistake and so on. That we're all too happy to help her out, but we are not a rescue team. The Guild leaders are actually quite understanding about their mistakes."
Hmm hunter, maybe cooked over fire is better.
"I'll be sure to throw on some extra groveling when the time comes." Groveling, yes! For deliciousness! Cooked over fire, yes, with poffin-whatsits in its mouth and—"Oh, shut up—not you Sobek!"
"If not me then who?"
"I don't know—that wild instinct thing!"
"David you can't have wild instincts, your kind just can't have them! That's what I've been telling you this entire time!"
"I don't care what you're telling me—you're saying the small bits of what I remember about myself is wrong, you do realize that do you?!"
"Yes! I do! Because they don't make sense!"
"But, after saying that it didn't make sense at first, now you're saying that I am hu—"
"I am saying that you are a terrible Cubone!"
Poffin-whatsits in mouth, slow cooked over fire—
"DAAAHHH! Out of the five you know! Here we are again! Yeah! Let's keep going in circles!" He smacked the end of his club into his hand. "Let's keep going! Come on! I think you say something about how you're right because you know so much and then I point out that there is a very large gap in your theory called the rest of the world! Or the moon for that matter!"
No, not moon. Clefairy taste like fairy dust. Is too sweet for sweet tooth.
"Well then I guess we can save us the trouble and just skip all that, eh?" Sobek growled as he shifted his jaw. "Fine! Let's say you're right, let's say there are wild Cubone out there—doubtful, but let's just go with it for now! Let's say there is. So what? That doesn't actually change anything! And good luck convincing other Pokémon the same because they won't believe you!"
"It means you're wrong! And it then means they are all wrong! And that means I can trust none of you because you base your truth on your wrongs and refuse to know any different!"
Sobek stopped. David stopped. The Minun stopped just behind them.
Sobek and David glared at each other, fuming rages boiling in both their eyes and Totodile eyes are actually not that yummy by the way, hunter.
"Is this what it is, a trust thing? I've—"
"You've dragged me into two dungeons, I told you that. And remember when I said I might punch you? It's going to be in the next few minutes. The only thing is, I won't be sorry. I'd be enjoying it!"
"A Cubone terrible at fighting, facing a Totodile who hasn't fought much in a few years," Sobek hissed, bearing fangs. "This should go well."
"I agree; I shouldn't use my club so we'll be equally matched then."
Sobek clenched his jaw, seething. "I honestly wasn't going to use any water, David, and you know what? Now I am." He dropped low, clicking his claws against each other as he backed away.
David grinned and spun his club in his right hand, "I'd like to see you try!"
"You haven't been hit with water since you woke up yesterday; you have no idea what you're in for—"
"You have to hit me first!"
"EYA-NAY!"
A blur of yellow and dark blue bolted between the two, the Minun's hands flying up and shooting warning sparks at the two lizards. Her eyes shifted between the two of them and she growled and sneered threats at both.
"David."
"Sobek."
"Ignore the Minun, it might anger the rest of the residents if we KO her."
David snorted.
The Minun scoffed and watched the two circle around her, "Uhh-uhhh. Nay! Nai! Aaaaaagghhhh tsk tsk t—" She stopped turning and blinked, then squinted past where Sobek had circled. "…eya?" She glanced between the two, they were ignoring her. She tossed out a larger volley of sparks at the two, both hopping back. "Oi! Eya!"
David glanced around, "Oh hey. The road."
Sobek hissed, focusing his attention back on David while the Cubone glanced around a bit more.
It wasn't where they had gone in—the road was completely shrouded in forest there. Here, the trees faded away into a valley on the far side and to where the Minun was looking it went up a long, shallow hill where a dust cloud was halfway down and rapidly approaching.
"Sobek," David started, "What is that?"
"I am not falling for that trick, David."
"No seriously, what is… wait, is that—"
A faint blue hue surrounded him, growing stronger as the cloud neared. And Sobek and the Minun too. Sobek flinched and before he could turn, the three were ripped off of their feet and slammed into the front of the cart as it rocketed past. David, naturally, landed face-first and served as an excellent cushion for the Minun.
"My friends, you cannot believe how good it is to see you," Seve said with a hollow laugh as he hooked his claws gently through David's arm and lifted him to his feet.
"Ack!" David rubbed the light scratches Seve left, "Easy, Seve! Your claws are…." He looked up and paled behind his helm. "Woah—Seve, what happened?"
Despite the oozing gashes that tore across the right side of his face, the lattice of cuts in his fur all down his left hand while his right was frozen in a block of ice gingerly to his chest, and another missing chunk of his hat, Seve still grinned warmly in welcome.
But it turned grim with his answer, "Quite simply, not even an Absol can ever hope to achieve the impeccable timing the two of you have. First to meet on the road, speeding me along to the Sawmill, and now…" He twisted around and looked behind them, the remnants of his grin twisting into a grimace. "Tell me, how much fight do the two of you still have after tackling the Thunderwave Cave?"
David and Sobek exchanged glances and answered in unison, "Tons."
"That is good. Because, quite soon, we will need it if we are to make it to the Square alive."