40 Favorites! This is awesome! The story's still got lots left to go, so hope you enjoy what's to come...
Warmer weather. Not warm weather, but at least better than the eternal winter wonderland that he had come down from.
Shane was reaching larger forests, with more wild animals, though he didn't recognize many of them. He wondered where all the normal animals had gone, instead of seeing creatures that he wouldn't have been able to think up in his wildest imaginations- and they were quite wild.
He wasn't too fussed about the strange creatures, as he had come to terms with the fact that he was living as one now. He hadn't seen the pink being for quite some time now, which must have been a good thing- for him, at least. He didn't want to keep his guard down, however, so he carried on moving.
Every day he would locate the sun, see where that put him in relation with the snowy lands that he had come from, and then he would pick a random direction away from the snow and move in that direction for the rest of the day. To someone with a compass and a map, he was travelling anywhere from due southwest, to due southeast, each day.
With his new body, he found it easier to travel long distances than he would've been able to as a human. He still didn't even know if humans existed in this world, though he was beginning to find evidence of some higher intelligence living in the areas he was passing by. He had seen a signpost recently, for some place called Celestic Town, though he hadn't paid it any attention.
If there were humans, he didn't want to be anywhere near them until he was more accustomed to his new body. From what he knew about humans and interesting creatures, they liked to either kill or trap them, and he intended on avoiding both of those fates again for as long as possible.
He had no heading, but also no purpose. Was his purpose just to live and exist? To experience the random acts of nature around himself? Would he even have a purpose if he wasn't meant to be here to begin with? Or was that what the pink being wanted him to think? Perhaps, the pink being was some kind of trickster, sent to distract him from his true path to the afterlife, that he had to find for himself.
Shane didn't really know, but he doubted anyone else did either. Now that he had seen all of this since his death, he was certain every single person on his planet, that claimed to know what they were talking about, had no idea at all about the afterlife. If someone had told him that he would become a grey and pink little creature, and that he would be one of the more normal creatures someone could find, he would have told them that they were crazy and offered them a cup of tea or something to try and calm their clearly stressed nerves. Thankfully, nobody did approach him with those claims. He would have remembered if they had, for he was living such a situation now.
But as long as he was living, he didn't care what the afterlife was. He just didn't want it to end. He feared the end. Didn't everyone?
...
...
...
Espir hit his head on a rather round, hard object as he landed on his back. Alexis crashed down above him, but he had the awareness to roll out of the way just in time.
Travelling through portals unbidden was far less enjoyable than he would have imagined. Instead, it felt like every particle that made up his body was being stretched to impossible lengths, only to whiplash back together, just in time for him to appear out of the other side of the portal- he hoped. He had yet to take the opportunity to look around.
He felt like he must have been even more disorientated than he was, as he was looking around and not seeing much change in the scenery. He'd just jumped through into an entirely different universe and yet- nothing. It was the same. He was sitting in the alcove dedicated to the meteorites. The meteorites that Alexis was currently sitting on and that he had just rolled off of.
Something was wrong and he tried to shake his senses back into order. Last he had been in the meteorite area- barely moments ago, or an age ago, it was hard to remember- the meteorites had been gone, disappeared; but, now they were back? No… not back. More. There were even more meteorites. They weren't placed neatly together like the first time he had seen them.
The meteorites in the alcove now were stacked wildly on top of each other, with two having rolled off to the side.
"I know where the missing meteorites are," Espir said, though Alexis clearly wouldn't care or understand what he was saying. "They're here. They must have been pulled through the portal somehow."
Alexis groaned as she, too, started to recover from the disruptive portal travel.
"What the hell was that all about," she moaned, holding her head to stop the world from spinning.
"I'm done with your nonsense," Espir said, "one moment you're acting good as gold, the next you're refusing to help your own team. Surely you aren't that callous, nor that ignorant?"
"I don't understand you," Alexis moaned louder, "looks like the portal didn't even work."
"It did."
"Wait… hey I found the boulders that were missing," Alexis said, slowly sitting up from her dizzied lying down state.
"You have three badges and as many Pokémon as that," Espir muttered, "you are barely even a good trainer, let alone a competent one."
"Once we figure out how to communicate," Alexis said, "you can start telling my why you're such a jerk to me."
The air was colder here. Noticeably cooler than it had been before in their world. Espir wanted to get around and start finding out what else was different, before complications inevitably started to find them.
Espir started walking off. Just because Alexis had decided to pull herself through didn't mean he had any obligations towards looking after her. She had made the mistake, not him. He wasn't beholden to her, nor was he responsible for her actions. She could begin by learning the hard way about actions and consequences.
Espir allowed himself a slight chuckle as he wondered to himself whether this world accepted the kinds of gym badges her version of the world had, or if they were all the same. He wasn't sure why he was feeling so spiteful, but it seemed to make sense, in his head, as to why he felt such a strong sentiment towards Alexis, so he didn't bother questioning it any further.
Unfortunately, Alexis decided to tag along anyway.
"Marshadow, we need to go to a Pokécenter, to get the others healed up. Can you stop walking for just two seconds?"
"Nope," Espir replied. Alexis at least understood that much.
"We need to figure out what is going on," Alexis continued to pester. "Why we are in the same place, but aren't? What was that thing that we jumped into?"
"I don't need those questions answered," Espir said, still walking.
"Marshadow can you please stop wal-"
"What on… hello?"
At the sudden shift in tone, Espir looked back at Alexis to see who she was saying hello to. Instead, she wasn't the one speaking. She, too, was looking in confusion at someone else. At herself- with a Marshadow by her side.
"Hello?" Alexis asked, "what's going on here?"
"Perhaps you could tell me?" The other Alexis replied. "And… by you, I mean… me?"
"So, it would seem," Alexis said.
"Look, Marsh, there's another one of you, too," the other Alexis said, "this is confusing, but you both look as confused as I feel, and- well, how best can I phrase this- you have a very trusting face."
Alexis couldn't help but laugh at the joke.
"We wouldn't be imposing on you if we hung around and asked you some questions, would we?" Alexis asked, to which the other Alexis threw her arms up and shook her head.
"Not at all! Come on, I'll show you the way to where we're staying while we're in town," she said. "We're doing the gym challenge, if you know what that is?"
"We know what the gym challenge is," Alexis nodded, "just got my third badge."
"Impressive. We haven't had a chance to do ours yet. We were considering tomorrow, perhaps."
Espir didn't feel good. There was something about this place that felt both familiar… and off.
"How was Alexis just so... calm about this?" Espir mulled inside of his head. "Even with all the weird stuff that has happened already, surely this be too much... right?"
He and Alexis followed their counterparts to where they had been staying. Espir decided that the answers he could glean from himself would possibly shed some light on the situation. A moment to share notes on how everything was, or was not, working.
Everything looked exactly how Espir and Alexis had left Veilstone City. The only two differences so far, were the meteorites and their doppelgangers.
Once they were in the hotel room of the doppelgangers, all four of them sat down and started to look over each other curiously.
Suddenly, the other Alexis burst out laughing, to Espir's surprise, but she managed to rein herself in.
"I'm sorry," she said, "you know how it is."
"How what is?" Alexis asked.
"Well, your Marshadow, you know? He has a good sense of humor."
"Nobody said anything, though?" Alexis said, confused.
"No, because he's telepathic…" The other Alexis also looked a little confused.
"No, mine isn't," Alexis said, shaking her head. "Ironically, we have trouble communicating quite frequently."
"Do you now?" The other Alexis said, nodding slowly.
Alexis and Espir shared a confused and slightly concerned look, due to the tone the doppelgangers appeared to be adopting. Suddenly, the other Marshadow shot towards Alexis, moving too quickly for Espir to react immediately, unclipping her Pokéball belt and sending it sliding towards the doppelganger.
"I think it best if you just co-operate nicely," the doppelganger said with a grin, "and we'll make it quick for you. This is actually perfect for us. A whole other person's money and supplies, Pokémon to sell on, everything, and we have the perfect way to avoid suspicion- as you never existed here before."
"What the- why?" Alexis sputtered, trying to restrain herself from reaching for the Pokéball belt.
"I've literally just told you," the doppelganger said, rolling her eyes. "Come on Marshadow, let's finish this."
Espir dug deep, as he had done the last time they were both in a dire situation, and tried to fight back. All they needed was a moment in order to escape. As the opposing Marshadow moved in to attack, Espir cut them off and sent them rocketing across the room with a well-timed Shadow Punch.
Alexis took the opportunity to run, as Espir lingered a moment longer to cause the doppelgangers to pause. Satisfied that Alexis had the head start, Espir sank down into the floor to start catching up with her.
As it turned out, the fact Espir figured out too late, the twist with this new world was that their counterparts' morality was flipped on its head- and they wanted to make the most of these two chances for the perfect crime.
Now, however, it was on Alexis and Espir to run as fast as they could away from their doppelgangers, in order to avoid being killed to keep them silent. Espir knew, though, no matter how much he had complained about her not caring for her Pokémon, that she was already thinking up a plan for how to get her Pokémon back safe and sound.
Their only issue was that their new enemy was their most formidable. Themselves.