Even before I'd returned home, I'd begun comparing the bugs to any fiction I'd ever seen - stuff with lost worlds, time travel, alien planets, everything. Hopefully this would lend some insight into what I was dealing with.
That insight did eventually come, but not from what I had been expecting. But that is for later.
As for my current situation, most of my erstwhile allies had returned home - Geralt was still here, for sure, but Zoe and Theseus had asked one of my followers to send them home while I was messing around with the bugs. Apparently, they had a cold weather assignment to handle, at least according to Synais, of all people. With the Witcher focusing on dealing with the monsters from his world and Aloy trying to find out who she was, my forces were the only ones trying to deal with the portals, not that we'd really had any help.
And yes, I'm not forgetting about you.
I did decide to follow your lead.
True. So, what now?
"Well, Leal just informed me that another portal has opened up recently, and that it is...actually rather far away from any major settlements, none of which I am familiar with - it's on the California coast. Also, this portal is very different from the others - its energy signature is unlike those of the other portals we've encountered. I'm not exactly sure what is the cause of this."
Then let's head over and figure out what is causing the oddities.
"Sure. Just be careful - we already have enough trouble with the normal portals."
Do you want to come along, then?
"...Eh, why not?"
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Five minutes later, we had landed on the coastline. The waves crashed against the sand while gulls and other creatures paced about further up the beach, hoping to catch morsels that the ocean threw onto the land. Bobcats were also among the waiting scavengers, some particularly eager to score a meal.
Our target, however, had long since faded away, though there were still traces of its presence. Footprints of unfamiliar creatures littered the dry sand, and odd shapes darted about, just out of sight.
"Think the portal will open again any time soon?"
"No," was Viv's reply, "but I am picking up residual energy signatures from the portal at a location one hundred meters away. I suggest we examine it before you go off and get into trouble."
"Assuming trouble doesn't find us."
"No need to be smart with me."
"But I want to."
"Then save it for after we get the portals to stop causing so much havoc."
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The destination Viv mentioned turned out to be a nearby hill, where we found a strange, yet familiar looking machine.
"...You think the machine that is aiding the Eclipse made this?"
"Give the man a gold star!"
"I'm not the only one who needs to limit the smartness, it seems."
"...Killjoy. Think you can pull some info out of this bucket of bolts?"
"Alaready on it."
Said bucket of bolts was actually very well encrypted, to the point that it started deleting its data once I began to hack in. Despite this, I was able to pull out some useable audio-files before it bricked itself.
"So, what does it say?"
"Let me hit play."
One flick of the button later, and the recording was live.
"PORTAL GENERATOR ONLINE. SYSTEM NOW LOCATING TARGET DESTINATION."
"WARNING: TARGET DESTINATION EXPERIENCE INTERFERENCE FROM NATIVE SIDE. PORTAL STABILITY WILL FLUCTUATE. CONTINUE?"
"CONTINUING."
The audio file promptly fizzled out after this, but that ultimately proved to be no setback - I had gotten what I had needed.
Somehow, the Coelohim was influencing the portals.
"Yeah, somehow. Though I doubt it created all of them."
"Why do you assume that, Viv?"
"Just ran a scan based on what we were able to get from this machine, and so far, only five of these generators have popped up - way too few to generate the number of portals we've dealt with. I think this creature is just taking advantage of an existing crisis - and making it worse - to achieve whatever its real goals are."
"Well, isn't that worrisome. Want to head back now?"
"Not quite - I've got a trail I want to follow."
It didn't take me long to find that trail, though I was puzzled by its appearance - based on the shape of the footprints, it appeared that whatever had made the trail had been a biped. Additionally, the number of footprints indicated that there were two of the creatures - which worried me a little bit, since that could indicate a breeding pair.
"You want to make a cast of the footprints?' asked my former ROB.
"Not now. Why do you ask? Do yu happen to have the stuff needed to make a cast of them on hand?"
"Yeah, I do. I also have some pokeballs, bug jars, fish bait, logs, and lots of snacks. Really, for someone who likes to be prepared, I'm surprised you don't have those on hand."
"I'm a commander - being prepared for physical combat isn't exactly my forte, even if I'm trying to get better there."
"I see. Well, let's go - "
Before we could move, a shape suddenly darted in front of us, followed by the form of a raptor of some sort - a maccao, I realized after a moment. The creatures were travelling perpendicular to the trail, which presented us a dilemma - follow the trail and lose the shape, or follow the shape and let the creatures making the trail get away without a fuss.
"...split up?"
"I think so."
Viv just smiled. "Want me to get the raptor?"
"Sure. I'll get the trail."
Our paths decided, we made haste to find our destinations.
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Following the footprints lead me further inland, until I reached a nest of sorts by a small pond. There, a set of branches and leaves had been arranged together, forming a surprisingly well built mound of earth, adorned with leaves, branches and straw.
And nestled at the center of the mound was clutch of eggs - five, to be exact.
Oh dear. It seemed whatever had come here had reproduced.
Cautiously, I approached the nest, always on the lookout for the parents, hoping and praying that they would not return. Fighting them now was not something I wanted to do, especially with the eggs so close.
I had almost reached the nest when a loud crack filled the air. For a moment, I thought one of the eggs had begun to hatch. Yet when another crack followed, none of the eggs moved with it.
It was only when I saw the dodo-like shape of the Kulu-ya-ku that I realized the sound had not come from the eggs, but from an egg thief. Normally, the scratching bird preferred larger fare, but these eggs, all alone and exposed, would certainly be enough to wet its appetite.
Well, not if I had anything to say about it.
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Darkness filled the shelled oval that the little one knew as the world. This place had kept the little one warm and safe for as long as it could remember. Yet it knew the world as it was would soon be at its end - the shell was beginning to weaken, and soon, it would break.
Even with the shell still intact, though, the little one knew that something weir was happening just outside. It could sense two creatures that were not its parents facing off against one another. One was small and stood like its parents, while the other was larger and more confusing.
The two clashed with fury that could barely be described in words. The forest around them was soon torn apart, with trees and bushes thrown around like rag dolls, yet the carnage never reached the nest, for the smaller creature would always let out a cry before frocing the larger one away from the mound.
Eventually, however ,the fight grew quiet. As the little one began to wonder what had happened, a pair of three figured hands gripped its egg. Sensing danger, the little one began to try and crack the shell, but before it could make any progress, the hands released it, at which point a smaller pair of limbs gripped it for dear life.
...What had just saved it?
And what was the weird roar?
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I just had time to duck before the fanged wyvern collided with the bird wyvern. I stared on in silence as Vivian tumbled to the ground in front of me, just barely avoiding being crushed by pair of wyverns. She barely spared me a glance before rushing off after the strange shape from earlier, though not before throwing a bunch of supplies at me, and then telekinetically sending me a ton more after she slipped and dropped several out of her pocket. Funny.
Now all I had to do was - why was the egg shaking?
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The little one was really confused by all of the noise - confused enough that it wanted to see what was happening. True, that would bring it out of the safety of its egg, but such was life - and sometimes, caution needed to be ignored.
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Suddenly, a loud crack filled the air, and this time, it was accompanied by a fissure on the shell of the egg in my hands. A second crack heralded the fissure growing larger, until a third and final crack filled the air, at which point the egg shattered, revealing...a puppy sized blue chameleon?
Said chameleon stared at me for a moment, somehow looking adorable beyond belief.
"...Um, hi little guy-"
A sudden squawk caused me to turn my attention toward where the wyverns had collided. The raptor bird wyvern had vanished, but the dodo bird wyvern had righted itself, and once again, its attention was on the nest. It promptly let out an even louder squawk, which reduced the lizard to tears...how was it crying?!
Well, now I had another reason to beat up the bird wyvern - it made the baby cry.
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The little one managed to fight down the tears just in time to witness the small creature engage the larger one in battle. Wielding a sword and shield that could be combined into an even larger blade, the small creature forced the feathered one to stay away from the nest. Each swing of the greater weapon released water on impact with the bird creature, which only seemed to heighten its pain. Then, however, the bird thing pulled out a rock and used it to block the oncoming blow. Without missing a beat, it then slammed the stone into the smaller beast, before whacking it a few more times for good measure.
The little chameleon creature watched as its savior desperately tried to stand up, pulling out a strange object as it did so. As it readied for a final stand, though, the bird lifted the stone into the air one more time, intending to finish the fight.
...Well, that wouldn't do. Not at all.
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A braced for the impact of the rock when, much to my surprise, the little chameleon rammed into the wyvern, knocking aside the rock, before promptly spitting a surge of water at the larger creature. The bird looked ready to attack after this, only for two jets of water to appear from behind me, washing the larger creature away. Confused, I looked behind me, and found a pair of what could best be described as humanoid lizards - ones that looked a lot like the baby lizard.
Within moments, the baby one had run up to the adults and was being cherished by what I realized were its parents. After this went on for about a minute, I decided to try and back off for the moment, mentally settling on leaving them alone for now and putting off trying to relocate them until later. That only lasted about ten seconds before the baby lizard noticed me and promptly catapulted itself toward me and...giving me a hug?
Awkwardly, I returned the gesture, whilst also giving its parents a wave. Then, carefully, I removed the little one from me and tried to give it back its parents...only for it to jump at me again. And again.
I was about to be more forceful with it when one of its parents, seemingly realizing something, walked over to the supplies Viv had thrown me and promptly threw something round at me. Without hesitation I parried the ball...which the baby jumped toward. A flash followed, and the ball was on the ground shaking, with the baby lizard nowhere in sight.
Then a familiar ping filled the air.
Dumbfounded, I walked up to the ball.
Said ball was, as it turned out, a pokeball.
...Did I just catch a pokemon?
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AN: Been planning to add pokemon to this story for a while, but I decided to bump things up after I got Pokémon Sword for Christmas today. YAY!
For those wondering, the lizard is the water starter from Generation VIII, Sobble.
Read, Review, and have a Merry Christmas/Whatever Holiday You Celebrate! This is Flameal15k, signing off!