Hey uh, sorry I took so long to put out another chapter, uh let's just get into this…

February 6th, 2:12 am

I.D.P.K. Headquarters

After enjoying a nice before-bed snack, Joseph called it a night and got some sleep, when he woke up he was in a familiar, yet intimidating environment, "Oh great, I'm back in the lab…" He groaned.

"Not for long you're not!" Christian said as he walked into view, sporting a gray bucket hat and a new hoodie-less outfit, "Follow me, I've got something to show you."

"Uh, a-alright then…"

Christian led Joseph through the halls, making sure to keep him out of sight of the cameras and scientists as they walked, that was until they reached a room that had a yellow lightning bolt sticker stuck to it, Christian opened the door and held it for Joseph, "Alright we're here, make yourself at home,"

Joseph entered the room to see a pretty basic bedroom with some decorations, there was also a computer desk in one of the corners, and the desk was decked out with plushies and other decorative things, among the plushies there were, two Shinx, a Hisuian Goodra, an Oshawott, and a very dapper Spheal.

Lucario was sitting at the desk playing a game on the computer, although Joseph couldn't quite make out what game it was, that was until he stood up and walked over to Christian, "Christian, why haven't I leveled up yet?"

"You still haven't killed anything?"

"Nope, I couldn't bring myself to, they're just too cute!"

"Well uh, then you're probably not gonna level up, but that's not really a bad thing in that game."

"Why's that?"

"Well, if I tell you that, then it'll ruin the surprise."

"Oh, I guess I'll just keep playing then."

Lucario walked back over to the desk and sat back down, it was then he noticed Joseph staring at him, "Oh, hey kid, how's the Pokémon world treating you?"

"Well, I felt like a brave adventurer until I took a ghostly Absol horn to the soul." Joseph ribbed.

"Bummer…" Lucario sighed as he kept playing his game, "Hopefully things get better going forward."

"Yeah, that'd be nice…"

Christian walked over to Joseph and smiled, "So, you mind telling me what you've been up to lately?"

"We started gathering plates, so our enemies couldn't get them, and I got hurt pretty bad, so I'm kinda out of commission for a bit."

Christian put his fingers to his chin as if he were thinking, "I'm assuming those plates are of importance in your current situation."

"Yep, apparently Arceus will grant you a wish without limitations if you can get them all back to him or something."

"What is this Dragon Ball?"

"Uh… Kinda…? I don't know, I've never watched it…"

"Yeah, me neither, I only really know what it's about because someone told me." Christian chuckled, "I'm not really the biggest anime guy, to be honest."

"Oh, well uh, yeah, that's kinda the situation we're in right now."

"Sounds like an adventure, an adventure put on pause but an adventure nonetheless."

"Yeah, it's been a heck of a wild ride so far…"

"Well uh, that's kinda been the idea behind this whole experiment, we've been trying to see if you can handle something of this proportion, the problem is for some reason they aren't exactly the happiest about the results." Christian sighed as he looked at the floor in disappointment.

"So what I saw in one of my dreams was true… They do want me dead, don't they?"

"Huh, that's new, you say you saw someone say that in one of your dreams?"

"Yup, lemme explain."

Joseph explained what was going on with the dreams that Christian and Lucario weren't altering, he told them about how the dream space changed to reflect the environments he had explored, he explained how they became more detailed as time went on, but most importantly, he told Christian about how his mom would often pop up in these dreams and how she was absent from the last one. "That's… Concerning…" Christian concluded.

"Concerning!? Why's that!?"

"Well um, depending on why you're having these dreams or if they're even real at all, there might be some… Problematic implications…"

"And by that you mean?"

"I still gotta mull it over to make sure I'm not just jumping to conclusions… In the meantime, I bear gifts once again!"

"They're not just for Cinder this time, are they?"

"Nope! I promise!"

"Alright then, lay 'em on me!"

Christian walked over to the nightstand by his bed and started rummaging through the drawers until eventually he pulled out a pair of laptops, "Company laptops, I'm not meant to give these away, but I'm also allegedly not supposed to be helping you at all, so I guess I should just fully commit to breaking the rules."

"But why!?" Joseph blurted, "Why are you helping me!?"

"Because I'm not a fan of the idea of sending essentially what is a child into another world just to let him die, it seems stupid, and it goes against the whole 'peacekeeper' thing."

"I guess that makes sense…" Joseph said, "But what if they fire you?"

"I've got a plan in mind."

Lucario swiveled around in his chair, "You do?"

"Yup, it's called destroying the entire facility with legendary Pokémon!"

"How are we gonna get back to Cinder then!?"

"That's where Lunala comes in, we'll just go on an Ultra Warp Ride!"

"This plan feels more like a lucid dream than a concrete plan."

Joseph agreed, "Yeah, that sounds stupid."

Christian shook his head and laughed, "Alright, you don't gotta trust me, but just know I'm gonna get the last laugh here."

"Lucario rolled his eyes and turned back around, "Whatever dude."

Christian sighed as a sweat droplet rolled down the side of his head, "A-anyway, those company laptops have basically any game I've ever enjoyed along with important files that the company probably doesn't want you to have, so uh, make sure you take advantage of that."

Joseph opened one of the laptops and noticed like a bazillion icons on the desktop, most of them were games, but there was one that was a folder labeled, "Stuff the I.D.P.K. doesn't want you to know courtesy of Christian". Joseph opened the folder and immediately noticed a few interesting files such as, Abnormality#34672 txt, Goals txt, Targets png, and INCASEOFFAILURE txt. (Just pretend there are dots there bc FFN hates dots in between letters)

"Well uh, this sure does feel like info I shouldn't have access to." Joseph said with a nervous chuckle.

Christian looked Joseph dead in the eyes and said, "Joseph, you must put this info to good use, otherwise you'll give this god-awful corporation what they want."

"I'm still not sure why they even want this! What did I do to them to warrant them wanting me dead!?"

Christian looked down in disappointment once more, "No clue, but our boss insists that her plan goes through."

"Of all the things I could have info on here, your boss is the one I really want info on."

"You and me both…" Christian sighed, "She wears a mask like the one I had when we first met, it's actually a common thing amongst us, everyone wears one, well barring me and the 'Special Agents, whoever those weirdos are."

Joseph raised an eyebrow, "So you've never seen her face?"

"I've never seen a feature of her that could give me even the slightest clue who she is.", Christian elaborated, "No hair, no skin, no nothing, hell I haven't even heard her actual voice, the stupid mask distorts it to hell and back! She almost sounds like a dude!"

Lucario swiveled in his chair again, "I can't get a clear aura reading on her either, it's like she's a living black hole or something!"

"Well, that stinks…" Joseph sighed.

"Don't worry about it, we'll try to figure out as much as we can about the 'lady in gold' as she likes to be called, you just focus on not dying, ok?"

Joseph sighed again, "That's easier said than done man…"

Christian put a hand on Joseph's shoulder and looked him in the eyes once more, "I'm sure you'll manage." He smiled, "Now let's get you back to the lab before someone finds out I took you here to avoid being on camera."

Lucario waved as the two left the room, they went through the halls the same way as before when they were stopped by a tall woman in a black and gold mask, "Ah, boss! I was, uh, just showing him the secondary lab." Christian fibbed.

The woman spoke to Christian for a moment while Joseph just sat and stared for a moment, 'Jeez, she's like super tall, I don't think I've seen anyone as tall as her in my life.'

Joseph was yanked out of his trance when the masked woman glared at Joseph, "Don't make us regret picking you for this role."

Joseph jumped back in fear, "Y-yes ma'am!"

The masked woman laughed as she backed out of Joseph's face, "Good, at least someone understands the severity of this situation."

The woman walked off, leaving Christian and Joseph standing in the hall, "L-let's get you back to your real body before she gets any ideas." Christian said nervously.

"Yeah, I'm with you on that."

With that, Joseph was taken back to the lab and sent back to his real body, as per usual he ended up in a void but this time, he felt a tugging feeling, he didn't know what it was or why he felt it but he definitely felt something tugging him, that was until…

February 6th, 7:37 am

Team Echoes' Base - Joseph's room

Coast Continent

Joseph was just conscious enough to hear someone call out to him, "Hey, get up sleepyhead!"

Joseph popped up and forced his eyes open, he looked around for a moment before seeing Yumi by his side, "Oh, good morning Yumi, uh, sorry if I freaked you out by jolting up like that."

"You're fine." Yumi smiled, "It means you're recovering after all."

Joseph didn't even think about that, "Wow, I guess it does, yesterday I couldn't have dreamed of doing a sudden movement like that."

"Do you think you could try walking?"

"Um…" Joseph hummed as he attempted to stand up, this time he actually managed to stand just fine, "I might be able to…? I think anyway."

"Well if you can't then don't push yourself, ok? I don't want to see you get hurt more than you already are."

"I'll be careful."

Joseph tried carefully taking a step on his bed, once he realized he wasn't gonna face plant onto his mattress he sighed and hopped off of his bed, but before he hit the floor Midnight caught him and gently placed him on said floor, "Dude! Don't do that! You might be able to walk again, but that doesn't mean you're good to jump off of stuff like that!"

"S-sorry Midnight, I got a bit ahead of myself there."

"You're good, just try to be more careful…"

Joseph was just about to leave the room when he remembered, "Oh yeah! I got another supply drop last night!"

Midnight's flame flickered as if she were raising an eyebrow, "You what?"

"Oh uh, lemme explain."

Joseph proceeded to explain his weird dream stuff to Midnight, she was a little confused at first, but Joseph did his best to clear up her confusion, while this was going on Cinder walked into the room, "'Morning guys! How's it going?"

Joseph was still occupied, so Yumi answered her, "Joseph's doing much better, he's regained his energy, and he's able to walk again, that's about all we know for now though…"

Joseph wrapped up what he was explaining to Midnight and turned his attention to Cinder, "Yeah, I still feel like I'm sick."

"Sick? What do you mean sick?"

"Well I don't know if you know this, but Humans can get sick, and when that happens our bodies kinda shut down a little bit, we have to rest to recover."

"Oh, well that stinks."

"Yeah… But hey, there's a bit of a silver lining here, we get the day off!"

"That's true, but what are we gonna do with our free time?"

"Well…" Joseph said as he hopped up onto his bed, he lifted the pillow revealing the laptops that Christian helped him smuggle, "A certain someone gave me these, I was thinking we could do what I always do on sick days and just sit around playing video games all day."

Sparkles appeared over Cinder's closed eyes, "THAT SOUNDS AWESOME! WHY COULDN'T WE HAVE A SICK DAY SOONER!?"

Joseph started laughing at Cinder's enthusiasm, "Let's not wish for more sick days, being sick sucks."

"Aw… But I wanted more chill days… We never got any back home…"

Just then, Joseph's stomach rumbled, "Oh, I guess we should probably go get breakfast before we start our gaming sesh…"

"Oh! Maybe we could go out into town and grab some snacks too!" Midnight proposed.

"That's a great idea!" Cinder chirped, "Let's go get breakfast and hit up the department store!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Joseph agreed.

So Cinder, Joseph, Midnight, and Yumi, left the room and entered the lounge, where Vulcan was awaiting breakfast food requests, "'Sup human? You ready for the best breakfast of your life?"

"Sure am!" Joseph smiled, "I was thinking of having pancakes, a basic pick again, I know, but it's another comfort food of mine."

"You don't gotta be so down on yourself, I ain't gonna judge you, if pancakes and pizza are your comfort food then that's cool." Vulcan replied.

"Oh, uh thanks…" Joseph said as he rubbed the back of his head with a paw, "Do you mind if I ask you something real quick?"

"Shoot." Vulcan said as he prepared to get breakfast going.

"What's with the sudden change in attitude?"

Vulcan pulled out a bag of pancake mix but paused when Joseph asked his question, "What do you mean?"

"Well, normally you're all… Standoffish? I guess. You always act like just because I'm a human I'm weak or whatever… What's with the sudden change of heart?"

"Oh, you're talking about that." Vulcan said as he poured pancake mix into his pan, "It's complicated… How about I explain it over a plate of pancakes?"

"That sounds nice."

"Well alright then, just take a seat while I do my thing."

Joseph took a seat on the couch in the lounge, once he was settled Midnight floated up next to him and yawned, "So, wanna talk about anything in the meantime?"

"Uh, yeah, does anyone else feel a little chilly?" Joseph asked.

"Can't say I do." Midnight replied

"Same here." Cinder agreed, "I feel normal."

Vulcan looked back for a moment and threw in an answer of his own, "Feels nice and warm to me."

Joseph facepalmed as he realized that he was asking the fire types if they felt chilly, "Right, you guys are always warm, you're literally living flamethrowers… What about you Yumi? Are you cold?"

Yumi didn't respond, she wasn't even in the room, she must've slipped out while Joseph was talking to Vulcan, "Is Yumi even here?" Joseph asked.

"I think she's outside." Midnight said as she dropped her levitation and plopped onto the couch.

Joseph got up from his seat, "Alright, I guess I'll go check on her then."

"Don't push yourself too hard going down that vine!" Cinder shouted as Joseph bolted out the door."

Joseph peeked his head outside for a moment and saw something he never thought he'd see, "Is it SNOWING!?"

Sure enough, snow was falling at an alarming rate, it almost seemed like a blizzard could pick up at any moment.

Joseph carefully climbed down the vine and stepped into the snow, only to tense up as the cold feeling hit his bare paws like a train, "S-so cold!"

Joseph's teeth began chattering as he looked out into the snow for Yumi, he didn't see anything at first, that was when he noticed Specter sitting out in the snow seemingly talking to himself. Joseph got a little closer to investigate when he started to see bits of red in the snow, "Wait a second, that's Yumi isn't it!? Her fur blends right in with the snow!"

Specter noticed Joseph standing around like a doofus and decided to grab his attention, "Hey! Wonderful weather we're having, right?"

Joseph shivered before replying, "I don't think my fur's a fan."

"Huh, I guess Vulcan was right, you are a bit weak."

Yumi threw a snowball at Specter's face, "You hush, Joseph's still recovering from yesterday, it's probably having an impact on his ability to resist the cold."

Specter wiped the snow off his face and rolled his eyes, "Pfft, yeah right."

Specter was pelted in the back of the head by another snowball, "Sorry love! That one was meant for Razor!"

Specter spun around to see Cloak, Blair, and Razor, all playing in the snow, Razor tossed a snowball at Blair, who attempted to melt the snow with his fire breath, but Cloak summoned a snow cloud above his head, drowning out his flames and allowing the snowball to hit him in the face, "Bleh, you got snow in my mouth!" Blair shouted as Cloak and Razor giggled.

Joseph turned his attention back to Yumi, "Well I was gonna ask you if you felt chilly but I guess the answer was right in front of me."

Yumi giggled, "Yeah, I guess it was."

The two sat there in awkward silence until Vulcan called out, "Breakfast is ready."

Yumi ran past Joseph and began climbing the ladder, Joseph followed quickly after her, 'I'd rather not catch a cold on top of my current soul injury.' He thought as he climbed the vine.

Once the two reentered the base, they felt a wave of warmth wash over them, "Ah… Much better…" Joseph said as he took his seat back.

Just as Joseph sat down, Vulcan placed a plate in front of him, "Alright, sit down, I'm gonna tell you a bit of a tale."

"Huh? I thought you were just gonna explain why you've been going easy on me lately."

"Well, that's a bit of a story on its own, which leads us to our tale, so just sit tight, this is gonna be a long one…"

Joseph began devouring his pancake as Vulcan started his story, "So it all begins in the Grass Continent back home. I was still just a Cyndaquil at the time." Vulcan explained, "Ember and I had been living together for about a few years now, and she had just evolved into a Ninetales, of course, she hadn't told me this yet, but where's the fun in spoiling the surprise?"

September 7th, 9:34 am

Dark Crater - Outside

Grass Continent

Vulcan was walking back to his little shelter outside the Dark Crater when he heard a strange noise, "H-hello?"

Vulcan looked over his shoulder and saw a Banette creeping up behind him, "Oh what a shame, you saw me, oh well, it doesn't change what's about to happen."

The Bannette slashed him across the chest with a Shadow Claw, causing him to fall over, "Augh! But why though!?"

"Sorry kid, I just need your stuff way more than you do."

"I don't have anything!"

"You WHAT!?"

"I-I don't have anything, now just leave me alone and let me go!"

The Banette bandit was furious, so furious in fact that he began lashing out at Vulcan, "How DARE you leave home without supplies for thieves like me to steal! You common folk are supposed to be walking loot bags! Nothing more, nothing less!"

Vulcan was hit with a barrage of Shadow Claws until the pain was too much to bear, the Banette showed no sign of stopping his barrage any time soon. Vulcan passed out as the Banette kept up his onslaught.

"Hehehehehehehe… Good night, you useless little worm!"

Suddenly, Banette heard shouting coming from a nearby hollow, "HEY! YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

He turned to see an angry Ninetales spreading her tails out to seem much bigger than she actually was, "Aw heck nah, I ain't getting cursed, I'm outta here!"

Ember walked up to Vulcan to see a mess of blood on the floor, "I swear to Arceus if you just killed my only friend I WILL send you to the World Abyss faster than an Extreme Speed!"

She picked up Vulcan's bloodied form and took him into the hollow she had emerged from, and set Vulcan down on a bed, "Stay with me, bud." She said as she pulled some medical supplies from her makeshift bag, "Let's see, Oran Berries, Revival Herbs, Energy Roots… This should be enough, let's just hope that guy didn't do anything too nasty."

Ember began tending to Vulcan's injuries as quickly as she could but she froze up when she heard a cough, Vulcan had woken up mid-procedure. He looked up to see Ember's newly evolved form, "A-am I dead!?"

Ember sighed, 'Oh boy… This is going to complicate things a little bit…'

Vulcan began hyperventilating, "Who are you!? What's going on!? Why do I feel like I fell off a cliff!?"

"Vulcan calm down it's me!" Ember shouted, "I found a Fire Stone and I brought it to the Luminous Spring!"

"Oh… So I'm not dead… Then why am I staring at an angel?"

Ember's face went beat red, "Y-you- I- uh- um-" She sputtered as she tried to think of something to say.

Her awkward sputtering was cut short by a suppressed "Ouch." From Vulcan.

"R-right, treatment now cuddles later."

Ember wrapped some bandages around the injuries before mashing up the berries and herbs into an edible mixture, she then fed it to Vulcan who immediately gagged, "Bleh! That tastes terrible!"

"I know, I'm sorry, I should have warned you." Ember said as she lowered her head apologetically, "That stuff tastes yucky but it works wonders, you'll be better in no time."

"I hope so, these wounds feel like they reach into my very soul."

Vulcan saw a realization on Ember's face, "CRUD! That damn Banette must have damaged your soul!"

"What!?"

"You heard me! When a ghost hits a Pokémon with a fierce blow, they often damage their soul!"

This scared Vulcan, "What does that mean!?"

"It means you're probably going to have to spend a lot of time recovering, make sure you don't push yourself too hard, otherwise you could end up dying."

"I could DIE!?"

"Yup, the soul's a very fickle thing, too much damage and it's done!"

Vulcan pulled a little blanket over his face, "I don't wanna die!"

Ember pulled the blanket off of Vulcan's face and placed a paw on his cheek, "You're not going to die, I'll make sure of it."

February 6th, 8:25 am

Team Echoes' Base

Coast Continent

Joseph was astonished, so astonished in fact that he almost choked on his pancakes, "Wait, wait, wait, so you've had your soul damaged too!?"

"Yup, but Ember helped me get better, and that's how we started our relationship, we had always flirted but that part about her being an angel was the push that we needed."

"Well, good for you man, it's just a shame she's not here with you now…"

"Yeah… She's probably worried sick about me…"

The room sat in awkward silence for a moment, that was until Midnight spoke up, "So what does this have to do with going easy on Joseph?"

Vulcan went to answer when Joseph spoke for him, "He knows how I feel right now, he's sympathizing."

"That and you're recovering quickly, like really quickly, it seems that human strength lies in the soul rather than the body."

"Well yeah DUH this isn't the body I was meant to have!" Joseph blurted out, "Imagine becoming a human and getting called weak because you have to adjust to walking on two legs!"

"Right… I uh, kinda forgot about that too…"

Cinder decided to jump in on the banter, "Didn't you say something about hearing a human in Dark Crater talk about how he didn't have enough Reviver Seeds or something?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Vulcan replied.

"I may have an idea who that was."

"Huh?"

Cinder walked over and presented a picture of Christian and Lucario on her watch, "This is Christian, he's my human friend, and based on what you said, you heard him guiding Cresselia through Dark Crater."

"Wh- huh!?"

"Yup, I told you, I'm not making this stuff up, I really helped save our world! I mean, I wasn't one of the main players, but Blublin and I played a vital role in stopping the planet's paralysis!"

"B-but why would Cresselia need to go to Dark Crater!?"

"Darkrai was waiting there, he wanted to kill Christian for foiling his evil scheme!"

Vulcan shook his head, "This sounds so outlandish yet so realistic at the same time, I don't really know what to think now…"

Cinder fell flat on her face and sighed, "Well at least he's not a complete non-believer anymore…"

"Oh wait, now I remember, they were the reason I even kept looking for you!"

"Oh right! I almost forgot about that too!" Cinder said as she picked herself back up.

"I guess I'm the fool then, the proof was staring me right in the face and yet I chose to ignore it because 'My sister could never save the world'."

Cinder chuckled, "Don't worry about it, if you need more proof, then I'll gladly provide some more by saving this world too."

Vulcan returned the chuckle as he began putting his cooking supplies away, "Heh heh… Yeah… Well uh, do you guys have plans for today?"

"We were gonna go grab some snacks and misuse company property." Joseph answered.

"Company property!? What company!?"

"Uh, it's not that important, do you wanna come with us to the department store?"

"Ooh! Absolutely! I wanna try that thing that Specter mentioned yesterday!"

Cinder raised an eyebrow, "What thing?"

"The thing, y'know, the flame thing!"

"OH! Right! I wanna try that too!"

"Shall we get going then?" Vulcan asked.

"Sure, just lemme go get Yumi first." Joseph said.

Midnight floated up out of her seat, "Wait, did she wander off again?"

"I think I saw her go back into my room, I'll go check there."

Joseph walked back into his room to see Yumi petting Stumpy on the head, "Hehe! Who's a cute little bird monster!"

Stumpy couldn't stop laughing, "Stop it! It tickles!"

Yumi continued to stroke Stumpy's feathers as he laughed and kicked the ground, causing Joseph to pop up into the air like a cartoon character, "Hey, Yumi, we're about to go get snacks, you wanna come with us?"

Yumi gasped as she whipped back around, "U-uh yeah, that sounds nice, let's go do that!"

Stumpy frowned as Yumi stopped petting her and walked toward the door, "Aww… But my pats…"

Stumpy's reaction blew away Joseph, "Wait, he likes being pet!?"

"Yeah… It feels nice…"

"I thought you'd be offended by it, so I never pet you…"

"Well now that you know, can I have pats when you get back?"

"Sure, I'll make sure to get you a snack while we're out too!"

Stumpy's smile lit back up as Joseph finished talking. "Yay! Thank you!"

As Joseph walked out of the room, Stumpy waved goodbye, still smiling brightly at the thought of getting more pats. Yumi and Joseph entered the lounge once more, motioning to the others that they were ready for departure, "Alright, let's go shopping."

February 6th, 8:36 am

Sunset Square Supplies

Coast Continent

The team pressed on to the department store, ensuring Midnight was leading the way this time to avoid any confetti being fired. Midnight hummed as she floated, blissfully unaware of the confetti cannon security system. Eventually, they reached the door and walked in, however, when they entered there was no confetti, in fact, it seemed that Ribombee was completely absent today, "Huh, that's strange, where's Ribombee?" Cinder questioned.

Just then, a red and white bird Pokémon flew up to the group, "Oh, she's checking something for me, did you folks need her for something?"

"No, it's not that, we were just wondering why we weren't getting pelted with confetti."

Delibird sighed, "That Ribombee, she always liked celebrating the most trivial of things…"

Delibird reminisced for a bit until Joseph's impatience got the better of him, "Ehem!"

"Oh, s-sorry about that, I guess I just started rambling on for a bit, please forgive me."

"It's no biggie." Joseph said, "We were just here to grab some snacks and stuff."

"Oh, well uh, enjoy your shopping!"

Delibird bowed before flying away, leaving the group on their own, "Well uh, shall we start looking around?" Cinder asked.

Joseph was about to start walking when he noticed a certain look in Midnight's eyes, "That Delibird's got somethin' goin' on…"

"Huh!?" Yumi squeaked, "But he seemed like such a nice guy!"

"I never said it was anything nefarious, just something, he's probably just hiding something big so he can announce it later."

"Either that or you're just jumping to conclusions." Vulcan suggested.

"I'm not! I sensed a bit of nervousness in him!"

"Maybe he's just anxious."

"That wasn't anxiety, that was definitely nervousness."

"Can we talk about this later?" Joseph asked, once again letting impatience take the wheel, "I'm craving candy."

Midnight sighed as she fell a little bit closer to the floor, "Alright…"

"Alright, I'll go look at the fur dye while you grab snacks." Vulcan said as he began to walk away.

"Uh, alright then, see ya!"

Vulcan walked through the department store for a bit, passing by a few stores along the way, "Let's see… Feebas Fashion… Eh, maybe I'll check that out in a bit… Rubba's Rubber Psyducks… Never been into collecting those dinky things… Jeez, this place is more like a mall than a department store, wonder why it's not just called a mall…"

"Tell me about it." A voice said.

Vulcan jumped as an Umbreon came into view, "Dude! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Hehehe, sorry, force of habit." The Umbreon giggled.

"Who are you anyway?"

"The name's Fiona, and I uh, overheard that you were looking for fur dye."

"Dang, what're you the town creep?"

"Hehehe, nope, just an Eevee who went on a few too many moonlit walks, you should try it sometime, they're quite soothing."

Vulcan looked to Fiona's side, "What's with the basket?"

"Oh, my little 'Vees are in there, they haven't hatched yet so I've been carrying them around in this basket to keep them safe."

"Oh, so you're a mom?"

"I'm gonna be pretty soon, the flower girl at the guild predicts the eggs will hatch in about two weeks."

"Well uh, congrats!"

"Thanks!" The Umbreon smiled, "I was planning on getting some fur dye and scarves for my little 'Vees, so I can keep track of them a little better."

"That sounds cute…" Vulcan gushed, "Do you know where I could get some fur dye?"

"O-oh, s-sorry, I got a little distracted there, here, just follow me!"

Fiona bolted off in the other direction abruptly, catching Vulcan off guard, "Wha- hey!"

Vulcan chased after Fiona, dodging any Pokémon in the way, eventually, Fiona stopped in front of a store that had bright digital signs depicting a Male Meowstic with red streaks in the tuft of white fur on its head. Fiona admired the sign for a moment before Vulcan crashed into her, causing her to lose her grip on her basket, Vulcan noticed this and quickly scooped it up before it hit the floor, "Woah, that was a close one!"

Vulcan shook his head, "That was completely irresponsible!"

"S-sorry…"

"Don't apologize to me! Apologize to the eggs!"

Fiona looked into her basket and whispered, "Sorry my little 'Vees."

"Good, next time think before running away like that!"

Fiona looked down and sighed, "Let's just go in."

Vulcan walked toward the door to the store, the door opened automatically, revealing a very flashy interior, a red carpet covered the floor with an intricate diamond-shaped tile design to it, in the middle of each diamond there were little type icons and silhouettes of various fluffy Pokémon such as Furfrou and Mareep, "Wow this place is rather… Extravagant…"

"Yeah, it feels like we just walked into a castle." Fiona agreed.

"Oh, dahling you walked into something more than a castle." A voice said.

Vulcan turned to see a Mareep with dyed black wool, "Woah, you're very fancy looking."

"And you're an eyesore!" The Mareep replied, covering her eyes, "Goodness, what an ungodly visage."

"Hey! That was uncalled for!" Vulcan shouted.

"Yeah, that's messed up!" Fiona added, "Imagine I just came in here and called you ugly, how would you like it!?"

Just then, a Wooloo with pink dyed wool pushed the Mareep out of the way, "Please excuse my coworker here, she's a bit cranky sometimes, were you two looking for anything in particular?"

"I wanted to try some fur dye for my flame spots here." Vulcan said, "I heard that it changes the color of the flames, is that true?"

"Oh my, aren't you an astute one, we just ran an ad for that not too long ago."

"Oh, well uh, a friend of mine told me about it."

"Well, your friend seems to be in the know, y'know?"

Vulcan chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head, "Hehe, I guess you could say that."

The Wooloo giggled, "Well rest assured they have phenomenal taste, I'll show you our selection."

The Wooloo guided the pair over to a shelf with a wide array of dye, "The ones on the right are our special flame series dye while the stuff on the right is our normal stuff, both work on flames, but the flame series contains specialized dyes curated specifically to burn beautifully and brightly."

Vulcan walked over to the shelf and inspected the dye's packaging, "Stardust blue dye, works on basically anything with no side effects at all, it dyes scales, fur, flames, feathers, anything you can think of it will dye, huh, sounds interesting…"

Vulcan looked at each color separately, 'Hm… What color would be the coolest?' Vulcan thought as he paced back and forth eyeing each color, 'Green sounds cool, but I'm not sure if I could pull it off… Maybe purple? Nah, not feeling it.'

Vulcan was about to call it quits when he spotted a color called 'void', "Is that black!? How would that even work!?"

He immediately picked up the box and flipped it around to see the back, on the back there was a picture of a Typhlosion applying the dye to its flame spots and when its flames flared up they were a deep black color, "Woah, this is mind-boggling!"

Vulcan took the dye over to the Wooloo, "I'd like this one, please."

"Alright, that'll be 500 Poké." The Wooloo smiled as she walked over to the store's register.

Vulcan pulled out 500 Poké and placed it on the counter blah blah blah, you get the point, he stuffed his purchase into his bag and approached the door when Fiona stopped him, "Hold on, I was gonna check out the accessory store after this, you wanna go with?"

"Uh, I'm not really sure, I'm not the biggest fashion guy." Vulcan admitted as he once again rubbed the side of his head awkwardly

"Oh come on, I think an eyepatch would make you look tough as nails!"

Vulcan was still a little reluctant but he decided to just go with it, "Alright… But this better not be a ploy to ask me out on a date or something, I've already got someone."

"N-no! It's nothing like that! I'm just really lonely… Nobody ever wants to hang out with me…"

"Oh… Well, I'd be ok following you around for a bit."

"Really!? Wahooo!"

'Oh boy… What did I just get myself into?' Vulcan thought, 'I wonder how Cinder would feel about me wearing an eyepatch…'

February 6th, 8:58 am

Sunset Square Supplies - Batter Splatter

Coast Continent

Joseph was awaiting his Batter Splatter order when Cinder asked, "Do you think Vulcan could pull off an eyepatch?"

"Excuse me?" Joseph asked as he turned his head back toward Cinder.

"I said, do you think Vulcan could pull off an eyepatch?"

"Uh, I don't know, I feel like he'd get made fun of for it."

"How do you make fun of an eyepatch?" Midnight asked.

Joseph sighed before making his best impression of a pirate, "Yarg me hearties, we scurvy sea dogs sail the seven seas to plunder 'ye booty!"

Yumi raised an eyebrow while Cinder raised a paw to her face, "Pfft HAHAHA! What was that!? You sounded like a total idiot!"

"It was a pirate impression! It wasn't that stupid!"

Midnight's flame flickered as she put the end of her arm to her chin, "What's a pirate?"

Joseph sighed, he was going to explain, but then he realized that someone would probably hear him, so he held off on that, "I'll explain it later…"

A few minutes passed and an Alcreamie came up to the counter with a bag, "Order for Joseph."

"Oh, that's me!" Joseph said as he approached the counter and grabbed the bag, "Thanks."

With their snacks in tow, the gang began walking around the department store once more, "So where do you guys wanna go now?" Cinder asked, "I was thinking about checking out Porygon's while we were here."

"That sounds like a good idea." Yumi said as she stuffed a piece of Joseph's candy in her mouth, "Mmmmm, this stuff's much better than the stuff we have in Hisui."

"Yeah, it's shocking that as time progresses, candy gets better." Joseph chuckled sarcastically.

"I didn't think future candy would be this good though!"

Yumi was smiling brightly as the group walked through the department store until they reached Porygon's that was, Porygon glared at her as the group walked up to the counter, "Hey Porygon! Got anything new in stock?" Cinder asked, blissfully unaware of Porygon's glare.

Porygon adverted his gaze from the ghost fox and placed it on Cinder, "Our stock has been updated since your last log-in."

"That's great! What's new?"

Porygon placed a screen in front of Cinder, once she was distracted he began glaring at Yumi again, 'Does he know!?' Yumi asked herself, 'He's been like this every time I've come here!'

Midnight noticed Yumi's distressed expression and decided to use her telepathy to ask her about it, 'Hey, are you good?'

'Am I going crazy or is there a voice in my head?'

'Look to your left.'

Yumi looked over to her left and saw Midnight smiling at her, if she had a tongue, she'd probably be sticking it out right now, 'All I see is Midnight.'

'Exactly, I'm using telepathy to communicate with you."

'Wait, so you're in my head?'

'Yup!'

'O-ok then, but why?'

'I was just checking on you. You looked distraught.'

'Well, it's because I am, Porygon won't stop glaring at me!'

'Huh, that's strange, did you do something to him?'

'I think he's the Porygon that attacked me the day I arrived here, so I should be glaring at him, but apparently dragging a human here from another world is somehow the human's fault.'

'That is a little unfortunate, don't worry though, I'll protect you if he lashes out!'

Yumi sighed, 'That's a relief… Thanks…'

'Just doing my job!'

Yumi looked back at Porygon and noticed that he had once again averted his gaze, this time focusing on Joseph, who was looking at the TMs, "Let's see… Thunder Punch… Nope, can't cat slap… Crunch… Not feeling biting my enemies with my actual fangs… Play Rough… That could be good but I think I'll stick with my current stuff…"

Joseph passed the screen back to Porygon, "You got anything else in stock?"

Porygon tapped the screen a couple of times and passed it back, "Here's our miscellaneous inventory."

Joseph scanned the monitor once again, "There's a Fire Stone… Don't need that… A Macho Brace… How would that even work here? Eh, I'm not in the mood to test it, next… An Everstone, eh, I still haven't decided if I want to evolve or not…"

Midnight decided to jump in, "Speaking from experience, evolving is one of the best things a Pokémon can experience, so unless you really like being a Shinx, you should definitely try evolving."

"Well, uh, I'm not gonna get into it here, but there's a bit of a problem with that."

"Uh, alright then, feel free to explain when we get back to the base."

"I will, don't worry." Joseph said as he turned his attention back to the screen on the counter.

He kept scanning the screen until he eventually gave up and passed it back to Porygon, "Eh, I don't see anything interesting…"

"That's a shame…" Porygon frowned, "Maybe our cosmetics will pique your interest?"

"You guys sell cosmetics?"

"Yup! We don't have much, but we recently collaborated with that place that sells dyes and stuff, so now we have some of our own dyes along with some Tera Scarves and such."

"Alright, I guess I'll have a gander at that too…"

Joseph looked at yet another catalog, this time however there were a few interesting items, "Fur dye GBC? What's that?"

Joseph clicked the dye, it displayed a bigger image of the packaging and a description, the description read:

Ever wanted to look like you're from a different world? Well with this dye you can! This dye will make you look out of place in any environment, it's perfect! It's also great for standing out from the crowd, no other dye can provide colors this unique!

How it works:

1: Apply the dye to the fur, scales, etc.

2: You're done! It's that easy!

3: No like seriously, if you need more instructions, then there's something seriously wrong with you.

Disclaimer do not drink this dye you will probably not survive (Don't quote us though we haven't tested it ourselves)

Joseph's eyes darted back and forth after reading that last line, 'Yeesh, I get that this world is less developed than mine, but you'd think they'd double down on discouraging drinking stuff like this, it feels like they're unsure if it's a bad idea or not.'

While Joseph was musing about the flawed logic of this world's scientists, Cinder peeked at the screen, "Ooh, that sounds interesting, I'll take some of that!"

Cinder tapped the purchase button, and Porygon2 came speeding out of the storage room and placed the dye on the counter.

Joseph backed out of the purchase screen and continued browsing the cosmetic catalog, he settled on buying a Pixel Blue Water Tera Scarf, "I like the little Squirtle on the design." He said as Porygon2 once again popped out of the storage room with the item, "Alright, that'll be 9,800 Poké."

"Deal!" Joseph chirped as if that exorbitant price was pocket change.

"E-error! The willingness to pay such a high amount is too high! Are you sure you didn't misspeak?"

"I'm sure, these things are worth it!" Joseph reiterated with a bright smile.

"O-ok then…"

Joseph pulled out the Poké, causing Porygon's eyes to bulge out of his head, "W-wow, you weren't kidding either, I uh, applaud your money-making skills."

Joseph chuckled as he placed his Lava Charm into his bag and tied his new scarf around his neck, "Thanks."

The group began walking away as Porygon's eyes displayed a waving animation, "Cya l8er!"

As the group approached the door, Vulcan and Fiona caught up to them, "Hey Cinder! Did you guys get your snacks alright?"

"Yup! And Joseph bought a new scarf!" Cinder replied as she held up part of Joseph's scarf.

"Looks nice." Vulcan complimented as he nodded his head, "Well I got this!"

Vulcan pulled out an orange eyepatch and put it over his greyed-out eye, "Now you guys don't got to see my messed up eye."

"I was just asking Joseph if he thought you could pull that off! And it looks like you can!"

"O-oh, t-thanks sis."

Cinder hugged Vulcan, "No problem!"

Vulcan broke away from the hug, backed up and pointed at his head flame spots, "Oh, and I also did this!"

His flames flared to life, they were stained black from the dye, "Woah! That looks super cool! Hopefully, mine turns out that well too!"

"You bought some too!?"

"Yup, Porygon was selling some special dye!"

Fiona flickered her light rings before walking up to Cinder, "That sounds interesting, could you point me in Porygon's direction?"

Vulcan was a bit surprised by Fiona's sudden lack of knowledge, "Hold on, so you knew where all those other places were but not Porygon's?"

"Yup, I'm not much of an explorer so I've never been to Porygon's shop before…"

"Well it's just over there, you can't miss it."

Fiona picked up her basket and began walking off, "Thanks Vulcan, and uh, I'll see you later."

"See ya later!"

Vulcan turned back to the group to see Cinder smiling, "So who's that?"

"Oh, her name's Fiona, she's just some friendly stranger I met, I guess we're friends now."

Midnight flickered her flame, "What was with the basket?"

"She's carrying around eggs."

"Oh, so she's a mom?"

"She's gonna be, she was buying stuff for her kids."

"Oh, well that's cute!"

"Yeah, I find it super cute that she's trying to color code her little 'Vees' as she calls them."

"Ohmygosh, my heart is melting!"

Vulcan chuckled, "Yeah, mine too…" He said as he eyed the door, "So uh, are we done here?"

"Yup! Absolutely!" Joseph interjected, "I wanna play some games! We've been out for a while!"

Everyone stared at Joseph for a moment, "Uh- S-sorry, that was a little rude-"

"I agree! Let's get going!" Cinder chirped.

Joseph wiped his brow, "Though you guys were mad at me for a moment, alright, let's get going then!"

The team walked out the door, but as they walked, Yumi felt something on her tail, 'Did someone stick something to the tip of my tail?'

She tried looking at her tail, but she didn't see anything, so she just shook her head and kept walking, 'Must be my imagination.'

February 6th, 9:36 am

Team Echoes' Base

Coast Continent

After returning home, Joseph and the gang were greeted by Rory, who was home for some reason, "Morning guys!"

"Rory!? What are you doing here!?" Joseph blurted.

"Oh, uh, apparently we get snow days off too, Sammy, Slippy, and I were out playing in the snow earlier."

"Oh, uh, that's cool, Cinder and I were gonna play some games on these laptops that the IDPK gave me, we just got back from grabbing some snacks."

Rory's brow furrowed, "What's a laptop?"

"Oh, it's like a portable computer, they can do a bunch of things, we're just gonna use them for games so I can recover faster, I mean, there's no better way to recover than playing games all day am I right?"

"I think resting would be a bit better-" Cinder said before getting cut off by Joseph throwing his paws over her mouth.

"Lies! Propaganda! False information!"

Rory rolled her eyes, "She has a point, y'know."

"Well, normally yeah, but sleeping falls a little lower on the comfort tier list for me."

"Have you been practicing spells with Delphox or something? You seem to be speaking in runes."

Joseph sighed, "Just… I'll get some rest later, I just wanna play some games…"

"Alright then, just, please make sure to leave room in your schedule for some rest, alright?"

"Alright!"

Rory plopped herself down on the couch in the lounge and sighed, "I gotta warm back up before I get back out there."

"Why don't you come chill out with us?" Cinder asked.

"Because that heater thingie works best out here."

"Who needs a heater when we have fire!?" Cinder said as she flared up her flame quills.

"That's a fair point."

Rory got back onto her feet and followed the gang into the room, once in the room, Joseph grabbed the laptops from underneath his pillow and placed them back to back on the floor, once they were in place he opened them up and booted them up. Cinder took a seat by one of the laptops and was immediately overwhelmed by the number of buttons on the keyboard, "U-uh, which one do I press to start the game?"

Joseph sighed and rearranged the laptops so that Cinder could see his keyboard, "You press the big one that says 'enter', and assuming there's no password, you use the trackpad to select a game." He explained, "The trackpad is the thing under the keyboard, the left button selects things, and the right one is like an options button."

"A-ah, I see."

Cinder pressed enter and made it to the desktop and saw about a million icons, from the look of things this laptop had way more storage than any piece of tech Joseph had access to at home.

Yumi took a peek at Cinder's screen and noticed something, "Why's there a folder for I.D.P.K. files?"

"We'll take a look at those later." Joseph told her, "For now we're just going to chill and play games."

"So, like these icons are games?" Cinder questioned, she was still processing the millions of icons, buttons, and new concepts being shot at her like a machine gun.

"Most of them are, there are also a few folders." Joseph clarified, "So uh, just look through the icons and tell me which one looks the most interesting."

"Ok!" Cinder smiled, "I can do that!"

As Cinder began scanning the icons, Yumi noticed something strange, "Does anyone else hear strange beeping?"

Rory noticed a little blue light flickering on Yumi's tail and tried to say something about it, but before she could even open her mouth the light flew at one of the computer screens and stuck to it, from there an angry-looking Porygon appeared on the screen.

"Uh, that's not supposed to happen." Joseph said.

"Yumi, what was that little light thing?" Rory asked suspiciously.

"I don't know! Why are you asking me!?" Yumi exclaimed as she began to panic.

Cinder was already a little overwhelmed by the laptop, so she was even more unsettled by the sudden inexplicable Porygon, "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

Vulcan shivered, "Me too! You sure this thing wasn't trapped?"

Joseph went to answer, but his head began to feel a bit funny, suddenly he slammed into the floor as he passed out from some sort of mysterious force.

The rest of the room began to drop like flies after that until everyone in the room was passed out on the floor…

February 6th, 9:43 am

Pallet Swap Plains

Porygon's Class Based RPG (Demo 1 - Title pending)

Joseph awoke in a strange grassy field that looked like it was ripped straight off the screen of a Game Boy, "Wh-where am I?"

After hearing how crispy and pixelated his voice had become, Joseph flinched, "What the heck is going on!?"

Joseph got to his feet and noticed a bronze-looking sword underneath where he rested, "Whose sword is this? And why was it under me?"

Joseph shook the millions of questions out of his head and picked the sword up, "I, uh, guess it's mine now."

Just then he heard a strange springy noise, he turned to see a round, blobby creature, it looked almost like a Goomy, as it hopped over to him its expression grew angry.

Joseph raised an eyebrow, "Uh, can I help you?"

A text bubble appeared above the creature's head accompanied by a cute little chatter sound effect that played as the text scrolled, "Yeah, you can do so by handing me all the pixilz in your wallet!"

"Oh, so it's a fight you want, alright then, come at me!"

Joseph drew the sword he had picked up, somehow holding it perfectly in his paws, as soon as he got into position he could see a sort of stats screen.

Joseph LVL: 19

HP: 47/47

MP: 10/10

'Ok, this went from weird to super weird super quick.' Joseph thought to himself, 'Am I in a video game!? Like for real this time!? Like this isn't an alternate reality, this is just straight up a video game!'

Joseph raised his sword and prepared to attack, it was then he saw another menu.

Attack!

– Slash

– Sword Throw

Joseph was a little confused so he just ran over and slashed the enemy, the menu closed as he began running, clearing things up a little bit, 'Ah, I see, so to choose my action command I have to think about what I'm about to do and start doing it, I see."

The creature spat a blob of sludge which missed Joseph, as it did so some text saying *miss* appeared above Joseph's head after that played out the menu appeared again.

– Attack!

– Skills

– Bag

– Tactics

Joseph thought about what would help him most in this situation opening the skills menu, he saw the option to inspect his foe and he decided to go with that one, suddenly a book fell out of his bag, 'Where'd that come from?' He thought.

He skimmed through the book until he saw an image that looked like his foe, "Ah, so it's a Goomy slime, it says here they have 10 HP and no defense, they attack by shooting gross goo at their opponent. That's good to know."

Joseph looked back at his foe and noticed a ball of slime flying at him, it struck him head-on, dealing 4 damage, "Oh that was nothing! You're going down!"

Joseph slashed the Goomy slime once more, causing it to melt into a puddle of goo with a cute little two-frame animation, a few minutes later Joseph saw the text "YOU WIN! You gained 1 exp and 35 Pixilz!"

Joseph wiped his brow and placed the sword on his back, the sword sat on his back as if it were sheathed which didn't make any sense but hey, in weird game land stuff doesn't have to make sense, or at least that's how Joseph saw it.

Once the fight was over the Goomy slime groaned, "Fine… Keep your money…"

The slime started scurrying away, leaving Joseph a little aimless, "So uh, now what?"

"YEEEK!"

Joseph turned his head to see Yumi with a hooded cloak and a bow on her back, "Well I guess that answers my question…"

Joseph ran through the field to get to Yumi when he noticed a strange-looking Pokémon seemingly threatening her, "Cough up all the dough, or I'll dice you like an onion!"

Yumi pulled her hood over her face and balled up as the Pokémon towered over her feeble physique.

Joseph ran up to the perpetrator and slashed him across the belly with the sword, "GAH, you little rat! I'll tear you in half with just my bare hands!"

Joseph held his sword over his shoulder, "I'd like to see you try!"

Yumi fixed her hood and looked up, "J-Joseph?"

"I'll explain after we're done tearing this guy to shreds."

BATTLE START

Joseph: LVL: 19 HP: 43/47 MP: 10/10

Yumi: LVL: 17 HP: 42/42 MP: 15/15

Joseph took a deep breath as he eyed his opponent, he decided to start by getting the lowdown on his opponent, he pulled the strange book out and flipped until he found a match, "Ah ha! That's a Macho Pignite, they've got 20 HP and medium defense, they focus on using their martial arts abilities to take out their foes so they have a hard time dealing with ghosts, we should use that to our advantage."

Yumi gave Joseph a confused look, "Where'd that come from?"

"I don't know, I just happened to have a book that has info on our enemies, I guess I'm the party member with the check command."

"The what?"

"I'll explain it later, just take your turn to attack him!"

"A-alright, I'll try!"

Yumi stood up and pulled a bow off her back, she then drew the string of her bow back, as she did so a shadowy arrow appeared, as she released the bowstring the arrow went flying toward the Macho Pignite, flying straight through him like a ghost and dealing 5 damage.

Pignite retaliated by trying to slap Yumi, only to have his hand phase right through her, "Did you not hear what I just read?" Joseph asked.

"Huh?" The Pignite replied.

"I just read a whole write-up about how you fight and the weaknesses you have, yet you still went for the dumbest move possible! Are you even thinking when you make a move!?"

"W-well uh-"

"H-he's got a point, that doesn't seem very smart." Yumi chimed in.

"Look! It doesn't matter! I'm still gonna kill you!"

"Wait a sec, does he even have a move that can hurt you?" Joseph asked Yumi.

"I don't think so? I don't know."

Joseph skimmed through the book a bit more until he read, "'This monster can't even hurt ghosts', huh, I guess you really had nothing to fear then, let's show this guy who's boss!"

"Y-yeah!"

Joseph slashed the Pignite as Yumi shot another arrow for a total of 9 damage. Pignite was starting to shiver as he realized his health was dropping pretty low, "O-ok! You win! I'll stop picking on little guys! I swear!"

"How do we know we can trust you?" Joseph questioned, ready to interrogate the Pignite.

"P-please! I swear on my life, I won't be a big meanie anymore!"

The RPG player in Joseph's brain was torn between two options: Mercy Spare, and All-Out Attack, so instead of choosing, he sort of combined the two options, "Ugh, fine, we'll let you go, but if we catch you being mean to anyone else we will beat you to a bloody pulp, do you understand?"

"Y-yes! I hear you loud and clear!"

"Now get out of my sight!"

YOU WIN!?

You gained 355 EXP and 20 Pixilz!

!

Joseph grew to LVL 20 and learned Electrified Slash!

Joseph took another deep breath as the Pignite scampered off with his tail between his legs, "When I said I wanted to play some games, I did not expect to get thrown straight into a video game!"

"W-we're inside a video game!? What does that even mean!?"

"It means stuff's about to get weird." Joseph said, "I mean, we already came across a weird version of a Pignite, so it's probably only a matter of time before we run into more strange stuff."

"B-but why do I have this bow? And why do you have that sword?"

"My guess is that this is some weird class-based RPG, I don't know how or why we're here, but we're here now, and now we've gotta get back home."

"And how do we do that?"

"I'm not sure, maybe we should find a town and ask around."

"Good idea."

The two began wondering aimlessly until they stumbled upon a dirt road in the endless sea of off-green grass, "What's with the colors here?" Yumi asked.

"I don't know, maybe it's just the game's art style."

"I'm a little lost."

Joseph sighed, "Never mind, let's just go find civilization."

The two followed the path for a bit before getting stopped by a rather barbaric-looking Cyndaquil, they had a spikey shoulder pad and a spiked mace on their back, "Halt monsters! You shall not wreck our fine town!"

Joseph recognized the voice of the Cyndaquil through all the compression, "Cinder, it's us, we're not gonna destroy the town."

Cinder was spooked, she didn't recognize her friends with all this world's madness, she drew her mace and flared up her flames before screaming, "Wh- WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME!?"

Yumi ducked behind Joseph, cowering in fear, meanwhile, Joseph braced for an attack, readying his sword for a counterattack.

Fortunately, however, there was no need for violence as a Bidoof in a top hat broke up the fight, "Cinder, show these travelers some respect, they were probably just looking for a place to rest!"

Cinder lowered her head, "I-I'm sorry mayor…"

"I forgive you, just try to be a little nicer to travelers going forward, alright?"

"Yes mayor Doofus…"

"Good, now be a doll and show these folks to the inn."

"Alright…"

Mayor Doofus walked off, leaving Cinder and the others sitting awkwardly on the middle path, "S-so, shall we get going?"

Cinder began guiding the group down the path and into town, once there she guided them into a building that had a picture of a bed above the door, "This is the inn, I hope you travelers have a nice stay."

Cinder began to walk off after escorting her friends to the inn when Yumi spoke up, "W-wait! Cinder! Don't go! It's us! Yumi and Joseph!"

"Wait, Joseph? Yumi? Is that really you?"

"Yeah! We're in a video game!" Joseph affirmed, "Don't you recognize us!?"

"N-no, I couldn't! You two look so different! What's with the colors here!?"

"I don't know!"

"W-well then how do we get back!? And why are we here for that matter!?"

"I have no clue, we're just gonna have to find our way back…"

Cinder shook her head and sighed, "I was afraid you were gonna say that…"

"We should probably focus on rounding our party back up, although that could be tricky considering the size of said party…"

"And we don't exactly know who all was in that room when the computer did its thing." Cinder added, "I think I remember Stumpy sitting in the corner sleeping while we were getting the computers set up, but for all we know, Midnight could've been popping in to check on us for a split second or something."

"Look, we'll bridge the gap when we get to it, for now, I need some rest."

"Hold on, we just got put into a video game, actively putting us in danger and you're concerned about catching some z's!?" Cinder blurted.

Yumi nodded in agreement, "She has a point, we don't have the time to sit around in La La Land, the world needs us!"

"Relax, this place operates on video game logic, so a quick nap should only take a couple of A presses."

Yumi looked at Joseph funny while Cinder shook her head, "Get serious dude! We need to get out of here ASAP!"

"Fine… But can we at least swing by a restaurant or something, I wanna recover the little bit of HP I lost."

Cinder sighed again, "Alright, but let's make it quick, as much as I love the games I've played, I wouldn't wanna be trapped in one forever."

"Alright then, lead the way, Mrs protector of the village."

Cinder rolled her eyes under her eyelids, which for once was actually telegraphed to her teammates via a little emoticon that popped up above her head, "Look, I have no idea why I'm one of this village's guards but I would appreciate it if you didn't make fun of me over it."

"Noted."

Cinder led the party toward the nearest restaurant, 8-bit Bites, as they approached the door they heard some rather strange commotion, "Is that all you can say!?"

As the door opened, Joseph caught a glimpse of a rather peeved-looking Lucario yelling at a Ledian wearing a fedora, "I'm still waiting on my food, I hope it's as tasty as they say!"

"You've been saying that for like 30 minutes straight! It's starting to creep me out!"

"I'm still waiting on my food, I hope it's as tasty as they say!"

Joseph turned to the other group members and sighed, "Looks like we found Rory, let's just hope she recognizes us."

"Couldn't she tell it's us by our auras?" Cinder questioned.

"She's not a big fan of using aura, remember?"

"Oh yeah, I'm not exactly sure why she'd do that to herself but that's her choice I guess."

The trio walked up to Rory and attempted to get her attention, "Rory, it's us, we need to get out here ASAP!" Joseph called out.

Rory spun her head around in confusion, "W-who said that?"

Joseph rolled his eyes as he walked over to Rory and tapped her shoulder with a paw, "Come on, I'll explain later, we gotta go!"

"Joseph!? What are you wearing!?"

Joseph looked down at his torso, noticing a big metal chest plate on his chest, "Was that always there?"

Yumi nodded, "Yep, I don't know how you didn't notice it."

Joseph looked back at Rory, "Look, it doesn't matter, we just gotta get going! Besides, your clothes are equally outlandish!"

"I'm wearing clothes?" Rory replied as she looked at herself.

She noticed leather gloves on both of her paws and a belt with a knife strapped to it around her waist, she even had a little domino mask on, making her look more like a thief or bandit of some kind, Joseph made sure to bring this to her attention, "Yeah, and based on your outfit, I'd stay out of banks for a while."

"Is that how goofy I look?"

"Well, I wouldn't use the word goofy personally, maybe like… Malicious? Threatening? Scary? Any of those words, really."

"I could say the same about Cinder and Yumi, they both just have this… *sigh* Aura to them…"

Cinder poked the spikes on her little shoulder pad, confirming that they were indeed pretty sharp, "YOWCH! These spikes aren't just for show!"

Rory shook her head, "I take it back, Cinder's about as intimidating as a Cubchoo plushie."

"Hey! I didn't expect these things to be real!"

"Aren't you supposed to be the one with sharp flame quills on your back?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Then you should know that sharp, pointy-looking objects are indeed sharp and pointy."

"W-well this isn't the real world so I wasn't expecting these spikes to hurt!"

"It's a general rule of thumb in video games that you're not supposed to touch anything spikey, or you'll lose HP." Joseph clarified.

"I'm still a little confused about HP." Yumi said, "And also about MP."

"HP stands for health points, if they hit zero then you'll pass out, MP, on the other hand, could either stand for magic points or mana points but they both serve the same purpose, they're used for special moves, if they hit zero then you need to recover them to used more special moves."

"Ah, I see, that doesn't sound so bad, so how do we recover these points?"

"HP can be restored with food, whereas MP is usually restored with some other sort of item, sort of like how power points are restored with Max Elixirs, alternatively you can restore everything to full by resting at an inn."

"Oh, so that's why you wanted that nap." Cinder noted.

"Yeah, but then I realized that probably wasn't necessary since I only lost a little HP, so Ima just grab a snack."

Joseph walked over to the counter and started talking to the cashier, "Welcome to 8-bit Bites, here's our menu."

The menu appeared on a menu similar to the battle command menu, only this time displaying food items with prices and a brief description of what they did.

Ice Cream Sundae 5 Pixilz - Heals 10 HP and 10 MP

Slowpoke Tail Burger 10 Pixilz - Heals 50 HP

Full Restore Smoothie 50 Pixilz - Heals all HP and clears any status conditions

Full Heal Soda 10 Pixilz - Clears status conditions

Joseph used the little amount of Pixilz he had to buy a few Ice Cream Sundaes and a Slowpoke Tail Burger, which he shoved into his bag, when he went to regroup with his team the cashier stopped him, "Thanks for dining here with us, take a complimentary mint."

"Oh, uh, thanks."

Joseph was presented with a brief description of the Complimentary Mint on a little item pop-up that included an image of said mint.

Complimentary Mint - Freshens up your breath with invigorating mint flavor, when eaten you recover 5 HP.

Joseph immediately popped the mint into his mouth, restoring the little bit of HP he had lost in his fight earlier, he then made his way back over to his friends, "Alright, I stocked up on some stuff, let's get going I guess…"

The party walked out of the restaurant and kept exploring the town for a bit, there were a few townsfolk talking about various things like work, school, and other things you'd imagine random passersby to talk about, that was until something caught the party's attention, "I saw this big scary monster out in the Backlit Forest, it had big scary horns and black fur!"

"Sounds like they've got a Houndoom problem." Cinder said to her teammates.

Joseph groaned, "Yeah, and knowing how these games typically go, that's gonna be our Houndoom problem in a few minutes."

Rory raised an eyebrow, "Why's that?"

"Because the heroes always have to go on a wild goose chase to solve everybody's problems by taking out some big evil dude."

"That just sounds like real life to me." Cinder chuckled, "I've always been chasing fights to help others."

"W-well not everyone's life is like that." Yumi interjected nervously, "My life was quite peaceful before I met all of you."

"Same." Rory and Joseph chorused.

"Why are we friends then?" Cinder questioned.

"Oh, uh, I have no clue." Joseph answered, "I guess facing the end of the world with friends is more fun or something."

"Yeah." Rory agreed as she flourished the spikes on her arms, "Having you goofballs around makes things a little more bearable, plus you all did come and rescue me that one time."

"Hehe, true, I guess we were meant to be friends after all…"

The group sat silently for a moment as the severity of the situation kicked back in, "So uh, shall we go deal with that Houndoom?" Joseph suggested.

Rory rolled her eyes and sighed, "It's not like we have a choice…"

"Alright then… Let's go!"

February 6th, 10:17 am

Backlit Forest

Porygon's Class Based RPG (Demo 1 - Title pending)

After a short, uneventful walk, the party arrived in the Backlit Forest, the world's pallet changed from an off-green to a dark blue as the light was blocked by the leaves above, "Man, it's getting spooky all of a sudden." Rory remarked, "Are we sure this monster isn't supposed to live here?"

Joseph shook his head, "Even if it was, it's clearly causing a problem for the townsfolk, so we have to do something about it."

Rory sighed, "Let's just get this over with…"

The party kept walking through the forest until they saw a Houndoom in a red cloak, "H-hello? Can you folks tell me where I am?"

Rory immediately broke into a fighting stance, "DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH US! WE KNOW YOU'RE PLOTTING SOMETHING!"

"Huh!? W-what are you talking about!? I was just out exploring the woods when I ventured too far and got lost! I'm not plotting anything!"

"H-hold on! Let's not go throwing accusations around!" Yumi interjected, "Just because someone was scared of this Pokémon doesn't mean they have malicious intentions! Pokémon can just be inherently scary sometimes!"

"Finally someone gets it!" The Houndoom exclaimed, "I'm so tired of getting blamed for stuff just because I'm scary looking, I didn't choose to be this way!"

Everyone dropped their guard as the Houndoom cleared up the misunderstanding, "Phew, I thought we were gonna have to lay the smackdown on you." Rory sighed as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Nope, that won't be necessary, I'm just lost, I would appreciate it if someone escorted me back home."

Cinder pulled a map out of the satchel on her hip, "Well then, we'd be happy to escort you, where do you live?"

"I live in Cobalt Village, I'm not sure how far we are from it, but it can't be too far, right?"

Cinder traced a path from the group's current location to Cobalt Village, "Yep, that's a short walk from here."

"Alright then, let's get walking."

As Joseph walked he was a little confused about what had just gone down, 'Huh, that's weird, in any other RPG we would've met a minor villain just then but no, we just met a lost dog, I guess more RPGs are tying that subversion of expectations thing.'

The group walked for a bit before hearing rustling coming from a nearby bush, "Did you guys hear something?" Cinder asked.

"Must've been the wind." Rory shrugged.

Rory continued walking while everyone else stood still to listen for more rustling when suddenly, a massive shadowy figure jumped out of the bush, "Crud! Rory! We've got company!"

Rory pivoted and ran toward the unidentified creature, it proceeded to swipe at her chest, but it was only able to hit her spike, causing it to pull its paw back quickly, shaking the pain off as it did so, "Gah! How dare you have sharp spikes!"

"The end's dull! It's borderline impossible to hurt yourself on this thing!" Rory shot back as she held the spike on her chest.

The creature put its paw in her face, presenting a bloody injury that Rory's spike had inflicted, "Does that look dull to you!?"

"Well that's tough bud, next time think about the consequences of your actions before attacking a group of strangers."

Cinder slammed her fists together, "That little wound's nothing compared to what's about to happen next!"

The creature rolled its eyes under its dark cloak, it then threw the cloak off, revealing its true identity, the creature was a Nidorino with a huge spike on its head, "We'll see who gets the last laugh when you all get a lethal dosage of my venom!"

BATTLE START

Joseph: LVL: 20 HP: 49/49, MP: 11/11

Yumi: LVL: 17, HP: 42/42, MP: 15/15

Rory: LVL: 21, HP: 61/61, MP: 10/10

Cinder: LVL: 50, HP: 114/114, MP: 10/10

As soon as the battle started, the text "You struck first!" appeared as the opponent held his injured paw.

The whole video gamey battle system was lost on Rory, "W-what's going on?" She asked as Joseph and Yumi prepared to fight.

"It's a battle, just a video game-style one, just follow our lead." Joseph said as he selected a move.

Joseph decided to start the battle by gathering data on the opponent, he pulled out the strange book that appeared in his bag and started flipping, once he found the type of monster they were fighting he began reading aloud, "That's a Nidobandito, they typically hide in bushes to prey on unsuspecting Pokémon, they have about 25 HP and pretty weak defense, but what they lack in defense they gain in hazards, get too close to one of those spikes and you'll be in a world of hurt! Aside from that, they're just your run-of-the-mill poison enemy, just stay away from the points and you'll be good."

Rory didn't know where Joseph was getting this information, but she wasn't gonna waste time asking, "I'll take your word for it."

Now it was Yumi's turn, she pulled out a shadowy arrow and shot it at the Nidobandito, the shot hit it right in the shoulder, dealing 4 damage.

Then came Rory's turn, she was still a little unsure of how things worked here so she decided to ask, "So I just pick a move and attack right?"

"Yup, just don't pick one that'll get you hurt." Joseph replied.

"R-right." Rory gulped.

Rory selected Knife Throw as her attack, she drew the knife from her belt and chucked it clumsily at her foe, missing entirely but leaving the perfect hazard on his side of the field.

Finally, it was Cinder's turn, she drew the mace from its position on her back and bashed the Nidobandito on the flank, dealing 6 damage.

On his turn the Nidobandito charged at Joseph with its spike, Joseph went to dodge this attack but the attack was a fake out! The Nidobandito stepped on Joseph's bag's strings causing him to fall to the ground and dealing 2 damage, then it stole Joseph's book catching him off guard, "Hey! It didn't say anything about them being able to do that in the book!"

The Nidobandito chuckled, "Cry about it, nerd! It won't get this stupid thing back to you!" He taunted, "Now, let's see what this thing has to say about you."

The Nidobandito started ripping out any page that wasn't the one he wanted before finally finding one on Joseph, "Ah, here we go, Joseph the Shinx Knight, the supposed hero of this story, how cliché that the hero would be a knight no matter, he has a measly 49 HP and very little defense due to a recent soul injury, what a sob story."

Once he was done reading through the book and taunting Joseph, the Nidobanditio tossed the book into the pile of ripped pages he had created, ending his turn.

Joseph retaliated by hitting him with a sweep from his sword, knocking him off his feet and dealing 5 damage. As the Nidobandito got back up he stepped on the knife Rory had thrown, dealing 2 more damage, "Gah, stupid sharp objects! I'll make you pay for that!"

The Nidobandito broke the turn order to start rummaging through the mountain of pages until he found more info on his opponents, "Ah, says here that little Yumi is skittish, well then, let's put that to the test.

As the Nidobandito approached Yumi she began to shiver uncontrollably, she tried to avoid the oncoming attack only to be faked out, as the Nidobandito stabbed its horn into Yumi's flank poison coursed through her body, the attack did a total of 12 damage and left Yumi struggling to get back to her feet.

While Yumi was unable to take her turn, Rory tried throwing another knife but this time the only thing she hit was a tree in the distance, "Uh, y-yeah, screw you tree, that'll show 'em!"

The Nidobandito laughed hysterically, "You call that an attack? Oh no, deforestation, my one weakness! Bleh."

"Tch, whatever." Rory scoffed, "We'll see who gets the last laugh."

The Nidobandito didn't respond, at this point he was too busy searching through the discarded pages for more information, "This one looks important." He said as he pulled up Cinder's page, "Cinder the Cyndaquil Barbarian, somehow despite her rough appearance she became the top guard of Pixil Village, her level is really high for this area, probably because she's got a ton more experience than her band of newbies, the best course of action when dealing with her is to take out her team first and leave her for last, oh and don't call her a rat, she will murder you."

After reading Cinder's page, he looked up to see her flaring up her quills and swinging her mace around ferociously, "NEXT TIME READ IT IN YOUR HEAD IDIOT!"

"Huh!?"

"I'M NOT A RAT!"

Cinder's teammates looked concerned as she prepared to explode in her opponent's face, "Uh, Cinder? You good?" Rory asked.

She responded by rushing down her opponent and striking him over and over and over with her mace, which she lit ablaze while Rory was checking up on her, she spent half of her HP and all of her MP on this attack but it seemed to do the trick as the Nidobandito collapsed after the second or third bash, once she was done lashing out she took a deep breath and holstered her weapon, "Phew… Sorry about that guys, I guess that book is pretty accurate, I really don't like being called a rat, you understand right?"

Rory smiled and put a thumb up, "Yeah, I feel ya, I never liked getting bullied."

"Nobody does." Joseph added.

"That's true…"

Just as things calmed down the victory fanfare played once again.

YOU WIN!

You gained 68 EXP and 40 Pixilz!

Yumi's poison faded away!

Joseph handed Yumi and Cinder some of the ice cream he bought earlier, "Here, it won't top you off but it'll heal you up a bit."

"Ooh! Ice cream!" Cinder chirped as she quickly scooped up the sundae and started scarfing it down.

Yumi eyed the sundae cautiously at first before shrugging and taking it, "Thanks, Joseph."

"No problem."

Once he was done distributing ice cream, he walked over to the scrap pile that used to be his bestiary, "Dang, he really tore this thing apart didn't he?"

Rory took a peak at the damage herself, "DANG, that thing's a lost cause!"

"I hope the nearest library has another one because this thing's a real paperweight."

Yumi almost choked on her ice cream as she began to laugh, "Not the puns! My one weakness!"

Rory on the other hand was not amused, "I shoulda clobbered you on that beach that day." She groaned.

Joseph sighed, "I'm sorry I had to."

"Did you really though?"

Before Joseph could start up more childish banter, the book's pages started floating and the book itself opened on its own. The pages began placing themselves back into the book one by one until the book had fully repaired itself, and then the book shut and flew back to Joseph, "Huh, I guess I did actually have to."

Rory rolled her eyes, "I still hate you though."

"Fair enough…"

The Houndoom from earlier cleared his throat, "Ehem! Now that the clown's been dealt with, can we get going?"

Cinder spoke up before anyone else could get in a word, "Of course, let's get going!"

February 6th, 10:42 am

Cobalt Village

Porygon's Class Based RPG (Demo 1 - Title pending)

The party finished their escort job as they arrived in Cobalt Village. As they entered the village, the color pallet of their surroundings changed to a deep blue, which complimented the simple houses and buildings quite nicely, "This place is kinda cute." Rory said, "Reminds me of a bluer version of Purity Heights."

"Wasn't that place on the side of a cliff?" Cinder asked.

"Oh, yeah, I guess there's that too, this place isn't as dangerous."

Houndoom raised his eyebrow, "I didn't see this 'Purity Heights' place on the map."

Rory and Cinder looked at one another before looking back at Houndoom and saying, "Don't worry about it."

"O-ok? Well, I'm gonna go home now, thanks for escorting me!"

Houndoom walked off, never to be seen again, but as they left stomping could be heard approaching rapidly, "EEEK!"

Joseph recognized the distinct roar of his companion and called out to him, "Stumpy?"

Sure enough, Stumpy arrived, sporting a goofy-looking wizard hat that was definitely a little too big for his tiny little head. "Guys! What happened? I was sleeping and when I woke up I was here!"

Joseph shrugged, "We're still not entirely sure what happened either, we were just trying to play some games when we got sucked into one."

Yumi looked down at the ground as guilt weighed heavily on her shoulders, "I think I may have caused this." She muttered.

"Wait what!?"

"Porygon kept giving me death stares when we went by his shop, and when we were leaving today, I could've sworn there was something stuck to my tail."

Rory saw where this was going and decided to chime in, "So that's what that little blue light was, Porygon must've planted a device on your tail, but why would he do that?"

"Of course!" Joseph blurted out, "That day that Porygon took off! He must've been hopping through dimensions to restock!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Cinder asked.

"Remember how Yumi was attacked by a Porygon?"

"Yea- OH! Oh dear!"

"Yup, the Porygon that attacked her must've been the one running the shop!"

Tears welled up in Yumi's eyes, "Yup, and now he knows that I'm a human…" She wept, "Now we're stuck here…"

Joseph attempted to place a paw on Yumi's shoulder before quickly realizing that wasn't gonna work because she's a ghost, "Maybe that's not the case."

"Joseph… I appreciate your optimism but it's no use…"

"No, seriously! Think about it for a moment! Video games are all about bringing out the good in people! Well… Mostly anyway… Maybe Porygon's using this as a test!"

Yumi looked up at Joseph, tears streaming down from her face, "You think if I prove to him that I'm not a bad person, he'll let us go back?"

"As corny as it sounds, absolutely."

Yumi wiped the tears from her face and hugged Joseph, "T-then let's show him that humanity isn't entirely evil!"

As much as Rory wanted to make a joke about Yumi and Joseph being lovebirds, she held her tongue, 'I can't bring myself to kill the moment…'

It turns out though that wouldn't be necessary as the game world did it for her.

Achievement unlocked! Dating Sim Pro!

"Wow, we really can't catch a break, can we?" Joseph groaned.

Yumi looked back at the ground as she was once again filled with guilt, 'I wish it weren't slightly accurate…'

"So like… What now? We need to prove to Porygon that Yumi's not evil, but how do we do that?"

Stumpy sat down and started tapping the ground with his tail, "Let me think… I vaguely remember hearing a pair of weirdos talking about how they were going to take over the village."

"'Dat's right you overgrown turkey! We're gonna take everyone in this village hostage and there's nothin' you can do about it!"

Stumpy stood back up and turned around to see a Croconaw and a Charmeleon standing behind him, "Oi, if 'ya know what's good for ya, you'll stay out of our 'biz, capiche?"

"Oh, uh, alright, we'll stay out of your way." Stumpy replied shakily.

The Croconaw laughed, "Good, now get out of our sight, 'ya hear?"

Stumpy began to waddle off when he turned around and smacked the Croconaw with his tail, getting a first strike!

BATTLE START

Joseph: LVL: 20 HP: 49/49, MP: 11/11

Yumi: LVL: 17, HP: 40/42, MP: 15/15

Rory: LVL: 21, HP: 61/61, MP: 10/10

Cinder: LVL: 50, HP: 67/114, MP: 10/10

Stumpy LVL: 25, HP: 86/86, MP: 50/50

As the battle began, Croconaw was sent flying into a tree, dealing about 5 damage, as he struggled to get back to his feet everyone else drew their weapons, "Where'd I get this stick from?" Stumpy questioned.

Joseph inspected the stick from a distance before concluding, "It's a wand, you're a wizard here."

"Huh? But I don't know any spells!"

"Uh, maybe check your bag for a spell book?"

Stumpy began frantically searching his bag for a spell book while everyone else took their turns, Joseph started by identifying the opponents, "That's Crocko and his partner, Charcoal. They both have about 60 HP each making them a force to be reckoned with, on top of that they tend to get a little angry if you damage them with direct attacks, I guess that's their idea of defense, they have 0 actual defense so use that to your advantage!"

Once Joseph was done nerding out, Rory chucked a pair of knives at her opponents, they hit their mark and dealt about 2 damage each, and then Cinder jumped in with a flaming mace strike on Croco, "HEY! What did the nerd just get done saying!? DON'T HIT ME! It makes me FURIOUS!"

Croco's face turned red as a little angry icon showed up over his head along with a text box describing the anger effect; "Angry! Attacks deal more damage for a few turns!"

Yumi shivered and pulled her hood over her face, "That doesn't sound good."

Stumpy gave Yumi a worried look, "I agree, things could get a little dicey here!"

Sweat rolled down Joseph's forehead as he began to worry a bit, "Alright, it's not the biggest deal, just be careful and try to avoid any oncoming attacks!"

"Right!" The two returned.

Yumi shot an arrow at Charcoal, striking him on the shoulder, "Ouch! That hurts y'know!"

Rory laughed to herself before looking up and giving a snarky remark, "Yeah, it's an attack! It's supposed to hurt!"

"I'll make you eat those words!"

But before he could follow through on his threats, Stumpy waved his poor excuse for a wand around and shouted; "KERFIZZLE!"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently, "What's happening!?" Yumi squeaked.

Joseph's little bit of sweat turned into a torrential downpour as he began to shiver, "Stumpy!? What spell did you just cast!?"

But before Stumpy could make a peep, the spell's effects flared to life, beams of light enveloped everyone on the battlefield, giving them each a random effect, "AH! I CAN'T SEE!" Cinder exclaimed as she rubbed her eyes frantically.

Joseph was about to voice his concerns when he noticed that he was towering over everyone, "Why is everything so small?"

"Says you!" Rory snapped back, "You're a freakin' giant! Meanwhile, I'm all small!"

Everyone was starting to freak out about the effects of the spell, well except Charcoal, who was peacefully snoring amid the pure panic.

So who does that leave? Oh yeah, Croco was lucky, the spell just extended the angry effect's duration. As for the remaining members of Team Echoes, Yumi became invisible, making it impossible to land a hit on her. Stumpy had a strange glow around him, making him immune to direct damage, "T-that could've been better…" He sighed as he looked at his teammates.

Rory was furious, "You think!?" She barked, "I'm shorter than a Caterpie now!"

Stumpy shuddered, "I-I'm s-sorry! I had no idea that would happen!"

"It's fine, the effects will clear at the end of the fight!" Joseph roared, his bigger size making his voice super loud.

"Good! 'Cuz my tiny eardrums can't take any more of your giant vocal cords!" Rory shouted as she covered her ears.

Joseph was going to apologize but he didn't in the interest of keeping Rory from going deaf, instead, he opted to test out his new move, he lifted his sword into the air, channeling electricity throughout the blade, then a massive bolt of lightning struck the blade like a lightning rod, as electricity spewed from the copper sword erratically Joseph swung it at Croco, shocking him relentlessly before another bolt of lightning came down and struck him too. This attack was absolutely devastating, so devastating in fact that it left scorch marks on the ground beneath Croco, oh, and speaking of Croco he took 12 damage from that attack.

Rory was shocked, metaphorically, not literally, she didn't expect to see Joseph dish out an attack with that much force behind it, "Keep doing that and we'll wipe these clowns out!"

Joseph looked back at Rory and gave her a thumbs-up, "That's the plan." He whispered loudly.

Cinder decided to sit out until she could actually see, so Yumi was up next, she decided to try something different this turn, "I wonder if…" She uttered as she plotted her move.

She took a moment to think about whether her idea was good or not before just shrugging and going through with it, what was this plan? Well, it involved tossing one arrow up into the air and firing another one at it before it landed. She tossed an arrow and drew her bow back, once she had a clean shot she let loose, hitting the airborne arrow directly on the tip, sending it flying at Charcoal, while the other arrow flew at Croco, both arrows hit their targets straight in the back of their heads for a double critical hit! Dealing abou- y'know what, never mind, that's getting a bit old.

Next was Stumpy's move, which was… Interesting to say the least, "I cast Mortem!" He shouted as dark purple energy erupted from his stick wand. The energy ended up hitting Charcoal, causing his eyes to shoot wide open as a 999 damage indicator popped up, taking him out of the fight instantly.

"DANG!" Rory blurted, "Why couldn't you have used that one first?"

Stumpy answered by collapsing to the ground, fast asleep.

"Oh… Y'know what, forget I asked."

Joseph was a little worried about Stumpy collapsing rather unceremoniously, so he decided to check on him, "Hey, bud? Are you alright?"

"*SNORE*"

Rory was blown off her feet by the force of Stumpy's snoring, "Ok, now I'm starting to feel like he's bullying me."

Joseph shook his head, "He wouldn't do that, heck, I don't think he'd hurt anyone unless it were to protect one of us."

Cinder decided to put in her own two cents, seeing as she couldn't see and had nothing better to do, "Yeah, he's too sweet, although he should probably start looking before he leaps y'know?"

"Maybe? I mean, I think he planned out his moves but maybe he just didn't think of the consequences."

Croco was starting to get impatient, like super impatient, like more impatient than Joseph could ever dream of impatient, "Could you dorks just hurry up and run into my fist!? I DON'T GOT ALL DAY!"

Joseph and Cinder looked Croco dead in the eyes - or at least Cinder tried, but again she couldn't really see him so that complicated things - and said, "Shut up."

Croco rolled his eyes and decided to just take his turn while they were talking, he attacked Rory with a quick swipe from his claws knocking her to her knees, "U-ugh… Guys, I'm kinda circling the drain here, could you save your conversation for later?"

"Oh crud! S-sorry! I'll make quick work of this fool!" Joseph exclaimed as he brought his attention back toward the fight at hand.

Joseph opted to use a normal sword swipe this time, he thought that his Electrified Slash would be a little extra, so he decided not to use it, this proved to be reasonable as his attack still did fairly respectable damage, Yumi followed up with another basic arrow attack and Rory threw a knife the size of a thimble which ended up giving Croco a paper-thin cut on one of his arms, "ACK! You just gave me a paper cut!"

"Yeah! How 'bout that!" Rory exulted as she pumped her tiny fist.

"You have no idea how much this hurts!"

"Eh, it's more like I don't really care."

Croco was starting to get sick of getting roasted by someone shorter than the average bug type, "JUST SHUT YOUR TRAP AND DIE ALREADY!"

The Croconaw approached rapidly, ready to pick Rory apart limb by limb, he swiped at her with his claws so quickly that she didn't get an opportunity to avoid any of it, when he was done with Rory she fell to the ground unconscious leaving her teammates in shock, "R-Rory!" Yumi gasped.

Joseph began to sweat again, "Shoot! We don't have our Reviver Seeds, do we?"

Cinder shook her head, "Nope, I checked before I went blind, none of our real items came with us."

Joseph sighed, "Guess Rory's out of the fight then…"

Cinder attempted to get revenge for her fallen teammate by hitting Croco with her mace but she ended up tripping and falling on him instead, this worked in her favor however as the spikes on her armor stabbed into Croco, "Gah! Watch where you're tripping!"

Cinder, still unable to see, pointed her head back toward her team, "Did I hit him?"

Joseph giggled a little under his breath, "More or less…"

"Phew, for a moment I thought I missed."

Suddenly the effects of Stumpy's spell wore off, allowing Cinder to see what had actually happened, "Oh… Well, it could've been worse…?"

"You can get off me now!" Croco snapped.

Cinder got back up and hit Croco with her mace for good measure before returning to the group. Finally, Joseph decided enough was enough and he was gonna wrap up the fight here, "Alright, Cinder, light my sword ablaze!"

Cinder was astonished, she wasn't really thinking about using team strategies, "Huh!?"

"You heard me! Light my sword on fire!"

"A-alright!"

Cinder spat out a stream of flames, enveloping Joseph's weapon, he then proceeded to add a bit of his electricity to it, going through the whole process to use another Electrified Slash, this time though, the attack didn't just stop at creating a massive bolt of lightning, no, Croco freaking exploded, leaving him sprawled out on the ground.

Once Joseph had confirmed that Croco was down for the count, he dusted off his paws and laughed as a toothy grin appeared on his face.

YOU WIN!

You earned 999 EXP and 90 Pixilz

!

Everyone gained a level!

Yumi learned Multishot!

Stumpy woke up!

Once the battle had ended, Joseph plopped himself onto the ground, "Phew… That was exhausting…"

But before he could quite get a moment of rest, Yumi put her hood over her face and started hiding behind Joseph, "W-w-when did this crowd get here?"

"Wooooo!" The crowd roared, "You really showed them!"

Rory stumbled back to her feet, holding her left arm in pain, "I… Have no clue… All I know is that every bone in my body hurts…"

An Audino came out of the crowd and handed Rory a tiny little bandage, "Here, this should patch you up nicely."

Rory was gonna remark about how one teensy little bandage wouldn't help a single bit but then she remembered that ice cream was able to make her friends feel better, so she kept her mouth shut and slapped the bandage on her arm. In an instant, all of her pain disappeared as her injuries faded, "Ok, I'm officially done trying to make any sense of this place, let's just go home."

Cinder plopped down onto her belly and sighed, "You said it… And here I thought today would be relaxing…"

Joseph got back to his feet and looked at his friends with a frown on his face, "Well, we're gonna have to hold out until we can find a way home…"

His teammates collectively groaned as they remembered the predicament they were in. However, when everyone got back to their feet a giant 'Game Saving' notice popped up in the sky, "Uh, what does 'game saving' mean?" Rory asked as her brow crinkled.

"It's saving so we can come back to this point later." Joseph responded as he felt a sort of second wind come over him, "Does this mean we're allowed to leave now!?"

Suddenly, the group heard a familiar pixilated voice, "Yes, [Team Echoes] is free to leave, you have passed the test."

Yumi scratched her head, "Test? What test?"

"I caught you red-handed, human, but even so I found it slightly cruel to end you, so I gave you a test, a test in heroism if you will, and you all passed."

"Oh, well, t-thanks?"

Porygon smiled, "You're welcome, and uh, sorry about dragging you here, I wish you the best of luck making it back to Hisui!"

Porygon winked at Yumi before blipping out of the program, leaving Team Echoes simultaneously relieved and confused, "Well, at least we can confirm why we're here, but how do we get back?" Cinder asked as she placed a nubby little arm on her chin.

But before anyone could start theory-crafting ways to make it back, a pop-up appeared.

Thank you for playing Demo 1!

Look forward to the full release comin' soon!

This window will now close.

Joseph didn't like the sound of the window closing with them presumably inside of it, buuut it was not like he could do much about it, so he just braced for whatever was about to happen. So Joseph closed his eyes and waited for whatever awaited him.

February 6th, 11:45 am

Team Echoes' Base - Joseph's room

Coast Continent

Joseph opened his eyes and found himself back in his room along with all of his friends, including Vulcan, who had been M.I.A. the whole time, "Oh, hey guys, you look exhausted." Vulcan noted.

Cinder plopped down onto one of the extra beds from the day prior, "Oh man, are we… You wouldn't believe what we just went through."

"Yeah, we just had to prove to Porygon that Yumi isn't evil by beta-testing his game." Joseph said with a yawn, "I'm completely spent…"

Rory rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "You guys are being a little dramatic, I'm still super pumped!"

Yumi cautiously reminded Rory about what happened in the fight against the lizards, "U-um, didn't you have to get patched up after that last fight?"

Rory's face went red as she quickly averted her gaze, "Th-that's beside the point."

Vulcan just shrugged, "Well uh, I was having the time of my life, I was just running a little restaurant in a small town somewhere, it was pretty peaceful."

Hearing that Vulcan was able to enjoy his time in the game world doing what he loves made Cinder smile, "Well that's nice, I'm just a little upset that I couldn't really catch a break today…"

Joseph felt the same way, he was literally taking a break to recover when he was forced into the hero role once again, which is kinda ironic since Yumi was kinda the one being tested yet Joseph was the one who did most of the heavy lifting.

Regardless, Joseph was a little upset, that was until he checked the time, "Wait, it's still pretty early, maybe we can chill out a bit after all."

Cinder checked her watch and came to the same realization that Joseph did, "Oh yeah, it's still like just before noon! Time to play some games!"

Joseph yawned again as he jumped up onto his bed, "Not for me… I'm pooped, I'm going to take a nap."

"O-oh, alright then, have a nice nap!"

Everyone started to exit the room, well except for Stumpy - who still somehow had his wizard hat on - he picked Joseph up and placed him onto his back, "Sweet dreams bud."

"Sweet… Dreams…"

And with that, we finally come to the end of a chapter that was over a month in the making, yeah, I'm sorry about taking so long again… Hopefully that little July 4th special was enough to hold you all over until I finally found the motivation to finish the chapter. Yeah, it's safe to say I've been kinda focusing on other things recently, which is kinda good bc I've been pouring a bunch of my time into this fic since I started it, and for the most part, I haven't really been giving myself that much of a break from it. I don't want to overwork myself, but most of the time I'll finish a chapter and be like, "Alright, time to start writing the next one!" And then I proceed to start writing it.

TLDR: Before this chapter's production, I kinda wanted to just keep working on this thing and never stopped to think, "Hm, maybe I should take a longer break."

Anyway, onto reviews (Not doing boss bios bc I don't feel as if any of the game enemies posed enough of a threat to really be considered bosses)

To KirgizovVlad: Yeah in retrospect I'm not 100% sure why I decided to make that special non-canon, I guess it was just in case I said something which didn't check out with the continuity or something (Which I'm pretty sure I may have? Idk I vaguely remember Joseph saying something about not being able to drive but I'm not 100 on that), I'm glad you liked it though! I worked kinda hard to make sure I could squeeze it in there while I was still working on chapter 16 so I'm glad that effort paid off!

Enough yapping though, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and uh, like I said last time: expect a bit more filler.

Speaking of filler

February 6th, 11:57 am

Team Echoes' Base

Coast Continent

Cinder walked back to her room with one of the laptops Joseph received earlier that day when she noticed a note on her door

Bro! It's me Lanturn! I couldn't find you so I wrote this note! Somethin' just popped up! Get over here asap!

"Huh? What's so important that Lanturn would go out of his way to put a note on my door?"

We are in the midst of an alien invasion!

"EXCUSE ME!?"

I tried something different for the little ending thing so uh lemme know if you like it, anyway see you all next time!

(The Draco Plate chapter is still happening, just bear with me a bit, we'll get to it when we get back on track.)