PMD: A Strange Day at the Expedition Society

by theuone

Aether is not your average ampharos, experiences of his past granting him the ability to travel the cosmos, but now, years later, he's returning to his homeworld. While on the path of a larger journey, his adventure leads him to stop at the world-renowned Expedition Society, where he hopes to get a question answered, and ... wait! What's all this about a missing ampharos?

(This is my second attempt at a PMD fanfiction, or first if you haven't read Flickering Forms, which will get referenced here. This will actually use my more "standard" writing style and features my starring ampharos, Aether. He's a special boy of my past when I was initially into Pokémon and has had new life breathed into with my return to the series. He's gone on an interstellar journey in my Past's imagination, but is now returning to a changed world. He's already gone on some new adventures and made new friends, but this is just a short story for an encounter of a humorous kind as he finds some similarities between himself and another popular ampharos.)

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A Strange Day in the Expedition Society:

It was a fine morning in Lively Town, with a warm sun and a soothing breeze flowing over the city, one could even call it picturesque. And that's exactly what Aether called it as he walked through the streets; the ampharos was traveling the world with some friends of his, although they had decided to stay away from town for a variety of reasons. He remembered the initial goal of the mysterious soundwaves that had shown up in some of cities across the world, though only to the advanced technology that Aether's "crew" had become acquainted with, and the mystery itself was already mostly solved, owing itself to some strange cosmic crystals. Speaking of technology and crystals, he patted the leather satchel hanging to his left ... if he came across any trouble, he had the tools to contact his friends that were camping a distance away.

Now only one location remained to be searched, Lively Town and its Expedition Society in particular. Aether didn't know what to expect as he casually approached the building; the only rumors and stories he knew was that they were a group that did intercontinental explorations and had taken a pretty big role in stopping some catastrophe some years prior. All in all, if there was anything more he could discover, this group would be the place where he could learn it. For some strange reason, as he was walking, he was somehow simultaneously getting attention, yet being disregarded, as if he was an important but normal sight around town. It was a curious phenomenon.

Once he reached the Society's door, he raised a flipper and knocked on it, "Hello! Is anyone home?" Several strange seconds of silence followed; perhaps they were all already on some journey? No, that didn't make much sense, as Aether had heard that they also performed the same actions as a Rescue Team, so surely they'd have someone or something available that could accept any requests or missions. Before he could turn around and ask around town if the Society was busy, he found himself getting nearly trampled by the residents of said group; an archen, buizel, bunnelby, swirlix, dedenne, and mawile.

"Where have you been!? We've had so many missions these past few days."

"I hope you're ready to finish Your paperwork."

"Did you forget the team exercises we had planned?"

"You didn't uncover some new disaster, did you?"

"What if something happened to you alone?"

"Did you at least bring us some new food to eat?"

The barrage of words was almost to much for Aether; did they think they knew him? Perhaps there was another ampharos around? It was almost a Confusion attack as he struggled to get a word in, "Guys, please, I'm not ..."

"Not what? Sorry for vanishing for a few days without word of warning, or not sorry for leaving your gadget behind? If something serious happened to you for once, then what would we do without you?" It was the Dedenne, clearly concerned for "His" well-being.

Aether shook his head, "Please wait a second, I don't know you guys, I ..."

"Amnesia!?"

"No! I'm not your boss, I'm a different ampharos, you've got the wrong person." Aether had to insist quickly before the hysteria and confusion could increase.

This finally brought the group to silence as they finally processed the fact that another ampharos could have visited the Society. The silence was broken by a male treecko and a female riolu walking up from behind them, "We tried to tell you that, he has a different aura from that of the Chief."

Aether breathed a sigh of relief as the duo came to his rescue, "What they said, I'm not this Chief of yours, I'm just a stranger."

It was the Mawile of the six that broke the silence, swiftly apologizing profusely, "I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding Sir, we should've checked with you before rushing to conclusions. I hope this hasn't given you any negative impressions of us."

"In our defense, everything about you matches the Chief to a tee, including your voice." The Bunnelby nodded in apology before adding that statement.

Aether found himself chuckling awkwardly, "It's fine, no harm done. My name is Aether, just a wandering traveler from afar. Might I ask who you all are? ... There's not many of your species' from where I'm from."

The eight members of the Expedition Society thusly introduced themselves, all of them only using their species-name except for the Treecko and Riolu, whom did give their personal names. Here's where Aether noticed something weird though; his ears perked up as the duo gave their names, but it was like his brain refused to actually register them. It was an unusual feeling, as though reality itself was censoring their names, or perhaps it couldn't even decide what those were. It actually reminded the ampharos of something, which took him a couple seconds to remember what ... ah ha! It was just like the Landowners of Paradise over on the Mist Continent; when he met that heroic duo, the same phenomenon had occurred, like their very identities were capable of changing at a moment's notice. This was something he'd have to look into more if it was more common than a single event.

Of course, this introspective line of thought had left Aether silent, leading to the Society members' curiosity, so he swiftly replied to cover up for his lapse of focus, "Ah yes, splendid names, nice to meet you all. Mind if I join you all inside so we can chat more?"

This behavior was noticed by Mawile, but just as Aether was keeping his thoughts to himself, so did she keep her own observations, "Of course, we'd be glad to help you out with whatever brings you here, and perhaps ... you might even be able to deal with a matter of our own."

"Sounds good to me, lead the way." Aether nodded and bowed, letting the Society members lead him inside. A tour swiftly followed, with the eight taking turns introducing the various rooms of the building like the living quarters. Of everything he was shown, only the world map they called the Pokémon Nexus piqued his interest; it was actually quite like the view from orbit ... an amazing accomplishment to be sure. He decided to ask who made it.

"Oh, we all did, thanks to our Connection Orbs scanning the environment wherever we go, though if you mean the structure of the Nexus itself, that would be the result of of only unawake member, Jirachi. He's not usually up at this time of the day." Mawile explained, showing him the disk-like device that was responsible for everything.

That perked Aether's ears up, for he faintly remembered rumors about Jirachi from his childhood, "Wait, you mean the Wishmaker is here? In this very building, helping you guys out? That's ... incredible." The things that he'd heard They were capable of ... the temptations were very much unignorable. It was a miracle that no one seemed to be taking advantage of Jirachi's power ... presumably of course, Aether had no way of knowing what they did earlier after all.

The Riolu laughed, "Yeah, imagine our surprise to learn that a Mythical Pokémon like Jirachi was living here, like imagine Mew working for your local guild."

Her Treecko companion let out a short cough, though Aether didn't pick up on the reason for that, "Yeah, word of warning though, best you leave Jirachi alone though, he tends to .. uh, make a mess .. if you try to wake him up. Stick around however and maybe you can have a chat later."

Dedenne giggled and nodded, "Yeah, it's safer for you ... and anyone else, if you wait for Jirachi to wake naturally. Rest assured he isn't on his Millennia-long sleep though, he just tends to spend the nights away studying the stars."

Aether noticed he had his maw agape and nodded, "Understood, I'd never have thought it were possible to find someone like Jirachi here, and to learn he's constructed your devices ... I guess he is responsible for its upkeep too. Truly incredible for you guys to be living with someone so famous." Aether had then decided that he'd have to stay awake long enough for this encounter; if there was even a chance that he could make his wish ... his Reunion, come true, then he needed to meet with the Wishmaker.

"Heh, you'd be surprised actually, we don't get many folks looking for Jirachi, the general public doesn't actually know he lives here." Bunnelby chuckled.

"Anywho," Mawile began urgently, "We've got some duties to get to today, so Aether, I'd like to give you a proposal."

Said ampharos tilted his head inquisitively, "Go on?"

Mawile nodded to the others to disperse, "Follow me to our office then, I'll explain there." A short walk followed as the duo entered the Chief's office, of which said room's contents were several wooden cabinets lined against the side walls with a rustic wooden desk sitting in the middle, and there was only a singular chair behind the desk, perfect for an ampharos to sit on without their tail getting stuck in any way. "Okay, so we're kinda facing the problem that Chief was NOT supposed to go anywhere this week, like at all, so when he up and vanished without a word or his equipment, well ... needless to say, things have gotten a bit hectic around here. Me and Dedenne have been going into overtime keeping up on his paperwork, and everyone else has been dealing with a barrage of missions that have come in lately. All these things he's supposed to be organizing, and more."

Aether nodded thoughtfully, "I see, mind if I ask what in particular is supposed to keep him from going anywhere?"

Mawile shook her head and sighed, "To put it simply, bureaucracy. I don't wish to say anything more than that. As for what I want to ask of you ... you really do sound like him, so I'd like for you to, uh, "play the role" of the Chief. We just need you to act like him for a couple days and handle some small matters."

Aether blinked in surprise and flinched at the sheer audacity of the request, "Wait what? Are you sure that's a good idea? You just want me to take the place of your boss for an undetermined amount of time and do his job? What if I had ulterior motives that could disrupt your work here, or if I wanted to learn you guys' secrets. You already told me about Jirachi, so what if I did some spying and found out more things? I should decline, thats alot of responsibility to give a stranger that wandered on in town."

Mawile simply smiled smugly, "And that's exactly the type of response that tells me I can trust you. You were offered a chance at power and refused it. I assure you though, I've already hidden our confidential documents and handled our most important matters, I just need you to pretend to be him, look presentable for any visitors we get."

Aether fidgeted with his flippers nervously, "I dunno, I don't know anything about you guys or how to be like him. Are you sure this is necessary? Couldn't Jirachi do something about this?"

Mawile groaned, her secondary maw seemingly doing so as well, "Look, we're kinda desperate actually, when I said he's supposed to stay here, I mean that we could get in trouble if HAPPI finds out he's gone missing. Like, we've kept some cover by pretending that he's gotten sick and needed rest, but that lie can only take us so far. Your arrival is like a miracle for us, even if only for the fact that we now have a face to show everyone that things are normal. And no, we already asked Jirachi if we could teleport him back, but without an idea where he went, there's nothing we can do."

Aether sighed in response, "Alright, I suppose I could help you out on this. Is there anything I should know about him?"

Mawile took a few seconds before answering, "Really? Not that much actually, the two of you are actually pretty alike I figure, he's often jovial and flamboyant, but he knows when to get serious too. It was thanks to his intellect that we were able to stop Dark Matter when almost everyone was petrified; he knew how to contact Mewtwo and even Arceus to help get [...] and [...] to the Tree of Life."

Aether blinked, noticing again how his brain censored the names of the Riolu and Treecko, "So you could say he's a very friendly and unassuming guy who knows how to manipulate events when the world is in danger, right?"

"Right. After all, I already know you've got some secret insights too, am I right?" She smiled knowingly.

"Heh you got me, for someone who isn't a psychic, you sure are perceptive. Yeah, I'm pretty .. special, myself. I'm not sure how much I should say though, it's not that I'm keeping secrets, but rather what I do have and know would be extremely difficult to explain." Aether replied sheepishly.

"That's fine, I won't pry if you don't want me to. The important thing is that you can adopt the role of the Chief, and really the only difference I can see between you two is that you don't seem to be hopelessly lost with every step you take."

"So he's kinda actually bad at directions?" Aether chuckled.

"Yup, another reason he's not supposed to be alone, this whole thing is like the time he visited Serene Village ... sure we had communications open then, and he ultimately recruited [...] and [...] there, but that wasn't how things were originally going to go. Oh, there's one last quirk of his to share ..." Mawile proceeded to take on a strange and dramatic pose, pointing up at the air, "Try and do this."

Aether blinked again in confusion before obeying, to which he was met with applause, "Perfect! It's like he's still here, or at least like looking at a mirror image of him."

He returned to his normal stature, "He ... does that, I guess?"

"He sure does, usually prefacing it with his title of "Dashing Wanderer". Tells ya all you need to know about him, doesn't it?" Mawile nodded.

"Indeed ..." Before Aether could continue though, there was some knocking at the door, distinctly from someone with strong paws, like a Riolu, "Come in."

It was indeed the Riolu and Treecko duo, but they were also accompanied by a rather exhausted male Vulpix, "I need help!"

Aether straightened up, trying to look as "official" as possible; guess he'd get a trial by fire then, "What's wrong?"

"My friend ... a growlithe, wandered into a Mystery Dungeon near a riverside and I can't save him. Hurried over to the sea and was helped get here by a lapras." The vulpix gasped out, clearly not having caught his breath yet.

Aether blinked, glancing at a local paper map on the desk; if he was right then that would be the Polywrath River to the southwest, and if he knew his Typing, then grass types were effective for this situation, "I understand, take our premier duo here with you, I'm sure they can handle this dungeon and save your friend." He proceeded to glance at Mawile, looking for confirmation that he made the right call. She thusly nodded.

Said pair shared a brief look of confusion but nodded and quickly left with the distraught Vulpix, and Aether sighed in relief before Mawile spoke, "I wouldn't worry too much, there's not a lot of things you could do there other than recommend them for the job. Fortunately we're not due for any important visits today."

"Thats good to know, a shame "I'm" not supposed to go anywhere, otherwise I'd surely have helped out though." Aether replied wistfully.

"Chief probably would have too ... if he somehow isn't already there." Mawile chuckled.

From there the hours of the day passed onwards, with Aether and Mawile getting a few visitors from town, though their job requests were significantly less urgent than that first rescue mission. It was swiftly discovered by the two that Aether was confused for the Chief by a few townsfolk upon his initial walk through the streets, some believing that the "sick Chief" had gotten some fresh air, requiring Aether to reinforce that lie. Luckily, none of these interactions required him to make use of any knowledge he did not have, like those of the Chief's previous interactions with the town.

When there was no one visiting, Aether and Mawile took turns sharing stories; in particular Mawile spoke about the Dark Matter crisis, telling him of how the Chief found the Treecko and Riolu living in the distant Serene Village wearing scarves made from the Tree of Life and how that allowed them to withstand the petrification that was threatening everyone. Aether found it particularly fascinating that there was an item or force strong enough to imbue someone with a temporary evolution (Mega Evolutions not withstanding) and was definitely rapt during the climax of the tale, where Mawile spoke of how the Chief successfully managed to get multiple Legendaries to help the heroes climb the then-possessed Tree before it could fly into the sun.

Aether in turn spoke of a few of his adventures around the world in the recent months, though he left out a few details about his more "Alien" friends and their technology ... after all, there was no way he could properly explain mech suits or a recursively-amnesiac hippogriff. He mostly told her about his meeting with Primo the ditto and Pika the eventual-raichu; though that particular detail came in later when he mentioned how Pika, not yet willing to join the group, eventually needed a rescue from some canyon when she was looking for a Thunder Stone so she could evolve into her final stage. After that, he told Mawile of an expedition to some icy palace revealed to them a frozen aurorus named Stella, whom was eager to join the growing group once she was freed.

Lastly, Aether spoke about his reason for visiting Lively Town in the first place, revealing that he and his friends had found strange crystals filled with stellar magic that seemed to be growing near places with ritual importance to evolutions. "They seem to, with concentration, allow you to take on a form where you're clad in crystals and empowered with another Type, my friends had similar yet different versions to what I had. I was thinking of calling it Crystallization, or maybe Terastallization."

Mawile was immensely interested in this information, "I've never heard of this phenomenon before, though we have found a few such crystals ourselves, we'll have to perform some tests eventually. You could be onto something huge here, thanks for telling me about all this ... heh, to think, I'm already in your debt and here you are giving me more." She bowed profusely before laughing.

Aether returned a bleating sheep-like laugh, "It's no problem, I'm glad I could improve your day, you certainly looked like you needed some good news."

Just then, the Riolu and Treecko returned, their fire-type clients in tow; the growlithe looked a little roughed up, but not so bad that they needed medical attention, all in all it seemed to be a successful rescue. Aether thusly took care of the formal thanks and Mawile dealt with the rewards and paperwork that followed. It was only after that that they noticed the sun had begun to set; an entire day flew by, just like that. Once the fire type duo left, Buizel entered, "Hey, let's all go to the backyard, I'd like to test something out." He had already begun to depart, seemingly not taking a no for an answer, leaving Aether to shrug at Mawile before following.

Outside was everyone in the Society (save the still-sleeping Jirachi and Swirlix, whom was making dinner) and Aether looked around at the rectangular arena lined with chalk, with the setting sun above painting the sky and field a deep orange. "Alright, so what are we all doing out here?"

"I formally challenge you to a spar," Buizel announced courageously, "I want to see how you measure up to me, and therefore the Chief."

Aether blinked and flinched at the audacious request, "You want to fight me? I ... don't go out of my way to engage in combat, besides, if I'm playing as the Chief, shouldn't I be acting like I'm still a little unwell for a duel?"

"Naw," Buizel dismissed, "You're perfectly fine after all. Plus, you surely need practice if you don't fight much, and what better way than with friends?"

Aether gazed around the group, all of which seemed interested in seeing his combat prowess and Mawile in particular smiled, "I say go ahead, I'm curious myself to see what another ampharos can do."

Aether thusly sighed, set his satchel to the side, and took up a boxing-like combat stance, Charging up his electricity, "Alright then, let's do this."

Buizel grinned, pacing around to the other end of the arena before firing a simple Water Gun; thanks to the distance, all Aether had to do was sidestep to right. Buizel gave a cocky nod of acknowledgement, as if to say "acceptable" and waved his left paw as the ever-common "come at me" gesture, to which Aether responded by firing an Electro Ball from his maw. Aether watched as Buizel ducked by dropping to all fours as the attack flew over him and then pushing himself back up onto his hind legs. Buizel still wore his confident grin as he completed the much more complex maneuver, "Alright, let's pick up the pace."

Before Aether could ask what he meant, Buizel had already begun rocketing forward with an Aqua Jet, to which Aether fired another Electro Ball, only for Buizel to adjust his flight before curving to the right and when Aether attempted to respond with a Thunder Punch, the water type somersaulted over him, knocking him down with an Aqua Tail over the head, landing flawlessly afterwards.

Aether groaned as he landed snout-first on the ground, but it was largely his pride that was hurt from the attack; Buizel was showing off! He got back onto his feet while his opponent watched with a cocky grin; Aether needed a distraction and he knew just the one ..."Sorry everyone," he announced preemptively before he turned on his tail-light for a blinding Flash. This was effective enough, causing everyone else to flinch and look away from the radiance, including Buizel, giving the ampharos the time to dash forward and land a new Thunder Punch that sent Buizel flying across the dirt.

Buizel let out a slight growl, "So we're pulling tricks like that now? ... Great," He smiled and before Aether knew it, a spout of water formed beneath his feet and erupted, launching him up into the air. Buizel followed up from that by shooting himself up into the air with another Water Jet and then pounding Aether back to the ground with a double kick. He soon began pacing around, "Do you yield?"

Aether groaned as he lay down on the ground, that last attack had left his entire body aching and he wasn't actually sure he could get back up on his own. That said though ... he smiled, "Just one problem with that, I have a Static Body." Buizel suddenly froze up as the static electricity from their last contact took effect, and all Aether had left to do was to angle his head and unleashed one last Zap Cannon. The attack landed, blasting Buizel away, and a few long seconds passed before anyone realized that neither combatant was going to get back up without help.

"Alright, I declare this duel a tie, now let's get you guys back up." Mawile announced, taking out a pair of Oran Berries and helping feed it the the duo.

Buizel soon began to laugh as the berry's effects took hold, "Hahaha, now that's what I like to see, you did well, type advantage aside. You're pretty good, different from the Chief though, you like to fight cautiously with ranged attacks and only rely on your physical attacks when forced to. So I'd describe you as careful and tactical, am I right?"

Aether blinked as the berry soothed his muscles and he sat up, "Oh, uh yeah. That's a fair assessment. You're pretty good yourself, I didn't think I get hit so hard, but I guess you've had practice with the Chief, right?"

"Yup, he's much more aligned with physical attacks, shame I can't see how the two of you would handle each other." Buizel nodded, getting back onto his paws.

"Heh, I can't imagine we'll be very effective against each other, what with our skin and all." Aether replied sheepishly.

"Alright, enough you two, Swirlix should have dinner ready by now ... assuming she hasn't eaten everything already." Dedenne announced.

"Alright, thank you for the meal." Aether nodded preemptively. He would have to make it up to his friends somehow, getting a free meal without them. He then remembered to grab his satchel before following the group.

The group headed towards the dining hall just in time to stop Swirlix from digging in on her own, and while Aether chuckled as Dedenne started to argue with Swirlix about letting food wait for others, he interrupted the squabble before it could go anywhere, "Come on guys, let's just eat already, I'm sure we've all had a long day." Dinner passed onwards quickly after that, and Aether grabbed a few extra Chesto berries for later; he was going to need them if he wanted to stay awake long enough to talk to Jirachi.

Before that could happen though, Mawile approached him again, "You can sleep in the Chief's room tonight, and don't worry, I've already hidden everything private that would be in there too."

Aether wasn't sure if she was making a joke there or not, but he gave a slight bow, "Thanks, have a good night." Mawile nodded back to this and waved goodbye as she headed towards her own bedroom. Aether promptly headed towards "his" own room and sat down on a simple chair, one the same as in the office, fitting an ampharos like himself. There was also a cotton bed and a small desk that he could see, but of course everything was empty ... there probably would've been more in here had the Chief been here.

In the meantime, Aether simply tapped the middle black band on his neck, a communicator camouflaged with it, "Hey Ted, I'm going to be spending a day or two at the Expedition Society, they needed my help with something special. I would've told you earlier, but I've been kept busy."

A croaking voice came from the alien device, "Ah, we were wondering what was taking you so long, glad to know you're alright. Pika has been keeping herself busy by running halfway across the countryside. And don't worry about Kalmilla, we'll be sure to fill her in when she reawakens."

"Alright, thanks for the help with that. I'll let you guys know if something pops up." Aether replied. Turning off the device, Aether sighed, it was almost a shame that he'd gotten so entangled in things that were beyond this world, he would've like to show his non-Pokémon friends around, but it was for the best that the public be kept in the dark about these things. For now though, he had to be selective about what he said to who, and speaking of that, it was time to visit the Wishmaker. Aether popped a Chesto into his maw and gave a short shake as its energizing effects relieved him of his earlier exhaustion, swiftly heading upstairs to the observatory.

And there he was, just floating in the middle of the massive circular room, maps and constellation charts and books aplenty surrounding the star-shaped being while a telescope pointed out at the night sky. Aether's earlier temptation returned, the one who could grant wishes was but a few feet away from him! It would be so easy to ask Jirachi if he could bring Him back to life, and then Aether would finally be about to reunite with the One who gave him a new meaning to his life. Aether shook his head then, he knew better than to hope for something so impossible, and even then he wasn't sure it would be the right thing to do ... he knew the cost for such an action if it were actually something Jirachi could achieve, and he wasn't sure it would be worth it.

Aether was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of Jirachi yawning, "Chief? What are you ... when did you ... no, wait, you're a different ampharos, when did you get here?"

Aether blinked, realizing he'd been staring, "Oh, sorry. I'm Aether, and Mawile has me filling in for the Chief, I understand he's gone missing somehow."

Jirachi looked curious for a moment before nodding, "Indeed, it's almost miraculous that someone identical to him has shown up here ... I had nothing to do with that by the way," he promptly laughed.

Aether chuckled in response, "Yeah, I came here for a different reason, but I'm happy to help out someone in need. I'm curious though, couldn't you have wished him back here?"

Jirachi shook his head, "Unfortunately, without a single clue as to where he could have gone, I don't have a way to retrieve him. It is annoying sometimes .. if you don't mind me sharing this with you .. but yeah, I don't understand why Arceus made me so powerful if he won't let me be a problem-solver."

"Hmm yeah, it is a shame, you are rather famous for your wishes after all, but I guess being able to warp reality makes you something most beings would covet." Aether replied thoughtfully.

"You were hoping to ask something of me." Jirachi declared suddenly.

Aether laughed sheepishly, "I knew I couldn't hide anything from the Wishmaker. I did actually have a wish I wanted to make, but I didn't want to impose on you, plus I don't think I should even try to ask for this wish."

Jirachi tilted his head (and therefore entire floating body), "What do you mean? Explain."

Aether sighed, "I had a friend, a human companion, he found me when I was young, and with inventions I did not understand he took me to other worlds entirely. We went on many adventures together to places so unlike this world, and met beings you'd never imagine, but one day, he ... vanished, and the immense power of his soul scattered across the stars. I wanted to see him again, but I don't think it would be right for me to sacrifice the Seeds sown in his absence."

Jirachi was silent for a minute, "I understand now. Unfortunately your request would be beyond me, there's not a lot I can do to reach beyond this world. I can use my psychic abilities to learn the things you know, and I already realized you weren't an average ampharos, mind if I delve a little deeper with your memories?"

Aether blinked, "I wouldn't normally agree to this, but for someone like you ... of course."

Jirachi nodded, and the third eye in the middle of his chest opened up; Aether didn't actually feel anything unusual, as keen as he was to psychic powers, but he did get the sense somehow that Jirachi was viewing his past. A few more minutes passed by Jirachi stirred again, "Simply amazing, you really are unlike anyone else here, but yeah, there's nothing I could do to fulfill that wish of yours. Thank you for the honesty though."

Aether nodded back, "It's no problem, but yeah, I didn't actually think I'd achieve that wish here, but it was worth asking though."

"Ya know, you wanted to do something irresponsible by asking me to revive your friend, and I almost want to do something irresponsible by joining your crew ... but alas, neither of can get what we want though. It's a shame though, the things your memories showed me are so interesting. I'd love to tinker with your star-boat-thing." Jirachi replied, looking quite curious.

"Heh, you honor me but yeah, I wouldn't want to steal you away from the Society and everyone else." Aether replied earnestly.

Jirachi finally noticed how reverent the ampharos was being, "You know you can relax around me, I don't bite, unlike those stuffy geezers responsible for keeping the world in one piece."

Aether blinked in surprise, "Oh, I hadn't even noticed, ... well, um, ah! I was wondering something earlier, you made the Nexus downstairs, right?"

"Yup, it's my pride and joy, every place anyone goes is recorded in their Connection Orbs and that gets uploaded into the Nexus." Jirachi grinned proudly.

Aether nodded thoughtfully, "Indeed, a sensor like that, being able to scan the environment to generate such an accurate world map, I didn't think it was possible for this world. I'm curious though, how do you handle the warps caused by Mystery Dungeons?"

"Oh, those! They really do live up to their name, some of them seem to take place inside caves with a singular entrance, others are spread over vast open areas, and some are compact little spots with a whole maze inside. There's not a lot we can do other than identify the rough areas that they appear at. We still don't even know what creates them though, but I know that Palkia and Dialga have been looking into them; they've been able to affect them, but they can't seem to create nor destroy these anomalies." Jirachi eagerly explained.

"Fascinating, I was wondering if they were related to the Duo's authorities, so that's good to know. Do you think there's someone out there that could create these, or perhaps this is the result of something breaking?" Aether replied, waving his tail in thought.

"Good question, I wish I had a guess as to that answer, but alas, whatever the cause, they're keeping to their namesake." Jirachi looked outside, thoughtful. A few more seconds passed before he asked a question of his own, "Do some of other worlds you've been to have such phenomenon?"

Aether blinked in surprise before joining Jirachi in gazing at the stars, "Oh, no they don't. The worlds I've been to all at least have some sort of rules to their spaces, even if they do have "Dungeons" too. That said though, the universe is so vast that I can't speak for everywhere, so it is possible that some place else has things as indescribable as what's going on here."

"I see. I actually do envy you a bit, you have the opportunity to get up close to the very stars themselves and visit worlds with their own civilizations and geographies. To imagine that there's whole worlds, as sizable as ours, yet entirely different ... it's amazing." Jirachi replied wistfully.

Aether didn't expect that response from him, and wished he could help with Jirachi's longing for discovery, "Agreed, I remember when I was a young Mareep, staring at the stars like we are now, wishing a could touch them and .. silly-ly, store them in my tail tip," he started laughing at the absurdity, "but here I am now, living the dream ..."

"The universe really is incredible."

They blinked at each other and started to explode with laughter from their simultaneous sentiment. A few minutes later they calmed down, and fortunately no one seemed to have woken up from that, to which Aether soon yawned; he could eat another berry, but he couldn't run on that forever. "It was nice talking to you, it's been a long time since I've shared these things with anyone, but unfortunately I've had a long day. If I don't get to talk to you again tomorrow, it was nice meeting you."

Jirachi nodded, "Same, it is a pity I can't make your wish come true, but if we ever meet again, and you come up with a ... Smaller wish, I'd be glad to grant it for you. I remember the last wish I granted was to a plucky Bidoof who just wanted new friends. "

Aether smiled, "Thank you for the offer. Oh, almost forgot," he then dug into his satchel and took a strange golden disk with some black band, "I don't give these out to many people, but here. It's a beacon, press it whenever you need us, and me and my friends will surely answer ... although it may take some time depending on wherever we are. Also please don't try to take it apart, I can't promise it'll work afterwards."

Jirachi smiled back and nodded, "Thank you for the gift, I'll keep it safe. Oh, can I tell the rest of the Society about it, or do you want to keep this a secret between us?"

"Oh, uh, I'll leave that up to you, just make sure the others don't do anything to it either. Well, good night Jirachi, till we meet again." Aether replied, waving a flipper in goodbye.

"Sweet dreams Aether, till next we meet."

And with that, the ampharos left the observatory and headed back to his temporary bedroom, laying down for his long-awaited sleep. When he next awakened, dawn had already broken and he had to take a few minutes to recall the previous day after wondering where he was. He thusly yawned, eating a spare berry from yesterday to help energize him for the coming day; he wondered if today would be as busy as yesterday felt ... hopefully none of whatever was going on with the local government would occur today.

He decided that the first thing he should do is go get some fresh air, and with that he left his temporary bedroom, but before he could head outside, he crossed paths with a certain male Charmander and female Chikorita. Aether blinked and rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was dreaming, but no, there was something in his brain that instinctually told him that he knew this pair, but that was impossible, unless ...

"Morning Aether, hopefully we can find the Chief soon, you shouldn't have to worry about his work after all." The Charmander waved.

It was! That was the same voice as yesterday's Treecko, they really were like the couple in Paradise. This made no sense, despite their change in species, there was still something undeniably Them about the Duo's identities; perhaps he needed an experiment of sorts. "Hey guys, good morning, I was just thinking about a couple things. Say ... how did you guys say you recognized that I wasn't the Chief again?"

The pair glanced at each other in slight confusion before the Chikorita answered, "Ehh, we just had a hunch, nothing really surefire until we opened the door and saw you."

That wasn't what they said yesterday, Aether was sure they mentioned how her Riolu aura-sight had revealed him, so what was going on? There had to be a few missing pieces to this puzzle, but he didn't know what questions he could ask. "Ah, right. Oh, don't worry about me working, I'm glad I can assist with whatever happens, really. Also, if anyone asks, I'm going to get some fresh air before breakfast." He replied hastily.

"Sure thing, see you soon." Chikorita nodded cheerfully.

Aether hurried out the front door, he definitely needed to think about this conundrum, especially since his brain still couldn't process their names, if they were even still the same. However, he soon found himself colliding with an equally fast character, and ... oh!, it truly was like looking in a mirror. Right in front of Aether, having fallen on his rump, was another ampharos that had fallen onto his own too; everything about him was identical to Aether, even the more minute differences that only one of their species would recognize, with the only difference he could see being the Expedition Society badge pinned on his chest fuzz.

"Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry for that, I didn't expect anyone would be leaving at this hour, least of all a visitor. What brings you to our headquarters, oh distant cousin of mine? Maybe I'll be able to help you out." This other ampharos stood up, placing his right flipper on his chest.

Aether blinked again; it wouldn't have occurred to him that they could be related, although that could have just been a figure of speech. The more important thing to him was that this was surely the Chief, though he had to ask to be sure, "Oh, uh my apologies. I'm Aether, just a traveler, but you ... are you the Chief I've heard so much about? The guy in charge of everything here?"

"Indeed, I am the Dashing Wanderer, no matter where I go or what I do, I do it stylishly." He proceeded to preform that exaggerated pose, and ... was his tail-light glowing for effect?

Aether chuckled, "By the stars, I am glad to finally meet you, not for my benefit though, but your friends have told me so much about you."

He blinked back in confusion, "Oh, whatever do you mean?" Neither ampharos had realized that the rest of the Society (save Jirachi) had already noticed the duo and were discussing something.

"I came by yesterday and was asked to help with some things, apparently ..."

Before Aether could continue, Mawile walked up to his side, and clearly addressing the Chief, said, "I'm sorry good sir, but we're not accepting visitors at this hour, but if you can wait another hour or two, we'd be glad to help you out. Now, I've got a couple things I need to take care of with the Chief."

She'd attempted to grab Aether's flippers and drag him back inside, but he resisted, the sheer audacity of her statement surprising both ampharos', to which they both bleated out "What!?" in shock. Said actual Chief frowned, looking very genuinely insulted and hurt, "Whatever do you mean Mawile, I am the Chief, surely you haven't replaced me with some ... some, doppelganger! Uh, no offense Aether."

Aether soon followed up with a more coherent reply, frowning, "None taken. ... What are you talking about Mawile? He's right here, the very guy you've all been worrying your tails off over, he's back!"

Mawile sighed, "Okay yeah, that was a pretty tasteless thing to say, but in my defense, it was Bunnelby's idea." "Hey!" ... "However," she turned back to the Chief with actual anger, "Where in the name of the Voidlands have you been!? Did you forget what happened earlier with HAPPI? Do you know what they'd do if they found out you were missing? We're just lucky Aether arrived before something went wrong."

The Chief laughed nervously, "Heh, I'm so sorry about that dear friend. As for where I went, I was getting worried about Mew, they've been a little lost still after they separated from [...], so I came by to console them. I really didn't mean to leave without my gear, but I only realized I had left everything behind once I crossed the sea, and I couldn't possibly bother the lapras to make a couple extra trips because of that, so I decided to hope that you'd all be fine for a few days without me. I'm sorry everyone."

Aether's ears perked up again when he realized that He was talking about the Chikorita and Mew, but as for that explanation, "... Oh, that's a surprisingly simple reason."

Mawile however groaned, "All my headaches could have been avoided if you'd told us beforehand."

"I really am sorry, it was a spontaneous decision, I didn't think it'd cause this much trouble for you all." The Chief dipped his head down guiltily.

"Well, all's well that ends well, right? Archen announced, ruffling his wings.

"I certainly think so." Charmander nodded.

Dedenne looked at Aether, "So is this goodbye for you?"

Aether hadn't even realized it yet, but now that the Chief was back, his services were no longer needed, however ... "Oh, uh, not yet actually, I'd like to talk to Him before I leave." He flicked his tail towards the Chief to show that he was referring to him.

"Oh! I'd love to have a good old conversation with you, but let's eat first, I'm famished." He replied eagerly. And so a hearty breakfast followed for the group, and while the Chief was telling everyone about the details of his visit to Mew, Aether was still deep in thought, trying to figure out everything he wanted to ask and share later.

"Hey Aether," Dedenne soon began.

"Yeah?"

"What are your plans for later exactly?"

"Well, after I chat with the Chief, I'm not really sure, but I probably should get back to my friends that are waiting for me. Why, got anything in mind?" Aether replied, thinking about the following hours.

He almost wasn't ready to catch the Connection Orb that Dedenne tossed to him, "Nothing much, we just wanted to thank you for your help yesterday. It was nice having you around, so don't be a stranger next time you're in town."

"Oh, thank you. I'll be sure to keep this safe." He thusly nodded, sticking the device in his satchel.

Charmander smiled, "It's a shame you aren't sticking around for longer, we haven't spent much time together."

Aether chuckled, "Yeah, I would like to stick around longer, but I have a couple friends I should check up on. But who knows, maybe I'll come back afterwards."

It was soon after that everyone finished eating and went about their daily routine and duties, with the two ampharos heading to the Chief's room, and they swiftly sat down, "So ... I see Mawile emptied my room out for you, was it cozy enough?" The Chief started.

Aether laughed, "Yeah, it was pretty nice. I imagine her own bedroom is pretty packed with everything she doesn't want me to see."

He laughed back, "Oh I would love to see how she's moving around if that's the case. Speaking of, I understand she roped you into playing the role of me yesterday, but what originally brought you here?"

"Ah, as I was telling her yesterday, me and my friends found these strange stellar crystals around the world recently, mostly around places related to evolution. They can be used somehow to empower you with crystalline armor and a new Typing, though there's still a couple things we don't really understand about them. I came by yesterday hoping you guys had some information, but Mawile already told me that it having an effect was news to her." Aether answered, taking out a small chunk of glowing prismatic crystal.

"Fascinating, ... yeah, we found some too, but them doing anything special is new to us. Could I bother you to demonstrate this power?" The Chief replied thoughtfully.

Aether shook his head, "I dunno if I'd want to, it grows a little smaller with each use, and most of its effects are only really evident in combat."

"Ah, I understand. Well, we'll just have to organize some time later to see it in action." He nodded, already planning something.

"Heh, well whatever the case, I'll probably end up returning someday, so you'll have to record those tests." Aether nodded back.

The Chief went silent for a few seconds, "So, what are your friends like, and why did they not follow you here?"

Aether blinked in surprise, not expecting the question, and he wasn't sure how he wanted to answer that, "Well ... it's complicated. A couple of my friends are ... not from around Here, and another isn't too fond of "the trappings of civilization" as she puts it. All in all, I'm the only one who decided to come to Lively Town."

"Fascinating, but I guess if you're trying to keep their identities secret, then you probably have a good reason. Maybe we'll get to meet in the future." He replied thoughtfully.

"I make no promises there, but who knows the future will bring. Oh! ... Speaking of secrets identities, something has been bothering me, have Charmander and Chikorita always been .. themselves?" Aether then asked, finally addressing the mystery on his mind.

The Chief blinked at him in confusion, "I don't understand your question, what do you mean? Also, they have personal names you can use, surely they told you, right?"

Aether sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "That's the thing ... ... yesterday when I arrived, they were a Treecko and Riolu, and whenever anyone says their names, my brain literally refuses to comprehend them. It's like there's something stopping me from keeping their identities straight."

"You're ... serious?" He asked in disbelief, to which Aether nodded, "Then, well, I'm not sure what to say, as far as I'm aware, their species was always that combo. How do you respond to me saying [...] and [...]?"

Aether shook his head, "Still didn't get that. And I'm sure about their bodies too, yesterday they said they recognized me by my aura, but now that Riolu is a Chikorita, she claimed it was just by chance."

"Most unusual, is there anything special about you that might make a difference in how you see things?" The Chief replied, deeply thinking.

"Well, to be honest, yeah. I had a special friend with immense cosmic power, I believe my closeness to him may have blessed my perception and mental resilience somehow. Honestly, I'm not even sure my friends are able to discover these alterations, and if I was anyone different I'd probably believe as you do." Aether replied thoughtfully.

"Hmmm, if that's true, then I fear I cannot help you on this mystery. If there's something about reality that's separating how we see them, then I'm probably not capable of changing that." The Chief sighed, stumped.

It was then that Aether had a thought, "Say, I didn't really get all the details earlier when I talked with Mawile, but is there anything special about them? Something that might make them different from the average 'Mon?"

"Oh! You mean like being a former human or the reincarnation of Mew?"

A human ... he was onto something here. He recalled that this phenomenon happened at Paradise too, so he decided to ask about it, "Say, have you been to Paradise at all? The place next to Post Town, all the way over on the Mist Continent?"

"Oh, yes. Lovely place, I heard about how they had to deal with a being similar to Dark Matter called the Bittercold, if I remember the stories correctly, there was something special about transformed humans that made them immune to its power ... or at least the one of them, I think the Snivy was." The Chief replied thoughtfully, excitement growing as they came closer to a revelation.

That was it! Both the Snivy and this Charmander were former humans, and something about this obscured their identities, and of their closest friends as well. Aether began to spark from excitement of getting closer to a mysterious truth, and shared this with the Chief, "... If this is all true, then I think we might be onto something big here."

"Quite, though we should probably keep this to ourselves though, if this is part of some rule that Arceus set up or something, then it's probably not a good idea to tell everyone about it. That said though, this is a truly incredible discovery, if there's something going on that connects these heroes in such a way, then we might learn why they show up in this world beyond vague prophecies." He replied, clearly thinking about the "Bigger Picture", as some would say.

"Yeah ... and not that anyone would believe us though, especially since no one else seems to notice such things happening. Thanks for helping me out on this mystery though, it's been bugging me all day yesterday now. If I learn anything else about former humans being at the forefront of stopping calamity, I'll be sure to let you know." Aether smiled happily.

The Chief nodded back, "It's no trouble, I'm curious about this conundrum myself now too, though without your vision, I probably won't be able to pursue any leads. But enough about such enigmatic mysteries, let's talk about some more commonplace things ... I was wondering, do you live anywhere, or are you and your friends nomadic?"

Aether blinked, surprised from the question, "Oh, uh, well we do have a place to go back to, but it's not exactly typical. My friend Pika doesn't really like it much though."

"Interesting, maybe I could visit this place one day?"

"Maybe one day. I have my own question; do you have a personal name, or is it all just titles and nicknames like Chief?" Aether replied, curious on if there was anything different to call him.

Said ampharos was surprised by this course of the conversation, "Oh, well ... not particularly, but if you want to call me something else, DW works fine."

"Short for Dashing Wanderer huh? Well anything else about me you're curious about?" Aether chuckled.

"Yeah, what's that band around your neck? It's pretty subtle, hiding in plain sight with your natural colors." DW asked, curious.

Aether blinked, not actually wanting to reveal its true nature as a secret communicator, "Oh, you noticed it, it's uh, well ... nothing special really, just something I can put electricity into for later. Say, have you ever used Mega Evolution before? What was it like to you?" Aether then replied, planning to share his experience on that matter anyway.

DW did not look convinced on that explanation but shrugged and then nodded, "Yeah, both me and Mawile have before, though very rarely, it gets uncomfortable if we keep it up for too long, like a very aggressive itching sensation. You know the feeling right?"

Aether looked thoughtful, "I've heard it can get really painful for certain 'Mons, but as far as my experience goes, I don't actually feel much pain from it, nor any itching. It's more mental for me, like I don't like to fight if I can help it, but when I undergo that transformation, it's like a light switch turns on or off in my brain and I focus big time onto whatever goal I'm pursuing, even if I need to punch something to reach it. The first time I used it was when I rescued Pika from the canyon she was searching for Thunder Stones in and I had found my Mega Stone with her, but she was surrounded by a bunch of rock, ground, and steel types. Me and my friends got her out, and I had used it for the first time, but I nearly collapsed from exhaustion soon after thanks to the power boost."

"Interesting, yeah, it's very draining the first time if you're not used to the power increase, and yeah it has a weird effect like that on my mind too. Aside the first time, what other times have you used it?" DW nodded.

"Another time, me and my friends had just left from visiting Wigglytuff's Guild when we came across a piplup whose riolu friend was in urgent danger in a Dungeon, and as we got closer to it, it turned out that Wigglytuff and Chatot had personally taken on a dangerous outlaw request in the same place, so we teamed up to get through it just in time to save that riolu from a vicious tyranitar. Seeing the poor state of the kid, I activated both the Mega Stone and the Tera Crystal, and well ... me and Wigglytuff went all in on a beatdown against the tyranitar. Honestly, I don't think either of us actually liked that we were being brutal in return, but at the time, the only thing that was going through my mind was to stop that criminal before they could hurt the kid anymore. The odd thing was that, I still felt I was in the clearest mindset I could be, I probably would have been even more violent if not for the Terastallization ... it felt like something familiar somehow." The was a kind of vulnerability in Aether's voice as he told this story, though whether it was due to the combined effects of the two forms, or guilt over the violent battle wasn't clear.

"You did what you had to do, if not for you guys arriving when you did, who knows what could've happened to that riolu. I've heard Wigglytuff is an expert explorer, capable of figuring out traps and puzzles in no time, so any outlaw mission that would cause him to personally accept it must have been very important. So don't worry about it too much, after all, folks like us have to fight to defend those who cannot." DW nodded, consoling his fellow ampharos.

Aether nodded and sighed, "You're right, it's mostly just that feeling of "I must fight you" that gets to me sometimes. It's hard to explain, because while I do have the power and capability to fight, I don't like to seek it out. Overall, it has led me to wonder if Mega Evolutions usually have such an influence on personality ... the very thing that defines who we are and are willing to do."

"Yeah, I think that's true, there's definitely some kind of power inherent to the whole matter, and you know how the saying goes ... absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's a good thing that you could keep yourself sane during that ordeal; you said that crystal helped with that?" DW replied thoughtfully.

"Yeah, there's some kind of cosmic power to them, and it felt like ... a warm embrace to me, somehow. It was weird, calmness from the crystal and violence from the Mega form, together they made a very conflicting feeling, yet perfect in that I was able to do what I needed to." Aether waved his tail about, recalling how the feeling seemed to swirl within him.

DW nodded again, "I think I understand more about these crystals now, they gave you both more power and clearness of mind, fusing with the power of the Mega form in a way that's probably dangerous, in a good way somehow. You probably don't need me to say that you should use this state sparingly, right?"

Aether nodded back, fidgeting with his flippers briefly, "Right. So ... got anything different you want to ask me?"

DW took a moment to respond, "I am still curious about some of your friends, you mentioned Pika, is she a pikachu like I'm imagining? Like, there's got to be some tales you're willing to tell."

"She's a raichu now, yeah," Aether replied, proceeding to tell the same stories he told Mawile the previous day, still leaving out the details to his other friends. Some more time passed after this as the two ampharos shared stories and questions to all manner of things, and fortunately there was nothing that interrupted them, to the point that Aether started to wonder how much work DW normally had to deal with; he decided to ask about this.

"Haha, well, I don't actually need to do much in the way of paperwork, I'm sure you understand, flippers and whatnot ... so yeah, this is usually Mawile's job, I'm mostly in charge of the planning and logistics and pretty much just approving things." DW laughed.

"Heh, I understand. Well it was amazing chatting with you, and pretty much everyone else here at the Expedition Society, but I really should get going. I'll be sure to keep in touch from here on out though." Aether smiled warmly.

DW nodded back, smiling, "Oh I don't doubt that, I'll at least follow you to the entrance, so let's go." The duo headed out of the room, however they swiftly discovered that everyone else was waiting in the main hall.

"We had to see you off, just in case it's a long time before we meet again. You did more than you needed to just by being here for a day." Dedenne explained.

Aether found himself starting to get tears of joy from the reception, "You guys ... thanks again for everything. It was great meeting you all." Before he could say or do anything else, he was surrounded by a group hug, with Chikorita's vines tying everyone together in the sweet embrace. When that hug ended, they let Aether head off on his own outside, simply waving goodbye as they stood at the doorstep, and with all that, Aether plotted his course under the bright sunlight as he headed out from the city to return to his traveling companions, feeling refreshed and ready for whatever the future brought next.

---

(And so this chapter of my ampharos's journey comes to a close, I'm kinda surprised it's reached approximately 10k words, there's a lot of moments left in his story, but I can't promise they'll see the light of day in fanfiction form, mostly because Aether's saga isn't tied to this one world, and the companions at his side come in many forms and powers, separate from the worlds of Pokémon. I have considered putting this in the crossovers section for that, but there's probably less viewers over there and I would need to have more content ready to upload, but who knows, maybe I'll return to this some day when I have more chapters. One thing I feel I should clarify is that Aether's connection to his Lost Friend is indeed something special, and is why he's aware of something like the Heroes identities being variable ... is he close to breaking the fourth wall by trying to discover that secret? Most surely yes, but he won't ever be truly successful at that.)