Chapter 92:
Seeker
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The black blur shot between the trees. It wove into the treeline almost like a shadow and was basically impossible to track with naked eyes. I had no idea where the black blur would move now. It slid over and across objects like it had barely any weight.
The trees in this part of Eterna Forest were close to each other and the branches above our head entangled together into a network of intertwining leaves. It was rather dark here, the sun had trouble reaching to the bottom of this dense forest, making the black blur even harder to follow.
We were a bit off the path to avoid the Red Orphanage, which was currently blocked off for obvious reasons. A little detour wasn't really unwanted since I needed some extra time to train, and it did give me some much-needed privacy for testing out Midna's abilities.
So that was what I had been doing for the last couple days; just relaxing and training with my Pokémon.
Talking about training.
"Now!" I yelled, my voice echoing through the trees before being consumed by the darkness.
The black blur suddenly changed its trajectory and began to head into a certain direction; towards a target.
One of the trees had an 'X' carved into the bark at my eye level. This particular tree was wider than the others. I'm sure some other nerd could tell you what kind of tree it was but I just knew it was 'very big' and thus something to destroy.
The black blur shot towards the trees, blinking into view at irregular intervals. That was until the shadow suddenly morphed into a glowing orb of light. Its momentum didn't stop however and it flew through the air while it grew to a much bigger size in a split second.
A roar followed as the glow dissipated. A large dragon-like reptile soared through the air in a straight line towards the marked tree.
The creature didn't even need to touch the ground as its previous momentum had already flung it forward enough. It opened its mouth that was protected by two huge crescent-shaped blades. The reptile stuck out its head and unleashed a screech as it flashed a row of long and pointy teeth. Jaw wide open.
A loud crash followed, the sound of wood splintering and trees rustling. Instinctively I closed my eyes as an almost physical shockwave traveled through my body.
Hesitantly I opened my eyes and witnessed the scenery around me. Adrenaline was pumping through my body, that's how excited I was.
I looked ahead of me.
The tree marked with the X still stood proudly in its place. Not a scratch on it. The younger saplings that were growing behind the fat tree however weren't so lucky.
The ground was torn open like a jagged monster's jaw. Small bushes and plant life were uprooted by a trail left in the ground.
"Did I hit it?" I heard a groan come from behind a couple of bushes that weren't completely wrecked. It was distinctly female. The large reptile emerged from the bushes, standing upright and towering over me. It was standing on two legs and looked a bit like my world's salamanders did. Except it had scales that looked suspiciously like golden armour and even more dragon-like.
I stared back at the Haxorus, better known as Midna. The shapeshifting Zorua.
With a serious look on my face, I arched an eyebrow and pretended to think over the question. "Well, you did manage to wipe out a few bushes, guess that's a plus. Next time I need a lawnmower I'll be sure to call you."
Midna stared at the destruction around her. Then her eyes drifted towards her original mark which was still standing. The red eyes that were looking down on me winced for a tiny fraction before they steeled themself.
"I am pretty sure I could hit you." She growled, challenging me.
After spending some time with Midna I wasn't that impressed with it. Most of her jokes were similar and pretty rude. Maybe it was her way of dealing with others. Though I learned that usually Midna was trying to get a rise out of me.
Thus I was not impressed. Neither was someone else.
The splinters that got scattered all over the ground by the impact began to flow towards each other, as if they were magnetic and formed into something reminiscent of a big floating spike.
From across the clearing, I saw two piercing red eyes from the shadows.
Luna had been sparring with Fay but now she was looking at Midna with a rather creepy expression.
Fay for her part looked more bored and annoyed by the distraction, compared to Luna's almost feral look.
Technically Luna was out of earshot. However, the floating spear gave me the impression she had heard Midna's threat and took it a bit too seriously.
Midna let out an eep, transformed into a smaller fox-like creature and stared at the spear with something with fear in her eyes.
"Damnit, can't just take a joke, can you?" Midna snapped back with venom in her voice. Her voice was shaky and it sounded like she was trying to sound more threatening than she was.
"Relax Luna," I chided the small psychic. "Midna's just making a bad joke. She wouldn't hit me right?" I turned to look at Midna.
She quickly shook her head and stared at Luna. "Chill, I am not gonna hurt your precious. Besides, I like him." Somehow her voice reached Luna which made the makeshift spear stiffen midair and eventually it slowly descended like it was never even there.
Fay said something I couldn't hear but it made the psychic laugh and she visibly loosened up. Fay took that as an opening and lunged towards her sparring partner. Holding a glowing blue halberd above her head.
Glad those two were doing their own thing, I turned to face the most recent addition of my team. It was always a bit of a struggle to deal with the shape shifter's antics and Luna's overreacting tends to make things even worse.
Said shapeshifter quirked her eyebrows and with a raspy voice, she whispered. "I'm not gonna hit you." she paused. "Unless you are into that kind of stuff?" A mad grin spread out on the fox’s face..
I tilted my head, wondering in silence why my Pokémon were like this. It couldn't be me. Right?
"How'd you even know that kind of stuff exists?"
With a mirthful smile, the Zorua looked up at the lush green roof above us. "Well, I didn't spend all my days in A2 being experimented on. Lyn used to bring me books, mostly romance."
Ah, the illustrious Lyn person. I didn't know much about Midna's previous friend/ex-escapee. I just knew that Midna's twisted sense of humor was her fault somehow.
Trying not to get sidetracked I coughed and pointed at the marked tree.
"Anyway. Poor choice of literature aside. What went wrong when you tried hitting the tree? Your path lined up perfectly with the target."
"The tree moved out of the way?" Zorua tried with a hopeful smile.
When I didn't respond she let out a sigh. "It's just that I can't stop myself from panicking."
"But you transform all the time. What's different about doing it while moving?"
To demonstrate Midna changed from a Zorua into a small purple rat-like creature. "This form is much smaller, faster and weighs a whole less."
It was weird to hear Midna's voice come from a small Ratata. Despite all the weird shit I've already seen, stuff like this still manages to surprise me.
Midna's form began to shift again, this time it grew larger until she was looming over me again. Now she was back at being a Haxorus.
"And now I am much heavier, my eyes are higher and I have a large tail that's getting in my way." She groaned as she moved her tail over the ground, half dragging it. "Normally it wouldn't be such a big of a deal but doing it while transforming?"
She shuddered, a movement that caused the death of another unfortunate flower as her tail was swishing around with no regard for plant life. "I cannot see while I am transforming, my center of gravity shifts as well so keeping my balance straight is easier said than done."
I clicked my tongue, pondering over this revelation. I really needed Midna to be able to transform while moving. If she couldn't do that, it would leave her defense open.
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The fact that Midna's moves remained the same is something very useful if applied correctly.
Sure, she couldn't use a Pokémon's specific power while being transformed but their physical powers were copied perfectly. Things like weight, speed, natural strength and of course the extra body parts.
My idea was pretty simple. If Midna transforms into a Ratata and uses agility in that form she would be much faster than if she'd do the same thing as a Munchlax because she was much smaller and built for speed. Also, her hitbox would be much smaller so she’d be less likely to be interrupted while building up speed.
That part was nailed down. The problem was transforming and utilizing another form without Midna screwing it up. Theoretically, her momentum could be carried over between forms. A Shapeshifter in motion stays in motion, or at least that is unless Midna panics.
"Okay, so you panic. That's the root of the problem." I tried to think of ways people in my old world used to deal with panic attacks.
"Okay, let's mix up the exercise." I suddenly had a possible solution. "Okay, how about this. Why don't you take a walk and try to grow more accustomed to transforming."
Midna scowled at me like she was disappointed. "Seriously, you suggest I walk it off?"
"Yes. Except while walking you'll have to change your form every 30 seconds and you're not allowed to stop moving. Try to transform without slowing down."
"That sounds stu-" Midna stopped mid-sentence. "Actually, it doesn't sound half bad."
"I mean, my other idea involved you running around with a blindfold." I grinned.
"No, this sounds like a perfect plan." The Zorua quickly changed her form. She transformed into a Cubone and turned around. She disappeared into the foliage but not before turning herself into a pair of glowing blades. She, they? It pushed away a few branches and disappeared from sight.
I swear I heard her mutter something about crazy humans before disappearing.
Satisfied that Midna was going to do well, my gaze drifted towards the marked tree.
The fact that it was still standing irked me for some reason. It felt as if it was taunting me. Deciding to make a practice out of it I withdrew a silver gun from my backpack and aimed it at the tree. In one fluid motion the barrel aligned with the X. Without waiting any further I squeezed the trigger.
My breath hitched.
A burst of loud flashes followed. The gun shook with every shot. The explosions rang in my ears. Still, I kept firing away.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Luna and Fay giving me worried looks. I ignored them and kept squeezing the trigger, focusing all my attention on that damn tree that was still standing.
I wasn't even aiming properly. Not really, I was just holding the trigger and savoring the smell of fizzling electricity. Most of the shots missed to my annoyance. Still, the ones that did hit exploded against the bark ripping it open and exposing young wood underneath it. It felt amazing.
Only when the gun gave off a dry clicking noise and stopped firing did I notice that I was breathing loudly. Like I had run an entire marathon. My fingers felt numb and were starting to look white. The muscles in my hand tensed when I released my tight hold on the weapon.
{You okay?} I heard Luna's telepathic voice in my head. Without looking her way I responded with a short yes. This satisfied the two and they continued their spar.
With stiff legs and arms, I made my way towards the tree. The red X was no longer visible. All the bark around it had been blasted away. Deep holes were left in the wood but no bullets were found. While I was still trying to catch my breath I promised myself silently to recharge it as soon as possible.
I put my hand against the ruined bark and noticed it still felt warm.
In the past week, I tried to improve my aim with my 'borrowed' gun. I had picked up multiple weapons in the past months. A couple of knives varying in sizes. I had the 2 guns from Crimson, another weird anti-psychic gun from Sabrina and a rifle that shot electric bursts from A2. Slowly but surely I was becoming a walking arsenal of weapons. None of which I was skilled with. I'm not even sure why I kept carrying them around but the thought of being weaponless started to scare me. Not that they really could do anything against a pissed off Pokémon but collecting them did start to become something of a habit.
I wasn't even a big fan of weapons. I mean, if I found a sword I would definitely pick it up and keep it but besides that most weapons used to leave me cold.
With a twisted feeling in my gut, I lowered my back against the ruined tree. Uncaring about the mess I made and sat down. I took a deep sigh and looked at the leaves overhead.
I had the faint sensation that I was supposed to say or do something, but I couldn’t place it exactly. I decided that it probably wasn’t important after all.
With nothing in my hands, I started to feel agitated so I opened my backpack and retrieved my sleek black laptop.
While my Pokémon were doing their own shit I might as well get some work done.
I logged in and entered the password necessary to encrypt all the files stored on the drive. Most of the stuff were just projects I was working on. Nowadays most of the projects I was working on were outsourced by the Dream Company to other smaller teams so they could publish more of my works. You would think this would give me more time but surprisingly it took me even more time. I had to draw up the main premise, write down the principles, describe the game mechanics and art style. And after that I still had to provide a lot of material to the creative teams. Describing the game isn’t exactly the same as making it apparently.
Still, in the end I hope it will be worth it. I would kill someone to play some relaxing Minecraft right now.
However, that wasn't the thing I was looking for right now.
I glanced over the top of the screen. Quickly making sure everyone was still there. Fay and Luna had taken their fight to another level and started to fight each other with sticks they had picked up. I saw a big red-colored bird sweeping over the treetops. It turned into an Eevee and began its descent. That was until our eyes crossed and Midna crashed uncontrollably to the ground as she lost focus. Yikes, I might need to work on that.
Deciding nothing was amiss I focused my attention on the screen again. I shuffled through some of the files until I had found the folder I was looking for.
A list of names was displayed on the screen.
Honestly, the list was a mess. This was because the PC crashed before I could copy everything. Some of the files were corrupted, having images and text missing or wiped.
Not sure why, I guess this world didn't use the same binary and systems as my earth had. Either way, it was inconvenient; especially when the files I managed to copy had such interesting names.
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-FD00 A Dead Future
-FD00 The Butterfree Effect.
-XX5 Parasect Plague
-A2 Ability Absorber
…
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There were a lot of files. Most of them were just gibberish to me but some of them contained information I didn't know yet. Right now I was searching for information regarding Aura and the secrets this unknown substance held.
Despite its presence in all living things people, and Pokémon knew surprisingly little about the stuff that allowed Pokémon and humans to break the laws of nature.
I had already made peace with the fact I wouldn't be able to wield Aura like Ash could in that Pokémon movie. I was okay with being just a human. I was not okay with knowing my Aura was broken.
Fay made it sound like it was deliberately done but why whom and why?
I was brought to this world by someone or something. I need to know what my purpose was in this world. I need to know what is waiting for me.
At first, I thought there was no plan. Recent discoveries made me reconsider it. There were just too many coincidences for me to be just a 'mistake'. The way I met Luna. The same day I stumbled across a Team Rocket Mission. The same week I was attacked and not even a full month later I encountered Sinnoh's most infamous bank robber. The same bank robber that has ties to Galactic, which I ran into not long after. Again I stumbled upon another plot, this time a big Aura explosion happens. After that I ran into Hunter J who was tracing a Pokémon, said Hunter also had connections with Galactic. A weird sequence of events that ended with me entering that damn underground research facility; again related to Galactic.
True, it is possible this is all a massive coincidence but the odds of all this happening were insanely low. No, something was messing with me. Looking back it feels like I am following an invisible path someone else laid out for me. Like I had a goal and I was slowly moving towards it.
Hylla mentioned that things seemed to unravel around me. I thought nothing of it until I looked back. But what if there was more to it?
There had to be more to it right? My existence in this world couldn't be meaningless.
Just the idea alone scared me. It made me feel anxious. Like I was being caged and watched. I wanted to know, I had to know.
A warm breeze swept through the clearing.
With renewed energy I began driving through the cryptic files. Hoping to find something, anything, that could tell me why I was here.
I knew that Galactic was researching everything related to Palkia and Dialga but Most the files were cryptic or corrupted files I couldn't read. A few did attract my attention.
I found documents that describe an experiment done regarding Z moves. I knew they were some weird dance thingy from the Sun and Moon games but since I never played those two my knowledge on them was a bit behind. I thought it had something to do with Aura but according to the research I found there was something else at play; Energy that was released from Wormholes.
I am not making this shit up!
First I wanted to try it myself, knowing it could give me an edge in a battle. That was until I read the phrase; Subject was pulled through a rift in space by an unknown Pokémon
I found a short hypothesis on Black Aura. I think it was actually written by Midna's ex-friend. Maybe my Aura was a variant of that? I knew my Aura somehow rendered precogs useless, Sabrina told me. However the report on Black Aura didn't mention anything about broken Aura.
I was starting to lose hope when I didn't find any other clues. Just more cryptic stuff that made me wonder about the state of this insane world.
I was just reading a file that described in great detail how Victini Bombs were manufactured, when a message popped up on the edge of the screen. Someone was calling me: Caller ID UNKNOWN
Confused but not thinking much of it I clicked the pop up and started the video call.
To my surprise I came face to face with my favorite purple haired maniac.
"Hylla?" I asked, slightly taken by surprise. "Why are you calling me from this number?"
Normal people would probably say shiz like: Hello, or something else, however, Hylla is not a normal person, And yes, that coming from me is a hypocrite.
"Hi Dust," Hylla rolled her eyes. "I wanted to speak with you but I thought you wouldn't be in the mood to talk." I wasn't in the mood to talk. "So I used another number, hope you don't mind." Hylla looked quite proud of herself.
I was not amused. "Hylla, it's been only a week. Don't tell me you already need my help."
"What if I just wanted to know if you were doing alright?" Hylla raised her eyebrow. She made it sound like a joke but I had the feeling she took it more personally.
"So you just want to have a chat?" I asked, skeptically. "No trouble?"
"Haha, this time it's not you who is in trouble." Hylla said mysteriously.
"What do you mean?"
I saw Fay and Luna had stopped their battle. They started to send worried looks in my direction again.
"Well, can you put Kanto TV on right now?" Hylla asked. "There are some troubles in Kanto you might be interested in."