It never came up, sadly. Despite doing poorly at keeping Astra in character, I figured showing off the doom orb to the weirdest human in the world was the last thing that would happen at the time.
On the other hand, being stuck in another world would be a pretty good impetus for Astra to finally work out how to actually use her emergency button. That's not showing off, that's just making sure she knows what it can do! It's not like anything bad would happen, right? 🌑👀💦
Hypothetical question, what if someone like, I don't know, another psychic, got ahold of it? On a scale of "Care Bears" to "WH40K", how well would this go?
Hypothetical question, what if someone like, I don't know, another psychic, got ahold of it? On a scale of "Care Bears" to "WH40K", how well would this go?
*Glances at (Gen 3) Wally, (Gen 4) Cheryl, Aaron, (Gen 5) Cilan, and N, and that's just off the top of my head*
Pretty sure it's natural over there, yeah.
I stop for a moment in the middle of the dirt road of Route 202, unwilling to make myself take another step. My legs feel like jelly, my feet feel like pudding, and my horns might as well be a cartoonishly oversized ball-and-chain attached to the back of my head. Internally, I find myself regretting every choice I made that led me to this point.
Turns out, if Paul was actually heading to Jubilife? He was apparently quite a ways off the beaten path. Even with the help of his Pokedex, it took me the rest of the night just to find and get back on the "normal" Route intended to connect Sandgem and Jubilife together... frankly though, I'm not entirely sure this tiny dirt path even is Route 202, regardless of what the device claims. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I might actually think I was back in Bewilder Forest again, because since finding and beginning to follow this supposed "Route", the scenery has failed to change in the slightest, and the blip on the dex's digital map barely seems to have moved. This time however, I'm fairly sure it's not because I'm being messed with by random Stantler, or somehow getting myself turned around by accident.
It's that I'm just this goddamn slow.
I place my claw-tipped palms on my knees, leaning against them for support. Why did I ever think this would work? I am attempting to travel across the countryside, on foot, despite being roughly the size and height of a toddler. I am NEVER going to make it to Jubilife at this rate. Hell, if Paul manages to make it back onto the Route proper without his Pokedex, I'll be shocked if he doesn't catch up to me by midday, likely without even trying.
I take a moment to glance up at the sky. I can't actually see the sun over the treetops, but judging by how bright it's gotten, daytime proper is well underway at this point. I'd guess that I've been following this path for at least two or three hours now... but for all the progress it feels like I've made, I might as well have spent that time walking in place.
I growl quietly in frustration. This is stupid. I was lucky enough to only come across a few small Pokemon during the night, all of which thankfully saw fit to leave me alone, but if I keep going like this and come across an actual threat, I'll be too tired to even attempt to defend myself. I need to rest, at least for a little while.
With this slightly-thin justification in mind, I proceed to wander a few yards off the side of the road and all but collapse against the nearest tree trunk, causing a Weedle that was resting low on the bark to quickly scurry up into the branches above. Propping my feet up as best I can on a nearby root and hoping they'll stop aching soon, I find myself sighing heavily.
Well, if it wasn't already obvious before, at least I'm now very sure that Mawile are not built for long-distance walking. Ambush predators are not intended to be persistence predators, and attempting to imitate one is clearly going to bring me nothing but misery. I really, really need to figure out a faster way to get around than this.
I frown. Actually, I really need to figure out a lot of different things — particularly what exactly I plan on doing in the long run here. I mean, I got out of Bewilder Forest; good. I got away from Paul; great. I'm heading to Jubilife City, where I am significantly less likely to end up as something's lunch; amazing! But what the hell am I doing from that point? What is my long-term plan here, now that I'm more in the know about where I am and what continuity I'm in?
Setting my horns to the side of me, I lean back against the tree, considering my options.
Do I just try to accept this, and attempt to live the best life I can from here on out as a Mawile? Do I go looking for whatever "destiny" I may or may not have been brought here for? Do I attempt to actively defy that destiny by finding someone or something that can make me human again, and maybe send me back to my own world? Or do I do something else entirely?
I don't end up thinking about the question for all that long — much as I honestly wish it was a slightly harder decision, I quickly find myself rather strongly leaning towards option 3.
Sure, there are some cool parts about being in a world of Pokemon, and even about being a Pokemon myself, but overall? I'd give the general experience a major thumbs down. Just yesterday, I was beaten, electrified, and almost eaten, none of which are things I've ever particularly desired to experience. I will happily trade away the ability to bite through a tree for the ability to walk around without having to constantly be on guard for something that might want to make me its next meal.
I grimace. The annoying thing is, I can't even really blame any Pokemon inclined towards seeing me as food. Not without being massively hypocritical at least, since much like me, I'm sure that most of them are ultimately just trying to eat. If I have a choice in the matter however, then I don't particularly want to remain as part of that food chain.
...well, in that case, I suppose I now have a different question to address. Namely, what beings or entities do I know of that exist in the Pokemon universe who could potentially send me back to my own, or at least make me human again if not?
Shifting slightly to lean against my horns, I idly tap a claw against their metallic surface as I think.
The obvious first thought is, of course, Arceus. I'd assume that Pokemon's literal answer to God would be more than capable of remedying my situation, and I'm in the right region to encounter it- er, him? Her? Them?
I shake my head. Arceus has no gender, and probably deserves a capital title, so let's just go with Them. Regardless, Sinnoh is the right place to be to find Them, since Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum were the only games in which Arceus was actually possible to encounter... however, I still have to consider that this isn't the game version of the Pokemon world. As such, Arceus probably isn't just standing around on an ethereal staircase at the top of Mount Coronet, which naturally is going to make finding and pleading my case to Them rather more difficult. I also have no assurance that Arceus would even care enough to help me even if I did find Them, rather than just smiting/Judging me where I stand — I don't recall the Poke-God being particularly nice in the 12th movie until Ash fixes the past, so maybe seeking Arceus out isn't necessarily the best idea.
Alright then, what about Dialga and Palkia? Assuming they both have complete dominion over their associated concepts, either one of them could probably help. Dialga's control over time could rewind me to before I ended up here, both in this world and in this body, and hopefully stop whatever caused it from happening again, while Palkia's control over space could send me back to my home dimension, and presumably make me human again by simply warping my physical form/"space". Like Arceus, they're also conveniently from Sinnoh...
I sigh. But again, not really, because this is the anime-verse, where it's shown that they actually live in their own private dimensions or something. The only time they're seen to come out of those is during the events of the 10th movie, where they emerge to pointlessly fight each other for some reason I can't actually recall, both of them too furious with the other to pay attention to literally anything else around them. Meaning, my chances of being able to talk to them and actually having them listen without getting blasted out of existence in the process are, again, slim-to none. Damn.
I continue thinking in this vein for a few more minutes, silently evaluating any other Pokemon or methods that could potentially help me. It's a surprisingly long list actually, but each option comes with its own issues and drawbacks to consider:
Mew knows every move in existence, including those of other legendaries, and could thus probably work out a way to fix me and get me home with just a little work. It's implied to be rather capricious however, and even assuming that giant tree-thing from the 8th movie was supposed to be its permanent home (which I'm a little unsure of, given that I'm pretty sure Mew was previously implied to live nowhere in particular), I'd probably get obliterated by the guardian Regis before I even made it anywhere close to where Mew resides inside the structure... assuming I could even find the place to begin with, that is. Next.
Celebi has time powers, so I imagine that much like Dialga, it could also potentially rewind me to a point before I both became like this and ended up in this world. Only potentially though, because Celebi has only ever been shown to "travel" through time, not control it. Besides which, while I know it lives in some forest in Johto from the 4th movie, it's also apparently constantly moving through different eras of time, meaning I probably won't be in the right when even if I find the right place. I am not going to sit in the same spot for years on end, hoping that one day I'll get to talk to a specific mythical Pokemon that may never even show up, or necessarily be able to solve my problems even if it does. Next.
Hoopa has dimensional transportation powers, and so at least theoretically could send me back to my home dimension without much real difficulty. Going by its prankster-like nature however, as seen in the... 17th? 18th? movie, it'd be more likely to send me to some other dimension I don't know than back to my own. Not to mention, it lives on some isolated island that I don't even remember the name of (and thus have no way of finding), and doesn't have a fix for me being a Mawile anyways, so I'd still be stuck like this even if it cooperated. Next.
Jirachi can grant wishes, and could presumably fix my problems quite easily by simply playing genie, albeit a more "contemporary" type than the kind Hoopa is based on. I'm not sure if Jirachi can determine specifically how a wish is granted however, or that it even has the power necessary to resolve the kind I'd have to make, given how small scale the only ones it granted in the 7th movie were... and it doesn't really matter, since at this point in the timeline, it's going to be asleep for another thousand years anyways. Next!
The Unown, while being near useless in the games, are shown in the 3rd movie to have extremely strong reality-warping abilities in sufficient numbers. The seemingly unrestricted nature of this power means they'd actually have a better chance of fixing both of my primary issues than almost all of my other options... if not for the fact that, like Dialga and Palkia, they live in a separate dimension to this one. Molly's dad managed to find a connection point between the two, but I have no idea where he was at the time other than "some ruins". Maybe the Ruins of Alph? That would make sense, but even if that's correct, I'd need those little stone tablet things to summon the Unown, and I have no guarantee that they would take a shine to me the way they did Molly — I could just as easily get sucked into their dimension and trapped there like Molly's dad did, possibly forever. Next!
Argh... I think Solgaleo and Lunala can make portals to Ultra Space at will, and to other dimensions from there? I only played the original Pokemon Moon, but I vaguely remember seeing gameplay footage of that from the Ultra version. Unfortunately, that's only assuming that part of the anime lines up with the games — by the time it got to Alola, I was no longer watching it — and even if it does, neither legendary should yet exist, because they're currently a Cosmog/Nebbie, and will be for quite a while. There's still the Ultra Wormholes that popped up on their own I guess, but those were implied to be utterly random in when and where they appeared, so I can't guarantee they'd show up in Alola even if I managed to get there, and that still presents no solution for my current body regardless. Plus there's the fact that the Ultra Beasts themselves may not take kindly to my presence in their dimension, and there's a near-zero chance of finding my own dimension amongst the theoretically countless others. NEXT- oh, what's the point?
I lean back and groan my frustration to the sky. This seems to have quickly turned from a list of potential methods by which to solve my problems, to a list of elaborate ways I could get myself killed or otherwise screwed over in attempting to do so. Couldn't there be a single easy option?
Also, I can't help but notice that one particular issue seems to keep cropping up for pretty much every potential solution I can think of — namely, where to even FIND the solution in question. None of the information from the anime I can recall off the top of my head is exact enough to be particularly helpful in that regard, and even if that wasn't the case, every option I've come up with so far (barring the Unown) is still either a Legendary or Mythical Pokemon, which are known as such not just for their power, but because they're so hidden, secretive, or otherwise hard to find that they're literally considered the stuff of legends and myth. Sure, Ash and company tend to come across them with a ridiculous degree of regularity, but I'm pretty sure that's something that applies to them and only them, not-
I bolt upright.
Hang on. It's still early on in the Diamond and Pearl timeline, right? And assuming that the movies happen in the same continuity as the main series, as they're obviously supposed to, Ash and co are eventually going to encounter a significant number of the Pokemon I just listed off, including Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus. In which case...
As a plan rapidly begins to take shape in my mind, I can't help but to laugh aloud — based on my current line of thought, my best shot at returning to my own universe and body ironically may lie in finding and joining up with this universe's main character, preferably before the events of the 10th and/or 12th movies occur. What kind of a cosmic joke is that?
I make an attempt to calm my humor, though I can't seem to help the small smirk that stubbornly and repeatedly creeps back onto my face. Well, at least the "finding" part shouldn't be too hard — I mean, I saw Ash just yesterday, so he and his current traveling buddies have to be pretty close by. I have no way of knowing exactly how far Paul got from them after he caught me, but they were almost certainly heading in the same direction, so they might even show up on this Route... though, as I noted last night, Ash is infamously bad with directions, so I have no guarantee I'll meet up with him, Dawn, and Brock by just staying on this road.
I shrug. Still, they'll have to make it to Jubilife eventually. As such, I should probably just continue on to the city, which I was planning on doing anyways, and then hide or wait around the local gym until they inevitably show up. Not exactly sure how I'm going to convince them to let me tag along with them just yet, but I'll figure it out when I get there — frankly, I'm just glad to have a better idea of what I'm actually doing now.
My stomach suddenly growls, pulling my thoughts to a different subject. Oh, right, it's got to be past time for breakfast by now. With all the walking I've been doing, I could certainly use the energy, I suppose.
Thankful that I have a less bloody food option available to me for once, I extract the now-somewhat slimy berry container from within the cavity of my horns and set it down on the grass in front of me. While I'm slightly disgusted by the gobs of saliva currently dripping down its sides, upon popping the box's lid open, I find that its interior is thankfully a lot less wet, as are its contents. That's a relief; I'd have hated to have been toting this thing around all night just to find out I'd ruined everything inside it later, simply by virtue of having nowhere else to keep it but within my second mouth.
Carefully setting aside my newly gained Pokedex, I help myself to a Sitrus, bringing the fruit to my normal mouth and biting into its flesh with relish. Luckily, the berry's time in my maw doesn't seem to have affected its taste, the indescribable mix of flavors just as wondrous as those of the Sitruses I had yesterday — something only underscored by how my feet almost immediately stop aching as soon I finish swallowing.
...well, now I feel stupid.
Wiggling my two-toed feet to test that they're truly back in peak condition, I shake my head, wishing that I'd thought of that sooner. I've really got to keep on the lookout for more of these berries in the future, especially if I can find a more convenient way of carrying them around. Even setting aside how good they taste, having a stockpile of edible cure-alls on hand is just too useful to ignore the potential utility of... meaning I should also probably try to conserve the ones I still have, actually.
Promising myself that I won't have more than three, I finish off the rest of the berry and start in on a second. It's just as good as the first one, albeit a little warmer than I'd prefer. How fast do berries go bad once plucked, anyways? Do they go bad at all? In the games you can carry them for a theoretically infinite amount of time and they'll still be perfectly fine, but as that doesn't seem to make much realistic sense, I doubt that feature applies here, and I can't imagine that the warm, rather damp climate of my maw is particularly good for preservation purposes. I can't do anything about that right now, but I'd still like to know, if just to be prepared for the future.
And speaking of preparing for the future...
I fish the Pokeball out of the fur of my "pants", where it's dutifully remained since I stuck it there last night.
Honestly, now that I think about it, it might not be such a great idea to keep carrying this around with me. I'm still glad I took it, since I certainly didn't want to leave it with Paul, but if someone besides me manages to get their hands on this, they could use it just the same as Paul could, and make themselves my "new" trainer. I may know how to escape from this thing now, but it still probably isn't in my best interest to be toting around the tool of my own captivity.
I turn the Pokeball over in my palm. Having this does potentially give me immunity from any other Pokeballs, but I don't think that effect actually depends on me keeping it nearby. In which case, I might as well just leave this thing under a shrub or something, where no one will be likely to ever find it, and be on my merry way.
With this in mind, I turn to a rather thick-looking bush on my left and lightly lob the spherical device to land underneath it, never to be seen again.
-only for the ball to suddenly enlarge as soon as it hits the ground, then open itself and eject a brilliant flash of white light. Startled, I nearly conk the back of my head on the tree behind me as I scramble to my feet, watching wide-eyed as the light rapidly coalesces into a small, familiar form.
"...huh?" Chimchar says, briefly looking from side to side before his gaze settles on me. "Wait, what's going on?"
For a moment, all I can do is stare back at him in shock. Then I look down, close my eyes, and slowly move my hands over my face.
This chapter was going to be a good bit longer, mostly so as to give it a bit more substance beyond Mawile!me's rather extensive thought process, but I'm becoming increasingly sure that would end up making it too long, so I decided to cut it here. Next one will be a little more... er, more. Promise. ^^;
A huge thanks to @Pheonix14 and my two other patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives a trip ticket to the habitat of a Legendary or Mythical Pokemon of their choice... careful though, it's only one-way. 🐉
Jirachi can grant wishes, and could presumably fix my problems quite easily by simply playing genie — a more "contemporate" type than the kind Hoopa is based on, that is. I'm not sure if Jirachi can determine specifically how a wish is granted however, or that it even has the power necessary to resolve the kind I'd have to make, given how small scale the only ones it granted in the 7th movie were... and it doesn't really matter, since at this point in the anime timeline, it's going to be asleep for another thousand years anyways. Next!
Also, wasn't Jirachi only shown to be capable of mass teleportation in the movie rather than true wish granting? Or am I misremembering? Been a long time since I've seen it
Also, wasn't Jirachi only shown to be capable of mass teleportation in the movie rather than true wish granting? Or am I misremembering? Been a long time since I've seen it
Movie Jirachi mostly does teleporting but also creates a monstrous fake Groudon once. According to Bulbapedia, it's being used as a power source (slash conduit for the power of the comet that woke it up), so the machinery is just for forcing it to try. Unclear whether it would be able to do non-teleporty wishes without such horrible results.
where to even FIND the solution in question. None of the information from the anime I can recall off the top of my head is exact enough to be particularly helpful in that regard,
This is something I think a lot of inserts forget.
Orienteering is a lot more difficult than it initially seems.
Most stories don't actually have good directions to anything laid out in a usable way, and even finding the MC's house can be impossible if you don't know the address.
Saying "I'm going to find the Secret Treasure Hoard" sounds good until you realize your knowledge is "somewhere in the gigantic forest."
-only for the ball to suddenly enlarge as soon as it hits the ground, then open itself and eject a brilliant flash of white light. Startled, I nearly conk the back of my head on the tree behind me as I scramble to my feet, watching wide-eyed as the light rapidly coalesces into a small, familiar form.
"...huh?" Chimchar says, briefly looking from side to side before his gaze settles on me. "Wait, what's going on?"
For a moment, all I can do is stare back at him in shock. Then I look down, close my eyes, and slowly move my hands over my face.
