Chapter 38- Wish Maker, aggravation, and alarm
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
Pretty much the entire room gave the equivalent of a confused blink.
"What...?" Dragon asked, apparently being the first person to recover from their confusion. "They're spirits?"
"Yes." Eon agreed, still staring at the screen. The Deoxys had moved around once again, still cradling the Jirachi to their chest, and seemed to be scanning the area. It surprised Eon that they hadn't noticed the camera, given that rumours were that Deoxys could use electromagnetic waves to communicate, but maybe they were ignoring the drone as non-hostile? Or perhaps they could tell what it did.
"Where exactly are they?" Shadow questioned, frowning. "It would probably be best if Eon and I went to greet them. They'll recognise us- well, not us, but they'll recognise our species, so they're more likely to take us as friendly and let us explain things."
"They're on Devon Island." Dragon told her, probably glancing at something in her helmet. Or possibly just knowing where the camera was instinctively, depending on how her abilities as a machine being worked. "It's a mostly uninhabited island, due to the fact that having Leviathan roaming around has shown in the past that small islands aren't the safest places to be living, so it's unlikely that these spirits are going to be found by anyone else."
"Excellent." Eon nodded. "Is there any way we can get some sort of plane out there? We can continue talking some other way, but I think it'd be best if we got moving as soon as possible to make sure that they're safe. Jirachi... they're incredibly powerful, and while there's limits to that power for safety reasons, I don't want them to feel the need to defend themselves against an opponent. And then there's Deoxys."
"I have one of my crafts on the roof of the building." Dragon assured them, sending one more glance at the monitor before starting to lead the way out of the room. Eon and Shadow both paused for a moment to nod to the technicians and bow to the Director and the two Capes in the room, then followed her out, each adjusting their bags as they did. "We can take that. Should be able to get there in an hour or so, assuming nothing goes wrong. I'll file for flight plans and that on the way, to minimise the time."
"Ah, good." Eon smiled, giving Shadow a worried look. As they walked, fading into silence since no-one wanted to risk the possibility of someone else overhearing what was going on- not that it was likely anyone else could get to Jirachi and Deoxys before them, but there was still a risk no matter what- Eon took out the burner phone from his bag and held it with Extrasensory.
Something's come up, we're heading out. Keep an eye on things, will fill you in when we get back.
Ok, no problem. Nothing going on so far, staying sorta near base so I can run for your go-bags if we need them. Stay safe?
Always.
It didn't take long to get to the roof, and even less time to settle into the Dragoncraft- it was the same one that they used for heading to the Simurgh Zones, so both of them just headed for the couches that they'd claimed as 'theirs' and lay along them, leaving their bags at the base of the seat- and Dragon went straight into the pilots cabin and started the engine.
"I've set up a call to the room we were just in." She announced over the speakers as it rumbled into the air. "So go ahead and keep filling things in. Trust me, it's secure."
"Good." Eon nodded to the air. "Is there anything you'd like me to talk about?"
"What exactly are these two?" Director Piggot's voice asked. "You gave us titles, but what are they?"
"Both of them are somewhat mysteries, even to us, but we'll do our best to tell you what we know." He promised. "Deoxys, first. They're a spirit from space, essentially an alien even to us, and travels on meteorites for the most part. The crystal in their chest appears to be the main body of them, and they can communicate via and see electromagnetic waves."
"It doesn't seem to have detected the cameras we're using." Armsmaster noted.
Eon shrugged. "Perhaps your technology has something to it that they can't trace. It's Tinkertech, after all. Or maybe they've seen it, but aren't regarding it as any sort of threat."
Privately, he doubted that, since that Deoxys was guarding the Jirachi in that way, but it was still possible, so he put it forward anyway. Eon thought for a moment more, then decided not to mention any of the weaknesses they had; even if the communication was secure, he wouldn't want to be the one risking a Jirachi just because he'd told people that Deoxys could be disoriented or even blinded if there were too many electromagnetic waves around them.
"But aside from that, there isn't much more."
"Jirachi, though." Shadow sat up a little, halfway to her Talekeeper pose again, and Eon spent a moment ruefully reflecting on the fact that she'd been using that much more here on Bet than she'd ever done back home in Alma. "Jirachi is a mythical spirit, one of incredible power. They are the Wish Maker, and that means exactly what it says; they grant wishes. How varies from tale to tale, or perhaps from Jirachi to Jirachi; some require a quality to be met in the person they speak to, a clear voice or a noble soul, kindness and compassion. Some require a challenge be completed first; a test of skill and resolve, or even a battle against them directly. I know of a few that merely require you write the wish on one of their tags; possibly the most difficult, since they can escape you if they want. One is known to use the power of a comet, awakening only even one thousand years, and needing a friend that they can trust to be able to keep them safe when they wake up. That one is the most powerful, and thus the most dangerous, but any Wish Maker can be dangerous if they choose." She smiled, a little regretfully. "Not all of them know when a person is good, after all."
"Jirachi is powerful, and thus a myth, and for good reason." Eon added. "We've heard stories before about the Star Cave, and the Jirachi that waits there. That one requires a battle against the person wanting to make a wish, and from what I understand of that story, it was quite the battle. We have no way of knowing what sort of test this Jirachi would want, though, until we meet them."
"Star Cave?" Someone asked- lowly enough that it probably wasn't supposed to be a question that they heard, but the microphones picked it up anyway, and with a glance at Shadow, Eon nodded.
"A place from a region near our home. Sinah." He told them. "It was an interesting tale to hear, and one we were both glad to add to our collection of stories."
"I... see." Director Piggot said, slowly. Clearly she remembered Sinah from the incident with the Time Gear, and at a guess probably didn't want to think about that for too long, so Shadow moved things along.
"Some Jirachi have some kind of protector with them- not all, not even a lot, but some of them. That's why we're saying that Deoxys is the guardian here. They're job is to keep the Jirachi safe, especially when they're in their resting form."
"Jirachi can't grant wishes continuously, they need rest to recharge the power." Eon jumped in, before anyone could ask. "The bigger the wish, the more power it'd take. If it takes too much power, they form a crystal shell to rest. It looks like a meteorite, but they can still use some of their power to defend themselves or travel. That's likely what happened here; the Jirachi was travelling, the Deoxys was with them either in their own form or attached to the shell in some way, and the two of them ended up here."
How that had happened was a completely different matter, and one that Eon was extremely keen on exploring, because it made no sense up until he started wondering about a lot of other things, and then it just made a bit too much sense and lined up with some other things far too well.
Explanation A; Hoopa. Why Hoopa would send them a Jirachi and a Deoxys, he had no idea, but if it was him, then at least it made sense that they were here.
Explanation B; Bet and their world were a lot more closely linked in some way than they had originally known, and somehow a travelling Jirachi had managed to fly all the way through space and ended up on Bet. Personally Eon thought that this being a coincidence was bullshit of the highest order, but it could happen. He just thought it was more likely that they'd've ended up somewhere else first and probably settled down there.
Explanation C; something to do with a wish. He wasn't sure if that was the most or least likely explanation, since it being a wish implied that it was someone who knew about Bet, and that would imply Hoopa and Hoopa only, leading back to explanation A all over again. But there was also the possibility that the wish had been something extremely vague, had never mentioned Bet at all, and it was just pure luck that they'd ended up there after a wish.
Speculating was pretty much worthless, though, given that in less than an hour they'd be meeting the two of them in person, all being well, so they could just ask them then. Hopefully they'd actually get a straight answer out of them, because there was always a chance that they'd lie, but that was a bridge to cross when they got to it.
And maybe burn, if things turned into a fight, but Eon hoped it wouldn't get that far.
Emily excused herself for a moment after Eon finished speaking, heading out of the conference room that they'd taken over to use for monitoring and moving herself into the office next door. While the call was still ongoing, and would be up until the point that Inari and Dragon arrived at the island in order to meet with those spirits, there were enough people currently in the room that she didn't have any real issue missing some of the conversation. She could get Hannah to bring her up to speed if needs be.
Once she was sure the security in the room was up and the door was locked, she sat down heavily and buried her face in her hands, allowing herself a moment of weakness that she couldn't really afford, but had to take anyway before she started shouting at people.
Possibly Inari, based on everything else going on.
And given that she could not afford to offend Inari by accident with her stress-filled shouting, Emily much preferred taking a moment to herself instead.
An Endbringer attack is due any week now, the gangs are being strange for no apparent reason, there was an explosion last month that we still don't really know anything about aside from the fact that the ABB and Empire decided that that warehouse needed to be gone, the god-damn Chief Director has been bitching at me about what we did with the Time Gear ever since she looked at that report, apparently the Slaughterhouse fucking Nine is going to be showing their faces around here at some point in the future, and now there's this. She mentally ranted, pressing her hands to her forehead and staring down at the table. And now there's this bullshit that I'm inevitably going to need to write up a report on for the Chief and probably also for the Thinkers to take a look at, assuming that they're able to get anything out of apparently mythical spirits showing up on Bet that Inari recognises and knows are incredibly powerful. Probably powerful enough for them to block Thinkers if they wanted to, let's be honest here. And Costa-Brown is likely going to want to try and get these two onto the Protectorate's roll somehow, nevermind the fact that they're more likely to want to hang about with Inari because they're similar beings or whatever the hell is going on there.
"Why is this city fucking cursed." She asked herself aloud, despairing. "Inari is here, the Empire is here, the ABB is here, the Merchants are here, and now we're apparently about to get two more magical bullshit spirits of super powerful everything that're going to start wandering around the city getting dinner with other heroes, signing autographs, and generally being really goddamn weird when compared to every Cape in existence. Why are these people here. Why can't they be gathering literally anywhere else. Why does it need to be my goddamn city that they decide to gather in to do their crap."
She sighed, slowly. It was as much of a release of stress as she could afford right now, given everything that was going on in the other room, she wouldn't be able to go down to the gym and punch something. Honestly it might be a good idea to get her heart checked out by Panacea or something, or at the very least maybe arrange for herself to be on the edge of one of Shadow's healing waves to make sure that nothing was going to go wrong. Brockton Bay was cursed as fuck, but it really couldn't afford a new Director taking over when they were still dealing with all of this. Maybe once things had calmed down a bit, she could finally fucking retire and make it someone else's problem.
Emily had no idea what she'd do with a retirement, but at this point, that was a problem for her future self. She'd be happy to just get to the point where that was an option, honestly, with everything that was going on.
Maybe she could make a wish for it.
Emily snorted. Wishes. She thought. Forty years ago and that would've been a complete joke of a phrase. Hell, even five, ten years ago, this would probably have been a joke. And now apparently we've got a super myth being from space and it's magical space guardian showing up a little ways away with magical wish granting powers that apparently work by right of combat or the power of fucking friendship or something. I need a fucking drink.
She sighed again. "I hate this city." She muttered.
After several long minutes of merely staring at the table and pretending that the clusterfuck going on in the next room wasn't, Emily hauled herself to her feet, took another moment to try and centre herself so that she hopefully wasn't going to go insane at anyone, and headed back into the main room.
"-Kely that we would need to try and befriend the Deoxys first, before we'll even be able to make an attempt at Jirachi." Shadow was saying as she walked in. "Deoxys is their guardian, in this case, so we'll need to be able to convince them that we're not a threat to Jirachi before we're able to speak to Jirachi themself."
"What exactly does this guardian thing entail?" Hannah asked, sounding concerned. "It seems important..."
"It is and it isn't." Eon said in return, and even though he was on a craft miles away Emily could visualise the shrug that he gave. "It's important because they're guarding someone who's very powerful, and could potentially be in danger or dangerous. But in truth it's not so different than an escort mission, just keeping an eye on a client."
"Potentially dangerous?" Emily queried, making her way to stand between the two Capes.
"Naturally." Shadow sounded faintly amused. "Jirachi is a Wish Maker, but more importantly; they're Mythical. They're powerful. Not so powerful as something like Dialga, per say, but powerful."
Emily, Hannah, and Colin all winced, remembering what Dialga was very clearly, and Shadow continued, "So yes, they could be dangerous and in danger. In danger, because it's possible for Jirachi to be attacked in an attempt to force some form of battle, but dangerous, because they're incredibly powerful in more ways than just being a Wish Maker. If someone attacked Jirachi, there's a good chance that they would retaliate, and if they had to retaliate, they could cause a lot of damage with their Moves if things went wrong."
"I... see." Emily said slowly. "So this Deoxys is there to keep Jirachi safe, but also keep others safe from them?"
"Pretty much, yes." Eon replied. "It's actually fairly unusual that the guardian P-spirit is a similarly mythical being, though. Deoxys is pretty powerful as well, so any fight that happens with any of them is going to be dangerous. But since Deoxys is also a space-farer, that's probably why the two of them are sticking together." Eon hummed, quietly. "To be fair, though, guardians in general in this fashion are a little rare, nowadays. Teams and Guilds like ours became more common, so a lot of spirits rely more on that than guardians. And mythical or legendary spirits tended to retreat into Dungeons where it was difficult for most others to find them, which made it less necessary for guardians as well."
"That's..." Colin seemed to be attempting to find something to say to that, but failed miserably. "I see." He said instead.
Eon huffed out a laugh. "Regardless, to return to the topic, we'll need to persuade Deoxys that we don't mean any harm before we'll be able to talk directly with Jirachi, but hopefully we'll be able to give both of them a quick explanation of what's going on on this world so that they'll be safe even if they don't decide to come with us."
I desperately hope that they decide to go with you. Emily couldn't help but think. I can take another two mystery beings in my city if I have to. I don't think I could take it if two massively powerful creatures were just wandering around the world wherever they wanted without any sort of support or monitoring. My heart couldn't take it, and I'm fairly sure the Costa-Brown would end up going insane.
Dragon couldn't help but feel incredibly nervous as she started lowering her craft into a nearby clearing. There was no way that the Jirachi and Deoxys had managed to miss their ship coming in for a landing, but the others back in Brockton Bay had said that the two of them were still exactly where they had been when they'd arrived, still ignoring the camera, and while they'd looked up as the craft came closer, neither had made to leave. It worried her slightly, given what Eon and Shadow had been saying about them on the way over, but she was hopeful that nothing would go wrong.
"Ok, we're here." She announced, as things settled. "Would you like me to come with you, or should I stay here?"
"Feel free to come along." Shadow beamed, looking up at one of the cameras. "Deoxys and Jirachi are the kind of spirits that wouldn't have any trouble with someone a little more unusual."
Dragon froze for a moment, trying to figure out what she meant, while Eon winked at the same camera and added, "While they might not be too used to humans, they'll adapt quickly. We all do."
Was that just an innocent comment about humans not being common in their world, or a veiled reference to my nature? She couldn't help but wonder, as she stood from her seat and started out into the main room of her aircraft. It was difficult to tell, with Inari. Sometimes it seemed like they were totally innocent in regards to knowing about what she was, but sometimes it seemed like they knew exactly what she was.
Especially given the incident with the Time Gear. Shadow refusing to tell any of them what she saw made her feel a little nervous, given what everyone else had seen, and if it hadn't been for the call going on in the plane- and possibly Eon, given that she didn't know what he'd been told after Inari had left- she would've asked Shadow what she'd seen. But the way that Shadow had been acting after the vision, the way that she'd explained things about the machine spirits of their world, made Dragon feel like there was a lot more to it than just saying how things were different there.
Perhaps on the way back, if there wasn't any calls going on, she might ask Shadow if she would be willing to come into the pilots cabin so that she could ask her. Unless she was needed to speak with Deoxys and Jirachi, but Dragon expected that Eon would be able to deal with it alone fine.
"Ready?" She asked, as they made their way to the door, Shadow drifting naturally into her usual spot at Eon's side. Dragon stood a little ways behind them both, since the other side was apparently Swarm's side, and she didn't want to accidentally intrude on things there, and internally started making preparations to end the call while making sure to record the entire encounter.
"Of course." Eon nodded, shifting slightly on his paws. "We'll hopefully be able to report back a decent success."
"Best of luck to you." Director Piggot said. Dragon ended the call then, opening the doors at the same time.
They'd landed a little way away from the place the two spirits were, so the three of them had to walk over to them. That at least had the advantage of both sides being able to see each other as they approached, and Deoxys' form turned somewhat sharply towards them, still cradling the Jirachi in their arm against their chest.
Dragon couldn't contain her gasp when the spirit shimmered, a lilac sheen flickering across their body, and the bulky form abruptly shifted. Now, they were much thinner and sleeker, with only two tendrils; one blue, and one orange. The orange armour that had coated their body had moved, covering only the head and forming two bands at the top of their legs. The rest of them was a black colour, and the lilac thing in the centre of their chest was much more clearly visible, showing that it was some sort of crystal. The head was similar, but with two pointed 'ears' on either side, and when it crouched down, she could see a long spike trailed from the back of it.
"What-?"
"Deoxys can change formes." Shadow explained, a little tersely. "The one you saw before was the Defence forme. This one's Speed."
"I take it that there's more?"
"Normal forme focuses on being well rounded, Attack forme focuses on damage. The other two are Defence and Speed, as you might guess."
Eon silenced both of them with a tail, glancing back, then straightened a little. "Deoxys, Jirachi, greetings." He called, stopping in place. Shadow immediately stopped as well, and Dragon hesitated mid-step for a moment before stepping back.
'Demand. Require identification.'
Dragon gasped again at the feeling of a voice pressing into her mind. She shuddered. It felt disturbing, the words being projected directly into her mind instead of coming through the microphones on the suit, binding themselves into the coding that handles audio inputs with no regard. The words seemed to have more information to them than what was said, as well, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was- she knew it was there, at least vaguely, but the meaning felt somewhat incomplete.
Eon seemed completely unaffected, however. "My name is Eon, the leader of Rescue Team Inari, from Alma. My second in command is Shadow, also a Talekeeper in training. The person behind me is Dragon, a member of the Guild, from a country called Canada. They're a native to this world, part of a type of policing force here. None of us mean you any harm."
'Demand. State purpose.'
"We noticed your arrival here due to some camera systems that are set up to monitor a being that stays on the edge of space." Eon said. "Originally Inari was called in to potentially help identify you, and when we did we were asked to come and meet you to explain the situation on this world."
'Information required.' Deoxys returned, slowly standing up. They were still holding Jirachi to their chest, but they at least didn't seem like they were about to flee.
"The world that you're on is Earth Bet. The main species here are humans, and there's no sign that our kind have ever existed at all. Rather than regions their world is split into a large number of various countries, each with their own leaders. Approximately forty years ago, a being known as Scion arrived, and after that, people began getting powers in events called Triggers. These people are known as Parahumans, or Capes, and some of them work in groups similar to Guild teams, while others are more like Outlaws. Additionally, there are things called Endbringers, which attack on a cycle and cause massive devastation, which Parahumans fight with."
'Danger?'
"For normal humans and beings like us, they're pretty dangerous." Eon agreed. "Someone of your power, though, or Jirachi's, probably wouldn't have too much trouble with them."
Oh that's not terrifying at all. Dragon couldn't help but think. The idea that Eon considered the Endbringers to be pretty dangerous to them, given what they'd managed to do to Leviathan? Sure, Eon had been hurt pretty badly at the end of the fight, but both of them had still done more actual, physical damage to Leviathan than anyone had ever managed since they'd first appeared.
And these two spirits wouldn't consider them much trouble?
'Curiosity.'
'None of that sounds very good.' Dragon startled again as another voice joined the conversation. This one was much more comprehensive, without the feeling that the words were being compressed, and sounded... young. Almost child-like. It was also distinctly male, defined in a way that Deoxys' voice had lacked. 'Deoxys, lemme go.'
Slowly, almost reluctantly, Deoxys uncurled their tendril from around the spirit they were holding, letting Jirachi float out. Up close, he seemed even smaller than he had on the camera, hovering in the air before them with the cloak-like streamers rippling in an invisible breeze. There were two small triangles under his eyes, too small for the camera to have seen at its distance, that almost made it look like he was crying.
"Wish Maker Jirachi." Shadow greeted, giving him- presumably, anyway, given the voice- a small smile.
'Hello, Talekeeper Shadow.' He smiled in return. 'It's an honour to meet you. Perhaps we could trade stories sometime.'
'Irritation.'
'Shush.' Jirachi gave Deoxys a small glare, then floated down to Eon's level and held out a hand. 'And it's good to meet you too, Inari Leader Eon. Thank you for coming to meet us. We weren't very sure where we were, but Deoxys thought that they'd felt something watching us, so we figured we should wait around and see if anyone came.'
"Seems like it'd be a risk, if we were hostile." Dragon pointed out, making Jirachi blink and look up at her.
'Deoxys is very fast, and good at defending me.' He replied. 'We could get away.'
'Query. Request for identification.'
Dragon winced a little. "As Eon said, my name's Dragon. I'm a member of the Guild, a Canadian Parahuman group that works internationally dealing with Parahuman threats of various kinds. I tend to work a little more closely with the American Parahuman Response Team, and these last few months I've been working in Brockton Bay a lot with Inari."
'Understanding. Reiteration; request for identification?'
She paused. "I'm... afraid I don't understand what you want?" All four of the spirits blinked at that.
"They're asking what you are." Eon told her. "It's... pretty clear?"
"I didn't get that at all." Dragon responded. "Just... 'request for identification'."
"Interesting..." Shadow murmured, making Dragon look down at her. "And to answer, she's a Parahuman from here. A lot of Parahumans have armour, usually the ones called Tinkers; they build things, like armoured suits. This one's Dragon's."
'Understanding. Request for information; unit connections?'
Again, Dragon didn't quite understand what they were asking, but Shadow spoke up, "Dragon often uses remote control to link to her suits so she can be further away from them. That's probably what you're sensing."
Deoxys seemed a little dissatisfied with that answer, but the sound of an incredibly loud beeping from the craft- loud enough to be heard even as far away as they were- made all of them stop, Dragon starting to search through her databanks to find out what that alert was.
'Is something wrong?' Jirachi asked, moments before an almost deafening alarm went off, making all of them wince even as Dragon, Eon and Shadow turned towards the craft.
"Endbringer!" Eon growled, lowering himself down slightly before shaking himself. "That's one of the creatures we told you about, the dangerous ones- Dragon, which one is it?"
"Behemoth, apparently." She told him, looking over the readouts of her devices. "Seismic activity detected around 30 seconds ago, consistent with the activity for when Behemoth starts to move, and it's his turn on the attack cycle."
"A little early, isn't he?"
Eon ignored his second in command easily, looking over at Jirachi and Deoxys instead. "I understand that you don't have a lot of reason to, given that you've only just arrived here and don't really know much about this place, but would you consider joining up with us in this fight? Our team in this world is only the two of us and one Parahuman, a friend of ours called Swarm, and this fight is going to be incredibly dangerous for just about everyone else here. Your assistance could save a lot of lives."
Jirachi and Deoxys exchanged a look, then nodded. 'Always wondered what it was like being a Rescue Pokemon.' Jirachi admitted, as they started hurrying for the craft. Dragon directed the camera drones that they'd sent here originally to follow them as well, storing them in one of the compartments while everyone else clambered into the back.
She went straight for the cabin, already directing the liftoff sequence before she'd even arrived, and tuned into the cameras in the other room.
"Do we have a projected target?" Eon asked, sitting on his couch with his tails curled around Shadow. The kitsune had a phone out, seemingly texting someone, and was also rummaging through her bag at the same time.
"Not yet, but we're already working to narrow it down." She told them. "It might take a while. It's looking like it'll be somewhere in or near Asia, at least."
"That'll be one hell of a flight."
"We're not heading there. We're going to the nearest teleport gathering and meeting Strider there."
"I'm gonna be on healing with Amy again. Eon, I guess you'll be in combat if you can figure out a good way to do it, Swarm's on search and rescue, so Jirachi, Deoxys?"
If either of them replied, Dragon didn't hear it, and she mimicked clearing her throat. "Can either of you two speak up? I didn't get that, and if I have the information I can start passing it on to other people." She was already coordinating a large number of her suits to start heading for teleport areas, as well as helping to oversee the distribution of the armbands, but getting more information about things wasn't much of a strain.
'Sorry.' Jirachi said. 'I can speak aloud, but telepathy's easier, and Deoxys can't at all.' Dragon froze, taking a moment to absorb the fact that apparently these spirits were telepathic, as Jirachi added, 'Deoxys and I are both going to be working with the attackers. We're not totally sure what we'll be able to do yet, but a lot of my attacks are ranged. Deoxys might also move in and out of search and rescue, since they're fast, and maybe some sort of defensive option if we need to contain things a bit. Their formes make them really good at what they do.'
"I... see."
'Query. Designation, battle?'
There was again the feeling of some form of nuance that she couldn't quite understand, but apparently the question wasn't directed at her anyway, because when she glanced through the craft's internal cameras, Eon was giving a wide, fanged smirk.
"No. This is a fight, for certain."
"What...?" Dragon asked, apparently being the first person to recover from their confusion. "They're spirits?"
"Yes." Eon agreed, still staring at the screen. The Deoxys had moved around once again, still cradling the Jirachi to their chest, and seemed to be scanning the area. It surprised Eon that they hadn't noticed the camera, given that rumours were that Deoxys could use electromagnetic waves to communicate, but maybe they were ignoring the drone as non-hostile? Or perhaps they could tell what it did.
"Where exactly are they?" Shadow questioned, frowning. "It would probably be best if Eon and I went to greet them. They'll recognise us- well, not us, but they'll recognise our species, so they're more likely to take us as friendly and let us explain things."
"They're on Devon Island." Dragon told her, probably glancing at something in her helmet. Or possibly just knowing where the camera was instinctively, depending on how her abilities as a machine being worked. "It's a mostly uninhabited island, due to the fact that having Leviathan roaming around has shown in the past that small islands aren't the safest places to be living, so it's unlikely that these spirits are going to be found by anyone else."
"Excellent." Eon nodded. "Is there any way we can get some sort of plane out there? We can continue talking some other way, but I think it'd be best if we got moving as soon as possible to make sure that they're safe. Jirachi... they're incredibly powerful, and while there's limits to that power for safety reasons, I don't want them to feel the need to defend themselves against an opponent. And then there's Deoxys."
"I have one of my crafts on the roof of the building." Dragon assured them, sending one more glance at the monitor before starting to lead the way out of the room. Eon and Shadow both paused for a moment to nod to the technicians and bow to the Director and the two Capes in the room, then followed her out, each adjusting their bags as they did. "We can take that. Should be able to get there in an hour or so, assuming nothing goes wrong. I'll file for flight plans and that on the way, to minimise the time."
"Ah, good." Eon smiled, giving Shadow a worried look. As they walked, fading into silence since no-one wanted to risk the possibility of someone else overhearing what was going on- not that it was likely anyone else could get to Jirachi and Deoxys before them, but there was still a risk no matter what- Eon took out the burner phone from his bag and held it with Extrasensory.
Something's come up, we're heading out. Keep an eye on things, will fill you in when we get back.
Ok, no problem. Nothing going on so far, staying sorta near base so I can run for your go-bags if we need them. Stay safe?
Always.
It didn't take long to get to the roof, and even less time to settle into the Dragoncraft- it was the same one that they used for heading to the Simurgh Zones, so both of them just headed for the couches that they'd claimed as 'theirs' and lay along them, leaving their bags at the base of the seat- and Dragon went straight into the pilots cabin and started the engine.
"I've set up a call to the room we were just in." She announced over the speakers as it rumbled into the air. "So go ahead and keep filling things in. Trust me, it's secure."
"Good." Eon nodded to the air. "Is there anything you'd like me to talk about?"
"What exactly are these two?" Director Piggot's voice asked. "You gave us titles, but what are they?"
"Both of them are somewhat mysteries, even to us, but we'll do our best to tell you what we know." He promised. "Deoxys, first. They're a spirit from space, essentially an alien even to us, and travels on meteorites for the most part. The crystal in their chest appears to be the main body of them, and they can communicate via and see electromagnetic waves."
"It doesn't seem to have detected the cameras we're using." Armsmaster noted.
Eon shrugged. "Perhaps your technology has something to it that they can't trace. It's Tinkertech, after all. Or maybe they've seen it, but aren't regarding it as any sort of threat."
Privately, he doubted that, since that Deoxys was guarding the Jirachi in that way, but it was still possible, so he put it forward anyway. Eon thought for a moment more, then decided not to mention any of the weaknesses they had; even if the communication was secure, he wouldn't want to be the one risking a Jirachi just because he'd told people that Deoxys could be disoriented or even blinded if there were too many electromagnetic waves around them.
"But aside from that, there isn't much more."
"Jirachi, though." Shadow sat up a little, halfway to her Talekeeper pose again, and Eon spent a moment ruefully reflecting on the fact that she'd been using that much more here on Bet than she'd ever done back home in Alma. "Jirachi is a mythical spirit, one of incredible power. They are the Wish Maker, and that means exactly what it says; they grant wishes. How varies from tale to tale, or perhaps from Jirachi to Jirachi; some require a quality to be met in the person they speak to, a clear voice or a noble soul, kindness and compassion. Some require a challenge be completed first; a test of skill and resolve, or even a battle against them directly. I know of a few that merely require you write the wish on one of their tags; possibly the most difficult, since they can escape you if they want. One is known to use the power of a comet, awakening only even one thousand years, and needing a friend that they can trust to be able to keep them safe when they wake up. That one is the most powerful, and thus the most dangerous, but any Wish Maker can be dangerous if they choose." She smiled, a little regretfully. "Not all of them know when a person is good, after all."
"Jirachi is powerful, and thus a myth, and for good reason." Eon added. "We've heard stories before about the Star Cave, and the Jirachi that waits there. That one requires a battle against the person wanting to make a wish, and from what I understand of that story, it was quite the battle. We have no way of knowing what sort of test this Jirachi would want, though, until we meet them."
"Star Cave?" Someone asked- lowly enough that it probably wasn't supposed to be a question that they heard, but the microphones picked it up anyway, and with a glance at Shadow, Eon nodded.
"A place from a region near our home. Sinah." He told them. "It was an interesting tale to hear, and one we were both glad to add to our collection of stories."
"I... see." Director Piggot said, slowly. Clearly she remembered Sinah from the incident with the Time Gear, and at a guess probably didn't want to think about that for too long, so Shadow moved things along.
"Some Jirachi have some kind of protector with them- not all, not even a lot, but some of them. That's why we're saying that Deoxys is the guardian here. They're job is to keep the Jirachi safe, especially when they're in their resting form."
"Jirachi can't grant wishes continuously, they need rest to recharge the power." Eon jumped in, before anyone could ask. "The bigger the wish, the more power it'd take. If it takes too much power, they form a crystal shell to rest. It looks like a meteorite, but they can still use some of their power to defend themselves or travel. That's likely what happened here; the Jirachi was travelling, the Deoxys was with them either in their own form or attached to the shell in some way, and the two of them ended up here."
How that had happened was a completely different matter, and one that Eon was extremely keen on exploring, because it made no sense up until he started wondering about a lot of other things, and then it just made a bit too much sense and lined up with some other things far too well.
Explanation A; Hoopa. Why Hoopa would send them a Jirachi and a Deoxys, he had no idea, but if it was him, then at least it made sense that they were here.
Explanation B; Bet and their world were a lot more closely linked in some way than they had originally known, and somehow a travelling Jirachi had managed to fly all the way through space and ended up on Bet. Personally Eon thought that this being a coincidence was bullshit of the highest order, but it could happen. He just thought it was more likely that they'd've ended up somewhere else first and probably settled down there.
Explanation C; something to do with a wish. He wasn't sure if that was the most or least likely explanation, since it being a wish implied that it was someone who knew about Bet, and that would imply Hoopa and Hoopa only, leading back to explanation A all over again. But there was also the possibility that the wish had been something extremely vague, had never mentioned Bet at all, and it was just pure luck that they'd ended up there after a wish.
Speculating was pretty much worthless, though, given that in less than an hour they'd be meeting the two of them in person, all being well, so they could just ask them then. Hopefully they'd actually get a straight answer out of them, because there was always a chance that they'd lie, but that was a bridge to cross when they got to it.
And maybe burn, if things turned into a fight, but Eon hoped it wouldn't get that far.
Emily excused herself for a moment after Eon finished speaking, heading out of the conference room that they'd taken over to use for monitoring and moving herself into the office next door. While the call was still ongoing, and would be up until the point that Inari and Dragon arrived at the island in order to meet with those spirits, there were enough people currently in the room that she didn't have any real issue missing some of the conversation. She could get Hannah to bring her up to speed if needs be.
Once she was sure the security in the room was up and the door was locked, she sat down heavily and buried her face in her hands, allowing herself a moment of weakness that she couldn't really afford, but had to take anyway before she started shouting at people.
Possibly Inari, based on everything else going on.
And given that she could not afford to offend Inari by accident with her stress-filled shouting, Emily much preferred taking a moment to herself instead.
An Endbringer attack is due any week now, the gangs are being strange for no apparent reason, there was an explosion last month that we still don't really know anything about aside from the fact that the ABB and Empire decided that that warehouse needed to be gone, the god-damn Chief Director has been bitching at me about what we did with the Time Gear ever since she looked at that report, apparently the Slaughterhouse fucking Nine is going to be showing their faces around here at some point in the future, and now there's this. She mentally ranted, pressing her hands to her forehead and staring down at the table. And now there's this bullshit that I'm inevitably going to need to write up a report on for the Chief and probably also for the Thinkers to take a look at, assuming that they're able to get anything out of apparently mythical spirits showing up on Bet that Inari recognises and knows are incredibly powerful. Probably powerful enough for them to block Thinkers if they wanted to, let's be honest here. And Costa-Brown is likely going to want to try and get these two onto the Protectorate's roll somehow, nevermind the fact that they're more likely to want to hang about with Inari because they're similar beings or whatever the hell is going on there.
"Why is this city fucking cursed." She asked herself aloud, despairing. "Inari is here, the Empire is here, the ABB is here, the Merchants are here, and now we're apparently about to get two more magical bullshit spirits of super powerful everything that're going to start wandering around the city getting dinner with other heroes, signing autographs, and generally being really goddamn weird when compared to every Cape in existence. Why are these people here. Why can't they be gathering literally anywhere else. Why does it need to be my goddamn city that they decide to gather in to do their crap."
She sighed, slowly. It was as much of a release of stress as she could afford right now, given everything that was going on in the other room, she wouldn't be able to go down to the gym and punch something. Honestly it might be a good idea to get her heart checked out by Panacea or something, or at the very least maybe arrange for herself to be on the edge of one of Shadow's healing waves to make sure that nothing was going to go wrong. Brockton Bay was cursed as fuck, but it really couldn't afford a new Director taking over when they were still dealing with all of this. Maybe once things had calmed down a bit, she could finally fucking retire and make it someone else's problem.
Emily had no idea what she'd do with a retirement, but at this point, that was a problem for her future self. She'd be happy to just get to the point where that was an option, honestly, with everything that was going on.
Maybe she could make a wish for it.
Emily snorted. Wishes. She thought. Forty years ago and that would've been a complete joke of a phrase. Hell, even five, ten years ago, this would probably have been a joke. And now apparently we've got a super myth being from space and it's magical space guardian showing up a little ways away with magical wish granting powers that apparently work by right of combat or the power of fucking friendship or something. I need a fucking drink.
She sighed again. "I hate this city." She muttered.
After several long minutes of merely staring at the table and pretending that the clusterfuck going on in the next room wasn't, Emily hauled herself to her feet, took another moment to try and centre herself so that she hopefully wasn't going to go insane at anyone, and headed back into the main room.
"-Kely that we would need to try and befriend the Deoxys first, before we'll even be able to make an attempt at Jirachi." Shadow was saying as she walked in. "Deoxys is their guardian, in this case, so we'll need to be able to convince them that we're not a threat to Jirachi before we're able to speak to Jirachi themself."
"What exactly does this guardian thing entail?" Hannah asked, sounding concerned. "It seems important..."
"It is and it isn't." Eon said in return, and even though he was on a craft miles away Emily could visualise the shrug that he gave. "It's important because they're guarding someone who's very powerful, and could potentially be in danger or dangerous. But in truth it's not so different than an escort mission, just keeping an eye on a client."
"Potentially dangerous?" Emily queried, making her way to stand between the two Capes.
"Naturally." Shadow sounded faintly amused. "Jirachi is a Wish Maker, but more importantly; they're Mythical. They're powerful. Not so powerful as something like Dialga, per say, but powerful."
Emily, Hannah, and Colin all winced, remembering what Dialga was very clearly, and Shadow continued, "So yes, they could be dangerous and in danger. In danger, because it's possible for Jirachi to be attacked in an attempt to force some form of battle, but dangerous, because they're incredibly powerful in more ways than just being a Wish Maker. If someone attacked Jirachi, there's a good chance that they would retaliate, and if they had to retaliate, they could cause a lot of damage with their Moves if things went wrong."
"I... see." Emily said slowly. "So this Deoxys is there to keep Jirachi safe, but also keep others safe from them?"
"Pretty much, yes." Eon replied. "It's actually fairly unusual that the guardian P-spirit is a similarly mythical being, though. Deoxys is pretty powerful as well, so any fight that happens with any of them is going to be dangerous. But since Deoxys is also a space-farer, that's probably why the two of them are sticking together." Eon hummed, quietly. "To be fair, though, guardians in general in this fashion are a little rare, nowadays. Teams and Guilds like ours became more common, so a lot of spirits rely more on that than guardians. And mythical or legendary spirits tended to retreat into Dungeons where it was difficult for most others to find them, which made it less necessary for guardians as well."
"That's..." Colin seemed to be attempting to find something to say to that, but failed miserably. "I see." He said instead.
Eon huffed out a laugh. "Regardless, to return to the topic, we'll need to persuade Deoxys that we don't mean any harm before we'll be able to talk directly with Jirachi, but hopefully we'll be able to give both of them a quick explanation of what's going on on this world so that they'll be safe even if they don't decide to come with us."
I desperately hope that they decide to go with you. Emily couldn't help but think. I can take another two mystery beings in my city if I have to. I don't think I could take it if two massively powerful creatures were just wandering around the world wherever they wanted without any sort of support or monitoring. My heart couldn't take it, and I'm fairly sure the Costa-Brown would end up going insane.
Dragon couldn't help but feel incredibly nervous as she started lowering her craft into a nearby clearing. There was no way that the Jirachi and Deoxys had managed to miss their ship coming in for a landing, but the others back in Brockton Bay had said that the two of them were still exactly where they had been when they'd arrived, still ignoring the camera, and while they'd looked up as the craft came closer, neither had made to leave. It worried her slightly, given what Eon and Shadow had been saying about them on the way over, but she was hopeful that nothing would go wrong.
"Ok, we're here." She announced, as things settled. "Would you like me to come with you, or should I stay here?"
"Feel free to come along." Shadow beamed, looking up at one of the cameras. "Deoxys and Jirachi are the kind of spirits that wouldn't have any trouble with someone a little more unusual."
Dragon froze for a moment, trying to figure out what she meant, while Eon winked at the same camera and added, "While they might not be too used to humans, they'll adapt quickly. We all do."
Was that just an innocent comment about humans not being common in their world, or a veiled reference to my nature? She couldn't help but wonder, as she stood from her seat and started out into the main room of her aircraft. It was difficult to tell, with Inari. Sometimes it seemed like they were totally innocent in regards to knowing about what she was, but sometimes it seemed like they knew exactly what she was.
Especially given the incident with the Time Gear. Shadow refusing to tell any of them what she saw made her feel a little nervous, given what everyone else had seen, and if it hadn't been for the call going on in the plane- and possibly Eon, given that she didn't know what he'd been told after Inari had left- she would've asked Shadow what she'd seen. But the way that Shadow had been acting after the vision, the way that she'd explained things about the machine spirits of their world, made Dragon feel like there was a lot more to it than just saying how things were different there.
Perhaps on the way back, if there wasn't any calls going on, she might ask Shadow if she would be willing to come into the pilots cabin so that she could ask her. Unless she was needed to speak with Deoxys and Jirachi, but Dragon expected that Eon would be able to deal with it alone fine.
"Ready?" She asked, as they made their way to the door, Shadow drifting naturally into her usual spot at Eon's side. Dragon stood a little ways behind them both, since the other side was apparently Swarm's side, and she didn't want to accidentally intrude on things there, and internally started making preparations to end the call while making sure to record the entire encounter.
"Of course." Eon nodded, shifting slightly on his paws. "We'll hopefully be able to report back a decent success."
"Best of luck to you." Director Piggot said. Dragon ended the call then, opening the doors at the same time.
They'd landed a little way away from the place the two spirits were, so the three of them had to walk over to them. That at least had the advantage of both sides being able to see each other as they approached, and Deoxys' form turned somewhat sharply towards them, still cradling the Jirachi in their arm against their chest.
Dragon couldn't contain her gasp when the spirit shimmered, a lilac sheen flickering across their body, and the bulky form abruptly shifted. Now, they were much thinner and sleeker, with only two tendrils; one blue, and one orange. The orange armour that had coated their body had moved, covering only the head and forming two bands at the top of their legs. The rest of them was a black colour, and the lilac thing in the centre of their chest was much more clearly visible, showing that it was some sort of crystal. The head was similar, but with two pointed 'ears' on either side, and when it crouched down, she could see a long spike trailed from the back of it.
"What-?"
"Deoxys can change formes." Shadow explained, a little tersely. "The one you saw before was the Defence forme. This one's Speed."
"I take it that there's more?"
"Normal forme focuses on being well rounded, Attack forme focuses on damage. The other two are Defence and Speed, as you might guess."
Eon silenced both of them with a tail, glancing back, then straightened a little. "Deoxys, Jirachi, greetings." He called, stopping in place. Shadow immediately stopped as well, and Dragon hesitated mid-step for a moment before stepping back.
'Demand. Require identification.'
Dragon gasped again at the feeling of a voice pressing into her mind. She shuddered. It felt disturbing, the words being projected directly into her mind instead of coming through the microphones on the suit, binding themselves into the coding that handles audio inputs with no regard. The words seemed to have more information to them than what was said, as well, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was- she knew it was there, at least vaguely, but the meaning felt somewhat incomplete.
Eon seemed completely unaffected, however. "My name is Eon, the leader of Rescue Team Inari, from Alma. My second in command is Shadow, also a Talekeeper in training. The person behind me is Dragon, a member of the Guild, from a country called Canada. They're a native to this world, part of a type of policing force here. None of us mean you any harm."
'Demand. State purpose.'
"We noticed your arrival here due to some camera systems that are set up to monitor a being that stays on the edge of space." Eon said. "Originally Inari was called in to potentially help identify you, and when we did we were asked to come and meet you to explain the situation on this world."
'Information required.' Deoxys returned, slowly standing up. They were still holding Jirachi to their chest, but they at least didn't seem like they were about to flee.
"The world that you're on is Earth Bet. The main species here are humans, and there's no sign that our kind have ever existed at all. Rather than regions their world is split into a large number of various countries, each with their own leaders. Approximately forty years ago, a being known as Scion arrived, and after that, people began getting powers in events called Triggers. These people are known as Parahumans, or Capes, and some of them work in groups similar to Guild teams, while others are more like Outlaws. Additionally, there are things called Endbringers, which attack on a cycle and cause massive devastation, which Parahumans fight with."
'Danger?'
"For normal humans and beings like us, they're pretty dangerous." Eon agreed. "Someone of your power, though, or Jirachi's, probably wouldn't have too much trouble with them."
Oh that's not terrifying at all. Dragon couldn't help but think. The idea that Eon considered the Endbringers to be pretty dangerous to them, given what they'd managed to do to Leviathan? Sure, Eon had been hurt pretty badly at the end of the fight, but both of them had still done more actual, physical damage to Leviathan than anyone had ever managed since they'd first appeared.
And these two spirits wouldn't consider them much trouble?
'Curiosity.'
'None of that sounds very good.' Dragon startled again as another voice joined the conversation. This one was much more comprehensive, without the feeling that the words were being compressed, and sounded... young. Almost child-like. It was also distinctly male, defined in a way that Deoxys' voice had lacked. 'Deoxys, lemme go.'
Slowly, almost reluctantly, Deoxys uncurled their tendril from around the spirit they were holding, letting Jirachi float out. Up close, he seemed even smaller than he had on the camera, hovering in the air before them with the cloak-like streamers rippling in an invisible breeze. There were two small triangles under his eyes, too small for the camera to have seen at its distance, that almost made it look like he was crying.
"Wish Maker Jirachi." Shadow greeted, giving him- presumably, anyway, given the voice- a small smile.
'Hello, Talekeeper Shadow.' He smiled in return. 'It's an honour to meet you. Perhaps we could trade stories sometime.'
'Irritation.'
'Shush.' Jirachi gave Deoxys a small glare, then floated down to Eon's level and held out a hand. 'And it's good to meet you too, Inari Leader Eon. Thank you for coming to meet us. We weren't very sure where we were, but Deoxys thought that they'd felt something watching us, so we figured we should wait around and see if anyone came.'
"Seems like it'd be a risk, if we were hostile." Dragon pointed out, making Jirachi blink and look up at her.
'Deoxys is very fast, and good at defending me.' He replied. 'We could get away.'
'Query. Request for identification.'
Dragon winced a little. "As Eon said, my name's Dragon. I'm a member of the Guild, a Canadian Parahuman group that works internationally dealing with Parahuman threats of various kinds. I tend to work a little more closely with the American Parahuman Response Team, and these last few months I've been working in Brockton Bay a lot with Inari."
'Understanding. Reiteration; request for identification?'
She paused. "I'm... afraid I don't understand what you want?" All four of the spirits blinked at that.
"They're asking what you are." Eon told her. "It's... pretty clear?"
"I didn't get that at all." Dragon responded. "Just... 'request for identification'."
"Interesting..." Shadow murmured, making Dragon look down at her. "And to answer, she's a Parahuman from here. A lot of Parahumans have armour, usually the ones called Tinkers; they build things, like armoured suits. This one's Dragon's."
'Understanding. Request for information; unit connections?'
Again, Dragon didn't quite understand what they were asking, but Shadow spoke up, "Dragon often uses remote control to link to her suits so she can be further away from them. That's probably what you're sensing."
Deoxys seemed a little dissatisfied with that answer, but the sound of an incredibly loud beeping from the craft- loud enough to be heard even as far away as they were- made all of them stop, Dragon starting to search through her databanks to find out what that alert was.
'Is something wrong?' Jirachi asked, moments before an almost deafening alarm went off, making all of them wince even as Dragon, Eon and Shadow turned towards the craft.
"Endbringer!" Eon growled, lowering himself down slightly before shaking himself. "That's one of the creatures we told you about, the dangerous ones- Dragon, which one is it?"
"Behemoth, apparently." She told him, looking over the readouts of her devices. "Seismic activity detected around 30 seconds ago, consistent with the activity for when Behemoth starts to move, and it's his turn on the attack cycle."
"A little early, isn't he?"
Eon ignored his second in command easily, looking over at Jirachi and Deoxys instead. "I understand that you don't have a lot of reason to, given that you've only just arrived here and don't really know much about this place, but would you consider joining up with us in this fight? Our team in this world is only the two of us and one Parahuman, a friend of ours called Swarm, and this fight is going to be incredibly dangerous for just about everyone else here. Your assistance could save a lot of lives."
Jirachi and Deoxys exchanged a look, then nodded. 'Always wondered what it was like being a Rescue Pokemon.' Jirachi admitted, as they started hurrying for the craft. Dragon directed the camera drones that they'd sent here originally to follow them as well, storing them in one of the compartments while everyone else clambered into the back.
She went straight for the cabin, already directing the liftoff sequence before she'd even arrived, and tuned into the cameras in the other room.
"Do we have a projected target?" Eon asked, sitting on his couch with his tails curled around Shadow. The kitsune had a phone out, seemingly texting someone, and was also rummaging through her bag at the same time.
"Not yet, but we're already working to narrow it down." She told them. "It might take a while. It's looking like it'll be somewhere in or near Asia, at least."
"That'll be one hell of a flight."
"We're not heading there. We're going to the nearest teleport gathering and meeting Strider there."
"I'm gonna be on healing with Amy again. Eon, I guess you'll be in combat if you can figure out a good way to do it, Swarm's on search and rescue, so Jirachi, Deoxys?"
If either of them replied, Dragon didn't hear it, and she mimicked clearing her throat. "Can either of you two speak up? I didn't get that, and if I have the information I can start passing it on to other people." She was already coordinating a large number of her suits to start heading for teleport areas, as well as helping to oversee the distribution of the armbands, but getting more information about things wasn't much of a strain.
'Sorry.' Jirachi said. 'I can speak aloud, but telepathy's easier, and Deoxys can't at all.' Dragon froze, taking a moment to absorb the fact that apparently these spirits were telepathic, as Jirachi added, 'Deoxys and I are both going to be working with the attackers. We're not totally sure what we'll be able to do yet, but a lot of my attacks are ranged. Deoxys might also move in and out of search and rescue, since they're fast, and maybe some sort of defensive option if we need to contain things a bit. Their formes make them really good at what they do.'
"I... see."
'Query. Designation, battle?'
There was again the feeling of some form of nuance that she couldn't quite understand, but apparently the question wasn't directed at her anyway, because when she glanced through the craft's internal cameras, Eon was giving a wide, fanged smirk.
"No. This is a fight, for certain."
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