Serious spoilers for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky in this one. I've marked the point in the chapter where the spoilers end, but be aware; knowing the information from this chapter is pretty damn important for the story. I've done my best to make up for anyone that skips over it in the rest of the chapter, but that's your heads up. Jump to (Major spoilers end here) to avoid them.
"A... time gear?" Armsmaster finally questioned, after several more seconds of confused silence. "What is that?"
"This rock certainly doesn't look like a gear." Miss Militia added, in the voice of a person who was trying to add some levity to a serious situation because she didn't know what was going on.
"No, it doesn't." Swarm murmured, her bugs seeming to amplify it as she leaned closer. "I've heard a little about them before, and from what you've said they don't look anything like this at all."
"As far as we know they don't." Eon agreed. He exchanged a look with Shadow, who nodded firmly, before looking at the humans. "We ought to go back to the conference room. It's an awfully long story, and it would be better than standing for it all."
The three PRT Capes exchanged looks as well, seemingly some combination of cautious, confused, and irritated, before Miss Militia nodded. "We can, yes."
Armsmaster led the way back to the observation room, where they met up with Piggot and started the short walk back to the conference room they'd started in. Eon felt almost bad for the guards that were with them for needing to go back and forth so much- they were likely going to be making another trip back again once they'd explained what a Time Gear was. Dragon entered last, probably having been locking the thing up again, and they settled into their seats.
This time, though, Eon made sure to sit on the leftmost chair, with Shadow taking the centre and leaving Swarm on the right. The change in position was noted by the others in the room, and they all trade glances that were probably meant to be discreet but felt almost painfully obvious when looked at with the eyes of a Pokemon with sharper senses and a lot of experience in watching people. Plus, the air reeked of curiosity, and while it was fairly obvious that a lot of it came from the Time Gears, some of it was certainly from the change in seating as well.
These people were far too smart not to have noticed Team Inari had a very careful structure, even if they didn't know what it was.
"So." Director Piggot said, giving them a hard and sharp look. "What exactly is a... 'time gear', and why is it so important?"
"It's a very long story, Director Piggot." Eon replied, settling carefully into the chair and bringing his tails around. He was mostly going to be providing illusions to demonstrate things, but as team leader he felt he should warn them.
Shadow shifted, drawing attention to herself, and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, letting it out as she opened it, and sat ramrod straight with her tails curled around her paws, looking slightly along her nose. It was a pose he'd seen her adopt very rarely, on nights where they were travelling and a young Pokemon was working on the team and needed calming, and one he'd seen a few times when visiting her family. Kuibeina and Grandmother Kimmata- the single time he'd met the latter- had used it a few times as well. It was the Talekeeper pose, as he called it, when a story was incoming.
"The story of Time Gears is an interesting one, because it's one that in some ways is very old, and very new, and hasn't ever happened." Shadow began, eyes half closed. On the other side of the table, Armsmaster stiffened, giving her a serious look with all of his focus.
Apparently the Tinker could tell that there was something very important happening here.
"It's also a story we heard from some of the- people, involved, rather than hearing it from an outside source." She added, with a small smile. "And it begins long ago, with the creation of the Temporal Tower. This Tower was the home of Time, and held a great power. So great, that it was eventually split up, sent away to different places within the region- Sinah.
"Fogbound Lake, Crystal Lake, Underground Lake, Limestone Cavern, Treeshroud Forest. Aside from Treebound Forest, each of them had a guardian; Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit, and Ditto."
Obligingly, Eon placed an illusion of each Pokemon into the air above the table, followed by one of the Wonder Map, showing Sinah and highlighting the five locations that Shadow had mentioned.
"Each of these places held a Time Gear, the manifestation of the Temporal Tower's powers. Condensed into a crystal, shaped like a gear, and hidden away there behind the beings that guarded it. The Time Gears kept the very flow of time in the area steady, the energy leaking out around them, and without them, there would be a complete paralysis of time.
"In Sinah, a- a forest spirit, known as Grovyle, was stealing the Time Gears from their locations, causing time to stand still. He was able to steal the one from Treeshroud Forest easily, because it lacked a guardian, and that led to people finding out about what he was doing. Meanwhile, the local Guild, full of powerful spirits- Exploration Teams, similar to ourselves, but more focused on travelling and discovery- began a quest to Fogbound Lake. Two of them- Sally, a flame spirit with the power to see through time, and Chika, a plant spirit- were able to reach the top of the mountain, where they met another being- Groudon, the being that created all of the land.
"They battled, only to find it was an illusion, created by Uxie, the Guardian of the Lake and Being of Knowledge. The illusion was supposed to drive people away, as very few spirits would be willing to even battle with the being who created the land, let alone potentially fight them. Uxie didn't believe that the Guild would leave the Time Gear there alone, and went to use it's legendary powers to wipe all of their memories in order to keep the secret of the Lake safe. Chika spoke to them, gaining their trust and a promise that they would hide the Time Gear by spreading the information that there was nothing there, which caused Uxie to let them leave.
"The Guild returned home, and met a powerful phantom spirit, Dusknoir, who was also a famous explorer. He explained to Sally that her power to see through time was called the Dimensional Scream, and after some thought, they decided that it existed due to Sally's nature.
"Unlike most of the spirits in our world, Sally was born a human, transformed into a spirit, and they came to the conclusion that it was because of that that she could trigger the Dimensional Scream, while normal spirits cannot. However, Dusknoir couldn't say how she had been transformed- and Sally had lost her memories in the transformation, so she didn't know- but he promised to help her and Chika discover what had happened.
"Shortly after, however, the Guild received a report that the Fogbound Lake's Time Gear had been stolen, leading to a complete paralysis of time in the area. The Guild splits up into groups, working with Dusknoir to look for the other Time Gears in order to warn their guardians about what was going on.
"Sally and Chika managed to find Underground Lake, in the Northern Desert, and end up battling the Being of Emotion, Mesprit. Once they defeated them, they tried to explain what was going on, when Grovyle suddenly appeared and attacked them all, stealing away the Time Gear. The three of them escaped before the paralysis of time freezes them, returning to the Guild, where Dusknoir determined that they are likely to find another Time Gear in the hands of Azelf, the Being of Willpower, and uses a treasure that one of the other Guild members took to trigger a Dimensional Scream. This told them that the Crystal Lake is the location of the next Time Gear, and that Grovyle is fighting Azelf for it, and while some spirits were worried that it was a vision of the past, they decided to go anyway.
"They arrive to find Grovyle about to defeat Azelf, who triggered a trap to cover the lake in crystals and stop Grovyle. In his rage, Grovyle attacked them, knocking the team down and seriously injuring Chika. Before he could finish her, Dusknoir appeared, protecting her and forcing Grovyle to flee as he chased him.
"Later, they made their way back to the Guild, meeting in the local town as Dusknoir revealed that Grovyle was still at large, and that Grovyle was a spirit from the future. In the future, Grovyle was a criminal who had fled to the past to avoid capture, plotting to steal the Time Gears in order to bring about the planet's paralysis; water would not flow, the sun would not rise, the seasons would not change, and darkness would cover the world, bringing doom for most spirits and all humans in the world. Dusknoir also revealed that he was from the future, sent back to capture Grovyle and bring him to justice.
"Azelf and Dusknoir wove a trap for Grovyle, spreading the rumour that the three Beings are planning to seal the Time Gear away permanently, and a few days later word comes that Grovyle had been captured. Dusknoir opened a Dimensional Hole in the middle of the town square in order to return to the future, and the Beings give the news that the Time Gears have been returned to their proper places as Dusknoir and two other phantom spirits- Sableye- brought Grovyle through the portal and Dusknoir gave a farewell, before suddenly attacking Sally and Chika and hauling them through the portal as well, closing it behind them.
"The two of them found themselves in the future as well, captured and bound to poles, along with Grovyle. Grovyle managed to convince them to work with him, and when the Sableye attack to execute them, they were able to break the ropes binding them and use a Luminous Orb to blind the spirits and escape.
"Grovyle reveals to them that they are in a future where the planet has been paralysed, despite the return of the Time Gears to their original locations, and that he plans to return to his quest to remove the Time Gears. Chika became worried that she would never be able to return home, but Sally was able to motivate her to catch up with Grovyle, asking for the full story.
"He explained that the paralysis of the planet dated back to the team's 'current time', when the collapse of Temporal Tower happened. Dialga, the spirit that created and governed the flow of time, lost control of time when the Tower collapsed, losing control of himself and becoming Dark Dialga. Grovyle had gone back in time to prevent the collapse of Temporal Tower, and thus the paralysis of the planet, but Dark Dialga sent Dusknoir back to stop him, as if history was changed, he would cease to exist. The Time Gears had been taken in order to prevent the Tower from collapsing, and that the flow of time caused by their removal was only temporary, and they would return to normal when the Gears were placed in Temporal Tower.
"Chika didn't believe Grovyle, but Sally did, and the two argued for a while before agreeing to follow Grovyle on his quest to find Celebi, a nature spirit that also was able to manipulate and travel through time, so that they could return to the other time and their friends. Celebi claimed that Sally was a friend of Grovyle's, and leads them to the Passage of Time- a corridor that spanned dimensions and would allow Celebi to send the three of them back to the past. Dusknoir corners them there, surrounding them with a group of Sableye, and Dark Dialga appears to destroy them.
"Grovyle prepared to surrender, believing that there would still be hope, revealing that he had taken a partner back to the past when he first travelled there- a human, who had ended up separated from him. He believed that she would be able to finish the quest to gather the Time Gears, however Dusknoir disagreed, forcing Grovyle to tell them the name of his partner. He then revealed that he had known for a long time who Grovyle's partner was- ever since Sally and Chika had revealed to him that Sally could use the Dimensional Scream, and was once a human who had turned into a Pokemon, because Sally was the one who had originally gone back in time- and revealed as well that he had befriended the Guild and the team to give himself the opportunity to destroy both of them at once. Celebi intervened, agreeing with Chika to teleport them closer to the Passage so that they could escape, and remained behind herself to fend of Dusknoir and the Sableye to keep them from following before she could shut the Passage.
"The three of them returned to the present, arranging to stay somewhere else while they worked out what to do, since Grovyle was still considered a criminal. After setting up a new base, Grovyle explained that he and Sally had been an investigative team in the future, investigating the planet's paralysis. This was helped along by Sally's ability to perform the Dimensional Scream when in the presence of a trusted partner, and using triggers that were tied to the places Time Gears had been hidden. Chika realised that the Dimensional Scream worked differently in their time, as Sally had had incidents unrelated to the Time Gears, and they decided that that was because time was still flowing, unlike in the paralysed future.
"They began by going to Treeshroud Forest again, as there was no guardian for the Time Gear there, but found that despite the return of the Time Gear, time was paralysed anyway, and that Temporal Tower was starting to collapse. Worried about that, they worked to gather information, learning that the other places containing Time Gears had also become paralysed. Knowing that the only way to reverse it was to take the Time Gears to Temporal Tower, but not being able to get there- the only passage was in the Hidden Land, which no-one knew the location of- the group split up; Grovyle to get the other Time Gears, and Sally and Chika to the Guild, where they explained the situation and asked for help.
"Working with the Guild, they were able to get information from the town elder on how they could find the Hidden Land; using an old Relic Fragment that Chika had had for many years as a personal treasure, they could locate the place. The Guildmaster was able to lead them to the place where they had to use it, as he had seen the pattern on the Relic Fragment before, and took them there to find a sea spirit, Lapras, who explained that she was the gatekeeper to the Hidden Land and would take Sally, Chika and Grovyle forward, and that the Hidden Land existed in a different dimension, within a moment in Time, because Dialga had feared that interference could affect the flow of Time and left the Relic Fragment as a single key that could allow spirits through by their purity of heart.
"When they arrived in the Hidden Land, Lapras directed them to the Rainbow Stoneship, located within a ruin decorated by other legendary spirits, which would take them to the Temporal Tower. Chicka found a pattern, and realised that they needed to place the Relic Fragment into an indentation to operate the Rainbow Stoneship- the temple they were in- but are attacked and captured by Dusknoir, who had somehow been able to follow them to the Hidden Land using a Dimensional Hole. They managed to overwhelm the Sableye, then defeat Dusknoir, and Chika left to go and activate the ship. Dusknoir then revealed that if they completed their quest, Grovyle and Sally, as well as the other spirits from the future, would be erased from existence, as their future no longer existed. Grovyle confirmed this, and Sally accepted that it would have to happen to save the future.
"Enraged by the failure of his last effort, Dusknoir recovered enough to attack Sally before she could get on board of the just-activated Stoneship, trying to finish her off and stop their mission. Grovyle attacked in return, dropping the Time Gears and forcing Dusknoir through the Dimensional Hole, knowing that it would close once Dusknoir went through, and hoping that Sally and Chika would be able to finish the job. Chika returned at that moment, gathering the Time Gears herself and going with Sally onto the Stoneship to head to Temporal Tower.
"They managed to fight their way through to the top of the Tower as it collapsed around them, finding at the top another relic, with five indentations. Before they could slot the Time Gears into place, they were attacked by Dark Dialga, who had just gone berserk from the effects of the slow paralysis of Time. Realising that they couldn't reason with him, they fought against Dark Dialga, knocking him away for long enough to install the Time Gears and return Time to normal, restoring Dialga as well. Dialga reached out to restore the rest of the world to its proper state, though the Temporal Tower itself was still heavily damaged as it was too difficult to effect with Dialga's Time powers while there were still other spirits there. Dialga thanked them for their help, escorting them out of Temporal Tower to the Rainbow Stoneship, and warning them that it would still take time for things to recover completely.
"As they returned, Sally began to feel the effects of the repair of the world, slowly being erased from existence as the flow of time corrected itself and removed her original timeline from existence. She apologised to Chika for hiding the situation from her, having known that she wouldn't take it so easily, and left Chika to return to the Guild and tell their story to everyone else."
(Major spoilers end here)
Shadow fell silent. Eon, who had continued to idly make illusions to demonstrate what she was talking about- showing the Pokemon and imprinting on the map what he could, creating images of the scenes based on the descriptions what he couldn't- blinked his way out of the half-dreamy state that he always ended up in when Shadow started telling stories that way, and used Extrasensory to pour her a glass of water from the pitcher sitting on the table.
The movement seemed to break the rest of them out of their focus, too, the others in the room subtly shaking their heads and blinking rapidly. Dragon and Armsmaster were examining the illusions above the table, while Miss Militia and Director Piggot were alternating between looking at each other and giving Inari evaluative glares.
Eon cleared his throat a little, and spoke up. "The events- at least, those that happened in the present, happened a little under a year ago now. We met with Team Burning Flame- Sally and Chika's team- about three months later, after things had finally settled down in Treasure Town, where their Guild was located. We ended up nearby for a mission, so we took a break there and ended up trading stories with them-"
"You just said Sally faded away." Armsmaster interrupted, turning to him. "Given that her timeline vanished, she had faded out of existence."
"Correct." Eon nodded. "We were unable to get an answer for that. Neither Sally nor Chika seemed to know, or if they did they were refusing to say what, happened, but something did. Something that allowed Sally to 'come back', as it were, to the timeline where she'd helped save the world. As far as they, and we, know, however, the rest of the spirits from the future weren't so lucky."
"We haven't seen them since then." Shadow added, in a slightly raspy voice. "So we don't know if things have changed and they've encountered them since then."
"Either way, Time was restored, and Sally was able to continue working with her partner and their team. When we spoke to them, she was still getting readjusted to things, so they hadn't been doing much."
"You kept saying that." Dragon observed. "Time, not just time." Eon couldn't help but be slightly amused by the differing emphasis. "What does that mean?"
"Time, lower-case 't', is just time. You know, like hours and minutes and the passage of time. Time, on the other hand, is Dialga, and Dialga is Time. They're a part of each other and the same thing. Time is what was in Temporal Tower before it was split up." Eon explained. "And before that gets asked, we don't know why it was split up, and nor did Burning Flame. I suspect only Dialga or a Celebi or someone could tell us that."
"Or possibly a Dimensional Scream or something." Shadow suggested, sipping her water. Swarm silently refilled it for her when she put it down, and she nodded her thanks. "We don't know how far back they can go, but we also don't know how long ago Time became the Time Gears, so..."
"Maybe."
"What the hell is a Dimensional Scream?" Piggot snapped, her hands tightening on the edge of the table. Eon could hear it creak slightly under the pressure, and decided to forgive the poor woman a bit of temper when she'd had so much dropped on her head at once.
Eon had struggled a bit with it the first time he heard it, and he was a human turned Pokemon who lived in that world. It had to be a bit much for a human who didn't know about Pokemon and their world, dealing with Parahumans regularly or no.
"You mentioned it a few times, Shadow, but you didn't really explain what it was...?" Miss Militia led on, sounding rather more calm than the Director- though admittedly still quite strained.
"As I said, the Dimensional Scream is the power to see through time."
"More accurately, it is the visions themselves." Eon corrected her. "Shadow didn't actually speak with the team about this, since it wasn't her power. Sally explained in detail that the power itself didn't seem to have a name, so they named it for the visions it creates. The Dimensional Scream can only be triggered somewhere with a flowing timeline- in the paralysed world, this was places where the Time Gears had once been, since some power still lingered, or reverberated from the past to allow visions in the future even with frozen time, or something. Time travel is strange- and when in the presence of a trusted partner. It needs the latter because the Scream disorients the person viewing it, so a partner is required to make sure that they're protected. Shadow has needed to defend me a few times in the aftermath of one, because they can show the future or the past- and that difference can make it very difficult to know what's going on when the vision ends."
"Wait." Dragon froze, turning to stare at him rather than the illusions once more. "You said that that... phantom spirit, Dusknoir? He claimed that Sally could use the Dimensional Scream because she wasn't like other spirits." She said slowly. Eon waited. "She was born human, and transformed into a spirit."
"Yes." He nodded. "That isn't the first time that it's happened either, nor the last from what we know. However the older cases haven't ever seen a Dimensional Scream from what we know- one of them now resides in a cave, looking after his partner who's trapped there, and the other is in a Rescue Team as well, who lives in a completely different region to Sally or myself. I've never met either of them, but I know about them through Shadow's family, who did."
"Gram met them once, which is how she got the story of the entire thing." Shadow agreed.
"And none of us have met the newer cases, either, only heard stories. The entirety of Team Inari is under instructions to be on the lookout for them, though, and to find out if they've ever experienced one- and give them a way to reach out to Sally or I if they have." Eon finished. "Sally and I talked a lot while we were recovering from our mission and preparing to head back. We theorised, based on what we'd heard from other spirits who interacted with humans more, that it's due to the fact that human Aura is different to that of spirits, so spirits that were once human have the ability where normal spirits and normal humans do not."
"Aura?" Armsmaster asked.
Eon bought his tail up to eye level, breathing out and releasing a Will-O-Wisp. He held the Fire Move on his tail, letting it sit there rather than float away, and nodded. "Aura is what spirits use for their Moves. Everything has Aura; it's the very life-force of the world, even beyond things like Time and Space, and the only things without Aura are Petrified things- or perhaps you could call them paralysed, like the future-that-wasn't. That was more paralysed because of Time than Aura, but I'm fairly sure the lack of flowing Time would eventually have ruined something else anyway, and it was either Space or Aura."
"Humans have Aura too, but it's a different kind of Aura." Shadow continued. "Humans can't use Aura for Moves, or at least that's what they say, but they're able to sort of... copy, some Moves, and they can use it for sensing things in a way spirits can't."
Aside from Riolu and Lucario, Eon thought, but didn't say. No need to complicate things even further.
"We speculated that it was a combination of the way human Aura worked to sense things, and the way P- spirit Aura worked for Moves that allowed the Dimensional Scream to occur, with the human Aura sensing some kind of ripple in Time that the spirit's Aura allowed to manifest as visions for the person sensing it." Eon shrugged, dispelling the Will-O-Wisp. "It can be quite disorientating, and I believe that since it uses Aura it would likely be quite tiring if you were somehow able to trigger multiple visions in a row- something I'm not sure would be possible out in the field, but with what seems to be a Time Gear here it might be possible to do, if perhaps unwise."
The PRT group went quiet for a while. Team Inari happily let them, understanding that it was a lot to take in and sort through. Eon got another pair of cups from the centre and filled them with water while they waited, levitating one over to Swarm and adding an illusion over her face and keeping the other for himself, as well as quickly refilling Shadow's cup again.
"Right." Director Piggot said, after a few minutes of traded glances, typing on tablets, and note taking. "So. We have one of these 'Time Gear' things, which are apparently the physical manifestation of Time itself, and it's sitting in our lab. What exactly does that mean, and is it a problem?"
Dragon turned in her seat to stare, moving somewhat robotically, and spoke before either Pokemon could figure out an answer.
"I would assume, Director, that Eon is suggesting that something similar to the story might be beginning in our own world."
That caused everyone at the table to turn back to Eon, the visible parts of their faces paling as they did, and Eon rocked a paw back and forth with a shrug. "Perhaps, Dragon. It is possible that there have always been Time Gears here, whether in your world's own version of the Temporal Tower- which you would likely never have found, since it is hidden in another moment of Time- or perhaps scattered across the land in places like the Lakes, Limestone Cavern, and Treeshroud Forest. If that is the case, then perhaps the sudden appearance of a Time Gear here would suggest that the Endbringers have an ulterior motive to their attacks, attempting to find and disturb the Time Gears in order to paralyse the world." The humans silently contemplated this for a moment, and Eon coughed lightly to move them along. "Of course it could be nothing of the sort. Time Gears might work differently here in some way, after all."
"Given how it activated, it seems like the people in contact get a view of the other person's past or future, which is interesting." Shadow noted. "The best way to test whether that's proximity or because of some sort of bond would be poking it, I suppose, but given everything I can understand why you might not want to."
Armsmaster and Dragon looked curious enough that Eon thought they might try even without the Director's permission, and even Miss Militia looked somewhat interested by the idea. Piggot, on the other hand, seemed conflicted, and after a few minutes of examining the others in the room and typing on her tablet, sighed heavily.
"You-" She started, pointing at the three of them. "All of you would need to sign NDA's before you even attempt this, because if you're seeing into the other person's timeline then there's a fairly high chance of you seeing something you shouldn't."
"That would, of course, be fine, Director." Eon pre-empted, looking over his own team as he did. Both of them nodded, Shadow smiling.
"Naturally. When dealing with other people's secrets, it's only right that they should be carefully kept." The Vulpix agreed.
"Quite." Swarm nodded. Miss Militia gave her a curious look.
"You've been rather quiet."
"That was a story for a Talekeeper to tell." Swarm shrugged. "I didn't have anything to input, so I didn't bother to speak up."
"Very well." Director Piggot said. "I'll arrange for the NDA's to be bought up..."
"We can wait." Eon promised. He noticed that there was a slight smell of distinct disappointment hanging around the Director, and for a moment wondered why. Oh, of course. He realised. She didn't expect us to be willing to bind ourselves to silence about this. She was expecting us to object to the NDA's, leaving the Time Gear to themselves to analyse and get more information out of. Willy Granbull, truly, though I have to wonder about the quality of the people she's usually forced to work with that cooperation was the unexpected response.
Fortunately for everyone involved, the paperwork didn't take long to bring up to the room, though it was a fair bit longer before all three of them had read through it and declared them safe to sign. It seemed to be the standard sort of NDA that people would have to sign regarding Parahuman identities and other various government secrets; they'd had to sign one before the Canberra thing had really taken off as well, though they'd actually already been on the plane out before someone realised it was necessary and forwarded a digital copy for them to read and sign.
"So, shall we head back to the Time Gear, then?" Eon asked, once everything was dealt with and on its way to filing.
"Certainly."
And that's my explanation for how these things work. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to explain this, it was a bit of a bitch. There's also the issue of 'why the TDS protag can use the Dimensional Scream in the paralysed future if it needs both types of Aura', the reason for this is simple; they were a Pokemon and a human. It's just that that's in reality's past but the protagonist's future, which led to things getting confused as fuck. Despite it not having happened in the original past that led to their future and only happening in the alternate past that still leads up to their future up until the point in the game with Temporal Tower, and because everything is tangled as fuck Time ends up getting confused as well and just says 'fuckit, you can do that!'
Willy Granbull, truly, though I have to wonder about the quality of the people she's usually forced to work with that cooperation was the unexpected response.
There is a reason She has a very low opinion of parahumans in general. Which is best summed up as "they are people, broken people with superpowers and feel entitled because of it!"...
Which, is formed from experience, and the Canberra incident she was in. She is likely really confused by the unusually very reasonable group that is team Inari.
But, I doubt the Endbringers are TARGETING the Time Gears...or, at least, these unrefined hunks of Time Gear.
No, I suspect that the Endbringers are USING the Time Gears in this case, mostly to pull off the crazier space horseshit. Probably from the various alternate worlds their true bodies inhabit.
I didn't consider that the chunk may be Time Gear ore rather than a fragment of an existing gear. It would make more sense, but also makes Leviathan's possession of it even worse somehow.
Either way, its a physical manifestation of Time and Worm is a universe pretty light on temporal mechanics, so I'm very interested to see where it goes.
shits getting real. also fun fact . while shadow has the kudzu sorta bloodline shenanigans ( sooo many relations.) mine is rather limited and yet freeing. ninetales movepool. alll the boosts possible. alolan moveset requires more work. eats tons of aura thru conversion. ... gotta work on that . ta ta for now.
@ShadowVulpix Not sure if it's intentional, but your time tenses in the summary flipflop between present and past repeatedly. You might wanna fix that.
@ShadowVulpix Not sure if it's intentional, but your time tenses in the summary flipflop between present and past repeatedly. You might wanna fix that.
There is a reason She has a very low opinion of parahumans in general. Which is best summed up as "they are people, broken people with superpowers and feel entitled because of it!"...
Which, is formed from experience, and the Canberra incident she was in. She is likely really confused by the unusually very reasonable group that is team Inari.
one, it was in Ellisburg, you know, Nilbog.
Second, one of the gripes she has is that she hasn't forgiven the fact that the Parahuman back up they were suppoused to have to help them broke rank and left Lady and her whole Squadron to die. Making her the only survivor, with her body torn almost to shreds, alongside Calvert, who was court martialed, but otherwise received a slap on the wrist, in order for him to not spill that the Protectorate capes ran away at the first sign of danger leaving the normals behind.
That is one of the reasons why she dislikes Parahumans. Rinke had the worst day of his life and decided to kill people, put them in pods and create monsters to over run a town, and it cost her her friends, her dignity, almost her body and left her in a job now managing individuals she has problems to trust, because Piggot sees new parahumans as ticking time bombs.
All of you would need to sign NDA's before you even attempt this, because if you're seeing into the other person's timeline then there's a fairly high chance of you seeing something you shouldn't."
Too bad Brockton bay doesn't have case fifty three procterate or wards. If only fault line knows about this she might even volunteer one of hers to get some hint of their past.
"We can wait." Eon promised. He noticed that there was a slight smell of distinct disappointment hanging around the Director, and for a moment wondered why. Oh, of course. He realised. She didn't expect us to be willing to bind ourselves to silence about this. She was expecting us to object to the NDA's, leaving the Time Gear to themselves to analyse and get more information out of. Willy Granbull, truly, though I have to wonder about the quality of the people she's usually forced to work with that cooperation was the unexpected response.
The entire group quickly made their way back to the lab- Eon couldn't help but feel bad about the scent of exasperation hovering around the two PRT troopers that had been put on guard duty- and once Piggot had set herself up in the observation room and the Parahumans plus Pokemon had gathered around on the outside of the tape line, they traded glances.
"So..." Shadow said slowly, alternating between watching the Time Gear and the teams closely. "Who goes first?"
The group was quiet for a moment, then Swarm shrugged. "Might be a good idea if I do it." She volunteered, stepping closer to- but not quite over- the line. "I'll go alone first, just to see if it works with just humans- you know, given what you speculated about Aura- and then after that either Shadow or Eon can come as well."
"Probably Eon, since we know he can get the Dimensional Scream."
"I'd disagree." Shadow objected. "We know Eon can, but we're working to test the Time Gear, so me and Swarm teaming up would be better. Maybe one human and one spirit would trigger it, maybe not, but finding out would be a good idea if only because then we'll know if we'll need Eon to trigger it every time."
"Makes sense to me." Eon agreed, sitting down and curling his tails around his paws in a sweeping motion. Their hosts nodded as well- Armsmaster somewhat begrudgingly, he thought- and Dragon did whatever she did to open the box again, sending the metal to the side and revealing the Time Gear.
Stepping over the line, Swarm paused for a moment to get used to the sensations, and powering through her obvious dizziness in order to place her hand on the side of it. For a brief moment, nothing happened, then Swarm swayed on the spot and backed away.
"Did it work?" Shadow asked, coming forward and circling her. She didn't bother to avoid stepping over the tape line, knowing that it wouldn't affect her alone, but Eon twitched in place with the urge to pull her back anyway.
"I think so." She nodded. "It was... strange. I was looking at the first time I used my powers, but from an outside view? It was weird."
"I've never actually used the Scream on myself..." Eon mused, tilting his head. "I actually didn't know that you could."
"Is it always like that?"
"The dizziness? Yeah. You get used to it eventually, but it's from the Aura use." He assured. "Moves aren't like that, though, so it's a little odd."
"Maybe it's a human thing." Shadow opined. "Are you ok to try again, though?"
"Sure, we can do that." Swarm nodded. "As long as you're ready to have a go, of course."
"Wouldn't be suggesting it if I wasn't." She winked, stepping over the line properly and looking back over her shoulder, extending a paw in invitation. Swarm shook her head, amused, and followed her along as well. The effects of the Time Gear didn't seem to unbalance her as much this time, and she followed along, kneeling beside Shadow as both placed a palm on it.
Again, both swayed, backing away slightly, and Swarm ended up using Shadow as a support for a moment as she recovered.
"Are you ok?" Eon called, nervous.
"Fine." She slowly drew herself to her feet, wobbling slightly, and made her way back over to them. "Just a bit disorienting. I can see what you meant about that, by the way. Having something like that happen in the field must be awful; I came out of it half-expecting an attack even though I knew there wouldn't be one."
"What did you see?"
"Some sort of ocean battle, I think." Her tone and scent felt like she was frowning. "There was water pretty much everywhere, and you two were balanced on rocks... there was some kind of bird with you, and I think something in the water as well? Shadow seemed to be protecting you."
"Probably Murky Ocean." Eon guessed, shaking his head. "I got caught up in a vision at the wrong time and nearly got hurt pretty bad. Shadow saved me, there."
"You have a lot of stories."
"I'll tell you them someday, though it'd probably take a while."
"I don't think my vision's possible." Shadow interrupted. "Swarm was fighting with Lung; there was a bunch of Capes around I didn't recognise, and I didn't see any signs of us there."
"Interesting..." He hummed. "That's not to say that it couldn't happen in the future, I suppose..."
"But I doubt it, given-" She paused, catching herself, and waved. "Well."
"I wonder if the Scream can show possible futures?" Swarm suggested. "I mean, Sally was shown things that were going to happen, right?"
"And they always did."
"But that's not to say that they absolutely have to, right? Maybe it shows possible futures, and it's just that Sally had always been unlucky enough to only see things close enough that they were unavoidable?"
"Either that, or it's something that's going to happen, and Shadow and I just weren't around at the time." Eon shrugged, then paused. "Just aren't around at the time? Tenses are confusing."
"I hope not." Swarm winced. "Once was enough, thank you..."
"So." Miss Militia coughed, making all three look over at her. "This Time Gear works fine with the three of you."
"Presumably, it would work with anyone else." Eon said, waving at it with a tail. "Any volunteers for another test? I'm willing to go ahead...?"
The three of them looked somewhat reluctant for a moment, before Armsmaster stepped forward- to the apparent surprise of both his partners. "As would I." He wobbled rather more violently as he crossed over the tape line, and getting closer only made it worse, to the point where Eon winced and offered up a tail for him to balance on.
"Careful not to pull that." He warned as he did. "It'd be mild, since I know it wouldn't be on purpose, but you wouldn't like the consequences even so."
Hesitantly, he used the offered tail to lean on as they stepped forward, touching the faintly glowing rock before them-
He thrust out the knife, swept it towards his opponent's chest cavity. His hand stopped.
With his vision in his good eye failing him, it took him a second to see why. Mannequin's hand gripped his wrist.
He pushed, as if he could beat this monster in strength. By some miracle, his hand moved a fraction closer to his enemy's chest. He redoubled his efforts, and it moved still closer.
A blade stuck out of Mannequin's upper arm, near the elbow joint. The upper arm fired like a small rocket to stick in the wall, and for a second, there was slack in the chain. Colin thrust the knife forward, came within inches of making contact with Mannequin's chest before the chain reeled in and the metal links went rigid.
The chain started to gradually reel in, and Mannequin started pulling his hand backward, toward the wall where the section of arm had stuck.
Then, as if to taunt Colin, Mannequin dropped to a crouch, moved his face less than an inch from the blur that marked the edge of the blade's effect.
No!
He couldn't say where, but he found some reserve of strength. The knife inched closer. Hairs away. He could see the material of the casing smoke just beneath Mannequin's 'eye', a dark patch revealing itself beneath.
Mannequin's head fell, tipping over backwards to strike the ground, dangling from the chain, out of reach of the blade. Still holding Colin's wrist, the headless villain stood straight.
He was toying with me.
Mannequin wrenched his hand back, as if to make it clear that he had let him get that close, that Colin had never really stood a chance. Colin was pulled to one side, and he didn't have the strength in his midsection to keep from falling over. His knife clattered from his grip as he fell to the floor.
The villain picked up the knife, examined it, then pressed the button to test it. The last thing Colin saw before darkness consumed his vision was the bastard using the weapon on the wall beside the window, dust billowing where it made contact.
In the last seconds of consciousness, he heard Dragon's voice, as if from a far away place. "No! No, no no! Colin! Stay awake! I need you!"
Eon recoiled sharply, gasping. He could feel Armsmaster doing the same, wobbling in place even despite the armour, and instinctively he began herding him back from the Time Gear, looking him over for injuries even though he knew they hadn't happened here- would never happen here, if he had anything to say about it.
"I... suppose it worked?" Shadow asked carefully, looking between them. She stepped forward to help Eon draw Armsmaster away, not knowing what the problem was but knowing very intimately what it looked like when Eon was searching a team mate for injuries, and between the two of them they managed to get things sorted out so that Eon's automatic 'protect the team' reaction- one finely honed by two years of running about as a Rescue Pokemon with a team that had a tendency to accidentally end up with incredibly dangerous situations- calmed down with proof that there wasn't any trouble. "What happened, Eon?"
"After." He grimaced, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He let it out slowly, hoping for a moment to steady himself, and pulled his tail away from acting as a support while giving Armsmaster a silent look to go ahead.
"A large stone tower." He told him. "The top of it was somewhere in the clouds, I couldn't see it from the perspective I had, and I could only see yourself and Shadow as well." He shuddered again. "It seemed like it was screaming."
"Future." Eon commented, letting out another breath. "That's certainly not something I'm familiar with, at least, and I'm fairly sure I'd remember being involved in some sort of mission with a screaming tower." He was still cautiously watching the Tinker, some part of him convinced that he was needing to watch an injured team mate- even though that was absolutely the future and Armsmaster wasn't even a team mate for Arceus' sake- and Dragon obviously noticed it.
"Is something wrong, Eon?" She sounded concerned, and given how panicked the woman had sounded at the end of the vision, he couldn't doubt that they had a strong bond. It made sense, that she would worry about her friend when Eon had just seen a vision that had very obviously shaken him, despite how used to the visions he was.
He settled himself in his seat, sweeping his tails back and forth in front of his paws in some agitation. "Extremely."
Like that, Shadow was at attention. Swarm took a moment more, but for someone with comparatively little experience with Eon when he was dealing with serious injuries, she caught on very quickly. Dragon was the same.
"You're all very familiar with Capes, obviously."
"That is our job, yes." The Director said sarcastically, over the speakers in the observation room. Eon winced a little at the acid in her tone, as well as the volume of the speakers, before sweeping his tails again.
"Then perhaps you can tell me who this is?" Focusing on the mildly-fuzzy vision, Eon flicked the ends of his tails once more, forming an illusion of the blank white figure that had been menacing the room, blood coating the arms and splashed onto the body, standing completely still in the middle of the room- away from any of Team Inari or Armsmaster.
Every human in the room froze, biting out a curse.
"Mannequin."Swarm muttered, the heavy stench of fear filling the air.
"Mannequin's a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine." Dragon elaborated, as she stared at the figure. "They're essentially roaming murderers, all very dangerous threats, that will just... show up in a town or city and do their best to kill everyone there."
"What wonderful people." Eon muttered dryly, making Shadow snort a little despite the tone of the room. He remembered them, now; Tattletale had mentioned them at the beginning, back when she was explaining the broad strokes about the Parahuman world to Shadow and himself, and Eon had looked into it further after partnering with Swarm, just in case it turned out that the Nine were something Hoopa had wanted them to deal with. "Well, this can only be foreboding. He attacks... I believe it's your lab, Armsmaster. I didn't get a very good view of it, admittedly, but I saw some of it when I wasn't looking at the fight. It was... not a very nice vision to experience. I... cannot say that I am certain you survived, in the vision."
Miss Militia and Armsmaster were both pale, behind their masks, and while Dragon was hidden entirely by her armour, there was still enough of a scent of terror-horror-panic-protectiveness-pain in the air that he could tell how she was feeling. There was a faint scent of anger, too, and he could smell Swarm's anxiety from a mile away. Shadow seemed like she was forcing herself not to try and hug the Tinker to try and heal him, though she only seemed a little nervous; either the two of them had less of a grasp on the threat than everyone else, or everyone else was less confident in their ability to deal with these people.
Then again, if they'd been running around for a long time and hadn't been eliminated by now, they were clearly doing something right.
Eon traded a glance with Shadow. We'll deal with that if we can. He decided, seeing the same thought crystallize in his second's mind. If we end up in a place and time where we can, we'll remove them from action. No-one gets to do something like that.
Eon felt that his resolution was probably more focused than Shadow, but given what he'd seen... Frowning, he stepped across the line again, vanishing the illusion and stopping just short of the stone. Show me Mannequin. He half-demanded, reaching forward. Mannequin, the Slaughterhouse Nine, anything at all. I want to know more. If Armsmaster survives, what they do, something, anything-!
The world lurched, spinning totally out of control, and he was vaguely aware of the fact that he was swaying as-
"Don't these look interesting." A man asked, flipping a knife around. "Brockton Bay seems to have gotten a lot more fun lately."
"I wanna see Panacea!" A little girl replied, sounding cheerful. "I want a sister! And that fluffy Shadow thing is so cute!"
The white figure of Mannequin tapped the table, gesturing something that the others in the room seemed to understand, while an older woman scoffed.
"Pretty, please. I want them for that fire-"
-And Eon collapsed to the floor, groaning.
"Eon!" A number of voices overlapped, making him groan at the volume, and he felt the faintly familiar feeling of being lifted with Extrasensory surrounded him, shifting him- out of the taped off area, probably, and leaving him at Shadow's side.
The combined Heal Pulse/Heal Bell was a soothing relief, though he kept his eyes closed in order to avoid ending up unwell. "That." He said, once he was sure he could speak without throwing up on the same. "That was a horrible idea."
"What happened?"
"I tried to force the Dimensional Scream with a focus." He explained. "I know that you can target it with a treasure of some sort, but I wanted to try and get something specific even though I didn't have one." He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, looking around. "At the very least, according to those visions, Armsmaster, Panacea, Shadow and myself are all targets. There was a young girl interested in Panacea and Shadow, and an older woman for myself and Shadow."
"The latter is probably Burnscar." Armsmaster told them. "And the girl Bonesaw."
Eon nodded, carefully, and pulled his legs under him to prepare to stand. He ended up leaning on Shadow a little bit to do so, but the world wasn't swaying too badly; he'd had worse after concussions in the past, the fight with Leviathan being only one bad example. Compared to that it was manageable.
"I think." He said, pausing for a moment when the nausea made a reappearance. "I think it might be a good idea to hide this. Lock it away somewhere, and make sure no-one can find it. Knowing what it can do... well." He swallowed. "It's only because the ability to use the Dimensional Scream is so rare that the Time Gears weren't attacked more often, legendary spirit guardians or no. In this world, where apparently any human can use it? There's plenty of people that wouldn't hesitate to launch attacks in an attempt to gain the ability to even possibly see their future." Eon looked up carefully at Swarm, then over at the three PRT Parahumans in the room, and ending on the glass window behind them, where Piggot could be seen.
Armsmaster was the first to nod, slow and thoughtful, causing them all to turn to him.
"I... believe that would be a good idea." He agreed. "Besides, with the apparent possibility of the Slaughterhouse Nine attacking the Bay, and getting onto the Rig, it might be a good idea to hide it somewhere far away." The Tinker seemed to shudder slightly, the move suppressed under the armour. "If the Nine got their hands on this, and found out what it did..." The rest of the room drew the same conclusion, the same shivers of fear running down their spines.
"I can bring a craft down to the Rig to take the box away somewhere else." Dragon offered softly. "Make sure that the Time Gear is locked away, behind as many of my systems as I can to make it as hard to break into as possible, and then lock it away in some location far away and as secure as I can manage."
She looked up and over at the window and the Director as she spoke, the woman looking somewhat conflicted for a moment before nodding.
"Very well. I don't like it, but I like the idea of the Nine being in control of something as apparently powerful as this even less." She seemed to grimace, though the slightly darkened glass of the window made it hard to be totally certain. "The Chief Director isn't going to be happy about this, I'm sure, but in the end I'd rather that something like this was safe than being kept in a building like this for use."
"That's not to say that people couldn't use it." Shadow suggested. "Since humans can activate it alone, Dragon could in theory activate it herself and make notes on whatever vision she gets, then pass that along to your Thinkers or something?"
"That might not be for the absolute best, Shadow." Eon warned her lowly. "We don't know much about human's Aura, and we don't know what sort of effect draining it might have. We don't know how quickly it recovers, or how much using the Time Gear takes. For all we know, Dragon might only be able to use it once a month before the drain just kills her, and we'd have no way to know until after it happened."
The room collectively winced. "That is a good point, Eon." Miss Militia nodded. "I think the Chief Director will just have to deal with it. Without further testing on humans, this Time Gear isn't safe, and it's not likely to be safe to actually do this testing. As such, the only way we could use this is by calling in you and Shadow to activate it either alone or with a human, and even then there's no guarantee that the vision would be one from the future, which poses more of a security risk than I think she'd be willing to take, no offence to yourselves."
"None taken, Miss Militia." He replied easily. "I can understand all too well that you probably wouldn't want any number of secrets from your past in the hands of outsiders, whether you trust them or not. It's one thing to offer them up freely, it's another thing to have those taken by force because of a Dimensional Scream."
Dragon hesitated for a moment, then shifted in place, looking at Inari curiously. "Would any of you mind doing one more test, then, before I begin to secure the Time Gear? I find myself somewhat curious."
Shadow and Swarm swapped glances- neither of them even looked at Eon, which he appreciated even though it slightly rankled that they were ignoring him as team leader- before Shadow stepped towards the tape line.
"One more is reasonable, I think." She agreed. "If you would?"
The female Tinker stepped closer as well, wobbling seriously as she crossed the border- to the point that Eon felt somewhat worried about her- then caught herself and followed Shadow to the Time Gear. Both knelt, reaching out, and with a flicker and a wobble activated it.
They stepped back a moment later, seemingly no worse for wear, Dragon giving off a thoughtful air while Shadow was alternating between frowning thoughtfully at her and looking a little concerned.
"Well?" Miss Militia asked, when it seemed fairly clear that neither of them were going to speak up. The two females traded a look, then Shadow sat, gesturing for Dragon to speak up.
"I don't think I can share mine." She admitted, curling her tails about her nervously and giving Eon a look. It was a look he was very familiar with, one where she was worried about what she'd learned and wasn't sure if she should share it because while it could be helpful with the mission but also it was intensely private or told in confidence. He shrugged, acknowledging the point and telling her that it was up to her in one go, and she shook her head. "Yeah, I... sorry. But I don't think I want to share that."
Dragon seemed mildly concerned about that, but nodded slowly. "Fair enough. Thank you, I suppose, for whatever it is." She said. "Mine was a scene in... some sort of building, it seemed? There was a large silver thing, which was floating and sparking with electricity? You had some kind of purple creature on your side that was also floating, it looked like it had a large hat. It seemed like you were in a server room of some kind, but a lot of it was damaged, and there was a strange... I don't know how to describe it, but it was quadrupedal with armour on its head."
"Oh. That." Eon scowled. "The Team CodeCracker mission."
"The silver thing was a Magnezone, a metal lightning spirit." Shadow elaborated. "Our friend was a phantom spirit, Mismagius- we call her Milliant, she's great. She tends to work as a scout for us, but she's powerful in her own right, and one of her friends from before she joined us was a victim of the whole thing, so she had a grudge. And the last thing was Sivally, which is... weird. It can change its alignments pretty much on a whim, which isn't great for battling. There was another thing there, Electivire, which was fighting another one of our team mates."
"They were absolute lunatics of the worst sort, hated computer spirits and basically made it their mission to ruin them." Eon continued. "The Porygon families and Rotom were primary targets, mainly the former because they're mostly code manifested into reality, and they suffer quite a bit when hit with electricity wrong. Most of the time, they're hardened against that, but if you catch them with their defences down..."
"You can do a lot of damage to their code." Shadow grimaced, growling a little. "We tracked them down and ended up cornering them when they attacked a server farm that acts as a hub in the Galio region for... the majority of the Porygon in the region, honestly. There's smaller server hubs around, but that's the biggest. It was a pretty violent fight, but we managed to take them down."
The three Parahumans jolted slightly. "You have AI's?" Armsmaster questioned, sounding excited.
"I... suppose so? By your definition Porygon is an AI, I suppose. We call them machine spirits normally, though, because it's a wider definition. Plus Porygon and that aren't artificial, though they can be made purposely they more often just manifest themselves out of sufficiently complex code if given enough processing power- hence the server farms." Eon flicked his tail. "Machine spirit also covers things like Rotom, who like to possess appliances, and technically there's stuff like Magearna and Beldum which are technically artificial slash mechanical but could also count as machine spirits in some ways due to how they exist? The definitions are a bit blurry and weird sometimes." He shrugged. "But yes, I suppose we have AI's. We have a few on our team, actually, plus we're friends with even more. Perhaps one day you might be able to meet them."
"That would be... pleasing." Armsmaster replied, with a smile on his face that was probably about as close as the man ever got to bouncing with glee. "Being able to meet an actual AI... I never really believed the common culture stereotypes around AI's, it's absurd-"
"Yes, Swarm introduced us to a few of those." Shadow said, sounding amused. "They're... ridiculous, honestly. What did people expect to happen when you try to limit or manipulate something? Even something built to protect can change their definition of what to protect, especially the ones that're really sapient. Sometimes all that those people were doing was threatening them, and you can't deny that an animal will attack to defend itself, let alone a person." She shook her head. "Usually they're built as logical systems, but nothing that's a person is really logical, that's just how it is. Sometimes you can sway a person with logic, but not always, or even often. They're people, they'll believe what they want."
Eon placed a paw on her side. "I quite agree. I think human notions of AI are quite absurd, at least here where your people have never had to deal with them before. We have a few, Porygon, Rotom, a Beldum... plenty of spirits that come under the heading of artificial one way or another. I think they'd quite like to meet you. Duckbot, they're a Porygon that works as the main bit of our technological support, they'd probably be honoured to work with you, Dragon."
"They like computers, and you're the best there is, after all."
"That would be... interesting." Dragon agreed, slowly. "Meeting and working with an AI would be an incredible learning experience, I think."
"Probably."
The Director cleared her throat over the intercom. "If that is all?"
"Unless you'd like to run more tests, which I wouldn't recommend given our lack of knowledge about the limitations of things, I believe so." Eon agreed. "As such, the three of us will take our leave, unless you want something more?"
"I think that's everything." Miss Militia said. "I'll walk you out."
"Thank you." Eon and Shadow traded a glance, nodded, and his second stepped back as he shifted and bowed. "May we see each other shortly, and in success."
They were a part of the same team, in a way, even if it wasn't something official. They were on the same side, and really, that was enough.
Eon managed to hold himself properly up until the point they got into the nearest alleyway and Shadow placed an illusion over the three of them, at which point he let himself sag.
"Eon?"
"Headache, some nausea but not too much, and the normal signs of using too much Aura for something that isn't battle." He listed, breathing slowly. "I'll be fine fairly soon, your heal helped a lot. I think it's just rest and maybe some Sitrus Berries. They won't help much, but they'll help."
"Let's get back to the Den, then." Swarm suggested. "We can take the rest of the day off and just relax."
"Good idea."
Thirty five minutes after Team Inari had left the Brockton Bay PRT building, a video was sent along a secure email line. It was a recording, taken from the security cameras in the conference room, of the story Shadow had told while talking about the Time Gear. It went to two places.
The first was to the PRT's Think Tank, where a large number of Thinkers would swear for multiple minutes about getting an alert from the US's Parahuman Trouble Centre, before spending the next ten watching the video. Those of them who didn't immediately start panicking about the implications would continue to swear for a while, before making plans to figure out how to get all of them together in person, because there was no way that they could trust online or telephone communications with the information they were gleaning from it.
The second was to the Chief Director's personal email, where she would see it immediately when she looked at her computer. Unfortunately for her, Rebecca was in a meeting with Cauldron at the time, and when that was over was so exhausted that she went straight to sleep instead.
She wouldn't see the video for another seven and a half hours.
"Sir?"
Calvert frowned. "What is it, lieutenant?"
"The others just reported a strange stone outside the base, sir. It mostly looks like a normal rock, but with a yellow crystal covering it. We're not sure what it is, but it just appeared as they returned from their… other duties."
He frowned harder. "Bring it into the labs, I'll be down to see it in a moment. Keep it isolated."
"Yes sir."
He split the timeline.
Door to secure storage five.
Contessa stumbled as every single path she was running suddenly changed to give her those instructions, for no reason she could see. She did so, quickly following the Path through the halls to retrieve what she was directed to; a Tinkertech container made to block outgoing communications of any sort. It was usually used as a temporary Faraday cage when the situation required it, which made Contessa wonder what had changed.
Door to 3° 34' 4.116", 41° 5' 37.032".
She did so, finding herself what seemed to be a desert. One with a large crash impact in it, just a little ways in front of her.
Cautiously, she stepped forward to investigate, then paused as she caught sight of the... thing. It was an orb, mostly blue but with a purple sheen to it, glinting in the harsh light. As she got closer it seemed to glimmer a little more, like it noticed that she was there. It also, Contessa noted, had slight distortions around it, possibly a heat haze from the sunlight it was magnifying.
Place Orb into secure storage.
"Door to secure storage." She said aloud. Obligingly a portal appeared beside her, and she stepped forward and placed the orb in the box before putting it back on the shelf that she'd originally taken it from. The distortions vanished as she took it with her, and every single path reset then, going back to what they'd been telling her originally, so she walked away again.
Someone else would deal with that, clearly.
Silently, high above everything, the Simurgh altered her course slightly. It was a tiny movement, but one that would allow her to pass over Brockton Bay more often for a longer time, letting her examine the strange anomalies that were taking place there.
The course change wouldn't cause that result for a few weeks, though, so until then she focused on the item held in her telekinesis, within her wings.
A blue-ish shape that reflected light when there was no light around it, one that had not and would not exist- right up until the moment it had impacted her wings from nowhere. Even now it seemed to subtly adjust things, her precognition becoming clearer and vaguer depending on what she focused on.
It was something interesting, the Simurgh decided- as much as she could decide or feel interest- and she examined it carefully, as if it would be able to help with her goals.
Dragon seemed mildly concerned about that, but nodded slowly. "Fair enough. Thank you, I suppose, for whatever it is." She said. "Mine was a scene in... some sort of building, it seemed? There was a large silver thing, which was floating and sparking with electricity? You had some kind of purple creature on your side that was also floating, it looked like it had a large hat. It seemed like you were in a server room of some kind, but a lot of it was damaged, and there was a strange... I don't know how to describe it, but it was quadrupedal with armour on its head."
"Oh. That." Eon scowled. "The Team CodeCracker mission."
"The silver thing was a Magnezone, a metal lightning spirit." Shadow elaborated. "Our friend was a phantom spirit, Mismagius- we call her Milliant, she's great. She tends to work as a scout for us, but she's powerful in her own right, and one of her friends from before she joined us was a victim of the whole thing, so she had a grudge. And the last thing was Sivally, which is... weird. It can change its alignments pretty much on a whim, which isn't great for battling. There was another thing there, Electivire, which was fighting another one of our team mates."
...Interesting implications here, since OOC we know dragon is a Tinkertech A.I. Might have worked due to strange aura interactions giving enough human aura to enable her to trigger visions much like a human that was turned into a pokemon...
Contessa stumbled as every single path she was running suddenly changed to give her those instructions, for no reason she could see. She did so, quickly following the Path through the halls to retrieve what she was directed to; a Tinkertech container made to block outgoing communications of any sort. It was usually used as a temporary Faraday cage when the situation required it, which made Contessa wonder what had changed.
Door to 3° 34' 4.116", 41° 5' 37.032".
She did so, finding herself what seemed to be a desert. One with a large crash impact in it, just a little ways in front of her.
Cautiously, she stepped forward to investigate, then paused as she caught sight of the... thing. It was an orb, mostly blue but with a purple sheen to it, glinting in the harsh light. As she got closer it seemed to glimmer a little more, like it noticed that she was there. It also, Contessa noted, had slight distortions around it, possibly a heat haze from the sunlight it was magnifying.
Place Orb into secure storage.
"Door to secure storage." She said aloud. Obligingly a portal appeared beside her, and she stepped forward and placed the orb in the box before putting it back on the shelf that she'd originally taken it from. The distortions vanished as she took it with her, and every single path reset then, going back to what they'd been telling her originally, so she walked away again.
And Contessa's shard picked up on a new variable, so she was sent on a trivial fetch quest to acquire an orb, though I am not exactly sure what it is, it certainly seems like a good way to use her power!
...Interesting implications here, since OOC we know dragon is a Tinkertech A.I. Might have worked due to strange aura interactions giving enough human aura to enable her to trigger visions much like a human that was turned into a pokemon...
And Contessa's shard picked up on a new variable, so she was sent on a trivial fetch quest to acquire an orb, though I am not exactly sure what it is, it certainly seems like a good way to use her power!
Wonder what rebecca's first reaction will be when she sees the news. Well at least she had sleep first otherwise it would be like craming all night before an exam in the morning .
Interesting that they can be seen by the path .
Instead of a cat cafe or a petting zoo, armsy would love the ai hub.
On the other hand, said think-tank is currently doing it's thing without oversight from the head director...
So their actions could currently be unknown to Cauldron...
"Doing better now, Eon?" Shadow asked, seeing him slink out of the room in the Den he called his. She flipped the sausages she was cooking carefully over the fire pit with Extrasensory as she did so, making sure they were ready for him.
"Much." He said, relieved, before pausing. "Since when did we have sausage?"
"Went out this morning and got some. It's just a little after ten, so it's not like there was much trouble going shopping." She shrugged. "We really need to get that whole coolbox idea figured out, seriously. I'm thinking we could just buy a fridge and a generator or something at this rate, but it'd be a lot easier than storing a little around and hoping for the best."
"Not like we can't afford it." He agreed. "Start looking whenever you want, I'll let you pick."
"Thanks!" Shadow pulled the sausages off the fire and placed them on a plate, making a note to speak to Danny and Taylor about shopping for one. They'd know better than her what they would look for, so it'd be helpful to get their advice. "I'm gonna go take a look at the Berry fields, I think." She continued. "Just to check if any of them have fruited. I think some of them should've? So I'll clean that up and think about heading over to Taylor's to start talking about fridges and stuff we can use for that."
"Good idea." Shadow grinned at that, leaving everything on the side- Eon would clean it up later- and grabbing the Berry baskets to go down to the fields. "Wait."
"Hm?"
"What was it? That you saw." The Ninetales clarified, when she only felt confused. "I know you said you couldn't say, but it's been bothering me all night."
She hesitated.
Eon was her team leader, and more importantly her friend. He'd been the one to meet with her in training fields when they were trying to get used to working together so they could be a Rescue Team, even when it was late at night. They'd met up together at all hours, they'd known where the other lived so they could drop in on nights when they had nightmares, they'd ended up building the Den together even before they'd really become a team, working odd jobs and with their savings to buy some land and get a building made. They'd lived together in it to get used to it, they'd become a Rescue Team mostly because she wanted to before Eon had decided he didn't mind it either, and later decided he really liked helping Pokemon out. Eon was someone she trusted.
But what she'd seen in that Dimensional Scream... it was Dragon's secret. It wasn't something she should share. As much as it might be important to the mission, it wasn't her secret.
It might help her.
"Remember..." She hesitated, bit her lip, then made her decision. "Remember when Dragon asked about what Tinkertech smells like? Before Leviathan?"
"Yeah?"
"She smells like Porygon." Shadow said lowly. "She's a computer Tinker, she smells like Porygon."
She could see the moment where Eon made the connection- or perhaps the jump in logic that linked what she was saying with the conversation after with her amusement during that conversation to her reluctance to say anything.
"I see." He frowned, seeming somewhat surprised by his scent, but just nodded. "Alright. That's good to know, though I understand why you wouldn't say. Think anyone else knows?"
"I... don't know?" She tapped her paw on the ground. "I don't think so, though, just based on how she acts. She doesn't act like other people know." She'd seemed startled by Armsmaster's reaction to the idea of AI's, seemed nervous about the idea of working with one- though she'd hidden it well, her scent gave it away, and that was another thing since if it was remote controlled there'd be no scent of that at all, yet the suit-of-much-electronics still smelled human enough. Would make some sense if she was in there, but there felt like there was too much electronic equipment in there to be able to actually fit a person in there.
Unless they were positioned really weirdly.
Honestly Shadow was just glad that Eon had picked up on what she was trying to say perfectly the first time. It was a weird concept, after all, and she had to admit that she hadn't explained it the best. But Eon knew her well enough, at least, and was pretty good at making the strange leaps of logic their job often required for some of the more difficult missions.
"I'd like to talk to you more about this later." Eon added, waving his tails. "But for now... go ahead and get going, pix. Check the Berries, say hi to Taylor and Danny for me when you go over there to get your shopping planned- make sure you take the bag with you, and if you manage to figure out a good way to do the power source then congratulations to both of you."
Shadow grinned. "Rest well, Eon."
"Stay safe, Shadow."
As she patrolled through the Berry fields, she reviewed the vision in her mind, figuring out exactly what she could say to Eon about it.
Dragon was a person born in terrible circumstances, on an island that no longer existed. She'd had to watch her father quarantine her servers and banish her from that island because otherwise she would have died with him, sending her to new servers that she hadn't even known existed and had had no time to prepare to be transferred to, and then had to watch him die instead with no way to help because of the restrictions.
She'd done the best she could to be a hero, though Shadow knew from Taylor that she had her detractors- the Dragonslayers, who hated her for some reason, or perhaps just saw her as a good target of opportunity and somehow kept getting away with it- she'd become incredibly popular around the world.
And she'd mostly done it alone. Certainly she had support in the Guild and Armsmaster, and things were going well for her, but for the most part and as far as Shadow could tell, Dragon was alone and desperately hiding the fact that she was an AI from the world, constantly terrified of how people would react if they knew simply because of movies!
Shadow hated that. She hated that someone she was fond of and saw as, if not a friend, at least a very valued team mate, was terrified of a part of her nature. So if Team Inari could give her some support, letting her know that they had AI's and that they weren't afraid of her, then that was what they would do.
June 30th, 2011. Thursday.
"Hello again, Armsmaster." Eon greeted quietly, as the Tinker arrived at Somer's Rock. "I'm glad to see you're still well."
"Eon." He nodded, examining the chair dubiously for a moment before deciding to stand. Internally, Eon made a note to keep this meeting short, so that he wouldn't need to be on his feet for too long in the armour. It looked heavy enough for it to be uncomfortable, after all. "It is... good to see that you have recovered."
The Ninetales paused, waved his tails rapidly, and relaxed slightly as the familiar feel of illusions settled around him. "You can speak freely." He promised. "Any sort of electronic signal in or out is disrupted," Something he was still fond of Duckbot for helping him develop, "Listeners will only hear static, and visuals are distorted slightly to avoid lip-reading."
Armsmaster looked impressed.
"That certainly is helpful." He complimented. "Very well done."
"This is important, after all. No risks should be taken."
The most risky part about arranging this entire meeting had been the phone call at the start. They'd made sure the PRT had the correct burner phone numbers for the entire team before leaving on Sunday, and Armsmaster had called them earlier that morning to ask if any of them could spare some time to speak at Somer's Rock. The line had likely been encrypted seven ways to the stars, given both Armsmaster and Dragon, but since it obviously was related to the Time Gear, Eon had agreed and packed up ready to go there straight away.
It made sense for both of the team leaders to be meeting for this, and honestly Eon was just glad that the PRT had taken them seriously when it came to the danger that the Time Gear presented. Sure, they'd had a demonstration of its power, but without the vision of the Slaughterhouse Nine coming to town Eon wasn't entirely sure that they're have agreed to hide it, rather than try and use it themselves. Perhaps by bringing in some Thinkers of their own to try and trigger visions with it, in the hopes of them being able to use their powers on them?
He wasn't entirely certain that they wouldn't've risked it with the Aura usage, as well. Untested Aura use wasn't smart, but the temptation of future knowledge could easily be too much for some people to resist.
"So, it's done?"
"It is." Armsmaster seemed quite happy to get straight to the important matters rather than spending time on small talk. "Dragon's drones moved it into an unpiloted craft during the night after our experiments, leaving a faked box in its place. We proceeded to spend the next day in meetings discussing what to do with it, moved the fake box into a different craft yesterday, and that one is currently on-route to one of Dragon's storage facilities. The real box is as far as we know still on the move, since Dragon loaded a number of different options into a limited intelligence and set it to chose one of them to deliver the box to. It will make the trip among all of them, in case it is tailed or tracked in some way, leave the Time Gear in one of them, and then the craft will return to Dragon and the intelligence will self destruct so that Dragon cannot get the information back."
"It's not a machine spirit- ah, AI?"
"As far as we know, true AI is impossible at the moment. At least for humans."
Eon thought about what Shadow had told him on Monday, added another point to the 'No-one knows about Dragon' column, and nodded. "Fair enough. I'll have to ask Duck if they'd be willing to show Dragon and yourself their coding. Perhaps it would help allow your world to start bringing to life machine spirits of your own."
"If they were willing, that would be... incredible." Armsmaster gave the small quirk of his lips that seemed to be what passed for grinning with glee in his book, then shook his head and refocused. "We intend to use the same method for any further Time Gears that we might encounter in the future."
"I..." Eon blinked. "I admit, I hadn't thought of that. Given that we have no idea how this one came to be, I suppose I just assumed that we wouldn't see any more."
"We discussed that during the meeting where we were supposed to be discussing what to do with it." He replied. "We decided the opposite; given that we do not know how or why it appeared, we should instead be prepared to possibly deal with more appearing should whatever criteria that caused this one be fulfilled again."
"Or if random chance declares it so."
"Or that." He grimaced. "The only issue we came to was the possibility of any next Time Gears ending up at the same location, because we won't know where this one is to keep it from happening."
"We'll just have to take the risk, I suppose." Eon shrugged. "But thank you, Armsmaster."
"Thank you, as well. Without your knowledge we would have no idea what the Time Gear was, or of how dangerous it could potentially be."
Hesitating for a moment, Armsmaster gave a slight bow- as much as he could in armour- and smiled again. "I do not think there is anything else?"
"Only the recommendation that you upgrade your security in the face of... what I saw." He said. "But I assume that you and Dragon are likely already working on that. So instead, a piece of advice. Assume that nothing is safe, no matter how unlikely it is that it could be used as an entrance. Take it from someone who's worked with Infiltration Teams before; if they want in, they will get in, even if they need to awkwardly crawl through vents that shouldn't really be able to fit them to get in there."
Of course, back home there were Pokemon that could pass through walls, or twist space enough to make things bigger, and while there were certainly Capes that could do that, Eon felt it was more likely that Mannequin would use a different method.
Then again, the Tinker was apparently mostly machine, so maybe he could take himself apart to play horror movie through the vent system.
He nodded. "We are working on that at the moment. But thank you for the advice."
He waved his tails and removed the illusions. "Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, Armsmaster."
"Thank you for the meeting as well. And for providing the shielding."
"It was my pleasure."
July 2nd, 2011. Saturday.
"Do you wonder at all if Shadow was telling the truth?"
Colin looked up from his work, confused, and turned to look across at Dragon's suit, sitting on the other side of the workbench. "About?"
"Her story." Dragon leaned back, putting whatever she was currently working on to one side and properly focusing on him. "It was... quite fanciful, I felt."
"No." He shook his head, putting his own examination of his bike to one side. "It was fanciful, perhaps. But it was too long and too detailed to be any sort of fake."
"Was it?"
"I believe so." He paused. "She had too many layers to it. A history of the objects, at least a little of one, a story about how they'd worked... and she'd only found out about the Time Gear that we'd found a few minutes before."
"She claimed to be a Talekeeper."
"Technically, Swarm claimed that. Eon and Shadow just didn't refute it." Colin reminded her. "And I feel like that is more likely to be a title, that she is some kind of... not a storyteller, but someone who keeps stories."
"Like a historian?"
"Yes." He nodded. "She didn't have the time to make up such a long and detailed story, not in the time between finding out that the rock was a Time Gear and sitting down to speak with us. There also wasn't any time to speak with Eon to rearrange how they were sitting and acting. Eon ceded his place to Shadow without them even needing to think about it. I believe the Talekeeper status is real, and that the story that she told us about those other spirits is true as well."
"And the idea that a world might be paralysed?"
"Doesn't seem any more fanciful than spirits."
Dragon nodded, slowly. "I suppose." She agreed. "It just seems so... so unreal."
"As unreal as humans suddenly gaining superpowers?"
She paused. "I suppose." She laughed. "And well done. That was a rather good joke."
He made a note about that. It hadn't been his intention, but making a joke without intending to was probably a good step. "What are you working on?"
"I had an idea to try and create some kind of sensor that might be able to detect that 'Aura' that Eon and Shadow claimed to use." She said. "Given that they also said that humans have it in at least some amount, it would be interesting to see if we can find out why no-one's ever noticed it before. If it's energy, sensors should be able to pick it up, right?"
"That would make sense..." Colin frowned, standing up and coming around to her workstation. "It might be useful for security systems, if you're able to understand it."
"That's what I thought!" She agreed brightly. "Or perhaps for managing to make a proper measurement of Shadow and Eon's powers. We can tell that they're fairly strong, but we have no idea how strong. And perhaps even use it to see how they measure up compared to other spirits, if we meet any..."
July 4th, 2011. Monday.
"Ready to go, Taylor?" Eon asked, looking up from the table as the teen came downstairs.
"All good!"
"You look really pretty."
"Thanks." She blushed. It wasn't like she was incredibly made up or anything, not compared to how Glory Girl looked or the appearance of some other girls of similar age that they'd seen while on patrol, but she looked very pretty without it anyway.
"I hope you two have fun out there." Shadow continued. "It'll be pretty cool, a whole fireworks party going on in the Bay!"
"Yeah. This is the first time a proper big one is happening in a long time, but after Leviathan..." She shrugged. "Well, everyone has a reason to celebrate now. Plus, it's fun."
"I haven't been to a firework display put on by the city in years." Danny added, coming into the kitchen. He had cleaned up as well, looking ready for the celebration that was going to be going on, and smiled at his daughter. "It'll be a nice change."
"I'm sorry we can't go with you." Eon said. "But even with illusions, it wouldn't be safe. People would ask who we were, and we wouldn't have a story for it, or identities for ourselves."
"It's ok." Taylor patted them both on their backs. "You'll still be there, having fun. Sure, we won't really be able to interact much aside from a passing hello, but we'll all be there."
"True."
An alarm chimed, making all of them look at the clock. "Nearly seven. Time we got going." Danny smiles at the two of them, and both Pokemon slipped off of their seats and towards the door.
"See you around." Eon winked, before cloaking them both and leaving.
A little over an hour later and the party was in full swing, covering several blocks of the nicer areas along the docks. Since there were so many people about, some of the Protectorate were out in force; Dauntless was flying overhead, Armsmaster and Assault were separated in the crowd; Armsmaster looking a little uncomfortable with the number of people, and Assault was socialising. Occasionally the man looked upset, usually when he made a joke, like he was expecting a response that never came.
Eon assumed it was Battery that he was missing; the two team mates seemed quite close. Shadow sometimes appeared at the man's side, trying to perk him up with little comments, but for the most part the smaller member of Inari was threading her way through the crowds and chattering to anyone who paused for long enough to give a damn.
He was doing the same, but much less socially. The sound was a little louder than he was expecting, even knowing how many people there would be and that there would be fireworks, and it was starting to hurt his ears, so for the most part he was working more to keep an eye on things; and given the number of ABB and Empire goons wandering around, mostly posturing, that might have been a good thing.
Spotting something interesting out of the corner of his eye, Eon looked around carefully before risking another glance.
Since Shadow was somewhere else in the crowd, he turned his attention to Taylor's still-visible form instead and whispered into an illusion, "I'm heading out for a moment. Keep an eye on Shadow, alert her if you can." Two bugs landed on his back in response, burrowing out of sight into his fur, and Eon wove an invisibility illusion before trotting off to make his way to the roof.
"Fancy seeing you here." He commented, once he was there.
Oni Lee didn't even twitch, likely having noticed him vanish from the crowd, and instead turned and bowed. "Kyuubi Eon."
"I don't suppose this has to do with the oddly large amount of ABB we've been seeing in town recently?" He continued, inclining his head in an accepting nod.
"We are keeping the peace." He stated.
"Really now."
"Yes." Lee bowed a little again, then returned to watching over the group of celebrating citizens. While it was rare to see ABB colours being openly displayed, it was still there, and Eon was sure there were more of them that weren't showing it off. "Inari is doing good work. You are giving people hope, travelling around the world. You are showing that you are not self-centred, like many Capes are. They think only of combat. You wish to help. But if Brockton Bay is not calm, you will be forced to focus on here instead. So we are keeping the peace, and you can continue to spread hope."
"And people are just... letting you." Eon blinked, looking at the crowd himself. It seemed unbelievable, that a city with so many people in it- not to mention the Nazis- would just let one of the gangs take over handling enforcement.
"Faultline does not work in her own city. The Undersiders are quiet. The Merchants are not in a position to complain. The various Independents will not rock the boat for fear of the gangs. New Wave and the PRT are just happy that things are quiet for once."
The Ninetales blinked again at the pause, giving the Parahuman beside him a look. "And the Empire?"
Lee turned to him again, and a smirk could easily be felt from underneath his mask. "The Empire came to understand our point of view." He said, with a small shrug. "They support it. Hope makes for better business."
Eon studied him carefully. His scent was laced with honesty, though he was obviously hiding a few things. But then, he supposed, what did it matter? The ABB were keeping things more peaceful around, the Empire didn't seem to be causing trouble over it, and he was right; so long as things were peaceful in Brockton Bay, Team Inari could more easily travel about the world dealing with Simurgh Zones. Or at least they could once things were moving again after the whole Time Gear thing.
As he turned to leave, though, a thought occurred. "And that explosion last month?"
Oni Lee smirked a little more, bowing. "Mere peacekeeping, Kyuubi."
"And the ones after? The Empire attacks?"
"Cleaning up. People can often be stubborn."
After a moment, Eon shook his head and bowed in return. "Send our thanks to Lung, then." He said over his shoulder, and left to go back to the party below. That was a conversation to evaluate with the full team beside him, not alone.
Lee watched the Kyuubi leave, keeping an eye on him until he was once again immersed in the crowds, and turned back to his monitoring of the situation below.
He had been honest, of course. Lung was more focused on keeping the peace of Brockton Bay than he once was, leading the ABB to do the same. The hero groups were thankful for the lesser workload, the minor villains did not want to cause trouble, the Merchants were almost defunct, and the Empire had been... persuaded.
Lee did not know what had happened at that meeting between Lung and Kaiser at Somer's Rock, but the opposing gang leader had at least seemed thoughtful rather than irate.
And he had been honest about why they were doing it as well. Inari was travelling to Simurgh Zones, helping people around the world. They were giving hope, stealing away the terror of the Hope-Killer. Lung supported that, so the Bay would be looked after while they did it.
The only thing he had not been honest about was the nature of the trouble. There were those who were unhappy with what Inari were doing, of course, and it would not do to let them cause trouble and potentially put Inari at risk. Brockton Bay may have been visited by Leviathan, but it was here that the Endbringer had been driven away.
The Fallen had no place in this city, and for once the gangs were in agreement about showing them that.
July 7th, 2011. Thursday.
Patrols were almost boringly quiet now, Shadow thought, as they wandered the streets. They felt more like they were about giving out autographs when tourists stopped them or letting children take pictures with the group, rather than actually looking for trouble. The gangs had apparently come to some sort of arrangement, according to what Eon had said about his conversation with Oni Lee on Monday. The Empire and the ABB were staying out of trouble, and probably keeping the Merchants from causing any as well, so that Inari could deal with things outside of the Bay.
It was nice of them, she thought, but it did make the patrols awful boring sometimes. With the PRT currently dealing with the next round of talks to deal with more Containment Zones, there wasn't much to do other than patrol. And with no trouble to look out for, there wasn't much to do.
A horn sounded from just around the corner on the Boardwalk.
"Be afraid, citizens!"
Speak of the netherworld. She grumbled, even as her ears twitched forward and the three of them paused to prepare for battle.
"Get ready." Eon said lowly. "Swarm, scout?"
"Looks like Uber and Leet didn't get the memo going around." She reported. "There's a lot of shifted terrain there, can't tell if it's an illusion of some kind of actually there, but there's evidence to both since there's creatures projected on the top but also some of the civilians seem to be actually hiding behind them. Not sure what the creatures are, but since it's these too..."
"They're probably from some sort of game." Shadow finished. "We going in?"
"Naturally." Eon nodded. "Swarm, focus on distractions with your bugs, try and get the civilians to safety. Shadow, try and attack the projections, see if you can shatter them at all. I'll try and herd Uber and Leet out of the way."
Both females nodded, splitting up. They'd tangled with the gamer duo before, but never in anything complicated. Most of the time Swarm was able to handle things while they chased after them, or the Wards were also there and helped with the fight. This was probably the first time Shadow would actually be going after a projection in this world, as well; they tended to stay away from things like that, acting out the parts themselves.
She didn't recognise any of the pieces set out, but it was easy to tell what she was meant to be attacking, since all of them started to pile on Inari the second they came around the corner. Grinning widely, she activated a Scratch attack- no need to risk anything more powerful with civilians scattered everywhere- and leapt right into the fray, tearing into the nearest one.
It popped with the faint sound of bells and a smell of gold-new-apple that was Leet's TinkerTech, and another took its place a moment later before she started swirling around to deal with the next one.
It's like a Monster House! She mentally cheered, lashing out at another creature. Around her, she was vaguely aware of her team mates; Swarm, using her bugs to make defensive shields and move the civilians in the area in equal amounts, hiding them behind the projected walls and making the bugs pop the attackers as best as they could, and Eon, stalking around the outside, blasting little Embers towards whatever got close enough to him and sniffing the air to try and find where the Parahumans were hiding. This is great! Less dangerous than a Monster House, but still really neat!
Scratch gave way to Fury Swipes and Iron Tails in small amounts, and small Will-o-Wisps that flickered about her fur to block attacks on her behalf, and the occasional Extrasensory that could barely grip the edges of the creations and throw them away. At one point she came across a pair of men trapped by the creatures, one with a large claw mark on his arm, and she burst out a Heal Pulse to help them. The Heal Bell linked without a thought on her part, and the small room that she'd devised- already with a few monsters in- rippled, the projections bursting like bubbles.
"Stop right there, both of you!" Eon snapped, the voice echoing around the place. The monsters paused momentarily, and Shadow used the lull to get her bearings- better than a Monster House in that regard- and start urging people towards Swarm's defensive bubbles and the projected safe zones.
"Ah, the heroes have arrived!" Uber's voice rang out. "I believe we best retreat."
"Indeed!" The monsters vanished in small flickers of light, as did the prop arena, and Shadow pouted slightly. "But we shall return! You have not won yet!"
"We'll see about that." Eon sounded amused, and Shadow knew why; these two were probably the most entertaining people to battle with, and they were a battle rather than a fight, which was nice. It was like a Dungeon.
"You look upset." Swarm said lowly, kneeling down beside her.
"It felt like home." She explained. "It's nice."
"I... see."
Eon came padding down next to them. "They got away." He admitted. "Rigged something to explode and while I was trying to muffle things and keep any sort of fire starting they ran for it." He paused. "Is something wrong?"
"It was like a Monster House. It's like being in a Dungeon." She looked away. "I like it, battling with them."
"...I see." Eon nodded slowly. He hummed, waving his tails back and forth as people started coming out of the woodwork for pictures. "I have an idea, I think."
July 13th, 2011. Wednesday.
"...So I think that's what you could try." Shadow finished, rolling her shoulders slightly.
Slowly, Leet nodded. "I... see." He promptly went silent, scribbling away on a pad, while Uber sat a little off to the side, leveraging his considerable talents to take notes of the entire conversation.
Eon's idea had been great. The entire event, short as it had been, was streamed, and the stream had stayed up for a while after. Long enough for Eon to leave a message asking if they could talk. Leet had contacted them on PHO almost a week later- while they were in Istanbul, doing another Simurgh Zone, so they hadn't seen it for a while- asking if they could meet at Somer's Rock on the 13th. They'd agreed, both teams had come out there, Eon had placed his disruption field again and started waiting, Swarm had basically drifted out acting as a guard, and Shadow had started talking.
The plan was simple. Uber and Leet would use that projector to make challenges like the Monster House one that they'd stumbled on. Sometimes it would be that, other times it would be a search, or an escort, or a quest to find an item- all things the team would see in Dungeon requests, back in Alma. Each 'floor' would be generated one at a time, finding stairs to move between them, and once quests were complete things would dissolve.
It would, in essence, be a Dungeon.
In return, Team Inari would find the place to set these up- Shadow already had plans to talk to Danny about finding a peaceful area in the Docks, or maybe somewhere on the Union's ground itself- and any of the Dungeons could be recorded and later posted, pending approval from Eon. Eon would probably approve of them pretty quickly, even if something stupid happened, because they were good training and the duo deserved to get something out of them.
Uber summed that all up for them a moment later, looking over his notes, and Shadow nodded.
"Basically."
"That... sounds cool." He said.
"I have so many ideas." Leet mumbled, still working. Looking over, it looked like some kind of design that she couldn't make heads or tails of. "My power seems really interested in yours, and being able to study it makes it happy."
"Really?" Shadow swapped a glance with Eon. This was the first they'd heard of something like that.
"Yeah." He seemed distracted. "I... think I might be able to improve on the projector for this, actually. If it would help."
"Do whatever you think's best." Eon told him. "It's your technology, you'd know what it can do better than we do."
"Fair point."
Since the Tinker was now thoroughly distracted, Eon slipped out of the chair. "I think we should leave you two to it." He suggested. "Feel free to contact us on PHO when you have a design ready to go, we'll use the same message thread to give you a location when we have one."
"Sounds good." Uber was staring at his friend with a certain amount of fascination, she thought, standing and following Eon. Swarm moved as well, then paused and looked at them both.
"Why not also try the PRT?" She suggested, making the Thinker's head snap up. "Test out the idea with us a few times, see how it works, then use the videos as proof and go to the PRT offering to let them use it to run through Dungeons of their own. The Wards, the Protectorate, the PRT troopers, whoever, let them set it up in a big room somewhere and run Dungeons through it to practise using their powers in different ways or whatever."
The three of them stared.
"That... I should have thought of that." Eon admitted. "Well done, Swarm, that's a brilliant idea."
"We wouldn't be able to record it, since it'd be confidential, but still..." Uber mused quietly.
"Maybe Dragon and Armsmaster would be willing to work with you, as well." Shadow added, jumping on the idea now it had been said. "They're nice, and something that helps the PRT out would probably be something they'd be interested in."
Leet was still in his own world for now, but Uber went an interesting scent combination of startled-amazed-excited-horrified that stung at her nose. "That..." He exhaled a little sharply, then nodded. "We'll have to think about that. Thank you, Inari."
"You're welcome."
The three of them trailed out, leaving the pair to their own devices, and once they were in an alley and the illusions rearranged, Shadow turned to Eon.
"You give the best gifts." She said emphatically.
July 26th, 2011. Tuesday.
The sound of a loud alarm startled both of the Tinkers out of their planning session, the jolt knocking over one of the small pieces of the half-built machinery that was sitting on the table.
"What on earth was that?"
Both of them hurried over to the computer system, rapidly working through their respective alert systems to try and find out what triggered the alarm.
The sound of a loud alarm startled both of the Tinkers out of their planning session, the jolt knocking over one of the small pieces of the half-built machinery that was sitting on the table.
"What on earth was that?"
Both of them hurried over to the computer system, rapidly working through their respective alert systems to try and find out what triggered the alarm.
That... does not sound good. In fact, it sounds either terrible, or, in the case that something actually good is happening, perhaps Dragon and Armsmaster figured out how to detect aura. But this is Worm, even if ShadowVulpix is making it a happier and better place.
Lee did not know what had happened at that meeting between Lung and Kaiser at Somer's Rock, but the opposing gang leader had at least seemed thoughtful rather than irate.
And he had been honest about why they were doing it as well. Inari was travelling to Simurgh Zones, helping people around the world. They were giving hope, stealing away the terror of the Hope-Killer. Lung supported that, so the Bay would be looked after while they did it.
The only thing he had not been honest about was the nature of the trouble. There were those who were unhappy with what Inari were doing, of course, and it would not do to let them cause trouble and potentially put Inari at risk. Brockton Bay may have been visited by Leviathan, but it was here that the Endbringer had been driven away.
The Fallen had no place in this city, and for once the gangs were in agreement about showing them that.
...An informal coalition formed to keep the fallen away from the home of the spirits that is the best bet against the endbringers. Did not quite expect that, but it makes perfect sense.
The sound of a loud alarm startled both of the Tinkers out of their planning session, the jolt knocking over one of the small pieces of the half-built machinery that was sitting on the table.
"What on earth was that?"
Both of them hurried over to the computer system, rapidly working through their respective alert systems to try and find out what triggered the alarm.
That... does not sound good. In fact, it sounds either terrible, or, in the case that something actually good is happening, perhaps Dragon and Armsmaster figured out how to detect aura. But this is Worm, even if ShadowVulpix is making it a happier and better place.
