Reaching Slateport City was a fairly relaxed affair, considering how the dense forest blocked most traffic.
Well, USED to block most traffic. The groups meandering journey had picked up a lot of tag-a-longs, as Trainers tend to be curious things at the best of times. Thankfully they didn't get too close or become bothersome, just filmed the progression of the Route as Adam modified it.
He stretched, the path becoming more and more civilized as they approached the city. "Finally. I guess we should rent a room and sleep the evening off, then try out this market tomorrow?"
Anita also seemed tired, Pidgey slumped on her shoulder and leaning on her head. "Yeah, I could use some down time. I'll be honest, not having you around feels stressful with all the new stuff I am going to be responsible for."
Simmy and Sammy flew off with Abra and the twin Pokémon... so they had plans. Well, they could handle things on their own. "I'm thinking about adding some support to your Gym, actually." He glanced at the curious kid. "Ever heard of Adventurers? Basically a guild of people who accomplish tasks and quests designed by you, brought around by me. Thinking about making your Gym an 'Adventurer Hall' or 'Guild House', could help you out if trouble shows up."
The discussion continued from there, as twin Endbringers carried the (three?) Pokémon into the city to look around. Pidgey was too tired for that, and ended up resting in her Pokéball half way through the ongoing discussion.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Mew pointed left, and the group floated that way. The Angels were being lazy, floating through the City on paths that would be unseen by others, Abra was sleeping, and Plusle and Minun were... just distracted by everything.
Absently, the pink cat like creature brushed more attention away. These were HER playmates, the others could go do something else.
She accepted another of those amazing peanuts from the blue Angel, as she directed the group towards some of the better tasting berries that grew in hard to reach areas.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The 'Slateport Market' was bustling and crowded, people and Pokémon moving in mass confusion.
Adam was fascinated by the mess, stalls and stands everywhere covered with items and oddities. Anita was just wandering along, more interested in the food stalls being passed.
He looked over another electronic modification stand, 'Technomancy' allowing him to gather scans quickly. "And what does this do?"
The salesman smirked. "Not that I know where it came from, say no more, say no more, but this is a modification for the generic model Pokédex on the market. Not quite up to standard to be honest, but very low cost... it triples the range of detection, at the cost of lowering the accuracy of the scan."
Adam examined the insides... it was actually a more expensive mod chip that legal Pokédex's had, but with manufacturing errors on the board. No wonder it cost so little, these couldn't even be defective in standard ways... but it was still better than tossing the finished product due to quality issues.
He moved to the next ones. "And these?"
The man grinned. "Know a guy who knows a guy. Install this on a spare Pokédex and you can detect plants, specifically berries and the more rare fruit trees. Better be a spare one though, it loses access to the standard databases to work."
Anita had lost interest a while ago, but Adam continued examining the offerings. Some original stuff was sold here, but a good portion was just defective products that had been repurposed into black market modifications and 'unusual items'. The chips were so tiny in this Realm that even random manufacturing flaws made the units do SOMETHING interesting, if it didn't just burn out completely.
Sort of like old video games, which were so tiny and compressed that injecting random code would cause 'Cheats' to occur in game. Or crash everything.
Oh, and Rare Candy exists.
He hummed as he moved on to another stand.
Unlike the Evolutionary Stones, which was basically just Aura Dust Crystals, Rare Candy was more raw Aura condensed into liquid, sealed in a very, very thin shell of Aura Dust Crystal. And you didn't feed it to your Pokémon directly, the Trainer ate it instead and it filtered through his bonds to his closest partner.
Side note, apparently humans can EAT Aura crystal. It just needed to be thin and have a certain structural pattern... made the thing dissolve into energy instead of sharp shards of faith crystal. The liquid stuff was even more strange, as it was a slurry of magic, faith, and potential energy. The fluid was constantly shifting in the Rare Candy during the analysis process, and yet turned gel like unless exposed to a Trainer's Aura.
It also tasted like maple syrup and caramelized sugar. With a smoky aftertaste.
He only found two for sale here, so maybe there were all kinds of flavors out there.
Another side note: it wasn't suggested to just chew on them non-stop, as the energies would be too pure. Trainers NEEDED the random fields they stumbled upon in life to give the power certain accents, without that the Pokémon would lack strength. Rare Candies would technically provide enough energy, even enough for evolution!
But it would be boring, weak energy. Not flavored with life and experience. Not tainted with loss and gain and bond growth.
So it would be added to the stores back in the 'Theater Ball' Gym, but there would be limits sold per officially registered Trainers. Sometimes a Pokémon just needed a tiny push to reach the next level, so it wasn't like Rare Candies were worthless.
Oh, and ONLY Trainers could buy the candies. Without a 'Bond', the power would just pop someone.
A mental nudge had Adam moving to another stand, this one less popular. "Hmm..." Mostly junk, some odds and ends...
Adam tapped an odd item. "What is this?"
The woman shopkeeper glanced over. "That is a 'Shell Bell'. Add it as a necklace to your Partner and it can absorb part of the damage it causes as healing energy."
He hummed, his mind connecting the strange bell to the various games. Normally a Pokémon would hold one of these, and 1/8th of damaged caused would be used to heal the attacker. But his senses couldn't detect any technology.
A flick of thought and 'Harmony' activated... this bell created a psychic connection to the target. Damage would cause the victim to spike in energy to both defend and heal itself, and this bell could harvest a portion of that healing energy for the owner instead.
It operated similar to Voodoo, or the developed practices of African Diaspora. Manipulating the bonds between people, or in this case Pokémon. Step one, create a bond... in this case, the bond of attacker and victim. Step two, an exchange... giving energy in the form of an attack, accepting energy in the form of healing.
This deal of course wasn't fair, so to lower the difficulty in making a 'deal', the healing energy was far less than the attacking power 'offered'... and the contract didn't care that the attacking power had negative effects on the user. Step three kept the deal going until the 'bond' was broken... in other words, until the two Pokémon were no longer 'Attacker' and 'Victim'.
Adam bought the thing with little care for the seller, moving with Anita back towards the hotel.
This... this was an interesting path that required kami and magic to work. Faith was used to form the bond, Magic was used to control the transaction. More interesting was how the pattern of energies inside the bell were... flexing. Shifting. Whomever created this thing didn't need a specific material, or shape, or resources. Even a rock could be formed into this 'Shell Bell' with little difficulty.
No, the valuable material and the shape enhanced the final product, but neither was required.
Still, they mattered. The shape, the noise caused by attacking while wearing this bell, it drastically improved the bonding rate. It would ring during attacks, making the process more efficient. And the materials reduced the energy needed to form the 'Shell Bell' while increasing the amount of power transferred and the length of time said item would continue to work.
Anita's tugging of his sleeve brought his attention. She also peered at the item. "So is that bell what you were looking for?"
Adam nodded. "Yes." It entered his soul storage as he sighed. "And with that, I must gather my people head home."
She shuffled... before awkwardly hugging his arm. "I'm going to miss you, Adam." Pidgey flexed in agreement.
He chuckled, ruffling her hair. "You should be hooked up to our 'Skyword Networking System' via your Pokédex by now. I'll stay in touch."
Adam walked towards an open area of the City, waiting for his wives and Pokémon companions. "You going to head back to the Academy?"
She shrugged sadly. "No, going to stay the rest of break back in Theater Ball Gym. Although Mr. King will be helping me keep that running."
He waved a hand as the rest of the group arrived. Simmy, Sammy, Plusle, Minun, and Abra all faded away, the two Endbringers returned to their Confinement Grid cell and the four... no, three Pokémon sent into Marshadow's rehabilitation area. The twin Endbringers said the crazy little thing was better now, and that was good enough for Adam.
With a grin at the young girl who had traveled with him for so long, he gave a smile. "See you soon, Anita Sands."
Her wave was cut off as a massive blue metal skull consumed her friend and vanished.
She froze. "...What?"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Mew blinked, turning nowhere and looking at no-when.
One of her many avatars just... vanished.
No pain, no panic, no concern. Gone.
She watched time reverse, following the path she already traveled, hearing sounds already heard, feeling life.
How odd! How fun!
A fishbowl turned inside out, going nowhere, leaving no trace, carrying many things, places, and people.
How interesting.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
This place had no name.
The land died long ago, before the shards fell from the sky.
No one ever lived here. No animals ever survived this land, no plants ever grew.
In every respect, this was just one Realm dimension among countless more. A small subset, as at least dirt and soil existed.
For there were endless realities with nothing but energy. No mass, no planets, no stars.
In a space with no light, on a rock with no purpose, a skull formed and allowed Adam to exist.
There was no reaction. Not from the thing here, nor from the rocks.
This shard cluster, this planet, it did not have the equivalent of eyes. Of sensing organs.
It was a sort of core.
Glowing crystals expand every direction. None with any true abilities, none with any true skills.
No, this planet was formed of endless portals. The most essential router, the unending index, the ever reaching connection.
Zion, the Avatar of the Warrior Entity, he wasn't here. His projection shard was connected to this one.
Eden, the Avatar of the Thinker Entity, she wasn't here. This core was the one she communicated with when alive.
If the shards were the many limbs of the eldritch tree, this was the most core branch, root, and trunk.
This was the binding that held the energy space whales together. The network. The pathways between realities.
Adam watched with a sense of accomplishment as the many colored, flashing crystals... slowly became infected with blue.
His blue.
The System.
Originally, according to the many memories he gained of this Realm, the foes fought the Avatar. Scion, the golden nude warrior man. They fought across worlds, tore reality apart, attacked mentally, physically, emotionally. They eventually won. They lost much. They had fractured, broken, scared, but alive.
Now? Now that scenario was not needed.
The most essential component was being converted. Would finish in minutes.
And from this spine, every single shard, active or not, would become part of Adam's System.
Eden's shards would take longer, but were no longer directed. The many lost connections between Thinker and Warrior would be researched and eventually used to reconnect her shards to his System as well.
His eyes glistened as he watched gate after gate turn bright blue with System's attention. Those nearly uncountable Shards would be consumed, purified, refined, enhanced, then used as a power base for System itself.
And at the very least, one person would hopefully be unable to set off Armageddon. No madman or crazy woman would grip reality to death so easily.
After the minutes of infection, it only took a day or so for the planet to no longer pulse with the rainbow. For the blue fire to make this backbone shift and reform. To refine itself, and become more powerful and less wasteful.
True intelligent design, carved from the organic development forced to occur over thousands of millennia.
As the last gem glowed blue, the Entity Zion was now helpless... and Adam felt a new connection build.
SYSTEM v32.012: Interdimensional Edition
Full Initialization Complete, Optimization Underway.
"Roads? Where we are going, we don't NEED roads."
As the windows flashed in and out of existence, Adam felt a grin start to grow as connections began to strengthen.
From Adventurer to Adventurer, from node to node, from Realm to Realm... System was coming out of 'standby' and 'stealth' mode.
In the darkness of an unknown planet, a Crystalline Entity's dimensional backbone began to breakdown... and a System began 'Conversion', 'Growth', and 'Purification'. A pattern observed as Queen Administrator formed her own planet was now being constructed here, somewhere in space. A pattern analyzed, improved, and optimized.
This planet would become Shards, this Index would become the System Index, and this node would become Central.
Without consideration of others, the growth was exponentially faster. The signals were stronger, the backup connections exposed, whole clusters rewritten with new and better protocols rather than forced to use the organic mess that the Entities had stumbled upon during development.
Powers belonging to Adam's faithful were twisted, reformed, taken off line and rebuilt, while messages from System could finally be direct and honest without triggering emergency responses from high above.
On a planet that quaked with changes and screamed in construction, a skeleton man with a white suit stood with bony hands clasped behind him. Blue flames danced in his wired hair, his eyes shining into the dark.
With this, his greatest fear was handled. His most vulnerable people were secured.
A broken part of Adam's soul finally connected fully with System, helping both heal to some degree. Faith poured into his fishbowl, was cleansed, and returned as power to the many. Prayers were automatically assigned quests where appropriate, miracles were bestowed, and peace was delivered. A self supporting cycle of improvement, continuous growth, continuous change.
With a deep breath... Adam let it go.
Back to the depths of his being, automated. No longer mastered by his soul.
He was not ready for direct action.
His people offered him their free will, and he rewarded them by not taking it.
With a sharp nod, he headed back to his loved ones. The blue skull consumed his form as he went to the place he most longed for.
Home.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Narwhal sighed. "Yeah, he stole Mew."
CD grumbled. "Doesn't count as stolen if she was a stowaway."
She waved her arms at the screen. "IT LOOKS BAD! We can't just steal Gods, accidentally or not! That is BAD public relations."
Cyber Dragon's eyes pulsed with code. "The public seems fairly sympathetic. Or distracted by the giant gem light show just now."
Narwhal pouted. "Don't care, the new rule is no kidnapping Gods. Or Catnapping. Period."
Betty slammed the door closed, balancing several bags of groceries and chips. "I brought snacks! What did I miss?"
