Remove ads

Hyphen (Pokemon Emerald)

Hyphen

Hyphen

Created
Status
Ongoing
Watchers
1,273
Recent readers
0
Threadmarks
119
Leaving the safety of her hidden commune, a Ralts narrowly avoids capture on Hoenn Route 102. Finding a discarded pokeball, she ventures into the human world only to discover that her home is in danger from Humanity's rapid expansion. Now she has one recourse: disguise herself as human and become the pokemon champion before her village is discovered, and prevent the tragedy that is sure to come.

It's too bad she has to deal with subterfuge, eco-terrorism, the end of the world, and awkward inter-species friendships along the way.
Last edited:
Threadmarks Sidestory Apocrypha Media Informational Staff Post
View content
Remove ads
Rebound, game of Psychics!
  • View content
    • Rebound was a game with a long, if simple history within Astra's village. It was invented by a very bored Gardevoir centuries ago, who had begun to throw unfertilized eggs at a hated neighbor. A bold insult, for eggs weren't the most common of resources. The neighboring Gardevoir quickly grew to despise the first as well, and, not wanting to waste food, tried to catch and throw the eggs back.

    Eventually their grievance fuelled attacks became a source of competition. Who could hit the other with more eggs? Who could stain the opponents houses more often? How many eggs could they defend against at once?

    Both of them had begun to look forward to their conflicts, but alas! Eggs weren't so cheap as to be able to do it daily, or even weekly. Their solution? Use a ball. Deliberately aiming for the other person was also banned, after they both got conked in the eye. After all, if they went blind, how would they be able to show up the other?

    And through all of this, the others in the village would often gather to watch their spats. Is it any wonder that some thought it looked like fun, and began taking part themselves?

    Thus Rebound was born, and so it thrived until the present day.

    The rules were simple: Two players would each take one half of a rectangular oval field, preferably with a bare stone floor. A number of balls would be introduced, and the players had to smack them past their opponent and into the far wall in order to score. (One ball for beginners, up to a recorded maximum of nearly fifty when the Ancestor had briefly taken the field against a team of three other Gardevoir in the distant past and scored a perfect game.) A referee or two would put up barriers around the perimeter, which allowed the balls to ricochet off the artificial walls and ceiling. Rules about winning were mostly decided on the fly, but the first to ten was a common benchmark at low ball counts.

    If Astra were to describe it to May, she would roughly sum it up as: "Oh, so it's some sort of off-brand Multi-ball Psychic Tennis?"

    Astra would follow up with a rapid barrage about what exactly 'Tennis' was, and then after arguing back and forth for a bit, she would have to concede the point.

    It was pretty much just Multi-ball Psychic Tennis.
     
  • View discussion
    • How about that new mechanic huh? (Adventures with Dynamaxing.)
  • View content
    • How about that new mechanic huh


    Astra stared down at May, squinting.

    May craned her head upward, mouth agape.

    Silence reigned.

    "You know-" Astra started. She stopped, watching the trees shake.

    "You know," she continued, much quieter. "I really liked that dress."

    "What the fuck!?" May screamed.

    Or, at least, Astra thought she did. It was a little hard to hear her.

    "Could you speak up?" she asked. "I can't hear you from down there."

    "Speak up!? I'll speak up as loud as you fucking want as soon as I crawl into your massive, cavernous ears, CARVE MY WAY THROUGH A RIVER OF WAX, AND HOLLER DIRECTLY INTO YOUR EAR DRUM."

    "I really don't get why you're so upset, I'm the one who needs to find new clothes after this."

    "Oh, what!? Am I supposed to be fucking calm when my best friend becomes the plot of a kaiju movie!? YOU'RE TALLER THAN A SKYSCRAPER."

    It was true. Astra looked up and over the horizon. Forests and lakes spread themselves haphazardly in front of her. In the distance majestic, snow capped mountains rose to pierce the sky, and she saw a grand city sprawl across the plains to the north. All of it looked much smaller than about thirty seconds ago.

    "I'm not even sure how this happened." she admitted.

    "I dunno," May yelled, somehow still sarcastic at over a hundred decibels. "Maybe it was the giant fuckoff red laser thing!?"

    "Maybe."

    She took a few tentative steps forward. Trees were swept aside by the brush of her coat, the winds howled with her every breath, the earth rumbled and quaked at her passing, and a series of small ponds formed where she once trod.

    She stopped.

    "... I'd like to go back to normal now."

    "Oi you cunt!"

    Astra turned around very slowly. In the clearing where she once stood, a new girl was walking up to May. She was dressed in magenta and grey, a green cap with a white puff covering her brown hair.

    "The fuck did you just call me!?"

    "Och what's got a bee in your bonnet? Jus' wanted to ken if ye were gonna 'ave a go at the big shite over there!"

    Astra mouthed the words 'big shite' to herself as May got more incensed.

    "Wh- hell no! Why would I want to do something like that?"

    "Bah! Well if yer no' gonna be of any help, I'll just take it myself then! Ne'er seen a beastie like that before, I'll be the talk of the town once I catch it!"

    "Catch- oh no you fucking won't!"

    *Thwack*

    "Augh! Wha' was that for you fuckin' cunt!? You wanna have a go!?"

    "You're damn right I do!" May roared, and then slugged the girl in the jaw.

    Astra watched the scuffle with pained resignation. Even in Galar, May could not stop picking fights.

    Abruptly, she felt a prick in her back. Turning around again, she spotted four unknown trainers lined up in a row a short distance away. Their pokemon were all focused on her, eyes gleaming hungrily.

    "... I miss Hoenn."


    I wrote this in half an hour.
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • A phone call. (Ch 21.5)
  • View content
    • If you may recall the AN of 28, there was a '1k section excised with a scalpel'.

    As a christmas present, I will give you this section more or less unedited from when it got ripped out. It was scattered across the whole of it, piecemeal-like, so the formatting is...off. I've left in the line breaks for zero reason, and it's all in italics because it was meant to be a flashback and changing it would be troublesome.

    Enjoy the rest of December, and here's to another year! Hopefully better than the last.


    "Only telepathy?" a young boy's voice said across the receiver. Roxanne recognized it as Tate, one of the Psychic Gym's twin leaders.

    "Are you sure?" a girl's voice continued, equally as young. Liza, the other half of the twin Psychic duo.

    Both were not yet in their teens. Both had the burden of commanding the Psychic gym of Mossdeep. It was, in Roxanne's opinion, a very unusual situation. Still, they were the best source of info for the current strangeness: a new trainer named Astra who, allegedly, only communicated with psychic power.

    "It's my best hypothesis," Roxanne confirmed, tapping a finger on the table in her Gym's A/V room. "I couldn't hear Astra's voice in the recordings, and there weren't any equipment errors. Her excuse of commanding her pokemon through music didn't hold up under examination either."

    "Weeeiiird," the twins chorused.

    "I've not heard the name," Liza mused. "I hope she comes by; I love meeting new sisters!"

    "Ooh, maybe she'll play us a song too!" Tate exclaimed. "That'll be fun!"

    "Is only talking in telepathy unusual?" Roxanne asked, gently steering the conversation back on track. "I'm not well versed in matters of this nature; should I be worried?"

    There was silence on the other line.

    "Maybe."


    "I've never heard of someone only using telepathy to speak," Liza explained.

    "Talking that way isn't trivial!" Tate complained. "You gotta form a link, make sure only what you wanna say gets said—"

    "It takes practice," Liza cut in. "We can talk to each other pretty easily, but other people take more work. I don't think we've ever spoken that way without breaks."

    "This 'Astra' must be pretty strong," Tate said. "Maybe stronger than us?"

    "No way!" Liza denied immediately. "We're the strongest in Hoenn!"

    "Hah, you're right; no one can beat our power!" Tate cheered.

    "Childr—" Roxanne admonished on reflex, then cut herself off, embarrassed. "Ahem," she restarted, carefully reminding herself that this was not a classroom and these were not unruly students. "Back to the topic at hand; is it something to be concerned about?"

    "Dunno," Tate said. "Telepathy isn't a worry on it's own; the reasons why might be. I could guess, but, well, it's not like we've met this 'Astra'."

    "Yet," Liza added. Roxanne could almost picture the anticipatory grin on her face.

    "Just means she's good at telepathy and won't talk normally. Maybe she can't."

    "Oh!" Liza said. Roxanne heard a finger snap. "Like that girl Wattson was helping?"

    "Oh yeah!" Tate exclaimed. "She's got that weird box in her throat, doesn't she? Maybe it's like that."

    "I see..." Roxanne said. The lack of clear answer was frustrating, but if there was nothing immediate to worry over then she could live with it. "Well, I'll trust your judgement on that. It's just very odd, is all. I've never had a psychic trainer in my gym who didn't show off with a trick or two before their fight. This is the first time I've only known after the fact." She sighed, leaning back in her chair. "It occurs to me that I may have had more gifted individuals pass through my gym than I realized. Is that a normal occurrence? Hiding being psychic, I mean."

    Silence returned with an air of incredulity. Roxanne shifted in her chair uneasily as the seconds ticked by.

    "...are you sure you should be teaching at that school you have over there?" Liza asked, baffled.

    "Cause that was the dumbest question I ever heard get asked," Tate finished, equally confused.


    "There's a lotta reasons a Psychic wouldn't wanna let people know about it," Liza explained.

    "Biggest one is because people get really stupid about it sometimes," Tate added. "Our trainers get hassled by tourists a lot. "

    "Bend this spoon! Lift that rock! Make me fly!" Liza scoffed. "Like lifting a person is     easy! We're not a circus; if they want to see psychic tricks they should just catch a pokemon!"

    "Worst one is 'Hey, what number am I thinking of?'" Tate muttered. "Like reading someone's mind is something you can just     do."

    "People ask you to read their minds!?" Roxanne asked, shocked.

    "We don't, obviously," Liza snorted. "Doesn't stop some visitors from accusing us of it, though. We get a few idiots who just     hate us every now and then."

    "They think just because we     can, that we will." Tate said. "I wonder if they accuse cooks of spitting in their food too."

    Liza laughed. "If I had to feed them? They'd be right."


    "How horrible," Roxane said, quietly. She'd read about this sort of thing, of course, but to hear it first hand put it into stark relief. "Is it like that all the time? I can't imagine..."

    "Yeah," Tate agreed. "Some of us just don't want to deal with it."

    "But they still want to be true to themselves," Liza said. "so they practice at home or with others of our kin."

    "We wouldn't be surprised if this Astra was among them."

    "Telepathy and mind reading are conflated a lot. They aren't the same at all, but..."

    "If it was known she was only using telepathy, a few nasty reactions wouldn't be unexpected."


    "And if that was the case?" Roxanne asked. She doesn't know what troubles the twins had faced—couldn't know, not like they had. But she would never turn away a chance to understand and help those who did. "Is there some way to help those who've...been discouraged?"

    A third silence, but kinder. More thoughtful.

    "You'd have to be discreet about it..." Tate started.

    "But we can point you in the right direction!" Liza finished, her and Tate's matching grins nearly audible over the receiver. "All right, here's what to do..."

    Roxanne listened. Then she grabbed a slip of paper and started to write.

    "Thank you," she said, after she was done. "If I see anything of the sort, I'll put this advice to good use.     If I even notice." Roxanne sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. "How many times have I missed something like this, I wonder...?"

    "It's easy to miss things when you don't know how to look for them," Tate consoled.

    "Just don't miss any more, alright?" Liza said. "We made this gym to stop—what the     fuck is that!?"

    "Liza!" Roxanne exclaimed, utterly shocked at her young colleague's foul exclamation. Shock that was quickly swept aside by a horrible chill running down her spine. Something was wrong. She stood up, frantically looking around the room for what her instincts screamed was imminent danger. The phone, forgotten on the table, spouted yet more curses before abruptly falling silent.

    Then the ground quaked and Roxanne turned her attention to a nearby window just in time to see the fading remnants of a horrible obsidian pillar splitting the sky.

    The sirens went off.

    It was going to be a long night.


    I'd also like to give a warm welcome to everyone who found my story from the Users choice awards. I hope you enjoy your stay! And maybe tell folks how you liked it, eh?
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • Itsy bitsy. (Alt Ch. 25 ft. Arceus Legends)
  • View content


    • "Oh, that's easy." Brendan said, setting his magazine down. "Dad told you how basic pokeballs work, right?"

    "Something about stasis, I think?" Astra hazarded. She shook her head. "I still don't get how they do what they do, though."

    And wasn't that the question? The one that set this whole adventure off way back on Route 104. That green-haired child—Wally? May had been there too—had thrown a pokeball at her, and she had avoided capture by the most narrow of margins. She had found it and discovered how it could change size and shape, and then she had wanted to know how.

    At long last, was that initial mystery about to be answered? Astra leaned forward, focusing intently on Brendan's words.

    "Neither do I, really," he confided, dashing Astra's hopes. "At least, the modern ones. The first pokeballs were made from apricorns, which trigger a sort of instinctual allergic reation that makes pokemon shrink down—"

    "Wait, I'm sorry, what's an apricorn?" Astra asked confused.

    "Oh, they're a sort of fist-sized fruit." Brendan explained. "They're not native to Hoenn so you won't find any of them here."

    Astra just stared at him, speechless. Fruit. Pokeballs were made out of fruit. How did—what—why? How!? She made a mental note to look into these apricorns later. If she could figure out how they were made and get a few seeds, then...well, maybe her home could put up more of a fight than she'd thought.

    ...wait, allergic whatnow?

    "Hold on, uh, what were you saying about a reaction?" Astra asked.

    "Oh, yeah. Apricorns trigger pokemon's shrinking ability." Brendan shrugged. "Dunno how they got into the ball, but it was how they fit."

    Astra blinked at him. "...what shrinking ability?"

    "The—the shrinking ability." Brendan shrugged. "All pokemon can do it. How else could they fit in the balls?"

    "I thought they just turned into energy, or something???" Astra said, incredulous. "Wait, all pokemon? Are you sure?"

    Brendan shrugged helplessly. "Yeah! I'm not sure what to tell you, it's just how it works."

    "But I—" Astra cut herself off, feeling disorientated. Pokemon shrank to fit inside pokeballs? All pokemon? But she couldn't shrink!

    ...could she? It wasn't like she'd ever tried. How would she, anyway? Maybe if she imagined herself sort of drawing inwards—

    There was a sucking sensation, and Astra's world went dark. She screamed, flailing around as she was knocked over by the sudden weight of some thick, all-encompassing fabric.

    "What? What!?"

    "Astra!?" Brendan boomed, his voice much louder than normal. "What—huh!? Where are you!?"

    "I don't know!" Astra yelled, clawing away the thick sheets. "It's dark and there's something wrapped around me—"

    In the distance, Astra could hear May groan. "The fuck are you two—" she grumbled at incredible volume, then paused. "What the hell? Why is—"

    Astra fumbled through the last of the opressive covering and popped out into light. "I'm out!" she gasped, scrambling out of the folds. She gasped for air, taking a moment to breathe. Shaking her head, she stood up and looked around.

    "I'm not sure what happ..." she started, then trailed off as she looked at the room. From atop a mesa of Robe and wood, she saw the wide plains of Table and Carpet stretching before her. Above, numerous suns lit the ceiling tiles in burning, artificial light. To her left she saw Brendan, tall as a mountain and gaping down at her stupidly. To her right she saw May halfway off the Couch Ranges, staring at her with wide eyes. She looked down, seeing nothing but herself, now about half an inch tall and completely exposed.

    There was a moment of burning adrenaline and crashing thoughts before it all fell away, a euphoric calm overtaking Astra's mind. She looked up, meeting her friends gazes with a blank smile.

    "Welp."

    "What the fuck." May said.

    As if from a great distance, Astra saw herself raise a hand. "I can explain."

    Brendan worked his mouth for a moment. "...can you?"

    Astra considered this for a second.

    "No," she said, serenely. "Not really."

    Psychic power flared. There was a muted pop, and then Astra was gone.
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • Post 39 - The Candlestick Maker.
  • View content
    • Kirlia's day begins early, as the sun was just beginning to lighten the woods, with a sharpened stone and a basket. Out in the woods surrounding the village were Wurmples and each night one or two may evolve into a Silcoon or Cascoon ripe for the harvest.

    Finding them and using the stone to cut the silky cocoon off provided a good deal of material for the Kirlia to work with, along with a morsel or two that fried up delightfully for breakfast.

    Returning to the village after gathering the materials, the Kirlia would be passing her fellow villagers that were still making their ways to their own jobs, the sun now fully up and lighting the entire village.

    Kirlia returns to her hut and tosses the cocoons into the large pot of water outside and lights a fire to heat up the silk to boiling point. As the pot begins to heat up, she cooks up the meaty insides of what she harvested. Sometimes she would even use a few leaves from the gardens for extra flavor, but most days she enjoyed them unseasoned.

    Once the pot boils, Kirlia uses her psychic powers to move it off the fire and leave it to cool.

    As it cools, Kirlia heads to the butcher's to get the tallow she needs. Nut oils and other fats would be better, but tallow was the most common fat the village had. The butcher was working on a freshly caught Zigzagoon, likely part of the bounty from a recently returned hunter, and merely nodded at her, levitating a grease stained bucket of rendered fat into her grip. She leaves behind a bundle of her efforts. Trade was always informal and loose in the village, everyone doing what they could to help the whole of the village as it was only by banding together that they could continue to survive and remain safely hidden.

    Back home, Kirlia begins the process of cleaning the fat. This required her other pot that begins with a little water in it as she tosses in chunks of tallow to melt and separate. Once full and fully rendered, Kirlia takes a ceramic bowl and dips it into the pot that has been removed from the fire, letting a waxy shell form before pulling out the bowl, removing the shell, and repeating. Once the wax has been processed, she takes all the wax bowls and teleports them to her roof to dry in the sun and further purify.

    After arranging the wax in her roof, she goes to the next section of her roof and collects the wax shells that had been sitting up there for days already, taking the opportunity to idly pull down a branch from the tree her hut is built against that had started getting ideas. These she puts in her last work pot and sets aside for now.

    She returns to the cocoons and begins to separate out the individual threads, collecting them up onto wooden spools. Once all the silk strands are collected, she goes to the fabric makers and trades in her spool of threads for a spool of completely dry string.

    With string in hand, Kirlia returns home, sets the pot of purified wax onto the fire to begin melting and brings out her carousel. She then begins to tie the string to the carousel and cuts the string to length.

    With one last check that the carousel was properly over the wax pot, she began to ladle wax over the strings, spinning the carousel as she goes, giving each candle time to dry before adding the next layer.

    Layer by layer she worked, quietly enjoying the sounds of the village as she worked. Until a loud crack of a strong teleportation startled her and most of the other villagers.

    Dropping the ladle into the wax pot, Kirlia headed to where everyone was gathering, spotting a Kirlia wearing… a dress? How queer. Kirlia had natural fur to protect their skin, and using up so much thread on a vanity project would have been the talk of the town well before it finished. Not to mention the design was of a kind she's never seen before.

    There was no reason to cover up that much. It wasn't like… they were… hairless… like…

    She'd been there that night two dozen days ago, when one of the more prominent elder Kirlia had outlined a plan to send his grandchild out into the world of humans. She'd been appalled at the time, but if it was the Elders' will, then surely they'd had good reason for it.

    Was that her? Had she evolved? Why was she wearing a human dress? And why was she back so soon!?

    What was going on...?
     
  • View discussion
    • Backslash 1 - Twice-Lost (Hyphen / A Backwards Grin)
  • View content
    • Would you believe I've never written an omake for another story before?

    But, with my newest chapter complete, I found I had a bit of time on my hands. And I decided to make an idea a reality.

    I haven't run it by my beta's, and it's not very substantial, or possibly very good, but I guess it doesn't have to be. Enjoy~

    (Also, check out A Backwards Grin. It's pretty good!)


    Backslash 1 (Hyphen/Backwards Grin)

    Twice-Lost


    In a great space beyond space, a great mass of Unown danced and sang among swirls of cosmic light. Their power ebbed and flowed between them, and all were partaking in the great work of their masters. Countless hands shaped and molded the rules and events of reality, ensuring all things were as they should be.

    All was calm.

    Abruptly, a hole in space opened, a large vessel one would identify as a flying pirate ship hurtling through at great speed. Hot on its trail, a large, skeletal dragon ridden by a single, rotting hand clutching a book chased after it in single minded determination.

    Neither of these were particularly important, though the Unown, still singing the great symphony, looked at the two intruders with alarm and curiosity. What was important was the man that vaguely resembled a christmas tree screaming at the dragon from the rear of the ship.

    "Fuck off, hand!" the man screamed, waving around a tentacle that had taken the place of his arm. "You had your chance when you were still on my wrist! We're through!"

    The dragon roared soundlessly. The rotted hand raised itself up and twisted into a fist with the middle finger raised.

    The wizard—for that was what the man was—choked and sputtered. "Alright then," He hollered, magic gathering to the tips of his limbs. "Fuck you too! STEAM CANNON!"

    Power coalesced, and a superhot jet of steam roared through the void. The dragon swerved around the jet and chased the ship through another hole in space, which closed behind them without a trace.

    The jet, flying through the void, smashed into a small group of Unown, scattering them and knocking a few unconscious.

    And their song, one that governed certain rules of space-time...

    Skipped a beat.


    (Somewhere, a pair of beings looked up for their nap. They paused, yawned, then went back to sleep. It could wait a few more hours.)


    The sun was shining, flowers were blooming, and Astra was 100% completely lost. She wandered through the dense, untamed forest, anxious and confused.

    She wasn't quite sure how it had happened; she had resolved to go out into the woods surrounding Rustboro to practice teleportation and train Slakoth up some. Then she had gone around a tree and the forest had suddenly changed without warning. The trees were different, the clouds in the sky had completely altered their form, even the air smelled different.

    Where was she? She couldn't see Rustboro; a short climb to the top of a large tree showed only more forest and looming rock walls in the distance with nary a skyscraper to be seen. Panic had briefly taken hold of her—How would she get back? What if she couldn't? What would happen to her village? To May?— before she had resolutely taken a few calming breaths, steadying herself.

    If she was lost, then she merely had to find a way out. Human cities were all over the place; surely she would find one if she went in a straight line for long enough. Even better if she could find a river. Then she could work on getting back to Rustboro.

    It was unfortunate that her pokedex didn't seem to be of any help. Whenever she tried to access the map, all she received was an error going off about some sort of 'invalid codec'. What was a codec? The maps were largely trash, but at least they had shown the general area. Astra felt a bit of regret for ragging on the thing so often, but only a little.

    Trash was still trash, after all.

    She sighed, re-adjusting her robe after tromping through another bush. Had she been here already? That set of flowers looked familiar, but she couldn't say for certain. She hadn't sensed any humans in the few hours she had been walking either, and had mostly given up on expecting anything other than the local wildlife. She rubbed her stomach, feeling the vibrations as it growled at her unhappily. It seemed that lunch time was upon her.

    Reaching for her pack, Astra paused. She... didn't really know how long she would be out here for. Or what there was to eat, out here. If she was back home she'd be able to make do no problem, but she hadn't seen so much as a single berry since she had gotten here, and she'd yet to spot any rivers to fish from.

    There were always the strange new birds and critters which roamed around, but Astra didn't really know how to prepare creatures that weren't Magikarp. There had never been a need; the river was plentiful and the gardens even more-so. Oh, she was sure she'd have learned eventually, likely in the next year or once she had become a Kirlia, but eventually didn't exactly help her now. Certainly she could make a valiant attempt at it, but she'd rather try something familiar first.

    The food in her bag would likely be hard to replenish then; she'd have to conserve it. That meant finding a river or an actual berry source. Course set, Astra... continued walking through the woods aimlessly. But this time, she was searching for berries.

    It was only a few moments later that Astra noticed something odd. A large X had been gouged into the side of a tree. Astra stared at it, then looked around. Nothing else seemed amiss. Nothing in the tree branches. There was just an X, in the tree. For no reason.

    Lacking anything else to investigate, Astra shrugged and moved on. A few moments later she ran into another one. Astra squinted at the ruined bark, looking between the two marked trees. What were these markings for? Still lacking much to do, she left it behind, only to come across yet another one a few seconds later.

    Astra paused, looking back at the line of marked trees. Were these a guide? Was someone else lost in here and marking their way? But she still didn't sense any humans. Who had...? Well, it didn't matter. Clearly something intelligent had done this, and Astra was determined to find out what.

    Following the general line, Astra waded through another dozen bushes and empty meadows. The trees seemed to be converging and splitting more and more the further she went, seeming to spread out in a branching manner. Fitting, if not frustrating when she took a wrong turn and found a dead end. Retracing her steps, Astra soldiered on.

    Something wonderful filled the air. Astra stopped, wide eyed. What was that smell? It smelled sweet, sweeter than anything she had ever smelt before, save perhaps the ice cream. Had she finally found a berry bush, and a new, exotic one at that!? Drooling a little, Astra followed the fantastic scent. She drifted off the marked path, brushing past another dense patch of foliage until another small clearing presented itself.

    The scent seemed to be the strongest here. Astra entered the clearing, looking around, then she blinked, confused. None of the bushes seemed to have berries on them. She thought about it for a second, then shook her head. Well, obviously. If they smelled this good, wild pokemon would have picked off all the easy ones long ago. There must be one hiding in the center of one of the bushes.

    Astra sniffed again, then frowned. Was the smell fading? She would have to hurry, then. Circling the clearing, Astra reached into her bag and pulled out an empty jar. Hopefully there were more than one; she could not wait to make a new soup out of it. Reaching the strongest concentration of smell, Astra eagerly pulled the bushes foliage aside with a wave of her hand.

    Two giant red eyes, small as pinpricks, stared at her from inside the bush. Astra stared at the petite yellow form hidden inside the foliage. It was terrifying.

    The Mawile screamed, a gigantic black maw rising up behind her and snapping down at Astra.

    Astra screamed right back and, on pure instinct, reached out—

    Space is not—

    ...

    Wait, what?

    How did...

    ???    ​



    Astra gasped, appearing across the clearing in mid-air and falling to her butt as a loud clack rang out from the giant maw. Scrambling to her feet, she stared at the new pokemon, heart racing. Mawile stared straight back, wobbling to its feet and staring at Astra in shock. The great black horn/mouth/thing hovered in front of her, clacking together and licking its lips(?).

    The smell was gone now. Was it a trap? Had this thing just tried to eat her? Just like the Poochyena from back then. She grit her teeth and reached for Treecko's pokeball.

    "Alright, nobody tries to eat me!" Astra growled, enlarging the ball. "Let's see how you like getting eaten!"

    The Mawile's eyes widened even further as Astra reared back. "Maw, maw, wile, mawile!" she screamed, backing up.

    Wait, wait, stop, I didn't mean to!

    Astra halted, shocked. What... was that? She had heard 'Mawile', but... had they been speaking in human, too?

    "Wile wile maw, mawile mawile wile maw!" Mawile continued to ramble, backing up into the shrubbery.

    It was an accident, please don't capture me!

    Astra lowered her arm, gaping at the Mawile. "You can talk!?"

    Mawile paused, staring at Astra. Both its mouths dropped open.

    "Mawile!?"

    You can understand me!?

    "What the fuck!?"     Two voices cried out in chorus.






    Apparently I wrote this in three hours at 4 AM. I do not recall the majority of this.

    Weh~
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • Backslash 2 - Cross-Step (Hyphen / A Backwards Grin)
  • View content
    • AN: I had way too much fun doing the first one, so in an unprecedented display I churned out another one right away.

    This is unbeta'd, probably terrible, consists of 98% talking and exposition, and I profusely apologize to @Flairina for the gross mischaracterization of her Mawile. I don't know how she/you would react in certain situations, so it's basically Mawhile-INO

    Turns out I have no idea how to write characters when they're not mine.

    Should be fine, I'm not holding myself to high standards for silly omakes like this.



    Backslash - 2 (Hyphen/Backwards Grin)

    Cross-Step

    "Holy shit." Astra said, wide-eyed.

    Mawile stared back, just as shocked.

    "You- you can really... wait, but—" she started, then stopped, confused. "Wait, then—"

    "Oh my gosh, I've never seen another Pokemon that can talk!" Astra exclaimed, excited beyond reason.

    She rushed up to the smaller Pokemon, skidding to a halt before her and falling to her knees.

    "Who are you? What are you?" she blabbered, words coming faster than she could think. "Are there more of you? Another village? Did you make those marks on the trees?"

    "Wait, wait, stop!" Mawile yelled, pushing Astra's face away. "Slow down, and back up! Personal space, please!"

    Fear.

    Astra screamed, shooting backward across the clearing in a frantic crawl. She stared at Mawile, heart pounding. Mawile's horn loomed above her head, casting her in an ominous shadow, while her red eyes pierced into Astra's heart, looking... vaguely confused?

    "Um... what?" Mawile asked, awkwardly. "Are you okay?"

    She took a step forward, and Astra yelped, scrambling back a bit. She couldn't help it — something about the diminutive Pokemon was just inexplicably horrifying. Even accounting for her monstrous horn-mouth, it didn't make any sense.

    "I—I don't know." Astra stammered out, shaking. "You—why are you so scary? I don't—"

    "Scary?" Mawile repeated, confused. "But I'm not even-"

    She paused, furrowing her brows. Then, apparently coming to some sort of realization, she slowly covered her face with her palm and let out a long-suffering sigh.

    "I'm an idiot."

    Astra stared as Mawile concentrated for a second, then suddenly seemed to relax, her giant maw unclenching and her shoulders visibly loosening. The menacing aura faded at once, and Astra blinked at the suddenly normal-ish Pokemon before her.

    "What was that?" Astra asked, slowly climbing to her feet. "It felt like you were going to—to tear me apart at any moment. Which," she frowned, "you already tried to."

    "Um... yeah." Mawile glanced around, awkwardly tapping a foot against the ground. "Sorry about that, I just wasn't really expecting a trainer to suddenly bust into my hiding spot. I may have, uh... panicked, a little."

    She stopped, then growled, seemingly at herself. "As for my 'scariness', that was a sort of ability I have, which I apparently didn't realize was active. For an entire week! No wonder nobody would talk to me, I—ugh, nevermind."

    Astra blinked, then broke into a wide smile.

    "Nobody else would talk to you?" she repeated, hope sparking. "So there are others? I thought we were the only ones! Where are they? How many?"

    Mawile squinted at Astra, seeming bewildered by the questions. "Others? What do you—wait, hold up, how are you even understanding me in the first place? Aren't you human?"

    Astra hesitated, then shook her head. Mawile wasn't a human, and judging from her words, she didn't think that humans could understand her. For a fellow sapient Pokemon, it would probably be okay, right?

    Finding no fault with that, Astra slowly lifted the sunhat off her head and undid the wrap around her face, dispelling the illusion she kept there.

    "I'm not human," she explained, smiling at the dumbstruck Mawile. "I'm a Kirlia."

    Mawile just stared for a few moments, looking utterly bewildered. "Wait, but—but you had a Pokeball, and you looked human until a second ago! Why would—I don't—okay."

    She paused, then slowly exhaled. "Let's start over. Who are you, exactly?"

    Astra blinked. "Oh! My name is Astra. And you?"

    Mawile hesitated.

    "I... don't really have a name right now, I guess." she said after a moment. "Flair, maybe...?"

    The tiny Pokemon seemed to think on that for a moment, before slowly shaking her head. "Hmm, no, just Mawile is fine for now. It's nice to meet you Astra. I don't suppose you know where we are? I woke up in this forest around a week ago, and haven't been able to find my way out since."

    Astra's face fell.

    "You don't know either?" she asked. "I just got here a few hours ago myself. I don't even know how, I was just walking through the woods outside Rustboro, and suddenly I was in a different forest."

    She paused for a moment, heart sinking. If Mawile wasn't from here, then there probably weren't any others like her... not here, at least.

    "Wait, did you say Rustboro?" Mawile asked, not seeming to notice Astra's sudden malaise. "Isn't that in Hoenn? Are we in Hoenn?"

    Astra sighed. "I was in Hoenn, yes. I don't really know where this is, though." She glanced around at the surrounding trees. "Everything is so different here. Even the clouds changed shape—it was almost clear, but the sky's half full here."

    "...hmm." Mawile hummed. "Well... sorry if this sounds weird, but I need to check. Do you know what a Mystery Dungeon is?"

    Astra stared at Mawile blankly. Mystery dungeon? What?

    "I have no idea what you're talking about." she answered honestly.

    Mawile nodded to herself. "Well, that answers one thing at least. Although..."

    She frowned, then turned back to Astra. "In that case, this is actually even weirder. If you're a Kirlia, why do you have a Pokeball? Heck, why are you dressed like..." She hesitated, struggling to find the right words, before settling on just gesturing up and down at Astra's robe. "Like that?"

    Astra smiled, perking back up.

    "It's because, almost a week ago now, I became a Pokemon trainer." she explained, then paused. "Which, of course, required disguising myself as a human. I'm dressed like this because...well, humans wear clothes, and this was the best my village had."

    She shrugged. "Honestly, I kind of like it! Very breezy."

    Mawile's eyes bulged. "Wait, you're a Pokemon that's gone undercover to become a trainer?"

    "It was no big deal, really." Astra said, grinning. "Professor Birch didn't suspect a thing, and I got Treecko right after. I'm trying to become the Champion, so I can maybe stop humans from, well, destroying my village once it gets discovered, but I've—"

    "Wait! Stop, hold up." Mawile frantically interrupted, holding up a hand. "This is... a lot you're throwing at me right now. Where do I even—village? You said that before. What village?"

    "My home, back in Hoenn." Astra elaborated. "All of the Ralts and Kirlia on the continent live there, hidden from the human world, but our protections are failing—at the rate the nearest human city is expanding, we're going be discovered eventually."

    A grimace threatened to overtake her face at the thought, but she pushed it back down.

    "Recently though, I learned that there's someone all the humans listen to, called the Pokemon Champion." Astra continued. "So, I figured if I became this Champion, I might be able to protect my village when it gets discovered."

    She paused, then took a deep breath—she had to at least ask.

    "What about you?" she asked, trying to hold back her trepidation. "Were you from a village too?"

    Mawile squinted at Astra.

    "Am I in a spinoff?" she muttered to herself, seemingly not entirely meaning for Astra to hear her. "Or—wait, that sounds a little familiar, but where...?"

    Mawile thought about it for another moment, then shook her head and turned back to Astra.

    "No, I'm afraid there's no secret conclave of Mawile here. Last I remember, I was going to sleep back home, but come morning I somehow woke up here, in this forest. Made a little hovel over that way," she pointed north, "but there's nothing else out here."

    "...oh."

    Astra sat down. That was... disappointing, though not entirely unexpected.

    "Darn. It would have been nice to know there was another Pokemon village out there..."

    She sighed, but smiled as she turned back to Mawile a moment later. "But, at least I know we're not totally alone, now. It's really cool meeting another Pokemon who can talk!"

    "Um, yeah, about that?" Mawile began. "What do you mean? Every Pokemon I've met so far can talk...even if they've never been particularly willing to talk to me." she grumbled in a slightly lower tone. "Stupid, lousy ability...anyways, can you not understand them?"

    "You can?" Astra asked, baffled. "As far as I knew up until now, only other Ralts and Kirlia could actually talk. Other Pokemon just say their species name over and over, and whenever anyone tried telepathy, all they would get is a sort of, crude, conceptual thing."

    She paused, struggling to figure out how to properly convey what psychic conversations entailed, before deciding it wasn't worth it. The concepts were too complicated to explain without at least a basic primer, which she doubted Mawile had...even if the smaller Pokemon did seem awfully well-informed.

    "Are you saying you can understand all of them?" she asked.

    Mawile nodded. "As far as I know, all Pokemon can talk pretty much freely with each other. Though, I noticed your mouth isn't moving — are you using telepathy to talk to me right now? What does it sound like if you use your regular voice?"

    Astra's face flushed.

    "Um. I'd rather not." she said, looking away and poking her fingers together. "That's reserved for, uh. Family."

    Seriously, Mawile was nice, but not that nice.

    "Oh, er... never mind then, I guess?" Mawile scratched her head awkwardly. "Anyways, everyone here speaks Eng—er, intelligibly, and so do you, so I'm not sure how that all adds up. What do I sound like to you?"

    Astra hesitated. "It's...kind of weird. I can understand you just fine, like you're speaking human, but under that I can also hear you just going 'Maw mawile wile maw' at the same time. It's like..." She frowned. "It's like talking to two people at once, but they're the same person, and one is completely incomprehensible."

    "That's... bizarre." Mawile replied, placing a hand on her chin. "...can you bring out one of your Pokemon? I want to test something."

    "Sure." Astra said, standing up. Treecko's Pokeball was still in her hand, so she just tossed it in the air. "Treecko, come on out!"

    In a flash of red light, Treecko re-emerged into the world. He took one look at Mawile and crouched down, ready for combat.

    "Oh—no, Treecko," Astra said, patting him on the head. "Mawile is friendly. I just brought you out to test something. Mawile, this is Treecko."

    "Hiya!" Mawile said in a cheery tone as she waved at Treecko, her horn carefully held still on the ground. "How are you?"

    Treecko stared at Mawile in confusion, then looked to Astra.

    "Tree," he said, pointing at Mawile. "Ko, treecko."

    "She's a new friend." Astra answered automatically. "She just wanted to hear you talk a bit. Is that okay?"

    Treecko shrugged. "Tree."

    "What the hell...?" Mawile muttered, staring at Treecko. "That doesn't...what?"

    "Huh?" Astra looked at Mawile, concerned. "What is what? What happened? Can you understand him?"

    "I... yes?" Mawile replied, though not looking entirely certain of her own answer. "It's... like he's talking out of a bad Google translation, kind of?"

    Astra blinked, bewildered. "Google translation"? What were these things that Mawile kept referencing?

    "I can hear what he's saying, but it's all primitive and out of order." Mawile continued. "He wanted to know why I talk like you, I think? Or maybe I totally misinterpreted that, but... yeah, something weird is definitely going on here. What did you hear?"

    Astra shrugged. "It was just 'Tree, ko, Treecko' to me."

    "Well, that's definitely not what I heard." Mawile reiterated. "But why...?"

    She trailed off, staring into the distance, then frowned. "I...can think of one explanation, maybe. I'm not sure how much sense it would make to you, but it would explain how you got here, as well as this weirdness."

    "Oh?" Astra asked, curious. "What is it?"

    "I think you may have somehow gotten punted here from an alternate dimension."

    Wind blew through the clearing, shaking the trees and rustling the grass. Treecko settled down to rest in a nearby patch of flowers, while Astra just frowned.

    "I don't know what that means."

    Mawile sighed. "Okay so imagine there's a world just like yours, somewhere else. But in this other world, something in the past, or maybe at the beginning, something happened differently, and caused everything that followed after to spiral out in a different direction. Are you following?"

    Astra frowned harder. "I... think so? Like if I hadn't gone out for berries that one time, I wouldn't have nearly gotten captured, and then wouldn't have gone to the city."

    "Um, sure, I guess?" Mawile said. "Anyways, this world is a reality where Pokemon can all talk to each other like humans, but not to humans, while your normal is one where they're all, well. Animals."

    She paused, looking over at Treecko. "No offense meant."

    Treecko waved her off. "Ko."

    Mawile grimaced. "Oh, that is definitely gonna take some getting used to."

    "Alright..." Astra said, thinking. "I think I get it? But—wait!" She gasped, a horrifying thought striking her. "Does that mean I can't get back home? What about my village? If I don't become the champion, it's going to get discovered! How do we fix this!?"

    "It... wouldn't be easy." Mawile winced. "We don't really know how you got shunted into this dimension to begin with, and without that as a starting point, options are kind of limited. There's at least a couple of entities I can think of that I'm pretty sure could put you back where you belong, but we'd need to find them first, which would be incredibly difficult, and I don't even know where we are now. Not to mention, I'm not sure Dialga or Palkia would be willing to help even if we found them."

    Astra blinked. "Who?"

    "A pair of legendary Pokemon who control time and space, respectively."

    Silence rolled through the clearing. Astra blinked again.

    "What?" she managed. "There are—wait, you know this? For real? How do you know this?"

    She paused, squinting at Mawile. "Where did you say you came from, again?"

    "Er..." Mawile shrank back, looking away for a moment. "I mean, I did mention I just sort of 'appeared' here a week ago, right? I'm not exactly from this world either. As for how I know this stuff, in my home dimension, I...used to live with humans, and was able to learn a lot about a few...er, possible worlds? Due to certain circumstances there."

    "That's really vague." Astra said, eyes narrowing further. "It kind of feels like you're just dodging the question. What circumstances?"

    Mawile grimaced. "Look, it might be better if you just don't know. It would be...really hard to explain. Bottom line is, I know a lot more about certain aspects of this world than a 'normal' Pokemon might, and am aware of at least a good number of the most powerful Pokemon in existence. I might not know exactly how either of us ended up here, but I am next to certain that Dialga and Palkia could fix it."

    "How hard?"

    Mawile blinked. "Er, excuse me?"

    "How hard would it be?" Astra clarified. "To explain?"

    Mawile took a moment to think about it. "You went to Birch to get your starter Pokemon, right? Imagine if...you suddenly found yourself pressed to explain your entire village situation to him, and then had to also convince him not to tell anyone else about its existence, or even investigate it himself, despite the fact that researching new Pokemon-related discoveries is what he's dedicated his entire life to."

    "That... does sound like it would be hard." Astra admitted.

    "Now imagine that again, but while you're talking to Birch, he not only has a decent chance of having a major freak out over the subject before you can even finish explaining, but potentially starts suffering from a minor-to-severe case of existential despair mid-way through."

    Astra stared at Mawile. Existential despair? What in the world? "...really?"

    "Yes, really." Mawile replied, walking closer. "Look, it shouldn't really matter, in the end. As long as you have faith that I at least mostly know what I'm talking about, it shouldn't be particularly relevant. So... please, just trust me on this?"

    She looked up at Astra pleadingly, and Astra hesitated. She'd like to believe Mawile, but her story was just so incredibly odd. Not to mention, Astra could literally feel the guilt settling about Mawile like a cloak of mist—but there were other emotions there, too. Sincerity, hope, panic, but nothing negative directed towards Astra herself. Going off that, it seemed like Mawile truly was trying to protect her from...something.

    "...alright, fine." Astra allowed. "But if it ever becomes truly important, I don't care how hard it is to say, you gotta tell me, alright?"

    Mawile smiled, settling on the grass beside her. "That's fine. If things get that dire, we'll probably be past the point where it'll be that shocking anyways."

    Astra nodded, then paused to look around. "So, we just gotta find those two, right? That's more of a direction than I had before finding you. But what do we do now?"

    "I... don't really know." Mawile frowned. "Just getting out of this forest might be a challenge in and of itself. I've only been stuck here for a week because I can't seem to find my way out—every time I've made a committed effort, I somehow got lost, and ultimately just ended up back where I started."

    "Hmm...well, maybe if we try together, we can find a way!" Astra said, grinning. "I'm sure it'll go better with the two of us."

    Her smile faded, a worried frown replacing it. "But I hope we find a way soon. You made this sound like it'll take a while, and if I'm gone for too long, my village is toast..."

    "I wouldn't be too worried." Mawile said. "If we do actually find Dialga and manage to get his help, I don't see any reason he couldn't send you right back to whenever you left. Ruler of time, remember?"

    Astra blinked. "Really? You're sure?"

    Mawile nodded, and Astra exhaled. "That's...good to know. I have some friends I'd hate to abandon back home."

    "Yeah, I've been wondering about the people I left behind too." Mawile agreed. She patted Astra on the leg, smiling gently. "Try not to think about it too much. If we can get back, it'll be like we never left. If we can't...well, it wasn't our choice. Besides, Dialga and Palkia aren't the only options, I'm sure we can find some way back."

    "Mmhmm." Astra hummed, having noticed when Mawile started using "we" in reference to future events. "So, I guess you'll be coming with me then?"

    "Er... well, yeah, I was kind of hoping." Mawile said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I don't want to be stuck in this world any more than you do, and I definitely wouldn't mind some mutual help in fixing that. On my own, it might even be kind of hopeless, given I can't even find my way out of the forest, so teaming up with you is almost certainly my best option."

    "So, one could say that you are a Pokemon," Astra said, slowly, "Traveling with a Pokemon trainer."

    Mawile paused. Both mouths opened for a moment, then closed as she squinted at Astra.

    "I don't like what you're implying here..."

    "It would make sense if I caught you." Astra said, long hours of trying to mislead humanity coming to mind. Just because she was somewhere else didn't mean that keeping a low profile was any less vital. "A Pokemon that travels with a trainer but isn't theirs is kind of weird, isn't it? And what if you get hurt? The healing I saw from the Pokecenters was pretty impressive, but I can't hand them to you in a Pokeball if you're not in one. Plus, since I can look like a human, I can go a lot of places that Pokemon can't."

    "No, it's not—I get the logic, I just...ugh."

    Mawile sighed, rubbing her forehead. Astra watched warily as the smaller Pokemon's maw rose up behind her, anxiously clacking together a few times before settling down.

    "It's just... it might be okay if it's you, but I'm not a big fan of the idea of being stuffed into a Pokeball." Mawile eventually continued, crossing her arms. "Do you even know what it's like in there? I don't, but I'm not sure I really want to find out."

    "Treecko." Treecko suddenly piped up, raising his head and pointing at himself. "Ko. Tree tree ko treecko ko."

    Mawile twitched. "Er, thank you. I think."

    Astra looked between Mawile and Treecko. "What did he say?"

    "He was trying to explain what it's like inside a Pokeball. It's apparently...like sleeping but more, if I'm putting that together correctly? Is this what Meowth has to deal with...?" she muttered absentmindedly.

    "Birch did say it was sort of like a...stasis?" Astra said. "I wasn't really listening. Who's Meowth?"

    "Oh, he's—well, not nobody, but he's not important." Mawile replied, waving the question off. "He might not even exist here, for all I know. If he shows up, I'll tell you, but with any luck, he won't."

    She sighed, then stood up, stretching her arms above her shoulders. Her horn rose up and opened wide with the motion, appearing to almost yawn, before settling back down like a heinous ponytail.

    "Alright, let's get it over with."

    Astra blinked.

    "What, that easily?" she asked, rising to her feet. "I thought it'd take longer to convince you."

    "Well, I do have conditions." Mawile said, raising a three-fingered hand to count off her claws. "First, you can have me linked to a Pokeball, but I don't really want to be in there for any longer than necessary. That means I travel with you in the outside world—I walk outside, I sleep outside, I...well, I can't see how I'd eat in there anyways, but you get the idea. Basically, just please don't recall me unless I ask, or you absolutely need to."

    Astra hummed. "I'm not sure how well that would work in a human city, but I don't see any problem with it otherwise."

    "Second..." Mawile paused, looking torn. "I'm...not really used to fighting. I won't back down if needs must, but I'd rather be...kept on the back lines, so to speak?"

    Astra frowned.

    "I can't not fight with you." she pointed out. "I'm a trainer, so it'd look awfully odd for me to be carrying around a Pokemon I never battle with, and I don't want anyone looking at me any closer than they have to. Because, you know," she waved a hand at her head, "not human."

    "Yeah, I know..." Mawile sighed. "I get it, there's no way I'm getting out of it completely. All I'm asking is that you don't have me battle as much as your other Pokemon, and to try to take another option if you have it, alright?"

    Astra nodded. "I can do that, I think."

    "Thank you." Mawile said, before suddenly straightening and staring Astra directly in the eyes. "Third, and finally—as much as we may need to pretend otherwise, I am not actually your Pokemon. I am my own person. Not an animal, and definitely not a pet. I'll follow your lead, but this is going to be a partnership, or nothing at all. Is that clear?"

    Astra flinched back as Mawile's aura of terror briefly flickered back into existence. Her toothy horn hovered overhead, opened slightly in anticipation. "I...yes, yes, that's fine! Just, stop that ability thing!"

    Mawile stared Astra down for a moment more before sighing, letting her maw droop back behind her. "Good. Sorry, just wanted to make that point very clear."

    "You didn't have to be a jerk about it." Astra grumbled, privately noting that Mawile was starting to remind her of May a bit. "I wouldn't do anything to you I wouldn't do to someone else."

    Mawile sighed. "That might be true, and I don't think you would, but there's a sort of an inherent power gap between us. You—" she waved at Astra, "—can evolve. Twice! Once already, even. You can disguise yourself as a human, use awesome psychic powers, probably read minds...you can do so much more than I can."

    She looked down at the ground with a rueful expression. "Meanwhile, unless we find something I'm not even sure exists here, I'm stuck as just this. I can't disguise myself as a human like you can, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to talk to any of them either, so all I'll be in anyone else's eyes is a wild Pokemon. You're basically my only hope at a decent life, but you also hold pretty much all of the cards."

    "...oh." Astra said, wide-eyed at Mawile's rant. "I...hadn't realized it was like that."

    It really was a bit unfair, if she thought of it like that. Astra was basically asking Mawile to sacrifice her freedom. Hadn't that been what Astra herself was scared of? Was still scared of?

    "I can't really change who I am or what I can do." Astra said, closing her eyes. "It is unfair that you can't do a lot of what I can. But I don't want you to think I'm ever taking advantage of you. So I promise, as one Pokemon to another, I will never treat you like anything less than a person. And if you're truly unhappy about it all, then..."

    Astra exhaled, looking Mawile in the eye. "Well, we'll try to talk about it first. But if for some reason I just utterly refuse to listen, then you have my express permission to rip off my disguise and expose me to the whole world. How about that?"

    Mawile stared at Astra, eyes widening, then let out a bark of laughter and shook her head.

    "You're a pretty nice person, Astra." she said, grinning. "Even if I wish it never happened, I'm glad it was you that ended up here."

    The two smiled at each other, and Mawile walked a few feet away, turning to face Astra. She opened her mouth, then suddenly blinked rapidly, and began to laugh again.

    "What's so funny?" Astra asked.

    "Ah- nothing." Mawile said, shaking her head. "There's just...an absurd, private sort of irony in this situation. A Pokemon, disguised as a trainer, capturing me, who...well, this all just feels a bit backwards, is all."

    She grinned. "Anyways, let's do this."

    Astra nodded, still slightly confused, but grinning right back. Recalling Treecko from his spot in the grass, she shuffled his Pokeball away and brought out a fresh one. Then, taking aim, she tossed it at Mawile.

    Mawile closed her eyes and bowed her head as the ball flew through the air. A split second later, it impacted, and Astra watched as the smaller Pokemon vanished in a flash of red light. The ball shook once, twice, thrice...

    Then fell still with a small chime.

    Walking over, Astra picked the ball up and stared at it for a moment.

    "Capture success." she said quietly. "Welcome to the team, Mawile. I hope we can find our way home."

    Spinning the ball around, she reached back. "Now, come back out! Go, Maw—"


    Reality froze.​


    In the depths of another dimension, two legendary Pokemon were sleepily examining a group of Unown. Something had knocked them all out of order, and caused a small bit of spacetime to become entangled with a different bit.

    Palkia was looking over one particular knot of spacetime in consternation. Frowning, he beckoned Dialga over to take a look.

    Dialga did so, then shrugged and growled at Palkia. He was still tired.

    Palkia, astonished, motioned at the knot in exasperation.

    Dialga yawned, shrugging again.

    Sighing in resignation, Palkia forcefully ripped the knot free from the two universes it was entangled with, leaving two gaping holes. Copying the knot, he slapped the holes shut again with the resulting messes, and watched unhappily as the knots re-integrated themselves into their universes.

    Shoddy work all around, but then again, they had just woken up.



    ALPHA

    "—ile!"

    Astra tossed the Pokeball into the air. Red light flashed, and Mawile reappeared, looking rather disoriented.

    "Okay, that was almost exactly as weird as I thought it'd be." Mawile complained. "Yeah, definitely not something I really want to—what the...?"

    She looked up, eyes going wide. "Alright, where the hell are we now!?"

    "What do you—oh!"

    Astra gasped as she looked around. The trees, the clouds, the smell. All three had suddenly changed back without warning...and behind her, over the treetops, Rustboro stood, shining in the afternoon light.

    "That's...Rustboro?" she said aloud, stunned. "How did—when—what!?"

    "Wait, that's Rustboro?" Mawile demanded, rounding on Astra. "We're back where you came from? Why!? How!? How long was I in there for!?"

    "I—I don't know!" Astra stammered. "It's only been ten seconds! I just picked up your ball to release you, and then suddenly we were...here."

    Mawile stared at her, then at the city. She threw her hands up.

    "The fuck!?"


    BETA

    "—ile!"

    Astra tossed the Pokeball into the air. Red light flashed, and Mawile reappeared, looking rather disoriented.

    "Okay, that was almost exactly as weird as I thought it'd be." Mawile complained. "Yeah, definitely not something I really want to repeat. Felt like I'd been forcibly placed into the fetal position."

    "Like I said, I'll try to not put you in except when I need to." Astra said, patting the smaller Pokemon on the head.

    "Hey!" Mawile grumbled, batting Astra's hand away. "No patting...also, aren't Kirlias supposed to be around my height? This is completely unfair."

    Astra shrugged. "Kirlia in my village have always been this tall. So..." She took a moment to look around. "What now?"

    On cue, Mawile and Astra's stomachs both rumbled. Mawile looked at Astra's backpack.

    "You wouldn't happen to have any food in there, would you?" she asked, hopefully.

    Astra nodded. "Yeah, but I was hoping to find a berry bush or a river to fish from before I dug into that."

    Mawile shook her head. "Bushes around here are picked clean extremely fast on a daily basis. I can barely get enough to feed myself sometimes — in fact, I really don't get enough. Which is why I was, uh...setting a lure, earlier."

    "Well, it was a very good lure." Astra complimented. "And if it is that barren around here, then I suppose I can bring out a few berry jars. Do you want to eat here?"

    She looked around the clearing, but Mawile shook her head.

    "Nah, let's go to my hovel over there." she said, pointing through the trees. "It's just a bunch of rocks, but it's been home for the past week, and I think I can repurpose some of them as tables."

    "Sounds good to me." Astra said. "Lead the way."

    And so they went.

    I have very little idea of how to actually continue either of these timelines, but especially Beta. Perhaps Astra and Mawile team travel with Ash for a while. They're in Sinnoh, so hunting down Dialga and Palkia should be... not as hard. Again, I know bretty much jack about anywhere but Hoenn, I literally cannot write about Sinnoh without ludicrous ammounts of research.

    I encourage readers to try their hand. And since I wrote two for @Flairina, I think she owes me one now? What's the exchange rate on omakes? Is there one? Wait that's not how that works? Whoopsie!

    Hope you enjoyed. It's not my best, but I had fun.
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • Backslash 3 (Beta 3) - Short-Term (Hyphen/A Backwards Grin)
  • View content
    • Alright, back at you @Dermonster. Frankly, this could probably be a little longer, and certainly could have used more than one edit pass, but you started it. ;)

    (...why can't I write anything else as quickly I got this done?)




    Backslash (Beta) - 3 (Hyphen/A Backwards Grin)

    Short-term


    And here I'd thought my situation couldn't possibly get any more confusing than it already was.

    As I pull a few rocks out of the side of my base and start reassembling them into the rough shape of a table with Astra's psychic assistance, I can't help but reflect on just how odd things have gotten as of late. As if being sucked into the Pokemon world and turned into a Mawile wasn't strange enough, I've now encountered not only a second dimensionally-displaced person — who in fact isn't even technically a "person" in the most typical sense of the word — but one whose own situation and circumstances are seemingly entirely unrelated to mine. Honestly, what are the odds of that? Is this forest just some sort of multi-dimensional dumping ground?

    "Here we go." the Kirlia says, dragging me from my thoughts as she extracts a pair of small jars from her backpack. "Hope you like Orans!"

    I brighten, quickly sitting down at the makeshift table. "I most certainly do!"

    ...at least, I think I do? My sample size is admittedly kind of small at the moment, but I definitely liked the pair I managed to scrounge up the other day.

    Astra sets one jar down in front of me and the other down in front of herself, popping the lids off with a quick use of psychic power. Inside each containers is a small pile of brightly-colored berries, mostly Orans with a couple Pechas mixed in.

    "Thank you!" I say, immensely grateful for the food.

    Grabbing up an Oran from the jar, I bring it to my mouth... then pause, wondering how much of this is acceptable to take.

    "Erm, how many of these do you usually eat in one sitting?" I ask tentatively. "I don't want to drain your supplies too fast by accident or anything."

    "Oh... um, well, usually I'd actually cook these into a stew or something, but I don't have the water or meat I'd need for it, and I wasn't the one carrying our cooking equipment." Astra replies with a hint of sadness. "You said there's not a lot of food around here too, so try not to eat too much? Just, be somewhat sparing."

    I nod. Makes sense; I hardly want to completely deplete the entirety of my new trainer's food rations... and wow, isn't that a weird sentence to think. Especially considering just who that trainer is. For all my contemplation of the idea earlier this week, being captured by not just another Pokemon, but one who is actively pretending to be human, was not exactly a scenario I ever thought to envision.

    I shrug to myself. Still, she's got food, she seems nice, and we're in similar situations, so... yeah, I think I can deal with this.

    With that, I bite into the berry, relishing deeply in the first actual flavor I've tasted in the past three days. Maybe it's just that I haven't eaten anything else but other Pokemon since then, or that Oran Berries are just naturally really good, but I almost end up literally moaning in pleasure. T-that's not supposed to be a real thing, is it? How embarrassing...

    "So, what do we do after this?" Astra asks, biting into a berry of her own.

    I don't answer immediately, my mouth still full of food. Not needing to use her mouth to speak, the same clearly doesn't apply to Astra — I'm still surprised by just how natural her telepathy sounds, to the point that I'd almost mistake it for normal speech if I didn't know better. In fact, I did mistake it for normal speech at first.

    "Well, like I said earlier, first we need to get out of this forest." I say once I've swallowed. "You'll likely be kind of crucial for that, because I've tried several times on my own and failed utterly."

    Seriously, my approach clearly isn't working. I don't know if it's because I get myself turned around in spite of my X-markings, or because I just can't walk far enough before night falls, but maybe the addition of a second person will help.

    "Assuming we manage that though, we should probably try to find a town afterwards." I continue. "That'll help determine which region this is, and thus which Pokemon we should be looking for in order to get back to where we want to be."

    Astra blinks. "I thought you said we should be looking for Dialga and Palkia?"

    "They're probably one of the best options, yeah, but they aren't the only ones." I explain, continuing to eat. "In theory, there's also Hoopa, a genie-like Pokemon who likes to prank people and can send things through dimensions, Celebi, a pixie-like Pokemon that can send things through both time and timelines, Mew, Jirachi, the Unown..."

    I pause. "Actually, could you help me test something real quick?"

    Though looking somewhat mystified by all the names I just listed off, Astra nods. Nodding back, I bend down and scrawl "Can you read this?" in the dirt with one of my claws, then look back up at Astra expectantly.

    The Kirlia glances at the words for a moment, then turns her gaze back on me.

    "I can..." she says, sounding strangely uncertain, "...but I shouldn't be able to."

    I tilt my head at her. "Huh?"

    "I never learned how to read." Astra elaborates. "I just... suddenly realized I could, the same day that I set out on my journey. I don't know what caused it, or if something deliberately messed with my head, or why; I just... can, now."

    I stare at her, rather unsure what to think about that. I only really posed this question because I remembered that the Unown are all based on English letters, which made me wonder if the English language itself somehow still exists here. It was kind of silly to ask someone not actually from here, come to think of it, but apparently in doing so, I've stumbled into a different mystery entirely — one which I can't even begin to guess at the answers to.

    "That's- okay, that's weird for an entirely different reason than what I was thinking." I reply. "Let's... maybe just set that topic aside for now."

    Astra nods rapidly, seeming quite keen on doing exactly that. I get the feeling she's been blissfully ignoring the potential implications of whatever happened there for a while now, and I'm perfectly content to let her continue doing so until or if this latest weirdness actually becomes relevant.

    "Anyways, the point is, there's a whole bunch of Pokemon that can theoretically transport people and Pokemon through dimensions." I say, resuming the earlier topic. "Most of which are unfortunately so absurdly rare that they're considered myths by most people. I didn't even mention Arceus, who's literally Pokemon God."

    Astra blinks at me. "Um, 'God'? What exactly do you mean by that?"

    "I mean that Arceus quite literally created this world." I reply. "Or at least, is said to have done so."

    Astra's already large eyes widen even further.

    "Created the world...?" she whispers, awestruck.

    "Yeah, if not the universe." I continue. "Mind, I don't know if the actual version would live up to that sort of theoretical omnipotence, but Arceus definitely does exist, and as you might imagine, is above even Dialga and Palkia in the 'hierarchy' of ridiculously powerful Pokemon. Frankly, I think our chances of locating any of them are kind of slim-to-none, but if we really want to solve all our problems at once-"

    "Wait, wait, stop." Astra says, holding her head. "Please, just- you can't just drop something like that on me without warning..."

    ...er, right. Probably should have considered that to someone who originated in this world — or at least a version of this world — I basically just revealed the answer to existence. I'm so used to the concept of Arceus just being a thing anymore that it didn't occur to me how that would sound to someone who's apparently completely unfamiliar with the idea.

    "Um, well, don't take my word for it." I say, backpedaling slightly. "I may know a lot about Pokemon, but for all I know, Arceus being the so-called creator of everything could be blantant lies. It's not like my information is necessarily foolproof, so maybe just... put it out of mind."

    "I- yeah, that might be for the best." Astra says, still looking rather mind blown.

    "I-in any event," I say, trying to move on before I say something else I shouldn't, "like I said, we'll need to get out of this forest first. Which... actually, hang on. Kirlia can teleport, can't they?"

    My question serves as a sufficient distraction, as Astra suddenly puffs up with pride.

    "They can!" she proclaims. "My grandpa is the best at it in my village."

    I nod. "Right, and you're a Kirlia too. Which means you can just teleport us out of here, doesn't it?"

    Astra deflates.

    "I haven't really figured it out myself just yet." she says, pressing her hands together.

    "Huh?" I say, squinting. "But I saw you do it earlier, didn't I?"

    "Yeah, out of panic." Astra replies, sounding slightly sullen. "That's not hard on its own as long as you've got enough power, it's control that's the difficult part. I didn't have enough to do it when I was a Ralts, and I only just evolved earlier today, so I haven't even had the time to try it on purpose yet. In fact, I was actually planning on practicing it just before I... well, ended up here."

    Oh.

    "Why not try it now then?" I ask. "I know there's not a lot of room here, but you could still try teleporting from one end of the clearing to the other, or something like that."

    "Maybe later." Astra waves me off. "I mean, I'd like to practice it, but even if I figured it out immediately, I wouldn't be able to just teleport us out of here. Grandpa says you need to know both where you are and where you're going for it to work, and I don't really know either of those things right now. Not to mention, long-distance teleportation is apparently really difficult. "

    She seems rather crestfallen at that... or maybe I'm just imagining it? Her expressions seem slightly more exaggerated than a human's — I think it's the eyes.

    "Alright..." I say, thinking. "Well, maybe you can just climb up a tree or something? See if there's anything around, or in the distance?"

    "Already did that." Astra replies. "All I saw was more trees, and some huge rock walls in the distance."

    "...rock walls?" I repeat.

    Haven't seen any of those before, myself... though, as low to the ground as my perspective now is, the trees cover pretty much everything other than the sky, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

    "Yeah, but to be honest, I didn't really get a great look." Astra continues. "I mean, I can climb trees, but it's not always easy to stay on them for all that long. I'm also heavier than I was yesterday, so I didn't really want to risk trying the very highest branches, and I came down pretty quickly."

    I shrug. "Still way better than I can do. I'm kind of inherently handicapped at climbing due to the giant metal weight hanging off the back of my head."

    ...though, come to think of it, so is she, given the shape of her legs. Now I feel kind of stupid for suggesting it, even though Astra can apparently can do it anyways.

    Astra giggles at my comment. "Well, I can try to climb up another tree, if you think it'll help."

    "Maybe, but... how about instead, we send Treecko up to take a look?" I suggest. "I imagine he'll have an easier time reaching and staying on the highest branches."

    Astra blinks. "Huh, why didn't I think of that? Yeah, that'd be much easier."

    "Perfect." I say, inspecting what's left of the interior of my jar as I do. "I think I'm done, by the way."

    I close the container back up and hand it back to Astra, who seems to be finished as well.

    "Alright, let's do that now then." Astra says, stowing the jars away before pulling out a Poke Ball from beneath her long, almost wizard-like robe. "Come on out Treecko!"

    In a flash of light, the lizard-like Pokemon appears in front of us once more.

    "So, Treecko... we're kind of lost right now." Astra says. "Could you climb up and see if you can spot a way out of this forest?"

    Treecko nods and immediately clambers up the nearest tree, leaping from branch to branch with ease. Lucky little lizard doesn't know how good he has it, being that mobile.

    "Oh, right — I didn't think about it before, but what other Pokemon do you have, Astra?" I ask.

    I admit I'm slightly curious about the team I'm now a part of, if in-name only.

    "Besides Treecko, I have a Marill and a Slakoth." Astra replies, patting her side where I presume she keeps her Poke Balls, not that I can see them under the robe. "I wish I could have brought them out to eat with us, but I don't think I have enough emergency food for all three of them... especially Slakoth."

    Frankly, I'm surprised that she had enough for me. I'm not exactly full, but I am fairly satiated, which is way more than I'd have expected from half a small jar of food. Berries are so nicely filling for their size...

    Treecko starts jumping down from the top of the tree. He lands on all fours when he reaches the ground, before quickly standing back up and turning to me.

    "Canyon trees in the, way through isn't one more."

    As he speaks, he extends an arm in a direction roughly to the right of what I've marked as Beedrill territory.

    "What did he say?" Astra asks.

    "Not a freaking clue." I flatly reply. "There was something about a canyon in there for some reason... but he's pointing that way, so I guess that's the way he thinks we should go."

    Astra shrugs. "That way it is then. Shall we get going?"

    "Yeah, let's."

    As Astra stands up, I take a brief moment to look over at my partially-dismantled base, then cast my gaze over the rest of the clearing.

    If this works, this'll probably be the last time I ever see this place... I have to admit, I've grown slightly attached to it, if only for the relative safety it's come to represent.

    I shake my head. Still, I'll gladly say goodbye to it if it means not being stuck in this forest anymore. I've long since grown tired of the same unchanging scenery, questionably clean water, and scarcity of food that isn't just other kinds of Pokemon.

    It's time to move on.

    "Mawile? Are you ready?" Astra asks, having already recalled Treecko and walked around to wait for me at the edge of the clearing.

    Standing and turning my back on the place I've been living for the past week, I nod.

    "I'm ready." I reply, walking over to join the pair. "Let's go."

    Astra nods, and the two of us walk off into the unknown.
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • Backslash 4 (Beta 4) - About-Face (Hyphen/A Backwards Grin)
  • View content
    • This chapter of Backslash brought to you by this gif:


    (Obviously not to scale)​


    Backslash (Beta) - 4 (Hyphen/A Backwards Grin)

    About-face


    Mawile

    "I really don't get what you find so interesting about that thing."

    I glance up from the Pokedex I'm currently holding to look over at its owner.

    "Seriously, it's been helpful once or twice, but it's mostly just an overly-complicated piece of junk." Astra says.

    I shrug.

    Our quest to escape this forest has thus far proven fairly uneventful, so for lack of anything better to do, I've been checking out my new trainer's Pokedex. Astra seems to think the device is pretty useless on the whole, citing "map frustrations" in particular as a serious annoyance, but this thing actually has WAY more functions than I'd have expected, including a camera, a notepad, a phone, a music player, and more. There's no internet app, but besides that glaring absence, this thing is basically just a slightly more blocky smartphone. I really don't think Astra is giving it enough credit.

    "That seems a bit harsh." I reply. "I think a lot of these options could be pretty convenient, honestly. Maybe you just lack the proper context to appreciate some of them."

    Astra gives me a doubtful look. "If you say so..."

    "Way!"

    I look up to where Treecko is standing on a nearby tree branch. Despite having just recently recalled him, Astra ended up letting him back out after only a couple minutes or so of walking so he could make sure we hadn't accidentally wandered off course. When I pointed out we'd probably have to do that repeatedly (especially since I'm not marking any trees this time to track where we came from), Astra decided to just leave Treecko out and let him lead.

    "Come." Treecko says, gesturing for us to continue following as he hops to the next tree. We do so, and I turn back to Astra as we walk.

    "Hey, do you mind if I try scanning you with this thing with your disguise up?" I ask, holding out the Pokedex. "I'm kind of curious if it'll work or not."

    Astra tilts her head slightly.

    "I... guess I don't mind?" she says, taking a moment to reinstate the human illusion I first met her in. "I bet you it doesn't though."

    "Well, let's see." I reply.

    I wave the Pokedex at Astra, trying to get it to scan her as the Kirlia she actually is. However, no matter how hard I wave it around or concentrate the camera on her, the device fails to react, seemingly unable to recognize or detect her as a Pokemon. I can't help but laugh a little at the result.

    "Heh, looks like you were right." I admit, handing the Pokedex back to Astra. "Seems your illusions work on this thing too."

    Astra grins proudly, accepting the machine and stowing it away before dropping her disguise again. Not much point to leaving it up when we're the only ones around, I guess.

    "So, besides illusions, what else can you do with psychic powers anyways?" I ask casually.

    I'm mostly just trying to make conversation, since I'm pretty sure I can already guess the general gist of it, but I am genuinely a little interested. As someone who grew up in a village where literally everyone was psychically gifted, and such powers presumably saw commonplace use, Astra might actually have some unique uses for psychic powers that I wouldn't have thought or heard of before. Besides, it's in my best interest to know what my new trainer is capable of, assuming this partnership proves to be an enduring one.

    Astra immediately perks up, apparently liking my choice of topic.

    "Oh wow, let's see... well, there's telepathy, obviously." she starts, deliberately causing her mental voice to echo slightly in my head. "You already know what that is, of course."

    I nod in acknowledgment, and Astra nods back.

    "Then there's telekinesis." Astra says, demonstrating by floating a few small rocks off the ground and having them rotate around her hand before tossing them back into the brush. "It's most commonly used to just move or pick things up from a distance — which is really useful when your hands don't have fingers, by the way — but it also has a bunch of other uses, like catching and cutting up food, controlling flames, repelling attacks... all sorts of stuff."

    Right...

    "There's also creating psychic barriers," Astra continues, creating and quickly dispersing what looks like a tiny Reflect wall in the air in front of her, "as well as forming psychic energy into blasts for attacks. I've never been all that great at that one, honestly..."

    She pauses, raising one hand to her mouth. "Although, come to think of it, I still haven't gotten to practice to see if I'm any better at it now that I've evolved. I really should try that once we get out of here."

    I look away, my jealousy quietly beginning to rise with each additional ability Astra lists off. I already knew my situation wasn't exactly great, but that doesn't make this any easier to hear... why couldn't I have ended up here as a Ralts instead of a Mawile? Sure, I'd have more type weaknesses, and I'd be even shorter than I am now — or maybe not, since there's apparently a sub-species of "giant" Ralts I didn't know about — but just the fact that Psychic-type powers are so supremely flexible would have more than made up for either of those downsides. It's not like I had any real choice in the matter, but... ergh.

    "Mawile? Are you okay?" Astra suddenly asks. "You seem a little down."

    "Huh?" I say, slightly startled. "Oh, yeah, I..."

    I sigh. "Just a little envious, I guess. I mentioned earlier that you have a lot more options than I do, but I guess it didn't fully hit me exactly how many things you can do that I just can't. You haven't even mentioned teleportation again yet; that alone would be beyond useful."

    I shake my head. "Meanwhile, I'm over here with the abilities to make myself smell nice, provide a slightly refreshing breeze, and briefly turn myself into a Halloween jumpscare. It's... not the most impressive list, all told."

    "I'm sorry." Astra apologizes.

    "It's alright, it's hardly your fault." I say — then blink, as something occurs to me. "Hey, how'd you notice that so fast anyways? I wasn't even looking at you just now."

    "Oh, well," Astra says, her mental voice slightly hesitant, "I could sort of just tell from how your emotions felt. I'm right next to you, and they were kind of-"

    "Wait, how my emotions felt?" I interrupt, stopping and spinning around to face her. "You were reading my mind?!"

    I said that as hyperbole earlier! I didn't seriously think she could actually do that!

    Astra startles at my sudden accusation, very nearly tripping backwards over her own robe. A moment later, I realize Intimidate must have just re-activated, and quickly turn away again.

    "Sorry, didn't mean to do that! I just- were you actually reading my thoughts?" I ask warily, still looking at Astra in my peripheral vision.

    "I- no, of course not!" Astra exclaims, actually sounding slightly affronted. "Just your emotions. I pick up on some of those passively, and I noticed you were getting a little sadder as I talked, is all."

    "So you haven't gone any deeper than that?" I ask.

    "No." Astra confirms. "I mean, I could, maybe, but I've never tried it before, and would never do it to someone without their permission anyways. That would be incredibly rude. The practice is actually outright forbidden in my village."

    "...it is?"

    Astra nods. "It's considered a huge invasion of privacy to intentionally read someone else's mind. We all pick up on surface level thoughts and feelings just by being near someone, but even those we do our best to tune out. I only really noticed yours because we're so physically close to each other right now, and because you don't know how to shield your thoughts."

    She pauses. "I could... try to teach you how to do that later, if it bothers you? I don't really know if it would work, but..."

    Most of my remaining tension bleeds out of me upon hearing that. I do trust Astra, at least based on what I've seen of her thus far, so I guess I'll believe her when she says she's not going to secretly go rummaging through my brain. I mean, obviously she hasn't yet, since I imagine she'd have some pretty major questions otherwise, so I probably- no, I definitely overreacted.

    "I... that'd be nice, yeah." I reply somewhat sheepishly, turning to face Astra properly again. "Sorry about that. Guess that was pretty rude of me."

    Really, what do I even have to be concerned about her seeing? It's not like I'm hiding anything that bad — I do have two pretty big secrets, but I'm only really keeping them so Astra doesn't potentially have some sort of existential crisis upon learning her entire reality is nominally supposed to be fiction from my point of view, and because I don't really want to get into the specifics of "The Curious Case of the Human-Turned-Mawile" right now. Neither of them are really negative things, just... confusing things.

    "No, it's okay." Astra reassures me as we resume walking. "I wouldn't want anyone reading my mind either, so I get why you were upset. I promise I won't ever even try that without your express permission."

    "Thank you. " I say, still feeling rather awkward. "Erm... got any other psychic powers up your sleeve?"

    Astra brightens again, then slumps just as quickly.

    "Maybe I shouldn't say..."

    I shake my head. "No, this is important stuff to know if we're going to be traveling together, and I really am interested. I won't get jealous again, promise."

    Astra hesitates, then speaks again after thinking about it for a few seconds.

    "Ah... well, there's sight sharing." she says slowly. "It lets me connect to someone else's vision, and either see what they see, or show them what I can see... want to see?"

    I nod, and Astra stops walking, seeming to concentrate on me for a second. I look back up at her, just before my vision abruptly doubles, and I suddenly find myself both looking up at Astra, and also looking down at myself from Astra's point of view. Woah-!

    A moment later, Astra's transmitted sight disappears, and my normal vision returns.

    "Wow... that was cool." I say, shaking myself. "Disorienting, but cool."

    Astra smiles.

    "The last one I can think of off the top of my head is psychically scanning for nearby life signatures." she says. "I can do that one, but I guess I can't really show you... oh, but, I could probably point out any nearby Pokemon hidden in the treetops or the bushes! Just a second."

    Astra closes her eyes and concentrates again- then almost immediately freezes in place, her eyes snapping back open as her gaze shifts to the trees on our left.

    "There's something over there." she warns, her tone serious. "Something big."

    Instantly on guard, I spin around to preemptively glare at the foliage. Narrowing my gaze, I peer past the greenery to see...

    Nothing. Beyond the trees are just more trees, with nothing of any real note present.

    "Huh. Are you sure?" I ask, turning back to Astra. "I don't see any-"

    I stop, abruptly realizing that I appear to be talking to air. Astra has disappeared, the spot she was just standing in suddenly vacated. What the...?

    I look up at the trees, searching for Treecko, but he's apparently gone too. Gaping in silent disbelief, I scan my immediate surroundings, trying to figure out where the two of them could have possibly vanished to, but find no trace of either of them — and on top of that, I seem to have lost track of which way we were all just heading.

    I'm lost. Again.


    Astra

    Astra cautiously watched as the Pokemon she'd sensed slowly began to emerge from the nearby forest. It was quadrapedal, with four long, hooved legs, yet taller than she was — as tall as some of the adult humans she'd met before, in fact. The glowing black orbs set at the base of its oddly-shaped antlers appeared to be distorting the air around them, making it twist and ripple like a localized heat haze.

    Astra wasn't sure exactly what the distortion signified, but she didn't particularly like the look of it. Still, besides making her slightly dizzy, it didn't seem to be doing anything... maybe this Pokemon's horns were just like that all the time?

    Bringing her Pokedex back out, Astra quickly used it to scan the new arrival. An image of the Pokemon in question immediately appeared on the screen, along with a small text box.

    Stantler, the Big Horn Pokemon. Stantler's magnificent antlers were once traded at high prices as works of art. As a result, this Pokémon was hunted close to extinction.​

    ...wow, what helpful information. Useless piece of junk.

    "Alright, HOW is that even possible?!"

    Astra startled and looked to her side to see Mawile seemingly yelling at... nothing, an expression of great frustration now splashed across her face.

    "Mawile? What's wrong?" Astra asked.

    Mawile didn't respond, instead beginning to spin in a small circle, her head swiveling from side to side as if searching for something.

    "Seriously, where the heck did she go?" the smaller Pokemon muttered. "We can't actually have gotten separated in just a few seconds..."

    Astra was confused. Separated?

    "You mean from me? I'm right here, Mawile." she tried again.

    Once again, the words seemed to fail to reach their intended recipient, who continued to act as though she could neither see nor hear Astra at all. What was going on? It was like Mawile had been hypnotized or something...

    Searching for the cause, Astra looked back at the Stantler. It didn't appear to be doing anything other than simply standing in place — although, now that Astra looked, it also seemed to be staring at Mawile, as though intensely concentrating on the smaller Pokemon. She didn't feel any psychic energy emitting from it, but maybe-

    "Are... you doing that to her...?" Astra telepathically asked the Stantler, uncertain what exactly she expected it to do in response.

    The Stantler's gaze shifted to her, though its head didn't move.

    "Ugh, a psychic." it muttered. "No point in trying to trick you... yes, I am doing that."

    Despite herself, Astra couldn't help but gasp — the Stantler had just spoken. There really were other talking Pokemon here!

    At her side, Mawile continued to angrily mutter to herself under her breath, bringing Astra back down to earth.

    "Well... stop it!" Astra requested. "She hasn't done anything to you, so cut it out!"

    "No, I don't think I will."

    Astra blinked.

    "Um. Why?"

    "Just because it hasn't done anything yet doesn't mean that it won't if given the chance." the Stantler stated as Mawile walked up to a nearby tree and smacked her horns against it, loudly calling Astra's name as she did so. "My herd has seen more than enough of how this creature eats by now, and we want it nowhere even remotely near us if we can help it."

    Astra thought back to how she'd met Mawile earlier. Twin pinpricks of red glaring out at her from inside a bush, a giant black maw rising up to bite her in two...

    Okay, she could kind of understand that.

    "I get what you mean, but she's not going to eat you." Astra explained as Mawile sighed loudly and plopped down on the grass with her arms crossed. "She's been trying to leave this place for a while, actually."

    The Stantler snorted. "Really? I suppose that explains why we've had to steer it back two or three times already."

    Astra blinked again. So this was why Mawile hadn't been able to leave... but, wait, that didn't make sense.

    "If you're worried about her being near your herd, why would you deliberately drive her back into the forest rather than out of it?" she asked.

    "Well, this is also just kind of fun." the Stantler replied, a hint of mirth entering his formerly serious tone. "Not many humans come through this forest anymore, so we've got to get our kicks in where we can... and to be honest, the fact that this thing is so dangerous only makes confusing it out of its mind even more entertaining."

    Astra narrowed her eyes and frowned.

    "That's mean." she said.

    "Yeah, but it's also a pretty good time." the Stantler replied with a smirk.

    Astra glared at him. "Not from where I'm standing it's not. Let her go!"

    The Stantler rolled his eyes. "Not happening. Now, kindly do what we've made this forest known for, and get lost."

    "No way." Astra retorted, readying a pulse of psychic energy with her right hand. "I'm warning you — let her go now."

    The Stantler eyed Astra's arm for a moment, then spoke.

    "...well, in that case."

    Mawile suddenly looked over at Astra and yelped, scrambling back to her feet and jumping back in apparent fear.

    "What the hell are you?!"

    Astra flinched away as Mawile's ability activated, the smaller Pokemon's suddenly horrifying gaze causing her concentration to waver, and the energy she'd readied to dissipate.

    "M-mawile?!" she blanched.

    Mawile growled, and Astra realized what was going on — she wasn't sure exactly how the Stantler was controlling what Mawile saw and heard, but now he was tricking Mawile into thinking she was something dangerous! If she couldn't snap the smaller Pokemon out of it, Mawile might actually attack her!

    "Treecko!" she called out. "Attack that Stantler with-!"

    "Treee..."

    Astra spun towards Treecko's voice to see him sprawled out on a nearby branch, gazing deeply into the Stantler's horns, and by all appearances completely out of it. When had that happened?!

    "Get away from me!" Mawile shouted, her maw opening wide to showcase teeth the size of Astra's palms.

    Astra yelped and did exactly that, leaping backwards as she grabbed Treecko's Poke Ball and quickly returned him. Hopefully that would break the Stantler's control — in fact, if she could just return Mawile as well-!

    Astra levitated Mawile's Poke Ball up to her hand, but as soon as she did so, Mawile spun in place, and a sudden gust of oddly pink wind tore the ball from the Kirlia's telekinetic grasp. She heard it land somewhere behind her, but couldn't turn around to levitate it back to herself without taking her eyes off of Mawile, who looked ready to lunge at any moment.

    Astra mentally cursed at the Stantler standing off to the side of all this. Damn it, how was she being outmaneuvered by this jerk?! All she really needed to do was break his control of what Mawile was seeing-

    Wait, idea!

    Forcing herself to concentrate through Mawile's unnaturally fearsome glare, Astra hurriedly pushed psychic energy towards her companion. At the same moment, Mawile stepped forward, tensing herself as though to spring-

    Then froze, as Astra's sight-sharing attempt connected.

    For a moment, Astra could see herself through Mawile's eyes as some sort of looming, nightmarish monster, the image seemingly superimposed over her actual self. As soon as Astra sent her own sight over to Mawile however, the illusion fell apart, her energy seeming to clash with whatever it was the Stantler was doing and nigh-immediately dispelling it. Mawile stumbled out of her daze, shaking her head in confusion.

    "W-what?" she mumbled, looking up at Astra. "Astra?"

    "Are you okay?" Astra hurriedly asked.

    "I..."

    Mawile trailed off, her eyes widening as she noticed the Stantler standing in front of her. The Stantler took a few steps back, rearing up in apparent surprise.

    "Don't look at his horns!" Astra warned. "He was using them to hypnotize you!"

    Mawile jolted, then immediately averted her gaze from the deer-like Pokemon, her own horns curling around to cover her front like an oddly-shaped shield.

    "Normal-type my ass..." Mawile grumbled. "Yeah, you're right, Stantler can cast illusions with their antlers. Make sure you don't look at them either!"

    Astra was already taking care not to do that, but took Mawile's words into account all the same. The Stantler snorted again, repeatedly pawing at the ground with one hoof in apparent irritation.

    "He was going to send you back the way you came." Astra quickly explained. "Apparently he's been doing that every time you try to leave."

    "Wait, this jerk is why I keep getting nowhere every time I try to get out of this stupid forest?!" Mawile growled.

    "I think so, yes." Astra continued, finally finding a moment to levitate Mawile's Poke Ball back over to herself. "He tried to make you attack me as well... and he almost succeeded."

    "This isn't going as planned..." the Stantler muttered.

    "Oh really? Gee, sorry." Mawile sarcastically replied. "In that case, here's my plan: both of us are leaving, right now, and you're going to let us. If that requires that we go through you rather than around, we will."

    Astra couldn't say she was terribly fond of that idea, given just what she imagined Mawile might think of as "going through", but given that the Stantler had essentially just attacked her by way of hypnotized proxy, she nodded in agreement all the same.

    The Stantler huffed. "Consider this my answer."

    Foliage rustled, and more Stantler abruptly began to emerge from the nearby forest, each one quickly moving to the side of the original. Astra took a step backwards, as did Mawile, the pair suddenly finding themselves facing seven Stantler rather than just one, all of whom then turned to glare at them and spoke in unison.

    "Run, fools."

    Astra felt something intangible change, as though the air itself had just grown heavier. Then-

    Fear
    Fear
    FEAR
    FEAR
    FEAR
    FEAR
    FEAR

    Astra screamed. Mawile screamed.

    Both of them turned and ran.



    This now makes four full chapters of Backslash between both me and @Dermonster. He previously stated that we'd make a separate thread if we made it to five of them.

    Ball's in your court, Derm. ;)
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • Backslash 5 (Alpha 3) - Co-op (Hyphen / A Backwards Grin)
  • View content
    • Backslash - 3 (Alpha) (Hyphen/Backwards Grin)

    Co-op


    Despite having spent hours in that other forest, barely any time appeared to have passed at all back here, Astra observed. The shadows on the ground and the sun in the sky had only moved by a few dozen minutes, if at all. The clouds looked mostly the same as before, so barring some oddly repetitive weather, it was still the same day as well. Though given recent events she wasn't quite ready to count it out.

    "—once is weird enough, twice is pushing it, but three times!?"

    Relief was the best emotion to describe what Astra was feeling at the moment—alongside a helping of sheer panic, but she was getting used to burying that. Getting back from...wherever that had been would have been time consuming at best, inviable or utterly ruinous at worst. But that obstacle had been inexplicably solved, and the creeping fear of being forever banished from home had gone with it. Mostly.

    "Someone is definitely screwing with us! Who is it? Mew? Hoopa? Celebi? Are they still here!?"

    She could still reach her village. She could still reach May. She could still accomplish her goal. She still had problems, but the problems weren't trapped in another world problems. (Unless it happened again—) No, panic was bad, she just needed to breathe and focus on the present.

    If it weren't for an unexpected tag-along, Astra might have concluded the entire experience to be a rather strange and oddly lucid vision. Her new companion, however, was not taking their sudden dislocation to Rustboro City quite as well.

    "Wait, we're in Hoenn, is someone making hell with Jirachi? Astra!" Mawile whirled around, a wild look in her eyes. "Have there been any festivals celebrating a comet recently?"

    "No, Mawile." Astra sighed. The smaller pokemon had been...not quite ranting, but certainly pacing around and talking out loud a lot. Mostly to herself, as many of the things she had been saying had flown straight over Astra's head. A little irritating, but it had given Astra enough time to center herself. "I've only been travelling in the human world for a few days, I don't know much of anything that's happening. What's a Jirachi?"

    "Right, right. Ugh." Mawile bit her thumb, the giant maw on the back of her head seeming to vibrate with small but forceful clacks as she did. "Okay. Have you met a small, floating, white pokemon about a foot tall, bipedal, head shaped like a yellow star with blue tassels?"

    Astra shook her head. Mawile scowled, and continued. "Alright, then it might be someone else, or maybe you just didn't see them. Maybe it is Hoopa, that one likes playing tricks. But I didn't see any rings? Then, Mew? Palkia? Arceus themself? Ugh!"

    Mawile grit her teeth. All of them. Astra flinched as a wave of fear emanated from the smaller pokemon. "M-Mawile!" she said, only just managing to not scramble backwards. "Calm down!"

    "Calm down? Calm down?" Mawile shouted, turning toward Astra with a glare. Her maw seemed to snarl, opening just enough to show all of its pointy, pointy teeth. "How can I be calm when we're being shunted across the multiverse like some sick game of ping pong?"

    A new onslaught of fear lashed out, making Astra shiver. "Be-because we can't do anything, and would you stop that!?" she yelled, managing a glare.

    Mawile paused, a flash of regret crossing her face. Grumbling to herself, she closed her eyes. She slumped after a moment, all the tension draining out of her body and her gargantuan horn lazily drifting to rest on the forest floor.

    Mawile sighed, looking over at Astra with a frown. "Sorry. Still not used to that. Still, I don't get why you're so calm; something's playing hell with us and they could do it again at any moment! How are you so okay with this?"

    Okay with it? Astra stared at Mawile, bewildered and more than a little angry. "I'm not," she said, scowling. "I know that something could happen again any moment. I know that there's probably someone doing something awful somewhere. But look around!" Astra waved to the empty forest surrounding them. "Do you see anyone? Anything? There's nobody here except us. If whatever made that happen decided to happen again, there's nothing we could do."

    Mawile's eyes were wide. Astra looked down, suddenly unwilling to meet Mawile's gaze. She'd been trying to think of ways to deal with the situation for a while now, but nothing seemed feasible. Her village was days away, and she'd never even heard of alternate dimensions before today anyway, so how could they know? Her other option, asking for assistance from humanity, would undoubtedly throw her under the worst kind of attention and completely wreck her plan! She didn't even know what caused it. One of those all-powerful Pokemon Mawile was talking about? Random happenstance? Or maybe it was connected to the Ancestor's orb in some way. But it wasn't like she could get rid of it. She clenched her hand, held it tightly for a second, then exhaled and let her arm fall. What could she even do?

    Astra raised a hand, staring at her new fingers. "There wasn't anything I could have done the first time something inexplicable happened. Or even the second. I still don't know what's going on, so what's one more thing to add to the pile?" she muttered, the words souring even as she said them.

    There was silence for a moment. "You've... been displaced before?" Mawile asked, confused. "I thought you said...?"

    Astra shook her head, looking up at Mawile with a tired grin. "No, nothing like that. But I've been dealing with things I can't control all week. Look at this," she said, digging into her pack and grabbing her pokedex. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, holding the device out.

    Mawile took it, examining it with a curious wonder. "A pokedex?" she breathed. "Oh man, I wish I had one of these. This would have been so helpful back in that forest!"

    "Less than you'd think," Astra replied dryly. That map was just the worst. She frowned. "Wait, you can use that? Can you read human writing?"

    "Oh, uh. Yeah." Mawile confirmed, blinking owlishly at her. "Why, is that strange?"

    "I guess not?" Astra half-asked, scratching her head. "This is convenient, actually. You lived with humans, right? Did they teach you?"

    Mawile paused, then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I picked up a few things. Like their writing and how to use things like this." she said, indicating the pokedex.

    "Huh. Well, nobody taught me," Astra said, folding her arms. "There aren't any books in my village. No writing at all, as far as I can remember. But a few days ago I looked at that thing for the first time and I could just...understand it. I knew what all the words meant, but it was the first time I'd ever seen any of them."

    Mawile looked from Astra to the pokedex, frowning uncertainly. "You...just knew?" she asked, lowering the device.

    "Yeah." Astra shrank back, gaze flicking to the ground. "All the words, all their meanings, even for things I'd never heard of. I could just understand them, for no reason, while I'm almost certain I wouldn't have just the day before. My best guess is that someone or something invaded my mind without me knowing about it, just to help me read."

    Were her hands shaking? Was her vision a little blurry? Most of the time, Astra hadn't thought about any of these things too hard. There was nothing that could be done, no one she could have told. "Something's been messing with my head ever since I started being a trainer and nobody is supposed to do that but there's nobody I can tell to stop. Visions of different places, memories of creatures I've never seen, a language I've never learned. Getting shoved to an...another world is just another thing I have to deal with." She bit the last words out, anger and despair coloring her tone. She sniffed, wiping her face with a sleeve.

    When she looked back up, Mawile stood a few steps closer, hand half-outstretched and concern written across her face. "Um." Mawile said, haltingly. "Are you okay?"

    Astra took a moment to compose herself before responding, taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling. "Yeah. Sorry, I shouldn't have unloaded on you like that. I've just... been bottling that up for a while." Astra shook her head and looked at Mawile. "I can't stop what's happening. But I can keep moving. If I end up somewhere else again, then I'll just have to find a way back. Palkia, Dialga, Jirachi—whoever. But until then, I'm not going to worry about it. I'll just do what I can to solve what problems I can reach."

    "Oh." Mawile said, a hint of surprise in her voice. She still looked shaken, but gave Astra a small smile all the same. "That's... a pretty mature outlook, honestly. I... I'm sorry," she continued, looking away. "For bringing all that up. I didn't mean to—well, I didn't know. Do you want to talk about it?"

    Astra raised an eyebrow. "Do you know what's messing with me?"

    Mawile hesitated. "In Hoenn? Are you sure you've never heard of Jirachi?" Astra shook her head. Mawile shrugged. "Then I don't have a clue. Could be anything."

    "Then there's no point. Thanks, though. Ah, could I get that back?" Pocketing the pokedex, Astra looked back at Rustboro, the city's towers gleaming in the sunlight. She checked the sun's position in the sky again, then hummed. No time had passed, so it seemed her original plan was still good to go. "Alright, let's get going."

    "Yeah, I guess we should—eh?" Mawile blinked, watching Astra stride deeper into the forest. "What? Where are you going? The city's that way."

    "It is. But I wasn't going there when I left. Come on, let's—" Astra paused as a thought occurred. Did Mawile even want to stay? She looked back at Mawile, uncertain. "Actually, do you even want to come with me still? This is my home, and now that I'm back I..." It hurt her to say this, as Mawile seemed nice, but... they'd barely known each other for an hour. "I can't go looking for those legendary pokemon while my village is in danger. If you wanted to go look for them yourself—"

    Mawile held up a hand. "Gonna stop you right there," she said, cutting the taller pokemon off. "Astra, I'm not leaving."

    Astra blinked, confused. "But— don't you want to go home? I can't help you look for Palkia or Dialga until I make sure my home is safe."

    "Astra, in case you haven't noticed, I'm still not human." Mawile said, motioning to herself. "Nobody else can understand me, and it's not like I can just swim to Sinnoh." She grimaced. "It's not like I could get help from other pokemon either. Judging by what Treecko was like, everyone else here is... hard to understand, at best. On top of all that, someone else might try to capture me. You're still my best shot, delay or not."

    Mawile paused for a moment, a small smile coming over her face. "Though, I guess that's not all bad. If I'm honest, exploring a foreign land has always been a fantasy of mine. I didn't want to get kidnapped to do it, but otherwise this is sort of a dream come true. Traveling with you doesn't seem like a bad way to go at all. Other than that, you got displaced just like I did, so I've gotta stay near you in case it happens again. Maybe it will, maybe it won't." She grinned, punching a fist into her palm as her maw rose up and clacked above her. "And if we get the opportunity, I wanna have a long, hard talk with whoever's pulling this crap."

    "So," Mawile continued, folding her arms. "I'll help you save your home and have a good old adventure while I'm at it, and when you're the champion, you help me go home. Sound like a deal?"

    Mawile held out a hand. After a moment, Astra took it, smiling. She could use all the help she could get, and though they were still only acquaintances Astra could see herself becoming friends with the smaller pokemon. It would be nice, she thought, to have someone she could talk to. Plus, maybe her weirdly expansive knowledge could come in handy?

    "It's a deal," Astra said. "Though, you'll still have to pull your own weight."

    "Figured as much." Mawile muttered. "So, what next, oh trainer of mine?"

    Astra grinned. Mawile looked at the wide expression on Astra's face and took a step back.

    "We're going to train!"


    When Astra said that we were going to train, I hadn't considered that the first one to be trained would be Astra. We had found a nice clearing to occupy a few minutes from our landing site, and my newfound trainer wasted no time in stripping her robe off and starting up some kind of dance routine, leaving me to sit by the treeline.

    Fortunately, Astra was kind enough to share one of her jars of Oran berries with me on the way. I had been 'hunting' when we first met and I still hadn't had anything to eat since then, so I was absolutely famished and had said as much.

    "Go ahead and eat as much as you want," Astra said, plucking out a few for herself. "I don't have too many left but I can always forage for more, and there's always the bags of food in the Pokemart. Besides, I'd rather you eat these than try for me again."

    "I wouldn't do that," I protested, even as I grabbed at the container.

    Astra just grinned. Again.

    Joking aside, the berries were delicious, filling in a way that all those other pokemon hadn't been and bursting with flavor for every bite. If I could bring these back to Earth I bet I could make a decent living selling them as exotic fruits; apples and oranges just didn't compare.

    I tore through half the jar, watching as Astra pranced through the grass. Her movements were pretty graceful, perhaps fairy-like if I wanted to get clever. "So," I said, swallowing my latest morsel, "What's with all the dancing? Is this some secret method for Kirlias to practice their moves?"

    "Mmm. I wouldn't know any of those," Astra commented, spinning in place. She tilted forward, arms spread at a right angle and one leg extending behind in a classic ballerina pose. Really living up to the theme there, girl. "I only evolved earlier today, so I'm just having a bit of fun first. Plus with all my new power, I bet there's loads of stuff I can do better now."

    I blinked. She evolved earlier today? Wow. I frowned, a thought coming to mind. How did a pokemon get 'experience' if they weren't fighting a battle head on? Did Astra have an 'Exp Share'? Did either of those concepts even exist here? "How exactly did that happen?" I asked, curious. "Did you win a fight?"

    "Yep!" Astra replied, grinning. She took a few steps back, then launched herself forward, flipped—

    "Ow!"

    —and landed right on her face.

    I couldn't help it; I burst out laughing. Astra looked up and pouted at me, looking cutely miserable as my laughter redoubled. "Sorry, sorry!" I managed, stifling myself, and wiping a tear from my eye. "You were saying?"

    "Honestly," Astra huffed, picking herself up. "Laughing at the person who gave you food? Rude." She sent a mock glare my way, then shook her head and began to look around the clearing. Purple light shone around Astra's hands, and she started to...collect rocks? I stared at the floating stones, fascinated. The pink sparkles I could throw around were cool, but this was downright magical. "As for your question, yeah! I fought the Rustboro gym earlier today, beat Roxanne—the gym leader—and got the Stone Badge."

    I whistled...and failed miserably at it, to my sudden frustration. (Dratted mouth shape!) But damn. Gym badge, evolving, getting shifted into another dimension, and then still going out to train? This girl was pretty hardcore. I guess I would be too if my entire family depended on me beating the champion. I didn't remember the third gen beat for beat, but Roxanne was the first gym leader to challenge, if I recalled right. Norman was encountered first, but the gym itself didn't open until later. Well, in the games, at least. Who knew what continuity I was in now? None of them had a Kirlia like Astra.

    "Nice," I said, giving her a nod. "Was that your first badge?"

    "Yep!" Astra grinned, looking incredibly pleased with herself as a few good-sized rocks floated around her. Then she rubbed her arm, pride turning to embarrassment as her face flushed. "Then...I had to go hide in the bathroom while I evolved."

    I barely managed to not laugh again. "Yeah, I bet glowing like a lightbulb and growing a few inches would be pretty suspicious, wouldn't it?" I said, finishing off another Oran berry.

    "Very," Astra agreed, circling around the treeline. She looked at the rocks, carefully scanning her eyes over every last part of the clearing before her. "I had to come up with a new illusion too, since I couldn't exactly walk out eight inches taller than I had been. So I made myself look shorter. Humans kind of grow like trees, so I thought I'd just make myself a bit taller every day until I caught up."

    I blink. "Humans grow like— what?"

    "Trees," Astra repeated, glancing my way. "Humans don't evolve, but they come in a bunch of different sizes, so they must grow over time. You know, like trees. Do you think they're a type of fleshy plant?"

    I stared at Astra. Several half-formed responses formed and died in my mouth. What? "No, Astra." I managed, "Humans are not fleshy plants."

    "Aw, drat." Astra said, mock-pouting. "And here I thought I was on to something. Hehehe~"

    I rolled my eyes. So she was messing with me. "Hilarious," I deadpanned, biting into a new berry with a thick munch. I looked around, trying to figure out what she was doing with the rocks. She had placed them seemingly haphazardly around the clearing, each of them big enough to be plainly visible through the tall grass. Astra slowly circled around the area, examining them from every angle.

    After watching her pace around for a moment, I gave up. "What's with the rocks?" I asked, gobbling down my latest snack.

    "Markers." Astra replied, somewhat absently. "I've been really looking forward to learning how to teleport, and having something to focus on makes it easier to, uh, focus."

    Huh. Teleportation. I already knew, abstractly, how much of an advantage Astra had in life over me, but the sheer unfairness of it all still stung a bit. However, that didn't stop me from being a bit curious. "Don't you already know how to do that? I saw you flash away from me back when we first met."

    Apparently done with her examinations, Astra went to stand near a larger rock in the middle and turned to face me. She rubbed the back of her head, looking a little sheepish. "Yeah, but that was more panic than anything. Anyone can just blind fire a teleport, but if you don't know where you're going it can get a bit messy. I was lucky I didn't end up in a tree, or with my legs lodged in the ground."

    "Heh. That'd be a sight to see." I chuckled, reaching for another Oran. I paused, a thought coming to mind. Stuck in the ground? She could teleport into occupied spaces? "Uh. Quick question. What happens if you teleport into a space someone else is already in?"

    Astra blinked. "You...don't?" she said, looking faintly confused. "Teleport isn't very strong. Anything that can think just...repels it. That's what my Grandpa says, anyway. Why?"

    "Oh, just curious," I deflected, relaxing at the answer. No tele-fragging here, it seemed. If she didn't know, I wasn't about to give her the mental image. "Are you trying it out now?"

    "Yeah." Astra nodded, turning back to her rocks. "Give me a minute, I need to concentrate."

    I hummed in assent, biting into my latest berry. I'd gone through another quarter of the jar now and truth be told I was starting to feel a bit bloated. But a week of near starvation combined with the sudden abundance had me reluctant to set the thing down. Instead, I watched curiously as Astra stood in the center of the clearing and stared intently at one of the closer rocks.

    The stillness and silence stretched on for a bit, and I was just starting to wonder if anything would happen at all when Astra suddenly vanished—


    ...

    ...

    ...

    Hm.

    There are two, now.

    Interesting.

    Very, very interesting.
    What do you think?    ​

    —and reappeared a few meters away, leaving a clap of displaced air in her wake and blinking dazedly.

    "Woah!" I exclaimed. "You did it!"

    "I did it!" Astra echoed, staring down at herself with a massive grin. She pumped a fist in the air, cheering. "Yes! I can teleport!"

    "Impressive!" I said, giving her a vigorous round of applause. "Now, let's see you do it again!"

    Astra was only too happy to comply. She began to hop around the field in echoing bursts of cracking air—slowly at first, with a few odd mishaps, but with increasing speed, eventually popping away as soon as she set foot on a rock. Until very abruptly she stopped, falling to her knees and clutching her head with a pained groan.

    I bolted upright, berries forgotten. "Astra!" I called. Rushing over, I grabbed her shoulder, keeping her steady as she swayed. "Did something happen? What's wrong?"

    "Nng..." Astra grunted, eyes squeezed shut. "Migraine. Did...too much. Too fast. Leppa berries in my bag. Small, red. Bring me some?"

    Leppa berries? Those restored PP, didn't they? Did Astra use up all her PP—

    I paused and hastily rewrote that thought.

    Did Astra use up all her Power Points and accidentally use Struggle? Was that what it translated to here? Migraines if you used your powers too much? Or maybe this kind of migraine was a psychic-specific symptom? I'd never pushed myself that far, and hopefully would never have to, but it was good to keep my limits in mind.

    "Sure thing," I said, "I'll be right back."

    Sprinting toward Astra's pile of stuff, I opened up her backpack and started rummaging around. Man, this girl had a lot of jars. And... jerky? I stared at the strips of dried meat for a moment. Huh. Was that...fish? I guess Kirlia weren't herbivores either. Her Pokedex was crammed in there as well—which I really should take a closer look at some time—alongside what looked to be a kitchen knife without a handle. Wait, was that a damascus steel pattern? How the—? Not the time.

    Last but not least was some sort of wooden box, handcrafted and carved with strange, curling symbols that reminded me of smoke and clouds. I hesitated a moment, staring at the thing. Something about it felt...off. I brushed my fingers across one of the carvings and flinched back at the sudden chill in my hand. Cold? Why was it cold?

    A groan from Astra shook me out of my thoughts. Right, Leppa berries. Searching through the multitude of jars, I quickly found one half-full of what looked like cherries with flame decals. Snatching it up, I rushed to Astra's side.

    "Found it," I said, and handed the container over. "Sorry, you had a lot of jars."

    Popping the lid off, Astra reached inside and quickly shoved one in her mouth. She relaxed near immediately, a grateful sigh escaping her lips. Wow, that was fast. Magic berries for the win, I guess.

    "Thanks," Astra said, smiling at me. She rubbed her head again, wincing. "Ugh. I thought it'd take longer before I went into psychic fatigue, once I became a Kirlia."

    "Psychic fatigue?"

    "You haven't—? Right, not, uh. Hm." Astra thought for a moment. Did she forget I wasn't psychic? "When I use up too much psychic energy, I start to get headaches, and if I keep using it, they get worse and worse until...bad things happen." Astra grimaced. "It's my fault, really. Everyone always talks about how draining teleporting is, I just wasn't expecting that. Only seven times? I wasn't even going very far..."

    I gave Astra a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Hey, you only just started, don't beat yourself up about it. Heck, I'd take just one short teleport over my current none. I bet you'll be popping all over the place in no time!"

    "Heh. Even Grandpa can't do it that much." Astra chuckled and rose to her feet. She winced and considered the jar in her hand for a moment, before sighing and popping another berry in her mouth. She made a face. "Nngh. Spicy. Not my favourite."

    "You okay?" I ask. She didn't look to be in pain anymore at least, but it was good to make sure.

    "Yeah," Astra replied, capping the jar off again. She waved her hand and it flew back off to her backpack in a haze of purple light. "Though I think I'll hold off on more practice for now. I don't have a lot of those, and I have a lot more to do than I thought I would."

    "Fair enough. I suppose you didn't come out here expecting me to tag along."

    "I was under the impression I'd be working with my Slakoth," Astra said, giving me a rueful grin. "Wandering through an alternate dimension and finding a Mawile? Not so much."

    "Too bad, you're stuck with me now," I said, grinning right back. "A Slakoth, huh? Do I have any other teammates waiting in the wings?"

    "Well, you already met Treecko," Astra began, "But aside from Slakoth, the only one you haven't met is Marill. I got Marill two days ago and had time to train her, but I only got Slakoth late last night. I was gonna bring him up to speed, but then, well..."

    Ah, I saw where this was going. "Me?"

    "You," Astra confirmed. "And since I have to get both of you ready, I might as well start with the one that's already out and about, right?"

    I guessed I couldn't argue with that logic. Shooting Astra a grin, I started to warm up, pulling my arms side to side, twisting around to work out a few kinks in my back, and giving my horn a few test chomps as well. "So, you wanna see what I can do, then?"

    Astra glanced at my horn for a moment, looking a bit uneasy, but nodded all the same. "That's the plan!" Waving a hand, Astra summoned a decently sized log from the depths of the forest and implanted it in the ground. "So, I think we'll start with the obvious. Can you use your, uh, second mouth to bite the log?"

    "Easy enough." My horn rose up as I positioned myself in front of the post, widening it enough that the two halves were almost parallel. Dark energy surged through me and into my maw, and with a grunt of effort I snapped out and crunched the wood. A fourth of the log was summarily sheared straight off, the torn piece reduced to mere tinder.

    I reflexively chewed for a moment, then let the mass of pulp fall to the grass below. I still didn't know exactly how the things I ate with my second mouth were digested—did it go into the same stomach as my regular mouth, or did I have some secret second one?—but a belly full of splinters seemed a bad idea in any respect. I had taken a risk with bones, but I didn't want to find out that wood was a hard no the difficult way.

    "Oh," Astra said, and I turned to find her staring at the log with very wide eyes. "Oh," she repeated, slightly paler than she was before, which was impressive because I was fairly certain she was pure white to begin with. "Maybe...don't use that while sparring."

    I was pointedly reminded that I had almost eaten Astra when we first met. "Trust me, I'm not planning on using this on anyone I like," I say, raising my hands up reassuringly. "I can definitely promise you that."

    "Thanks," Astra said, still looking a bit uneasy. She coughed. "Well then. Um. Let's do something else. Let's see..." She thought for a moment, then lit up, slapping a fist into her palm. "Oh! Back in your forest. I smelled something really good. Was that you?"

    "Oh, Sweet Scent? Yeah, that was me. Let me just..." There was no energy to push around with this move, merely a sort of muscle for a gland somewhere between my head and my horn. Inhale, trigger the muscle, blow out through my horn...

    And suddenly the clearing smelled like someone dumped a truck of sugar all over the place.

    "Woah!" Astra said, looking around wildly. She sniffed, blinking rapidly. "Wow. That smells amazing. Don't know how good it would be in a fight though."

    She sniffed again, and I found myself a little uncomfortable with how much she seemed to like it. I don't think I'm getting the full effect of it, being my own skill and all, but watching someone blissfully inhale what was basically my own breath was just a little weird. "Well, it was good for luring other pokemon toward me."

    Astra paused, grimacing. "Oh. Right."

    Perhaps I should stop mentioning my recent dietary practices. Reminding Astra that I'd nearly eaten her didn't seem to be helping, somehow.

    Astra shook her head, visibly turning herself away from her train of thought. "Hm. Maybe if you concentrated it? Might be strong enough to disorient someone."

    I... hadn't considered that, actually. Last time I fired it at full blast, a horde of bugs swept through not long after, but that was when I was trapped in one spot. If I wasn't sticking around to deal with the aftermath, then... "That just might work."

    "Worth a test. Though, maybe at the end of the day. I'd rather we not season the clearing while we're still using it." Astra hummed, thinking. "That's all the obvious stuff. Do you know anything else?"

    "Astonish and Fairy Wind," I replied, listing off the other two moves I knew. "Astonish basically lets me startle someone so hard that they get hurt by it, and Fairy Wind...well, I haven't actually been able to use that on anyone, but it does let me throw around some pink, sparkly wind."

    "Pink, sparkly wind...?" Astra asked, a hint of amusement in her voice. "Well, that sounds interesting. I guess the log won't work for either of those?"

    "Nope," I said, popping the 'p'. "Astonish needs an actual opponent, and as far as I could tell Fairy Wind didn't do anything to the trees I tried it on besides rustle their leaves a little."

    "Right..." Astra considered the log for a moment, thinking. "These moves...are they as, uh, effective as your bite?"

    "Not even close," I say. Game levels were probably a bad crutch to rely on, considering how much I was able to vary the strength of my bite, but Astonish and Fairy Wind were novice level moves. They couldn't be that bad. "Painful at the worst, but not crippling."

    "Hm. I suppose there's no helping it, then." Astra sighed. She waved a hand and a pokeball flew out of her bag. "We'll need someone to take a hit. Come on out, Marill!"

    I was tempted to protest the casual use of a teammate as a punching bag, but why bother? Getting beat to a pulp was literally the global pastime, I'd be shocked if Astra's pokemon blinked an eye at this type of thing.

    The pokeball's light resolved into a solid shape, and I got my first look at a Marill. She was about half as tall as me, and sported extremely fine blue-and-white fur, a mousey face, big round ears, an absolutely rotund body plan, stubby limbs, and a long jagged tail topped with a shiny blue sphere. In a word: adorable.

    Marill shook herself, looking around curiously. "Skyward whence?" she said, before spotting me. She turned to face me, crouching down with her tail waving erratically through the air behind her. An anticipatory smirk crawled across her face. "Mystery miscreant! The on wheelstone grit?"

    I stared. So much for adorable.

    "Marill, this is Mawile," Astra said, crouching down to eye-level. "She's joining our team. Mawile, this is Marill."

    "...hello, Marill," I said, still trying to puzzle out what the hell she just said.

    Marill frowned at me, but relaxed. "Yap inscrutable. Concession alas, comrade entrance celebrant in for the pocket!" That said, she eyed me up and down. "Exceed size, valor of self-polish? Shine me greater!" She wagged her tail around again, grinning. "Awe the crawl."

    "...sure." Was this what it's like to have a stroke? I rubbed my forehead, trying to parse the scrambled lingo.

    "Mawile?" Astra asked, looking concerned. Across the clearing, Marill exclaimed something about 'radiance' and 'ascension' before tackling Astra's leg. "Wh—Marill! Not now. Mawile, you okay?"

    "I'm fine." I replied, shaking myself. "Just... trying to translate."

    Astra blinked at me. "Oh. What did she say?"

    I still had no idea, but I could give it a crapshoot based on her tone and body language. "She's...happy to have a new teammate, and...thinks she's tougher than me?" Marill shot me a smug look. I glared back. She might have more experience, but I'm not about to let anyone look down on me. Especially when they're half my height.

    "Hah. Sounds like her. Well you'll have the chance to test it out soon enough. Marill," Astra said, looking down at the blue ball playing with her...skirt flaps? I'm unsure what to call them. "We're experimenting with Mawile's skills, but we need someone to test them on. I'm thinking that you could take anything she dishes out no problem, right?"

    Marill puffed up and beamed at Astra. "Unconquerably! Forthwith I chipped nay the trial, cack!"

    Alright, that last one wasn't even a word. Could I talk to whatever magical phenomenon was overseeing this? I'd like to file a complaint.

    "That's the spirit!" Astra said, heedless of my exasperation. "Go stand over there and get ready; there's only a couple things we need to try."

    Marill saluted and trod over to stand at one of the marker rocks. She looked at me expectantly. "Hasten! Inevitable upper proven!"

    Astra looked back to me and gave me a thumbs-up. "You're up, Mawile," she said, backing away.

    I simply nodded and moved toward another rock a few meters away. Astonish would probably be the best to open with; all I needed to do was throw around Ghost energy, plus it didn't have me spin my horn like a propeller. On top of that, it would be suitable payback for her looking down on me.

    "All right, I'm gonna start with Astonish," I called, gathering a modicum of tar-like Ghost energy. "Here it goes!"

    With that said, I released the pent up power and glared. The effect was immediate. Marill paled and shrank back from me, a frightened gasp escaping her lips and a look of terror in her pinprick eyes. But only for a moment. The ghost energy dissipated rapidly, and with it Marill's fear. She shook herself, staring at me with newfound wariness and, I note, a shortness of breath. So scary as to inflict actual harm, huh? I wondered if I could give someone a heart attack if I kept it up.

    Marill stared me down, determination flaring to life in her eyes. "Combustion internal drum! Repetition why unwary, fear repurposed as the feast!"

    "W-well," Astra stammered, and I turned to see her looking shaken. I mentally cursed as I realized why—Psychics are weak to Ghost moves. She wasn't quite behind me, so she must have gotten caught up in the attack. "Man, you really know a lot of scary techniques, huh?" she said, laughing nervously.

    "Yeah, sorry." I scratched the back of my head, giving her an apologetic grin. "Can't really help it. I am what I am, and all that."

    "It's fine," Astra reassured, but still grimaced. "If other pokemon can do those things, it's better that I find out about it now than later. Anyway, you had one more left, right? Fairy Wind?"

    Acquiescing to the topic change, I nodded and turned back to Marill. "Yeah. It's a pain to use, though. Marill, hold still!"

    Marill hunkered down, grinning. "Deliver activation!"

    Now that I could understand. Drawing on the Fairy-type energy, my body began to feel as though someone shook up a soda can inside of it. Pushing the fizzy power into my horns, I swiveled around, dragging my horn along with me. I swung it like a bat then violently swept it through the air—oh god my neck—and released.

    A burst of sparkling pink wind shot forward, and as it flowed across Marill—

    As it flowed acro—

    aS iT fl—

    A

    A

    A

    A

    A

    A

    A

    A

    A

    A

    A

    Aaaaa

    Aaaaaaaaaaaa

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


    a̶̘̩̖͈̱͎̹̹̗̍́͊̏a̴̯̱͉͔̩̬̩͗̈́̃̋̓ä̸̧͓̗̤̹̤́̿͜ͅą̸̡̨̣̺͚̳̭͙͖͖̫̻̀̋̀͋̋͗̓̂̌̐̄͋̚̚͜ͅa̷̢̨͚͈͇̠̬̔͋͗̕á̶͎̮͖̦̗̭̙͎͕̅̾̃̓̃̉̚͜͝ą̵̧̢̖̭̦̘̝̰̫̽̃̀̌̄̽̍̾͂̚͝ͅͅą̸̧̥͇̤̪̩͍̱̘̮̎͐́̎̊̋͛̒̕ǎ̵̧̙́͂́̇̊́̍̚̕a̷̡̨̨̦̙̰̪̟͍͒̀a̴̧̨̧̩̯̤͉̝̱̬̫̔̃̌̓̔͒͌̋̅̒͋͘a̵̧͉̞̯̤̫̳͛͒̂̍͠a̶͈̙͚̻͊̇̓̈́͊̄̊͌͒̃̈́̀͗̎͘ͅą̵̖̭͍̭͎̫̲̘̣͚̥͉̲͐͌̚̕͜a̵̧̦͈̋̀̿͌̑͋̄͌̀̀̈́͘͝͝a̴̧̝̟͉̾̈́́̈́̽̀͋́̅a̵̧̧̬̬̟̯͖̘̪̰̟͉̬͇͌̃ͅa̷͉̐̔̿̄̑̾͝a̷̧̩͎̱̖̤̫̱͕͙̙̐̂͆̍̉́̔̕̕͝ạ̶̢̡̰̘͚͕̘͈̤̯̖͇̃̏͊̇̉̈́̔͐̀ȃ̴̡͈̖̻̝̘͈̘͔̞̏̀́̍̍̇͐̿̽̔̿̍̿̕à̷̘̫͓̭̹͖̭̇́̐̑̽̔̓̾͗̚͜͝͝å̸̫̺̎͗͝a̴͍̰̥͍̯̞͚̤͚͖͎̩̎̐̈́̕͠a̸̱̲̬̻̦̺͇̤̺̍̈̎̀̆͌ȁ̸̧̻̩̫͇͙̝̻̩͋́̂̾̕͜͜a̵̡̧̨̘͍͙͙̟͎̖̮̳̭͉̲͠á̶̻̩̲̯͍̖̦̼̺̯̍̆̀͑̄̅̐̆̑̀̽̈à̵̢͚͉̭̱͔͒̃͜a̴̢̛̖̟̙̮͔̭̬̅͛́̄̆͐͛͠à̵͕̀̔̈́̏̒̎͛͌̽͘͝á̶̡͇̬̤̄͆͛͗́͂͗̅̉͐͘̕͘͝


    IHDR  ÷ ÎIkP sRGB ®Îé gAMA ±
    üa pHYs à ÃÇo¨d PÅIDATx^íÝ!pÜÊ– ÐÔ"×'¿††¦jIX aª–ší«Zhhø ¡aàß^÷VgÔš'Ô'ί^÷رæJÝ}§§Õz÷/ 4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£ ˜4 ŠI£Y"‡‡‡³÷÷÷Q 0 i4Ë'RçÓÓÓw/NNN¢ ` ÒhâË—/9Înnnâ €H£™½oß¾EúüB
    Mͼ===œœDúüîÝååå¯_¿â5 €ÁH£™±ûûûö<ôõõµ ‡4š¹º»»‹ôùÅ·oßâ €áI£™¥ö¦Éååe¼ 0
    i4ó³±)‡… Àø¤ÑÌŒí €H£™
    mÊ LHÍ<lLBË¡€iI£™ÚÆv Àä¤ÑÔ®C›" *!¦jrh NÒhê%‡ÎÃÃÃÅÅÅýý}"€BÒh*%‡Ôû÷ïS`ONN¢ 'FSçççOŸ>å:'CÝÃÃC÷ z2ˆR—"ám<å[}ty*:‹* A"Š<==œœD~'‡LÄ×3 à Òh*'²ºœÞ½ÿÞÝoÃÉAN¢ "3ŽR…}ûö-^` ei4 À8Êôîîî"{qyy/0€v´£
    €³joÆQ&ößÿýßÿöoÿi}¯¹¿0…:ª X1[ ö&fbÿþïÿž³ºóós ôr´Ñ ‰QÁW"å"Œ)ýçþg´]ë¡GñôôáÖ]ð"FãB9!c2íçþãÿˆZ†Ô<×æüü<ª X·<.$Q¦3!cÏ)Lþçþ'^cHÍÂhsÿ dy\H¢LgBÆØîîîÚÏ)Ìâ5áp ~‹ÁÐPNÈU{!G[¼ÌÀ"ÜÀo10Ê ãiçÐgggÿñÿ'ÿßÎk£ÉO¢ÀêÅÀ`h('dŒ¤C_^^þ×ýWì¼6^àµ
    å"Œ1läÐ)oöñ‰9 ¯å¡!‰2 ƒ{C§Ê(›ŠQD\Ìh‰±A]NÈÖÖÚê'IDÄÅ€–Œå"ŒmÍ¡«
    &'cžD Œ2†òVDÕ#ò
    [ÅØ`t('dbGÄ


    Code: 
    [A catastrophic error has occurred: Arc.lang.NullPointerException.]


[Fairy.Type is missing or corrupt. Please contact your system administrator.]



    I hope you enjoyed this addition to Backslash. I won't be working on this series until after the the next proper Hyphen chapter.

    Thank you for enjoying my work, and tell me what you think!
     
    Last edited:
  • View discussion
    • View content
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top