[Hisuian(?) Cyndaquil doesn't seem that different]
[ProfBirch: We haven't seen many of the regional variants go too far off the norm, maybe when it evolves it starts to show a difference?]
“They have to evolve first”
[ProfBirch: Got it]
[Guess that makes sense]
[What Pokemon are you looking to get, Joshua?]
Joshua finishes putting on his boots, looking over the ndscape, he watches as the sun creeps over the horizon. There's still a light chill, but the warm sun feels wonderful on his face.
“I'm trying to round out my team. Right now I have a Psychic/Fairy type and an Electric/Dragon type. I'm gonna look for… something, not sure”
[Ace and Cyndaquil don't count?]
“Not as a fighting team, no. I'm still not sure about Cyndaquil”
To be honest, he just wants interesting Pokemon. It's a little selfish, but… c'mon, they're RIGHT there!
As an old Pokemon fan, can you really bme him?
(“You want the Alpha's, don't you?”)
“They're literally just stronger, bigger variants of Pokemon, why wouldn't I want them?”
Alpha Garchomp would probably make Cynthia cry in envy but the big guy is level eighty-five in the game, so it's not as easy as he thinks…
…but MAYBE-
No. Greed is not healthy for the mind.
Jophiel may be strong enough to handle the upper-end of Pokemon. But he's not just going to throw her at actual end-game Pokemon and expect everything to turn out okay.
With Uriel's support it makes it easier, but…
One of each, Joshua. He has to catch a lot of Pokemon anyways, he's allowed to pick and choose.
…he really wants that Alpha Garchomp. That dude’s a menace.
But he can always do it ter, when he's confident he won't be turned into paste.
Seeing Akari exit her tent, rubbing the exhaustion out of her eyes, Joshua finally stands up.
“Alright, let's get moving”
Even though he just wants to explore and catch Pokemon, he sets a goal for himself.
Today, he will catch a new member for his team.
…
Obsidian Fieldnds.
Joshua runs his thumb over the pale pink pte in his hand.
The Mind Pte.
It was left outside his tent st night.
Huh. Neat.
“Looks like Wyrdeer left a gift…”
(“How… kind?”)
“It's supposed to boost psychic type moves by 20%... that's not small”
(“It is a rather significant increase”)
Joshua raises an eyebrow at her rather… not rude, but a more disinterested tone.
“Not a fan of held items?”
(“It is more like I don't quite understand the appeal of them, Joshua”)
“You want to try?”
She hums softly in thought.
(“I do not see why not”)
With that, Joshua opens his UI and selects the pte. Then he drags it over to Jophiel's little icon, where a ‘give?’ prompt appeared until he dropped it.
Jophiel's ears perk as a neckce materializes onto her neck. Stopping for a moment, she raises a hoof and prods at the pink pte that hands off of a rather basic but soft white rope that's fastened to her neck.
(“Fascinating…”)
It's certainly a strange interpretation by the ‘system’, he somewhat thought that the thing would be invisible, and only seen through his UI.
“How do you feel?”
(“...nothing has changed”)
Joshua hums, maybe it only works for moves?
Looking around, he spots a boulder nearby. The Obsidian Fieldnds love these random giant boulders for… some reason.
“You see that rock?”
Jophiel looks over.
(“I see it”)
“We hate that rock”
Jophiel's horn ignites, and she uses ‘Psychic’.
Fun fact, Garian Rapidashes actually have a pretty mediocre Special Attack stat, compared to their rather decent 100 in Attack, they have a mediocre score of 80 in Special Attack.
However, this is real life, and not a video game (if you ignore his UI). Alongside her physical growth (which is crazy in of itself), Jophiel has been basically ubercharging her psychic and fairy abilities by repeatedly draining herself to near exhaustion and popping Leppa Berries like they're mints.
Joshua, for the brief moment before he loses all vision, remembers a small, tiny, miniscule piece of information that he really should have moments sooner.
And Jophiel is not a standard Garian Rapidash.
Jophiel is a fucking Alicorn.
One that's been using actual demons as punching bags for the st week, and has been taking the Pokemon equivalent of super steroids.
And now, on top of all of that, is a ft 20% power increase.
Her horn ignites. And the air makes way.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
Something shatters.
Pink.
So MUCH PINK.
His ears pop, and Joshua is flung backwards, off of her back. He's in the air for only a few moments, but it feels like a lot longer. Back hitting the ground, the suit absorbs the damage and he skids against the grass for a while.
Joshua isn't feeling any pain, but hot damn is the vertigo making his head swirl.
It takes a few minutes for his senses to come back to him, slowly fading in as he sees a crowd around him, and a pale green light enveloping him. Heal Pulse, he recognizes.
(“I'm so sorry…”)
“Chill, love” He reaches up and pats her head. He can tell that the only reason she isn't panicking is because she can tell he's fine.
(“I… a-almost hurt you again. I'm… so sorry…”)
Tears are about to spill. Ever since the… incident, Jophiel has been particurly sensitive about hurting Joshua with her psychic abilities.
He quickly makes the effort to reassure her through the link.
“Z-Zebstrika!”
He pushes himself up. Completely fine, if a bit dizzy. The crowd around him backs away a bit.
“I'm fine, Uri. I didn't even get hurt”
“How many fingers am I holding up?” The Vaporeon pipes up.
“You don't have fingers”
“Yeah he's fine” She chuffs.
After that slight inconvenience. Joshua finally looks back at the boulder.
It's completely shattered.
And some poor geodude lies unconscious beside it (which he made sure was okay).
“Are you sure you're okay, Mr. Joshua?”
He looks at the young trainer, and then back at the boulder.
“Yeah…”
Joshua learns something about how the UI interprets ‘levels’.
It's not perfect, because it can't be perfect, because Pokemon aren't points of data and stats. It's only a general approximation.
“...I feel great!”
Garchomp suddenly sounds a lot more possible now.
…
[POV: STEVEN STONE]
Whenever the stream came back on, Steven didn't know whether to be horrified or overjoyed.
His friend escaped. But where he ended up is possibly the least known era of Sinnohan history. Hisui, they called it.
He just knows Cynthia is having a fit over it. Her and who knows how many researchers are treating every second Joshua spends there as liquid gold.
Joshua's words are being treated as gospel, as old texts are starting to be looked over again with the new context given.
Somehow, Joshua's selfie is being legitimately considered as a historical artifact.
To be honest, he's happy for the man. At the very least he seems to be enjoying h-ANNND HE JUST BLEW UP.
…nope, he's good.
Anyways, he seems to be enjoying himself.
Out of curiosity, he checked Battlenet.
Only for it to be immediately closed. Raising an eyebrow, he looks over his shoulder at Metagross.
The Pokemon just shakes his head.
“That bad?”
He just nods.
Oh no.
…
[POV: CYNTHIA]
“Miss Cynthia”
“Busy” Cynthia, hair matted and with eyebags, responds as she bunches over her desk.
Papers and documents litter the room.
“Joshua said that your ancestor was evil…”
“Yup”
The assistant blinks.
“Do you… not care?”
“Noooope”
Cynthia chuckles to herself.
“Kinda funny, actually”
“...okay”
…
[POV: JOSHUA]
Joshua has given up. There's WAY too many options, he has a few ideas but he knows he shouldn't really count on them too much.
“I have decided that I am just going to figure it out when I find one”
Joshua is heading north, because… well why not? He's thinking of calming down Lilligant tomorrow, so he might as well explore, collect the ingredients for the balm, and look for Pokemon all at once!
(“Even Hypno?”)
“Jophiel, there is not a single universe where I exist that I catch a Hypno. And I am blessed there aren't any in Hisui”
[What's wrong with Hypno?!]
They are almost completely synonymous with mind controlling little girls to sleep with them, that's what.
Joshua goes to open his mouth, but he realizes that what he could even say about that would have DISASTROUS consequences to every Hypno owner.
“Don't worry about it”
[StevenStoneOffical: Someday I would like expnations for these little bits of information, Joshua.]
“Once Arceus is done watching me fil like a moron and sends me to modern day, I'll let you know”
*beep*
Speak of the devil.
> DO YOU WISH FOR DIRECTIONS? <
Joshua stares, confused.
…directions? He's not going to compin about the sudden help, but it seems… unfair?
Joshua types.
> You would just give that info out? <
> WHY WOULD I NOT? <
> You don't tend to do that <
> I LIKE ADVENTURE <
> BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO BE TEDIOUS <
> oh <
> cool, thanks <
The map updates, making a pointer at a specific spot in…
The Crimson Mirends?
That's… not far, he should be able to get there retively quickly.
For some reason, Arceus is pretty helpful.
Just as he's about to put the phone away, it beeps one more time.
> WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? <
…what?
He types slowly.
> Steak? <
> WHAT KIND? <
> Sirloin <
> COOKED? <
> Medium rare <
> GOOD <
She doesn't expin any further.
> You gonna expin all that? <
> NO <
Well okay then.
…
It's been uneventful. Boring, even.
He'll have to check in with Laventon soon. But his Pokedex is slowly getting filled and he needs somewhere to drop off all these Pokemon.
>COLLECT EVERY POKEMON<
(12/237)
This is going to take forever…
“Mr. Joshua, look!”
“Hm?”
Akari calls out to him, and in the distance he sees a… Starly? It rapidly approaches, but as it gets closer it slows down and fps in pce a few feet away from him.
It pecks at a piece of paper tied to its leg, bringing it to its beak before hopping over to him.
Joshua is stunned for a moment, but takes it.
Unwrapping the paper, he reads it. His brow furrows the further he goes down.
His head snaps up.
“New pn, we're heading back, now”
“Huh? Why?”
Because Laventon just asked for help, and…
“Jubilife is getting attacked”
“WHAT?!”
[Oh]
[OH NO]
[ !!( ; ?)? ? ]
He looks over at Uriel, who nods. Before he puts the note away and plops his helmet on his head.
Jophiel tenses her legs, and her wings spread wide.
*FWOOM*
Dust is kicked up as she shoots off into the sky, heading straight back to Jubalife.
Underneath, Uriel crackles with electricity like a surging coil. A low buzzing filling the air.
“H-Hey… maybe we c-”
*BZOOOOOOM*
Uriel blurs into the distance, with a screaming trainer atop her back.
The Starly stands there, stunned.
(A/N: gonna be honest this chapter kicked my ass a little)
