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 Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 5:01 pm
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Burnet grinned at Crystal's question, as if she eagerly expected it. "I mean...maybe." She chuckled, motioning for them to follow her as she walked to another end of the room, stopping at an unassuming door. The professor would grab a hold of the doorknob but not turn it, the knob lighting up after awhile and a 'ding' sound ringing out before the door descended into the ground instead of swinging open, revealing the room before it. One could see that the door was extremely thick as it lowered, clearly the professor taking precautions seriously.
On the inside was a mostly white room with a raised hexagon-shaped platform at its center, a small set of steps leading up to it. Above the platform were smaller hexagon panels forming a large hexagon shape and a single antenna-like object pointed at the center. Besides the machine itself the most noteworthy thing in the room was the glass tube containing what seemed to be a single Zygarde cell, mindlessly floating around in some liquid. The professor would immediately answer the first question they may have. "Don't worry, Zygarde cells don't feel any pain and once their energy is used up the return to the Earth. I'll apologize to your team's friend later." Burnet said, insinuating she uses the cell as a power source and also revealing she had knowledge of Zac, not that it was that big of a secret considering its roll in the war.
"I've only been able to open up a small wormhole before for a few seconds but perhaps with your help, Crystal, we could stabilize it and with the rest of my machinery I should, in theory, be able to open the wormhole fairly close to the designated reality." The professor explained. "If you're ready both of you step up on the stage and Crystal when the wormhole forms, if you would, try and open it wider...however you do that."
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2023 10:15 am
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Crystal tilted her head as she followed Burnet, raising one of her eyebrows as the door opened in a more unconventional way, one that belied its appearance. There was a small nod of approval from her as she noticed the thickness of the door, soon going past it to look at the room ahead. Very clinical, sterile, however you wanted to phrase it, but it was simple enough until they got to the center of the room. There was quite a bit of computer wizardry and machinery above it, but the most notable thing in there was the single Zygarde cell. She frowned when she saw it, the expression unmoving as the Professor explained herself. “I can only hope they can regenerate cells, then,” would be her only comment on the subject. Somewhere in her mind, she was vaguely reminded of a reality Freth mentioned where she had been alive as an old lady Espeon hybrid, and Alola was a wasteland. She wasn’t totally sure why, but it was now taking up a not insignificant amount of real estate in her mind.
Pushing that aside, the hybrid would walk up onto the platform, creating a hard light platform underneath one of her feet, appearing like a rather large surfboard. Nodding to Burnet once Monique was on, she began to glow, anything not golden on her or her upper half of her face going to white while her golden parts went yellow. Whenever the portal appeared, she’d shove her hands into it and pull it apart, pouring that little bit of her own energy into the Wormhole to stabilize and widen it. “Certainly less energy consuming on my end to stabilize it than tearing the hole myself, “ Crystal commented on the process, looking back to Monique. “Alright. All hands, feet, and any other limbs stay inside the ride at all times, don’t touch anything that looks off, and watch out for any Ultra Beasts. We’ll be back as soon as we can, Professor.” With a wave, Crystal would push off into the wormhole, closing the door behind them.
Once the pair were in and the wormhole was closed, she’d turn her head to look at her teammate. “I assume we have a coordinate reader in that helmet? Tell me which direction we need to go then. I might be made of space dust and space metal, but I don’t have a subconscious knowledge of Ultra Space to tell me where we need to go,” she chuckled.
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2023 11:23 am
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The thick door slid down, to Monique's surprise, to reveal a large room containing a hexagonal dais. "Don't worry, Zygarde cells don't feel any pain." Her Pokédex went off at the sight of a new Pokémon. Zygarde. Dragon/Ground. The Order Pokémon. It's thought to be monitoring the ecosystem. There are rumors that even greater power lies hidden within it.
Crystal stepped onto the dais first, casting a hard light platform and beckoning Monique onto it. As she stepped, Crystal glowed in radiant white and yellow, enough to be nearly blinding even in this white room if she didn't have that huge suit on, and channeled energy into the infant wormhole, stabilizing it. After bidding a quick goodbye, Crystal pushed the platform into Ultra Space and closed the wormhole, revealing them to be in the expanse of Ultra Space.
Now that the suit was in Ultra Space, a display activated above the right eye, displaying a current coordinate. “I assume we have a coordinate reader in that helmet? Tell me which direction we need to go then. I might be made of space dust and space metal, but I don’t have a subconscious knowledge of Ultra Space to tell me where we need to go,” Crystal chuckled.
"The coordinates we need are..." Monique paused. "13, 11, 24, 36... and 2, 11, 46, 5." She looked at the display. "Apparently, we are at 4, 13, 9, 2... and 15, 5, 12, 10. So I guess we're not that far?"
The reader then flashed a heading and arrow on the display. It must have recognized my first set or had this programmed in... Monique pointed an arm slightly up and just off to the right. "That way. You lead the way, Crystal."
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Posted: Wed May 17, 2023 5:22 pm
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Crystal nodded, flying where Monique directed her. This time, for Crystal, at the very least, it was an uneventful trip, nothing flying at them, no Ultra Beasts to speak of… Just a calm surf through space. Occasionally, there was probably some redirection to make sure that they were going in the right direction, but overall, especially with help from Monique, it would be a mundane trip.
Once they got to their destination, the lioness would take a deep breath as she focused, slashing the space in front of her and leaving behind a glowing golden line. Repeating her actions in the professor’s lab, she’d shove her hands into the line and pulled it apart, opening a wormhole to allow them access to this new reality. “Right then. Ready yourself, Monique. And hold on tight.” With that, she’d move forward through the open wormhole, making sure nothing was nearby as they entered.
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Posted: Mon May 22, 2023 9:38 am
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Monique followed Crystal, holding on tight as she passed through the wormhole. On the other side, she found herself in a city at night on what appeared to be a bustling street. There were plenty of signs, plenty of Pokémon (what a relief), and enough going on that a Zoroark hybrid hiding a big exploring suit would go unnoticed. There were no stars visible above, but that didn’t matter. This was a place where people lived. If she was going to find Kasumi, this at least was progress.
She tried to take in her surroundings surreptitiously, hoping the presence of Crystal would not be too much of an attention-grabber. People milled about, and with her night vision, she noticed that they seemed to mostly be wearing dresses—quite pretty ones at that. The shorter ones were more decked out, some wearing earrings. She picked up that these were actually the men here. Huh.
She started walking down the street, hoping for a sense of where she was. Now that she actually was trying to read all the signs, the first thing that caught her attention was that they all were mirrored, as if she were trying to read them while standing in the mirror in the bathroom. Hmm, she thought. That was the first difference she picked up on.
She stopped in front of what looked like a convenience store, which had products neatly lined on the shelves as well as a series of advertising posters in the window. The first one featured a Miltank along with the word “VENOM”. Venom? Why venom? There were more words, which it took Monique time to mentally un-reverse in her head. “Curdled, Straight from the Farm. Take Some Home Tonight!” Does that mean that…Miltank…make…rotten milk here….and…they…drink it?
Her jaw dropped. What was this place? She looked at the poster and tried to figure out what it could possibly mean. It did, at the very least, have the words “Johto Association of Toxin Farmers”, so she was in a region that she had visited, but...
There were several more posters, each for different things. There was one for a music concert at the Goldenrod Amphitheater, which provided her another clue as to her whereabouts. Another was a public service message: “Keep Your City Dirty” with art of Rattata, Stunky, and Trubbish. The last one advertised a new range of Nightshade and Mushroom Salads.
The sheriff of New Po was still attempting to parse what she was looking at, her stomach churning at the continued thought of Miltank making venom, when her SNAG beeped loudly. Reconnecting… Behind the suit, her eyes grew big. What the...?
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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 2:47 pm
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2023 5:00 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 2:40 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 7:54 pm
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Well, that's odd. Monique had many questions, but her blunder of forgetting not to take technology like her SNAG to other universes definitely had somehow made the situation much more interesting.
She relayed a message to Crystal, trying to summarize what was going on:
Somehow, I left my SNAG on, and it's reconnected to this world's Team Snagem. They want to see me. They are in the Goldenrod Tunnel. And you're coming with.
Monique started scanning the street scene, looking to match the map appearing in her vision with the unfamiliar city. On her last trip to the Goldenrod City area, she hadn't had a need to use the Tunnel. A lit sign with an arrow pointed down to a portal and a set of escalators. There were advertisements on both sides and several people going down, while others came back up with shopping bags.
The tunnel was dark but apparently open, reminding Monique of the lower sectors of Flower City. But instead of Sub Rosa, down here were a myriad of shops selling kinda bizarre clothes, a few eateries (one of which Monique noticed selled "Burnt Chicken"), and a bookstore. The place smelled slightly of a metallic, chemical odor.
The beeping of her SNAG made her stop in front of an unassuming-looking business. Megan's Berries, the sign above the window read. Was this the place? She walked inside, wondering what exactly awaited her and hoping this was not a trap.
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Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 9:18 pm
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Crystal’s ears would lay flat on her head as she explored Goldenrod, trying to keep Monique within eyeshot, at least. The atmosphere of this reality was totally different to what she had experienced before, and it put her on edge. It felt like something was weighing on her skin, not allowing it to breathe since it couldn’t seep into it, not unlike nail polish on a nail. It bugged her a lot, and she honestly wished she had a suit not unlike Monique’s currently. As she looked at the shops, the unease she felt only grew. Everyone here had to be used to this poison, right. She hoped that they could find Monique’s sister soon and leave, thoughts of how this aura could potentially work like a Salazzle’s Corrosion ability if left here long enough. She might have been paranoid, though.
A beeping from her backpack took her out of her thoughts, though. A beeping she hadn’t heard on a very long time. The woman went digging into her backpack and brought out an older model PokéGear, something she had used until she entangled herself with Snagem. She even had her PokéGear number set up to be intercepted by her SNAG, so the one device was all she needed. Barring a lack of her SNAG here, the PokéGear finally got to get a message again. Reading it, she nodded, catching back up with her fellow Snagem and following her down into the Goldenrod Underground. As she looked at the place they wound up at, ears tilting into an ‘L’ shape. “Huh. Do they know that you have a plus one, by the way,” Crystal finally asked, hoping this didn’t go completely belly up like her last Ultra Space adventure did.
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Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2023 9:55 am
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The bell on the other side of the door would chime as Monique entered, the warm air from within gracing her. Inside was a rather modestly sized shop that was packed full of merchandise including numerous potted berry trees, grow lights situated over them to replace the sunlight they could not get down here. Besides the live plants there were all kinds of berry based goods ranging from dried berries, to ready-to-eat Pokeblocks, fresh poffins, and even preserves made from berries. If you could make something out of berries you could probably find it here.
Their presence would not go unnoticed as the voice of a woman called out. "Hello! Welcome! I'll be right there!" The voice called from somewhere in the back, beyond all the stuff between them and the check out counter. Soon enough a person would arrive, the owner of the voice, a woman. Sporting blue chitinous skin, blonde hair, and a large horn-like protrusion on her forehead the woman was clearly a hybrid, likely a Heracross one. She would greet them with a smile and a bow before speaking. "Welcome to Megan's Berries! I'm Larrie! How can I help you?" She asked, thrilled to see some guests.
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Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2023 11:18 am
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Monique had to do a double take when an overly cheery Heracross hybrid turned up as the shop owner. "...Um...hi?" She took a deep breath and looked around. There were berries, growing equipment, and berry products galore.
Clearly, there was some, uh, secret password to get into this place. Sub Rosa used to be that way, she remembered hearing from Lady Kiha. Her eyes darted around. Grow lights, making the room as pink as her old place of employment in one corner. Poffins. Pokéblocks. Larrie would have seen Monique silent for a minute, trying to figure out what exactly she needed to say. Scrambling for something, she thought of the first berry to come to her mind.
"Excuse me, do you happen to carry any Enigma Berry jam?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2023 8:57 pm
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Crystal followed Monique in, sniffing the air in the place. It certainly had a pleasant scent in the air, better than the underground venue they had just left, and potentially the best she had smelt so far during this trip. The hybrids eyes scanned the area, noting the dried fruits and everything that was made out of them. The jam and preserves especially looked good to her, igniting a sweet tooth that only seemed to come out around her malasadas normally.
The name of Larrie caused her ears to twitch back over towards Monique and the apparent Heracross hybrid, her mind jumping back to what they were here for in the first place. Larrie... very similar to Larrimore. And if this was where they had to go to meet up with Snagem here, there was a high chance that A), this was this reality's version of Larri, and B) this woman here could very well be one of the members of the team. Oh, how badly she wanted to take out her journal and begin writing about this reality, and the differences here. But, that might wait until they were actually at this Snagem's HQ. At least there might be less questions there about why she would be taking notes. "Ah, hello. We-, er, I'm just browsing right now. My friend here, though, is looking for something specific." Crystal would give Larrie a pleasant smile, curious to where this would head with Monique. "Though, I am mildly curious about the identity of this Megan person that owns, I presume, owns the place."
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Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2023 1:40 pm
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The woman cocked her head in confusion at Monique's request for Enigma Berry jam, an item they did not carry simply because no one would buy such a thing, were Enigma Berries even used for jam? Not that she knew of. Then there was Crystal's question about Megan, another curious inquiry considering around these parts was only asked if the questioner was mad about something and wanted to properly direct their anger, in this case this store's owner. Angry people weren't uncommon in this region, a fact that often made Larri homesick.
"Erm...we don't carry Enigma Berry jam...I don't think anyone does, not anywhere around these parts. Is that a rich person's thing? One berry is expensive enough...you do know where you're at, right? You looking to buy a fancy gift or something? The most expensive thing we carry is some Gloom drool face cream." She asked Monique, the only logical reason she could think of for asking of such a thing. "As for Megan I-"
That was when another person arrived, this time a man, in fact a very familiar looking one to both of the Snagems. "Meg! What are you doing dressed in public like that!? Do you want to get beat up?" Larri shouted in shock as she saw Sub approach, dressed in the exact same style of clothes he would wear in their reality, in fact he looked identical to their Sub, only differences were this Sub had his ears pierced and had what some might call a 'beauty mole' on his cheek. Very minor differences.
"Oh hush, when's the last time we had any customers? Besides, I have a feeling these two aren't here to shop...are you?" He spoke to Larri at first before turning his attention towards Monique and Crystal. "You two are not from around here, are you? Way too nice to be a native. I'm not surprised Larri here didn't notice, her village is well known for being a strangely polite place, unlike most of the world. However you two aren't Bug hybrids so I can't chalk that up to you also being La Ruche natives so what gives? What do you want?" 'Meg' asked directly. Larri seemed to blush out of embarrassment upon the realization that these people were being nice, which should have been a red flag to her. 'Meg' often got onto her about doing a better job at adapting to the outside world.
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Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2023 8:50 pm
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“Su-!” Crystal would clear her throat after she nearly blurted out Sub’s name, not expecting to see him spontaneously and so soon. The differences were almost so minor between their Sub and this one, she could almost swear that theirs found out about this little adventure and followed just to chew Crystal out. Again. Taking a moment to calm herself and think rationally, she rubbed the back of her head as the lioness began to explain. “Sorry. You remind me a lot of someone from home. Yeah, you would have it on the head. We’re not from around here, and we’re trying to find my friend’s sister. Her… device apparently pinged us to come here?” The hybrid’s ears twitched and she looked down to the floor, thinking for a moment and reflecting on how poorly her last travel had been. Maybe to avoid something like that potentially happening again, considering that someone else’s goal was riding on this introduction, she probably should offer to be more open this time?
“Uh, gomenasai for being rude. We should have introduced ourselves first. This is Monique-” she gestured, uncrossing her arms from under her shawl to motion to her teammate, “And… for now, at least, you can call me Sundaria. Just how much of a potentially insane story would you two like to hear,” she sighed, becoming a bit more worried about how this would wind up. “Unless you’d like to explain the story anyways, Monique?”
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