victory_road | 01 Video

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[A shot of a ceiling. Smoke is curling up in soft whisps as an excited Tepig looks down into the device. The corner of a singed pillow comes into view shooing the Tepig away. A voice is heard from inside the room.]

Enhance. Damn it, I said Enhance. Why does it only work when Rhys says it? Stupid Atlas hunk of junk.

[A hand reaches out to grab the device. The camera swings wildly before it focuses on Fiona who is squinting down at the screen. She doesn't seem to know that it's already recording. The edges of her hat are singed and there are traces of smoke on her cheek. She doesn't look happy.]

All I want is a stupid map. Is that difficult? Instead, weird alien pigs try to barbeque me while I'm trying to figure out this piece of scrap.

[Tepig tries to help but Fiona doesn't know what to do with it's incessant babble of Tepig! Tepigpig Tepig!]

Hush, you little firebutt - I swear, you're lucky you're cute.

[She rights her hat and tries to work the com again.]

Come in, Vaughn? Sasha? Rhys? Hello? Is anyone there?

[She sighs, rubbing her forehead.] Smart - odds are I just broadcasted my position to every Psycho on Pandora. Just when I thought this day was finally starting to look up...

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[Usually Handsome Jack sticks with audio over the network, but holy nutballs, it's happening again! Did somebody open another Vault on Pandora?]

[Except he has no idea who this chick is. Cute, though. Probably a bandit. Somehow knows Rhys? Oh...interesting.]

Sorry babe, we're a loooong way from Pandora.

And I don't think we've ever met before. I'd remember you! Handsome Jack, at your service.

Welcome to the weirdest planet in the universe!

[Fiona's eyes narrow and she glares at Jack. He's not a blue hologram but it's the same jackass who tried to shoot the crap out of her and Sasha on Helios. She's not buying the cheery greeting. If Jack is here... then that means Rhys was lying when he said he'd taken care of him.]

What are you, some sort of virus? Ugh - how do I change the channel on this thing...

[She flips the device over and starts pressing every button she can find. When he isn't disappearing she can only think to blame one person. Best to send a message to her pal, then.]

You can tell your buddy that I'm not playing his game. He disappears on me, leaves me alone with an alien and an infected Atlas Com. I should have smelled the stench of the long-con on him when his ass was dragged through the desert by LoaderBot.

[She trails off as pieces of the puzzle begin to fall in to place. She'd been suckered. Rhys' bumbling idiot act had fooled the crap out of her. Somehow he'd been working with Jack the whole time. How could she have been so stupid?]

...Wow, hurtful! Did you hear that, Doom Boner? [Jack lifts the fat puppy in his lap, addressing it like a person. The puppy simply hangs in Jack's arms, tongue out.] I extend a hand of friendship and greeting, and that's what I get?

And, uh, I think you hit your head when your fire pig blasted you, or something, dollface, 'cause you're making less sense than people usually do around here.

[Except maybe she's not. Ohoho...what has been going on back home?]

Don't know any aliens, haven't done anything with Atlas since I bought all their stocks. You're...you're pretty friggin confused.

[Fiona doesn't reply right away. She's dealing with the possibility that Rhys sold her out and that hurts more than she'd like to admit. She has to snap out of it. New place, same situation. Shit might be going south but she can always talk her way out of it. It's what she's good at, after all.]

Right. No Atlas - probably because Rhys renamed it something idiotic - and this isn't Pandora. No, I think I'm following what's happening here. So, if this isn't Pandora, then where the hell am I? And more importantly...

[She swings the camera so that Tepig is well in view.] If that's not an alien, then what the hell do you call it?

No, not Pandora. Not even in the same galaxy.

A giant space llama may or may not have kidnapped us, according to almost everybody I've talked to. So...you know. Have fun making sense of that.

[Who the hell is she?]

And that's the result of a bunch of failed genetic experiments getting dumped on this planet and adapting to survive. That's basically where we are. Genetic experiment dumping ground planet.

We make'em fight for money.

[Fiona stares at Jack. Nothing he has said has made any sense. She's beginning to think that his program was corrupted. Giant space llamas? Alien dog fighting... well, that part wasn't too difficult to believe. Hell, Pandora had it's own Skag Leagues. Still, it felt as though they were having two different conversations. Her head was starting to hurt.]

Back up a minute. I think we're talking about two different things. Does this have something to do with the Vault?

I dunno. Maybe? Vaults are weird. Were you messing with a Vault? Are you a Vault Hunter? Who are you? Seriously.

'Cause there's a few of us here from the same galaxy. And I know for a fact that two of'em - and, you know, me - have all messed around with Vaults. Hell, that's where I was, before I woke up here.

That was a couple months ago. There's no real history about this place, the locals don't seem to know crap...I'm guessing this was a half assed colonization attempt that got abandoned a long time ago.

[Jack is making a bit more sense but it still doesn't explain the fact that he sounds alive. He can't be alive. This has to be some trick... doesn't it? Fiona isn't sure anymore. All she had to go on was that he didn't have the slightest idea who she was except that she knew something about a vault (good going there, girl). Time to play it close to the chest.]

Sounds like no one knows what's going on. That isn't very comforting. I'm...

[She paused. It felt as though the conversation could go one of two ways. She could lie and give him a fake name. It might come back to bite her in the ass later but she could save herself from reminding Jack she helped Rhys destroy Helios - and he missed the chance to shoot the shit out of her. Or, she could give him her real name. Take a chance that he wasn't the AI she remembered. It was a gamble and she didn't have a lot of time to choose.]

Fiona. The name is Fiona. Who else have you met that has opened a Vault?

[She rolled the dice. Strangely, she felt that her decision would be remembered.]

Hey, wanna hear something that might be comforting? Or...might be even more terrifying, considering I'm at least fifty percent sure you're some type of bandit: weapons don't exist here. At all.

[Either way, she can't do anything. And is unlikely to have anything done to her. That's comforting, right?]

Fiona! Okay, now we're getting somewhere. It's nice to meet you, Fiona, I'm Jack. Which...I really hope you already knew. And almost everybody I know has screwed around with a Vault. I mean...what else is there to do on Pandora?

Though....I gotta say....I thought after the Vault of the Warrior, Pandora was out of'em. How many friggin vaults are hiding under there? It's a finite space...

Vaughn and Sasha? Not here. Rhys? He's here with me.

[It's... pretty damn hard to tell when Athena is happy, if she's looking at anyone who isn't Janey, but the way the corners of her mouth twitch up as she gets a look at who's talking is certainly a good enough hint.]

I know it's hard to believe, but nothing's going to come and try to skin you alive here, because this isn't Pandora.

Edited 2016-08-08 03:52 (UTC)

[Fiona's eyes light up when she sees Athena. Finally! Someone who will give her some answers.]

Athena! I'm so- wait, Sasha isn't with you?

[Forget about Rhys for the moment. There are more important things, especially when it concerns Sasha.]

She has to be with you. When Rhys and I went into the Vault... she was with you grabbing what weapons dropped from the Guardian. Why is he with you and Sasha isn't?

Hell if I know. He's not the worst guy out there, but Sasha's much easier to deal with.

[At least she'd be all for taking down Jack in some way. She'd probably complain more than Athena did that they didn't have any guns, though.]

She was with us, and we all helped her look, but... there was nothing left. We must've searched every inch of the valley and the Vault.

[Boy was that frustrating. It's... hard for Athena to really feel close to people. Fiona and Sasha? They'd really wormed their way past the cracks in her armor, so losing one of them.... ugh.]

Janey and I headed back to Hollow Point. Sasha resupplied there, too. But last I saw her, she was heading out to track down some hints on where you two might have been dragged to.

Rhys and I... how long have we been gone?

[Because the time didn't make sense. The last thing Fiona remembered was being in the Vault with Rhys. She figured that he'd ditched her somewhere... but if he was with Athena then odds were he was looking for Fiona as well.

And Sasha was missing. That felt like a punch in the gut.]

About a month, I'd guess. It's hard to tell if there was any sort of gap in time after I arrived, but between the fight with the Traveler and when I was dragged here, and from that point until now, it's been around that long.

[Athena won't admit it, but she can share that worry. It's been this long, and Janey doesn't even know where she is. What's worse is that this time, Janey doesn't even have an inconveniently still-running ECHO to give her a hint as to what happened...]

A month.

[Fiona doesn't hide that this information depresses her. Tepig seems to notice Fiona's change of mood. The little pig nudges her hand, putting Tepig in prime petting position. Fiona welcomes the comfort.]

There has to be a way back. A transport off this planet or some sort of communicator. We can't all be stuck here... can we?

[Athena shakes her head, expression hardening. Clearly she doesn't like this lack of ways off-planet either.]

Nothing. There's a fast-travel network, but it seems like it's restricted to just this planet, and only to towns you've visited previously. It's about as annoying as it sounds.

Uh... I don't really know all that much about these comms yet, but I'm pretty sure it's not Atlas tech. I mean, y'know, just assuming here. But we are pretty far from Pandora, so it's... doubtful.

[That voice sounds so familiar...]

How did you get here? If we're a long way from home then there has to be a reason for being on this planet. And don't tell me it's a space llama.

Yeaaaah, no. I... honestly have no clue about this space llama crap. I just know that one moment everything was normal and the next I suddenly woke up in a house here.

I don't know, I only really just got here myself. Like. I'm talking maybe an hour ago tops...

[Fiona can't put her finger on how she knows this voice. It's on the tip of her tongue but the name escapes her.]

Really? From what I gather this is some sort of normal occurance. You didn't find a strange alien pig that shoots flames out of its nose in your room, did you?

Um... Not a pig, no, but uh... Hang on, because I'm not even gonna describe this thing.

[The video feed turns on, currently showing just a very excited Ditto.]

I got one of these.

*here, have a well-dressed (and fairly pretty) young man with long silvery hair*

Well, I can assure you that you don't need to worry about broadcasting your position, given that this is another world entirely.

[Fiona frowns. How many other people receive her broadcast? His words don't exactly give her comfort.]

Planets might change. People don't. You're going to have to be more specific when trying to convince me not to worry.

Well, let's see... You've just recently woken up in an unfamiliar place called New Bark Town, in the Johto region, with no warning nor explanation. You were given a pack of basic supplies, the device you're speaking to me with now, and some sort of strange creature--a tepig, I believe, from what I saw--that's apparently now your companion. You were also urged to go out and explore the world, battling and capturing or breeding more of the many such creatures that inhabit it. Is that correct?

*he doesn't actually wait for her to reply*

It's the same for everyone who's brought here. Everyone comes from various different worlds and arrives in this one, which pattern I rather doubt you're an exception to. There may be others here from your same world, or there may not, but this is certainly another world entirely.

[Fiona raises an eyebrow. She looks unimpressed. Still, it's nice to know she isn't the only one having this fever dream. She doesn't know what that says about this planet, however. Everyone feels a bit too... helpy. And helpy people are usually after something.]

Tepig? Is that what the pig is called?

[She looks over and Tepig has something close to a smile on its face.]

You seem to know a lot about this planet. Are you a native? Is it normal to pull strangers from other planets, hand them a... Tepig or whatever, and then make them fight? It seems a bit barbaric and hell, I've seen a Skin Pizza Party.

It is, if I'm not mistaken.

*because of course Sion's taken the time to learn about all the different ones he can, whether he's raised them himself or not....*

And hardly. Though I have spent ah... I believe it's nearly four and a half years here now? And yes, everyone who arrives here receives one pokemon of some sort as their partner, though generally speaking, what most people mean by "battling" is something closer to a sport than a true fight.

Um...

[Well she's obviously not any of the people she's looking for--just a confused teenager.]

You have to push a button to get the map to show, you can't just...ask it to do it. And even if people were alerted to your position--this isn't Pandora, by the way--it'd take them a while to get to you. Traveling here is limited by walking or riding Pokemon.

[Fiona glances down at the device and hits a button. The map pops up, a tiny dot blinking n the middle of town representing her position. For the first time, she smiles.]

Oh. Well... thanks. I thought I pressed every button on this thing. By the way - what's a 'pokemon'?

[A moment, then she points to Fiona's Tepig buddy.]

That. The, uh, "firebutt"--it's a Pokemon, they're creatures that live in this world and the people here have built a whole lifestyle around them and everything. They're smarter than average and if you treat them well they're very loyal.

[...]

Also yours can spit fire and will probably get bigger as it gets stronger.

Shouting enhance at your 'gear isn't going to do anything, you can stop that now.

[ Is Rhys bitter because he thinks you left him hanging on Helios? Yes. ]

[Ahh, Rhys. Fiona isn't sure if she's happy to see you or pissed off.]

Really? That's all you have to offer to the conversation? Thanks for deserting me, by the way. I really appreciate it, you know, after we had a 'moment'. I'm beginning to have second thoughts about letting you ask my sister out.

Waitwaitwait, I deserted you? The last time I saw you, you were in that stupid ship leaving Helios. Yeah, I saw! I was stuck in the power core room trying not to get sucked into space. So yeah! Thanks for that!

And when we had this "moment" do you mean you holding the lever while I was climbing up the trapdoor and trying not to fall? Do you even know how hard that is? That shaft stunk.

...What? I don't- where did you?

Okay. I do not want to date Sasha. Where'd you get that from? It's nice you let me or whatever, but I'll seriously pass. I got other stuff to worry about and dating isn't one of them.

Really? After I watched you slobber all over her like a lovesick puppy you're going to suddenly forget that you admitted...

[Fiona trails off. This isn't what she wants to talk about right now.]

You know what? Fine. I should have expected this coming from you. And I didn't leave you on Helios. Frick and Frack or whatever those assholes names were that were with August grabbed Sasha and left me on Helios. I would have been there when it went down if it hadn't been for LoaderBot.

Did you get hit on the head when we opened the large glowy chest in the Vault? You seem more weasley than normal. Oh, maybe it's because you were secretly hiding Handsome Jack in your head this whole time. Good going there, Rhys. I'm a universe away and the first person who shows up on my Com is the ass who tried to see how many bullet holes he could shoot in me. Tell me one thing - did you infect the Atlas coms on purpose or was that you and your bros' plan all along?

[Yeah, she thinks Rhys is the reason Handsome Jack is on the planet. When Fiona jumps to conclusions she doesn't stop to ask for directions. She goes all out.]

Edited (needed more emphasis :)) 2016-08-09 14:43 (UTC)

Can we, can we just...? [ Rhys is so OVERWHELMED right now. Deep breath in, deep breath out. You'll probably see him pinching the bridge of his nose for a bit. ]

First off, I didn't slobber over Sasha. Is she nice? Sure! Both of you were probably the nicest Pandorans I've ever met. [ hah. ] But I had other things on my mind other than trying to hook up with your sister. And I don't remember admitting anything to you in the first place! Why admit something that I don't have?

[ That...Rhys can kind of believe. Loader Bot had been gone before rescuing him again at the power core. It wasn't like he told Rhys where he had been or anything, but he had been so up to his ass in everything, he hadn't cared. Or thought about it. So, who knows?

The glowy Vault thing takes him by surprise, though. Rhys' eyes widen. The surprise hie shows is completely genuine this time. ] W-Wait, the what? We actually made it to the Vault? [ He wants to ask more, and almost does, until the brings up Jack.

No way. He didn't tell her about that... ]

There's something not right...there's different times we came from. [ It's hard to imagine that time travel is a thing when it comes to people arriving from the same universe as you, or whatever. ] I'm not where you are yet. When I came here, I just crashed on Pandora. I hit the ground and I guess I blacked out, and woke up here.

...Be careful. There's- I mean- [ He shouldn't talk about Jack when, y'know. Jack's here. ]

Can you just send me a message? Please?

Sounds like nature is getting it's own back in this place.

[A pig that is trying to BBQ a human? Yep, a twist in the food chain for sure. Usually, BBQ pig is on the menu but not in this strange world. Snake smirked at the singed hat though. The pig was kind of cute.]

Edited 2016-08-08 13:43 (UTC)

Ha...ha. Well, nature is about two seconds away from becoming bacon...

[The Tepig gives a little squeal. Embers shoot from it's nostrils lighting the pillow on fire.]

It was a joke!

Seems he's a pretty firey one.

[See? A joke. Pretty lame but still.]

Given him a name yet?

[Fiona stomps out the flames and holds out her hand to Tepig - apologizing for the bacon remark. Tepig snorts a few smoke rings before he accepts.

The joke might be lame but Fiona appreciates it all the same.]

I'm considering calling him Firebutt. Does everyone have an alien pig or am I the lucky one?

Firebutt? Good name.

[Yeah he likes it.]

No idea. Haven't seen many of those fire pigs around so maybe you're the lucky one. Here's mine.

[Snake panned the Gear down to show her his Mightyena.] He's called DD.

Oh hey, you should have a map in your backpack! Your backpack's got everything you could need.

That little alien is your new best friend! Everybody gets one to start, and trust me, you're gonna have a lot more soon! I got like...fifty of'em.

Uh...I think there's a cat named Rhys around! A lot of times...nobody you know is here. But this place ain't bad! It's...pretty amazing, actually.

I'm Jimmy. Jimmy Darling. I've been here almost two years!

[As Jimmy talks, Fiona looks around the room. She finds the backpack and grabs it, opening it as he continues on. She is about to ask him how he knows Rhys when Jimmy's last sentence stops her cold.]

Two years? Wait... you've been stuck on this planet for that long?

Stuck here? Shit, I'm lucky I get to live here! This place is great! Everybody's nice, it's easy to get a job and make friends, you can do whatever you want!

I got a house! A whole house that's mine! I live with a friend and everything! I work at the Department Store, right on the floor!

[Which probably doesn't seem all that exciting, but to Jimmy, it's all a dream come true.]

So what's your name? You sure don't sound like you came from Earth! That's my planet. Only it's kinda funny, 'cause the town I live? It's named after a different planet!

[Fiona smiles at Jimmy. She's usually a pretty good read on people. Jimmy comes off as sweet - a trait that is lost on Pandora. The planet eats those sorts of people alive. She's not sure how to respond. Everyone is hiding something in her experience.]

I live on a waste of a rock called Pandora. The only nice thing about it is when you see it from space. Haven't been out of this house yet so I'll reserve my opinions of this planet for later. still, if you can walk three feet without becoming skag food or stumbling over a Psycho Meat parade, it's a damn paradise.

What's the real catch with this place? Nothing is that idyllic or perfect. Someone has to be running the show.

[She pauses for a moment, again trying to decide if offering her name would be dangerous. Unless there were Wanted posters with her face on them hanging around town she couldn't see how Jimmy would be a problem. At least, not yet.]

Fiona. My name, I mean. That's my name. Fiona.

Oh man, trust me. This place is way better! It's beautiful, it's peaceful, everybody's got a chance to be somebody....

Oh, yeah. There's kind of a catch. We don't get to choose how long we stay here. Or anybody. People just kinda poof back home without warning. I've woken up to a lot of friends and family just...not here anymore. But sometimes they come back! But nobody's running anything...I guess there's the League, but they're cool.

Fiona from Pandora! Welcome to Pokemon Planet!

[Well, that's a voice that makes him frantic to yank his Gear out of its pocket. He's still fumbling with it when he begins transmitting, the camera shaking and almost falling before settling on his face. His expression goes from shocked to ecstatic in half a second flat.]

Fiona! Holy crap, am I glad to see you. I thought I was alone out here!

[Technically, he does look pretty alone against an unrecognizable backdrop of trees, but the point is he's found a friend -- sort of.]

Which is... not Pandora, I should probably add.

[Fiona is equally happy to see Vaughn, although the trees behind him concern her. Shouldn't he be back with the Children of Helios?]

Vaughn! I was really worried no one would get my com signal.

[She pauses. What does he mean he's not on Pandora?]

Wait... where are you?

I'm on Route 29, a couple hours out of New Bark. In "Johto."

Your communicator's got a ton of functions, including a map. If you got a bag from some lady in town, you should have a guide in it with a section on how to use your PokeGear.

I don't know what planet this is, but we're not the only ones taken from their homes. And we're stuck.

[His face falls briefly, but he forces a small smile back.]

At least the animals I've seen so far haven't tried to eat me.

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