victory_road | audio || optional action

--ome in! Anyone!

[Yikes, man, tone down the yelling. The voice is frantic. Rightfully so, considering the last thing he remembered was being ejected into space. This is not the planet he thought he'd wind up on. There are humans here, and it looks like Earth.]

[But there's weird animals here. And no one seems concerned about a yelling, very upset man who just appeared out of nowhere.]

I don't know what's happened! I -- I need pickup, immediately!

[Yeah, he maybe only half listened to the explanations, but seriously, things were bad a minute ago.]

Pidge! Coran! [And then, almost grudgingly:] Lance -- someone pick up! This is Shiro and something's gone wrong! I don't know where I am -- I don't know what's happened, but I need someone to answer me now!

[Give him a few minutes to calm down. To pace and refocus himself. To listen and read up on the situation. Anyone who happens by the area sometime after the basically panicked broadcast can find him in New Bark Town. Under a tree, just...]

[What is he supposed to do now?]

[There's an Aron huddled up by his leg, but he doesn't seem to pay it much attention, right now.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They don't attack all that often, but when they do they show no mercy. They steal Pokémon from children just as easily as they set off bombs in public buildings.

Why hasn't someone done something about it?

[Wellp there goes the Dad Instinct.]

People do a lot about it when there's an attack, believe me. It's the 'finding them during a down period without having access to our usual resources and networks' part that's being more difficult than it should be. Apparently they choose their new employees for their ability to keep their mouths shut.

You can't tell me that no one in their group is willing to talk. That's just not possible.

Well, if any of them talked, they talked to people who did not see fit to share the details with the rest of the world. Then again, it could just be that they haven't been interrogated enough to become more talkative, but we'd still need to grab one in the first place for that.

[Damn.]

... You'd think someone would have figured this out.

Maybe someone did, but got sent home before they could act upon it. Or maybe Team Rocket's better at sneaking around than it is at battling. Hard to tell, without knowing just how much they're hiding.

Any files or other information someone could access?

Not from this network, and not from the Pokémon Center's PCs either. They might have access to stronger locks than the usual, or they have their own closed network.

... And the best computer whiz I know is still at home.

That's too often the case. And those few experts that are brought along tend to despair from the lack of resources and available information.

I can see why.

But... knowing Pidge, that wouldn't end up being an issue for long.

If you're lucky, your friend will show up soon and be just as good as you say. The chances are low, but it's happened before.

Being 'just as good' is exactly what would happen.

... 'If' is the only variable.

That one's tricky. Sometimes people from the same world arrive in waves, but others never see so much as a hair from anyone they know. There's no way to tell what will be the case for anyone.

... Well.

Guess the only thing to do is be optimistic.

That's better than doing nothing. You can also start learning as much as you can about this world and accumulating resources, to give your friends a boost if they show up.

That was already the plan, but yeah. Good to hear I was on the right track.

And if you can manage to get the Fly HM and the ability to use it, all the better. It'll help if you need to come back to New Bark Town to pick someone up.

The HM?

A special disk that allows Flying-type Pokémon to learn how to fly in battle or with a human passenger.

[A beat.]

Don't ask me why they need a disk to do that. It's a mystery for the ages.

... Right. Okay.

Seems like there's a lot we just have to accept here.

Yeah. The other option is to never stop fighting against this world's logic, and that's both unproductive and tiring.

When on an alien planet... go with the flow, huh?

Unless the flow is morally unacceptable, but that's not an issue around here, barring strong objections against newly-hatched creatures fighting.

[Audio]

shiro2hero - 2016-08-26 02:11 (UTC) - Expand

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