[attr="class","text"]

Isaac Merlo could always be relied upon to be there for Nomi when she needed him. When she'd poured her heart out to him last December - about her failings, her parents, her fears - he had been there to console her. When she'd presented at the URIEL meeting, he'd been there to support her. When she'd started her Tera infusion trials in an attempt to create synthetic avatars, he'd been one of the first to volunteer to be tested on. And when she'd expressed a desire to collect a full set of Unown with which to oppose the DRK Triad, once again, Isaac had offered to accompany her on an expedition to find some.[break][break]
The only thing Isaac didn't seem capable of doing was recognizing that Nomi had a crush on him.[break][break]
The strange thing about that crush, however, was how it had started to fade away in the last few weeks...not entirely, but enough that Nomi was starting to think that maybe she was finally making peace with Isaac's romantic unavailability. Like music playing in the background instead of through headphones directly into one's ears, it suddenly felt farther away, less immediately bothersome.[break][break]
As they walked together through the rocky landscape of Route 116, Nomi contemplated what could have changed. Nothing about Isaac seemed different; in fact, he was making the same dumb Isaac jokes he always made - part affectionate teasing, part silly word play. He looked the same, laughed the same, moved the same, cared the same. So what was it?[break][break]
"Unown communicate via radio waves," she explained to him while punching him lightly on the arm for making fun of her lack of sun exposure. It wasn't her fault their base was in a submarine. "That's why I've got this one out. I'm hoping it can help us detect one of its kin."[break][break]
The Unown-K floated along beside Nomi, its singular, unblinking eye peering at Isaac over her shoulder. On Nomi's other side, Valerian padded along, not one to be left out of an adventure.[break][break]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Isaac Merlo Naomi Sato

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Isaac Merlo Naomi Sato

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Aw, what, you're telling me they don't just spell at each other?" Isaac teased back. "This guy doesn't gotta round up a posse to tell someone Y O U S U C K?"[break][break]

The mental visual left Isaac snickering. Despite that, it raised an interesting point. "Shit. Is it a coincidence these guys look like letters? Or is there some kinda higher meaning to it?" he asked. "Sometimes, I'm not sure if its the Torchic or the egg that comes first, if you catch my drift."[break][break]

Porygon was an artificial Pokemon. So, too, was Golurk, of a considerably more ancient variety. So, too, were Galar's fossils, of a far stranger kind. In contrast, Rotom was a natural Pokemon with an undeniable tie to artificial technology. Several Poison types were naturally born of human pollution. That wasn't even getting into Pokemon like Magnemite. That, too, was before even remotely touching on those weird mechanical Pokemon from the Interdream Zone.[break][break]

He had so many ideas, so many thoughts to share. The Pokedex meant surface level trivia about Pokemon was widely available, even to eager dumbasses like him.[break][break]

But he didn't want to say them. He wanted Nomi to. She was the brains of this duo, and she'd done so much to earn that role. Even now, her star only shone brighter by the day. He wanted her to know that. He wanted her to own that.[break][break]

Sometimes, he wished she could see and hear herself through his eyes. Maybe then she'd finally realize.

"What do you think?"

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Nomi giggled. The mental image of a group of Unown circling around one another, spelling out various words in order to communicate, was highly amusing. Of course Isaac's vivid - and silly - imagination would conjure such a scene.[break][break]
His follow-up question, however, had real merit. Beneath the jokes, Isaac was an intelligent young man with a tremendous amount of potential. Nomi had always thought Isaac especially gifted at understanding people. She'd once lamented to him that she feared losing friendships because of her less-than-stellar social skills combined with her preference for lab work over parties. He'd known exactly what to say to cheer her up, and all of it had been genuine.[break][break]
"It is not a coincidence," she assured him. "The Unown are capable of re-shaping reality, which I believe includes changing their own forms. Whatever universe they happen to be in at any given time, I think they intentionally evolve into symbols recognizable by other lifeforms within that specific universe. They have an agenda, Isaac," He eyes shone with excitement. "It's why the DRK Triad is so keen on using them. They're...connected to all of this." She waved her hand around their surroundings as if to indicate Hoenn. The origin point. All of the anomalies.[break][break]
A pair of wild Pokémon - a Hypno and a Mr. Rime - disturbed a bush off to the side of their path, but Nomi was too wrapped up in her explanation to pay them any mind.

MADE BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Isaac Merlo Naomi Sato

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Isaac Merlo Naomi Sato

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Well, yeah. But there's a lotta symbols we recognize, and a lot of 'em mean more than just letters in a vacuum. That K you got there could be OK, or it could be kill. Shit, it could be kiss for all we know." Briefly, the idea of spelling out words came back to Isaac's mind. It was what turned a letter from a symbol to an idea, dangit![break][break]

"Still, you know more about 'em than I do." The only thing Isaac knew was that somehow, through means Isaac couldn't understand, Mars had used them to bust Maldacena's simulation and save him from his own surrender. "What kinda agenda do you think they have for going all alphabet soup on us?"[break][break]

By now, he wasn't paying much attention to the rest of the route. If anything, his eye was on the Unown-K more than anything. Part of him was curious how it was reacting to the speculation. Part of him wanted to see if it was detecting any of its brethren. Part of him was just curious how the dang thing worked.[break][break]

Compared to that, the rest of this route was just an excuse to get some fresh air, sun, and exercise for Nomi. Clearly, the next step was feeding and watering the poor girl. Even by his workaholic standards, she was equal parts impressive and fearsome.

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When Isaac said "kiss", Nomi blushed. Why did that word make her think of parker jones's smug face all of a sudden...[break][break]
"Their agenda," she cleared her throat, irritated she'd lost her composure over a stupid word that definitely wasn't something she'd been thinking about doing with a certain bodyguard. "I think it has something to do with Arceus. I think they're...the eyes of Arceus."[break][break]
Still somewhat flustered, she busied herself with taking out the small radio device she carried with her nearly all of the time these days. The Unown were capable of sensing one another, but because they communicated with radio waves, Nomi also liked to have her own way of identifying them on hand.[break][break]
Val growled as a Swasbuck emerged onto their path. It hurried away as the Sylveon glared intently at it.[break][break]
"There's more than one Arceus, you know. It's something of an enigma, but also nothing new. we've seen it before: copies of legendary Pokémon from different worlds...or, perhaps, dimensions..." She trailed off. Lulu Flint had been rightfully concerned about Arceus: mostly because of its connection to the DRK Triad.[break][break]
Holo's disdain for their world - the supposed origin point - was still fresh in Nomi's mind.

MADE BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Isaac Merlo Naomi Sato

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Isaac Merlo Naomi Sato

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"There's what."[break][break]

Even among the multiversal insanity that had plagued the Hoenn region, Arceus had seemed to be in a position above it all. And how could it not? Even in a world where particularly strong Pokemon were revered as divines, Arceus was treated like the capital g God of this world. To have it of all beings be subject to the unpredictable whims of the multiverse was . . . sobering, to say the last.[break][break]

It also left Isaac's eyebrow twitching a little when he put two and two together.[break][break]

"So you're telling me the Dark Triad's spending all this time telling us we're some threat to the multiverse. And that they know its true 'cause Arceus said so," Isaac started. "And now it turns out the Arceus that hates us might not even be own?"[break][break]

Isaac was no scientist, and he usually had more pressing fish to fry, but fear of the Origin Point had been a recurring stress in the back of his mind. Half of what troubled him about Maldacena, about the RVL app, about Dialga and Palkia running around free and unattended, was the fact that at any moment the Hoenn region could unravel and take half the multiverse with it. If all of that fear had been built on a lie . . .[break][break]

"So, what? Are they just working with their Arceus to try and snatch the power from ours while its napping?" Isaac asked. "Are we even the first universe they've pulled this stunt on? Wait, wait, wait. Does this mean we might not even be the Origin Point? That they're just making shit up to throw us off our game?"[break][break]

"Are they just more warmongering assholes?"

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Nomi shook her head.[break][break]
"I believe we are the so-called Origin Point," she corrected him. "Or at least, I believe we need to operate as if we are. To assume we are not, and then face an apocalypse scenario unprepared, would be foolish."[break][break]
Lulu Flint came to mind, then: how her mentor's stern brow had always been creased with suspicion. Lulu was incredible paranoid, and though Nomi did not always think it healthy, it did make the former Head Scientist one of the most prepared people Nomi knew. How many times had Lulu cautioned Nomi not to let her guard down, not to be caught like a deerling in headlights should some low percentage possibility actually prove true?[break][break]
"Whether or not the DRK Triad are actually following the commands of our Arceus or a different one or all of them remains to be seen. What matters is that they believe they are. Their fanaticism is dangerous, which is why it would be in our best interests to find our universe's Arceus and treat with it ourselves."[break][break]
Perhaps it was a bold goal, lofty and unprecedented; all the same, her confidence did not waver. She held her head high, as if in defiance of the DRK Triad though they were not present, ignoring a wild Xatu as it fluttered by.

MADE BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Naomi Sato Isaac Merlo

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtag"]Naomi Sato Isaac Merlo

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Don't get me wrong. I'm as big on prepping as anyone. But isn't there a way we can prep without flirting with the unraveling of the entire multiverse?" The Origin Point wasn't some teehee oopsie. The Origin Point, if the Dark Triad was right, was effectively the end times for all of reality.[break][break]

Ugh. Why was this all so frustrating and confusing? If the Dark Triad was wrong, they were playing in the hands of a bunch of lunatic zealots. And if the Dark Triad was right, they were speedrunning the apocalypse. And judging by what Nomi was saying, Rocket was going to do what Rocket always did and slam their face headfirst into both options.[break][break]

It was so frustrating. Rocket had some of the most brilliant minds in the region. If they paired with the League's limitless resources, calling a ceasefire in the name of cancelling the apocalypse, they could accomplish incredible things.[break][break]

But they couldn't. If there was ever a chance, Rocket's opportunistic invasion in the face of the Meteno poisoned that well. The fact that the League hadn't adopted a universal kill on sight policy was staggering, but it was highly unlikely they'd accept Rocket's help now. Sure, they bore some fault in the face of all this too, but . . .[break][break]

Meteno really had changed everything for Isaac, hadn't it?[break][break]

"Whatever this is, it's bigger than us. Bigger than the war. Bigger than this whole timeline at this point." It almost seemed futile when he said it like that. How Nomi could keep her head held high while trailing a finger across the button was equal parts amazing and somewhat worrying. She'd come so far since the first day they met, and in these rare moments of doubt he wasn't sure how he felt about that.[break][break]

"What'll you do if you can reach Arceus?"

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Nomi stopped in her tracks, going completely still.[break][break]
What would she do if she finally found Arceus?[break][break]
It was THE question. The only question that mattered, really. It was what she had been working towards ever since the interrogation of Dr. Holo. It was, quite possibly, the very question that, depending on the answer, might save their universe from total annihilation.[break][break]
"I'd talk to it," she said, finally, after a minute that felt like an eternity. "Surely it has the capacity to communicate with someone like me. I want..." she tried to convey, in the severity of her tone, just how important she felt this was. "I want to know why. Why us?"[break][break]
Nomi ignored the sounds of rustling leaves, wild Pokémon encroaching on their hike. She ignored the way the breeze seemed to have kicked up, whipping around them and mussing up her hair. She ignored the static whine of the radio held close to her chest. She ignored the way her Unown-K subtly bobbed up and down in the air above Valerian (was it agreeing with her?).[break][break]
The young scientist, a woman who carried so much on her shoulders, simply stared at her friend with the intensity of a hyper beam, determined to make use of her brains for the betterment of their collective reality.

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