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POSTED ON Dec 10, 2023 4:48:31 GMT

shiv and Aurelie Lefevre like this

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Tossing and turning, Jack dreamt again of the masked Rocket that had wounded his shoulder. Like most nights, he awoke in a cold sweat. Shifting himself gently to avoid waking Aurelie Lefevre as he crawled from her bed, he dressed himself in silence and took a chilly stroll through the empty, post-midnight streets of Lilycove. When he returned, like most nights, he poured himself a glass of water and took a seat on her couch to do some breathing exercises.[break][break]

Unlike most nights, a strange glyphic pokemon and a man clad in black materialized into the darkness Aurelie's living room. Jack shot to his feet, his heart racing as he reached for pokeballs on a belt that wasn't there. Before he could shout for help, the mysterious man began to explain, flipping a coin over and coin in an irritatingly self-assured manner. As he introduced himself, a portal opened right there in the living room, swirling with a strange blue tint.[break][break]

"But we're giving you a chance to change the course of history. Mess around in the timeline. Be selfish. This might be your only chance to right wrongs, get what you really deserve, or to learn something new," the man taunts. He places his hand over his chest, the coin pressed between his palm and heart. "You'll return home, I swear. We need you alive for this."[break][break]

Jack listened skeptically to the man's explanation that the portal would take him to any point in his history of future before returning him to the present. Jack shook his head and opened his mouth to shout for Aurelie when the blast from the glyph pokemon struck him, tossing him through the portal as light and sound warped around him.

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jack

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Hulbury

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Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass.

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TAG WITH @jack

POSTED ON Dec 30, 2023 23:30:31 GMT

shiv likes this

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He fell backward, landing with a whump on his apartment floor. Watts looked up sleepily from the couch, startled awake by Jack's sudden appearance.[break][break]

What the fuck?[break][break]

As he stood up from the floor, his phone vibrated repeatedly on his desk. He reached for it to check the series of messages, reading orders from Ranger HQ in a daze. Assigned to Mount Pyre. Report to League Officer Gunner Graves and support his squad. Jack scrolled on, skimming status updates about the various evacuations underway. This really can't be, can it? Jack glanced at the window where beams of sunlight slanted through the slats of his blinds.[break][break]

He walked into the sun sending swirls of dust dancing through the light. His feet felt like lead as he approached, his hand slowly reaching for the cord hanging there. There was no way he had actually traveled back in time. This couldn't be when he had made his choice to flee Hoenn and head back to Galar over a year ago. He pulled sharply on the cord, sending the window blinds shooting upward with rapid clacks of the wooden slats striking one another. And there it was.[break][break]

99943 Meteno glittered in the distant sky.

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Hulbury

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Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass.

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POSTED ON Dec 30, 2023 23:56:22 GMT

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Jack's hands shook as his fingers tapped against his tablet while Watts laid a comforting head on his leg.[break][break]

HOENN LEAGUE DATABASE. ACCESS RESTRICTED...[break]
USER: jwainwright[break]
PASS: *************[break]
cd rangers\verdanturf\reports\evac_status...[break]
...[break]
...[break]
...[break]
LEFEVRE, AURELIE - LILYCOVE - REPORTED TO ASSIGNED SHELTER[break]
...[break]

He sighed with relief and exited the file, wondering if he could get Watts to the shelter to be with her before he reported to Mount Pyre.[break][break]

I already know how this ends, though. The League teleported the meteor away. Hoenn is safe.[break][break]

He didn't have to run this time. He had already decided to report to Mount Pyre. It wouldn't change history, wouldn't change the lost time with Aurelie Lefevre or the fall of Galar or the loss of his parents.[break][break]

Maybe nothing he did in this timeline would matter. But he wanted it to. He was still willing to try to do some good now that he was being given a second chance.[break][break]

He slipped into his Ranger uniform, running his finger across the old cadet patch before splashing some water on his face at the bathroom sink. He pulled Watts into a warm embrace and placed a kiss on the top of the Boltund's head before slipping out the door.

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POSTED ON Dec 31, 2023 21:30:32 GMT

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Checking on Aurelie's evacuation status had put him further behind schedule then he thought. When he arrived at Mount Pyre, it seemed like most of the League was already in place and a thick fog was beginning to roll in.[break][break]

Jack had been an avid hiker and outdoorsman since uni but climbing through difficult terrain while trying to remain stealthy made him question whether his past self would have been able to do this. Instead, he had honed his survival instincts in Galar so he felt comfortable on his climb toward where his squad was supposed to be positioned. Perhaps too comfortable. What happens if something happens to me in this timeline? Will I just show back up in Aurelie's apartment as if nothing happened or does she come out for her morning coffee to find my mutilated corpse in her living room?[break][break]

As he reached the location indicated in his orders he shrugged off the nagging worry. He had survived in Galar, and the swamp, and the resurfaced island on Route 105, so he was more prepared than ever to survive whatever had happened here. Way more prepared than past-Jack would have been. Maybe I should have taken the time to read up on the Ranger reports for events that I missed. What a waste of time travel to not return as some omniscient being.[break][break]

He smiled at Gunner Graves as the fog swamped them, though the man's steely gaze indicated he did not find Jack's tardiness acceptable. Thankfully, Jack was spared a dressing down from the officer by the need for stealth. Instead Gunner's curt and efficient hand signals wordlessly directed Jack to his assigned position before the officer disappeared into the fog.[break][break]

The damp fog seemed to seep into his skin as he waited silently, crouched behind a large tombstone that he was too close to read. The minutes dragged on as he waited, straining his ears at the slightest sound and wondering whether it was one of his squadmates or an imminent attack from Team Rocket. Then things seemed to start happening all at once as the fog was repulsed to reveal those hiding within.[break][break]

Jack immediately saw Gunner - well, two Gunners - who rushed into battle against an exposed Rocket. As a smokescreen rolled over them, Jack caught sight of another Rocket attempting to hide near Gunner's flank. Jack was quick to release Jolteon from her pokeball before surprising the villain with an offensive of his own.

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Hulbury

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Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass.

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TAG WITH @jack

POSTED ON Dec 31, 2023 23:56:19 GMT

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The dual slash of Harpe's blades were too much for the enemy Raticate and the masked Rocket he was fighting recalled it before turning to run. Jack had capitalized on the element of surprise and ambushed the grunt coming away with barely more than a scratch. Past-Jack hadn't been ignorant of battle but this version of himself had suffered and learned, that smoldering hate for Rocket fanned into a blaze on this new battlefield.[break][break]

Still panting with the thrill of battle, Jack attempted to communicate with Gunner and the rest of his squad but whatever was going on had affected League comms. Instead he scanned his surroundings as Meteno grew in the sky above, catching glimpses of movement nearby. He recognized members of the League and headed in that direction, adding his Togekiss' life dew to the healing mist that was soothing the pains of several trainers and pokemon.[break][break]

Whether he had some preternatural future sense or his awareness was still heightened from the heat of battle he wasn't sure but when the area around the Primal Point shattered, Jack and Togekiss already had a protect shield forming around their little gathering. Jack reached out a steady hand to keep Gunner upright as the diminished blastwave shoved against them but his eyes were on the tableau unfolding before them.[break][break]

"Heads," he murmured at the same time as Gunner, shocked at Father Winter's strange game and awestruck by the massive pokemon accompanying him. Not the same as my Father Winter in my timeline though, right? At least not the one that had showed up in Aurelie's apartment to send me on this little jaunt through time.[break][break]

The spreading poison gas drew his focus back to immediate concerns as Gunner jumped into action. While the officer went on the offensive, Jack ordered Togekiss to safeguard the group, the shimmering energies spreading outward around them and pushing back tendrils of the gas temporarily.[break][break]

Father Winter's mocking laughter shifted his attention again, just in time to see the gigantic pokemon unleash a blast of energy that warped the space around it.[break][break]

In a flash of light and fire, the spatial rend tore through Jack; he was dead before his body hit the ground.

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Hulbury

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Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass.

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POSTED ON Jan 1, 2024 0:20:29 GMT

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A mountainous purgatory spread out around him, filled with a sepia-toned smoke that shifted and flowed around floating islands and strange bridges that soared between them.[break][break]

I hope when the evacuation order ends, Aurelie will look for me at my apartment and find Watts.[break][break]

I hope the Aurelie in my timeline will take care of him too, when she wakes up to find me gone. When I never come back to them.[break][break]

I hope Gunner or one of the others grabs the pokeballs from my belt. They wouldn't just leave them there alone, right?[break][break]

Ghostly figures of people and pokemon floated nearby but Jack didn't approach them. No doubt they were other victims of the attack that took his life but he was too weighed down with guilt and worry over those he had left behind to approach them or investigate further.[break][break]

His mind had begun to drift when the plane seemed to shift around him and a rift was torn into this place of death. Through it, Jack could see the peak of Mount Pyre. Beyond, he watched the invisible dome above Hoenn break like shattered glass.[break][break]

It was the moment he had fled for Galar.[break][break]

It was the moment he was reborn.

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jack

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Hulbury

travel blogger

elite ranger

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Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass.

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