[attr="class","icon"]

“Hm; yeah, I guess that makes sense.” [break][break]

Eddie's heart was heavy as he watched the younger brother and his Zekrom fall. When the remaining man handed over the DARK STONE with tears in his eyes, Eddie paused for a moment, [break][break]

“I'm sorry, bud,” he offered sympathetically, clapping a hand onto the digital facsimile of the brother's shoulder, “Sorry it had to come to this. We'll take good care'a this for ya, alright?” [break][break]

The brother nodded in acknowledgment as Eddie felt the weight of the DARK STONE in his hands. He turned back to Shalin as he carefully cradled their new prize, [break][break]

“For what it's worth,” Eddie began as the simulation started to fade away around them, “I don't think yer wrong. Ain't no getting' around the truth, because it is what it is; it's the reality of this world, ain't it?” [break][break]

He looked back down at the DARK STONE, rubbing a thumb across its rough surface, [break][break]

“But for my money, dreams an' ideals are the sorta thing that makes us... well, us.” [break][break]

Eddie's fingers traced over the strange lines and divots of their new curio, more of an anxious reflex than anything else as he began to pace, [break][break]

“Men were born to dream, were born to try and become somethin' bigger than themselves. To try an' live up to the stories of the old heroes they conjured up. To set themselves up against the stars, to become this big fuckin' impossible legend for their brothers and sisters to chase after, too.” [break][break]

He stopped, suddenly feeling a bit sheepish, [break][break]

“'Cause, uh, the truth a'things is, I'm just some fuckin' slob. Some average Joe who's probably spent the last couple'a months bitin' off more than he could chew. But-” [break][break]

Eddie offered the stone to Shalin, and realized that he was smiling in spite of himself, [break][break]

“In my wildest dreams, I am somebody. My ideal me is someone who can make a difference, someone that can help people. And that's the thing I'm gonna keep chasin', no matter what the truth of the situation's gonna be.”

[attr="class","bottom"]deferring to shalin![break]
Shalin Nariya [break]

[attr="class","icon"]

When Eddie's vision returned, he had expected to be back in the real world, waking from the simulated dream to go about the rest of his day. Instead he found himself in a dimly lit room, and his eyes struggled to adjust to the jarring contrast of dark and light as the display cases around him suddenly lit up, [break][break]

“Shalin?” he called uneasily to his friend, “I, uh, don't remember readin' about this when I signed up for the simulation.” [break][break]

Especially not the strange depictions of rare creatures all around him. Eddie felt a chill run down his spine as his eyes darted from one case to the next. It reminded him a little of the strange tubes that housed the toxic-chained Pokemon of the Breeding Chamber on the Megalopolan prison ship, but upon closer inspection, such parallels only existed at first glance. [break][break]

These Pokemon, unlike the ones he saw during his prismatic incarceration, did not seem to live and breathe. They were frozen like horrific statues, each morphed into expressions of displeasure that ranged from fury to fear to everything in between, their agony frozen in immutable eternity. Regardless of whether or not he recognized some of the beings trapped here, the grotesque nature of their statuesque purgatory made his stomach churn with disgust. [break][break]

A new, unfamiliar voice tore Eddie from his observation and had him spinning around toward its source, and he watched the unfamiliar woman with unease as she emerged from the shadows, [break][break]

“We, uh, were just-” [break][break]

Wait, a strange woman emerging from seemingly nowhere? Why did that seem oddly familiar? Eddie recalled the previous simulations he and Shalin had just experienced. The Hexenzirkel, Father Winter; they were facets and associates of the DRK Triad, who he now knew were a grave threat to the region and to some of Eddie's friends. [break][break]

Maybe this could prove to be a valuable opportunity. Eddie shot a glance back to Shalin, cleared his throat, and straightened himself in some facsimile of confidence, [break][break]

“Looking for the DRK Triad. You happen to know 'em? Or, uh, where we could find 'em?”

[attr="class","bottom"]looking for the dark triad[break]
Shalin Nariya [break]

[attr="class","icon"]

Huh. Some of Eddie's anxiety dissipated at that, because it certainly wasn't the answer he was expecting. He watched with curiosity as the woman seemed to distort, like she was cutting into and out of reality. Even so, Eddie still found himself occasionally glancing again at some of the frozen Pokemon around them; she sure had a weird idea of “preservation”. [break][break]

When he looked back, her outfit and her company had changed. Eddie blinked once, then twice, then rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing, [break][break]

“Oh yeah, you don't hafta tell me about war.” [break][break]

A conflict he had been readying himself for weeks for against a threat that would see his home razed in hellfire. At least that made the answer to the next question relatively simple, [break][break]

“Rocket, o'course,” Eddie replied easily, “I mean, have you seen what they did to Kanto? To Dewford? They're just about as likely to burn this place to ground as they are to take it over.”

[attr="class","bottom"]team rocket, the real threat[break]
Shalin Nariya [break]

[attr="class","icon"]

“Wait, hold on- !” [break][break]

The woman shifted and their surroundings did, too. Eddie reached out to the mysterious stranger, [break][break]

“You're just gonna ask us a couple'a questions and fuckin' bail?” [break][break]

No, no no no. Eddie suddenly realized that time was running out as the clothing store began to fade into an indistinct void of white. [break][break]

“Who are you? What the hell do you want with us?!” [break][break]

But his questions, spoken and unspoken, were for nothing as the world whited out. Moments later, he woke with a gasp, as though thrust from a nightmare, back in the League's secure RKS simulation facility. [break][break]

When his faculties returned to him in full, Eddie staggered over to Shalin, suddenly weary, and shook his head, [break][break]

“So, uh, does that sorta thing happen a lot in these weird fuckin' simulations?” he asked incredulously, at a loss to explain what exactly they had just experienced, “'Cause this is my first go 'round, and I'd like a heads up the next time some joker's gonna hijack the system.” [break][break]

His first series of simulations, and his first curio at that. What a hell of a ride.

[attr="class","bottom"]...[break]
Shalin Nariya [break]