████ was quick to appear at his side-but not as quick as she was to direct her Luxray towards FERNANDO SILPH, an action that drew MATIAS SILPH to the other's defense.

There was a fury to her the postman had never known her capable of, her words held against the Silph brothers like the edge of a knife. It felt wrong, like he was witnessing some twisted version of her constructed by someone who'd never known the young girl.

But this reality only took-never gave.

The malice he was seeing now had always been there.



His doppelganger's voice warbled between his own and that of Matias, a reminder that this was not new information-it was only just now being put in front of him where he couldn't deny the truth of it anymore.

The Roar of Elaine Highland's own Luxray snapped them out of their head, just as it sent their Munna back to confines of her Pokéball. Probably for the best, it seemed a Calm Mind wasn't going solve everyone's problems like they'd hoped.

"Do you want us to do nothing or give wrong answers? Not all of us got to finish high school ya know!" they added their own gripes to the peanut gallery. "And besides Mr. Smarty-Pants, that Malasada-or-whatever guy never said anything about Rocket causi-EEK!"

The ground-or whatever passed for it in this realm-rumbled beneath them, disrupting the already awkwardly-weighted courier's balance. They tapped against one of the capsules on their belt as their knees hit the floor, summoning Probo-Probo field where Mu-Mu hovered before.

"Cover us!"

A trio of mini-noses fired from the Probopass' body as she appeared, Protecting both their trainer and Eris Halla with a screen of hard light conjured between the them and the rest of the group.

Wind, earth, and poison alike pounded against the screen while they tried to reformulate their "plan". Accepting that there was simply no way for them to diffuse this situation with the severely limited options available to them, they turned to the girl beside them.

"We need to move forward! Pick a terminal, and I'll follow!"

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

"Matias..."

He didn't want to ask it.

He felt sick.

"I-Did you...?"

Eris Halla's pa.

Her eye.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

"...Oh," he said. "You know about that."

Locke cast a quick glance at Matias' expression, suddenly aware of their respective positions on Hoenn's stage. He was talking to a member of the Elite Four, and a soldier at that.

There was something fragile hanging in the air between them now, and the courier needed to take extra care to trace his steps around it.

"Does anybody else know?" he cautiously asked, mentally retracing the last few minutes of conversation to try and pin down the other man's intentions. "Er-About Eris Halla being..."

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

For once in his life, he wouldn't be the last to react.

He's not quick enough to properly defend Cillian Quinn from the Gyarados' fast-approaching maw-the simple postman had neither the talent nor training to match a gym leader's speed-but it took only a second longer for him tap the Pokéball at his side and release his Munna once again.

"Stop."

Mu-Mu's Calm Mind extended outward in psychic waves Telepathically directed at FERNANDO SILPH, aiming to return some of the councilman's reason before any further harm could be done to either party. If they had any apprehension about challenging someone of Silph's level-in open defense of a Rocket no less!-it was reflected only in the panicked expression of their doppelganger below.



"We can't fight right now, we're only getting out if we work together!"

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As soon as he sat down, eighteen penguins swarmed the bench, each clamoring to reach their trainer's open lap. It was De-De that took the throne, turning and chirping at the rest of her underlings until they backed away, no longer crowding Locke.

It only mildly relieved the growing weight in his chest. It pressed against his lungs, his heart, his throat-crushing him from the inside out.

"I'm-"



"It's-"



They couldn't say it. Even though the chances of Adrian Malcolm of even recognizing the insignificant courier amongst the crowd were low-they still couldn't break through the overwhelming fear of whatever consequence would come of revealing the musician's allegiance.

Invisible eyes watched the scene from above, before darting away to reunite with her brother and angelo vestri.

Maybe one of them could help…

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The longer this took, the further they fell behind. But all they could do was keep trying!

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Was separating Fee-Fee and Latias just an excuse for Locke to enjoy some time on the water instead of below it? Maybe. The Milotic was far more used to roaming about the sea floor than his human body was anyway, so really this was just the natural way of doing things.

It's not lazy, it's efficient!

But what goes around, comes around, and as they and their legendary companion soaked up the sun, somebody else took the opportunity to soak them.

"What was-Hey!"

Latias seemed to have some idea of what was going on, because the Lanturn Locke was stretched across suddenly burst forward, chasing some invisible offender.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke was back in line almost as soon as he'd sat down, but at least he'd gotten into the tank!

"Alright! get me on there again Pom-Pom!"

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Most of the information flew over Loc-no, it still feels off, even in-his head. The most he gathered was:

1) This guy's name was weird and he probably couldn't pronounce it if he tried.
2) Their universe is going to be destroyed, and then spread that destruction to other universes like a disease.
3) -



The bubbles are long gone, but there's still a phantom pain behind their eyes as the headline flashes across the screen-a distant pop as the vision settles into reality. They stepped forward and pushed their way to the front, reaching a hand out to open the article on the screen-

Skin, muscle, and bone slowly dispersed before their eyes, starting from the missing portion of their back and crawling down the length of their right arm until all that was left was the same thin, wire mesh that apparently made up everything in this reality. Life Dew rushed behind to fill the gaps, until a new limb formed in its space not unlike that of a Reuniclus.

"Oh."



The courier's gaze snaps to the floor, where his doppelganger echoed. The copy's face was twisted in fear and despair, but he felt…strangely calm at the revelation.

Was it bad luck that it had downloaded the worst part of himself first? Or was fear really so intrinsic to his personality that he couldn't rightly be called him without it?

Where had he learned that fear?

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"H-hey, I don't think that was his-" The courier's valiant defense of Raziel Beckett would go forever unsaid, as they too were put under the young girl's fire.

They flinched, both from the sharpness in ████'s tone and the alien name that left her lips. In the next breath though, she was carefully trying to reach her too-small coat around them-a gesture they hadn't experienced since they themselves were a child. They quietly bent down to give her a better angle, while their own words were being thrown back at them.

"…Sorry," they repeated dumbly, long after the young girl was already gone.

Locke-as was apparently his name-mulled over the outburst for a bit before angelo vestri's voice broke through his mopey silence.

"I don't get it," he mumbled, "s'not like there's much else I could've done. And it's not like I got hurt, riiIEEk!"

He jumped forward, reaching awkwardly at the spot where Angelo had touched him. The odd, jello-like sensation rippled uncomfortably across his back again, making him shiver-which of course only made his back wiggle more.

"Okay-now I get it," he whined, adjusting ████'s coat so it covered the "wound" like a cape.

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"That makes sense," he mused, remembering how all three of them had met surrounding the odd tree on Route 113. "I think she's pretty fond of Eva too." He then frowned with confusion as another, more recent encounter with the young girl came to mind.

"At least they came looking... people thought I was dead, that we were dead... because no one thought a kid like me would survive..."

"I know we're both from Vermilion, but she told me nobody had ever found her." At least, not before Rocket did.

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"Hardly-in fact I'd much prefer if weird things like that would happen to me less often," Locke whined. Speaking of weird things, hadn't they been trying to talk about something else?

Matias was already probing him with another question before he could fully recall what that something else was though. About Eris of all people. "Hm? Oh yeah, loads! Have you two met? She's a good kid, but I wish we'd quit running into each other in such dangerous places..."

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz