Oz: Crossroad of Legends

"...Tell me, Nobunaga", Glinda replied, not at all wavered by his tone, "why do you believe you know everything about this foreign world? You see but a glimpse of my powers and assume you know the full extent of it by using your own family as a basis, while failing to take into account the possibility that the rules of your world may not apply in the same way as my world or the worlds of the other Outlanders. We in Oz do not possess a concept of 7 circles of magic to which we are born into, nor can we capture and tame wildlife within capsules small enough to clip to a belt, or materialize musical instruments out of the air with the flick of a wand, and one of the other Outlanders even claims to be an extraterrestrial. I am doubtful that you have not seen something that your world may consider abnormal. All of these different worlds operate on different principles, and I think it unwise to operate under the logic of the laws of our universes being the same as theirs.

Which is why you must not assume that I am capable of performing the feats you ask of me. Although there are many areas within this palace I may instantly travel to no matter the distance, your room is not among them, and I do not have the luxury of maintaining that room within the range of my magic when I am urgently needed somewhere else. Furthermore, I am not able to 'easily' conjure a barrier to encompass your room even with focus: at most I may block the doorway, but I had no shortage of important duties to oversee as we were faced with the enemy at our doorstep; I would not be capable of maintaining a barrier for any extended period of time.

As for Joshua -- the Outlander -- he had apparently already met your children before I learned they had left their room and thus knew of your secret. I knew the palace may be in great danger in a worst-case scenario, yet I also knew I had no soldiers to spare as their bodyguards as we mounted our defense. From his demonstration earlier today, Joshua and his familiars also showed themselves to be capable fighters. He raised no objection as I entrusted him with his duty as protector, and your children were looking forward to learning about his Pokemon.

Furthermore... I was hoping it would lead to him being willing to further supervise your children should you continue to venture outside the palace. We had come to an agreement prior to our meeting in the guest room and the subsequent events that resulted; he is to remain in the palace to supervise our researchers as they observe the cards he possesses -- I assume you recall my mention of it in my earlier speech -- and possibly learn if these cards truly contain the essence of other Outlanders brought to this world and how they can be summoned, if possible. As there may be another time where I am unfortunately unable to retain vigilance on your children and you may be away from the capital, I believed that it would be best if he were to continue to guard them. That is... should you consent to this."

---

Irving scanned the Yuleian soldiers posted throughout the palace until he saw one of them with a ryfel strapped across their back. Irving approached him.

"Hey you", he said. The guard looked behind him for a moment before gesturing at himself quizzically. "Yes you!" replied Irving. He held up the gun he looted from the Ephesian. "What is this?"

The guard continued looking at Irving quizzically, not understanding the question. "A gun, sir? Isn't that thing on your back one?"

"Well, yeah, sure", said Irving, "But is this small thing really a ryfel?"

"Uhh... Don't you mean 'rifle'?" said the guard.

 "No, I'm pretty sure I got it right; at least how it's said in my world", said Irving.

The guard decided not to bother contesting it further. "Right... So, uh, anyway, to be more specific, that gun is called either a pistol or a handgun. It can't really be called a ryfel."

"So it's another type of gun?" said Irving. "...So why couldn't I shoot it earlier against the Ephesians?"

Irving handed the gun to the guard for a closer look. "...Because the safety's still on?" said the guard.

"...What do you mean?" asked Irving.

"What, does your gun not have a safety mechanism?" asked the guard.

"...I don't think so", said Irving. "Is it important?"

"...It's so that people don't accidentally shoot the gun and hurt someone", said the guard.

"Really?" said Irving. "...Actually, that would be pretty useful. Coulda stopped a few accidents. How does it work?"

"For this thing, you just do this", said the guard, demonstrating. "Of course, it's different for rifles and shotguns and stuff."

"What's a shotgun?" asked Irving.

"...Tell you what", said the guard, "Stop by a shooting range we have in town and tell one of the instructors that you're an Outlander who wants to know about firearms in our world."

"...Firearms?" echoed Irving. "Is that a Type-6 thing?"

"...Guns. Tell them you want to know about guns."

"Okay then", said Irving. "If this world has a lot of guns, I oughta know as much of 'em as I can. Shooting, maintenance, all that stuff."

"Yeah", said the guard. "Whatever you say..."

"...So can I have my piss-toll back?" asked Irving.

The guard hesitated.

"That would be wonderful", said Glinda. "I would like that, should I find the time."

---

"Here you are, sir", said the soldier.

"Thank you."

Joshua bowed to the soldier who escorted him in front of the throne room where a bunch of other Outlanders had congregated. Many of them had wandered off to do their own thing, but for Joshua it was more comforting to be there with his "group" than wandering around the halls lost again.

...Not that it made much difference in terms of social interaction.

Joshua opted to just wordlessly pull up a chair to the side and lounge with his Pokemon, just watching the passerby while alone with their thoughts.

A few minutes passed before Joshua pulled out his deck of cards again and looked through them. He eventually ended up lingering on Yancy's card.

...I miss her already.

Joshua snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his name being called and hastily stuffed the deck of cards into one of his inner suit pockets. He put on a poker face and looked to see that the overprotective dad was addressing him.

"If I did something wrong, it was an accident", Joshua replied.

That's serial killer talk right there. He has the mask and everything.

"...Okay then", said Joshua. "You lead; I have no sense of direction in this place."

Joshua recalled his Pokemon into their Pokeballs before following "Naga" outside. He listened as he "got to the point".

Hmm. I have to keep an eye on Bowser Jr. from doing something stupid... And I suppose it gives an excuse for Grinn to play with them as per agreement... Hey, Rotom and Manaphy were basically children, even if conversations were one-sided back then... How bad can it be?

"...Okay, sure", said Joshua. "I'll do it.

Anything I should know about them? Allergies? Phobias? Favorite pranks I should keep an eye out for?"

Location: Inside Yggdrasil

Ozma was thoroughly desynchronized from time. That is, her primary defensive measure to avoid conflict in the tree was a temporal enchantment that moved her exactly a second forward in time, at a rate of -1 seconds per second. Using the momentum of normal time as a sort of catapult, the end result is that she and her men end up existing exactly a second after the rest of the universe does. From the frame of reference of anything with a mind, they can't see, hear, smell, feel, or otherwise detect her because she isn't there anymore. They're just a second too slow. But from the frame of reference of a universal constant like Yggdrasil, she exists inside of it like any normal human being might.

Of course, this magic is hell to sustain. But when you've got the advantage of the enemy not being able to see, hear, smell, feel or otherwise detect you, it's simple enough to clear a spot to rest using conventional weaponry. After all, although Ozma's troupe exists in the enemy's relative future, the enemy exists in Ozma's relative past, and therefore the enemy's position is known and certain, even if they aren't currently coexistant.

This wasn't anti-magic. Just one of those applications of Time Magic that ended up lost from the world. Fortunately Ozma specializes in recruiting those lost from the world. She's one of them herself.

Location: Yuleia Castle

"Company dismissed!"

So they never had to fight after all. Neat.

Before anyone could really ask who the generic guy was, Moran departed the barracks. A few "I have to speak with the Nobles" got him out somewhere obfuscating enough that his suddenly changing face and body type wouldn't be noticed. His swiped his hat off in a movement of his arm, sprouting a different head of hair. He brought it in front of his face and his eyes and cheekbones morphed. He still looked generic, but a different kind of generic. A scruffier kind. It also helped that he was descending into the laboratory basements, where there were plenty of nerdy types that wouldn't want to unnecessarily make eye contact with someone who looked like a soldier.

Next order of business, finding the robot and the Doctor again. They seemed to have a better grasp on this world than he did. The girl would find him in due time so all that's really needed is...

Ah, over there.

There was a crowd around the outside of a door to a small theatre of sorts. The kind that would be used for meetings and presentations. Anyways, there were holograms floating up at the front, and something like that reeked of Outlander.

"...summed up in eighteen energies." the man at the front wearing a sparkling white coat spoke, "And we don't consider them to be magic although they might as well be."

Jirachi waved his arms and the next slide popped up. Thanks to his Mind Palace, converting his thoughts into a holographic visual medium was as easy as, well, thinking them. He had to take a few extra minutes to reorient them into a form anyone else could understand though. The system wasn't perfect.

"We place emphasis on the consistent and causal nature of these energies' interactions. "Fire" energy always acts dominantly against "Grass" energy, ignoring inversion conditions, and this reflects on how fire often incinerates grass. However these are all just naming conventions based on the energies' relationship to natural phenomenon. Fire Pokemon, recall that typing simply refers to the energies dominating the pokemon's heart, often have a close relationship to actual Fire. However, there is much precedent for pokemon temporarily changing type. A technique called Soak can change a lava monster into a Water type without altering the fact that the monster is made out of lava, and is currently setting its surroundings on fire.

It has not been demonstrated in nature that ordinary fire, grass, water, and other substances contain any pokemon energy. A man-made fire can injure a flower pokemon to a greater extent than a fish pokemon, but this is merely because the flower pokemon is made of a more flammable substance. Electric pokemon are intrinsically resistant to electrocution, as it must withstand the electricity it creates. And so a Pikachu would likely be unharmed by a natural bolt of lightning, despite giving no outward appearance of being able to do so. It stands to reason that a ground pokemon turned water type and struck by a natural lightning bolt would suffer the same amount of injury as it would have if its type were not changed.

This is made more clear when dealing with the more esoteric Dragon or Ghost types. There is an interesting Ghost case study which lends credence to this theory. There is a report of a departed spirit naturally possessing a Ground type as a opposed to Ghost, displaying all of the type interactions an ordinary Marowak would, with no influence from its status as a spirit. While we have not yet found dragons that are not pokemon, it stands to reason that a dragon in your world would not take additional damage from the Dragon type energies emitted by a pokemon attack, and vice versa."

Jirachi switched slides again.

"It should be clear that pokemon types are distinct from their physical elemental affinity, and this culminates in the theory of the Pokemon Heart. The pokemon heart is a crucial concept, and what differentiates a pokemon from any other type of creature. It is likely multidimensional, and it's exact mechanism is unknown even to me, but I have intensely studied how we might interact with it. The most clear interaction is through what we call a pokeball."

Celeste produced his GS ball, to quickly withdraw and release Jirachi with a beam of light.

"These portable devices allow us to revert a pokemon into pure energy for capture and storage. And you would assume correctly that this pure energy is the pokemon heart. The reversion upon being recalled into a ball is what resets typing alteration. If Jirachi were to be Soaked into a Water type, he would return to his initial Steel and Psychic types upon being converted into energy inside the ball.

The heart is known to be linked psychologically to the pokemon. It is pure energy with a personality. A happier pokemon with a strong bond to a human has a strong heart. And this brings us to our next heart interactions. There are viruses that afflict the pokemon heart. One is known as Pokerus, which allows a pokemon to increase its growth rate. The other is much less beneficial, and it is known simply as Shadow. This is not Shadow in the sense of Dark type. Shadow is a nearly cancerous corruption of the pokemon heart. It can be thought of as a nineteenth type that dominates every other type. A Shadow pokemon may learn to harness this energy to use in attacks, but it is also rendered emotionally unstable and incredibly violent and often uncontrollable. There are treatments for this condition, which involve a combination of psychological treatment, and establishing a theraputic cyclic flow of other natural energies to overpower the corruption.

The final interaction I will cover is called StarBurst. It is by far the most taboo, and with good reason. Upon striking a pokemon, the StarBurst energy creates a resonance that shatters the pokemon heart, as well as any pokeballs that might be thought to protect them. I was working on a type of ball that would resist StarBurst, but my presence here obviously indicates that got sidetracked. Fragments of the heart will remain, and therefore the pokemon still exists and will be able to draw from its energies to attack. But its existence is that of a hollow shell. All aspects of personality and will power are destroyed, and as a result the pokemon effectively becomes a machine that follows any order put to it without question. This is, to my knowledge, irreversible. A pokemon with a very strong heart, strengthened by either innate Legendary power, or an unbreakable bond with a human, are often able to resist, but are severely weakened. Possibly to our advantage, a StarBurst pokemon cannot be turned into a Shadow pokemon, while a Shadow pokemon can be easily Starburst."

Celeste took a breath. It's been a while since he could lecture without his history coming back to haunt him. Jirachi advanced slides again.

"What I hope to make clear is that the pokemon heart is a concept not yet found in this world, but is defined enough to potentially be brought into being. I am looking for assistance in engineering the energies found in my world using the magic found in yours, to better understand and possibly assist the nature of both worlds. For example, could a pyrokinetic or fire mage of this world influence fire fueled by a pokemon's heart? This could enlighten many on the nature of energy-element duality. To your benefit, a pokemon heart can be a nearly limitless source of power, and could possibly assist your war effort. Off the top of my head, I can see the moves Embargo and Magic Room being particularly useful as they disable most technology, if their results can be replicated. Thanks you all for listening, and I hope we can further our studies together.

Any questions?"

...

"Is mayonaise an instrument?"

Everyone turned. A scruffy looking generic soldier was eagerly awaiting an answer to his question.

Celeste thought for a moment...then came to a conclusion.

"I'll speak to you after my session. Any other questions?"

Nobunaga nodded. "That's enough for me. Thank you."

He noticed a very familiar Mercenary enter the courtyard, absentmindedly fiddling with what appeared to be one of the standard Yuelian weapons. "That's all I wanted to discuss, Joshua. If you don't mind, there's someone else I need to speak to, and I'd like to do so alone. Goodnight, and... Thank you again."

Once Joshua had left, he turned to Irving. "... I must admit, I'm surprised to see you here. It's odd to think, that out of all the countless worlds out there, so many of us were summoned from Austur."

"Come in," Lana said very weakly as she heard the knock on the door.

---

Bowser claimed the first empty guest room he saw and just flopped onto the first bed he saw.  Sure the bed broke under his immense weight but he didn't care. "Night chumps," Bowser said as he fell asleep. 

"Same here you don't know how exhausting it is trying to keep him alive," Kamek said passing out. 

"Well today was fun, but well some of us weren't sleeping away like some lazy old people," Bowser Jr said as he fell asleep next to his dad. 

"Well Mario want to explore the palace a bit?" Starlow asked. Mario replied with something that sounded like a yes. As him and Starlow began to explore the palace hallway.

---

Location; Medical Wing

Due to the rest, Baron received and the constant supply of normal blood he was ready to at least move. "Good to see your feeling better, sir," one of the nurses addressed Baron.  Baron simply nodded in her general direction. "Oh your wife and pet kitty, they are waiting for you right outside as soon you are ready to leave let me know," the nurse said leaving the room.

Baron slowly got out of bed and put on his cloths and slowly got his belongings. Physically his wounds were fine, and Van just needed to rest for a day too recover. Mentally and emotionally he was drained he silently began blaming himself for what happened and how powerless he felt facing that general Mason. 

When Baron opened the door Catie was the first person to greet him. "Baron, I am so glad your okay," Catie said squeezing Baron.  "Sam he's fine her just passed out and the nice gentleman said he would take us back to the palace when your ready," Catie told Baron. Baron more or less signaled for the guy to take him, Catie, and Sam back to the palace. The Angelo's teleported the group back to the palace where Baron and Catie were back in the throne room.

"I don't want to take that chance," Vincent answered. "I wasn't summoned by myself. My children are here with me. Keeping my identity hidden makes protecting them easier."

His brow furrows in thought as he looks at Irving. "You really do look like you haven't aged a day... Tell me Irving, when was the last time you saw me, back in Austur?"