Dastardly Desires (Chapter 20) (Patreon)

"Xander's Log... Day... ah... two hundred and... sixty?" 

"Sixty One." The rotom corrects. 

"Day two hundred and sixty one." The teen nods. 

He has changed since his first appearance. His skin is darkened. Tanned. Sunkissed. He has clearly spent quite a long time out in the sun. His hair is long and slightly matted, there's slight dark circles under his eyes.  

He is shirtless, showing off an extremely well-toned body that ripples with tightly packed muscle. 

"So, like, there's a few dozen interesting species around that I desperately want on my future teams. Ancient Garchomp is by far the most badass pokemon I have ever seen. Like, I don't know how, but they the classic shark jet dragon was even cooler millions of years ago. It even put up a decent fight against Latiorm, the Latias and Latios origin species. It... caused it to bleed! Of course it got utterly destroyed not even a second later, but still. A legendary pokemon bled!" 

"Ah... Oh. My Ostariocarp evolved. It took a lot of fighting the Protodiles in the pond, but she finally got there. I now have an Ostariodos on the team. Merlin... has also evolved... and with that, we can now begin to take the fight to the beasties around us." 

"Firstly, Ancient Bagon. Captured. Koraidon's pre-evolution, also captured. Then, I caught a Yanma the size of a bus. Ancient bug types are apparently far larger. That brings the current count of new pokemon up to... uh..." 

"Thirteen." The rotom supplies. "Not including the evolutions of said thirteen. Well, technically fourteen if we are to include Prismeon." 

"There's still quite a few I want to grab." I mutter to myself. "I'd like fifty unique species before we figure out how to get home." 

"..." 

"Also. My last spare shirt got destroyed today. That's annoying." 

~~Linebreak~~

I look to a little dude with a floppy wizard hat and a little robe. 

His yellow eyes look tired. His greenish skin slightly sickly. 

There's a large silly beard on his puffed up lips. 

You'd think he is sick or something, but... this is just how he is. 

Giving him arms has made him far more powerful. 

Plus, his psychic- and magical- powers have only improved through his evolution. 

I have a water stone back home. It's only a matter of getting back then I can have 'Doctor Spooky. Ludicolo Supreme.' 

I sit back in a stone chair, looking across the large map table to Courtney on one end, then Zinnia on the other. 

"So. What now?" 

Today officially marks one year since we have been sent back in time. 

One entire year. 

Zinnia was putting on a brave face... but this? This has sort of crushed our morale. 

"Maybe there's something we missed." Courtney begins. "We never did study the mountain we came through too closely. Maybe there's like... something... ANYTHING." 

"Since it doesn't appear to open annually or on any form of uniform time frame... let's go check it out, I guess." I rise from the chair, slipping my backpack on and glancing around. 

Zinnia is topless, the little string of her shirt giving out a month or two ago. Even Courtney's clothes aren't doing that well. She's lost two hoodies already and this one... her last one, has one of its sleeves torn off, a section at her side is also ripped open. 

One of her pantlegs is cut off at the knee, revealing her pale skin. 

It's less pale than it was, mind you, but she stayed back and more or less compiled a thesis on volcanic structures, the 'Origin Stone' and numerous dossiers of the plant life around here. 

When- 

If... 

If we get back, she's going to become quite the famous researcher. 

Loki who was sleeping at my feet slowly stands, shaking off his fuzzy little coat of fur. 

Courtney and Zinnia gather their things as well, leaving nothing behind. Just in case we somehow find something and don't have time to come back. 

"Shall we go?" I ask, earning a 'sure' from Zinnia and a muted nod from Courtney. 

"Merlin, could you do the honors?"  

"Looombreee." He intones as he raises a hand, drawing a circle in the air with a golden brass-knuckle-like ring.  

A rift quickly forms, one we all file through and come out on the other side. 

I stand in front of the wall that started everything, placing my hand upon it. "Any ideas?" 

"What if we dig?" Zinnia questions. 

"..." 

"Huh." I mutter. "That's a good idea as any. 

Courtney looks down at her Rotom. "Have you seen any new pokemon species that we don't have?" 

"No Ma'am!" It replies in a chipper tone. Her's sounds more feminine than my own. Perhaps rotom can choose their voices? 

"Merlin, if you could." I gesture to the wall. 

A large magic circle appears in front of him, it turns, edges sharpening. 

It carves into the mountain face with a spray of dust, quickly disappearing inside the rock wall. 

"..." 

"Anything?" 

"Nothing. Rock and more rock. There is no inner cavern system at all." 

"FUCK." I growl under my breath, rubbing my temples. 

"What do we do now?" Courtney asks. 

I stroke my chin, staring at the wall. 

"Merlin... is there anything you can do? Use your weird portal mumbo jumbo to latch onto the ambient time whoosa-whatsit." 

"No... I'd need something comparable to an infinity stone." 

An... 

Infinity stone... 

Infinity... Orb... 

Adamant Orb... 

I slowly rise to my full height. "Alright. I have two ideas."  

I look to the rotoms. "You two. Have you gotten a map of the planet yet via Merlin's portals?" 

"Yes." Mine nods. 

"I was watching the cave, so no." Courtney's shakes. 

"Alright. Rotom. Can you pick out the continents of our time here?" 

"That is... tough..." It begins quietly. "Everything looks so different." 

"Ah. Right. Regigigas supposedly pulls the continents around." I mutter under my breath. "Regardless, you need to look for two locations. Sinnoh and Johto. 

"Alright. I will begin to run a few simulations trying to figure it out." 

"What are we looking for?" Zinnia questions. 

"A Celebi... that, or we can go and try to annoy the god of time, Dialga. Johto for the first, Sinnoh for the second." 

"Do... the legendary pokemon reside there?" Courtney asks slowly. 

"It's the origin for each of their tales, so it's our best guess." I answer. 

A long sigh leaves my lips as I fold my arms behind my head. "This is fuckin' rough." 

The mountain in the distance shakes slightly.  

"Oh great... I think big guy's waking up again. That's even better! Rotom take a note of this location. If we fail to get the attention of some sort of temporal legendary, we'll likely have to come back." 

~~Linebreak~~

We trudge through the underbrush, I'm practically dead on my feet. We've been wandering for quite a while. 

Caught a few interesting pokemon here and there... I think our total is up to around... fifty unique species or something? sort of losing track, honestly. 

One of the notable ones would be an Aerodactyl subspecies. Sort of like a regional variant. 

The ground rumbles yet again. 

we come to the sea, crashing waves gently batter the sandy expanse 

Suddenly the sand seems to surge, a large creature standing out in the ocean. 

It takes a single step away, the earth seeming to rumble. 

It is... crustacean-like, with palm trees on its back. Barnacles cling to its body. Two massive claws seem to have sunk into the water just behind it. Rainbow-like claws piercing the ground deeply. 

It takes another step forwards, causing the ground to rumble once more. 

"What- What is that?" Zinnia breathes as my Rotom floats forwards, zooming in on the beast. 

"Regi Gigas... they say that it pulled the continents around... but I'm unsure if that is true... an Island, sure, maybe I could get, but entire Continents?!" I question "Unlikely. So. Rotom. How close are we?" 

"It should be across the sea in the direction we are facing."  

"How many miles?" I question. 

"Anywhere from eight hundred to two thousand." Answers my rotom.  

"How fast can your Salamence fly?" I question. 

"With us safely on its back?" The girl questions. "Probably about... three hundred miles per hour. Can't your little dude just teleport us over?" 

"He has never been to Johto... so no." I shake my head. 

"Alright... I've flown on a Salamence's back before, you're going to be in pain in a couple of hours, just so you know." The girl cautions. 

"We don't have any other options." I sigh. 

with a flash, a large blue dragon appears beside us, it looks around suspisciously before lowering its head and allowing Zinnia to gently cradle it and pet its horns. 

"Hello, Shelly... we need to get across the sea." 

The dragon slowly raises its head, gazing off at the large crustation. 

BOOM 

It seems to step again, causing the earth to shiver. 

"Noooo we're not fighting that; we're going to fly above it without drawing its attention." The woman shakes her head. 

"Grrn." The dragon lowly rumbles. 

The girl turns towards us. "Alright, get on!" 

"Wait. Merlin. Can you offer up some protection? We might get attacked over the sea and you're like my only pokemon that can fly. 

The little frog-like wizard creature on my shoulder does a few gestures. 

Letters quickly forming. 

They crackle around my body. 

"Ah. Guardian Vishanti. Nice. You managed it faster than last time... how much of your power did it take?" 

"Five Percent." 

"Could you do that to all of us and Shelly here?" I question. 

The Lombre seems to ponder, reaching up and stroking its little beard. 

"The dragon will take more power. But it's doable." 

"Please do that, then." I state. 

"Why don't you assist me as well? We need to continue your training." 

"Oh? Are you sure I won't mess it up." I question. 

"Do not worry. Just follow my lead." 

~~Linebreak~~

Wow magic at a higher scale is absolutely exhausting. 

My dick hurts. 

The several hour flight hasn't been good on my body in general. 

I am sat right behind Zinnia, arms wrapped loosely around her body, my flying trench coat around her body, protecting her modesty in the presence of the rotoms. 

Yeah. It would have been annoying as hell to blur the hours upon hours of footage the two rotoms took. 

Courtney is behind me, grasping me tightly as she lets out small groans of pain. Seeming to be in an equal amount of discomfort. 

I've also more or less stopped caring about not doing magic in front of said rotoms. After all, Zinnia is beginning to figure it out and she is far less... subtle...  

I'll just have them transfer the data over to Jarvis and delete all the footage on their hard drives. 

God, I hope there's a Celebi over here. 

In the distance I can see the first signs of land. 

We've made it. 

After around ten more minutes of flying, the land has become more than just a simple horizon. 

Now we can actually see things. 

"Shelly. Take us over to that mountain face." The Draconid girl gestures forwards 

We swoop down one of my hands coming to my waist. 

The Salimence's wings flap as we pause next to the cliff-face. 

I push a button on the pokeball at my hip, a small Lombre appearing with a flash. 

"Can you get us a little hole, Merlin?" 

"Yes." 

With a few waves of his hands and a twist, a large drill seems to shoot into the mountain face. 

Just big enough for us to enter if we crawled. 

There's a dull whirring sound as rubble is shoved from the hole, after around five minutes the lombre looks to me. "Okay. The basic area is finished." 

Zinnia hops forwards, off the dragon's back, assisted by the cloak, she then climbs into the hole. 

She peers out a moment later, offering a hand which I take. 

"Fuuuuuh." I groan as I nearly fall, I slowly climb up, a cringe on my face as I am more or less hoisted up inside the cave. 

Courtney follows closely behind, a weak groan leaving her lips. 

The Salamence is returned shortly after. 

"So..." Zinnia hums, a slightly smug look on her face. "How was your first dragon ride?" 

"I feel like I'm dying." I wheeze. 

She leans forward slightly, a smirk on her lips. "If I had my way, you'd also say that same thing after I was finished riding you." 

Courtney glares pointedly at the side of the tribal girl's head. 

"Nhhh. I don't want to even think about that right now." I groan as I flop back, laying on the floor and causing Zinnia to pout slightly. 

My eyes drift closed briefly before I crack them open again. "I should probably do another recording, right?" 

"Haaah." A long yawn leaves my lips as I weakly sit up, shakily pushing myself so my back is flush with the cave wall. "Rotom." 

My rotom floats out of my pocket. 

"Yes sir." 

"Start another segment." I order. 

"Yes sir!" His eyes glow yellow. 

"Xander's Log. Day... uh... 

"Three hundred and ninety-one." Courtney cuts in. 

"Y-You've been counting?" I question, peering over to the pink haired woman who offers a sole nod. 

I shake my head, looking back to the Rotom. "Day three hundred and ninety one. Today has been... rough..."  

I fight back another yawn before continuing. "We found another legendary pokemon... Regi-Gigas. A pokemon that was said to move continents around. It seemed to be, well, tugging the continent as every step it took resulted in everything for miles upon miles shuddering. 

"You know..." I mutter. "It might have been less 'moving a continent' and more 'creating an island'. Like, maybe the ancient life-cycle of regigigas, which now has a crustacean-like form similar to Crustle and Dwebble, maybe it, as a species, creates a large shell out of a land mass several miles across, and walks it out into the in a specified location... perhaps it walks along the sea floor until it gets to its 'home' where it will then deposit the earth back at its den, maybe consume the plant life still stuck to it, then repeat the process until an island has formed?" 

"This is purely speculative." I begin quietly. "And while following around a legendary pokemon for possibly years sounds fun, we genuinely do not have time." 

"..." 

"On the topic of 'time', we have made it to Johto. It took us around six hours of flying would not recommend it." I shake my head. "I am in so much pain right now, it's likely we'll be doing nothing tomorrow and just laying around." 

"Weak." Zinnia smirks. 

"Fuck you, Zinnia." I glare at the girl. 

"if you want~ I'd suggest turning off the rotom first." The tribal woman grins, a feral glint in her eye. 

"Regardless, since we are- probably- in Johto now... perhaps we might find the legendary pokemon Celebi... and if it is so gracious... maybe it'll deposit us back in our original time... if that's the case, the one true way to solve temporal displacements would be to seek out the pokemon. If it works, I can see this being taught in school. 'If you ever find yourself in the past or future, pray to god, go to Johto, and hope you can find the illusive time legendary'." 

"And if we don't?" Zinnia asks. 

"Sinnoh next. I'm about to blaspheme so fucking hard that God will either smite me where I stand or take us home. Either way it's a win-win, I get smited? I prove a deity exists, and go down in legend as the first guy a god smote. If we get sent back? Hey, we're back home." 

I look to the rotom. "The species counter is up to around fifty. Caught an Ancient Lapras on the way over. Nearly got hit by an ice beam, though. That sucked... End Log." 

I flop to the side with a small wheeze, I reach down and let out Loki who appears with a small flash. 

"Eevee!" He beams as he prances over and collapses onto my lap, causing me to let out a sharp hiss of pain. 

He looks up to me, letting out another bright cry. "Ee-vee!" 

I gently stroke his back as I close my eyes. 

"Now what?" I ask my two companions. 

"Eh, resting for a few days would probably be good." Zinnia admits. "We've got enough food to last for a month at least. We'll be fine." 

I reach into my bag and slowly bring out my sleeping bag. "I'm totally exhausted. I'm going to bed." 

Courtney brings out her own sleeping bag. 

They both are dirty, slightly ripped, scuffed, the bottoms frayed and worn out from laying on rough stone floors. 

I weakly crawl into it, a long breath leaving my lips as I grab a pillow next. 

Courtney sits her sleeping bag next to mine... in a way that she is the only one sleeping next to me as the other side is against the wall. 

Zinnia frowns slightly. 

"Scuse me." She states as she steps over, lazily shrugging the coat off as it floats and wraps around the central pillar of the little cave merlin created, revealing her topless body. 

She smirks, unzips my sleeping bag, then crawls in, causing Courtney's eyebrow to twitch uncontrollably. 

I can feel her bare chest smush against my own as her arms tighten around my torso. 

"Don't you have your own sleeping bag?" Courtney glares. 

"Eh. Probably. Too tired to bring it out though... G'night~" 

Alright, the fight between these two for my love and affection is actually kind of hilarious. 

A game of constant escalation. 

One Zinnia is winning through sheer monkey brain bluntness and amazonian flirting. 

Courtney lingers close, tries to maneuver things in a way that certain things happen, such as me being forced to 'guard' her as she washed herself and vice versa, another example being what she just tried to do. Sleeping beside me and making sure Zinnia couldn't. 

Then, of course, Zinnia with zero thought just casually slipped into my sleeping bag without a care in the world. 

There's certainly a vicious intellect in that brain of hers. One she likes to make people assume she doesn't have with all of her hyperactive cackling, gushing over how cool dragon types are and 'remote tribal village girl who has no idea how the world works' persona. 

I will admit. It's flattering to have two girls as attractive as they are interested in me. 

But. I'm also greedy. 

Both will be mine. 

As Zinnia would say... we are bound by fate. 

~~Linebreak~~

I freeze in place, rooted in shock. 

"Wh- Xander- Is that-" Courtney gasps. 

In the far distance I can see an angular little object, we are surrounded by trees several hundred feet tall. 

"Well... I'll be damned." I quietly whisper. 

In the distance... 

Is a building. 

Well, perhaps building is an incorrect word. It'd be one if we were two feet tall or so. 

It looks well maintained, as if it was just built. 

Vines creep along its Japanese-style exterior, there's a red roof and two stylized doors at the front. 

"Well, I'll be damned." Zinnia hums. 

We were lead in this general direction by Courtney, having had something peak her interests. 

Celebi is a psychic type, after all, and even if it didn't lead here, whatever triggered Courtney's Psychic abilities was bound to be interesting. 

But... 

For the first time in a long while I can feel it... 

Hope. 

"A shrine... lost to time..." Courtney quietly mutters. "Did it get sent back in time? Or perhaps does it exist at all times." 

"So... how do we get back?" The Draconid questions, looking over to me. 

It took us quite some time to find it. Johto- and Kanto- is quite large, after all. 

We wandered for about one hundred further days. 

I found what I believe turned into Charizard, though, that's interesting. 

"Good question, Zinnia." I hum as I slowly approach. "I... have one idea." 

I knock on the door of the little shrine. 

"Hello?" I call out. "We're stuck. Can you help us get back to our time?" 

"..." 

"..." 

The door slams open causing me to flinch back, two amber-red colored eyes look up at me, two small buzzing wings on the back of the little pokemon flapping as it takes off. 

It circles us briefly, looking utterly befuddled by us. 

It looks different from a normal Celebi. 

It has red eyes, the tips of its little antenna are red, and it has a few highlights of a similar color in its hair. 

It seems to have large scales on its shoulders, and a short reptile-like tail on its back. 

There seems to be a single visible fang in its mouth, sort of like a 'moe fang' you might see in an anime girl. 

There's a deeper green color on its face, short of in the vague shape of a V, its eyes are also slightly more narrow, giving it a passive mischievous look that the black coloring around the eyes doesn't help with. 

Its little fairy wings are also shaped different, protected by large scales like a beetle's wings. 

"Cele...bi?" 

"Eevee!" Loki chirps. 

The pokemon turns, floating down towards the fox who is walking beside us, it looks over him briefly. 

"Cele?!" 

"Eev." The fox nods. "Vee-vee-ee-eeveevee." 

"Merlin." I loudly whisper to the Lombre sitting nearby. 

"Your fox is asking for it to return you all home." 

The mythical pokemon turns to the lotad, eyes widening slightly, before it closes its eyes. 

Its antenna seem to glow briefly. 

"W-What is it doing now?" I whisper again. 

"I am... Unsure." 

"Hello." 

Zinnia, Courtney and I flinch as the Celebi itself seems to speak. No psychic talking into our brain nonsense. Just a flat out 'Greetings' as if it were walking up and asking how the weather was. 

"H-Hi?" The Draconid replies weakly. 

"How are you here?" The pokemon questions. 

I begin to weakly explain. "U-Uh... well, in roughly that direction, there is another continent. Millions of years in the future we entered a large underground network of caves, some man-made, some not, and eventually the mountain spat us out here." 

"Oh... so that is where I die... I see." 

"H-Huh?" 

"I apologize. It appears I have inconvenienced you. More than a year of your life has been wasted... and for beings such as you... time is fleeting. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will keep a closer watch on the area." 

"Wait... you... died?" I repeat.  

"In the future. Sometime." The creature smiles. "While I am almost certainly ageless... there will come a time where my energy... my spark... reaches its end. And when that time comes... it will create a slight weakness in time itself, allowing creatures like yourself to slip through." 

"Are there... other places like that?" I ask slowly. 

"Not that I am aware of." The legendary pokemon speaks of. "I am the only Celebi... at least... for now." 

FLASH 

Another figure appears with a flash. 

A traditional Celebi. 

Then, with an electronic crackle a third figure appears, this one appearing robotic. 

"Of course... that does not stop others from visiting..." The pokemon seems to sigh. 

They all seem to observe us. 

"I will send you all home." The ancient Celebi begins as it raises its hand. 

White energy appears in beween its hands. 

Tick Tick Tick 

The ticking of a clock echoes in my ears as the white light seems to grow outwards. 

It eventually eclipses my body, then Zinnia's and Courtney's. 

I... don't like leaving my life in the hands of something else like this, but... I had no other options... 

Damn it! I should have TOTALLY gotten a piece of metal, had Merlin cast as many durability enhancements on it as possible then carve a message into it like 'Xander Was Here. Get Wrecked Cynthia.' That would have been SUCH a good fucking prank! 

Ah well... 

I'll settle for sleeping in my own bed tonight. 

With that. 

The ticking of the clock grows even louder.