In a world full of floating islands, sky pirates, exiled magicians, and Pokémon, peace is difficult to maintain.
Shaymin, kind Pokémon who'd guided travelers once man learned how to fly, were hunted to extinction for their Gracideas: magical flowers...
Warning: This chapter contains a graphic mutation scene which can be found disturbing to sensitive readers. Viewer discretion is advised.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Omar stared at his reflection, frowning. The man shown in the mirror was a stranger to him. Dressed in desert dweller scarves the color of Rubre sand, his face was mostly concealed by the shadows of his cowl. An old hatchet rested at his waist, ready for quick action. He prayed he wouldn't need it.
Behind him, claws scratched wood. He glanced over at Kaso and watched the Parasect dig at a knot in the floor. Upon closer inspection, he found a small cluster of mushrooms in the hole. He bent down and nudged Kaso aside, poking the fungi with the hilt of his hatchet. Moisture had seemed to have collected in the shady dip; it made the perfect habitat for Kaso's toadstools to grow.
"You have a green thumb," Omar complimented Kaso. "Or, uh, a green claw. Is this mushroom dangerous?"
Kaso clicked zir mandibles and bobbed zir head then returned to scraping out the fungi.
He breathed out a laugh through his nose. "Yeah, you should get rid of it."
His Parasect turned back to zir task at hand and shredded the mushrooms. Spores flaked off of zir carapace, colored a dark orange hue. Omar fetched a flask of water to wash it down. The spores swirled in the clear liquid then trickled south due to his uneven floorboards. A puddle swelled beneath his table, sheltered from the light at its angle.
Deciding to clean this now rather than later, Omar spent a few minutes searching for a cloth to soak it up. He crouched down with a rag in-hand to wipe up the mess only to find a rotten apple core in the center of the puddle. Cringing, he reached for the soggy fruit. His fingertips brushed something spongy. Eyebrows knitted, he pulled it out and found mushrooms similar to Kaso's covering the fruit where the spores had touched it.
"Were you eating this earlier?" he asked Kaso, confused. Omar could've sworn this was the apple he was snacking on two nights ago.
Kaso shook zir head.
Omar placed the apple core on his desk and grabbed his letter opener. He sliced the mushroom caps off and waited. Nothing changed. He placed it near Kaso and watched spores fleck onto the fruit. Still, nothing new spurted. He returned the apple core back to its spot under the table and observed it. As the minutes had ticked by, the spores clinging onto the fruit transformed. After settling into the core, they surged from the flesh in thick clumps. The fungus protruded outward with bulbous crowns that flared out into caps identical to Kaso's.
He finished drying the puddle and threw the core out his window. An awful idea came to life in his brain as he processed this new information. August had told them he would have to face a Water-and-Dark-type Pokémon called a Greninja. Water-types were almost always damp. The Underground, according to the pirate, was tucked inside a shadowy cavern. If Kaso managed to cut the Greninja and lodge zir spores inside the wound—
