Intermission 2: Rest Among The Stars

"It's the ship. You've seen it before." Eilumi deadpans with a sweatdrop. 
The dropship comes to a halt a little ways from the dropship. 
"Okay, everyone. You know the drill. Grab onto one of us." 
Loona grabs onto Eliumi. Nine reaches and grabs onto shia, and Josh. Khaun grabs onto Veera. 
They then teleport onto the ship. "Well, welcome home, everyone." Eilumi announces.

Oh, yeah that is the ship, he must have thought it was something else for a moment. "Ah, maybe I'm just jumpy." Joshua said before they all got teleported to the main ship. That was honestly a bit embarrassing though. 
Shia and Veera look around since it's their first time here. It looks more spacious than they ship they were in before. 
"So this is where you live?" Veera asked. 
"It's all made of metal...?" Shia has a question of his own too. 
Joshua steps forward. "Spark, we are here." He called out. 
They hear Spark respond from somewhere else, sounds like his at the bridge though. "Oh! you guys are back? D-did everything went okay?" 
That sound is the sound of Spark being safe and sound, Joshua is satisfied.

"Yes, its" Khaun answers Veera. 
"Pretty much." Loona answers Shia before Eilumi gets the chance. 
"Sounds like Spark is okay." Eilumi says. He turns towards everyone. 
"If you'll excuse me, I have a report to send to the Illuminate High Council." He says to everyone as he heads off to a part of the ship.

"Joshua! can you come here?" Sparks called out to his friend. 
The human was about to go off to do something else, but when he heard the Pikachu calling for him he decided to go look for him instead. 
"Is there a place where i can lie down for a bit?" Veera asks Khaun. 
"So where...is this exactly?" Shia questioned out loud. "It feels so different..."

Nine and Khaun watch Josh head for the bridge, and Eliumi head off for... somewhere.
 "I'm going down to the holodeck to train and let off some steam." Loona announces. "Just in case anyone needs me." 
"Alright." Khaun replies to her. He then turns to Veera and answers her question. 
"Yes.Come with me, I'll show you to dorms." 
"We'll have to put up more hammocks, though." He says to himself as he leads Veera to the back end of the ship, through a few doors into a large, soft carpeted area with Hammocks hanging from the walls and ceiling, and pillows and beanbags on the floor. 
"Just pick a hammock or curl up on the soft carpet." Khaun says. "Would you like a backrub, or a snuggle buddy?" Khaun asks the Jolteon. 
--- 
"How best to explain?" Nine replies to Shia. "We are... Above your world's sky. In the 'Space' between worlds. We come from another world, and this 'ship' is used to travel to and explore other worlds. I know, it's a little hard to take in, so feel free to ask as many questions as you need."

Shia looks to Loona now, wondering what she is talking about. "Holodeck? What's that?" 
Shortly after their arrival at the dorms Veera proceeded to lay down on the first soft thing that caught her eye, that being the beanbag. She lied down on it and let out a long sigh. "uuuuh...i...don't think i'm in the mood for snuggles but if you want give me backrubs that's fine."

"It's... basically a place where you can make any sort of thing you want. It's like controlling a dream, but you're actually awake and can actually feel things." Loona explains. "For example, I use it to create either an obstacle course to run, an exercise room, or in this case, a dojo so I can punch around things. Unfortunately, since I don't have a 'neural jack' and 'nanites' whatever, I have to wear a suit to interact with it, and there's only one of them at the moment. And it's too big for you anyway. Nine or Eilumi or Khaun would have to make you one." 
---- 
"I understand, Veera." Khaun says to her. He kneels down, and begins to carefully massage and knead her upper back muscles. The fur, despite its appearance, is surprisingly soft in his hand.

Oh so he can't use it now? That's sad because he thinks it sounds fun. "I-i guess maybe in the future we will use it together...? all three of us?" He is hoping at least. 
--- 
The Jolteon relaxes as Khaun gives a massage to her back. She begins closing her eyes too.

"Maybe." Loona says. "Hopefully Khaun will be able to give us those Nanites and stuff. Well, I will be going now." She heads down to the room and leaves Shia with Nine. 
"Why don't we head to the bridge?" Nine suggests to Shia. "You can see the sights a lot easier from there." ----- 
Khaun continues to dutifully massage her back, a small smile forming on his face as she relaxes.

"Bridge?" Shia is thinking about a different kind of bridge, but I think it's better to see instead of ask. "Alright, l-lead the way, if that's okay?" 
---- 
Veera closed her eyes all the way, eventually she began dozing off given how she is snoring. Looks like that massage felt better than expected for her.

Nine leads Shia up to the bridge, and he can see the stars, moon, planet, etc. But not the corpse of the quilava, That is long gone by now, either in orbit on the other side of the planet, or burned up in the atmosphere. 
"Welcome to the bridge, Shia." Nine says. He notices Spark there. "Hello spark, I hope you weren't too lonely?" 
--- 
Seeing that Veera has gone to sleep, he stops. "Sleep well, Veera." He says as he relaxes on another beanbag chair.

Like Loona before him, seeing the stars was awe-inspiring to him. He has never seem so many stars before! and the moon! it's so up close! Spark looks up at Nine. "No it's alright. I just stuck around here until you guys got back, i feel a lot safer with you guys around" He then looks to Shia. "Is he the one you guys managed to save?" 
---
It was then that the door of the dorms opened in and came Joshua. He sees that the Jolteon is sleeping so it's best to keep his voice down.

"Yes, Yes he is." Nine feels no need to bring up the details about him raping Veera to this little mon. "Spark, meet Shia. Shia, Spark." 
--- 
Khaun decides not to make a noise, and just nods at Josh.

They look at each other with a bit of an uneasy silence, they are both just nervous about meeting someone new. 
"Y-yeah...so, Spark right?" He knows it's a bit of a uncommon name for a Pikachu, so he is a bit curious.
"Y-yeah...that's me." The Pikachu nods to him. "So is everything alright Shia? you don't have to be scared, it's pretty safe here." 
"I know..." He sighs. "Just a lot happened these past days...for me, Veera, Loona..." 
--- 
Joshua walks over to Khaun and sits near him. He begins talking but keeps his voice low. "So, Eilumi is going to file a report...does this mean you are going to be leaving already?"

Nine looks on as they greet one another. Content that they happen to be getting along. 
"Yes, I can imagine you went through quite a bit under this 'Rai' guy..." Nine suddenly realizes that might have been a poor choice of words, all things considered. 
----- 
"Not quite." Khaun keeps a low voice. "We may have to come back here every now and then, we still have a brain-scan quota to fill, after all. And Eilumi says the three of us have a meeting with that Four-Eyes guild guy to attend to in an hour or so." He sighs. 
"By the way, I know you've been through a lot too, but can we ask you for a favor of watching the ship while we're doing that? More specifically, our newest members? I'd rather not bring them with us for this meeting after all they've been through. Shia and Veera especially."

Shia sighs. "Yes, very much so...but in the end i'm glad that it looks like we are going to get a better place to life." He looks out into space with a hopeful gaze. 
"I don't really know what is out there but...it's gonna be better...right?" Spark said to himself. 
--- 
He looks down at iron sword that is still plunged in his chest, and tells himself not try to say anything of the 'i'm can handle it' sort, not right now. "Yeah that is for the best. But if this is the case then i guess you are going to have to do the favor Spark asked of me."

"Yes, Shia. It will be." Nine says. "It might not be an easy life here amongst the stars, but it definitely will be better, just the... well I suppose it's 7 or 8 of us depending on whether or not Josh stays." Nine says. "We'll have to do some rearranging for living quarters, but nevermind that for now." 
---- 
"Favor? What favor?" Khaun asks.

The Shinx looks at all the controls and computers on the bridge, he doesn't understand what all the blinking buttons and all these other things are. "So what do you guys do?" 
--- 
"He doesn't want to talk about it out in the open because he knows that Loona wouldn't like Raichus, or so he thinks." Joshua explains. "He said he will need to get stronger so he doesn't slow you do, so to do that he thought about becoming a Raichu himself, so he asked me to find a mineral called 'Thunder Stone' to aid him in evolving. He plans to store it for a time when he thinks it's ready. But of course this mineral I talk about is only available in his world."

"We're members of the Avali Exploratory Fleet." Nine says. "Essentially, space explorers. Primarily we explore planets.Though we do other things too. Like fighting the miniknog. Some limited mercenary work, hunting down illegal slavers and pirates, Some peacekeeper work too on the side for finding criminals, that sort of thing. We did fight in a few wars too, though after the loss of Renali and Eityu, we decided to try and stay away from those wherever possible." Nine sighs. "Though with the way the miniknog are these days, I suppose it's only a matter of time before the border/proxy warfare devolves into open conflict." He says under his breath.
---------- 
"... I see." Khaun says. "I don't know a whole lot about how these 'evolutions' work or what they do, so you'll have to explain to me why exactly it makes them stronger. At any rate though, perhaps we could ask those guild guys of Luca's if that discussion goes well enough."

Exploration? Shia thinks that can be interesting, at the moment he is not very sure about fighting, but he knows that if he has he can fight, maybe he should train. "I see..." That last bit got him a bit worried though. 
------------ 
"If you want I could give you a bit of a rundown on it. Although if he were to evolve he would get faster, stronger and more resilient." His gaze narrows a little. "...Believe it or not, in Spark's case, and even Rai's, it hints that they might have had someone they cared about, just might have."

"Don't worry about the fighting part. You'll be trained, of course." Nine reassures him. "Loona's already in the process in the lower part of the ship. Though, at the moment, we only have one suit.... Though it won't be much of an issue once we give you four guardian nanites, and a neural jack." 
--- 
"Please do." Khaun says. "Medically speaking this might be interesting, and a little concerning. It might also explain why our information regarding Veera here was incorrect." He pauses a bit. "And I'm afraid I don't quite follow what you mean in regards to Rai and Spark."

"Yeah about that..." Spark began. "Is that going to hurt...?" 
---- 
"Alright, let me begin with the basics, there are some pokemon who don't evolve at all, others that evolve once and others who evolve twice...and sometimes these evolution can have branches." Joshua explains. "Now about Veera. Veera's previous species, an Eevee, has many branches of evolution, Thunder Stone was what she was exposed to become what she is now, frankly she could have become a lot of other things, i can explain this more a little later. Now as for Spark and Rai, they weren't born as their current species you see? Rai was a Pikachu just like him once, but he got exposed to a Thunder Stone and evolved. But they both share one thing in common, they were both Pichu, that's a species even smaller than Pikachu, you can say that they are babies of Pikachu or Raichu...But evolution has nothing to do with age, at least not much. Pichu is a species that can barely handle their own lightning properly, they only evolves when exposed to affection from someone else for an adequate period of time."

"No, you'll be sed-" Nine looks for a better way to describe it. "Asleep when that happens." Nine says.
 ----
"Hmmm.... I see. That's really interesting. And a little disconcerting, especially regarding our plans to give them our guardian nanites..." Khaun replies.

"Oh, a-alright then." Maybe then he will finally find out how it's like to use that holodeck...and all the other stuff.
----
"I'm not sure how nanotechnology would work on a pokemon that evolves, but it's sounds less intrusive than full on enhancements so chances are it's not too bad. Though i do wonder how old Shia actually is, a Shinx is his first form and he has been a Shinx for...how many years now? That i don't know, but he still has two evolution to go through, he doesn't need to be exposed to anything other than the experience from training and fighting. The changes won't be too drastic either, it will just looks like he is growing up."

Shia's stomach begins growling, which makes him look away in embarrassment. Frankly he hasn't eaten anything nice in a long time...
----- 
"That is a good point then." The human nods. "But the good news are that Veera and Loona can not evolve any further, so there is just Shia and Spark. One can get there with in due time and the other can evolve as soon as he decides he is ready to do so after getting the Thunder Stone."

"Ah, yes. Now would be a good time to go to the kitchen." 
----- 
"We'll bring it up with him and give him the choice on whether they want to take the nanites immediately and risk being blocked off from their further evolutions, or hold off on them.... By the way, as long as we're on the subject, is there any advantages of not evolving for mons?"

"Is the food good...?" Shia asks. 
"Yeah it is!" The Pikachu gives an excited reply to him. 
----
 "Not really, in the end of the day that is not a good decision to make, if we are talking logically..." He shakes his head. "It would akin to refuse growing up and staying with the body of a child...but still aging." 

"You can judge for yourself once we get there." Nine says as he leads them to the kitchen. 
Once there, he decides on what to give them.... hmmm... tacos? Sure, why not? 
---- 
"I... see." Khaun says. "Well, like I said, it's up to him. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to grab myself something to eat from the kitchen. Don't want to start the meeting with that guild on an empty stomach after all." 
--- 
In the mean time, Eilumi has sent his report and decides to head to the kitchen, and Loona, feeling her own stomach growling, decides to also take off her training suit and head for the kitchen. Everyone is now at the kitchen. Minus Veera.

"Very well then, i will remain here." And with that Joshua remains there in the dorm. He lays himself down on with his eyes up to the ceiling. He is pondering on how things are turning different this time... 
---- 
Shia is trying to guess what this food is going to be like, is it going to be fruits like berries or meats? He feels like he could really go for something with meat right now. 
"Oh everyone's here...kind of." Pikachu commented when he saw the Avalis and the Lioone arriving. 
That makes Shia snap out of his train of though. "O-oh, hey. is...is it time to eat? Is it dinner or lunch?"

Yeah, seems like it." Loona says as she sits down. "How 'bout that?" 
"Eh, who cares?" Eilumi says to Shia. "One thing you'll learn quite quickly little guy, is that it's really hard to keep a sense of time up here. Due to the day/night cycle not really being a thing out in space." He turns to Nine "So what's on the menu, big guy?" 
"Tacos." Nine replies.
 "Ah. Little heads up guys, it's a bit spicy." Eilumi says as they receive their plates full of tacos. They have purple shells due to being made of Piro as well. "And they have meat in it, in case that's a problem for anyone."

The Shinx and the Pikachu took their seat on the table too, they look at the tacos with curiosity. 
"Hhhh, how do you think they taste?" Shia asked. 
"I guess there is only one way to find out." Spark said to him. He then reaches for the plate and picks one up.

Eilumi, Khaun and Loona chow down on their Tacos quite eagerly. Loona has no questions about the origins of the meat, she already knows where it comes from, though she did remember her having ... questions about it when she first started talking to them about it.

Nine said it is spicy so Pikachu takes a small bite. "mmmmmm...it's nice!~" He hasn't seen edible meat before so he doesn't question it. 
Shia is a bit more curious though. He picks up a taco and looks at it. "What's in this...?"

"Piro flour for the shell, Ground meatvine meat, Fandrin lettuce, a bit of mooshi cheese." Eilumi replies.

He raises an eyebrow. "Meatvine...?"

"A weird sort of meat-plant that produces meat-like fruit that tastes like beef. Used as a replacement for farming actual meat." Khaun informs him.
"It's probably one of the few good things ever to come from atropus worlds." Eilumi adds. "And please don't ask what those are, at least not during lunch."

"Ah, weird...never ever thought about plants with meat." The Shinx said before taking a bite of the spicy taco he has in his paws, he finds the taste pretty good too.

"Yeah, it's far better than the alternatives." Eilumi says.

Shia and Spark finished their current tacos and each of them goes for another one.

"Help yourselves, we got plenty" Eliumi says.

As he eats he remembers his friend who is currently not here. "You think we could share some with Veera?" Shia asked. "She is probably hungry too.'

"She is currently sleeping" Khaun tells him. "But when she wakes up, yes, I will give her some."

"Thanks." With that he continues eating. After this and another taco, the two of them have eaten enough and are satisfied.

"Everyone full now?" Eilumi says. He gives a loud burp. "I sure am!" 
"Yeah, I'm good to go too." Said Khaun.

"Sure am..." Spark lets out a yawn and leans on the table. 
Having a good meal while surrounded by friends in a place he can call home...Shia thinks it felt nice.

"Alright. Now that my report is sent to the council, and we've had our meal... unfortunately the three of us have a meeting with that guild guy. Along with said council." Eilumi says. "Loona you're coming with me. The two of you... You're staying here with Josh. He's asleep with Veera in the other group So behave yourselves. Got it?" Eilumi announces. 
Loona nods and gets up, as do the other two.

"Ah again? I guess it will be nice to not be alone." Spark said, but sounding a little worried. "You guys are going to be okay right?" 
Shia is even more worried about the fact they need to go back down there though, he is aware he isn't going to but he worries for them, specially Loona. "W-wait, you guys have to go back there...?"

"Yeah, one more thing to do before we head off to parts unknown." Eilumi says. 
"Take care of yourselves." Loona says. Khaun nods. 
Nine, Loona, Khaun, and Nine head out the door. After a brief trip to the armory, they are aboard the dropship, and headed out for the place that Eilumi pointed out. While Spark is alone with Shia, and a still sleeping Veera and Josh.

Pikachu went off the to the dorms to sleep, leaving Shia in the kitchen alone for a bit. Eventually though Shia decides to go have a rest as well.