Because it could never be that easy...

[ww_arcadia]

A little over a month had passed. Occasionally, there'd be word from inside Arcadia. Occasionally, there'd be more deliveries of food. But the uneasy peace was doomed from the start, and at least some people knew that.

Eventually the message comes. Something has been found. Something that Copy X wants to speak to them in person about, but he can't leave the city at the time. He thinks Weil is suspicious and would take advantage of any absence. But he can give them access codes to an area of Arcadia away from the human residential sections, where they can meet...

Comments

[vengeancechild]

It's not one of the main residential areas they end up in. It's not even within one of the shielded and protected terraformed areas.

Heat, it seems, lives just north of Pavonis Mons, a bit south of a small settlement a few miles away in Poynting Crater, in a house of red Martian basalt blocks. The air is thin here due to high elevations, dangerously thin for most organics. The air is a little nippy but kept warmer than some areas by nearby volcanic activity. There's the faint scent of sulfur in the air. The sun in the sky seems half the size it is on Earth, but the space shield itself provides a supplementary light source. A stream of lava flows nearby the house in almost parody of a little farmhouse creek, and the zippo-bot is sitting beside it. He waves and seems happy to see them.

"You weren't answering your communicator..," Zero says, only to have a happy Heat interrupt.

"It's Cuddles. Something really great happened and I didn't want to miss anything, so I shut communications off."

"Please tell me it didn't breed," mutters Zero.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

His first thought is how alien it looks, followed quickly by a reminder of where he is. What did he expect it to look like? Gospel snorts a few times at the smell.

"What could possibly be so great that you needed to shut off communications to keep from missing it?"

[atomic_zippo]

"Look!" says Heat, cheerily, gesturing towards the lava flow.

Which now has a head. Cuddles oozes his way back out and onto Heat's lap before looking up at the company. "Magcargo..." the pokemon drawls.

"Huh," says Zero. Cuddles had been half that size and shell-less the last time he'd seen the creature. Now the magma slug was a full two feet long and had a thin shell that looked like it was mostly ash and very thin rock. "It got bigger."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Is that all?" Forte is not impressed. "Unless it keeps getting bigger, we need Gate to have a look at your armor."

Gospel tilts his head curiously at Cuddles, but isn't getting any closer. It's obvious from a distance there won't be anything learned from sniffing it.

[atomic_zippo]

Heat looks a little miffed. "Evolving is an important event for Pokemon," he says, picking up Cuddles and getting to his feet. "If something this important happened to Gospel, bet you wouldn't be saying 'is that all?' about it..."

"Maaaag," says Cuddles, giving Heat an affectionate nuzzle.

Heat sighs and relents. "Well, I need to talk to Bubble anyway, so I guess... why does Gate want to scan me?"

"He doesn't, yet," says Zero. "We need more info on your heat resistance. It's kind of a long story and maybe I'll tell you someday, but we don't have time for it all now."

Heat just nods, which causes his lid to fall down.