Mewtwo uses Transform to take on the shape of one of the scientists, the one she remembers best, scoops up the Paras, and walks determinedly towards the nearest town. She remembers exactly where it is, not having wanted to run into it by accident...she isn't happy about approaching it now, but. This poor little Paras. 

She hands the little Pokemon over to the nurse at the Center with little more than a shiver, reminding herself that the human thinks she is also a human, holding the Paras captive. Nurse humans give pokemon back to their captors. She waits, gnawing her lip and digging her fingernails into human-looking flesh, before the nurse brings back a rather confused Paras who doesn't realize how they got there. She thanks the nurse quietly, picks up the smaller pokemon, and then walks out of the village as quickly as she can without attracting suspicion. 

And then she lets the little Pokemon go, when they've reached the edge of the forest. It nuzzles her in thanks before skittering off, and she falls to the ground without even reversing the transformation to curl up and have a panic attack. 

Having panic attacks is exhausting. She transitions smoothly from waking terror to nightmares. 

When she wakes up she is no longer in the forest.  

Instead, she is in a bed in a small, windowless, oddly-shaped room.  A set of handcuffs is connecting one of her arms to a bar on the wall.  Beside the bed is a reinforced cage where a mew is being held.  Some monitoring equipment is nearby, with a scanner pointed towards her and another pointed towards the mew.

Opposite them, near the door, is a desk and several large pieces of unidentifiable machinery.  One has a pokeball inside of a glass top portion.  A single human sits at the desk, alternating between typing at his laptop and glancing at the mew.  A liepard lounges on top of one of the machines, watching her.  

What?

What?? What??? 

She's! In a cage again!?!? And there's--

Oh. 

There's--there's a Mew there. A real one, not a bizarre altered version like her. 

Someone tried the same thing her creators did. Someone got a cleaner result. 

She turns back, throws the desk the human is behind at the human, blows apart her cage, curls up 

and

SCREAMS

The scientist has a split-second to gape at the human suddenly turning into yet another legendary before his desk crashes into him.  The liepard winces when he's hit, and after a moment of shocked hesitation leaps down to help her human half on the other side of the upturned desk.

On the other side of thick walls, a small city's worth of people all jolt up at once, looking around to see what that not-noise was.  

Was? Is. She's having the biggest panic attack she's had since she escaped Giovanni. 

The Mew, trembling, bangs against the walls of the cage. 

The cage was meant to hold pokemon or daemons, and is therefore quite durable from the inside.  Mew are strong enough to break out, as the cage was only rated for normal daemons and not legendaries, though banging on the bars without utilizing a Move isn't likely to succeed any time soon.

The liepard and scientist are still hidden from view.  They're hiding, though some occasional noises can be heard as the scientist shifts and gasps in pain.  No one dares to enter the room, and the two others who had been in the hidden lab have decided that this is a good sign to leave.  

Eventually, Mewtwo calms down enough for it to occur to her than the Mew in a cage is a problem she is qualified to solve. The cage tears itself to pieces, and the Mew darts free and divebombs Mewtwo. Mewtwo flinches, but rather than making any kind of attack, the Mew just curls up against her chest and shivers. 

It feels...nice. 

Mewtwo snuggles her--whatever the word is for the thing you are a fucked-up clone of--and the screaming trails off. 

The city beyond is still confused.  People are called from their beds to go looking for what just happened, though given that the whole of Tower of Autumn was affected, they have no idea where to start looking.  

Eventually, Mew still clutched to her chest, she uncurls. This is a lab. Lab bad. She knows what to do about that, though, she's done it before. She teleports away. Not back to the forest, they found her there. She tries somewhere high enough up that she'll be able to see roughly where she is and be able to decide where to hide from there. 

They appear near the ceiling of some kind of greenhouse.  Entire fruit trees are being grown within, with just enough space between the roof and the tops of the trees for her to not touch either while in a standing position.  Above, the sky is strange.  Rather than a day or night sky, there is a large tube lined with rows of similar glass roofs, with green on the other side of them.  Trees and other plants, possibly, but growing sideways and upside down from her perspective.  Running through the center is a row of bright lights which illuminates everything as if it's daylight.  Huge metal spokes like a wheel have been put into the tube every thousand feet or so, keeping the lights centered and connected.

Whaaaaaaat? 

...

She tries more up. 

That is the void of space.  Stars, un-blurred by an atmosphere in front of them, blaze steady and bright amid blackness.  In the direction she'd come from is a massive structure of metal well over a mile long and a bit wider than the interior of the tube had been.  Vaguely cylindrical, though not smooth.  Some smaller ships, still large enough to hold towns, are attached like burrs to the sides in rings.  One other of similar size and shape is floating in the distance parallel to the first.  Both are old, pitted with impacts here and there, patched with metal that doesn't quite match the original.  

There is no air up here.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BAD

WHAT

BACK WHERE THERE IS AIR

Back in the greenhouse.  It isn't wilderness, but it does appear to be empty of humans or pokemon for the moment.

Cool that makes it perfect for MORE PANIC ATTACK. She curls up around the tiny Mew and hyperventilates. 

Verity and Araeneve had been taking their usual morning run through the farms when the psychic scream went out, and were still a bit startled.  After pausing to see if it had been directed at them, they decided that it would be better to cut their walk short and head back to the nearest habitat district to see if it was something that they either needed to be informed of or inform others of.  Turning around, they began walking back the way they'd come, towards the nearest stairway back down to the living layer.  

On their way back through the orchard, they hear rapid breathing in the otherwise silent greenhouse and hesitantly go to investigate.  

Verity-and-Araeneve would definitely have known if anyone had a Mewtwo or a Mew daemon right now. They do not. 

And yet, here it is, a Mewtwo curled up around a Mew, both of them radiating terror and misery with body language and only just barely not with psychic projection. 

And no human in sight.  Two daemons settling as legendaries in one day, together, in the middle of a normally empty greenhouse, and both... having their humans run off to initiate separation immediately upon settling?  She is confused.

"What's going on?"

The Mewtwo shrieks and leaps up, still clutching the Mew, looks around, sees them, and immediately dives behind a tree out of line of sight. 

Araeneve is hardly going to get into a fight with two other legendaries, but they both realize that it would probably be bad to leave them immediately.  Verity does get off of her back, so that only the daemon of the pair can take another few steps forward.  "Are you okay?" they say, trying to put more gentleness into the words.

Humans. Lab. Endless night. Couldn't breathe. Cages. Cages!

Araeneve pauses.  They aren't sure what endless night means, but the others...  "Your human halves are in cages?"

Humans no. 

...She pauses and peeks out. 

There's a human there. It was riding you. I can teleport! Do you want to get away?

"I'm her soul I can't be teleported away," Araeneve says, somewhat frantic, backing up and returning to Verity as if threatened.  You can't do that to daemons who haven't separated.  She twists around Verity, curling around behind her defensively.

Soul? I don't understand. 

Confusion.  "Uh."  They have to pause for a moment.  "... All people have two bodies - a human of flesh, and a daemon of soul.  We are Verity-and-Araeneve."

N...o...

Neither of them can think of an argument to that.  Other than 'yes', which... would sound probably a bit rude.  Hmm.

"Do you need help?"

I don't know where I am and there are humans everywhere and I'm scared and I can't find any outdoors that isn't night sky in every direction with no air. 

They speak gently and slowly, starting at the beginning and hoping something sounds familiar.  "This is the fleet.  A long time ago, the planet that our ancestors came from was dying.  To survive, they built ships that could fly through space.  There are other planets that we could land on, and live on.  We're trying to reach one now, but it's a long journey."

Oh no. 

There is no outside? There are humans everywhere? 

"There are places where people don't go often.  That's why we're out here, to be left alone for a while.  Though it isn't somewhere to live permanently."

She considers the mew.  "What about you ...mew?  Sorry, I don't know either of your names."

The Mew shivers. I don't know. There was a cage. Before that, nothing. There was a cage, and a man in a lab coat, and a human in a cage, and then she woke up and then she wasn't human anymore, she was Mewtwo. 

I used Transform so I could bring a Paras to a Pokemon center without anyone trying to capture us, Mewtwo chimes in. 

Mewtwo broke our cages and threw a desk at the man who was not in a cage and I wanted to be with her so I went and she hugged me and it was good, Mew continues. Then she teleported around and I didn't really care about that except for the part where we couldn't breathe, that was bad. 

They are still confused.  Possibly even more confused.  "So, Mewtwo, you were somewhere with wilderness... a planet?  And rescued a paras to bring to a hospital.  Which you disguised yourself as a human to do.  Did the humans not have daemons?  Or... are all people born together then separate as babies?  Though... why was anyone trying to capture you?"

I don't know what a daemon is. There are humans and there are pokemon, and the humans keep pokemon captive and make them fight for them and take them away. I wasn't captured, I was made, in a lab, but when I escaped I saw that it was the same. The humans would come into the forest and throw their capture balls at pokemon and the pokemon would go in the balls and the humans would take them away and nobody would ever see them again. The other pokemon in the forest would try to fight the humans anyway, even though the humans would have captive pokemon fight them until they were weak enough for the balls, but the other pokemon liked fighting and I don't, I mostly avoided them, and they weren't too bothered by the idea of being captured but I've been held captive by humans and it's awful!

"Like I mentioned before, daemons are the soul half of a person.  Every time a human is born, a ditto appears alongside them.  We are connected - hurting one hurts the other, killing one kills the other.  We can't get more than a few meters apart or touch humans other than our own without pain.  In adolescence we settle, turning from a ditto into a permanent form based on personality.

"There used to be pokemon in the dead world we came from.  We don't know as much as we should... a lot of information about back then was lost.  They were supposedly non-sapient, shaped like daemons and had the same abilities, but needed to eat and do other biological things daemons do not.  So, I guess you being pokemon makes sense.  It doesn't explain the humans not having daemons where you were, though." 

What would someone even be without a soul?  Perhaps that explained why they captured pokemon.  Either evil and with no concious to tell them right from wrong, or trying to fill a void beside themselves?  

Dead world? 

"A planet inside of a pocket dimension.  The sky here goes on forever with stars scattered around in it.  The sky there was a spherical shell at the edge of the universe, with tiny points of light glowing on it.  Its sun and moon were just larger points of light.  It had been stable for a long time but eventually whatever was making it work started breaking down and collapsing.  Pokemon populations started vanishing, the lights in the sky-sphere started going out...  Everyone got together to build the ships, and get at least a portion of the population free."

How--how did I get here?

"I don't know.  Do you remember the people at the pokemon center doing anything?"

No. The nurse took Paras and treated them and brought them back and I took him back to the forest and let him go and had a panic attack and fell asleep without turning back. 

Hmm.  That would have to all have happened on a very short timescale for that to make sense with what they know of transform.  Then again, perhaps a powerful legendary using transform would be able to make it last longer.  

"Mew, does any of what she said sound familiar?  Or anything I said about the fleet or dead world?"

I don't think so. 

"Hmm.

"Could you find the place on the fleet with the cages again, if you wanted to?  That shouldn't be happening, and the police should be informed.  Also, whoever they are might have clues as to what brought you two here."

I think so. You're sure the police would do something about it?

"They'd better," they say.  "Kidnapping and imprisoning people is illegal."

Skeptical: Even when the people are Pokemon?

"I can't see why that should make a difference."

It always has before.

"As I've said, we don't have any history of how pokemon were handled on the dead world.  Other than that we tried to save some of them while preparing our ships, and they wound up dying out anyway for reasons we don't understand.

"If you stay out here, I'd expect you to eventually be found anyway since this is a terrible place to hide long-term.  That, or the scientists will catch you and lock you up again, since they've already proven able to do that.  

"If you go to the police, I'd expect them to look into it.  Society has a lot of flaws, but people knowing where you are and being willing to look into it if you vanish is one of the things that doesn't suck about it.  The church will be obnoxious, and a lot of people will be clamoring to serve you and ask for advice and declare you some kind of religious miracle.  Even more so than normal legendaries like me.  I don't expect anyone would hurt you.  They're annoying and will try to take up your time and want you to do things, but," they make a gesture indicating themself.  "You'll notice I'm not with the other legendaries."

...Legendaries? Is that like Mew, where people didn't know for sure if they existed and they're really powerful?

"Supposedly, on the dead world there were some pokemon that were unusually powerful, immortal, and the only ones of their species.  Mewtwo, Mew, and Suicune were among them.  About 70 species in total.  Only about 1 in 100,000 daemons gets one of their shapes.  We are stronger than normal daemons, though not by as much as the church claims the pokemon legendaries were.  I don't know if that's a real difference or the church is just exaggerating things as usual.  There's 10 legendaries on the fleet, including me.  12, now, counting you."

People knew about me? 

"They knew of a Mewtwo.  You don't know about daemons or the dying of our world, so you probably aren't the one we knew.  Maybe every universe or planet comes with one of each legendary?"

But people made me. On purpose. They were trying to clone Mew out of an ancient eyelash or something and they got me. 

"Our creation myths do tend to connect Mew and Mewtwo.  All of them, at least the ones I read, assume the legendaries were created at the start of the world," they say, considering, then they begin to quote the currently-dominant one.  It isn't hard, considering that they'd been dragged to church every week in the three years between settling and turning 18 and finally being able to refuse.  "The explanation most people around here believe goes 'And Arceus next created the legendaries, to aid in the creation and governing of the new world,'" they recite, tone indicating both that they are quoting something and don't much care for it.  "Various other legendaries are listed, then 'And Mew was created, and brought much happiness and joy into the world, and Arceus was glad.  To double the joy that the world would contain, they created a second one.  Yet, such things are intended to be unique, and there was a divide, for how can a world be truly joyful if not for the wonders of variety?  Therefore, the second Mew became Mewtwo, bringing their own form of uniqueness into the world.'"

"That doesn't explain how you wound up being created by humans.  Then again, we also don't know how where you came from had strange daemonless humans, or paras, or Mew."

It would be weird if there was a Mewtwo that wasn't a clone of Mew created by humans who wanted power...but okay. We can talk to the police. 

They nod.  It's not going to be especially pleasant for them, either.  "The closest path down is that way," they gesture.  

The human half of Verity-and-Araeneve has been standing back and staying out of the conversation.  She doesn't get on Araeneve's back as they slowly start walking, remembering that Mewtwo had taken issue with it earlier.  As they move, it becomes much clearer that they are one person in two bodies.  They don't walk in lockstep, but their motions do match in subtle ways.

Mewtwo follows Araeneve, careful to stay on the other side of them from Verity. 

Mew finally exits Mewtwo's grasp and starts darting around, getting a better look at their environs as they move. 

The orchard continues onward for a short time, the boughs of the trees covered in unripe fruit.  Each tree is the same size, and in precise rows to either side of the wide path.  Other parallel paths are visible to either side.  There's no underbrush to obscure the pathways from each other, only the trunks of trees and some patches of grass.  Above, the not-sky of the ship is visible through gaps in the branches, bright and mostly green.  This is not a park meant to be pretty, but a farming area meant to create food.

As they approach one of the sets of giant spokes holding the lights centered, the orchard ends in a wall.  The door in it is sturdy metal, with sensors to let it shut automatically if the air pressure on either side drops too low.  It's currently open, leading to a short room with another identical door only a few meters away.  Beyond that is more farmland.  A pair of ramps go downward to both the left and right within the room between.  

"This will go down to Sapphire Hall," Araeneve mentions, though the sign on the wall also says that.  "The neighborhood where I live.  They have a police station in the center."

Will there be lots of people there?

"There shouldn't be too many at this time of day.  Some in the Hall on the way over, which might ask questions but I can tell them we're in a hurry.  A few more at the station, and they'll probably have us talk to two or three at most."

Okay. 

Do those numbers count daemons separately or together? Mew asks. 

"Together.  So, two or four or maybe six physical bodies."

The ramp goes down for four high-ceilinged stories, turning around a few times as it does so.  There's no elevator here, being a somewhat-discouraged path if not explicitly forbidden.  No one else is using it.  The ramp goes down further, but they stop at a door a few switchbacks down.  

As they go on, Mew's darting circles around the group grow wider. 

At one point, she attempts to look at something on the ceiling, only for both her and Mewtwo to flinch in pain and Mew dives back down to the other Legendary. 

"Is everything okay?" Araeneve asks, watching them while Verity opens the large and heavy door.

I think so? I don't know what just happened.

"Hmm.  Let me know if it keeps happening."

The door opens on a very long wide hallway that's more like an indoor road, starting at the wall they came out of and going for a full kilometer before stopping at another wall.  The entire room is three high-ceilinged stories tall, and they are on the third-floor balcony which looks down on the rest.  Unlike the bare lab or ramp side-passage, there was some care in making this place look nice.  The wide balconies are tiled in multiple varieties of stone to make intricate patterns, and the walls are painted in shades of blue in horizontal stripes.  Windows and doors are set into the walls on all sides, looking like houses.  White planter boxes line the edges of the balconies and the walls, thigh-high to a human, growing lush green plants and trailing flowering vines.  Occasional bridges go across from one side of the hall to the other, trailing both flowers and blue silk banners.  The ceiling has a large row of lights in the center and a mirrored surface that makes the room look twice as tall.  Below, the first floor has an artificial river running down the center, and patches of trees can be seen in the distance.

A few humans are visible on the same balcony as them, each with their daemons.  The first floor is more populated.  No one is currently looking at them, being occupied with their phones or talking amongst themselves.  There's a general sense of unease, though not enough to stop most people from continuing their usual routines.  

Mewtwo arranges to be on the other side of Araeneve from the nearest human at all times. 

Verity and Araeneve attract some attention on their own.  Some people on the opposite wall from them take notice.  A starly gets a closer look by flying to the edge of her range and hovering for a moment before returning, but no one goes out their way to approach them.  They pass a man with a long beard and an electrike, who stare and bow as they pass.  He looks confused, and once they've passed begins frantically searching through his phone for news on legendary settling.

Mewtwo cringes back when the man bows. 

What was that? she asks Araeneve. 

"What was what?"

He, uh, did something, at me? I don't--know things about humans mostly.

"The bow?  It's a sign of respect that people do to important people, and also a sort of greeting.  You're going to be really high-ranked here, so lots of people will bow to you but you don't need to bow back."

...I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that.

"Yeah, me neither."

Is it going to be different when they find out I'm not a daemon? 

"Probably not.  If it does, it would probably make you more important.  Especially..." they think back, finally noticing something they'd overlooked earlier.  "How did you first get to the greenhouse from the lab?"

I teleported.

"Teleport, at least the Move we use around here, can only take us to places we've already been.  I also noticed that the story of how you got here would have needed to happen in a very short timeframe, due to transform not wearing off during it.  It's possible that moves work differently for daemons and pokemon.  That, or our worlds could have developed different moves to do similar things."

That's possible. I--I just needed to get away. Always. 

They nod.  

Their path is mostly straight, other than a section about a third through the Hall where the center path widens into a round tree-filled park and the balconies curve along with the wall.  The park has a number of benches and pieces of playground equipment, mostly empty.  A pair of older men and their alakazam and metagross daemons play some kind of chess-like game. The board is tiled in hexagons, with four colors of pieces working in two teams.  Several more people bow or stare, though none approach.  Verity is a local, here, and known to dislike interruptions or people prying.  

Finally, approximately in the Hall's center, they go down a ramp to the bottom level to where the well-labeled front of the Emergency Services sticks out of the wall. Large glass doors show a simple and clean open area with a waiting area to one side, two emergency teleport targets across from them, an entrance desk in the very center, and a few tables along the back wall.  Sitting out front are the only two vehicles that have been seen so far, which look like some variant of ambulance.  Four people are visible inside - eight counting daemons.  Two secretaries and their swablu and noibat in a windowed alcove in the desk, a uniformed officer with an arcanine walking towards a hallway in the distance, and a weary man and a flapple reading something in the waiting area.  

Mewtwo's tail flicks nervously. Mew hides behind her head. 

They're less likely to be interrupted by curious strangers inside of the station than outside, so Araeneve quickly ushers them inside.  The doors are automatic.

The secretaries notice them immediately, and stare for just a bit as they cross the short distance to the desk.  "Legendaries," one of the secretaries greets, nodding his head in an approximation of a bow.  Assuming the outfits match the daemons, he's the one with the swablu.  "How can we help you?"

Verity freezes, not entirely sure what order to go about explaining things in.

"Uh.  Well, first, we'd like to report a crime.  Someone on the ship is doing illegal experiments of some kind and was keeping people hostage to do so.  And..." she waves at the mew and mewtwo.  "These two were kidnapped from some other planet as part of that experiment.  They escaped."

The secretary nods, and presses a button.  "I see.  An officer should be by shortly, to help you file a full report of the incident.  Please take a seat at one of the tables to the back, and they'll be by shortly."

...Mewtwo sort of nervously floats in the general direction of one of the tables. 

The tables have two normal-looking chairs, two backless stools with attachable booster seats, and plenty of room for daemons too large to need chairs.  Verity sits in one of the normal chairs and Araeneve sits behind her, their chin resting on Verity's shoulder and mane curling around protectively.  

The officer with the arcanine steps back into the room moments later and takes in the strange sight.  His uniform is mostly a practical outfit of blue and gray, but with a sash of orange and black.  An elaborate golden badge is pinned to the front of the shirt, star-shaped with the words 'Sapphire - Police' written within.  He approaches the table and takes an empty seat.  "Hello.  We're officer Tony-and-Otodirana.  You're here to report a crime?"

There was a lab. And a cage. Two cages. I--we--escaped and Verity-and-Aranaeve found me. 

He can write that down.  Otodirana has an electronic recorder, and flips a large built-for-arcanines switch to activate it, though it won't pick up the psychic speech.

"And what are your names?"

...I'm Mewtwo. She's Mew. Nobody ever gave us any names other than that.

Officer Tony marks that down, clearly confused.

Verity summarizes, having had a chance to put the information in order, and also having a voice that recorders can pick up.  There's a strange world where daemonless zombie humans capture wild pokemon and make them fight.  The zombies managed to create this mewtwo by cloning the wild mew of that world, and then Mewtwo escaped them to live in the wilderness.  This mew might be that one with amnesia, or might not be - they have no memories before being woken up in the cage.  

Mewtwo had gone into a town of the zombie humans transformed as one of them, in order to save a wild paras.  They thought the paras was one of her captured-and-forced-to-fight pokemon and healed it.  Then she and the paras returned to the forest, and woke up on the fleet in cages in a lab.  The healing place was probably not related, but they did happen one after another so it might be worth noting?  Mewtwo freed herself and Mew from the cages, then teleported out - their teleportation seems to work slightly differently than normal. 

Verity had been wandering off going about her legitimate duties of water purification on the farms when she heard a strange psychic scream.  It made her turn around and head back to the Hall to see what was going on, and she found Mewtwo and Mew hiding in one of the orchards on the way back.

"Uh, I've been assuming, but I haven't actually checked," she says, turning to Mewtwo.  "Was that psychic scream you?"

Oh. Yes. I woke up in a cage and panicked. 

Officer Tony notes it down.  "It's good to know what that was," Otodirana mentions.  "We can tell the people who were wondering about it not to worry, now."

"Would you be able to find the lab on a map, or lead a team of police to it without teleporting?"

...Maybe? I know what direction it was from where I was...I don't think I could lead people to it, I don't know what's in the way, but the map might work.

An electronic map is provided.  Each segment of the great ships are made of kilometer-long units running side by side around the cylinder, topped with a slightly narrower section of farmland or park.  Many of these are near-identical Halls full of houses and shops.  Others have storage, machinery, or additional food production.  Each is named after a color and given a banner to distinguish it from the others.  The three other great ships can be seen if the map is zoomed out, with similar layouts.  Smaller vessels of greatly varied design stick off of the sides of the larger ships in places, each with their own maps.  

Mewtwo studies the map for a while and then points to a spot in Topaz Hall. 

The space is right in the middle of Topaz's shopping district.  It's a small branch of the main Hall containing a set of public restrooms and a storage area, supposedly.  "I'll call in a team to look around," the officer promises.  

"Are there any other details, for the report?"

...The man I threw the table at...there was a liepard, I think he had a liepard daemon.

"That does narrow it down a bit," he says, marking down male and liepard.  There were still perhaps a thousand people that could be, compared to hundreds of thousands.

"Next is making certain you have a safe place to stay.  Typically, for a Legendary, I'd suggest going to the church..." he glances at Verity.  Her reputation is well known, though Tony had only ever seen her at a distance.  "Or going to the standard housing councilor."

"I really hate to admit it, but the church is probably better than the housing councilor.  The high-end apartments that Legendaries are given through the church have extra security for privacy, which is important since a lot of people are especially nosy about us and some are ghost-types that phase through walls.

"You can also stay in my house for a while, if you'd prefer.  Unfortunately, they don't even let legendaries camp in the farms."

What's a church?

"A large organization that tries to guide people on how to live their lives 'correctly.'  They believe a lot of unprovable things about how the universe began and where people's minds go after they die, and tell people to act in ways that sort of make sense if you take their assumptions as true.  The creation myth I mentioned earlier, about where our pokemon mew and mewtwo came from, is part of their tradition.  People are encouraged - not required - to go to a church building and listen to someone read part of the myth collection every week.  'Church' refers to the locations used for that, the organization as a whole, and the collection of myths and philosophies they follow."

"Legendaries are ostensibly in charge, though we can't change most things.  They provide for us, as long as we show up to certain events every so often, and perform some kind of useful job around the ships.  Much better accommodations than most people get, too." 

What are they going to think is "correct" for me.

"There are options.  All people need to follow all of the laws, but there are many ways of living within those.  Cultural things, like the church saying all water types must care about cleanliness, are ignorable.  We have laws stating that people aren't forced to believe in or follow the church, since some of the little ships that joined the fleet from other countries from the dead world didn't follow the same one.  People will think less of you if you do rude things, and like people more if they follow the same philosophy and behaviors, but that depends on how much you care about them liking you, I suppose.

"For jobs... I don't know which Moves a mewtwo can use, or how yours differ.  Maybe teleporting people or cargo between ships, or bringing them to hospitals?  Or judging crimes, when people agree to mind-reading, if you can do that.  Anything where something needs to be done, to help people or keep things running, and Moves that only some people can do are the best way to do it.  On the less useful side, Legendaries also often just work in the church itself, organizing things or reading the myths to people every week, and helping them decide what to do.  Considering you don't know anything about it, that might not be a good first plan. 

"And Mew, you can do just about any Move, if what I've read is correct.  That means you can learn to generate steel or diamonds, when very few others can, which are important for making expansions of the ships for people to spread out into.  Life Dew and Aromatherapy can heal people.  Or other things, if you really hate all of those, though they're the ones you'll be nudged towards."

I don't want people to try to tell me what to do. It's like cages. 

I guess I don't hate the idea of healing people or making things, Mew says dubiously. 

"Yeah, I don't like it either, but I can see the point. 

"The basic logic goes: every person needs things in order to live, that need work in order to be made.  Food is made by farmers.  Air is kept breathable by farms and other people who take care of the plants.  We have light because electric-types power the generators that keep the lights powered.  Also less obvious things - ice-types keep the ships from overheating, there's emergency services to fix if different types of things go wrong, teachers to tell children about things they need to know, and a lot of other things.  One person can't do all of those things for themselves, but we can each do something.  Then when they do their job they get money - an object that shows that they did useful work - that they can trade to people for the important stuff they don't do but others did."

I didn't need anyone to do anything for me in the forest.

"That's because on planets things are just livable without anyone needing to try.  Up here, though, everything that exists does so because everyone's getting together and trying really hard to keep everyone else alive."

"Considering that you're, er, new enough here to not know these things, I suspect you'll be expected to go to school or be tutored for a while, before deciding on how you can help.  That does still require being told what to do, unfortunately, but it's being told about how things work."

...Okay. We'll see how things go, I guess. 

"Huh, right.  I just sort of assumed that anyone living in the wilderness alone knew things that we'd consider important for someone to know before doing that, but that doesn't really make sense in this situation."

They wonder if asking for Mewtwo's age would even be relevant.  A 200 year old who spent their entire lives in the woods would know as much economic theory as a 2 year old in the same position, however pokemon aged.

Even if it isn't relevant for practical reasons, it is for paperwork ones.  Or tablet-work, considering the general rarity of paper up here. 

"Before I leave to tell the Topaz station about this, we should get you set up with identification."  Officer Tony types for a few minutes, pulling up a form.  "It just means having your names and some other basic information put into the computers.  It doubles as a debit card so you can buy things from stores easily.  More importantly, it lets us stay organized and make sure that everyone has somewhere to live and help for the things you'll need help with, and so we know who we can contact if there's a big emergency and we need everyone with a certain Move to show up and help.

"Can you read our language?  If not, I can read the questions out loud and write them for you."

I think so. It's a little different from how the scientists wrote things but not too much.

"Okay.  Just fill in anything you have answers to, write in 'n/a' to anything that definitely doesn't sound like something you have, and ask if you aren't sure what a question means."

The tablet and a stylus are passed over to Mewtwo first.  The questions are straightforward.  Name, parents' names, daemon name, age, birth date, daemon form, current Moves...

Glancing over at the questions, Verity finally notices something and some information clicks into place.  "Hold on," she says, the human half speaking for the first time in a while.  "Would you mind testing a silly theory, first?  Can Mew fly over to the station doors?  I'm wondering if you're... connected.  Daemon-wise."

What? Mewtwo asks. 

I guess I don't mind, Mew contributes, and darts over to the doors. 

There is an unpleasant feeling when Mew gets too far away.  The feeling of being pulled apart, and like continuing further would be doing something very cruel to oneself.  It's the same pain that occurred when Mew flew too high up in the ramp room from the farms to the Hall.  

It turns out I do mind! Mew exclaims, darting back. 

"Huh.  You're a person-daemon pair, then.  It explains why Mew doesn't have memories before you showed up here, if they just appeared.  Probably.  I've never heard of anyone getting a daemon more than a few seconds after birth."

Strange that Mewtwo didn't get a mewtwo daemon.  Or that she got one at all.  Even the wild legendaries of the dead world, which were almost certainly sapient, didn't have them.  

"I guess that means you'll only need to fill out one form."

I...guess. This is weird, right?

"Things were already weird.  I wouldn't have expected it, but considering how many other things that happened today I wouldn't have expected...  It is good that you have a daemon.  Not for any particular reason.  Just, having a daemon is good."

Well, I like Mew.

"Yes, you two seem very nice."

...Thank you.

Officer Tony is still watching, waiting for the paperwork to be filled out, looking confused at all of the strangeness.  Perhaps he should get them back on task, however, so he can go inform Topaz Hall of the criminal lab.  

"You can put down 'Mew' and 'Mewtwo' as your names, and keep them as that forever if that's what you prefer to be called.  You can also choose a non-species-based name now, or go to a government office and request a name change at any point in the future, if you decide on ones you like."

I don't know. I don't...I don't know. 

She fills out the form with Mewtwo and Mew in the name slots. 

Araeneve uncoils from around Verity's chair and pads the short distance over.  Does Mew want a reassuring nuzzle?  Quietly, "I suspect it's overwhelming, having to deal with a bunch of things all at once.  We'll help guide you through everything until you're used to it, and not let there be any trouble."

The officer takes back the tablet when Mewtwo is finished.  After a few seconds of typing, "You have an account in our systems.  Verity will be able to get you a phone?" he asks as a question, looking up to Verity as she nods.

"You look like you need some time to calm down and get accustomed to things.  Go with Verity for now, if you'd rather do that than deal with a counselor right away, and we can send someone to make sure everything is in order in a few days," Otodirana says gently to Mewtwo.  

Yesplease. 

Mew nuzzles Araeneve back. Dealing with lots of humans is still scary even if they aren't zombies. 

They can leave the station and travel the short distance to Verity-and-Araeneve's home.  It's not far - up a ramp, past a few offices, then through a large private lobby and to a smaller hallway with a few doors branching off.  From the detailing on the molding, the elaborate tilework walls, and the distance between the doors, these are much nicer apartments than the ones coming directly off of the main Hall.  

Her house is large, made of an open-plan central room with five doors leading elsewhere.  The architecture and furnishings are high quality, with a chandelier hanging from the vaulted ceiling and the furniture containing panels of valuable wood.  The tables are littered with various half-finished projects and waylaid baskets of laundry needing folding.  A number of boxes take up sections of the room, over askew rugs.

Mew darts into one of the baskets of laundry to snuggle up and/or hide. 

The basket is full of teal and blue and purple shirts.  

Verity leans against the door as soon as she shuts it.  She's more used to it, and not expecting danger, but she still doesn't like the stares of people while walking through the Hall in the daytime.  In a few hours she'll probably have to go back out to buy a set of phones, but for the moment the door is shut and locked.  

Thank you. For helping us. 

"We couldn't stand by and do nothing."

They check on the spare room to make sure everything's in order, then point out the various doors.  The bedroom where Mewtwo and Mew can go if they want to be alone, even from her.  Her own room, which is private to everyone but Verity-and-Araeneve.  Restroom, storage closet, and an empty room that doesn't have furniture.  The kitchen is already a part of the large open central room.

With that, they are going to go look for wherever they put their phone.

The two new Legendaries decide to hide in the alone bedroom for a bit. Being around people is kind of exhausting. 

The room is as richly furnished as the rest of the house.  A low square bed is set into a corner with a quarter-circle canopy over top and currently-empty shelves on the two sides touching the wall.  A pair of chests, a desk and chair, and a dresser match the bed, all painted a dark blue and standing out against the pale yellow walls.  The room's colors are primary - reds, blues, and yellows - and fairly bold.  Between the lowness of the furniture and the bright colors, this was probably originally intended to be a child's room by whoever designed it.  It is lacking any details that would show it has been used as more than the occasional guest room, however.

...This...is a very different kind of room than Mewtwo has ever seen before, given her history with humans and their buildings. 

...

She's going to TOUCH EVERYTHING. 

It's hard to tell what material the furniture is made from under the blue paint, but perhaps a dense particle board from their weight.  The table and chair legs are round, and the edges of the desk and shelves are rounded off smooth to match.  The chair has a cushion on the seat that gives a small amount beneath durable fabric.  The quarter-circle canopy is sheer silk with a lace pattern sewn in, making for a complex texture.  The bed is soft, covered in silk sheets, and the pillows are fluffy and light.  Beneath the square rug that covers the furniture-less center of the room (more durable and less soft than the sheets, but still plush), the floor is sealed with resin that's smooth but not slippery.

Soft??? Soft!!!

She dives into the bed and snuggles into the blankets. 

They are soft and also warm.  Mewtwo will remain undisturbed for a while.  

Meanwhile, Verity has found her phone.  There are several new messages, all asking roughly the same questions.  She types out a brief summary of what happened, that Mewtwo-and-Mew are in her care, and that they're skittish and don't want to be bothered right away.  The social media is also beginning to light up with similar questions, and she posts the summary there, too.  She doesn't like this much attention either, and calms herself by double-checking the apartment's security systems, then clearing up some of the older projects on the tables and rearranging her stacks of boxes a bit.  

Eventually Mew ventures out of the room and seeks out Araeneve. 

Are all human dwellings this soft?

"Soft?"

The bed is soft and the chair is soft and there is just a lot of soft fabric and it's good.

"Yeah, soft things are nice.  We have about the normal amount, I think."

There wasn't a lot of softness in the lab or with Giovanni or in the forest. We like soft.

"We have some places that aren't meant to be comfortable, like factories or storage areas, but anywhere people sleep or sit for a long time are usually soft.  

"Who is Giovanni?"

Mew curls in on herself. I don't know. Mewtwo mentioned him and his name makes me afraid. 

"If they're from the world you came from, they can't get you here."

I know. Here seems much better, even if it's hard that we can't be go somewhere there isn't anyone if we want to.

"Most people like living here.  I'm unusual in my dislike of it."

...I want you to be somewhere you would like.

"So would I.  Perhaps once they find the lab, someone can figure out a way to use whatever they did to send people to other worlds instead of bringing them here."

That would be good. Maybe unless they can only reach the world with the zombie humans. But even there there are real forests.

They shudder at the thought of dealing with zombies.  "It might be a good idea to stop them from hurting pokemon, if we can."

Yeah. Maybe there's some way to make them not zombies anymore. If they're only bad because there's something wrong with them then if we fix the thing and they stop being bad then that would be good. I dunno though. The guy who put us in cages in the lab here wasn't a zombie I think.

"There are still a few bad people here.  Or good people who do bad things, because they don't know enough to predict the consequences, or because they have to choose between two bad options." They paw at the ground.  "It's hard to tell the difference, when everyone thinks they're doing things for good reasons.  Not having daemons can't possibly be good for them, though."

Yeah. Cages are always bad, though. I think it would be hard to be confused about that.

They nod.  "Though... will you object to the kidnappers getting arrested?  That means they'll be locked up for a day or two, waiting for the trial.  Probably not after that, though.  Sometimes if someone is very sick in a way that can hurt others, physically or mentally, they'll be held somewhere where they can get treatment until it's safe to let them back out.  But it sounds like the scientists are more the type of person who does wrong because they aren't paying attention to the hurt it causes, rather than because their brains were sick, so they'll lose a lot of money and prestige and have to get checked up on, but not get put somewhere they can't get out."

Verity and Araeneve had been forced to take several classes on the judiciary system after becoming legendaries.  Mostly it had just made them more annoyed with how things worked, but it did mean they were better at guessing what the judges would do and why.  

No, that's okay. You do what you have to do to stop people like that.

Araeneve is somewhat pensive, considering it.  Things always end up with an 'unless' or 'except when' stuck onto them, no matter how obvious they should be.  They don't want to keep talking about it, however.  They're used to people getting annoyed when they complain about things that neither side can offer solutions to, and have learned to avoid doing it.

"So, Mew... neither of us need to eat, but does Mewtwo?  We should probably make sure we have something she can eat.  My Verity can go over what we have in the kitchen."

Oh. Yes, she does. She can eat things humans eat so it's probably fine.

"That's handy." 

They need to check a clock, since their usual schedule was interrupted and it's thrown off their sense of time.  "It's still a bit early for food... is there anything else you need?  Verity and I might head out to get you a phone soon, but you don't need to come along."

What's a phone?

"A small electronic device that almost everyone has and carries around with them.  They do a bunch of useful things.  People can contact each other from anywhere in the fleet, if they share their phones' numbers with each other first.  It has internet, which is... not always great since people in a lot of parts of it use it to argue with each other, but my Verity can put in a list of places to get books or movies or news.  There are puzzle games.  Most importantly, it keeps track of your money and interfaces with machines in stores so you can buy things, once you decide to start going out."

That sounds very nice. I think we'll be okay for a while, we have each other and things are soft.

They nod.  If they aren't needed for anything else, they will be padding over the few feet to Verity and start telling her to write down a shopping list.

Mew darts back into the room with Mewtwo for snuggles. 

The room continues to be soft and comfortable.  They don't hear anything other than the omnipresent quiet sound of the ship itself.  

Verity eventually heads out.  

When they return, Mew and Mewtwo will be out in the communal area. 

They come back with a few bags of stuff.  Some is extra groceries, which get placed on one of the clear spots in the kitchen.  Mewtwo and Mew get a large bag.  On top are two phones - one sized for humanoids, the other unusually light and built for daemons with small paws.  As they don't wear clothing, they can also have a pair of lanyards with clips that can attach to phone cases.  A paper book about how to safely use phones, originally intended for children but probably just as functional in this situation.  The majority of the bag's size is a large stuffed cyndaquil doll that they bought on a whim.  The fire on the back is depicted with tufts of variegated red-and-yellow yarn.  "It's a doll," Araeneve explains, "People like to collect them and put them on their beds in addition to the pillows."

It's very soft. And it looks like a Pokemon. And it won't want to fight me. 

She hugs the doll. 

I--thank you. 

She is having SO MANY EMOTIONS right now!

Awww.  Mewtwo-and-Mew should have all of the soft things they want.  "You're welcome."

This place is much better than where we--I--was before. But you should get to have an outside.

"It does have its upsides.  And I can show you to one of the gardens, some time.  Preferably in the early morning when there are fewer people.  It might be a good way to get used to them."

Yes. I don't--if the people here aren't zombies and won't hurt me I don't want to be afraid of them.

They nod.  "We can go to a garden tomorrow morning.  And later today, would you mind if we have someone come over?  They're really good at talking to people and not being scary, and you'll still be able to go into your room if you get overwhelmed."

Okay. That sounds good.

It's still pretty early in the day, so that won't be for a while yet.  Verity-and-Araeneve keep odd hours, but most people are busy now.  Verity sends a message on her own phone to their friend.  

At some point, they begin to prepare food.  Vegetables and rice and a simple sauce, all prepared separately in case Mewtwo only likes one of the components, though Verity's own plate has them mixed together.  

Mewtwo tries all the things carefully and then decides she likes them all together fine. 

That's good.  

Verity-and-Araeneve wind up going to bed not long afterwards - their schedule is nocturnal as the fleet measures time, and they want to be awake for most of the afternoon today.  Mewtwo-and-Mew are left to their own devices, though shown how to set up the VR headsets and adjust them to their head sizes.  It's a bit heavy for Mew, since they don't have ones on hand for tiny daemons, but muscles can presumably be assisted with telekinesis.  Verity-and-Araeneve have a decent collection of programs in the genre of 'walk around pretty locations and solve puzzles for keys that unlock more puzzles', which seem like they might be calming and distracting.  

Mewtwo-and-Mew turn out to love walking around pretty places solving puzzles.

It's a pretty popular genre here.  Even if they decide to spend the entire day on it, they won't get through more than a fraction.  There are also some other programs like art or building or racing vehicles, though Verity has fewer of those kinds.

Eventually, Verity comes back out of her room.  She prepares what is breakfast by her standards or an early dinner by fleet time, and types on her phone the entire time.  Once again she has about a dozen messages.  She puts most of them off for later tonight.

"Azure will come by in about an hour," she says.  "And we've received some news about the lab - the police found it, but the scientists had already left and gotten some of the machines out, too.  What's left and the lab itself are now being guarded and dusted for fingerprints and such.  They have people working on figuring out the machines left behind, and more out looking for the scientists."