Where Our Origins Lie...

Present Time

Fox hadn't left her room for days. She was currently in what had become known as "shut-in status" (something that happened sometimes for various lengths of time that were frequently vaguely long, one time almost going on for a month until Zash had came knocking at the window halfway through the third week to snap her out of it), focusing all her energy into some form of something that was usually research. This time, however, it wasn't alchemy-related, at least not to her knowledge.

No, this time Fox was deeply sunk into a practically-ancient book (not that she wasn't already sinking lots of time into ancient books already) that she had found in some old lock-box that had just somehow appeared in her room.

Literally.

She had no memories of where it could have possibly come from. The librarian and the bookstore owner both had said that they hadn't seen her come in for anything like the book in any state; fugue or otherwise. Her friend at the historical institute had said he had said she hadn't requsting something of that nature from him... ever.

So where had this box, which she had found lying under a stack of research notes in her "myths and legends" pile, come from?

She had her suspicions as to its original whereabouts. By that it was implied that she had already figured out that she had probably dragged it back in a fugue state and then not noticed it up until now, but it was figuring out where she had wandered during the state that was giving her a hard time. She had obviously wandered way off from her usual routes she would walk on by habit...

The evening light was dwindling now as Fox's research on the book continued. A few of the night's first stars were now peaking out at the dimming landscape. Neighborhood children who had gone back out after dinner to see their friends once more were now being called in for the final time, and everywhere the town had a sense of preparation for the night to call upon it, bringing quietness and sleep in it's wake.

This is when Fox operated the best.

Nighttime allowed her to sneak out without worry of her parents discovering her missing. It allowed her to avoid her family and the terror they brought her; allowed her to break whatever rules she wanted and/or study in complete peace. Nighttime offered her complete and unappaposed freedom.

A cool breeze broke the dulling midsummer heat and blew in through Fox's slightly-opened window, another sign they night was fast approaching. Without even looking up from the page she was studying, Fox leaned over and turned her table lamp on (she assumed it was safe to having not heard from any of her family members in a while), flooding her room with the artificial light produced.

Her room had originally been pretty shabby, considering how her parents treated her. She could have fixed it up with alchemy a long long time ago, but it was already all she really needed. She had fixed it up some by hanging her research and other things over the damaged parts of the pale blue walls (even though she mostly kept her research under wraps), but things like cracks in the windows and small stains on the time-worn carpet remained.

Fox did have a few relics and trinkets from her adventures set out in various places around her room as well, including an artifact from her springtime journey to the Sinjoh Ruins sitting innocently on her windowsill. Looking at it would often cause her to think back to that that journey and the friend she had made it with; after causing her to wonder where he was and how he was doing...

"Freaking random box..." Pika muttered to himself as he walked down the familiar streets of a certain town, looking at the houses to try and find any sign of which house could belong to the girl he had run into a while ago. The two of them had flown off to Sinjoh Ruins and discovered various rifts in space, and the rest was history. He had gone back to his life afterwards, heading off to where he had been staying currently for a while, in a small wooden hut a few miles away from the town. And then one night he woke up and found himself in a cave, with no idea how he got there, Once he had started to walk towards the exit he tripped over something, nearly cutting his left hand open as he landed on the rocky floor, and discovered it to be a strange lock-box. The blood spurt on the outside of the box made Pika suddenly not want to know what he was doing there. The lock had been easy enough to get off, after all blunt force seemed to do the trick, and once opened it revealed a book, written in a language he couldn't read. Which is why he was now looking for Fox in her hometown, figuring that she seemed to be good with ancient languages, maybe she could read it. As he walked by the houses, almost giving up, he managed to catch a glimpse of a familiar looking artifact in the window of one of the houses. Bingo. Now to see if she can figure this out. Hopefully it's not some kind of Necronomicon. He thought to himself as he walked up to the front door, considering to just knock. Hold on, where would the fun in that be? He continued to think, and smirked. Heading over to a tree by the window, he climbed up into it and maneuvered his way to the windowsill, tapping on the window. "Hey, Fox. Long time no see, how about opening this window for me?" He spoke loud enough to be heard outside the window, struggling to keep his balance, holding onto the window.

WHoosh!
" AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH" Zash screamed rather unmanly like as he leaped off one cave exit followed by about a trillion gallons of water that was rushing filling the cave Zash had been exploring. He landed and rolled crossing what looked like an endless drop to no where. HE looked around where he was now pools of random oily liquid were every where in the shotty cave. Zash couldn't use his fire with this liquid around it might have been flammable and had magic properties that might just leave him crispier than a fried fritter.
He rose to his feet and dusted himself off walking forward in the cave he came to a stand with nothing else than a lock box on it. Quickly Zash drew his sword and slashed away the lock looking inside he found an ancient looking book. " All that for some lousy book and I thought this was Phlem's old hideout." He sighed but all the same stuffed the book into his inside jacket pocket. Fox might like it. He concluded and went on his way to get himself out of this crazy place. I'll probably get there in about ten minutes He thought to himself as he made his way to the way he had come in to get out.

Fox's ears pricked up at the sound of a familiar voice just outside her window. she swiveled around in her chair, the intense focus she had just been harboring now broken, and found none other than Mr. Pika himself perched in a rather uncomfortable-looking position on her windowsill.

"Pika!" she exclaimed (although in a rather hushed voice. She was testing the waters to see how "asleep" her family really was). She jumped out of her chair and rushed to the window, kicking a fresh bundle of improved neurotoxin needles aside, and threw open the window.

"Well hi there, 'bro'; never imagined I'd be welcoming you to my house... Or my room for that matter!" she smirked. The sun was now practically sunken completely over the horizon, and more and more stars were appearing over the small town. The calls of a few types of nocturnal Pokemon could be heard faintly outside the window.

"So to what do I owe the pleasure of this little reunion?" she asked, leaning up against the wall adjacent to the one the window was on and crossing her arms, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Yeah, yeah, me neither, now I need to get in before a Noctowl pecks me and makes me fall down." Pika muttered as he climbed in through the now open window, looking down at the neurotoxin needles. He looked back up at Fox and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Seriously, more needles? Haven't you learned your lesson with them?" He asked, remembering back at Sinjoh where he had to, rather painfully, extract 14 needle pieces from her side. It wasn't fun, and happened to put him in a bad position afterwards.
"Well anyways, that's not the point. I came because of this." Pika pulled out the bound book from inside his half jacket, showing it to Fox. "I found it in a cave outside of town, in a locked box. I can't read it, so I figured you probably could. Want to take a look at it?" He explained and asked, not bothering to bring up the blood on the box.

About 10 minutes later~
Zash was making his way down to Fox's a light breeze ruffling his hair the noises of the night pokemon were clearly heard now. Singing out an a symphony that Zash wasn't entirely liking but oh well what's a guy to do? He stuffed his hands into his pocket finally getting around to Fox's lawn then he noticed something. Fox's window light was on, She must be on shut in mode. Zash thought to himself. He arrived at the house and leaped up grabbing the bottom of a low hanging window he pulled himself up and made the very familiar jump to Fox's window sill, as soon as his feet left the previous sill he heard something, someone he didn't think he's ever heard again. It nearly made him slip up and miss but his muscles remembered the jump all too well and he landed lightly on the sill. He crouched and looked in true to what he though it was him: Pika.
" WHAT IN NAME OF BLOODY BLUE BLAZING HEAVEN ARE YOU DOING HERE!!" Zash slipping into the room easily, He's here for revenge! Zash suddenly thought to himself, his eye must have been worst off than i thought. He quickly drew his sword the idea of someone hurting Fox making him instantly very protective. His left hand white knuckled clutching the sword he started to close the very small distance between them he instead of swinging like you would thing rolled getting to the other side of Pika in an instant cutting him off from Fox. He raised his right hand and a volley of marble sized fire balls sprayed out at him.

Fox raised an eyebrow right back at Pika. "Well how else do you expect me to protect myself in combat, a slingshot? It's not like I'm a swordplay master like you or Mr. Pants On Fire." she argued playfully, then quckly added with a crooked grin, "I did learn a lesson, though. My neurotoxin wasn't potent enough."

"Wait- You found a book, too? Lemme see!" Fox exclaimed in bewilderment as Pika offered the book to her. She accepted it from him and took it to her desk to compare them. She spent the next ten or so minutes doing just that; relaying a few minor finding to Pika. "...This is so fascinating! They seem to be talking about the same things, but at the same time not..." she exclaimed. Her thoughts were cut off by the familiar sound of a pair of feet landing on the window sill.

Well well, took you long enough Zash-..." She smirked as she turned to greet her one of her two best and oldest friends, but she was cut off by Zash's sudden burst of rage emotion. She was confused for a moment, seeing as she had no knowledge of Zash and Pika's previous past and she personally had no quarrel with Pika. "Um, well... This is my room...?" she thought to herself, but when Zash rolled and slashed she and Pika apart she realized he was in fact talking about Pika. She could see a certain intense "fire" burning in Zash's eyes that only made her question things even more.

"Seriously, what's going on?!? Zash, why are you...?!" she asked, still too shocked to comprehend everything that was going on.

"Yeah, sounds real fascinating, now could you just tell me what's actually written on i-WHAT?" Pika had started to say, until Fox referred to her friend Zash in the window. No...there's no way it's him. Pika thought at first until he heard his voice from the window.
"What am I doing here, what the hell are you doing here?!" Pika demanded as Zash jumped into action. He grabbed one of his katanas from his sheath on his back and stepped away from Zash, avoiding the slice and then swung rapidly at the fire, managing to disperse much of it. That...he nearly took my eye, left me, and now he's coming in here and keeping me from finding out what the hell's in that book. He thought, becoming fairly mad at Zash as he rushed towards him and sliced at him horizontally towards his upper torso.

His hand easily slipped to the side to counter Pike leveraging it so that they rose to a perfect X Zash stepping closer so they were right up in each other's faces. " Fucking make another move and I will burn you alive." He threatened and with each word flames left his lips drifting into the air. As Zash's rage started to hit a fever pitch the burned tattoo band started to glow under his blue stoned ring he was wearing. Suddenly his ring eye tinted over blue imagines started to play across his blue eye. " NO NOT NOW!" Zash shouted the intensity in his voice sent a ripple threw the light of band on his finger and the color faded from his eye.

(Ooc: Suddenly Fox busts out a microphone and starts singing "What is Love?" to the beat of the clashing of swords /SHOTSOMANYTIMESWITHABAZOOKA)

Fox stumbled back a step; still utterly shocked by the situation. "Now hold on... Just what is this...?" she thought to herself in her bewilderment. "YOU TWO KNOW EACH OTHER?!?!?!" She exclaimed suddenly, trying to get a grip on the situation. She had no clue what was going on, but with all the fire around she at least realized it was in her best interest to protect the books. She turned to grab them, but she froze in shock yet again by what she saw.

The symbols on the front of Pika's book (presumably the title) was glowing just the slightest bit. Fox blinked, then slowly reached forward and closed her book so that she could see the front cover. Her title was also retaning a slight glow, and as she stared at them she found them easier to read suddenly, as if the strange and intracate language just suddenly made sense in her mind. Bits and peices of syllables and words from a language she was almost certain she had never heard before suddenly began pooring into her mind, and with every second that passed she became more and more excited with even those small discoveries she was making within her mind. She became completely oblivious to the war in her room; even though normally in this situation she would have been all worry for the safety and well-being of her friends.

It was as if the books had some... strange power that allowed them to dominate her mind, forcing her to learn from them, to attach herself to them. Under the strange and all-encompassing control of the books, Fox felt twice as motivated to start translating and reading them. She started with the title of her own book.

"Un integrale Atlantide Libro di riferimento..." Fox read aloud in a hushed voice. Gentle light started to flood out from the pages of the book, and the symbols glowed brighter. Fascinated and curious, she then looked over to Pika's book and proceeded to read it. "To Chronikó ti̱s Atlantídas :̱ Prin kai Metá ti̱n epifáneia...?" she attempted, finding that translating his was a bit harder than translating her own.

Nothing happened.

"Pika!" she called; eager to try something. "I know you're a little busy, but get over it and say 'To Chronikó ti̱s Atlantídas :̱ Prin kai Metá ti̱n epifáneia' for me!" she told him, a little more confident in her pronounciation this time around.

Pika glared at Zash, seemingly unaffected by his light display of fire. The flames were a bit close to his face, but he was too angry to care.
"Yeah, have fun with that. I've got some experience with fire, but you already know that." He remarked, before noticing Zash start to freak out with some kind of blue light. Pika pushed his blade against Zash's, pushing himself back a few steps to get out of proximity. He blinked, hearing Fox tell him to say something.
"I'm sorry, what?" He questioned, before trying to repeat it. "Alright. To Chronikó ti̱s Atlantidas :̱ Prinkai Metá ti̱n epfáneia." He responded with, hoping he hadn't butchered the pronunciation by too much as he kept a close eye on Zash.

Why now why of all times now?! Zash thought furiously to himself he was rejected by Pika and took a back step recovering easily. He slipped his sword hand to his left and rose his right hand to cover his eye as the blue tint started to return. He settled into a defensive position with his sword hopefully keeping Pika at bay if he rushed or attacked. " Fox what are you doing? How do you know this guy!?" Zash demanded keeping his eyes locked with Pika.

When Pika spoke to his book, the same thing happened to it as had happened to Fox's book. She found that she could also read it easier as well, although her book was still easier to read. Inside her head, her focus became drawn to the texts even harder, so hard Fox began to think she was hearing voices in her head. More specifically, "a" voice.

"I'm legere ii libros, Zashen!!! They're indicaveritan mihi mirabília!!!!! Quae ego ex me ipso non instar; and I don't even have to open them and read them for it to happen!!!!" Fox exclaimed, completely fascinated. She didn't even realize she was speaking in a different language; she was too far under the strange trance the books were casting over her.

"I met Priam a while ago; when we were out exploransan together in search of ii Vimlux Originalis." Fox answered Zash quickly. She appeared to be trying to listen to something that the books were telling her, as if it were a matter of dire emergency. She raised her head and looked over to Zash, a look of innocent wonderment on her face.

"Do you... Do you have one too? Habes tertia mihi, Zashen?" she asked Zash, her eyes all aglow from the excitement. Something had changed in them, though. "Libri eorum accersendum di'suum, Zashen! You must have one! Please let me see?!"

"What the hell's a Priam?" Pika simply asked, ignoring Zash for the moment. "What she means is we met at the Sinjoh Ruins a little while ago, and I'm guessing you just so happen to be her fiery friend she mentions?" Pika responded and asked, glaring at Zash now. He listened to Fox continue to speak and raised an eyebrow at Zash,
"Well man on fire? Do you have a book?" Pika asked, crossing his arms and smirking slightly at his reference.

Zash completely caught off guard by Fox's babbling in another dialect dropped his hand from his face revealing the tint had again leave even though Zash was sure it would be back in a matter of minutes. Pika explained the situation back to him and Zash raised an eyebrow. I see Fox has been getting around. Wordlessly Zash slipped the book from his jacket pocket. He let his sword hover in the air but it no longer pointed at Pika just off at a wall.