Somewhere far, far in the past, a space-time rift forms and plunges its people and pokemon into chaos. And yet, the future lives on, oblivious to this disaster. At least, it did, until the self-contained nature of this paradox begins to crack, risking everything.
There's only one team for the job: Team Galaxy. Hosting members that have time traveled before and being a group that has saved the world from utter destruction twice already, they're best suited to be sent back to try and patch up what went wrong over a thousand years ago.
Of course, it's never quite that easy, and even a well-experienced team will find themselves with new challenges and surprises along the way to complicate their mission. Sometimes it's not the end of the world that's the biggest obstacle, it's how it affects everyone around it along the way.
Updates bi-weekly on Thursdays at Archive of Our Own!
As one journey comes to an end, another is only just beginning.
Special Fan Art Friday for @nelvana featuring her character Nel and my character Runa to celebrate the ending of her wonderful fanfic Galaxies Above! Thanks for everything, Nelvana, it’s been great seeing your art and writing evolve, and while I’ll miss reviewing and reading a chapter everyday of Team Galaxy’s adventures, I’ll always remember their story. So once again from the bottom of my heart, thank you, for everything.
Here’s another little piece of fan art for @nelvana and her pmd au, featuring Keahi the Torchic and Nelvana the Cubone of Team Galaxy~
This au is a new take on the Rescue Team and Explorers games. I’ve been finding this au to be quite fun to read, so I’d recommend looking into this story yourself!
Team Galaxy has been submitted into @pmd-oc-tourney!! I just had to draw a little something for them. Looking forward to seeing which ocs end up in the running next month!
Original Chapter: In which the human is transformed
“H-Hey, are you alright?”
“Yeah… I think so…”
“That’s good, I think we’re almost ther- Woah! Hold on!”
“I… I can’t!”
It’s calm. A cool breeze brushes over the land, rustling the short grass growing along the forest floor.
An unconscious cubone laid on the ground, only the slight movement from their chest up and down as they breathed showing that they were alive. That slight movement was a reassuring sight to the torchic that had stumbled upon the scene.
Keahi had not expected to find anyone out here like this. Sure, there had been an earthquake out here in Tiny Woods, and already she had even heard that a new mystery dungeon had appeared with it, but it was strange to find someone just laying on the ground. Especially a cubone; there weren’t many cubone in the area, at least not any that she had heard about.
“H-Hey, are you alright?” she called out, hurrying over to the cubone’s side.
No response. At the very least, Keahi could now confirm that the cubone was still breathing, and that she hadn’t just been imagining it. Carefully, she reached out a wing to poke at the cubone to see if that would get more of a reaction, but still got nothing. She frowned, worry continuing to creep through her veins, but she wasn’t going to go about yelling or shaking this poor stranger.
At least, not without checking them for injuries first.
A quick look over told Keahi that, surprisingly, the cubone only seemed to be suffering a few cuts. The cuts themselves were unsurprising, it was clear from the surrounding broken branches and the hole in the canopy above that the cubone had fallen from the sky to arrive in this place. What was surprising was that that seemed to be it. Just some cuts. Perhaps there were some bruises that Keahi couldn’t see, but with a fall far enough to break all those branches… Keahi would have expected worse.
She couldn’t help but wonder how the cubone had gotten here; it wasn’t exactly common for ground-types to be up in the air. Had some flying-type pokemon been carrying them and then dropped them? If that was the case, where was that pokemon now? None of the cuts appeared to have come from any sort of struggle…
No theory Keahi could come up with seemed to quite add up; she would just have to ask the cubone whenever they woke up.
Another breeze rolled by. Keahi shook out her ruffled feathers, and then jolted slightly as she noticed the cubone stirring awake.
“Oh! You’re finally waking up!” she exclaimed, relieved.
Blue eyes blinked open and snapped to look up at Keahi. Panic seemed to take hold of them as the cubone scrambled to their feet, moving backwards away from the torchic and shifting into a more defensive position, tense and ready to move. Keahi jumped at the sudden movement, taking a couple steps back herself.
“Woah, relax! It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” Keahi assured them, crouching down slightly to make herself look smaller in hopes of calming the cubone.
This didn’t appear to have much of an effect. The cubone kept her eyes trained on Keahi, fingers flexing as if searching for something to grab onto. Slowly, they allowed their eyes to move away from the torchic as they scanned their surroundings, and then looked down at themself. Their brows furrowed slightly as they stared down at their hands, poking one of their arms with an air of confusion. They took another step back, stumbling over their tail a bit and then giving it a strange look, as if their body was still taking a moment to wake up.
Keahi silently watched; she assumed they were checking themselves for any injuries. Eventually the cubone’s gaze turned back to stare intensely at the torchic, still tense and now almost shaky too.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she repeated, now that the cubone’s attention was back on her. “My name is Keahi. What’s your name?”
The cubone paused, taking in deep breaths and not moving her gaze away from Keahi. She almost didn’t expect them to say anything, but eventually, they responded.
“…Nelvana.”
Nelvana still didn’t visibly relax at all, but Keahi considered the willingness to even provide short answers a win for now.
“Are you okay?” Keahi asked, trying her luck at asking another question. “It, uh, looks like you fell from a pretty high height.” Ask about the how and why later, just get her calmed down.
It took another moment, but Nelvana tore their eyes away from Keahi again to re-examine her surroundings. This time, she let her gaze linger on the fallen branches around the clearing and the displaced foliage above them both.
Keahi wasn’t entirely sure if she believed her, but she kept that to herself for now. She didn’t need to pressure Nelvana for an answer when she could already tell that the cubone was still a bit nervous. Keahi considered whether or not to go right to asking how Nelvana got here, but to her surprise, Nelvana spoke up again first.
“Where… Where are we?” she questioned, turning her head to make eye contact with Keahi again.
“Tiny Woods!” Keahi answered.
Nelvana only blinked blankly back at her, and Keahi’s smile faded.
“Are you lost…?” she asked, eventually earning a slow nod in response. “Well, I know my way around the area pretty well, I could help you find your way back to… wherever you’re headed. Or wherever you’re from. Is there a place you’re looking for in particular?”
Keahi waited patiently for an answer, but none came. She could see Nelvana’s mouth open, but no sound came out before she closed it again. If anything, this seemed to make the lost cubone more uncomfortable, as she moved from a previously battle-ready position to something simply more anxious, crossing her arms and gripping them tightly as she shifted her weight awkwardly in place.
“…Nelvana?” Keahi eventually prompted, hesitantly taking a step towards her and reaching a wing out comfortingly, despite still not being anywhere near close enough to actually touch the cubone.
“I… I don’t…”
“You don’t have a place to go to?” Keahi guessed, but Nelvana only gave a stiff shrug to that, confusing Keahi even more. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you not know? How do you…” She trailed off as a thought suddenly hit her. “Do you not remember?”
“No, I don’t… I don’t remember any… I don’t…” Nelvana seemed to be at a loss for words, curling inwards on herself. She reached a hand up to hold her head, but only flinched as she touched the bone of her skull helmet. “I… don’t remember anything,” she said, scarcely a whisper.
Keahi’s expression softened. “You have amnesia?” She was mildly surprised at the idea since cubone have a helmet to protect their heads, but perhaps the amnesia didn’t come from the fall, there could be more going on than what met the eye, but currently there was no way to get any answers about that; besides, right now focusing on calming Nelvana down was the first priority. “Well… you still remember your name at least, that’s something! Maybe… Do you remember anything else? Or even if not, I’m sure we can figure something out-“
Her words were cut off as the sound of crying suddenly rang out in the forest. Nelvana stiffened again, concealing any signs of vulnerability as she moved herself back into her more battle-ready position and stared out towards the source of the noise. A butterfree flew out from within the woods towards the two, movements frantic as she fluttered about in a panic.
“Oh, my baby! My poor baby!” she cried. “Somebody! Please! Help me!”
Nelvana didn’t move, keeping her eyes trained on the distressed mother, but Keahi approached Butterfree without hesitation, though she still stayed close to Nelvana.
“What happened?” Keahi asked.
“It’s horrible! My Caterpie fell into a cavern! My poor baby!” Butterfree explained.
“Why… Why can’t you go get them yourself?” Nelvana questioned under her breath, quiet enough that only Keahi picked it up.
“A cavern?” Keahi repeated, choosing not to acknowledge the cubone’s question for the moment. “I heard there was a new mystery dungeon after that earthquake earlier, did it make a cavern?”
“A huge fissure opened in the ground, and my Caterpie fell in! He’s too young to crawl out by himself! When I went to get my baby, pokemon suddenly attacked me!” Butterfree continued, pausing afterwards to gasp for breath between all her sobs and previous rushing about.
“What? They attacked you?” Keahi gasped, “that definitely sounds like a mystery dungeon then!” she affirmed, glancing back at Nelvana, who gave a small nod of agreement.
“I’m not strong enough to fight in a mystery dungeon!” Butterfree wailed, “please, I need help…”
Butterfree’s words dissolved into incoherent mumbled words, beginning to flutter around in panicked circles again. Keahi frowned and glanced back at Nelvana again, who, while still tense, seemed to have loosened her stance now that it was clear that Butterfree was no foe. The cubone blinked back at the torchic, the skull helmet masking any facial expressions that Keahi could have gleaned for her feelings on the situation.
“C’mon! Let’s go rescue him!” Keahi declared.
Nelvana’s eyes widened, “wait, what?”
“Someone’s gotta help him!” Keahi insisted, taking a few steps ahead and gesturing with a wing for Nelvana to follow. “Something bad could happen to him if he’s stuck in there for too long!”
Internally determining that if Nelvana really didn’t want to come, she wouldn’t, Keahi hurried off in the direction that Butterfree had come from without another word. Nelvana exchanged a look out to where the torchic was going and to Butterfree, before letting out a sigh and moving to follow Keahi.
“Oh, wait!” Butterfree called out before the cubone got too far.
After a pause, Nelvana looked back to see why Butterfree had stopped her. Butterfree had landed onto the grass, reaching down to pick up a bone club that had been laying there, before flying back over towards the cubone and holding out the item to her. It was a long bone that appeared like it had been broken at one end, having that jagged end to it and then a bludgeoning end.
“You almost left your club behind,” Butterfree told her.
“Er, thank you…” Nelvana responded, accepting the item from Butterfree and looking it over in her hands, some of the tension seeming to fade away now that she was holding the weapon.
“No, thank you for deciding to go help find my son. Please be careful out there,” Butterfree insisted.
Nelvana stared at Butterfree for a couple moments before giving her a nod of acknowledgement and darting off to go after Keahi. She managed to catch up fairly quickly, especially as when the torchic heard her coming, she slowed down a bit to give the cubone the proper chance to join up with her.
“I think I have an idea on where the dungeon could be,” Keahi told Nelvana as she approached, “follow me!” she continued before hurrying off again, this time with the cubone following right behind her.
[Image ID: A MS Paint drawing with a white background, a rainbow labeled “MLM WLM SOLIDARITY” in the foreground, and an absol and gengar (Tsuki and Damien from Galaxies Above) wearing sunglasses and fist bumping. There is an arrow pointing to Tsuki/Absol that says “’oh no all girls are pretty’ syndrome” and an arrow pointing to Damien/Gengar that says “internalized homophobia”. End Image ID.]
boom it’s shitposting hours they’re gay and they’re disasters
