hsets://con.gov.nebyllin/geography/provinces/luftand/8682362
Province Information: Luftand
Luftand is a maritime island province of Nebyllin, lying halfway between the North and the South. Once the seat of the Rescue Federation, Luftand Major, the primary landmass, serves today as a major shipping, tourism, and military hotspot. The capital of Luftand is Baram Town, a major port city with access to the island’s waterways. Shipping and military funding form Luftand’s largest industries, comprising upwards of 50% of its yearly output.
Southern Luftand contains the majority of the island’s population, military bases, and tourist attractions. Northern Luftand comprises vast swathes of rugged mountains, wilderness, and mystery dungeons, with most routes serving as trails or shipping pathways. Pokemon Plaza is the largest city in Northern Luftand and home to the Rescuer’s Guild, one of the world’s first major exploration establishments.
ⓘ It is advised to bring partners and a guide when travelling through Northern Luftand, as a high number of disappearances within the region have been recorded over the past few weeks.
SPECIAL EPISODE I: THE END'S BEGINNING
~\({O})/~
. . .. . . "I never understood how you manage to sleep on Lapras' backs," Archen said groggily, ruffling his feathers in exhaustion as he stepped onto the dock after Mawile. "Don't you ever worry about falling off?"
The many painted windmills of Baram Town stood proudly above them, painted vanes lazily turning in the early morning breeze. On any normal day, seeing the windmills would have been a breathtaking sight worth the six-hour journey. Today was not a normal day, and despite his long, sleepless night, they wouldn't be staying in town for more than an hour. Long nights and early mornings made Archen a very cranky bird.
Mawile, whose time management he sorely referred to as 'Drop-Dead Organization', wanted to be at their destination before it got dark, which apparently meant chartering a lapras in the dead of night and setting out only moments after. They'd just arrived in Baram Town at the crack of dawn, and Lapras promised to return for them in a few days.
This mission was very important, Archen heard. A few days ago, there was a cutoff in communications up north, and the Expedition Society pounced on the opportunity to investigate. Archen wasn't sure why investigations were going so slow, especially considering how major the shipping disruptions would be.
Mawile marked off the second box on a page in her travel journal, which Archen saw was marked 'Arrive in Baram Town' (the first was 'Charter Lapras').
"Trial and error," she replied, stowing the journal away in her exploration bag. "You learn quickly where the best spots to sleep on a lapras' back are once you've tried it a couple of times."
Archen shivered at the thought. He never cared much for water in the first place, let alone doing something as foolhardy as that. If only he could fly… This mission would be over already, he ruminated.
The paved, crooked streets of Baram were still mostly empty, belonging to the early birds, miscellaneous other early 'mon, and pairs of unfortunate explorers such as themselves. Even Kecleon was still hurriedly setting up shop as Mawile and Archen walked over to his stall.
"Ah – just a minute!" he called out with a sense of manufactured cheer and a wide grin, hurriedly straightening things on shelves. "I'll be ready for you in just a minute~! Bit of a late day today…"
Archen had a bit of a hard time fathoming how anymon could consider this late. Mawile swiftly handed him their exploration bag for the items, which Archen disgruntledly took in his wings.
"Welcome to the Kecleon Shop!" Kecleon chirped, straightening his apron discreetly. "What would you like to purchase?"
"Everything on this list, please." Mawile handed him a sizable list. "I assume you're fully stocked?"
Kecleon suddenly looked far more distressed than what was good for business.
"Actually…" he began, wringing his spindly lizard claws together uncomfortably, "My shipments come from the Rescuer's Guild in Pokemon Plaza. I haven't had a delivery in over two weeks, I'm afraid…"
The wringing of his claws intensified. A stress tic. Archen was good at reading those.
Mawile took a minute to study the list.
"I think we can make a few exceptions," she conceded, pulling an inked quill out of the bag Archen was holding and deftly crossing several things off. Kecleon's face relaxed considerably at the large number of crossed-out items. "We happen to be on our way to Pokemon Plaza ourselves," she said.
"R-really?" Kecleon's face lit up as he removed items from the shelves. "What for?"
"HAPPI business," Archen grumpily chimed in. "We're investigating a lack of communications and some strange reports in the area."
"Perhaps you'll take a look-see for the lucario who delivers my stocks every week?" Kecleon asked hopefully, setting the last of the items on the counter. "I'll throw in a future discount…" he hurriedly added afterwards.
"We'll keep an eye out." Mawile's reply was short and prompt. "The bill, please?"
"Oh – yes – I'm forgetting things left and right lately—"
Kecleon dived under the counter, emerging with a quill and paper. He tallied the prices of all the ingredients up so fast Archen was surprised they hadn't established a shopkeeper's monopoly yet, until his tired mind reminded him that they had. Kecleon wrote the final bill at the bottom of the paper and slid it to Mawile.
"That'll be 5500 Poke," he finished cheerfully. "Except for the tiny reviver seeds. I'm afraid I'm plumb out of those."
Mawile dug for the money, handing it to Kecleon and placing the items in the bag. Archen slung it over his back as they left the stall.
"Here." Mawile took the bag from Archen and handed him a chesto berry as they walked through Baram Plaza. "Breakfast."
Archen took it, watching Mawile pull out a chesto berry of her own and take a large bite of it. It seemed she was more tired than she let on. All those nights of sleepless rune research must be taking their toll after all.
"I thought you were going to stop taking those," said Archen, eyeing the berry.
"It'll take us approximately seven hours to arrive at Pokemon Plaza," said Mawile, taking another bite of the bitter berry. "We both need to be at our best for this."
"We could rest," Archen suggested grumpily. "Chesto berries can't keep you awake forever," he added.
"Stopping here will remove several hours from our timetable," Mawile replied, ignoring his statement. "Time is important on a job like this. We can rest all we need when we get back."
She downed the rest of it like it was a rare delicacy. Archen grimaced through his beak at the sight.
"I napped on the lapras," Mawile added a bit later. Archen shrugged, trudging after her as they walked towards the main route out of Baram and further into Luftand.
No matter how he prepared for it, this was going to be a long journey.
For a place referred to as a vacation destination, there was a surprising amount of forest and underbrush. Archen stopped as Mawile's back maw chomped down on an invasive branch, ripped it off the tree, and chucked it to the side. This happened often. Archen had already lost count.
"How close are we?" he asked, ducking under another low-hanging branch. They'd been walking for hours now, and despite being fit, Archen was starting to tucker out.
Mawile stopped and looked up from the map she was reading.
"Very worrying," she spoke.
"What's worrying?" Archen asked.
"If I'm reading this map correctly," Mawile calmly began, letting her back maw latch onto another branch and rip it off, "Then we should be getting close to Pokemon Plaza. However, the underbrush remains just as untamed as it's been this whole trip."
"And?" asked Archen, stepping around the splintered branch stem to glance at the map.
"Pokemon Plaza is a frequented area," Mawile clarified. "Therefore, the path should be maintained, unlike the anomaly we see here." She gestured briefly to the overgrown flora around her.
Archen started to realize.
"You think the reports are true?" he asked as they crawled onwards.
"We have yet to confirm the statues," said Mawile. "However, deserted seems to be accurate."
Drawing her expedition gadget – a slim, yellow, hexagonal device with a connection orb in the middle – Mawile held it up and snapped several pictures of their surroundings. Archen was beginning to really notice how much of the path was thorny and overgrown for the first time.
Just ten feet down the path, a tarped wagon sat on its side. The most putrid of smells wafted from under the tarp, making Archen queasy.
"Over there," he said, pointing it out.
Hitched to the wagon sat a perfect stone statue of a lucario, staring up at the sky in horror at something that was no longer there.
Mawile and Archen approached the wagon quickly.
"Well, that confirms the statues," said Archen, swallowing his nausea. Mawile furrowed her brow, deep in thought. They both stepped forward to inspect it.
The details on the lucario statue were near life-like. Its paws were on the harness that attached it to the cart, curled around straps that hadn't been undone on time. If it hadn't sat before them, Archen wouldn't have believed such intricate sculpting was possible…
…Unless it wasn't. Archen recalled Kecleon's words of worry: "My shipments come from the Rescuer's Guild in Pokemon Plaza. I haven't had a delivery in over two weeks, I'm afraid…" Was it such a stretch to believe… ?
Ignoring Archen's incessant feather-ruffling, Mawile strode over to the tarped wagon, holding her breath when the smell became too strong to bear. She whipped off the tarp with her maw, spinning full circle and casting the tarp away to see what the wagon held.
" I knew it…" Mawile muttered, taking out her journal and recording the finding as Archen gagged in the distance. Snap. More photos were taken with the expedition gadget.
Setting the journal aside, Mawile leaned in towards the mishmash of rotting berries and other ingredients, picking up an oran by the stem in her paw. It had molded over and bruised in several places, and felt like a miniature sack of water. Stamped on the boxes was the insignia of the Kecleon Foundation, addressed to a stall in Baram Town.
"A few weeks old, by the looks of it," she said to Archen. "This must have been Kecleon's shipment. And if this is the delivery…"
They both stared back at the statue that sat in front of the cart as the full implications of that deduction hit them.
Mawile inspected the statue carefully, noticing further all the life-like details the statue had to it. Far too many for it to be a statue.
"He was attacked from behind," Mawile stated, stepping back and snapping photos.
"If that is… him," said Archen shakily. It was hard to believe something like that was true. But the statue, the coincidence… there was too much about it to ignore.
They pressed forward. Mawile' deductions held true as they went. The underbrush only seemed to get worse the further in they tread, and eventually they happened upon the statue of a scyther wildly slashing at something from the underbrush.
"The hedgekeeper, I assume." Mawile took pictures of that too. Archen fearfully glanced at the statue as they went.
They could see the short buildings of Pokemon Plaza through the trees as they walked. The area around them was eerily quiet. Soon after, Mawile and Archen entered the main square of the small town, which was filled with the statues of countless pokemon running in terror. From the looks on their stone faces, whatever had happened here had taken them all by surprise.
"Okay…" Archen nervously ruffled his feathers. "We've seen everything we needed to. Let's go back now. We'll declare the place off-limits, done."
"We need proof first," Mawile told him, pulling both their expedition gadgets from her bag and handing one to Archen. "I'll need a little help photographing everything. Starting…"
Mawile and Archen photographed the various statues from opposite sides of the square, working in tandem until they had amassed a decent reconstruction of the scene. Looking through the evidence, neither Mawile nor Archen noticed the dark, spiny figure slinking along the rooftop…
Until it accidentally kicked a roof tile to the ground. Mawile spun around just in time to see it conjure what seemed like a shadow ball with its claws, aiming at Archen.
"Look out—"
Mawile dropped her expedition gadget, pulling Archen out of the way before the attack could land. It exploded against the wall of a house, turning the doorway to stone.
Both Mawile and Archen assumed a battle stance, looking straight at the blurred figure that stood on the roof. It was muscular, quadrupedal, and pitch-black. A bouquet of spines extended out of its back. It had no eyes. It looked like somemon had cut a hole in the fabric of reality.
"Expedition Society!" Archen shouted, showing the figure his badge. "Stand down and follow us!"
It was a vain gesture. He barely flapped out of the way of another shadow attack. The figure bounded off the roof and loped straight towards them. Mawile and Archen dove out of the way just in time, The figure crashed into a storefront in the square and brought the building collapsing down on it with a crash.
Dust settled, and Mawile and Archen picked themselves up.
"W-w-w-what was that?" Archen asked, his voice picking up into a squawk.
"Be on your guard," Mawile said, her eyes fixed as the rubble of the storefront began to shift. "It's coming back."
The rubble exploded outwards—
A hasty blue Protect barrier from Archen was enough to shield them both from the debris. The rubble flew to the side, leaving them untouched.
The charging figure that emerged from the wreckage a split second later tried to snap them up in its claws as it went, but Mawile pulled herself and Archen down low. The monster skidded over them, ramping up against the houses on the other end and charging back at them.
Mawile was swift. As Archen charged a Dragon Breath in retaliation, she pulled a blast seed from her exploration bag, and hurled it at the creature in time with Archen's attack—
The purple-colored explosion created by both the blast seed and the Dragon Breath would have brought the world's strongest pokemon to the brink of fainting. Both Mawile and Archen had to quickly scramble back to avoid being damaged by the resulting explosion as well. But when the explosion cleared, the shadowy figure was still standing all the same. Mawile almost lost her bearings in shock. What creature was it, to survive a blast as powerful as that?
The shadowy creature took a shaky step towards them, then another. It was limping.
It began to conjure a third attack. Mawile prepared to lure its aim elsewhere and dodge at the last second. Archen, panting hoarsely, prepared to get in a parrying blow and dive out of the way. But then, out of the blue, the figure stopped. Its body seemed to lock up just like one of Jirachi's malfunctioning robots. Mawile and Archen watched as it began to convulse violently, and then suddenly burst into tiny scraps of ash that floated off into the sky. There was nothing inside its body but more inky-black darkness.
Archen caught his breath heavily, picking up his fallen gadget from the ground.
"What was that?!" he asked hoarsely, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.
"I… don't know," said Mawile. "In all my years of dungeoneering and research I've never seen something like this."
Archen could tell she was just as shaken as he was. She gathered her bag and silently retrieved her and Archen's gadgets, stuffing them in. Then they picked themselves up and turned around.
Unbeknownst to the two explorers, a single flake of blackness blew off in the wind towards Baram Town.
Finished gathering their supplies, Mawile and Archen began the return trip to Baram Town. It would prove to be one of their most sombre trips to date.
"It's windy up here…" Archen stammered, ruffling his feathers as he and Mawile crossed yet another fenceless, sky-high bridge between the massive windmills of Baram Town.
"You're in better shape today," Mawile noted, tucking her clipboard back into her bag. The ground underneath them was elaborately paved, white stone.
"Yeah…" Archen ruffled his feathers nervously as they walked. "Well, sleep does wonders for a poor bird, it turns out."
Mawile, who had only slept a little and had eaten another chesto berry to compensate, tried not to show how much her eyes were drooping.
Archen looked upwards, met only with the sun and the looming presence of the windmills' massive, creaking vanes. They were on the highest bridge in the city, leading to the highest floor of the tallest building, a windmill so immense that scaling it could only have been practical for those with wings. The thought of how high up they were made Archen stray closer to the middle of the bridge.
Flying types were flying types, but somemon ought to have installed fences for those who weren't blessed with the power of flight.
A pair of murkrow fluttered forwards as Mawile and Archen approached the large doors at the end of the bridge.
"Names, appointments," one of them droned out, reciting from a tired script.
"Mawile and Archen, Expedition Society," Mawile responded without skipping a beat. "Here to see Mayor Honchkrow. Appointments scheduled for 9:00 A.M. on Wednesday."
The murkrow checked his clipboard, routinely confirming Mawile's information, then stepped aside.
"The mayor will be with you now," he said. "Right through those doors, please."
Mawile quickly took the lead, throwing open the doors gently and walking in.
The large, wooden double doors closed behind the pair of explorers, and then they were in the office of Mayor Honchkrow.
It was nearly impossible to tell where the gut ended and the feathers began. The immense bird could barely fit behind his desk, and Archen was even more skeptical about his ability to fly. There were a pair of perches in the office in place of chairs, meaning non-bird visitors would have to stand.
Mayor Honchkrow cleared his throat, leaning forward.
"And you are?" he warbled.
"Explorers Mawile and Archen of the Expedition Society," Mawile answered cleanly for them. "We're here to report on the sudden cut-off in communications from Pokemon Plaza."
Mayor Honchkrow didn't seem impressed. He hmmed, then rested his wings on his desk.
"Well, let's get down to business then. What I'm interested to hear is, why were two cartographers sent to scope out this mission?"
Both Mawile and Archen were baffled by the mayor's sudden deflection. Archen knew why they had been sent, of course: there hadn't been any serious investigation into the matter for almost a week now, even approaching informal suspicions that investigations were being blocked. He was beginning to see why.
"Now, now, nothing wrong with maps," Honchkrow corrected himself. "I love a good map. They make great napkins. But when mere map-making suddenly becomes interference on the level of a proper rescue guild, one has to assume…"
He let the sentence die in his breast. What he implied spoke louder.
"You'll find our credentials are steady," spoke Mawile. "We're a HAPPI-registered guild performing this investigation on behalf of Cloud Nine. You may contact the office there if you have any concerns."
"Don't let it go to your head." Honchkrow regained his composure, his belly rippling as he adjusted himself in his seat. "Or… heads. Which one is it again?"
Once again, Archen could see Mawile doing her best to take the mayor's comments in stride.
"Head, thank you."
Mawile removed the expedition gadgets from their bag, pressed the photo button, and let the mayor begin to slowly scroll through the photos of the deserted Pokemon Plaza. Honchkrow began to fidget uneasily as he viewed the slideshow of perfect stone statues, taking a deep breath once it was over.
"Something else you might want to know," Archen began before Honchkrow could say anything. "We were attacked right after we took those photos."
"Is this true?" Honchkrow asked, one eyebrow raised.
"It is." Mawile scrolled back through the photos. "We were ambushed by what appeared to be a walking anomaly, for lack of a better term. You can see the very edge of it in a few of these photos." She stopped on the photos for good measure, allowing Honchkrow to find the anomaly himself.
Honchkrow leaned back in his seat, taking a deep breath and rubbing his temples with his wings.
"I want those photos transferred to me," he said. "Leave the thingamabobs here. I'll deal with Cloud Nine. And then… I want the 'Explanation Society' – or whatever you call yourselves – to stay out of this. I don't need map makers meddling around in proper rescue guild business."
"With all due respect, Mayor," Mawile said evenly, "the Expedition Society is a registered guild under HAPPI. The mayoral office of Baram Town isn't."
"Is that so?" Honchkrow let out a chuckle that grated Archen's ears. "Care to explain why you're in my office reporting to me, then? Explain it away, throw all the jargon at me you want. Believe me, I'd love to hear it."
Mawile opted to stay silent. Instead, she stuffed the expedition gadgets in her bag and zipped it up, gesturing for Archen to follow her out.
"Thought so," Honchkrow puffed in satisfaction as they turned for the door. "As long as the Rescuer's Guild is out of the picture, every team on this island might as well report to me. And I want you both off. I don't want to see any of your faces back here again until this all blows over. Stay in your bounds. Be a good manager and go tell your employees that for me. And leave those thingamabobs at the door!"
They could almost see the smug smirk on his beak as the doors closed.
"Once we get back to the Society, I am taking a long, long nap," Archen announced as he and Mawile quickly strolled through the streets of Baram Town, putting as much distance between themselves and the large windmill as possible.
"That makes two of us," said Mawile. She checked her bag before carefully sealing it again. At the last minute, they had sneakily turned in a pair of blank connection orbs, switched out with the ones that contained the photos. The sooner they got out of town, the better.
The lapras they had chartered was running late, however, and the next wailord liner back to Lively Town wasn't for another six hours. That left them with little left to do except lay low until their lapras arrived. In hindsight, Archen couldn't really complain. Baram Town was a tourist location for a reason, after all.
"Count your lucky wooloo, that's all we'll hear about it officially." Mawile held on tightly to the exploration bag as they passed through what looked like a disassembled bird pokemons' choir. "We'll be out of HAPPI's snouts once we hand over those photos to Cloud Nine."
"I wonder what caused the delay?" Archen wondered aloud as they passed a stall of dungeon supplies. "I take this lapras all the time, he's almost never late."
"I wonder if something occurred at the harbor," wondered Mawile, spotting a strange crowd gathering near the docks. "Harbor traffic often interferes with lapras trave—"
A sudden commotion erupted from the crowd, cutting her off. Without another word between them, the two explorers rushed in the direction of the harbor, pushing past several other 'mon who were gawking in horror.
A panicking slurpuff pointed a trembling limb towards the water as they and a few other pokemon arrived to see the source of the confusion.
"Look…" she gasped out.
The source of all the commotion made both Archen and Mawile's hearts skip a beat. Floating on the water was the stone statue of a lapras on a wooden raft, a note stuck to their chest in thick, loopy handwriting:
Mawile acted quickly. She pulled out an expedition gadget – it didn't matter which one – and snapped a photo of the statue floating before them. Then two others. Then a close-up of the note, and another, just to be safe. Then she quickly pulled Archen away by the wing, the bird scrambling to keep up as she walked away from the docks at a brisk pace.
"W-what's this about?" Archen squawked, trying not to end up with his poor feathers pulled out.
"This is better discussed at the inn," Mawile said, but even her steady tone couldn't help but betray the slightest hint of unease. "We don't want to be tangling with this when the local rescue teams show up. It'll create complications."
"I know this may be a bad time," Kecleon asked hopefully as the pair of explorers rushed by his stall. "But have you heard any word on when my supplier will—"
"Don't count on it," Mawile told him flatly. And then they were gone.
Music of the Week!
Reason - Yoshihiro Ike
Province Information: Luftand
Luftand is a maritime island province of Nebyllin, lying halfway between the North and the South. Once the seat of the Rescue Federation, Luftand Major, the primary landmass, serves today as a major shipping, tourism, and military hotspot. The capital of Luftand is Baram Town, a major port city with access to the island’s waterways. Shipping and military funding form Luftand’s largest industries, comprising upwards of 50% of its yearly output.
Southern Luftand contains the majority of the island’s population, military bases, and tourist attractions. Northern Luftand comprises vast swathes of rugged mountains, wilderness, and mystery dungeons, with most routes serving as trails or shipping pathways. Pokemon Plaza is the largest city in Northern Luftand and home to the Rescuer’s Guild, one of the world’s first major exploration establishments.
ⓘ It is advised to bring partners and a guide when travelling through Northern Luftand, as a high number of disappearances within the region have been recorded over the past few weeks.
SPECIAL EPISODE I: THE END'S BEGINNING
~\({O})/~
. . .. . . "I never understood how you manage to sleep on Lapras' backs," Archen said groggily, ruffling his feathers in exhaustion as he stepped onto the dock after Mawile. "Don't you ever worry about falling off?"
The many painted windmills of Baram Town stood proudly above them, painted vanes lazily turning in the early morning breeze. On any normal day, seeing the windmills would have been a breathtaking sight worth the six-hour journey. Today was not a normal day, and despite his long, sleepless night, they wouldn't be staying in town for more than an hour. Long nights and early mornings made Archen a very cranky bird.
Mawile, whose time management he sorely referred to as 'Drop-Dead Organization', wanted to be at their destination before it got dark, which apparently meant chartering a lapras in the dead of night and setting out only moments after. They'd just arrived in Baram Town at the crack of dawn, and Lapras promised to return for them in a few days.
This mission was very important, Archen heard. A few days ago, there was a cutoff in communications up north, and the Expedition Society pounced on the opportunity to investigate. Archen wasn't sure why investigations were going so slow, especially considering how major the shipping disruptions would be.
Mawile marked off the second box on a page in her travel journal, which Archen saw was marked 'Arrive in Baram Town' (the first was 'Charter Lapras').
"Trial and error," she replied, stowing the journal away in her exploration bag. "You learn quickly where the best spots to sleep on a lapras' back are once you've tried it a couple of times."
Archen shivered at the thought. He never cared much for water in the first place, let alone doing something as foolhardy as that. If only he could fly… This mission would be over already, he ruminated.
The paved, crooked streets of Baram were still mostly empty, belonging to the early birds, miscellaneous other early 'mon, and pairs of unfortunate explorers such as themselves. Even Kecleon was still hurriedly setting up shop as Mawile and Archen walked over to his stall.
"Ah – just a minute!" he called out with a sense of manufactured cheer and a wide grin, hurriedly straightening things on shelves. "I'll be ready for you in just a minute~! Bit of a late day today…"
Archen had a bit of a hard time fathoming how anymon could consider this late. Mawile swiftly handed him their exploration bag for the items, which Archen disgruntledly took in his wings.
"Welcome to the Kecleon Shop!" Kecleon chirped, straightening his apron discreetly. "What would you like to purchase?"
"Everything on this list, please." Mawile handed him a sizable list. "I assume you're fully stocked?"
Kecleon suddenly looked far more distressed than what was good for business.
"Actually…" he began, wringing his spindly lizard claws together uncomfortably, "My shipments come from the Rescuer's Guild in Pokemon Plaza. I haven't had a delivery in over two weeks, I'm afraid…"
The wringing of his claws intensified. A stress tic. Archen was good at reading those.
Mawile took a minute to study the list.
"I think we can make a few exceptions," she conceded, pulling an inked quill out of the bag Archen was holding and deftly crossing several things off. Kecleon's face relaxed considerably at the large number of crossed-out items. "We happen to be on our way to Pokemon Plaza ourselves," she said.
"R-really?" Kecleon's face lit up as he removed items from the shelves. "What for?"
"HAPPI business," Archen grumpily chimed in. "We're investigating a lack of communications and some strange reports in the area."
"Perhaps you'll take a look-see for the lucario who delivers my stocks every week?" Kecleon asked hopefully, setting the last of the items on the counter. "I'll throw in a future discount…" he hurriedly added afterwards.
"We'll keep an eye out." Mawile's reply was short and prompt. "The bill, please?"
"Oh – yes – I'm forgetting things left and right lately—"
Kecleon dived under the counter, emerging with a quill and paper. He tallied the prices of all the ingredients up so fast Archen was surprised they hadn't established a shopkeeper's monopoly yet, until his tired mind reminded him that they had. Kecleon wrote the final bill at the bottom of the paper and slid it to Mawile.
"That'll be 5500 Poke," he finished cheerfully. "Except for the tiny reviver seeds. I'm afraid I'm plumb out of those."
Mawile dug for the money, handing it to Kecleon and placing the items in the bag. Archen slung it over his back as they left the stall.
"Here." Mawile took the bag from Archen and handed him a chesto berry as they walked through Baram Plaza. "Breakfast."
Archen took it, watching Mawile pull out a chesto berry of her own and take a large bite of it. It seemed she was more tired than she let on. All those nights of sleepless rune research must be taking their toll after all.
"I thought you were going to stop taking those," said Archen, eyeing the berry.
"It'll take us approximately seven hours to arrive at Pokemon Plaza," said Mawile, taking another bite of the bitter berry. "We both need to be at our best for this."
"We could rest," Archen suggested grumpily. "Chesto berries can't keep you awake forever," he added.
"Stopping here will remove several hours from our timetable," Mawile replied, ignoring his statement. "Time is important on a job like this. We can rest all we need when we get back."
She downed the rest of it like it was a rare delicacy. Archen grimaced through his beak at the sight.
"I napped on the lapras," Mawile added a bit later. Archen shrugged, trudging after her as they walked towards the main route out of Baram and further into Luftand.
No matter how he prepared for it, this was going to be a long journey.
~\({O})/~
For a place referred to as a vacation destination, there was a surprising amount of forest and underbrush. Archen stopped as Mawile's back maw chomped down on an invasive branch, ripped it off the tree, and chucked it to the side. This happened often. Archen had already lost count.
"How close are we?" he asked, ducking under another low-hanging branch. They'd been walking for hours now, and despite being fit, Archen was starting to tucker out.
Mawile stopped and looked up from the map she was reading.
"Very worrying," she spoke.
"What's worrying?" Archen asked.
"If I'm reading this map correctly," Mawile calmly began, letting her back maw latch onto another branch and rip it off, "Then we should be getting close to Pokemon Plaza. However, the underbrush remains just as untamed as it's been this whole trip."
"And?" asked Archen, stepping around the splintered branch stem to glance at the map.
"Pokemon Plaza is a frequented area," Mawile clarified. "Therefore, the path should be maintained, unlike the anomaly we see here." She gestured briefly to the overgrown flora around her.
Archen started to realize.
"You think the reports are true?" he asked as they crawled onwards.
"We have yet to confirm the statues," said Mawile. "However, deserted seems to be accurate."
Drawing her expedition gadget – a slim, yellow, hexagonal device with a connection orb in the middle – Mawile held it up and snapped several pictures of their surroundings. Archen was beginning to really notice how much of the path was thorny and overgrown for the first time.
Just ten feet down the path, a tarped wagon sat on its side. The most putrid of smells wafted from under the tarp, making Archen queasy.
"Over there," he said, pointing it out.
Hitched to the wagon sat a perfect stone statue of a lucario, staring up at the sky in horror at something that was no longer there.
Mawile and Archen approached the wagon quickly.
"Well, that confirms the statues," said Archen, swallowing his nausea. Mawile furrowed her brow, deep in thought. They both stepped forward to inspect it.
The details on the lucario statue were near life-like. Its paws were on the harness that attached it to the cart, curled around straps that hadn't been undone on time. If it hadn't sat before them, Archen wouldn't have believed such intricate sculpting was possible…
…Unless it wasn't. Archen recalled Kecleon's words of worry: "My shipments come from the Rescuer's Guild in Pokemon Plaza. I haven't had a delivery in over two weeks, I'm afraid…" Was it such a stretch to believe… ?
Ignoring Archen's incessant feather-ruffling, Mawile strode over to the tarped wagon, holding her breath when the smell became too strong to bear. She whipped off the tarp with her maw, spinning full circle and casting the tarp away to see what the wagon held.
" I knew it…" Mawile muttered, taking out her journal and recording the finding as Archen gagged in the distance. Snap. More photos were taken with the expedition gadget.
Setting the journal aside, Mawile leaned in towards the mishmash of rotting berries and other ingredients, picking up an oran by the stem in her paw. It had molded over and bruised in several places, and felt like a miniature sack of water. Stamped on the boxes was the insignia of the Kecleon Foundation, addressed to a stall in Baram Town.
"A few weeks old, by the looks of it," she said to Archen. "This must have been Kecleon's shipment. And if this is the delivery…"
They both stared back at the statue that sat in front of the cart as the full implications of that deduction hit them.
Mawile inspected the statue carefully, noticing further all the life-like details the statue had to it. Far too many for it to be a statue.
"He was attacked from behind," Mawile stated, stepping back and snapping photos.
"If that is… him," said Archen shakily. It was hard to believe something like that was true. But the statue, the coincidence… there was too much about it to ignore.
They pressed forward. Mawile' deductions held true as they went. The underbrush only seemed to get worse the further in they tread, and eventually they happened upon the statue of a scyther wildly slashing at something from the underbrush.
"The hedgekeeper, I assume." Mawile took pictures of that too. Archen fearfully glanced at the statue as they went.
They could see the short buildings of Pokemon Plaza through the trees as they walked. The area around them was eerily quiet. Soon after, Mawile and Archen entered the main square of the small town, which was filled with the statues of countless pokemon running in terror. From the looks on their stone faces, whatever had happened here had taken them all by surprise.
"Okay…" Archen nervously ruffled his feathers. "We've seen everything we needed to. Let's go back now. We'll declare the place off-limits, done."
"We need proof first," Mawile told him, pulling both their expedition gadgets from her bag and handing one to Archen. "I'll need a little help photographing everything. Starting…"
Mawile and Archen photographed the various statues from opposite sides of the square, working in tandem until they had amassed a decent reconstruction of the scene. Looking through the evidence, neither Mawile nor Archen noticed the dark, spiny figure slinking along the rooftop…
Until it accidentally kicked a roof tile to the ground. Mawile spun around just in time to see it conjure what seemed like a shadow ball with its claws, aiming at Archen.
"Look out—"
Mawile dropped her expedition gadget, pulling Archen out of the way before the attack could land. It exploded against the wall of a house, turning the doorway to stone.
Both Mawile and Archen assumed a battle stance, looking straight at the blurred figure that stood on the roof. It was muscular, quadrupedal, and pitch-black. A bouquet of spines extended out of its back. It had no eyes. It looked like somemon had cut a hole in the fabric of reality.
"Expedition Society!" Archen shouted, showing the figure his badge. "Stand down and follow us!"
It was a vain gesture. He barely flapped out of the way of another shadow attack. The figure bounded off the roof and loped straight towards them. Mawile and Archen dove out of the way just in time, The figure crashed into a storefront in the square and brought the building collapsing down on it with a crash.
Dust settled, and Mawile and Archen picked themselves up.
"W-w-w-what was that?" Archen asked, his voice picking up into a squawk.
"Be on your guard," Mawile said, her eyes fixed as the rubble of the storefront began to shift. "It's coming back."
The rubble exploded outwards—
A hasty blue Protect barrier from Archen was enough to shield them both from the debris. The rubble flew to the side, leaving them untouched.
The charging figure that emerged from the wreckage a split second later tried to snap them up in its claws as it went, but Mawile pulled herself and Archen down low. The monster skidded over them, ramping up against the houses on the other end and charging back at them.
Mawile was swift. As Archen charged a Dragon Breath in retaliation, she pulled a blast seed from her exploration bag, and hurled it at the creature in time with Archen's attack—
The purple-colored explosion created by both the blast seed and the Dragon Breath would have brought the world's strongest pokemon to the brink of fainting. Both Mawile and Archen had to quickly scramble back to avoid being damaged by the resulting explosion as well. But when the explosion cleared, the shadowy figure was still standing all the same. Mawile almost lost her bearings in shock. What creature was it, to survive a blast as powerful as that?
The shadowy creature took a shaky step towards them, then another. It was limping.
It began to conjure a third attack. Mawile prepared to lure its aim elsewhere and dodge at the last second. Archen, panting hoarsely, prepared to get in a parrying blow and dive out of the way. But then, out of the blue, the figure stopped. Its body seemed to lock up just like one of Jirachi's malfunctioning robots. Mawile and Archen watched as it began to convulse violently, and then suddenly burst into tiny scraps of ash that floated off into the sky. There was nothing inside its body but more inky-black darkness.
Archen caught his breath heavily, picking up his fallen gadget from the ground.
"What was that?!" he asked hoarsely, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.
"I… don't know," said Mawile. "In all my years of dungeoneering and research I've never seen something like this."
Archen could tell she was just as shaken as he was. She gathered her bag and silently retrieved her and Archen's gadgets, stuffing them in. Then they picked themselves up and turned around.
Unbeknownst to the two explorers, a single flake of blackness blew off in the wind towards Baram Town.
Finished gathering their supplies, Mawile and Archen began the return trip to Baram Town. It would prove to be one of their most sombre trips to date.
~\({O})/~
"It's windy up here…" Archen stammered, ruffling his feathers as he and Mawile crossed yet another fenceless, sky-high bridge between the massive windmills of Baram Town.
"You're in better shape today," Mawile noted, tucking her clipboard back into her bag. The ground underneath them was elaborately paved, white stone.
"Yeah…" Archen ruffled his feathers nervously as they walked. "Well, sleep does wonders for a poor bird, it turns out."
Mawile, who had only slept a little and had eaten another chesto berry to compensate, tried not to show how much her eyes were drooping.
Archen looked upwards, met only with the sun and the looming presence of the windmills' massive, creaking vanes. They were on the highest bridge in the city, leading to the highest floor of the tallest building, a windmill so immense that scaling it could only have been practical for those with wings. The thought of how high up they were made Archen stray closer to the middle of the bridge.
Flying types were flying types, but somemon ought to have installed fences for those who weren't blessed with the power of flight.
A pair of murkrow fluttered forwards as Mawile and Archen approached the large doors at the end of the bridge.
"Names, appointments," one of them droned out, reciting from a tired script.
"Mawile and Archen, Expedition Society," Mawile responded without skipping a beat. "Here to see Mayor Honchkrow. Appointments scheduled for 9:00 A.M. on Wednesday."
The murkrow checked his clipboard, routinely confirming Mawile's information, then stepped aside.
"The mayor will be with you now," he said. "Right through those doors, please."
Mawile quickly took the lead, throwing open the doors gently and walking in.
The large, wooden double doors closed behind the pair of explorers, and then they were in the office of Mayor Honchkrow.
It was nearly impossible to tell where the gut ended and the feathers began. The immense bird could barely fit behind his desk, and Archen was even more skeptical about his ability to fly. There were a pair of perches in the office in place of chairs, meaning non-bird visitors would have to stand.
Mayor Honchkrow cleared his throat, leaning forward.
"And you are?" he warbled.
"Explorers Mawile and Archen of the Expedition Society," Mawile answered cleanly for them. "We're here to report on the sudden cut-off in communications from Pokemon Plaza."
Mayor Honchkrow didn't seem impressed. He hmmed, then rested his wings on his desk.
"Well, let's get down to business then. What I'm interested to hear is, why were two cartographers sent to scope out this mission?"
Both Mawile and Archen were baffled by the mayor's sudden deflection. Archen knew why they had been sent, of course: there hadn't been any serious investigation into the matter for almost a week now, even approaching informal suspicions that investigations were being blocked. He was beginning to see why.
"Now, now, nothing wrong with maps," Honchkrow corrected himself. "I love a good map. They make great napkins. But when mere map-making suddenly becomes interference on the level of a proper rescue guild, one has to assume…"
He let the sentence die in his breast. What he implied spoke louder.
"You'll find our credentials are steady," spoke Mawile. "We're a HAPPI-registered guild performing this investigation on behalf of Cloud Nine. You may contact the office there if you have any concerns."
"Don't let it go to your head." Honchkrow regained his composure, his belly rippling as he adjusted himself in his seat. "Or… heads. Which one is it again?"
Once again, Archen could see Mawile doing her best to take the mayor's comments in stride.
"Head, thank you."
Mawile removed the expedition gadgets from their bag, pressed the photo button, and let the mayor begin to slowly scroll through the photos of the deserted Pokemon Plaza. Honchkrow began to fidget uneasily as he viewed the slideshow of perfect stone statues, taking a deep breath once it was over.
"Something else you might want to know," Archen began before Honchkrow could say anything. "We were attacked right after we took those photos."
"Is this true?" Honchkrow asked, one eyebrow raised.
"It is." Mawile scrolled back through the photos. "We were ambushed by what appeared to be a walking anomaly, for lack of a better term. You can see the very edge of it in a few of these photos." She stopped on the photos for good measure, allowing Honchkrow to find the anomaly himself.
Honchkrow leaned back in his seat, taking a deep breath and rubbing his temples with his wings.
"I want those photos transferred to me," he said. "Leave the thingamabobs here. I'll deal with Cloud Nine. And then… I want the 'Explanation Society' – or whatever you call yourselves – to stay out of this. I don't need map makers meddling around in proper rescue guild business."
"With all due respect, Mayor," Mawile said evenly, "the Expedition Society is a registered guild under HAPPI. The mayoral office of Baram Town isn't."
"Is that so?" Honchkrow let out a chuckle that grated Archen's ears. "Care to explain why you're in my office reporting to me, then? Explain it away, throw all the jargon at me you want. Believe me, I'd love to hear it."
Mawile opted to stay silent. Instead, she stuffed the expedition gadgets in her bag and zipped it up, gesturing for Archen to follow her out.
"Thought so," Honchkrow puffed in satisfaction as they turned for the door. "As long as the Rescuer's Guild is out of the picture, every team on this island might as well report to me. And I want you both off. I don't want to see any of your faces back here again until this all blows over. Stay in your bounds. Be a good manager and go tell your employees that for me. And leave those thingamabobs at the door!"
They could almost see the smug smirk on his beak as the doors closed.
~\({O})/~
"Once we get back to the Society, I am taking a long, long nap," Archen announced as he and Mawile quickly strolled through the streets of Baram Town, putting as much distance between themselves and the large windmill as possible.
"That makes two of us," said Mawile. She checked her bag before carefully sealing it again. At the last minute, they had sneakily turned in a pair of blank connection orbs, switched out with the ones that contained the photos. The sooner they got out of town, the better.
The lapras they had chartered was running late, however, and the next wailord liner back to Lively Town wasn't for another six hours. That left them with little left to do except lay low until their lapras arrived. In hindsight, Archen couldn't really complain. Baram Town was a tourist location for a reason, after all.
"Count your lucky wooloo, that's all we'll hear about it officially." Mawile held on tightly to the exploration bag as they passed through what looked like a disassembled bird pokemons' choir. "We'll be out of HAPPI's snouts once we hand over those photos to Cloud Nine."
"I wonder what caused the delay?" Archen wondered aloud as they passed a stall of dungeon supplies. "I take this lapras all the time, he's almost never late."
"I wonder if something occurred at the harbor," wondered Mawile, spotting a strange crowd gathering near the docks. "Harbor traffic often interferes with lapras trave—"
A sudden commotion erupted from the crowd, cutting her off. Without another word between them, the two explorers rushed in the direction of the harbor, pushing past several other 'mon who were gawking in horror.
A panicking slurpuff pointed a trembling limb towards the water as they and a few other pokemon arrived to see the source of the confusion.
"Look…" she gasped out.
The source of all the commotion made both Archen and Mawile's hearts skip a beat. Floating on the water was the stone statue of a lapras on a wooden raft, a note stuck to their chest in thick, loopy handwriting:
Drop The Trail
Or You're Next
This Is Your Only Warning
Or You're Next
This Is Your Only Warning
Mawile acted quickly. She pulled out an expedition gadget – it didn't matter which one – and snapped a photo of the statue floating before them. Then two others. Then a close-up of the note, and another, just to be safe. Then she quickly pulled Archen away by the wing, the bird scrambling to keep up as she walked away from the docks at a brisk pace.
"W-what's this about?" Archen squawked, trying not to end up with his poor feathers pulled out.
"This is better discussed at the inn," Mawile said, but even her steady tone couldn't help but betray the slightest hint of unease. "We don't want to be tangling with this when the local rescue teams show up. It'll create complications."
"I know this may be a bad time," Kecleon asked hopefully as the pair of explorers rushed by his stall. "But have you heard any word on when my supplier will—"
"Don't count on it," Mawile told him flatly. And then they were gone.
~\({O})/~
Music of the Week!
Reason - Yoshihiro Ike
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