Chapter 75: The Best-Laid Plans
Virgil134
PMD Writer
- Partners
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Just offshore Haipheh, the Uragan carried on under a morning sky darkened with white clouds as stray flakes of snow filtered about sharp and frigid air. On the deck, the crew's pace had ground down from the unnatural cold, with even Jun and Nagant having become sluggish from the abrupt change in weather. Nagant peered off through her scope towards a square sea fort with stone walls built on the other side of a hill from a small village, the entire area frosted over with a layer of snow that only served to remind the Clawitzer of the inhospitable weather.
"Bah, I should've just hit the water from the last buoy," she grumbled.
Nagant put her scope away and hopped up to jump into the water. As little comfort as it was, the sea provided some minor relief from the cold, leaving the pistol shrimp to jet ahead, weaving along the waves as a group of Pokémon in Imperial scarves swam up to accost her. After seeing her three-leaved scarf and less-than-amiable mood, the lot swiftly waved the Water-type along, letting her carry on for the fort where a breakwater with wooden docks had been constructed.
The Clawitzer passed several ships with Imperial sails, seeing that the docks were more crowded than normal today, no doubt thanks to the disturbance that had happened in Tidemill City just a few days ago. After a moment's search, Nagant found an open spot at the far end where her ship could moor at, where she swam up and grudgingly clambered up as she felt the air chill the seawater rolling off her shell and fought to stifle a shiver.
"Ah, Captain Nagant. I've been expecting you."
Nagant pivoted on her tail just in time to see an Incineroar in an indigo scarf with a four-leaved pattern approaching. The Clawitzer nodded back, giving a small wave as she fixed her gaze insistently on the approaching Fire-Type.
"Being greeted at the docks by the 'mon in charge is certainly a first…" Nagant remarked. "Commodore Corbett, was it?"
"That's right," the Incineroar answered. "Though given the message I received from you and Valan, I was under the impression that there wasn't any time to waste for this 'Lugia'."
The Clawitzer shook her head back at the Incineroar, breathing a sigh of relief that after her debacle of a port call in Buyeom she was finally dealing with a 'mon that seemed to be cutting to the chase.
"You can say that again," Nagant said. "I need to have an audience with-"
"I already took the liberty of informing the Duchess about the circumstances," Corbett cut in. "She gave the green light for an operation to seize the Protector on her island, and me and my subordinates are ready to provide whatever assistance is needed for helping you restore it to the crown."
Nagant blinked out of surprise at the Commodore's reply. The shrimp paused for a moment, wondering if Corbett's generosity was as open as he let on, before opting to test it for herself.
"… I'm going to need five twin-masts flying false sails, my crew's members embedded with the local guards to set up an ambush in town, and for them to heed my orders for anything relevant to this mission until the Lugia is captured," she said.
"Consider it done," Corbett replied.
Nagant's mouthparts hung open at Corbett's acceptance, having half a mind to pinch herself to ensure that she wasn't dreaming. Satisfied, her mandibles curled into a smile as she nodded back to her superior.
"Glad to hear, I'm sure Her Majesty will be as happy as I am once this all is over."
In the seas west of Haipheh, the Siglo Swellow sailed along amidst the waves. The lookouts peered through spyglasses every now and then to ensure that the ship was still on course, dutifully checking that they weren't straying towards any of the more trafficked sea routes to the north. Below the deck, a small crowd of sailors had gathered in the mess hall to read letters Pat had brought from Tromba and distributed to their owners. At the edge, Trizano chattered with a Raichu and Servine, the two having spent the past few minutes recounting their travels since Tromba when Trizano's eyes drifted over towards a pair of envelopes left on their table.
"You've been able to get mail all this time going from island to island?" the Skarmory wondered.
"Yup, though it helps that we've got someone to fly it back and forth for us," Philips replied. "Pat finally came back from Tromba with a load of letters when we were anchored at Pioppo. There's not a whole lot going on now, so we're just catching up on them."
"How have they all been doing anyways?" Trizano asked. "From what you've told me so far, I can't imagine that being separated from their Protector has been easy on them."
"Mostly just normal everyday stuff," Natrix answered. "They were pretty thrilled to hear about the Protector joining us, and they're looking forward to us coming home."
Trizano furrowed his brow back in confusion, giving a slight tilt of his head as he pressed the Servine and his Raichu companion.
"The Company hasn't done anything at all to try and interfere yet?" he questioned. "Surely everyone at home must find their lack of intervention a bit strange…"
Natrix and Philips looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to Trizano with a shared shrug.
"I mean, I'm sure that they're worried about it… but nothing's happened so far," the Raichu of the pair said.
"Yeah, they were in the clear when Pat was back there," Natrix chimed in. "And that was just two days ago!"
Trizano gave an uneasy ruffle of his feathers, letting them clatter against each other. It was hard to think that Company would fail to catch onto the town's schemes for so long, but stranger things had happened before, and it was hardly a bad thing to still have a free wing to work with.
"I suppose one should be thankful that's still the case then…" he murmured.
The Skarmory got up from the table and waved farewell at the Raichu and Servine before leaving the mess hall, heading up onto the deck when he caught sight of Team Traveller's youngsters helping to clean the deck. There he saw Crom, Guardia, Elty, and Pleo all doing their part dutifully swabbing the timbers, occasionally breaking their work with a playful flick of a wet rag. Trizano paced forward, raising a wing in welcome only to stop and blink after noticing that Nida wasn't with them.
"Oh? Wasn't Nida helping out with swabbing the deck today?"
Crom paused from his work swabbing the deck, looking up at Trizano as he shook feeling back into his left arm.
"She's helping out with reading and transcribing the Ledger in her quarters," the Druddigon answered. "Ander's turn was up so she took over for him."
"Right… She's been at that for a while," Trizano mused. "Perhaps it's about time for her to take a break."
The Skarmory made his way back below deck, shuffling through the dimly-lit halls and past the occasional sailor as he made his way down to the common rooms that served as the crew's quarters. Trizano counted up the doors, before coming to a stop at the second entrance on his left, where a simple wooden door had been left ajar, prompting him to push it open and call out into the room on the other end.
"Nida?"
The metal bird stepped into the chamber, where he saw hammocks and straw bedding set out along the edges. In the center, next to a jar lit with glowmoss, there was the Knights' Ledger laying open with its pages facing down on a crate used as a table, with Nida leaning away on a stool with a troubled stare.
"Are you alright?" Trizano asked.
"I… just needed to stop reading for a while," Nida said.
Trizano tilted his head warily back at the Nidorina. He hadn't been given the chance to read much of the Ledger on his own, but he remembered enough of what the village discovered from it to be jarring on an initial impression. Then, it begged the question of…
"What was the last thing that you read?"
"I came across a set of entries talking about how this Queen Erna ordered the Company to bring Cernun's egg back to Conntow," Nida began. "They sent some Commissioner over to do it, but one of his main assistants was Inler."
"I mean, it would make sense," Trizano replied. "From what I'm aware of, there aren't many Pokémon like Inler left in the Company who have been around since the time before the Great Calamity-"
"That wasn't what bugged me," the Nidorina insisted, prompting Trizano to pause uneasily before she continued on.
"The entries after said that the Company first tried to take the egg peacefully, but that when the ferals inside the Mystery Dungeon pushed back, they 'helped them meet their makers'!" she exclaimed. "And the entries afterwards just continued on like nothing was wrong!"
Nida shook her head, pulling her ears back as she looked back at Trizano uncomfortably.
"I'd only been reading the Ledger for half an hour when I came across it, and it's barely 30 pages into it," she murmured. "Just what else is in this thing?"
Trizano lowered his head with a quiet sigh, before he made his way over to the tome to shut it.
"That, I don’t have an answer to, other than that there's a reason why both the Company and the Empire fear this book, Nida," the Skarmory replied. "They both have had a long history of dealings involving Cernun, and much of it doesn't reflect well on them."
"But why Cernun in particular? And why did they need his egg anyways?" Nida asked. "Back then they weren't enemies with each other like they are now, so what would they need a Protector for?"
"I admittedly haven't read the Ledger myself, but Valter has told me a few times about things that he found in it. One of them was that there seem to be passing mentions that Cernun's egg wasn't the only one," Trizano explained. "What other Protector or Protectors that involved, I wouldn't know."
Trizano slipped a loose feather into the pages of the book as a mark, shaking his head before closing it and turning back to the Nidorina.
"As for why they needed Cernun… when the Empire came for him again at Pioppo, they wanted to use him as a weapon for the Navy," he continued. "I'd imagine the Empire must have wanted to do so even before he hatched, though I'm not sure why they would've felt a need to do something like that."
Nida blinked at the Skarmory's reply as she wondered to herself just what other Protectors could have met a fate like Cernun. She knew full well from Nerea that this blue tome in front of her was only one out of three volumes, so did the other two reveal more about this? Nerea said the Company had disturbed her, but that had happened well after the Great Calamity… and none of the islands other than Mengir had any indication that they'd similarly had their Protector taken from them…
Tok tok tok
Nida and Trizano turned for the door at the sound of claws rapping against wood, turning to see Pladur wedge his tusked head through the doorway.
"We're a bit low on supplies, so Captain Beatrix is taking us by Haipheh to reprovision," the Fraxure said.
"Huh? So soon?" Nida asked.
"Well, we're about an hour out," the Dragon-Type explained. "But you should try to put away the Ledger in about half an hour. The approaches to islands tend to be more closely watched, and it'd be a waste to lose it from a sudden inspection."
Pladur took his leave, heading back out into the hallway as Nida uneasily shifted her glance between the door and the blue tome on the crate. Her indecision was cut short by the rustling of Trizano's feathers, as the Skarmory raised a wing to address her.
"Why don't you go and take a break for now?" Trizano suggested. "I can take over until it's time to put the Ledger away."
"Are you sure, Trizano?" Nida asked. "I don't really want to impose on-"
"Certamente! We're working as a team, aren't we?" the Skarmory said. "So let me help out with your burden a while."
The Nidorina paused a moment, letting a small smile spread over her muzzle before she nosed her way for the door.
"Alright, I'll take you up on it."
Nida made her way to the door and pushed the door open, looking back as Trizano settled against the crate and opened the blue book back to where he'd left his feather. The Nidorina let the door shut behind her, heading off down the corridor as she kept wondering to herself what could be in the other two volumes that Kline and Nerea had mentioned.
About hour later, the rattle of clayware rang out from the galley as Pleo, Crom, Guardia, Nida, and Elty took a moment to rest by helping themselves to leftovers from breakfast and play a shell game shuffling a trio of clay cups with their paws trying to guess which of them hid a pebble underneath. After finishing their food and amusing themselves for a while, the lot felt the ship come to a stop. While the Siglo Swellow's bobbing began to settle down, the five got up, making their way down the ship's corridors as its wood creaked and groaned from moving in the harbor's water. They passed one of the sleeping quarters where Kiran and Dimitri exited before hailing them, the lot calling back cheerful greetings only for Pleo to pause and notice something amiss with their gathering.
"Eh? Where's Ander?" the Lugia asked. "I thought we were all getting together before going onto the deck."
"I saw him back at his quarters," Dimitri answered. "He says that he's not a good fit for going off into Haipheh."
"I wonder why he suddenly changed his mind," Guardia said. "I don't have any problem going out. It's a chance to see a new place, gather lore about this island, and…"
The Cubone trailed off as a cold chill came down the steps, Nida, Pleo, and Elty giving a puzzled turn of their heads before they continued up into frosty air cold enough for them to see their breaths. The three looked around, seeing that far from the warm, blue skies from just an hour ago, the Siglo Swellow had laid anchor in a harbor frosted with snow, and chunks of ice swirling about the water. In front of them was a village composed of glazed-tiled shacks with paper windows occasionally punctuated by larger ring-like structures. The bulk of them were adorned with arcing roofs broken here or there by a tent or building shaped after a Pokémon's head or an iced-over palm tree, with the stone walls of a sea fort visible off in the distance. The lot stared along, half-thinking that they'd come across a playground for Ice-Types opposed to a settlement when the wind picked up and sent a chill down the group's spines, a loud yelp prompting Nida to turn back and see Crom wide-eyed and shivering.
"A-Aaaah! Nida, it's freezing out here!" the Druddigon cried.
Crom pulled his wings tight against his body before darting back to the entrance to the ship's lower decks. Nida blinked before folding an ear back puzzledly at her Dragon-Type teammate.
"Crom? What's going on?" she asked. "I get that it’s a bit cold, but it’s not that bad, is it?"
The Druddigon remained firmly fixed to his spot, refusing to budge as Pladur walked up hugging his arms against his chest and visibly shivering.
"Blugh… easy enough for a 'mon with fur to say! I normally try to stay below deck whenever the ship comes out to Whitepalm Town since half the time it's miserable just to poke my head out!" Pladur exclaimed. "I don't think I can take five minutes of this, let alone the two hours Captain Beatrix needs in order to resupply!"
Nida flattened her ears at the two Dragon-Types’ reaction, only to hear the sound of boarding footsteps and barking voices when they turned to see a Walrein leading a small party in indigo garb aboard. The lot froze and felt the color flush out of their faces when Beatrix hastily flew in, coming to a hasty stop in front of the Walrein.
"Is something the matter?" Beatrix asked.
"You've been selected for a random inspection," the walrus harrumphed. "Step aside and let us look around a bit."
The Walrein pushed ahead, fanning out along with his underlings across the deck. As the guards made their way about, Team Traveller's members hastily attempted to crowd around Pleo to try and hide him from view, standing on hindlimbs, spreading wings, and standing atop each other's shoulders with audible bumps and jostles. A blue and white Mr. Mime with the Walrein looked over at them for a moment before down at a sheet of paper, and pointed them out. Team Traveller froze for a moment as the head guard approached, the Walrein staring at them for a moment, before giving an annoyed frown.
"You know, this inspection isn't going to go any faster if you're constantly messing around on deck," the Walrein growled. "Go play somewhere else and let us do our jobs here!"
Pleo and his companions blinked back surprised as the guard shook his head and carried on, the Mr. Mime lingering a moment before muttering something about "he's too small anyways". Team Traveller's members breathed a sigh of relief before hastily undoing their awkward wall as the young Lugia stared at the guards rooting around nonchalantly in the background.
"They… didn't recognize me," Pleo murmured.
"You shouldn't nitpick a gift, Pleo. Remember, we're only here for two hours to reprovision before going back to Tromba," Elty chided, as he cast his glance off towards Whitepalm Town's sleepy streets.
"Considering how nobody knows who you are, maybe it'd be worth going out to stretch our legs a bit before sailing off," he suggested.
"It would be nice to fly around," Kiran said. "But none of us really know what to expect from it."
"I believe I could be of assistance there," a Skarmory's voice chimed in.
Team Traveller's members turned to see Trizano hopping up, fanning out his right wing to wave at the lot before bringing it back to his side with a cheerful smile.
"My excursions beyond Pioppo have taken me here a fair amount of times," the Skarmory said. "I'm pretty sure I know the area well enough to give you a short tour within two hours."
"Heh, well I'm sold," Dimitri replied. "How about the rest of you?"
Elty and Kiran at once cheered back their intent to come along, while Crom stared at the town with a palpable sense of dread. Nida looked out at Whitepalm Town, her eyes fixed on the snow-glazed buildings as she shuffled her feet and began to speak up.
"I think I'd like to-"
"I… think that I'm going to sit this one out and stay in the mess hall with the galley oven running until we leave," Pladur said. "That stomach wound still hasn't fully healed and just coming above deck already sucked the energy out of me."
"Ugh, the galley oven really sounds good right now, dad," Crom groaned. "Let's hurry up and get out of this awful weather."
Nida's words died in her mouth and her expression fell as she watched Crom and Pladur head below deck. The Nidorina turned back uneasily at the town, which seemed to lose much of its luster knowing that she'd be seeing it without Crom, leaving her to shift in place uncomfortably. Then again, the rest of her teammates were still going into town, and spending more time on the ship wasn't exactly her first choice either…
"I guess I'll come too," Nida hesitated. "I mean, if everyone else is going, there's no reason for me to skip, right?"
Elty rolled his eyes in reply, before motioning with a paw back for the entrance below deck.
"You seem to be forgetting about Guardia," the Growlithe said.
"Huh? Why? What happened to her-?" Nida started, only to catch herself and hop up out of surprise as she saw the Cubone halfway down the steps for the ship's lower decks.
"Eh?! You were just going on about wanting to gather lore a couple minutes ago!" the Nidorina exclaimed.
Guardia stared back with a sheepish look as her body visibly shivered, before she shook her head and gave an irritated huff.
"Meh, there's not much that can be gathered in two hours anyways," Guardia grumbled. "I might as well just stick around and gather some lore from a seawalker like that Onondo, especially if he also knows something about that oven."
Pleo and his remaining teammates stared after Guardia as she slunk off, their faces locked into flat, unimpressed stares after the vanishing Ground-Type.
"She's staying behind because she thought it was too cold too, isn't she?" Pleo murmured.
"Wasn't it obvious?" Elty scoffed.
Nida grimaced, looking off at the stairwell back below deck and pawing uneasily at the timbers underfoot. The Nidorina hung her head, when she felt a wing pat at her shoulder and looked over to see Kiran smiling reassuringly at her.
"If you don't want to go out, it's fine," the Swellow insisted. "You've only just met Crom again and a lot has changed, so I can understand if you need some time with him."
"Are you sure, Kiran?" Nida asked. "I mean, we're supposed to be a team, and-"
"As your team captain, I insist," Kiran said. "We'll take care of ourselves out there."
Nida paused, a small smile spreading over her muzzle as she nodded back at her teammates.
"Alright, see you soon."
The Poison-Type watched as Pleo, Elty, Kiran, Dimitri, and Trizano filed off the gangplank for the wharves below. Satisfied that her companions were in good paws, she waved the group off and carried on, slipping below into the darkened warmth of the Siglo Swellow eager to spend her port call staying warm with Crom.
Behind its stone walls, Haipheh's naval base hummed with activity, as Pokémon darted to and fro among short, stone buildings. The barracks in the complex were composed of long structures built next to each other in rows, which had been largely left vacant after their slumbering sailors had been called out at dawn. Instead, the bulk of the activity centered around training grounds and larger structures built towards the center, including a mess hall where Pokémon were still streaming out from morning rations. Outside its entrance, a Sandslash leading a Cranidos and Ponyta passed by the departing sailors, the Fire-Type of the three tapping his hooves against the ground impatiently before letting out a sharp snort.
"Hurry it up already! We were supposed to be in town half an hour ago!" Berecien snapped.
"Relax, we're taking the route that I always take here," Niilo insisted.
"You took us down a dead end earlier!" the Ponyta cried. "This can't possibly be the route you take every time we come here!"
"I mean, the weather is a little warmer here than in town," Cabot said. "So at least there's a silver lining, right?"
Berecien turned his head towards the Cranidos with a bewildered scowl, only for a moment of dawning realization to come over him that Niilo would have a motivation to stay out of the cold as much as he could… as would Cabot. At once, the Ponyta flared out his mane and jerked his head over to shoot a harsh glare over at his Sandslash teammate.
"Are you deliberately stalling us?" Berecien demanded.
"And so what if I am?" Niilo scoffed. "This is no weather for a Sandslash and you know it!"
"Speak for yourself! It's warm enough as it is over here!"
Niilo looked over to see a bluish-white Sandslash coated in icy spikes passing by with a sharp frown, making him blink and stare bewilderedly as the irked Ice-Type moved along. With his patience having finally run thin, Berecien stomped his hooves against the ground, shoving Niilo aside as he walked ahead of his companions.
"I'll take over from here," the Ponyta harrumphed. "I'm pretty sure that I took that alleyway over there to the gate before."
Berecien set off and led his teammates down an alleyway between a pair of barracks. The group continued as the contours of the base's walls came into view, with a rough gatehouse marking that there was indeed a gate there, much as the Ponyta had remembered. The lot carried along, making their way toward the gate as a Cacturne, a Marshtomp, and a Camerupt posted nearby dawdled around a crate playing a game of cards with Pokémon pictures on them, prompting Cabot to blink and have a double take.
"Hey, isn't that Chalco over there?" Cabot asked.
Berecien slowed and turned off to his right where he spotted the familiar form of the Marshtomp playing cards at the crowded crate. The Water-Type in front of him was indeed Chalco, one of Niilo's friends from his band of mercenaries. But in all the times they'd met since Basic Training, he always remembered her hanging around a Numel and Cacnea…
"Huh? I mean, it is her," the Ponyta murmured. "But does that mean the other two are-?"
"Hah! That foil card of yours is mine, Orcutt!" the Camerupt jeered.
Berecien flicked his ears at hearing the name 'Orcutt'. Of course! Chalco's companions must've evolved! If the Cacturne was Orcutt, then the Camerupt would logically be Molina, the last member of their circle of sellclaws… if evidently much changed from their last encounter.
"I suppose that answers that question," Berecien sighed, as Niilo eagerly, motioned with a claw to follow.
"Come on, let's stop by!" the Sandslash insisted.
Niilo and his companions carried on, approaching the gathering from behind Orcutt's shoulder as Niilo leaned in and gave a quiet poke at the Cacturne's shoulder.
"I see you three are really giving the Dune Devils a good rap there."
The three mercenaries jolted up on their seats out of surprise, turning back to see Niilo impishly waving at them. Their startled expressions faded away quickly into cheerful smiles as the three gathered around the Sandslash.
"Niilo! What are you doing back here so soon?" Orcutt exclaimed.
"Oh you know, duty calling," the Sandslash replied. "Just doing what I'm paid for."
"Hrmph, you shouldn't be so flippant, Niilo," Berecien chided, before turning to the trio of slackers. "I see that you all have changed a bit since last time."
"Yeah, Orcutt and Molina finally caught up with me and evolved," Chalco replied. "Feels great for all of us to finally be able to see over the counter at shops now!"
"I seem to remember you still needing to get on your toes to do that," Molina scoffed.
"I can see over them well enough!" the Marshtomp protested, leaving Orcutt to chuckle and look at Berecien and his companions with an arm pointing back at some unused stools a few paces away along the base's wall.
"Why don't you all take a seat?" the Cacturne offered. "We've got enough kortteja to take you three along for a game or two."
Niilo and Cabot started to make their way over towards the seats, only to stop after Berecien let out a sharp snort and shook his head back at Orcutt.
"We can't," the Ponyta answered. "We need to be in town right now since Captain Nagant is chasing after a Protector who she believes to be coming through here."
Orcutt and Molina traded askew looks with one another, while Chalco abandoned all pretense of belief in order to blow a doubtful raspberry back at Berecien.
"Sure she is," Chalco scoffed. "I know you've probably got 'mons you need to impress with your parents being nobles and all, but you don't need to make up stories just because you're stuck on frontier patrol again!"
"But it really happened!" Cabot insisted. "Look! Here's even one of the flyers we were supposed to pass out!"
The Cranidos took a sheet of paper out of his bag that depicted a long-necked bird, prompting the three mercenaries to gather around and begin to read the runes underneath. After a moment of their eyes going back and forth a few lines, the trio paused, and looked up with blank expressions at their Sandslash teammate.
"Niilo, what exactly is going on here?" Molina asked. "Just how do you all go from frontier duty to chasing after a Protector?!"
"Well…"
The Sandslash began to tell the tale of how they'd first heard of Pleo on Boisocéan and learned of his direction and the Company's attempts to seize him on Mengir, which the Ground-Type dutifully insisted was due to his skills as a sleuth and a spy. From there his tale moved on to a daring raid on Orleigh where they faced hundreds of pirates, before tracking and easily overpowering the Protector and his pirate companions on Sormus. Upon his return to Giotto, the Queen herself was so impressed by his valor and bravery that she felt compelled to make him the head caretaker over the Protector… only for their work to be undone in spite of his best efforts by an entire horde of the pirates surprising them with a hail of Wonder Orbs and seeds in the capital, thus forcing them to try and track him down once more. All the while, the gathered Pokémon frowned and traded unimpressed scowls as Niilo puffed his chest as he came to the end of his much-embellished story.
"And that's what's been going down," he beamed, prompting his Cacturne companion to curl his mouth into an impatient frown.
"Come on Niilo, stop playing around," Orcutt grumbled. "What really happened?"
"It's true though! … or at least the broad strokes of it," Cabot answered. "But the point is that we really do need to go into town to help with this ambush!"
"I mean something's up if an ironclad's coming through here, but shouldn't we be seeing more 'mons from the capital or something?" Molina asked, raising her brow back skeptically. "A Protector is a big deal, so why wouldn't others be getting-?"
The Camerupt trailed off as she spotted the form of a Dragonite in an ill-fitting scarf with a solitary leaf pattern sneak about the alleyways, clumsily skulking and slinking about.
"… What is that Dragonite doing?" the Camerupt murmured.
Orcutt turned his attention, watching the strange Dragon-Type as he accidentally upended a small stack of crates with his tail. Berecien and his teammates blanched a moment as the Grass-Type watched as the stranger looked back in alarm. The dragon turned and began to tiptoe away in a hurry, prompting Orcutt to squint and glare.
"I dunno, something stinks about that 'mon… Hey you!"
Darzin jolted up with a start, whirling around to see Orcutt and his companions approaching with sharp scowls.
"Huh?!"
"You look like you haven't seen this base before in your life!" the Cacturne hissed. "What are you doing sneaking around here?!"
The Dragonite froze and bit his tongue, hemming and hawing as he tried to think of a reply only to find his mind wanting.
"I… Uh…"
As Darzin fumbled for an explanation, the Cacturne and his companions' faces hardened into fierce glares, the lot readying themselves when Niilo walked up giving a dismissive wave of his claws.
"Nah, it's alright, he's just a pirate that got caught from a raid on Giotto," the Sandslash explained. "The Captain press-ganged him to fill the ranks of her new ship and gave him a good reminder of who's boss."
Darzin jolted back wide-eyed, looking down at Niilo much as if he'd just been blindsided by a flying slab of ice.
"Huh?! That's-!"
"Yeah, she wanted to put him to work as a messenger, but he kept bringing letters and packages to wrong addresses, so he's currently cleaning heads on the ship," Niilo continued. "Turns out he had actually built up quite a bit of experience doing that for his old pirate buddies!"
Cabot and Berecien fought and largely failed to stifle laughs at the Sandslash's explanation. Darzin blinked before starting to splutter and fume at Niilo's unsolicited "help". All the while, Chalco and her companions turned to Niilo with long, unimpressed stares.
"A Dragonite cleaning toilets?" the Marshtomp scoffed. "Even if you expect me to believe that your salty crab of a captain couldn't find anything better for him to do, you can't expect me to buy that. Why, if he's really a pirate, what's keeping him from just blasting a hole in your ship at sea and flying off?"
Cabot and Berecien bit their tongues, trading uneasy looks with one another as both were at a loss as to how to continue Niilo's story. Undeterred, the Sandslash brushed his shoulder and flicked his claws, giving an impish smirk back to his fellow mercenaries.
"Well, see that's the thing… He's not as tough as he looks. He apparently wound up evolving early after binging on a pile of Joy Seeds," Niilo said. "Says he found them while trying to look for some buried treasure in a Mystery Dungeon or something."
Darzin at once stomped over and loomed over Niilo with a livid growl, the Sandslash falling silent and recoiling out of surprise as the Dragonite loomed over him.
"I evolved thanks to prolonged exposure to the Distortion, you impudent sand rat!" he snapped. "And I was looking for your Captain!"
The Dragonite's retort at once sent Chalco, Orcutt, and Molina into peals of roaring laughter, knocking the Dragon-Type out of his indignant fuming just long enough to look back and see Niilo's friends bowled over trying to catch their breaths.
"Oh man, you just can't make this stuff up!" Molina wheezed.
"A Dragonite scrubbing heads!" Orcutt cried. "What a joke!"
Darzin pulled his antennae against his head with a flustered grimace, stumbling with his words as he weighed whether to try and clear the air. Before he could speak, he felt a claw paw at his shoulder, looking down to see Niilo patting it with a smug grin spread over his muzzle.
"It's okay buddy, we're proud of who you are."
Darzin pulled his shoulder away, muttering under his breath as he fought against every muscle in his body to not summarily run a claw into the impudent sand rat's belly. The Dragonite stomped a foot against the ground, before shooting a harsh glare down at the Sandslash and his companions.
"Just take me to Nagant already, you bunch of useless whelps!" he spat.
"As you wish," Berecien snickered. "See you all later."
"See ya!" Chalco cheered. "And try to look out for that buddy of yours!"
Cabot, Berecien, and Niilo waved the mercenaries off, retracing their steps as the sound of laughter from Orcutt and his buddies lingered in the air and made Darzin bare his teeth and let out an annoyed growl. The four continued on, passing the rows of stone barracks as they made their way back to the fort's seaside gate, returning to the wooden docks where Uragan had been tied down at a pier at the far right end. There, they spotted Jun talking down to the water where Nagant bobbed along the surface, the Beedrill giving a salute before flying off, prompting Darzin to stomp ahead with a sharp huff.
"Nagant!"
Nagant stilled her barbels, before clambering up onto the dock and raising an eye with an incredulous scowl as she saw there in the flesh was none other than…
"Darzin? What are you doing here?"
"Making sure that our little agreement is respected," the Dragonite growled. "Why else would I be skulking about these miserable barracks without so much as receiving a cover from you?!"
"Oh don't worry, I took care of that one!" Niilo jeered. "He's in charge of cleaning your heads!"
Darzin clenched his teeth and let out a seething huff before giving a grumbling shake of his head at the Sandslash's unwanted explanation. Nagant paused, looking between the Dragonite and her still-bemused subordinates, before giving a click of her claws and sharp hiss.
"I'm in the middle of organizing an ambush right now!" Nagant fumed. "The Protector and the ship he's on are due to pull into port at any moment!"
"And I want to see the end results in person," Darzin snapped. "Do you have a problem with that?"
Nagant furrowed her brow and looked incredulously at the Dragon-Type for a moment, before shaking her head and letting out an annoyed scoff.
"I sent you a message to keep you informed, not so you could come over and get in my way! If you're so concerned about how I'm handling my end of things, just stay in town until I've secured the Protector!" Nagant insisted. "You'll have your chance to see him as soon as he's in my claws."
"Is that why your letter didn't tell me you deceived Lyn with a Ditto pretending to be the Protector at Buyeom two days ago?" Darzin demanded.
"Huh? But we didn't pull into Buyeom until yesterday!" Cabot cried.
Darzin paused and blinked back confusedly. That Ditto was supposed to be an Imperial spy, and yet here Nagant and all her lackeys were staring at him much as if he'd just declared that the sun rose in the west and set in the east! The Dragonite struggled for a moment to think of what could be happening, only for Nagant to cut his train of thought short with a sharp huff.
"I don't know what's going on with Commissioner Lyn, but right now it's not a priority for me," the Clawitzer harrumphed. "Just stay clear of this ambush and let me do my work."
"I've been feeding you information about the Company's doings since Mengir!" Darzin fumed. "The least you can do is to let me help you!"
Nagant thrust her large claw forward, thrusting its tip up at Darzin's snout as she cracked it open, shooting a livid glare up.
"Unless you really want to test how much the guards here are going to believe that you're a toilet cleaner, I'd strongly suggest not pushing your luck," the shrimp hissed. "I did not agree to our arrangement just so that way you'd expose us both by not knowing when to remain in the shadows!"
Darzin paused, staring wordlessly down at Nagant's firing claw before he grudgingly slunk back with a sharp glare.
"Fine," the Dragonite grunted. "Just be aware I still have part of your scarf and hold your fate in my claws right now!"
"I wouldn't dream of forgetting," Nagant spat.
Darzin kept his eyes locked on Nagant in a fuming gaze, before turning and plodding off. After the Dragonite had slipped off past the row of naval barracks, Nagant turned back to Cabot, Berecien, and Niilo, giving an impatient wave of her claws.
"Come on, it's almost time to make our move."
Pleo and his friends' journey up from the docks took them into Whitepalm's streets, trekking past scattered shacks and cottages along with the occasional iced-over palm tree until they found themselves in the hamlet's main square. The square had been positioned much like Fensedge Village's, with roughly half the town lying further inland and the other closer to the sea. Additionally, where Fensedge Village had built its square around its standing stones, Whitepalm Town had several ice sculptures in the center that were carved into the forms of various Pokémon and accented with dashes of colored pigment.
"It's so pretty!"
Pleo's exclamation rang out from the base of a sculpture of a crowned Staraptor, craning his neck around to follow the individual grooves that had been cut to show the figure's plumes. As Pleo pecked and nosed at the icy sculpture, Elty drew forward with a skeptical frown, running a paw at the base of the Staraptor sculpture before giving it a disgusted flick.
"Blegh, why ice though?" the Growlithe said. "How would they even keep these statues from melting away?"
"They don't. These statues will stay around for a couple of days, before they melt to the point where their features get disfigured and they'll be thrown into the harbor and a new set of different ones will be put out," Trizano explained. "Seeing how the square changes always gives me something to look forward to when visiting here."
Elty tilted his head back at the explanation. While the idea of making art with one's elements was hardly alien to him as a Fire-Type, he couldn't help shake the sense the whole exercise was wasteful. The Growlithe opened his mouth to reply, when he saw a Amaura walking by in the background, who paused after noticing Trizano and gave a friendly wave with a foreleg.
"Lí hó, Trizano!" the Ice-Type cheered. "Back for more work from the guild?"
"That's right!" the Skarmory insisted. "Just taking in the sights a bit first!"
The Amaura smiled and carried along, leaving Trizano to wave after the Ice-Type as Kiran looked on with a grimacing blanch. The Swellow gave an uncomfortable ruffle of his feathers, before leaning in and whispering into the Immortal's earholes.
"You shouldn't get too comfortable here, Trizano," Kiran chided. "We're not exactly in the clear like you are, and we should try and avoid being recognized by anyone here until we leave."
Trizano caught himself, giving a nonplussed blink before shaking his head with a sigh.
"Hm, that's a fair enough point," the Steel-Type murmured. "I suppose that I can try venturing off the beaten path a bit this time…"
The Skarmory continued on, leading Pleo and the others for a lane next to a Kecleon shop that was lined with cottages and small gardens. Along their way off, Pleo caught the sight of a silver object with a vaguely purplish glint from the front of the shop, prompting him to see a Prinplup at the counter with a Kecleon and Snom assistant looking down at a lump of metal with wide-eyed surprise.
"Where on earth did you get this?" the Kecleon asked. "This is a chunk of aluminum alloy!"
"It was from that place offshore where the meteor landed last year," the Prinplup replied. "Apparently there were a few fragments that still hadn't gotten dug up under the seabed."
The five moved along as Pleo continued to look back towards the Kecleon Market. The young Legendary followed after his teammates, before turning up to Dimitri puzzledly as he wondered if as a 'mon from the sea, he'd know anything about these…
"Meteor fragments?" Pleo asked.
"They're these objects that fall from the sky once in a blue moon," Dimitri explained. "Normally a meteor's just a little rock, but on very rare occasions a big, egg-like one will fall made of starmetal and Pokémon will swarm it to prospect it and sell it off."
"How often does that happen?"
"The last one I heard a story about was over twenty years ago," the Kabutops said. "This one they were talking about must have happened recently, which is strange since normally such meteors don’t come around more than once a century…"
Pleo tilted his head back at Dimitri's explanation. If these meteors really came around once in a lifetime for most Pokémon and were worth telling stories over, then surely one falling must be some sort of special occasion! So then…
"Are they important at all?" Pleo asked.
"Eh, not enough for you to be worrying about, Pleo," Dimitri replied. "You've got your own home to worry about for now, so don't get too hung up about a few weird things happening."
Pleo lingered uneasily, unable to help but wonder if the Kabutops was waving off the matter too quickly. After a moment's hesitation, he shook his head, opting to dismiss the matter. After all, his job as a Protector was simply to go back and be there for the Pokémon counting on him on Tromba, not to turn over every stone he came across along the way.
"Right…"
The Lugia carried on, waddling after his companions as unbeknownst to them a Pikachu with a brown hat and an indigo scarf had been watching them from a nearby alleyway. There, Cardino stood silent as he saw the group slip off. After they disappeared, the Pikachu turned and headed down the alley hanging his head, trudging along until he saw Eric, Hanuna, and Sela waiting for him at the end.
"Eh? What's with the face, Cardino?" Eric asked. "Did you see anything up ahead?"
"I spotted that 'Lugia' that Nagant's been looking for along with Eltenios," the Pikachu said. "They're out in the street with a few of his buddies."
"So then let's go tell her and the others!' Sela insisted. "If we get everyone together, we ought to be able to take them!"
"No, not just yet," Cardino replied, drawing a puzzled tilt of Hanuna's head.
"Huh?"
The detective turned and looked off towards the sails of the ships in the harbor, fixed in rapt attention as Eric and his companions traded puzzled stares.
"They're wearing different patterns from last time," the Pikachu said. "If we go to the harbor, we ought to be able to find their ship."
Cardino began to walk off, before shaking his head and finishing his thoughts with a low grunt.
"And before anything happens, there's some things I want to know from them first…"
Below the Siglo Swellow's deck, the chill of Haipheh's air had begun to invade from outside, which had prompted the Pokémon onboard to begin seeking out any warmth they could scrounge. For Pladur, Crom, Nida, and Guardia, their chosen escape was bundling up in the mess hall with some blankets and cups of warm berry tea from a clay teapot, the stone oven in the galley with which Pladur used to contain his cooking fires having been repurposed as a crude heater.
As meager as the comforts were, they held the icy air at bay well enough for the four to find their environment tolerable, enough so for Guardia to make good on her insistence to Nida that she'd stay behind and gather lore from the ship. In between sips of her drink, the Cubone had dutifully plied Pladur with questions about his life and his trade: Of why he found it so important to cook with fire when he and his fellows were otherwise deathly afraid of it on their ship, of why his child was not a little Kibago as what would normally be expected, and why as a sea-walker he seemed to spend most of his time preparing food… All the while, Crom couldn't help but be puzzled at Guardia's seemingly boundless desire to "gather lore" as she called it, prompting him to turn with a curious glance to his Nidorina teammate.
"She certainly asks a lot of questions for a former feral…" Crom remarked. "Was she like this when she travelled with you?"
"Kinda, yeah," Nida replied with a smile as she shook her head. The Nidorina's bemusement drew a sharp huff back from Guardia, as she folded her arms over each other with mild annoyance.
"Well I'd hope so," she piped. "It's my job to make sure that I have lore to bring back to my colony after all of this settles down!"
"Heh, well there's certainly no shortage of stuff you'd need to know as a sailor," Pladur chuckled. "Remind me, did I already explain to you the different knots-?"
"Eh?"
The four looked up from their warm drinks where they saw the form of a Marked Scyther looking over at them from the other end of the mess hall, his eyes blinking puzzledly as he held out an Apple and a Green Gummi speared along the tip of his right scythe.
"I… wasn't expecting you all to still be in the galley," Ander said.
"Well, you're not interrupting anything," Crom insisted. "Why don't you join us for some tea and warm up a bit with those snacks of yours?"
Ander hesitated a moment and shuffled his feet, before giving a flit of his wings and stepping forward.
"I suppose it can't hurt."
The Scyther made his way over, sitting down at the far left as Pladur poured a helping of tea out for the Bug-Type and left him to turn his attention back to his impaled food. As Ander nibbled at his snack, Nida folded an ear back puzzledly and raised her voice to speak.
"So, what have you been doing at your sleeping quarters anyways?" the Nidorina asked. "It can't possibly be that much warmer, can it?"
"It's still better than going above deck, and I just wanted some time to consult… some notes," he replied. "To try and make sense of those 'Protectors' that we've been running into."
Crom shifted uncomfortably at Ander's response. He was surely referring to that strange book he kept hidden in his satchel, but… after all the time he'd spent around Pleo and what he'd seen of Kline and Cernun, was he really expecting them to still be the malevolent demons he first thought they were?
"I mean, they weren't trying to end the world or anything," Crom murmured. "What's there to make sense of?"
"It's just that there were some parts I had noticed when reading the Knight's Ledger that seemed to indicate that Cernun was taken as part of a related set," the Scyther explained. "And I wanted to know who the others of it were."
The gathered Pokémon traded puzzled looks at Ander's mention of a 'related set' of Legendaries. While the concept wasn't totally foreign given that their own shrine depicted Lugia with three helpers, Cernun's carvings on Mengir only had pictures of him alone. If he really was related to other Protectors, who could they be?
The four's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a knock against the ship's wood, followed by the ship's Hitmontop first mate walking into the mess hall with a serious expression.
"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt," Vicente said. "But something's come up above deck."
"Huh?" Nida asked. "What's going on?"
"There's a Pikachu with a brown hat at the gangplank who says he's looking for you and Guardia," the Hitmontop answered. "We're stalling him for now, but with the Protector still off-ship, we can't go around making a scene for no reason."
Nida and the others blinked at Vicente's description, realizing that to a 't', the Hitmontop had described none other than the Detective Pikachu they teamed up with in Tidemill!
"Wait, Cardino?!" Nida exclaimed. "What would he be doing all the way out here?"
"I… don't know… but do we really want to meet him?" Guardia asked.
"Huh? Why wouldn't we?" the Nidorina replied.
"Well, isn't it a bit strange that he'd know it's us after changing our patterns?" the Cubone insisted. "And we already got tricked by Pokémon getting our guard down on Mengir, so who's to say the Empire isn't trying to do the same here?"
"And we can't discount the possibility that someone else wouldn't also try to put out an imposter," Ander added. "Team Sentinel did that to us just a few days ago, so who's to say this 'Cardino' isn't just another fake from them? Or even if he's real, that he's not an outright spy for someone else like the Company?"
"If Cardino was really working with the Empire, he could've had us raided by the guards at any time," Nida replied, shaking her head back. "And I don't think it'd make sense for there to be a fake Cardino when Team Sentinel didn't know about him, and if he was a spy all along for the Company or the like, why didn't he stop us back on Giotto?"
The others fell silent at the Nidorina's question, realizing that her point seemed sensible enough… but even so, it was hard to shake the sense that something wasn't right.
"Are you sure, Nida?" Ander asked. "Why would Cardino suddenly reappear here of all places?"
"No lo sé… but it can't hurt to just go and try to get to the bottom of this," Nida said. "We're right next to the ship anyway, and if nothing else, we'd be able to get help easily if we needed it."
Pladur stared back, before pulling his face into a frown and giving a grumbling shake of his tusks back.
"Out in that awful weather?" he asked. "Can't we just have him send a letter?"
"I mean, I don't like it any more than the rest of you, but it would be more meaningful to show ourselves in person," Guardia said. "Not that I'd know how to write a message in your hut-scratch."
"A letter would do the trick well enough," Crom insisted. "Besides, how else are you going to stay warm with blankets and tea if you get up onto the deck?"
"Eh? But Cardino helped us back in Giotto," Nida replied. "If nothing else, I'm sure he wants to know that we're doing alright from last time."
Crom looked off at the hallway, feeling a shiver from the air which turned his mind to the prospect of having to brave Whitepalm Town's frigid cold. The Dragon-Type turned away and pulled his wings tight against his body, moving his claws back for his cup and gulping down the rest of his tea.
"Egh… I think that I'm going to sit this one out," the Druddigon murmured. "I mean, it's just Cardino isn't it? So it should be fine for you to just talk with him before coming back, right?"
Nida curled her mouth in a disappointed frown, while Guardia wavered a moment casting glances between Crom and Pladur and the hallway before turning back to the Nidorina.
"So, are we going up or not, Nida?" she asked.
Nida looked back at Crom pleadingly, hoping that perhaps he could be swayed to come along were he to face the weather with friends, only to find him preoccupied with trying to keep the cold at bay. Nida sighed and shook her head, before grudgingly starting for the hall without him.
"We'll just pop above deck for a bit to check up on him…"
"I'll come along too," Ander offered. "I don't think there'd be any trouble if it's really just Cardino, but…"
The Scyther trailed off, his wings tensing up as he looked around cautiously. After a moment's pause, he turned back to Nida and finished his thought in a low, wary voice.
"We don't have much room to leave things to chance."
"Right," Nida replied. "Let's get going."
Nida, Guardia, and Ander set off, making their way through the Siglo Swellow's corridors and up the stairs until they found themselves back under the chill and sea air of Whitepalm Town's harbor. The three looked to their right, where they saw Natrix and Philips at the gangplank plying unseen strangers with excuses as to why they couldn't come onboard, like the captain needing some time before she could come and orient them. A quick glance over the railing revealed them to be Cardino… along with none other than Eric, Sela, and Hanuna.
"Wait, that Zuruggu and the others…" Guardia began. "Weren't those the sea-walkers that Sibich tried to frame?"
Nida looked down at the three, noticing the lot were sporting the indigo-and-white patterns of Imperial grunts. She paused a moment, folding her ears back uneasily at the sight.
"They were… but I don't know why they're here."
The Nidorina and her teammates carried on to the gangplank, where Cardino and the others fell silent and stared up at them. Natrix and Philips traded uneasy glances with the group, prompting Ander to give a small flick of his scythes.
"We'll take things over from here," he said.
The Raichu and Servine backed away, the latter offering an uneasy 'if you say so' before slinking off. Nida, Guardia, and Ander paced down the gangplank, heading out onto the pier where Eric and his fellow Marked pawed unsettledly at the ground while Cardino scratched at the back of his head.
"You've changed since we last met, Nida," the Pikachu remarked. "Congratulations on the evolution, it suits a 'mon like you well."
"Uh… thanks. But I don't think that's why you called for us," the Nidorina replied, shifting her body back warily. "What are you doing here Cardino? And what's going on?"
Cardino's smile flattened into a blank, surprised expression. After a moment's uncertainty of how to reply, he folded his ears back, his features turning into a serious frown.
"I believe that I'm the one who should be asking questions here," Cardino insisted. "Why did you just leave me behind on Giotto?"
Nida and Guardia began to hem and haw, as the Pikachu shook his head before continuing on with an indignant cry.
"You had us all worried, pal!" he exclaimed. "I even went around with Nico and Rita putting up posters for you after Coil's trial thinking that something had happened to you all!"
"We're… sorry to leave you like that, but things kinda forced our paw," Nida insisted. "A good friend of ours ran into trouble and needed to be rescued, and-"
"You mean that demon with you that everyone back in Tidemill's been looking for!" Eric cried.
Nida, Guardia, and Ander flinched at the Scraggy's charge, Cardino looking over his shoulder with his ears flattened and his face turned into an irked frown.
"Just… let me handle the talking here, alright?" Cardino grumbled, before turning back to Nida and her companions.
"Look, I know you're obviously talking about that Protector," the detective said. "A Clawitzer from the Royal Navy already told me all about it when I was putting up those posters with Nico and Rita."
Nida and her companions shifted uncomfortably at Cardino's response. There was surely more than one Clawitzer in all the Cradle, but between the species and being in the Royal Navy, it was hard to see how that could be anyone other than…
"That would be 'Nagant', right?" Ander asked.
"Well, yeah. She said that you all used me as a tool just to get that Protector and slip off with him," Cardino replied. "I didn't want to believe it, but things just aren't adding up. So tell me, was she right?"
"No, she isn't! We really did want to help you with the case!" Nida insisted. "But at the same time we wanted to help our friend too, and everything just shook out the way it did after Sibich got exposed!"
"Besides, it worked out, didn't it?" Guardia added. "You got that Admiral Coil at the end, didn't you?"
Cardino wavered at the pair's protests. Back on Giotto it really had seemed like they wanted to help get to the bottom of his case… and without their help, Coil would still be around and be plotting gods-knows-what!
And yet, in spite of that, it was just too convenient. On top of that, he couldn't reconcile the way they just up and left right before Coil's arrest threw the city into turmoil. How could they run off like that unless the Protector was what they truly were after?
"Yeah, sure… Anyhow, after all of that, Nagant forced me along with these three to join her crew since she said it was my fault for not catching onto you all sooner," Cardino sighed, giving a bitter shake of his head. "And now here we are, standing face-to-face on this island."
Team Traveller tensed up at the Pikachu's reply. While he seemed to be on friendly terms now, if Nagant brought him from Giotto… then…
"Are she and her crew here in port right now?" Ander pressed.
"Of course. How else would any of us be here right now?" Cardino asked. "The guards here might not have noticed your new patterns yet, but given that I recognized the Protector in town, it's just a matter of time before that changes."
Ander, Guardia, and Nida blanched, realizing that Cardino was only here to help Nagant catch Pleo. The new patterns they'd picked up on Pioppo were supposed to throw the Empire off their trail, yet they'd still walked right into a trap! Cardino sighed and shook his head, before looking back at Nida and her companions.
"Look, a lot of stuff's been going down, but… just come quietly, alright?" the Pikachu pleaded. "You're not bad Pokémon, and I'm sure that I can do something to make sure that you get off lighter than what that shrimp wants. I know Nico and Rita would certainly be willing to defend you as well…"
The Electric-Type held out a paw, only for the gathered Pokémon to rebuff his gesture and brace themselves into defensive stances, the sailors up on the Siglo Swellow's railing doing much the same.
"Sorry, but we can't do that, Cardino," Nida replied.
Cardino stared back stunned for a moment, his ears drooping as a disappointed and hurt grimace came over his face. The Pikachu swallowed his feelings as sparks began to dance on his cheeks.
"I'm sorry too, but this is as far as you're going," he said, shooting back a stern scowl. "I'm putting you all under arrest."
Cardino arced his body as a blinding ball of light formed on the tip of his tail. The Pikachu jumped up and quickly flung it down at the dock, which burst with an overwhelming flash that made Nida, Guardia, and Ander's vision run white. The three stumbled back, hearing disoriented shouts coming from the Siglo Swellow's sailors as a squawking cry rang out.
"Now! While they're out of it!"
Ander was quickly snapped out his daze by Sela throwing herself at him with a fiery tackle. Nida and Guardia were subjected to similar fates by Eric faking the Nidorina out with the start of a Low Kick only to throw a sudden punch, and Hanuna battering Guardia with a spray of flechette-like leaves while Cardino hopped onto the gangplank to cut them off. Ander wavered a moment before hearing another shout from Sela, the Bug-Type bracing himself as he saw the Combusken bearing down on him again.
"Fall back! Fall back!"
The Scyther flung a Wing Attack at the Combusken to knock her away, before hastily flitting back to get out of her reach. Nida gave a pair of spinning kicks at Eric's body, knocking him down as she followed after the mantis, Guardia fighting her still affected vision to mask her retreat with a Bonemerang that while missing its mark on Hanuna entirely, startled him enough to break his chase long enough for her to run.
"That's enough, pal! Don't make this any worse for yourselves!"
Cardino cast forward a weak jolt towards Ander, only for it to abruptly arc towards Guardia and inertly settle on her body much to his wide-eyed alarm. Undeterred, Team Traveller's members carried on down the dock, only to stop at the sight of the edge and the harbor's water beyond it.
Nida and her companions turned back at the sound of an electrical crackle and saw Cardino and his teammates approaching, the Pikachu among them sparking with a sharp glare. Guardia cast her glance ahead only to notice the gangplank to the Siglo Swellow was behind Cardino and his group, turning uneasily over to her Nidorina teammate.
"What do we do now?"
Nida looked back at the water behind her and grit her teeth as Cardino and the others continued nearing. She'd gone through thick and thin to help all these Pokémon on Giotto, so was there really nothing they could do to sway them? The Nidorina looked off at the end of the docks where she saw guards starting to make their way over, which made her freeze and tense in realization. If they couldn't slip off here and now, they'd just be swarmed and captured, with everything that they'd fought for being for naught! Friend or not, they couldn't just sit here and let Cardino put them in that bind!
"We didn't come all this way just for us to get trapped on some pier! Come on, we'll force our way back!"
Nida charged ahead, throwing her feet into a Double Kick that caught Eric in his leg and then his chin, throwing him against the hull of the Siglo Swellow before he fell into the water limply. Sela jerked back, slipping behind the Poison-Type with embers swirling in her mouth.
"Oh no you don't!" Guardia shouted.
Sela's fire was cut off by a bony missile whirling in and striking her in the side of her head. The Combusken lurched forward with a pained squawk, losing her balance as she stumbled past Nida and was summarily clipped by a tackle with Ander's wings that sent her pitching into the water. Cardino blanched at the sudden reversal of fortune, as his Grotle teammate went wide-eyed and stumbled back with an audible stammer.
"G-Gih! Stay back!"
The Grotle hastily prepared a Razor Leaf in his back foliage, only for a gray and green blur and slicing gust of air from the Siglo Swellow's deck to cut him off and send him tumbling off the dock with a yelp. Cardino looked ahead slack-jawed to see the attacker was an Unfezant from the ship with other sailors readying themselves to attack, only to compose himself and grit his teeth back fiercely at Nida.
"I tried talking things over, but you all leave me no choice!"
Cardino sprang ahead, bolting for Nida as his tail began to take on a metallic sheen. The Nidorina went wide-eyed and tried to sweep the Pikachu's legs with a Double Kick, only for him to vault over and bring his tail up to strike against Nida's head.
WHACK!
The sickening sound of bone hitting bone rang out as Nida looked up to see Cardino bouncing back from Guardia striking his head with her club in midair. The Pikachu tumbled and hastily righted himself, prompting Nida to charge ahead without thinking, letting poison build up on her right paw as she threw it forward deep into Cardino's stomach.
"N-Nrk!"
Cardino flopped back and fell over unconscious, leaving Nida and Guardia to stare with blank shock. Did… they really just knock out the friend who they aided in Giotto like some common pirate? The two cringed a moment, when the sound of a splashing squawk rang out.
"A-Agh! Over there! Help! Those 'mons there just jumped us!"
Nida and her teammates looked down to see Sela flailing in the water when their ears began to pick up the sounds of shouts and the thumps of approaching footsteps from further inland. The three looked up and blanched at the sight of guards running down the pier for them, prompting Natrix to poke his head over the railing and wave impatiently down at the three.
"Hurry up and get up here!"
Nida, Guardia, and Ander hastily scrambled up the gangplank, Beatrix flitting over the edge and jumping back with a start at the sight of a Walrein leading an indigo-scarved mob storming down the dock. The Illumise pulled at the gangplank, hoisting it with Vicente, Natrix, and Philips as she turned her head back to the rest of the crew and let out a frantic buzz.
"Hoist the anchor and drop the sails!" she shouted. "We're getting out of here!"
The four hastily yanked the gangplank up, the Siglo Swellow lurching off into the water as the guards caught up along the pier and began throwing a hail of attacks at the side. The crew of the Siglo Swellow scattered across the deck, some ducking for cover as others went up to the railing to throw up Protects and attacks of their own back, the lookout crying out of alarm at the sight of other ships in various sails unmooring and giving chase.
The din of cannonfire began to ring out, which carried along the air into the town's lanes, prompting local Pokémon to stop and watch as the Siglo Swellow was chased out of port. Among their number were Pleo and his companions, who looked on from a sleepy alleyway with their eyes widened and with their jaws hanging open as the schooner slipped away towards the horizon.
"A-Aah! The ship's leaving already!" the Lugia squawked.
"Come on!" Kiran exclaimed. "We can still catch up with it-"
"Wait!"
Trizano threw out a wing in front of Kiran, stopping him as the forms of a Pidgeotto and a Togetic in Imperial scarves zipped overhead and guards at the street off to the left rushed along after the fleeing schooner. The Swellow stared with beak agape, before Trizano turned back to him and shook his head.
"You'll be spotted the moment we get into the air!" the Skarmory insisted. "There's no way that we could possibly make it back with all these guards!"
"I don't think we have much of a choice," Dimitri replied. "If we just sit here we're going to get caught eventually!"
Elty turned and looked off past the roofline of the nearby cottages, spotting a column of fog hanging in the distance. The Growlithe paused as his mind turned to how he'd handle his predicament were he still a pirate. They weren't in the exact same situation, but…
"Actually, maybe there's a way we could lie low for a while," Elty offered. "If we wait outside of town until things settle down, we ought to be clear to try and make it back to the ship later."
Pleo and the others faltered for a moment, before grudgingly murmuring back and agreement. The group turned back, creeping along alleyways and down quiet lanes deeper and deeper inland for Haipheh's interior.
Author's Notes:
- Certamente! - Italian: "Of course" (interjection). Also can be used as "certainly", "definitely", "surely"
- kortteja - Finnish: "cards"
- Lí hó (你好) - Hokkien: "Hello" (POJ Romanization)
- Kibago (キバゴ) - Japanese: "Axew" (Official Romanization)
- No lo sé - Spanish: "I don't know"
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I even hoped I'd be able to do it for Review Blitz, but alas I didn't get around to it then.
) on the ship.
