Nida and her party's search at the museum turned up no shortage of paintings and relics that had been put on display, including a few scuffed and battered objects that seemed to be made of the same material as the goggles Neil had gifted to Pleo, but precious little indication of any place where the Knight's Ledger was stored. The few books that they encountered there were all tomes from the early eras of the Cradle written in Footprint Runes, along with a few pieces written in mystic scripts that allegedly came from human eras such as fragments of a book full of pictures found on Kenobi Island that was apparently called a "mahn-gah". Attempting to chat up the guards had similarly not given any leads, with it turning out that all of the museum's texts that weren't on display were in safekeeping in the Academy.
The Nidorina and her companions were about to set off when Elty had hurried over from Kline's team and beckoned them over to the Academy. After a brief moment of confusion, the Growlithe explained that they'd discovered the presence of a "Vault" there, which from its description was likely one and the same as the safekeeping site they were told about by the museum's guards. After a quick group meeting in a small square a few islets away from the Academy complex, Team Traveller and their companions decided that it was best to send Nida, Crom, Pleo, Elty, and Guardia into the complex as students. Their cover was made complete after stopping by a local tailor and plying the 'mon with a sob story that the youngsters were acquaintances whose scarves had been accidentally damaged beyond repair, and that they would get in trouble with their teachers for needing replacement scarves. Their explanation drew some initial puzzlement, though was otherwise not enough from dissuading the tailor from accepting payment and a few spare scarves they supplied, bleaching them, and then re-dying them an unpatterned lavender as requested. The results weren't perfect, but they were good enough for any discrepancies in color to be played off as normal discoloration from repeated washings.
Before they knew it, Nida and the others were making their way through the central courtyard of the Academy. There, Crom stopped and peered up at the gilded statue of the Haxorus founder in the center, finding it a bit curious that the Company too owed its existence to a sailor who was a Pokémon of his father's kind, before heading in along with his teammates. After making their way through the entrance, the five entered a foyer that had been fashioned of stone flooring and brick walls built around a staircase that went up four levels, with tall, glass windows letting in light from outside and lavender banners hung from the walls here and there. After a moment's hesitation, the team opted to start by searching around on the ground floor, a coin flip steering them off down the hallway to the right where they paced along and watched a series of wooden doors pass by them on both ends.
"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for again?" Nida asked.
"Leads as to where the Vault and the Ledger would be?" Crom answered. "I mean, Kline's group
did say they saw Darzin come out from this building."
"That doesn't really narrow it down, Crom," the Nidorina sighed. "What are we supposed to do? Just go rooting through every room until we find something?"
Crom, Pleo, and Elty traded blank looks amongst themselves at Nida's question, when Guardia stepped forward and gave a quiet tap at the floor with her club to draw the group's attention.
"Surely you hut dwellers have some place for gathering lore, right?" the Cubone questioned. "For a piece that's as important as this Ledger, shouldn't we be looking in places wherever the Pokémon in this hut-dweller colony would keep and remember their lore?"
Guardia's teammates raised their brows puzzledly at her suggestion, only for Pleo to tilt his head as a dawning realization came over him.
"… Do you mean like a place with a bunch of books?" the Lugia said. "I don't know anything about lorekeepers, but there might be one of
those here… I think Cabot called it a 'library'?"
"I mean, it's worth trying at least," Crom mused. "Let's go take a look around."
The five gaped about the tiled hallway and noted that along the brick walls, there were doorways on either side. The group continued on, glancing about their surroundings as Nida noted that the doorways had plates with runes engraved on them, the Nidorina reading them off as they passed.
"Room 42 , Room 43 … How are we supposed to tell which of these is the library?" she asked.
"Wouldn't a library be a bit more important?" Elty replied. "I can't imagine it'd be numbered just like any other room."
Just after the Growlithe spoke up, the team noticed that there was a stretch of wall that went unbroken by doors. The five stared at the wall puzzledly, before they came across a set of double doors fashioned out of dark hardwood. The party stopped and stared up for a brief moment, as Nida gave a quiet blink after glancing up and seeing there was a plaque with an inscription reading 'Main Library' attached directly to the left of the door frame.
"… Huh, no kidding," the Nidorina said.
"Well, guess that's
one way to know we've found it," Elty remarked. "Come on, let's go inside."
The Growlithe raised a paw and pressed down against the right door, pushing it open for him and his teammates to enter. At once, the five were taken aback by the presence of a tall chamber lined with tall bookshelves. Team Traveller's members blinked before they looked towards the foreground, where they spotted desks in a central space. Some of them had been taken up by students who were poring over tomes and papers, such as a Dreepy who was poring over a thick textbook about law in Company waters. Back near the entrance, another larger desk had been placed among a set of bookshelves, with a sign on a wooden board that had been labelled 'Checkout'.
To both the left and the right were rows and rows of bookshelves running perpendicular to the wall that were separated by a trio of neat paths: one in the center and two along the sides of the wall where further shelves hugged the walls of the chamber. Guardia looked about in awe at her surroundings, as she noticed that when she tried to look down the rows of shelves…
"Wow, they just keep going on and on…" the Cubone murmured, before Crom batted his wings uneasily.
"Where do we even start?" the Druddigon asked.
"Well, in the library that Cabot took me to, he said all of the books were sorted by the sorts of things they were about," Pleo said. "So maybe we just need to look around and find wherever the books are that would be about the same sort of things as the Ledger."
Nida and the others traded dubious looks with one another. The Knights' Ledger was something that both the Company and the Empire tried their hardest to pretend like it didn't exist, so what were the odds they'd find it so casually here?
"Sure, let's look under the section labeled 'State Secrets'," Elty scoffed. "I'm sure we'll find it there."
"Eh? That exists?" Pleo asked, giving a puzzled blink back. His reaction made Elty throw a paw over his face in exasperation, before Guardia shook her head and spoke up.
"Actually, I think Pleo might actually be onto something," the Cubone insisted. "Maybe we'll find a clue by looking around, or maybe the Academy has a section with forbidden books or something. Come on, let's spread out and try and see what we can find."
The four nodded back to Guardia and fanned out among the shelves, each of them taking one corner of the room while Guardia tagged along with Elty due to her lack of literacy in runes. Crom made his way to the back left corner from the entrance, reading off titles as he passed. There was
Roelof's Atlas of the Whole Cradle in a section of shelves that seemed to be all about geography,
The Full History of Anyilla from the Accession of Aquila in another that seemed to be in one about past ages, and
Principles of Naval Engineering: Sail Plans and Construction in one about ships and shipbuilding. A bit dry perhaps, but nothing that really seemed
abnormal, and hardly the place one would expect to find a volume of the Knights' Ledger…
"Ah! I found something! I found something!"
Crom perked up after hearing Pleo's voice cry out from a few rows ahead of him and hurried over towards it. The Druddigon rounded the corner of a shelf that had been labelled with a simple rune that was commonly used to compose more complex ones, where he spotted Pleo happily nosing at a book lying open on the ground with paper cutouts standing upright depicting a pair of ships pulled alongside each other in battle, one of which was a pirate ship teeming with Ghost-Types and a Sableye standing at its prow.
"The pictures in this book pop out!" the Lugia exclaimed. "It's really pretty."
The group stood blinking for a moment, realizing the scene was from a goofier story involving the misadventures of a band of amateur pirates, meant for younger and weaker readers from the looks of it. Guardia went up to paw curiously at the book while Nida shook her head, before walking up and closing it with a sigh.
"Let's focus on finding the Ledger
first Pleo, otherwise we'll be buried in books," the Nidorina said. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Pokémon aren't supposed to make lots of
ruido in a lib-"
"Yipe!"
Pleo, Nida, Crom, and Guardia whirled around at the sound of a large thud, turning to see a pile of books lying on the ground from a now-emptied row on the shelf and Elty flinching with a brown tome in his mouth. The Growlithe set his book down, before flusteredly hemming and hawing a moment prior to explaining himself.
"They… uh… They just fell out on their own," he insisted.
The Puppy Pokémon's teammates rolled their eyes in response when they heard a harsh, metallic hiss come up from the other side of the shelves. The five blanched and hurriedly ran along, only to stumble into a levitating metallic lump and pratfall. After a stunned moment, the lot looked up to see the form of a Metang in Company garb floating in front of them that shot a sharp glare downwards.
"
What are you doing making a mess of my books?"
Pleo and his companions flushed pale and flinched at the angry librarian, the five stammering over each other before Crom finally managed to squeak out a reply.
"E-Eh… we were just looking up some stuff for class?" the Druddigon gulped, prompting the Metang to skeptically narrow her eyes down at the gathered party.
"And just what class are you from?" the Psychic-Type pressed. Crom squirmed and fumbled with his words for a moment, before hesitantly offering up a reply.
"Uh… the… first one?"
The Metang blinked and floated about, carefully eying the five with special emphasis placed on Crom, Elty, and Guardia. Was something wrong? Did they look younger than they were supposed to as Academy students? A dawning realization seemed to come over the Metang, as a Lucario in a First-Rank scarf walked up and shot a dubious frown over at Nida and her companions.
"Is something the matter here?" the Fighting-Type asked.
"Yes, these delinquents are skipping out from the early track classes and making a mess of my books!" the Metang librarian fumed.
"Eh?! That's actually a class?!" Nida exclaimed. "But we can't go there!"
"Look, kid. This isn't a Day Care and we don't have time for these antics," the Lucario growled. "Just
why can't you go back to the class that you skipped?"
"Uh… well…" Elty started. "We weren't feeling so good and had a bit of a stomachache, so- H-Hey! What are you-?!"
The Growlithe was cut off by the Lucario guard slipping behind them and shoving him and his companions forward. Team Traveller's members were shooed along, flailing and protesting all the while before the Fighting-Type finally pushed them past the door. With the library returning to quiet, the Metang turned back to the fallen books, focusing as her eyes lit up in a blue sheen and she began to levitate them back to their places with a low, metallic grumble.
"Ugh… kids these days."
In the waters just north of Tromba Island, the Argent Aviso sailed ahead of a flotilla of five ships, two flanking from either end. On the deck, the crew had kept busy tending to the rigging, as Pokémon wheeled wooden cannons into place at the railings. The ship's captain barked out orders that floated through the air, as did his Weavile first mate, who clung to the rigging clad in a dark blue set of cloth armor inspecting the sailors' progress and calling out his orders with an audibly agitated and impatient tone.
"We're approaching Tromba, so get into positions!" Ketu snapped. "I want the cannons ready to be fired the moment me or the Captain give the order!"
The Weavile jumped down to the deck and mingled among the sailors hurrying to and fro with a low grumble. Up in the air above him, Kane motioned with his wings and flew in tight arcs in the air, signaling to the spotters on the other ships to follow along in formation.
None of this was supposed to have happened. They were
supposed to have blown up Lyn's mission and
finally gotten Kline into Elilan's claws so that they could start putting their plans for Anyilla into motion. He wasn't supposed to go back to being Lyn's first mate and babysitting a bunch of useless thugs thanks to Lyn
somehow getting a
third chance after falling short!
Really, the only silver lining of their mission falling short was that he'd had a chance to spend downtime with Sorge again, because Lyn had gotten the hair-brained idea to use pirates to do his dirty work of capturing Pleo. And even
that didn't last thanks to getting sortied again because some blotch-head made a mess of a mission he was never supposed to receive in the first place!
Ketu carried on walking the deck when his foot bumped against a heavy sack, the Dark-Type looking down to see that it was a sack of Apricorns left unattended by one of the sailors en route to a cannon. The Weavile flattened out his ears, before letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Urgh, do I have to do
everything around here?"
Ketu lugged the sack up to the cannon, where a sheepish-looking Heracross hastily hurried over. The Weavile shot a sharp glare at the beetle before heading off, his features easing slightly as he thought to himself amidst the din on deck.
All things considered, things could be going
worse. Until two days ago, they had no lead on where Pleo or Kline could be, and now they had a lead for both. On top of it, there was even a potential lead on the whereabouts of
Manaphy to boot after she'd fallen off the radar years ago. Even if he'd have his claws full from keeping Lyn from learning more about Kline or finding him, it was hardly right to complain about an opportunity like that.
He made his way up the steps to the Argent Aviso's bow, where Lyn was perched against the railing with a spyglass held up to his eyes. The Samurott hadn't put on cloth armor for the impending raid, probably because he intended to dive ahead of his ship and hack and slash his way onto shore much like he usually did when fighting at sea. Lyn peered through the glass at Tromba Island in the distance, before pulling it back and turning impatiently towards his underlings.
"Take your places, everyone!" he barked. "This is going to be a stormy landing!"
The Argent Aviso plowed along through the water at the head of the fleet as the harbor began to come into view to the naked eye. Little by little, the harbor grew larger and larger as the minutes went by and Lyn's ship neared. Once they came into firing range, the Samurott unsheathed his blades, swinging them wide before he turned and barked out to his crew.
"Open fire!"
The sailors manning the cannons slipped blast seeds into their feed holes before clamping their barbed caps shut. One after the other, the sailors slammed down on the caps, the barbs detonating the seeds within and sending sprays of Apricorns through the air towards shore. Other Pokémon on the deck and among the escorts spat out beams of various elements towards shore, which were joined by similar volleys from the other four ships. The hail of attacks sailed off into the distance, followed by booms and crashes ringing out from shore and thin columns of smoke began to rise from Bluewhorl Town. A series of flashes twinkled from shore and the harbor's water, as a spray of returning attacks zipped in, the escorts hastily throwing up barriers of light that deflected the incoming attacks and accomplished little more than to make a few of Lyn's deckhands reflexively flinch. The Samurott's muzzle curled up in a smirk, as he gave a dismissive scoff.
"Tch, is that really the best they can muster?" he remarked. "This will be over quick, at least."
Lyn's fleet moved along, casting out further attacks and deflecting incoming ones barring an occasional pockmark here or there while it barreled towards shore. As the Argent Aviso and its entourage reached the edge of the harbor, the sea escorts came across a few of the harbor dwellers, driving them off with a few watery volleys and intimidating snarls. The Samurott walked up to the prow, ready to jump into the water to spearhead his fleet's assault, when a galleon without sails abruptly pulled away from shore, being towed by swimmers with cables who turned it sideways, blocking the entrance into the harbor.
"Captain, isn't that Commissioner Bunsen's ship?" a Huntail from the water asked. "We need to slow down, or we'll crash straight into it!"
Lyn looked at the stricken galleon ahead, when at once he noticed something deeply amiss. The galleon sat dead in the water in the middle of his path and what little remained of its sails were a few torn up strips of lavender cloth dangling from the masts. The Samurott grit his teeth, before beelining for the tiller at the stern and crying out to his subordinates.
"Lower the anchor and sails!" Lyn shouted. "Take us hard to starboard and tell the other ships to come to!"
He threw his weight against the tiller and pushed it leftwards, the escorts in the air and water hurriedly churning up currents to try and help the ship turn. The Argent Aviso continued drifting for Bunsen's stricken galleon, the sailors darting away from the railing with yelps as the Argent Aviso sideswiped it with a loud crash. Lyn's ship rocked violently and groaned as a few of the deckhands lost their footing, the Samurott letting out an irritated growl as he looked around to see the other ships in the fleet had similarly come to haphazard stops, when a Sceptile's voice called out from Bunsen's ship.
"Well,
you're certainly back soon, Lyn. Wasn't expecting you to want to come and visit again so quickly."
Lyn turned and saw Osmund and a party of Pokémon in various colored garb emerging from the galleon's stern. The Sceptile went up to the railing and placed his right foot on it, before giving the Samurott a teasing smirk back.
"Though, I'm afraid this is as far as we're willing to entertain you and your underlings this time," he said. "If you're planning on making it ashore, you're not doing it without sending this ship to the bottom of the harbor first."
Lyn went over to the edge of the deck with his blades drawn as his underlings began to mass growling and snarling, only to pause and his lackeys to fall silent as they realized that Bunsen's ship was missing its rudder, and that bundles of Blast Seeds had been attached just above the ship's waterline. Directly above them, harpoon darts dangled from ropes tied to the railing, a cut from any of them would be sufficient to send it falling and lancing its explosive bundle below.
"I mean, it wouldn't be
fun for us to get soaked from having to make a hasty exit," Osmund continued. "But hey, those charges were meant to just blow holes into the hull, not send us all to the Spirit World."
Lyn turned his gaze down to the Blast Seeds along the hull of Bunsen's galleon and quietly sized up the situation, before narrowing his eyes back at the gecko.
"Hrmph, you presume much if you think that the Board doesn't consider losing a crippled galleon to be a fair trade for bringing this island to heel," the Samurott huffed.
"Oh really? Do they also consider
having a full crew's worth of Pokémon going down with the ship to be a fair trade, too?" the Sceptile retorted. "Though in case you thought we were bluffing, I suppose you should see some of them."
Osmund motioned off towards the stern of Bunsen's ship, as roughly a dozen Pokémon in Company lavenders were marched up and shoved into view at the railing. The Sceptile shook his head, before turning back to face Lyn with a stern gaze.
"There's plenty
more where they came from below deck. Now, I know leadership can be glib about the welfare of the rank and file, but they're not
that glib," he chided. "So how about we try and hash out some sort of settlement here?"
Lyn narrowed his eyes and let out a low growl from the back of his throat, pointing out a seamitar at the rogue Captain of the Guards.
"If you think the Company's just prepared to
negotiate with a bunch of traitors and parasites like you…"
"Last I checked,
I was still on the payroll, so this is an internal dispute," Osmund shot back. "Besides, even if it weren't, I certainly doubt you'd want to have 'drowning a full crew's worth of friendlies' on your record. It doesn't exactly do wonders for career advancement."
Lyn scowled back quietly, as his underlings traded uneasy looks with one another and debated amongst themselves over whether the islanders were bluffing or not. On Bunsen's ship, the captured underlings began to fidget and grow impatient, a Zweilous and a Delcatty among the present party calling out to their peers.
"Come on! Don't just sit there!" the Zweilous' left head protested, before being joined in by his right.
"Yeah! Do something and help us out here!"
"They've turned the below decks into a glorified brig and none of these stupid hicks have been caring for us properly!" the Delcatty whined. "My last rations were a couple of stale gummies and a Durin Berry!"
The Delcatty's mention of Durin Berries being among her rations drew scattered groans of disgust and winces of sympathy from members of Lyn's crew. The Samurott captain looked over Bunsen's crew and their captors on the opposing ship, before sheathing his blades with a grumbling sigh.
"Hrmph. I'll humor it," Lyn grunted. "But I'm not going to negotiate on the spot, Osmund. I need some time to prepare myself."
"What?! Just storm the ship already!" a Politoed exclaimed. "You have five ships with you!"
The frog was answered by a small burst of fire striking his rump, prompting him to hop up with a sharp yelp. The Water-Type whirled about, where he saw a Carkol glaring back at him with an angry hiss.
"Hey! Not all of us can swim here, lunk-head!" the Rock-Type snapped.
Ketu narrowed his eyes and pinned his ears at the captured grunts' whining. Weren't they supposed to be from a
Commissioner's crew? Even if he didn't think much of Lyn, he was sure his underlings wouldn't act
this bad if they got captured. From the corner of his eye, Ketu spotted Lyn making his way off for the stern, with the ship's Xatu teleporter joining him halfway over before the pair slipped into his quarters.
He tensed up, realizing that Lyn must be planning on trying to stall Osmund in order to send out a party to search for Pleo and likely Kline as well. Whatever the Samurott was up to,
he needed to be a part of it, since it could very well be his only chance to get at
either of those two without Lyn being in the loop.
The Weavile set off, hurriedly following after the pair up to Lyn's cabin and pushing the door open. As he made his way in, he caught Lyn shaking his head and looking down at the Xatu with a low harrumph, handing out a set of scarves that had been hurriedly dyed green on one end with a crescent moon design.
"Kachina, I want you to get a team together to go search around while that skink runs his mouth off," Lyn ordered. "The sooner we know where the Guardian of the Seas and his friends are, the sooner we can end this farce-"
"Not to impose here, but
I'd like to be on that team, Captain."
The Samurott and the Xatu looked back at the doorway, where they saw Ketu walk in. Lyn's face fell and he raised a brow puzzledly at the Weavile and his newfound eagerness for action. Since when was
Ketu one to ask to be put on scouting duty?
"I'm surprised to hear
you volunteer for a mission like this," Lyn remarked. "Why do you want to go?"
"Because we can't afford to make any more mistakes right now, especially now that there's supposedly
three Protectors involved," Ketu insisted. "We both know I'm much more likely to pull things off than a bunch of First-Ranks. After all, when
I went out into the middle of the Empire's capital for recon, it didn't blow up in your face like when Tarmo and Fintan tried to grab the Protector the last time we were here."
Lyn's thoughts turned back to the first time he tried to extract the Guardian of the Seas from this accursed rock, and how what was supposed to be an orderly and quiet extraction devolved into an open confrontation because the team he assigned for the task managed to get themselves spotted by some local team of runts. Sensing that he'd given his superior the desired pause, Ketu shrugged his shoulders and continued after bringing a claw up to his chest.
"Besides, I'm much less likely to get recognized than most other Pokémon on the crew," the Weavile said. "Normally I'm taking point looking after the ship when they go inland to collect tribute payments."
Lyn paused at Ketu's reply, before shaking his head back with a low grumble.
"Hrmph, who'd have thought your tendency to slack off would create an
advantage for once," Lyn harrumphed. "But very well. Go and meet Maurier and Klaas under deck, Kachina will take you all to shore."
Ketu nodded back and left Lyn's cabin along with the crew's teleporter as the Samurott closed the door behind them. Ketu quickly undid the straps of his armor and took it off before casting it aside and continuing off further below the deck with Kachina.
As the Weavile carried on, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief that he was able to talk Lyn into letting him on the team without raising suspicion. It wasn't a state of affairs he could take for granted, especially with Lyn learning more and more about his own mission. So, he'd have to make a point of making the most of his present opportunity to snatch Pleo and Kline. After all, it was not getting any
easier to keep Lyn in the dark as time went by.
About a five-minute walk north of the Academy, a spindly clock tower loomed over the surrounding canalhouses of Canalhouse City's Hardenheuvel district. The tower had been fashioned out of brown and white bricks and topped with a tiered bell chamber that had been clad in tin, the
Tintoren, as it was known locally. Metal arms and hour markers were attached to large plaques just below the bell chamber on each of its four sides, a monument to the Company's wealth and engineering prowess that enabled it to assemble the towering timepiece that marked the hours for the entire district without fail.
Just above each of the clock faces, a ledge ran about the building which Pokémon sometimes flew up to to perch on between hours. That day, the ledge facing south was taken up by a Noivern and a Mothim in Company garb, the pair eating fries from paper cones as the Bug-Type of the pair gaped off at the surrounding cityscape and the cerulean waters of Vollezee's lagoon beyond it.
"You really
can see the whole city from here," Ellsberg murmured. "How did you ever find this place, Aldrich?"
Aldrich stuck his claw into the paper sack, before bringing a fry up to his mouth and eating it. The Noivern had a wistful look come over his face and glanced out at his surroundings, pausing for a brief moment when he turned and smiled back at the Mothim.
"I used to fly up here back when I was a Noibat in the Academy," the Dragon-Type replied. "I don't get as many chances to come by as I used to, but the view's still just as good as I remembered."
Ellsberg looked down at the smaller cone of fries in his tarsi and took one for himself. The Bug-Type idly munched at his fry and shook his head back with a sigh.
"I suppose that would explain why I've never heard of it," the Mothim said. "I was a Burmy when I was that age, and considering how my time in the Academy went, I don't know if there'd be anyone that I would trust to not strand me up here."
Aldrich gave a low grunt before pulling in his wings, Ellsberg's words seemingly dredging up unwanted memories.
"Yeah, moments like that have a way of sticking with you," he muttered. "That's part of the reason why I liked to come up here. It was a nice place to just get away from everything and watch the world go by."
Ellsberg finished up his fry, before giving a buzzing huff back.
"Well
thankfully those days are long gone now," the Bug-Type remarked. "I've since climbed the ranks, and even if I need to put my foot down every now and then, I get more respect than I used to."
"And what do you think of those First-Ranks in light of all that?" Aldrich pressed, giving an askew glance at the Mothim. Ellsberg blinked and flitted his wings in reply, catching himself from a reflexive rant about them being riddled with disrespectful annoyances as he hemmed and hawed a moment, before trying to put forward a diplomatic answer.
"Well… they're a varied lot, but I suppose that's to be expected considering all the Pokémon that live in the Company's territory," the moth began. "With the right guidance, they're more than manageable as-"
"You don't need to be so polite," Aldrich said. "Let's be honest here, Ellsberg. The average grunt in this organization is a bottom-feeding thug who's only here for a paycheck or a power trip."
Ellsberg gave a surprised twitch of his feelers at the Noivern's response, reflexively opening his mouth to object that surely Aldrich was oversimplifying things, only to catch himself. His mind turned back to Ken and Hooke from Lyn's crew bullying him around, and how he couldn't remember a single one of their peers sticking up for him. The moth bristled at the thought, and he had to admit to himself that Lyn's underlings ultimately weren't all that abnormal for Company standards. But even so, what was Aldrich getting at here?
"I mean, I suppose that's not wholly inaccurate," Ellsberg replied. "But it keeps the ranks staffed and they're not exactly hard to motivate."
"And what good will
that do if they turn tail at the first sign of serious trouble thanks to being motivated by base desires?" Aldrich scoffed. The Noivern shook his head a moment, before looking out at the surrounding city with a stern gaze.
"No, for the Company to reach its true potential, it needs to stop burning away the limited resources the Cradle has and draw upon the strengths that it's not fully realizing yet," he insisted. "Can you imagine what we'd accomplish if the average First-Rank was fighting for a cause he
believed in to his bones? Something bigger than pushing out a decrepit Empire and raising lavenders above Tidemill City over a fight that started before he was born? First-Ranks like
those would be willing to sail to the ends of the Cradle if they were ordered to!"
Aldrich sighed and hung his head with a disappointed growl.
"It's a shame, really. Those shortcomings of the Company were something that Administrator Elilan noticed very early on in his tenure," the Dragon-Type said. "It's something that we've been working on to try and remedy."
Ellsberg stared back puzzledly at the Noivern. This vision that Aldrich was talking about was something
Administrator Elilan had shared with him? But since when had Elilan wanted something beyond taking care of some internal politics and positioning himself to become the next Director?
"… Eh? Doesn't Elilan just want to shut out unwanted rivals on the Board?" Ellsberg asked. "What sort of higher ideal could he have behind these missions? Let alone one that would suit the entire Company?"
Aldrich opened his mouth to speak, only to abruptly pause as his ears twitched. The Noivern blinked a moment, before walking over the edge and crouching down, placing his claws at the lip of the ledge as he peered down into the web of canals and streets below. Ellsberg cocked his head at the Dragon-Type and flitted up uneasily.
"Aldrich?" the Mothim wondered. "Is something wrong?"
"Come and see for yourself," he said, pointing a claw out into the cityscape below.
Ellsberg flew up to the edge of the tower, his gaze following Aldrich's claw down towards the ground. There he saw a small party of Pokémon exiting out into a small courtyard: a Fraxure, a Skarmory, a Swellow, a Gliscor, and a Talonflame…
The Bug-Type stiffened up and went wide-eyed, as he realized that these were none other than-!
"Aren't those the same Pokémon with Lugia that we ran into back on Buyeom?!"
"Well, I highly doubt there's
another party of five unrelated Pokémon with the
exact same species," Aldrich said. "But there's only one way to be sure…"
"But this is the Company's capital!" Ellsberg buzzed. "What on earth would
they be doing here?"
The Noivern narrowed his eyes and gave a low growl in reply.
"I don't know, but let's make sure they stick around for a while. I'm sure we'd be able to learn more by interrogating them."
Down in the streets below the clocktower, Percy, Calidus, Pladur, Trizano, and Kiran made their way along into a courtyard in front of one of the Academy's satellite buildings north of the main structure. The five had just wrapped up a sweep around the building, carefully inspecting the nearby walls and the pavement below for any sign of a hidden room or space behind them. Here too, their search had proven to be just as unfruitful as it had been in the various places in the neighborhood they'd searched about earlier, leaving Pladur to shake his head.
"I think we're running out of places to look around here," the Fraxure murmured.
"Well, we
are already on the periphery of the Academy, so maybe you're right," Calidus said. "It's hard to imagine the Vault could be much further out this way."
"It was worth a shot at least," Kiran sighed. "Though I suppose we should start retracing our steps back. The kids should be wrapping up their search by now."
The group started heading off, ducking down a nearby alley as they mused aloud to themselves as to where they'd be best off searching next. The five came across a crossroads where the alley met another, when a deafening noise rang out and a concussive wave knocked the five to the ground. One after the other, Kiran and his companions staggered up with their ears ringing, Pladur catching a fleeting glimpse of a Mothim passing with arcing, dance-like movements when his eyes shot wide.
"Agh!" the Fraxure yelped. "S-Somebody's here!"
"Well, well, well… fancy seeing
you again, Percy."
The woosh of descending wingbeats rang out as Aldrich and Ellsberg swooped down from above and into the center of the crossroads, wedging Team Traveller's members along the wall between the alley they came from and the left end of the intersection. The Noivern let out a low growl, his maw curling up into a malicious grin.
"When you lot gave us the slip back in Buyeom, I was worried you were going to lie low and make us
struggle to find you," Aldrich sneered. "But here you are, walking right into our claws."
Pladur's eyes shrank to pins at the mention of Buyeom, realizing between that and their species, that his foes were…
"Y-You're with that awful Weavile!" he cried.
"That's right, and you all know what we're capable of," Ellsberg harrumphed. "So why don't you do yourselves a favor and
surrender here?"
"Hrmph, I don't think so, Mothim!" Calidus shot back.
The Talonflame tore along for Ellsberg as fire wreathed his plumage, only for the Mothim to hastily duck out of the way. Calidus watched as his Bug-Type foe attempted to fling a slashing gust of air back, hurriedly pulling up as the Air Slash sailed past and gouged a faint streak into the brick wall of a nearby building. Kiran and the others looked ahead, seeing that in their scuffle, Calidus had drawn Ellsberg away from Aldrich's side and left a clear line of sight between them and the bat.
"Train your fire on Aldrich!" Kiran cried. "The more we can deal with him as a threat, the better!"
At once, Pladur launched into the frenzied rhythms of a Dragon Dance as Kiran dove at Aldrich, spreading his wings wide for a flying tackle. Before the Swellow could bear down on Aldrich, he was met with a pulse of dragonfire from the Noivern's mouth, which found its mark on his right wing.
"Agh!"
Kiran fell out of the air and crashed to the ground, trying to right himself and shake feeling back into his stricken wing when he heard loud wingbeats and looked up to see that Aldrich had taken to the air.
"Did you
really think that that would give me trouble, Kiran? " the Noivern sneered.
Kiran watched as Aldrich began to gather blue, fiery light at the back of his mouth, when a sharp cry rang out just to the bat's right.
"That's quite enough, Aldrich!"
The Noivern looked just in time for Percy to slam into him with an aerial tackle at his face, Trizano following suit with a glinting slash of his feathers at the bat's right wing. Aldrich fell back to the ground, skidding along the ground with his wings' claws for traction as Trizano pulled up and beamed back to his teammates.
"That's more like it!" the Skarmory exclaimed. "We just need to press him a bit mo-!"
"Gack!"
A sharp thud and a squawk cut Trizano off as an unseen force abruptly flung Calidus into a wall and sent him tumbling to the ground. A quick glance opposite of Calidus revealed Ellsberg flitting nearby with a tarsus held out and his eyes just returning from a pinkish glow. The moth gave a huffing buzz and dove at the stunned Talonflame, when he was cut off by a set of red claws trailing dragonfire uppercutting him from below.
"Agh!"
Ellsberg shot up, before spiraling to the ground with a dull crash. Sensing an opening, Pladur flashed his claws and ran at the downed Mothim to attack again, only for an overpowering Hurricane to sweep him and the rest of his teammates up. The five were blown about as the winds howled and the sound of nearby windows giving way rang out, the group coming to a tumbling stop along the walls as they winced in pain and staggered back up to their feet one by one. As Percy regained his footing, the sound of wingbeats reached his ears, making him look up and see Aldrich above them and air distorting around his ears as he readied a Boomburst, prompting the Gliscor to raise his voice and cry out.
"Quick! Hit Aldrich before he can use his attack!"
Kiran beat his wings together in response and flung a cutting gust of wind forward at the Noivern, Trizano and Percy taking advantage of the Swellow's covering fire to launch themselves at Aldrich with a spread-wing slash and an ice-wreathed bite at his wing membranes. The Noivern let out a sharp grunt and fell back, before regaining his balance with a low growl. Much to Kiran's alarm, the Noivern didn't seem to be as worn down from battle as he'd hoped, leaving him to shoot a worried glance over to his teammates.
"I'm not sure if this is a fight we can win on our own," he gulped.
"
Sciocchezze! We've fought foes worse than Second-Ranks before!" Trizano insisted. "We can pull through this!"
Trizano took wing and dove at the Noivern, who narrowed his eyes and spat a stream of fire back at him. The Skarmory rolled in the air out of the way of the Flamethrower, flashing his talons as he raked Aldrich's right ear and drew a pained yelp. The Noivern recoiled, bringing a claw up to cradle his ear as Trizano circled overhead with a scoff.
"Hah! Is that the best Team Sentinel can do?"
The bat pulled his claw back as ruddy drops dribbled off of them, flicking them away as he turned his head back up at the Skarmory and bared his teeth with a hateful glare.
"No, it's
not."
Aldrich spat up a pulse of fiery blue light, which sailed up and struck the base of Trizano's left wing. The Skarmory squawked with a start as he pinwheeled and crashed onto the paved street. The Steel-Type lay stunned for a moment, before trying to get up when he felt Aldrich's clawed foot stomp on his neck and pin him to the ground flat on his breast. Trizano looked up, seeing fire dance at the back of the Noivern's throat before it came out and swallowed his vision.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Pained screams and screeches rang through the alley as Kiran, Pladur, Percy, and Calidus watched Aldrich spew his fire square into Trizano's eyes in a long, sustained stream, which made even Ellsberg flinch at the sight. Kiran was the first to snap out from his stunned stupor, his beak hanging open as he cried out after his teammate.
"
Trizano!"
The Swellow started to move forward, only to be overtaken by Pladur shooting ahead and throwing his right claw forward wreathed with dragonfire. The Fraxure's Dragon Claw found its mark on Aldrich's cheek and made him lose his grip before Percy zipped in with an Acrobatics and knocked the Noivern off his Skarmory victim. Aldrich snarled and attempted to steady himself, when an overpowering gust of wind from Kiran's wings sent him stumbling back into a wall. With Trizano freed from Aldrich's clutches, the three hastily beelined to the stricken Steel-Type, when a sharp buzz sounded out from above.
"Oh no you don't!"
The three looked up to see Ellsberg swooping in readying an Air Slash, when Calidus cut in with a fiery tackle and sent the Mothim crashing to earth with a sharp yelp. The Talonflame's breaths came out short and tense, as cried out to his teammates below.
"Hurry! Before they get back up!"
Pladur and Percy grabbed hold of Trizano's wings and drug him up, hurriedly tugging the Skarmory along as they fled down the intersecting alley, with Kiran and Calidus covering overhead after the Talonflame churned up a Tailwind. Neither the Fraxure nor the Gliscor had gotten a good look at what Aldrich had done to Trizano's eyes, but from the brief glimpse of the blackened mess where they were supposed to be and the burnt-smelling scent that reached their nostrils, they were both sure it had been nothing good.
"Grr! Get back here!"
Aldrich's snarling voice hung in the air, curdling Team Traveller's blood as they popped out of the alleyway and into a street that ran along a canal. The five ran ahead for dear life, tearing along and jostling past pedestrians and over bridges as fast as their limbs and Trizano's weight would allow them.
"Excuse me! Coming through!" Percy exclaimed
The Gliscor turned his head back in the middle of pushing past passersby on the street and saw Aldrich and Ellsberg fly over a set of rooftops behind them. The group blanched, hurriedly darting across a bridge over the canal and down a nearby alleyway to their right as Pladur stumbled over some wooden clutter left behind and yelped after almost losing his balance.
"Gah! What's it going to take to shake those two?!"
"Eh? Hertsog?" a Grovyle's voice asked. "Did you hear something?"
"It came from the alley," a Mienshao's voice answered. "Come on, let's go and check it ou-"
Kiran and the others darted out of the alleyway where they caught a brief glimpse of an open area next to a large building lined with crates and barrels. White fur and green scales suddenly filled their vision, as the lot stumbled and fell after running into a pair of Pokémon. A chorus of yelps rang out, the five picking themselves up from a stunned stop on the ground as they looked over to see a vaguely familiar-looking Grovyle and Mienshao in First-Rank scarves dusting themselves off.
"Ow!" the Grovyle cried. "
Hey! Watch where you're going!"
The Company Mienshao and Grovyle tensed up with a glimmer of realization as it occurred to Kiran and his companions that the pair were familiar for a good reason:
they were Hertsog and Salvini from Mengir! The Mienshao gaped about the party's members puzzledly, before his eyes settled on the wounded Skarmory, then over to Pladur and Kiran as he spluttered out an incredulous reply.
"
Kiran?! What are you doing here?" he asked, making the Swellow fidget and squirm as the bird looked back anxiously down the alleyway.
"We'd love to explain, but we're in a bit of trouble right-"
"Over there, down the alley!"
Hertsog and Salvini heard a buzzing shout and approaching wingbeats, the Grovyle hastily darting over and forcing a back door to the building open and motioning to Kiran and his teammates to follow. The five quickly rushed over, Salvini all but shoving the lot through the doorway before pulling the door shut behind them. Hertsog shot a bewildered stare over at his partner and began to make his way over to her, when a sharp snarl rang out from behind.
"You there!"
Hertsog watched as Salvini stiffened up and looked off behind him, the Fighting-Type following her gaze to see a Noivern and a visibly battered-looking Mothim flying in. The pair came to a stop on the ground and loomed over him with a pair of impatient scowls.
"Did you see a group of Pokémon in First-Rank scarves run by?" Aldrich asked.
Hertsog blinked in confusion at the Noivern, before noting that his scarf bore a large square with four smaller ones anchoring its corner, the clear mark of a Second-Rank. The Mienshao hesitated for a moment, before carefully raising his voice to reply.
"… Yes? We saw a group like that run past a short while ago," Hertsog replied. "Is something the matter?"
"Those Pokémon were
Imperial Spies whose cover we broke," Ellsberg buzzed. "It's imperative that we find them before they can escape."
Hertsog and Salvini stared back wordlessly as the bat and moth all but bored holes into their hides with piercing glares. Salvini shuffled uneasily, before giving an unsettled paw at the back of her head.
"I mean, they kinda knocked us down while they ran down the loading dock," she responded. "They were gone by the time we got up again and we genuinely don't know where they went afterwards."
Aldrich stared at the two intently, making them tense up and hold their breaths as the Noivern sized them up. Salvini squirmed and worried to herself that her story had not been convincing enough as the Dragon-Type continued to warily eye her and Hertsog, only for her fears to fade when after a while the bat shook his head and let out a grumbling "useless grunts" under his breath. The Noivern huffed sharply, before turning over to his Mothim companion.
"Come on, we'll sweep the nearby streets from the air," Aldrich said. "They couldn't have gotten far."
Hertsog and Salvini watched as Aldrich and Ellsberg took wing and flew off over the nearby rooftops, exhaling out of relief as the two Flying-Types slipped from view. After a moment's hesitation, Hertsog narrowed his eyes, before making his way towards the door. The Mienshao pushed the door open, where he saw Kiran and Pladur warily poking their heads out, and folded his arms with a sharp scowl.
"Hrmph, they're gone for now, so you have a bit more time," Hertsog harrumphed. "So how about you start by explaining to me just what it is you've all been up to?"
After being herded along through the Academy's hallways and up a flight of stairs by the Lucario guard, Team Traveller found themselves at the entrance to a first-floor room labeled 'Room 103'. After pushing the door open, the Fighting-type shoved Team Traveller in, the five stumbling to a stop as they saw they'd entered a classroom lined with windows with wooden desks set out in neat rows with Pokémon seated at them. Nida did a double-take at the desks and their students, as the thought crossed her mind that aside from being indoors, the room was almost like the school back in Bluewhorl Town.
The Nidorina looked to her right, where an Alakazam in a Third-Rank scarf paused and turned to face them. Nida blinked as her line of sight drifted back to the rest of the room towards the left, where curious students gawked at them and murmured amongst themselves at the arrival of the new strangers. The Alakazam diverted his attention from writing on a blackboard with a piece of chalk he'd been levitating, set it aside, and approached. The Psychic-Type drew forward and sized up Team Traveller's members briefly, before training a sharp frown at the Lucario behind them.
"Do you
mind?" the Alakazam snapped. "I'm in the middle of a lecture!"
"Apologies, Professor Gerhard," the Lucario insisted. "It's just that we found these truants shirking your class in the library."
Team Traveller's members nervously smiled and waved at the rest of the classroom as the Alakazam stared at them. The professor cocked a brow, before training a piercing scowl at the guard and gesturing at his new charges.
"And just what am I supposed to do with them?" he demanded. "I don't remember seeing any of their faces in my class this semester."
The Lucario hesitated and pawed at his right arm for a moment, briefly tripping over his words before he spoke up with a wary tone.
"Er… maybe you could let them sit in?" the Fighting-Type asked. "If they've been missing class, I'm sure they can catch up from another student."
The Alakazam hesitated for a moment, before giving a grumbling sigh and shaking his head. The Psychic-Type raised a hand still clasping onto a spoon, motioning off towards the seats in the classroom.
"Just go take a seat and don't cause any more distractions," the Alakazam harrumphed. "We have a lot of material to cover today, and I'm not going to hold it up for
een stelletje luilakken."
Nida and the others filed between the desks towards the back of the classroom, where a row of desks that had been curiously left empty awaited them. The group noticed the students staring at them and trading puzzled whispers as they passed, before taking their seats at the back row. Team Traveller stared ahead rigidly at the blackboard, watching the Lucario guard take his leave and the Alakazam clear his throat to continue on with a lecture about battling techniques. After the professor droned on for a few minutes, Pleo began to grow antsy and fidget in his seat, before leaning in towards Nida and whispering to her.
"Nida, what do we do now?"
The Nidorina bit her tongue and hesitated a moment, unsure
what they could do other than to just sit quietly and hope someone didn't notice they weren't actually students by the time the Alakazam completed his lecture. The Poison-Type flattened her ears and opened her mouth to speak, when a quiet thump from the seats in front of them drew her attention.
"Psst! Hey!"
Nida turned her attention forward, where she spotted a trio of Nidoran in plain lavender scarves from the row ahead looking at them with curious blinks.
"Who
are you guys?" one of the two purple Nidoran asked.
"And where did you all come from?" the female Nidoran of the group added. "Are you all new here?"
Team Traveller traded wary looks with one another, before Nida flicked her ears and leaned in to speak.
"Er… I'm Nida, and these are my friends: Crom, Pleo, Elty, and Guardia," the Nidorina explained. "We all moved in a few days ago and just started classes here."
The larger of the two purple Nidoran gave a quizzical tilt of his head, before moving a paw to his mouth in thought.
"Feels strange that you're just starting when more than half the school year's already over," he murmured. "But I guess it can't be helped. I'm Filbert."
"And I'm Quintin," the other purple Nidoran chimed in. "Though everyone just calls me 'Quin'."
"And
I'm Braam," his sister added. "Though what's with your funny accent? Did you all get sent in from another island?"
"Yes, that's right," Elty replied, nodding back. "We all came in from-"
"Kenobi."
"Tromba!"
Guardia and Pleo both raised limbs to offer up their explanations, only to pause and flinch as they realized they'd created conflicting stories. Elty threw a paw over his face with a low sigh as the Nidoran traded glances with each other, and a Zorua, a Magikarp in a water-filled tub, and a Shinx seated nearby similarly turned to face them, the Magikarp of the lot looking between the Cubone and young Lugia confusedly.
"I didn't even know they were still
taking Pokémon from Tromba into this class," the Magikarp said. "Though which of the two are you all from?"
"Er… both, really. Most of our parents were stationed out in Kenobi, while others worked on Commissioner Lyn's crew and visited Tromba regularly," Nida explained, flattening her ears out with an awkward smile. "We wound up getting to know each other after they all got reassigned to Vollezee, so we've just been hanging around."
"Oh, so you've been sticking to who you know then. That makes sense!" the Shinx cheered. "Though if you need more friends, you could do worse than us! I'm Leonard, the Magikarp's Murdo and the Zorua's Sophie. Even if Gerhard's a bit of a grouch, you five are lucky to be here!"
Quin flared his ears at Leonard's explanation, narrowing his eyes back at the Electric-Type's insistence of how fortunate the newcomers were.
"Hrmph, that last bit's debatable," he grumbled. "That geezer doesn't even know the names of his own students!"
Sophie looked over Team Traveller's members skeptically, the Dark-Type's face seeming to carry a visible hint of suspicion about the new strangers in her class.
"Wait, so some of your parents were part of a
Commissioner's crew?" she asked. "How many Pokémon were on it and just what sort of work did they do exactly?"
Nida opened her mouth to speak, only to trail off and fidget for a moment at the fox's question. After a moment to gather her thoughts, the Nidorina pawed at the back of her head and sheepishly raised her voice in reply.
"Pleo, Crom, and I had parents on that ship. And they just did… normal stuff to help it sail?" she answered. Crom shook his head, before he opted to put his knowledge of sailing to use to hurriedly shore up Nida's cover story.
"That's right, they helped Commissioner Lyn on his expeditions against pirates and helped collect annual tribute from the island," the Druddigon explained. "As locals they were able to get a better idea of what sort of tricks tax dodgers would try and use to stiff the Company."
"
Zgadza się, and they passed through Kenobi on a regular basis," Elty offered. "That's where my parents and Guardia's were stationed."
Sophie's face fell into a doubtful frown, as she raised a brow back at the three's explanation.
"If that's the case, then how'd you get assigned
here?" the Zorua questioned. "Everyone in this class has at least one parent who's a Third-Rank or higher in the Company. For instance,
my dad is an Administrator on the Board, and so's Murdo's."
Team Traveller's members set their teeth on edge as the five of them quickly realized that Sophie was none other than
Administrator Elilan's daughter. The lot squirmed for a moment, wondering if she had spotted some glaring hole in their cover, or worse, if she recognized them from some story her father had told her. Before their fears could get too far ahead of them, Filbert folded his ears back, before cutting in with a dismissive wave of his paw.
"Eh, ease up a bit, Sophie," the purple Nidoran said. "Some of the Second-Ranks on that ship probably just got promoted or something."
"Uh-huh, that's exactly what happened!" Pleo quickly added, prompting Sophie to skeptically tilt her head in reply.
"
Three promotions to Third-Rank from the same Commissioner's crew?" she asked. "I'm having trouble buying that. The average crew of that sort is lucky to get more than one at a time."
Pleo and his friends hemmed and hawed a moment, before Elty spoke up to try and dispel the Zorua's suspicions.
"Er… well there were only two," the Growlithe insisted. "You see, Pleo's the son of Commissioner Lyn's former head flier and Nida and Crom here are half-siblings, so when
their dad got promoted, they both got drug along out here."
Nida and Crom stiffened up and flushed a flustered red at Elty's explanation. While it didn't seem to sway the young fox, the rest of her companions seemed to be convinced, as Braam sighed and turned back to the Zorua.
"I honestly think that you're overthinking things, Sophie," she sighed. "Even if these 'mons' backgrounds are a little different than normal, it's not as if they just got dropped off here out of the blue."
Team Traveller's members hastily nodded back and affirmed Braam's explanation, prompting Sophie to hesitate, before sighing and opting to not press the matter further.
"Hm, I guess… though what sort of Pokémon
is Pleo anyways?" the Zorua wondered.
"He's a Wingull," Crom answered. "There's apparently this rare dark purple variant from the islands south of Anyilla that gets to be really big, as you can see here."
"No he's not. Stop joking around," she scoffed. "I've learned enough about the Pokémon in the Cradle to know there
is no variant of Wingull with purple feathers, let alone one with teeth, or a long tail like that."
Sophie stared back with an unimpressed scowl, which made Crom and his companions fidget nervously as the other students traded looks with one another. The Zorua opened her mouth to continue, when a voice from the front of the classroom cut in sharply.
"Do you feel like coming up and taking over the lecture, Sophie? You seem to be very talkative for a Pokémon who's supposed to be
listening."
The Zorua flinched at the sound of Gerhard scolding her, turning to see the Alakazam Professor glaring at her from the blackboard. The fox hemmed and hawed briefly, before hesitantly speaking up to try and excuse herself.
"Uh… no, I was just-"
"Disrupting my lecture and distracting your fellow students, I know," the Psychic-Type chided. "Though if you're having trouble
concentrating, there is another seat open right here."
Gerhard pointed off at a small, lone desk right next to the blackboard at the front of the classroom, before narrowing his eyes at the Dark-Type.
"If you don't need it to make it through my lecture, then
act the part," he harrumphed.
Team Traveller and their nearby classmates quickly fell quiet and dutifully stared back ahead at the blackboard. After becoming satisfied with the newfound silence, Gerhard returned to the slate, as he began to read off from his lecture notes.
"Anyhow, as I'm sure you're all aware by now, many factors can turn the tide of a battle, not the least of which are status effects…"
Nida and her companions breathed a sigh of relief as the lecture continued on, quietly thanking the Travellers above that Gerhard had cut in when he did. The Nidorina looked off to her left at Sophie's seat, the Zorua glimpsing back with a sharp frown before the Dark-Type focused her attention ons the lecture again. Nida blanched and sank back against her stool-like seat, pinching her brow as Gerhard droned on while her thoughts turned back to her and her teammates' mission to probe the Academy. Time and time again, she found herself being nagged by an uncomfortable suspicion that perhaps they'd bitten off more than they could chew.
Back in the storeroom that Kiran and his party had taken shelter in, Salvini stood before Trizano as she coiled the last of a set of bandages around the Skarmory's head at his eye level. The Grovyle leaned in to tie a knot at the back of her handiwork when the steely bird flinched and jerked forward. The gecko stopped and grimaced a moment, before trying again with a gentler touch as she looked away and shook her head with a low murmur.
"Gods, that Noivern really did a number on you," she shuddered. "I don't think that a little patch job like this is going to fix your eyes."
Trizano shifted and winced as Salvini tightened the bandages about his eyes, the Skarmory craning his head towards the Grovyle's voice as he spoke up, trying to project confidence in his audibly weakened voice.
"
N-Non temi, Salvini. It'll be fine! An Immortal
always recovers from his wounds," he insisted. "I'll be my normal vigorous self in no time at all!"
"If you say so… but even if you're right, will they still
work like they used to?" Salvini asked. "I've heard a few kinds of Pokémon can regrow entire limbs without any fancy magic, but the new ones they get are supposed to never be quite as good as the ones they had originally."
Trizano fell deathly silent, as he realized that even with Cernun's blessing allowing his body to rapidly restore his wounds, nobody in Darkwood Square had any record of what would happen to an Immortal whose eyes were injured as badly as his. He'd never seen an Immortal who
hadn't fully healed from his wounds in the past, but… could it really be that his sight wouldn't come back with his eyes? As the Steel-Type quietly worried to himself, Hertsog shook his head and shot a sharp frown over at Kiran.
"Hrmph, you certainly have
different teammates than what I remembered you having last time, Kiran."
"Well, yes," he answered. "Though how did you two wind up
here?"
"We were reassigned off Mengir when we parted ways, remember?" Salvini said. "Guarding the Academy was the assignment that we wound up getting as a group after arriving here on Vollezee."
The Grovyle gave a small smile back, only to quickly suppress it after seeing her Mienshao companion fold his arms and shoot an impatient frown back at the Swellow.
"Though that doesn’t explain why
you’re also here, Kiran," Hertsog said.
Kiran fidgeted a moment under Hertsog's stare, looking aside with an uncomfortable shuffle of his wings.
"I... wound up getting a different assignment myself."
"Including with a wanted 'mon who helped prisoners escape on Mengir?" Hertsog pressed, folding his arms with a sharp harrumph.
"With everything that you did to help us back on Mengir, it's hard for me to believe that you'd be a spy like those Second-Ranks claimed you were," the Mienshao continued. "But I can't say that I know too much about any of your new friends here or what
they might have put you up to since then."
Hertsog looked over Percy and Calidus, his attention returning to Trizano briefly, before he shook his head and looked back at Kiran.
"So, I'd like to hear from all of you about what's going on," he said sternly. "And
why you're getting into trouble with higher ranks if you're really not involved in anything questionable."
Kiran hemmed and hawed at the weasel's question, before raising a wing up in reply.
"Well… I know it sounds a bit… implausible, but a close friend of ours got into trouble with some of the higher-ups due to a misunderstanding," the Swellow offered. "We tried to help him clear his name, but…"
"Kiran and the others kept getting stonewalled, so they reached out to me and my Talonflame partner here to help," Percy added. "We hadn't crossed paths for a good while due to being stationed here in Canalhouse, but they thought that we might know someone who could help pass their concerns up the chain."
Calidus warily shot a glance over to Kiran, before ruffling his feathers and chiming in.
"We… admittedly had been having some trouble ourselves, so we had to resort to some alternative tactics."
"Including working with a wanted Outlaw?" Hertsog demanded, narrowing his eyes back sharply.
The Mienshao's audience shifted uneasily, Pladur pawing at the back of his head before he spoke up on behalf of his teammates.
"I mean, when we met Trizano on Mengir, it sounded like we had some shared interests that we could all work towards. And the more we dug into the story behind the bounty on him… well, we just kept finding more and more things that didn't make sense," the Fraxure said. "You can see why we tried to smooth things over for him, can't you?"
"Hrmph, I fail to see what could have
possibly not added up when he literally aided and abetted
pirates escaping my custody," Hertsog scoffed. "Or how you were all mistaken for Imperial spies, for that matter."
Trizano shifted and turned his head up at the sound of Hertsog's voice, the Skarmory's head swaying a bit before he cut into the conversation.
"Would I have stuck around to help your friends with the town shrine if I was really helping pirates?"
Hertsog curled his muzzle into a sharp frown, his eyes glaring daggers at the wounded Immortal.
"I'd
appreciate it if you didn't lie to my face, Skarmory," the Mienshao snapped. "You flew off that night with the pirates, and all of my subordinates who were there
saw it with their own eyes! How on earth could you have-?"
Hertsog trailed off after he noticed that Salvini had remained deathly silent and was staring back at the Skarmory with wide, startled eyes, much as if she'd seen a ghost. The Mienshao blinked for a moment, giving a worried tilt of his head at his Grass-Type partner.
"Salvini?
Kavko ima?" the Fighting-Type asked. "Do you know something about this?"
"I mean, it's not
proof, but… the entire time Trizano was in town prior to that night, he was nothing but kind and helpful to the local guild and the rest of the townsfolk," Salvini said. "It's just- It's hard for me to believe that the same Pokémon we heard about would just turn around and also help pirates who'd plunder the town."
The Grovyle pawed at her shoulder a moment, before continuing warily.
"And you remember those letters that we all got right before we left? The ones asking us all to come to the shrine to help fix it?" she asked. "All of them were written by the same Pokémon, and you said that it looked like they'd been made and left behind by a Pokémon with sharp talons."
Hertsog looked back at Trizano as his teammates helped him up, his eyes drifting down to the talons on his feet. The Fighting-Type fell quiet for a moment, as he realized that the Skarmory's talons certainly would've been able to leave behind the scratch-like handwriting he'd seen. The Mienshao looked back at Salvini and found himself at a loss for words, as she shook her head and carried on with her train of thought.
"If he
flew off, is it really impossible that he
flew back?" the Grovyle insisted. "Especially if he thought something really
was wrong about those pirates we picked up and that he was helping 'mons that were wrongly accused?"
Hertsog's mind turned back to the fateful mission that had cost him his position as Captain of the Guards of Mengir Island, and the more he thought about it, the more things seemed peculiar about it.
To begin with, there was Commander Briggs' evasiveness about the entire mission from its beginning to its end. Then there was the fact that the only trace of the scheming pirates they'd found had been a bunch of youths who had been wholly incompetent as scouts. The whole episode had just been baffling to him, since the youngsters probably could've been foiled by a nighttime raid of their hostel room instead of sending them to be ambushed in the local Mystery Dungeon the way they did.
And how could he forget Phyllis' horrified reaction when they actually
encountered the pirates? Or her insistence that one of them was a 'demon'? It was daft to think that there could be a Protector among
pirates of all Pokémon, but Briggs had seemed to anticipate she'd react that way, so why had he kept so mum about it?
Could… they have been deceived all along about the nature of that mission by their superiors? The Mienshao faltered for a moment, before deciding that he simply didn't have the evidence to confirm his doubts. On the other paw, even if Kiran had joined up with questionable company since they last met, there wasn't any firm reason to expect that the Swellow was being less earnest in his intentions than he was on Mengir…
So… whatever his misgivings were, perhaps it was for the best to give Kiran the benefit of the doubt.
"I
still think there's something you all are hiding from me," Hertsog murmured. "But at the very least, I'm convinced that you're not
spies."
The Mienshao looked off outside, where a small, unattended boat with a canvas roof had been moored and bobbed along the side of the canal. The Fighting-Type hesitated a moment, before turning back to Kiran and the others.
"The boat over there will be taking some of our emptied containers back down to the harbor where you can line up treatment for your Skarmory friend and try to sort things out. I will tell the Lapras that tugs this boat that you'll be going along with her today," he said. "Though considering what happened to his eyes, whatever you're all up to, I'd
strongly encourage you to think long and hard about whether you can help that friend of yours some other way. I doubt the Travellers will smile on you like this a second time."
A long silence followed from the party's members, before Kiran nodded back gratefully.
"I suppose that's only fair," the Swellow replied. "Thank you for your help, Hertsog."
Kiran and the others made their way over to the waiting boat, Pladur and Percy helping Trizano limp along as they clambered into the boat and nestled themselves among its cargo. The group settled in and let out tired sighs, as Salvini walked up along the edge of the canal and poked her head in with a wary frown.
"He's here, isn't he?"
The five Pokémon bit their tongues and fell silent at the Grovyle's question, Pladur hemming and hawing as he tried to muster up a reply.
"E-Er… who would you be referring to-?" the Fraxure started, only to get cut off by a sharp huff.
"
Pleo," Salvini shot back. "Why
else would you be here and put yourselves through this?"
Pladur and his teammates fell silent for a moment, as they heard the splash of churning water and heard Hertsog's voice chattering indistinctly with another. After being satisfied that they weren't being overheard, Kiran sighed and turned back to Salvini with a low whisper.
"Yeah, he's here."
"
Where is he?" the Grovyle pressed. A tense silence followed for a moment, before the Swellow shook his head in response.
"We can't tell you that, Salvini and you
know it," the Flying-Type said. "Though you've seen him before.
If you run across him, you'll know."
The lot heard Hertsog and the tugging Pokémon trade farewells, glancing ahead to see the Lapras start to tow the boat ahead. Salvini quickly pulled her head back out and watched as the boat headed off down the canals, Kiran and his companions casting furtive glances out before opting to hide away.
Salvini continued to watch as the boat rounded the corner, before turning away with a sigh and starting off. All the while, she wondered to herself what Kiran could've meant by knowing once she saw Pleo. It was then that her eyes drifted off towards the other buildings of the Academy when she froze with a start.
"
No way. He didn't mean that he's in…?"
Author's Notes:
-
ruido - Spanish: "noise"
-
Tintoren - Dutch: "Tin Tower"
-
Sciocchezze! - Italian: "Nonsense!" (interjection), lit. plural of "foolishness", "silliness"
-
een stelletje luilakken - Dutch: "a bunch of slackers"
-
Zgadza się - Polish: "That's right"
-
Non temi - Italian: "Don't fear" (singular you). lit. "No fear" (singular you)
Wasn’t actually expecting humans to play into this at all
