While Team Sentinel set out to prepare their ambush, Nida and the younger members of Team Traveller found themselves back in their same scouting position within the Archive's hallways that they were in two days ago. There, Crom held onto the pocket mirror that had been lent to them by the ship's crew, using it to see around the corner for his teammates. On the other end was a Machamp and a Slowbro with a shell on his arm in dark blue armor standing guard in front of the iron doors into the secure wing. Crom lingered for a moment at the sight of the pair's reflection, before he sucked in a sharp breath and turned to his teammates.
"Is everyone ready?" he asked. Elty hesitated and briefly looked in the direction of where the guards were, before shaking his head with a quiet sigh.
"I think this is as ready as we're going to get, Crom. Let's just make sure we've got the names of those guards we saw straight."
Pleo ruffled his feathers as he peeked past the corner at the Machamp and the Slowbro. The young Protector shrank back, giving a worried look to his teammates with a nervous stammer.
"B-But what if something goes wrong?" he murmured. "What if they catch on to us? Or-?"
"
Cálmate, Pleo. It's okay."
Pleo paused as Nida leaned in and moved her paw over him, giving a reassuring pat and small smile in reply.
"We went through worse than this to help you escape from Tidemill City," the Nidorina insisted. "At least
this time there's a chance we can get away without fighting."
Pleo calmed slightly at the Poison-Type's words, the five collectively inhaling sharply as they rounded the corner and forced smiles over their faces as they approached the Machamp and Slowbro. As they neared, they noticed the pair watching them keenly, Elty opting to break their silence by greeting them with a friendly wag of his tail.
"Oh, hey there!" the Growlithe cheered. "We've got an artifact for the Vault!"
Elty and his companions watched as the Machamp and Slowbro traded dubious glances with each other. After a moment to stew over the youngsters' claims, they turned back, both of the guards sporting deep, disbelieving frowns.
"
Ja hoor," the Machamp scoffed. "And
I'm the king of Conntow."
"Look, don't you have classes or something?" the Slowbro growled. "If there really was something being brought to the Vault today, we'd have heard of it."
The five grimaced reflexively at the guards' hostile reception, trading hesitant glances with each other. After a moment to steel herself, Nida stepped forward, stopping to take the lid off the box in her paws and reach inside.
"I think there must be some sort of misunderstanding, since we were
specifically told by Daan to bring our artifact here," she insisted. "And I can't imagine that nobody would've told you about
this."
Nida fished out Pleo's goggles, proudly holding them up before the Machamp and Slowbro. The Machamp narrowed his eyes, folding both sets of his arms and giving a sharp harrumph in reply to the Nidorina.
"A set of goggles?
Really?" the Machamp said. "If you were going to pull some kind of prank on us-"
"Hold on a moment," the Slowbro insisted. "Those goggles are made of
plastic."
The Machamp blinked as the Slowbro reached over and took the goggles from Nida. The Slowbro pawed over the goggles and inspected them with a quiet, entranced awe, before stopping and giving a wary glance back at the youngsters in front of him.
"How on earth did you kids
get this?" he asked.
"It's a treasure passed down in our friend's family which we found out was really a human artifact," Guardia explained as she pointed at Pleo. "We didn't realize it was so rare and valuable until another Pokémon pointed it out. That's why we got the box for it."
The Machamp looked down at the goggles, and then back at the box in Nida's paws. With a shake of his head, he deposited the plastic accessory back inside and clamped the lid back over it, taking the box into a pair of his hands. The Machamp went over to the doors to the secure wing, leaving his Slowbro counterpart to look after him before turning back to Team Traveller's members with a low huff.
"Hrmph, we get the point," the Slowbro remarked. "Though, I'll need to have a word with Daan about communicating properly."
Team Traveller's members nodded back as the Machamp opened the iron doors and slipped into the dim, blue-lit hallways behind. The Fighting-Type dutifully made his way through the halls, down the stairs into the basement, and much as he had innumerable times before, eventually found himself in front of the entrance to the Vault. A party consisting of a Garchomp, a Klinklang, and a Doublade stood at attention by the entrance, as the Machamp headed over to the Steel-Type of the group holding out his box.
"Got a new addition for the collection, Liv," the Machamp said, prompting the Klinklang and the others to narrow their eyes skeptically.
"Eh? Just out of the blue?" the Klinklang asked.
"Yeah, I was surprised too," the Machamp replied. "But apparently it's a real artifact."
The Machamp pulled the top off the box and showed the goggles to his colleagues. At once the guards fell silent, the Klinklang examining it as the Doublade peered over and the Garchomp reached for a metal badge pinned against his scarf and pressed a claw down against it. There was a brief murmuring conversation between the Garchomp and an unseen presence on the other end—the guards' security dispatcher. After a moment's pause, the Garchomp let go of his badge and motioned at the Machamp to bring the goggles over.
"You're clear," the Garchomp insisted. "We'll get the door open right away so you can hand it off to the Internal Team."
The Garchomp stepped up to a metallic knob labeled with little stripes engraved into its metal, dutifully paying attention to them as he stopped the dial at a series of stripes. Left, right, and then left again. After stopping the dial on a final stripe, a heavy
click sounded out, prompting the Dragon-type to grab onto a battered crossbar and turn it clockwise with an audible creak until it came to a firm stop. The round door of the Vault slowly swung open afterwards, revealing a Gengar, a Wobbuffet, a Malamar, and a Sawk gathered at the other end waiting for them.
"Here's the artifact," the Klinklang insisted. "Sounds like you'll have some excitement on the job today after all."
The Gengar of the four walked up and took the box out of the Machamp's hands, giving a nodding grunt in reply as the Fighting-Type drifted back down the hallway. The other guards outside set to work at once pushing the vault door closed with a sharp creak, as it closed shut with a loud
click and its bolts slid back in place. The Gengar turned around as his fellow guards eyed the box curiously, before the Ghost-Type motioned for a pause.
"Let's find a spot for this first," he ordered. "You'll have plenty of time to gawk at whatever's in here after it's been shelved."
The Sawk, Malamar, and Wobbuffet moved away as the Gengar made his way for the back of the Vault, passing artifacts that were set on display throughout it. In a glass case, there was a discolored white plastic box that stood on its side next to a rod of the same color and composition with buttons laid out in a line on it. A little ways away, there was a large, flat plastic panel with a thin frame that was hung on a wall, and a red tome on a shelf that had a cover graced with a prominent line with two arms that branched out at its top.
The Gengar paid none of them any heed as he walked over to a tall shelf at the back of the Vault. There, he came to a small table set aside for sorting artifacts, when he suddenly realized that the box felt strangely light for its size. The Ghost-Type blinked a moment, and set the box down on the table, pulling the lid back to inspect it. The Gengar quickly discovered that the container was seemingly empty, but for a set of white-colored goggles made of unusually well-preserved plastic.
"Hrmph, they didn't need something this big for an artifact as small as this," the Gengar scoffed.
The Gengar stuck a hand into the box to grab the goggles, when he felt it brush up against an invisible lump inside, prompting him to abruptly pull his hand back.
"Huh?!"
The Gengar looked into the box, where a green, serpentine creature with a single eye seemingly appeared from thin air, and stared up at him with a flustered blink. Kline narrowed his eye into a glare, and at once, light bathed the box as alike-sized objects began to converge in on him through the Vault's walls, much to the Gengar's wide-eyed alarm.
"H-Hey! What the-?!"
Outside, just to the north of the Vault, Ander, Calidus, and Percy waited on a small grassy knoll hemmed in by canals on two sides. The three sat and rested, where they posed as guards supposedly on break from patrolling the Academy's grounds, and cast a glance in the direction of the Archive, where the rest of their teammates had been waiting on another portion of the knoll closer to the Archive's northern wall.
Ander let his gaze briefly linger on the others, before uncomfortably tapping the flats of his scythes together and turning to his nearby teammates.
"Did Kline say at all what we were supposed to look out for?" the Marked Scyther asked.
Calidus shook his head back in reply, casting a wary glance back at the building ahead of them.
"He didn't, actually. Just that we'd know when it's time," the Talonflame replied, prompting Ander to shoot a puzzled glance back. "I mean, Percy and I have some ideas of what we could expect, but-"
The Fire-Type paused as he and his teammates suddenly saw green lights zipping in from all around them. The lights converged on the Archive, and after a few seconds, they felt the ground violently shake. Distant shouts suddenly broke out inside and around the building, Kline's handiwork, they presumed. Without a moment to spare, Percy got up and motioned for the others to follow along.
"Well, that's as good of a sign as any," the Gliscor said. "Come on. We need to get that Ledger before other guards come to investigate."
The three hurried along, ducking into the Archive with the rest of their teammates as they rushed down the hallways. Before they knew it, they were at the iron doors leading into the building's secure wing, where there at the front, a startled-looking Machamp and Slowbro peered back towards the doors, seemingly hesitating over whether to go in or not. Percy and the others' approaching footsteps and wingbeats turned the pair's attention towards them, prompting the two guards to reflexively block off the entrance.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing here?!" the Machamp exclaimed.
"We're here to see what on earth is going on, of course!" Kiran shot back. "A bunch of lights just came in and we could feel the ground shake from outside! Are you
seriously telling us that everything's fine in here?"
The Machamp and Slowbro hesitated a moment, when they heard faint shouts ring out from beyond the iron doors. The pair traded uneasy glances with one another, before the Machamp sighed and shook his head, hurriedly pushing the doors open as the Slowbro motioned for the Swellow and his companions to follow.
"Alright, but let's hurry up!" the Poison-Type insisted. "The disturbance came from inside the secure wing!"
Kiran and his peers hurried along past the iron doors and after the guards. They made their way through corridors bathed in cool blue light, turning when prompted by the Machamp and Slowbro, and making their way down the flight of steps into the basement, until at last they came across the Vault door.
There, the guards on duty were arguing with one another, the Garchomp hurriedly trying to turn a few knobs, only to fumble with a low growl and be forced to try again. The group slowed as they neared, prompting Pladur to suck in a sharp breath and warily approach the guards with a puzzled tilt of his head.
"What on earth happened here?" the Fraxure asked.
"We don't know! We brought in an artifact not even ten minutes ago and then a bunch of green lights shot in through the wall!" the Klinklang at the door explained. "After that, there was a crash and the sound of a struggle inside!"
"Just hurry up and get that thing open already!" Percy barked. "The culprit can't possibly have gotten far!"
The Garchomp slid the knobs into place when a dull
click sounded out, prompting him to turn his attention to the crossbar and hurriedly whirl it about clockwise. The Vault door creaked open, and on the other end, Percy, his teammates, and the gathered guards found a scene of general disorder. All about, shelves had been upended and glass cases lay shattered into pieces, including one with a white box and rod that now lay toppled onto their sides.
The group made their way inside, where they spotted forms of the Internal Team lying limply on the ground, with fresh gouges ripped into their armor and little signs of life beyond an occasional weak groan. The guards posted at the door looked about with blank stares, the Machamp wincing after seeing a flat, plastic panel hanging ajar with a radial crack near one of its corners.
"Yeesh, what a mess," the Machamp murmured.
"Is there any sign of a breach in there?" the Slowbro asked.
The Garchomp looked around the upended vault. In spite of the mess of relics and damaged displays lying about, there was no obvious sign of forced entry. Wherever he looked, the walls of the vault remained unbroken, as did the floor and ceiling. The Garchomp mused aloud to himself if someone might have teleported or phased in, before having a moment of dawning realization and whirling about to Percy and his teammates with an impatient scowl.
"Look, don't just stand around like that!" the Garchomp grunted. "Either help us make sure all the relics are still here or go get a medic!"
Percy and the others fanned out into the room, as their members slowly worked their way towards the room's shelves, which seemed to be the most logical place to start searching for a book. Being ever the bold type, Alice was the first to make her way to one, coming to a stop at an upended shelf in the middle of the left end of the Vault. There, she pawed through artifacts of metal and plastic strewn about the floor, when she heard Pladur call her from behind.
"Alice, come here a minute."
The Sneasel looked up and saw the Fraxure motioning for her a little way towards the front of the Vault. There, next to his feet, she caught a glimpse of a bulky, worn red object half-buried wedged in the space under a toppled shelf. She made her way over and pulled the shelf back upright, where the pair quickly discovered the object was an old tome with a glyph on the cover that looked almost like a two-branched wand.
"Good eye there," she whispered back.
Alice quickly feigned a stumble and let a red tome spill out of her bag. Its pages were blank, but so long as she kept the cover closed, nobody here needed to know that. The Sneasel hastily shoveled the Ledger into her bag as Pladur stooped down and picked up the dummy book, hesitating as he brought it up to the uprighted shelf when he heard a sharp growl and looked over to see the Garchomp among the guards shooting a sharp glare at the two of them.
"Hey! Be careful with that!" the Dragon-Type snapped. "Everything in here's worth more than you'll ever make in your lifetimes!"
"Ack! Sorry!" Pladur stammered. "It's just that when you said to help inventory-"
"Just get out of our way and go and help set up a perimeter or something!" the head guard ordered. "This entire building's needs to be put on lockdown over this, and if you just sit there dawdling, the culprit will slip away beforehand!"
Pladur looked off at the other end of the Vault just in time to see Percy lower his claw to the ground and quickly shove an unseen mass into his bag. That must've been Kline, and assuming it was, it was sign enough for the Fraxure that their time here in this building was complete.
"Okay! Okay!"
Pladur made his way to the Vault's entrance and called for the others on his team to follow, the seven hastily retracing their steps through the secure wing of the Archive. They snaked through the blue-lit hallways, up the steps to the ground floor, and then back out the cast iron doors at the entrance, where sure enough, they'd returned to the hallways that Nida and the others had been skulking over the past couple days. As the group made their way towards the service entrance, they breathed sighs of relief, only for a quiet hiss to suddenly come from Percy's satchel as Kline irkedly poked his head out.
"Pierce, where is my cushion?" the Zygarde snapped.
"Sorry, but we needed the extra space for items today," the Gliscor answered. "I'm sure you can manage
one mission without a silk cushion."
Pladur, Kiran, and Ander traded flummoxed stares and blinked as they ran, before the Fraxure cocked his head back at Percy and gave a puzzled quirk of his brow.
"Wait, you had a silk cushion in there-?"
The group's attention shot forward as they looked up to see a flash of pink fur exit the service entrance and skidded to a stop. There, just in front of the exit that the kids had told them about was Hertsog, followed by Salvini, Payak and Phyllis from Mengir. The seven froze for a moment as Hertsog and the others stopped and stood in place with dumbfounded stares.
"Huh?! Kiran?!"
After an initial moment of surprise, the Mienshao stepped forward with his arms at the ready to strike and his eyes narrowed into a sharp glare.
"What are you
doing here?" the Fighting-Type demanded. "And why am I getting the feeling that whatever's going on right now is somehow related to
you?"
Kiran faltered for a moment, shifting in place uneasily as he struggled with how to even begin to explain their circumstances… let alone in a way that wouldn't just prompt Hertsog and the others to attack them and tip off the other guards.
"… Er… well, you're not wrong," the Swellow began, before hastily beating his wings out in interjection. "B-But it's for a good reason, we swear!"
Salvini rolled her eyes at the Flying-Type's reply, curling her mouth down into an unimpressed frown.
"… Seriously? That's the best you can come up with, Kiran?" the Grovyle grumbled. "You're supposed to be trying to
dispel our suspicion right now!"
"Just what sort of reason would justify all of this?" Hertsog pressed.
Kiran and his teammates hesitated, Ander and Pladur seemingly having the beginnings of an explanation on the tips of their tongues, only to think better of it and suddenly clam up. Then, Kiran shook his head, before sucking in a sharp breath to speak.
"… Like we said last time. We're trying to clear a friend's name," the Swellow said. "His name is Pleo. He's one of my pupils along with Crom back on our home island. My understanding is that you've already met him alongside some younger companions of his."
Salvini immediately froze after Kiran's words and from his reaction, Hertsog had evidently also found the name he mentioned to be familiar. Payak and Phyllis traded uneasy glances as their friends fell silent, before the pair stiffened up—it suddenly dawning on them that there was a reason
why the name sounded so familiar…
"T-Those are those pirates from Mengir!" Payak cried.
Phyllis' eyes shot wide and the Marked Leafeon's breaths came shallow and quick at the realization that her suspicions about the Growlithe and Cubone from the other day
were onto something. Worst of all, it wasn't just the pirates from Fensedge Village that were present, but none other than the demon that was with them was here too!
Kiran grimaced briefly at the guards' reaction, before deciding to throw caution to the wind and press on with his explanation. Hertsog and the others held their fates in their paws at the moment, so if they were going to win them over without a risky fight, they needed to say something—and fast.
"… Those are the charges they are facing, yes," Kiran sighed. "But look, they really
were falsely accused and we just wanted to-"
"
N-Ne!"
Phyllis crouched in front of Kiran and the others and bared her fangs, shooting a frantic stare back at her friends, and especially at the Mienshao among them.
"H-Hertsog,
please! You can't just let this happen!" she begged. "They're going to set that demon loose!"
"We know that," a voice quietly buzzed back. "But we're doing that because the alternative of letting you capture him is worse."
The Leafeon blinked and hesitated for a moment as the Marked Scyther from Kiran's party approached, stooping down as he neared. The mantis breathed in sharply, before kneeling and looking into Phyllis' eyes.
"Look. I… can't say that Pleo's
not a demon. I recognize him as well as you do from our scriptures," Ander said. "But I know that this entire time I've been with him, he's been kindhearted and he's
trying to be something different than what we feared."
The Bug-Type shook his head, before letting out a quiet buzz and continuing on.
"But that's not why your employers have been lying to you about him," he said, prompting Alice to join in.
"That's right! If the Company gets him, they're going to try and use him as a
weapon," the Sneasel insisted. "I might not buy your whole thing about him being a 'demon', but if they succeed, he'll be a lot closer to becoming one like
that than if you just let us try to clear things up here!"
Phyllis evidently never had the thought cross her mind, as she remained frozen in place after the Scyther and Sneasel's explanation, and visibly wavered. Ander tapped the flats of his scythes briefly, before continuing on with a quiet, faltering tone.
"I don't blame you for being afraid of Pleo. And honestly… part of me is
still scared of him," the Scyther admitted. "But just standing back and letting the Company have their way with him isn't going to make it
less likely that he'll make our fears come true! Surely you realize that by now."
Phyllis stared back in silence after hearing Ander's words and looked away for a moment, as Hertsog and Payak seemed to paralyzed with indecision. The three cast a glance over to Salvini, when they noticed that their Grovyle partner seemed to be unfazed. At once, everything about her behavior, about why she'd let Pleo and the others go, became clear. Some way, somehow, she'd
known, that the pirates they were after were really just a bunch of kids and…
"S-So that bird really
is some sort of Protector?!" Payak stammered, prompting Calidus to shoot a sharp frown in reply.
"Ugh, learn to read the room, Ariados," the Talonflame muttered.
For a brief moment, Hertsog seemed to be genuinely uncertain as to what to do. Payak and Phyllis both shrank back, both having lost their will to fight for their own reasons. Hertsog paused and visibly hesitated when he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder. The Mienshao looked down, where he saw Salvini looking up at him with a torn look.
"Hertsog…. do… do we really have to do this?" the Grovyle murmured.
The Mienshao said nothing back for a brief, silent moment that seemed to last an eternity, before his features eased and he shook his head back.
"No. We don't."
Hertsog stepped away from the door, and motioned at his companions to follow. One after the other, Salvini and her teammates complied, as Kiran and his fellows gave disbelieving stares back at the Fighting-Type. The Mienshao breathed in and said nothing at first, before shooting a sharp frown over at them.
"As far as we're concerned, we never saw you or your friends, Kiran," Hertsog said. "Just make the most of your lead and don't count on us coming to your rescue if you get caught."
Kiran gave a grateful nod back to the four, before pushing the door open with his wing.
"Thanks for letting us go… and we will!"
Kiran held the door open as he and his teammates slipped off, letting it close behind them. Salvini's thoughts turned back to the fateful night she and Pleo first crossed paths as she glanced off at the rest of the city through the window. She didn't know if Kiran and his teammates would prove successful in clearing Pleo's name, but… for their own sake, she hoped that some way, somehow, they would manage to pull through.
At that very moment, Canalhouse City's military harbor remained abuzz with activity much as it normally did. The din of Pokémon milling about hummed along the air, as lavender-scarved creatures of varying shapes and sizes loaded and unloaded cargo, and others tended to various ships in Company sails. The noise could be heard all about the surroundings, including through the windows of a small, stone, two-story building near the mouth of the harbor bearing a simple sign in runes marking it as the Harbormaster's office.
There, in an office on the second floor with a plaque bearing the label of the Harbormaster on the door, an Omastar rested behind a low table. The room was furnished with a set of simple drawers against the wall, with some framed paper certificates and a Mystic Water hung above it. At the other end of the table, a Grimmsnarl in a Second-Rank scarf stood at attention, casting an idle glance off at the window, where the harbor and its piers could be seen.
"Did any word come down about when we were supposed to raid that schooner?" the Omastar asked.
"No sir," the Grimmsnarl replied. "No word since the last visit from Sorge and his team."
The Omastar Harbormaster frowned back and sighed, turning his gaze back out towards the lavender-sailed ships in the harbor.
"I would've thought they would've kept us more in the loop," the Omastar murmured. "I don't understand why they would feel a need to be so secretive about-"
A sharp crash rang out from the room's entrance, the Omastar and Grimmsnarl whirling about with a start. Much to the pair's astonishment, there, barging in past a door that had just been thrown open, was a Dragonite in an Administrator's scarf, who barreled towards them as the Harbormaster looked on in stunned surprise.
"
Administrator Darzin?!" the Omastar asked. "Can I help you?"
"
Yes," the Dragonite growled. "Has a party led by a Kommo-o come by recently talking about a suspicious ship or the sort?"
The Harbormaster blinked in surprise for a moment, before shifting in his seat and speaking up.
"There was one who came a couple days ago," he replied. "Why?"
"I need you to field some guards
right now and dispatch them towards the Academy."
The Omastar and Grimmsnarl turned and stared at each other blankly over the Dragonite's words, both seemingly at a loss for how to reply. The Grimmsnarl was the first to break the silence, as the guard looked back at Darzin and folded his arms with a dismissive harrumph.
"Yeah, good luck with that one," he scoffed. "We've got our own problems to deal with right now."
"Er… Administrator, you are aware that I have a
harbor to watch here, right?" the Omastar questioned. "Why on earth would I need to field 'monpower out to the
Academy of all places?"
Darzin narrowed his eyes, holding out an accusing claw as he raised his voice with an impatient growl.
"Because you've been probed by Imperial Spies over the past couple days!" the Dragonite insisted. "And the fastest way of apprehending them in this city is to send someone already familiar with them to track them down."
The Harbormaster and Grimmsnarl stiffened up, as Darzin began to pass along descriptions of Sorge, Aldrich, and Zelle. Per his account, he'd chanced to run into them scheming in a back alley while on a flight about Canalhouse City, and been threatened to keep quiet, though not before he could make off with proof of them having an Imperial handler.
"I was able to recover
this from them," Darzin explained. "You'll likely be able to find their true colors among their belongings."
The Omastar and Grimmsnarl doubted him for a moment, only for the Dragonite to fish out the strip of Nagant's scarf he'd kept from their encounter on Mengir and pass it over to the Omastar. Even if it was no longer useful as leverage over her, judging from how much the Omastar was taken aback by it, he still had
some use for it…
The Omastar flipped the cloth strip about his tentacles and pawed at it carefully. On one side was a strip of red and white cloth, but on the back, there was Imperial indigo. The fabric's weave was even the same that Pokémon from its ranks wore. The Harbormaster hesitated as he thought back to Sorge and the assistance he and his subordinates had provided over the past four days. Surely Darzin wouldn't be lying about such a matter and the evidence was what it was, but there
had to be another explanation for what had happened…
"Administrator, this must be a misunderstanding of some sort," the Omastar said. "Sorge and the others could've just seized that from someone else."
"That's right!" the Grimmsnarl exclaimed. "Those three literally came by earlier this week to point out an Imperial ship that's impersonating one of our own here!"
Darzin let out a terse scoff in response, turning his snout up and narrowing his eyes back at the Omastar and Grimmsnarl.
"And did they help you
apprehend it?" the Administrator demanded.
The Harbormaster fell silent at the Dragonite's question. While Sorge and the others
did point out the schooner that had been flying false colors, they had been
adamant that the ship wasn't to be interfered with until it attempted to leave and not a moment sooner.
"Well… no, they didn't," the Omastar said. "But they insisted that apprehending it would be a sensitive matter."
"Yes, so they could
distract you from their actual escape vessel!" Darzin cried.
The Omastar looked out the window towards a two-masted schooner near the mouth of the harbor, as Darzin followed his gaze. After seeing the Omastar's attention settle on the ship and the Water-Type visibly hesitate, the Dragonite deduced that he'd succeeded at planting seeds of doubt in the Harbormaster's mind and
also confirmed the Siglo Swellow's location after that Kommo-o's Sylveon friend clumsily gave away its presence in the military harbor earlier.
Satisfied, the Dragon-Type sensed his opportunity to press his advantage. The Administrator let out a sharp harrumph, before shooting an impatient frown down at the Harbormaster.
"Go ahead and close the harbor to traffic," Darzin ordered. "
I'm going to go and pay that decoy of theirs a closer inspection."
The Harbormaster paused and pawed uneasily at his scarf, before looking back up at the intricate one about the Dragonite's neck. Even with Darzin's diminished stature, it was far from wise to get on the wrong side of an Administrator. And if this was just the Dragonite blowing hot air, it would surely be easy to disprove him later by giving Sorge and his team a cursory questioning.
"Go and track down Teun from the swimmers and take a party out to the Academy to find Sorge and the others," Omastar said, turning to the Grimmsnarl. "If this is all a misunderstanding, I'm sure it can be cleared up quickly."
"… Yes, sir," the Grimmsnarl sighed.
The Dark-Type saluted and quickly slunk out of the office. After the Grimmsnarl departed, Darzin began to make his way for the door himself, prompting the Omastar to raise a brow and call after the Dragonite.
"Administrator, if you're
wrong about this, it'll be you against an entire ship," the Harbormaster insisted. "Let me square away some reinforcements to help before you-"
"Hrmph. That won't be necessary right now," Darzin scoffed. "Focus on
your duty and let me see if this matter can be dealt with
quietly first."
The Harbormaster quirked a brow back puzzledly, but was too late to stop the Dragonite. By the time the Omastar had raised his voice to ask for a further explanation, Darzin had already set off, retracing his way outside the office, down a flight of steps and out onto the docks as he made his way through the crowds of Pokémon for the schooner docked near the harbor's entrance.
As Kiran and the others went into the Archive, the rest of Team Traveller began to make their way towards the Academy's main building in order to slip out of the complex. Not far from it was the place they and their teammates had agreed to meet with Dimitri after the heist, where they would make their way back to the ship together. Their own part in the mission to break into the Vault had gone smoothly enough, and the green lights they saw overhead and the sharp jolt they'd felt while walking earlier was as good of a sign as any that Kline had succeeded in getting
into it…
Maybe it was nothing, but the entire time, Pleo couldn't help but worry that something would go wrong. Would the guards figure out that Kiran and the others were fakes? Would they get caught while trying to switch around the Ledger with their dummy book? The young Protector shuffled his wings uncomfortably, before giving a worried glance over at his teammates.
"Do you think everyone is doing alright?" the Lugia asked.
"Well, we haven't seen or heard any sign of an open battle going on around Academy after Kline did his thing," Elty replied. "So… probably?"
"I think they're managing and don't need our help. Let's just focus on making it to our meeting place," Guardia insisted. "The longer we stick around here, the more likely it is that something will go wrong with our mission."
Team Traveller hurriedly made their way along the canal, making their way across the islets via the bridges linking them, until they crossed the last one to the site of the northern half of the Academy's main building. There, the five rounded the corner, towards the passage into the middle of the compound and its courtyard…
"Hold it right there!"
… when a sharp, barking shout rang out from behind them. Nida and her companions froze, turning to see Gerhard approaching them with a Lucario and a Runerigus at his sides, the lot of them sporting harsh glares. The five flinched for a moment, before Crom steeled himself and tried to force a smile over his face.
"Oh! Uh h-hi, Professor Gerhard!" the Druddigon gulped. "Is something the matter?"
"Yes," the Alakazam huffed back. "Did you really think that I wouldn't notice you've been impersonating students in my class?"
The youngsters felt their blood run cold and grimaced. It had always been a risk that their luck would run out passing themselves off as students in the Academy, but they never expected that it would happen
now of all times. Elty pinned his ears back and pulled his tail in tight against his legs, the Growlithe nervously backpedaling from the scowling Professor and the accompanying guards.
"I… uh… Don't you have that lightshow from earlier to deal with?" he gulped. "W-We were just leaving anyway, so see you later!"
He turned to run, only to suddenly see his body glow with a blue aura and feel himself get lifted up off the ground. Elty looked down in alarm to see he was floating in midair and flailed briefly, before turning back to see Gerhard holding out a hand with his eyes glowing a blue sheen.
"
Leuk geprobeerd, but there's no shortage of guards already looking into that," the Alakazam scoffed. "If you know what's good for you, you'll come along to answer a few questions.
Quietly."
Team Traveller's members recoiled at Gerhard's words. It clearly wasn't a suggestion, but an order. The thought of attempting to fight their way through him crossed their minds, but between the Alakazam's Third-Rank Company scarf and him already having Elty at his mercy, they were surely in for a hard battle. Pleo blanched and shrank back briefly, wavering over what to do, when he noticed the forms of a Shinx and Magikarp darting up from behind Gerhard.
"Professor Gerhard? What are you doing?" the Magikarp asked.
"Yeah!" the Shinx chimed in. "Those are the transfer students!"
Why, it was Leonard and Murdo! Professor Gerhard seemed to be taken aback by the two cutting in, and lost his grip on Elty, who faceplanted onto the ground. Taking advantage of the Alakazam's distraction, Leonard quickly stepped in between Team Traveller and Gerhard, with Murdo propping himself up and poking his head over the edge of the canal to join in. The pair looked over at the Professor and the surrounding guards, giving pleading expressions up at them.
"I mean, sure they've been a bit slow to catch up," Leonard murmured. "But they haven't done anything
wrong."
The Shinx's insistence prompted Gerhard to raise a spoon at him with a sharp frown.
"I suggest you mind your own business, Leonard," the Alakazam harrumphed. "This doesn't concern you."
"Yes it does! You're trying to get a bunch of our classmates in trouble just because you don't like them!" Murdo cried. "How is
that fair?!"
Gerhard brushed past Leonard and narrowed his eyes back at the Magikarp in the canal, his patience having worn thin with the two's interruptions.
"They've gotten
themselves in trouble because they're
not students, Murdo," the Professor scoffed. "They never had any paperwork turn up like every
other student that's transferred in-"
"Yes, because
I had them transferred in."
Nida, Pleo, Crom, Elty, and Guardia felt their ears prick at the sound of a deep, rumbling voice and turned around, only for the color to drain from their faces. There in front of them were Filbert, Braam, and Quin hurrying in, followed along by the glaring form of a Nidoking in a Company scarf with a more intricate pattern than any of them had seen before.
Th-That was Director Inler! Gerhard and his guards had their eyes widen briefly, only for the wizened Alakazam to blink back at the Nidoking facing him down.
"You had them transfer in? I… never heard of you personally ordering any student transfers
before," he murmured. " And you sound a bit hoarse, Director."
"Hrmph, it happens when he spends all day yelling at incompetents
like you," Filbert huffed.
"Yeah,
opa was just telling us about how he'd met with Nida and her friends' parents on a recent tour of the islands," Braam chimed in. "That's how he wound up promoting them so they could come here!"
Gerhard wavered a moment and the Psychic-Type bit his tongue as a flash of genuine worry came over his prideful face. After a moment to collect his thoughts, the Alakazam composed himself and brushed uneasily at his scarf.
"Then it should be a simple matter of finding the paperwork-"
The Nidoking cleared his throat, letting out a growl that came out slightly different from his earlier speech. The Poison-Type muttered a "Why am I still keeping this guy around?" just loud enough for everyone to hear, before glaring daggers back at the Alakazam professor.
"Gerhard, I'm the
Director," the Nidoking spat. "I'm not letting my orders get held up over a few pieces of paper!"
"Yeah, it probably got lost in the mail or something," Quin insisted. "Are you
really going to make the
Company's Director look bad by kicking out the kids of the 'mons
he just promoted?"
The Lucario and Runegrigus guards both traded uneasy glances with one another, as Gerhard began to grow flustered. After giving a tug at his scarf, the Psychic-Type shuffled back and visibly hesitated.
"I… suppose I can double-check my office," the Alakazam said. "I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, Director."
Gerhard hurriedly took his leave along with the Lucario and the Runegrigus, leaving Team Traveller to stare off confusedly, before warily turning back towards the Nidoking. Wasn't this the Company's Director? Their
enemy? Then why on earth had he
helped them?
The Nidoking narrowed his eyes in reply, and shook his head with a sharp frown. After opening his mouth, the Poison-Type began to speak, except this time, a young, high-pitched voice came out with a scoff.
"Hrmph, you five sure know how to get into trouble."
Team Traveller's members jumped back at the realization that that was
Sophie's voice. Sure enough, the form of the Nidoking abruptly flashed magenta and dissipated, barring a few flecks of light that clung more stubbornly in the air as the form of a Zorua took its place. There, Sophie stepped forward, walking up to Nida and the others with an icy scowl.
"I
knew something didn't add up about you," she scoffed. "You five wanna explain why you've been lying to everybody this whole time?"
The group hesitated for a moment. Should they just be honest with Sophie?
Could they be honest with her? Everyone traded uneasy glances with one another, before Nida sucked in a sharp breath and began to speak.
"We… needed to find something here in the Academy," the Nidorina explained. "Something that Pleo really needed."
Sophie raised a brow and shot back a dubious frown. She didn't look particularly impressed with Nida's explanation, but even so, she felt more curious than upset for some reason.
"I
assume that it wasn't just some book from the library?" she questioned. "And that that tremor and those green lights in the sky earlier wasn't just a coincidence?"
"I mean… sorta. We came here because Pleo's… in trouble for some things that aren't his fault," the Druddigon replied, giving an uneasy paw at the back of his neck. "And there was supposed to be something here that we could use to help get him out of it."
Sophie fell silent and let her eyes drift to the ground. She paused briefly, before closing her eyes with a quiet murmur.
"So then it has something to do with him being a 'purple-feathered' Wingull, huh?"
Nida blinked at the Zorua's response and noticed her teammates get visibly taken aback. Did Sophie
know Pleo's true identity? Would she see through them if they denied her question? After a moment's hesitation, Nida shuffled her paws, before answering back warily.
"Something like that, yes," she said. "B-But look, we need to get going and we don't have time to explain this right now!"
Sophie said nothing back, prompting Leonard and Murdo to blink and shoot puzzled looks at the young fox.
"… Sophie? What exactly is going on here?" Leonard wondered.
"Yeah, if Pleo's really not a Wingull, then what sort of Pokémon
is he?" Murdo pressed.
The Zorua hesitated for a moment, before her expression eased and she shook her head with a low sigh.
"… I have a couple ideas, but it's not really important right now. Though, Nida's right," she insisted. "You five need to get out of here before you get into
real trouble."
Guardia blinked at Sophie's reply. 'Real' trouble? How could they get into
worse trouble than what they were in just a minute ago?
"Wait, we do? Didn't you all just get us out of trouble?" the Cubone asked. "What else is wrong?"
"Well for one, I saw the
real Inler going around campus earlier," Sophie replied. "If Gerhard runs into him, your little secret will be out and he'll come looking for you again. If that happens, Inler will probably want to know why you were pretending to be students here and going around saying your parents were friends of his."
Team Traveller's members felt their faces fall into a collective grimace. Yes, running into Director Inler on their own
would be getting into real trouble. Trouble that they weren't sure they could overcome. Filbert seemed to pick up on their unease, flicking his ears and twitching his whiskers in thought, before turning over to Leonard and Murdo and motioning with his head off at them.
"Leonard. Murdo. Take Nida and the others off-campus," he said. "They should be able to slip off into the rest of the city while we keep Gerhard busy."
Leonard nodded back at the Nidoran's instructions, with Murdo joining in from the canal's water. Whatever was going on with Pleo and the others, they weren't letting an old pill like Gerhard ruin things for them.
"Right!" Murdo burbled, as Leonard chimed in with a small puff of his chest.
"Piece of cake!"
Filbert, Braam, Quintin, and Sophie darted off after Gerhard's group, as Leonard and Murdo hurried Team Traveller through a passage into the main building's courtyard. The five hastily ducked across, where Pokémon had just started to file out for midday breaks. The group made their way past the shadow of the Haxorus statue of the Company's Founder, where there, just as the group neared the eastern entrance…
"Oh, there you are!"
Team Traveller blinked and froze after they heard a Luxray's voice along with the sound of quiet footsteps approaching. Curiously, Leonard's eyes seemed to light up at the voice, as he bounded ahead towards it.
"Ah! Mom!"
Pleo and the others blanched as dead ahead of them, a Luxray in a Company Administrator's scarf rounded the corner. The five shrank back with frightened grimaces, Leonard going up and nuzzling Farn as Murdo swam up alongside her, blissfully unaware of their companions' reaction.
"What are you doing here?" Murdo asked, prompting the Luxray to bob her tail and smile back.
"Today's my turn to take you two home, remember?" Farn replied. "Work ended a bit early for me today, so no reason to just keep you waiting if-"
She trailed off as she noticed five Pokémon inching away from her in the background. The Luxray eyed them warily, noting that the lot of them looked as if they had seen a ghost, and stiffened up after realizing that she'd seen them. A Nidorina, a younger Druddigon, a Growlithe, a Cubone… and some manner of seabird she couldn't place. Why did the bird of the lot feel strangely familiar to her?
"And who are those friends of yours in the background?" Farn asked.
Leonard blinked for a moment, realizing that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to tell his mother that he was technically spending time with wanted troublemakers. The Shinx rubbed his forepaws together as he fumbled with his words briefly, before offering up what he hoped would be a satisfactory explanation.
"Oh. They're… uh… our classmates!" he insisted. "That's Nida, and Pleo, and-"
Farn tensed up at her son's mention of 'Pleo', as a sudden realization dawned over her. Ellsberg had mentioned the name in his first report from Tromba as the one that the islanders called the ‘Guardian of the Seas’. She didn't have an explanation for why the bird wasn't a silvery white like he was supposed to be, but between the Growlithe, and there being an evolution of a Nidoran much like the wanted posters she'd helped Lyn distribute… it just couldn't be a coincidence.
The Luxray bat her tail back and forth impatiently and narrowed her eyes with a low growl, making Murdo and Leonard pause uneasily. Leonard flattened his ears, pawing uneasily at his mother's foreleg with a worried tilt of his head.
"Mom? Is something wrong?" he asked.
Farn's glare at Team Traveller lingered for a moment, before reeling in her mood and giving a small smile down at Leonard.
"It's nothing, dear. It's just that those friends of yours look… familiar," she said. " I want a chance to talk with them on my own. You should go ahead without me and go home with Murdo."
Murdo poked his head out of the water with a puzzled blink, looking between Farn and Team Traveller's members with a confused burble.
"Huh?" the Magikarp asked. "But we can just wait here for-"
"
Now, you two."
Murdo and Leonard flinched from the Luxray's harsh tone and shrunk back as she shot a piercing scowl with her red eyes that evidenced that she wasn't in the mood to debate the matter. The pair gave grudging farewells to Team Traveller, Pleo and his companions watching helplessly as the pair drifted off, before a low snarl turned their attention back to Farn.
The five saw the Luxray glaring daggers at them, prompting them to turn back and run into the passage surrounding the courtyard. Pleo and his companions tore along for dear life as they heard electricity crackle behind them, circling around the courtyard back for the complex's exit. They blew past a stall selling books and brushed past students with yelps, when they saw the archway ahead of them.
"Ah! Up ahead!" Nida cried.
The Nidorina charged through with her teammates and exited the Academy's complex, before immediately ducking into a side street as they kept running along. A sudden blur of blue and black leapt overhead, where they saw Farn coming to a crouching stop ahead of them. Nida looked around in a panic when she saw an entrance to an alleyway to her left and hurriedly shepherded her teammates along as Farn lunged at them. The group tore along, when they came to a brick wall ahead of them blocking their path.
"A-Ah! It's a dead end!" Pleo cried.
The Lugia stooped down and thought to let his teammates aboard, only to realize that Nida had gotten a lot bigger since she'd evolved, and Crom was larger than he was. Whatever thoughts he had of ferrying his friends to safety ended with the sound of a faint electrical crackle, as he and his companions turned back to see Farn drawing near them, ready to pounce.
"Hrmph. I don't know how you've managed to sneak in here, or why Lyn's left it to
me to handle his duties," the Luxray began. "But I know who you are, and you all seem to know who I am."
Farn bared her fangs and let sparks dance in her fur, drawing frightened squeaks from the lot as Elty pinned his ears back with a low whine. Satisfied she'd communicated her strength, the Administrator let out a low harrumph and looked square into Pleo's eyes.
"So I'm sure that you already know what I can
do," she growled. "Come quietly, Lugia, and I'll see your friends have a future to look forward to."
Pleo cringed and quietly shivered. Farn was an
Administrator, and one whose attacks would hurt him a lot more than Darzin's. Could they even
beat her like this? Would it even matter when their fight would almost certainly draw the attention of the guards?
The Lugia grimaced as his mind went blank, when he was suddenly snapped to attention by Crom stepping forward, visibly trembling, but forcing a brave face all the while.
"A f-future?!
That's what you call standing back and letting you bully Pleo?!" the Druddigon asked. "Turning him into some sort of weapon?!"
"Th-That's not a future, that's a nightmare!" Elty exclaimed. "Take your offer and shove it!"
"As
if we'd just roll over for you,
Rentorar!" Guardia snapped, giving a nervous swing of her club. "If you want Pleo so bad, you're going to have to fight us for him!"
Pleo sucked in a sharp breath and shook his head. What on earth was he
thinking considering giving in like that? These were his friends, and just like on the night when they'd fled Lyn, they were ready to dig in and fight. Sure Farn was scary, but they'd gotten tougher since then, and there was no sense in letting the Administrator psych them out like this.
"I-I'm
their Protector, not yours!" the young Lugia insisted. "If they're going to fight, then I'm going to help them!"
"Yeah, and we already beat
Darzin before and he's an Administrator just like you!" Nida piped. "We'll take our chances here!"
Farn blinked puzzledly for a moment. These whelps had fought with
Darzin before? How on earth did-? The Luxray narrowed her eyes back into a harsh glare. Whatever had happened there, she could get to the bottom of it some other time. All that mattered now was capturing the Guardian of the Seas right here, right now, and ending the stalemate with the Empire once and for all.
"Hrmph, so be it," she snarled. "If you can't listen to reason, I'll
shock it into you!"
Sparks danced on the Luxray's pelt, as she arched and shot out a wide spread of blue electrical bolts. Team Traveller's members reflexively flinched as Guardia ran forward, the electric tendrils abruptly changing course and arcing towards her as they struck her with a sharp crackle, but otherwise did nothing but leave static to dance on her scales. Farn blinked, and curled her mouth down into a small, annoyed frown.
"Hrmph, I should've known there was a reason behind your boldness," the Electric-Type remarked.
"Yeah, you should've," Elty spat back. "Here's something else for ya!"
The Growlithe lunged forward, breathing out a spray of searing, bluish-white flames that found their mark on Farn's shoulder. The Luxray reflexively winced from Elty's Will-O-Wisp as a burn began to spread over the site of impact, prompting Nida's eyes to light up as she sprang ahead and motioned to her teammates to follow.
"This is our chance! Come on!"
The Nidorina darted forward, poison slicking over her left forepaw as she ran a Poison Jab square into Farn's left side. Guardia followed up by flinging her club into a whirling Bonemerang that clipped the Luxray twice, along with a bluish, fiery Dragon Rage from Crom, and the telltale cone of golden rings of an Extrasensory from Pleo.
The Luxray lost her footing briefly and sprang back, freeing up about half the distance of the alleyway. If they could just fight their way out into the open, then however poorly or not they were matched up against Farn, they could make a break for it and escape!
Except… they first had to fight through her, and given the crouching pose she was reassuming and how she didn't seem particularly hurt from their salvo, she was going to make them fight tooth and nail for every step forward.
"Hrmph, so you can at least keep yourselves from being swept," Farn scoffed. "But let's see how well you can handle a targeted strike!"
Farn dug her heels in and sprang forward at Pleo, baring her teeth as shadowy flecks danced among them. The Lugia froze out of terror, watching as the Luxray sailed at him with her paws outstreched and maw open for a crushing bite, when Crom suddenly cut in in front of him, followed by a sharp cry.
"Agh!"
Pleo reflexively beat his wings and hopped back as Farn tumbled with Crom's body, the Druddigon having been pushed behind and to the side from their mutual collision. The Luxray jumped back and recoiled, pulling back as her forelimbs sported disheveled fur and her cheek now had a reddening, dribbling scrape from brushing up against one of the spikes on Crom's arms. Pleo hurriedly looked over at Crom, where, much to his alarm, he spotted the Druddigon laying on the ground on his side, whining in pain as a set of puncture wounds oozing blood now studded his right arm.
"Crom!"
Crom got up, cradling his arm as he grit his teeth. The Druddigon pinned his wings back, shaking his arm to try and nurse feeling back into it when he noticed Farn hesitate and wince from her burn.
"Ngah… i-it's alright, Pleo! Just stay on her!"
Pleo obliged, cracking his beak open as he once again hit Farn with an Extrasensory. Nida focused just as she had in her attempts to practice Ice Beam since leaving Tromba, when she felt her mouth suddenly turn frigid and a chilly sensation linger in her throat.
"Take this!"
The Nidorina spat up a whitish beam from her mouth and struck the Luxray's face. Th-That was the Ice Beam that
mami had helped her learn!
The beam threw Farn off balance as lingering frost flecked her face's fur, leaving her open for Crom to dash in with a rake of his claws that trailed white flecks of light. The Luxray staggered back, as Elty and Guardia threw in a fiery somersault and an overhead swing of her club, forcing Farn out onto the lane along the canal. Team Traveller's members hurriedly ran ahead and out of the alley, where the Luxray Administrator let out a low growl and arched her back as Team Traveller stared her down.
"Fine, I've tested the waters enough," she snapped. "Let's remind you of what you're up against!"
Farn lunged ahead with her maw opened wide. For a fleeting second, the group saw ice build up along her fangs, before she pounced on Guardia and sank them deep into her shoulder.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Farn lifted Guardia and shook her in her mouth as she screamed in agony. The Cubone's cries lingered briefly and then faded away, before the Luxray threw the Ground-Type aside limply onto the cobbles. Pleo and his companions looked on in blank shock, as Guardia laid there in a heap, with her chest weakly rising and falling.
The four backpedaled towards their fallen comrade, the color draining from their faces while their breaths came out shallow and tense, as Farn drew near with a sharp snarl. With Guardia defeated, there was nothing protecting them from the full force of Farn's electric attacks, and even in spite of their hail of attacks earlier, she didn't seem to be showing many signs of visible fatigue.
Team Traveller's members watched in horror as Farn began to spark, the Luxray readying a Discharge, only to pause and let the sparks die off as she noticed something behind them. Nida and the others stood in blank shock for a moment and traded confused glances, when a low, growling voice cut in.
"Hrmph. That's quite enough."
The group slowly turned around when their jaws flopped open. There, walking up to them along with Gerhard and his guards was a Nidoking in the same scarf pattern that Sophie had as part of her disguise.
That was
Inler, the
real one!
The four let out startled yelps and flinched at the glowering Nidoking, as Gerhard held out a hand and motioned at them.
"That's them, right there, Director," the Alakazam huffed. "
Those are the imposters I was telling you about!"
Inler narrowed his eyes and scowled down at the trembling youngsters, letting a low growl out from the back of his throat.
"Oh trust me, Gerhard, they're a lot more than that."
Team Traveller's members shrank back in a trembling panic, as Nida held out a paw and let out a stammering cry.
"A-Ah! Y-You're the Company's Director!" she squeaked.
"That's correct," Inler scoffed. "And you should give up if you know what's good for you."
Pleo froze and felt a chill run down his spine. This was the Director of the entire Company. The same Pokémon who Nerea had said to be strong enough to overpower her strongest teammates all at once with just a few blows. Even if he didn't have guards helping him, how were they supposed to fight a 'mon like
that?
… Why did they have to fight like this anyways? Pleo stood there trembling for a moment, when in the midst of his fright, he steeled himself and raised his voice back at the Nidoking…
"Wh-Why are you doing this to us?" the Lugia demanded. "Why can't you let us go?!"
Inler flicked his ears and dug his feet into the ground with a low huff. Even in spite of his old age, the Nidoking knew how to project a presence, and the piercing, overpowering glare he leveled was no exception.
"Because the needs of this company, of
this world, are bigger than you," the Poison-Type icily replied. "And we can't afford to wait on you to realize that."
"What on earth is
that supposed to mean?!" Nida demanded.
"Anyilla's been waiting for
forty years in order to be unified under one banner again," Inler said. "One that's grown and learned from past mistakes."
The Nidoking lowered his head, narrowing his eyes as he pawed at the ground, seemingly readying for a charge.
"And if you think I'm prepared to just throw that away for the sake of the feelings of a child who doesn't understand how fragile Anyilla's hope for a better future is, then you're
sorely mistaken."
Nida and the others felt their blood run cold as they saw Inler advance on them, as Farn and the rest of his party fell back in opposing directions. The Nidorina watched as the Nidoking crouched and braced his feet, her mind running blank as she realized he was about to spring up with an Earthquake…
"N-Not so fast, square-neck!"
Nida snapped to attention after seeing Elty spew up a spray of whitish cinders at the Nidoking which caught him on his hip. Inler grimaced briefly, before jumping up and stomping the ground as it churned under his feet. Waves shot through the surface of the ground and flung cobbles into the air, and then Nida felt herself get launched upwards. The Nidorina bounced off one of the walls, before pitching back to earth and hitting the pavement, laying there panting much to Pleo's alarm from above.
"A-Ah! Nida! Get up! Get up!"
Pleo batted his wings together and threw a churning Whirlwind at Inler that pushed him back towards Gerhard. The Lugia dove down and tugged at her, dragging her up with a dazed groan. From the corner of her eye, they could see a wobbly Crom helping Elty onto his feet with a pained whine. Down the street, they could see Inler steadying himself, as he, Farn, and Gerhard with his lackeys were coming for them from both sides readying attacks.
The pair's mind went blank. They couldn't win. Not like this. Nida fanned out her barbs, as Pleo pulled his head in towards his chest and flinched, looking away as their enemies converged on them.
"Hold it right there!"
The sound of a sharp, squawking cry rang out, as a crackling Petrify Orb zipped in between them from across the canal and doused them all in a hail of sparks. Nida yelped and felt her limbs lock up, her breathing turning shallow and panicked as she heard her friends cry out. Inler and the others evidently hadn't expected the orb either, as in the midst of their petrification, their eyes widened in surprise. Nida frantically tried to turn her head to no avail as she heard approaching wingbeats, when she suddenly felt a feathery shove and looked up to see Kiran staring down at her.
"That was a good 50% closer than it needed to be," the Swellow sighed. "Sorry about the rude entrance. Are you all alright?"
Nida panted briefly, before she turned to her friends and let out a wavering sigh of relief as they were similarly shoved out of their petrification by Dimitri, Kline—now back in his dog-like form, and their other teammates. After taking a moment to let the team's turn of fortunes set in, she shook her head and turned back to Kiran.
"W-We're fine," she insisted.
A little further off, Calidus nudged Elty free from the effects of the Petrify Orb. The Talonflame glanced off warily at the Director and his subordinates to ensure they were still safely immobilized, before looking down at the Growlithe with a ruffle of his feathers.
"Come on, we'll patch you all up while we're moving," the Talonflame remarked. "This encounter's certainly not going to make getting out of the city any easier for us…"
"Gah… you don't have to tell me again, " Elty insisted, flattening his ears out. "Though would it have killed you all to get here
sooner?"
All the while, Inler and his subordinates stared in dumbfounded shock, as Farn spluttered incredulously at the scene.
"You-!" the Luxray cried. "What do you think you're-?!"
"Stepping in to help some friends. Though stick around for a while!" Alice jeered. The Sneasel pulled her eyelid down and blew a raspberry at the immobilized Board members, before suddenly getting cut off by an impatient huff.
"Alice, let's
go already!" Kline snapped.
The Zygarde tugged her along by her claw, as Dimitri got into the water and Nida and Crom climbed onto him. At the same time, Elty helped to hoist Guardia onto Calidus' back before joining himself. One by one, Dimitri and the team's fliers pushed off and knifed ahead along the canal as Kline ran alongside them on their path for the Siglo Swellow. All the while, Crom glanced behind them back towards the Nidoking Director and his allies, before turning ahead as he felt his stomach begin to knot up.
"Why does this all feel strangely familiar?" the Druddigon asked.
"Because we went through something like this back in Tidemill City?" Elty replied.
Nida glanced back as the Academy slipped away from them, and then at the maze of canals up ahead. It really
did feel almost like they were back in Tidemill City again, but even so, the Nidorina couldn't help but feel a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was wrong…
"I just hope it
ends as well as it does too."
Author's Notes:
-
Ja hoor - Dutch: "Yeah, sure"
-
Ne! (Не!) - Bulgarian: "No!" (BGN/PCGN 2013 Romanization)
-
Leuk geprobeerd - Dutch: "Nice try"
-
Rentorar (レントラー) - Japanese: "Luxray" (Official Romanization)
