Fledglings

[Ambyssin]

Ah, hmm. Yes, it appears that much of this chapter didn't involve dungeon trekking at all! Though perhaps this is a case of "careful what you wish for," since, outside of the ending scene, it didn't feel to me like this chapter made much forward progress in the episode as a whole. :madness:

It's peppered with some nice character moments, though. Mainly for some of the secondary folks, like Pekka and Pyry. IIRC, they had moments in the past where they were tempted back toward the path of skullduggery, but here it seems like they (more or less) firmly cemented themselves as wanting to do the right thing. Good for them. It also mirrors Elty in some respects, as he similarly was tempted back toward the darkpirate side a few times before he firmly settled into the "totally trustworthy" camp. And there are random folks who defect back to Hess in order to sell the change. I think the bigger takeaway from the scene was to supposed to be Hess' tongue slip spurning a temporary alliance amongst these prisoners, but it took a while to reach that point.

And then we have Ellsberg basically being told "Respectfully, you can't git gud the traditional way so you gotta git gud the mothim way." Which is funny to see after all these chapters where he was definitely not doing bureaucratic notary stuff and somehow didn't end up completely overwhelmed. Guess it didn't occur to him at the time to point that out? Again, the character moment got more focus than the scene's eventual goal (Salvini established as a good coercion target), so the question for me is more what Ellsberg will do with this new outlook.

since the pirates drug those guards in.

Pretty sure this would be a "dragged," unless you're implying the pirates slipped the guards some wild shrooms to get them inside those cells. :V

"I wasn't scared, okay?!"

Elty flicked his ears and jostled his legs

Even with the new paragraph, this make it sounds like Elty's saying that.

Dirk the Despoiler

So, he got his bad cred by figuring out where people who spoil new media online live, going to their houses, and beating them up? Seems legit.

She supposed that meant the Imperials had Pokémon of all sorts in their nobility.

Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiill birds, though! OvO

"Story of our lives really," Nida said, shaking her head.

Actually, yes! I'm reading it right now, in fact!

The Aggron keenly eyed

I can't believe you genned an illegal ability onto Hess. Smh my head.

"… I know that we were supposed to cast a wide net for leads, but this is ridiculous."

"There isn't a single fish in these boxes!"

Or at least, mostly anyways

"We used the power of '**** Darzin, all my homies hate Darzin.'"

two sets of claws will make this work go by a lot faster,

"We can shred through this stuff twice as-- wait, what do you mean I have to read them?"

Don't take things the wrong way, but as a Mothim you're lacking a certain… stature that Sorge and I have.

Aldrich, buddy, you're one to talk. Noivern are in the bottom half of the franchise's "Reptillian ferocity" listing. Also you've got, like, a twig body and twiggy wings. Sorge could use you as a backscratcher.

He knew that he wasn't the strongest Pokémon in the Company, but was he really that off-base with the way he used his strength?

Yes. True mothim strength is dying quickly to rock-type moves.

along with an illustration that had been attached

With how big the Company is, this implies there's a department solely dedicated to this. It's probably staffed entirely by smeargle.

"It doesn't matter if she was or not," Aldrich answered. "We'd be able to put her to use either way."

Get your Fs ready, chat.

"Nani…? Why are there so many holes here on the beach?"

Missed wiglett opportunity.

about how the Grafaiai was drawing out their duties

Get it? Drawing out? :V

"Ack! It's a trap!" the Garbodor cried.

I bet their name is Ackbar.

"Let's just get their bags and get out of here, since they won't stay asleep forever.

"Isn't that, y'know, stealing?"
"Yeah, but it's stealing from pirates, so we're off the hook."

The ground underfoot was stony, and on the more recent floors like the one they were on, the air carried a nipping chill and some places were even flecked with hints of frost.

I can't believe they're climbing the Aggro Crag! This fic has everything!

It was on the twelfth floor when I left, and we already checked the earlier floors for stable zones

Imagine going about your day and suddenly everything is five hundred meters higher or lower than it was before. Including you.

"Ow!"

The Charizard yelped and fell forward after losing his footing, before hitting the ground face first.

Get wrecked.

 

[Virgil134]

Ah, hmm. Yes, it appears that much of this chapter didn't involve dungeon trekking at all! Though perhaps this is a case of "careful what you wish for," since, outside of the ending scene, it didn't feel to me like this chapter made much forward progress in the episode as a whole. :madness:

A bit unfortunate to hear, though I suppose chapters that tee up future events sometimes can come off that way. Everything in that chapter happened for a reason, which should hopefully be a bit clearer as to where things are going after today’s.

It's peppered with some nice character moments, though. Mainly for some of the secondary folks, like Pekka and Pyry. IIRC, they had moments in the past where they were tempted back toward the path of skullduggery, but here it seems like they (more or less) firmly cemented themselves as wanting to do the right thing. Good for them. It also mirrors Elty in some respects, as he similarly was tempted back toward the darkpirate side a few times before he firmly settled into the "totally trustworthy" camp.

I’m glad you liked it. There were a few potential scenarios me and @Spiteful Murkrow were weighing for what to do with the pirates that joined the Siglo Swellow, and we figured that something like this would be the most meaningful for the audience. Sounds like things paid off.

And then we have Ellsberg basically being told "Respectfully, you can't git gud the traditional way so you gotta git gud the mothim way." Which is funny to see after all these chapters where he was definitely not doing bureaucratic notary stuff and somehow didn't end up completely overwhelmed. Guess it didn't occur to him at the time to point that out?

I mean, given that Ellsberg had moments like getting bullied by First Ranks from Lyn’s crew or not being taken seriously at Boisocéan, I’d say Aldrich is definitely onto something. And Aldrich never said to do bureaucratic notary stuff, just to play to his own strengths instead of for example trying to copy Lyn’s style.

Pretty sure this would be a "dragged," unless you're implying the pirates slipped the guards some wild shrooms to get them inside those cells. :V

Good catch, we went back and tweaked this.

Even with the new paragraph, this make it sounds like Elty's saying that.

We added a couple words here to make it obvious that that was a third party speaking.

I can't believe you genned an illegal ability onto Hess. Smh my head.

I mean, hey, we already have a Dragonite with an illegal move, so why stop there?

Aldrich, buddy, you're one to talk. Noivern are in the bottom half of the franchise's "Reptillian ferocity" listing. Also you've got, like, a twig body and twiggy wings. Sorge could use you as a backscratcher.

I mean, he’s still quite a bit more ferocious than a Mothim, at least. And he never claimed to look more intimidating than Sorge.

Get your Fs ready, chat.

Oh ye of little faith. Things could work out for her… potentially.

Missed wiglett opportunity.

Nah man, this beach has a much bigger problem than Wiglett: German speaking inhabitants. Google a few pictures of ‘strandburgen’ and you’ll see what I mean.

Imagine going about your day and suddenly everything is five hundred meters higher or lower than it was before. Including you.

Ditto stepping out into surroundings that looked completely different from what they did earlier in the day. Such is life in a Mystery Dungeon.

And tomorrow’s actually my birthday, so let’s celebrate it with a new Fledglings chapter!

We’ve also got some new artwork today, featuring Rodion, but as a Buizel! The first artwork I commissioned as part of his presence in an offsite RP. It’s not necessarily a canon portrayal (depending on whether he was already evolved when the Iron Fleet was founded), but hey, knowing our favorite pirate Floatzel, it’s likely not that far from the mark from how he was when he was younger. The second artwork was commissioned by none other than Ambyssin for my birthday, which I am very grateful for. It’s like Rodion found a Halloween costume of a stereotypical pirate!

But with that, let’s pick up again back where we cliffhangered last time:

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Crom's breaths came tense and shallow as he watched the approaching Marked near them from all directions. He began to backpedal when he felt warm scales brush against his tail, and looked over to see that he'd walked into Bunsen. His teammates had similarly closed ranks, with Ander hurriedly hiding Pleo behind him and Bunsen. Right. It was probably for the best if these Marked didn't think they'd brought a 'demon' to hurt them or something like that. Or at least not right away. Crom scooted to try and block off the remaining gap with Pleo, before he cast a glance over at Trizano and tucked his wings in tight with a nervous stammer.

"W-What do we do now?" the Druddigon gulped.

Trizano braced himself, carefully sizing up the encroaching guards much like a Pokémon might do to a line of small text on a paper. The Skarmory batted out his wings and braced himself with a determined scowl, before speaking up loud enough for the approaching Marked to hear him.

"We stand our ground," he insisted. "We didn't come this far just to be chased off by a bad first impression."

The three didn't seem to care for Trizano's gesture and continued to near them, only to abruptly stop at the sight of the five-tailed comet on Ander's head as the Kecleon from the group motioned for her peers to stop. The other guards paused briefly, and gave puzzled blinks as the Kecleon stared at Ander with a puzzled frown, before she turned and noticed Bunsen beside him, bound and visibly trying to avoid being seen.

"Wait a minute… you're that Charizard that came in last week," the Kecleon said. "This is a sanctuary for Pokémon that have seen the truth of this world. Why did you not call for help instead of leading Pokémon blinded to it here?"

Trizano and his teammates couldn't help but trade befuddled stares with each other. Sounded like Bunsen had been settling in quite fast. Even so, the Charizard seemed visibly uncomfortable, as he grimaced and squirmed in his bindings before stammering nervously in reply.

"I-I mean, I was muzzled and tied up and-"

"But we're not blind at all!" a voice squawked in protest. "We can see you just fine!"

Ander and his companions blanched at the outcry as the Kecleon and her fellow guards turned back towards the Scyther, just in time to spot a long-necked creature with silvery-white feathers poking his head out from behind. The three Marked collectively stiffened up as their eyes shrank to pins as Ander hurriedly stepped in front of the Lugia. A tense silence followed, as the Marked Scyther grimaced and glanced over his shoulder with a tense whisper.

"You really should've kept quiet there, Pleo."

The Dugtrio was the first to snap out of his startled trance, recoiling and motioning off with his heads at Pleo with a stammering cry.

"Th-That bird with them's a demon!"

The other guards flinched and recoiled from Team Traveller's group. After flitting back a wingbeat, the Golbat among them flashed her fangs, and whirled over towards the Charizard of the group with an angry hiss.

"Treacherous escíncid!" the Golbat snarled. "You'd bring a monster like that here?! To bring doom on the place your own family shelters in?!"

The color visibly drained out of Bunsen's face at the Golbat's words. He began to quiver and pulled his tail in tight against his body, as his voice came out in a spluttering whine.

"I-It's not what it looks like, I swear!" the Charizard insisted. "The guards from Starpeak Square caught me while I was gathering berries and they forced me to bring them along! I-I was trying to shake them in the Mystery Dungeon, but-!"

Bunsen's protests were cut off by the Kecleon summarily shattering a Petrify Orb in front of his feet. At once a shower of sparks erupted, as Team Traveller's members froze in their steps, rigid and unmoving. Pleo struggled and tried to move his numb limbs as the Marked guards approached. They all seemed to still be on edge, with the Dugtrio nervously trying to reassure himself that "they're not so tough now".

No, no, no. This wasn't supposed to be happening! They were supposed to be asking these Pokémon for help! Not getting beaten up by them like this! Pleo tried to break free again, only to find his legs and wings wouldn't respond to him. He and his teammates raised their voices, desperately trying to talk sense into the surrounding guards.

"Please, you're making a mistake!" the Lugia begged. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"L-Look, I know that this is all hard to believe, but he really is different from what the ancients told us to expect of him!" Ander insisted.

"A likely story!" the Golbat snapped. "That's why you came straight to us, right?"

The Golbat and her peers kept a careful berth from Pleo as they sized up the rest of the party on the ground. The Dugtrio looked about, before turning to his peers with an uneasy stammer.

"Wh-What do we do with them now?" the Dugtrio asked. "That Petrify Orb won't hold the demon forever."

"I say we kill 'em while we can and push their bodies into the Distortion," the Golbat suggested. "It's not like anyone will ever find them afterwards."

Pleo sucked in a sharp breath as his friends frantically tried to protest and Bunsen began to whine and beg for mercy in the background again. Everything became an indistinct blur as Pleo's his mind went blank. These- These Pokémon were going to kill his friends? The Lugia tried to thrash free, only for his eyes to tear up as his body still refused to budge.

"I'd encourage you to not make decisions without thinking them through first, Nosferalto."

Pleo heard a low, rough voice, followed by strong wingbeats coming in from the same passage they had come from earlier. The wingbeats grew louder and louder as the Pokémon making them drew near. Pleo suddenly saw a large figure with black feathers from the corner of his eyes, prompting the young Lugia to screw his eyes shut in fright.

Then, he felt a shoving prod and stumbled forward. Pleo blinked away his tears and after cracking open his eyes, he realized he could move his limbs again. The Lugia hurriedly bat his wings out as he whirled to face the guards who'd thrown the orb only to feel a light nip at his shoulder. He froze after seeing one of the side heads of a Marked Hydreigon holding him firm, and further up was its owner, who stared down at him, before turning back to the Golbat with a piercing glare.

Pleo let his beak flop open and blinked a moment in disbelief at the Hydreigon. Whatever doubts he had of the Dragon-Type's identity were dispelled when he heard her speak:

"M-Margi?"

Pleo's words lingered in the air, but beyond a passing glance, the Hydreigon didn't acknowledge him. Her attention remained fixed on the other guards, who she addressed with a set of sharp scowls.

"Do recall that when our ancestors slew the demons of old, they never imagined the consequences that would follow. Even if this demon is still young and weak, how can we be so sure we know what would happen afterwards if he died?" the Hydreigon demanded. "Or that nobody would find out about us disposing of them? Do you really think that Starpeak Square would just let things go unanswered if they learned we harmed a creature that they see as a god?"

The Golbat sharply grimaced in reply as the Kecleon and Dugtrio traded looks with each other before the latter quietly admitted "I think she's got a point". The Marked Hydriegon frowned at the pair, before looking back off towards the passage where a tense-looking Sandaconda and Orthworm remained firmly at its entrance.

"Free the others from their petrification and we'll question them in a dignified manner," she ordered. "They can't do much against us right now even if they wanted to. Keep another Petrify Orb handy if you don't trust them to comply."

The Marked Kecleon and Dugtrio faltered, before grudgingly making their way over as they and the other guards went about to give light shoves to free Crom and his companions. Crom tried to shake feeling back into his arms after the Orthworm shoved him free with his tendrils, and looked over to see the Hydreigon still firmly holding onto Pleo.

"Hrmph, you're certainly a long ways from the last time we met."

Crom and Ander's eyes widened after the Marked Hydriegon spoke again and they got a better view of her. They didn't know how on earth she'd gotten here, but they could recognize her as clear as day from when they first met on Boisocéan…

"Margi?!" Crom cried. "What are you doing here?!"

The Hydreigon let Pleo go before turning her heads over to the young Druddigon. There was a moment of disbelieving silence between them before a sharp frown crossed Margi's face.

"I said that I was seeking shelter with my child the last time we met," she replied. "This is the place we fled to after we parted ways on Boisocéan."

Margi trailed off afterwards, and looked away with a low mutter, glancing at Pleo from the corner of her eyes.

"I just never would've imagined that you would come here, too…" she said. "Especially with him."

The other Marked traded looks with one another, before giving bewildered stares at their Hydreigon counterpart. The Kecleon among them cocked a brow in disbelief, trading glances between Margi and the 'demon' at her side.

"'The last time we met'?" the Kecleon asked. "Margi, you actually know this lot?"

"Most of them. The Skarmory is new to me," Margi explained. "And I did indeed encounter the demon with them. I saw firsthand how the Company tried to capture him in order to use him as a weapon."

Pleo stiffened up as Margi called him a 'demon'. Uncomfortable memories of her saying that as she snarled and encroached on him with her fangs bared on Boisocéan filtered through his mind. From the way they left last time, he'd hoped she wouldn't look at him that way anymore…

Although… Margi didn't seem to mean calling him a 'demon' from the way she was visibly unbothered and just beating her wings in place beside him. Or at least not in the same way she had last time. Pleo snapped to attention after feeling a nudge at his wing, when he noticed Margi was motioning off ahead.

"You and your friends should sit down for a while, Pleo," she said. "You're… not necessarily in trouble, but the best thing you can do right now is to show these Pokémon that you don't mean any harm."

Pleo hesitated briefly, before following along with Margi towards his friends and settling on the ground. The others followed suit as the guards sized them up, before their attention fell on Bunsen at the edge of the group with a set of piercing glares.

"And you just knew about this whole 'using a demon as a weapon' plan the whole time and said nothing about it?" the Golbat growled.

"I-I just found out about it barely a week ago!" Bunsen protested, pulling his head in towards his chest with a low whine. "Th-That's why I deserted the Company in the first place! I don't want to have anything to do with a disaster in the making like that!"

Margi narrowed her eyes back at Bunsen, and muttered something under her breath about a "likely story", before turning her attention back to Team Traveller's members.

"I suppose that now things have calmed down a bit, I ought to ask you a few questions of my own," she said. "Why are you here?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Margi focused onto the Marked Scyther in the five's midst, narrowing her eyes into a piercing scowl.

"And why would you bring Pleo here when you knew full well how he'd be received?"

Ander hemmed and hawed briefly with a nervous tap of his scythes, noticing that the other guards were starting to train displeased stares at him.

"I… uh… w-well, you see…"

After a few faltering attempts at beginning to explain himself, Trizano shook his head and interrupted the Scyther, batting out a wing to draw his audience's attention.

"We were aware of the risks," the Skarmory said. "But we didn't have many options to choose from."

"And just what's that supposed to mean?" the Golbat demanded.

"Starpeak Square was overrun by pirates this morning," Crom explained. "Their ships are still anchored in the harbor right as we speak!"

"We came here because we wanted your help to chase them off!" Pleo insisted. "Those pirates will just bully those Pokémon around if we don't do something!"

The other Marked in the chamber traded blinks and stares with one another. The Golbat let out a dismissive scoff before rolling her eyes.

"Oh no! Anyway…"

"Yeah, if there's nothing else going on right now, just make them use their Escape Orb if they've got one," the Dugtrio added. "The further away that demon is from us, the better."

Pleo's beak flopped open in startled shock. These Pokémon had just heard that the town right outside on their same island was being raided by pirates. And here they were just completely unfazed by it!

"H-Huh?! Why are you just okay with this?!" the Lugia cried.

"Because that town and its Pokémon have tormented us since the days their 'King Adler' chased our ancestors into this place and left them to die," the Golbat spat. "Why should we care about whatever happens to them? Especially enough to let a demon like you into our sanctuary where for all we know, you're just waiting for a chance to kill us all in our sleep."

"He wouldn't do that."

The Golbat turned and was met by Margi glaring daggers into her. The Poison-type flinched and visibly shrank back, the Hydreigon letting her scowl linger over the Golbat for a moment before turning to the rest of her peers.

"He came to my neighborhood in Seahive Square before I fled," she explained. "He had plenty of opportunities to lay it to waste, yet he did no such thing."

Margi turned towards Pleo and stared wordlessly for a moment, before shaking her central head with a low sigh.

"… I know what the Scripture of Truth says about his kind, but he came here seeking help. From what I've seen of him, I don't think it's just a ruse," she said. "He at least doesn't intend to harm us. So long as that's true, we should hear out what he has to say."

The guards traded wary murmurs Hydreigon's argument, as the Golbat muttered under her breath with a low grumble.

"Are you trying to doom us all, Margi?" she demanded. "Just how is letting a world-ender into our haven a good idea?"

"Do you mean to imply that violently agitating him would be less likely to end the world?" Margi shot back.

There was a moment of silent hesitation among the guards, before the Sandaconda that first arrived with Margi shook his head with a low grunt.

"Maybe, but that would be something for the Elders to decide, not us," the snake insisted.

The Dugtrio's eyes shrank to pins, as he shook his heads vigorously and whirled to the Sandaconda in stammering protest.

"B-But we can't just let these Pokémon walk freely through town!" the Dugtrio exclaimed. "What if they really do turn against us?!"

"Then bring us there as your prisoners."

For a moment, there was a blinking silence afterwards as everyone, both from among the Marked, and from Team Traveller's party turned and stared puzzledly at Trizano. The Skarmory stepped forward and turned his attention towards Margi.

"My home's not exactly a stranger itself to needing to hide from a hostile world," Trizano said. "Bring us in with whatever guards and restraints you find necessary and give us a chance to plead our case before these 'Elders' of yours. We're willing to take the gamble."

Pleo briefly hesitated, looking between the guards and his companions. He didn't know how he felt about being a prisoner again, but they needed help to free Starpeak Square and the rest of their friends. And if it would really convince these Pokémon…

"… I'll go too if you'll give us a chance to try and convince you," Pleo added. "Just… don't be mean to my friends. They've never done anything to hurt anyone."

The Marked guards turned to each other and huddled with quiet murmurs, the Kecleon being among the first to break away as she neared Team Traveller.

"We accept your terms, Skarmory," the Kecleon said. "Just don't complain to us if this gets uncomfortable for you."

The Kecleon made her way over to Trizano with a small group, the Skarmory pinning his wings back as the guards took his badge and tied them up. Pleo watched and squirmed as the other Marked went about repeating the same process on his teammates. Pleo was the last Pokémon the Marked made their way to over when they abruptly paused. There was a moment of quiet hesitation when the Kecleon glanced over at Margi and quietly sucked in a breath before motioning over at Pleo.

"Margi, you stick with the demon," the Kecleon insisted. "If anything goes wrong, you've got the best chance of any of us at dealing with him."

Margi flew over to Pleo and nudged at him with a low grunt. For a moment, Pleo looked up with a worried stare, as Margi tried to crack a reassuring smile.

"The others need you to hold your wings against your body," she explained. "Don't worry, it will just be for a little while."

Pleo hesitated, before holding his wings against his body as Margi stayed in front of him and the other Marked grudgingly neared him. The Lugia fidgeted as he felt rough ropes encircle his wings, and trembling hands working them into knots. As soon as they were done, the Kecleon and her fellows were all too eager to leave him.

Pleo looked over at Margi as she stared back and craned her central head in towards him with a low whisper.

"I sure hope you and your friends know what you're doing, Pleo…"

The Lugia looked over towards his teammates as the guards separated them and marched them off, bound up in small groups for the fog one-by-one. Pleo gulped and looked back up at the Marked Hydreigon as the other guards around him prepared to do much the same, if at a safer distance. He hung his head briefly, letting his eyes drift towards the ground with an uneasy murmur.

"I… hope so too."

---

Pleo wasn't sure what he was expecting from the stable zone that Starbreak Square was in, but it definitely wasn't a cave tunnel like this. They'd exited out into a shaft made of gray stone, with the only indication that it wasn't a feral's den being a set of glowmoss lanterns which were set up along a path for illumination…

"D-Does he really just need to stand there menacingly like that?"

… and of course the giant, sturdy-looking gate just beyond them. The structure had an upper level with stone-hewn windows that sealed off the tunnel ahead, and was staffed by other Marked standing guard. Some, like a Sawsbuck, visibly cringed and shrank away at Pleo's sight from behind a set of wooden grates that were set up one after the other. Others, like a yellow Florges, managed to keep their composure, and stood on edge and ready to attack. The guards on the upper level seemed to be in similar straits, with a couple visibly holding Wands and Seeds at the ready. Pleo traded glances back at his teammates, wondering what they were supposed to do next, when Margi flew up to the grates with an annoyed sigh.

"You didn't mean to make us wait in the fog this whole time, did you?" she harrumphed.

"I-In the actual dungeon would've been better, really," the Sawsbuck insisted. "Safer for everyone else here."

The guards alongside Pleo and his companions shot back unamused scowls. The Sandaconda at the front narrowed his eyes and flicked his tongue back at his Sawsbuck counterpart.

"Look, if anything went wrong, at least this way we'll have more 'monpower to deal with him," the Sandaconda harrumphed.

Pleo fidgeted uncomfortably against the ropes over his wings. He supposed things could be going worse, but were they supposed to just be waiting here for this long? Crom, Ander, and Trizano looked visibly uncomfortable from their bindings themselves, and Bunsen in particular seemed to be taking things hard. From the way the Marked Charizard kept squirming and glancing nervously over at him, Pleo got the suspicion that it had been a deliberate choice by their captors.

"C-Can't I at least get these bindings off and go home now?" Bunsen protested. "I-I didn't want any part of this in the first pla-!"

"No."

Bunsen stiffened up and fell silent after the Golbat in their party glared at him with a low growl, prompting Pleo to let his eyes drift towards the stony cave floor. He could understand Bunsen being afraid of him since he'd blown him over the horizon once, but being treated like some sort of dangerous monster by all these other Pokémon when he'd never done anything to them was starting to wear him down. Maybe it was just best to give them what they wanted and leave.

… No. The rest of his friends and Starpeak Square, were counting on them to find strong Pokémon to help fight off the pirates who'd taken over. Starbreak Square was supposed to have no shortage of them, so even if it made him uncomfortable, he'd just need to bear things for a little longer with Crom and the others.

Pleo lifted his head after hearing wingbeats. There, at the gate, a Murkrow approached. The Murkrow visibly stiffened up after seeing Pleo, and hurriedly shuffled off to the side towards Margi with a flustered caw.

"The High Elder said to bring him in, just…"

The Marked Murkrow trailed off and looked back at the young Lugia. After a noticeable pause, the Murkrow breathed in sharply, before turning back to Margi worriedly.

"Be careful. You never know what a demon like him might try to do."

A set of creaks and groans rang out as the grates were winched up, before one by one the guards started leading them forward. Pleo shifted uncomfortably against his bindings as Bunsen was the first to be brought in, when Margi gently nudged at his shoulder and guided him forward.

"Come along," she said. "Just stay quiet while we're going through."

Pleo wasn't sure what to make of the request, but set off anyways, noticing that the other guards were getting in his way and making it hard to see what was going on. They passed through a tunnel in the gate, when out on the other side, they came out into a chamber of some sort which reminded him of the more cave-like Mystery Dungeons they'd gone through.

Except there was an entire village built in it. There were lanterns hung on strings near the roof, with balconies of some sort that ran along the chamber's walls. Here and there, he'd spot tunnels that would go off into parts unknown, a few entrances that seemed to have wooden awnings built over them. Off towards the middle of the chamber, there was some sort of spring or well in the center with figures moving about it.

And of course, there were other Pokémon going around in the chamber from the glimpses he could see. A lot of other Pokémon.

"Maman!"

A Deino bounded up excitedly all of a sudden, rearing up onto his hindlegs as he nuddled against Margi's chest. Pleo's eyes lit up. That was Daraen! The same 'mon he played with on Boisocéan Island! The young Lugia reflexively cracked his beak open to greet him, only to catch himself after a glance back at the guards flanking him reminded him that they were still on pins and needles.

… Right. He'd probably cause a scene if the others in the square noticed him. Even if it bothered him, it was probably best to just keep quiet for now. In spite of it all, it was nice to see that Daraen was the same cheerful Pokémon he remembered from Boisocéan. The Deino let out a small giggle as his mother nuzzled him, prompting Daraen to turn his head up to her and wag his tail excitedly.

"You're back early today!"

Margi glanced around at her surroundings briefly, before forcing an awkward smile back at her child. Her demeanor was stiff and on-edge, as if she was in a hurry to wrap up her conversation quickly.

"Yes, well… something came up in the Dungeon that brought me back a bit sooner than expec-"

"EEEEEEEK!"

Pleo and his companions whirled their heads at the sound of a piercing shriek. There, just ahead in the middle of the square was a panicked Cufant stumbling back and pointing him out with a quaking trunk. The commotion attracted the attention of the other Marked nearby, who turned and similarly froze at his sight.

And then came the screams.

"DEMON! DEMON!"

That would probably explain why Margi wanted to wrap up the conversation quickly. At once, the square erupted into chaos as Pokémon of all shapes and sizes took off fleeing for the various tunnels and entrances in the square, much as if a cannon had just been fired. Even Daraen seemed to get swept up in things as he froze for a moment at the commotion, before diving for the safety of his mother's grasp.

"Ow!"

Or he tried, at least. The Deino's path took him square into Pleo and knocked him down with a squawk. Daraen hastily picked himself up and panted tensely when he caught himself, and realized that he was hearing and smelling someone much more familiar than he assumed.

"Huh?! P-Pleo?!"

Daraen darted up in front of Pleo. He gave a poke with a forelimb at Pleo's breast and after feeling his feathers, he tilted his head, and gave an excited wag of his tail.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you had to fly away from home after those mean Company Pokémon came after you!"

Pleo ruffled his feathers, and looked down with a sheepish smile. For some reason, he had the strangest urge to paw at the back of his head, even if it was a bit hard to manage with his bindings.

"It's… a long story."

"The short version of it is that we caught up with each other and got into a bit of trouble since then."

Daraen stiffened up in surprise at the sound of Ander's voice. Even with his blindness, the Deino's senses were sharp enough to turn his attention off towards the Marked Scyther in the group. The Dragon-Type let out a surprised cry, as his jaw dropped in astonishment.

"Whuh?! Ander?!" Daraen exclaimed. "You're here too?! And so's that Druddigon that was with you…"

From beside Ander, Crom raised his head and gave a small smile over to Daraen. Pleo blinked for a moment, when he reminded himself of the stories the others told him on journeys between islands. Crom had mentioned that he and the others had come across Margi and Daraen on Boisocéan. From the way his eyes lit up, he must've had fond memories of their encounter.

"That's right, it's 'Crom'!" the Druddigon said.

And Daraen must've had good memories himself from the way he was wagging his tail. Pleo guessed that Daraen couldn't see that they were all tied up since he'd hadn't said anything about it. But even so, from the way he was stopping and trailing off, he must've noticed something was amiss about their presence.

"Wait, but where's everyone else?"

Crom fell quiet and turned his head aside, letting his eyes fall towards the ground with a glum murmur.

"They're kinda in a bit of trouble right now," he explained. "That's… why we came here in the first place."

"As are you at the moment," the Kecleon among the guards scoffed. "Need I remind you that the only reason why you're here in town at all was because you gave yourselves up as prisoners?"

Pleo and his companions bit their tongues after the Kecleon's reminder. Right. It probably would be a bit much to convince Pokémon who genuinely believed Pleo was some sort of world-ending demon to let them go about freely. The Golbat from the group turned and stared at Pleo, before screwing her eyes shut with a grumbling sigh.

"I can already tell we're never going to hear the end of this one from the Elders…"

Team Traveller looked back out to the square after hearing low whimpers coming from it, which had been deserted aside a few stragglers who'd been unable to flee. Some like a family of Maushold attempted to hide themselves behind obstructions like an overturned basket, while others like a Squirtle who had tipped over onto her back and retreated into her shell braced for the end. Trizano set his beak on edge and lowered his head with a low murmur.

"I sure hope that won't be a recurring trend here."

"As do I, Skarmory."

Trizano and the others looked up as they saw a Marked Typhlosion making her way across the emptied square. The Typhlosion stopped briefly to right the Squirtle and let her hastily scamper away before she continued walking up. Unlike the other Marked, the Fire-Type was unflinching the entire time, shooting glaring daggers over that made the guards at their sides visibly blanch, and made even Margi stiffen up and grow uncomfortable.

The Typhlosion approached, going directly up to Pleo as she looked down at the young Lugia with a hostile scowl whose meaning was unmistakable:

She didn't want them here.

Pleo squirmed against his bindings and backpedaled slightly, the guards behind him dutifully minding their distance as the young Protector gulped and looked back up at the Typhlosion.

"Uh… wh-who are you?"

"I'm Nina," the Marked Typhlosion replied. "High Elder of Starbreak Square."

The Typhlosion looked about the emptied square for a moment, and after a long pause, she pinned her ears back and turned back to Pleo with a grumbling sigh.

"And I can already see that we have much to discuss."

---

Salvini raised a cup from the counter and brought it up to her mouth with a shaky breath. It was the same bar her and her friends had used as a hangout since coming to Vollezee, and she was drinking the same jenever that was always available, but everything in the past couple days had seemed like the world had turned upside down.

They had known that they were taking a risk letting Pleo go the other day, but they hadn't expected that it would lead to this. The Vault from the Academy being raided, the military harbor and lagoon thrown into a mess from a ship fighting its way past the sea walls…

And of course, the chunks of the city that had been damaged during the whole episode, with rumors swirling about that it had been the doings of a serpent-like Protector. The entire city had been on edge since then, with pockets of unrest breaking out almost as quickly as they could be dispersed. Worse still, the nights since then had been short on sleep with worry that someone up the chain of command would put two and two together.

She drank the jenever from her cup before pinching her brow. Travellers above, she needed that drink. So did her friends from the oppressive aura all around the counter. Both Hertsog and Payak had been light on conversation tonight, while Phyllis was visibly stressed and working through yet another cup of jenever—quickly enough to make their Mienshao teammate turn to her with a worried stare.

"Slow down there, Phyllis. Jenever's a stronger drink than the rakia back home," Hertsog reminded, reaching a paw for the Leafeon. "I know it's been a stressful day, but you should take a moment to calm yourse-"

Tak!

Salvini flinched at the sound of a clay cup harshly slamming against the wood of the bar, hard enough that she was surprised it hadn't broken from the impact. A glance down it revealed Phyllis whirling about in her seat and leveling a forepaw accusingly at the Mienshao.

"How do you expect me to just stay calm, Hertsog?!" the Leafeon demanded. "A demon just tore up chunks of the city the other day!"

Hertsog just sat there wordlessly as an uneasy silence filled the air. Just what was there even to say at the moment? Everyone had seen the handiwork of that… 'demon' almost right after Kiran and the others left the Vault. Only a fool would think that they weren't related somehow.

Salvini bit her lip. She knew that she'd come to the conclusion that it wasn't right to let Pleo be taken away back on Mengir, but… how were her teammates supposed to trust her after this? Especially with the way that Payak was glowering and looking away.

"That bird had something to do with this, didn't he?" the Ariados muttered. "Did we really do the right thing by not intervening with Kiran when we cou-?"

The Bug-Type was cut off with an audible shush, along with a sharp scowl as Hertsog shook his head.

"You shouldn't discuss work matters off-hours, Payak," the Mienshao grunted as he raised his cup back to his mouth. "Loose lips sink ships."

… Right, including their ship. So on top of everything else, they couldn't even air out their thoughts openly right now. Salvini wasn't sure how she felt about that. Perhaps everything would make a bit more sense after the shock of those events faded and there'd be some time to try and get to the bottom of what had happened for Team Traveller's escape to turn into… that. But for all she knew, things were just going to quietly fester beneath the surface the entire time.

The Grovyle turned for her own drink with a low murmur, when the clinking of glass from behind the counter turned her head up. It was the Gothorita barkeep, tucking away odds and ends on the shelves in a visible hurry, as she turned back to Salvini and her companions.

"If you four have any additional orders, get 'em in quick. I'm closing up in fifteen minutes."

Salvini blinked and raised a brow at the Psychic-Type's remarks, a quick glance revealing Hertsog setting his cup back on the counter as Payak and Phyllis shot back puzzled glances themselves. Since when did this place ever close at this hour?

"While it's still light out?" Salvini asked. "Why would you shutter your bar so early?"

"There's a curfew after dusk, remember?" the Gothorita explained, shaking her head. "If I stay open for you much longer, I'll be sleeping behind the counter tonight."

There was a moment of collective silence afterwards, as Salvini let her eyes drift down at the bar's countertop. Gods, everything had turned into such a mess. All she wanted was to keep those kids out of trouble, but after everything that'd happened since they ran into Team Traveller again and how it was now putting Hertsog and the others at risk…

Was Hertsog mad at her about the way things had turned out? She knew that he respected Kiran for helping him fix up Fensedge Village's shrine to Xerneas before they left Mengir, but… she couldn't imagine he expected something like this to happen from looking the other way for his sake.

All of it made her wonder… had this really all been worth it?

The Grovyle raised her head after hearing shuffling from Hertsog's end of the bar. She turned just in time to catch him picking up his cup again, and raising it in front of the barkeep.

"I suppose we'll take a final round of drinks, in that case. Though don't worry, Gothorita," the Mienshao insisted. "It's been a long day and we understand if it's been getting to you too. If we run past curfew, we'll walk you back home. Our pleasure."

Salvini looked on as Hertsog shot a reassuring smile back at the Gothorita. The one and the same smile that he'd give to townsfolk in Fensedge Village to try and reassure them that he understood their frustrations whenever taxes were raised or when he had to stop outsiders who joined the guards that tried to bully or extort them.

Even here, so far away from home, he was looking out for others as a guard.

She eased up a bit at the sight. Whatever was going on in the Mienshao's head right now, she was sure that Hertsog would deal with it as he'd always done. Calmly and eager to find solutions rather than going and pointing fingers accusingly. She turned her attention back to her cup as the barkeep made the rounds, and refilled everyone's drinks.

With a fresh helping of jenever in hers, Salvini was content to just push her worries from her mind. Or at least she would've been, until she heard the sound of the bar's entrance door creaking open in the background.

"Oh, glad to see you're still open."

Salvini turned for the door along with her teammates just as a Sylveon in a Second-Rank scarf came sauntering in. The Fairy-Type casually walked over to the bar, stopping at a seat beside Salvini as she hopped up and called out to the barkeep behind the counter.

"I'll take a cup of water," Zelle said. "I'm still on the job right now."

Everyone blinked at the Sylveon as she settled in. Was she a coworker of theirs from the Academy? The barkeep hesitated briefly from the sudden silence that had come over the counter before going off to fetch a pitcher. Salvini traded glances with her teammates, before opting to turn back to her drink. All the while, Hertsog hesitated with his own cup as he shot an aside glance at the newly-arrived Second-Rank and raised his brow.

"… On the job? And yet you're visiting a bar?"

Zelle didn't answer right away as she waited for the Gothorita barkeep to bring over her cup of water. She picked it up with a feeler, before raising it to her mouth and glancing back at the Mienshao.

"What can I say? My work takes me to all kinds of places," the Sylveon replied. "The name's 'Zelle'. I'm from the Intelligence Division and here to investigate a case of treason against the Company."

Salvini spat up her drink onto the counter after the Fairy-Type stopped speaking, coughing and hacking as stray drops of jenever got into her sinuses. She gasped for air and noticed that her teammates were collectively blanching at the Sylveon, the three staring wordlessly until a sharp bark snapped them back to attention.

"Again, Grovyle?!"

Salvini turned her head as the Gothorita stomped up with a damp rag. The Psychic-Type shook her head with a frustrated grumble, placing it on the remnants of Salvini's drink on the counter as she shot a dirty glare across the bar.

"Order liquor you can actually hold next time!" the barkeep hissed.

Salvini grimaced, partly from embarrassment as the barkeep got to work cleaning up her mess, and partly because the Sylveon had to have found the way she reacted suspicious. Salvini steeled herself as she turned back towards Zelle, who had a strangely self-satisfied expression on her face.

"Oh, there's no need for any of you to worry. None of you four are the Pokémon I'm investigating," the Sylveon reassured. "Though it is someone that you might know. That's why I came here: I wanted to ask for your help."

Salvini and her companions traded stares with one another. Had they run into this 'mon sometime while they were on duty after coming to Vollezee? Phyllis was particularly puzzled by the remark, as the Leafeon motioned towards herself with a disbelieving blink.

"Wait… our help?"

"No, no, not yours, Leafeon," Zelle explained. "Your Grovyle friend's."

Salvini watched as Zelle raised and pointed a feeler at her. At once, the Grovyle felt a pit in her stomach and tried to fight back a small tremor over her body and keep her mouth from flopping open out of fright.

This 'mon knew, didn't she? About Kiran, and Pleo, and… w-well everything. But if she did, why had she come alone? And why was she beating around the bush like this instead of having the lot of them detained right here and now?

Whatever the reason, the Sylveon kept up her amiable appearance the entire time, as she leaned in with a knowing smile.

"Why don't we go someplace more private to talk?" Zelle asked. "That table at the end of the bar should suffice."

Salvini froze at Zelle's offer, assuming it was an offer to begin with. Between the Sylveon's rank and her stated reason for coming here, Salvini doubted that she would accept 'no' for an answer… or her attempting to claim that something had come up and that she had to leave early.

The Grovyle stiffly got up from her seat. She noted her teammates staring worriedly at her, and gave a weak smile back before she turned back to Zelle.

"I… suppose it couldn't hurt," she said. "It'll take the barkeep a bit to replace my drink anyways."

Zelle nonchalantly slipped off her seat and started to guide Salvini off for a table towards the back corner, following closely behind the Grass-Type with every step. All the while, Salvini started to feel lightheaded and had to struggle not to scream. She cast a brief, uncomfortable glance back at her teammates as she walked off, wondering if she should speak up and call for their help.

But it was too late. Before she knew it, Salvini was at the table with Zelle, with the Sylveon hopping up onto a seat and waiting expectantly for her. The Grovyle faltered, before sucking in a sharp breath and sitting down at the opposite end. She raised her eyes and looked back across the table, struggling to fight back a nervous stammer.

"Wh-What can I help you with?" the Grovyle asked.

"I wanted to talk a bit about your recent history," Zelle explained. "During my investigation, I couldn't help but notice that you had some disciplinary actions recently added to your record."

The Sylveon went through the satchel hugging her shoulders with one of her feelers and pulled out a paper file that she slid out onto the table. Salvini blinked and looked down, freezing up as she saw the runes on the label. Her name, her byname, along with a rune followed by a series of numbers that had been assigned to her after first joining the Company. The Grovyle stiffened up, shooting a wary glance back across the table.

"… I thought that you said that your investigation wasn't about me," Salvini said.

"It's not," Zelle replied. "It's about the other Pokémon mentioned in the incident report from your file."

The Sylveon pulled the cover of the file open, leafing through a few loose pages before turning it around to face Salvini. The Grovyle hesitated briefly before reading the runes on the page. The first thing that caught her attention was a line with a date. It was the date of the night Pleo had escaped from Mengir, with Commander Briggs' signature at the bottom and a mass of densely-packed runes in between. Salvini pawed at the page, only to have her eyes dart back towards Zelle as the Sylveon began to speak again.

"The report's a bit long, so I'll save you the time and tell you a summary of it. It says that towards the end of your assignment on Mengir Island, there was an incident in which a number of wanted pirates escaped and Darzin was injured thanks to your incompetence," Zelle said. "From the specific language used in the report, it seemed almost as if whoever wrote it up was implying that you betrayed the Company and attacked an Administrator, but got off easy due to a lack of evidence."

Salvini followed the runes along with her eyes under the light of a nearby lantern. Sure enough, the message more or less said exactly what the Sylveon had said, just with more legalese involved. Because of course Briggs would go out of his way to try and screw her over on the way out. The Grovyle felt a flash of hot anger come over her and jolted up from her seat and looked across the table with a bitter glare.

"That's-!"

"Complete nonsense, I know."

Salvini paused at the Sylveon's response. This 'mon from the Intelligence Division… was taking her side?

"Huh?"

Zelle clamped the file shut with her feelers and fell silent, her blue eyes studying the Grovyle briefly before she spoke up.

"I doubt you were informed by your prior superiors, but one of those pirates that night happened to be a Protector," the Sylveon explained. "I'm aware that it probably sounds a bit fantastical, but I've seen the evidence behind those events, and it speaks for itself."

Zelle raised her cup to her mouth and took a quiet sip. Her eyes met Salvini's briefly, before the Fairy-Type set the cup down and continued on with a serious frown.

"Our current theory is that Darzin came barging in and attempted to seize the Protector for himself and then bungled things when you encountered him in the act," she said. "From there, you and your companions were thrown under the ship in the cover up to avoid embarrassing the Board."

Salvini blinked wordlessly in reply. Was- Was she actually hearing a Second-Rank say these things? Zelle flicked her ears briefly, as she brought her feelers together before her chest with a small smirk.

"It sounds crazy, I know. But that is more or less what happened… right?"

Salvini let her mouth hang open briefly, before she sank back into her seat and brushed at her forehead with a sigh of relief. Gods, after how much of a saga everything had been since Mengir, she didn't think something like this would ever happen. Someone up the chain had actually noticed the way that she'd been thrown under the ship? And cared enough to try and do something about it?

"Th-That's the first time someone above my rank other than Hertsog's believed me…" Salvini murmured.

Salvini hesitated briefly after she noticed that Zelle was sizing her up. The Grass-Type opened her mouth to try and explain herself further when Zelle pre-empted her with a puzzled tilt of her head.

"So you were set up, huh?"

"O-Of course!" the Grovyle insisted. "I… just… was a bit surprised to hear someone believe me for once…"

Zelle nonchalantly took the file back into her feelers and stuffed it back into the satchel sitting on the seat beside her. She turned back, giving an amiable smile as she absent-mindedly brushed a feeler against the wood of the table.

"There's been a few other incidents since yours that make us suspect that Darzin has become a spy for the Empire, including the events that happened the other day at the Academy," Zelle said. "That's why the Intelligence Division has opened an investigation into him."

Salvini had to fight to keep herself from double-taking upon hearing the Sylveon's explanation. She knew that Darzin had more or less been shunted aside as an Administrator and that he supposedly nursed quite a bit of bitterness over it, but somehow it never occurred to her that he would turn to colluding with the enemy over it. The Grovyle snapped out of her train of thought after hearing Zelle move in her seat, looking up to see the Sylveon pointing square at her with an outstretched feeler.

"That's where you come in. I'd like you to help me with our case against Darzin. All we'd need is your testimony in front of the Board," the Fairy-Type explained. "In return, I can help you and your friends' records get cleared. There'd be compensation for your troubles of course, including for the pay your Mienshao friend lost from the loss of his position until a suitable surrogate role can be arranged for him. You four could even go back to Mengir if you wanted to."

Salvini's eyes lit up as she couldn't help but let a grin spread over her face. Going back to Mengir? With her old job and her name cleared? She had to be dreaming!

Salvini caught herself and her smile faded. She wasn't dreaming, the wood of her seat brushing against her scales reminded her of that. Was there some sort of catch to this offer? Everything the Sylveon had told her almost sounded too good to be true.

She paused for a moment before stealing a glance at her teammates. Mengir was Hertsog and the others' home island, and while they'd put on a brave face since coming here, was it really fair to deny them a way back because of a few nagging doubts? The Grovyle shook her head, before pawing at her scarf and forcing a smile over her face.

"I'd be happy to help," the Grass-Type insisted. "You don't have any idea how much this would mean to us all."

"I'm glad to hear," Zelle chuckled. "All that we still need to do is for us to go over what to bring up in your testimony."

Salvini faltered at the Fairy-Type's response. 'Go over what to bring up in her testimony'? Aside from the fact that she couldn't tell the whole truth as a witness, weren't things straightforward enough that Zelle should already know what to expect?

"Wouldn't I just tell the Board what I remembered happening?" Salvini asked. "That I caught Darzin breaking into the room I was tasked to watch and tried to stop, only to take a Fire Punch to the head for the trouble and get used as a scapegoat afterwards?"

"You should mention that, yes," Zelle said. "But there's also a few extra details that you should mention in your testimony."

Salvini fell quiet, before giving a wary tilt of her head in reply.

"What… other things?"

"Oh, that you ran into Darzin earlier that day and saw him stash a pouch full of Imperial Bezants into his bag. Or how you've seen him talk to a suspicious Clawitzer, whose description just happens to match up with an Imperial Captain the Board already knows about," the Sylveon mused. "You know, minor details like those."

Salvini blinked at the Sylveon in confusion, before letting her face fall into a quiet frown.

"… But I didn't see any of that."

"I'm well aware. But that's just an inconvenience that we'll need to work around," Zelle said. "Darzin's status on the Board may be… precarious, to say the least. But what happened to you on Mengir isn't sufficient grounds to prove his ties to the Empire."

Salvini tensed up. She wasn't sure where Zelle was going with this, but she could already tell she wasn't going to like it. The Sylveon seemed to pick up on her unease, as she smiled and gave a small wave of her feeler in reassurance.

"As I mentioned earlier, some other things happened that made my superiors suspect Darzin, but it takes a lot of time to gather enough evidence for those sorts of accusations. Time that we don't have, and time that Darzin is using to undermine the Company from its highest echelons," Zelle insisted. "By just adding a few details to your account and a little tweak here or there, we can get around those obstacles and nip this problem in the bud before it's too late."

Salvini's eyes shrank to pins as she hurriedly scanned her surroundings to make sure no one was listening in on them, before whirling around with her mouth still hanging open. Travellers above, this 'mon said that she wanted to help her, not to make her incriminate herself further!

"Y-You're asking me to commit perjury in front of the Board!"

"What I'm asking you to do is to speed up the process of us gathering evidence," Zelle harrumphed. "We both know Darzin is guilty already, but the Board just needs a little extra push to see that. Does it really matter how we get there when the Company's best interests are on the line?"

Salvini looked away briefly. Words did not begin to describe how dangerous of an idea this all was. This wasn't just selectively bringing up bits and pieces of the truth and saying Darzin's Fire Punch to her head made her memory of events a bit hazy, this was going out on a limb and making false statements in front of the most important Pokémon in the Company!

The Grovyle narrowed her eyes and turned back with a sharp scowl. No. She'd taken enough risks lately, and she sure wasn't going to do it on behalf of a 'mon she'd met just five minutes ago.

"… You should've asked another 'mon for the job. If I got caught perjuring myself like that, I'd be lucky to merely be blacklisted from further employment with the Company afterwards," Salvini huffed. "The stories I'd heard about perjury cases at that level involved harsh penal sentences, and those weren't in front of the entire Board."

"So? You sure didn't have any issues perjuring yourself in front Administrator Zorn before you left Mengir."

Salvini's eyes widened and her jaw slackened as she felt the color drain out of her face. She grimaced, and tried to back away as Zelle leaned in towards her, with a smug sneer settling over her face.

"Yeah, I found out quite a bit about what you were up to on Mengir before you left," she sneered. "Though you don't need to worry about what happened out there. That's water under the bridge. But, if my friends and I have trouble tying Darzin to what happened at the Academy earlier today, we'll have to start looking for other potential traitors in our midst."

Salvini felt a lump grow in her throat as Zelle bared her fangs under her smile.

"Since if Darzin wasn't involved with the events at the Academy, the next most logical place to search would be the Pokémon that were around it earlier that day," the Sylveon continued. "Especially the first responders to the scene, which would include you and your friends."

Salvini's breath tightened as she felt herself pin up against the wall. Her friends were right there in the room with her, and yet if she said anything or called for help, this Sylveon would just ruin them all.

Somehow, even back in that boarded-up room in the Medic's Hut back on Mengir facing down Darzin himself, she hadn't felt this trapped. What was she even supposed to say back to Zelle?

"I-I-"

"Would have nothing to fear then in that case, right?" Zelle asked. "After all, the reaction that you all had when I mentioned I was investigating a case of treason was totally how a group of 'mons with nothing to hide would have, right?"

Salvini gulped, letting her eyes drift towards the table's wood as the lightheaded feeling from earlier started to come back. She heard a tap, and looked up to see Zelle pulling a paw back from rapping against the table and staring expectantly at her.

"Or, you know. You could just do as you're told and there'd be nothing to worry about."

Salvini didn't like this. Not one bit. This Second-Rank was effectively extorting her, and she didn't even have a guarantee that the 'mon would keep any of those earlier promises. At the same time, both of them knew that she couldn't just walk away from this table…

The Grovyle raised her eyes off at the bar and glanced over Hertsog, Payak, and Phyllis as they tried to make smalltalk, the Mienshao occasionally casting glances out the corner of his eye.

It was then that Salvini realized that she didn't have much of a choice. For her friends' sake, she couldn't afford to turn the Sylveon down. She'd have to find some way of riding things out, and try and think of something to do if the Fairy-Type tried to throw her under the ship later.

Salvini noticed the Gothorita barkeeper was putting things away while her teammates headed behind the counter to help her. If nothing else, it was a chance to get the Sylveon out of her scales for now. She grudgingly looked back at the Second-Rank watching her across the table before raising her voice in a low murmur.

"I… I know that we're a bit tight on time right now since the bar's about to close, but what exactly is it that you need me to say?"

---

(Continued in next post)

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

The trek through Starbreak Square was a tense affair for Team Traveller. Much to Pleo's disappointment, it was hard to make out the surroundings at times from the guards huddled around him. From what he could see, he gathered that the entire town seemed to be built along tunnels with various chambers dug into them… ones which always seemed to have Pokémon who hurriedly ducked away for their safety with yelps and whines. A few of them brought their children with them, like a Marked Meganium and Bayleef, who hurriedly pulled aside a young-looking Chikorita who curiously didn't seem to have a Mark on her head.

Pleo hung his head with a low sigh. He would've hoped that Nina would've told the others that he wasn't mean or scary… though from the scowl that had been on her face the entire time, she clearly thought that he was a demon herself. The one consolation had been that the entire time, Daraen was allowed to stay at his side. Pleo quickly glanced about the nearby guards, before turning back over his shoulder towards Daraen with a hushed whisper.

"Daraen, are we in trouble right now?"

"I don't think you are?" Daraen replied. "It's just… well…"

The Deino trailed off a moment and bit his tongue, before hesitantly continuing on.

"You're kinda scary-looking," he said. "Or at least everyone who can see better than me says so, anyways."

Pleo looked to his side and watched his surroundings as they continued on. Almost immediately, he noticed how many of the Marked were watching him while hidden inside their homes. It was only after they'd gone on a ways when they would emerge again and trade worried murmurs in his wake. Others visibly cringed as he passed by, including a Charizard stooped at a doorway with her wings spread wide to shelter a trio of Charmander nervously hiding behind her legs and tail. Pleo didn't think much of them at first and turned away with a quiet sigh, when a sharp cry rang out and he saw Bunsen turn his head for the Charizard and her children with a splutter of protest.

"A-Ah! That's my mate!"

Bunsen reflexively started to head for his mate and children, only to be cut off by the Golbat at his side flying in front of him with a flash of her fangs and a piercing glare.

"Quiet down, you!" the Golbat snapped.

Bunsen grit his teeth and attempted to brush past the Poison-Type, prompting the Golbat fly up in his face with a sharp hiss. The Charizard fought against his restraints and muzzle briefly, before headbutting the Golbat and knocking her to the ground, which prompted the nearby guards to shove and pin him as he thrashed and cried out in protest.

Pleo and the others stared at the outburst, a quick glance back at the entrance revealing Bunsen's children shrinking back fearfully. The other Charizard had her teeth set on edge, as her tail fire visibly brightened and she began to stomp over towards the guards audibly growling.

Except, halfway over, she abruptly froze and pulled her head and wings in. Bunsen continued to try and pull himself free as Pleo turned his head to see Nina approaching Bunsen and his captors with a withering glare.

"What's going on here?" the Typhlosion demanded.

Bunsen stopped at the sound of Nina's voice and looked up, the color abruptly draining from his face. The Marked Charizard pulled his neck and wing in tight against his body as his earlier combativeness melted away, and was replaced with an audible, squeaking stammer.

"High Elder, I s-swear I didn't mean for any of this to happen!" Bunsen insisted. "A-At least let me defend my family from this beast!"

The Charizard from the doorway turned to the Typhlosion with a pleading expression. She seemed visibly on-edge and hesitated as she seemed to struggle with what to say over the grunts of the guards keeping Bunsen pinned to the ground, before lowering her head in a bow and speaking up.

"High Elder, my mate would never try to hurt our town deliberately," she insisted. "Please, can't we settle this somewhere away from our children?"

Nina said nothing, before looking back at the Charizard on the ground. Bunsen wavered a moment as the Typhlosion narrowed her eyes. A visible tremor came over Bunsen afterwards, the Charizard screwing his eyes shut before the High Elder looked over at the guards and waved a paw at them.

"Let him go," Nina ordered. "Though you should hope that nothing comes from this demon's presence, Charizard. For your own sake"

The guards blinked for a moment, before the Kecleon among them undid Bunsen's ropes and backed away from him. The Charizard hesitated for a moment, before hastily darting for his family. Bunsen's mate hurried over to meet him, nuzzling and hugging her mate with a faint "It's okay, dear. You're alright now" carrying along on the air.

Team Traveller stared at the two for a moment, before deciding to move on when they saw Nina beginning to leave. As they walked, Pleo turned his head over to Margi with an uneasy ruffle of his wings.

"… Are we going to get let go, too?" the Lugia asked. "Or…?"

At once, Nina and the surrounding guards narrowed their eyes into sharp scowls that made Pleo shrink back and struggle to fight back a startled squawk. Margi hesitated briefly, before leaning in and whispering into Pleo's ears.

"Soon," the Hydreigon insisted. "The other Elders are just up ahead."

Pleo looked back at the other guards who surrounded him and his teammates. They… didn't look like the expressions of Pokémon who had any intention of letting them go soon. Or in a lifetime for that matter. Margi craned her head down Pleo uneasily and gave him a pleading grimace.

"Just… please try to make a good impression, okay?"

There was a moment of lingering silence, before a few paces behind, Ander hung his head with a sighing buzz.

"… Easier said than done," the Scyther said.

The group carried along, when up ahead, they saw a two-story structure that had been hewn from the surrounding rock. Two doors stood side-by-side in a stone archway, with a Rillaboom and an Alcremie standing watch. Above, there was a stone balcony, while the tunnel they passed through widened out as they continued on, as if it was meant to be used to speak to others who'd gathered there.

The Rillaboom and the Alcremie tensed up at the sight of Pleo when Nina said something just out of earshot to the two and motioned at the central doors. There was a moment of hesitation before they opened the doors and the Typhlosion headed in, with Team Traveller and their guards following suit. The light briefly grew dim as they went down a hallway, when they saw the blue light of glowmoss through a pair of open doors up ahead. They kept walking and stepped out into a tall, simple chamber where a raised table sat at the other end with four Pokémon waiting behind it: Rotom, Espeon, Spidops, and a Chatot—all Marked. The Marked recoiled and tensed up as Team Traveller made their way into the center of the chamber, before they trained skeptical frowns down at them and Nina.

"So the stories are true," the Rotom murmured. "There really is a demon in our midst."

"This is a rare lapse in judgment on your part, High Elder," the Espeon harrumphed. "I never thought I'd see the day when you of all Pokémon would knowingly bring a danger like this into our home."

Crom reflexively batted his wings out and tugged at his bindings at the Espeon's charge. He stopped fidgeting against them after reminding himself that they needed these Pokémon's help, and with a grudging sigh, he spoke up with an annoyed frown.

"Look, we don't want to hurt anyone, okay?!" the Druddigon snapped. "And that's my island's Protector! Not some 'demon'!"

The Elders for their part swiftly answered the young Druddigon's protest with a quintet of glares. The Spidops and the Chatot traded glances with each other, the latter wondering aloud why they were wasting time prattling with a demon, when Ander hastily stepped to the fore of the group and spoke up, bowing his head as the Elders' attention fell on him.

"Esteemed Elders, forgive the outburst. Perhaps it'd be better for us to start off with a mutual introduction?" the Marked Scyther offered. "We genuinely mean no harm to anybody here."

The five Elders fell silent for a moment, before Nina stepped forward and sized the group up. After a moment's pause, the Typhlosion folded her arms and let out a quiet scoff in reply.

"I believe you already know who I am. The Spidops is Elder Ramon, the Espeon is Elder Siana, the Chatot is Elder Ernest, and the Rotom is Elder Roderic," Nina said. "Now, who are you and where are you from?"

Pleo and their companions gave their introductions just like they had done many times this past month. After being further prompted, they gave a brief account of the ordeals they'd been through, Pleo making a point to avoid bringing up the few moments that he was sure wouldn't sit well with the Elders, like how his powers had hurt Rasp and Bech on Orleigh. Much to everyone's relief, the Elders nodded along with their tale, and for a second, it looked as if they were willing to hear them out…

When, much to their disappointment, the Spidops raised a foreleg and pointed square at Pleo with a piercing scowl.

"You all are a long way from Tromba right now," the Spidops said. "Why on earth does that require you to come here? Let alone with that?"

Team Traveller grimaced as the Spidops' hostility seemed to ripple out among his fellow Elders. Just how on earth were they supposed to persuade them like this? A metallic rattle filled the air as Trizano ruffled his feathers, raising his head with a stern expression.

"Because we mean to seek a helping wing," the Skarmory explained. "To join forces to drive off the pirates who have taken over Starpeak Square!"

The Elders stared back at Trizano as deepening frowns spread over their faces. The Espeon visibly tightened her eyes into a sharp glare, while the Chatot let out a sharp, derisive scoff in reply.

"Starpeak Square, what nonsense!" the Chatot squawked.

"Why don't you just go ahead and ask a feral Durant to come to the aid of a Heatmor den while you're at it?" the Rotom scoffed.

Trizano and his companions grimaced at the Elders' replies. Both Ander and Robbie had mentioned that Starbreak Square had a history of not getting along with Starpeak Square… to say the very least if either side's stories held even a kernel of truth. The Skarmory had hoped that the threat of roving marauders would've made the Elders open to set things aside for at least a little while, but with that dirty look that Nina was giving them…

"I do hope you intended to sway us with more than mere sentiment," the Typhlosion chided. "Many of the Pokémon that live in this village see Starpeak Square's troubles as its just reward, and I can't say that I disagree with them."

Ander seemed to falter for a moment, letting his gaze settle on Pleo briefly before he turned back to Nina and raised his voice to speak up.

"High Elder, I… understand if you've been wronged in the past by Pokémon from that town. I and the Marked from my own island aren't any stranger to such experiences ourselves," Ander began. "B-But we can't just turn a blind eye here! Those pirates intend to use Pleo as a weapon!"

"And if so, it's better they do so away from our refuge," Nina retorted. "If this is all you had to say to us, we will send you back outside now and let you take your chances."

Crom and his companions grimaced at the Typhlosion's retort. Travellers above, things were getting out of hand quickly. They'd come here to get their help to fight pirates, and now they were on the verge of getting kicked out not even five minutes after they'd started talking.

It wasn't fair! Didn't these Pokémon understand what those pirates would do with Pleo if they got their claws on him? They couldn't seriously be okay with letting that happen, could they?

"L-Listen to yourselves right now!" Crom cried. "If you're really so afraid of Pleo, then that's the last thing any of you should want!"

Crom's outburst did little to improve the Elders' mood, with Siana reacting particularly icily as she arched her back and let her eyes take on a visible glow.

"Still your tongue, whelp," the Espeon snarled.

"Yeah, what would a devil-worshipper like you know about our hardships?!" the Chatot exclaimed.

"… Maybe more than you think."

The Marked in the room, both Elder and guard alike fell dead silent, as their gazes turned to Pleo. Even Margi was not immune, as the Hydreigon turned about in place, craning down to the young Lugia in blinking surprise.

"Pleo? What do you mean by that?" the Hydreigon asked. "I know that I told you about our stories back on Boisocéan, but that's hardly something that you-"

"It's more than that," Pleo insisted. "We found out about all the bad things the Empire was doing right before the Great Calamity. When they and the Company were still on the same side as each other. We even have a book all about it with us right now!"

Nina and her peers fell silent after Pleo's explanation and traded hushed murmurs with one another, Crom just making out the Chatot wondering aloud to himself "do they actually have such a book?". The Typhlosion hesitated a moment, before turning over to Margi and the other guards in the room and motioned at Pleo and his companions.

"You seized their belongings earlier, did you not, Hydreigon?" she asked. "Search them for this book of theirs."

Margi hastily grunted back in affirmation before she and the other guards set out the belongings they'd taken from Team Traveller and unceremoniously dumped them out. When the guards got to Crom's bag, sure enough, flopping out with the rest of its contents, was the red cover of the Company's part of the Knights' Ledger.

A moment of stunned silence followed, as Margi moved over and nosed at the book, before turning to the young Lugia incredulously.

"Pleo, is… is this it?" she asked.

"Yes. Though there's more to it beyond that one book," Pleo said. "We were trying to use it to force the Company and the Empire to leave us alone, but…"

Pleo trailed off briefly, before lowering his head with a low sigh.

"Considering what happened to the other Ledger, maybe we're better off not keeping all of them to ourselves."

Nina made her way over, stooping down to pick up the red tome as she flipped through it briefly. The other Elders gathered about, gaping at the book and trading surprised glances with one another, before turning their attention back to Pleo as he looked up at them with a pleading gaze.

"Look, isn't it possible to try working together?" the Lugia asked. "And if you really feel that it's impossible to help Starpeak Square's Pokémon, can't you at least tell us more about what exactly happened between you two?"

Nina said nothing for a moment, before drifting off and motioning for her peers to come towards her. The five huddled in together for a brief moment, before trailing off and looking back at Pleo with a long, wavering silence. Roderic bobbed in place with a guarded frown, before he warily turned over to Nina.

"… I don't think we know enough to make a decision yet, High Elder. Especially before I have a chance to transcribe that book as the town historian," the Rotom said. "But if you wish to share our history with them, we'll support it."

Nina visibly paused, before shaking her head and turning away. Pleo sucked in a breath and was about to speak up, only for Nina to motion at Roderic. The Rotom zipped forward, taking his side alongside Nina before the Typhlosion looked back at the guards about Team Traveller and beckoned them forward.

Pleo watched as the guards led his friends forward, the ones near him visibly squirming before they quietly pleaded with Margi to handle him in their stead. The young Lugia shot a confused look at Nina as she turned off towards a hallway with an impatient harrumph.

"This way. We have much to discuss."

---

Author's Notes:

- Nosferalto - French: "Golbat"
- escíncid - Catalan: "skink"

 

[Ambyssin]

Another unexpected development. I genuinely thought they'd go in and get the help they needed this chapter and the next two or three chapters would deal with liberating the place from the pirates. Guess that won't be the case. I suppose, for the sake of completionism, there really is no time like the present to delved into all the Marked stuff. It's not like you'll have the time after this arc ends. It's basically now or never after having occasional characters pop up on various islands throughout the fic. Though it sounds like it will have more to do with the relation to the island's inhabitants than just their culture and how the place came to exist in the first place. Hopefully the latter stuff is a good chunk of the ensuing lore dump. Since, while I'm sure Marked characters will still show up (Ander at a minimum), this is really feeling like the swan song for the Marked as a cultural group. They're in the home city, after all. Can't go much further beyond that. I am glad most of the focus is on this stuff. I'm engrossed enough that I'd rather not "check in" on the groups left in the Square. Let's get our history lesson. B)

I see Zelle is doing her best impression of a Law & Order ADA. "Cooperate with our prosecution or we'll go after you instead" is a textbook ADA maneuver from any police or law procedural TV show. And, yes, they pull legally dubious stunts like this on TV all the time, too.

And, of course, with how often the term is thrown around, I must give this chapter a "More demons than a Devil May Cry game/10."

"But we're not blind at all!" a voice squawked in protest. "We can see you just fine!"

The return of Literal Genie Pleo!

"You really should've kept quiet there, Pleo."

Pleo's persuasion stat isn't very high.

with the Dugtrio nervously trying to reassure himself that "they're not so tough now".

I like to imagine it's one of the dugtrio heads saying that to the other two.

They were supposed to be asking these Pokémon for help! Not getting beaten up by them like this!

Uhh... it's kind of been the pattern for how many chapters now?

"That's why you came straight to us, right?"

"B-But you just mentioned we could've been given a shortcut and didn't take it!"

"M-Margi?"

Oh, hey, look! It's this... character. That I don't remember. Because it has been literal years since I've seen her. XD

"This is the place we fled to after we parted ways on Boisocéan."

"Margi that was almost a million words ago."

"I-I just found out about it barely a week ago!" Bunsen protested

A likely story.

Margi narrowed her eyes back at Bunsen, and muttered something under her breath about a "likely story"

QED :V

"Oh no! Anyway…"

We're willing to take the gamble."

Trizano banking on that high charisma roll.

He didn't know how he felt about being a prisoner again

It's okay, Pleo. You get taken prisoner one more time and you get enough stamps on your card for a free smoothie!

Even if it bothered him, it was probably best to just keep quiet for now.

Pleo gained +2 wisdom! (Not that it matters...)

"DEMON! DEMON!"

No, it's like Beetlejuice. You have to say it three times to make the thing happen.

"It's… a long story."

"Like over a million words."

"Loose lips sink ships."

"Both literal and romantic!"

"I'll take a cup of water," Zelle said. "I'm still on the job right now."

Zelle's been watching her police procedurals.

"During my investigation, I couldn't help but notice that you had some disciplinary actions recently added to your record."

Zelle was definitely a hall monitor as a student.

All we'd need is your testimony in front of the Board,

Ah, yes, classic TV prosecution. Coerce witness testimony for your case.

"But there's also a few extra details that you should mention in your testimony."

... And subtly suggest they perjure themselves.

"Or, you know. You could just do as you're told and there'd be nothing to worry about."

... While threatening them with legal action if they don't comply.

"Just… please try to make a good impression, okay?"

Narrator: He will not make a good impression.

Elder Ramon

Ah, yes, Spidops Ramen. The most delicious ramen.

After being further prompted, they gave a brief account of the ordeals they'd been through,

How does one make a million words of adventures brief?

"Many of the Pokémon that live in this village see Starpeak Square's troubles as its just reward, and I can't say that I disagree with them."

See, this would be a good spot to bring up the fact that if they don't take a stand, the pirates could decide to raid the mystery dungeon and ransack their village for everything they own. But that would end the chapter too quickly. :V

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Hey, everybody. It’s been a while, but @Virgil134 and I are back with a fresh update, and a review response to boot.

@Ambyssin

Spoiler

Another unexpected development. I genuinely thought they'd go in and get the help they needed this chapter and the next two or three chapters would deal with liberating the place from the pirates. Guess that won't be the case. I suppose, for the sake of completionism, there really is no time like the present to delved into all the Marked stuff. It's not like you'll have the time after this arc ends. It's basically now or never after having occasional characters pop up on various islands throughout the fic. Though it sounds like it will have more to do with the relation to the island's inhabitants than just their culture and how the place came to exist in the first place. Hopefully the latter stuff is a good chunk of the ensuing lore dump. Since, while I'm sure Marked characters will still show up (Ander at a minimum), this is really feeling like the swan song for the Marked as a cultural group. They're in the home city, after all. Can't go much further beyond that. I am glad most of the focus is on this stuff. I'm engrossed enough that I'd rather not "check in" on the groups left in the Square. Let's get our history lesson. B)

Well, you’re not too far off there. Though there will be plenty for you to chew on on that front today, so it’ll be interesting to see what you make of it.

I see Zelle is doing her best impression of a Law & Order ADA. "Cooperate with our prosecution or we'll go after you instead" is a textbook ADA maneuver from any police or law procedural TV show. And, yes, they pull legally dubious stunts like this on TV all the time, too.

>legally dubious stunts

I mean, the legal system in Company waters basically runs off of:

So I think that she’s good there. Or at least by local standards. :V

And, of course, with how often the term is thrown around, I must give this chapter a "More demons than a Devil May Cry game/10."

Pleo: “B-But I’m not a demon…”

The return of Literal Genie Pleo!

One of the better Pleos in this story, really. o<o

Pleo's persuasion stat isn't very high.

What if he just rolled poorly on his persuasion check?

I like to imagine it's one of the dugtrio heads saying that to the other two.

I actually hadn’t considered that, but it’s a pretty funny mental image to have, yes.

Uhh... it's kind of been the pattern for how many chapters now?

Pleo: “Too many.”

"B-But you just mentioned we could've been given a shortcut and didn't take it!"

Marked Guard: “Straight enough!”

"Margi that was almost a million words ago."

Margi: “Has it really been that long?”

A likely story.

Bunsen: “Look, I’m trying not to die here!”

QED :V

No, the Quantum Entanglement Device from CoD Zombies isn’t in this story, unfortunately. >:V

Yeah, we’re not above slipping in a bit of meme humor here and there in this story. It’s a very old tradition.

Trizano banking on that high charisma roll.

I mean, he is a character with a high charisma stat canonically, so…

It's okay, Pleo. You get taken prisoner one more time and you get enough stamps on your card for a free smoothie!

Pleo: “Wait, really?”
Margi: “Obviously not. Just come along quietly.” -_-; -_-; -_-;

Pleo gained +2 wisdom! (Not that it matters...)

Don’t be so sure about that…

No, it's like Beetlejuice. You have to say it three times to make the thing happen.

Ander: “That sounds like an absolutely terrible idea, since I’d really really like for Pleo to not go full ‘demon of destruction’ mode right about now.”

"Like over a million words."

"Both literal and romantic!"

So… that means we’re going to see a romantic relationship get sunk in PoV sometime in such a fashion? :V

Zelle's been watching her police procedurals.

Zelle: “What can I say? They make for great entertainment.”

Zelle was definitely a hall monitor as a student.

I… could buy that, actually.

Ah, yes, classic TV prosecution. Coerce witness testimony for your case.

... And subtly suggest they perjure themselves.

... While threatening them with legal action if they don't comply.

Zelle: “Again, let’s review how the legal system works in these waters:

All good? Yeah, we’re all good.”

Narrator: He will not make a good impression.

Crom: “Look, can we at least have a little optimism on our behalf?” >.<

Ah, yes, Spidops Ramen. The most delicious ramen.

How does one make a million words of adventures brief?

With lots and lots of summarizing and ignoring all the parts written from villainous perspectives. ^^

See, this would be a good spot to bring up the fact that if they don't take a stand, the pirates could decide to raid the mystery dungeon and ransack their village for everything they own. But that would end the chapter too quickly. :V

Well, that and there’d be a serious chance of them going:

Which wouldn’t exactly get Pleo and the gang any closer to busting the rest of the gang out.

Though, thanks for your patience, everybody. Along with a new chapter, we’ve got some new art of Pladur to show off.

We’ll be aiming to grind out one more update for 2023, give or take a couple weeks given past precedent. Kudos once again to those reading and reviewing, especially here on Serebii.

Though let’s pick up right where we left off, with a dash of storytime this chapter:

 

[Virgil134]

Tak tak tak!

Lyn pulled the flat of his blade back from tapping a set of metal plates in front of him and ran his paw over them, before looking up at a set of four masts with lavender sails towering overhead. It was definitely Darzin's ironclad, even if he'd hardly imagined that he'd already be captaining it.

The Samurott watched as the ship's deck and gangplanks hummed with activity, and then off at the surrounding piers which were filled with Pokémon going about. It was hard to believe that the military harbor had already been cleared up after that whole episode with the Siglo Swellow just a couple days ago. Even if a few docks were still unusable from damaged ships, it was already bustling and back to something approaching normalcy again.

Lyn climbed up one of the ship's gangplank, as Pokémon, many of whom he didn't recognize, went about tending to rigging or crates of supplies in a hurry. As they should, since the Director expected them to hit the high seas as soon as the ship was fully crewed and stocked. Everyone seemed to be doing something towards that end… well, except Ketu, who was leaning on his arm against the railing a few paces away from the frontmost gangplank, and idly watching Lyn as he passed by.

"Had to pinch yourself to make sure you weren't dreaming, huh?" the Weavile teased.

"Hrmph, the ship's not mine yet," Lyn reminded. "I just wanted to make sure that we knew the ins and outs of this 'Wyrmwind' before we took it out to sea."

Ketu tilted his head, before pinning his ears back with a quirk of his brow.

"'Wyrmwind'? You're seriously going with that?" he questioned. "You don't exactly scream 'dragony' to me as a captain."

"It's what the name on the hull says, doesn't it?" Lyn replied. "We have bigger issues to worry about right now than whether or not the ship's name suits me."

The Samurott's eyes took on a steely gaze, as he walked up and peered down with a stern frown at his Weavile first mate.

"Though that actually reminds me, Ketu," Lyn said. "There was something I needed to have a word with you about."

"Yeah?" the Weavile asked. "What's up?"

The otter's expression remained every bit as serious in reply. While Lyn had never been one for jokes, Ketu took it that there was something that'd been bothering him.

"You never did give me an explanation for why you weren't with the crew when we pushed off to intercept Lugia in the lagoon a few days ago," Lyn said. "Where were you?"

Ketu's face fell into a frown, before rolling his eyes with a quiet sigh.

"I thought that we already went over this, Captain," he answered. "I was with Sorge and the others and lost track of time when we ran into Lugia and Zygarde in the city. Things got out of control, Lugia escaped, and I wound up missing the boat because of it."

"Then why was Ellsberg there as well?" Lyn pressed, cocking a brow in reply. "You two haven't exactly been particularly close to each other, and I can't imagine he knows Team Sentinel himself."

The Samurott narrowed his eyes briefly, before continuing on in a low, wary tone.

"Is there something going on that I should know about, Ketu?"

Ketu blinked back wordlessly for a moment, before closing his eyes and answering with a dismissive shrug.

"Yeah, I'm actually the spy you're looking for," the Weavile replied. "We all decided to get together and plan out the best way to stab you in the back."

A tense silence lingered in the air afterwards as a smug grin came over Ketu's face. Lyn's frown deepened, before Ketu burst out into laughter. Lyn let out an annoyed groan, and grit his teeth with a sharp growl.

"Ketu, can you take things seriously for once?!"

The Weavile wiped away a tear as he finished laughing. After a moment to breathe in, Ketu composed himself, and his features quickly took on a more serious demeanor.

"Alright, alright… to answer your question for real: Ellsberg was there because he wanted to get to know Team Sentinel better," the Dark-Type explained. "They got along well on the trip back from Buyeom, especially him and Aldrich. We figured it'd be nice to try and spend some time together when we weren't worried about missions or getting our hull shot out from under us."

Ketu eyed Lyn carefully. He didn't think Lyn had gotten wise to his actual assignment on his crew, but with the way the Samurott kept asking questions about what he'd up to lately… maybe it was best to give him a bit more misdirection than just a "joke".

"Though you're definitely more high strung than normal," Ketu remarked. "What's gotten you so on edge?"

Lyn fell silent and lowered his head as his eyes drifted towards the deck's timbers. There was a brief pause, before the Samurott let out a low sigh.

"I… suppose that it's just work stress getting to me," he murmured. "It's my last chance to complete my mission for the Board, and just knowing that the spy on Buyeom is still lurking out there…"

Lyn trailed off briefly, before shaking his head and giving a low grunt to clear his thoughts.

"I'll just rest easier once we get the Guardian of the Seas back from those pirates," the Samurott said. "It'll be nice to finally put this saga behind us and start thinking about the future again."

Ketu raised a brow. 'Thinking about the future'? That was certainly new coming from Lyn. Knowing him, it'd probably just be lording over his new seat as an Administrator or something about buying back that place in Canalhouse City his family once owned, but…

What could he already be thinking ahead towards when he didn't even know yet what his first assignment as an Administrator was going to entail?

Ketu paused after feeling a heavy paw nudge at his shoulder, looking up to see Lyn looking at him from the corner of his eyes with a stern frown.

"Just make sure you're there this time when we go to collect Lugia," Lyn insisted. "There's not a lot of margin for error for our mission, so I can't afford to have you go missing again."

Ketu pinned back his ears and stifled a groan of his own. Right, he was still here because he hadn't managed to take Lyn out of the picture yet. At least it would surely be straightforward to snatch Lugia out from under him once Sorge and the others managed to talk their way aboard Lyn's expedition. They just needed to get Lyn's guard down first by finding his "spy" for him.

After they were done, he'd finally no longer have to play a fool in front of Lyn to preserve his cover, and it couldn't come a moment too soon. Just a couple more days, the Weavile reassured himself. And his role in this farce would finally be over.

"Yeah, I get it," Ketu grumbled. "I'll be there, don't worry."

The Weavile drifted off further down the deck while Lyn turned around and began to make his way towards the stern. Along the way, he spotted a pair of deckhands stumbling briefly with a crate and dropping it on the deck, the lid jostling off to reveal it was packed with Apricorns. The deckhands briefly bickered with one another over who was at fault, only to abruptly silence themselves and stiffen up at Lyn's approach.

"I see all the shot I asked for came on time," Lyn said. "Try and at least pretend that you're handling it carefully."

Lyn watched as the deckhands hastily saluted before gathering up the crate and drifting off into the crowd. The Samurott continued along with a satisfied huff as a knowing smirk came over his muzzle.

"After all, we'll need it."

---

The journey from the Elders' meeting chamber took Team Traveller down a hallway to a flight of stairs watched over by a pair of guards clad in segments of cloth and mail. Pleo blinked at the sight of the armored guards as Margi and the rest of their entourage shuffled them along down the steps that seemed to just keep going and going. Occasionally, there'd be heavy doors blocking the way with another pair of similarly armored guards standing watch. Every time, the guards would tense up at the sight of the young Protector, only for Nina to talk them down and have them open the door, before they'd continue on deeper into the earth.

"H-Huh?!"

Except this time, there were no further stairs, but a long hallway lined with torches. There were painted images on the walls, while off in the distance was some sort of dead-end. Pleo and his teammates stared blankly as Nina and Roderic made their way in, the Lugia blinking and gaping about as Margi and the other guards started to lead them down the strange hall.

"Where are we?" Pleo wondered.

"I'm… actually not sure," Margi replied. "I admittedly didn't know that this place even existed."

"Our town's Hall of Remembrance," Roderic answered. "It is a place where we remember the past and ensure this town's survival for the future."

Pleo and his companions traded confused glances with one another. Crom brought a claw up to his mouth uneasily, and he turned his attention back to Nina and Roderic.

"What… does that mean, exactly?" Crom asked. "How would any of this help you survive?"

"See for yourself."

Nina motioned down the hall at the strange door, prompting Pleo and his companions to squint and try and make it out. After studying it a bit, they realized that the door they were looking at looked almost like the one in the Vault, just with more rust coating its surface.

"It's… a door?" Pleo asked.

"It's a seal. Over the place where the egg of this island's demon rests," Roderic explained. "A lesser demon, called 'Jirachi' who maliciously tempts others with the promise of granting wishes."

The four froze and had their jaws fall agape at the Rotom's explanation. Even Margi and Ander seemed visibly taken aback as their eyes widened and they reflexively shrank away from the sealed door. Trizano stared at the door blankly for a moment, before he tried and failed to beat his wings out, spluttering in indignant protest as he fought against his ropes.

"B-But you can't do that!" Trizano squawked. "Whatever you think of Jirachi, no good could come from harming a Protector like this!"

"… We know that," Nina said. "That's why it remains sealed away."

The Typhlosion turned, and leveled a paw down at Pleo with a piercing scowl

"It's also why we brought you here," she continued. "So that way you could understand why there is no hope for us to make cause with you."

Pleo sucked in a sharp breath and began to backpedal nervously. Had Nina and Roderic had brought them down to push him behind that 'seal' as well? A brief shadow fell over him as he saw Ander in front of him, holding out a scythe between him and Nina as he seemed to be visibly weighing his words.

"High Elder, with all due respect, but these are unprecedented circumstances," the Scyther began. "I… know that it's a risk to accept the help of a being like Lugia, but he very genuinely doesn't seem to mean anyone harm. Just what exactly is this argument you have against him?"

Nina gave no reply to Ander and stepped forward, brushing his scythe aside with an unimpressed scowl.

"Hrmph, have you not read the Scripture of Truth, Scyther?" the Typhlosion scoffed. "Though if you are really so unversed in the dangers of such creatures in spite of being one who sees the truth, just take a look around you."

Nina raised a paw and motioned off at the walls of the chamber. Crom followed after her paw as it quickly became apparent that the colors and shapes along the walls were various pictures with lines of what looked like Unown just beneath them. They appeared to depict Pokémon of all shapes and sizes on them, many of them in the backdrop of chaotic-looking scenes.

The Druddigon tensed up at the sight of the pictures, before warily turning back at Nina and Roderic.

"What is all of this?" he murmured.

"The story of how Starbreak Square came to be," Roderic said.

The Rotom floated up towards the leftmost mural and settled on it as Nina pushed fire out of her body's vents for illumination. As Crom and his companions approached the painting, they noticed that it was a scene of a simple-looking village by a river. All sorts of Pokémon were present in it, intermixed alongside hazy figures with bodies that looked vaguely like a Machoke's. Why, it didn't feel that different from everyday life back in Bluewhorl Town. Everywhere he looked in the scene, there were Pokémon and those strange creatures just working together much as he and the townsfolk would back home.

"Long ago, our world had vast continents and seas which spanned the whole planet. A world where untold multitudes of Pokémon lived, one which they shared with creatures that didn't wield powers like we do," Roderic began. "Crafty creatures who thought in ways that you and I would find alien, and who were able to work miracles because of it. It was a world where even Pokémon who were weak and ones that didn't belong could make cause with those creatures and lift each other up."

Crom and his teammates carried along past the mural of the village, when the Druddigon stiffened up after seeing the next picture. It was a mural of a burning landscape showing a white, hooved quadruped with some sort of golden ring around its waist emerging from a rift pouring out pink mist in the background. Large creatures of various shapes could be seen in the foreground in front of it, laying waste to the surroundings. At the center of attention, there was a ruined village with those humanoid figures and Pokémon looking up in a panic as a black and red bird with sinister, dull blue eyes descended upon them.

Crom blinked at the sight of the creatures. He recognized the white figure as Arceus, but most of the others were unrecognizable. Or at least they were until the Druddigon noticed that there in the background, amongst lighting and stormclouds, one of the figures was a white, long-necked bird with blue spikes.

It dawned on him afterwards what the different figures were: they were the Old World's Protectors. Or at least, the way the Marked remembered them.

"But our ancestors' world had a fatal weakness. It had a weakened boundary with the Abyss, a place where thoughts and dreams become flesh and blood," Roderic continued. "And so it was that during a time of great turmoil, the Abyss spawned the great Archdemon, who came from that fell place and fashioned servants with which he subjugated our world."

Pleo shifted uncomfortably at the picture before Margi prodded him to continue on. He shuffled along and soon enough, he and his companions came to the next mural. It was a scene depicting a red and gold bird with green wingtips, standing in the midst of a shattered village. A throng of humans and Pokémon were gathered around the strange bird bowing and prostrating themselves. At the fore was a small group of humans and Pokémon, bearing offerings of food while visibly frightened, all while the creature sneered down at them with an almost predatory gaze.

… The Old Gods couldn't possibly have been like that, could they? He wasn't really some 'demon', was he? He certainly didn't feel like one…

And yet, after thinking back to their own experiences on Boisocean, it was clear that something had happened long ago to make the Marked think that.

"Yes… Margi told me a story like that," Pleo replied. "She said that humans discovered magic and that they discovered that Arceus and other Pokémon like me were demons. Then afterwards, they got into a fight where the Old Protectors destroyed the world while the humans tried to fight them off…"

The others turned and stared at the Hydreigon as she uneasily cleared her throat, before speaking up in an audibly flustered tone.

"I- I suppose that I did tell him that, yes," she said. "Though aren't we just seeing things that are already recorded in the Scripture of Truth? I was under the impression that this was the story of Starbreak Square in particular."

"Our history comes from that same history recorded in those scriptures, Hydreigon," Nina answered. "We'll get to the details that are more particular to us in time."

Margi fell quiet with an expression that looked much as if she'd just been scolded. For a brief moment, Pleo couldn't help but worry about whether or not he'd gotten her into trouble, only for them to start moving along again. He and his teammates continued down the hall until they reached another mural a little further down. In the center of it, high above everything, was a brilliant red star with a ray of light coming out of it amidst a burning landscape. When he and his companions followed the beam's path with their eyes, they noticed that it ended by running through a green and black serpent that looked much like Kline did back on Vollezee. One who appeared to be recoiling in stunned pain. There were other figures they didn't recognize that laid strewn about the ground, all in poses that suggested they'd been suddenly struck down.

Pleo stared at the picture uncomfortably for a moment, before turning back to Nina. He supposed that if Nina and the other villagers genuinely thought that he and the other Protectors were demons that this awful scene would be a good thing to them, but…

"I… don't know if I believe that the old Protectors were really awful like you say they were," the Lugia said. "But I know that you do and that Ander does. Though even if they were, I just don't understand why it means that we can't work with each other…"

"It's because of what came after," Nina remarked. "After what remained of life in the Old World retreated to the Cradle."

Nina raised a paw as another mural came into view: there was Arceus again, but this time reared up as pillars of light rained down from the heavens. All around, the surroundings seemed to be in disorder: mountains crumbled, the skies were choked with ash and storms, and the fog of Mystery Dungeons spilled out here and there. In the foreground, there were Pokémon fleeing a village, a few looking back as their surrounding world collapsed.

Pleo felt a chill run down his back at the mural, and was quietly thankful that Nina didn't stop to explain the picture before she and Roderic moved on.

The next mural depicted a group of weary-looking Pokémon at a beach with gray and dusty land behind them and towering storms in the background that stretched on across the horizon in a seeming wall. In the foreground, the Pokémon were shown gathering on the backs of swimmers and onto simple rafts pulled with tow cables. Pleo thought to ask what was going on in this scene, only for Nina to keep walking on to the next one, which depicted the same Pokémon from before warily looking out at their surroundings at sea under blue skies. Right next to it, there was another mural in which the rafts and swimmers had arrived at a beach with their passengers stepping off in awe. Other Pokémon were present in the background, who seemed to be at work putting together half-finished huts and piers.

Nina and Roderic paused briefly, before the Rotom of the pair motioned at the mural and began to speak up to explain it.

"After the Archdemon put an end to the presence of humans in our world, small bands of Pokémon braved their way through untold trials and hardship from the chaos the demons foisted on us in their dying rage," Roderic said. "It should've been a time when their true nature was laid bare for all to see."

Nina looked away, and let her eyes fall to the ground as her voice came out in a bitter, faltering murmur.

"And yet… so many didn't."

The next mural was a picture of an island with a towering mountain on it partly wreathed in snow. On it, Arceus stood on a bluff watching as ships gathered on the shore below where groups of Pokémon gathered around eggs, some of which were fairly large. A few of the eggs were being shown in the process of being brought aboard different ships, and one, with an egg on its deck, was even sailing off into the water. Like with the strange bird in the mural with the ruined village, the Pokémon seemed to cringe and shrink away when they were under Arceus' gaze. But elsewhere in the same mural, some of the Pokémon were paying reverence to the eggs with them.

Crom blinked at the scene. He vaguely remembered stories that some of the first ships that had been built in the Cradle were used to bring Protectors' eggs to the islands where they incubated, except… he didn't recognize this island in the mural at all.

"… Wait, what is this place?" Crom asked.

"Shennow Island. The island that is located in the center of the Cradle," Roderic answered. "It was said to have been formed from a throne of the Archdemon in the Old World, and it was the place where he created the eggs of all the demons that slumber in this world."

"And of the ones who have already awakened and currently walk in our midst," Nina growled, training a piercing scowl over at the young Lugia in the group.

Trizano blinked back at the Typhlosion and narrowed his eyes with a bewildered tilt of his head.

"Wait, but Shennow isn't even in Anyilla," the Skarmory protested. "What does this have to do with your situation here?"

"Because this place was founded in the wake of the Sigillating Wars," Ander explained, shifting his wings in place uneasily. "It affected all of the Cradle. Not just Anyilla."

"That's correct," Roderic remarked. "It was because at the time, the truth managed to endure and become known by a large body of Pokémon across this little sliver of the Old World which we live in."

Crom looked on as the murals seemed to change as they continued walking along. There was a mural depicting a banner being raised over the now-finished town with a design that looked similar to the ones on the scarves of Starbreak Square's guards. In the next one down, a Charizard stood up before a crowd of onlooking Pokémon in the town's square and seemed to be giving some sort of impassioned speech. The mural after that had Pokémon from the town boarding ships, some wearing armor bearing the same design from the banner, which also flew from their sails.

Crom blinked at the sight and turned towards Nina and Roderic as they stopped. They were at the 'seal' now, and the pair had serious expressions. He thought to ask what was going on, when Roderic raised a tendril and pointed off at the opposite side of the hallway.

"Despite the Archdemon's attempts at manipulating our civilization in infancy to mold meek and obedient servants, he was unable to fully smother the truth. In spite of it all, those among our forebears who remembered the truth of what happened during the end of the Old World recorded it and passed it along to their descendents," the historian explained. "It is their efforts that allowed us to understand just how much those demons who exalted themselves as 'gods' had wounded our world."

Team Traveller started to retrace their steps and noticed that the first murals on the return path from the door all carried a disquieting, oppressive air to them: masses of Pokémon locked in fierce battle, Pokémon being wounded and others laying strewn about limply on the ground on beaches. Others had scenes of burning fields, ruined towns, or ships in battle with each other at sea with Pokémon falling overboard and others struggling to cling to floating wreckage. The scenes grew troubling enough that Pleo wound up turning his head away from them entirely with a cold shiver. He peered up afterwards, and saw Roderic looking down at him with a small frown.

"Our ancestors were fiercely opposed by the Archdemon's acolytes, both Civilized and Feral," the Rotom explained. "And yet we prevailed, enduring and discovering that in his arrogance, the Archdemon sought to recreate the order he had in the Old World. An order in which he had inner circles of particularly high servants."

"One which if cut down, would leave him vulnerable and unable to exert his influence," Nina finished. "It was our last, best chance to finally be free of the Archdemon's influence. To destroy him and try and pick up the pieces of our world."

Nina trailed off, the Typhlosion's gaze drifting towards the ground as a tired, deflated mood seemed to settle over her.

"Was, anyways."

Crom wasn't sure what to make of Nina's reaction, when he noticed that they'd reached another mural set on a towering mountain. On it, two armies were locked in a fierce battle, one with that same sigil he saw in the earlier murals depicting that seaside village, while the other was made up of Pokémon with different colors or symbols that fought beneath Arceus' gaze. There were five others beside Arceus, all armored figures that had a sinister air about them, with one of whom Crom recognized to be a Staraptor.

… Was that supposed to be King Aquila?

"Shennow Island has a particularly treacherous Mystery Dungeon on it," Roderic said. "One where the Archdemon had formed and kept the eggs of a trio of particularly powerful demons."

The Rotom floated and turned his head over at the mural, before looking away with a buzzing sigh.

"Our ancestors marshaled a great force on that island to destroy them, and were opposed by the five Champions of Corruption that the Archdemon conjured from the sky. Including the one you call 'King Aquila'."

Crom didn't know what to say back to Roderic after that, only to stop after reaching the next mural. It was a painting of a ruined temple with white pillars surrounded by fog in all directions. The Charizard from the earlier murals was there again, breathing out fire onto a trio of eggs set out onto an altar, with King Aquila looking on in shock from the ground and raising a wing.

What… on earth were they looking at? The Druddigon turned over to Nina and Roderic and noticed the two were deathly quiet, and looked away with bitter frowns.

"In spite of it all, our heroes made it to the cusp of victory," Roderic said. "And against all odds, they found and destroyed the demon eggs they set out for."

Pleo, Crom, and Trizano's eyes all shrank to pins at the Rotom's words and they collectively turned to Ander with alarmed grimaces. The eggs had been destroyed? How was that not a disaster in and of itself?!

Strangely, Margi and Ander both seemed entirely unmoved. And something wasn't adding up. For the Marked, wouldn't slaying their 'demons' be something they were proud of? Shouldn't Nina and Roderic be gloating or rubbing things in right now? Crom looked over at Nina, who motioned ahead off at an upcoming mural and shook her head with a low murmur.

"Except… our ancestors didn't realize that for all of their strength and valor, they were badly outmatched."

Crom continued on to the mural Nina was pointing at, but froze up with a startled yelp when he saw it. The painting depicted a calamitous scene of Arceus in the sky as pillars of light rained down from the heavens. In the foreground, the Pokémon flying the strange banners from the earlier murals were in a state of disorder. Their ships lay burning and sinking, some of them were being engulfed in light pillars, others were being set upon by their enemies, still others lay strewn about the ground. Those that remained on their feet were fleeing, with terror on their faces and in their gaits. In a few places of the mural, there were Pokémon who were trapped and vainly attempted to shield themselves and others as they braced for their ends.

Just looking at the painting made Crom's blood run cold and his stomach knot up in stress. He wouldn't have expected a fight with the gods to have ended well, but something about seeing its aftermath depicted like this was downright chilling.

Crom turned over to Roderic and Nina, and saw that the pair looked visibly defeated. The Rotom of the pair sighed, before motioning off at the mural with a low buzz.

"The Archdemon himself intervened and made war against our ancestors, felling most of our strongest warriors on that rock and scattering those who survived his onslaught," Roderic said. "Even so, he grew afraid, realizing that those who knew the truth in the Cradle were still great in number and strong enough to be dangerous to him."

When Pleo and the others reached the next mural, they found a peculiar scene. One that showed a village full of Marked who all seem bewildered. Some pointed off at each other, some stared into mirrors, while others pawed at their heads. In the foreground, an Oshawott could be seen stooping down beside a pool of water, looking down bewilderedly at her reflection as she examined what looked like a five-tailed comet on her forehead.

It was then that Pleo realized that up until now, none of the Pokémon in the earlier murals had had Marks, but they did now. He turned back to Roderic to ask what the meaning of the change was, only for the Rotom to seemingly anticipate his curiosity and let out a low sigh.

"And so, after the Sigillating Wars, the Archdemon changed the fabric of reality so that it would brand those who knew the truth. The truth that your kind are demons who have come to subjugate us," Roderic muttered. "Once a Pokémon in this world comes to know and understand that truth, the Mark manifests on him or her so that way no they cannot hide from those who remain trapped in ignorance."

Pleo stiffened up. Then… the Mark wasn't something that Pokémon were born with? He supposed it would explain the Chikorita that he saw earlier, but… why hadn't they ever run into any other Pokémon who'd become Marked without being born to Marked parents?

… Maybe they had. His mind turned back to Sibich and how his pirates would steal eggs from Pokémon, and how his crew had a curiously large number of Marked on it. Nida had told him that the Cofagrigus basically treated his Marked underlings as disposable tools…

Had… he had a role in making them in the first place?

Even so, if that was really what had happened, then something wasn't adding up…

"Wait, but then shouldn't it be possible for grown Pokémon to also become Marked, too?" the Lugia asked. "If that's really the case, how come these Marks only form when Pokémon are young children?"

"They don't just form when Pokémon are young children."

Pleo turned back and saw Margi pawing uneasily at her shoulder.

"I mean, I've never seen it for myself, but there's definitely records of the Mark forming on grown Pokémon," she insisted. "There just haven't been many events that have happened since the Sigillating Wars that can awaken grown Pokémon to the truth."

"Oh, it's happened a lot more recently than that," Nina replied. "This very town has witnessed it."

That one took Margi aback. She looked back stunned at the Typhlosion when Roderic bobbled in the air with what looked like a flash of discomfort, before cutting in with a sharp buzz.

"We saw it happen firsthand among the survivors from the Great Calamity," the Rotom said. "A number of them saw the truth after Conntow was laid to waste."

"And for their trouble, they were shunned by both the Empire and Company," Nina sighed. "There were no records surviving to prove their identities, so they were dismissed as charlatans with few willing to believe them and the horrors they'd witnessed. So, it fell to Pokémon like us to take them into our numbers."

Pleo stared blankly at the Typhlosion, when she let out a low scoff and looked away with a dismissive scowl.

"But really, what should we have expected from the descendants of Aquila and Adler?"

Pleo and his teammates paused and turned back to Nina in confusion. Trizano furrowed his brow, and turned his beak up with a defensive harrumph.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Come and see, Skarmory," Nina said.

Trizano trailed off as he and his group passed the next panel, coming to a scene depicting a Marked Tyranitar at a table reluctantly reaching out for a paper. On the other end of the table was a Staraptor with a crown, who leveled a cold, cruel stare in reply. There were other Pokémon on each end of the table. On the Tyranitar's side, there were other Marked who looked visibly defeated and frightened, and on the Staraptor's side, guards in indigo scarves and cerulean armor plates who shot back sneers and predatory looks.

Pleo lingered over the mural as he walked past it. It took him a moment to piece things together, but he realized that even if the details were a little different, that he'd seen a picture like this before.

"Wait, what is this picture?" Pleo asked. "I saw one like it back on Giotto, except the Staraptor and the other Pokémon with him didn't look so mean."

Nina raised a brow briefly at the Lugia's remark, as Roderic spoke up with a flat, emotionless tone.

"It's a mural of the day that our ancestors in Anyilla no longer had the strength to keep fighting after the Archdemon cut down their heroes," the Rotom explained. "The day that they were forced to yield to Aquila and become his vassals."

Pleo blinked uneasily and continued on with his companions onto the next mural, which showed a village with timbered buildings by the seaside and a tall mountain in the background. In it, there were Pokémon going about its lanes, both ones with and without Marks.

… Wait a minute, that shape of the mountain looked just like the one here on Gestirn. Was that village supposed to be Starpeak Square? Pleo would've never guessed that Marked once lived there from the way that they and the villagers talked about each other. Except, the Pokémon in the painting were already largely separate from each other, and the few places that they weren't and were interacting with each other didn't seem like particularly happy ones.

It all felt uncomfortably familiar for some reason. Probably because those interactions seemed a lot like the whole episode with Ander and the other Pokémon who wanted him to 'meet his maker.

From the way Ander and Margi were looking away, Pleo supposed that he must've been onto something.

"It was Aquila who left us to be humiliated and shut out afterwards," Roderic said bitterly. "Treating us as a conquered people to be trodden and spat on."

Pleo didn't need any prompting before he continued on and reached the next mural, of a younger Staraptor arriving to Starpeak Square with a menacing air about him. Ahead of him, Pokémon in Imperial garb amassed along the beach as smoke curled up from the town's fringes. There were more points where the Marked and other Pokémon met each other, but somehow those meetings were even worse than in the last mural. Marked being set upon by attacking Pokémon, Marked turning and fleeing from buildings that were being set aflame, cannons at the end of streets with puffs of smoke coming from their barrels and small dots in the air…

The Lugia felt an uncomfortable chill settle over his body. Cabot and his friends had spoken of Aquila like he was a great hero, and they certainly didn't say anything about him doing things like this.

"And it was his son who attempted to destroy us entirely, the one who drove our ancestors into this place to die."

Pleo turned his head and noticed the next mural over. It was a scene of Marked Pokémon frantically fleeing into an approach of a fog-shrouded mountain as pursuers in indigo garb and trails of smoke loomed in the background behind him. There had been a painting not all that different from this one in that library he'd been in in Tidemill City. Except, in that one, the Marked Pokémon had been further in the background, and he didn't remember them looking this hurt or scared in it.

He opened his mouth to ask what on earth was happening, only to realize that they were almost back at the entrance of the hallway. The last few murals seemed to go by quickly: one of a Glaceon speaking to a crowd of frightened and defeated-looking Marked in a cave chamber, another depicting tunnels being dug and earth and stone being cleared away, and still another showing the Glaceon watching as armored guards were putting together the rusted door at the end of the hallway, with an egg visible further on in the background.

Pleo's ears perked to attention as he noticed the sound of Nina's footsteps were different. He looked up and saw that she and Roderic had already climbed the first few steps and were looking down at them.

"But we defied the fate he intended for us, and made a haven out of this place which Adler intended to be our grave," Roderic said. "And so we endure to this day, and give shelter to those who also know the truth and come to us."

The Rotom trailed off and looked away with a wistful expression.

"… It's all that we can do at this point."

Pleo gave a puzzled tilt of his head at the pair. Nina sighed and shook her head, raising a paw as she spoke up again to explain.

"It is said that the Archdemon created another set of eggs to replace the one that our ancestors destroyed on Shennow Island," Nina said. "Just finding it once with a grand army required multiple strokes of fate in our favor. Ones which would be unlikely to repeat even if we had that sort of strength again."

A sharp frown came over Typhlosion's face as she turned away, and looked off up the stairwell with a bitter scoff.

"… That's why working with you is impossible, demon."

"B-But it's not!"

Nina looked back at the sound of squawking protest, turning to see Pleo craning his head up as Margi attempted to hold him back. The Typhlosion reflexively tensed up, as did Roderic and the other Marked present, only for them to ease after noticing that the young Lugia's face carried a pleading expression to it.

"None of us had anything to do with that! I didn't have anything to do with that!" Pleo protested. "I… don't know if your story about the Mark is really all true, but I wouldn't have just been okay with things if that was really what happened!"

Pleo trailed off and looked aside, as a few of the Marked guards traded surprised looks with one another. The young Protector paused and weighed his words, before turning back to Nina and speaking up with an uneasy murmur.

"I've seen how Pokémon use it as an excuse to be mean and awful to Pokémon like you," Pleo said. "However the Mark started, whatever it was supposed to do, it didn't turn out good in the end. And every Protector I know would feel the same about it!"

Nina and Roderic remained silent, leveling wordless stares back. Some of the guards seemed taken aback and began to wonder aloud to themselves with questions like "Is this some sort of trick?" and "Why on earth would a demon say such things?" Trizano turned his attention around at their guides, and sensing an opportunity to press their argument, he made his way out in front of Nina and Roderic with a visible frown.

"You also didn't need to bring up Aquila and Adler. We ourselves know that the Empire has been up to its share of dark deeds, ones a lot more recently than a few centuries ago," Trizano explained. "The Pokémon in Starpeak Square didn't know anything about it, and they were surprised to find out that the Empire was pursuing a Protector."

The pair didn't say anything back, when Trizano realized that Nina and Roderic's expressions were still unyielding. The Skarmory grimaced and flusteredly backed away, as he shot a pleading gaze over to the pair.

"I don't expect you to forgive the Pokémon that live there for everything you've had to endure, but we're facing a shared threat right now that threatens you almost as much as the Pokémon of Starpeak Square," he insisted. "Please, won't you help us?"

The other guards were visibly hesitant now, a couple seemed to be wavering and looking over at Nina and Roderic for guidance. Margi opened her mouth to speak, only to catch herself after seeing the Typhlosion and Rotom trade looks with one another. There was a lingering pause, before Nina turned back to face Pleo and his companions. The Typhlosion studied them over for a moment, when she broke the silence with a quiet sigh.

"… I'll think about it," Nina said. "It's not my choice alone to make."

"I tant," Roderic remarked. "But there's other matters we should take care of before then."

Team Traveller quirked their brows as Roderic went through a bag on Nina's shoulder. Much to their surprise, he pulled out the red volume of the Knights' Ledger and levitated it in the air just above one of his tendrils. He moved it slightly, before turning aside and eying the stairs back up.

"To start with, let me take a closer look at that 'Ledger' of yours."

---

(Continued in next post)

 

[Virgil134]

Finding the southern entrance into Gestirn Island's Mystery Dungeon proved easier than expected for Guardia and Dimitri. The forests thinned out into a rocky and craggy rise as they went along, and the path they shadowed eventually reached a pass flanked by stony bluffs, leading into a veil of fog.

The pirates that they found there after first arriving left no room for doubt. Off at the entrance, they came across a party of Pokémon wearing the same red scarves as some of the pirates that attacked them in Starpeak Square. A Conkeldurr, a Toxapex, a Castorm, a Dipplin, and a bluish-white Sandslash with what looked like icy spikes on her back.

They had managed to keep themselves hidden in the minutes since then to observe them and prepare for a skirmish, half expecting them to make a move or have reinforcements come. Except, this entire time, they'd just been waiting. There was an impatient air that hung around the lot of them that'd gotten more noticeable as time had gone on, as the Toxapex parted the two legs in front of her face and turned her gaze up at her companions.

"Shouldn't we have heard more from the others by now?" the Toxapex asked.

"Tch, they've probably got their paws full with how big the forest is," the icy Sandslash scoffed. "I still don't understand why they're putting so much stock into that badge message. That search party was from the Iron Fleet. They honestly seem like the types who would have trouble with angry ferals, so would it be that impossible for some villagers to ambush them to cause a distraction?"

Guardia held her breath as she finished knotting up a linen bundle at the tip of Dimitri's scythe and the fluttering feeling in her stomach grew stronger. On the one hand, she supposed it was reassuring that the pirates took the bait. On the other… would they really be able to stay ahead of them the entire time?

It looked like they weren't going to be able to stay in hiding for much longer, which was as good a sign as any that it was time to prepare to charge into battle. She stepped back from the bushes and started up a frenetic dance, and briefly glimpsed past the bushes as she moved around. The Dipplin among the pirates was faltering now, and scanned his surroundings warily before speaking up with a worried murmur.

"Even so, are we sure we shouldn't be helping them?" the Dipplin asked. "I mean, we could always come back here once those ambushers are definitely taken care of…"

A loud thud rang out, as the pirates looked back to see the Conkeldurr pulling one of his pillars up from slamming the ground. The Fighting-Type narrowed his eyes, before raising his voice with an impatient huff.

"Enough, Mui is onto something," the Conkeldurr snapped, gesturing at the Sandslash. "We found our own lead earlier and there's no shortage of others dealing with those ambushers. I'm tired of waiting, so I say we investigate the dungeon in case that bird really is there."

The other pirates nodded to each other and started to form a line with each other to enter into the fog. Guardia's heart pounded in her chest as she did the final motions of her thrashing dance—Tsurugi no Mai, always helpful for getting energized for fights. As her dance wound down, she looked over towards Dimitri, who was holding a bundle of linen dangling from the tip of his right scythe.

She guessed that was a sign that the knot Dimitri guided her through tying had turned out well enough. Beneath the strips of linen holding everything together, there was a tan orb with a dark vortex swirling around in it that they'd taken from the earlier pirates' belongings… along with the Blast Seeds that they'd wedged around it at the sides. Dimitri pulled the bundled orb up, holding it carefully aloft with his scythe-tip as he snuck a quick peek out past the bushes.

Their breaths tightened as they spotted the pirates gathering together and starting to set off. It was now or never for them to make a move to stop them. There was a brief silence, as Dimitri glanced back at Guardia from the corner of his eyes.

"I sure hope this knot will hold…" he murmured. "Are you ready, Guardia?"

Guardia turned her own gaze out past the bushes towards the Conkeldurr and his fellow pirates as her thoughts turned back to her teammates. Pleo and the others didn't have the option to slink off to fight another day, so they either stopped these pirates here and now, or they and gods-knew-how-many of their friends would find their way to Pleo.

… With that in mind, there was only one answer to give back to Dimitri:

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Dimitri nodded back and tensed himself as he balanced the bundle resting between his scythes, when he stood up and flung it free. Before the pirates could register his presence, the bundle had already sailed off and struck the ground next to the Toxapex.

The bundled Orb and Blast Seeds erupted in a large explosion, flinging the Toxapex aside and throwing the others backwards with pained cries. Swirling winds laden with sand and grit erupted from the Sandy Orb and swept them up the other pirates as they tried to regain their balance. The Castform among them attempted to blink sand out of her eyes, floating over the body of her singed and unconscious Toxapex comrade as she hacked and looked about wildly for her assailant.

"Agh! What the-?!"

The Castform was swiftly cut off by a watery tackle, sending her tumbling to the ground unconscious as Dimitri found his footing and reared up. Even with the reduced visibility, the other pirates were able to make out his profile, the nearby Dipplin attempting to attack the Kabutops by spitting up a glob of syrup, when a whirling sound rang out above the winds.

WHAP!

The Dipplin seized up as a white projectile struck him in the face. He stumbled in a daze as the missile arced around and struck him a second time from behind, knocking the Dragon-Type to the ground. The bone carried on on its way back to its thrower, as Guardia hopped up as her club neared and snagged it out of the air. She tightened her grip back around her club, and checked the Dipplin, seeing much to her relief that he wasn't getting back up.

Her satisfaction proved short-lived as a low growl rang out followed by heavy thumps. Dimitri and Guardia whirled around and brace themselves as they saw the Conkeldurr start to approach them with his pillars raised for a strike.

"You're gonna wish you never showed your ugly mug, crab," the Conkeldurr snarled. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Da! Someone who's running his mouth off and leaving himself wide open!"

The Kabutops lunged ahead at the Conkeldurr, his scythes drawn for a slash. Dimitri's right blade found its mark on the Conkeldurr's flank, but much to the Water-Type's alarm, the Conkeldurr took the hit without flinching and then brought a crushing blow down on him in return.

"Agh!"

Dimitri lost his footing and fell backwards, landing in the dirt with a breathless wheeze. The Conkeldurr noticed his position after a moment to squint against the Sandstorm, and raised his voice over the howl of the winds.

"Everyone who's still standing, get over here and help me crush this weakling!"

The Fighting-Type began to dart forward, raising his pillars as Dimitri tried to scrabble back onto his feet. The pirate leader readied another downward smash as he neared, when a sharp cry rang out from his right.

"Not so fast!"

A seed abruptly zipped in with a blur and struck near the top of Conkeldurr's pillar with an audible pop. The Seed's shell splintered to pieces, as a puff of dust shot out and enveloped the Fighting-Type's head. The Conkeldurr hurriedly attempted to fall back, but the seed's effects quickly overtook him. His eyes began to glaze over and he rubbed at them with an unsteady gait as the Sandstorm kept raging, as good a sign as any that the X-Eye Seed had done its job.

Guardia briefly caught a glimpse of a white blur from the corner of her eye and jumped aside with a sharp yelp as clawtips just missed her scales. She looked up, where the icy Sandslash was growling and drawing a claw back for a swipe.

"Lights out, bonehea-!"

Before the icy Sandslash could finish her words, she was cut off by one of the Conkeldurr's pillars slamming into her with an audible crunch. The Sandslash went flying off until she struck a tree trunk with a loud thud, the pirate sliding down before toppling forward limply. Guardia couldn't help but wince at the sight. Good thing that that Roubushin didn't have great aim right now, since a blow like that might have taken her out of this battle entirely.

Off to her left, Dimitri got back on his feet, panting from stress and exhaustion. A quick glance around revealed that the Sandstorm was slowly starting to thin out, but the Conkeldurr was still groping about from the effects of the X-Eye Seed. The Fighting-Type pirate would surely be a dangerous foe once his impediments subsided, so that meant they had to put him down for the count. Fast.

The Kabutops braced himself, seeing Guardia's silhouette amidst the swirling sands as he called out to her and planted his feet firmly into the ground.

"Quick!" Dimitri cried. "Follow my lead while he's open!"

The Kabutops took off running in a rough circle about the Conkeldurr as the pirate continued swinging about blindly. All the while, steaming water built up in Dimitri's throat, the Kabutops biding his time for the Conkeldurr to leave himself open. He waited for the Fighting-Type's latest swing to miss wide and spewed his Scald out before falling back for distance. The Conkeldurr winced as the scalding water washed over his arm, and reflexively grabbed it to nurse a growing burn on it. From the side, Guardia watched as the Fighting-Type reeled, and took the opening to lunge at him with her club drawn.

The Cubone sprang up as she approached, bringing her club down with an overhead smash onto the Conkeldurr's back. A satisfying thwack rang out, but before Guardia could hit the ground, gray abruptly filled her vision and she felt a crushing blow land all over her torso.

"Augh!"

The Conkeldurr's pillar launched Guardia and sent her flying towards a nearby tree trunk. She crashed into it headfirst, before falling to the ground as her club slipped from her grasp. The Cubone lay there briefly as her vision grew muddy, weakly righting herself as she grabbed for her club ahead of her.

A tan foot stomped it into the dirt and a shadow fell over her. Guardia turned her head up with shaky breaths as she saw the Conkeldurr looming above, his left pillar raised as a faint, red aura seemed to settle around it and his lower arm.

"Anything you wanna say before I crush you, brat?" the Conkeldurr snarled.

Guardia's mind went blank in a panic, when she suddenly noticed movement from the treeline. She glanced off at its direction, and much to the Conkeldurr's surprise her expression eased and her face screwed up into a determined smirk.

"Yes, actually. Stick around for a while."

A sharp crack and the sound of groaning wood rang out, Guardia hurriedly turning and darting to the side as the Conkeldurr looked up to see a tree falling overhead. The tree landed on him with a loud crash, with a glance at its trunk revealing deep, hacking cuts in its wood. Guardia scooted back as dust swirled to see the Conkeldurr's arms groping about weakly from underneath as he attempted to pull himself free, only to lose consciousness and them to go still.

The Cubone sat there panting as silence descended onto the forest path beyond the occasional faint whine or groan. She went and collected her club from the ground, when Dimitri emerged from the treeline, shaking some bark loose from the blade of his scythe.

"That ought to buy Pleo and the others some time," the Kabutops said.

Guardia breathed out a sigh of relief, before she turned her attention to the pirates laying sprawled out around them, all in no shape to do anything other than just lie in place… for now. She made her way over to the Sandslash against the tree, and after giving an exploratory poke with her club and discovering the pirate was still safely unconscious, turned her head back to Dimitri.

"… What are we supposed to do with all of them anyways?" Guardia asked.

"We could push them into the Distortion without their items or badges," Dimitri said. "But considering that these pirates went out prepared to try and catch someone, I don't think we'll need to do anything so drastic."

The Kabutops came over to her and lowered one of his scythes to tug at a bag around the Sandslash's shoulder. After fishing around in it, his eyes briefly lit up as he looped his scythe around something and pulled it out, revealing a set of ropes dangling from its tip.

"Assuming you can tie more knots, anyways."

… Right, these pirates were here to try and capture Pleo, so it was only natural that they'd have brought restraints of various sorts with them. She had to admit, there was a certain poetic justice in them being caught up in their own snares. It also made their lives easier.

The pair started off by binding up the Sandslash against the tree she struck, Dimitri helping to pin her arms behind her while instructing Guardia how to loop the ropes to form knots to hold them in place… even if it took a couple attempts. The pair then repeated the process on the other pirates with the Conkeldurr's pillars one after the other, until all that was left was the Conkeldurr still half-buried under the tree. The pair approached it uneasily, trading glances at the pinned Fighting-Type and then at each other.

"I… think that we can skip trying to pull him free, really," Dimitri said. "Let's just tie his arms to the tree trunk so he can't lift it off of him, and call it a day."

That… seemed more than reasonable to Guardia considering how the 'mon had tried to crush her in battle. She nodded back in affirmation, prompting Dimitri to go and start coiling the rope around the Conkeldurr's arms and the felled tree's trunk. Guardia went around the other side of the Conkeldurr's body and threw the loose end of the rope over, before stooping to grab at the remaining end by her feet, only to see Dimitri catch himself and pause briefly.

"I think we need him a bit further out so we can pull his arms back against the trunk," he said. "Help me pull him free a bit."

Guardia tugged at the Conkeldurr's body along with Dimitri as his head and shoulders gradually came back into view. She turned her attention back to the ropes afterwards and resumed coiling them around the Conkeldurr's arms and the tree trunk. Soon enough, she was at work tying the finishing knots, when she caught a glint from the side of the Conkeldurr's neck.

"Huh?"

Guardia and Dimitri traded glances with each other, before Dimitri turned the scarf inside out and revealed a glinting badge underneath.

"Another one of them," Dimitri murmured. "I suppose it only would make sense if even the Iron Fleet was using them."

Guardia eyed the badge carefully, before giving it an exploratory poke with her bone. At once, it crackled to life as a buzzing voice came through it.

"Oi, Reg! Give us a status report already! Just because you're high up on Crimson Corsairs doesn't mean you just get to ghost us! What on earth was that racket earlier-?"

Guardia hurriedly pulled her bone away from the badge as the voice cut out. She looked over to Dimitri as he sucked in a sharp breath. He backed away a couple paces from the Conkeldurr and quietly murmured to himself.

"Guess that would explain why that Conkeldurr hit us so hard," Dimitri murmured. "That crew sounds like they'd be significantly more dangerous opponents than the Iron Fleet. We should get going before his buddies catch up with us."

Dimitri reached out his scythes to cut the badge free and fling it off into the bushes, but before their tips could find their mark, he felt a tak against his right blade. The Kabutops looked down, seeing Guardia motioning for a stop, as she approached the badge and raised her free hand out to grab it.

"Wait just a moment, Dimitri," the Cubone insisted. "I wanna say something first."

The Kabutops shot an askew glance at the Cubone.

"Guardia, if you grab that for too long, the pirates on the other end will figure out our location."

"Maybe, but I don't think we have a choice, Dimitri," she said. "These pirates' friends are expecting them to say something. If we don't get them to think we headed back into the forest, they'll come here and find them, and then go straight into the Mystery Dungeon."

She hovered her hand over the badge and shook her head in reply.

"All the more reason to try and make them think we took Pleo somewhere else, even if it's just for a little bit."

---

Duke Franz's throne room was in a stony chamber in the keep of Gestirn's castle, with tall windows that let in light from outside, and rugs and tapestries that added color to its gray environs. Much to Ingela's dismay, the Council had overruled her and chosen to repurpose it as their meeting room while they were here on Gestirn, instead of a site closer to the water. The Primarina thumped her tail impatiently against the floor, as evening sunlight filtered through, and cast a glance off at the throne, where Dirk was idly amusing himself. The Bisharp sat sideways on the throne with his feet kicked up and his Eviolite necklace poking out from under his scarf, inspecting a black and gold orb.

"Remind me, why did we opt to hold our meetings so far from the water again?" Ingela scoffed. "You do realize that such a site would've made it easier to go to and from our ships?"

Dirk didn't bother adjusting his posture on the throne. He glanced at the Primarina from the corner of his eye, before balancing the black-and-gold orb on the tip of his blade, and idly spinning it on top of its tip.

"What can I say? I've always had a bit of a refined taste," the Bisharp said. "And the best things in life sometimes require a bit of a journey to get them."

Ingela folded her flippers over each other, and turned her snout up with a quiet frown.

"I sure hope that that Sheriff and those guards who weren't accounted for after the raid don't have similar ideas."

"Never heard of the value of picking your battles, Ingela?" Dirk questioned. "Our objective isn't related to them."

"I do pick my battles, Dirk. That's how I built my reputation carrying on my mate's fleet," Ingela huffed. "By putting the fear of the gods into those who took him from me."

Dirk stopped the orb and set it aside on the throne. He got up and approached Ingela from his seat, curling his mouth into a serious frown.

"You know what I mean. As long as they stay out of the way of that bird and our plunder, we have nothing to lose from letting them hide in their little holes until we're gone."

Ingela turned aside with a quiet harrumph and continued batting her tail back and forth with a series of agitated thumps against the floor.

"You sure could have fooled me with the amount of 'monpower you were sending to try and find those Pokémon that ambushed that scouting party from the Iron Fleet."

A noticeable pause followed between the two, as Dirk watched the Primarina narrow her eyes at him.

"How do you even know that those ambushers really have Lugia?" she asked. "One of your own crew's parties said that they found signs that Lugia entered the Mystery Dungeon. Shouldn't we be focusing some of our attention on the dungeon, as well?"

Was Ingela taking him for some sort of amateur like Hess? Even if they didn't see eye to eye as members of the Council all the time, the Primarina surely ought to have known better considering how he was the most senior member of the Council. The Bisharp hardened his features into a sharp scowl, before shaking his head in reply.

"No, because even if whoever ambushed them doesn't really have Lugia, they weren't content to hide away in their little hole and are going around actively sabotaging us," he explained. "We shouldn't assume that they're not already planning on making another move, or that it will stay in the realm of overpowering scouts. And that means not leaving it to just the Iron Fleet to get to the bottom of just who those Pokémon are. Especially if those ambushers do have Lugia or are friends of his."

Ingela let out an unamused huff and crossed her flippers at the explanation, a reaction that Dirk supposed shouldn't have surprised him. Ingela always had been one of the more combative members of the Council, after all.

"Oh come now, Dirk. Lugia and his companions couldn't have evaded capture this long without some degree of cleverness," Ingela said. "Am I really to assume that they'd have just given away his location without doing something to throw us off their-?"

"Hey! Captain! Are you there?"

The doors to the room creaked open, as Dirk and Ingela whirled around to see a Rabsca floating in in a hurry. Dirk stepped forward and stepped in front of the Rabsca's path, staring down with a fierce, overpowering glare.

"What is it now?" the Bisharp growled. "You do know that I don't need an update over every little thing you overhear!"

The Rabsca broke his pose with a startled buzz and jolted his limbs as his ball and badge wavered in the air briefly. After a moment to steady his psychic hold on his belongings and regain his composure, the Rabsca pushed the badge towards Dirk with an unseen force and gave an apologetic chitter.

"Uhh… sorry," the Rabsca said. "But you really want to hear this one. It's a message for you from those ambushers that picked off those Iron Fleet scouts."

Dirk paused and eased his expression as he and Ingela traded surprised stares with one another. After a moment's hesitation, he turned over to an Emboar by the room's entrance and motioned at the door with an impatient grunt.

"Go get Tarquin and Hess," the Bisharp barked. "Tell them that if they're planning on getting full shares of loot when we divide everything up, that they'll show up as soon as they can."

The Emboar hurriedly saluted in reply before darting out of the room. Dirk watched the Emboar drift off, before stepping forward and snatching the badge out of the air. The Bisharp made his way back to the throne and sat down on it. He kicked his legs up, and pressed down on the metal lump, raising it to his mouth to speak.

"This is Captain Dirk of the Crimson Corsairs. Who is this?"

"The Pokémon who just bested one of your stronger warriors, that's who!" a Cubone's voice crackled back. "For goons as tough as yours, they sure are dumb at fighting!"

Ingela tensed up, and reflexively opened her mouth to protest back, only for Dirk to cut her off by raising a hand and motioning for a stop. The Primarina quietly seethed, as the Bisharp cocked his brow at the voice's comments.

"'Warrior', huh? So you must be one of those guards that slipped away after the raid," Dirk said. "I was under the impression you Gestirners were more no-nonsense types and less… theatrical."

"Hrmph, you wish I was a guard!" the voice piped back. "Sounds like you're just mad that your underlings got their tails handed to them!"

The Bisharp's face fell in response. He tightened his grip around the badge and raised it to his mouth before he continued on.

"No, I'm more annoyed that you're wasting my time when I have business with a client to tend to," Dirk retorted. "Most Pokémon that annoy me wind up swiftly regretting it."

A moment of silence followed, one long enough that a flash of confusion came over Ingela's face and even the Bisharp himself couldn't help but raise a brow. Had something happened to the speaker? He wouldn't have expected a headstrong type to suddenly lose her nerve, but perhaps this 'mon of mystery had a better gauge for dangerous situations than he thought—

"Wait, 'business with a client'?" the voice asked. "But you're pirates. Since when did you do anything for anyone else?"

… Or not. Dirk narrowed his eyes, as he got up out of his throne and began walking off. He made his way along and passed one of the tapestries on the wall. He glanced at it briefly, before raising the badge back to his mouth to speak into it.

"That doesn't concern you," Dirk scoffed. "Though if you want to make things easier, put your bird friend on the line. I believe that we have some companions of his he'd be eager to hear from."

There was a long silence from the badge afterwards. When the voice came through again, Dirk couldn't help but notice that it sounded audibly flustered.

"He's… uh, not interested in negotiating! We'll free them ourselves! The hard way if we have to!"

Dirk paused, as a small smirk came over his face. He'd heard everything that he needed to. So Ingela was right and it really was a feint, and he was pretty sure he had a decent idea of what he was dealing with for a foe.

"You're obviously quite young and inexperienced," he said. "One of those overenthusiastic types that thinks they're prepared to take on the world after reading Hard to Kill a few too many times."

"Read what, now?"

Dirk quirked a brow. Hard to Kill was a tale at least as old as the Cradle itself and its many variations all had a fairly predictable formula… would the type of Pokémon that went around picking fights with pirates really never have heard of it?

"Story about a lone guard on Christmas that fights on his own through a crystal tower to rescue his mate?" the Bisharp asked. "Ring any bells?"

"Nope. Never heard of it."

Dirk frowned, before raising the badge back to his mouth with a sharp scoff.

"You're certainly full of surprises, but I'll cut to the chase. This isn't some old heroic fantasy, kid," Dirk said. "You're not going to magically save the day and free all these villagers on your own and waltz off into the sunrise with your sweetheart."

Dirk walked along as he neared one of the tapestries on the wall. He briefly flexed his right arm, before once again pressing down onto his badge and continuing to speak.

"And when Pokémon under such delusions cross paths with me, I have a tendency to snap them out of them."

THWIP!

The Bisharp summarily ran his blade along the tapestry and sliced through it from one end to the next. Its bottom fell to the ground with a thumping clatter, which made the Rabsca involuntarily flinch. Dirk raised the badge back up to his mouth and enunciated his words for the listener on the other end to hear him loud and clear.

"Permanently," he snarled. "I'm here along with the full force of Orleigh Island's Pirate Council and a good half of the crews that berth there. Just what do you think you can do against us?"

"Stop you from getting to Pleo, that's what!" the voice piped back.

'Pleo', huh? So then this scamp really was one of Lugia's companions. Though that sounded like something he could use to his advantage…

After all, there were several reasons presently sitting behind bars in the village garrison that he could give this Cubone to change her tune. Probably quite a few of them if they'd come in on an entire ship.

"Fat lot of good all that strength of yours will do if he's gone before you-!"

The voice abruptly cut itself off as the sound of rustling came through the badge and a sharp cry came from the other end.

"N-Nani?!" the Cubone's voice cried. "Who are-?!"

The Badge abruptly went silent midsentence. Her patience worn thin, Ingela grabbed at the badge and snatched it out of Dirk's hand, thrusting it in front of the Rabsca with a sharp bark.

"Who's holding that badge right now?!" the Primarina demanded.

The Rabsca paused and held onto the badge in focus. After a moment seemingly in a trance, the Bug-Type bobbled the ball levitating overhead as he turned to Ingela uneasily.

"Nobody," he explained. "I think the speaker just threw it aside."

Dirk and Ingela traded glances after the Rabsca's reply, the Primarina growling under her breath in frustration.

"Ugh, what a waste of time this all was," Ingela fumed. "They don't even have Lugia with them!

"Hardly," Dirk explained. "Even if it wasn't their intention, they've let us know exactly where we should be looking."

Ingela's face contorted in confusion as her mouth hung open for a moment in bewildered annoyance. The Primarina's expression eased as she let out a low, grudging sigh. Clearly she'd picked up on how Lugia's friends had been trying to throw them off the trail, and if they'd gone through the trouble of trying to interfere with his crew prying deeper into the Mystery Dungeon…

Well, he could think of some pretty straightforward reasons why they'd want that.

"What's going on here?"

The sound of loud, heavy footsteps coming from the hall prompted Dirk and Ingela to turn for the door as Hess and Tarquin made their way into the room. The pair entered and made their way up alongside Ingela, as Dirk walked up and pointed up at Hess with a sharp harrumph.

"Gather your crew, Hess," Dirk barked. "You're going dungeoneering."

Hess blinked incredulously as the Bisharp's words sank in a moment. At once, the Aggron's eyes shot wide in alarm, as he stammered in confusion back at the Crimson Corsairs' captain.

"H-Huh?! What's going on?!" Hess cried. "I thought that there was someone going around ambushing-!"

"Plans have changed, obviously," Dirk scoffed. "Some bigger priorities have come up."

"We've been able to confirm that Lugia is hiding in the Mystery Dungeon," Ingela added. "I'm sure that even an oaf like you can manage to comb a dungeon properly."

Tarquin stiffened up and held his head up as a brief flash of unease came over his eyes. The other pirate captains noticed the Tyrantrum's misgivings, before he shook his head with a low harrumph.

"I… think that's going to be a bit easier said than done, Ingela," the dinosaur said.

"And what's just what that supposed to mean?" the Primarina demanded.

"There's apparently some sort of settlement deep inside there called 'Starbreak Square," Tarquin said. "The Marked in our ranks have apparently been dragging their feet about going inland since they didn't want to get mixed up with it."

The Tyrantrum turned his head aside as his peers looked on. He narrowed his eyes before letting out a low harrumph and continuing on.

"I first thought it was another one of their fairy tales, but I overheard some of the townsfolk talking about the place themselves while making the rounds," Tarquin explained. "When was the last time you ever heard normal Pokémon agree with a Marked story?"

Dirk paused, when a moment of dawning realization came over his eyes. If there was an entire settlement of Marked in Gestirn's Mystery Dungeon, then it'd likely just be a matter of time before they came across Lugia.

And that meant, that with a bit of time, that if there was no sign of Lugia ever leaving the Mystery Dungeon, that the most logical place he would've wound up would be with the Marked. After all, they knew that dungeon better than anyone other than maybe some ferals that also lived inside. Once Lugia entered it, it would just be a matter of time before they ran into each other.

And once that happened, it was hardly believable that they'd just let a 'demon' roam loose. They'd want to keep him penned up someplace secure, and what place would they be more likely to choose than a cell in that settlement of theirs?

The Bisharp shook his head, before folding his arms and looking over at Hess with a sharp harrumph.

"Actually, scratch that. I'll be going with my crew alongside you, Hess. And Ingela will, too," Dirk said. "Tarquin and the other crews should be able to keep the peasants in line and checking the forests to mop up the rest of Lugia's friends while we're out, and you frankly need all the help you can get."

Ingela's face fell into an unamused frown with a quiet grumble. Hess stared blankly as his jaw flopped open in shock, as he raised a claw and began to stammer in protest.

"B-But you just asked me to-!"

"That was before I found out there was an entire town of Marked down there. One that will almost certainly get their claws on that 'demon' given enough time," Dirk harrumphed, folding his arms. "Really, you should be thanking me for lending you some help and not leaving you to get in over your head."

Hess spluttered in indignation and stomped his foot with a low growl, only for a pair of louder ones to ring out. The Aggron looked over at Tarquin and Ingela as the pair shot piercing glares at him, and abruptly flinched and shrank back much as if he'd been thrown into the middle of a mob of Marowak.

Dirk trailed off briefly, before turning his gaze up to his Tyrantrum counterpart.

"Though I'll need your crew to help out with a few things involving Lugia's friends, Tarquin," he mused. "After all, that bird will be more motivated to come quietly if he thinks he's got something to lose."

Tarquin gave a nodding grunt in reply as Dirk continued on, idly inspecting his blades as he made his way to the doors. When he reached them, he swung them wide with an audible creak, and looked back with a dangerous smirk.

"So let's do them all a favor and take that bird off their hands, huh?"

---

Author's Notes:

- I tant - Catalan: "Indeed"
- Tsurugi no Mai (つるぎのまい) - Japanese: "Swords Dance" (Official Romanization)
- Roubushin (ローブシン) - Japanese: "Conkeldurr" (Official Romanization)

 

[Venia Silente]

This is part of a review trade, which this time technically will have the format of a two-parter. So this post will cover Ch.72 an then will come Ch.73.

Most importantly, it means more adventures in the Shadow Realm!

Chapter is #72 Out of the Bag.

Since we are into a new chapter in this adventure, why not a recap?

It is a dark time for the Cradle. Although the
tournament has ended with the rescue
of PLEO, the Empire and the Company are not far
behind and now strengthen their grip over
various lands, pursuing TEAM TRAVELLER
across the Cradle.

Evading the Imperial Fleet, Pleo and his
friends follow clues into the Jungle in search
of a Xerneas, and once there they are
captured within the Shadow Realm by DARTH VALTER.

The evil commissioner LYN, obsessed with the capture
of the birb, takes off in his last chance mission
for his capture now aware of sabotage in his ranks –
an agent part of an engine of corruption and betrayal
led by the very seat of ELILAN among the COMPANY heads…

​

I swear, the day I can post these reviews in AO3 they're gonna look so cool with the CSS formatting...

After what has been a first attempt to talk their way out of the situation, Team Elty has been taken to their new accommodations in the Shadow Realm; they wake up to see that they are quite obviously in the "X marks the spot" neighbourhood.

Guardia: "Everyone has x_x eyes!"
Elty: "Not me, for the last 4 chapters I've had ¬_¬ eyes."

Frankly, I can understand him.

As they gather their senses, DARTH VA— ahem, sorry, Darth Valter approaches and demands some explanations because surely, this place that is supposed to remain HIDDEN is suddenly getting lots of visitors (like, 20 in 2 chapters!) and thus getting a lot of SCREENTIME.

And as we all know, screentime spells doom for the plot un-wise.

Valter's attitude doesn't help matters either.

Vince: "We're doing our part to keep this place hidden!"
-Ghost dance party!-
Darth Valter: "Much as I like you guys, your little ghostly ruses pale before the power of the Force."
Guardia: "Wait wait wait waaaait..."
Everyone: -looks at Guardia-
Guardia: "...Ruse?"
Everyone: -facepalms-

I mean it's not obvious at a first try, "recruitment quota" notwithstanding, but once they started getting more encounters it should have been obvious for Team Traveler Extended that *something* was going on.

(The question then becomes if the teams still outside will figure it out)

Elty tries to make the explanations in order, but is quickly interrupted by none other than Pleo! Who is still alive captured in the Shadow Realm as well!

Elty: "Guuuuuysss!"
Nida and Crom: "Hey, y'all are alive?"
Guardia: "I thought y'all were spirit food by now!"
Everyone: -hugs and celebrates-
Darth Valter: "...Guys? Guys? What is even this?"
Alder: "Oh it's just they're so happy to be alive."
Darth Valter: "No!!! This a HIDDEN LOCATION not a party! Please!"
Background mon: "Wow! We just got a review on Yelp! They gave us a star! We're so cool!"
Darth Valter: "DO NOT WAAAAANT!"
Emperor Cernum: -disappointed- "Much to learn about crowd control, you have."

And with this, Team Traveller Plus+ Max finally gets a chance to explain to Cernum about what are they looking for, and perhaps we can get some more explaining of this in turn, as well!

Emperor Cernum: "...No wait, wrong impersonation, this is..."

Scene transition wipe!

We arrive at our next scene in the temple of Yavin IV New Blackmoon, more or less. As it turns out, the Pokémon who were at Old Blackmoon had to literally move the place about after an incident. Of the "Legendary oopsies the world" SpitefulMurkrow™ flavored kind of incidents.

Furthermore, this is a temple not for Cernum but for *their* Protector.

So basically there's now three (3) (tres) Protectors here in any shape or form! (And a potential fourth)

Pleo: "Wait, they've got a temple?" ;_;

One day, Pleo. One day...

Ander: "Three? 3? Tres? Of those monsters?"
Pleo: "Hey!"
Lord Cernum: "Hey!"
Ander: "If you excuse me I'll go over there to have three tachicardias."

Cernum proceeds to tell his tale, which begins with when he was a...

...baby.

Cernum was a lil kid deer when he was found by the locals, along with a LOT of cute Pokémon statues. After that, they decided that the best way to uuuuh.... celebrate, this, was for Cernum to grant everlasting life.

Kid Cernum: "Eternal life for you! And for you! And for you! EVERYONE gets eternal life!"

( @Spiteful Murkrow this does mean you now get enough time to get to finish Juvenals and its sequel too, yes? o3o)

Cernum: "See, I'm very handy!"
Nida: "So wait you just doling out immortality like that?"
Cernum: "That way y'all get to enjoy me for longer."
Ander: "That's horrible!"
Guardia: "I have to concur! How can we have Dead Judgments if there are no Dead?!"
Crom: "You know what, 'grant immortality' sounds so much cooler that our Protector."
Nida: "Bad Crom!" -slaps Crom.
Pleo: "..." >_>
Crom: "...No offense."

Pleo just found himself useful a few chapters ago! Don't be mean to him!

Also, Ander and Guardia are understandably not very pleased at all this, each for their own reasons; and neither are the locals themselves as they admit: they explain that trying to delve into what had gone on back then eventually caused more trouble in the long run.

Like, it basically caused The Plot.

Dimitri pressed. "You didn't dig up a bunch of graves and have him try to make Immortals from them, did you?"

Hopefully no? Now that would have been A Day.

"It wasn't anything like that! It was the shipwreck that Cernun was discovered on!" Valter insisted.

Oh great, now it's not just zombies it's pirate zombies! Ander will sure be happy.

As the tale goes, they explain that after the incident, word got out that there was a free dealing of Eternal Life here at Blackmoon, and Cpt. Coil was assigned to the zone.

Nida: "...What, Coil?"
Guardia: "Him again?"
Crom: "What's this about?"
Guardia: "That moron is a lot of trouble. Ultimately it's because of him that we wasted half of the Tournament Arc doing errands and without earning EXP instead of, like, actually trying to rescue Pleo."
Nida: -scratches head: "Yet, well, going on those errands *did* allow us to get rid of Sibich along the way..."
Darth Valter: "Coil was the one who got involved when news about Cernum broke out."
Crom: "...Sounds like that would have best been avoided."
Darth Valter: "It was foretold, that that day would have come."

After that, we get the expository flashback to the early days of Cernum, Valter and Coil. And since we go to a flashback, one could say we get to the...

...ahem...

Prequels trilogy, of Fledglings.

(See I'm still on board with Fledglings being a full Original Trilogy, then there can be a Prequel Trilogy and a Sequel Trilogy)

Oh and since it's a prequels flashback:

Turmoil has engulfed the Cradle. The EMPIRE
and the COMPANY dispute territorial control.

Hoping to resolve the matter with an ultimate weapon,
the Empire blockades Blackmoon and ready their forces to
capture and experiment on the CERNUM inside.

The locals grow uneasy with the situation at hand, and
ultimately this forces DARTH VALTER to secretly reach
up to the imprisoned Cernum...

​

Flashback wipe!

We don't get much from that that we couldn't already glean from the discussion beforehand, other than the fact that a townsfolk revolt ended up happening...

DARTH VALTER: "Just as I had foretold."

At about the same time Darth Valter was trying to check up on the imprisoned Cernum, too. We do get some nifty combat screentime between Valter and Coil, which is defo more than Sibich ever got! Also we get some mentions to the chain of succession at the Emprire, which were hopefully inherited down reasonably and not via, say, a Tournament Arc.

Queen Aleria: "Awww...."

Anyway,

Screen wipe transition!

Back to THE PRESENT, the various characters discuss the eventual results of the situation. The point is made that after those fateful days Coil was basically trying to do the raids on his own, subcontracting for the plot to happen, because the Navy wouldn't otherwise want to continue the search.

They also discuss the point that Darth Valter was an immortal.

Darth Valter: "...And that's the story of how we came to be around here."
Pleo: "Okay, so you died, but you are an immortal, because you have x_x eyes, but you don't... did I get that right?"
Darth Valter: "...Most of that is correct, yes."
Crom: "Wait, 'most'?"
Emperor Cernum: "It seems in his return to life, the immortality was spent."
Nida: "So... you aren't an immortal anymore?"
Cernum: "And it seems I can't brand him grant him eternal life again."
Crom and Nida: -look at each other-
Ander: "So... you can only revivify someone once?"
Cernum: "Uuuuh..." -
Guardia: "Honestly, your powers aren't looking that cool right now."
Crom: "Ya know, maybe Pleo is not that bad after all."
Pleo: "Yay!"
Cernum: "Okay listen–"
Alder: "At least Pleo's not gonna zombify me to prolong my torment."
Nida: "Pleo we will always like you, you are our Living McGuffin."
-Everyone hugs Pleo-
Cernum: "....Hey! Come on! At least I'm still better than Kline!"

Not only that but I'm sure Ho-Oh's powers are also better than Xerneas's. Because the G2 birbs are better, hands down.

So, now that the history of these silly ghosts has been cleared up, it's time for these ghosts to cough up the Ledger so that Pleo and his adoptive family can rejoice and return to Tromba! And Pleo can win Fledglings! Right?

[insert Anakin and Padme "you're gonna do the X, right?" meme ^_^ ]

Cernum: "You fools, only now, in your imprisonment, do you realize."

Well.... no, even with the news that Coil and his fall from grace, Cernum and Valter are not really into the mood for letting out the protagonists back to *their* realm.

And apparently it's all Kline's fault. Because why not.

Darth Valter: "Nah, you are going to stay here indefinitively, as in, forever."
Pleo: "B-b-but we are a happy adoptive family! And I still have two more books of plot to grow up into!"
Ander: "Man, I just got to this island and I was starting to feel I could build up some confidence into Main Character status..."
Darth Valter: "Enough! You are going to stay here for eeeeternityyyy!!!"
The accompanying ghost mons: "In the Spirit Realm..."
Crom: "You guys suck."
Guardia: "You are even more backwards than the other loons we've dealt with so far in this plot."
Nida: "And that's saying a lot considering we've had to deal with people like Sibich."
Darth Valter: "Whatever, you are stuck here now. I'm not altering the deal. Pray I don't not alter it any further."
Pleo: "..." <_<

And with that, Darth Valter has Roteck send the prisoners back to their chambers. Much to Trizano's disappointment.

This is certainly sad.

Now... Who would possibly be able to save our heroes now?



Alvise: -sniffs around the grass: "Woof woof!" ^_^

See, we left second best doggo (because Luca isn't around and Elty's cool screentime was short-circuited) behind during their own exploration of the islands in search of water. They had managed to find trace of Elty, all on their own and absolutely not because of luck, I swear.

Alvise: "Come on guys! It's time to capture those dweebs and show the boss who's the boss around 'ere!"
Valatos: "Hey look can you wait? Let's at least strategize..." -searches the team bag, finds an [Escape Orb]-
Nori: "It seems we are still a bit off the script."
Valatos: "Yeah he forgot about the ghosts pretty fast."
Alvise ahead: "What's that? I still can hear you complaining from here!"
Nori: -sighs. "Oh well. As the script says, 'I'm sold, let's go grab us a Protector.'"

After that totally boost of confidence, the three make it all the way to the guards around Darkwood Square and sneak past, and they manage to spy their way into a few conversations regarding what is actually going on at the islands.

????: "We are going pretty well with the recruitment quota, we already captured two teams!"
Alvise: -ears point on- "It seems it's time for more screentime."
Nori: "owo wat's this, a plot-relevant convbersation?"
Lisa: "I hope you keep good tally of the captures. We now have one more doggo as a prisoner."
Cantone: "They are sent to the Shadow Realm, too. All that remains is the bunch of losers we're trolling."
Valatos: "'bunch of losers'...?"
Nori: "...!"
Alise: "...!"
Valatos: "Guys! These ghosts must have tracked down Team Traveler!"

Oh you wish. Keep listening...

Vince: "Oh yeah that's so fun I'm willing to wait out the quota just to troll them for longer lol. 'We're elite pirates' my ass, assuming I even have one!"
Vince and Cantone: "BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" ^_^
Nori: "..." ¬_¬
Alvise: "..." ¬_¬
Valatos: "Those bastards, now I'm gonna–" ¬_¬
Alvise: "Not yet!" -drags Valatos back into offscreen.

As the ghost trio laught their potentially ethereal asses away, Valatos and his team are left to ruminate on their humiliation, and plan their revenge.

Alvise: "Guys, it's settled."
Valatos: "Let's nab the Lugia and rub it on their faces. We're going to get even in every way."
Alvise: "And afterward we send them to sleep with the fishes. Let's see how those ghosts like that..."

He's becoming more like Luca...

And with that, Valatos and Co. head on inspecting the surroundings for clues on the birb, until they eventually find at least *someone* to rescue. After finding a hut with prisoners and distracting the ghost guards, Valatos and company make it inside to see if they can nab themselves a birb.

Which in this case, is not birb but more of their crew who have been also captured in previous scenes.

Alvise: "Well well well, if it is the non-elite noob pirates!"
Noibat: "Come on guys really? Just get us OUTTA HERE."
Valatos: "Sure, babies. Geez, we gotta have to report to the ship how we saved all your asses."
Spiritomb Guard: "Actually that's gonna have to wait."

The guards have returned and found out the extra intruders. What will Alvise, Nori and Valatos do?

Nori: "Uuuh hang on I have a completely valid excuse..."
Amoonguss Guard: "If you wish you can think it over inside the cells."
Alvise: "Now now let's not start on the wrong paw. May we introduce ourselves?"
Spiritomb Guard: "...Oh?"
Alvise: "I'm currently best doggo." -offers paw for a handshake-
Amoonguss Guard: "Oh! A pleasure I'm–"
Alvise: -zaps the guards over the handshake-
Alvise: "AND DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT IT!"
Luca: -waves paws asking for screentime-

And once again, Alvise shines as Best Doggo on the grounds. He (and his pals) leads the Revolution Prison Break and they head out with full intent on getting back to Hess, leaving some obstacles on their way.

Then they and their dweebs-in-tow turn around a corner and, true to the trope...

Nori, Alvise and Valatos: "...! It's YOU!"
Pleo, Nida and Elty: "...! It's YOU!"

They find themselves surrounded by Team Traveler being also prisoners, and *their* captors!

Dun dun duuun!



And that's how the chapter ends. Certainly a pretty good adventure so far and now the current arc's deuteragonists of Valatos and friends find themselves about to be dragged off into the Shadow Realm as well.

Valatos: "...Hey! It's not our end yet!"

Oh wait?! There's still a little piece of plot yet!

Valatos: "Actually no, we just want to safely abscond from here. Hold on, dweebs!" ^_^
Alvise: "We'll get you next time, birb."
Nori: "And you useless ghosts will have what's coming to you in due time, too!"

Valatos then uses the team's Escape Orb and... boom.

Villain exit stage left.

Credits transition wipe aaaaaand...

...DUN DUN DUUUN!



Now that's more of a thematic cliffhanger!

All in all a pretty entertaining chapter, with lots more good doggo screentime! (I still miss Luca tho). It was fun reading how a few gags and cues from the previous chapters basically came back to bite just about everyone here as well, such as getting the explanation on DARTH VALTER's normal eyes, how Coil still screws things up for everyone, and Valatosteam getting back for being trolled.

And now that the jig is out, who knows what's gonna happen to Cernum's current hideout!

inb4 Cernum has a battery of clones somewhere for the Sequel Trilogy

 

[Ambyssin]

Lore dump confirmed. Or, rather, it was a lore dump that also doubled as a reminder of the Marked stuff that Margi explained like a million words ago. :grohno: I had genuinely hoped that we would be able to get through all of it in one chapter and start to get the gears moving to wrap things up. Because boy has this arc gone on for quite a while, while coming off the heels of what was the fic's longest arc so far. But it looks like we've got two to four more chapters left, so this could very well end up being the new longest arc of the fic. Which, not going to lie, does feel a bit odd. Vollezee (particularly paired with Homecoming) felt like it was supposed to be a climax of some sort in the same way Giotto was. And that leaves this arc feeling a bit all over the place at the moment, as it seems you're trying to juggle setting up Lyn's big moment with Elilan/Team Sentinel finally making their move with all this Marked lore. And, on top of all of that, this is reading like the swan song arc for the pirates. I mean, you got the council here. Hess got his big fancy new ship and (uneasy, somewhat one-sided) partnership with Lyn. It feels like the big finale for this faction, but it's hard to take them seriously off the back of the previous arc which itself came off the back of Nagant et al having their final showdown with Team Traveler.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that now that we're this far in there's definitely fatigue kicking in at trying to read what looks to me like a big faction finale arc that's doubling as the setup arc for the endgame. So, at this stage in the game, I would strongly encourage cutting out mook fights like the scene with Guardia and Dimitri. Or paring them down to very quick skirmishes, even if it means cartoon physics come into play to swiftly deal with the mooks. For this chapter, I personally don't think anything would've been lost had this battle gotten offscreened and just cut to them pondering what to do with the badge. That way at least you're still establishing they reached the dungeon.

And turns out my comment last review about being most interested in the lore™ turned out to be true. I mean, yes, a lot of it screams sequel bait. Outside of Aquila and his guards who are presumably the ancestors of the Company folks, I did find myself wondering "Okay, but how does this specifically relate to Team Traveler trying to get the Company and Empire off their backs?" Some of the big sequel bait feel might just be a meta read, though. Since the island that's at the center of much of the story isn't considered part of Anyilla and I seem to recall that this fic's staying within Anyilla for its runtime.

But! It is still interesting. The pink mist described in the murals is probably just some artistic flair but it sure did spring to mind Mirage Spots. And after double checking the intro post this fic did follow ORAS and "a bunch of legends emerged from Mirage Spots and started wreaking havoc until Arceus just dropped the Judgment Hammer on the world" sure sounds plausible. The whole tale is from highly biased narrators, so everything needs a grain of salt. I can't see this fic going with the "Arceus is actually evuuuuuuul!" thing. So, either there was some Legend ****ery in the background or, like, this is some version of the world where one of the evil team's plans went horrifyingly off the rails. I don't expect much of this, if any, to be addressed within the body of the fic proper. Makes for fun speculation, though. :V

It was hard to believe that the military harbor had already been cleared up after that whole episode with the Siglo Swellow just a couple days ago.

Actually, it's not that hard to believe when your world is full of magical creatures whose powers should make construction work a breeze.

ins and outs of this 'Wyrmwind

Ah, I see we've gone from Starbreak's "sounds suspiciously like a Max Move" to "lol yeah this is just a Max Move" in the name department.

You don't exactly scream 'dragony'

Yeah, you don't look like a canisaries fic to me, either.

"It'll be nice to finally put this saga behind us and start thinking about the future again."

Wrong fic, Lyn. I think that one has your distaff counterpart chasing a quilava and an axew.

There's not a lot of margin for error for our mission

"Considering their insane luck roles, our margin of victory is probably 0.000000001%. With generous rounding."

It was a world where even Pokémon who were weak and ones that didn't belong could make cause with those creatures and lift each other up

Ah, yes, the classic human-pokémon dynamic.

It was a mural of a burning landscape showing a white, hooved quadruped with some sort of golden ring around its waist emerging from a rift pouring out pink mist in the background.

Ah, no wonder God's pissed. They interrupted bath time.

"And so it was that during a time of great turmoil, the Abyss spawned the great Archdemon, who came from that fell place and fashioned servants with which he subjugated our world."

I would genuinely laugh if the real story is Hoopa ****ed around with portals.

"We'll get to the details that are more particular to us in time."

"We have to get the audience back up to speed. They last heard the details a million words ago!"

The next mural was a picture of an island with a towering mountain on it partly wreathed in snow.

OH HI MOUNT CORONET.

Shennow Island

You're not fooling me. SINNOH CONFIRMED

in the wake of the Sigillating Wars

"Wow, your historians had to make themselves sound sophisticated, didn't they? What's wrong with the 'Sealing War?'"

In the next one down, a Charizard stood up before a crowd of onlooking Pokémon in the town's square and seemed to be giving some sort of impassioned speech.

EVEN THE MARKED ARE CHARIZARD SIMPS THERE'S NO ESCAPE. What do you suppose the odds are that Bunsen is this guy's great^whatever grandson?

the truth of what happened during the end of the Old World recorded it and passed it along to their descendents

"Enough with the truths! You're going to hatch Reshiram's egg at this rate!"

"Shennow Island has a particularly treacherous Mystery Dungeon on it," Roderic said. "One where the Archdemon had formed and kept the eggs of a trio of particularly powerful demons."

Gee I wonder if Mount Coronet's a dungeon? :V

The truth that your kind are demons who have come to subjugate us

That sound you hear is a hundred reshiram having aneurysms.

"… It's all that we can do at this point."

Would you say that you've accepted your fate? That it is, perhaps, affirmed? :3

"B-But it's not!"

Pleo, sweetie. Darling. You've gotta shout "No, that's wrong!" with confidence and inflection! Like Big Mac!

"To start with, let me take a closer look at that 'Ledger' of yours."

Smash cut to his eyeballs gliding across the pages a la Spongebob and Patrick.

a Dipplin

Can't wait for the background archduraludon next update! :V

That search party was from the Iron Fleet. They honestly seem like the types who would have trouble with angry ferals, so would it be that impossible for some villagers to ambush them to cause a distraction

I see someone's been reading the script.

The bundled Orb and Blast Seeds erupted in a large explosion

Ah, yes, you're not truly fighting pirates until you improvise TNT. And cue the music.

Do you have any idea who I am?"

"I'm the Jugger— no, wait, I'm the 'mon who's gonna burn your house down... with the— no, gah, LINE!"

Before the icy Sandslash could finish her words, she was cut off by one of the Conkeldurr's pillars slamming into her with an audible crunch

Just a little percussive maintenance.

"Anything you wanna say before I crush you, brat?" the Conkeldurr snarled.

"Ba-ba-booey."

The tree landed on him with a loud crash, with a glance at its trunk revealing deep, hacking cuts in its wood.

"Guess we oughta make like that tree and leaf, eh, Guardia?" [laugh track]

so it was only natural that they'd have brought restraints of various sorts with them

How much good is rope really going to do against pokémon, though? See: Rocket, Team.

"All the more reason to try and make them think we took Pleo somewhere else, even if it's just for a little bit."

What a brilliant plan! I'm sure her being a young wilder won't make this blow up in their faces at all.

"I sure hope that that Sheriff and those guards who weren't accounted for after the raid don't have similar ideas."

Narrator: The sheriff and those guards did have similar ideas.

As long as they stay out of the way of that bird and our plunder, we have nothing to lose from letting them hide in their little holes until we're gone."

Narrator: They will not stay out of the way of that bird or their plunder.

The Rabsca

Man, y'all really scraping the bottom of the barrel for background 'mons now, aren't you?

"Story about a lone guard on Christmas that fights on his own through a crystal tower to rescue his mate?"

WHY IS THERE AN IN-UNIVERSE EQUIVALENT OF DIE HARD?! :grohno:

This isn't some old heroic fantasy, kid,

Uhm, ackshuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

"You're not going to magically save the day and free all these villagers on your own and waltz off into the sunrise with your sweetheart."

"Oh, sweetie, you didn't read far enough in the script, did you?"

"Stop you from getting to Pleo, that's what!"

Cue Dimitri facepalming in the background in three, two...

"Gather your crew, Hess," Dirk barked. "You're going dungeoneering."

Dirk. Wut are you doing? Dirk. Put the idiot ball down. Dirk. Stahp!

"Actually, scratch that. I'll be going with my crew alongside you, Hess. And Ingela will, too," Dirk said.

... Oh thank god he actually listened! Huzzah!

 

[Virgil134]

@Venia Silente

Spoiler

Since we are into a new chapter in this adventure, why not a recap?

Heh, love that Star Wars-style title crawl is there. Your reviews are always amazing to read from all the little flourishes like these you work in.

Pleo: "Wait, they've got a temple?" ;_;

Well hey, at least Pleo has his anime shrine back home

Ander: "Three? 3? Tres? Of those monsters?"
Pleo: "Hey!"
Lord Cernum: "Hey!"
Ander: "If you excuse me I'll go over there to have three tachicardias."

This bit made both and Fobbie me laugh. But thankfully for Ander, his heart’s a bit stronger in the actual story.

Alvise: -sniffs around the grass: "Woof woof!" ^_^

See, we left second best doggo (because Luca isn't around and Elty's cool screentime was short-circuited) behind during their own exploration of the islands in search of water. They had managed to find trace of Elty, all on their own and absolutely not because of luck, I swear.

Alvise: “Second best doggo?! Now hold on a minute there!”

Vince: "Oh yeah that's so fun I'm willing to wait out the quota just to troll them for longer lol. 'We're elite pirates' my ass, assuming I even have one!"
Vince and Cantone: "BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" ^_^
Nori: "..." ¬_¬
Alvise: "..." ¬_¬
Valatos: "Those bastards, now I'm gonna–" ¬_¬
Alvise: "Not yet!" -drags Valatos back into offscreen.

As the ghost trio laught their potentially ethereal asses away, Valatos and his team are left to ruminate on their humiliation, and plan their revenge.

And they’ll get it! Probably. Kinda. Maybe.

The guards have returned and found out the extra intruders. What will Alvise, Nori and Valatos do?

Nori: "Uuuh hang on I have a completely valid excuse..."
Amoonguss Guard: "If you wish you can think it over inside the cells."
Alvise: "Now now let's not start on the wrong paw. May we introduce ourselves?"
Spiritomb Guard: "...Oh?"
Alvise: "I'm currently best doggo." -offers paw for a handshake-
Amoonguss Guard: "Oh! A pleasure I'm–"
Alvise: -zaps the guards over the handshake-
Alvise: "AND DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT IT!"
Luca: -waves paws asking for screentime-

It’s always hilarious to see these blooper takes of yours. As silly as they are, they actually are pretty on-point in the broad strokes about the events they parody.

All in all a pretty entertaining chapter, with lots more good doggo screentime! (I still miss Luca tho). It was fun reading how a few gags and cues from the previous chapters basically came back to bite just about everyone here as well, such as getting the explanation on DARTH VALTER's normal eyes, how Coil still screws things up for everyone, and Valatosteam getting back for being trolled.

And now that the jig is out, who knows what's gonna happen to Cernum's current hideout!

Dun-dun-dun!

But more seriously, thanks for the review. It was a lot of fun to read, and I can tell you had a lot of fun making it. ^^

@Ambyssin

Spoiler

I had genuinely hoped that we would be able to get through all of it in one chapter and start to get the gears moving to wrap things up. Because boy has this arc gone on for quite a while, while coming off the heels of what was the fic's longest arc so far. But it looks like we've got two to four more chapters left, so this could very well end up being the new longest arc of the fic. Which, not going to lie, does feel a bit odd. Vollezee (particularly paired with Homecoming) felt like it was supposed to be a climax of some sort in the same way Giotto was. And that leaves this arc feeling a bit all over the place at the moment, as it seems you're trying to juggle setting up Lyn's big moment with Elilan/Team Sentinel finally making their move with all this Marked lore. And, on top of all of that, this is reading like the swan song arc for the pirates. I mean, you got the council here. Hess got his big fancy new ship and (uneasy, somewhat one-sided) partnership with Lyn. It feels like the big finale for this faction, but it's hard to take them seriously off the back of the previous arc which itself came off the back of Nagant et al having their final showdown with Team Traveler.

We already talked about this on Discord earlier, but yeah this episode definitely ended up being longer than me and @Spiteful Murkrow originally planned. At least we’ve learned from this for the future that there’s an upper limit as to how long episodes should be before they start losing people. I also think that outline we showed you should at least be a good way to wrap up this current episode without taking too many chapters.

So, at this stage in the game, I would strongly encourage cutting out mook fights like the scene with Guardia and Dimitri. Or paring them down to very quick skirmishes, even if it means cartoon physics come into play to swiftly deal with the mooks. For this chapter, I personally don't think anything would've been lost had this battle gotten offscreened and just cut to them pondering what to do with the badge. That way at least you're still establishing they reached the dungeon.

Well if it helps, there are no battles in this chapter. That said, there are some battles that will still take place later this episode that we think are needed, but at least you already know about those from our talks on Discord.

And turns out my comment last review about being most interested in the lore™ turned out to be true. I mean, yes, a lot of it screams sequel bait. Outside of Aquila and his guards who are presumably the ancestors of the Company folks, I did find myself wondering "Okay, but how does this specifically relate to Team Traveler trying to get the Company and Empire off their backs?" Some of the big sequel bait feel might just be a meta read, though. Since the island that's at the center of much of the story isn't considered part of Anyilla and I seem to recall that this fic's staying within Anyilla for its runtime.

I’ll leave it open whether or not it will play a major role in any potential sequels, but it’s at least not intended as sequel bait. Aside from it helping Pleo and the others understand the Marked more, it also elaborated on the history behind them. A part of Fledglings’ raison d’etre is to delve into and show off its world, and we figured that it was the best time in the remaining run of the story to address it given that the Marked are a major component of this Episode and its premise..

But! It is still interesting. The pink mist described in the murals is probably just some artistic flair but it sure did spring to mind Mirage Spots. And after double checking the intro post this fic did follow ORAS and "a bunch of legends emerged from Mirage Spots and started wreaking havoc until Arceus just dropped the Judgment Hammer on the world" sure sounds plausible. The whole tale is from highly biased narrators, so everything needs a grain of salt. I can't see this fic going with the "Arceus is actually evuuuuuuul!" thing. So, either there was some Legend ****ery in the background or, like, this is some version of the world where one of the evil team's plans went horrifyingly off the rails. I don't expect much of this, if any, to be addressed within the body of the fic proper. Makes for fun speculation, though. :V

Well, it’s fun to see that it got you thinking of so many possibilities there. We’ll choose to keep mum on the specifics for now, but a couple parts of your spitballing here aren’t far off from what the truth is.

Actually, it's not that hard to believe when your world is full of magical creatures whose powers should make construction work a breeze.

I mean, Pokémon aren’t magical in this story, but such is life when it runs off a fundamentally different power scaling. Also, it helps that the anime treats construction work as a non-trivial process even with Pokémon powers in play.

Ah, I see we've gone from Starbreak's "sounds suspiciously like a Max Move" to "lol yeah this is just a Max Move" in the name department.

Well hey, we already did it with Z-Moves given that Pyry and Pekka’s first crew were called the “Devastating Drakes”

"Wow, your historians had to make themselves sound sophisticated, didn't they? What's wrong with the 'Sealing War?'"

“Because the Marked didn’t get a seal on their forehead after the war was over.” ~ Some Cradle historian somewhere

How much good is rope really going to do against pokémon, though? See: Rocket, Team.

Considering how his arms are tied bent upwards against a tree trunk with the lower part of his arms still trapped under the tree trunk, I’d say it’d work pretty well.

Anyway, as always, thanks for the review! It was fun to read and I think some of the criticism was genuinely helpful. ^^

New year, new chapter! Originally we were hoping to finish this one before the end of 2023, but between rewriting some parts and moving a scene from chapter 100 into this one, things took a bit longer than expected. That said, it’s always better to get things done late than never.

As always, thanks to everyone who is still reading the fic, and let’s hope 2024 will be another wonderful year. Now, without further ado:

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

"Permanently. I'm here along with the full force of Orleigh Island's Pirate Council and a good half of the crews that berth there. Just what do you think you can do against us?"

Guardia held onto the badge and quietly bit her tongue. Had she been saying too much to Dirk? She glanced back at the forests surrounding the path, and while the pirates were still safely out cold, Dimitri was glancing down at her with an increasingly impatient frown.

Maybe it was a sign to wrap things up, though if so, she wanted to get in a last word. They needed to convince those pirates that they were taking Pleo deeper into the forest, and it was honestly kinda fun to hear the Pokémon on the other end of the badge huff and fume.

"Stop you from getting to Pleo, that's what!" Guardia taunted "Fat lot of good all that strength of yours will do if he's gone before you-!"
She froze mid-sentence after she heard rustling coming from the nearby brush and saw Dimitri tense up. The Cubone turned her head, just in time to see a long, red snout poking out from bushes along the path, prompting her to jump back with a startled yelp.

"N-Nani?! Who are you?!"

Guardia let the badge drop to the ground, clinging tightly to her club as a Krookodile and six other guards in Imperial scarves emerged from the brush. There was a brief moment of tension, when the Krookodile held a claw up and motioned for a stop.

"It's alright. They're allies," Robbie said. "Looks like they even took care of some of that pirate scum for us."

The guards glanced off at the Conkeldurr pinned under the felled tree behind Dimitri and Guardia, and then off at the party of pirates scattered about unconscious along the lane. They eased out of their battle stances as Robbie began to approach Dimitri and Guardia. His eyes fell on the glinting badge on the ground as he neared, and he stooped down and threw it into his bag. Dimitri stared dumbfoundedly at the newcomers, until he realized that the Krookodile was the one and the same as the one from the courtroom.

"Wait a minute…" the Kabutops murmured. "You're that sheriff from earlier."

"And you're those Rüpel that threw me under the ship back in town," the Krookodile harrumphed. "But I'll avoid keeping score since we crossed paths with your friends earlier and have other things to worry about right now."

Robbie turned to his underlings with a low murmur that trailed off into barking words that Dimitri didn't understand. Probably some sort of order in Gestirner from how throaty it sounded. The guards nodded back and broke off into small groups as others emerged from the brush. A Makuhita and a Turtonator among them came and pried the Conkeldurr free and finished his bindings before they dragged him off into the brush, while the rest followed suit with the other pirates one after the other.

Dimitri and Guardia waited until the last of the pirates and their captors drifted off into the undergrowth, leaving behind just themselves, a small party that eyed them warily, and Robbie staring down at them with his arms folded over each other. The pair supposed that at the least, the sheriff wasn't an enemy of theirs right now, but even so something about his comment about 'their friends' felt a bit strange…

"Wait a minute," Guardia began. "If Pleo and the others already met you, why are they in the Mystery Dungeon right now?"

"They went out to Starbreak Square to try and get help dealing with those pirates," Robbie explained.

"Wait, but why would they go back to Starpeak-?" Guardia started, only for Robbie to sharply cut her off.

"Starbreak Square. It's a long story, but the gist of it is that it's a town of Marked inside the Mystery Dungeon," the Krookodile said. "I told them they were wasting their time, but the pirates heavily outnumber us right now and we don't really have the luxury of turning down help here."

Guardia paused, before looking away and pawing at the back of her bony helmet with her free hand. The Waruvial and his idea of trying to seek out other Pokémon to lend them strength wasn't a bad one, but…

"… Are you sure we're just dealing with pirates?"

Robbie and the other guards remained quiet for a moment, before the Krookodile shook his head with a small frown.

"No. It crossed my mind that the Company might be involved, but I don't exactly have proof of that," he sighed. "Why? Did you find something out, Tragosso?"

"I just talked with some pirate captain through that badge," Guardia explained. "A 'Captain Dirk of the Crimson Corsairs'. He said that they were doing this raid on behalf of a 'client'."

A few of the guards in Robbie's entourage stiffened up and stared back. Some traded dumbstruck looks with one another, while others began to murmur aloud at the Cubone's revelation.

"Huh? Just what sort of client would be able to hire this many pirates?" a Mabosstiff asked.

"Again, it's those square-necks, Friedrich. It has to be," a Heliolisk growled. "Who else would be able to foot the bill to put all those pirates up to this?"

Dimitri paused as the more he thought about it, the more the Heliolisk's remarks seemed to make sense. He turned towards the Krookodile sheriff, giving an uneasy tap of his scythes.

"I think that your Heliolisk friend is onto something, Sheriff," Dimitri said. "The Company's been chasing Pleo for over a month and he just fought his way out of their capital alongside us. Why wouldn't they turn to drastic measures to get him at this point?"

Robbie fell quiet and he clamped his jaws shut with a visible grimace. Dimitri and Guardia didn't know how much the sheriff trusted them, but clearly the idea of the Company getting ahold of a Protector was quite unnerving to him.

The Krookodile turned his eyes towards the ground and pinched his brow with a low sigh.

"… I suppose that it makes sense, especially if they also know that your friend's a Protector," he murmured. "If they hired the pirates to do their dirty work for them in Imperial waters, then as long as they are careful about it, there would be no one to point a finger towards. Even if it didn't work out for them, I don't know if Her Majesty could declare open war on the Company over a pirate raid without sparking riots in the capital again."

Guardia and Dimitri fell quiet, as the Cubone of the pair pawed uneasily at her bone. Gah, why on earth did 'Civilized' Pokémon always have to make things so complicated?

"So what do we do, then?" she asked.

"Stick with us, obviously," Robbie huffed back. "There's strength in numbers."

"Huh?!" Dimitri protested. "But Pleo and the others are in that Mystery Dungeon!"

"Yeah, I know."

Guardia and Dimitri turned their attention back to the Krookodile sheriff, who folded his arms with an impatient harrumph.

"When we sent your friends into the Mystery Dungeon, we gave them a badge for our teleporter to keep track of," he explained. "So that way we could get to them quickly if they called for help."

Guardia and Dimitri traded wary glances with each other after Robbie's reply. The sheriff seemed to pick up on their unease and shook his head.

"Look, I wasn't super optimistic about their plan myself, but whatever's going on in there, our teleporter has been having trouble getting a read on their location lately," the Krookodile insisted. "The last she sensed of them was them taking their own badges off, which the Pokémon in Starbreak Square most likely would've made them do as a precaution. We expected that that could happen as a part of them going there, and there's only so much we can do right now. Us finding an entrance into Starbreak Square would take a while even with a full search party. Time that we currently need to spend focusing on problems elsewhere."

Guardia and Dimitri turned and glanced down the path leading up to the Mystery Dungeon. If nothing else, it wasn't wise to just linger here, and it was hard to argue the sheriff's point.

A low grunt snapped them to attention, as the pair looked back and saw Robbie nearing the brush, motioning along with a claw for them to follow.

"Besides, we could use the extra monpower on our end. I doubt we've seen the last of those pirates around here."

"Right," Dimitri said. "That sounds like a good reason to stick together."

Dimitri and Guardia set off with Robbie and his underlings back into the brush. The forest gradually returned back to its earlier quiet, as Dimitri and Guardia and their newfound companions trudged along, when the Cubone pawed at Dimitri's leg.

"By the way, what is 'Hard to Kill'? That Dirk said it was some sort of story and I was curious as to what it's about."

Dimitri cocked a brow and stared at his teammate briefly, before turning away with a sigh. He supposed it was a good thing that they had a bit of time, since he had a feeling explaining this one was going to take a while.

---

About ten minutes after leaving the Hall of Remembrance, Pleo and his teammates found themselves in a stone-hewn office which had been outfitted with simple furniture and glowmoss lanterns for illumination, including a desk where Roderic had set their Ledger down for "transcribing". Much to their astonishment, after putting the tome on the desk, he dove into a small red housing that had been waiting for him on the desk and floated over the book in what looked like some sort of scratched, squarish slate with arms and feet. The Rotom floated over the book carefully, going page by page as he would occasionally curl in one of the arms and press down on the glass portion of the slate before a clicking noise would ring out.

They all stared as Roderic continued on with his strange ritual, which they weren't sure what it was doing or how it would help them. Pleo's attention drifted off towards the rest of the room after Roderic went through the first few dozen pages. He'd quickly realized after entering Roderic's office that the room was full of ancient artifacts, and curiosity couldn't help but get the better of him. Tattered books in mystic scripts, plastic objects, strange colored spheres. There was even a line of three strange metal containers that sat next to a wheeled contraption of some sort with a long handle, and some sort of pinwheel that rested against the wall.

The Lugia studied the five mysterious objects and wondered to himself what they might be. He perked up and turned his head back for Roderic's desk as he heard the sound of the Ledger being shut with an audible thud.

"There," Roderic said. "That should be everything."

Crom blinked. He looked at the Ledger on the table, and then back at the Rotom floating in the air, before he spoke up incredulously.

"Huh?! But you barely looked at any of the pages!" the Druddigon exclaimed.

"I didn't have to," Roderic explained. "This codex I'm indwelling is able to record images of objects in front of it."

The Rotom floated the strange slate closer to them, where amidst a pale glow, they saw an image of one of the Ledger's left pages, clear enough that Crom could read the page's runes. Roderic tapped an arm at a small circle towards the right side of the slate and the image abruptly changed to one of the Ledger's right pages. Another tap, and it was back on a left page, except it looked a little different, and as Crom studied it, he realized that Roderic had been going through the pages of the Ledger in order.

His jaw dropped. He didn't know how this little contraption had done it, but…

"Ah! You copied our Ledger!" the Druddigon cried.

"In a manner of speaking," Roderic said. "This codex was made by human magic ages ago and was specifically built for my kind to manipulate. It's a bit worse for wear, but it still does what it's supposed to."

The Ghost-Type laid the slate back down on the desk on its back, before the spike and arms on it withdrew, and his body emerged from its surface. He floated up, before turning to Crom with a crackling buzz.

"It's one of the treasures of Starbreak Square, and in all the long years since its founding, we've never found a second one in working condition."

Trizano and the others stared in awe at this 'codex' on the table. That little device could really make pictures that looked so life-like? Why, if it wasn't for scuffs on its glass, the pages would have looked real enough to try and touch!

The Skarmory opened his mouth to ask further about how this 'codex' worked, only to notice that Roderic's expression had taken a stern and grave turn. The Rotom went up to him and his companions, bobbling back and forth with a gaze that seemed visibly suspicious of them.

"… Did you know about what was in here?"

Trizano blinked at the Rotom's question, before giving a wary tilt of his head.

"What, about the Empire and Company working together to take Yveltal's egg from Nagrobek and bring it to Conntow?" the Skarmory asked. "We had an idea, yes."

"No, I was talking about the parts saying that Queen Erna specifically directed that Yveltal's egg be brought aside and put under experiments to try and accelerate its incubation," Roderic replied. "Ones that were conducted under supervision of the Royal Navy."

Trizano stared back in puzzled silence as something bothered him about the Rotom's reply.

He knew from the Ledger that the Empire and the Company had been looking for a Protector with 'the power to lay waste to Anylla's enemies'. But who on earth would those enemies be? The years just before the Great Calamity seemed like a quiet time where Anyilla was at peace with other parts of the Cradle like Linglan or Garanza, and the Empire and Company worked together at the time, so there would've been nothing for them to fight over…

Would there?

"… We didn't get to that part yet," Ander murmured. "We'd only made it through the earlier parts of the Ledger before we were forced on the run from Starpeak Square."

"I'm not sure what you're doing with a book like this, but perhaps it's for the best that I made a record of it, then," Roderic replied. "I'm sure there's quite a bit more this book will have to say once its contents are reviewed a bit more carefully."

"That shouldn't be a problem, Roderic."

Team Traveller turned their heads at the sound of the door to the room opening, where they saw Nina and the rest of Starbreak Square's Elders, flanked by a small party of guards. The Typhlosion walked up to the table and snatched the red ledger with a sharp huff.

"We'll be holding onto this for now," Nina said. "Between it and the records Roderic made of it, we should be able to go through its contents significantly faster."

Team Traveller's members' stiffened up at the Typhlosion's reply, as Crom reflexively darted forward raising a hand in protest.

"W-Wait, that's ours!" the Druddigon protested. "We need that to force the Company and the Empire to leave Pleo alone!"

Nina stepped back and narrowed her eyes as the nearby guards stepped forward and closed ranks around her. Pleo bit his tongue and quietly fretted to himself over whether or not they'd made things worse.

"I said we were holding onto it for now," Nina scoffed. "We have some secure chests that we put our relics in for safekeeping in a storeroom in this building. We'll be holding onto your Ledger in one of them, and no harm will come to it there."

The High Elder turned her face down into an icy frown, making a point of letting her gaze linger on Pleo for a moment before turning away.
"If we decide we can trust you, we'll return it to you afterwards."

Pleo grit his teeth and sucked in a quiet breath as his companions visibly faltered. He didn't like this at all. That Ledger was the only piece of three that they had to show for their efforts so far and now Nina was just going to walk off with it? How long would it take until she decided that she trusted them? What if she never did?

… Except, the Elders also wouldn't help them with Starpeak Square or rescuing their friends if things devolved into a fight between them, or even agree to let them go. With how intertwined everything was, maybe it didn't make sense to raise such a big fuss right now. Pleo hesitated for a moment, before letting his gaze drift down to the floor with a grudging sigh.

"If it's really the only way to convince you," the Lugia murmured. "I guess we can wait a little."

"Glad to hear," Nina harrumphed. "Though we have other matters to tend to. It's getting late enough that it's time we bring you to a place to pass the night."

Pleo and the others weren't sure what to make of what sort of 'place to pass the night' Nina had in mind, but followed along anyways. Before they knew it, Nina and the others brought them back through the building's hallways and retraced their steps to the entrance hall of the Elders' compound. Pleo came to a stop amidst the cool blues of glowmoss and looked around as his companions and their guards filled in. The Elders were off on the side, pointing at Pleo every now and then as they talked to each other in hushed voices. About what, he couldn't tell.

There was a nudge against his wing, as he looked up and saw one of Margi's side-heads, along with the Hydreigon craning her central head down with a hushed whisper.

"Are you doing alright, Pleo?"

Pleo hesitated at Margi's question, before looking away with a quiet sigh.

"Yeah, we're okay," he said. "It's just that… I wish it wasn't so hard to convince everyone that I'm really not this scary monster that they're so afraid of."

Margi looked away as they made it to the doors and exited the building. The Rillabloom and Alcremie guards were still there and eyeing Pleo carefully, only for them to turn their heads as the sound pattering feet rang out. Pleo looked over himself, and much to his surprise, a black-and-blue blur shot out. It was Daraen, bounding out in front of the group and wagging his tail expectantly.

"Oh! You're finally done!" the Deino cheered. "I'd been waiting for a chance to have a rematch with you at Substitute Battling! I even got the Substitutes together and everything!"

Margi blanched and her wingbeats quickened as her fellow guards traded flummoxed looks with one another, a Golbat giving a grumbling "Is this kid serious?" under her breath. The Marked Hydreigon stooped down and cracked an awkward, grimacing smile, as she nudged at her child and attempted to turn him away.

"Er… mon petit, you should go back home. It's getting a bit late right now," Margi insisted. "We were going to show Pleo and the others to their place to sleep tonight."

Daraen's head drooped in response. He nuzzled insistently back at his mother and let out a disappointed whine.

"Aww… so soon?" he asked. "But it's not even time for dinner yet!"

The Golbat from the group beat her wings a few times, before flying over with an impatient huff.

"Look, kid. They're going to be spending the night in a holding cell," she snapped. "They can keep themselves entertained by doodling on the walls or something."

Margi shot a low growl over at the Golbat which drew a stifled cry and quickly prompted her to back away. Even so, the damage had already been done, as Daraen sharply stiffened up and Team Traveller's eyes shrank to pins. Not least of all Crom's as the Druddigon's mouth flopped open with a startled stammer.

"Wait, what?! H-Hold on a minute! Nobody said anything about us getting locked up in a holding cell!" Crom protested. "I thought we were getting a place to spend the night!"

"Crom, you do remember that we're prisoners right now, right?" Ander asked. "Where did you think they'd keep us?"

Crom froze and set his teeth on edge. Right, they had surrendered themselves in order to come into Starbreak Square. He… just hadn't been expecting that the Pokémon here would really keep them behind lock and key again.

"B-But you don't need to do that!"

Daraen's voice cut through the air as he hurriedly stepped between Team Traveller and the other Marked. The Deino reared up on his hindlegs, piping up in sharp protest.

"You don't have to put them in some sort of awful cell if you need a place to keep them!" the little dragon insisted. "They can just stay with me and maman!"

Daraen perked up and wagged his tail happily, his diminished sight blinding him to the slackened jaws and incredulous scowls being leveled at him from the other Marked present. Nina and her fellow Elders leveled withering glares at Margi, who craned her necks around her child with a shushing hiss.

"Mon petit, that's quite enou-"

Much to her surprise, her child abruptly pulled back from her. Daraen shuffled back a few paces and stomped the ground with an insistent huff, raising his voice loud enough that Crom and his fellows briefly flinched at how forceful and loud it was.

"But I mean it!" the Deino cried. "If Pleo's really this big, scary demon, shouldn't we not be doing things that would make him upset?"
Crom grimaced, expecting to hear poor Daraen get an earful from Nina and the others, only to notice that she and the others were looking over at Pleo tensely. The other guards' mood had turned as well, as they began to grow uneasy, while a few like a Murkrow were visibly shrinking away.

"U-Um? Elders?" the Murkrow gulped. "Just who is going to be watching them tonight anyways?"

The other guards traded looks with one another as a few nervous laughs floated in the air, along with one of the guard's voices protesting that "Can't make it, the mate and the kids all came down with stomachaches this morning" in a bit too eager of a tone. Even here in a secluded village dug into a bunch of rock tunnels, some things really didn't change about Pokémon.

Margi briefly traded looks between her peers and Team Traveller, and noticed her child nosing up at her pleadingly. She hesitated for a moment, before sighing and clearing her throat as she turned back to the Elders and bowed her central head.

"Er… if I may, Elders," the Hydreigon began. "But even if it does sound a little strange, you do have it as practice to arrange alternative lodging for prisoners in the event that the holding cells are all occupied or otherwise unusable. And house arrest is one of those alternatives…"

A moment of blinking silence passed among the five, before the Spidops among them folded his arms and let out a growling harrumph.

"I'm sorry, why should we think that this is a good idea again?"

Margi uneasily exhaled before she glanced back at Team Traveller, and after a lingering pause, turned back to the Spidops and the other Elders.

"I have been at the demon's side for most of the day precisely because the others thought I was best able to handle him," she said. "If he were in my quarters, it would make it easier for me to watch over him, and it would also be less likely to antagonize him than trying to pen him up in a holding cell…"

Nina said nothing for a moment as her Spidops and Chatot companions in the background traded glances with each other and whispers of "Could that actually work?". Elder Siana's mood took a sharp turn for the worse, as the Espeon stomped forward with her eyes narrowed and her ears pinned back, pointing her snout up at Margi.

"Pah! That's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard!" the Espeon spat. "There's no way we'd ever agree to that!"

---

"I can't believe you four! Why on earth would you agree to this?!"

About fifteen minutes later, Team Traveller stood unbound in one of the town's tunnels in front of a rock-hewn entrance with a cloth hung over it—Margi's house, they presumed. The guards around them were fidgeting uneasily as Siana shot a dirty glare up at her counterparts, especially Margi, who seemed to be on pins and needles during the entire trip over and through the whole process of them getting untied. The others reacted with a chorus of sighs, Nina not bothering to hide a roll of her eyes, before the Spidops of their number turned his attention over to Margi with a stern scowl.

"Margi, we are taking a significant leap of faith with your and your child's ability to tamp down that fiend's destructive tendencies," the Spidops reminded. "If he harms so much as a hair of anyone outside your house, there will be consequences for you."

Margi subconsciously gulped as the color drained from her face. Pleo noted the visibly anxious turn in the Hydreigon's demeanor, before turning his head back to the Spidops and narrowing his eyes into a sharp glare.

"I'm not going to do anything like that," Pleo huffed. "So you can stop being so mean to her."

The other guards traded looks with one another, as a few of them went up beside Margi to try and insist "it's not too late to change your mind". Crom opted not to press the matter and to try and think about something else. He poked his head in past the door and saw that Margi and Daraen's house looked downright barren: a low table in the center with a glowmoss lantern on it, some worn cushions around it, and what looked to be a beat-up chest in the corner… and precious little else.

He turned back out to his surroundings and tried to glimpse past the guards and the other houses down the lane. It was a bit difficult to get a good look from how they had ringed them and attempted to cut off the view from the outside world, but judging from how close the other entrances were to each other, space in Starbreak Square was a precious commodity.

Though that made him wonder…

"Actually, how do you and your mom already have a house, Daraen?" the Druddigon asked. "You've only been here for a couple weeks."

"It's… technically not ours. It got assigned to maman after she joined the guards here," Daraen explained, flusteredly turning his head away. "When we first came, we slept on a mat in a communal hall."

The young Dragon-Type visibly perked up, wagging his tail as he nosed ahead eagerly at the entrance to the stony dugout.

"But that's not to say it's bad!" he insisted. "Even if it's different from home, the other Pokémon here have been nice neighbors and nothing but friendly to us!"

Crom turned to steal further glances of his surroundings past the guards, and saw that the entire tunnel was vacant aside from the forms of Marked Pokémon poking their heads out from windows and entrances. Some stared worriedly and were tense, as if they'd been backed into a corner. Ander noticed that others were visibly trembling or in the case of some younger-looking Pokémon, cringing behind larger siblings or their parents to try and hide themselves. The Scyther quietly breathed in, before turning back to Daraen with a sighing shake of his head.

"Somehow I doubt they're going to treat us the same way," Ander remarked.

"A-Aah! What are you doing?!"

The sound of thumping footsteps hurrying in turned everyone's gaze to their right. There, lit up in the warm glow of startled fire, Bunsen approached with widened, frightened eyes. The Charizard pointed a claw shakily at Pleo and raised his voice in stammering protest.

"E-Elders?! Wh-What's the meaning of this?!" Bunsen cried. "Wh-Why would you bring the demon here?! My family and I live in this tunnel!"

Pleo and his companions blinked and looked about their surroundings. They hadn't noticed these tunnels looking familiar on their way over. Was it really that close to where Bunsen had darted back off for his family?

… They sure had a knack for running into this 'mon again even when they didn't want to. Pleo froze, half-expecting that the Elders would promptly shuffle them off for the Cells over the outburst, only to notice them staring back with sharp scowls. Nina in particular seemed particularly unimpressed, as she approached the Charizard with a piercing glare.

"He has been assigned to house arrest under the supervision of a guard particularly well-suited to reining him in," Nina answered. "That happens to be Margi here, and that's all there is to it."

Bunsen's jaw flopped open in startled shock, as the Charizard's tail-fire visibly flared up and he began to sputter in protest.

"B-But-"

Before Bunsen could get out another word, Nina stomped up and grabbed his scarf. The Charizard yelped as the Typhlosion yanked his head down to her eye level, and bared her fangs with a low snarl.

"Need I remind you, Charizard, that it was because of your cowardice that the demon found this haven in the first place?" Nina snapped. "Unless you're going to volunteer to help Margi keep watch over him tonight, kindly sit down and shut up."

Pleo and his companions watched as the color drained from Bunsen's face and he began to squirm, getting out little more than weak, defeated-sounding protests. Pleo sighed, when he felt a scaly, firm presence prod at his back. A glance up revealed Margi shaking her head with a low murmur under her breath, as she motioned off with her free arm-head for her home's open doorway.

"Come on, we should head in. It's getting late."

---

"A-Agh!"

Elty whined as he laid curled on the floor of his cell, spasming as the others inside looked on. From her place beside him, Nida quietly sucked in a breath and traded glances between him and the hallway outside their cell.

Just as they'd hoped, running footsteps came down the hall of the cellblock, the sign of pirates coming to check up on them. And soon enough, there was a green Vivillion, a Medicham, and a Toedscruel in pirate colors sizing them up through their cell door. The others in the cell traded worried looks as Nida looked up from Elty's body and flared her ears back with a piercing glare.

"Why are you just standing there?!" the Nidorina cried. "Our friend's seriously ill right now! He needs to see a medic!"

The pirates hesitated and traded glances with one another. The Vivillion from their lot fluttered his wings uneasily and shot a wary frown at his counterparts.

"Will the captains even let us take them out?" the Vivillion asked. "And is it really the end of the world if one prisoner keels over?"

Elty suddenly began to audibly gag and retch, as even the nearby Pokémon in the cell inched away just in case the Growlithe lost his battle with his stomach. The pirates flinched from the sight, as the Medicham recoiled in visible disgust.

"Yeah, no. I don't want to lose my lunch every time we have to come here," the Medicham said. "Carla, go get the medical supplies before he throws up."

The Toedscruel of the group headed off as Elty gulped and panted while Nida and her cellmates stayed next to him. The Nidorina tensed up and quietly flicked her ears as she stole a glance at the departing Toedscruel. So far, so good… the pirates had been buying their ruse like they'd hoped, even if for a moment she was worried that Elty really was about to throw up in earnest.

A moment later, the sound of the cell block's door opening rang out, as the Vivililion and Medicham's eyes drifted off down the hallway outside as the Toedscruel returned. All the while, Nida and Elty braced themselves as the Toedscruel approached, now holding a bag between her tendrils. A brief glimpse revealed the others in the cell were quietly moving towards the front, a few bracing their feet and limbs for the moment the pirates opened their cell's door.

The Medicham went up and slid the key into the lock, but, before she could twist it, she and the pirates around the cell door suddenly tensed up and backed away. Elty blinked in confusion, as he raised his head from the ground and began to stammer in protest.

"H-Hey, what are you doing?! I thought you were going to help-!"

The words abruptly died in his mouth when he saw a sudden glob fly in towards him from the hallway.

"Yipe!"

Elty hastily sprang back as the glob burst against the ground and Nida hurriedly pulled him from the cell's bars. Startled cries rang out as the two looked back at the cell door, where they quickly discovered a puddle of purple sludge pooled at the entrance. Off on the other side of the bars, the pirates were now wide-eyed and keeping their attention trained further down the cell block as a sharp hiss hung in the air.

"Well now, looks like your friend is feeling better already."

That was as good a sign as any that things weren't going well. Elty pinned his ears back and grimaced, Nida noting that the Growlithe seemed to recognize the voice. The sound of something sliding against the stone flooring carried along as the pirates from earlier hurriedly shuffled aside. A Seviper in the Strongjaw Gang's colors slithered in and stopped at the door, flicking her tongue in the air with an unamused harrumph. The serpent coiled around and reared up as she looked over the various Pokémon in the cell. Her gaze fell on Nida, as she narrowed her eyes and flashed her fangs menacingly.

"Did you really think that we'd fall for a ruse like that?" she spat. "Honestly, I'd have expected better from you, Marley."

Nida blinked as the Seviper glared down at her. The Nidorina hesitated briefly, before tilting her head with a puzzled frown.
"… Actually, it's 'Nida'. Marley's my mami."

The Seviper flicked her tongue and visibly paused as questions began to swirl in Nida's mind. How on earth did this pirate even know about mami? Had mami fought her off during a past raid?

Nida snapped back to attention after hearing the Seviper slithering back, and looked up to see the pirate turning away with a scornful huff.

"Hrmph, and here I was ready to give you an earful for winding up behind bars like this, but that would certainly explain a lot," she scoffed.

Nida looked back in her cell, and noticed that all of her cellmates from Tromba seemed to be on-edge from the Seviper, while everyone else was mystified. Even Elty, who had recognized the Seviper's voice, traded glances between her and Nida with his mouth hanging open in astonishment.

"I'm sorry, how do you two know each other again?" the Growlithe asked. "That's the first mate of the Strongjaw Gang right there!"

From towards the back of the cell, Pladur let out a startled cry. Now that Elty was looking at him, he saw that the Fraxure's eyes were shrunken to pins as he pointed a claw at the Seviper pirate.

"Sh-She's-!"

"Akane. Tromba's former Captain of the Guards," the Seviper sneered. "Good to see you still remember me, lizard."

Nida stared ahead with a dumbfounded expression as an unamused scoff rang out from the other end of the hall. There in his cell, Duke Franz turned up his beak with a disapproving scowl.

"Hrmph, I knew that the Company had low standards, but this is still quite the admission on your part, Vipitis," the Empoleon said. "I can only imagine how happy the Pokémon who used to put up with you were when you left to go and ply the seas as unwashed scum."

Akane whirled around briefly, hissing and brandishing her tail with a threatening wave.

"Shut up before I cut your throat, spear-head."

In her cell, Nida's mouth hung open as she tried to process the Seviper's words. Th-That wasn't right! After all, mami had told her stories of how she'd fought Darzin off with the town, and every time in those stories, she'd said…

"But you can't be the old Captain of the Guards! Mami had that job when Darzin ruled our island!" Nida said.

Akane turned back, her tail settling beyond a barely noticeable sway as she peered down with a dismissive scoff.

"Oh is that what she's saying about it these days?" the Seviper asked. "High talk from someone who lost her position for not doing her job and then stirred up a revolt over it!"

Nida raised her barbs in response. The entire revolt against Darzin, because mami didn't get her way? That didn't sound anything like her mother! Even if her temper made her a bit scary at times, she was la Cazadragones! Everyone else in Bluewhorl Town spoke of her as a hero!

Nida shot up and latched onto the bars, raising her voice in sharp protest.

"But that's not true! Mami always looked out for the town as the Captain of the Guards!" Nida insisted. "She drove Darzin off along with everyone else because he kept trying to force her to look the other way while his underlings bullied everyone around!"

"Tch, more like because she wasn't any good at her job and was mad about being sacked," Akane spat. "And do you really believe that drivel about her being some hero? Tarquin and I had her on the ropes before the rest of those stupid peasants got involved!"

Nida pinned her ears back as she stared up at Akane. This couldn't possibly be the full story… could it? The Seviper noticed her visibly wavering and cocked a smug smirk, leveling her eyes down with a contemptuous sneer.

"Though even so, I was expecting more than this from a child of hers," the serpent remarked. "Guess talent just doesn't run in the family."

Akane's smile then slid off her face, as she sized up the rest of the cell's occupants with a harsh glare.

"Though enough chit-chat. All of you blue-scarves in the cell, get up. You're being moved to solitary."

Nida tensed up at the mention of 'solitary' and saw Pladur and Elty's eyes visibly widen, with Pyry and Pekka looking similarly alarmed. She didn't think that Tromba had any solitary cells anymore, but she knew enough from the stories of when it did that it was a place that they really, really did not want to be in.

Though weirdly enough, the guards who had been crammed in the cell with them looked genuinely confused, with a Lairon among them raising her brow.

"Wait, we have solitary confinement cells here?" the Lairon asked.

"You do now," Akane retorted. "We didn't have to change up all that much to get it set up either."

Elty sucked in a sharp breath and braced himself. Why were the pirates suddenly worrying about them being mixed with the other Pokémon they captured? They hadn't cared to separate them the entire time since capturing the garrison…

Something had changed, and he wasn't sure if he was going to like finding out just what it was.

"And why are you doing this again?"

"To make sure your bird friend comes quietly," Akane answered. "Especially if he wants you to leave this town alive."

Elty felt the blood flush out of his face at the Seviper's answer and stood blankly, before he felt scales brush past him and saw Pyry and Pekka forcing their way before him and planting their feet for battle.

"As if we're just letting you drag our friends off!" the Gabite growled.

"Yeah! It's all of us against you four!" the Vibrava piped up. "Maybe you're stronger than us individually, but we've got numbers on our side!"

Nida and her companions joined in and braced for battle, and even the guards with them in the cell did much the same. The Toedscruel and Vivillon seemed visibly taken aback, and even the Medicham hesitated, yet Akane remained unfazed. Nida wasn't sure if that was a good sign, but the others didn't seem to pick up on it, least of all the Hakamo-o guard with them. The Dragon-Type went straight up to the bars with an audible jangle of his scales, baring his fangs and flashing his claws with a threatening snarl.

"Hah! Go ahead and open that door!" the Hakamo-o spat. "See what happens to you!"

"Carla, orb 'em."

Akane twisted the key with the tip of her tail and pulled the door open slightly as the Toedscruel lobbed a peach orb through the gap against the rear wall. At once the cell filled with mist as yelps and cries rang out. Shadows moved about frantically as the sound of coughing filled the air, followed by bodies slumping against the ground. The Hakamo-o was undeterred and growled and braced himself before he looked back and his jaw flopped open.

Everybody else in the cell had fallen victim to the Slumber Orb, and were sprawled out asleep on the floor.

"H-Hey! How is that fair?!" he stammered.

Akane opened the door the rest of the way and moved forward with a threatening hiss. The color drained from Lutz's face as he backpedaled, poison beginning to build up on Akane's tail as she readied to strike. The Hakamo-o hurriedly retreated into the far corner, shielding his head as the snake loomed over him, before she turned aside with a disgusted scoff.

"Hrmph, I thought so."

The Seviper turned her attention to Nida and dragged her along as the other pirates came in, carrying off Elty and Pladur. They left the cell and slammed the door shut behind them as cries of protest rang out from the other cells. Among them was a loud rattle as Duchess Augusta stormed up to the bars of her cell and shook them.

"Vipitis, set them down right now!" the Quaquaval demanded. "If so much as a plume is harmed on them-!"

Akane swiped her tail over the bars just above Augusta's hands, making her stumble back out of reflex with a yelping start. The Seviper hardened her gaze into a sharp glare, before turning her attention down the length of the cell block.

"All of you, sit down and shut up," she hissed. "If everything goes well, we'll be gone in a day or two and this won't be your problem. Get in our way, and we'll make you regret it."

Akane continued on for the door, briefly noting that some of the Pokémon were staring on with worried gazes while a few of others shot unimpressed frowns at Team Traveller's cell, including one of the other guards giving a grumbling 'Seriously, Lutz?' that she could just make out.

She paid them no mind. She'd gotten what she'd come here for, and cast a glance over at the slumbering Nidorina of the group as a knowing smile came over her face.

"Though really, I wouldn't mind them trying to fight back," she said. "It'd be a chance to settle some old scores."

---

(Continued in next post)

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

After their house arrest began, Pleo and his teammates quickly discovered that there wasn't much to do during it. They could still walk around freely inside Margi's home, and they were able to have a normal (if modest) dinner at the table in the entrance room, but there weren't many things they could do to amuse themselves with.

One of the few exceptions was a tatty deck of picture cards that Daraen had, which they took out to amuse themselves at the table after dinner as Ander and Trizano helped Margi spread out additional bedding in her and Daraen's rooms for their arrival. Pleo and Crom were surprised at how well Daraen was able to play his game even with his shaky eyesight. Somehow, in spite of being practically blind, after being told what card had been drawn, he seemed to always reflexively know the strength and abilities of the Pokémon on the card in question and how much 'energy' needed to be used for them…

"Ah! I won! I won!"

Given how well he seemed to know how the game worked, it probably should've been less surprising that each match would also end with him winning by a large margin, including the one they just finished. Daraen bounced on his toes and wagged his tail, beaming triumphantly when he noticed a lack of sound from the other end of the table aside from Pleo and Crom boredly poking at their cards.

Even without being able to see their facial expressions, from their quiet and their lack of movement, the Deino gathered that the pair didn't seem to be enjoying themselves. He trailed off, before tilting his head with an uneasy murmur.

"… Are you not having fun?"

Crom and Pleo stiffened up, as a flustered reaction came over the Druddigon's face. He hurriedly cleared his throat, before forcing an awkward smile over his face in reply.

"Well, we're having more fun than sitting in a cell, but… is this all you do for fun?" Crom wondered. "Like don't you also have some other card game to play, or dice, or a board game, or something like that?"

"No, not really. Maman and I had to leave home in a hurry, remember?" the Deino replied. "Besides, I can't see well enough to be able to play most of those games and they don't work as well as this one if I'm told what happened."

Crom supposed that would explain a lot. Even as a Hydreigon, there would've only been so much that Margi could've carried with her before leaving Boisocéan, and toys and games surely wouldn't have given priority over food or other necessities.

… Or friends for that matter. Daraen mentioned back on Boisocéan that he normally played with other Marked in that 'Bastille' place that he lived in. For all any of them knew, he and Pleo had been Daraen's first real playmates in almost a month. A similar pang of worry came over Pleo's face, as he turned over the Deino.

"Don't you get lonely just sitting around like this, though?" Pleo asked. "Since card games usually need at least two players for them."

"Oh, I don't usually do this for fun," Daraen explained, shaking his head in reply. "Normally I play outside with the other kids in the neighborhood."

… Of course. Pleo let out a quiet sigh. While it was relieving to hear that Daraen wasn't as lonely as he'd feared, that didn't do much to stave off the general boredom and restlessness he felt here in this cramped home.

"I guess that'd make sense…" the Lugia sighed. "Not that it really helps us right no-"

Pleo caught himself after hearing a rustling sound coming from the doorway. The Lugia blinked uneasily, and got up from his seat along with his teammates.

"Huh? Who's there-?"

Pleo turned his head just in time to notice the cloth over the doorway had been pulled aside, and there at the bottom was a small gathering of younger Pokémon with Marks on their forehead with a trio of Charmander at the front. There was a moment's pause as the children's eyes widened and the smallest of the Charmander let out a startled squeak.

"A-Aah!"

The youngsters hurriedly scattered in all directions, two of the Charmander dragging their smaller counterpart along, only for him to lose his grip and trip forward onto the ground.

"Ow!"

The smaller Charmander rubbed at his knee and whined in pain. His brother and sister turned around and went back for him, only to freeze and go wide-eyed.

"Are you okay?"

The younger Charmander looked up, where there above him was the long-necked demon looking down at him. The Charmander curled up on himself and screwed his eyes shut with a low whimper, bracing for the end as his siblings rushed over.

Except, nothing happened. There was a pause between the three as Pleo stooped down and held out a wing to the fallen Charmander. His siblings glanced over as Crom and Daraen caught up and slowed as they approached. Their brother cracked his eyes open and saw the Lugia waiting and cracking a small, guarded smile.

"That fall looked like it hurt," Pleo said. "Here, let me help you up."

The Charmander warily grasped onto Pleo's wingtip and stumbled up. As soon as he got back onto his feet, he bolted behind the other Charmander, a passing "are you okay?" from his older brother confirming Crom and Pleo's suspicions that the three were related. The female Charmander warily stepped in front of her siblings, turning her head up with a skeptical frown.

"… Why are you being nice to us?" she asked. "You're a demon, aren't you?"

Pleo quietly winced at the Charmander's reply, before shaking his head with a low sigh.

"But I'm not a demon," the Lugia replied. "And besides, even if I really am one, it doesn't mean that I have to be a mean Pokémon."

The female Charmander blinked in reply as her younger siblings traded glances and the smaller Charmander whispered a "Is that even possible?" to his older brother. Some of the other Marked youngsters they saw earlier started to peek back from various hiding places up the street. Crom hesitated briefly, before giving a small frown at the gawkers.

"He doesn't bite, you know," Crom chided. "If he wanted to hurt you, would he really have gone out of his way to help one of you up first?"

"Yeah, he's a lot nicer than he seems!" Daraen insisted.

The other youngsters slowly began to creep back over, a Marked Smoochum giving a wary tilt of her head as she spoke up from a safe distance.

"Wait, but aren't you supposed to be in Daraen's house?" the Smoochum asked. "Mom said that you're supposed to be in trouble if you or those other Pokémon with you leave it."

Pleo turned back and looked at the open doorway to Margi's home. Right, he supposed that they had been warned to stay inside as part of this 'house arrest' thingy. Even if the elders didn't say that all of his body had to stay inside.

The Lugia waddled back over to the doorway and turned around just at the threshold. He sat down against the ground, poking his head out into the street with a cheeky grin.

"Well I'm in it now, aren't I?"

Crom ducked back into Daraen's house himself, just in case any of the guards came around the corner unannounced. Daraen stayed outside in front of the door as a few chuckles went about the Marked children and the Smoochum mused aloud that their solution had been "kinda clever".

The sound of footsteps came as Ander and Trizano hurried over from inside, only to pause as they saw the gathered Pokémon. The youngsters' earlier unease began to wear off as they began to approach curiously, some more slowly than others. As the other Marked settled in around the entrance, Daraen gave a puzzled tilt back at them.

"Why are you all just hanging around my house anyways?" Daraen murmured.

"We were worried about you!" a Pidgey cried, flapping his wings.

"Yeah, everyone was saying that the demon who came to town was being kept in your house!" a Toxel exclaimed.

Crom looked over at Daraen as he pawed uneasily at the ground. He supposed that Elty wasn't fully wrong about Marked being clannish types. They really did look out for each other. A quiet patter against the ground turned his attention over to the oldest of the Charmander, as he kicked at a pebble with a sheepish expression.

"And… well… we were all kinda getting a bit bored just waiting around at home," he admitted. "Dinner wasn't going to be ready for another half an hour, and we had to do something."

"Yeah, dad's escalivada takes time to make!" the youngest Charmander chimed in.

A metallic rustle filled the air as Trizano stepped forward and quirked a brow.

"'Escalivada'?"

"It's vegetables and berries that are roasted and served with salt and oil," the female Charmander explained. "We were going to eat it with bread tonight."

The four blinked in reply. Neither Pleo nor Crom remembered anyone on Tromba mentioning a dish by that name, but something about the name sounded like it would've come from there. And from the blank expressions Trizano and Ander were giving, they didn't seem to recognize the name either.

"Is that a common dish here?" Trizano asked. "I can't say I've heard the name before."

The three Charmander traded glances with each other, before the older brother of the lot pawed at his shoulder and spoke up.

"I mean, I know that there's at least some other Pokémon here that know how to make it," he murmured. "But dad says his mother taught him how to make it. He says it was common on the island that she came from."

Trizano gave a puzzled blink at the Charmander's answer. Bunsen's mother taught him that recipe? But since when did Pokémon from Vollezee make 'escalivada'? Why there wasn't an island in all of Anyilla that came to mind from the name of that dish…

Unless…

"A-AAH! GET AWAY FROM THEM!"

Team Traveller snapped to attention at the sound of a panicked shout when an orange blur swooped in and abruptly snatched the youngest Charmander off the ground. Pleo and the others recoiled as the Marked youngsters quickly fell back and Daraen let out a startled yelp. As the dust settled, Pleo and his companions looked up to see Bunsen cradling his youngest child with his eyes shrunk to pins and spreading his wings wide in an attempt to look threatening… which didn't particularly work well from how he was visibly trembling. His other children stared for a moment, before hurriedly going up and tugging at their father's scales with stammering protests.

"D-Dad! It's alright!" the oldest Charmander exclaimed.

"Y-Yeah! Nobody's hurt right now!" his sister insisted.

Bunsen froze briefly, craning his head down with his youngest child still clutched in his claws and staring wide-eyed at him. The Marked Charizard looked between his children and the other youngsters, and then at Pleo and his companions at the door, his words coming out with a disbelieving splutter.

"B-But you- A-And my kids- And-"

"Were just talking," Pleo said. "Why would I want to do anything bad to them?"

Bunsen paused as his breathing slowed and began to even out. Pleo briefly scowled over at the former Commissioner, only to see a flash of anxiety come over his children. … Right, they still thought he seemed scary. He'd forgotten about that.

The young Lugia felt Ander tug at him and try to shepherd him off further inside Margi's house.

"Come on, Pleo," Ander sighed. "Looks like the fun's over for-"

"Wait, I need to say something first."

Pleo waddled out past the doorway. He watched as Bunsen visibly shrank back and pulled his wings around him and his child, as the other two and the rest of the Marked stared worriedly at him.

"Look, I'm not happy about what you did to my island, but I'm not going to hurt you over it. Or your kids," Pleo insisted. "We're not fighting right now, so why should we have to be enemies?"

Bunsen stared back wordlessly as his oldest child turned to him and whispered an awed "Wait, you fought a demon?" to his father. The Charizard's gaze drifted towards the ground before he set youngest Charmander down and looked at his children with a firm frown.

"Come on," Bunsen insisted. "We're going."

"Huh?" his daughter asked. "But dad-"

"No buts! We're going home now," the Charizard harrumphed. "This isn't a place you need to be anyways."

The three Charmander paused, before lowering their heads with grudging affirmations and heading off. Their father followed closely behind them, only to stop briefly, and crane his head back at the other youngsters in front of Daraen's house with a piercing scowl.

"And the rest of you shouldn't be just standing around there either!" Bunsen snapped. "That demon and those other Pokémon are under house arrest right now! Go home before your parents catch you causing trouble like this!"

The other Marked kids stiffened up as Crom heard a couple audible gulps from them before they quickly scattered. Crom watched as the passage outside cleared of other Pokémon, and leaned against the doorpost with a low sigh.

"… Do we really have a chance at convincing the elders?" Crom murmured. "If we couldn't even convince the Pokémon that live here…"

Daraen shuffled his feet in reply, opening his mouth briefly to try and say something, only to trail off and think better of it. Pleo drooped and turned to see Bunsen and his children drifting off, their tail fires lighting them up as they made their way down the tunnel.

Just then, he briefly spotted the youngest Charmander looking back at him. He was too far off to make out his expression, but the young Lugia was able to spot him waving back. Pleo blinked and turned back to his teammates with a small smile, content that he'd gotten the answer he'd been looking for.

"Yes, we do, Crom. I know we do."

---

The morning sun poked through the trees near the southern entrance of Gestirn Island's Mystery Dungeon. The forests and crags were still there, as were the scars left behind by Guardia and Dimitri's battle from the day before. And yet, for all that had remained the same around the area, the atmosphere could not have been more different thanks to the veritable horde of pirates in both red and golden scarves who had massed there.

Hess and Dirk sized up the entrance as they neared, and somehow, even though Hess had rallied most of his expanded crew for the mission, Dirk's mere half of his Crimson Corsairs visibly outnumbered them. It was hard to escape the conclusion that this wasn't truly a joint mission, especially with the way that Dirk sauntered out to the front of his underlings before motioning back at the Mystery Dungeon's entrance.

"This is it," the Bisharp said. "Starfall Slopes. The place where that town full of Marked holding our payday is."

Dirk looked out at the gathered pirates with a steely scowl to silence some lingering chatter. He waited for it to grow suitably quiet, and then continued speaking.

"This should be old hat for everyone, but I'll repeat it again for those of you who were too hungover for the briefing in town," the pirate captain barked. "Everyone will be heading in through their assigned routes in teams of four to try and find the entrances into Starbreak Square's. When you do find one of them, let everyone know through your badges and we'll start staging where we can to make our way in."
The Bisharp paused and folded his arms, letting a devious smirk come over his face before he continued on in a nonchalant tone.

"And if you see anything you like along the way… well, what sort of captain would I be if I didn't encourage you to help yourselves?"
Raucous cheers and sneers about how their victims "won't know what hit 'em!" floated around the gathered pirates as they began to work themselves up over the prospect of loot and plunder. Dirk waited briefly for the crowd to simmer down, when he turned and pointed off at the fog swirling about in the entrance.

"Alright, get your assignments and start moving out," he ordered. "I want that bird back in town before the evening!"

The crowd obliged, Dirk's red-scarved underlings swiftly sorting themselves out while after a little prodding, the others in the Iron Fleet's gold-and-silvers followed suit. Dirk stepped aside from the approach to the Mystery Dungeon's entrance as the first party of Crimson Corsairs already started making their way. The Bisharp made his way towards Hess and Rodion as the Aggron looked between the massed pirates and the Mystery Dungeon, before turning to Dirk with a worried grimace.

"Dirk, are you sure this will work?" Hess asked.

"Tch, that bird and his buddies don't have many other places to run," the Bisharp captain replied. "The Torrent Tsars are handling the main exit and perimeter duty, and the Strongjaw Gang and the smaller crews are holding the fort down in town. As long as we take care of all the ways in and out from that Marked hamlet, we'll be able to keep that Protector penned up until we can capture him."

Rodion folded his arms and cocked a brow in reply. He wasn't one to doubt Dirk's competence—his position and reputation spoke for themselves. Even so, something about how smoothly the Bisharp had gathered all this information in just a day felt strange…

"Can we even trust that information you found out about this place, Captain Dirk?" Rodion asked. "How did you even get it this fast, anyways?"

The Bisharp scoffed and turned aside, idly brushing one of his arm's blades as he spoke without facing the Floatzel.

"I stopped by the local guild and pulled a few of their members aside," Dirk replied. "It turns out Hunters will give you some really detailed information if they're motivated enough."

A quiet pause followed as Hess and Rodion traded uneasy looks with each other. Dirk certainly had a reputation that preceded him as a pirate captain, one that made even many square-necks and Imps quake at his sight. Perhaps they were overthinking it, but hearing Dirk talk about those Hunters being 'motivated' couldn't help but worry them a bit.

"Did you bribe 'em?" Hess asked. "Or…?"

"What sort of amateur do you take me for?" Dirk retorted. "I told them I needed to know all the ways in and out of this dungeon and that if they steered me wrong or I found out later they were holding things back from me, I'd kill their families."

A tense silence followed as Hess and Rodion both grew visibly uncomfortable. Hess fidgeted with his claws, before giving a nervous laugh in reply.

"You were just saying that to scare 'em into playing along, right?"

Dirk folded his arms and narrowed his eyes in response.

"Hess, when do I say anything that I'm not willing to do?" the Bisharp scoffed.

Hess quietly set his teeth on edge with a worried grimace. His crew were thieves by trade, and he was always uneasy about getting his claws dirty like that. Pokémon captured from crews that didn't shy away from murder had to be tough enough to fend off being actively hunted, and they were more likely to see the business end of an Apricorn or Teleport Gem. Rodion had always felt the same way, and the Floatzel had a knack for putting those reservations into words better than he could. And with the way he was stepping ahead of him, it was probably for the best for him to handle making the objection…

"Captain Dirk, you didn't have to go that far to find out-"

"Sounds more like you're too soft to get what you want, Floatzel," Dirk sneered back. "Maybe it'd explain a thing or two about why your crew of gilded incompetents are a bunch of perpetual bottom feeders."

Rodion's eyes narrowed into a sharp glare, as liquid began to gather around his paws and coalesce into blades of pressurized water. Hess hurriedly stepped in between the two, looking over to Dirk with a nervous stammer as he nudged Rodion behind him.

"W-We're getting off topic here!" the Aggron insisted, waving his claws. "Look, you mentioned that there were some assignments that hadn't been filled yet. Maybe it's something Rodion and some of our deckclaws can handle?"

Dirk raised a brow and let his eyes drift over to the still-glaring Floatzel. He locked eyes, before turning aside with an idle wave of his hand.

"Hrmph, there's a shortcut that doesn't have a team assigned to it yet. It's supposed to overlap with the range of floors where Starbreak Square links up with the Mystery Dungeon," the Bisharp explained. "If that first mate of yours really has nothing better to do, he can lead a team to check it out."

Hess and Rodion blinked. For a moment, Rodion's hostility faded, as a puzzled reaction settled over his face and he gave a skeptical tilt of his head back at Dirk.

"… Wait, why are you not handling that yourself?" the Floatzel questioned. "You want to get that bird every bit as much as we do, so wouldn't being able to get to him faster be right up your alley?"

"Because it's a coinflip that you'll actually make it there and not overshoot it by half a dozen floors," Dirk replied. "If you don't, you'll wind up wasting time having to find a link going back up to make the trek to Starbreak Square the hard way."

Rodion's face fell into a sour frown. He couldn't shake the feeling that this assignment was in part meant to just not have to deal with him. Hess seemed to have gotten the same impression and paused briefly, before looking over at Rodion and giving a reassuring pat at his shoulder.

"Rodion, if you don't want to-"

"I'll do it."

The Floatzel sighed and took a few steps forward before looking back over his shoulder with a wary frown.

"Just watch your back in there, alright?"
Rodion turned his head and continued on, calling out and raising a paw to draw attention as a Quilava and some other members of the Iron Fleet approached him. Hess looked on as the Floatzel began to sort his team into different squads, when he suddenly felt a sharp jab at his side and jumped up with a yelp.

"Ah!"

Hess pawed at the tender spot, when his eyes met Dirk's. The Bisharp scowled impatiently up at the Aggron, before turning and motioning with his head off at the Mystery Dungeon's entrance.

"Come on, Hess. Let's get going."

Hess hesitated briefly, only to shake his head and press along. The pair each carried along with a set of underlings, Hess joining up with Kichiro and a few others before heading off into the foggy approach. Their numbers thinned rapidly afterwards, with red and gold-scarved pirates filing into the Mystery Dungeon while Rodion and a small mob of other pirates made their way off into the brush. Little by little, the clearing emptied out, until all that was left was the sound of the wind and a faint rustling.

"Verdammt, we certainly didn't need to deal with this bright and early in the day."

Robbie's voice broke the silence as he emerged from the treeline, followed by several of his fellow guards with Guardia and Dimitri joining at the fore. The Cubone and Kabutops grimaced quietly for a moment, as Guardia nervously adjusted her helmet and looked at the Mystery Dungeon with a low murmur.

"I really hope that Pleo has already left by now," she said. "Since those were a lot of sea-walkers that just went into that Mystery Dungeon."

Dimitri looked off at the entrance, before quietly scraping his scythes together.

"I… don't want to take that bet, Guardia."

Guardia bit her tongue and hesitated. The pirates must've really been convinced that Pleo and the others were still in there for them to come in such numbers, and Robbie still hadn't heard anything back through their badges. Wouldn't they have said something if they left Starbreak Square? The Cubone anxiously dragged the tip of her club against the ground, before looking up at her taller peers with an uneasy gaze.

"So what do we do, then?" she asked.

"Yeah, you're not seriously expecting us to fight our way through that many pirates, are you, Sheriff?" a Heliolisk demanded.

A moment of hesitation came over the group as the other guards traded worried murmurs with one another. Dimitri turned his head off towards the tracks that Rodion and his pirates left behind. He let his eyes linger over the disturbed brush as he thought back to the orders the Floatzel's group had left with…

"That Floatzel… let's follow after him. His party wouldn't outnumber us that badly if things come down to a fight, and if we shadow him, we'll be able to find that shortcut the Bisharp was talking about," he insisted. "It might be our only chance to get a warning in to Pleo and the others before the rest of the pirates catch up."

There was a moment of silence, before Robbie sighed and shook his head.

"I'm still not sure how I feel about our odds if we have to fight that many pirates in the middle of a Mystery Dungeon, or if we wound up overshooting Starbreak Square ourselves and need to find a way back," the Krookodile sighed. "But I'll admit that we don't exactly have many better options right now."

It would have to do. Guardia turned and already began trudging off for Rodion's tracks, slinging her club over her shoulder at the ready.

"Then let's make the most of things. Come on, let's go."

---

Author's Notes:

- Rüpel - German: "lout(s)"
- Waruvial (ワルビアル) - Japanese: "Krookodile" (Official Romanization)
- Tragosso - German: "Cubone"
- Vipitis - German: "Seviper"
- Verdammt - German: "Damn", "Damn it" (interjection)

 

[Ambyssin]

I don't really find myself with much to say here. It's purely a transitional chapter that's moving pieces into position for what's to come. The stuff back at the jail with Akane felt weirdly drawn out for something that ultimately just served to move the captured Team Traveler members into solitary. I can only assume it was this way because of the stuff surrounding Nida's mom. Which, like, okay, sure. But this felt like a very strange twist to introduce now of all times, while you're already juggling a bunch of other things. It could've easily gotten rolled into another scene, like smorgasboard of combat that will inevitably follow for the last several chapters.

Just what do you think you can do against us?"

"A really sick kickflip!"

Had she been saying too much to Dirk

I mean, yeah.

Huh? Just what sort of client would be able to hire this many pirates?

Lord Cutler Beckett. Who's just Inler.

a Heliolisk growled

Oi, get back to your own fic, ya banana-colored lizard. ️

I don't know if Her Majesty could declare open war on the Company over a pirate raid without sparking riots in the capital again

She could with a high enough persuasion check. :V

"By the way, what is 'Hard to Kill'?

Christmas was three weeks ago. You lost the window for this joke >:C

There was even a line of three strange metal containers that sat next to a wheeled contraption of some sort with a long handle, and some sort of pinwheel that rested against the wall.

oh hi rotom forms.

"This codex I'm indwelling

Man I can't wait for Elilan's secret project to actually be a NEW METAL GEAR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

and was specifically built for my kind to manipulate

Ah, yes, the most popular rotom form: Rotom Photocopier

"We have a secure chest in my office that we'll be putting it into for safekeeping. No harm will come to it there."

Narrator: Harm will come to it there.

It's getting late enough that it's time we bring you to a place to pass the night."

In before it's a jail.

They're going to be spending the night in a holding cell,

p_o

"Where did you think they'd keep us?"

"A quaint little cottage!"

"Just who is going to be watching them tonight anyways?"

I can't believe they forgot the sacred Marked custom of the drawing of straws.

"Can't make it, the mate and the kids all came down with stomachaches this morning"

Some other guard: "Yeah, and I got an oven in my quiche! ... I mean quiche in my oven!"

"I can't believe you four! Why on earth would you agree to this?!"

Ah, yes, ye ol' smashe cut.

"If he harms so much as a hair of anyone outside your house, there will be consequences for you."

I can't believe Pleo's about to go commit fashion crimes.

"Wh-Why would you bring the demon here?! My family and I live in this tunnel!"

Specifically to bully you.

"Yeah, no. I don't want to lose my lunch every time we have to come here,"

Nothing says "I'm a fearsome pirate" like a tender tummy to seeing a corpse.

"Well now, looks like your friend is feeling better already."

It almost worked for, like, five seconds. GG.

"Shut up before I cut your throat, spear-head."

Too bad steel is immune to Poison Tail.

"Maybe you're stronger than us individually, but we've got numbers on our side!"

Whoa, whoa, wait, who taught this idiot math offscreen?

he seemed to always reflexively know the strength and abilities of the Pokémon on the card in question and how much 'energy' needed to be used for them…

Whyyyyyyyyyy does the TCG exiiiiiiiiiist in-universe

"And besides, even if I really am one, it doesn't mean that I have to be a mean Pokémon."

"Well I'm in it now, aren't I?"

"… Do we really have a chance at convincing the elders?"

Yes! ... Just as soon as the pirates come in and start wrecking their home.

 

[Chibi Pika]

69-70

Alrighty, looks like we left off with everyone gearing up to investigate this totally-not-haunted island. Both Team Traveller and the Iron Fleet are here, but this isn't another case of relentless pursuit, as neither is aware the other is here. Aaat least until the beach crew runs into a couple pirates, forcing Elty to have to face his former crewmates. He's been avoiding that for quite a while, so it's fun to see the past catching up with him.

Meanwhile, Nida's group comes across a mysterious shack in the woods... I enjoy the logic that it clearly can't be haunted if it doesn't look creepy.

Interesting that there's apparently a town in a mystery dungeon. That would certainly be a good way to avoid detection. The clawed ghost apparitions that keep showing up are obviously meant to be ridiculous and overdramatic to scare visitors away, and well... they'd have good reason to, if Xerneas really is here.

Ah, yep, that confirmation came fast. But even if it's all just a production, Team Traveller getting abducted can't be good for them. Hopefully they'll at least get some answers out of it...?

Ohhh no, Lyn still thinks he has Pleo but he has David. God, I was cringing so hard as he went for the dramatic reveal. That was a pretty tense vote from the board, but he made it by the skin of his teeth. Ketu was the one who set him up, right? Yeah, I think we need to have a face-off between those two at some point.

Anyway, back on Pioppo, we've got the dungeon town and Xerneas! And he's not just a Protector, he's also a voice of life. And also... surprisingly upbeat and friendly. Though I guess he's probably not all that old either.

Aahhh, here we go, the followup to Cabot's doubts from last episode. And bringing it up to Nagant went about as well as I thought it would. Yeah, there's no way anyone would follow such an idealistic proposal. Still, you'd think the Empire would have better luck if they went for a compromise like Pleo having to stay in their domain, but allowing his friends to visit anytime. (Though of course they would much prefer bringing him back to Tromba, I could see the offer being tempting if they get too exhausted with the endless pursuit.)

That's all for now, until next time~

~Chibi~

 

[Kindoflame]

Review of Chapter 89

There is a trend in this story that’s really annoying to me. It is less that you are doing something wrong and more like you keep missing an opportunity to do something awesome. Sorry if this comes across very rambly. I’ve been working on this review for over 4 hours because I am just not sure how to express what I am feeling.

I am Jewish and when I played the original Mass Effect I noticed some similarities between the Quarians and Jews. Not so much that I would say Quarians are suppose to represent Jews, but enough that I made not of it. Then there was a scene where a Quarian is falsely accused of stealing and it was extremely interesting to me, because I know almost identical scenes have played out for Jews throughout history. In some small way, that scene helped me relate to how other Jews have faced discrimination that fortunately I do not face today. Even if I wasn’t Jewish, that scene would have helped me understand what discrimination is.

When I started reading Fledglings I also made note of similarities between Jews and Marked, although I don’t think it was intentional on you part. The big one is just how Jews share a group identity despite being dispersed across the world and forced to live in isolated pockets within larger nations, Marked share a group identity despite being dispersed across the Cradle and forced into Marked quarters within larger islands. At first there were a quite a few moments which I really related to, my favorite being the Unmarked directing Pleo to Ander’s house because they assume a Protector will want to hurt/ kill Marked. But then Margi the Hydragon’s story arc ended and… it just never came up again. The only time since Chapter 30 I felt like you were even trying to make the readers understand what being Marked is like in this society is when someone (I think it was Crom, but I am not sure) finds Ander’s book where Lugia is depicted as a monster.

It feels to me like you added a minority group to PMD and then decided to not explore it. What makes this so infuriating to me is I keep seeing moments where you easily could! When Ander sees David disguised as a Legendary, he freaks out and runs away. You could have had him run to the Marked district, only to find it the victim of frequents riots and the residence revealing that whenever David demanded gifts, the Unmarked would invade and steal things to present to him. This wouldn’t be a perfect comparison, but that situation would resemble the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Instead, Ander just goes to the ship and everyone moves on.

Later three Marked are put on trial, facing exile, based on the testimony of 1 Unmarked. You could have had the legal system rigged against the Marked, without the laws explicitly discriminating between Marked and Unmarked. For example, the judge could say that a captain’s testimony always overrides a crewmate’s, with it only being a coincidence that the majority of captains are Unmarked. That situation would mirror how the American legal system is weighed against black people even though the laws don’t explicitly discriminate. Instead, the Marked are given a completely fair trial.

After than Ander meets the real Xerneas (forget her name right now). Rather than freaking out like he has done previously, he holds his tongue until Xerneas says that people who learn of the village must never leave. Then he pressed Xerneas on what happens to Marked that arrive, since they would never accept living with a Legendary. I really don’t know what the answer would be, but it can’t be good. This leads the cast to more seriously doubt Xerneas and their isolationist policy. Instead Ander freaks out again, and the rest of the cast responds by pretty much ignoring him and carrying on with the conversation.

Then there is this chapter, and Phyllis’s boring conversation with her friends. I’m sorry if that’s harsh, but the whole point of the scene is to make the Unmarked characters more seriously consider the possibility that a Legendary is awake. Imagine if the scene went like this:

A small smile settled over Salvini's face as she watched Payak take another sip from his drink. It was nice to see that in spite of their circumstances, Payak was finally warming up to her old home, and what would be her companions' for the foreseeable future. The Grovyle reached for her cup on the counter, when she saw Phyllis staring down idly at her own drink.

"Is something the matter, Phyllis?" He asked. "You've been awfully quiet tonight."

"Actually… the other day I saw a Cubone and a Growlithe in the library that reminded me of the ones we ran into on Mengir," the Leafeon said. "It just got me thinking. If, hypothetically, a demon did come back, would the Company give it the Marked in exchange for an alliance?”

That one question by itself would reveal more about Phyllis’s character than the entire scene you wrote. It shows that Phyllis feel conflict within her identity; that she feels tension between being a Marked and a Company employee. It also shows that her fears Unmarked would react to a demon more than the actions of the demon itself. And then her friends response to her fears would be so interesting! Do they naively deny that the Company would endanger its citizens for power? Maybe they question the assumption that a Protector would seeks out Marked to hurt. They could even sidestep the whole political aspect and focus on Phyllis herself: ‘If that ever happens, we’ll make sure you get away safely. You are our friend and we’ll gladly risk trail for heresy or treason to keep you safe.’

I’m sorry if this is very incoherent, but I just don’t understand why you aren’t exploring your Marked characters. Imagine if Avatar had Zuko switch sides, but never gave him 2.5 seasons of character development, with explorations of his motivations and relationships. The story would work, but it would be way worse. It is very obvious to me that Fledglings is going to end with the Unmarked, Marked, and Legendaries coming to some type of peace. But if you don’t first show us what being Marked means to these people and how they are oppressed by the Unmarked in the name of the Legendaries, that ending is just going to be hollow.

 

[Kindoflame]

Chapter 90 Review

Since you showed the readers the heroes planning the heist, it is obvious that something would go wrong. I do like how what went wrong was not the part everyone was concerned with though. There was so much uncertainty about if Kline would sneak in and get out safely, but Team Traveler are the ones almost caught. That said, the heist isn’t over until the getaways done. It definitely feels to me that something else is going to go wrong. Ketu’s team and Darzin are both still in play, but I’m anticipating something bigger. The longer a story goes the bigger the stakes need to get. Those could be external stakes, like the giant chase at Tidemill, or internal stakes, like Elty facing his former crewmates. Plus, this arc has been very subdued, with a lot of spying and planning, so that should be offset but a big climax. Something dramatic is definitely coming, but I can’t say for sure what. The fact I feel this way proves you’ve definitely done a really good job with this story arc’s pacing and foreshadowing.

I also really like this section:

"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!"

It reminds me a lot of chapter 16, when Lyn was abducting Pleo from Tromba. Lyn basically make the same threat, but this time Pleo rejects that argument and decides to fight with his friends. This moment was touching to me because you’ve shown me what these characters have gone through and the friendships they have formed together. What makes this section work so well isn’t anything written here; it’s the background and build up to it that’s has slowly been happening across the whole story.

Compare that to Ander’s talk with Phyllis. Ander seems to be arguing that the Marked’s scripture are warning that the Legendaries could become demons, rather than the traditional interpretation that they are born demons. However, Ander never had a character arc prior to this that supports this development. Imagine if he had a conversation with Crom’s dad (forget his name at the moment) about having power makes someone dangerous, but how they use that power makes them good or evil, or talked to his daughter before leaving Tromba the second time about how Pleo is a destructive demon, but destruction can still be used in a morally good way. This conversation would then be another step in his character arc, rather than just something he say a little out nowhere.

Similarly, Phyllis agrees that the Company getting a hold of a demon would be a bad idea, but nothing prior to this moment really supports her decision. If you had shown the Company discriminating again Phyllis as an individual or against Marked as a group, then it would make sense. But the only time you have shown Marked being mistreated was over 60 chapters ago on an island not completely under Company control, and even then they were not being treated that horribly.

This scene doesn’t work as one Marked confronting another about their ancient traditions and modern problems, and part of me thinks you recognize that. Alice chimes in to make points that Ander could have and Phyllis agreeing to let a demon go is not the emotional beat that ends the scene. That honor goes to Salvini convincing Hertsog to stand down. Because you haven’t been giving your Marked characters the same type of development you’ve been giving your Unmarked characters, this scene and future scenes like it are going to lack impact.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Hey everybody, it’s been a while, but @Virgil134 and I are back with a fresh update and fresh batch of review responses:

@Ambyssin

Spoiler

I don't really find myself with much to say here. It's purely a transitional chapter that's moving pieces into position for what's to come. The stuff back at the jail with Akane felt weirdly drawn out for something that ultimately just served to move the captured Team Traveler members into solitary. I can only assume it was this way because of the stuff surrounding Nida's mom. Which, like, okay, sure. But this felt like a very strange twist to introduce now of all times, while you're already juggling a bunch of other things. It could've easily gotten rolled into another scene, like smorgasboard of combat that will inevitably follow for the last several chapters.

Well, there was a bit more of a point to that scene with Nida and Akane there. You probably already have an idea, but it’ll be touched on a bit more in the next update after today’s. A bit unfortunate that this chapter didn’t move the needle much for you, but I suppose that happens sometimes.

Oi, get back to your own fic, ya banana-colored lizard.

Hey man, I like my cross-story cameos… even if Hans is more of a happy coincidence than a deliberate cameo of Dalton. ️

She could with a high enough persuasion check. :V

I mean, I suppose Aleria already made one once in this story.

Christmas was three weeks ago. You lost the window for this joke >:C

Yeah, alas. Schedule slip has a way of doing that.

oh hi rotom forms.

[correct_plankton_meme]

Man I can't wait for Elilan's secret project to actually be a NEW METAL GEAR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Hold onto that thought, really…

Ah, yes, the most popular rotom form: Rotom Photocopier

Well, Pokédex, but close enough.

I can't believe they forgot the sacred Marked custom of the drawing of straws.

…


Some other guard: "Yeah, and I got an oven in my quiche! ... I mean quiche in my oven!"

I mean, those do seem like some pretty time-tested traditions, even if I wouldn’t say they’re exclusive to Marked.

Nothing says "I'm a fearsome pirate" like a tender tummy to seeing a corpse.

It’s less seeing a corpse and more smelling one that’d make the pirate’s tummy tender. Especially if said corpse has been sitting for a while.

Whyyyyyyyyyy does the TCG exiiiiiiiiiist in-universe

Because fun meta cameos, and the basic premise of a TCG is at least 200 years old IRL by this point.

Yes! ... Just as soon as the pirates come in and start wrecking their home.

Well, I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see how that all plays out, huh? :V

Though thanks for the review, and we’ll be looking forward to what you have to say about our future chapters.

@Kindoflame

Spoiler

I’m sorry if this is very incoherent, but I just don’t understand why you aren’t exploring your Marked characters. Imagine if Avatar had Zuko switch sides, but never gave him 2.5 seasons of character development, with explorations of his motivations and relationships. The story would work, but it would be way worse. It is very obvious to me that Fledglings is going to end with the Unmarked, Marked, and Legendaries coming to some type of peace. But if you don’t first show us what being Marked means to these people and how they are oppressed by the Unmarked in the name of the Legendaries, that ending is just going to be hollow.

That’s a matter of a difference of focus, really. While the Marked have indeed been getting a raw deal as being the subject of discrimination in their world, their struggles ultimately aren’t the central plot thread that this story is built around.

That’s not to say that there’s no points in the story that give more of a focus on the Marked and their perspective. That’s actually a huge part of the present arc of the story that’s being published.

Since you showed the readers the heroes planning the heist, it is obvious that something would go wrong. I do like how what went wrong was not the part everyone was concerned with though. There was so much uncertainty about if Kline would sneak in and get out safely, but Team Traveler are the ones almost caught. That said, the heist isn’t over until the getaways done. It definitely feels to me that something else is going to go wrong. Ketu’s team and Darzin are both still in play, but I’m anticipating something bigger. The longer a story goes the bigger the stakes need to get. Those could be external stakes, like the giant chase at Tidemill, or internal stakes, like Elty facing his former crewmates. Plus, this arc has been very subdued, with a lot of spying and planning, so that should be offset but a big climax. Something dramatic is definitely coming, but I can’t say for sure what. The fact I feel this way proves you’ve definitely done a really good job with this story arc’s pacing and foreshadowing.

Well, I suppose that you aren’t wrong there, since every arc from the one that you’re at there up until the end of the story will certainly be ramping up in terms of escalation of stakes.

I also really like this section:

It reminds me a lot of chapter 16, when Lyn was abducting Pleo from Tromba. Lyn basically make the same threat, but this time Pleo rejects that argument and decides to fight with his friends. This moment was touching to me because you’ve shown me what these characters have gone through and the friendships they have formed together. What makes this section work so well isn’t anything written here; it’s the background and build up to it that’s has slowly been happening across the whole story.

Glad to hear that you had fun with things there. Since showing the characters growing as part of their journeys is a big part of this story.

Compare that to Ander’s talk with Phyllis. Ander seems to be arguing that the Marked’s scripture are warning that the Legendaries could become demons, rather than the traditional interpretation that they are born demons. However, Ander never had a character arc prior to this that supports this development. Imagine if he had a conversation with Crom’s dad (forget his name at the moment) about having power makes someone dangerous, but how they use that power makes them good or evil, or talked to his daughter before leaving Tromba the second time about how Pleo is a destructive demon, but destruction can still be used in a morally good way. This conversation would then be another step in his character arc, rather than just something he say a little out nowhere.

I would contest that since Ander has seen Pleo progressively defy his expectations for some time now. I suppose giving him an out-and-out scene with Pladur talking about power and it making someone dangerous would’ve been a fun thing to have at some point had Virgil and I thought of writing one, though in the interest of actually moving the story forward and not being bogged down in a perpetual cycle of revisioning and retconning, that’ll probably be something that we leave in the “well, it’d have been nice” pile.

Not to say that you won’t see any of that in this story. There’s a few parts in the present arc that are actually pretty similar to what your suggestion was.

Similarly, Phyllis agrees that the Company getting a hold of a demon would be a bad idea, but nothing prior to this moment really supports her decision. If you had shown the Company discriminating again Phyllis as an individual or against Marked as a group, then it would make sense. But the only time you have shown Marked being mistreated was over 60 chapters ago on an island not completely under Company control, and even then they were not being treated that horribly.

No, she had been pretty consistently freaking out about the idea of the Company having anything to do with Pleo as far back as the initial raid on their room on Mengir.

This scene doesn’t work as one Marked confronting another about their ancient traditions and modern problems, and part of me thinks you recognize that. Alice chimes in to make points that Ander could have and Phyllis agreeing to let a demon go is not the emotional beat that ends the scene. That honor goes to Salvini convincing Hertsog to stand down. Because you haven’t been giving your Marked characters the same type of development you’ve been giving your Unmarked characters, this scene and future scenes like it are going to lack impact.

Hrm. A bit unfortunate that things didn’t quite stick the landing in that regard. I’m not sure if we agree with all the criticisms you raised in your past two reviews, though thanks for being frank and for taking the time to actually write up your thoughts and feelings about the chapter.

Alright, and starting things off this time around, but we have some fresh art for the story, consisting of a pair of fanarts made by Deeshura from the SkyTemple ROMhacking forum of Nida, and Nida through Crom’s eyes, along with some belated prize art from Thousand Roads' recent Review Blitz by spinaltapdancer3 and tomatorade. As you might have gathered from today’s header, but this chapter wound up growing a bit chunky. We debated a bit between whether it was better to do it in one shot, and figured that while it was thematically one chapter, that it was better presented as a multiparter to keep its events more digestible for readers to take in, and more manageable for us as writers to actually publish.

As such, let’s dive right into that first part of two of today’s chapter, the part where things start coming to a head in…

 

[Virgil134]

The walk up to Starbreak Square's main entrance from the floor of the surrounding Mystery Dungeon was similar to how Pleo and his teammates found it the other day. Once again, a rocky spit headed off into the fog from a ledge, with an abyss filled with thick mist far below. What had changed were the arrangement of the walls and corridors, such that the abyss now laid in the middle of the chamber with ledges ringing it in all directions.

But the biggest difference of all was the Pokémon that were in front of it.

"Nrgh…"

A pair of Pokémon in red scarves drug a bound and dazed Marked Orthworm along and threw him into a heap up against a stony wall along with a few other Marked—guards who'd been overpowered by the first wave of pirates who found the entrance. The chamber was now crowded with pirates, with Hess and Dirk of course being among their number. The pair made their way up to the front as Hess pawed at a few fresh marks in his hide and cast an uneasy glance back at the defeated Marked off at the other end of the chamber.

"Those guards put up more of a fight than I thought they would," the Aggron murmured. "Dirk, are we sure that this is a good-?"

"Shut it, Hess," the Bisharp snapped. "I didn't get as far as I did by turning tail at the first rogue wave at sea."

Dirk stepped out at the head of the formation of pirates closest to the entrance. He raised a hand for silence, and after quickly receiving it, looked over the gathering with a stern, serious frown.

"The scouts we sent in just got back to me a few minutes ago. They've found out what we needed to know," the Bisharp said. "Those Marked built up their town around a fortified core with a bunch of vaults. The holding cells they keep prisoners in are there, and knowing them, that's where the bird is right now."

Dirk's underlings nodded along, while the golden-scarved pirates in the group visibly hesitated. A few of their number began to murmur in hushed tones and grow noticeably uneasy, with a Litten raising his voice to speak up.

"Wait, we're really just going to storm the most fortified part of town?" the Litten asked. "Isn't that where all the guards would be too?"

The Bisharp shot a piercing glare at the Litten, making the Fire-Type hurriedly shrink back and break eye contact. Hess shot a sideways glance at Dirk as the rest of his underlings similarly stifled their protests. He set his teeth on edge and subconsciously lowered his head to flash his horns, only to catch himself. He didn't like the way that Bisharp was treating his crew right now, but at the same time… he wasn't sure there was anything he could do about it.

Hess quickly stood upright after Dirk's gaze fell on him and hurriedly pretended to brush some dust off his stony scales. After growing satisfied, the Bisharp let out a quiet harrumph, before turning back to the gathered pirates to continue his briefing.

"Normally, yes," Dirk replied. "That's why your captain here volunteered to have some of your ranks provide skirmishers to draw the guards' attention away from the center of town."

Hess stiffened up at Dirk's explanation, and shot him a bewildered glance.

"Wait, I did? Since when-?"

"We Crimson Corsairs will head in along with Hess and his tougher deckhands about five minutes after you head in. With the guards thinned in the town's center, it's just a matter of fighting past them to break into those holding cells, snagging the bird, and getting out," Dirk continued. "There shouldn't be any shortage of loot to nab along the way, either. After all, when was the last time anyone built up fortifications like that without having something good inside?"

That last sentence seemed to do the trick for dispelling the unease. At once, both the Crimson Corsairs and Iron Fleet alike broke out into cheers and laughter, as the pirates began to work themselves up over the promise of loot in their paws and spirits in their bellies. The Bisharp smirked at the turn of the gathering's mood. All that was really needed to smooth things over was just to give the gathered crews a bit of good old-fashioned motivation.

"Well then, I think it's about time we got this show on the road, huh?"

"W-Wait just a minute!"

Dirk trailed off when he noticed Hess raising a claw in protest from the side. The Bisharp turned over to face his Aggron peer into and let his face fall a sharp frown.

"What now, Hess?"

"We can't head in just yet!" the Aggron protested. "Rodion and his party haven't caught up with us yet!"

Dirk rolled his eyes with a grumbling sigh, before bringing a hand up to the badge on his scarf. He tugged it loose, before giving it a firm squeeze and raising it to his mouth.

"Rian, put the Iron Fleet's sea rat on the line."

Hess gave a scowl of his own at the Bisharp. He knew that Dirk didn't see him as an equal, but would it have killed him to pretend like he respected him, just this once?

"Hess?"

Hess snapped back to attention and breathed out a sigh of relief after hearing his first mate's voice. He supposed he should've known better to assume that Rodion would get in trouble from a Mystery Dungeon, but even so, he'd hoped that he wouldn't have fallen this far behind.

"Rodion? Where are you?"

"One of our squads found an entrance into the town and we're waiting for everyone in our group to converge on it. Though where are you? Those dispatchers from the Crimson Corsairs wouldn't give us a straight answer all this time!"

Hess turned his head over to Dirk as the Bisharp summarily stepped back from him. Dirk raised the badge back to his mouth, before giving a terse grunt back through the badge.

"We're on a different floor than you, just go in once everyone in your group's together. We'll fight our way to the center of the town and catch up there."

Dirk let go of the badge and silenced Rodion's voice. He pinned it back on his scarf, leaving Hess to splutter and stare with his mouth hanging open. Was Dirk trying to get Rodion lost? First Dirk made the two of them travel separately, then his crew's psychics gave Rodion the run-around, and now the Bisharp didn't even want to wait for Rodion to come and join forces with them!

"What are you doing?!" Hess protested. "We were all supposed to go in together for this raid!"

Dirk narrowed his eyes and began to turn for the entrance with an impatient huff.

"Your first mate already made it into position on his own. He'll be fine," the Bisharp insisted. "And since when did an Aggron like you need a little sea rat as a babysitter?"

Hess let out a low growl and pawed his feet against the ground, angrily flashing his teeth in reply.

"Look, you said that you wanted my tougher deckclaws to help take the town center, didn't you?" the Aggron snapped. "How do you expect me to do that without-?!"

The next thing Hess knew, there was a woosh and glint of gathered light along with something poking at his throat. He glanced down and fought back a frightened squeal after seeing the tip of one of Dirk's arm-blades pressed up against its hide, with its owner glaring daggers at him from the length of his arm.

"By improvising," Dirk snarled. "Just like how I'll improvise by leaving you crumpled in the dirt and going on without you if you don't shut up and start marching!"

Hess' mind went blank briefly as Dirk pulled the blade from his throat and returned his arm to his side. The Aggron reflexively grabbed at his throat, and after discovering his neck's hide wasn't broken and steadying his shaky breaths, Hess turned his head and looked out over the gathered pirates.

All around the gathering, the Crimson Corsairs were giving unamused and dismissive reactions to his display, while the pirates from his own crew were shrinking back visibly unnerved, as was to be expected after seeing their captain get cowed into submission right in front of them. Fighting Dirk right here and now was bound to end terribly, but pirates respected strength from their captains, so he'd have to try and project it some other way.

Hess turned his head away. Rodion wasn't a pushover, and even if there had been a couple scares along the way, they'd pulled through far dicier moments even when separated. Maybe he was just overthinking things. Rodion wasn't exactly a stranger to going through Mystery Dungeons when he had to, and it wasn't as if they were short on 'monpower at the moment…

He forced a determined scowl over his face and looked out over his underlings, before motioning off at Starbreak Square's entrance with a small grin.

"Head out and raise some hell. We'll all be back in town and getting sloshed before we know it."

He waited a bit as little by little, the Iron Fleet's Pokémon began to perk up, with a few even openly talking about how they were looking forward to their loot and rum once the dust settled. Dirk waved the first group of pirates from the Iron Fleet forward, and watched with a knowing smile as other skirmishers followed one after the other.

"It's showtime."

---

As humble as Margi's home in Starbreak Square was, the accommodations proved to be surprisingly comfortable. Before Pleo and his companions knew, it was morning again. Or at least Margi claimed that it was morning based on the number of distant bell-chimes echoing through the tunnels. According to her and Daraen, the bell-chimes were how the town marked the hours in the absence of sunlight. After rousing from their bedding, it was just a few paces over back to the low-slung table in the Hydreigon's living room, where the six shared a breakfast of simple Gummis.

At least the morning had been going well so far. Pleo discovered that Trizano's wing feathers had grown back, which the Skarmory insisted was due to his abilities as an Immortal. For a moment he'd hoped that his own had regrown, only to discover that much to his disappointment, they were still visibly cut short. The others traded chatter with each other, mostly about the Elders and the importance of making a good impression on them after being summoned, but he opted to focus on the food set out to eat.

Or at least he tried to. Pleo absentmindedly pawed at a Gummi in front of him, pushing it back and forth before hearing a burp across the table. The Lugia looked up, where there was Daraen, beaming and wagging his tail happily blissfully unaware of the silent, scolding look from his mother.

"Ahh, that hit the spot!" the Deino cheered. "Nothing like some Royal Gummis to get the day started!"

Pleo couldn't help but grin in reply and let out a quiet chuckle, only for his cheery mood to falter as he glanced out the stone window overlooking the tunnel connecting Margi's home and the others deeper down the shaft. Every now and then, there'd be a shape that went by it, which would pick up the pace when passing Margi's home. Right, this was around the time back in Bluewhorl when other Pokémon would rouse for the day, so it was only natural that they wouldn't be alone.

… Except, the Elders had mentioned they would make a decision about their request bright and early in the morning. If so, wouldn't they have wanted to do that before everyone started waking up? It felt a bit silly, but perhaps they'd gotten lost in the tunnels?

"So what do we do now?" Pleo asked.

"Just wait for the Elders to come by here," Margi insisted, taking a Gummi from her plate. "It's not that late in the morning right now, and much of the town's diurnal Pokémon are still waking up."

There was an uneasy quiet as Ander fidgeted uneasily and a visibly worried expression started to settle on his face. The Elders were palpably unenthused about the idea of working with a 'demon' yesterday, so just how good of a sign was it if they were running late on telling them what they'd decided?

"How long were we supposed to wait on the Elders, again?" the Scyther questioned.

"Not long," the Hydreigon answered. "The Elders aren't normally the type to keep others waiting."

A distant thump rang out in the distance, followed by a sharp crash and shouts coming from outside that made everyone around the table flinch. Trizano blinked and got up uneasily as the voices seemed to continue on.

"What the…?"

Margi beat her wings and got up from the table, going up to the stone window and poking her central head out. She paused for a moment and listened keenly as she seemed to pick out the noises more clearly, before hesitating and looking back towards the table.

"… Some of the neighbors probably got into a squabble," she said. "I guess it wouldn't be the first time I've seen that since being put on guard duty."

Trizano reflexively made his way over for the door with his teammates and Daraen only for Margi to motion for them to stop.

"Stay here," the Hydreigon insisted. "You're under house arrest, remember? This shouldn't take long to sort out, just try and get things presentable before the Elders arrive."

Trizano and the others nodded back as Margi took her leave and hurried out of her home's doorway. The Skarmory briefly glimpsed after her as she made her way down the tunnel, before he headed back to clear the table along with his teammates. It was a simple enough process: they'd put the uneaten Gummis back into storage for later meals, and pick up their dishes to bring over to the washbasin in the back left corner. Except, the entire time, the noises from earlier kept growing louder. Noises which Trizano began to realize were the sounds of Pokémon battling. After placing his plate in the washbasin, the Skarmory paused, and gave a worried glance down at Daraen.

"That sounds like quite a fight out there," Trizano murmured. "I hope that isn't normal in this town…"

He noticed that Daraen seemed to be on edge himself, flinching after a set of louder crashes cut through the air. The Deino shrank back, quietly huddling up against the Skarmory.

"This is the first time I've ever heard something like this around here," Daraen said. "Normally, this street's really quiet."

"Maybe one of us should go outside and see what's going on," Ander suggested. "I know that it's not allowed, but as long as it's not Pleo who does it, it shouldn't be too hard to expl-"

The Scyther trailed off and his words died in his mouth as shouts rang out from right outside Margi's home, joined with frantic footsteps and wingbeats. A quick glance past the doorway revealed Pokémon outside taking shelter in their houses while others ran up the street visibly frightened, including a Marked Darumaka who went by flailing her arms and crying out in audible panic.

"Pirates! Pirates!"

Crom and his companions' eyes shrank to pins, as the Druddigon stumbled back with a startled cry.

"Wait, pirates-?!"

A purple beam of light suddenly struck the edge of the doorway just beside them, and the crunch of shattering stone rang out and dust swirled in the air. Pleo and his companions coughed and stumbled forward into the street as they saw shapes darting about in it. Much to their horror, as the dust settled, they saw that the shapes were Pokémon of various kinds charging under the direction of a Farigiraf…

All clad in sets of familiar-looking gold-and-silver scarves.

"A-Ah! Those are Pokémon from the Iron Fleet!" Pleo cried.

Pleo and his teammates stiffened up as they turned to see the Farigiraf approaching along with a Granbull and a few others. The Farigiraf from their numbers briefly paused as her eyes fell on Pleo, before they lit up and a malicious smirk settled over her face.

"Ah! That's that bird that the Captains were talking about!" the Farigiraf exclaimed.

"Heh heh heh! Talk about our lucky day!" the Granbull sneered. "If we nab him, just imagine the reward we'll get from it!"

"I don't think so!"

A silvery flash dove in as Trizano clipped the Granbull with a Steel Wing and pulled up. Pleo breathed in and out tensely as other pirates began to encroach on him from elsewhere on the street. A Litten, a Cherrim, and a Jigglypuff that looked curiously familiar…

His eyes suddenly widened. There was a reason why she looked so familiar:

"W-Wait, you were on the Siglo Swellow!" Pleo squawked. "You're supposed to be on our side now!"

"Times change, kid," the Jigglypuff harrumphed. "Though you look a bit tired, why don't you get some rest?"

The Jigglypuff opened her mouth as the air about it distorted into pinkish rings with a sleepy-sounding melody. Crom's eyes widened as he hurriedly darted aside, pulling Daraen to safety. He didn't feel any more tired, so then they'd probably avoided-

"Ngh…"

Crom looked back over his shoulder as a soft whump rang out and his jaw flopped open with a startled stammer:

"Ah! Pleo!"

Pleo was lying out asleep in the middle of the street from the Jigglypuff's song. A little further off, Ander turned his head and hurriedly tried to rush in to aid the stricken Lugia, when a pair of purple beams from the Farigiraf's eyes forced him back with a startled yelp. From his portion of the tunnel, Trizano beat his wings and tried to rush to Pleo's side himself, when the Granbull cut him off with a sudden lunge.

"Over here, you scaly runt!"

Crom flinched as he felt something strike his chest, and knock the wind out of him as his eyes filled with… pink hearts? Was that Disarming Voice? Since that sure didn't sound or feel remotely 'charming' to him!

The Druddigon panted for a moment, when much to his alarm, he saw the Jigglypuff prowling forward. He glimpsed over his shoulder, where he saw Daraen also reeling from the Jigglypuff's attack, as the pirate Litten and Cherrim were already upon Pleo and trying to drag him off.

"Daraen, help me out here!" the Druddigon cried. "We can't let those pirates take Pleo!"

"Right! Way ahead of you!"

The Deino hastily ducked back into the house much to Crom's surprise as the Jigglypuff briefly looked after and then narrowed her eyes with a mocking sneer.

"Hah, great friend you've got there, Druddigon."

The Jigglypuff attempted to throw another Disarming Voice forward, prompting Crom to hurriedly scrabble back. He ran back in the tunnel, briefly passing in front of the door in front of Margi's home when the Jigglypuff followed suit.

"You'll need to do better than tha-!"

The Fairy-Type's words were abruptly silenced by sharp blast followed by a fwoosh of fire, which caught the Jigglypuff from her side from past the doorway. The pirate yelped and pitched to the ground as Crom looked at the doorway of Margi's house and saw Daraen cracking a toothy grin.

"I knew that extra Blast Seed would come in handy!"

Crom briefly blinked before noticing the Jigglypuff was starting to recover. He lunged forward, hurriedly throwing his claws forward at the Jigglypuff's forehead as they took on a metallic sheen.

"Yah!"

They struck her with a sharp thwack as the Jigglypuff tumbled to the ground by the Litten and Cherrim, whose eyes instantly fell on Crom.

"Oi! That overgrown lizard got Jill!" the Cherrim cried.

"You'll pay for that!" the Litten hissed.

Crom charged ahead alongside Daraen, trading blows as the pair attempted to fight the pirates back from Pleo's body. After driving off the Litten with a gout of dragonfire, Daraen watched as Crom hurriedly dove at the Cherrim to force him away from Pleo, prompting the Deino to run over to Pleo with a frantic nudge.

"Pleo? Pleo! Wake up!"

Daraen tugged desperately at the Lugia, but beyond a few sleepy stirs, the young Protector didn't budge. The Litten and Cherrim came back and Daraen flinched and stumbled back from a spray of pointed leaves digging into his hide. He shook his head briefly, before lowering his head to Pleo's ears and letting out the loudest roar he could muster.

"PLEO! GET UP!"

The Roar finally startled him awake, and sent Pleo running blindly, right into the wall of the tunnel just next to Daraen's home. The Lugia tumbled back with a stunned squawk, before fighting to stay on his feet and steady his balance.

"Ack! I'm up! I'm up!"

Pleo steadied himself just in time to see Crom and Daraen still battling with the Cherrim and the Litten. He hurried over, readying a gust of wind with his wings, when all of a sudden, a set of pink jaws snapped shut and clamped onto his side.

"AGH!"

Pleo felt fangs dig into his wing and frantically wrestled himself free, only to trip and fall to the ground. He began to pick himself up when saw Trizano struggling onto his feet in the distance. A sharp snarl and paws grabbing him turned his attention leftward, as he looked up to see a Granbull in Iron Fleet colors looming over him with his fangs bared menacingly.

"Hah! That's really all it takes to put you down?" the Granbull sneered. "I can't believe that Aggron had trouble with-!"

GRAAAWR!

The section of tunnel just ahead erupted into a flash of light as a gout of fire sailed in and brushed over the Granbull's rump. At once, the Fairy-Type's eyes shot wide, as the pirate hopped around cradling a now-singed bum.

"Eyaaah! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

The pirate stumbled around frantically, trying to stay on his feet when Daraen lunged forward with a tackle that struck the Granbull hard in his gut. There was a sharp yelp, when the Fairy-Type bowled over, flopping to the ground limply as smoke continued to trail from his rear.

Pleo breathed in and out tensely, and turned his head towards Crom just in time to see him step back from the Cherrim and Litten, who were now sprawled-out on the ground. The Lugia turned his attention back towards the Faragarif, glimpsing her stumbling back from a distant roar forceful enough to send shockwaves through the air, which felled a nearby black Oinkologne and left a brown one tottering. The other Oinkologne fought to keep her footing, before a Flamethrower enveloped her and sent her slumping over.

He looked over at the Flamethrower's source and found a Marked Charizard with fangs bared and smoke curling from his snout. That was—!

"B-Bunsen?!"

It wasn't just him either. Behind Bunsen, he could see a small crowd of various Marked. They all encroached on the Faragarif as she and the still-standing pirates looked back at them.

It was just the thing needed to make the Faragarif and her still-standing comrades lose their nerve, as the Psychic-Type's jaw dropped and she turned to flee.

"A-Ack! Retreat! Retreat!"

The Faragarif bolted, the other pirates hurriedly joining suit as a few threw attacks to mask their retreat. Pleo ducked into a doorway with his teammates, watching as much to their alarm, the pirates were reaching an intersection down the right end of the tunnel and starting to fall behind cover of their own.

"Going somewhere?!"

A black and blue blur abruptly lunged in and dragged the Faragarif to the ground by her throat. The other pirates froze and came to a skidding stop, as it quickly became apparent that the blur was a Marked Hydreigon with her left head's jaws clamped around the Farigiraf's neck.

Bunsen and the other Marked with him took their places beside Margi, glaring and growling while still more came from the other end of the tunnel blocking off the pirates' escape. There was a moment of stunned silence as a few of the pirates grimaced and others began to whimper in fear. The Faragarif panted and looked up from the ground as black orbs began to swirl in the mouth of Margi's right head, and she brought it towards the pinned Psychic-Type's forehead as her eyes shrank to pins.

"A-Ah…"

"Do you feel lucky, punk?" Margi snarled. "If not, I'd strongly suggest you tell your friends to stand down."

The Faragarif stared up as black orbs grew larger and closer to her face, when the Psychic-Type stammered out a squeaking cry.

"D-Do as she says!"

One by one, the other pirates began to raise their limbs in surrender, as the Marked, guard and townsfolk alike, began to pull the pirates aside while others started to bind them up. Pleo breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately these pirates weren't all that tough when cornered.

Off to the side, Bunsen shoved a golden-scarved pirate to the ground for another pair of Marked to deal with, before turning his attention over to Margi. He hurried up just as her colleagues began to drag off the Faragarif, when he raised his voice with an incredulous cry.

"What's going on?!" the Charizard demanded. "How would pirates make it all the way in here?!"

Margi looked up and down the length of the street, which was now pockmarked with damage from battle, and a steadily-thinning group of pirates who were being led off. Pleo for a moment expected her to take some satisfaction over the turn of events, except the whole time, the Hydreigon's expression remained serious as she answered with a shake of her head.

"We're still trying to figure that out right now, but they came from the eastern entrance and this has been happening all across town," Margi replied. "The only place that hasn't been reporting raids thus far are the west side of town and its center."

Trizano blinked in surprise. The pirates must have planned this attack out beforehand for them to be causing so much trouble at once. But if that was so, something wasn't adding up…

"… Wait, but why would they be avoiding the center all this time?" Trizano asked.

Before the Skarmory could answer, a tremor shook the tunnel and made the gathered Pokémon flinch. One that came from off in the very middle of the town. Crom turned his head as the tremor settled, as the Druddigon looked on with a nervous grimace.

"What was that?" Crom gulped.

"It's from the Elders' Hall! Those pirates must've been putting up a feint!" Margi exclaimed, her eyes shooting wide. "Anyone who's able, come quickly! If the Elders and the others there are struggling with these pirates, we'll need all the monpower we can get!"

The guards with Margi turned and hurried off towards the center of town, a few quickly passing instructions to bystanders for how to tie knots and handle their remaining prisoners before moving along. Some of the townsfolk began to join their ranks, including Bunsen, when a few of the Marked further ahead grimaced and stared past him. The Charizard craned his head back, only for his eyes to shoot wide as he jolted back with a startled yelp.

"A-Ah! Why are they coming with us?!"

Margi blinked her eyes, when she turned back and saw the rest of Team Traveller hurrying over to them, with Pleo at their head. The young Lugia ran up, batting his wings out and waving for attention.

"You need help, don't you?" Pleo asked. "We'll help you all fight, too!"

A few worried remarks went about the nearby Marked, as Margi remained silent, before narrowing her eyes back with a deepening frown.

"No."

Pleo and his teammates traded incredulous glances with one another. Starbreak Square was in trouble, and Margi was seriously telling them…

"What do you mean 'no'?" the Lugia protested.

"Yeah, Pleo and I are from a Rescue Team!" Crom cried. "Back home, this would be exactly the sort of situation where we'd be expected to help out!"

"Maman, I know they're supposed to be under house arrest, but they helped me fight these pirates earlier," Daraen said, nosing insistently at his mother. "Wouldn't they also-?"

The Deino was cut off by a sharp shush in reply. A few voices in the lingering crowd audibly worried aloud "Margi, you're not really gonna let that thing come?" before the Hydreigon turned her attention back to Team Traveller with a low sigh.

"Look, we appreciated your help, but you shouldn't even be outside of my house at the moment," Margi insisted. "And if there's one time when you should be staying put, it's now."

"But the pirates only came here in the first place because of me!"

The other Marked stopped and stared warily as a couple mused to themselves under their breaths that "the demon's not wrong". The Hydreigon studied Pleo carefully as he stepped forward and looked up pleadingly.

"Shouldn't I at least get a chance to help fix the mess I made?" the Lugia asked. "You all know as well as I do that I'm not weak. If my powers came to me while fighting these pirates, it could literally turn the tide of battle! It's happened before!"

Nervous titters went about the nearby Marked, a few including Bunsen visibly inching away from Pleo as he neared Margi. The Hydreigon remained in place and scowled down sharply, only to visibly waver. There was a moment of hesitation when Pleo thought to interject, only for Margi to sigh and turn away before motioning with her right head to follow.

"Alright, as long as you stay close and stay behind me," she said. "And don't use those powers of yours for this battle. Whatever your intentions may be, we can't afford for them to go out of control in a place like this."

Pleo wasn't sure what to make of Margi's condition, and his other teammates seemed hesitant themselves. That said, working together to fight off the pirates could convince the Elders to help free their friends in Starpeak Square. Even if they clearly didn't trust them still, Pleo supposed this was as good of a chance as they were going to get.

"Right, got it. Just lead the way."

---

Rodion hadn't expected to find a second entrance into Starbreak Square, but a short scuffle with a few Marked guards prowling about the floor his group exited onto roused his suspicion. Not long after, they found a path headed into a fog-shrouded entrance. A brief scouting afterwards by a few pirates confirmed that there was a small, poorly-guarded gate on the other side of the Distortion. Even moreso after they lured said guards through the Distortion for their comrades to ambush just outside.

Altogether, it was as good a sign as any that they'd found exactly what they were looking for.

They tied up and left the Marked they'd overpowered in a stable zone, and patched up their own wounded to continue on. Rodion hadn't decided whether or not it'd make sense to try and go back to take those guards for ransom after the dust settled, especially considering the Iron Fleet's less-than-successful past stints at the trade, but at the very least the 'mons would live for someone to get them out of there. That just left them all alone to trickle in in front of the entrance and prepare to march in to help raid this 'Starbreak Square'.

Except, it was hard to take any satisfaction from the moment after the way Dirk had just abruptly cut him off during his conversation with Hess. As if he was some inexperienced rookie from his crew and not the first mate of the crew contributing half the monpower of this raid. On top of it all, it'd been a full fifteen minutes since they discovered their entrance and they were still short two squads—eight 'mons who had yet to rejoin him and the fifteen compatriots with him.

Rodion's attention drifted for a moment, when he noticed the Quilava in his group seemed lost in his thoughts. It wasn't quite like Kenny to be this uneasy before a raid, but he supposed that the 'mon had been through a lot lately. The Floatzel sidled up and nudged at the Quilava's shoulder for attention. The stoat looked up with a curious blink, as Rodion looked down at him with a wary tilt of his head.

"You're sure you're up for this, Kenny?" Rodion asked. "If you need some time to ease back into life on the crew, I can have someone take you back to tow-"

"I'm fine, Rodion. Honestly," the Quilava replied with a firm nod. "It's just a Mystery Dungeon, and I'm not planning on wandering off on my own again."

Something about that tone almost felt like Kenny was trying to convince himself of his own words. Rodion opened his mouth to pry further, only for a Charmeleon to come up and sling an arm around Kenny's shoulder.

"Of course he's alright, Rodion!" the Charmeleon insisted. "Especially since he's got me to save his аss if he gets into trouble again!"

Kenny blinked, before giving a shove and playful smirk back.

"My аss?" the Quilava retorted. "More like you're happy I'm here to carry you again, Alfred!"

The two went back and forth a bit teasing each other much like old times, all as that uneasy mood Kenny had seemed to fade away. Whatever had been going on with him, it was probably nothing worth worrying about… especially not when a third of the broader force they'd marched out with was still missing and didn't have any sign of coming.

Rodion hesitated briefly, before grabbing the badge he'd been issued and raising it to speak into it.

"Hey, just checking, but do you have any sign of Pieter or Minhwa's groups?" he asked. "We found the entrance a while ago, but it seems like they've gotten lost."

Rodion waited for a response through the badge, only to be met with a lingering silence. The Floatzel frowned and wondered if the dispatchers were being weirdly uncooperative again. He was about to speak into the badge again, when it suddenly came back to life.

"We can't sense their badges right now. I'm not really sure what's going on, since Minhwa's group checked in with us not even five minutes ago."

Uneasy murmurs went about the gathered pirates, as a few wondered aloud what could've become of Minhwa's group when the Vileplume usually didn't struggle in fights. Perhaps an unexpected run-in with ferals? Or maybe they'd mistaken another place for the entrance into town? Various theories floated in the air, before a Sableye walked up to Rodion with a puzzled tilt of his head.

"… Should we go and look for them?" the Sableye asked.

Rodion paused for a moment, before crouching and planting his feet with a wary look about his surroundings.

"No, stay here and look alive," he insisted. "I don't think we're alone here."

A flash of unease went about the pirates as they began to settle into fighting stances and others reached for satchels to prepare items for these would-be attackers. All of a sudden, the sound of pebbles jostling came from a corridor to the left, which prompted the Sableye to turn and whirl off in the direction of the noise.

"Wait, what was tha-?"

Before the Sableye could finish his words, a Totter Orb flew down the corridor and smashed into shards against the ground. Yellow orbs of light spewed everywhere as most of the pirates recoiled, while some lurched about in a daze with their vision swimming from the Totter Orb's effects. Rodion and Kenny whirled around, seeing shapes start to emerge from the surrounding corridors. A Cubone, a Kabutops, and others in Imperial garb much to a Noibat's stammering alarm.

"Ack!" the Noibat cried. "It's an ambush!"

The Noibat was summarily met with a flurry of sharp stones, striking him and sending him plummeting limply to the ground as a Krookodile stormed in. Other Pokémon began to pour into the chamber as the gathering devolved into a chaotic brawl. Pirates all around stumbled in confusion, while those like Rodion who managed to avoid the Totter Orb's effect went on the attack. The Floatzel focused on the Krookodile as his Quilava partner followed suit, readying water and fire in their mouths for attacks when a sharp hiss suddenly rang out.

"Stoyat' na meste, pirat!"

Rodion jumped back as a gray blur filled his vision, and watched as Dimitri swung a scythe through empty air. Behind the Kabutops, Guardia caught up, tightening her grasp on her club. The din of battle rang out as Rodion locked eyes with the Kabutops and a determined smirk settled over his muzzle.

"So you speak Moreskiy too, huh?" the Floatzel asked. "You'll have to do better than that to surprise me, rak!"

Water began to form in Rodion's paws, as he tightened his grasp about two watery blades that he swung at his sides. He briefly looked back and saw his Quilava companion behind him, as Kenny bared his teeth and his vents came ablaze. Rodion gave his partner a determined nod, and turned back to face down Dimitri with a taunting grin.

"You're not the only 'mon of the sea here," the Floatzel remarked. "Let's see if that rod of yours taught you anything useful!"

Rodion lunged forward, forcing Dimitri to hastily raise a scythe to block an inbound strike as the pair bobbed and slashed in a dance between blades of shell and water, neither quite able to strike a decisive blow. From the side, Guardia lunged at the Quilava with a swing of her club, only for the stoat to roll just out of her grasp and jump back. The pair studied each other's movements, only for Guardia's eyes to briefly widen as she realized this pirate seemed a bit too familiar to her.

"… Wait a minute, I've seen you before!" the Cubone cried.

"Yeah? Well let's fix that by making you see stars!" Kenny spat back.

The Quilava abruptly jumped aside and spat up a spray of burning cinders that struck the Cubone in her chest. She yelped and briefly staggered back, digging her feet as the fire still danced against her scales. With clenched teeth she threw herself forward and brought her club forward with an upward smash. She briefly saw the Quilava's eyes shrink to pins, before her bone found purchase against his chin with an audible whack!

"Eyargh!"

Kenny tumbled up into the air, landing flat on his back in the dirt. He hurriedly rolled up and curled in defensively, looking back wide-eyed with a startled whine.

"Wh-What the-?! How on earth did you do that?!" he demanded. "You flung me into the air with that smack! Cubone aren't supposed to hit that hard!"

"Hah! That's Tsurugi no Mai for you!"

Before Guardia could close her mouth, Kenny suddenly spewed up a Smokescreen at her face. She coughed and hastily scurried away as the sounds of raging battle rang out all around her. After backing away a few paces, she made it out of the Quilava's Smokescreen, and she gripped her club tightly as she looked at the swirling haze left behind.

Guardia breathed in, tensely scanning the swirling smoke for any sign of the Quilava only to realize that she couldn't see any light in the haze. He must have been suppressing the fire from his vents to hide himself.

A sharp cry turned her head over towards Dimitri, just in time to catch him struggling to parry a Liquidation from Rodion with the Floatzel's back to her. Gah! Even without that Quilava, how on earth were they supposed to handle him?

She glanced over after hearing a weak groan, and saw a Noibat in pirate colors sprawled out beside a satchel spilling out onto the ground a few paces away. A couple berries, some coins, but most importantly, there at its mouth, she could just make out a seed poking past its fabric.

"Yeah, that'll work."

Guardia took off running for the seed, when she briefly heard a "get back here!" from the smoke cloud and felt fire just miss her tail. She must've chosen wisely, since the Quilava had clearly been expecting her to come after him. Guardia ran her free arm along the ground, scooping the seed up and quickly realizing it to be Stun Seed from its pattern. Everything just seemed to come by reflex afterwards, as she brought it forward for a throw, calling off ahead at the swashbuckling Floatzel just as the little seed left her grasp.

"Hey Floazel! Mind your back!"

Rodion turned around, but it was too late, as the little missile landed against his pelt with an audible pop. Crackling veins of electricity spread over his body, as the Floatzel's body locked up, much to his audible alarm.

"Ack!"

Guardia cracked a grin when a burning sensation broke out along her back and she lost her footing. She briefly glanced back over her shoulder as Kenny burst ahead with his body once again ablaze. Off to her side, Dimitri reflexively raised his scythes as he readied a swing at Rodion, when Guardia waved her club for attention and raised her voice.

"Dimitri, wait! The Floazel can't move until someone pushes him!" she cried. " Help me with this Magmarashi first!"

Kenny blinked and skidded to a stop, briefly looking up to see Dimitri standing and sizing him up. The Quilava went wide-eyed with a startled yelp, and attempted to flee back for his fellows, as a knowing grin came over the Kabutops' face.

"I like the way you think, Guardia!"

Kenny tore forward in a lunge that made his features blur to the eye, only for Dimitri to chase after him with a similar lunge which turned him into a watery blur. The Kabutops' Aqua Jet caught up with the Quilava and tackled him from behind, sending Kenny tumbling head over heels onto the ground. The Fire-Type got up dripping water as he tried to shake sense into his head, when he saw Guardia charging at him with bone raised. Kenny's eyes shrank to pins as his voice came out in a panicked squeal.

"A-Agh! Stay away from me!"

Fire poured out of the Quilava's vents and fire began to rapidly gather in his mouth, much more than normal. Guardia's eyes widened briefly as she hastily attempted to throw her bone forward, only for a huge column of fire to come spewing out and overtake her. She shrieked as burning pain flashed all over her body, and fell to the ground clutching her bone. As her cries rang out, Kenny bolted back for safety, before looking over his shoulder to try and check on the effects of his Overheat.

"D-Did I get her?" the Quilava murmured. "There's no way she could still be-"

Kenny's words were cut off mid-sentence as a bone sailed in, striking him in the face and sending him crumpling limply to the ground. The stoat lay there limply as the Bonemerang arced back around, Guardia throwing a hand up from the ground to catch it as Dimitri hurried over to her side and looked down.

"Nice recovery there," he said. "For a second I thought you were down for the count."

"Gah, what on earth was that?" Guardia whined. "I didn't know Magmarashi could use fire attacks like that!"

Dimitri took a moment to fish out an Oran Berry for his teammate to hurriedly scarf down. From his place in the chamber, Rodion desperately tried to trash against his petrified limbs as he stared at Kenny lying there motionless on the ground. Much to his frustration, he was unable to do much of anything beyond letting out a furious growl and feel his blood running hot as the Cubone and Kabutops paid him no mind.

A sharp cry rang out as suddenly the Iron Fleet's Sableye slammed into Rodion's stomach. He flopped over to the ground as the Sableye laid facedown groaning. The Floatzel looked up, where he saw a Scolipede in an indigo scarf pawing at the ground with a sharp sneer.

"Hah! You sea rats can't fight to save your-!"

Rodion abruptly jumped onto his feet as pressurized blades of water formed in his paws. The Scolipede scarcely had a chance to react before the Floatzel shot forward and buried one of his blades deep in the Bug-Type's gut, and then brought his other Liquidation across the Scolipede's throat. A set of awful choking noises followed, before the Scolipede went limp and the guard slumped over onto his side.

Guardia yelped and stumbled back in shock, as for a moment she worried Rodion had just cut the guard's throat, only to notice that he didn't seem to be bleeding as she could faintly hear the Bug-Type letting out low, pained whimpers.

"You."

Which proved to be little comfort as Rodion paced forward with his Liquidation's blades still readied in his paws, glaring with such ferocity that even Dimitri visibly flinched from it.

"In case you haven't noticed, but cheap tricks are one of those things that put me in a bad mood," the Floatzel snarled. "Especially when they're used on my friends."

Guardia sucked in a sharp breath and tightened her grip on her club. She tried to put on a brave face in front of Rodion, only to be betrayed by a stammer from her throat.

"T-Tough talk from someone who's backed into a corner right now!" Guardia insisted. "Come on, Dimitri. We can take him!"

"You sure about that, Cubone?"

Rodion lunged forward, as Dimitri and Guardia quickly bore down on the Floatzel pirate with scythe and club. Guardia swung her club, only to feel it abruptly stop with a faint splash, as much to her alarm, Rodion parried her club with one of his watery swords.

"Huh?!"

No matter how much force she put behind her blow, it just wouldn't budge against the Floatzel's watery blade. Dimitri's scythe was doing little better as Rodion briefly eyed them when his face tightened up into a fierce scowl. The weight of the otter's Liquidation suddenly gave way, followed by a wet thwip and a flash of pain as Rodion swept both of his blades back to catch both her and Dimitri in their sides.

"Ack!"

Guardia fell and tumbled back, briefly seeing Dimitri stagger as she lay on the ground, breathing hoarsely as the world swirled around in her vision. A-Agh, Eltenios had said that this sea-walker was hard to fight, but this was well beyond what she'd expected. How on earth were they supposed to win against this?!

"Lousy pirate! I'll run you flat!"

A shout filled the air as a Donphan charged in, tackling Rodion from behind. Guardia lay there for a moment, her breaths coming tired and labored, when she felt something nudge her up from under her arm. She looked down, where there supporting her was the back of Dimitri's scythe, as the Kabutops looked down at her with a worried grimace.

"Guardia, are you alright?!"

Guardia latched onto Dimitri's scythe, running her free hand along a still-wet cut that ran along her side.

"Gah… not really, no," she replied.

"I know it's hard, but just hang in there just a bit longer," the Kabutops pleaded. "With the way that Floatzel's hitting, we're gonna need to drop him fast."

A pained bellow rang out from the direction of the Donphan, as Guardia and Dimitri watched as Rodion slashed a Liquidation along the side of the Donphan running past him mid-charge. The Donphan staggered and struggled to stay on his feet, before the Floatzel kicked him aside and sent the guard crumpling to the ground. Rodion panted briefly from battle fatigue, only for his attention to once again fall on Dimitri and Guardia, and his muzzle to curl into a sharp frown.

"You two are still standing?" the Floatzel scoffed. "Let me fix that."

Rodion spat up a jet of steaming water at Guardia, the Cubone freezing and flinching as she braced for the Scald's impact. A pained cry suddenly rang out, as she opened her eyes and saw Dimitri shielding her, digging his scythes into the ground before spitting up a glob of mud back in retaliation.

The Mud Shot hit the Floatzel pirate in the face, the otter hastily brushing the mud out of his eyes as Dimitri looked back down at Guardia.

"I'll hold him off!" he insisted. "Just use Swords Dance agai-!"

"Oh no you don't!"

With his eyes freshly cleared, Rodion lunged forward at the pair in a water-wreathed blur of orange and cream. He closed in on Guardia only for Dimitri to ram into the Floatzel with an Aqua Jet of his own. The pair glanced off each other, skidding back along the ground as Dimitri looked back, staring down Rodion with a flash of his scythes.

"You'll need to do better than that to get past me Floatzel," the Kabutops harrumphed, only for the Floatzel pirate to answer with a dangerous smirk.

"As you wish, then."

Rodion opened his left paw as a watery blade reformed in his grasp, the otter swinging a Liquidation's blade at Dimitri's head. The Kabutops hurriedly raised a scythe and blocked the blow, only for Rodion to duck and slide along the ground, before bringing the side of his right paw down against the Kabutops' knee.

"Augh!"

Dimitri hissed in pain as his right leg gave out under his weight. The Kabutops hit the ground, and desperately struggled to get back up as he looked up and saw Rodion leveling a Liquidation at his throat with an unimpressed scoff.

"Nice try, Kabutops. But you should've seen this coming."

"Yeah? And you should've seen this coming, too!"

From off just to the side, Guardia darted forward, jumping and clambering onto Dimitri's back as she planted her feet and then lunged at Rodion's head. The otter's eyes widened briefly as he hastily reformed a watery blade in his right paw, swinging at the Cubone as she approached. Time seemed to slow down for Guardia, as the blade passed close enough to her body to feel its water brush against her, before tightening her grip on her club, and swinging it down overhead as she returned to earth.

WHACK!

"Nrk!"

Guardia felt her club find purchase in her grip, and carried on to a tumbling stop on the ground. She looked back and saw the Floatzel stagger from her blow. The blades in his paws dissipated as he tottered back a few paces from Dimitri, before his legs gave out and he slumped to the ground. The Cubone stood there looking on in disbelief for a moment, trading glances between the felled pirate and Dimitri a little ways away as it sank in for her…

They had won.

"Gods that was close…"

"Argh!"

A loud crackle and a pained screech rang out as Guardia and Dimitri turned just in time to see a Pawniard flop over from a Heliolisk's bolt of electricity and crumple onto the ground. There were Pokémon of various garb littering the floor of the chamber all around, but a quick glance revealed that all but two of the ones still standing were wearing indigo scarves. A crushing bite from a Mabosstiff felled a Sandile, leaving behind just one of the pirates: a Charmeleon locked in fierce combat with Robbie.

The Charmeleon spewed out a Flamethrower, driving the Krookodile back with a sharp wince. A brief flash of satisfaction came over the pirate's eyes only for his mood to vanish almost as quickly as it came. He turned and glanced about the clearing, freezing up with a frightened grimace.

"Huh?! G-Guys?!" the Charmeleon stammered. "Why are you just lying aroun-?!"

Guardia didn't wait for Alfred to finish and hurriedly lobbed a Bonemerang that struck the Charmeleon in the head with an audible thwack. There was a yelp, before the Fire-Type fell over onto the ground, and beyond a few feeble moans, didn't offer any resistance as Guardia's club returned to her hand.

"Hrmph, I see that Lizardo didn't learn anything from last time."

Dimitri let out a quiet sigh of relief as they saw Robbie stepping forward, pawing at a patch of burned scales with a harrumphing shake of his head.

"Gah, little Nervensäge caught me off guard. But looks like that's the last of them," he said. "Good work, everyone."

The guards began to make their way around, going to their fallen comrades to try and rouse them with Reviver Seeds. Others turned their attention to the wounds of those who were still lucid, much as a Heliosk did as he came by and passed along an Oran Berry to Guardia and Dimitri. The Cubone and Kabutops split the Oran Berry between themselves, panting as they looked around at the fainted pirates strewn about. Guardia let her attention linger over them for a moment, before she turned her eyes back towards the Floatzel among them.

"I'm glad that Ander and Trizano fought that Floazel last time," Guardia wheezed. "I didn't realize that he was that strong."

"Well, even on Pioppo he wasn't a pushover, but maybe it had something to do with how angry he got after we defeated that Quilava?" Dimitri mused. "Though lesson learned not to underestimate him."

Guardia glanced around as Robbie's underlings began to go around, binding up felled pirates with spun silk and lengths of rope. She reflexively kept her grip tight on her club, but the whole time the pirates showed no sign of resistance beyond the occasional pained groan. The Mabosstiff guard drifted past, dragging the Quilava from earlier along when she remembered seeing him on the Siglo Swellow's crew.

The Cubone narrowed her eyes and turned away with a disgusted huff. She'd heard that town-dwellers sometimes spoke about there being "no honor among thieves". With moments like these, perhaps there was a reason they'd come up with a saying like that.

"Hrmph, so the sea-walkers from the ship turned against us," she scoffed. "Should've figured they'd be the sort to rejoin their old buddies."

Dimitri looked off as the Mabosstiff carried off Kenny, clicking his tongue and shaking his head with a sigh.

"Yeah, the others are going to love finding out about this…" Dimitri murmured, only to trail off absentmindedly as he looked off uneasily at the entrance into Starbreak Square.

"So what now?" he asked. "I doubt we can still beat the pirates into Starbreak Square."

Robbie came over, stepping over a couple fainted pirates along the way, before he folded his arms with an impatient harrumph.

"We can at least try to help fight off whoever's already made it inside," he said. "Though first things first: let's finish dealing with these guys before they come to."

Robbie fished through a satchel slung over his shoulder, before pulling out a glinting badge from inside.The Krookodile raised it to his mouth and pressed down firmly, speaking into it with a low grunt.

"Karl, we've got another batch of pirates to be picked up."

He relaxed his grip on the badge as a flash of light and the sound of pebbles and dust swirling filled the air. Guardia and Dimitri looked over towards the center of the chamber, where there was now a Raichu with a yellow tail and ears. As the Raichu floated forward, he looked around blankly at the mob of fainted Pokémon all around the chamber.

"Yeah… I can't take all of these pirates at once, Robbie," the Raichu said. "Just getting our guys who need treatment out would be a handful."

A few hems and haws went about the rest of Robbie's subordinates, before a Mabosstiff shot a puzzled frown over at his Krookodile superior.

"So, do we just leave 'em here for the dungeon to blow them away then?" the Mabosstiff suggested. "I mean, it would be one way of dealing with them."

Guardia and Dimitri's eyes briefly widened. Was Robbie seriously considering just leaving these Pokémon to their fates? Dimitri hastily stepped forward and raised his voice in protest.

"That's more than a little harsh for a solution there," Dimitri insisted. "I suppose that I don't know everything that the Iron Fleet's been up to, but-"

"Tch, not that I really care about the well-being of some pirates, but we do have reasons to not just abandon them right now," Robbie interrupted. "The more of these guys we can get out, the better our odds are for turning up a lead in interrogation or forcing their buddies to do a prisoner exchange for our own guys back in Starpeak Square."

The sound of shuffling and groaning came from the far end of the chamber, as Guardia and Dimitri tensed up when they saw a golden-scarved Sableye staggering back onto his feet. Robbie's Heliolisk underling hastily stepped forward as sparks began to build up on his hide, prompting the Sableye to yelp while he quickly tried to back away. A flash of red filled the corner of the pirate's vision as Robbie snatched him by the knot in his scarf and lifted him off the ground with a toothy growl.

"Though since you're up right now, we might as well start with you," the Krookodile said. "Tell me, pirate. Where were you and your buddies planning on going into town?"

"W-Wha… I'm not telling you any-!"

Robbie brought the Sableye up to his jaws and bared his teeth in front of the imp's gemlike eyes. From the side, Guardia and Dimitri could've sworn that they saw the Ghost-Type turn visibly paler as his earlier defiance gave way to a shrill squeak.

"Th-The center of town! That's where the captains thought the bird was!" the Sableye squealed. "That's all I know, I swear!"

The Krookodile tossed the Sableye to the ground, leaving his Heliolisk subordinate to throw a weak spark that made the Ghost-Type's limbs lock up. Guardia shot an unimpressed frown over at the Sableye. She supposed that she should've known better than to expect that sea-walkers would be firm about their loyalties, but she'd have expected them to face the consequences of their choices with more dignity. Why this was almost as sorry of a display as Nori and his friends had on Pioppo!

Guardia looked up as Robbie made his way back, turning and nodding off to the floating Raichu in their midst.

"Take your time with these 'mons if you have to, Karl," the Krookodile instructed. "We'd probably need to leave some of our ranks behind to help tend to our own and process all these 'mons anyways."

There was a moment's pause, before the Raichu nodded back and saluted back while floating on his tail.

"Right," the Raichu said. "Good luck out there."

Robbie headed off for the distortion, as roughly half of the still-standing guards went after him through the fog. Guardia and Dimitri sharply inhaled, before following after the others' wake.

Pleo and the others were in that town on the other side somewhere, and while there was not much time left to get to them, perhaps it was still not too late.

---

Author's Notes:

- Stoyat' na meste, pirat! (Стоять на месте, пират!) - Russian: "Hold it right there, pirate!" (BGN/PCGN Romanization)
- Moreskiy (Мореский) - Russian: "Sea (Language). Play off of "maritime / nautical", morskoy (морской). (BGN/PCGN Romanization)
- rak (рак) - Russian: "crayfish" (BGN/PCGN Romanization)
- Floazel (フローゼル) - Japanese: "Floatzel" (Official Romanization)
- Magmarashi (マグマラシ) - Japanese: "Quilava" (Official Romanization)
- Lizardo (リザード) - Japanese: "Charmeleon" (Official Romanization)
- Nervensäge - German: "Pain in the neck", "Pain in the ass". lit. "nerve-saw"

 

[Ambyssin]

So, this is a split chapter then because everything couldn't fit into one part? Well, I had expressed some concerns about what could potentially happen here and, uh... so far what I'm seeing lines up with my concerns. About 10k words. While only about 50% of that is actual fighting, a considerable amount of what remains is a lot of different talking heads discussing things related to the combat. Which meant that a lot of it did blur together for me and was struggling to keep my attention, as evidenced by the fact that the silly things I quoted are predominantly from the moments independent of the actual combat. And the fact that this got split means there could still be meaty combat waiting in the wings with the town center and Guardia and Dimitri trying to reunite with the others in the square. I mean, they're going to be dealing with Hess and Dirk who I'm sure you're going to want to devote a good chunk of word count too.

And that was where my concerns hopped into play. In the grand scheme of all the moving pieces in play my thoughts were that you ought to prioritize the captains even if that meant the grunts and Rodion would end up swept aside handily. But I think the skirmish with Crom, Pleo, and Daraen overstayed its welcome. After Pleo went to sleep, you probably could've snapped to Daraen helping turn things around with the blast seed and Roar and swiftly brought that to an end and it would still have that heartwarming angle of Daraen helping Pleo... which I think was meant to be the takeaway here.

I do see that there was effort taken with the next scene as a lot of grunts are swiftly dealt with or fade into the background. That's good! Kenny got a chunk of focus when I honestly don't remember him but he isn't up egregiously long. What follows feels like it's meant to be a swansong for Rodion. Unsure if that's true or not but due to the fact that he A) has felt like a tertiary character within the fic, B) has not had much of a defined arc (started as Hess' loyal first mate and has remained that way, even if he does get skeptical in places), and C) never really had any inklings of fighting in such a brutal manner like Ketu did, it all missed the mark for me. I honestly was under the impression that this was getting heavy emphasis because Guardia was going to evolve here. Bone club vs. water swords, lots of clashes, constant encouragement from Dimitri not to back down. It felt like all the pieces for a "mid-battle triumphant evolution" were in place and then it... didn't happen. If it had, I think I'd have liked it a lot. It would've been a nice "power of friendship" moment.

At the end of the day it's your guys' fic so you should write what you want. I probably sound a bit hypocritical because I know that I similarly gave focus to more peripheral characters when GL had its finish line in sight. Something I caught flak for that from other PMD authors, which in hindsight I do agree with. So, it's ended up shifting how I think about this kind of stuff. If the endgame's getting closer, you want to be mindful of your word economy. Don't repeat my mistakes and create an ending fatigue situation. Not everyone needs multiple thousands of words for a fight. If you have a large group of characters, not all of them have to contribute multiple lines of dialogue. Some of them can vibe in the background. That sorta stuff. Food for thought, I suppose.

I didn't get as far as I did by turning tail at the first rogue wave at sea.

"I turn tail at the fifth rogue wave. Big difference."

"Wait, I did? Since when-?"

The line between volunteer and voluntold is paper thin.

After all, when was the last time anyone built up fortifications like that without having something good inside?

I can think of at least a few examples...

Was Dirk trying to get Rodion lost?

Yesn't.

He'll be fine

Narrator: He was not fine.

By improvising

So, the pirates offer improv classes. Good to know.

the bell-chimes were how the town marked the hours in the absence of sunlight

Ah, yes, human bell towers. Of course.

they were still visibly cut short

When are we getting the arc where Pleo learns Roost to heal himself?

This shouldn't take long to sort out

[looks at chapter word count] Uh, lady, I got some baaaaaaaaad news for you

That overgrown lizard got Jill!

Oh no! Not Jill!

"Eyaaah! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

Okay, Sora, calm down there.

"How would pirates make it all the way in here?!"

"Well, I'm no expert, but I assume they went through the mystery dungeon..."

You all know as well as I do that I'm not weak.

Says the guy who just spent most of that entire scuffle on a snooze cruise. <_<

If my powers came to me while fighting these pirates, it could literally turn the tide of battle!

Ah, yes, begging to the authors to activate your plot armor. That should work.

And don't use those powers of yours for this battle

No PeterPleo Tingle allowed.

when he noticed the Quilava in his group seemed lost in his thoughts

oi, get back in your fic, firebutt.

Kenny tumbled up into the air, landing flat on his back in the dirt.

[insert Mario Golf announcer "NICE SHOT!" here]

"Hey Floazel! Mind your back!"

Such a terrifying battle cry it stripped Rodion of the T in his species name. But also very boneheaded when are you people going to learn not to telegraph your attacks?

Kenny's words were cut off mid-sentence as a bone sailed in, striking him in the face and sending him crumpling limply to the ground.

OH MY GOD! THEY KILLED KENNY!

The Scolipede scarcely had a chance to react before the Floatzel shot forward and buried one of his blades deep in the Bug-Type's gut, and then brought his other Liquidation across the Scolipede's throat. A set of awful choking noises followed, before the Scolipede went limp and the guard slumped over onto his side.

Ah, yes, nothing like a non-lethal injury mimicking slitting someone's throat. Very appropriate.

we're gonna need to drop him fast

You should've brought that up, like, two thousand words ago.

Was Robbie seriously considering just leaving these Pokémon to their fates?

I mean... all things considered it's not a terrible idea.