A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 29

Exhaustion, report, warning

Shadow was having to use Eon as a support by the time they were done with the healing, the Ninetales noticed, curling a tail around to rest on her back. The Vulpix glanced up at him in curiosity, making him give her a silent look.

Silly girl. He thought to himself, when she blushed and looked away. Tiring yourself out too much yet again...

Clearing out the entirety of Canberra's Simurgh zone hadn't taken anywhere near as long as they'd been expecting. A large part of that, Eon supposed, came from the fact that the two of them had split up when Shadow had recovered the first time. She'd woken up from her nap still tired out, but with enough energy to go back to healing and not have to worry about running completely dry, and after spending an hour working more directly with Iridessa while Shadow slept Eon had felt plenty comfortable leaving his second-in-command with her and splitting away to make his own contributions to the effort.

It didn't work as well, with Eon needing a little more time to make sure the two Moves were going to do what they needed, but it still worked well enough that having both of them working to clear out the tents of civilians had dramatically cut down on the time. It also helped that things got a lot more efficient as they went on, teams moving in to empty the healed tents even before Shadow or Eon left them, meaning that there were always people waiting for them once they finished.

Eon was just glad neither he nor Shadow had anything to do with the other side of the equation, which was getting people out of the Simurgh zone as quickly as possible. The amount of paperwork that was going to be required for that was immense, he could tell, but fortunately that wasn't Eon's business. He and Shadow were just here to do the healing, nothing more.

It was dark out now, which was Eon's only measurement of what time it was; he hadn't exactly cared all that much when he was working, since it didn't matter, but the darkness was just annoying enough that he fired off a Calm Mind to keep him settled and alert, while a tiny bit of fire skittered down his back and tails in a little glow. It would be a handy weapon too, just in case, but Eon really didn't expect trouble now, unless by 'trouble' he was talking about hordes of people wanting to thank him and Shadow for the help, which he was pretty sure was being dealt with by the Australian government's people instead. Thankfully. Eon didn't really want to be put into a situation where he needed to use his fire to get a bunch of people away from Shadow, though he absolutely would if he had to. Shadow was tired, after all, he wasn't all that much better, and he'd quite like to get back to the Inari Den sooner rather than later.

"That's everyone, right?" Shadow asked softly, making him look down. She was leaning comfortably against his side now, letting him practically hold her up, and her eyes were half closed- though there was enough of an alert glimmer to them that he wasn't worried about her falling asleep on him yet.

"It should be." He nodded. "Assuming that the government here had everything right."

"I hope so." She yawned. "I think I'd like to get back to the Den."

"Same here, pix." Her yawn was contagious, Eon having to press down one of his own before he shook his head. "Come on, let's go and see if there's anything we need to do to finish up here, then see if Dragon's willing to take us home."

"If she's not, I'm taking a nap in the plane." Shadow mumbled, pushing herself upright and shaking herself out. "Mean, gonna do that anyway, but I'm gonna do it more if we're not going home soon." Eon chuckled.

"I can't blame you there." He stepped up to her side and carefully guided her over to Iridessa, who was floating out of the way and talking to one of the men that had been working in this tent. "I believe we're all done, right?"

"That's right." The man nodded, then gave a salute as the fairy-like Cape moved to sit next to them. "Thank you so much for your help, both of you. You've done a lot of good today."

Shadow stepped a little bit forward, enough to draw attention to her while still being close to Eon, and gave her own salute, standing unsteadily on three legs for a moment. "I'm glad we were able to help, sir." She said. "That's the entire reason Team Inari formed, to help people, and being able to help those that'd be hopeless otherwise is one of the best things we can do as a team."

"Quite." Eon agreed, herding his second back so that Iridessa could reach down and lift her onto her lap. "Let's head back to the main setup and see if there's anything more they need of us."

"Sounds good to me." The two of them hurried off, leaving the rest of the people to handle the tents and sorting. Eon had to use another Agility to keep up, since the Cape he was working with seemed quite eager to get back, though he only realised why when they came to a halt and she carefully lowered a nearly-sleeping Shadow to the ground.

The Vulpix yawned widely and shook herself again, then gave Iridessa a bow. "Thank you for your help today."

Behind her mask, the Cape's eyes went wide, before she shuffled slightly on her support bubble to give a bow of her own. "I'm glad I was able to help you out." She shifted again, then held out her hand for Eon to take. "Both of you, even if I didn't do very much for you, Eon."

"You watched over Shadow for me so that I could work on helping out with the healing, which meant a lot of people got helped a lot faster." Eon corrected, shaking her hand. "That means a lot. To the both of us, as well as everyone that was stuck in Canberra."

"Thank you." The girl sounded a little overwhelmed, and after a moment floated herself away from the duo as Dragon approached instead.

"You did a lot of good today." The Tinker said quietly, a smile in her voice. "I expect you're going to get rather sick of hearing that."

"Eventually." Eon agreed, chuckling. "For now though... it's good to know that we're doing some good here. Especially when it's something like this... where no-one else seems able to help."

Eon knew what it was like to be stuck and feeling like you have no options, after all. Being transformed into a shiny Ninetales had led to one of the best things ever with his team, sure, but the early period before he met Shadow had been... complicated. Being a shiny Pokemon had netted him enough attention on its own, let alone when it had spread that he was a human who had lost his memories and been transformed. Like a number of old legends. Even if he'd had a few options, it hadn't stopped Eon feeling like he had none at all.

Luckily Shadow had shown up and needed a partner for her Rescue Team, so he'd taken the chance to do something he'd thought he'd like to do by taking up a place as her team leader. And he didn't regret that, either, even if it had led to him standing on another world with his second, looking up at a woman in power armour who had helped fly the two of them half way around the world to help others.

"I think I understand the feeling." Dragon nodded, before gesturing to the transport. The back was once again open, he noticed, as she continued, "I can see Shadow's tired, and honestly you don't look much better. There's nothing more for you to do, though I still need to handle a few things before we leave. Feel free to go and settle down for the flight."

"Thank you, Dragon." Eon gave another slight bow before carefully herding Shadow into the transport with his tails. It wasn't difficult, given how tired the Vulpix was, with the most irritating part being trying to get Shadow onto the couch she had used on the journey over. Once she was up there, though, she barely spared the energy to murmur a quiet thanks before drifting off to sleep.

Eon sighed again. Really, pix, you need to be more careful. He mused to himself, as he walked away and settled on the other couch, head on his paws so he could watch her the entire time. I know you want to help, but you need to be more careful with your boundaries. And some of the other Containment Zones were bound to be worse, too. He had no idea which ones were bigger than Canberra, but he was sure at least some of them had to be. Those would almost definitely mean an overnight stay, and it would also mean that Eon would need to keep a closer eye on Shadow to keep her from wearing herself out. Once we're back at the Den, we'll need to talk to Taylor and Danny about having Swarm come along next time. Her bugs would be really helpful. Swarm would be able to handle keeping an eye out for threats as well as keeping an eye on Shadow to keep her from exhausting herself healing, which would free Eon to do more healing as well.

Shifting slightly on the couch, he watched his team mate curl closer in on herself, mumbling something into her tails as she tucked her face under them. Eon yawned a little in sympathy, feeling a similar sense of exhaustion; being on guard all day was hard enough, even ignoring the fact that he'd done a fair bit of healing as well to help Shadow out, plus all the running around to keep up with Shadow and Iridessa as they moved between the tents. The flight back wouldn't be all that fun, either, now that he was thinking about heading home rather than just focusing on getting Shadow around where she needed to be. From what Shadow had said earlier sleeping helped, or at least her being asleep meant that she hadn't noticed any issues- though given her ability to use Magnet Rise she was also fairly used to drifting around in the air... which would be another bonus to having Swarm with them, actually. He could sleep on the flight with Shadow and still have someone from the team on guard. As much as he trusted Dragon's word that they'd be safe on her craft, it was comfortingly familiar to have a team member on watch as well.

Blinking slowly, Eon moved again, then grumbled softly as the fur of his head crest dropped past his ear and into his eyes. He blinked again, a little startled, but didn't bother to try and move it. The shade was kind of nice, and he didn't really need to be watching over Shadow the entire time. If something happened, he'd be able to deal with it by hearing it just was well as if he saw it...

Eon startled awake at the jolt of the floor below him, abruptly going into high alert as he started searching for the threat. If the guard on the team hadn't warned him, then that meant they'd already been taken out, and the jolt had the characteristics of the start of an Earthquake. With Shadow exhausted and him not much better, any fight they got into would be difficult-

Very suddenly Eon's brain caught up with the rest of the world, and he remembered where he was; inside Dragon's shuttle-craft, flying back to Brockton Bay, not in a Dungeon in the middle of a mission.

With a slightly embarrassed huff, he settled himself down on the couch again- he'd nearly sprung off of it in his hurry to find the perceived threat- and focused instead on taking in his surroundings. Shadow was still asleep on the couch opposite, apparently not having noticed the shuddering that woke him- a clear sign of how tired she was after the healing, which made Eon feel guilty for not keeping a closer eye on her while she was working and making sure that she took breaks properly- though she had shifted a little in her sleep, no longer curled up under her tails but now lying on her side with her tails brought up along her stomach. She looked somewhat uncomfortable, Eon thought, as he slowly made his way off the couch and over to her.

Carefully, mostly due to the fact that the craft was still shuddering a little, he placed a paw on her forehead, gently moving the fur aside. She feels a little colder than normal... he mused. Probably because of how tired she is. It was rare that either of them ever got tired enough for their internal fires to dim, but it had happened before. It had been more common in the early days as a team, because they were rather less powerful, but it had still happened even after two years of missions and training.

Once again, Eon scolded himself for not keeping a closer eye on his second in command. She was a lot younger than him, and as her commander it was his job to make sure she, like the rest of his team, wasn't overstressing herself. Just because she'd grown up a little from the bubbly, naive ten year old he'd first met and started a team with, it didn't mean he should stop doing his own job. It didn't help that the Vulpix could often still be just as hopeful as when she was younger, and that hopeful 'help everyone' mindset could- and honestly had in the past- led to her getting into a fair bit of trouble on missions because she was overdoing it. Too much healing, using too many Moves, taking too many hits in defence of team mates or clients... it had even caused issues in their downtime, mostly when she refused to use it as such and instead spent the entire time practising Moves.

Eon had had to drag her out of the training grounds and back home more times than he would like to count, either ignoring her protests or listening to her quiet snores.

Doing just that now, listening to his partner quietly snoring, he wondered if it would be worth using a small Will-O-Wisp to try and boost her inner fire a little. He'd have to be careful using it, given that they were inside someone else's craft, and it did run the risk of waking her up as Flash Fire activated and absorbed the attack, but he could still do it to try and make her feel better. Waking up with a cooled inner flame was not a fun experience, and usually led to the Vulpix or Ninetales in question getting ill. Eon had only experienced that once, and that one time had been enough.

A quiet background humming, one that Eon had noticed but not consciously registered, shifted with a click, making his ears perk up. He stepped back, letting Shadow's fur flop back over her forehead, and looked around for the source.

"Hello, Eon." The fairly familiar voice of Dragon said softly, making Eon relax a little.

"Dragon." He nodded in the direction of the voice, assuming that whatever speaker she had in that corner was attached to a camera of some kind.

"My apologies for the sudden rough movement, we hit some turbulence as I was starting to slow down in preparation for approaching Brockton Bay." She continued. "I've done my best to accommodate for that so as not to disturb Shadow, but it might get a little bumpy as we go to land."

"Given how exhausted she is, I'm not certain that even an uncomfortable flight could wake her." Eon admitted, looking back at the Vulpix. She shifted again in her sleep as they spoke, rolling onto her stomach and nearly falling off the couch before Eon caught her with his tails, forming a sort of platform to lift her back up again. His friend didn't react at all throughout, making Eon frown a little more. "She really should have been more careful with her healing." Shadow's overly idealistic view of their work was frightening sometimes, mostly because Eon worried she'd actually hurt herself one day.

"She did do a lot of work." Dragon agreed. "Now that she's done this one, I have something of a better idea for her capabilities. Rest assured, next time I will endeavour to keep an eye on her so that she doesn't exhaust herself so thoroughly again."

"Thank you." He smiled a little. "I'll be more careful to keep an eye on her as well, and hopefully next time we'll be able to bring Swarm with us to act as an extra guard. That should let me handle some of the healing as well, which means Shadow doesn't need to do as much work."

"Swarm's bugs would also be much more optimised to keeping an eye on a large area, which would let her spot problems from further away than you could alone and alert us faster." The Tinker added, before going silent. The craft tilted, making Eon stumble a little and go dizzy, and she finished, "We'll be coming in to land in a few minutes. If you're able to wake Shadow, I recommend that you do so now."

"I'll at least have a go. Can't guarantee that she'll wake up, though." Eon took a steadying breath in an attempt to ignore the dizziness the flight brought, then lit a weak Will-O-Wisp on one tailtip and touched it to Shadow's side.

The ethereal blue-purple flame vanished in a flash, and Shadow gave a murmuring grumble, twitching. Eon placed a paw on her forehead again, feeling her warm ever so slightly, and one eye cracked open to look at him with displeasure.

"Sorry, kit." He said softly. "But we're nearly back at the Bay now, so you need to wake up, ok?"

"Tired..." She whispered, eye fluttering shut again. "Really tired..."

"I know, I know." Eon patted her side a little. Exhaustion was no joke, and getting tired enough that your inner flame started to cool was horrible. Most of the next day or so would probably be spent recovering from it, with a few Flash Fire boosts to try and help it along. "You just need to be awake long enough to get home to the Den, ok? Then you can sleep all you want."

Shadow seemed to contemplate that for a while, silent for just long enough that Eon wondered if she'd fallen asleep again, then nodded a little. "Ok. Just a while?"

"Just a little while, yes."

"Ok." She slowly sat up, giving a jaw cracking yawn, then shook herself. Her tails poofed out a little as she did, and she carefully slipped down from the couch to stand at his side. "It's kinda cold." She muttered, leaning into him.

Eon nodded, wrapping a tail around her. "You've tired yourself out enough that your inner flame is getting cold, Shadow." He told her- she knew this, but right now she was tired enough that she didn't remember that fact. "You'll be ok after a bit more rest."

"Right." She yawned again. "I don't like being cold. It's weird."

"It is a little, yes." He nodded. "Like I say, you just need to stay awake to get back to the Den, then you can go back to sleep. I'll make sure you're nice and warm."

"Puff blanket?" She requested, tilting her head. Like this, with her eyes fluttering and little yawns constantly slipping out, his second in command looked a lot like the tiny child he'd met, and less like the well-reasoned and powerful girl he worked with in Dungeons.

The thought made him chuckle a little, and he nodded again. "Sure thing, pix. I'll get you the puffy blanket, and we can start a little campfire for you as well if you want."

"Fire's nice." She mumbled. "It makes my fire burn more."

"Then I'll light you a little campfire when we're home, and you can sleep there." For her sake, he circled up another Will-O-Wisp and let her Ability absorb it, then lifted up her bag with an Extrasensory and packed it into the Treasure Bag. It was mostly empty anyway by this point, so there was no reason to give it to Shadow to carry when she was already exhausted. Slinging the Treasure Bag back onto his back and repositioning it with another touch of Extrasensory, he nodded over at the corner where he assumed Dragon's camera was. "We should be good to go now."

"Alright." Dragon replied, as the craft shuddered again. "We'll be landing in about a minute or so, Armsmaster and Director Piggot are waiting for you. I've already warned them that Shadow is rather tired out, so they likely won't keep you for very long."

"Good."

Eon kept his tails around Shadow for the entirety of the shaky descent, not able to stop himself from giving a small sigh of relief once it landed with a thud and the engines stopped their whining. Shadow shook herself slightly at the jolt, looking around and stepping out from under Eon's tails, and Eon blinked at her in surprise as she straightened up as best she can and tried to look serious.

"Shadow..."

"'ll survive serious for a bit." She stated, shaking her head again and blinking sleep out of her eyes. "At least enough to report in for the mission."

Eon chuckled. "If you say so, pix." It wouldn't be the first time that a member of Team Inari had given a mission report while drop-fainted exhausted. While both he and his second in command could be stubborn, there were also plenty of occasions where members of the team had put together their own group for missions and the elected team leader had given a summary of the entire thing even though they were practically passed out on their feet. Eon had no idea how he'd managed to collect a team of such dedicated Pokemon, but that had led to their reputation of being impressively good even though they were a somewhat smaller team than many. Working closely with the local Wigglytuff Guild helped, too.

The armoured form of Dragon came out of the cockpit as the door began opening, making Eon shake his head a little again and focus on the task at hand. It was late enough at night that Eon was surprised to see a number of PRT troopers around as well, but he supposed it made sense to have a night guard in a city like Brockton Bay, with all of the gangs around. As Dragon had warned, Armsmaster and Director Piggot were both waiting for them, and looked with some surprise at the state Shadow was in.

"Good evening Director, Armsmaster." Eon greeted, with a nod. "I'm glad to inform you that the mission went well, and Canberra Containment Zone is completely cleared. They were still working on the paperwork when we left."

"That is... impressive work." Armsmaster said, visor fixed on Shadow. "To manage that in such a short period of time..."

"Eon helped." Shadow responded, stepping up beside him. "And while there was a lot of people, it was a good setup that was being used so I could get quite a lot done. I might be able to do even bigger rooms, with more people, but I think that'd need testing." Suddenly she swayed slightly, covering her mouth in a yawn. "And maybe also more breaks."

Eon placed a tail on her back again, making her look over and roll her eyes at him, shrugging him off. He stifled a sigh at her stubbornness and refocused on the pair of leaders. "Would you prefer a verbal report, or would a written summary suffice?"

Director Piggot looked rather more surprised at that, for some reason, then shook her head. "Ah, we should be fine, Eon. Dragon can give us a report, and I expect we'll get something from the Chief Director once the Australians are finished dealing with everything in Canberra."

The Ninetales paused, then nodded slowly. "As you will." It made sense to ask for a report from Dragon, since she had been- at least, as far as he knew, she had been- mostly free for the entire healing period, so she likely had had more time to compose a sort of report for the Director. Plus she was a known entity and apparently a fairly trusted associate of the local team, which gave reason to believe she might've given reports before and thus be acquainted with the reporting style required.

That didn't mean Eon wasn't going to endeavour to write up and hand in a written report for them, of course, but it did make sense. Plus having a report from both an observer and a participant in the situation would probably be a good thing for the PRT's records. It was the reason why joint or group missions that involved multiple teams and worked with the Wigglytuff Guild- which was most of them, since usually the only way you linked up with another team was through them and their group postings, unless another team asked you specifically to work with them- required that the team leader for each team write up their own report to hand into the Guild for the mission archives. That way, the Guild got a good perspective of the entire mission coming from a number of different people. Team Inari used a similar method; the team leader handed in a report, but the team members would all look over it before it was handed in and add their own opinions to the report, to give their own perspective on issues. It helped for training, too.

Shaking himself free of the slight ache that had started to form as he thought about the rest of his team, he touched Shadow's side lightly with a tail and gave a small bow to the trio that had helped them. "Thank you once again for your assistance with this. I look forward to being able to work with you again."

"Many thanks for your help." Shadow agreed, with her own little bow. She swayed a little as she straightened, and Eon couldn't help but smile a little as the three gave their own bows back, despite seeming confused by the motion.

"Karaday will show you out." Director Piggot told them, gesturing to one of the guards standing nearby. "And- well done."

He smiled a little at her, careful not to show any teeth, then turned and trotted over to the guard, listening to Shadow following along with a tired gait.

Karaday led them over to an elevator shaft, which he was thankful for, and for a moment they descended in silence.

"I just want to say," he murmured lowly, around the sounds of the elevator moving, "That I respect what you did today. A lot of people are going to feel the same, too."

"We are aware." Eon admits. "I'll be doing my best to keep Shadow safe and on the ground. In the end, it's something we can do that no-one else seems to be able too, so it's something that we'll do."

"Still, be prepared for a lot of respect once it starts spreading around what you've done." Karaday grinned crookedly. "You'll need to be careful about the nutjobs, though. There's always some who aren't going to like what you're doing."

Like the Fallen, he mused, outwardly just nodding. "Don't worry. We'll be defended when it comes to that too."

The trooper looked down at them both for a long moment, then nodded back. "Somehow, I don't doubt that."

The lobby was empty when they walked out, Karaday walking them to the main door anyway before leaving them be, and the streets were similarly silent, with only the occasional sound of a car driving in the distance. Eon looked down at Shadow, who was again obviously flagging. "Are you going to be ok getting back to the Den, pix?"

"I... should be ok?" She shook herself violently, her fur puffing out as though she was standing knee-deep in snow. "It's really cold, Eon..."

Eon grimaced. "Sorry, pix. Let's get back to the Den, and then we can make sure you're comfortable." He promised, placing a paw on her side again and grimacing harder at how cool she felt. It was almost uncomfortable, given that a Fire type's inner flame would easily keep them warm all the time, for her to be that cool. "Maybe we should talk to Parian about getting some kind of insulated, fire-proof coat for when we need to do this again." He mused, shifting away and starting down the road towards the network of alleyways that they would use to get out of the city and into the woods.

"That'd be nice." Shadow hummed, trotting after him with slightly uneven steps. "It sounds comfy, too. I don't like it being cold..."

"No, the cold certainly isn't very nice." He agreed, before looking around at the darkness uncomfortably. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, since they could see fairly well in the dark even ignoring their other senses, but with Shadow as exhausted as she was... Eon decided that he might as well treat it as an escort mission, flicking a group of Will-O-Wisps from his tails to orbit around him and light up the surrounding area, then stepped back a little so that Shadow was within that orbit as well. "Still, if we can get back pretty quickly, then we can settle down somewhere where it won't be cold. Then tomorrow, we can talk to Swarm and to Parian about some kind of coat."

"Sounds good to me." She shivered again, stepping as close to the Will-O-Wisp as she could without her Flash Fire activating and absorbing it, and picked up the pace as much as she could, obviously wanting to get back home.

Eon couldn't find it in himself to blame her, starting to walk a little faster himself, keeping his senses open for any idiot who might decide that the two of them were good targets for a fight. He didn't expect there to be anyone, admittedly, but there were always idiots, especially in this city.

Taylor shook herself again from the slight doze she felt herself falling into and groaned, rubbing her hand across her cheeks before sighing. Putting one hand on the tree behind her, she pulled herself upright and stretched.

"Maybe it'd be a good idea to go for a walk..." She mused, feeling her back crack slightly as she moved out of the position that she'd been sitting in for... clearly far too long, if that was how it felt.

Pushing the stretch a little further, just enough to make it uncomfortable, Taylor took another look around with her bugs before deciding to make her way back down to the Berry fields again. There wasn't really much of a reason to do so but given that she really did need that walk after sitting down for so long, she thought it might be a good idea. It was incredible to see that some of the plants were flowering already, ready to burst into more Berries, and not for the first time, Taylor couldn't help but shake her head at the absolute absurdity that was these Berry trees.

"Honestly, and to think that they're even faster to grow back on whatever world they're from…" Taylor muttered to herself, running a hand across the vibrantly green leaves of the nearest plant- she thought this one was one of the many Leppa plants that the pair had brought with them, but she wasn't totally sure given that given that this one wasn't flowering and thus could be any number of things- as she walked by. "If they could figure out how that worked, then that alone would probably be a lifesaver for a lot of people… But then again, we'd also have to figure out How to even make other plants do that, and I doubt that would be easy with all of the issues around Biotinkers…" She hummed little to herself again, absently pulling her mask Back onto her face just in case. Technically, this area was also a part of Team Inari's base of operations, but that wasn't really any particularly good reason to be risking getting outed if someone managed to breach across the illusion barrier that Shadow and Eon had set up.

As such, Swarm stayed there for a little while, mostly just wandering around in an attempt to see how the plants were doing; even though they weren't actually her plants she felt responsible for keeping an eye on them while the rest of her team was out of the country, especially since they were quite important to her friends. She was also using her bugs to keep an eye on the surrounding area, assuming that the two Pokemon would return straight back to the base once they were done with their mission and hoping that she'd be able to see them.

She was also hopeful that they wouldn't be too tired to fill her in on things, though she wasn't exactly counting on it; it had been a very long trip for both of them, and honestly if Shadow wasn't exhausted then Swarm would be both impressed and very, very curious as to what exactly they'd done to manage that.

Almost as if they'd been summoned by her thoughts, one of the conglomerates of bugs placed near their main walkway in to the base spotted the- slightly bleary, given that it was being seen through bugs- form of the silver Ninetales that was her team leader. Swarm couldn't have helped the smile that spread across her face when she saw that even if she had wanted to, and hurriedly turned away from the large Berry field and started back towards the main segment of the base, knowing that she would get there around the same time as them. The entire time, she kept watch with her bugs, watching carefully how Eon was always sure to keep his tails pulled around the side of him like he was keeping something safe, and the abundance of Will-O-Wisps that were floating around him.

I wonder where Shadow is, Swarm mused to herself, gathering more bugs in that area and, after a moment of quiet deliberation with herself, forming a swarm of bugs that she vaguely shaped like a person. The swarm easily caught Eon's attention and the rather improved vision of having more bugs in one place meant that the insect's controller quite clearly saw the smile that brushed over his face as he turned his attention to her.

"Swarm." He greeted lowly, giving her a slight nod as he continued to walk towards the base. "I don't suppose you could do me the favour of going into the main Den and getting Shadow's blanket out, will you?" As he stepped closer, Swarm could clearly see that her second teammate was burrowed under Eon's tails and apparently shivering somewhat violently.

From where she was on her way back to the base, Swarm's eyes widened behind her mask, but she could do nothing but nod with her avatar and dispel it, her real body picking up the pace to hurry back and hopefully get there before her team did.

Once she arrived, she quickly did as asked, ducking into the main den that Shadow and Eon used and headed for the collection of boxes that sat along the wall. Though none of them were labelled, it wasn't actually particularly difficult to figure out where the blanket was, given that she knew where the pair kept all of the bedding that they'd bought- entertainingly blatantly as well, given that the three of them had literally walked into a store during one of their patrols, partly because Shadow had spotted the place while bored at the quiet, and spent an enjoyable hour or so wandering about the shop, eventually walking out with both blankets and quilts for the pair of them to place in and over the little sleeping burrows that they had within their shelter. Not that it had stopped Taylor from using her spiders to make silk ones for them, because they were her team and that felt like something she should do, but it had been a fun trip. Especially since they were technically using the Merchant's money to buy all of it. She'd actually come out of that same trip with a few things for herself as well, which was stored in another box within another woven building in the den, the larger one built for herself for whenever she ended up stopping over at the base for whatever reason.

The blanket in question, however, wasn't actually one from that trip. Instead it was one that Shadow had brought with her when she and Eon had come from their original world and base. Shadow had reasoned, Swarm was told, that since they had no idea where they would be going or what sort of civilisation there would be, it would be a good idea to take something like that in case they needed it. Eon thusly had his own blanket, but that one was quite different from the fluffy monstrosity that Shadow had chosen. It was a teal blue, made mostly from the wool of something called Mareep, was big enough to wrap its way around her several times just based on a glance, and was probably the most overly fluffy thing Swarm had seen in quite a long time. Shadow claimed that it had been one of several going away gifts that her Gran had given her when she'd decided and finally proven that she could become a rescue Pokemon, and Swarm couldn't help but think privately that it was quite hilarious.

It took a few seconds to finagle the entire thing out of the box and into her arms, but once she did she knocked the lid shut again and walked out. Eon was just emerging from the trees, the form of Shadow still firmly under his tails, and he smiled a little as he saw her.

"Thanks, Swarm." He said quietly, directing the Vulpix under his tails towards her. "Wrap her up in that, I'll get the fire started."

Shadow's ears perked up slightly at the word fire, and she took her gaze off of the ground to look up at her team leader. "Fire?"

"Yes, kit, fire." He nudged her side gently, causing her to stumble a little. "Go let Swarm wrap you up, then you can sit by the fire and warm up, ok?"

"That's a good idea." She mumbled, slipping out from under Eon's tails and trotting- somewhat unsteadily, to Swarm's eyes- over to her. "Warm is good. I like warm. Not like cold."

"I don't suppose cold is very fun for Fire types." Swarm knelt down, laying the blanket out on the grassy floor, and frowned a little more as Shadow all but fell onto it, instinctively curling herself into a ball to conserve heat. Carefully, Swarm reached out, prodding her into stretching before tucking the blanket around her and wrapping it up like some kind of fluffy burrito.

Swarm turned back to Eon, who was partly inside one of the storage dens containing firewood, and pulled off her mask again to raise an eyebrow at the Ninetales. He winced a little at the expression when he turned around, lifting a large bundle of twigs and sticks out using Extrasensory, and looked away. "She's exhausted herself." He explained to Taylor as he started setting up the campfire in the centre of the base's area. "Fire types, when they get too cold, can start to lose a bit of their inner flame. It's not dangerous," he hurried to add, when Taylor's eyes widened. "But it can be if it gets too cold. Right now she needs warmth and fire to fuel it. The fire will help with both, since she'll probably absorb some of it. I've been handing off Will-O-Wisps for a lot of the trip."

As if reminded of the tiny flames still hovering around, Eon flicked his tail, making them fly towards the campfire and catch it alight. The mystical fire burned brightly for a few moments, keeping the lilac tinge of the Move, then settled down into a normal red flame as the Move died out. It would take some time for the fire to be big enough, Taylor knew, but already there was a distinct warmth to it that had Shadow grumbling in her half-asleep state and trying to wriggle closer.

Taylor decided to help her a little with that, pushing the wrapped up blanket closer to the edge of the stone circle, but being careful that any sparks jumping off the fire wouldn't hit the blanket and light it off. "But she'll be ok?"

"Perfectly, after some rest and warmth." Eon promised. "Getting her something warm to eat or drink would help as well, but given that she's practically asleep..."

"No' 'sleep..." A quiet mumble protested, making Taylor smile and pat the blanket bundle.

"You should be, you're tired." She scolded. "And Eon, why did you let her get this tired?"

"She's good at hiding it, and honestly with the amount of people there to help this was going to be the result even if I did get her to take more breaks." He admitted, sitting down and curling his tails around his paws as he watched the fire build itself. "There were... far too many people there. Too many for her to handle alone, and even with me helping as much as I could..." He shrugged, looking towards the Vulpix who was now softly snoring under Taylor's hand.

"Was it really that bad?" Taylor asked quietly, the weight of what her two friends had done returning to her mind.

Eon paused, still looking at the fire, then stood in a flowing movement of fur and trotted off into the Den. Taylor watched silently as he did, coming back with a small bag of marshmallows and two skewers. Popping open the bag, he stabbed the skewers in and handed one off to Taylor, who took it with an amused look. "Really?"

"Might as well." He returned. "Waste of a good campfire otherwise."

"And Shadow?"

The Vulpix snored louder.

"She's the one who got so tired, if she wants to complain about not getting marshmallows she should've just agreed to take a bit of extra time there or something."

"I suppose." Internally, Taylor could understand wanting to help the people in the containment zone as quickly as possible, given how long they'd suffered, but she also agreed with Eon that Shadow should've been more careful to pace herself. She was the only person who could help those in the Simurgh zones, after all, aside from Eon, so making herself ill or worse trying to help wasn't going to help anyone at all.

Holding her marshmallow over the slowly rising fire, she looked back at Eon and gestured for him to begin, tilting her head. "So, what happened?"