Foreword
While I have written 25 chapters, I do not plan on writing more for some time. I have spent 1-1.5 years working on what I currently have, and my current writing abilities do not allow me to progress on multiple pieces at one time, at least not to a level that I prefer.
Much like Duality (my SAO: early Aincrad fic), this piece is far more rambly than I was originally hoping. I strongly believe in having a record of things though, and so while I wasn't planning on not releasing this just yet, I pull and combine enough ideas and concepts that I figured I may as well make this public in the hopes that somebody will be inspired by something, much like I was by the stray comment that spurred me into creating Duality. Regardless of how much I stick to the plot (or whether or not one is even recognizable) I hope you enjoy the collection of scenes I've created involving my crew of (mostly) original characters.
Updates will be every Wednesday at ~10 pm PST, consisting of either a double chapter or a 7k+ word chapter, whichever comes first.
The blossoming fire crackled and popped, accentuating the sounds of the wildlife as it slowly died down to a proper cooking fire. "It's been approximately two days since we arrived here at Lake Tranquility. The spring weather's been generous to us so far. A light breeze, cloudless days. That'll change in the coming days, but we've enjoyed it while we can."
Alex sipped from his mug, a simple brew of hot cocoa, and internally grumbled at the blip on the audio visualizer. When he was first sent the recording app, he spent several weeks trying to get the visualizer approved. His liaison from Unova Tech fought against him every step of the way, but when they started receiving positive feedback from those who used it- namely musicians and people who recorded wildlife audio- he'd begrudgingly been shared the gratitude from the higher ups.
"Morgan's currently out catching fish; we'll be seasoning it with some berries and herbs we scavenged on the way here. I'm not quite sure where he is in the lake at this point. When I sent him out, the sun was still up. I suppose he's practicing some night abilities."
Once again the visualizer fell silent, the cyan line flickering whenever the odd sound was registered. During a moment of total silence, a long howl echoed through the air, rising and falling in tone. "There's the local absol, again. 'The night is safe; sleep well'." Alex chuckled, swirling the cup idly. "We haven't managed to converse with him yet, but Umbral tells me his name is 'Protector of the Lake'. He was actually following us today, almost the entire time. Whenever we got near a pokémon nest he'd get closer and wouldn't let up until we left. When we stopped for lunch, one of the locals delivered Protector some food. Lum berries, if I had to guess. All around the lake there's bushes of the stuff."
The tent of firewood collapsed with a clatter, a load bearing log no longer strong enough to give support. Methodically, Alex pushed the charcoals around, prepping the areas of heat for whenever Morgan returned. "I'm worried about our chances of finding the tribe. While out on patrol, Umbral came across a group of rowdy travellers coming in from the south east road. If they cause too much a disturbance, it'll be hard to come across them, let alone any of the native pokémon. It'd be great if I could just catch sight of them though, whether performing their ritual or while practicing it. Even ignoring their psychic abilities and habit of levitation through psychokinesis, the kirlia and above forms of the main line are known for their grace; the classification of Fairy is well deserved."
When minutes started ticking by without anything new said, Alex saved the recording and put his Cross Gear into sleep mode. An experimental tenth generation model of the more common 'Xtransciever', the Cross Gear line was meant for trainers or travellers that would spend lengthy periods of time in the wilds. Its base functions included a significant internal storage space that made the need for bag fairly redundant, a pokéball analyzer for checkups on any owner or newly caught pokémon, a radio receiver for both AM and FM, and was able to check local weather forecasts, alongside the standard video communications of its parent model.
As expected of a prototype, his specific model was a bit bulky, though more by his preference than from the company. A wrist mounted device onto what was essentially a forearm warmer, the holding unit was durable enough to function as a shield from a stray physical attack in a pinch, though it would need to be looked at after a few hits. It was an expected consequence though, and one he had no issues with. Previous models required a larger than normal battery, and he'd tested enough of them in the past that not having the weight on his left arm made him feel vulnerable. Even once a test period ended and the model went live, he always opted for the bigger version.
A splash of water stole his gaze away from the device. In the dim lighting of the fire, Alex watched as a vaporeon bigger than the norm yet still as sleek trod up the rocky shore, jaw clenched around fresh prey. "You took your time," he commented, watching the water type lap up the blood dripping from his mouth. "Ate something in the downtime?"
Morgan trilled happily, longingly looking back down at the fish resting on a bed of twigs. "If you want more you can go catch some more. I have to eat too, you know." A jubilant cry was all the vaporeon gave before bounding back into the water, his form shimmering back into water before he even entered.
Morphing into that aqueous state was rarely more useful than simply swimming about. In exchange for being essentially invisible to anything but those capable of detecting vibrations in their surroundings- a phenomenon easily observed by resting on the water's bed- Morgan lost out on the rapid speed he could manage in his physical form. From what he could tell though, playing around as a sentient mass of water was mostly meant for fun. Like skydiving; you jumped out of a perfectly good plane for a few short minutes of adrenaline fueled enjoyment. Fun and exotic, but there were better, easier ways to find entertainment.
Morning arrived as always: the first rays of sunlight tinting the dark sky light blue, pidgies flew from tree to tree, diving down here and there and rustling leaves as they claimed their prey. Breakfast, as per usual, was a simple cup of oatmeal, garnished with chopped bits of fruits. With Celèste still somewhere getting in her early morning training and the rest of his team- sans a temporarily loaned out Caitlyn- kept in their pokéballs in pseudo-hibernation, only Morgan accompanied him, the vaporeon having harvested a variety of Berries from around the lake for his meal.
By the time his dishes were all taken care of, Celèste had returned to camp, claiming a handful of dried Leppa Berries for herself before moving down to the lakeside to continue her training. The occasional companion he had would always inevitably ask about her behavior. 'Why does she go off and train on her own? Aren't you supposed to help her out?' and 'Aren't you concerned about what she's doing?' All of which he merely waved off. At 18 years old and his oldest pokémon, Celèste was more than capable of maintaining her own routine. Time spent training together was to keep track of her abilities, or to experiment with something new. And, as a lucario and laying claim to the unique power known as Aura, there was only so much assistance he, a simple human with the barest grasp of the ability, could help with.
"We're going to head off for the day. You going to be alright?"
Celèste tilted her head towards him a tiny fraction and gave an equally as small a nod. Without further acknowledging him, she continued with her training, moving through slow, graceful movements.
Alex stopped himself from turning around completely. Out on the water's surface, almost directly in the middle of the lake, a gallade performed the same dance, though unmistakably as the leader. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. For a brief moment, he could have sworn the gallade had a twin tailed cape flowing with each motion.
Morgan let out a questioning sound, his eyes lax with the dredges of a food coma.
"It's nothing," he muttered, chalking the issue up to energy manipulation.
Far to the north, almost two week's worth of travel from Gyarados Lake, Lake Tranquility sat nestled along the southern edge of the frozen mountain range. Ages ago a glacier had once rested within the basin, but at some point it had retreated deeper into the range, allowing the resulting depression to fill up with water. Untouched by human hands for months at a time, the region was a haven for pokémon. It was to the point that the local Rangers required you to sign in, though with the area being foot access only it was more a formality- or perhaps, a record of your last known location.
The deep wilds were uncaring of who you were, after all.
It was for that exact reason that he normally kept a member of his team out at all times, though considering that this specific section of the basin wasn't part of the luxray or mightyena territories, he felt relatively safe in trying to unlearn that particular habit of seventeen years. Whether by walking with him, prancing through the foliage up ahead, meditating within camp, or sleeping by his side, for much of his life he had always had somebody with him. Being alone was an uncomfortable sensation, and one he still wasn't sure deserved the merit of being called 'paranoia'. By the time he reached the top of that particular trail, a hill overlooking the entirety of Lake Tranquility, the rest of the local fauna were just beginning to awaken.
There was absolutely no reason for any sane Trainer to come here. If one wanted to fish, Gyarados Lake, the National Park, and the numerous lakes around Mount Mortar were more than ideal spots. Attempting to catch a rare pokémon uncommon to Johto? It was well known that certain spots among the standard routes would occasionally get more notable visitors from time to time, and the benevolence of those was significantly more desirable than the isolated, animalistic natures of Tranquility's inhabitants. No, for somebody to come here, they were either being paid, insane, or in search of rare pokémon that had potential beyond what the routes offered.
"And how lucky I am to be told I'm of all three," he murmured to himself. A few quick presses and the voice recorder of his X-gear was brought up once again, the visualizer flickering as a stray breeze blew past. "I think Celèste managed to befriend one of the locals. Before I left this morning, she was dancing in the shoreline, and at the center of the lake, skimming atop the water, there was a gallade."
He stared out at the lake, debating whether or not to include what he must have so clearly hallucinated. When once again, minutes ticked by without any new thoughts coming to mind, he turned off the application, instead pulling open his personalized map and taking note of all the markers he'd placed the day before.
Scattered around the basin, in places the original team almost five years had deduced were the safer parts of the luxray and mightyena territories, were five sensors. Heavy duty things that came equipped with repel to deter any pokémon from investigating too closely, the sensors picked up low quality visuals within their clearings, and energy emissions as well as specific audio patterns from a wider area. The sensors had since fallen off the radar of most of the science community, but a single research group from Millennium University of the eponymous city continued to look into the various information the relays gave.
It was nothing more than a minor interest, just enough to give the students a starting point for their research, until about two years ago when a student had noticed signs of a growing tribe of gardevoir and kirlia. That incident had started a flurry of activity from the students, one where they hurriedly tried to map out the path the group had taken. The usual sighting of the ralts line within Johto was along Route 34, between Ilex Forest and Goldenrod, but not a single person questioned had made any mention of any of the species travelling through the suspected areas. In the end, they had to drop that line of questioning entirely; Lake Tranquility was entirely too far away for any of the students to travel to, let alone whether or not they'd be able to handle it.
That was until one student, a Issac Veracruz, was accompanied by his younger brother to the site. The two had come back with a particularly competitive luxio in tow, alongside a fantastical recording of the Psychic-Fairies dancing on the water's surface, reports of a gentle rain occurring the day after. Later that year, reports from the sensors indicated that a trio of gallade had joined the ranks of the thusly named Tribe Tranquility.
Since then, none of Millennium U had been able to check out the location in person. Experienced enough Trainers were expensive to hire, so when Professor Willow's Global Operation initiative began, the students were overjoyed to have a chance at continuing their pet project.
It took a few months, but Willow was able to send a group over to get the basics set up; assessing any damages and repairing them, adding in a hygrometer and a handful of other meteorological tools, as well as interfacing with the relays so that GO Tower would receive the information alongside Millennium U. That was easily last year, though.
This time around, Alex was meant to pick up some of the weightier information; change out the storage units, refill the Repel canisters, figure out if anybody had managed to get close enough to damage the units. There was also the valuable opportunity of having high quality, in-person footage, a treasure the sensors couldn't take by virtue of their immovability.
"Morgan, stay nearby." The vaporeon trilled happily, slinking off behind some bushes to find something to keep his attention. Conical units bigger than he, the technology behind the sensors were almost entirely internal, certain devices only becoming exposed as needed. Opening them up required inserting a code on a seamless panel near the center of the device, and with a faint whirring, the pieces would pull back to reveal their contents.
Alex hummed to himself as he began working, all the tools he needed methodically placed on a foldable table. Under the Sinnohan tune whose meaning he'd forgotten, he bemoaned the fact his X-gear was currently unable to play any music. He'd gathered a rather sizable collection over the years, the most recent assortment being of KanJoh origins, but with the need to reinstall a certain memory unit for his current project, that option had gone out the window.
"Wattson, you awake?" His X-gear made a series of 'happy' noises. "We're at the first station," he explained, plugging in the device to one of the ports. A single beep from the machine let him know that the porygon-Z had entered, further whining signalling the beginnings of the diagnostics. Were he more knowledgeable of technology, perhaps he might have been able to assist the pokémon in its efforts, but his skills ended at being able to match up screw tips to drives or following guides.
It was as he was putting the panelling for the repel canisters that the machine beeped once more, the same sound occurring from his X-gear a moment later. Four more sessions of this and then he'd have perhaps an hour of waiting around for the data transfer to complete. Just enough time to do a quick check up regarding the combat progress of the rest of his team.
/ - /
"Upper level Instinct is seriously the worst! I mean, Valor's horrible too, but at least they drop off their paperwork with the nearest Mystic instead of barging into whatever lab they think is the right one and start messing around with equipment. We even tried getting everything set up with a security system but of course Spark managed to befriend the rotom in charge of it and got all of Instinct onto the approval list."
"Uh-huh." Conversations with Tuesday were always amusing. For some reason his on the field handler whenever he was 'officially' on the clock had decided that he was her go-to source for non-judgemental venting. Normally her rants consisted of whatever hijinks members of Team Instinct got up to (oft called Team Comedy Sketch by members of both Valor and Mystic), but sometimes the woman found irritations in her fellow assistants slash subordinates. Worse were the rants where a delivery was late, especially because of battle related traffic.
When Opal City would cement those battle-hour laws, he would never know.
"The report seriously made mention to 'send raw footage only'. In triplicate! I even made sure to bold and underline the text every time it was mentioned!" Tuesday groaned and slumped over, only her tousled hair visible on camera. "Anyway, how have things been going with you?" She asked tiredly.
"Morgan finally nailed using Protect with multiple copies," he answered, flipping to an old page regarding the move. His notes on Morgan's current progress with the technique had just been finished, and now he was in the process of recording his thoughts on potential utilization of it. "To be honest, with his ability to shift between in and out of an amorphous state there's not really a need for that skill, but I suppose if he's ever alone and has to defend multiple targets."
"Or instructing newbies in multi-target situations," she chimed.
Alex snorted. "Right, me, teaching. Because I'm such a patient person for younglings."
"Alex, I've seen the posts you make on the forums every so often."
"Dropping curated information is not the same as interacting on a personal basis."
Tuesday hummed dismissively. "If you say so~" The two of them sat in silence for a time, quietly whittling away at their projects. Despite how condensed the information was, it still took time to send over, especially over a wireless connection out in the wilds. It was Alex who finished first, and Tuesday, grateful for the chance to talk to even a remotely cultured member of Valor, readily dropped her work to continue the conversation. "So how's everything?"
He raised a brow. "In general or here specifically?"
"Specifically."
"The locals are getting a bit irritated by the sensors. They've been approaching on and off, but the repel systems are doing a good enough job. Wattson programmed an adjusting timer system so it'll be a bit more preemptive rather than reactive." He let her gush over said porygon-z a little before continuing to speak. "Also it seems like the shinx and poochyena lines have been trying to battle over territory. The rest of the locals have been putting a bit of a stop to that, I think, aside from a few specific clearings that the region as a whole have designated as battle sites."
"You been letting your team show them up?" She teased.
"Celeste mentioned something along the lines of them being too weak for even a warm up. Morgan or Umbral might have some fun if they wandered into their territory, but I'd rather not risk either tribe strolling up to my camp in the middle of the night."
"What's this? The mighty Alexander Collens backing away from a fight?"
"'The wise and saintly Alexander Collens preventing a needless fight'," he countered dryly.
Tuesday snirked. "I'll be sure to pass that information on to the next Valor member I see."
"Like Valor even remembers who I am in person."
"True..." Her gaze slowly wandered away as she became lost in though, the woman idly nibbling on her lower lip as she was wont to do. "By the Alex, you know you'll be getting some cloud coverage in your area over the next day or so?"
He raised a questioning brow, an act she flushed with embarrassment at.
"Anyway! Reports over the past few months show that even though humidity never got high enough, every so often when the clouds arrived water would fall as well. You should keep an eye on the lake once things get overcast. Might be your best chance to catch that tribe in action."
Alex chuckled quietly. One of more studious members of Mystic, Tuesday had been a lab worker since Mystic Labs had been furnished. Operating out in the field like he did was probably regulated to the mandatory once a month control point claiming she had to participate in; the fact that she seemed to have a vicarious longing for his excursions was entirely understandable, and he found no reason to deprive her. "By the way, any chance you could pull some information form the local Rangers to get some information on the other people here?"
The brunette stared at him with concern. Slowly, as if unsure if he himself knew the information, "Alex, I know we have a good relationship, and that I've been able to get you a lot of info about the region you were in, but I need you to remember that I'm a researcher, not an intelligence operative." Her expression turned a little sad. "This isn't the first time this has happened."
Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'It isn't paranoia if there's an actual reason for it', he'd once been told. All the way out in northern Johto, just below the mountainous region that held nomadic tribes and a few people looking to get away from it all, there was no reason to be suspicious of others. It wasn't his fault that the past several years had made knowing who was in your region a useful thing, be it for pinpointing a perpetrator or having a missing person's report ready. "Force of habit," he apologized. "I'll work on it."
"I know you will," she said softly. "Hey, if things go well, make sure you get me some good footage, alright? I made sure to pack a travel grade camcorder, so don't be afraid to get too muddy for an angle."
The former ranger laughed. "I'll do what I can. Talk to you later, Tuesday." When the connection cut, Alex quickly set to dismantling his set up. The tech he was using was rather bulky, but thankfully it was an easy (dis)assembly. Over the years he'd managed to acquire quite a few subspace liners and containers, which meant he could basically carry a warehouse full of things at all times.
Not that he did. On the unlikely chance one of the units broke, all of its contents would pour out violently. He'd seen a few clips of such incidents and staunchly refused to allow his storage to reach that point unless necessary. With lunch taken care of and supplies for dinner a kettle of hot water away, Alex set off for one of the battle clearings, intent on starting Morgan on his next steps of training.
/ - /
Morning came and went as many did in a wild area; a nice long workout in one of the local battle zones, members of his team doing the same and lazily fending off any who took offense at their presence. Admittedly it wasn't the best way to integrate yourself into a population, but he was only here for a short while; taking an aggressive route was far more easier than playing nice.
By the time he returned back to his camp, Celèste still hadn't returned, but a pile of berries had been left in a small cobbled bowl along the shoreline where he last saw her. Orans made up the bulk, but a few Sitrus and Pecha were scattered amongst the group. Morgan made quick work of that, happily wading into the waters after and taking a nap in the spring sun. He himself had even gone and joined the vaporeon at the water's edge, a clipboard braced against his mostly bare legs as he continued to draft up various maneuvers for the water type.
Fifteen years down the line, Morgan had quite the arsenal of moves and combinations, but there was always ways to improve them. One of their recent projects, something they were currently unable to practice due to how much collateral damage it caused, was a quartet of arcing Whirlpools that would converge onto a single spot, subsequently exploding out into a Surf that bowled everything over. At the moment, they were only able to utilize two columns of water- plus Morgan's general spurting about. Perhaps by summer they might be able to work three columns, or begin to increase the power behind the swell.
Previous iterations were along the lines of a single Whirlpool that Morgan wrapped around himself; the method allowed him more options upon landing, but having an attack waiting in the wings was infinitely more useful.
Alex smiled softly as a new thought came to mind- one where Morgan was able to utilize columns of Whirlpools in a manner similar to Caitlyn's Hurricane funnels. Writhing around in near constant loops, tearing asunder his surroundings and slowly preparing the waters for Muddy Water. Almost an hour passed in that manner, and by the time the sun was approaching its zenith he'd returned to his camp, proper hiking clothes on in preparation for searching for any signs of their quarry.
For not the last time that week he bemoaned lending out Caitlyn. With Celèste off doing her own thing, any attempt to find the ralts tribe would have to be done the old fashioned way: pounding dirt and licking mud. An utter exercise in futility, considering that gardevoir travelled by way of psychokinetic levitation and like most other species, the stage two and below forms rarely travelled outside their nests- those themselves likely being a few short Teleports away from the forage grounds that was the basin, which further complicated matters.
Not that it was entirely a wasted effort. Between three pairs of eyes, his; Morgan's; and Umbral's, they were able to figure out the limit of the mightyena's territory. Which, incidentally, was far too close to his camp for his liking. That night he made sure that at least two of his pokémon stayed on watch. While he hadn't quite had an encounter with the Dark types, the fact that he'd traipsed throughout the fringe of their land would most definitely be taken as a challenge.
When day broke and his team reported nothing out of the ordinary, Alex's nerves began to fray. Four days worth of posturing should've meant a challenge would have arrived at some point, especially after the errors of the day before. If the mightyena pack hadn't deigned to approach them by now, odds are they were planning to destroy the camp when they weren't around. There was also the chance that Celèste had headed that problem off, but without so much as a word other than 'still alive' he could only guess.
Umbral and Morgan, horrid pranksters as they were, had picked up on his irritable mood and forced his attention away from the thoughts. With Morgan, the Water type donned traits of his canid heritage and engaged in several minute long rounds of fetch, taking great pride batting back the ball with his tail or head. From Umbral, the ghost type took the liberty of showing off her progress with one of her personal projects: a dense, tumbling nexus of various attacks originating from a single point, rather than the significantly easier simultaneous, linear projectiles fired from multiple angles. The high point came when she fired it out in triplicate, a smug promise that by next month she'd have another firing point added.
By early afternoon (and with the majority of the camp taken down) his mood had improved considerably, but his worries about Celèste still lingered; completely unfounded, as if she came into any trouble there would have been rising plumes of smoke or dirt, or even a mass exodus of bird pokémon, he couldn't help the fears from surfacing. Not after-
A sudden, quiet beeping from the primary sensor broke him from his thoughts. Before returning to Tuesday for the week, Wattson had created a temporary program that linked all the sensors up to the central one; if any of them detected activity, the system would generate a quiet alert as well as signalling which unit was picking up information. The read out designated the disturbance as a solitary Dark type, a major oddity considering mightyena were a pack based group and rarely travelled in anything less than three.
With a quick flick of his wrist, Morgan and Umbral were both called out, the latter engaging him in a quick session of charades before retreating into her beads, settling them around both his wrists in equal halves. "Stay on guard," he told the two, breaking into a brisk walk.
Located in the northeastern part of the basin, the triggered sensor was firmly in luxray territory. At this time of day, like the mightyena pack, they were likely somewhere beyond the peaks, taking care of their young or prowling around for food, but oddities still occurred. For example: instead of a rush of mightyena tracks, there was a single hurried trail of mixed paw prints, likely leading the way for a trio if not quartet of shoeprints. Some quick crawling about from Morgan also revealed a small tuft of cream colored fur that got snagged on the lower brush within the same direction.
Alex crouched down to take a closer look at all the prints, placing the fur in the center of everything. The obvious answer was the smaller pokémon being chased, but as far as he knew there was nothing in the region that had cream fur and canid prints. "Guess we're hurrying then," he grumbled.
Almost a half hour later, right as they crested one of the lower peaks between the mountains, a far better sign of their quarry revealed itself. Off in the distance, smoke columns were starting to rise, the specific patterns denoting the usage of energy attacks. "Umbral, Morgon, scout ahead. Don't engage unless necessary." The two gave a single chirp of understanding before shooting off, Umbral rematerializing just before she got out of view.
For a moment Alex hesitated on calling forth one of his other pokémon. Psychic they may be, working in such an enclosed space like these woods would be far too unfavorable, especially for Deus. Hoping that he wouldn't come to regret his decision, he continued down the hillside, hoping that every distant explosion wouldn't be one he'd need to lament.
The appearance of two people made him slide to a stop, both of them concerningly nonchalant about the sounds of battle. "I don't suppose either of you know what's going on over there?" He called out.
"Our friends are trying to catch some feisty pokémon," the woman shouted back, checking her nails with disinterest. "It's pretty dangerous though, I heard a Hyper Beam not too long ago. I wouldn't go any closer if I were you."
Alex stared. In the trees behind them, he noticed a familiar glint of pink hued light. "What sort of pokémon are they?" He asked, stepping closer. With each bit of movement they seemed to get tenser and tenser. Less than twenty feet away, he stopped once again. The both of them were partially turned towards him, and despite their relaxed appearance, were ready to reach towards the pokéballs at their waists.
"Just some pokémon that are rare in this region," the male answered.
Large and seeming to have quite a bit of muscle mass, Alex pegged the man as a Fighting specialist. "Any chance I could take a look at them?" On a partially sunlit tree branch, the surface rippled.
"Sorry, we already did a headcount of all the pokémon," the woman responded. "Just enough for the four of us and some of our friends back home."
Morgan briefly turned visible, a look of rage on his face. "That's a shame." His hand snapped to his belt, a pokéball retrieved and thrown out in the span of a blink. "Lock them down!" He shouted, ducking behind a tree. In the single breath he took to compose himself, twin ear splitting howls sounded out.
"Scyther, cut them down!/Seviper, go!"
Without knowing how many 'mon they had, sending out a fourth might have caused an unnecessary escalation his team couldn't safely manage. Best to keep an ace in reserve. "Insensate!" Foliage cracked under his footsteps as he relocated to another tree, taking in the scene as quickly as he could.
The two had called out another pokémon each to accompany their now jittering pokemon; the woman a fletchinder and the male an arbok. He wasn't worried though. Ahead a status effect and already in the groove, few people could match up to his team. Two random people he'd never heard of let alone seen had no hope.
"Shadow Rush!"
His heart froze.
"Odette, take care of that beheeyem! I'll handle the misdreavus and vaporeon!"
They'd taken care of that resurgence years ago. Why were they suddenly back?
Breathe.
Rule number one. Don't escalate force unless you know you can end it in one move; failure to take a trainer and their pokémon down at the same time opens yourself up for an uncontrolled attack. "Unit E, power up! Unit J, guerilla tactics!" Alex snapped out his last pokémon, hoping that his enemies weren't holding back anything else. "Unit C, engage; Full power!"
A blue coloured reuniclus materialized, face set in a snarl. Psychic power flared around his body, the third stage evolution rushing towards the scyther at the same time as a projected electric wave of energy.
"Arbok, wrap that thing!"
A moment later, "Fletchinder, scorch that misdreavus!"
"E, reinforce!" The other two trainers were fully focused on the battle rather than him; easier to focus on the threats you could see rather than the one you couldn't. "Unit C, focus Target G!" Mid step he bent down and picked up a thick branch, chucking it somewhere behind him into the tree line.
"Seviper, track him down!" The unmistakable sound of a pokéball materializing its inhabitant sounded out. "Nidorino, help out against that reuniclus!"
Escalation of force, meet justifiable response. Another branch was snatched up as he continued making his way around the clearing, occasionally calling out a new command. Rustling leaves made him stop. Underneath the sounds of battle, Alex waited for movement.
A loud snap made him whirl around, the stick in his hands offered in place of a limb. Right as the poison snake was about to crunch through the wood, Morgan appeared in a whirl of water, materialized maw briefly biting into the seviper and drawing blood.
As the pokémon seethed and attempted to strike back, Alex surged forward and slammed the pommel of his folding knife onto the seviper's skull. Disoriented but still conscious, Morgan leapt forth and twirled midair, his water covered tail slamming into the serpent and sending it crashing into a distant tree.
"That one's been turned," he told his vaporeon, adrenaline holding back the panic of meeting another Shadow Pokémon. "Don't hold back if you have to." Morgan let out a grunt of acknowledgement, chasing after his prey with another use of Aqua Jet.
Alex closed his eyes for a moment, centering his mind amidst the battle cries in the clearing behind him. A scyther fueled by reckless aggression was engaging Deus in close combat. Umbral and what felt like a fletchling dashed in and out of the clearing, taking pot shots at each other as well as enemies they passed by. Holding his ground against two poison types he had trouble identifying properly, Emerl floated in place, psychic energy flaring out in both offense and support. Morgan's sudden reformation snapped him out of his thoughts, a single ring of a Water Pulse blasting towards the unseen seviper. With an admonishing trill sending him off, Alex snuck around the clearing.
Irritating as it was, he'd have to play it safe. With the numbers disadvantage and two of his heavy hitters away, going the route of attrition was what would achieve victory. But with that came the risk of the shadow seviper and scyther losing itself to their anger. Trainer, pokémon, ally; all were equal targets in that enraged state. In a way, it was a highly inferior form of Mega Evolution. Increased power with a steep curve of aggression that needed to be tamed.
Two minutes passed. His enemies were starting to get frustrated. Odette had called in her taillow to try and turn the tides into their favor, but Emerl's strategic use of Gravity kept it grounded and essentially out of the battle; repeated calling in and out meant nothing to a Psychic type of his prowess, but the fact that she'd decided to keep the hoenn avian out on the field meant it was yet another thing his beheeyem would have to focus on. A change arrived in the form of Morgan slamming right into the scyther.
The ensuing flare of aura made him stumble. Not good. Scythers were already capable of fatal wounds. Enraged, and shadowed no less, his team was now in serious danger. "Unit J, assist C!"
The area started pulsating rapidly with Umbral's liberal use of illuminating status moves.
Ten more steps. Odette and recently named Billy continued to shout out commands, the latter demanding what was taking Spencer and Bryant so long. Their poor training and overreliance on their pokémon made Alex feel grateful. It made moving into position so much easier.
On the other side of the clearing, Umbral was coincidentally facing right towards him. He turned away as she let loose a Flash, making sure that the flat of his knife was angled so she would catch the reflection. A moment later, both misdreavus and vaporeon released twin shrieks, covering his rush towards Odette.
A kick to the back of her knee sent her falling towards the ground. Another surge of movement, regretfully practised, and she was jerked back up, left arm folded behind her back and painfully yanked up. Her other arm was carefully tucked against her side, his own arm keeping it in place while the tip of his knife poked against the skin of her neck. "Nobody move!" He shouted. "Call your pokémon back, or she gets it." The eyes of Emerl and Deus started to glow with psychic power, both of them ready to act should things go awry.
The man stared agape. It was understandable, really. Rare was the human threat of violence against another human. Only criminals with a lack of morals did so. Alex pressed down slightly, drawing blood. "Your strongest pokémon couldn't do anything against mine. You really think you stand a chance?"
The man's face paled. Slowly, and alternating between glaring in anger and concern for his companion, he recalled his lone pokémon. For a moment he started to panic, but a subtle twitch of Alex's knife arm stopped him.
"You too. And don't think about acting up." Alex stepped away from the woman, tensing up at the same time as her. The moment passed, and her pokémon that were still out were recalled. Alex snapped his fingers, his pokémon acting before the sound ended.
The two trainers collapsed to the floor, a bit of psychic energy making sure they didn't fall too hard. For good measure, Umbral floated over and sent a weak crackle of electricity into their bodies. With them both insensate, he quickly patted the man down, hoping that the first pokéball on his belt was the one meant for the serpentine shadow pokémon. "Morgan, take this pokéball and get that seviper." His eyes narrowed briefly. The vaporeon gave a short trill, sounding almost offended by what he was suggesting.
To his two psychics, "Take five. Might need you later." Their balls were placed on his own belt. Umbral floated over, cooing quietly. "We'll leave them alive. It'd cause too much trouble if we killed them." He glanced down at the unconscious duo. The only crime he could tell they were guilty of was accessory to poaching, and until he found out where Celèste was fighting-
A roar of energy made him stop short. Behind him, some ten minutes away, smoke started rising yet again. "I'll go on ahead." He held out his hand, mouth and nose twitching as Umbral siphoned some essence from the appendage. While her psychokinesis was nothing to sneeze at, she lacked the same telepathic ability of her psychic peers, instead having to rely on her eldritch powers to be able to track him. If having a hidden ace meant a moment of discomfort, Alex would pay that cost every time.
The stench of ozone rank deep as he approached the battle site. Lines of damage were etched into the surrounding trees, with some of it extensive enough to have caused some of them to have toppled over. Farther still, he could hear commands being called out.
The first thing he saw was a gallade holding a defensive position, red blades jutting out from white arms and a similarly colored twin tailed cape flowing freely from his back. The second, was Celèste dashing out of a Protect and comboing a mightyena into the ground. As she recovered from the throw, Alex stepped into the clearing and called out loudly. The two men who were battling her both glanced at him, a perfect opening. As quickly as she had shot out from her Protect, she had arrived between the two, landing a flurry of blows on one before quickly turning on the other.
"Good work, Celèste." Alex jogged into the center to take a better look. Resting at the base of a tree trunk, an unconscious ambipom lay, the bark slightly above it cracked and flaking. Here and there, the scratches and indentations of a feline's claws adored the trees. And at the other side of the clearing, behind the still wary gallade, a group of weak looking gardevoir sat protectively over unconscious kirlia. "The gallade from the lake?" He asked.
The lucario barked in agreement, shrinking down the pokéballs for her fallen enemies.
"Hey." Alex walked slowly towards the psychics, stopping a safe distance away with both hands raised. "Anybody need medical care? I'm no center or healer pokémon, but I've got plenty of supplies that can hold things over."
The gallade stared at him for a few moments before stepping to the side, swaying slightly before catching himself.
"You going to be-"
Before he could complete his sentence Celèste strode over to the Psychic-Fighting. Poking and prodding at various parts of his body, the revitalizing energy of Heal Pulse rippled out wherever her paws made contact. Almost as if the contact was a sign of permission, the gallade's oddities faded away, the pokémon slumping even more as the familiar greens overtook his body.
As he worked on helping the other pokémon recover from the poison coursing through their bodies, Alex wondered whether he should be concerned with Celèste's attachment to the gallade. While he was certain it was nothing more than trainer partners, the ease with which they spoke suggested a connection more intimate than he was entirely comfortable with. Her life was her own though, painful as it was to admit.
By the time all of the psychics were patched up, Morgan and Umbral had returned, keeping watch over the four gathered would-be poachers. "I'm going to make a call. You guys make sure everything's alright?" The trio nodded back at him, moving over and conversing with everyone.
A few feet away, enough that their mutterings wouldn't be picked up, Alex fiddled with his X-gear, bringing up the communication function and double-checking it was set to Johto frequencies.
"Lake Tranquility Ranger station. This is Cameron Alvez speaking."
"My name is Alexander Collens, I'm an ex-Unova Ranger. I'm currently near the lake for technological maintenance on the devices placed here by Millennium University and currently being utilized by Unova's Project GO set in Opal City, headed by Professor Willow. I've got four attempted poachers ready for pick up northeast of the lake, on the other side of the mountains."
"...acknowledged, Mr. Collens. We'll have pick up there by the end of the hour. Any injuries?"
"There's a handful of the ralts line here that have been treated and are recovering from sustained poisoning, but other than that none." Alex turned glanced towards the four bodies, mouth pressing into a thin line. "Also, could you contact the Johto division of Interpol? Tell them to pass a message along to the Kalos branch. Say, and I mean this specifically, 'The Raven Crows. Dusk has fallen.'. Repeat that back to me."
"'The Raven crows. Dusk has fallen.'"
"Emphasis on the first part of 'Crow'. That's very important."
"Alright, we'll pass along the message." A moment passed. "Mr. Collens, should we be concerned about our area?"
"As far as I'm aware, no. But don't be surprised if you get a visitor or some new tech in the coming months. Also, don't speak of this to anybody who hasn't already heard it. Black Suits might get upset if you do." Alex ended the call there, tapping his thigh. Since the raid on Orre five years ago, the handling of Shadow Pokémon had been Interpol's jurisdiction. That he hadn't heard a word of the corrupted creatures from any region either meant the division was either unnecessary or good at their job, but their appearance here terrified him.
A questioning coo directly in front of him shook him out of his thoughts, a light, comforting chill crawling down his spine. "Thanks, Umbral." He pulled the misdreavus in for a hug, letting her feast on the fear budding within him. Caitlyn would have had choice words about him not handling the emotions properly, but she wasn't the one who could potentially freak out at the negativity bubbling forth.
At least he was finally able to meet some of the Dancers, even if it wasn't the way he wanted.
/ - /
The next morning, Alex found Celèste and the gallade from before chatting by the shoreline once again. They stayed that way even as he prepared breakfast for his team, and it wasn't until he joined them at the water's edge that they stopped.
"We're going to start heading back around the afternoon," he told the duo. The smile on his face felt strained, a kind he only felt during his last dinner with June's family.
Whether through his facial expression or his aura, Celèste's face turned panicked. A few quiet growls and gestures accompanied by subtle aura prods in replication of specific emotions placated his nerves though.
"So then what's your plan for the day? Gonna do some more training?"
Celèste barked happily and gestured towards the sky. The clouds had rolled in completely during the night, but were still thin enough that they hadn't turned fully dark. While Alex was much more preferential to the lighting of a clear sky, he had to admit that the way the land looked was worthy of a painting.
For the first time since their meeting, the gallade spoke up. Not towards him, though Alex was certain he was being referenced, but towards Celèste. Whatever they were talking about they seemed to have reached an understanding though. With Celèste reciprocating the nod, the gallade stepped out onto the water, every step causing ripples to spread across the surface.
Expectantly, Alex turned towards his lucario, raising an amused brow at her joyful expression. With no hesitation, the fighting-steel stepped out onto the water, aura flaring around her feet in a visible version of what the gallade had to have been doing. Bearing a surety that grew with every step, Celèste joined her companion in the center of the lake, stopping a half arms length away.
Holding the same air as a human dancer, the gallade stepped forward, offering a hand. Celèste met it in kind, and the two embraced each other in a traditional human waltz hold. A moment later, they began gliding across the surface of the water, moving to an unheard song.
As the seconds passed by and the duo performed rotation after rotation, more gallade and gardevoir, and eventually kirlia, joined the floor, slowly spinning the lake like the arms of a galaxy.
To describe it as anything less than beautiful would have been a sin. The choreography alone made Alex incredibly proud of Celèste; four short days they had been here, and from that time he found no flaws in her movements. Spinning round and round, releasing and rejoining her partner, and even taking the place of another for a time.
When he closed his eyes and focused on his aura sight, moisture began collecting on his lashes. As hard as it was for him to see things precisely with this sense, it was impossible to miss the flow of energy twinkling into the sky. Celèste's emanations starkly contrasted against the psychic and fairy auras of her peers, yet her positioning made it so that it could only be a mutual upliftment.
When the strain started becoming too much, Alex opened his eyes and took in a deep breath. The clouds above were moving, the signature swirl of a Rain Dance slowly forming. At last Alex made the connection. The movements of the Water Dancers were not just some ritual or mental focus; it was a joint Rain Dance, slow and gentle. If Alex were able to mentally connect with the pokémon, he had no doubt it would have been the strongest sense of belonging he'd ever come across.
When the rain at last started to fall, the dancing pokémon continued on, a fervor inching into their movements. At the very edge of their excitement, when they looked as if they might cross into the energy required for Viennese and the rain was starting to fall heavily, they pulled themselves back into the calm state from before.
Two by two the dancers disappeared from the floor, until only Celèste and the once again caped gallade were left behind, slowly stepping and turning across the water's surface. When they finally separated, the rain was nothing more than a light drizzle, a refreshing shower that made Alex's heart ache.
He could see Celèste staying here, or even returning here. One who seemed to connect with her as strongly as this gallade, he felt shame in wishing she would step back towards him. And when she did, he felt shame in depriving her of this bond. The two stared at each other quietly, their faces belaying every emotion they felt. "You looked amazing," he whispered.
Celèste barked softly in response. What she could not vocalize, her hug did instead. "I'm back."