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Now
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At present, Arceus says that all is "Mine," solely on the pedantic, legalistic ground that He made it. The Mbelekoro hopes in the end to say "Mine" of all things based upon the more realistic, justifiable, interesting, and dynamic ground of open conquest.
-Emrett Dialogues, compiled works
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"The Sob?"
"No, that sounds too concrete. His Sobbleness?"
"Too regal and long. El Sobberino?"
"Again, too long, and are we really going to be giving a Galarian Pokemon an Orreian name? No."
With a rushing sound, Casey entered Marvin's quarters. "Mornin'! What are you two doing?"
"Ah!" Henry presently exclaimed. "I and Marvin are deciding on a good nickname for Sobble. We will meet many other trainers on the journey, and it might be confusing when we end up facing a trainer with the same kind of Pokemon. Both parties will be confused about who is giving a command to which Pokemon. Many exceptionally skilled trainers can control their Pokemon by voice alone, but those are rare at our skill level."
"And have you decided on any names?"
"Twiggy is appropriate for Grooky at Marvin's suggestion," Henry said, "Although I was going to name him Herbrand, after the warrior who died in the Battle of the Crowned Fields. Sirfetch'd shall be deemed Lancelot, the knight of the courts of Old Galar. Sobble we have not yet given a name, although I have suggested Drian, the son of the First King of Galar born out of wedlock by the shores of the Sea."
"You Galarians love your history, don't you?" Marvin said. "We Unovans have hardly any past of note. I name Sobble Sniffler! That fits much better than everything else..."
The Magnolia RV came to a full stop, with an unsteadiness of halt that suggested they were parked on uneven ground. Casey left the room and threw open the pressureseal door hatch, and then Marvin beheld a land that had no strain upon it.
Mighty was the land they had come upon, within the heart of warm and sunlight Galar. Here within the Wild Area echoes of the era when the world was young and green still could be heard, and hills and vales and wells yet untasted and unnamed were still to be found. The water glistened in pools like a silver thread, and tall trees with gold and silver leaves scattered the light of the Sun and the Lesser Stars about the fragrant meads.
Pokemon of colors that resembled beryl, diamond, pearl, and pale opal went about their small duties, raising their whelps and laying their eggs, building their nests and spinning their webs and digging their burrows, and singing and playing and drinking from the unsullied pools. Within the pristine wild only Rangers, Trainers, or Pokemon roamed across the endless and forested leagues, until they could cross from eastern Galar to western Galar and behold both ends of the Sea.
The smell of the flowing wind between the grass, the sound of trees, and the taste of air yet uncorrupted made Magnolia stand upright, and almost she set down her staff and walked unaided. But then she remembered her age and weariness, and the power of the Wild left her. The cares of the flowing years made the view seem shadowed to her eyes, and Magnolia turned away from Wonder into her Duties not yet abandoned.
"Casey, we must start our investigation from the rolling knolls in the south to the border of the oak forest in the northeast," Magnolia said. "The newest data module will get more accurate measurements for the Galar Particles in this particular area. Marvin, this area has many known Power Spots, areas where Dynamax Particles are particularly common. They tend to concentrate around preexisting caverns and such, and the Pokemon that live within them grow to a large size and a terrible temperament. Before our battle at Turfield, we come to this Wild Area to gather new models and data on the Galar Particles. With more research, more experiments, and better technology our task will succeed in the end."
A pillar of sheer crimson light shone out of the surrounding hills and fields, and Casey led the party toward the curiosity. "That is a Dyanamax Den, the real deal! If we enter it, we will not be able to escape until we defeat the Pokemon that guards the exit! And if we win, we may capture it!"
"That is a great 'if,'" Magnolia said. "As for today, we come to gather data. Do not charge into the dens, as such a battle is quite dangerous, and I have heard many a tale of Trainers that fell within these arenas. Their bodies still lie within. Use your Pokedex to find what Pokemon now lives within the Dens, and then move away!"
Casey's Pokedex rang with no visible causal factor, and in the clouds, silhouetted against the sheer mountains, came a Pelliper bearing a white package in its lower flippers. The Pokemon landed by the Magnolia RV, and Casey signed her name on the datatablet that the box contained, and the Pelliper flew away with many a blessing.
"It's from the Association!" Casey yelled, hastily unraveling the ties that bound the box before opening it in full view of all who were present. "Uniforms, official ones! Our Challenge Bands are inside too!"
Marvin saw Casey's uniform number, 303, and Henry's number, 777. "Is there any meaning behind these names?"
"I love palindromes!" Casey squealed, as she put on her Challenge Band. "What else?"
"Seven is the number of Arceus," Henry said. "And three as well. Three sevens, right? Official participants wear official uniforms for battles, so it appears that we are in the League system. They should fit, but we ought to try them on later-"
A shriek! With a rush of blurred dark and white lines, a Linoone attempted to cut through the uniform fabric with dark grey claws, two blades set within soft paws. "Oi!" Casey yelled. "Careful, you might rip it!"
"Rip it?" A rough voice shouted. "That's what we were settin' out to do! Stop yappin' and give up, now! We'll never let you win your Gym Challenge, Henry Sword and Casey Shield!"
...
Henry turned to see two strangers, a man and woman in such absurd and harshly angular uniforms that they were an eyesore against the fair landscape. A Theivul rested between them, and the Linoone was under their command. They appeared twisted in mind and vulgar in speech, their words filled with brutal jargon and tainted curses.
"And how do you know who we are?" Henry asked.
"Two young trainers recommended by the Champ himself?" the man said. "Said to be travelin' with Professor Magnolia in an RV! It's the biggest news in Galar, and we've been patrolling this area, looking for any fools that would take on the Gym Challenge! And here we are, ready to stop you! We are...Team Yell! Do it, Linoone! Night Slash! Thielvul, go! Sucker Punch!"
Lancelot guarded Henry with his shield of dark verdancy, the frenzied strike of the Linoone halted by the noble bulwark. The Theivul leaped for Casey, jaws slavering, full of nurtured bloodlust. Scorbunny kicked the creature back, casting the Theivul wailing and rolling over the grass, crushing it beneath its bulk.
"What is your problem?" Casey yelled. "Can't think of anything better to do than pick on kids while your mum goes out to buy groceries? You should still be in her basement!"
"What dishonor!" the female grunt whispered as if Casey's retort had held the suggestions of a terrible scandal. "Team Yell shall make sure our Princess will win, you can be sure of that!"
"What 'Princess?'"
The grunts activated a holo-projection of a stoic but well-mannered-looking girl, hair dyed the deepest black. "Bow before our idol, our Princess, the true heir to the Throne of Galar! The one and only...Marnie!"
"You truly expect us to believe that some Princess told you to come here and harass us?" Casey yelled. "Last I checked, Galar had no royal family..."
Again, the Yell grunts fell into a terrible frenzy. "Such disrespect for Marnie! She would never tell us to do something so utterly wrong! We do what is necessary to bring her to victory, and although the Law and Society are against us, we will prevail in the utter end! Marnie shall become Champion!"
"So you know this is wrong!" Henry deduced. "I am rather confused at your apparent moral relativism and complete irrationality, but you can turn back from the dark path before it is too late! You are half-wits and fools! I command you to turn aside from your vain Ambition and return to the Light!"
The Yell grunts had their Pokemon rush forward. "We must ensure Marnie's victory! We forbid your success!"
"This conversation is absurd!" Casey yelled. "Scorbunny, use your flame pads!" The Pokemon spun once, twice, three times, and stuck Linoone upon the face, burning it. Scorbunny divoted to strike again, but its strike missed. The Linoone had moved aside, and slashed Scorbunny around the backside, before skittering away to attack once more.
"That Linoone has Quick Feet!" Henry exclaimed, looking at his Pokedex. "Its speed has increased because it has a status condition. We need a new plan..."
Henry bent over, and whispered into Twiggy's ear. "Alright, this is what you are to do..."
The little Pokemon crept behind the Yell grunts amidst the battle, and then began to strike them with its stick with merry fervor. "Oi!" the male grunt yelled. "You aren't supposed to attack the trainer, it's just proper battling!"
"We will do whatever is necessary to end this battle," Henry said. "Since you have broken the Law by attacking us unproved without any prior aggravation, we are exercising our Right to Self Defense. Now, Grooky, chase them to the Den!"
The Yell grunts were cornered against the luminous opening, and the two Pokedex Holders took hold of both the fanatic's arms and drove them into the Den. There was a vermillion flash of brilliance that diverged into many other corpuscles of light, and the Trainers and Pokemon were gone amid the swarm of Galar Particles.
...
Henry stood, the encircling walls of the Den purest crimson and violet, jagged spires of energy-scoured rock sticking out of the strangely level ground like alien domes. And before them all was a Gurdurr of such enlarged size and behemothic strength that the Pokedex Holder's animal instinct made him wish to flee, run, hide. But then he remembered that running was an animal sort of trick, and that a respectable trainer would stand and fight, as to remove a threat to their kind.
The male Yell grunt seized Henry's collar and shook him vigorously, but a minute trembling in the fanatic's arms betrayed a subtle fear. "How dare you drag us into this twisted pit! We can't get out until we fight that Dynamaxed Gurdurr, there is no other way! It's absorbing all the energy that we need to exit this place!"
"That is correct," Henry cheerfully said. "You detest me, but I do not hate you. You perhaps have walked upon some unwise roads, but I wish for you to cast away your folly and to work for a common good. I would help you if I could, and now we must fight this Gurdurr together."
The Yell grunts stuttered, and then saw the wisdom of Henry's words. Before they could act, the Gurdurr swung its steel beam, and crushed Linoone in a single blow, the creature's unconscious body lying amid a crater and cloud of rising dust.
"Now, my turn!" the female grunt said. "Thievul, Fire Fang!"
Thievul climbed up the Gurdurr's vast bodice in a series of powerful jumps, and then bit the lower nape of its stocky neck. The Pokemon was unharmed, and seized the Thievul, throwing it aside. The Dynamaxed Gurdurr smiled, and looked for its next foe.
"Hmm," Henry mused. "Its ability is Guts, so that attack only made things worse. Use Fire Fang again, but this time attack its gear, the steel beam. You too, Shield. Have Scorbunny use Ember!"
The ruddy iron beam began to heat with the constant application of parascientific attacks, red-hot imprints of growing light creeping about the great beam. A power-filled swing defeated Thievul, but the attacks continued from Casey and Scorbunny.
Gurdurr first felt the superheated iron, and dropped its beam with a thunderous crash, nursing its burned hands. "Now, Lancelot!" Henry cried. "Brave Bird!"
With kingly stature, Lancelot flew upward in a great thrust of its fledgling wings, and rammed into the bowed Gurdurr's head with elegance and patrician grace. The Gurdurr toppled, a mighty Pokemon defeated, in likeness to the Hisuian tale of Davach and Golaich.
Henry withdrew a Poke Ball, and his Challenger Band shone with a strange luminosity. An orbed sphere of pure Galarian Tachyonic Energy formed around the Capture Device, enlarging its mass to a greater form. The swollen Poke Ball was lifted into the air above Henry, and thrown with a mighty heave at the fallen Gurdurr.
A flash of light, a great sucking sound, and the collasal Poke Ball fell into the twisted rocks with an audible thud. It writhed, and then clicked. The Galar Particles swarmed around the four humans and their Pokemon, and then there was nothing but yellow sun and green grass around them.
Henry grabbed the Poke Ball and held it up. "Gurdurr, pocket-sized!" he said, before turning to the two witless grunts. "Ma'am, sir, we thank you very much for your help in defeating the Pokemon in this Den. We solemnly request that you reevaluate your life choices. First, get a job. Second..."
The two Yell grunts had already fled behind the hills, venturing into shadow. "Oh, well," Henry said. "We at least tried to make them see Reason. I have always wanted to capture a Gurdurr, and now I have! I deem him Steeler, for he has not earned the title of a more distinguished historical figure."
"I told you two not to enter a Den," Magnolia said with an air of disapproval, although a twinkle was in her eye. "But since you managed to capture that Gurdurr, we have deemed that our Challenger Dynamax Bands do work..."
Marvin was about to ask what the Dynamax Bands did, but he heard softly falling footfalls behind him. No, three pairs of feet, and they seemed proud but reserved, and he had only to turn to see who had come from some hidden way that the four had not yet known of.
"I would indeed hope that they function, for I recommended them." the tallest said, a man in uniform with a white streak through his brown hair, standing between a woman and a man with an inkvine scar on his face. "Now, Henry Sword and Casey Shield, we have much to discuss."
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Now
It is shocking to find that many people believe that they cannot learn, and even more so those who believe learning to be exceedingly difficult.
-Chairman Bronze Tercano, private diaries
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Magnolia's jaw dropped, and her body began to quiver. "Chairman! I am terribly sorry for our unruly state, and I must prepare tea. And we thank you for allowing my wards to compete in the League. Shield, Sword, express your thanks, quickly!"
Bronze was amused at her disjointed words. "There is no need for any of that claptrap, Magnolia. The lack of tea in this place is of no importance in itself. I had no idea that you attached such weight to it! But I thank you for being polite and displaying behavior fitting to be in the presence of one of such a high position. Albans, prepare the sensei mech while I explain a few things."
Marvin opened his mouth to say something, anything, but he found that words would not leave him. So great was the gravity of Bronze's presence that he could not move. In Bronze's speech, Marvin heard the gentle tongue of a kindly king, with the overtones of a much-learned lord. But he was shut out, listening at a door to words no meant for him: an ill-mannered child, or a dull servant overhearing the speech of a wise elder and wondering how it would affect their lot.
"I think I've seen you on the television," Casey bubbled. "You're Chairman Bronze! What are you doing here, paying attention to us of all people?"
"More rests upon your success than perhaps you four have realized," Tess said. "A terrible doom draws near. Along all avenues of thought and reason, I see only darkness. We at the Association are blinded. Evil unlike I have ever witnessed is interfering with my abilities. Grasping we are, grasping in the dark. All paths lead to battle, and many lead to utter ruin."
"And we say this," Bronze said. "For you must know that much depends on you prevailing over the Pokemon League! We are uncertain of all outcomes and courses of action, and we remember the Dark Days fifty-two years ago. That time is returning, although what could bring it is unknown as of yet."
Henry was placid, although his mind was rapidly digesting Bronze and Tess's worlds with unrivaled fervor. "This is strange to hear. If you as Chairman wish for our success, then we will fight with this in mind, along with our previous reasons for undertaking such a challenge. And what is the warrior doing?"
Jake had removed a cube covered in glittering apertures and bizarre instruments from his jumpsuit, and turned many staring dial faces upon it. Bunches of metal tubes and shigawire cords began to vibrate, and then a strange thing occurred.
The throbbing cube shot upward as it disgorged its contents, larger on the inside than without. The mass of paratechnology split into many metallic parts, which then divided upon themselves into a recognizable shape. A flowmetal head bubbled out of a vent port, and then became solid. Two arms withdrew from the central mass, and sharp durasteel blades elongated out of folded sockets. The robot stood upright, and a blue light came into its ocular receptors. Now Henry and Cassey saw what it imitated, and took a step backward in caution.
A Scyther!
Magnolia became alarmed. "An evil thinking machine! Get away, you!" She raised her cane and hit the Scyther-Bot over the head many times, denting the rod over the mech's flowmetal head. Jake sighed, and murmured something about turning off the safeguards to see how she would do.
"Spare us, Magnolia!" Bronze said. "You know very well that I would adhere to my own restrictions. A Porygon indwells this sensei mech, there is nothing to fear as long as it controls it. Albans requested that he see your skills matched against his finest 'instructor.' I await a display of your Sirfetch'd skills, Henry Sword."
Henry nodded, and Lancelot rushed forward like a released spring. He drew his spear and ran at the Scyther-Bot, swinging his blade like a woodman chopping a log. The sensei mech came to animate life, and with a single stroke of its prosthetic sword-arms, cut deep into the leek spear. The blows flowed forward like a tsunami, striking Lancelot again and again. The Pokemon fainted, and the combat mech came to a rest.
"Disappointing," Jake growled. "Lucky for you, that bot is programmed to stop attacking once its sensors detect that the Pokemon it's fighting has fainted. A real enemy wouldn't be so merciful. That was your strongest fighter, defeated in a matter of seconds. Now, observe me!"
Jake withdrew his pulsesword and strode forward. He and his students, along with their Pokemon, has practiced against this exact sensei mech before. He led with a close-in attack, throwing feints and charged blows to confuse the machine's optical sensors. He screamed with a wordless battle cry, and collided his pulsesword with the machine's blades. A charge went down into its body, and one eye went dark.
The Scyther-Bot attempted to rise on segmented metal legs, but Jake deactivated the bot's limbs with a series of pseudo-atomic pulses. The Scyther-Bot sputtered and launched a series of jerking cuts that Jake easily blocked. Grinning madly, Jake twirled his blade in a final attack, then paused a hair's breadth above the helpless bot's head. "The fight is over. And that is how you rid yourself of an enemy in manly combat!"
Tess deactivated the Scyther-Bot, and in a sudden rushing of clinking metal, the sensei mech returned to cube-form again. "How did you do that?" Casey yelled. "That kind of shrink-tech doesn't exist yet! Where did you make it? How much did it cost? Why isn't it more common?"
"Hush!" Jake snapped. "I am sworn to never reveal where I obtained such sophisticated technology, under pain of death." Albans reflected on the long and painful debates with Library representatives when he had obtained the anomalous equipment.
"There is indeed room for improvement," Tess said. "But that will come in time. And we are beginning to desire tea, Magnolia."
...
Within the Magnolia RV, the seven had sat down for respite and board, ready and willing to continue their discourse. Jake had removed all the cushions on his seat, and would not accept any sugar foods. This one has the making of a strict instructor, Magnolia thought.
"It seems that these Pokedex Holders have more potential than I foresaw," Bronze said. "But I long for the time in which young children would rise to defeat great evils to return! Alas for the Dark Days. All who lived through them suffered, but they became stronger for it. And where has that noble spirit gone? Where is the Dark Lord? Where are the trumpets of Hisui? The Pokedex Holders are dead or sundered. Hope to avert this encroaching threat lies with new blood, strong blood."
"What is this threat?" Henry said. "It seems as though even you do not know, sir. Or if you do, you have not told us out of concern for our safety, or are concealing dark designs."
Tess's eyes glazed over as she entered her Bibliographer-trance. "We do not know of the nature of this threat. We will not tell you our suspicions, for they do not concern you and might compromise our mission. You must win the Galarian League or do very well in it. To defeat all the Gym Leaders would be enough. We cannot help you outside of small bits of advice. Our enemies would discover our meddling and bring us to scandal and defeat. This is my conclusion: we shall defeat the principal foe, and you will come to victory over the League. This is our request and it does not detract from what you have already deemed necessary to do, as you would have competed in the League regardless of our ulterior motives."
"Tess speaks truthfully," Bronze said. "We will trouble you no longer, and our dealings will be from the shadows. But a burning question still remains. I wish to know what motives you two had to compete within the League firstly. I would find it difficult to believe that you were just a common pair of trainers, entering the league for the League's own sake!"
"No," Magnolia said. "They have other reasons. Albans, Woodhall, Tercano, listen carefully. Marvin, the same applies to you. The time has come to tell everything that remains to be said..."
