Vallion couldn't remember the last time he had felt sea sick. Normally he could have practically lived on a boat and dealt with the motions just fine. Now, though, while coiled up in a dusty cabin with nothing but the strangled light of a narrow window near the ceiling to see by, his insides had suddenly decided to twist into knots. He swallowed his saliva and bore through it all the same, but it wasn't quite the movement of the sea itself that ailed him. His inner compass was adamant that they were starting to approach Mist Continent, and closing in on a reunion he very much didn't want to partake in.
"Don't freak out so much," Panne whispered. She couldn't exactly lean into him any more than she already was, so she pushed up higher onto the cot and started to rub at the back of his neck.
"You can tell?"
"Of course I can tell. You're an open fucking book."
He pointed his nose upwards and pressed the back of his head up against the wall, now very conscious about how loud he had been wheezing. "Maybe I am. I just never thought I would have to do something like this. The thought never really occurred to me. I don't even care about how vague the mission is at this point. It's the person we're getting it from that gets under my scales."
"Yeah well I don't like it either, but you're the one who wanted to come all this way. Can't exactly turn back now." She exhaled out her nose, her ears twisting backwards and brushing against his torso. "The stuffiness in here probably isn't helping your stomach much. Let's head topside for a bit. Maybe it'll clear your head."
Fair enough. They had been cooped up in here for quite some time, after all. Stretching the muscles of his body in one continuous wave, Vallion unraveled himself and descended from the warmth of the bed. Panne wrapped her arms and good leg around him like a backpack, and they set off. She wasn't the best at levitating over a surface that was constantly shifting and churning, and hobbling around using her staff as a crutch was even worse.
The passenger ship they managed to catch wasn't too terrible. A little on the cheaper side if he was being honest, but there weren't many ships taking people north this time of year. Unless you wanted to ride alongside mountains of cargo for trade, that is. The vacant stares of the crew as they trudged past suggested that this particular ship never rested in port for too long. A Grotle with spools of rope stored around the bushes on its back regarded the Serperior with an interested glance, but likely stopped caring the moment they passed one another.
The same grey sky that filtered in through their window had been waiting for them at the stairway to the deck. Vallion stuck his head out into the open air and immediately grimaced at the biting breeze that blew at his eyes and flew down his back. He felt Panne shudder from the same gust.
"Ah! Geez! Yep, we're north alright," she grunted, her breath already visible as little puffs in his peripheral vision. "I'm so glad I grew out my dress for the winter. It really helps that I haven't had to go out into any forests and get it caught on everything."
"Long fur. Lucky you."
She flicked at his collar. "Aw, don't feel bad! Just keep me on your back the whole time and I'll keep like a third of you warm."
It didn't seem like any of the other passengers were out right now. With the weather the way it was, that wasn't surprising. Flakes of half-formed snow sparsely flitted down from the thick clouds, dancing onto the deck and melting just as soon as they landed. The icy specks were most visible when looking straight up, as a majority of them either blended into the environment's faded colors or fell into the all-encompassing blue of the ocean.
Vallion appreciated the refreshing winds, though they were certainly unpleasant to adjust to. He went to the railing and let Panne hop down beside him, careful to make sure she supported herself along the trailing despite how she brushed him away in annoyance.
Lively City's weather would look rather close to this about a month from now. It was unfortunate they had to experience it so early. Neither of them were too keen on winter. Vallion had trouble dealing with maintaining his body temperature whereas Panne was obscenely against getting wet, and also obscenely good at complaining. Being so close to the ocean while living in a place called Water Continent, rain and cold weather were usually in no short supply, but it was still much more mild compared to the weather up here.
"To think that a freaking Serperior has been living even farther north than this all his life," Panne muttered. "God. No wonder he wanted Poliwrath River so bad. Probably got fed up with the cold."
Vallion looked away to chuckle. "I wouldn't say that to his face, though. Even if it might be true."
"Psh. I'll say whatever I want to his face. What's he gonna do, give the mission to someone else? Bastard's practically begging at your metaphysical feet for help. It's not like he doesn't deserve worse from me."
"I mean, let's mostly try to be civil at first. I'm not saying he's not got a clean slate with us, but we're still technically doing a job. Might as well act like we're professionals."
"I still can't believe we're doing this," she said off to the side, much to the tune of his internal feelings on the matter.
They ended up going topside at the perfect time, after all. Through the distant haze that enshrouded the horizon poked a few strands of land, which eventually grew into an entire coastline. The pine trees were so green that they almost seemed black from this distance. There were a few patches of white from a recent snowfall that had melted away and reformed back into ice. Jagged stone spires jut out from the waves and condensed on the edges of the gravel beaches. Stark, harsh, and immediately uninviting. Mist Continent.
Buildings came into view before long. Mostly wooden shacks and tiny houses, far out of the way of actual civilization. The fact that they were there at all was a sign that they were close. The shoreline rose into a basalt cliff with more raggedy buildings overlooking the sea. Eventually the architecture started to mix stone brickwork into the cedarwood planks. A few pokemon could be seen from up along the ridge, staring down at the new arrival or simply continuing on with their lives. A Sealeo sidled up to the ledge and dove straight into the water at one point. Apparently they knew a spot where the bottom wasn't littered with rocks.
A few more passengers began to emerge from their cabins when the piers came into view. Noe Port wasn't exactly abuzz with activity, but it certainly didn't seem to pay the dreary weather anymore mind than usual. Always eager to serve as maritime capital of Paradise's territory and the epicenter of its worldly commerce, a dozen other ships were already either docked or were in the process of docking. It definitely had a different feel from Lively City's ports. Similar in size, but there was this intangible importance on the trade, like the whole town would suddenly disappear if the traffic ever stopped.
"So..." Panne tried to begin, but seemed to lose her words in the moment.
"Halfway there," Vallion decided to finish whatever thought it was that had been left to hang. "Come on. Let's see if this piece of paper really can take us the full way on its own."
They hadn't packed much for the journey. A couple of bags at most, carrying what to them was a fairly casual amount of supplies and tools. Their gadgets, maybe a snack or two, and a few doses of medicine in case Panne got a headache from exerting herself for too long. Some passengers carried a similarly light burden, and some had none at all. There were a few pokemon that seemed to have moved their whole lives into the trunks that the crew mates had to carry up. How many of these travelers were just visiting this land? How many came to stay the rest of their lives? You could never tell these days, now that settling down was the common thing to do.
With the ship mostly immobile, Panne hopped onto her staff and followed Vallion down the gangplank. He withdrew the fateful letter from a corner pocket of his bag and held it carefully in his tiny hands to shield it from the snow. They came to a small checkpoint out on the edge of the docks before heading into Noe Port proper. Whatever contraband the appointed Combusken needed to search for in their bags, a brief flash of the seal apparently said enough to have them sent on their way with a nervous haste. Nobody wanted to be the person that held up official matters.
The Delphox overtook him, her ears pointed forward as she took in the immediate sights of the town. "We haven't actually been here in a few years, have we? I feel like it's changed so much but I barely even remember it to begin with."
While the theme of ascending sets of stone walls and countless staircases was certainly still present, most of the original foundations were well and built over by now. The town had spread quite a bit farther onto the mountain than Vallion remembered. Much of the expansion had taken place on "steps" of vertical walls and flattened ground that crawled around the curvature of the landscape. The terraces only went a handful of levels up, but were aggressively wide and wrapped around the hill and out of sight-at least from this low angle. It was definitely much larger since he last saw it.
Further up the cascading sets of stairs, Panne struggled with her bags while trying to keep up with him. "Where are we going from here again? They've got a train station, right? Did we even check to see if there was one heading to Paradise today?"
"I just assumed that there was always one ready to head there, since this seemed like a pretty major railway," Vallion said.
"Was that sarcasm? That better have been sarcasm. We didn't just leave without planning this out?"
He smirked off to the side, concentrating on the cracks in the masonry instead. "It's not that crazy of an assumption, is it?"
"Un-fucking-believable. You're paying for the inn if you're wrong. I won't even let you get away with using that letter, either. That's coming out of your pocket."
According to the signs, this winding street lined with stalls and shops would supposedly lead them to the station. Business wasn't exactly booming that day, so they had plenty of space along what should have been a main artery of the town. The few pokemon that did fly over or walk along the street tended to gravitate towards the wafting promise of hot food. While Vallion tasted plenty of appetizing scents on his tongue, anxiety had started to set in again. Perhaps on the way back he'd take a stroll through some of the local cuisine-see how it's changed or how it hasn't. Maybe they could take some crafts back home as souvenirs.
Roads from parallel terraces converged with this primary one in a narrow valley between two hills. The land had been flattened or filled in for the most part, resulting in an uncharacteristically level section of buildings. He recalled that this particular valley made for the cleanest passage to the plateau on the other side, and had been used by essentially everyone that went through this way into the mainland. Now, there were railways built into the sides of the mountain where that very pass used to be, and an impressively long brick building where the beginning of it once was.
"There we go," Vallion remarked out loud, mostly just to talk himself out of his nerves. "If this is anything like our stations, I'm guessing we can find some times posted somewhere up there. I don't know if-"
Red eyes.
The Serperior stopped at the sight of another one of his kind. His whole body tensed up to the point that he could feel his scales grind against the ground from the graceless contractions. Every instinct in his body screamed to meet the pokemon's glare head-on, his eyes forced so wide that the cold wind began to sting. Still, he found himself locked in an irresistible contest of intimidation. A master of territory and an intruder. The bitter greeting of two Serperior.
He was no longer a child. He would not shy away from that gaze again.
Alexander bowed his head and blinked, and suddenly it was as if the whole world flooded back all in at once. Vallion would've stumbled if he had legs to stand on. He dizzily turned to Panne, who shot as nasty of a scowl as she could make towards the other Serperior, but the face she made was nowhere near as significant as the eye contact that was just exchanged.
"Well look who's early!" she snarled, her neck nearly horizontal and her ears laid flat. "What are you doing all the way down here? I thought the problem was in Paradise! Last I checked, Noe Port ain't quite part of it!"
"I grew impatient, I admit. I came as soon as I heard that my seal had been used."
The voice Vallion heard was gravely and tired-completely unlike the prideful bellow he expected to hear. Actually, now that he had zoomed out from the vicious pair of eyes, it was hard to believe that this creature was the same Alexander he once knew. A war's worth of scars and old wounds covered the Serperior's body, punctuated by a crooked posture of an injury that nearly went too far. That lack of symmetry continued up to a missing chunk out of their left collar. Their bright greens had long since faded into an autumn of yellow-tinged scales and pale skin. Humans were still mortal, even heroes in this world.
Vallion gulped at the lump in his throat. "So you decided to meet us halfway?"
With a brief nod, Alexander looked back up. Their eyes were far more narrow now, almost like they were locked in a perpetual squint when not staring down trespassers. "I apologize for my rude behavior. There have been Serperior in the past who were foolish enough to think that they could challenge me for my territory, like we would do in the wilderness. I have made it a habit to deal with them on their own terms. I...rarely see others of our species in any other context, so it was rather reflexive."
"I, um. I don't think I've ever had that problem, but I suppose it's alright?"
"Come." Alex gestured with a flick of his nose and slithered around towards the mouth of the station. "You have arrived at a fortuitous time. The train is departing in half an hour, and I will no longer have to delay it. We will begin our discussion there."
Panne and Vallion shared a cautious look before starting after their old enemy's sideways slither. The station itself was more just a collection of walls surrounding a few small buildings. A small gathering of moderately-sized pokemon-two Togekiss, a Luxray, and a Sawk-stood on the far end of the parked train in front of a windowed booth. On the other end of the station seemed to be cars to accommodate larger species, which he noticed just in time to see the tail of a Flygon disappear into the locomotive. Even further back beyond that, it seemed that cargo and goods were being loaded onto storage cars.
"You may enter and choose a cabin at your leisure," Alexander spoke without glancing back at them. "I have to inform the conductor that we will be leaving on time after all. Then, I will seek you out."
Once the Serperior hobbled out of their immediate earshot, Panne leaned in close. "Okay it's seriously weird that he knew exactly when we were going to show up, right? Like, and that he was willing to delay this station's whole schedule for us?"
Vallion rolled his tongue and hummed. "I'm just going to say that he's very organized and not think about it."
The two of them approached the appropriately-accommodating cars and slipped into the end of the queue. With all the fervor of a wet stone, a Boldore siphoned the passengers in one by one until they finally got to the end of the line. Their expression wasn't exactly telling, but the tone of their voice suggested that the dry insides of that booth were the only destination they cared about.
"Tickets?"
The Delphox hissed. "Oh great. Do we have to wait for that overripe banana to get back here?"
"Probably not," Vallion muttered as he unraveled the writ of permission. "I'm assuming this works as a pair of tickets. Am I wrong?"
The Boldore jumped in place, the shrill impact of their front feet exceptionally loud against the stone. "Ah! You're the guests we were meant to wait for! Why don't you- You can just- Just head inside, no tickets! Anywhere's free! Find a seat anywhere, please!"
While the sudden enthusiasm was more unnerving than reassuring, they just nodded and continued up the stairway into the interior. It would be a stretch to say that the train was particularly inviting. A row of lanterns added a much-needed warm light to the gloom that came through the windows, but it didn't do much to help the function-over-form style the whole place had. The central steel walkway was sandwiched between militant patches of carpeting, presumably to help somewhat with the uncomfortable-looking seats that seemed barely upholstered. The wooden parts and tables weren't even polished or sanded. To be fair, the place was totally spotless, and there was a pleasant lavender smell to distract from the inevitable coal smoke.
They chose a seat somewhere apart from any other passengers, of which there weren't many to begin with. Vallion collected himself along the length of a rather hard bench so that Panne could set herself down right in the middle of his coils. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long of a ride to Paradise. It wasn't just that these conditions were rather grim, it's that he had to endure them for the whole duration while across from Alexander. Panne's sour moods had a habit of rubbing off on him after a while.
Speak of the devil. With a methodical sluggishness, the crooked Serperior inched his way down the aisle and came to the seat opposite of them. He slotted himself into the booth without a word and directed his razor eyes out the window.
"We will be leaving shortly."
The air went heavy. This moment was so simple in the theoretical versions he dreamed up while laying awake in the ship, but now that he was here, what was he supposed to say? Was it really that easy to brush away the past and get to the point? This human, and all that he's done-and what he nearly did. Time didn't just wash those actions into the sea. Two stages of evolution didn't mend the scar on her chest. Hopefully this wasn't a mistake.
Panne didn't care so much for the dead air. She whistled a bit, still glaring daggers at the pokemon across from them. "Hey. This little writ of yours seems like some pretty serious stuff. I would've thought that people'd get annoyed at seeing it, but most of them piss their pants and shoo us on as soon as physically possible. What's the deal with that?"
Alexander's eyes swiveled towards her. He took in a deep breath and wet his tongue. "Several winters ago, Reinhardt's queen fell ill with a ghastly sickness that grew worse with time. I sent urgent summons to some of the greatest healers to travel these lands: a caravan led by an Audino that went by the name Moony. Near the end of their race towards the capital, a patrolling squad of guards stopped them against my explicit written word and searched the wagons for smuggled goods. They found none, and burned an hour and a half for nothing. By the time the Audino made it to Paradise, His queen was in critical condition. Any later and she would have surely perished."
"Oh." The word fell from the Delphox's mouth.
"Those guards," he continued in monotone, now fully turned to face the two of them. "They were stripped of both their positions and their pensions. Their commanding officer faced trial for obstructing royal duties and the near-death of the queen. He did not fare well. And so, with that demonstration of power, word spread throughout the kingdom that my writ was not to be questioned. I am pleased to hear that it continues to have that effect."
A nervous chuckle at the top of his throat, Vallion lowered his head. "Well that's...a bit gruesome. But I suppose you've made your point in the end."
Even Alexander's grin looked crooked. "It's not a topic I would have personally opened with, but it was a question I was more than willing to answer. And speaking of questions, I'm sure you have plenty as to why you're here, and this ride will surely be long enough for all of them."
Right on cue, a great shudder ran through the metal bones of the train. A grinding noise began to vibrate up from the floor into their seats. Before long, a cloud of black smoke could be seen rising from if he looked from just the right angle in the window. Another shudder later, the train's shrill horn pierced the mountainside and echoed for miles around. Brief flurries of clicking sounds coupled with a disorienting lurch, followed by a feeling of vertigo that he quickly got used to. Noe Port slowly started to move away.
Vallion took in what felt like the thousandth preparatory breath just today and turned his eyes back to Alexander. "Let's start with the obvious, then. You didn't actually say what the big problem was in the letter you sent. Why is it that we came all this way?"
After briefly scanning their immediate surroundings, the ragged Serperior gave him a frown. "I believe that there is a human in Paradise."
"Well gee. Ya think?" Panne remarked.
"Besides me, I mean. A new human, one that has been brought into this world more recently than you or I. It's not possible for me to know how long they've been in this world, nor could I pinpoint an exact source of their arrival, but my suspicions remain."
A hum stuck at the bottom of Vallion's throat. That was certainly one of the theories he had pulled from the vague letter. It just wasn't the first one he would have guessed to be true.
"But what's the emergency?" he said. "As interesting as it is that there might be another human among us, why is this a thing of such concern that you would call on me of all people? Your message sounded like the world was about to end."
A cruel chuckle slipped over Alexander's tongue. "But that's just it. Humans only appear in times of great strife, this I know for certain. You should know more than anyone that ours is a grueling fate. We have already lived through and conquered our destinies, you and I, but what of a newcomer? I haven't felt any apocalyptic stakes since Dark Matter nearly destroyed the world, and while I don't necessarily feel them now, the very appearance of this human suggests that might change soon. Wouldn't you agree, Vallion?"
"I…" he trailed off a moment. "I suppose you're not wrong. I can't say I've heard any stories of notable humans that didn't involve some sort of terrible event. Even the folk tales tend to end poorly."
"Aha! I get it!" Panne exclaimed, tapping a claw to the side of her head. "You're not as dumb as you used to be! You called us here so we could combine our experience and team up with this human to take on whatever's coming. That's not too bad of an idea. Maybe a bit excessive, but not bad at all."
"If only it were that simple," Alexander said with a shake of his head. "I don't think they will be joining forces with me anytime soon. In fact, they made multiple threats on my life, as well as pledged to steal the throne from Reinhardt following my death. And that's before they claimed to be human."
"Claimed?" the Delphox grumbled. "Wait a minute. They just claimed to be human? Is that what we're supposed to be working with? Anyone can do that! How do you know that they're one for sure? Or did you just drag us out here on a fucking hunch?"
"My hunches are rarely wrong. Of course, my reasoning mostly lies in that nobody has any reason to make such a claim in the first place. The cost of doubting them seemed far worse in the case that they were right."
"That's what you meant in the latter part of your message, right?" Vallion said.
The Serperior nodded. "I want to be wrong. I would rather waste your time and have to pay you a full reward than ignore the possible problem and tempt fate. If this pokemon is a pretender after all, it would bring me so much peace of mind."
"This is really stupid, you know that? I left behind so many plans and lectures for this," spat Panne, shifting her weight around on Vallion's coils. "You don't even know if the reason why you summoned us even exists. We might as well be chasing tavern rumors at this point."
"What if he's right, though?" Vallion softly suggested.
"Oh hell no. You're not gonna believe him about this, are you? Like, him of all people? Don't you remember what happened last time we believed Alexander of all pokemon?"
"I'm still directly in front of you," said Alexander without a pang of emotion. "And yes, I am fully aware of the context of what I'm asking of you. Like I said, this is not personal. This is a mission. There is a threat looming over my city's head and I want it identified. Would you not send an inspector if you were suspicious about the structural safety of a bridge? It would be foolish to wait until after the bridge has collapsed to check."
Outside the window, a white countryside began to roll by as the train passed into some foothills. The mountains blocked the warmer temperatures that blew in from the sea and left flawless fields of snow on the other side. The clouds were rather thin above their heads, but up ahead there were much darker blotches waiting for them, surely already sprinkling the landscape with another few inches of ice. How did the trains plow through this stuff so casually? Weather like this completely grounded the railways in Water Continent, even if those were a little more comfortable to sit in.
"Val," Panne whispered as she leaned in and tapped him on the collar. "Quit spacing out and back me up here!"
"Just thinking to myself," he replied after a while. Alexander's expression remained unchanged from when he last looked-as tired as ever. "...Yeah. I agree with what he said. We're the ounce of prevention to stop something that would take a million pounds of cure. It's worth the risk just to make sure nothing's gone wrong."
Alexander lifted his head. "Exactly. The largest city in the world cannot afford to go through something so dire that it would require a human to combat it. The damage would be irreparable if not prevented. I knew we would see eye-to-eye on this."
"Oh shut up! You're so fucking manipulative, just like you always were! Of course Val's gonna agree with you when you keep on talking about it like that!"
"Do you think he's wrong, though?" Vallion asked.
To that, the Delphox crossed her arms and bent her ears straight backwards. "I mean, no! Obviously he has a point! I just- I don't want that point to come from his mouth, and for you to fit right into it again. We're already here and we're getting a reward anyway, so we might as well just go through with this shit, but I don't feel good about it either way."
"I cannot change the past," Alexander said. "I would ask if there was a way to earn your trust for just this one instance, but considering how you're acting, I doubt I could do much."
She shook her head. "Nope. Nothing from you. But you know what does make me feel better about this? It's the fact that, this time, we're on equal footing. If you so much as try to pull on him with those puppet strings of yours, I'm gonna make sure to finish the job of whoever made all those scars. I don't care who comes down on my head for it."
"Hmph." The ragged Serperior blinked, irritation flashing through his expression for just a second before it returned to neutrality. "Fair enough. But you will take this mission, correct?"
"It better be worth my time is all I'm saying. We're in charge of teaching the next generation of scholars and explorers, not twiddling our thumbs in the compound waiting for something to happen."
"Of course. This was not an easy decision for me to make, either. My only hope is that this potential disaster is diffused swiftly so that I can send you back on your way, and I can return to my duties."
Vallion's tongue idly flicked at the odor of black smoke and sterile upholstery. The tension had subsided, for the most part. With this mess of a conversation finally behind him, he could finally focus on the task at hand.
"Speaking of that," he said. "A little context would be nice. I'd like to hear the story of how you came to have these assumptions and worries in the first place. What happened with the pokemon that claimed to be a human, and why did you come to believe them?"
Alexander cleared his dry throat once more. "I figured that was the next stage of this discussion. Very well. I will fetch a steward for a drink of water first, and then you will hear of the incident that took place in the capitol building over a week ago. There is more than enough track left."
