While they had technically been within Paradise's territory for several hours already, the real thing hadn't come into view until now. The train barreled past square holes in the hills where quarries had been abandoned for the season. Just on the edge of where the meadows had begun their transformation into tundra, the scaffolding of an ever-expanding city could be seen. They plowed right on past half-developed buildings and piles of supplies as they rode into the valley.
Vallion couldn't even see the end of it. Paradise went on as far the eyes could see, and his partial view of it still spanned all the way to the northern glaciers. The city had filled the space it was born in, crawled partially up the mountains, and spilled outwards through passes between them. To hear that it was the largest gathering of pokemon on the globe was one thing, but to see its vastness in the flesh-even through the foggy window of a rickety train-was breathtaking.
"What the hell..?" Panne muttered to herself, her reflection in the glass peering at the same sight. "And I thought Lively City was supposed to be huge."
"Lively City is plenty large," Alexander responded flatly. "It simply isn't the largest."
The tracks followed up the side of a hill and gave Vallion a slightly better angle. Hundreds upon hundreds of rooftops flew by, their angled tiles optimal for guiding the accumulating snow into gutters on the sides of the roads. The upper half of his vision was occupied with a boundless sea of grey, dotted by the approach of innumerable snowflakes. The train held heat in well enough, but even just sitting this close to the window, he could feel the warmth being sapped straight through the glass. He didn't need the heat pits on his snout to tell him how damn cold it was.
Eventually, the train began to slow down. More detail began to pop out of the environment that once blurred by. The passing faces of countless species of pokemon was the most striking thing. In addition to those who might be at home in this kind of weather, there were insects and grass types and all manner of fragile builds. Small swarms of Dustox flitting about from beneath the shelter of a row of overhanging roofs. A Lurantis looking out their window with a somewhat bored expression. A Donphan with furniture strapped to their back being guided along by a Clefairy. And that was all just within a minute of travel.
The brakes screeched. The station was just ahead. Alexander coughed into a vine and began to unfurl himself from his seat. "This is our stop. Pick yourselves up and follow me. We will not be departing with the rest of the passengers."
Panne had to support herself with a nearby pole while Vallion unwound the knot he found himself in. She attempted to hop up onto her staff early, which nearly swerved right out from under her despite the train's descending speed. Grumbling, she waited for her husband to emerge so that she could hop onto his back instead.
"Why aren't we leaving the train like normal people, again?" she asked the crooked Serperior as they started to travel forward along the cars.
He hissed back in a hushed tone barely audible above the rumbling of the engine room they were approaching. "It will be better the less people see you arrive. There are eyes all over this town. Not all of them are mine."
The apparent benefit of looking as strikingly unique and menacing as Alexander is that nobody really dared to question his presence. Other than a confused glance from a steward or worker, they wandered straight through areas that would be well off-limits to any regular passenger. Just as the train finally came to a stop, they entered the engine room.
The smell of smoke was so pungent in here that it made Vallion want to immediately recoil. Black grime was smudged in all manner of places. The whole ceiling's color was stained dark, blotches of smoke residue like clouds on the walls. There stood the two pokemon who were responsible for getting them this far. A Magmar, who leaned on the edge of the furnace's door, and a Coalossal, who was actually inside the furnace.
"Eh?" the Magmar snorted. "What's this here?! We only just stopped! Don't go bringin' me any problems 'til the- Oh. It's you, I-"
"We are exiting from this car." Alexander hardly spared them a glance before he gestured towards the metal door.
The Coalossal gave a bellowing grunt from within the hollow acoustics of the furnace. "Whatever, boss. Nobody's gonna stop you. I ain't losin' my job for shit."
The stark transition from the residual heat of the engine into the bitter cold outside was overwhelming. Panne shivered so hard she sprung from Vallion's back and landed on her suspended staff, immediately eager to get to wherever it was they were going as fast as possible.
Vallion immediately felt his frame begin to lock up from the cold. The Master of Law, despite being the same species as him, didn't so much as wince.
"Follow me closely. We must reach the capitol building, and we must do so as covertly as possible. I would prefer to keep my well-laid plans as pristine as possible."
"It b-better not be the fu-fucking long way around!" Panne managed to stutter out from between chattering teeth.
The three of them skulked away from the train and around the back end of the busy station, further away from the distant chatter. The banners of Paradise flew high in rows along the marble columns, a summit and star for every few meters. They slipped seamlessly into the shadows of a doorway meant for employees and somehow managed to pop out the back of the entire building moments later.
"You must take this route often," Vallion commented, blinking at the heavy snowflakes that fell near his eyes.
Alexander shook his head. "I have no problem with the public if that's what you're wondering. Even if my presence does seem to unnerve most people these days. I simply helped build this station is all."
What they saw certainly wasn't the pearly stone boulevards that Paradise was so commonly associated with. These were the back streets. Garbage bins and industrial waste in barrels. Cruder brickwork not fit for main streets. The ugly backs of the tall buildings, destined to get little sunlight and even less public care. Who cared if the alleys were muddled with grime and moss and mildew? There was simply too much to clean. Too many corners to bother.
Vallion grit his teeth as he pressed through the muddy slush, the stinging in his lower body wrapping back around to numbness. Ugh. too cold to bother, too.
Panne snickered and shuddered at the same time. "Nice city s-snake. Very clean."
Glaring through the shadows of offshoot roads, Alexander huffed a cloud of mist from his nose. "This isn't a place I'd recommend going on a tour of the city, but to be frank, I don't really care. You have a job to do here, the conditions don't need to match the description."
"Y-you know you haven't actually s-s-said what our job is yet, right? We know about t-the Weavile and that's it! Ow, my fucking tongue!"
"I haven't given the last details of your mission for the same reason that I chose to crawl through this gutter of an alley instead of simply walking out in broad daylight."
Vallion nudged his head towards the Delphox. "Have some patience, dear. We're almost there, I think. I'm sure they keep their hearths warm as hell around here. At least they better."
She spat into a muddy clump of snow and muttered. "Broad daylight. Tch. What fucking d-daylight? It's almost dusk and I haven't seen a single beam of sun grace an inch of this c-continent."
They passed under an arched bridge that connected two much more prominent streets on their way through the underbelly. It mostly affirmed Vallion's suspicion that this was more like a drainage ditch than an actual road. Beneath the stone arches were all manner of graffiti and other sorts of creative vandalism. Whole messages and replies. Territory markings-some recent and some erased. A few illegible tags in paint and claw that surely represented something at one point.
Alexander lingered for a moment in that glimpse into the underworld before he continued on. A few extra corners later, the dirty passage opened up with a worn set of ascending stairs. They pressed up back into the city proper and were welcomed with a sight so starkly different that it felt like they had just stepped off yet another engine room into the cold.
A large lake shimmered from the very center of the city, consumed from all sides by civilization. It calmly reflected a distortion of the darkening clouds, all the way up to the very opposite shore where the distant glimmer of freshly-lit oil street lamps twinkled like the stars the sky lacked. Blue and orange, and an omnipresent white. The fringes of the water had begun to freeze.
"We should be well and enough alone now," said Alexander, hobbling through the untouched blanket of snow and revealing the bricks beneath. Vallion tried to follow in his continuous footstep, if only to minimize the amount of his body that was touching ice. It didn't particularly help much, though, and he still had to pick up the pace and cut corners to keep up. The cold always made his muscles stiff and unresponsive.
Panne hummed, starting to shiver significantly less with time. "Oil lamps, huh? Still using those, are you? We've been on bulbs for years. We even got some special lamps in the middle of town designed by one of Jirachi's older students. Long-lasting super-efficient luminous orbs. Only gotta change them out once every couple of weeks."
You could practically hear Alexander's eyelids twitch in annoyance. "And is there something wrong with oil lamps?"
"They just don't have that unique blue glow like wonder orbs do. You see one lamp, you've seen 'em all."
"You sound warmer," Vallion tried to steer the conversation away.
She shot him a chattering grin. "If I get him angry enough to melt the snow, I won't die of exposure before we make it to the other side of town."
A sigh rolled around Alexander's head as a visible cloud of mist. "I see your mouth hasn't gotten any smaller over the years. If you're trying to get me to act out, Panne, I assure you that there are pokemon around here who have a much more colorful vocabulary when it comes to their opinions of me."
"Hmph. Deservedly so, I'd say..." Panne turned her head and went back to glaring at the waves.
Although most of the scenery was buried in several inches of snow, it was plain to see how much more attention this part of town got. Beyond the handful of statues and the nearly-frozen fountain by some winter hedges, even the metal lamp posts were artistically designed-though the style seemed more brutal and simplistic than beautiful. It made sense considering the kinds of buildings they were walking past. Offices, guild headquarters, courthouses-all manner of important real estate.
Spotting the capitol building out of the bunch wasn't particularly difficult in any way. They had been seeing it for a while now, actually, since the place towered over its neighbors for several stories. The same brutal artistry in the lamp posts could be seen in the walls of the building, with flat pillars and harsh shadows all the way to the tip of the spire. And of course there were more banners bearing the symbol of Paradise. There could never be enough of those.
The street widened into a promenade, its far edges adorned with lanterns and dignified rows of winter trees. He could practically feel the vibrations of past parades as they approached the wide circular stairway which led into the palace proper. Several guards in custom-fit armor saluted their approach, and none were particularly small species. The least intimidating of the bunch was a Sylveon who still somehow managed to pry open the heavy maplewood doors with nothing but two ribbons and a disciplined nod.
More guards were waiting for them inside, along with a welcome flood of warm air-which admittedly was less welcome after Vallion's skin began to burn. Alexander shooed them away and went about slithering his crooked slither through the marbled halls. They passed what seemed like the entrance to the throne room, but Vallion was so concentrated on the strangely jagged architecture that he just missed it.
"Hopefully everything is in place," Alexander mumbled to himself as he nearly outpaced his guests. "If not, it will be more difficult to explain what I want to happen. The time for action is soon, I assure you two. So long as my arrangements haven't fallen through."
"I'm just happy to finally be inside," Panne spoke out loud, then leaned over to Vallion in hushed tones. "You think they got decent food around here? Like yeah, it's the palace, but it's basically in the middle of nowhere. What's this place even known for, burnt toast?"
The room they entered gave the immediate impression of being some sort of administration office, except it was a huge, open chamber and the polished wooden desks were all laid out in a strange circular pattern. The center of the room was one massive chimney that led all the way past the roof, beneath it a burning hearth that served as both a supporting pillar and a source of heat. The smell of the kindling mingled with the sterile scent of the carpeting. There weren't many pokemon around at the moment, though there were two more of those officials wearing capes off to the side, including a particularly mean-looking Kommo-o.
Not more than a few paces into the room, Alexander was beset upon by a Ribombee wearing the tiniest pair of spectacles ever created. An Illumise trailed shortly after, holding an overfilled clipboard and panting for breath.
"Sir, you've returned," the Ribombee spoke up immediately in monotone, then gestured towards the mountain of papers carried by their exhausted intern. "There are several documents that require your immediate attention. It's for the bill regarding the water supply issue with East District and its surrounding suburbs. Additionally, there are several less-urgent requests that came in earlier at the bottom of the pile. Mostly matters with the distribution of food this year."
The crooked Serperior suppressed a groan. "I've only been gone most of one day, Ribombee. Does my work really pile up so quickly while I'm away?"
She replied with a bow of her head. "These are tumultuous times for Paradise, sir. So much is coming to a head, and I only manage the order in which we address these problems, not the rate at which they arrive. 'Tis best we deal with them as they come. Illumise, open the ink bottle."
"Will you at least wait until I have dealt with this business first?" Alexander said with a frown. "And what of Linoone? I sent word to have him arrive here at dusk, yet I do not see him anywhere. Surely you haven't forgotten that he is an informant and left him at the door, have you?"
Ribombee opened their mouth to speak, but immediately whipped their head downwards in a midair bow. The Illumise followed shortly, bonking their head on the clipboard in the process. Vallion turned to see a Chesnaught approach out the corner of his eye. Their colors had begun to fade as well, the green hues of their shell and arms infused with an aged beige. Unlike the narrow face of their fated partner, their weathered expression seemed to diffuse any hostility before it could even arise. Their fur was partially wet as if hastily dried not minutes ago.
"You're back already, Alex?" Reinhardt's brow raised, a harmless smile on their face. "You must've given me your worst-case scenario when I asked how long you would be gone. It wouldn't hurt to be a little more optimistic sometimes."
A flood of emotion washed through Vallion's chest at the sight of the pokemon, but the only impulse he chose to obey was the one that told him to bow. Panne, however, simply crossed her arms and glared at the Chesnaught.
"Panne," he urged. "He's still a king, you know. We have to follow the rules like anyone else."
"I don't care if he's the emperor of the entire planet. I'll bow when I feel like it's deserved, and right now the only person I'm looking at is the pokemon that busted my leg and threw me in a cell."
Vallion's blood ran cold. Right when it seemed like everything was about to take a turn for the worse, Reinhardt gave a hearty laugh and bowed his head. Alexander, on the other hand, let another sigh slip over his tongue and began to speak.
"If the thought ever crossed your mind that these might be imposters, let that incessant drone in your ear prove the contrary. I certainly believe she's the real thing."
The king gestured his claws in a circle, and like a spring-loaded toy the Ribombee snapped back up and continued as they were before. In fact, everyone in the immediate area seemed to exhale and get back to what they were doing. The king had dismissed them all from his presence with nothing more than a simple hand movement.
"There was never a doubt in my mind," said Reinhardt, letting his arm fall to his side as if holstering a sword. "I completely understand that you might still feel strongly about our last impressions. They certainly weren't good ones, not for anybody. If I had the chance to go back and change the past, I-..." His eyes trained on the Delphox's bandaged leg, watching it hang lifelessly from over the side of her staff. The speech he had probably been planning for years disappeared along with the expression on his face. "...Your leg. Is it truly still..?"
Panne's ears shot forward. "Oh? Oh! Hah, I've never even realized it was the same leg until now! Sorry, you don't get to take credit for that one. I fried that leg my own damn self, with no help from anyone but my sister. The only thing you're to thank for is a bald patch on my chest, so I really don't care much."
"Ah. Well, uh…Good, then! Then I suppose I...I should officially welcome you two as honored guests of Paradise!"
"We can save the welcome for another time," Alexander swiftly butted in, his vine already sharpened at the tip so that he might dip it into the ink bottle that Illumise meekly presented. "Ribombee, won't you find a servant that can take Panne and Vallion somewhere while I get a handle on things? The ambassador's quarters might suffice."
The Chesnaught took a step forward, a wide hand over his heart. "Don't worry yourself with that. I can take them."
Alexander peeled his crimson eyes away from the pile of documents. "A king should not be worrying himself with such matters. Servants are there to serve for a reason."
"That's true enough, but how are our guests meant to feel honored if we do not take the time to honor them? Trust can't be repaired with just the passage of time, Alex. It takes a little effort." With that, Reinhardt extended an arm towards a branching hall and beckoned the two of them along. "The ambassador's quarters are this way. They should be to your liking, I hope. Very spacious last I checked."
Panne grumbled beneath her breath. "Oh great. I was just waiting to be guided someplace else. If I wander off and find another war crime like last time, I'm going to seriously flip my lid, Val."
Not much farther into the building, a wide set of spiral stairs awaited them. Reinhardt pressed forward with a labored gait-slightly slower than Alexander's, but seemingly much less burdensome and painful. There was a certain regal air in the way he sauntered through his own palace. If one were to see the two partners walk side-by-side, it would've been easy to pick out which one was king. Not that Alexander didn't make up for his lack of majesty with an air of severity that could slice throats.
Vallion couldn't quite tell how many floors they'd ascended. Three or four by the feel of it, but the staircase just kept going and going. The level Reinhardt decided to stop on appeared much less extravagant than the lower floors. Less marble, more granite. An interesting engraving here and there, maybe a few paintings and busts to smooth the place out, but it certainly wasn't the very image of royalty that the ground floor strove to be.
"Ambassador's quarters, huh?" Vallion started to say just to break the silence. "I can't imagine you get many of those this far north. Who's around these parts that would need an ambassador?"
"Hence the vacancy," said the Chesnaught with a smile. "I suppose it's just a formality to call it that. Still, you two certainly fulfill the purpose of the room just fine. They call the Expedition Society a group of scholars who will forge the way for the next generation. I can't think of anyone more fitting to use such quarters."
"See? Somebody gets it!" Panne remarked, her voice echoing in the barren corridor.
A few turns later, Reinhardt tilted his gaze back at them. "Listen. I know he may seem cold now, but I want you to know how much Alex appreciates this. It must have been impossibly difficult for him to reach out to you for help, given that he hardly asks me for it even in the worst of times. This was something that was eating him away. You have my utmost gratitude, at least."
Vallion blinked at the Chesnaught. For the ruler of such a large place, and for being an old enemy, the genuine expression on his face made the Serperior study the floor. It was such an aggressively saccharine taste.
"Sure," was all he really cared to say.
In the end, Reinhardt had to take them all the way to the other side of the capitol building just to reach the place peacemakers were supposed to stay the night. Whatever reason the architects had to put such a place so far out of the way was well beyond him. Perhaps it was supposed to instill a sense of safety, like you're nestled deep within the arms of the empire. Or perhaps it was just something to keep friends close and enemies closer.
A scarlet carpet paved the way past a pair of oak doors. Similarly to the administrative office on the first floor, the room was hideously spacious. The ceiling alone was an arched dome that seemed to stretch fifteen feet high. A crystal chandelier at its core glistened from a fireplace on the other side-one recently lit, if the condition of the kindling was any indication. While the chairs and tables were rather intentionally gaudy and posh, the bed was more like a platform of cushion than anything else, wide enough for nearly any species of pokemon but not more than a foot or two off the ground.
"Here we are," the king extended his hand and let his followers walk past. "Treat it as your own home while you're here. Help yourself to anything you might need, and do not hesitate to ask anything of us. Has your journey left you hungry?"
Panne had already zipped over to a bowl of berries before Reinhardt could finish that last sentence. "Oh of course it did! I didn't want to eat anything in front of Alexander. It's crazy how that guy puts you on-edge just by being around."
"Anything I should tell the chefs to prepare?" Reinhardt said. "My hospitality typically ends with cooking. I'm...not quite the best at it, but that's why we employ pokemon who are. The season's rather tight this year, but we do have some impressive stores in our larder. Something sitrus, perhaps?"
Vallion rolled his tongue in his mouth. "No, thank you. Maybe something a little spicier for me. And Panne prefers savory."
The Chesnaught nodded. "As you wish." Then, he disappeared behind the double doors and stomped away down the hall.
The two of them had some time to themselves, even if it did feel like someone was still breathing down their neck. Panne immediately started to overturn furniture and snoop through drawers. She didn't seem to find much else other than a few books, some extra candles, a box of matches, and folded linen shawls. Vallion wasn't quite paranoid enough to flip the place over, but he'd be damned to let his guard down in anybody's royal palace, much less the home of his old enemies. This all felt a little too welcome.
Not long after Panne finished her search, Alexander reappeared at their door. Still wiping at the end of his vine with a handkerchief, he pressed his way in and regarded his guests with a murmur. Trailing behind him was an unfamiliar pokemon who looked as out of place as Vallion felt. A raggedy Linoone gawked at the palace with such obvious bewilderment that it was clear they had never seen quite this much of the palace before.
"I take it your quarters are to your liking?" Alexander started off, allowing the Linoone through before securing the door behind them.
Panne gave a shrug and dismounted from her staff, landing with a grunt into the waiting cushions of a plush chair. "It's alright. As far as I can tell, anyway."
"Alright?!" the Linoone coughed. "What'dya mean 'alright'?! I'd kill for a gig like this! This room's bigger than my whole house! I don't even know what I'd do with all this space!"
A cleared throat brought their attention back to Alexander. "Yes, well it's possible that you could earn such a state of living as this, Linoone. Given that you follow my instructions and everything works as planned."
"And what are these instructions supposed to be?" Vallion spoke up. "You've led us all the way into the heart of the city. We had to sneak out of the train and through a labyrinth of alleys just to get to this part of town. I'd certainly like to hear the rest of your explanation before we have to crawl through the vents."
"Or do you want us down in the dungeon first before you feel safe about it?" Panne added with a sneer.
Alexander tried to straighten his back, but immediately fell back into his sideways posture. "I know I've been overly cautious with this. I'm not certain if I can afford for this to fail, and I'd rather not find out. The reason I've been so careful is because Vallion cannot be seen with me. In fact, my idea works best the less anyone sees of you. You must be a totally clean slate to this city, and if whispers traveled that you arrived with the Master of Law, this would certainly fall through."
"What would fall through, Alexander?"
"This Weavile," he continued in his roundabout way, much to Vallion's annoyance. "There is a dubious group of pokemon that inhabits the southwest corner of town. A gang, essentially-one of the more violent ones, to be sure. Judging from past reports, I was suspicious that their leader might've been a Weavile. That area of the city had gone through such a turbulent past that it was originally difficult to ascertain just who was at the center of it all. Now, though, I am certain of it. I also know that this individual is the same one that assaulted me two weeks ago. The presumed human. I need you to infiltrate that gang and get close to them."
"Psh. Oh?" the Delphox's ears flopped to the side as she tilted her head. "Lively City doesn't have to deal with too much organized rabble, but I'm pretty sure you can't just join a gang because you feel like it. It would be easier to just hunt that bastard down ourselves and deal with the gang that jumps on our backs afterwards."
The Linoone stood on its hind legs. "What, am I invisible or something? That's what I'm around for, toots! You think I'm just another ornament here or somethin'?"
"...Yes," Alexander said with a roll of his eyes. "Linoone is an informant of mine from inside the Shardurr gang. He will hopefully be your ticket in. Everything else beyond that point, however, would be up to you."
"Before I go ahead and trust a double agent, mind telling me what you're doing this for, Linoone?" Vallion narrowed his eyes.
"Eh? What do you mean what am I doing this for? Money, obviously! Being in a gang don't necessarily put bread on your table. Not a table as big as mine, anyway. Mr. A here slips me a few jingling bags and I let a few secrets slip while I'm talking in my sleep, y'know? Ain't nothing nobody in this town wants more than to get ahead. I'm luckier than most to even get a chance to be a double-crossing snitch."
"And your mission?" Alexander urged on.
"Put a sock in it, shady! I was getting to that!" The Linoone flattened out the fur of his chest, which bounced back up anyway. "You see, I'm kinda a big deal around these parts. Been in Shardurr for years, I have. When I speak, people listen. Pretty soon I'm gonna be speakin' about some drifter Serperior who just flew into town. I'm gonna say he's lookin' for trouble, and I'm gonna say he's lookin' for it through us. People'll be raisin' eyebrows instead of turnin' their heads. You follow, snakey?"
Vallion slumped back, his coils relaxing. "I suppose I am. Though I'm not exactly the type to...fit into a group like that. You're sure this will work?"
"Positive! It better, anyways, or I won't be fallin' to sleep to the jinglin' white noise of coin no more!" Linoone shouted.
"Well, Vallion. Do you have an alternative you'd like to share?" Alexander narrowed his eyes. "This specific route serves many purposes to me. For instance, the possible dismantling of a troublesome group. Parsing whether this pokemon truly is a human or not. Figuring out whether they can be reasoned with should such claims be true. Finding the reason they have been brought to this world at all. I summoned you for this task because you are no ordinary pokemon. Unless, you aren't up to it?"
The Serperior huffed in response. "Alexander, I'm a scholar. A skilled fighter, I suppose, but espionage and infiltration aren't in my skillset. You're just expecting me waltz into the city as an outsider and be able to slip into a gang. You're aware of how ridiculous that sounds, right?"
"I'm aware of that, yes. But I did not call you here because I had a course of action to deal with this threat. I called you here because I didn't. I need more than just your expertise, Vallion. I need your trust and your cooperation. With some effort on your part, I am at least certain that someone of your caliber would be able to enter that gang undetected, and I can assure you that Paradise and its laws will not be able to touch you. That is my promise."
"And you just expect us to be able to trust you?" Panne blurted out.
Something flashed over Alexander's expression, piercing through the constant weariness for a split second. Tight-lipped fear, quickly swallowed and forced back into neutrality. "No. No, I don't."
The Delphox dismounted her staff and leaned against its support. "Just your word, huh? Well, maybe if you started pleading, I'd start to think you're being honest. How's that sound?"
Vallion spoke up when Alexander was about to bow his head. "Panne, knock it off. I don't want to hear him beg. If I have to join some gang to figure out of their leader's a human, then I guess that's what I have to do."
"Man, you're just gonna believe that he's not gonna fuck us over?" Panne tapped her staff against the polished hardwood. "Fine, fuck it. What about me? I didn't come all the way here to become a thug! Maybe I should tie a noose around his neck so that I can tighten it if he tries anything."
"...Hm. Actually…" Alexander began, clearly not hearing the last comment. "Though I originally hadn't expected you to tag along-as naive as that might seem considering-it is rather fortuitous that you did. You would not be doing the same tasks as Vallion, mind you, but the ones I was going to occupy myself with. I will no longer have to fall behind in my duties thanks to you."
"I haven't agreed to it yet, dumbass. I came to make sure Val didn't do anything stupid alone, and to make sure you and your people didn't fuck us a second time. I don't have a problem with him going undercover or anything. He can handle himself without me just fine. It's you splitting us up I'm leery of."
The crooked Serperior suppressed another groan. It was startling how much more tired he looked compared to earlier. "Then be leery if that's your wish. Your mission, granted you actually want it, is to look into the possibility of a coming disaster. If a human's presence is needed, then surely there would be warning signs. I need you to find them, if any."
Panne folded her arms with a huff. She stared off for a moment, her ears twitching with thought. "So is that really all you want? Because that job's so easy that it's unfair to Val, you know. Dark Matter was affecting seismic and geological readings for years before it actually happened, though there were fewer pokemon worrying about it then. I mean, you do keep record of those kinds of statistics here, right?"
"We should, yes. They ought to be located in the grand archive, which is an establishment not far from this building."
The Delphox crossed her one good leg over the other, her ankle twirling in a circle in a playful circle. "Hey dear. Are you absolutely sure about this? Like, one hundred-percent sure this isn't going to be like last time?"
"Say yes," Linoone chirped. "This all better not fall through, yeah? This paycheck's more than I can make in a year."
Ignoring the weasel altogether, Vallion just gave her a soft nod and a smile. "I'll be fine as long as you promise to be safe, too. I'd rather take my chances with some ruffians over the politicians here, anyhow. I'm sure it won't be too difficult to get to the bottom of this."
"Then fine." Panne turned back to the Master of Law. "You'll get your research, I suppose. If anything's going wrong with this region of the world, you sure as hell hired the right pokemon to figure it out."
For once, Alexander sighed in relief rather than exasperation. "Good. Excellent. This is incredible news. The finer details we'll likely have to work out tomorrow, but no matter. I'm more than pleased to hear that everything will finally be underway."
"Can I head out now, bendy? You ain't the only one around here with places to be." Linoone scratched at his ear while his gaze listlessly wandered around the suite. "Gotta get dinner for the kids, y'know."
Alexander turned and pressed open the doors with an idle vine, not totally looking away from the couple. "I suppose that's it for now. Did Reinhardt happen to-"
"Ask us about dinner?" Panne finished for him. "Yeah, if that was what you were about to say. He was on his way to the kitchen, last I heard."
With a silent tilt of his head, Alexander beckoned to his informant and slithered out into the open corridor. The weighty doors slammed to a close once more, and the scratching sound of the Linoone's claws was all they could hear fade into the distance.
A minute or so passed, but the pregnant pause did not. It was almost as if they couldn't help but expect something to go wrong then and there. Apart from the crackling of the fireplace, however, they were alone.
"...He's gone, right?" Panne started to mutter. Her ears twisted to and fro as she leaned towards the door. "Sneaky bastard. How does he not even make a sound when he moves? Like, do you remember the stories we used to hear about as kids? There isn't a single advisor to a king that looks like that and isn't evil. We didn't just make a horrible mistake, did we?"
"You're the one who said we could take him on if we had to," Vallion said, slowly letting himself relax as his neck joined the rest of his coils.
"Well yeah, but you can't fight back against traps! That's the whole point of them! What are you even supposed to do in a gang, anyway? Isn't the point that they always skirt right above the law? I will go rogue and break you the hell out of jail if he frames you for some shit."
He flicked his tongue and tasted the richness of the kindling in the fire. "I think that in times like these, it's easier to just keep going forward than trying to pull out. Like the head of an arrow, you know? I dunno, I guess we'll just have to see what happens next."
"Well whatever happens, don't let anyone get the better of you, okay? Not even for a second." The Delphox let her head dangle over the chair's arm. "Now will you get over here, already? I'm getting cold and these cushions are way too soft. I need firm muscles to lay against or I'll never relax."
