The dawn was dull, as it always was. The red glare that rocketed through the sky was all the more apparent because of it. The Talonflame's descent was so bright that it illuminated the buildings on either side of the street, yet moved so quickly that it almost appeared as nothing but a momentary flash. You could see them coming from many blocks away, but the strike still felt instant. A rumbling boom, a crack, and another one of Shardurr's own was no longer a problem.

What began as a shit-flinging contest had evolved into a bloodbath on the corner of Arrow and Eleventh Street. It had probably been less than two minutes since it started, and just as quickly it had ended. There were fresh spots of red in the snow and five bodies. Four of the corpses were Shardurr. Then one more hit the ground-a Sableye whose vertebrae was just shattered from a swooping red light. There were others that had joined the fighting, but both sides had smartly dispersed when The Family's own blood got involved.

All except the Weavile on the corner of the street, who grimaced at the Swalot he had just shredded to pieces. He wiped his hands on the snow and growled. "Disgusting."

The Weavile was given all of twelve seconds to search over the bodies for his next meal before a smoldering form landed on the street beside him. The Talonflame's vague impression started to melt into the snow just from residual heat.

"Weavile. Inside, now. Before the guards come."

With a huff and an empty stomach, the ice type obliged his superior and scurried off towards the cellar door where it all started. The lock was completely shattered and a huge chunk of the corner of one of the hatches was missing. Frowning, he kicked at the wreckage, then winced at the wave of heat that washed over him as the Talonflame swooped inside. He followed suit and shut what remained of the doors behind them.

"Psh. Before the guards come. Perhaps the Order of the Guard would've taken longer to sniff out the disturbance, had there not been a blinding rocket sailing through town?" the Weavile muttered as he descended into the stale air. "Long enough that I might've grabbed something to eat for later. I didn't need your help. The deal went bad, but-"

"HOW did the deal go bad?!" screeched the Talonflame.

Down inside the crawl-space was nothing more than a small room with some overturned chairs. Scratches and splatters of blood ran up and down the walls, but only some were new. There wasn't any money. There wasn't any product. It was just a room to talk. To negotiate. Apparently, that was too difficult for those inbred idiots to understand.

"Frankly I'm asking myself the same thing," said the Weavile, searching for some scrap of a towel to wipe their soiled talons on. "I didn't know these ingrates were from Shardurr. I thought we were dealing with actual customers. Somehow got it in their heads that they were gonna get me and my helper in the same room so that they could attack me. Had a few extras waiting around the corner, too."

"Damned fool!"

The ice type winced at the grating voice of the Talonflame and rubbed at his ears. "Can you not shout? We're in the same fucking hole."

"Did you even attempt to gauge who you were trying to negotiate with?! You're lucky it wasn't the Order! So many of us have already been taken custody!"

"Just talk normally," said the Weavile, wrinkling his nose. "And do you honestly believe I'd fall for the same shit that all my moron compatriots are? The Order has nothing on me, not to mention I can sniff them out from a mile away. So no, I knew I wasn't fucking with the guard. I just didn't foresee the petty fighting bleeding all the way into my usual deals. Thought it was just on the border."

The Talonflame turned their head to the side and glared straight through him. "You thought wrong! Forgot what mother said already, did you?!"

Showing restraint around The Family was always difficult for the Weavile, but twitching his annoyance out his tail and biting his tongue just wasn't cutting it anymore. He swallowed a snide remark and sighed. "No, I haven't. I'm trying to earn my keep, for YOUR business. Doesn't fucking matter what's burning down around me. Gold's still gotta flow."

"Well forget it!" the avian snapped. "Things aren't going as planned. If we don't start patching holes now, this sinking isn't going to stop, and you have talents that are going to waste. I have a target for you."

He stopped in place, ears jumping at attention. "Oh? Well go on, then. This might be the first bit of good news I've heard all week."

The Talonflame let out a shrill chirp. "A Noibat! A nosy one! Half-huddled beneath the shadow of the Order's wing! The one who knew of Shardurr's Weavile before she revealed herself. You know him."

"Let me stop you right there," he purred. "A target like that is barely an appetizer. I can bring you his head before this afternoon."

"You will bring him whole! He will be brought before the Matriarch!"

Frowning, the Weavile felt his shoulders slump. "What? Why? Because he sniffed out their little puppet master early? Who cares?"

"Because he knew at all," they growled back with a click of their beak. "But not only that! Our arrests trace back to him! The flood of evidence the Order has acquired had to have come from Shardurr, and by extension a mediator! They knew the Weavile! It had to be them!"

"Will you be quiet?! If the guard were coming they'd definitely hear you screeching down here!" The ice type ran a claw over his temples and sighed. "Fine. I'll try to bait them back. If they're not willing, I've got a few sacks that can fit a pokemon that size. Now is that all you came to say, or did you mean to steal my thunder with that dive of yours?"

Much to the relief of his ears, the Talonflame said nothing more, and instead made their way to the closed hatch to listen out into the alley. Once the coast appeared to be clear, the avian kicked the door open and took to the air in a single beat of their wings. The flock's decrees weren't usually this brief. Maybe things were worse off than he anticipated.

Oh well.

...

Archeops tapped the bend of his wing to his cheek, his image distorted in the glow of the blue sphere.

"Yeah, that's about all I came up with. No apocalyptic conditions to be seen, though you really should rotate your crops a little better next year, considering your population density. Such intense colonization has had interesting effects on the weather in that valley, too, but aside from that nasty blizzard you had several years ago, it's nothing majorly threatening."

"So it is," Alexander huffed, holding the gadget further from his face as he pointed those crimson eyes deep into space. Reinhardt took the Connection Orb from the Serperior's vines and gave a wide smile into the receiving end.

"We greatly appreciate your assistance, master Archeops. Rest assured that we will keep your precious research in mind moving forward."

Archeops nodded cheerily. "Feel free to write to Nexus about any sort of research you would like conducted. And I wouldn't mind setting something up to have copies of your environmental logs. It's very insightful the kind of impact your city has had."

A couple more formal words were spewed out in either direction before the gadget was finally passed back to Panne. The Delphox made a sour face into the orb. "Thanks again, Archeops. I know you're probably having an extra two professor's worth of work dumped onto your shoulders on top of that."

"Eh. It's not so bad," he shrugged. "Even Ampharos stepped in to help this time around. Now it only takes him two tries to find the building he's supposed to be teaching in."

"Ha! He's finally getting better, is he? It only took most of his damn life." Panne shook her head. "Anyways, that about does it. Say hi to everyone for me. Still don't know when I'm gonna be back, but I know I will never complain about the weather there again."

Click. The orb went dull in her hands, letting the natural grey light to take hold of the counsel chamber once more. She sighed and set her gadget onto the table, pushing aside the stack of binders that Alexander had been mulling over not minutes ago. She couldn't tell whether the ensuing silence was of relief or of tension, but the overbearing banners and expensive crystalline decorations didn't really help the former's case.

"Well that's that." His Majesty clapped his hands together. "That's a pleasant conclusion, isn't it Alex? Hopefully it's one thing less on your mind."

The Serperior just glared out the frosted window at the city below. "Perhaps."

"Only perhaps?" snickered Panne. "Isn't that what you wanted to hear?"

"It's good to hear that there isn't a calamity happening as we speak. The Bittercold isn't returning, nor is any other facet of some world-ending force. That doesn't extinguish the problem, though. It only narrows it down. The earth doesn't have to be crumbling for there to be a disaster."

The Chesnaught walked over to his partner and placed a fabric-draped hand onto his back. "Come now. You can't just bury yourself in more anxiety the moment you're dug out of it. This is good news! We can breathe easier and focus our efforts on different things."

Alexander shook his head, eyes still trained on the skyline. "There is yet still so much to focus on. I fear that the threat was never ecological to begin with."

"What? Were you thinking that the city was going to tear itself apart?" Panne hobbled over and leaned her shoulder on her staff. "I think that's a given regardless of whether there's another human around or not. You put enough pokemon together in one place for long enough, you're gonna get the same result. There's evidence of that lesson being learned all over the world. Do you know how many ruins there are in Grass Continent that were once great cities? Because I don't think you want to know."

"That will not happen here," he insisted in a low voice. "I will not let it happen."

"Alex, relax! Twisting yourself into a tighter knot will get you nowhere." Reinhardt reaffirmed his grip. "You're not alone in this endeavor. Vallion is out there doing as good of work as he can. For now, we should focus on getting control of the situation. With all the information we've been getting on the crimelords of the northwest, we've been carving into a great deal of our problems."

The Chesnaught shot a sideways glance over to Panne. She raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and started to speak. "Yeah, I guess you aren't alone. Something extra I dug up: If your Weavile isn't a human after all, they still don't seem to have been a part of any of the local tribes before the city took over. The Shardurr tag also doesn't seem to mean anything in their written language. No need to thank me, that was out of curiosity."

"...I see," Alexander slowly said.

"Since I'm not about to sit around doing nothing, I'll keep looking into it. Just don't expect as much out of me as you're going to get out of Val. You know that archive of yours isn't actually very thorough when it comes to what was here before Paradise was around."

A fluttering came through the doorway, followed a ways by the clanking footsteps of some massive pokemon. A Ribombee entered the counsel chamber with a nervous look behind her tiny glasses.

"Sir. There's been another fight on the border of West District."

"Again?" the Serperior hissed through his teeth and approached his assistant. "That's the second one since this morning. What are the details? Has it been resolved?"

"Of course it has," boomed the voice who had thundered down the corridor after the Ribombee. It was the knight captain Kommo-o in all their clattering glory, their vapid little cape flowing freely behind them. They knelt down at the sight of Reinhardt, but not before shooting a nasty glare at Panne. "Your Majesty."

"Rise, Kommo-o," the Chesnaught said with a wave of his fist. "Tell us what has happened."

"Corner of Fremont and Solia Street, Northeast section of West District. At approximately the turn of the eleventh hour, a fight between seven individuals broke out inside a nearby business and poured out into the street. Three wounded, one civilian included. Fairly significant property damage, considering one of the assailants was a Golem. Presumably unrelated with the skirmish that occurred at dawn."

"Do you suspect this has to do with something gang-related?" Alexander cut to the chase.

Kommo-o dipped his head. "There is already confirmation that it was a dispute between The Family and Shardurr, Master Alexander. Three to four respectively, presumed to be instigated by the latter."

"Again?!" the Serperior said.

"We've already strengthened patrols in the area. Our response times to future events should be no longer than two minutes. In addition, we've preemptively arrested two more pokemon assumed to be involved with food trading."

Reinhardt crossed his arms and huffed. "Good work, captain. We don't want another incident like last year. Nip this in the bud before it grows out of control."

"It might already be too late for that," Alexander grumbled.

The Kommo-o pounded a fist to their chest in a salute, sending a jingling wave over their plates. "Rest assured, sir. This situation is very much stable, and it will only continue to improve as soon as the Master of War returns from her mission overseas. Until then, I will return to overseeing these efforts. Good day."

Dismissed by a nod of Reinhardt's head, the knight captain pivoted around with a huge swing of their tail and marched back out into the corridor. They could be heard stomping away well into the next minute and a half. All the while, Ribombee nervously flitted about over the center of the table.

"Um," the fairy stuttered, putting their whole body into flipping through the pages of a ledger. "Other than that, not much has changed since we last met earlier. The East and Rusty Mountain Districts report no abnormalities with their water supplies since the fix. I'll continue to monitor the situation."

"Very good, Ribombee." The Serperior didn't even turn to look at his assistant, having gone straight back to staring out the window like some flying type trapped in a cage. The fairy readily took the offer and exited the chamber in a flash.

Panne laughed at the intensity of the silence that had fallen over them, leaning back on her staff. "This sucks. The Family was already pissed off about something. I doubt your knights are going to make the situation any better at this point. I hope Val doesn't have to deal with them."

The king leaned over the table and rearranged with the topmost papers. "Alex's informant brought bad tidings last we saw him. It seemed there was some embargo in the underground trading between the two groups. I'm sure that has something to do with it. Regardless, if Vallion does get captured, I have every intention of pushing due process out of the way."

"He won't be captured," Alexander spoke up. "I don't see that happening. He's the one spearheading this trouble in the first place."

The Delphox shot up and planted her foot to the floor. "Excuse me? What did you say?"

"I mean he's doing it under the Weavile's command-not that he's the source of it. In fact, he's doing exactly as I asked of him, and that's what I'm worried about. There have been multiple reports over the last few weeks of a Serperior presumably carrying out tasks for Shardurr. According to my informant, Vallion has been disconcerting efficient at his job. We need to prepare for the worst with him at the helm."

Panne raised her nose to the arched ceiling. "Hmph! Well in preparing for the worst, let me remind you with my utmost word of caution not to fuck Val over with your political shit, or there will be more than just hell to pay. I'll let you know if your apocalypse comes barreling over the mountains. I got a place to be."

His Majesty gave a curt nod. "Stay safe, Panne. We're counting on you."

...

The Delphox left as unceremoniously as she entered, drifting around the corner on her floating staff with a bored look. Then there were two. Soon there would be none, and this farce would end so that they could all get back to work. The crooked Serperior extended a vine to gather up a bundle of legal scrolls and documents.

"Alex," Reinhardt repeated himself.

"I've got court hearings to attend to," he replied coldly. "My judges may uncover something of use from the troublemakers we've already detained. We could get in ahead of both the groups. I just need more time."

"Alexander." A wide palm stopped the Serperior as he tried to leave.

He begrudgingly waited, razor eyes pointed forward. "Your majesty, please. This isn't the-"

"Don't call me that," Reinhardt commanded. He wrapped an arm around his partner's side with a surprising degree of care so as to not aggravate any old aches. They stood in that half-embrace for several long seconds. "Alex, stop. Breathe."

The Chesnaught's grip hadn't loosened. Alexander had no choice. He lowered both his guard and his gaze, a wheeze slowly pouring out from between his teeth. Relaxing even that much put a few jabs of pain into his spine. Resting at all always made it more difficult to keep moving. He couldn't afford that precedent being set, not with everything that was going on.

"I know, I know." It was as if Rein could read his mind. "But find the time to decompress a little more, would you? I hate seeing you so strung out. You're killing yourself whenever you get like this."

"I pledged my entire being to this city, Rein. I gave an oath that I would do everything in my power to protect it. So long as I can breathe, I will uphold that promise."

"Well you're not going to be breathing for much longer if you keep it up like this." The Chesnaught finally released him, a worried expression stuck to his gruff features. "I'm not asking you to stop. Just reel it in a bit for me, would you? Not as an order, but as a request from a friend."

"...Okay. Okay, fine."

The frown reversed on Reinhardt's face. It didn't do much to soothe the ache in Alexander's bones, but his heart felt a little better.

"Good. I'll be with Lilli if you need me, okay? You should consider coming down for dinner. I know it gets lonely in that garden of yours, even if you don't want to admit it."

Alexander rolled his eyes and swiveled around. "It's not, but I'll consider it."

...

Frosted windows with a small pile of snow on the sill. Beyond the glass panes was a constant flow of carts and wagons, rolling over the slush in the treads of the wheels that came before them. Most of them weren't even traders. There was simply a great deal of things that needed to get from one side of the city to another. Most of these larger, more hardy pokemon probably made their living doing nothing but hauling shit across Paradise for others. Must've been a pretty simple life, aside from learning the layout of this labyrinth of a city.

Was it enough to afford this damn mug of coffee, though?

Panne took another reluctant sip from her cup and rested her elbows on the table, idly scanning the diner for what felt like the third time. It was well lit as far as most places in Paradise went, since a majority of the population preferred to surround themselves in as thick of walls as possible to keep the warm in. The decor was still just as grey and gloomy otherwise, and so was every other pokemon in here with her. Kangaskhan's cafe was much better, and it didn't cost a goddamn fortune.

As she swam in her idle thoughts, a blur shot into her vision and landed on the opposite end of the table with a tap. Nibby brushed the ice from his chest fluff and ruffled himself with a shiver.

Panne set her mug down and blew steam from her nose. "Are you always going to make me wait?"

"Punctuality is not what I've been known for throughout my career," Nibby said after one last shudder. "I've been busy for the last few days. An avalanche of cases has been coming in that I can't afford to wait on. It's been eating up most of my time."

"Yeah no shit. The left half of the city's basically up in smoke by this point."

A cruel chuckle left the Noibat's mouth. "Oh, no. You haven't seen it up in smoke yet."

He turned his head to flag down the Zangoose waitress and ordered some coffee. Panne had her own mug refilled and watched a fresh wave of poor sods pass by outside. Speaking of temperatures, the fresh cup she was given was basically already cold by the time it reached her hands. Figures.

"So why'd you call me down all of a sudden, anyway?" the Delphox said, warming the drink herself with a bit of controlled fire. "You find something out or what?"

Nibby took a sip from the tiny mug he'd been given, which still came up to his waist. "It's not that. You remember that little trip we took to a bad part of town?"

"Mhm."

"Well it's come back to haunt us, just like I thought it would. I don't know why, but we've somehow caught The Family's attention despite every other thing that's going wrong. A wayward letter came to my door this morning with nothing on it but a date and a time."

"Then how did you know it was from The Family?"

His expression went dark. "From the Braviary that flew over my office to drop it off."

"Ha." Panne rolled her ears back. "Well alright. I'm not doing too much else right now. Might as well check it out."

"What?! Panne, no." Nibby struggled not to shout. "That's- that's not what I meant! I'm trying to say that we gotta lay low! They know our faces. I mean damn, if they figured out who I am and where I lived, then I could be in deep mud right about now. They're not gonna let someone in my profession get away with stumbling on their work!"

She shrugged. "That's fine. I can go it alone, too. Makes no difference to me."

"No, you can't- Hollow preserve me, you're unbelievable." He shook his head and groaned. "Maybe you don't have any quarrel with them personally, but they don't like me. I'm the guy that puts their guys in jail. They're probably sniffing around for me right now, wondering if I went!"

"But I literally just said that I'll go alone. What's your problem here?"

"Look, I don't care if you're the strongest pokemon alive. Doesn't matter how many Dark Matters you've quashed. Doesn't matter how many continents you've explored, or how many wildlings you've taken down. You don't win these kinds of fights. Take one down, two more come for you while you're asleep in your bed. Take three down, they burn your house down with you inside it."

Panne pushed her elbows further up the table, her brow furrowed. "Nibby. Of course I know what I'm dealing with. You barely know me. i barely know you. The Family doesn't know me. What's the problem?"

The Noibat pushed his coffee aside. "They kill you. Kidnap you, maybe. You're mortal, ain't you? Your party tricks and history can't change that. Don't make me beg you, Panne. Quit looking for trouble."

"Well." Panne pulled back and slid down in her seat, exhaling the whole way. "It looks like you're going to have to beg me, then, because I'm gonna take those assholes up on their offer. I'm curious as to what they would want from me. And you know, I'm more curious as to why you feel like you have to follow me in. It's clearly a you-problem more than it is a me-problem."

"Just...Please don't."

"Look, Nibby. I could even possibly solve this problem for you, maybe get them off your back. It's just gonna look even more suspicous to them if neither of us go. At that point I could definitely see them start to get dangerously antsy. Come on. Just trust me on this one."

With an exasperated roll of his head, Nibby marched back to his mug and took a long, annoyed swig. The moment hung for long enough that Panne got distracted staring out at the street again, her ears swiveling to hone in on an argument that broke out between a Primeape and a Gastrodon. Seems they crashed the corners of their wagons together or some dumb shit like that. It wasn't a very compelling reason to get this mad, that's for sure.

"It's at six."

"Huh?" She turned back to the Noibat.

"The meeting time for that message. It's today at six. I don't have to tell you where, I can just lead you around since I'll be there."

"But you're not gonna tell me why you're gonna risk life and limb to follow a Delphox into a den of criminals?"

"No."

Panne shrugged. "I mean, suit yourself then. Who knows? Maybe you're just overreacting. And it could still be good news for all we know. Maybe that crotchety old Weavile found something we missed on our first pass."

...

The calm hit differently this time around. Redland District didn't have that same sleepy, worn-down feel to it. You could suspend a damn bridge with the tension in the air, and not just because there were patrols of two or three guards every couple of blocks. The city was holding its breath. The eyes of Paradise fell solely on this part of town and its southern sister. God, that must have been awful for business, too. It'd be impossible to move any illegal goods around with the whole damn kingdom so focused.

Panne couldn't help but feel wound-up in that energy as she drifted along the wide central street. Nibby perched at the helm of her staff like always, but he was clearly not happy to be here. It was bad enough that even the Delphox had run out of hope that this might turn out to be something pleasant. Still, they were already here. Might as well see what was up, right? Just in case, she had already bound up her lame leg into a curled position with a belt so that it wouldn't inhibit her fighting. If she did have to fight.

They went beyond the point where Panne's memory spanned. Main Street started to show its abuse, with cracks and dust and clumsily-plowed piles of snow. The further they got from the heart of the city, the less pokemon needed to use this passage, the less anybody cared. If Nibby were to speak up from that vow of silence, he'd probably remark how ominous it was that the meeting place was so far out of the way.

She imagined his nagging voice getting louder as they swerved down some shady avenue where the snow was piled high beneath the lips of rooftops. They moved out of sight of the main road along the slight curve of the alley. There were already grim pokemon leaning against walls and on windowsills, staring at the newcomers out of the corners of their eyes. This was so very arranged that it hurt.

"We're doomed," Nibby managed to mutter quietly enough that Panne could barely hear it.

Determined not to lose heart, the Delphox went on through and came out of the other side into a slight clearing. Calling it a breath of fresh air would be dishonest-it was just a square lot surrounded by the towering walls of many two-story buildings. There, an Electabuzz approached them.

"What's your business?"

Panne raised her nose. "You're the ones that called us here, dipshit. You know our business better than we do."

The Electabuzz's dark expression twitched. "You want your other leg broken?"

"Only if you're fine with your spine being outside your body."

"What's with all the yelling out here?" came a conniving voice she didn't know she had hoped not to hear again. That old Weavile tinged with grey fur stepped out into the open from beyond a pair of rickety doors. He looked to the Electabuzz in disgust. "Why are you pestering our guests? Fuck off with you. We have business inside."

Ah yes. This was the part where she followed a high-ranking gang member through some doorway into a darkly-lit back room. Panne voiced her complaints all the while, almost amused at the cliche.

"You guys need to work on your warm welcomes. People are gonna get the wrong idea when they walk into heavily-guarded alleys."

"What ideas will they get?" the Weavile mused, closing the door behind them. The only light filtered in through the horizontal rows of wooden shutters on the windows.

"Well you know. That they're immediately surrounded by a group of malicious criminals. What's someone supposed to think?"

The ice type chuckled. "My dear. Anyone who steps into this part of town already knows that. The sharp stares are just for decoration, I assure you."

This room was already inhabited. Apart from furniture covered in dusty white cloth and rotting boxes, there were two more. A Carnivine and a Hitmontop, looking stern in the corners of the room, waiting for the slightest altercation to erupt. At the end of the day, they were no different than any other sort of hired guard. Just had to think of them like that.

"I would say I'm surprised to see you two came," the Weavile began with a clap of his claws. "But I think that might just be my pessimism talking. It's difficult to earn trustworthy associates these days. So many folks lack consistency around here. It's a shame."

"Why did you call for us?" Nibby found the courage to speak up.

Their host grunted and started to pace. "Because something very interesting happened between the time I first met with you and now. I know you like cutting to the chase. Why did Master Alexander ask you to investigate if there was a Weavile in Shardurr?"

Panne let her ears flick back. "I don't know. I didn't ask. You know I haven't gotten any further on that trail since we last met. Kinda hard to get anything done when everyone's at each other's throats. I was hoping you'd have something, honestly."

"Alexander knew something I didn't even know. Maybe even the flock itself, though I doubt it. You both knew, too." His eyes narrowed and his feathery ears whipped back. "There is a Weavile in Shardurr. And more than that, she was the one that's been carving that crude letter into everything. She was even so kind as to leave that same marking in the same spot that she stole from us."

She pretended to act surprised. "Ha! So that snake sent me on the right path after all? What else happened? You got any more details for me?"

The two guards started to move, with the Hitmontop butting in front of the only exit in sight and the Carnivine coming to a stop on the opposite end of the room. The Weavile just kept pacing back and forth in their line.

"Actually, that's not how this is going to work. We're going to be the ones asking the details from you. Hopefully you'll be telling them to the Matriarch herself."

The Delphox let a bubble of laughter roll off her tongue. "What? You're wasting time that you could be using to deal with the imminent collapse of your whole gang. You literally know more than me about this."

"This isn't going to get you anywhere," Nibby added. "Sorry to say, but you barked up the wrong tree this time."

"Aw. That's sad to hear," mocked the Weavile, who didn't seem in the least bit disheartened. "But I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Even if this Chenza figure means nothing to you, there was reason in you coming here."

Panne suppressed a sigh. Of course. "Whatever, big guy. What's it gonna take for us to walk out of here this time?"

"Oh, you? Nothing. You're apparently no use to us after all. Which is a shame, because I don't know if you've seen the printing press lately, but our way of life seems to be in some dire straits. Though I've got a little something on your friend there."

"Oh shit," the Noibat barely mouthed.

The Weavile's pacing suddenly stopped. The air somehow went colder than it already was. That cruel grin that always seemed to show off the ice type's fangs disappeared beneath a tight-lipped calm. She wasn't the empathetic type of psychic, but she sure as hell sensed that something was about to go wrong.

"Turns out there were some documents stolen from the capital a while back," their host continued in their exaggerated, mocking tone. "It wasn't big news. Everyone forgot within a couple of days, because that's just what happens. Until recently, nobody knew what those documents were. Now a large portion of my associates have become wanted pokemon, seemingly right when Shardurr has started to make a move. Ain't that funny?"

Nibby shivered out his tail. "Oh fuck. Oh no."

"Incriminating evidence. Search warrants. Locations and names. Alexander had been keeping tabs on us-slowly weeding us out over time to prevent a panic. Whoever stole those papers dumped them on some third party, who dumped them on the guard all at once. Can you guess who that third party was, Delphox?"

In a flash of motion, Nibby lifted off from the tip of her staff and tried to make a break for the windows. Panne could scarcely gasp before the Carnivine launched a vine and snapped the Noibat out of the air. She held her staff diagonally in the air and latched into a fighting stance.

"Hey! What the fuck?! Let him go!" Panne cried out, flames already dancing over her free hand.

Finding his grin once more, the Weavile strolled around to the other side of the room, circling her like a wild Sharpedo smelling blood in the water. "Why? He's the one we wanted, anyway. Unassuming bastard's put us through hell already. The Matriarch will sort him out, I'm sure, and hopefully put out some fires in the process. Since you know nothing we want to know, you're useless."

"Panne, you have to get out of here!" Nibby projected his voice as best he could, but the stranglehold of vines let little more than a croak flee from his throat. "Go! Now!"

She almost chuckled. The surge of adrenaline was a welcome feeling, and one that warded away the cold. A deep breath fanned the flames in her chest just as well as the immolation around her fist. "Are you fucking kidding me? What do you take me for, a coward? Just hold still, I'll get you out of there in a moment. Just let me deal with these lowlifes first."

"Still so much bravado!" shouted the Weavile from out of the corner of her vision. The Hitmontop shifted around all the while. "Ah, youth. You remind me of Shardurr, too. Hot-headed. Reckless. Stupid. I'd love to erase the type of pokemon you are from the face of the earth."

"Just go-!" Nibby tried to speak out, but the vines around his tiny neck tightened. No doubt that Carnivine was barely holding back. Any second now it could slip up, and she doubted Nibby's fragile frame could take the abuse.

This was it! Panne couldn't help but sigh as she spun herself around, a burning sensation deep within her lungs that yearned to crawl out and explode from her fingertips. A rising shower of embers burst into the air as she aimed that potential straight into the Carnivine's face.

"Have a taste of this you waste of-!"

Space. The space behind her was open. The Weavile seemed to weigh almost nothing as he jumped onto her back, but the dread that set in made up for the missing pounds. A talon dug in hard and traced from right to left across the length of her neck. The fleeting second ended. The weight on her back jumped away. Panne reflectively went to clutch at her throat, and clattered to the floor as her concentration fled.

Nibby could barely choke out a yell. In the intensity of the following second, Panne heard everything. The Hitmontop's single syllable of a laugh. The Carnivine's grunt as they struggled to keep hold of the flailing Noibat. The Weavile's satisfied huff as he brushed his claw off onto his fur. Her heartbeat reigned supreme above all else.

"I'd wish that all of The Family's enemies could act like spoiled children. It makes it so easy. Carnivine, let's go. Mandibuzz is waiting."

Sprawled out over the musky floorboards, Panne realized something. Firstly, once sensation returned to her fingers, that there was no stickiness on them from an open wound. Second, that there was a very deep imprint that went straight across her Harmony Scarf. The fur underneath was very much untouched, though the bruise was a different story. Oh Val. You really are always watching out, aren't you?

Still low to the ground, Panne grabbed at her staff and tried to rise. Nobody was looking at her. In fact, it seemed that the Carnivine was having trouble trying to unlock the door. A flood of light and wind rushed in as soon as it was open. Right when they stepped aside to let their superior through, Panne's psychic grasp yanked at the wooden weight and slammed it shut in his face.

"What the-"

"You know!" Panne started to loudly say, climbing onto staff and letting it haul her the rest of the way up. "Nobody really knows the true extent of what a Harmony Scarf can do. Legend has it that the leaves of the Tree of Life are indestructible. You could drop one into a volcano and it wouldn't do a damn thing. Not that I've tried on purpose."

Weavile turned, an incredulous look overwriting his stupid fucking grin once and for all. That filled Panne with a great deal of satisfaction.

"How the fuck did you...Finish her off already!"

Before the Hitmontop could even react to the order, Panne had already lifted one of the covered tables and launched the whole thing at their head. They tried to shield themselves, but there wasn't much one could do to stop a chunk of wood that was speeding towards you like a diving Talonflame. The bang and resulting thud resonated throughout the entire building, damaging the wall behind the fighting type as they tumbled over.

"You're right, geezer. I was being reckless. All that teaching and not enough rescuing was making me rusty. So congratulations, you got me fair and square. I should be bleeding out on the floor right now. Enjoy that feeling while you're still conscious."

In the background, she had been holding that door as tightly to its frame as possible. The Carnivine struggled against her grasp for a while, so when she finally shoved it back open, the grass type stumbled out the other side. Their head was in a beautiful position to bring the door back in on, resulting in an even worse slam and a crunching sound. The door practically snapped off its hinges, the Carnivine was propelled into the Weavile's back, and Nibby was involuntarily released from his prison of vines.

A storm of swears flew out of the ice type's mouth. Regaining his footing, he dashed over to the side of the room, using the furniture as cover for his advance. A couple icicles came shooting through the air, but embedded themselves in the wall behind Panne instead. She didn't even have to dodge.

"Not so easy when my back ain't turned, is it? What's the matter, old man? Age starting to get to ya?"

"Shut up!" he shouted from the shadows.

A black form moved from within, lunging to disembowel her in one fell swoop. The Delphox twisted in the air with her curled leg acting as a pivotal point for the rest of her staff, blocking the claws before they even had a chance to get close. The flurry of enraged slashes continued, but found no weakness in her defenses. She rewarded the attempt by lifting herself above the spinning steel with only her arms and letting it collide with the Weavile's cheek.

"Ha! Look at you! Getting beaten by a cripple? What's your matriarch going to say about that? Should've retired years ago."

Nibby had regained his composure and took the air at some point. He fluttered around listlessly, staying as close to the ceiling as he could. "Panne, we gotta go! Everyone outside is going to notice what's going on!"

She resumed her original position, eyes trained on her crumpled opponent. "So? We were gonna have to go through them anyway. I don't see what the big problem is. Just stay behind me, they probably have guys that can catch you out of the air."

A fresh trail of blood ran down through the Weavile's claws as he scrambled on all fours and hurried through the opening left by the destroyed door. He barked a quick order to the gathering crowd outside. Panne felt a pang of guilt that she had been wishing for this all this time. It didn't really feel like she was letting off nearly as much steam as she fantasized about. She reluctantly accepted her fate and gestured for Nibby to follow her out into the cold.

There was a good ten to fifteen pokemon waiting for her. Some small, most large. Some flew, most walked. All were looking for a fight.

A Galvantula was the first to answer the call among them, launching a string of web arcing with static electricity at the Delphox's center of mass. She had no trouble ascending above the snaring attack, putting her back to a brick wall and gathering a deep breath in her core.

A Beedrill rushed at her stinger-first. She grit her teeth and kicked off the wall, flipping above the insect and raining a deluge of hell over their head. The acrobatics helped avoid the second strand of electrified webbing that came her way. A group of thugs had already run to corner her as soon as she reached the ground.

They always underestimate her. A skinny Delphox on a stick with one leg is all they see. It puts them on the offensive-makes them not realize why the steel rod she rides around was a weapon. Panne spun into her landing like a force of nature, breaking two jaws and denting one chest-plate of metallic chitin. That latter Scizor managed to grab onto the end of her staff to stop her momentum. She flicked that end downwards to breathe a compressed blast of red flames directly into their face.

A Typhlosion made the mistake of launching as many flames towards the Delphox as they possibly could muster. The other gangsters scrambled out of the way as the fire type dropped down and aimed their arched back towards her. The wake of the plume was enough to instantly vaporize a huge swathe of snow. Panne sucked in a breath and wrapped her mind around the developing contours of the roiling inferno, catching onto the heat and leading it upwards and over her head. She let the flames roll around and swell into a single point not larger than a toy ball, where she squeezed with the pressure in her temples rather than her hands.

"That's pretty nice!" she shouted to the Typhlosion. "Volcarona's stronger, though! You'll have to work on that!"

And like a toy ball, she lobbed that white-hot sphere of compressed heat and relinquished her psychic hold. The pressure released all at once, the resulting explosion knocking almost everyone off their feet as well as knocking the wind from her lungs. She grabbed at the remaining embers with her mind and forced them to burst as well, blasting at least four of the thugs out of the way in a snapping shower of miniature explosions.

The metallic smell of blood joined with scents of burnt sulfur. Panne couldn't really focus on the details much while stuck in a head-spin, dodging around the metal pole she had locked in place to land a kick square in the eye of that Electabuzz she'd pissed off earlier. She planted that good foot onto the ground and jammed her staff into their stomach with a little extra mental force added in.

That Galvantula came back around to bring a bolt of lightning down on her in the meantime. She let go of her staff physically and stuck it upright against the ground mentally. The conductive material dragged the current away from her and let it fade into the stone beneath the single leg she was balanced on, gracing her with just an uncomfortable feeling and some standing hairs.

A blur of motion in her peripherals. She dragged her staff back to brace herself and launched her arm forward to catch the attack. Her hand went around the Weavile's neck, stopping him mid-air. He was clearly surprised by her strength, even despite the fact that he had just watched her sling her own body weight around.

"Thought you could get a cheeky second shot at that trick?" The Delphox laughed. Heat bloomed in the palm of her hand as she squeezed her nails into the flesh above the ice type's collar. His talons scratched at her arm, but the fur there was dense enough that he only got tangled up. "I don't think so. Nobody gets second shots at me."

That sneaky bastard made an excellent shield against the Galvantula's webbing. A few jolts ran down her arm and screamed in her muscles, but it did not deter the crimson explosion that left her fingers. The Weavile's head whipped backwards from the force, launching him into a backwards flip until he slammed down crest-first into the snow. He went limp, his head coming to rest at an impossible angle.

The Galvantula found themselves to be the last one standing. They didn't stick around much longer, fleeing up the side of a building and over the overhanging rooftop.

And that was that. Among the groaning bodies, Panne finally had a moment to herself. She let a charged breath exit her nostrils and deflated, shaking slightly from effort, and begun to process what in the fuck just happened. Her hand went to the ache of the bruise that curved along the front of her throat. A shudder ran down her back. That was way too close, even for her. Not exactly the kind of thrill she was aching for.

Panne looked to the destroyed door and caught on the glisten of some gold-colored something embedded in the snow. With a wince and a pang of pain, she curled her finger and lifted the whole clump into her palm. It was Nibby's brass pin, or whatever it was supposed to be. Must've come loose during the struggle. Speaking of which, where the hell did he go?

Next thing she knew, marked guards and caped knights came flooding into the alley like a tsunami, alerted to the fight by the incredible cacophony she caused. They surrounded the Delphox in seconds, and descended upon the results of her carnage shortly after. Nibby was nowhere to be seen. Flew off during the chaos, probably. If only she had the chance to do that, too.

"Aw shit," Panne said aloud, out of breath. "I forgot to ask Alexander for another one of his little permission slips. This is going to look way worse now."

"Don't move!" shouted a Blastoise bearing Paradise's emblem on their chest, cannons pointed and armed. They weren't the only ones taking aim at her.

"Oh, well you're welcome. I took care of a bunch of criminals for you. How'd you guys even miss this hideout? It's barely out of view."

The noisiest stomping imaginable bounced from the four corners of the stone box they were crammed into. Kommo-o was here, flanked by yet more of Reinhardt's royal order of warriors. The dragon looked about as happy to see her as they always did.

Having seen the captain, she took the time to casually glance over herself, scanning for injuries she'd feel later or were present on the leg she couldn't feel at all. "Hey! Platehead! I did your job for you. Tell your swarm of Combee to shove off so that I can leave."

"Why are you here?" barked the dragon.

"Hm? Because these assholes wanted to tear me a new one. They sent a message out for me and everything. If you honestly think I'm cavorting with the gang that I just slammed into next sunday, your skull's thicker than your steel."

Kommo-o paused, then after a disappointed glare, shook their head and told their underlings to back off. There was definitely some confusion among the ranks, but disciplined as they all were, the guard allowed her to pass on their superior's word. It felt like she had to plow through an invisible wall to get by the dragon, though. For a split second, during that short blink where she overtook the Kommo-o, a terrible sense of dread loomed over her.

As she entered the alley, it was gone without a trace.