Chapter 15: Warn the World


"I've done it! I've won!" Honchkrow cried, head held high as he beamed towards the sky. His heart grasped at the satisfaction of his hard-earned success.

But as he lowered his head once more, he saw the many Murkrow giggling with one another. Their eyes alight with life and joy, even though they had lost. Even though none of them had been able to evolve.

Why? Didn't they understand they had failed? Didn't they realize that they had lost?

Honchkrow felt his heart's weak grasp on satisfaction give, as bitterness flooded straight back into his heart.

He flailed his wings like a maniac, stomping his talons on the branch as he cawed angrily down at the many Murkrow below.

"Why are you all LAUGHING? Why are you HAPPY? You've LOST. You're LOSERS!" he screeched.

The Murkrow stared back at him, not with fear, but with disgust. All but one single Murkrow, who's face instead bore pity.

"Have you figured it out yet?" the bird glared up at him with a frigid stare. "Your misery was never because you couldn't win. That excuse was only how you flew from it."

~ The 27th Tale, Frustration


Amelia sighed and shut Lore's heavy tome with a resounding thud. As expected, these "Hundred Tales" were fairytales and fables of no use. At least, not to getting home. They gave glimmers of history and social structure, which could be useful for blending in. But that was more in Geoff's realm of interest.

She stood up and peered out their room's window. Tracking time was difficult, but she knew she'd be needed in the cafeteria soon. With dwindling hope of returning home in the near future, she'd need to consider finding better work. True to her word, Altaria had found a suitable job for everyone, but they weren't quality assignments. Just temporary positions, until they "found a better spot to fit in", as the bird had put it.

Amelia had been helping staff the cafeteria. Delivering the appropriate meals to each Pokémon, making sure no one snuck extras, and cleaning up after them if she was particularly unlucky. Truth be told, she usually just guessed what people ate when divvying out meals, having no affinity for the diets of Pokémon. But no one had complained yet.

As she prepared to head out, she noticed the two sheets of parchment were peeking out from where she'd hid them inside the Hundred Tales. Glancing nervously around the room, as if one of her coworkers might have spontaneously appeared behind her, she opened the book back up to look at them again.

Two pages, ripped carelessly from some old book, and haphazardly vandalized with ink. The first page was occupied, in half, by sketches of a skeletal serpent. It wore a large visor in front of its skull, and rib-like protrusions formed a cage around a light beneath it. Two boney claws stretched out towards the viewer.

The rest of the page appeared to be a sort of summary. It read-

"Maverick III - The Crawling Stranger

The Crawling Stranger is believed to have originated in another reality, or perhaps the void of the Ether itself. It burst into our world in the Second Era when..."

A long block of text, sloppily censored with heavy blots of ink, followed.

"...Arceus was finally able to subdue the creature. In a display of mercy, Arceus spared the Stranger's life. It was declared a Maverick, and sealed into a realm known as Otherworld. The resulting dungeon became known as the Otherwordly Rift."

More censorship.

"Direct comparison of the Crawling Stranger's life force with any other form of life is impossible, owing to the creature's alien nature. However, its raw strength proved to rival the old gods in combat, as of the Second Era.

"The Crawling Stranger's observed capabilities included: Cataclysmic strength, spacial warping, near-immortality, energy absorption, energy mutation."

The worlds "spacial warping" had been underlined in red ink. From there, the remainder of the page was blacked out. And at the top, a message was scrawled in more red ink:

"WARN THE WORLD. IT'S COMING."

She pulled out the other page. This one was almost entirely censored, save for a few short sentences. She reviewed this one as well.

"After the- " Censored- "was declared Maverick, Arceus stripped it of these powers, so that they could never be abused again. The powers were condensed into a physical form and sealed within an artifact known as the Ether Seal."

Beneath this was a sketch, of some sort of urn or bottle. Then a bit more censored text.

"Arceus hid the Seal within the world, somewhere even the-" Censored- "could never find it. To this day, the location of the seal fortunately remains a mystery. Though no one has ever located the seal, many constraints are agreed upon that must affect the location, which would prevent the-"

The entire remainder of the page was drenched in ink. At the top of this one, another message:

"YOUR WAY HOME."

The story she was being sold here was obvious. A monster from another dimension, or something, terrorized the planet. Something sealed it away and took its powers. And now it was coming back. Based on the underlined "spacial warping", it was supposedly responsible for her and her team ending up here. They'd have to find its stolen powers and use them to bring themselves home.

It was a lovely little plot for an adventure movie, wasn't it? But it was also a lie. At least in part. No one censored that much information unless they had an agenda which required you to be left in the dark.

Still, it was something to work with. And their mysterious benefactor wasn't necessarily their enemy. That benefactor was using them, for sure, but she wouldn't consider every person she'd ever used an enemy. Oftentimes, it was more pragmatic than personal.

No, the bigger mystery in her eyes, was what exactly they expected her to do with this information. Tell the world? She had no voice anymore. Nor was she in any position to find a long-lost ancient artifact, hidden by what she had to assume was a deity.

Amelia shook her head and stuffed the pages back into the Hundred Tales, setting the book on the floor. Sooner or later, she'd have to share with the group. Cole kept side-eyeing her for keeping it to herself, and Alek knew something was up. But she didn't know how much she should share. There were still far too many questions.

Mind abuzz, she exited the room began her descent into the maze of staircases and skywalks. She was a bit early, and she wanted the time to think alone, so she took a different route today. Rather than following the sequence of turns she had learned, she descended to the ground.

The Crest HQ's central courtyard was a fair bit quieter during the day. With all of the teams out on missions, or hard at work, those who remained enjoyed the grounds peacefully, lounging idly by the fountains or, in some odd cases, inside the shrubbery.

She made her way over to the central tower, where they'd first signed up a few days prior. It was similarly quiet in here, with only a few teams crowded around the massive pseudo-screen, selecting a late mission for the afternoon.

Looking the screen over, Amelia noticed it was a bit different than she'd seen it in the mornings. The mission listings had been relegated to only a portion of it, while new information was arranged across the rest. A map of the continent. A weather forecast. A meal listing.

What caught her eye was the newsfeed. It was short, and the few listings on it were in very loose detail.

A forest on the eastern side of Trespis was wracked by forest fires, set by an unknown arsonist. Report any information to the Crest.

A festival in Deeplight has been a success. This one was accompanied by a photo of strange, blocky homes arranged in three dimensions, strung up with lights and fish swimming around them.

Pokémon had been going missing in the Carniferous Woods in the west. The Crest advised against travelling there, warning against potential "voluntary ferals" in the area.

Frankly, the stories were all... boring. Far too distilled for her tastes. But it did give Amelia an idea.

"Impressed by the board, I see," a bipedal, feline figure approached with a smile. His fur was blue and white, with ears curving down across his face. Two tails extended out behind him. "I was the same way when I first got here. Still kind of amazes me. Meowstic, by the way," he gestured to himself.

Amelia smiled back. "Simipour. I'm more interested in what's on it, actually. But it is definitely something. How does this work?"

"Few years back, Eluci figured out that the particles in some wonder orbs were highly responsive to telekinesis. They could be arranged in mass into intricate patterns with the slightest thought. So, being who she is, she immediately melted hundreds of orbs down into a massive screen and flooded it with those particles. They keep a couple of psychics at the ready throughout the day to keep it updated. Including yours truly," he smiled.

"Fascinating... The news feed here. Does the Crest handle it themselves, or does someone else write these blurbs?"

Meowstic tilted his head curiously. "Who writes them? Uh... Someone here... it's..." He fluffed his own collar emphatically as he tried to recall. "Sage! It's uh, Simisage."

"Just them?" Amelia asked, disappointed.

"Think Pidgeotto flies out places for her?" Meowstic shrugged. "I don't know everyone who works here. Sorry."

Amelia shook her head with another smile. "No, no worries. If I wanted to speak to this Simisage, where could I find her?"

Meowstic shrugged again and pointed back to one of the registration desks. "They can probably tell you where her room is."

She'd heard all she needed. She thanked him and got Simisage's room number from the desk. After work, it would be time to see about a change of careers.


Cole wandered the streets of Sapsion, taking in the odd sights that decorated every trip down from Crest headquarters. With every journey into the city proper, the veneer of familiarity pulled back a little, and the strangeness of it all became clearer to him. And concerningly, he was getting used to that strangeness.

Now that they had some more coin in their possession, Amelia wanted to furnish their room more appropriately, and collect some basic quality of life supplies. Naturally, as the one with the bag attached to him, Cole got saddled with that responsibility.

Though, perhaps there was another motive for sending him. He was the only one who had seen those pages. And for whatever reason, Amelia didn't want to share that information yet. Maybe it wasn't coincidence that he'd had to run so many errands lately.

In hindsight, he wasn't surprised. She'd always been oddly secretive. It was just something they'd all gotten used to. But the radio silence was making poor Alek more anxious than ever after Cole's worried reactions to the pages. If she didn't say something soon, he'd have to talk to her.

Lost in his head, he walked straight into the flank of a large yellow dog. He muttered out an apology, but the hound hadn't even noticed him. It and many other bystanders were entranced by spectacle going in the middle of the street.

A huge, furry, black and white Pokémon with a long neck and a lolling tongue was sizing up an enormous, levitating snowflake. Just one of the many absurd sights Cole found himself not even surprised by at this point. Bystanders had begun to aggregate around them, crowding just close enough to get a good view of the brewing fight while staying out of their way.

"Ya' know, when I tell mos' folks ta' catch me outside, most a' them got the sense not ta' actually do 'et!" the furry Pokémon spat, circling around him like a predator.

The snowflake opened its mouth and flailed aggressively in the air. "Ketetetetetet!"

The furry one reach back behind his neck and flicked off shards of ice. "What? I ain't movin' fast a'nough for ya' so yer breathin' down me blasted back? I know you were doin' that on purpose!"

The snowflake let out another incomprehensible noise and began spinning. Faster and faster, until it span like a drill, it flew through the air towards the other Pokémon. The furry one crossed its arms in front of its chest and braced for the impact.

The snowflake struck right into his arms, drilling in while he grimaced in pain, tongue still lolling out. But after a moment of enduring it, he threw his arms wide in a powerful motion, sending the snowflake flying back. It slammed into the side of a building, luckily avoiding any storefronts, but leaving a nasty chip in the wall. For the first time, Cole noticed just how many such chips ran along the streetside.

Cole would have assumed such an impact was enough to keep it down, if not fatal. But that didn't seem to bother the crowd, many of whom were cheering, or even encouraging the "Cryogonal" to fight back.

And to his surprise, Cryogonal got up and did just that. It sucked in the air around it, and moments later expelled it all as a beam that gave Cole a chill from across the street.

Deceptively nimble, the other Pokémon leapt aside. The beam flew past him, nearly striking a Pokémon that yipped in surprise, and crashed into the sign for a pottery. The sign was unharmed, save for the thick layer of ice now encasing it.

But as he watched the aftermath of the first beam, another slammed into the wall next to it. Cryogonal wasn't content with missing and began firing extra beams erratically. His opponent grimaced, rolling to the side to dodge the new flurry of attacks, and giving Cole a closeup look at him.

A closeup look... The implication didn't hit Cole until Cryogonal turned straight towards him, another ice beam at the ready. Cole finally realized that the rest of the crowd around him had ducked for cover.

The flash of white shot towards him, and predictably the furry Pokémon dodged again, leaving Cole as its new target.

Moments before it hit, something else struck him from the side. He tumbled to the ground, perhaps bruising a shoulder, but escaping the frenzied attack. By the time he regained his senses, his savior had already pulled themselves up.

Standing over him, now peering at the furry Pokémon was a tiny blue biped, with a dog-like face, and small black sacks hanging from the back of its head. A shimmering yellow cape flowed down from his back.

"Blue blur!" he yelled excitedly and struck a fighting pose.

A flash of light caught Cole's attention, as a burst of flame slammed into Cryogonal. The snowflake howled and recoiled, forgetting his previous target to glare at the little yellow fox that emerged from the ball of fire and hit the ground.

With a sigh and a begrudging smile, she called "Red blur!" and struck a pose of her own.

Then, in unison they struck new poses and yelled out, "We are- Team Blur!"

As soon as they'd said it, the duo burst out giggling, abandoning their heroic poses and nearly falling to the ground with laughter.

"Bluuuuuee," the fox whined, still grinning widely. "Everyone's looking at us like idiots!"

It was true. The crowd ranged from confused to disappointed at the interrupted entertainment. Even Cryogonal and his opponent had stopped their fight to gape in awe at the bravado of the two children who had dared to get in the middle.

Blue shook his head with a goofy grin. "Let 'em! One day, they'll be telling their kids how they saw Team Blur back in their rookie days!"

The fox let out another faux sigh and giggled.

"Who da' you two think ya' are interruptin' our lil' business here?" the furry Pokémon finally broke his gape enough to speak and glared down at the two with dripping irritation.

Blue stared back with the same energy. "We... We literally just announced who we are? Did you seriously not listen to our cool intro?" He groaned and held up a tiny, faded green badge, not dissimilar to Cole's own. "Obstagoon, Cryogonal! No fighting in the streets during the day! Take it to the appropriate parks!" he parroted defiantly, glaring up at the Pokémon five times his size without a hint of fear.

Obstagoon stared angrily at the tiny delver. But after a moment, he gave an irritated look back to the injured Cryogonal and just growled. "Whatever. Snowcone over 'ere ain't worth the effort." Snarling at his opponent one last time, he stormed off, shoving his way through the crowd.

Cryogonal vibrated in the air, spewing another long string of incomprehensible noises at Obstagoon before hovering off himself. Disappointed, the audience began to disperse.

After they were both safely out of sight, Blue turned around and extended a paw to Cole with a smile. He accepted and was pulled up onto his feet. Or rather, talons.

Blue's eyes locked on his Crest badge as he pulled. "Oh, hey! We haven't met yet, have we? I'm Riolu Blue!"

The fox scampered over as well, giving a nod of acknowledgement. "I'm Fennekin... Fluffy," she offered with an exasperated smile.

Blue nudged her. "And together- "

"We're Team Blur," they giggled in unison.

Cole dusted himself off and gave them the closest thing to a smile his newfound beak could produce. He was surprised to see the Jade Crest accepted kids this age. But in spite of their apparent naivety, they seemed plenty capable.

"Cole. Uh, Delibird Cole. Of Team Vista. Thank you. Maybe I shouldn't stand so close next time," he chuckled.

Blue waved his paw dismissively. "Eh, I'm sure it's fine. People around here are crazy. Fights like this break out all the time, even though they're supposed to keep it out of the streets."

"Hmm... I guess I can see that," Cole noted, scanning the streetside. It was easy to miss among the erratic and colorful architecture, but barely a building along the street was free from hints of battle wear.

He gulped as the implications of that sank in. He'd need to be careful not to step on any toes, lest he start a fight.

"Well, we were just heading back to headquarters for a bite to eat. You can join us, if you were heading back too? We're pretty new, so we're trying to get to know everyone."

Cole considered, opening up his tail and shifting through it to confirm he'd gotten everything he needed for the day. It was a lot less embarrassing when he wasn't with the other humans. Heaven knew he wasn't the weirdest freak wandering these streets.

He gave a nod. "I think I've got everything. And I could definitely use some food."

It wouldn't hurt to get to know some of their coworkers either, if they were going to be here a bit.


Amelia greeted Cole as they made their way to the serving area in the back of the dining hall. Half a dozen Pokémon waited here during meal hours, fetching food as appropriate for the teams that came by.

Throughout the rest of the bright, open hall, a wide array of different tables were placed about at varying heights, occupied by dozens of different teams all-too-eagerly devouring their own meals. Roosting rods in the back, and even what Cole could swear seemed to be a massive fish tank by one wall. He stopped himself from considering the logistics of it for too long.

"Hey. Got just about everything you asked for. Few things either don't exist here, or were hidden away too well for me to find," Cole explained to Amelia, patting his tail.

She nodded. "Thanks. We'll ask around." She turned her eyes to the children behind him and gave them a warm smile. "And who are these folks?"

"We're Team Blur!" Blue immediately piped up, barely holding himself back from striking a pose.

"Ran into them while I was out and they invited me to lunch," Cole responded to Amelia's silent question. "Figured it's time we started getting familiar with folks."

He could barely perceive her slight shrug. "Well, that sounds good to me. Why don't I fetch everyone something to eat, and then I'll join you? I'm Simipour Amelia, by the way."

"Nice to meet you!" Blue waved cheerfully. "We'll go grab a table, you bring the goods!"

The trio found a low table, mats surrounding it, and sat down. Most of the tables were low to the ground like this. Easier for tall Pokémon to sit, than short Pokémon to reach up, he supposed.

After a bit Amelia brought out platters for the four of them. All meat for Team Blur, but a mix of diced meat and greens for Cole and her. Even sitting cross-legged, Amelia sat awkwardly large at the low table, like the adult at a child's tea party.

Cole eyed Fluffy as she began to tear into her food rabidly, shaking her head a bit, like a wild animal, as she gnawed at her meat. Blue was more civilized about it, using his claws to tear off and eat a piece at a time.

Amelia clapped her hands together. "Well. We won't get to know each other in silence," she smiled. "How long have you two worked here?"

"Not too long," Blue answered through his food. He swallowed. "We just became a team last month."

Fluffy nodded, finally wrenching her eyes away from her own meat. "But I'd wanted to be a delver since forever. I just... finally found someone to team up with," she said, smiling at her partner.

Blue beamed back. "And what a team we make! Nearly silver ranked within a month! That's gotta be some kind of record, right?"

Fluffy laughed. "I don't think so. But we're definitely up there. What about you guys?"

Cole waved his arms in front of him. "Oh, no. We don't do any actual delving. We're uh, support staff. We just help out around here."

"And we've only been around for a few days," Amelia added, eyeing them curiously with a smile.

The kids probably couldn't see what Cole could in her expression. Analysis. Appraisal. Amelia hadn't joined them for no reason. She was judging what they were worth.

"Oh! That explains why we hadn't seen you before. I told you we got everyone!" he said, ruffling Fluffy's head teasingly.

"There's no way we've actually talked to everyone already!" she protested, still grinning. Her eyes scanned the populated dining room. "Like... who's that?" she asked, nodding towards a tired-looking bat, huddled up on one of the tables and vigorously sinking its fangs into an apple.

"Crobat," Blue responded instantly. "Nice guy. Gave me some tips for not getting wrecked by flying types."

"Hey! Have you been going out without me?" she demanded playfully. "I've definitely never met him."

Blue nodded, expression serious for once. "Yeah, sometimes I go for walks in the morning. When I've got stuff on my mind."

Fluffy mirrored his sudden seriousness. "Oh. Okay. Sorry. I'm just kidding."

Blue shook his head, his energy returning. "No, it's fine! Anyways," he returned his attention to Cole and Amelia. "You two should really try delving sometime. They registered you anyways, right? I know it sounds really scary, but it's actually not! You can't really get hurt, and it's an adventure every time!" He nodded eagerly.

Cole's face probably told the whole story. The one time they had gone "delving" had been anything but a fun adventure. Of course, they'd all been under the added stress of their stranding and transformation then, but... It wasn't a memory he wanted to relive.

Amelia just smiled back at them. "Oh, do you think? Maybe. But perhaps I'd be better off just leaving it to the pros," she laughed, gesturing to the duo. "Silver rank in a month... now that's impressive. I know what team I'll be calling upon if I'm ever in need."

Cole nodded in agreement. Of course, Amelia was just buttering them up. Neither she nor Cole had any idea how impressive that feat actually was.

"Well, you'll never know if you don't try!" Blue offered, beaming from the compliment. "I never thought I'd be good at something like this either, but here I am!"

Cole chuckled a bit, at the child's wisdom. "Well, I'll keep it in mind. But I think my talents might lie somewhere else."

Fluffy stared longingly at her tray, meat all gone. Barely holding back a giggle, Blue patted her back consolingly. "We'll be back for dinner, Fluff."

"Yeah, but we gotta do another mission fiiiirst..." she groaned.

"I'm not supposed to do this, but..." Amelia stood up and grinned. "I might be able to get you an extra serving, just this once?"

Fluffy's eyes twinkled. She gaped up at the Simipour, as though she were an angel from above. But after a moment, the light faded and she shook her head.

"Nooooo... We really need to actually do another mission if we wanna hit silver for real," she said, half convincing herself as she refocused. "But if you're still working at dinner..." she trailed off longingly.

Blue gave a huge smile and ruffled her head again. "Proud of you. We'll pick a quick one, okay? Something nearby, with a lot of grass types."

She nodded eagerly. "Yeah, really quick! Then we'll get back for that extra serving. Promise?" Her ears perked and she glared up at Amelia excitedly.

The Simipour laughed and nodded. "I can't do anything once I'm off. But if I'm still here when you get back, it's a promise."

Fluffy's tail wagged excitedly as she hopped up and nodded to Blue. "Alright then, let's go!" She started practically shoving her partner.

A bit more tactful, Blue waved to them with a sheepish grin. "It seems I've been called. It was nice to meet you both! I'll see you around!"

No sooner had he said it than he was sprinting out of the room with his eager teammate.

"Well. They're certainly energetic," Amelia noted as the children ran from the room.

"Yeah," Cole watched them leave with a warm look. His eyes dimmed straightened as he looked at Amelia. "You're appraising them. What for?"

Amelia swallowed the last of her food and looked at her hands annoyedly. So impossible to keep clean without utensils. Scowling, she wiped them on her own waist fur.

"I'm going to try and get us some new jobs," she said simply. "And since none of us are comfortable going on 'business trips' alone, it wouldn't hurt to start befriending some of the teams here.

"New jobs?" Cole questioned.

She nodded. "Tweet said we should try to find somewhere we fit in, right? Turns out they roll their own news. Doesn't seem like a glamorous editorial, but it's a step up in a couple of different ways."

He could hardly imagine they were qualified journalists in this world. But he knew that was far from stopping her. And it beat working in the storerooms. "Alright. But why those two kids?"

"Why are you asking me?" she laughed. "You're the one who brought them here. I assumed you had something in mind."

"Not every person I talk to is because I think they're a useful asset Amelia," he eyed her sternly. "They just seemed nice."

"Alright, fair enough," she admitted. She rose to her feet, gathering up the remains of her meal as well as the kids'. "But intentional or not, I do think they could be useful. They're clearly competent enough to get around, and as kids they're less likely to question it if we ask them to do something weird because of our circumstances."

"Your lack of experience with children is showing," he snorted, rising with her. "Kids ask more questions than anyone."

She shrugged and started to carry her remains over to the large burn pit that substituted for trash cans. "Maybe. But they also read a lot less into the answers."

Cole shook his head, grinning with his eyes. "You're unbelievable."

With a single heave, he tossed the remainder of his own meal from his tray and into the trash pit. They clearly burnt it regularly enough to keep it from reeking, but it was still an incredible eye sore on the cafeteria.

"I need to get back to work now. I'll let you know how it goes tonight," Amelia said, taking his tray as she returned to the kitchen.

Cole needed to get a move on too. He still had the day's shopping to drop off, and soon he'd be back to work himself. The storeroom wasn't a bad lot, but it was definitely mind numbing. He muttered a silent thanks for Amelia's ambitions and set off.


Guildmaster Ithycus danced through his small, private courtyard, swinging leaf blades with a rhythm and force that no normal Pokémon could ever match. From the perimeters, a series of launchers fired nuts and seeds at him from every angle.

He swung both blades in tempo, turning two large nuts into four pitiful slivers. Not a moment later, his massive bushy tail slapped down another heavy nut behind him with a pleasing thud.

Turn, strike one more, strike two more. No time to strike the third - dodge to the left.

This power felt amazing. Pure life force, pumping through his body, overgrowing his tail and his blades. In this mega form, even the iconic crest around his neck felt weightless.

But this power wasn't freedom, no. There was still a weight bearing down on him. There always was, when he put that crest to use.

The launchers fired faster now, and the patterns became more complex. Thus far had only been a warmup.

He sidestepped three nuts in a row, weaving back and forth. His blades became less practical at this point. He only had two at a time, and the hazards were flying at him too fast now to cut them all down.

His eyes sharpened when he heard a familiar clunk. He leapt forward as a shrapnel-blast of seeds rained through where he'd stood. A single swipe cut down the one straggler that fired after to catch his landing.

He wasn't the best that the Jade Crest had to offer. At least, he certainly hadn't been back then. Even today he shuddered to imagine how he'd fare against any of Team Bunker or Team Operetta. No, the real reason he'd been chosen was obvious.

From father to son. The position had been his since he'd been born, regardless of what he'd done. No matter what he did now, he could never change the fact that he wore this crest due to circumstance.

But if only retroactively, he'd earn the respect he held. For as long as he ran this guild, he'd run it better than anyone else could. He didn't want that respect to be handed down to him.

In the brief lull between waves, his eyes shot down to that red and green stone embedded into the base of his crest. Its luster had all but nearly vanished.

Ithycus finally noticed the Ninetales staring disapprovingly at him from the side of the courtyard, a scroll curled up in one of his tails. But before he could call out to Lore, a horrid series of plunks sounded from all of the launchers at once.

The final wave. There was no time to think now. Within moments, the courtyard was abuzz with dozens of seeds flying in every direction. He twirled through them, guided only by his heightened mega instincts and the hundreds of exercises before this one.

The random fire was bad enough, but Eluci's cleverness was terrifying at times. She'd repurposed All-Hit Orbs to create target-tracking launchers. If he stopped moving for a moment he'd get pelted from several angles at once, no matter where he was.

Neither dodging nor striking alone was enough at this point- he needed everything he had. He leapt through a small gap in the web of projectiles, cutting two mid-leap and swatting half a dozen more in bulk with his tail as he landed.

Cover. This was too much. He needed cover.

Cleaving apart two more nuts to make space, he leapt up onto one of the trees, crawling around it on all fours so that it would shield him from most of the launchers. But half a dozen still stared him down from this angle, and he had one less hand to work with.

His bushy tail could cover several of them at once, swatting back and forth as it knocked countless nuts from the air. But with only a single leaf blade at his disposal, his front side was totally exposed.

He cut through one. Through two. Through three-

He felt a sharp sting as a seed slammed into his shoulder. Then another on his stomach. His shoulder again. And then a rain of stinging as his focus broke and the launchers pelted him freely.

A few seconds later, he slid off of the tree. He groaned as he hit the ground, eyeing the launchers suspiciously to confirm that the exercise was over. Eluci had said this one was supposed to be impossible to complete flawlessly. But that wouldn't stop him from trying.

A brilliant light came over him, as his form briefly liquidated and melted back down to its normal size and shape. As soon as his mega evolution had disappeared, the soreness of his many new welts hit him in a second wave.

Still groaning, he pulled himself to his feet. "Afternoon, Lore!" he called nonchalantly his lorekeeper, trying to disregard their obviously disappointed glare as he limped over to the edge of the courtyard.

Lore shifted his head up to adjust his spectacles, never breaking that glare. "Your mega stone is nearly drained," he noted.

The guildmaster looked down, feigning surprise at the gem's dimness. "Oh. I suppose it is."

Lore sighed, entering the courtyard to meet him halfway. "Why are you wasting the stone's energy on a training exercise? I know this isn't accidental Ithy."

Busted. The lorekeeper had lived a few too many centuries to be easily fooled.

"It was getting low anyways. And with everything going on right now... I figured it's best that I get it refreshed. Otherwise it might run out at a terrible time," he fibbed.

"I see," Lore muttered, clearly not buying it. "And you think Xerneas would appreciate it more if you intentionally waste her blessings?"

"Well, I figured she wouldn't appreciate being asked to just 'top it off' either, you know? At least this way she knows we're using every last drop," he answered sheepishly.

"Mhmm..." Lore started to circle him, still staring skeptically. "And which team do you intend to take with you, exactly?"

None. The answer was none. He had to do this himself. But that definitely wasn't the answer Lore wanted.

He turned away, walking over to collapse by one of the trees, and using the opportunity to hide his face. "I haven't decided yet," he muttered.

Lore sighed, coming over to sit beside him. Even relaxing on the ground, his tails were still tense today. He looked the Sceptile in the eyes. "Just don't do anything stupid Ithy. There's... concerning things going on."

That caught his attention. Ithycus straightened up and met his gaze. "So you've got something then?"

Lore nodded, the tail with the scroll dropping it onto the ground in front of him. With a nudge of his nose, he unfurled it.

A single drawing occupied the scroll, depicting a Gardevoir he knew well. A glassy red visor covered her face, with a single spine-like cord running down her back. Serrated blue gauntlets covered her arms, giving them an armored appearance. For whatever reason, the artist had depicted her in a deep red light.

Faith.

"Gnarl confirmed this is a reasonably accurate depiction of what they saw," he said with a heavy gravity. Something about this was profoundly serious to the lorekeeper. But Ithycus didn't understand it.

The guildmaster scratched his jaw as he tried to recall the significance of her odd equipment. "Yeah that's Faith alright. But if there's something more I'm supposed to be getting out of this, I'm not."

Lore nodded, an uneasiness in his face that was rarely seen in a Pokémon of his age. He started to pace anxiously back and forth behind the scroll.

"The gear highly resembles a known Maverick." He paused. "Perhaps that's understating it. The gear resembles one of the most dangerous Mavericks in history. After its name was lost, it came be known only as the Crawling Stranger."

Ithycus wracked his memories of Lore's many history lessons and occasional unprompted spiels for what he knew of that one. What little he remembered was enough to make him shudder.

"Alright, that's incredibly bad," he muttered. "But I don't remember the half of it. Tell me all, my lorekeeper," he gestured his invitation for the fox to ramble.

"Well, for one, we're lucky I have a good memory. One of the pages that went missing from the Book of Mavericks was about it. I hardly imagine that's coincidence.," he said with furrowed brow. "I can't imagine why our thief only stole one page, though. Maybe they thought if they took the picture, I couldn't recognize it?"

"Perhaps I should have taken your missing pages a bit more seriously," the guildmaster muttered.

Lore growled at him. "Vandalized books are always worth taking seriously! But we'll cover that lesson another time..."

The lorekeeper's pacing accelerated. Back and forth, back and forth. He stared into space as he walked and rambled.

"Back on topic. The Stranger is a being from the Ether. It came from another world. Or maybe no world at all. Point is, Arceus didn't create it. It just... showed up.

"Supposedly the thing just broke right into our world and then immediately started wreaking havoc. No rhyme, no reason. No motives guiding it, or at least none anyone could understand. It was entirely senseless and wanton destruction."

The fox's ears twitched anxiously as he walked back and forth, brow furrowed deep.

"And that's not the most worrying part. The monster itself served as some sort of filter for life force. It could channel the aura of other living beings, or the planet itself, through its body and transform it in the process. The results were... Well, even reading about them is horrifying. It turned the world around it into a wasteland, and the Pokémon... " Lore shuddered. "Could hardly be called as such anymore. They became beasts as mindless as it was."

"The gods tried to negotiate with it. But that proved impossible. The Stranger couldn't be communicated with. Couldn't be reasoned with. If it had any rationality, it was far beyond our understanding. And our's was far beyond its.

"Then, they tried to subdue it. That also proved impossible. The beast's power rivaled even that of the old gods, and the Pokémon it had transformed came to its aid.

"It wasn't until Arceus himself engaged it that the Stranger could be subdued. Supposedly, even then it was a desperate struggle. But perhaps against better judgement, Arceus chose to spare the stranger." Lore bowed his head a moment, muttering his heresy, before continuing.

"The creator felt that if Stranger could not comprehend the morality of its own actions, he could not justly slay it. So as with many other Mavericks, he created an isolated realm for it, known as the Otherworld. This realm was sealed in the depths of a divine dungeon, which came to be known as the Otherworldy Rift. It was a prison, but also a home where it could live harmlessly.

"And until today, that was the end of this story. As far as anyone has known, the Stranger has resided peacefully in its hellish realm."

Lore finally stopped moving at the conclusion of his tale, looking to the guildmaster for input. But the twitching of his ears, and uneasy sway of his tails betrayed his anxiousness.

Ithycus stopped to take in all of this information. The disappearing dungeons and Faith's strange reappearance had been concerning. But this... this was cataclysm. This wasn't what he'd expected from an otherwise average afternoon.

He nodded slowly. "At the very least, I think we have a fairly clear hypothesis what happened to Faith then."

Lore nodded. "She found the wrong rift."

"Yeah. Faith was searching for Palkia. His domain is in the Spacial Rift, right? Pretty easy to mix up two rifts in space, I imagine?" There was an awkward moment as he waited for a response. "That was- I actually mean that as a question. I have no idea," he laughed anxiously.

"I haven't seen either dungeon for myself, but I think it's a reasonable guess. If Faith wandered into the Otherworldy Rift by accident and came in contact with the Crawling Stranger..." Lore shuddered.

"...Then she may have become one of its monsters," Ithycus begrudgingly completed the thought.

He shut his eyes and groaned silently. This was a nightmare. One of his best delvers, brainwashed by a deranged alien. But in the immediate future, it wasn't her or the monster he was most dreading dealing with.

He opened his eyes and gave a decisive nod. "We need to capture her. This Stranger defeated the old gods. And the old gods have only grown weaker over time. If it escapes the Otherworld, barring divine intervention, the planet may be doomed."

Lore let out his own groan, making the realization for himself. "Team Poise won't be happy about this."

Ithycus shut his eyes again and sighed. "I know. But I'd like to hope that 'Faith is under the control of an interdimensional monster' will convince them. After all, at this point capturing her is as much for her sake as anything else."

"You're entirely right Ithy, but I don't envy that conversation."

The guildmaster snorted. "Don't worry, I'm trading you an unenviable conversation of your own."

Lore raised an eyebrow. "Dare I to ask?"

The Sceptile scooped up the scroll and pulled himself upright against the tree, finally feeling good to move again after his failed training exercise. "In light of... all of this," he shook the scroll, "We need to know what's going on with these humans. I don't believe for one second that it's a coincidence this many are showing up all at once, at the same time that the Stranger is threatening to break free."

Lore shot up indignantly. "None of them have chosen to reveal themselves to us. It would be tremendously disrespectful to violate their privacy so deeply," he glared disapprovingly.

Ithycus waved a hand, brushing him off. "Privacy? The entire planet may be in danger, and these humans are almost certainly related somehow, for better or for worse. I think the urgency trumps their privacy."

Lore whimpered, tails hanging meekly as he followed behind the guildmaster towards the tower entrance. "Well, I admit that point. But even so, the humans have been... exceptionally secretive. Even the boy. I can usually tell if they're lying, but I can't make them tell the truth."

Ithycus paused as they reached the tower door, wanting to keep this particular conversation in the privacy of his courtyard.

"What about the Cutiefly? You think she's one too, right? From what you've said, she's quite timid."

Lore froze, an uncomfortable look on his face. "Exploiting the most disoriented of them," he muttered. "That feels so dirty... And even so, there's a chance she just freezes up entirely."

"I know how much you don't want to do this Lore," Ithycus said with a sigh. "So you should know I wouldn't ask, if I didn't feel it was absolutely vital."

The three-hundred-year-old fox bowed his head like a guilty child. "I know."

With an appreciative smile, Ithycus gave his friend a pat on the head and they stepped inside.


Having finally hauled herself up the right tower, Amelia rapped on the door of a mid-level team. The plate outside read "Team Sage", the name doubtlessly a product of either vanity or apathy. A moment later, a figure opened the door.

It was almost like looking into a mirror. They were nearly the same height. The same body structure. Same proportions. Their facial features were different, of course, but she had already grown used to differences far beyond that. And of course, where she sported blue fur that curled down around her head, Simisage's green hair fur peaked up over hers.

"You need something?" she asked, a tinge of impatience behind her voice.

Amelia smiled widely. "Sort of. I'm Simipour Amelia, Team Vista," she extended her hand out to the simian. Simisage accepted it slowly, shaking weakly without breaking eye contact. "We're new here, and we were told to find long term assignments that work for us. We were wondering if you had any open space in your newsroom?"

Simisage's eyes clicked with recognition. "Newsroom?" She snorted, giving a pitying smile. She pulled her door the rest of the way open and let Amelia step inside.

The room was just a bit bigger than Team Vista's. But instead of five beds huddled around the walls, there was only one, with an extra roosting perch resting beside the open window. It looked like a paper bomb had gone off inside, scattering sheets of parchment throughout every corner of the room. In some places it was stacked neatly, in others individual sheets lay strewn about as if they'd blown right off her desk.

Her desk. The fine piece was the clear source of the waterfall of papers spilling throughout the room. The desk and the large quill atop it seemed to be the only things she had treated with any decorum. The quill still dripped with ink, confirming the cause of her impatience.

"This, is our newsroom. Just me, Pidgeotto, and a pressing shortage of space," Simisage remarked.

"I... see," Amelia muttered, glancing around the room. Just looking at the mess was giving her anxiety. Wasn't the Jade Crest supposed to be a big deal around here? How could they treat their journalists with such apathy?

"That said. If you can work from somewhere else I could maybe use an extra head or two. Poor Fleet is flying all around the continent for me, trying to be everywhere at once. And I..." She cast a quick glance at her overflowing desk. "Well, I keep up. But I'm not the one who pays you. If they'll sign off on you helping out, and your writing is up to snuff, I wouldn't be opposed."

Amelia gave a huge smile, making certain to show enthusiasm. "Oh, thank you! I used to do quite a bit of writing back home, so I certainly hope I'll be up to your expectations. We all did, actually."

Simisage's eyes narrowed. "That's a good question actually. Who's on your team?"

"Well, it's me, Delibird Cole, Skiddo Alek, Cutiefly Natalie, and Lombre Geoff," she said. She took a step to the side, trying to get close enough to take discreet look at one of the many papers littering the floor. At a glance, it looked like a rather dull, handwritten snippet on the exploits of a certain Team Bunker and their new hatchling. By its tattered and wrinkled status, she assumed it was quite old.

"Excuse me? Five Pokémon? Just the two of us already had this about handled. We don't need five more Pokémon around here. Especially if none of them are strong fliers," Simisage grumbled.

Amelia made her way nonchalantly to the desk. Eyes glossing over dozens of sheets of parchment, all articles half-completed before being unceremoniously thrown aside. At the center, ink still wet, sat a new piece with little more than a headline: "Solemn Meadow attacked by unknown outlaw; culprit still at large". Around it, half scrunched up, were half a dozen pieces with similar headlines that she'd discarded.

Simisage had a passion for this, no doubt. But passion was just a kinder word for obsession. And obsession could be used.

"I'm really surprised they have you holed up in here," Amelia muttered with feigned awe as she looked around the room. "Back home, our journalists always had their own offices. You know, so they could keep all this mess out of their rooms."

Simisage shrugged. "Crest headquarters was built to hold teams. There's not a lot of larger spaces available. That's irrelevant, anyways. I can take one of you in, maybe two. But the rest of your team are going to have to find work elsewhere."

Amelia tilted her head innocently, giving the writer a curious look. "Don't you ever want to grow this bigger, though? How much are you actually able to cover when you're the one writing everything? What do you do when two newsworthy events are happening in different places? Does Pidgeotto just choose one?"

"That's hardly a common issue," Simisage remarked, a bit of unease setting on her face. She wasn't used to being the one questioned like this.

"Is it not? Or do you just not hear about it?" Amelia gave her a pitying look. "I mean, you are the news, after all. Think about all of the things happening everywhere, all the time. One little messenger bird isn't able to pick up all of that. Just because you don't catch wind of it, doesn't mean nothing is happening."

Now Simisage's pride was challenged. "The Crest informs of us of anything vital going on that we should notify members of. It's not just our ears- it's hundreds of ears across the continent that all bring information right back to us!"

"I see," Amelia muttered, holding her face in faux pensiveness. "That does sound like an amazingly powerful network. But do you really think you're getting everything?"

The momentary look of victory vanished from Simisage's expression. Now she looked pissed. "Are you implying that the Crest is withholding things from me?"

"No, no, no!" Amelia waved her hands frantically. "Not any kind of intentional malice or anything. It's just... this is your passion, not theirs," she gestured to the disheveled writing desk. "How often do you really think teams are coming back, tired from a day's mission, and marching right up these stairs to inform you about any rumors they heard?"

Amelia glimpsed it. Human or not, she could recognize that tiny quiver of doubt as it passed Simisage's face. She'd found her entrance.

"I bet that if you had the folks to go out and proactively find stories, there'd be a ton of noteworthy stuff going on that you wouldn't even hear about otherwise," she prodded further. "Maybe even stuff that's actually very important to the Crest, but none of the teams ever bother to report.

Simisage glared at her. Too proud to admit the point, but clearly wavering. "An interesting idea. But I'm not sure I understand the end goal here. Even if there are more stories out there, we already have more than enough going on to cover the space the Crest gives us."

"What about the rest of Sapsion? With just a few more folks, you might be able to expand to providing news relevant to the entire city, instead of just what the Crest needs to get out to its members. By my estimates, you'd just need say... five new members?" she said, raising an arm and grinning in a goofy pose. She needed deescalate. Make herself a non-threat now that the idea had been planted.

Simisage thought silently for a moment. Her outward expression was still disapproving, but Amelia could sense the cogs turning behind those eyes. The deal she'd been offered was a good one after all. She didn't have to pay them, and Amelia was offering her a path towards her ambitions. All the rewards, and none of the risk, at least as far as Simisage knew.

As expected, Simisage finally sighed and relented. "Well, as long as the Crest will approve it, I suppose there's no harm in overstaffing. That is," Simisage caught her eye with a stern glare, "if your quality holds up. We pride ourselves on the quality and integrity of our work. If we're going to have five more people in here, I expect our work will improve five peoples' worth."

Amelia nodded eagerly, like a teenager excited to receive their first job. "Oh, yes! Of course! We'll all do our very best."

"Well, we'll see what your best looks like. For now, go get approval for this."

"Right! Right away," Amelia smiled, rushing to the door with a faux eagerness.

Moments before she stepped out, Simisage called after her. "Wait! One thing first," the monkey suddenly remembered.

Amelia poked her head back in curiously.

"I don't want any more interruptions today. So here's your first task. Assuming you get approval, of course." Simisage beckoned her over, pulling out a map camouflaged on the clutter of her desk.

"Here," she pointed to a small village marked on the map of Trespis, near the base of the central mountain range. "Solemn Meadow. I don't know if you've been following that story, but it gave us a bit of a scare. There was an attempt to burn the village down two nights ago. The fire did significant damage to the surrounding woodlands, and the culprit is still at large. The advance warning was so short we couldn't even get a team out in time to help.

"Fleet was going there to conduct some interviews tomorrow. But if I'm going to have some extra feet at my disposal, I'd rather send him somewhere less accessible. Take however many of your team you feel are necessary and get accounts of the events from the citizens."

Simisage stood up and walked over to a pile of blank parchment sheets. She dug through it, somehow knowing what was buried beneath. She pulled out a dingy quill and ink vial and handed it to Amelia alongside a dozen sheets of parchment.

"Whoever doesn't go can come meet me tomorrow at day's start, and I'll figure out what I'm doing with you. Consider this a first trial."

Amelia nodded sternly. "Understood. We won't let you down."

"Glad to hear it," Simisage muttered, sitting down at her desk with a tired look. "Now go get that approval, and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. Or when you get back."

Amelia stepped from the room and pulled the door shut, positively beaming. And this time, it was genuine.

Getting approval would be trivial. Altaria was far too accommodating for her own good. She'd let them triple the size of the news staff in a single heartbeat as long as Amelia gave her puppy-dog eyes.

Which meant, starting tomorrow, Amelia would have a voice once again. And soon, that voice would be loud enough to warn the world.