July and August passed in a few bursts of sweltering heat, broken up by thunderstorms and periods of humidity. The rain continued to flood the lower roads and swirl away into drains in the road. As September started and the storms continued, Blanche found himself staring out the classroom window, watching as people and Pokémon both wore raincoats and used umbrellas. Seeing a Mismagius in the archetypal yellow jacket was a bit disturbing.
Ms. Komoe walked in, the minuscule chemistry teacher standing behind the podium.
"I hope everyone had a good break! Before we get to reviewing for next term and sign-ups for the field trip next week, I'd like to introduce a new student. It's common, I know, but we have to be polite! Now, Ms. Rosa, please come in."
Rosa walked in, and luckily for his blood pressure, she wasn't drenched in water.
Tencent followed behind her, the two absolutely inseparable.
She struck a pose, one hand on her hip, two fingers parted over her eye.
"He-eeeeeeeey, everyone! I'm Rosa, what's up?"
"Um, Ms. Rosa, can you return your partner before we start class?"
"He can get a lot smaller, is that alright?" She asked, missing the point but still smiling.
"Well… As long as he isn't distracting."
Blanche looked over to Gin, if only to gauge the other boy's reaction.
And he was gaping like a fish, er, Water-type.
Listen, Blanche might have been really stupid (Shauna didn't call him an idiot for no reason), but he wasn't blind. Everyone around him was really attractive by most metrics, with the obvious exception of himself. That was the most common superpower, few people were ugly unless it was intentional on the part of the author. Or Arceus. Or Helix- Look, he didn't know, but that was his best guess. And he was comfortable saying so while also saying that dating was really, really not a good idea for a guy who couldn't even remember his own name.
And as Gin put it in his stupor, "Wowzas."
Blanche muttered, "This better not lead to a subplot," before looking back out the window, remembering exactly how he got into this situation.
The UR cargo ship sailed past Courmaline City, hundreds of cables between the small fleet pulling the unconscious Anomaly along.
Blanche still felt on edge, watching the water as Clemont handed him a drink out on the deck, while the crewmen put the massive crates back into place.
"Thanks," he said, cracking the can without taking his eyes off the Garchomp, marveling at how it still looked larger than the ship while half-submerged. "What are we going to do about that thing?"
Clemont shrugged, taking off and drying his glasses of humidity for the fiftieth time that hour. "The protocol for large Anomalies was to deliver them to a UR base after being defeated."
"Not FLARE?"
"It's a very large base, so I hear."
Seaside hills began breaking up into mountains as they sailed further north, even passing Laverre City. The ship broke east into a small delta that separated those hills from the greater mountain range.
Blanche dropped his empty can in shock as a mountain split open to slide out of the way. Two huge cliff faces slid away further into the mountain, revealing a dim expanse.
He whipped his head around as the rock turned to concrete above him, every ship easily sailing into the hidden port.
He whispered, "What the hell?"
"The world is filled with manmade wonders beyond your comprehension," Augustine said, walking out onto the deck with the others.
Blanche got this sort of dumbfounded look on his face. "That's not the quote," he said before pausing. "Probably."
"Quick to the draw but not to the follow-up," the Professor said with a light laugh. "This is the UR's Kalosian port. Materials too delicate to be handled by the average workers come here."
"I wouldn't call that Garchomp delicate," Blanche said, sarcasm sneaking into his voice.
"FLARE business, therefore, UR business."
"And what are they going to do with it?"
A dark look crossed the Professor's face, but Blanche assumed it was a trick of the light as he laughed off the question. "They'll use Aural Shells to- No, not the kind you'll be using- remove the Anomaly from its AIAM field and rehabilitate it, before releasing it back into its natural habitat."
Blanche watched as cranes hissed in the underground port, beginning to unload the ship. Many were tasked to pull the Garchomp out of the water. There was another third descriptor of events around him. Oh, yeah, Popeye the Sailor Man showing up, eating spinach, and punching the Anomaly in the gut.
Eh, he had a bit of a weird imagination.
"I saw some crates for the Golurk Synchro Project. Are they still bringing stuff in for that? I figured it had been shut down."
"It's being repurposed. Don't you read the emails?"
Blanche scratched the back of his head, disturbing his hat somewhat. Even if he'd rather not wear it, the sun was too bright to avoid it.
"Uh…"
"Even I read the emails, stupid," Shauna said, putting her hands on her hips.
Rosa looked at her, eyes wide with wonder, then copied her pose.
"I check my emails every day!"
He was going to have to eventually tell Rosa that they weren't as cool as she thought they were, and more specifically, that he certainly wasn't the coolest.
Good for the ego, but not his guilty conscience.
"What happened to those two anyway? The Golurk and the grunt, I mean," he asked, turning to the Professors.
"They were partners before they got swept up by Team Plasma, I'm afraid." Augustine shook his head. "Truly, a shame. Colress dismissed them, so I heard."
Blanche was slightly indignant as he asked, "And he's still working on it?"
Augustine held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Back to the prototype stages, or so I hear. The UR has seized his lab materials but not his research."
"That's…"
Blanche was at a loss for words. Politics, Sycamore had called it. He called it bullshit. That could have gone so much worse if Clemont didn't always have the tech to pull out of his ass. So could have the last three operations, now that he thought about it.
The major ones, at least. The smaller ones were average and went well, not worth mentioning.
He reckoned that rescuing Meowstic from trees was a waste of FLARE's resources until he learned about the PR boost. Whenever something went wrong, aside from the benefit of simply doing good, there was always a side effect that made his boss look good.
"That's stupid!" Shauna said. "What if it happens again?"
As she took the words right out of his mouth, Blanche was reminded again how similar they were. Asking dumb questions is not a zero-sum game, after all. It's fun for the whole friend group.
"Then it happens again. That's the scientific process. There's still potential in the project, even if it has gone wrong once."
Blanche took a deep breath, pushed down his frustration, and exhaled slowly.
"That sucks. And they just fired that one girl for following orders?"
"No. Remember, Blanche, dealing with AIAM fields is tricky business. Aveline?"
Aveline adjusted her glasses and coughed. "Ah, um, yes, AIAM fields can overlap but it's very rare for them to combine entirely, and when they do, the reaction is unbalanced, as you all have seen."
Rosa jumped up like a star, "But not me and Tencent, right? We're like, totally in sync!"
"Um, well, not completely but very close, I'm sure. The combination is a result of total synchronization."
Michael had a slight smirk, he noticed.
The spiky-haired boy said, "I met someone who called it a four-hundred percent sync ratio. You know, like in Eva-"
Shauna cupped her hands around her mouth, drowning out the other boy as she said, "Nerrrrrrrrrrrd."
They took a MagLev straight back home after leaving the underground dock, entirely too tired to try and check into a hotel. Blanche didn't have the energy to question why the Professor and Rosa had accompanied them home, or why Rosa had a duffel bag.
You know where this is going, of course.
Ms. Grace was waiting for them at the door, likely watching Rhyhorn to keep it from tackling Sycamore when they had guests.
Naturally, she put Rosa in the fourth guest room on the second floor. It was better than being put on the third floor, as Ms. Grace was clearly dividing their rooms by gender.
And that was just the first act of his summer in Lumiose-3.
The next scene, so to speak, took place in the FLARE lab as had many scenes that came before.
The Professor, though he held his clipboard, seemed to be actually using it for its intended use, and not dramatics.
"It's officially summer, everyone. Now, any fine guesses for what that means for us?"
"Ice in the water cooler," Michael said.
"Solar panel installations?" Clemont asked, adjusting his glasses.
Aveline put a hand on her chin. "Likely an increase in Grass-type reproduction and migration to more open areas, especially in the wilderness…"
"Longer days," Serena said without an ounce of imagination.
Shauna snapped her fingers and a lightbulb literally flashed above her head. "Beach episodes?"
Rosa leapt into the air, cheering, "Yeah, what she said!"
"I'd say sunscreen," Blanche muttered, "But…"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, maybe, maybe, yes for everyone else." The Professor raised his clipboard over one eye. "But when I say us, I mean FLARE! It gets really hot in Lumiose-3 with all that sunshine. Some of that heat is bound to seep into arteries and veins everywhere." He swept out with the wooden slate. "What I'm saying, of course, is that this city is going to get hot-blooded enough to stir with a spoon! And that means, drum roll please…"
Rosa maneuvered around Shauna to start slapping the tabletop, creating a steady rhythm.
Augustine clapped his clipboard with each syllable for emphasis. "Rogue Espers, Anomalies, street fights, oh my!" He pointed the wooden slate at Serena. "What are we going to do about that?"
"I believe we'll be deployed in the event of an emergency."
"Eh… Blanche, how about you?"
"Ass-kicking time?"
Shauna dug her elbow into his lower ribs, painfully so but not enough to draw blood.
He coughed, "I mean, uh," his voice deepened involuntarily, "I am… THE LAW."
She did it again, more forcefully while hissing, "Try one more time."
"Fine, I'll take my job seriously," he sighed. Looking Sycamore dead in the eye, he said, "Hot-bloodedness is probably directly correlated to the strength and number of Espers, given what you've told me about the Aura Guardian and aura in general, but I don't think that the actual temperature has as much of an effect on that as you're implying. Rather, given that every Esper in this room still attends school, the same can likely be said for Rogue Espers. Due to the ongoing summer break, there is more free time for people to get bored, commit crimes, whatever, and the majority of those people are students. As well, from what Aveline said, we'll probably have to deal with more Pokémon encroaching on city limits due to natural migration patterns, which I might add is a result of building a megalopolis over the span of two years and not some Legendary's malicious intent. Overall, you're telling us that we don't have time to slack off and will likely be running around the city like actual police. In other words, we are the law, and it will soon be, in fact, ass-kicking time."
Everyone was just giving him a range of different looks.
It was just logic, nothing impressive. Maybe it was that he didn't have the native logic of the Pokémon world to unlearn.
"Can I go home now? I just used all of my brain power for today."
Or that it was him pulling a whole lot of words out of his ass.
It took a while for Aveline to decide it was his turn to deal with an Anomaly. For the last few incidents over the weeks, she'd only called in Rosa and Serena, which he assumed was to acclimatize the former and have the latter demonstrate the procedure.
He'd thought Serena and Shauna were enough of a contrasting pair, but the difference seemed to be that Shauna could take a hint, and was only slightly less enamored with Serena.
Because of the whole, "Oh, wow, the real FLARE team, I'm so glad I get to work with you guys!" Rosa had some ideas about how they operated, and Serena wasn't exactly the talkative type to disavow her of those notions.
So, naturally, Aveline decided that it was his turn to team up with Rosa, sending them a point on their map, and promising to explain further once a secure line was established by their morph uplink.
And of course, they couldn't morph too far away or they'd get mobbed, but too close and they'd risk exposing their identities.
Blanche felt like his spirit was being tugged along by Rosa as she skipped ahead in front of him, still wide-eyed and taking in the city around her. He was excited to walk into some kind of gang war, ecstatic even. Someone had reported flashes of light in the alley along with people shouting to the police, and Officer Jenny had turned it over to FLARE based on the eyewitness accounts.
He trudged along, tugging at his red shirt. It was hot, that much was obvious, the sun's heat didn't stop at the first layer of his bandages.
Did he need them? Strictly speaking, no. Would he continue wearing them? As long as he could get away with it.
Rosa whirled to a stop at the mouth of the alley, one palm parallel to the ground and the other being used as a visor as she peered inside. Tencent ran up behind her and barked as it slid to a stop almost comically.
"Ooh, dark!"
It gave him an opportunity to catch up and look as well. Less than thirty feet off, the alley split, with the high-rises around it blocking it off from the sun entirely.
"Let's go!"
Blanche snagged the back of her collar as she tried to run off inside.
"We need to morph first. Serious business, remember?"
The adage, act your age, was left unsaid.
"Oh, right! Where should we do that?"
That was… a very good question. People and Pokémon were abundant, hundreds walking through the plaza and even a whole crowd passing behind them.
The morphers were bright, more so than a Pokéball's activation. They would surely attract attention in the middle of the street, or in a dark alley with no other light.
Blanche wasn't stupid, so he didn't suggest using a bathroom.
"Hey, there's a bathroom!"
He sighed as she grabbed his arm and dragged him off. "God damn it."
Two flashes of light in a family restroom and a surprised look from a gaggle of children later, Amaranth and Dahlia quickly ran into the alley.
"Right, boss lady, what's the deal?"
"Apprehend Rogue Espers, turn them over to the police. Standard procedure, prevent property damage, um, if you can."
That's not a good sign.
He looked over to Rosa, scanning behind her trying to find her partner.
"Where's Tencent?" He asked as they turned the corner.
From behind Rosa's neck, a green blob slipped out of her back. The only deviations from its form were two white eyes, only one with a pupil, and a red hexagon that just barely peaked out on its chest.
"He stays in my suit when we're not fighting! Like Sun Tzu said, when strong, appear weak. Professor Juniper said that aces are best kept up your sleeve. He also gives me some extra protection. It exponentiates my aura, I think the younger Professor Sycamore said."
"You've read The Art of War?" He asked, slightly incredulous, as they moved further into the network of alleys.
"Of course!
He checked around another corner for any oddities. Somewhere far off, he could hear an unbalanced pulse that beat almost like a drum.
"You didn't think I was some kind of a ditz, did you?" Her tone was almost sorrowful; He could practically hear the puppy-dog eyes.
"Well, no… I just didn't think you would read something like that."
"No one's actually read that book," she said offhandedly. "It's like, osmosis. Professor Juniper's really smart. It makes sense that you've read it though! You know a ton about tactics."
On one hand, for Christ's sake, they really needed to have that conversation about how FLARE really wasn't as cool as she thought it was, but on the other, depressing her would mean depressing her aura, something that really wouldn't be the best idea if the reports were right.
Blanche was about to turn a corner, heard a few people talking loudly, and nearly screeched to a stop. He held his arm out to stop Rosa without a word, peeking around the bend.
Five girls with heavy amounts of make-up, dyed hair, and some really mean-looking poodle-like Furfrou stood over another girl, who was black with ginger hair and wearing a jumpsuit of some kind.
Naturally, Blanche didn't and couldn't recognize her, because improbable coincidences only happened to protagonists, which he definitely wasn't, so the thought didn't enter his head.
"Bullying?" Rosa whispered, leaning around and below him.
One of the girls brought out a hair straightener, the kind with two bars that sizzled. A nearby puddle swirled off the ground, floating just between the two bars.
"You know I'm not just going to, like, forgive you for splashing mud on my Furfrou, right? Do you know how much styling costs?"
"I did apologize," the girl on the ground said, looking at the water sizzling in mid-air without a hint of fear. "And I gave you enough money."
The bleach-blonde at the front of the crowd reared back as if struck.
With a sickly sweet voice, she said, "You know what? You're right. Let's make that fee the charge for a session!"
Blanche clapped Rosa on the shoulder. "Hit the problem."
"Really hard!" Rosa let out her battle cry as she charged forward, leading feet first as she leaped into the air, shimmering with purple scales, and kicked the hair straightener out of the leader's hands.
She landed gracefully like a dancer as the bleach-blonde yowled and rubbed her hands, causing the battery-powered machine to clatter to the ground a few meters away and the water to splash down around their feet.
Rosa put her gloves on her hips, saying, "Hey! I'm Dahlia. Bullying is bad."
He walked around the corner, arms crossed. "Listen, how many of you are Espers? Because if you're using your powers for stuff like this, I think we're supposed to arrest you."
The group of girls backed against the opposite wall, huddling together, while the leader started snarling.
"You bitch! That was my allowance for today!"
Drops of water rose through the air, sharp like spikes.
Rosa did a little more than a full spin, catching the bleach-blonde in the stomach with her heel and knocking her to the ground. The water splashed back down, muddy enough to splatter brown across her face.
"We're FLARE!" She looked over them slowly, looking much more intimidating than she would have otherwise. "Anyone else? I haven't fought in like, a month."
Blanche shook his head. "If you don't do this again, we can leave this as a misdemeanor. Bullying is only illegal when it goes too far. So get out of here."
"But Amaranth!" Rosa whined.
"We don't fight unnecessarily." He turned to the group's leader. "Leave. Don't do this again."
The gaggle ran out of the alley, one of them shooting a glare at Rosa with her stained mascara and picking up her hair straightener. The Furfrou behind them barked as they followed their Trainers.
"Amaranth?"
He sighed as he looked at Aveline through the lab's receiver.
"Yeah, yeah, we're supposed to apprehend Espers, I know."
The girl against the wall stood up, calmly brushing the dirt off of her upper jumpsuit and fluffing out her hair.
"You alright?"
"Yes. I've been looking for FLARE, actually. Could I meet with your scientist? I remember her."
"That's the grunt from the Golurk Synchro Project," Aveline whispered in surprise.
"Oh. Uh, sure. Just head down to any of the plazas, find a secretary, ask to meet with Aveline Sycamore."
"Alright. Thank you both for your assistance."
Whately, the former grunt of Team Plasma, walked out of the alley and didn't look back.
Rosa, figuratively, was steaming at the ears, though the helmet was still black and green.
"Why didn't you arrest those girls?"
"One, I don't think I would enjoy punching out women, two, we'll know if they do it again anyway, three, they're really not a threat until they do something like that Bug-type Esper from back in January. Four, how do two people carry five?"
"I could have done it," Rosa said.
"We're not always supposed to fight, Dahlia."
"But…"
"That's how we do it in Kalos. It's not all ass-kicking, as much as I enjoy it. Hurting people unnecessarily is bad and I won't stand for it. We're FLARE, we protect as many people as possible. You can go all-out against another Anomaly if you need to, but most people and Pokémon can't take you in a straight fight."
"Do you really think I'm that strong?" She asked, bouncing back and onto her heels.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but yes. That's dangerous, Dahlia. You don't have any sense of restraint."
"Oh…"
God, I feel like an asshole.
He would have pinched the bridge of his nose, but the visor still covered his head.
"Next time there's more of a match for you, do whatever. But have mercy, alright?"
"If you say so, leader."
God damn it.
"I'm not the leader, Dahlia. I'm just the ideas guy. You want a leader, look as Serena. Between you and her, I think she has more aura and that's when she isn't hyperactive like you. Take some pointers."
He could have and would have continued, but a dozen footsteps came to a halt at the mouth of the alley.
The bleach-blonde from earlier pointed at them, mascara still trailing. Behind her, more girls and a bunch of meatheads (Who compared to Tierno, looked almost scrawny) were crowded, some slipping on boxing gloves and brass knuckles.
"There's the bitch and the giant washboard!"
Blanche sighed.
"Who do they think I am, Rue? Actually, don't answer that. Anyway, Dahlia, what I just said still applies. Hit the problems hard, but not too hard. Got it?"
She punched the air with her fist. "Got it!"
"Go wild."
…
Who knew ballet could allow someone to kick so much ass?
Rain pounded against the roofs of Little Kanto, booths outside having long since closed up at the first sign of inclement weather. The sky had turned to a dark gray as it slated liquid death upon them-
Well, that may have been an exaggeration on Blanche's part. It certainly wasn't fun for him, though, running through the rain for a quarter-hour just to get home from the card shop. He'd have stuck around someplace dry, but the shopkeeper he'd asked said that it wasn't forecasted to lighten up any time soon.
Trevor's spare poncho being a few sizes too small certainly didn't help either.
Ariel was there at the door in an instant, truly earning what little screen time she gets and ushered them in with concern clear on her face. With barely a word, she had Audino run up the stairs and return not a minute later with towels.
Pink, fluffy, and warm to the touch, they were Blanche and Trevor's saving grace.
She immediately set out cups for hot tea and started boiling water.
"Ariel, I don't think I can say enough how great you are," Blanche said, muffled as he tried to soak the water out of his bandages and into the towel.
Even with his vision filled with pink, he could tell she was smiling as she responded, "Oh, you don't have to say anything, I'm nothing special."
He settled his towel around his neck. "I couldn't disagree more. Trevor, back me up on this."
"You really don't need to…"
Trevor nodded, "Blanche is correct, you're a boon, Ariel, we're lucky to have you. Blanche especially."
In the literal sense, of course. Blanche had told them his supposed backstory a thousand times. Trevor couldn't possibly have meant anything else, that would be stupid.
"You know, we should probably start a fan club," Blanche offered to Trevor.
"That's really not necessary…"
"She most likely deserves it more than most celebrities."
"I really don't…"
"Definitely more than I do," Blanche agreed. "Though we'll need to keep certain rules of the internet away from it at all costs."
Ariel gave up on trying to deny it and sighed. "You're all a handful, I'll say that much." She set down a tray in front of them and sat down. Almost instantly, the kitchen became that much warmer, with a cozy heat settling over them.
Blanche slumped back and closed his eyes as he took a sip. "Great as always."
"It's all store bought, but thank you."
"Hey, I barely know what I'm doing with pasta when the instructions are printed on the back," he joked. "You making it is what adds flavor."
"That's a bit cliché, Blanche," Trevor reminded him as he stirred sugar into his cup.
"It is, isn't it? But in the same way that a Champion believes in the power of friendship or a King of Games believes in the heart of the cards, it's a cliché because it's true."
Ariel would have sputtered, but she had more grace than that.
Somewhere off in the mountains, their dorm mother sneezed while training her Rhyhorn, because even in retirement, the grind to be the best never ends. Her screen time was even more limited, this is likely all you'll see from her for a while.
"Now you're just embarrassing me," she complained with a light pout.
"And it's all deserved, I assure you," Blanche said. "God's gift to mankind, can I get an amen? Wait, never mind, that doesn't apply here."
News reports had caught the Anomaly before FLARE did, funnily enough. Forecasters called it a result of wind patterns and Grass-types coming into full bloom, business as usual.
However, when the cloud of pollen grew like an invasive plant, creeping through the forests at an incredible rate, it was obvious enough that they had to be called in.
Blanche and Shauna were selected, as Rosa herself admitted that she couldn't think around problems she couldn't punch, while Serena's abilities would be far too destructive the suburbs that lay outside of the walled city of Lumiose-3.
A miasma of yellow-green had settled over the neighborhood, mostly comprised of similar two-story houses. Little dust particles hung in the air.
Shauna scratched at the sealed neck of her suit, the modification being easy even with the limitations of her morpher that came with its stability. She blended in well with the air, and Blanche made a mental note to keep careful watch of their position as he checked his neck compartment for his pocketknife.
Oddly enough, she hadn't complained that they'd been partnered up for the mission. Yet, anyway.
"Inhabitants have already evacuated, find the Anomaly at the source of the pollen cloud and knock it out. Horde encounters with Grass-types are expected, your Aural Shell Bolters will be useful. Keep damage to a minimum, please."
Blanche held up what was essentially a paintball gun. It was designed to be used one-handed but using both couldn't hurt. It was blocky and plasticky, with flame decals along the sides. Some of Clemont's creativity slipping in, no doubt.
"Yes, ma'am," he murmured, scanning the empty street outside the station. The conductor had been annoyed to take two passengers when he'd expected no business on the route, right up until they showed their direct order from FLARE.
He had a kid at home, they signed a little hat that he kept for her when it was bring-your- daughter-to-work day, and the MagLev sped off without a second thought.
"Isn't it kind of weird that we're micro-celebrities?" He asked, holding the bolter up and scanning the empty streets. "I really feel like the police and nurses do a lot more than us."
"We're the people the police call in when they can't handle something, m- dummy. And we're like, limited edition cards." She paused. "I mean, uh, that's how Trevor would describe it."
He snorted. "Just admit you're a nerd like the rest of us and get on with it."
"Shut up!" Lightning crackled around her, but immediately fell to a low buzz as it snapped against pollen spores. Electricity diffused around her instead of turning her into a tesla plasma ball.
Blanche heard a whooshing sound down a side street and looked away. He immediately leveled his bolter in the general direction, just past a postal box.
Two huge blades of grass cut through the pollen, just barely swiping past his head and crashing into the picket fences behind him.
"Down!" He shouted as he jumped behind a lamppost.
Shauna did the same at the other corner, leaning out slightly and frantically pointing into the yellow haze.
Another blade flew towards them, cutting through Shauna's cover and sending sparks shooting off into the street as the pole clattered to the concrete.
A high-pitched screech emanated from the cloud of pollen, and Blanche saw a bluish rope recede back into the haze.
"T-tentacles?" Shauna asked hesitantly.
He fired a few shots towards where the tentacle came from. "And it's aiming for you. Don't get a nosebleed."
"I would never- Shut up, pervert!"
A forest of blue vines shot out of the pollen, crawling through the concrete at a breakneck pace.
Blanche jumped out of cover, shooting his bolter wildly, sending the vines on the retreat. They withered on contact with each Shell-dust paintball, rooting to the ground there and then.
CLAP CLAP CLAP.
Another high-pitched screech came through the cloud, closer than before.
Blanche felt a static creep into the air, and dodged out of the way as a coin blasted past him on a wide cone of electricity.
The cone widened into a flat plane, fading away and sending the coin clinking along without any force.
"Your electricity-"
"It's diffusing, I know!" Shauna unlatched her bolter from her waist, shooting ahead of them.
The full mass of the Anomaly entered into view, a towering collection of vines wrapped around a body of total darkness.
"It's a mutated Tangrowth! Use Fire and Flying-type attacks!"
"Sorry, I didn't exactly bring a flamethrower," he grunted as he stepped away from a sweeping vine. He slipped his pocket knife out of his neck compartment, flicking it open and holding it reversed under his shooting arm. "Rue, would you happen to have a spare?"
"Where would I keep it?" She yelled back, trying to dodge away from a vine. It shot forward, wrapping around her leg and sweeping her into the air. "Ah! Mummy, you better take responsibility for this!"
"Rue's vitals are dropping!"
"God damn it, I said not to get a nosebleed!"
He dashed across the street, a whirlwind that cut through vines too thin to resist and shot to wither away those that remained. He pressed his bolter to the base of the vine that was whipping her around.
CLAP CLAP CLAP.
Blanche kept shooting until it was completely separated.
Shauna fell to the ground with a bump, just a bit too far away for him to catch her. Given that it was Shauna, trying to catch her wouldn't have ended well in the first place.
Vines completely covered the street as he ran towards the Tangrowth, stamping down any tentacles that tried to rise and dodging past the larger ones, slapping them with his knife.
"I'm a tactician, you bastard!" He plunged the knife through the main mass, turning it down with the blade facing towards him. "Not a Goddamned berserker!" He ripped outwards, utterly ruining his knife but leaving a gaping hole in the exterior, which he quickly filled with his bolter. "I don't fight in melee for a reason!"
CLAP CLAP CLAP.
The Tangrowth stopped screeching, the white eyes that peeked out at him closing as its screeching quieted to a whine and then to silence.
He pulled his arm out, shaking off the sap that had leaked from the exterior tentacles.
Luckily for his conscience, Grass-types usually had a main body that was linked to more traditional plant matter, but in the same way that the human scalp is connected to hair. The most he could've done to the Tangrowth in actuality is give it a bruise with the paintballs.
Blanche looked back at Shauna, dripping with white sap that the pollen clung to like velcro.
"Talk about a golden shower, am I right?"
The beginning of a sentence leaked into Shauna's audio uplink, but in front of him, she started gesticulating wildly in silence before finally stopping, then settling on a loud, yet simple facepalm.
Gin burped and slammed his half-empty mug down on the bar. Jazz music had just started up on the jukebox, and people were filing into the cool cantina after a day in the sun for a nice, midsummer night.
"So, fellas," Gin shook his hands out with his eyes closed, gesticulating as he began, "This summer's been pretty nice, hasn't it? Loads of fights, no school, man, it's just like back in the day. Ain't it, Russ?"
"Doesn't get much better than that," the karate kid said, sipping a cup of just ice.
"Ah, but it does. Blanche, my man, hear me out."
"Alright," our bandage babe said, taking a long drink.
"So, I was doing my thing, cruisin' around the city, pretty late in the afternoon, but then I hear some screeching, right? Like a Banette, I tell ya."
Russ shuddered, but Gin continued.
"There was this huge crowd'a preppy types and some punks surrounding this girl in an alley. Now, I don't usually step in during the day, cause that's FLARE's thing, but then this one girl pulled out a hair straightener, and-"
"Hey, I've seen this one before," Blanche said, pointing at nothing in particular.
Gin gave him an odd look. "Nah, man, I don't think I told ya. So, what this other girl does is step back and kick the other girl right in the jaw, man," Gin's eyes freaking fluttered, Blanche could swear, "I think I fell in love right there. That ginger hair, that jumpsuit, that kick- Man, you shoulda seen it!"
"Are you going to tell him what happened afterward?" LaRusso asked, with a look that made clear he'd heard it too many times before.
"Ah, well, I put my mask on and jumped in. There was one dude with a bat, but that was easy. Furfrou got mean bites, though, let me tell ya. One guy had a Scrafty, and those are Fightin'-types too, but I gave as good as I got."
"And then…"
"Well, there I was," Gin shook his shoulders, "All suave and cool after knocking out the last dude, and I look over to this girl, and man, her skin was like those jasper rocks you see in museums, practically shinin' in the sun-"
"Get on with it," LaRusso said, irritated.
"Right, so I look over at her, and I did this." Gin took off his glasses and ran a hand through his hair. "And I'm like, wassup, you're cool as hell, can I get your digits?"
"And?"
"She gave 'em to me, man! She's all like, whoa, Gin, you're pretty cool. I bet I could beat you in a fight, let's spar sometime-"
"What he means is, she said she'd be alright with coffee," LaRusso said.
"And she walks off, saying something about looking for FLARE." Gin sighed, sinking back in his seat with a dopey smile.
"...So did you ever call her?" Blanche asked, utterly dumbfounded at that point. Gin wasn't a bad guy by any means, he was just a little prone to violence. Like Rosa. Yeah, that's a good comparison.
"Ah, I don't wanna bore you guys with the details…"
Blanche slammed his hands on the table, thinking about doing the same with his head. "You brought it up!"
The jazz music started kicking up in the background, a rhythm kicking in as if backing up Gin's words.
A whole crowd of punks, similarly dressed to the greaser, all slid up to the bar, crowding around him in an instant.
"Yeah, man, you gotta give us the deets!"
"She anything like you, boss?"
"How much ass can she kick?"
Gin held up his hands, sliding out of his chair and taking off his glasses. And rather than walking off, he took a step back up onto the barstool.
"If you fall, I'm not catching you," Blanche deadpanned.
Gin called out over the crowd of punks, "Summer loving, havin' a blast…"
Blanche looked up. "Summer loving? You're joking. Did it happen so fast?"
Gin pointed out across the punks, hopping onto the bar to the reaction of absolutely nothing from the bartenders. So much for sanity. "I met a girl, crazy for me…"
"And she must have thought he's cute as can be!" One of the punks shouted.
"Yeah, dat's our boss! Propa respect!"
Blanche leaned over to LaRusso, "Since when is he a gang leader?"
"Summer days, driftin' away to, oh, these midsummer nights…"
"We beat up a lot of people in our spare time," LaRusso said, crunching down on an ice cube. "Defeat means friendship and all that."
The punks vibrated and moved like an ocean as Gin jumped from the bar and onto a recently vacated table.
"tell me more, tell me more, did ya get very far?"
"Is there anything beside trains in this city?" Blanche had only seen personal vehicles outside and on the outskirts, where the MagLevs didn't run.
"I don't know, around here there aren't any cars," LaRusso said.
"She walked by me, and her leg got a cramp… I played it cool, I ain't just a scamp!"
Gin snapped towards a punk standing near the jukebox, and the volume nearly doubled.
"I saved her life, she nearly fell…"
Blanche snorted into his drink, before laughing it off and thinking, ah, I'll have some fun, what the hell?
"Summer sun, something's begun, these, oh, these midsummer-"
The door to the cantina slammed open, with Lenore huffing and holding her ears as she walked through everyone else.
"Geniévre! What the hell have I told you about starting musical numbers so late in the evening? I can hear you from my house!"
"Oh, damn! It's the boss lady!" One of the greasers shouted, waving his arms towards the exit. "Scram, fellas!"
Gin just waved and stood his ground (well, table), cementing his position in the eyes of his followers.
Blanche collapsed onto the bar, laughing so hard it had become silent gasping for breath. The Pokémon world was insane, but you know what? It was also pretty nice sometimes.
In late July, the RKS-2 satellite reported an oddly shaped meteor approaching the Earth at low speeds. Worryingly, it seemed to be self-propelled, having a tail that was not unlike that of a comet, but its trajectory was too straight to be restrained by the sun's gravity
There was a light show that night in Lumiose-3, as the meteor approached the ozone layer and was obliterated by Rayquaza. Remnants continued to fall, and though those too were vaporized by Hyper Beams, a smaller chunk landed in the east Kalosian mountain range just outside of the Dendemille city limits.
It was a sleepy little town that still managed to have cool air even in summer, but it was clearly disturbed by the smoking crater that lay across the river.
Blanche and Serena were dispatched with Shauna and Rosa in reserve. The onboard Aura Reader hadn't detected a field, but they were sent to check to ease safety concerns.
The earth was clearly disturbed as they arrived early in the morning, Blanche only slightly cranky about being woken up so early only to take an hour ride without being allowed to nap. Apparently, slacking on public transport would've reflected poorly on FLARE.
The two crossed the bridge, both of them clicking buttons on the sides of their helmets and illuminating the dark forest. His head swiveled like a turret, constantly looking for anything strange as they approached the source of the smoke, while Serena took heavy steps onto the mud-splattered path.
Trees started leaning at lower and lower angles as they moved through the forest, cracked at the same low points on their trunks. A blasted heath grew into the forest, the grass becoming brighter and lusher, but their sheen was almost radioactive.
Serena stopped as they approached further. "Amaranth, there is an Anomaly in the earth five meters ahead. There's some sort of field countering my own."
There was a faint whirring coming from just ahead. Clicks and hisses broke up the monotonous buzz.
"Alright." He started walking again. "Let's investigate."
Half-embedded in a crater of dried mud, a bluish cube sputtered, the top nine dice that it was constructed of attempting to turn against the dirt.
Serena stopped, dropping to the earth for a moment on instinct, but then moved to pick it up with her own two hands.
"Stop." Blanche held up an arm. "It's almost never a good idea to touch weird space rocks."
It was somewhere between a tesseract and a puzzle cube, the bluish glow it gave off reminiscent of LED lights. Between the cracks, however, it was pitch black.
"I'll try. If it's countering your aura, it might not react to me."
"Amaranth, you yourself said that it could be dangerous," Aveline reminded him. "And, well, we all agree. It can't be an Aural Shell derivative, wherever that came from wouldn't have what's required."
"What's required?" He asked off-handedly, kneeling to look closer.
"Well, um, that's classified…"
She looked away from the feed sheepishly.
"But it's an element that can only be found on Earth."
"Huh."
That's probably a subplot thing, he noted. Luckily, main character gal gets to deal with that and not me.
"Should I poke it?"
Aveline put a finger to her cheek in thought. "...I suppose."
Blanche poked the weird space cube.
Weird space cube used Float-and-Spin-Really-Fast.
Blanche jumped back as the glowing puzzle started trying to solve itself, quickly growing brighter and brighter.
Serena backed away, suddenly collapsing like a puppet cut from strings.
"My aura is gone," she whispered, weakly standing up. "I don't understand."
Blanche's Infinity Battery continued whirring as he rushed over to her, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. He muttered a few swears inaudibly. "Tell me when your aura comes back, and then stay out of its field." He glanced back at the Anomaly as it began rising higher and higher into the air. He wouldn't need to move her at that rate.
A machine that cancels aura? Theories and hypotheses started running through his head. Tubes of light rose from in between the cracks, overlaying itself with glowing threads.
Blanche didn't feel any effects. Was that because his field was artificial?
"Amaranth, are you and Geranium unable to pursue?"
"No. Just her." He let go of her next to a rocky outcropping, got a running start, pulled himself up a tree, scaring an inquisitive Pansage in the process, and jumped onto the cube like it was a fumbled football.
It whirred harder under the sudden weight, dropping a few feet before it started burning brighter than before, rising even higher and beyond the treeline.
Blanche clenched his body tighter, touching his knees to his elbows to contain the Anomaly.
Augustine cut across the communications line, "Amaranth, what exactly are you doing?"
"Containing the Anomaly." He started listing towards the sun as the cube shot through the air, dragging him along. "So, uh," he laughed awkwardly, "Any chance there's a prototype parachute Gear?"
"...Your best shot is to use DIVE when over a lake."
Clemont appeared from the side of her feed, poking his head in. "I'm actually working on a modification that will work in low-pressure environments, but, well, no prototype yet."
Blanche looked down at the specks that were the countryside's residents as the cube took him away from Kalos, towards the Atlantic.
"I don't know what I was thinking," he cursed. "Rotten luck."
They did eventually manage to get him down before the sun set that evening. Being able to pilot a helicopter is very useful in the field, as well as Shauna being able to manipulate air currents as long as they're contained by an electromagnetic field (As such, she'd been given a rather large battery with an emitter). It was quite an adventure.
The Anomaly just kept chugging along as Blanche unclenched his aching body and dropped out of its AIAM-canceling field. Shauna caught him just below, maneuvered him into the vehicle's open door, and upon realizing he was practically catatonic, laid him across the metal bench she was seated; An act of kindness so, ahem, shocking, that Blanche wasn't sure if he wasn't hallucinating from the lack of oxygen. The DIVE Gear used what was around it, meaning it couldn't pull oxygen out of literally thin air.
Blanche was perched on the fence between not being scared of heights at all and being mentally crippled by the idea of a tall cliff. He really couldn't tell.
That had been one hell of a debriefing, for sure. The Professor was in awe of his dedication in all the worst ways, and told him if he didn't care about himself enough to stop and think before jumping onto a weird floating space rock, then maybe he was in the wrong profession.
Naturally, he wasn't called in for a while after that. Ariel was glad to have him around the house more, as he hadn't much else to do that summer.
Blanche was slightly skilled at handiwork. And whatever they put in the food in the Pokémon world, it built people out of granite. Aside from the AIAM fields, most people could pick up things they had no business carrying with just a bit of effort, such as refrigerators.
Blanche isn't most people, so naturally, he had to work for it. Now, he knew basic exercises were great for building muscle, but that's why they were basic. He's also something of an idiot, and immediately sought out the most difficult and power-building routine he could.
Tierno brought him to his dance studio but he was so far past embarrassed that it went back around and it canceled out.
The groups were divided by pretty clear lines, but none of them were gender. Plenty of dudes were in the classical (ballet?) dancing group, and plenty of girls were in the breakdancing group.
"I still don't think I look good in tights," Blanche said, pulling at the stretchy fabric. He could see himself clearly in the studio's mirrors, along with the other groups as they ran drills. His bandages were unrestricting, they had to be when they covered his whole body, but a simple white tee still covered them.
"You look great, B-meister, don't worry about it!" Tierno clapped him on the back with a laugh, unknowingly sending our bandage babe in chief stumbling forward. "So, are you more into breakdancing or ballet? Breakdancing builds more upper body muscles, and ballet builds core and lower body. They're both still really fun though, so don't let that determine your choice."
Blanche poked his own stomach. He wasn't scrawny, but he lacked definition.
"I want abs."
You and everyone else, mummy-man.
"Ballet it is." Tierno cupped a hand around his mouth and waved the ballet captain over. "Hey, Marie!"
A wiry girl with a platinum blonde ponytail stopped the dance drills for the moment, dismissing the ballet dancers for water before she jogged over.
"Hey, T. How can I help you?"
"This is my friend, Blanche," he said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Blanche gave a small wave, totally out of his element. Not that he had one, of course, but the sentiment stands. "Uh, hello."
"You mind adding him to your team for the next production? He's a total beginner, but he's got a bit of lean muscle on him."
She turned to him with a stern look. "So, you think you've got what it takes for ballet?"
"Willing to learn," he stammered out.
"Huh. Well, you've got the build. You're not stocky, but you're not scrawny, either. What Pokémon do you have to be your dance partner?"
"That's required?"
Marie hummed and crossed her arms. "Beginner indeed. Well, I suppose you can start with the basic movements until you find one. For now, come over here and introduce yourself…"
"Alright, great news, everyone!"
It wasn't exactly an emergency meeting, except that it totally was as well as the middle of the afternoon. Augustine had called them in on incredibly short notice, just as Blanche was getting into his (recently developed over the last couple of weeks) exercise routine and his Holo Caster started blaring in the middle of the studio. LADY had somehow gotten into it, turned his volume to maximum, and set off the most aggravating alarm he'd ever heard.
Shauna was clearly annoyed by his state of dress, as he hadn't time to change and she kept side-eyeing him as the Professor explained why he'd called them all on short notice.
Rosa seemed to recognize it though, giving him a thumbs-up and a bright smile. At least he could get along with one of his teammates.
Augustine tapped him on the forehead, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Hey, you still here?"
"Don't mind me, just zoned out."
"Well, listen up because, for this operation, we have special parameters!"
Rosa tilted her head. "What's a parameter?"
"It's like a parachute, but in metric."
Shauna slapped Blanche upside the head.
"I mean, uh, it's one of the goals that something has to meet. Shouldn't you know what that means?"
Rosa shrugged. "Professor Juniper just told me when I needed to hit stuff. That's all I listened to, anyway."
"Alright everyone, let's bring it back in," Augustine chuckled. "There's been a pair of Anomalies messing with electronics throughout Kalos. A Plusle and Minun. They were first sighted in Coumarine Town earlier this summer, but they've been spotted anywhere a MagLev train can take you. Unfortunately, their range is a bit further than just off the tracks."
The Professor unclipped the brochure from his clipboard, flashing the picture on the front cover to them. A magnificent palace decked out in ivory and gold, surrounded by sculpted hedges and beautiful orchards.
"The residents of one of Kalos's most wondrous landmarks, our very own Parfum Palace, reported the Anomaly as a minor nuisance to the authorities, who quickly identified it as something beyond their pay grade."
Blanche asked, "It's just a Plusle and Minun?"
"There's no just with those two, dummy," Shauna mumbled.
"Shauna's been dispatched to deal with them multiple times," Serena reminded him in the nearly omnipresent dull tone.
"I know, but… is that really an emergency?" Blanche still didn't believe that they needed him from this.
"Parfum Palace is the home of the Kalosian royal family," Augustine said, leaning back with his hands in his pockets. "And though they have very little political power, you can do the math."
Record scratch.
Kalos was, as you can tell from Blanche's name, based on France.
France didn't have a royal family in modern times.
"...Does the word "guillotine" mean anything to anyone here?"
"It's a mid-tier one-hit-knock-out move on Smogon," Michael said automatically, not even looking away from the computer.
"Never mind, then."
"As well, you must not manipulate your AIAM fields under any circumstances."
Another record scratch, slightly higher pitched.
"What? Why?" Shauna shot into the air like a rocket. "How are we supposed to fight?"
"Properly applied ballet lessons," Rosa said under her breath before giggling.
Blanche is, as you well know, stuck in the crazy house.
"The Kalosian royal family has always had close ties with the Helixian church, and as such, they don't believe humans were meant to have aura beyond what their Lord Helix intended. If you use any of your abilities, it could-"
"Cause a scandal," Blanche said at the same time. Augustine gave him a simple nod. "Fantastic. Next, you'll be telling me that I can't use my Gear."
"As a matter of fact…"
God damn it.
"It's a very, very treasured landmark, and let's just say the Gear you prefer isn't the most conservative in regards to property damage."
"...Can we use our bolters?"
"No. In fact, you'll be partnering up with Pokémon."
That just doesn't make any sense, he thought. FLARE purposefully used Espers instead of normal Pokémon. It was a political thing, and most Anomalous Pokémon couldn't be swayed to their side anyway.
"What kind of Pokémon?"
"In fact, the three I entrusted to Mrs. Grace and you all earlier this year."
Let's see, cute, cuddly, and curious. Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. But why those three? They definitely weren't strong, they weren't even trained.
"What are the politics behind that?" Blanche had just resigned himself to his fate at that point.
"It's what you call a Galarian person taking a good look at something." The Professor pointed at him, then snapped. "Propaganda! We need to make FLARE look like we're made up of people and Pokémon, and good ones at that. Violence solves most of our problems here, but not all of them, and very few outside of battles. I'm sure you can infer the optimal solution."
"Cute and cuddly plus public service plus helping the Kalosian royal family is equal to some really good PR?"
"Glad you could figure that out for yourself. Now, get moving everyone."
The four Rangers started leaving for the airlock. "
And Blanche, before you go."
He turned mid-step, only stumbling a little. "Uh, yeah?"
The Professor held out a letter sealed with a red wax seal, imprinted with some sort of tree. "Would you mind delivering this to Princess Zatherina?"
What kind of name is that?
"Okay. FLARE documents, I assume?"
The Professor laughed awkwardly, shoving the letter further in his face. "Ah, no, but I'd still appreciate it if you delivered it instead of anyone else. She has a soft spot for pretty boys; I would know."
Blanche pinched the bridge of his nose. "Professor, why can't you keep it in your pants?"
"Please, Blanche?"
He swiped the letter, mentally making a note to store it properly after they morphed.
"Thank you. Oh, and remember to get your partners and their Pokéballs from Ms. Grace."
"Obviously. But I thought they weren't our partners…"
The Professor winked at him conspiratorially.
"No, of course, they're not. I haven't decided who to give them to next year, after all."
Parfum Palace was more magnificent in person, which contrasted with his bizarre expectations. Rather than being dingy and run-down, it was immaculate and the marble pillars practically shined in the sun. Rather than a gravel trail through the forest and uncut plains, it seemed like the garden went on for miles and miles as they walked down a paved brick road. And rather than meeting some guy who ran a tourist trap, they were greeted by a pair of guardsmen and a lady in a white and purple gown at the second set of gilded gates.
There's really no understating how few princess archetypes there are, as the woman that greeted them seemed to fit all at once.
"Gentlemen, stand down. I will greet our… esteemed guests."
Posh, arrogant, condescending; those descriptors surely fit the blonde woman before them.
"You all must know who I am, naturally. But for manners' sake, I am Enzirica Azoth, first in line to inherit the crown."
Again, what kind of name is that? His deal with being called white in French wasn't even close to that egregious.
Blanche was thankful that his expression was hidden by his helmet. Chespin was standing next to him and didn't react in the slightest, so he took that as an example of solidarity.
Serena was the first of them to kneel, almost automatically upon the introduction. Fennekin was not easily shocked and lowered itself on its front paws.
Shauna came quickly after, only panicking slightly along with Froakie.
Tencent barked, but was quickly quieted when Rosa kneeled, a surprising show of humility if anything else.
Blanche had forgotten how chivalry in the archaic sense worked, and as such didn't kneel as much as trip when he realized how much he stood out.
"Well met, citizens." She sniffed, ticking off yet another box on the list of character traits. "I see that some of you are less aware than others, but I expected nothing less from people of your caliber. Stand and I shall direct you to where the problem is."
Blanche was again the last one to get a clue, but he quickly caught up. He stepped back in line as the princess led them through the gates and towards the palace proper, whispering, "Geranium, you deal with the talking, I don't think I'm cut out for formalities."
Then he remembered who he was talking to.
"Actually, Rue-"
Then he remembered who he was talking to.
"Well, uh, Dahlia-"
Then he, well, you get the point. Maybe the irrational self-loathing would come in handy and make him look humble.
They went through the interior relatively quickly, as it wasn't a pleasure visit. The murals and paintings were still quite impressive, depicting ancient battles of man and Pokémon clashing, with little in between. Humans used swords, Pokémon used claws. He was by no means a trained artist, but in some of the paintings, the paint around a certain person had been layered over. It was always the man that carried the battle standard or wore the crown atop a throne. Salt and pepper hair, dark-skinned in contrast to the pale princess, but remarkably young looking. Though, on second thought, that certainly could have been a bias on the part of the commissioner.
The princess led them to a patio, though to call it a simple patio would be to call a mountain a molehill. It looked out over a valley of hedge mazes and statues, though…
Were those mustaches drawn with a permanent marker?
Princess Enzirica sighed haughtily and gestured to one of her uniformed escorts, who immediately handed her a handkerchief.
"So tragic, two tiny little Pokémon causing so much damage. Unfortunately, they have an almost anomalous preference for avoiding patrols, they've been unable to catch them."
All I see are the results of a prank.
Blanche's eyebrow twitched. He had an attitude, sure, but he wasn't that arrogant. Other than assuming he knew himself better than he really did, of course.
I'm never letting the Professor's crotch dictate where we work again- Oh, God, I wish that image wasn't in my head.
"Uh, my lady," that was the right word, right? Right. "I have a letter from Professor Sycamore." Blanche kneeled and he held out the letter, looking at the floor in spite of his current situation.
She took the letter without another word and opened it.
Blanche wasn't sure why the princess squawked in anger, but he suddenly remembered that letter was probably addressed to her sister.
"That… commoner…"
He glanced up, only to see the princess clenching the letter in rage and shaking.
"I believe… I need to talk with my second-most-dear younger sister about whom she keeps company with." She mechanically turned to one of her guardsmen, eyes turned to slits though maintaining a terse smile. "One of you must remain here to guide our… guests. You, come with me."
The princess stormed off, and the uniformed man left behind scratched the back of his head.
"Dang, kid, what was in that letter?"
Blanche facepalmed, but the sweet release was denied to him by his visor.
Damn it, Professor…
The guardsman led them to one of the hedge mazes, where the path allegedly traced the outline of a Talonflame, who once upon a time had been used in scouting operations and burning farmlands to cease enemy advance during war times, as well as…
Blanche really didn't care about the history. It was interesting, sure, but he'd also heard it during history class. Though somehow, the royal family still being a thing had never been mentioned. Perhaps it was learned so early in Trainer School that they just skipped it during review classes.
"The Plusle and Minun seem to enjoy laying traps. I'm sure people like you don't need it, but I would advise it." The guardsman walked to the side of the entrance, standing resolutely like a statue.
"Alright, game plan. Plusle and Minun are Electric-types, I know that much, and… oh, yeah, no Esper abilities or property damage."
"Got it in one," Augustine said over Aveline's shoulder.
"Hey, Professor, what was in that letter?" Shauna asked as the sound of shouting traveled over the valley from the upper balconies of the palace.
Augustine waved them off in their view, clearly not having heard the background noise. "Oh, just some personal things."
"I think I gave it to her sister by accident," Blanche said.
Augustine then pulled a Blanche, which is to say, he blanched. "You… you what?"
Never have I seen someone so properly deserving of poetic justice.
"I think she's a little mad now."
"Aveline, I'm going on a business trip effective immediately. If the police show up at your door with a royal decree for my arrest, you know nothing."
Who is she, Jon Snow?
Aveline groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Yes, Dad…"
As the airlock quickly opened and shut, Blanche looked around at the other Rangers.
"Can I just say that he probably deserves to get arrested?"
"For once, Mummy, I think I agree with you," Shauna said thoughtfully.
"Ooh, what was in the letter? Was it steamy? Was it-"
"Dahlia!" Shauna shouted.
"What?"
"That's our boss and the princess you're talking about, you can't just-"
"Imply that when they get a quiet moment, they totally-"
"I believe we're on a time limit," Serena said, cutting across them. "The Anomalies likely won't stay put for long."
"Yeah, that," Blanche added. "Michael, any battle tips?"
"Plusle and Minun only fight in pairs. That will make catching them easier, but battle more difficult."
"Catching… do we just knock them out?"
"You are authorized to use Pokéballs, though they are keyed to the Professor and none of you individually."
Aveline added, "They don't seem to have strong AIAM fields, so Pokéballs should work. They seem to be Anomalous in the sense of their intelligence, rather than strength."
"So they're as smart as Rue?"
Hey!"
"Ah, right, that's an insult to them, never mind."
The eight entered the hedge maze, spreading out along the bends and splintering off into pairs. Chespin balanced himself on Blanche's shoulders as he jogged through, looking for anything strange. He passed a few graffitied statues of similar, but markedly different Talonflame.
"Anomaly spotted!" Rosa cheered as she ran after a spot of yellow, blue, and red, Tencent just ahead but keeping pace.
The Plusle went left at the next bend, and the Minun went right.
"Go after one, splitting up will only scatter us. Aveline, do we have real-time satellite imaging?"
"Accessing RKS-2…"
Another window popped up in his view, showing the greater Kalos region, before zooming in to the forests and a clearing, and further into the gardens of Parfum Palace.
They'd started at the literal tail end of the Talonflame. Shauna had taken the immediate left, and by the look of it, traced along that wall until she was nearing its legs. Serena had gone straight along with Rosa, though the latter branched off. Blanche had taken the right side in a sort of mirror move.
Rosa chose to chase after the Plusle, nearing the center of the maze, while a speck of blue was circumventing this, traveling towards the same bend from the opposite direction.
"Shauna, close in, take the next right, the next left, then two rights after that, and you should be in the right spot. Serena, take your next left, then right, the left. We'll close in around the fountain."
"Fine- No, Froakie, this way! No, not that way-"
"Right. Fennekin, with me."
A small 'yip' traveled through Serena's mic.
"Clemont, can I fly yet? That's not technically an aura ability."
"Still working on it, I'm afraid. I watched a show about it, it's the one about mechs named after clouds. The future is still the future, but it will soon be now, thanks to-"
Michael clocked Clemont in the jaw without even looking up. "Not next to LADY."
Clemont stood up and rubbed his jaw, but otherwise seemed fine.
"Chespin, we're going to loop around from the top and cut them off. Hold on tight."
"Ches."
Having long legs certainly helped him move faster, and watching himself move on the satellite feed certainly helped. He could guess at everyone's velocities as they neared the middle, lining up the likely turns.
The Plusle and Minun met back up though kept running around the circle, somehow outrunning Tencent-
"Dahlia, are they using electricity to skate?"
"Yep."
"Huh. Rue, get on practicing that when we're done here."
"Shut- Actually, that's not a bad idea. You know what? I will!"
Blanche really should've been paying closer attention to where he was running, because as he entered the inner sections of the maze, his leg met a tiny Electric-type and sent it flying, while sending him to the ground with a sudden shock.
"Ow! Chespin, Vine Whip!"
The Grass-type looked down at him with confusion as Plusle landed near the fountain. "Ches?"
Of course, he hasn't learned that yet. Damn it, Professor.
Minun used Thundershock on Chespin, blowing him away and sending him into a hedge bush.
Blanche pushed himself up, stumbled, and landed flat on the Electric-type.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Someone- Ow. Use- Ow. Pokéball- Ow. Access? Ow."
Two red and white Pokéballs dropped down next to him, and he grabbed one as quickly as he could before bringing it to his chest. A small weight disappeared from under him in a low flash of red light.
It clicked a few shakes later.
"Just my luck. The first Pokémon I catch is all about negativity." Blanche rolled off the metal ball, clicking it to let the Minun back out in a flash of white.
He kneeled down next to it as the others arrived. It was really disoriented, looking around wildly.
"Listen, we don't want to hurt you, but you're causing a lot of trouble. Tell your friend to come here and-"
Minun dashed off.
Blanche clicked his Pokéball again and returned it.
He let Minun out again.
"No fighting."
"Miiiiiine," it groaned, falling on its face and letting out a puff of air.
Plusle ran back into the clearing, Shauna with a knocked-out Froakie in her arms on its tail. It saw Minun on its front next to Blanche and ran over on its tiny legs.
"Plus?"
"Mine."
"Plus plus."
"Mine, mine mine mine. Un…"
The Plusle held up its arms, gesturing for something.
It was rather humorous to Blanche given the size, but he held out the other Pokéball.
Plusle willingly belly-flopped onto it, disappearing in a flash of light, before Blanche clicked it again.
"I think we're done here, then," Blanche nodded.
Chespin walked over, blank-faced, and shook both Pokémon's hands.
He rubbed his chest, still feeling a sharp tingle from jumping on what was essentially a car battery. "Heh, I have a feeling I have a new scar to tell stories about."
And that was the series of events that preceded Blanche's second semester.
"You're staring," Blanche told Gin.
Rosa sat to Ariel's left, one of the few open seats. People switched out of Trainer Schools like they were revolving doors, either to move to less of a hotspot for crazy or taking apprenticeships to get a Trainer License early.
With an emphasis on each syllable, "Humina humina," Gin murmured.
"Don't you have a girlfriend?"
"Humina- Uh, well, uh… I can browse the aisles, can't I?"
Blanche just sighed. So much for a lack of drama.
