BREAKING: Savagery on the Grass Continent – HAPPI endorsed Guild burned to ground in chilling hate crime

The Blackthorn guild on the Grass Continent was burned down last night, reportedly the result of a hate crime against off-continent rescue administrations.

"We left to get our supply shipments from the Waterport, because that's where you go if you want to buy in bulk from a legal seller," Helioptile explains. "It's two days' trip. When we came back, we learned from some of the townsmon that the building had burned down, and by the time the fire was noticeable, it was already too late to save it. You can't really understand what it's like to suddenly lose everything in one fell swoop until it's happened to you."

The guild would have been the first on the continent to sign a contract with HAPPI, allowing off-continent rescue forces to officially establish themselves on the Grass Continent for the first time. Amid stubborn resistance on the part of Treasure Town and the Rescue Federation, it is unclear when another opportunity like Blackthorn might arise.

~ This story originally appeared on the Cloud Nine News Network

~\({O})/~

42.

Cloud Nine: The Landing

~\({O})/~

The Hut On Stilts

~Amadeus~

Some days, Amadeus remembered playing ball in the cold on Grass, a continent covered by farmland and produce. And yet, there was little to eat. The farmers didn't own the farms. The Kecleon Foundation did. The produce grown on that land was carried off into boats and taken to lands far away, where they would be eaten by pokemon no-mon on Grass was likely to ever meet. There were many faraway lands, but the most grand of them was called Paradise. And oh, with all the nice things that were sent there, it must have been paradise! After the ball had been packed away but before the sun had set, sometimes Amadeus and his friends would talk about what they'd do when they grew up and sailed off to those faraway lands. His friends' answers changed by the day, but his always stayed the same: He was going to go live in a large palace where it was hot all year around, and do nothing but eat all day.

A cold winter came, bringing snow and hail, and there was even less food than usual. That year, the villages and farmers of Grass realized they could no longer rely on the husks of organizations like the Rescue Federation or towns like Treasure Town to make up the difference anymore. Those who could not make do on Grass decided to try their luck in other continents instead. So many that year travelled to Paradise. To be getting instead of giving, to do something other than till soil and plant seeds. To live a rich life. Amadeus' family were some of those pokemon.

But now here he stood, just like his parents once had, in this house, this hut on stilts. Starving in the cold on Mist. A flame crackled in the stone fireplace on the other side of the room; the stones kept it from burning the rest of the hut, but he would have to feed it sticks every so often to keep his only source of warmth from burning out.

He sat at his little tea-table, with a cup of brewed leaves and a folder in front of him. His blades sifted under the cover of the file folder, and then hoisted the top up. In all his life he would never have hoped to stumble upon a pawn as useful as a zoroark in disguise. And oh, had the zoroark made himself useful. It was now time to see what his lackey had brought him.

But as he flipped through the folder, his page flipping became less composed, more erratic. It was finally beginning to dawn on him what this folder meant, and the date it was marked was only yesterday. These were current plans, and they were plans to…

Thwack

A blade came down upon the edge of the table in anger, jostling the teacup, making yet another sizable nick in the wood. Amadeus breathed heavily, his eyes bulging. With a bit of easing out, he pulled his blade from the table, and drank the rest of his brewed leaves. Standing up, much more composed now, he walked towards the window, surveying the desolate streets outside through dirty panes.

Panes that were opened, letting a burst of cold air in. The fire fluttered and dimmed. The cold blasted him unpleasantly in the face. Amadeus no longer cared. The winds of winter were now the least of his worries.

He remembered all the pokemon who shared this beaten, battered, run-down district of town with him. They weren't here because they wanted to be; they were here because they had nowhere else to go, but they shared a kinship all the same. And yet he remembered every face. Both the ones who were here, and the ones who had departed.

He remembered every claim he had filed with the city, never to be returned. Every letter he had sent, asking for a renovation of town, met with silence. Every job he had applied for, only to be overlooked and ignored by pokemon who would not hire a worker from the farmlands. He remembered the winter storms each year, how they chilled him to his bone. He remembered the long nights, spent hungry and wondering why the bakers and the markets would throw the unsold goods into the wastebins, then guard them like dogs. This house was a hut, a shack, but he could not afford to lose it.

So the winter storms would not be the death of this district. No, that would come before. The city planned to tear down his home, and the homes of everymon who lived here. There would be no alternative given; they would simply freeze in the cold. It was as if it was designed to purge the city of those they could not house. Those they did not want to house.

The cold air stung, the fire was embers; but still, Amadeus remembered. He remembered the first time he stole, from those wasteful bakers who threw away their bread rather than giving it to the needy. He ate well that night. He remembered the first protest, telegraphing a clear sign of dissent and disapproval to the city beyond. He remembered the following that built behind him, built on a foundation not of leaving another home, but making this home into one they could be proud of. He would have to tell them, all of them, that the very city they were campaigning against would now destroy that home without a second thought.

But as he gazed down upon the streets below, at the pokemon who were going about their lives the best they could despite the cold, he came to a decision. It would not be an announcement of defeat. No, it would be the opposite. It would be a declaration of war. For the pokemon of this district, it had become a matter of life or death, and Amadeus would lead them to life.

~\({O})/~

HAPPI Barracks

~Zoroark as Braixen~

A strong wind shook the roofs of Pokemon Paradise. Dull purple shingles were lightly battered, windows near the city borders rattled in their frames, and houses hoisted high on stilts swayed inwards dangerously. The winds blew from above, where the clouds in the morning sky were parting to admit a large, grey platform in the sky. An airship.

Everymon in the HAPPI barracks had been woken before dawn to make preparations for the landing. Cloud Nine, the world government's airship, would touch down outside Paradise in a couple of hours, and things needed to be ready. Supplies were lopped onto carts and wheeled down through the streets at a time when almost no-mon would be up and about. Zoroark-as-Braixen helped pull one of the large ones from the front, while Alice pushed it from behind.

"The main gates are still being repaired, but we had some pokemon clear the wreckage for us!" the superior officer overseeing Zoroark's division shouted. "Keep it going down the main road!"

The main road led all the way from the building and through the remains of the wrecked gate, which had been closed for repairs for a couple of days. Today, it was open, and the wreckage had indeed been cleared away. What was left on the ground, after all the debris and remains had been removed, was a gaping hole large enough to wheel five wagons through side by side.

They'd just finished setting up all the supplies and forming a safety barrier for departing passengers and crowds when the wind began to pick up. It began as a whistling from above, a breeze ruffling Zoroark-as-Braixen's fur. He looked up to the sky, discreetly clutching his unseen mane to his body so that it didn't flurry into anymon's face by accident.

A call echoed from behind them. It said to start moving back behind the safety line they'd set up. As they began moving, the wind only got louder and stronger. Tarps on supply wagons began to flutter. Fur was blown every which way. The whistling of the wind slowly rose into a howl with the force of a gale as Zoroark made his best effort to plug his ears and keep pace with everymon else.

Something cast them all into shadow. A large, dark platform had blotted out the clouds and the sun, getting slowly but surely larger as the wind continued to grow and the sounds got so loud that even through his plugged ears Zoroark was worried he'd go deaf.

Everything was the worst right before the ship landed. Tarps hung taut in the wind, threatening to carry their supplies away like parachutes. The grass of the mile-long fields that lay outside Paradise were blown flat by the hurricane-level gusts. A mighty groan could be heard from the rickety, wooden, mud-brown outer walls of Paradise as they leaned inward slightly, and threatened emptily to fall down upon the houses below. Some smaller pokemon were even blown away, and Zoroark-as-Braixen's fur was battered so hard he couldn't keep it under control or update his illusion properly to account. He just had to hope no-mon noticed how it stuttered and froze like a skipping moving picture.

Then, the ship touched down on the distant grassy fields with a loud, rumbling boom. The whine of the engines died away, and the wind tapered off. Tarps grew lifeless. The walls of the city grew silent, and several addled, disoriented HAPPI workers got to their feet again. A few more thunderous clacks and bangs rumbled from within the engine, and then the ship was silent. Errant breeze ruffled the fields of grass that surrounded the space between the city and the airship.

The landing had ended.

As the airship settled in the distance, workers quickly spread out, putting the supplies they'd carried all this way to good use. Now that it was parked, the ship needed to be properly tethered to the ground, and the passengers needed to safely disembark. Some pokemon were cleaning out the ship's exhaust chutes, while others would do engine maintenance in preparation for the next takeoff. Zoroark was glad he wasn't in either of those groups.

Passengers, enough of them to fill a city on their own, were spreading out from the ship's front, where Team Cobalt was supposed to be stationed. They were halfway along the ship's length when it had landed, and it still took the two of them five minutes to reach the front.

In the middle of the crowd, flanked by a pair of manetric that looked like bouncers, were a group of pokemon who were clearly different from the rest of the 'mon in the area. Ninetales of Mt. Freeze, who oversaw everything on Cloud Nine. Whimsicott, who represented the Grass Continent. Cofagrigus, who handled Cloud Nine's treasury. If the way they carried themselves and the rich articles of clothing they wore weren't enough to distinguish them, their faces would. And nearly everymon recognized the face in the middle, shrouded by a blue, golden-tasseled cloak. Sylveon, director of HAPPI.

Zoroark remembered that face. It was the only face significant to him. And that was why, just when they were about to cross over into the main area, he suddenly shrunk back towards a large corner of the ship's cargo bay. He couldn't be seen!

"Hey—What are you doing?" Alice asked, watching him shrink back with a baffled expression on her face. "Our jobs are over there."

Zoroark-as-Braixen didn't know how to put it into words. Or really, what he could put into words without giving too much away. He knew that sylveon. He knew her. And she knew him. She had seen him in both his forms; even with his Braixen disguise she'd know who he was. And then he'd be outed.

But looking at Alice's baffled expression, he realized he was digging himself a hole. The sylveon was one in a crowd, and even from here he could see dozens of pokemon whose eyes were fixated firmly on her group, taking up her attention. And he was just another face in the mess. The unsuspecting braixen, who had no reason to be noticed. He wasn't the world's only lavender-colored fox, after all.

Maybe this wasn't worth getting scared over. Or at the least, he could not afford to dig himself a hole. Zoroark-as-Braixen shook his head, trying to compose himself again and making sure his illusion hadn't wavered anywhere. He smoothed the fur of his fake dress over in stress.

"No," he said. It even sounded high strung. "No, it's nothing."

They began to walk again. He knew Alice looked at him weird for that one. Very weird. Of course she would. His behavior was erratic. Suspicious. She probably knew, or at least suspected, he was hiding something now. If she started snooping, would he have to apply for reassignment? But doing that would just confirm there was something going on… and what would he put on the form as the reason, anyway?

No, no, he was thinking too overtly. If she found out too much, all he had to do was blackmail her. She'd stay quiet as long as he had a bargaining chip…

He gulped silently, reality hitting him. A week ago, he wouldn't have even considered that. Now, the thought train came so easily to him.

But it wasn't like he could not think about it. Not when his life as a free 'mon hung by a thread.

They walked out into the crowded space at the front of the ship, Cloud Nine's massive, ten-story cargo bay looming above them like a shadow. Zoroark-as-Braixen focused on keeping his head down, heading towards their sentry posts. Just another face in the crowd, just another face in—

"You two!" the call went out in their direction. Zoroark recognized that voice; it was Alexis. But he probably wanted somemon els—

"Team Cobalt!"

With two words, all of that hope was erased. Zoroark-as-Braixen looked over in the direction of the voice, where the dewott had pointed both him and Alice out. The two of them left their sentry posts and headed over towards Alexis. Through the crowd. Where the convoy was. All Zoroark-as-Braixen could do at this point was hope that the sylveon didn't recognize him, or just didn't remember…

"You two will be flanking us up to headquarters," Alexis said once they had stopped in front of him. "We're departing now. Stay on our tails."

Some of the pokemon looked back at them, but the sylveon wasn't one of them. No, she couldn't care less. Zoroark-as-Braixen counted himself lucky, then grinned wide for the pokemon in front of him and did his best to look unassuming. Getting into position with Alice, the two of them began to follow the convoy as it headed away from the ship, cut through the crowd, and walked towards the city.

"You're acting strange today," Alice whispered to him as they walked. "What's the deal?"

"Just… nervous," Zoroark-as-Braixen said, smoothing over his fur again in stress. He was nervous.

~\({O})/~

HAPPI Barracks

~Alexis~

"Director, over here!" shouted a newspokemon. The sunflora shoved himself in close, pushing through other 'mon and demanding attention in the loud, obnoxious way news reporters did. He was completely ignored. The convoy passed by him without more than a few glances his way. Alexis watched the 'mon out of the corner of his eyes, seeing him try to take advantage of even those brief looks thrown at him like scraps. But the convoy was never going to stop for him. They were headed towards the large HAPPI Headquarters on the east side of town, and there wouldn't be time to answer questions until later. As far as Alexis was concerned, good. The press only annoyed him.

"Let me take your cloaks…" A squeaky pachirisu in a slightly oversized violet scarf greeted them in the outer courtyard of the HAPPI building. He was one of the building's staff, tasked with cleaning up after high-level superiors.

"I'll keep my cloak, thank you." Sparkleglimmer pushed past him curtly. Cofagrigus dropped a bulky, night-blue cape on him, ignoring the muffled cries that came from under it as he floated on.

Alexis continued with the convoy as they entered the HAPPI building, striding into the massive guild lobby. Sparkleglimmer walked with an aloof air of royalty, paying minimal attention to any of the pokemon around her. It was a coping mechanism to drown out the smothering attention of the crowd; as a frequent user of the same method, Alexis knew it all too well.

As they passed into the staff areas of the guild, the crowd quickly became nonexistent. The rest of the convoy split up, and those two guild lackeys Alexis was having tail them followed the others.

"How did the bureau vote on the Paradise Expansion Project?" Sparkleglimmer asked, once the halls had grown silent.

"Three votes for, two against, and two abstain," said Alexis.

"Two abstain?" Sparkleglimmer didn't look at him, but he could tell the confusion from her tone. "What a strange arrangement. Why?"

"Some think the project needs more time," Alexis answered, honestly. The answer was vague. He knew he shouldn't say more. The Director was the one pokemon who could catch him red-pawed in a deception. But at the same time, he needed to choose his words carefully. Especially since his name was on that abstain ballot.

"What for?"

"The sectors of town set to be knocked over will displace many pokemon," said Alexis. "Some believe that the project should be delayed until the spring in order to provide alternative housing and—"

"If I recall correctly," Sparkleglimmer said, cutting in through Alexis sentence. "The sectors of town slated for clearing are slums, filled with pokemon who have no place inside the city."

Alexis hadn't meant to pause for as long as he did, but the nonchalance of the comment took him aback. Was that how she viewed things?

"Well," he began. A sloppy start, covering up his moment of shock. "HAPPI is a rich company. Providing the resources for alternative shelter during the winter would be easy."

"Are you suggesting that HAPPI should pour its hard-earned resources into a lost cause?" Sparkleglimmer asked him. "These pokemon have no business here. Not if they can't muster up the hard work to pay their bills."

"The housing expansion is to lower the costs of living in this city," Alexis continued slowly. Every word was carefully chosen and weighed.

"The housing expansion is to lower the costs of living in this city for hardworking civilians," Sparkleglimmer said. "If they couldn't pay for it before, why should I expect they would pay for it after?"

"I think that the benefits would outweigh the costs," Alexis answered. "The winter storms are coming. We know they will be worse this year. Many will die in the cold. Providing shelter could save lives."

"It will also set construction back too far," said Sparkleglimmer. "The residents will be given an eviction notice, weeks before the demolition. They may either integrate properly into the city, or leave it altogether, before the storms show up. There is no good reason to delay based on this. Who abstained?"

Alexis, smartly, chose to hold his tongue. "I can get you the names."

"Acceptable." They were walking down the hallway once again, neither one looking at the other. "I would also like you to pass on to the other bureau members that I will be moving HAPPI's physical assets onto Cloud Nine before the next takeoff in a week."

That was enough to make Alexis squint. He was composed enough not to actually squint, but that didn't mean he hadn't caught the strangeness of it. The whole reason those assets were here was because…

"You want to move the entire archives onto Cloud Nine?" he finally asked. "Why?"

"You don't use it as a part of your everyday business, and I want them somewhere safe," came Sparkleglimmer's smooth voice.

The inner squinting only deepened. The records in the archive were official company records and not for daily use, sure, but they were here because this was the main headquarters of HAPPI. There was no place safer. Especially not on Cloud Nine…

"Why move them to Cloud Nine, a government ship HAPPI doesn't own? I can't see a reason. There's no safer place for them in the Five Continents than its main headquarters."

"My reasoning is sound," Sparkleglimmer answered him, in a tone that telegraphed she wasn't going to explain it. She was as cold and detached as always. "And also final. The archives will move. If you here at the headquarters need a file, it will be transported as quickly as possible, but I don't expect that will happen often. Meanwhile, I want to see the construction plans transported up to my personal office. That will be all."

~\({O})/~

Then

The Exeggutor

~Zoroark-as-Braixen~

The ship's cabin gently swayed on the waters. It was almost unnoticeable if you were used to it, but if you weren't it was enough to make you nauseous. Zoroark had managed to get over the vomiting a while ago, but the constant rocking of the boat still managed to make him queasy from time to time.

He was in his room, all hidden away while Primarina attended a meeting he was not supposed to be present at under any circumstances. Or at least, that was how Primarina had told him. He was told to make himself an early dinner and then sent to bed like a little child.

He must have been nearly an adult. But he'd been taught never to disobey Primarina, so off to bed he went.

But laying in bed was so painfully boring, and after a while it became hard not to focus on the voices he could just about hear down the hallway, but not quite catch from his bed. So he found himself rising from his cot against the wall, and creeping down the hallway and towards the room where Primarina was.

Zoroark never had learned what the meeting was about. Just as he was about to press himself up to the door to hear more clearly, the boat rocked. Zoroark found himself stumbling to keep his balance on the slightly tilting floor, and fell over. He hit the ground with a thump outside the doorway. His heart dropped. They'd heard that. He was as good as caught.

Which was why he didn't run away, but hastily put up his new braixen illusion just before the door opened. Talking had ceased a second ago. The door swung open, revealing Primarina standing in it. He was making a conscious effort to block the doorframe, so whoever was in there with him wouldn't see him at all. But that stance relaxed once he seemed to realize that Zoroark was under illusion currently.

"Why are you out of your bed?" he hissed. Zoroark shrunk back, but didn't have an answer for him.

"What was that bang?"

The voice was female, smooth, commanding. Zoroark-as-Braixen looked up to see somemon approaching from the room in the crack between the doorframe and Primarina. He couldn't see who.

"It's nothing," Primarina said to the pokemon in a louder voice. His voice radiated disappointment. "Just my… secretary."

The pokemon Primarina had been speaking with walked up. Zoroark could see her through the space between where Primarina couldn't cover and the doorway—A stern-looking sylveon wearing a teal-colored cape.

"I didn't know there was anymon else aboard," she said. Zoraork could tell by the tone of her voice that the words were dangerous.

"I didn't think it would be important," Primarina told the sylveon. He wasn't even treating Zoroark as if he was in the room anymore. "He's just a lackey, nothing more. Pay no attention to him."

"Well, it seems your lackey has gotten too curious for his own good."

The sylveon walked forward. Primarina seemed to understand that when she started walking, it was best not to be in the way. He moved aside, letting her eclipse the doorway instead.

Sparkleglimmer leaned in close, not close enough that she was face-to-face with Zoroark but still uncomfortably close.

"Tell me," she said. "Were you eavesdropping?"

Zoroark-as-Braixen was so scared he could barely make a noise. He shook his head: a lie, but there wasn't a single chance he was going to tell the truth.

"Why were you here?"

"I was… queasy. On my way upstairs to get some fresh air," Zoroark said.

"How much did you hear?"

"N-nothing," Zoroark said. His mouth was working for him at this point; he was just making up what sounded the best. "I couldn't make out the words."

"Hmm."

Zoroark-as-Braixen could tell the sylveon was studying him. Her eyes scanned over him for any signs of falsehood, any inconsistency, any indicator that he was lying. That he was scared and still wasn't comfortable with this illusion just added to his stress; though the fact he was scared must have been clear.

"Again, apologies for my secretary's foolishness," Primarina said, clearing his throat from the side of the room. "I sent him to his quarters on the other side of the ship and gave him strict instructions to stay there until our meeting was over, but it seems I failed to remember that the only way updeck is past this room."

Then, addressing Zoroark-as-Braixen: "Go on! Up on deck! And don't come back down until we've finished!"

Nodding quickly with a squeak, Zoroark-as-Braixen quickly picked himself up—

But just then, his illusion stuttered. He couldn't do complicated movement perfectly yet. It was only for a split second, but it must have been noticeable to anymon in the room. Zoroark-as-Braixen froze. His heart stopped. Sparkleglimmer looked at him for a second. Her gaze looked unfocused, like she was listening to something the rest of them weren't. But quickly, that disappeared.

"Go on," she said. "You heard him."

Glad to have any excuse to get out of this situation, Zoroark-as-Braixen quickly finished getting up, and then took the exit left as fast as he could.

The wind above deck was chilly. Before long he was cold, so he went inside the captain's cabin. From there, he slowly drifted off to sleep. But before his eyes closed he could see through the window the sight of a flygon zooming through the clouds. It got closer, bigger, the sound of its wings kicking up wind and rocking the sea around them when it touched down on the ship's deck. He watched as Primarina showed the sylveon in the cape above deck, and then as she hopped onto the flygon and prepped the harness around her. The flygon's wings began to buzz, getting faster by the second, and then it kicked off the deck and started flying off towards the clouds. After that, he drifted off until morning.

~\({O})/~

Now

HAPPI Base ~ Pokemon Paradise

When the guild stopped serving dinner, Alice and Zoroark's shift began. Alexis had given them their new posts right after they'd finished escorting the rest of the convoy through the building: they were going to be guarding the Director's office for the night. They'd been up all day, and they were both tired. Very tired. There was little chance they were both going to make it through the night. Zoroark hadn't slept a good night's sleep in weeks, but even so a more pressing issue plagued him while he munched on the mealy bread: he had to go see Amadeus today.

Every two days, he had to go and report to the hut on stilts so he could learn if the scyther had any other tasks for him. But for the last week, he'd been waved off. Amadeus had been busy all week, and hadn't needed anything of him. He'd gotten the gist that he hadn't even read the file yet. Still, he had to show up at that cabin every two days. Not showing up would mean Amadeus would rat him out. There would be no exceptions.

Which created an impossible situation. He'd been given a job that required him to stay in the building all night, where he'd be supervised by his partner… that made it very hard to sneak away for what would be at least a half hour. He was resigned to it: there was no way he was going to get out of this without turning some heads. He just needed to make sure he didn't turn the wrong ones.

"Hey," he said to Alice, who stood on the other side of the door. She looked like she was ten inches from falling asleep. "I'm going to go find the bathroom, okay?"

A sleepy nod from Alice. Zoroark-as-Braixen quickly tiptoed quietly off. He hated how easily the lie came to him, it hadn't even taken ten seconds to think up; even less to say. Still, he hoped she'd fall asleep by the time that he came back, and wouldn't notice how long he'd been gone. That way, he wouldn't have to tell more of them.

There was still the danger of somemon noticing he was gone, but what else could he do? He'd just have to be there and back as fast as he could. And so, halfway through the hallway, he dropped his braixen illusion and conjured the vanishing one. Completely invisible like this, he'd have no trouble sneaking past the guards and out of the building.

~\({O})/~

The Hut On Stilts

The door creaked open a crack. Zoroark stopped before he could open it all the way, remembering what he had been told to do to signal it was him.

"Who's there?" a voice came from within the house. Zoroark knew better than to thrust it open. Instead, he rapped on the door with his claws. Twice, then pause, then once again, then wait for the answer.

"Come in."

The door opened. Zoroark stepped in, and closed it behind him. If today had the smallest amount of luck in store for him, the scyther wouldn't have anything for him to do. He could spend the next couple of days taking a couple of naps to catch up on his sleep—

"I have another mission for you, Zoroark."

Amadeus wasn't even looking at him. He was staring at the fireplace, the only light source in the house. The light painted his torso black. Zoroark couldn't do much but just stand there, drooping in an exhausted slump.

"What is it?" he asked, tiredly.

"I want you to go down and get a very specific file for me," the scyther said. "It's the file handling where they'll get their supplies from, and where they store it."

Another file mission. Zoroark's fur bristled. He'd barely gotten out the last time, and he was sleepy enough that he didn't know if he could do it again. But at least it didn't involve anything dangerous…

"And once you've done that…"

Amadeus turned around, and for the first time that night Zoroark saw his face: tightened in a stern grimace. "I want you to burn that room to the ground."

~\({O})/~

Music of the Week!

Welcome to Monarch – Bear McCreary