Core

I walked down one of the paths in the middle of the Nest, having just conversed with Myra about a certain event that took place earlier today. We had a security breach, and it nearly resulted in both a murder and a kidnapping. The Nest has many guards stationed throughout its exterior in order to stop unwanted pokemon from entering. These guards recognize nearly every Raven in the Nest, and even if they don't know someone by face, they would check for the Raven insignia somewhere on said pokemon's body. The security of the Nest has never failed us before, so how did a Void member get within our walls?

I ended up pacing in circles in the open field in which two pokemon were attacked. Kage, and the small Vulpix that Kuro took back to the Nest known as Shiro now. The two of them were just on a walk, Kage, wanting Shiro to get more familiar with the place, but they were approached by a Gallade with a scar over his left eye. The Gallade attacked Kage without being provoked, and due to Kage not being in any condition to fight from events transpired previously in the day. Because of this, the Gallade ended up putting Kage at the mercy of his bladed hands, but not without taking a few hits in the process. Right when he was about to end Kage's life, Shiro apparently stopped him from doing so, although, I don't have details yet, as Kage still hasn't woken up. All of the information I have comes from Vero, who arrived on the scene just fast enough to make sure nobody got hurt. After she prevented the deaths of Shiro and Kage, Vero mopped the floor with the Gallade, who clearly wasn't a match for our stronger Ravens. Kage probably would have beaten him with ease had he not been in a bad condition. After all of this transpired, the Gallade looked as if he was going to mega-evolve, but then stopped the transformation halfway through, before mumbling something and just… Teleporting away.

That was the whole story, at least, until Kage woke up. Most of it past the Gallade getting into the Nest in the first place made sense, but that, along with one other part had me scratching my head. The Nest has an invisible field set around it by some of our most talented psychics. This field should prevent anyone from teleporting in or out of the Nest at all times. We initially had it so random civilians wouldn't find the place on accident with a lack of control in their teleportation, but it also inadvertently made it so no Void members we may hold inside of the Nest can get away without passing through the entire organization. The barrier did its purpose, but this made me question just how the Gallade teleported out of the Nest. Knowing that he was able to teleport out could explain how he got in the Nest, but knowing how he did is a whole other story. Our own leaders can't break through the barrier, so how did he get through it?

I let out a sigh and kept walking in circles, trying to think of something… Any reason why the Gallade was able to get in and out of the Nest via teleportation. Sadly, nothing came to mind. Can the Void possibly have something that overrides our psychics? If so, that's a terrifying thought.

It wouldn't be the first time the Nest considered the threat of outside influence being able to breach our security measures, so we did have a few solutions in mind. Because the breach in question involved the Void however, we wanted to take no risks whatsoever. This meant reaching out to a few pokemon that the Nest has a close affiliation with. These pokemon were of quite a high standing as well, ones that aren't usually associated with anyone without wiping their memories afterwards. Due to our lack of steady interaction with them, I wasn't sure how they would react to us asking for help after such a long time after their offerings, but there was no harm in trying.

After all, we haven't spoken with them since before Storm and Blade passed… I wonder if they would be interested in meeting their son…

I stowed my thoughts away and began to head towards an exit to the Nest, ready to seek out a bit of divine help.

Kuro

Landmarks or not, this place is really starting to confuse me… I continued walking through the various populated streets of Myriad, weaving between all kinds of pokemon of all ages. My goal was still to find a specific orphanage that recently started its operations, but not asking for directions was really starting to bite me. I had a decent bit of confidence in my abilities to navigate through a town, despite not really knowing where I was going, but I was figured out pretty soon that my confidence in myself was fairly misplaced. I found myself revisiting certain areas that I have already traversed through a few times, as well as getting plenty of questioning looks from the many pedestrians I walked past. I was able to ignore the looks for the most part, but the more I aimlessly wandered around, the more I began to lose by bearings in this monster of a town. Note to self: Never explore anywhere without a map.

I turned one more corner on the road of another busy street, getting pretty close to giving in and saving this task for tomorrow, but just as I was about to call it quits, I found my salvation. I looked further down the street, watching as a Gardevoir walked into a building that matched the description I was given. The building was rather small compared to the others towering over its right and left. It sported an orange exterior with a pattern of diagonal white stripes cutting through the solid wall of orange in an X pattern. The rooftop was slanted upwards, its lowest point being right above the front door, its highest spreading to the back of the building. I walked closer to it and noticed that the front of the building had a distinct lack of windows. Being enthralled that I finally located my designated building, I hastily walked towards it, arriving at the front of the main door. It had a rather plain-looking wooden material, but there were a few starts painted on it in varying colors. They did look a bit sloppy, but it added to the otherwise plain wooden door. Not wanting to waste anymore time, I pushed the door open with my head, and then walked in.

As soon as I entered, I took in the interior of the small place. Most of the walls were painted a solid white, a few brown-colored shelves interrupting the single color. Atop these shelves laid a multitude of items, from inflatable balls to small contraptions that looked as if they were handmade out of a strange material that almost looked like paper, but slightly more thick. In front of me sat a large desk, with no pokemon attending it at the moment. Guess they're short on staff if the place just opened.

I walked up to the desk and put my two forepaws on it in order to see the top of it. I noticed that the desk was completely clear, save for a small bell that was presumably for calling someone here. Not knowing how else to find the one running this place, I moved one of my forepaws onto the top of the golden bell, before tapping on it. A single loud ring exited the bell and made its way through the building, echoing a few times through the empty room. After a few second passed, I heard a few tapping sounds, as if someone was walking. Soon after, I watched as a Gardevoir, the same one that I saw enter the building, walked out from around a corner past the desk. They walked up to me a put on a nervous smile.

"Hello there! Can I help you?" He asked me, sounding just as his smile looked. I assumed he was new to this kind of job, otherwise he most likely would have sounded more confident. Regardless, I responded with a somewhat nervous smile of my own.

"Hello." I simply started, not really what else to say. Even after a month and a half at the Nest, I wasn't entirely confident with my abilities to interact with others. "Umm… I'm here on a job to see what exactly you're doing with this orphanage." I told him, sounding a lot more awkward than I would have liked.

"Oh! Are you a Raven?" He asked me with a bit more energy in his voice than before. I just nodded in response. "I was told someone was coming to check up on this place. I actually have a few ties with the Nest, so I was informed that someone was coming to inspect this place." I was slightly caught off-guard by the fact he referred to the Nest by name, as that wasn't exactly public information, but if he had ties, than I suppose it made sense. "I'll show you where all of the kids here are. My name is Cyan by the way." He motioned for me to follow him and began walking towards the corner he came from earlier.

"My name is Kuro." I told him. "Where did you find the children that are here? I didn't think there would be many parentless kids in a place like this." Myriad seemed like a nice place, with a few hiccups of shady pokemon and bullies here and there, but for the most part, the place was rather nice.

"Actually, none of them are from Myriad itself, because this orphanage is new, I actually just took in my first group, which was brought to me by an elder who said he couldn't care for them anymore." Cyan explained as we walked down a hallway sharing a white color with the main entrance. "There's six of them right now, but I have plenty of space here, so if I find anymore orphans, than I won't hesitate." He stated proudly. I was glad that the owner of an orphanage had this kind of conviction. If not, then the kids would just suffer.

"Are you the only one that works here? Or do you have employees to help out?" I asked him, taking notice of our lack of passing anyone in the building.

"As of now, I'm the only one working here." He said. "Like I said, this place just got built here, so I haven't had a chance to try and employ others, but I'll be enough until more children arrive here." We arrived at another corner at the end of a hallway and walked along it. Once I had a line of sight of what was around the corner, I saw a group of six small pokemon, all doing their own thing in a rather open room that had about twelve doors along the its walls. The walls shared the same white color as the rest of the building, but each of the doors was a dark red, which made a very interesting contrast to the rest of the room. It wasn't unpleasant, but it didn't really stick out either. I looked along the room to see a similar pattern of shelves lining the walls, but these were almost full of miscellaneous objects. I assumed they all belonged to the children that were staying here. I decided to turn my eyes to the group of children, but as soon as I did, I felt something tug at the back of my mind.

I looked at a six pokemon, all sitting around different parts of the room, doing their own thing. Some of them were playing with one another using random objects to fuel their active imaginations, while other were silently sitting by themselves, seemingly resting. I saw a Shinx, a Snivy, a Ralts, a Shieldon, and Eevee, and an Espeon. All of them looked around the same age, but there was something screaming at me from the back of mind. Something telling me that I knew who these children were.

"These are the ones brought to me recently. Apparently, they went through something in the past that made their protector realize that he couldn't do anything to help them, so they were brought here." Cyan explained, as some of the kids were alerted to his presence. As they looked at him, he just waved at them, while I searched by thoughts. After going through my head for a few moments, I arrived at a possibility, based on what Cyan had just told me.

"Well, it's good they have a place to stay at least." I commented, before continuing to put pieces together in my mind. "Hey, the one that brought these children here, they wouldn't happen to be an elderly Blastoise, would they?" Cyan looked at me with a surprised gaze.

"How did you-" The Espeon in the group ran over to the two of us and almost bumped into me before stopping themselves. They looked into by eyes, being about the same height as me, and admittedly making me a bit uncomfortable.

"Is that you Kuro!? I never thought I'd see you again!" The Espeon exclaimed, leaving me in a slightly confused state. If this was part of the group I was thinking about, than there was no Espeon present there, but there were eight energetic Eevees, so it didn't take too long for me to determine that this was one of them. As for which one, I was able to tell by their voice.

"Shine, is it?" I asked, wanting to make sure I didn't get their identity wrong. The Espeon hastily nodded its head up and down at a fast pace, and smiled at me. I tried my best to return the smile with the gravity that he had. "I didn't recognize you at first, congratulations on your evolution!"

"Thanks!" He responded with enthusiasm. "I was a bit bummed out at first because I wanted to be an Umbreon like you, but I love being an Espeon! Controlling things with my mind is awesome!" I chuckled slightly at the energy that Shine had. A month certainly changed nothing about the Eevee who bombarded me with questions on by first mission.

"Are you familiar with this one?" Cyan asked from by left and I nodded in response. Shine then walked in front of him and smiled.

"Kuro talked to me at my old camp, and him and his partner taught us all a bunch of stuff!" He exclaimed, not dropping his enthusiasm for a second. "He also saved me and my friends from some scary ship! He battled a bunch of bad pokemon that were trying to hurt us, and made sure that all of us got out safely!" As he was explaining, Shine moved around and tried to mimic how I looked while I was fighting off Void members in their base.

"You were on a ship? What brought that on?" Cyan turned to me as he asked the question.

"That's… A long story." I gave a small sigh and prepared myself to explain. I told him about everything that happened that day, from the moment we arrived at the camp in order to deliver a small parcel, to when a large cloud of purple mist invaded the camp, knocking all of us out. I explained how I was there with my partner and a friend, and how the three of us ended up separated with the three groups of children from the camp. I explained how the three of us all fought through Void members in order to get further into the craft, until we found a suitable place to escape. I told him about how I blew the children off of the ship with me, and how I managed to keep any of them from getting hurt from the fall, not specifically mentioning the state of pain that I was put into afterward. The only thing I fully left out was the encounter that I had with Luna, because I never like to look back on how I completely froze in front of a dangerous adversary like her.

"Wow… To think that was your first mission…" He commented.

"It made an interesting impression on the three of us, that's for sure." I told him, before turning to Shine again. "Speaking of that day, where are the rest of the kids that were at that camp back then?" I asked him curiously. As soon as I did however, I saw Shine's ears droop down, and his expression drop from the energy he held before.

"Not too long ago, we got attacked by a more weird pokemon, they reminded me a lot of the ones that were on the ship." Shine shuddered slightly. "We were split up again, me and the rest of the pokemon here were with our grandfather, but he brought us to this place because he said he was afraid of not being able to protect us if we get attacked again. After that, he left to try and find the other pokemon that we were with." Shine's tone had noticeably dropped from the massive amount of energy he had a few moments ago into a state of melancholy. I didn't blame him. Being separated from everyone you know can't be the best feeling, especially after what happened when I was there. The group was, without a doubt, shaken from the experience, and being separated immediately after can't help how they feel. I felt a bit of anger rise within me, as I still hadn't fully vented after running into that Hitmonchan, but I managed to suppress it. To this Espeon, I was a Raven, someone to look up to. I couldn't let my emotions take the reigns of my body, especially in front of him. The situation still made me think about the Void though. Beforehand, the Void was something that hid within the shadows, killing innocents for no reason, never revealing themselves outright. But now, the Void had attacked the same camp of kids twice, not trying to cover their tracks in the slightest.

Why did they suddenly decide to not care about others finding out about them? What brought on the change in approach of their 'work?' I angerley thought to myself. With these methods, the Void would be acting out a lot more often, assuming that their not worrying about being open with who they are and what they're trying to do anymore. I mean, the Void took us all on to their base without even monitoring us at all times. Sure, they may have not expected Ravens to be on board with them, but they still sort of threw caution into the wind with this kidnapping. Are they really just that reckless?

As I stood idly, invested in by thoughts, the Espeon standing at eye-level in front of me looked up again, ears no longer reaching down his body. He gave a look of determination in his solid purple eyes.

"But I know everyone else is safe, and I know that I'll meet up with all of them again, even if I have to make it happen myself!" He said while his mouth began to form a smile. "There's no way that I can give up, that's what I took from you after you helped everyone at the old camp. I want to be able to help too, so I can't give up on them!" Shine proudly stated. For a few seconds, I just locked eyes with him, observing the gaze that he held, burning with purpose. I smiled at him.

"You know, you'd make a great Raven when you get a bit older." Shine had something that a lot of Ravens did, that look of determination, an unwillingness to give up. It was the perfect trait for a Raven, and I could definitely see Shine in that position one day.

"Who says I'm too young? I'm already the same size as you!" He taunted.

"Well, I'm not exactly the largest pokemon in the world. Becoming a Raven requires a lot more than the size of one's body."

"I know that, which is why I'm going to prepare myself to become a Raven until the day comes when I can apply!"

"I'll look forward to it." I swung my head in a rather awkward way in order to swing by scarf to the other side of by body, revealing the symbol of the Nest that was branded into my fur and skin. "I'll look forward to the day you share this symbol with me." Shine nodded rapidly before heading off to one of the doors in the room with all of the other children. All of the doors contained bedrooms for the orphans, and Shine said that he was going to mentally prepare himself to train his heart out.

"He's a determined one, isn't he?" Cyan commented from next to me. "Do you really believe that you can see him as a Raven, even from his age?" I took a few seconds to think about by response before actually replying.

"Of course I do. You can't find determination like that in just anyone, regardless of how young he is." I wished I had that kind of determination at that age, then it probably wouldn't have taken me nearly as long to actually break the mould I had formed for myself. Cyan and I walked back down the hall we came from and stood near the front desk with the bell I used to call him.

"That child certainly does have dreams to follow, I just wish he knew the full truth." Cyan said with a sigh and I tilted my head, wondering what exactly he was talking about. He noticed this and began to explain. "Truth be told, their grandfather is most likely not going to be able to find the rest of the group. The real reason he was in such a hurry to find a place for all of these kids to stay is because his clock has been ticking for a while now." Cyan let out a small sigh as he said this.

"You mean, he's close to being… Out of time?" Cyan nodded in response. I didn't really know how to react to this. On one hand, I really shouldn't have been surprised. From the small interaction I did have with him, it was clear that he was up there when it came to age. I didn't really know if it was the right decision to keep this from the kids, but I understood why he ended up going through with it. The request probably came from the grandfather himself, Cyan was just respecting his choice.

"I know that I'll have to tell them eventually, but they've been through a lot recently, so I don't want to push this kind of information on them so quickly. Their minds are already in a fragile state, no sense in pushing more negative thoughts into them." Cyan sighed once more as he finished his sentence. If these kids ended up being separated from each other, as well as their guardians, at least Cyan seemed to be a good pokemon to take care of them. The objective I had when coming here was to scout this place out and make sure that it was suitable to take in children that needed to be cared for. Through the small amount of talk I had with Cyan, I made a judgement about his character, and told myself that they would be no one better to run this place.

"I'm going to give a good report to the Nest, and I'll make sure this place gets as much support as possible." I told Cyan, and he gave me a surprised gaze. I just smiled in response. "I can easily tell that you care for all of the children here, and I want these kids to be safe, especially after all of the strenuous events that life has been throwing them lately. I can tell that they feel safe here, and I can tell that you'll do your job well." Cyan's surprised expression transformed into one of appreciation, and he gave me a smile.

"Thank you! I'll make sure that I don't waste what's given to me!" He exclaimed, clearly excited that he was going to be supported by something as large as the Nest.

After a few minutes of idle talk with Cyan, I mentioned that I had to go before it got too late, and after we bid each other a goodbye, I left the orphanage. As soon as I walked out of the door, I felt the moonlight enlighten me. I absorbed the light given off from the moon, making my mind enter a state of bliss. I felt energy begin to rise within by muscles, and I didn't even try to stop by rings from glowing brightly. I stretched out all of by joints, hearing each one pop as I extended them. After stretching for a bit, I looked around me, seeing only a few pokemon walking around the street. Because of this, I came up with an idea.

I haven't really had much real exercise today other than aimlessly walking around this town. With that thought in mind, as well as a vague idea of the direction I needed to head in to find Naru's old home, I sprinted down the street and turned the corner, hoping that I would find my way to Naru's home without much issue.

Hello Readers!

So I have a bit of a short chapter for this update, as something in the near future may affect my ability to write as often as I usually do, so I wanted to get something out instead of pushing it and ending up without a chapter until I'm done doing what I need to do.

Anywho, I wanted to address something that has come up in a few reviews and PMs recently. I have been asked a few time whether I plan on writing a lemon or not somewhere in this story. To put it simply… I'm not sure. I've never written anything close to a lemon in the past, and I'm not sure just how confident I am in my ability to compose such a thing. I'm not opposed to it, if anything, I want to experiment with by ability to write various situations, but at the same time, I don't want to story to suffer at all form it. Assuming I do decide to add a lemon somewhere in this story, it won't be for quite a while, so if I don't follow up on this statement immediately, that doesn't mean I'm not going to write one, it means that I'm still thinking about it. By end goal is just to write something that all of you enjoy, so hopefully I can deliver!

Finally, thank all of you for your reviews, PMs, etc. I read and respond to all of them, so don't be shy! (Coming from one of the most bashful people on the planet.)

See You Next Chapter!