Halcion's hands are on the handle to the door waiting for her partner to slide on her illusionary guise as well as her not so illusionary garments. She looks over to her partner, catching a half-snarl, half smile from under the Mienshao mask.
"Say anything about last night."
"Yeah, yeah." Halcion rolls her eyes. "Whatever pleases you, misses."
"I have an act to keep up, you don't." Dexys briefly scans their room. There are two empty bottles strewn on the bed. "You didn't even get into your plans last night, but you obviously have other things on mind."
Halcion nods. Of course she did. What she is not telling her is this plan may as well not exist. Where they go after this depends on the fickleness of this little trinket of hers. They are lost out here. Going back to the guild for help is out of the question, not until her partner feels safe in showing her face there again.
"Does your badge work? Your other one…"
Dexys taps the metal hidden by her disguise. The central diamond swivels around. She sighs.
"Unfortunately." Her eyes narrow in on Halcion. "We're not going for her immediately, are we? Not even you're that brash."
"The way I see my plan there are two roads." Halcion steps away from the thin wooden door, lowering her voice by the slightest degree. "When she attacked me she took a gear from me. She obviously wants them, and after using one myself I can safely say whatever magic things they do. If we can get one it'll help in taking her out. This is road one."
"Road two: we use your badge to shadow another outsider like you. We can make ourselves known to them or just wait for her to take the bait being the loose end she takes out next. Worse that can happen is that she uses the gear to track us as we catch up with the other guy and we fight her three on one. I can't imagine she is popular back in your home."
Dexys pauses, sighing.
"Infamous, yes. Effecient. We had no quarrel with her when I was still home, it was leaving and doing things outside of her position which she turned on me." She recalls, pacing herself. "She knew who I was because of my badge. She found me when we first got here, and she made it fairly clear to me I can either cooperate with her or become one of her loose ends. I chose the former."
"I didn't want to, I-"
Halcion reaches out, and stops inches from grabbing her by the shoulders. She holds out her hand, simply shushing her partner.
"Don't explain yourself to me." The Haxorus turns around, unlocking the door. "Are you okay to go?"
Her partner nods.
Halcion opens the door. She makes one step out in the hall, and seeing what she sees on a chair makes her scowl. Prinn is there, kicking his feet. How long has he…nevermind. She downright hisses at him.
"Prinn!"
He jerks to life, almost tumbling out of his chair down into the bar below. The Prinplup stares at him with bulging, fearful eyes as he tugs at his cravat like it's a rope. His beak moves, awful sounds croak out.
"H-Hal! I-I ahh…uh!"
"How long have you been waiting there? Have you followed us?" Halcion is bitter more than usual for reasons the boy should obviously not know. "Stop making those stupid sounds and answer me!"
"Uh…! No! I just…got here earlier!" He stammers out. "It was so early, I was tired from walking, I just fell asleep. I went looking everywhere for you guys after I left Leon!"
He left Leon? A memory rears its face. Did he seriously think her little joke last time was her telling him to turn coat? She is fuming. Not at him, but for thinking she can joke about this to a kid.
"Oh don't tell me." Halcion grumbles, approaching the water-type by the stair as non-threateningly and tiredly as she can. "You're leaving your guild to join mine?"
"N-No!" He stutters. "I uh…wanted to help you guys, yeah!"
There is more to this, obviously. Types as wide-eyed as Prinn are not known to be liars. Halcion looks back at her partner. The Zoroark smirks underneath her expressionless, fighting-type guise. If she is okay with it, then.
"You saw what happened back there, and you're still wanting to join us? Do you have a reason? This is getting dangerous. We aren't exactly going on an adventure here." The following words she says in the nicest tone possible. "I don't want extra baggage."
"I don't want to be. I…" He clears his throat, finally kicking his feet off the chair. "I have some theories, okay, things I wanna find out. The Gear, The Dungeons, something happened a while ago that relates to a lot of things. I need to know. And I-I've been training too, I can hold my own! And…"
He waves past Halcion to her partner, then taps his chest where Dexy's rotating badge would be. She nods back.
"I know how her badge works. I know maps, I know maths, I can get us to a gear quickly if you let me help you. Once I figure this thing out, I can leave. Is that okay?"
He sounds like he is this gear thing from a completely unique angle. He is no protector, he most certainly is not a mischievous pokemon with plans unbeknownst to them or a Lucario craving fortune. Prinn wants answers. He really sounds like a scholar like the nerds in Scoria Town claim themselves to be.
What can be so important? They have time to discuss this when they are going. Hal has already spoken her spiel. It is up to her partner if she wants this boy along, and it seems she has made her mind, motioning towards the stair in silence. Of course she wants him along: a friend of her daughter is worthy of her protection.
Giving in, Halcion growls and trudges her way down the stairs. Following behind, her partner beckons Prinn along. She hears her whisper.
"I do not coddle, understand?"
The boy stays quiet as they head downstairs. The Crawdaunt is manning the bar, and his sunken-looking eyes watch them approach. Halcion motions at the cabinets.
"Aspear for the road." She asks.
The water type turns around, pulls a bottle from the cabinet, and tosses it into the Haxorus' arms. On the house for having dropped a bounty's worth of coins on their plate.
Halcion has no idea how broke she is right now, nor is she one to care. Bottle in hand, she climbs out of the pit in the ground, the cool morning moonlight hitting their faces.
Dark Season, she never gets used to it.
At this point, Prinn finally speaks up, rolling out a map from his carrying tube into his flippers. Well, maps really. One is a fairly standard map one can buy of the Dusk Continent: one side the frigid north, the other the not nearly as chilly green south. The other map is this secondary, not nearly as expensive looking piece of paper he has drawn all manner of mountains, streams and notes on. There are numbers here, mathematics, a lot of it references the position of the moon.
This boy knows what he is doing. And if he is this good, then those nerds have been missing out.
"Can you hand in your badge?" Prinn looks up from his map to Dexys. "We'll see who it pings. And I can start-"
Her partner digs into her disguise's body and throws out the badge. Prinn catches it, holding it close to him as he brandishes a charcoal pen. They watch him perform acts of wizardry. After a few silent moments, he catches everyone by surprise.
"South." He quivers with fear. "T-There's two badges down there, and they're going to the same place."
The rain is so light it may as well be mist, but it has been constant enough through the day to weigh Honchkrow's feathers down. His ingenious plan of flying the way the Murkrow goes has turned into a long slog of a journey, traipsing through woods which thin with every step to the u-shaped mounds in the fog.
He needs to follow the stream, he tells himself, follow the stream to the canyon then find your way to the gear that may be hiding there. It is most certainly under a body of water, if not, he will try its dungeon. It is a place for prospectors after all - people who eke out a living as suppliers for those who peddle exploration wares. He may not be an explorer, however, he is determined enough to fight through a dungeon if need be.
Anything to paint a clearer picture.
His boss - former boss - is working for a powerful fellow he has never heard of. He is maybe the single most informed man on this continent save for the scholars, and unless they have a miracle legendary book in their library with all the answers, him not knowing makes no sense. It is driving him mad, enough to where he has turned tail on the only people keeping his family prosperous.
Honchkrow can tell himself over and over who he is doing this for. He wants to sleep peacefully; he can't with all of this. What good is a father who drowns himself with worry?
The crunching of dirt beneath his feet gives way to the clattering of stones. The sound of a quiet flowing stream expands into a roaring river, and the gray sky overhead becomes clouded by a set of mountains. He is getting closer.
And strangely, the rain begins to peter out. The sky is still this gray. The whole world around him is damp, but he can no longer feel the mist on his quills. Honchkrow looks down to see a familiar shadow looming overhead.
"I'm truly and dearly flattered she would send you after me, but Bisharp you are not." Honchkrow sighs. "What do you want?"
"My user has warned you about searching for the gears." The Machine speaks overhead. "She would ask you to return peacefully. Noncompliance is not an option."
The shadow jitters and shakes. Whatever this thing is, it can't sit still. He does not even remember when she brought this thing aboard, although it can always be another one of her dozens of contacts. Confrontation with it feels inevitable. Maybe he can get an answer out of it before he turns the creature into a metal art piece.
"She can't go a minute without me, that girl." Honchkrow speaks, trying to judge the movements of the thing from its shadow. "What about you? Do suppose if we are alone out here, we can maybe get to know each other for once."
It pauses midair, floating, as disclosing a simple name needs all of its focus and body.
"Username: New. Model: Three-Eight-Z. I am a multipurpose unit modified for cross-world travel, the phenomenon you have named "The Sea" has corrupted a great deal of my internals when I used it to pass here. I cannot tell you more."
Somehow, only the words cross-world ring any kind of bell in Honchkrow. It didn't come from a land beyond the sea, it came from somewhere else entirely. Glancing up, he sees the white and blue metal being glistening in the rain. On its tiny chest is a badge with a white central diamond - the same badge he has seen on the strange Braviary. Both it, and the weird bird are not from this world. They are from somewhere else.
A place which may just be the home of whatever golden, glowing thing has contacted his boss.
"Great, got more you can tell me?" He says, continuing to watch its shadow. "My name's Honchkrow, I don't really have much of a family name - everyone knows I run the Krows round here. My favorite drink is-"
"Belue. I have access to your finances." It completely dismisses him. "As for this unit, I will tell you its three directives."
He may not like these rules. Honchkrow takes a deep breath.
"Directive one: this unit must do everything to preserve itself. Only the life of its creator sits above it."
The shadow above stops fidgeting. He can see three triangular objects swirl in front of. It is preparing an attack.
"Directive two: this unit serves the Light's interests and its interest alone. No matter the user, the light is above all."
A light as bright as gold. Pieces begin falling into place.
"Directive three, and the final directive: expunge any and all undesired variables"
The three things above him shoot downwards. Honchkrow spreads his wings, pushing his body up as a trio of flame, ice and fire hit the earth where he once was - leaving the rocks below frozen over.
Honchkrow's wings spark with red hot warmth, and he flaps hard, throwing a Heat Wave at the floating creature. The hot winds coarse over its body as it responds rapidly and nonsensically, hurdling out a gigantic canon of lighting which zaps past him, clashing into the river causing dozens of poor water-type ferals to bubble up to the surface.
It has two moves: whatever the three shots were and this big ball thing. Honchkrow flaps his wings, circling around it. As another Tri Attack forms in front of it, Honchkrow swoops in, delivering its beak-shaped face as it fires off its move. It recoils.
A ball of ice races past, lightning grazes his feathers, but the third hits firm, sending Honchkrow's black quills alight. The heat races through his body as he lets out a shriek. They traded. He barely keeps himself aloft.
Exchanging blows like that has left them both worse for wear. The Porygon-Z hovers away from them, spinning till it gains control of its puppet-like body. It hit him once with the move, so it tries again, forming the three elemental spheres once more.
Heat Wave didn't have the effect he'd like. Honchkrow quickly soars above the creature and stares down. The river sits behind it. If it hits him with the tri attack so be it, but he already knows how to end it. Tri Attack fires off as Honchkrow replies, shooting out a Thunder Wave.
The cold sphere hits Honchkrow firmly on his crest. The metal thing on the other hand locks up in its entirety, splashing into the river like a pile of bricks, utterly paralyzed. In a panic, it puts its floating hands together, moving against the paralysis coursing through its artificial body. Honchkrow, although injured and fluttering down to the floor, seizes the moment.
He soars down, watching the Zap Cannon build between the Porygon's floating hands. He makes it ashore as the creature locks onto him. Honchkrow pulls back his wings, and lets loose a gale across the water.
A loud boom echoes as water hits the sphere. Lightning dances along the river, scoring everything in its path and reducing the user to an ash-colored wreck. The Porygon's floating limbs fall into the water with a splash, and their yellow, frenzied eyes fade into lifeless grays.
Testing the waters with his feet, Honchkrow steps forth, and plucks the badge from its body. The charred remains float past him, being carried downstream towards the canyon.
Honchkrow looks at the badge. The white diamond at its center whirls round and round till it points sternly in the direction he came from. Is it trying to warn him? He can only guess. He is not going to stay here to find out whatever this badge is telling him. He clasps the badge onto his chest fluff, then continues down the road, collecting himself after a battle well fought.
Ahead, pillars of hexagonal, black basalt surround the canyon's river. Quartz formations peek out from the dark stones, and above the pebbly shores of the river, he can see the opening of many caves leading deep into the earth below. One of these has to be an entrance to a Mystery Dungeon.
He spreads his wings, fluttering up the basalt pillars to where these cavern mouths lie. He digs his head into each and every one, sniffing the air for any remote traces of Seawater. All the while, the badge continues to shake and rattle against his chest. During his search he stops to unclip his badge, and just stares at it.
The diamond at its center swirls, pointing in every possible direction till it settles in the direction where he came. He peers through the increasing rainfall. A figure, dark and imposing, slithers across the basalt pillars. Even further are three others racing down the riverbank oblivious to both him and this thing.
He's been followed. There is no time to question what this thing is. He sticks his beak into the nearest one of these holes in the ground, catching the faintest drift of seawater. This has to be it.
With a final, paranoid glance over his shoulder, Honckrow sees the figure at the river below and he throws himself to the whims of the Mystery Dungeon.