Chapter 16: Force Majeure

Kiran and Elty disappeared from view as Nida progressed deeper into the crowd, darting here and there between bodies. As the spike ball hopped past, the occasional "Watch it!", "Ojo!, or similar yelp of protest would ring out, only to fall on unresponding ears.

There would be time to apologize. Later.

She looked frantically about, sniffed the ground, and occasionally reared up and flicked her ears for any sign of Pleo or the Pokémon that might have taken him. Not a single clue had come her way, and the Nidoran grew more and more disheartened... until she heard Crom's voice suddenly cry out.

"Nida! Look!"

Nida turned, and saw Crom waving from a few Pokémon over. Without thinking, she bounded forward and clambered up the Druddigon's spiked back, coming to a perched rest on his head. The young dragon pointed out an Electabuzz and a Tauros, with white scarves bearing blue suns, approaching some crates.

"The Tauros! That has to be him! He's got something that would drop red lint!" he whispered before bending down to sniff at the ground. "And I saw him pass through this patch of ground earlier! Why, it even still has a hint of musky smell and seawater!"

Nida prepared to hop down from the Druddigon's head to confirm his observations, but stopped in her tracks as she noticed the pair of Pokémon moving.

"The Pokémon with him would've been able to throw that orb at us, too!" the Druddigon added. It all seemed to mostly add up, but something… Something still seemed amiss. The two white-scarved Pokémon neared a crate, and the Electabuzz began to unbind the bag from the Tauros and shift it towards the crate. Then, Crom suddenly saw it-

The underside of the Electabuzz's scarf. It had been exposed for just a fraction of a second while he was shifting the bag off, but it was all that was needed. The underside wasn't white as would have been expected.

It was unmistakably lavender, and it was proof to Nida and Crom that the two had something to hide. Any lingering reservations of acting up quickly left the pair's mind and the Druddigon shouted out after the Tauros and the Electabuzz.

"Wait! Stop!"

It was time to act.

The Druddigon rushed forward in the crowd, shoving a few of the Pokémon beside him out of the way. Nida tensed her legs and, without thinking, spread her barbs and leapt up and off her perch on Crom's head, straight for the Electabuzz.

"Sácate la mochila!" Nida cried. Before her feet even hit the wood of the deck, she had already flicked a poisonous spike from her ruff at the Electabuzz. The little missile sailed on, until by good fortune, it found its mark on the Electric-Type's lower arm.

"Ack!"

The Pokémon cried out and clutched his arm grimacing in pain, losing his grip on the bag in the process. The canvas satchel fell to the ground, and a sudden squawk rang out from inside it.

"Gwark!"

A commotion quickly broke out among the Pokémon in the crowd as the bag shifted. A white head and neck with a navy blue scarf and a King's Rock around it drowsily poked itself out, in plain view of everyone present.

"Whuh?" Pleo yawned as he began to pull himself from the bag's mouth. "Nida? Crom? Where are you?"

"Wait a minute!" Osmund cried out. "That's-!"

"Eh?!" Hatteras bleated in shock as he saw Pleo pull himself out of the bag. "What is the meaning of-?!"

As the Electabuzz winced and nursed his arm from the painful little missile, his companion nervously nudged him and pointed out a few concerning developments. First, the formerly nervous looks and murmurs in the crowd of spectators had given way to baying and shouting. Second, their superior was seething and leering at them from the end of the dock behind the shocked-looking Ampharos and Sceptile. And lastly, the little white bird they had been sent to snag had gotten all but his tail free of the bag.

"Crud, throw the bird back in and let's get off this rock!" the Tauros cried, much to his quarry's confusion.

"Huh? Aah!"

Or at least until Pleo suddenly felt a hot, numbing sensation course through his body from behind. The little Protector's limbs went rigid, sending him toppling forward with a startled squawk. The bird tilted his head back weakly and saw little sparks dancing among his feathers. Before he could try and make sense of what had happened to him, he felt the faint sensation of something grabbing him and his body being pulled from the dock.

Pleo tried to struggle, but no matter how much he fought back, his flails, kicks, and wingbeats came out as little more than feeble twitches to the two Company Pokémon. The only part of his body that seemed to mount any meaningful resistance as they shoveled the Lugia back into the sack was his mouth, as he cried pitifully over and over again...

"Lemme go! Lemme go!"

Pleo's tormentors suddenly heard running footfalls against the dock's planks. When the two turned to see their source, they saw a Nidoran and a young Druddigon forcing their way to the front of the crowd and charging towards them.

"Let him go!" Nida shouted, as she flicked forward another spike at the Electabuzz.

"Yeah, he's not your Protector!" Crom bellowed, before he ran up and raked the Tauros' flank with opened claws.

The Tauros wheeled back from the Druddigon's clawing, his partner catching a barb in his stomach. While the two younger Pokémon had not done much damage with their attacks, the little jolts of pain still wore the pair's patience thin. The Electabuzz promptly shoved the still-flailing Lugia into the sack and tied its mouth back shut, before getting up and casting an ugly leer at the two pests in front of him for their attempts to get in the way.

"Buzz off, you little brats!" the yellow and black Pokémon growled, before he curled his body and shot out a crackling stream of electricity. Nida hopped back away from the Electric-Type, but was unable to fully clear the arc before it struck one of her hind legs, sending her into a headlong trip. Just before her head hit the planks below, she saw the Tauros charge Crom, the Druddigon narrowly dodging the bull's horns only to be knocked back along the dock...

"A-Aaah!"

Although the two had not been squarely struck by the two Pokémon's blows, they were still sent tumbling to a stop at the foot of the crowd. The two weakly picked themselves up and their hearts sank as the Electabuzz in the duo began to advance on them…

Only for the Electric-Type to suddenly pitch forward onto the docks as a stone abruptly struck him in the side of his head. Followed immediately by a Swellow's cry.

"Hang in there, kids!"

Much to Nida and Crom's joy, they saw Kiran swoop down in front them and whip up a gust of wind with his wings. The cutting wind sailed down the pier, knocking the Tauros off his feet and back from the weakly fidgeting sack that Pleo was trapped in. A orange dog then abruptly jumped out from the crowd behind the two and behind Kiran, growling and braced for battle.

"You really know a thing or two about getting in over your heads!" he called out to the infiltrators, who were still picking themselves up off of the dock. As the Electabuzz stumbled up, he narrowly dodged another Gravelerock, and then a beam of pinkish light, and then an apple which sailed on to hit his partner with a yelp.

The two braced to return to battle, only for their resolve to fail them when the pair saw that it was not just the two brats and their two allies who were advancing against them, but the entire front of the crowd. Guild Pokémon, local shopkeepers, visiting sailors, and a number of Pokémon with lavender headbands that had just recently been preoccupied with moving cargo towards the dock. All of them now baying for their hides.

"Gah! That wasn't supposed to happen!" the Tauros panicked.

"Okay, new strategy!" the Electabuzz cried as sparks began to crackle on his fur. "Kick up a wave!"

The Tauros leapt into the water and kicked up a large wave towards the crowd. As the wave crested, the bull leapt back for the dock while the Electabuzz sent a weak current through it. Kiran hastily swooped down and tried his best to shield his teammates from the brunt of the swell as it came down with a roaring crash.

The crowd's advance abruptly stopped with a chorus of shouts as Team Traveller was pushed back by the wave and felt jolts of electricity run through their bodies. Kiran tumbled along the deck, his wings and legs becoming uncooperative. His teammates weakly flailed as they tried to get back up, only to discover...

"A-Aah!"

"Nngh! I can't move!"

Similar yelps and groans of pain rang out across the front of the crowd. The wave had knocked a couple of its members out cold, and had left a number of Pokémon in the front unable to budge forth another step from paralysis. Pokémon trying to press forward from behind quickly ran into their petrified compatriots, further throwing the entire group into disorder.

The infiltrators turned back and saw that their cohorts on the dock and in the water had hastily set aside their preoccupations with loading cargo onto Lyn's ship. Nida's eyes widened and her breaths grew shallow as she saw the entire lot begin to advance on the group, leering and growling. The Tauros sidled up against the edge of the dock and prepared throw another wave of water at the disorganized crowd.

"Hah!" the bull taunted the incapacitated Pokémon ahead of him. "Not so tough now, are ya-?!"

"Enough!"

The Tauros was abruptly caught by a green, leafy blade in the flank, which sent the creature flying into the side of Lyn's docked ship with a cry and a loud thud. The sound of a splash quickly followed as the bull fell into the harbor's water below, floating listless and unconscious. The Electabuzz whirled around to attack, only to see that the creature that waylaid his partner was none other than Bluewhorl's Captain of the Guard… and that the Sceptile was about to bring his blade down on his head.

Thwack

"Yeargh!"

The Electric-Type tottered, dropped Pleo's still fidgeting sack onto the dock, and then tumbled off the side into the water before also floating back up to the surface. The creature groaned in pain as a long, reddish mark, visible even through his pelt, began to form along his head in between his horns. After seeing two of their compatriots so swiftly overpowered, the rest of Lyn's grunts on the dock fell back with hesitating grimaces, a few of their number opting to glare and shout invective at the Sceptile… from a safe distance, of course.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Osmund snarled at the Electabuzz that now floated helplessly in the water, before redirecting his glare at the shrinking Pokémon around him. "Not while I outrank you creeps!"

With a flash, the Sceptile tore a small hole into the bag with his claws, as Pleo's voice unmuffled voice rang out once again.

"Lemme go! Lemme go! Nida! Crom! H-Help!"

Back at the end of the docks, Team Traveler desperately tried to make their way to Pleo. Although they could feel sensation begin to return to their limbs, a sign that the effects of the electrified Surf were beginning to wear off, they still could not manage more than to feebly inch along the wooden planks of the docks. The four breathed a sigh of relief after they saw Osmund approach the still-crying and jostling sack, patting it to try and soothe the trapped bird inside.

"Hang in there, Protector! It's alright now!" Osmund reassured.

The Sceptile grabbed the bag, raised the mouth slightly to ensure there would be a gap between Pleo and the top, and with one smooth motion, cut open the mouth of the sack. The canvas flopped out along the dock and left Pleo stumbling about, still shivering from his ordeal and the effects of his body's paralysis as he slowly picked himself up back to his feet. Hatteras shook his head to try and make sense of everything that had just happened, then turned to the Samurott behind him, sparking with indignance.

"Lyn, I want an explanation. Now- Baah!"

Before the Ampharos could finish his statement, he found himself stumbling back after a bumrushing tackle from the Samurott.

"Out of my way!"

The Ampharos fell backwards and fell off the dock into the harbor's water with a startled bleat and a loud splash. As Team Traveler continued to look on from the end of the dock, they saw that much to their horror, Lyn was charging down the dock. Directly towards Pleo.

"Pleo, fly away!" Nida squeaked.

The little bird desperately tried to brace his numbed legs and wings for a leap into the air, only to see a flash of white from the corner of his eye and feel a freezing jet as his feet were suddenly covered in something cold and hard.

"A-Aah!"

Pleo looked down, and saw that his feet and the lower parts of his legs had been stuck to the docks in a clump of ice. He couldn't tell if the ice was really hard or if the sparks from the Electabuzz had just made him very weak, but no matter what he tried, he simply could not pull them free.

"I'm stuck!" he squawked in panic, beating his wings as frantically as his condition allowed. When Pleo turned towards the direction the freezing burst had come from, he saw a hulking blue otter running for him. The creature had fierce eyes, bared teeth, and held a blade flat and parallel to the dock with one of his paws. Pleo screwed his eyes shut and curled up, flinching from an expected pounce.

"Not so fast, Lyn!"

There was the sound of a loud cry, and of a large Pokémon tumbling across wood. When Pleo opened his eyes, he saw Osmund in the middle of the dock, blades drawn, staring down a livid and wild-eyed Samurott with a red scrape along his chest under his left shoulder.

"I don't care what that scarf of yours means!" the Sceptile growled. "You're not sailing off with this island's Protector if I have anything to say about it!"

"Grr… You should pray that you live to see a court-martial, Osmund!" Lyn bellowed. The Samurott then drew his other blade with a loud scrape and tore forwards at the Sceptile with blades drawn.

The Sceptile weaved out of the way, digging his claws into the hull of the ship and clambering along the wall before dropping back down to slash at his opponent from behind, making the balance-disrupted Samurott stumble forward.

"Is that the best you can do?!" Osmund taunted. "You really don't know when you're in over your head, don't you-?"

Before he could finish, Osmund saw Lyn whirl around abruptly. The Sceptile braced his blades, anticipating a charge, only to see to his dismay that Lyn stayed firmly in place- and spat out a freezing beam which froze his feet to the docks, much as he had done to Pleo a few moments earlier.

"Gah!"

"You're just forgetting one thing, Osmund," the Samurott sneered. "I wasn't given this rank from some friend in a high place. I earned it by grinding wannabes like you into the dirt!"

Lyn then leapt into the harbor as Osmund desperately tried to cut himself free. Before the Grass-Type could break free of the snare, the Samurott burst up from the water behind Osmund and slashed the Sceptile along his back, the force of the blow tearing his feet from their icy bindings and hurling him along the docks onto his side. As the Sceptile righted himself and attempted to stumble up, a searing pain shot through his body. Lyn had caught him with a stab in his stomach, causing the poor reptile to cry out and fall to his knees, much to the shock of everyone watching, including Team Traveler.

"Osmund!" Nida shouted.

"No!" cried Crom.

Elty flinched at the sight of the Samurott's assault, his words failing him save for a stunned whine.

"B-Bogowie"

"Come on, get it together, quick! He's almost upon you!" Kiran begged.

As the Sceptile's strength ebbed away, the deck hands around them lost their wariness of the Captain of Tromba's guards. Jets of water and flying missiles came at the Sceptile from every direction as he crumpled up onto the dock and tried to curl up to deflect the blows. Lyn, still smarting from the indignity the insubordinate gecko had forced upon him, bellowed out and bade his grunts to fall back.

The pleasure of doing in the traitor would be his.

Osmund was now defenseless and covered in bruises and ugly reddish scrapes. With what little strength remained in his body, the tree lizard struggled to raise himself off the planks of the dock. The Samurott threw an arm back and entered a falling chop at the Sceptile's neck- throwing enough force behind it to finish the fight right here and now.

Suddenly, a loud electrical crack reverberated, and yelps rang out on the docks. A number of the deck hands who had harried Osmund hit the deck cold, as others uneasily stumbled back up to their feet as static continued to dance on their bodies. The burst had even sent the Lyn tumbling back mid-swing along the docks away from Pleo. The great otter panted heavily as electricity continued to crackle on his hide, glaring at the culprit at the end of the docks, as the Lugia continued to desperately try and free himself from the ice about his feet. A sopping, leering Ampharos had butted in between him and Osmund, the Sceptile clutching his wounded stomach and trying his hardest to get back onto his feet.

"Learn some respect for your elders!" the Ampharos bleated angrily at the Samurott. Lyn growled and eased himself back to his feet, deck hands who were still well enough to fight following suit as faces from the ship and the skies and water around it prepared to join as well.

"Okay, now!"

Thwam

A loud crash, a yelp, and the sound of one of the gangplanks slipping and falling into the water suddenly rang out from further down the dock. All eyes turned to see a red and white blur of feathers leaping to her feet from atop a sprawled-out Excadrill groaning on the docks. Everyone's eyes widened as they realized... this was-!

"Mosca?!"

A nearby lavender-scarved Roselia whirled around to retaliate against the bird, spikes poking from her petals ready to be launched out, only to freeze out of petrified terror as she saw a Tropius rapidly approaching.

"Yeah, we don't suffer bad apples here well!" Mildrew shouted as he promptly ran down the hapless Grass-Type against the dock, stopping by just long enough for Mosca to hop onto his back and leap back up into the air.

Wait, were these-?!

"The cavalry's here, kids!" Mosca squawked.

A brilliant, streaking multi-colored beam and icy flechettes rained out against the side of the ship as the Tropius departed, catching an unfortunate Dusclops and Crawdaunt by surprise as they tumbled in the harbor's water. One of the flechettes chanced to catch Lyn in his shoulder, and made him whirl around towards the dock opposite his ship.

At the other dock, there was a Froslass (the children at the Day Care must have done a better job at keeping her helper in line than anyone expected), a Porygon, a Nidorino, and a Nidorina. All of them leering at the lavender-sailed ship and poised for further attacks.

"You'd best swim back to where you came from, bub!" Teja growled, the Nidorino fanning out his spikes.

"Or don't!" Marley's voice called out, the Nidorina licking her paw as she leered all the while at the Samurott. "I could use some new trophies tonight!"

A volley of spikes from the two soon followed, sending what few Pokémon were still conscious among Lyn's lackeys on the dock swimming, flying, and running for cover behind under the dock and back on the ship behind a hastily-conjured patchwork of barriers of light.

"And don't think that I just brought reinforcements from land either!" the Hawlucha cried out, before she motioned out to sea, revealing a large number of the residents of Tromba's harbor, disgruntled and leering at the Pokémon on and about Lyn's ship. Nervous looks and chatter went about some of the Company Pokémon as Lyn gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his seamitars. This wasn't the orderly visit he had planned at all.

"Heh, just in time, too," Kiran chirped, as he beat his wings. Wait a minute- he beat his wings! They were fully moving again! This meant...

"Ah! I think I can move again!" Nida cried out, as she paced forward, uneasily, but no longer inching forward as she had earlier, her teammates following her lead one after the other and easing into battle postures.

"Come on, we can do this!"

With their mobility back and reinforcements having joined them, the crowd returned to their tense and aggressive stances. The Pokémon in the huddled masses braced themselves to snatch their Protector from a wounded, if still-powerful enemy.

"Heh... How do you like those odds now, Lyn?" Osmund said. The Sceptile, despite still being too weak to get back up onto his feet, couldn't hide a sense of satisfaction from his weary face.

"Rrgh… Do you honestly all think that you can win this?" Lyn fumed, as he pinned Pleo to the ground with a squawk under a forepaw. "That getting one up on me would suddenly be the end of things?"

"You sure talk tough for a cornered sea rat," Osmund sneered, when some voices rang out from the harbor.

"Eat some brine, you Company scum!" the chorus went, as jets of water and waves flew about at the stern of Lyn's ship. Yes, this was finally Tromba's moment of triumph over the Company…

or at least so everyone thought, until Lyn's bellowing voice rang out:

"Get those miserable fish away from my ship and secure the perimeter!"

Suddenly, the sea Pokémon that accompanied Lyn's ship massed together and sent a massive wave crashing down the harbor, draining the water along the docks enough to strand the ships in the exposed sand for a moment. A torrent of shrieks and cries followed as the wave swept up the locals who lived in the water.

Upon subsiding, the harbor was littered with netting, formerly attached to boats in the harbor and the seabed beneath to provide places for sea Pokémon to rest at night. Along with the nets was a sorry-looking mass of entangled, dazed, groaning, and unconscious Pokémon in the water, as the other sea Pokémon scattered and swam away in a panic before Lyn's cronies could do anything more to them.

BLAM!

Everyone's attention was drawn up to a flurry of colorful, round spheres tearing a series of holes into a tent in the main square.

As all the Pokémon in the crowd turned their stunned attention back to the docks, they became acutely aware that the barriers around it were now neat and orderly as opposed to the haphazard collection it was moments ago. On top of that, all eyes associated with Lyn's ship, whether on the ship, or freshly clambered off of it onto the dock, or in the air, or in the water… all were now focused on the town, along with a number of wooden tubes on rollers. One of them was aimed squarely at Hatteras and Osmund, another was aimed at the Pokémon on the other dock. Worst of all, the six others were trained on the crowd and the rest of Bluewhorl's harbor, including a tube still smoking from a spent Blast Seed targeting the damaged shop.

Every last Pokémon with the Company's scarves was now poised to strike and obliterate the surrounding portions of town. The abrupt reversal made Team Traveler freeze in their tracks, their stomachs growing knotted from the realization that they and everyone in town near the docks were at the mercy of these dangerous beasts. Some startled cries rang out in the crowd and a few more timid Pokémon turned and fled entirely, as Lyn dug his heels in and growled at a now-shaken looking Hatteras.

"You. Did you think that if you somehow pull through right now with a boatload of casualties, it will be the end of things? Do you think that would spare you from the Board getting wind of things and sending others to come to finish the job? The job that some of us have been waiting years to finish thanks to that indecisive fat lump Darzin?" the Samurott spat before he turned back to the crowd.

"Who do you think it is that's been keeping your island from being turned into a den for pirates, huh?! Some little bird?!" he bellowed. "No! It's muscle like mine! The muscle that's gonna flatten your rebellious little hamlet right here and now if you keep this nonsense up!"

"This isn't help!" Pleo angrily squawked from under Lyn's paw. When the Samurott looked down, he saw the Lugia craning his neck up at the otter, his eyes livid and momentarily forgetting all of the danger he was in.

"This is you being a bully just like those pirates!" he cried as a glowing ball at the back of his throat. "Get out!"

Pleo spat the ball into the face of the Samurott, causing the creature to recoil and let go of the bird for a moment. There was a brief moment of silence, which gave the young Lugia hope that perhaps he had knocked the mean Samurott clear over the horizon... which was promptly squashed along with his fleeting, angry resistance after he saw a blade abruptly shoved in front of his beak.

"Don't make things any worse for everyone than you already have today," Lyn growled.

The Samurott's words struck the young Lugia like a bag full of Gravelerocks. Ander and his family said the other day that since he came down from the cave, that all he had done to Tromba was to bring it trouble… and now, here he was, in a situation where every move he made to try and stay on the island genuinely seemed to only make things worse for the Pokémon that lived here.

"I've- I've been making things worse for everyone?" Pleo whimpered.

"You're a 'Protector' aren't you?" Lyn growled, glaring at the white bird. "So protect these Pokémon from their own stupidity!"

Pleo looked down uneasily at the docks. Could- Could Ander really have been right? Could this bully in front of him be right, too? As his teammates saw Pleo hesitate and a blank, stunned expression spread over his face, they called out, desperately hoping that Pleo wouldn't give in.

"Pleo!" Crom cried out.

"Don't listen to him!" Nida begged.

"None of this is your fault, pollito!" Kiran squawked.

"I- I never meant to make things-" Pleo began, only to have his chance to decide for himself torn away. With a swift swat, the Samurott abruptly knocked Pleo's head to the docks with the flat of one of his blades, the blow sprawling the little bird out cold against the planks.

"Pleo!" Nida cried.

"Take him and the wounded aboard my ship," Lyn growled to his still-conscious subordinates nearby. A few of the Pokémon dragged their fallen counterparts groaning and spluttering off the docks and out of the water back up the gangplank. Others went about to inspect dents and damage in the hull from Mosca's intercession.

All the while, the Pokémon onboard Lyn's ship stood prepared to lob volleys of attacks strong enough to break any barriers thrown up by Bluewhorl's residents and the Pokémon behind the wooden tubes readied them to fire at a moment's notice. A Slugma sidled up against and melted away the ice holding Pleo's unconscious body in place before the Protector too was carried off, in front of a watching town.

"He's hurt and in need of medical care along with the deck hands you've been so inhospitable to," Lyn said to the Ampharos, his voice filled with forced congeniality. "And you have your own miscreants to patch up."

The Samurott shoved Osmund to the ground at Hatteras' feet, the lizard wincing and glaring back at Lyn all the while.

"Why, we'll even throw in a gesture of goodwill and load our own cargo today! So get off the docks and let us resupply like loyal subjects, and we'll all pretend this blatant treason didn't happen," the Water-Type growled. "Or we can settle this by fighting it out until the last Pokemon standing. Your choice."

All about the gathering, defeated looks washed over the faces of Bluewhorl's residents as their hopes of wrestling Pleo free crashed to the ground. A few of the Pokémon who were younger or otherwise more dutiful visitors to the shrine up the hill broke down in tears. In spite of all of this, Hatteras somehow seemed to retain some uneasy shred of composure and determination.

"We… We can't really say 'no' to letting Pleo get healed... And I guess we can't have Pleo right this moment," the Ampharos begrudgingly answered.

"Good, nice to see that you've got a reasonable head on your shoulders… Hatteras," the Samurott said, giving a smug smirk at the elderly sheep before turning back to the amassed crowd.

"You heard your mayor! Scram! These docks belong to me and my subordinates until we push off!"

As the Company Pokémon on the docks began to fan out on the docks, the crowd rapidly thinned out as its members darted away from the docks. Even Mosca and her on-land reinforcements retreated into the interior of the town after it became apparent there were no moves left to make from their position. The sea Pokémon from the harbor timidly came back to help the wounded in the water swim away to receive care on the beach next to the Guild. Hatteras helped Osmund totter down the dock and towards help in town in spite of his wounds, the latter occasionally receiving a kick or spittle from a weaker member of Lyn's crew that sensed a chance to ingratiate themselves with their leader at the rebel's expense. Team Traveler also fell back, heading with downcast spirits up a path away from the docks, casting longing glances at it all the while.

"Kiran! Wh-What do we do now?!" Crom cried, the poor dragon visibly misty-eyed from having Pleo snatched away from his claws.

"Yeah, your Guildmaster kinda just gave up the prize bird there," Elty murmured, his ears held low.

"We had him!" Nida squeaked. "We're really just letting Lyn steal Pleo like that?!"

"Psst! Kiran!" a voice whispered from an alley.

When the team turned down the alley, they saw it was none other than…

"Eh?! Mosca?!" the Swellow squawked.

"Stop by the Guild's warehouse, Kiran," she insisted. "It's urgent."

"H-Huh?!" Crom asked. "B-But Pleo! He's-!"

"Hatteras said 'I guess we can't have Pleo right this moment' for a reason, you know! We're not completely out of moves yet!" the Hawlucha whispered back, returning a faint glimmer of hope to the eyes of Team Traveler's members. There still might be a way to get Pleo back!

"Right! We'll be there!" Kiran answered. The Swellow took flight and led the team in a rush for the guild hall.


Crom, Nida, and Elty dashed all the way back, hot on the heels of their swift-winged team leader. They ran past the message board and through the main pavilion, where they saw a Luxio ducking down a path. After a moment's pause, they hurried along after the Electric-Type to the direction of a warehouse- or more accurately an oversized shed. The structure was a dingy, lonely building that laid at the periphery of the guild's grounds. Normally, it was a space to store things that didn't have an immediate use for most of the year, but today, it would host the most pivotal town meeting in living memory. Fighting fatigue and, in Nida and Crom's case, wounds from their encounter on the docks, the four hurried all the way up to the wooden structure's entrance…

"Hold it!"

Where they were stopped by a stern-looking Primeape, who quickly pointed at the three younger Pokémon in the group.

"Not you three, just Kiran."

Nida and Crom's jaws dropped. Hatteras was going to hold possibly the most important guild meeting of their lives… and they weren't going to be allowed to go to it?

"Huh?! But we're on the same team!" Nida protested.

"Yeah, we wanna help, too!" Crom cried out, trying his hardest to find a way to slip past the Fighting-Type.

"Yeah, well 'loose lips sink ships'. And this is a very delicate ship this town is on right now," the ape answered, giving a serious leer at Team Traveler's leader. The Swellow hesitated for an uneasy moment, and then turned to his companions.

"It is probably for the best if I handled this alone, kids," Kiran said, which immediately lowered the team's spirits.

"But Kiran-!"

"If whatever Hatteras comes up with has an opening for you to help out, I'll get you in the action first thing," the Swellow chirped, giving a pat to the Nidoran and Druddigon's head before he ducked into the warehouse.

"No eavesdropping either. We've gotta make sure any snooping grunts don't get suspicious!" the Primeape admonished.

Nida and Crom glumly turned away and began to walk away from the shed… Until they saw Elty a little ways up the path lazily scratching at his neck with a hind paw.

"Were you just scratching yourself all this time?" Nida asked, her ears folding back and her eyes screwing shut out of frustration.

"What? You should've known you weren't getting in after that Pokémon's second sentence!"

"Elty, just… Don't sit there like that," Crom growled, covering his face with a claw.

The Growlithe shrugged and obliged and, after the Nidoran and Druddigon passed him, trotted off along behind them. Eventually, the three found a set of bushes by a path that still afforded a view of the mess hall and sank in. The brush was reasonably effective at hiding Nida and Elty. Crom on the other hand...

"Uhm… I think this is the best I can fit in."

Well, it probably should have come as no surprise to anyone that the bush would now have a Druddigon's head, wings, and tail poking out from it.

"So I guess we wait now?" the Druddigon asked.

"Well, my Community Service term is kinda sitting on a boat in the harbor right now," Elty replied. "So I'm kinda indifferent here."

The three sat and waited, the only company to the young Pokémon being the sound of other guild members rushing past them. Some faint overlapping words that the three couldn't pick out even with their relatively strong hearing burbled from the direction of the hut. Every second passed like a drip of water, faintly plinking in the minds of the Pokémon… and eventually, it got too much for the Nidoran in the group.

"Ugh... Why are we just standing here?!" she huffed. "Pleo's down on Lyn's ship right now!"

Crom warily looked about in thought. He peered at the warehouse, and then at the docks, before turning back. He paused for a long moment, and then suddenly spoke up.

"Actually, I think you might be onto something, Nida," he murmured to himself. "I mean, it's not much... And I don't think it would mess up any of Hatteras' plans if it didn't work... but we still have a chance to get him while he's in port!"

"Wait… we do?" the Nidoran asked warily.

"Um… Yeah, 'fighting battles an entire town couldn't win' is kinda a non-starter there, you know," Elty grumbled, narrowing his eyes at the Druddigon as the Dragon-Type shuffled out of the bushes.

"Think about how they were going to get Pleo aboard," he explained. "They were going to sneak him in with the cargo! Who's to say we can't do the same?"

"And if we got onboard and snuck him into something they were gonna throw out during resupplying," Nida said to herself as she hopped out of the bushes, her eyes suddenly widening from an abrupt realization. "We'd get him out of there and have time to hunker down before they came back!"

"Then come on!" Crom cried. "Let's hurry up and-!"

"That's all fine and dandy for you," Elty replied as he turned around and poked his head out the bush at his two er… teammates? "But I don't see why I should care."

"What?!" Crom growled. "How do you figure that?!"

"Because this plan's insane? And besides, 'no Pleo' means 'no more Community Service' for me," the Growlithe scoffed, turning his head to the side.

"Listen, you fat jerk," Nida huffed as she fanned out her barbs and walked forward, pressing their tips against the Growlithe's hide. "If Pleo doesn't get back to the Guild Hall safely by the end of the day, I will personally volunteer you for babysitting at Hariti's to make up for it!"

"And I'll support her for you sitting on your butt when we had the chance to do something!" Crom added as he stooped down to glare at the Growlithe.

"So what's it gonna be?" Nida asked, poking the Fire-Type a bit more forcefully with her barbs. The Growlithe blinked and looked at the irked Nidoran and Druddigon uneasily. After letting visions of getting chased around by children and rowdy, poisonous Nidoran kits like the poor Quilava at the Day Care flash through his mind, the little dog growled and begrudgingly resigned himself to the fact that he would be better off playing along.

"Urgh, psiakrew… For young Pokémon, this guild of yours sure teaches you to be tough at bargaining."

"Is that a 'yes'?" Nida pressed.

"Fine," Elty grumbled, rolling his eyes. "But this is still a bad idea!"

"Great to hear you're on the same page, now let's hurry!" she cried, turning and bolting down the path. Crom and Elty quickly followed after the little blue spike ball.

It was a long shot, to be sure, but with the fate of Tromba's Protector hanging in the balance, they couldn't just give him up without trying to do something about it! They had to do something!

For their families.

For Bluewhorl.

For Tromba.

For their friend.


Author's Notes:

- (¡)Ojo! - Spanish: "Watch out!"
- (¡)Sácate la mochila! - Spanish: "(You, )drop the backpack/knapsack!"
- Bogowie - Polish: "(Oh) Gods". Derived by using the plural equivalent of "Boże", which is used as an interjection in Polish.
- psiakrew - Polish: Mildly vulgar interjection, often translated as "darn/damn (it)". lit. "dog's blood"