Chapter 56: Signing Up

Nagant's travels from the docks took longer than normal on the night of her return. As opposed to the direct course through the canals she would normally take from the docks to her quarters in the Royal Citadel, the evening was consumed by a meandering course helping to guide the crate and the Protector within along back alleys and emptier streets to elude attention. Eventually, the Aurorus, the cart, and their defending entourage made their way to a tall stone gate, where guards dutifully watched the entrances on land and those cut into the network of canals that spilled over the wall. The Clawitzer hopped into one of the canals, waiting to be waved through by a watching Lumineon and Kingler. She swam under the wall and waited for her more terrestrial counterparts to come through their gate before continuing on into the Citadel.

The Citadel, much like the one that graced Conntow in days of old, was effectively a town built unto itself. Queen Aleria's palace was its anchor, a grand affair with its parapets and balconies for her to take to the air, and its surroundings were crowded by the quarters of nobles along with vanities such as gardens and libraries. Radiating outwards from the palace and nobles' abodes at the center were quarters belonging to servants and guards, as well as those of Pokémon such as Nagant from the nobility whose prestige had waned with the ages. The Aurorus and the rest of the crate's escorts carried on to a service entrance, where the crate was unloaded onto a push cart, and hoisted up a pull elevator that took it up to the third floor of the palace, where a small party of guards headed by a Chesnaught bade them to follow down a candlelit hallway towards a set of large doors at the end.

Nagant made her way forward with her entourage, keenly eyeing the decor on the walls. It had been lined with portraits and statues of royals from ages past. There was Aquila the Great, the Staraptor founder of Anyilla's ruling dynasty. There was King Oriel the Unifier, who had stitched the Empire back together after the royal family split into feuding wings whose squabbles brought ruin to its ports. There was King Gavin the Wise, who had chartered the Company to guard the Empire's metals and act as a means to lift the best and brightest commonfolk to the ranks of the nobility… not that he'd think much of his creation now.

The Clawitzer made her way up to the door, where right beside it was a portrait of Queen Aleria's father, King Alexander and of her aunt, Queen Erna. King Alexander and Aleria were the sole members of the reigning family to escape the Great Calamity. The shrimp paused in front of the portrait, her thoughts turning towards the royals depicted within.

Whether by a stroke of fortune or the cruelty of fate, Aleria's egg had an accident at Alexander's manor on Giotto that had cracked her eggshell early and kept it from heading to Conntow with the rest of the then-Prince's family for his sister's jubilee that year. By missing the anniversary of Erna's reign, Aleria had been spared from the maelstrom, a fate which Nagant's own family failed to share. In life, King Alexander had done everything possible to try and rebuild the world he knew for his child, but like many things in Anyilla since that awful day, the most that could be managed was a mere shadow of the times gone by.

Creeeak

Nagant pushed the door open to find that the throne room before them was mostly barren, barring a small body of guards in the cerulean cloth and mail expected of their ilk by the throne, a sleepy-looking Archeops on the ground, and an Altaria resting on an overlooking eave. The Archeops yawned, and flapped up to paw at the wing of the dozing Altaria. Upon the ancient bird's prodding, the cloudy bluebird perked up, and gave a trilling admonishment.

"Captain Nugget!" the Altaria chirped. "This is a throne room, not a loading dock!"

Nagant's frowned and twitched her barbels irkedly at the mention of 'Captain Nugget', clenching her claws tight to restrain herself as the Altaria queen fluttered down. Aleria hopped over to her throne perch and waited for the Archeops to follow suit before turning back to Nagant, skeptically eyeing the ratty crate that had been brought in her chamber.

"If you have supplies to leave for the palace, there's a service entrance for that!" Aleria cried. "I don't need it brought straight to my throne room!"

"I can assure you, if this were mere supplies, I wouldn't have troubled you, your majesty," Nagant insisted. "This is the Protector that I sent word about."

"… The Protector is that crate there?" the Altaria asked.

The cloud-bird's failure to recognize the obvious elicited wide-eyed stares from the audience, followed by a wave of paws and claws being thrown over faces.

"… Captain, would you kindly open the crate for her majesty to see?" the Archeops sighed.

"Gladly, Chancellor Osborn," Nagant chittered. "Bommel!"

The Clawitzer's cry prompted a Bewear to grunt and approach the crate, forcing his paws under the lid and tugging it up with a smooth motion to reveal its contents for Nagant to gesture at with her claw. Much to the Aleria and Osborn's astonishment, slumbering within the crate was a long-necked bird of a species that neither of the two had ever seen, bearing silvery-white feathers, a blue crest and back plates.

"That's the Protector, your majesty," Nagant explained.

"Oh, how lovely! I never knew that a Protector could be such a cutie!" Aleria chirped. "They're always so big and imposing in myth."

The onlooking Pokémon murmured as they saw the creature in the box begin to stir, his silvery-white feathers rippling as his head bobbed up in a confused daze.

"Gwuh?"

Pleo blinked, trying to clear the sleep from his eyes to make out his dimly-lit surroundings. Every bit of him ached, and he felt himself yearn for just a few more hours of sleep. Still bleary-eyed, he rolled his shoulders and spread his wings wide, giving them a few beats to get his blood flowing like he always did in the morning.

"Nida?" the young Lugia murmured. "Are you still there?"

As his eyes finally adjusted to the lighting, Pleo suddenly jumped back with a start. Far from the sunset-filled sky he'd expected to see, he'd woken up in an airy, candlelit room. Nagant was still lurking near him, but the room was filled with strangers he didn't recognize, some with scary-looking faces in cerulean armor, and an Altaria and an Archeops peering curiously at him from the front. The seabird whirled around in a panic, hopping out of the crate flapping his wings instinctively to find he was still grounded, the million questions swirling in his mind only managing to surface the two most pressing of all:

"H-Huh?! Where am I?! Where's everyone?!"

"You're in her highness' presence, young one," a staticy voice explained.

Pleo looked behind just as the creak of a door rang out, spotting a Magnezone in an indigo scarf and a Kecleon in a red-and-gold cravat entering the chamber. The pair seemed serious-faced, and somewhat disheveled, as if suddenly drug in from other work. Perhaps conscious of his appearance, the chameleon gave a bow in front of the Altaria, dusting his scales off as they flushed a deep, businesslike green.

"Ah, Admiral Coil, Treasurer Walpole," the Archeops greeted. "We've been waiting for you."

"Sorry for the wait, we were held up by a Snorlax dozing on the road," the Kecleon apologized.

"Eh? Where's Thalez?" Aleria asked. "He's also a candidate for prime minister alongside you two."

"Uhm, your highness…" Osborn sighed. "About this whole 'making a bard a prime minister candidate'-"

"B-But where are my friends?!" Pleo squawked. "What did you do with them?!"

"They're making their way back to their old lives," Nagant answered. "Just as they ought to."

The Lugia's beak started to quiver, his eyes watering as he thought about his missing companions. They… They were gone? But they needed him to come back! So did everyone on Tromba! He remembered hearing them before, their voices playing out even now as they begged and pleaded with the fates to let him return…

The young Protector felt a rush flow through him, the air near his tail and back beginning to brighten up and his wingtips flushing with a silvery glow as startled looks flashed over the surrounding Pokémon.

"But- But they-" the Lugia sniffled. "And I-"

"Will get to see them again!" a Cranidos' voice hastily insisted. "Isn't that right, Captain?"

The gathered Pokemon turned their attention to a Cranidos towards the rear of the chamber who flustered at the sudden attention and shrank back slightly as the glow from Pleo's feathers faded. After a moment's pause, he steeled himself and righted his posture, clearing his throat dismissively. Wide-eyed, his Sandslash partner jabbed him in the side with the flat of a claw.

"Cabot, what are you doing?" Niilo whispered.

"I mean, you did say that the Protector would get to see his friends one day," Cabot insisted, ignoring his Sandslash teammate. "Isn't that right, Captain?"

The Clawitzer scowled at the Cranidos, and flicked her gaze to Pleo. With a twitch of her whiskers, she mused that perhaps she should've brought someone from her crew who asked fewer questions.. That said, perhaps calming their captive's nerves with an answer wouldn't be such a bad idea...

"… I suppose that I did say that, yes," Nagant sighed. "If they followed my suggestions, they're probably enjoying themselves in the city right now."

"So… if the Protector got all of his learning and preparation out of the way," Cabot continued. "Wouldn't that be a good time for that to happen?"

"Cabot," Berecien hissed under his breath. "You're not supposed to be giving suggestions right in front of-"

"I think it sounds lovely!" Aleria cheered. "What about you, Protector?"

Pleo blinked and shifted uneasily at the Altaria's prodding. The fluffy bird genuinely seemed like she wanted to make him feel welcome, but… he was all alone, and his friends were off in the middle of some island he knew nothing about…

"But I want to see them no- ow!"

The Lugia winced and reflexively folded his wings back, limping as he felt a pain shoot through his hip. The young bird craned his head down, nosing carefully at the sore joint with his beak as he felt a deep bruise under his feathers. Osborn, mindful of the little Protector's shabby state, shook his head, before appealing to the creature's evident fatigue.

"It would do you well to get some rest tonight, at least," the Archeops said. "And perhaps you'd come to appreciate your new home here."

"B-But my home's in Bluewhorl…" Pleo murmured. The seabird's protest drew a shake of Walpole's head, the Kecleon sighing at the evident hurdles that would need to be resolved for this creature to truly become the Protector of the Empire. The lizard thought back upon his experiences within the Merchantry of dealing with more intractable clients in the past, before raising his claw to float a proposal.

"If I may, but might I suggest something to help build the bond between Protector and protected?" Walpole offered. "Perhaps the thing needed to truly make Lugia feel at home here would be something to show him just how much he means to the denizens of the Empire."

"Oh, so like a tournament!" the Queen chirped.

"Er," the Kecleon began. "Actually I was going to propose a-"

"That's a wonderful idea! Osborn! See to it that the word is distributed at once and the stadium is booked for the next week!" the Altaria trilled. "We'll start the tournament tomorrow! Only the finest festival in honor of our new Protector!"

The Archeops Chancellor gave a flat frown back at the Altaria's prattling, only to ruffle his feathers and grudgingly nod his head back at his liege. It would be a long night's work to cobble together a tournament in less than a day… Though given Aleria's penchant for pagentry, he supposed it was easier than any of the alternatives the Altaria could have thought of.

"As you wish, Your Majesty. Though be aware we will need to get... creative with where we get our entrants from," the Archeops sighed. "As for Treasurer Walpole and Admiral Coil, I believe that it is safe enough for you two to retire for the evening. It looks like this matter is done."

"That's fine," the Magnezone buzzed back. "I had some other matters to attend to anyways regarding the raid on Polderfield Town earlier today."

The admiral's nonchalant mention of a raid on Polderfield instantly made Cabot's eyes widen, and the Cranidos jumped back with a start.

"R-Raid on Polderfield?!" he cried. "What happened?!"

"It's more accurately an attempted raid," the Magnezone corrected. "I was given intel saying that they'd be coming around these parts in search of some rumored treasure, so I set a trap for them at the docks on the shoreline. Beyond some pier repairs and a few damaged tulip fields, there was nothing really there to note."

Cabot blinked slowly, the admiral's explanation seeming to calm him down, but even so a lingering unease clung in the air about him at the mention of his hometown going through such a scare.

"I… suppose that it worked out then," the little dinosaur murmured, as Walpole gave a shake of his head.

"I see that Coil here has his magnets full with his own matters. As for me, I need to get back to my bookkeeping at the Treasury," the Kecleon replied. "I've been running a bit behind thanks to my colleagues from the Merchantry have been coming to me more than I'd like to seek guidance."

The pair shuffled off back down the hallway, the grand doors creaking open as the two Pokémon slipped out into darkened hallways further beyond. As the Altaria queen spoke names aloud to herself for the title of her new tournament, her advisor noticed Pleo restlessly pecking around, prompting him to frown and turn back to face his liege.

"Before I retire for the night, shouldn't you choose someone to mentor the Protector?" Osborn asked.

"Eh?" Aleria murmured. "What do you mean?"

"Someone will have to instruct the Protector in the history and ways of the Empire," the Archeops explained. "He can't protect it well if he doesn't know the first thing about it."

The Altaria paused, and moved a cloudy wingtip against her chin deep in thought at her advisor's prodding. She supposed it would be a bit much for a fledgling Protector to be able to defend an entire Empire at the flick of a feather.

"I guess that's a point…" Aleria admitted. "You wouldn't happen to know anyone of the sort, would you, Captain Nugget?"

Nagant frowned a moment at the butchery of her name, before scanning the room, with her left claw to her chin in thought. A tutor, a tutor... her gaze fell on Cabot, and it occurred to her that he might be a good choice, despite his inexperience. After all, he'd already proven capable of soothing the seabird's nerves easily enough. Perhaps the Protector would be better to start off with the guidance of an amateur.

"Cabot," the Clawitzer ordered. "You and your friends will carry out the queen's task."

The Cranidos sprang back out of surprise, the Rock-Type stammering to himself as he tried to process his captain's order. She wanted him to tutor the Protector?!

"H-Huh?!"

"Heh heh!" Niilo cheered. "I could get used to living large for a while!"

"Don't get any ideas, this job doesn't need mercenary riff-raff in order to be done," Nagant growled. "I'm only suggesting this because you all have the most familiarity with the Protector from my crew, and Cabot managed to calm him earlier. This is a mission, and I expect you to act the part."

Niilo's enthusiasm hastily deflated at the realization that this 'tutoring' was going to involve more work than he expected. The Sandslash's teammates similarly seemed to have trouble getting excited about the task, after all, they had been training for conquering the high seas, not stacks of books!

"With all due respect, Captain," Berecien retorted. "But just how much are we supposed to be able to teach him?"

"Yeah!" Cabot protested. "We're sailors, not tutors!"

"Er…" Pleo murmured. "What do those funny squiggles over there say?"

The gathered Pokémon turned and looked as the Lugia gestured at a hung tapestry, there on it was a depiction of a sunrise at sea with 'for her majesty' embroidered at the bottom in gold thread… A moment of wordless befuddlement settled over the group, as it sunk in as to just how much this young Protector had yet to learn.

"Well, 'reading' would be a good place to start," Nagant sighed.

Cabot, Berecien, and Niilo traded looks with one another before looking at Queen Aleria. The three noticed the Altaria eyeing them expectantly, evidently having made up her mind as to what she expected of them, prompting the trio reluctantly agree to go along with the plan.

"I… uh… suppose we could always start from the basics?" Cabot said.

"We'll do it," the Ponyta snorted. "But where do we even go from here?"

"Osborn will show you the way," Aleria said. "Just try and make yourselves comfortable, and let us know if you need anything."

The three shuffled off along with the Archeops Chancellor, making their way for the door as Nagant turned back to the rest of her underlings who accompanied her and shot them a stern look.

"The rest of you, head back to the ship and take that crate with you," she ordered. "I've got a few matters to tend here."

The room quickly cleared out of Pokémon, leaving behind Queen Aleria and Nagant with the royal guards. The Clawitzer captain twiched her barbels in anticipation, keenly eyeing the cloud-bird as she cleared her throat to speak.

"I suppose this is about the matter of your reward," Aleria murmured.

"It would certainly be appreciated, your majesty," Nagant replied.

"Well, no worries," the Altaria chirped. "I made sure to prepare only the finest compensation for such a task!"

The Clawitzer's eyes lit up and twitched her barbels expectantly as she watched Aleria slip her beak under her fluffy feathers and fish out some paper articles. The Water-Type raised her claw to accept, only to realize the papers were adorned with a Rotom's silhouette with runes reading 'Thalez's Electric Opera' and 'Admit One' underneath. The shrimp's mood visibly soured, this wasn't anything to do with her noble title! Why, these were-!

"… Theater… tickets?" she seethed.

"Well, Osborn said that I couldn't just restore your title at the beat of a wing," Aleria insisted. "Something about having to find an appropriate domain for you now that most of my family's realm now in the wings of ruffians. But it's better to give you something to leave the room with for now, isn't it?"

Nagant paused and eased her scowl at the Altaria's response. The throne never had fully regained its power even after the Empire wrested itself free of Company usurpers. With the vile libels that the Company had transmitted to the peasantry about what had happened with Queen Erna at the time of the Great Calamity, Queen Aleria's parents found it impossible to reassert the rule by decree their family enjoyed in prior times of crisis without stirring the embers of revolt. Perhaps the best route was to simply bide her time. After all, such patience had already delivered this Empire a Protector...

"… I suppose that I can't argue with that," the shrimp admitted. "Thank you, your highness."

"Well, just look at it this way," Aleria offered. "Everything will be cleared up, and I'm sure after he gets the basics figured out, that Protector will surely help you get back your family's domain on Conntow!"

"… I think that it's a bit premature to start getting complacent, your highness," Nagant answered.

"What do you mean?"

"There was quite a storm brewing around the Protector when I brought him here," the Clawitzer said. "I don't think we can assume that it's let up just yet."


The following morning, Team Traveller woke up bright and early from a night spent on some free mats spread on a flat rooftop overlooking an inner courtyard filled with dingy water. They had been roused at the crack of dawn by Cardino, and been led along to a four story, tiled building with arched windows that was teeming with Pokémon in indigo scarves. The group made their way through a lobby full of loitering guards, and then through a central courtyard to a wing of the building that had been built with peepholes in lieu of windows. The four came to a barred door of the wing, where they were waved along by some gruff-looking guards and led down a series of darkened corridors. On each side, the passages lined by small cells with metal bars where various creatures peered out, the stench of musk and unwashed bodies hanging thick in the air along with an overpowering feeling of unease among the three youngsters.

"What is this place…?" Guardia murmured.

"It's like those cells back home where Osmund would keep drunks till they sobered up," Nida muttered to herself. "Except there's so many of them."

"Psst! Hey kid!"

Nida's barbs fanned out and the Nidoran went wide-eyed. The Poison-Type whirled around, where she saw a Politoed poking an arm beyond the bars of his cell.

"Wanna help a 'mon with a little delivery?" the frog said.

Nida did not allow herself a second to entertain the Politoed's offer, opting instead to duck away from the amphibian's outstretched arm and bound down the hallway. The Nidoran charged ahead as fast as her legs could carry her, not daring to stop until she caught up with Cardino further down the cell block.

"Gah!" she squeaked. "And these 'mons are plenty sober!"

"That's holding cells for you, pal," the Detective Pikachu sighed. "Pokémon are held here until they can be given a sentence by the court and punted off to places to pay their debts to society."

Nida and Guardia took in their dreary surroundings and shrank back, each firmly aware of the dangerous-looking eyes casting glances in their direction. Elty too, appeared unnerved, his ears and tail clamped firmly against his body with a nervous whine escaping his mouth every so often. Unlike his peers, he seemed to be at relative ease around the characters in the background, though constantly gazed up at the ceiling, as if expecting it to cave in at any moment.

"… Elty?" Nida asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Let's just finish up what we need to get done and get out of here," Elty sighed. "These sorts of places bring back memories for me, and not in a good way."

"Oh, so the guardians of your hut-dwellers do have some flashes of competence every now and then," Guardia chided.

The Growlithe gave a sour frown back at the Cubone, before giving a dismissive snort. Was this really the time for banter? Besides, she'd missed the point he was trying to make entirely...

"It's not like that, bone-head," the Fire-Type growled. "This is something that goes beyond-"

"Not to cut this aherm… interesting conversation short," Nida interrupted, waving a paw to motion for silence. "But why are we here anyways, Cardino? I thought you wanted us just to help you look around for some pawprints or something."

"Yesterday, there was an attempted pirate raid on Polderfield Town, one of the fringe settlements here on Giotto," the detective explained. "Admiral Coil from the navy was leading his ship out at the time, so his crew was around to shoot out the hull from under the attackers."

"Ow! Stop pulling!" a barking voice yelped. "I'm going! I'm going!"

Nida, Elty, and Guardia turned to see a Furfrou and Mareanie in black scarves getting dragged along by a a Bastiodon and Glalie guard. Hadn't those two attacked them on the way out of Rosequartz Town? The three watched as the pair were marched off by the guards, before turning uneasily back to Cardino, wondering just what he needed them to do with these ne'er-do-wells...

"So you need us to pick up evidence about them raiding?" Nida prodded. "Or…?"

"No, most of the cases were fairly open and shut," Cardino replied. "Kinda hard to explain away loot on your person, and a lot of the pirates opted for plea deals in return for lesser sentences…"

The Pikachu trailed off before shaking his head, evidently not fully at ease with the matter himself. After all, Team Traveller's necessity was thanks to there being loose ends, which the Electric-Type dutifully explained to his hired help.

"No, I'm in charge of gathering evidence for the last few cases. For the ones that aren't just a simple matter of throwing a labor sentence and calling it a day," Cardino explained. "That's why I wanted you to meet the defendants you'll be covering before you accepted this job."

So this case wasn't a 'simple matter,' then? Team Traveller exchanged uneasy glances as an air of dread came over them, the group's minds set wandering with the possibilities of an abnormally-criminal... criminal. Just what sort of heinous act would they have to be defending here?

"Who are the defendants?" Guardia asked. "And what exactly did they do?"

"I'm telling you, we didn't do it!"

Nida's ears perked up at the sound of the voice of a Scraggy. It was the same that she'd heard when being ambushed in Kenobi. And again when Guardia had been taken hostage in Orleigh… Could it be…?

"Wait," Nida murmured. "I know that-"

The Nidoran and her companions looked ahead to see a door left ajar, and made their way up to push it open. Inside, they found a simple, dimly-lit room with a wooden counter. On one end was a Fletchinder and Misdreavus who looked up as if having just been interrupted in a task… On the other, were the forms of a Scraggy, Combusken, and Grotle in black scarves chained to the other end of the counter, all of whom were taken aback with startled surprise.

"You again!"

The Pikachu detective blinked incredulously as the pirates and his newfound assistants stared dumbfounded at each other. 'Again'? Then did that mean…

"Wait, you all have met before?" Cardino asked.

Team Traveller grimaced, their sour faces broadcasting their full, unabashed displeasure with these 'acquaintances' of theirs. Nida shook her head and threw a paw over her face, before grudgingly answering the Pikachu's query.

"We have a bit of a history, yes," Nida groaned.

"You wouldn't happen to have a lead in our case as part of that, would you?" the Misdreavus asked.

"Probably not unless you want to look for more stuff to charge them with," Elty muttered. "Who are you two anyways?"

"I'm Nico and this is my assistant, Rita," the Fletchinder explained. "We're the defense attorneys for this case here, and we asked Cardino here if he could help give us a hand."

"Naturally, as someone who's part of the city guard, it wouldn't do me good to come off as taking sides," the Pikachu said. "So having you three as my assistants would work out perfectly."

The Electric-Type shook his head and gave a tired sigh to the Fletchinder. The rodent's expression carried an air of flummoxed resignation, as if the robin had opted to charge a windmill for the umpteenth time.

"That said, I'm not sure why you keep picking these hopeless cases, Nico," Cardino sighed. "I mean, they were booked on charges of egg-napping, and barring that evidence adding a major swerve, it's hard to see how you'd exonerate these 'mons."

"We're not confessing that and there's no way you can prove it!" Sela snapped.

"Well, there has to be something deeper to the truth if they were willing to pass up a plea deal and risk a death sentence," Rita answered. "Taking cases that let us pursue the truth is our specialty."

The pirates froze at the Misdreavus' words, and as the meaning of the statement set in the shocked silence gave way to open panic. Each of them shuddered with a wide-eyed, horrified expression etched onto their faces, and the Grotle among them seemed to blanch especially pale as he pawed frantically at his Combusken teammate

"H-Huh?! Sela!" the Grotle squeaked. "You said they were just gonna keep us locked up for a decade or something like that!"

Team Traveller seemed just as stunned as the pirates, albeit with a decidedly more disgusted mood as they glared incredulously through the bars at the imprisoned. Desperate though they may have been to raise money for their fare home, sticking up for any Pokémon who stole unborn hatchlings away from their families was a line none of them were willing to even think about crossing.

"Yeah, no. I'm out," Nida hissed.

"Hrmph. I'm not lifting a claw to help you egg-thieves," Guardia growled. "Lie down in the nest you made for yourself."

"I mean, a 'mon's gotta make a living, but they don't have to make it that way. If you'd just nabbed some Poké or something…" Elty murmured, shaking his head. Noses upturned, the trio wheeled around for the door, but were stopped in their tracks as the jailed Pokemon cried out uproariously, pleading with their claws outstretched.

"H-Hey wait!" Sela pleaded. "Don't go!"

"Please!" Eric begged. "We really didn't steal those eggs!"

"We'll die if we don't get our names cleared!" Hanuna whined.

Guardia paused, her partners carrying on a way before turning back and seeing the Cubone still planted in her position. The Ground-Type scowled, deep in thought, seemingly mulling between a pair of conflicting options, only to suddenly tighten the grip on her club.

"… Then you must prove yourselves," Guardia demanded.

"Okay! Okay!" Sela insisted. "We're open to trying stuff out! What's it that you-"

The Combusken was cut off by the sound of a woosh, the chicken looking up just in time to see a bone flying directly into her face.

"ARGH!"

The bone lizard threw a claw up and caught the bone as it whirled back at her. Guardia felt the momentum of her club tug her back, coming to an uneasy, stunned stop as she realized that she finally executed a proper Bonemerang. The Ground-Type stared down at her bone with a wide grin, when she was snapped back to attention by a sharp buzz.

"Oi!" a Lurantis in the background shouted. "No foreign objects in the prisoner's quarters!"

Each of the other Pokemon in the room, gaped at Guardia in stunned silence at the spontaneous assault. What had gotten into her?!

"Ack!" Rita cried. "What's the big idea attacking our clients?!"

"It's not an attack. It's a judgement by the dead!" Guardia insisted. "And while they find you to be appalling wastes of flesh on par with sea scum… they don't think that you're guilty of this."

The Cubone shook her head before slinging the bone over her shoulder and turning her attention back to Sela as the Combusken continued to nurse her head.

"And more importantly, I needed that," Guardia added.

Nida and Elty traded shifting glances with one another before rolling their eyes. That… was suspiciously detailed for a 'ruling from the dead'…"

"… She made that up on the spot, didn't she?" Nida sighed.

"You don't honestly believe her 'judgment of the dead' mumbo-jumbo, do you?" Elty whispered back.

"I heard that," Guardia growled. "But seriously, even an unguided rube like you can surely see that things aren't adding up here."

"Yeah, we've done some stuff before as pirates, but we'd never steal eggs!" Eric insisted.

"I don't even have the paws to steal 'em with!" Hanuna cried.

The pirates' insistence made Nida fold her ears back dubiously, unsure whether or not she still could trust the lot. She turned her head, and noticed that her Growlithe teammate appeared far more satisfied with their insistence. Was it simply shared experience? Or what was she missing here?

"I think I'm with the bonehead here. I mean, these guys are from Sibich's crew, and he's no slouch," Elty explained. "If they couldn't even properly take a hostage, I can't see him trusting them to steal eggs."

As she massaged the sore spot left by Guardia's Bonemerang, the Combusken glared at the Growlithe through her parted claws, clicking her tongue in displeasure at the shoddy defense he'd offered.

"Thanks for the defense, mutt," Sela growled.

Elty rolled his eyes at the Combusken. Leave it to her to find displeasure while he and his team were in the middle of bailing them out! What kind of ingrate would find the time to whine in such dire straits?

"You're welcome."

Nida furrowed her brow and flared her ears. After all the grief that this Scraggy and his friends had given her and her teammates, they had no leg to stand on for asking for their help! Though… with them all alone and facing a terrible fate like this, was it really right to just walk away? And what would they do to raise the money for a fare home when this was the only lead they'd found so far?

"… I guess it would make sense to give them the benefit of the doubt… for now," Nida admitted. "So what is it that you need us to do anyways, Cardino?"

"I need you to help me get back some misplaced evidence from Polderfield," the Pikachu answered. "Some cuco from the department had it shipped to the wrong part of town."

"Oh? Where did it go?" Nida asked. "And why do you need our help there?"


The following morning in the visitor's district, the crowds had yet to appear as the local streets started to get into the swing of their daily rhythms. The shops began to open, yawning Pokémon stretched themselves at windows and doorways, and the general rhythm became more lively by the minute. Despite that, the guards at the gates seemed to be slower to liven up than their surroundings, a watching Herdier yawning audibly only for its Araquanid colleague to nudge him for attention, pointing off at a party clustered around a visibly young Druddigon carried along in a sling made from a ratty sail.

"Ngaaah…"

The two looked at each other as the young dragon and his companions made their way over, before turning their attention back to the party. Something was obviously wrong with the younger Pokémon, but why were they expecting them to be able to do anything about it?

"Eh?" the Herdier asked. "What's with you?"

"Can't move… Legs jelly…" Crom groaned. "Life flashing before eyes…"

"You have to let us through!" Kiran cried. "He needs medical assistance!"

The guards traded frowning glances with each other, only for the Araquanid to turn back to the sailors and point off behind the group with a foreleg.

"You mean like assistance that would be given by the building right there?" the spider asked.

Pladur and his companions followed the Araquanid's leg over to a three-story building on a corner teeming with Chanseys and adorned with red banners with white semi-circles. Uh… how had they missed that one when coming up with this cover? But for now, they needed to come up with something to persuade the guards...

"Er… we need different assistance!" Pladur insisted, drawing skeptical frowns from the guards at the gate.

"Yeah?" the Herdier demanded. "And just what are you suffering from that we shouldn't invoke quarantine protocols over to keep you out of the city?"

The five Pokémon grimaced, fumbling for an excuse to give back to the guard dog. Eventually, the Druddigon among them shifted and spoke up uneasily from his sling with the best explanation he could muster.

"Uh… er… a stomachache?"

The Herdier and Araquanid rolled their eyes as a Venomoth flitted up from behind. At the sight of Crom and his companions, the moth gave an irritated buzz and flitted up to her counterparts at the gateway.

"Hey, is that those five again? What are they claiming this time?" the Venomoth demanded. "That they need to listen to someone's dying wish?"

"... Why didn't we think of that again?" Ander whispered.

Much to Ander's chagrin, the Venomoth guard frowned after his hushed comments. The comments had failed to elude her hearing, and given her huff at the party's return, had similarly failed to impress her.

"Look, I get that you five want in, but you don't have the right permits," the Venomoth scoffed. "It'll be a snowy day in summer before you get past us!"

"Hoy! There's a new decree from the crown!" a squawking voice cried.

Crom and the guards looked back to see a drowsy Noctowl in an indigo scarf and a glinting badge fly into a nearby plaza burdened with papers. The badge caught the attention of some nearby Pokémon, which prompted them to look up from their matters and listen to the owl, much to Kiran's puzzlement.

"Huh?" the Swellow chirped. "Just what's going on here?"

"It looks like there's some sort of announcement," the Venomoth guard said. "That's unmistakably the badge of a Royal Messenger… Though I didn't think anything noteworthy happened last night..."

The guards and the Pokémon from the Siglo Swellow watched as a small crowd started to form around the Noctowl, the messenger clearing his throat before unfurling a rolled-up sheet of paper to read off of it.

"By order of her highness, a week-long tournament will start this afternoon in Vecioferàle Arena for her public's amusement," the Noctowl proclaimed. "To herald the Empire's awakening of a new Protector!"

The messenger's announcement drew excited murmuring from the gathered Pokémon. Some posters were distributed, filtering their way around the crowd. Eventually, one turned up in the young Druddigon's claws, revealing the somewhat misshapen silhouette of a white bird with a long neck and blue plates with runes proclaiming a weeklong 'Silver Wing Cup'… Why, this Pokémon on the poster was none other than-!

"Wait a minute!" Crom exclaimed. "That's Pleo!"

"Entrance is open to anyone, both denizen and outsider may enter for this joyous festival!" the Noctowl continued. "So come one, and come all, and prove your strength in this grand festival for our new Guardian of the Seas."

As the ruckus from the crowd settled enough for the sound of an individual's voice to carry over the area's ambient noise, Crom and his companions turned back to the stonewalling guards, wearing wide, mischievous grins.

"So… I believe that the tournament's open for everyone to enter?" Dimitri asked.

The Venomoth narrowed her eyes exasperatedly as the Herdier and Araquanid put paws over their faces in frustration. The messenger had said entrance was open to anybody, but even so...

"Ugh… signup is inside the district," the Venomoth growled. "Once you get that squared away, then we'll let you through."

The guard's demands drew a tired glare from Crom and each of his companions, before the sailors turned away and started setting off back into the district. They all knew that the guards were only doing their job, but even after all this, they couldn't just let them through already?

"Are they actively coming up with more things to stall us?" Ander sighed.

"No matter, at least we were able to find out where Pleo is," Kiran chirped. "Once we can get through, we can try to find him and bring him back home!"

The Swellow beat his wings and took to the air, prompting his colleagues to follow off after him towards the messenger and the crowd forming around him. Unbeknownst to the five, from a nearby alleyway, Valatos, Alvise, and Nori watched, listening as the Noctowl hastily flagged down a few guards to help him enroll contestants into the tournament and spread posters on some nearby walls.

"A tournament in honor of that bird, huh?" Nori murmured.

"Guess we know who's got him right now," Alvise grumbled. "But how are we supposed to get him back from the Empire?"

"... Let's bring it up with the Captain," Valatos buzzed. "He'd be bound to have something in mind, right?"

The Yanmega watched as the Druddigon and his companions melted into the crowd, a Trubbish going by to put up posters depicting a long-necked seabird in the street outside. After watching the Poison-Type pass and seeing their foes nowhere to be found, the Bug-Type pulled one of the posters off the wall with his mouth and slunk back into the alleyway with his teammates, before quietly making their way back for the docks.


"Eh?! What is this place?!"

Nida, Guardia, and Elty looked over across the canal in front of them, there on the other side was a massive, round building built of stone and layered with arches that sat next to a stone tower that stretched up to a pavillion, much like Hatteras' lighthouse at home but taller and less rounded. At the front was a large plaza, filled with Pokémon of various shapes and sizes talking with each other underneath banners bearing a wave-shaped swoosh that proudly proclaimed the name of the building...

"'Arena Veijofaro'…?" Nida murmured. "Er… or, 'Old Lighthouse Arena'?"

"Well, you can certainly read the runes that way, but everyone here calls it 'Vecioferàle Arena'," Cardino explained. "Before Tidemill's expansion under King Alexander, this used to be the coastline and that tower the lighthouse for the harbor. Nowadays, it's the great battlefield at the heart of Tidemill where Pokémon prove themselves on the field in front of the whole empire."

"Yeah, but why are we here?" Guardia demanded. "You said that we were looking for evidence that got misplaced."

"This is where my evidence got shipped," the Pikachu insisted. "Don't ask me how the 'mons in the evidence department managed to mix up the captain's diary with provisions for arena security."

Nida, Elty, and Guardia blinked curiously at the Electric-Type's answer. Mixing up evidence with provisions? How on earth would a 'mon manage to do that?

"Isn't that just a little weird?" Nida prodded.

"Beats me, pal. These sort of things just happen," Cardino sighed. "I tried getting in earlier myself, but couldn't find it in the public areas or the lost and found, so if it's still here, it's in the normally off-limits places."

"And we're supposed to find this diary, how?" Elty asked.

Cardino stammered, grasping for a satisfactory answer but coming up short. The Pikachu racked his brain for ideas, mumbling half-formed thoughts aloud as he worked himself through the thought process.

"Uh… well, you'd need to be doing something that would let you get full access to the stadium…" he began. "Something like…"

Cardino's eye turned towards a batch of posters on a nearby wall with the form of a white, long-necked bird on it. It was for a 'Silver Wing Cup', which would admit teams of up to six Pokémon for entry in a three-on-three elimination-based tournament… Hey wait a moment!

"Ah, that's it! Like entering a tournament for yourselves!" the Pikachu insisted. "Shouldn't be an issue for a few up-and-comers like you, right?"

Nida, Elty, and Guardia crowded around the poster and gawked at the poster. Was that… Pleo?! The ink of the poster had been smudged and put on in an obvious hurry, but the form was unmistakably his. The three looked over at the stadium, the notion of 'entering a tournament' seeming to be child's play compared to trying to grab Pleo out of those naval docks… only to notice a team of a Blastoise, a Gallade, and a Goodra with glinting rescue badges pawing at a copy of their same poster… with numerous teams in the plaza looking every bit as strong and imposing as they did.

"But that's crazy!" Nida exclaimed. "You can't expect us to just go in and win a tournament on the fly with half a team like that!"

"Yeah, and even if we did, how's that supposed to help us find your evidence?" Guardia added.

"Because you only have to hang in there until the evidence is found," Cardino countered. "Whatever you do after that, whether taking a dive, or just not showing up onto the field is on you."

Nida and her teammates collectively breathed a sigh of relief, looking at one another and finding further reassurance in the fact that their comrades seemed to feel the same way.

"Oh, well when you put it that way, that doesn't sound too impossible," Guardia murmured.

"Yeah, we'll go sign up now," Elty added. "That evidence isn't going to be any easier to find by waiting around."

"That's the spirit!" Cardino cheered. "Bring whatever you've found to the courthouse next to the station in a few hours for the trial, and we'll go from there. Sound good?"

"I think we can work with that," Nida nodded. "Good luck with the rest of the investigation!"

The three waved and shuffled off into a growing line at the entrance of the stadium marked by a banner noting it was for signups. Unbeknownst to the three, a Weavile and a tired-looking Mothim lurked from a nearby alleyway. There, the Dark-Type leaned against a wall, looking at one of the tournament posters in his claw as the Bug-Type of the pair kept a watchful gaze on Team Traveller's forms in the queue.

"Those grubs again?" Ellsberg hissed. "What are they doing here and where's the Protector?"

"Try looking around before you ask any stupid questions," Ketu grumbled.

The Weavile turned his claw out towards the Mothim, revealing the poster with the information about the Silver Wing Cup. Ellsberg gaped wide-eyed at the paper, before slowly and grudgingly shaking his head at the implications.

"So, the Empire does have him right now…" he murmured. "But just where would we look next to find out where they're keeping him? We were up all night sneaking around those naval docks and found nothing but crates and some inebriated sailors!"

"We won't have to. According to this poster, they're going to be bringing him out in front of the whole city," Ketu said. "All we have to do is prepare and wait."

The Weavile shook his head before rolling up the poster in his claws and stuffing it into a satchel slung over his shoulder. he turned, motioning impatiently with his claws for Ellsberg to follow.

"Let's go," the Dark-Type grunted. "We've found out enough for Lyn to come up with a plan for us to be able to steal that bird out from under him anyways."

Ketu slipped off, darting down the alleyway as Ellsberg looked after him with an unamused frown before giving a sleepy buzz and fluttering off after him. They'd certainly found their lead, so hopefully it would satisfy Lyn enough to justify resting his wings for a while.


"Can you guys hurry it up already?! We're almost at the ship!"

Alvise's voice carried on down the tight confines of an alleyway in the Visitors' District, where Valatos and his companions had nearly reached the Mistral Marauder. Alvise led the group, springing out from the shadows and sprinting towards the Mistral Marauder in sight, leaving Nori and Valatos in the dust to follow along with an agitated sigh. The Manectric stamped the ground as he glanced back at his lagging teammates, impatient to finally put this trip behind them already.

"Well that certainly lit a fire under your tail," Valatos buzzed. "You're zipping along almost as fast as me… Almost."

"Grr…" Alvise snarled. "Listen up, you lousy bug-"

"Oi! Who goes there!"

The three paused and looked around their surroundings before glancing up at the ship's deck. There at the railing was a Pawniard peering down at them, his blades readied as if to deal with an intruder… They hadn't been gone that long, had they?

"It's us!" Nori snapped. "We found a lead out in town, let us up already!"

The pirates on the ship traded glances with one another before lowering the gangplank, allowing their crewmates to climb back aboard. When Valatos and his friends reached the deck, they found themselves surrounded by the ship's crew, all eyes on them expectantly. On one side came Hess, slowly shoving his way through the crowd while giving a generous berth to the Marowak who stood among them.

"Well, what did you find out there?" the Aggron demanded.

"Well, to start with, the Imps have that bird…" Valatos began.

Grimaces spread around as an audible collective gulp went about the gathered Pokémon and Hess' face began to flush pale. If the Imps had the Protector, that meant that he was behind an entire city's worth of guards… far too many for a crew his size to try and push around directly.

"I- That's-" Hess stammered. "Do you have anything more specific than that?"

"Yeah," Valatos continued. "They're holding a tournament in his honor and planning on bringing him out in front of the city for the closing ceremony with the winner."

Hess' head rose and his eyes lit up slightly at the mention of the closing ceremony, and his mood began to recover in time with his ponderings on this new information. With the Protector out there in the open, why... as long as they could somehow get in there, they could just snatch the Protector right off the stage! ...More or less. But, they'd overcome higher barriers in the past and still managed to get along well enough, right?

"So… he'll be there for the taking, then?" the Aggron prodded.

"I mean, he'll have to go on a stage, I'd presume," Alvise explained. "So-"

"Then it's settled," Hess grunted. "We're entering that tournament!"

The steel lizard's declaration at once set off a wave of chatter among the gathered pirates. Some—such as a Charmeleon flashing his claws—seemed eager to welcome the challenge of a tournament, while others—such as a Noibat shrinking behind a barrel—seemed to be far more skeptical of the idea of entering a tournament being able to help their goal. Nori for his part seemed to relish the idea of watching his teammates battle: this was just the sort of occasion he needed to unwind after such a tense reconnaissance mission!

"Heh heh… so we're gonna see you out in the ring, huh?" the Marowak chuckled. "Sugoi! We'll be looking forward to watching you crush a few sods!"

"No, we're going to see you in the ring, Nori," Hess growled, pointing at the Marowak. "You three will be taking the lead for our team."

Alvise's eyes widened at the Aggron's order. He'd already tempted fate enough lurking around Tidemill, and here he was going to stick him back in it for a week's worth of fighting?!

"Wh-What?!" the Manectric yelped. "But we just spent an entire day crawling that lousy city, and you want us to go back?!"

"Yeah, and you're the toughest mon on the crew," Nori added. "Why aren't you taking part in the tournament?"

Both the battle-ready and battle-skeptical factions of the crew seemed to find the Ground-Type's argument convincing, drawing a chorus of "that's right" and drawing murmurs as to why their captain seemed so eager to get involved in a tournament he didn't want to fight in himself. Hess grimaced at his crew's chatter, as he'd already assigned the three to battle, and now they wanted him to go along. Gah… keeping that Nori away on land was supposed to get that bonehead to make a mistake and get trapped, by the Travellers above he did not want to be stuck around that little monster! But if he refused to fight here… or if he took Nori off the team to fight himself after just assigning him... how could either of those not obviously look weak to his underlings?

"I… er…" the Aggron stammered. "Th-That's because…"

"Because a captain helps keep the ship together," a Floatzel's voice finished.

The crowd's attention was drawn to their ship's first mate, who scowled defiantly back at the crew. Rodion's bold statement drew incredulous murmurs of skepticism and derision from the gathered crowd. Hess, of all Pokemon, keeping the crew together? Just how badly had that Clawitzer thrown him around earlier?

"Come again, Rodion?" the Miltank medic demanded

"Yeah, looks to me like the Captain there is just trying to weasel out of a fight," Kichiro scoffed.

"Grr…"

Kichiro stilled his mandibles at the sound of a low, gravelly growl, looking up to see Hess glaring down at him. The hulking lizard was clearly offended and took a more belligerent tone at the accusation… Perhaps a little too belligerent to be natural.

"I'm not trying to weasel out of any-" the Steel-Type began, only to quiet at the sight of a raised paw from his first mate.

"Easy, Hess," Rodion insisted. "I wasn't done explaining."

The Floatzel's expression softened somewhat, and he began to pace around the deck, throwing a warm glance to some of his fellow pirates with a disarming smile plastered on his face.

"Look, that shrimp and her crew are obviously in town and would recognize him and anyone they captured last time. On top of that, we've obviously… had some rougher luck than normal lately, and it'll be a snowy day in Sormus before we get back anyone who gets stuck here," Rodion said. "In light of that, do you want to risk the possibility that you'd be stuck trying to sail out of port without the toughest 'mon among us thanks to some ankle-biter in the Imp navy recognizing him? Or hedge your bets a little?"

Uncertain hemming and hawing drifted from the crowd as the implications of being left without their captain began to sink in. Hardheaded klutz though he was, Hess was still the toughest 'mon on the entire crew. Getting stuck in a scrap without him there to back them up left their odds of success... remote, to say the least. That in mind, the crew suddenly clamored much less to throw Hess himself into the arena.

"Whelp, couldn't have said it better myself, and looks like the crew's spoken," Hess sneered. "You three are out there taking the lead."

"With what?" Valatos demanded. "We don't even have a full team between us right now!"

The Aggron put a claw to his mouth, realizing that regardless if his plot to be rid of the Marowak worked or not, he did need to take the team to enter seriously. He glanced over at the Charmeleon from earlier, who was still fired up and pawing at the deck ready to go, an obvious enough choice. Hess' glance then turned to his escorts in the water, his eyes settling on a Sealeo among them who was chattering with a Vileplume on the railing. Actually… that seemed like a rounded enough team to work with.

"… Alfred, Pieter, and Minhwa," Hess grunted. "You all are joining these three. Rodion will give you all scarves for cover before joining the tournament, so make the most of it and stay sharp out there."

The Captain's order was met by an eager 'aye' from the Charmeleon, followed by a less-enthusiastic echo from the Sealeo, and finally a grudging grunt from the Vileplume. At once, the Sealeo swam up onto the pier the Mistral Marauder had moored at, as the Charmeleon and Vileplume began making their way for the gangplank where Rodion walked up with a few white scarves with waterspout patterns ready in his paw. Regardless of their feelings about the matter, the team was clearly ready to accept their disguises and set off… with three very visible exceptions including a Manectric who had pulled his tail between his legs.

"B-But Captain, you don't understand," Alvise whined. "If I get run into out there-"

"Oi! Move it, you whiny dweebs!" the Charmeleon snapped.

"Yeah, you don't see us trying to get out of the Captain's orders!" the Vileplume growled.

Before Alvise could do anything in protest, he felt a sharp shove at his rump, turning back to see Alfred and Minwha glaring at him. The wolf dug his paws into the deck, only to wind up fighting a losing battle at keeping himself from being unceremoniously pushed down the gangplank. After trading grudging looks with one another, Valatos and Nori followed after their flailing friend, prompting Hess to breathe out a sigh of relief, before making his way to the railing and cupping a claw to call out the stern, shared sentiments of the crew.

"Don't mess this up!"


As Hess' less-than-willing tournament entrants departed the Mistral Marauder in its disguising white-and-blue sails, off at the other end, a brigantine flying white sails with blue sun patterns hummed with activity. Under the shade of its sails, the crew of the Nektar Weide busied themselves carrying aboard supplies as others tended to ship maintenance, including a bandaged Grumpig and Krokorok who pawed lazily at the deck with damp rags next to a bucket full of sudsy water.

SPLASH!

The pair's rhythm was interrupted by a panicked jump up as a pressurized burst of water struck the bucket, flinging its soapy contents across the deck and depositing the bucket onto the Grumpig's head with a yelp. The two looked back uneasily towards the source of the water, only to see the growling form of their Samurott captain staring down at them.

"Stop slacking off!" Lyn snarled. "I want you two scrubbing this deck until it's clean enough for me to eat off of it!"

The Samurott's bellowing elicited a pair of squeaks from the unfortunate deck-scrubbers, who hastily set the bucket back on the deck before hunching down and beginning to scrub with visibly affected enthusiasm. Up above, the Crobat leader of the aerial escorts stirred from the racket, sleepily spreading his wings and turning to some of his nearby subordinates perched on the rigging.

"Nrgh… when's that debriefing starting?" the Crobat groaned. "It's too late in the day for this…"

"Beats me," a nearby Fearow sighed. "I haven't seen so much as a feather of those two-"

"Hoy!"

The crew's attention turned towards the dock, where Ellsberg flitted up onto the deck and settled on a railing stretching himself tiredly. Behind him, the sound of footsteps rang out as Ketu climbed the gangplank back up to the ship, fidgeting with a rolled-up paper from his shoulder bag to an impatient frown from Lyn.

"It took you that long to find anything in this district?" the Samurott demanded. "I'd have been better off just telling the crew to go out and mingle!"

"Actually, we did you one better," Ketu countered. "We snuck past the barrier into the rest of the city."

"In my defense, Lyn," Ellsberg sighed. "I told him that-"

"Enough. Risks are acceptable when the payoff merits them," the Water-Type interrupted, holding up a paw for silence. Lyn shifted his weight and shook his head, staring intently at the pair of Second-Ranks before him.

"So what exactly did you two discover?"

Ketu rolled his eyes and took the poster in his claws, giving a swift motion down to unfurl it in front of Lyn and the watching crew. The Weavile paused for a moment for the initial surprise at the drawing of their target to sink in, before speaking up.

"That the Imps definitely have got the bird," he explained. "They're holding a tournament in honor of some 'new Protector' that they 'awakened'. Last I checked the only one that looked anything like the picture on here was ours."

"We also ran into the Guardian's little friends at the local stadium-" Ellsberg began, only to be cut off with a stomp and a growl from his Samurott listener.

"And you let them go why?" the Water-Type demanded. "They would be our best lead back to-"

"I hadn't finished, Lyn," the Mothim insisted. "They were without the Protector and doing some odd job for a local Pikachu. It's safe to say that they don't have any way of getting to Lugia themselves."

Lyn shot Ellsberg sour frown. He should've known better than to expect that those Tromban whelps would get lucky with escaping a ship with their Protector a second time.

"And of course the simple solution had to not be an option…" Lyn sighed. "No matter, we still have another route open. If the Imperials are letting the winner of this tournament just waltz up to the Protector, we'll be fielding a team to enter it."

"Tch," Ketu scoffed. "Someone's eager to get back into act-"

"I won't be going, Ketu," the Samurott growled. "As loath as I am to give my blades rest, someone else will have to head our team. Specifically you."

Ketu furrowed his brow before giving a surprised tilt of his head back at the Samurott. Him? Since when had Lyn ever made a point of making him do his dirty work on land?

"What?" the Weavile demanded. "You're not exactly a pushover here. Why don't you just gather some deckhands and enter the tournament yourself?"

"Because my cover was just compromised yesterday," Lyn snapped. "If you have enough time to sit back while a rogue Second-Rank tries to slice me up in the middle of a peasant uprising, sleep through the Protector escaping, and sunbathe on my deck, I think that it's nigh time that you had a chance to prove yourself again."

"Just what are you batting at here?" Ketu demanded.

The Weavile's ears perked up at the sound of a seamitar embedding itself into the deck with a resounding thunk. He glanced indignantly up at its owner, who seemed visibly irate at his back-talk, the recently-vacated throwing paw now balled into a white-knuckled fist.

"I'm saying I will need to look for another Pokémon to fill the duties of first mate if you can't demonstrate to me that you're the best 'mon for the job," the Samurott said. "I would encourage you to think twice about pushing back against me on this matter."

Ketu paused and grimaced at the Samurott's ultimatum. His work for Administrator Elilan required him to have the sort of latitude he presently enjoyed on Lyn's crew. He had his own goals that certainly wouldn't be happening if he couldn't deliver the Protector. If it had come out that he'd botched his cover through flippant and completely avoidable behavior, life would become... unenviable, to say the least. As such, it was perhaps best to tend to his wounded pride another time and try and wait for Lyn's patience to recover a bit before returning to his relaxed status quo.

"In order to help you, I'll allow you to take anything that you feel you need in order to prove yourself," Lyn offered. "Sound reasonable?"

"Hrmph, fine."

"Yeah, break a leg out there, featherhead!" a Mothim's jeering buzz rang out. "Or maybe two!"

Ketu hissed back at the taunting Mothim, baring his teeth threateningly. After his initial reaction, the first mate's demeanor eased a bit, his naked aggression transforming into a face of smug, retributive realization.

"You know what? I know the first thing that I need," Ketu said. "I need Elmer's bum with me in that ring, pronto."

Ellsberg flitted up with a flustered start at the Weavile's demand. That slacker couldn't just drag him along into this, he was the one who'd fallen afoul of the captain!"

"E-Eh?!" the Mothim cried. "How do you get off trying to drag me into this, you weasel!"

The Weavile stuck his tongue out at the Mothim, relishing his discomfort, much to Lyn's visible displeasure. The Samurott threw a paw over his face, muttering under his breath about whether Ketu appreciated just how thin his patience with him had worn down.

"I take it back," Lyn sighed. "Since you're picking your team based off of spite over tactical utility, I'll give you the tools that you'll need to prove yourself…"

Ketu shot back a sour frown, rolling his eyes at his captain's meddlesome interference. Even so, he knew better than to challenge Lyn at this point in time. The Dark-Type folded his ears back and relented as the Samurott looked around the crew for suitable teammates, his eyes settling on a dozing Crobat dangling from the rigging.

"Kane!"

"Nrk!" the Crobat cried, beating his wings out with a start. "Wha-? Huh?"

"Get up and sleep later," Lyn barked. "I want you to accompany Ketu in the tournament."

"… What tournament?"

"… Ask Ketu for details," the otter harrumphed. "I'm not going to waste my breath on this."

Lyn then turned his attention to the crowd of subordinates, where he started looking around for suitable Pokémon to field. After a few false starts, his gaze settled on a Tauros and an Electabuzz chatting with each other. The infiltrators he'd assigned to Tromba on the first day… who evidently didn't have anything better to do right now.

"Fintan, Tarmo," the Samurott snapped. "You're on the team as well."

"Huh?" the Tauros asked, pulling his head up with a start. The bull looked around puzzledly for a moment, before noticing his captain giving an expectant scowl, which prompted the creature to over-hastily agree.

"Er… right we can handle it!"

"Yeah, you can count on us to light up the field!" the Electabuzz added.

Lyn groaned under his breath at the Electric-Type's pun, bidding the two to come along before turning his attention back to his crew. The Samurott looked around keenly, playing around with possibilities in his mind that would give Ketu's team the best odds of victory, which led him to settle his gaze on a Crawdaunt loitering in the harbor water, and an orange Lycanroc on all fours pawing impatiently at the planks of the deck.

"Cray, Rudolf," the Water-Type insisted. "You two are also on the team."

"Aye, captain," the Crawdaunt answered.

"Shouldn't be anything we haven't seen before from sparring," the Lycanroc added.

The freshly-established team crowded around the glowering Weavile, shifting impatiently and glancing at the gangplank ready to leave the ship and start scouting out their battleground. Lyn glared down at his first mate, silently daring him to challenge his orders now of all times.

"And there you go, Ketu. One team that should be more than sufficient for you to win or else get through enough of the tournament to nab that bird," Lyn grunted. "Do be aware that I'll be tracking your progress."

A palpable tension hung in the air following Lyn's order. Both captain and first mate traded glares with one another, before the Weavile shook his head with a disgusted sigh.

"Wouldn't want it any other way," the Dark-Type growled.

Ketu and his new teammates took their leave down the gangplank, melting into the crowds massed in the streets in no time at all. As Lyn watched his first mate disappear into the mess of Pokémon, he looked up as Ellsberg flitted up to him with a puzzled look, waving one arm to catch his attention.

"Are we seriously hinging the hope of our entire mission on that red-headed slacker?" the Mothim buzzed.

"Hardly. He'll have accomplished his mission as long as he can determine how to get to the Protector while he's still in the running," Lyn explained. "If he wins, he'll speed things up for us, but as long as he finds out where the bird is, we can still pull this mission off. All that's needed for now is to give him a little motivation to take things seriously until then."

Clearing his throat, the Samurott's mouth turned down into a scowl as he shot Ellsberg a pointed glare.

"I would encourage you not to get too comfortable yourself, Ellsberg," hr chided. "I value loyalty from Pokémon like Ketu as much as anyone else, but I have a limited appetite for 'mons wasting my time."

Ellsberg blanched and flitted back uneasily. Working for Elilan or not, Lyn was certainly not a 'mon to be trifled with, as his dealings with Ketu illustrated. Perhaps it was best to try and make himself look busy here.

"Er… right," the Bug-Type gulped. "I'm sure there's some work to be done right now…"

The Mothim turned and flitted off, opting to track inventory below the deck and away from Lyn's prying eyes. Back above, Lyn prowled over to the railing, leaning over it as he looked off into the street where Ketu and his assigned teammates had slipped off, a small smirk settling over his muzzle.

"I'm a fan of bold plays as much as the next Pokémon, but sometimes you just have to know when to stop sitting on your cards," he said. "Let's see how this one unfolds."


The innards of the Vecioferàle Arena proved to be as cavernous and disorienting as any Mystery Dungeon for Team Traveller. The stadium's ground level had been raised relative to the canals and streets, with a layered ring of stands built around a central, sunken battlefield that contained trapdoors for Pokémon and stage obstacles to be moved around, and curious apertures that looked as if they were meant to move water onto the battlefield itself. The three's initial instinct had been to check the various stands that hawked food and goods to spectators in the hallways, only to come up with dead ends again and again.

After some pointers from a few local guards, their attention shifted to the lower levels of the stadium. The lower portions of the stadium were a catacomb of chambers that served as storage areas that kept the arena's logistics in order, and more importantly housed the complex's lost and found and mailroom. Their search took them past chambers and prowling guards, including a Zweilous that spent much of his time dawdling in front of a ratty poster. A few false starts later, Team Traveller came to their current location of a chute with pull lid, Nida and Guardia waiting impatiently as Elty rooted through the chute before the Cubone gave a rap with her bone against its wooden flat.

"Do you see anything in there?" Guardia asked. The Cubone's question was answered by a shake of the Growlithe's rump, as its owner flailed to plant his feet against the wall and pull the rest of his body out of the chute, eventually poking his head out with a small collection of envelopes stuck in his fur.

"Just a bunch of letters," Elty called back. "What's a stadium need all of these for anyways?"

"Well, I'm stumped," Nida sighed. "That diary wasn't in the lockers, it wasn't in any of the rooms we could get to, and it's not in these mail chutes… Just where haven't we looked by now?"

Nida's teammates mulled in thought. It did seem strange that supplies for a stadium wouldn't be anywhere where one would expect to find them. Could they have been thrown out? If so, that could potentially take them anywhere in Tidemill... Perhaps it was better to make sure they weren't missing anything first?

"Maybe we should try retracing our steps?" Guardia suggested. "It could be tucked away in some corner we overlooked."

Elty shook the envelopes loose and dropped down to the floor, rejoining his teammates as they made their way down the hallway and began to look in the alcoves and corners. They found a stray copper coin, some dust bunnies, some shed feathers and hair, but no sign of anything that looked remotely like a diary. Elty shook his head, turning to check down another corridor, where saw the Zweilous guard in front of the poster looking around warily before slipping off.

"Eh?" the Growlithe asked. "The guard was still at that poster all this time?"

"So?" Guardia demanded. "What's wrong with watching the hallway from there?"

"Yeah, but wouldn't he have moved around or something?" Elty pressed "Why stay at that one specific spot?"

"… I think that you're overanalyzing things," Nida sighed.

"Maybe so, but you hut dwellers are a peculiar lot," Guardia countered. "If nothing else, it would be worth inspecting for lore to relay about the habits of your guardians."

The three made their way over to the poster, and Nida pawed at it, discovering that the bottom was loose. The Nidoran blinked, before peering at it from underneath and noticing that there was a conspicuous lump sticking out in the middle.

"Huh?" Nida murmured. "There's something behind here."

"I told you," Elty snorted. "Now come on, let's hurry up and make a tower to see what's there."

The Growlithe darted over to the wall, beckoning his teammates to follow after him. One by one, Guardia, and then Nida clambered onto the Fire-Type, forming a rough tower between the three resting on each other's shoulders topped by the blue Nidoran. Nida moved her paw to the bottom edge of the poster and pulled it up, revealing a crude wooden nub embedded in the wall.

"Eh?" Guardia asked. "What's that thing doing in the wall?"

"I don't know," Nida answered. "But it looks like it can move."

The Poison-Type pawed at the nub and found it to be loose and jiggle to the touch. Without thinking, she pushed down on it, only for the nub to suddenly jerk down, and the sound of a faint click to reach the three's ears.

"Hu- Agh!"

Before the Nidoran or her teammates could react, the wall the three were leaning against swung inwards, sending the trio pitching forward and tumbling down a darkened set of wooden stairs with a yelp. After pinwheeling down a flight, the three came into a tumbling stop into a pile on a stony floor, bunched up against a wooden obstacle that had been left at the bottom.

"Gah, my tail…" Elty whined.

"Urgh…" Guardia groaned. "Are these contraptions normally built by you hut-dwellers?"

The three pulled themselves up and off of each other as light from the opened section of wall filtered down dimly. They waited a moment for their eyes to adjust to the light, revealing the obstacle at the bottom of the stairs to be a crate, with a partially melted candle left in a clay lantern with a wooden holder on top of it.

"Eh? There's a świeca here," Elty murmured. "Let's see what we're dealing with."

The Growlithe jumped and pulled himself up to the top of the crate and nosed at the lantern, breathing a few sparks into it. The gout of fire lit up the room with a flash, before settling down into a dimmer glow as the candle's fire simmered down. The dog grabbed the holder with his mouth and carefully clambered down, revealing the room to be a small chamber riddled with wooden crates with a few tables and a closed door at the other end.

"Qué es este lugar?" Nida asked. "And why's it smell like hay?"

"Well, whatever it is, someone didn't want it to be discovered," Guardia said.

"Right," Elty replied. "All the more reason to expect that we'd find that diary down here."

Flummoxed, Nida and Guardia glanced at one another, and then back to Elty in unison. What kind of leap in logic was that? Had he conked his head on the way down or what? All that they could see here were just a bunch of crates!

"Come again?" Guardia asked.

"We've been looking across an entire stadium and neither us nor Cardino could find Sibich's diary," Elty explained. "If it was just sent here by accident, one of the guards would've found it and told someone about it."

The Growlithe shook his head, before lowering his snout back to the ground. He inhaled deeply, sniffing at the crates and finding them to be the source of the suspicious hay smell.

"No, this smells like it was done on purpose," the dog continued. "If that diary's not already been burnt-up already, wouldn't it be reasonable to think that it'd be hidden in some place no one was expecting?"

"Someplace… no one was expecting…" Nida murmured.

Well it was certainly hard for anywhere else they'd been in the arena so far to top this little chamber as an unexpected place. Could the diary really have been hidden here? The three began to root through the crates, finding them to be empty beyond some hay lining inside, and curiously, flakes of eggshells. The process continued on until Nida chanced to find a small wooden bin beside a crude table filled with spoiled papers. Inside, the Nidoran nosed around and felt something heavy and block-like inside pulling it out and finding it to be a book. Nida blinked and cracked it open, only to find that it was filled with page after page of runes filled with jumbled-up nonsense. The Poison-Type frowned, and was about to throw the tome of gibberish aside, only for a surprised yelp to ring out.

"Ack! What are you doing, spike ball?!" Elty yelped. "That's it! That's the diary!"

"Huh?"

Elty hurried over with the lantern, the light revealing a hand-shaped design on the book's cover, the same that had been on Eric and his friends' scarves back in the detention center. Nida looked down dumbfounded at the cover, before looking back at the Growlithe, stammering incredulously at his claim.

"But it can't be his diary!" Nida insisted. "It's full of nonsense writing!"

"Technically, isn't all of your rune writing-?" Guardia began, only to be cut off by a hasty hiss from her Poison-Type teammate.

"You know what I meant!"

Nida cracked the diary open and slid the book in front of her Growlithe teammate who peered down to read it. Sure enough, the writing did sound like nonsense when read aloud… but it wouldn't have been the first time he'd run into writing like this. He'd heard of pirates from the Council sending messages harboring secrets where the runes would be switched with the ones next to them… Elty frowned and lowered his ears at the gibberish-riddled diary. A code would certainly explain what was happening here, but how were they supposed to figure out the proper order how to switch them back?

"Bah, it's written in some sort of code!" he growled. "Some sort of evidence this was!"

Elty angrily kicked the leg of the nearby table, causing it to shudder and shower the floor full of papers. Nida and Guardia bristled out of alarm at the spilled papers, shooting glares at their Fire-Type teammate.

"Gah! Elty!"

"I didn't do it!" the Growlithe exclaimed.

"Come on," Guardia snapped. "Let's just put them back before someone notices."

The three hastily began collecting the spilled papers, throwing them haphazardly back onto the table. As Elty finished shoving a mouthful of papers back onto the table, he watched as Guardia threw a stack of her own onto the table, with a curious repeating rune listed on it.

"… Eggs?" Elty murmured.

"Eh?" Guardia asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Your paper there," the dog insisted. "It has it on there over and over again."

The Cubone showed the paper off in her claws, revealing it to be entries from a ledger. On each line was a name, followed by a number, the rune for "eggs", and some notes to the side about things such as "condition" and "species".

"Head Chargers, Mud Marauders, Shadow Brigade…" he muttered. "Hold on a second, these are all crews that were into egg theft!"

The three paused as a dawning realization crept up on them. The logs here were for records of stolen eggs that were being passed onto pirates. If Sibich's diary was here with these, then whatever was in it was important enough for the thieves to want to keep hidden, so then...

"It must've been that Cofagrigus who really stole those eggs!" Nida exclaimed. "Why else would whoever came down here go through so much trouble?"

Guardia stuffed the diary into the team's bag on Nida's shoulder along with some other shifty-looking papers handed to her by Elty. As she looked on, waiting for the Growlithe to scan over the rest of the papers strewn about the desk, the sound of footsteps echoing down the stairwell brought each of them to a complete halt, and the sound of the Zweilous guard's voice filtered down into the chamber.

"Hah!" the growling voice cried. "I knew that slipping off to get Thalez's autograph would be worth- Huh?!"

Team Traveller hastily hopped into one of the crates and dove under the hay as footsteps raced down the steps, a Zweilous coming into view. The dragon's heads sniffed at the air, and after noticing the scent of fresh intruders, looked around in alarm, upending papers and furniture in search of the trespassers. Team Traveller froze and held their breaths as the Dragon-Type poked its heads into the box, nosing at the hay underneath.

"All contestants, please make your way to the battlefield," a disembodied voice proclaimed. "We will be commencing with the opening ceremony in five minutes."

The guard paused and took a good whiff of the box, only detecting the scent of hay. The Zweilous looked around his surroundings uneasily, before eyeing the door. Someone had obviously been here, but if he wasn't there at the opening ceremony, it would be bound to raise questions… Then perhaps the best thing to do would be to try and cut losses for now.

"They must be gone already," the left head muttered.

"We'll clear this place out after the cerimònia," the right insisted. "They couldn't have gotten that much in just a few minutes…"

The door at the top of the stairs slammed shut with a loud thud, followed by a long silence. One by one, the members of Team Traveller poked their heads above the hay, gasping for air and sighing loudly out of relief.

"That was too close," Nida panted.

"Uh, wasn't that voice earlier just saying that we needed to go to the arena right now?" Guardia insisted.

"Are you kidding?" Elty snapped. "That lizard said he'd be coming back to clear this place out. Whatever we don't get is gone for good!"

"Yeah, but if we get kicked out of the tournament, our ability to find anything else is gone for good," Nida countered.

The three paused, looking around indecisively. Five minutes was not enough time to meaningfully scour the room for evidence… but if the Pokémon that used it had already been clumsy enough with it once, who was to say that trying to hold out at the stadium wouldn't provide other opportunities to search for clues?

"As a gentle reminder, attendance to the opening ceremony is mandatory," the telepath's voice announced. "Any teams that do not show up will have been presumed to have forfeited and removed from the running."

"… Grab anything that looks like it might be useful," Nida said. "We need to get out of here."

The team shoveled as many useful-looking papers as they could off of the table into their bag, and darted for the doorway. Having taken the lead, Elty cracked the door open and peered out carefully, ensuring they wouldn't be seen. At his go-ahead, the three of them darted out into the hallway, breaking into a full sprint as fast as their legs could carry them in the direction of the battlefield.


Author's Notes:

- cuco - Venetian: "fool"
- Vecioferàle Arena - Venetian: "Old Lighthouse Arena". Irregular, conventional rendering in language would be "Arena Vecioferàle"
- Arena Veijofaro - Spanish: "Old Lighthouse Arena"
- Sugoi! (凄い! / すごい!) - Japanese: "Great!" (Hepburn Romanization)
- świeca - Polish: "candle"
- Qué es este lugar? - Spanish: "What is this place?"
- cerimònia - Venetian: "ceremony"