Chapter 58: Breaking Ground
As the afternoon sun began its drift westward in the sky, Team Traveller carried on along Tidemill's winding streets along with their… most unusual black-scarved escorts. Along the whole walk away from the arena, Luca and his cronies flanked them with a keen eye, seemingly ready to come to blows at a moment's notice. Even more disconcertingly, whenever the group would carry down a street, a frigid aura would settle over the area, as other Pokémon would interrupt their goings-on to give the black-scarved passersby a wide berth.
Eventually, the Manectric and his companions took the group to a shaded street that had its entrance partly blocked off by crates with a Machoke and Raticate in black scarves standing guard. The pair eyed the newcomers suspiciously, only for Luca to wave them through, and bring them in to a back lane completely devoid of other Pokémon, the Machoke and Raticate glaring after them all the while.
"So Cardino, who are these guys exactly?" Nida whispered.
"Yeah, I don't really like the looks they're giving us," Elty murmured. "And the streets around here are deserted."
"They're associates of Saéta, the biggest crime lord in the city," the Pikachu answered. "These parts around central Tidemill are their main turf, and they're just a little touchy about-"
"Oi! Tourist! Save your explanations for someone who cares!"
The surrounding shaded street and its canal shimmered and vanished into a darkened space. Nida, Elty, and Guardia looked around in hasty glances about the dimly-lit space, their eyes adjusting to see they were inside a warehouse with a lattice of crude wooden balconies and offices. On the wall ahead, there was a balcony patrolled by a dark taupe-furred fox with a thick mane billowing from his head, the creature visibly glowering down at his startled 'guests'.
"A-Ah! The huts and street just vanished!" Guardia cried. "And there's that black furry yajū over there!"
"That would be Savio," the Swampert ahead grunted. "He handles our… cover to keep unwanted guests from poking their heads in."
"Or finding their way out," the Salazzle snarled.
Nida gulped at the lizard's enunciation, trying to not think too hard at what became of the Pokémon that failed to find their way out. Was coming here with Cardino really the best idea? Though given how they'd been fooled into thinking they were in a street all this time, was turning back even an option right now?
"Up the stairs and to your right," Luca instructed. "You'd better have a good reason for this meeting. The Don has less patience than me for wastes of his time."
The Manectric gestured off to the wooden flight of stairs leading up to a catwalk along the edge of the warehouse. At the end of the stairwell loomed an imposing-looking door, cracked slightly ajar to let in glimmers of light from the other end. The three ruffians marched their unwelcome guests along, shoving them along the remainder of the catwalk and through the opened door. To Team Traveller's surprise, in contrast to the shabby appearance of the rest of the warehouse, the room was remarkably well-furnished and draped with light curtains.
On one far side of the room was a set of shuttered windows, offering a glimpse of the domes and parapets of Tidemill City's center, along with a view of the ships sailing to and from the harbor. On the other wall hung portraits of various Pokemon; The sun's rays shone through the curtains of the room just enough to see that many of the pictures featured similar-looking, steely-eyed Manectric in black scarves. Finally, in the middle of the room and closer to the entryway, was a dark wooden table surrounded by silken cushions, with a wizened Manectric sitting comfortably before noticing his guests. He rose, and his muzzle turned downwards into a hard frown.
"Ah, you're back earlier than I expected, Luca," Saéta murmured. "These are the little parasites that have been operating on our territory?"
The Don's hostility caused Team Traveller to grimace. Elty in particular seemed noticeably unnerved, the Growlithe's fur standing on end as he yelped in their defense at the accusation.
"N-Now hold on here!" Elty stammered. "That's not-!"
Before he could finish, the Fire-Type was cut off with a sharp bite at his shoulder, drawing a pained yelp. The Puppy Pokémon shrank back, lowering his ears and pulling his tail between his legs as the Manectric beside him spat up a few stray hairs with a growl.
"Quiet," Luca snapped, before turning to his elder counterpart. "They're associates with this rat here. Thinks he's some sorta hotshot detective."
"I am a detective," the Pikachu corrected. "The name's Cardino, and this is a team that I contracted to help me out with my current case. We're here since we had a few questions for you about it."
A tense silence hung over the room as Don Saéta glowered down at Cardino, one brow raised skeptically. The Manectric trained a withering glare on the unflappable detective for a while, before shifting his gaze to his son's companions.
"… Carlo. Giusy. Take five at the door," he instructed. "I'd like to hear what my son and his guests have to say."
The Swampert and Salazzle nodded and withdrew to the doorway, though they didn't leave the room. Instead, the two settled themselves at opposing sides of the exit, keeping a keen eye on their superior as he neared, and on the three youngsters as well.
"Hrmph, you are here to do something other than trying to tie me to some trouble an associate got into, right?" Saéta demanded. "The City Guard haven't been able to any time they tried in the past, and they sent more than a rat and some pups fresh out of a guild for that."
"That's entirely dependent on where the facts of my case lead," Cardino answered, shooting a determined glare back. "I came to ask you about it since I thought you might know a thing or two about it."
"Oh?" the Manectric scoffed. "And just what would that be?"
"Earlier this afternoon, my associates discovered an egg-smuggling operation in the tunnels underneath the Vecioferàle Arena," the Pikachu explained. "The City Guard already know that your 'mons operate around there, so that begs the question… Who was there and why were they on your turf?"
THUNK
Saéta slammed a paw down on the floor, forcefully enough to kick up a small swirl of dust underfoot. A low, dangerous growl rumbled from his throat, and he glared down at the lot of them, sparks dancing angrily off of his pelt.
"I'm not sure what your guests are trying to imply here, Luca," the Electric-Type snapped. "But I don't think that I like it."
"Our organization doesn't do theft, much less egg theft. We stick to reselling from free traders and selling protective services," the younger Manectric growled. "If you don't want an abrupt swim in the canal outside the window, I'd suggest that you not bring that up again."
"But we know what we saw in there!" Guardia insisted. "If it's your territory and you didn't do it, then who would?"
"Some common mànega that doesn't know their place," Luca answered. "Every now and then, the Guard breaks one up for crossing a bridge too far and another band of chuckleheads comes along to fill their role."
"That's what I'd assigned Luca here to do," Saéta explained. "To find out who's been encroaching on our turf so we could… retire them."
A cloud of unease fell over the room as Cardino and his assistants shifted uncomfortably. Given the Manectric's enunciation and their treatment so far, having a career ended by him and his lackeys didn't sound like the sort of experience anyone would look forward to… or live to talk about afterwards. That said, something wasn't adding up here. If Saéta and his pals were so slippery to the guards...
"Eh? But then why has it taken so long for you to handle this?" Nida demanded. "I thought you said that the Guards didn't have anything to get you in trouble with."
"Because as much as I'd like to make some goons sleep with the fishes, we'd need to make sure that settling this business wouldn't fall afoul of the Coordinator."
The elder Manectric's words at once drew some hushed chatter from the doorway, the Swampert underling trading a blank glance with his Salazzle counterpart.
"Never did get why that was supposed to be threatening," Carlo whispered. "I sleep with the fishes every night."
"It's idiomatic, you dunce," Giusy countered.
"Wait," Elty murmured. "The… Coordinator?"
A dismissive scoff came from across the table. Team Traveller looked back to meet Saéta's eyes as he shook out his mane, before idly sliding a paw onto the desk before him.
"I suppose that some prim and proper types like you wouldn't know, but he's the main fixer for our line of work here in Tidemill," the elder wolf sighed. "Whether you're a street gang, a free trader, or a proper organization like us, if you plan on staying in business for any length of time, you've got to go through him."
"Eh? But Cardino said that you were the biggest crime lord here in Tidemill," Guardia said. "You mean there's someone even bigger?"
"Please, 'crime' is so rude. But no, if we didn't get our more… sensitive operations cleared with the Coordinator and send him a cut every month, the guards would've made up a lead to bust pàre here and we'd have gotten turfed out years ago," Luca explained. "It happens to anyone who either stays in the business too long without going through the Coordinator... or else causes too much trouble for him to smooth over."
"Hm? But according to the logs we found, the egg thieves have been operating for quite a while," Cardino insisted. "Just what we've found would point to them being active for at least over a year, if not more."
A long, pregnant silence hung in the air. After shooting the others a cold, hard glare, Saéta spoke up, his response carrying with it an audible venom.
"We haven't been dealing with this turf issue for more than a couple weeks," the Don murmured. "There's no way a common pack of street thugs could pull off an operation like that."
"Sounds to me like this gang's a bunch of fall guys to be hung out to dry later," Luca added. "They wouldn't be the first one to be burned through either if this has really been going on for more than a year."
Saéta paused a moment, before furrowing his brow in realization. Any Pokémon in their business had to maintain some relationships to stay viable... Unless the 'mon with all the fall guys wasn't playing on their same level, who would be none other than...
"The only 'mon who could make so many enemies in this town so quickly while still staying in business would be the Coordinator himself," Saéta said. "Anyone else would've either gotten bumped off, or run out of partners ages ago."
Team Traveller murmured uneasily among themselves. On one level, given Saéta's lead, they knew exactly the sort of Pokémon they'd be looking for... But without any inkling to an identity or even a species, just how were they to narrow things down in a giant city like Tidemill?
"Okay, and just where are we supposed to find this Coordinator?" Cardino demanded. "This 'fixer' of yours doesn't sound like he'd be operating out of some hole in the wall."
"Start by looking in your own ranks, Detective," the elder Manectric sneered.
Saéta's words hung in the air with a stunned quiet. After a spluttering moment to put things together, an awful thought crossed Cardino's mind. Could the wolf really have meant…
"Wait. You mean he's in the guards?!" the Pikachu exclaimed.
"Congratulations for realizing what everyone in the underworld's known for years," Luca sighed. "Now hurry up and get out."
"Huh?!" Nida squeaked. "But we just-"
"Rrrr…"
The Nidoran flinched at the sound of a low growl, looking up to see Luca glaring at her with bared fangs, sparks dancing on his pelt. Whatever questions that the spike lump or her friends had, it was evident they weren't going to get an answer to them right now.
"Question time's over," the younger Manectric snapped. "Get out before we change our minds."
Team Traveller and their detective companion hastily ducked out of the office, coming out to see that the catwalk outside now opened to the outside of a building at late dusk overlooking a winding alleyway. The four traded uneasy looks with one another. This had to be the work of that Zoroark from earlier... but by the same token, it didn't make sense to try and tease out an exit beyond the 'alley' they were provided.
The four carried on, making their way down the winding and deserted alley until they reached a noticeably-brighter archway guarded by the Machoke and Raticate from earlier. The group stepped through it, only to hear a loud slam behind them, turning back only to find that the sky above was still bright with the orange-ish hue of the early evening. The four looked behind them to see the arch they'd passed through had been replaced with a barred gateway behind the glaring guards, giving looks that all but screamed their impatience to be rid of the group.
"… Hope we didn't forget anything back there," Elty muttered. "I'm not sure if I could find our track back through that."
"Well, at least we got a lead for where to look next," Nida sighed. "So… we'd just need to start by checking the guards?"
"But there's tons of guards in this city!" Guardia protested. "How are we supposed to narrow down which one's this 'Coordinator'?"
Cardino shook his head, before casting his gaze out to the harbor. There, just inland from the sea along a canal, sat the squared-off headquarters of the City Guard. If they had to try and smoke out a bad apple from the ranks, there was only one reasonable way to go about it.
"Simple," the Pikachu said. "We start from the top."
The four of them set off on their journey back to the headquarters of the Guard. A thick tension hung over the air around the group as their minds drifted to the possibilities; just what kind of sordid matter would they uncover here...?
"Come on…" Elty muttered. "There's gotta be something here."
After their visit to Don Saéta's compound, Team Traveller and Cardino had made their way back to the Guards' Headquarters, their search taking them into the dimly lit inner rooms where personnel files were kept. The four rooted around, skimming through one packet of aged and dusty papers by the faint light of glow-moss for any hints as to what Pokémon among the guards could be the Coordinator. Amidst all their effort, so far they'd accomplished nothing other than to create a small pile of loose records on the floor, making Nida, Elty, and Guardia increasingly antsy about their lack of progress.
"Cardino, we've been looking through these records for hours now and we still haven´t found anything," Nida sighed. "Are you sure we're going about this the right way?"
"Yes. If the Coordinator is indeed someone highly ranked among the guards, there has to be a clue here in these records!" the Detective Pikachu insisted. "An unexplained absence, a suspicious numbers of sick days, anything that looks shifty or strange…"
"But we haven't found anything!" Guardia exclaimed. "So does this mean the Coordinator is not in the guards?"
"We shouldn't jump to conclusions like that so soon before searching everything thoroughly," the Electric-Type countered. "Like... aha!"
Cardino's eyes lit up as he yanked a paper folder from a box, proudly spreading it out on the ground and beckoning his assistants to come and inspect it. The three members of Team Traveller darted over, coming to see their employer excitedly pointing at some runes under a chart laid out in even square rows.
"Here we go! One of the Sergeants was apparently gone for a full month!" he cried. "That's something that stands out!"
"… The writing in the margins says 'parental leave'," Elty said.
The Pikachu blinked, squinting back at the scrawling in question. He stared blankly at it before reeling back, ears lowered and one paw behind his head accompanied by a sheepish grin.
"Er… that would actually be a good reason, yes," Cardino chuckled. "Should've noticed that there was only one absence! Heh heh…"
The detective's announcement drew an audible chorus of groans as Nida, Elty, and Guardia each slid paws over their faces in exasperation. Did they even have anything to show for their efforts right now?
"Bah… so we learned nothing at all from this search!" Guardia grumbled.
"Well, the Coordinator's obviously good at covering his tracks," Nida murmured. "So it'd have to be someone with a lot of power in order to do that…"
"Oh yeah, that's totally gonna get a 'Not Guilty' verdict," Elty sighed. "We need to have someone to point our paws to! Not some hazy 'mon of mystery'!"
Cardino flicked his ears uneasily before rubbing his chin in thought. The records room was probably their best bet for a lead... but after all this time spent cooped up in here, maybe it was worth switching up their tactics a bit.
"Maybe we need to try tackling this from a different angle," the Pikachu mulled. "Come on, let's step outside and get some air."
He bade his assistants to follow him out of the records room, leading them past a drowsy Hoothoot at the front desk and out into the hallway. The four walked down a few flights of stairs to the central courtyard of the headquarters of the City Guard, pausing for a moment under the sun to breathe in the fresh air from the sea, only for their peace to suddenly be interrupted by the abrupt sound of a barking order.
"Hey you, hurry up!" a trio of squawking voices snapped. "You've got rocks to be lugging and a busted-up wall with your name all over it!"
"Alright! Alright!"
The four Pokémon paused and did a double-take to their left, where they noticed a Furfrou in a bright orange scarf getting dragged along by a scowling Lurantis and Dodrio. As the pair and their moody companion passed along, Guardia blinked, realizing that the Furfrou seemed just a little too familiar.
"Eh?" the Cubone asked. "Didn't we just see that Trimmien the other day in a different scarf?"
"Hrmph. Means that he's already been sentenced to a punishment," Elty said. "It's unlikely we'll be seeing him around this compound again."
"And your wall would be fixed faster if you lazy bums did the work yourself!" the Furfrou snapped.
"… Never say never," Nida sighed. "Especially with that attitude."
Cardino watched as the guards escorted the Furfrou away. The Electric-Type moved a paw thoughtfully to his chin, when he suddenly perked up, his eyes alight with a sudden realization.
"Wait a minute… the big shots from that ship!" the Pikachu exclaimed. "One of them had to have met the Coordinator to set up that trade!"
"Yeah, but how do we know that any of them are still here?" Nida demanded.
Cardino paused for a moment to mull his options. To talk with any of Sibich's leading underlings, he'd need to go through the guards that worked around the prison. That said, he never did get a chance to memorize their daily beats, and they always seemed to be loath to talk while on the job… why, he'd have to go and flag one down in person off-duty to get an idea of what was going on!
Tromp tromp tromp
The Pikachu looked up at the sound of heavy footfalls, looking to see a Bastiodon in guard's attire passing down the hall with a small rucksack of food. Hold on a minute, he'd seen this 'mon before! He was pushing that Furfrou from earlier around just yesterday!
"Only one way to find out…" Cardino murmured. "Hey, Bastiodon!"
The Steel-Type paused and blinked a moment, before giving a curious glance back. The dinosaur shook his head and carefully turned around in the corridor, lowering his head with a quizzical tilt to address the Detective Pikachu.
"Hrm?"
"Are any of the high-value prisoners from that captured ship still imprisoned here?" Cardino asked. "The first mate? A escort captain, maybe?"
"As far as I know, all of those 'mons have already been sentenced except for the captain," the Bastiodon answered. "Can't imagine why with the plea deal he took, though."
"Plea deal?" Guardia asked. "What's going to happen to him?"
"Six months of trash collection," the dinosaur explained. "With a sentence like that, they might as well have let him walk out the detention center on the first day!"
Nida, Elty, and Guardia blinked and traded blank looks with one another at the Bastiodon's reply. Cardino similarly wrinkled his nose in skepticism; what sort of pirate captain got sentenced for anything for six months? The only plausible explanation was that someone had interfered in Sibich's sentencing, but just who could the Coordinator have been in the guards to have that sort of power?
"… How long did you say the Captain would still be in here again?" Cardino asked.
"Pretty sure his sentencing's tomorrow," the Bastiodon mulled. "Why?"
"My associates and I have some questions for him."
"Well, you know where the visitor's room is," the guard replied. "Make your way over there, and I'll have him brought out to chat up."
The four bade farewell to the Bastiodon and made their way across the courtyard. The guards at the doorway let them through into the detention center, after which Cardino and his assistants retraced their steps through the facility's corridors in the direction of the interrogation room. The journey there was quite familiar; just as before, the cell block remained dimly lit, the same fetid smell hung in the air, and the same metal bars divided the hall's cells from the main walkway... but something was different, this time. The cells were sparsely-populated compared to before, and everyone left seemed to bear the patterns of the Marked. Their journey concluded as the four reached their destination of the interrogation room and sat waiting, the idle time allowing them to mull over this revelation. How could it be that every Pokemon remaining was Marked? There had certainly been more Marked than normal in the cells the other day, but surely a few of the remaining prisoners ought to have been unmarked, right?
They considered the situation of the Marked as a thoughtful silence hung over the room, broken only by a loud clank from outside the door on the opposite side of the room. The door swung open, and the form of a Cofagrigus made itself apparent. He floated into the room, and the gathered Pokemon made note of his unusual bindings, dotted with attached bells that jingled after every movement. The Ghost-type glowered across the interrogation table as the guards secured him further, sliding his arms into metallic shackles and attaching some sounding bells around the lot. Satisfied with their work, the guards nodded at the Pokemon across the table and moved to clear out of the room, slamming the door behind them and leaving a solitary Pinsir on watch. Sibich rolled his eyes at the indignity of his treatment, before turning his attention to the youngsters before him.
"Ah, the Guardian's friends," the Ghost-Type sneered. "I didn't expect to see you here."
Nida, Elty, and Guardia reflexively gulped and tensed up at the sight of the Cofagrigus as he radiated an aura of outward hostility. Cardino puzzled at the spectacle for a moment, before turning back to the Ghost-Type prisoner with a dismissive shake of his head.
"I see you all have met before," Cardino grunted. "But let's skip the pleasantries and get down to business: we've got some questions for you."
"And just what would those be?" Sibich demanded.
"What was your crew doing trying to get those eggs, and what do you know about the Coordinator?"
The Cofagrigus scoffed at the Pikachu's question, flashing his teeth menacingly from across the table.
"I have no idea what you're talking about or who this 'Coordinator' is. As for the eggs, I merely instructed my crew to grab the most valuable things they could find," the Ghost-Type answered. "Some of them obviously interpreted it in a much more unseemly way than I intended. If I knew about it, I can assure you, they'd have walked the plank ages ago."
Elty narrowed his eyes and growled back at Sibich. Was he even trying to be convincing here?
"What kind of lame excuse is that?" the Growlithe snorted. "Even the captain on my old crew knew what was going on with the Pokémon under his command, so how's one of the captains of the Council supposed to be that oblivious?"
The Cofagrigus slipped his arms further through his shackles, bringing his inky black hands together and shifting his gaze to the Fire-Type.
"As you know, I deal a bit more extensively with Marked in my crews," Sibich explained. "I'd thought their more insular tendencies could be worked around given past experience; clearly, I was wrong."
The Ghost-Type's mouth curled into the faintest of smiles, the Cofagrigus sinking down low to the floor as he trained a taunting gaze on his interrogators.
"That's why the court accepted my offer of a plea deal for helping to find the real bad eggs in my crew," the wraith sneered. "Really, you should talk more to some of the Marked. When I heard of all the... interesting affairs they were up to, I was shocked that the court even extended them plea deals instead of banishing the lot!"
"And that's why all of them are still in detention?" Cardino prodded.
"Of course. The courts in the Empire prefer to process the more serious offenders towards the end," Sibich replied. "It's a shame the Marked in my crew would choose to dabble in such affairs, but it's not like they could count on the judge's sympathy either way."
"Then why were Eric, Sela, and Hanuna so adamant that they didn't steal the eggs?" Nida demanded. "We've found evidence they could be telling the truth, too."
A smug grin split Sibich' face. His four arms came together, tenting the fingers on each set of hands innocuously. He played with his fingers for a moment, letting Nida's allegation hang in the air awhile before responding.
"Ah, but you've established a possibility, not a proof. My crew understands that we stand together, or fall divided. And those Pokémon you brought up have chosen to fall," Sibich retorted. "Even if they did get found innocent, I'm sure one of their more clear-headed peers wouldn't see it that way and want to... rectify the situation."
"So basically, you're threatening 'mons like them to stay in line or pay the price," Elty growled.
"My, those are some serious allegations, pup," the Cofagrigus scoffed. "Do you have any proof of such claims?"
In unison, Team Traveller glared across the table at the Ghost-Type. Here they had the real culprit backed against the wall, and he was just bragging to them that they couldn't prove a thing! But... was that really the case, they wondered? Surely, of all things, their prized evidence from the previous trial ought to get some kind of reaction from him...
"How's this for proof, then?" Cardino snapped.
Sibich was answered by a loud thud, looking to see that the Pikachu had thrown a tome with the hand-shaped sigil of the Shadow Brigade onto the table. The wraith reflexively reached for the book, only to find his bindings keeping the diary just out of his reach. The Cofagrigus had a fierce flash of frustration cross his eyes, before turning his attention back across the table with an irritated scowl.
"It is, yes," Sibich replied. "And what of it?"
"Then why don't you help decode it for us?" Cardino asked. "If you're really looking to help flush out the 'bad eggs' in your crew, your diary should be able to help while backing up your story, right?"
The Ghost-Type paused, a dangerous look flashing across his eyes. He scowled fiercely, a low hiss emanating from within him.
"I have a right to my own privacy," the Cofagrigus snapped. "Though good luck finding anything of note from it. As I'm sure you've already discovered, it's not easy reading without knowing how to interpret it properly."
"But you-" Nida began. Before the Nidoran could finish, Sibich raised a hand for silence and held it up to the gathered Pokémon.'
"I'm done talking here," he growled. "I've got a sentencing tomorrow to attend, and I don't need you giving me even more stress over it."
The door swung open as the guards returned to the room, undoing the Cofagrigus' shackles and marching him off as he looked back with a taunting glance. As the door slammed back shut, Cardino pounded a paw against the table and buried his head in his other paw, his cheeks flashing sparks. The mood among his assistants was little improved, the lot still glaring after the door where Sibich exited.
"Grr... we oughta get that fiend at the other end of a Honebūmeran!" Guardia growled. "I just know the dead would find him guilty in a heartbeat!"
"Well they don't allow that in court, so what do we do now?" Elty sighed. "We still don't have anything to work with to make the case that Eric and his friends are being set up."
"... Maybe we overlooked something," Cardino murmured.
"Huh?!" Nida exclaimed. "What do you mean?!"
"Sibich was very confident we wouldn't find the decoder," the Pikachu explained. "The evidence room's a giant mess, so it could very well be hidden among other evidence the guards have already collected and we wouldn't know any better about it."
"Egh… I suppose we don't have many leads," Guardia admitted. "But I'm not confident about our odds here."
"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" the Electric-Type asked. "Come on, let's go take a look."
Cardino got to his feet and began walking for the door, prompting Team Traveller to fish the journal off the table and follow grudgingly. All the while, Nida kept a vacant stare on her face, dreading what was sure to be a long night trying to find any lead at all for decrypting Sibich's diary.
"Alright, how about this one Protector?"
Berecien nosed at a page of a book with large, bold runes scattered about it under the silvery glow of moonlight. The Ponyta had enthusiastically taken the lead after Queen Aleria had assigned him and his companions to be tutors, which had inspired him to the palace's library in order to start with a simple primer.
Unfortunately for the Fire-Type and his companions, their progress had been… lacking, to say the least. Almost immediately into the lecture, Berecien discovered that the young Protector knew naught but a handful of runes, scrapping the original plans for literature. Mathematics all but put him (as well as Niilo) to sleep just with simple exercises, even after Cabot took over the lecturing. Their current attempt at basic vocabulary was also going far from swimmingly, no matter who attempted to take the lead. Time and time again, Berecien and his companions would nose or paw at a rune on the pages of 'The Imperial Lexicon', just as he did with the jagged squiggle he currently was on. Much as the last times, the seabird stared blankly at it for a moment, before turning unsurely to the Ponyta.
"Uh… 'Snake'?" Pleo replied, only to be answered by a trio of exasperated groans.
"No, it's 'Thunder'," Berecien said. "See? Doesn't it look kinda like a thunderbolt when you squint at it?"
"I… guess?" the Lugia answered.
"Well... at least it's going better than when we tried to teach him to write…" Niilo sighed. "But maybe we should try moving on to another subject for now?"
"But how's he supposed to study anything without being able to read?" Berecien protested. "He can't do math without it, he can't do literature…"
Cabot audibly mulled a bit as he turned his eyes about the library. There were certainly plenty of books to work with here, but none of their subjects would be worth anything if the Protector couldn't read them. Plus with all of the older tomes around, and the old paintings and sculptures, would they really hold up to the stresses of a younger student?
Wait a minute… why not use the paintings and sculptures themselves to make a lesson around them? It would be a little tricky since he'd never gotten the hang of all the fine details on his own, but...
"What about history?" Cabot offered. "I think we've got enough stuff to do a simple primer on the Empire's history here."
Pleo craned his head up, giving a blank blinking stare. What… exactly did the Cranidos want him to do here, and what was...?
"… 'The Empire's history'? Why is that important?"
"Because it'll help you as our new Protector to learn about things that have happened in the past," Niilo explained. "In our case, how the Empire came to be through King Aquila's endeavors."
"King… Who?"
"Look over there," Cabot said, moving his claw up to a large portrait of a Staraptor with a crown, spreading his wings with a leftward gaze.
"That's King Aquila," the Cranidos explained. "The legendary hero and first King of all Anyilla."
"Eh? But why was he made king?" Pleo wondered.
"Because of his exploits as a hero who brought peace between the Marked and other Pokémon here in Anyilla," Berecien explained. "It all started when he was discovered from a metal cocoon that fell from the sky above, a dazed Starly who remembered naught but his name…"
The Ponyta carried on with a peculiar tale about the Starly drifting from village to village and becoming renowned for strength and wisdom after joining the company of a Chespin that he formed a Rescue Team with. The rest of the tale went by in an increasingly hazy blur as Pleo settled against the ground struggling to keep his eyes open. He looked around, and while looking at the bookshelves, noticed a faint spark of electricity, following them to see a large, metal saucer of a Pokémon with an indigo scarf float cautiously out from behind it.
"Huh? Wasn't that that flying... saucer thingy from last night?" Pleo murmured.
"Eh?"
Cabot and his companions turned to the shelves where Pleo gestured off to, only to notice the Magnezone and jolted up with a surprise. Why, this was none other than the famed...
"Admiral Coil?" Cabot asked. "What are you doing here at this hour?"
Startled, the Magnezone bobbed upwards, his magnets twirling out of surprise. After a tense pause, the Electric-Type returned to his normal level and stilled his magnetic limbs, recomposing himself as he tilted his body downwards to better face his questioners.
"Ah, I was just coming by to grab a book before sleep," the Magnezone answered. "You're the Pokémon assigned to tutor the Protector, I presume. Smooth progress, I trust?"
Coil's question was met by tired, unamused looks back. Cabot and Berecien struggled to find the right words to describe their trials to the admiral, only for Niilo to beat them to the punch with his normal, blunt phrasing.
"I'm pretty sure that I'm not getting paid enough in my contract to do this," the Sandslash sighed.
Niilo's explanation was met by a swat from a fiery tail, followed by a glare from his Ponyta teammate. Berecien turned his attention back to the Magnezone and hastily cleared his throat.
"What he meant to say is that we're working through a few unexpected complications," the Fire-Type corrected. "But I'm sure that things will be fine, Admiral. The Protector just needs a chance to warm up."
Ah... well I'll just clear the way for you then," Coil said. "Good luck with your efforts."
The Magnezone began to turn and float off, drifting away from Pleo and his three tutors. Before he could slip off entirely, a loud voice called out from behind.
"Wait!"
Coil looked back and saw Cabot having darted up behind him. The Cranidos tapped his claws together, fumbling with his words as he tried to speak up to the Electric-Type.
"I… just wanted to say, thank you," Cabot said. "For coming to my hometown's help earlier."
The Magnezone bobbed and spun his magnets at the dinosaur's thanks. After a moment's quiet, the admiral floated down to the Cranidos' eye level, before giving a smiling answer back.
"It was nothing," Coil replied. "I was merely doing what needed to be done for the sake of Her Majesty's realm."
Cabot nodded, before starting to make his way back to the group, grateful that Admiral Coil had waited on him before leaving. As the Magnezone slipped away out of earshot, the Cranidos returned to the table, just in time to see Berecien drop his forced smile and turn his attention back to Niilo with a fierce glare.
"Mind your tongue around your superiors next time, sand rat," the Ponyta snapped. "You're lucky the Admiral didn't have you discharged on the spot right then and there."
"Meh, he seemed pretty chill with it to me," Niilo scoffed. "Besides, we've got teaching to get back to-"
Yaaaaaaah
The Sandslash and his companions blinked at the sight of Pleo opening his beak with a loud yawn, trying to shake himself awake with uneasy beats of his wings. Niilo looked at the drowsy Lugia, and then up at the sky, noticing that the moon had already slipped past its midpoint, with Time Lord's Traveller already well to the east of it, a sign as clear as day that it was just past midnight.
"Err... now that he mentions it, it is getting a little late," Niilo murmured.
"I suppose it's as good a time as any to call it a night…" Cabot yawned. "I'll lead him over to his chambers."
"Right, we'll catch up again tomorrow," Berecien said.
The Ponyta and Sandslash set off, going deeper into the library as Cabot beckoned Pleo to follow him. The young Protector followed after his Cranidos guide, only to deliberately slow his pace before ducking off into a row of bookshelves along the wall. Pleo made his way along the shelves, wondering to himself what caught that saucer Pokémon's eyes around here. Each of the bookshelves were packed with dusty tomes with labels he couldn't read, and there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary... By chance, the Lugia opted to look upward, where he noticed a tapestry above him.
It was of a village burning with blotched Pokémon fighting with a Staraptor and other Pokémon in indigo scarves. A little further down was another, depicting the Staraptor at the center of a group of Pokémon sternly looking at each other at a desk full of papers, the left side filled with Pokémon with blotches on their heads that had a visible reluctance about them. From there, there was a picture of the Staraptor with a Starly perched on a branch overlooking a town with a castle built on seaside bluffs, followed by one with the Staraptor and a Staravia flying at sea with ships following after them.
"Huh? Was that the next king?" Pleo murmured to himself.
He carried on, moving onto a portrait of two Staraptor, one visibly aged and the other young and lively. The next one showed the young Staraptor full of sorrow, standing before a glinting statue of the elder hawk with him nowhere to be seen. From there, the paintings seemed to grow more somber in color and tone. There was one with the seas churning showing the Staraptor fighting with a Milotic, one showing ships and Pokémon fighting at sea, and another depicting the blotched Pokémon being chased into a mountain full of fog.
Pleo paused and ruffled his feathers uncomfortably, having an uneasy feeling about the contents of the paintings and decided that perhaps it was better to turn his attention to the books on the shelf. He stopped in front of a book with a silvery-white binding and a paper jutting out the top, opening it and leafing through its pages only to discover...
"Aw... there's no pictures."
The young Lugia took the book with his beak and began to slide it back, when an envelope with a design depicting a five-pointed star made of leaves fell out onto the ground. He blinked incredulously, before setting the book aside and eying the paper container curiously.
"Huh?"
Pleo craned his neck down at the envelope, nosing it open with his beak to see a paper filled with colored runes in a strange, squarish chart. The Lugia studied the strange letter for a moment, before looking back at the envelope as a dawning realization came upon him.
"Wait a minute," Pleo murmured. "We used one of these to send my feather back to Tromba!"
It really was one of those paper carrier thingies! And if it had been able to get a feather out to let his friends know he was okay back then... maybe he could do it again here! Maybe he'd even get a response again! ... Assuming he figured out a way to get his companions the envelope in the first place. But it seemed as good of a shot as any to try and hear from his friends once more, which prompted the bird to shake some feathers loose and scoop up the envelope with his beak.
"Protector?"
Pleo jumped up with a start and whirled around, hearing the sound of approaching footsteps. Not seeing anywhere to dispose of the envelope to find it later, the Lugia hastily stuffed a beakful of feathers into the envelope and dabbed a little saliva on the edge and sealed it, stuffing it under his wings just as Cabot rounded the corner with a sleepy shake of his head.
"You shouldn't wander off like that," the Cranidos said. "It's a big world full of mean 'mons who would want to hurt you."
"But I wanted to look at the books!" Pleo protested, beating his wings out for emphasis. The Lugia's insistence prompted Cabot to sigh, before opting to motion for Pleo to follow him and not give him too hard of a time over wandering off. Just what sort of trouble could he have gotten into just a few bookshelves away?
"Alright… I'll get one to read to you tonight, okay?" the Rock-Type insisted. "But it's time for you to get some rest. Tomorrow's a big day."
Cabot began to pace off, prompting the Lugia to look around before truding off after the Cranidos. As he followed along, Pleo shifted his wing over the envelope he discovered, pinning it tight against his body as he waddled onward. The young Protector made his way out of the library, his thoughts drifting towards what he could say to his friends as the dinosaur led him off deeper through the darkened palace.
"Well... this is it."
Cabot motioned ahead from the doorway, pointing out a well-furnished room lit by the warm light of an oil lamp. In it, there was a set of furniture with a well-stocked bookshelf, a low table with seat-cushions, and a storage chest. The centerpiece of the set was a canopied bed made of rich, dark wood, with silken curtains framing a window that stared out into a collection of lights from the skies above and the lanterns from the rest of Tidemill below. In front of the bed, a small hoard of toys and amusements had been spread out in anticipation of the Protector's arrival, including a collection of Substitutes, some toy ships, a small pile of wooden blocks, and a silver looking-glass. The Cranidos smiled, giving a proud wag of his tail before turning back to the young Lugia full of enthusiastic cheer.
"I know it wasn't ready yet your first night since you came kind of unexpectedly," the dinosaur said. "But this is where you'll be sleeping for a while."
"I see…"
Cabot pointed around the room with a smile, giving a contented nod of his head, only to notice that things were uncomfortably quiet. The Cranidos looked back and discovered that much to his dismay, Pleo seemed wholly uninterested in the room, giving a lethargic, unhappy peck at his wing feathers. Hasty to try and liven the mood, the Rock-Type waved his claws and tried to draw the young Protector's attention back to his surroundings.
"I mean it's not all bad, it's a nicer room than mine and there's tons of fun stuff here!" Cabot insisted. "Maybe you could play pretend with those Substitute Dolls over there, and I think these model ships can float if you wanted to bring them to swim in a fountain or something…"
The Cranidos trailed off as he noticed that his young charge was still staring off into space, seemingly unfazed by any of the toys in the room. The little Protector evidently wasn't much in the mood to play, but there had to be something that would lift his spirits...
"Uh… er… there's even some books on the shelf you might like once you learn how to read," Cabot offered. "Since you're not there yet, I can read one for you before you go to sleep."
"But... where do I sleep?" Pleo asked.
"Oh? Right there of course."
The Cranidos pointed off at the large, silken mattress on the bed. On it, the bedding was adorned with silk cloth spread over it and smaller cushions set on the edges underneath a curtained canopy. Cabot watched as Pleo blinked confusedly, before the seabird turned back to him with a puzzled tilt of his head.
"But there's no straw."
The Lugia's answer made Cabot splutter in confusion and consternation. He'd expected the Protector to be over the moon after seeing the sumptuous bed, not to treat it as if there was something wrong with it!
"But- But this is how really important and powerful Pokémon sleep!" the Cranidos exclaimed. "This is an improvement over those straw clumps you've been sleeping on!"
"But it doesn't look like any bed I've ever seen!" Pleo squawked back.
"Just try it?" Cabot pleaded. "I promise that it'll feel better than any straw bed you've slept on so far."
Pleo looked at the bed and then at Cabot before warily waddling up to it and climbing onto the mattress. The young Protector settled atop it, and after finding it surprisingly soft and comfortable, settled in, curiously poking his body under the sheets as Cabot walked over.
"See?" the Rock-Type asked. "Perfect place to listen to a bedtime story, isn't it?"
Pleo gave a wag of his tail and chirped contently as he sank into the bedding. Relieved, Cabot breathed out a thankful sigh, his own tail beginning to move back and forth from the happier turn of events.
"Alright," Cabot murmured. "Now let's see if there's anything good on that shelf…"
The Cranidos got up and began to thumb through the books on the shelf, quickly realizing that they were all written in mind for young Pokémon. The Rock-Type leafed through titles such as The Three Little Trial-Goers, Brave Prince Goldenrod, and a book with a Lucario and a strange Pokémon resembling an unusually tall Sneasel on the cover titled The Chronicles of Shiren the Wanderer, only to suddenly hear a voice from behind.
"… It's 'Cabot,' right?"
Cabot stopped his claws abruptly and blinked a moment out of surprise at hearing his name, starting to look over his shoulder.
"Huh?"
The Cranidos turned back and saw the Protector sitting up, craning his head high to look after him with a curious tilt of his head.
"Your name, it's 'Cabot,' isn't it?" Pleo asked. "That was what your friends were calling you."
"That's right, has a good ring to it, don't you think?" the Fossil Pokémon chuckled. "Why do you ask?"
"Well…" Pleo murmured. "I was wondering if you could give a message to my friends."
The young Lugia batted his wings, shaking loose an envelope with a leaf sigil onto the the bed. At once, his Cranidos caretaker jumped up with a start, darting over to the bed in a flustered rush.
"E-Eh?! Where'd you get that?!" Cabot stammered. "We didn't give you any envelopes!"
"I found it in the library and I was thinking that maybe it would help send a message to my friends. To tell them that I'm okay?" the young Lugia explained. "You'd help with that, wouldn't you?"
Cabot hemmed and hawed at the Lugia's request, keenly noting that the envelope bore the stationery of a high-ranking member of the Empire. Had the Protector snuck off and taken it for himself while he wasn't looking? If so, he couldn't just let him send off a letter in that envelope! If he wrote something incendiary on it, Nagant would have his hide over that!
"I- I mean, you already are visible at the stadium every day…" Cabot began. "And I really shouldn't be-"
"Pleeease?"
Cabot saw Pleo craning his head forward, his eyes glistening and his lower beak quivering. The Cranidos blinked and paused uneasily a moment. This certainly was something that could get him into trouble… But when the Protector had trouble recognizing anything beyond a small clawful of runes, wouldn't it be more likely he just wanted to send something like a drawing?
"I'll try and slip it into their fan mail," Cabot offered, as he lowered a claw over the envelope. "But you need to promise to keep quiet about this, okay?"
"Alright," Pleo replied. "But there was one more thing that I wanted…"
The Cranidos hesitated and looked up puzzledly at the young Lugia. He hadn't snuck off with a second envelope, had he?
"Hrm?"
"Did you pick a story yet?"
"Yeah, I think I'll tell you about the tale of The Summoner's Journey," Cabot answered. "Doesn't that sound fun, Protector?"
"Eh? But my name's Pleo," the Lugia insisted.
Cabot blinked out of surprise for a moment, before pausing as a small smile spread over his face.
"Right. But I'm sure you'll like it, Pleo," the Cranidos insisted. "I picked this one out since there were lots of pictures, which I'm sure you'll love."
"Oh!" Pleo cried. "Can you show me, Cabot?"
"Of course!" the little dinosaur cheered.
The Cranidos clambered atop the bed and sat next to Pleo, cracking open the book to begin reading passages of a fairy tale about a spiral-like land where the Spirit World interacted more regularly with the world of the living. All the while, Pleo sank into his bedding, his eyelids growing heavy as Cabot's tale continued on as a faint homliness settled upon him. Even if Cabot wasn't Nida, Pleo realized that he hadn't felt as at peace since the night he and his teammates entered Copperband, wondering if they were doing alright themselves.
Before either of them knew it, Team Traveller and their peers from the Siglo Swellow found themselves back at the lower ring of the stands of the Vecioferàle Arena on the following morning. In contrast to Crom and his teammates' focused and ready demeanor, Nida and her companions spent the entire morning in a shambolic state. The three had spent most of the night scouring the Guards' Headquarters for any lead at all before finally returning to the Siglo Swellow to sleep for the night. There in the stands, the effects from the lack of rest were made evident by a loud yawn from Nida, which drew concerned glances from her Druddigon teammate.
"You feeling okay, Nida?" Crom murmured. "You guys seem so tired even though we all went to bed at the same time at the ship."
"Well, we did spend the entire evening searching for evidence only to come up empty handed…" the Nidoran sighed.
"I'm sure you'll find something, Nida," Kiran offered. "From what you've told me, it sounds like that captain wasn't expecting to be caught and had to improvise. If he really is trying to set up his subordinates, he's bound to have slipped up and left some proof behind."
"Yeah, that's great," Elty grumbled. "But how do we find it in the next hour and a half without forfeiting our next match?"
Nida opened her mouth to answer, only for a loud electric crackle to make her spring back with a start.
"Good morning beauties and gentlebeauties!" Thalez greeted. "Hope you got some rest last night since this festival of mayhem's got no breaks on it!"
The Nidoran looked up just in time to see Thalez zip by, circling in the air around the stands much to the crowd's cheering pleasure. Team Traveller's members stared as the Rotom continued soaking up the audience's adulation, an annoyed scowl settling on Elty's face at the Ghost-Type's showboating.
"Świetnie, just what we needed."
"There's just 32 contenders left standing before the eighth-finals, so these matches will be flying by faster than you know it!" Thalez cheered. "First up, is Team Swanna of Tromba versus Team Mirage from our very own Tidemill West!"
"Oh that's us!" Crom exclaimed. "Looks like we're kicking off this round!"
The Druddigon's enthusiasm failed to be mirrored by the rest of "Team Swanna", Ander in particular seemed to be unimpressed with the Rotom's announcement, giving an annoyed shake of his head.
"Though he got our team name wrong... again." the Scyther sighed. "Though wasn't Team Mirage the one with that strange Pikachu we spotted in the evening matches? I don't think they'd be too hard for you to handle."
Thalez continued on, moving on to a match between Team Wrecker along with one with 'Team Glyph'... Certainly a balanced-sounding matchup as Team Traveller looked over to see the sight of a group of Unown celebrating the announcement as a disinterested Rhyperior glanced over, evidently one of their opponents. Team Traveller was called up next, their next match pitting them against a 'Team Bedtime' which prompted the three to peer over and look at a group of visibly dozing Pokémon headed by a Munchlax… Nothing that they couldn't handle given that they couldn't stay awake through their own match assignment.
The trio's thoughts turned back to the impending trial, and how little they had to show for their efforts. One after the other, Nida, Guardia, and Elty tried to tease out some potential angle they could still try, only to come up short until a loud buzz from Thalez's booth drew their attention back to the Rotom.
"And there you have it folks!" the Ghost-Type crackled. "Those are all the matchups of the second round!"
"Well at least it doesn't seem like we're matched up against anyone too tough…" Elty murmured. "Or Valatos and his buddies for that matter."
"Don't tempt fate, Gardie," Guardia grumbled, only for her admonishment to be swiftly drowned out by Thalez's voice.
"So without wasting any time, let's get the three sailors of the Siglo Swanna and Team Mirage onto the field so we can get the first battle started!" the Rotom cried, prompting a wave of cheers and applause to break forth from the stands.
"Crom, Kiran, Dimitri," Pladur grunted. "That's your cue."
"Yeah, stay sharp out there," Ander added.
The Druddigon and his teammates strode onto the field, the beaming sunlight revealing a battlefield which had been rearranged to form a grassy, open field with a few stones in the center. All around them were the spectators' stands, packed to the rafters with Pokemon of every conceivable shape, size and type, the whole lot of them in an uproarious cheer as the teams made their way out. Crom scanned the lower portions of the audience and smiled as he caught sight of Nida, leaning over the edge as she waved eagerly to her teammate.
"Buena suerte!" the Nidoran cheered. "We'll be rooting for you!"
"Right!" Crom grunted. "Time to show off what we've been learning!"
The three watched warily as their opponents trotted out to the field, the team consisting of a ghostly, Pikachu-looking Pokémon up front flanked by a Masquerain and an Amoonguss. Crom and his teammates assumed their fighting stance as Thalez began his usual routine to hype the crowd up for the countdown, but their concentration was broken by a dismissive scoff from the other side of the field.
"Ah, a team of sailors, huh?" the ghostly Pokémon sneered. "Be warned, it'll take more than a good eye for stars to see through our web of illusions!"
"Wait, what was that supposed to mean-?" Dimitri began, only to be cut off by a deafening cry from the audience.
"GO!"
Caught off-guard by the sudden beginning of the match, Crom and his teammates jumped into battling stances with a start. The three glared ahead, seeing that the strange Pikachu and his team had already taken formation much more gracefully than they had. Kiran jumped to lead his own team with a sharp squawk in response.
"Alright, like we drilled!" Kiran cried. "Stay sharp and focus on the foe that suits your fighting style best!"
The trio charged ahead, Crom and Dimitri running along the battlefield in parallel with each other, as Kiran led the way from above. As the two teams neared each other, Kiran noticed the Amoonguss slowly trudging along the side, prompting him to dive at the Mushroom Pokémon in a swooping attack.
"Gotcha- Gwark?!"
A stream of hot, sticky bubbles sent Kiran stumbling back through the air and crashing down onto the arena floor unceremoniously. The bird hastily flicked the suds off of his plumage, kicking off the ground just in time to avoid another such assault from its culprit: the Masquerain who hovered over Kiran with a taunting sneer.
"Hah! You'll need to try harder than that, Swellow," the Masquerain jeered.
As Kiran hastily darted off, Crom ran for the peculiar Pikachu, his maws opened for a crushing bite. The Druddigon noticed that the rat wasn't moving at all out of his way, filling him with a fiery confidence.
"Heh, should have run while you could've!"
"Oh trust me, I have nothing to fear," his opponent hissed back.
Crom gave a guttural shout, only to feel a warm sensation at the back of his throat. He went wide-eyed and reflexively spat up a bluish ball of light at the strange Pikachu, looking out stunned as the orb sailed along. Why, that was a Dragon Rage! Had he really grown that much in his journey? The Dragon-Type watched with excitement as the orb of fiery light barrelled into the Pikachu, surely enough to put him on the ropes… And watched as to his horror, the light orb dissipated with little effect other than to make the Pokémon backpedal with a light sting.
"H-Huh?!" Crom exclaimed. "B-But you're a Pikachu!"
"Correction, I'm a Mimikyu," the Pokémon hissed. "Could a Pikachu do this?"
The Mimikyu abruptly whipped up a cloud of pinkish dust and lunged for the Druddigon. Much to Crom's astonishment, the creature shot out an inky, ribbon-like tentacle tipped with claws and swung it through the pinkish haze into his chin.
"Agh!"
Crom flew back and landed on his back stunned, the dust cloud moving over as the Druddigon felt a blow to his stomach and his arm. The Dragon-Type hastily righted himself and took off in a blind panic, the "Pikachu" giving chase with a hopping pursuit around the arena.
"Oh no you don't!" Dimitri chittered.
The Kabutops ran up as water began to wreath his scythe, the vampire crab bringing his blade-like arm down with a watery slash at the Disguise Pokémon. The Mimikyu's head jerked back, sending the Ghost-Type tumbling away, only to rise up with its head hanging limply off, glaring back. As the Mimikyu shifted back into a battle-ready stance, Dimitri ran in to try and deliver another blow, sprinting for the Ghost-Type.
"Hah!" the Kabutops jeered. "Your evasion's lacking-"
Dimitri shrieked in pain as he suddenly felt a large weight on his back along with a piercing sensation. The Kabutops thrashed wildly, throwing off the Amoonguss from his back just as the Grass-Type withdrew some vine-like protrusions behind his shield-like arms, their tips dyed a noticeably bluish tinge.
"Oi!" the Mushroom Pokémon snapped. "You'll have to deal with me before you hack your way through our team!"
"Dimitri! Tactical retreat!"
The Amoongus whirled around at the sound of a loud squawk, only to be struck by a flying tackle from a speeding Swellow. The Grass-Type tumbled back from the impact, weakly propping himself from the arena floor. Groaning, he looked up, just in time to see Dimitri cut a wide arc across the air, leaving a blade of wind in its wake that slashed him across the chest.
"Nrk…"
The Grass-Type lurched forward and limply toppled onto the ground, shaking loose a cloud of golden spores from his cap which billowed out to envelop his foe. Dimitri gasped with alarm, and accidentally inhaled the spores in the process. The Kabutops quickly broke into a fit of wheezing as he felt every muscle in his body grow heavy and numb.
"Agh!"
From his vantage point high above, Kiran watched Dimitri stagger forward, struggling with all his might against the weight of paralysis. The Swellow turned to circle around the battle below, but his concentration was broken by a sharp yelp coming from somewhere behind him.
"A-Aah! H-Help!"
Kiran turned his attention backwards, where he spotted Crom tearing along the battlefield for dear life as the opposing team's Mimikyu chased after him closely, swiping just out of reach of the Druddigon's tail. The Swellow threw a hasty glance to each of his teammates before committing to a decision, turning to dive for his younger teammate.
"Hang in the- Argh!"
Before he could cover any meaningful distance, Kiran was blown away and into the ground by a sudden Whirlwind. His place was quickly taken by Team Mirage's Masquerain, who flashed a glimmering light on her wingtips that lit up the arena floor and prompted the Mimikyu to shift his gaze to the Bug-Type. From his place further down the field, Crom kept running from his pursuer, only to notice that the Mimikyu's hops were growing fainter and going further away.
"Huh?" Crom murmured. "Where's he goin-?"
"Aaaagh!"
The dragon whirled around at Dimitri's shriek of pain, turning to see that he had been mobbed by the Masquerain and Mimikyu, who'd pinned him down and surrounded him.
"Dimitri!"
Crom instinctively ran forward after his teammate, his Swellow mentor haggardly righting himself and leaping back into the air with spread wings as his breaths came out tired and exasperated.
"Gah! I can't make sense of this team's strategy!" Kiran squawked. "Every time we try to get a foothold, they always keep distracting us!"
Crom kept fast on his path, mulling over Kiran's exclamation in the few moments he could spare as he closed the distance to Dimitri. He had passed up a good chance to really damage him earlier, but if the Mimikyu was just going to bolt right for Dimitri once he finally caught up, what was the point of coming after him so severely?
Unless... chasing their team apart like this was the whole point?!
"Hey wait a minute! That's it!" Crom exclaimed. "They're just picking off whoever they think's the most dangerous from our team first!"
The Swellow blinked blankly for a moment, before having his gaze harden in firm determination, shouting out to his pupil below as he entered a steep dive.
"Then let's turn their strategy around!" the bird cried. "Cover me!"
Kiran flew out ahead of the group, sailing low above the ground directly for Team Mirage's still-standing members. At once, the Masquerain spotted him, and sounded the alarm with a loud buzz to her teammate.
"Oi, Captain!" the Bug-Type buzzed. "We've a bogey to the right!"
The Mimikyu whirled around just in time to spot the Swellow barreling towards them. Unimpressed, the Ghost-type readied a claw for a swipe, throwing his arms back in preparation to bat it out at their incoming attacker.
"Hrmph, this won't be difficult."
The Mimikyu lurched forward to deliver his attack alongside his Masquerain teammate, only for their concentration to be broken by a blue blur lunging from behind. The Masquerain felt a heavy tackle from overhead and plummeted to the ground, lying dazed for a moment. She heard the noise of her Mimikyu partner shouting and the sound of him suddenly struggling with the Kabutops, and felt a rough, sandpapery claw abruptly yank a wing backwards. The bug grimaced in pain, beating her wings wildly in an attempt to catch sight of his surprise attacker.
"Yeow!"
On reflex alone, the Masquerain gave a deafening beat of her wings and jerked ahead as the sandpaper-like grip slackened, coupled with a pained yelp from its culprit. The Masquerain hastily whirled around to see Crom tottering in a daze, and further off, her teammate having knocked himself free of the Dimitri's attacks. Team Mirage's members looked around themselves and went wide-eyed at a sobering realization: their foes had them totally surrounded on every side!
"Gah! It was a feint-!" the Mimikyu exclaimed, only to be cut off with a loud squawk.
"See ya!"
The Ghost-Type hastily turned to flee, his teammate's attempt to follow thwarted by an overpowering Whirlwind that sent the Masquerain flying back along the battlefield. The Bug-Type hastily tried to take to the air, only for Crom to run up and clamp down on her wings with his jaws. As the Druddigon struggled with the bug, Kiran strafed from above with a cutting wind and Dimitri staggered over, leaping to close the final distance and bring a scythe blow down on the Masquerain. The bug shrieked out of pain, tumbling on the ground and coming to a twitching, groaning stop on the arena floor. With their foes' flier downed, all eyes turned towards the last remaining opponent, the Mimikyu pulling himself up from the ground.
"Davay!" Dimitri cried. "Let's do this!"
"You've got this, Crom!"
From their place in the stands, Team Traveller grew ecstatic as their friends turned the tables against Team Mirage. The Mimikyu hastily readied a slash of his claws, only to be driven back by a watery dash from Dimitri. The Ghost-Type tumbled along, swept up by a Whirlwind from Kiran that sent him flying along the grassy field, directly into the path of a waiting Druddigon with opened maw, who pounced on him… and bit down.
"Eyaaaaaah!"
The Mimikyu's shriek filled the air of the stadium, the Ghost-Type tottering as Crom let him go with his mouth, collapsing into a clump of tall grass. As soon as the Mimikyu hit the ground, the stands roared with approval, prompting Thalez excitedly chime in pronouncing the victor.
"And Team Swanna wins the match with a surprising turnaround!" Thalez crackled. "Give it up for them, everybody!"
On cue, the stands cheered even louder at the Rotom's prompting. From their place in the arena, Crom and his teammates stood amidst the grassy battlefield, soaking in the applause. As the three basked in the attention, the medics came to collect the members of Team Mirage as the victors began to trudge off for the stands. All the while, the audience's applause continued, including that of a visibly animated Nidoran from the lower rows.
"He did it! He did it!" Nida cheered.
"You mean his team did it," Guardia corrected. "Your Crimgan friend was struggling with that Pikachu-looking Pokémon."
"Yeah, when that other team ganged up on Dimitri, I was sure that they weren't going to make it," Elty said. "Talk about quick thinking there-"
"Hoy," a barking voice said from behind. "Are you 'Team Traveller'?"
The three blinked and turned around, only to be surprised by a horned, forked-tailed dog with a satchel over his back waiting for them with a letter under his paws.
"Er… who are you again?" Guardia asked.
"I'm from the mailroom downstairs," the Houndoom explained. "You got a fan letter earlier in the day."
The Dark-Type passed the envelope over, prompting Nida to scoop it up and examine it, seeing a star-shaped leaf design emblazoned on it. The trio traded puzzled looks with one another, before Elty turned his attention back to the courier, giving a confused fold of his right ear back.
"Wait, we have fans here?" the Growlithe murmured.
"I've heard of stranger things happening, but you've clearly been fighting well enough to impress someone here in Tidemill," the Houndoom answered. "Keep it up, and maybe you'll get some more."
The black dog turned and slinked off further along the stands, leaving Team Traveller to crowd around the letter. Nida checked both sides of the envelope once again, only to see that beyond the presence of the leaf design on the front, there was no writing or marking whatsoever to tell them about where the letter had come from.
"No sender or address…" she murmured. "Let's open it up and see who it's from."
The Nidoran slipped the nails of her paws under the envelope and pulled the seal open, turning it over as a silvery-white feather fell out and settled on the ground. At once, the gathered Pokémon hopped back with a start and their mouths flopped open out of surprise, realizing that only one Pokémon in the Cradle could've sent a feather like that.
"Zaczekaj chwilę! That's Pleo's!" Elty exclaimed.
"How did he manage to send it?" Guardia asked. "We only saw him being trotted out on the first day and kept up there in that box!"
Guardia's question gave pause to the Growlithe, who lowered his head in thought. It wasn't very likely that Pleo would just be given envelopes to send out freely, especially with how he had been kept so isolated from the rest of the crowd... Could it really have been Pleo that sent it?
"Maybe it wasn't him that sent it," Elty mulled. "Let's see if there's a message in there. Maybe whoever sent it wants something."
Elty flipped over the envelope once more, and after feeling something weighty between his teeth, shook the paper sleeve thoroughly to get at it. A quarter-folded sheet of paper, full of colorful runes, fell out of the envelope and onto the ground in front of them with notes in the margin.
"'Match the position of the runes by color'," the Growlithe murmured.
"Eh? Is that supposed to mean something among you hut-dwellers?" Guardia demanded. "I don't really understand what the writer wants."
"… I'm stumped too," Nida sighed. "If I didn't know better, I'd think it was instructions for a weird game of checkers. But there's way too many colors and I don't see how doing the same move over and over again would help you win."
Elty paused and stared at the colored runes, comparing their positions in the left and right charts. One move repeated over and over again in a game would be fairly useless, but what if it was actually meant to shuffle things around instead? The Fire-Type blinked, suddenly realizing that as long of a shot as it sounded, maybe the team actually had something that could stand to be shuffled around like that...
"Hey, did we ever give Cardino back the journal from yesterday?" Elty asked.
I don't think we did?" Guardia answered. "But what does that book of your unreadable hut squiggles have to do with anything?"
"I just wanted to try something out."
Elty put his nose into the team bag and pulled out a piece of paper along with a writing pad and a charcoal nub, slipping the pad and nub over a forepaw. The Growlithe nosed the journal open and followed the text to the top of a page, carefully transcribing its contents, and then writing a second copy carefully shifting the runes around just as they had been on the two charts on the paper.
"Ah! Hey wait a minute!" the Fire-Type yelped.
The dog looked down at the transcribed text and noticed much to his astonishment that his still-incomplete second transcription started to have intelligible phrases in it. There was 'sandbar', 'merchant ship', 'captured loot'... Elty kept at his transcription as Nida watched, the Growlithe carefully sketching out a short passage denoting a past raid in which the Shadow Brigade chased a merchant ship onto a sandbar and pillaged it before sailing off with captives to ransom. The Nidoran looked up at the Fire-Type blankly, the two quickly coming to the realization that the paper was none other than...
"This is a decoder!" Elty exclaimed. "And it works on Sibich's diary!"
Guardia blinked, stunned at the discovery. There had to be some sort of catch, right? Well, it didn't seem so, as far as she could tell...
"Wait, so you mean something unexpected finally went our way for a change?" the Cubone murmured.
"How did Pleo find this? And how'd he know what it was?" Nida asked.
"I dunno, but you can't argue with results," Elty grunted. "Come on, let's figure out what this thing says!"
Nida looked up at the stands and for a fleeting moment, saw Pleo in the window of his box high up in the arena. A passing Exeggutor from the row in front blocked her vision briefly, and as soon as the Grass-Type left the Nidoran saw the young Protector slip behind the curtains prompting her to mutter a thanks under her breath. One way or another, they'd get him back home to where he belonged, she'd see to that even if it was the last thing she did.
"We're back!"
The three remaining members of Team Traveller looked up to see Crom and his companions walking in from their battle on the field just as the benched members of their team returned from a nearby stairwell with pawfuls of snacks. The Druddigon along with his Swellow and Kabutops teammates were obviously tired, but at the same time electrified with the thrill of victory. The young Dragon-Type gave a proud beat of his wings, darting up to his companions with special emphasis on his Nidoran teammate.
"So what did you think?" Crom cheered. "That practice we did has been holding up pretty well, huh?"
The Druddigon and his companions blinked and looked down at the papers spread out on the ground, tilting their heads curiously at the chart of colored runes with an emptied envelope set aside. They glanced back up to Elty, Nida, and Guardia and noticed the three were seemingly entranced by the mysterious chart.
"Oh? What are you doing with that letter there?" Dimitri asked.
"It's the decoder that we needed to read Sibich's diary!" Nida exclaimed. "Pleo found it and sent it to us!"
"Huh?! Pleo did?!" Kiran squawked. "But how would he have been able to even get this to us through his guards?"
"I dunno," Elty began. "But I say we worry about that later and find out what's in here first-"
"And next up is Team Wrecker and Team Glyph!"
Team Traveller grimaced at the sound of Thalez's voice, watching as the group of Unown from earlier floated off and a small crew of workers descended on the battlefield to start changing it around. A sinking realization dawned on the three, as they realized that the next match was due in just a matter of minutes and more importantly...
"… That's the match right before ours," Nida murmured. "We'll probably have 15 minutes at most before we're on the field.
Each member of Team Traveller glanced out to the field and then back at the journal, suddenly finding themselves paralyzed by indecision. The journal had to be decoded as much as possible before the trial, or else it would be nothing but a paperweight for Nico and Rita… But on the other paw, if they were no-shows to their next match, they'd forfeit the tournament by default, leaving all their hopes of getting to Pleo on just Crom's team...
"We'll help while you're out there," Pladur said.
"Huh?" Guardia murmured.
"Get what you can done now," Ander offered. "We'll take over while you're fighting in your match."
"Yeah, we're a team," Crom added. "We wouldn't just let you struggle on your own!"
Team Traveller as a whole was stunned, at a loss for words. Even though it would complicate their plans to prepare for their next match, their old teammates were still willing to cover for them out of nothing else but their camaraderie... Nida's ears flicked back as a small, grateful smile spread across her face.
"… Thank you."
Carrying herself with a newfound determination, Nida perked her ears back up, stamping the ground emphatically.
"Come on, let's get going!" the Nidoran squeaked. "That diary isn't going to decode itself!"
With that, the group hastily cracked the diary open and set out the chart, each of the Pokémon grabbing a nub of charcoal and a piece of paper from the bag on Nida's shoulder in order to tackle a chunk of the tome for decryption. As much as there remained to be done to make it through the next trial and battle, for the first time in a day, there again seemed to be a ray of hope on the horizon.
Author's Notes:
- mànega - Venetian: "gang" (criminal)
- pàre - Venetian: "father" (informal), "dad"
- Trimmien (トリミアン) - Japanese: "Furfrou" (Official Romanization)
- Buena suerte! - Spanish: "Good luck!"
- Davay! (Давай!) - Russian: "Come on!" (BGN/PCGN Romanization)
