Chapter 72: Out of the Bag
Back in Magmapool Town, the local harbor hummed with activity, with boats and accompanying sea Pokémon making their way to and from the docks in the shadow of the wreckage of the naval yard. In the midst of the port's bustle, the marine escorts of the Uragan looked around for any clues the Siglo Swellow had left behind. Among them were Cyanea and Katyusha, who busied themselves attempting to coax an elderly Relicanth to stay awake, a sharp sigh betraying past struggles.
"Okay, let's try this one more time…" Cyanea groaned. "What were you doing when the pirate ship left?"
"Well, I was taking my midday nap when I suddenly heard this racket coming from above the water," the Relicanth began. "I popped my head up and saw this white-sailed schooner pulling out of the harbor while the guards were throwing attacks at it."
"And…?" Katyusha pressed. "What did you see afterwards?"
"Oh, I couldn't tell you, dearie," the elderly fish said. "I figured that since it was the second time something of the sort had happened that day, that it was just some sort of drill and went back to sleep."
The Tentacruel and Sharpedo shot disbelieving stares at one another, before Cyanea grumbled under her breath and turned back to the Relicanth with an unimpressed frown.
"… A drill."
"Well of course," the Relicanth insisted. "Those guards and naval cadets do need to practice every now and then."
"How many drills cause damage like that?!" she exclaimed.
Cyanea raised a tentacle and pointed off insistently at the naval yard in the background. Even after a full day of work to clean it up, its docks remained a mass of ships and wrecked piers pressed up against each other. The Relicanth stared off for a moment, before shaking his head back.
"Very realistic ones," he replied. "You know as well as I do that Duke Seok's just wasting the extra taxes he levies on everybody. Why, they couldn't even be bothered to return the training ship properly and just let it sail off to the west!"
At the elderly Relicanth's mention of the Siglo Swellow having gone west, Katyusha let out a sigh of relief, batting her fins against the water as she turned around all but ready to leave the wizened fish behind.
"Finally we've got something useful from this old coot," the Sharpedo muttered, drawing a splashing protest back from the Relicanth.
"Now see here, missy! I'll have you know that back in my day I was quite the looker!" he huffed. "Why they used to call me Byeong-Ho the Dashing…"
The Relicanth trailed off and yawned, before his head sank below the surface and the rest of his body followed up to his dorsal fin, snoring and leaving behind a trail of bubbles lazily rising to the surface. Cyanea looked on with exasperated disgust, before waving a tentacle and motioning to her partner to follow along.
"Well, we have some new info at least," she grumbled. "Come on, let's go pass it on to the Captain."
Cyanea and Katyusha set off, weaving past an approaching sloop and a school of Wishiwashi as they made their way for an ironclad docked at the edge of the naval yard. As they drew closer, they saw Nagant and Jun talking near the railing as the Beedrill's buzzing voice carried along the waves.
"… that's what he said, Captain…"
The churn of the harbor's water was broken by the sound of repeated, angry thuds as Nagant pounded her firing claw against the railing with a frustrated seethe.
"Why can't Commodore Valan keep his lousy snout out in Gestirn?" the shrimp fumed. "Does he really think the Empire will fall apart if I search for the Protector on my own?"
A loud creak followed by sharp yelps rang out in the background, prompting Nagant to turn and see indigo-scarved guards bolting out of the way of a leaning mast hitting the pier with a deafening crash. The Clawitzer and her first mate looked on blankly, before she turned away and waved a claw defeatedly.
"You know what, don't answer that."
"I mean, you two did agree to meet to share findings…" Jun reminded. "And I'm sure Commodore Valan… er… probably doesn't expect anything less from you than he does from any other Captain?"
"But I don't have anything to present to him! The only new bit of information we've been able to find out so far is that Lyn left port before the Protector did!" Nagant exclaimed. "And it's not as if that pompous yashcherka is going to bring anything that's actually useful, so what am I to do now for finding the Protector?"
"Er… Captain?"
Nagant looked over the railing to see Cyanea and Katyusha staring up at her uneasily. The Clawitzer blinked a moment, before her face fell into an annoyed frown.
"What is it now, Cyanea?" Nagant snapped. "Can't you see I'm a little too busy here to hear about more of your accomplishments right now? Or are you going to tell me that you ran into that Aggron only for him to get away again?"
"Eh?" Katyusha asked, giving a puzzled raise of her brow back. "But she was just floating around here and- Ow!"
The Sharpedo jolted back with a yelp as Cyanea jabbed her with a poisonous tendril, leaving the shark to shoot back a dirty glare while the Tentacruel began to speak up.
"We just wanted to say that we think we've found something."
"Well, we haven't really found any meaningful leads yet, so it certainly can't hurt…" Jun mulled.
"Hey! Our lead's plenty meaningful!" Katyusha protested. "We found out that the ship sailed off for the west!"
Cyanea threw a tentacle over her face, before shaking her bell and turning with a sharp huff to her teammate.
"Oh come on, Katyusha, don't oversell it like that!" Cyanea cried. "There's nothing out to the west! No ports, no big reefs, just a bunch of Subway outposts and abandoned islands!"
The Tentacruel trailed off and blinked puzzledly to herself, realizing that in the midst of her chiding, something had been amiss with the Relicanth's testimony…
"Wait, what ship would want to go that way anyways?"
Nagant twitched her barbels tensely as she mulled the matter, before she narrowed her eyes in realization and she turned her attention back to her subordinates.
"One that wants to throw off its real destination elsewhere in the Cradle," Nagant answered.
"… What should we do once Valan arrives then?" Jun asked.
"I'm afraid we have no option but to just sail towards Tromba," the Clawitzer said. "Clearly cutting off those smugglers isn't working, and they might have already made it back there for all we know."
Jun flitted back with a startled buzz, staring back at his superior in shock as he raised his voice in stammering protest.
"W-We can't just sail up to a Company island!" Jun insisted. "We don't have any proof that the Protector is actually there, and it would likely mean war!"
"Well, what other options do we have, Jun?" Nagant demanded.
"Maybe… we could try Pioppo?" Katyusha proposed.
Nagant and Jun peered down at the Sharpedo with confused stares at the mention of Pioppo. Even Cyanea was caught off guard, as the Tentacruel turned and looked puzzledly at her partner.
"Huh? What are you talking about Katyusha?" Cyanea asked.
"Well… when we overheard that Kabutops and his rod talking to Lugia in Otvaga, they did mention Blackmoon Village," the Sharpedo said. "Maybe that's why they went to Sormus in the first place, so they could travel to it from there."
"But why would they be interested in those old ruins?" Jun pressed. "It's been abandoned for years and Pioppo is at the edge of the Cradle at that."
"I'm… not sure," the shark admitted. "But it is what we heard. Right, Cyanea?"
"I mean… we did… and I guess it would match up with their ship sailing west," the Tentacruel mused, prompting Jun to shoot a skeptical frown and turn towards Nagant.
"What do you think, Captain?"
"… I think they're onto something, but I don't think it's worth our time to go there," Nagant murmured, prompting Jun to give a surprised beat of his wings in response.
"Huh? But if you think those ruffians are really headed there, why wouldn't it be?"
"We've been one step behind that schooner since the moment we pulled into port," Nagant harrumphed. "If we set sail for Pioppo, what are we supposed to do if it turns out they've sailed off already?"
Nagant shook her head, before hopping up against the timbers with a determined scowl.
"No. Only a fool would chase after them at this point. We're better off trying to predict their next move and wait there for them in ambush."
"Uh… wouldn't that mean going to Tromba?" Katyusha asked.
"After going out of their way to Pioppo? Unless they planned on it, I doubt it," Cyanea countered. "There's no port on Pioppo for them to reprovision, so wouldn't they need to do that at another island before heading home?"
"If that's the case, the most logical places would be here, Haipheh, or Boisocéan," Jun said. "And I doubt they'll be pulling back into port here anytime soon…"
Nagant turned and looked out at the sea, hesitating quietly for a moment before turning back to her Beedrill first mate.
"… Call everyone back and get the ship ready to sail," Nagant said. "We'll leave the moment Commodore Valan arrives."
"Right now?" Jun asked.
"Yes," Nagant snapped. "Time is of the essence here and every passing moment increases the odds that we'll miss the Protector."
The Clawitzer looked off at the harbor where the sight of Pokémon in the air flying towards and away from the island caught her eye. The shrimp paused a moment, prompting Jun to twitch his antennae puzzledly before Nagant clicked her firing claw and turned back to her first mate with a stern gaze.
"Send a message to Darzin as well," she said. "It'd be best if we nipped any unwanted conflicts in the bud before we left."
"And here we are!"
Elty folded his ears back uncomfortably at the sound of Vince's voice, feeling his scarf getting tugged down past his snout and his vision to be awash in sudden light. The Growlithe squinted his eyes to try and adjust to the sudden brightness as he heard Guardia and the others being unblinded, his vision stabilizing while he turned his body around to see a gated palisade made out of wooden scraps. The Puppy Pokémon turned back ahead and saw a collection of wooden huts mixed with small plots of berry plants on both sides of a lane where Pokémon looked up and began to drift over curiously.
"Huh? Who are they?" a Castform murmured.
"Maybe they're from the same group as those other newcomers?" a Cramorant whispered.
"Then why aren't they tied up and passed out?" a Phantump asked.
Team Traveller's members looked around warily as the small gathering in front of them grew thicker with approaching Pokémon forming a growing crowd, prompting Elty to keep his body braced and tense throughout. The Growlithe felt a tap on his shoulder, making him turn to see Guardia leaning in and speaking in a low whisper.
"Gardie, don't you think it's a bit strange?"
"Us being stared at?" Elty replied. "Well, yeah."
"No, their eyes!" the Cubone insisted. "Everyone has eyes that look like Trizano's!"
The Growlithe raised a brow, before looking up at the Cramorant in the crowd who sure enough had eyes with cross-shaped pupils… as did a Tirtouga and a Polteageist chattering in the background, along with a young Kangaskhan watching them warily from within her mother's pouch. Elty blinked and began to wonder to himself what the strange eyes meant, when the crowd turned at the sound of approaching hoofbeats and one after the other villager bowed towards a coming figure. The Fire-Type watched as what appeared to be a smaller and less colorful version of the 'Xerneas' David passed himself as approached with a Dusknoir following close by his side. Much as Ketu had taunted them about, the deer really did have different eyes from David's disguise. Unlike the Deerling eyes that the Ditto had used, these had bold, blue irises and the same cross-shape pupils they'd seen in the other villagers'.
"Vince, what is going on here?" Valter demanded. "Who are these strangers and what are they doing in our village?"
"They're friends of that group with the white bird that got pulled in earlier," the Haunter replied. "We found them rooting around in the dungeon and they came quietly enough, so…"
Valter shot a disbelieving glare back at Team Phantom, letting faint, shadowy wisps trail from his hands in frustration.
"This village is supposed to remain a guarded secret!" the Dusknoir snapped. "What were you thinking just bringing them in like this?!"
"'Guarded secret?' Wait, so you mean all this time all those evil spirits were just a ruse?!" Guardia exclaimed.
Kiran sighed and lowered his brow in exasperation, shaking his head at the Cubone's outcry.
"… Wasn't that obvious by now?" he asked.
"Look, we didn't see anything alright? We've been blindfolded this entire time!" Elty insisted. "We just wanted to find our friends and have a moment to talk with that blue deer of yours over there."
Cernun tilted his head, before flicking his ears out of surprise.
"Me?" the Xerneas asked. "But what exactly did you want to-?"
"Elty?"
Elty and his companions peered over, catching the sight of Pleo's head poking above some of the shorter members of the crowd. The Lugia walked forward as Nida, Crom, and Ander followed with disbelieving gapes, Pleo blinking to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, before letting out a startled squawk.
"How did you all get here?!" he exclaimed.
Pleo and the others ran towards their teammates, trading relieved greetings and hugs while the gathered villagers murmured puzzledly among each other. Dimitri craned his head up, noticing Valter staring at them skeptically as the familiar form of a Skarmory with cross-shaped irises drifted in at the edge of the crowd, making the Kautops jump back in surprise.
"Trizano?!" Dimitri said. "What are you doing here?!"
"I suppose I should be asking the same of you," the Skarmory answered. "But welcome to my home, even if it's not the most welcoming of places anymore."
"Would someone please tell me what's going on here?" Valter demanded. "Trizano, why do these trespassers know you and why do you know them as well?"
"We can explain!" Nida insisted. "Just sit down and actually listen to us and what we need instead of shooing us away!"
Valter huffed and began to billow out black shadows as his eye hardened into a sharp scowl.
"Is this about that nonsense with Cernun again?" the Ghost-Type fumed. "If it's just going back to that then you can forget it and go back to your-!"
"Wait just a moment, Duke Valter!"
Valter paused mid-sentence, turning incredulously as Trizano hopped up and motioned for patience with a wave of his wings.
"Things have been… complicated between us," the Skarmory began. "As absurd as demanding things from Cernun may sound, surely we ought to give them a fair hearing first?"
The Dusknoir frowned with displeasure back at the Steel-Type, raising a finger and starting to chide him when Roteck suddenly spoke up.
"They are going to be living here with us for gods-knows-how-long," the Aggron said. "Not that I can't handle getting the stink eye from a new arrival or two, but we might as well take some time to trade our stories if they're going to be living here."
"I don't think it can hurt…" Cernun mulled. "Let's hear what they have to say, Valter."
Valter paused, trading looks between the Xerneas and the gathered interlopers, before shaking his head and murmuring under his breath.
"… Very well. We will discuss this at a quiet place," he said. "But don't test my patience any further than you have already."
The Ghost-Type turned and motioned for Cernun to follow, the blue deer setting off after him. Roteck and Trizano followed suit, leaving Team Traveller's members to hesitate for a moment before they too set off from the gathered crowd and trailed after the Xerneas and the Dusknoir. All the while the lot thought to themselves, wondering what they were to do for the 'hearing' that Trizano had gotten them into.
About fifteen minutes later, Valter had guided Team Traveller towards the fringes of town for a wooded patch wedged along the foggy southern fringe of the stable zone. There, the ground rose up into a ridge overlooking the village and the dim light through the fog was further plunged into shadow by the treetops overhead. Nida paced ahead uneasily, watching as Trizano and Roteck's steps became more cautious and measured as she wondered to herself just where they had been brought to when Valter suddenly paused and motioned off to his left.
"We're here," the Dusknoir said. "Though tread lightly on these hallowed grounds."
The Nidoran and her companions raised their brows, looking off to see a tiled-roofed pavilion sitting next to a small spring with columns, and an altar inside hewn from black stone. The group drew forward, noticing the structure had been well-cared for, and that along its stonework, there were paintings portraying an ominous ghostly figure with a lower body that billowed out much like a sheet in the wind. The lot paused, before looking back to their guides warily with expectant stares, wondering aloud to themselves…
"What… is this place?" Nida wondered.
"It is the santuario to our island's Protector who yet sleeps," Trizano answered. "Darkrai, Lord of the New Moon."
"Wait, your shrine?" Kiran asked.
"That's right," Roteck grunted. "We weren't able to take much of Blackmoon Village with us when we went into hiding on such short notice, but we made it a point of taking this."
"And for good reason," Valter added. "Even though we have a Protector watching over us here and now, it is still our duty to ensure our island's own Protector feels at home when he awakes."
Ander shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the second Protector, shrinking back as Cernun paced forward and began to speak to the gathered Pokémon.
"Since we were going to trade stories, a place with this much history around it seemed as good a place as any," Cernun said, making Pleo ruffle his feathers uneasily.
"So… what happened to you?"
"Well… some Pokémon say that they remember things from just before they hatched, but the first thing I remember was waking up on a stranded ship with statues of Pokémon everywhere around it," the Xerneas explained. "The ship was a mess and I don't remember finding anyone to talk to other than a couple ferals who swam away after seeing me."
The members of Team Traveller gave puzzled stares back at the blue fawn. At the back of the group, Ander froze and shrank back waveringly, before gulping and pressing ahead with something strange he'd noticed about the demon's testimony.
"S-Statues of Pokémon?" the Scyther stammered. "What do you mean by that?"
"I… suppose they weren't really statues, but I didn't have any way of knowing that at the time," Cernun replied. "I was there on that wreck for about a day when Trizano and Roteck showed up and took me into Blackmoon Village. Everyone seemed to be very agitated and nervous back then, and some of the townsfolk wouldn't even talk to me since they thought that I was with the Pokémon that attacked them."
Nida and the others tilted their heads at Cernun, finding it strange that the townsfolk could've ever been something different from the adoring mass they had seen them as. The Xerneas' words prompted Valter to give a shake of his head and let out a low sigh, as he chimed in to continue off the Protector's testimony.
"It was an episode we're all grateful that Lord Cernun has forgiven us for," the Dusknoir said. "The town had been raided by pirates shortly before his arrival, and were it not for them being scared off by a flash and a disturbance in the water from the shipwreck Cernun awakened in, they likely would've left us in far worse straits."
"I obviously didn't know that, so I spent those first few days with just Roteck and Trizano," Cernun piped. "Trizano was shorter back then and Roteck wasn't an Aggron yet… and I think you two had a Rescue Team called Team Armor? Or was it Team Alloy?"
"It was Team Anvil," Roteck corrected. "And we weren't really sure what to make of you… at least until that thing with Carola…"
"Carola?" Dimitri asked.
"The first Pokémon to become an Immortal. She was a guard who'd been grievously wounded in the raid and hovered near death after it," Valter explained. "Lord Cernun chanced to run into one of her children distraught after being told Carola was slipping away and it moved him to aid her."
"I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I remember feeling how sad everyone felt and how they wished for her to get better," Cernun said. "I tried to do something about it, and that was when my powers first came out."
"Your… powers?" Ander questioned.
"To grant everlasting life," Valter replied. "After Carola was blessed, her wounds healed without a trace and she returned with vigor we'd never seen from her along with cross-shaped pupils much like Cernun's."
"After that, I tried it again a few times and found I could heal the other hurt Pokémon," Cernun continued. "And so they became Immortals as well."
Pleo ruffled his feathers uncomfortably at the fawn's reply. Everlasting life? But… Nida had made it sound that normally Pokémon eventually stopped living, but did this mean that an Immortal could never die? If so, then…
"Wait, but if they live forever, what about their friends?" the Lugia wondered. "Wouldn't they eventually die and leave them all alone?"
"Well of course!" Cernun exclaimed. "After I realized that, I made them Immortals as well, and all of their friends too!"
Nida and Crom blinked, trading dubious looks with each other as their teammates similarly couldn't help but sense there had to be a catch to Cernun's powers. Among them, Ander buzzed with a start and went wide-eyed at the Xerneas' proclamation, holding a scythe out accusingly as he backed away for distance.
"But you- You can't just toy with life and death like it's some sweets to be handed out!" Ander protested.
"Mind your place, Scyther!" Valter snapped, prompting Ander to shrink back.
"But weren't there any side effects to what you were doing?" Guardia asked. "I mean, what would've happened if you'd made a Pokémon who had it out for someone into an Immortal? Or if you tried to disturb the dead with that power?"
Cernun's ears flared before the deer fell quiet and hung his head, an uncomfortable silence settling over the gathered Pokémon. Valter shook his head, giving a stern stare back at Guardia and her companions.
"It was precisely when Cernun began disturbing the dead that all of our troubles began," the Dusknoir sighed, drawing a stamping protest back from Cernun
"Valter, that wasn't those Pokémon's fault!" Cernun cried. "None of us knew that that Incineroar would get us into such trouble!"
Team Traveller's members shifted back uneasily at the mention of 'disturbing the dead'. Surely they didn't mean to insinuate something like there being a bunch of half-rotted corpses shuffling around somewhere thanks to Cernun's power over life…?
"Who is Cernun talking about?" Dimitri pressed. "You didn't dig up a bunch of graves and have him try to make Immortals from them, did you?"
"It wasn't anything like that! It was the shipwreck that Cernun was discovered on!" Valter insisted. "After he had reinvigorated Carola and the others, I sent for the ship to be examined for signs of its origin. Considering everything it brought on us afterwards, I would've been better off letting it sink to the bottom of the sea."
Elty bit his tongue, looking warily back at the Dusknoir as he hesitated a moment before speaking up.
"What… happened?"
"It was a vessel from the Royal Navy, and when we came upon it, we had discovered no sign of the crew and statues of Pokémon all over it, the lot fixed in expressions of shock and terror," Valter explained. "We had brought some of them back on shore and realized that they were the crew, and asked Cernun if he could heal them of their malady."
"Well, it certainly worked. Cernun's power brought those Pokémon back to life, though they didn't become Immortals like us," Trizano remarked. "Most of them were beside themselves out of fear and hysteria, so beyond learning that they'd charted a course out of the Dead Zone we weren't able to get too much from them."
"Or so we thought," Valter harrumphed. "Among those that Cernun revived was the ship's captain, who sought out my Governor at the time and passed word back to the Admiralty about Cernun's presence. That was the point when Commodore Coil was dispatched to us."
Team Traveller's members recoiled at Valter's reply. That blasted Magnezone had caused trouble even here?!
"Wait, Commodore Coil?!" Elty yipped. "That same tin can Admiral we ran into back on Giotto?"
Valter paused, giving a probing stare over the Growlithe and his companions before folding his arms and shaking his head.
"Hmph. It sounds like you've encountered him yourself," the Dusknoir said. "And not for the better either."
"I'll say! He was running an egg-napping ring with pirates under everyone's noses in the middle of the Empire!" Nida piped.
"Yeah, if it wasn't for us, he'd probably still be at it with everyone none the wiser!" Crom exclaimed, prompting Valter to begin to billow out a shadowy haze from around his body.
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Valter growled. "While things have obviously changed for Coil since he last came to this island 25 years ago, he sounds much like the same sort of Pokémon that I remember from those past days…"
"It was the summer after Cernun arrived when Coil came. We'd been recovering from the raid earlier in the year and things were finally returning to normal. The villagers were happy with his presence among us… or at least most of them were. There were a small number of Marked who lived in the town at the time who insisted that Cernun would be the end of us, but none of their doomsaying had come to pass, so it didn't occur to us that there'd be other dangers that would follow him. I remember at the time I was along the seafront that day, checking up on how well reconstruction was going…"
Valter made his way down a wooden pier as the pattering of feet rang out behind him, prompting him to look back and spot guards dutifully following behind a Dhelmise in Imperial indigoes. The Dusknoir's eye proudly sported a recently transformed cross-shaped pupil, its owner dutifully tidying his scarf as he and his entourage carried on. The Ghost-Types' course took them past a motley mix of stucco-walled buildings and wooden shacks to where the town's harbor lay. As Valter neared, he saw the docks busy with small craft and sea Pokémon much as it always had been, while a shop that had been built in the shape of a Polteageist head was receiving its last coat of paint after reconstruction, complete with new cross-shaped pupils. The Dusknoir let out a content chuckle, looking back on his seaside village with the Dhelmise as he still couldn't believe how quickly it had recovered from being the burnt, rubble-strewn husk it was just mere weeks ago.
"Hmm, his Majesty will certainly be pleased to hear about how fast everything has turned around," Valter said.
"Well it'd be far from the first surprise this island's experienced this year," the Dhelmise murmured.
"And we have that Cernun to thank for it!" the Dusknoir chortled. "Were it not for the vigor he's brought to this town, it'd probably still be the shambling wreck it was after the raid!"
Valter's declaration drew a quiet frown back from the Dhelmise, who shook his head and gave a stern glance back.
"I don't think you should let the town get too attached to him, Your Grace," the Dhelmise chided. "He is a god, and this is not even his own domain."
"Pah, what good is it if a god can't feel at home wherever the fates take him?" the Duke retorted. "And besides, the villagers are happy with him, so why rush him away- Huh?"
The Dusknoir trailed off as he saw the Pokémon around them stop and look out to sea. Valter glanced puzzledly at his subjects before following their gazes off to see three ships with indigo sails pulling into port. From his vantage point, he could see gangplanks being lowered and the forms of a Magnezone, a Salamence, and an Incineroar gathering at the docks as Pokémon in naval scarves massed behind them. The nearby townsfolk looked on at the scene and traded nervous whispers, leaving Valter to blink uneasily as he sized up the arriving crews.
"… The navy?" Valter murmured. "Why are they coming now of all times?"
The Dusknoir floated forward, making his way for the docks as the Magnezone and his subordinates marched inland, meeting the Electric-Type's procession at the end of the docks. The Magnezone captain stopped to look eye to eye with the approaching Ghost-Types, before turning in place to the Salamence and Incineroar beside him with a stern buzz.
"Valan, Corbett. I want you two to fan your subordinates out and secure the perimeter," Coil ordered. "As of today, this little hamlet is as important to His Majesty's realm as Tidemill itself!"
"Understood, Commodore," the Salamence answered.
Valter blinked, watching as the Salamence and Incineroar took their leave and orderly formations of indigo-scarved Pokémon followed closely behind them. As the pair and their underlings went into town, Coil shifted his attention back to Valter and bobbed his body forward in a rough approximation of a bow that struck the Dusknoir as unusually stiff and insincere.
"Ah, you must be Duke Valter. I have heard much of you, but in the interest of time I shall move things right along," the Magnezone said. "Where is the Protector that you discovered? His Majesty has sent me to take him into the realm's care."
"'The realm's care'? Was that not my task as part of the crown?" Valter asked. "I hadn't received any indication otherwise from the court, so why the sudden change?"
"That would be because I hadn't received word back yet, Duke Valter."
Valter looked back as creaking reached his ears, turning to see his Dhelmise Governor floating forward with his expression still locked in its stern countenance from earlier.
"I had included a short summary of the developments since Cernun's arrival in my last report to the crown at Captain Corbett's request," the Dhelmise explained. "Given the extraordinary circumstances, I felt that it was something that shouldn't remain such a parochial concern."
Valter gave a befuddled blink at the Dhelmise, before narrowing his eye indignantly and letting a faint shadowy trail billow out.
"I don't understand why such a matter wouldn't be important enough to include me in it," the Dusknoir harrumphed. "But as long as I can get an explanation for what the court wants, I can send for him at once. I admittedly don't always keep tabs on him since Cernun likes to mingle with the commoners, so-"
"And there you go! Full of life just like all the others!"
Coil looked past Valter at the sound of cheers coming from further down the path. There in the middle of the lane was the form of a blue fawn posturing proudly as a young Shuppet got up and blinked cross-shaped eyes, floating off happily as the gathered townsfolk clapped and cheered on the young Protector. Valter looked back at the scene and grimaced as Coil glanced back at him with a sharp scowl.
"That won't be necessary, Your Grace," the Magnezone insisted.
Coil floated up towards the assembly, flanked at his side by a Malamar and an Aegislash as his subordinates shooed the townsfolk back. Cernun looked around, unsure what to make of the sudden newcomers as he flicked an ear back curiously.
"Who are you?" Cernun wondered. "Did you come to become an Immortal too?"
"That won't be necessary for now, Xerneas," Coil said. "I am Commodore Coil from the Royal Navy of Anyilla. I'm here to get you started on some special studies so we can get to learn about each other."
"Studies?" the Xerneas asked. "Nobody in town told me I needed anything like that. I've been busy discovering my powers!"
The Malamar and Aegislash moved forward with harsh scowls, the other naval Pokémon pacing forward as Coil floated closer towards Cernun with a stern glare.
"Well, you've been misled," he harrumphed. "Come along, little one. The sooner we get started, the better it will be for your friends."
The Xerneas' cheery demeanor suddenly faded, as he paced back unnervedly at the sight of the encroaching strangers around him. Valter began to move over to intervene, as Cernun raised his voice in a stammering protest.
"Wh-What's going on?" the young Protector stuttered. "Why can't this wait at all?"
"That's not important," Coil insisted. "All that matters right now is that you follow the wisdom that we can give you."
Coil moved a magnet towards Cernun, only for the deer to abruptly leap back and bolt away. The Magnezone let out a sharp buzz, as sparks danced irritatedly on his surface.
"Gah! Get back here!"
Coil shot a weak arc of electricity through his left magnet that zipped into Cernun's hindlegs and made the deer yelp and pratfall onto the ground. The Malamar and Aegislash immediately moved for the fallen Xerneas, as the onlooking townsfolk gasped and shouted in protest.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Roteck cried. "That's a god-!"
"Out of the way!"
A Salamence swooped in and summarily swatted aside the protesting Lairon. Trizano flew up to interfere, only to meet much the same fate from Valan's claws. Off to the side, the Malamar hoisted Cernun off the ground with a telekinetic pull and began to drift away, carrying Cernun off as the Aegislash kept a close watch from behind. The other guards quickly closed ranks, forming a snarling cordon as Cernun struggled and cried out for help.
"Help! Help!"
Valter stared in befuddled shock at the events unfolding before him, before hurrying after Coil with a startled shout.
"Commodore?!" Valter exclaimed. "What is the meaning of this-?!"
Before the Dusknoir could finish his protest, his Dhelmise Governor abruptly floated in his way and pushed back, cutting the startled Duke off from the departing Magnezone with sharp scold.
"That's quite enough, Your Grace!" the Dhelmise interrupted. "This is an order from King Alexander's court, so it's not our place to interfere!"
Valter stared stunned at the Dhelmise, shocked to hear such words coming from the Pokémon who he'd fancied to be his confidant. Bewildered, he turned back to see Coil's entourage carry Cernun off for his ship, watching with the nearby townsfolk in wordless shock.
"Such a fool I was, not pressing the matter after hearing that. I tried telling myself that if it was really something that Alexander and his inner circle wanted, that it wasn't my place to contest it… but there was no dispelling what I had seen that day. Coil and the others remained in town after that and made me hand over the medic's hut that they repurposed into a research facility. To this day I don't understand what could have compelled King Alexander to approve Coil's research, just that it picked up after research that had been ongoing in the time of Queen Erna, using the same findings that had been recorded in what you call the 'Knights' Ledger'…"
"For the next couple of weeks, things managed to continue on, but cracks began to form in the peace. A scuffle with the guards here, a disorderly mob that was forced to disperse there. Before long, the higher-ranked sailors began going about in their Imperial armor much as if they were invaders forcing themselves upon our village. It became obvious to me that if things were to continue any further with Cernun, I couldn't keep the island from revolting against His Majesty. I agonized over what to do, before making the fateful choice during the New Moon to try and put an end to things on my own accord…"
The sky was moonless on the fated night, as Valter slipped from alley to alley on silent streets, the only break from the darkened walls and shuttered windows being a tatty poster blazoned with runes spelling out a curfew on the wall of a nearby shack. The Dusknoir floated along when the sound of chatter filtered along the winds, prompting him to poke his head around the corner reluctantly and see a lonely tavern lit up with Pokémon in indigo scarves sitting at the bar, including a Salamence in cerulean plates on his body that drank from a large cup before craning his head up with a displeased growl.
"Grr… what on earth is keeping Coil so long with that 'research' of his?" Valan fumed. "I'm supposed to be hunting down pirates, not sitting here getting an earful from a bunch of ungrateful peasants!"
Valter raised his brow at the dragon's complaints before carrying along, floating down the lane in the shadows for a two-storied building made of wood at the end of the street, which in happier times had been the medic's hut for the town. The Ghost-Type slowed as he approached, discovering that the windows had all been hastily barred and Pokémon in naval scarves and cerulean cloth armor were circling the outside perimeter. He hid behind an alley wall and watched the guards' movements, noticing that the Torterra and Onix that patrolled the side of the building made a habit of meeting in the middle before heading back out to the front and back of the hut. The Duke waited for the pair to start heading off, before rushing ahead and phasing through the wall, arriving into a darkened room where papers had been strewn about on desks that had been brought in.
"Cernun was supposed to be in Room 213… so… where am I right now?"
The Dusknoir floated through the doorway, turning and seeing that it had been labeled '105' with a scrawled paper that had been recently plastered onto it. He frowned, wondering where he was to go next when he heard approaching footsteps and hastily phased into the room across the hallway. Valter quickly crouched against the floor and peered at the bottom of the door, watching as an Accelgor in armor hopped by and a similarly-attired Raticate scampered past. Valter exhaled sharply after the pair left, before looking back to see the room he was in had been repurposed for storage with a small stack of barrels that piled up to the ceiling. He followed the barrels up, phasing through the ceiling to come to a room with a table and jars of medicine set out. The Ghost-Type paused uneasily when he slipped through the doorway, wondering if Cernun had perhaps been tormented there, his body turning corporeal as he looked back to see the room behind him labeled…
"'208'?" he murmured to himself. "Cernun was supposed to be in a Room 213 , so then his chamber must be…"
Valter looked off to his right where he noticed a door labeled '209', prompting him to float along until he got to a reinforced doorway at the end that bore the '213' he had searched for. The Dusknoir felt around the edges, finding a pull latch that he tugged at and discovered to be firmly fixed, the latch rattling in his grasp before he backed up and prepared to rush through the door when a sharp, hissing shout reached his ears from behind.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"
Valter whirled around, seeing the armored Accelgor and black Raticate from earlier glaring at him. The Accelgor raised his arms for a fleeting strike, approaching with a threatening growl.
"This building is strictly off-limits to visitors!" the Accelgor snarled. "That goes for everyone on this island! Nobles like you don't get a free pass!"
"Oh, we'll see about that…"
Valter threw a fiery punch forward, catching the Accelgor under his chin and launching the Bug-Type headfirst into a nearby wall. The Raticate dove in with a crushing bite, forcing the Ghost-Type back before the Raticate pivoted and threw himself forward again with another Crunch. The Duke lurched to the side, letting the Dark-Type sail on and snap at empty air, when he slipped behind and threw a sharp chop with his hand at the back of the rat's head just below the armored helmet protecting its top, sending the Raticate tumbling to the floor.
The Dusknoir braced himself for another blow, tensely breathing only to hear the sound of incoherent groans, prompting him to shake his head and back away from the armored door, before phasing through it and popping into a darkened room filled with scattered papers and medical instruments on desks. A startled cry rang out which made him look over and see a wide-eyed Cernun with his legs and neck chained to a circular platform in the room, gasping anxiously until he recognized the newfound intruder.
"Valter?!" Cernun exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"
"Getting you away from this place," the Ghost-Type answered as he moved over to him. "The village can't take what's happening here much longer."
"Wh-Whuh? What do you mean?" the Xerneas asked. "Where are we going?"
"I don't know yet," Valter said, as he felt along Cernun's chains for a lock. "But somewhere far away from-"
"Come now, Duke Valter, the Capital isn't that far away."
Valter and Cernun froze at the sound of rattling cloth and mail, the Dusknoir of the pair turning to see Coil in cerulean plates at a now-open doorway. Cernun struggled against his chains to hide away as the Magnezone floated forward with a fierce glare.
"That was what you were going to say, and not something treasonous, I hope."
Valter blanched, backing away uneasily as he struggled over what he could do to explain the circumstances. After fumbling with one excuse after another in his mind, the Ghost-Type wondered to himself what the point of coming here was if he was going to just shrink away when confronted over Cernun. The Dusknoir stopped himself, balling his fists as he stayed put in the Commodore's path.
"I am exercising my privileges as a noble of the court to stop this madness!" Valter cried. "I don't care what your experts are telling you, you and I both know that dealing with a god like this will only bring disaster to the realm!"
"The realm is already muddling through a disaster, Duke Valter! It's with this god's help that we can finally bring it to an end!" Coil shot back. "He's been perfectly at ease handing out immortality to common peasants, so he should have no issues giving it to the servants of His Majesty's navy in order to put an end to the Company's treason!"
Valter's eye widened at Coil's words, realizing that the Magnezone had just openly stated his intent to use the god who had come to Blackmoon Village's aid as a tool of war. The Dusknoir stammered, before shaking his head stunned back at the Electric-Type.
"Th-This is madness! You can't force a Protector to just do your bidding like a puppet!" Valter exclaimed. "That's his power to invoke, not yours!"
Coil glared fiercely at the Ghost-Type, sparks dancing on the surface of his body as he moved towards him undeterred.
"Hrmph, I've had enough of this," the Magnezone scoffed. "Retire to your palace and mind your own affairs. I'm the one representing King Alexander here, not you."
The Electric-Type floated along when Valter abruptly cut him off, billowing shadowy wisps as he reciprocated with a glare of his own.
"I can't let you do that, Commodore," the Dusknoir said. "If this is really something that His Majesty approves of, he can bring it up to my face! I won't be part of this any longer!"
The Magnezone's temper flared as the sparks on his body grew larger and louder, as his voice came out in a hateful, metallic hiss.
"Have it your way then!" Coil seethed. "I'll see to it that this is the last time you'll interfere with my plans!"
The Magnezone fired a large, jagged bolt of electricity towards Valter. The Ghost-Type reflexively lurched to the side and melted into the wall, leaving Cernun to duck and squeal as the bolt zipped overhead and broke against the wall where it left behind a scorched bloch. Coil whirled around, looking around tensely for his Dusknoir foe when Valter abruptly phased through the wall beside him, swinging a fist wreathed in flames that struck the back of Coil's head at a gap not covered by his body armor and sent him clattering to the floor.
"Who do you take me for?!" Valter spat. "Do you think a Duke just sits around all day lazing about?!"
The Magnezone rolled against the floor with an audible rattle, hastily righting himself and floating back into the air as he turned back with a sharp seethe.
"Don't try to interfere with duties you weren't trained for!"
Coil shot out a weak jolt of electricity that flowed through Valter's body and made him jerk up and freeze as his body became warm and numb. The Dusknoir struggled to move his limbs as he cracked open the mouth on his stomach along the yellow band on his torso. The Ghost-Type glared, forming a growing Shadow Ball as Coil zipped from side to side to anticipate the wraith's attack. Valter tried to keep pace with the Electric-Type with his newly sluggish body before flinging the Shadow Ball forward, only to go wide-eyed as he saw Coil float out of the way of his attack. The orb zipped along into the back wall, leaving the Commodore to spark and hiss as he glared daggers back at Valter.
"Here! Let me show you how it's done!"
The Magnezone threw out another large bolt of electricity that coursed through Valter's body and dropped him to the ground with a pained yelp. Cernun watched horrified as Valter struggled to get back up, only for Coil to fire another Thunder, and another, as the sound of agonized screams from the Dusknoir filled the air. Valter's cries grew weak as Coil cast a final bolt at his head, leaving him to loll back as a black mist began to trail up from the ends of Valter's motionless body as Cernun's voice hitched and stammered
"V-Valter!"
Coil drew his magnets back beside his body, floating up beside Valter's burned body as he shot a disgusted scowl down at him.
"Hrmph. For a 'ghost' you still very much have life in you… or had it, I should say," Coil sneered, before turning to Cernun and floating forward as sparks arced between his magnets.
"Now, time to bring you to where you're needed."
Cernun froze out of terror as the Magnezone approached, screwing his eyes shut as he expected to feel the same jolt and numbness that the Commodore inflicted on him when he was first captured. The Electric-Type neared, weak jolts of electricity dancing between his magnets when a loud crash rang out outside, followed by frantic shouts and a sharp roar in the distance.
"Gah! Fall back and form a perimeter!"
Coil paused, looking around puzzledly as he recognized the roar to come from a Salamence's voice, and none other than the Lieutenant he'd entrusted to help lead the curfew!
"Valan?" Coil buzzed. "What on earth-?"
A beam of burning, white light suddenly shot through the boarded-up window, spraying splinters and dust into the air and making both Cernun and Coil jump back. Coil brushed himself off as the din of snarls and blasts filtered in, prompting him to look out the remains of the window and see a mob of Pokémon trading blows with guards in the approach up to the medic's hut. The Magnezone let out an annoyed buzz, sparking as his voice crackled with a hissing seethe.
"Is it really so hard to get decent Lieutenants in the navy nowadays?!" Coil spat. "I warned those two that something like this could happen-"
Coil's fuming was cut off by the sound of shifting and thumping, prompting him to jolt back out of surprise as he saw Valter rise from the ground and get up. The Magnezone stared stunned as the Dusknoir righted himself, shaking an arm out of disbelief at his newfound vigor as he looked back at the Commodore. Coil noticed that the cross in Ghost-Type's eye was now missing, and the burns he'd left behind were visibly healing before his eyes while Valter glared and readied himself to battle once more.
"Gah! You were able to come back from that?!" Coil hissed. "No matter, let's see how you enjoy dying and staying dead!"
"Stop it!"
Coil looked back, where he saw Cernun lower his antlers as they lit up in a rainbow of colors and the markings on his chest and legs flushed a golden hue. The Magnezone floated dumbstruck as the light between Cernun's antlers grew brighter and brighter, the deer glaring back with a fierce defiance that he'd never seen before.
"Just get away from us!" Cernun shouted.
A great ball of pinkish-white light gathered on the Xerneas' antlers as the room was filled by blinding light that made the Pokémon outside through the window look up from their clashes with shocked stares. Coil instinctively charged up sparks on his body as the Xerneas' Moonblast sailed forward and enveloped Coil, the light inside cracking through the hut's gaps and into the night sky as a splitting, metallic screech filled the air.
"A-AAAAGGGGGHHHH!"
"As you can surmise, I failed to prevent that revolt."
"Given what the navy was up to, I still say we made the right call," Roteck snorted.
"So what happened to Coil?" Guardia asked.
"Well, my attack knocked him out," Cernun explained. "It didn't take long afterwards for his lackeys to grab him and leave."
"They did put up a stiff fight to try and turn things around," Trizano added. "But me, Roteck and the rest of the villagers drove them off to keep them from being able to regroup."
Valter's mood sank, as he cast his red eye's gaze down toward the ground, traces of a betrayed expression coming over his face as he thought back to the night that sealed Blackmoon Village's fate.
"Even the Governor who had worked with me for years fled with them," Valter sighed, shaking his head. "But all along, we knew this victory was fleeting. That they'd come back with even more ships to try and make an example of the revolt."
"Is that why you came to this place?" Nida wondered.
"We admittedly were at a loss for what we could do to conceal our presence, and the Marked on our island fled for Gestirn fully expecting the Empire to bring its full wrath upon us," Valter replied. "But with the pirate raids we had been suffering just before then, we decided the best option was to burn the town and make it look like a particularly cutthroat attack."
"We took that 'Knight's Ledger' that Coil had been using as part of his research with us," Roteck explained. "Figured that if it came to it, we would at least be able to keep him off our backs under threat of exposing what he was up to."
"But then why did this 'ghost' thing come along?" Pleo demanded.
"Well… our cover wasn't as effective as we had thought. About a week after Blackmoon Village was put to the torch, Valan returned with a crew to scout the island," Trizano answered. "He had begun to suspect something was up and had almost discovered Darkwood Square here when Valter came up with the idea to make the island seem like it had been haunted by the spirits of everyone from Blackmoon Village. Valan didn't seem particularly scared by it, but his crew certainly was, and it was enough to drive them off and spare the town."
"Tch, if he never bothered coming back here, he got scared enough by it. It's that Coil that was a thorn in our side," Roteck insisted. "Even after the navy got sick of sending crews out here, the rotter went out and contracted crews to try and find us. Mercenaries, pirates, the occasional merchant crew blinded by greed…"
Team Traveller watched as Valter shook his head and let out a low grumble, the Aggron's words evidently having done its part to stir up unwelcome memories for the Ghost-Type. The group wondered to themselves what could have happened to the town amidst all the attacks, when the Dusknoir hardened his brow and spoke up in a harsh voice.
"As such, we needed a way to nip such incursions in the bud. Permanently," Valter continued. "And so it was that the 'ghosts' began dragging their victims off 'to their doom' much as you lot were."
"So that's how it all happened… But what about that fight with you and Coil?" Kiran pressed. "How could you be dead and then come back?"
"It is the nature of the Immortals who bear the mark of Lord Cernun's blessing. It freezes their body's aging and gives greater vitality and healing from wounds," the Dusknoir explained. "We don't know if an Immortal will ever die of old age, but we haven't had any pass on yet since Cernun came. What we do know is that should an Immortal be struck down, he will elude death's grasp and come back to life."
"'The mark of Lord Cernun's blessing'? You mean the cross-shaped eyes?" Crom said. "But you're an Immortal and you don't have one!"
Crom looked back expectantly at Valter and the gathered Immortals, waiting for a response only to be answered with a long silence. The Druddigon blinked and shuffled awkwardly, before hesitantly pressing his question.
"… Aren't you?" he asked.
"Valter… isn't one anymore," Cernun began. "After he came back to life, the cross shape in his eye was gone and no matter how many times or how hard I've tried, I haven't been able to make him an Immortal again."
The Xerneas shook his head glumly, looking off into the distance for the edges of the stable zone.
"Those Pokémon that were petrified didn't become Immortals either when I healed them…" he said. "I don't know for sure, but I think that it just might not be possible for me to give that power if a Pokémon's already died once."
Team Traveller's members traded surprised glances with each other. Between what Cernun had to say about his true nature and the destruction of Blackmoon Village being an elaborate ruse, the lot couldn't help but feel slightly overwhelmed at everything the Protector had to say.
"That's… quite a bit to take in all at once," Dimitri murmured.
"Well, I hope it makes it clear as to why you must stay here," Valter harrumphed. "This village is in a vulnerable position and should our secret ever be exposed, Coil wouldn't hesitate to rally the Empire's ships to make short work of us."
"But you don't have to be afraid about that anymore!" Pleo insisted. "Coil's no longer in the navy!"
Pleo's exclamation drew a blank stare from the Dusknoir, who fumbled for words before he pressed the seabird to continue on.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Nida and the others got him caught egg-napping and he got in trouble and everything!" Pleo chirped. "And… I don't know about the rest of the Empire, but they can't be as bad as Coil like you make them out to be! I even made a friend from the Empire!"
"Co?" Elty asked, giving a puzzled raise of his brow. "You di-? Ow!"
The Growlithe was cut off by a conk at the back of his head from Guardia's club, prompting him to shoot a glare over as the Cubone scowled back with a sharp hiss under her breath.
"Not helping right now!" she scolded. Valter looked at the bickering pair and their surprised teammates skeptically, before turning back to Pleo with a narrowed eye.
"Explain yourself, uccello," he demanded. Pleo shifted and squirmed, wondering to himself where the best place to even begin his tale would be…
"Well…"
After a moment of deliberation, Pleo opted to begin things with the team's departure from Nerea, and how after being chased to Sormus, they were captured by an Imperial captain and brought to Giotto. There, while Pleo befriended one of his captors, Nida, Elty, and Guardia met with a local detective and two attorneys and discovered together that Coil had been dealing stolen eggs to pirates. Through grit, a dash of luck, and their participation in a local tournament, they helped their new friends in Giotto with exposing Coil, and managed to free Pleo and escape to Buyeom in the confusion surrounding Coil's summons.
"… So how do you know what happened to Coil afterwards if you fled?" Valter asked.
"Well, after escaping we got to Buyeom, which is where we met Kline," Nida answered. "He told us about how Coil got disgraced, meaning that Nico and Rita managed to expose him after we left Giotto."
"Yeah, a lot of Pokémon in Giotto found out about the truth and got angry about it," Elty said. "So he can't do you any harm anymore."
Valter paused, his eye hardening into a doubting scowl as he peered down at Elty and his teammates.
"Did you see these things happening to Coil, or was it merely told to you?" the Dusknoir demanded, prompting Team Traveller's members to sheepishly hem and haw as Nida pawed at the back of her head.
"I mean… Kline told us, and he hasn't exactly been wrong about anything so far," the Nidoran began, only to be cut off by a ghostly huff.
"Hrmph, when he chooses to be. How do you know he didn't just say what he thought you wanted to hear?"
"H-Huh?! But why would Kline do that?!" Crom exclaimed. "He was looking for someone to help him out!"
"To manipulate you into helping him with his own problems, of course!" Valter spat. "It wouldn't be the first time."
"But- But he wouldn't do anything like that!" Pleo cried. "He helped us back on Buyeom!"
The Lugia's cry drew a dismissive scoff from Valter, leaving him to blanch and grimace puzzledly. Cernun let out a low sigh, giving a glum shake of his head before speaking up in reply.
"That certainly doesn't sound like the way he was acting when he was here," the Xerneas said. "All he did was yell at me for making 'mons Immortal and tell me to completely ignore everything that was going on with Coil to help him with some 'Elilan' that was a more serious threat."
"He was probably overselling the problem anyways to try and play on Lord Cernun's emotions," Valter scoffed. "I can sympathize for his plight with his counterpart, but to come to this town and demand everyone to put all that we've cobbled together in danger to help him is the sort of selfishness I'd expect from a common corsair!"
"But Elilan is a genuine threat!" Ander insisted. "Especially if his plans get anywhere close to being completed!"
"Is that why Kline wants to charge in and risk getting captured while his foe is still young and has the upper hand? That Elilan's strength isn't going to grow as he ages, and his life will eventually grind to an end," the Dusknoir retorted. "When I pointed this out to him, he just scolded us saying that we'd either get found out eventually or run out of resources. He even spouted fearmongering hypotheticals about how Elilan might seek out Cernun directly for immortality if he got old enough! What did he tell you to get you into the fold? That Elilan will summon a meteor to fall on the Cradle?"
Team Traveller quietly grimaced at Valter's angry reply. They had seen firsthand how Kline had been able to warn them of things well beyond what any of them could have found out on their own through his Cells, so how could Valter and the villagers just dismiss Kline's warnings about Elilan as mere exaggeration?
Kiran raised his voice to speak up, only to realize that whatever had happened to sour things between Valter and Kline, it probably wasn't worth dredging up when all they had to do was convince Valter to let his part of the Knights' Ledger off the island. It couldn't be that difficult, could it? If both the Company and Empire feared it as much as Nerea said, then surely the Dusknoir could be convinced that it would keep Coil too at bay.
"But… even if we're wrong about Coil, there's no reason to live like this. You have part of the Knights' Ledger after all!" the Swellow exclaimed. "Why not just use that to blackmail the Empire into leaving you alone? It'd even work on the Company to boot!"
"We're avoiding our enemies just fine right now without having to needlessly use the Ledger or risk getting it destroyed," Valter chided. "As will you all once you stay here."
Team Traveller's members blanched and stared back blankly at the Ghost-Type. Why, it sounded as if Valter's 'solution' to the town's troubles was simply to hide away from the rest of the world entirely!
The group thought to themselves, realizing that all of the things they'd seen and overheard while in town about shortages of resources and space were happening because Darkwood Square was always growing with new Pokémon who would be around forever because Cernun had made them into Immortals on a whim. Was this what had caused drove a wedge between Kline and Cernun's falling out with each other? As perverse as it sounded… perhaps Ander really did have a point in saying that Cernun was toying irresponsibly with the balance of life, not that Valter's insistence on trapping everyone on the island was helping at all.
Kiran clamped his beak shut, wondering just what on earth any of them could do to persuade 'mons as dug in as that. The Swellow mulled the matter to himself, before deciding that as long of a shot as it seemed, perhaps Valter would respond better to a more concrete offer.
"Look, we get that you want to stay hidden and we don't want to expose you either," he said. "But if you just keep us here, you're going to get our friends worried and then they're going to come and look for-!"
Valter abruptly billowed out a black mist and hardened his hands into clenched fists, letting out a livid hiss that made Team Traveller's members jump back with a start.
"You dare try to threaten your way out of here?!" the Dusknoir bellowed.
"Th-That's not at all what I was trying to say!" Kiran stammered. "I-!"
"You will still your tongue and cease wasting my time with this nonsense!" the Ghost-Type shouted. "Your friends can try all they want, but in the end, they'll either flee like the rest when their nerves fail them, or they'll stay here for eternity!"
Valter turned away with a huff, storming off as Cernun shrank away uneasily and followed after. Along his way, Valter slowed a moment before turning back to Roteck in the pavillion.
"Roteck, take them back to their lodgings," the Dusknoir growled. "This conversation is over."
"Uh… Duke Valter," the Aggron murmured. "Are you sure that-?"
"Just do as you're ordered!"
The Aggron paused, before hesitantly making his way for Team Traveller alongside Trizano and motioning for the lot to come along with him. The group grudgingly set off, leaving the shrine behind as Trizano quietly followed along from behind. As they drifted off, Pleo looked back over his shoulder, seeing Cernun watching them depart before continuing on after Valter. The deer had to have some sympathy for their plight… but with Valter competing for his influence and being this stubborn, just what else could they do to try and plead their case…?
Off at the berry fields on the eastern side of Darkwood Square's clearing, the leaves rustled and shook as the forms of a Yanmega, a Manectric, and a Marowak snuck along from a path in the fog past a pair of guards playing cards, pawing at the scuffs and scrapes they'd picked up from ferals in the dungeon, and occasionally helping themselves to a berry from a passing bush. The three wandered out of the bushes and beside a row of simple shacks, prompting them to hang back into the shadows and gawk ahead warily at the sight of the village's interior further ahead.
"Any ideas where those twerps got off to?" Alvise whispered. "It took us forever just to find this other way in!"
"I dunno, why don't you go poke your snout deeper into this place yourself and tell me?" Nori grumbled.
"Ugh… what did we ever do to deserve this?" Valatos groaned.
"Er…" Nori murmured. "Well, we went around saying we were elite pirates and-"
"Don't answer that, bonehead!" the Yanmega hissed, prompting Alvise to snort and roll his eyes.
"What's with all these shacks?" he asked. "It's like there's an entire town down here."
"I've been hearing in town they've spotted more pirates lurking around here. How on earth is that possible?"
Alvise trailed off at the sound of the stranger's voice mention of pirates and froze for a moment. He blinked and turned his head towards the chatter, wondering to himself if they hadn't snuck in as well as he thought earlier.
The Manectric and his companions inched along a nearby wall at the sound of ghostly voices ahead. The three hesitated, poking their heads around the corner to spot the forms of a Haunter and a Drifloon floating down the lane as a Misdreavus accompanying them furrowed her brow back in annoyance.
"I hope you're not getting things confused with the 'mons we just brought in earlier," Lisa harrumphed, prompting Cantone to blink and sheepishly brush his feelers against each other.
"… Right. Whatever happened to them anyways?" the Drifloon asked. "Did they get sent to the cells with those real pirates?"
"Nah, I'm pretty sure they're joining our neighbors, so we'll see 'em around pretty often," Vince replied.
"'Cells'? 'Neighbors'?" Nori mumbled from his hiding place. "Who are they all talking about?"
"Really, shame they're not from that other crew. It'd never get old to scare them out of their hides!" the Haunter chortled. "Especially those three scemi going on about 'rah rah, we're elites and you're gonna listen to us' before squeaking and running off screaming like the rest of them!"
Team Phantom's members broke out into uproarious laughter as Valatos, Alvise, and Nori felt their blood boil. The Yanmega of the group flew forward, his mind set on revenge for the humiliation he'd endured from the ghostly jokers.
"Oh that's it!" Valatos seethed. "I'm gonna pull out his ghostly tongue and-!"
Nori and Alvise hastily latched onto Valatos' wings and tail, wrestling him to the ground and out of sight as they covered his mouth and desperately tried to muffle his angry hisses.
"Nani yatten da yo?! Don't just go out there!" Nori whispered.
"Yeah, you'll give us away, genius!" Alvise snapped.
Vince and his companions departed beside themselves with laughter, leaving Valatos and his companions to quietly fume after them. As the Ghost-Types slipped off, Alvise paused as a sharp scowl settled over his face.
"So then those dorks are those 'ghosts' from all those stories about Pioppo? Well there's no reason to play the fool any longer, and we'll have plenty of time to get back at 'em," the Manectric growled. "Those pirates they were talking about must've been the ones that went missing, let's find 'em and get back to the ship to explain what's really going on."
"Wait, you mean to go deeper into there?" Nori asked. "But what if we get caught?"
"Then we'll just use that Escape Orb we've got with us," Valatos said. "Let's just hurry up and find them."
The three crept along, drifting from wall to wall and alley to alley as the fields thinned and the village's shacks clustered ever-tighter with each other. All the while, the lot kept dutiful eyes and ears out for approaching Pokémon, stopping and waiting for the sounds of footsteps and voices to pass as they carried on in search of clues, only to stop and frown puzzledly at the lack of any sign as to where the captured pirates could be.
"Help! Help! Somebody get us out of here!"
The trio turned their heads, before recognizing the voice to be from a Chingling they'd remembered seeing among the crew a couple times before. The Chingling cried out for help again and again, prompting Valatos and his companions to quietly creep after the Bell Pokémon's distressed cries, following them until they found themselves at an alleyway overlooking a crude hut guarded by a Spiritomb and an Amoonguss in blue scarves.
"Doesn't that stupid little bell ever shut up?" the Spiritomb grumbled.
"Ugh, why couldn't Carola still be on shift?" the Amoonguss groaned. "At least that way she could gum up his mouth!"
Valatos peered ahead, looking for any way around the lurking guards ahead. His eyes chanced to fall upon a wobbly awning of red cloth over a doorway a few huts down on the main street, prompting him to flit his wings and hurl a cutting gust at it. The Air Slash cut through the awning's supports, leaving it to flop over and knock a resting pot to the ground with a crash that jolted the guards up and drew their attention away.
"Eh?! Hey what the-?!"
"Bah, I told Emilio to reinforce that awning!" the Amoonguss growled. "Come on!"
Alvise and his companions watched as the guards left the doorway and darted across the street, running through the doorway and across a crude lobby where they ducked down a winding set of steps and found themselves in an underground passageway dimly lit by candlelight. The three paced ahead, noticing cells built on either end of them when they chanced to catch movement at the far right end. Alvise and the others crept along and quickly found themselves face to face through a barred door held in place by a crude padlock with Alfred, Pieter, and the rest of the missing foraging party from the ship.
"Ah! It actually worked!" the Chingling exclaimed.
"Travellers above, you actually made it here!" the Noibat cried. "Quick, get us out before those two come ba-!"
"Pfft, wow! These guys have really let themselves go," Alvise sneered. Nori and Valatos joined in with jeering smirks, leaving Pieter in the cell to blink back incredulously.
"H-Huh?! What do you mean?" the Sealeo asked. "And why are you laughing right now?! We're stuck in a cell!"
"'Help! Help! Somebody save us!'" Nori snickered. "From how you were running your mouths off, I was half-expecting you to start crying for your mothers!"
The mood among the pirates in the cell quickly soured, as the Charmeleon among their number had his tail flame flush a whitish hue and let out a sharp growl in response.
"As if you'd do any better!" Alfred fumed. "Look, just hurry up and get us out of here before those guards get back!"
"Tch, do we seriously have to do everything for you?" Valatos scoffed.
The Yanmega beat his wings as a violet aura settled on a patch of the ground, the floor lurching as a large stone wreathed in a purplish glow tore out of the ground and smashed against the cell door. The pirates inside jumped back with a yelp as dust flew through the air, looking down as the air cleared to see the lock lying with its latch broken on the ground and Valatos smirking from the other end of a now wide open door.
"See?" he buzzed. "Easy as cake for an actual elite pi-"
"Ehi!"
The dragonfly and his companions froze as the other pirates grimaced, the lot looking back to see the Amoonguss and Spiritomb who'd been keeping watch outside staring them down and growling fiercely.
"I've never seen you three around here before," the Spiritomb snarled. "And what do you think you're doing letting the prisoners out?!"
"We… Uh…" Nori gulped. "We were…"
"Oh forget it, eat sparks!" Alvise snarled.
Arcs of electricity danced on Alvise's pelt as he expelled a Discharge at the two guards, leaving them to convulse and drop to the ground with sharp cries. With their enemies stunned, the pirates hastily dashed ahead, leaving the guards to stumble back up huffing and fuming from their blow.
"Nrgh… get back here!" the Amoonguss shouted.
The pirates ran for dear life as a glowing green orb and a shadowy ball zipped by, charging up the stairs and throwing one of the crates in front of the steps to buy time for an escape. Valatos and the others then rushed outside, coming to a skidding stop as they found that a small crowd of onlookers had gathered, including Team Traveller at the edge who paused and stared slack-jawed.
"W-Wait a minute!" Crom cried. "Those are-!"
Valatos and his companions narrowed their eyes, readying attacks when they heard the guards throwing aside the crate, and saw the passerbys hastily adopting aggressive stances and advancing on them from all sides.
"A-Ack! We're trapped" the Noibat cried.
"Oh no we're not!" Valatos hissed. "Hold on, dweebs!"
The Yanmega and the other pirates latched onto each other as Valatos fished out the glowing form of an Escape Orb and dashed it against the ground. A shattering noise rang out as the pirates vanished in a flash of light, the Spiritomb and Amoonguss catching up just moments too late to stop them. A stunned silence settled over the surrounding Pokémon, Elty among them shrinking back and folding his ears with a grimace as he realized that there was only one place the pirates could be headed off to now…
Straight back to the Iron Fleet, where they'd reveal everything about what they had seen.
"Oh no…"
Author's Notes:
- santuario - Italian: "shrine", "sanctuary"
- Co? - Polish: "What?"
- scemi - Italian: "fools", "idiots"
- Nani yatten da yo?! (何やってんだよ?) - Japanese: "What are you doing?!" (Hepburn Romanization)
- Ehi! - Italian: "Hey!"
