Chapter 99: Causing a Stir
"Permanently. I'm here along with the full force of Orleigh Island's Pirate Council and a good half of the crews that berth there. Just what do you think you can do against us?"
Guardia held onto the badge and quietly bit her tongue. Had she been saying too much to Dirk? She glanced back at the forests surrounding the path, and while the pirates were still safely out cold, Dimitri was glancing down at her with an increasingly impatient frown.
Maybe it was a sign to wrap things up, though if so, she wanted to get in a last word. They needed to convince those pirates that they were taking Pleo deeper into the forest, and it was honestly kinda fun to hear the Pokémon on the other end of the badge huff and fume.
"Stop you from getting to Pleo, that's what!" Guardia taunted "Fat lot of good all that strength of yours will do if he's gone before you-!"
She froze mid-sentence after she heard rustling coming from the nearby brush and saw Dimitri tense up. The Cubone turned her head, just in time to see a long, red snout poking out from bushes along the path, prompting her to jump back with a startled yelp.
"N-Nani?! Who are you?!"
Guardia let the badge drop to the ground, clinging tightly to her club as a Krookodile and six other guards in Imperial scarves emerged from the brush. There was a brief moment of tension, when the Krookodile held a claw up and motioned for a stop.
"It's alright. They're allies," Robbie said. "Looks like they even took care of some of that pirate scum for us."
The guards glanced off at the Conkeldurr pinned under the felled tree behind Dimitri and Guardia, and then off at the party of pirates scattered about unconscious along the lane. They eased out of their battle stances as Robbie began to approach Dimitri and Guardia. His eyes fell on the glinting badge on the ground as he neared, and he stooped down and threw it into his bag. Dimitri stared dumbfoundedly at the newcomers, until he realized that the Krookodile was the one and the same as the one from the courtroom.
"Wait a minute…" the Kabutops murmured. "You're that sheriff from earlier."
"And you're those Rüpel that threw me under the ship back in town," the Krookodile harrumphed. "But I'll avoid keeping score since we crossed paths with your friends earlier and have other things to worry about right now."
Robbie turned to his underlings with a low murmur that trailed off into barking words that Dimitri didn't understand. Probably some sort of order in Gestirner from how throaty it sounded. The guards nodded back and broke off into small groups as others emerged from the brush. A Makuhita and a Turtonator among them came and pried the Conkeldurr free and finished his bindings before they dragged him off into the brush, while the rest followed suit with the other pirates one after the other.
Dimitri and Guardia waited until the last of the pirates and their captors drifted off into the undergrowth, leaving behind just themselves, a small party that eyed them warily, and Robbie staring down at them with his arms folded over each other. The pair supposed that at the least, the sheriff wasn't an enemy of theirs right now, but even so something about his comment about 'their friends' felt a bit strange…
"Wait a minute," Guardia began. "If Pleo and the others already met you, why are they in the Mystery Dungeon right now?"
"They went out to Starbreak Square to try and get help dealing with those pirates," Robbie explained.
"Wait, but why would they go back to Starpeak-?" Guardia started, only for Robbie to sharply cut her off.
"Starbreak Square. It's a long story, but the gist of it is that it's a town of Marked inside the Mystery Dungeon," the Krookodile said. "I told them they were wasting their time, but the pirates heavily outnumber us right now and we don't really have the luxury of turning down help here."
Guardia paused, before looking away and pawing at the back of her bony helmet with her free hand. The Waruvial and his idea of trying to seek out other Pokémon to lend them strength wasn't a bad one, but…
"… Are you sure we're just dealing with pirates?"
Robbie and the other guards remained quiet for a moment, before the Krookodile shook his head with a small frown.
"No. It crossed my mind that the Company might be involved, but I don't exactly have proof of that," he sighed. "Why? Did you find something out, Tragosso?"
"I just talked with some pirate captain through that badge," Guardia explained. "A 'Captain Dirk of the Crimson Corsairs'. He said that they were doing this raid on behalf of a 'client'."
A few of the guards in Robbie's entourage stiffened up and stared back. Some traded dumbstruck looks with one another, while others began to murmur aloud at the Cubone's revelation.
"Huh? Just what sort of client would be able to hire this many pirates?" a Mabosstiff asked.
"Again, it's those square-necks, Friedrich. It has to be," a Heliolisk growled. "Who else would be able to foot the bill to put all those pirates up to this?"
Dimitri paused as the more he thought about it, the more the Heliolisk's remarks seemed to make sense. He turned towards the Krookodile sheriff, giving an uneasy tap of his scythes.
"I think that your Heliolisk friend is onto something, Sheriff," Dimitri said. "The Company's been chasing Pleo for over a month and he just fought his way out of their capital alongside us. Why wouldn't they turn to drastic measures to get him at this point?"
Robbie fell quiet and he clamped his jaws shut with a visible grimace. Dimitri and Guardia didn't know how much the sheriff trusted them, but clearly the idea of the Company getting ahold of a Protector was quite unnerving to him.
The Krookodile turned his eyes towards the ground and pinched his brow with a low sigh.
"… I suppose that it makes sense, especially if they also know that your friend's a Protector," he murmured. "If they hired the pirates to do their dirty work for them in Imperial waters, then as long as they are careful about it, there would be no one to point a finger towards. Even if it didn't work out for them, I don't know if Her Majesty could declare open war on the Company over a pirate raid without sparking riots in the capital again."
Guardia and Dimitri fell quiet, as the Cubone of the pair pawed uneasily at her bone. Gah, why on earth did 'Civilized' Pokémon always have to make things so complicated?
"So what do we do, then?" she asked.
"Stick with us, obviously," Robbie huffed back. "There's strength in numbers."
"Huh?!" Dimitri protested. "But Pleo and the others are in that Mystery Dungeon!"
"Yeah, I know."
Guardia and Dimitri turned their attention back to the Krookodile sheriff, who folded his arms with an impatient harrumph.
"When we sent your friends into the Mystery Dungeon, we gave them a badge for our teleporter to keep track of," he explained. "So that way we could get to them quickly if they called for help."
Guardia and Dimitri traded wary glances with each other after Robbie's reply. The sheriff seemed to pick up on their unease and shook his head.
"Look, I wasn't super optimistic about their plan myself, but whatever's going on in there, our teleporter has been having trouble getting a read on their location lately," the Krookodile insisted. "The last she sensed of them was them taking their own badges off, which the Pokémon in Starbreak Square most likely would've made them do as a precaution. We expected that that could happen as a part of them going there, and there's only so much we can do right now. Us finding an entrance into Starbreak Square would take a while even with a full search party. Time that we currently need to spend focusing on problems elsewhere."
Guardia and Dimitri turned and glanced down the path leading up to the Mystery Dungeon. If nothing else, it wasn't wise to just linger here, and it was hard to argue the sheriff's point.
A low grunt snapped them to attention, as the pair looked back and saw Robbie nearing the brush, motioning along with a claw for them to follow.
"Besides, we could use the extra monpower on our end. I doubt we've seen the last of those pirates around here."
"Right," Dimitri said. "That sounds like a good reason to stick together."
Dimitri and Guardia set off with Robbie and his underlings back into the brush. The forest gradually returned back to its earlier quiet, as Dimitri and Guardia and their newfound companions trudged along, when the Cubone pawed at Dimitri's leg.
"By the way, what is 'Hard to Kill'? That Dirk said it was some sort of story and I was curious as to what it's about."
Dimitri cocked a brow and stared at his teammate briefly, before turning away with a sigh. He supposed it was a good thing that they had a bit of time, since he had a feeling explaining this one was going to take a while.
About ten minutes after leaving the Hall of Remembrance, Pleo and his teammates found themselves in a stone-hewn office which had been outfitted with simple furniture and glowmoss lanterns for illumination, including a desk where Roderic had set their Ledger down for "transcribing". Much to their astonishment, after putting the tome on the desk, he dove into a small red housing that had been waiting for him on the desk and floated over the book in what looked like some sort of scratched, squarish slate with arms and feet. The Rotom floated over the book carefully, going page by page as he would occasionally curl in one of the arms and press down on the glass portion of the slate before a clicking noise would ring out.
They all stared as Roderic continued on with his strange ritual, which they weren't sure what it was doing or how it would help them. Pleo's attention drifted off towards the rest of the room after Roderic went through the first few dozen pages. He'd quickly realized after entering Roderic's office that the room was full of ancient artifacts, and curiosity couldn't help but get the better of him. Tattered books in mystic scripts, plastic objects, strange colored spheres. There was even a line of three strange metal containers that sat next to a wheeled contraption of some sort with a long handle, and some sort of pinwheel that rested against the wall.
The Lugia studied the five mysterious objects and wondered to himself what they might be. He perked up and turned his head back for Roderic's desk as he heard the sound of the Ledger being shut with an audible thud.
"There," Roderic said. "That should be everything."
Crom blinked. He looked at the Ledger on the table, and then back at the Rotom floating in the air, before he spoke up incredulously.
"Huh?! But you barely looked at any of the pages!" the Druddigon exclaimed.
"I didn't have to," Roderic explained. "This codex I'm indwelling is able to record images of objects in front of it."
The Rotom floated the strange slate closer to them, where amidst a pale glow, they saw an image of one of the Ledger's left pages, clear enough that Crom could read the page's runes. Roderic tapped an arm at a small circle towards the right side of the slate and the image abruptly changed to one of the Ledger's right pages. Another tap, and it was back on a left page, except it looked a little different, and as Crom studied it, he realized that Roderic had been going through the pages of the Ledger in order.
His jaw dropped. He didn't know how this little contraption had done it, but…
"Ah! You copied our Ledger!" the Druddigon cried.
"In a manner of speaking," Roderic said. "This codex was made by human magic ages ago and was specifically built for my kind to manipulate. It's a bit worse for wear, but it still does what it's supposed to."
The Ghost-Type laid the slate back down on the desk on its back, before the spike and arms on it withdrew, and his body emerged from its surface. He floated up, before turning to Crom with a crackling buzz.
"It's one of the treasures of Starbreak Square, and in all the long years since its founding, we've never found a second one in working condition."
Trizano and the others stared in awe at this 'codex' on the table. That little device could really make pictures that looked so life-like? Why, if it wasn't for scuffs on its glass, the pages would have looked real enough to try and touch!
The Skarmory opened his mouth to ask further about how this 'codex' worked, only to notice that Roderic's expression had taken a stern and grave turn. The Rotom went up to him and his companions, bobbling back and forth with a gaze that seemed visibly suspicious of them.
"… Did you know about what was in here?"
Trizano blinked at the Rotom's question, before giving a wary tilt of his head.
"What, about the Empire and Company working together to take Yveltal's egg from Nagrobek and bring it to Conntow?" the Skarmory asked. "We had an idea, yes."
"No, I was talking about the parts saying that Queen Erna specifically directed that Yveltal's egg be brought aside and put under experiments to try and accelerate its incubation," Roderic replied. "Ones that were conducted under supervision of the Royal Navy."
Trizano stared back in puzzled silence as something bothered him about the Rotom's reply.
He knew from the Ledger that the Empire and the Company had been looking for a Protector with 'the power to lay waste to Anylla's enemies'. But who on earth would those enemies be? The years just before the Great Calamity seemed like a quiet time where Anyilla was at peace with other parts of the Cradle like Linglan or Garanza, and the Empire and Company worked together at the time, so there would've been nothing for them to fight over…
Would there?
"… We didn't get to that part yet," Ander murmured. "We'd only made it through the earlier parts of the Ledger before we were forced on the run from Starpeak Square."
"I'm not sure what you're doing with a book like this, but perhaps it's for the best that I made a record of it, then," Roderic replied. "I'm sure there's quite a bit more this book will have to say once its contents are reviewed a bit more carefully."
"That shouldn't be a problem, Roderic."
Team Traveller turned their heads at the sound of the door to the room opening, where they saw Nina and the rest of Starbreak Square's Elders, flanked by a small party of guards. The Typhlosion walked up to the table and snatched the red ledger with a sharp huff.
"We'll be holding onto this for now," Nina said. "Between it and the records Roderic made of it, we should be able to go through its contents significantly faster."
Team Traveller's members' stiffened up at the Typhlosion's reply, as Crom reflexively darted forward raising a hand in protest.
"W-Wait, that's ours!" the Druddigon protested. "We need that to force the Company and the Empire to leave Pleo alone!"
Nina stepped back and narrowed her eyes as the nearby guards stepped forward and closed ranks around her. Pleo bit his tongue and quietly fretted to himself over whether or not they'd made things worse.
"I said we were holding onto it for now," Nina scoffed. "We have a secure chest in my office that we'll be putting it into for safekeeping. No harm will come to it there."
The High Elder turned her face down into an icy frown, making a point of letting her gaze linger on Pleo for a moment before turning away.
"If we decide we can trust you, we'll return it to you afterwards."
Pleo grit his teeth and sucked in a quiet breath as his companions visibly faltered. He didn't like this at all. That Ledger was the only piece of three that they had to show for their efforts so far and now Nina was just going to walk off with it? How long would it take until she decided that she trusted them? What if she never did?
… Except, the Elders also wouldn't help them with Starpeak Square or rescuing their friends if things devolved into a fight between them, or even agree to let them go. With how intertwined everything was, maybe it didn't make sense to raise such a big fuss right now. Pleo hesitated for a moment, before letting his gaze drift down to the floor with a grudging sigh.
"If it's really the only way to convince you," the Lugia murmured. "I guess we can wait a little."
"Glad to hear," Nina harrumphed. "Though we have other matters to tend to. It's getting late enough that it's time we bring you to a place to pass the night."
Pleo and the others weren't sure what to make of what sort of 'place to pass the night' Nina had in mind, but followed along anyways. Before they knew it, Nina and the others brought them back through the building's hallways and retraced their steps to the entrance hall of the Elders' compound. Pleo came to a stop amidst the cool blues of glowmoss and looked around as his companions and their guards filled in. The Elders were off on the side, pointing at Pleo every now and then as they talked to each other in hushed voices. About what, he couldn't tell.
There was a nudge against his wing, as he looked up and saw one of Margi's side-heads, along with the Hydreigon craning her central head down with a hushed whisper.
"Are you doing alright, Pleo?"
Pleo hesitated at Margi's question, before looking away with a quiet sigh.
"Yeah, we're okay," he said. "It's just that… I wish it wasn't so hard to convince everyone that I'm really not this scary monster that they're so afraid of."
Margi looked away as they made it to the doors and exited the building. The Rillabloom and Alcremie guards were still there and eyeing Pleo carefully, only for them to turn their heads as the sound pattering feet rang out. Pleo looked over himself, and much to his surprise, a black-and-blue blur shot out. It was Daraen, bounding out in front of the group and wagging his tail expectantly.
"Oh! You're finally done!" the Deino cheered. "I'd been waiting for a chance to have a rematch with you at Substitute Battling! I even got the Substitutes together and everything!"
Margi blanched and her wingbeats quickened as her fellow guards traded flummoxed looks with one another, a Golbat giving a grumbling "Is this kid serious?" under her breath. The Marked Hydreigon stooped down and cracked an awkward, grimacing smile, as she nudged at her child and attempted to turn him away.
"Er… mon petit, you should go back home. It's getting a bit late right now," Margi insisted. "We were going to show Pleo and the others to their place to sleep tonight."
Daraen's head drooped in response. He nuzzled insistently back at his mother and let out a disappointed whine.
"Aww… so soon?" he asked. "But it's not even time for dinner yet!"
The Golbat from the group beat her wings a few times, before flying over with an impatient huff.
"Look, kid. They're going to be spending the night in a holding cell," she snapped. "They can keep themselves entertained by doodling on the walls or something."
Margi shot a low growl over at the Golbat which drew a stifled cry and quickly prompted her to back away. Even so, the damage had already been done, as Daraen sharply stiffened up and Team Traveller's eyes shrank to pins. Not least of all Crom's as the Druddigon's mouth flopped open with a startled stammer.
"Wait, what?! H-Hold on a minute! Nobody said anything about us getting locked up in a holding cell!" Crom protested. "I thought we were getting a place to spend the night!"
"Crom, you do remember that we're prisoners right now, right?" Ander asked. "Where did you think they'd keep us?"
Crom froze and set his teeth on edge. Right, they had surrendered themselves in order to come into Starbreak Square. He… just hadn't been expecting that the Pokémon here would really keep them behind lock and key again.
"B-But you don't need to do that!"
Daraen's voice cut through the air as he hurriedly stepped between Team Traveller and the other Marked. The Deino reared up on his hindlegs, piping up in sharp protest.
"You don't have to put them in some sort of awful cell if you need a place to keep them!" the little dragon insisted. "They can just stay with me and maman!"
Daraen perked up and wagged his tail happily, his diminished sight blinding him to the slackened jaws and incredulous scowls being leveled at him from the other Marked present. Nina and her fellow Elders leveled withering glares at Margi, who craned her necks around her child with a shushing hiss.
"Mon petit, that's quite enou-"
Much to her surprise, her child abruptly pulled back from her. Daraen shuffled back a few paces and stomped the ground with an insistent huff, raising his voice loud enough that Crom and his fellows briefly flinched at how forceful and loud it was.
"But I mean it!" the Deino cried. "If Pleo's really this big, scary demon, shouldn't we not be doing things that would make him upset?"
Crom grimaced, expecting to hear poor Daraen get an earful from Nina and the others, only to notice that she and the others were looking over at Pleo tensely. The other guards' mood had turned as well, as they began to grow uneasy, while a few like a Murkrow were visibly shrinking away.
"U-Um? Elders?" the Murkrow gulped. "Just who is going to be watching them tonight anyways?"
The other guards traded looks with one another as a few nervous laughs floated in the air, along with one of the guard's voices protesting that "Can't make it, the mate and the kids all came down with stomachaches this morning" in a bit too eager of a tone. Even here in a secluded village dug into a bunch of rock tunnels, some things really didn't change about Pokémon.
Margi briefly traded looks between her peers and Team Traveller, and noticed her child nosing up at her pleadingly. She hesitated for a moment, before sighing and clearing her throat as she turned back to the Elders and bowed her central head.
"Er… if I may, Elders," the Hydreigon began. "But even if it does sound a little strange, you do have it as practice to arrange alternative lodging for prisoners in the event that the holding cells are all occupied or otherwise unusable. And house arrest is one of those alternatives…"
A moment of blinking silence passed among the five, before the Spidops among them folded his arms and let out a growling harrumph.
"I'm sorry, why should we think that this is a good idea again?"
Margi uneasily exhaled before she glanced back at Team Traveller, and after a lingering pause, turned back to the Spidops and the other Elders.
"I have been at the demon's side for most of the day precisely because the others thought I was best able to handle him," she said. "If he were in my quarters, it would make it easier for me to watch over him, and it would also be less likely to antagonize him than trying to pen him up in a holding cell…"
Nina said nothing for a moment as her Spidops and Chatot companions in the background traded glances with each other and whispers of "Could that actually work?". Elder Siana's mood took a sharp turn for the worse, as the Espeon stomped forward with her eyes narrowed and her ears pinned back, pointing her snout up at Margi.
"Pah! That's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard!" the Espeon spat. "There's no way we'd ever agree to that!"
"I can't believe you four! Why on earth would you agree to this?!"
About fifteen minutes later, Team Traveller stood unbound in one of the town's tunnels in front of a rock-hewn entrance with a cloth hung over it—Margi's house, they presumed. The guards around them were fidgeting uneasily as Siana shot a dirty glare up at her counterparts, especially Margi, who seemed to be on pins and needles during the entire trip over and through the whole process of them getting untied. The others reacted with a chorus of sighs, Nina not bothering to hide a roll of her eyes, before the Spidops of their number turned his attention over to Margi with a stern scowl.
"Margi, we are taking a significant leap of faith with your and your child's ability to tamp down that fiend's destructive tendencies," the Spidops reminded. "If he harms so much as a hair of anyone outside your house, there will be consequences for you."
Margi subconsciously gulped as the color drained from her face. Pleo noted the visibly anxious turn in the Hydreigon's demeanor, before turning his head back to the Spidops and narrowing his eyes into a sharp glare.
"I'm not going to do anything like that," Pleo huffed. "So you can stop being so mean to her."
The other guards traded looks with one another, as a few of them went up beside Margi to try and insist "it's not too late to change your mind". Crom opted not to press the matter and to try and think about something else. He poked his head in past the door and saw that Margi and Daraen's house looked downright barren: a low table in the center with a glowmoss lantern on it, some worn cushions around it, and what looked to be a beat-up chest in the corner… and precious little else.
He turned back out to his surroundings and tried to glimpse past the guards and the other houses down the lane. It was a bit difficult to get a good look from how they had ringed them and attempted to cut off the view from the outside world, but judging from how close the other entrances were to each other, space in Starbreak Square was a precious commodity.
Though that made him wonder…
"Actually, how do you and your mom already have a house, Daraen?" the Druddigon asked. "You've only been here for a couple weeks."
"It's… technically not ours. It got assigned to maman after she joined the guards here," Daraen explained, flusteredly turning his head away. "When we first came, we slept on a mat in a communal hall."
The young Dragon-Type visibly perked up, wagging his tail as he nosed ahead eagerly at the entrance to the stony dugout.
"But that's not to say it's bad!" he insisted. "Even if it's different from home, the other Pokémon here have been nice neighbors and nothing but friendly to us!"
Crom turned to steal further glances of his surroundings past the guards, and saw that the entire tunnel was vacant aside from the forms of Marked Pokémon poking their heads out from windows and entrances. Some stared worriedly and were tense, as if they'd been backed into a corner. Ander noticed that others were visibly trembling or in the case of some younger-looking Pokémon, cringing behind larger siblings or their parents to try and hide themselves. The Scyther quietly breathed in, before turning back to Daraen with a sighing shake of his head.
"Somehow I doubt they're going to treat us the same way," Ander remarked.
"A-Aah! What are you doing?!"
The sound of thumping footsteps hurrying in turned everyone's gaze to their right. There, lit up in the warm glow of startled fire, Bunsen approached with widened, frightened eyes. The Charizard pointed a claw shakily at Pleo and raised his voice in stammering protest.
"E-Elders?! Wh-What's the meaning of this?!" Bunsen cried. "Wh-Why would you bring the demon here?! My family and I live in this tunnel!"
Pleo and his companions blinked and looked about their surroundings. They hadn't noticed these tunnels looking familiar on their way over. Was it really that close to where Bunsen had darted back off for his family?
… They sure had a knack for running into this 'mon again even when they didn't want to. Pleo froze, half-expecting that the Elders would promptly shuffle them off for the Cells over the outburst, only to notice them staring back with sharp scowls. Nina in particular seemed particularly unimpressed, as she approached the Charizard with a piercing glare.
"He has been assigned to house arrest under the supervision of a guard particularly well-suited to reining him in," Nina answered. "That happens to be Margi here, and that's all there is to it."
Bunsen's jaw flopped open in startled shock, as the Charizard's tail-fire visibly flared up and he began to sputter in protest.
"B-But-"
Before Bunsen could get out another word, Nina stomped up and grabbed his scarf. The Charizard yelped as the Typhlosion yanked his head down to her eye level, and bared her fangs with a low snarl.
"Need I remind you, Charizard, that it was because of your cowardice that the demon found this haven in the first place?" Nina snapped. "Unless you're going to volunteer to help Margi keep watch over him tonight, kindly sit down and shut up."
Pleo and his companions watched as the color drained from Bunsen's face and he began to squirm, getting out little more than weak, defeated-sounding protests. Pleo sighed, when he felt a scaly, firm presence prod at his back. A glance up revealed Margi shaking her head with a low murmur under her breath, as she motioned off with her free arm-head for her home's open doorway.
"Come on, we should head in. It's getting late."
"A-Agh!"
Elty whined as he laid curled on the floor of his cell, spasming as the others inside looked on. From her place beside him, Nida quietly sucked in a breath and traded glances between him and the hallway outside their cell.
Just as they'd hoped, running footsteps came down the hall of the cellblock, the sign of pirates coming to check up on them. And soon enough, there was a green Vivillion, a Medicham, and a Toedscruel in pirate colors sizing them up through their cell door. The others in the cell traded worried looks as Nida looked up from Elty's body and flared her ears back with a piercing glare.
"Why are you just standing there?!" the Nidorina cried. "Our friend's seriously ill right now! He needs to see a medic!"
The pirates hesitated and traded glances with one another. The Vivillion from their lot fluttered his wings uneasily and shot a wary frown at his counterparts.
"Will the captains even let us take them out?" the Vivillion asked. "And is it really the end of the world if one prisoner keels over?"
Elty suddenly began to audibly gag and retch, as even the nearby Pokémon in the cell inched away just in case the Growlithe lost his battle with his stomach. The pirates flinched from the sight, as the Medicham recoiled in visible disgust.
"Yeah, no. I don't want to lose my lunch every time we have to come here," the Medicham said. "Carla, go get the medical supplies before he throws up."
The Toedscruel of the group headed off as Elty gulped and panted while Nida and her cellmates stayed next to him. The Nidorina tensed up and quietly flicked her ears as she stole a glance at the departing Toedscruel. So far, so good… the pirates had been buying their ruse like they'd hoped, even if for a moment she was worried that Elty really was about to throw up in earnest.
A moment later, the sound of the cell block's door opening rang out, as the Vivililion and Medicham's eyes drifted off down the hallway outside as the Toedscruel returned. All the while, Nida and Elty braced themselves as the Toedscruel approached, now holding a bag between her tendrils. A brief glimpse revealed the others in the cell were quietly moving towards the front, a few bracing their feet and limbs for the moment the pirates opened their cell's door.
The Medicham went up and slid the key into the lock, but, before she could twist it, she and the pirates around the cell door suddenly tensed up and backed away. Elty blinked in confusion, as he raised his head from the ground and began to stammer in protest.
"H-Hey, what are you doing?! I thought you were going to help-!"
The words abruptly died in his mouth when he saw a sudden glob fly in towards him from the hallway.
"Yipe!"
Elty hastily sprang back as the glob burst against the ground and Nida hurriedly pulled him from the cell's bars. Startled cries rang out as the two looked back at the cell door, where they quickly discovered a puddle of purple sludge pooled at the entrance. Off on the other side of the bars, the pirates were now wide-eyed and keeping their attention trained further down the cell block as a sharp hiss hung in the air.
"Well now, looks like your friend is feeling better already."
That was as good a sign as any that things weren't going well. Elty pinned his ears back and grimaced, Nida noting that the Growlithe seemed to recognize the voice. The sound of something sliding against the stone flooring carried along as the pirates from earlier hurriedly shuffled aside. A Seviper in the Strongjaw Gang's colors slithered in and stopped at the door, flicking her tongue in the air with an unamused harrumph. The serpent coiled around and reared up as she looked over the various Pokémon in the cell. Her gaze fell on Nida, as she narrowed her eyes and flashed her fangs menacingly.
"Did you really think that we'd fall for a ruse like that?" she spat. "Honestly, I'd have expected better from you, Marley."
Nida blinked as the Seviper glared down at her. The Nidorina hesitated briefly, before tilting her head with a puzzled frown.
"… Actually, it's 'Nida'. Marley's my mami."
The Seviper flicked her tongue and visibly paused as questions began to swirl in Nida's mind. How on earth did this pirate even know about mami? Had mami fought her off during a past raid?
Nida snapped back to attention after hearing the Seviper slithering back, and looked up to see the pirate turning away with a scornful huff.
"Hrmph, and here I was ready to give you an earful for winding up behind bars like this, but that would certainly explain a lot," she scoffed.
Nida looked back in her cell, and noticed that all of her cellmates from Tromba seemed to be on-edge from the Seviper, while everyone else was mystified. Even Elty, who had recognized the Seviper's voice, traded glances between her and Nida with his mouth hanging open in astonishment.
"I'm sorry, how do you two know each other again?" the Growlithe asked. "That's the first mate of the Strongjaw Gang right there!"
From towards the back of the cell, Pladur let out a startled cry. Now that Elty was looking at him, he saw that the Fraxure's eyes were shrunken to pins as he pointed a claw at the Seviper pirate.
"Sh-She's-!"
"Akane. Tromba's former Captain of the Guards," the Seviper sneered. "Good to see you still remember me, lizard."
Nida stared ahead with a dumbfounded expression as an unamused scoff rang out from the other end of the hall. There in his cell, Duke Franz turned up his beak with a disapproving scowl.
"Hrmph, I knew that the Company had low standards, but this is still quite the admission on your part, Vipitis," the Empoleon said. "I can only imagine how happy the Pokémon who used to put up with you were when you left to go and ply the seas as unwashed scum."
Akane whirled around briefly, hissing and brandishing her tail with a threatening wave.
"Shut up before I cut your throat, spear-head."
In her cell, Nida's mouth hung open as she tried to process the Seviper's words. Th-That wasn't right! After all, mami had told her stories of how she'd fought Darzin off with the town, and every time in those stories, she'd said…
"But you can't be the old Captain of the Guards! Mami had that job when Darzin ruled our island!" Nida said.
Akane turned back, her tail settling beyond a barely noticeable sway as she peered down with a dismissive scoff.
"Oh is that what she's saying about it these days?" the Seviper asked. "High talk from someone who lost her position for not doing her job and then stirred up a revolt over it!"
Nida raised her barbs in response. The entire revolt against Darzin, because mami didn't get her way? That didn't sound anything like her mother! Even if her temper made her a bit scary at times, she was la Cazadragones! Everyone else in Bluewhorl Town spoke of her as a hero!
Nida shot up and latched onto the bars, raising her voice in sharp protest.
"But that's not true! Mami always looked out for the town as the Captain of the Guards!" Nida insisted. "She drove Darzin off along with everyone else because he kept trying to force her to look the other way while his underlings bullied everyone around!"
"Tch, more like because she wasn't any good at her job and was mad about being sacked," Akane spat. "And do you really believe that drivel about her being some hero? Tarquin and I had her on the ropes before the rest of those stupid peasants got involved!"
Nida pinned her ears back as she stared up at Akane. This couldn't possibly be the full story… could it? The Seviper noticed her visibly wavering and cocked a smug smirk, leveling her eyes down with a contemptuous sneer.
"Though even so, I was expecting more than this from a child of hers," the serpent remarked. "Guess talent just doesn't run in the family."
Akane's smile then slid off her face, as she sized up the rest of the cell's occupants with a harsh glare.
"Though enough chit-chat. All of you blue-scarves in the cell, get up. You're being moved to solitary."
Nida tensed up at the mention of 'solitary' and saw Pladur and Elty's eyes visibly widen, with Pyry and Pekka looking similarly alarmed. She didn't think that Tromba had any solitary cells anymore, but she knew enough from the stories of when it did that it was a place that they really, really did not want to be in.
Though weirdly enough, the guards who had been crammed in the cell with them looked genuinely confused, with a Lairon among them raising her brow.
"Wait, we have solitary confinement cells here?" the Lairon asked.
"You do now," Akane retorted. "We didn't have to change up all that much to get it set up either."
Elty sucked in a sharp breath and braced himself. Why were the pirates suddenly worrying about them being mixed with the other Pokémon they captured? They hadn't cared to separate them the entire time since capturing the garrison…
Something had changed, and he wasn't sure if he was going to like finding out just what it was.
"And why are you doing this again?"
"To make sure your bird friend comes quietly," Akane answered. "Especially if he wants you to leave this town alive."
Elty felt the blood flush out of his face at the Seviper's answer and stood blankly, before he felt scales brush past him and saw Pyry and Pekka forcing their way before him and planting their feet for battle.
"As if we're just letting you drag our friends off!" the Gabite growled.
"Yeah! It's all of us against you four!" the Vibrava piped up. "Maybe you're stronger than us individually, but we've got numbers on our side!"
Nida and her companions joined in and braced for battle, and even the guards with them in the cell did much the same. The Toedscruel and Vivillon seemed visibly taken aback, and even the Medicham hesitated, yet Akane remained unfazed. Nida wasn't sure if that was a good sign, but the others didn't seem to pick up on it, least of all the Hakamo-o guard with them. The Dragon-Type went straight up to the bars with an audible jangle of his scales, baring his fangs and flashing his claws with a threatening snarl.
"Hah! Go ahead and open that door!" the Hakamo-o spat. "See what happens to you!"
"Carla, orb 'em."
Akane twisted the key with the tip of her tail and pulled the door open slightly as the Toedscruel lobbed a peach orb through the gap against the rear wall. At once the cell filled with mist as yelps and cries rang out. Shadows moved about frantically as the sound of coughing filled the air, followed by bodies slumping against the ground. The Hakamo-o was undeterred and growled and braced himself before he looked back and his jaw flopped open.
Everybody else in the cell had fallen victim to the Slumber Orb, and were sprawled out asleep on the floor.
"H-Hey! How is that fair?!" he stammered.
Akane opened the door the rest of the way and moved forward with a threatening hiss. The color drained from Lutz's face as he backpedaled, poison beginning to build up on Akane's tail as she readied to strike. The Hakamo-o hurriedly retreated into the far corner, shielding his head as the snake loomed over him, before she turned aside with a disgusted scoff.
"Hrmph, I thought so."
The Seviper turned her attention to Nida and dragged her along as the other pirates came in, carrying off Elty and Pladur. They left the cell and slammed the door shut behind them as cries of protest rang out from the other cells. Among them was a loud rattle as Duchess Augusta stormed up to the bars of her cell and shook them.
"Vipitis, set them down right now!" the Quaquaval demanded. "If so much as a plume is harmed on them-!"
Akane swiped her tail over the bars just above Augusta's hands, making her stumble back out of reflex with a yelping start. The Seviper hardened her gaze into a sharp glare, before turning her attention down the length of the cell block.
"All of you, sit down and shut up," she hissed. "If everything goes well, we'll be gone in a day or two and this won't be your problem. Get in our way, and we'll make you regret it."
Akane continued on for the door, briefly noting that some of the Pokémon were staring on with worried gazes while a few of others shot unimpressed frowns at Team Traveller's cell, including one of the other guards giving a grumbling 'Seriously, Lutz?' that she could just make out.
She paid them no mind. She'd gotten what she'd come here for, and cast a glance over at the slumbering Nidorina of the group as a knowing smile came over her face.
"Though really, I wouldn't mind them trying to fight back," she said. "It'd be a chance to settle some old scores."
After their house arrest began, Pleo and his teammates quickly discovered that there wasn't much to do during it. They could still walk around freely inside Margi's home, and they were able to have a normal (if modest) dinner at the table in the entrance room, but there weren't many things they could do to amuse themselves with.
One of the few exceptions was a tatty deck of picture cards that Daraen had, which they took out to amuse themselves at the table after dinner as Ander and Trizano helped Margi spread out additional bedding in her and Daraen's rooms for their arrival. Pleo and Crom were surprised at how well Daraen was able to play his game even with his shaky eyesight. Somehow, in spite of being practically blind, after being told what card had been drawn, he seemed to always reflexively know the strength and abilities of the Pokémon on the card in question and how much 'energy' needed to be used for them…
"Ah! I won! I won!"
Given how well he seemed to know how the game worked, it probably should've been less surprising that each match would also end with him winning by a large margin, including the one they just finished. Daraen bounced on his toes and wagged his tail, beaming triumphantly when he noticed a lack of sound from the other end of the table aside from Pleo and Crom boredly poking at their cards.
Even without being able to see their facial expressions, from their quiet and their lack of movement, the Deino gathered that the pair didn't seem to be enjoying themselves. He trailed off, before tilting his head with an uneasy murmur.
"… Are you not having fun?"
Crom and Pleo stiffened up, as a flustered reaction came over the Druddigon's face. He hurriedly cleared his throat, before forcing an awkward smile over his face in reply.
"Well, we're having more fun than sitting in a cell, but… is this all you do for fun?" Crom wondered. "Like don't you also have some other card game to play, or dice, or a board game, or something like that?"
"No, not really. Maman and I had to leave home in a hurry, remember?" the Deino replied. "Besides, I can't see well enough to be able to play most of those games and they don't work as well as this one if I'm told what happened."
Crom supposed that would explain a lot. Even as a Hydreigon, there would've only been so much that Margi could've carried with her before leaving Boisocéan, and toys and games surely wouldn't have given priority over food or other necessities.
… Or friends for that matter. Daraen mentioned back on Boisocéan that he normally played with other Marked in that 'Bastille' place that he lived in. For all any of them knew, he and Pleo had been Daraen's first real playmates in almost a month. A similar pang of worry came over Pleo's face, as he turned over the Deino.
"Don't you get lonely just sitting around like this, though?" Pleo asked. "Since card games usually need at least two players for them."
"Oh, I don't usually do this for fun," Daraen explained, shaking his head in reply. "Normally I play outside with the other kids in the neighborhood."
… Of course. Pleo let out a quiet sigh. While it was relieving to hear that Daraen wasn't as lonely as he'd feared, that didn't do much to stave off the general boredom and restlessness he felt here in this cramped home.
"I guess that'd make sense…" the Lugia sighed. "Not that it really helps us right no-"
Pleo caught himself after hearing a rustling sound coming from the doorway. The Lugia blinked uneasily, and got up from his seat along with his teammates.
"Huh? Who's there-?"
Pleo turned his head just in time to notice the cloth over the doorway had been pulled aside, and there at the bottom was a small gathering of younger Pokémon with Marks on their forehead with a trio of Charmander at the front. There was a moment's pause as the children's eyes widened and the smallest of the Charmander let out a startled squeak.
"A-Aah!"
The youngsters hurriedly scattered in all directions, two of the Charmander dragging their smaller counterpart along, only for him to lose his grip and trip forward onto the ground.
"Ow!"
The smaller Charmander rubbed at his knee and whined in pain. His brother and sister turned around and went back for him, only to freeze and go wide-eyed.
"Are you okay?"
The younger Charmander looked up, where there above him was the long-necked demon looking down at him. The Charmander curled up on himself and screwed his eyes shut with a low whimper, bracing for the end as his siblings rushed over.
Except, nothing happened. There was a pause between the three as Pleo stooped down and held out a wing to the fallen Charmander. His siblings glanced over as Crom and Daraen caught up and slowed as they approached. Their brother cracked his eyes open and saw the Lugia waiting and cracking a small, guarded smile.
"That fall looked like it hurt," Pleo said. "Here, let me help you up."
The Charmander warily grasped onto Pleo's wingtip and stumbled up. As soon as he got back onto his feet, he bolted behind the other Charmander, a passing "are you okay?" from his older brother confirming Crom and Pleo's suspicions that the three were related. The female Charmander warily stepped in front of her siblings, turning her head up with a skeptical frown.
"… Why are you being nice to us?" she asked. "You're a demon, aren't you?"
Pleo quietly winced at the Charmander's reply, before shaking his head with a low sigh.
"But I'm not a demon," the Lugia replied. "And besides, even if I really am one, it doesn't mean that I have to be a mean Pokémon."
The female Charmander blinked in reply as her younger siblings traded glances and the smaller Charmander whispered a "Is that even possible?" to his older brother. Some of the other Marked youngsters they saw earlier started to peek back from various hiding places up the street. Crom hesitated briefly, before giving a small frown at the gawkers.
"He doesn't bite, you know," Crom chided. "If he wanted to hurt you, would he really have gone out of his way to help one of you up first?"
"Yeah, he's a lot nicer than he seems!" Daraen insisted.
The other youngsters slowly began to creep back over, a Marked Smoochum giving a wary tilt of her head as she spoke up from a safe distance.
"Wait, but aren't you supposed to be in Daraen's house?" the Smoochum asked. "Mom said that you're supposed to be in trouble if you or those other Pokémon with you leave it."
Pleo turned back and looked at the open doorway to Margi's home. Right, he supposed that they had been warned to stay inside as part of this 'house arrest' thingy. Even if the elders didn't say that all of his body had to stay inside.
The Lugia waddled back over to the doorway and turned around just at the threshold. He sat down against the ground, poking his head out into the street with a cheeky grin.
"Well I'm in it now, aren't I?"
Crom ducked back into Daraen's house himself, just in case any of the guards came around the corner unannounced. Daraen stayed outside in front of the door as a few chuckles went about the Marked children and the Smoochum mused aloud that their solution had been "kinda clever".
The sound of footsteps came as Ander and Trizano hurried over from inside, only to pause as they saw the gathered Pokémon. The youngsters' earlier unease began to wear off as they began to approach curiously, some more slowly than others. As the other Marked settled in around the entrance, Daraen gave a puzzled tilt back at them.
"Why are you all just hanging around my house anyways?" Daraen murmured.
"We were worried about you!" a Pidgey cried, flapping his wings.
"Yeah, everyone was saying that the demon who came to town was being kept in your house!" a Toxel exclaimed.
Crom looked over at Daraen as he pawed uneasily at the ground. He supposed that Elty wasn't fully wrong about Marked being clannish types. They really did look out for each other. A quiet patter against the ground turned his attention over to the oldest of the Charmander, as he kicked at a pebble with a sheepish expression.
"And… well… we were all kinda getting a bit bored just waiting around at home," he admitted. "Dinner wasn't going to be ready for another half an hour, and we had to do something."
"Yeah, dad's escalivada takes time to make!" the youngest Charmander chimed in.
A metallic rustle filled the air as Trizano stepped forward and quirked a brow.
"'Escalivada'?"
"It's vegetables and berries that are roasted and served with salt and oil," the female Charmander explained. "We were going to eat it with bread tonight."
The four blinked in reply. Neither Pleo nor Crom remembered anyone on Tromba mentioning a dish by that name, but something about the name sounded like it would've come from there. And from the blank expressions Trizano and Ander were giving, they didn't seem to recognize the name either.
"Is that a common dish here?" Trizano asked. "I can't say I've heard the name before."
The three Charmander traded glances with each other, before the older brother of the lot pawed at his shoulder and spoke up.
"I mean, I know that there's at least some other Pokémon here that know how to make it," he murmured. "But dad says his mother taught him how to make it. He says it was common on the island that she came from."
Trizano gave a puzzled blink at the Charmander's answer. Bunsen's mother taught him that recipe? But since when did Pokémon from Vollezee make 'escalivada'? Why there wasn't an island in all of Anyilla that came to mind from the name of that dish…
Unless…
"A-AAH! GET AWAY FROM THEM!"
Team Traveller snapped to attention at the sound of a panicked shout when an orange blur swooped in and abruptly snatched the youngest Charmander off the ground. Pleo and the others recoiled as the Marked youngsters quickly fell back and Daraen let out a startled yelp. As the dust settled, Pleo and his companions looked up to see Bunsen cradling his youngest child with his eyes shrunk to pins and spreading his wings wide in an attempt to look threatening… which didn't particularly work well from how he was visibly trembling. His other children stared for a moment, before hurriedly going up and tugging at their father's scales with stammering protests.
"D-Dad! It's alright!" the oldest Charmander exclaimed.
"Y-Yeah! Nobody's hurt right now!" his sister insisted.
Bunsen froze briefly, craning his head down with his youngest child still clutched in his claws and staring wide-eyed at him. The Marked Charizard looked between his children and the other youngsters, and then at Pleo and his companions at the door, his words coming out with a disbelieving splutter.
"B-But you- A-And my kids- And-"
"Were just talking," Pleo said. "Why would I want to do anything bad to them?"
Bunsen paused as his breathing slowed and began to even out. Pleo briefly scowled over at the former Commissioner, only to see a flash of anxiety come over his children. … Right, they still thought he seemed scary. He'd forgotten about that.
The young Lugia felt Ander tug at him and try to shepherd him off further inside Margi's house.
"Come on, Pleo," Ander sighed. "Looks like the fun's over for-"
"Wait, I need to say something first."
Pleo waddled out past the doorway. He watched as Bunsen visibly shrank back and pulled his wings around him and his child, as the other two and the rest of the Marked stared worriedly at him.
"Look, I'm not happy about what you did to my island, but I'm not going to hurt you over it. Or your kids," Pleo insisted. "We're not fighting right now, so why should we have to be enemies?"
Bunsen stared back wordlessly as his oldest child turned to him and whispered an awed "Wait, you fought a demon?" to his father. The Charizard's gaze drifted towards the ground before he set youngest Charmander down and looked at his children with a firm frown.
"Come on," Bunsen insisted. "We're going."
"Huh?" his daughter asked. "But dad-"
"No buts! We're going home now," the Charizard harrumphed. "This isn't a place you need to be anyways."
The three Charmander paused, before lowering their heads with grudging affirmations and heading off. Their father followed closely behind them, only to stop briefly, and crane his head back at the other youngsters in front of Daraen's house with a piercing scowl.
"And the rest of you shouldn't be just standing around there either!" Bunsen snapped. "That demon and those other Pokémon are under house arrest right now! Go home before your parents catch you causing trouble like this!"
The other Marked kids stiffened up as Crom heard a couple audible gulps from them before they quickly scattered. Crom watched as the passage outside cleared of other Pokémon, and leaned against the doorpost with a low sigh.
"… Do we really have a chance at convincing the elders?" Crom murmured. "If we couldn't even convince the Pokémon that live here…"
Daraen shuffled his feet in reply, opening his mouth briefly to try and say something, only to trail off and think better of it. Pleo drooped and turned to see Bunsen and his children drifting off, their tail fires lighting them up as they made their way down the tunnel.
Just then, he briefly spotted the youngest Charmander looking back at him. He was too far off to make out his expression, but the young Lugia was able to spot him waving back. Pleo blinked and turned back to his teammates with a small smile, content that he'd gotten the answer he'd been looking for.
"Yes, we do, Crom. I know we do."
The morning sun poked through the trees near the southern entrance of Gestirn Island's Mystery Dungeon. The forests and crags were still there, as were the scars left behind by Guardia and Dimitri's battle from the day before. And yet, for all that had remained the same around the area, the atmosphere could not have been more different thanks to the veritable horde of pirates in both red and golden scarves who had massed there.
Hess and Dirk sized up the entrance as they neared, and somehow, even though Hess had rallied most of his expanded crew for the mission, Dirk's mere half of his Crimson Corsairs visibly outnumbered them. It was hard to escape the conclusion that this wasn't truly a joint mission, especially with the way that Dirk sauntered out to the front of his underlings before motioning back at the Mystery Dungeon's entrance.
"This is it," the Bisharp said. "Starfall Slopes. The place where that town full of Marked holding our payday is."
Dirk looked out at the gathered pirates with a steely scowl to silence some lingering chatter. He waited for it to grow suitably quiet, and then continued speaking.
"This should be old hat for everyone, but I'll repeat it again for those of you who were too hungover for the briefing in town," the pirate captain barked. "Everyone will be heading in through their assigned routes in teams of four to try and find the entrances into Starbreak Square's. When you do find one of them, let everyone know through your badges and we'll start staging where we can to make our way in."
The Bisharp paused and folded his arms, letting a devious smirk come over his face before he continued on in a nonchalant tone.
"And if you see anything you like along the way… well, what sort of captain would I be if I didn't encourage you to help yourselves?"
Raucous cheers and sneers about how their victims "won't know what hit 'em!" floated around the gathered pirates as they began to work themselves up over the prospect of loot and plunder. Dirk waited briefly for the crowd to simmer down, when he turned and pointed off at the fog swirling about in the entrance.
"Alright, get your assignments and start moving out," he ordered. "I want that bird back in town before the evening!"
The crowd obliged, Dirk's red-scarved underlings swiftly sorting themselves out while after a little prodding, the others in the Iron Fleet's gold-and-silvers followed suit. Dirk stepped aside from the approach to the Mystery Dungeon's entrance as the first party of Crimson Corsairs already started making their way. The Bisharp made his way towards Hess and Rodion as the Aggron looked between the massed pirates and the Mystery Dungeon, before turning to Dirk with a worried grimace.
"Dirk, are you sure this will work?" Hess asked.
"Tch, that bird and his buddies don't have many other places to run," the Bisharp captain replied. "The Torrent Tsars are handling the main exit and perimeter duty, and the Strongjaw Gang and the smaller crews are holding the fort down in town. As long as we take care of all the ways in and out from that Marked hamlet, we'll be able to keep that Protector penned up until we can capture him."
Rodion folded his arms and cocked a brow in reply. He wasn't one to doubt Dirk's competence—his position and reputation spoke for themselves. Even so, something about how smoothly the Bisharp had gathered all this information in just a day felt strange…
"Can we even trust that information you found out about this place, Captain Dirk?" Rodion asked. "How did you even get it this fast, anyways?"
The Bisharp scoffed and turned aside, idly brushing one of his arm's blades as he spoke without facing the Floatzel.
"I stopped by the local guild and pulled a few of their members aside," Dirk replied. "It turns out Hunters will give you some really detailed information if they're motivated enough."
A quiet pause followed as Hess and Rodion traded uneasy looks with each other. Dirk certainly had a reputation that preceded him as a pirate captain, one that made even many square-necks and Imps quake at his sight. Perhaps they were overthinking it, but hearing Dirk talk about those Hunters being 'motivated' couldn't help but worry them a bit.
"Did you bribe 'em?" Hess asked. "Or…?"
"What sort of amateur do you take me for?" Dirk retorted. "I told them I needed to know all the ways in and out of this dungeon and that if they steered me wrong or I found out later they were holding things back from me, I'd kill their families."
A tense silence followed as Hess and Rodion both grew visibly uncomfortable. Hess fidgeted with his claws, before giving a nervous laugh in reply.
"You were just saying that to scare 'em into playing along, right?"
Dirk folded his arms and narrowed his eyes in response.
"Hess, when do I say anything that I'm not willing to do?" the Bisharp scoffed.
Hess quietly set his teeth on edge with a worried grimace. His crew were thieves by trade, and he was always uneasy about getting his claws dirty like that. Pokémon captured from crews that didn't shy away from murder had to be tough enough to fend off being actively hunted, and they were more likely to see the business end of an Apricorn or Teleport Gem. Rodion had always felt the same way, and the Floatzel had a knack for putting those reservations into words better than he could. And with the way he was stepping ahead of him, it was probably for the best for him to handle making the objection…
"Captain Dirk, you didn't have to go that far to find out-"
"Sounds more like you're too soft to get what you want, Floatzel," Dirk sneered back. "Maybe it'd explain a thing or two about why your crew of gilded incompetents are a bunch of perpetual bottom feeders."
Rodion's eyes narrowed into a sharp glare, as liquid began to gather around his paws and coalesce into blades of pressurized water. Hess hurriedly stepped in between the two, looking over to Dirk with a nervous stammer as he nudged Rodion behind him.
"W-We're getting off topic here!" the Aggron insisted, waving his claws. "Look, you mentioned that there were some assignments that hadn't been filled yet. Maybe it's something Rodion and some of our deckclaws can handle?"
Dirk raised a brow and let his eyes drift over to the still-glaring Floatzel. He locked eyes, before turning aside with an idle wave of his hand.
"Hrmph, there's a shortcut that doesn't have a team assigned to it yet. It's supposed to overlap with the range of floors where Starbreak Square links up with the Mystery Dungeon," the Bisharp explained. "If that first mate of yours really has nothing better to do, he can lead a team to check it out."
Hess and Rodion blinked. For a moment, Rodion's hostility faded, as a puzzled reaction settled over his face and he gave a skeptical tilt of his head back at Dirk.
"… Wait, why are you not handling that yourself?" the Floatzel questioned. "You want to get that bird every bit as much as we do, so wouldn't being able to get to him faster be right up your alley?"
"Because it's a coinflip that you'll actually make it there and not overshoot it by half a dozen floors," Dirk replied. "If you don't, you'll wind up wasting time having to find a link going back up to make the trek to Starbreak Square the hard way."
Rodion's face fell into a sour frown. He couldn't shake the feeling that this assignment was in part meant to just not have to deal with him. Hess seemed to have gotten the same impression and paused briefly, before looking over at Rodion and giving a reassuring pat at his shoulder.
"Rodion, if you don't want to-"
"I'll do it."
The Floatzel sighed and took a few steps forward before looking back over his shoulder with a wary frown.
"Just watch your back in there, alright?"
Rodion turned his head and continued on, calling out and raising a paw to draw attention as a Quilava and some other members of the Iron Fleet approached him. Hess looked on as the Floatzel began to sort his team into different squads, when he suddenly felt a sharp jab at his side and jumped up with a yelp.
"Ah!"
Hess pawed at the tender spot, when his eyes met Dirk's. The Bisharp scowled impatiently up at the Aggron, before turning and motioning with his head off at the Mystery Dungeon's entrance.
"Come on, Hess. Let's get going."
Hess hesitated briefly, only to shake his head and press along. The pair each carried along with a set of underlings, Hess joining up with Kichiro and a few others before heading off into the foggy approach. Their numbers thinned rapidly afterwards, with red and gold-scarved pirates filing into the Mystery Dungeon while Rodion and a small mob of other pirates made their way off into the brush. Little by little, the clearing emptied out, until all that was left was the sound of the wind and a faint rustling.
"Verdammt, we certainly didn't need to deal with this bright and early in the day."
Robbie's voice broke the silence as he emerged from the treeline, followed by several of his fellow guards with Guardia and Dimitri joining at the fore. The Cubone and Kabutops grimaced quietly for a moment, as Guardia nervously adjusted her helmet and looked at the Mystery Dungeon with a low murmur.
"I really hope that Pleo has already left by now," she said. "Since those were a lot of sea-walkers that just went into that Mystery Dungeon."
Dimitri looked off at the entrance, before quietly scraping his scythes together.
"I… don't want to take that bet, Guardia."
Guardia bit her tongue and hesitated. The pirates must've really been convinced that Pleo and the others were still in there for them to come in such numbers, and Robbie still hadn't heard anything back through their badges. Wouldn't they have said something if they left Starbreak Square? The Cubone anxiously dragged the tip of her club against the ground, before looking up at her taller peers with an uneasy gaze.
"So what do we do, then?" she asked.
"Yeah, you're not seriously expecting us to fight our way through that many pirates, are you, Sheriff?" a Heliolisk demanded.
A moment of hesitation came over the group as the other guards traded worried murmurs with one another. Dimitri turned his head off towards the tracks that Rodion and his pirates left behind. He let his eyes linger over the disturbed brush as he thought back to the orders the Floatzel's group had left with…
"That Floatzel… let's follow after him. His party wouldn't outnumber us that badly if things come down to a fight, and if we shadow him, we'll be able to find that shortcut the Bisharp was talking about," he insisted. "It might be our only chance to get a warning in to Pleo and the others before the rest of the pirates catch up."
There was a moment of silence, before Robbie sighed and shook his head.
"I'm still not sure how I feel about our odds if we have to fight that many pirates in the middle of a Mystery Dungeon, or if we wound up overshooting Starbreak Square ourselves and need to find a way back," the Krookodile sighed. "But I'll admit that we don't exactly have many better options right now."
It would have to do. Guardia turned and already began trudging off for Rodion's tracks, slinging her club over her shoulder at the ready.
"Then let's make the most of things. Come on, let's go."
Author's Notes:
- Rüpel - German: "lout(s)"
- Waruvial (ワルビアル) - Japanese: "Krookodile" (Official Romanization)
- Tragosso - German: "Cubone"
- Vipitis - German: "Seviper"
- Verdammt - German: "Damn", "Damn it" (interjection)
