Chapter 8 - Fight
Munternplatz, 19. Herbstmond, 1027 n. d. B.
Sophia,
Ich habe Ihren neuesten Bericht studiert und glaube, dass ich eine fundierte Vermutung über Ihre Trägers-Route anstellen kann. Er wird höchstwahrscheinlich die Route nach Osten zum Treueplatz nehmen. Es gibt nur eine begrenzte Anzahl von Pokémon, die als einzelner Träger eine Gruppe von vier Personen tragen könnten, und ihre Physiologie würde wärmere Flugrouten stark begünstigen.
Dort gibt es einen mysteriösen Orte, der aus einer Reihe überwucherter menschlicher Ruinen in der Nähe einer Reihe von Wasserfällen besteht – Sie müssen Ihre Einheiten im lokalen Dschungel stationieren und auf die Ankunft der Gruppe warten. Ich habe bereits Furier Strachey und Gemeinwebel Frantz zusammen mit einer kleinen Anzahl unserer Abzeichen-Dispatcher und allen Einheiten, die in der Lage sind, die Strecke bis zum Treueplatz über Nacht zurückzulegen, entsandt, um Ihnen zu diesem Zweck zu helfen.
Was mich betrifft, ich werde mit einer kleinen Formation von Fliegern und einem Illusionisten zurückbleiben, um Deckung zu bieten, und Feldwebel Helmholtz damit beauftragen, den Rest des Fähnleins nach uns zu mobilisieren. Sollten die örtlichen Gendarmen die Dyades-Partei nicht festnehmen können, werden wir ihre Träger vom Münsterplatz aus beschatten, bis sie sich Ihrer Position nähern. Sobald wir in Reichweite der Abzeichenkommunikation sind, melden Sie Ihre Position und die Ihrer Einheiten, und es sollte eine einfache Sache sein, die Dyade und ihre Gruppe entsprechend zu Ihnen zu treiben.
Wären die Angelegenheiten weniger heikel und die möglichen Folgen einer Kompromittierung weniger schlimm, würde ich gerne hochfliegen und diesen Träger aus der Luft schlagen, sobald er die Stadtmauern verlassen hat. Aber wir haben nicht den Luxus, unsere Mission im Freien durchzuführen, und daher ist es besser, geduldig zu bleiben, damit wir dieses Abfangen in sicherer Entfernung von neugierigen Blicken durchführen können.
Seien Sie tapfer. Die Dyade ist fast in unserer Reichweite. Und durch sie Unsere Ägide. Unsere Vergeltung. Wer dieses Land, das wir „Wahrheit" nennen, zum dauerhaften Sieg über seine Peiniger führt.
- Dringende Depesche von Graf von Wellenhafen, Lacan Dragoransohn an Ritterin von Herbergau, Sophia Krarmorstochter
From his hiding place in the sleepy residential alley, Dalton and Kate peered out at the 'Restful Plaza' Lyle had spoken of. The Heliolisk tried to fight off fatigue as he thought over the past few hours' events in his mind.
After a brief huddle to talk through their strategy, Team Forager concluded they were best off exchanging the money that they had already snatched into Poké. From there, they would then find a hiding place to bide their time for when the deal between the Togedemaru and Scrafty would go down, to avoid the attention of the Gendarmen. Fortunately, after a bit of searching, they came across a home on the north side of town that had burned in a fire, whose charred husk showed signs it been left barren for some time. Nobody other than Lyle was particularly keen on, in Kate's words: "sleeping in a glorified fireplace", but in the end, they agreed that an ash heap was a better bed than a holding cell.
Besides, they had other things to worry about. Their plan was simple: show up, meet that Dabohru 'mon and any of his fellows present from the Roly-Poly Caravan to blow up the deal before that Scrafty from the alley arrived, and then lie in wait to part the syrup-pusher of his 15,000 Poké as he approached the square. After that, it was just a matter of slinking back to their hiding place to avoid the prying eyes of the local Gendarmen and biding their time for sunrise.
"Should we be worried right now?"
Dalton shot an uneasy glance over at Kate. His partner for their part of the job to blow up the deal with Dabohru. It was night now, well after the moon and the stars had replaced the sun in the sky, and Moonturn Square had since shifted into a sleepier cadence. The town hadn't fully fallen asleep, as much like everywhere else in Varhyde, the end of the day for the town's diurnal residents was merely the start of a new one for its more nocturnal ones. Their ranks in Moonturn Square were noticeably thinner, and as a result, like other places where that held true, the night would be a harsh mistress whose darkness was used as a cloak by scoundrels.
And that was perfectly fine by him, since as far as most 'mons were concerned, they were scoundrels. Dalton glanced up over his shoulder, seeing that past the wall of the timbered building they were hiding behind and out the mouth of the alleyway, was Restful Plaza. It was a small square by an overlooking bluff on the eastern side of town, with a simple wooden railing along the edge. There were some diamond-shaped pinwheels mounted in between larger gaps that spun with the wind in some stretches, while others were visibly falling apart. Off in the distance, the town's Great Spire could be seen towering over its center and jabbing a darkened wedge against the stars and the glow of Waterhead Cave's auroras from further south. The only illumination around the structure at all was a dim glow at its base, along with a few small red lights near its tip to help fliers spot it at night.
Everything had been going smoothly… except it was almost midnight and there was neither hide nor scale to be seen of that 'Dabohru' or any of the others from his caravan.
"Lyle's sure this is the same 'Restful Plaza' that Togedemaru was talking about?" Dalton asked. "I didn't see any sign of him coming in and this place looks deserted."
"Lyle is the 'mon who lives around here," Kate reminded. "If he says this is Restful Plaza, I'm inclined to believe him."
The Sneasel suddenly trailed off and turned her head with a flick of her ears. Dalton blinked and tensed up at the sight. He'd heard that most warmbloods had better hearing than 'mons like him, but whatever Kate had heard, he'd been wholly deaf to it. The Heliolisk reached out to tug at his partner and ask what was happening, only for her to raise a paw and motion for a stop.
"Someone's coming," she murmured. "Keep quiet and stay still for a bit."
Dalton raised a brow, when just past the tree anchoring the center of the square, he saw a trio of Togedemaru walking in and coming to a stop by its trunk. The lot were led by the same 'Dabohru' 'mon who'd met with the Scrafty in the alleyway… and the same one who confronted them alongside his Aerodactyl partner the night before.
Dalton reflexively gulped at the sight of the three Togedemaru. He was hoping that Dabohru would've sent a middleman to handle the exchange, but considering the Roly-Poly Caravan's reputation for being cutthroats in their business dealings, perhaps he should've known better. If they were going to blow up this deal to more safely ambush that 'Iro' 'mon, they'd need to approach those Pokémon directly…
"… I sure hope none of them got a good look at us back at the raid," Dalton gulped.
"Since when do little squeakers like them have good vision?" Kate scoffed. "And we've got different patterns, so just don't get too close and we should be fine. The soak we took on our way out of Waterhead Cave oughta have helped us smell different from last night…"
As loath as he was to admit it, Kate did raise some solid points. If nothing else, they'd be able to flee those three reasonably quickly… or at least in theory. Even if he didn't think much of her lack of education, the Sneasel was quick-witted if nothing else. Kate got up and motioned for Dalton to follow, prompting him to suck in a sharp breath and get up from his hiding place.
"Here goes nothing," he murmured. "I hope we don't have to get them out of here by being chased off."
The pair made over to the plaza by the outlook, the Togedemaru turning to face them as they neared. Dalton faltered a bit as the three rodents stared at him and Kate, the Sneasel continuing on with an unbothered saunter as the Heliolisk reflexively stiffened up while approaching.
He didn't like rubbing shoulders with these three like this. The thought occurred to him that if he tried to pretend to conduct business with these Pokémon in Hightongue, that perhaps it'd throw them from recognizing him from his speech. But he didn't know how that would play out with a party expecting to do business with a bunch of thugs, and if Kate's Hightongue was as bad as her literacy…
Fortunately, none of the Togedemaru seemed to recognize them, so at least they had that much to work with. Dabohru and his subordinates traded puzzled glances with one another, while the leader Togedemaru studied Dalton and his partner. Dalton watched carefully as the Togedemaru lingered for a moment, before the rodent narrowed his eyes.
"Who are Sneasel and Heliolisk supposed to be and what are two doing here at this hour?" he demanded.
"We're here to pay the advance on our next delivery of Lansat Berries for our associates. Duh," Kate snorted, giving a dismissive shrug of her shoulders. "What? Did you walk into a pole on the way over here or something?"
The Togedemaru shot a sharp, frowning glare at Kate over the remark. Dalton knew that their job was to blow up this deal, but Kate had to be trying too hard there. The Heliolisk shot a sideways glance at her, before cutting in with a sharp grunt.
"Ignore her. I believe it was 15,000 Poké as an advance for our Lansat Berries?" Dalton asked. "We're ready to pay it to secure our next shipment, insured this time, I hope."
Dalton reached for his satchel and grabbed for the coin purse inside it. Even if they had all their money together right then and there, he wasn't sure they had 15,000 Poké. But that was beside the point. Their job was to sabotage a business transaction, and from the sound of crackling sparks and the sight of the piercing scowl that Dabohru was shooting the two of them, he and Kate were succeeding faster than they'd expected.
"Your colors different from earlier. And I made deal with Scrafty."
"Yeah, and? You didn't expect one 'mon to turn forty Scheffel of Lansat Berries into syrup on his own, did ya?" Kate retorted, folding her arms over each other. "As for the colors, we didn't feel like risking getting spotted by Grünhäuter in our normal ones. We just yanked some dweebs' scarves for the occasion. Just in case."
Dalton reflexively grimaced and shot a sharp frown at the Sneasel over her casual admission of them having stolen another 'mon's colors. Was she trying to get them in trouble? Fortunately, Dabohru didn't seem particularly fazed by her remark, as he fanned his steely barbs out and raised his voice with a squeaking pipe.
"Hmph. Heliolisk and Sneasel very clever," he huffed. "Yet stupid enough to forget most important detail!"
Even Kate seemed taken aback by the caravan leader's sharp berating, making her trade wary glances between Dalton and the trio of Togedemaru as Dabohru's subordinates took their places flanking him with a pair of stony frowns. Dalton bit his tongue and tensed himself, as he hesitantly spoke up to try and ask his fellow Electric-type what he was getting at.
"I'm… not sure if I know what you're talking about- Ack!"
The three Togedemaru abruptly fanned their barbs and spun, flinging thick bolts of electricity at Kate and Dalton's feet. The pair stumbled back with a shared yelp and fell to the ground, looking up to see Dabohru waddling away with a disgusted scowl.
"I tell Heliolisk's friend to come alone!" the Togedemaru snapped. "You two can tell Scrafty to find some other caravan to do business with!"
The caravan leader turned to the other Togedemaru, turning his nose up in the air with a displeased huff.
"We leave now! Dabohru not getting paid enough to deal with midwits like this!"
Kate and Dalton watched as the three Togedemaru tromped off down the path running by the bluff's fenceline. The Heliolisk laid on the ground panting in disbelief for a moment as Kate got up, dusted herself off, and held out a claw to him with an impish smirk.
"You'd think a 'mon like him would be better at remembering faces," she remarked. "I can't say I ever expected to perform a civil service as an Outlaw, but hey. I don't think those syrup-makers will be pushing their wares around here for a while."
Dalton blinked a moment before taking Kate's claw and letting her pull him up. The Electric-type after the Togedemaru as they rounded the corner and disappeared into the night, before sighing and shaking his head. Thank goodness they weren't planning to stick around for long. This stunt alone was bound to make them unpopular with those syrup-makers the Scrafty was in league with. He didn't want to think too hard about what would happen if they somehow caught up with them.
"Good thing we're leaving this town first thing in the morning," the Heliolisk grumbled. "As if we needed more enemies to deal with right now."
Dalton turned off towards the overlook, where beyond scattered lights in more trafficked districts, the warning lights on the tips of the Great Spire, and flickers of lanternlight from errant windows from huts and shacks in the mass of buildings below, all of Moonturn Square was darkened. It should've hardly been surprising; his own hometown and most of Varhyde's settlements similarly went dark at night by force of habit. Light provided direction to the likes of aerial squadrons mounting hit-and-run raids. Even if the frontlines were presently far across the sea, seventy years of war bred routines among Varhyde's Civils that were hard to break.
Except, he wasn't sure if it was necessarily a good thing for them. After all, they needed to be able to spot that Scrafty coming.
"How do you think Lyle and Irune are doing?" he asked. "I know that we found that safe house, but I'd like to not spend the whole night crouched in this alleyway.."
"Dalton, it's a burnt-out house. It's not exactly going to roll away on us like a wagon," Kate scoffed. "Though as for those two, let's see…"
The Sneasel turned her head out over the mass of rooftops, where after a brief moment studying the darkened scene, she stopped and stared off at a strip of houses. Dalton followed after her, and noticed a pair of fires flicker in and out of existence from an alleyway. The two waited a moment and watched, when they saw it again: three flashes in rapid succession. The same signal that they'd agreed on with Lyle for him to give once he started tailing the Scrafty.
"Looks like he just spotted our mark," Kate said. "Come on, I think I saw another way to get down to that alley earlier."
Down amid the mass of simple huts and shacks under Moonturn Square's eastern bluff, Lyle crept along with Irune in the shadows, following after the same 'Iro' he and the rest of Team Forager overheard talking with Dabohru earlier that evening. The pair watched as the Scrafty, garbed in a tan scarf that Lyle somehow hadn't noticed earlier, skulked down a back alley wedged between crude fencelines. They waited patiently before Lyle gave a nudge forward at Irune's back, prompting her to look back with a puzzled stare.
"Huh?"
"I can't signal Dalton and Kate if I'm right behind the guy," Lyle explained. "Go on ahead and keep an eye on him. I'll come in if you get into trouble."
Irune grimaced briefly, trading a glance between Lyle and then off at the Scrafty as he stopped to pull up his shed skin about his waist and kicked aside a pebble in the path. She gulped and squirmed briefly, before sucking in a sharp breath and stepping forward down the alleyway warily.
"Alright, just… please don't leave me hanging out there, okay?"
"I won't," the Quilava insisted.
Maybe he should've been slower to let the words come out of his mouth. After all, a promise among thieves didn't apply when one's neck was on the line. But after how much she'd struggled earlier in the day, Lyle couldn't help but feel a pang of unease at the idea of just leaving her to twist in the wind.
… Things wouldn't come to that, anyways. There was too much money on the line and too much at stake. Lyle hung back and snuck behind a gap in the fence as Irune made her way forward. He stopped to flash his flames from behind the cover of a set of planks through a yard that had been planted with an anemic-looking berry patch, creeping forward to make sure he wasn't falling too far behind his Dark-type mark to signal his position from the other end. Whenever the Scrafty sounded particularly close, he'd stop and wait a moment to let him drift ahead a bit, much as he did after hearing the Scrafty loudly fuming to himself.
"'Come alone, or else I'll see to it that you never get so much as a Plain Seed through us again!'" the lizard grumbled. "Who does that useless rat think he is? And how hard is it to get my name right? It's two syllables!"
Lyle carried along before he bumped into something hard and wooden and cradled his snout, stifling a yelp as he looked up and saw that he run face-first into another fence. Guess this was the end of this yard. He spotted a nearby barrel propped up alongside it and clambered up, peeking over the fenceline just in time to spot the Dark-type slow his pace and gape about the surrounding alley. The Scrafty looked up at the overlook where Restful Plaza was, when Lyle noticed that the next yard just across the fence stretched past the Scrafty's position in the alley, with another barrel similarly propped up against the far corner.
Lyle vaulted over the fenceline and hit the ground with a quiet crunch of grass, and at once immediately regretted it. In the moonlight, he could see the Scrafty's head crest whirl around, making him tear along and crouch behind a red-leaved Pecha bush for cover just as the Dark-type poked his head over to look for the sound of the scurrying footsteps.
The Scrafty lingered for a moment, before ducking back across the fence and grumbling under his breath how it was 'probably some refugee brat stealing berries'. Lyle breathed out a sigh of relief as he crept for the barrel, when he heard the Dark-type continuing to glower to himself from just across the fenceline.
"Would it have killed that furball to leave a sign of some sort up so that I could tell if he was even there or not?" he fumed. "Like a flag or a rope-"
"Or a lantern, maybe?"
Lyle saw the Scrafty pause and stiffen up, and did much the same after realizing that he was hearing Irune's voice. Gottverdammt, she was giving herself away too fast! The stoat hurriedly climbed up the barrel and peeked over the fence, just in time to see the Scrafty whirling around and staring down his Axew teammate. The Dark-type paused a moment, before crouching and baring his teeth with an audible snarl.
"Who asked you, brat?" he spat. "And what are you even doing here? I'm pretty sure it's well past your bedtime right now!"
Irune hesitated and glanced around briefly, before she shook her head and gave an idle kick against the dirt path underfoot.
"I just was curious, that's all," the Dragon-type replied. "It seemed like you needed an idea or two, and I thought it'd help if I suggested one."
What the hell had gotten into her? Lyle looked down the other end of the alley, where after spotting a pair of scurrying figures, he got his answer: there, Kate and Dalton were hastily ducking behind a makeshift trash bin and looking like they were on pins and needles. So Irune had been covering for them all this time.
Lyle blinked and turned back in the direction of the Axew as she gave an overeager smile back at the Scrafty, which he answered with a sharp glare. The Hoodlum Pokémon stepped forward, audibly cracking his knuckles as he approached and leaned in over the shorter dragon with a sharp snarl.
"Yeah? Well, how about I give you an idea?" he spat. "It's called 'you turn tail and go home if you know what's good for ya'!"
Lyle watched as Irune blanched at the Scrafty's menacing display, recoiling much as if she'd been suddenly jabbed by an Ice Shard. Things weren't going anywhere good, and fast. The Quilava braced himself, fighting back fire along his vents as he heard the Axew gulp and dig her feet in, as she stammered back to the encroaching syrup-pusher.
"That's… an awfully convincing-sounding idea, I'll admit," she replied. "B-But-"
"But what?"
Lyle watched as the Scrafty wound up a punch. That was far enough, they could make do with this. The Quilava hopped over the fence as his vents came alight, coming to a crouch in the alleyway as he raised his voice with a sharp huff.
"But you should try turning around for a moment."
The Scarfty whirled around with a start. As soon as Lyle saw the whites of the Dark-type's eyes, he spewed out a plume of smoke into the lizard's face. Lyle hopped back as their mark coughed and gagged from the Smokescreen's effects, fire dancing on the Quilava's pelt as he arched his back and cried out behind him.
"Get him!"
Dalton and Kate rushed in from behind the Quilava, the Sneasel blowing past him with a slash of her claws at their mark's legs that made him pratfall. Dalton followed, sparks jumping on his hide as he attempted to pass a Thunder Wave off onto the Scrafty.
Lyle ran in to harry the Dark-type further, when just then, the Scrafty sprang back up and knocked the Heliolisk off his feet with a low kick at his flank. The Electric-type yelped and shot back from the blow, tumbling stunned against a wooden fence as the Scrafty cracked his knuckles with a low growl.
"Oh a setup, huh?" the Scrafty snarled. "Well you two-bit thieves picked the wrong 'mon to mess with! Nobody pulls a fast one on 'Iro the Crusher' like this!"
A quick glance at Dalton wincing as he got up revealed that the Scrafty had hit him hard. Hard enough that the 'mon would give them trouble in a fight like this. But Lyle had ways of dealing with that, a burn would surely help throw him off his game. Lyle built up a searing Will-O-Wisp in his throat, only for the Scrafty to spot him and attempt to cut him off.
A frigid gust interrupted the syrup-pusher, Lyle seeing Kate spitting up the tail end of an Icy Wind. The Sneasel turned to fall back, but even with his stiffened limbs, the Scrafty's reach proved to be too much. He brought a hand down in a Brick Break that threw Kate back against a discarded crate and left her gasping for air.
The Scrafty made his way for Kate, winding up a stiff punch as a gout of dragonfire zipped in and struck him from behind. That had to be Irune's doing, and from the stagger it dealt, it was just the opening he needed.
He leapt forward and spat up a spray of bluish-white cinders that hit the Dark-type's arm from behind. The Scrafty reflexively jerked it away and nursed his arm as a burn began to spread over its scales. A brief glimpse past him revealed Kate quickly scurrying off in the background, with the sound of footsteps and a seething growl turning the stoat's attention back to the Scrafty as he turned to face him.
Lyle spat up a few stray cinders with a dismissive huff. If this was the best the 'mon could do, he should just save himself the beating and cough up his money while he was still ahead.
"You're not going to win this one, Scrafty. So make things easier for the both of us and-"
Lyle never finished his words. The Scrafty abruptly lunged at him as dark flecks trailed off his body and caught the Quilava in his side with a tackle.
The stoat rolled to a stop and felt his head hit hard wood, laying there sprawled out wheezing for air. G-Gottverdammt, how?! How was this Scrafty smacking him around this hard with a fresh burn?!
Lyle watched the darkened world around him swirl in his vision a moment, when he felt a scaly hand wrap around his throat to the point where he couldn't wheeze out words. He felt himself get dragged up, his feet feeling empty air underfoot as he gaped up in time to see the Scrafty grit his teeth and ready a crushing bite.
"Lights out, you furry worm!" the Dark-type sneered.
"Lyle!"
A sharp cry from a smaller voice rang out from behind, as Irune charged in and spat up a gout of blue dragonfire. This one caught the Scrafty in the side of his head, and at once Lyle felt the Scrafty lurch and lose his grip on his neck.. The Fire-type fell to the ground and rolled over wheezing as a crackling burst of electricity sailed in in a parabolic arc and knocked the Dark-type off his feet with a pained yelp. Lyle could still feel himself shaking from his encounter and quickly forced himself up, when he saw Dalton still sparking and scowling down at him impatiently.
"Look alive there, Lyle!" the Heliolisk snapped. "Pin him while he's toppled!"
He certainly didn't need to be prompted twice there. That choke hold from the Dark-type stung, and he was all too ready to repay the favor.
"Right! Everybody, get him!"
"Way ahead of ya!" Kate called back.
Lyle dove at the Scrafty with a fiery tackle that loosened his limbs and got his blood flowing. He bounded past the Dark-type, getting a safe distance away just in time for Dalton to throw in a hail of sparks, followed a chopping blow from one of Kate's claws. Brick Break judging from the way the Scrafty recoiled from it—Kate must've picked it up sometime after the Foehn Gang was broken up. The syrup-pusher frantically tried to regain his bearings and attempted to shield himself with his arms, which left him open for Irune charged in with a pair of chops from her tusks at his legs.
The Scrafty jolted up much as if someone had lit a fire under his tail, springing back visibly fatigued and startled from the ambush. He was visibly weak at the moment. Maybe now he was in the mood for giving in and they could wrap things quickly.
"We know you're carrying money on you," Lyle harrumphed, scowling up at the syrup-pusher. "Your partner's gone for the night. Fork it over and nobody needs to get hurt any worse right now."
Much to Lyle's dismay, his demand seemed to have the opposite effect on the Hoodlum Pokémon. The Scrafty shook his head, and in spite of his wounds and audible panting, forced a fierce glare over his face.
"N-Nrgh… I'm not letting you walk over me that easily!" he spat. "Let's see how you handle this!"
The Scrafty sprang forward with a lunging kick aimed square at Dalton, only for Irune to hurriedly shove Heliolisk aside. The Heliolisk stumbled and fought to keep his balance, but the Axew's shove had its intended effect: the Scrafty's High Jump Kick had missed its target entirely and hit empty air. The Scrafty's eyes widened briefly before he slammed face-first into the wall of a nearby shophouse with a crash that made Lyle wince.
… That one had to have left a mark.
The Hoodlum Pokémon stumbled back tottering, cradling his face. Lyle hesitated a moment as the Scrafty groaned in pain and turned away, exposing the back of his head. There wasn't a point in waiting to see if he was still going to fight it out or not, they'd already given him a chance.
Lyle lunged forward with a swift tackle that made the world around him blur in his vision and struck the back of the Scrafty's head. For a brief moment, the Dark-type jerked up and froze, before slumping over onto his belly with a low groan.
The Quilava panted and drew near as his body's flames died down, smoke still curling up from his vents. He and his compatriots warily approached the felled Scrafty, Irune scampering forward to prod at the unconscious Pokémon's body. So they'd actually done it. They'd overpowered their mark, and it wouldn't have happened without the help of the young amateur in their ranks. He walked up, and prodded at the Axew's shoulder with a tired smile.
"Hey, thanks for covering for us back there."
Much to Lyle's surprise, the Dragon-type's expression remained muted and guarded. Shouldn't she be happier right now? All the money they needed to get out of this town and into a safer part of Kingdom on their way to the Divine Roost was now just at their pawtips!
Except… Lyle couldn't see anywhere where the 'mon would keep that sort of money, and from Irune's increasingly alarmed expression, she hadn't found anything in her inspection either.
"Wait, but I don't see any sort of bag," she said. "Wasn't this 'mon supposed to bring 15,000 Poké with him?"
"Of course, and he did" Dalton said.
The Heliolisk kicked the Scrafty over onto his side, before giving a sharp tug at the forward hem of the Dark-type's shed skin. A brown bag flopped out onto the ground with an audible jingle, Dalton picking it up and pulling its drawstrings back to reveal it was filled with gold-colored coins inside.
"He is a Scrafty, so there'd only be one logical place left for him to keep it."
Lyle pinned his ears back after Dalton's discovery of the Scrafty's hiding place. He… didn't need to know that. Irune didn't seem any more enthused about the Heliolisk's findings herself, as she screwed her eyes shut and stuck her tongue out with a disgusted shake of her head.
"Blargh, I hope he bathed recently…" she grumbled. "Though what are we going to do about his 'associates'? I doubt they're just going to let this go unanswered when they find out we robbed him."
"Hermes said he was leaving first thing in the morning tomorrow," Lyle insisted.
He turned a wary glance back at the Hoodlum Pokémon. There was little sign of life to the creature beyond his chest weakly rising and falling. It didn't look like they'd hurt him that badly, but he wasn't exactly a doctor, and it wasn't his job to stick around and check on the well-being of his marks.
"Considering how he's out cold, I think we should be in the clear by the time they find him and put things together," the Quilava said.
Lyle watched as Dalton slipped the bag of coins into his satchel and shook his head, pawing at a deepening bruise on his flank. The Outlaw in him probably should have objected more to the 'mon deciding to hold onto their loot himself, but he needed the same flight tomorrow as the rest of them did. And after seeing where Dalton found the bag… yeah, he was fine letting the Heliolisk hold onto it for a while.
Dalton turned down the alleyway as a few nearby windows began to brighten up with lantern light, prompting the four to crouch and hide against the fenceline. Lyle stayed there and held his breath, where after a few tense moments, the lights eventually faded from view in the windows one by one. Lyle noticed Kate turn her head back briefly, before shuffling out warily. He and the others took it as their cue that the coast was clear. And one after the other, the four brigands emerged from their cover, before the Heliolisk pawed carefully at his satchel and shook his head.
"We should get moving. Our work here's done and it looks like some of the neighbors overheard us-" he started, only to be cut off by a sharp huff of protest.
"Not so fast," Kate interrupted.
Lyle and the others on Team Forager blinked and looked over at the Sneasel. He watched as she walked over to the fainted Scrafty and flashed her claws. He wondered to himself as to what she was up to when her gaze drifted down at the shed skin about the lizard's lower body, and an impish smile spread over her face.
"That punch from earlier hurt," she said. "I'm gonna need a little extra from this joker to even things out…"
The rest of the night after the robbery went by in a tired blur for Irune. She remembered her and her fellow Outlaws sneaking their way back under cloak of darkness for their hideout, where they made their way through the house's scoured yard and climbed up to the precarious remains of a charred loft.
Sleep overtook them not long after that, as the four dozed off underneath the shelter of a listing beam next to a shattered window facing south that overlooked a tree outside, along with Waterhead Cave's auroras in the distance.
"Nrgh…"
As she regained consciousness, Irune wondered how on earth she'd managed to fall asleep last night even with the comfort of part of her treasures beside her. She could feel her joints aching from having curled up on the hard loft floor, and her scales smelled like a firepit. Sunlight pricked her eyelids and she cracked them open to reveal the shade of the timbers overhead, and crawled out from under it to reveal blackened walls and a twilight sky overhead where a roof once was. The wind picked up suddenly and made the Dragon-type flinch, shivering a bit from the autumnal chill when a loud cheer cut through the air and burrowed into her earholes.
"Rise and shine, princess!" a Sneasel's voice piped. "We've got a flight to make!"
Irune stiffened up with a startled grunt, and rubbed at her eyes before she looking up and blinking. There in front of her was Kate, standing beaming by the loft's window with the shed skin of their Scrafty mark slung over her shoulder… and Dalton standing in the background with a hand thrown over his face alongside Lyle sourly frowning and flattening out his ears in annoyance.
"Kate, why do you still have that?" the Quilava fumed. "I could smell that thing from across the loft last night!"
Irune reflexively furrowed her brow in disgust. She must've been more tired than she remembered last night if she forgot about Kate carrying off her… 'memento' during their escape.
"Hey, after getting smacked around the way we did last night, we needed some sort of trophy." the Sneasel answered. "Besides, I doubt that Scrafty's gonna want too many mons seeing him walking around without 'em-"
"Oh for crying out loud!" Dalton snapped.
The Heliolisk snatched the shed skin out of Kate's claws and threw them out the vacant windowsill. The Scrafty's skin sailed up and snagged onto the branches of the tree outside about an Aggron's height above the ground. Irune stared over and blinked at the skin dangling in the branches, when she noticed Kate was also looking over at them. The Sneasel folded her arms and piped back at the Electric-type with an unimpressed frown.
"You do know I can just climb up there and get them back, right?" Kate said. "It's not exactly hard for a Sneasel to get up a tree."
… Gods, the 'mon really needed to get her priorities in order. They didn't need more hurdles for making their way back to Hermes. A quick glance by Irune at her other teammates and the displeased expressions on their faces revealed they must've been thinking about the same, but there was no reason to bicker over this.
Just from the morning twilight in the sky above, it was already painfully obvious they didn't have time for it.
"We're supposed to be going over to Hermes right now since he said he was leaving at dawn," Irune scolded. "Maybe let's not get him asking any awkward questions before we even leave town, huh?"
Her words made Kate pin her ears back. The Dark-type looked about at her other teammates, and after finding no purchase among them, rolled her eyes with a sour pout.
"Tch, you're all no fun."
Irune could already tell this was going to be quite the journey to the Divine Roost. She stooped down and gathered up a small handful of glass beads she'd set out beside herself before falling asleep last night, and hurriedly tucked them away into her bag.
She picked her bag up and stretched before slinging it over her shoulder. Audible rattle from her treasure hoard? Check. The familiar prod of a book cover against her back through the fabric? Check. Her pendant…?
Irune stiffened up and patted down her scarf, before feeling the pendant's tip poke at her chest's scales. She breathed a sigh of relief and cursed herself for being careless enough to leave it on while knowingly walking into a fight. It was her key to finding the treasure she was braving Lacan and his Fähnlein for at the Divine Roost.
She didn't know what she'd do if she had lost it. What was she to do, stop the brigands she was traveling with and insist "let's find the key we've lost" and that if they didn't find it, then trying to make it to the Divine Roost was close to pointless?
… No, the less they knew about the treasure she was after, the better. It wasn't something that Outlaws needed to worry about, and if they understood what it was, who was to say they wouldn't just sell it off?
Or sell her out to Lacan or gods-knew-who-else along with it?
"Hey, are you coming or what?"
Irune snapped back to attention and saw her teammates staring at her from the bottom of the loft where part of it had collapsed into a makeshift ramp. Kate was there, tapping her foot impatiently, as she frowned back up at her.
"For a 'mon who was in a rush to leave, you sure have a thing for staring off into space!" she chided.
"Sorry, I'm… just not fully awake right now."
It wasn't a lie. Even if it wasn't necessarily the whole truth either. Irune made her way down the collapsed end of the loft and down to the ground level, as the four retraced their footsteps in the ash pile on the ground. This house had once been someone's home, maybe many someones', and yet all that remained was this shell that had yet to have anyone rebuild it.
Perhaps it was a fitting portrait for Varhyde as a land, especially if the stories of the more scarred regions near the coasts were anything to go by.
"… Shouldn't we split up the money before we leave for Hermes?"
Irune blinked as Dalton stepped in front of the group's path. Kate abruptly tensed up and pinned her ears back, letting out a sharp harrumph.
"Scales, I can add numbers," she scoffed. "Let's worry about that once we actually make it to the 'mon."
"Bold of you to assume that we'll get a chance to do that," the Heliolisk said. "Considering how there were guards looking around for us yesterday, we should assume that we'll need to pay Hermes off in a hurry."
"Sounds more like you're looking for a way to keep more loot for yourself," Kate scoffed.
Irune looked between Kate and Dalton as the pair traded sharp scowls with one another. Gods, were the 'mons she was counting on to take her to the Divine Roost seriously having a dispute over money now of all times? After all, the solution to this problem seemed straightforward enough…
"Wait, weren't we just going to pool the loot we had from before last night, and then split the remainder afterwards?" the Axew asked.
The other Outlaws blinked and turned over to Irune. She stiffened up briefly, before giving an unimpressed snort and folding her arms with an unamused frown.
"We were ready to pool all our money together before we robbed the Scrafty last night when we were still at least seven thousand Poké short," the Axew reminded. "We all worked together for that job, so isn't splitting whatever's leftover evenly four ways the fairest way of handling things?"
"Technically, I could make an argument for getting a bigger share," Kate interjected. "Since I was the one who got kicked around the hardest…"
Irune had to fight the urge to bury her face in a set of claws and growl in displeasure. From the sharp frowns Lyle and Dalton were shooting the Sneasel, they didn't think much of her argument either. The Dark-type caught herself and trailed off, before folding her arms and flattening her ears with a low grumble.
"… Ugh, fine. We'll do it your way."
The four gathered together by some raised stones that looked like they might have once been part of a counter, when they took their purses with coins out and poured out the Poké they'd exchanged their money into from the prior day. Irune couldn't help but wince a little after noticing that her addition was the smallest of the lot, and by a large margin, but it was best not to dwell on it too much.
The Heliolisk quietly counted up the coins in each pile, going up to what Irune assumed was the nearest thousand. The whole time, she was mesmerized by the gleaming coins. If only she'd had a chance to sleep on a hoard like that for a night…
"Vierundzwanzig… Fünfundzwanzig.₁"
Irune snapped out of her thoughts as Dalton finished up his count of the coins and began dividing them up. The Electric-type's hands rifled through them effortlessly, almost as effortlessly as a shopkeeper might have.
Even so, something was weird about the whole incident. Dalton had been counting to himself in Hightongue. Irune couldn't say that she remembered running into too many Pokémon that reflexively did that before… or spoke with an accent like Dalton's at all. Most Pokémon that did were highly educated, or else occasional Wilders from particularly remote corners of Varhyde.
And the Pokémon she'd heard the most that spoke with an accent like Dalton's over the past year was Lacan. It was probably nothing, but she just hoped that it wasn't a bad omen of some sort.
An audible clink jolted the Axew back to attention. She looked down and much to her astonishment, and saw her share of the loot in a purse by her feet. The Heliolisk took his own share and stuffed it away in the satchel, before turning his attention to the purse with their flight fare in it.
"I suppose that all that's left at this point is picking someone to carry Hermes' money, and-"
"That shouldn't be an issue, Dalton. I'll do it."
Irune blinked and glanced over at Lyle as made his way over to Hermes' money. Dalton raised his snout and narrowed his eyes dubiously at the Quilava, as the stoat noticed his stare and began to smolder in irritation only to catch himself with a blink. Was Lyle really expecting anything different? Perhaps Kate trusted him since the two seemed to have history with each other, but she and Dalton had known him for all of two days. Even if they had a shared interest right now, he had to understand their hesitance… right?
"Look, I know these surroundings better than anyone," the stoat sighed, shaking his head. "And if I get cornered, I've got a way of buying time to slip away so that way we're not left handing empty air to Hermes. That's as good an argument as any for me to do the honors, right?"
"Yeah, Lyle and I go way back," Kate chimed in, leaning up against the Quilava. "And hey, he got us around town in one piece, didn't he? Besides, if you really trust him that little, just hold onto his share until we're airborne or something like that."
Lyle's eyes widened briefly and his vents came alive, but before he could protest, Dalton snatched his purse out of his paws and narrowed his eyes in reply.
"I suppose I can live with that."
… Looked like that issue resolved itself, even if Lyle was shooting a scowl at Kate that looked much as if he'd been suddenly soaked by a bucket of water. All of a sudden, the Quilava tensed up, and hurriedly ducked against the charred remains of the counter with a quiet hiss.
"Quick, get down!"
Irune's heart skipped a beat and she dove for cover with her teammates when creaking and groaning rang out from the direction of the front entrance. The four watched, where through the remains of the front door, they watched a wagon laden with hay pulled by a Meganium drift by. Team Forager froze briefly, Irune feeling her heart race in her chest as she heard Lyle suck in a sharp breath beside her and grumble under his breath.
"Blauflamme. I thought it'd be less active this early in the morning," he remarked. "Guess I should've known better when the town's starting preparations for the Autumn Festival."
Irune tensed up and shot a worried glance over. After the way they'd overheard Lacan's Oberstleutnant talking with the local guards the other day, was it even safe to move around openly in Moonturn Square? Who knew what on earth her or some other 'mon from it had told the guards by now?
"… How are we supposed to make it to Hermes, then?" the Axew gulped.
Lyle cast a glance through a gutted side window and off at a tattered fence. Irune turned to follow his line of sight, where she noticed there was a gap where one of the planks was missing. Behind it, there was an alleyway on the other side not unlike the one they'd ambushed the Scrafty in the prior night. The Quilava hesitated a minute and visibly drifted in his thoughts, before shaking his head back.
"… There's more than one way to the marketplace from here. Come on, we'll take a route off the beaten path."
A quick sneak out through the yard of the gutted house and a hop over the fenceline later, and Team Forager found themselves in the backstreets of Moonturn Square. Their journey down them took them along cramped lanes and alleyways as the town's nightly rhythms increasingly gave way to their morning ones. On their way, the four caught glimpses of the town's life through peeks out into more public parts. There was the Drakloak they spotted nudging an anxious-looking Dreepy at the entrance of the local school with a "Keine Angst, Schatzi.₂ You'll do great today, I know it", the Miccino sweeping the front of a bakery with her tail in anticipation of a new day's worth of customers to tend to, and the less-than-sober Noctowl stumbling out of a bar grumbling over how on earth Pokémon could stand going about at 'this unholy hour'.
The four came across a crossroads in front of a dusty Dojo run by a Crabominable that looked like it was barely trafficked, where Lyle's ears suddenly pricked up at the sound of approaching chatter, and prompted him to hurriedly motion his teammates for a stop.
"Wait, someone's coming."
The four hastily pinned up against the wall in a small alcove at the back of a timbered building. There, crossing the mouth of the alleyway were the same Zweilous and Scizor guards from the day before, the Zweilous' left head let out a yawning grumble as he shuffled along.
"Cripes, how'd we get stuck with a shift this early?"
"Genug jetzt!₃ Here I thought that yappy Floatzel back at the garrison was an earful, but you're sure giving him a run for his money!" the Scizor hissed. "We always start earlier on this day, maybe you shouldn't have been hitting the bar last night if you didn't want to be miserable."
"Oh sod off! We wasted our evening questioning some Exploration Team!" the Zweilous' right head protested. "Some team of red-scarved dweebs called 'Team Trailblazer' or something like that!"
Lyle blinked a moment, and fidgeted nervously as the pair of guards drifted past, and stopped to peek after them briefly as they rounded the corner. The Exploration Team they'd nicked their scarves from were here yesterday? Gods, they had gotten lucky that they hadn't run into each other. The Quilava caught a shock of black fur from the corner of his eye, where he saw Kate tensed up behind him. She stood with Irune hiding behind her, her claws firmly clasped around a whitish Blowback Orb.
"Thank gods they didn't stop and look around," the Sneasel sighed. "For a sec, I thought I was going to have to chuck this thing at those two and that we'd have to run for it."
Surely they weren't in that much danger back there, were they? Though with all the close calls they'd already had yesterday, Lyle didn't want to gamble on whether or not random Grünhäuter in town recognized them or not from the likes of a wanted poster. Just then, Dalton pawed at the stoat's shoulder, motioning off towards an alleyway that led off towards the mass of buildings around the central marketplace.
"Looks like this alley's a shortcut back to the marketplace, Lyle," he said. "If we're that tight on time, we shouldn't pass it up. The extra minutes could mean the difference between making our flight or not."
Lyle stared and blinked at the alleyway. He hadn't come by Moonturn Square that often in the past, but this still felt like a shortcut he'd ought to have used before. And yet for whatever reason, he didn't have any memories of doing so.
"Not sure how I never used this one before," the Fire-type said. "Though good eye, I guess."
Team Forager darted down the alley, making their way ahead when Lyle noticed something amiss. Up ahead, to the left there was a long stretch of reinforced walls, with a taller building with green-and-white banners poking up from behind and shorter attached buildings at its left and right ends. The Quilava and his companions slowed their paces uneasily, when they noticed that emblazoned on the banners was the same triangular sigil of the army.
Lyle bristled and felt fire prick up nervously along his head and rump. No wonder why he didn't remember taking this shortcut! It went right past the garrison where the local Gendarmen were stationed!
"H-Hey! Give that back!"
Lyle froze and watched as his teammates seemed to stiffen up as they heard a familiar, rough voice come around the corner. The four crept forward and peered past a drop-down gate that had been raised up and peered into a large courtyard. There, the Outlaws glimpsed a flatbed cart loaded down with metal tubes and wooden contraptions with springs and levers at their ends wheeling out of the way and felt their blood run cold at the sight behind it.
There behind where the cart had been was a small line of reinforced, boxy wagons, with battered, miserable-looking Pokémon in the colors of their bands from the night before queued up and being marched into them by various Grünhäuter. At the wagon at the very end closest to them, the four spotted a Ledian and Zangoose in green armor plates, the Normal-type of the pair dangling a bony club above the head of a Marowak with his arms tied behind his back with Ariados silk bindings.
That was that Dolch 'mon from the caravan! And that was Alvin he was bullying around!
"What's the matter, tough guy?" the Zangoose sneered. "I seemed to remember you being a bit braver that night out at the caravan!"
The Normal-type's taunts drew an unimpressed buzz back from the Ledian, who flitted up and waved his arms with an impatient hiss.
"Dolch, stop holding everything up!" the Bug-Type grumbled. "Get the prisoner onboard so we can keep processing!"
"Tch, relax, we're not in any rush right now," the Zangoose scoffed back. "So why not have a little fun first?"
Lyle felt his blood boil and heat simmer off his vents. The Quilava ducked back behind the entrance, struggling to fight back angry fire when he felt someone prod at his shoulder. A quick glance over revealed Irune looking up, and staring with worried eyes.
"Lyle?" she whispered. "Isn't that the Marowak that was with you earlier?"
He said nothing in reply, as did Kate and Dalton, when a sharp tak reached their ears. Lyle peeked past the gate and saw that it came from Dolch batting the knobbed end of Alvin's club against his head. The Ledian shot an exasperated frown over to his counterpart, who dutifully ignored the Bug-type's displeasure to lean in and further taunt his captive.
"So what changed? Do you stupid lizards really just curl up in a ball whenever you're parted from your bones?" Dolch scoffed. "Or maybe you're like this because you don't have anybody to hide behind!"
"W-Why don't you untie me and we'll see who's curling up in a ball, huh?!" Alvin snapped. "Let's see how tough you talk then!"
The armored Zangoose rolled his eyes, and gave a dismissive scoff before delivering a stiff jab at the Marowak's belly with his club.
"Oh yeah, you're really intimidating," Dolch snorted. "All your ringleaders are having a nice, long tour inside an Apricorn right now for what's left of their short, sorry lives."
The Ledian twitched his antennae before interrupting the Zangoose with a sharp buzz.
"Actually, I could've sworn the Staraptor with them got a different sentence. Though with that wing of hers and how badly she got messed up, I'm not sure it'd make much of a difference…" he started, before trailing off and hastily correcting himself.
"Wait a minute, why am I even arguing with you about this?! Focus on getting these 'mons loaded up and-"
"Look, will you shut up for a moment? I'm in the middle of something here!" the Zangoose snapped. "I was just telling this dweeb how I seem to remember that Steelix in charge of his merry little band of scum selling out his own lieutenants to try and to save his own hide! Sure worked out great for the lot of 'em!"
Lyle watched as Alvin's eyes widened for a brief moment, before he hung his head glumly. What little defiance the Marowak had earlier had been swiftly stripped away. It took every ounce of willpower in Lyle's body to not just charge ahead and set that bastard's fur alight. Dolch curled his muzzle into a cruel smile afterwards, as the Ledian let out a sharp sigh and loud harrumph.
"Some truly remarkable honor among thieves there," the Bug-type buzzed. "Perhaps that tour in that penal unit you and your buddies are set to take will fix that. Assuming you last more than a week after arriving in Edialeigh. But hey, better you than someone 'mons will actually miss."
"Face it, Marowak. You're alone," Dolch sneered. "And as long as that's true, there's nothing you can do to get the drop on me!"
Lyle pinned his ears back and felt his head spin at the Zangoose's words. They- They were sending Alvin to Edialeigh? As part of the levy that was going around? The Quilava grit his teeth and felt hot, angry flames from his vents and reflexively took a few steps forward when he saw Alvin abruptly perk up
The Marowak tilted his head just enough for the corner of his eye to line up with Lyle's, only to stay in place and go rigid. Lyle watched as Alvin opened his mouth, only to remain silent and gulp down his words. He- He could see them, but the Marowak stayed quiet. He had to know that calling out for would give them away, and so he just sat there, silently glancing back until his Zangoose captor snapped him to attention with a loud snarl.
"And what are you looking at, Outlaw?" Dolch demanded, prompting Alvin to jerk his head back to attention with a startled stammer.
"N-Nothing!" he insisted. "I just thought I-! Ack!"
Lyle felt his blood boil with rage as the Zangoose delivered a stiff kick at Alvin's gut, sending him slumping over coughing and gasping for air. The guard scowled down, tightening his red eyes into a sharp glare down at the Marowak below.
"Then pay attention to some important 'mons here!" he snapped.
Dolch kicked Alvin again, which drew a pained yelp. His Ledian partner flitted back with an unimpressed buzz, though otherwise did nothing to intervene. Lyle stormed forward, only to feel Dalton pull at his ear and throw a paw over his mouth. Irune stared on in startled shock only for Kate to grab her shoulder and do much the same.
"C-Come on," she said. "We're leaving."
Lyle thrashed and tried to spit up fire, only for the Heliolisk's grip over his mouth to remain firm when halfway back into the alley, the cold realization won out against his temper: they were four 'mons, with a stolen bag from a bunch of rookie Hunters. There was nothing they could do.
Lyle felt his mind go blank and his body go limp as he flopped back into the alley and fought back bitter tears. He could see Irune wrench herself free, looking back at her fellow Outlaws with a disgusted glare.
"That's your friend! He's about to be conscripted!" she cried. "How can you just leave him behind like that?!"
Kate shook her head back, flattening her ears and pawing at her arm with a low mutter.
"You think that I like seeing Alvin like that?" she spat "Irune, there's nothing we can do right now!"
"That's nonsense!" Irune spat. "You all fought your way through some of those same guards just two nights ago, and-"
"And we had help for that, which all got caught," Dalton finished. "Seriously, what the hell do you expect us the four of us to do against a garrison like that? Are you seriously telling me that you never had to do this for your 'Balance Bandits'?!"
Irune froze and bit her tongue, as a flash of guilt seemed to come over her face. Lyle couldn't make out more past that, as his eyes misted over with bitter droplets. He pawed at his eyes and looked away, gulping back a lump in his throat.
They were lucky they weren't in that courtyard themselves at the moment. The four of them were on borrowed time, living off the good name of complete strangers until somebody noticed they didn't belong. Even the most romantically-inclined idealist would have to admit that fighting their way through a garrison to come to a friend's aid was a fantasy to say the least. Lyle turned his head at the sound of pattering footsteps and saw Dalton lower his head and shuffled forward towards Irune, patting at the Axew's shoulder with a low sigh.
"I know where you're coming from, and I wish things could be different, but this is just life for Pokémon like us. Surely you know from experience," he said. "And you would know as well as any of us that this just isn't a battle we can win right now"
Irune said nothing back and let her gaze fall towards the ground. Lyle wiped at his eyes and brushed past his teammates. If he never saw this gottverdammten hole again in his life, it'd be too soon. He made his way down the alleyway for the mass of buildings of the central marketplace, turning back to his teammates with a bitter, shaky huff.
"W-We promised Hermes we'd have his money by now," he said. "Let's just get going and get out of here."
The Quilava shuffled forward, his teammates following along one by one in sullen, deflated moods. The buildings seemed to blur together as they made their way down the alley, for the ring of ruins about the central marketplace. They saw the sunlight again after exiting back out into the main square along the back wall of a bank run by a Garchomp who was arguing with a Pyukumuku trying to make a deposit in Carolins and walked out into the morning crowds, when a sharp cry pricked their ears.
"You!"
Lyle stiffened up as he heard a distinctly angry, yipping voice call out from among the crowd. The Quilava hastily reared up and looked around with a start as he tried to find its source.
"Huh-? Gah!"
A jet of water abruptly zipped in and struck him in his face. Lyle yelped and hit the ground, rolling onto his feet and pawing at his drenched facial fur as his teammates braced themselves. Just in time to see a quartet of a Dewott, a Grovyle, an Eevee, and a Houndour storming up. The lot of them sported livid glares, and much to Lyle's blanching realization, the exact same red-and-silver scarves Kate nicked on the route leading into town.
"B-Blauflamme. Just when this day couldn't be going any worse."
Author's Notes:
Words and Phrases:
1. Vierundzwanzig… Fünfundzwanzig. - "Twenty-four… Twenty-five."
2. Keine Angst, Schatzi. - "Don't worry, sweetie." lit. "No fear, little treasure." Usable in a context of between lovers, or as in this case, towards a child by a parent or grandparent.
3. Genug jetzt! - "Enough already!"
Teaser Text - Special thanks to TorchicBellow for Translation:
Moonturn Square, 19. Herbstmond, 1027 n. d. B.
Sophia,
I have studied your latest report, and believe I can make an educated guess as to your Carrier's route. He is most likely to take the route heading east into Toya Square. There are only so many Pokémon that could carry a party of four as a single Carrier, and their physiologies would strongly favor warmer flight paths.
There is a Mystery Dungeon there consisting of a set of overgrown human ruins near a set of falls—you are to station your units in the localized jungle and await the group's arrival. I have already dispatched Furierᵃ Strachey and Gemeinwebelᵇ Frantz along with a small number of our badge dispatchers and all units capable of covering the distance to Toya Square overnight to aid you to that end.
As for me, I will be staying behind with a small formation of fliers and an Illusionist to provide cover and tasking Feldwebelᶜ Helmholtz to mobilize the rest of the rest of the Fähnlein after us. Should the local Gendarmen fail to apprehend the Dyad's party, we will tail their Carrier from Moonturn Square until they draw closer to your position. Once we come in range of badge communications, report your and your units' positions, and it should be a simple matter of herding the Dyad and her party to you as appropriate.
Were matters less sensitive and the potential consequences of being compromised less dire, I would gladly fly up and strike this Carrier out of the air the moment he left the town's walls. But we do not have the luxury of conducting our mission out in the open, and as such, it is better to remain patient so that way we can conduct this interception a safer distance away from prying eyes.
Take heart. The Dyad is almost within our grasp. And through her, Our Aegis. Our Vengeance. Who will bring this land we call "Varhyde" to lasting victory over her tormentors.
- Urgent dispatch from Graf von Wellenhafen, Lacan Dragorans to Ritterin von Herbergau, Sophia Krarmors
a. Furier - More commonly rendered "Fourier", a spelling of French origin. A military rank in Germanosphere militaries given to people who handle logistics commonly rendered as "Quartermaster Sergeant" in English. Historically, every Fähnlein had one Furier/Fourier in its ranks.
b. Gemeinwebel - lit. "common usher". A historical rank in Germanosphere militaries, which in a Fähnlein were elected in pairs from the ranks of its mercenaries to act as mediators between the Captain/Hauptmann and the lower ranks. Sometimes rendered in English as "Common Sergeant".
c. Feldwebel - lit. "field usher". A rank in Germanosphere militaries analogous to a "Sergeant", presently still in use in Germany and Switzerland.