Chapter 2: Back in the Saddle

Johnson Nash was an elderly Diggersby-man in overalls who ran the Santalune City Kalos Express office. He was startled when Dee entered the office especially as she was wearing a Vault Suit.

"Hi, I'm Dee, I'm a courier with the Kalos Express," Dee approached the desk and almost stumbled before she grabbed the side.

"I remember you, didn't think I'd see you again after I heard what happened," Johnson sighed sadly, "Word travels fast out here."

"Actually, I wanted to ask about that," Dee dug the Kalos Express work order out and handed it to Johnson, "Can you tell me anything about this delivery?"

Johnson Nash didn't need to see the report but he gave it a glance anyway, "That job had strange written all over it but we couldn't turn down the caps."

"What was so strange about it?" Dee asked

"That cowboy Porygon had us hire six couriers. Each was carrying something a little different: a pair of dice, a chess piece, that kind of stuff," Johnson handed the order back to Dee, "Last word I heard from HQ was that payment had been received for the five other jobs, then someone said a shiny Lucario-woman had been ambushed and shot. I knew from the description that was you, so I guess it was just your package that didn't make it, what was it again?"

"A big platinum poker chip," Dee curled her thumb and forefinger to show the approximate size she could vaguely recall.

"Right and the first deadbeat we hired to do the job cancelled, hope a storm from the Divide skins them alive," Johnson Nash cursed.

"Why'd he cancel if the pay was so good?" Dee scratched her head.

"Got this look in their eyes when they saw your name next down on the list, asked if it was really your name on the list." Johnson folded his arms, "I said 'sure as lack of rain, you were still kicking' then they turned down the job just like that. I asked if they were sure, it was good money, and they said 'No, let 'Courier six' carry the package' like the job would sort you out or something. Then they just up and walked out."

Dee was stunned and tried to lean forwards, but was stymied by her larger breasts, "Who were they?! What was their species?!"

The Diggersby-man shook his head, "Sorry, I can't tell you anymore."

Dee pressed, squishing on the desk so much it started to hurt, "Why not?"

"Well, forgive the irony of this, but it's because of what happened to you," Johnson gently pushed her back from the forehead and Dee stepped back, "After I heard what happened I decided that giving out too much info on couriers was just ripe with opportunities for petty fools and schemers to intercept and rob them blind, and even if they're not with us anymore it don't feel right giving you info that'll send you to your death."

Dee sighed in resignation, "Can you tell me if a Persian-man in a checkered suit and some Rockets passed this way? They're the ones who robbed me."

"Well, now that you mention it, a couple nights ago when one the townsfolk was up late scavenging for supplies he said he saw a kitty in a daisy suit come through with some of those Team Rocket misfits, overheard them say something about a chip but didn't stop in town. If I'd known they were the highwaymen that robbed you I woulda asked the sheriff to try and detain them," Johnson shrugged, "Sorry. They headed south if that's any help."

"It is, thank you," Dee turned and saw a small wreck of parts including a pair of Ponytashoe magnets and a large eyeball, "Is that a dead Magnemite?"

Johnson Nash turned to the wreck, "No, it's a robot made up to look like one. A courier dropped it off a couple months ago and asked about getting it repaired, I never could get it working and they never came back for it. You're welcome to try tinkering with it."

Dee walked over to take a look at it, checked some of the wiring then shook her head, "If it was just shut off maybe I could get it working again but it's missing some critical components." She turned back to the desk, "Is there dormitory space?"

"Place is empty tonight if you need a place to sleep," the Diggersby-man gestured to the door behind him.

"Is my account still open? I need some travelling money," Dee had drank all the water and eaten all the food on the walk over.

"Last I checked you had a couple hundred saved up, I can have it ready for you in the morning," Johnson yawned, "If that's all I need to close up shop for the night."

"Thanks, and that's all," Dee nodded then headed through the door.

Every Kalos Express branch office had a dormitory for couriers who didn't have place to stay. It was just bunk beds and a small cafeteria for water and simple food. As Dee lay down she felt some relief, her back had started to hurt. It hadn't been an issue before but a combination of bigger tits, lack of a bra and not having trained or properly exercised for two years outside of her long walks were taking their toll, or at least as much as she could remember since the disaster at the Galarian Divide.

Galar…

She had tried to not think about it but Johnson Nash bringing it up only made the memories stir. Her first courier job, taken because it paid the most, took her to the desolate region of Galar, which even then was often called "The Divide". Storms caused by the Dynamax energy native to the region had left only one city, Motostoke, inhabitable and those who lived there eked out a living mostly cut off from the rest of the world. Dee's regenerative ability and endurance meant she could brave the skin-shredding storms to deliver packages to and from Motostoke. She brought life back to Galar, so much so that they had renamed the city "Hopeville".

It was also there she had met her mentor Cassandra, a Braixen-woman who was half-Lucario and looked it too. Cassandra had taught her so much about aura and fighting and showed Dee how much she had changed Galar for the better. To both of them it had become a new home, some place Dee would have loved to settle down. The disaster put an end to that dream, especially once she heard that Helios and his tribe, the Moltres' Embers, had gone far to the east, the same place that Cassandra had come from before her tribe was overtaken by a threat neither of them knew.

Dee rolled onto her side and started to cry as she fell asleep. The next morning she took her saved money, bought food water and a couple antidotes, then left with barely a goodbye.

The walk from Santalune along the paved route was relatively peaceful, barring a few BloatFlygon and Normal-type Gecleon that just charged and tried to bite her, neither of which posed a threat and in fact were a decent source of meat to keep her supplies stocked and some Gecleon hides she could sell. As she had learned from her old friend, a Stunky-woman named Melany, never waste anything in the wasteland.

It was near evening when Dee paused and looked west. She recognized the trail that led to Galar, she'd walked it many times before the disaster. It was probably some sense of nostalgia that made her take the short detour to the wreckage that blocked the canyon. She felt her fur stand on end and her whole body tingle as she approached the pile of burned out vehicles and sheet metal that spanned the entrance, blocking access save for a single door in the side of a bus.

Dee stopped as she came close and stared at the graffiti that had been painted in rough letters across the wreckage: "The Divide" "Courier Six?" "You can go home again, Courier" "Lonesome Road" and a few backwards 6s. It still looked fresh.

"ZANVIPER!"

The word and rattling behind her made Dee spin around, only to be confronted by a nightmarish creature! It looked like a Zangoose walking on all fours but its head was that of a Seviper as was its bladed tail! The "Zanviper" lunged at Dee and caught her off-guard, sinking its fangs into her leg. Dee cried out then slammed her fist down on its head three times until it let go. Dee slammed a Force Palm into the creature's head and was rewarded with it going rigid and she kicked it hard and sent it flying a short distance. She tried to fire an Aura Sphere at it and focused on it, but the bolt spiraled back and struck a rock nearby so instead she charged and punched it until it stopped moving.

Dee panted and winced as she felt the two holes on her leg. Not wanting to take a chance that even being part-steel wouldn't protect her, Dee carefully sprayed an antidote on the punctures then returned to the long walk south.

After three days on the road, Dee's back was hurting again. She definitely needed to find someone to make her a bra or at least take more frequent stops. She came to a fork in the route, west heading off a fair distance to where she was certain she saw a plume of smoke and east up a slope with several derelict vehicles and a pair of statues at the top. Hoping for a rest, Dee decided to march up the slope.

When Dee got closer, she could see that the statues were made of metal and looked like two people dressed as different NKR Rangers shaking hands; she couldn't tell what species they were supposed to be. Dee waved to the NKR soldiers on guard duty and was directed to the HQ for check-in.

Major Knight was an Onix-man, which meant he had a tail instead of legs but otherwise looked like a collection of boulders glued together, including his arms. He looked up as Dee entered the office and spoke with a bored rumbled, "Caravan, citizen, pilgrim or…?" he waited for Dee to answer.

"Courier," Dee replied without thinking.

"Just need something for the log book," Knight wrote the title down, "keeping tabs on traffic through the outpost. Though mostly in, not out, these days," he said the last line under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Dee almost leaned forwards on to the desk but her breasts stopped her.

"Just a lot of bureaucracy keeps people from being able to leave, that and the dangers in Kalos," Knight saw Dee's worried expression, "Don't worry, independents like you can come and go."

"Got a place I can sleep or eat?" Dee stood up and rubbed her back.

"The barracks next door can accommodate you, but you'll have to pay for food and supplies, and if you need any gear fixed we can take care of that overnight, and get a medic to look at your leg," Major Knight replied. "Just don't start any fights."

"My leg?" Dee looked down at her leg and saw the Zanviper bite was still there, no longer bleeding but not healed. That worried her since she had gotten so used to her Ultra-parasite healing most wounds overnight so something was wrong, "Thanks, I'll do that." She subconsciously started limping as she left the HQ building

The barracks' main room was really more of a bar and restaurant with a few patrons sitting around and drinking or eating. Dee took a seat at the bar counter next to a Ninetails-man in leather armor who was busy drowning his sorrows as she bartered the Gecleon hides she'd gathered along the way for food, water, a bunk for the night and some extra money.

"Come from the north?" the Ninetails-man asked, "Lotsa Gecleon that way." He took another drink.

"Yes," Dee looked over at him as she waited for her supper, "I'm sorry you are?"

"Stuck here because of bullshit bureaucracy, so they let me have free room and board," he burped, "Excuse me, don't normally drink this much but not much else to do." The Ninetails-man turned to look at Dee, "Name's Alex Kitun and you are?"

Dee's eyes went wide as she heard the name, "I'm Dee, are you Gertrude's husband?"

Alex blinked then turned his whole body to face her and stared, "You know my wife? Wait… Dee? The Lucario who helped save the New Orange Pass? I didn't know you were shiny."

"I wasn't when I last saw her, it's a long story," Dee chuckled nervously.

Alex smiled and offered a hand, "Nice to finally meet you, Dee. What brings you out to this Arceus forsaken hellhole?"

Dee shook Alex's hand, "Searching for a man who stole a package from me and left me for dead, long story. How's Gertrude and your kid?"

"Gertrude and Flair are doing fine," Alex turned back to the bar counter, "But I haven't seen them in over a year. I guess you'll want to know, Flair's a Zigzagoon-boy." He sighed, "I miss them."

"So why are you stuck here?" Dee turned as a glass of water and a bowl of noodles were placed in front of her, "what about your caravan?"

Alex sighed and took another drink before he answered, "You're looking at all that's left of Kitun Caravans. I was passing through here to rejoin them when I heard they were all burned to ash out on the trails. All my Tauros, trade goods and worst of all: all our friends!" he banged the bar which mad everyone jump.

Dee's heart went out to her old friend's husband as she swallowed her mouthful of noodles, "I'm sorry. Want to come with me? I could use a friend on the trail."

Alex sighed, "I wish I could but the 'caravan clearance' has me stuck here. Doesn't matter that all of Kitun Caravans is sitting right here, without clearance I can't go anywhere and since I have no cargo I'm too low on the priority list for the brass to spend the time needed to clear me. I get it, the whole reason I wasn't with one of the caravans was because I was filling out paperwork, but you'd think they'd be tired of putting me up here and just dash it off fast to boot me out." He sighed, "honestly, I don't know what I'll do when I am allowed to leave, I had all my money tied up in this last set of trips and I was planning to sell Kitun Caravans after these deliveries wrapped up so I could go home and Gertrude and I could finally live our dream," his eyes got teary and he wiped them before he took another drink, "Now I'll be lucky if I can afford supplies to get home… that dream of a restaurant in Trovitopolis, burned to ash with Kitun Caravans and all our friends." He sighed and slumped forwards, "Sorry, don't mean to bitch so much."

Dee put a sympathetic hand on Alex's shoulder, "I know how you feel. I lost my new home and my dreams recently too… I wanted to settle down in the divide, at least after Helios and I could be reunited. Now… I don't even know if he's alive…" She went back to finish her noodles.

Alex sat back up, "Yeah, Gertrude told me he and his tribe went east, probably across the river right into the Kogun's hands."

Dee finished her bowl and turned back to Alex, "What's the Kogun?"

"Guess you're new in Kalos, ever heard of the Gaiva Dam?" Alex finished his drink.

Dee shook her head, "No."

Alex set the bottle down, "It's a big hydroelectric dam that's still standing all this time after the Final War. NKR found it and wants to get it up and running again. But they ran into opposition, a group calling themselves Nobunaga's Kogun on the other side of the river that was formed by conquering dozens of other tribes and led by someone who thinks of himself as the next coming of Oda Nobunaga. They fought over the Dam a couple years ago and the Republic won but couldn't really defeat the Kogun so now they're just sitting across the river and getting ready for another battle." He turned sympathetically to Dee, "If the Moltres' Embers crossed the river they probably became one of the tribes they conquered. I'm sorry."

"Oh… thanks for telling me at least," Dee wiped her eyes as she started to cry.

"I'll buy you a drink before bed," Alex turned to call the bartender over.

"I've never had booze before," Dee eyed the bottles on the shelf behind the bar.

"I won't make you start, how about a couple Sunset Sarsaparilla?" at his words two brown bottles were delivered to them by the bartender.

"What's that?" Dee looked at the bottle curiously.

Alex opened his bottle, "Soft drink that was popular around here before the war. No idea who still makes them." He took a long drink and sighed.

Dee popped the top off her bottle then looked at the underside where there was a blue star. Alex saw and grinned, "Lucky you, you got one of the star bottlecaps. Hang onto it, might be good luck."

Dee took a drink and shivered at the fizziness of the drink, "Pretty good," she put the star bottlecap in her backpack, "You ever find any of those?"

"No but other people found them," Alex finished his drink then got up, leaving a small tip on the counter, "See you in the bunks."

The barracks had bunks set aside for travellers and traders who were staying over at the outpost. Dee was lucky to find one next to Alex and endured lewd glances and comments from soldiers, even a couple invitations to something that she politely turned down.

Dee found herself crying as she lay down to sleep, she knew Helios might be dead but hearing what Alex had said only made it feel more real. Now she had nothing left, nothing except finding the man who shot her and finishing this delivery. Nearby she heard more masculine crying and realized it was Alex. Both ended up quietly crying themselves to sleep.