Alexandria Beneath the Red Star

[Jackie Cat]

"You lot certainly are well-travelled," remarked Kotetsu, sounding almost impressed.

Beside him, Ibuki was setting down his sizeable backpack, laying out a large cloth mat, and pulling liquor canteens and cured meats out of his supplies.

Leona sniffed the air again. "New scent. Don't recognise this one."

Brisa padded over in the direction Leona pointed her nose. Soon enough, she spotted the newcomer, and nodded a greeting.

The new arrival was a grizzled old sea-Floatzel, grey around the muzzle and started to develop cataracts in his eyes. He was hunched over on a little walking stick, from which hung a small woven sack full of odd shells and flotsam and such.

"Well, I'll be!" declared the old 'mon. "There's a whole crew of youse! Is any of you fine gentlefolk a doctor? Or... a mechanic, possibly?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

“Not gonna complain about this,” Starr remarked upon seeing Ibuki’s provisions. She took a seat on the mat and helped herself to a smoked fish.

Latios tapped his chin at the sea-Floatzel’s request. “A mechanic?”

There was a sudden rush of air as Latias returned, having zipped off over the dunes in the direction the old ‘mon had approached from. “Found it! It’s a real sight too—some kind of mechanical Pokémon, collapsed up past the tide pools.”

“I imagine if you meant a Klingklang or Magneton you’d have just said so,” Latios remarked in a bemused voice.

“Nope. Volcarona.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

Leona gave a nasal whuff. "Told ya she'd show."

"Maybe we oughta worry 'bout what kinda state she's in," warned Jesse, paw reflexively passing over his wand holster. "Sounds like it could be as she's crashed..."

As it turned out, something of that nature had surely happened. Amida looked as if she'd fallen heavily into a small shoreline cave, and collapsed its roof. She lay among sand, seaweed, and saltwater on what had been the cave floor. Inactive.

"Found her like this some minutes ago," added the old sea otter, helpfully. "Do you folks know her? Or at least what manner of 'mon she is?"

"Aw hell," growled Brisa. "Last thing we need's her fella showin' up an' seein' that shit. Starr, would'ja help me get her outta there?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr had never exactly seen the mechanical Volcarona that Brisa had met back west a few months ago, but it would've been easy to spot this thing as Covenant tech given how fancy it was. Hard to believe it contained some kinda ancient demigod. (Hard to believe that wasn't even on the top five list of weirdest things she'd heard about lately.)

"Still warm," Starr remarked as she knelt down to lift the carapace. She could also feel the telltale buzz of Radiance through her paws. "Must've crashed here not too long ago."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Brisa made a hissing sound between her teeth of evaluative disapproval. "Looks like our lady here used her Light to teleport a good distance, maybe travel at speed, somethin' a' that nature. Did herself an injury, maybe, but... I think she's still alive."

The Luxray's eyes flashed, then gleamed steadily.

"I can see her inner workings are still workin', at least," she added, hopefully. "Motors an' such are still turnin' inside the carapace."

Jesse put a digit to his temple, and concentrated. "...She's dreamin'," he added. "Weirdest dreams I've seen in a while, but she's just unconscious. Would be good if we could wake her up afore Lorrel turns up..."

"Lorrel?" asked Kotetsu, brusquely. "Is that the name of Victory? You know something, then..."

"Yeah. I know he's got a thing or two in common with me, which means he ain't likely to be amenable to whatever damn fool errand you're on from your liege-lord, partner."

The Kingambit bristled in his armour, but kept his mouth shut. Instead he stared in subdued awe at the body of Amida. How to wake her indeed? And how much time was left for them to do that...?

 

[Phoenixsong]

They'd left the shoreline empty when they'd gone to Lethe, but they sure weren't alone when they got back. There was a picnic blanket or something spread out on the ground right next to Leaf's hooves when they transitioned back to normal Forlas, and lots of new tracks in the sand, and—her ears flicked to the side a little, over there, off toward the dunes—the sounds of conversation and metal scraping against stone.

Wasn't hard to recognize most of the group as she got closer. Leona and Jesse, and... okay, she wasn't sure when the Tsainanese samurai had got here after being gone for so long, or. Uh. Latias and Latios? Weird, but it'd be good to have them here, at least. No clue about the old floatzel, but that was definitely Starr and Brisa making their way out of that little cave with...

"Is she okay? What happened?" Leaf hurried over as the two cats hefted Amida's chassis between them. What had she done that she couldn't wake up? Had she just bonked her head on landing and passed out? Was that even a thing for robots? "Does she need to be... restarted? Or maybe she's out of energy?"

Blue sat back by the mat, still a little shaken, still a lot exhausted, and helped himself to some of the fish. Whose was it? Who were half those people over there? Who cared. Everything was fucked, and anyone who disagreed that he deserved five minutes of having a snack like a normal goddamn person could go chug from one of those rank-smelling tide pools.