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Frontier Town Founder's Square

Reader mode
Oh, so he wasn't the only human, or rather, initial human, in the bunch, not by a long shot. That came as something of a relief to Corey, who was absolutely feeling completely out of his element still in this form. At least he now knew he wasn't the only one... though that talk from Felin managed to catch his attention before he could express any of this openly. Humans were creatures of myth in her universe? Well now... almost made him feel a sense of pride being one...

"I mean, that's a bit of a strange way to describe our kind, but-" he began to say in response to the question regarding their appearance, forgetting that he technically never revealed he was human himself, though it was all interrupted by the arrival of two figures approaching the group. A prinplup and an indeedee... well if appearances were any indication, they seemed to have some kind of authority to some extent... Either way they would all find out soon enough he supposed.
 
The prinplup marched steadily towards the group, beak held high, eyes narrowed. He took a moment to preen himself just before he came right up to them, and glanced towards the watching townsfolk on either side of the square. His feathers were in perfect aesthetic condition, and he wore a sash across his chest on which was pinned some kind of sheriff's or deputy's star-shaped badge.

"Ahem," began the bird. "Welcome, unexpected guests, to Frontier Town. I am Prinplup Lucien, acting Marshal of the Town Watch. Would you care to explain the, ah, unorthodox manner of your arrival? You've given some of our citizens quite a fright, and I'm sure you realize that materializing in such sacred and secured places as our bank vault is, well... rather a cause for concern."

He paused to make eye contact with each of the wayward newcomers, gauging their reactions.

The indeedee by his side said nothing, but sniffed thoughtfully, and pushed their glasses further up their nose.
 
"...Bank vault?" Corey repeated. Oh, sure, he was aware that their arrival was unorthodox, but... what was this about a bank vault and scaring citzens?

In a somewhat hushed voice he turned to speak to the others with clear concern.

"Uh, fellas, did I miss something here?"
 
The introduction made things immediately clear. Lucien was law enforcement. One of, if not the top brass. But he wasn't supposed to be. Acting meant he'd taken the post from someone. Family, perhaps? There was no telling how long he'd been in charge, though. And the indeedee was probably a deputy. Or, less likely, an assistant.

"Frights were... far from our intention." Nova couldn't bow his head. And he wanted to cough so badly. Stupid mask. Stupider dusty air. "A group of us were pulled from our homes into a mystery dungeon by some incredibly powerful force of nature." He glanced at the others. "It was a much larger group, too. The force assured us we'd all get warped into the outskirts of your town so we could make our way in together." He sighed. "Clearly, that didn't happen. Their aim needs work."

No one else had shown up outside this small group. "A lot of work." Nova chuckled for good measure. "But we aren't looking to cause problems. We'd prefer to fix them."

At least, he sure hoped the people who hadn't shown up here still felt that way.
 
Lucien inclined his head at a skeptical angle. The indeedee looked as if he – she? It wasn't immediately obvious – was in deep thought about something. Lucien spared the psychic 'mon a glance before clearing his throat again.

"'Just woke up here', indeed. And your young lady meowth here woke up in the river, did she? How uncourteous, to send you to into a jail cell and atop a water tower to 'just wake up'. Hmph. This 'force of nature' you attest to – it assured you of your destinations? I notice you don't mention the purpose of your being sent here, unless you mean to imply that you're here to fix our problems. And on that count, I believe we're quite able to account for ourselves as-is."

Laura felt her ears burn and lashed her tail in frustrated embarrassment. "We're not sure exactly what happened, Marshal," she said, shooting a pointed look at Shiron. "None of us knew each other before today, and we don't know what the thing was that sent us here, really. I think we're all as confused as everyone else is."

The 'acting marshal' gave an avian smirk. "I'm sure we'll come to learn the truth of the matter in due course. So, are you in town for business, or for pleasure? And need I arrange accommodation for just the five of you, or will any more of your 'much larger' group be joining us shortly, hm?"
 
Kalas covered his face as light covered him. He felt the ground disappear under his talons. Feeling that he was suddenly falling, he drew from his instincts and quickly straightened himself mid-flight, not before letting out a shriek that he instantly relized, didn't sound like his usual self.

That said, he realized too late he was in a weaker, smaller body, and he had some difficulty straightening himself to fly about as he would look down at the sudden... town? That appeared right below his eyes, with a few streets and houses looking close.

"...Waaait—"

*Way* too close. As soon as Kalas turned his face to look in front of him, he hit an entire statue of some sort of Pokémon, and unceremoniously bounced away to glide down to the ground, half-dazed, right at the entrance of some building.

It took the Spearow a moment to gather his thoughts.

«Well... I guess the cloud wasn't lying,» he thought, his eyes closed. «Or that Uber Eats was *very* expired...»

Kalas bat his now Spearow wings a bit stronger, winced from the pain. He opened his eyes and found himself flat on ground right in the middle of everything. There were various Pokémon all around him, but he had difficulty identifying them at first.

«...Is this the place we're supposed to help? I hope I landed at the better side of the conflict...» he asked himself.

Kalas let out a chirp and stood up carefully. He dusted his feathers off and looked at his surroundings, hoping he had not caught too much attention. Remembering a trick from back home, he dusted himself some more and stood up, still wincing, but feigning nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

"Uuuh, how do we do, fellow citizens?"
 
"Business, but if I led with 'We're here to save it from a crisis,' you'd think me an idiot." Which Nova figured Lucien probably did, judging from the slight condescension. "They did assure us they knew what they were doing. Which is totally why we got separated. 'Don't tempt fate for she's as cruel a mistress as gravity.'"

Also that law apparently belonging to Murphy, but Nova had met plenty of Murphies in his day and done of them made any laws about things going wrong.

"And, well, accommodations would be nice. But we've no idea where the others a—"

And then a spearow made an entrance that had all the subtlety of someone juggling active grenades.

"Correction: we know where one is." He lazily gestured to the spearow. "There's at least... a couple dozen more, maybe?"
 
Kalas walked up to the Mudkip who had also shown up.

"Uhm, h-hello..." He perked his head up and down has he looked at the Mudkip. He looked familiar from a few minutes before but he felt not very sure. "Hey, you, you were there, too? Seen any strange 'clouds' as of late?"
 
"Not particularly recently... I'd have a few words otherwise," Corey muttered, at this point not even bothering to try and act surprised anymore by the staggered rate in which fellow 'heroes' were being dispersed, and sometimes at the most inconvenient of occasions. The others were trying their best to explain their situation to the acting Marshal and his deputy, and Corey was hesitant to add anything further, still iffy about the aforementioned bank vault shenanigans. As such, he decided if he had little to add, he'd keep his trap shut for now and hope they could stay on the relatively good side of this prinplup.
 
"IT'S THE PSYCHIC WAAAAR!"

Someone from the distance was wailing and sprinting toward them, kicking up a huge cloud of dust on the way here. It appeared to be a Machoke with a frantic expression until he skidded to a stop. He immediately looked toward Lucien, looking like he was about to grab and shake the fear of god into the bird.

"The war! It's happening! The Psychics are here they're teleporting their assassins! They've already got Gerome, he's as good as dead, I tell you! I barely escaped with my life!"
 
To his credit, Lucien's imperious expression hardly moved. He merely raised a brow and seemed to study Kalas' appearance a moment.

"Well-timed," he observed.

He turned his gaze to the machoke and put out a cautioning wingtip. A hint of a smile still remained on his beak.

"Keep a level head, man, would you? If there's to be a formal declaration of war, it'll be the vigilance committee that issues it, in civilised manner."

He said 'declaration of war' as if he were making a dry joke, but if it was a joke, it was very dry.

The indeedee finally cleared her throat.

"Dayle, only one of these strangers is psychic, and he's got about as much power as a newborn. Maybe you should take shelter all the same. Can't be too careful around us psychics, yes?"

She sounded drier than Lucien.

"I'm Doc Drungfield. Sensed the new auras of you fine folks. Don't rightly know what to make of what you're claiming, but..." Her eyes met Lucien's. "They're no assassins."

"On your word?"

"Everything I say is my word, son."

Lucien nodded, and chuckled quietly.

"Alright. Not assassins. That's a start. Let's hear your names, at least."
 
Ouch... Yeah, she was probably speaking the facts but still it did sting a bit to be compared to a newborn in power level... Corey could feel what little of his pride he may have had left shrivel up pretty quickly. Still, on the positive side of things, it didn't sound like they were at any risk of getting arrested just yet, despite the paranoid ramblings of some... unhinged machop that had scrambled onto the scene without warning.

"...Ah... Corey..." he murmured with a timid raise of his hand upon being asked his name.
 
Guess the indeedee’s powers aren’t that good. Or she was a convincing actor.

“Nova.” He had no other names or fancy titles. Nor any clan.
 
Mr.RMA said:
"Not particularly recently... I'd have a few words otherwise," Corey muttered, at this point not even bothering to try and act surprised anymore by the staggered rate in which fellow 'heroes' were being dispersed, and sometimes at the most inconvenient of occasions.
Click to expand...

Kalas gave off a little nod. "Well, you'd be in luck then. But if a weird one talks to you, be wary." He added the last part with a hush.


Jackie Cat said:
To his credit, Lucien's imperious expression hardly moved. He merely raised a brow and seemed to study Kalas' appearance a moment.

"Well-timed," he observed.
Click to expand...

Kalas narrowed his eyes and gave of a bit of an indignant shake off of his plumage. "Well, I've had better mornings."

Jackie Cat said:
"I'm Doc Drungfield. Sensed the new auras of you fine folks. Don't rightly know what to make of what you're claiming, but..." Her eyes met Lucien's. "They're no assassins."

"On your word?"

"Everything I say is my word, son."

Lucien nodded, and chuckled quietly.

"Alright. Not assassins. That's a start. Let's hear your names, at least."
Click to expand...

Kalas waited for some of the other Pokémon to introduce themselves. From the looks and the words of the Prinplup and Indeedee there, he wondered for a moment if to pick up one of his old aliases. Something like "Morach".

In the end however, he decided against it. For self-defense, the easiest lie to keep track of is the bare truth, as he was taught.

"Well, I for one am Kalas," he answered.
 
"Geh...!" Dayle took an uneasy step back. "They've already got you...! I won't fall for it! I'm gonna protect my wife, protect this town, I'm gonna keep an eye out! You'll see! But they're too strong... outnumbered... Gyaaaah!"

He slammed his fist into the ground, creating a plume of dust. Anyone with particularly sensitive hearing or basic vision would notice him tiptoeing into an alley before fleeing down to another street... He seemed to be gone from the town square.
 
"Unusual fellow," remarked Lucien.

"People find ways to fill their hours," responded Drungfield the indeedee, dispassionately.

The still-drying meowth coughed nervously and raised a paw. "My name's Laura. We are expecting a lot more people to show up, but given that the thing that sent us here kinda messed up the delivery, it's not like we can be sure they'll actually be anywhere nearby. It wasn't exactly a simultaneous process either, given Kalas only just arrived..."

"Quite so," said Lucien, as if this was as normal a conversational topic as the weather. Not for the first time, Laura wondered if she was losing her mind, talking to a prinplup about the practicalities of mass-teleporting.

"You, uh, mentioned accommodation...?"

Lucien's avian smirk twitched. "We can discuss how you might earn your keep in a less public setting, but yes, I will have you put up in the local boarding house for now. Note that this will not be an indefinite arrangement. Doc, can we trust their civility?"

The indeedee adjusted their glasses again, peering at them. "While I can't precisely say I trust our new guests overmuch, a war footing would be, hm, unwarranted."

This seemed to satisfy Lucien for the moment – his only response was a sharp, short laugh.
 
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