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Frontier Town Industrial Park

Reader mode
“Yeah. Either that, or they channeled some stupid ‘hero syndrome’ and believed they were the protagonists of some shonen manga or whatever. Y’know, kick the bad guys and save the day? Because we’re heroes, so that’s what we gotta do and should’ve done, right?”

Silver breathed out an exasperated groan. It seemed like every universe had its own Hibiki and Kris, who believe they’re invincible and can win with the power of friendship and determination. Pah, what nonsense!

“But despite my grievances, I’m glad they survived to tell the tale. It’s also a valuable lesson for everyone: we’re at our best when we work together, not when each tiny team does its own tiny thing. After all, unity is power, right?”
 
Nova was silent at that, initially. Then, "There's merit to a small strike team. Albeit a coordinated, well-prepared one. Which we're not in a position to do yet."
 
Silver nodded. “For sure. Except that those doofuses lacked both coordination and preparation. So, yeah, it was basically a disaster in the making.”

The Sneasel waved his paw. “But enough of that. It was a good wake-up call for everyone, and I hope those folks learned their lesson.” He began tapping his foot. “For a change of topic… How’s life been treating you?” He motioned to the cart. “You seem quite the hard-worker.”
 
"It's going." Nova shrugged again. "It's rote. Rudimentary. Probably better than the life I have back home, though." He thought about the things he'd heard from some of the other workers. "The actual management of the railroad is... a mess. I figured if we can get it built faster, that might open up some more avenues to explore and stuff."
 
“Ah! Nothing wrong with having a simpler life!” Silver said, a neutral smile appearing on his face once more. “If anything, fewer obligations mean that you’ll have some more inner peace.”

He closed his eyes. “In a sense, that’s kinda how it is for me. I’ve got a quiet professor, away from the frenzy of the battle scene, and… that has helped me get some mental clarity, y’see.” And then, his eyes opened again. “At times, it’s good to just… slow down, and see yourself with another perspective.”
 
"You sound like a psychic," Nova said. It wasn't clear from his tone whether or not he viewed that as a good thing. He had once been around a lot of good psychics, of course. But those days were long gone.
 
“Nah. I’m just someone who broods and ponders a lot,” quipped Silver lightheartedly, adding a short laugh for good measure. “I’ve got plenty of problems in my own world, but well! As long as I stay here, those problems are basically ‘paused’.” He shrugged. “So, I wouldn’t be too surprised if other folks thought or felt the same.”
 
Silver stared blankly at Nova, wondering what he meant with Luxray Jenkins. Who was that? Some hero from his world? What was the connection between a Luxray and the wagon?

“Huh… Yeah. Basically that,” he muttered, unsure about his own response. “I guess some people enjoy the escapism offered by this world a tad too much and believe they can do whatever they want.”

He shook his head. “I mean, it’s not like they’ll remember anything of what they do here, so some fellas might think they can do some not-so-great stuff because they won’t face the consequences when they’ll return to their worlds.” A soft chuckle escaped his lips. “Wow. Worded like this, this sounds like the setting for perfect crimes or vivid dreams.”
 
Nova laughed at that. "You sound small time. And inexperienced." He shook his head, almost as if in a tsking manner. "There's no such thing as truly escaping consequences." Again, Nova gestured with a foreleg. "We got here, didn't we. Whatever found us could trace us back to our homes. At that point, you're an interdimensional fugitive."
 
In all fairness, she got very close to that…

Silver cocked an eyebrow. “Hmph, yeah. Fair enough. If karma doesn’t bite your butt in some way, then your consciousness will. As long as you have some semblance of a moral compass, that’s it.” Then, he smirked. “Still! That would’ve been fun to try out! Like in those games where you can try random stuff to see what happens. But heh,” he shrugged, “I promised myself to leave my past behavior behind and I don’t want problems with multiversal laws or whatever. So, I’m just gonna keep a low profile — much safer that way.”

He gazed casually at some workers. Some of them seemed to have slowed down their activity, maybe to take a lunch break or something. With a nod, he looked back at Nova.

“Well! It’s been a pleasure chitchatting with you about human idiocy and stupid decisions! See you around, then?”
 
"Uh-huh." Nova's mask hid the eyebrow raise. Silver said some colorful things. But the way he spoke about perfect little crimes and thinking in such a manner... Nova could certainly draw a conclusion from it. Nova wasn't sure it would be correct, but he could still draw it.

He shifted his weight again to make sure the harness was tightened yet again. "Yeah, see you around." Nova started to walk off with the wagon rolling along behind him. He paused beside the sneasel, however.

"Though, if you really want to put whatever organized crime you were a part of behind, your acting skills will need work. You talk like someone who knows a bit too much. And not in the law enforcement way."

Nova dipped his head slightly and continued down the road. The wooden wheels of his wagon squeaked as they rolled through the dirt.
 
Silver started a paw-wave when Nova approached, but his arm froze in midair when the chimera spoke again…

Nova said:
"Though, if you really want to put whatever organized crime you were a part of behind, your acting skills will need work. You talk like someone who knows a bit too much. And not in the law enforcement way."
Click to expand...

Silver didn’t respond, only giving a quick sideway glance at Nova. Yeah, that guy was definitely smart, and it seemed like he had already pieced a few things together.

Hmph. Whatever. Silver wasn’t too bothered by that. If Nova didn’t chew him out for being a former criminal, then that probably meant the chimera himself had his own skeletons in the wardrobe…

If only you knew. But… This is who I am, and I’m not gonna pretend to be someone I’m not. Not anymore.

He kept staring in the direction of the chimera, even after he had long left the area. With a huff, Silver held his poncho close to his body and walked in the opposite direction.

There was still plenty of work to do before he could redeem himself to society… and to himself. But! He wasn’t afraid! That was just yet another challenge to become the best Trainer and person he could be.

Success was the only way, and he would succeed!

<><><><>​
 
Ch02 Finale ~ An Adequately Reasoned Discussion
  • Threadmarks
    • As promised, Dakota had indeed arranged a meeting with his investigative contact, a Mr Nolan. The letter inviting the party was hand-delivered by a friendly, polite Golett in a courier's cap. It specified a time in the early evening, and the administrative offices of a particular industrial facility in the north side of town, where the group was to meet this Nolan. The letter was well-penned, short, and to the point.

    Nearby the 'Keldurr & Sons warehouses and the Frontier Foundations woodshops and masonries, there was a smoke-spewing edifice to industry signposted as 'Steel Spirit Foundry'. The various tradesmon and labourers in the area were happy to direct any group of 'mon that looked poorly-oriented towards their destination, and it was inside this towering building of brick and stone that a small corner offices could be found.

    Apparently still hard at work inside was a tall, dark-coated lizard wearing spectacles, working under a dim incandescent lightbulb.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Having just come off the heels of investigating Blaguarro Town, Bellatrix was quite interested when she heard that there was someone who could provide more information regarding the shadow pokémon. Though she had wanted to arrange to discuss her findings with the group, the short-notice invitation put that on hold as she reasoned that she could mentally corroborate the information given here with what she and the others found over in Blaguarro.

    She tilted her head at the reptilian pokémon before taking a deep breath and approaching. May as well get straight to the point. "Excuse me," she began. "Are you, by any chance, Nolan?" she asked.
     
    Odette felt like she barely had enough time to settle herself. Everything went by in the blur, from the borderline involuntary trip to the doctor to check her wounds, from trying to figure out who to bring her little souvenir to, to the fucking dream she had.

    If sleep hadn’t evaded her before, it certainly did after that.

    Speaking with Ridley and Kimiko did…a little for her nerves. But neither of them had the dream. Ridley had had one before, but not then…

    When she heard about the meeting Dakota was looking to set up, she practically ran for the meeting spot. She didn’t want to look desperate, but she was fucking desperate now. For a straightforward clue, for an explanation, for answers.

    A cordial nod toward Bellatrix as they entered the building. The pin was practically burning a hole in her little bag, but she was willing to deal with greetings before she jumped all over the questions.

    “Hope this is a good time. And…nice glasses?”
     
    So the party had received an invitation from a 'Dakota'. As in, one of the intact names on Jesse Stranger's list of potential humans. And when he'd asked around about who exactly this was and how they knew him, he'd been told that apparently a whole group of them had casually sat down for a chat with this Monferno who'd told them he'd traveled with humans, and that his family preserved a human legend, and by the way obviously humans have far superior strength to a Pokémon even if they weren't summoned to deal with a crisis, and this gives them a responsibility to use their strength to safeguard the world and its inhabitants, unlike Voclain, and also he'd never heard of any group of humans being at all shady. Which was the sort of thing that sounded good but also sounded like what a fucking human supremacist would say.

    And apparently it'd been a pretty friendly conversation, and at the end he'd offered up an associate of his who supposedly knew something about shadow Pokémon and what was going wrong. Dave suspected they were about to walk in on another supremacist.

    It sounded, at least, like this Dakota guy had been more interested in subtly recruiting them to the cause than anything else. He cautiously joined the others at the foundry's offices and found...

    An Inteleon, sitting by a desk, working. Dressed in a full-on coat and shirt, unlike most other Pokémon here. Did that mean anything? He peered around the room as the others greeted the Inteleon, looking around for any interesting clues.
     
    When Dakota had mentioned a detective contact, the last place Steven was expecting to meet them was in the dingy office of a steel foundry. But this was certainly the place mentioned in the letter, and this almost-certainly was one Mr. Nolan, pending the Inteleon's answer to Bellatrix's question.

    (Speaking of, Steven had yet to properly meet Bellatrix, only hearing her name in passing conversation on the way to the meeting place. He'd have to formally introduce himself to her later...)

    Their group huddled into the tiny office, Steven surprised how many had wanted to come meet Dakota's contact. Then again, the issue of shadow pokemon was a rather pressing matter that affected all of them. He recognized a good number of the group: Odette, Aige, Andre, and finally a not-drunken Dave. Others, like Bellatrix and a shiny rockruff (another blue dog??), he'd yet to meet. No matter, they were all here for the same reason.

    "Thank you for meeting with us on such short notice," he said. "When Dakota said he'd reach out to you, I hadn't expected you to be available so soon."
     
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    Just one thing after another, Wes thought to himself as he made his way to the meeting location.

    He had fortunately managed to get better sleep than the previous handful of nights, but clearly he was going to need more than just one night of decent sleep to feel fully rested. On the bright side, thanks to regular consumption of berries and other remedies, his leg was almost fully healed already—a fact he was still wrapping his mind around. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to how insanely fast Pokémon bodies could heal.

    Speaking of injuries…Wes spotted Odette and caught a glimpse of her bandages, no doubt from her run-in with the shadow mon in Blaguarro. She at least fared far better than those of us in the wagon had, he told himself, but it did little to ease the sense of guilt churning in his gut. It’s not like I ran away. Mav just beat me there.

    He simply wished he actually believed that.

    Wes turned away and decided to focus on their summoner, instead. Odette, Bellatrix, and some other guy, a polite Beldum, had thankfully already offered greetings so that Wes wouldn’t have to. Perfect. He decided to cut to the chase.

    “Right, rumor has it you know some things about these shady Pokémon. Tell us what you know.”

    He scanned the reptilian mon with narrowed eyes, attempting to discern more information about him from his appearance.
     
    When Andre had been made aware of another source in the shadow pokémon case, he had naturally expressed his desire to be included in the meeting. He had also been very curious about that Dakota fellow. Hearing about how human-positive he was, Andre had wondered if he might have been in league with the human supremacists, and now the same went for this guy. They'd have to be careful about the information they shared - while it was likely he already knew about some of them being human from Dakota, it wouldn't hurt to keep that to themselves unless it became clear he was in the know.

    Then there was the matter of what they knew about the shadow pokémon and Terminal Two. While there was evidence to tie the two together - the charmeleon attacking them on the way to Terminal Two and shadow pokémon being plentiful near Blaguarro - it wasn't certain that the two were connected. What might have been connected, however, was Terminal Two and the human supremacists, given how the latter was implied to be shady while the former definitely was, but the two could also have nothing to do with one another whatsoever. Still, they shouldn't go blabbing around about Terminal Two in general to avoid word getting out about its discovery to the showrunners.

    He suppressed a sigh. It would have all been so much simpler if they didn't need to keep secrets. Andre already had plenty he needed to keep to himself as is, both here and back home. Well, at least these secrets they could discuss among themselves. His personal secrets he couldn't tell a soul. Except Barely-There a few years prior. While it had been stressful, it had also been refreshing.

    ...He had an odd feeling that he'd also told someone else recently. Maybe it was another dream he was remembering.

    He shook the thought and brought his attention back to the inteleon, ears perked for whatever he might say.
     
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