Frontier Town Mayoral Residence – Upper Floors

[Jackie Cat]

Turn 3
Player Phase Results​

In the confusion of the fire and the shouting, and with the entire security taskforce already gutted, the rest fell quickly.

Astrid’s CRITICAL Frost Breath dealt 20 damage to Maschiff!
Astrid’s Ice Shard dealt 10 damage to Maschiff!
Combat Intel: 27 Atk, 15 Mag
Astrid’s Aqua Jet dealt 8 damage to Watchog!
Odette’s Acrobatics dealt 10 damage to Patrat!
Rodion’s Slash dealt 14 damage to Watchog!
Isidora’s Ice Shard dealt 15 damage to Patrat! KO!!
Isidora’s Quick Attack dealt 9 damage to Watchog!
Isidora’s Feint Attack dealt 15 damage to Watchog!
Lyle’s Brawler strike dealt 6 damage to Watchog! KO!!

Which just left the guard pup...

Ghaspius Interacted with the Alchemical Laboratory to make colored smoke and cover their trail!
Maschiff's senses were thwarted by the smoke!
Hob & Nero's Bullet Seed dealt 6, 6, 6... 18 dmg! KO!!

...who was immediately knocked out, and whose nose would be thrown off the trail of the party once they came to their senses.

Felin attempted to take an inadvisably large Sword... She Called out to Steven for help!
Steven was a big hand!
Odette grabbed an Unknown Object in her confusion!
Ridley took a good look at the Evidence Board, like the conspiracy gremlin he is!
Espurr took a Strange Device she clearly doesn't understand!
Hob & Nero grabbed Random Bullshit, just in case!
Rodion used Soak! He doused the blaze in the Safe Room...

Laura gasped with relief. They'd find out later how much of the stuff still in there was even legible after all that, assuming nobody went and nicked it or anything, but they had what they came here for. They could figure out what it was and why Las Picaras had wanted it so badly later, once they'd made it to safety.

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" she yelled to the group, shoving the stolen notebook firmly under her arm.

"Don't have to tell me twice," grumbled Nero.

Hob's reply was unintelligible, his mouth full of the mayor's stationery.

Turn 3
Enemy Phase Results​

Wow, that could hardly have gone better!
Well done, everyone!
I need some time to examine the items you took from that saferoom before I can tell you anything useful about them.
In the meantime, you should make your way downstairs to help your allies! They have been battling since you started your assault on the vault, and the fight isn't over yet!
Good luck, heroic spirits!

[] Main Objective: flee immediately to help your allies in the Ballroom!
[] Bonus Objective: seize the contents of the Safe Room! (7/3 items saved)
[] Bonus Objective: douse the flames in the Safe Room!
[] Bonus Objective: KO the security taskforce!

Phase 2​

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Well, that happened quickly. Espurr held on tightly to the unidentified object she'd grabbed, trying to scurry along with the others. It wasn't exactly like she was eager to head back down to the ballroom she'd come up here to escape from, but, well... a look back at the formerly burning, still smoking vault, and the either dazed or knocked-out-cold guards strewn about the place. It seemed like they were in the fight anyway, so, what was that saying again? In for a penny, in for a pound?

"Where do we hide these?" she asked, trying to raise the clunky device above her head to show it off. She didn't much fancy entering a much bigger fight with a hunk of junk in her paws.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura hurried through the mansion, guided by what felt like telepathic urgings – should that even be possible, with her being a Dark-type? – along the correct route to the ballroom. She glanced at the locked notebook in her paw... What use was it anyway, without the howling code—

Laura! Could you give that book to Steven, please?

"What?"

Hand that notebook to Beldum Steven! I believe I can help him use his magnetism to open it...

"Are you the Nexus Voice? I have— Fuck, I have so many questions??"

Could they wait until everyone is safe? I am very sorry, but I am fairly sure it is important...

"Uh, okay..."

She passed the notebook to the silvery Beldum, trading it for the... the fucking sword?? That he was carrying??

"Nice to meet you?" she managed, wondering if she should try for a pawshake. Could her night get any weirder...?

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven hovered along with the group as they left the smoldering vault and headed back toward the ballroom. He still clutched the sword in his claw, with the cheerful sprigatito trotting beside him, carrying the other end. It was starting to get heavy in his grasp when he was approached by another cat. A meowth, Alolan if he wasn't mistaken.

They held the book in their paws out towards him, like they wanted to trade. He paused a moment, checking with the sprigatito that she'd be okay if he left the sword to her, and when she confirmed she would be, he accepted the book from the meowth.

"Uh, okay... Nice to meet you?"

"Ah, nice to meet you too," he offered with a slight bob, cradling the notebook in his claw. "Well, despite everything." He gestured with his head to the hallway they were currently fleeing through and offered a weak laugh. The bandits were polite, at least.

"It'll be nicer when we're out of here." If they made it out of here...

"But why are you giving this to me? I'm better suited to carry the sword."

Admittedly, he was starting to feel fatigue creeping up on him, but he wasn't going to admit that. Not with how heavy it looked even in both of the cat mon's paws.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Voice said to!" replied Laura, hoping desperately that she wasn't the only one hearing the damn thing. "Uhhh, Voice, please explain?"

Okay!​

---

Hello again, Steven!​

​

This notebook is from the saferoom on the middle floor of the building. Whatever is inside it, it is clearly of great importance. I have a hypothesis that looking inside will make the situation more clear. ​

​

Listen – can you concentrate very hard on the internal components of the lock? ​

​

Use your magnetism; I am sure you can feel the gears, pins, and spring if you stay calm and pay close attention...​

​

If you turn them slowly, one by one, until you sense each pin is in its place...​

​

Do you think you can open it?​

---

Laura kept hurrying along, the sword heavy in her arms – why the fuck was she carrying a fucking sword – until the party arrived in a sort of foyer. She could hear shouting and the sound of pokémon attacks from further along – from the ballroom? It sounded like the ballroom.

"Shit, what do we do now?" she asked nobody in particular. Hob & Nero hadn't quite caught up, yet...

Then Steven handed back the notebook.

[ ] Objective: examine the mayor's notebook.

"Give me a minute," said Laura.

She opened the notebook.

 

[AdamArtDraws]

"I'll take that off your paws," Felin said, a smirk plastered on her face as she happily freed Laura's paws of the large fucking sword. She trailed a finger over the scabbard in a moment of distraction.

It didn't take long for the fascinated look in Laura's eyes to get Felin's attention. Or was it horror? She twitched her whiskers and butted in by peeking her head over Laura's shoulder.

"What's the book say? Any dirty secrets in there?" She made brief eye contact with the meowth and then lowered her gaze to inspect the open pages.

 

[Virgil134]

"Give me a minute," said Laura.

Rodion nodded in acknowledgement. While Hess was never the type to do, he knew a lot of other pirate captains made sure to encode their journals, in case it ever fell into the wrong hands. Hopefully this mayor wasn't as careful with his secrets.

"Better hope that notebook ain't written in code."

He stepped in front of Laura as he looked off towards the stairs, brandishing his swords in case more guards made their way up.

 

[Hap]

Spoiler: belated flavourpost for Ridley's previous action

The vault door fell open with a heavy clang. Peering into the vault, Ridley found his eyes immediately drawn to the corkboard with its many notes and photographs. Yeah, that was a classic conspiracy board if he'd ever seen one.

"It's time for the contingency plan," he shouted. "Burn the contents! Do it now!"

Maschiff's Fire Fang set the Safe Room ablaze!

If the guards were willing to light the room on fucking fire rather than risk its contents being revealed, then it was vitally important that they obtain as much information as they could from it. As his companions dashed into the burning room, grabbing whatever they could carry, Ridley refocused his attention on the conspiracy board and tried to memorise as much of its contents as he could.

The shouts and sounds of battle coming from ahead of them suggested that events on the ground floor were every bit as frantic as the scene they'd just left.

"Give me a minute," said Laura.
She opened the notebook.

As Laura opened the book, the dawning look of fascination and horror on her face distracted Ridley's attention away from the fight ahead of them. What did it say? He resisted for all of half a second before curiosity overcame any semblance of decorum. He moved over to stand on the other side of Laura from Felin, peering at the pages.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

"Voice said to!" replied Laura, hoping desperately that she wasn't the only one hearing the damn thing. "Uhhh, Voice, please explain?"

Steven looked back at Laura in surprise. "The Voice? Then you're one of us! Sorry for thinking otherwise..."

Then the Voice spoke up, and Steven would have paled if he was able.

"You want me to what? I-I've never done something like that before."

But the imperative look on Laura's face told him he had to try. He fixed her with a determined stare. "Okay."

His eye closed to a thin line in concentration, and he focused on the book in his claw, the lock in the clasp, the wheels inside...

Oh what he wouldn't give to have Sidney here right now.

He gave the first wheel a tentative nudge, and he felt it move. Then the next. Same thing. Steven's eye shot open and he found Laura's face. "It's working!"

Confidence growing, he closed his eye again and worked through the lock, adjusting positions of the wheels until-- click.

Wordlessly, he floated up to Laura and held the book out to her.

He couldn't help his curiosity, and peered over her shoulder as she opened it...

 

[Jackie Cat]

The notebook had no formal index, of course, but coloured dividers split its contents into neat categories. Trade wagons, property purchases and land freeholds, ledgers of wages paid and donations received...

"I bet this is dirty somehow," muttered Laura, "but I'm no financial forensicist or anything. I'd need hours – probably weeks to be fucking honest – to get my head around this..."

What about these numbers? They look related! Does that help make sense of it at all?​

Wait. 'Donations' received. The amounts of which were the sum of the difference between 'payments made' and 'bonuses' in another column. Laura was no mathematician, but that seemed obvious enough to her.

"I think... this is what they call 'embezzlement'," she said, quietly. "I can't exactly go storming in saying he's an embezzler, though, can I?"

Laura pawed through more pages. Numbers, figures, abbreviations she couldn't make any sense of at all...

Ah.

There.

A list of pokémon – a judge, a senator, a bank manager... names she didn't recognise, but some she did. Greasewood. Nathaniel. Lucien. And while Laura didn't know all the abbreviations and shorthands written out beside them, she recognised dollar amounts when she saw them, and she knew what blurry polaroids of couples looking over their shoulders late in the evening implied, and that was a prescription for opium to treat addiction, and that was a draft of a letter threatening to reveal true parentage, and that was documentation regarding debts owed...

She felt unbalanced. She looked away, and tried to figure out how to put it all together concisely. How to explain the pieces she'd fit together in her head to the pokémon around her. She wasn't even past the surface level yet. There was filthy ink enough here to drown in.

You think... he is threatening people. Is that it? But there is nothing here about battle...

...Laura? What does all this mean? What is 'blackmail'?

Are you okay, Laura?​

"I'm fine," she snapped back. "Fuck, just... gimme a sec."

She closed the book. Put it back under her arm. Breathed.

"This is what Sonora must have wanted. Proof that the mayor is corrupt – proof that would mean anything to his guests at the gala. I don't know if they have RICO charges in the Commonwealth, but at the very least, nobody's gonna do business with him if this goes in the papers."

Hob & Nero had made it down the stairs too, now. The shouting from the ballroom was getting louder, more voices, ranting longer...

"I think we gotta go tell everyone."

 

[Sinderella]

Odette's mind cleared for the fourth time, and in that instance, it actually remained clear. Memories of mourning the Teletubbies and finding weird stuffed animals with human-like appendages were just a distant memory. Though, she looked down into her hand just to see what on the gods' green earth she had picked up while tripping balls...

She didn't look very long before she saw Steven go by in her peripheral vision, and was nothing short of relieved to see the beldum hovering around the meowth, who was holding a journal. She opened her mouth to let her relief be knows, but there was a heavy feeling of tensity in the air. She decided against it for the moment.

Confidence growing, he closed his eye again and worked through the lock, adjusting positions of the wheels until-- click.

He did get that journal open, though. And here he'd said he didn't want to help the bandits. Odette quickly moved up next to him, and nudged him in a gentle, friendly way with her closed fist. "Look at you, Sir Handy," she complimented.

That journal did look important, so as the meowth stuck her face into it, Odette wasn't subtle about stealing a look over her shoulder. Her brain began to short-circuit at the sight of the numbers, and she almost turned away. But as the meowth read on, things got more...interesting. Less numerical, more threatening. Greaswood's name jumped out at her, followed by blurry pictures that looked like they shouldn't exist.

She hated to admit how fast her gut settled. Deep down, she was mortified that this was the person running this town, but she was far more comforted to know she'd made the right choice.

With all due offense, fuck Mayor Birdshit.

"I think we gotta go tell everyone."

Odette's jaws spoke before she could.

"̷S̶a̷y̷ ̴f̸u̵c̵k̶i̵n̵g̸ ̴l̴e̶s̷s̴,̷"̸ they said, barely muffling giggles. ̸"̴A̸n̵y̷o̵n̶e̸ ̴g̷o̶t̸ ̸l̷i̸k̴e̴ ̴a̷ ̷r̵e̸a̴l̸l̵y̸,̶ ̶r̵e̸a̸l̶l̵y̶,̸ ̶r̵e̶a̴l̴l̴y̸ ̶b̴i̶g̸ ̷m̸e̵g̷a̵p̸h̴o̵n̸e̵ ̵a̴n̵d̴ ̷s̴o̵m̶e̵ ̶t̴o̷i̵l̶e̴t̸ ̶p̸a̷p̶e̵r̴?̶"̴

Right, the chains were off. Odette shoved whatever she was holding into her bodice (no matter how ridiculous it might have looked), to clamp them shut with her hands. It would be pointless to muzzle them again, judging by the commotion still happening downstairs.

"What my friend means is," she said evenly, "let's go knock some mayoral guard heads, then broadcast it to the locals. Somebody might need to stand back and guard this thing, though. We can't risk it getting ruined or being lost."

The jaws were quick to wrestle free. "̴F̶u̷c̷k̸ ̵t̸h̶e̵ ̶h̸e̸a̶d̷ ̸k̵n̶o̵c̸k̵i̵n̵g̷,̸ ̶I̷ ̷w̴a̴n̵t̷ ̶t̶o̵ ̷T̶M̸Z̵ ̴T̸H̸I̸S̶ ̶M̸O̴T̷H̷E̷R̵F̴U̶C̶K̸E̸R̴.̵"̶

Suddenly, Odette was up and bolting toward the stairs, but she didn't look happy about it.

 

[Virgil134]

"Can't say I'm surprised about any of this after everything I've heard about Ignatius," Rodion scoffed. "Hopefully we can knock this bird down a couple of pegs by letting everyone know."

He took a step forward, before motioning ahead.

"Come on, let's get going," the Buizel said. "Sonora and the others could use our help."

And with that, Rodion dashed off ahead to the mansion's ground floor.

 

[JFought]

Blackmail? That was significant enough to slow the mayor down, just as Sonora said. Had she planned for them to reveal it? “This is way above what Sonora said we’d be doing...”

“Well.” Isidora turned towards the stairs. Her fur was still sticky and uncomfortable, but despite that she felt confident. She smirked. They were going to screw that bird. “I’m ready when you all are.”

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

"I bet this is dirty somehow," muttered Laura, "but I'm no financial forensicist or anything. I'd need hours – probably weeks to be fucking honest – to get my head around this..."

As Laura flipped through the pages, Steven felt more and more queasy.

The numbers, the slips, the photos... it kept getting worse.

But as Laura flipped another page, Steven called out, "Wait, stop!"

She froze, and his eye darted back and forth as he read the log. "Oh gods," he whispered.

"This page," he jabbed his head towards the book, "is a property ledger. I recognize the lot names from riding by on the way to the mines."

He looked back at Laura, a haunted expression in his eye. "It shows all the empty parcels belong to the mayor, a lot of occupied parcels in town too, and this list has the names of each person he's going to hand them over to, practically gift wrapped. There's no chance for anyone to bid on these, no chance for anyone to own a single building in Frontier Town for themselves."

A shiver of anger crept into Steven's voice. "It's like he's already predetermined the fate of the town. That's... that now how any of this is supposed to work."

The bandits were right. They were right this whole time.

"This gala, the whole thing. It's a farce. There's no investors to woo. The whole town's already been bought and sold by the mayor like his own private city. He's not a mayor, he's a baron."

 

[AdamArtDraws]

"This gala, the whole thing. It's a farce. There's no investors to woo. The whole town's already been bought and sold by the mayor like his own private city. He's not a mayor, he's a baron."

The weight of the sword caused Felin to lag behind, pondering how to take it with her to the ground floors. It was when she overheard the Beldum that her fur bristled and she fired a glance at him.

"If the whole Gala is a farce and the whole town's been bought out, what do we then?" Felin asked, gritting her teeth. "We rally a mob and turn the whole town against him? I doubt the people he sold the town to will care what happens to him though. They'll still come knocking for their prize."

She held her forehead with a paw and sighed wearily. "This just got a lot more problematic."

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Lyle's head was still spinning from everything that had happened in the Vault's room. Blackmailing his own townsfolk? Gods, he knew that that Empoleon was bad news from what the others said about him, but this still took him aback.

He was in too deep to run away now even if he wanted to. Might as well see things through and what would come after Ignatius came crashing down.

He lowered his head and followed down the stairs after Rodion.

<><><><><>​

 

[Jackie Cat]

Prinplup Lucien Voclain had not come out of his room since the arrest of his father. Towards the middle of the day, the residence staff started to fret, and began leaving meals at the foot of his door. These went ignored.

It was said amongst the servants that they knew he was still alive because the sharper-eared among them could hear his breathing.

Eventually, in the late evening, he finally emerged. All he did before heading back inside was to send a Patrat runner to Traveller's Haus to ask any offworlders there (and still awake) to come see him.

He said to tell them he needed to discuss the future of their role in Frontier Town.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova was one such person. Though, truthfully, he wasn't sure what he'd be able to contribute. The null had the sense others on the team knew more than him at this point. His priority had been getting Corey medical attention, and after that he was just trying to keep to a basic routine following a battle where... his performance was mixed for a number of reasons.

Part of him was annoyed he hadn't tried to gather additional information. Another part didn't trust himself to use that information accurately, given his stellar track record back home.

Still, he was awake. So off Nova went to the manor. Though it was a big building. Nova had no idea what to do other than knock on the front door. Using his helmeted head. Because headbutting the doorbell -- assuming there was one -- was at least 75 percent stupider.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Night had been beginning to fall when Steven bid Laura farewell, promising to finally get some sleep, now that they'd spent an entire day pouring over the contents of the notebook. And while he'd been true to his word-- managing to doze off in his room for a little while-- he soon found himself awake again, waiting up in the Haus' lobby for Laura to return from her "errand," too anxious to try to sleep again.

But instead of Laura, a messenger arrived, and Steven was quick to journey back out into the night, hovering at the doorstep of the very mansion they'd been to (and ransacked) the night before.

A type: null was already there, rapping on the door with their helm. Steven floated up beside them with a small nod of acknowledgement, partly out of greeting, and partly out of thanks; his options for knocking weren't much better. He wasn't familiar with this individual, but he recalled seeing a type: null in the fracas versus the mayor, and assumed they must be here for the same reason. It was reassuring that they'd be able to give Lucien at least a small audience. They owed the prinplup as much.

Steven remained quiet, though, out of respect for the night. He had a feeling there was going to be a lot of talking once they met with the one who summoned them here tonight.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

When the request for anyone still awake to go to the mansion arrived, Gladion was awake. Of course. It was possible to sleep now, but it still sucked and he was accustomed to a late sleep schedule anyways.

So he obliged. Honestly, he'd strongly considered giving the whole thing a miss, "discussing the future of their role in Frontier Town," yeah yeah, this was gonna do such a good job putting him to sleep that his helmet might not even be enough to stop it...

But there was one thing. It was with Lucien. The de-facto leader of this place, and a subject of curiosity for him. He couldn't in good conscience ignore that.

There was a small group already there. Nova was the one that stuck out to him. Hm. Not that Gladion disliked the guy or anything, but it felt like things could be more complicated with him there. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he couldn't shake the gut feeling... maybe just that it'd be harder to weave a cohesive story around their species with two cooks in the same kitchen. And when his evil clone was dead in one of the parallel timelines of that kitchen.