Frontier Town Nina's Place

[Goat]

"Thankfully we wouldn't be toddlers this time," Astrid said in-between bites.

She had really loosened up -- perhaps it was the alcohol, perhaps it was growing more comfortable in Nova's company -- and didn’t hardly bother to swallow all the way before speaking again. She didn’t seem to be worried about being judged for it.

"I gotta say though… Frontier Town isn't half bad. Uhmn, y'know, 'cause—" She briefly lost her train of thought and then found it again. "I mean, it's always had these controversial vibes to me, I guess, but it feels very homey at the end of a long day's work. And people around this continent or province or whatever are starting to learn who we are, and where we are. Just makes the election more… interesting, I guess. Politicians might be asked about their official positions on our presence."

Another big bite to finally finish off her sandwich long after Nova had demolished his. "…Weird to think about, no?"

 

[Ambyssin]

At Astrid's question, Nova's crest drooped and his ears folded slightly. "I've... been thinking about that. Sorta. Since Owen got swept away."

Sighing, he finished the last of his food. "Why we're here. Why us outsiders get so strong so quick, even if we don't have good intentions." He looked down at his empty plate. "Don't get me wrong, I like this place. I have it way better here than back home. But my gut's telling me that beating Cipher would be nothing more than putting a bandage on a bigger wound."

 

[Goat]

Out of food, Astrid had that to chew on instead. "...Mmhm. Cipher seemed more opportunistic than anything. Yeah, no, I agree. I think it's gotta have a lot to do with Betel, whatever it is. It's weird how little we know about her, but it's really weird how little she knows about herself."

She shrugged. "As long as we keep getting stronger and stick together, we'll be able to give it our best shot, though. We don't seem to have any Wayfarers looking to actively sabotage the rest, as far as I know."

 

[Ambyssin]

"Hope not. Just other ex-humans and their descendants." Nova traced something vaguely empoleon shaped in the air with a talon, which he then used to signal he was ready to pay.

"Well, that did hit the spot. But it's getting late. And I've got a longer walk home than you do." He sure hoped things were quiet and unremarkable at the cabin, at least.

After paying for both their meals and drinks, Nova bid Astrid farewell and headed back out into town. His head was a bit fuzzier than earlier, but he hoped he could get decent rest. There would be plenty of work to do tomorrow.

<><><>​

 

[Chibi Pika]

Some time after the battle with Moltres...​

"So like, that was pretty much the end of it. We were obviously exhausted, and I don't know how much longer we could've kept it up, but Moltres was actually willing to come along with us afterward, so... I guess it worked out."

Jade and Laura were seated on a pair of mismatched chairs at a table off to the side of the dining area, near the window to ensure a steady stream of fresh air (it was getting to be the time of year where the outside air was actually temperate). The usual bar patrons were the sort to mind their own business and the atmosphere was quiet enough that they could talk without fear of interruption.

Jade had just spent the past fifteen minutes or so relaying an abridged version of the battle with Moltres, from the initial destruction of the watchtower, to the final showdown at the railyard, occasionally punctuated with asides like "you probably already heard this bit" where news had already come up over Betel's network.

"So like yeah. Fighting Legendaries," she finished awkwardly, taking a sip of berry juice after having talked too much. "Didn't think that was something that'd happen here." It was at once so familiar and so distant at the same time. It'd been several months since the last Legendary battle back home. She never would have expected her next one would've involved herself doing the battling.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura resisted the urge to take notes as she listened with interest, nodding along. Howling news reporter day job...

Anyway... There was something bonding about both having fought against a legendary so recently – more so, given it was a Galarian bird in both cases. She'd heard some of this over the telepathic net, sure, but it hit different hearing it in person.

But was it unexpected?

"I guess it doesn't surprise me too much?" she said, scratching an ear absentmindedly. "I'm used to thinking of legendaries as rare, powerful pokémon people go out of their way to battle, and maybe catch – or as big threats to a whole region until someone confronts them. So what's weirdest to me is the part where Articuno gave us a job offer, really."

Legendaries giving out job offers. Somehow that felt weirder than regular 'mon running banks and restaurants.

 

[Chibi Pika]

A job offer. She'd sorta gotta a job offer from Lugia, kinda. Different when it was a legend working for a formal organization and not just a fragile loose alliance with legends and humans working toward a common goal.

Jade idly reached for the berry plate and scooped a few of them onto a tortilla. "Right, yeah. That's.... another thing that's sort of weirdly familiar from back home--the infiltrating, I mean." Something about Laura's wording jumped out at her, and she did a double take. "Wait so like... had you run into any Legendaries back home?"

Threats to a whole region. She hadn't used to think of them like that until last year. First with Groudon and Kyogre, and then...

 

[Jackie Cat]

Ha, you wish.

But you did, though. And it was a nightmare.

Laura shook her head.

"Nnnno, not as such. Few years ago I got to be as terrified of the Darkest Day as everyone else in Galar, so there's that, but I've never had a run-in with one personally, no. I've heard of people encountering a legend in the northern tundra, but that's a little out of my way, and probably, uh, out of my league. Can't say I've had much of an urge to meet one, outside of, y'know, being a kid and thinking they're the coolest pokémon ever."

She still did, in a way. Her interest had just narrowed more tightly, her surviving fascination orbiting Mewtwo more and more closely. Mewtwo, and other genetically engineered, urban-mythic cryptids.

"So, uh, you gonna spill anything else about your own infiltrating? Was it anything much like what we're about to try and do? I guess the genetic experiments thing applies, at least. Pretty wild, aha."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade leaned back in her chair, tail swaying behind her. "Kinda similar. Main difference is the part where the organization we were fighting was, uh... straight-up a crime ring. So it wasn't much like trying to find some dark hidden truth or whatever. We knew it was bad news before we started." Then again, the full extent of Team Rocket's dealings hadn't actually been obvious from the start. All the League collusion had been a rather unwelcome surprise.

(Still, she had no idea what to expect when it came to investigating the Covenant, which held a lot more unknowns than the Rockets ever did.)

"I, uh, I know that probably sounds bad,” Jade added quickly. “I didn't have as good a reason for getting involved like you did with your Purrloin. I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere if I hadn't had an 'in.'" Never would have gotten anywhere without Stalker. It was always frustrating to remember that.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura couldn't help but lean forward, more curious for details than hungry for food. Maybe she'd order something to eat later, for now she just nursed her ginger beer and let her eyes dilate at Jade's answers.

"An 'in'? Like, a friend who was already involved, or you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and met someone, kinda thing?"

Laura was too hungry for information. She could tell – she was forgetting she wasn't a reporter right now. Best to pull it back a bit... Jade was uncomfortable about something – self-conscious in her own particular way, as she often could be – and she should really address that first. What was that about not having as good a reason to get involved as her...?

As far as Laura was concerned, whatever Jade had to say, she'd back her. Maybe... that had to come first. Or she just needed it to. No more overthinking, she trusted Jade by now and she was gonna act like it.

She drew breath, and swallowed.

"But first, like, I feel like maybe you're expecting me to give you shit about vigilantism, or because you didn't have a tight enough origin story?" Origin story. Like they were comic capes or something. Close enough? "Well, I don't... judge, like that. I don't know how to say this, but... Whatever your deal is, even if it turns out to surprise me or something, I'm your friend and it'll be fine."

Yeah. Fuck it. They were friends, and she was saying it.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade waved a paw in a wobbly circle, still holding the tortilla. "Ehh... kind of both. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and met someone who was recruiting people to fight them, except he had his own motives which was a whole other thing, and..."

"I don't... judge, like that. I don't know how to say this, but... Whatever your deal is, even if it turns out to surprise me or something, I'm your friend and it'll be fine."

Oh. It wasn't until Laura said it that Jade really noticed the way she went into things expecting to be judged for it. Whether here or back home, she was constantly, inescapably aware that everyone who heard what she'd been involved with would be wondering 'Why you? Why was any of this your responsibility?' And she always felt that same muddled, confusing mixture of frustration at not being taken seriously, of relief that someone thought she didn't deserve that path, of the burning need to make a difference, the desperate urge to be free from needing to. The wondering of what it really meant that she'd chosen this.

O-oh. Friends.

She didn't have to feel that kind of tension or self-consciousness with Ajia or Starr, so... so there wasn't any reason to feel it here. Hadn't they both been picked to come here without fully understanding why?

"Hey, um... thanks," Jade finally said, running a claw along the edge of the table.

 

[Jackie Cat]

The tension in Laura eased up, and she melted onto the table a little, relieved. Maybe even a little self-satisfied...

"Guess you needed to hear that, huh."

Jade had answered her question. Sortof. Vaguely. It sounded... complicated. Laura could understand that.

"I don't really... have friends. Back home." Or here. "Just my pokémon. And they... Well, the ones that can hold a conversation think the whole thing I'm dealing with is dumb as hell – or at least, they sure act like it."

As did her parents. As did (almost) everyone else.

As does some part of you.

No. It's just doubt. You're right about all of it and you know it.

"I think Sleet thinks I should be totally focused on the League – or her specifically – and I'm pretty sure Malachai thinks I should just challenge the CEO to a duel, or let him eat them, or something."

She grinned weakly, hoping the joke would land okay.

"I guess I'm trying to say... I would feel pretty dumb and hypocritical giving you a hard time. And I wouldn't want to anyway. 'Cause I have this feeling that you're the same kind of nuts that I am, and I think we'd both be better off if we could just talk, without having to sound as reasonable as possible about it the whole time. If that, uh, makes sense."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade idly swirled her drink as she listened to Laura's words, and it struck her that in her own fight, back home, she'd never really been alone. First there'd been the Rebellion, and then Ajia and Starr, and Rudy and Darren, and... and for a while, her patron.

"That sounds like it'd be pretty rough, trying to go at it alone against a big organization." She paused for a moment, then sheepishly added, "If it helps, half my Pokémon think what I'm doing is dumb as hell too. They're just part of it because they have their own agenda." Most of them, anyway. One had left.

Jade shook her head. "Like, Aros was only helping me because he had a score to settle, and Stygian was only sticking around to look out for him, and Jet--well, I guess what I'm saying is that I get that part, at least," she finished awkwardly with a forced chuckle.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura felt the usual lurch at the idea of going it alone against a big organisation and shoved it down. She was just doing her own little thing, they wouldn't even notice her, probably. She'd figure out a plan. It'd be fine.

Meanwhile, Jade sounded like her team was barely a team. Howls...

"So... those rescued 'mon, they're on your team now? They, like, comprise it, or...?"

C'mon. That was rubbish. Hadn't Jade already basically just said that? Although, there was the hanging implication from all that past-tense 'was' that maybe they hadn't stuck around... Either way, don't be a feebas about this.

"You make it sound like you're part of a group, yourself, actually. Like the Wayfarers, I mean – all this has been new to me, but maybe... not so much to you? What're they like?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade's ears pricked forward. “Yeah, yeah they’ve been with me for over a year now. Three of them. And, well… I guess I would say we’ve usually been on a team at one point or another. First the rebel team where we got trained on how to fight the Rockets. And then after that fell through, it was just a loose collection of us trying to help the legends. So yeah, the Wayfarer thing is pretty familiar to me. More structure than the second group, less than the first one—no formal leader and all.” Betel was really more of a… sorta-guide than a leader.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Rockets...? Like the yakuza clan that were supposedly involved with the Mewtwo project...? The Rocket-dan. It tracked, but parallel universes were parallel universes. Could mean anything.

She wondered whether to say anything, but the recognition on her face would probably say it all to Jade anyway, and let her decide whether to elaborate. As for what Laura wanted to say instead...

Going it alone against a big organisation, huh?

She bit her lip.

"Maybe this is a shitty question to answer, but... how's— How's it going? Helping the legends, in your world. Do you, like, know what you're doing? Have you made good progress? Is the end in sight?"

The way she'd said it made it sound like she was bracing for a pessimistic answer. She was bracing for one, really. Nowhere in her, deep down, did she really believe a small squad of teenagers could take on organised crime and win, even with legends on their side. At least, not without a great deal of sacrifice and complication...

But she had to ask, even if the answer was painful.

And if it was, maybe she could offer Jade some comfort.

 

[Chibi Pika]

She'd already told various people the bits and pieces. Might as well just say it.

Jade put on a sheepish half-smile. "It's not. We lost."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she felt bad for putting it so bluntly. "I-I mean. It is what it is, you know?" she added, hurriedly holding her paws up. "I've had the past few months to kinda... think about it. But yeah, that's what happened. No one trusts the legends after all the bad PR, and the Rockets bribed the League, so yeah. We left Kanto a few months ago. Been... just trying to get by since then."

Already, she had the suspicion that she’d just dropped a major downer.

 

[Jackie Cat]

At that 'we lost', Laura was on a mountain peak, breathing thin air, the energy bled from her in a moment. Howls, they... they lost? She'd just assumed that, however impossible it would be, that....

"Oh— oh... I thought..."

That they'd keep fighting? Win somehow? Make a difference?

What did a 'loss' even look like, anyway – was this a fight the public would hear about, or an underground resistance that nobody would miss? Something that could happen in her own world, even...

"I thought you were still fighting..."

And why wasn't she, came a defiant surge in her gut, making her fur prickle down her neck. Keep fighting anyway. You aren't dead yet.

Who said you couldn't still win, after you'd already lost?

"When you say you lost," – her voice caught on the word – "just how bad is it? Is it hopeless? Nothing to be done at all...?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

There it was, the disappointment. The reality that the idealized notion of fighting back against injustice was something of the past, and that all the stories that'd ever made her role in it all sound cool or important were just stories, now.

Jade let out a sigh, leaning back in her seat. "If there is anything to be done, we hadn't found it yet. Maybe I'll have some kind of epiphany while I'm here, I dunno." That'd also require managing to remember it after this was all done. Maybe somewhere deep down...

 

[Jackie Cat]

Ouch. Jade's reply was understated, but the expression on her face, that tired, defeated, miserable look? This had been a misstep. Laura had asked too early, or in the wrong way, or maybe it was just too huge and awful to talk about at all.

"I hope so," she said, weakly. "Good luck."

Agonisingly inadequate. A lit match in a downpour.

Howls, maybe she should just change topic. Something less weighty, that she'd put aside before...

"I feel like I'm walking on a pack of epiphanies and if I step too hard I'll break them all open," said Laura, feeling like a fucking weirdo kind of self-conscious as she said it. "Like, some of the team have met a mewtwo, right? Back home, I kinda always believed Mewtwo was real, and the more I look into this whole thing I'm dealing with, the more sure I get. And then there's just this... fucking mewtwo bloke on Forlas, some sinister offworlder or something? I feel like if I went to talk to him it'd just be too weird, too..."

She made a jumbled motion with her hands, saying nothing, in non-sign nonsense.