Ranger HQ Ranger Union HQ

[Weazel]

The Tyranitar was fast, but not impossibly so. He brought up his guard blade, deflected the main thrust of the attack, took a step back, felt the Tyranitar’s fist brush against his chest fur…

And then the electricity arced into him. White hot searing pain shot through his body, and the Dewott had to grit his teeth to stop himself from biting his tongue, as he was knocked off his feet. Had he taken the full force of it, that hit might’ve stunned him for a good few minutes, if not knocked him out all together. But he hadn’t taken the full force of it, and as he staggered back to his feet he was already digging the familiar blue berry out of his coat pocket, and stuffing it in his mouth.

"I've got the Relic! Cover me!"

He spared a quick glance back at the plaza, and found it obscured by smoke and shadows. But Laura’s shout told him they were winning, at least for now. And that meant he couldn’t risk letting this Tyranitar go reinforce their friends just yet. So he picked up his scalchops from where they’d fallen, and called back the twin blades of Razor Shell and Sacred Sword, before positioning himself between the Pseudo-Legendary and the plaza.

“Alright… Time for round two!”

He leaped for the Tyranitar again, striking out first with his Razor Shell, hopped back as the blade of his Sacred Sword seemed to glitter in the moonlight. No matter what, he had to hold Pokemon here. Every second longer the dinosaur spent dealing with him was another second they weren’t tripping up Koa, Leaf, and the others. Even if it pushed him to his very limit. He jabbed his Sacred Sword forward again.

Archie used Razor Shell and RADIANT Sacred Sword!

 

[Phoenixsong]

Smoke rolled out of nowhere, choking the plaza. Isidora knocked the relic out of Sceptile's grasp (yes!) and he dove into the cloud after it (dammit!). Leaf whirled around, charging back toward them almost without thinking.

(God, you're exhausted. You're hurt. A broken object isn't worth driving yourself into the ground. If it's really that important, if any of these others really know what they're doing, then take the time and come up with a plan to get it back later, without all this chaotic scrambling.)

No. You don't get it. She wasn't scrambling, she was trying. (And failing.) Maybe she didn't know what she'd do when she got there, with the smokescreen hiding even her own team, but she had to be there in order to do something and that was what mattered. (There isn't anything. You're too far away. This doesn't make sense. You've pushed yourself hard enough!)

Cold wind whistled down the street and whirled the smoke away. There, Laura, huddled on the ground, someone still looming over her. Koa moving to do something, thank god, but any of them could still move in and grab her while she was a sitting duck. (Still too far away for you to block any of them in time.) Too far away... unless. Unless what if she just... wasn't.

She slammed on the brakes, allowed herself one deep breath, and willed herself from the plaza's edges to its center, willed Laura too far away. Her stomach lurched at the displacement, too sudden even for the speed she usually managed effortlessly, but she managed to cough out a "Go, Laura, now!" before bracing herself for impact.

Leaf used Ally Switch!

 

[Chibi Pika]

Radiant light burst from Archie's sword, and this time when it struck, it cleaved a chunk out of Tyranitar's outer armor, leaving the dinosaur staggering several steps back, sinking to one knee. His stamina was top-notch, but that blow had clearly hurt.

Tyranitar lashed his tail to keep his balance, throwing a glance back at the plaza, and the smoke drifting out from it. He eyed it for a long moment, as if considering something. Then he turned back to Archie and growled something unintelligible before bowing.

Was he... conceding?

---

Isidora's Icy Wind swept down through the plaza, easily displacing the warmer, smoke-filled air. Jade rubbed her eyes and quickly took stock of everyone. Isidona had just leapt down from the pueblos, landing next to Leaf. Archie must've still been outside with Tyranitar. Charizard hadn't moved. Sceptile and Koa had been squaring up near the fountain. Laura was curled up around the Relic. And... a cloaked figure stood next to her.

"Laura, behind you!" Jade yelled.

With a flash of psychic energy, Laura was suddenly gone, replaced with... Leaf? Huh??

And then without warning, Koa let out a reverberating BARK that echoed through the plaza. Leaf only slid back a foot or two, but the cloaked figure was knocked clean off their feet, tumbling backwards. The cloak flew over their head, revealing a smallish reptilian figure. Moonlight glinted off a fan of leaves on each arm, and for a moment, Jade blinked in confusion. Sceptile was back over there, wasn't he? No, wait... this one was a Grovyle.

He glanced between Laura and Koa, and coughed. "Ah. This wasn't ideal."

Jade raised an eyebrow--did he know them?

With a sudden rush of wind, Charizard lunged past Jade so fast that it was hard to tell that she'd been paralyzed only a minute earlier, throwing herself between Grovyle and the party with a threatening growl.

Grovyle held out an arm. "Stand down, Vesta," he said.

She gave him a sideways look, but obeyed, lowering her wings slightly.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Ah. This wasn't ideal."

Laura's blood fell colder than the frost on the plaza flagstones.

"You," she hissed.

They'd talked in the Sanctum, and in the Abbey library. They'd reached the heart of the Templefall rift together. She'd hoped to see him again. She'd found him pleasant and interesting.

She'd liked him.

"Why are you doing this, Ralsen?" she demanded, gripping the Relic white-knuckle tight, enough to hurt her claws as they gripped its surface.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade glanced back and forth between the two warily. What was going on? They definitely knew each other, but then why...?

The Grovyle--Ralsen, he was apparently called--met Laura's eye with a stony expression that made it hard to tell what he was feeling. "I never had any intention of fighting you. My assignment was to retrieve the Relic, that's all."

Assignment? Jade's head felt like it was full to burst with about a million questions and she didn't even know where to begin. Maybe one of the others would voice them first.

 

[Tetra]

"Ah. This wasn't ideal."

Koa stared opened jawed at the familiar face. Confusion wrinkled his brow. But Ralsen... He'd meant to think of Ralsen as an ally. Maybe even a friend. His claws dug into the earth, leaving behind gouges, and a growl built in his throat. Shifting, he moved closer to Laura just in case one of them tried something.

The hum of electricity filled his body and narrowed his focus. One full strength attack. Sink his jaws into the Grovyle 's arm or get him right in the jaw... He resisted, with great difficulty. Bottled up the hurt anger and gave the Grovyle a stony glare. Even so, he kept himself charged, in case he needed to attack again.

"Assignment?" he hissed through gritted teeth. "From who? Why?" He didn't really expect an answer, no matter how bad he wanted one. His attention was far more focused on the Grovyle and his pokemon to see if they would try and make a run for it. And trying to figure out what in the name of Arceus was going on.

 

[JFought]

Isidora kept her claws bared at her sides even after the supposed leader of the intruders called the charizard off. 'No intention of fighting you' -- What kind of ruse is this?

She glanced at Laura beside her and Koamaru in front as they both reacted to his presence with overt betrayal. "Looks like I don't get around enough." She shifted into a more defensive stance, her growl never leaving her throat. "If you can get reactions like that then who are you really?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Ralsen's gaze landed on Koa next, and something flickered through his eyes. "Would it change anything to know?" he asked quietly. "My superiors were interested in its purification capabilities. I was interested as well."

Jade squinted at him. Of all the non-answers. "Okay, so that's like your job, then? Going around stealing random artifacts?"

Ralsen closed his eyes. "Not particularly. I'm a researcher at heart, and uncovering lost truths is useful for my own reasons as well. But I was assigned to retrieve the Relic for further study, and my skills made me ideal for the job."

His skills... as a thief? Or, what, as a squad leader?

At Isidora's barbed question, he gave her a curious look. "I assume you don't mean my name? I wasn't lying when I said that I'm a researcher at heart, but I suppose I've been a lot of things." He glanced down at his palm for a moment before meeting her eye once more. "Who would you say that you are, Offworlder?" From the look in his eyes, it didn't even seem like he was being rhetorical, it was like he genuinely wanted to know.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura dug her claws into her palm, stabilising her anger as best she could. This was a learning opportunity. They had to get any info they could.

"Who are your superiors?" she asked, sharply.

She watched around, daring Ralsen's 'mon to make a lunge for her. His 'mon...

Betel. They weren't comprehensible through your translation. Why is that...?

They are wildren. Unusually sapient souls, but wild pokémon nonetheless.

Laura's eyes narrowed.

"Are your partners even Forlasan?" she added, pointedly. "You seem like a trainer."

 

[Tetra]

"Yeah it would change," he growled in a low voice. It'll change how hard I pound you into the dirt, thief. He managed to bite back the response as Laura spoke. As much as he wanted to take a piece out of him, she seemed keen to try and draw something out, and he didn't want to ruin that.

Her next words made him frown uneasily. More offworlders? Another trainer? Great.

"You're not a researcher at heart, you're a thief and a liar who likes researching." Nothing that came out of that lizards mouth meant anything to him. Had his conversations with the team just been ruses to gather intel?

Koa shifted forwards, still wary, still ready to guard Laura. He stared challengingly at him. "Why take it like this? You knew we were already researching a way to purify pokemon. But you'd rather steal for your 'employers' instead of asking?" If they were willing to use force to take the Relic it couldn't mean anything good.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf's sides heaved for a couple seconds as she tried to balance catching her breath with keeping her horn pointed straight at the charizard menacing them. Laura wasn't running. Why wasn't she running? Why wasn't the grovyle running? What the hell was going on?

"Who... who is this guy?" she asked, glancing back at Laura and Koa. "Why do you know him? What did he do?"

And now apparently he was a trainer? Maybe? These other pokémon were, what, his team back home (wherever that was) or something? Why weren't they talking, then? Isidora had been a pokémon in her world, her and Ghaspius and Grace and others, and she could understand them just fine. (Slow down and think for once. You have something else in common with them, don't you?) ...Because of Beetle, right. Summoner-translation-voice-ish-of-life-ish stuff. If these guys didn't have a summoner, but they were here...

(Rows and rows of cages, rising floor-to-ceiling along endless tunnels. Echoes of half-mindless snarling and sobbing. Leona, angry and broken and confused. Minerva trying to chew through the bars.)

"How did you get here? To Forlas?" Her horn flashed as she brandished it at the grovyle, then the charizard. She wasn't sure whether it'd be worse if they really had come here through Cipher's portals or if something else was going wrong in some brand-new fancy and upsetting way. Didn't really matter. Either way, they'd better start answering for something.

 

[JFought]

Ralsen's genuine curiosity needled at Isidora's defenses. I'm a researcher of sorts, too, the sneasel thought. Not right now you're not, she also thought.

"I'm not givin' an answer if I'm not gettin' an answer," she growled. "You don't get to pretend at being friendly right after tryin' to get one past us like that. Not without an explanation."

Just after saying that, she caught Laura's brief question to Betel in the back of her mind, and her guard faltered with sudden confusion. Huh? But, I heard what the sceptile said... The meaning of Betel's reply didn't sink in completely, but it sunk far enough to bump against something uncomfortable. "No way this guy's a trainer, right...?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Ralsen appeared mostly unfazed by Koa's challenging tone. "An artifact of that importance isn't the sort of thing that would ever be freely lent. Asking would have accomplished nothing."

At Laura's first question, he sighed, holding a palm up. "Betraying my superiors by giving them away would compromise my position with them. That's not something I can afford to do right now." But then, at her second question, he gave her a studying look, as if he'd recognized the expression she'd had while conversing with Betel. "I imagine your patron has insights into things like that. There's no point in denying it--they're not, and neither am I."

Jade stared at him. Not Forlasan... so he was an offworlder too. But then... what was the deal with his Pokémon supposedly not being translated? She hadn't noticed anything weird about... wait. Wait, they'd literally just been speaking Pokéspeech. She'd honestly forgotten that that was weird and out of place here, it was so mundane and familiar to her.

Familar. Nagging familiarity. Had she heard Charizard's name before?

Leaf asked him how he'd come to Forlas, and his eyes lit up with curiosity. "See, that's an interesting question. One that I'm still searching for an answer, because I don't know. I can't remember how I got here."

 

[Jackie Cat]

No memory? Or at least, no memory about getting here...

"You're a Faller?" concluded Laura. "I've got a pretty good idea who your superiors are, then, if you're a human Faller..."

Her tail thrashed with anger and anxiety.

Sinopa manifested in the plaza, uncharacteristically disheveled and baring her fangs.

"We should be asking him questions from the other side of gaol bars," she hissed.

Laura drew breath sharply, and ignored the dungeon spirit's escalation.

"What were you doing with your life before you fell to Forlas, then?" she asked. Another way to ask who the fuck are you – one that might tell them what kind of person he was, and why he was here.

 

[Weazel]

Far from triumphant, as Archie’s Sacred Sword cleaved into the Tyranitar’s armor, the Dewott looked horrified. He took a few steps back, the buzz he’d been feeling just seconds ago evaporating in an instant. Never once against all his other opponents could he remember leaving such a mark. Not against Ignatius, nor the Cipher Admins, or Ayda, or Owen, or Seth. It reminded him of nothing so much as what Seth had done to him, while suffering the worst of his shadow corruption.

“I… Sorry, I-” the Dewott stuttered, only to find himself at even more a loss for words when the Pseudo-Legendary bowed to him. Was this… A concession? Could he trust it if it was? The sound of Koa’s Roar reached his ears, and he looked back again to see the smoke clearing from the plaza. He couldn’t afford to keep standing here if the battle was still ongoing there.

So, Archie put his Scalchops on his hips, and turned back to the Tyranitar. Hoping he wouldn’t regret this, he took off his hat and placed it over his heart, and gave the dinosaur a short bow in return. Then he returned his hat to his head, turned, and ran back towards the plaza.

… Only to find that the action was over by the time he reached it. Instead, everyone stood in a tense stand off. The rest of the intruders were revealed to be a Charizard, Seviper, and Grovyle, only the latter of which was responding to questioning as the Dewott approached. One word stood out to him – Faller. It meant something to him, somehow, but he couldn’t exactly put his finger on it. Instead, the Dewott edged over towards Koa, his paws on his scalchops again. He found himself in agreement with Sinopa, and suddenly he felt ashamed for having left the Tyranitar unguarded, but the important thing was making sure they didn’t lose the Relic, so as long as they had it…

For now, he settled on watching the group of intruders, warily.

 

[Tetra]

Koa snorted in disdain at Ralsen's reply. Whatever. He could make whatever defense he wanted, Koa was beyond caring about anything he said. Laura's question gave him pause. If Ralsen was a faller...

The Covenant. Were they his employers? He'd heard the jist of the Wayfarers fight with Articuno and their meeting with the Covenant.

His mind buzzed with questions. How had he come here and brought his team? He found himself agreeing with Sinopa, wishing they had a way to secure the thief and his pokemon. They needed to know more. Nothing added up.

"Convenient. So none of you remember anything at all?" He eyed Ralsen's team suspiciously.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"What I was doing before I fell, hm..." Ralsen leaned his head back. "Fighting to end a war that none of you will ever have any reason to know or care about," he said simply. "I believe it was my own actions that brought me here, somehow. But I don't have any evidence for it--it's just a feeling."

Just a feeling? Something about the phrase sent a sudden, inexplicable jolt of anger through Jade's chest that was gone as soon as it had appeared.

Vesta eyed Koa. "For us, we had gone into a Pokéball on Earth, and our next release was here," she said coolly, exhaling a small wisp of smoke through her nostrils.

Jade glanced at Koa--would he know what she'd said? Just in case, she added, "I guess if they were in Pokéballs at the time, they wouldn't have had any idea how they got here."

Sceptile suddenly glanced toward the plaza entrance, and Jade followed his eye to see Archie entering quietly, on guard. Seemed like he'd taken a bit of a beating but was doing okay. A Tyranitar followed a few steps behind him, looking similarly battered but carrying himself with a dignified aura.

"Ah! Finally joining us, Titan?" Sceptile quipped with a joking tone, waving a claw.

"I would not end a duel without seeing it through, unlike you, Heartwood."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura squinted with mental effort as she tried to follow the conversation between the wild 'mon. It was close to the vocal components of advanced pokésign, she was sure she could catch a few stray words... Something about the tyranitar (Giant? Mighty?) not wanting to end a battle early? That could be useful...

"The wars of your home world don't matter here," growled Sinopa, her ears flattened back. "What did you do to Ollin and Nico?"

"The Ranger perimeter guards," filled in Laura, aware that Ralsen may well not know the names.

Cyclizar Ollin and Wattrel Nico had been patrolling the area around the HQ. The Rangers hadn't left the base defended only by Wayfarers and Sinopa, however powerful the sungeon spirit was.

Laura shook her head. "More importantly, what are you going to do? Are we gonna have to keep watch here 24/7 from now on?"

"Assuming we don't arrest you," hissed Sinopa.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Ralsen turned toward the growling Espeon with the eyes like silver sky. "I imagine Kaida and Tako must have kept them busy," he answered simply. So he had more team members than just these three.

At Laura's question, the Grovyle sighed and folded his arms. "That's unnecessary. There's enough of your overall party to best my team by numbers alone. You're welcome to keep up the watch--I can see how it would do for peace of mind--but it's easiest if I report this mission a lost cause and pursue other leads."

Yet again, Jade stifled the urge to fire back with something unhelpful, and yet again she found herself wondering why this was getting to her. She hadn't met him like Koa and Laura had. She hadn't befriended him. They had every reason to be angry, not her. But everything about this conversation felt uncanny, like a persitent, nagging déjà vu in the back of her brain that wouldn't go away.

An offworlder in search of legendary artifacts. An offworlder who couldn't remember how he'd gotten here, who'd left behind a war back home. A trainer. Charizard, Sceptile, Tyranitar. Charizard Vesta, who moved and fought exactly like--

No. No, that was silly. It didn't make any sense. But that was too many things. And Starr was here, somehow, so it wasn't even unprecedented. It... made sense? It didn't have any right to make sense!

The night air felt cold.

"Hang on... Y-you. You're not. There's no way," Jade stammered under her breath before finally finding her voice and yelling, "Stalker?!"

Ralsen cocked his head in confusion. "...Are you calling me one?"

"I--what? No, that's"--Jade clenched her paws in frustration--"Sebastian, then."

And at that, Ralsen's expression lit up with unparalleled curiosity. "Now that's very interesting. I haven't given that name to anyone on Forlas," he said bringing a claw to his chin. "Who are you?"

It was him. It was him.

"It's me, Jade," she snapped, fur bristling.

Ralsen blinked slowly, processing. "Interesting. I don't know anyone by that name."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Something told Laura that this guy might be devious and untrustworthy, but that he was nonetheless truthful. Something about his even temper, his matter-of-fact explanations, the precision of his wording. Still, it would be better to have assurances.

"We'll make more security arrangements," she said, flatly. She was considering what else to press him on...

—Then Jade blurted out that.

Okay, this guy was definitely the 'Sebastian' Jade knew from her world. Okay. Sure. But he didn't know her? Truthful but tricky...?

"It shouldn't be hard to prove if you're from the same world, right?" ventured Laura, her tail flicking from side to side in supressed agitation. "You could compare public figures, events from your personal history, the 'rules' of your universe..."