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Magna City Shining Congress – Side Halls

Jackie Cat

Jackie Cat

A cat who writes stories.
Heartache staff
Pronoun
they or she
Koa resisted a very immature urge to stick his tongue out at Ralsen as the Grovyle slipped away, then thought of much ruder ways to bid him farewell.

Once he'd gone, he followed Laura's lead, adopting a relaxed and casual attitude as he moved through the crowds and finally into the side halls. Plenty of locked doors, though he did his best to file a mental map away. Not to different from exploring a cave he guessed, if a cave was a shiny building with los of labeled doors.

He reflexively sniffed the air, keeping his ears pricked. "What do you think we can really find here anyway?" he murmured quietly. Not like there would be a flashing sign saying 'evil laboratory here'.
 
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Hands in his pockets, Archie weaved through the crowd, breaking off from and rejoining their little ad hoc espionage group a few times until they finally made it out and into the more sparsely populated parts of the building. Now that they were here, it was as easy as could be. All they had to do was act natural, they were supposed to be here, they were guests of Articuno’s after all.

He scanned the plaque on every door as they passed it. Some, like theaters and lecture halls, could safely be ignored. Others, like laboratories, libraries, offices, and storerooms, the Dewott tried to commit to memory. They may not get a chance like this again, who knew what the situation would be next time they were wandering these halls. Best to build a mental model of the building now.

“I don’t know if we’ll find much,” he admitted, “Not while the place is swarming with Pokemon, anything incriminating is probably well hidden. But, the more we can learn about the building now, the easier any future, less official, visits will be.”

He shot the Electrike a grin, to try and mask some of the unease he was feeling. Regardless of whatever deal Laura had worked out with the Grovyle, it didn’t sit well with Archie to be following along so exactly with Ralsen’s suggestion. The worst part was, there was no obvious fault in the man’s logic for him to pick at. They were almost certainly going to have to break into this place at some point, which meant they absolutely needed to case the joint. He just had to hope this wasn’t a trick.
 
After finishing his tea and leaving the cup on a random table, Silver walked into the hall with total nonchalance, a poker face plastered on his face. As he reunited with the others, he got some time to think about the whole deal with Ralsen.

Perhaps he should have showed more disdain or something when they told him about that ‘Grovyle’, but he wasn’t really the best candidate in judging another thief’s misgivings. After all, any criticism about petty crime would be hypocritical if it came from him. That didn’t mean he couldn’t try to pry more information out of Ralsen, if they got the chance of meeting him later.

Koa and Archie talking brought him back to the present task, and the young Sneasel tapped his chin with his claw, mulling over their words. His eyes sparkled briefly with recollection.

“Hmm, if this place is anything like a Team Rocket base, then there could be some hidden passageways that lead to the… shall we say, stuff that should never meet the public eye,” he mused, his voice low enough to not attract any potential attention from whoever might reside in nearby rooms. “Y’know, the kinda secrets that only high-ranking members would know about. But well, until proven otherwise, this is a simple theory with no foundation.”

Silver shrugged, peering at the walls with his sharp sight, in search of anything that might look off or out of place. Lock-picking some doors was also a thought that crossed his mind, but any suspicious noise or activity would have surely attracted a lot of attention. Better make sure that they were truly alone before trying any not-so-legal method.

“I dunno what to expect outta this investigation, but if there is something fishy about this place,” he smirked with a mix of confidence and mischief as he glanced at the others, “then we’ve gotta do all we can to track down its stinky trail!”
 
Laura snorted at that, despite herself. The kid was kinda endearing.

(There it was again, a reference to Rocket-dan. Sounded like he'd run into them personally...)

"Sure. Dunno that we'll just randomly bump into hidden passages, but I could buy there being some. It'd be the kind of thing they'd put in a place like this, I'm sure. Pretty confident there's something Ralsen expects us to find, anyway, maybe the fucker just gets his kicks from being a cryptic bastard. My bad if this turns out to be a wild goose chase."

She skewed her mouth grudgingly and pressed on, taking down the names and relative positions of different rooms in shorthand in her notepad.
 
A slight shift of air, and the chill of an unexpected draft. For a small moment, the keener-eared Wayfarers might have heard something like soft footsteps on the elaborately patterned carpet. Not to mention the curious sensation of being watched.

But there was no one else around... right?
 
Laura stiffened, her hackles prickling, and tried to act natural. Weird chill. Was there an exit to the outdoors, or a window open? And that didn't sound like an approaching guard or a hurrying member of staff.

Her ears swivelled, her eyes dilated. Where the fuck were they. Who the fuck were they.
 
Something was wrong. His ears flicked, but he didn't hear anything. Still, the feeling in his gut didn't lie. You didn't make it far as a bounty hunter without developing a sixth sense for this sort of thing. Someone was watching them.

Instinctively, his paws reached out for Silver and Koa. To stop them? To protect them? He wasn't quite sure.

"Hello?"
 
That rapid chill didn’t go unnoticed to Silver, his head-feather twitching. He looked behind the group with the corner of his eye, but he didn’t really see anything. But he could tell that there was something, or someone, nearby. A Ghost-type, maybe?

Oh, if only he wasn’t a mountain Sneasel! Foresight would have been so useful! But there was something else he could do…

He glanced casually at the various walls and doors, pretending to study them, but his pupils were now thin slits, his predatory instincts awakened.

Pokémon Ability: Keen Eye!
Click to expand...
 
There was a brief moment when Koa or Archie might have spotted a slight impression in the fabric, like a set of semicircles pressed into the plush surface, but then they faded just as quickly.

Silver's eyes caught a glimpse of something, a flicker of violet in his peripheral vision. But like a magic-eye painting, it slipped away the moment he tried to focus on it.

And then something velvety soft brushed against Koa's jacket pocket.
 
This better be worth it.

Prancing around pretending to join the Covenant—pretending she was totally interested in buddying up to the asshole ones responsible for all this and didn't want to put a boot through each door in this hallway—was so far south of Leaf's personal idea of helping it was tunneling to the core of the planet. But the Covenant probably had info that'd help find the Beacon. And Alexandria was on the way to Tyrrier anyway. And she would be ever so disappointed if she wasn't there to see the looks on their stupid faces once it was time for putting boots through doors.

And hey, wasn't like all the snobs schmoozing around here would pay a kid like her the time of day if she wasn't ~special~, anyway. Easiest to just not give them the chance to pay attention (or give herself the chance to say something the other Wayfarers were going to regret). They'd been given an opening—not happy about who that opening had come from, but screw it—and they were taking it.

"Worth it" status so far: not really. Not... really? She'd been ready to write this off as another of Ralsen's stupid misdirections before the air in the hallway shifted. Something moving? Some... one? Dammit. She tried angling a few Hypnosis waves toward the last spot it'd felt like something had been. It'd slowed down Red Mew...
 
Koa zeroed in on the spot where he swore he saw something, fully ready to attack if anything appeared dangerous, but still there was nothing...

And then he felt something touch him. He tensed, a few sparks unconsciously flaring from his body toward the touch.

"Hey-!" he bit the exclamation back into a loud whisper at the last moment. He backed toward Archie and the others. Something definitely knew they were here, but were they a threat? "Hello?"
 
A divot in the carpet from a set of feet that weren't there. Gone just as quickly. What kind of Pokemon could turn invisible again? Koa yelp, and jumped towards them. This time Archie grabbed one of his scalchops. But without an idea of where to aim, there wasn't much he could do.

"Keep close!" He urged the others instead.
 
Koa leaped back, Archie drew a bladed shell, Leaf prepared a psychic wave, all eyes focused on the same spot—!

And then at once, it snapped into view—a large, four-legged shape recoiling backward. An equine, with a coat like the night sky and ghostly smoke where a mane and tail should have been. Despite its eyes being hidden beneath wispy lashes, the horse's expression was one of clear dismay.

"Ohhhhh, I scared you, oh, oh nooooo......"
 
A... a horse. A ghost horse? A really big ghost horse. They weren't... acting very big. Were they Covenant? Were they supposed to be back here? "Invisible" didn't seem normal for someone who was supposed to be back here.

Her horn remained lit, but she didn't do anything else just yet. Didn't seem immediately threatening so much as... sorry. (Apologetic sorry? A little pathetic-sounding sorry?) Trying to look like it, at least. "You expecting some other kinda reaction when no one can even see you?"
 
Archie blinked, the tension in his shoulders slacking. This was... Some kind of ghost horse? Another Legendary, he thought? Why did he suddenly feel like he had to apologize?

"Uh... Sorry?" He said, returning his shell to his hip. "Unfamiliar place, we weren't expecting..."

He made a vague, circular gesture with his paw. Hopefully one of the others had a less lame excuse for their presence here...

Of course, deflecting the attention from them back to the mysterious appearing horse as Leaf was wasn't a bad idea either!
 
Koa stifled a yelp as a huge dark shape appeared in the room. A huge, dark horse. A huge dark ghostly legendary steed of Galar. His countenance shifted from annoyance and suspicion to awe.

For a good few seconds, he could only stare at the legen- Saint (was it a Saint?). Although they didn't act especially Saintly... Still cool. "No it's okay," he said. "I mean, no harm done. What are you uh, doing back here? Are you with... the Covenant?"
 
Laura stifled a nervous chuckle from the fright. Okay, that was a fucking Spectrier, then, both steeds existed, sure, fine, cool cool cool, okay.

"Uh, hey there," she tried, biting her lip. "Don't worry about it! We can, uh, see you now so everything's fine."

Who was this Spectrier and why were they here, though? The part of her that grew up on Mediaevel Galaric Myths And Legends wanted to ask whose were they, but that felt like a weird thing to wonder about a sapient, and a Saint no less. Assuming they were a Saint?

"Are you, um, a Saint? By any chance?"
 
So it was really a ghost! A big, ghostly horse with a fairly timid disposition. And that wispy mane… didn’t Matsuba say something about a ghost horse who could kick people into the world of the dead? The incarnation of the blood moon? Except that the mane was supposed to be red…?

Well, whatever was the case, that horse didn’t seem threatening, and they seemed apologetic for pulling off their invisible tricks.

“…Nah. You didn’t scare us. But heh, you can’t really blame folks for being on guard when some invisible fella is following ‘em for some unknown reason, y’know?” Silver waved his paw dismissively, appearing much calmer. “No big deal, really! So, huh, who are you?”
 
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