The Honedges swirled about, agitated, maybe a bit frustrated. But all Mirri could do was shake her head. “It’s fine. Has to be. If you found nothing then we can’t get where someone is. Probably no one there,” she told them before deciding to head further east instead. The duo of blades had just returned from trying to get into a damaged building as far as they could on the lookout for survivors, evidently without any luck. Yet, that did not mean that things were nearly as grisly on her end as they had on Josh’s. Just that there was no one over there that she could help right then and there. Not the best of situations, but lamenting that would do them no good. Hence, she went back onto Mudbray and decided to move along, her swordly ghosts following along.

Rounding a corner, she found something again. Only this time, it would probably have been superfluous to do much, as she watched a Pikachu trying to hug a trainer. Without context, she did not reserve any judgment and instead simply acknowledged Josh being there. “You got the situation here under control?” She briefly looked up at her Honedges, as they started to move about more erratically. “The situation is clear, yes? With regards to the weather, I mean. These two are usually good at reading that sort of thing. They are ghosts after all, they know calamity. Something seems off here. But I can’t tell you what, really.”


Josh Devlin

“Never understood how and why people would go stealing in situations like this anyway,” she replied without thinking much about it. Well, without thinking about that saying that out loud. She did wonder about the topic at hand, though. At the end of the day, it would be best if everyone just evacuated. Hence, it always confounded her that others would simply use that time to steal when they could use it to run. Did not make much sense to her.

Philosophical ramblings were misplaced, though. They had work to do. Hence, she just nodded. Then she called forth her Mudbray. It wasn’t that she did not trust the ride offered. But if things did get problematic, she wanted to be on her own steed. It gave her a peace of mind. Her Mudbray she knew how it would act. There was no doubt that the Pyroars would obey her. But this one she knew.

Hence, she settled for this, mounting up. It was best to stick together. Hence, she followed him. He had more experience with large scale operations. Best to leave it to him in that regard. It would not take long before they found their first occurrence. There likely would be many. She saw him easily handle that, though. It was unnecessary to add to a volatile situation that was calming down. Instead, she listened for sounds other than the rain. There was some light mewling, which she followed.
While Josh waited for the police, she found a small situation in one of the side streets. Evacuations were for humans. Truly wild Pokemon knew by instinct to run from the storm. But the street-wilds did not know nature that well anymore. Seeing a Meowth trying frantically to get out from under a fence that had half fallen onto it when it dislodged from the walls, she got her Honedge out. “Carefully, free it,” Mireille ordered. A few fell swoops of a ghastly blade later, the fence was cut up on the edges, no longer pushing down the Meowth. There were no thanks. It simply darted off, hopefully to safety.

Hence, she reported just that. “A block or two south of you. Status is fine, just saved a Meowth.” The way she understood it, saving Pokemon was also her job.


Josh Devlin

What was it with this region and crises? Mirri could have sworn there was one every couple of weeks at least. Just the other day she had helped with another incident involving bad weather – only this time it was much worse. A hurricane was not something she had ever experienced, nor wished to. Coming in to help save people was something she could do though.

After all, she was able to help, so she would help. It really was as simple as that. Helping others was in her nature, was her desired path in life. Mirri just did not feel very safe herself as she approached the meeting point on her Corviknight. The winds were still rather strong. They made it in one piece, but she was quite glad when they landed all the same.

Once she was close enough she did spot Devlin though. It was not a surprise to see him there, of course, but still a welcome sight nonetheless. Especially once she heard gunshots. “I seem to always find you in less than pleasant circumstances, it seems.”


Josh Devlin

Once on the ground, she had swapped her Corviknight for a more suitable ride, but mostly kept to herself. Idle talk was already a difficult task for one such as her at the best of times. It only grew worse in this kind of situation. She still did not know what to say to someone who was probably traumatize by very recent events to an extent that she could not quite fathom, personally.

Instead, she fell back on what had served her decently well at family gatherings: short, somewhat vapid responses. Whatever felt right at the time, often picked from similar conversations in novels she had read. It probably did not bother the men too much. On a certain level she understood that talking by itself was the goal. A distraction, really.

Still, she was relieved when they could basically hand him over to more qualified people. That was probably a bad way to think about it all, but she could not help it. The best she could do was to keep it hidden and only breathe a sigh of relief once they had parted from him. And to not contest the praise she was given, even if she felt he could have done it himself. “A meal would be good. And some place to warm up. That rain did get everywhere, after all.” A very poor attempt at a joke. But all she could muster for now with a tired smile.

Praise was always nice. But she knew better than be distracted by it. In some kind of social setting, she probably would have had a bit of trouble dealing with that in and of itself. But up here, flying in the sky, in the rain? The thought did not cross her mind. Though that, in turn, saw her sigh ever so softly to herself. If only she actually could just be like this, all the time. Life would be so much easier that way.

But, alas, it was not meant to be. At least she was able to do reasonably well now, as she helped along the others on the ground get out of danger. From her vantage point, it was relatively easy to follow their movements as they dodged the potentially dangerous Pokemon, if only barely. There was a brief moment of worry and annoyance, for she could not intervene in time even if she tried. Yet, the other seemingly made it out okay. “It went back into the mud. As long as you stay clear from that you should be in the clear. I would say a good few hundred meters bad terrain, then you should reach a road.” Not the proper, paved one, but a path that was easy to make out even in this weather. It had to be more than just some hunting trail.


Josh Devlin

Fortunately, it was raining still, at least a little. That did make traversing the woods on foot a bit more difficult, she presumed, but the other’s ride Pokemon were probably trained to handle that. On the other hand though, while it was annoying to have droplets being blown into her face, that was a small price to pay. She had to squint a bit, but most of the wild Pokemon were keeping themselves dry, rather than going out to meet the new human arrivals. Which was good.

But that also meant that those Pokemon still out had reason to. There were those that required more hydration, of course, but also predators. Mirri kept an eye out for those. So far, she did not see any of them, though. Just natural and less natural occurrences. “You are coming up on a mudslide. Can cross it a bit further north, she noted, figuring he did not want to jump the muddy fields with a civilian in tow. However, as these two would come closer to it, she did notice something. “Mud is moving. Something is inside it, I reckon.” Hopefully nothing hostile.


Josh Devlin

There was the briefest of disappointments on her face. ‘Almost’ like a noble knight. She could somewhat tell that it was meant more as a compliment of sorts, most likely. But still, that pretty much her whole shtick. To hear she only met it almost….kind of felt bad.

Still, she could tell that it was not really meant spitefully or anything like that. Fortunately due to that, she managed to keep herself from over-correcting and taking that hand for a proper knight’s hand-kiss. That would have been, as the youths call it ‘overly cringe’. And also kind of be harassment. Yes, she had heard that in her training often enough. Some of the old traditions were not great in the modern age.

Instead, she described a salute, fist on chest. “Mireille Wynter. Knight of Galar and Ranger-in-transition in Hoenn,” she replied, somewhat stiffly, having nothing to draw on other than the truth which was a bit wordy in this case.


Galayne Valois

Sadly, the battle was resolved swiftly. Sadly only because that was the part where she would have felt comfortable making a difference. As she, too, descended to the ground and watched the conversation take place, she only watched somewhat awkwardly. At the end of the day, Mireille did know about her shortcomings. In most conversations, she could save herself by pulling platitudes and phrases that sounded good and or deep from the novels she had devoured over the years.

However, that just felt completely out of place in a situation like this. She had no idea how it must have felt just mere hours after losing multiple people you loved dearly. And she was not trained to deal with it. Offering empty words would have simply felt wrong, so she did not even try. Instea, she shuffled about a bit in the distance, deciding to act as a lookout and securing the area instead of actively participating.

Fortunately, the other ranger had it covered. About as well as anyone could, probably. At the end of the day, there was nothing either of them could do to truly help with grief. But at least they got the man to comply.
Mirri mounted her Corviknight again. “I will go overhead, keeping an eye out for potential threats and roadblocks,” she replied, keeping it short and to the point. Seemed like the best idea while those two rode out.


Josh Devlin

It truly was foggy. Mirri did not exactly think that she had done that good a job at noticing this, she had just been in the right place at the right time with her eyes, really. Hence, she did not take the compliment too seriously as she neared alongside the other, trying to glance more of the ground below. It certainly smelled like traffic accident there, but it would be bad to allow that to simply cloud her judgement right away. Until they found the target, the peculiars did not really matter anyway. Not like it would get them closer to finding the man otherwise.

“At least no corpses. I don’t see a lot of blood, either.” Her focus was evidently not distributed as her partner’s was. She only took a second look at the tracks after he asked her the question. “They look too big. But that doesn’t mean too much. Life-or-death situation. Might have ended up triggering an evolution. Especially since a Quaxly would be too small to carry an unconscious man. That’s just conjecture, though.”


Josh Devlin

It was impressive indeed. Though granted, having more of them about would have been useful in this situation. She didn’t have, though. Most of her Pokeballs were filled with the Honedge line. Those could float, but not fly. Which was decent in most regards. Just not in this one.

But, alas, it probably was not necessary to begin with. The other ranger seemed to have it covered. Hence, she nodded to this, as she had nodded to his previous comments. Mirri was not a woman of many words in dangerous situations. Hence, she remained rather quiet as she boarded her own ride.
Before too long, she and Corviknight rose to the skies. It was chillier up there, especially in this weather. But that was something she had been prepared for, at least. Once they had reached a proper altitude thus, Corviknight flapped in place to allow her to scan the area without too much trouble. The dense foliage below made it hard to see much, especially after strong rainfall. But she did see something. “There is a toppled-over tree to my five o’ clock. Should not be lightning, maybe a Pokemon battle or something like that happened there?” Mirri did have to raise her voice quite a bit here, in order to be heard over the flap of wings and such.

Josh Devlin

Well…she had never insinuated otherwise? Mirri turned and blinked at the other in confusion. It did not look like the lady had taken it as an insult though, so context suggested that this was a joke? Honestly, she did not know. Mireille was not good at this sort of stuff. She just pretended to, really.

At the very least, the raven-haired one was able to calm down those Pokemon. That certainly was a kind of training as well. Just not an orthodox one, really. It did get the job done, at least, as the Oinkologne, despite not quite trusting the humans yet, at least believed that they did not currently poised a threat. It took the opportunity at least to withdraw, urging the little ones to follow.

With the danger thus subsiding, Mirri recalled Aegislash. “I would not say these skills were horrible. You did successfully dodge, after all,” she noted, trying a joke of her own. “But I would say well done either way. We have successfully averted danger, so that is successful training as well.”

Mirri nodded once more in reply. They were ready, of course. They had to be, since they were under attack, after all. One could not be negligent in their duties during moments like that, it was that simple. Hence Aegislash focused on keeping that shield up and trying to push the other Pokemon back, if just a little, while the Flabebe went to work.

It was a simple thing, but still a taxing one. They could not exactly afford to waver in this one way or another. She focused ahead of herself, trusting the stranger to both have her back and resolve this situation – though she did have to blink when the little flower Pokemon came sailing over their collective heads. That certainly seemed like an…unusual kind of strategy. But she could not complain.

After all, it did get results. The big one was restrained – which also caused the little one to cease trying to attack, instead trying to bite through the vines to no away. The smallest one simply watched, whimpering, clearly overwhelmed by everything happening around them.
Fortunately though, the wish or whatever was happening there did seem to work, as the big Oinkologne started to breathe slower, more heavily indeed. “It does seem to be working, good thinking there.” Mirri still kept her eyes on the opposition instead of the one she was talking to. Just in case.

Briefly, she worried that the other was unable to reply due to being hurt. Fortunately though, it came, if belatedly. Possibly this girl was just a bit shocked, being attacked like this. A lot of trainers were like this. They could handle a Pokemon fight and thus go on a trip like this, but they were not used to themselves being targeted. It was understandable, really.

Mirri just gave a smile in reply as she helped the other up and did not mention that part. “Do not mention it. It’s just a day’s work for a knight, after all,” she added, then she turned and faced the situation in question. The Oinkologne tried to assail the shield again, but bounced off for the time being.

“Hmm, I guess we need to do something without killing this one. If I handle defense, do you have a way to calm it down without hurting it too much? We encroached upon their territory, so they should not needlessly suffer for it.” Granted, this was a training place, so fighting was the objective. Yet at the same time, this whole situation did not feel all that proper. Plus, when she was saving someone, she liked to not stain that with blood, if possible.