Kaida and her Yanmega fell over him like a thunderstorm, and he knew immediately that what little time had passed between their return to the physical world and this meeting had not done much to soothe the hurts between them. That was fine, he thought, as he skittered back out of the way so Kaida’s dragonfly could land, he wasn’t looking to be forgiven. He knew he’d fucked up, regardless of the personality warping that had occurred outside of his control.

The animosity she felt for him was not the important bit here. Protecting Fortree-- the sanctuary, and Alex as an extension ofit-- was.

“Hi!” he said, cheery despite the nerves and dire feeling, “it’s good to see you.” And despite the ghost of a throb in his nose (she’d broken it when she’d punched him on the beach) the warmth in his voice was genuine.

Her eyes narrowed at him and he held up his hands in surrender. “It’s okay, we’re going to split up. You take the buildings on the north side, and I’ll do the ones on the south. I just needed someone I could trust.” Which was true, to a point-- Memo didn’t figure there were many Rangers he couldn’t trust-- but Alex had vouched for Kaida and the two of them obviously had a friendship, so he figured that was helpful motivation for protecting the Sanctuary. “We’re just looking for anything out of the ordinary: broken locks, jimmied windows. I don’t think anyone’s gonna spraypaint a big red R to mark their trail, but hey, we might get lucky.”

Kaida Adachi
dawn of a new day: defend!

☉

Even though he deserved all her scorn, it still stung.

He trusts you, for some reason.

Maybe because we're in love?

He swallowed his protests, the same ones he’d had with Alex-- he was changed, hell, even Kaida had been changed, after the third scan. But there would be a time for that, later.

“He’s still healing,” Memo said, and this, too, was the truth, “and, besides. He has a lot on his plate. I’m Fortree Ranger Captain, now, by some miracle, so. This is my job.” He left out the part where he really didn’t want to burden Alex with any more stress, right now.

He felt his mouth quirk up, couldn’t stop what came next: “And as far as trust, well, for as much as you dislike me, I trust you’d stop me from being beaten to a pulp by some lowly Rocket. You’d want to do it yourself.” He tapped the side of his still slightly discolored and crooked nose. “I remember.”

Snagging the earpiece out of the air, he said, “Will do,” and let her depart without any argument. Sibella cocked her head at him, ears perked with curiosity, but he waved her off.

“I deserve it. C’mon, let’s finish this patrol.”

Kaida Adachi
dawn of a new day: defend!
feel free to create some chaos <3

☉

I’m too small.

Sure didn’t feel small when she was collapsing his nasal cavity back into the center of his face.

He was reliving the experience, the bursty-static-crunchy-styrofoam sound of Kaida decking him in the face. It kept him grounded. He had deserved it, after all, and lingering on that meant he wasn’t thinking about the rest of what happened.

There was a strange, visceral, half-dream moment when Kaida’s voice actually did sound off in a burst of static, alerting him to the presence of something strange. He radioed his affirmative and Sibella pulled a big c-curve in the air, flying upside-down for a time as they darted south to Kaida’s location. He closed his eyes into the wind until the bat righted herself and landed, and he slid off.

He noticed it immediately-- it was hastily done and poorly covered. He angled his body to walk around the disruption so as not to disturb the evidence. “Shit.” Pressing a hand against the canvas covering, it gave with a ripple, revealing a tall, vertical slice. A point of entry and exit? “Double shit.”

Kaida Adachi
dawn of a new day: defend!

☉

He felt Kaida’s presence behind him, amazed that she dared to come into his immediate airspace and hadn’t strangled him yet. Like a practiced hunter, though, she was already moving onto the next step in the chase.

She was airborne by the time Memo was back outside, swinging onto Sibella and taking flight with a valiant shriek, his Noivern inundated with the excitement of the chase. She caught up with the Yanmega, the dragonfly’s whirring wings echoing the thrum of Memo’s pulse.

“Yeah,” he said to Kaida, pressing a hand into Sibella’s neck. The Noivern dropped like a stone, wings pulling in and shooting through the air. Memo’s stomach did a flip-flop and he felt himself come out of his seat. Sibella got as close to the forest floor as she could, flaring her wings to catch the wind and slow their descent, and Memo launched a prepared Pokeball in the direction of the fleeing shadows.

Freya exploded from the beam of light; she hit the ground with one foot, and in the next triggered her extreme speed, overcoming the interlopers with ease. She grabbed one by the back of their shirt, darted forward, snagged the other by the front, and brought them together, cracking their heads like coconuts. They both grunted in pain, dropping their packs of pilfered goods, before slumping to the ground, stunned or unconscious.

Freya struck her paws together as though clearing them of dirt. Done and dusted.

Kaida Adachi
dawn of a new day: defend!

☉