It should surprise Navy that a small town like this still has crime, but it doesn’t. All it takes is one chip in the armor and the flesh beneath can be pierced. Infection can spread. If anything, less space just means the disease can travel quicker.[break][break]
He’s been tracking this case since he got appointed Sheriff. The death of that hipster he investigated with Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki was but the tip of an iceberg snaking down far, far below the surface. What Navy wants to say is that it’s still up in the air whether this case involves Rocket. A harsh truth he has learned after investigating so many crimes around Hoenn is that everything ties to Rocket eventually.[break][break]
So, when he’s staking out the warehouse and sees a duo go in, he’s not surprised. They’re picking up the stash. Snapping a quick picture for his records, he waits.[break][break]
By the time they walk back out into the cool night, Navy has Roland out. The chrome warrior’s pink eyes shine in the darkness. It’s a good night for a fight. A sea breeze blows, cool air making the detective’s hair stand on end. Some little voice in his head tells him this isn’t going to go well.[break][break]
Call it a detective’s intuition.[break][break]
He swaggers out, a confident smile on his face. There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s got the shiny badge to prove it to the world. Roland, the ghost in the shell, walks out with him. His blades have already folded from the sides of his arms into a double-bladed weapon.[break][break]
“Alright, lady. Gent. You’re under arrest. Easy way or hard way?”[break][break]
He’s laid out the terms. That’s all the warning they’re going to get. Roland focuses on the Gardevoir. The Iron Valiant is poised to strike at a moment’s notice. It remembers well the tricks the gentler of its predecessor species can pull.

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+ Zev Harcourt

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Roland sees it before Navy does. They pick the hard way. Raising his blade, he’s rushing in. It’s a mad dash, trying to cross the distance between the Rockets and himself as best he can before the inevitable happens. Like always, he’s just a few steps too late. His blade finds purchase against nothing but empty air. If a machine has the capacity to feel frustration, he feels it here.[break][break]
He turns his blade on the other trainer just in time to see the strange monster he has summoned to defend himself. A whip meets a blade in a clash of psychic energy. Two psycho cuts meeting as Roland skids past, hellbent on being in front of his trainer. The ghost remembers the hard-fought battle with the blonde admin in the caves beneath his feet. Rockets are not above attacking trainers.[break][break]
“Hard way it is.” Navy’s happier this way, even if he’s mad that he lost the goods. If he can take this guy in, the information he could get…[break][break]
“Cute Pokemon. I’ll be honest, I was expecting a Nidoking or somethin’ like it.” He quips, prodding the man to see how he reacts.

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+ Zev Harcourt

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A knight’s duty is to protect his lord. Roland is no knight. Roland died in the caves beneath these shores. That Gallade burned himself out to save the man behind him – the latest in a long line of sacrifices made in Navy’s name.[break][break]
Yet, when Navy called the machine by that name, he never showed a sign it would prefer another. If a machine can like anything, he likes the name. Whether or not that Gallade is the same being as him doesn’t matter. There are echoes of his memory, fragments spoken by Navy and one who came before him. Encouragements. Requests.[break][break]
So, when his sharp mechanical eyes notice the monster charging for Navy, his first instinct is to protect that man. He leaves himself undefended. It’s death on the battlefield. An electric thunderbolt shoots from his arm out at the Gengar…[break][break]
…moments before the attack he ignored hits him. His chassis is ripped apart. Machines do not bleed, but liquid spills from him in great spurts. It’s oil, or something that can pass for the substance. Dark, even in the artificial glow of the lights outside the warehouse. The machine’s next course of action is decidedly human.[break][break]
His trainer scrambles to get another Pokemon out of its ball. Hattori. The Greninja’s clever, he’ll keep Navy safe. Roland’s processors come to one conclusion: kill the trainer. Kill the owner. Kill the commander. By killing him, the battle ends. Navy’s safety is ensured.[break][break]
His arm is dangling by wires. With how much oil’s drained onto the sandy stone beneath his feet, he’d be dead if he had the capacity to die in the traditional sense. He still has one arm. He still has his blade.[break][break]
And he means to drive it through this villain’s heart.

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+ Zev Harcourt

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“Roland, no!” What a paradox. Navy shouts, begging for the life of a man who clearly aims to kill him. Apprehension turns to fear as he watches the knight’s blade fail to sink into flesh. It’s hard to see in the dark, but the sheriff catches a glimmer of something shining under the skin in the light.[break][break]
His heart is somewhere down in his stomach. He feels like he did when he fought Cillian Quinn down in the deep. Men being able to deflect blades is the stuff of fairy tales and legends.[break][break]
Legends have walked Hoenn for years now. This man must have one of them, too. The parameters for this mission have changed. It’s no longer a battle for information. It’s a battle for survival. He files away every detail of this man, putting him in the same category as the criminal Hoenn knows as ‘Gavin’.[break][break]
As a testament to his severity, he raises his left hand. For his twenty-first birthday, his brother gave him a watch. It quit working with no explanation the day Sootopolis was lost. It’s as if Gabriel Navidson’s life being snuffed out made time itself stop. Above the face of the watch is set a stone. It glows in response to Navy’s urgent need.[break][break]
Hattori senses the coming change. He’s only been at this human’s side for a short time, but he has come to understand the human’s heart. Navy is someone he can swear his life to. That bond changes him into something greater than he was before. With the power of a shinobi’s will, he cries out and strikes.[break][break]
Water shuriken, empowered by the bond between trainer and Pokemon, fire at both the Gengar and the Hatterene farther away. Covering fire to distract them, keep them from gathering their thoughts. Creating chaos so that Navy can snatch opportunity.[break][break]
“What the hell are you?!”[break][break]
The machine, meanwhile, is confused. His blade is sharp. How has it stopped short of the chest? He tries once more. This time, no errant cut. Somewhere along the way, the last few wires holding his arm in place snap. Showing the coldness that only a machine can manage, he simply files the arm away as lost and moves on. He channels psychic energy through the blade, held with a single arm, a psycho cut to try and end this before it can truly begin.[break][break]
For all its processing power, the machine little understands the depths of this creature he fights, or the one lurking inside him.

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+ Zev Harcourt

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What a mess. No backup. Little hope. The sole solace he has is that this guy, if he truly is the avatar of a god, hasn’t pulled out the god yet. As much as he’d love to give that intel for the League…[break][break]
There’s people nearby. Innocent civilians who live close to the warehouse, criminals who don’t deserve this. No one deserves a battlefield like Sootopolis, Slateport, or the hell that churns down in the deep sea. If he can keep that from escalating, he will.[break][break]
Hattori is slowly, surely, gaining his footing as a combatant. When the dazzling gleam is sent towards him, he is already gone – a shadow out of sight, out of mind. A shinobi is one who endures. Caught in the shadows, he is hit. His course doesn’t change. Hattori has had occasion to clash with such a creature before. It seems a finer specimen than Melody Miro’s, but neither did he fight that one in a real battle.[break][break]
He reappears from the shadows behind this creature, wailing in anger. A kunai of shadow materializes in his hand. Hattori’s shadow sneak play ends with him trying to drive that kunai into the witch’s neck.[break][break]
Roland is stunned by this turn of events. The machine, devoid of sentiment, above such lowly things as frustration, simply sees that attacking the man is pointless. Instead, he dives back into the fray with the others.[break][break]
At least…[break][break]
That’s what he would do, if he had any energy left. Losing an arm is draining. The chrome warrior falls flat on his face. Not dead, but that revelation can wait a few hours.[break][break]
“Arceus, not again.” Navy screams as he charges, just close enough to pull Roland back into the ball. He locks eyes with the Rocket. Instinct drives his hand to the ball housing the black dragon. If anything could pierce those crystal…[break][break]
But does he want that? Does the man he’s fighting want that? They can turn this into a much bigger ordeal, get the big guns called in by making a scene. It can end here just as easily.[break][break]
Navy makes a calculated decision. Maybe it’ll get him killed, maybe it’ll give the other an out to retreat while saving face. As men run out of the warehouse, his fellow officers arrive, attracted by the commotion. Navy throws out his Cyclizar, Lizzy. She shines white in the light of lamps and stars. He takes off after the fleeing smugglers.[break][break]
Hattori, seeing this, trails after him, a streak of lightning while mega-evolved.[break][break]
Whether it ends here or escalates is entirely up to the man with the crystal skin.

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+ Zev Harcourt

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