“By all means, Deputy.” The Sheriff smiles. He’d give almost anything to have this man in his department. Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki and him could make a real dent in the Ultra Deep Sea Investigation. Or maybe he could just teach her some proper manners. Set a few new trends for the hipsters that live around here.[break][break]
“No, it wasn’t. If this is like the last case I dealt with on Peters’s land, we’ve got a Pokemon that’s washed up on shore from the Ultra Deep Sea. Dunno how they get out, or how they survive all the way back up onto land, but they end up here sometimes. Chances are, it’s running mad with Nihilego neurotoxin.” The conversation turns grim, but it’s best to bring the man up to speed.[break][break]
“No cure, as far as I can tell. Just gotta put ‘em down and pray for them.” He wonders if the same is true to humans. Only a dollop of the stuff infected Tsubaki, but she still seems changed. Nihilego neurotoxin throws off a creature’s inhibitions.[break][break]
“If you don’t mind me making an assumption, you’re Galarian, yeah? You ever compete in the pro circuits over there.” It’s a shot in the dark, but Gabe and him used to watch the stuff religiously. One year, he even managed to scrape up enough money to take his little brother to the finals in Wyndon.[break][break]
“My brother loved watching the circuit every year.”

[break][break]

+ Gwyar Wledig

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

It’s a haunting specter. Beautiful. A flowing purple mane. An eyeless face that sees all. Terrifying. Haunting. A steed of legend that Navy has never beheld before. He knows of this creature’s existence – Kyle and some of the other trainers came into possession of this specimen some years ago. It’s one of the few times he envies his friend for his activity in the grand stage that is this region.[break][break]
His mind wanders to fantasies of riding that jet black steed, clad in dark armor. A silent hunter in the night, protecting the people of Dewford. Fantasies are fine. Dreams add color to life. He needs more than dreams to accomplish the day’s work.[break][break]
Cupping his fingers, the sheriff whistles. Silver Bullet, his Rapidash, rushes from the opposite side of Peters’s field. She neighs and stops just short of him. She’s finally been fitted with a saddle that won’t burn on her back. They’ve developed a remarkable bond in a short time. Rapidash are prone to scorching their riders unless they have accepted that person as their master.[break][break]
Jumping up in the saddle, he feels like a knight on a quest alongside a fellow. Navy resolves to keep that thought to himself. Whatever the truth, he doubts saying he feels like a knight in front of an armored Galarian is a good idea.[break][break]
“I did. My brother did more than me. He was sorta oblivious, my brother.” The Sheriff muses. He’s at ease on this horse. Navy feels no compulsion to hold his tongue on this matter. “Gabe didn’t notice the black bags under the eyes of the trainers, or the wrinkles from stress. He just saw the smiles they put on for the jumbotrons. Heard ‘em cheer and dynamax their aces. Man…I’ll say this. Nothin’ stops my heart quite as much as a soaring Corviknight dosed up with that Dynamax juice.”[break][break]
Even knowing the stress, as he urges Silver Bullet onward, Navy can’t stop himself from adding one little point.[break][break]
“Looked like fun.”

[break][break]

+ Gwyar Wledig

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Navy sees that smile. He reads between the weathered lines of the knight’s face. There’s a story there, a story he wants to tell. Their chase leads them out past the property line of the Peters farm. Fortune smiles upon them, as there seem to be no more bodies of Pokemon. Whatever mad beast was there has had its appetite sated, but its trail is fresh. Kicked up dirt and broken fences lead them where they need to go.[break][break]
He wonders what they’re going to find when they reach the lair. Whatever it is, he suspects this knight, his black dragon, and the other beasts at his belt will be up for the task.[break][break]
“Well, don’t leave me in suspense.” The detective offers his own smile. He is no great genius of inference. He will not make some deduction based upon obscure facts, but he knows the hearts of man. “Got all the time in the world, Deputy. What made you hit the pro circuit?”

[break][break]

+ Gwyar Wledig

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“W-Wait…” Navy stammers, recognition dawning. “You were her husband?!” Everyone who follows the Galar League knows about that woman, a champion among champions. She was before Gabe’s time, but that didn’t stop him from looking up to her, wanting to emulate her example. The closest thing Hoenn has to her is Katherine Fairburne, but even then…[break][break]
It's like comparing a black hole to a nebula. They exist on the same scale, but they are things so far removed from one another as to be incomparable – just going by their public personas. Such is life at the top. All the big figures are galaxies unto themselves.[break][break]
“Holy shit. Uh – mind my language, I know. Just…” He feels embarrassed admitting this to the woman’s husband, but why? He’s not insulting her or her memory. This man will not take offense to the words.[break][break]
“…never thought I’d meet a pro on your level. Galar trainers are on a whole ‘nother level.” It’s a matter of perspective. Hoenn breeds warriors. Galar breeds knights. There’s a small difference. These terms are indistinguishable to most. This thought is one Navy harbors when he reflects on the circumstances of his birth. Gabe had the honest heart of a knight. Galar isn’t sunshine and rainbows, but at least there, he would be among his own kind.[break][break]
“I’m trying to be Champion here in Hoenn.” He says as if every serious trainer in the region isn’t competing for that title. Hoenn’s Elite 4 are the greatest in the world and they serve as mighty gatekeepers for the championship, let alone Kyle’s Top Champion spot.[break][break]
“It was Gabe’s dream. He died trying to make it come true. Feels like the right thing to do, as his big brother. Make sure a Navidson takes the spot from Lopez.” There’s an option to soften his words there, toss in a bit of self-deprecation, laugh. Maybe he would have done just that before Dewford, but he learned to say things with his chest down in the caves. Let people think what they will, he has to be what he is. Nothing more or less.

[break][break]

+ Gwyar Wledig

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“I admit I like the climb to bein’ the Champ. Someone once told me that, if you want to reach the top, you should enjoy the trip there instead of focusing on the summit.” Navy reminisces about days gone by, interviews with pros. In those days, he was content to sit on the sidelines – he was just another bystander. Nothing more.[break][break]
“Battling’s fun. Figuring out different strats. What works, what doesn’t. What Pokemon work well together. Synergies. It’s all good practice for the real fights.” Both men know what he’s talking about. The sentence trails towards a hint of darkness. Gwyar’s in the heart of darkness if he operates within Sootopolis’s department – a last bastion of League defiance in the face of Rocket’s overwhelming victory.[break][break]
“I look forward to seein’ you fight Lopez, old timer. Make sure to get some practice in at my gym when we’re done renovating the place.” The day when his gym opens up can’t come soon enough. A steady supply of sparring partners and kids to educate on the realities of being a trainer in Hoenn sounds like the life.[break][break]
A fleeing flock of zigzagoon tells Navy he’ll get to see the older man in action before then. Looking to the man, he pulls out a pokeball. Just up the road, trouble is waiting.[break][break]
It’s the biggest Feraligatr Navy has ever seen. Too big. Towering, ten feet tall, supping on the flesh of a Linoone. The poor thing never stood a chance. Its body is lined with telltale signs of the Ultra Deep Sea. Barnacles grow along his belly. In place of the red fins Feraligatr are known for grows patches of coral. Its eyes are milky white. Blind, as all dead things beneath the sea tend to be.[break][break]
“…Arceus.” Navy curses. “Poor thing. Probably got separated from its trainer during the battle – or the guy got himself killed.” Both sides suffered heavy casualties that day.[break][break]
“Head’s up, it’s already dead. Nihilego neurotoxins got it. It’s more or less a big, angry zombie. Best thing we can do is put ‘em down.”[break][break]
Navy throws out Roland, machine ghost of a chivalrous warrior. He has only existed in this form for a month and already the solid chrome knight has suffered a grievous wound. The Iron Valiant has but one arm. His vicious blade pulsates with pink energy.[break][break]
The Feraligatr finally seems to notice them, sniffing the air as it stands up from its meal. Roland waves his arm, sending out an electric field that makes the hairs on the back of Navy’s neck stand up.[break][break]
Standing at its full height, it begins to lumber towards them. Navy wonders if Gwyar will throw out a new Pokemon or overwhelm the Pokemon with the specter he rides.

[break][break]

+ Gwyar Wledig

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“As far as I can tell, yeah.” The Sheriff answers Gwyar’s first question, pulling back on Silver Bullet’s reins so she doesn’t charge headfirst into danger. “Doesn’t help they’re inside…well, Ultra Deep Sea’s a hell of a place.” It’s a place that turns the ordinary into horror. A place he wouldn’t wish upon the worst enemies he had ever found, but he dove there on a weekly basis.[break][break]
“Wha—” His second encounter with an illumina Pokemon almost blinds Navy. Luckily, his Rapidash sees what’s about to happen and jumps around. Their eyes do not bear witness to the explosion of light and force. Only when he turns back around, ears ringing from the sound, does he see the Feraligatr stumble. It rubs at its nonexistent eyes, mimicking annoyance. It’s thrown off for a mere moment before it charges the sword, a roar welling in its dead throat.[break][break]
“Hattori!” Navy commands as he releases his own Pokemon. The situation calls for an experiment of his own. “Make it difficult terrain!” An exercise in understatement and code words. Toxic spikes form in the frog’s hands, tossed out across the battlefield.[break][break]
The Feraligatr does not notice them, or perhaps he doesn’t care. He steps on the poisoned caltrops, some of them embedding deep into his feet. It does not stop. It does not relent. Ignoring everything else, frost seems to form at the edge of its mouth. He tries to bite through the sword with an ice fang.

[break][break]

+ Gwyar Wledig

[attr="class","pokeclass"]