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The fog was a nuisance.[break][break]
Unown made for remarkable scouts, but even they had trouble seeing through the haze. Nomi sighed, eyes returning to their normal crimson as she severed the connection with Kallistatus. It was useless. She'd have to go out and try to find the cave entrance the old fashioned way: on foot.[break][break]
Creeping out of the underbrush, the Rocket Head Scientist made her way down the slope of the dune in front of her, treading carefully so as not to call attention to her passing. Kallistatus hovered nearby, watching for danger. It was eerily quiet. Too quiet. Nomi stopped, closing her eyes to focus on listening to the sounds around her.[break][break]
The crashing of waves. The distant clash of battle. The rustling of wings. The heavy footfalls of - [break][break]
"Someone's here," she hissed, eyes snapping open. One of her own, or a League operative? The thick gloom made it difficult to tell. She backed up, then pulled out a Pokeball and released Python, her Iron Jugulis.[break][break]
"Get rid of the fog," she requested of the paradox. Gears whirring, the creature began to glow, then a whooshing TAILWIND kicked up in an attempt to disperse the dense mist.[break][break]
Friend or enemy, she needed to be able to see.

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[attr="class","text"] Through the dense fog and permeating silence came sound. Quiet, but enough to freeze Lam in place. The whirring click of…a machine? Gears shifting?[break][break]
The sudden TAILWIND knocked into him from the side, gusty enough to pull him off of his feet. “Woah!” It slipped out despite his prior effort to be quiet, followed by a caw from the murkrow as he kicked off and let his wings catch the current. The corvid circled above Lam on the ground as he rolled to his knees.[break][break]
It was enough force to knock his baseball cap and hood off as well. He had half a mind to pull his flight goggles up from where they hung unused around his neck. Because that wasn’t a natural wind, he was fairly certain.[break][break]
“What was…tha—“ The gym leader stilled as his glance landed on a pair of boots. Then traveled up to hone in on the disguised woman, kitted up in black. Next, the Iron Jugulis hovering alongside her.[break][break]
Whoever she was, she definitely didn’t look like an ally.[break][break]
Motion returned quickly, and he was back on his feet to travel backward in a few quick paces as he tapped the release of a pokeball he fished free. The Slither Wing that burst free flapped its golden wings as its mandibles clicked.[break][break]
Better to be safe, rather than sorry. He’d sooner apologize for misjudging another league associate than let her get the drop on him again. “Friend, or foe?”

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The lack of fog revealed a man - a somewhat familiar man, she realized, as if she'd seen his face in passing before (or on social media, perhaps?). Maskless, and looking fairly confident as he released his own paradox Pokemon, he was definitely a member of the League government - someone sent to secure the island for them. Nomi backed up slightly, taking on a more defensive stance.[break][break]
"That's an unhelpful question, as it lacks nuance," she told him, stalling as she assessed his Pokemon. His Paradox was a Slither Wing and he also had a Murkrow. Kallistatus would be vulnerable to the later, as a pure Psychic type. She could remedy that, however, and then her Iron Jugulis could handle the Slither Wing...if she was careful. It was not an ideal matchup.[break][break]
Activating the Tera Orb at her hip, the shiny Unown-K began to glow with a dark energy. Obsidian and sapphire crystals coated its symbol body, glittering as it Terastallized. As a Dark Type, it would no longer be weak to the Murkrow.[break][break]
"For example, someone you might consider an ally could very easily turn on you for selfish gain," Nomi continued calmly. "As for my primary purpose in being here, it's not to fight you. I'm just trying to get into that cave."[break][break]
She pointed, finally seeing the gaping maw of rock ahead due to the improved visibility.

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[attr="class","text"] Obviously, he had no great idea who it was that stood in front of him. His question was a redundant one, he supposed. After all, what need did anyone on the side of the league require a mask for?[break][break]
Still, her response drew a sharp bark of laughter from the gym leader. "Can't say I was trying to be nuanced," he answered with a shrug. "Those are all hypotheticals." Granted, she had a point. But he wasn't there to hash out an endless list of what ifs. That was like asking his anxieties to run wild and wreak havoc in his mind.[break][break]
Because the truth of the matter was that Lam didn't really want to be out there fighting either. But, well, he had a responsibility, didn't he? He glanced back over his shoulder at the cave mouth as her unown shimmered with a new, dark energy. "If that's the case, then you already I can't let you do that." He shrugged at the woman. "Nothing personal, you know - for nuance's sake."[break][break]
As he spoke, tone shifting to something lighter, he snapped his fingers. The Slither Wing didn't make a play for the Iron Jugulis as might've been expected. Instead, the behemoth surged forward to make a FIRST IMPRESSION on the newly-teratralized dark unown instead. The murkrow, having returned to the perch of Lam's shoulder, stared at the paradox pokemon across the way with glinting eyes - the shadows of NIGHT SHADE conjuring dark imagery to inflict upon the Iron Jugulis.

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Nomi couldn't help but smile behind her mask. Though the expression was mostly hidden, her crimson eyes still sparkled with amusement.[break][break]
For nuance's sake. Cheeky man.[break][break]
Nomi was not known for her battle prowess. She was a scientist first and foremost. So it was that the man's quick-witted decision making caught her by surprise: the attacks she had been anticipating did come, just not for the expected targets.[break][break]
Kallistatus was fast. The shiny Unown-K was battle-hardened, having once belonged to Nisa Holo of the DRK Triad. It disappeared in the blink of an eye, the FIRST IMPRESSION missing by less than inches. Kallistatus reappeared directly above the Slither Wing, sending a DARK TERA BLAST downwards in hopes of hitting it.[break][break]
Python was not so lucky. The NIGHT SHADE engulfed the Iron Jugulis in midnight energy, and it shrieked in mechanical pain. Mouths opened, and all three of its heads began to charge: an electric TRI-ATTACK would aim for the Murkrow - and, by proxy, the man it perched upon - but the attack was generating slower than Nomi would have liked, due to the damage Python had endured.[break][break]
"You're good," Nomi complimented her adversary, meaning it. "One of the League's best, I presume." She paused, eyes finding the cave entrance once more. She shifted forward ever so slightly. "I cannot claim to be anything more than an average battler, but I do have a few tricks up my sleeve."[break][break]
If it came down to it, she could always teleport away.

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[attr="class","text"] He didn’t know a lick of information about the Rocket in front of him, but she didn’t read as…instense? as some of the others he’d come against up until that point. Maybe that wasn’t the right word for it, but the verbal sparring seemed much more on point than the actual battle mechanics.[break][break]
Not that he necessarily had an issue with that (even if his wit didn’t really run much deeper than playful remarks. The second she said something, like, hella smart? He was out.)[break][break]
The unown-k moved faster than his slither wing’s bulky body could keep up with. Before it could think to twist upward, it was above Moth Man and blasting it back down toward the ground with an impressive TERA BLAST. But Lam had bigger issues to worry about—i.e. the TRI- ATTACK fired off at him. The lag gave the pair time to peel apart, his murkrow valiantly taking the hit as he tucked and dove out of the way.[break][break]
Weakened, the corvid let out a series of frantic caws, but clung onto some power before surging forward toward the mechanical pokemon in a last ditch WING ATTACK.[break][break]
“I dunno about that,” he replied with a flap of his hand, “flattering, though! I’ll take it—kinda paid to think about battle strat and be decent at it.” Lam shrugged, as if that were that, because in his mind that really was all there was to it. This and that about being a natural were never qualities in himself.[break][break]
As far as he could tell, it was luck and practice. Both in hefty dosage.[break][break]
His head tilted, though, at her addition and he lifted a hand to adjust the brim of his own baseball cap. “So you’re holdin’ out? Well, where’s the fun in that?” Maybe calling that bluff with his own bluffing confidence was a shit idea, but he kept it up.[break][break]
As the Slither Wing shook off the impact of the blast, Lam hailed it back. “Change of plans, Moth Man—send your regards, though.” The overgrown moth’s mandibles clicked and it dove in a rush toward the quick little unown-k again, aiming before flipping a U-TURN and disappearing into its pokeball again so that Lam’s altaria could take its place.[break][break]
The cloudy bird burst from her pokeball with a melodic trill, and he was already prepared for the transformation. Rather than utilize the keystone for her mega evolution, a similar tera orb was produced. Shimmering light erupted around her to encase Mallow in sparkling, blossom pink. Crowned in FAIRY TERASTRALIZATION and tingeing her pale feathers in a crystalized shine.

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Paid to think about battle strat and be decent at it - ah, then he must be a gym leader, Nomi figured. She'd already encountered one of them on the island, it made sense there would be more. Navy had proven quite malleable to her influence; would this man also listen to her if she tried to persuade him that fighting each other was a monumental waste of time?[break][break]
"Holding out?" She cocked her head innocently. "Perhaps. But I don't want to hurt you, believe it or not."[break][break]
The Terastallized Altaria was an intimidating sight, both beautiful and menacing all at once. Kallistatus reeled, the U-TURN managing to finally damage the nimble Unown, and Nomi felt a sudden surge of pain as she, too, felt the blow land, her connection to the Unown resulting in a shared trauma. Interesting, she noted, wincing.[break][break]
"Kal, to me," she murmured. It disappeared in the blink of an eye, then reappeared beside Nomi, out of range of the Altaria.[break][break]
The Iron Jugulis would not fair well against a Fairy type, but Nomi still wasn't convinced this had to turn ugly. "Charge," she commanded it, holding up her hands as if in surrender. She took a step forward towards the blond man, and as she did so, her Paradox began to glow. She would have a few seconds to speak before the HYPER BEAM was ready.[break][break]
"I'll say this once, so listen carefully," she spoke, calm and collected. "The conflict between Rocket and the League is a distraction, meant to keep us focused on weakening one another so that we are incapable of stopping the impending apocalypse that is coming for us." She paused, letting the weight of such a statement sink in. She had no idea how much of the League was aware of Hoenn's nature as the Origin Point. "So I'm asking you to please let me pass. I have work to do in the cave, and the result of that work could very well save us all."[break][break]
It sounded ridiculous, perhaps. She wasn't even sure it was true. One thing was for certain, however: whatever energy did reside within the mysterious island, it was dangerous - if only because the DRK Triad would almost certainly have their eyes on it.

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[attr="class","text"] “Sure,” he agreed, the lift of his shoulder in tandem with the amused flicker of a smile at her supposed innocence. “Those are tricky little guys, aren’t they?” He nodded toward the unown-k that flickered away moments later, only to reappear in a blink. A somewhat incredulous scoff of laughter followed, though. “And you think I do?”[break][break]
Lam believed his job was that of an instructor and a guide, not a soldier. But somehow, he was there–filling an obligation that had somehow shifted within the League to fall on the shoulders of anyone who held some sort of higher ranking. Maybe not always explicitly stated, but it was there. The little nudges and pushes that it was a responsibility. A duty to the League, and to Hoenn itself.[break][break]
“If you’ll notice, none of these attacks have been sent at you.” The pointed look that punctuated his remark was one that subtly said, which is more than you can say, considering she’d already bowled him over once, and attempted a second.[break][break]
“Mallow,” Lam signaled the altaria to attention, “mirror.” While the Iron Jugulis charged, its counterpart seemed to as well. Her cloud-swathed frame began to glow with light–the build of energy preemptive to lifting into the air for a decisive SKY ATTACK.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. The culmination of force meeting force, maybe. But it definitely wasn’t the explanation she launched into instead. Lam’s head tilted, brows furrowing in confusion as he tried to follow the line of her thought. It was…strange, to say the least, but there was luck on her side.[break][break]
His hand extended. Not toward the woman, but toward Mallow–temporarily staying her from following through. His stare lifted to the stranger’s, however, as his other hand pointed at the Iron Jugulis with its open, glowing jaws. “How about this: both of us stand down, and then we’ll come to a conclusion. Power that down first.”[break][break]
If she agreed, he would do the same and call Mallow off. He wasn’t bluffing or setting her up in that regard. Hopefully she would be able to read that in how he carried himself, but Lam wasn’t going to count on that, either. “That’s, uh. Pretty big claim. You got, like…a report, or somethin’?” he said after a moment. He frowned, “Why shouldn’t I just take that information to our scientists and have them look into it?” It wasn’t an accusatory question. Just a simple one.

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He called her out for her aggressive approach, and Nomi had to admit: he had a point. She wasn't going to win him to her side if she continued to threaten him, even as a back-up measure. She bowed her head apologetically in classic Johto fashion, then recalled Python to its Pokeball, ending the threat of the HYPER BEAM and any subsequent attacks in one decisive action.[break][break]
Now she stood alone. Well, not alone: Kallistatus was with her. Her bond with the Unown meant that she would never truly be alone again - which was perhaps, for a girl who had spent the majority of her life alone, the greatest gift they had given her by naming her their Avatar.[break][break]
"How's that?" She asked, rhetorically of course. She glanced at the Altaria in all its Terastallized glory, wondering if he would keep his end of the supposed bargain.[break][break]
His reaction to her bold statements elicited a laugh. "You should take this information to your scientists, and they should look into it." Crimson eyes flashed with a sudden intensity. "I dearly hope they are already looking into the threat of the DRK Triad, but if they are not, right this second would be as good a time as any to begin doing so."[break][break]
She considered her options. Kallistatus stared at the man with its singular gaze, unwavering.[break][break]
"If it's proof you want, I can show you a piece of the puzzle. Not a report, but something perhaps equally persuasive." She paused. "If you are willing, of course."[break][break]
Not to sound overly ominous, but it wasn't exactly easy to digest the altering of reality.

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[attr="class","text"] A part of him had been wondering if, despite the conviction she had been speaking with, that it had still been a bluff. But sure enough, at the suggestion of standing down, she did so. A relief, to be sure—if he could walk away from a fight rather than see one to the end, he’d prefer it.[break][break]
Wary as he might’ve been, he was one to keep his word. “Good.” Lam stepped over to the altaria, fingers curling under her beak affectionately as he murmured to her. “Deal’s a deal.” Mallow continued to eye the woman, even as the glow of her mounting attack faded. She cooed quietly, crystalline head craning down to bump against Lam’s protectively before she disappeared within the confines of her own pokeball once again.[break][break]
His brow lifted, “And how exactly do you think that’d be received? Probably not well.” Lam let out a snort of dry laughter. ‘Oh hey, had a nice chat with a rocket scientist chick when we were supposed to be fighting and uhhh, we’re all missing the mark.’ Yeah, that’d fly. “That’s all above me, though. If they are, which I figure they must be if you are, I’m not privy to that.”[break][break]
All he could really do was guess at what they were up to.[break][break]
Lam’s attention floated away from her, toward the unown as it watched him. That large eye, unblinking, as it stared straight through him. It was enough to leave him with the shiver of a chill. Unnerving.[break][break]
“Not sure what you mean by that,” he said, stepping a pace closer. His murkrow remained vigilant on his shoulder, but inert. “But yeah, proof would be nice.”

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As the Altaria returned to her Pokeball, Nomi let out a small sigh of relief. The man approached her, valiantly overcoming the apprehension he clearly felt in response to her somewhat cryptic statements. Nomi respected his grit, and the willingness to give her plea a chance.[break][break]
"Don't panic," she murmured, stepping forward to meet him half-way. "All you need to do is pay attention."[break][break]
She reached out her hand, and with a graceful flick of her wrist, the scenery around them began to warp and change. Eerily similar to the effects of dream mist, a hyper realistic recreation of an entirely different environment began to coalesce, the details of which were made from a shimmering blue crystal akin to Tera Crystals (and the same exact color as Kallistatus). Nisa Holo appeared, threatening in disposition, exactly as she had been in the RKS Machine when she'd attacked Nomi and Isaac Merlo. She snarled, her voice an exact recreation of the real thing, an echo of her true self:[break][break]
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The scene shifted, pixelated, the jumbled digital landscape reassembling itself. Holo attempted to seize a figure that Nomi knew to be Isaac, though she had no way of knowing if the man before her also recognized him.[break][break]
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The scene froze. Then it melted away, leaving Lam and Nomi standing exactly where they had been, on the beach of a mysterious island neither of them truly understood.[break][break]
"That woman, a member of the DRK Triad named Nisa Holo, attempted to kill me - and my companion - simply because I was interested in befriending the Unown." As she spoke, Kallistatus drifted back over to her and nudged her affectionately. "That was an exact recreation of what I experienced. She and her colleagues want our world destroyed, and it won't matter what side any of us are on when it comes to their judgment. Rocket, League, it's all the same to them."[break][break]
Silence fell between them. This man did not carry an air of righteous heroism about him like Navy had; instead, he struck Nomi as far more humble. A humble man was harder to convince of a dire alternative to what he already believed threatened him: the lack of ego would keep him grounded in what he perceived as the more believable reality.[break][break]
All the same, she had to try.[break][break]
"If you don't believe me, find a man named Isaac Merlo. He will corroborate my story. Tell him the Visionary gave you a warning."

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He watched her carefully as she approached, brows furrowing together at her warning. “Uhh, okay.” Again, he didn’t really know what she was getting at, and really he questioned himself as to whether or not he should really be giving her the benefit of the doubt, but it was a little too late to start reconsidering.[break][break]
Doing his best to heed her instruction and not panic proved to be a little difficult as she warped reality around them with no more than a subtle wave of the hand. Bright green eyes widened, his head craning around to take in the change in the landscape as the beach filtered away without the aid of the interdream mist that had been seeping through the island.[break][break]
“Woah..” Lam gawked—of course he did. The blue sheen of tera crystals cast a glow throughout the space. As the scenes played themselves out, Lam’s face lit with recognition. “Oh, her!” Her face popped into his mind in the form of pictures in a RVL route. He’d forgotten about it entirely. He was quick to grow silent, though, as she took a turn toward menacing.[break][break]
His expression fell to something furtive as the world around them shifted and recorrected itself to the proper reality. When the woman began speaking again, Lam remained silent. His mind scrambled to keep up with the information that had just been dropped in his lap, arranging it and putting together the larger scale of things that it indicated. “I recognized her,” he said after a moment, “from that game.” He shook his head, missing the obvious question, “How’d you do that?” [break][break]
So had this DRK Triad or whatever been behind that too? “Doesn’t seem too friendly.” But that’s what she’d been getting at this whole time, wasn’t it? Lam’s attention shifted to the unown that hovered close to her, head tilting curiously as it stared with its ominous eye. Somehow, though, with this added knowledge, it felt a little less foreboding.[break][break]
“Well, they obviously trust you for a reason,” he said after a beat, nodding at Kallistatus, though he really meant the unown as a whole. “I can’t say you’ve got me hook, line, and sinker,” he added, shoulders rising and falling in a shrug, “that’s…a lot of info. But—“ Lam hummed, lips pressing a thin line, “I do think this conflict is unnecessarily conflated.”[break][break]
Maybe that was incredibly simple of him. A take that would’ve raised the eyebrows of other officials given some of the more ardent stances that many took against Rocket and their efforts. It didn’t negate everything, of course it didn’t. But did that mean the League was wholly guiltless too?[break][break]
Probably not.[break][break]
There was pressure that came in the form of expectations he’d felt from others. To be a strong and exemplary member. To be a bigger person. But it felt…burdensome too. He wanted to protect, but he didn’t like the price that some seemed so willing to pay for whatever idea of justice had been put forward.[break][break]
So maybe that’s why he found himself stepping to the side, a hand rising to smooth over his murkrow’s feathers to soothe him. A brow arched as she practically gave him an objective and a name. He didn’t know Isaac Merlo well—only as a challenger at his gym. “The Visionary, huh? I’ll see if I can get in touch.”[break][break]
But for right now? “Go then, I’ll act like you didn’t knock me on my ass a bit ago.” The corner of his mouth climbed in a lopsided smile, and he shot her a two-fingered salute before he released his altaria again—though not to attack. His tone took an air of warning jest. “You better be right, Visionary. I’m counting on it.”[break][break]
Mallow’s cloudy wings stirred with the wind as he slipped onto her back. As she rose into the air, Lam called down to her in afterthought. “Oh! And thanks for the existential crisis!”

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