[attr="class","icon"]

Eddie frowned, eyes narrowed as they scanned the wrecked shoreline. How much more of this could they take? [break][break]

It had been bad enough when one man and his Wishing Star heart had laid siege to Dewford. It had been worse in some ways when the man and his cadre of villains had returned to lay siege upon Petalburg. How much more would Rocket take before they burned the entirety of Hoenn around them? How much longer would the ineffectual Eduardo Hisakawa struggle in vain against them before he too lay broken and battered like the houses of this island? [break][break]

He clenched and unclenched his bandaged hands experimentally, remembering the Dynergy poison that had once flowed through them. Eddie wasn't dead yet, he reasoned, so that meant all that he could do was shove that terrible fear down and keep on. Even if the task felt more and more Sisyphean as each month crawled by. [break][break]

Suddenly, Eddie felt a gentle nudge on his shoulder. He turned and looked up at the Garganacl standing at his side, [break][break]

“What is it, girl?” [break][break]

A hand made of salt and rock swept out slowly and deliberately toward a series of tide-pools to the west. Eddie's frown deepened when he noticed all manner of fish stuck in those shallows; Remoraid, Luvdisc, Finneon, even a few Chinchou here and there. All of them swarming and beginning to flail with increasing desperation as the waters grew shallower by the minute, receding tides abandoning them to their fate, [break][break]

“Good eye,” he acknowledged to the Rock-type as he rolled up his sleeves. Eddie reached for a new Pokeball and his belt, but paused. [break][break]

He had to make sure none of them got hurt in the process. Eddie was no Ranger, and despite his good nature and love of life, that was not always the key to success when interacting with wild Pokemon. He turned back towards the coastline behind him and suddenly spotted a figure, [break][break]

“Hey!” Eddie called out boisterously, “You got a sec?” [break][break]

Maybe if he was lucky, the distant figure would turn out to be a Ranger – it was hard to tell at this distance whether the man wore the iconic armband or not. And maybe if he wasn't, he could still help in the task of returning these fish to the sea. A burden shared was a burden lessened, after all.

[attr="class","bottom"]mission [break]
nicholas steele [break]

[attr="class","icon"]

The stranger had made the task look so effortless. Eddie followed him and watched attentively, eyes growing wide with awe, as the Ranger easily secured the Finneon and released it. Even in just that initial display, Eddie realized how precise and careful the stranger's deft hands were, [break][break]

“Got it,” he chimed in, eager to try his own hand at the capture and release, “Lemme try.” [break][break]

The soldier made his way over to one of the nearby tide pools and eyed the fish there a bit nervously. The blue body of a Remoraid thrashed in a particularly shallow end of one of the little isolated bodies of water; priority one was to make sure that they didn't asphyxiate, [break][break]

“Alright, hold 'em horizontally,” Eddie said, more to himself than to his new companion. [break][break]

One broad hand moved to grip the side of the fish, until it was smacked away by swipe of its fins, [break][break]

“C'mon little buddy, I'm tryin' ta save ya.” [break][break]

He glanced back up at the Ranger, trying to recall the steps he had been shown. Eddie moved to grasp the fish again, this time taking his other hand to hook his thumb between the Remoraid's jaws. The soldier winced a little as a sharp tooth sank into his flesh, but he was determined not to let the Pokemon go until they were safe, [break][break]

“And hold 'em in the water.” [break][break]

Eddie waded out to the tides, standing alongside the Ranger, and mimicked his method of release. The Remoraid, for as lively and cantankerous as it was before, seemed reinvigorated as fresh water flooded its gills, and with another sharp swipe of its fins, Eddie released his hold, and the fish sped off towards the open waters. [break][break]

The soldier chuckled as he lifted his hands out of the water and inspected his wounded thumb and the saturated bandages covering his knuckles. A little bit of red streaked down the digit, tracing the lines in his palm on its way south, conjuring watery red rivers and deltas, [break][break]

“You make it look easy,” Eddie said with a laugh, carelessly wiping his bloodied thumb onto the side of his shirt, [break][break]

“What's yer name?”

[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]mission [break]
nicholas steele [break]

[attr="class","icon"]

“I'm Eddie; private, second-class. Nice ta meet ya, Nick.” [break][break]

The soldier moved his other hand to complete the handshake until the Ranger paused. Eddie blinked a bit stupidly, and then realization suddenly dawned on him, [break][break]

“Oh shit, sorry,” he chuckled bashfully as Nick pulled around his backpack. Eddie was full of mirth, smiling, the beginnings of Murkrow's feet creasing the corners of his dark eyes, at the absurdity of the situation, “Prob'ly be kinda gross if I got my blood on ya.” [break][break]

Thankfully, the resourceful Nick had just the solution. Eddie laughed again, delighted and surprised, when the Ranger produced the character-printed bandages and offered them to him, [break][break]

“Thanks, bud.” [break][break]

The one Eddie selected happened to be a bright pink and featured a repeating pattern of Miss Skitty herself. He applied the bandage with ease and held the now-triaged digit up for Nick to inspect with a boyish smile, [break][break]

“Cute, but I'm more of a Pom Pom Pawmi guy myself,” he chuckled teasingly. [break][break]

Then on came the gloves to prevent any further mishaps, and Eddie moved to reach for the next fish, [break][break]

“So, you local to these parts, or didja get sent out here ta help with the cleanup?”
[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]mission [break]
nicholas steele [break]

[attr="class","icon"]

Eddie was halfway into the release of a Magikarp when the Ranger's words cut him like a knife. Petalburg, a town that no longer was. [break][break]

The soldier froze involuntarily, and the fish in his hands slipped away with a SPLASH as it returned to its oceanic home. Eddie had watched another town in Hoenn go up in smoke, and what had he done? Singed his knuckles on a Dynamax barrier, and rode off into the sunset when things got a little too dicey. He suddenly looked back at Nick with a face that now plainly spoke of the grief Eddie felt for that fallen place, [break][break]

“Yeah,” Eddie replied, soft and half-hearted, “And I, uh, got sent there too.” [break][break]

The shame bubbled up too quickly for the soldier to stop it. Suddenly, an absurd recollection thrust itself to the forefront of his mind, and before he could think better of it, Eddie bowed his head in a gesture of apologetic deference, [break][break]

“I'm sorry. Sorry for what happened out there, and I'm sorry that chumps like me didn't do more ta stop it. I... I can't even imagine what it's gotta be like, losin' yer home ta those bastards.” [break][break]

Maybe it was irrational of him to feel such a personal sense of responsibility for that casualty of war, but Eddie had always been far more inclined to listen to his heart than his head, for better or for worse.
[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]mission [break]
nicholas steele [break]

[attr="class","icon"]

Absolution came in the form a stranger's reassuring words and the gentle squeeze of his hand on Eddie's shoulder. The soldier looked up with some surprise, [break][break]

“I –” [break][break]

His initial instinct was to reject that notion. Of course it was his fault; if he had just fought a little harder, stayed to fight a little longer, maybe things would have been different. But Eddie's brow furrowed as he straightened himself, and as Nick turned away to grab the final fish. [break][break]

No, the other man was offering him a gift, plain and simple. It wasn't Eddie's to turn away, no matter how undeserving he felt of it. So as he watched the Ranger release the final fish, the soldier cleared his throat and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, [break][break]

“Yeah, I guess yer right.” [break][break]

Eddie paused as the Feebas made its exodus to the sea, freed by a pair of gloved hands and a kind heart, [break][break]

“Thanks, Nick.” [break][break]

A new bit of guilt was starting to creep its way to the forefront, though. The poor guy had lost his home, and now he was stuck comforting some crybaby over it. Geeze, what a hell of a position he had put Nick in. Eddie still had at least a little making-up to do, [break][break]

“Hey, how about we grab a bite ta eat?” Eddie offered, thumbing back to Mossdeep proper. [break][break]

They might be hard-pressed to find any business not affected by the recent battle, but the soldier could have sworn that he had seen a burger joint tucked away in some lonely corner, apparently having gone unnoticed and unscathed, [break][break]

“My treat!”
[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]mission [break]
nicholas steele [break]