Head down. Don’t make eye contact. Remember they can sense fear.

Locke had gotten used to this sort of thing down in Sootopolis by now, but he’d never have expected to find delinquents like these in a quiet place like Fortree. He’d have to let Alexei Ivanov know, probably after Ruff-Ruff got back from the last stop-



He looked to his right.

Left.

Behind?

”Me?” Locke’s response was thick with disbelief, but the woman certainly seemed to be addressing him. ”I’m not really-I mean I could try but, um…” He chanced a quick glance over at the group of well-dressed hooligans, and earned a withering glare from the apparent leader for his boldness.

His gaze flicked between the woman and the teenagers, before finally resigning himself to the task. ”Well…alright…”

With a deep breath, Locke quietly stepped towards the gang, aiming for a more friendly approach than the woman had requested. The last thing they wanted was to start a fight in front of a toy store of all things.

”Er, excuse me.” They jumped back as the biggest of the bunch, a pug-nosed behemoth with a head shaved smooth as a baby’s bottom, whipped around to face them. He scowled down (Down. Were these really teenagers?) at Locke as they struggled to regain enough of their courage to stammer through their request. ”H-Hello! There’s a few people trying to get in right now, so if it’s not too much trouble-”

SMACK.

Ruff-Ruff, flying too fast on his return trip from his solo delivery, crashed against the back of pug-nosed boy’s skull with a surprised squawk. Pug bellowed out a slew of curses as he double-overed, feathers everywhere and head clutched his hands.

Locke’s Rufflet soon recentered himself, flying over Pug this time to land on his trainer’s outstretched arm. He cooed up at them, clearly expecting treats for his speedy delivery and blissfully unaware of the situation at hand even as six sets of eyes snapped to the two of them.

”Ruff-Ruff. You’ve killed me.”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

A small party was beginning to gather around the closed-off area, and their Smeargle was already squirming out of their lap to join them. With a little hop the pup dropped to the floor and took off towards the exhibit, leaving his trainer scrambling to their feet.

”No!” Locke hissed as discreetly as he could, checking to see if any of the employees were still lingering behind. ”Casso-Casso stop, we’ll get in trouble!”

Too late, his Pokémon far outpaced him, reaching the group and gesturing towards the barricades excitedly with his tail, as if to say “take me with you!”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke breathed a sigh of relief at the speedy response, quickly tapping out his next few messages.



He set his phone aside and picked up the pen and pad from the side table. There was going to be a lot to catch up on, enough that he needed to get his thoughts in order before Angelo got here.

Should he start with when he first got the charm, or skip straight to the most recent meet up? No wait, he’d have to cover the first meeting with Martín del Mar and Eris Halla before that. He could probably skip the church stuff, right? Though that had some pretty important context for his relationship to those two as well. He definitely needed to talk about that shit in Granite Cave. Oh but, hang on, he never actually told Angelo about what happened after they’d separated at the Soiree, did he? Maybe he’d ought to bring up what happened at the police station after too. And the fire in Littleroot…

It was maybe twenty minutes later when, halfway through the Torchic stir-fry the nurse had dropped off, Locke suddenly remembered one very important message they’d forgotten to send, and nearly choked on their lunch scrambling to reach their phone for damage control.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke ran the brush through Shika-Shika’s fancy new fur coat with one hand while flicking through his recent exchange with Eva with the other. The smell of his simmering curry warmed the air within makeshift campsite, despite the forest having not yet shaken the lingering chill of winter. He was pretty sure this was around the spot where what the news was now calling a “distortion” had appeared, and so became the designated meetup spot for the professor to have a proper look at his altered Pokémon.

A quick visit to the Pokémon Center hadn’t provided any answers, nor had searching online through one of the center’s PCs helped either. Recent broadcasts and local gossip, however, had revealed these rifts were becoming a more common occurrence, and that other Pokémon had also come out the other side of them changed.

Their former Stantler seemed perfectly unbothered by all of this though. In fact, Shika-Shika’s only real concern was that his trainer had gotten distracted from their grooming duties again. He nosed the phone out of Locke’s hand and into their lap in a clear indication that phone time was over and brushies time was now. With a resigned sigh, they gently pushed the deer’s head back around to continuing combing through his fluffy neck while they waited for Eva’s arrival.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

”Reiner?” Locke called out to the familiar Luxray as they brought Doro-Doro to a stop. If Reiner was here then-Ah, there. A head of blonde hair poked out from behind the big cat. ”Mornin’ sleepyheads,” they greeted cheerfully.

He slid off his Mudsdale’s back and held out the Gracidea seed for Eris to see. The scarred palm it rested on itched.

”I picked this up recently, and apparently the flower it grows in to pretty rare! I came out here to plant it with Doro-Doro.” His mount tried to move closer to inspect the girl, but Locke kept a hold of the reigns in case her guardian didn’t appreciate such a big Pokémon near his charge.

”What about you?”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke crouched down as soon as he was next to Eris Halla and pulled his friend into a hug, whispering what few consoling words he could think of at the moment. As he scanned the room to see what everyone else’s first moments were like, his eyes were drawn to chryssa glasgow again. Now that he was taking a closer look at her, she seemed…different than the last time he’d seen her. Older, somehow.

Her warning sent a shiver down his spine, and he tugged Eris closer. To his surprise, another set of arms wrapped around them both as well, but he leaned into luka chêne’s embrace with a shuddering sigh. Maybe they’d be alright.

And then too many things happened at once for Locke to track, but which ultimately led to the door opening to reveal another face they hadn’t seen since the church incident.

”Ah, wait! Eris-” It was too late, the young girl was already racing for the newcomer. Well, far be it form them to keep a child from her father. And in any case, they needed to make themselves useful too.

With some hesitance, and a mistrustful glance at Chu-e Choi (and a particularly careful peek at his fingertips), they slipped past the pair and into the newly-unlocked room. Inside were a number of curious things, but it was the vulnerable state of Cillian Quinn that truly took them off guard.

Locke knew a panic attack when they saw one, but it looked almost alien on the admin. They froze in the doorway, uncertain of the appropriate response, or if any response at all would be well-received.

They opted, as always, for kindness.

With a quick look behind them to make sure no one else had noticed the scene yet, Locke slowly entered, acting as though they were approaching the Black Doorway just across the room, right next to the cooler. Their gaze shifted between the door and Merlino, one hand gently reaching for the older man’s back.

”Um…Try, uh, putting your head between your knees?”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke’s frown deepened. ”What about the man that was with you before? You two seemed close. Or…” He hesitated, unsure of how to broach the subject, or if he might’ve misinterpreted something before. ”…Or Cillian Quinn…?” Maybe they weren’t as close as her and Chu-e Choi, but the admin had seemed at least concerned about his own.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke nearly fell over as he and his target arrived at the graveyard, mud flying from underneath his boots as he skidded to a stop just within the gate. He pulled out another Pokéball, but froze as the Dhelmise appeared with a boy not much younger than him squirming in its grasp.

”That’s just dirty,” he seethed between gritted teeth. Despite the rising fury in his throat, however, he remained where he was, twisting the capsule in his hand in anticipation, waiting for a moment where both Pokémon were preoccupied to prevent any harm to the hostage.



Shame crept through Locke at the memory. He hadn’t managed anything useful during either of the excursions and, in the end, had only ended up getting in the way. But there had been other people then to pick up his slack and bail him out of tough situations. Maybe someone else would come eventually, but until then it was just him, bryan delarosa, and some poor kid he’d dragged in.

It was Finley Black he addressed, instead of his captor. A promise, rather than a retort.

”Anything I can.”

Saying that, they couldn’t do a damn thing until they could ensure the hostage wouldn’t get hurt first, even as a barrage of Water Shuriken were rapidly fired at them. They raised their arms to try and at least defend their vitals, but otherwise remained still. Surely they were a little tougher now; wouldn’t pass out at the first bit of blood drawn anymore. If they could take a few blows now, wait for an opportunity, and then-

The shuriken whipped just passed their ear, cutting only a few loose strands of hair as something-someone-sent Locke crashing to the ground. The grass stains were never coming out of this shirt.

Locke could barely even react to Eris Halla’s sudden appearance before she started pleading with the other man, but as she did they realized two things.

One: This was, apparently, not a planned attack from Rocket, but rather a rogue operation. Which was somehow even more frightening.

Two: Whoever was behind that mask, Eris wanted to help him. Wanted to save him, even.

Which was the last thing their bleeding heart needed to hear.

”Eris…” they cautioned, but otherwise held their tongue as the scene unfolded, even as another set of footsteps could be heard distantly behind them. Maybe…Maybe she could convince him…?

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke hit the ground as the tube finally swung open, scrambling to his feet and moving as far from his metal prison as physically possible. The fresh air hit him like a Brutal Swing from a Bewear, and he nearly choked trying to swallow as much of it as possible, taking in his new surroundings in quick, wild glances. There was the ever-constant feeling of being watched, but from somewhere above him rather than below, and when he made the mistake of looking up the ceiling looked back.

He stumbled back until he was pressed up against one of the many replicas in the room, flinching at the sharp poke of shattered metal at his back. The tube behind him was broken, as though torn apart from the outside. The mystery of it was a welcome distraction from the horrors above, and he bent down to inspect a few pieces of black metal at the base of the device as the rest of the prisoners also escaped.

Twenty-one people in total emerged into the room, stepping from one cage to another. The small crowd was mostly made up of strangers, but as the initial panic settled somewhere in their gut Locke began to pick out the handful of familiar faces among them.

Martín del Mar, luka chêne, and chryssa glasgow were easily spotted, their eyes lingering on their fellow Augurs for a brief moment before taking in the rest of the group. The presence of some more notable League members like kyle lopez and Zac Ramsay put them slightly more at ease, and was that Pokkenger? They somewhat recognized one of the girls from the meetup in Slateport, and even BARNABY FINCH and his hookup from the Christmas party, of all people.

Locke’s hand itched, and their gaze at last landed on the small figure of Eris Halla, almost invisible within the crowd. Just past her, however, stood Cillian Quinn, a sight which nearly sent them into another spiral of panic. For a moment, they stayed frozen where they were stooped next to the broken tube, but it was the absence of Eris' vigilant Luxray guardian that pushed them forward to join her, pocketing the fragments and pointedly ignoring the Rocket admin in the hopes that he might do the same.

”Eris!”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz