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"Yep," Beau nodded in response to the other man's Ranger inquiry. "Dewford's home, an' I wanted to make sure I came back ready to be useful, but it sounds like maybe more's going on since I left."
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A statement that turned out to be prophetic as Navy unwound exactly what kind of roadblocks he'd been encountering. Beau could tell from the moment he'd laid eyes on the man that he had some level of exhaustion hanging around him, and had initially been ready to chalk that up to the demanding responsibilities of being a Gym Leader, but all of this?
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He blinked slowly, digesting the multiple revelations that the sheriff dropped as easily as listing out the groceries he planned to get for the following week. "Yeah, no," he offers, shaking his head as though to clear it from the thoughts of a ghost sneaking its way out from under his bed in the middle of the night. "My buddy Jack helped me get going, but even he said it's slim pickings for rangers out here. Guess people don't wanna come out this far unless it's for sightseeing, but hey, I figure I'm worth two greenhorns at least," he grins.
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He nods slowly at the brief mention of others. "For sure, I definitely have some catchin' up to do, and it sounds like I'd better get to it sooner rather than later if we've got ghosts and wormholes and Arceus knows what else. Definitely count me in - I took care of the place while I was here, I'm not gonna let it suffer worse if I can help. And I can," he adds.
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A brief moment of silence, then he grins at the other man's question. "Chicken club and chips. Made extra if you're hungry, shouldn't be long."

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The idle calm Beau allowed to flow through him, a sleeping Togepi in his arms and a temporarily declawed Klaus soothed near the counter, was broken as the owners of the daycare entered without so much as a knock, like they owned the place.
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On further thought, he supposed they did.
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"Oh, uh, that's great!" he enthused, mildly perplexed at the woman's announcement. "Glad it's nothing, uh, more serious?" He handed the Togepi over to the woman and bent to collect his Applin from the pile of papers on the ground, much to the protests of his Froakie companion. Shaking his head at the pair wryly, he called the Applin back into a pokeball and went to stand next to Klaus as the older couple set about putting the room to rights again.
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"So, this wasn't so bad, right? Small world an' all, but I'm glad I was able to help." His grin turned nervous, and he moved to the radio to switch it off, glancing over to Klaus. "Maybe you can text me if you need any...more help, sometime?"
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No, abort, he was floundering. He needed to get out before he dug himself an even deeper hole. Stepping forward, he moved to clap Klaus reassuringly on the back, but his foot slipped in some of Froakie's errant bubbles and he went sliding forward, the intended hearty back-slap landing instead on Klaus' backside with a loud WHAP.
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Beau blinked, staring at his ill-aimed hand, then up to Klaus' face. He immediately flushed bright red from neck to hairline and yelped, "Well, gotta go, good to see you, be safe getting home!" and dashed out the door without even a parting goodbye to the daycare owners.
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It could have gone worse.

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"Not today, brah!"
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Beau whooped as his Pangoro unleashed a vicious overhead HAMMER ARM that sent the metallic-looking Delibird flying backward into the rock wall of the Chasm, causing it to spark uncontrollably and collapse, unmoving.
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"Man, these are some weird-lookin' pokémon, don't you think?" The Pangoro grunted assent as he turned around and ambled lazily back to his trainer, who surveyed the research station with a careful eye. "That one wasn't gonna make it through, but we gotta stay on guard, brah. These guys said they can't hold out if the wild pokémon here keep up the speed they've been attacking with. Can't wait for that help to get here, you feel me?"
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He'd arrived at the station a little over an hour prior, and already had to fend off a half-dozen incursions by these smaller, bizarre Paradox pokémon. Granted, he'd been the closest Ranger to the area, even if he was only a green-banded trainee, but he fortunately had experience that other trainees would be wanting for - enough to keep the little ones at bay, though the occasional fearsome roar from deeper in the Chasm admittedly had him sweating from time to time.
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The summons he'd received via text had assured him that backup would arrive in due course, but he'd had yet to see anything like backup materialize, so he and his Pangoro were doing their best to simply keep the station safe. Soon, hopefully, his help would arrive before one of the larger Paradox beasts did.
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While Beau was occupied attempting to glare the glass walls of his cell into submission - thus far a futile attempt - the other occupants of the co-opted research station had ventured outside the building once more. The two black-garbed grunts made token noises of exertion as they scaled the steep rock walls surrounding the embankment upon which the station rested, ducking out of sight.
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The two white-coated scientists, absorbed in conversation with one another, nearly jumped out of their skin from fright as a Magnemite floated toward them at high speed from the mouth of the pass, uttering a high-pitched, shrill warning chirp. The first scientist scowled at the interruption and shoved the second forward toward the main path, ducking back into the building.
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The second scientist, shaking his head as though to orient himself after his sudden change in position, hurriedly crouched down and scraped his hands against the dirt path, rubbing loose silt against his face and coat until he resembled nothing more than a victim of rolling down the wrong hill.
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Jogging forward from the station, he promptly threw himself to the ground in the middle of the path, feigning unconsciousness - a researcher in need of assistance. The two grunts camouflaged against the upper cliffs, however, focused their attention on the entrance to the pass, awaiting the arrival of the next wanderer that the Magnemite had warned was approaching.
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A muffled, shouted reply resounds from deeper within the small house through the closed door, not that the visitor would remotely be able to make out any of the words associated with the aforementioned reply. A moment passes, then the door creaks itself open in short, slow movements - squeak, squeak, squeeeak - nosed open by a rheumy-eyed Snubbull. Huffing indignantly from its exertion, it sits plaintively on its hindquarters with a wheezy cough, peering up at the sheriff with an assessing gaze.
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A moment later, Beau himself appears in the entryway, drying his hands on a kitchen towel, and offering an abashed grin. "Sorry 'bout that, caught me in the middle of makin' lunch," he explains. Crouching down, he offers the Snubbull a friendly pat and a murmured, "Thanks, brah!" before he straightens, tucking the end of the towel into his pocket and offering the other man his hand for a shake.
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"Name's Beau, my dude, nobody calls me Mr. Fontaine unless I'm in trouble. Am I in trouble?" he thinks to add, lifting his eyebrows in mild, momentary concern before the rest of Navy's introduction sinks in. "Oh man, really good to meetcha!" he effuses, stepping back from the doorway and gesturing for the other man to come in.
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"Get in here, brah, I've got a chair with your name on it!" he grins. "I'm glad somebody's takin' care of the place, I couldn't really help bailin' when I did. Family stuff, gotta help where you gotta help, right?" He moves into the living room - a little cluttered, a few boxes stacked in the corners, but managing to look comfortably lived in. He sits on a low chair that looks like it's seen better days and gestures to the couch and a matching chair opposite.
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"Fire away - I'd love to hear anything you can tell me. I just got back from helpin' my uncle in Petalburg and I'm still settling in - sorry 'bout the mess. Just had my ranger orientation a few weeks ago, but my trainer's from Verdanturf, so he didn't really have much t'fill me in on here, yeah?"

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Beau couldn't help looking around in wonderment as he wandered into the area, taking in the cavernous surroundings and colorful crystalline growths that dotted the otherwise unremarkable features of the cave. This was the deepest he'd been in Area Zero yet, most of his previous engagements taking him no further than the upper reaches of the Great Chasm, and the sheer dichotomy in the surroundings frankly stunned him.
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Behind him trundled his Swampert, who did not seem to share his trainer's sense of amazement in favor of eyeballing the woman and her Mismagius warily. He'd countered enough threats on his way into the Area that he was evidently on guard, ready for any potential surprises.
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For his part, Beau offered Elise a broad grin as he approached, extending his hand for a shake. This particular level of formality was beyond him, so he simply reasoned that his usual approach of getting to know a new face wouldn't offend anyone too badly, even if they were Galarian nobility.
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Probably.
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"Beau Fontaine, good to meetcha!" he effused. "I may be new to the Rangers, but I've got a couple'a tricks up my sleeve, so no worries from me! I'll help you get it done," he assured her. "Any particular things we oughta be on the lookout for, or are we just seein' how deep the rabbit hole goes, so to speak?"
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Beau ducked his head reflexively as the Salamence passed overhead, peering intently at the unfolding events as the dragon deposited its rider to the ground before vanishing back into its pokeball. He regarded the new arrival with a curious furrow of his brow; he was still learning about the structure of the League, but he was pretty sure that his understanding of the HBIC acronym did not apply to whatever this man was wearing it for.
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Moving forward, he returned the handshake firmly, a broad grin lighting up his features. "That's me," he affirmed brightly, "An' you can just call me Beau. Good to meet you, br- er, Agent Graves!"
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Straight to business it was, not that Beau could fault him - there were people at risk, if they weren't already beyond rescuing. "Yeah, I got filled in on the way over. There's a missing team of three, last seen goin' in this cave here." He approached the mouth of the cave, a slight frown wrinkling his brow. "No recon yet - that's us - but they're saying odds are good we've got a wild one in there to deal with, which makes me nervous for the nerds."
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He paused, seeming to catch himself, and corrected: "Researchers."
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Beau blinked at the rejoinder, scrubbing at the back of his head awkwardly. "Teach classes? Yeah, maybe," he acknowledged with a nervous laugh. "I know what you can eat if you need food and I know what you can't eat if you want to wake up tomorrow," he grinned wryly. "Everybody's gotta start somewhere, though, right?"
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As they rounded the bend, Beau had to remind himself to stop as the wild Linoone jumped out of the underbrush, because it didn't register as an immediate threat at first. Then again, not everyone could probably punt the lithe Normal-type back where it came from without needing to even pop out a pokéball.
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His eyes slid to Jack with a self-effacing curl of his lip. "Definitely feels like a first assignment, brah," he grunted, tossing a pokéball and releasing his Pangoro. The towering bear rolled his head around as though working out a particularly stubborn strain, then cast his gaze around the path, as though attempting to find a directive to orient on.
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Beau caught the ursine's attention by waving his hand, then pointing at the hissing Linoone. "Hey, Torben, get that little dude away from people and back where he came from, alright?"
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Lifting a surprisingly expressive eyebrow, Torben turned to approach the Linoone, whose hissing intensified at the new arrival until, comically, its gaze lifted to meet the scowl of the much larger, much more irritated Pangoro. Baring its needle-like fangs, the Linoone darted upward in a QUICK ATTACK, headbutting Torben's chest with all the force it could muster.
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Torben, unfazed, brought both enormous paws up to seize the offending Linoone with crushing pressure, causing the smaller pokémon to offer a decidedly unthreatening squeak. Rearing back, the Pangoro executed a VITAL THROW that sent the Linoone sailing through the air, landing with a rustle in the underbrush some twenty yards from the path.
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"Whoa, nice, brah!"
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Beau jogged over to Torben and offered his fist, which Torben begrudgingly bumped with his own closed paw after an awkward pause. Beau turned to Jack and grinned, holding up the victory sign. "The streets of Dewford are safe again, yeah!"

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Beau frowned in consternation as Jack bent over to touch the chunk of purple ore, then abruptly reeled backward as the vision overtook him. A shiver ran down his spine as he took in the sight of the two battling titans, and as the sight faded and the interior of the tomb came back into view, he backed away slowly from Jack and the now-pulsating stone, lifting his hands into the air defensively.
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"What the hell was that?" he murmured, uncharacteristically shaken and blunt as a result. "Were those pokémon? An' that thing is part of that dragon thing?" He pointed toward the purple chunk as the air distorted around it, eyes wide. "What if these guys call it here? What if it wants to find the part of itself that fell off? We gotta tell 'em, we gotta-"
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He turned to make for the exit of the tomb, only to find the world around him shifting and resolving into a new scenario. Right, they were in a simulation. Right.
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The Great Chasm featured many topographical anomalies, not the least of which were the numerous paths worn into the surrounding stone. These offshoots only grew more numerous and winding as one's progression into the Chasm went deeper, and along the occasional one of these paths would stand a small research outpost, doubtless intended for use in observing the natural phenomena of the Chasm itself.
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Beau wouldn't say that he had spent much time in these research outposts, nor would he say that after this particular excursion he would be likely to break that trend. The station he occupied was barely two rooms to speak of, and in one corner of the back laboratory was a small enclosure walled with heavy glass and a security PIN pad. It was in this enclosure that he currently found himself, barely enough floor space to sit, knees to his chest and hands shackled behind his back.
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He gazed longingly at his pack, hanging from a peg on the wall opposite his cell; inside it were all of his pokémon and tools, which did him little good twenty feet away and on the other side of glass he couldn't break no matter how hard he tried. Judging from the lab coats with bright red 'R's on the lapel, this was a Rocket operation, and he kicked himself for walking down the wrong path at the wrong time.
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He ran through the group in his head again. He'd been knocked out for a good portion of this particular trip - between traveling toward the outpost and being forcibly interred in it - but he could count two scientists and two black-clad grunts. Ugh. On a normal day he could have wiped the floor with all of them, but one of the eggheads had pretended to be a researcher in need of help, and, well - he'd been ambushed.
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His phone was a lost cause - they'd smashed that and left the guts for him to stare at on the floor underneath his pack, but he'd managed to send an SOS before he lost consciousness, and he only hoped that the message with his coordinates had been received by somebody - anybody - that could do something about it.
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