[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]At the unexpected sight of the Shaymin popping out of its Pokeball seemingly of its own volition and landing on the counter, Aurelie gasped softly in wonder, before letting out a delighted giggle. "Oh, my gosh! Ahh, it's so cute! Yes, you are!" she cooed adoringly at the small, blossoming Pokemon.

Though Aurelie had a Shaymin of her own—a fact that never failed to surprise her, to this day—she was still struggling to bond with it. Clearly, Noel didn't have that problem. Her eye widened in surprise when his Shaymin felt bold enough to slap him with its paw to attract his attention.

"Oh, is the armor going to be for this little fellow?" she asked, looking back up at the young man. "I thought it would be for something more aggressive, though..."

An amused grin broke across her face as she added, "I can see your Shaymin is a fierce one! Sometimes, it's the little cute ones you gotta watch out for, right?"

His enthusiasm about her armor idea was infectious, so much so that the red-haired smith found herself beaming back at him, swept up by the possibilities. Even if she'd noticed any hint of presumptuousness or poor manners on Noel's part, Aurelie wouldn't have cared. Who could blame him when the idea of Pokemon armor was so fun?

"First, I'm honored that you believe I'll be able to make something perfect for your friend here," she replied, her expression softening into a gentle smile. "I can't make any promises about perfection, but I promise I'll do my best to be worthy of your trust.

"Second..." She tilted her head to one side. "Honestly, I've never made anything like this before. I've made armor for humans but never for Pokemon. This'll be a first for me, so I appreciate your trust in me all the more."

Taking a deep breath, Aurelie turned her gaze to the Shaymin. Her single uncovered eye narrowed as she watched it move and mentally tried to calculate its size and weight. "I think...I think I should be able to make it light enough to be comfortable for your Shaymin, if I use..."

She whispered a little under her breath, a few words like "magnesium" and "specialized alloy" coming through. "Maybe something like a form of lamellar armor," she mused aloud, "with metal scales laced together with wire or strong cord.

"That way, it can be a little more flexible and easy to put on, but the scales will still deflect or soften attacks coming at it." Aurelie glanced over at Noel, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. "How does that sound to you, sir?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]When Aurelie pictured a Rocket Beast in her head, she envisioned someone dark and ominous, ruthless and menacing. Someone who scared the hell out of her, in short. So, when the cheerful young man in the bright-blue helmet excitedly waved hello and introduced himself, the red-haired smith actively had to keep her jaw from plunging to the floor like a cartoon character's.

It didn't hurt that his helmet was extremely cool. Aurelie had never seen anything so high-tech before, at least not outside a movie or video game. The LED screen in front showing pixelated facial expressions was fascinating, even if it was unsettling not to see the Beast's face.

"Oh, uh, it's nice to meet you too!" she exclaimed, reaching out to shake his hand. "I'm looking forward to working with you. Neon, did you say your name was...?"

The different name, along with the helmet obfuscating his face, were enough to make Aurelie wonder if she was thinking of the right person. Perhaps it was his code name, but she hadn't expected those to be used often in regular, everyday conversation, as opposed to out in the field.

There was a touch of hesitation in her voice as she added, "I think we have met before, at the bubble tea contest I hosted last year. But obviously, this is much more formal and official. And hopefully more productive too!"

She frowned as the Beast's helmet began to whir and hum loudly. That'll make it hard to have any kind of clear conversation, Aurelie thought, especially with the forge roaring too.

So, Aurelie reached out to switch off the smoldering propane forge, which she'd only been using for a personal side project, not for Calyrex's saddle and shield. Once she turned off the forge, the heat in the workshop cooled slightly. It would take a while for the ventilation system and exhaust fans to dissipate the heat completely, though.

Clearing her throat, she asked curiously, "If you don't mind, can you tell me a little more about Project Infinity? What are you hoping to measure or find out? What sort of equipment are you planning to use? And...do you need me to do anything in particular?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Though the Ultra Deep Sea felt in some ways just as distant as dream-Galar—if not more so—to Aurelie, the red-haired smith nodded somberly at Zev's reminder of the vast, cave-like world actually being the body of Eternatus. She'd never visited that particular realm, but the fact that Eternatus could infect Hoenn from another plane entirely was certainly an illustration of its godlike power.

Still, she couldn't help replying sharply to Zev's dismissal of dream-Galar. "The reason why I think it's relevant is because this Calyrex came from that...well, that 'mass hallucination,' as you call it. Both it and Eternatus were in that world.

"And if Calyrex hadn't been killed by a crazed League trainer, I have every reason to suspect it would've considered Eternatus its enemy." Here, her words faltered, as if she were groping for a distant memory she only half-recalled. "In fact, I seem to remember Eternatus infected Calyrex with deadly poison that was slowly driving it mad. Familiar, right?"

Aurelie crossed her arms and shrugged, a thoughtful frown creasing her brow. "So, I think that's the relevance of the dream, or hallucination, or whatever you want to call it.

"Eternatus isn't just our enemy or Hoenn's enemy. It's also Calyrex's enemy," she concluded. "So, it makes sense that Calyrex would warn us about Eternatus and prepare to fight against it."

The mere prospect made chills ripple across her body. The red-haired smith swallowed hard and looked up at Zev, suddenly taking a strange comfort in his aloof face and cold eyes. "If we're right and it is Eternatus... We're strong enough to withstand it, right?" she asked.

"Since we have Legendary Pokemon of our own as allies, or at least partners of a sort. Like Necrozma. Or Chien-Pao. Or the Galarian Moltres." Aurelie felt foolish for asking for reassurance, especially from Zev of all people, even as she did it. "Surely, even if their sole desire isn't just to survive, they would still be willing to fight to survive if threatened."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie could have gritted her teeth in petty-minded frustration and grudging appreciation when Cillian responded to her explanation of the current saddle's faults graciously and patiently, even encouragingly. It made it so hard to fear and dislike him when he was being nice. Weren't underbosses supposed to spit fire and slit your throat if you so much as breathed wrong in their vicinity?

She managed to say none of this aloud and even smiled appreciatively when he said he could continue to help. "That's very kind of you, sir. Thank you for staying around...and for being so understanding about my errors."

Sucking in a long breath between her teeth, the red-haired smith thought deeply about how best to utilize the unexpected help. "Let me see... Here, let me give you instructions on how to reload the furnace with fresh aluminum and heat it to the right temperature."

Speaking rapidly but as clearly as she could manage, Aurelie began rattling off the series of steps for operating the foundry furnace to melt the aluminum. She guided Cillian through each dial to turn, each button to push, and each screen to monitor, cautioning him repeatedly to keep his distance once the metal started to heat up.

"There," she concluded, slightly out of breath after speaking so much in one go. "That way, you can help with setting up, while I work on improving the sand-casting mold."

With that, the red-haired smith promptly stepped back toward the sand-casting molds, the inverses of the pieces that Cillian had so painstakingly puzzled together. Only when she knelt beside them, taking them apart and bonding them together with resin fixative, did Aurelie wonder if she should've assigned the underboss this task. He was the expert with saddles, after all, not her.

Yet, she was the expert with metal-casting and using sand molds, so perhaps this was still the best way. Stealing glances at Cillian's completed saddle, Aurelie began rearranging and reshaping the mold to make a thinner, lighter, more supple saddle that would be cast all in one piece.

She gasped and then rolled her eye when, at the corner of her vision, she caught sight of the luminous white form of Calyrex hovering precisely between her and Cillian. The King Pokemon looked back and forth between them, before nodding its head deeply. Aurelie let out an exasperated sigh.

"Please tell me that means you approve of this," she grumbled at Calyrex, her voice rising just enough to be audible above the drone of the furnace and the clatter of the molds.

As before, as she expected now, it gave no answer.

"I wish I understood you," she declared with only mild rancor. Glancing up at Cillian, she asked curiously, "Do you know if there was anyone who did know a lot about Calyrex? In Galar, the real Galar, I mean? Anyone who did understand it?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Though blithely unconcerned by her nudity or that of the others during the hot shower, Aurelie did blink in startlement when she recognized Grigori Sokolov and Yuina Higashi, whom she remembered all too well from the Megalopolan infiltration of Route 119. Who else from that strange adventure was here in this prison, then? jack wainwright, Xiura Balfaltin, Isaac Merlo, howard slayte—were they here too, somewhere?

The possibility made her heart ache. Fiercely, Aurelie reminded herself that most of the other prisoners in this ward hadn't been there. Maybe...maybe those four were safe. She devoutly hoped so.

After donning clean uniforms, the redhead avidly studied the Megalopolans and the claw-like grabbers they used to adorn the mysterious masks with Tera crystals. Where can I get me one of those? she wondered. She could easily imagine how useful they'd be in metal fabrication and welding applications.

Their glimpse of the Megalopolans didn't last long, though, before they were herded back into the Ugly ward. After she'd been at such pains to hide the mochi piece earlier, Aurelie chuckled sardonically when they were served more for dinner. Still, noting its sticky properties, she kept it hidden under a corner of the cot, while resentfully eating more.

In that vision from the mask, we were eating duck confit and lobster fricassee, and there was buttered cauliflower and red cabbage with chestnuts, she thought. Yet, she knew the bone-deep longing she felt wasn't for the food, but for the sense of completeness and contentment she'd experienced.

But these Megalopolans... They tried to eat us! the redhead struggled to argue with herself. They infected whole cities! They wrecked Howard's Gigaton ball! But...still...if they could make that real...

Aurelie had to forcibly shake herself free of her daze as their masks were returned. It was a shame that someone as beautiful as her cellmate was hidden behind such a ghoulish face covering. As her eyelid sagged and she let out a yawn, the redhead eyed the cot speculatively.

"If you're tired too, I think we can both fit," she ventured aloud to her cellmate. "It'll be a tight squeeze, but it's probably a little nicer and cleaner than the floor. Or the toilet seat..."

Cautiously, she settled onto the cot and pressed her back firmly into the wall. Thankfully, like most real-life blacksmiths, Aurelie's build was more corded and wiry than brawny, so with effort, she managed to take up only half the cot. She held out her arms in a beckoning gesture to freya morningstar.

"You should rest too," Aurelie said softly. "It's been a hell of a day. I can promise you, sleep is all I have on my mind right now."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]"Yeah, I've never heard of any Pokemon ever commissioning a human to make them anything before," the red-haired smith agreed with candid wonderment in her eye—and perhaps a glint of pride in being the first. "Though I guess Pokemon generally don't talk either, at least not in any language we'd understand."

Her expression turned pensive with recollection as she thought back to the last words it'd spoken to her. "As for who the commission is for... I'm sure that it has to be Calyrex itself. I didn't mean to imply that it might be otherwise.

"After all, its words were, 'Fashion me a saddle of staunch resilience.'" The red-haired smith recited the words with the ease of someone who'd replayed that speech countless times in her head or aloud in her workshop. "'And forge a shield of formidable might.' So, it seems as though it intends to use the saddle and shield itself in battle."

She shrugged and let out a wry chuckle. "It hasn't said anything more, but it does appear sometimes when I'm forging. Thankfully, it usually stays quite still, so I've been able to measure it for the saddle and shield's proportions. Easier than with some human customers, honestly."

Aurelie paused and tilted her head skyward again to stare up at the Galarian Moltres, still preoccupied with its snack. The sight stilled her usually ready flow of words, and a look of unabashed awe came over her face.

"It's breathtaking," she murmured honestly. "It's hard to believe something so huge, so powerful, so...real just materialized out of the pages of a book."

She drew a sharp breath as the Moltres finished devouring one fruit and immediately turned to pierce the skin of another, juices still dripping off its beak. "And it's so hungry too! Your patron must cost you a fortune in groceries," she chuckled, looking back at Admin Bee.

"Either that, or it just really likes Dyna fruits, I suppose," she added, with a grin that suggested she could hardly blame the Galarian Moltres for having a taste for the succulent-looking ruby-red fruit.

It did pause for a moment, though, when Admin Bee mentioned Calyrex, almost as if the Pokemon's name had somehow piqued its interest.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]At first, Aurelie frowned quizzically when the blue-haired young man in the middle of her shop initially started stammering and second-guessing himself. She'd guessed at first that he was about her age, but the uncertain, almost painfully earnest quality to his words made him seem younger.

Then, she couldn't help smiling when he burst into a spontaneous, heartfelt torrent of words about why he'd come to her shop and what he was looking for. Honestly, it was endearing! She had heard similar requests before from League trainers, but the hopeful note in his voice tugged at her heart a little.

Thus, Aurelie found it somewhat harder than usual to give him her normal canned response. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't make weapons here in this shop. Everything that you see here is meant to be used strictly as a tool, not as a means for endangering or harming anyone.

"So, that means no knives, no swords, no polearms, none of that." The words came easily to her now, after many repetitions to numerous nameless recipients. The red-haired smith shrugged and crossed her arms. "Too many legal drawbacks, too many potentially bad situations that could cause me to lose my shop. You know how it is."

Unless, of course, the user isn't concerned about following the law in the first place, she mentally amended, thinking of her Rocket customers. But somehow, I doubt that's the case with this guy.

Yet, despite her best efforts to stay professional, Aurelie couldn't help wincing a little at how blunt her own reply sounded. She didn't want to just leave him with that. Besides, it seemed like bad customer service to simply tell someone who wanted to pay you money, "No, I'm sorry, I can't help you."

With a start of inspiration, she perked up abruptly and spoke again. "Oh! But you did mention armor, didn't you? Not many people have ever asked me for that, so I didn't even catch it at first. But..."

Aurelie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I don't think I have the facilities here—or, frankly, the knowledge anymore—to forge you a full suit of plate mail armor or anything like that. Nor can I make you modern ballistics armor, since that's mostly Kevlar and ceramics.

"However..." Aurelie leaned forward, a glint of excitement and speculation in her eye. "I do think I could try making smaller-scale armor. Maybe...not for you? But for your Pokemon instead? Would you—and they, for that matter—be okay with something like that?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]There had been more to the sequence of events that led to Aurelie's losing an eye than she shared aloud with Howard, though not too much more. The rest of the world believed it to be an accident, caused by her own carelessness with safety equipment and forging work.

But she remembered the strap on her safety goggles that she later discovered hadn't been frayed but cut with scissors. The glitter of a skulking Sableye—her brother's, she was sure of it—out of the corner of her eye as it prowled through the workshop. The sharp push from behind by clawed hands, as she was in the middle of hammering a bar of red-hot metal sending up showers of glowing sparks.

And of course, a series of screams. Pain. Betrayal.

Aurelie wondered what it was like for Howard and why it happened. Yet, she couldn't force the question past the lump in her throat. It'd been two and half years, and it was still too soon.

She did chuckle, though, when Howard joked about the eyepatch making costume parties easier. His view about humanity's capability to learn and grow made Aurelie wonder if he lost his eye in a natural disaster or some other way that didn't involve other people. Otherwise, surely no one could have such a rosy view of the thing that caused you to lose a major sensory organ, right?

Isn't there some myth of a god who willingly sacrificed his own eye for wisdom? Aurelie thought. I could kind of see Admin Slayte doing that…

When Howard mentioned the gears, the red-haired smith seized gratefully on the change of subject. "Right, yes, the gears. Of course. Let me see..."

Looking visibly relieved, Aurelie bent to examine the schematic again, turning it this way and that and squinting her eye at the tiny details and labels for the interior. "This schematic really is excellent. It doesn't just show how everything fits together; it also has measurements, diagrams, and separate wireframe close-ups of the important parts. Like these gears!

"I thought we'd have to take them out first, before I could measure them and make sure they were an exact match," she went on to explain, her voice gaining strength and confidence again as she immersed herself in the joys of work, rather than the tragedies of the past. "But with these diagrams, you and I can work in parallel."

Hefting the Gigaton Ball, she handed it carefully to Howard, before nodding toward a selection of picks, hooks, wrenches, screwdrivers, and Dremel tools on a nearby worktable. "Can you handle removing the tarnished gears? I feel like I can trust you'd be very careful." She grinned briefly.

"Meanwhile, I'll work on making new gears." Humming happily, she sorted through her metals until she found a sheet of titanium alloy she liked and measured out small discs exactly the circumference listed for the gears. Then she headed to the circular saw.

A furious buzzing noise reverberated from the machine as Aurelie cut out the discs, sparks flying from the sheet metal as she maneuvered it carefully through the saw blade. Once the discs were cleanly cut, she brought them back toward Howard's table to select a Dremel tool.

"Ah, the perfect size to create the gear teeth," she said with satisfaction. Then she glanced over toward the admin. "How's your progress so far?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]It took Aurelie a moment to realize she was somehow on her feet now in front of Howard's desk, staring down at the Dynite ore. She didn't even remember standing up or pushing her chair back. The revelation that the Dynite ore accessible in their world was the same as the Dynite ore from dream-Galar—and that Howard possessed some of it—had clearly flabbergasted her utterly.

I guess I'm lucky that Admin Slayte didn't interpret me jumping to my feet like that as an aggressive move, Aurelie reflected. Some underbosses in Rocket probably would've lashed out if they thought she was threatening them. Either she simply didn't come across as aggressive, or Howard understood her better than she thought.

"I'd heard a little bit about the Dynamaxing phenomenon and the Power Spots in Hoenn," she replied slowly, forcing herself to pull her chair back and sit down again. "Mostly the effects. Colossal Pokemon twenty feet high stomping through cities and so on.

"But I didn't know we had some, in Rocket. It's like..." She trailed off for a moment and let out a self-deprecating snort, before continuing, "It's like a dream come true. Except I don't also have a billion Pokedollars in the bank and a harem of gorgeous men and women at my beck and call."

The red-haired smith unthinkingly reached out to pick up the chunk of ore, before catching herself just in time to pause and look up questioningly at the admin. "Can I...examine it more closely? I've worked with it before, but only in dream-Galar, a long time ago."

A pleased little smile stole across her face when the admin complimented the stew. Absently, she tore herself a chunk of bread and dipped it in her own bowl, before taking a meditative bite.

"What do you mean Calyrex's barrier won't be enough, though?" she asked, her eye wide as she listened to him. "Enough for what?

"You mean it won't be enough to prevent Dynamaxing entirely? Or prevent the flow of Dynergy into Sootopolis? Or it won't be enough to protect Rocket?" She bit off another piece of bread, saturated with rich seafood and tomato flavors, and swallowed thoughtfully. "Or do you mean the barrier will fail entirely at some point?"

Aurelie exhaled sharply at this thought, uncertain how to feel about it. Unlike Howard and his Regice, or the trainers in Rocket and League alike who could utilize Dynamaxing, Calyrex's barrier was neither a help nor a hindrance to her. Its absence probably would feel the same, though she supposed she might think differently if dangerous swarms of Dynamaxed Pokemon started rampaging through Sootopolis.

"To be honest, I never even knew Calyrex could even create barriers like this, let alone such a unique barrier," she admitted sheepishly. "I thought it was just a friendly royal Pokemon that caused good harvests and kept Galar safe."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Though Aurelie didn't realize that Zev assumed her question about Calyrex using him as a mouthpiece had been in jest, rather than in at least partial earnest—inspired by Cillian Quinn's thoughts and queries on the matter—his response seemed pretty much right for Zev. He'd never seemed like the type who would allow anyone power over him, either.

When he spoke about motivations, though, particularly those of the powerful Legendary Pokemon, her eye widened. Everything he said made sense, even if she'd never put it that way in her own mind before. But to have it be Zev talking to her like this...

Is he actually explaining his whole thought process to me? Or thinking aloud in front of me? Aurelie wondered. Or, even weirder still, is he trying to educate me? Help me?

Shaking off the unsettling thought, the red-haired smith sighed and spread her hands wide in a gesture of perplexity. "I wish I knew! I have no idea why it wants a saddle or shield. I would assume it wants to use them, but it's never spoken to me again, let alone offered any clarification on the issue."

Thinking back to the last words that she'd actually heard the King Pokemon say to her, Aurelie mused, "Calyrex did speak of a 'familiar, ominous force' drawing near, so we must prepare for...umm, I think for...'the impending clash of war.'" She curved her fingers in air quotes.

"So, it seemed like it wanted to be ready for war. The familiar, ominous force... The first thing I thought of was Eternatus, of course, because we saw it in the..."

Abruptly, Aurelie trailed off, her brow creasing in a frown as she looked at Zev. "I should ask first, I guess. Do you still not remember the dream we all...well, dreamed together in front of the Ancient Tomb, almost a year ago? The dream that this Calyrex came from?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]If I'd known it'd be like this, I would've brought a sweater, Aurelie found herself thinking suddenly, irrelevantly, as Jayden's emphatic declaration reverberated around the office. Except I don't just need a sweater for my body. I need one for my soul too! Arceus, these chills!

She didn't even know what qualified as a sweater for the soul. Therapy, maybe? Well, certainly both she and Jayden could probably use some.

At the moment, though, all Aurelie had was a knife and his instructions. For a moment, she was sorely tempted to simply give Jayden a light scratch, just deep enough to make him bleed. With the way his eyes just flashed a startling, spectacular crystalline-blue, though, she suddenly doubted he'd be satisfied with such a halfhearted gesture.

"If you say so, sir," she answered aloud respectfully, seeking to keep her teeth from chattering in the deepening chill. A laugh escaped her as she added in a lighter tone, "Then, I guess...try your best to take it easy on me, instead."

The red-haired smith lifted the knife, which she held in a simple grip with her fingers wrapped around its hilt, like she would hold a hammer, and narrowed her eye. Automatically, she scanned Jayden briefly for weak points, even though she hardly knew what she was looking for. Even in his fragile-looking state, the admin still exuded menace.

Taking a deep breath, Aurelie went with a basic knife fighting maneuver. Sweeping the knife in a quick, curving slash in a feint to hopefully raise his guard and buy her space to close in, she stepped toward Jayden at the same time. Then, on the backstroke, she lowered the knife and aimed a short, sharp stab at his unprotected left arm.

Aurelie knew it wasn't a real fight, and Jayden hadn't asked for anything but a cut. But if he wanted to see how it'd feel to cut and be cut by these knives in combat, then she would do her best to simulate one.

If it wasn't what he wanted...well. Then, she'd regret not just inflicting a small scratch on his palm.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT