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rusturf tunnel is a place nick avoids when he can, its depths too close for comfort for a man who has always yearned for the sky. still, duty calls, and he finds himself here more often than he'd like, boots crunching on the loose dirt and gravel. the air is heavy with the scent of damp earth and something else, something acrid that catches at the back of his throat.[break][break]

he's not alone. up ahead, a faint glow pulses, casting eerie shadows on the tunnel walls. as he approaches, nick sees it's an aegislash, its blade and shield emitting a radiant light. the pokemon levitates back and forth, facing a corner of an adjacent cave, it's shield raised. nick can feel the aggression rolling off it in waves.[break][break]

this isn't the first time he's encountered these glowing beasts. they've been appearing more and more frequently, protecting what they may see as their territory. he has been told that they have been appearing on purpose, but nick is unsure of what to make of these reports, much less of the strange beasts themselves. worst of all, when nick follows the direction of the glowing aegislash's body, he lays his eyes upon a small nacl, drawn into a corner, and steadily being advanced upon by the aegislash. it's with an ache in his heart that he realizes he can't stand to see the poor thing be cowed by the blade any further.[break][break]

nick moves six paces around the aegislash, hoping to find a good angle by which he might catch the blade off guard, only to find that he's misplaced one of his feet, and a small rock clatters out from beneath his boot. like an alarm has been triggered, the aegislash whips around, and nick presses against the back wall of the cavern out of hope that the aegislash may not have noticed.[break][break]

alas, it has. slowly, it levitates towards nick.

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nick nods, though the mention of rocket stirs a knot of unease in his stomach. the past is the past, but it's not something he likes to think about often, let alone discuss. he's made his choice, and he's living with the consequences, but it doesn't mean the memories don't sting. he pushes the thoughts aside and concentrates on the task at hand.[break][break]

nick smiles at his braviary, running his fingers through the bird's feathers, before giving him a gentle shove. "go on, then," he says, his voice soft and encouraging. "check up there - tell me what you see."[break][break]

solomon takes off, his powerful wings carrying him skyward in an instant, his form a dark speck against the evening sky. nick watches him go, his gaze distant as he leans on his walking stick. then, when the bird is high in the sky, nick returns to the situation at hand. "let's move out," nick says, striding forward with solomon circling above, his keen eyes scanning the ground below for any signs of life or danger.[break][break]

as they move forward, nick's keen eyes scan the landscape, taking in every detail. he's seen enough disaster zones to know what to look for - a flicker of movement, a glint of metal, anything out of place. and, of course, the ever-present danger of unexploded ordnance and unstable buildings. then, a loud screech draws nick's eyes upward, and he peers through his glasses to see solomon circling over a copse of trees in the distance, a clear sign that solomon's made contact. nick's heart lurches in his chest.[break][break]

"he found something," nick calls to josh, already starting into a run. "let's go!"[break][break]

not like nick will make it there before josh, but he can do his best!

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nick's lips twitch upwards, threatening a smile, as eddie applies the hello skitty bandaid with enthusiasm. arceus help him, but nick's always had a soft spot for unfiltered, good-natured souls like this one. he wonders if they always had that effect on him, before, or if they've become a salve for the hollow in his chest, some kind of balm for the wounds that never truly heal.[break][break]

"i'm sure i have pom pom pawmi plasters in there somewhere too," nick jokes back. "if that's your preference."[break][break]

nick works alongside eddie to secure the next fish, his movements sure as he releases it back into the embrace of the sea. "well, uh, i used to be from petalburg," nick answers, voice quiet, almost introspective. "that's gone, though. i wouldn't say i'm a local of any place nowadays. i just go where the wind takes me."[break][break]

a surprisingly literal statement, in nick's case.[break][break]

nick doesn't elaborate any further though, doesn't offer eddie a glimpse into the strange context hidden beneath the depths of his words, the shadows of a past he doesn't like to dwell on. instead, he moves on to another fish, a shy tentacruel that seems just as wary of them as they are of it. "i heard about the devastation here," nick says after a moment. "couldn't live with myself if i didn't come help. not really an assignment."[break][break]

nick glances up at eddie. "you get sent here?"

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nick blinks, startled out of his flustered state by the woman's calm, measured response. he had expected her to argue, to demand an explanation - but instead, she seems almost… thoughtful. cautious, but not frightened.[break][break]

he lets out a slow breath, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "i, uh. yeah, i've seen these before," he says, his voice rough with disuse. "they're poppin' up all over the place now."[break][break]

the memory of a frenzied, violent golurk glittering in a similar fashion spears into his mind, and then swiftly fades.[break][break]

"they're not normal pokemon. they're… something else. like spirits, maybe. they don't stay for long, and when they go, it's violent."[break][break]

he looks back at her, his gaze piercing even through his glasses. "they seem to protect certain areas, and will attack you if you get close," he continues, then pauses, and adds in a softer tone, "but i don't think they want to hurt anyone. i think they're just scared, and lost. like they don't know where they belong."[break][break]

his eyes flick back to the solrock, and he feels a pang of sympathy, of kinship, in his chest. he knows what it's like to be lost, to not know where you belong. to be scared and angry and lashing out at the world around you just because you don't understand it yourself. a terrible, self-effacing ritual that nick has partaken in for many years now. he hopes he can champion a new era in his life now.

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"it's not easy," nick says quietly, his gaze still fixed on the distant horizon as he releases a luvdisc. "i've just had a lot of practice."[break][break]

his gloved hands are drenched, the orange fabric of his jacket clinging to his thin frame, but the discomfort is bearable so long as the fish return to bright sapphire waves. nick stands tall in the waist-deep water, watching as a finneon he had just sent on its way disappears into the clear depths of the ocean.[break][break]

nick turns to face the man standing beside him - a stranger - and offers a small, tight smile. there are times, nick knows, when the weight of his responsibilities can be a heavy burden. but in moments like these, he is reminded of why he became a ranger in the first place - to protect and preserve the creatures that call this world home, to ensure that even the smallest and most vulnerable lives have a chance at thriving. he is glad that somebody else may hold the same values.[break][break]

"nicholas," he says, holding out a damp hand in greeting. "but feel free to call me nick. i'm a ranger. you are...?"[break][break]

nick's eyes flick down briefly to eddie's bloodied thumb, and then back to his face, as the gears turn carefully in nick's head. "oh, uh, i might have..." murmurs the ranger as he pulls his backpack around to the front of his body to rifle through his belongings for a second. "oh, i do."[break][break]

he unearths a pair of large, heavy-duty gloves from his backpack, alongside an entire pack of hello skitty bandaids. arceus, why does he still have those? at the very least, they might be useful, a silent remark nick makes to quell his embarrassment as he holds out both items towards eddie. "for your thumb," he says, gaze flicking down towards the other man's hand.

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a soft gust of wind stirs, carrying with it a strange energy that prickles along nick's skin, raising the fine hairs at the nape of his neck. he pauses mid-stride, his feet crunching against the stone, and turns his head slowly, searching the horizon for signs of disturbance. it's hard to tell in the fading light, but he swears he sees a shimmer, a wavering heat that doesn't quite belong.[break][break]

a shape solidifies out of the twilight, and nick's eyes widen behind his glasses. it's a pokemon, or at least the semblance of one - a solrock, its body wreathed in a strange, ethereal light that pulses and glows. but it's… wrong. the colors are too bright, the edges too sharp and too blurry at once, as if reality itself is struggling to contain it.[break][break]

in the distance, a woman is drawing near, her figure small and determined, a puppet dangling from one hand and a chatot perched on the other. nick's eyes widen as his mind makes sense of the scene.[break][break]

he had been sent here to check on anomalous reports related to the sightings of odd pokemon glowing with brilliant light, but he had not expected someone to get there before him, much less someone who would dare to get so close. he remembers what happened last time he tried to get close to one of these things. this could end in a bloodbath if he's not quick.[break][break]

racing forward, nick pauses across from morrighan, the odd solrock suspended in between them. he holds out one hand, eyes wide. "wait! don't get any closer!" he calls out. "it might attack!"

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nick's initial assessment of the woman is… unusual. for one, her eyes hold a certain intensity, a restless hunger that bordered on manic. it is an expression he had seen before, on the faces of his patients during his tenure as a doctor—in those final moments when pain and desperation had broken the thin veneer of composure. yet, there is something else there, too… something almost akin to reverence. or perhaps obsession.[break][break]

he looks back at the zoroark from where he still sits on the forest floor, who regards him with piercing yellow eyes. an uneasy truce has been established, it seems. for now, at least. nick turns back to yuina, his hands still raised in a pacifying gesture. "i'm... sorry for interfering," he says, his voice steady and low. "i was a bit concerned by its behavior, that's all."[break][break]

he pauses, considering her words. these strange pokémon have been appearing all across hoenn in the wake of the war, each more bizarre and terrifying than the last. what is she implying—that they're not just mere anomalies, but something more? something intentional? he shakes his head slightly, colored by surprise. it's almost too much to wrap his mind around.[break][break]

"what do you mean, they're here for a reason?" he asks, genuine curiosity coloring his tone. "what reason could that possibly be?"[break][break]

nick braces his hands beneath his body and finally pulls himself into a standing position, at which point he brushes dirt and loose grass from his pants. "who are you?" he asks, fixing yuina with narrowed eyes. "what do you know about these things?"

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nick blinks, momentarily forgetting the apocalyptic landscape that surrounds him as the sight of the four lion-like pokemon and their rider washes over him. it's a surreal sight, to say the least - a miniature army of pure, radiant light, a beacon of hope in the midst of devastation. he feels a pang of envy as he looks at the bond between josh and his pokemon, a connection that nick himself once had, but one that was lost in the fog of regret and self-loathing.[break][break]

"ah, of course," nick says, snapping back to reality. "nicholas steele, but nick's fine. i'll do my best to keep my head down and avoid any unnecessary trouble. i've had my share of run-ins with rocket in the past, and i've no desire to repeat the experience."[break][break]

an understatement, really, though josh need not know that nick was a part of rocket in the past.[break][break]

nick unclasps a pokeball from his belt and, with a toss, releases solomon, his braviary, from his confines. the prideful bird stands tall alongside nick, his plumage puffed out and his wings closes to his sides, though he leans into nick's touch as the man caresses his head. "nice to meet your pride," nick says with a ghost of a smile on his lips. "this is solomon. want me to get a bird's eye view?"

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bingo sheet

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in an instant, the world shifts beneath nick's feet. one moment, he stood face to face with the glowing, unnatural golurk, his heart pounding in his chest; the next, an amorphous darkness had risen up to envelop him, dragging him down into its fathomless depths. it is like being pulled into a vortex of shadows, the sensation akin to falling through an endless void.[break][break]

when he finally resurfaces, it takes nick's disoriented mind a moment to register his new surroundings. the landscape has changed, although not substantially, a clue clear enough for nick to conclude that he had just been pulled into another area of the route entirely. his first thought is of the golurk, if this creature is capable of teleporting, of warping reality itself in such a way—what chance did he have against it? his hand tightened around the pokeball at his hip, a futile gesture of reassurance. then, he notices the creature of darkness behind him, the owner of the claws that had pulled him into the abyss. then, a rustling in the undergrowth.[break][break]

it is then that he notices the figure approaching through the trees—a young woman with long brown hair and serious eyes. her voice is low and urgent as she pleads with him to stay quiet. nick's mind races as he tried to make sense of the situation. is this woman responsible for the zoroark that had pulled him away? does she mean him harm? he has no way of knowing.[break][break]

regardless, nick decides to play nice. with a deep breath, nick raises his hands in a universal sign of peace as he gathers his wits about him. "okay, okay," he says. "i'm not gonna yell. don't worry."[break][break]

he pauses, briefly, then continues. "did you... pull me away from the golurk?"

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nick's gaze lifts from the murky waters to the direction of the call, his glasses glinting in the sun. he sees a man he doesn't recognize - perhaps a local or one of the rebuilders - beckoning him from the shore, a garganacl by his side. nick hesitates a moment, struggling with the part of him that shies away from the light of social interaction. but the man seems genuinely in need of help, and nick's duty as a ranger compels him forward. indeed, as he draws nearer, it becomes clear that nick is, indeed, wearing the iconic armband atop his orange jacket.[break][break]

as he nears, nick takes in the desperate scene unfolding in the tide-pools. the fish, abandoned by the retreating tides, flail and thrash in their temporary prisons. nick can sense their growing distress, and he feels a pang of sympathy for their plight. he turns to the man, offering a somber nod.[break][break]

"ah," he says simply, his voice low and gravelly, a product of years of the dry air of the wilderness. "i can help."[break][break]

he's done more than his fair share of capture and release programs on the coast over his five years as a ranger, after all.[break][break]

nick reaches down into one tidepool, grabbing from it a thrashing finneon that he secures in his hands by gripping the length of his body firmly with one hand and hooking his thumb in between the creature's jaws with his other hand. "follow me. let me teach you how to do this without hurting them," nick continues as he begins walking towards the receding shoreline. "make sure you hold them horizontally so you don't ruin their organs, and keep a firm grasp, or they'll jump out of your hands."[break][break]

then, wading into the sea up to his knees, nick gently lowers the finneon into the tide, his hand lingering around the fish's tail for a few moments before it revives and swims off from nick's hand on its own. "they get stressed after being beached. holding them down into the water for a moment to re-oxygenate their gills and get them reoriented with the ocean will make them more likely to survive."

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the sun has scarcely risen over route 101, painting the landscape in hues of amber and gold, when nick begins his trek. the reports of an anomalous golurk had been coming in for days now—rumors of an eerie, luminous glow emanating from its body, of its unnatural behaviors bordering on hostile. as a ranger, it was his duty to investigate and protect the natural order, even if he himself felt unmoored from it.[break][break]

the road stretches before him, the path still wet with morning dew, glistening like crushed opals under the nascent light. to either side, the verdant expanse of tall grass sway gently in the breeze, whispers of secrets carried on its undulating currents. nick's boots, worn and scuffed from countless miles, crunch against the gravel with each purposeful step, a steady metronome marking the passage of time.[break][break]

as he nears the coordinates provided by the last eyewitness account, an unsettling sensation prickle the back of his neck, like the touch of unseen eyes. the tall grass seems to part before him as if guided by an invisible hand, revealing a clearing where an enormous golurk looms, its stonelike form bathed in an ethereal, pulsating glow, touched by the brilliance of the dawn. its eyes, usually dull and vacant, burn with an otherworldly light, casting eerie shadows across the ground. nick's heart pounds in his chest as he surveys the scene, one hand reaching instinctively for a pokeball at his belt. whatever was happening here, it is far beyond the bounds of normal.[break][break]

the golurk appears to notice him now, its massive head swinging around to fix him with an unnerving stare. nick stands his ground, though every fiber of his being screams at him to run. something about this creature—this abomination—fills him with a primal, gut-wrenching terror he has never known before. its movements are jerky, almost mechanical, as it took a lumbering step forward, the earth trembling under its immense weight.[break][break]

nick's hand instinctively clutches around the pokeball on his belt as he prepares to send out his altaria--a question, wondering if it will charge, prepared to defend himself if it does.[break][break]

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