[POV: PROFESSOR LAVENTON]
Professor Laventon anxiously curls his fingers as chaos unfolds around him.
Vilgers running towards the commotion, running away, or just running. Screams fill the air as Jubilife Vilge erupts into panic.
The Gaxy Expedition Team is trying their best to calm the panic, while the Survey Team is pulling all of their members into the fray.
Guardsmen stomp down the dirt paths, uneasy expressions adorning their faces as they hear the sounds of battle beyond the walls.
He really, really hopes that letter gets there in time.
“Professor Laventon!”
The owner of the Wallflower, Beni, calls out to him from the chaos.
“Commander Kamado needs you at the front lines!”
Laventon's eyes go wide.
“I'm just a researcher! I-I don't fight!”
Beni's eyes narrow at him. The man grabs him by the arm and yanks him forward.
“There will be nothing LEFT to research if that beast enters the Vilge, come on!”
“W-Wait!”
He's dragged beyond the walls, where a massive crowd is.
Laventon gulps as he sees the MASSIVE cloud of dirt getting kicked up, blocking the view of the Pokemon.
Stretchers and medics run in and out, pulling out bruised and battered trainers and their Pokemon.
“We cannot let it into the Vilge!”
Beni shoves him slightly and runs off, Laventon just stands there for a moment, completely out of his element.
He pulls out his Pokeballs and grimaces. His Pokemon are meant for research and not combat. But he can hear Team Leader Kamado’s voice among the chaos, and he knows that he can't exactly NOT fight.
Gritting his teeth, he sends out Oshawott.
“Oshawott…?” The Pokemon asks in confusion as he materializes.
“Let's try our best, young one” He says with a smile, but both of them know it's obviously strained.
Oshawott just gives a slow nod and gets ready.
Laventon takes a deep, very not confident breath, and walks towards the chaos.
“Oshawott. Tackle”
The battle is intense, and Laventon hates every second of it. He can only catch glimpses of the Pokemon, but attacks are thrown left and right.
He hears screams, fire singes at his coat.
Whatever it was, they were LOSING. Even Kamado’s rallying cries were losing their heat.
Flinching, he hears… whistling?
Looking up, he sees a white figure rapidly descend from the sky.
Wrapped in a warping pink and purple light, it sms into the ground, right in the middle of the fight.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM*
Dirt is flung backwards at the impact, people and Pokemon are pushed back, some nding on their back.
The dust clears, and for the first time, the battlefield is silent.
He recognizes the Pokemon first, an absolutely breathtaking variant of Rapidash, white ivory fur with her hair and wings colored like a beautiful pink aurora. Her head is head high in majesty, and her wings spread like a dispy of power.
There's only one person he knows who has such a creature.
Sitting atop the Rapidash is a man in a particur outfit, one he's known to recognize.
Joshua Abrams.
But he seems…
…different.
With a featureless bck helmet, he seems… controlled, not like the odd but moral man he's come to expect. There's a practiced tenseness in the way he holds himself. A sense of control, the way his shoulders square and his back straightens.
Everyone watches as the armored man gets off his steed and walks over into the scene, the Rapidash following close behind him.
It's like his presence was a weight. Not a crushing weight like the powerful Team Leader Kamado. But… a calm one. Like a father protecting his children, or a member of family coming to help.
It's unmistakable authority, one that follows such a man who commands a creature such as that Rapidash, and follows a man who treads the battlefield with such confidence.
Joshua pauses for a moment, holding his hand out to one of the vilgers who decided to fight. The poor d looks between Joshua's featureless mask and the Rapidash that shadowed him, and decided to part with his bde without issue.
He takes the bde, nods, and continues. Someone in the crowd yelps as a tool enveloped in a pink aura is ripped from their hands.
…is that a shovel?
Laventon doesn't understand why he suddenly has shivers running down his spine.
…
[POV: KAMADO]
Why did everyone go quiet?
Kamado takes a brief moment to gnce behind him, growling as he nearly gets hit by another attack.
He's just about to bark another command, when footsteps approaching interrupts him.
“What are you doing?! Stay aw-”
A bck, featureless face enters his vision.
Ah. Cyllene mentioned someone like this, it's Laventon's associate, the outsider. The one who calmed the Lord Of The Woods.
Why is he here?
*CLANG*
Suddenly, the attacking Pokemon has its head snapped to the side as a… shovel? Hits its head.
The man he only knows as “Mr. Abrams” walks closer to the beast, sword in hand.
Kamado has to admit, even with a Pokemon like that, that man has some serious guts.
“Things don't have to end this way” The man speaks, and Kamado almost wants to scream.
Why are you talking to it?!
“Talk to me, why are you here? You aren't even from the Obsidian Fieldnds. Why did you go out of your way to attack this Vilge?”
Because it wants to kill us, you moron!
He only gets an ear splitting roar as a response, followed by the beast stomping towards him.
*bbbbBBZZZZZZ-CRASH*
A figure cloaked in electricity appears light lightning and crashes into the beast, sending it to its side. Attacks of pink and yellow sm into it from both sides.
There's a young Survey Corps member on the new Pokemon's back, visibly frazzled.
“If you keep doing this… I will have to fight you seriously, and neither of us want that. So, just tell me, PLEASE, why did you come here?”
There’s silence.
The beast, lips curled to a snarl, shockingly shifts to a look of barely contained rage. It lowers its head slightly…
…what?
It lets out a cry.
And the outsider freezes in pce.
The air changes around him, he looks over at his steed, who does… something, with their horn.
And the outsider looks PISSED.
“Who did it?” He asks, fingers slowly curling to fists.
The beast cries again.
“...I see”
He turns to his Pokemon.
“Find them” He orders. The steed nods and then does something again with her horn.
The outsider whips around, he looks at Kamado and points at him.
“Don't you DARE move”
Kamado is stunned, angry, but the outsider walks into the crowd and disappears for a moment.
There's a commotion, yelling, and the man appears again. He's got a member of the Survey Corps by the back of their colr and is dragging them back.
It's a younger boy, about sixteen, he remembers the burning spirit and bright blonde hair the boy has.
“H-Hey! Let me go!”
The outsider doesn't respond, he sees Cyllene in the crowd, but she has a tense look on her face.
He roughly drops the boy a few feet away from the beast.
“Give it back”
“W-What?”
“Give. It. Back”
“I-I don't know what you're talking about! You're crazy!” The boy stammers.
A hum escapes the featureless helmet.
“You are going to give it back, or you are going to have to expin to the VERY ANGRY POKEMON why exactly you thought it was okay to do what you did”
The boy scowls, it makes Kamado look at him more critically.
What is he talking about?
“That's not fair! Do you know how long it took to catch?!”
“I could not physically care less”
The young Survey Corps snarls stubbornly, but with the eyes of everyone bearing down on him, he quickly pulls out a pokeball and tosses it to the man, who just catches it.
“Fine! Whatever!” The boy stomps away.
For a moment, the man looks over at Kamado, and a silent conversation is shared between them.
Kamado nods, and Mr. Abrams turns back to the beast.
…
[POV: JOSHUA]
Holy shit.
This could have been REALLY bad.
Not only did some moron from the Survey Corps catch a member of a VERY HERD FOCUSED pokemon, but somehow pissed off an ALPHA PSEUDO LEGENDARY to boot.
What a mess.
Joshua looks at the absolute behemoth in front of him.
Hisuian Goodra.
Just thinking about such a monster of a Pokemon makes him shiver in excitement, but now is not the time.
“I know it won't mean much, but I am sorry about the morons in Jubilife, I don't exactly live there, y'know?”
Goodra just stares at him, and Joshua just decides to release the Pokemon.
A Goomy appears from the ball, which instantly slinks away towards the alpha.
The alpha Pokemon stares at him for a moment, before taking the Goomy and walking away.
Joshua releases a sigh.
Yeah. What a fucking mess…
[Hisuian Goodra?]
[Woooaaahhhh]
[What's it's typing?]
[THATS an alpha?! It's huge!]
“Joshua! Are you okay?!”
The round professor runs up to him, pushing through the still watching crowd.
Joshua is confused, he raises an eyebrow.
“Laventon? Why are you out here?”
“I was uh… fighting?” He says sheepishly.
“...you?”
“...yeah. Team Leader Kamado ordered it…”
(“Isn't that…”)
Making a researcher fight? Yeah, that's stupid.
“Who told you? Kamado?”
“Beni”
Of course it was him.
Joshua will have words with him ter.
And not very nice ones, too.
But he's gd that things didn't get too bad.
…
It's a few minutes ter when Cyllene appears before him.
Joshua is currently wrapping a bandage around an injured Bidoof. Combination of his Vet knowledge and the entire Joy Cn screaming at him in chat makes him good at doing basic patch-ups.
He's sitting on a small bench, with a basket beside him full of berries.
“Mr. Abrams” She begins.
“Captain Cyllene” Answers with a polite smile.
She opens her mouth to say something, but just lightly shakes her head before adopting her professional tone.
“You did a good job out there. You saved a lot of lives”
Joshua ties a bandage, and pats the bidoof on his p on its head. He gently puts it down before bringing another Pokemon up to be treated.
“You can thank Laventon for that. He was quick to contact me”
She nods at that, before a silence is spread between them.
He can see people in the distance, some look grateful at him, others look fearful, while others are neutral.
“You… have some powerful Pokemon”
He chuckles.
“That I do. I'm very lucky to have them care for me as much as they do”
(“The same goes for us, Beloved”)
Cyllene seems to take his smile as some sort of… opportunity, as she rexes slightly.
“I would like to… discuss our future involvement and possible… employment?”
“I'm not joining the Survey Corps”
She frowns at that.
“Were you not looking to join just the other day?”
“I was” He nods.
“Then what changed?”
With practiced hands, he moves on to the next Pokemon.
“Interest, priorities, opportunities”
He continues.
“Joining the Corps was more about helping Laventon complete the Pokedex, but I realized that I don't really need the Gaxy Team to do that. I would be limiting myself for… no good reason”
It's silly, but he's reminded that one of the only reasons he wanted to join outside of just pure curiosity was so that he could socialize.
Akari is a pretty bad talker, but in hindsight it was a bit… foolhardy.
Going on a genuine Pokemon adventure still sounds really fun though.
“...”
She ponders for a moment, and Joshua thinks that she's about to argue with him.
But then she does something surprising.
“I'm going to be truthful, Mr. Abrams. I am still not sure about you”
Ooookay?
“You speak, act, and dress like someone from another nd, one not one of us can recognize. In the best case scenario we thought you a nuisance, at worst a potential saboteur for Jubilife”
Joshua goes to open his mouth to continue, but he's cut off.
“But… I can't ignore the actions you have done. The good you have done, whether they were from selfishness or not, you still did good, and I cannot ignore that”
She pulls out a small seal.
“Professor Laventon gave you an entry letter, correct?”
Joshua raises an eyebrow and pulls it out.
Cyllene takes it and stamps on it before handing it back.
“You will be allowed in Jubilife and allowed to its services. Along with that, a reward is being prepared for you. But since we don't know much about your character, I will be straight to the point”
She looks at him.
“What do you want?”
Joshua is surprised, honestly he wasn't expecting a reward at all, at best a monetary one.
But he can pick?
He rubs his chin, helmet back in his inventory.
What does he want…
…oh.
Oh that's just hirious.
He smiles.
“What do you know about ‘Grit'?”
She raises an eyebrow.
